My uncle used to cut school to hit Susquehanna
Kept himself a rod and reel he hid up in the bramble
The school took attendance, it was quiet as a mouse,
He was at the river pulling out a giant by its mouth
Kept himself a rod and reel he hid up in the bramble
The school took attendance, it was quiet as a mouse,
He was at the river pulling out a giant by its mouth
— Aesop Rock, "By The River"
In fictional stories, a character is dreading another boring day of school and would like to have a day off, or wants to avoid something such as a big test. So the character decides to take someone (usually their best friend) and spend the day skipping school and having fun, often referred to as "Playing Hooky". This is something usually done by delinquents, and sometimes when a character sees one doing such a thing, they might feel inspired or pressured to do the same.
Usually, in comedies, the characters try to have the time of their lives while trying to remain inconspicuous to those around them who would find it odd that kids are out on a school day; usually the police, truant officers, or adults that may know them. Some humorous situations have them finding out that they missed out on something fun or the thing they were trying to avoid was moved to another day.
The first outcome: They get recognized by someone who knows they should be in school and end up getting in trouble.
The second outcome: They manage to make it through the day without getting caught, only for something to backfire and end up getting found out for what they did.
The third outcome: They manage to get through the whole day and aren't punished for skipping school.
See also: Playing Sick where a character sometimes resorts to faking an illness in order skip school or some other event, or Getting Sick Deliberately, where a character tries to get sick on purpose; both of which are usually the safest ways to do so without risk of punishment.
May be considered a "Walk on the Wild Side" Episode.
Not to be confused with Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- In Ah! My Goddess, Professor Ozawa's students do not like going to his classes and rather go to Kakuta's. Kakuta picks up his slack, but he isn't quite happy about it either.
- The Astro Boy chapter "Robot Land" has the teacher Mr. Mustachio leaving school before he starts his class and joining Dr. Ochanomizu to confront the founder of the said land after Astro has been trapped there. This prompts all the male classmates (including Kenichi) to skip school and save Astro themselves.
- In Call of the Night, Ko Yamori has stopped going to school because he doesn't find it fun anymore, though this is more a case of Yamori being dissatisfied with his life in general. The catalyst, however, was his rejection of a classmate's Love Confession (because he didn't know what it meant to like someone); two of her friends harassed him over it and called him out for having no emotions. The next day, he couldn't be bothered to go back anymore.
- Played very seriously in Fruits Basket, where Kisa is Bullied into Depression and stops going to school. Yuki convinces her to start going again, even knowing her classmates will likely not treat her any differently.
- Maria no Danzai: Maria targets Shikimi's insecurities by letting her homeroom teacher know that she was sighted in a Love Hotel district and them making it seem as if she's trying to Frame-Up Kinugawa by hiding her gym clothes in his bag (like she once did with Kiritaka). After Shikimi realizes that no one trusts her and Maria tries to "comfort" her with words specifically meant to trigger her, Shikimi storms off and stops going to school for the next couple of weeks. She never returns after Maria kidnaps and kills her.
- Evangeline of Negima! Magister Negi Magi would skip school early on in the series as she had already been in school longer than most of her classmates had been alive, being an immortal vampire at all. After Negi defeats her in a fight, he makes her promise to never skip again. She reluctantly complies.
- In Ojamajo Doremi, Kayoko skipped a good chunk of fifth grade — not because she wanted to for fun, but because her school refusal caused by her depression meant she got sick every time she tried going.
- Why the Hell Are You Here, Teacher!?: Wataru Watanabe skips classes and goes to work instead because he finds it more fun and enjoyable, to the chagrin of his mother.
Comic Books
- Anne of West Philly: Anne casually mentions to Marilla while they're grocery shopping together the first time that at the last place she stayed, there were young children and she was expected to stay home from school if one of the babies were sick. Since this is a modern adaptation set in the Present Day 2020s, Marilla is horrified Anne was forced to skip school for such a reason.
- Anya's Ghost: They're still on campus, but Anya and Siobhan skip class to go smoke in the bathroom and frequently skip gym. Anya was also skipping school in anger when she fell in the well and found Emily, and skips to go to the library to look up information on Emily's death.
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Many kids in Duckburg used to be this in "Truant Officer Donald", before Donald took the job of truant officer and proved himself infallible. The same story has the nephews decide to try this just to prove themselves better than the mystery truant officer-and find out they're way out of their league, and not just because he's using a radar to track kids (they had actually sabotaged it).
- Robin (1993): Tim Drake skips school often to do hero work, and at least twice to avoid questions about visible injuries on his face and neck. He eventually has to drop out altogether to help try to keep Gotham together in the chaos following Batman's death.
- Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman: In "Wonder World" Techne and Epistime go to try and get Diana to come down for dinner after she skipped all her lessons that day, as they're under the impression the princess has been skulking in her room after being denied permission to go to the mainland. Diana actually snuck out and swam there.
- Superman:
- Varies between this and Playing Sick for the pre-Crisis Superboy, who'd sometimes have to ditch a class or school altogether to tend to some emergency (and if his Superboy Robots were unavailable). Averted in that Ma and Pa Kent could be relied on to call the school to tell them their son came home or stayed home "sick."
- In Supergirl series Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Linda skipped school after two weeks of humiliations and bullying. She intended to find a way to return home but she was unable to.
- In The Third Kryptonian, Superman catches his foster son Chris Kent skipping school. When confronted, Chris excuses himself by telling everybody was mocking him due to his inability to fit in with human kids.
- In Supergirl: Being Super, Kara Danvers is still angry and depressed after her friend Jen's death so she skips gym class. When she goes back home she finds her coach checking to make sure she's fine. After the woman is gone, Kara's adoptive father Jeremiah sternly points out that her skipping school leads people to poke their noses into their family matters -which he hates- and her own business -which he knows she hates-, so she has to go to school likes or not. Kara grudgingly agrees.
- Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars: In the first book, Trish decides to skip out on going to school one day because the hover derby teams are hosting auditions. Trish's friend isn't pleased with the idea, since there's a test at school that's worth one third of their final grade.
- X-23 and Megan in Target X. Technically they get suspended, but rather than heading home like they're supposed to, they steal the principal's car and take it on a joyride across San Francisco.
Fan Works
- Alec Goes To Winslow kicks off with a truant officer catching Alec out and about, mistaking him for a student skipping class and dragging him to Winslow High. After witnessing Taylor being trapped inside a locker by her bullies, he decides to start attending school there in earnest.
- A Change of Pace: Due to all the bullying she's had to deal with at school, Taylor finds that she prefers skipping classes entirely to focus on her secret career as an independent hero. This catches up with her during the second story arc, causing a falling out with her father.
- Dodged a Beetle: After learning that Adrien has never had a proper birthday party, Lila skips class in order to pay the Agreste Manor a visit and ask for permission to throw one for him. Gabriel promptly calls her out on her truancy, treating it as evidence that she's precisely the kind of bad influence he'd prefer for his son to avoid.
- In Intrepid, Emma stops going to school during the events of the Merchant's kidnapping spree since she has more important things to worry about.
- Noceda-Clawthorne Series: A Day Out with the Owl Familia features Bria skipping school. After learning that the titular family intends to spend the day at the amusement park, she attempts to ruin their fun out of sheer spite.
- Restraint: Azula mentions that the one time she skipped school her Fire Lord father sent an army after her.
- Scarlet Lady:
- After Lila has her claims of being besties with the titular Nominal Heroine exposed and is utterly humiliated in front of several of her peers, she feigns illness in order to avoid having to return to school and face the music. She only stops after Marinette contacts her and convinces her to return.
- Chloé also does this after the events of "Queen Wasp", holing up in her bedroom at Le Grand Paris Hotel and refusing to come out.
- The Second Try: In the beginning of chapter 10 "Repeat", Shinji and Asuka aren't ready to go to the school right after going back to the past, so Shinji tell their guardian that Asuka doesn't feel well and asks if they can stay at home. Misato jokingly asks if they're trying to skip school.
Misato: What's up with you two anyway? No breakfast yet? Shouldn't you be getting ready for school by now?
Shinji: Misato... Asuka... doesn't feel very well. Would you mind if we stay at home today?
Misato: 'We'?
Shinji: Well, I... uh... thought it would be better if someone would be here... in case she needs something... And since you have to go to NERV...
Misato: (teasingly) So you two want to skip school? Stay at home all alone for the whole day?
Film — Animated
- In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Dunk for Future, Tiger Wing, an opponent to Weslie and his team, skips school a few times so that he can go play basketball. This understandably frustrates his father, who rightfully calls him out for ignoring his studies, but Tiger Wing doesn't want anything to do with this argument, saying he'd rather practice for the city basketball game.
Film — Live Action
- In Child's Play (1988), Chucky orders Andy to skip school and take the Chicago "L" train downtown, so the former can sneak into the house of his former accomplice and kill him.
- Cocaine Bear: Upset that her mom changed plans to paint a waterfall that weekend with her, Dee Dee convinces her friend Henry to skip with her to paint the waterfall themselves.
- The whole plot behind Ferris Bueller's Day Off is that the title character fakes being sick in order to skip school.
- Firehouse Dog: Shane skips school in order to get out of taking a pop quiz, he's caught by two of his dad's coworker's, Shane and Lionel, but he manages to come up with a lie to buy him some time.
- In The Grizzlies, this is a recurring issue in the film. Kugluktuk High School has a high rate of absenteeism as students need to hunt for their families to avoid starvation. Some Inuit elders also have issues with their children attending due to the trauma of residential schools.
Adam: They don't want me going to a white man's school, 'cause that's what fucked up my parents.
- Juice: It's the four friends' regular pastime.
- In Mad Love (1995), Casey persuades Matt to leave in the middle of chemistry class and spend the day driving around with her. Later, she pulls the fire alarm in the middle of the S.A.T.s so they'll get rescheduled and she and Matt can go to a book signing. Matt doesn't go with her this time.
- Charlie and Fulton do this in the third installment of The Mighty Ducks and go to an amusement park. A worker there knows what they're doing, but promises to keep quiet as he did the same thing.
- In Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, Ricky cuts class to spend the day wandering the beach. The next day, he tells the teacher he was sick.
- Stop! Look! And Laugh!: Jerry Mahoney tries to avoid going to school through various tricks. He paints the windows black to make Paul Winchell think it is still nighttime, he keeps falling asleep and even tries Playing Sick by painting spots on his face.
- In Wonder Woman, young Diana regularly flees from her tutor to see the Amazonian warriors training.
- X-Men: Apocalypse: On Scott Summers' second day at Xavier's school, he's "already up for a prison break," and persuades Kurt Wagner, Jean Grey and Jubilee to hang out at the mall instead of being "cooped up" in class.
Literature
- Garrett from Boot Camp has been regularly skipping school since he was twelve. He's smart enough to get good grades with minimal effort, so he doesn't see why he has to spend time being bored in class. This is part of the reason his parents send him to Lake Harmony.
- Warren from Eye of a Fly skips an entire month of school. He tells his father he spent the time playing handball by himself.
- In Freaky Friday, Annabel's mother plays hooky and spends the day going to the dentist to get Annabel's braces taken off and buying clothes for her daughter.
- In Haze, Guzzle skips school when he's so tired from listening to his stepdad beat his mum at night that he can't concentrate.
- Jonah from If I Fall, If I Die fakes disasters like a House Fire so he can get out of school. Will learns from him and starts writing in sick so he can help Jonah look for the missing boy Marcus.
- In Nickel Plated, Arrow skips school and goes with Nickel to the neighborhood where he thinks her sister Shelby is being held so she can spy on the suspects and tell him when they're gone.
- Prudence Penderhaus: After Prudence is diagnosed with cancer, she starts skipping school, which she's never done before, because her grades won't matter if she dies.
- Slug Days Stories: Attempted by Lauren in Slug Days. Even before school starts she can tell it's going to be a slug day, so she crawls under a pine tree in front of the school, hoping she can stay there all day. Mrs. Kelly finds her anyway and makes her go to class. She arrives late and misses out on reading.
- Small as an Elephant: Jack's mom sometimes used to pick him up in the middle of the day, saying he had a doctor's appointment, and then take him someplace fun, like an amusement park.
- In The Story of Valentine and His Brother, twelve-year-old Valentine runs away from his tutor and spends the day picnicking with his friend Violet.
- What Happened to Lani Garver: Claire, a leukemia survivor, starts to feel weak and dizzy and worries that her illness is coming back. She can't talk to her mom about it, so Lani talks her into skipping school, taking a bus to Philadelphia, and getting her blood tested at a charity clinic that mostly treats homeless kids. It turns out her blood is fine, and her problems are caused by excessive dieting.
Live Action TV
- A Drake & Josh episode has Drake convincing Josh to skip school so they can spy on their dad, who they suspect is having an affair.
- El Chavo del ocho: An early episode has the plot focused on El Chavo and La Chilindrina deciding to go to the park instead of going to school, and fretting over Don Ramón finding out. At the end, after an argument El Chavo decides to blow the whistle on La Chilindrina and tell Don Ramón about it, only for Don Ramón to reveal that it was Sunday.
- Everybody Hates Chris: "Everybody Hates Cutting School" sees Chris and Greg skipping school to see a movie, only for one of their teachers to catch them red-handed, as well as for them to miss out on a fun concert.
- Full House: In "D.J. Tanner's Day off", D.J. skips school to go to the mall and get a celebrity's autograph. However she didn't expect her father and uncle to be there as well (as they wanted to surprise her with the autograph when she got home).
- Gilmore Girls: In a moment of uncharacteristic impulsivity, Rory skips school and takes a bus to New York City to see Jess, surprising him. She misses her mother's graduation from business school when she takes the wrong bus back, and she has a small breakdown when the full implications of her actions hit her. Not just that she missed Lorelai's graduation, but that she skipped school to see a guy she isn't dating—particularly since she is, in fact, dating someone else. Lorelai points out that this is probably an indication she had feelings for him, but Rory doesn't want to deal with that.
- Later in season 3, it's discovered Jess has been skipping school to work full time at Walmart, and isn't graduating due to truancy.
- Good Luck Charlie has Teddy skipping school with Ivy and going to Super Adventure Land in order to shed her goody-goody image.
- The Goldbergs: The episode "Barry Goldberg's Day Off" has Barry, inspired by Ferris Bueller's Day Off, skip school and try to copy Ferris' outing. Let's just say that Barry probably was better off going to school.
- The second episode of The Inbetweeners focuses on this. In the end, Mr Gilbert doesn't care that they skipped school because sixth-formers, at the time, were under no legal obligation to attend school, but Simon and Will end up being sent to the headteacher for Simon's atrocious attempts at Playing Sick.
- The Kenan & Kel episode "Ditch Day Afternoon" has the two skipping school in order to get out of having to sing a song in Spanish Class, as well as for Kenan to avoid a day of work due to it being a half day. They end up getting filmed on the news during a bank robbery and get found out.
- A Leave It to Beaver episode has Beaver and Larry skipping school; on the way to school, they had gotten distracted by some diggers, and one of their machines accidentally ran over their books and lunch boxes. In all the confusion, they had thought they were late for class (when they had been late twice before, and were given a warning about not arriving late again), and so Larry decides that they should skip school. When they go to the supermarket for some food samples, they accidentally end up on the set of a show being filmed there, which happens to be the same show Beaver's brother Wally is watching...
- In one episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Zack and Bob talk Cody into playing hooky, and they go to the mall. Carey happens to be there at the same time, and naturally, the boys get grounded.
- Young Sheldon: In "An 8-Bit Princess and a Flat Tire Genius", when they're almost at the end of the video game and Meemaw can't stand waiting for Sheldon to come visit, she decides to visit Sheldon's school and lie that a relative was ill in order to pull him out of class so they can finish the game together.
Manhua
- Deconstructed in My Wife Is a Demon Queen. Tols Buri confronts Xiang Ye, Ashtone Martin, Isabella, and Eli at the city gate, as they're bringing in alloy crystals from their recently captured mine, not only threatening them with royal sanction, but bragging about skipping class and "looking for a bit of entertainment." When Sophisas shows up, bringing Dorona in tow, she pulls him aside, berates him for skipping class, and smacks him around.
Music
- Itchycoo Park by The Small Faces
"You can miss out school (won't that be cool?) why go to learn the words of fools?"
Roleplay
- Exaggerated in Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, where 30+ students end up skipping school the day after the Mass Super-Empowering Event. It doesn't get noticed until the school is evacuated later that day, due to a nearby shooting. A few of the students playing hooky start to panic at the realisation that their parents are probably worried sick about where they are.
Video Games
- Jimmy Hopkins can skip classes in Bully to do other activities. If he does, prefects and teachers will attempt to capture him until normal class hours end. This is occasionally necessary, as some missions and sidequests are available only during school hours. If Jimmy completes all levels of a class' minigames, he'll no longer have to attend that class and can move freely.
- Growing Up: Done in several routes, particularly in Alex's and Wendy's routes. Wendy especially skips school frequently because she hates it, and you have to convince her to focus on her studies for her future.
- The Sims: Throughout the series, kids and teens can skip school. This is done by not boarding the school bus or simply choosing to stay home. Skipping school does have consequences, though. If a kid or teen skips a day of school, their grade will fall by an entire letter. In the Sims 2, the child or teen will also be scolded, by their parents, for skipping school. This, in turn, adds negative points to their mood.
Visual Novels
- Done several times in Double Homework:
- Johanna misses after a story about the protagonist and Lauren in a nightclub surfaces online. Ms. Walsh feels sorry for her, and gives her an excused absence.
- Defied: Unaware that Johanna has prepared a lesson plan, the other students in the summer school class (except for the protagonist) don’t come in. However, to avoid having Johanna’s hard work go to waste, the protagonist rounds up the rest of the class.
- The yacht party goes on for a day longer than expected, meaning that the entire class misses school on a Monday. While it is unintentional for the rest of the class, Dennis, who is home by that time, doesn’t go to school either.
- Soon after he starts going to the real summer school, the protagonist gets a visit from Morgan and Amy around lunchtime. They both skipped out of school, and they ask him if he wants to cut his afternoon classes to hang out with them. If he does, he gets a chance to sleep with both of them (separately).
Web Animation
Western Animation
- 101 Dalmatians: The Series: In "Mall Pups", the pups decide to skip out on a Bark Brigade lesson in order to meet the First Dog at the mall. They spend the entire episode trying to avoid getting caught by Lt. Pug and due to them not knowing how to read maps (Incidentally the lesson they've skipped out on) they were never able to meet the First Dog.
- In an All Grown Up! episode, Tommy, Phil, Lil, and Dil skip school to see Lil's favorite soccer player.
- Amphibia: It is revealed towards the end of the first season that the show's entire plot started when Sasha convinced Anne to leave school in the middle of the day and have some fun on her birthday, though the actual incident that sent them and Marcy to Amphibia wouldn't be until the evening, when the latter meets up with them after school.
- In Arthur in the episode "Double Dare." Arthur and his friends plan to skip school. Arthur eventually calls off the plan, but not all of his friends get the message.
- The Braceface episode "Skipping" has Sharon and her friends skipping school to attend a band audition.
- The Danny Phantom episode "Kindred Spirits" has Tucker and Sam skipping the rest of the school day to save Danny after he is kidnapped by Vlad Plasmius. When their teacher questions them about their actions, they play it off like this.
- Daria and Jane are dragged out to the new mega mall on a field trip with her home economics class. While there, they catch Quinn and the fashion club skipping class. Daria blackmails Quinn into giving them a ride back home, or else she'll tell their parents.
- The Detention episode "Too Good To Be Truant" is about Shareena and Shelley Kelley skipping school.
- The Disney version of Doug has "Doug Cuts School", where Doug, convinced that girls like rebels, decides to skip school during an assembly and convinces Skeeter to go along for the ride with Vice-Principal Bone in hot pursuit. Their attempt turns out to be all for naught and the episode ends with Doug and Skeeter in detention.
- The Fairly Oddparents has Timmy skipping school with Adam West (who has been turned into a kid) and are followed by Truant Officer Shallowgrave.
- Hey Arnold!:
- The episode "Hookey" has Arnold and Gerald doing this. They nearly get caught at every place they go to (their janitor taking a vacation at an amusement park, getting Caught on the Jumbotron at a baseball game and Grandpa Phil and Mr. Kokoshka seeing the same movie they're seeing), and finally end up getting arrested after being mistaken for criminals. They decide to go back to school and turn themselves in, only to find out their school had a "Surprise Carnival Day".
- The episode "Cool Jerk" has Arnold getting talked into skipping school by his new delinquent friend, Frankie G.
- In Johnny Test in the episode "Johnny's Day Off" Johnny Test tries to skip school but is pursued by a cyborg truancy officer.
- Ami from Looped hides out in the basement every Monday, to avoid the chaos of school.
- One episode of My Gym Partner's a Monkey has Jake convince Adam to play hooky. The twist is that they still go to school - they just don't attend any classes.
- In The Proud Family episode "Enter the Bullies", the Gross Sisters threaten to beat up Penny the next day at school after she reports them to the principal for stealing her shopping money and constantly jacking money from the other students, where they are treating themselves to a feast at lunch while everyone else is starving. Penny figured skipping school would be the best way to avoid them, but didn't count on running into them at the museum, as Dijonay told the Gross Sisters she would be there for a pass. She's was saved by Dijonay and Sticky, who also skipped, and Trudy and Oscar would find out after catching her.
- The Rocket Power episode "Snow Day" has Sam revealing that his old school back in Kansas is having a Snow Day, which inspires Otto to have his own Snow Day in order to avoid going to a boring school assembly. Otto and Sam end up getting stuck on a roller coaster and wind up on the news. When Raymundo and Tito see this and bring the boys back to school for punishment, they find out that Reggie and Twister had fun at a carnival in their assembly.
- Tex Avery MGM Cartoons: In "The Screwy Truant", school has returned in session after summer vacation. Screwy Squirrel plays hooky and is pursued by a truant officer. Screwy tells the officer he's got a plenty good reason for not being in school, which he discloses at cartoon's end: he's got measles, infecting the truant officer and the end title card in the process.
- In The Simpsons episode "The Boy Who Knew Too Much", Bart ditches school and gets pursued by Principal Skinner, ending up at a party for Mayor Quimby's nephew, Freddy. When Bart witnesses some violent action that is blamed on Freddy, he agonizes on whether or not he should testify in court as a witness at the risk of confessing his truancy.
- The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Ditchin'" has Patrick convincing SpongeBob to ditch Boating School so they can go to a Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy comic book signing. While trying to return to class, SpongeBob gets distracted one too many times until he witnesses a former student at the boating school being arrested for violating his parole and worries he will face the same outcome as that student because he, too, cut class. By the time SpongeBob makes it back to school before the final bell, he sees Mrs. Puff being taken away for ditching jury duty.
- In Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters, Riya admits to Jake that she constantly skips Leadership Class, and no one noticed because her Mission Control created a holographic Riya to attend in her place. Jake asks if she cuts the class to go on missions, but her nervous answer suggests that she also has less important reasons for doing so.
- In the Donald Duck short Truant Officer Donald, Donald tries to catch his nephews and bring them back to school. When he finally does, he finds out that it's summer vacation.
- Voltron: Legendary Defender: Lance mentions in "The Depths" that he played hooky for two weeks once back in grade school.
- The Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? episode "Hookie 101" has Robot Jones talked into joining his friends Mitch, Cubey and Socks in playing hooky. Socks worries throughout the episode that they'll get caught. While Principal Madman does end up catching them, he gets beaten up by Robot's father Dad Unit and arrested before he can do anything to punish the boys for skipping school.