House Amnesia

Father: Get out of my house!
Son: But this is my house, father.

Father: Then get out of your house!

—Traditional joke.

During a heated disagreement, a character insists that the other character leave, only to be reminded by the other that he is already in his house. Alternately a character announces that he is leaving, and either before reaching the door or (more often) after leaving and coming back through the door says something to the effect of, "Wait a minute. This is my house." (Sometimes followed up by some variation on "You guys get out!")

Compare The Exit Is That Way. Unrelated to a certain jerky doctor.

Examples of House Amnesia include:

Anime and Manga

• In Azumanga Daioh, construction noise drives Yukari to Minamo's house. Once there, she immediately commandeers the bed and discovers an oddly-shaped pillow. Upon learning that it cost 10000 yen:

Yukari: You damn bourgeois! Get out!

Film

• Keeping The Faith:

Anna: Well, you're gonna regret it even more when you realize that I'm walking out this door and I'm never coming back!
[She storms out. A moment's pause later, she storms back in]
Anna: This is my house. You get out.

• In Titanic: Rose tells Jack that she is leaving, and then turns back and says "I don't have to leave! This is my part of the ship. You leave!"
• In Adam's Rib, two arguing characters wind up in each other's apartment by mistake.
• In K-9 James Belushi tries to throw his girlfriend out of her own house. Also happens with John Travolta in Look Who's Talking.
• A varient in Lilo and Stitch:

Nani: Go to your room!
Lilo: I'm already in my room!

Literature

• In Bleak House, Mr. Guppy's mother does this to Esther and Mr. Jarndyce, forgetting that she and her son are visiting them in their own home.

Live Action TV

• This happens during one of Ross and Rachel's (many) arguments on Friends.

Ross: What are you doing?
Rachel: I'm storming out.
Ross: Rach, this is your apartment.
Rachel: Yeah, well, that's how mad I am!

• On the Gilmore Girls, Rory is annoyed that every time she bumps into her ex-boyfriend whose in town, she's the one who hurried off awkwardly. After all, she announces, this is her town. The next time she bumps into said ex?

"I'm leaving first!"

• In an episode of Family Matters, Eddie dates the daughter of the owner of a chain of restaurants, a franchise of which he happens to work with. When he finds out, in Eddie's house, he immediately fires Eddie, and then has an argument with his daughter about her dating habits. Eddie tries to interject.

Owner: You're fired! What are you still doing here?!
Eddie: This is my house. I live here.
Owner: Oh. Right.

• Frequently played with on Stella, so much so that an entire episode is devoted to this single joke.
• One episode of M*A*S*H had Lt. Col. Henry Blake do this in his office, leaving Hawkeye and Trapper there while he stormed out before coming back in and saying, "What am I doing? This is my office! You guys get out!"
• Used in an episode of That 70's Show, when Red is talking to Leo, who has come over to the Foreman's house to explain Hyde's situation. When they finish talking, Leo lays out on the couch and tells Red to get out. Needless to say, Red didn't react kindly.
• Sort of used in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Buffy and Spike are arguing. Buffy doesn't forget it's her house, but when Spike refuses to leave she angrily says she will. Then it turns out neither can leave because of a vengeance demon's curse.
• Happened a couple of times on The West Wing (with offices rather than houses, because of the workaholic cast of characters).
• Happened in episode of Monk. An actor hired to play Monk in a movie lost his mind and became convinced that he was Monk, leading to a scene where he asked Monk to leave, despite the fact that it was Monk's house. Monk complied.
• In one Episode of NCIS Abby, when visiting Ducky's lab, at one point tells Ducky and Gibbs to get out of her lab so she can process evidence, only to realize three seconds late that she's not in her lab.

Abby: All right, I need you all to get out so I can get to work. Major Mass Spectrometer is gonna throw a fit... This isn't my lab... I'll go now.

• In the House MD episode "House Divided", Dr. Wilson leaves the wild bachelor party that House is throwing for Dr. Chase and attempts to walk home. He's too drunk to remember that the party is being held at his home.

Newspaper Comics

• Used in a classic Peanuts strip. Violet throws Charlie Brown out of the house, tossing his coat and hat out afterward, telling him she doesn't want him there anymore. He starts to leave, then develops a look of dawning comprehension, goes back to the door, and rings the doorbell. When she answers the door and snottily asks him what he wants, he says, "This is MY house!"
  • Also a variation after Lucy breaks off her (non-existent and imaginary) relationship with Schroeder:

Lucy: Now that you and I are through, Schroeder, I'm returning all the gifts I was going to give you.
Schroeder: ...Thank you?
Lucy: That didn't even make sense!

Web Animation

• In the 82nd episode of Bonus Stage, Joel and Phil get in a heated fight, ending with Joel demanding that Phil get out of his house. Cut to the door slamming in Joel's face and Joel remembering that Phil owns the house. "Oh, right."
• Inverted in an episode of I'm a Marvel And Im ADC; rather than leaving his own house in an argument...

Batman: What are you doing?
Iron Man: Oh, like you care. I'm drowning my sorrows in alcohol. What does it look like I'm doing?
Batman: No, I mean what are you doing in my house?

• In one Strong Bad email, Homestar wonders if Strong Bad's house is his own. Strong Bad says that if he did live there, he'd have "fewer non-broken bones".

Web Comics

• Sluggy Freelance: Riff literally kicks Torg out for close-enough-to-dating his ex-girlfriend later that night. Of course, Riff was briefly afflicted with Apartment Amnesia...

Western Animation

• The second variety was used in an episode of The Weekenders, after Tino's friends came to his house to show him a slideshow of his faults.
• Variant in Futurama where the Grand Midwife says, "I will now take my leave. I live here, so I won't actually be going anywhere, but you dont have to talk to me anymore."
• Subverted on The Simpsons where Homer is kicked out of the NRA for unsafe gun usage at a meeting he's hosting in his house and he ends up sitting on the curb outside for the next four hours.
  • After Ralph Wiggum delivers Lisa's homework when she's sick, he asks if this is his house.
  • Another Simpsons example during the Mr. Sparkle episode, after learning why Homer's face is on the box:

Homer: Well, it was a good run while it lasted. C'mon, kids. Let's go home.
Bart: We are home.
Homer: That was fast.

• • • And from the same episode, when the family plus Reverend Lovejoy go to a gas station to try to find information on the missing Ned Flanders:

Homer: Thanks for swinging by the house, Reverend.

• • The episode "There's No Disgrace Like Home" had a variation on this trope. Homer believes (rightly) that the family is embarrassingly dysfunctional, and Marge believes they're no worse than any other family. To settle the argument, Homer takes the family to go spy on the neighbors. After nearly getting killed by a man with a shotgun, they peek into yet another house.

Bart: Whoa!
Homer: What a dump!
Marge: That's our house.

• • "WE HAVE A KITCHEN???"
  • Another variation had Moe telling Lisa to go home in "Lisa The Skeptic".

Moe: Go home, science girl!
Lisa: I am home.
Moe: Good, stay there.

• Played for Laughs like everything else in Animaniacs