History Main / StoodUp

* After the credits in ''[[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]]'', it's shown that Sonic's adventure in Arthurian times has apparently sidetracked him from going on a date with Amy, as she then chews him out for making the lamest excuse ever and draws her signiture Piko-Piko Hammer, to which Sonic runs away, with Amy Chasing after.

* Played UpToEleven in Creator/MichelangeloAntonioni's ''Film/{{L'eclisse}}'': '''neither''' of the protagonists shows up, and it is implied that the meeting where they'd arranged for the failed date (mere hours before!) was their very last encounter.

* In ''VisualNovel/TrueLoveJunaiMonogatari'', the PlayerCharacter can pull this on the girls after they ask him for dates. Obviously, they'll get [[BerserkButton pretty upset at him]] -- this is specially true for [[spoiler: Miyuki Tanaka]], since ditching her means the chance to date her is now LostForever.

-->'''Midnight, gettin' uptight, where are you?\\
'''Said you'd meet me, now it's quarter to two.

* Played UpToEleven in Creator/MichelangeloAntonioni's ''Film/{{L'eclisse}}'': '''neither''' of the protagonists shows up, and it seems that the meeting where they'd arranged for the failed date (mere hours before!) was their very last encounter.

* Played UpToEleven in Creator/MichelangeloAntonioni's ''Film/{{L'eclisse}}'': '''neither''' of the protagonists shows up, and it seems that the meeting where they'd arranged for the failed date was their very last encounter.

* Played UpToEleven in creator/MichelangeloAntonioni's ''Film/LEclisse'': '''neither''' of the protagonists shows up, and it seems that the meeting where they'd arranged for the failed date was their very last encounter.

* Hiro in ''[[VisualNovel/EfAFairyTaleOfTheTwo Ef- A Tale of Memories]]'' tells his would be girlfriend Miyako he'll meet her at the fountain. In a classic twist, his other potential love interest Kei gets a serious injury in her leg and Hiro accompanies her to the clinic. Miyako is so distressed that she waits for hours and leaves a series of 99 (!) increasingly distressed messages on his phone, which he doesn't have with him. (To be fair to Miyako, she's got HUGE emotional issues from ''before'' she met Hiro [[spoiler: due to her parents's horrible divorce and her subsequent ParentalAbandonment]]) [[KickTheDog Kei finds said phone and deletes them before he can even check]], [[GreenEyedMonster out of pure jealousy]].
* [[TearJerker A particularly tragic version]] occurs in ''Manga/OutlawStar''. Jim sets up a date with Hanyou, a nice girl that he meets... [[spoiler: and then kills in a space battle without even knowing it. Neither was aware that the other was aboard the ship that they were fighting and both wanted to hurry up and win so that they could make the date.]] In the end Jim shows up on time and when Hanyou doesn't he thinks that he's been stood up.

* In ''[[{Franchise/{Naruto}} The Mating Frenzy]]'', Naruto is given a letter "from Hinata" (long story) inviting him for sex. He doesn't know where she lives, and, being Naruto, doesn't think to check the return address. [[spoiler:[[DontExplainTheJoke She has a huge crush on him.]]]] She gets stood up. [[spoiler:[[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale She rapes him in his sleep.]]]] It's a long story.

* In ''Film/GhostRider'' it happened ''twice''!

* In ''The Lake House'', there's the very special case of [[spoiler: Kate actually telling Alex not to come]], but she doesn't know it because [[spoiler: time travel is involved]].
* In ''Film/TheHeiress'', main character Catherine Sloper gets stood up by her fiancé Morris Townsend, who had promised to come for her in a carriage to elope at midnight. This is even worse because the decision to elope came right after a major falling out with her family (her father was convinced that Morris was just a GoldDigger and told that her the only reason anyone would want a PlainJane ShrinkingViolet her was because of her money) and she was convinced that Morris would care for her and love her in a way her father never did. Watching her break out in tears after the clock strikes 12 is truly heartbreaking.

* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', Leafpool accidentally does this to Crowfeather - she'd promised to meet him, but then had to come desperately to [=RiverClan=]'s aid when Mothwing could not heal them alone.

* Not actually romantic--[[{{Squick}} or at least, we hope not]]--but in an early episode of ''Series/{{Alias}}'', after Sydney finds out what her father Jack does for a living (he's a spy, like her), the two of them make a dinner date for the first time in many, many years. You see her waiting... and then he pulls up outside, outside her field of vision. You think, just for a second, that he's going to join her... and then he pulls out his phone and says he's working late. She accepts this quietly, then almost breaks down once he hangs up because she knows he's lying to her.

** Actually, they didn't make her up - Joey and Phoebe wanted to set Ross and Rachel up with horrible dates to make them realize that they should be together, but Joey screws up by finding the perfect woman for Ross. So he calls it off with the girl, but leaves Ross to get stood up.

* ''Film/SkyHigh'': Will realizes he's started mistreating his original group of friends when his powers manifest and he's moved from SideKick to Hero. By way of making it up to childhood friend Layla, he invites her out for Chinese food. This is doubly significant because Layla has romantic feelings for Will, and Will hates Chinese food, but knows Layla loves it; so Will's truly trying to prove how sincerely sorry he is. Unfortunately, the AlphaBitch, Gwen, puts the moves on Will that afternoon and evening and he completely forgets about having promised to meet Layla for dinner. Layla is left to lean on the shoulder of busboy Warren Peace. On remembering, Will feels like a JerkAss, and Layla is understandably furious.

* One manga-only story in ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' involved a girl who had made plans to meet with her boyfriend on Christmas Eve, but then became ill and died. Unable to move on to the afterlife, she waited at the spot they had chosen to meet, only for him to never show up. [[spoiler:Turns out he was the kind of guy who would deliberately keep her waiting, taking advantage of the fact that she was always patient with him no matter how long the wait was. The day that she died, he'd made a bet with a buddy that she'd willingly wait ''five hours'' for him, and he was irritated when "she didn't show."]]

* One manga-only story in ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' involved a girl who froze to death while waiting for her boyfriend to show up at the appointed place. It turned out the guy had deliberately chosen to not show up, and months later was completely unaware of the fact that the girl had died waiting for him.

* In ''VisualNovel/TrueLoveJunaiMonogatari'', [[PlayerCharacter you]] can pull this on the girls after they ask you for dates. Obviously, they'll get [[BerserkButton pretty upset at that]] -- this is specially true for [[spoiler: Miyuki Tanaka]], who will totally desert you if you miss your meeting.

StoodUp is a [[LoveTropes Love Trope]] that extends over several genres. Two (or more) characters plan to get together but one of them never shows up. This is usually a romantic date (or one or both of the characters may hope it is) but it could involve a platonic couple or a [[DaddyDidntShow family]].

* ''Franchise/CodeGeass'' does a version of StoodUp that doesn't quite fit one of the examples above. Shirley, one of Lelouch's best friends who has a crush on him, invites him to a concert. When an important meeting for his LaResistance group comes up, he tries to phone her to apologize and not raise suspicions but she calls him first to say that she and her mother have to do something out in the country. When he finally shows up at the concert hall long after it's over, Shirley's standing alone in the rain and looking ''very'' tearful. He tries to apologize, but she interrupts to reveal that her father Joseph was killed by Zero (Lelouch's secret identity), and that "something out in the country" was identifying his corpse. Cue full-episode {{Angst}} for Lelouch. [[spoiler: And a full-blown BreakTheCutie for poor Shirley.]]

* In ''Anime/RomeoXJuliet'', Romeo was supposed to take his arranged girlfriend Hermione out for Lovers's Day. He ends up meeting up with Juliet instead and, since they're already in love with each other but can't exactly own up to it [[FeudingFamilies for obvious reasons]], he first chases after her and then gives her a BigDamnKiss to let their feelings officially be known. In the meantime, poor Hermione is left out in the cold, and later [[BigBad Romeo's father Laertes]] gets '''PISSED OFF''' at him.

* ''[[TenchiMuyo Tenchi in Tokyo]]'': In a certain episode that features Tenchi agreeing to meet up with his prospect girlfriend Sakuya Kumashiro, but Ryoko shows up and they go in an impromptu date. When it's all over and Ryoko goes back home after a great day, Tenchi goes home, passes by the local park... and finds Sakuya, who has been waiting for him around ''five hours'' (thank God she chose a bench in the park instead of a restaurant). She lets Tenchi explain himself and forgives him, but she can't help crying anyway as she explains herself to Tenchi as well. [[spoiler: Since Sakuya is a "shadow" of the BigBad Yuugi, there's some lampshading as Yuugi watches over the whole exchange from above, and when Sakuya starts crying... [[WhatIsThisFeeling Yuugi cries too, much to Yuugi's own shock]].]]
* ''CodeGeass'' does a version of StoodUp that doesn't quite fit one of the examples above. Shirley, one of Lelouch's best friends who has a crush on him, invites him to a concert. When an important meeting for his LaResistance group comes up, he tries to phone her to apologize and not raise suspicions but she calls him first to say that she and her mother have to do something out in the country. When he finally shows up at the concert hall long after it's over, Shirley's standing alone in the rain and looking ''very'' tearful. He tries to apologize, but she interrupts to reveal that her father Joseph was killed by Zero (Lelouch's secret identity), and that "something out in the country" was identifying his corpse. Cue full-episode {{Angst}} for Lelouch. [[spoiler: And a full-blown BreakTheCutie for poor Shirley.]]

* Hiro in ''[[EfAFairyTaleOfTheTwo Ef- A Tale of Memories]]'' tells his would be girlfriend Miyako he'll meet her at the fountain. In a classic twist, his other potential love interest Kei gets a serious injury in her leg and Hiro accompanies her to the clinic. Miyako is so distressed that she waits for hours and leaves a series of 99 (!) increasingly distressed messages on his phone, which he doesn't have with him. (To be fair to Miyako, she's got HUGE emotional issues from ''before'' she met Hiro [[spoiler: due to her parents's horrible divorce and her subsequent ParentalAbandonment]]) [[KickTheDog Kei finds said phone and deletes them before he can even check]], [[GreenEyedMonster out of pure jealousy]].
* [[TearJerker A particularly tragic version]] occurs in ''OutlawStar''. Jim sets up a date with Hanyou, a nice girl that he meets... [[spoiler: and then kills in a space battle without even knowing it. Neither was aware that the other was aboard the ship that they were fighting and both wanted to hurry up and win so that they could make the date.]] In the end Jim shows up on time and when Hanyou doesn't he thinks that he's been stood up.
* This almost happened in ''MahouSenseiNegima'' when, thanks to a drugged tea, Negi overshot an afternoon nap and woke up four hours after his date with Nodoka. After panicking a bit, Chamo reminds Negi that since it's ''[[ShrinkingViolet Nodoka]]'' he's dating, there's a very good chance that she patiently waited for him during all that time, making Negi panic even more. Good thing that it was all part of [[MadScientist Chao's]] test run for her experimental TimeMachine, eh?

* A really strange variant happens in an early chapter of ''MaisonIkkoku''. Godai asks Kyoko to a fancy restaurant for the anniversary of her becoming the landlady. However, she mistook the name of the restaurant for the local pub. She realizes the mistake later in the evening and rushes there.
* In TigerAndBunny, [[spoiler: Keith/Sky High]] goes through this. [[spoiler: The girl he befriended and fell for was a RobotGirl that he had just destroyed, unaware of such a fight due to her appearance being destroyed previously. Later, he shows up with roses to thank her for her help, unaware that he "killed" her...]]
* [[spoiler: Nanako Misonoo]] from OniisamaE is on the receiving end in the anime. [[spoiler: Rei Asaka, the [[LesYay older girl]] she was meeting with, [[LookBothWays falls in the path of a train]] [[BuryYourGays and gets fatally hit]]. The police calls her siblings Takeshi and Fukiko, with the latter attending the call and suffering an HeroicBSOD. Nanako, however, has no idea, so she waits for Rei in their date spot for hours, and doesn't find out until she gets ready to go home... and then her friend Tomoko meets up with her and takes her to the hospital where Fukiko, Takeshi, and Rei's best friend Kaoru are waiting -- next to Rei's lifeless body.]] The poor kid's following HeroicBSOD is ''the'' TearJerker of the series.

* One manga-only story in ''YuYuHakusho'' involved a girl who froze to death while waiting for her boyfriend to show up at the appointed place. It turned out the guy had deliberately chosen to not show up, and months later was completely unaware of the fact that the girl had died waiting for him.

* In ''[[{{Naruto}} The Mating Frenzy]]'', Naruto is given a letter "from Hinata" (long story) inviting him for sex. He doesn't know where she lives, and, being Naruto, doesn't think to check the return address. [[spoiler:[[DontExplainTheJoke She has a huge crush on him.]]]] She gets stood up. [[spoiler:[[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale She rapes him in his sleep.]]]] It's a long story.

[[folder: Comics ]]

* Inverted in a recent issue of ''SpiderMan'', where Peter Parker is (unintentionally) stood up by Mary Jane Watson after spending the day trying to remember where he agreed to meet her. Of course, Peter has had to ditch a fair number of dates while trying to save the day.

[[/folder]]

* ''JumpingJackFlash'': Terri has risked life and limb to help trapped spy Jack get out of Eastern Europe alive. When Jack says he can't possibly repay her, Terri tells him she'll settle for a fancy dinner. She arrives, all dressed up because she's developed a crush on Jack. But he doesn't show. A sympathetic waitstaff permits Terri to wait. Jack's buddy and co-worker Peter arrives to tell Terri Jack has been detained. He offers to pay for her breadsticks and water, but Terri refuses because it makes her feel like a prostitute. Jack's good reason turns out to be that he had an audience with The Queen of England to thank him for his diligent efforts. Terri is unwilling to forgive him until she realizes he's made good on showing up in person.
* ''SkyHigh'': Will realizes he's started mistreating his original group of friends when his powers manifest and he's moved from SideKick to Hero. By way of making it up to childhood friend Layla, he invites her out for Chinese food. This is doubly significant because Layla has romantic feelings for Will, and Will hates Chinese food, but knows Layla loves it; so Will's truly trying to prove how sincerely sorry he is. Unfortunately, the AlphaBitch, Gwen, puts the moves on Will that afternoon and evening and he completely forgets about having promised to meet Layla for dinner. Layla is left to lean on the shoulder of busboy Warren Peace. On remembering, Will feels like a JerkAss, and Layla is understandably furious.

* In Tim Burton's 1989 ''Batman'', Vicki Vale thinks that Bruce Wayne stood her up for dinner at the museum. In reality, Joker had set it up. After Joker gasses the other patrons and trashes the museum, he menaces Vicki for a while until Batman shows up and rescues her.
* There's a particularly bizarre version in ''TheSixthSense'', and when Malcolm shows up all apologies, his wife simply mutters "Happy anniversary", otherwise ignoring him. There's a [[DeadAllAlong reason,]] [[ItWasHisSled of course...]]
* In ''{{Flubber}}'', RobinWilliams plays an [[AbsentMindedProfessor extremely absentminded]] well-intentioned MadScientist character. How absentminded? Near the beginning of the movie he misses his own wedding, and his girlfriend breaks up with him, because this is the third time he's done it.

* In the sixth ''Film/HarryPotter'' film, Harry flirts with a [[CanonForeigner random Muggle waitress]], whom he's forced to stand up when Dumbledore arrives just before their date. She's never seen again. RogerEbert took a liking to this incidental character and expressed his hope that they could fit her into the next movie somehow.

* Happened to Betty on her birthday on the episode ''24 Candles'' of ''UglyBetty''.
* In a rare male example, Hal from ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'' is stood up on his anniversary dinner, because Lois is attempting to find out which of her sons ruined the dress she was going to wear to said dinner. Hal ends up having a good time. At the end of the episode it is revealed that [[spoiler:Hal burned the dress accidentally]].

* Occured on Season 1 of ''{{Scrubs}}''. J.D was meant to meet his girlfriend at a restaurant, but was on a roll at the hospital and either forgot about it, or put his job first (he claimed to have forgotten, but Dr. Cox pointed out he was continually checking his watch). His girlfriend was not happy.
* Played with in an episode of ''{{Friends}}''. Ross is waiting on a blind date who doesn't seem to be showing up. The waiter seems amused at first (he asks if Ross thinks the date turned up, saw him, then left) but later seems sympathetic and offers him a free appetiser. It turns out that the waiters have a pool on how long it will take for Ross to give up and leave, and the waiter was just trying to keep him there longer. And the reason the date doesn't turn up? [[ComedicSociopathy Joey and Phoebe made her up]].

* ''NowAndAgain'': Combination of 3 and 4. Michael's handler wants him to break off contact with his wife, who believes her husband to be dead and thinks Michael is someone else (long story). When she asks Michael to dinner, the handler forces him to accept the invitation and then stand her up so she won't want anything to do with him.
* ''GreenWing'': At the end of season 2, Mac is supposed to meet Caroline at a train station, but at the last minute learns that he has terminal brain cancer, causing him to freak out and leave town without telling anyone. Caroline is left alone at the station until Guy, the third part of their LoveTriangle, shows up. In the series finale, Mac returns to find Guy and Caroline are engaged, but after he's revealed that he's dying, he's the one who ends up marrying Caroline, with Guy's blessing.
* Recent example on ''HomeAndAway'': Nicole accidentally stands Liam up when her phone is broken thanks to a water fight.
* ''TheNanny'': [[spoiler:Maxwell Sheffield]] never shows up for his date with Fran because he got mugged, beaten up, and knocked unconscious on his way there; Fran figures something's wrong and goes out to find him. She finds him in an alley, and everything ends well after [[spoiler: he proposes to her, even though the muggers stole the engagement ring he was going to give her]].
* ''{{CSI NY}}'' had a rare female on male version. Lindsay had agreed to meet Danny for dinner but stood him up because she wanted to deal with her past trauma on her own before going anywhere with a relationship. Things worked out eventually and now they're a HappilyMarried OfficialCouple.

* JethroTull's "Bad Eyed And Loveless", from their album ''Too Old To Rock And Roll, Too Young To Die''.

* George Strait's song "Heart Like Hers": The girl's man repetedly stands her up. The irony is that there's a love triangle going on where George's persona is in love with the girl, who's in love with the guy who keeps on standing her up!

* In TheKingOfFighters: KYO game, Kyo gets stood up twice by his girlfriend Yuki. The first time, it's because [[spoiler: Chizuru asked Yuki to not show up and then play along with Kyo's belief that she has been kidnapped, as a SecretTestOfCharacter for him.]] The second is much more serious, [[spoiler: since Yuki now ''has been kidnapped for real'' by the New Face Team, who want to make her a HumanSacrifice.]]
* In VisualNovel/TrueLoveJunaiMonogatari, [[PlayerCharacter you]] can pull this on the girls after they ask you for dates. Obviously, they'll get [[BerserkButton pretty upset at that]] -- this is specially true for [[spoiler: Miyuki Tanaka]], who will totally desert you if you miss your meeting.
* After the credits in ''[[SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]]'', it's shown that Sonic's adventure in Arthurian times has apparently sidetracked him from going on a date with Amy, as she then chews him out for making the lamest excuse ever and draws her signiture Piko-Piko Hammer, to which Sonic runs away, with Amy Chasing after.

* In ''{{Questionable Content}}'', when Wil breaks his arm, he [[{{Determinator}} shows up anyway]] because [[http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=1255 a gentleman never stands a lady up]].
* In ''{{Megatokyo}}'', Piro forgets both of Sonoda Yuki's first two art lessons, which are {{Not a Date}} [[ObliviousToLove from his perspective]], but she [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend subconsciously]] [[AllLoveIsUnrequited wishes they were]].
* In ''AtomicLaundromat'' Angela thinks she was stood up by [[{{Invisibility}} Admiral Invisible]]. Only he also had laryngitis that night; a rather unfortunate malady if you [[PowerIncontinence can't turn off your invisibility]].

* ''DannyPhantom'' has an honorable mention. Sam takes an overshadowed Tucker on an invite to the dance because Valerie stood him up. But we don't see the waiting...and the standing up may not have happened either, as it was Danny telling Sam the stand up happened.

* An episode of ''TheSimpsons'' has Bart doing this to his teacher Miss Krabappel as a culmination of a prank where he wrote her love letters under a fake name. When he feels guilty and confesses to Marge, she advises him to write a final letter making it look like an unavoidable parting kind of situation.

* The ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Late Philip J. Fry" has Fry oversleeping his lunch date with Leela. He promises to make it up to her at dinner, which she doesn't expect to go much better. Sure enough, he fails to show up for dinner, and Leela assumes he went to a party (which she learns supposedly blew up). [[spoiler:Fry was actually late/missing because the Professor forced him into testing a forwards-only time machine, which ended up going thousands of years into the future instead of one minute. Eventually subverted, when after cycling through the universe twice, Fry apologizes to Leela for being late, only for her to tell him that he was on time.]]

* After the credits in ''[[SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]]'', it's shown that Sonic's adventures in Arthurian times has apparently sidetracked him from going on a date with Amy, as she then chews him out for making the lamest excuse ever and draws her signiture Piko-Piko Hammer, to which Sonic runs away, with Amy Chasing after.