Slumber Party - Television Tropes & Idioms

Cook: Pyjama party means only one thing — girls getting friendly.

JJ: Hang on. Even I know that only happens in overblown and possibly illegal teen dramas.

— Skins

A gathering of female characters, particularly teens or pre-teens. Often to talk about boys or make-overs. A staple of the simpler days of the Dom Com.

More often called a pyjama party in the UK, seeing as that's the general clothing worn at such an event. And anyway, who sleeps at one of these things? Wacky Fratboy Hijinx will often involve trying to gatecrash (or at the very least, watch).

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

One omake strip from Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl had Hazuma holding one, with it being the one thing she really wanted to do since turning into a girl. We don't see a lot of what happens in it, mostly just Asuta's attempts to crash it.

Comic Books

In one issue of Harley Quinn, Harley held a supervillainess sleepover for all of the bad girls of Gotham City.
Cherry Comics: "Slumber Party from Hell". Very little sleep, but plenty of sex, demon summoning, ancient gods and other wacky hijinks.

Film - Animated

Mentioned in Monsters Inc; how Sulley manages to beat Randall's scare total.

Film - Live-Action

Unsurprisingly, Sleepover.
Happens in The Horror of Party Beach, complete with pillow fighting.
The Slumber Party Massacre and it's sequels.
Third Urban Legend movie has the protagonist having one with her friends.
When the AIP 'Beach Party' movies were getting into a rut...Pajama Party!
Quite possibly one of the most memorable scenes in all of Grease

Live Action TV

Used on Degrassi The Next Generation, where the girls often have a Slumber Party — and it never goes the way it's planned. (Usually because some of the girls have secretly told boys about it, and the boys crash the party.)
- Also used on Degrassi Junior High, where Caitlin neglects her medication and has a seizure in front of everyone.
- Also used on Degrassi High. In this case, the girls smoke pot, and Melanie tells everyone that Kathleen is anorexic, her mom's an alcoholic, and her boyfriend beat her up. Everyone kind of figured that out already, but Kathleen and Melanie still have a big fight about it.
There's a Saved By The Bell example, where Zack is eavesdropping via a microphone. The girls discover it and use it to start an elaborate prank about Kelly having been committed to a mental hospital.
- Oddly enough they also did a male version with Slater and Screech sleeping over at Zack's house with all three of them engaging in a hilarious Risky Business Dance.
In the That '70s Show episode "Your Time Is Gonna Come," Donna, Jackie and Kelso's girlfriend Annette hold one of these. The guys imagine them in a stereotypical "sexy slumber party" setting where the girls, dressed in skimpy negligees, suggest having a nude Pillow Fight and then practicing their kissing. When the guys sneak a peek inside, they're disappointed to find that the girls are just sitting around bored and that only Annette's wearing anything sexy, and not for long, because Donna's father makes her put on a robe.
Pandora hosts one in Skins after her boyfriend is shipped back to the Congo. Cook and JJ are desperately trying to break in. It ends up in chaos after Katie spikes the chocolate brownies with MDMA; Pandora locks herself in the bathroom and cries, Cook busts in and has sex with Effy, JJ goes in to rescue Cook and watches Naomi and Emily make out (as the page quote shows, JJ is Genre Savvy enough to know what goes on in teen dramas; but he's not Medium Aware enough to realise that he's in one, so he's still gobsmacked when it happens), and then Katie's boyfriend and about forty of his mates turn up and completely trash the joint.
Mother to son on Strangers with Candy:
"Derrick! All of Jerri's young high school friends are sitting in there in nothing but skimpy nightgowns! Why aren't you hiding in the closet masturbating?"
"I wanna read my gladiator magazines!"
The Brady Bunch: Marcia has a slumber party, and the boys put itching powder in the girls' sleeping bags.
Charles In Charge: In the first season the daughter has a slumber party, and all the girls end up talking to Charles about what boys are really like.
The Big Bang Theory: Has Amy, Bernadette and Penny end up in one of these after Amy tells them she had never been invited to one. They end up playing truth or dare, which Amy 'wins' after making Penny storm out after they bring up her relationship with Leonard. Then Amy suggests they "experiment with lesbianism", gets up and follows Penny to her room.
On Gossip Girl Blair hosted a sleepover every year in high school.
How to Be Indie: Evil Cousin Ruby hosts one in "How to Keep Your Cool in a Heat Wave". Marlon and John unwisely decide to crash it.
SCTV - Resident lothario Johnny La Rue hosts "Pajama Party", featuring a cast of bimbos in sexy sleepware, and has the gall to label it "a women's show" and that "men may also get something out of it".
In one of the first episodes of Friends, the girls had a slumber party while the guys went to see a hockey game.

Webcomics

Amber and Nay first kiss at a sleepover in Khaos Komix, during a truth or dare game.
Lucy holds a sleepover in an early chapter of Better Days. Do note the dialogue: it sounds like placeholder text that Jay Naylor forgot to change to something more realistic.
- It's also possible that Naylor left it in to show that the dialogue was empty and mindless, as all three girls present "note." It's unlikely that he would've let it slip in unplanned when inking the page.
Eerie Cuties had a chapter-sized arc about a slumber party in Nina and Layla's house.
El Goonish Shive got a big arc around Grace's birthday party... where everyone used TF Gun to change into opposite-sex forms, except Ellen who technically already is.

Web Original

Strong Bad gives tips on how to handle slumber parties in this email. Of course, this doesn't involve any female characters, so it goes about as well as you'd expect.

Western Animation

Hey Arnold.
In The Simpsons episode "Flaming Moe's", Lisa and the other girls at her slumber party play Truth or Dare, attack Bart and makeover Maggie.
Used in Family Guy. Quagmire hides behind the couch at Meg's slumber party, but storms off disgusted as all the girls do is have ordinary teenage girl conversation. As soon as he's gone, one girl suggests that they compare breasts, and all the girls start taking off their tops.
- Another episode knowing it to be one of the worst, had the four men in a slumber party during the first act.
In a Teachers Pet episode, Leonard and Scott hide in a closet during Leslie's slumber party to try and get an insight into how the female mind works.
In the second-season W.I.T.C.H. episode "E is for Enemy", the girls hold a slumber party at Will's house in order to be better prepared to fight back against Nerissa, who has been attacking the girls in their dreams.
- Also invokes a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when they're able to convince Will's mom not to move her away.
The Powerpuff Girls have a great slumber party, and Mojo Jojo shows up and gate crashes.
The Replacements episode Late Night with Todd And Riley. Sierra tries to use the party to get incriminating evidence that will cause Johnny to break up with Riley.
Used hilariously in an episode of South Park. The boys send Butters in to figure out what the hell girls do at these parties. He is talked into faking his death in order to become "Marjorine", the new girl at school. the piece of advice Cartman gives him?
Cartman: "And in case they start... you know... lezzing out... just roll with it."
Bobby sneaks into Connie's slumber party on King of the Hill and performs for the girls. Chane Wassanosong and some bullies later crash the party and humiliate Bobby. When Kahn discovers the boys, Bobby is thrown out of the window while Chang and the other boys are allowed to leave by the front door.
In an episode of Codename Kids Next Door (Operation SLUMBER), uber-boyish Numbuh 4 disguises himself as a girl to get in on a mysterious, girls-only mission that turns out to be a slumber party at Numbuh 86's house. Hilarity, including a makeover, ensues.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "Look Before You Sleep" presents a rather small one, spontaneously born out of a thunderstorm. Twilight, having never hosted a sleepover and generally unfamiliar with how social gatherings go anyhow, looks up how to run a successful slumber party - where else? - in a book about slumber parties.
- In "Stare Master", Fluttershy agrees to host a sleepover for the Cutie Mark Crusaders (Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo) when Rarity is too busy filling a big rush order to watch over them. The kids prove to be even more of a handful than Fluttershy anticipated (they're even too savvy for the old "quiet game" trick).
Fern holds one in the second season of Arthur and Muffy's are known for being spectacular, but Jenna doesn't want to go due to her issues with bedwetting.
Doug has a funny moment involving one. When Doug realizes Patti has an amateur music video he and Skeeter did at a store, the two attempt to crash the party using Doug's dog Porkchop. However, he forgets his mission until after Patti starts the video! Turns out, she had their principal's music video, forcing Doug to realize he had the video all along!
One episode of Rugrats has Tommy and Angelica having one, though Tommy keeps asking what one is and Angelica replies "If you have to ask, you'll never know.". However, Angelica ends up getting Tommy sick, causing him to hallucinate... and promptly puke on Angelica. She's actually impressed by it!
The Smurfs subject Lazy to an all-night slumber party in one episode.