Trope Workshop:Ill-Timed Illness

This is a Trope Workshop page, still under consideration for creation. Help out by editing the current page, or leave a comment on the Talk page. Trope Workshop Guidelines

This character can't believe their luck! They've been chosen to star in the school play, sing an important solo, give a big fancy speech, or some other amazing honor. They're already picking out what to wear, inviting all their friends to come see them, rehearsing for the big moment every waking hour.

Then they get sick. They catch a bad cold, lose their voice, faint from exhaustion. Whatever it is, they have to stay in bed and rest quietly, missing out on their big day. Nothing is beautiful, everything is misery, and making it worse is everyone clucking their tongues about how sad it is while threatening to tie them to the bed if they so much as lift a finger. Sometimes the sick character sneaks out of the house and makes it to the big event only for everyone to comment on how they look like shit and the character to end up bungling everything due to their illness. Other times they get caught sneaking out and only agree to stay in bed if the person looking after them agrees to wait on them hand and foot, or promises they'll do something fun to make up for it once they feel better.

In some rare cases, the person will make a miraculous recovery. Most of the time, though, there's a lesson about getting used to life's disappointments.

Examples of Ill-Timed Illness include:

Fan Works

• In the fic "A Bogus School Play for Alan and Anne Chan", Alan and his love interest Jasmine are set to play the leads in a school production of Sleeping Beauty only to come down with the flu. This leads to Anne and her love interest taking over.

Literature

• In the American Girls book Changes for Molly, Molly is ecstatic to get the role of Miss Victory in a big patriotic show. But because she insists on sleeping with wet pin curls every night, she catches a cold and an ear infection and has to stay home. She's understandably miserable...until her father comes home and she's so excited to see him again she forgets all about the show. The movie version leaves this plot out, letting her perform her role as planned and with her father showing up at the tail end of the performance.
• The Sweet Valley Twins book "Romeo and 2 Juliets" sees Jessica catch the flu after winning the role of Juliet in the school play. Elizabeth has to take her place...and then she gets sick.
  • Anther SVT book has Jessica sprain her ankle and have to miss out on cheering in a big game.
• Cricket Kaufman in the Johanna Hurwitz novel Teacher's Pet gets sick the day before a spelling bee, and her mother forbids her to go to school in case she has a relapse. The problem is solved by Cricket participating in the bee via a phone call. (Though she ends up losing to the new girl, Zoe Mitchell, whom she's been jealous of the whole story.)

Live-Action TV

• On the Christmas Episode of The Brady Bunch, Carol loses her voice after practicing nonstop to sing a solo in church. The doctor does say she can sing if she has nothing but rest and quiet-no talking, no moving around, no doing any work whatsoever. Then Cindy asks a very kind Mall Santa to give Carol her voice back...and it comes true.
• Subverted in Clarissa Explains it All when the title character wants nothing to do with the boring school play and refuses to study her lines even though she's the understudy for the lead. Then the lead gets sick and Clarissa is forced to improvise by writing her lines on post-it notes and attaching them to the underside of her costume's skirt.
  • Played straight in an earlier episode where she again wants nothing to do with a school production and is just fine with being sick. Then she finds out they changed the production to be cooler and tries to sneak out to be a part of it, only for her mother to tell her she has to stay in bed. She relents when her mother promises her they can rent any movies she wants, along with her favorite ice cream.
• Jill on Home Improvement once mentions that she went onstage with the flu so she could be Mary in her church's Nativity play. According to her, she actually did a bang-up job (until she threw up on the Three Wise Men).
• While it's not a lead role in a production, Stephanie on Full House tries to sneak out to ballet class while she has the chicken pox so she can see a professional ballerina perform. The one who gives her a lesson on how sometimes you get sick and have to miss out on fun is Jesse...who also came down with the chicken pox and can't perform in a doo-wop show that weekend.
  • The sequel series Fuller House has Max Fuller catching a bad cold and constantly trying to sneak out to school to give a presentation. Stephanie, who's taking care of him, catches him at every turn and puts him to bed. Finally, he agrees to stay home when Stephanie offers to video-record his presentation for the class to see, and he kills it despite his illness.
• Punky Brewster has to go to the hospital for an appendectomy just as she and Henry are about to go on vacation. She's appeased when he promises they can still go once she's feeling better.

Western Animation

• Homer Simpson suffers a self-inflicted version when he gives himself food poisoning by eating a rotting hoagie sandwich, causing him to miss a trip to Duff Gardens. It's also not the main plot of the episode so much as it is a reason for Homer to be stuck at home so Marge's sister Selma (whom the main story is about) can get a taste of parenthood and realize she's not as ready for a baby as she thinks she is.