History Main / ForgettableCharacter

* In Season 6 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', a TerribleTrio is formed consisting of minor recurring characters Jonathan and Warren, and new character Andrew. The creators wanted another minor antagonist, Tucker, to be the third member, but his actor could not be contacted. Thus Andrew was created as his younger brother with similar powers in demon summoning, and a HandWave is given that he once summoned flying monkeys to attack the school. The incident is so comparatively mundane by ''Buffy'' standards that none of the cast remembers it or Andrew, and it becomes a RunningGag to refer to him as "Tucker's brother" or "the other guy".

* The Silence of ''Series/DoctorWho'' are the type with a power to invoke this. The moment a person looks away from one of them, their existence is completely forgotten. It's promptly remembered the next time the person lays eyes on them. While in the series they're seen using this for infiltration, their original purpose was [[spoiler:as confessors for an intergalactic church]].

* ''LightNovel/SaenaiHeroineNoSodatekata'': Indicated right in the title, which [[AlternateCharacterReading is variously translated as]] ''How to Raise a Boring Heroine'' or ''How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend''. The title character, Katou Megumi, is a teenage girl who is completely average in terms of appearance and noncommittal in terms of personality, leading her classmates and even her friends to often ignore her. The overall plot of the series is her {{Otaku}} classmate, Aki Tomoya, trying to figure out how to make a VisualNovel with a [[WriteWhoYouKnow main character based on her]].

* Kagero Usui in ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'' is technically the ClassRepresentative, but has a property to slip away from other characters' memories because his only distinctive feature is his PrematurelyBald head--which he tries to hide most of the time.
* ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' has [[ShrinkingViolet Canada]], whose interactions with other characters often involve them forgetting who he is or that he exists and/or mistaking him for his more outgoing brother America.
* In ''Anime/JewelpetSunshine'', there are three examples. One is Nejikawa, who's forgotten by his classmates at least once. In one episode, he comments that he has become "as invisible as Yaginuma", which suggests the same thing of this character but is never really proven due to his limited screentime. Finally, there is Katori, who's so small, characters keep forgetting she's there.
* Only the main characters remember speaking with Fuuko Ibuki in ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' and even they start forgetting her later in the series. [[spoiler: Justified as she is a spiritual projection of a girl in a coma.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'', [[TheGenericGuy Tetsuo Ishimaru]] is so forgettable that other teams completely forget that he exists. He even breaks the fourth wall to comment on it.
* Momoko Touyoko of ''Manga/{{Saki}}'' has this almost as a superpower. She leaves so little of an impression that she's practically invisible to anyone in the vicinity. This even applies when she's playing Mahjong and the three other people sitting ''right next to her'' completely forget she's there.

* ''Film/OfficeSpace'': Milton is a mousy office drone who is so inconspicuous that several years before the movie he was actually fired from the company, and everybody forgot to tell him about it. He continued to work there with no employment file because a glitch in the payroll system continued to send him a montly salary, which nobody noticed either.

* In ''{{Series/Friends}}'', Ross's dad forgets about his son Ben while gushing over Emma, his daughter with Rachel.
-->'''Jack:''' My first grandchild.\\

* In ''{{Series/Friends}}'' Ross's parents forget about his son Ben while gushing over Emma, his daughter with Rachel.

** A RunningGag on the show is that Mr. Burns always forgets who Homer is.

* It's a running gag on ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' that Scruffy has to keep reintroducing himself to people. "I'm Scruffy, The Janitor" has become his CatchPhrase.

* The Captain in ''Literature/Blindsight'', to the point where the protagonist treats it as a big reveal later on that the Captain was actually in command of the ship (it isn't a secret, but the Captain is an AI, while the protagonist is a professional [[SherlockScan Sherlock scanner]] who more or less forgets it exists because it doesn't have any cues to read).

-->'''Randy:''' Hey, Mr. Reede.
-->'''Fletcher:''' Heeeeyyy... man...
-->'''Randy:''' It's, uhh, Randy.
-->'''Fletcher:''' [[BlatantLies Yeah, I know.]]

-->'''Jack:''' My first grandchild.
-->'''Ross:''' What about Ben?
-->'''Jack:''' I meant my first grand''daughter''.

* In ''Manga/Eyeshield21'', [[TheGenericGuy Tetsuo Ishimaru]] is so forgettable that other teams completely forget that he exists. He even breaks the fourth wall to comment on it.

-->Jack: My first grandchild.
-->Ross: What about Ben?
-->Jack: I meant my first grand''daughter''.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** In the episode "The Last of the Meheecans", the boys play a Border Control role play game, and eventually the Mexican side claim victory. It takes a long while until Cartman realizes they forgot about Butters (and even then only because he can now still win as the Texan side). As the others wonder how this happened, Craig Lampshades that Butters is a rather easy to forget person.
** Stan's senile Grandpa always names him Billy (a trait that seems to be inherited since the ghost of his own Grandfather mistakenly

* Winston Payne in the AceAttorney games. Once feared as a rookie killer, Payne is now so unremarkable that most of the other characters forget who he is. When Detective Gumshoe mentions him to Miles Edgeworth, one of Payne's fellow prosecutors (who Payne insists he mentored when Miles was younger), Edgeworth assumes he must be one of the janitors.

* In ''Franchise/{{Jewelpet}} Sunshine'', there are three examples. One is Nejikawa, who's forgotten by his classmates at least once. In one episode, he comments that he has become "as invisible as Yaginuma", which suggests the same thing of this character but is never really proven due to his limited screentime. Finally, there is Katori, who's so small, characters keep forgetting he's there.

* No one can keep apart Scott and Steve in ''Series/{{Lost}}'', even though one of them has been dead since the beginning.

** Homer is often forgetting about Maggie. Sometimes he just refers to her as "the baby", sometimes he forgets about her completely.

A character who is often forgotten by other characters sometimes to the point that they forget the character even existed. The character might be a RidiculouslyAverageGuy who\'s so unremarkable and ordinary that they seem to blend in the background. The character could be a minor villain or mook that the heroes defeat early on in story who returns to find out everyone forgot who they are. A character that has a low-key job or role in the cast might also be easily forgotten. Some characters even have a type of power that causes everyone to forgot who they are.

Other people who want to remember a person like this may leave a NoteToSelf to help them remember.

Please note that this trope is for in-universe only. Meta examples would go in OutOfFocus.
----
!Examples

[[AC:Anime & Manga]]
* Kagero Usui in \'\'Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei\'\' is technically the ClassRepresentative, but has a property to slip away from other characters\' memories because his only distinctive feature is his PrematurelyBald head--which he tries to hide most of the time.
* \'\'Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia\'\' has [[ShrinkingViolet Canada]], whose interactions with other characters often involve them forgetting who he is or that he exists and/or mistaking him for his more outgoing brother America.
* In \'\'Franchise/{{Jewelpet}} Sunshine\'\', there are three examples. One is Nejikawa, who\'s forgotten by his classmates at least once. In one episode, he comments that he has become \"as invisible as Yaginuma\", which suggests the same thing of this character but is never really proven due to his limited screentime. Finally, there is Katori, who\'s so small, characters keep forgetting he\'s there.
* Only the main characters remember speaking with Fuuko Ibuki in \'\'VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}\'\' and even they start forgetting her later in the series. [[spoiler: Justified as she is a spiritual projection of a girl in a coma.]]
[[AC:Film]]
* Randy from \'\'Film/LiarLiar\'\', whom Fletcher Reede doesn\'t bother remembering.
-->\'\'\'Randy:\'\'\' Hey, Mr. Reede.
-->\'\'\'Fletcher:\'\'\' Heeeeyyy... man...
-->\'\'\'Randy:\'\'\' It\'s, uhh, Randy.
-->\'\'\'Fletcher:\'\'\' [[BlatantLies Yeah, I know.]]

[[AC:Literature]]
* In Jennifer Lynn Barnes\' YA novel \'\'Nobody\'\', this is the \"[[BlessedWithSuck power]]\" of Nobodies. They are \'\'so\'\' forgettable that when they go rogue the group that controls them has to set a timer to periodically remind them who they\'re looking for.
* Kragar from the \'\'[[Literature/{{Dragaera}} Vlad Taltos]]\'\' series is so utterly forgettable that he can be standing in the room and no one will notice him, and will forget he\'s there minutes after speaking to him, even if he hasn\'t moved.
* \'\'Literature/HarryPotter\'\': Peter Pettigrew aka Wormtail is only known as the quiet, unassuming guy in James Potter\'s Marauders, and the fact that he was supposedly killed by his friend Sirius, but nothing behind that. This trait is what makes him trusted with the Potter family secrets by Sirius, and [[spoiler: it also makes nobody suspecting him when there\'s a rumor about a Death Eater spy in the Order of the Phoenix.]]
[[AC:Live Action TV]]
* In Season 6 of \'\'Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer\'\', a TerribleTrio is formed consisting of minor recurring characters Jonathan and Warren, and new character Andrew. The creators wanted another minor antagonist, Tucker, to be the third member, but his actor could not be contacted. Thus Andrew was created as his younger brother with similar powers in demon summoning, and a HandWave is given that he once summoned flying monkeys to attack the school. The incident is so comparatively mundane by \'\'Buffy\'\' standards that none of the cast remembers it or Andrew, and it becomes a RunningGag to refer to him as \"Tucker\'s brother\" or \"the other guy\".
* On \'\'Series/ArrestedDevelopment\'\' none of the Bluth family (except her sometimes-boyfriend George-Michal) can remember Ann Veal\'s name; usually referring to her as \"Bland,\" \"Egg,\" \"Annabell,\" \"Yam,\" or \"her?\". Not out of malice, just because she\'s so forgettable.
* In \'\'{{Series/Friends}}\'\' Ross\'s parents forget about his son Ben while gushing over Emma, his daughter with Rachel.
-->Jack: My first grandchild.
-->Ross: What about Ben?
-->Jack: I meant my first grand\'\'daughter\'\'.
* No one can keep apart Scott and Steve in \'\'Series/{{Lost}}\'\', even though one of them has been dead since the beginning.

[[AC:Theater]]
* Alexander Throttlebottom in \'\'Theater/OfTheeISing\'\' is the Vice Presidential nominee running with John P. Wintergreen. He\'s so forgettable that he has to sneak into the White House with a tour group because no one remembers who he is. (Back in the 1930s when the play was written, the VP position was notorious for its lack of notability.) He does get remembered in the grand finale, as he\'s needed for a PairTheSpares moment.

[[AC:Video Game]]
* Luigi suffers from this problem in some \'\'[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]\'\' games. In the DS remake of \'\'VideoGame/SuperMario64\'\', for example, the Toads openly admit in front of him that he\'s nowhere near as memorable as his brother Mario is.

[[AC:Webcomic]]
* Happens often in \'\'Webcomic/ScandinaviaAndTheWorld\'\'. Denmark always forgets about his room mate The Faroe Islands until he owes him money, and Norway seems completely oblivious to Kven even when he\'s right in front of him.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* This is eventually {{Lampshaded}} in \'\'WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger\'\'. Two of the characters select recurring background character Noelle to test their vanishing powder on, as she wasn\'t significant enough for anyone to miss. And then later {{Subverted}} when it\'s realized Noelle was actually a cool (by the [[FreakyIsCool characters\' standards]]) CloudCuckooLander and goes on to be an AscendedExtra with a substantial role.
* It\'s a running gag on \'\'WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}\'\' that Scruffy has to keep reintroducing himself to people. \"I\'m Scruffy, The Janitor\" has become his CatchPhrase.
* \'\'WesternAnimation/SouthPark\'\':
** In the episode \"The Last of the Meheecans\", the boys play a Border Control role play game, and eventually the Mexican side claim victory. It takes a long while until Cartman realizes they forgot about Butters (and even then only because he can now still win as the Texan side). As the others wonder how this happened, Craig Lampshades that Butters is a rather easy to forget person.
** Stan\'s senile Grandpa always names him Billy (a trait that seems to be inherited since the ghost of his own Grandfather mistakenly
* \'\'WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons\'\':
** A RunningGag on the show is that Mr. Burns always forgets who Homer is.
** Homer is often forgetting about Maggie. Sometimes he just refers to her as \"the baby\", sometimes he forgets about her completely.