Seth: Hey, Greg, why don't you go piss your pants again?
Greg the Soccer Player: That was, like, 8 years ago, asshole!
Seth: People don't forget!
Greg the Soccer Player: That was, like, 8 years ago, asshole!
Seth: People don't forget!
— Superbad
Some people just don't have the best fortune. They may have done something really embarrassing or regretful in their past that they're now completely ready to leave behind... if only everyone, their mother, and their dog wouldn't keep bringing it up at every opportunity.
Once Done, Never Forgotten describes any In-Universe situation where a character has done something in the past that other characters (or the universe itself) won't let them forget. The nature of the deed isn't terribly important for the purposes of this trope; it could be anything from downright evil to benign or even funny. Whatever the case may be, the important part is that this deed casts a shadow on the character wherever they go.
Once Done, Never Forgotten is a versatile trope, as it can easily be played for drama or humor. When played for drama, the character may have done something unforgivable, and the other characters bring it up constantly to shame and scorn them. Just as often, however, the trope is Played for Laughs, with old embarrassments being repeatedly brought up for the cast's amusement (as well as our own). In comedic examples, the target of the mockery may become a Butt-Monkey, and the mockery tends to be more playful and lighthearted than hateful. In less grave examples, the ribbing can even become an Insult of Endearment.
Related to (and can overlap with) Forgiven, but Not Forgotten, Criminal Record Stigma, and Old Shame. Contrast Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?, which is when characters keep referencing something awesome a character did, and Flanderization, which is when a once-minor trait completely engulfs the character, but isn't actually referenced In-Universe. If the incident is mentioned but never elaborated on, it's a Noodle Incident.
Compare the out-of-universe variant Never Live It Down, where a character is endlessly mocked by the fandom for a one-time or long-past event. If a show's creators notice fandom mockery of a character and slips it into canon, that's a form of Ascended Meme.
As per the definition of this trope, this means In-Universe Examples Only.
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Advertising
- In one Capital One commercial, the Grinch volunteers to deliver Christmas presents, but is refused.
Grinch: You steal the presents one time...
Anime & Manga
- In Boarding School Juliet, one reason for Romio's poor reputation with his fellow Black Dogs is a fluke he made in the school's Sports Festival the previous year, during the 100-meter race that decided the winner note . He was warned not to participate in any sporting event again. Even though he redeems himself in the very same race this year, later that day his reputation would only sink even lower than before, in the Mock Cavalry Battle that again decided the winner. Mainly because the loss was due to accidentally groping Juliet and passing out from a massive Nosebleed in the process. Not only was Romio ousted from his position as Black Dog leader, he gets an Embarrassing Nickname on top of it.
- Chainsaw Man: A nasty rumor about Denji circulating in Part 2 is that he eats humans like most Fiends and hybrids. Due to how he defeated Makima by eating her, Denji can't fully refute those claims.
- At the start of Charlotte, Yuu Otosaka uses his powers to possess people in order to cheat on tests, enabling him to get into a prestigious high school and get the attention of the School Idol. Nao Tomori catches him in the act and forces him to transfer to her school to help track down other ability wielders and stop them from abusing their powers. Yuu becomes a better person over time, but that doesn't stop Nao from snarking at him for being a cheater, often when he expresses genuine sympathy over her traumatic past.
- Code Geass: Princess Euphemia is likely going to be forever remembered for slaughtering thousands of innocent Japanese under the influence of the Geass, never mind that she would never do such a thing of her own volition.
- In Delicious in Dungeon, Marcille is constantly chewed out by Shuro and Kabru's party once they find out Marcille used black magic to revive Falin and is part of the reason how Falin became a chimera. Others like Maizumi refuse to have Marcille use any type of magic to revive their fallen members, though they allow her to heal the wounded.
- Dragon Ball Z: In the Buu Saga, Gotenks was hyped up to be the hero who would defeat Majin Buu and save the world, but he utterly failed to do so, getting his ass handed to him by Fat Buu and losing to Super Buu because he was more concerned with showboating and trying to make himself look cool. By the time of Super, the Dragon Team have decided that Gotenks is too immature and Lethally Stupid to be relied upon for anything; come the Tournament of Power, they tell Goten and Trunks point-blank that they're not on the team because the last time they depended on Gotenks to save the world, he completely screwed up and nearly got everyone killed.
- Girls und Panzer: Yukari will always be Sergeant Third-Class Oddball for Saunders students, after her attempt to infiltrate the school under that name.
- Downplayed in GTO: The Early Years The first thing Fumiya says to Saejima after getting out of juvie is asking if he's "that pencil nose guy", an understandable Berserk Button for Saejima (especially since Fumiya was one of the people who did it to him).
- High School D×D: After befriending Asia Argento, Xenovia Quarta often beats herself up for calling her a witch during their first meeting.
- Love Live! Sunshine!!: When coming up with names for their three-girl idol group, Riko Sakurauchi suggests "Three Mermaids", though when Chika and You dismiss it she asks them to forget it. Later in episode 5, when trying to figure out how to boost Aquors fame, Riko suggest they rename their now larger group to something more eccentric. Chika jokes they can go with "Five Mermaids" this time, much to Riko's embarressment.
- Minami-ke: One day, Chiaki decided to give everyone in her class a nickname, with Shuuichi ending up with the Embarrassing Nickname "Plain Yogurt". While the nickname didn't stuck, Shuuichi hated it so much that he keeps complaining about it many chapters/episodes later and says that he doesn't even like yogurt.
- Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation: On his very first day after enrolling at Ranoa Magic Academy, Rudeus instantly got on the bad side of the female student body when he got accused of being a Panty Thief, especially when the apparent victim was a VIP, Princess Ariel. Rudeus happening upon the undergarments was an actual accident, and the princess' bodyguard Fitts bailed him out before he got lynched by a mob, but it's a Running Gag to bring this incident up even after Rudy unwittingly builds a reputation around campus.
- My Hero Academia:
- In the first chapter, Bakugou gets attacked by a sludge villain and is held hostage before being rescued by All Might. The other students at Ultra Academy know better than to anger him by bringing it up, but civil servants and upper authorities with the academy and Hero Association still refer to him as "That kid from the slime monster incident." Someone brings it up at some point during the sports festival, when Bakugo gets kidnapped by the League of Villains, and during the Provisional License exam.
- After the Provisional License Exams just before the start of the second term in September, Bakugo starts a fight with Midoriya, who fights back and ultimately loses, resulting in both boys being confined to the dorms for a few days. Iida is rather annoyed with both of them for acting out, and even refers to them as "the lockdown boys" the following spring.
- Sero is subject to a Curb-Stomp Battle courtesy of Todoroki at the Sports Festival. Given the overwhelming difference in raw power, everyone in the audience tells him, "Don't worry about it!" He moans about this later, as people continued to tell him this even after the Sports Festival ended. His classmates sympathize with him before telling him, "Don't worry about it!"
- In One Piece, when the Straw Hat Pirates reunite after a two-year Time Skip, Zoro of all people (he's the most notorious offender of No Sense of Direction in the crew) was the first to arrive at their meeting place. He proceeds to rub it in everyone's faces by calling them by the order they have arrived in (with him as Number 1, of course), to Sanji's chagrin.
- Pokémon the Series:
- When Ash reunites with Misty and Brock during Sun and Moon so they can help his class tour Kanto, the topic of earning Gym Badges comes up. Both of them are still giving Ash grief about earning their badges out of pity.
- Clemont is revealed to have lost to Drasna between X and Y and Journeys, which Bonnie won't let him live down.
- Spirit Circle features Flors the architect, who journeys to build a sphinx in a far-off land and ends up being known only for that, even though he thought of the project as a failure. He spends the rest of his life as a distant, bitter old man; his last breath begging for anyone to simply use his name rather than calling him "Master Sphinx".
- YuYu Hakusho: Early in the Chapter Black arc, Team Urameshi got caught in a game of Taboo where the loser could potentially lose his soul. Hiei deliberately disregarded the rules of the game out of impatience, leading to him being the first to lose his soul, which became a frequent source of mockery for him.
Comic Books
- Ant-Man:
- Hank Pym, the first Ant-Man, hit his wife, Janet van Dyne (aka, The Wasp), in The Avengers (1963) #213, and the incident has continued to hang a dark shadow over his character both in and out of universe to this day. Even the Skrull spy that impersonates him resents having to pose as a wife beater. Never mind that Hank hit Janet once, was undergoing a mental breakdown at the time, and accepted full responsibility when Janet filed for divorce afterwards. The Never Live It Down nature of this incident has even been deconstructed a few times. In Secret Empire, when Tony Stark snidely brings it up during an argument, Hank goes on an angry tirade, ranting about how unfair and ridiculous it is that he still gets crap for this one mistake in spite of all his other accomplishments and good deeds, while Tony himself has made mistakes with much worse consequences yet others will always Turn the Other Cheek for him.
Hank: How dare you?! I discovered Pym particles. I took artificial intelligence to the next level. I founded the Avengers Academy! What have you ever done?! You were a lout and a cretin who made his fortune selling weapons to murderers. Your arrogance started two wars — your incompetence put Norman Osborn in power! And you try to lecture me?! Every day I had to hold this monster inside me at bay — do you understand what he would do if I let him loose? He would incinerate the flesh of every man, woman, and child on Earth and laugh about it! Every day I live with this, and I save the world a hundred times over! But I made one mistake — one mistake! Years ago! And it's all any of you will ever remember me for — all you ever say about me! You think I can't hear the whispers?! The way you look at me when I walk into the room?
- Hank and Janet had another similar scene in The Ultimates, a reimagining of the Avengers set in the Ultimate Marvel universe, only worse. Far, far worse - not only does he hospitalize Janet, it turns out in this continuity this has been going on for the whole time they've been dating. Pym is kicked out of the team because of it, and beaten to a pulp by Captain America, and everyone always treats him with disdain afterward. Even when Pym pulls a Redemption Equals Death in Ultimatum, Captain America keeps insulting Hank before realizing that he's dead.
- Hank Pym, the first Ant-Man, hit his wife, Janet van Dyne (aka, The Wasp), in The Avengers (1963) #213, and the incident has continued to hang a dark shadow over his character both in and out of universe to this day. Even the Skrull spy that impersonates him resents having to pose as a wife beater. Never mind that Hank hit Janet once, was undergoing a mental breakdown at the time, and accepted full responsibility when Janet filed for divorce afterwards. The Never Live It Down nature of this incident has even been deconstructed a few times. In Secret Empire, when Tony Stark snidely brings it up during an argument, Hank goes on an angry tirade, ranting about how unfair and ridiculous it is that he still gets crap for this one mistake in spite of all his other accomplishments and good deeds, while Tony himself has made mistakes with much worse consequences yet others will always Turn the Other Cheek for him.
- Asterix: In the comics it happens with Alésia. It was the place where the Gauls were defeated by the Romans, and as such, it is a taboo subject. Whenever Asterix asks about it in The Chieftain's Shield, people loudly and angrily claim that they don't know where Alésia is (and the comic claims this is the reason no one knows today where it is located, which was the case when the comic was written).
- Batman:
- Killer Moth used to be a big-name villain in Gotham until he was defeated by Barbara Gordon in her first ever costumed outing as Batgirl, something that his Villain Cred never recovered from.
- Batman will never let Huntress live down her body count of mobsters. Justified, because Batman is infamous for his adherence to Thou Shalt Not Kill, and Huntress began her career as a vigilante specifically to deliver lethal punishment to criminals, which she is sometimes portrayed as unrepentant about doing and/or continuing to do.
- For two decades, between Batman: A Death in the Family and Batman: Under the Hood, if Jason Todd got brought up after his death, it was usually other characters blaming him for dying. Which came after his mother, who Jason had been trying to reconnect with, sold him out to the Joker, who then bludgeoned Jason with a crowbar.
- Preventing an occurrence of this becomes the Joker’s motivation to commit "street" crimes that couldn't be linked to him in the story "Joker's Millions". Once Joker finds out that most of what deceased rival mob boss "King" Barlowe willed him was fake, he is torn between facing public shame for foolishly accepting a dead man's worthless fortune, getting jailed for tax evasion, or doing a crime to save his hide. This was later adapted into an episode for Batman: The Animated Series.
- Fantastic Four: The Trapster has a cool name (in comparison, at least), was a charter member of the Frightful Four, and wields fairly dangerous adhesive-based weaponry. He also debuted calling himself "Paste-Pot Pete" and had a string of humiliating defeats at the hands of the Human Torch and Spider-Man. And the heroes never let him forget it — to the point where just calling him "Pete" while he's in costume has become his Berserk Button.
- Green Arrow:
- Roy Harper was once addicted to heroin. His heroin addiction lasted for only two issues before he went cold turkey with help from Black Canary and Green Lantern. Originally, Roy's addiction was sometimes brought up as one of his failures and was usually only ever used against him during especially bad moments between him and his friends or teammates. Then after the New 52 changed everything, Roy's addiction was retconned into alcoholism and barely a single issue went by without it being brought up. It only got worse after his drug addiction was brought back into his history, this time with the alcoholism still canon and while it was established he was seeing a therapist.
- Coming off of this, Green Arrow threw Roy out of his home once he learned about Roy's addiction. While he felt guilty about it afterwards, it's long since been treated as one of the worst things Arrow did as a mentor and a father figure. And it doesn't help that Arrow has such a habit of routinely destroying his personal relationships that his abandonment of Roy keeps being brought up as just one example of what an asshole he can be.
- Green Lantern:
- Hal Jordan's run as the supervillain Parallax, although it's a bit milder than most other examples, as he was later revealed to have been Brainwashed and Crazy at the time.
- Guy Gardner will never live down the time he annoyed the Batman so much that Bats knocked him out with a single punch, or the time Superman almost stole his girlfriend Ice from him. It wasn't Supes' fault, though — Ice just said that she thought Superman was cute.
- Scarlet Witch: The Scarlet Witch removed the powers of almost all mutants in House of M, thousands of whom died as an immediate consequence. Although she was not herself at the time, everybody is angry with her because of it. She got this during her return in Avengers: The Children's Crusade and during Avengers vs. X-Men, Uncanny Avengers and others. In X-Men (2019), she is used as the boogeyman of the mutant nation of Krakoa.
- The Sentry: The Sentry once threw The Void into the sun. Subsequently, whenever a team he's on are dealing with a particularly powerful foe, someone will always suggest that they just have Sentry throw them into the sun. To make it funnier, after his death, Thor threw his body into the sun.
Sentry: I don't throw everything into the sun...
- Silver Surfer: The Silver Surfer is always haunted by his past as a herald of Galactus, and that under his service he led him to consume planets. He left him in the climax of The Coming of Galactus, his first story arc, and for many decades we had always known him as a former herald of Galactus. Still, the past is always mentioned, either because of aliens with a desire of revenge, or by the Surfer himself and his constant "It's All My Fault" attitude.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- Sonic loves to tease Antoine about his Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys phase, as seen in issue 204:
Sonic: Remember your old yellow streak?
Antoine: Oui. I recall it all too well.
Sonic: Because I totally could bring it up right now.
Antoine: I know.
Sonic: I've got a list.
Antoine: Stop eet. - Sonic himself gets it from Fiona Fox, who he unknowingly left behind in a remote prison while pursuing Robotnik, forcing her to break out herself. She's held a grudge against Sonic for his failure to save her for years, and it's one of the main reasons she ends up defecting to Scourge, using Sonic as a "prime example" of why she can't count on or trust anyone. She initially confessed that she did eventually see Sonic as a valiant hero after his Heroic Sacrifice to save Mobius from the Xorda, but that ultimately became an Ignored Epiphany.
- In issue 134, after Sonic declines helping her run the kingdom in favor of continuing the fight with Eggman, Sally responds by slapping him, lambasting him for being selfish, and essentially dumping him right in front of everybody in Knothole. Several call-backs to this moment are made, with it being made clear Sally regrets being so harsh; she even turns down a chance to start a romance with Monkey Khan for this reason, acknowledging she reacted badly and was unfair to Sonic.
- Sonic loves to tease Antoine about his Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys phase, as seen in issue 204:
- Supergirl: In Supergirl (2005), Kara's failure to save a cancer child patient in Way of the World would haunt her for a long while. People would often rub her inability to live up to her vow in to her face, and in Why The World Doesn't Need A Supergirl, Catherine Grant makes sure to bring it up when writing an exposé on why Supergirl is a terrible hero.
- Superlópez: In Los Alienigenas (The Aliens), one of the alien invaders (who have the ability to shapeshift at will) takes early in the story the form of a heater for a while to disguise himself. Later, when Superlopez is tracking down another of the aliens, he finds another heater, identical to the one used previously by the alien. Superlopez mistakenly thinks the alien has become again a heater (actually, the alien had taken the shape of a woman), and for the rest of the story, everyone seems to believe the aliens like taking the shape of heaters.
- Teen Titans: The villainess Cheshire once got her hands on a bunch of nuclear bombs and held the world hostage. And to show everyone she wasn't kidding, Cheshire dropped one on the country of Qurac and laughed as it burned, killing thousands upon thousands. She's long since been defined by this act of genocide. This counts as a Justified Trope because the sheer magnitude of the act is something that no sane person would ever forget when dealing with her, and she's repeatedly been targeted by people who want her to pay for it years after it happened.
- Transmetropolitan: The comic briefly introduced to a minor character who bemoans that, despite his skill with tools, he isn't called "Bill the Handyman" or "Bill the Stage Builder." We then see a speech bubble from off panel that calls out "Hey Bill Chimp-Fucker!" eliciting a wince from Bill. He later clarifies that it was "just one time" before vanishing from the comic.
- Ultimate Fantastic Four:
- Doom considers the experiment this, especially being blamed for it.
- A comical version is Reed being a Giver of Lame Names which gets a lot of riffing the first time, and the second time he's made something he gets asked "So what's this one called, the Wonderbus?"
- X-Men:
- Jean Grey. The Shi'ar won't forgive Jean for having been possessed/replaced by a cosmic entity and later corrupted by two psychic villains in The Dark Phoenix Saga; every so often, Shi'ar Empire radicals come to try to kill Jean (and did kill her entire family) because apparently merely being capable of hosting the Phoenix equals "may wake up one morning and decide to end the universe any day now."
- Kitty Pryde's atrocious attempt to design her own outfit keeps popping up at times to embarrass her.
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes: Hobbes repeatedly brings up something Calvin apparently did at school that is the Trope Namer for Noodle Incident. When he does this, Calvin gets angry and claims he was framed.note
Films — Animation
- In Big Hero 6, Wasabi got his nickname after spilling wasabi on his shirt once. He's annoyed by the name, but nevertheless goes by it.
Wasabi: I spilled wasabi on my shirt just one time, people! ONE TIME!
- In Chicken Little (2005), the titular character is bullied to no end and made a pariah for a year for once falsely claiming that the sky was falling. Referenced in "One Little Slip":
I get the feeling in this town/I'll never live 'till I live down/the one mistake that seems to follow me around.
- Coco: Héctor dying by choking on chorizo, which the other shantytown skeletons won't let him forget. Héctor nevertheless insists it was food poisoning. Turns out that Ernesto poisoned his tequila.
- Finding Dory: After outswimming a squid that nearly eats Nemo because Dory forgets the warning, Marlin (who had almost lost him before) snaps at Dory, angrily telling her that forgetting things is "what you do best", causing her to swim away to find help for Nemo to make up for it. Nemo (who's more forgiving to Dory) calls his dad out for this, and up until they make up, he often repeats that line to Marlin in a snarky way.
- Isle of Dogs: Spots encounters the infamous cannibal dogs on the island and asks if they're going to eat him. Their leader, Gondo, is indignant that other dogs think of them as only cannibals, admitting that they only ate one dog one time, and that was because of their former leader being stuck in a coma, and the choices were either eat him to live or starve. Gondo takes this pretty hard, since the dog they ate was his best friend.
- Subverted in Meet the Robinsons. Goob was given flak for missing a fly ball during a big game because he fell asleep due to Lewis keeping him awake the night before, causing him to resent Lewis and grow up to become a Bowler Hat Guy. The truth of the matter was however, while he was given flak initially, everyone soon forgot about it, and he was the only one obsessing over it, causing him to believe everyone else did as well. In the end Lewis prevents that from ever happening when he yells at Goob, which wakes him up and causes him to catch the ball he missed before.
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Ex-Big Bad Sunset Shimmer never expects to live down transforming into "a raging she-demon", mind-controlling Canterlot High as teenage zombies for her own personal army, and being an Alpha Bitch who made every other students' life miserable for years in the first Equestria Girls film. A Running Gag in the second movie is that even the only people willing to hang out with Sunset constantly bring it up against her, much to her dismay. It isn't until the third film that people stop regularly discussing it, and the fourth film until she's comfortable enough to joke about it herself.
- Puss in Boots (2011): Kitty Softpaws never stops bringing up the one time that Puss hits her with a guitar.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: This version of April O'Neil got stuck with the Embarrassing Nickname "Puke Girl" after her attempt to do her school's morning announcements lead her to gruesomely Stress Vomit due to a bad case of Performance Anxiety.
- Toy Story: In Toy Story 2, where Buzz, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky, Rex and Hamm mount a rescue mission to save Woody from being sold by Al. It is during their long walk to Al's Toy Barn, the toys seem to want to give up, but Buzz gives them a Rousing Speech telling them not to after he reminds them that Woody never gave up when they tossed him out of the moving truck in the first film. Needless to say, they cringe at the thought of it.
Mr. Potato Head: Oh, you had to bring that up.
- In Turning Red, Mei mentions in the epilogue that "People still talk about Pandapocalypse 2002".
- Wreck-It Ralph: Let's just say no one lets Turbo live down "going Turbo", that is, trying to hijack someone's game in a bid for attention. This is totally justified, since his actions resulted in both his and the other game unplugged and possibly hundreds of characters becoming homeless. This gets even more justified when its revealed that Turbo A) survived the incident; B) pulled it off again in Sugar Rush, this time successfully; and C) he even uses the term himself with zero self-awareness.
Films — Live-Action
- Ace Ventura: Pet Detective: Ray Finkle missed the winning kick of Super Bowl XVII, and he was cut from the Miami Dolphins team as a result. Moving back to his parents' house in Collier County, the locals assaulted him and vandalized his parents' house for years due to betting their life savings on the game before he was committed to a mental asylum for plotting to kill Dan Marino over how he held the ball during that last kick. Even when Ace interrogated the locals, they're all still bitter over Finkle's role in how the game ended.
- American Pie: Jim will be forever known as the guy who prematurely ejaculated in front of a smoking hot exchange student on webcam. The incident is mentioned in almost every single film in the series (even the made-for-TV ones), and in American Reunion, he discovers that it has even gone viral on YouTube.
- Await Further Instructions has this Played for Drama as Granddad always refers to his son Tony as "Squelcher" - all because Tony had once wet the bed as a child, and that only because he was afraid to leave his room against his father's express orders for fear of the punishment he'd receive for breaking them. He was beaten black-and-blue for wetting the bed.
- In Begin Again, Dave's affair with his producer Mim comes back to bite him when he tries to reconcile with Gretta, who brings up the name every chance to spite him.
- The parody disaster movie The Big Bus contains the immortal line "Jeeze! You eat one foot and they call you a cannibal!"
- In Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Colin mentions that all people remembered of Jerome F. Davies was him decapitating his wife while forgetting that he also was a visionary author.
- In Bloody Reunion, the one thing that all of his former classmates remember about Jung-Wo is that he is the boy who soiled himself in class.
- Les Boys IV: One scene in this movie reveals that Mario still hasn't forgiven Julien for when he betrayed the Boys in the second movie.
- Invoked in David Cronenberg's The Brood when Robert Silverman's character intends to sue the psychiatric clinic (run by Oliver Reed) that he believes to be responsible for his lymph cancer. He knows he's going to lose the case, but he also knows that in a few years, people won't even remember the verdict.
All they'll remember is the slogan: "Psychoplasmics Gives You Cancer." Catchy, huh?
- The premise of the HBO TV film Clear History is that main character Nathan Flomm never managed to live down being the guy who cashed in his share of a car company just days before its insanely popular electric car model went public, thus managing to lose out on over a billion dollars and becoming a laughingstock overnight.
- Clerks II both plays it straight and subverts it with Dante and Randall's former classmate Lance "Pickle Fucker" Dowds, who had earned the nickname in an incident of high school hazing. After Randall recounts the incident where Lance earned the nickname, Lance replies that nobody but the aimless Randall Graves would remember the incident at all. Cue Jay walking in and saying "Hurry up Pickle Fucker, I wanna get my cow tipper on!" As Jay is leaving, he yells off-screen, "Hey, Silent Bob, some pickle fucker just gave us free eats!" after Lance does so, revealing that Jay occasionally just randomly calls people "pickle fucker".
- Dad's Army (1971): Even months after it happens, General Fullard won't forget how Captain Mainwaring refused to cash his cheque and so calls him "that damned bank clerk".
General Fullard: Let's examine your record this weekend. You arrive late, crush and ruin 100 sets of equipment, a dozen tents, break a pontoon bridge, and nearly drown a valuable horse. Not to mention me. And on top of all that, six months ago, you wouldn't cash my cheque.
- Evolution (2001) features the Kane Madness. Ira Kane actually managed to develop a functioning anthrax vaccine, but the laundry list of side effects (including, but not limited to debilitating stomach cramps, severe diarrhea, memory loss, partial facial paralysis, temporary blindness, drooling, bleeding gums, erectile dysfunction and uncontrollable flatulence) ensured that he was unemployable as a biomedical researcher and left him teaching high school biology for the rest of his life.
- In For Your Consideration, Victor Allen Miller (Harry Shearer) is a dramatic actor who has been a veteran of stage for 40 years, yet all most people seem to remember of him is being a hot dog pitchman on TV when he was younger.
- George of the Jungle 2: When Lyle is reintroduced during the story, the narrator gleefully reminded him of the time he fell into a pile of elephant poop in the first film. Lyle is less than amused.
- Grosse Pointe Blank: Martin Blank had nothing to do with the death of little Boudreaux. Little Boudreaux was a retriever, and just following his instincts and trying to fetch a stick, which happened to be one of the sticks of dynamite the "three junk bond fuckos" were using to flush out game birds, while Martin was attaching a bomb to their car. However, the incident was enough to brand Martin as "the guy who blew up a dog" for his entire career.
- In La Ferme des Sept Péchés, Paul-Louis Courier laments that despite his distinguished military service under Napoleon and a prolific career as a scholar and political writer, people know him only from the time he made an ink stain on an ancient manuscript.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Ant-Man: Scott Lang was once a criminal, who was captured and jailed. By the start of the film, he has served his time in prison, and he's ready to start again. He gets a job at Baskin-Robbins, but gets fired when his employers find about his past. With no jobs to take, he accepts to take part in a theft with his friends. Eventually, he ends working with Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, who gave him his suit. Now he is a superhero, and his first job is... to steal something.
- Avengers: Age of Ultron: During the opening battle, Steve Rogers briefly chastises Tony for swearing. The other Avengers find this hilariously uptight of him and throughout the film tease Steve whenever somebody swears around him. Steve is embarrassed by the whole thing, considering he wasn't really thinking when he rebuked Tony and even swears himself.
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Drax refers to Quill as "man who has lain with an Askervarian", to which Quill replies, "That was one time, man."
- It's revealed in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special that Mantis once ate an entire commissary's supply of zargnuts. This gets repeatedly brought up by Drax until she snaps:
Mantis: [livid] GET OVER THE ZARGNUTS!!!
- A Running Gag from Thunderbolts* (2025) is that nearly any time Yelena's peewee soccer team is mentioned, someone will mention that a girl named Mindy once did a poo at midfield.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Ron Weasley gets this when Professor McGonagall chooses him to help demonstrate the waltz.
Harry: You're never going to let him forget this, are you?
Fred and George Weasley: [they look to each other, look back to Harry and shake their heads] Never. - Once I, Tonya gets closer to the Nancy Kerrigan Knee-capping, Tonya's narration goes "I mean, it's what you all came for, folks— the fucking incident!"
- Ollie from Jersey Girl is largely unemployable after trashing his own client at a press conference. He gets one job interview because he's so infamous that his interviewers just want to meet him, not because they could ever hire him.
- Joe Dirt: After being abducted by "Buffalo Bob", everyone asks Joe if he was harmed in certain ways, even though nothing terrible really happened.
- The Long, Hot Summer: the Quick family just can't seem to shake its reputation as a family of barn burners, and it gets the protagonist run out of town before the opening credits even get the chance to start.
- In the director's cut of Mallrats, Brandi dumping T.S. is triggered by him accidentally shooting a senator with a prop musket from a play he was in at an event hosted by her father. Throughout the director's cut, people would bring up the incident. One particular example was the guy T.S. randomly beat up in the parking lot for asking him about Brandi in the final cut.In the director's cut, he asked him about the musket incident, and T.S. was finally sick of people bringing it up.
- Operation Grandma: How Alon became known as Krembo on the kibbutz.
Idan: [narrating] When Alon was 10 years old, he stole from the kitchen all the krembos which were brought as prizes for the exhibition booths in Purim. All the kibutz suspected him, but he denied it, and locked himself in his room...Alon figured that the only way to get away clean, while in such a small place as a kibbutz where you won't live it down for many years, is to destroy immediately all the evidence, so he ate 500 krembos within half an hour...but eventually he was caught, and since then everyone who knows him calls him...Krembo.
- The Other Guys: Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) became a pariah within the NYPD and the city as a whole when he shot a man in a Yankee Stadium corridor during the World Series, not knowing it was Derek Jeter. Although he's been on desk duty ever since then, his coworkers STILL don't let him forget.
- Pirates of the Caribbean:
- Jack Sparrow makes the suggestion once in the first film that Will Turner may be a eunuch due to the fact he hasn't got a girlfriend (again Jack's speculation). Will is thus repeatedly referred to as a eunuch (mostly by Jack himself).
- While it could be argued that "sea turtles" became more of an in-movie meme, the fact that it was Jack who seemed to have begun it seems to indicate its mention by other characters is more or less just their way to poke at Jack.
- Raising the Wind: On his first day at the London Academy of Music and the Arts, Malcolm accidentally kicks a bass drum loose and injures a cab driver. Sir Benjamin isn't impressed and reminds him of this when he meets him next.
- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: Boba Fett will apparently never live down that time he annihilated three Rebels who went at him with ion blasters and was denied the bounty over the issue, considering Vader looks and points at him specifically when specifying "no disintegrations".
- Superbad:
Seth: Hey Greg, why don't you go piss your pants?
Greg the Soccer Player: That was like 8 years ago, asshole!
Seth: People don't forget! - Tommy Boy:
- At one point, Tommy catches Richard ogling an attractive skinny-dipper with his fly undone. He doesn't let him forget it.
Tommy: [as they're going to sleep] Richard? Who's your favorite little rascal? Alfalfa? Or is it Spanky? [chuckles] Sinner...
- An elderly woman sitting on Callahan Auto's board constantly rants about "whores" coming to town if the company collapses, with the other members' exasperated reaction indicating that she's been harping on this for a very long time. Finally, her husband pipes up:
Old Man: "Jesus Christ... once during the war I visited a prostitute, and my life has been a living hell ever since!"
- At one point, Tommy catches Richard ogling an attractive skinny-dipper with his fly undone. He doesn't let him forget it.
- In the Christian movie Tribulation from the Apocalypse film series, young Calvin Canboro wets his pants while he and his brother Tom wait for their sister Eileen to finish her prayer to God about the tree she carved their names into. Years later, Tom Canboro keeps bringing it up, and their sister Eileen doesn't even remember whether it happened or not (or so she says).
Jokes
- The former Trope Namer for Bestiality Is Depraved — "But You Screw One Goat!" — had this trope as its punchline. Poor McGregor had a litany of impressive accomplishments to his name, but will only ever be known or remembered by the townsfolk as "McGregor the Goat Fucker" because of his one singular instance of goat-fucking.
- A weedy farmer's son named Jacob was helping his father unload wares at the Shrewsbury marketplace, when suddenly he farted so loudly that everyone in the market square turned to stare. Jacob immediately ran out of sight, then out of town, and kept running long after the town was out of sight. He ended up conscripted in an army, enslaved by pirates, shipwrecked on foreign shores, went around the Mediterranean three times, and had so many other adventures that it was more than sixty years until he was in sight of his hometown again, now a rich and respectable but heavily scarred, suntanned and muscular merchant prince. Unable to resist the lure of nostalgia, he went into town and saw a magnificent church that had not been there when he'd left. He asked a small child when the church had been built, who answered "It was started six years, three months and four days; and finished forty-one years, nine months and five days after The Day Jacob Farted."
Podcasts
- The Neighborhood Listen: When a guest takes a disliking to Burnt, his cohost Joan tries to talk him up by saying that she didn't like Burnt at first either but grew to appreciate him. Burnt is surprised to hear that Joan once found him irritating. She guiltily apologizes, and the ever-chipper Burnt says that he isn't mad but will never forget what she said. He brings it up several more times over the course of the episode, each time assuring her that he will never forget it.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: The deity Helm of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
- He doesn't seem to ever be able to live down his moments of Lawful Stupid, like killing the first Mystra. It's gotten to the point he and his followers still get called Lawful Stupid by other characters.
- Helm also gets a lot of flack from the fact that it was a group of his worshipers who found Maztica (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of the Mayincatec flavor)... and promptly turned into Conquistador-expies.
- Warhammer: The way Ogre mercenary Golgfag Maneater got his surname is an example. People started calling him Maneater after he settled a dispute with a human paymaster by eating him and walking away with his paychests. No big deal, except many people end up assuming he eats human meat and nothing else — which he doesn't — much to Golgfag's annoyance. Warhammer Ogres are Extreme Omnivores who'll eat literally anything when they're hungry (except gold, which is regarded as worthless due to lacking any nutritious value) and Golgfag is no exception, yet to this day he still has to grumpily explain to people who get the wrong idea that a) yes, he may eat a human if the mood strikes him, but b) no, he does not eat manflesh exclusively or have a particular taste for it.
Theatre
- Forms one of the greatest Running Gags in Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier: After having the seat of his pants torn out by a Bengal tiger, Prince Achmed becomes a laughingstock in the Magic Kingdom and elsewhere. Even worse, he's henceforth known as "tigerfucker" by his soldiers
, who cannot be convinced their prince wasn't violently sodomized by a tiger. Thing is, they're proud of him for such an achievement, despite his best efforts to reestablish the truth, and they even think his invasion of the Magic Kingdom is motivated by his wanting to be reunited with the tiger.
Princess: Didn't my tiger eat your ass?
Soldiers: Tigerfucker! Tigerfucker—!
Achmed: Stop it! [to the Princess] No! Your tiger did not eat — [to his soldiers] OR fuck — [back to the Princess] my ass! It is I who will be doing the fucking today.
Soldier: That's right. Bring Achmed his tiger and nobody gets hurt!
Achmed: SHUT UP!
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: Inverted. Ann has blamed herself for the incident regarding her Entanglelitis when it caused her to attack Ryan and slashed out his eye whenever it's brought up, despite Ayane and the rest of her family telling her it was an accident and wasn't her fault.
- Boktai: Played for Laughs in the Ice Tower of the Dark Castle. There is an ice block puzzle so brutally difficult that there is actually a button you can press to solve it for you, but you're warned that it's the "LOSER BUTTON" and that if you press it, you will forever be immortalized as a loser. Sure enough, pressing the button solves the puzzle and replaces the button with a plaque that reads "HERE FOREVER WRITTEN IS THE NAME OF THE LOSER DJANGO" (or whatever name you chose). However, the plaque is in a dungeon you only ever visit once, as when you finish it the entire tower is launched into space and destroyed on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere... along with the plaque and any evidence whatsoever that you're a loser. There's no other consquences for pressing the button, and given the game's sense of humor (not to mention one of the people responsible for the game), conning you into solving a brutal puzzle you have no good reason to do was deliberate.
- Blue Archive: Rumors start spreading that Sensei is a streaker after the events of Volume F, with multiple new characters bringing it up when they first meet Sensei. This is because at the end of that Volume, Sensei fell from a collapsing fortress in low orbit. The Shittim Chest protected them during atmospheric re-entry, but not their clothes, forcing them to run back home naked.
- Borderlands 3 has the Sell Out quest; when you take it, Tyreen calls you up because she needs a fresh murder vid for her followers, and nominates you to do the job because "you're a total gun slut", complete with bribing you with a gun. Should you actually follow through on it, Tyreen hands you the Legendary gun "Sellout", no questions asked. The problem: while it is an admittedly sweet gun, Tyreen's voice is recorded on it, with a number of crazed messages, to remind you that you sold your dignity for this weapon. note
Always remember that you're a gun slut, and you will never be clean.
- This is how The Deathslinger of Dead by Daylight earned his moniker. While using a prototype of The Redeemer, a Harpoon Gun designed to reel in bounties for capture, the harpoon simply speared right through the target. Taking out a good chunk of their guts and killing them on the spot. Even after working out the bugs, the nickname stuck with him.
- Dragon Quest II: In a conversation on Zahan where the group discusses slaps to the face for being reckless, the Princess of Cannock mentions her brother blew out the candles on her birthday cake several years prior to the events of the game. She still hasn't forgiven him for it, nor has she exacted revenge on him for it.
Princess of Cannock:Have you not, Brother? Now I come to think of it, I never did exact my revenge for you blowing out the candles on my birthday cake…
Prince of Cannock: Your birthday…? But this was years since! And I spent an hour groveling at your feet! Was that not enough!? - The Elder Scrolls:
- Downplayed in regards to Molag Bal's (Daedric Prince of Domination and Corruption) most infamous title, "King of Rape". To note:
- In-universe, he's only been recorded as having raped one person, but this does not prevent his most infamous title being that of the "King of Rape". It also doesn't help that this act was stated to be the "first" rape, similar in implication to the "first murder" of the Bible.
- Skyrim's Dawnguard DLC further downplays this. It's implied that this is one of the ways that Molag Bal chooses to confer the abilities of a Vampire Lord upon his most devout followers. While his male followers are asked to perform a large Human Sacrifice in his name, women are subjected to a far more degrading ritual at his hands, with the implication being further reinforced by Serana refusing to elaborate further on the matter.
- In the title's original context, personal assault wasn't even the focus. Instead the "King of Rape" was focused the corruption of racial and genealogical purity, both being Serious Business to the Dunmer.
- There is a stablemaster NPC in Skyrim named Hofgrir Horse-Crusher. Horse-Crusher isn't actually his family name, but a nickname. Turns out he used to absolutely love horse-riding, until one night he got blackout drunk and attempted to ride a colt, only to snap its back, earning him his new moniker. He has refused to ride a horse ever since.
- Downplayed in regards to Molag Bal's (Daedric Prince of Domination and Corruption) most infamous title, "King of Rape". To note:
- Fallout: New Vegas: "Cannibal" Johnson. No, he isn't a humanitarian. Once, cornered by raiders, he managed to kill one of them, and took a bite out of his heart for psychological warfare purpose. It worked, since they freaked out and ran away. It also got him stuck with his nickname.
- The Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy XIV is a Heroic Mime, so they tend to nod a lot whenever they agree to do something. As the story goes on, the Warrior of Light becomes a lot more expressive. However, most of the main characters tend to poke fun at the Warrior of Light for nodding all the time or being able to inspire the masses by a simple head nod.
- In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Dimitri gave a girl he liked a dagger as a going-away present. Sylvain still gives him guff about it to this day. Interestingly, she actually did keep said dagger to the present day, and it becomes a Chekhov's Gift later on.
- While Carol Tea may have ducked out on the girls in Freedom Planet 2, it wasn't the only time, and neither was the time she ducked out on Lilac in the original. The habit is so frequent, in fact, that Lilac and Milla (as the latter points out) have called it "pulling a Carol". Lilac taking off to find Merga at the end of the sequel is treated with the same jest.
Carol: You guys are never gonna let me live that down, are you?
Neera: Never. - CJ in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is constantly reminded by his friends and brother Sweet on how he fled to Liberty City after his brother died in a gang war, leaving behind everyone that needed him. The only thing CJ ever says about the event is how he needed to "get away from some shit." As the story progresses, Sweet starts cutting CJ some slack when he proves to him that he's staying to help out the gang while Ryder doesn't let up on it due to his Jerkass nature.
- Inazuma Eleven: One year before the start of the series, before the match between Kidokawa Seishuu and Teikoku Academy in the Football Frontier finals, Gouenji ran away from the match because his sister suffered a bad accident, leading to his team being disqualified. After changing school and getting back into soccer one year later, Gouenji had to face off Kidokawa in the semi-finals. His former teammates, particularly the Mukata triplets, still hated him and continued to mock him for running away, at least until they learn the truth about his sister, after which they stop taunting him.
- Mass Effect:
- The galactic community in Citadel Space still looks down on the quarians, usually manifesting as racial bigotry, for creating the geth. This is despite the fact that it occurred over two hundred years ago and, as Tali points out, billions of quarians were killed and they lost their homeworld; combined with the economic sanctions the Council imposed on the quarians as punishment for breaking interstellar law regarding AI's, one can easily say the quarians have paid for their mistakes. However this gets subverted when records of the original geth-quarian war reveal that it was mostly a war between pro-geth quarians and anti-geth quarians... then swings right back when one remembers the quarians alive today are not the same quarians who fought in that initial war and that some are open peace with the geth, or at least don't want to fight them.
- Another instance of this trope appears near the end of the Mars mission. In order to stop an infiltration unit created by Cerberus from leaving with the plans for the Crucible, James Vega rams the Cerberus shuttle with the Kodiak they used to to reach Mars. This causes a huge crash that destroys the enemy shuttle while leaving the Kodiak mostly intact but leaves James with a reputation of crashing and destroying shuttles all the time despite him no longer piloting the Kodiak.
- The Williams family get a lot of crap for the fact that Ashley's grandfather is the only human to surrender to aliens. Never mind that he did so to end a protracted siege where turians (who didn't really grasp that another species might operate under different military rules from their own) were firebombing emergency teams from orbit. He was blacklisted, and his entire family since then has suffered the same. Needless to say, the topic of Shanxi is a very sore subject for Ash, especially when xenophobes use it as a rallying cry.
- The Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3 adds two of these moments for Shepard: Joker will never let you (or Cortez) live down using him for bait that one time, and nobody lets Shep forget about shooting up that sushi place. Specifically, they won't let Shepard live down the part where they fell through a fish tank.
- Mass Effect: Andromeda: A datalog found at the turian campsite on Havarl has one of them hoping that if someone rescues them that they're not a human, because "the arrogant bastards will never let us live it down." Guess what species the player character is (though actually, Ryder does not do this).
- Needy Streamer Overload: KAngel's big spiral into madness in the "Internet Overdose" ending really kicks off when she, due to immense stress and mean comments, undergoes a horrific meltdown and pukes on stream. Despite all the other streams she may have done beforehand, with varied topics like gaming, anime, Fanservice, ASMR, and her personal life, this incident quickly overshadows everything else and she becomes "puke girl" to the wider internet. Naturally, this only further damages her mental state.
- Persona:
- Persona 4:
- Yukiko's Shadow hosts a dating gameshow and mentions "scoring a hot stud". Teddie has no idea what it means, but that doesn't stop him from bringing it up at almost every opportunity, even citing "scoring with girls" as one of his reasons for wanting to stay as a human. Unsurprisingly, Yukiko gets rather annoyed whenever he brings it up.
- Kanji's Shadow comes off as a Camp Gay He-Man Woman Hater, resulting in Yosuke teasing Kanji about being gay. In reality, Kanji occasionally shows attraction to Yukiko, before becoming romantically interested in Naoto. Shortly after facing his Shadow, Kanji admits that his actual fear is of rejection, and Kanji's mother tells the player character that he didn't have many friends of either gender while growing up.
- Rise doesn’t like to think about her shadow’s intention to "bare it all".
- Persona 5
- When Haru meets the group in Okumura's Palace during her temporary team-up with Morgana, she rather theatrically introduces herself as the "Beauty Thief." While Haru comes up with a much better thief name, Noir, upon joining, other teammates occasionally tease her about the "Beauty Thief" phase in Mementos skits and a scene at the start of the seventh Palace (in which the cognitive people wear masks like Haru's). The name also gets brought up in Persona 5 Strikers a few times, including by Haru herself, much to the confusion of new ally Zenkichi.
- Toranosuke Yoshida, the Sun Confidant, suffers from this. Twenty years ago, he was elected to the Diet, but his downfall came as a result of three scandals- missing a meeting to take a vacation, embezzling money and calling a voter an idiot at a forum. Despite the fact that his second and most serious offense wasn't even his fault, he ended up being forced out of politics, and branded with the Embarrassing Nickname "No-Good Tora."
- A Mementos skit in Royal has Akechi lamenting the infamous "pancakes" line that got him outed as Black Mask,Explanation(Major Spoilers) with the potential responses from the other Thieves being mocking. Likewise, Word of God has said that Futaba and Haru were intentionally written to avoid directly interacting with Akechi to show they never forgave him for the murder of their respective parents.
- Persona 4:
- In Red Dead Redemption, John's former gang members love to bring up the fact that his wife Abigail was a prostitute and that they had all slept with her, though from what is seen in the prequel, there is no indication that Abigail was treated disrespectfully by the gang or that she slept around frequently with other members. It's possible they said that just to spite John or to get under his skin. John himself does not care.
- Resonance of Fate: Early on in the middle of a blackout, Zephyr claims to be "good in the dark". Considering he says that shortly after accidentally walking in on Leanne in the bath (thinking she was being attacked by a monster), Vashyron just runs with it and keeps making fun of Zephyr about it every time it comes up.
- Solatorobo: Protagonist Red finds out that Tagalong Kid Elh is scared of bugs. It becomes a Running Gag in the game. Elh even says "I'm never going to live this down, am I?" the first time the fact is discovered. An NPC uses the exact words after sending Red down a mine and nearly killing him via overenthusiastic application of mining explosives.
- SOON: To Atlas' chagrin, people always remember that one time Atlas blew up a "little chunk of Switzerland."
- A really odd example in Starcraft is Tychus Findlay, who says the sentence "Hell, it's about damn time" a total of one time in his appearances in Starcraft 2 (Yes, only the intro). You'd swear it was his catchphrase with how much his Heroes of the Storm counterpart says it.
- Prince Snowe from Star Stealing Prince is very nearly killed at the start of the game, coming close enough to death to break an enchantment on his kingdom that's tied to his life and put it in jeopardy. From that point on, none will ever miss an opportunity to remind him that he's an idiot who couldn't even go on a small journey without getting himself (almost) killed even when it's decided that breaking the enchantment was for the best.
- Velvet Crowe of Tales of Berseria will never live down the one moment where she acted like a dove in order to fool a security guard. Magilou in particular keeps bringing it up to annoy Velvet.
- In The Walking Dead: Season One, Lee will make fun of Carley at several points for the time that she couldn't get a radio to work... because she put the batteries in backwards.
Web Animation
- In Battle for BFDI, Balloony keeps reminding Leafy about the time she killed him by overinflating him in BFB 2, much to her annoyance.
- In The Champions, Loris Karius's botched throw in the 2018 Champions League final is the subject of multiple jokes. A book by him titled Goalkeeping Essentials is claimed to be "[a] book that nobody reads", and when the Champions League goalkeepers fail to prevent a meteor strike, they refuse to return to avoid similar embarrassment:
Alisson: We can't go back, we blew it! We'll be a bunch of... Loris Kariuses down there.
- The Cyanide & Happiness Show has Fart in a Jar Martin, who plays with this trope a fair bit. He has the nickname because he farted in a jar in the fourth grade, and every time someone calls him the name, he complains that he only did it one time... but the thing is, he carries the jar around with him so that he can prove to people that it only happened once, and he always introduces himself by claiming that people call him Fart in a Jar Martin despite the fact that he only did it one time in the fourth grade. Everyone around him just really wants him to stop talking about it. Then it's revealed that he actually did it on a daily basis for years, and continues to do it to this day.
- In the DEATH BATTLE! match between Aquaman and Namor, Wiz stabs Boomstick in the foot with one of the sea kings' tridents. Boomstick gives Wiz hell about it throughout the rest of that season and into the next.
- Subverted with Car Crash in Epithet Erased, who protests that he has his nickname because he crashed one car...four times. When he subsequently crashes it a fifth time, the subtitles just refer to the event as "the inevitable", and Giovanni wonders out loud if it might be astigmatism and suggests that he get his eyes checked.
- Refreshing Stories: In "My wife was having an affair at an abandoned hotel... which was also the venue for the air soft match", Mikoshi left the survival game team after Hiroshi allegedly shot him in one of their past matches, causing Hiroshi, Bunta, and the rest of the team to follow suit. Years later, Mikoshi still refuses to let go of the past and sets up a hard airsoft match to trick him into losing. Hiroshi still wins by shooting him despite dressing up a hostage dummy as himself.
- In RWBY, Jaune Arc suffers from motion sickness, so his introduction consists of him vomiting on the flight into Beacon. Since it's the first thing Ruby Rose ever learns about him, she nicknames him "Vomit Boy". While reminiscing about the past over dinner in Volume 5, Jaune mentions feeling queasy because of how much they've all eaten, so Yang Xiao Long calls him "Vomit Boy", leaving him unimpressed. In the next volume, Ruby has him listed on her scroll under that nickname.
- Sgt Ducky: Tony getting sicked on by Emma after betraying his girlfriend and the boys will never be forgotten, and it has long since been immortalised as a cautionary tale on why you should never betray your friends.
Web Comics
- Batman: Wayne Family Adventures: In "Clean Up", Duke, the newest Bat-kid, realizes that he forgot about the gala Bruce is holding that evening and hasn't stashed his superhero gear safely away from prying eyes, despite Alfred's repeated reminders. Duke's frantic inner monologue notes that if Batman's secret gets revealed because he neglected to pick up his costume and arsenal, he'll never live it down.
- Bittersweet Candy Bowl The rest of the school subjects Jessica and Tess to this treatment (Jessica is not actually a slut, and Tess regrets the bullying she did).
- Everyone in Darwin Carmichael is Going to Hell, from the police to Darwin's friends, won't stop giving Darwin a hard time about how he accidentally "made the Dalai Lama retarded". Much of the plot involves him trying to find redemption and earn karma to make up for his youthful mistake.
- El Goonish Shive has Abraham's creation of the Dewitchery Diamond, an apparently indestructible gemstone that creates cursed abombinations. Every properly trained wizard has heard of him, apparently.
- Cat from Furry Experience celebrates completing a research paper by doing her "happy peanut butter dance." Her roommate Ronnie happens by, and records the whole thing on her phone. To Cat's chagrin, Ronnie has made this song-and-dance into her ringtone.
- This transpires in Girl Genius when knowledge of Tarvek's... "adorning" of Lucrezia-controlled Agatha becomes widely known. Even Gil heard about it. He still does it in his head sometimes, so he has only himself to blame for it.
- In Grrl Power, Maxima doesn't appreciate being reminded she once (accidentally) destroyed a mosque.
General Faulk: I don't think you're in any danger of being knocked of your throne yet, oh Destroyer of Mosques.
Maxima: [slams desk] ONE mosque! And it was an accident! Mostly. - Homestuck: Nobody will let Karkat forget the shipping chart.
- In Jupiter-Men, Jackie will not let it go about Nathan accidentally ripping out her soul that one time while griping about how traumatic it was.
Jackie: Just to be extra, super clear. I'm just getting scanned, right? I'm not getting my soul sucked?
Nathan: You're not going to let that go, are you? - In Kevin & Kell, Dorothy dated Rudy's coach when they were in school. He proposed to her, but she turned him down, marrying Kevin's dad instead. As their marriage ended in a bitter divorce, Rudy's coach likes to say "I told you so" whenever the two contact each-other.
- The Order of the Stick:
- Eugene's hijacking Shojo's summoning for a Being of Pure Law and Good (Leaving the intended angel Bound and Gagged) has resulted in none of the other angels and archons wanting anything to do with him. "You abduct one deva and suddenly you're a Celestial leper! Even to the Celestial leopards!"
- After Vaarsuvius sells their soul to fiends in exchange for power, Blackwing continuously reminds them of how dumb their actions were.
Vaarsuvius: I have a plan.
Blackwing: Does it involve selling your soul?
- Schlock Mercenary:
- Captain Tagon gets this after he crashes into a table and winds up with a fork in his eye. For the rest of the Mallcop Command arc, his crew keep making fork jokes.
Captain Tagon: I bet I can live that down after I turn it to my advantage.
- Tagon himself gets in on it by threatening to pass the fork on to a grunt as a "prize" for too much chicanery.
- Next arc has a semi-callback to it when he gets a knife stuck in the same eye. He pulls it out and uses it murder the guy that threw it.
- Captain Tagon gets this after he crashes into a table and winds up with a fork in his eye. For the rest of the Mallcop Command arc, his crew keep making fork jokes.
- Shortpacked!: Robin's a decorated war hero, and served two terms as her district's congresswoman, having ran actively for a third term, and having been key an a great deal of landmark legislation, including one bill that resulted in a month of world peace. All people remember her from is that one sex tape.
- Sidekick Girl: Illumina has a rep among her fellow heroes as a jinx with a trail of dead sidekicks. Only one of Illumina's sidekicks actually died in action, and we saw that was a Heroic Sacrifice. Another went insane as a result of his powersnote and another simply abandoned her in the middle of a fight. Other than her current and longest-standing sidekick, Val (the title character), we don't know what happened with any of Illumina's sidekicks, from how many there were to why they were reassigned to other heroes. Other than, of course, that they're not dead.
- In The Whiteboard, Doc grumbles about being asked to not maul anyone while refereeing this time.
- White Dark Life: Luigifan will never, ever live down the time he accidentally hit Uma in the face with a glass bottle and knocked her unconscious. Even worse were the contents — he tried to make a Love Potion using assorted pheromones. What he actually made, due to not being all that much of a chemist, is a stinkbomb.
- Luigifan had a lot of trouble living down the time he nearly killed Tulip with his Yveltal. The incident made it onto the Quotes page for "Didn't Think This Through" for a damn good reason.
- Another from Luigifan is claiming that Princess Torch would make "beautiful firebird babies" with Inu. (He was actually expressing relief that Torch wasn't saying something outlandish about Inu, with the example being that they would "make beautiful firebird babies", but everyone around him reacted... poorly. Torch absolutely hates it when the incident is brought up.)
- Torch will likely never live down her repeated glomping of Inu, including when she nearly crushed him to death on their first meeting and the extended cuddle session that prompted the aforementioned "beautiful firebird babies" remark.
Web Original
- James Zanasiu from Darwin's Soldiers talks about how his greatest shame was setting fire to the biology lab during his post-doc because he didn't realize how the hot plates he used ran much hotter than the ones he used during his Ph.D.
- Wheeljack giving the Dinobots simple brains for authenticity is an example from the Dr. Smoov The Transformers parody videos. Optimus mocks him mercilessly for it when they do a commercial together, saying "Hey, let's make the Dinobots stupid like real dinosaurs! I'm Wheeljack, I make stupid robots!"
- The Onion:
- One Onion News Network video has a returning, wounded veteran being constantly reminded by everyone in his hometown of Pennington, IL that he shit his pants in the 4th grade. Even the mayor awarding him a key to the city brings it up and the veteran is clearly facepalming at this; he's quoted as saying "he can't wait to leave Pennington and get back to the fight."
- Another video has the same town haranguing and harassing a guy who moved to New York to make it big in the music scene, only to come back with no success. Even the cops are pulling him over constantly and patting him down. And the reason he moved back? His girlfriend committed suicide, and the news anchors' reaction to this is that "he'll finally have something to write about".
- There's also the article "Everyone Still Remembers Time You Threw Up In 5th Grade".
- "Man Who Got Shit Together 5 Years Ago Still Viewed As Lovable Fuckup By Friends, Family"
- "All Of Man's Accomplishments Overshadowed By Hefty Birth Weight"
- One Onion News Network video
- The Cracked article 5 Popular Figures of Speech That Have Creepy Hidden Meanings plays with this, regarding "those bastards at the Department of Homeland Security": "You've made like a million sandwiches in your lifetime, but do they call you the sandwich maker? Of course not. But you commit one war crime and suddenly you're 'a war criminal.'"
- In TomSka's video "The Blame Game", several of the people whom Tom kidnaps still remember him as that fat kid whom they called "Ham Man".
Web Videos
- An early episode of Atop the Fourth Wall was Batman: Fortunate Son, a bizarre comic featuring Batman waging war on the evils of rock music. For years after that review, just about any appearance of Batman would prompt a joke about his hatred of rock, and Linkara still makes them whenever possible. He's admitted both on the show and off that Batman Vs. Rock and Roll is one Running Gag he will never get tired of.
- Similarly, the episode on Superman #701 had a scene where Superman decides not to bust some drug dealers, on the questionable basis that "over there has to stand for itself". Whenever Superman appears in later reviews, there's generally a gag where he refuses to solve a problem because it's "over there", and times when he wants to help "over there" are treated as an Out-of-Character Moment.
- Game Grumps: animated scene has Dan mock Arin for spelling "eye" as "E-W-E" for the rest of their life, bringing it up even after Arin has his first child and when they're both dead in their graves. To top it off, Arin's grave says "closed his ewes."
- The Runaway Guys: During the last part of the Luigi’s Engine Room board in the Mario Party Triology series, Emile gets to the Boo and, instead of stealing a Star from the AI, he decides to go after Claire instead, under the assertion that she "has the Minigame Star" (while the AI has the Coin Star locked in, which Claire herself is also quick to point out to him). Needless to say, when the results are announced and the Bonus Stars are handed out (with the exception of the Happening Star since nobody landed on one the entire game), Claire gleefully all but spells out that Emile's mistake that wound up giving the AI the win is something she will never let him live down "for the rest of [his] life"; this one mistake locked her into winning the first game overall in the three game marathon LP, despite coming last in the board itself.
- One Retsupurae video series had slowbeef give ProtonJon hell over being conned into LPing a Super Mario World romhack by its creator, who claimed he had cancer and that his last wish was to see his hack LPed before he died, but was later found to have made up the whole thing.
- TFS at the Table: Several of Wake's teammates have indicated that they will indeed remember when, just as they had convinced a very petty dragon not to kill them all, Wake ran off with the dragon's enchanted armour that he hadn't dropped - and threw all his teammates lives into jeopardy again.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: A Running Gag throughout the series is that when someone is reminded about a mistake they made in the past or something bad they did, they respond with a defensive "It was just one time!" or some other variation of "one time".
- Batman Beyond: Terry/Batman II is constantly reminded of his delinquent record, despite having paid for it by spending months in Juvenile Hall. In Return of the Joker, he tells Bruce this was the reason he accepted donning the mantle.
Terry: I'm trying to make up for past sins. The state says my three months in juvie wiped me clean, but my soul tells me different. Every time I put on that suit, it's my chance to help people that are in trouble. I guess on a personal level, it's a chance to look like a worthwhile human being again. In my eyes, if no one else's! It's what I want, Bruce.
- Beavis and Butt-Head: In "Crying", Butthead notices Beavis crying while watching The Bachelor (in truth, it was because of an onion in a chili dog) and proceeds to remind Beavis of it at every opportunity. Even 80 years later when the two are wheelchair bound at a retirement home, Butthead is still making fun of Beavis for crying.
- Bob's Burgers: In "Poops!... I Didn't Do It Again", Bob mentions the time Linda pooped in a bucket at a wedding because the line for the bathroom was too long. Linda then complains that she only did it once.
- Centaurworld: In "Holes: Part 3", every time someone brings up Mary, the scene cuts to her furiously complaining about the herd ruining her wedding a few episodes ago.
- In the Dragons: Riders of Berk episode "Fright of Passage", Astrid holds a particular chip on her shoulder because her Family Honor was mocked and teased by the village ever since her Uncle "Fearless" Finn Hofferson froze when faced against the Flightmare a decade prior. It was eventually revealed that Finn did not freeze in terror, but rather because the Flightmare sprays a paralyzing venom. The news of this revelation restores the Hofferson name.
- Futurama:
- Leela once fell for Zapp Branigan's acting and had sex with him. She completely despises him and wants nothing to do with him, but the issue is always mentioned when he's around. Mainly because he's her personal Abhorrent Admirer and loves to mention his moment of glory at every chance he gets.
- Fry performing certain deeds which led to him becoming his own grandfather. Usually the Professor tends to be the one to bring it up most.
Fry: I did do the nasty in the pasty.
Nibbler: Verily!
- The Great North:
- In Season 1 "Period Piece Adventure", Vera has a grudge against Beef because he trespassed on her property. Once, thirty years ago when he was sledding by her house as a kid and left snow tracks on her driveway and she tells him she'll never forget it.
- In Season 1 "My Fart Will Go on Adventure", when the Shaw family brings up an example of them not being a perfect family for the Tobins, Ruth brings up the time Louis, after eating some egg salad, farted on their couch one time 17 years ago. Apparently, his fart smelled so bad that Ruth called the fire department because she thought there was an electrical fire in the walls and they tried to reupholster their couch but the smell was too deep in so they had to get rid of it. According to Louis, Ruth and Honeybee's grandma have never let him forget it.
- Hey Arnold!:
- One episode had Rhonda throw a party in which some characters were not invited for being Geeks. They bring up the literal definition of the word, which repeatedly prompts this exchange: "...And none of us bite the heads off chickens! Except Curly." "Yeah! And that was only the one time!"
- Another example (and deconstruction) occurs in "Phoebe's Little Problem". Phoebe, while accepting an award on stage at a school assembly, accidentally farts into a microphone. The rest of the students won't let her live it down, eventually causing her to become a shut-in. Some of the other students (and Mr. Simmons, the teacher) feel bad for her and try to cheer her up, but their attempts end up making her feel worse. Finally, at another assembly, Phoebe gets on stage and goes on a tirade about how, in spite of everything else she's done, all the other students are reducing her to just being "the girl who farted", as if that was the extent of her accomplishments. When Harold still proceeds to mock her for it, he ends up wetting his pants and runs away while everyone laughs at him and Rhonda says "He's never gonna hear the end of it."
- House of Mouse: Played for Laughs in "House of Crime". Things begin going missing and the guests begin accusing each other. Perdita claims Cruella stole her and Pongo's children. Cruella snaps back that it was only one movie, and she's never heard the end of it.
- Justice League: Even though Hawkgirl ultimately chooses the Justice League and Earth over her Thanagarian people, the public (and even some of her fellow supers) have yet to forgive her for her actions in "Starcrossed". Seasons later, there are in-universe web forums solely dedicated to bashing her, and some of Hawkgirl's former True Companions in the League still have trouble trusting her again.
- The Loud House: As revealed in "Middle Men", Lynn suffered from an incident during her first year of middle school where she farts in class and apologizes, leaving everyone to call her "Farty McStinkpants". She learned from then on to never own up to one mistake, and teaches this to Lincoln and Clyde to warn them not to suffer the same fate.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In the episode "Newbie Dash", Rainbow Dash finally fulfills her lifelong dream and joins the Wonderbolts. However, in her first run, she suffers a crash, and ever after gets called Crash by her new wingmates (something she's touchy over due to childhood bullies always calling her Rainbow Crash). However, by the end of the episode, she learns that the Wonderbolts operate using nicknames like this (Soarin', for instance, is called Clipper due to his tendency to clip his wingmates' wings during drills as a rookie), and Dash learns to recognize it as an Insult of Endearment rather than genuine mockery.
- Both Season 6 and 7 have Starlight constantly reminded of her villainous misdeeds, though it's more of off-handed comments that Starlight would really wish was not brought up.
- Twilight, at one point, heavily condemns Trixie and considers her a bad influence on Starlight. Trixie and Starlight even joke about their mutual histories as former jerks who had since found redemption.
- The Proud Family: Oscar will never live down losing the basketball match to Wizard Kelly. Because he's the show's main Butt-Monkey, he not only missed the shot, but the ball bounced all the way to the other end of the court. And he is constantly reminded of this humiliating moment by the Wiz.
- Rick and Morty:
- In the episode "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy", Jerry mentions in passing that he has wondered about having a vagina. Afterwards Groupon reminds him at every occasion about his vagina fantasies, leading to Jerry proclaiming "I don't want to be known as the vagina guy."
- In the episode "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion", there's the existence of the giant space baby created in "Rickdependence Spray" when Morty's genetically-enhanced super-sized sperm "Sticky" entered Summer's enlarged ovum. It is a continuous source of squick to everyone that knows of it, including other-dimension Ricks:
Hothead Rick: I think you guys got a lotta nerve actin' better than us! This is the family that made a giant incest baby! Had the government launch it into space! It's still floatin' around out there somewhere!
Rick: Are we ever gonna live that down?
- A sketch in Robot Chicken involved a new member getting inducted into G.I. Joe, and ruining first impressions by tripping over. He is mercilessly mocked by the crew and given the nickname "Fumbles". This backfired horribly, because after too much abuse he ends up joining Cobra, and turns out to be an ace sniper.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Homer vs. Patty and Selma", Homer asks a bank officer for an extension on his mortgage payment. The bank officer tells him his credit history is not good, and moreover:
Bank Officer: It also says that you grabbed a dog by the hind legs and pushed him around like a vacuum cleaner.
Homer: That was in the third grade!
Bank Officer: Well, it all goes on your permanent record. - In "Bart Gets Famous", Bart makes a disaster in a TV studio, broadcasted live, and tries to excuse himself by saying "I didn't do it!". It was a big success, and he soons becomes the "I didn't do it" kid. Everything is fine, until he realizes that it's all just a fad. Everywhere he goes, nobody cares about anything he has to say, except for his line. And then, the end: as all fads, he becomes old-fashioned, and that's it.
- Another Simpsons example is "The Boys of Bummer", in which Bart misses a fly ball, losing his team the game, and is bullied by all of Springfield until he attempts suicide. The professional baseball player Joe LaBoot is another example, as he is still bullied for being a terrible player despite having retired decades ago.
- In "Homer vs. Patty and Selma", Homer asks a bank officer for an extension on his mortgage payment. The bank officer tells him his credit history is not good, and moreover:
- In Star Trek: Lower Decks, Sonya Gomez, despite having long since become a Captain after her last appearance onboard the Enterprise-D decades earlier, never forgot the fact that she dumped hot chocolate on Captain Picard, essentially using it as a moral booster for equally jittery ensigns.
- Star Wars Rebels: In "Fighter Flight", Zeb is fed up that Ezra won't stop reminding him that he saved his life in the previous episode.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): The turtles will never live down the fact that they mutated April's father, and she turns her back on them for it. This eventually comes to an end when Casey informs her that he lost a friend on an accident, which led her to forgive the turtles.
- Thomas & Friends:
- Whenever an engine gets into an accident, the other engines will always bring it up whenever possible to tease them for the next few episodes.
- In "James and the Coaches", James bumps one of the coaches so hard that he made a hole in of them. In order for the train to continue, he needed newspaper and a passenger's bootlace to mend the hole in the coach. Three episodes after that, engines will remind James of the bootlace incident, much to his annoyance.
Thomas: Here are your trucks, James. Have you got some bootlaces ready?
- Similarly, in "Brake Van", Douglas brings up James crashing into the tar wagons in "Dirty Objects".
James: Shut up. It's not funny.
- In "Edward and Gordon", Gordon gets stuck pulling trucks on a steep hill. Edward comes to help him up. Ever since then, the hill has been known by most characters as "Gordon's Hill". Other engines would later have trouble on the same hill but since Gordon was the first, it's officially named after him.
- In "Percy Takes the Plunge", Henry, after being teased by Percy for being afraid of the rain, lampshades that no one will ever forget the time he wouldn't leave the tunnel because he thought the rain will spoil his paint.
- Total Drama:
- Gwen will likely never live down being kissed by another girl's boyfriend. That one scene led to Gwen getting voted out and all her allies abandoning her (with Sierra even referring to her as the "New Heather"), even though she'd been a good friend and strong competitor up until then. In All-Stars, she is placed on the villain team entirely because of this, and becomes their Token Good Teammate.
- Bridgette getting her tongue stuck to a pole when she tried to kiss Alejandro. Several characters love to ridicule her for it or are angry at her for her actions, even despite the fact Bridgette herself showed immense guilt and shame for what she did and was ultimately forgiven by Geoff, and how the couple moved on from it to happily continue their relationship.
- Transformers: Animated: Bulkhead continually brings up the fact that Professor Sumdac was, well, deceived into rebuilding Megatron.
- Xiaolin Showdown: Raimundo is repeatedly reminded about his struggle to become an Apprentice of the Monks. Early in the series, Omi constantly ridicules him for not having made Apprentice. Even after he finally does make it, he's still referred to as "the last one to make apprentice."
