"Ahh, Earth Day, the only day of the year where being able to hacky-sack will get you laid."
Don't forget to recycle!
Time to reduce, reuse and recycle. You guessed it - it's Earth Day, or some similar day. In this episode, our characters will sit down and probably learn some sort of Green Aesop during their celebration of eco-friendly activities.
This episode can air during or near any recognized eco holiday, not just Earth Day. However, as many people do not know the exact date of Earth Day, simply announcing the presence of some Green Holiday regardless of what time of year it is works just as well.
Expect lots of green decorations if they announce the holiday during the show, or a Green Aesop at minimum if they timed it to coincide with an eco holiday.
Older shows that do this are given to using scare tactics with this holiday while younger shows praise the things like planting trees, recycling, picking up litter etc. If this episode has an antagonist, it will usually introduce an Ecocidal Antagonist whose plans to pollute the environment must be stopped by the protagonists.
It is not the most common choice in the list of holiday episodes, but it occurs regardless. Earth Day episodes tend to show up a lot more in shows meant for younger audiences.
Subtrope of A Very Special Episode. Compare Valentine's Day Episode and Christmas Episode.
Examples
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Asian Animation
- BoBoiBoy: The 3-episode special called "Saving Planet Earth" has the characters celebrate National Recycling Day. They use what they learn about the 3 Rs to encourage citizens to sort their trash and recyclables to stop the Shield Monster from using garbage as his Power Armor. The next day, they host an Earth Day carnival at their school.
Live-Action TV
- 30 Rock has done many ecologically themed episodes in accordance with NBC's "Green Week."
- Community: In the B-plot of the first season episode "Environmental Science", Dean Pelton announces they are becoming more environmentally conscious and changing their name to Enviro-Dale. One student points out they're already Greendale.
- The iCarly episode "iGo Nuclear" was made because Nickelodeon made them do it. Dan Schnieder stuck it to the execs by having all of Carly's attempts to go green backfire on her.
Newspaper Comics
- Many newspaper comics have a special strip for Earth Day, or at least mention it. From The Comics Curmudgeon (so there were probably more strips each year that he didn't have room to make jokes about):
- 2008
Mary Worth mentions it in passing; Beetle Bailey and Dennis the Menace (US) base the strip round it.
- 2009: The Phantom and Spider-Man mention it in passing; Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, Curtis and Marvin base strips around it.
- 2008
Podcast
- Thrilling Adventure Hour has an annual "I'm from Earth Day" on Earth Day (which plays on the catchphrase of Sparks Nevada, Marshall on Mars- "I'm... From Earth").
Video Games
- Poptropica: On Earth Day of 2010, a mini-island called "Don't Be an Energy Hog" was released. It's a small minigame where the player has to go through a house and turn off all the electronic devices, keeping the energy use down for a certain amount of time. Winning it gets you a celebratory Earth Day shirt.
Western Animation
- Arthur: The Green Aesop episode "The Cherry Tree" is usually aired on Arbor Day, for its preachy message of how cutting down a lot of trees is bad for the environment, and Muffy is saddened that her favorite cherry tree was cut down to make room for a bouncy castle for a party she's having.
- Bad Dog: The season two episode "Earth Dog" is about Berkeley trying to help Penelope celebrate Earth Day. One instance of this involves trying to keep the house's energy consumption down, which Berkeley accomplishes by unplugging any large amount of electronics that either Vic, Trevor, or Grandpa Potanski are using for something or other.
- Lilo & Stitch: The Series: Experiment 505 aka Ploot was activated on Earth Day and was designed to collect garbage and spew toxic sludge wherever he went. He collected so much trash he grew into a giant, monstrous alien, and Lilo had to catch him on her own because Stitch got sick from eating rubbish.
- The Magic School Bus: The kids learn about the importance of the ecosystem during a trip to the rainforest to gather information for an Earth Day project.
- Maya & Miguel has one where Maya, Miguel and their friends convert an empty lot into a community garden, while their cousin Tito encourages people to use paper or reusable bags instead of plastic.
- Nature Cat has “Earth Day Today”, in which the titular character and his pals find an issue of plastic bags everywhere after one harms their Earth Day celebration, and learning to use reusable bags when they go to local store Rudzie’s. In its sister episode “Earth Day Every Day”, the gang succeeds in getting another plastic bag, followed by a plastic bottle that is flowing in the ocean, in which they clean up a beach by recycling and then the gang learns to spread the word that ‘every day is Earth Day’ (as pictured above). Each of these two stories has a song about what makes Earth Day very special.
- It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, first aired in 1976, long before Earth Day was an established holiday, and is one of the few specials dedicated to Arbor Day. Lucy and the gang decide to plant some trees in the empty baseball field, much to Charlie Brown's consternation.
- Ready Jet Go!: In "Every Day is Earth Day", Jet learns about Earth Day and the rest of the gang travel the planet to see what makes Earth so unique. They even paint a hot-air balloon to look like the planet and perform a Crowd Song about how great Earth is. Also, Mitchell recites a little poem of his about Earth.
- Rocko's Modern Life: "Zanzibar" was made in part of creator Joe Murray and his then-wife being big recyclers, and also because Nickelodeon was on a big environmental kick and wanted their Nicktoons to reflect that. It's a Musical Episode where Rocko and his neighbors learn about recycling and conservation, and try to get the Conglom-O corporation to stop polluting O-Town.
- South Park: "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" subverts the usual expectations of an Earth Day episode by portraying the Earth Day organization as crazy environmentalists who brainwash people, claim Republicans are responsible for ruining the Earth, and threaten bodily harm when promises aren't delivered to them. No Green Aesop is learned.
- Spongebob Squarepants "Spongebob's Last Stand" was aired around Earth Day and carried one very heavy handed Green Aesop when Spongebob fights to prevent development from destroying Jellyfish Fields.
- SuperMansion had an Earth Day special in "World War Tree", where the League of Freedom had to defend humanity from some trees that have come to life and want to wipe out all humans for their acts of deforestation.
- Total DramaRama: In "Pudding the Planet First", after Chef says opposing viewpoints make the world more interesting and fun, Izzy applies it in the worst way possible on Earth Day.
- In the WordGirl episode "Earth Day Girl", Eileen the Birthday Girl is upset that the Earth is getting a special celebration on her "birthday" (which she believes is every day) and goes on one of her customary rampages.
