The Old Country: Difference between revisions

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{{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~~]] 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.

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]]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".

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== [[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.

* 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~~]], who merely came from the old country.

* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' and ''[[Scrubs]]'' have both featured doctors, struggling with their [[Worthless Foreign Degree]]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.