Sundays are often depicted as being uneventful to the point of being tedious. Children may be Forced into Their Sunday Best to attend a Boring Religious Service or visit cheek-pinching relatives. With shops and other businesses on reduced hours or closed altogether, there may not be many options for seeking entertainment outside the house. Adults might find it hard to do much more than sit around and anxiously await the inevitable return to their Soul-Crushing Desk Job on Monday.
Subtrope of Hating on Monday. Truth in Television, since it's where the phrase "duller than a month of Sundays" comes from. Compare The Grinch, Birthday Hater, and Valentine's Day Vitriol.
Examples:
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Literature
- In Life, the Universe and Everything, Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged started his project of insulting everyone in the universe, in alphabetical order, because Sunday afternoons were just too boring.
In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness which starts to set in at about 2:55, when you know that you've had all the baths you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the papers you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.
- Little House on the Prairie: An Enforced Trope in Little House in the Big Woods, which devotes a whole chapter to it. The Ingalls, being religious, enforce Sunday as the day of rest and absolutely nothing can be done. Laura and Mary must sit quietly in their best clothes and maybe listen to Ma or Pa read Bible stories. They aren't allowed to play or do crafts, or anything. And understandably, five-year-old Laura hates this. She pitches a fit on Sunday after dinner and Pa sits her down to tell her about what Sundays were like when his father was a child. Amazingly enough, they were even more boring, because not only did they start on Saturday night, but small children were expected to sit stock-still through a two-hour religious service on Sunday morning and then spend all of Sunday afternoon and evening studying their catechism.
- In Farmer Boy, Almanzo Wilder (Laura's future husband) likes the big Sunday meals and riding to church behind the horses, but then he has to sit through the Sunday morning service (a two-hour sermon), followed by an afternoon doing nothing at all. He also hates having to take a bath on Saturday nght.
- The title of Monday Begins on Saturday refers to the unofficial motto of the protagonists — a group of young scientists who are so passionate about their research, they perceive Sundays as dull mandatory breaks from the work they all love.
- Ramona Quimby: The last chapter of Ramona Quimby, Age 8 involves a dull rainy Sunday where all of the Quimby family are grouchy and snapping at each other for various reasons. Mrs. Quimby is annoyed because Ramona hasn't cleaned her room, Beezus is upset because she's not allowed to go to a slumber party, Ramona feels she's being scolded for everything (including not playing nicely enough with the neighbor girl, Willa Jean), and Mr. Quimby is trying to concentrate on his studies while his wife and daughters are arguing.
- Sylvie and Bruno: At one point, Muriel and Arthur discuss the observation of the Sabbath, and this prompts Muriel to produce a letter from a friend, describing how when she was a child, on Sundays she was forced to rise early and spend the day in prayer, study of scripture, and reading books she found horribly dull. Arthur (who is typically Carroll's mouthpiece throughout the novel) expresses the view that so long as the day is kept holy by attending church, children should be allowed to play.
Live-Action TV
- Birds of a Feather: "Sunday" starts with the girls having a particularly boring Sunday, so they go get a wedding gift for Garth which soon leads to them getting trapped in a parking garage. Sharon in particular hates Sundays for their boredom and feels that they get even more boring when Harry Secombe shows up.
- Doctor Who:
- In "Survival", Ace complains about how boring Sunday is, describing it as "the one day of the week you can't even get a decent television program".
- In "Silence in the Library", the Doctor says, "I never land [the TARDIS] on Sundays. Sundays are boring".
- In "The Impossible Astronaut", the Doctor calls Sundays boring in comparison to Saturdays, which tend to be temporal tipping points where exciting things happen. (Also counts as Leaning on the Fourth Wall, since the show was known for airing on Saturdays at this time).
The Doctor: Time isn't a straight line. It's all bumpy-wumpy. There's loads of boring stuff. Like Sundays and Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons. But now and then there are Saturdays. Big temporal tipping points when anything's possible. The TARDIS can't resist them. Like a moth to a flame. She loves a party.
- Subverted in "The Witchfinders" when the Doctor is delighted to land in a 17th-century British village where a street party is occurring on a Sunday, and soon after, a witch dunking (once again Leaning on the Fourth Wall since the show was now airing on Sundays).
The Doctor: Apple bobbing! I love apple bobbing.
Yasmin: Is this Halloween?
Boy: No. It's Sunday.
Yasmin: Yeah, but what's the party for?
Boy: We do this every Sunday.
Doctor: Oh, Happy Sunday!
- The Great British Sunday is a documentary structured around archive footage focusing on what the British public has historically done on Sundays, such as going to church, having overcooked Sunday dinners, going for aimless drives in the car, or doing some DIY.
- I'm Alan Partridge: One of Alan's many gaffes while talking to two Irish TV execs is revealing that he's under the impression Sunday Bloody Sunday is about how boring Sundays are.
- Spitting Image: In Spitting Image S 2 E 7, the main news headline from Sir Alastair Burnet is that considerably less news happens on a Sunday compared to any other day of the week.
Music
- Kris Kristofferson: "Sunday Morning Coming Down" tells the story of a man waking up after a rough Saturday night out. He wanders the quiet sidewalks of his town, wishing he was "stoned", because there is nothing worse than "Sunday morning coming down". He sees a boy kicking a can, a father pushing a young girl on the swing set, hears children singing a church song, and a distant bell. He thinks God is grinning at the plight of someone "coming down" on a Sunday morning.
- Morrissey: "Everyday is like Sunday" is about reaching a point where life seems so grim that every day feels like a particularly bleak Sunday.
- The Monkees: Brutally subverted by "Pleasant Valley Sunday". The song seems superficially like it is about this trope, with its description of a banal, boring, sedate suburban life, lyrically and musically it is a lot less boring, especially as the song crescendos to the Scare Chord at the end. Carole King and Gerry Goffin originally wrote the song as a criticism of the kind of suburban community they had just moved into, and Michael Nesmith famously once described it as being about 'a mental institution".
- Queen: "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" is a "Days of the Week" Song that details what the singer will do every day of the week. Naturally, as the title suggests, they'll be lazing instead of doing something.
Radio
- Hancock's Half Hour in the episode "Sunday Afternoon at Home".
Theatre
- Blood Brothers: Mickey has a whole song about how bored and lonely his on a particularly "Long Sunday Afternoon".
- In Flower Drum Song, Linda and Sammy sing about the idle pleasures of being in love and together on "sweet Sunday, with nothing to do":
While all the funny papers lie or fly around the place,
I will try my kisses on your funny face. - Sunday in the Park with George:
- Subverted in "Sunday", where an ordinary Sunday afternoon is given great dramatic weight as it becomes immortalized in Georges Seurat's painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
- Played straight in "It's Hot Up Here" when 100 years later the subjects of the same painting all complain about how hot and monotonous it is to be stuck in the same Sunday afternoon with the same people for eternity.
- tick, tick... BOOM!: "Sunday" (a parody of "Sunday" from Sunday in the Park with George) illustrates Jon's disdain for working Sunday brunches at the diner, full of the same fools complaining about their overpriced meals "forever". Downplayed, since the diner is also depicted as chaotic.
Western Animation
- Played with on The Simpsons. Sundays are this for everyone who attends Reverend Lovejoy's terribly dull church services. When Homer quits going to church in "Homer the Heretic", they find Sunday to be a day of indolent relaxation and carnal delights.
- Squidbillies: The episode "A Sober Sunday" has Early going mad from boredom due to not having access to alcohol as laws prohibit stores from selling it on Sundays, going to great lengths to find a way to get himself drunk. When Granny points out that he could just buy some on Saturday night to drink on Sunday to avoid this problem, Early considers it to be too inconvenient to do. Meanwhile, Dan Halen works to try and overturn said laws with the Reverend trying to stop him.
Real Life
- As pointed out on as pointed out on this Anime News Network - Answerman Column entry
, Sundays at anime conventions are considered the "dead" day (unless it's a con that runs till Monday) for a variety of reasons. Mostly due to it being the day everyone is hungover and a lot of people leave early.
- The same goes for gaming conventions. There is a reason the two biggest in North America, Gen Gon and Origins Game Fair, offer cheaper admission on Sunday.
