Swapped Roles

The Hunter Becomes the Hunted.

"You really are a confounded fool. Aren't you? I'd heard everywhere that the Prince was an imbecile whereas his servant Blackadder was respected about town. Now that I discover the truth I am inclined to beat you to death."

— The Duke of Wellington, Blackadder The Third

Two characters swap roles in life, usually gaining greater understanding of each other's challenges. In '50s and '60s sitcoms, this often took the form of Dad staying home to watch Junior while Mom was away for the day. Later kids tend to swap roles with parents. Another common formulation, usually played for comedy over the aesop, is masters and servants swapping roles for some deceptive reason.

Often begins with a fight, where the two characters are convinced they can do the other character's job better, and/or the other character has a much easier life. Usually ends up with a Be Careful What You Wish For aesop, with both characters realizing that they prefer their own roles. Regardless, this may dovetail into Nothing Is the Same Anymore.

Compare with Hourglass Plot, Decoy Leader, and Emergency Impersonation. More fantastical works may feature an Overnight Age-Up paired with a Fountain of Youth for characters whose different roles stem in large part from their age gap. If the characters don't just swap roles but literally swap bodies then it's a "Freaky Friday" Flip, which often invokes this trope (a Physical Attribute Swap can function similarly if two characters exchange enough attributes). Prince and Pauper explores a change in class/economic roles.

Compare/contrast Role Swap AU, where the characters switch roles in an Alternate Universe, and this reversal is treated as the norm of that particular universe. If characters' roles are exchanged for prolonged periods, then it's a Role Swap Plot.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In the Digimon franchise, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon are two of the most well-known 'mons due to their partner status in the original Digimon Adventure, and are a Draconic Humanoid clad in Chrome Digizoid armor and a Cyborg wolf respectively. However, they have alternate Mega forms in BlitzGreymon and CresGarurumon, who make their anime debut in Digimon Adventure: (2020) and are a cybernetic dinosaur and a werewolf with golden armor. Interestingly, BlitzGreymon and CresGarurumon are more natural fits for their pre-evolutions MetalGreymon and WereGarurumon, while WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon were more radical departures from what came before with one going full Bishōnen Line and the other doing an Anthropomorphic Zig-Zag.
• One scene in the first episode of the anime Palm Town and in the manga has Nurse Alice telling Dr. George and his wife Jane that one patient is complaining of a headache and another wants onion soup...but the former wants Jane to examine him and the latter wants George to make the soup. (In a slight subversion, George is an excellent chef in addition to being a doctor, and it's not hard to imagine Jane having the better bedside manner.)
• Sket Dance has a chapter in which Bossun and Tsubaki try to take on each other's roles as Student Council President and Sket Dan's leader, respectively. The chapter basically shows that both boys really suck and doing the other's job, although Bossun is probably worse off.
• In Episode 16 of Suite Pretty Cure ♪, Hummy has Hibiki and Kanade trade places for the day. Hibiki, while annoyed with Souta's pranks, appreciates how Kanade finds the time to help her brother with his homework and her parents with their diner. Kanade learns to admire how brave Hibiki is for having to spend so much time away from her mother.
• In Zombieland Saga, Sakura has her life filled with nothing but tragedy and misfortune, leaving her depressed, and it's up to Kotaro to kick her back into gear as the leading star of Franchouchou. The next season, Zombie Land Saga Revenge, starts the other way around: It's Kotaro's turn to be depressed, and this time, it's up to Sakura to set him right back on track.

Comic Books

• All-New X-Men: Kitty Pryde, who was 13 and a half when she joined the X-Men, studied under Jean Grey and learned techniques for handling telepathic issues. Now she's an adult, teaching 16-year-old Jean from the past those same techniques.
• DuckTales: The story "A Switch in Time" shows Launchpad and Fenton changing jobs briefly. Chaos ensues, given that Launchpad is inexperienced with the GizmoDuck suit and Fenton has no inkling of how to fly a plane.
• Wolverine and the X-Men (Marvel Comics)/Uncanny X-Men (2011): After Schism Wolverine and Cyclops swapped their roles, with Cyclops taking the role of the brooding, pragmatic Anti-Hero and Wolverine trying to fill in for Professor X. At least that was the intention; many people found themselves still rooting for Cyclops due to Wolverine acting like a huge, condescending Hypocrite most of the time.
• In What If? v2 #16, Wolverine gets sent to Hyboria during the climax of the Dark Phoenix Saga, while at the end of the story Conan accidentally goes through the portal back to Earth. Logan ends up becoming a legendary king (with Red Sonja as his queen) thanks to his battle prowess, advanced knowledge, and Cultured Warrior philosophy. Meanwhile, Conan lands in the final battle on the Moon, attacks Cyclops due to misunderstanding the situation, and pisses Dark Phoenix off so badly that she destroys the universe.
• The Post-Crisis Justice Society of America was active in World War 2; they retired but still serve as the inspiration for the current Justice League-ear heroes. The New 52 version flips this around; the JSA members are youngsters in another universe where the Leaguers went down fighting against Darkseid, and are inspired by their sacrifice to become Earth's new heroes.
• Zig-zagged in The Powerpuff Girls story "Micro Managing" where the Micro-Puffs (tiny mischievous avatars of the girls) brainwash Bubbles and Buttercup while they're sleeping into thinking they're the leader of the Powerpuffs. It doesn't work on Blossom since she's already the leader.
• Midway through Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the five core Rangers are separated from the connection to their powers, after Shredder defeated them with the Green Ranger's. As a result, the Turtles use the Power Coins to become Rangers themselves, while Splinter teaches ninjitsu to the Ranger team so that they can still stand a chance against the Foot Clan and Rita Repulsa alliance.
• In Green Arrow and Aquaman: Deep Target, Ollie and Arthur find themselves living each others' lives, with everyone else acting like it's normal. As with the Arrowverse Elseworld crossover, it's not a "Freaky Friday" Flip because they still look like themselves — although given that they're both blond guys with beards, this is not immediately obvious.

Comic Strips

• A meta-example occurred on April Fools' Day, 1997. That day, forty-six comic strips saw some sort of modification, as most of them were drawn by a different artist (Garfield´s Jim Davis did that day's Blondie, whose Dean Young and Stan Drake did the Garfield strip), with one swap consisting of thirteen strips. That same day, Sally Forth´s writer and illustrator swapped places and Drabble´s Kevin Fagan merely drew his strip with his left hand instead of his right. Peanuts´ Charles Schulz and Mutts´ Patrick McDonnell were supposed to swap roles for the day, but one of them backed out.
• Out-of-universe example in Brevity, which featured a week's worth of strips in which the writer and the illustrator swapped roles, resulting in a week's worth of more surreal jokes than usual set to child-quality artwork.

Fan Works

• Naruto Reborn: Sasuke Uchiha: Naruto and Sasuke kill each other and in the afterlife, Naruto learns there's another world where Sasuke can do everything all over again in his body because this Sasuke died in the massacre. Instead, NARUTO has to go, not as himself (because he doesn't exist in that universe), but become Sasuke himself by being in his body. So he does that and literally has to live Sasuke's life and see how he felt about things. It's permanent, so there's no going back and since Naruto doesn't exist, someone else has the Kyuubi.
• "A Day in Your Shoes" from Calvin & Hobbes: The Series has Jack and Jaqueline swap places with each other in order to determine which Brainstorm is the worst. Ironically, being that their masters are both Stupid Evil, it ends up becoming a bit of a moot point.
• The Daria fanfic Turnabour Confusion details the events of a week in which the Morgendorffer sisters exchange outfits and (eventually) places on the social ladder: Daria dresses like Quinn, leading to her becoming the most desired girl in school, while Quinn begins dressing in frumpy old clothes and becomes a depressed outcast.
• The Power of Seven;
  • A minor example occurs in chapter 26, as Hermione impulsively takes Harry to a broom cupboard so they can have sex while Harry tries to present a rational argument against it.
  • A more brutal, physical example; rather than Bill being attacked by Greyback during the attempted Death Eater invasion of Hogwarts, Ron is the one who is attacked.
  • Chapter 35 essentially sets up Ginny and Fleur as acting the way the public would expect the other to act, with Ginny the sexually promiscuous one while Fleur is more of a prude as she tries to repress the strong sex drive of her Veela heritage.
  • In Chapter 77, during her bonding ritual with Harry, Fleur briefly muses that for once she's the one drooling over a potential sexual partner.
• The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Xenophilia fanfic Divided Rainbow is centered around this trope while also being a deconstruction of it. The first act of Divided Rainbow highlights how the 'Swapped Five,' (Twilight Sparkle's five Element-Bearing friends) are driving themselves into physical, mental, emotional, financial, and even familial ruination because they are simply no good at filling each others' roles. The second act focuses on how these effects are counteracted.
• Into the Hedge continues the story of Divided Rainbow.
• The Star Wars fic "A New History" features a somewhat amusing example of this when Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are sent back from the time of the Clone Wars to early in Obi-Wan's apprenticeship with Qui-Gon Jinn to try and save the young Obi-Wan from the time-travelling Dooku. While the Jedi are in the past, now-Senator Palpatine becomes aware of the level of activity around Padawan Kenobi and begins taking a subtle interest in him... which Anakin finds disturbing even though he considers Palpatine a friend in the future, encouraging him to re-evaluate his own relationship with the Chancellor.
• The Other Side (memoriaeterna) basically looks at a world where Avengers: Infinity War ended with the people who were snapped in canon being spared while those who were spared are snapped (Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Thor, and Bruce Banner die while Peter Parker, Stephen Strange, Wanda Maximoff and T'Challa survive, as an example). Although most of Peter's friends and immediate family are all Snapped as in canon to emphasise his own emotional issues and isolation (the only known close friend who survived from his civilian life is Michelle Jones), for the most part the fic looks at what would have happened if the other side of the universe had been the victim of Thanos's Snap (Wong and Kate Bishop also survive, although in Wong's case this was written before it was known he survived the Snap in canon).
• In The Confectionary Chronicles, Hermione is so used to showing her devotion to Loki by kneeling before him that she’s actually uncomfortable when her god kneels before her to grant her a boon for her faith in his goodness, as she finds it fundamentally wrong for her god to kneel to her.
• The Persona 5 Royal fic Phantom Memories has the Yoshizawa sisters inadvertently becoming each other after Kasumi's death; in addition to Shrinking Violet Sumire being brainwashed into thinking she's actually the confident, cheerful Kasumi (as was the case in canon), Kasumi herself suffers a case of Ghost Amnesia and believes she's actually a deceased Sumire.
• Mad World (Invader Zim): As the story goes on, Zim starts acting more sane, while Dib makes increasingly dumb choices. It turns out that this is because Dib is becoming the new Wastelock, which is absorbing Zim's insanity.

Films — Animation

• Disney Fairies The Pirate Fairy pulls this off when Zarina throws some multicoloured pixie dust at Tinkerbell, Vidia, Silvermist, Fawn, Rosetta, and Iridessa, thus swapping their talents over. Fawn's a light fairy (Iridessa's talent), Iridessa's a garden fairy (Rosetta's talent), Rosetta's an animal fairy (Fawn's talent), Tinkerbell's a water fairy (Silvermist's talent), Silvermist is a fast-flying fairy (Vidia's talent), and Vidia's a tinker fairy (Tinkerbell's talent. She doesn't take this too well.)
• In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, Princess Twilight, having chased Sunset Shimmer from the pony world to the human world and defeated her with the Magic of Friendship, offers her forgiveness and redemption. Two films later and a lot of earned redemption later, Sunset defeats the human version of Twilight using the Magic of Friendship and offers her a second chance in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games.
  Sunset Shimmer: Take my hand, Twilight. I can show you another way, just like someone once did for me.
• In the Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year, Pooh and his friends make New Year resolutions in the hope of stopping Rabbit from leaving the Hundred Acre Wood. Pooh resolves to stop eating honey, which makes him depressed like Eeyore, to the point of speaking in Dull Surprise and stealing his "Thanks for noticin," while Eeyore resolves to be more cheerful and starts wearing a red shirt and eating honey like Pooh would. Piglet resolves to be braver and is advised by Tigger that you can avoid being afraid by bouncing, which soon leads to him acting like Tigger as well, while Tigger resolves to stop bouncing, but his advice to Piglet means he starts being afraid, exactly like Piglet would. When Rabbit sees the "new" versions of his friends, he decides he's definitely leaving, but once they're all back to normal and explain what was going on, and when Christopher Robin arrives and says he likes them the way they are, he decides he couldn't leave friends who are prepared to go through that for him.

Films — Live-Action

• X-Men: Days of Future Past:
  • Professor X was Wolverine's mentor in the original trilogy, but in 1973, Logan has to try to motivate and counsel an emotionally-damaged Xavier. Not surprisingly, the abrasive Wolverine agrees with the past version of Charles that they "sent back the wrong man".
    Professor X: Logan, you're going to have to do for me what I once did for you. Lead me, guide me.
  • In X-Men: First Class, Xavier acted as a big brother figure to McCoy (they're about a decade apart in age), but after 1963, Hank becomes responsible for Charles. Although McCoy certainly prevents his friend from doing anything too self-destructive, he inadvertently becomes Xavier's enabler by inventing an addictive telepathy-blocking serum. Considering that Hank was probably only around 21 years old when he suddenly found himself in the position of being Charles' long-term caregiver (plus he has no experience looking after someone who is mentally ill), it's understandable that he couldn't help his former mentor as well as he would've liked.
• The movie Trading Places features two billionaires conspiring to swap the lives of their top employee with a homeless con man For the Evulz. This backfires on them epically when the two guys discover their involvement—and team up to get back at them.
• The Elvis Presley movie Clambake, has Elvis' character, a millionaire oil heir, swap places with a water-skiing instructor at a Florida hotel, to find a girl who isn't just interested in his money.
• Becomes a minor plot point in Metropolis, where Freder "trades lives" with one of the workers to stalk Maria understand the workers' plight better.
• In Mr. Mom, Michael Keaton becomes a stay-at-home dad when he is laid off and his wife finds a high-paying job.
• The movie Class Act.
• The 1991 film The Doctor starred William Hurt in the title role as an arrogant and emotionally detached medical professional, who is diagnosed with cancer and experiences the very same attitudes as a bed-ridden patient.
• In Charlie Chaplin film The Floorwalker, the floorwalker at a department store has embezzled $80,000 from the store and needs to make a getaway. He runs into the Tramp, who just happens to be his Identical Stranger. The floorwalker then tricks Charlie into switching roles with him. It doesn't work, as the police were already looking for Charlie and wind up arresting the floorwalker in his stead.
• The Disney Channel Made-for-TV Movie Model Behavior. An average teenager discovers that she's identical in appearance to a famous model. The two swap lives for a week — the teen taking a stab at being a model, while the model gets to experience high school for the first time.
• In Summer Camp Nightmare, Camp North Pines hosts a Camper-Counselor Turnabout Day, where the campers and camp counselors swap roles for a day. It starts off as light-hearted fun, but then Franklin Reilly uses it as an opportunity to stage his takeover of the camp, freeing Chris Wade from detention and putting the adult camp counselors into detention.
• Get Smart: When Max is temporarily made Chief, the real Chief goes back to his old job as Agent Q. He then plays the bumbling fool Max usually is.

Folklore

• The Scandinavian folk tale, "The Man Who Kept House", has a husband and wife switch roles for a day. They each decide that the other has the harder job.

Literature

• At the beginning of Constance Verity Saves the World, Connie calls Agent Ellington to ask for a cleanup involving an alligator woman in her apartment, only for Ellington to dismiss the favor owed. Constance Verity Destroys the Universe opens with Ellington calling Connie over matters of international importance, citing their agency cleaning up after her adventures as Connie owing them a favor, only for Connie to brush her off.
• The story of The Prince and the Pauper starts with a pair of identical people swapping outfits and going back to fill each others' role for a while... longer than either wants, it turns out. Oh, and while the prince is busy being a pauper, his daddy dies...
• In the children's book Bea and Mr. Jones, the titular characters (father and daughter) switch jobs, with Bea taking over her father's job in advertising, and Mr. Jones going back to kindergarten. They end up enjoying their new jobs so much that they decide to keep the new arrangement.
• In My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, an ordinary(ish) schoolgirl reincarnates as Katarina, an otome game villain and rapidly derails the plot by becoming the new main heroine. The old heroine, in turn, becomes a love interest. Katarina goes from refusing to let her engagement to a prince be dissolved to instead being unable to get out of it herself after the prince falls for the new her. Two fellow rival characters instead become her friends, even though they were supposed to hate her and then fall in love with her. One of those rivals, Mary, goes from an unrequited love with her fiancee into viewing him as being somewhere between a rival and a puppet. With this and a few other things, she shows a sneaky, controlling streak that turns her from being a complete Proper Lady to having a bit in common with the original Katarina!
• In the final Time Scout book Skeeter poses as Armstrong to lure out a bad guy. That's because Armstrong isn't expendable; Skeeter is.
• Date A Live has a variant in which it's one person and a group of people that swap roles. For most of the series, Shidou needs to make Spirits fall in love with him in order to seal their power and stop them causing havoc. In the twelfth book, he loses control of the powers inside him and the Spirits need to make him fall in love with them to restore control.
• Turnabout: Sally gets a new appreciation for how difficult Tim's job can be, while Tim freaks out when he discovers that Sally is pregnant.

Live-Action TV

• Almost every episode of Noggin's A Walk in Your Shoes had two people swap their roles for a day (like mother/daughter, father/son, big family/only child, and senior citizen/student).
• The episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy and Ethel get jobs at the candy factory may be the most well-known example (thanks to the infamous conveyor belt scene).
• Jerry and Kramer swap roles in Seinfeld after exchanging apartments, resulting in a laid-back, sarcastic Kramer and a jumpy, wacky Jerry.
• Blackadder:
  • In the third series of Blackadder, the nincompoop Prince George swaps places with scheming butler Mr Blackadder to avoid being killed by the Duke of Wellington.
    George: It's just like that story, "The Prince and the Porpoise".
    Blackadder: "...and the Pauper", sir.
    George: Oh, yes! "The Prince and the Porpoise and the Pauper".
  • In the first series, the title character was the nincompoop while Baldrick of all people was the Hypercompetent Sidekick and Only Sane Man.
• The Haunted Hathaways: Michelle and Ray trade parenting duties, convinced that each other's children will be less stressful to manage. They learn the hard way they couldn't be more wrong!
• The Lois & Clark episode "Chi of Steel" (which juggled three gender-equality storylines) used this in the C-plot, with Martha and Jonathan swapping places. Since they weren't Down on the Farm however, Martha's new role consisted of playing checkers, while Jonathan did all the things she'd normally do on a visit to Metropolis (shopping, cooking, ironing Clark's cape...)
• On 30 Rock, Liz takes a try hosting a talk show but quickly finds that being on camera turns her into a neurotic mess like Jenna. Frank covers for Liz as head writer and quickly finds himself turning into an uptight taskmaster like her.
• On the Square One Television segment: Math Man, If Math Man is unable to play. The roll would be swapped to Mr. Glitch. If Mr. Glitch get the answer wrong, He would be eaten by Math Man (or at one time, Math Dog).
• My Family featured an episode in which Susan and Janey swap roles, with Susan as a single woman (and Ben trying to win her heart all over again) and Janey driven insane by the pressures of running a home and family.
• Leverage had an episode where Sophie wanted to be the boss for once, and the entire team wound up switching jobs out of their normal specialties temporarily. After some events, they eventually decided to go back to their original roles. Despite all this, they did learn the basics of each other's specialties (which was the goal, anyway, and proved more useful as they progressed). Nothing Is the Same Anymore, indeed.
• The final episodes of Reba has Reba realize with shock that Brock is becoming like Reba in regards to his lack of interest in trying to save his relationship with Barbra Jean, Barbra Jean becoming like Brock due to her willingness to move away for a better job to feel younger again, and Reba bemoaning the fact she's becoming like Barbra Jean for constantly dropping in without prior warning on Van and Cheyenne at their new house.
• The parent-child version features in an episode of Step by Step.
• On an episode of Dinosaurs, Robbie switched places with his father Earl as alpha male and family provider. He did it for the right to make decisions, but pretty soon the responsibility got too much for him. By the end of the episode, Robbie steps down from the alpha male position.
• In Charmed Piper and Leo ended up switching powers for a day because of unborn Wyatt. Piper had to orb all over the place being a whitelighter while Leo had to cope with exploding powers as well as suffering from pregnancy symptoms.
• Lab Rats: When Bree's frustration meter with Principal Perry reaches its limit, she insists she could be a better principal than Perry. Perry accepts the offer and makes Bree Principal for one day, while she takes on the role of a student hooligan.
• In M*A*S*H, the 4077th decided to duplicate a British tradition of the officers and enlisted men switching places on Boxing Day (December 26th). Potter suspects that Klinger isn't assigning him normal assistant duties, which is true - in order to make the duties normal, he would also be sending Potter to Seoul to get oats for the Colonel's horse, among other things.
• In 2004, a New York TV station did a one-day swap of its morning and evening anchors during May sweeps.
• Person of Interest. In Season One, John Reese gets shot by his former colleagues in the CIA, but the Numbers don't stop coming so he has to work the next case in a wheelchair as Mission Control while Harold Finch gets to be the legman.
• In one episode of White Collar, Neal and Peter pose as each other to encourage a witness to talk. It gets out of hand quickly.
• American Pickers had Danielle go out picking while Frank watches the shop. Danielle hated how dirty picking really is and Frank is not very good at getting picking leads.
• The Brady Bunch does this at least twice, once with the parents changing roles and once with Greg and Marcia swapping scout troops.
• Welcome Back, Kotter had at least one episode where Kotter and Woodman changed jobs (teacher and principal), resulting in a personality swap as well.
• One episode of The Odd Couple had Felix and Oscar changing roles in an attempt to alleviate their mutual hostility. However, they both exaggerate each other's personality traits (Oscar [as Felix] does housework wearing a tuxedo while Felix [as Oscar] dunks his [cheap] cigar on Oscar/Felix's glass of wine).
• In the It Takes a Thief (1968) episode "Turnabout", Al Mundy (a Gentleman Thief-turned-government spy) breaks his leg, forcing his boss Noah Bain to handle their latest assignment while Al talks him through it.
• See Dad Run: The premise of the show revolves around an actor who played a much-loved TV Dad whose show is now off the air after a long run, while his wife returns to acting on a soap opera since he is able to be a stay-at-home dad. Needless to say, antics ensue, especially since he's more like Cliff Huxtable on-screen and Homer Simpson off-screen (or Al Bundy at best).
• One episode of Home Improvement has Al temporarily taking over for a cooking show, with Tim as his co-host. At first, Tim tries to joke around and steal the show like he always does, until he learns that it's important for him to not always be the center of attention, at which point the two have a second role-reversal, with Al becoming the bumbling host and Tim being the Hypercompetent Sidekick.
  • On a few occasions, Tim and Wilson would switch roles, with Wilson struggling with some problem and Tim giving him some much-needed advice on how to handle it. At least once, they'd swapped what side of the fence they were standing on (with Wilson's face still being obscured).
• In a Halloween episode of Last Man Standing, everyone but Mike (who dressed up as Donald Trump) dressed up as another person in the house and had shots as the person they were dressing as a result.
• On April Fools Day 1997, Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak and Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek swapped roles for the day. Wheel also had Pat and hostess Vanna White playing, with Pat's wife, Lesly, as hostess.
  • Also, In the 1996 college week on Wheel Of Fortune, Pat Sajak and Vanna White swapped roles during the bonus round when Pat Sajak had a sore throat and wanted to get his voice rest.
• Win Ben Stein's Money: One episode had Ben Stein and Jimmy Kimmel swap roles and impersonate each other, though Ben did do the Best of Ten Test of Knowledge as usual.
• For April Fools Day in 2013, The Price Is Right had the host and the announcer swap roles with the models, leading to funny moments of Drew Carey showcasing the prizes like the models do.
• The Tru Calling episode "The Last Good Day" swapped Tru's and Jack's rewind roles, when the victim asked Jack for help and Tru had a vision of how she died. Both were severely freaked out.
• Max & Shred: In "he Switch Jolly Mambo Varial", teen siblings Alvin and Abby both think each other's lives are easy, so they switch their extracurricular responsibilities for a day.
• The Stargate SG-1 episode "Window of Opportunity" sees Jack and Teal'c forced to take over the role of The Smart Guy from Carter and Daniel because they are the only ones aware the team is trapped in a "Groundhog Day" Loop. They're forced to learn Ancient (in-universe, an Ancient Astronauts ancestor of Latin with a different alphabet) so they can decipher the workings of an Ancient machine and solve the plot.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: One episode had Pearl try to test why Failure Is the Only Option by swapping places with Mike. Pearl joined Crow and Tom in the theater, while Mike hung out with Bobo and Brain Guy.
• Danny, Jesse, and Joey switch roles with the girls in an episode of Full House With both parties learning in the end that it's not as for each other as they once thought.
• Hannah Montana: In one episode, Jackson and Rico once switched roles. It turned out that Rico made the switch so he could avoid getting beaten up by the brother of a kid he made fun of and have Jackson take the fall.
• Elseworlds, the fifth annual Arrowverse crossover, does a supernatural version of this with Oliver Queen, aka the Green Arrow, and Barry Allen, aka the Flash, due to some freaky multiverse stuff. It's not a "Freaky Friday" Flip exactly, because Oliver still looks like Stephen Amell but people think he's Barry — including Iris, Barry's wife. To stop the villain, Oliver and Barry have to suit up as the Flash and the Green Arrow, respectively.
• That '70s Show: Red, Kitty, Bob, and Midge share the kids' "pot smoking" scene after accidentally eating a bunch of Hyde's pot-laced brownies. When this leads to Red selling Eric's car to a stranger, Eric and Hyde chew him out for it, acting like how Red and Kitty do when they dress Eric down for something.
• Turnabout: Sam must now work as a cosmetics executive while Penny must learn to be a sports writer.
• Power Rangers:
  • Tommy Oliver and Kat Hillard were introduced in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers as teenagers who were brainwashed into being evil by the villains before being freed and joining the heroes. In Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, Ranger veterans Jason Lee Scott and Kimberly Hart are now the ones who have been brainwashed and it is Tommy and Kat's turn to try and bring their friends back to the light.
  • In MMPR, Jason was the Red Ranger and leader while Tommy was the Sixth Ranger. Jason would be Put on a Bus and Tommy would take over as leader of the team. When the series transitioned into Power Rangers Zeo, Tommy was the Red Ranger and Jason was the Sixth Ranger, a reversal of their roles in the original seasons.
• The Thundermans:
  • In "The Girl with the Dragon Snafu", after complaining that their parents aren't doing enough chores in the house, the parents challenge Nora and Billy to run the household chores with the bet that if they do better, they can permanently do so. While at first it seems the kids are doing far better, Billy finally confesses that they got some of Hank and Barb's superhero friends to help them out.
  • In "Come What Mayhem", Phoebe is the one to come up with a dangerous and reckless plan, and Max is the one to call her out on it. Both are surprised with this turn of events, not that it stops Phoebe from going through her plan, even though Max's idea would have worked. The episode ends on a Cliffhanger as Phoebe goes Drunk on the Dark Side, leading to The Movie where the opposite dynamic of the first three seasons where Max was a villain and Phoebe was the heroine who stopped him comes into play— except Phoebe is far, far more competent as a villain than Max ever was.
• Just Roll With It: This was the premise of "The Great Switchy Witchy" where the kids and parents swapped places. The parents didn't do well in school and the kids failed at home.
• Firefly: Zoe normally accompanies Mal on jobs as his second-in-command. Her Non-Action Guy husband Wash stays with the ship. But in “War Stories”, Wash gets jealous of Zoe and Mal’s friendship and asks to go with Mal instead of Zoe. It goes badly when Wash and Mal are kidnapped by the evil Niska and both brutally tortured. Wash does prove he can have his heroic moments, but he’s definitely more content to stay on the ship afterward.
• Doctor Who. In "Flatline", the Doctor is trapped inside a shrinking TARDIS, so his companion Clara Oswald has to act the Doctor role (she even calls herself "The Doctor" just to troll him) with the Doctor coaching her on what to do. Rather than just being confined to a single episode as per usual for this trope, it starts a theme of Clara thinking and acting more like the Doctor (which is not always portrayed as a good thing).
• "The Swap" from Two Up, Two Down revolves around Jimmy and Flo asking Stan and Sheila to try out a "life swap" with them, with Jimmy and Flo living a conventional life and Stan and Sheila living one of a New-Age Retro Hippie.

Music

• The Kate Rusby song "The Old Man" is about a man and his wife swapping jobs for a day. One of the '1950s' style stories as mentioned above, albeit based on much older material.
• The Lonestar song "Mr. Mom" also has the "parents switch places" version, with Dad losing his job and Mom offering to go to work until he finds a new one. By the end of the song, Dad (whose point of view the song is from) decides he's not up to all the work of keeping the household running and intensifies his job search. (We never learn how Mom ends up liking her job.)

Pro Wrestling

• Among Ring of Honor fans, this is known as "Jimmy Loves Lacey, Lacey Loves Jimmy", in references to an angle where Jimmy Jacobs fell in love with and spent a long time courting the hedonistic, self-centered, Spoiled Brat, Alpha Bitch manager Lacey, who disgustedly wrote Jacobs off as "gay" but kept him around as a tool, a pawn in her various schemes. Eventually, after turning every other man she spent any meaningful amount of time with against her, Lacey eventually began to appreciate all the pain Jacobs put himself through for her and tried to reward him with sex, which Jacobs denied her, wanting love not pity, wanting a loving and not lustful relationship. Jacobs eventually caved when Lacey proposed sex for the sake of it rather than pity, and Lacey fell in love with Jacobs afterwards. But then Jacobs learned Love Redeems is not true, that he had not actually made anything better. Then Lacey got injured during a fight between Jacobs and BJ Whitmer, which caused Jacobs to lash out at Ring of Honor, society in general, the American healthcare system, and start The Age Of The Fall against it all, with Lacey gleefully helping Jacobs carry out any plans that would help fulfill his various agendas, even fighting for him while he was injured and getting her Tag Team partner Rain to help. It was as if Jimmy had become Lacey and Lacey had become Jimmy.

Puppet Shows

• The Muppet Show
  • Kermit and Fozzie swapped roles with Statler and Waldorf in the episode with guest star Hal Linden. Kermit and Fozzie thought that Statler and Waldorf could be the hosts while they could sit in the balcony.
  • Similarly, in the Steve Martin episode (which has the gimmick that this week's show has been cancelled to hold auditions for new acts), Statler and Waldorf audition with a song and dance routine. Cut to Fozzie in the balcony shouting "Boo! Boo! Weren't they terrible?"
• Sesame Street: In Seasons 33 and 34, one segment of the show was titled Journey to Ernie, where Ernie would hide in an animated world and Big Bird would try to find him. One episode of this segment was titled Journey to Big Bird, where Big Bird hid in a circus and Ernie had to find him.

Theatre

• Tranio (a servant) switches places with Lucentio (his master) in The Taming of the Shrew so that Lucentio can woo Bianca.
• Older Than Feudalism: In Aristophanes' The Frogs, the god Dionysos and his mortal servant temporarily pretended to be each other to trick the gatekeepers of Hades, in addition to their earlier deception of dressing Dionysos up as Heracles. This results in Dionysos getting whipped, beaten, and generally abused for various reasons, while his servant basically snickers in the background.

Video Games

• In Hyrule Warriors, a hidden weapon that Link can unlock through Adventure Mode is the Great Fairy. When this weapon is chosen, Link ends up being stuck into a bottle and forced to watch as a hugely powerful Great Fairy handles the fighting for him, in a reversal of the traditional role of Link being the adventurer and fairies sitting in bottles waiting to be called upon to heal him.
• Every Super Mario Bros. game ever made has Princess Peach getting kidnapped and Mario and Luigi setting out to rescue her. Every game, that is, except for Super Princess Peach. There, Mario and Luigi get captured and it's up to the princess to bail them out!
• Season 2 of Batman: The Telltale Series flips around the relationship between the Joker and Harley Quinn; Joker is madly in love with Harley and eager to impress her, while Harley seems to care a little for Joker but doesn't hesitate to exploit his feelings for her to manipulate him. This dynamic does change by the end of episode 4, though.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • This was invoked by Sonic Heroes in the Japanese version. Near the end of Sonic Adventure 2, shortly after being shot into space and barely making it back alive, Sonic is met with a Shadow who is puzzled over his improbable survival. Sonic responds by joking that stubborness is his saving grace. At the end of that game, Shadow falls into space too, seemingly dying. Then in Heroes he mysteriously comes back, so upon meeting him, Sonic comments that it looks like stubbornness is a saving grace for him too.
  • In every Eggman fight in the series, Sonic is on foot while Eggman pilots a mecha. This is flipped on its head in Sonic Mania's Hydrocity Act 1 boss, where Sonic pilots the mech and Eggman is on foot (or in this case, swimming around).
• In Giana Sisters, Giana usually needs to save her Damsel in Distress twin sister Maria. However, the lore describes Maria as frequently protecting Giana and being a shoulder to cry on in the real world. In Giana's dreams, she's the one who's strong enough to protect her sister.
• In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, in the Pokéstar Studios minigame where the player can film Pokemon-themed movies, one of the possible movie choices is "Timegate Traveler." The main character travels to the future to find a world where Pokémon catch people. Unlocking the movie's strange ending causes a Ledian to throw a "human ball" at the player, catching them. The main character laments about their new role in society but points out that being the Ledian's pet wasn't so bad, and although their master could be cruel, she was also nice to humans who pleased her. They then grow more loyal to Ledian and accept this new future, idly wondering if their old Pokémon became a human trainer too.
• In most of the Mortal Kombat installments, Liu Kang was Earthrealm's champion and The Chosen One while Raiden was the Big Good and the god of thunder. Following the events of Mortal Kombat 11 and the new timeline created in Mortal Kombat 1, Raiden is now Earthrealm's champion and The Chosen One while Liu Kang is the Big Good and the god of fire.

Web Animation

• During one of Strong Bad's emails in Homestar Runner, Homestar and The Cheat switch roles for no apparent reason at all. This causes issues for Strong Bad, who is attempting to redo emails, and a delight for Marzipan, who can be found on a bit of a date with The Cheat in an Easter egg.
• Several Level UP videos are about video game characters switching places and roles, like Mario and Bowser and Mario and Peach.

Web Comics

• Furry Experience did an arc where Ronnie (PE major, has to pay own tuition) and Cat (Art major, parents pay as long as she gets good grades) swapped for a week, disastrously.
• In UC, new transfer student, Kelsi, thinks that the reason, resident goth, Nicodemus is bullied is because of the clothes he wears and in her words that he is an "Angst-Filled Sock Monkey";. Nicodemus thinks that she doesn't understand him and wouldn't last a single day in his shoes. They decide to switch clothing styles for a day and see which one is right. By the end of the day, they are both declaring the other the victor.
• Sword Princess Amaltea has a chapter dedicated to discussing the Double Standard in a matriarchy thanks to their protagonists swapping sexes, basically in a way for both of them to understand the other's point of view and how the world works for the opposite sex.
• A Boxing Day strip of Arthur, King of Time and Space has Arthur in Merlin's outfit announcing that he's going to use precognition to make his friends' lives miserable, and Merlin in Arthur's outfit retorting that he couldn't hear him because he was too busy avoiding his job.

Web Videos

• For a video, Dream hunts down George instead of the usual.
• Empires SMP: Played for Laughs in the crossover with Hermitcraft, where Grian and Impluse track down Pixlriffs and proceed to narrate everything he's doing, in a deliberate reversal of the Companion Show Hermitcraft Recap (which he provides the voiceover for).
• Mario Party TV: Discussed at the end of the first episode of Season 5. When the group started out, Holms was the skilled player who kept getting screwed over by the other players and got salty about it, while Clel was largely calm but consistently in last place. Nowadays Clel is the one taking the lead and then being screwed over by everyone else, while Holms never gets the success in the first place. Punctuated by Holms deciding not to get his hopes up, while Clel says "Bullshit!" on several occasions.
• During The Runaway Guys' normal let's plays, Tim tends to die the most and Emile tends to screw around the most, leaving Jon the one focused on beating the game. However, during their playthrough of Sonic Adventure, Emile died the most and Jon screwed around the most, leaving Tim (ironically the only member who HADN'T beaten Sonic Adventure) to be the most focused on completing the game.

Western Animation

• In one episode of Dilbert, he swapped roles with a guard. At the end after failing to do the job he swapped roles with Ratbert.
• Johnny Test: In "Papa Johnny", Johnny and his dad agree to getting their brains switched by the twin’s invention so they can switch roles for a day and see who has the harder life. Johnny gets Amusing Injuries from the chores his mother Lila forces on his dad, while Hugh is harassed and humiliated by Bumper and Johnny's Sadistic Teacher. Johnny and Hugh express a new respect and understanding for each other… only for Susan and Lila to start arguing between themselves who has it harder and switch their own bodies.
• SpongeBob SquarePants
  • Occurred between Plankton and Mr. Krabs in "The Algae's Always Greener", though it really only affected Plankton in the end due to him being the only one aware of the change during the swap and after the fact.
  • In "Spy Buddies", Plankton and Mr. Krabs posed as each other to settle a bet of who would win if they had reversed roles.
• Rocket Power: Trying to prove which of their chosen sports requires more talent, Reggie Rocket and Cleo swap events at Winter Fest, with Reggie ice dancing and Cleo playing on her ice hockey team. Subverted in the fact that they're both good and not only win their respective events but impressed the other.
• The Maryoku Yummy episode "Now You're Cooking!" had Omoshi and Maryoku switching jobs, mostly because Omoshi was annoyed that Ooka bragged that Maryoku, the best wishsitter in Nozomu, would also be a great cook.
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey:
  • In the episode "Le Switcheroo," the animal school's counselor Mr. Mandrill had the grouchy gym teacher Coach Gills and the lone human student Adam Lyon trade places for a day when both began complaining to the principal about each other. Hilarity Ensued when the entire school somehow fell for their Paper Thin Disguises (Adam wore Coach Gills's bow in his hair and Coach Gills wore one of Adam's shirts below her fishbowl), but both learned the Aesop Mr. Mandrill was aiming for and gained new respect for one another.
  • Another episode had Miss Warthog knocked unconscious and replaced by Adam, who was replaced by Jake, who replaced by Windsor, who was replaced by Lupe, and so on.
• An episode of American Dad! had Stan and Roger swapping roles after Stan got frustrated with Roger acting like his concerns (running out of cookies to eat while watching soap operas) are a big deal. Roger quickly gets stressed out with actual work, accidentally hits Francine, and the neighbors mistakenly get the idea that Stan is beating her (not at all helped by the fact that, to do Roger's "job", he lazes about the house all day in underwear and a bathrobe and lets his hygiene slide).
• Family Guy plays with this trope a bit. Chris and Meg swap roles with their parents in the usual 'who has it harder' role. Surprisingly, (or perhaps unsurprisingly) the kids were right; Chris gets a promotion at work and Meg makes excellent dinners while having enough time to clean the entire house in just an hour. Lois and Peter have a miserable time at school because all the kids bully them. It then begins to be mildly deconstructed: While Peter's boss Angela and the kids' principal Shepherd were notified of the experiment, Angela decides to fire Peter and replace him with Chris, showing the potential consequences. A Surprisingly Realistic Outcome follows when downsizing occurs and Chris is given more work to compensate. Initially being able to handle it, the long nights and the stress of handling finances get to him and he takes up drinking. It culminates with Chris getting a heart attack from all the stress, and the roles go back to normal.
• Done with Skipper and King Julien in an episode of The Penguins of Madagascar. In a strange variant of this trope, Julien earns Skipper's praise for successfully handling that episode's mission (even if by accident), but at the end of the episode, they're back to being Friendly Enemy.
• The Fairly OddParents!:
  • The episode "Blondas Have More Fun" features Wanda and her "identical-yet-somewhat-hotter" twin sister swapping roles to learn the difficulties of each other's lives.
  • Another episode included Timmy wishing to be Cosmo and Wanda's fairy godparents, to prove that being a kid was harder than being a godparent. It quickly spirals out of control with Cosmo and Wanda having to tag in being the visible Timmy, along with curfew and Vicky, and Timmy constantly fails many times of getting magic down (he spent an entire night trying to turn into a goldfish with gills).
  • Timmy and his Mom once swapped roles in an unusual portrayal of the role. Mrs. Turner under the guise that a psychology trick was really working and in fact used the book to deal with all the problems Timmy faced in school while Timmy coped with the grueling work his mom did. While it initially looked like that his Mom had the harder life, she stated that her day was stressful because of how nuts everyone seemed to be and happy that Timmy grew up well-adjusted before the roles were swapped.
  • In another episode, Timmy wishes Vicky was five years old so he could babysit her as payback. Unfortunately, this results in Cosmo and Wanda being reassigned to Vicky, who decides to torment him just as much as she tormented him when she was a teenager. Timmy wins back Cosmo and Wanda by tricking Vicky into saying she no longer needs them.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy
  • One episode had the Eds change roles as a game: Eddy as Double D, Ed as Eddy and Double D as Ed; each in an exaggerated fashion — Eddy's portrayal of Double D as a neurotic weakling full of useless information, Double D's portrayal of Ed as a complete idiot (although he bypasses his poor manners), and Ed's portrayal of Eddy as a greedy slacker.
  • Another episode basically had the Eds and Kankers change roles in their "relationship" for most of the episode. The Eds try to scare the Kankers away for good by using Reverse Psychology, pretending to now return their love for them, only to harass them to the same level they have harassed the Eds. This turns the Eds into "love-struck stalkers" and the Kankers into the "victims who can't escape the unwanted affection". Though in the final moments of the episode the Kankers realize what the Eds are trying to do and switch back roles before reaffirming their dominance against their "boyfriends" with their usual assault of kisses
• One episode of Camp Lazlo had Edward acting as Clam, who was impersonating Edward.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks: Alvin and Dave swapped roles, allowing Alvin to understand how hard parenting is.
• A Dudley Do-Right episode featured Dudley and Nell switching places, with Dudley doing the housework and Nell being a Mountie, ending up being a much more competent one than Dudley. Yet another had Dudley trying on Snidely Whiplash's outfit and suddenly becoming villainous. Inspector Fenwick talks Snidely into becoming a Mountie and he becomes heroic.
• One episode of Garfield and Friends has Garfield having a nightmare where he's in Jon's position and constantly has to put up with his cat's troublemaking, making him understand what his owner goes through better. Jon in turn had a nightmare where he was a cat and apparently had a horrible experience about it, making him appreciate his pet more.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic uses this quite frequently:
  • This happening is the plot of the season 3 finale of "Magical Mystery Cure". Twilight performs an unfinished spell that switches the cutie marks of her five friends, which leads to them struggling to fill new roles for which they're totally unsuited (like fun-loving Pinkie Pie trying to be a serious, hard-working farmer like Applejack, only to make a complete mess of Sweet Apple Acres, or Shrinking Violet Fluttershy trying, and failing, to make ponies laugh like Pinkie does).
  • It happens in "Magic Duel", Trixie becomes worlds more powerful than Twilight thanks to an Artifact of Doom and effectively smears her all over Ponyville in a magical duel before exiling her. Twilight goes on some Training from Hell but realizes she's simply not powerful enough, so she instead relies on stage magic, deception, and trickery — Trixie's own methods — to win in a rematch.
  • In "Simple Ways", Rarity pretends to be a stereotypical farm bumpkin when the pony she's had a long crush on shows interest in Applejack rather than her, claiming that she's always been this way and just never showed it before. Applejack teaches her a lesson by pretending to be an equally stereotypical Southern Belle.
  • In "A Royal Problem", when Princesses Celestia and Luna stop appreciating each other, Starlight Glimmer switches their cutie marks in an impulsive panic, forcing the two to switch places for 24 hours. As a result, Luna experiences Celestia's burden of being a Slave to PR, while Celestia realizes that being a Dream Walker is more lonely and emotionally taxing than expected.
• In the Julius Jr. episode "Pirate Julius", Julius and Diamondbeard swap roles for a while so Julius can see how it's like being a pirate and Diamondbeard can see how it's like being an inventor.
• The Rugrats episode, "Angelica For a Day" does this with Chuckie and Angelica. Angelica tells Tommy that the phrase "I wouldn't want to be in his/her shoes" means that if you put on someone else's shoes, you'll be just like him/her. Tommy tries this with Chuckie so he won't be afraid of everything, but when Chuckie puts on Angelica's shoes, he becomes a bully. Angelica later puts on Chuckie's shoes and is constantly in a state of fear as a result. Tommy wishes he had the old Chuckie back, and somehow, the old Angelica as well. Fortunately for Tommy, it turns out to be All Just a Dream.
• In the Justice League Action short "Good Cop, Bat Cop", Superman wants to take the "bad cop" role this time. Deadshot is not impressed by Supes' fumbling attempts to act mean, but freaks out and cracks when Batman starts being nice to him.
• The Simpsons episode "Homer the Great" reveals that while Mr. Burns is the boss of Lenny and Carl back at the plant, within the Stonecutters Burns has a higher membership number than either of them, making him lower on the pecking order, something which Lenny and Carl take full advantage of.
• Miraculous Ladybug
  • In "Chameleon", after Hawk Moth fails to akumatize Marinette, Lila spots the akuma fluttering around the school hallways and deliberately grabs it to akumatize herself, even stealing his once-an-episode spiel about giving him the Miraculous in exchange for the powers to solve her problems.
  • In "Reflekdoll", circumstances lead to Ladybug and Cat Noir swapping Miraculouses, becoming Lady Noire and Mister Bug. Both struggle in their new roles and gain a newfound appreciation for their partner by the end.
• The Bugs Bunny cartoon Hare Brush, which provides the page image.
• Kaeloo: In Episode 159, Kaeloo and Mr. Cat decide to swap roles for the day. Kaeloo tries to make Mr. Cat angry by doing annoying things to him while Mr. Cat tries to remain calm. Mr. Cat ends up having a fairly easy time because all Kaeloo does is Poke the Poodle a few times.
• Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines: "Sky Hi-I.Q." had Muttley being assigned as head of the Vulture Squadron based on the results of aptitude tests. Dastardly is consigned to taking orders while Muttley is subjected to the same Humiliation Conga Dastardly goes through. At the conclusion, the status quo is re-established (the aptitude tests were mixed up) as Disproportionate Retribution is invoked on Muttley.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Not So Awesome Blossom" has Buttercup assuming the role as leader after Blossom—whose confidence takes a hit after not being able to do anything right—runs away from home.
• In Beast Wars, Silverbolt and Blackarachnia were on opposite sides of the conflict with Silverbolt trying to get Blackarachnia to return to her original Maximal programming. In the sequel series Beast Machines, Blackarachnia is the one who ends up having to restore Silverbolt to the light after he is reformatted as the Vehicon Jetstorm.
• Big City Greens:
  • "Hiya Henry" from the first season seems to switch the roles from an earlier episode, "Barry Cuda". In the latter, Cricket purchases a singing toy fish which he loves, but annoys the family; in the former, Tilly finds a ventriloquist dummy which the family loves, but annoys Cricket.
  • The Season 3 episode "Papaganda" swaps the roles of the Season 2 episode "Urban Legend". In the latter, Gramma pretends to be a swamp witch to scare the townsfolk; Bill and Tilly are against her, but Cricket sides with her. In the former, Bill enforces a positivity propaganda; Cricket and Gramma are against him, but Tilly sides with him.
  • The Season 3 episode "Big Trouble" sees Tilly being grounded for the first time ever when she lets her pet goat, Melissa, leave her muddy hoofprints all over the house shortly after Bill finished cleaning it. Normally, Bill would accuse Cricket of messing up the house, but for Tilly, there's a first time for everything. Cricket becomes more well-behaved, while Tilly decides to go bad. After she shoplifts a Pez dispenser from a convenience store, her guilty conscience gets the best of her, at which point she returns it, then resumes being her normal well-behaved self and Cricket is back to being a troublemaker.
• The fourth season of Jackie Chan Adventures had Uncle and Tohru swap their respective roles as expert and assistant with relation to the magic required to handle Tarakudo and his generals. Uncle's magic, which was Chinese in origin, was normally enough to answer the threats the Chan clan typically faced, but proved ineffective against this new Japanese opposition, and he couldn't carry out research on the enemy himself because most of it was recorded in Japanese. Tohru, being Japanese himself, had been raised on stories of the Oni generals, and so was in the best position to assume Uncle's usual role in this regard.
• There is an episode in the Clifford the Big Red Dog series where Emily and Jetta care for each other's pets. While Emily gets used to her new role as Machiavelli Handover's guardian, poor Jetta has some trouble with Clifford.
• The Owl House: The premise of "Once Upon a Swap" has Luz, Eda, and King insisting that they have it harder than the others; Eda believes that King never has to work for anything and can coast on his cuteness, King believes he could easily dominate Luz's teenage peers, and Luz believes her life would be a lot easier if she could solve all her problems with magic like Eda. Eda casts a "Freaky Friday" Flip spell to make all three swap bodies.
• In the Bob's Burgers episode "Sliding Bobs", the third act shows a glimpse of an alternate reality where Linda married Hugo instead of Bob and they and their kids run a hot dog restaurant, resulting in Bob now having Hugo's old role as the health inspector who's always on the latter's case.
• Thomas & Friends: "Henry Gets the Express" is about Henry and Gordon doing each others' jobs for the day. The passengers think that Henry is a much nicer express engine than Gordon, while Gordon spends the entire day complaining about doing goods work.
• Captain Flamingo: "Switch Hitch" has Milo and Wendell trade places for a whole day to prove that their own lives are much more difficult. This led to Milo to live in Wendell's room while Wendell becomes the Captain. However, they decided to switch their lives back the way it was at the end of the episode after Milo admits that he can't handle it as it could result on Wendell to become to new Captain to help kids in trouble rather than him.
• Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart: The episode "Trading Day" has Mao Mao, Badgerclops and Adorabat trade roles to see who has it easier with Mao Mao recieving a spare robot arm from Badgerclops, Badgerclops going to Adorabat's school and Adorabat putting on Mao Mao's gear and patroling the town herself as it's shrieff.

Real Life

• In Victorian Britain, there was a tradition of the well-to-do treating their servants to a banquet on Boxing Day, and acting as servants for the duration. This may have been based on earlier traditions such as the early medieval Feast of Fools, in which the clerical order would be reversed on 1st January so that subdeacons took the place of high clergy (a remnant of this survived into later periods as the "boy bishops"), and the Roman Saturnalia, where some sources say householders would serve their slaves for the day.

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