Birthday Hater
This character hates their birthday. And there's usually always a reason for it. Whether something traumatic happened or they just don't like getting older, they see no reason to celebrate.
Sometimes Truth in Television when a person's birthday falls on a holiday (e.g. Valentine's Day) or day when something bad occurred.
Compare Crappy Holidays, which includes people who hate holidays, and The Grinch, someone who specifically hates Christmas.
Anime and Manga
- Meia Gisborn from Vandread. Episode 21 is entirely devoted to the rest of the crew's efforts to lure her into attending the birthday party they throw for her, which she skillfully evades (like in all her previous years on Nirvana). Needless to say, said episode gives her a great deal of characterization beside that.
- Ciel Phantomhive from Black Butler. His tenth birthday was the day his house burned down with both parents inside. And he was kidnapped, and taken off to be a slave to a cult. Really great birthday!
Comic Books
- In Don Rosa's "The Sign of the Triple Distelfink", Donald Duck's Born Lucky cousin Gladstone Gander tries to sequester himself in his house on his birthday every year because (thanks to an incident in his youth) his birthday is the one day of the year his extraordinary good luck turns bad.
Literature
- Bella from Twilight. She just hates the attention and how it reminds her that she still ages while Edward doesn't.
- The entire point of It'sMyF—ingBirthday by Merill Markoe.
Live Action TV
- Sheldon of The Big Bang Theory has some mental scars from past birthdays relating to his general aversion to socialization. Leonard is pretty apathetic as far as birthdays go because his mother didn't like the concept, but appreciates the gesture when his friends plan a surprise party for him.
- Jim from According to Jim hates his birthday as a result of having been Caught with Your Pants Down on his 13th birthday.
- Mad About You: Paul always has terrible birthdays. The following dialog occurs while they get ready for his birthday dinner.
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Paul: Ouch. |
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- Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation hates birthdays so much that he has gone to great lengths to keep anyone from finding out, including having it redacted from all government documents.
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"I don't like loud noises. And people making a fuss. And I especially don't like people celebrating because they know a piece of private information about me. Plus the whole thing is a scam - birthdays were invented by Hallmark to sell cards." |
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- An episode of Hey Dad..! revolves around Betty refusing to reveal her birthday, and even going to the length of claiming that she doesn't have a birthday. It eventually turns out that she once knew a dying child who wasn't going to live to see his next birthday, so she gave him hers.
- On Star Trek: The Next Generation, Worf doesn't look forward to his birthday as he doesn't like to be surprised, and knows that his shipmates always want to throw him a surprise party.
Newspaper Comics
- Garfield hates birthdays, mainly because they remind him of how old he is. (Considering the strip has been around for two or three regular cat lifespans, he may have a point.) When the actual party comes, however, he usually softens up.
- Pearls Before Swine: Larry the Crocodile is revealed to really hate his birthday. He tries some strange tricks like hiding from his birthday cake, and covering his ears(?) and saying "Me can't hear you!" more than once when his name is called in the "Happy Birthday" song. He does these things because he thinks he won't grow a year older if he does them. He wants to think of himself as 26 years old, when he's apparently twice that age!
Video Games
- in Katawa Shoujo, Hanako Ikezawa completely breaks down every year around her birthday. Its implied that this is because her birthday was when the fire that disfigured her body and killed her family happened, but the truth is, well, not quite so simple:
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Hanako: Every birthday was the same. Everyone doing their best to pretend that I mattered. Everyone pretending everything was alright... for one day of the year. I didn't want to exist, but they wouldn't let me. |
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Web Original
- The only holiday The Nostalgia Critic enjoys is Christmas. He would rather not pay any attention to his birthday.
Western Animation
- Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb hates his birthday because his parents never showed up for his birth.
- Raven in the Teen Titans animated series.
- Due to the fear of the implications of growing up, Angelica behaves this way during her third birthday in a Rugrats episode, though in the end she regrets it when she realizes that, when growing up, she can eat candy with bigger teeth than the babies'.
- Mac from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has a twist; due to his best friend Bloo giving him surprise birthdays on almost any day except the actual day of his birthday (with one exception), he's grown something of a hatred towards them. It's mainly because he's put in embarrassing situations.
- In Futurama, Mom hates "Mother's Day" (a day when all the robots her company built show their affection), since her true love, Professor Farnsworth, left her after an argument. It's not technically her birthday, but it serves the same purpose (being a celebration centered around her).
- Gloomious Maximous from the Rolie Polie Olie movie.
- Jackie Chan Adventures: Uncle makes it clear in one episode that he hates birthdays. He refuses to celebrate and when asked about it, he retorts "When I grow a year younger, then I'll celebrate!"
- The Mr. Men Show: Mr Grumpy doesn't like celebrating his birthday, he even sings about it.