Granola Girl: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

An overtly [[Strawman Political|comical liberal or left-wing]] character, usually with a penchant for tie-dyes, crystals, veganism, free love, [[Nude Nature Dance|oneness with nature]] and anything that is '[[All-Natural Snake Oil|all-natural]]'. This character will commonly not be very well grounded, but cheerful; flighty, but not [[Cloudcuckoolander|scatter-brained]] enough to qualify as [[The Ditz]], yet the character is often associated with being book smart, and will have a tendency to [[Soapbox Sadie|make her opinions known whenever possible]]. She will [[All-Natural Snake Oil|love any kind of alternative medicine]] and will refer to actual real doctors as "allopaths" and "greedy". Of course, she will never actually have a health problem worth seeing a doctor about it, because any problem she has will be all in her head.

 

{{examples}}

* A series of home insurance adverts for UK insurer Direct Line, featuring a potential customer who misses their offers because she's worried about feng shui, or accidentally drops a heavy crystal on the salesman's foot. Occasionally used for [[Hypocritical Humor]], such as the one where she claims not to need insurance because she's moved beyond material goods, and then can't find her handbag.

{{quote|'''Customer''': It's got all my ''things'' in it! It's got all my '''''money'''''!!}}

 

 

* ''[[John Tucker Must Die]]'': Sophia Bush's character.

* ''[[Children of Men]]'': Michael Caine's character Jasper is an aging Granola Guy, living in the woods ''naturally'' with his wife, growing a <s>new</s> immensely popular variety of pot that has a strawberry flavor. It is implied that he was left without a choice but to withdraw from society after his wife was tortured by the government.

** Wednesday's priceless rebuttal: [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"Are they made from real girl scouts?"]]

 

* Dawn of the ''[[Babysitters Club]]''.

* Parodied/Lampshaded in ''[[Thursday Next]]: First Among Sequels'', by Thursday's fictional counterpart, Thursday5, a [[Lighter and Softer]] version of her, written after the original complained about the [[Darker and Edgier]] first four.

* Magrat Garlick from the [[Discworld]] books, especially in her early appearances, where the citizens of Lancre had come to fear her self-righteous lectures about how meat is bad for your health and how [[All-Natural Snake Oil|anything natural is good for you]].

* ''Brief Interviews with Hideous Men'': One of [[David Foster Wallace]]'s short stories involved a man relating the story of a hook-up with a "granola cruncher" that turned into a most peculiar tale about her {{spoiler|managing to get a rapist to not rape her in a truly bizarre manner}}.

* Macrobiotic, of the ''[[Whateley Universe]]''. I mean, she gave herself the codename 'Macrobiotic', what more do you need?

* ''[[American Gods]]'': Samantha Black Crow delivers a beautiful speech of all the (sometimes contradictory) things she believes in, which could well be a summary of the beliefs of many of these characters. In a subversion, this is a universe where all this [[All Myths Are True|might well be true, at the same time.]]

 

* Mokey in ''[[Fraggle Rock]]''. If she were human, you could easily picture her listening to sitar music and polishing crystals.

* ''[[Boy Meets World]]'': Topanga in the first season. She was intended as a one-shot character, but the actress made such an impression that she was invited back as a regular. The novelty wore thin pretty quickly, so when the show [[Retool|re-tooled]] in the second season, they changed her into a [[Hollywood Nerd]] (Type 2), essentially [[Brother Chuck|sacrificing]] the one who was already part of the cast (poor Minkus, Type 1) to do it.

** *Which may explain why he was cast as Topanga’s father Jedidiah in early episodes of ''[[Boy Meets World]]''.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' featured the literally short-lived Principal Flutie as another male version of the trope. After some possessed students ate him (he finally found the gumption to threaten them with detention just before dying), he was replaced by the better-known [[Sadist Teacher|Principal Snyder]], who utters the immortal, 'That's the kind of woolly-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten,' (as opposed to what eventually happens to ''him'').

* ''[[Dollhouse]]'': Caroline of is a fine example of the trope. Her heart is arguably in the right place, but her pushy attitude and reckless lack of planning result in {{spoiler|her boyfriend's death as well as the maiming of her friend's arm}}. One gets the impression that she's intended to come across as far more sympathetic than she actually does.

* Leo from ''[[That '70s Show]]'' could be an example of this because he's an older hippy stoner who refuses to grow up, although the fact that the show is set in the 70's makes this a moot point. Though it helps that this character is played by Tommy Chong!

* Lisa in ''[[Six Feet Under]]'' qualifies : " (Lisa) I don't go to the movies. Film is processed with gelatin. Gelatin comes from horses' hooves. (Claire) I didn't know that. (Lisa) Most people don't. Hence the global slavery of animals."

 

* As described by [[Beck (musician)|Beck]] in "Nitemare Hippy Girl":

* Mary Moon, the eponymous "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEDw9xgSmSc New Age Girl]" from the song by Deadeye Dick, featured in ''[[Dumb and Dumber]]''.

* [[Tim Minchin]]'s nine-minute beat poem [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0W7Jbc_Vhw "Storm"] describes his encounter with and ensuing verbal smackdown of a Granola Girl called Storm.

 

* ''[[Dykes to Watch Out For]]'': Most of the main characters (with the distinct exception of Sydney) are distinctly on this end of the spectrum compared to mainstream Middle America, with Sparrow starting off as the most so. Ironically, in the strip's latter days the biggest Granola Girl is the main ''male'' character, Stuart.

* Sky from ''[[Chelsea Boys]]'' is a Granola Boy full stop. Vegetarian, idealist, does his yoga every day, raised on a hippie commune in Canada, the list goes on...

* Andrea "Andy" Fox from [[FoxTrot]] is an exaggerated version of this making things like Eggplant brownies.

 

 

* Leaf Coneybear from ''[[The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee]]'' is a male example of this. He's homeschooled and makes his own clothes.

* Astrov, from Chekhov's ''[[Uncle Vanya]]'' might qualify as a male example, possibly making this trope [[Older Than Radio]]!

 

 

* All the Elves of ''[[Overlord|Overlord II]]'' fit this trope, being whiny hippies and ineffectual [[Hero Antagonist]]s to the [[Villain Protagonist]], earning themselves a lot of harsh one-liners from your [[Evil Chancellor]] Gnarl. Their main concern is saving fluffy and magical creatures from either [[The Empire]] or you, since you're a being of dark magic with Florian Greenheart being a consistent annoyance towards you {{spoiler|in an impressive act of [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]}}.

* Annie Frazier of the ''[[Backyard Sports]]'' series.

* ''[[The Conduit]]'': Talk radio host Autumn Wanderer, who thinks the game's alien invasion is due to a misunderstanding by the angry, male-dominated government.

* A common character in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]''. Despite their outspoken pacifism, hippies (male and female) are often enemies. Since they don't bathe, their attacks revolve around their body odor. NPC hippies are usually friendly, but out of their minds.

* [[An Ice Person|Thetis]] from ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent'' is definitely a non-comical version of this trope. He is young boy not much younger than [[The Hero|Grey]]...[[Well-Intentioned Extremist|WHO WANTS TO DESTROY ALL OF HUMANITY]] [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|FOR DARING TO POLLUTE THE OCEAN.]]

 

 

* Aggie of ''[[Penny and Aggie]].''

* Monique of ''[[Sinfest]]'' fame is attempting to become one after an encounter with Barack Obama. Sadly for her she is [[Cursed with Awesome]] in that her own sex appeal tends to trip her up, putting her on the Devil's radar.

* Tajel of ''[[PHD]]''.

* ''[[Head Trip]]'' got an [http://headtrip.keenspot.com/d/20110131.html Evian Girl].

 

 

* ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'': Sheena, who is a health-nut and hates violence of any kind. Helga even lampshades it at one point: "That's it granola girl, you're dismissed!"

* ''[[Family Guy]]'': Satirized mercilessly in the episode where Death is attracted to a girl who works at the pet store. When he finally asks her out, he discovers to his horror that she says inane things like "you can't hug a child with nuclear arms" and, well, he's [[The Grim Reaper]], what do ''you'' [[Touch of Death|think he does]]? Followed by a [[Check, Please!]].

* Jenny from ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]''.

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:All the Tropes Superhero Team]]

[[Category:The Sixties]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]