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Compare [[Aliens in Cardiff]] and [[Everytown, America]]. Contrast [[Quirky Town]]. See [[Ordinary High School Student]] for when this happens to a person.
Everyone's going to assume that wherever you live, nothing exciting has ever happened, and if you live in a city that no one has ever heard of, it's because '''Nothing Exciting Ever Happened There''', so all [[Real Life]] examples should be an aversion. (Unless, of course, a location is only a ''former'' example of this trope.)
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[FLCL]]'': Naota remarks in the first episode, "Nothing amazing happens here. Everything is ordinary." Then he gets run over by a Vespa-riding self-proclaimed Space Police officer and smacked in the head by her gas-powered guitar. Next thing he knows, giant robots are climbing out of a portal in his head and he's embroiled in a farcical space opera/coming-of-age story.
** Curiously enough, none of these events seem to change his mind about his life and hometown being boring and ordinary.
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== Film ==
* This is the basic concept behind the ''[[Rear Window]]'' [[Recycled in Space|
▲* This is the basic concept behind the [[Recycled in Space|Rear Window remake]] ''Disturbia''.
* Related note: In ''[[The Iron Giant]]'', Special Agent Kent Mansley misguidedly believes that "big things happen in big places", and he's all too keen to get back to those places when he arrives in the sleepy Maine village where the action takes place. And then the action takes place.
* Deconstructed in ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'', where the reason nothing ever happens in Sandford is that {{spoiler|the Neighborhood Watch Association kills anyone who threatens their village's perfect image and covers it up}}.
* ''[[The Happening]]'' - the massive group of people running from the unexplained mass suicide that may or may not be linked to natural causes or very intricately orchestrated terrorism (it's a long story) find themselves dumped in an isolated town in the middle of the Northwest. Mark Wahlberg says to his best friend's daughter, "Don't worry, nothing's going to happen to us here." Oh boy, is he wrong.
* In ''[[Star Wars]],'' Luke complains of Tatooine that, "Well, if there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from."
** Of course, in the [[Expanded Universe]], ''everything'' happens on Tatooine.
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**** At the end of the day, of course, the whole Tatooine focus is more than justified by the presence of the most powerful crime lord in the galaxy and some whiny little kid named Anakin. But you wouldn't necessarily expect Luke to know about that.
* The 1932 film ''[[Grand Hotel]]'' famously [[Book Ends|opens and closes]] with a character stating that "nothing ever happens" at the title locale. This is, of course, in ironic counterpoint to the many dramatic episodes which take place over the course of the film.
* At the very end of ''[[Can't Hardly Wait]]'', the two "X-Philes" complain that nothing ever happens in their town. A suspicious shadow falls over them with an unworldly sound, and they look up and grin as a blue light shines on them.
* Lampshaded in ''Suddenly'', where a policeman and a traveler discuss the idea that the town's name should be changed to ''Gradually''. The plot of the movie: A man takes hostages in the town when it is realised that a family's window is just the right place for a sniper rifle pointed at the president.
* Subverted slightly in the home-spun play of Blaine (from ''[[Waiting for Guffman]]''), in which an alien's musical number is "Nothing Ever Happens On Mars".
* In ''[[Home Alone]]'', Buzz claims that the family lives on the most boring street in the country "where nothing remotely dangerous will ever happen"... while Kevin is preparing to fight off burglars Harry and Marv.
* Dinah has this lament at the beginning of ''[[The Philadelphia Story]]''.
== Literature ==
* ''The Dark Side of Nowhere'' centers on the protagonist discovering that ''everyone'' in his [[Norman Rockwell|Norman Rockwell-esque]] town, including himself, is really an alien. The frequent booster shots they've received all their lives have been chemicals to suppress their Adonis-level good looks and blend in with humanity. And the message has just come through that the time has come to gear up for the invasion...
* Blackbury from ''[[Johnny Maxwell Trilogy]]''.
* In
** That's actually a true story—the volcano Parcuitin appeared in a cornfield in Mexico in 1943 and erupted on and off until 1952. The village was destroyed, but no one was killed, except for three people struck by lightning.
* The main characters of the ''Brentford'' trilogy by [[Robert Rankin]] claim Brentford is this. [[City of Adventure|In spite of being the place where Julius Caesar invented football, having a nesting griffin, existing in four dimensions simultaneously and having an]] [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Once Per Episode|attack per book...]]
* [[Stephen King]]'s horror stories are often set in the town of Derry, Maine, which is King's fictional version of Bangor, Maine, population 31,000.
** He actually went there in ''[[The Langoliers]]''.
** Us locals to that area never thought it was Bangor, especially since Bangor is mentioned by name in his books. Best guess is Derry is the fictional version of one of the "Greater Bangor Area" towns; probably Orono or Old Town.
* Visually implied in ''[[The Lost Thing]]''. The suburbs are ridiculously identical, the city manages despite all its [[Steampunk]] design to be incredibly drab and filled with almost nobody but businesspeople, and, oh yeah, there are random biomechanical creatures wandering about the place. Then again, it's implied that for most people there's a [[Weirdness Censor]] involved.
* Maggody, Arkansas, setting of Joan Hess's ''Arly Hanks'' mysteries, is a too-small-for-the-mapmakers flyspeck town where the locals consider the burning of Hiram's barn to be the sole event of historical note in decades. In those same decades, said flyspeck has variously been invaded by porn movie-makers, a rehab clinic, pot farmers, UFO fanatics, tabloid reporters, militia nutjobs, golfers, Civil War buffs, country-western music groupies, fake psychics, the Internet, televangelists, and feminism. And people ''still'' play this trope straight if asked.
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Eerie, Indiana]]'', which was selected by the protagonist father as their new home because it was the most "normal" town in the country, statistically speaking, and whose many of its inhabitants complains about the bleakness of their lives (unaware of what's really going on). The thing was parodied in the second series, where its protagonists complained about how boring their lives are, while living in a world whose quotidian is truly outrageous.
* ''[[Eureka]]''; the town looks painfully normal. Except, in a subversion of the trope, for the experimental laboratory complex where almost the entire town works, and which, for lack of a better term, leaks weirdness into the town. So it ''is'' a normal and unexciting town... strictly by ''their'' standards.
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'''Ace:''' Nothing ever happens here. }}
** She is, of course, 100% wrong.
** Or, in the new series, Leadworth, home of Rory and Amy. Its a completely boring, normal English town... of course, then the Doctor lands there, so you know it won't stay like that for long.
* ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'' opens with Benjamin Denton on a train to Royston Vasey, reading a letter from his aunt, which includes: "I hope you...don't find our little town too boring."
* ''[[Misfits]]'' contains a rather amusing exchange in the tail end of the first episode that suggests the entirety England fits this trope.
* ''[[The Kids in The Hall|The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town]]'' takes place in the fictional town of [[Canada, Eh?|Shuckton, Ontario, Canada]], which, prior to losing its bid for the 2028 [[Olympic Games]], was famous for its rat fur industry.
{{quote|'''Mayor Larry Bowman''': What do you think of when you hear our name? Probably nothing. We're not very well known.}}
** And then he ends up dead. [[Small Town Boredom|Doesn't really change the boredom factor, though.]]
* In ''[[Sherlock]]'', John Watson says the following before meeting Sherlock:
{{quote|'''John Watson''': Nothing ever happens to me.}}
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'': When a bored Vala begs Mitchell to take her with him to his high school reunion, he says "It. Is. In. KANSAS!" in an effort to convince her that she would just be bored because nothing ever happens in Kansas, right? Of course, when they actually go there, bounty hunters descend on the reunion.
== Music ==
* In his epic song/monologue "[[Alice's Restaurant (music)
* Pretty much the entire point of Del Amitri's song "''Nothing Ever Happens''"
{{quote|''The Martians could land in the car park and no one would care''}}
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* ''[[Alan Wake]]'' takes place in a remote, small town. That should give you an indication of how horrible things go. It's also a great game.
* Lahan in ''[[Xenogears]]''.
* Nibelheim in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' until a defective
** Lampshaded in ''[[Crisis Core]]'', during the very first meeting between Zack and Cloud as they talk about their respective hometowns Gongaga and Nibelheim.
{{quote|'''Zack:''' A Mako reactor outside Midgar usually means...
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* In the intro movie for ''[[Psychonauts]]'', Lili tries to reassure a nervous Dogen by telling him "I've been coming here for years, and nothing ever happens." Shortly thereafter, Raz shows up...
* The town featured in ''[[Persona 4]]'' is portrayed as a lazy country burg whose most exciting conflict is the new Wal-Mart-stand-in Junes putting the mom & pop stores out of business. Of course, the first thing that happens once the main character gets into town is a serial murder, and, by the end, {{spoiler|teenagers are fighting a god (or two, who's counting?) with the fate of the soul of humanity at stake}}.
* ''[[Fur Fighters]]'':
{{quote|'''1st Bear:''' Nothing exciting ever happen to this bear.
'''2nd Bear:''' This bear also.
:: Seconds later, a large explosion consumes them both.▼
▲Seconds later a large explosion consumes them both.
== Web Animation ==
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== Web Comics ==
* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' is set in "the pleasantly innocuous hamlet of Generictown," where nothing much ever happened until one of their residents, Mr. Bob Smithson, suddenly became the biggest [[Weirdness Magnet]] on Earth.
* ''[[Counting]]'' The small, quiet town of "Thirston" is mass poisoned {{spoiler|via the water supply}} by the Colonel
* Tandy Gardens, setting of ''[[The Wotch]],'' is said to be this sort of place in the first strip. By now, everyone in the city's probably been [[Involuntary Transformation|turned into something]] at least once.
** At least once. Two words: Myth Virus.
* ''[[RPG World]]'' had Cameotown, which was the place where people who weren't doing anything lived until they had something to do again.
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Katie Zalia complains that the tiny town of Podunkton is too boring. Turns out this boringness is just a lull, however, in the town's ongoing conflict with Canadian drug lords.
** Also, the most exciting thing that happens in Japan is shopping. And [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/050416 this]. Classics, really.
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== Web Original ==
* ''[[Tribe Twelve]]:''
{{quote|'''Noah''': "All people do around here is just come and fish and it's just really boring."
'''Milo''': "I never saw the point in fishing. It's kinda boring." }}
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* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': Mai laments, "This place [Omashu] is unbearably bleak. Nothing ever happens." Cue [[La Résistance]] trying to assassinate her and her mother.
** Amusingly, after surviving the assassination attempt and chasing the Gaang for a while, she ''immediately'' goes back to being bored.
** Not to mention that Aang is first found ''at the South Pole'' by a couple of
* The first post-opening-credits scene of ''[[Yellow Submarine]]'' (at least, the first that isn't set to music) features Ringo Starr moping around Liverpool, complaining that nothing ever happens to him—until he realizes that he's somehow being tailed through the streets by a yellow submarine.
* In the ''[[Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats]]'' episode "Cat Balloon", Cleo says this exact phrase about Westfinster. Twist #1: At the moment Cleo says this, exciting things are happening all around her, but she's too busy complaining to notice them. Twist #2: When Cleo and the Catillac Cats use a balloon to go to a neighboring town, it's hijacked by a similar gang of cats who want to leave their hometown because—you guessed it—Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here.
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* The whole point in ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]''. No one says it, but crap happens ANYWAY.
==
* There's a sketch of a Polish cabaret, where everyone is shocked by the fact, that nothing is happening there. Can be watched (with english subtitles ) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8LFvNe7DpE here]
== Real Life ==
* The [[Muggles|non-escapist people]] of real life examples often dread this ever becoming the case, even temporarily. When such events range from school shootings and town-destroying train derailments, to nuclear power plant accidents and illegal toxic waste dumping, to (allegedly) the fate of the town's children after the mayor didn't pay [[The Pied Piper of Hamelin|the exterminator]] the agreed amount, its often hard to blame them.
=== USA ===
* Granby, Colorado was this until [[wikipedia:Marvin Heemeyer|Marvin Heemeyer]] destroyed it in the Killdozer, his homemade armored bulldozer.
* [http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/10/media-newspapers-news-biz-media-cx_jz_1210boringcities.html This list] of the ten most boring cities in America. Arizona is well-represented with three cities on the list (Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert), with California and Nevada also having multiple cities appear.
* Alamogordo, New Mexico: a sleepy suburb-without-a-city in the middle of nowhere, but with such events as the Trinity Nuclear Test Site forty miles north, [[The Great Video Game Crash of 1983|the burial of ET: The Game just outside city limits]], and (more recently) the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' Book Burning by local [[Principles Zealot|zealots]].
* Abbottabad, Pakistan was this to most of the world until May Day, 2011, thanks to the death of Osama bin Laden.▼
** [[Lampshaded]] by the guy who live blogged the raid without realizing he was doing it.▼
** Also lampshaded by ''[[The Daily Show]]'' which said that it sounds like the name most New Yorkers would come up with when thinking of a Middle Eastern city.▼
* Ohio. All of it.
** [[Memetic Mutation|Always has been.]]
* Vermont, definitely. There are three questions that get asked when you say you're from Vermont. ''Where's that?'', ''What state's that in?'' and ''Isn't that part of Canada?'' Not kidding.
** Popular bumper sticker/t-shirt saying: ''What happens in Vermont stays in Vermont... but nothing ever really happens here.''
* '''Delaware'''
* Inverted with St. Louis, Missouri. Stuff [[I Used To Be Cool|used]] to happen here (the World's Fair, the Olympics), and now we're probably best known for a [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17361995 recent BBC documentary] about how racially and economically disparate the north and south sides of Delmar Boulevard are.
** And on the other side of the state, Joplin was more or less unknown until the May 22nd, 2011 tornado hit and took out much of the city.
* Roswell, New Mexico was this prior to one of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mogul Project Mogul] [[Zig Zagged|top secret Air Force nuke-detecting balloons]] that crashed nearby sparking the modern [[Conspiracy Theorist|crazy UFO seeker culture]] we now associate with the city and with [[Area 51]]. To be fair, if you're trying to avoid discovery of something the size of a vehicle, [[Aliens In Cardiff|a good place to hide it is in a desert in a sparsely-populated area with no nearby famous landmarks]].
** Ironically this means that it was only that most people ''thought'' nothing exciting ever happened in Roswell, until something happened that threatened [[The Masquerade|the masquerade]] in [[Clarke's Third Law|a certain sense]]<ref>The caveat being that the "Masquerade" was the reverse psychology cover-up of a false report to the local newspaper from the Air Force that "we found aliens and a flying saucer" followed by gaslighting everyone for decades into thinking the cover-up was to hide the aliens rather than the lie about aliens being just one layer of the cover-up. Project Mogul was a Cold War-era project and an early real life example of the [[Sensor Suspense]] that permeated the world's theater of global thermonuclear war in the mid-20th Century. As such, it was declassified shortly after the Russian Federation came into existence, so [[This Is Reality|sorry sci-fi fans]], but the [[Flawed Prototype|truth]] that [[History Marches On|was]] out there has been [[Enemy-Detecting Radar|public knowledge]] since [[The Nineties]] and obsolete to the military themselves since at least [[The Sixties|the invention of ICBMs]].</ref>.
* Anaheim, California was at best known as a fertile place to grow oranges. Then a well-known industrialist opened a little place called [[Disneyland]] and, [[Mega Corp|well]]...
=== Canada ===
* Often the case to any American who lives farther than 200 miles from the Canada/Continental US border. "Which state is Alberta again?" "Toronto, Canada? Do you know my old friend John Doe? He moved to the Yukon a few years ago..."
* Part of a concern in Canadian politics is due to this being too commonplace (minus becoming interesting enough to matter when bad things start happening); British Columbia is a distant third to the economies of Southern Ontario (Toronto and Ottawa) and Quebec (Montreal and Quebec City) and most cities and towns in BC feel they pay taxes only so Vancouver can build another SkyTrain line for all the rich teenage kids of foreign investors and BC politicians to go to Metrotown, Victoria can put on more gentrification makeup, and Kelowna can expand their wine tourism businesses. Further, every province that isn't [[Bad Boss|Ontario]] or [[Parental Favoritism|Quebec]] has basically [[The Unfavorite|no influence]] over federal politics at all, especially if located west of Ontario<ref>Yukon Territory, Northwest Territory, Nunavut Territory, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba all have to vote later in the day due to the time zone difference, and the system is "First Past The Post", so combined with the sheer population of Ontario and Quebec the entirety of Western Canada literally means nothing in federal elections. That's like if American politicians only had to win New York and Florida to win a Presidency, and the vast majority of the population of New York State and Florida were made up solely of the world's wealthiest people.</ref>. In short, when this trope is [[Evil Debt Collector|purposefully averted for financial gain]] for [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized|too long]] it can become [[You Can't Fight Fate|inevitable]].
* Happens with a Canadian town every so often [[Status Quo Is God|before slowly fading back into obscurity]]. One sufficiently notable example was Grand Forks, British Columbia where [[Small Town Boredom]] is practically the local pastime for anyone under 18. Its irrelevance before the latter half of [[The New Tens]] and after COVID-19 hit was and is so thorough, the town's name didn't and won't even give good search results because Grand Forks, ''North Dakota'' is still more notable than Grand Forks, BC in every way. However, from 2015 to the end of 2019, events in the city of <5000 included a firebombing of City Hall, several local bars being burnt down (tragically destroying homes in the apartments of the former Grand Forks Hotel, and the historic Winnipeg Pub), two floods of much of the town, and a shooting at the local hospital. The second flood was the first time the city had been worthy of Global News (a major TV news station across Canada) or any other news outlet not based in British Columbia, and ~30% of the town's housing was bulldozed to return to wetlands permanently as a result.
=== Not USA ===
▲* Abbottabad, Pakistan was this to most of the world until May Day, 2011, thanks to the death of Osama bin Laden.
▲** [[Lampshaded]] by the guy who live blogged the raid without realizing he was doing it.
▲** Also lampshaded by ''[[The Daily Show]]'' which said that it sounds like the name most New Yorkers would come up with when thinking of a Middle Eastern city.
{{reflist}}
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