Acceptable Lifestyle Targets: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A subset of [[Acceptable Targets]]. These deal with people who just have personal tastes or preferences which get skewered by the mainstream.
Even a brief perusal of this list will show that most of these targets are "extremes"
'''Some of the most typical targets''':
* '''[[Geek
* '''[[Fat Bastard|Fat / Overweight People]]'''. Very commonly represented as pathetic, obnoxious losers that's okay to make fun of them; and always the reason for their physical condition is their own fault as they tend to be seen always eating junk food. And if they are female they tend to be the [[Abhorrent Admirer]].
* '''[[Nice Guy
* '''[[Basement Dweller|Those who still live with their parents]]'''. Can also be filed under [[Acceptable Hard Luck Targets]]. Recently in many western cultures, especially for American men, moving out of your parents' home has become a sign of maturity. Guys who still live with their parents into their twenties are therefore considered [[Momma's Boy|man-children]] who are incapable of growing up or looking after themselves. Moving back in with your parents is seen as a humiliating last resort taken only by people who have lost everything. The trope is often invoked in media as a quick way to establish a man as a loser. Never mind that some parents do charge their children rent, and that their children are often charged with having to help maintain the house. Women, however, have a slightly lesser stigma attached to them because they are not as socially pressured to be rugged
** It certainly doesn't help that any time adults who live with their parents (or whose parents live with them) are represented, the media only seek out those who help to reinforce the stereotype. In other words, the jobless loser who can't do even the simplest things for himself and has to have Mommy do everything for him and who is utterly abhorrent to any prospective romantic partners because of this. Such people are probably in the minority, as it is likely that most adults who have similar living arrangements make an equal contribution to the household or are at least employed.
*** The romantic aspect may [[Truth in Television|actually be self-fulfilling though in]] [[Real Life]], due to the fact that people who live with their parents (even if they are there ''supporting them'') are viewed this way, thanks to media.
* '''Drug users'''. Drugs are for losers, the government says so and they never lie. In fact, the US government has ''paid'' TV networks to make sure that anyone using drugs was portrayed as a loser. ''[[ER]]'', ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'', ''Chicago Hope'', ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'', ''[[
* '''[[Dumb Is Good|Intellectuals]]'''. Similar to Explicit Atheists, Intellectuals are acceptable targets, and have historically been framed as unpatriotic, immoral, and/or degenerate by democratic-populists as well as totalitarian movements seeking mass appeal. In media, Intellectuals are often portrayed as [[TV Genius|out-of-touch Ivory Tower academics]] whose knowledge and intelligence stand in contrast to and is usually inferior to the life experience of [[Book Dumb|more sympathetic 'street-smart' characters]]. They are usually characterized as [[The Spock|elitists]] governed entirely by [[You Fail Logic Forever|logic]] (or at least [[Straw Vulcan|a flawed facsimile thereof]]), and as such are often cold or dispassionate toward others. Frequently a "[[Science-Related Memetic Disorder|fine line]] between [[Science Is Bad|genius]] and [[Mad Scientist|madness]]" is invoked by more "down to Earth" characters.
* '''[[Shrinking Violet|Timid guys]]'''. Female timidity is acceptable and enticing, but for the media male shyness is [[Butt Monkey|ridiculous]] and inappropriate. In short, it's a [[Double Standard]]. Shy guys are usually the targets of the worst abuse in [[High School]] (a little bit like the [[Nice Guy]]). Said abuse intensifies as they grow older if they haven't won over their shyness. This is because, for the media (and many people in [[Real Life]]), shyness for a man equals being a coward, a [[Loners Are Freaks|loner]] and a bad person. There's also a tendency in some [[Lifetime Movie of the Week|female-aimed media]] to depict any man who's withdrawn around women as a [[Stalker
* '''[[New Age Retro Hippie|Hippies]]''' and '''[[Granola Girl
** Further subject to a [[Double Standard]]; Women who subscribe to this lifestyle can be [[The Ingenue|charmingly naive]], where as ''men'' who don't favor [[A Real Man Is a Killer|violence]] or [[Real Men Eat Meat|eating meat]] are treated much more harshly.
* '''[[Emo
* '''Students'''. Students who go onto higher education receive quite a lot of stick, a lot of it from those who, for whatever reason, didn't. This takes form in numerous stereotypes: the insufferably self-righteous and smug [[Soapbox Sadie|Student Activist]], usually a [[Strawman Political|'leftie']], lecturing all and sundry on how they're so intellectually and morally superior to the rest of humanity; the boorish and obnoxious [[Wacky Fratboy Hijinx|Drunken Frat Boy]] using higher education as an excuse to live a life of sex, booze, partying and uninterrupted hedonism at the cost of someone else (usually the complainer, whether parent or tax-payer). It seems to be a combination of the prejudice against intellectuals discussed above, jealousy (higher education traditionally being the preserve of those who can afford it, which plenty can't) and sheer irritation at the fact that some higher-education students ''can'' be pretty insufferable, most being at the age where they're convinced that they know everything there is to know and / or have a right to do whatever they want to have a good time, without actually having the experience or maturity to back this up. Students are also often accused of not doing 'real' work and living an 'easy' life. Sometimes it can even be taken to the extreme that anyone who's ever willingly participated in ''any'' form of organized education [[School Is for Losers|doesn't know how the world "really" works]].
* '''Certain College Majors'''. Tied closely to the above, certain fields of study [[A Degree in Useless|are seen as useless]]. If your chosen major isn't strongly tied to a well-known and specific occupation, then you're just wasting your time. This one is distinct from students in general because it's making the assumption that going to college in the general sense is a good and responsible thing to do, but certain majors are "cheap", "cheating" or "wrong". The argument is that if you're in one of these majors, you're a witless slacker who intends to stretch your studenthood out as long as possible to keep sponging off your parents or you are someone who ''would'' do well, if not for the fact that you stupidly chose a major that obviously provides [[Crippling Overspecialization]] and '''no''' marketable skills whatsoever. And mixed majors may get some flak for not making up their minds.
** English majors in particular, but really everyone in the "social sciences" will [[Hard
** Philosophy students, which is kinda funny when you consider philosophy includes logic and ethics. They are basically getting a degree in winning arguments and making other people feel stupid and/or morally wrong.
** Math majors are both [[Straw Vulcan|soulless number-crunchers]] ''and'' have no marketable skills.
*** A belief which is quite bizarre, since advanced mathematics is a highly marketable skill ''and'' requires creative thinking. For a while there before math majors became common ''physics'' majors were making a killing in the financial sector because they were the only ones available with the requisite skills, after all actual physics jobs were scarce and didn't pay nearly as well. This belief seems to be attributable to the fact that most writers (and most people) don't understand what mathematicians ''do'' and so assume it is something esoteric and useless.
*** Also, keep in mind that in the United States, the biggest hirer of mathematicians is... the National Security Agency.
** Computer Science majors are all geeky software pirates or stuck-up Linux elitists.
** Majoring in science or engineering tends to get a free pass. After all, they're the ones who are going to invent the next Twitter or iPhone. On the other hand, students of technical degrees are robotic, have no appreciation for the arts/have no soul, are no fun at parties and are [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|terrible writers]].
** Religious Studies majors are likely to be labeled as [[The Fundamentalist|a religious nut job who wants to spread their crazy beliefs to the masses]]. Either that or someone who is only interested in fads as Religious Studies has increased in popularity since the 70s.
** Any sort of Art major (painting, sculpting, [[Literature|writing]], [[Film]], [[Theater]], ect) is going to be portrayed as [[True Art|a stuck up artist who thinks that other art ((read Hollywood, Broadway, Publishing companies, ect)) are not really art]] or an [[Starving Artist|idiot who couldn't care less about his well being]] because art generally does not pay well given [[Crack is Cheaper|the cost of supplies]] and the fact that [[Artist Disillusionment|most artists are not hired]]. Not as common in works as real life due to [[Most Writers Are Writers]].
** Any "nerd" or "geek" character who studies their chosen field "too hard", even if it is the "right" one. Someone who spends too much time reading books clearly [[Book Dumb|isn't learning the "important" stuff in life]] and won't last 5 seconds after graduation.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20120921092733/http://www.bash.org/?774476 Business majors]. Seen as another "cheap" major that anyone can get, plus it's proof that your life's desire was to be a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]].
** When you graduate college, don't become another overworked, underpaid, perpetually stressed graduate student whose myopia in their field only serves to make other characters seem more knowledgeable about life ''and'' the grad student's own studies. If you're a medical student, on top of that you must subsist on ramen to avoid crippling debts while you cripple patients. You'll only leave this trope to enter [[Acceptable Professional Targets]]. If you're a law student, you're the same as a med student but without a soul and become an even bigger butt of jokes when you graduate.
*** Speaking of medicine, pre-med students are stereotyped as overstressed Type A's who make [[The "B" Grade]] [[Truth in Television]].
* '''[[Mandatory Motherhood|The childfree]]''': Adults who choose not to have children are sometimes accused of being selfish, lazy, or [[Child
** Ironically in this same list are '''large families'''. ''[[Cheaper By the Dozen]]'' aside, most media depicts those who have a large number of children as either religiously fanatical, selfish, poor and only having children to live off their benefits, unable to control the instinct to breed, or just plain stupid (they don't know that sex is what makes babies). There seems to be a very narrow area of the ideal number of children for a family.
* '''The Popular/Pretty People'''. If you're pretty or popular, [[Beauty Is Bad|you're assumed to be dumb, vapid, and shallow, peaked/are going to peak at high school]], and have no real worth at all. And that's if you're not [[Alpha Bitch|evil...]]
* '''[[Goth
* '''Hipsters''' (please note that this type is not to be confused with ''hippies''; the two terms were once synonyms). A nebulously-deployed yet relatively specific category of cool person (or aspiring cool person), typically denoted by a constantly-shifting taste in fashion (trucker hats, white belts, skinny jeans), musical taste (indie rock, dance-punk, [[
* '''[[Veganism and Vegetarianism|Vegetarians]]'''. Vegetarians are often lumped together with hippies and art students. They don't eat meat? They're unhealthy! (Even though respected nutritionists and health experts acknowledge that meat causes all sorts of health problems, and that vegetarian diets are far healthier.) You eat too much rabbit food and there's something wrong with your brain! There's also a [[Double Standard|gender bias]], as [[Real Men Eat Meat|men are supposed to be shoveling down T-Bones, burgers, and fried chicken]] or else they're too girly or are gay; whereas herbivorism is often a ''standard'' for a woman. Female vegetarians are also obviously portrayed as healthy, whereas male vegetarians are often sickly or unnaturally thin. Rarely (if ever) will a character become a vegetarian for medical reasons or health reasons; they will almost always be so for political motives around animal rights. And this will inevitably see the character transform into an insufferably obnoxious and self-righteous moralizer haranguing everyone around them and acting as they're the Second Coming because they no longer eat meat. This is changing; as vegetarians are becoming more accepted and many of these types (ie, the moral crusaders) have split off into '''Vegans'''. Another reason is also [[Values Dissonance|cultural differences]], ie, a Vegetarian in India is something completely normal for men ''and'' women.
** '''Vegans'''. Vegans are ''constantly'' made fun of and criticized for being even worse than vegetarians. Like vegetarians, God help you if you are a male vegan because then you don't even eat cheese and eggs. Also, if you're a vegan, then you are either a hippie, a member of PETA, or both. There exist numerous stereotypes about vegans doing stuff like calling 911 because a fast-food chain is serving meat.
** '''[http://www.rogermwilcox.name/vegetable/veg4.html Vegephobes]'''. While vegetarians are slowly gaining acceptance, their opposite
** '''Pescetarians'''. Often confused with vegetarians. A lot of people actually don't know what this term means; so they act like they're vegetarians who cheat. In reality, they're actually following a biblical standard because fish isn't considered a meat, although nutritionally it is. It's not uncommon to see many middle-eastern people who are pescetarians. This is a little more accepted, especially in places like the middle east, coastal areas, and islands (like Guam and Japan) where fish is ''much'' easier to obtain, especially fresh fish, as opposed to areas like the middle of Europe and North America.
* '''[[Political Correctness Gone Mad|The Politically Correct]]'''. Everyone who doesn't buy into stereotypes is an [[Moral Guardian|uptight, overly sensitive, ultra-PC censor with no sense of humor]]. This attitude is a popular refuge for comedians who like [[Black Comedy]] and [[Crossing the Line Twice]], accusing everyone who doesn't like them of this. Note that pretty much nobody refers to themselves as "politically correct". Note as well that there are very few things quite so politically correct, today, as proudly proclaiming one's own political incorrectness.
* '''People Who are Athletic'''. According to pop culture, everyone who plays sports (in high-school, at least) is a dumb jock, and every cheerleader is a shallow bitch. And of course, says pop culture, everyone athletic (jocks) are all bullies who have nothing to look forward to in life past high-school, if they graduate. Cheerleaders too are at the high point in their life, says pop culture, and they're all shallow sluts who spread malicious rumors about each other and their rivals. Never mind that athletes and cheerleaders may just be regular people who enjoy their respective hobby, or that plenty of athletes/cheerleaders go on to have successful and fulfilling lives after high school, in fact, high school athletic participation is associated with a [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2109580 high future income] for men.
* '''[[Bondage Is Bad|BDSM couples]]'''. A dominant man is a misogynist, a dominant woman a bitch, a submissive man a doormat and a submissive woman even more of a doormat. BDSM practitioners also tend to be stereotyped as unattractive, overweight, middle-aged weirdos. See [[Bondage Is Bad]].
* '''People who, in their spare time, rant about their jobs'''. Jobs can be stressing. And of course not everyone has the same tolerance of stress as everyone... so if someone's complaining about a retail job, then some people will laugh, but there are people who say that they're just spoiled inconsiderate brats who are not going to last long at the job and actually think that all customers aren't '''that''' dumb.
** This also extends to ''other'' jobs, too. Just having a bad day at work (or several) or working in a bad environment seems to bring up the, "If you hate your job, then why don't you quit?" response. Typically, even ''laughing'' at stupid customers, bad coworkers, etc., brings up this. (It's a guaranteed that if you make ''any'' rant related to your job in the internet, you'll be told, "Quit then, if it's so bad".) When faced with the, "Then why don't you quit your job?" response, don't mention, "Do you know of any other job openings?", because they're not listening.
* '''Alcoholics'''. As [[Mitch Hedberg]] put it: "Alcoholism is the only disease you can get yelled at for having." Alcohol is more or less a part of almost every culture... both the love for it and the hatred and constant jokes about it. People who choose to regularly drink themselves silly or pay money for alcohol are constantly being made fun of. There's one in almost '''every''' family, the one person who's drunk off their ass almost 24/7. And they're always either homeless, extremely poor, childless, single, and are only happy when they're drunk. College students are also on the receiving end of a lot of alcohol jokes, either because they're irresponsible drinkers and binge drink the day they turn 18-21, or because they are frat boys/greeks and are encouraged to drink by their Fraternity/Sorority to do so. This is almost always flipped as soon as the person admits they have a problem, and it becomes a sympathetic [[Very Special Episode]].
* '''[[The Teetotaler|Teetotalers]], a.k.a. Non-drinkers and [[Dry Crusader
* '''[[Metalhead
** There are actually two types of metalheads in fiction, and the stereotypes associated with them are different. The gentler clichés get attached to the "hair metal" crowd, whose members are often treated basically as hippies: kooky, lazy, mildly rebellious, drug-addled, and/or speaking in a Southern California accent (perhaps because Van Halen, who kicked off the movement in the late Seventies, were from Los Angeles). Then you have the "death metal" freaks, who get slapped with the same stigma associated with Goths, only much nastier. (This got ''really'' bad in the early Nineties, after two Nevada teens ritualistically killed themselves after listening to Judas Priest's "Better By You, Better Than Me," causing ''all''
** '''Female Metalheads'''. Oh, where to start? While there are some male metalheads who are thrilled to pieces to find a girl who shares their tastes, there are others who refuse to take them seriously or resent that they are "intruding on a male's domain". They also often get stereotyped as not being conventionally
*** It should be pointed out that in [[The Eighties]], when the female metalhead sub-subtrope first appeared, they were depicted as ''very'' feminine: [[Eighties Hair|poofy-haired]], wearing bright neon colors, flirtatious, etc. (They were in some ways an updating of the "greaser girls" of [[The Fifties]]: [[Rule
* '''The Rich'''. Rich people are often portrayed as sycophants, morally bankrupt businesspeople, pretentious, and they often are portrayed as LOVING to show it by wearing extremely expensive clothing or by regularly binging on ultra expensive activities and hobbies. Expect derogatory comments about those poorer than them. Rich people as targets are especially used during times of economic down-turns, especially those working for massive businesses like insurance, oil companies, computer industries, stock market junkies, etc. Rich women are often shown as gold-diggers who live in the lap of luxury, or if they are a breadwinner (Sometimes ''the'' Breadwinner), then they are shown as being ''extremely'' out of touch with their family and almost ''never'' being able to sit down to cook. (Shown in ''[[Daria]]'', in which Helen heats up frozen Lasagna nearly every night, considers it a rare treat to cook for her family, and overhears people laughing about other women taking Maternity leave.) The level of acceptability goes double for any rich person who is Caucasian, and quadruple if they happen to be Jewish, with further varying degrees of acceptability depending on their careers. (If there exists ''any'' positive portrayal of a rich Jewish banker, then you'd best take a picture because it's probably the first time you'll ever see it.)
** And even worse are '''Children born into rich families'''. They are frequently portrayed as spoiled rotten brats with no compassion for others and ''never'' having to work for ''anything'' in their lives, they just ask for it. Girls are always shown as having a rich "Daddy" who pays for them and are often either a [[Rich Bitch]] crossed with [[Alpha Bitch]]. Girls who marry into money are seen as gold-diggers who vow never to work. Boys are also shown as spoiled but also being trained to one day take over their family job, sometimes being ''forced'' too. However, the male rich kids are much more likely to be depicted as drug-addicted date-rapists, relying on their family's money and connections to get them out of any trouble their consequence free life-style gets them into. Like the above, this goes double for whites, quintuple for Jewish families, and sextuple for bankers.
** [[Averted Trope|EXCEPTION]]: Baron Rothschild. Rich? Check. Banker? Check. Jewish? Check!
* '''People with tattoos/piercings'''. Oh, sure, go mutilate your body because you think it looks "cool", we all know that ''everyone'' who does it will [[Embarrassing Tattoo|regret it later]]. Oh, and by the way, the only people who ever get tattoos or non-ear piercings are [[All Bikers Are Hells Angels|bikers]], obnoxious punk rockers, thugs, or sluts who just can't wait to show them off.
** This stereotype is actually not as bad nowadays as it was prior to the [[The Nineties|1990s]], when much of the above actually ''was'' true, if only because "decent" folk bought into the negative imagery and wouldn't have been caught dead with tattoos or piercings. At best, tattoos were associated with the circus (which, while generally viewed as wholesome, still has some unsavory connotations), while piercings were thought to be just for [[Hot Gypsy Woman|Gypsies]] and [[
* '''Smokers'''. Frequently lectured on the dangers of their habit, when they're commonly known. Ultimately, the smoker will know the risks, and it's their body to treat as they choose, but try telling that to the anti-smokers. It's considered socially acceptable to give someone a long lifestyle choice lecture for choosing to smoke. On the other hand, they do get the [[Smoking Is Cool]] benefits, so it all sort of evens out.
** This licence to lecture smokers can [[Hypocritical Humour|particularly amusing when a twenty-five stone hambeast starts whining at a smoker about the damage they're doing to their heart, arteries, etc]].
** More recently, users of electronic cigarettes usually get lumped in with smokers of "analog" (tobacco) cigarettes. It seldom helps to explain that e-cigs produce no second-hand smoke (no smoke at all, in fact, just vapor), and do not contain any chemicals known to cause cancer. They see someone inhaling from a cigarette-like device and exhaling what looks like smoke and jump to conclusions. That there are, at the time of this writing, bills in the works to outright ban e-cigs, despite the fact that they are demonstrably safer than ordinary cigarettes, is quite telling.
** Smokeless tobacco users. Despite chew/dip/snuff being sold in all fifty states, if you admit to using, you're a hopeless redneck with fewer brain cells than teeth (an ever-decreasing number in both cases).
** The justification for complaining about smokers was that they will be costing taxpayers (the majority of whom are nonsmokers) and the health-care system more in the long run; this turned out to be false: smokers died years sooner than nonsmokers, so [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.9748884.html they needed significantly ''less'' of the expensive medical operations].
** Of course, if you were smoking in front of the person or someone's kids, there is a reason they may feel justified in annoying you; you could potentially be [https://web.archive.org/web/20120109040134/http://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/faculty/newsandevents/news_details.aspx?Id=798 doing something far worse] to people who didn't choose this lifestyle. This is a moot point for smokeless tobacco users, though the media doesn't tend to differentiate.
* '''Single Mothers''' (not to be confused with widows and divorced mothers). While they tend to be sympathetically portrayed in individual works of media, they are often ridiculed in the abstract, especially in the political concept of the "welfare queen" who keeps having children she has no interest in raising so that she can live off of taxpayer dollars.
* '''Divorced people'''.
** Men become [[Casanova Wannabe
** Women are angry, bitter [[Jerkass]] [[Old Maid
** And God help you if you remarry, whether you're divorced or not. If your new spouse is particularly successful, you'll get called a [[Gold Digger]]. And if said spouse has children from a previous marriage, then you're automatically a [[Child
* '''Single people''', since we are at it. The fact that tropes like [[Old Maid]], [[Christmas Cake]] and [[Crazy Cat Lady]] are still prevalent in media, shows that this world is still not willing to let single women get away with their singleness. Single men aren't portrayed that good either. Behind the apparently awesome life of the single [[Casanova]] there's a shallow [[Man Child]], living in perpetual disorder since, you know, [[Sarcasm Mode|men aren't able to manage their own houses without a woman doing the chores]] and emptiness.
* '''Feminists'''. If there is a woman who identifies herself as a feminist, she will be a [[Straw Feminist]] with hairy legs and extreme hatred for all the men in the world. Of course, it's all because she [[You Need to Get Laid|never had any man interested in her]].
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* '''Optimistic people'''. While goths and emos are made fun of for their perpetual sadness, people who are continuously in a good mood don't always have it easy either. In a lot of sitcoms and a few movies, [[The Pollyanna|cheerful and optimistic people]] are seen as lower than dirt while [[The Eeyore|depressed and depressing cynics]] can get away with murder.
** This can also be seen in people's general attitudes. Ever notice how someone who looks on the bright side is being naive while someone who expresses a more pessimistic view is being realistic?
** This might be due to [
* '''[[Crazy Homeless People|The Homeless]]'''. When they are not portrayed as thieves, they are shown to be suffering from various mental disorders or having inexplicable, often absurd behavior (like [[The Inbetweeners|urinating in their own shoes]] or having [[The Other Guys|orgies in stolen cars]]). This is especially typical in comedy. While mental illness no doubt is one reason a person can end up homeless, fiction seems to treat it as the ''only'' way one can end up transient, nobody ever is homeless by bad luck and circumstance. Brings the [[Warped Aesop]] that there's no point in helping, as a homeless case will just walk back to the gutter where he/she is "naturally happy" with their eccentricities as soon as your back is turned. As homeless people tend not to see much tv, and they have limited opportunity to complain about such stereotypes, they are likely to remain as acceptable targets for a long time.
* '''[[Straight Edge]]'''. If you're straight edge you're either A) a fun hating, sour youth that dislikes social interaction, or B) a [[Principles Zealot]] that will beat the crap out of anyone who so much as looks at a glass of alcohol. There are a few bad eggs, especially in [[The Nineties]], but mostly, straight edge people just want to respect their bodies and believe it's more [[Badass]] to stay sober than to do drugs.
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== Geeks / Nerds ==
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* Mike from ''[[Something
** When Mike was first introduced, he was a [[Jerkass]] who was convinced that he was a [[Dogged Nice Guy]]. That could have something to do with it.
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== Nice Guys ==
=== [[Live
* ''[[The Inbetweeners]]''.
=== [[New Media]] ===
* The Craigslist "Letter From a Former Nice Guy" displays toxic levels of the
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* Mike in ''[[Something
== Living With Your Parents ==
=== [[Film]] ===
* A typical example comes in the film ''[[Die Hard
* In ''[[
* The whole plot of ''[[Tanguy]]'' involves exasperated parents who try to get their grown son to move the hell out so they can have their own lives back.
* The 2006 Matthew McConaughey film ''Failure to Launch'' likewise builds its premise on this trope. Tripp (McConaughey) is 35 years old, and though he has a job and friends and hobbies, automatically qualifies as a loser and cannot keep a girlfriend because he lives with his parents.
* ''[[
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* In ''[[Frasier]]'' Frasier must frequently defend himself from the trope, pointing out that his father lives with ''him'', not the other way around. In fact, Frasier did invite his father into his apartment to look after him, which is a socially acceptable arrangement.
* The most extreme example of this is Ted from ''[[Scrubs]]'', the pathetically inept sad-sack attorney who not only lives with his mother, but shares a bed with her.
** Wayne Campbell of ''[[
* [[Seinfeld|George Costanza]].
* The main trio of ''[[
* Howard Wolowitz, [[Casanova Wannabe]] of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' is portrayed as somewhat of a loser, which is punctuated by the fact that he still lives with, and is regularly infantilized and nagged by, his mother. Apparently the writers feel that this wasn't enough to make him a complete loser, so as the series progresses his feelings toward her are becoming more and more creepily Oedipal.
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* [[Warhammer
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* Tony Cipriani in ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] III'' is a Mafia boss who still lives with his mom and frequently gets yelled at by her.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* Most of the jokes about Seymour Skinner in ''[[The Simpsons (
* Cluemaster in ''[[
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* An example of the difference in cultural norms can be seen in Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who lived with his mother throughout his term of office. Americans mocked him for living with his mother, but Polish voters didn't see anything wrong with in an unmarried man still living at home.
* Living with your parents is pretty much expected in China. Traditionally, it is quite normal for three generations to live under the same roof.
* Subverted in most of the Arab world. Most young people are expected to live with their parents until they earn enough money to purchase their own homes and get married.
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== Drug Users ==
=== [[Film]] ===
* In ''[[
* The anti-drug movie ''[[
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* It's debatable whether ''
** Don't forget the episode where he took LSD in order to figure out that week's mystery illness. Still can't work out whether that's intended to be a positive (Look! The drug can be useful!) or a negative (it was House taking it, after all) portrayal.
* Averted in ''[[Spaced]]'' where the main characters often use drugs casually with no references to side-effects or any [[An Aesop|aesops]] in sight. The only character who seems to have developed a habit is the landlady, who is a heavy wine-drinker. At the worst, their drug use is simply a distraction in the way of growing up and getting their lives in order, no worse than video games or laziness. A [[Lampshade Hanging]] occurs in ''Frost and Pegg's Perfect Night In'' where Pegg tells the audience, "Don't worry, this isn't a sitcom aimed at young people that makes tentative reference to casual drug use but then pussies out by including some punititve moral message."
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* Drug use being bad is notably inverted within an inch of its life on ''[[Code Monkeys]]''. All of the cool and/or funny characters use drugs without any consequences. In Dave's case, a few episodes even imply his best games come out of programming sessions where he's high.
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== Intellectuals ==
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* Often subverted by ''[[The West Wing]]'', one of the key themes of which was the need for politicians and their staff to treat the American people as intelligent thinking
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* The Chinese Cultural Revolution viewed anyone considered an "intellectual" as a dangerous parasite requiring "re-education". If he were lucky, an intellectual (which for the Revolution's purposes included virtually anyone with a college degree) would be "re-educated" by just being forced to work in a rice paddy or as a manual laborer; if he weren't, he'd simply disappear.
* Even worse in Cambodia where intellectuals were simply killed. Sometimes people were considered intellectuals just because they wore glasses.
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== Hippies ==
=== [[Film]] ===
* In the ''[[The Pursuit of Happyness]]'' the main antagonists are Hippie thieves who exist only to steal [[Will Smith]]'s income, the bone-density scanners he sells. Capitalist fairytale, indeed.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* The finest example of the hippie as object of derision in popular culture is probably Neil from ''[[The Young Ones]]'', a character who possesses most of the aforementioned stereotypical hippie traits and a host of others including but not limited to vegetarianism, strident if misguided activism ("vegetable rights and peace"), and disapproving upper-class parentage.
=== [[Role Playing Games]] ===
* Hippies are one of many unusual enemies in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'', and pretty much all of them are self-righteous, unhygienic vegan stoners.
** Considering that one of the game's creators is a self-professed hippy, this may fall under [[Self-Deprecation]].
=== [[Web Original]] ===
* In some ''[[
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* ''[[South Park]]'', known for its Libertarian views, frequently makes hippie characters the butt of jokes or satire. The show usually characterizes hippies as disheveled dropouts or ignorant college kids who really don't understand the issues that they claim to protest and are more interested in recreation than doing anything of value. They are the sworn enemy of Eric Cartman, who takes [[Refuge in Audacity]] when bashing them in comedic ways. In one episode, a hippie rock concert is treated as a natural disaster a la ''[[The Core]]''.
* Both used and subverted by ''[[Futurama]]'''s late Waterfalls, a family of hippies who tend to wind up dead. While Waterfall Senior was an easy going, not very competent, over-the-top bleeding-heart conservationist-turned-penguin hunter, Waterfall Junior was an obnoxious, trouble-making, human-hating animal-freak, responsible for such weirdness as forcing vegetarianism on a very unhappy lion. Old Man Waterfall, on the other hand, is portrayed as a brave and noble champion of freedom, who lost practically every part of his body ([[Crowning Moment of Funny|and his spirit!]]) fighting for what he believes in. This is all juxtaposed, however, by the explanation for his dedication to
== Emos ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* Sasuke of ''[[
== Students/Homeschoolers ==
=== [[Film]] ===
* The "art students on the bottom of the heap" position is played completely straight in ''[[Art School Confidential]]''-for the first half hour, when it's trying to be a comedy. Later in the movie, when it's trying to be a [[Mind Screw]] crime thriller, it ignores the "student" aspect almost entirely. The short comic upon which the movie is based also plays the notion straight.
* Averted in ''The Brothers Solomon'' the two protagonists were both homeschooled, but the reason they know nothing about women isn't because of being homeschooled, it's because they grew up in a remote location where there were NO women whatsoever. [[Never Trust a Trailer|The trailers, naturally, didn't let this on.]]
=== [[Literature]] ===
* Many of the jokes in the world's oldest surviving joke book, an [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] tome called [http://publishing.yudu.com/Library/Au7bv/PhilogelosTheLaughAd/resources/index.htm Philogelos], use students (and scholars in general) where the modern equivalent would be a [[Dumb Blonde]]. Example joke: Discovering that a ladder has twenty steps going up, an intellectual (sometimes translated "student-dunce") asks if it has as many going down. (Of course, this is more of the [[Absent-Minded Professor]] concept.)
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* Drew Carrey actually had an Astronomy student audience member on ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?
* From ''[[
{{quote|
'''Lister''': The normal way you get into Art College. The same old, usual, normal, boring way you get in. Failed my exams and applied. They snatched me up. }}
* Mathematicians (pre-''[[Numb3rs]]'') tend to receive a lot of flack for being incomprehensible even by scientist standards ("Yellow Cake", anyone?) and for working on concepts that don't seem to have anything to do with anything in the universe.
** There's even a [[Everybody Hates Mathematics|whole page]] on the [[Hatedom|hatred]] of mathematics.
* From ''[[
{{quote|
'''Liz''': But we're not the worst.
'''Together''': Graduate students are the worst. }}
* Some people ridicule The Duggar family on 19 Kids and Counting for homeschooling rather than sending their children to school.
=== [[Web Original]] ===
* The whole idea that art students are somehow the least among students isn't because they're ''art students''
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M98x-FLp7E This] Youtube video
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* ''[[Mac Hall]]'' has had computer science major and English majors at one another's throats. The computer science majors see the English majors as intrusive and narcissistic, while the English majors see comp sci people as [[
* ''[[PHD]]'' pretty much is this and only this.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* In an episode of ''[[
* ''[[The Simpsons (
* Ezekiel on ''[[
=== [[Theater]] ===
* [[
== No Kids / Lots of Kids ==
=== [[Film]] ===
* The setting [[Backstory]] of ''[[Idiocracy]]'' is dependent on the "lots of kids" scenario.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* In an episode of ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'', Charlie Harper, the last person on Earth who should even think about raising a child, decides against a vasectomy because he spent enough time around his nephew.
** Though that sounds less like a total conversion and more like his being open to the idea after being staunchly opposed to it.
* The Duggar family is an extreme instance of the "too many kids" situation, as shown on their reality show ''19 Kids and Counting''.
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*** Also slightly subverted in that although they are a very conservative religious family, they are uniformly nonjudgmental of other people. In fact, they embody many of the good things about religion; particularly love, curiosity about the world and generosity and compassion toward others, while most representations of families with similar beliefs in the media are unflattering and emphasize the hypocrisies that sometimes occur in fundamentalist behavior.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* An episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' has the childless form an activist group ("The children are our future. Today belongs to ''me''.") that try to remove all child-friendly things in town. They are defeated when the children give them hugs, and succumb to the common germs carried by kids, in a nod to ''[[War of the Worlds]]''.
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* The case of "Octo-Mom". At first it was a bit like the septuplets in terms of media coverage. Then it came out that she already ''had'' 6 kids (all via in-vitro fertilization) and was simultaneously drawing Welfare payments. [[Internet Backlash|Eep]].
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== Hipsters ==
=== [[Literature]] ===
* ''[[More Information Than You Require]]'' defines hipsters as jocks who want to be nerds but won't admit it, and hilariously makes fun of the "...'ironic,' 'joke'" t-shirt, sarcastic jeans, cynical tube socks, derisive sneakers, and a morose belt."
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* In [http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/187336/october-07-2008/stephen-s-town-hall this] ''[[
{{quote|
'''Stephen''': You actually support John McCain. Yes he voted with George Bush over 90% of the time, but he did it ironically. }}
* ''[[Nathan Barley]]'' was an out-and-out attack on London's "new media" hipsters of the early and mid 2000s who were portrayed as shallow, stupid, gadget-obsessed and sexually amoral. Ironically, it's been claimed that the show's biggest fans were the very people it was parodying.
=== [[Magazines]] ===
* Counterculture magazine ''Adbusters'' published an article referring to hipsters as [https://web.archive.org/web/20080908024157/http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/hipster.html "The Dead End of Western Civilization"].
=== [[Web Original]] ===
* The website [http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com Stuff White People Like] focuses primarily on hipster-type interests (Whole Foods; Michel Gondry, Sarah Silverman), and discusses the reasons white people like these things with thinly-veiled condescension. Although it was written by a white guy and a half-white half-Asian guy.
** So if white people are ridiculed for liking "world" (read: non-white) music, they are mocked. But if they like stereotypically white music (polka, for instance), they are mocked too. What are they supposed to like, if anything?
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* ''[[Diesel Sweeties]]'' has Indie Rock Pete, a poseur obsessed with the idea of maintaining a facade of indie cred who rejects bands [[It's Popular, Now It Sucks|when they become successful]].
* [http://www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents?issuenum=14&storynum=2 This] ''[[Nothing Nice to Say]]'' comic.
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* If a hipster gets into politics, then that adds another level of mockery; along with charges of snobbery and superficiality come charges of ill-informed unearned self-righteousness. For example, when a high-end British boutique recently debuted reusable shopping bags with "I Am Not A Plastic Bag" printed on them, many satirists often sardonically extended this to such qualifiers as "No, you're a pretentious twat" in derision of the kind of people it was perceived would buy them (particularly considering that most shops sold similar reusable shopping bags at a much cheaper price without the condescending self-righteousness).
** Then one ethical choice crashed into another, as the bags turned out to be made on the cheap in unknowable circumstances in the Far East.
* Liking any band/show/movie outside the mainstream can often be perceived as pretentious affectation, particularly if said affection is also coupled (as it often can be) with [[It's Popular, Now It Sucks|an excessive disdain for anything "popular"]].
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== Vegetarians ==
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* If it's a medical drama, and the victim of the week is a vegetarian, you can bet that their vegetable love is somehow responsible for their illness, especially in ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''.
=== [[Professional Wrestling]] ===
* WWE wrestler [[Bryan Danielson|Daniel Bryan]] is a vegan, and is scathingly mocked for it by commentator [[Michael Cole]], even though Bryan is a very skilled submission-style wrestler with over a decade of independent experience that spans the entire world.
** Although, given his current [[Face Heel Turn|heel]] run, he's hated not so much for being a vegan as for being a [[Smug Straight Edge|smug little pest lecturing everyone who eats meat and dairy products about their rotting intestines and their cruelty]].
=== [[Stand Up Comedy]] ===
* [[Ron White]]'s joke was that his vegetarian friend's system was kicking back beef broth, and that he's never seen a healthy looking Vegetarian.
** Though [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstructed]] a bit, due to White saying that he has no problem with vegetarians - just his friend's ''reasoning'' for being a vegetarian is what bugged him. It wasn't that he didn't like meat or that he wanted to eat more healthful food - but because he was worried over the amount of waste cattle make and the effects they would have on the environment.
{{quote|
'''Ron White''': ...[[Deadpan Snarker|I eat the cow!]] }}
=== Other ===
* Vegans have a reputation for getting in everyone's face about it all the time. "Hi, I'm a Vegan! [[Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?|Have I Mentioned I Am A Vegan?]] Anyway, I want you to know that [[Have I Mentioned I Am a Dwarf Today?|I'm a Vegan]]." At least half of Vegan jokes revolve around this. [//funnytweeter.com/creepy-mansionme-that-portrait-is-watching-usman-no-wayme-goes-right-up-to-portrait-im-veganportrait-rolls-eyesme-i-knew-it/ funnytweeter] [//funnytweeter.com/waving-hands-and-chasing-down-ice-cream-truck-heywhatll-it-beout-of-breath-nothing-just-wanted-to-tell-you-im-vegan/ funnytweeter] [//funnytweeter.com/year-2142-meat-eaters-have-died-out-vegans-survive-2143-everyone-is-dead-bc-the-vegans-couldnt-tell-anyone-else-that-they-were-vegan/ funnytweeter] [//funnytweeter.com/what-percentage-of-the-zombies-are-just-chasing-you-down-to-tell-you-theyre-vegan/ funnytweeter] [//funnytweeter.com/shipwreck-survivors-on-an-islands1-we-told-you-to-spell-sos-with-those-coconutss2-i-know-but-i-want-our-rescuers-to-know-im-a-vegan/ funnytweeter] [//funnytweeter.com/every-time-someone-tells-you-they-are-a-vegan-an-angel-eats-a-dog/ funnytweeter] [//funnytweeter.com/guy-getting-eaten-by-a-sharkguy-i-just-wanted-to-say-im-vegan-shark-spitting-him-out-wtf-man-i-had-you-in-my-mouth-everything/ funnytweeter] [//funnytweeter.com/vegan-conferenceannouncer-while-we-await-our-key-speaker-please-talk-among-yourselvesvegan-im-a-veganvegan2-im-also-a-vegan/ funnytweeter] [//funnytweeter.com/me-im-a-carnivore-vegan-friend-i-know-me-im-a-carnivore-vf-you-just-said-me-im-a-carnivore-vf-ok-i-get-itme-i-eat-meat/ funnytweeter] [//funnytweeter.com/interviewer-do-you-have-any-questionsme-did-i-mention-im-a-veganinterviewer-your-resume-is-printed-on-quinoame-im-a-vegan/ funnytweeter] [//funnytweeter.com/a-vegan-walks-into-a-bar-and-doesnt-say-anything-because-the-person-who-has-never-seen-star-wars-is-going-on-about-never-seeing-star-wars/ funnytweeter] [//funnytweeter.com/the-only-thing-more-annoying-than-vegans-who-wont-shut-up-about-being-vegan-is-people-who-arent-vegan-who-wont-shut-up-about-vegans/ funnytweeter]
== Divorced People ==
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'': Alan's ex-wife, Judith, is portrayed as a lazy, money-grubbing misandrist whose favorite hobby is making his life a living hell. She has lightened up on him in recent seasons, but only because she remarried and her second husband, Herb, is now the target for most of her abuse (he has left her several times over it, but always goes back). His second ex, Kandi, isn't portrayed in a much better light, but in her case she's [[The Ditz|far too dumb]] to be mean.
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== Feminists ==
=== [[New Media]] ===
* Blogger Amanda Marcotte had the temerity to point out that it ''is'' creepy and disturbing for a man to wait until he and a woman are alone in an elevator in a strange city at four o'clock in the morning before he invites her up to his room for "coffee". For this she found herself on the receiving end of a series of incredibly vicious attacks, accusing her of everything from denigrating the sufferings of Muslim women under sharia law (that one was from Richard Dawkins!) to calling ''all'' men rapists.
** I believe you are referring to Rebecca Watson of the Skepchicks.
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== Smokers ==
=== Advertising ===
* In [[The Eighties|the 1980s]], a sneaker company ran an ad featuring a cigarette in an ashtray, with text stating forthrightly that if smoking was the only occasion on which the reader breathed deeply, the company did not want you to wear their sneakers.
=== [[New Media]] ===
* Go to any discussion forum with posters who pride themselves on being diverse and tolerant. All lifestyles, conditions, orientations, etc. are defended vigorously and anyone displaying a lack of tolerance is quickly smacked down (as they should be). But bring up smoking and watch that tolerance disappear in an instant. Smokers are called everything but human beings and heaven forbid one should ever admit that they have the habit. It's as if all of the not-so-politically-correct things they ''wish'' they could say about other groups gets saved up and piled onto smokers when the topic comes up.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* Mocked (like always) on ''[[South Park]]'' on two occassions. One occurs when the boys are caught smoking by their parents, who label it as [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|the worst thing they've ever done]], despite Cartman having gotten another kid to ''eat his parents'' earlier on. The other was after a visit to the "Museum of Tolerance", where the children were taught to respect the lifestyle choices of others (including Cartman's [[Big Boned|fatness]]) - and the adults then [[Hypocritical Humor|berate a smoker standing in the parking lot while smoking a cigarette, calling him "Dirty Lungs" among other things]].
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[[Category:YMMV Trope]]
[[Category:Acceptable Targets]]
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