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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"}}
Hobos are either homeless people viewed through an industrial-strength [[Nostalgia Filter]] or living Americana: [[The Drifter|freewheeling folks]], usually men, who for any number of reasons live a [[Perpetual Poverty|wealth-free life]], stowing away on freight trains and [[Walking the Earth|moving from town to town]] looking for campfires and a good can of beans. [[The Great Depression]] [[The Theme Park Version|Theme Park]] isn't complete without these boxcar barons.
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'''Note:''' This applies only to hobos ''as a trope''. [[Real Life]] hobos allegedly prefer to think of themselves as homeless travelers subsisting on odd jobs, whereas ''tramps'' travel without seeking work and ''bums'' do neither. We've yet to verify this with one of their rank, and note that calling a tramp or bum ''hobo'' elicits the same nonverbal response as calling him ''Gargamel''. (Unless his name is Gargamel.)
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[Kings In Disguise]]'' was serialized for years in ''[[Dark Horse Comics|Dark Horse Presents]]'' and later published in book form. It's a grim look at the desperate lives of hobos during the Great Depression, and brutally deconstructs the carefree popular image of the hobo.
* In [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]], [[Marvel Comics]] (then called Timely Comics, among other name changes) had a character variously called the Fighting Hobo or the Vagabond, who was a comical hobo who fought crime. These days it's panned as [[Values Dissonance|politically incorrect]] for glossing over the hardships of real hobos' lives.
* In ''[[The Goon]]'' Hobos appear as cannibalistic cavemen who have their own language. Their leader, the Hobo King may be a caricature of Woody Guthrie.
== [[Fan
* The ''[[
** Bonus points for one of them, Hobey, who was actually a [[Society Is to Blame|beggar]] before he joined the Undersite.
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* 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 with a Shotgun]]''
* ''[[Pee-wee's
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130813155104/http://billdaniel.net/projects/who-is-bozo-texino Who Is Bozo Texino?]'' documents filmmaker Bill Daniel's 16-year quest for the most famous boxcar artist in history.
* Any of [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s Little Tramp films.
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* In the short story "The Haunted Trailer" by Robert Arthur, the narrator finds his trailer haunted by the ghosts of three hobos.
== [[Live
* The Second Doctor from ''[[Doctor Who]]'' was basically a [[Recycled in Space|Space Hobo]].
* It seems to be a running gag in ''[[iCarly]]'' where hobos are found or mentioned as a joke.
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*** 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 with Dave Attell]]''. After referring to him as a hobo, the man corrected him: "I'm a tramp."
* ''[[Mad Men
== [[Music]] ==
* "Big Rock Candy Mountain" is a humorous folk song describing a fictional hobo paradise. One version ends on this deeply cynical note:
{{quote|''The punk rolled up his big blue eyes''
''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''}}
* The singer/narrator of [[Glen Campbell]]'s 1968 song [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfMnNqn-hKg "Gentle on my Mind"] is clearly a transient or hobo of some sort, although the woman he loves isn't; he mentions leaving his sleeping bag behind her couch, and eating soup from a cauldron in a rail yard.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'' basically has you playing [[Frankenstein's Monster|Frankensteinian]] hobos, whose [[Blessed with Suck|inherent attributes]] keep them on the move and outcast from society until they [[Become a Real Boy|become human]].
* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)|Call of Cthulhu]]'' allows player characters to choose "hobo" as an occupation.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* In one episode of [[Hanna-Barbera]]'s series of ''[[The Little Rascals]]'', Porky ran away and met an old hobo who called himself Boxcar Bill.
* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' mentions Hobos, as well... as an urban legend on par with the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot.
* The eponymous Baggypants in the obscure Depatie-Freleng series ''[[Baggypants And The Nitwits]]'' is explicitly described in the theme as "the hobo everyone knows." It may be because he's a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] version of [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s Little Tramp character.
* The [[Tex Avery]] characters George and Junior were often depicted as hoboes (no surprise, since they are based on Lenny and George from ''[[Of Mice and Men]]''). Their first cartoon was even titled "Henpecked Hoboes".
* In the early ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' short "Hobo Gadget Band", a band of hoboes enter a singing contest and win a big recording contract. They reject it for a life on the tracks.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
*
** 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 "[[Confucius]]" K'ung-fu-tzu, Siddhārtha "The Buddha" Gautama, [[Jesus]] "The Christ" of Nazareth, Paul "The Apostle" of Tarsus, etc.
** 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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