The Thing That Would Not Leave: Difference between revisions

''Last week it was funny, but now the joke's wearing thin''

''Cos everyone knows now that every night now''

 

{{quote|''It came seventeen years ago -- and to this day''

 

Everyone wants to be polite. Especially to a guest in your home. Unfortunately courtesy is not always reciprocated and to your horror you can find yourself trapped with ''The Thing That Wouldn't Leave''.

 

Named for the ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch that presented this premise as a horror movie trailer. Compare with [[The Cat Came Back]] and [[Pretty Freeloaders]]

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Ageha in ''[[They Are My Noble Masters]]''. {{spoiler|She kisses Ren}} and begins ignoring her own butler, makes him train, takes up all his time and attention, obstructs his duties and makes him cook dinner. While not quite to comedic lethal chef levels, he's never cooked before.

* [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Northern Italy]] from ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' is this to Germany initially, hanging around, irritating him and generally being useless. Despite Germany's attempts to throw him out, then ''give'' him away, he [[The Cat Came Back|always returns]]. Eventually the two become close friends, however ([[Ho Yay|if not more]]).

{{quote|[[Arc Words|"Go away! Go away! Go away! Go away!"]]}}

 

== Comic Books ==

* A ''[[Silent Hill]]'' graphic novel puts a horror twist on this. A bum artist who went from friend to friend mooching this way sees a report on Silent Hill, an abandoned town that still has water and electricity and fully stocked markets. Never questioning his luck for a second, he moves there and starts painting... and seeing ungodly abominations who are always polite to him and pose for his portraits. He paints them, sends the portraits to his manager, becomes famous and rich... and realizes he's in a [[Closed Circle]]. The town is [[An Aesop|punishing his impoliteness]]. He tries to escape with the help of a bus full of cheerleaders, but that ends badly.

* [[Squirrel Girl]] kicked [[Deadpool]] out of the [[Great Lakes Avengers|GLI]] clubhouse when he wouldn't leave. She was alerted in a [[Meanwhile in the Future]] situation: she had gone to the future, and the team leader (who is immortal) had waited 90 years to ask her to go back in time to kick Deadpool out.

 

== Fan Works ==

* In the fancomic ''[[Girls Next Door]]'', the [[Pan's Labyrinth|Pale Man]] apparently followed Ofelia to the apartment building. He installed himself in Jareth's and Eric's kitchen, and to date has not left. They managed to get rid of him once "with the help" of the ''friendly'' Girl Scouts, but it came back and has a brownie slash since.

 

== Film ==

* ''Madhouse''

* Ed in ''[[Shaun of the Dead]]'' appears to have shown up at his friend Shaun's place one night five years before the events of the movie and not left since, having reduced his living room to a slovenly heap and not budged from the sofa since. Played with in that while Shaun's quite happy to have him around (although it's also made clear that Ed's really a bad influence on him), Shaun's roommate Pete makes it more than clear that for him Ed wore out his welcome a long time ago.

 

== Literature ==

* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: In ''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]'' by [[Homer]], during Odysseus' 20-year absence, many young men, [[Never Found the Body|assuming that he must have died]], take up residence in his mansion [[You Have Waited Long Enough|to court his wife, Penelope]]. [[I Will Wait for You|Penelope believes that Odysseus is still alive]] and will not take a new husband. The suitors stick around and live off Odysseus' wealth for years, even when it becomes plain that Penelope does not want them around and has no interest in remarrying. When Odysseus finally comes back, he kills them all for violating the laws of hospitality as guests.

* The final chapter of [[Jane Austen]]'s ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' indicates that Lydia and Wickham often imposed on Jane and Bingley in this way later in life, so much so that the perennially good-natured Bingley "came so close as to ''talk'' of giving them a hint to be gone." Lydia also occasionally did this to Darcy and Lizzy, but her husband was never allowed to accompany her - which, given the history between Wickham and Darcy, is entirely unsurprising.

* [[Diana Wynne Jones]]'s chapter books ''Chair Person'', ''The Four Grannies'' and ''Who Got Rid Of Angus Flint?'' has been collected as a volume called ''Stopping For A Spell'' whose back cover describes all three stories in terms of this trope.

* As in the page quote - E. Gorey's short story ''The Doubtful Guest'' involves a ''highly'' annoying [[Everything's Better with Penguins|Penguin-like creature]] constantly angering a family.

* A children's book called ''[[The Trolls]]'' has a woman tell her nieces and nephews about growing up in Vancouver with her eccentric family. One of these family members was their great-uncle Louis, who came for two weeks and stayed for six years. {{spoiler|He only left after he insisted he saved the narrator's younger brother from a pack of trolls and the narrator's mother ordered him out in disgust.}}

* In the story ''[[Fudge|Superfudge]]'', the Hatcher family is constantly annoyed by Fudge's friend Daniel. At one point, Daniel looks ready to invite himself to stay for dinner with them, but Mrs. Hatcher tricks him into leaving by pretending that they're having peas and onions with their dinner (two foods that he hates).

* Kate in [[Meg Cabot]]'s ''Boy Meets Girl'' becomes this to Jen and Craig, her friends who she's staying with. It's somewhat subverted in that they like her, don't mind her staying and are entirely sympathetic with her problem of not having enough to get her own place, but their place isn't that big and they kinda want their flat back (especially since Jen's trying to get pregnant).

 

* Most of the subplot with Daphne's irritating mother in the later seasons of ''[[Frasier]]'' involved her greatly over-staying her welcome when staying with Niles and Daphne. Daphne's brothers also fell into this trope, but mostly because they really were ungrateful and obnoxious spongers who barged into Frasier's apartments and took unreasonable liberties whilst they were there.

* Spike does this to several different people in season 4 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. This becomes particularly apparent when Weetabix gets involved. According to Spike, it adds texture to blood.

 

== Music ==

* The topic of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eanUegmRKqg You Gotta Go].

* And the Tim Wilson song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCSLFx4l5qU Brother In Law].

* [[Jake Thackray]]'s song ''Leopold Alcox'' is about a [[Walking Disaster Area]] relation who comes for a (long, long) visit.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* One ''[[Far Side]]'' cartoon depicted: "The Arnolds feign death until the Wagners, sensing awkwardness, are compelled to leave."

* Used in ''[[Doonesbury]]'', when Zonker moves in with Mike and J.J. to the point of seriously grating on their nerves. J.J. comments at one point that it's like having a teenage son (which was surprisingly appropriate, with Mike even giving him an allowance).

** As of this writing, it appears another such scenario is in the works with Uncle Duke. One might expect Duke to be the unwanted guest, but in this case he's the host—the guest is Trff Bmzklfrpz, former President-for-Life of Greater Berzerkistan. Duke arranged an extraction to get him out of Berzerkistan just ahead of a revolution, but it turns out that Trff's Swiss bank accounts have been frozen, and he's penniless with nowhere to go.

* In ''[[For Better or For Worse]],'' when Elly gives birth to April, a distant cousin of John's (whom Elly has never even ''met'') invites herself to come and stay with the Pattersons to help out with the baby. She stays on and on, getting in the way, making messes, letting her cat run roughshod over everything, and totally freeloading. John eventually breaks down and puts a security deposit on an apartment for her just to get her out of the house.

 

== Podcast ==

* [[Morevi|Tee Morris]], a frequent guest on the Dragon Page and Farpoint Media podcasts, took pride in his moniker of "the Guest That Wouldn't Go Away". He even made his own audio bumper.

 

* ''[[The Man Who Came to Dinner]]'' is, if not the [[Trope Maker]], the source of inspiration for a great many later examples of infuriating semi-permanent houseguests. In fact, for a time the play's title entered the vernacular as a shorthand term for anybody overstaying their welcome in this manner.

** The play and movie were [[Truth in Television|inspired by real life]]. It began when Algonquin Round Table member, theater critic, and all-around [[Jerkass]] Alexander Woollcott showed up unannounced and uninvited at playwright Moss Hart's country home in Pennsylvania. He completely reorganized the home, becoming so insufferable after only two days that Hart and his writing partner George S. Kaufman wondered what would have happened if Wolcott had broken his leg and [[Real Life Writes the Plot|wasn't able to leave]]...

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[The Sims]] 3'', you can control your Sims while they are in another household, so you can invoke this trope to a degree. You can eat your hosts' food, sleep in their beds, etc. If you keep it up, your hosts will become more and more annoyed with you and they'll eventually just throw you out.

* in ''[[The Sims]] 2'', you might have a guest who stays until around three in the morning, playing with your video games or on your computer, or with the bubble-blower, and then, out of the blue, you get this dialogue that says "You invited me to spend the night, but then you didn't let me get any sleep! I'm leaving!" even when you never gave any such invitation - you were just too polite to ask the guest to leave!

 

== Web Comics ==

* Used in ''[[Casey and Andy]]'' where one day, straight out of the blue (apparently while on the way to give Quantum Cop another Nobel Prize), the ''King Of Sweden'' (King Carl XVI Gustaf) decided to remain in Casey and Andy's couch and demand they bring him drinks. The only times they managed to get him out of the couch was when they bribed him with drinks to help with a crisis in a fantasy dimension and when he was briefly kidnapped by the Land Pirates (which he joined due to, you guessed it, [[Stockholm Syndrome]]). The strip's epilogue reveals {{spoiler|he remained there for another 20 years before dying and being replaced by his daughter Victoria}}.

** The League of Recurring Antagonists seem to have a similar problem with the Emperor of Japan.

** Their next door neighbor Jenn has Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain on her sofa and scarfing all her lager.

* In ''[[Bruno the Bandit]]'', Great-Uncle Lucius, who ''[http://www.brunothebandit.com/d/19981021.html lied about being a member of Bruno's family]'', ''[http://www.brunothebandit.com/d/19981023.html came for an afternoon visit over thirty years before the comic happens]'', and then fell sick and was, according to him and (after some ''[http://www.brunothebandit.com/d/19981021.html threats]'' from Lucius) his doctors, about to die, thus making the family have to take care of him. He's going to live until at least "[http://www.brunothebandit.com/d/19981031.html some seventy years later]". And he will still be about to die.

* [[Megatokyo|Piro and Largo]] stay in the apartment of Piro's friend Tsubasa when they are stuck in Japan at first. While they genuinely mean to not impose, they are distracted by Tsubasa's vast video game collection and wind up staying until Tsubasa leaves for America and they are evicted from the apartment, along with [[Robot Girl]] Ping.

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' does a very strange version with Bert. At first, he's the main characters' roommate, so it's no problem that he's there. Then he says he's moving out because the others are too weird, though he's always most certainly been the weirdest one even in that bunch. The others don't necessarily want him to go, at least Torg, but all right. The problem is when he says he ''has'' moved out even while he's obviously still living in there. In the end, Torg gets fed up and calls the UN to send inspectors to find him, which they fail to do because [i]Bert was in a closet.[/i]

* Katia, the main character of ''[[Prequel (webcomic)|Prequel]]''. She meets Quill-Weave after breaking into her house on a drunken bender to have sex with a stranger in her own bed. Since Quill is one of the first people to genuinely treat her nicely (out of pity and later guilt), Katia latches onto her like an adorably pathetic, puppy-dog eyed lamprey.

* The basic plot of Batman and the Bat-Titans has a [[Jerkass]] version of Batman mooching off of the [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[The Boondocks]]'' episode ''Invasion of the Katrinians''. 'Nuff said.

* In one episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', Otto moves in with the Simpsons after he loses his job. They'd kick him out, but he has nowhere to go.

* Casey Jones is a mild version of this in one episode of the 2003 ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]''. He doesn't stay that long, comparatively, but he does a fair amount of damage to the furnishings before he goes. The Turtles (especially Mikey) even make several "Thing That Would Not Leave" jokes.

* In ''[[Scooby Doo|The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo]]'', [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|Vincent Van Ghoul]] was staying with the crew while his home was being fumigated, he was mostly staying in bed and made unreasonable demands. Daphne called him "The Thing That Wouldn't Leave", and after their trip through the funny papers, the gang groaned when they learned the fumigation was going to take longer.

* In an episode of ''[[The Angry Beavers]]'' titled "The Bing That Wouldn't Leave" involves Norbert and Dagget rescuing a chameleon named Bing who won't leave them alone. They try all sorts of schemes to get rid of him, and eventually try passing him along to one of their other friends, but they find out Bing's reputation for clinginess proceeds him.

* In ''[[Static Shock]]'', Richie hangs out at the Hawkins household so often that Sharon says he ought to pay them rent. Virgil and his father don't seem to care too much, though.

 

== Real Life ==

* Kirby Vacuum Cleaner salesmen. They barge into people's homes [http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/kirby/kirby.html claiming they want to do a "quick" demonstration or that the owner has won a "free carpet cleaning"], then turn the house upside-down with several hours of "demonstrations" (and sometimes [http://www.consumeraffairs.com/in_home/kirby_elder.html outright] [http://www.consumeraffairs.com/in_home/kirby_pests.html theft]), [http://www.consumeraffairs.com/in_home/kirby.htm refusing] [http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/kirby/kirby_letters.html to leave] until either they get forcibly thrown out or someone agrees to buy the vacuum for a ridiculously overpriced cost.

* Used by Queen Elizabeth I as a tactic to financially bankrupt nobles with questionable loyalties at best. Since she was the Queen they had to put her up like a Queen. It was often a cover for her spies to dig through the nobles' dirty laundry while she and her ''very extensive'' entourage (sometimes literally) ate them out of house and home.

* In 1971, Chilean socialist President Salvador Allende extended an invitation to [[Fidel Castro]] to visit the country. He made a visit ''supposedly'' for just a week, but he ended up staying for a ''month''. And to top it all, when he returned to Cuba, he declared that they had nothing to learn from Chile.

* Of course having guests in your house is terrible but there's nothing worse than when you're a guest in someone else's house. You've only been there for four weeks and they're dropping not so subtle hints that you should go. They should be happy to have you! You're a great guest! You're polite, considerate, you don't complain about how awful the food is or how little effort obviously goes into making it as though they don't care that you're there! That you have the courtesy to bestow your shining presence upon your hosts' puny, unworthy home in return for just a ''few weeks'' of doing absolutely nothing in the midst of your overwrought existence. You even have the kindness to stay up well into the evening with them, amusing them with your jokes, giving them advice on the best evening television. I mean really, if it weren't for you they'd be rotting their already atrophying minds with Coronation Street for God's sake! But after about a month of sheer, habitual rudeness on the part of your hosts, you decide to leave because you can't put up with it anymore. Some people just have no sense of social graces.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:All the Tropes Superhero Team]]