History Main / DontWakeTheSleeper

* A Muppet interpretation of the Frog Prince fairy tale had said prince (portrayed by Robin) being held captive by the witch who turned him into a frog. The escape involves putting the witch's henchman (portrayed by Sweetums) to sleep with a lullaby first. Then Robin makes a mistake and wakes Sweetums up, so he has to sing the lullaby again. This process repeats about half a dozen times before Robin actually makes it out of the dungeon.

** In "A Friendly Game", [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick try to play a game of indoor mini-golf while keeping quiet for Squidward. When their balls end up in his house, they have to obey the rule to "play the ball where it lies" while trying not to wake him..

* ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'': When Kuzco gets lost in the jungle, he winds up surrounded by a prowl of sleeping jaguars. He tries to get away from them without waking them up, but [[TheDogBitesBack a squirrel he teased earlier pops a balloon]]. [[BaitAndSwitch It isn't that that wakes them up, though]]. It's Kuzco saying "Ha!" at the squirrel that does. The jaguars chase Kuzco through the jungle, but Kuzco is soon saved by Pacha.

Different works have very different reasons why The Sleeper must remain asleep, but the five major types of reasons are:

* In ''Film/{{Babe}}'', Ferdinand enlists Babe's help with going into Farmer Hogget's house to steal an alarm clock so he can go back to crowing and not get eaten. Inside the house, Duchess the Cat is sleeping and it is revealed that Ferdinand needs Babe's help because [[PlotAllergy he is allergic to cats]]. Babe promises not to wake up Duchess, but after he gets his foot caught in a ball of yarn, Ferdinand decides to help after all. However, on their way out, Ferdinand is about to let out a SneezeOfDoom. [[SubvertedTrope It isn't that that wakes up Duchess, though]]. It's Babe dropping the alarm clock telling him to hold it in and setting it off that does.

* The 1992 board game ''[[http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6535/dont-wake-daddy Don't Wake Daddy]]'', about kids sneaking through the house for a MidnightSnack and trying not to wake Daddy, because if Daddy wakes up, they're getting sent right back to bed (modeled in the game as being sent right back to Start).

* The 1992 board game ''[[http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6535/dont-wake-daddy Don't Wake Daddy]]''. We'll give you one guess as to how you lose.

** In ''Super VideoGame/MarioParty'', one of the mini-games is "Don't Wake Wiggler!", where each character takes turns petting a sleeping Wiggler without trying to wake him up. As they keep petting him, his Zs become darker and he begins to wake up. The more times Wiggler is pet, the more points the player gets, but the player who wakes Wiggler up loses all their points. The player who ends up with the most points by the time Wiggler wakes up wins, while an angry Wiggler chases the losers away.

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* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'':

** "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E29SurvivalOfTheIdiotsDumped Survival of the Idiots]]", when [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick visit Sandy's treedome, she's left them a video message warning them to not disturb her while she's hibernating, [[TooDumbToLive which they stupidly ignore]]. While she never fully wakes up, their antics cause her to start SleepWalking in a feral state where she mercilessly beats them up when she mistakes them for "Dirty Dan" and "Pinhead Larry".

* The main plot for the WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry short "WesternAnimation/QuietPlease!", in which Spike tires of Tom's racket in trying to catch Jerry, threatening violence if Tom wakes him up one more time. Tom immediately has to sabotage Jerry's vigorous attempts to wake Spike. A later short, "Royal Cat-Nap", replays this scenario with the Mouseketeers, Tom having to prevent them from waking the king he is guarding. [[EveryoneHasStandards They relent and help Tom get the king back to sleep when they realize the penalty is a beheading, however]].

* DuringWW2, it's been said that some crucial delays in Nazi responses were due to Hitler sleeping when the news arrived at his headquarters. An armored division that could have hampered the Normandy landings instead stayed still as they required orders from Hitler himself to move out, and no one wanted to wake the Fuhrer up to give him the news.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' starts with the girls putting an exhausted Professor Utonium to bed after he falls asleep in his lab. That same night, an unusually stupid robber breaks into the girls house, and the rest of the episode revolves around them trying to keep him from waking up the professor. Ironically, it's the professor himself who ends up taking out the robber when he punches him in his sleep, and the girls throw the unconscious thief out of the house. The episode ends with the robber [[HereWeGoAgain scoping out Mojo Jojo's hideout]].

* ''Literature/CityOfThieves1983'' have a moment where you need to stead a pouch of Black Pearls from a trio of sleeping pirates. You'll need to do a LUCK Test - fail that, and the pirate wakes up and grabs you before shouting there's an intruder - cue inevitable fight.

* ''Literature/CityOfThieves1983'' have a moment where you need to stead a pouch of Black Pearls from a trio of sleeping pirates. You'll need to do a LUCK Test - fail that, and the pirate wakes up and grabs you before shouting at his friends to wake up - cue inevitable fight.

** In "A Friendly Game", [=SpongeBOb=] and Patrick try to play a game of indoor mini-golf while keeping quiet for Squidward. When their balls end up in his house, they have to obey the rule to "play the ball where it lies" while trying not to wake him..

* The premise of "Le Quiet Squad." WesternAnimation/TheInspector is tasked with making sure there is no noise within the limits of the Commissioner's digs. Naturally, fate and an obnoxious cat have other ideas.

* In Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', Prince John and his henchmen have captured all the townsfolk of Nottingham and are planning to hang Friar Tuck at dawn when he protests against the Sheriff taking a penny from the poor box. Robin Hood and Little John have to rescue the townsfolk and steal back their money without waking up the Sheriff or Prince John.

If the Sleeper does wake up, a DreamApocalypse might occur (even in the real world, if the sleeper in question is a RealityWarper).

** The episode "Quiet Max" focuses on Max and Ruby watching the Huffingtons' house while Baby Huffington is napping. Ruby must help Max be as quiet as he can so the baby doesn't wake, but Max keeps wanting to listen to the radio. In the end Ruby shows Max how to quietly play with her lifelike doll Little Miss Miracle, but she accidentally presses the wrong button which causes it to walk and talk very loudly and that wakes up Baby Huffington, so she rushes upstairs to calm him down while Max tells the baby to be quiet.