Apology Gift

Frasier: Please, please, please forgive me. And do you think we have time to stop by Tiffany's on the way home?
Lilith: Good boy.

— Cheers

Sometimes you screw up, and you know it. Your girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, roommate, sibling, parent, or partner in crime is mad at you, and with good reason. How better to say "I'm sorry" than with a heartfelt gift?

Sometimes the gift is meant as proof of your sincerity... sometimes it may stem from a sense that just words aren't enough to make up for the wrong. Either way, when you give someone a gift as part of an apology, you're following a time-honored storytelling tradition.

There are a few standard apology gifts that show up consistently in media of all times. For couples, flowers (particularly roses) are a standard gift for a man to give his romantic partner when he's done wrong. If someone has really screwed up (or has a lot of money to throw around), jewelry may be offered instead of flowers. Food is also a popular apology gift, especially homemade food, or in a romantic relationship, chocolate. But of course, there are other gifts that may be offered instead. A common gag based on this is a spouse being given a gift automatically assuming (often correctly) that their lover's about to admit to something serious.

Compare Buy Them Off, in which the apology is not sincerely intended. If the screw-up is one of epic proportions and requires considerably more than roses or jewelry to make up for it, see Must Make Amends or Redemption Quest.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Cross Ange: In Episode 14, Ange inadvertedly insults the memories of Tusk's parents, who sacrificed their lives in their attempt to defeat Embryo and free the Norma, which understandably angers him. She gives him a necklace as a token of apology, which later becomes a symbol of their love for each other.
• In Dear Brother, when Junko falls out of favor with Fukiko and is about to get kicked out of the Sorority, she tries to give her a bouquet of red roses (Fukiko's favorite flowers) as an apology. It doesn't help her case.
• In The Demon Girl Next Door, Yuko sends Momo an indirectly-phrased challenge letter calling her out for a duel, which Momo interpreted as asking her to go out and have fun for the afternoon. When Momo shows up in a breezy summer dress, Yuko grudgingly apologizes for the misunderstanding, goes out shopping with Momo, and buys her a pair of black hairclips. Yuko then puts the hairclips on Momo while gloating that she's finally managed to turn some small part of her to darkness. Momo never wears her old iconic pink hairclips again.
• In Haibane Renmei, in the Crystal Dragon Jesus festival near the end of the series, baubles of different colors are given to people, with yellow signifying an apology.
• Lampshaded in I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying with Hajime's list on how to calm girls down:
  1. Don't talk back ☆!
  2. Apologize and keep quiet
  3. It can't be helped even if you get hit
  4. Give some valuable presents later.
• During the first arc of Laid-Back Camp, Sakura gives a bag of kiwifruit to Rin to make up for her ditzy sister Nadeshiko disturbing Rin's camping, since Nadeshiko had fallen asleep on the bench after leaving her cell phone at home, forcing Rin to let Nadeshiko borrow her cell phone to call Sakura.
• In My Daddy Long Legs, after Jervis hurts Judy's feelings by harshly criticizing her novel, he shows up outside her dorm with flowers... twice, because she wasn't there the first time. Persistent fellow!
• In New Game!, Umiko is introduced informing Aoba that some of the NPCs she made had bugs, and complaining about how graphics designers only care about appearances. After leaving, Umiko realizes she went too far, and offers Aoba a spent shotgun shell as a gift.

Asian Animation

• In the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi spinoff The Founder of Diabolism Q, the resurrected Wei Wuxian is hurt to hear that his companion Lan Wangji didn't send him any lanterns during the 13 years he was dead, as per Chinese tradition. (Unbeknownst to him, Lan Wangji didn't believe that he'd stay dead and so decided to wait for him instead.) Lan Wangji then gives him a lantern and starts showering him with gifts, which is implied to be his way of apologising for not sending any offerings all those years.

Comic Strips

• Blondie (1930): Subverted in one strip. Dagwood goes to buy some flowers for Blondie. The florist initially thinks it's for her birthday or their anniversary, but Dagwood says no, saying he wanted to buy her flowers just because. The florist refuses to believe this and she, along with several other nearby ladies, begins grilling him, demanding to know what he did.
• In the Nest Heads strip for July 19th, 2013, a guy gives his girlfriend flowers and a balloon with the word "Sorry" on it after having a spat with her over their relationship.

Fan Works

• BURN THE WITCH: After Lila's true nature is revealed and Adrien is faced with just how destructive her deception was, he realizes that simply apologizing to everyone for "taking the high road" and refusing to warn anyone isn't going to be good enough. The rest of the class leaves it up to Rose, whom Lila tricked into donating to a Fake Charity, to decide what to do. She encourages him to make amends by helping with some real charity work, along with requesting an apology cake... and setting him up on a date with Marinette.
• Danny Phantom: Stranded: At the climax of "Cursed", Madame Valentine forces the Ghost Writer to make amends to Danny and Star for his Misplaced Retribution. They request that he expose Colette and Paulina's forged love letter scheme, as well as destroy Colette's collage of Danny.
• Hopeless Devotion: Following a fight, Hiyoko, Mahiru and Ibuki combine their funds to buy Mikan a bag of medical supplies.
• Referenced, and slowly deconstructed in I'll use you as a makeshift gauge, of how much to give and how much to take. Laurel recalls how Oliver slowly stopped buying her flowers as a gift and started getting them only as an apology. To the point that the mere sight of him with flowers became an omen. Now, she can't stand to be given flowers at all.
• Infinite Coffee and Protection Detail: Barnes gets Sam a plant as a way of saying "Sorry I broke your wings and kicked you off of a helicarrier".
• Much Ado About Shakespeare: Love's Labours Won (Hornblower TV 'verse fic): Horatio buys a copy of Shakespeare's sonnets as an apology gift for Archie. They've had an argument because of their wager (Archie has to speak only in Shakespeare's quotes for six hours). Shakespeare is Archie's favorite, and the book is especially nice.
• Through the Eyes of Anon-a-Miss: After learning that Sunset was completely innocent and uninvolved with Anon-A-Miss, as well as the fact that she's secretly homeless, the Rainbooms pool their resources to help her purchase an apartment.
• Trading Secrets, a fic of Dragon Age: Inquisition, plays with the idea of Leliana being a romance option. After Evelyn Trevalyan pushes for mercy she realizes her Spymaster is rather pissed at her interference, and later seeks to apologize with... what else, shoes.
• In The Vow, the initially hostile relationship between Lord Shen and Lady Lianne begins its improvement after she openly defends him against an official's low insults. To apologize for his earlier treatment of her, he gives her a book that tells about her mother's homelands (something she knows very little about). The gift is accepted gratefully, and they begin to be civil to each other.
• A Winter's Tale, a Supernatural fanfic, had Sam and Dean buy Castiel to make up for their behavior and because he was their family: new clothes, fresh bedding, new tires and stuff for Cas' car, and lots of fluffy pillows.

Film — Live-Action

• Emma. (2020):
  • Emma brings a basket with food to Miss Bates after she carelessly insulted her at the Boxhill picnic. In the book, it's only mentioned that she immediately went to visit her the following day.
  • Emma goes to Mr Martin to make amends after she realizes that she was wrong to persuade his love Harriet to refuse his marriage proposal. She brings him a basket with a goose and a picture of Harriet which Emma painted. It's a hint that Harriet still loves him and it also means that Emma herself approves of their match now.
• In the second The Naked Gun movie, Frank brings a large bouquet of flowers when he arrives at his ex-girlfriend Jane's apartment to apologize for his behavior over the past few days—being a jerk to her new boyfriend, embarrassing her at a fundraiser, etc. True to the style of these movies, the bouquet gets caught in his car door, the door of the apartment building, the elevator door, until he's left with nothing but stumps by the time he arrives at her place.
• Referred to in Love Story when Oliver insists on taking his wife to dinner. Jenny jokingly asks, "What's her name?", declaring that if a man wants to take his wife to dinner in the middle of the week he must be cheating on her and trying to assuage his guilt.
• In Sleeping with the Enemy, after slapping his wife Laura, Martin returns from a trip into town with a bouquet of roses and a present of a red negligee, telling her, "I'm sorry we quarreled", before making advances to her. The way she plays along at being pleased at the gifts and enjoying the ensuing sex makes it clear this a routine she's gotten used to.
• In UHF after accidentally standing Teri up at her birthday dinner, causing her to dump him, George leaves a rather elaborate set of gifts in her apartment. This all harkens back to a couple of scenes that were deleted from the movie where he would always buy her a large plushie whenever he screwed up.

Literature

• Ascendance of a Bookworm:
  • After finding Myne unconscious in the temple's repentance chamber after having locked her in it for a day as punishment, Ferdinand gifts her a bedding set for her orphanage director chambers. There is a pragmatic element to it because only the wood part of the bed was left from the previous owner. By that point, Myne has already collapsed because of her poor health while in the temple too many times to be able to use the fact that she sleeps in her own home as a pretext for not having a proper bed in her chambers.
  • After Rozemyne (Myne's noble identity) collapses while trying to keep up with Wilfried's impromptu "Ditch the Bodyguards 101" lesson that involves a lot of running, Wilfried's bodyguard Lamprecht feels responsible for the situation. When Rozemyne wakes up, Lamprecht gifts her with a book she will be able to finish before the end of the period during which she's expected to rest, which was given to him by Ferdinand when he asked him for advice on what would make a good gift for Rozemyne.
• In Boundary Madeline gives a gift of chocolate and hand-made artificial flowers to Joe as an apology after they have an argument. She acknowledges that it's a Gender Flip from the traditional format, but she's not aware of a traditional gift for a woman to give a guy as an Apology Gift.
• In the second Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Manny does this to make up for putting a cookie in the disc drive of Greg's game console. However, since his "gift" is a tinfoil ball with toothpicks sticking out of it, Greg wants nothing to do with it.
• Happens at the end of the Labyrinths of Echo novella "A Talkative Dead Man": a stranger who accidentally broke Sir Max's favorite cup earlier pops up unexpectedly and presents him with a new one. It quickly turns out that nobody except Max recalls ever seeing this man and that the cup once belonged to the legendary King Mönin.
• Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse: To apologize for drawing a mean picture of Mr. Slinger, Lilly draws a nicer picture of him and writes a story about him, too. Her mother writes a note and her father bakes some tasty snacks to go with it.
  Lilly: These are for you. Because I'm really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really sorry.
• In the Danielle Steel novel The Wedding Dress, the current bride (the dress has been passed down through generations) is initially thrilled at receiving a random expensive present from her husband, but her grandmother's alarm bells go off. Sure enough, she goes to visit him at his office one day and finds him flirting with an intern. Though he swears it was harmless and never went beyond that, several years later, he gifts her a very pricy handbag and she instantly knows that he's been unfaithful again.
• Babylon Berlin by Volker Kutscher. Gereon Rath's Love Interest has been giving him the cold shoulder because he slept with her and then failed to follow up. It's because he's wrapped up in a murder case, not because he's a cad, so he buys Flowers of Romance and waits for her to leave the office, walking behind her while brandishing them until she cracks a smile.

Live-Action TV

• Altered Carbon. After the Ghostwalker frees a prisoner, kills two cops, and puts Detective Ortega in hospital, Captain Tanaka turns up to give Ortega an expensive bouquet of flowers. However, Kovacs quickly works out that this is an act of guilt because Tanaka has been taking bribes from the same people who sent the Ghostwalker.
• In Season One of Arrested Development, Lucille Bluth reveals that most of the items in her jewelry collection were gifts George Sr. gave her after she discovered his various affairs.
• The Big Bang Theory:
  • Episode "The Shiny Trinket Maneuvers"'s A-Plot revolves around Sheldon attempting to make up with his girlfriend Amy via "empty financial gesture" after he insults her work and devalues a career milestone she reached with his usual level of tact. At first Amy is entirely unimpressed with him for even attempting this, but then she opens up the bag and sees he got her a tiara. She switches gears and begins freaking out with glee.
  • In one episode, Sheldon apologizes to Howard (Sheldon's responses to an FBI agent's questions led Howard to not get security clearance to work on a big project) by giving Howard his spot on the sofa, which he demands back again before the end of the episode.
• Big Love's Bill impulsively buys beautiful bouquets for all three of his wives. Second wife Nikki concludes that he's courting a fourth woman and is compensating. She's Right for the Wrong Reasons—he's having an "affair" with Barb, his first wife.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • After yet another Magic Misfire in "Something Blue", Willow bakes cookies for the Scooby Gang. And has to detail Giles' car.
  • In "The Prom", Xander ends his Snark-to-Snark Combat with Cordelia (their relationship broke up after he was caught cheating) by paying for a prom dress she can't afford.
  • In the spin-off Angel, the title character spends half a season being Darker and Edgier, driving away his friends, until he eventually comes back, tail between his legs. However, Cordelia doesn't forgive him until she discovers that Angel had bought her nice clothes to replace the ones Angel gave away to charity without asking.
• In Degrassi: The Next Generation, to "apologize" for his abusive actions, Rick presented Terri with roses. The first time he hurt her, he gave her a huge bouquet of them. Unfortunately, this is Truth in Television as some abusive spouses/significant others use gifts to keep the victim with them longer.
• Dexter:
  • In season 4, when Rita is annoyed that Dexter doesn't spend time with his family, he buys them all presents. Astor gets a small laptop, Cody some video games, baby Harrison a geeky item of clothes, and Rita a home oven for baking bread. Dexter says they are always out of bread, but it only makes Rita angrier — she would have to bake it. She also thinks that presents cannot fix everything that is wrong in their relationship.
  • In season 6, Dexter asks the clerk at the donut shop "What's good for an apology?" when he needs to patch things up with his sister. (FYI, the clerk recommended a cruller.)
• In the Dénouement of the Doctor Who serial "Robot", the Doctor realises that Sarah Jane is angry with him (for being suddenly different, trying to leave in the TARDIS without her, going off to fight despite being in a manic post-regenerative state, and killing a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds that loved Sarah) and tries to talk to her. When she doesn't respond positively he takes a bag of sweets out of his pocket and rather awkwardly asks her "Would you like a jelly baby..?" Amazingly, this works, and offering jelly babies to people becomes one of his standard Obfuscating Stupidity moves ever after.
• Firefly. The crew of Serenity are surprised when Jayne buys them an expensive bushel of apples. Only Mal is aware it's an apology gift for betraying them in the previous episode.
• Friends: In season four Chandler and Joey's apartment is burgled forcing them to use garden furniture borrowed from the superintendent. A few episodes later Chandler kisses Joey's girlfriend. Out of guilt, he blows his savings refurbishing the entire apartment. When Joey learns the real reason behind Chandler's generosity he angrily declares that the apartment is empty to him.
• Following a traumatic brain injury, General Hospital's Jason Quartermaine awakened from a coma not remembering any of his loved ones and treating them all like crap. His grandfather Edward put his foot down when he snapped at his grandmother Lila and demanded that he apologize. Jason did so begrudgingly, but later in the day, returned with a bouquet of roses—"Women like flowers, right?"—and apologized more sincerely—"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
• The Golden Girls Blanche cites this as the reason she won't sleep with married men, as the guilt-ridden men will give their wives the better presents.
• In The Good Place, Michael tries to make it up to Team Cockroach for disrupting their ethics lessons, he gets each person their own gift: a shrimp dispenser for Eleanor, the world's largest diamond for Tahani, a Pikachu balloon for Jason, and a copy of one of Immanuel Kant's never-seen-on-Earth notebooks for Chidi (the ethics professor). While most of them are happy with their gifts, Chidi doesn't even look at the notebook before throwing it in the trash. He bluntly calls it bribery and demands (and gets) an actual apology. The others love their gifts.
• Home Improvement: This gets lampshaded in an episode where Tim buys the flowers ("Tim Taylor Foot in the Mouth Special" and Tim is a fairly known customer at the flower shop) before making his wife angry. ensues and Tim ends up trying to sell the flowers to his neighbor.
• In an episode of I Love Lucy, Fred tries to play peacemaker between a quarreling Lucy and Ricky, by having a bouquet of roses and a box of candy delivered to Lucy on Ricky's behalf.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "Like Angels Put in Hell by God", after Louis de Pointe du Lac barely survived a violent thrashing from his boyfriend Lestat de Lioncourt, the latter attempts to buy the former's forgiveness with expensive gifts, such as an extremely rare 15th-century antique book and a brand new Rolls-Royce. For over six years, this strategy is unsuccessful because Louis continues to ignore him, but Lestat then switches gears and records a love song entitled "Come to Me" that he penned himself. (In Real Life, it was composed by Daniel Hart and sung by Sam Reid.) Louis receives it on Valentine's Day, and it finally provokes the reaction that Lestat had yearned for because Louis takes him back after a heated bout of hate-sex.
  Louis: For six years in all, these raw and desperate mea culpas came like the tide. And for six years, they were greeted with silence or fire. We burned more gifts than bodies in that decade, but they would not stop coming. And Lestat's relentless determination began to crack my considerable armor. Perhaps it was the modesty of the gesture. But in the spring of 1937, one broke through. He had written it himself in the music of the hour. His first composition in 100 years.
• On Jane the Virgin, Rogelio likes to give personalized apology gift baskets to people he's inadvertently offended — he calls them "Ropology" baskets.
• After driving Ed away in Las Vegas and realizing she needs him Monica gifts him a hundreds and thousands of dollars' worth of super car. Being well... driven up the wall by her antics and wanting nothing to do with her Ed sends a car of his own, a little gourmet chocolate car, with a note: BITE ME.
• Implied in a Law & Order: UK episode as Detectives Devlin and Brooks enter a flower shop and pass a man leaving with a huge bouquet.
  Brooks: Blimey. What's he done wrong?
• Lucifer (2016): When Lucifer's behaviour causes problems with his partner Chloe and his girlfriend Eve he decides to get them both gifts to show how sorry he is. Unfortunately, the delivery addresses get mixed up. So Eve receives an office printer that delivers a message for Chloe, whole Chloe finds a sex doll waiting at her desk.
• In Malcolm in the Middle, after Lois and Hal miss Dewey's big performance in the school play, they try to buy his forgiveness, first by giving him a new video game. When that is not enough, Hal gives him Malcolm's birthday present, a rare, and expensive, comic book. When Dewey ponders forgiving Hal and Lois, he walks back to his room to read his new comic and play his new game, and wishes Malcolm a happy birthday as he and Reese do menial labor around the house as part of their punishment for engaging in a fight that landed them in the hospital.
• M*A*S*H:
  • In one episode, Hawkeye and Trapper try to butter Frank up with a handful of wildflowers, after they secretly drew a pint of blood from him to give to a wounded POW; Frank is touched, but then they kill the moment when Hawkeye says, "Glad there's no hard feelings, Frank, because there's a new heart procedure we'd like to try, and you're just the right type."
  • During a company picnic, Margaret gives Frank the cold shoulder since he won't loan her money to buy her sister a wedding present; Frank tries to butter her back up with a balloon, only for her to pop it with a hairpin.
  • In another episode, Frank tries to make peace with Margaret (this after she had gotten engaged earlier in the season), by presenting her with an American-made Japanese umbrella; of course, Frank isn't able to curb his lust, and Margaret throws it at him as he runs out of her tent.
  • In "The Winchester Tapes", Charles apparently had upset Radar, and insincerely brings him an entire case of grape nehi to butter him up in order to contact his former commanding officer to get him transferred back to Tokyo General Hospital.
• Mimpi Metropolitan: In episode 37, to apologize for making her customer leave in the previous episode, Wawan buys Pipin a dress. It works very easily, even to Wawan's surprise.
• The Nanny's Maxwell Sheffield buys several expensive gifts for his fiancée Fran before doing something that's going to upset her—asking her to sign a prenuptial agreement.
• NCIS. Director Vance walks into his kitchen with a large bouquet of roses and his wife is instantly displeased, knowing that he has bad news for her—he's invited someone she despises to dinner.
• Perfect Strangers. The morning after a typical "wacky hijinks" episode—which for once was Balki's fault rather than Larry's—Larry calmly assures Balki that although his wife Jennifer was initially angry, that after much discussion, she has forgiven him. He then opens the door to accept a huge bouquet of flowers and before heading upstairs, asks Balki to "let me know when the guy from the jewelry store gets here."
• The Professionals. In "First Night", everyone in CI5 is called back on duty when an Israeli minister is kidnapped. Bodie and Doyle have to abandon their Girl of the Week on the spot and neither woman is happy about it. As they're reporting in via radio, Doyle arranges for the sending of a greeting telegram while Bodie sends flowers.
• The Punisher (2017). Micro panics when the cameras he's hidden in his wife's house go dead, so Frank Castle goes to investigate (Micro can't go as he's faked his death to protect his family). As an excuse for visiting, Frank brings flowers as an Apology Gift for not turning up for dinner like he promised. Unsurprisingly she mistakes this for a romantic overture and makes a pass at him.
  Micro: Why did you have to bring her flowers?
• Star Trek: Voyager. Neelix brings Kes flowers to apologize for his jealousy. When she starts eating them, he drags her off to Sickbay (as it turns out, she's going through her species' rather extreme fertility cycle).
• One episode of Two and a Half Men has Alan teaching Charlie how to apologize to a girlfriend. He advises that you must bring a gift, but keep in mind that anything you bring will probably be thrown at you in anger, which he learned the hard way after apologizing with a waffle iron. He suggests flowers instead since they're a standard romantic gesture and won't hurt.
• On 227, after denting someone else's BMW, Mary prepares an elaborate dinner for her husband Lester and waits on him hand and foot. When she asks why he isn't asking her why she's pampering him like this, as it's not a special occasion, he calmly says "No, I'm just going to wait until you give me the bad news", having clearly deduced that she's doing this to butter him up.
• In The West Wing, Leo tries to make up for his Forgotten Anniversary with an elaborate dinner and evening at home, including a very beautiful pearl necklace. Sadly, the problems in his marriage can't be made up for that easily, since the incident was the last straw for his wife, who couldn't endure him being Married to the Job.

Music

• The video for Ruben Studdard's "Sorry 2004" features the protagonist repeatedly leaving these for his ex-girlfriend to atone for whatever he did to hurt her. Unfortunately, by the time he spray paints an apology on the wall opposite her job, it's essentially crossed over into stalking.
• Shenandoah's "Two Dozen Roses," about a man wondering what it would take to get his girlfriend to talk to him after an argument, including showing up at her door with flowers and a bottle of wine.

Puppet Shows

• Sesame Street: In one episode, Linda invites Telly to her apartment. He rings the doorbell, then worries that she won't know he's there, since she's deaf and can't hear the bell. She answers the door and shows him lights that flash when someone rings the bell. Telly is so impressed that later he demonstrates the doorbell for Big Bird and Deena, who each take a turn ringing it, infuriating Linda. Still later, they apologize, and Big Bird gives her a bouquet of flowers.

Religion

• The Bible: Proverbs 6:35 says that a husband who is wronged by another man committing adultery with his wife will not be appeased even if the other man gives many gifts.

Roleplay

• In Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, Barbra's mother convinces her to apologise to Jacob for not doing much to help him after he slipped in vomit. She shows up to school the following day with a cupcake for him, which only stresses him out more because his own mother ordered him not to speak with Barbra.

Webcomics

• Female-to-male example in Archipelago - after their argument in book 7, where Credenza is in the wrong, she gets Raven the dagger that becomes his most prized possession. This also marks a Relationship Upgrade for them.
  Raven: It's okay, I understand. This is an apology for all those kisses.
  Credenza: No! It's an apology for thinking of you as less than a man. I'm sorry, but I could never apologize for kissing you. I didn't understand what those kisses meant to you... and I hadn't realized just how much they meant to me... but I don't regret a single one.
• After Bailin unintentionally mangles Li Yun's field workstation in Bailin and Li Yun, he dives back into the sea to collect a huge pile of fish as an apology.
• In Dating a Team Magma Grunt, Brendan bought his girlfriend a bunch of Jigglypuff plushies (one of which was over 4 feet tall) as an apology for jokingly comparing her to an Octillery.
• Possibly the most extravagant one of these is an island off the coast of Brazil, given in the final strips of Narbonic by Dave to Helen. He's sorry for almost killing her in a "fit of creativity".
  Dave: I know. I can't buy your love.
  Helen: You can try.
• Questionable Content: Station transfers Lt. Potter $4.5 million worth of stock to apologize for broadcasting her embarrassing Facebook photos as a prank. The gesture is sincere and she accepts the apology, yet refuses the money to make clear that he can't just buy his way off the hook for bad behaviour.
• In Wilde Life, Oscar sends a bouquet of blue roses to his sister as an apology for his random disappearance. However, he still doesn't want her to come looking for him, so he doesn't include a return address.

Web Video

• Critical Role: Campaign Three: In "Chasing Nightmares", Chetney treats his new comrades to a luxury spa visit as a good-faith gesture after they learn that he hid his lycanthropy from them. Lampshaded, thanks in part to his knee-jerk curmudgeonliness:
  Ashton: I, actually, really would much prefer you actually earned [my trust] by doing shit. I don't want your money.
  Chetney: I would really rather pay for it.

Western Animation

• In a flashback on Arthur, we see the evolution of Francine and Muffy's newfound friendship: Muffy copies Francine's answer, but claims innocence to protect her name and reputation, leaving Francine to take the punishment; later, Francine sees a fruit basket and a balloon Muffy left on her desk in detention, to which Francine pops the balloon, and throws the basket into the trashcan.
• Bao: The Chinese woman's son gives her a box of buns to apologize for running away with his girlfriend.
• The The Fairly OddParents! episode "Fairy Idol" had Timmy give his fairies apology cookies because he had been overusing their magic at the beginning of the episode. Cosmo, being The Ditz, accepts the apology, but Wanda does not accept it until a later scene where Timmy cries because he thinks that they are dead.
• Family Guy:
  • In "Screwed the Pooch", Peter tries to apologize to Carter after Brian impregnates his prized dog Seabreeze by making him a picture of them out of glue and macaroni. When the situation gets worse when both Brian and Seabreeze disappear, Peter imagines Carter stomping on the picture.
    Carter: Wow, Peter, that means a lot to me because you made it.
    Peter: Really?
    Carter: NO! GET OUT OF HERE!
  • In "April in Quahog", Peter tries to regain the respect of his kids after he said that he hated them, but his attempts at doing so failed. This prompts him to buy all of them an Xbox, and the kids automatically love him again.
• Gravity Falls: In "Golf War", after Dipper, Mabel, and Pacifica escape from the golf course, Mabel gives her former rival a sticker of "A-Paw-logize" to apologize to her about the Lilliputians. Pacifica accepts, claiming it's just because it looks good on her.
• Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness: One episode involves Po accidentally attacking the reformed criminal Hundun and his waiters when he's forced to investigate Hundun's noodle shop to satisfy his paranoid dad. When he finds himself proven wrong about Hundun trying to get after his dad, Po decides to give the rhino an apology basket full of pears(Which both Hundun and his dad agree can never have too many pears). Subverted when it's revealed that Hundun really is still evil and planned everything to get back at Po for breaking his horn.
• The Loud House: In "Cereal Offender", after Lincoln's sisters ruin his chances at getting a cereal he wanted and get him into hot water with Mom, they all feel terribly guilty and decide to make it up to him by buying the cereal for him.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In the episode "Marks for Effort," Twilight bans the Cutie Mark Crusaders from the School of Friendship after she accuses them of deliberately teaching Cozy Glow the wrong things for a test, believing that they did it to get back at Twilight for not letting them become students at the school. But then Twilight soon finds out the truth; Cozy Glow failed the test on purpose, thinking that it would show Twilight that the CMC need to learn more about friendship and let them become students. Twilight then apologizes to the CMC by making them tutors at the school.
• The Simpsons: In "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy", Grampa tries to give Homer a bouquet of flowers as an apology for calling him an accident. Homer slams the door in his face, so he pushes the flowers through the mail slot.
• Sofia the First: In "The Amulet and the Anthem", Sofia's amulet curses her to croak like a frog when she brags to her friends about being chosen to sing the Enchanchian anthem at a festival, leaving her unable to directly apologize to them. After Belle teaches her that actions speak louder than words, she makes it up to her friends by inviting them to sing with her, which lifts the curse.
• South Park: In "The Death Of Eric Cartman", Cartman offers Scott Tenorman a fruit basket to make up for killing his (Scott's) parents.
• Shows up a couple of times in Spongebob Squarepants:
  • At the end of "Jellyfishing": To make up for getting Squidward injured even further (and zapped by a gigantic queen jellyfish), SpongeBob and Patrick give him a jar with the jellyfish he captured. Squidward responds by releasing the jellyfish to let it chase after SpongeBob and Patrick, stinging them all the way. Granted, they weren't tormenting him on purpose, but he still has every right to be angry at them.
    SpongeBob: You're not still mad, are you?
    (Squidward opens jar in SpongeBob and Patrick's direction)
    Patrick: Yup, he's still mad.
    (The jellyfish chases after SpongeBob and Patrick, stinging them repeatedly as they sprint into the distance)
  • In "Squidville", SpongeBob and Patrick went to find Squidward in Tentacle Acres while bringing a cake which the word "sorry" was engraved with frosting as compensation for having destroyed his house, although they never actually give him the cake as both can't tell which of the Squidward-like characters is the real Squidward.
  • "Good Neighbors" had SpongeBob and Patrick giving Squidward a similar "Sorry For Bugging You So Much" cake as an apology for ruining Squidward's relaxing Sunday. But Squidward, under the impression that their apology is just a facade that they will mess with him again, refuses to accept it, so the situation only got worse.
• Total Drama:
  • At the campfire ceremony in "Heroes vs. Villains", Gwen brings Courtney flowers in hopes of setting the first step in being forgiven for kissing Duncan. But as it turns out, Courtney is allergic to those flowers and begins sneezing. Gwen is accused of doing it on purpose.
  • The challenge in "Hurl and Go Seek" is to keep out of Sugar's reach until sunrise. Shawn knows of a cave that makes for a good hiding spot, but instead of using it himself, he offers it to Jasmine to apologize for hurting her earlier in "A Blast From the Past". Jasmine warily refuses the gift because she reasons that if she goes to the cave, Shawn will know where to find her if Sugar catches him and he becomes her helper.

Real Life

• This runs a lot in relationships when words fall short. A proverb says "An action is worth a thousand words" (still this is from the "a picture is worth a thousand words").
• George Burns tells a story about how his wife Gracie discovered he was cheating on her. He ended up buying her a brand-new stove over it. Later, Gracie apparently told one of her girlfriends, "I hope George cheats on me again. I could use a new refrigerator."
• This was cited on a true crime show about the Lori Hacking murder when the detectives arrived at the Hacking home after her husband Mark reported her missing. One of them notices a large bouquet of flowers and immediately deduces that he's lying about their supposedly happy marriage.
  "There's 'Honey, I was just thinking of you' flowers, and there's 'Honey, I'm sorry, I fucked up' flowers. These were 'I fucked up' flowers." ^note  Indeed, Lori had discovered that Mark had been lying to her for several years about attending college and being accepted into medical school and was planning to leave him. He promptly murdered her and their unborn child.
• There's an old saying that specifies what type of gift is appropriate for these circumstances: "Flowers say, 'I'm sorry' — chocolate says, 'I love you!'"
• Following the rape allegations against Kobe Bryant, his wife was noticed to be wearing several very expensive pieces of jewelry (he vehemently denied the accusations but admitted to infidelity), prompting some people to crudely comment that she was enjoying the unexpected benefit.
• An urban legend about Walt Disney goes where he ended up missing an important date with his wife. Figuring she was going to be angry, he came home with a hatbox. Obviously expecting a hat, she was pleasantly surprised to find a puppy inside when she opened it. Needless to say, all was forgiven. This was supposedly the inspiration for the opening scene in Lady and the Tramp.

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