Breakfast in Bed

"How did you get in my house?!"

Dorien: Can I smell a full English breakfast?
Sharon: Tracey's just had it in bed.
Dorien: With whom?
Tracey: On my own. You're a trollop, you are.

— Birds of a Feather, "An Inspector Stays"

Breakfast in Bed is a largely Western European and American concept rooted in privilege and indulgence. Originally, affluent married women who had the luxury of servants in their home would be allowed to enjoy breakfast in their sleeping quarters while men would start the day eating breakfast in the family room or drawing room. Over time, however, the concept has evolved into more of a way for people to pamper a loved one as a show of appreciation or affection.

In fiction, while breakfast in bed may still be occasionally observed as a perk for the Idle Rich, as it traditionally was, more often than not, the trope will indicate a goodwill gesture to loved ones.

Usually, characters will wake a loved one in bed and serve them breakfast for a special occasion, such as children making breakfast for a parent to celebrate Mother's Day, Father's Day, or their birthday. Alternatively, a man may serve breakfast in bed to his wife or girlfriend on a Valentine's Day or anniversary.

Similarly, it may be part of a morning ritual between a new romantic couple after their first night together; whoever is playing host for their new partner will likely be up early to make breakfast in bed for the other person, unless, of course, it turns out that person was Not Staying for Breakfast. A Downplayed take on this variant will often involve serving and drinking morning cups of coffee in bed.

Breakfast in Bed will be frequently served on a special tray with legs that raise it over the consumer's lap. Bonus points to be awarded if the server adorned the tray with a single flower in a small vase.

Even with the best of intentions, there is still plenty that can go wrong for comedy's sake, especially in a family setting where the mother is typically the one who does all the cooking and yet is most often the one to be served her own breakfast in bed. Since Dads Can't Cook and kids are rarely any better, it's an impressive feat unto itself if Mom is competently served anything that isn't buttered toast or cold cereal.

In Real Life, luxury hotels serve fancy breakfast in bed by room service. The breakfast comes on a tray with a metal dome over the food to keep it warm. The breakfast may include freshly baked pastries, tarts and bread, cut fruit, savory items, fresh-squeezed juice or a smoothie, and coffee, along with regional specialties.

Sister Trope to Romantic Candlelit Dinner.

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Examples:

Comic Strips

• Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin makes his Mom breakfast in bed when she's sick. However, as he was doing this unsupervised, it did not go to plan. Calvin brings in a frying pan with a chisel and tells his mother she might be able to chisel out the scrambled eggs. She asks what happened to the orange juice and toast. Calvin says that Dad told him not to tell her anything about that until she was feeling better.
• FoxTrot: In one comic, Roger and the kids tried to do this for Andy on Mother's Day, but all of them are so terrible at cooking that they nearly set the kitchen on fire.
  Andy: You said I'd be having breakfast in bed, not bedlam!
• In one Garfield strip, after seeing how satisfied Garfield is when he can eat while in his bed, Jon decides to bring his own food into bed and do the same thing.
• A Running Gag in Sally Forth (Howard) is that every Mother's Day, Sally's husband Ted and daughter Hillary go to ridiculous lengths to outdo each other in providing her breakfast in bed, which rarely results in anything edible, or even vaguely resembling a normal breakfast. She keeps begging them to stop, but they insist that this is how they show how much she means to them.
• Zits: One Sunday strip showed the progression of Jeremy bringing his mom breakfast in bed for Mother's Day, with the array becoming simpler as he grew up until by age 15, he just offers her a box of Pop-Tarts.

Film — Animated

• Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper: When Erika wakes up for the first time in Annaliese's room while impersonating her, a maid walks in with the breakfast tray. Erika asks if it will be served in bed and the confused maid answers, "As always."
• Barbie as the Princess and the Popstar: During the song "To Be a Princess", Tori explains that being a princess means having "your breakfast served in bed".

Film — Live-Action

• Annie: When orphaned Annie is sent to live with Daddy Warbucks, the servants sing about their jobs. One explains that Drake will be assigned to serve Annie breakfast in bed, while Mrs. Pew takes away the tray.
• Arthur: When his butler, Hobson, falls terminally ill, Arthur makes a point of staying by his bedside and having extravagant breakfasts smuggled into his hospital room every morning. The food isn't what Hobson should be eating, but Arthur says he doesn't want his butler's last meal to be Jell-o.
• Played for Laughs in Backdraft. Little Sean tells his mother, Janet, to go back to bed because he's making her breakfast in bed, as he pours a jar of raspberry jam into a skillet full of eggs... and broken eggshells.
• Defied in The Best Years of Our Lives - Millie intends to serve Al breakfast in bed the morning after he's come home from war (and after his night on the town), but he's already up.
• In Child's Play, six-year-old Andy makes breakfast in bed for his mother on his own birthday. He adds extra sugar to the children's cereal, burns the toast, heaps a giant pat of butter on top, and spills milk and orange juice all the way to his mother's bed, but mom shows nothing but appreciation, even though it's clear she won't be eating any of the food.
• Fantômas: Juve spills the breakfast tray on himself when he's in bed as detective Michel Bertrand storms into his room. It's an unusual example, as Juve being single means he served said breakfast in bed to himself.
• Discussed in Juice. While Q and Yolanda are Talking in Bed, Q entertains the idea of spending the whole night with Yolanda, then making her breakfast in bed. Yolanda, however, would prefer to do the cooking. She leaves the bed to get ready for work at the hospital.
• In Notting Hill, William wakes up to Anna bringing him breakfast in bed.
• At the beginning of Once Bitten, Sebastian serves the Countess breakfast in bed, only the Countess is a vampire so she is waking up after sunset, her "bed" is a coffin, and "breakfast" is a pint of blood.
• The Shining: Wendy serves Jack bacon and eggs in bed when he wakes up one morning. While eating he discusses his strange feeling of familiarity with the Overlook Hotel.
• In La Soupe aux choux, when le Glaude learns that his late wife has cheated on him with his best friend and neighbor le Bombé during World War II, he takes his shotgun and runs to le Bombé's. He finds the latter having breakfast in bed, albeit without a tray (he just has a bowl of coffee and a slice of bread in his hands) and apparently, living alone, he served it to himself. Le Bombé ends up spilling the coffee on his head when he obey the "Hands up!" of le Glaude.
• In Star Trek: Generations, Captain Kirk's fantasy in the Nexus has him bringing a breakfast of Ktarian eggs to his girlfriend Antonia in bed.
• Trading Places opens with Coleman, Louis Winthorpe's butler, preparing breakfast in bed for him, accompanied by Beethoven's overture to The Marriage of Figaro.
• At the end of the thriller Twisted House Sitter, Morgan is in a happy relationship with her longtime friend Charlie, who helped her defeat the Big Bad. She wakes up to a homemade breakfast he made for her.
• When the jailer from Up Pompeii gives Lurcio his bread and water, he sarcastically calls it breakfast in bed.

Literature

• Birthday Boy: A very large, indulgent breakfast in bed upon waking up is the first part of Sam's birthday routine.
• The Color Purple: Albert once tried to cook breakfast for his mistress Shug Avery, but he can't cook, and the breakfast he brings to Shug Avery is burned to the ashes. It's not surprising that she refuses to eat it. Later on, Celie, Albert's wife, cook a way more yummy breakfast and brings it to bed to Shug. This time, the latter doesn't throw the tray away.
• Discworld: In Wintersmith, when Tiffany is staying at Nanny Ogg's cottage, she's brought breakfast in bed by one of Nanny's daughters-in-law, who also does so for Nanny herself. Tiffany, who grew up on a farm where everyone starts work at dawn, has never previously heard of anyone eating in bed unless they were ill.
• Corrupted by a Jackass Genie in Djinn Rummy. Jane wishes for "breakfast in bed," so the genie conjures up... a sleeping hedgehog, which is still in its bed of leaves and grass.
• In the picture book Franklin Says I Love You, Franklin is searching for something to do for his mother or something to give her for her birthday. He goes to his friends for ideas and they tell them what they've done before for their own mothers, but various reasons he rejects each idea. Bear tells him that he always brings his mother breakfast in bed, but Mrs. Turtle had told Franklin that she didn't like crumbs in bed. In the end, Franklin decides to combine all of his friends' ideas and serves her breakfast in bed anyway, with her being careful to brush away the crumbs.
• In the Lord Darcy novella Too Many Magicians, Lord Darcy is amused to be brought caffe in bed by his Love Interest, Lady Mary, exclaiming "Ah! Capital! A Duchess for a serving wench!"
• Not Quite a Mermaid: In Mermaid Rescue, Electra's mother Maris comes down with a cold. Electra and her dolphin friend Splash decide to make her breakfast in bed. While they're looking for sea moss to give her, they find an army of crown-of-swords starfish eating away at the reef that protects the mermaids from sharks.
• In This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character Amory grew up spoiled by his mother who literally forbade him to get out of bed too early, while their servant brought him breakfast. Probably as a result of this, his appendix burst when he was thirteen, and he had to be operated.
  Dear, don't think of getting out of bed yet. I've always suspected that early rising in early life makes one nervous. Clothilde is having your breakfast brought up.
• In Ulysses by James Joyce, Leopold Bloom usually serves breakfast in bed to his wife Molly, although she turns down breakfast on the day that the story takes place. By the end of the book, Leopold requests Molly make breakfast in bed for him the following day.

Live-Action TV

• 'Allo 'Allo!: Edith has a dream in which she is pregnant with a potential new ‘Hero or Heroine of the Resistance’. René is uncharacteristically happy with his tea and biscuits in bed.
• The Big Bang Theory: Sheldon makes Leonard a set of Hobbit-themed pancakes, ostensibly as an apology for his recent Jerkass behavior but actually a thinly veiled bribe attempt to get Leonard to choose him over Penny to go to the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, as Leonard had been invited and permitted one guest.
• Birds of a Feather: In "An Inspector Stays", Garth makes Tracey deviled kidney for breakfast in bed. This worries Tracey, as there was nothing remarkable about the day that he did this.
• The Brady Bunch: At the end of the episode "Miss Popularity", Alice surprises Mike and Carol with breakfast in bed for two.
• Castle: Alexis makes her father breakfast in bed. He immediately notes that it's part of a bribery attempt, as she always makes him breakfast in bed when she wants something, such as a pair of The Empire Strikes Back lightsabers. This time, she wants a scooter. Castle tells her she'll have to earn the money for that herself, as he's trying to prevent her from becoming spoiled or developing Affluenza.
• Downton Abbey: Downton Abbey observes the country-house tradition of married women eating their breakfast in bed, while single women join the men in the dining room. Cora eats her breakfast this way from the beginning of the series, except on rare instances when she's getting an early start on the day. Mary begins taking her breakfast in bed immediately after marrying Matthew. On the other hand, after being jilted at the altar by Sir Anthony, Edith rather defensively asserts that she prefers having her breakfast downstairs.
• Elementary: A series-long Running Gag sees Sherlock Holmes waking up Joan Watson after he's spent the night researching and developing theories about their latest case. On days when he's feeling polite, or not in a rush, he'll be courteous enough to bring her breakast so she can eat while he explains what he's put together.
• ER's Carol wakes up alone shortly after reconciling with Doug and is disappointed... Then pleased to see him walking into her room with a tray, invoking this trope.
• On Full House, Michelle once attempted to serve her father breakfast in bed. Her concept of "fresh orange juice" is a whole orange in a glass of water.
• Here We Go: In "Mum's Birthday Voucher", Paul brings breakfast in bed up for his wife Rachel, seeing how it's her birthday and all. Unfortunately, he tries to open the door whilst also carrying the tray containing the breakfast, leading to him dropping it after Rachel goes to unexpectedly open the door herself.
• How I Met Your Mother: In the episode "Robin 101", when Barney starts doing uncharacteristically romantic things for Robin, including giving her breakfast in bed, Robin suspects that Barney is cheating on her.
• Kaamelott:
  • Guenièvre is understandably used to this as she is a queen, but Arthur is not fond of the habit, as it brings crumbs into their bed. ^note Though this is mostly Early-Installment Weirdness. Later, Arthur himself is often seen eating in bed—even in bath—and not only breakfast.
  • Arthur's mother shares his opinion. When Uther Pendragon, disguised as the Duke of Gorlais, ordered slices of bread for her. Ygerne knew that she was dealing with an impostor because her real husband never ate in bed.
• M*A*S*H: In the ninth season episode "The Best of Enemies", Winchester is trying to entice B.J. to be his bridge partner (playing against Col. Potter and Margaret). B.J. sets as one of his conditions that Winchester serves him breakfast in bed. At the end of the episode, Winchester dumps the breakfast tray on B.J., and snarls, "I hope you gag on every bite."
• Modern Family: Alex, Haley, and Luke decide to make their parents breakfast in bed to celebrate their wedding anniversary, and then the kids accidentally walk in on their parents having sex.
• The Office: In the episode "The Injury", Michael's explanation for burning his foot on a George Foreman Grill is that he enjoys breakfast in bed, but because he doesn't doesn't have a butler, he begins to cook his own bacon at his bedside before going back to sleep.
• In the Season 4 episode of Once Upon a Time, "Heroes and Villains", Rumplestiltskin wakes Belle up to present her with breakfast in bed and tells her they are going to a honeymoon in New York. It's the last peaceful romantic scene they get to share in a very long while since just a few minutes later, she finds out about his Evil Plan and banishes him from the town.
• This Is Us: In the episode "The Game Plan", Kate brings Toby breakfast in bed as a way of returning the favor for the nice things he had done for her. The breakfast consists of chia squares and hemp seeds, which Toby won't eat.
• In The Vampire Diaries, after Elena and Damon break up, Elena's friends wake her up and bring her breakfast in bed, saying it's her "breakup breakfast."

Music

• Implied in the song "Black Coffee in Bed" by Squeeze. The song is sung from the perspective of a jilted narrator whose lover left him, and the only physical reminder he has of her is a coffee cup stain left behind after having a morning cup in bed, suggesting the woman having some kind of breakfast in bed before leaving the narrator.
• In James Arthur's song “Say You Won’t Let Go”, he says he will make his girlfriend breakfast in bed and kiss her on the head.

Webcomics

• Zatanna & the Ripper: While stranded and broke in the privacy of her bedroom, Zatanna tries to magic her way home but can only manage to summon a plate of eggs and bacon, which she eats as a small comfort.

Web Videos

• The Tourettes Guy's son prepared him breakfast in bed for Father's Day. As his son tries to bring him his surprise meal, a glass falls off the tray, tumbles down the staircase, and shatters. Tourettes Guy is very ungrateful of this gesture.
  Danny: Get the fuck out of here!
  Danny's Son: But Dad, it's Father's Day.
  Danny: Fuck off!
  Danny's Son: Dad, I spent 30 minutes making breakfast.
  Danny: You're an asshole!

Western Animation

• Angel's Friends: Cabale once brought breakfast in bed to Kabiria when she was recovering from poisoning. Cabale admitted to the latter she did not pamper her often, but this was a special day.
• Archer: In the season 3 episode "Drift Problem", Archer wakes up to breakfast in bed on his birthday made by his butler Woodhouse. Unfortunately it gets ruined by confetti raining down on his meal.
• Arthur: In the season 10 premiere episode "Happy Anniversary," Arthur and DW serve their parents breakfast in bed for their 10th-anniversary marriage.
• Bluey:
  • The premise of the episode "Omelette" revolves around the family trying to give Bandit Heeler a breakfast omelet in bed for his birthday. However, they are delayed by Bingo accidentally messing things up, all the while Bandit gets hungrier and more cranky as time goes on, forcing the Heelers to split time between keeping him in bed and making the breakfast.
  • In "The Show", the family treats Chili to breakfast in bed for Mother's Day. Unfortunately, Bingo trips while carrying the food.
• Dexter's Laboratory: In one episode, Dexter, Dee-Dee, and Dad give Mom breakfast in bed on Mother's Day. However, Mom was anything but thrilled after losing her signature gloves.
• DuckTales: An offscreen incident mentioned in "Scrooge's Pet" crosses the trope with Nurse with Good Intentions; after the boys and Webby cause chaos by giving Scrooge a pet lemming, he tells them that sometimes even well-meant gestures go poorly. Launchpad chimes in with a story about a time he brought Scrooge breakfast in bed while he was sick and accidentally spilled it on him.
• Family Guy:
  • In the episode "Death Lives", Peter places a tray of breakfast over a sleeping Lois, along with the first clue to a phony Scavenger Hunt to keep her busy while he spends their anniversary golfing. Seconds after Peter leaves, Lois rolls over in her sleep, spilling the contents everywhere.
  • In the episode "Gronkowsbees", a Cutaway Gag features Peter having "breakfast in bread" — eating breakfast in bed while most of his body is in a giant loaf of bread.
• F is for Family: In "F Is for Fixing It", as Frank and Sue try to patch up their relationship, Frank tries to smooth things over with a breakfast in bed for Sue, one comprised of powdered eggs and frozen orange juice.
  Frank: Did somebody order breakfast in bed?
  Sue: No.
  Frank: Well, I brought it, anyway.
• Kim Possible: In the episode "Mother's Day", Kim's family brings her mom breakfast in bed for Mother's Day. Her dad decides that's enough of a present, not the genetically engineered mutant bees the tweebs wanted to give her (because she likes honey).
• The Looney Tunes short "A Bear for Punishment". Junyer Bear prepared breakfast in bed for Papa Bear (Henry) for Father's Day. Junyer Bear slips on a roller skate while carrying the breakfast tray, which sends the meal flying into the air and falling on top of Papa Bear.
  Henry Bear: I hate breakfast in bed!
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: At the beginning of the episode "Sisterhooves Social" Sweetie Belle tries making breakfast in bed for her sister Rarity, the keyword here being tries.
• Phineas and Ferb: All of the kids attempt to serve breakfast to their mom for her birthday in "Mom's Birthday", but Candace's attempt gets ignored due to being outdone by her brothers.
• Pop Pixie: Cherie, the richest pixie in town, has a breakfast buffet and concert in bed every morning, but her staff says she never eats more than a single strawberry. When Lockette winds up taking Cherie's place, she can't stand to let the food go to waste and gorges on it.
• Robot Chicken: Parodied in the Peanuts/Misery mashup skit "Misery, My Sweet Babboo", where Sally is holding Linus captive in her bedroom and brings him a bowl of "snowflake soup" that turns out to be just hot water. He doesn't even get to drink it because she spills it on him when she runs to get the doorbell.
• Rugrats (1991): In "Mother's Day", Stu invents a robot that serves Didi breakfast in bed. When he presents it to Didi, she assures him that it's the thought that counts. The robot tries to make Didi a fruit smoothie, but, instead, just ends up making a mess of the bedroom (Fortunately for Didi, it cleans up its own mess). In the same episode, Betty tells Stu that she gave her husband, Howard, the day off for Mother's Day since he cooks breakfast for her every morning.
• The Simpsons:
  • The episode "Life on the Fast Lane" begins with Bart and Lisa preparing breakfast in bed for Marge for her birthday. When they surprise her in bed, Homer initially thinks it's his birthday but quickly realizes that he forgot Marge's birthday. Homer hurries out of the house and winds up buying Marge a bowling ball as a present.
  • In "Brawl in the Family", after Homer and Ned's "Vegas Wives" return, Ned, Rod, and Todd wake up Ginger in the morning with breakfast in bed, but she finds the Flanders' extremely nice, religious, and pious outlook almost sickening, and she snaps at them in response.
  • At the beginning of "See Homer Run", Homer is treated to a breakfast in bed for Father's Day. Bart and Lisa give him gifts, only he upsets Lisa when he's not that fond of her gift, as it was homemade.
  • In "Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em", as Bart has Principal Skinner at his mercy with a peanut tied to a stick, Skinner wakes up tied to a bed where Bart refers to a full trash can as his "breakfast in bed," suggesting he's going to force Skinner to eat garbage.
  • In "Postcards From the Wedge", after Homer and Marge resolve their differences, Marge treats Homer to a romantic breakfast in bed.
    Homer: Awesome breakfast, Marge. Breakfast in bed is so much better than breakfast in a chair.
  • At the end of Marge's segment in "The Fight Before Christmas", Marge wakes up from a dream on Christmas Day to find that the rest of the family has brought her breakfast in bed... only to raise the lid off the tray to reveal breakfast ingredients. The rest of the family's attempts to make breakfast went awry, so Homer opted that they go out for breakfast instead.
• Sofia the First: Slightly subverted in the episode "Baileywicks Day Off" in season one. Baileywicks brings a strawberry-themed breakfast in bed to Sofia, but the latter finally wakes up and dresses without eating it.
• In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "The People's Choice", Casey goes to Splinter for relationship advice concerning April. Splinter recommends breakfast in bed and flowers. When Casey surprises April with breakfast in bed and flowers, everything goes well.
• Trollhunters: Jim serves his mother breakfast in bed every day.

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