History Main / FunnyFlashbackHaircut

** In "The One With All The Thanksgivings" we see Ross and Chandler in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfjTerb4Ikk fall 1987]]. Ross's curly hair and mustache are less pronounced (he must still be growing it out for the Monica's prom next spring), but still very Seventies and out of date. Chandler's haircut is close to Music/AFlockOfSeagulls, again very Seventies.
** In "The One With The Prom Video" Ross is seen with an afro and porn stash on the videotape, it being set in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hXCNyLjwws spring 1988]]. Joey explicitly calls him "Mr. Kotter", a reference to the late seventies show ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter''.
** Again from the Thanksgiving episode, Ross and Chandler visit in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE0llk5Cxok fall 1988]]. By now at least their haircuts are current, looking very ''Series/MiamiVice'' and both having perpetual stubble.

Flashbacks often give well-known characters stupid-looking haircuts (like a mullet, bowl cut, FunnyAfro or PornStache) to [[ShowDontTell intuitively communicate]] that we are in a different time and to make a quick visual gag on top of that. The haircut is also often funny because it's so far away from the usual look that we know from the character. It's the TV equivalent of laughing at the EmbarrassingOldPhoto of your friends on passports or in yearbooks. The trope is perfect for long-running sitcoms, but can be found in other media and genres as well.

[[folder:Advertising]]
* A variant in a Advertising/{{GEICO}} commercial where three guys grow back their old, dated hairstyles. One guy's hair grows very long, another has a very tall hi-top fade, and the last guy reveals his "seagulls" haircut while '80s pop music plays.
[[/folder]]

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Coach Z has no hair in the present, but in a flashback in the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "stand-up" he's shown to have a FunnyAfro and a big, bushy mustache.
* In a ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'', where the characters are in high school, ordinarily hairless creepy old guy Coach Z sports a FunnyAfro and PornStache.

[[folder: Comic Strips]]

[[folder: Films -- Animated]]

Subtrope of ExpositoryHairstyleChange. Overlaps with IWasQuiteAFashionVictim if the style was at least suitable for that time. Can overlap with HairTodayGoneTomorrow if a presently bald character is given a funny haircut to indicate the past. Compare HairstyleInertia, where a character's hairstyle remains exactly the same in flashbacks, but that can also be the joke.

Also see: FiftiesHair, SixtiesHair, SeventiesHair, EightiesHair and NinetiesHair.

** Flashbacks to the 1990s show Princess Carolyn had a [[Series/{{Friends}} Rachel-inspired haircut]]. This is particularly funny because she's an anthropomorphic cat who is usually drawn without a human-like hairstyle.

** This trope is a RunningGag with Doctor Hibbert. Whenever he's shown in flashback, he has a different hairstyle, including a FunnyAfro in TheSeventies, dreadlocks with beads and a Mr. T-style Mohawk at different points in TheEighties, and a high-and-tight in TheNineties.

-->[-[[TheStinger "What? I was an 80's kid!"]]-]

** The usually bald and serious Captain Holt has a funky short afro and mustache in his 70s flashbacks.

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* ‘’WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers’’: In “The Deepening”, a young Teddy is shown with shaggy blond surfer hair in a flashback to his time as an extra in a shark movie.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', the flashback to Jim's time being the fry cook at the Krusty Krab (which seems to take place around the '70s) shows Mr. Krabs with sideburns and Squidward with gorgeous flowing blonde hair. A later flashback shows that Squidward lost all his hair on the night that Jim quit.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** This trope is a RunningGag with Doctor Hibbert. Whenever he's shown in flashback, he has a different hairstyle, including a FunnyAfro in TheSeventies, dreadlocks with beads and a Mr. T-style Mohawk at different points in TheEighties, and a high-and-tight in TheNineties.
** A flashback to Mr. Burns' childhood shows him with enormous golden curls, a visual reference to a stereotypical image of a wealthy boy in TheGayNineties.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'': A flashback in "Past Tense" to Rusty's college years shows him wearing a really ugly mullet and trying to explain to his father that "the kids wear it long these days." "These days" of course being the '70s or '80s. [[spoiler: In a much later episode there's another flashback to a slightly older Rusty who still has the same haircut but is already starting to go bald.]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/TheNakedGun 33 1/3: The Final Insult'': Frank Drebin flashes back to a murder case at a disco in the '70s. He sports an (already white) mullet, the Captain has a Peter Frampton-esque head of blond curls, and Nordberg's Afro is so big he has trouble fitting through a doorway.

* ''VideoGame/PsiOpsTheMindgateConspiracy'': in the present, Edgar Barrett normally keeps his head shaved. However, in flashbacks to Nick Scryer's psychic training sessions at Mindgate, Barrett (who presides over each test) sports a progressively more ridiculous array of haircuts, including flat-tops, afros, dreadlocks, mohawks, and many more.

* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'': Flashbacks to the 1990s show Princess Carolyn had a [[Series/{{Friends}} Rachel-inspired haircut]]. This is particularly funny because she's an anthropomorphic cat who is usually drawn without a human-like hairstyle.

Subtrope of ExpositoryHairstyleChange. Overlaps with IWasQuiteAFashionVictim if the style was at least suitable for that time. Can overlap with HairTodayGoneTomorrow if a presently bald character is given a funny haircut to indicate the past. Contrast HairstyleInertia, where a character's hairstyle remains exactly the same in flashbacks.

Flashbacks often give well-known characters stupid-looking haircuts (like a mullet, bowl cut, FunnyAfro or PornStache) to intuitively communicate that we are in a different time and to make a quick visual gag on top of that. The haircut is also often funny because it's so far away from the usual look that we know from the character. It's the TV equivalent of laughing at the EmbarrassingOldPhoto of your friends on passports or in yearbooks. The trope is perfect for long-running sitcoms, but can be found in other media and genres as well.

** In a flashback to 40 years in the past the showrunners make no attempt to make Danny [=DeVito=] look younger. Instead they just slap an unkempt toupet in his head to cover his bald spots.

** In a flashback to 40 years in the past the showrunners make no attempt to make Danny [=DeVito=] look younger. Instead they just slap an unkempt toupet to cover his bald spots.

* Flashbacks in ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' are usually signalled by the characters wearing hair appropriate to the late years of The Eighties or the early years of The Nineties, up to a decade before the show's "present" in the early 2000s. Flashbacks to Debra Barone show her wearing hairstyles appropriate to an earlier time: restrained, well chosen, and on her they look good. Her husband Ray and brother-in-law Robert, on the other hand, go to comic extremes: Freddy Mercury moustaches, Afro hairdos, mullet perms...

** In "The One With All The Thanksgivings" we see Ross and Chandler in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfjTerb4Ikk fall 1987]]. Ross's curly hair and mustache are less pronounced (he must still be growing it out for the Monica's prom next spring), but still very Seventies and out of date. Chandler's haircut is close to flock of seagulls, again very Seventies.
** In "The One With The Prom Video" Ross is seen with an afro and porn stash on the videotape, it being set in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hXCNyLjwws spring 1988]]. Joey explicitly calls him "Mr. Kotter", a reference to the late seventies show "Welcome Back, Kotter."
** Again from the Thanksgiving episode, Ross and Chandler visit in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE0llk5Cxok fall 1988]]. By now at least their haircuts are current, looking very Miami Vice and both having perpetual stubble.

** In a flashback to 40 years in the past the showrunners make no attempt to make Danny Devito look younger. Instead they just slap an unkempt toupet to cover his bald spots.

* Flashbacks in ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' are usually signalled by the characters wearing hair appropriate to the late years of The Eighties or the early years of The Nineties, up to a decade before the show's "present" in the early 2000s. Flashbacks to Debra Barone show her wearing hairstyles appropriate to an earlier time: restrained, well chosen, and on her they look good. Her husband Ray and brother-in-law Robert, on the other hand, go to comic extremes: Freddy Mercury moustaches, Afro hairdos, mullet perms...
''{{Series/Scrubs}}'':

* ''{{Series/Scrubs}}'':
** JD had a mullet in the flashbacks of his college years while Turk had a complementary hi-top fade that made his head seem 50% taller. After Turk learned that JD's scatter-brain cost him the chance to see Michael Jordan live, Turk ripped all his hair off out of frustration. This is the story of how he got his [[HairTodayGoneTomorrow signature bald head]].
** Back in his days as a world-class hurdler, the Janitor sported the unbeatable mullet-mustache combo.
** The short-haired Dr. Cox is shown in a flashback (or rather, one of JD's {{Imagine Spot}}s) as having a blond Mohawk in TheEighties, and an attitude to match:
-->''Shut up jackass, I rock!''

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' has a flashback to the time when Leonard and Sheldon first became roommates in 2002. Leonard had long, wavy locks, Raj had a mullet, and Howard had a [[FunnyAfro Jewish afro]]. A brief cut to Penny at the same time had her with borderline EightiesHair. Sheldon was the only one who remained almost the same, and even ''that'' was part of the joke.
* In a flashback in ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' the main character Jimmy has a dumb looking mullet when he is locked up because he defecated through a sunroof.
* Happens over and over on ''Series/{{Friends}}'' whenever there's a flashback episode:
** In "The One With All The Thanksgivings" we see Ross and Chandler in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfjTerb4Ikk fall 1987]]. Ross's curly hair and mustache are less pronounced (he must still be growing it out for the Monica's prom next spring), but still very Seventies and out of date. Chandler's haircut is close to flock of seagulls, again very Seventies.
** In "The One With The Prom Video" Ross is seen with an afro and porn stash on the videotape, it being set in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hXCNyLjwws spring 1988]]. Joey explicitly calls him "Mr. Kotter", a reference to the late seventies show "Welcome Back, Kotter."
** Again from the Thanksgiving episode, Ross and Chandler visit in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE0llk5Cxok fall 1988]]. By now at least their haircuts are current, looking very Miami Vice and both having perpetual stubble.

Flashbacks often give well-known characters stupid-looking haircuts (like a mullet, bowl cut, Main/FunnyAfro or Main/PornStache) to intuitively communicate that we are in a different time and to make a quick visual gag on top of that. The haircut is also often funny because it's so far away from the usual look that we know from the character. It's the TV equivalent of laughing at the Main/EmbarrassingOldPhoto of your friends on passports or in yearbooks. The trope is perfect for long-running sitcoms, but can be found in other media and genres as well.


Subtrope of Main/ExpositoryHairstyleChange. Overlaps with Main/IWasQuiteAFashionVictim if the style was at least suitable for that time. Can overlap with Main/HairTodayGoneTomorrow if a presently bald character is given a funny haircut to indicate the past. Contrast Main/HairstyleInertia, where a character's hairstyle remains exactly the same in flashbacks.

Also see: Main/FiftiesHair, Main/SixtiesHair, Main/SeventiesHair, Main/EightiesHair and Main/NinetiesHair.

[[folder: Advertisement]]
* A variant in a [[Advertising/{{GEICO}} GEICO commerical]] where three guys grow back their old, dated hairstyles. One guy's hair grows very long, another has a very tall hi-top fade, and the last guy reveals his "seagulls" haircut while 80's pop music plays.

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/TheNakedGun'' ''33 1/3: The Final Insult'': Frank Drebin flashes back to a murder case at a disco in the 70's. He sports an (already white) mullet, the Captain has a Peter Frampton-esque head of blond curls, and Nordberg's Afro is so big he has trouble fitting through a doorway.

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

** JD had a mullet in the flashbacks of his college years while Turk had a complementary hi-top fade that made his head seem 50% taller. After Turk learned that JD's scatter-brain cost him the chance to see Michael Jordan live, Turk ripped all his hair off out of frustration. This is the story of how he got his [[Main/{{HairTodayGoneTomorrow}} signature bald head]].

** In the episode where we see how Doug and Carrie first met, Doug has a mullet and Deacon a Main/FunnyAfro.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' has a flashback to the time when Leonard and Sheldon first became roommates in 2002. Leonard had long, wavy locks, Raj had a mullet, and Howard had a [[FunnyAfro Jewish Afro]]. A brief cut to Penny at the same time had her with borderline EightiesHair. Sheldon was the only one who remained almost the same, and even ''that'' was part of the joke.

* Happens over and over on ''{{Series/Friends}}'' whenever there's a flashback episode...

* Flashbacks in ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' are usually signalled by the characters wearing hair appropriate to the late years of The Eighties or the early years of The Nineties, up to a decade before the show's "present" in the early 2000's. Flashbacks to Debra Barone show her wearing hairstyles appropriate to an earlier time: restrained, well chosen, and on her they look good. Her husband Ray and brother-in-law Robert, on the other hand, go to comic extremes: Freddy Mercury moustaches, Afro hairdos, mullet perms...

* In British Main/EdutainmentShow ''Series/PoliceCameraAction'', some Main/ReCut / Main/EditedForSyndication / Main/GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion episodes of the original 1994-2002 British series (occasionally Main/CompilationMovie episodes that usually run to 50 minutes without commercials, but longer with commercial breaks) have used older footage of Alastair Stewart doing presenter links from the 1995-1997 episodes spliced into the later 1998 series and 2000-2001 series as flashback footage to expand the presenter links for time, and the difference is fairly obvious. While this is an unusual use of the trope, given the genre, it's done probably because they were trying to emphasise the "-tainment" part of Edutainment Show. Alastair went through several haircut changes with only the 1998 series and 2000-2002 season remaining consistent with his haircut.
* Series/TopGear sometimes did this to pad for time when it was exported to European markets, with the older 1991-1994 clips of Jeremy Clarkson when he had Main/90sHair in the pre-Main/ContinuityReboot series (1990-2002) used in the new Continuity Reboot series, in its Soft Reboot series, 2011-present. Doubles as a Big Lipped Alligator moment, since it didn't add anything to the plotline.

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Web Comics]]
* One flashback strip in ''Webcomic/ThePetriDish'' shows that Thaddeus (who's now nearly bald) had a mullet when he was in college.

[[folder: Web Animation]]
* In a ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'', where the characters are in high school, ordinarily hairless creepy old guy Coach Z sports a Main/FunnyAfro and Main/PornStache.

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', the flashback to Jim's time being the fry cook at the Krusty Krab (which seems to take place around the 70's) shows Mr. Krabs with sideburns and Squidward with gorgeous flowing blonde hair. A later flashback shows that Squidward lost all his hair on the night that Jim quit.

** This trope is a Main/RunningGag with Doctor Hibbert. Whenever he's shown in flashback, he has a different hairstyle, including a Main/FunnyAfro in Main/TheSeventies, dreadlocks with beads and a Mr. T-style Mohawk at different points in Main/TheEighties, and a high-and-tight in Main/TheNineties.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'': A flashback in "Past Tense" to Rusty's college years shows him wearing a really ugly mullet and trying to explain to his father that "the kids wear it long these days." "These days" of course being the 70's or 80's. [[spoiler: In a much later episode there's another flashback to a slightly older Rusty who still has the same haircut but is already starting to go bald.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'': Flashbacks to the 1990's show Princess Carolyn had a [[Series/{{Friends}} Rachel-inspired haircut]]. This is particularly funny because she's an anthropomorphic cat who is usually drawn without a human-like hairstyle.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Death Lives", Death takes Peter back to the night of his and Lois's first date. He then sees his younger self collecting the soul of a truck driver who died in a crash the young Peter and Lois unknowingly caused. The younger Death not only wears a [[Main/{{IWasQuiteAFashionVictim}} psychadelically-colored robe]], but an afro over his hood.

----

-->[-[[TheStinger "What? I was an 80's kid!"]]-]

-->''Death: Look at all that hair. I can't believe I thought that looked good!''

-->[-[[TheStinger "What? I was an 80's kid!"]]-]

[[TheStinger "What? I was an 80's kid!"]]