This Is My Chair

There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Sheldon: This seat is ideally located, both in terms of the heat source in the winter and the crossbreeze in the summer. It also faces the television at a direct angle, allowing me to immerse myself in entertainment or gameplay without being subjected to conversation. As a result, I've placed it in a state of eternal dibs.
Leonard: ...Can you do that?
Sheldon: "Cathedra mea, regulae meae" — that's Latin for "My chair, my rules"

— The Big Bang Theory

...And if you sit in it, there will be Hell to pay.

A favourite chair, a spot on The Couch, a park bench... Either someone never sits anywhere else, no one else is allowed to sit there, or often both.

This can develop, as on Friends, from characters always sitting in the same place out of necessity in a Three Cameras show, and eventually having their relationship with that spot lampshaded.

Alternatively it can be an ordinary character trait, possibly a kind of Security Blanket for a character with obsessive tendencies. In a military (or Mildly Military) setting, the commanding officer ordering someone out of his chair can serve as an assertion of authority.

If the character dies, do not expect that chair to be filled any time soon.

Not to be confused with This Is My Side, a stock sitcom plot where a shared space is split down the middle. Should the two tropes ever meet, expect the chair's owner to find himself cut off from using it (or to try declaring it an enclave within his enemy's territory).

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Examples:

Films — Animated

• Beauty and the Beast: "Oh no, not the master's chair!"
• Toy Story: Woody's gets jealous Andy puts Buzz on his "spot" on the bed, since it represented his status as Andy's favorite toy.

Films — Live-Action

• Candidate for Trope Namer is the mentally insane Jeffrey Goines in 12 Monkeys, who reacts like the loon he is when he sees another patient seated in his favorite chair.
• Star Trek
  • Happens when Kirk sits in the Captain's chair of the Enterprise in Star Trek (2009)... when he's still a First Officer.
  Spock: [Irritated] Out of the chair.
  • Inverted in Star Trek Into Darkness, where Sulu is reluctant to sit in the chair when given temporary command. He does prove himself to be capable.
  • In Star Trek Beyond, Kirk is thrown off when Jaylah flops into the captain's chair of the Franklin before he can take it. The ship has been her "house" for years, so it's unsurprising she made herself at home.
• In The King's Speech, before King George VI's coronation, speech therapist Lionel Logue disrespectfully sits on the stammering King's chair in order to provoke him into an outburst of indignation – having noticed that George doesn't stammer when he's angry. The chair in question? St. Edward's Chair.
• In The Hateful Eight, one of the threads that Warren notes about the four residents of the lodge is how people are sitting in Sweet Dave's chair, who he claims would rather bring the chair with him rather than let anyone else sit in it.
• Briefly mentioned in Clueless when Cher brings her new friend Tai home for the first time for dinner and she makes the mistake of sitting at the head of the dining room table:
  Cher: Daddy, this is my friend, Tai.
  Mel: Get outta my chair!
  (Tai scurries out of his chair)
• In Savage Messiah (1972), the protagonists first meet when Sophie accuses Henri of sitting in her spot at the library. Henri tells her that this is a public library with no reserved seats and tells her to sit in the other chair. Sophie shoves Henri's books and papers aside with her basket. Henri moves into the other seat.

Literature

• In Men of the Otherworld, Clay always kicks Logan out of Jeremy's chair, since Clay feels that respecting the Alpha's chair is a symbol of respecting the Alpha's territory and Clay is Jeremy's dragon. It's a longstanding issue between the two of them, to the point where Logan will vacate the chair as soon as Clay enters the room.
• Septimus Heap: Marcia Overstrand is very vocal at insisting that her chair in the Wizard Tower is in fact hers.
• Played with in the Novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in regards to the officer's lounge that Kirk, Spock, and McCoy meet in before they reach the probe. While said lounge is technically open to any Starfleet personnel, the text explains that out of respect and tradition, only the officers are allowed use of the lounge.
• Similar to the Star Trek novelization, The Ghost Brigades presents the Generals' Mess as an example of this, a small dining area with a spectacular view which is strictly speaking open to all Colonial Defense Forces personnel, but out of tradition, only Generals may actually dine there. A running gag is made of a beleaguered Colonel being repeatedly invited to have lunch with various generals there (they eat deliciously described food, he drinks a glass of refreshing water which he privately admits to himself isn't all that refreshing). One of the generals decides to use the Colonel as a pawn to break what he sees as a stupid tradition by ordering him to eat a cookie.
• Fuzzy Nation: Dirty Cop Joe DeLise is known for attacking anyone who sits on his barstool.
• In Snuff, Sam Vimes tries to find a place to sit at the local pub in the Shires, only to run afoul of hot-headed young blacksmith Jethro, who tries pulling this with every place Sam tries to sit to make it clear that he's not welcome.
• Fire & Blood: The reign of King Aegon III gets off to a tense start when the day his regency ends he marches into the throne room and tells Tohren Manderly "you are sitting in my chair."
• In Girls Kingdom, the cafeteria where the students eat supposedly allows everyone to eat where they wish. However, The Societal Arts students all have their favorite spots to sit, and as a rule, no one tries to sit in their spots. With members of a given salon (think clique combined with social club), these spots tend to be grouped around specific salon members sitting together with their contracted maids right beside them. The Sky Salon also has private areas where each member can be alone with her maid or maids, intrusion upon which is highly frowned upon unless you have business or permission.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: To assert his dominance as a sixth form prefect, Ron ousts a first-year from a chair by the fire in the Gryffindor common room, and sits in it himself. Hermione then prods Ron out of the chair, and offers it to the first-year again.

Live Action TV

• In the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the fandom rejoices as Capt Picard yells at Wesley to "Get out of my chair!" Reportedly, Patrick Stewart would behave in a similar manner towards reporters and others who sat in the captain's chair on the Bridge set without invitation.
  • According to Wil Wheaton, this was more a matter of respect than one of interdiction.
  • This is deliberately averted on a couple of occasions; Q sits in the Captain's Chair as a sign of his own ego and contempt for humanity, and Picard has to stop his bridge crew who instinctively move to throw the omnipotent prankster off it. After Picard is assimilated by the Borg in "The Best of Both Worlds", Riker becomes captain. He's in the ready room looking at Picard's chair and wondering "What would you do?" Guinan then enters the room and sits in the chair, making the point that he's got to forget Picard and start thinking what should Captain Riker do.
• On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  • In "To The Death", Bashir sits down in the mess hall of the Defiant, and Dax and O'Brien warn him that he's sitting in Worf's favorite seat. Bashir is unimpressed—until Worf and his Death Glare show up. It's to no avail anyway as the moment Worf sits down a Red Alert goes off.
  • And then there's Morn's barstool, which is so connected to him that whenever he's not around, Quark projects a hologram of him just so it looks like his unofficial mascot is still there. When Morn has apparently been killed, Quark insists that someone continue to sit in Morn's chair in memoriam (actually because he's worried about losing revenue). In a Casting Gag, the first person he plonks in the chair is the actor who plays Morn, without makeup.
• As mentioned, the Central Perk sofa on Friends. One storyline even revolved around a pair of bullies kicking Ross and Chandler off it.
  • Another example is Chandler's single-episode Compressed Vice of getting extremely territorial over chairs he's recently got up from.
  • Another episode of Friends had Phoebe and Rachel forced to sit by the window because somebody got to their normal seat first, Rachel was quite angry. Of course this was a set up so the pair could see Ross "attacking" two women.
  • One episode's Couch Gag has the group walk in the Central Perk, find the sofa is already occupied and decide to simply leave.
  • Lampshaded again in another episode where a man decides to sit in one of the Central Perk chairs usually reserved for the cast's Social Semi-Circle. Chandler, sitting in the chair next to him, gestures him to leave without explanation.
• Sheldon's "spot" on The Big Bang Theory - see the page quote.
  • To the extent that whenever he has to sit somewhere he has never been before (and isn't obliged to sit on a given place), his first move is trying to find The Spot.
  • And in another episode, Leonard treats Penny's suggestion of having sex in The Spot (when Sheldon is away) as if it were incredibly kinky and sexy.
• Martin is very attached to his recliner on Frasier, though luckily, no one else wants to sit in it. When Frasier thoughtlessly replaces it and loses the old one, Martin gives a very heartfelt speech about why it's so important to him:
  Frasier: Oh Dad, I don't know why you're carrying on this way. We are, after all, talking about a twenty-five year-old, broken-down chair. If you don't like this chair, I'll get you another one. Any chair you want!
  Martin: Really? Okay, I'll tell you what chair I want. I want the chair I was sitting in when I watched Neil Armstrong take his first step on the moon. And when the U.S. hockey team beat the Russians in the '80 Olympics. I want the chair I was sitting in the night you called me to tell me I had a grandson. I want the chair I was in all those nights when your mother used to wake me up with a kiss after I'd fallen asleep in front of the television. You know, I still fall asleep in it. And every once in a while, when I wake up, I still expect your mother to be there, ready to lead me off to bed... Oh, never mind. It's only a chair.
• Kelso's lunch bench on Scrubs - at least, according to a single episode.
• Archie Bunker on All in the Family. So much that when Mike and Gloria moved out to the house next door and Archie came to visit, Mike said this:
  Arch, I been waiting five years to say this: Get outta my chair!
  • Said chair later officially becomes "Archie's chair" when he's at the Stivics' house. For exceptionally noted house guests (Sammy Davis Jr., for example) Archie insists that they sit in his chair and he takes Edith's, relegating her to the sofa. Archie's chair is now in the Smithsonian Institution. It was sent there after CBS ended the series the first time — the producers then had to re-create the chair when they decided to continue, at the cost of hundreds of dollars. (The original was purchased from a thrift store for a few bucks.)
• How I Met Your Mother: The main characters always sit in the same table in the bar they always visit, so much so that it is "their" table and the bartender once threatened a group of extras who unknowingly sat there. A one-off gag has the gang walking in to find people sitting there;
  Ted: Get out of our booth! Go!
• The Royle Family:
  • Jim always sits in the armchair opposite the TV, Denise and Dave on the sofa next to Barbara, and Anthony on a chair.
  • If Twiggy's round, he's in Anthony's chair, if Nana's round, she's next to Barbara. They even always sit in the same places at the dinner table. Not out of OCD or pure comedic purposes of any kind, the show just emulates the completely standardized ways that families interact with each other.
• Cheers: Norm Peterson always sits on the same stool at the end of the bar. All of the regulars respect his claim to it (although Cliff calls dibs on it one time when it looks like Norm might not be coming to the bar any more), but in one episode some people new to the bar sit in Norm's spot and the stool next to it.
  Norm: Um, excuse me, I was sittin' there...
  Man: Oh, there was no one here when we came in.
  Norm: No, I mean yesterday...and really since the Ford administration...
  Man: We're just waiting for our table up at Melville's.
  Norm: So you'll move?
  Man: Look, there's lots of other stools.
  Norm: (starting to show signs of distress) Um...look, uh...um...sounds kind of s-...I'm, I'm Norm.
  Man: I'm Jeffrey, and this is Hillary.
  Woman: Nice to meet you. What do you do, Norm?
  Norm: I sit there.
  Woman: Well...nice meeting you...
  (Norm starts to cough and seems to have trouble breathing.)
  Cliff: Look, uh...this is, this is...we're running out of time here, he's already two stages beyond anything I've seen before, so I... I think you better give him the stool.
  Man: I'm... I'm sorry, we're sitting here.
  (Norm suddenly seems to pass out and collapses onto the floor. Everybody rushes over to see if he's okay, including the couple he'd been talking to...at which point he gets up and sits on his stool)
• Babylon 5:
  • Captain Sheridan in one episode came upon a Psi Cop of ill repute among station personnel sitting in the White Star's command chair, and told him to "Get the hell out of my chair!"
  • Similarly, in the first episode of the show, Garibaldi is using Ivanova's workstation to do research on various merchant ships that have been hit by Raiders.
  Ivanova: Mr. Garibaldi, you are at my station using my equipment. Is there a reason for this, or should I just snap your hands off at the wrists?
• One of the main jokes on Kingswood Country. Ted Bullpit does not allow anyone to sit in his armchair. "Outta the chair! Outta the chair!" nearly counts as a catchphrase for the show.
• Shawn Spencer in Psych meets Juliet when she sits in his chair. At first she thinks he's one of those types who could only sit in a certain chair, but he actually had been sitting there and already had his stuff there. He decides to let her keep it and starts flirting with her.
• Power Rangers Jungle Fury: RJ's favorite chair, which he only lets Casey use after he gets ambushed and energy-drained by a monster (and even then, he reminds everyone not to get used to it.)
• Played with the the Fawlty Towers episode "A Touch of Class". When Lord Melbury arrives at the hotel, Basil orders the Wareing family to move to another table in the middle of their meal, saying that Lord Melbury always sits there. When Lord Melbury sits, Basil accidentally pulls his chair away, causing him to fall and knock the table over, to the delight of the Wareing family. Later, when the family enter the bar, Mr Wareing asks jovially "is there any part of the room you'd like us to keep away from?".

Music

• Subverted in George Strait's "The Chair," which starts with him claiming that someone is sitting in his seat at a local hangout. It leads to her asking if the one next to it is taken (no, that one's free) and then to a lengthy conversation, then a date. At the end of the night, he reveals it wasn't his chair, after all, he just wanted an excuse to come over.

Newspaper Comics

• Garfield often does it in his comic strip.
• Satchel in Get Fuzzy gets unhappy when anyone uses his beanbag.

Video Games

• Catherine has the four main guys going the same bar (The Stray Sheep) every night and sitting at the same table. They even sit in the same spots at that table.
• Done hilariously in the first part of the endgame in Mass Effect 3. The Illusive Man's response to finding Shepard sitting in his office, after the latter has just destroyed his entire base of operations?
  Illusive Man: Shepard. You're in my chair.

Webcomics

• In El Goonish Shive, Jeremy the hedgehog-cat thing is rather protective of his spot on the couch. Despite the fact that the rest of the couch is empty, as is the entirety of the adjacent couch, he insists on having his usual spot, although it is already occupied by Grace.
• Questionable Content: After the statuesque robot Bubbles becomes a regular at Dora's coffee shop, Dora finds an oversized armchair specifically for her. It eventually gets a "Bubbles' Chair" sign, although a few characters get away with using it while she's elsewhere. Although learning about it can distract her from someone unloading their personal epiphany:
  Bubbles: Let us back up. You were sitting in my chair?
  Roko: Well, I didn't think the sign was a law...

Western Animation

• In Courage the Cowardly Dog, Eustace always sits in his armchair and in a few cartoons would refuse to get off it and would get mad at anyone who tried to sit in it. His catch phrase eventually became the trope name, "This is my chair." To the point that in the episode "Klub Katz", Muriel suggests a vacation and Eustace refuses to get out of his chair. Gilligan Cut to Eustace on a cruise ship, still in the chair. Even when the ship is rocked by a wild storm he doesn't leave his chair. Even as his chair is flying in the air, he doesn't leave his chair. After being turned into a crane-operated wrecking ball by Katz to fight for the latter's amusement, he discovers that Katz is sitting in his chair and promptly goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against him.
  Eustace: Nope. Not gettin' outta this chair.
• The Simpsons, especially in the episode where the carnies steal their house, but also lampshaded/parodied in various opening credits.
  Homer: Marge, he's messing up my ass-groove! It took me years to get that groove right!
• South Park: Any time the kids gather at Cartman's house to watch a TV show, one kid (usually Clyde) will be kicked out of "Cartman's seat".
• An Animaniacs cartoon had the Warner siblings stopping to eat at an Italian restaurant. The booth they sit at however happens to be the private booth of a local mobster who tells them so. Thus, the conflict commences.
• The C-plot of the Gravity Falls episode 'The Deep End' has Stan and Gideon fighting over the best chair at the pool. To be fair, the chair has a lot going for it: it's equidistant from the restrooms and snack bar, has just the right amount of sun and shade, and is also pointed away from where Old Man McGucket lotions himself.
• An episode of Dexter's Laboratory begins with Dexter and Dee Dee fighting over a chair. They then fight over everything else in the house until their parents return.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: (actually Grim turned mortal) for sitting in his chair.
• Family Guy: The B-plot for "Herpe the Love Sore" has Peter and his friends fighting with a gang of tough bullies who have taken their booth at the Drunken Clam. It wasn't going to be for long anyway, since they're actually Army soldiers on leave.
• Brandy & Mr. Whiskers: In "Lack of Brains vs. Brawns", Whiskers relaxes on a rock on the beach as Ed warns him not to. When Whiskers asks why not, Lester the gorilla shows up to answer his question for him.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: The first meeting of the Princess Alliance goes of to a great start...
  Perfuma: Excuse me, Mermista, but I usually sit in that chair.
  Mermista: [not budging] Yeah, but personally I think it is useful to occasionally experience things from a different perspective, don't you agree?
  [Perfumas eye twitch violently before she wordlessly take the chair next to her]
• Molly of Denali: In "Sticker Shock", Tooey decides to label everyone's seats at the picnic table, so they won't ask where they're supposed to sit. Unfortunately, he forgot to label a seat for Molly, leaving her nowhere to sit at the table.

Real Life

• This is formalized in traditional restaurants and bars in Germany and Austria, where a "Stammtisch" is a table permanently reserved for a specific group of regulars.
• Pet owners have long known that their dog or cat will claim a favorite chair and get very indignant about sharing it.
• An interesting full room example: According to Thompson's oral biography Gonzo, after Johnny Depp spent a year living with Hunter S. Thompson to learn how to play the famed Gonzo journalist for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson would, until the day he died, insist on calling the guest room Depp slept in "Johnny's room".

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