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Just For Fun / People Sit on Chairs

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This person is just sitting in a chair. He is not standing. His chair-sitting is so interesting, it is worthy of an image. If you still do not understand what chair-sitting looks like, look down and you will probably see yourself in a chair.

This trope is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: people sitting on chairs. When people sit in chairs they are sitting down. In chairs. So they don't have to stand or use their legs. They can just sit. In chairs. And relax.

And chairs are used because they are good things to sit down in, as opposed to bad things to sit down in like needles or mud. Often this position is comfortable, but other times it is not. If a chair is made out of the aforementioned "needles or mud", it will probably be uncomfortable. Often characters will complain when their chair is uncomfortable. Chairs are also good places to fall asleep. Usually if a character falls asleep, it's because the chair is comfortable. Though a character might still fall asleep in an uncomfortable chair if they're exhausted and they can't find a more comfortable chair to sleep in.

Among the other uses of sitting on chairs are

  • not standing.
  • not sitting on the ground.
  • lounging.
  • doing tasks not possible when standing up.

Of course, this is a very common trope - even more common than Big Bad, which holds the number one spot in Overdosed Tropes. It's also Truth in Television: Chairs are very common in Real Life, so many writers write what they know and end up including chairs in their stories. Aversions are not impossible, as there are some works that don't have chairs at all. There are also some works that subvert this by having chairs in the background, but never having characters sit in the chairs.

Fans have mixed opinions on chair-sitting scenes. Did that guy need to sit in a chair, or would the scene have been more interesting if he was standing up? Did those people need to stand up, walk around, and act over-dramatic, or could they have just sat in chairs and talked to each other normally? Because of this, some TV Tropes work pages ignore chair-sitting and focus on other, less controversial parts of a work.

Note that it doesn't have to be "people" or "chairs" plural: one person can sit down in one chair and it will still be the trope. Or in some comedic cases, one character might sit down in multiple chairs, or multiple characters might sit down in one chair. They are all the same trope.

Contrast People Stand on Floors. Often overlaps with Breathing Oxygen. For the inverse, see Chairs Sit on People.note 

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • Everybody has watched a chair commercial at least once.

    Anime & Manga 
  • In both Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! and its sequel, since the titular Defense Club mostly resides in the club that features chairs when they're not studying, you can see them often sit in their chairs.
  • Bleach:
    • Aizen has a ridiculously large sofa for just himself in Las Noches.
    • The big contrast between the Captains of the Gotei 13 and Aizen's Espada is is that the Captains all stand during their meetings, coordinated by their squad numbers, but the Espada all sit on really fancy chairs without care about their numberings.
    • Aizen is eventually imprisoned and bound to a chair. Later, when he is allowed to leave his prison in order to assist the Gotei 13, Aizen is still sealed to his chair, and when he attempts to destroy it with his empowered "Hado #90: Kurohitsugi", the chair remains undamaged. Aizen doesn't get out of the chair until he fights Yhwach who breaks the chair. After that, Aizen returns to prison and sits continues to sit on another chair for the remainder of his prison sentence.
  • In Death Note, L's Man in the Chair, Watari, does indeed sit on a chair in practically every appearance.
  • Doraemon himself is a chair that you can sit on◊.
  • In Idolmaster: Xenoglossia, the Big Bad, Del Donna/Teru Noa, is always sitting in a wheelchair, which is a type of chair. Justified as she's crippled.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Dio sits in a chair during the intro of Phantom Blood, "Sono Chi No Sadame".
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • When Gendo Ikari isn't standing, he's sitting down, almost always with his trademark finger tent. While the Limited Animation doesn't usually show the chair he sits in, it's a safe bet that it is there, making this an Implied Trope.
    • The Evas themselves are a more straightforward example, as their control seats are clearly visible to the viewer and multiple characters sit in them throughout the series.
    • Shinji Ikari in Episode 25 is one of the most famous examples of this trope, as his "sitting in a chair hunched over, his mental state completely broken" pose has become memetic.
  • Pretty Cure:
  • Sleepless Domain:
    • The cover of Chapter 15◊ shows Undine sitting in a particularly fancy chair. Subverted in that this chair never actually appears in the chapter, and thus no one sits in it.
    • Averted in Chapter 16, when Undine notices that Cassidy's chair is empty, which means that she is not currently sitting in it.
  • Tamagotchi:
    • Mametchi will often sit on the couch to watch his favorite Show Within a Show, Gotchiman.
    • Tamagotchi School has chairs for the desks the students use.
    • Himespetchi's house has a couple of chairs around her table; she and others have sat on them. Furthermore, in episode 114 (her debut episode), she very nearly gets to sit in a chair next to her crush Mametchi at lunchtime... but Kuchipatchi takes the seat before she can.
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: The first key visual of the anime's second season shows the protagonist, Rimuru Tempest, sitting on a big chair known as a throne.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS: Nail Saionji has a drone butler named Sebastian, who is a chair. A massage chair. He can shift into a bipedal, humanoid form, but he takes pride in being a very good massage chair for his master.

    Asian Animation 
  • Bread Barbershop features chairs for the characters to sit on while they get their makeover. Truth in Television; all normal barbershops are like this.
  • The heroes in Happy Heroes are often seen sitting on a couch in their home, which is technically a type of chair.
  • Lamput:
    • In the Season 1 episode "Horror Movie", the docs are seen sitting on chairs in a movie theater while watching a horror film.
    • The Season 2 episode "Martial Art" has Lamput sitting in a chair in a movie theater, this time to watch a martial arts film. Then the docs challenge him to a fight, martial arts style.
    • In the Season 3 episode "Origins", the Lab School, like most schools, has chairs for each of the desks the students, including Fat Doc, use to do their schoolwork.
  • Chairs are present in the Motu Patlu dab commercial.
  • In Noonbory and the Super 7, the characters are seen using small pieces of wood as chairs at least once, at Bakerbory's place.
  • Characters in PangPond are occasionally seen sitting in chairs.
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf has chairs once.
  • The Pen family in Say Hi to Pencil! are often seen sitting in chairs placed around their dining room table.
  • Simple Samosa has a chair in one scene.

    Comic Books 
  • The Avengers have a strong tendency to sit on chairs around a roundish table during meetings.
  • The DCU: The Justice Society of America and Justice League of America also sit in chairs around a roundish table during meetings. The JSA has been seen doing that on covers.
  • X-Men: Professor X was long confined to his wheelchair, which is a type of chair. Since he learned to walk again, he has been sitting on the Quiet Council of Krakoa, whose seats are represented by chairs.

    Comic Strips 
  • Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!: In this strip, Brewster himself is praising chairs for how easy life is when people can sit on them.
  • The Phantom: The Phantom has a specially designated chair in his cave that he has named the Skull Throne that only he can sit on.

    Fairy Tales 
  • Goldilocks: Goldilocks sits on three chairs, but also breaks the little one. This suggests the chair really hated her, as it could usually hold a small bear. This also indicates that not only do people sit in chairs, but bears do as well.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Saw, Amanda Young wakes up in the Reverse Bear Trap sitting on chair.
  • Subverted in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory twice — first, the singing puppets sing, "Willy Wonka, here he is!" and point to a chair... which is empty because Willy Wonka wanted to watch the show. Then, the characters go to the nut sorting room and expect to find people sitting on chairs, but they find squirrels sitting on them instead.
  • Die Hard:
    • John McClane sits in a chair, at first, when rubbing his feet on the carpet.
    • Hans Gruber and Joe Takagi are sitting in chairs when the former kills the latter.
    • Harry Ellis is sitting in a chair when Hans shoots him.
  • Completely justified by Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump. Having had both legs amputated after being severely wounded in Vietnam, he spends most of his time in a wheelchair, exercising his arms. That is, until he subverts it at Forrest and Jenny's wedding. Having been fitted with "magic" titanium alloy prosthetics, he is the only wedding guest not seated in a chair at the ceremony.
  • The Godfather provides the page image, which shows Michael Corleone sitting on a chair.
  • In The Madness of King George, the King is literally forced to sit in a chair when he misbehaves, with straps.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Star Wars uses this trope many times per film:
    • Across the franchise, most pilots sit down while flying their ships. This sitting is completely justified; most cockpits are fairly small, meaning that sitting down helps the pilots easily fit inside.
    • In A New Hope, Admiral Motti is sitting in a chair when he is force-choked by Darth Vader. Many aliens are also sitting in chairs in the Mos Eisley Cantina.
    • In The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader briefly sits down at a dinner table. Earlier in the film, he is also seen sitting in his meditation chamber.
    • Return of the Jedi: On the Death Star, the Emperor sits on his throne, which is a type of chair. C-3PO is also built a wooden throne by the Ewoks when they worship him.
      • The Rise of Skywalker takes this even further with the revived Palpatine taking a seat on the throne of the Sith — which is still a chair, but this one is a much larger, more ominous looking chair.
    • As seen in The Phantom Menace, the Jedi Council's chamber features many chairs to sit in. Some of them, such as Yoda's chair, are tailor-made to fit the Master that sits in it.
    • Dexter's diner from Attack of the Clones features many chairs and booths to sit in. The Separatist Council on Geonosis also features many seats.
    • Revenge of the Sith:
      • Upon denying Anakin the rank of Jedi Master, Mace Windu disrespectfully tells him to “take a seat”. Arguably being forced to sit in that chair was Anakin’s Start of Darkness moment that set him down the path to become Darth Vader.
      • Also exploited by Yoda later in the film: At the beginning of his duel with Darth Sidious in the Senate building, Sidious is sitting in a chair. After he gets up, Yoda takes advantage of this and Force-pushes the Emperor back, sending him flying into his chair and flipping him over.
    • In The Force Awakens, Captain Phasma is sitting in a chair when she is forced to disable Starkiller Base's shields by Finn and Han.
    • Rogue One: Admiral Raddus is sitting in a chair when the Death Star plans are transmitted to the Profundity.
    • Paralleling the previously mentioned Palpatine, Snoke sits in a chair in his throne room in The Last Jedi. Even after Kylo Ren bisects him, his legs still sit on the chair.
    • Solo: Darth Maul is sitting in a chair during his cameo scene at the end of the film.
  • Josh Brolin sits on a chair in several of his movies, including his aforementioned portrayal of Thanos, and even on the poster for W..
  • Lampshaded in The Wicker Man (1973) when Lord Summerisle sits down in a chair and invites Howie to do the same, saying "Shocks are so much better absorbed with the knees bent."

    Literature 
  • In the Alfie story "Breakfast", Alfie sits on a "proper" chair to eat his breakfast, while Annie Rose, due to her young age, sits in a high chair.
  • While Jesus and his disciples Avert this during the Last Supper in The Bible, instead reclining at a low table, many paintings of the Last Supper depict them sitting in chairs.
  • In most of the frequent meetings between House leaders, diplomats, or clergymen in City of No End, the characters gather by sitting on chairs. Subverted, however, in the opening appearance of Setheus Platinus Leibowitz, in which he sits on a simple low stool to hear cross-legged petitioners who sit on the ground beside him, establishing his role as The Philosopher King and a Reasonable Authority Figure.
  • Danny, the Champion of the World: Aware of the problem that Danny and his father only have two chairs, they plan to avert this trope when they invite Doctor and Mrs Spencer: they themselves will sit not on chairs, but on boxes.
  • Goodnight Moon features bears sitting on chairs.
  • Harry Potter: Harry and his friends sit on chairs while in class. The common room also has chairs. Madame Maxime takes up two chairs on her own. Dumbledore and Voldemort sit in chairs and drink wine during Voldemort's job interview. It's the only time in the series Voldemort is ever on a chair, as well as the only time we ever see him eating or drinking for pleasure.
  • The Chronicles of Narnia:
    • The Magician's Nephew: The only thing worth seeing in the ancient and deserted city of Charn is people sitting in chairs: a vast room full of such people, preserved from the apocalypse caused by the Deplorable Word, all wearing fabulously ornate clothes.
    • In the follow-up, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, chairs are integral to solving the plot, as the curse will only be broken when four humans sit on four chairs in a castle know as Cair Paravel. The chairs themselves are never established to be magical; it is the sitting on them that is significant.
    • In a later installment, the titular silver chair turns this on its head by not only being magical, but able to work for any Narnian who sits on it and slowly turning them evil.
  • Mog: Mr. Thomas sits on a chair. In "Mog's Bad Thing", Mog pees on it, which is such a sin against furniture, that the act was never named and referred to solely as "a bad thing".
  • Zigzagged in Oi Frog. The frog makes it so that everybody has to sit on something that rhymes with their species (dogs on logs, dingoes on flamingos, etc), but he gets to sit on a sun lounger (which is sort of a chair) anyway.
  • Subverted in The Lord of the Rings: Denethor is just a steward, so he does not sit on the throne of Gondor. Instead he sits on a black chair at the foot of the throne.
  • Discworld:
    • Lord Vetinari is generally sitting in a chair behind his desk when Vimes or Moist see him.
    • At the end of Equal Rites, Granny Weatherwax gets a chair with a sunshade, so she can sit outside.
    • The overweight Dean of Unseen University is unkindly known as "Two Chairs" due to his ability to sit in two of the Uncommon Room chairs at the same time.
  • Matilda: The Trunchbull sits on a chair with a beautiful squelch, because the chair has been smeared with Golden Syrup.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Addams Family: The eponymous family has a large chair, but for some reason, the only one who sits on it is Morticia.
  • All in the Family: Invoked pretty much every episode by Archie and Edith Bunker each having their own specific chair in the sitting room.note  All others, including unaware visitors, are made to sit on the couch.
  • A running gag in The Big Bang Theory is for the character Sheldon Cooper to get mad when someone else sits on the part of the couch that he usually sits on. While subverted in that it is on a couch, we are shown in a flashback that it used to be a lawn chair that stood in that exact spot.
  • Contestants on Big Brother sit on a chair in the Diary Room: usually a fancy ornate one.
  • Blackadder:
    • Nobody sits in the chair belonging to the late King Richard III, as the King reminds Edmund, by suddenly materialising in the chair.
    • The cast of Blackadder II sit on chairs, much to the disgust of the puritan Lady Whiteadder, who believes people should sit on spikes.
  • Community: The Study Group regularly sit in chairs at the study table, and Pierce comes to discover in Season 1 that much of Jeff's "power" is because of the chair he sits in.
  • Doctor Who: The Doctor sits on a chair while a prisoner of the Daleks in "The Magician's Apprentice" and "The Witch's Familiar". Davros comments that they found the only chair on Skaro for him, since the Daleks avert the trope completely. In the Comic Relief special Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, the Doctor and his companion are forced to sit on chairs whilst prisoners of the Daleks as well. The companion asks why the Daleks have chairs and the Doctor says "I'll explain later."
  • Fawlty Towers: In "A Touch of Class", Basil complains that the guests in room six are common and vulgar, because they have never even sat on chairs before.
  • The Friendly Giant has Friendly set out chairs for his guests at the beginning of each episode, including a rocking chair and an arm chair for "Two more to curl up in."
  • Used to great effect in Gilmore Girls, where the titular girls typically only sit one chairs during formal occasions, such as dinners, parties, or at school, but also when arguing. The rest of the time the keep it cash sitting on sofas, or chat while sitting on bar stools.
    • When Rory is relaxed, she will study on the couch; when she is stressed out, she will study on a chair.
    • Often Played for Laughs by Lorelai. On one occasion, when told she can sit wherever she wants at a local diner, she asks an already seated dining guest to move; on another, she picks a fight with her daughter about who sat down on the wrong chair after they end up sitting by different tables. At her daughter's graduation, she deliberately annoys her mother by pretending not to have saved them seats.
  • The Golden Girls typically sat in chairs when eating cheesecake.
  • Grange Hill: Averted in that some teachers and pupils do not sit on chairs, choosing to perch on a desk instead. Occasionally, teachers make the threat that if pupils misbehave, they won't be able to sit on chairs.
  • Happy Days: Zigzagged with the character of Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli. He does sit on chairs, but he also sits on benches and sinks. Characters are sometimes told to "Sit on it" when there may not be a chair to sit on.
  • Inside No. 9:
    • Played for Horror in “Private View”. Neil is killed by being forced to sit in a chair with knives sticking out of the backrest.
    • In “Misdirection”, the Impossibly Awesome Magic Trick that drives the plot involves the magician sitting on a chair.
  • Both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are about unlikable people fighting, manipulating and murdering their way to sit on the most important chair in any media, the Iron Throne.
  • On Laugh In Lily Tomlin has a recurring character, Edith Ann, who is a child sitting in a large rocking chair, telling humorous stories.
  • Little Britain: People in Britain will do all sorts of things for kicks. Some lick stamps, others sit on chairs.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Disa invites Elrond to dine with her family despite Durin's disapproval. Everyone is sitting on chairs. Durin and Elrond argue, and Elrond wants to leave. At his wife's urging, Durin tells Elrond to sit down back on the chair.
  • In Malcolm in the Middle, the character, Stevie Kenarban, is bound to a wheelchair, making him a living embodiment of this trope.
  • The Mandalorian seats the title character in a chair at least Once an Episode, usually when he pilots his Cool Ship.
    • Mando sits at the bar on Nevarro three times during Season 1; the first two times when Greef Karga gives him a new assignment, and the third when the Client (who sits in all of his appearances) demands, "I would like to see the baby." Whoever talks to Mando in each of those scenes sits in another chair.
      • After the bar becomes a schoolhouse, Mando can't sit in his previous chair, but Greef does seat Baby Yoda behind a desk.
    • Mando and Mayfeld must sit inside the mining hub on Morak when Imperial general Valin Hess makes them listen to his plans to burn the village to the ground.
    • Season 2 ends with Boba Fett victoriously sitting on the throne he claimed from Bib Fortuna.
    • Season 3 ends with Mando sitting on a porch chair while watching the baby play outside.
  • On Mastermind, the contender sits in a famous black chair; the chair is so famous, that it forms the page image.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus:
    • The Spanish Inquisition uses the "Comfy Chair" as one of its ineffective torture devices. An old woman is forced to sit in it.
    • One couple has an entire living room on the pavement outside of a movie theatre, chairs included.
  • Mr. Bean: In "Do it yourself, Mr Bean", Mr Bean sits in an armchair he has just bought. The fact that the chair is tied to the roof of his car, and that he is driving the car from said chair is merely Narrative Filigree.
  • RuPaul's Drag Race: Discussed in the episode 5, season 9 Untucked. Cynthia Lee Fontaine gives an eulogy to a chair that was just broken by Eureka.
    Cynthia: A moment of silence for this chair, it pass away. It had beautiful cucu sitting here for makeup, shade, tea, and more. For this chair, on behalf of Season 9, our condolencences.
  • In A Series of Unfortunate Events, Uncle Monty is murdered by Count Olaf in a chair.
  • Star Trek: Starfleet starships in all series tend to have chairs of some sort. The best ones are for the captain, (or those filling in for the captain).
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • Invoked and exploited in the episode "Who Mourns for Morn?". A barfly named Morn is thought to be dead, so Quark the bartender has people pay to sit in his chair to commemorate him.
    • Averted by the Jem'Hadars: their ships have no chairs, which makes them quite uncomfortable for everybody else.
  • Star Trek: Enterprise:
    • In one episode, Hoshi talks Travis into sitting in Reed's chair.
    • Zigzagged in "Singularity". Archer does sit on a chair, but he finds the chair uncomfortable, so he has Trip adjust it. An anomaly causes most of the crew to become obsessed with whatever they're doing, so Trip obsesses over the chair and doesn't let anyone sit on it. Eventually, he lowers the chair slightly, satisfying Archer.
  • In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Picard's chair, colloquially known as the "Big Chair", has status. Ambassador Troi and Vash have both tried sitting in it, despite the fact that only Picard is allowed to do so unless he gives someone else charge of the bridge. When Worf was temporarily put in charge, he described the Big Chair as "comfortable".
  • Star Trek: Voyager: Downplayed with Seven of Nine and Icheb, who, due to being former Borg, sit on chairs a lot less than the other characters.

    Music 
  • In general, it is common for musicians to sit down in chairs when mixing music on their computers. Drummers also tend to sit on a stool when performing in a rock band; as do pianists.
  • George Strait, a country singer, sang a song called The Chair in which somebody sits in his chair.
  • Most of Henry Cow used to sit down during their performances, apart from keyboardist Tim Hodgkinson and singer Dagmar Krause.
  • Robert Fripp, the main guitarist of King Crimson, has sat on a stool since the band's earliest gigs in 1969. When he announced to the other members of the original lineup that he couldn't play properly standing up, bassist Greg Lake burst out "You can't sit down! You'll look like a mushroom!"
  • Lene Marlin, as well as a number of other guitarists, have a habit of sitting on chairs during their performances.
  • The Ramones remain sitting in chairs in their video for "I Wanna be Sedated".
  • Subverted with Tears for Fears and the cover for their album "Songs from the Big Chair", which does not display any people sitting in chairs, big or otherwise.

    Podcasts 
  • Most podcast hosts and guests record their podcasts while sitting on chairs.
  • The hosts of Hello, from the Magic Tavern are mentioned to be sitting on chairs, though it is not explained how Chunt can reach the table while in badger form.

     Professional Wrestling 
  • Chairs are used in wrestling, specifically folding chairs. Sometimes wrestlers sit on them during interviews and segments, other times they use the chairs as weapons.

    Puppet Shows 
  • Sesame Street:
    • In the "Bear, Bear, Bear" song, the Bear family note that, unlike non-anthropomorphic bears, they sit on chairs instead of rocks.
    • In one Game of Thrones parody, everyone plays Musical Chairs.

    Tabletop Games 

    This Very Wiki 
  • Quite a few pages have images with characters sitting on chairs, such as Big Bad, Cool Chair, Throne Made of X, Slouch of Villainy, Orcus on His Throne, etc.
  • The People Sit on Chairs page completely averts this, as it is about avoiding making tropes that are so broad and narratively insignificant that you may as well be talking about people sitting on chairs. To drive this point home, it has an image featuring Michael Corleone sitting on a chair, which has nothing to do with the rest of the page besides the fact that he's sitting on a chair.
  • This very page is a massive example, containing nothing but examples of people sitting on chairs, including in the page image which, unlike the above Administrivia example, has everything to do with the page.

    Video Games 
  • This is a staple of the Animal Crossing series, where the Player Character can sit on one of the many chair furniture items. In later installments, other villagers can sit on chairs as well.
  • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Miriam can find numerous chairs around the castle that she can sit in. She can also learn a Shard power that lets her summon a chair to sit in. Leveling it up allows her to summon a bigger, more impressive chair.
  • Castlevania: Curse of Darkness has a side quest where you can find chairs and then sit on them.
  • Averted in the Dark Souls series, where you can sit on the floor at the bonfires to restore your health and save a checkpoint. No chairs to be seen.
  • Double Subverted in Decentraland. As Folding Ideas explains in The Future Is A Dead Mall, there are chairs, but you can't sit in them... unless you buy the player-made sitting emote.
  • In Disco Elysium, the Detective can sit in a chair. It is so uncomfortable that it can potentially kill him.
  • In The Elder Scrolls Online, you can sit on many of the chairs that are around populated areas. If none are handy, you can use the /sitchair command to conjure one from nowhere. Or you can sit on the ground like some kind of weirdo.
  • Invoked in Fallout 4 by Mama Murphy, a frail old Fortune Teller who will refuse to actually tell your fortune unless you build her a special chair, and bother you about it every time you try to talk to her until you do so.
  • In Garry's Mod, chairs are featured as sittable vehicles, in addition to their prop forms. You can also make them invisible and sit anywhere you'd like.
  • One of the new features in the Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire expansion was the ability to sit on chairs. There's even an achievement track for sitting on different chairs throughout the world.
  • In Hollow Knight, this is a major game mechanic, as the protagonist can sit on benchs to restore its health and save a checkpoint.
  • Just Dance: 2015's Seated version of "Diamonds", 2016's Car version of "Teacher", 2017's Car version of "What is Love", 2018's Subway version of "Chantaje", and 2019's Mad Scientist version of "Bum Bum Tam Tam" have the dancers sitting down and the game prompts you to sit down on something like a chair in order to properly dance. Oh, and 2014's Chair version of "Rich Girl" revolves around a chair and has you sit on it at some points in a rather suggestive manner.
  • Averted in LEGO Adaptation Games. You break the chairs instead.
    • Played straight in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga; there are several chairs you can sit in, such as the Jedi Council chairs on Coruscant, C-3PO's throne on Endor, and Palpatine's throne on Exegol.
  • Maplestory has chairs that you can sit on to heal slightly faster. Most of them are earned from the Gachapon, which requires NX, so a fancier chair is usually an indicator of wealth, both in real life and in-game. Some players like to spend money on the game until they get an exceptionally nice chair, sit in the middle of a crowded town, and then go AFK for a few hours to show off.
  • Averted in Loonyland: Halloween Hill. There are chairs, but you can't sit on them. One boss even throws chairs at you.
  • In OMORI, the title character sits on a chair made of two cupped red hands at the end of Two Days Left.
  • Punch-Out!! Wii gives the boxers little chairs to sit on in between rounds, though they typically can't be seen without hacking the camera, and not every character uses theirs.
  • Averted in Minecraft, where there are no proper chairs to sit on and the only ways you can sit are on minecarts, boats, or mount animals. However, there are stairs generated in structures to look like chairs and you can use the minecart as a quasi-chair. There are also mods which will let you sit on chairs like always.
  • The Big Bad of Resident Evil 4 Saddler is seen sitting on a chair when sending Krauser to capture Ashley. Later, Leon can also sit on the same chair.
  • While developing with Roblox game, you can use the Seat object in which the player can assume a sitting animation and be welded to, which means they can sit forever if the game lets them to, until they voluntarily jump off. The Seat object is commonly used for chairs, various chairs.
    • In this game, your only purpose is to sit on the eponymous chair and experience dreamlike visions.
  • A variety of chairs can be summoned and sat on in the Scribblenauts series. Some of these include dental chairs, lawn chairs, shower chairs, recliners, and even electric chairs.
  • Dr. Eggman's chair, which he is seen sitting on in Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors.
  • In the Streets of Rage series, the main villain, Mr. X, is often found sitting on a chair in his office when the heroes arrive. In the first game, there is a bad ending where one of the heroes can take over Mr. X’s crime organisation, and the ending image shows them sitting in his chair.
  • In the opening of Super Mario Sunshine, Mario, Peach, and Toadsworth sit on chairs inside an airplane. However, this is interrupted by an abrupt plane landing, which launches them out of their seats.
    • Bowser, the Big Bad, loves to sit in chairs. In fact, in Mario Party 4 and 7, Bowser spends the entirety of the Bowser Minigames note  sitting in a chair.
  • Subverted in most Pokémon games, where chairs are visible but you cannot sit in them due to the limitations of your sprite. However, Pokémon X and Y allows you to sit on chairs, much to the fandom's delight. Unfortunately this was removed in Generation VII where you can only sit on certain benches or lie in beds.
  • Persona 5:
    • Shadow Okumura sits in a hoverchair for his entire boss fight and summons robots to do battle. He falls out when he is defeated.
    • In the two hangout spots in Leblanc the phantom thieves are all sitting in chairs or sofas.
    • On the mornings when Joker gets a text message in early morning he is sitting in a chair to eat breakfast.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • In the climax of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Link and Midna fight their way through Hyrule Castle in order to confront Ganondorf. There they find Ganondorf sitting in a chair that used to belong to the kingdom's rightful ruler, Princess Zelda.
    • While The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword doesn't feature chairs as such, it does feature stools scattered throughout the environment which the player can sit on for some free healing.
  • Terraria: Though the chairs were present in the game ever since the first version of the game, no one was able to sit on them... Until version 1.3, where NPCs had their behavior modified, allowing them to sit on chairs. Come version 1.4, players are now able to sit on chairs as well, providing a slight boost to health regeneration.
  • Touhou Project:
    • The series normally averts this trope, but Okina Matara, the Big Bad of Touhou Tenkuushou ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons, is shown sitting on a very fancy chair in her first appearance. Averted later during the second fight with her, where she appears standing like other bosses in the series. Originally, she was going to sit in a wheelchair as a tribute to Stephen Hawking, but this was scrapped. The mangas reveal that she's not physically disabled, and can stand if she wants to.
    • The soundtrack CD for Touhou Shinpiroku ~ Urban Legend in Limbo has cover art featuring Sumireko Usami sitting on a throne surrounded by nearly everything she uses in her moveset. The soundtrack CD for the PlayStation 4 port features Reisen Udongein Inaba sitting on a chair surrounded by stuff from her moveset.
  • When Aloy talks to Beta in Horizon Forbidden West, Beta sits down at the start and ending of the dialogue tree.
  • In Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion's 1st DLC, Karamari Hospital, you may find The Scare Chair, and of course, you may sit on it. But sit on it for too long and you start to hallucinate and eventually you get up, and find someone else sitting it it. You can kill this man in the New Game Plus and sit back down, but doing this gets your soul presumably sucked out causing a Non-Standard Game Over. The chair reappears in Dollhouse, behind you when you start the Nightmare Sequence but unfortunately, you can't sit in it.
  • Zigzagged in Undertale. While several characters are seen sitting on chairs, the protagonist doesn't have a unique sprite for sitting, giving the appearance that they stand on chairs instead. The nerve!
    • Deltarune also features many people sitting on sofas, stools, and indeed chairs—most prominent, however, is Queen, who spends most of her time slouching on her flying throne.
  • In Stardew Valley, as of update 1.5, the player character can sit in chairs around town. Many of the villagers are also frequently depicted in chairs.
  • Inverted in Skylanders; lots of houses have chairs you can break, but not actually sit in.
  • Papa Louie Arcade: Before Pastaria, it was hard to see a character sitting somewhere. From said game onwards, you can see characters sitting on the seats of the dine-ins in Papa Louie's numerous restaurants, as well as around the background scenario at times.
  • In The Sims, the ability to sit on a chair is a major gameplay mechanic and a prerequisite for invoking many other essential tropes such as using computers, reading books and eating food. The games and their expansions include hundreds of different chairs to purchase, going into the thousands if you include different colour swatches, making the series perhaps the peak of chair-sitting in gaming when it comes to variety.

    Visual Novels 
  • Downplayed in most school life visual novels. While many scenes take place in a classroom, which has several chairs, the characters' sprites are mostly standing except in some CG scenes.
  • In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, rebel leader Dhurke is introduced sitting in a chair.

    Web Animation 
  • At one point in the pilot of The Amazing Digital Circus, Caine sits in a chair at a restaurant. Later in the episode, the cast sits in chairs around a table while Pomni experiences Sanity Slippage.
  • Exaggerated in the The Cyanide & Happiness Show's "The Man Who Could Sit Anywhere," when a man goes to a chair store and discovers his ass is so comfortable, he can sit anywhere, not even just in chairs. He then sits in various places all over the world.
  • How It Should Have Ended: Zig-zagged. Once per Episode, the characters of the parodied movie meet with other recurring characters in different places. Heroes sit at a café booth with Batman and Superman, villains sit on bar stools in a Bad Guy Bar with The Joker and Palpatine, and anti-heros sit on park benches at a food truck place with Deadpool and Venom.
  • In Inanimate Insanity, Bow has an odd obsession with chairs. She first appears in a commercial for chairs, then when she officially joins the cast, she'll say "Buy a chair!" at random points, and when Knife does a mocking impression of her, he says "Chairs, chairs, chairs!", which Marshmallow quips sounds about right.
  • YouTube Poop: Parodied in "Kramer Risks It All", a poop of Seinfeld. Kramer rushes from the restaurant door to a booth to tell Jerry "Newman has a little pee-pee". When Kramer says "you sit there" for the third and fourth time in a row, it shows Newman sitting down in a chair. Later, when Kramer takes the Risk board out of the room, Newman can't decide whether or not to stand up from the chair and chase him. When he does finally get up, Kramer tells him "I'm looking right at you, big dick!" and promptly sits back down. Right after, it's revealed that Jerry was sitting on the floor behind the couch, despite being down on the street just 22 seconds earlier. This makes Newman get back up. He freaks out so hard that it creates a reality-distorting sound.

    Web Original 
  • The SCP Foundation invokes this trope with SCP-1609. It used to be a chair that would teleport to whoever nearby needed to sit down the most. However, after the Global Occult Coalition put it through a woodchipper, it became mulch that teleports into peoples' lungs when they threaten it.

    Web Video 
  • Averted in Webdriver Torso, as there aren't any chairs. Some speculate that this is possibly played straight; there could be white chairs that blend in with the background.
  • The Nostalgia Critic sits on a chair in most of his reviews.
  • PewDiePie has his own signature chair that you can buy for the low low price of $399!
  • Todd in the Shadows sits in a chair for all his reviews.
  • Parodied in "How Bisexuals Sit", which shows the many ways in which bisexual people play with this trope.
  • After Hours was all about four friends sitting on chairs around a diner table discussing pop culture. They tried sitting on benches in a few episodes, but this gimmick was ditched pretty early on.

    Western Animation 
  • Once per Episode, Steve (and later Joe and Josh) from Blue's Clues sits on a chair called the Thinking Chair to figure out Blue's clues.
  • Bluey: The episode "Perfect" exaggerates and lampshades this trope by having Bluey sitting in a chair, but then Bandit walking in and loudly announcing that he wants to sit down, and that he has the choice of any chair in the house. He ends up sitting on the chair that Bluey is also sitting on, squishing her.
  • Played for Laughs in Courage the Cowardly Dog. Eustace refuses to get off his chair even as a tidal wave causes it to get thrown into the ocean.
    Eustace: Nope. Not gettin' out of this chair.
  • Parodied in the Family Guy episode, "North By North Quahog", when Peter forgot how to sit down and ended up throwing himself headfirst into a chair. See here.
    • Many episodes of the show open with the Griffin family sitting on a couch while watching TV.
    • The character Joe Swanson is always sitting in a wheelchair.
  • Fireman Sam:
    • When we first see Sam in the very first episode, he's sitting in a chair, finishing breakfast.
    • In the Series 5 intro, the first character shot is of Sam and Elvis sitting in chairs having coffee, which they quickly abandon to deal with an emergency call.
  • In Inspector Gadget, Dr. Claw is always shown sitting in a chair, with the camera usually facing the back of the chair.
  • The Loud House:
    • Much like The Simpsons, the show's opening sequence ends with all of the Loud siblings sans Lily sitting on a couch to watch TV, although there's no Couch Gag involved.
    • "The Sweet Spot" is about Lincoln obsessing over which seat in the Loud family van is the best one to sit on, with his sisters joining in a fight for it. When they accidentally destroy the van at the end of the episode, Lincoln goes over to the best spot to sit at the couch, causing yet another fight.
    • The whole family sit on chairs for dinner several times in "A Tale of Two Tables", plus many later episodes. Initially, they're split between a "grown-up table" and a "kiddie table" that Lincoln dreads, but the following episodes have all of them sitting around a single table.
    • Whenever a school cafeteria scene comes up, expect to see dozens of students sitting on long seat-table combos as usual.
  • Milly, Molly: The cartoon version has an episode called "Marmalade and the Birds", in which Milly's father sits on a chair. A lot. And he makes sure that the "people" part of the trope is followed to the letter, since Marmalade, due to being a cat not a person, is banned from the chair.
  • In the PAW Patrol episode "Ultimate Rescue: Pups and the Mystery of the Missing Cellphones", Mr. Porter is seen sitting in a chair, using his cellphone.
  • Peppa Pig: Daddy Pig sits on an antique chair, which Mummy Pig donates to a sale... but Daddy Pig buys it again.
  • The Raccoons:
    • In the episode "Spring Fever!", Bert and Lisa sit in chairs during their "date" at the Blue Spruce Cafe.
    • In the episode "Moving In!", the Raccoons are sitting in chairs when Lisa has an outburst at the dinner table and when having celebratory milkshakes at the Blue Spruce Cafe at the end of the episode.
    • In the episode "Promises Promises!", Mr. Willow sits in a chair as he orders the blue plate special from the Blue Spruce Cafe.
  • Rather amusingly inverted in an episode of Rick and Morty, where the titular characters pass through a universe where chairs are sitting on people.
  • One episode of Roary the Racing Car revolved around Big Chris wanting to sit in his deck chair.
  • In one of the most famous examples, every episode of The Simpsons plays with this trope. For over 30 years now, every episode of The Simpsons has opened with the titular family sitting on a couch but something crazy happens to either subvert, invert, or avert this trope. Earlier seasons started simple, with such gags being the couch breaking or Character A knocking Character B off the couch but over the years, the writers have gotten very creative with this trope, dedicating minutes to doing mini-stories, musical numbers, and high budget performances that often involve beautiful new art styles by famous guest artists such as Bill Plympton, Don Hertzfelt, John Kricfalusi ... twice, as well as several crossovers with other chair-sitting-heavy shows as Family Guy, Futurama, Rick and Morty, The Brady Bunch, Cheers, Adventure Time, The Honeymooners, American Dad!, The Cleveland Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and so many more, all for the sake of parodying this wonderful little trope.
  • Transformers: Animated: In one episode, Bulkhead turned the vehicle-mode pieces on his back into a chair, which he then sat on.

    Real Life 
  • You, dear Troper, may be sitting in a chair right now.
    • Subverted if you're using a standing desk, standing up while using a cell phone, or sitting on a non-chair surface such as a floor or a bed.
  • There's a game called "musical chairs" where when the music stops, people have to rush to a chair. One chair is taken away after each round, and the loser is out if they don't find a chair. In other words, they are out if they are not a person sitting on a chair.
  • Tons of people have sat in one chair.
  • Exaggerated in IKEA stores, which have chairs almost everywhere. Justified in that IKEA is a furniture store.
  • Defied by Christopher Nolan. He doesn't allow chairs on set as he says that if people are sitting on chairs, they're not working.
  • Adolf Hitler was known to have sat on chairs, sometimes reclining.

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