Place Worse Than Death: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Leela:''' Who would've thought that Hell would exist - and that it would be in [[Joisey|New Jersey]]?

 

There are a few places in this world that nobody ever wants to go to. Not that it's immediately lethal, like an active volcano. But its reputation is so bad that being sent there is a [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]]. The threat of sending someone there can function as a [[Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon]] threat. And willingly going there is an act of extreme bravery, insanity, and/or desperation. In a fantasy setting there is a good chance your character will go there, for whatever reason.

Of course, sometimes this is merely a throwaway gag. I mean, who would want to actually go there?

 

 

{{examples|Examples by location:}}

{{quote|'''Mike''': I ''hate'' Jersey!

'''Archie''': ''Everybody'' hates Jersey! But ''someone'' has to live there! }}

* On ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'' Drew is amused to learn that Kate's boyfriend (who claims to be the devil) was born in Jersey, although this could also be a reference to urban legends of a monster called [[The Jersey Devil]].

* The 80's revival of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' had jokes in least two episodes which explicitly compared the city of Newark to Hell.

=== [[Music]] ===

* The singer [[Voltaire (musician)|Voltaire]] did a song about his home state... called "Bomb New Jersey." It's about [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].

 

=== [[Video Games]] ===

** In the episode "All Tied Up With A Boa" there is a news report of a snake escaping from the Hoboken Zoo. When the anchor points out the panicked people running in the background, the reporter says, "This has nothing to do with the snake, It's just Hoboken."

** One episode has the penguins actually arrive at the Hoboken Zoo, only to find that it's actually a pleasant place where everyone is nicer. {{spoiler|[[Double Subverted]] when it turns out that the new zookeeper is a [[Stepford Smiler]] [[Creepy Cleanliness|obsessed with cleaning]] who has replaced all the animals with robots.}}

 

==[[Motor City|Detroit]]==

 

==[[Philadelphia (useful notes)|Philadelphia]]==

=== [[Film]] ===

* ''[[Eraserhead]]'' was partly inspired by [[David Lynch]]'s stay in this city, which he claims that it left him with a sense of dread.

 

=== [[Literature]] ===

{{quote|'''Jubal:''' What on earth is there to do at night in Philadelphia?

'''Duke:''' Plenty, if you know where to look. }}

{{quote|'''Dee:''' We're in a dark, scary alley in Philly, we might as well call it Rape Bar.}}

* After John McCain announced that he would "chase Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell," [[The Daily Show]] decided to have a correspondent file a report from the gates of hell... which are in [http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-may-7-2007/styx-and-stones Philadelphia / South Jersey].

 

=== [[Music]] ===

Or Philadelphia,

Any old place with you. }}

 

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===

 

=== [[Theatre]] ===

 

==[[Cleveland]]==

=== [[Film]] ===

* In the plot of the John Candy movie ''Delirious'' he plays a soap opera writer transported into his own show and can literally [[Rewriting Reality|write out other people's words and actions]]. When one character (played by Robert Wagner, who Candy's character calls Robert Wagner in a [[No Fourth Wall]] moment) becomes a nuisance he writes for them a hasty exit.

* It's mentioned a few times in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' that there's a Hellmouth in Cleveland.

* The [[Disney Channel]] movie ''The Luck Of The Irish'' ends with the bad guy being banished to the shores of Lake Erie, right by Cleveland.

 

=== [[Video Games]] ===

'''Calvin:''' You mean if we're good or if we're bad? }}

* Minor example: when the topic of "vacationing by smell" came up in ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'' (the October 30, 2003 strip), one character suggested going to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh residents, to put it mildly, did not take it well. [[Hypocritical Humor|They weren't exactly shy about taking shots at other places for their odor, though.]] (Two that were named specifically were Philly and Jersey; see above.)

 

=== [[Western Animation]] ===

{{quote|'''Cosmo''': "I call it Pittsburg!"}}

** [[Refuge in Audacity|All on the same day.]]

 

==Wisconsin==

* The song/spoken word poetry ''[[Deteriorata]]'' by ''[[National Lampoon]]'' reflects that "And whatever misfortune may be your lot, it can only be worse in Milwaukee."

 

* [[The Simpsons (animation)|Homer Simpson]], on learning that Springfield is the fattest city in America: "[[Take That]], Milwaukee!"

* [[Family Guy|"Lois, everyone has their sanctuary. Catholics have church, fat people have Wisconsin, and I have the Paw Tucket Brewery!"]]

 

==Other==

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'': "Nothing good comes from the Earth anymore."

 

=== [[Comic Books]] ===

* In ''[[Easy A]]'', Olive's narration commenting on a character's punishment for contracting a veneral disease:

{{quote|"Due to his 'condition,' Micah was sent on an extended visit to his grandparents in Palatka, Florida. And if there's one thing worse than chlamydia, it's Florida."}}

 

=== [[Literature]] ===

** The threat was a running joke in ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]''.

*** This has actual basis in real life, of course. The Soviets treated captured prisoners much, much worse than the western powers, and the Eastern front was much more brutal in general. (This was in part because the Nazis were much worse to captured Russians, as well, since their doctrine of racial superiority put them on a lower tier.)

* One episode of the American ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' had as a Scene From A Hat "Versions of Hell without fire or brimstone". Greg presented it as driving eternally in Mississippi.

** They've also made jokes about Fresno and Seattle.

* From ''[[Angel]]'':

{{quote|'''Spike:''' Am I in Hell?

* In ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'', Nina asks Annie if she wants to talk about her experience of Purgatory:

{{quote|'''Nina:''' Annie. You were in purgatory.

=== [[Newspaper Comics]] ===

* A common [[Running Gag]] in the ''[[Garfield]]'' comics is the titular cat's constant attempts to send his [[Viewer Gender Confusion|nephew]] Nermal to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

 

=== [[Theatre]] ===

* Mel Brooks's original opening for the musical version of ''[[The Producers]]'' was Max Bialystock's horrible spoof of Oklahoma, titled "Hey Nebraska". The entire song was essentially this. Lyrics include "Oh, what a terrible morning/Oh what a terrible night,/Things in the state of Nebraska/Never will ever go right" and "Hey, Nebraska- You suck!"

 

 

=== [[Web Comics]] ===

{{quote|"Wherever he doesn't want to be... that's always where he'll go."}}

* In [[Overside]], Surya: a frozen wasteland where criminals and dissidents are exiled.

 

=== [[Web Original]] ===

 

=== [[Western Animation]] ===

* In ''[[Futurama]]'', Fry wakes up from a second cryo-stasis and finds himself in a blasted wasteland. It's really [[Los Angeles]] in his own time period.

{{quote|'''Fry''': I'm impressed. In my time we had no idea Mars had a university.

'''Mr. Garrison:''' Ooooh, that's exciting, my mother was from Alabama. }}

* In one of the episodes of the short-lived ''[[Dilbert (animation)|Dilbert]]'' TV show, two teams of engineers are competing, and the losing team will be transferred to Albany, NY—which is shown as being incredibly cold on ''the first day of summer''. {{spoiler|When the episode's [[Big Bad]] -- no, not the boss but the rival team's leader -- is decapitated, her head comments "Well, better this than Albany."}}

* At the end of ''[[An American Tail]]'', the villains are all chased off a harbor and are last seen aboard a ship headed for Hong Kong, China.

* At the end of ''[[The Aristocats]]'', the evil butler Edgar actually attempts to send Duchess and her kittens to Timbuktu, Mali. Unfortunately, his plan backfires and as a result ''he'' actually ends up getting sent there instead!

* According to the film ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'', the main form of punishment for a monster is permanent banishment to the human world.

** Mooslevania almost became a real place thanks to a nationwide campaign. However, it was cut short due to the visit to Washington D.C. coinciding with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

 

=== [[Real Life]] ===

** Also, there's a Hell on the island of Grand Cayman. Considering that the island is in the Caribbean (and has the typical climate/terrain you'd expect) it's a fitting name for a large expanse of warped, pitted, ugly, sharp-edged black limestone formations.

** The Netherlands also has both a Hellmouth (Helmond) and a Sunnydale.

* Particular scorn was heaped upon it by H.L. Mencken: "All other mammals would succumb quickly to what man endures without damage. Consider, for example, the life of a soldier in the front line--or the life of anyone in Mississippi."

** The phrase "sold down the river" refers to slaves in northern slave states being sold to Mississippi farms, a terrible fate due to the much harsher conditions down there. Today the phrase is still used to mean "betrayed."

** In the northern half of the Golden State, Yuba City, though less well known, also has image problems - partly because of its place as the hometown of the 1970s serial ax murderer Juan Corona, and also because the "Rand McNally Places Rated" quality-of-life ranking in 1985 placed the city 330th and last among U.S. cities.

* In Mesa County in Colorado, Clifton is this, and it is routinely mocked. And sometimes Fruita.

* Uryupinsk, [[Other Russian Towns and Cities|Volgograd Oblast]] has a reputation of a memetically boring hicksville in Russia.

** It is mostly in the [[Inherently Funny Words|name]]. It has a uniquely undignified sound to it. Now, Kolyma and Magadan, on the other hand, are geniunly notorious for being the central hubs of prison camps in USSR.

* Minnesotans think of the northernmost part of Minneapolis as a gang-ridden, violent hellhole. The light rail ends at Target Field, and to most natives, that's where the city ends. That this is more or less the truth doesn't make this any less the trope.

** To a lesser extent (largely due to size), people unfamiliar with the city consider it dangerous to go on Lake Street after dark. This is mostly due to xenophobia (it's a very Mexican part of town).

** Baltimorons, represent. Hoo-ah. (Although I usually call it 'Harm City')

*** Again ... [[Sarcasm Mode|thanks a lot, Colts!]]

** Where else would [[John Waters]] and his movies come from?

* Among Wisconsinites, Waukesha, if not the entirety of Waukesha County, is quickly gaining a reputation as 'Wisconsin's Alabama', which manages to actually slam two places at once.

* The town of Corby in Northamptonshire has achieved memetic status as this locally, partly because it combines the worst aspects of Milton Keynes<ref>hideous 1960s architecture that wouldn't look out of place in a live-action version of ''[[The Jetsons]]''</ref> and just about any large town [[Oop North]],<ref>largest industry and sole ''raison d'etre'' for the entire city has gone to the wall so it's work in [[McDonald's]], draw the dole until you're 65 or become a gangbanger</ref> but also because a lot of its residential property is built on land contaminated with toxic waste.

** In Ann Arbor, Michigan, one t-shirt seen for sale showed the outline of Ohio surrounding the words, "Worst State Ever."

* Fort Polk, Louisiana, also known as "Fort Puke, Lousy-ana." The Military Clothing store sold t-shirts reading, "Happiness is Fort Polk in My Rear-View Mirror." One wit commented to me that if the Army as a whole were given an enema, the tube would be inserted at Fort Polk.

* One of the curious ambiguities of military life is that it is not clear what constitutes a place worse than death. A professional officer often ''wants'' to be sent to such places -- if he is ambitious and there is nowhere else to tap promotion points. Of course for a ranker a miserable place is just miserable. Even then it is an even match whether someone prefers a pleasant climate with lots of combat or a miserable one with lots of boredom.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:You Would Not Want to Live In Dex]]

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