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Horrible Camping Trip (view source)

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{{quote|''"Maybe if I die, I won't have to go."''|'''[[Garfield]]'''}}
 
Simply put, several members of the cast go on a camping trip, and disaster ensues. This plot is sometimes used even in situations where the characters do not live anywhere near the wilderness, nor seem the type who would even go on camping trips or have any experience doing so. In fact, you can guarantee that out of a whole group only one person will even think the trip is a good idea: Dad (if it's a family [[Sit ComSitcom]]) or the guy who remembers doing it as a kid it with rose-colored glasses.
 
Typical disasters include being snowed in, freezing in a cabin, never-ending rain, running out of food, or getting attacked by incredibly fake-looking bears (or Bigfoot. Or [[Everything Trying to Kill You|every animal]].). It would seem much safer to go to a lodge to avoid such things, but that's not usually in the budget. It's much cheaper to use an old wood cabin set, or dark set obscured by bushes where the camera never moves away from a campfire. An even cheaper device is characters going ''ice fishing'', sometimes ''in'' said cabin.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* Episode 8 of ''[[Persona 4: (Anime)The Animation|Persona 4]]'' takes the game's school camping trip and turns it into this. [[Up to Eleven]]. [[Broken Base|And it breaks the fanbase over whether]] [[Crosses the Line Twice|it's funny]] [[Dude, Not Funny|or not.]] (Though there's no doubt about how much [[Butt Monkey|it sucks to be Kanji]].)
 
== [[Film]] ==
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* One of the ''[[Berenstain Bears]]'' books details a horrible camping trip that's tainted not only with everything imaginable from floods to swarms of insects, but [[Hype Backlash]]. (Papa bear spends the first third of the book hyping the trip up to be the experience of a lifetime)
* Outdoor humorist [[Patrick McManus]], who has written for such magazines as ''Field & Stream'' and ''Outdoor Life'' and whose pieces have appeared in numerous books, more or less specializes in chronicling bad camping/fishing/hunting trips.
* [[Three Men in Aa Boat]] has elements of this.
* Charlie goes on one with his dad and friends in [[Stephen King]]'s (writing as Richard Bachman) ''[[Rage (Literaturenovel)|Rage]]''. He overhears his father discussing the Cherokee Nose Job with his friends (slitting the nose of an adulterous wife) and how he would do it to his own wife if she cheated on him.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'', "Strange New World"
* ''[[Happy Days]]'', "Ugh, Wilderness"
* ''[[Mr. Belvedere]]'': Wesley's trip to a summer camp takes a frightening turn when a camp counselor "rubs his shoulders" in an attempt to molest him. Fortunately, Wesley speaks up, and the counselor (who resigns) is forced to admit he has a problem and needs help.
* The trope image comes from ''[[Bottom]]'', ''s Out'', where Eddie remembers to bring the can opener but Richie forgets the canned ''food''; they attempt to go blowpipe hunting with a tentpole and darts, and Richie is repeatedly injured; Eddie almost burns his own face off while trying to light the gas stove (he forgot to put the valve in); and since Wimbledon Common is technically just a giant public park, they're harassed in the middle of the night by a flasher. Also, they appear to have set up camp in an area labelled 'dog toilet', meaning there's dogshit all over the place.
* Taken to the most extreme levels of parody in ''[[Stella]]'', as Michael, Michael and David descend into desperate savagery within minutes of entering the woods.
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', "The Jem'Hadar" where Sisko, his son Jake, Jake's best friend Nog and Nog's uncle go on a trip to a planet in the Gamma Quadrant, only to wind up encountering the Jem'Hadar forces of the Dominion (for the first time).
* ''[[The Adventures of Lano and Woodley]]'' subverts the trope- the camping trip in question is horrible, yes, but it takes place ''in the main characters' apartment''.
* The ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'' episode ''Countrycide''...with the twist that the camping trip is a stakeout in response to suspected alien activity. The 'alien' turns out be in fact a cannibalistic human family who nearly end up killing and eating most of the cast.
* ''[[Top Gear]]''. Most of their long-distance "challenges" invariably feature something along this line.
* ''[[Taxi]]'': the episode "Call of the Mild".
* ''[[Skins]]'' did this a couple of times.
** "Michelle" from Series 2: Chris loses all the tents and most of the gear because he didn't tie it to the roof of the car; the only remaining tent then gets soaked when the tide comes in; and the car they came in also gets flooded by the tide. Oh, and [[Rule of Drama|drama ensues]].
** "Effy" from Series 3 is a rather [[Egregious]] example: there's a large amount of awkward tension between several of the characters ''before'' the poachers, [[Mushroom Samba|and the shrooms]], and the univited guest shows up. Oh, and the [[Manipulative Bitch|manipulative bitch]] gets [[Break the Haughty|hit over the head with a rock]] by the main character, who [[Sanity Slippage|finally loses it]].
* In ''[[Hyperdrive]]'' Vines is tricked into purchasing a barren planet that is almost, but not quite, completely inhospitable to human life. He kidnaps Jeffers and drags them down onto the surface of the planet, it wasn't a pleasant time.
* In one episode of ''[[Monk]]'', Randy Disher and Adrian Monk go camping with a group of kids. They have to deal with a bear and two criminals.
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* ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'', "Camping". Leslie sends the parks department on a camping retreat to come up with new projects. Ironically, everyone in the parks department save for Ron and Leslie hate camping. Tom brings so many electronic gadgets he drains the van's battery, stranding everyone, while Andy goes to the wrong camping site and has to trek through rough terrain to get there. In the end they all go to a nearby bed and breakfast run by a [[Crazy Cat Lady]].
** A later episode showed Ron and Leslie taking their respective children's clubs (she started a girls club after the other one said it was boys only) out camping. Leslie has a comfortable cabin and a variety of activities, while Ron has them sit silently in the open, eating cold beans with their activity being "survive". It doesn't take too long for one of the boys to decide he'd rather be a Pawnee Goddess. Ron eventually hands over his club to Leslie, but she places an advertisement for boys and girls who are interested in survivalist camping.
* [[Married... Withwith Children]]: The Bundys/Rhodes spend a week in a cabin. No food, wild animals keep them inside...and the women are all "cycling".
** Bud rents Al to some neighborhood kids for an overnight campout. No food, can't build a real fire, and Steve gets massive poison ivy.
* In one episode of [[Two and A Half Men]], Alan feels bad about not doing enough father-son activities with his son Jake, so he drags him out into the middle of the woods for a camping trip. Cue Alan desperately trying to entertain the bored Jake in a tiny tent, including making an attempt at a truly horrible [[Ghost Story]] and getting him to sing songs.
* In ''[[The Middle]]'', the Hecks go on a camping trip during summer vacation, since Frankie wants them to have a family bonding experience and they can't afford anything else. Axl gets fed up with Sue constantly pestering him about what high school will be like, Brick spends as much time as he can reading instead of actually experiencing the great outdoors, and Mike and Frankie reflect on how their honeymoon was ''also'' a [[Horrible Camping Trip]]. To top it off, Sue gets [[No Periods, Period|her first period]] during the night, which attracts a [[Everything's Worse Withwith Bears|nearby bear]] and forces everyone to seek shelter in the car. [[My Car Hates Me|They can't even escape from the bear by driving away]], since Brick had inadvertently drained the car's battery by keeping the dome light on for hours so he could read by it.
 
== Music ==
* Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah ([[Refrain From Assuming|A Letter From Camp]]) by Alan Sherman is the classic example. However, at the end of the song, [[It Gets Better|it stops raining]]. Gee, dat's bettah!
* The [[Yes (Music)|Yes]] song "South Side of the Sky" sounds like it's obliquely describing something like this.
 
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[MegamanMega Man Battle Network]] 2'', Lan decides to go on a camping trip with his friends out of boredom. First, they run into a swarm of bees. After dealing with that, they soon run into a [[Everything Is Online|malfunctioning electronic bear]] in which Lan sends Megaman.EXE to go delete the virus that is causing it to malfunction. Finally, they find themselves in the middle of an internet terrorist plot to blow up the nearby Okuden dam.
** Rehashed in Magnetman/Knightman's chapter in ''Battle Network 5'', with a fishing trip, a cave, and a ''giant'' [[This Is a Drill|mining drill]].
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The aftermath of a [[Horrible Camping Trip]] interferes with the game in this [[Full Frontal Nerdity]] [http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn/index.php?date=2003-07-16 strip].
* One is ''planned'' in ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', when the teachers take the students out into the woods in the rain. Then [[Training Accident|pretend there's an emergency]] and retreat to their luxurious home while something lurks in the woods. The kids quickly figured out it's "the kind of thing adults would do to make a trip more interesting" and devised a counter plan... Among them were at least two fledgling [[Mad Scientist|mad scientists]] and three magic users ''known'' to us. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* Ben and his family from ''[[Loserz]]'' once go on such a trip. Maybe not as bad as other examples on this page, although [[Everything's Worse Withwith Bees|bees]] are still involved.
* Lampshaded in [http://www.applegeeks.com/lite/index.php?aglitecomic=2010-03-29 this] ''[[Apple Geeks]]-Lite'' strip.
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'', "Hut Sut Raw"
* ''[[FostersFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', "Camp Keep a Good Mac Down", where in the time it takes to walk from the camp to the campsite, Bloo eats all of the food, then finds blueberries. On the way back to the campsite he eats them all to test that they're safe, then drinks all of their water trying to wash the taste out. Herriman's no help either, keeping the others from putting up a tent by repeatedly criticizing every inconsequential detail and then having them tear it down.
* ''[[Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi]]'', "Camping Caper"
* ''[[Kim Possible]]'', "Camp Wannaweep", after their bus breaks down. Ron saves the Cheersquad from a mutant human/fish-monster.
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** In the survival episode where Spongebob and Patrick fall out of the back of Sandy's truck and must fend for themselves.
** In the episode with the conch shell where Spongebob and Patrick do fine, but because Squidward doesn't believe in the powers of the conch shell, he's not allowed to eat anything.
* In the ''[[Ka Blam!]]'' episode "The KaBlair! With Project", Henry, June, Mr. Stockdale, Mr. Foot, Henry's mom and Jimmy McGee go on a company camping trip, but they hear the loud roar of a [[Everything's Worse Withwith Bears|bear]] and Mr. Foot freaks out and escapes in the camper, leaving everyone else stranded. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* ''[[Hey Arnold]]!'' has two horrible camping trips:
** In "Roughin' It," Arnold and Gerald are taught by Grandpa Phil camping the old-fashioned way, much to their chagrin. Meanwhile at a adjacent camping spot, Helga and Phoebe live high on the hog as Big Bob Pataki tests out the high-tech (but cheap) camping gear that he plans to sell. When the gear fails the kids and Big Bob during a hike in the woods, Arnold saves the day by applying the survival skills Phil taught him earlier to get back to camp.
** In "Fishing Trip," Gerald, Sid, Harold, and Eugene (and their dads), Arnold and Grandpa Phil head to the woods for a fishing trip. After failing to catch any fish and losing their provisions to a bear (except for [[Fartillery|cans of beans]]), the boys (and their fathers/grandfather) are all miserable, but refuse to tell the others for fear of disappointing them. After much suffering, they finally admit this to each other and decide to to to the nearby resort for a not-so-back-to-nature trip. (Oh, and [[Cameo|Davy Jones has a cameo at the end of the episode]].)
* [[Jimmy Neutron]], his friends, and his dad went camping in the episode "Augh! Wilderness". Unfortunately, his dad won't let Jimmy bring his gadgets and want to rough it. After an explosion, it gets worse.
* In the ''[[The Flintstones|Flintstones]]''/''[[Bewitched (TV)|Bewitched]]'' crossover this was played straight for Fred and Barney. Not so much for Wilma, Betty and Sam, who got a little help from Sam's magic.
* [[Moral Orel]] has Orel going on the worst camping trip ever with his father resulting in what was the darkest episode of the show. [[It Got Worse|And then it just got darker...]]
** Let's put it like this: {{spoiler|The culminating moment was when his father, in a drunken rage, ''shot Orel in the leg''. Then drank the rubbing alcohol that could have kept Orel's leg from getting worse. Then passed out for two days while Orel suffered. Then denied shooting Orel, saying that since he didn't remember it, it wasn't his fault. And was only concerned that Orel killed a bear rather than his son's well-being. And, months later, admitting (in front of the town no less) that he was ''glad'' he shot Orel.}} Yeah, it's that kind of show.
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* ''[[Family Matters]]''
* ''[[That 70s Show]]'', but they one up it and drop the ''car'' in the lake.
* ''[[Malcolm in Thethe Middle]]'' has an example where they're trapped in the shed by a bear.
* ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]'' features the fishing pole being dropped in the water. They get it back when Teddy falls in the hole.
 
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