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{{quote|''"I don't have a cellphone. I just hang out with everyone I know, all the time. If someone wants to get hold of me, they can just say, 'Hey, Mitch,' and I will turn my head slightly and say, 'Yeah, what?'"''|'''[[Mitch Hedberg]]'''}}
{{quote|'''Vivian''': "Maybe we should call Carlton's friends."
'''Phil''': "Good idea. I'll call one, you call the other."|''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel
In some ensemble shows (especially the [[
In other ensemble shows, the main characters form a ''really'' tight social circle, so tight that it seems more like an exclusive club than a bunch of friends. Any other friends they have are never as close, and will inevitably be introduced to the entire group. The characters will panic if one of them hangs out with an outsider for too long, fearing that this will destroy the circle. Any gathering they attend consists of them and the [[Twenty
In still other ensemble shows, the main characters form a really, really, really tight social circle, so tight that other characters barely exist. Outsiders either vanish without a trace after one episode, [[Minor Flaw, Major Breakup|leave for petty reasons like "man hands"]], leave because they can never be part of the group, or are eternal enemies of the circle.
It's almost as if the main characters had some special criteria they use to exclude others, like whether the actor playing them gets top billing or not.
Most shows that have this make it an integral part of the show, or at least do a [[Lampshade Hanging]] about it.
Compare with [[Cool Loser]]. Possibly the result of an [[Economy Cast]] or [[Friendless Background]].
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Two of these exist in ''[[Kodomo
* In ''[[Magical Project S]]'', both Misao and Sasami (despite the second being supposedly more social) only hang out with each other and their parents.
* In ''[[Ranma
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' did this too. One early subtext for the television show alludes to each character's situation making it hard for them to make friends, despite later seasons having them meet new people every few episodes; most of the new people they met were [[Victim of the Week|Victims Of The Week]] who never showed up in more than one episode. The only normal friends any of them have are Naru and Umino.
** Usagi seemed to have a broader social circle in the first season, especially if you count her family and teacher. Almost all of these characters were reduced to one token appearance per season (if they showed up at all) from season 2 onward, with the senshi hanging out with each other pretty much exclusively. This is reinforced by the fact that almost every episode has them becoming good friends with the [[Victim of the Week]] but after the episode ends, said person is never seen or heard from again.
** One episode during the opening [[Filler]] arc of ''Sailor Moon R'' made this especially apparent. The episode has the cast decide to put on a play. No thought was given to casting anybody from outside of the five Sailor Senshi, Mamoru, Naru, Umino, and the two unknown villains.
* [[Clark Kenting|Problematic]] in ''[[
* ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]''. No one appears to have any friends outside the SOS Brigade except Kyon (who has [[Those Two Guys|exactly two]]) and Mikuru, whose friend Tsuruya pretty much gets honorary SOS Brigade membership. Somewhat justified in that Haruhi's an abrasive [[Cloudcuckoolander]], Kyon actively seeks boredom, and the rest of the Brigade is technically just there to keep an eye on those two (though they warm up to each other eventually), and have [[Artificial Human|various]] [[Fish Out of Temporal Water|other]] [[New Transfer Student|issues]] that mean they lack any pre-existing social circles.
* ''[[
** Then again, most of those characters aren't the type to ''have'' wide social circles. Sakaki tends to scare people away by accident, Osaka lives in her own little world, and Tomo is lucky she doesn't get punched out more often.
* In [[Mahou Sensei Negima]], friends that are not directly related to Ala Alba fade in importance until they're barely there at all. It's also noted in story by some of the other classmates feeling somewhat alienated. Ala Alba ''is'' actually an exclusive club, though.
* In ''[[
* Hinagiku, Miki, Risa and Izumi of ''[[
** Isumi, Nagi, Wataru and Sakuya share the same dynamic, being childhood friends, they are hinted to have grown up together, mostly because their parents were all friends/family as well, and have limited interaction with anyone else. Isumi is a [[Cloudcuckoolander]], Wataru spends all his time not at school trying to keep his business running, and Sakuya goes to another school supposedly. Nagi started off being a [[Hikikomori]] but has begun to start expanding her social circle because of Hayate's influence.
* The characters of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
* ''[[The Idolmaster (
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* Averted by ''[[Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane]]'' - although the story focuses mainly on Mary Jane and her 'inner circle' of close friends, it's often established that Mary Jane herself is a popular and well-liked girl, so we will often see panels of her chatting to her other friends, some of whom (including a goth girl called Jessica) recurringly pop up every so often.
** Played straighter with Mary Jane in the main comics. While some writers will remember to have her hang out with someone whom isn't Peter or someone she knows through Peter like a fellow actress or model, a lot forget. The [[Fridge Logic]] sets in when you begin to wonder why someone as outgoing as she is knows so few people.
* Any number of superheroes especially in their personal lives. Clark Kent, for example, doesn't seem to have any male friends at all. He's shown occasionally socializing with Jimmy or Ron Troupe, but its not a close association. Everyone else is his various ex girlfriends, relatives, or coworkers. Even as Superman, his only close friends are Batman and Wonder Woman (he's much more formal with pretty much any other hero.)
* At the beginning, ''[[
* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in ''[[
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* [[Tamora Pierce]]'s set of four foster siblings refer to themselves as [[Circle of Magic|a circle]], get annoyed if one of them tries to make a [[Love Interest]] as a part of "the circle," and defensively mention that it's okay to have friends outside of "us."
* The ''[[Babysitters Club]]'' became like this in later books but the early ones had them having friends outside the club.
* Similarly, most of the [[
* Most of the main cast of ''[[
== [[Live
* ''[[Friends]]'' is probably the most obvious example; the six friends barely seem to know anybody other than their families and each other. And their [[Girl of the Week]], of course.
** This was [[Lampshaded]] in one episode. The main characters are all hanging out at Monica's apartment when someone knocks at the door. Everyone is stunned for a moment, and Phoebe actually counts to make sure that, yes, they're all already there. No one says anything out loud, but you can tell they're all thinking, "If we're all here, who the hell is at the door!?"
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** Yet another time, when Chandler suggests to Joey, Phoebe and Monica they have a surprise party for Rachel 'and invite all her close friends', Joey just has to yell to Ross in the bathroom...and they're all invited.
** Another episode has Chandler, making up an excuse to leave, say he's going to meet up with some friends. When he's gone, a confused Joey asks, "He has other friends?"
* ''[[Seinfeld]]'' had the same scenario as ''[[Friends]]''. There was nobody outside the foursome whom they could
** This was even [[Lampshade Hanging|pointed out]] in one episode:
{{quote|
'''Jerry''': Except you don't have any black friends. And outside of me, Kramer, and Elaine, you don't have any white friends either. }}
** Kramer occasionally makes reference to other friends of his. When Jerry asks [[He Who Must Not Be Seen|why they've never met these friends]], Kramer shoots back that his other friends wonder why they have never met Jerry.
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* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' has a cross-clique cast. Up until Season 4 there were only two grades of importance. Since then there was always one empty grade, which lacked any sort of main cast to it. However the cast can be friends with just about anyone in the opening titles, or at least aware of their lives. Which is odd given the size of the school.
* On ''[[Psych]]'', none of the characters are exactly social butterflies. It becomes more explicit in one episode when Shawn and Juliet leave town briefly. Gus, Lassiter, and Henry are left sitting around and catching up on grocery shopping. They even all bump into each other while shopping and have a conversation that amounts to "We're busy this weekend, right guys? We totally have friends who aren't Shawn or Juliet!"
* ''[[Buffy]]'' is another example of this trope. It was partly explained away in-show in the early seasons by many plots turning on the fact that Buffy and her friends were unpopular and socially ostracized by their fellow high school students. After the gang graduated from high school, the show did a [[Story Arc]] based on the supposed dissolution of the gang, only to inevitably bring them all back together having learnt [[An Aesop]] about the value of their friendship.
** In fact, after the "Core Four" characters (Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles) were established in the first episode, any new cast members were almost invariably love interests of the original characters. The only exceptions were Dawn (we'll just say she was adopted and leave it at that) and Spike (at first) because a super-strong vampire ally is too useful to turn down.
*** In addition, almost all of the love interests were inevitably connected to the supernatural in some way, or at least more strongly aware of Sunnydale's proclivity for vampires. Inviting true [[Muggles]] into their business usually [[Victim of the Week|ends badly]].
** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in one episode where Buffy invites Sophie, a friend from work, to her birthday party.
{{quote|
'''Anya:''' Really? Um, what's Sophie's last name?
'''Buffy:''' ''(pause)'' Okay, shut up. }}
** Lampshaded again in "Flooded". When someone calls Buffy at the house, she wonders aloud, "Who's calling me? Everyone I know lives here."
* ''[[
** Not to mention the fact that the mayor also doubles as the town's librarian, school principal, postmaster, banker, shopkeeper, etc. Presumably because the rest of the town's citizens are too ''lazy'' to do their jobs.
** Sportacus also seems be the only form of law enforcement in the town, though the only people who ever seem to get into trouble are the other eight main characters.
** ''[[
* Somewhat [[Justified Trope|justified]] in ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'': Robin's from Canada and only recently moved to New York at the start of the series and, because he threw away his life before 2001, the only people that Barney knows other that the [[Girl of the Week|girls he sleeps with]] are his work buddies. We know Marshall has law buddies, but, except for Brad in a couple of episodes, we don't see them regularly enough. However, we rarely see one of Lily or Ted's friends outside the circle, and we aren't really given a reason why.
** We've seen one of Lily's friends. When they're together they revert to the way they acted when they were closest.
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* ''[[Coupling]]''. In the first episode the two main characters have their partner (the other main character), one close friend, and their ex. The two circles combine, giving them each another friend. (When Jeff gets [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|replaced]] by Oliver, he brings in ''his'' ex, but it's still a very small circle.) It's particularly strange in Susan's case because, while Steve and Patrick become good friends, Susan doesn't even ''like'' Jane but they hang together a lot.
* The four main male characters of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' seem to hang out constantly. Although they do interact with neighbors, colleagues, family, and the occasional romantic interest, they seem to be one another's only friends. (But then, [[Truth in Television|they are geeks...]])
** Because of the way the show is set up, it often seems like they have ''more'' friends than the supposedly cooler Penny, whose friends seem to mainly consist of [[Twenty
*** '''Penny''' has several friends, she just doesn't like them to meet the geeks (not even her geek boyfriend, especially when watching football). Many of her female girlfriends are named and briefly introduced, usually to temporarily match one of the geeks. '''Sheldon''' explicitly limited his friends cap to four person, because he doesn't care to waste energy on five or more. The other three seems to have no other friends at all (ignoring recurring minor characters), for no explained reason. Other than being annoying wimps, obviously.
* Justified for most of the main cast in ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' - Ned has long been fairly aloof, Emerson is grumpy and Chuck spent most of her life taking care of shut-ins, but it seems weird that Olive doesn't appear to have any other friends. Admittedly, her personality might be a little bit much for some, but you'd think there'd be plenty of others who'd find her charming.
** Well, she seems to be in reasonably good terms with her old jockey pals.
* The ''[[Power Rangers]]'' especially in [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers|the original series]], never seem to hang out with anyone except each other, and especially in the early seasons never seem to even ''talk'' to any civilians on a regular basis aside from Ernie the juice bar guy and Bulk and Skull. Anyone else they crossed paths with would be a one-off character who they would rescue from the bad guys and then never see again.
** This was especially ridiculous because the Rangers as originally written were supposedly some of the coolest kids in school (even Billy, somehow) yet they didn't seem to have any friends outside of their [[Five
* During the first two seasons of ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' the characters all seemed to have large social circles (except for Dan, but you don't get the nickname Lonely Boy for nothing). In season three the social circles for the members of the [[True Companions|Non-Judging Breakfast Club]] seem to have shrunk down to just the four of them (well, Nate also hangs out with Dan, but that still makes it a limited circle). In the later half of the season this is lampshaded when Blair heads off for a fashion show where she has "thirty friends attending", causing Nate to turn to Serena and ask: "What, what friends?"
* ''[[
* On ''[[Victorious]]'', if a student in an episode besides Tori, Cat, Jade, Andre, Beck or Robbie (and occasionally Trina or Sinjin) has a major part, it's a safe bet you ain't gonna be seeing that student again.
* Done to the extreme on ''[[The X-Files]]''; the social circle consists pretty much of Mulder and Scully. Gravitating around them are the Lone Gunmen and Skinner. And that's pretty much it. Scully is seen initially to have at least one friend outside of her work, but she is never seen after that episode. Mulder is a loner by nature. This makes sense, though. With their 24/7 jobs, the danger that surrounds them, and the implausibility of their work, what friend outside the tight social group would believe them or stick around?
* Taken to an equal extreme on ''[[In Plain Sight]]'', when Marshall and Mary's social circles consist of . . . Marshall and Mary. Over the years, the rises and falls a little bit. Raph and Bobby D join and leave. Abigail hovers at the edges. Stan joins and seems to stick. Even lampshaded by Brandi, who's frantic that she has no guests to invite to her wedding.
{{quote|
Mary: Marshall. I don't know, Stan, maybe? }}
...
{{quote|
* On ''[[Leverage]]'', the crew seems to entirely make up the character's social circles. Explicitly discussed in a recent episode. Apparently, outside the [[True Companions]] Elliot has some old military buddies, Hardison has some online friends, Sophie has a fellow grifter or two, Parker is experimenting with "normal person stuff" with her sole friend, and Nate . . . well, Nate has his ex-wife. So, at max, two or three non-[[True Companions]] friends total.
* ''[[NCIS]]'' doesn't feature a lot of friends outside of work. Their [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|quirky]], [[True Companions|close knit]], [[Married to
* ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' had [[Heterosexual Life Partners]] Cory and Shawn and Cory's girlfriend Topanga. The later seasons saw the expansion of the social circle when Angela, Jack, and Rachel were added, and Eric went from just being Cory brother to being part of their social circle.
* ''[[
* The study group of ''[[
* Played ridiculously straight on [[Saved
* [[Freaks and Geeks]] is a rare example of this trope being played in a [[Truth in Television|realistic manner]]. Both the Freaks and the Geeks are very close-knit but also regularly interact and have casual friendships with other
* ''[[Inspector Lynley
== [[Web Comics]] ==▼
▲== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Misfile]]'' Ash and Emily's social circle is basically each other and one drunken angel. It's expanded slightly since it was [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in [http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=513 this comic] but not by much.
** Justified. They're both so disoriented from the misfile that they basically lose track of their other friends. Ash can't stand facing people she used to know now that she's a girl, and Emily is pretty devastated by losing two years, so hanging out with her friends (who are getting accepted to college) is too painful.
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** Ironically, this trope still applies even though the webcomic has an astonishing [[Geodesic Cast]].
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
* ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron:
▲== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[Ed, Edd 'n
▲* [[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron (Animation)|Jimmy Neutron]] never really hung out with anyone beyond his group of four friends. It was lampshaded at least once when Carl and Sheen engaged in an Ultralord argument during one adventure, leaving Jimmy to grumble about needing to expand his circle of friends.
* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' and her [[Sidekick]] Ron are close friends since pre-school, but outside of each other they only have one close friend each (Monique for Kim, Felix for Ron) both of whom they meet during the series. Ron is established to be something at the bottom of the school "food chain", but Kim is established as quite friendly with everybody. However, despite being a [[All Guys Want Cheerleaders|cheerleader]] and A grade student, most of her interactions with the rest of the school are very much in the tone of an isolated leader (as captain of the cheer squad, and a thousand other commitments), as her [[Wake Up, Go to School, Save
▲* In ''[[Ed, Edd n Eddy|Ed, Edd, 'N Eddy]]'' there are only 12 characters in the series, Ed, Edd, Eddy, the Kanker Sisters, Kevin, Nazz, Rolf, Johnny, Jimmy, and Sarah, and Plank if you can call a piece of wood a character. In fact, this was [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the later seasons, when they go to school and there are no visible teachers or other students. They sometimes mention their parents but they are never seen.
* The [[Magical Girl
▲* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' and her [[Sidekick]] Ron are close friends since pre-school, but outside of each other they only have one close friend each (Monique for Kim, Felix for Ron) both of whom they meet during the series. Ron is established to be something at the bottom of the school "food chain", but Kim is established as quite friendly with everybody. However, despite being a [[All Guys Want Cheerleaders|cheerleader]] and A grade student, most of her interactions with the rest of the school are very much in the tone of an isolated leader (as captain of the cheer squad, and a thousand other commitments), as her [[Wake Up Go to School Save The World|continuously saving the world]] leaves her little time for the rest.
▲* The [[Magical Girl|Magical Girls]] in ''[[WITCH (Animation)|WITCH]]'' are close friends -- scarily close. There's only one other girl who they so much as talk to in the average episode, and she turns out to have powers too. They did some good [[Lampshade Hanging]] about it; in the second episode, Taranee notes that being a new girl in their circle is very uncomfortable, and they get into serious trouble because they never invite anybody else to join them for fun (except the [[Twenty Four Hour Party People]]).
** Possibly [[Justified Trope|justified]] as they have little time for socialization due their fight for Kandrakar (and its tendence to butt in what social life they still have). Also, Will suffers from trust issues (the reason being evident to anyone who read the comics), and is somewhat of a miracle that she ''has'' a social circle.
* In ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', [[Cool Loser|Danny]], [[Black and Nerdy|Tucker]], and [[Perky Goth|Sam]] only hang around with each other. The three are unpopular "losers" in their high school, but they rarely seem to interact with other Goths and Nerds and whatnot. The only person who joined their niche circle permentantly was Jazz (though Sam was most vocal against her joining the group) and she's Danny's older sister and she only appeared if plot called her for it.
* The main characters in [[South Park]] actually ''became'' this over the years. In the beginning of the series, they would frequently interact and play with other kids in the schoolyard. Over the years however, their [[Weirdness Magnet]] has slowly pushed people away. A recent episode explicitly states that the rest of the kids don't really care for them.
* ''[[
** Same with ''Life with Loopy''. While we have seen Larry's friends in one episode (the last episode aired, actually), we never see Loopy's school friends. ''However'', we ''were'', gonna meet them, [[Screwed
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' Candace is only seen hanging out with three other teens: Jeremy, Stacy, and Jenny. So pretty much one can say she doesn't have that big of a circle. It's even lampshaded in an episode when Candace is looking over her contacts list for friends and the only people there are the three listed above, and her mom. Also Buford, whose presence in her list is something she cannot understand, but she soon deleted him.
* ''[[Totally Spies!]]'': The only person Sam, Clover, and Alex regularly interact with at their school (outside the 3 of them), is [[Alpha Bitch|Mandy]]. Any other classmate they were seen talking to would be gone by the next episode, never to be seen or mentioned again (except for maybe the occasional boyfriend that would last about 2 or 3 episodes). Possibly justified in that their lives as spies would realistically get in the way of them having normal social lives.
* ''[[Doug]]'' actually subverts this trope ''to the opposite extreme'': Just about everybody in the entire sixth grade is friends with one another (even Roger, the class bully, is usually invited to pool parties, dinners, etc.). And, apparently, the students at the Bluffington School are the only grade school students in the entire town.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Ensembles]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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