St. Patrick's Day Episode

Hey, a day of green and gold. Who wouldn't be into this?

A Saint Patrick's Day episode is, as the title implies, an episode or story within a larger series that focuses on or revolves around the Irish holiday St. Patrick's Day (which is on March 17th). Such episodes often, but not always, feature leprechauns and their pots of gold at the end of rainbows. More adult-oriented episodes or stories of this type are also likely to depict at least a moderate amount of drinking. Wearing green is a must unless you want to get pinched.

This trope's origin can be explained simply —a good portion of the American population is descended from Ireland, so it has become a permanent Cyclic National Fascination whose patriotism during St. Patrick's Day dwarfs even the actual Irish people's.

Compare to the similar Christmas Episode, Christmas Special, Halloween Episode, Halloween Special, Thanksgiving Episode, Valentine's Day Episode, and Easter Episode for other holiday-centric tales.

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Examples

Comic Books

• Sonic X: Issue #17 is St. Patrick's Day-themed and set during the holiday in question. The plot revolved around Bokkun spilling green paint on himself and Eggman mistaking him for a leprechaun. Having just learned that leprechauns have pots of gold, Eggman chases after him, which leads to Eggman crashing a St. Patrick's Day parade Sonic and his friends are attending and a fight ensues.
• Issue #6 of The Long Halloween takes place on (and is even titled) St. Patrick's Day. The connection to the actual holiday is thematic, as the main villain of the issue is the plant-controlling Poison Ivy, who charms Bruce Wayne into being a hypnotic slave at the request of Carmine Falcone. The serial killer Holiday also commits one of their trademark murders (a mass shooting at Sal Maroni's safehouse) and leaves behind the Calling Card of a leprechaun statue.
• Issue #26 of the X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic sees the Irish mutants Banshee, Syrin, and Black Tom Cassidy reuniting for St. Patrick's Day.

Fan Works

• Vow of Nudity: While not a full story, the author uploaded a picture to DeviantArt of Spectra (who has a forced-nudity curse) getting pinched on St. Patrick's Day for not wearing green.

Film — Live-Action

• The Boondock Saints: A 1999 American crime film whose opening scenes are set in an Irish neighborhood of Boston on St. Patrick's Day.
• The Fugitive: In this adaptation of the '60s TV series, Dr. Kimble is seen eluding the US Marshals by joining the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Chicago, with the dyed green river clearly visible. This was actually a late addition to the script when the producers realized that they were scheduled to film there at the same time as the parade.
• Leprechaun 2: This sequel to Leprechaun takes place on St. Patrick's Day (which just so happens to be the birthday of the eponymous leprechaun) both 1000 years in the past and in modern-day Los Angeles and focuses on the aforementioned leprechaun choosing the descendant of one of his former slaves as his bride.
• The Luck of the Irish: A 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie about fifteen-year-old basketball player Kyle Johnson using a supposedly lucky gold charm and then finding out he's a leprechaun on his mother's side. The main antagonist of the film is an evil leprechaun named Seamus McTiernen.

Literature

• Roys Bedoys: "It's St. Patrick's Day, Roys Bedoys" involves Roys learning about the tradition of pinching people who aren't wearing green, but doing it too much. He learns that you should only pinch each person once, and not very hard.

Live-Action TV

• 2 Broke Girls: In "And the Kilt Trip," Caroline goes out with Max and the diner gang, who want to get wild and crazy at the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
• 30 Rock had two:
  • In "The Funcooker," some of the characters are involved with the local St. Patrick's Day parade.
  • In the appropriately-named "St. Patrick's Day," Liz (expressing a general disdain for the Irish) wants to spend St. Patrick's Day in her apartment with her boyfriend Criss ridiculing the revelers outside, and Jenna and Tracy are once again hosting coverage of the St. Patrick's Day parade.
• According to Jim: In "The Thin Green Line," Cheryl gives her best to assure herself a spot on the Church Committee. In order to do so, she forbids Jim to do his annual "Green Man" routine on St. Patrick's day. However, her plans are ruined when she gets arrested.
• ALF: "Superstition" happens during St. Patrick's Day and is about the titular character blaming a recent streak of bad luck on a Melmac superstition of burning a history book.
• All in the Family: In "Too Good Edith", the complicated relationship between Archie and Edith takes center stage one last time after Edith tries to please Archie, who attempts to put on a huge St. Patrick's Day dinner at the bar where she works her tail off, despite the fact that Dr. Shapiro told her to stay off her feet when he diagnoses her with phlebitis.
• Beverly Hills, 90210: In "The Leprechaun," Steve hires a dwarf named Lou to pose as a leprechaun to help promote the newspaper on St. Patrick's Day.
• Bewitched: In the aptly-named "The Leprechaun," A leprechaun named Brian O'Brian, who claims to belong to Darrin's family, comes to the U.S. to reclaim his lost pot of gold on St. Patrick's Day.
• Boardwalk Empire: "Nights in Ballygran" is set during Saint Patrick's Day and progresses the relationship between Nucky and Margaret. Additionally, the episode's title is taken from the title line of the Irish folk song "Carrickfergus."
• Bonanza: "Hoss and the Leprechauns" is about Hoss beginning a friendship with Professor McCarthy and his supposed band of leprechauns.
• Charmed (1998): In "Lucky Charmed", the Charmed Ones join forces with a leprechaun to banish a demon who is killing leprechauns to steal their magic.
• Cheers had two:
  • "Bar Wars III: The Return of Tecumseh" took place on St. Patrick's Day and revolves around the disappearance of Cheers' wooden Indian Tecumseh.
  • In "Bar Wars VII: The Naked Prey", when Gary from Gary's Olde Towne Tavern raises the stakes of their St. Patrick's Day bet and Cheers loses, the Cheers gang is forced to perform for Gary's patrons naked.
• The Crazy Ones: In "March Madness," Andrew's sisters arrive to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, which displeases Simon because he disapproves of the holiday.
• CSI: NY: In "Pot of Gold", two men are found dead in a warehouse the week before St. Patrick's Day. Danny finds a four-leaf clover at the scene. The investigators discover a link to a gold bullion company guilty of fraud. NYPD officers in the parade have to leave it in order to chase down a perp. Flack tells the guy that they'd much rather be out having a green beer than doing the paperwork he's caused them.
• The Drew Carey Show: "The Sex Drug" takes place on St. Patrick's Day, with the plot being Mimi's sexual harassment lawsuit going to court, but Drew proves to be an unreliable witness when he turns up to court under the influence of a sex drug (from Lewis's work DrugCo) that he had taken inadvertently. Nigel Wick apologizes to Mimi and tries to convince her to return to work and abandon the scam.
• Early Edition: In "Luck O' The Irish," Gary's luck mysteriously takes a turn for the worse when he meets an Irish man.
• Grounded for Life: In "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City," Sean is having trouble keeping the bar alive, and Claudia asks him to reconsider running it. With St. Patrick's Day around the corner, Eddie tries to lure customers over from rival pubs. Brad and Lily prepare for the parade, and Jimmy is having trouble understanding the meaning of St. Patrick's Day.
• Home Improvement: "Desperately Seeking Willow"- When Wilson is out of town, Willow stays over at the Taylors', and Willow doesn't return home from a club one night... Jill fears the worst and sends the whole family out searching for her. It's Saint Patrick's day on Tool Time, and who better to celebrate with than the boys from K&B Construction.
• How I Met Your Mother: "No Tomorrow" features Ted deciding to give Barney's nonstop partying lifestyle ideas a chance on St. Patrick's Day, while Marshall and Robin struggle with telling Lily about a major problem with their new apartment.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: In "Charlie Catches a Leprechaun", Dennis attempts to "streamline" Paddy's by creating a mobile "Paddy's Wagon" for Saint Patrick's Day, which quickly falls apart; Charlie attempts to capture a leprechaun, as evidenced by the episode's title.
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent: "Silencer" revolves around Detectives Goren and Eames investigating the murder of an esteemed ear surgeon, who was found killed in his office, on St. Patrick's Day.
• Letterkenny: In the aptly-named "St. Perfect's Day," the hicks help Daryl recall an amazing St. Patrick's Day party.
• Lie to Me: "Sweet Sixteen" takes place during St. Patrick's Day and deals with Foster and Lightman being forced to revisit parts of their past after Lightman's former Pentagon colleague is killed due to a car bomb.
• Love/Hate: The first episode of season three involves Nidge trying to persuade Git to join him and the rest of the gang in celebrating St. Patrick's Day.
• Mike & Molly: In the appropriately-named "St. Patrick's Day," Mike and Molly continue pregnancy attempts and almost miss Carl and Samuel's St Patrick's Day party. Also, Victoria kisses Harry after he helps her with a college assignment, but the kiss prompts a major announcement from Harry.
• The Office (US): In "St. Patrick's Day," Jo Bennett and Michael clash during Jo's last day at the Scranton branch, when Jo makes the whole office stay late at work, which angers the branch especially since it is St. Patrick's Day.
• Only Fools and Horses: In "It's Only Rock and Roll," Rodney has joined a band, and Del immediately capitalizes on this by booking them into The Shamrock Club to play for the St Patrick's night festivities.
• The Real O'Neals: During "The Real Lent," which takes place around St. Patrick's Day, Eileen reminds her family that it's Lent and asks them to give up things they really love. In a chance meeting, Kenny meets his first gay crush, and Pat discovers his little girl, Shannon, is all grown up.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch: "Salem, the Boy" happens on St. Patrick's Day and involves Sabrina allowing Salem to inhabit the body of a classmate, but things get out of hand when the feline once again attempts to take over the world.
• Still Standing: In "Still Parading," Bill tries to bond with Brian by helping him build a St. Patrick's Day parade float, only to modify and destroy it. Meanwhile, Lauren dreads the humiliation she's going to suffer when the uncoordinated Judy performs her Irish River Dance at the parade. Both kids end up getting a surprise: Bill dresses as a leprechaun to replace the figures he destroyed, and Judy finds that she becomes a great dancer after drinking Tina's cough medicine.

Radio

• Downplayed in the 13th March 2023 episode of The BBC music quiz Counterpoint, Paul Gambiccini mentions it's close to St Patrick's Day at the start, and the first six questions all have an Irish connection, including the fiddle tune from The Banshees of Inisherin, Van Morrison with a song he performed on the Belfast soundtrack, an opera based on The Picture of Dorian Gray, "Galway Bay" (with a side-reference to The Pogues), Thin Lizzy and "Whiskey in the Jar", and "Brian Boru's March". It doesn't continue for the rest of the episode, though.

Video Games

• Dark City: Dublin is this for the Dark City series of PC hidden object games. Not only does it take place in the city of Dublin, but it centers around a St. Patrick's Day celebration which is being threatened by leprechauns, who are angry that the mayor took their pot of gold.

Webcomics

• The Non-Adventures of Wonderella has a running gag where they celebrate St. Patrick's Day, with Dana and Rita trying to catch a leprechaun. The leprechaun always escapes and teleports Dana and Rita to some other random location (or an Alternate Universe or different time period), and their shenanigans there make up the bulk of the comic. This happened in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. The 2019 comic subverts the usual format by having Dana and Rita wonder why they're still trying to catch the leprechaun, considering it's been over a decade and it never seems to work.
  Dana: Aw, bitches!
  Rita: [sigh] Tricked by leprechauns again.

Web Video

• Jacksfilms has two such episodes:
  • YIAY #253 was uploaded around St. Patrick's Day, with Jack wearing a festive hat and leprechaun-themed glasses and gleefully drinking Guinness beer. The question was to describe drinking in just four words.
  • YIAY #498 took place around St. Patrick's Day and featured shamrock decorations in the background, but was a more sad episode, as Jack lamented his inability to go out and celebrate in the COVID-19 Pandemic and read off audience responses about what to do in quarantine.

Western Animation

• Angela Anaconda has one where the main character forgets to wear green for the holiday and fears getting pinched by everyone when recess comes around. She tries (and fails) to get detention. In the end, she does save herself when she finds she can turn her jacket inside-out from bright orange to dark green.
• Back at the Barnyard: "Four Leaf Otis"^note The first half of the third-to-last episode of the series features Otis getting excited for St. Patrick's Day, largely because that's when Farmer Buyer makes half of his money selling his potato crop at a big local potato festival. Otis decides to spray the potatoes with artificial odor enhancers^note aggression...obsession...detention...spuuuuuuuuud to help them sell better, but this unfortunately attracts a leprechaun who steals them and turns Freddy, Peck and Pig into Irish-themed freaks.^note Freddy and Peck get their heads turned into four-leaf clovers while Pig's head gets turned into a corned beef sandwich.
• Bob's Burgers: In "Flat-Top O' the Morning To Ya," while Bob and the kids are away, Linda and Teddy are left to prepare the restaurant for St. Patrick's by dying the beer green. One thing leads to another, and a drunken Linda dyes all the meat green which naturally makes it hard to sell. Fortunately, Linda saves the day by sending out free samples to a crowd of drunken revelers at the parade, who end up coming over to eat afterwards.
• Doc McStuffins: In "St. Patrick's Day Dilemma", Doc's new Irish paper doll Fiona gets her dress dirty on St. Patrick's Day and refuses to change until Doc explains that an important part of staying healthy is staying clean.
• DuckTales (1987): In "Luck O' the Ducks", Scrooge and company head to Ireland and encounter some less-than-friendly leprechauns around St. Patrick's Day.
• Extreme Ghostbusters: In "The Luck of the Irish", a recently-released leprechaun has set out on a vendetta to persecute those who he believes stole his pot of gold, with matters becoming even more complicated when he curses Garrett with bad luck. The episode is implied to take place either around or on St. Patrick's Day like The Real Ghostbusters episode down below.
• The Fairly OddParents!: In "Crocker of Gold," Mr. Crocker decides to forget about fairies and start hunting leprechauns after a near-death experience, but when Cosmo (who's dressed up as a leprechaun) gives him a pot of gold he had taken from the McPunchy Clan, a family of criminal leprechauns, or Lepre-convicts as Timmy calls them. Wanda and Poof are taken as hostages, and Timmy and Cosmo (working with Mr. Crocker) must work to pay them back. According to Cosmo, the episode's events took place on the holiday of "Leprechanuka."
• Futurama: In "Luck of the Fryrish", Fry has a string of bad luck which induces him to reclaim a lucky seven-leaf clover from his youth. Although St. Patrick's Day is neither mentioned nor referenced, this episode originally aired on March 11th, 2001, just six days before St. Patrick's Day.
• Jackie Chan Adventures: The episode "Tough Luck" takes place during St. Patrick's Day and focuses on the characters' attempts to deal with the cursed Emerald of Killarney.
• Johnny Bravo: In "Blarney Buddies," Johnny tried desperately to kiss a leprechaun named Barney Stone because, due to a silly misunderstanding, he thought it would make him irresistible to chicks. After an extensive chase, Johnny caught Barney, who granted his wish in exchange for not being kissed...which led to Johnny being swarmed by poultry. The episode is implied to take place around St. Patrick's Day.
• The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold: This rather unusual Rankin-Bass special is about a boy named Dinty Doyle, who's ultimately tasked with protecting the gold of a community of hospitable leprechauns from an evil banshee. It's one of the company's more obscure specials, probably (at least partially) because of the fact that people don't normally associate leprechauns with Christmas.
• Lil' Bush: In "St. Patrick's Day," the Lil' Gang doesn't want the Lil' Dems to ruin St. Patrick's Day with their liberal and tolerant St. Patrick's Day float. They enlist the help of Lil' Karl Rove, who gives them advice and does some bad rapping as his alter-ego MC Rove. Meanwhile, first lady Barbara gets a tanning bed and inadvertently cooks her liver.
• Looney Tunes: "The Wearing of the Grin" has Porky spending the night at a castle said to be the home of leprechauns. Naturally, the leprechauns are both real and quite paranoid that Porky is wanting to steal their pot of gold. Although the holiday itself isn't mentioned or referenced during the short, Cartoon Network often aired it around or on St. Patrick's Day during the '90s and early 2000's.
• The Loud House: The episode "No Such Luck" involves Lincoln finding himself with unexpected free time after his family worries that he is bad luck, but soon it goes too far, and he is banned from all the family's activities. Although St. Patrick's Day itself is neither mentioned nor referenced, this episode aired just four days before the holiday in 2017. Additionally, the title card is all-green and features Lincoln wearing a green top hat adorned with a three-leaf clover.
• Martin Mystery: In the episode "Rage of the Leprechaun," Marvin escapes from an angry leprechaun and calls Martin and Diana for help. It turns out that he was keeping a mystic, four-leaf clover that grants the holder limitless good luck, and the leprechaun in question wants to take it back. The action is implied to take place around or on St. Patrick's Day.
• Monsters vs. Aliens (2013): In "When Luck Runs Out," a leprechaun-esque alien (a Leprechonian) has the power to manipulate probability, giving people good luck when he's friendly...and bad luck when he's angry. The episode is implied to happen around St. Patrick's Day.
• Ready Jet Go!: In "Bortron Leprechaun", it is St. Patrick's Day. Jet learns about leprechauns and a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and wants to find one. The Irish jig is heard a few times in the episode.
• The Real Ghostbusters: "The Scaring of the Green" takes place around St. Patrick's Day and focuses on leprechauns, a stolen pot of gold, a curse, and a Bog Hound.
• The Simpsons have two so far:
  • In "Homer Vs. the Eighteenth Amendment", Springfield enacts prohibition after a raucous Saint Patrick's Day celebration leads to Bart accidentally getting drunk. To supply Moe's speakeasy, Homer becomes a bootlegger.
  • "Sex, Pies, and Idiot Scrapes" starts during an alcohol- and booze-free St. Patrick's Day meant to stop the townsfolk from going on a drunken riot. Unfortunately, without the alcohol, Springfield's Protestant and Catholic Irish groups are sober enough to remember they hate each other and cause a 'sober' riot.
  • Although it doesn't take place on St. Patrick's Day, "In the Name of the Grandfather" is about the Simpsons going to Ireland, and was actually aired in the UK and Ireland on March 17 before being aired in the US the following weekend.
• South Park: "Credigree Weed St Patricks Day Special" revolves around St. Patrick's Day as Randy attempts to sell a special marijuana strain he created to celebrate the holiday, while Butters finds himself in trouble after he mistakenly pinches a girl who he thought wasn't wearing green.
• Teen Titans Go! has two such episodes so far:
  • "Beast Boy's St. Patrick's Day Luck, and It's Bad" sees the Titans become cursed on St. Patrick's Day, with the exception of Beast Boy, and they must retrieve the cure from the end of the rainbow, only to find out that Robin is transforming into a leprechaun himself.
  • "The Gold Standard" happens during St. Patrick's Day and, after wishing to become a leprechaun, Beast Boy becomes obsessed with gold.
• Uncle Grandpa: In "The Lepre-Con," which takes place in Ireland around St. Patrick's Day, Uncle Grandpa is deceived by a leprechaun just to get the gold he craves.
• VeggieTales: Sumo of the Opera has the second segment as a flannel-graph themed telling of the actual St. Patrick, aka Maewyn Succat, aka Pig Boy, and how he got a holiday named after him.

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