The Prom Plot

"...and the prom's tomorrow!"

The prom, which is actually short for "promenade dance," is a high school tradition for juniors and seniors that involves going to a formal, end-of-the-year gathering, refreshments if not a full-on several-course dinner or buffet-style preparation is served, has an elected prom queen and king (or occasionally an entire prom court) and dancing wearing tuxedos and formal gowns. Usually held in April, May or June, it's a well-known and well-loved ritual in American and Canadian schools, although other countries may have a similar tradition themselves.

Also, expect the usual antics that are anticipated either before or at the prom, such as trying to convince someone to be your date, someone spiking the punch, two girls dressing in the same gown, someone being turned away for whatever reason, there's someone who wants to ruin it for everyone else and of course couples hoping for Their First Time or some characters may be obsessed with getting "lucky" on prom night. Some may get an unintended Prom Baby. While it is similar to a homecoming dance, this trope usually has more lasting significance to it.

A subtrope of High-School Dance. Compare with Dances and Balls. See also Dance Party Ending, Charity Ball, Masquerade Ball, Fundraiser Carnival, and School Festival.

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Examples:

Films — Live-Action

• 10 Things I Hate About You has both Kat and Bianca attending the former's senior prom (the latter is a sophomore, but was invited by Cameron).
• Dance of the Dead is all about your average prom night. With zombies.
• Jawbreaker: the ending scene has the characters attending their senior prom. Courtney ends up being crowned prom queen, but she soon gets exposed for killing Liz.
• In Never Been Kissed, investigative reporter Josie goes undercover at a high school where the student body obsessed with the prom and were total dicks about it to the point that the "cool" kids would actively refuse to sell tickets to their "uncool" classmates, even if they had money. She is also forced to relive the awful memory of her own prom years earlier where she was a bullied typical nerd who had a Jerk Jock invite her only for him to show off his actual date and to egg her as they drove by in their limo. She wins prom queen, but also willingly blows her cover in disgust, throws off the crown, and calls out the students for their childish and cruel ways and is reminded of how much she hates high school.
• Radio Rebel: A major plot point in the film is that Radio Rebel's antics caused the principal of their school to cancel the prom, causing them to instead host a separate party at the radio station, known as Morp. There's still a conflict over who becomes "Morp Queen", with most people voting for Radio Rebel despite not knowing her true identity. After revealing herself, Tara gives her crown to Stacy, trying to bury the hatchet and let Stacy embrace her dream of being prom queen.
• Towards the beginning of Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, the eponymous two women reminisce about the sad commencement of their senior prom: both women are mocked for dressing as Madonna (they graduated back in 1987), Romy is manipulated into thinking that her crush Billy's girlfriend, Alpha Bitch Chrissy, is dumping her for Romy (only for the couple to take off together, stranding her alone) and in realizing she was fooled, a sympathetic Michele dances the last dance with her best friend.
• Senior Year is about Stephanie having hers after waking from a 20-year coma.

Literature

• Almost every incarnation of Carrie deals with the high schoolers' preoccupation with the upcoming senior prom, with the girls being obsessed with it and even outcasted and socially awkward Carrie soon getting in on the action. We see Sue convince Tommy to invite Carrie, Chris and her cronies getting banned from prom, and it goes without saying that everyone knows what happens at the event and its aftermath.^note Technically speaking; while the book, the 1976 film, and the 2013 remake all follow the script — namely in Carrie dying at the end — the 2002 TV movie ends with her escaping with Sue. This came about because there was going to be a follow-up television series that expanded on the aftermath, but the pilot was never picked up
• The Weight Of Blood: As a Carrie remix, Prom Wrecker applies here, but the story also takes place as a result of Wendy's self-serving attempt to integrate the proms. Rather than a Black Prom and a White Prom, an "All Together Now" prom takes place, where Wendy convinces her boyfriend Kenny to invite Maddy.

Live-Action TV

• Beverly Hills, 90210 had both of their proms pretty memorable. Their junior prom had Andrea worried about her "bland" dress, only for her own to be better than Brenda and Kelly, who are dressed the same and Donna is wearing an uncomfortable, overly fancy dress that she can't even sit in. Their senior prom is more infamous, as Brenda and Kelly are now fighting over Dylan and Donna gets drunk and ends up being barred from graduation.
• The Big Bang Theory: In "The Prom Equivalency", the gang (all adults in their late 20s-30s) decide to hold a repeat prom on the roof of their apartment since most of them were too nerdy in high school to have a particularly happy or memorable prom experience. Sheldon struggles with the idea that his girlfriend Amy might be expecting to engage in the tradition of losing her virginity on prom night, which he's not ready for, while drama erupts over Howard's concerns that Stuart will bring Howard's mother as his date. While they don't have sex, Sheldon and Amy do admit for the first time that they love each other.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "The Prom" is the breather episode just before the third season finale, and revolves around the senior prom. Several characters change their relationship status, Buffy deals with a Prom Wrecker who's trained hellhounds to attack people in formalwear, and in a heartwarming moment near the end, the awarding of prom titles includes a special Class Protector award for Buffy, showing that although the other students don't like to talk about it they are aware of and grateful for what Buffy does.
• California Dreams has couples Jake and Tiffani and Tony and Samantha vying for the race of prom king and queen at their senior prom.
• Cold Case has two prom-related episodes:
  • Season 3's premiere, "Family", has a teen couple having a Prom Baby in the school's bathroom. While the girl abandons her daughter who is soon discovered and placed for adoption, the boy is fatally ran over after refusing to give his child over to his desperate math teacher, which he had previously said he would.
  • The Season 7 episode "Almost Paradise" has the prom queen, disillusioned with her popularity and on the verge of growing up and going to college, get struck and killed by the beloved high school principal after the prom after he made a pass at her and she threatened to expose him.
• In CSI: NY's "Admissions," the Victim of the Week is a prep school guidance counselor found murdered while chaperoning the senior prom. The valedictorian gives a speech encouraging her classmates to skip a lot of classes, blow off the calculus final, and forget about their grades; one girl who attends seems to be suffering from depression; and a guy gets caught trying to slip a date-rape drug into another girl's drink. All the attendees' phones are confiscated and Lab Rat Adam uses their pics and Photosynth to create a 3-D model of the gym so the team can figure out who had the means and opportunity to kill the victim.
• Derry Girls's penultimate episode of the second series is titled "The Prom," as the year's school formal is themed as a 50's-style American prom. The event turns into a Carrie-inspired horrorshow when transfer student Mae rigs the stage to dump tomato juice on Academic Alpha Bitch Jenny during her prom queen acceptance speech.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode "Just Say Yo" has Will and Carlton going to their senior prom as the former deals with juggling his numerous responsibilities and the latter is dealing with a sudden breakout of acne, leaving him insecure. Unfortunately, after Will is offered speed by a classmate and his cousin unwittingly takes too much thinking that they were vitamins, the latter passes out at their prom and nearly dies.
• Full House:
  • One Season 6 episode has D.J., Kimmy, and Steve attend the senior prom while Becky serves as a chaperone. Unfortunately, what should have been a beautiful night is almost single-handedly ruined by Steve's ex-girlfriend who wants him back, wears the same gown as D.J., and after the ex and Steve are elected prom queen and king, she kisses him.
  • The series finale's B-plot involves D.J. trying to find a date for her own senior prom.
• A staple of Glee beginning with season 2, a prom episode would typically air around the same time as real-life school proms. Season 4's prom episode (taking place in Spring 2013) was actually not included until season 5 due to those seasons' use of Webcomic Time.
• The Golden Girls episode "What a Difference a Date Makes" has Dorothy making a date with her would-be senior prom date who was in town to see her and who had ostensibly stood her up. Turns out, Sophia turned him away due to his lousy outfit and attitude to match, which infuriated Dorothy (as she blamed her for losing confidence after this and settling for Stan, who soon got her pregnant) and she momentarily stopped speaking to her mother. Soon after taking the man to be her date as she chaperoned her school's senior prom, he admitted that he wanted to apologize for not treating her right back then and being an overall jerk as well as thanking Sophia for calling him out and forcing him to grow up. Essentially, she made up with her and the end of the episode has Dorothy happily telling Sophia about her lovely evening.
• House of Anubis: The season 1 finale focused on the students preparing for an end-of-term prom as inspired by Nina's stories about America. Everyone spent a few episodes worrying about dates and dresses until it was the night in question. Unfortunately for Sibuna, this night was also the exact time and date the Cup of Ankh would be buildable, and both Rufus and the Secret Society were making their moves. Instead of going to prom, Sibuna spent most of the night being held hostage in a classroom, worrying Mara and Mick about whether or not they'd come. Luckily, they did make it back after everything was resolved, just in time for Fabian and Nina to be announced as king and queen.
• How I Met Your Mother: In "Best Prom Ever", the adult gang crashes a high school prom so that Lily can vet a potential wedding band. Lily, remembering all the hopes and dreams she had at her actual high school prom, starts getting doubts about marrying Marshall, but is consoled by Robin. She and Marshall end up slow-dancing to their favorite song, agreeing to hire the band for their wedding, while Ted and Robin decide to rekindle their friendship. However, Lily's doubts end up coming back into play in the season finale, when she applies to an art fellowship across the country and breaks up with Marshall.
• One Tree Hill has the characters attend their senior prom, but it goes horribly wrong when Psycho Derek pretends to be Lucas and assaults Peyton and holds her hostage in her own home. Then when Brooke discovers what happens, he ultimately tries to hold her hostage, only for the girls to eventually gain the upper hand. When the group of friends attend another school's senior prom, the students at that school are genuinely struck by how weird their lives are.
• Passions has a (very long) storyline of several characters either attending or chaperoning the senior prom, which was held on a boat. It ends with the boat sinking and several characters nearly drowning.
• An episode of S Club 7 in L.A. (or L.A. 7 in the UK) has the group performing at a high school senior prom and band member Jon (then himself just 18) falling for one of the students.
• Saved by the Bell:
  • In "The Prom", the gang goes to their junior prom. Among the occurrences are Screech (once again) trying to convince Lisa to go with him, Slater and Jessie arguing over the type of music for the prom and Kelly's father being laid off and she not being able to afford the prom, only for Zack to have them go to their own intimate prom.
  • "The Senior Prom" has them combining their poorly-selling prom with their wildly popular performance of Oklahoma!. Amongst the antics are Zack manipulating Kelly's date into dumping her so he can take her and Slater and Jessie getting trapped in the boiler room.
• Veronica Mars: Subverted. After a lot of hijinks at Neptune High, the prom gets cancelled, and Logan throws an Alterna-Prom instead in his hotel room.
• Victorious: In the season two episode "Prom Wrecker", Tori tries to throw a Prom at Hollywood Arts. She inadvertently gets Jade's play cancelled as it was scheduled on the same night as the Prom. In retaliation, Jade tries to ruin Tori's prom. There's also a subplot about Trina trying to become prom queen by getting Sinjin to hack the votes.

Music

• In Prom Queen Resurrection by Sid Maudlin, the film’s finale is the Prom, during which the Prom Queen, who had been led to believe that she was Loved by All, gets shot. The murderers only kinda try to make up an alibi.
• TWICE's "The Feels" video has loose one that borders being a Random Events Plot. The girls receive a prom invitation slipped under their door. They fantasize about being recognized as prom celebrities, with lots of people taking pictures of them. Jihyo tosses a bunch of outfits from the wardrobe. The members dance on and off the stage. Mina is dubbed the prom queen, only for her crown to be yanked away by Chaeyoung. Tzuyu joins Mina in the reading of a scrapbook. The girls dance on another stage with confetti and pyrotechnics.

Theatre

• "The Ballad of Sara Berry" from 35MM: A Musical Exhibition centers around the titular Alpha Bitch who undergoes Sanity Slippage when it becomes apparent that a classmate named Julie, who had recently lost a leg in a car crash, will be named Prom Queen instead of her. Sara ends up going completely Ax-Crazy and murders six classmates on prom night before Julie puts an end to things by calling the police. When they find Sara, she's decked herself out with the Prom Queen's sash and scepter and is dancing by herself, all while still covered in her victims' blood.
• Everybody's Talking About Jamie: Downplayed, since the prom isn't actually shown, but the show leads up to one. Rumors of Jamie deciding to go to his senior prom as his drag persona Mimi Me (which happen to be true) cause his teacher to ban drag from the prom. When Jamie later shows up in a simple dress, arguing that it isn't drag, Miss Hedge still bans him, until the rest of the kids rally and pressure Miss Hedge to let him in. The show ends on Jamie being accepted and going to prom as himself.
• The Prom: Loosely based on a real-life incident, the show centers around Emma Nolan, who wants to attend the prom with her girlfriend Alyssa. But between Alyssa still being in the closet, the conservatives of Edgewater, Indiana set on banning Emma from bringing a girl as her date, and the four over-the-hill Broadway actors showing up to champion her cause, this proves more difficult than average. Even worse when she finally does go to the prom at the end of Act 1... only to find nobody there, because the other parents held a private prom without inviting Emma. The end of the show finally sees Emma and Alyssa attend a much more inclusive prom, with LGBTQ couples from all over the area in attendance.

Visual Novels

• Monster Prom is, as its name would suggest, a dating sim where the players attempt to win the hearts of their fellow students in a high school^note  (Though all of them are actually young adults, with the youngest dateable character being 19) populated by various monsters, leading up to the titular prom. Wacky hijinks ensue.

Webcomics

• Rain: In one story arc, the whole main cast goes to prom. With their partners. In a homophobic Catholic school with a Cast Full of Gay. Hilarity Ensues. Prom King and Queen elections also come up.

Web Original

• In Sam & Mickey episode "Prom", Skipper is about to attend her prom with her boyfriend, Anslem, when he cancels at the last minute due to his lunar being in the wrong alignment or something. From there, Barbie attempts to locate an alternate date for her that she hasn't slept with, Stacie and Chelsea try to get her a date with the wide array of celebrities the former sister knows (and the latter sister decides to ultimately make her a date out of cardboard and glitter glue) and Ken wants to go as her date but has to look for a tuxedo in Barbie's vast closet.
• School Of Thrones: The Game of Thrones parody set in an American high school has Stannis & Melisandre, Joffrey & Sansa, Renly & Loras, and Robb & Theon all compete for the title of Prom King/Queen rather than the Iron Throne. The Prom, rather than winter, becomes the dreaded event that threatens to tear the school apart, with Danerys making plans to "conquer the school with flame" before it gets out of control. The series ends on said prom, where Dany uses her Burn Book to get everyone to settle their differences.
  Prom Night is Coming

Western Animation

• All Hail King Julien: Episode 11 of Season 3 is about King Julien being excited to attend the Lemur School Reunion Prom. The whole prom itself later turned out to be a revenge plot devised by Julien's Ex-Girlfriend Karen, who Julien ended standing up to. At one point before the plot twist, Julien has also questioned about how everyone feels about him during his time at school.
• Clone High: The two-part season one finale focuses on everyone getting ready for the prom. Part 1 is about everyone trying to look their best and ask out the one they want to go with, while part 2 is set in the prom itself (which is being held in the meat locker) and the Board of Shadowy Figures coming to kill Scudworth for the plans he made behind their backs about the clones.
• The Fish Hooks episode "Fish Prom" revolves around the Freshwater High gang getting ready for their prom where Bea's night falls apart, and Oscar must choose between his game-obsessed girlfriend Angela and his true crush Bea.
• King of the Hill: In "Kidney Boy and Hamster Girl: A Love Story", Connie and Bobby are excited about the upcoming Middle School prom. During the episode, Bobby gets the idea to go to the High School Prom after the tickets for Middle School Prom are sold out, leading to Connie deciding to take Joseph instead when he lies that she is a high school student. However, he eventually realizes his error after taking a water balloon for Connie and is given the opportunity to go with her to the prom after all by the High School students.
• The Owl House: "Enchanting Grom Fright" episode is about prom where Luz wanted to participate instead of Amity as Grom Queen. Unfortunately for her, it means fighting a giant monster that can shapeshift into its victims' worst nightmares.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Episode "Princess Prom" is about Adora and all members of Rebellion (as well Catra and Scorpia) attending at political event that looks (and fittingly named) like a school prom. The official name of the event is the All Princess Ball; “Princess Prom” is the Etherian layman’s term for it.
• The Simpsons
  • The episode "The Way We Was" combines this with a Flashback Episode from 1974 where Homer and Marge are reminiscing with the kids about their senior year of high school and their accompanying prom, where they ultimately fell in love after Marge rejects her initial prom date, Artie Ziff, for trying to force a kiss on her.
  • A (sort of) follow-up episode, "Half-Decent Proposal", has Artie, by now obscenely wealthy and still pining for Marge, convince the couple to spend a supposedly-platonic weekend with her in order to pay for an anti-snoring operation Homer needs. During said weekend, Artie reenacts their senior prom (to the point of making it 70s-themed and hiring the original band) and manages to kiss Marge, which Homer naturally misinterprets.
• In SpongeBob SquarePants episode "The Chaperone", SpongeBob ends up being a chaperone for Pearl to her prom after her boyfriend dumps her. Sponge, being who he is, causes various hijinks to ensue to the point that they are eventually kicked out of the venue.
• Teen Titans: In "Date with Destiny", Robin is forced to take the Villain of the Week's bratty teenage daughter Kitten to her junior prom, or else he will release an army of killer moths on the city. Neither Robin nor Starfire is happy with the situation, so Starfire also attends the prom to keep an eye on things.
• Tiny Toon Adventures: Well-loved episode "Prom-ise Her Anything" revolves around Acme Looniversity's annual, with such storylines as Buster struggling to ask Babs out, and Monty trying desperately to evade Elmyra.

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