Freaky Friday Flip

"I wish I could switch places with her, for just one day..."

The most benign subtrope of Body Snatcher: two or more characters swap bodies (or, equally, swap minds) by some form of magic or Applied Phlebotinum. Typically, a deeper appreciation of the other's life is attained. Named for a novel and movie about a body swap between a mother and her daughter.

When this plot is done in animation, usually the voices also switch as narrative cheat to help younger viewers keep track of who's who, though more serious/action-oriented shows might not do this. The Flip often involves characters of different ages, genders, races, or social classes. Another variation is a protagonist and antagonist switching, which usually involves each trying to undermine the other's organization while simultaneously trying to switch back. If one or both of the characters have superpowers or other special abilities, they'll have a lot of trouble figuring their new powers out.

A similar idea, with less learning and more evil, is Grand Theft Me. Compare Personality Swap, when the characters' personalities are swapped but their minds stay where they are meant to be. It will often involve similar tropes to transformation stories (such as Gender Bender) as this is essentially two of these in one, with the addition of confusion resulting from the transformations being into other known characters.[1]

Sometimes is the mechanism by which a Folgers Crossover is accomplished.

Examples of Freaky Friday Flip include:

Anime and Manga

  • The episode "Girlz, Tenshin!" ("Trading Faces" in the English dub) of Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z has this happen to the three girls courtesy of Fuzzy Lumpkins, resulting in each girl having to pretend to be the other.
  • Kochikame has a rare Double Subversion. Ryotsu wishes he could swap his body with his rich, handsome and skillful underling Nakagawa. The next day there's an accident that involves Ryotsu and Nakagawa banging their heads. All seems set for a Freaky Friday Flip Episode...except it's not. The Genre Savvy Ryotsu tried to make it look as if the Freaky Friday Flip had really happened, hid Nakagawa's body in a secret medical facility and assumed his identity, power and fortune, knowing that everyone would automatically believe such a strange event. Then later the trope is played straight when the resident Mad Scientist tries to "restore" Ryotsu and Nakagawa to their original bodies, with a machine that explodes and produces a CHAIN FREAKY FRIDAY FLIP (Terai with Nakagawa, Nakagawa with the Chief, the Chief with Akimoto, Akimoto with Ryotsu, Ryotsu with a nearby cat, the cat with the Mad Scientist and the Mad Scientist with Terai). Yeah. Ryotsu comments that Nakagawa's life is not easy, but the aesop is never really delivered.
    • Another time, Ryotsu and Reiko had their bodies switched. It began with the mad scientist inventing a body switching machine shaped like a purikura photo booth. Reiko, unaware of its purpose, took a picture together with Ryotsu. By morning, their bodies switched. The whole episode deals with adjusting their lifestyle and playing their roles. Ryotsu has to attend Reiko's important meeting. And even worse, Reiko is a target of a few dangerous kidnappers who later kidnap Ryotsu in Reiko's body. Both of their bodies switch back during the police holdup, scaring the kidnappers when Ryotsu gets reverted back to himself.
  • In Revolutionary Girl Utena, the body swap is the result of a rather explosive curry cooked by a girl with truly dangerous cooking skills.
  • In Excel Saga, the two main characters, Excel and Hayatt, swap bodies in the Grand Finale episode, which took everything in the series to date to the extreme, which meant they both found "themselves" to be attractive and overt lesbianism ensued. It was the final episode, so they had absolutely nothing to lose.
  • Murder Princess is about a seasoned bounty hunter getting switched with a demure young princess. Apparently, some very powerful enemies thought she would be easy prey. They're in for the shock of their lives.
  • An episode of Cardcaptor Sakura switches Kero-chan and Syaoran. Hilarity Ensues.
    • It might be worth noting in this example, their voices don't switch, although their accents do.
      • In the American version, which doesn't include accents, the voices DO switch.
  • In Haré+Guu, Guu does this to Haré and Dr. Clive as a "birthday present". They both use the body's voices when speaking, but use their own voices when thinking.
  • Pokémon Ranger and The Temple of The Sea. The newly hatched Pokémon Manaphy does this twice: switching Team Rocket's minds among the three of them, and switching the minds of Ash Ketchum and Jack Walker (the eponymous Pokémon Ranger).
  • Crayon Shin-chan did a child/parent switch between Shin and Misae ("Mitzi" in FUNimation's Gag Dub) and they didn't even switch voices (Goes for the dub as well). Much Hilarity Ensues, including Misae doing the beloved ass dance.
  • Daphne in the Brilliant Blue has an exploding vending machine do this to Gloria and Maia during an Omake episode.
  • In Urusei Yatsura, chapter 72 of the manga features an Ataru ↔ Ten swap followed by a Cherry ↔ Ten swap, done by earmuffs. This chapter was adapted into episode 24 of the anime, which diverges from the original story partway through and ends up with a dappya monster ↔ Lum swap as well as a 9-way (!) swap: Sakura → Ten → Cherry → a cat → Mr. Moroboshi → Shinobu → Ataru → Mrs. Moroboshi → Megane → Sakura (where "A → B" means "A's mind controls B's body").
  • Asatte no Houkou does this with a twist. The characters switch ages rather than bodies, and they do it in order to learn more about themselves, rather than to learn about each other.
    • It probably derives from that Sailor Moon Dream Arc part where Usagi and Chibi-Usa switch ages.
  • Episode 10 of Fresh Pretty Cure has Inori switching bodies with Tart the ferret (because of a Monster of the Week's trick), much to her chagrin (as she fears ferrets with all her heart). You know what happens next, right? If not, Hilarity Ensues.
    • After seeing the preview for the episode, many people thought she would have to transform while in his body. It turned out to be the reverse, him transforming in her body with her in his body assisting.
    • A similar situation occurs in episode 8 of Smile Pretty Cure, with Miyuki and Candy switching places. Unlike Inori and Tart, though, Miyuki does transform while in Candy's body. And it is HILARIOUS.
  • A weird example in Birdy the Mighty DECODE: Tsutomu and Birdy were, of course, already Sharing a Body, but said body's appearance changed depending on who was in control at the moment... until a nasty run-in with a reality-warping BFG led to Tsutomu waking up in Birdy's body, with Birdy's mind apparently MIA.
  • An episode in the second season of Galaxy Angel features a piece of Lost Technology that switches the minds/bodies of members of the Angel Brigade. Impressively, the VAs stay with the same body, but mimic the speech characteristics of the actual character they are voicing. Even the elderly male Commander. Even more impressive is that the characters swap bodies several times in this episode.
  • In a chapter of the manga Ogenki Clinic, Doctor Ogekuri and Nurse Tatase switch minds as a result of very good sex. This being Hentai, they explore their new bodies quite thoroughly. And later, Dr.-Ogekuri-in-Tatase's-body gets switched with... a horse. Don't ask.
  • In a Gintama one-shot story, Gintoki wakes up to find he's switched bodies with Sadaharu. After failing to get any of his friends to notice the change, he goes to sleep... and wakes up to find he's now inhabiting Shinpachi's glasses.
  • This forms the basis for the first episode in the Shakugan no Shana S OVA series. A bit of Applied Phlebotinum causes Yuuji and Shana to switch bodies, which makes for some awkward moments as they try to swap back and happen to run into pretty much the entire cast.
  • Urashiman and Jitanda swap in episode 21 of Future Police Urashiman because of botched shock therapy to restore their memories.
  • A chapter of Rave Master starts out with Elie, Musica, Haru, and Plue swapped (which isn't explained, all we know is Haru tied Elie up). It's then rewound so the events leading up to the situation are explained. If you're wondering, Elie got put in Haru's body, and Musica ended up in hers. Elie actually beat and tied up Musica as punishment for taking advantage of the body swap to grope her (er... herself).
  • Done in one of the Fairy Tail Filler episodes. Natsu, the man-beast, swaps with Chivalrous Pervert Loke. Gray, who subconsciously strips, swaps with The Chick Lucy. Erza, the strongest main character, swaps with Happy, the blue cat who can sprout wings. Naturally, Erza spends the whole episode switching between cranky, freaking out, and depressed. Lucy also has to foil several attempts of Gray's to strip. And they can't control each other's magic, leading to Lucy drooling ice and Loke spitting out fire while trying to ask out different girls. Happy is pretty much the only one of them to enjoy being in the new body, constantly playing with boobs and experimenting with outfit transformations. By the end, the 6 manage to switch back, only the OTHER characters are now switched!
  • In the last episode of the anime of Kämpfer the entrails animals switch bodies with their respective owners. The stuffed animals resolve that "Life... is fabulous!"
  • Happens in one of the visual novels for Haruhi Suzumiya, with Yuki and Mikuru due to Haruhi. Their seiyuu do not swap; however, they do take a crack at voicing each other using the right personality, resulting in a scary, deadpan-sounding Yūko Gotō and a moe moe Minori Chihara.
  • In Masakazu Katsura's short story "Woman in the man", the tomboyish Hazumi and the wussy Tsuyomaru switch bodies after an accident in the gym owned by Tsuyomaru's parents.
  • An Omake comic from Ouran High School Host Club showed Tamaki and Kyouya in each other's bodies.
  • It happens to Nina and Zero in episode 8 from Mamotte Lollipop.
  • In an episode of Tanoshii Moomin Ikka: Bouken Nikki Moomin and Stinky bonk their heads together and switch bodies. Over the episode, Moomin realizes how Stinky has no friends and Stinky has fun messing up Moomin's life.
  • The premise of a major arc in The World God Only Knows: Keima swaps bodies with Yui and after a while Capturing God Keima starts playing otome games (dating sims for girls).
  • In Dragon Ball Z, Captain Ginyu has the power to switch bodies with anyone, which he does with Goku. Eventually however, it backfires on him when he tries to take Vegeta's body and ends up in a frog's instead, rendering him harmless as his power requires the use of his voice.
  • A rather odd version occurs in Sumire 16 Sai owing to the fact that the characters in question were literal puppets. While this would normally be incredibly easy to reverse, one of the puppeteers ran with the trope, much to the dismay of the other (and amusement of the audience, of course).
  • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, "Vento Auro", this makes up the Climax, thanks to Silver Chariot Requiem's ability doing this to everyone in Rome. It Gets Worse.
  • Played out several times in Doraemon, usually with Nobita trading places with Shizuka. Needless to say, it turns out that Nobi is just as big a loser no matter whose body he's wearing. Worse still, Shizuka decides she actually likes being a boy and refuses to give Nobita his body back. She only relents around bathtime, when she suddenly realizes exactly what Nobi will see whenever "he" removes "her" clothing.
  • Quite a few people try to swap their mechanical bodies with Tetsuro's human body in Galaxy Express 999. At least one of them succeeds, even if only for a short while.
  • In Pet Shop of Horrors, D lets a mermaid switch bodies with him for a while, so that she can go to the shore to contact her human boyfriend again. Hilarity Ensues when Leon, who doesn't know what's going on, finds a seemingly mute D and a hot naked mermaid.
  • In Kimagure Orange Road, Kyōsuke is able to switch with his cute little boy cousin Kazuya by knocking heads, apparently due to their nature as espers. Kazuya (in Kyōsuke's body) tries to settle Kyōsuke's love problems, but five year-olds are ill equipped at handling teenage romance. This happens at least three times in the manga, including an instance where Kazuya switches Kyōsuke with a cat! The cat body-swap is expanded in the third OVA, including a scene where Kyōsuke (as a fish) gets caught in Madoka's cleavage.
  • The main premise of Quantum Mistake is the body switch of Woo-Soo Choi, a studious boy, and Kang Too-Jee, a delinquent who is a master fighter.
  • Your and My Secret adds a Gender Bender twist.
  • In All Around Type Moon Kohaku uses a device for make Saber, Arcueid and Shiki swap bodies. Taken up to the eleven when more members of the Type Moon series appear and Kohaku "reverses" the body swap.
  • In the Punk Hazard arc of One Piece, this happens to Sanji, Nami, Chopper and Franky, courtesy of Trafalgar Law's Ope-Ope Fruiti powers.
    • Soon after, this happens to Tashigi and Smoker. Seeing Tashigi look all innocent in Smoker's body and Smoker look all badass in Tashigi's body is nothing short of fucking hilarious.
  • In To LOVE-Ru Rito and Haruna swap bodies after touching an invention by Lala.
  • In Sket Dance on the school trip Bossun and Himeko accidentally drink some pills that switch their minds. What makes it hilarious is that Himeko (in Bossun's body) insists that Bossun must not touch any intimate part of her body (which he now possesses). Which means that all delicate operations on that original body of her (like wiping the ass or, what a horror, bathing) should be done by Himeko herself (who is now in Bossun's body, remember!). This leads to some scenes which, taken out of context, would be considered very perverse.
  • Episode 13 of Miracle Girls has a swap between identical twins. The trope is played utterly straight, with each of them having to pretend to be the one whose body she's in, even though they could just pull a Twin Switch using a couple of wigs and look exactly like themselves anyway.

Comic Books

  • The best-known X-Men example would be the tragic flip of Psylocke and Chinese assassin Kwannon. The latter had been rendered braindead after a fall, and when Psylocke turned up amnesiac in China, Kwannon's lover Matsuo saw a chance to restore his girlfriend and turned to the villain Spiral for help. However, Spiral—being Spiral—decided that switching the women's minds would be far more entertaining, and gave both women certain aspects of the other. As a result, Psylocke got Kwannon's martial arts skills while Kwannon's mutant empathic power was given a boost by Psylocke's superior telepathy. This is one of the few examples of the flip being permanent, due to the extant of Spiral's tampering with the women's minds and genetic makeup. Kwannon later joined the X-Men herself as Revanche, but would later commit suicide after contracting the Legacy Virus (aka Mutant AIDS).
    • X-Men character Emma Frost was rather fond of this one. While still a full-time villain she swapped bodies with Storm as part of an evil plot; years later, just before her switch to heroism, she accidentally swapped bodies with Iceman, and then proceeded to fuel his (already significant) insecurities by using his powers far more effectively than he ever had. She also tried to commit suicide while in his body, but she never mentions that—and considering she's not above using her telepathic powers to make you vomit uncontrollably whenever you hear the word "broccoli", you probably shouldn't either.
    • Lampshaded in X-treme X-Men once, when at a dinner party, various team members start teasing Ororo, until Kitty stands up and says, "What's everyone talking about? That isn't Storm, I'm Storm! Someone has switched our minds!" Everyone else suddenly glares at her in panicked silence. Then Ororo and Kitty shout, "GOTCHA!".
    • During the X-Men's Australian run, there was an issue where Dazzler was accidentally switched with the criminal Diamondback. But unlike most hero/villain swaps, neither had any idea what was going on and Diamondback briefly joined the X-Men to get the matter sorted. Besides the clumsiness in getting used to each other's abilities (somehow Diamonback's Improbable Aiming Skills didn't work in Dazzler's body), Dazz was understandably quite pissed when Diamondback smoked cigars and slept with Wolverine in her body.
  • Also happened in an Ultimate X-Men/Ultimate Spider-Man crossover, when Jean Grey got so pissed at Wolverine's constant attempts to woo her that she sent his mind to the one place he wanted to be least. He ends up spending a day in Peter Parker's body, even attempting to "get busy" with MJ, while Peter, in Logan's body, went from one bad situation to another. He was understandably upset when Jean came to fix things.

Peter: You #* + !! @$$%&^%#! You know why people hate you? It's not because you're mutants! It's because you're all a bunch of ^&$# @* |$%&!@!!!

    • And later, when Peter, thankfully back in his own body, reunites with MJ, she says to him,

MJ: That thing you tried to do to me this morning... can we not do that till we're older?

  • Sleepwalker and his human host, Rick Sheridan, ended up switching bodies for several issues after a botched attempt to release Sleepwalker while Rick was awake. In Sleepwalker's body, Rick ended up battling supervillains and supernatural horrors of the Mindscape, while Sleepy had to fill in for Rick in his human life, ironically having more success with women than Rick himself. The body swap was, in fact, a key part of the Evil Plan hatched by Big Bad Cobweb to invade the Earth and make Rick think Sleepwalker was the invasion's leader, hindering any attempt Sleepy might make to stop him.
  • Adam Warren's Amerimanga version of the Dirty Pair did this to themselves on purpose during the "Run from the Future" miniseries.
  • Happened once in #37 of the Sonic X comic, in which Sonic and Dr Eggman switched bodies. Truth be told though, neither took real advantage of it, despite the cover suggesting more heinous actions by Eggman (in Sonic's body). Eggman in Sonic's body is unable to control Sonic's speed, while Sonic in Eggman's body has a hard time driving the Eggmobile. The story is resolved when the two use the ray Eggman used to swap their bodies to swap back. Eggman's comedy relief henchmen, Decoe and Bocoe tie up Eggman in the end, believing he is still Sonic, and interrogate him.
  • Happened a lot to Superman; he has on occasion switched bodies and minds with Batman, Barry Allen, Jimmy Olsen (see for example 1957's "Non-Super Superman"), and lots of other people along the years.
    • In his case, a lot of these instances deviate from the norm of this trope in that the switch is deliberate on the part of the other involved party.
    • The Justice League of America had an issue where this happened with all the core members getting mixed up with each other. The big spoiler was when it turned out that Superman didn't end up in Batman's body but in Kobra's and Kobra pretended to be Superman trapped in Batman's body.
  • In an episode of Iznogoud, a wizard invents a magic bowl: whenever two people drink consecutively from it, they exchange souls. Hilarity Ensues when this new invention gets tested by several patrons in an inn, just for fun. One of the catches is that it doesn't have to be actually people who drink: animals count too. (The wizard himself ends up in the body of a parrot.) Or even inanimate objects, for that matter.
  • There's an issue of Doctor Who Ongoing in which the Eleventh Doctor and Amy swap bodies. Rory doesn't care what Amy looks like.
  • Dixie accidentally had her mind swapped with that of the "Growf" dragon in What's New? with Phil and Dixie.


Fan Works


Films -- Animation

  • Happens to Donkey and Puss-n-Boots in Shrek the Third.


Films -- Live-Action

  • Mary Rodgers's Freaky Friday has been adapted to film three times (1976 and 2003 theatrical films, 1995 TV movie). The two main characters are switched after they coincidentally wish for the other to be in their shoes.
    • This is true for the movies. In the original book, the teenage daughter wakes up in her mother's body, but doesn't know that her mother is in her (teenage) body, because she is faking it to teach her a lesson...
  • Like Father, Like Son has Dudley Moore (the father) and Kirk Cameron (the son) switching bodies through a Native American magic potion that requires eye contact for the bodies to switch souls.
  • Vice Versa is about an undersized preteen who swaps bodies with his workaholic father using a jewelled oriental skull. The boy has fun for a while but then the plot begins when he realizes he doesn't know how to change back....
  • 1989's Dream a Little Dream exchanges the minds of a senior citizen (Jason Robards) and a teenager (Corey Feldman), which throws a little bit of both Overnight Age-Up and Fountain of Youth into the mix.
    • Dream A Little Dream was a bit more complicated. The mind of Coleman (the old man) entered the body of Bobby (the teenager) and took over. Coleman's body was nowhere to be found. Bobby's mind was suppressed, but showed up to talk to Coleman in his dreams. Coleman's wife, Gena, also vanished. Her consciousness showed up inside Lainie, Bobby's would-be girlfriend, but Lainie's mind remained dominant.
  • At approximately the same time as Dream a Little Dream was released, three other body-swap movies with the same young/old theme hit theaters: Like Father, Like Son (1987), Eighteen Again (1988), and Vice Versa (1988). See Dueling Movies.
  • Face Off could be a twist on this trope; the mechanism is different, but it plays like a mind-switch. Especially considering (see more at Art Major Biology) the fact that Nicolas Cage and John Travolta have vastly different physiques....
  • In The Hot Chick, the main character who is an Alpha Bitch is bodyswapped with a (male) criminal. In this case, the bodies change into the other person's body, so the main character goes to sleep and wakes up in her own bed with a man's body.
  • The live-action Scooby Doo movie had a scene featuring a 4-way body swapping between Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy. The bodies rotated a few times before everyone got back to normal.
  • The Mexican movie Dame Tu Cuerpo ("Give Me Your Body", Double Entendre intended) is about the fiancée and the best friend of a guy who switch bodies days before the wedding. Hilarity Ensues.
  • The Brazilian movie Se Eu Fosse Você ("If I Were You") has a husband and wife changing bodies. It goes back to normal after the couple has sex. It warranted a sequel, when both are about to split up, their daughter is pregnant and thus needs to get married... and to make things worse, sex doesn't fix things, only gets the "husband" pregnant.
  • Prelude To A Kiss has Alec Baldwin as a new husband who is somewhat disconcerted when his new wife's psyche and that of an old man are switched when he kisses her on their wedding day.
  • Its a Boy Girl Thing swapped the high-school jock and the unpopular geek girl.
  • The 1940 comedy Turnabout (later adapted as a short-lived TV sitcom) has a married couple inhabiting each other's bodies due to a spell from an enchanted statue. In the film (not the TV version), the voices go with the selves, so that the husband's body speaks with the wife's voice and the wife's with the husband's -- as in more-recent animated cartoons.
  • 1996 Disney Channel television-movie Wish Upon a Star (starring Katherine Heigl and Danielle Harris) concerns two very different sisters who unintentionally switch bodies while wishing upon a shooting star. They learn to love each other, do some math tutoring, go to the Big Dance, and get their bodies back.
  • The 1999 made for TV Wonderful World of Disney movie (boy, Disney sure likes to use this gimmick a lot) A Saintly Switch finds David Alan Grier and Vivica A. Fox switching bodies.
  • The Change Up - family man switches bodies with bachelor.
  • 1996 Dating the Enemy Australian romantic comedy. Stars Guy Pearce and Claudia Karvan as a couple who wake up one morning to find that they have switched bodies. Written and directed by Megan Simpson Huberman.


Literature

  • The basis of P. G. Wodehouse's novel Laughing Gas, in which Reginald, third Earl of Havershot, and Joel Cooley, child film star and the Idol of American Motherhood swap bodies while under sedation at the dentist.
  • Used in F. Anstey's 1882 novel Vice Versa to swap a father and son, making it Older Than Radio. This may have inspired Mary Rodger's 1972 novel.
  • In Marghanita Laski's novel The Victorian Chaise Longue, a modern woman buys a Victorian couch at a bargain price because it has an old dried bloodstain that can't be removed. Falling asleep on the couch, she wakens on the same couch in Victorian times, inhabiting the body of the couch's original owner. The couch is now new and unstained, and the woman suspects (correctly) that her impending death will cause the bloodstain.
  • Happened in the Doctor Who Expanded Universe novel Half Life, although with a bit of a Personality Swap element—despite swapping all their habits, personality traits, and their memories, they retained their basic selves, and afterward remembered what it was like to have the other person's mind. Apparently, it's really fun to be the Doctor, not so much the companion he swapped with. There's a very touching scene after they've switched back where the Doctor actually cries—which is a big deal for him—because he hadn't realized before just how much hell he puts his companions through.
  • Happens to two of the protagonists of Esther Friesner's Harpy High; since one of them has a physically abusive father, the other one acquires a little more understanding than he wanted.
  • In Diana Wynne Jones' book The Ogre Downstairs, a mystical chemistry set leads (among other things) to two kids in a recently blended family switching bodies for a day. This is the first step towards the two sets of children actually getting along. The swap is discovered after two not himself situations
  • Mary Rodgers' 1972 novel Freaky Friday, on which the film adaptations are based and for which the trope is directly or indirectly named, switched a mother and a daughter. Unlike the films, the ending of the book makes it clear that the mother deliberately made the switch through means she would not explain to her daughter to teach her a lesson about growing up.
    • The sequel, Summer Switch, swaps the other members of that family, the father Bill and the son Ben (a.k.a. Ape Face).
  • Anton and Olga switch minds in The Night Watch as part of a plan to draw out a plot by the Day Watch.
    • The film version has this swap occurring in the second movie, Day Watch.
  • Occurs in Paul Collin's Jelindel Chronicles. Zimak tricks Daretor into swapping bodies, after saving him from a prince who was trying to do just the same. Daretor by this point is getting truly frustrated, as already his sword skills were magically stripped from him, and now he had to deal with being in a much weaker body after being a tank. And in these books, changes tend to be permanent.
  • In The Mirror, by Marlys Millhiser, the titular family heirloom swaps Brandy McCabe (in 1900) and granddaughter Shay Garrett (in 1978) on the eve of each woman's wedding.
  • In the second book of the Love Hina light novel series, Motoko and Kitsune are switched by Motoko's older sister. (Suu and Shinobu are also switched, albeit briefly).
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "The Great Keinplatz Experiment."
  • Happens to the male heroes of Riddle Of The Seven Realms by Lyndon Hardy, as a side effect of a time/space-warping magical weapon. Unusual in that it's done neither for social commentary nor comedy; rather, it gives the djinn hero a chance to experience life as a human, and vice versa.
  • Jack Chalker uses this trope in so many books, a character in the round-robin novel The Red Tape War breaks the fourth wall to complain that he's overdone it and ask the other authors why they don't rein him in.
  • In the Goosebumps book "Why I'm Afraid of Bees", Gary, the main character, stumble upon a service that switches you with whoever you want. however, he accidently ends up in the body of a bee. Horror ensues.
  • The entire premise of the kids' series Katie Kazoo Switcheroo is this trope. She switches bodies with other characters partway through each story, thanks to a magic wind.


Live-Action TV

  • The Avengers in "Who's Who???" (subtitle: "Steed goes out of his mind. Emma is beside herself."). Steed and Emma's minds are switched with those of two enemy agents. They did not switch voices, if only because the plot demanded that the enemy use the heroes' hijacked bodies to infiltrate British security. In an amusing touch, after each commercial break, the episode also includes a "reminder" about the swap to the viewer, but the supposedly helpful voice-announcer merely gets progressively more confused.
  • 2009 ITV comedy-drama Boy Meets Girl, where Martin Freeman's DIY store worker and Rachael Stirling's fashion journalist are swapped.
  • The Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Who Are You?", a typical example of the similarity between Freaky Friday Flip and Not Himself, due to characters in one another's bodies acting in atypical, often outrageous ways. It includes a scene in which Faith, now in Buffy's body, takes a long bath and explores her new anatomy. And then a scene in which Faith enacts a most unusual version Rage Against the Reflection, pummeling and shouting at her own body.
  • In the Angel episode "Carpe Noctem", an old man swaps bodies with gym hunks, with the side effect that the strong bodies eventually melt under the strain. But when he takes over Angel, he realizes he has a body that will last. Angel is stuck plodding around a nursing home, being restrained by orderlies, until his friends figure out what's happening and fixes things.
  • Appears in the Dollhouse episode "Belle Chose." Echo is imprinted with a bubblehead college student a professor wants to seduce, while Victor has the mind of a comatose serial killer uploaded into him (to make an interrogation possible). Then their minds get swapped, and... it becomes hilarious and scary all at once.
  • In the Charmed episode "Enter the Demon", a spell causes Paige and Phoebe to switch bodies. Also another story "Lost Picture Show" has Leo and Piper constantly arguing about their marital life which causes them to see a soothsayer who swap their bodies.
  • 8 Simple Rules: Cate watches the film, then next morning awakes to find she and daughter Bridget have swapped bodies. However, son Rory has swapped with his hamster, and Jim and CJ have also swapped—leaving Kerry, still in her own body, feeling very left out.
  • In the Farscape episode titled "Out of Their Minds," everyone on the ship switched bodies twice. This episode was somewhat atypical in that they actually mentioned (and showed) the characters taking the totally logical step of getting acquainted with their new equipment. Oh momma!
    • This episode is also notable for their solution to the problem of remembering who is in what body—printing name tags with their real faces and wearing them around their necks.
  • Happens in an Out-of-Genre Experience promo for Series 3 of Father Ted.
  • In the appropriately named Lizzie McGuire episode, "Those Freaky McGuires", Lizzie and Matt swap bodies after an argument. Disney as a whole absolutely loves this bit.
  • The Outer Limits episode "The Human Factor". At a US nuclear base in Greenland, a psychiatrist uses Applied Phlebotinum to mind link with an unstable military man. Just then, an earthquake hits, somehow causing the two men's minds to enter each others' bodies.
  • In the Out of Jimmy's Head episode "Out of Jimmy's Body," a magic pelvis outfitted with Japanese technology causes Jimmy to switch bodies with Sonny, enabling Sonny to see the cartoons in Jimmy's brain (since the brain itself remains in Jimmy's body). At the same time, Robin's body is switched with her elderly piano teacher's, and Dad's body is switched with the piano teacher's parrot.
  • The basis for the Japanese drama Papa To Musume No Nanokakan, where the father and the daughter switch. It works surprisingly well.
  • Used in a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode. Curiously, after the Blue and Pink Rangers switch bodies, the normally glasses-bound Blue Ranger, logic not withstanding, still needs them in his new body. Much like the Kim Possible example below, the ramifications of being stuck in a body of the opposite gender were barely touched. Nor was the fact that both characters should have been adjusting to temporarily having different powers.
    • Power Rangers did this plot at least two other times; Power Rangers Ninja Storm switching a couple of Rangers in turn with The Obi-Wan, who was stuck as a talking guinea pig, and Power Rangers SPD swapping a ranger with an alien, coupling the trope with the Curse of Babel.
    • Power Rangers Samurai has continued it with Switchbeast, who inflicts this on people via his Combat Tentacles. Unusually, he switches people with objects (specifically, objects likely to be thrown in compactors or recycling smelters) instead of with each other. However, this is used against him by Mike and Emily. Emily grabs his second tentacle after he's shot the first into Mike, and jabs it into him. Then Mike (in Switchbeast's body) temporarily switches him into a soccer ball to rough him up and force him to attack his body's weak spot (with Mike's body) and switch everyone back.
  • The Prisoner did this once, with an episode for which Patrick McGoohan was not available. So Number 6's mind was put into someone else's body (and tasked with finding the inventor of the mind-swap machine, or else he'd never get back to his own body...). Strictly speaking, this lacked most of the standard bits of the "swap" aspect, as Number 6's body was portrayed as lying sedated for the entire episode.
  • Quantum Leap was just one huge Freaky Friday Flip combined with Body Surf in premise. Although it rarely played that way, since the actor playing the main character was always on screen rather than the character with which he was switched.
  • In the Red Dwarf episode "Body Swap", the voices also swap with Chris Barrie doing a Liverpool accent during the scenes where he's playing Lister. Leads to a Grand Theft Me when Rimmer refuses to leave Lister and later hijacks the Cat's body.
  • Smallville: Lionel Luthor switches bodies with Clark, leaving Clark in prison and Lionel with superpowers—and knowing about Clark's power and weakness from then on. Or not, thanks to convenient amnesia. Among other things there's a scene where Lionel, who has a huge crush on Martha Kent, persuades her that her 'son' needs a hug, and gets aroused enough to find out that, hey, he has laser eye powers as well.
  • Played with a twist in Space Cases as the characters don't switch bodies, only races, after each character complains someone else on the ship has it easier. The swaps also swap most of the character's hair styles as well, for no understandable reason. In addition it proves that the really happy and really pessimistic ones are that way by genetics.
  • Stargate SG-1
    • The episode "Holiday" has Daniel Jackson and a dying old man named Machello swap bodies in a Grand Theft Me, while Jack O'Neill and Teal'c exchange bodies by accident in a more traditional Freaky Friday Flip. Unlike most versions of this trope, the actors totally nailed the impression of the other character. Teal'c-in-O'Neill and O'Neill-in-Teal'c are so obviously who they're supposed to be that it works beautifully, and is utterly hysterical.
    • The Ancients devised a communicator that operates on this trope. It's shown up in a few episodes throughout all three series, and is the Destiny team's only link to Earth in Stargate Universe.
  • An episode of the Super Sentai series Engine Sentai Go-onger has the Red Ranger Sousuke switch bodies with the Monster of the Week, leading to a particularly odd scene where Sousuke's soul is shot from the team's combined weapon to get him back in his proper body.
    • Some episodes later, the team's Combining Mecha Non Human Sidekicks (who need to have their Soul placed in a diecast version of themselves—it's a merchandising thing), end up in the wrong bodies entirely when Hant, Go-on Green, takes control of the Monster of the Week battle.
    • In the earlier series of Dekaranger there was an episode where Hoji's mind is swapped with that of an alien criminal and must somehow tell the team they've been swapped. The plot was later carried over into an episode of Power Rangers SPD
    • In an episode of Mahou Sentai Magiranger, Kai and Houka have swapped bodies due to the Monster of the Week. Hilarity Ensues, but then they find out they can't morph.
    • An episode of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger involved a Zangyack general using his powers to swap Don and Luka's bodies. Luka uses this as an excuse to try out boy's clothing, save some girls, and act cool, while Don has to run away from some men that want Luka to work for them as a jeweler. The villains also plan to use this; having Sgormins swap bodies with the leaders of the world and ally their countries--and eventually, the world--with the Zangyack Empire.
  • In the miniseries The Tenth Kingdom, the evil queen makes her pet dog switch places with the country's prince, who starts to go "doggy" after being in that form for too long.
  • On 3rd Rock from the Sun, the Big Giant Head swaps Dick and Sally for one episode. Even though the behaviour changes among the two visitors, many other characters remain oblivious to the change (including Harry). However, Don was able to detect Sally's mind by intuition, but was pulled back into Reality when he turned.
  • Xena: Warrior Princess
    • In "Ten Little Warlords"/"Intimate Stranger", Xena and Callisto switched bodies (due to a Real Life Writes the Plot incident, with Lucy Lawless breaking her pelvis in an equestrian stunt).
    • Xena also shared bodies with at least two other characters over the course of the series: Autolycus, in a spirit possession (also cross-referenced with Not Quite Dead and Almost Kiss), and a young noble girl in the requisite "fairy-tale"/Aesop episode.
  • The X-Files two-parter "Dreamland", where Mulder swaps with the sort of shadowy agent he's usually trying to find, played by Michael McKean. In this case the actors also switched places. The viewer sees Mulder, everybody else sees the other guy, including the mirror.
  • Arguably the darkest example in television, the Fear Itself episode "Family Man" features a loving, church-going husband and father who swaps bodies with a sadistic serial killer after a car accident. Jailed for the other man's crimes (which include torturing, raping, and killing at least 26 people), he watches helplessly as a monster takes over his life and family. Our protagonist finally escapes from jail and manages to return to his own body... only to learn that the killer has butchered his wife and son, leaving only his young daughter (who was presumably raped) alive -- and fingering him for the crime. It's a finish so depressing that it rivals anything on the Outer Limits Revival.
  • Gilligans Island, "The Friendly Physician". A mad scientist swaps the minds of our castaways into different bodies. Strange for live-action is that the voices of the inhabitants stick with the transfer and are dubbed in.
  • Main plot of the Argentine telecomedy Lalola (and the several foreign remakes of it, mostly called Lola). A man switches bodies with a woman and has to adapt to the female life. S/he only actually meets the other person at the very ending of the series, so s/he is under the impression that s/he simply switched gender. Gradually, she becomes more and more female in mind and falls in love with a man. In the end, she is offered the chance to switch back, but she chooses to keep living her new life.
  • Kamen Rider Kiva pulled a variation on this when a visit to a psychic somehow causes the spirit of Wataru's late father Otoya to possess him. While in the present, Otoya helps Megumi resolve a crisis, learns of the joys of the Internet and maid cafes, helps complete a violin Wataru was working on, and provides subtle Foreshadowing.
  • Supernatural, "Swap Meat", in which a geeky seventeen-year old with a flair for dark magic swaps bodies with Sam so he can enjoy the perks of being a "stunning-looking man" and get close enough to Dean to kill him.
  • Played with on The Young Ones, in a scene where the lads' actors are switched, trading costumes and personas. No reason is given for why each of the four characters looks different—it's that kind of show—and none of them actually notices the change, aside from Neil's remark that he's not feeling himself.
  • Robert Louis Stevenson's bookends cause this, in the Warehouse 13 episode "Merge With Caution". First to a thief and a security guard, then Myka and Pete. Then the pairs merge into one that keeps switching. Then the first pair explode. Thankfully, Myka and Pete prevent this last.
  • A live-action segment of Super Mario Bros Super Show had Mario's "pizza transformer" switching his brain with that of Cher's dog.
  • Happens in The Secret World of Alex Mack when Barbara is accidentally absorbed into Alex's puddle form and switches minds with her when she reforms. It turns out to be All Just a Dream.
  • "Turnabout Intruder", the final episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, had Kirk's vengeful and delusional ex-girlfriend (... one of how many?) pull the switch on him with some Imported (er, archeological, rather) Alien Phlebotinum and then try to kill her own (frail) body before the effect wore off so that it'd stick. Didn't work, and the episode kind of makes people a bit uncomfortable in regards to what it might be saying about gender roles.
  • Main plot of episode number six of the Japanese drama Anna-san no Omame (a.k.a. The Best Friend of Beautiful Anna).
  • In the Wizards of Waverly Place episode "Quinceañera", Alex switches bodies with her mom to avoid her titular 15th birthday party. Which is okay with Theresa, who never got a Quinceañera and always wanted one.
  • Subverted in Pair of Kings where this was planned for Boomer and Brady with 2 of the strongest guards but instead Lanny and Mikayla end up Sharing a Body with Boomer and Brady instead.


Music


Tabletop Games

  • Dungeons & Dragons has the Mind Switch and True Mind Switch spells. While Mind Switch is only semi-permanent, True Mind Switch is completely permanent and can only be undone by another True Mind Switch.
    • Before this, 2nd edition had the "Switch Personality" telepathic science from The Complete Psionic Handbook. It allows the psionicist to switch mind with another creature, but any prolonged use is dangerous, as both bodies tend to degrade when inhabited by the wrong mind.
    • The Complete Book of Necromancers also introduced the "Life Force Exchange" spell, which is permanent and can be used on any two creatures (including or not the caster). It is one of two powerful spells allowing aged necromancers to abandon their old body for a new, younger and stronger one.
  • Magic the Gathering: In Agents of Artifice, Jace Beleren accidentally induces a flip between himself and his friend Kallist. The swap is so thorough that neither party even realizes anything has changed—each goes about his own business as usual, believing himself to be the other.


Video Games

  • When the Pokémon Manaphy appears from a Pokéball in Super Smash Bros.. Brawl, it uses its Heart Swap move to change the control of two fighters on the field, so each player controls the other one character for a while. This doesn't mean the affected characters should commit suicide though; they still keep their own levels.
  • In Junk Man's miniquest in Mega Man Battle Network 4, Mega Man is the victim of a rockslide of garbage. Immediately afterwords, he adopts an accent and starts acting weird. Surprise—it's Junk Man, and the quest is to help him find his body (with Mega Man in it) in the rubble.
  • Galaxy Angel does this to the extreme with a six way swap, the entire Angel Troupe and their commander getting switched around. No voice changes ensue, resulting in a comically Camp Gay voice for Milfie-in-Volcott's-body.
  • One of the TV shows in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, 'Aaron Changes', is about a boy named Aaron switching bodies with his girlfriend Erin.
  • Chrono Cross does this with the Hero and Villain about halfway through the story. Unusually, the switch stays for almost the entire rest of the game, with the hero having to put up with all the things the villain would have had to - except for the fact that the villain didn't really exist.
  • The ero game X-Change Alternative 2 centers on this trope, a departure from the series' usual theme. Ordinary high-school 2nd year Yuki Sakura is invited to watch a demonstration of his friend's new invention, an experimental teleporter device. Naturally, the machine fails (explosively) to transport matter but succeeds in swapping his mind into the body of one of his 4 female friends. The remainder of the game is spent dealing with various romance issues and hoping that the rebuilt teleporter will actually restore things to normal after spending two weeks as each other.
  • Sam and Max Freelance Police: Sam and Max briefly switch bodies in Night of the Raving Dead: this is how Sam discovers where Max hides his gun.
  • Occurs in Remember 11, where the two main characters (Kokoro and Yukidoh) randomly swap minds throughout most of the game.
  • At the end of the World Builder game Psychotic!, you use a mind transfer machine to swap bodies with The Teacher.


Web Comics

  • The Wotch uses this as an alternative to its usually more direct sort of genderbending, by (repeatedly) swapping the characters of Irene and James. Happens so often that it doesn't even bother them anymore. Irene even liked being swapped, and has agonized about asking to be intentionally switched.
    • In "What's my age again?", this gets a little more complicated. When Anne uses the amulet that turns her older brother Evan into Lilly, she sneezes during the spell, causing Evan's mind in Lilly's body and vice versa. Like in Birdy the Mighty, Lilly and Evan are in the same body, but they are completely different people.
  • A recent Apple Geeks arc involves Alice switching bodies with a megalomaniacal little girl.
  • In Sidekick Girl, the eponymous character gets switched with her useless but decorative boss and immediately complains about the cliché.
  • The Gender Bender version shows up in The Dragon Doctors when Mori's Spell Gun explodes.
  • Pv P did this with Brent and Skull.
  • This was a central element in a Mountain Time story arc.
  • In Girly, there is an arc where many primary and secondary characters get switched around due to a "fist-powered" ray.
  • In Sluggy Freelance a filler storyline by Phil Foglio has Torg and Zoe switch bodies, but unable to remember anything that happened during the bodyswap once it's reversed.
  • El Goonish Shive in side story arc "Goonmanji" features a simultaneous pair of switches.
    • Tedd and Grace emulated this via transformation into each other's forms. After all, Grace studied Tedd...

Grace: ...and couples switching bodies is #37 on your list of weird things you like.


Web Original


Western Animation

  • Teen Titans switches Starfire and Raven. The voices switch in this version too, but the reason is apparently not due to appeasing children; Hynden Walch and Tara Strong were apparently able to duplicate one another's voices for their respective characters so well, the producers thought it would be pointless to continue having them voice one another's characters.
    • Also implements How Do I Shot Web?; Starfire has to bare her emotions to the world in order to use her powers, while Raven has to suppress her emotions just to keep her powers under control. Hilarity Ensues as they struggle to adjust.
  • Kim Possible and her sidekick Ron are the subject of this evil-experiment-gone-wrong (though for the villain it did in fact work, allowing him to get control of the Wave Motion Gun) in one of their funnier episodes. The prospect of a teenage boy being stuck in a girl's body is explored as far as Disney would allow: only a throwaway comment about Ron liking a skirt. (Also, "Your hair is so...flippy!"). It also featured Anne Possible, as a brain surgeon, complaining that mind swapping is totally impossible.
  • American Dragon: Jake Long also used this to give Jake and his little, ballet-dancing sister a different point of view.
    • Played for laughs at the end of "Dragon Breath"; when the soul-stealing nix returns everyone's souls to their bodies, Trixie and Spud get switched. The final scene of the episode is them sitting in the now-deserted dance hall, trying to figure out what happened, which leads to this hilarious exchange:

Trixie *in Spud's body*: Sweet mama flapjacks, please tell me I'm lookin' at a mirror!
Spud *in Trixie's body*: Dude, I could have sworn I was a dude!

  • A multiple body swap is the plotline of The Powerpuff Girls episode "Criss Cross Crisis": Buttercup switches with the Professor (and freaks out about finally having fingers), Blossom switches with Sara Bellum (and accentuates her newfound curves), and Bubbles switches with the Mayor (and rationally accesses the whole situation after a beat), and then some. There's one shot showing a theater showing Freakin' Friday, just to imply where they got the idea from.
  • An episode of Justice League Unlimited entitled "The Great Brain Robbery" has The Flash and Lex Luthor swapping bodies, but not voices. This is an Actor Allusion, as Michael Rosenbaum, who voices the Flash (and thus plays Luthor for most of the episode) happens to play Lex Luthor in Smallville.
    • This is a particularly interesting example, in that a hero and villain switch brains, which lends itself to certain tactical advantages and makes it all the more important to "set things right". Luthor attempts to use this opportunity to discover Flash's secret identity, but he is thwarted upon looking in the mirror and realizing that he has "no idea who this is".
    • Another reason for this episode's notable status regarding the trope is that this is a rare example of the filmmakers going out of their way to accurately portray the switch in the characters' behaviors. In this case, what stands out is that Michael Rosenbaum (Flash) and Clancy Brown (Lex Luthor) recorded their parts together. Each actor providing the line readings for their original characters, and the opposite actor would mimic the line reading. This allowed Clancy Brown's Luthor to have the exact timing and delivery of Rosenbaum's Flash, and vice versa.
    • Clancy Brown's show-stealing performance as Flash-in-Lex also led to some of the funniest moments in the series.

Dr Polaris: Aren't you going to wash your hands?
Flash-in-Lex: No. 'Cause I'm Evil Is Petty.

    • Plus, Lex-in-Flash is so dangerous that it's scary. Trapped in the Watchtower and hunted by the entire Justice League, Lex-in-Flash is nearly unstoppable, figuring out how to use all of the powers that The Flash intentionally doesn't use, due to how dangerous they are (namely explosive phasing and minimally controllable Not Quite Flight).
  • Tale Spin has an example of the adult/child switch in the episode "A Baloo Switcheroo", with Baloo and Kit getting zapped by an ancient totem; later in the episode, Rebecca and Don Karnage do the protagonist/antagonist switch.
    • Then after they switch back at the end of the episode, two of Don Karnage's lackeys have ended up switching.
  • Gravity Falls: Dipper and Mabel are victims of this in "Carpet Diem", and their reaction seems far more realistic than most who are afflicted with it in fiction: puking, screaming, panicking, and being driven to the brink of insanity.
  • Darkwing Duck has a double adult/child switch, swapping Darkwing with Gosalyn and Launchpad with Honker. In addition to trading voices, the switched characters also trade eye shape and color.
    • This one does deal with the voice issue; at one point to help fool J. Gander Hooter (Darkwing's occasional Da Chief), Darkwing (in Gosalyn's body) sits in Gosalyn's lap (from Darkwing's body) and uses his voice to talk to him. Earlier, they pass it off as Darkwing imitating a little girl's voice.
  • An episode of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 has Splinter and the Shredder swapping brains. It features Splinter-in-Shredder's-body fooling Krang's brain-scanning machine by thinking, "I am Shredder. I am Shredder."
    • It at least averts Voices Are Mental, which is rare for a cartoon show. Their respective voice actors stayed the same. (James Avery for Shredder and Peter Reneday for Splinter) did a pretty good job switching roles.
    • Don't forget the episode where Raphael switches with a taxi driver.
  • Code Lyoko episode 42, "A Fine Mess", has Odd switching bodies with Yumi. While Yumi plays things fairly straight for the one day and night they are afflicted, Odd is challenged by his lack of knowledge of Japanese customs and language while living with Yumi's family. He further aggravates Yumi by digging through her closet, complaining about wearing a bra (yes, he actually does this, though the word "bra" is avoided), and showing up at school in a Catgirl cosplay outfit; most fitting, as the virtual, Lyoko version of Odd has distinctly Cat Boy features.
  • In one Adventures of the Gummi Bears episode, Big Bad Duke Igthorn swaps bodies with Tummi to gain access to the Gummiberry Juice. Fortunately, Igthorn's scheme fails when he discovers that the juice affects humans and Gummi Bears differently.
  • This happens with Jackie and Jade in Jackie Chan Adventures.
  • An episode of The Fairly OddParents has a whole chain of body-switches.
  • Happens in one episode of Two Stupid Dogs, only they doesn't realize they had switched bodies until just before they switch back. They don't call them two stupid dogs for nothing.
  • In The Real Ghostbusters episode "Slimer, Is That You?", ascetic Ghostbuster Egon and gluttonous ghost Slimer switch bodies. Hilarity Ensues.
  • In the Captain Simian and The Space Monkeys episode "Escape from the Plant of the Apes", Captain Simian and Shao Lin switch bodies. Hilarity Ensues—but it's well thought out hilarity. Voices Are Mental is averted; not only do Simian and Shao Lin's voices stay in their original bodies, but their voice actors (Jerry Doyle and Karen Maruyama) use each others' speech cadences while their characters are switched. As noted above, these details are usually overlooked in Freaky Friday Flip stories.
  • In the Centurions episode "Double Agent", Doc Terror switches Ace and Hacker's minds as part of an evil plot.
  • This happens to Lily and Mitsuki, the two heroines of the Nicktoon Kappa Mikey who are also roommates, through a pair of friendship bracelets, in the episode Manic Monday.
  • An episode of The Tick (animation) features a particularly outrageous example, with more than half a dozen characters randomly swapped. Including a zebra and a creature made entirely of tongues.

Arthur: (in disgust and horror) I can taste the floor... I can taste everything!

  • In the episode "The Unbearable Blightness of Being" from Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Dr. Blight switches bodies with Gaia. Blight!Gaia starts wrecking the environment For the Evulz and Gaia!Blight uses her gadgets to reverse the damage. After getting back her body with help from the Planeteers and Capt. Planet, Gaia tells the Planeteers that the experience taught her that technology can be put to good use.
    • This is possibly one of the most Fridge Logic heavy examples of this trope: how do you switch bodies with the spirit of the Earth?
      • Do not even try to come up with some sort of internal consistency on that show about how spirits work, including whether or not Gaia floats around Hope Island like a sparkly ghost or walks around like a flesh-and-blood human.
  • In The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Jimmy and Cindy switches bodies. He isn't too happy with her ankle-baring pants.
  • In Ben 10 Gwen and her nemesis Charmcaster switch bodies first, then Charmcaster is restored to her rightful body only to have Gwen and Ben switch bodies. Everything is set right in the end, naturally.
  • In The Secret Saturdays a benevolent professor makes the swap himself with a Hibagon (giant, gorilla-like monster), only to have the method of swapping back destroyed in the resulting hubbub. That fate of the Professor's body is not touched upon.
  • Ruby-Spears Mega Man, "Bot Transfer": Mega Man unwillingly switches bodies with Snake Man, of all robots. His reaction is quite logical. (Notably, their voices stay with their bodies.)
  • Kind of done in Transformers Animated. As revenge for having him arrested as a spy and turning him into a fugitive, Wasp disguises Bumblebee as himself and vice versa. This involves switching their helmets and vocalizers along with their paint jobs, and since they share the same basic bodymold it's as good as a body swap.
  • Lilo and Stitch The Series has this happen to Lilo with Stitch, Gantu with Hamsterviel, and Jumba with Pleakly for most of the episode. Toward the end, the heroes are re-swapped in a four-way switch. Everyone kept their original voice, but it probably would have been a little odd to hear Lilo's/Jumba's words in Stitch's voice anyway (Stitch is just a step away from The Unintelligible.)
  • An episode of Garfield and Friends does it when Garfield and Odie touch a mysterious idol together. At the end of the episode, the idol gets broken, Jon and the gypsy owner of the idol pick up the pieces... and also get swapped. In both cases, it goes unnoticed (only Garfield notices at a certain point that he became a dog).
    • Here Voices Are Mental is justified at least with Garfield. What we hear is actually Garfield's thoughts, not his voice, so it makes sense that Garfield in Odie would sound the same. No excuse for the others, though.
    • An episode of The Garfield Show also has Garfield and Odie swapping their bodies, though an alien is behind it in this case.
  • Phineas and Ferb has "Does This Duckbill Make Me Look Fat?", where Candace and Perry switch bodies because of the title boys' newest invention, and Perry goes off to stop Doofenshmirtz like always... but in Candace's body ("Perry the Teenage Girl?!"). The end credits even included a Candace-ified version of Perry's theme song.
  • In one episode of Sushi Pack, Wasabi and the Mayor swap brains, thanks to some sea-unicorn dust. At first both are ecstatic, since the Mayor gets to be a hero like he always wanted, and Wasabi gets to actually go through with the Mayor's campaign promises, but both soon learn that being each other is harder than they thought.
  • Agent K and Dick accidentally swap bodies in an episode of The Replacements. A rare case where the voice-actors imitate each other.
  • Parodied wonderfully on American Dad. Stan and Roger get into an argument over whose life is easier, and end up both saying "I wish we could trade places!" while touching an Incan bowl that supposedly grants wishes. At that moment, the lights began flashing and a strange moan is heard...it turns out to be Klaus, playing with the light switch and making funny noises. Nothing magical happens, but the two decide to trade lives anyway.
    • Klaus later says that "if that had been a real wish-granting bowl, it would be in the back seat of a Ferrari driven by a 600-year-old Incan on his way to his job as Jessica Alba's G-string."
  • In an episode of Jimmy Two Shoes, Heloise does this to Beezy and Cerbee after they ruin her private picnic with Jimmy. At the end of the episode, Jimmy and Heloise have switched bodies, which she refuses to fix until they have that picnic.
  • One episode of The Secret Show has the two main characters, Victor and Anita, switch minds due to an unusual mix-up with...um, 'brain chunks'.
  • A british animated series called Bounty Hamster has an entire episode full of body-swaps. A criminal steals a body-swapping device and uses it to go joy riding in other people's bodies. Highlights of the ep are a human, teenage girl stuck in the body of a humanoid rhino, a body-swap conga line with over half a dozen body-swaps in a row and the criminal, teenage girl and a hamster, bounty hunter all being stuck together in the same body, where they try to beat each other up. The insanity ends with the criminal's mind trapped inside of a cactus.
  • Happens in the Potatoes and Dragons episode "It Wasn't Me", between King Hugo and the Dragon. Interestingly, whilst the Dragon is in King Hugo, the Dragon retains his ability to breathe fire, leading to King Hugo running around spouting flames.
  • In one of the new episodes of Futurama the Professor perfects a mind-switching machine, only to discover that the "brain immune response" making it impossible for a given pair of bodies to swap more than once. Soon the entire cast is switching bodies for various reasons (reliving one's youth, showing up one's girlfriend, stealing the crown of the Robo-Hungarian emperor, etc.), and confusing Hilarity Ensues.
    • The voices switch, even though it's an adult program. A reviewer implicitly thought the swapping in the episode was confusing to adults as well.
    • One of the writers proved a mathematical theorem stating that bodies can be returned to their original owners with at most two extra people. The theorem is explained in the episode, and it is possibly the geekiest case of Shown Their Work ever.
  • An episode of The Flintstones does this.
  • Pepper Ann switched places with her mother, Lydia, during a meteor shower. The Trope Namer was alluded to when Lydia discovered that Pepper Ann still hadn't returned a VHS labeled Trippy Tuesday to the store.
  • On Family Guy, Peter and Lois briefly switched places due to one of Stewie's inventions. Peter does what you would expect.
  • In the Action League NOW episode "Hey! Who Stole My Face!" the League follows The Mayor's orders and The Chief is put in jail. However, the two didn't really switch bodies; an operation after a blender mishap simply results with one having the other's face.
  • In Hot Wheels Battle Force 5, this occurs between Shermen Cortez and vandal Grimian.
  • Happens in an episode of The Pirates of Dark Water, where the main hero and villain switch places so that the villain could steal all the treasures. To make things slightly more interesting their reflections also switch and they don't switch voices.
  • This occurs in the Danny Phantom episode "Splitting Images", when Poindexter takes over Danny's body to show the latter what it feels like to be bullied.
  • An episode of Yogis Treasure Hunt involves a machine used by Dick Dastardly to accomplish this. As a result, Yogi switches with Boo Boo, both Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy, and Snooper and Blabber switch with each other, along with Snagglepuss and Ranger Smith, and Quick Draw McGraw and Huckleberry Hound. Eventually, Dick Dastardly and Muttley end up switching places as well.
    • And then at the end, Muttley swaps with FREAKIN GODZILLA!
  • Fantastic Four had a variant on the standard Freaky Friday Flip trope. Rather than switching bodies, the Four ended up switching powers.
  • The original Thundercats series had a whole episode of body-swapping related shenanigans, and the voices are switched in this version too. First Snarf and Panthro get switched, then Slithe and Jackalman, and then Lion-O and Wilykit! The best part? Vultureman (its creator) didn't even build the thing with a "reverse" option!
  • Robotboy does this first with Robotboy and Gus when the latter gets electrocuted reaching into the former's head during a tune-up, then with Gus and a dove by minor villain Felonious Hexx for revenge on what he did in a previous episode. In the latter case it's actually an improvement because the dove does Gus' schoolwork better and Gus genuinely enjoys life as a dove.
  • In an episode of Chowder the titular character subjects himself, Mung Daal, Truffles, and Schnitzel to this after attempting to cram an entire container of a certain ingredient into a dish. At the end they're in their proper bodies except for Mung who somehow has switched with his Sitcom Arch Nemesis Endive.

Real Life

  • Scientists have found that by syncing a pair of VR goggles on one person's head with a set of cameras on a mannequin or another person's head, the brain is fooled into believing that they are in the body of the mannequin or the other person. Again, no, seriously.
  1. ↑ The Mirror Shows Your True Self is sometimes used to reveal the switch.
  2. ↑ Though not explicitly showing naughty bits, except maybe nipples
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