Rain, Rain, Go Away

Come again another day,

All the Tropers want to play.

Nothing spoils plans for a day out like that day out being overcast and pouring down rain.

Often a form of Breather Episode, a common situation for series such as sitcoms, slice-of-life shows, and cartoons featuring children as its main cast. A rainy day forces the cast to remain indoors when they would much rather be outside. It forces them to find alternative entertainment. Depending on the severity of the storm, the electricity may go out and force them to find non-electronic forms of entertainment.

This can also be used more seriously for character development if, for instance, two characters are stuck in whatever shelter is handy at the time the storm hits. Can also cause a bit of Cabin Fever in some characters.

In media made in Japan, rainstorms are frequently replaced with typhoons.

This trope is, in essence, when the plot for an episode is derived from bad weather either causing the characters to be unable to go outside or having to find some place to get shelter. If there is An Aesop about the untapped forms of entertainment available that don't require electricity or outdoor sports, the most popular activity is reading — in which case, Portal Books may appear.

Snowed-In is the more extreme variation of this trope.

When the weather is an active menace, see Hostile Weather, which may turn the setting into a Closed Circle.

See Caught in the Rain and its related tropes for one form this sort of situation can take. Compare and contrast Cue the Rain. See also Cold Snap, for the snow equivalent.

Not to be confused with It Was a Dark and Stormy Night.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Haruhi Suzumiya: Someday in the Rain.
• Kanamemo featured an episode in which all the girls were stuck indoors due to a typhoon.
• Happened twice in the Monster Rancher, one episode had the Searchers take refuge in a structure where Holly recounts her past and what lead her to start her quest in the first place. Another had them end up taking shelter in an abandoned factory and end up accidentally activating a Melkaba.
• Sgt. Frog has a few chapters that take place on rainy days. It's occasionally made a major plot point since Keronians thrive in humid weather.
• Not surprisingly, Windy Tales, being about girls who could control wind, also had an episode featuring a typhoon.

Comic Books

• Issue #66 of The Powerpuff Girls (DC run) is titled "Rain, Rain, Go Away." It deals with a troubled sea monster who makes Townsville do a rain dance through a catchy pop tune that produces so much rain it floods the city.

Fan Works

• This occurs on Stan's, Peridot's, and Ford's part in Chapter Forty-One of A Triangle in the Stars. While the rain is in fact very nasty, they decide to pull out and wait on the cusp, defaulting to playing a game of Poker until it lets up.

Film

• No Kidding: After the children steal the Robinsons' car, the next day pours down with rain, and they're all forced to stay inside with nothing to do.

Literature

• In Aunt Dimity's Death, an extended rainstorm gives way to three days of dense fog. Aside from visits to and from neighbour Emma Harris, Lori and Bill remain at the cottage, postponing an expedition to a location in a photograph Lori's mother left her.
• The Cat in the Hat - so they sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day.
• In Coraline, the heroine's parents forbid her to go out in rain, so she has to explore the house, and thus finds the secret door.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
  • In one of the books, the Heffleys go to a water park but are rained out.
  • In another book, Greg and his father Frank try to camp but it's raining, so they stay at a hotel.
• Drives the plot in the Elephant & Piggie book "Are You Ready to Play Outside?"
• In Hey You, Come 'Ere: a Poetry Slam, the poem "Storm" starts when the poets are caught in a storm and have to run back inside after sunbathing.
  Ratchit: "Interruption! Interruption! Here comes a storm!"
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Rainy days force the Pevensie siblings to explore The Professor's Big Fancy House and, in doing so, find the Cool Gate of a wardrobe to the Magical Land of Narnia.
• In the Mog book "Mog and Bunny", the Thomases eat outside, then run inside when it rains, with the exception of Mog, who stays outside because her favorite plushie Bunny is caught under a rake.
• A raging storm hits in the final chapter of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic, so the kids play a number of games to pass the time.
• In The Secret Garden, the children have to work out that they can explore the house while it rains.
• In Teddy And Co, it rains late in the book, which puts Teddy in a pretty sour mood.

Live-Action TV

• Inverted for laughs in The Addams Family episode Morticia and Gomez vs. Fester and Grandmama. The trouble begins when the Addamses get restless after too many days of sun and blue skies. Gomez and Morticia hire a governess so they can go catch Hurricane Zsa Zsa elsewhere in the country. At the end, the hurricane arrives. Most of the family gleefully rushes outside and Gomez suggests he and Morticia go up to the attic, where he tore out a part of the roof to make it resemble the Last Chance Hotel.
• Barney & Friends has episodes (including one by the same name) and songs. "It's Raining, It's Pouring" manifests as a failed attempt to cheer up the kids.
• Kingdom Adventure: Lolly's attitude toward a rainy day amounts to this. The characters pass the time by telling the story of when the Prince was murdered, and how He came back to life again.
• Married... with Children had an episode in which the Bundys and the D'Arcys were stuck in the basement during a tornado.
• This was the plot of an episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse, despite the fact that Pee-Wee spends most of the show indoors.
• The Sunny Side Up Show:
  • In one segment, Carly and Chica sing a remix of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" while it's raining outside.
  • Another sees the same duo having an indoor picnic and singing about the colors of healthy foods.
• Worzel Gummidge: The pilot has the kids go to look at the titular scarecrow, then run inside when it rains.

Music

• Breaking Benjamin has a song patterned after the rhyme, called simply Rain:
  Rain, rain, go away,
  Come again another day,
  All the world is waiting for the sun.
• According to John Lennon, The Beatles' song "Rain" (available on Past Masters) is a mockery of this mindset and general excessive griping about weather.
• Trent Reznor sang this at the end of the Piss-Take Rap-laden "Down In It".

Newspaper Comics

• Calvin and Hobbes had a story arc where the family goes camping and it starts raining once they get to the campsite. Despite Calvin and mom's complaints, Dad decides to tough it out - for an entire week - but eventually he has enough and decides to pack it up. And at that very moment, the rain finally stops. Cue Face Palm and copious off-screen swearing.
• Peanuts:
  • A series (or two, or three) where Charlie Brown stays out on the mound at the baseball diamond in the rain because he thinks it's going to clear up.
  • A series where Linus and Lucy think that Linus may have some kind of special powers because when he's out in the rain and sings "Rain Rain Go Away", it does.
  • Another series anticipates a solar eclipse - Linus awaits it with a homemade viewer (two sheets of cardboard with a pinhole in one sheet). On the day it happens, it's pouring down rain. Lucy goes out to Linus, standing forlornly looking up holding two sheets of wilted cardboard, and says "So how's the eclipse?"
  • In another strip, Lucy is playing outside when it begins to rain. She recites "Rain, Rain, Go Away" a couple of times, only for it to rain even harder each time she says it. Finally she shouts, "YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!"

Puppet Shows

• Bear in the Big Blue House: In "All Weather Bear", Pip and Pop spend a lot of time clearing leaves and broken branches from the Otter Pond so that the residents of the Big Blue House can swim in it. Unfortunately, by the time they finish, a rainstorm happens and Bear has to bring the Otter twins into the Big Blue House to keep them safe, even though they want to keep swimming. Pip and Pop hate the rain at first and wish it would go away so they could go swimming, but they change their attitude when Bear explains to them how useful rain is by filling the pond with water. Ojo and Treelo also wish it would stop raining, so Bear convinces them to use their imaginations to pretend they're on Ojo Island, where the weather is sunny.
• The Puzzle Place:
  • In the episode "You Say Potato," the kids are all set to go on a picnic, but can't agree if they should go to the mountains or the park. Just as they're about to flip a coin to decide, it starts to rain, so they can't go anywhere. They end up having their picnic indoors, with painted cutouts of the places they wanted to visit.
  • Averted in the episode "All Weather Friends," which takes place during a thunderstorm that all the kids find exciting, except for Leon who has Fear of Thunder.
• Sesame Street: Zigzagged.
  • "Imagine That" has several others disliking the rain, but they cheer up when they're doing their imaginative play. Oscar and the plants, however, like the rain.
  • The animated story "The Cat Who Hated Rain" has a cat who hates rain because it makes mud. He wishes it would never rain again, but then a drought happens so he wishes it would rain.
  • Zigzagged in the song "Rain Falls", which has Gordon enjoying the rain, and Oscar enjoys it too... because other people dislike it. Oscar has also expressed enjoyment for the rain for that reason in the song "I'm Sad Because I'm Happy".
  • One skit has Bert trying to share Ernie's umbrella, but Ernie is too distracted by doing a speech about his mixed feelings on rain to let Bert have the umbrella. Ernie also mentions feeling sorry for everyone whose picnics were cancelled because of the rain.
  • Averted in the episode "Natasha is Scared of the Rain", where the characters play in the rain.
  • In the song "Rainy Day", it talks about how rain is important, but the singer says that they can't play in it.
  • In one song, three adults happily sing in the rain, but then change their minds and run inside.
  • Discussed and defied in one skit that has Gordon do a speech on how rain gets a bad rap, but it's important.
  • In Episode 3084, Bob plans a picnic for the kids, as well as Alice, Telly, and Herry in the park. However, rain spoils plans for an outdoor picnic, which upsets Herry, so Bob decides to host the picnic in his apartment. While Bob, the kids, Alice, and Telly have a lot of fun at their indoor picnic, Herry complains that an indoor picnic isn't the same as an outdoor one, and doesn't want to partake in the games his friends play, eventually leaving and going home. He comes back at the end to color with his friends, having nothing to do at home.
• The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss: In "The Cat in the Hat's Indoor Picnic", rain spoils plans for an outdoor picnic, much to the dismay of Terrence McBird, who was looking forward to playing in the sandbox. The Cat in the Hat and the Little Cats improvise by spending their picnic in the Cat's Playhouse, but Terrence complains that an indoor picnic can't be done at first. He changes his attitude at the end of the episode when the Cats make a sandbox for him with his birdbath and dried corn.

Video Games

• Likewise, Bulletstorm has a section where the electrical storm will disintegrate anyone exposed to the sky.
• In one level of Gears of War 2, Marcus and Dom must stay in shelter or be torn to shreds when a rainstorm turns to deadly "razor-hail". A similar mechanic is in effect in one of the multiplayer levels, where the rain picking up signals players to seek shelter before it gets worse.
• Persona 3 has a week in the game calendar in which a typhoon hits the city. The necessity of finding something to do, however, is removed by the hero becoming sick during the entire week.
  • When it rains in Persona 4, all social links, save for The Hermit and the nighttime Social Links, are unavailable. It's most likely done to force the player to go to the available dungeon and rescue the trapped victim. Otherwise, there's often not much to do other than go to the local restaurant and attempt the Rainy Day Beef Bowl Challenge.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time:
  • Played with in the episode "Rainy Day Daydream", where the fearless Finn and Jake are accosted not by water, but by a rain of daggers. When they attempt to use their imaginations to pass the time, it turns out that Jake's imagination is almost deadlier than the rain!
  • "Puhoy" also takes place during a knife-storm, and Jake has spent his time building a massive pillow fort. Finn, whose relationship with Flame Princess is in a slump, goes to explore the fort and accidentally gets transported to a world of living pillows and blankets, where he lives a whole other life before dying and waking up back in Ooo.
  • The episode "Bad Jubies" is about Finn, Jake, BMO, and Lumpy Space Princess building a shelter for a huge superstorm. Rather than helping build it, however, Jake just sits there, claiming that he has something big planned. When the storm arrives and they go inside the shelter, Jake reveals that he was memorizing the sounds of nature to pass the time until the storm subsides. In fact, Jake's sounds calm down the storm and saves them all.
• Happens several times on Arthur.
• An episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender had taking shelter from the rain as the backdrop for the telling of Aang and Zuko's backstories.
  • More like Aang was taking shelter from a hurricane in a cave, while Zuko was determined to head straight into it to capture Aang.
• The Berenstain Bears:
  • The episode "Bears For All Seasons" has the Bear family dealing with different weather. Mama Bear, who was tolerant of all other types of weather, calls the rain "miserable".
  • In "Get in a Fight", the bear kids have to go in out of the rain after arguing in their treehouse.
• The Donald Duck cartoon "Donald's Off Day", in which Don's golfing outing is rained out. In fact, every time the rain stops, it starts again the moment Donald steps out the door. He spends the day inside, while his nephews play pranks on him.
• In "Doug's Comic Collaboration", Doug and Skeeter decide to write a comic book instead of reading all the same old ones again. The weatherman who said it was going to be sunny is the villain. The two eventually argue about how to proceed with Doug noting the God-Mode Sue powers of Silver Skeeter and Skeeter disliking the idea of having the heroes go to the library.
• Dragon Tales has Emmy and Max bike through Dragon Land while their world rains. Emmy sings this at the visit then Max responds for it not to come back.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In "Bloo Tube", Foster's trip to the Monsoon Lagoon water park gets cancelled due to a rainstorm. While Mac, Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco try to make the best of a bad situation, Bloo has been looking forward to the trip and is so upset over its cancellation that he doesn't want to partake in whatever fun activities Mac and the other imaginary friends have planned, including making their own videos that they plan to post to ViewTube.
• Garfield and Friends: Zig-Zagged in the U.S. Acres episode, "Weatherman Wade"; the episode begins with the animals of the farm being upset that it's raining because they can't do the things they want to do; Booker wants to hunt worms, Sheldon wants to work on his tan, Lanolin wants to hang the laundry out to dry, and Roy wants to go swimming. Also, the rain causes Bo's wool to shrink. Wade, who is afraid of everything, wishes for the rain to stop, and it does. Everyone likes it at first because they can to the things they like, but after a few months, a drought happens, causing the plants to wilt, the irrigation channel to dry up, and leaving Lanolin unable to wash the clothes (which Roy interrupts the cartoon to point out that none of them wear in the first place). Feeling as though the drought was his fault, Wade decides to make it rain by seeding the clouds (after spending three hours trying to work up the courage to do so).
• Heckle and Jeckle have a picnic in the rain in "The Rainmakers." When Jeckle wishes upon a wishbone that it stops raining forever, he gets his wish. But now the drought becomes universally unbearable, so the boys have to find a way to make it rain again.
• Little Princess:
  • In "I Want a Tent", the Princess is not allowed to camp outside as it's raining.
  • In "I Want to Play Football", the Princess wants to play ball but cannot as she's not allowed to either go out in the rain or play ball indoors.
  • Zigzagged for "I Want to Play in the Rain": Princess can't find anyone to play outside with because it's raining, so she plays alone but gets bored. Then, she sees everyone else playing in the rain, so she joins in.
• After a sudden storm in the My Little Pony 'n Friends 4-part episode "The Magic Coins", Baby Lickety Split accidentally uses one of the eponymous coins to wish it would never rain again. This causes the land to start dying and water sources to dry up, which is particularly bad news for the Sea Ponies. The rest of the episodes are split between one group trying to find water for the Sea Ponies and the other finding a means of undoing the wish.
• The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Look Before You Sleep" has Applejack and Rarity seeking refuge in Twilight Sparkle's home during a rainstorm, and Twilight takes the opportunity to throw a slumber party.
• Averted in the Nature Cat episode "Rainy Day", in which the titular character and his friends are bored in Hal's doghouse, so they head outside to learn how some animals deal with rain. By the end of the episode, they enjoy the rain by splashing in puddles, playing in mud, and using their tongues to catch raindrops.
• Peppa Pig has "The Rainy Day Game" in which Daddy Pig teaches Peppa and George a fun game to play while they wait inside for the rain to stop.
• The Phineas and Ferb episode "The Great Indoors" has Phineas and Ferb build a bio-dome for the Fireside Girls to get a desert-tracking patch since unexpected rain conflicted with their plans. Turns out the rain was caused by another one of Doofenshmirtz's inventions, which was once again thwarted by Perry.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "The Powerpuff Girls' Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever" was all about the girls having to entertain themselves when the weather prevented any crime fighting.
• Happens in the Ready Jet Go! episode "Eye in the Sky". Sean plans a sleepout under the stars for his space scout troop, but the rain ruins his plans.
• The Recess episode "Rainy Days" had the kids having to spend recess indoors due to a week-long rainstorm and the onslaught of cabin fever that happens during it which threatens to make them mind-numbing drones that Mrs. Finster will be able to control easily.
• The Ren & Stimpy Show - Stimpy and Ren's cousin Sven stare gloomily out the window at a storm...then perk up and find a board game (and completely trash the house and Ren's prized possessions as well).
• One episode of Tiny Toon Adventures features a series of shorts about what to do during a rainy day.
• An episode of The Weekenders had Tino's "Ultimate Weekend" ruined, partially because it was raining.
• Work It Out Wombats!: At the beginning of "Game Changer," Zadie is despondent because it's raining outside, meaning she can't play.
• The Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! episode "Wubbzy's Rainy Day" has the titular character about to play Hoppity-Hoop Hockey outside when it started to rain. He then begins watching TV, only for the power to go off. His friends come over to his treehouse, one by one, and each time they think of something new to do that isn't boring; then they end up getting bored right before the next friend shows up. After all his friends are there and they've been playing for a while, the power comes back on and it stops raining.

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