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Line 2: {{quote\|''"The Simpson story begins back in the old country. I forget which one, exactly."''\|'''Abe Simpson''', ''[[The Simpsons]]''}} So, you want to introduce a European immigrant to your North American-based show. You want the character to get up to lots of [[Fish Out of Water]] fun as his crazy traditions clash with modern American life, marvel at the amazing wealth of Americans and contrast it with the poverty of his homeland, and provide incisive [[Whoopi Epiphany Speech~~\|Whoopi Epiphany Speeches~~]]es about how different life was back in his one-tractor peasant town, all while talking in an outrageous accent. So, their homeland needs to be poor, backward, simple, oppressive, rustic and pastoral, with crazy traditions and, of course, a distinctive accent. There's just one problem - if you claim this geographic hodgepodge is a real country, you'll get a lot of complaints from nationals of that country, either because you've totally misrepresented their traditions, or because you've just described them as a bunch of uneducated peasants. So, the best route to take is to ignore the country issue altogether: Whenever you need to have your character talk about his origins, have them call it "the old country". The old country is usually a [[Ruritania]] or [[~~Uberwald~~Überwald]], with splashes of [[Oktoberfest\|Bavaria]], [[Olive Garden\|the Mediterranean]], [[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You\|the Former Soviet Union]], [[Norse Byby Norsewest\|Scandinavia]] and [[Scotireland]]. Expect everyone to drive [[The Alleged Car\|Ladas]] and tractors (if not goat carts), eat some sort of [[Foreign Queasine\|bizarre offal sausage]] and speak in a lilting yet guttural tongue. {{examples}} Line 13: == [[Literature]] == * The titular character in ''Borgel'' by [[Daniel Pinkwater]] claims to be from [[The Old Country]] (more recently, he lived in The Old Apartment in The Old Building in The Old Neighborhood). His Old Country is in [[Another Dimension]] instead of Europe, but otherwise is very much a parody of this trope; everyone there is so poor they all sleep in ditches and use dead skunks for clothing, they speak a language that sounds like someone preparing to spit, and Borgel has a number of stories from there which are generally total nonsense. == [[Live Action TV]] == * ''[[House (TV series)\|House]]'' and ''[[Scrubs]]'' have both featured doctors, struggling with their [[Worthless Foreign Degree~~\|Worthless Foreign Degrees~~]]s, who merely came from the old country. * Let us not forget [[Andy Kaufman\|Latka Gravas]] of ''[[Taxi]]'' fame, whose country was entirely fictional and rather vague. Probably the [[Trope Codifier]] for the current era. * The original ''[[All That]]'' had a recurring character named Ishboo (played by Kenan Thompson) who fit this trope. Line 29: == [[Western Animation]] == * Rolf from ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' claims to be from "the old country", which is a land of strange folk tales, ghastly traditions involving seafood, and lederhosen. Perhaps he's actually from [[Cloudcuckooland]]? ** Rolf is based (and exaggerated) from childhood experiences of the show's creator, Danny Antonucci, himself the child of Italian immigrants, dealing with the culture shock that sort of upbringing provides. * Didi's parents on ''[[Rugrats]]'' are like this. Especially her father. Apparently, in the old country, a woman gives birth in the potato fields, puts the child on her back and keeps going. Yeah. Line 35: * Parodied on ''[[The Simpsons]]'' - see the page quote. * Tish's family in ''[[The Weekenders]]''. Again, it is just called ''The Old Country'' and nobody knows which one. When a television report was done on Tish, they said experts were unable to locate on a map or even ''pronounce'' the country. Presumably it no longer exists... * In ''[[Kick Buttowski]]'', this is where Gunther's family is from. Aparently it is set somewhere [[Norse Byby Norsewest]], where the people [[Horny Vikings\|still follow the old ways]]. One episode takes place there, and it is indeed called The Old Country. == [[Real Life]] == Line 44: [[Category:Fictional Country]] [[Category:Hollywood Atlas]] [[Category:~~The Old Country~~{{PAGENAME}}]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Old Country, The}}