History Main / OutSick

Contrast Working Through the Cold (linked to above), FakingAnotherPersonsIllness, PrankInjuries, SickCaptiveScam, HandicappedBadass, BeneficialDisease, PlayingSick, and GettingSickDeliberately. Compare and contrast SickEpisode (where the entire plot hinges on characters being sick). Sometimes invoked by the trope DiseasePreventionAesop (e.g. "Stay home so you don't spread germs!"). If SantaClaus gets sick, it can overlap with SubbingForSanta and SavingChristmas. See StrikeEpisode, VacationEpisode, and NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp for other reasons characters might not be doing their usual. Sometimes overlaps with VetinariJobSecurity if the conflict comes from the fact that no one else can do their job correctly. Can overlap with InjuredLimbEpisode and RupturedAppendix and often overlaps with DeusExScuseMe, OOCIsSeriousBusiness ("It's not like Alice to be late for work! Oh, ''that's'' why!"), WorfHadTheFlu, ADayInHerApron, and DeusExitMachina.

Contrast Working Through the Cold (linked to above), FakingAnotherPersonsIllness, PrankInjuries, SickCaptiveScam, HandicappedBadass, BeneficialDisease, PlayingSick, and GettingSickDeliberately. Compare and contrast SickEpisode (where the entire plot hinges on characters being sick). Sometimes invoked by the trope DiseasePreventionAesop (e.g. "Stay home so you don't spread germs!"). If SantaClaus gets sick, it can overlap with SubbingForSanta and SavingChristmas. Often overlaps with AbsenteeActor. See StrikeEpisode, VacationEpisode, and NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp for other reasons characters might not be doing their usual. Sometimes overlaps with VetinariJobSecurity if the conflict comes from the fact that no one else can do their job correctly. Can overlap with InjuredLimbEpisode and RupturedAppendix and often overlaps with DeusExScuseMe, OOCIsSeriousBusiness ("It's not like Alice to be late for work! Oh, ''that's'' why!"), WorfHadTheFlu, ADayInHerApron, and DeusExitMachina.

* [[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle Mr. Peabody is bedridden with distemper in an installment, leaving Sherman to take on the time traveling adventure at hand.

Contrast Working Through the Cold (linked to above), FakingAnotherPersonsIllness, PrankInjuries, SickCaptiveScam, HandicappedBadass, BeneficialDisease, and PlayingSick. Compare and contrast SickEpisode (where the entire plot hinges on characters being sick). Sometimes invoked by the trope DiseasePreventionAesop (e.g. "Stay home so you don't spread germs!"). If SantaClaus gets sick, it can overlap with SubbingForSanta and SavingChristmas. Often overlaps with AbsenteeActor. See StrikeEpisode, VacationEpisode, and NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp for other reasons characters might not be doing their usual. Sometimes overlaps with VetinariJobSecurity if the conflict comes from the fact that no one else can do their job correctly. Can overlap with InjuredLimbEpisode and RupturedAppendix and often overlaps with DeusExScuseMe, OOCIsSeriousBusiness ("It's not like Alice to be late for work! Oh, ''that's'' why!"), WorfHadTheFlu, ADayInHerApron, and DeusExitMachina.

In ''WebAnimation/Zebrafish'',Tanya's not at rehearsal due to a leukemia-involved hospital visit in episode 8,and she's understandably cranky about it at the beginning.

[[/folder:Web Animation]]
In "WebAnimation/Zebrafish",Tanya's not at rehearsal due to a leukemia-involved hospital visit,and she's understandably cranky about it at the beginning.
[[folder: Web Comics]]

** In one series of strips, [[DitzyGenius Thaddeus]] does not show up to the lab because he has the flu.

[[/folder]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'' episode “[[Recap/AllHailKingJulienS04E07TheKingAndMrsMort The King and Mrs. Mort]]”, Julien is sick and most of the kingdom is away on a party cruise, so Mort fills in as king to entertain a judge from a big competition— with disastrous results. Why? The judge, a mongoose named Pam, [[AndNowYouMustMarry tricks Mort into marriage and takes over the Lemur Kingdom]].

* ''ComicBook/JemAndTheHolograms'' has a sick arc where Pizzazz injures her larynx due to a car accident. She is unable to sing so her band gets a temporary replacement. They decide to use Blaze.

** Lisa Simpson meets her perfect substitute teacher Mr. Bergstrom in the episode "Lisa's Substitute" because Miss Hoover had Lyme Disease (or at least [[{{Hypochondria}} thought she did]]).

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', Mulan's father is suffering from a lame leg when the emperor calls for men to push back the Huns. This motivates her to go out in his place [[SweetPollyOliver as "Ping"]], even at the risk of death and dishonor if she's caught.

* This happens a couple of times in books which are part of ''Literature/TheAmericanGirlsCollection'':
** In "Changes for Molly", Molly decides to go to bed with her hair soaking wet as part of an attempt to curl it, but she catches a cold and ends up missing the Miss Victory pageant she was looking to tap dance in. older brother Ricky says replacement wasn't as good of a dancer.
* In "Josefina's Surprise", the titular character is asked to play the part of Maria (Mary) in her village's Las Posadas procession, but she doesn't have the nerve and turns it down. She undergoes and character development over the course of the book, and when Christmas Eve comes and the older village girl tapped to play Maria in her stead gets sick, she's ready to take on the role.

* In the Disney short "How to Catch a Cold", Common Sense invokes this by telling the sick man not to go to work.

* In the ''Literature/AnimalArk'' book "The Midnight Mouse", Jack has the flu and cannot stay at a hotel so his niece and her friend and both sets of parents end up staying instead.

* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': Kari misses summer camp due to being sick with a cold. This means she's unable to join the other [=DigiDestined=] on the first trip to the Digital World. Without the benefit of her empathic powers, it becomes impossible for Homeostasis (the organization of good guys) to communicate to the kids why they've been brought to the Digital World. Later, the team has to do a lot of rushing and panicking before finding out the hard way that Kari is the eighth [=DigiDestined=] child and needs to join them and be kept safe from Myotismon. On the other hand, Gatomon wasn't available to protect her at the time, either, so she might have been doomed if she had joined the other kids in the Digital World right away, in which case both the Digital and real worlds would have been doomed, as well.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': During a large portion of the Battle City Tournament, Serenity can't join Tristan and Duke in cheering Joey on in person because she's recovering from eye surgery. A boy helps her follow one of Joey's duels from her hospital bed using a laptop. [[spoiler: After Serenity leaves the hospital, she takes her bandages off and recovers her eyesight just in time to save Joey from being drowned in the bottom of the ocean by a booby trap that dragged him down there]].

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus''. Ms. Frizzle's class is frantic because they're getting ready to do Broadcast Day and Ralphie is unaccounted for. When his mom calls in to tell Ms. Frizzle he's sick, they respond by coming to him and set up in his room [[WorkingThroughTheCold so he can participate in the broadcast]] – which ends up consisting of the class [[FantasticVoyage going inside his body]] and filming his white blood cells fighting the germs. After it's over, Ms. Frizzle and the class leave Ralphie to rest.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus''. Ms. Frizzle's class is frantic because they're getting ready to do Broadcast Day and Ralphie is unaccounted for. When his mom calls in to tell Ms. Frizzle he's sick, they respond by coming to him and set up in his room [[WorkingThroughTheCold so he can participate in the broadcast]]. After it's over, Ms. Frizzle and the class leave Ralphie to rest.

** Subverted in "Madeline's Christmas" when all the girls except Madeline, Miss Clavel, a mouse, and the doctor all catch colds. They say that their Christmas trip is off, but then Marie cures them.
** Subverted in "Madeline and the Costume Party" where the girls all get chickenpox and worry that they won't be able to attend the party, but they get better in time for the party.

[[SickEpisode Being sick]] is no fun. There's the symptoms which can vary from annoying (rashes, sneezing) to downright terrible (lethargy, vomiting), and having to follow doctors' orders. It's even worse if there's something you want or need to do but can't because you're sick, and that's this trope.

A variation is when the character is not actually sick, but instead injured, [[LostVoicePlot wore their voice out]], mesmerised, etc. A common subversion is to have someone think they won't be able to do something, but then get better before they try it. They may also work from home when sick.

* In Chapter 20 of ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'' (animated as the latter half of episode 6), SequentialArtist Nozaki fell sick and bedridden on the day before his deadline. He asks his assistants Hori, Sakura and Wakamatsu to write the dialogue and apply screentones. The result was so much MoodDissonance that Nozaki decides on the following day that he should ask for an extension.

** The episode, "Dressed For Jess Success" has Jessie sick, leaving James having to cross dress as her "Jessilina" persona to win one of her contests. Not only does he fool the audience, but it actually turns out to be a rare case TeamRocketWins, to the point Jessie feels a bit offended he may have done a better job than her.

* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': Kari misses summer camp due to being sick with a cold. This means she's unable to join the other [=DigiDestined=] on the first trip to the Digital World. Without the benefit of her empathic powers, it becomes impossible for Homeostasis (the organization of good guys) to communicate to the kids why they've been brought to the Digital World. Later, the team has to do a lot of rushing and panicking before finding out the hard way that Kari is the eighth [=DigiDestined=] child and needs to join them and be kept safe from Myotismon. On the other hand, Gatomon wasn't available to protect her at the time, either, so she might have been doomed if she had join the other kids in the Digital World right away, in which case both the Digital and real worlds would have been doomed, as well.

** Late in the manga, Ukyo Kuonji is sick with a cold, and thus Akane, Ranma and Konatsu take over tending to her restaurant, to rather catastrophic results.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Zigzagged in one story in ''ComicBook/{{Archie}}'' comics: Riverdale discovers a speedster, whereupon they field him as shortstop. There, he easily snags anything hit to the pitcher's right. A crosstown rival team gets a thug on base, where the thug deliberately slams his cleats into the speedster's leg, hobbling him. However, it turns out that the speedster can also throw Major League-grade pitches, whiffing rival batters with even greater ease.

[[folder:Comic Strips]]

* The Pointy-Haired Boss informs ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' that everyone who ate at the potluck meal developed [[TheFoodPoisoningIncident food poisoning]], and that Dilbert must absorb their workload as the sole healthy employee. In the Tuesday 1 October 2019 strip, Dilbert asks if there are leftovers, and if he can have a plate.

[[folder:Fan Works]]

* In ''Fanfic/DeepDishNine'', an AlternateUniverseFic of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' set on modern Earth where the space station has been turned into three locations (a pizza shop, a bar, and an apartment building), Leeta ([[AdaptationSpeciesChange who's now a human not a Bajoran]]) works at the bar mostly, but sometimes works at the pizza shop if a character is sick.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Eddie Adams, as Dirk Diggler from ''Film/BoogieNights'', is so coked up that he can't achieve an erection. After much time in the bathroom [[ADateWithRosiePalms masturbating]], Eddie finally appears on set raring to go. Director Jack Horner has become disgusted with Eddie's mercurial temperament, and has scheduled a new recruit to replace Eddie in the latest production. Eddie doesn't take it well and storms off.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'', when Doc Holliday wants to accompany Wyatt Earp to his private duel with Johnny Ringo, which Wyatt is convinced he cannot win. Doc has tuberculosis and can't get out of bed, and plaintively asks Wyatt what it's like "to wear one of those," meaning his deputy badge. It's all subterfuge - Wyatt gives him the badge to make him feel better, and goes to his meeting only to find that Doc (who is really sick, but not feeling quite as poorly as he made out) has beaten him there and killed Johnny Ringo for him.

[[folder:Literature]]

** In "Germs!", Suzy stays home from school with the chicken pox. Bertie tries to catch it from her so that he can skip school too, but when he does catch it, it's the weekend so he can't play with his friends.

** Ron can't join Harry and Hermione in using the Time Turner in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' because Snuffles (Sirius Black in dog form) nearly tears his leg off. The others have to leave him in the hospital wing.

* In ''Literature/TheMidnightGang'', [[IllGirl Sally]] has a serious illness (it [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything acts like]] cancer but it's left ambiguous) and so sometimes is too weak or too busy getting treatment to go on adventures. However, [[TheProtagonist Tom]] starts out injured and [[DeadpanSnarker Robin]] and [[ActionGirl Amber]] are injured and stay injured throughout the book, yet they all still go on adventures.

* In ''Stories for Nine-Year-Olds'' one story involves nobody quite knowing who should bring what to school. It eventually turns out to be a girl named June Nicols who [[ShaggyDogStory was out with chicken pox anyway]].

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]

** There's a season 11 episode that opens at a crime scene and a couple other characters have to sub in collecting evidence because Hodgins is unavailable due to a "wheelchair emergency". Translation being that the sex was too rough and a wheel popped off.

[[folder:Music]]

[[folder:Poetry]]

[[folder:Theatre]]

[[folder:Video Games]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]

** Zigzagged in "Arthur's Chicken Pox". Arthur gets the chicken pox and worries that he won't get better for the circus. He does, however, ''D.W.'' catches his chicken pox and can't go.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus''. Ms. Frizzle's class is frantic, because they're getting ready to do Broadcast Day and Ralphie is unaccounted for. When his mom calls in to tell Ms. Frizzle he's sick, they respond by coming to him and set up in his room [[WorkingThroughTheCold so he can participate in the broadcast]]. After it's over, Ms. Frizzle and the class leave Ralphie to rest.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DennisTheMenaceAndGnasher'', the episode "Couldn't Catch a Cold" sees ''all the students at Dennis's school except for Dennis himself'' catch a serious version of the common cold called the "Beanotown cold". Three of the boys try to go to school anyway, but are sent home, so Dennis becomes the only kid at school. The next day, he catches the cold and is sent home on the day his school is having a beach trip.

** Subverted in "Madeline and the Costume Party" where the girls all get chicken pox and worry that they won't be able to attend the party, but they get better in time for the party.

** In "Dog Walking Service", Humphrey has chicken pox and cannot walk his dog so Milly and Molly do.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Numberjacks}}'', the episode "The Dreaded Lurgi" zigzags this. Four and Six both get a disease called 'the dreaded lurgi' and try to do their jobs but their illness makes it hard for them to, so Three sends them to bed. Later, Three gets the disease and while she can make the brain gain[[labelnote:What's that?]]Essentially AppliedPhlebotinum made from the force of people's thoughts.[[/labelnote]], she needs more help than usual.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' "All's Well That Pretends Well", Angelica tries to make the babies seem sick so they can't go to the circus. [[spoiler:At the end, the parents believe she is sick and make her stay at home, the babies miss Angelica and start PlayingSick.]]

** When you're out sick from school, there is a wide range of protocol for picking up or making up missed work, usually entailing a deadline for getting caught up and grade penalties for missing it. Extended absences for being sick are treated the same as being out so long for any other reason, with potential loss of placement in a private school, the possibility of being held back, or even legal citations for neglect for parents and guardians. Many school systems make provisions to enable students who will be unable to access school for a length of time lasting at least a few weeks to be [[HomeschooledKids taught at home]].

** If this happens to a starter on a sports team, whoemver usually substitutes for them will be called into the lead; if the team has a minor league affiliate, there's a chance one of the better players from that team will be called in to back up the substitute in turn, especially if there are few people already with the team who can fill that role, such as a goaltender.

Contrast Working Through the Cold (linked to above), FakingAnotherPersonsIllness, PrankInjuries, SickCaptiveScam, HandicappedBadass, BeneficialDisease, and PlayingSick. Compare and contrast SickEpisode (where the entire plot hinges on characters being sick). Sometimes invoked by the trope DiseasePreventionAesop (e.g. "Stay home so you don't spread germs!"). If SantaClaus gets sick, it can overlap with SubbingForSanta and SavingChristmas. Often overlaps with AbsenteeActor. See StrikeEpisode, VacationEpisode, and NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp for other reasons characters might not be doing their usual. Sometimes overlaps with VetinariJobSecurity if the conflict comes from the fact that no one else can do their job correctly. Can overlap with InjuredLimbEpisode and RupturedAppendix and often overlaps with DeusExScuseMe, OOCIsSeriousBusiness ("It's not like Alice to be late for work! Oh, ''that's'' why!"), WorfHadTheFlu, ADayInHerApron, and DeusExitMachina. One type of LameExcuse is when somebody tries to fake this by claiming to have a medical condition to get out of something (usually [[BlatantLies unconvincingly]]).

* In ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'', Mulan's father is suffering from a lame leg when the emperor calls for men to push back the Huns. This motivates her to go out in his place [[SweetPollyOliver as "Ping"]], even at the risk of death and dishonor if she's caught.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': Serenity can't join Tristan and Duke in cheering Joey on in the Battle City Tournament because she's recovering from eye surgery. A boy helps her follow one of Joey's duels from her hospital bed using a laptop. [[spoiler: After Serenity leaves the hospital, she takes her bandages off and recovers her eyesight just in time to save Joey from being drowned in the bottom of the ocean by a booby trap that dragged him down there]].

* An episode of ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' has the "transformed" variation where Darren can't come to the office as he's been turned into a chimpanzee.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', Kermit is sick so Fozzie fills in, but does a bad job.

** In "Daniel's Neighbors Help", Daniel catches another cold and has to stay home from school. In addition, his mother ''also'' has another cold and his father's at work, so his next-door neighbour Lady Elaine drops him off at school before he knew he had a cold.
* In ''WesternAnimation/DennisTheMenaceAndGnasher'', the episode "Couldn't Catch a Cold" sees ''all the students at Dennis's school except for Dennis himself'' catch a serious version of the common cold called the "Beanotown cold". Three of the boys try to go to school anyway, but are sent home, so Dennis becomes the only kid at school. The next day, he catches the cold and is sent home... on the day his school is having a beach trip.

** In "Round Springfield, a lot of the kids at school decide to follow Bart's lead and get an appendectomy, leaving only Ralph Wiggum and Lisa to put on a band performance of "Stars and Stripes Forever".

** Lisa Simpson meets her perfect substitute teacher Mr. Bergstrom in the episode "Lisa's Substitute" because Miss Hover had Lyme Disease (or at least [[{{Hypochondria}} thought she did]]).
** In one episode, Ralph gets sick from drinking too much juice, so Lisa has to fill in his role in a sports match.

* In the ''Franchise/HelloKitty'' episode "Changing Our Clothes", the mother cat has a cold and so the father cat has to do the cooking, which he can't do. The mother cat also cannot dress the twins due to fear that her cold would spread, so they learn to change their own clothes because Papa Cat proves incompetent at dressing them.
* In Chapter 20 of ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'' (animated as the latter half of episode 6), SequentialArtist Nozaki fell sick and bedridden on the day before his deadline. So he asks his assistants Hori, Sakura and Wakamatsu to write the dialogue and apply screentones. The result was so much MoodDissonance that Nozaki decides on the following day that he should ask for an extension.

* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': Kari misses summer camp due to being sick with a cold. This means she's unable to join the other [=DigiDestined=] on the first trip to the Digital World. Without the benefit of her empathic powers, it becomes impossible for Homeostasis (the organization of good guys) to communicate to the kids why they've been brought to the Digital World. Later, the team has to do a lot of rushing and panicking before finding out the hard way that Kari is the eighth [=DigiDestined=] child and needs to join them and be kept safe from Myotismon. On the other hand, Gatomon wasn't available to protect her at the time, either, so she might have been doomed if she had join the other kids in the Digital World right away, in which case both the Digital and real worlds would have been doomed.

* ''WesternAnimation/AFlintstonesChristmasCarol'' has a RunningGag where just about every actor comes down with the "Bedrock Bug", leading Wilma to have to cover for all the missing roles.
* In ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'', Mulan's father is suffering from a lame leg when the emperor calls for men to push back the Huns. This motivates her to go out in his place [[SweetPollyOliver as "Ping"]] even at risk of death and dishonor if she's caught.

* Eddie Adams, as Dirk Diggler from ''Film/BoogieNights'', is so coked up that he can't achieve an erection. After much time in the bathroom [[ADateWithRosiePalms masturbating]], Eddie finally appears on set raring to go. Director Jack Horner has become disgusted with Eddie's mercurial temperament, and has scheduled a new recruit to replace Eddie in the latest production. Eddie doesn't take it well, and storms off.

* ''Film/SpaceJam'' sees most of the Tune Squad getting crushed by the Monstars, literally. With only four players left intact, the Tune Squad fields the non-athletic Stan Podolak, who actually scores despite being gang-tackled and SquashedFlat. Now, the Tune Squad faces a loss by forfeit, until Bill Murray appears in a BigDamnHeroes moment, filling the fifth player's slot.

* ''Literature/MissBindergarten Stays Home from Kindergarten'' has Miss Bindergarten calling in sick with cold-like symptoms. Some of her class get it too and the book ends with Miss Bindergarten coming back and the substitute teacher coming down with the same illness.

* Though not exactly sick, Hermione was unavailable for part of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' [[spoiler: due to being turned into an anthropomorphic cat and then petrified]].

* ''Series/{{CSI NY}}'' has an episode where Mac is at home with cracked ribs after a suspect he's chasing knocks him down a staircase. It turns into a RearWindowWitness plot as he spends time watching the apartment building across the street due to being stuck and unable to do much.