Slobs Versus Snobs: Difference between revisions

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Death Note]]'', this isn't the ''core'' of the conflict between Light (snob) and L (slob), but the contrast is certainly played up. Their allies also tend to fit; stylishly dressed [[Knight Templar|Knights Templar]] vs. [[Defective Detective]]s.

* ''[[One Piece]]'': The clash of the Marines (Snobs) and the Pirates (Slobs), though we see aversions on both sides. For example, the rough-and-tumble Garp for the Marines and suave and stylish pirates like Sanji or Robin. Played straight with the Celestial Dragons vs—well, everyone else.

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[The Beano]]''

** This UK comic book had Dennis the Menace (not to be confused with the US version) who was a catapult wielding tearaway against the more nicely bought up Softies.

== Film ==

* ''[[Underworld (film)|Underworld]]'' the vampires all wear stylish, clean black suits and gorgeous sexy cocktail dresses when at leisure, and leather trenchcoats when hunting werewolves. Their hair is always flat and oily, curls are always cosmetic, neat, and hang down. Werewolves on the other hand are always in grungy brown leather, shirts that look like they haven't been washed in months, and have hair that generally defies combs to come near.

* ''[[Meatballs]]'' has the slobs from Camp North Star versus the snobs from Camp Mohawk. Bill Murray gives an iconic speech just before the climactic showdown admiting that beating the snobs won't matter, since even in defeat they'd still be rich.

== Literature ==

* ''[[Discworld]]'':

** The wizards are generally the Snobs to the Slobs of the city watch, adventurers, or ordinary Morporkians. Due to the nature of the books' changing viewpoints, this is seen from both sides. In a wizard-centric book, the Wizards will be fat and goofy, but capable and wise, whereas the citizens and guards will be an ignorant rabble who doesn't know what they're messing with. In a commoner-centric book, the wizards will seem like a load of pompous, out-of-touch bureaucrats while the commoners are the ones holding everything together.

{{quote|"I can't help it if my family had money," the Dean said, and this might have defused the situation had he not added, "And standards."}}

* ''[[The Outsiders]]'': With upper-class Socs (Socials) vs. lower-class Greasers. Neither group is entirely unified.

** A very mild version plays out between Peter Wingfield and Roger Trembling in ''Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou'' from the ''[[Break of Dark]]'' anthology. Wingfield is unkempt, scruffily dressed, a chronic smoker and lives in a dilapidated old house full of mouldering antiques and dying pot plants, which Trembling refers to as "The Haunted Mansion." Roger lives in an ultra-modern villa with Modernist furnishings and chrome kitchen fittings, works for a computer company and plays squash every week. Peter refers to his house as "Mission Control."

* The ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' episode "Spur of the Moment" used this setup where the girl is about to marry the rich boy, but the passionate poor scruffy guy ends up talking her into marrying him - years later we see Scruffy is a lazy bum who makes her life miserable.

* ''[[Frasier]]'': This is the central conflict between Frasier, Niles and Martin; the boys are stuffy epicures who are frequently dismissive of their down-to-earth, slightly slobby father.

== Music ==

* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqDFGpd845Y Respectable Street]" by XTC.

* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7kUDkK70qQ&ob=av2n The Eton Rifles]" by The Jam. Paul Weller was inspired to write the song by an incident in Slough, where Eton College cadets heckled a Right To Work protest march. The protesters, thinking they could put 'posh schoolboys' in their place, were provoked into physical violence against the cadets, only to be outclassed by the cadets' military training.

== Theatre ==

* ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire]]'', with southern belle Blanche vs. workingman Stanley. At first, Stanley looks like a figure of liberty, but then we see that he has an insane obsession with [[Break the Haughty|bringing everyone down to his level.]]

* ''Our American Cousin'', the play Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was shot, was an [[Older Than Radio|early example]], featuring a boorish American who has to meet with his snooty aristocratic British relatives to claim an inheritance.

* The New Zealand play ''Foreskin's Lament'', where the main character, a non-conformist liberal, has to deal with his reactionary rugby-mad mates.

* [[Wario Land|Wario]] (slob) VS Count Cannoli and Carpaccio (snobs) in ''[[Wario Master of Disguise]]''.

* The rivalry between ''[[Half Life]]''s Black Mesa Research Facility, who [[The Professor|generally behave like legitimate scientists]], and ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]''s Aperture Science, who, in the words of their founder, are "[[Mad Scientist|just throwing science at the wall and seeing what sticks]]".

** Though aesthetically Aperture's clean white Apple-esque everything look plays the snob while Black Mesa's actual science going on look plays the slob. In the older areas of Aperture seen in ''Portal2'', we see that they designed according to whatever looked "cool" for the given time period.

* One of the many problems between Gil and Tarvek in [[Girl Genius]]. Tarvek is a total snob, and sees Gil as a complete slob, thanks in part to a few overlapping adventures in Paris. Gil simply sees Tarvek as a priggish wet-blanket.

== Western Animation ==

* [[SpongeBob SquarePants]] once fought a "cleanliness versus sloppiness" war with Patrick.

* In the ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode "The Great Divide", there were the neat and snobbish Gan Jin tribe who had a long term feud with the slobbish Zhang ,stemming a single incident of a massive misunderstanding. The clean/dirty issue was just an expression of their feud. In fact, it's possible they ''became'' clean and dirty to distinguish themselves from each other.. This rivalry caused problems when the two groups had to cross a huge canyon together.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]