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{{trope}}
[[File:His eyes sparkled like yours.jpg|thumb]]
{{quote|''"I worked forty years as a fireman, boy / On the Pennsylvania line / And I ended up / just a derelict / Drinkin' Boone's Farm apple wine / Oh where can a bum find bed and board? / When you gonna make it stop rainin' lord?"''|'''Warren Zevon''', '''"Stop Rainin' Lord"'''}}
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Having been everywhere, seen everything and met everyone, hobos are full of tall tales and song — not to mention sage advice. Some may claim to have been men of status (i.e., mayors or heavyweight champs) brought low by dumb luck, while others willfully renounced the stationary life. Both varieties of hobo will recount his story in detail, if you have the time.
These regents of the rails are never far from train tracks and almost always carry [[Bindle Stick
Unlike street persons or the colloquial bum, hobos prefer rural settings, rarely panhandle, and generally conduct their affairs with some sense of dignity and etiquette. Newcomers to hoboism are often adopted by old timers and taught to observe some variety of "The Hobo's Code". When and how a hobo receives his nickname is unclear, but every hobo has one — it's usually "Boxcar" something.
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== [[Film]] ==
* The heroes in ''[[O Brother, Where Art Thou?]]'' are not hobos, but they briefly encounter some while attempting to sneak aboard a moving train. They still steal pies, though.
** They ''pay'' for the pies by replacing the pie with money held down with a rock.
* The film ''[[Emperor of the North]]'', set in the 1930s, depicts the brutal battle between a sadistic train conductor and a legendary hobo nicknamed A#1. (A rare example of a realistic depiction of the hobo life in a Hollywood production.)
* In ''[[
* In the closing section of ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'', Jules declares his intention to quit his job as a hitman, leave [[Los Angeles]] and "[[Walking the Earth|walk the earth]]" in the style of Caine from ''[[Kung Fu]]''. His partner, Vincent, responds that he would be nothing more than a bum. {{spoiler|Better a live bum than getting shot up in the toilet.}}
* ''[[Hobo
* ''[[Pee
* ''[
* Any of [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s Little Tramp films.
== [[Literature]] ==
* The novel ''[[Sixth Column (
** Old blind Rhysling, the Singer of the Spaceways in Heinlein's ''[[The Green Hills
* George and Lennie from ''[[
** Spoofed by [[Tex Avery]] as hobo bears George and Junior.
* The climax of ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'' has {{spoiler|literary hobos}} after Montag {{spoiler|escapes the Mechanical Hound by jumping in a river}}. It is later revealed that these are all {{spoiler|former English professors and stuff; they're keeping the books in their heads until contemporary society crumbles}}.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The Second Doctor from ''[[
* It seems to be a running gag in ''[[
** In "iEnrage Gibby", Carly even has a "hobo party" where everyone dresses up a hobo!
*** And the endless hobo gags have been so overused by [[Dan Schneider]] by this point that one troper is beginning to think it's used only because he thinks the word sounds funny.
*** In pretty much ''all'' of his works, too. He actually offered [https://web.archive.org/web/20131003095646/http://danwarp.blogspot.com/2002/09/hobo-definition.html a definition for the term and how it's different than just 'homeless'] in a blog post.
* Dave Attell encountered one on his show ''[[Insomniac
* [[Mad Men|Don Draper]] had a life-changing encounter with a hobo, as he [[Flash Back|remembers]] in the episode: "The Hobo Code."
== [[Music]] ==
* "Big Rock Candy Mountain" is a humorous folk song describing a fictional hobo paradise. One version ends on this deeply cynical note:
{{quote|
And said to the jocker, Sandy,
I've hiked and hiked and wandered, too,
But I ain't seen any candy.
I've hiked and hiked till my feet are sore
And I'll be damned if I hike any more
To be buggered sore like a hobo's whore
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains. }}
* [[Captain Beefheart]]'s song "Orange Claw Hammer" is told from the perspective of a delirious old sailor who is "on the bum where the hobos run". Also note the song "Hobo Chang Ba", from the same album: [[Trout Mask Replica]].
* "Hobo Jungle" by [[The Band]] is a song about the death of an old hobo.
* "Waltzing Mathilda" is the Australian version. It comes from a wave of German immigrants who brought with them some of their habits, such as nicknaming their awesome [[Great Coat]] Mathilda. A German swagman would refer to himself as "Auf der waltz mit mein Mathilda" (on the walk with my Mathilda), with all his belongings (swag) wrapped up in his coat.
* "King of the Road" by [[Roger Miller]] describes (in the first person) an early-20th century hobo who travels from city to city on overnight freight trains:
{{quote|''Third boxcar, midnight train''
''Destination Bangor, Maine''
''Old, worn out suit and shoes''
''I don't pay no union dues''
''I smoke old stogies I have found''
''Short, but not too big around''
''I'm a man of means by no means''
''King of the road''}}
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'' basically has you playing [[Frankenstein's Monster|Frankensteinian]] hobos, whose [[Blessed
* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' allows player characters to choose "hobo" as an occupation.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' game ''[[Penny Arcade Adventures]]: On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness'' featured an entire area called Hobo Alley. Of course, the portrayal of hobos was not exactly of the "Walking Americana" variety.
* Likewise, near the end of the video game ''[[
* The homeless are... interesting in [[Ryu ga Gotoku|Yakuza]]. They seem to be considered relatively noble, with a tight-knit community and {{spoiler|pretty much act as a secret army for the information dealer Kage the Florist.}}
* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' actually has various hobos as enemies, most notably in the [[Bonus Dungeon]] "Hobopolis", and in a [[Shout
* In ''[[
* In the web-game ''Hobo Wars'', the entire point is to be a hobo.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Sonny]]'', you encounter two of these in succession on an old train that your party hijacks to escape a mountain village. The first one's a zombie, while the second is an actual human hobo. The second fight is handled in a slightly Anvilicious way, where [[What the Hell, Hero?|one of your party members calls you out after realizing on the second party turn that your foe's not a zombie]] (the anitheroic player character's response about not wanting to part with money not helping his case), in addition to the hobo having reduced max HP in comparison to the first and status ailments whose descriptions reflect the many negatives of hobo life inflicted upon him as the battle wears on.
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* In the webcomic ''[[Guttersnipe]]'', set in a [[The Theme Park Version|Theme Park Version]] ''of'' a Theme Park Version of the Great Depression, hobos have become so numerous that they have taken over the entire center third of the nation, succeeding to become a sovereign nation called 'Hobotopia.' Hobos are depicted as a roaming barbarian tribe, armed with spears and wearing nothing but loin cloths and the obligatory battered top hats.
* ''[[Hijinks Ensue]]'' features Boxcar Pete, a hobo who for some strange reason wears a monocle and [[Talk Like a Pirate|talks like a pirate]].
* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Simpsons (
** In "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" (1992), we learn that Homer's brother Herb went from Detroit bigshot to hobo after trusting Homer to design a new car.
*** In the DVD commentary of the episode creator Matt Groening said "John Swartzwelder '''loves''' hobos!"
** In ""Homer Bad Man" (1994), the family's babysitter choices have been narrowed down between a grad student and a "scary-looking hobo". Bart hopes for the hobo.
** In "The Homer They Fall" (1996), Homer competes in Springfield's hobo boxing circuit, fighting Switchyard Sam and Boxcar Ira on his road to the title bout. As his trainer, Moe warns Homer that his opponents are "hungry fighters" in that they're only fighting to get a meal.
** In "Kill the Alligator and Run" (2000), Bart asks if their Everglades tour guide has any hobo chunks to throw to the alligators.
** In "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" (2000), Nelson claims that Springfield Elementary science classes are dissecting frozen hobos. And he's got the [[Bindle Stick|bindles]] to prove it.
** In a [[Something Completely Different]] episode "Simpsons Tall Tales" (2001), a hobo explains that there are two kinds of hobos, stabbing and singing, and calls non-hobos ''no-bos''. He works on a strict pricing plan: one story, one spongebath.
{{quote|
** Marge once asked when they became the bottom rung of society and Homer tells her "I think it was when that cold snap [[Throwaway Country|killed off all the hobos]]."
** A Halloween episode where Homer becomes Death has Lisa demonstrating his job to her class on a hobo they brought in with the promise of a meal.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[Real Life]]: Several famous Americans were hobos in their youth, including actors [[Clark Gable]] and Robert Mitchum, writers [[
** Though closely connected to the American railways, a looser definition of hoboism requires only: transience, moochery, troubles with local authorities, and a habit of spontaneous narration. As such, hobos have a whole canon of nicknamed saints to inspire them, including "[[
** The singer/historian/activist U. Utah Phillips was long famous in both American left-wing and folk-music circles for preserving the lore and history of hobos and their ethic.
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[[Category:Always Male]]
[[Category:The Great Depression]]
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