A common situation that in some ways is the opposite of He's Dead, Jim. A character is knocked out in a fight, or otherwise injured. Another character says that the first character is okay. It always turns out that the second character is right about this, regardless of not having any medical training, and regardless of whether the injury really could be easily survived. (For the trope about the injury itself rather than about characters' seeming ability to diagnose it, see Only a Flesh Wound.)
This can also happen when a character says "I'm Okay!" and turns out to be correct. (If the character is wrong about it, there are other tropes; see I Can Still Fight! and Zombie Infectee.)
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Done many times in CLANNAD by Tomoya, oftentimes after Sunohara has incited the wrath of one of the girls. A few examples include when Sunohara was kicked down a dust chute, when he attacked Tomoyo in his room, and when Mei worried about him during the baseball game.
Film
- Subverted in Monty Python and the Holy Grail during the "Bring Out Your Dead" scene: the man insists he's not sick and he's feeling better, but he still gets knocked out via a shovel to the face. Subverted again in Lancelot's tale, when the bride's father (whom Lancelot attacked) is "getting better" until the groom's father surreptitiously orders him killed.
Father: For, since the tragic death of her father—
Courtier: He's not quite dead!
Father: [mildly irritated] Since the near-fatal wounding of her father—
Courtier: He's getting better!
Father: [motions to a soldier] ...who, when it seemed as if he was about to recover, suddenly felt the icy hand of death upon him.
[sound of a sudden groan]
Courtier: He's died!- Actually, it was done twice in Lancelot's Tale. When the prince fired his arrow randomly, it was intercepted by Concorde's chest. Turned out, he was able to pull through, and was even willing to come along, but Lancelot would have none of it and demanded that he take a few minutes to rest.
- Battle of the Bulge (1965). Sergeant Guffy's tank has been seriously damaged, but he still wants to fight the Germans to avenge his girlfriend's death.
Lt. Weaver: You got a wounded man. You think you ought to get him to the medics?
Sergeant Guffy: Ah, he's not too bad. He can still fight. - Mean Girls after Gretchen falls on Karen.
- Death Proof after Zoe Bell finally gets knocked off the hood, there's an exceedingly tense few seconds as the characters in the car recover from the chase...until Zoe completely breaks the mood by hopping up like an excited puppy, chirping, "I'm okay!".
Live Action TV
- Happened in Buffy the Vampire Slayer often enough that the RPG has a special "I Think I'm Okay" routine.
- Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego: Host Greg would say this whenever it looks as if some character took a fatal hit.
- The House Season 3 Disc Five DVD Blooper Reel
- While Adam and Tory generally fall under I'm Okay! for their various Amusing Injuries, there have been some very scary moments where it looked like one of the hosts was seriously hurt. The bubble-wrap drop was a big one, where Adam, after being dropped from 15 feet up with several layers of bubble wrap to cushion him, didn't immediately respond to inquiries, and so everyone rushed over to help...just in time for Adam to declare that he was all right.
Video Games
- Used rather dramatically in Fate/stay night when Rin and Shirou enter a room full people being "digested" by a magical field. Shirou reassures Rin that they're not dead. When later questioned about how he could tell, he dismisses it with "I've seen a lot of corpses." Naturally this starts Rin's questioning of his Broken Hero past.
- In Super Paper Mario, after Bowser was supposedly crushed by a falling ceiling:
Peach: I'm not worried about Bowser. He isn't easy to get rid of...Luigi: Oh boy, she's right about that! Bowser has survived worse.
- This makes a lot of sense if you remember he has survived very high falls, being burned with fireballs and falling into lava even to the point he was just a walking pile of bones, and being thrown into a sun. He got better from all that.
- Injustice: Gods Among Us: Wonder Woman is a little concerned after Green Lantern defeats Solomon Grundy by throwing him into orbit. Batman "reassures" her that "Grundy's a zombie, he'll be fine," in a tone that suggests he doesn't particularly care either way.
Western Animation
- "He's alright, folks!" is the standard tannoy announcement on The Simpsons after Lance Murdoch's inevitable bloody wipeouts.
- A shakily-delivered "I'm OK" is a catchphrase of Eugene in Hey Arnold!
- From The Secret Show:
Professor Professor: Victor, are you still alive?!Victor: Yes! I'm still alive!
