History Main / EasyAmnesia

* ''Film/ILoveYouAgain'': Boring stuffed shirt Larry Wilson is struck unconscious by a blow to the head--and wakes up as charming, suave con artist George Carey. It turns out that nine years ago, George got in a fight, hit his head, and suffered a case of total amnesia that led to him starting a new life as "Larry". After he wakes up again as George, he doesn't remember Larry's life any more than "Larry" remembered George's.
* ''Film/ParisTexas'' has its main character, Travis, walking around in the desert with seemingly no recollection of what his life was like four years prior; he remembers how to drive and who his brother is, but has no idea why he bought a certain plot of land or what his son looks like. His memory gets better after spending a couple of days in the comfort of a lovely home with his family, however.

* ''Film/{{Overboard|1987}}'' features a RichBitch who gets amnesia after [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin she falls over the side of her yacht]] and almost drowns. A working class man she's insulted tries to enact a little revenge on her (and get her to do a little housework for ''him'') by convincing her that she's his wife. Of course, this being a quirky RomanticComedy, things don't go as planned...
* In ''Film/RandomHarvest'' (1942), Ronald Colman plays a UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veteran hospitalized with shell shock and complete retrograde amnesia. He escapes from the hospital, marries Creator/GreerGarson, and settles down to a happy small-town life -- until he makes a business trip to London, where he is involved in a car accident that causes him to recover his lost memories... but completely forget his entire life since the war, including his marriage.
* In ''Film/SpiderMan3'', Harry Osborn has temporary amnesia after being badly injured during a fight with Peter Parker. It not only results in rather convenient selective memory loss, but also [[IdentityAmnesia changes Harry's personality substantially]]. In the comics, similar tactics were used on occasion to make [[Characters/MarvelComicsNormanOsborn Norman Osborn]] forget that he was the Green Goblin.
* ''Film/ResidentEvilFilmSeries'':
** In ''Film/ResidentEvil2002'', both Alice and Spence Parks [[IdentityAmnesia lose their memories of their past lives]] as a side effect of being rendered unconscious by sleep gas. They regain at least some of their memories by the end of the movie.
** In ''Film/ResidentEvilAfterlife'' Clair now has amnesia but is slowly regaining memories as the plot advances. Presumably everybody fitted with the control bug also don't have a clue who they are, were they are, or what's going on.
* Parodied in ''Film/TheTrumanShow'', when Truman's father's inconvenient reappearance after being [[ActorLeavesCharacterDies killed off]] is to be explained as down to amnesia. When he admits this, the director looks suitably shame-faced.
* At the beginning of ''Film/DarkCity1998'', Murdoch wakes up in a room with a murdered woman and Easy Amnesia . Somewhat justified because [[spoiler:the Strangers were constantly removing and re-inserting new memories into their human test subjects]].

* In ''Film/AmericanDreamer'', the main character has a concussion and thus thinks she's the heroine of her favorite mystery novels.
* In ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheThreeStooges'', PrinceCharming gets hit on the head when an assassin was trying to kill him (but the Stooges saved him). He grew up without knowing his past.
* ''Film/{{Alien}}''. After Kane wakes up from having the Facehugger attach itself to his face, he can't remember anything about the planet, and even seems confused where he is. All he can remember is [[PrimalFear a horrible dream about smothering]]. FridgeBrilliance on why the victim can't remember being attacked by the Facehugger: anyone who was already aware what the things were all about would kill anyone who confessed to being Facehugged.
* A plot device in ''Film/TheMajestic'': Pete Appleton, a Hollywood writer, gets branded as a communist. Appleton gets drunk and loses most of his memory in a car accident, and the people who rescue him mistake him for Luke Trimble, a soldier who went missing in action during the war, causing him to create an accidental false identity. His memory returns when he sees one of his own films.
* [[spoiler:The killer]] in ''Film/TheMysteryOfMaryCeleste'' loses his memory of past events when an errant [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_%28sailing%29 boom]] hits the back of his head. [[spoiler:Since he's the sole living person left in the ship, he is left confused and ultimately jumps overboard]].
* ''Film/FallingForChristmas'': Sierra hits her head and loses her memory, but it starts to come back over the course of the film, and comes back in full after she is reunited with her father and fiance.
* In ''[[Film/FastAndFurious Fast & Furious 6]]'', Letty is revealed to have survived her supposed death in Fast 4 but has been suffering amnesia ever since and cannot remember who she is nor her relationship with Dom nor even her own team. [[BigBad Owen Shaw]] exploits this to make Letty pull a FaceHeelTurn and betray her friends and family to join his team. Fortunately, by the end of the film, Letty regains her memory and makes a HeelFaceTurn.
* Averted with the five men in ''Film/{{Unknown|2006}}'' who wake up with no memories of who they are or how they got there due to an unspecified chemical. They slowly recover memories, but only in disjointed ways as they encounter sensory experiences which jolt their memory.
* Used as a plot device in ''Film/OpenGrave''. The story revolves around a group that has lost all their memories, they manage to remember everything by interacting with certain items.
* At first played straight in ''[[Film/DrKildare Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant]]'', when the PatientOfTheWeek is a young woman who has had a sudden and total onset of amnesia but otherwise is perfectly fine. Inverted in the end, when it turns out she's faking it to get out of her marriage.
* ''Film/MenInBlack'': The titular Men have a ''device'' that can cause amnesia of varying lengths more or less at will, and they often "helpfully" provide their victims with a more mundane explanation of what they witnessed so that they go off with new (false) memories rather than a blank. In the first movie, Kay does it to Laurel so many times that Jay gets worried about the state of her brain.
* Invoked in the Korean film ''Lost and Found''. The heroine gets hit by the car of her crush, and she pretends to have amnesia so that he'll have to let her stay at his home. The doctor at the hospital [[LampshadeHanging points out that this kind of amnesia]] usually only happens on TV. Later on when the man starts to suspect she's lying, she's hit in the head by a baseball and then claims the blow brought her memory back.

* ''Film/{{Swelter}}'' has the main character take a bullet to the head during a heist, escape with the money, hide it, and then totally forget the whole thing, and his entire life beforehand. His co-conspirators start off the film as incredulous as the audience, but eventually come to believe that he really doesn't remember. He gets some flashes of memory back throughout the film, but he never does remember where the money is.
* ''Film/TheAddamsFamily''. Decades before the movie begins, Fester Addams became an amnesiac as a result of his unspecified experiences in the Bermuda Triangle. His memory is restored by being hit in the head by lightning coming out of the PortalBook ''Hurricane Irene''.

* ''Film/TheGathering''. Cassie exhibits classic Hollywood retrograde amnesia after being hit by a car, remembering other than her name and that she's from somewhere in the Midwest.

!!!'''In General:'''
* Subverted on most [[SoapOpera soap operas]]. While characters being injured and not remembering anything about their past life is a very common plot, the recovery is somewhat realistic--occurring over a period of time, with intermittent flashbacks.
** Completely averted with ''Series/GeneralHospital'''s Jason Quartermaine after he suffered brain damage in a car accident. When he woke up not remembering anything about his life beforehand, viewers naturally assumed this trope would play out. Only for him to never remember anything and adapt a completely new identity as Jason Morgan.
!!!'''By Series:'''
* Harry from ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' gets it after getting sucked into a tornado. Not from the crash, [[RuleOfFunny but from a flower pot falling on his head.]] Which leads to him finding out that AliensAmongUs, [[HilarityEnsues but not knowing he's one of them.]] He gets better after getting [[LightningCanDoAnything hit by a lightning bolt.]] The lightning cure might be justified with the chip in his head.
* A particularly infamous example occurred in the first series of ''Series/TwentyFour'' [[spoiler: where Teri goes into shock and forgets nearly everything about her life, only to recover suddenly a few hours later]]. It should be noted that the first series of ''24'' was much less tightly written than later ones, and the writers have admitted that they just needed a way to keep the character away from the action for a few episodes.
** In a nice nod to realism, though (and the ''only'' good quality about that sordid plotline), [[spoiler: Teri gets amnesia after she gets out of a car parked on a narrow ledge, tells Kim to stay there while she tries to find help, and watches as the car goes rolling over the edge and explodes]]. One of the most common causes of retrograde amnesia is sheer brain-rending trauma that the sufferer feels primarily responsible for, so it's nice to see ''that'' happen instead of another coconut to the head.
* ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' episode "Amnesia in the Addams Family" is entirely about this.
* ''Series/{{ALF}}'' gets it after a bump on the head [[note]]originally it was using an egg beater in the tub to make a hot tub, but some kid tried it in RealLife and it had to be {{Bowdlerize}}d[[/note]] and thinks he's an insurance agent named Wane Shlaygil (he was reading insurance brochures right before the bump), triggering the FlashbackEpisode.
* In the ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' episode "Music of a Distant Drum" [[TokenHeroicOrc Tyr]] gets this from some NanoMachines, his Nietzschean immune system eventually fights them off but in the meantime he becomes somewhat attached to the fisherwoman who finds him.

* Something similar happens in the ''Series/Batman1966'' series with King Tut, an archaeology professor who gained a NapoleonDelusion after a bump to the head. Being knocked on the head again restores his sanity and true personality, but sadly for him, he tends to relapse (and make return appearances) just as easily.

** {{Exploited|Trope}}. After Xander Harris is possessed by hyenas in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS1E6ThePack The Pack]]", he tells Buffy and Willow he has no memory of it, but when Giles confronts him, he confesses that he was lying so he wouldn't have to talk about it. In Season 2 he inadvertently reveals he was lying.
* Happens to Delia on ''Series/CallTheMidwife'' after she's hit by a car, after a brief coma. Most heartbreakingly, Delia doesn't recognize her girlfriend Patsy when Patsy visits her in the hospital. It's not resolved by the end of the episode... but by the next episode, set a couple of months later, it is (though Delia is still suffering from milder lingering consequences of her brain injury).
* The ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'' episode "The Fifth Bullet" featured a case of this. Possibly subverted in that the character in question never recovers.
* Averted on ''Series/{{Chuck}}''. In the series finale, [[spoiler: Sarah's memory is virtually destroyed by the faulty Intersect 3.0 after she is captured by [[BigBad Quinn]] and forced to Flash repeatedly, which he then uses to brainwash her into working for him. Even after the team helps her throw off Quinn's influence, there is no way to restore her memory again after Chuck uploads the sole remaining copy of the Intersect himself to save a theater full of people from being blown up by a bomb. Although there are fragments of memories remaining that strongly imply she could eventually recover some of what she lost, the series still ends on a somewhat ambiguous note over her future]].

* Averted with ''Series/{{CSINY}}''. Mac has a kind of amnesia called aphasia due to his being shot in the back and flatlining during surgery. He remembered most things but forgot random everyday words. It took several months for him to recover, though once he did, he was fine.
* ''Series/Danger5:'' How Ilsa explains to Rommel why his wife hasn't been in touch.

'''Ilsa:''' Yes. After I was hit by the mortar in Stalingrad I wandered through Europe with a group of priests until a magician brought back my memories, then I came to find you.

* ''Series/DueSouth'' did this in its second season closer, and used it as an excuse for a ClipShow as Ray had to "remind" Fraser about their adventures. Gah.
* Peter spends most of season two of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' [[TrappedByMountainLions running around Ireland]] without his memory. He gets it back around the time he rejoins the main plot thread of the season. In this case, the amnesia was the result of the Haitian using his MindWipe ability on him.
* ''Series/TheFugitive'' episode "Escape Into Black" has Richard Kimble getting amnesia from an exploding stove, making him forget he's a wanted felon and thus vulnerable to capture.
* Michelle falls off a horse and gets amnesia in the final episodes of ''Series/FullHouse.''

-->'''Jackson:''' Amnesia? [[LampshadeHanging What is this an episode of]] ''Series/GilligansIsland''?

* The BBC comedy series ''Series/{{Ideal}}'' featured a call girl who is kidnapped with the intention of ransoming her off. The plan falls through, but during the ruckus she is hit on the head and suffers temporary amnesia. One character takes advantage of this by telling her that he's her boyfriend, and that he'll help her remember things. When her memory starts to return, she runs back to who she thinks is her genuine boyfriend, but he turns out to be her pimp. After being mistreated by him, she runs back to the man who had lied to her, seeking protection.

* Subverted on ''Series/KenanAndKel''. When the two go to the airport to pick up Kenan's friend's girlfriend, they accidentally hit her on the head. When she wakes up, she claims she doesn't have a boyfriend and leaves. Hilarity Ensues as they try to find her and get her back. In the end, it turns out they got the wrong girl. It was also lampshaded when Kel attempts to get her memory back by hitting her a second time.
* In the ''Series/KnightRider'' episode "Knightmares", Michael loses the last few years of his life. This is particularly stressful for him given that in that time he's acquired a) a completely new identity b) a new ''face'' and c) a partner who's a talking car.
* In the Mexican sitcom ''Series/LaFamiliaPLuche'', this is how [[spoiler:Junior]] came to be. [[spoiler:He was an undercover police officer known as "Comandante Aligheri", who lost his memory after being run over by Federica and reducing him to the level of a 6-year-old upon waking. Every time he recovers his memory, the couple smacks him in the head to revert him back into "Junior" and keep him from spilling the beans on the incident.]]
* ''Series/TheLegendOfDickAndDom'' has an episode, "Forget Me Nuts", where all the characters (including a mysterious one we have not seen before) wake up with no memory and have to try and work out who they are, what happened, and what they need to do next. By the end, they have [[spoiler: managed to get the BigBad to lose his memory too]], and convinced him that he is a travelling sandal saleswoman. And then the narrator loses his memory.
* On ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'', a boy fakes blindness after an accident, and Laura finds out but agrees keep quiet and let him tell his parents. Before he can do that, he falls off a horse and hits his head again, conveniently forgetting everything since the first accident. His parents and Doctor Baker just assume the second blow brought his sight back.
* In the ''Series/LoisAndClark'' episode "All Shook Up", Clark attempts to destroy an asteroid heading for Earth by [[RammingAlwaysWorks ramming into it]], only to fall back to Earth and lose his memory. The asteroid is delayed on its mission due to destroy all life on Earth in a few days, but Superman didn't get it sufficiently pushed off its course -- and he's nowhere to be found. Everyone wonders where their hero is, including the amnesiac Clark. His parents try to explain to him that ''he'' is Superman. His dad succeeds by trying to hit Clark with a bat and having it shatter. He can't re-learn to fly in a few days, though. Eventually, just as all seems lost, [[StatusQuoIsGod he regains his memory and pushes the asteroid out of the way]]. Like a number of ''Lois and Clark'' episodes, this is based on [[Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman the 1950s television series]] with Creator/GeorgeReeves. This one is from the 1953 episode "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfSupermanS2E12PanicInTheSky Panic in the Sky]]".
* Claire Littleton suffers this kind of amnesia after her mysterious kidnapping and return by the Others on ''Series/{{Lost}}''. Lampshaded by Sayid asking Jack if he's ever seen such a convenient case of amnesia in his medical practice, and Jack agreeing that it's unlikely and probably a sign of something more sinister. Season 2 reveals Claire's amnesia is partly due to blocking out trauma, but mostly because the Others kept her heavily drugged the whole time they had her. [[spoiler: How the Others achieved this isn't ''really'' explained until a bonus feature on the Season ''Six'' DVD, in which a DHARMA orientation film reveals that Room 23 was used to brainwash captured Hostiles and remove all memory of their captivity.]]

* ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' became an amnesiac several times as a result of blows to the head. Given that he's knocked unconscious at least once an episode, he's lucky that's the worst he ever got.
* Averted on ''Series/MagnumPI''. In "Try to Remember", Thomas isn't just bopped on the head. He is in a terrible accident in the middle of a missing persons case, and has a serious concussion among various other injuries. When he wakes up, he has no difficulty remembering who he is, but not what happened immediately prior to the wreck, and he is the prime suspect in the murder of the woman he was supposed to find.
* In the second season ''Series/TheManFromUncle'' episode "The Nowhere Affair", Napoleon Solo, facing imminent capture by a pair of THRUSH mooks, takes "Capsule B", a drug which induces "total amnesia" for a period of at least 72 hours.
-->'''Illya Kuryakin:''' Just how effective are these capsules, total amnesia?\\

** And in the third season episode "The Pieces of Fate Affair", the innocent-of-the-week suffers partial amnesia when she's grazed in the head by a bullet during a THRUSH assassination attempt.

* ''Series/TheMentalist''

* Hilariously {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in an episode of the ''Series/TheMiddleman'', where a guy that the heroine recently met and had become fond of suffers a concussion during one of her missions, and consequently develops amnesia that conveniently causes him to forget [[LaserGuidedAmnesia the past 2 days]].
* Ed the horse gets amnesia on ''Series/MisterEd'', forcing Wilbur to ''fake'' having it as well so he can use whatever cure is tried on him on Ed.
* ''Series/{{Monk}}'' once got temporary amnesia from a blow to the head. In the episode, his therapist did acknowledge that that kind of amnesia is quite rare.
* Used in an episode of ''Series/MyNameIsEarl''. Earls old buddy Sweet Johnny (cause he's the sweetest guy anyone knew) is convinced by Earl to keep doing dangerous stunts that leave him laid up... so Earl can bang his girlfriend. After twice trying to confess, he finds out it wasn't his fault. Johnny bashed his head into a drawer, which resets his memory to the same day every time. Slightly subverted as there is no magic fix. After trying to kill himself, Johnny simply knocks himself out, resetting his memory once again. Earl finally resigns to the fact that this is the one list item he can never cross off. He circles it instead.
* The "Angels Revenge" episode of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' opens with Crow believing he has amnesia, and asking Mike to "clear it up" by [[TapOnTheHead hitting him on the head]] with a [[HyperspaceMallet large wooden mallet]].

* ''Series/TheNewAvengers'': A variant in "To Catch a Rat". A agent suffering crippling injuries in an attempt on his life and loses all of his memories. Unlike most uses of this trope, his memory stays gone for 17 years. The Easy Amnesia comes into play when a blow to his head (from a child's swing) restores his memory instantly.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' has this in Belle's backstory. She and her mother were attacked by the ogres and Belle blacked out - so she has no memory of her mother's death. Rather realistically, she's never shown regaining the memories (though she attempts to do so by magic) and simply gets the event explained to her by her father.
* Happens to Cousin Larry on ''Series/PerfectStrangers'' after he falls down the stairs. Hilarity Ensues.
** Balki coaching Cousin Larry on how to introduce himself...
--->'''Balki:''' Hello, My name is Cousin Larry Appleton.\\
'''Larry:''' Hello, My name is Cousin Larry Appleton.\\

* The ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'' episode "T.J.'s Identity Crisis" had T.J. suffer an injury that made him forget who he was and that he was the Blue Space Ranger.
* Jarod developed amnesia on an episode of ''Series/ThePretender'' after a criminal he was going after turned out to have an accomplice, who whopped him in the head.

* Parodied in ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'''s "As Westbridge Turns", an AffectionateParody of the SoapOpera. Harvey is hit in the head with a falling ladder and can't remember who he is. Libby manages to convince him that she is his girlfriend - but his memory gets jogged with a bracelet he gave Sabrina, commemorating their relationship.

* ''Series/{{Sisters}}''. Second-oldest sister Teddy doesn't remember anything about her life after being shot in the head. But within one episode that only takes place over several days, she regains her memory and never again suffers any ill effects from her injury.

* ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}'':

* Subverted on ''Series/StarskyAndHutch''; after a car accident, Hutch apparently has amnesia, which is used as an opportunity for a ClipShow as Starsky reminds him of their past. Near the end of the show, it turns out that Hutch is fine; he's just taking revenge on Starsky for his reckless driving.

* Cameron in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' gets a kind of this in "Alison from Palmdale". Her 'amnesia' is caused by a faulty chip however.
* Subverted in the ''Series/ThreesCompany'' episode "Forget Me Not." Jack only ''pretends'' to have amnesia to avoid Janet's wrath after totaling her new car. But Janet smells a rat, and schemes to get him to reveal he's faking.
* ''Series/TheTimeTunnel'' episode "The Death Merchant". Tony is knocked unconscious by an artillery explosion and wakes up with amnesia. In a fight near the end of the episode, he's knocked unconscious again. When he comes to, his memory has returned.
* Cole on ''Series/Tracker2001'' recovers his memories fairly quickly in "Remember When". He lost them when he was zapped while working on his life force collector machine. Like the ''Series/DueSouth'' example, it was an excuse for a clip show.
* ''Series/TheTransmart'': Subverted. Mamet forgets his identity after falling down the stairs in one of the Bali episodes. At the end of the episode, Ella decides to push Mamet down the stairs again, assuming this will bring his memory back. Instead, it causes Mamet to forget his ''species'' and he starts behaving like a primal ape.

** In "By the Time We Got to Woodstock", Lisa herself gets amnesia after banging her head on the sign reading "You Must Be As Tall as This Sign to Enter the Time Hole" that she placed above Wyatt's bed before she, Gary and Wyatt went back in time to 1969.
* ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'', in a late-season arc, {{subverted|Trope}} it: Heidi Gotts gets bumped on the head and decides to fake amnesia ''precisely because'' so many people think it works this way.

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
* In the early 1990s, after suffering a powerbomb onto a concrete floor from Wrestling/{{Vader}}, Wrestling/MickFoley had planned to take some time off and return to Wrestling/{{WCW}} in a 'revenge' feud, in which he would use the very real injuries he'd suffered at Vader's hands over the years to take their rivalry to new and realistic levels. The Booker in WCW at the time, Wrestling/DustyRhodes, had a better idea - Foley's character, Cactus Jack, would suffer ''amnesia from the impact of the powerbomb''! This led to the ludicrous 'Search for Cactus Jack' skits, where Wrestling/PaulHeyman scoured America for clues to Jack's whereabouts, eventually finding him living homeless, clean-shaven and eyebrow-less, convinced he was a merchant seaman of some kind. The segments were so bad that WCW dropped them quietly - Foley returned to WCW with his memory recovered and no explanation was ever given as to how.

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* In the ''Series/FraggleRock'' episode "Boober Gorg", Boober loses his memory after being hit on the head by a radish, and begins thinking he's a Gorg. The Gorgs are actually fooled too, but only because there were rumors of a sorcerer roaming the area, and Junior had coincidentally gone missing, leading the Gorgs to jump to the wrong conclusion...
* In ''Film/TheMuppetsTakeManhattan'', right after Kermit finds out that the production is a go, he gets hit by a car, and he loses his memory. [[spoiler: He regains it as a result of Miss Piggy throwing him against a wall.]]
* ''Series/PiliFantasyWarOfDragons'': Chi Lu-Jen, courtesy of the fire spirit who crafted the Dragon Bone Sacred Sword. Transitions into some form of ObfuscatingStupidity as the actual amnesia recedes and Chi Lu-Jen starts acting purposefully again.
* In the ''Series/UnderTheUmbrellaTree'' episode "Who Am I?" Iggy loses his memory when he falls from a high height and bumps his head. Climbing to the same spot, falling and bumping his head again cures him in the end.
[[/folder]]

* Isabelle from ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin]]'' is found in the rubble of a city suffering from amnesia [[spoiler:or so you think. It's later subverted when you learn she's a [[ReallyWasBornYesterday recently created]] ArtificialHuman who has no memories to begin with, just a butt-load of information about the two countries in the game]].

* In ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' mere exposure to [[FictionalColour irrigo]], the colour of forgotten things, is enough to induce amnesia. It starts off mild, but before long you're forgetting things like who you are, where you're from, and so on. In gameplay terms, it can cause you to [[LevelDrain lose skill and quirk points]], and the only way to get them back is to grind for them all over again. It's so dangerous that your body will start to grow bone over your eye sockets to protect you from its harmful effects. Occasionally people use it to remove traumas from their memory, while spies use it to forget details they don't want anyone getting their hands on.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' the PlayerCharacter is found by the Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick in the middle of a field with no memory of his/her past life. Notably, when the Avatar tries to explain this, Frederick is doubtful and suspects them of hiding something. It's revealed the amnesia was caused by [[spoiler:[[BigBad Grima]] from the BadFuture trying to go ahead and [[DemonicPossession possess]] them then and there, but the Avatar was too weak in the present time, which caused their amnesia and weakening the Fell Dragon even further than the original trip through time did, forcing him to act through proxies until the endgame]]. Noticeably, the Avatar ''never'' recovers all those memories and effectively considers said past life dead to them.
** This comes up again with [[spoiler: Morgan, the Avatar's KidFromTheFuture]], who had a similar experience, and like them never remembers everything about their past. Chrom can't resist snarking at the absurdity of the situation.
--> "...finding amnesiacs is apparently my special talent."
** But it gets {{subverted|Trope}} with [[spoiler: Emmeryn, whose trauma-induced amnesia has left her in a state of barely being able to talk, which she never recovers from]].

* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry5PassionatePattiDoesALittleUndercoverWork'', the fourth game in the ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' series: At the start of the game, Larry, being a character in a computer game, has completely forgotten the events of his previous adventure, ''Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Missing Floppies'', because the villain has stolen the game disks.
** In reality, ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 4'' [[MissingEpisode never even existed]], as the third game's ending didn't lend itself to a sequel and the designers decided to skip straight to the fifth game, letting players come up with their own theories on the events of ''Leisure Suit Larry 4''.
*** There's also the fact that Al Lowe promised there'd never be a fourth game of the series, due to some of the negative reactions garnered by the series. He kept his promise, too...
*** The game was indeed created, but was flushed down a toilet by Roger Wilco in ''VideoGame/{{Space Quest IV|Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers}}''. This temporal paradox caused the game to never be published.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/MegamanLegends''. Roll declines to reveal to "Joe" that she's his daughter because she knows he'll never be the man he was again and wants him to be happy with the new family he has on Calinca Island & spare him the pain of knowing that not only is his first wife dead, but the thing that killed her is [[BodySurf taking her body for a ride]].

** In Raffina's ending in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoFever'', Ms. Accord [[spoiler: tricks Raffina into closing her eyes,]] so that Ms. Accord can [[spoiler: hit Raffina on the head with a hammer,]] causing Raffina to [[CranialEruption suffer a bump on her head when she wakes up]] and lose her memory about the flying cane.
** This becomes one of the major plot points in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo20thAnniversary''. The previous game's OmnicidalManiac, Ecolo got a case of amnesia after being defeated. [[spoiler: He regains his memory at the end, and decides to go back to space-time travelling, albeit being upset that everyone will forget him most likely, and everyone does... Except Ringo.]]

* Averted in ''Secret of the Scarlet Hand'': a witness suffers amnesia after a bad fall, and VideoGame/NancyDrew must collect once-familiar items from his workplace and show them to him in the hospital to help him ''gradually'' re-connect with his old memories.
* Subverted (kinda) in ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts: From the New World'', Johnny lost his memory and hasn't gotten it back by the start of the game. Subverted in that he got from an accident that killed his entire family. Maybe a Self-Defense Mechanism? Or maybe [[spoiler:a side effect of being brought back from the dead]].

* Played with, but averted in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1''. The first couple of times that you encounter Seven, they are shown to have no memory whatsoever of their time with their loved ones. However, when they later join the team, they reveal that [[AndIMustScream someone else was controlling their body, but they could still see and hear everything that was happening. They wanted more than anything to tell their friends and family that they were alright, but no one could hear them.]]
* When the Driver of a [[LivingWeapon Blade]] in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' dies, said Blade reverts back to a Core Crystal, and, upon resonating with a new Driver, retain no memories about their previous 'lives'. This is a cause of concern for many Blades, and, as [[LadyOfWar Brighid]] notes, not many are in a position to chronicle their past lives as she does, since a Blade would have no means of preserving or protecting any such records while they're in their Core Crystal form. The game also consistently [[AvertedTrope averts]] the "easy recovery" part of this trope, as even when a Blade is straight-up told who they were and who their Driver was in a past life (such as with [[spoiler:Vess, Theory, and Praxis]]), the most they get out of it is a sense of mild nostalgia; no actual memories are ever recalled.

** ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoPuzzlePop'': Meena accidentally does this to Feli in her Side Story, when she was intending to make her forget about her worries. She overdoes it and made her forget near-''everything''.

** This becomes one of the major plot points in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo 20th Anniversary''. The previous game's OmnicidalManiac, Ecolo got a case of amnesia after being defeated. [[spoiler: He regains his memory at the end, and decides to go back to space-time travelling, albeit being upset that everyone will forget him most likely, and everyone does... Except Ringo.]]

** [[DiscussedTrope Mentioned]] when Homer is about to box Drederick Tatum; Bart tells him to make sure he gets hit an even number of times to avoid amnesia.

* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': In ''Asterix and the Big Fight'', Getafix becomes amnesiac (and crazy) after getting accidentally hit by one of Obelix's menhirs. When they take Getafix to another druid to be treated, Obelix demonstrates how it happened by tapping the druid with the menhir, leaving him in the same condition as Getafix. Later, Obelix gets the bright idea of curing Getafix with another tap on the head... just as Getafix manages to cure himself. Fortunately, he's still all right -- but unaware of intervening events, so he dumps out the potion that cured him before the other druid can have a taste.
* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': In ''ComicBook/DetectiveComics'' #430, Batman gets a clout on the head from a fire escape ladder. Remembering who he is when he's not Batman proves especially difficult because he's disguised as a criminal at the time--and the makeup turns out to be exceedingly hard to get off. But once he arrests the criminals and gets home, he uses remover to restore his original countenance and seemingly regains his memory upon seeing Bruce Wayne's face in the mirror.

* ''WebVideo/WormtoothNation'' might as well be Easy Amnesia: The Series. The titular wormtooth gas will "nix" anyone who breathes it in, and pockets of it are ''everywhere'' in the underground city.

* Bruce Wayne goes undercover as an unemployed drifter in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''. He gets walloped in the head with a 2×4 and forgets both that he's Bruce Wayne ''and'' Batman. Fortunately for him, he doesn't forget how to ''fight'' like Batman.
* In an episode of ''The New Adventures of Superman'', Clark forgot he was Superman. His family were summoned and told him, but he didn't remember how to use any of his powers either.
* In ''The New Adventures of Batman'' episode "The Pest", a professor who invented a water-powered car got a bump on the head when he was grabbed, causing him to temporarily forget what might cause his car to explode with the force of a nuclear bomb.
* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': Beavis gets this after hitting his head from falling off Anderson's roof in [[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS9E05Roof "Roof"]].

* Kim loses her memory in the episode "Clean Slate" of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', but her memories quickly begin returning with the exception of the fact that she's dating Ron. Her father uses her amnesia as a slightly ethically dubious way to get her to like his favorite TV show.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' took this to the extreme on the parody soap opera "[[SoapWithinAShow All My Circuits]]" in the episode "Bender Should not be Allowed on TV".

** In the episode "Regarding Margie", Marge suffers from amnesia after the fumes from her cleaning products cause her to lose consciousness and hit her head on a stool. She remembers everyone in town after each speaks a word she normally associates with them...except her own husband, Homer. Her sisters, Selma and Patty, take advantage of this by setting her up on a date with another man, but ultimately Marge remembers Homer in the end, by beer.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', it turns out that Ratchet hit Arcee with his EMP and it worked exactly like an Amnesia Ray, wiping her entire memory of everything. Alternatively, a smaller blast from the EMP has little effect other than a Knock-Out Ray.

* Zigzagged in one ''WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}'' story where Simon bar Sinister's Forget-me-Net causes the hero to forget who he is and think's he's an apple peddler. When Sweet Polly realizes this, she and several citizens try to hit him over the head to cure him, but seeing as he's invulnerable, none of it works; even attempting it with a ''steam shovel'' only breaks the machine. Eventually, Polly accidentally invokes the flaw in Simon's device (which is simply, saying his name when he can hear it) and he snaps out of it.
* Zigzagged in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TennesseeTuxedoAndHisTales''. Chumley is hit on the head and thinks he's a rich businessman; once Tennessee finds out what's wrong with him, he takes the smart option for once, and attempts to take him to a doctor. However, Chumley resists his attempts, and after Hilarity Ensues, he knocks himself on the head again and is cured.
* There was an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' involving amnesia being granted by inhaling steam, of all things.
* Spoofed in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Stripperella}}'' where rival stripper Kat repeatedly discovers Stripperella's SecretIdentity, only to constantly lose her memory of the event because she keeps getting hit in the head.
* On the ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' episode "A Twist of Fate:", Wheeler hits his head during an earthquake, loses his memory, and he has to live the life of a poor child in an anonymous Latin-American city.
* The cartoon ChristmasSpecial ''WesternAnimation/GrandmaGotRunOverByAReindeer'' features a rare example of anterograde amnesia in the titular grandma, though it's never identified as anything more than "she's lost her memory". Not only does she completely forget who she is, she doesn't seem to form any new memories either: her grandson has to keep reintroducing himself to her, and the villains can laugh over their evil scheme with her standing right there and not registering anything. All of this would seem to imply some serious brain trauma, but it's instantly undone by a bite of her famous fruitcake.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987''
** One episode has Shredder lose his memory due to a head bonk. He wanders around the city, somehow gets a job at a fireworks factory, and bemusedly decides to detonate a bomb at city hall just ForTheEvulz. When the Turtles confront him, Shredder even remarks that "Shredder" is a stupid name, and he gets his memory back when [[IntrepidReporter Vernon]] [[GoingForTheBigScoop gets in the way]] and causes an accident.
** It happens again in the episode "Four Musketurtles," but this time with Leonardo thinking he is in 17th century France and that he and his allies are Musketeers after a hit on the head. He gets better near the end of the episode after a fall.
** "Blast from the Past" has Splinter lose his memory, but regains it later on in the episode.
* A stock plot of ''Franchise/TomAndJerry'' cartoons: Tom takes a whack to the noggin, forgets he's supposed to hate Jerry and thinks he's a mouse himself. Hilarity Ensues and Tom keeps getting hit on the head and bouncing back and forth between personalities.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''
** Taken to the extremes in the episode "Big Man on Hippocampus". Peter hits his head in a fight with Richard Dawson at ''Series/FamilyFeud'', and he develops amnesia. Then an Creator/AdultSwim-style {{Ad Bumper|s}} appears: "Yes, they're actually doing an amnesia story." He eventually regains his memory after the Giant Chicken hits him several times - luckily, as Peter notes, he had an odd number of objects. He not only forgets his identity, but he also seemed to forget what sex is!
** Another episode has a mass bout of this, as Peter, Brian, Joe ''and'' Quagmire all lose their memories in a car accident. [[spoiler: However, the whole thing turns out to be [[AllJustADream a virtual reality simulation]] done by Stewie to see if Brian and Peter would still like each other without the pet/owner relationship. They do.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' episode "Sight for Sore Eyes", Bloo went after a kid as he thought he was an imaginary friend owner that he and Mac were looking for. However, it turned out that it wasn't but he had his big brother beat him up for chasing him. After smashing into a trash bin, Bloo had a concussion as he didn't remember anything up to the point that he was playing with his friends when they found him, which led to a misunderstanding between friends. Bloo might have got those memories back when Mac explained everything.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBananaSplits'' show segment ''The Arabian Knights'', episode "The Coronation of Bakaar". This occurs when Farik is hit on the head by a crossbeam.
* {{Creator/Filmation}} ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'' episode "Forget Me Not, Superdog". [[Characters/SupermanSupportingCast Krypto the Superdog]] loses his memory when he's hit on the head by a Kryptonite meteor. He regains it when he's caught in an explosion.
* In ''WesternAnimation/KryptoTheSuperdog'', Krypto gets amnesia from Red Kryptonite, leading to a pack of bad dogs to convince him that he's one of them. Luckily, Red Kryptonite's effects last only a day.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Cow Days", Cartman falls off a bull, hits his head, and gets amnesia, which for some weird reason, makes him think that he's a Vietnamese prostitute named Ming Li.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry'', "Ape-Nesia", has DK lose his memory after slipping on a banana peel and bumping into the elevator which then falls down and crashes taking him with it. It gets worse when his enemies convince him that he's working for them. DK gets his memory back when Candy shoves DK into a coconut tree, causing DK to get hit on the head by multiple coconuts.
* On ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', Helga accidentally gets hit in the head with a baseball by the titular character. Though it wears off after a good night's sleep, she keeps the illusion going to get more attention from Arnold.
* In "Captain Who?" on ''WesternAnimation/JakeAndTheNeverlandPirates'', Captain Hook catches a whiff of a "Forget-Me Flower" and it causes him to forget who he is. His memory is eventually restored by [[spoiler:an encounter with his nemesis, the Crocodile]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'', Hoodsey develops amnesia after falling off a swing and landing on his head. He changes his name to "Rob" and becomes best friends with Brandon after deeming Carl too gross. It is treated a little more realistically since at the end of the episode, Hoodsey is shown still trying to recover his memories. He is shown to have made a full recovery by the next episode though.
* Dick Dastardly gets amnesia after a blow to the head in the ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' episode "Who's Who?" He regains his facilities after suffering a similar blow, only for Zilly and Klunk to go through amnesia themselves after a similar blow.
* The ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} cartoon "I Yam Wot I Yamnesia" takes this to ridiculous extremes. Popeye, Swee'Pea , Wimpy and Olive all get hit on the head by each other, but instead of losing their memories, they exchange personalities and voices which Wimpy diagnoses as being amnesia.
* A blow to the head gives WesternAnimation/DangerMouse amnesia in "Public Enemy No. 1", and Greenback proceeds to brainwash him into thinking he's a criminal called "The White Shadow." DM regains his memory after slamming his head against the open bonnet of his car.
* The ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' episode, "The Old Man and the Seaduck" had Baloo lose his memory of his flying skills. Thankfully, rather than the usual (not to mention dangerous) second bump on the head, his memories return when a mysterious flight instructor reintroduces him to the joys of flying.
* ''WesternAnimation/FredAndBarneyMeetTheThing'' had the Thing lose his memory in the ''Thing'' segment "The Thing Blanks Out", where the Thing lifted a bridge to prevent Ronald's yacht from crashing into it, only for the bridge to hit him hard on the head after he lets it go. He doesn't recover from his amnesia until an acorn falls on his head.
* ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' parodied this in "Here Goes Mutton", where Sheep gets amnesia from Farmer John lightly bonking him on the head and spends the episode wandering around in a daze acting like different animals and objects because he can't remember who he is. Eventually, Sheep, General Specific, Private Public, and Farmer John start hitting each other on the head, causing each other to repeatedly lose and regain their memories. The episode ends with the narrator complaining of how unrealistic a tap to the head causing amnesia is, only to accidentally give himself amnesia when he tries to demonstrate that memory loss doesn't work that way.
* ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'' sends up the bonk-on-the-head routine when Harvey defends Fred Flintstone on racketeering charges. By the end Fred is getting whacked on the head over and over with a new personality emerging with each hit.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gasp}}'': In "Amnesia", the pets must teach Gasp how to be himself again when a bump on the head gives him a case of amnesia.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': In the fourth season premiere Archer goes into a fugue state after [[spoiler:his mother gets remarried]] and forgets his identity. Doctor Krieger tells the rest of the ISIS crew that they need to ease him out of the state and can't just "whang him on the head with a frying pan" to snap him out of it. Archer's memory slowly starts to seep back in but Lana gets impatient after they're caught in a shootout and whangs him on the head with a frying pan. Despite Krieger's objections it actually ''does'' snap Archer out of his amnesia and sets him back to normal.
* ''WesternAnimation/CountDuckula'': In "Amnesiac Duck", Duckula loses his memory and regains it multiple times. By the end of the episode, everyone has amnesia.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11033616/2/You-re-my-Density You're My Density]]'', Hermione and Harry travel back in time from the end of 1998 to the troll encounter at Halloween 1991. Unfortunately for Harry, since his magic had been bound and his memories drastically altered as a result of his KangarooCourt encounter with Fudge and Umbridge in 1995, he arrives in 1991 with zero memory of Hogwarts or the people there, only remembering his adult self's meeting with Hermione. He's very unimpressed with anyone else at Hogwarts on first meeting.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and the Big Fight'', Getafix becomes amnesiac (and crazy) after getting accidentally hit by one of Obelix's menhirs. When they take Getafix to another druid to be treated, Obelix demonstrates how it happened by tapping the druid with the menhir, leaving him in the same condition as Getafix. Later, Obelix gets the bright idea of curing Getafix with another tap on the head... just as Getafix manages to cure himself. Fortunately, he's still all right — but unaware of intervening events, so he dumps out the potion that cured him before the other druid can have a taste.
* In ''ComicBook/DetectiveComics'' #430, Batman gets a clout on the head from a fire escape ladder. Remembering who he is when he's not Batman proves especially difficult because he's disguised as a criminal at the time--and the makeup turns out to be exceedingly hard to get off. But once he arrests the criminals and gets home, he uses remover to restore his original countenance and seemingly regains his memory upon seeing Bruce Wayne's face in the mirror.
* Lampshaded in the comic ''SODA'': the main character gets LaserGuidedAmnesia after a car accident. When he comes back home, he watches a TV special on the subject which explains that it's incredibly rare and almost never happens - except in fiction written by people who "lack imaginative ideas".
* It happens to Calculus in the ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' story "Destination Moon" after he falls down a ladder. It's hypothesized that a shock may bring his memory back, so Captain Haddock tries to do so, but ends up failing. He finally gets so fed up with it that he mentions that Calculus is "acting the goat" (an expression that previously acted as a BerserkButton for Calculus), which gets Calculus [[InsultedAwake so angry that his memory returns]].
* The "bump on the head" concept is taken to its logical extreme in a ''ComicBook/GrooTheWanderer'' storyline where the various antagonists, some who need Groo to keep his memory, and some who need him to forget, literally turn Groo's memory on and off by hitting him repeatedly on the head.
* Inverted in ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'': Photomas is one of the best lawyers of XIII century, but he can't remember names (including the protagonist's) and words. However, after a bad hit on the head he suddenly remembers everything. Unfortunately it's explained it won't last.
* In a "Numbskulls" comic in ''The Beezer'', "Our Man" gets a bump on his head, which creates a dent in Brainy's filing cabinet that means he can't open the drawer that contains Our Man's name and address. Another bump unsticks the drawer, with the passerby who's trying to help saying that it's amazing how that works.
* Happens in the ''Franchise/DisneyFairies'' comic "Vidia Turns Nice." Vidia loses her memory when she gets hit by a falling branch. The nursing-talent fairies tell Tinker Bell to hit Vidia on the head again, but she decides to convince Vidia that her talent is helping other fairies, hoping she'll be nicer when she’s cured. But the other fairies start taking advantage of her, and Prilla convinces Tink to hit her again and cure her. It's quickly clear after that Tink's plan failed-Vidia's back to her usual sour self.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: When Creator/RobertKanigher was brought back as the writer after the ill received "Mod Era" he quickly killed off I Ching and then had Diana fall out of a window and hit her head, forgetting all about her now dead martial arts master with no other side effects, to write him and any grief over his death out entirely.

* ''ComicBook/SpideySuperStories'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsPeterParker Spider-Man]] loses his memory in issue 21 when he runs out of webbing and falls head-first onto a piano. A bonk on the head from J. Jonah Jameson restores his memory.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** In ''ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl'', villain Lesla-Lar abducts Characters/{{Supergirl|TheCharacter}} and brainwashes her into believing she is Lesla herself. Kara spends two days living as Lesla-Lar until she is found and rescued by [[Characters/SupermanSupportingCast Krypto]]. As being brought out of the Bottle City and enlarged, though, Kara hits her head, is knocked unconscious (was depowered at the time) and forgets the false memories imprinted in her brain.
** In ''ComicBook/AMindSwitchInTime'', ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'s mind is swapped with Superman's. Teenager Clark spends several days in the future, learning about his upcoming life, but when his mind is finally returned to his proper body, the strong shock causes him to forget all about it.

* As expected, the ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' story "The Daltons' Amnesia" feature this extensively, complete with the TapOnTheHead that can both cause and cure amnesia with no ill side effects.

* Cole on ''Series/{{Tracker}}'' recovers his memories fairly quickly in "Remember When". He lost them when he was zapped while working on his life force collector machine. Like the ''Series/DueSouth'' example, it was an excuse for a clip show.

* ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'': In ''Film/SpiderMan3'', Harry Osborn has temporary amnesia after being badly injured during a fight with Peter Parker. It not only results in rather convenient selective memory loss, but also [[IdentityAmnesia changes Harry's personality substantially]]. In the comics, similar tactics were used on occasion to make [[Characters/MarvelComicsNormanOsborn Norman Osborn]] forget that he was the Green Goblin.

* At the beginning of ''Film/DarkCity'', Murdoch wakes up in a room with a murdered woman and Easy Amnesia . Somewhat justified because [[spoiler: the Strangers were constantly removing and re-inserting new memories into their human test subjects]].

* ''ComicBook/SpideySuperStories'': [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]] loses his memory in issue 21 when he runs out of webbing and falls head-first onto a piano. A bonk on the head from J. Jonah Jameson restores his memory.

* In ''Film/SpiderMan3'', Harry Osborn has temporary amnesia after being badly injured during a fight with Peter Parker. It not only results in rather convenient selective memory loss, but also [[IdentityAmnesia changes Harry's personality substantially]]. In the comics, similar tactics were used on occasion to make [[Characters/MarvelComicsNormanOsborn Norman Osborn]] forget that he was the Green Goblin.

* OlderThanFeudalism: ''The Recognition of Shakuntala'', an episode from the Ancient [[UsefulNotes/IndianLanguages Sanskrit]] epic ''Literature/{{Mahabharata}}'' that was later [[AscendedExtra Expanded]] into a theatrical drama by the Indian playwright Kalidasa around the 1st century BC, is probably the UrExample of this trope. It's a [[BoyMeetsGirl Girl Meets Boy]] story about a woman named Shakuntala who meets Dushyanta and they get married him, only for him to get cursed with [[LaserGuidedAmnesia Amnesia]] and completely forget her. The only way to lift the curse is to show him the ring that he gave her, but she loses the ring in a river. She eventually finds the ring by the end of the story, makes him remember, and then they live HappilyEverAfter.

* The ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "The Fifth Bullet" featured a case of this. Possibly subverted in that the character in question never recovers.

** In the episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E8TabulaRasa Tabula Rasa]]", all of the heroes lose their memories due to a magical spell. Gee, it's almost as if Buffy and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' were produced by the same company or something.

* The film ''Christmas on My Mind'' opens with Lucy Lovett suffering amnesia of the past two years of her life after she slips on snow after collecting her wedding dress; from her perspective, she’s still engaged to her previous fiancé Zac Callahan and hasn’t met her new partner. Lucy eventually realises that [[spoiler:she was actually planning to go back to Zac when she had her accident, justifying the amnesia as her psychologically regressing to a point where it would be easier for her to go back]].

* In the ''Series/FraggleRock'' episode "Boober Gorg", Boober loses his memory after being hit on the head by a falling rock, and begins thinking he's a Gorg. The Gorgs are actually fooled too, but only because there were rumors of a sorcerer roaming the area and one of them coincidentally going missing, leading the Gorgs to jump to the wrong conclusion...

* Basically deconstructed as a theme in the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' fic "Riley Who?" (currently lost to the 'net), when Buffy takes a knock to the head mid-season 4 and wakes up thinking it's a year ago. As the Scoobies try to work out why this blow to the head in particular cost Buffy her memory, when Riley mentions that his last pre-amnesia talk with Buffy ended when Riley told her that he loved her and Buffy said nothing in response, Xander speculates that the key is the timing. With Riley having just had sex with Faith while in Buffy's body, Buffy realised that she can't tell ''Riley'' that she loves him after such an event where she was able to forgive Angel when he kissed Faith as part of his plan to post as Angelus, so her mind used the 'excuse' of the latest blow to the head to go back to when she was involved with someone she could say "I love you" to after they had an 'encounter' with Faith.