Trash of the Titans: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Trash-
{{quote|''Look at all this garbage that I keep generatin'
''I sit around all day and watch it biodegradin'
''Bet there's a hundred health codes that I'm violatin'
''Even my dog passed out and needed resuscitatin'.''
|'''[["Weird Al" Yankovic]]''', "Trash Day"}}
Someone's [[Fatal Flaw]] is that they are messy. But in fiction, it's not as simple as leaving the occasional book on the floor or not cleaning up a minor spill. No, [[Absurdity Ascendant|these people go all the way]] and produce environments that should not be able to sustain human life. Trash is overflowing from garbage bags like vomit from the mouths of several bloated black slugs, the air is a sickly brown colour, primitive lifeforms have begun to develop under the sink and [[It Came From the Fridge|don't even think about opening the fridge]]. But don't worry! They have A System[[
There is actually a real-life term for this behavior: [[wikipedia:Disposophobia|Disposophobia]] (the fear of throwing anything away) otherwise known as "compulsive hoarding". People who suffer from this condition basically think "But I might need it later" to a life-threatening degree ([[Too Awesome to Use|anyone who's played an RPG might relate]]). Or they're just too lazy/overworked/''sick'' to spend the umpteen hours needed to get the place together. Disability is the number two cause, right behind compulsive hoarding, but this is rarely presented as a serious problem in fiction. Either way, this trope is usually [[Played for Laughs]] in fiction.
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{{examples}}
== Anime
* Nodame's apartment in ''[[Nodame Cantabile]]'' is like this whenever Chiaki isn't around to clean it. How her piano stays in a playable state is anyone's guess.
* Lain's house in ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]'' gains a worrying amount of mess and a nasty brown fog near the end of the series, {{spoiler|when Lain's family turn out to be adoptive and goes away, leaving her alone there}}.
* Howl's house in ''[[
* Sheska of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' is not a slob, but her room is absolutely full of unsorted books. So much that's she introduced needing rescue from being buried under a pile of them that fell over.
* Sato's apartment from ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]'' definitely counts. He at least tries to keep things marginally tidy during his 'oh god I'm a [[Hikkikomori]]' moments, but for the most part, its a sty.
* In the ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei|Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei]]'' [[OVA]] we're introduced to [[Neat Freak|Kitsu]] [[Control Freak|Chiri's]] older sister, Kitsu Tane, who is her complete opposite. It is explained that in their childhood, Tane chose to become [[The Pig Pen]] in order to save the life of their gold fish, which Chiri had decided to clean. Unfortunally for Tane, she had to maintain this behavior for so many years, it eventually got stuck (literally; trash seems to follow her) and now she can't even take properly care of herself... To end on a positive note, if she hadn't kept Chiri's obsessive compulsive tidyness in check with her [[Heroic Sacrifice]], Chiri might've doomed humanity by the time the series started, considering what [[Ax Crazy|becomes of her]] when something is not perfectly perfect.
* ''[[Great Teacher Onizuka]]'' Onizuka's apartment is not only tiny, but a wall-to-wall landfill. A can of ramen with a hole in it is the least embarrassing thing there.
* Taiga's apartment in ''[[Toradora!]]'', with a sickening stench emanating from the kitchen sink which was polluted so heavily that its contents were [[Pixellation|censored on screen]].
** Naturally, she is complemented by a [[Neat Freak]] co-star named Ryuuji, whose first reaction to seeing said apartment is to ''beg her to be allowed to clean it''.
** One also wonders why Taiga doesn't simply hire someone to clean the apartment, since she obviously has the money.
* Naeka's house in ''[[Kamen no Maid Guy]]'' was so filthy that Kogarashi has to cart out living snakes and ravens.
* At the start of ''[[Mahoromatic]]'' Suguru's house is practically a biohazard, until [[Ninja Maid|Mahoro]] comes to provide her services.
** His (unwashed) underwear had ''mushrooms growing on them''.
* Never, ever attempt to find anything in [[D.Gray-man|Komui Lee]]'s office.
** [http://i52.tinypic.com/2uo0u38.jpg Or Lavi and Bookman's old room.] Granted, it's only paper in the end, but I can't imagine it not also being trash since they are supposed to remember everything they've read. And just imagine the dust..
* The student-run dorm in ''[[Moyashimon]]'' is a dump, especially Misato and Kawahama's room, which is just one big wall of mold spores from the perspective of main character Sawaki (who has the power to see microbes).
* Shigure's house in the beginning of ''[[Fruits Basket]]'', with both Yuki and Shigure unable to bring themselves to clean it up. Good thing a [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] moved in.
** Later on, Tohru makes a comparison about dealing with problems along the same lines of doing a mountainous amount of laundry. [[Fridge Brilliance|Reflecting back on things]], it's quite likely that metaphor was a bit more literal for her.
** Machi also has this problem.
** Shigure's room isn't much better. Even once Tohru's cleaned up the rest of the house, it's still a junkyard of epic proportions.
* Tenpou in ''[[Saiyuki]] Gaiden'' has an office/library that becomes like this frequently and would get worse if Kenren didn't clean it for him. Wierdly in their future incarnations this switches.
* Misato Katsuragi of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. The first time Shinji enters the apartment, Misato warns him with a sheepish smile that it's a little messy. He steps in and is appalled at the piles of [[Bottle Fairy|beer cans]], [[Lethal Chef|instant meal wrappings]], dirty laundry...
{{quote|
* In ''[[Kochikame]]'', Ryotsu's room is basically like this.
* Erica Hartmann's room from ''[[Strike Witches]]''. It's so messy that in one episode, she can't even find her underwear, so she ends up stealing a pair from one of the other girls taking a bath at the time. [[Hilarity Ensues]] as they try to figure out who stole the underwear.
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* One of the ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' novels has mankind turn Earth into the Solar System's trash heap (leading to a [[Planet of the Apes Ending|Planet Of The Apes Middle]] when Lister recognized Mount Rushmore). At least until it 'escapes' when a methane vent ignites and the Earth literally farts out of orbit.
** Lister generally managed to create a smaller but no less deadly version of this in his living quarters.
{{quote|
* In ''[[The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul|The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul]]'', Dirk Gently is having a standoff with his cleaning lady over who will open the fridge first; it hasn't been opened in several months. The rest of his flat is in a similar state. Eventually, Dirk just buys a new fridge and has the old one carted off, [[It Came From the Fridge|where it spawns a new demon/god]] which conveniently eats the escaping 'villains'.
* In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish|So Long And Thanks For All The Fish]]'' by the same author, Arthur Dent's room is in a similar state, as he jokes "Bung a fork of lightning through this lot and you'd start the evolution of life all over again."
* ''[[Roadside Picnic]]'' by the [[Strugatsky Brothers]] demonstrates what happens when [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] have this trait. (For those not in the know, this book was the basis for ''[[STALKER]]''.)
* The Wyler/Garin household in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Regulators]]''. Autistic 8-year-old Seth {{spoiler|and evil possessing entity Tak}} doesn't care what the place is like, and his aunt/guardian Audrey, the only surviving adult in the household, has much bigger problems occupying her time and energy.
* In "The Musgrave Ritual", Watson grumbles about [[Sherlock Holmes]]' tendency to fill their shared flat with stacked papers and oddly-placed personal items, not to mention shooting decorative holes in the wall. Subverted in that Holmes actually ''does'' have "a system"
* In Harper Lee's ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'', the Ewell family's house and yard are described this way.
* In the ''[[Nightside]]'' series, Suzie Shooter's place is like this. John speculates that the only reason she doesn't have rats is because she eats them.
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* ''[[Hoarders]]'', a [[Reality TV]] series about [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|people with compulsive hoarding]]. Things get even more perilous when people refuse to throw out [[Nausea Fuel|food]] ("The milk's still good 'cause the carton's not puffy! It's just the outer layer of the lettuce that's gone bad! Oh... I ''think'' that was a pumpkin..."), pet hair ("I know it's stupid but it protects my dog... somehow"), or ''guns'' ("I've heard him threaten to kill her more then once"). Strangely, only two groups of subjects were [[Crazy Cat Lady|Crazy Cat Ladies]], and the more serious one had about 50 animals ([[Nightmare Fuel|about half of them were still alive]], and about half of ''those'' had to be put to sleep due to aliments caused by the horrible conditions).
* In ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'', the first time we see Leslie's apartment she admits to being something of a hoarder.
** April and Andy's house is worse; they don't seem to understand the concept of cleaning.
* In the ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' episode "The Dig", the team treat a man who they believe to be a hoarder after seeing his house, whose illness is a result of this. When they search his house more thoroughly, they find his wife, even more sick that her husband and the actual hoarder.
* On ''[[Glee]]'', it's implied that Santana keeps her car this way, to the point that Brittany suggests she be on ''Hoarders''.
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* [[Shel Silverstein]]'s "[http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/s/sarahcynthiasylviastoutwouldnottakethegarbageout.shtml Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout]", who Would Not Take the Garbage Out. The narrator refuses to say what happens to her, but it seems that she [[Squick|drowns in the garbage]].
* This is the premise behind the [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] Song "Trash Day".
* The [[Gorillaz]] are notorious for their ability to trash a place in a matter of minutes. Their tour bus, the [[Meaningful Name|Charon,]] is described as [http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/315/4/3/the_gorillaz_tour_bus_by_megumi777-d32m2qj.jpg 'looking like a frathouse,'] and their original base of operations, Kong studios, was [http://media.photobucket.com/image/gorillaz%20plastic%20beach/raizesaereasworld/Gorillaz/plastic-beach-gorillaz-2010.jpg even worse]. It seems that Plastic Beach, being a literal [[Down in the Dumps|floating landfill,]] continues this tradition.
* In the video to Donna Summer's "She Works Hard For The Money", an overworked waitress and mother of two returns home after another long day. The camera pans around her living room, which is an atrocious mess she's far too exhausted to bring under control.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* A morbid example from ''[[Warhammer
** Seems the author [[Did Not Do the Research]]. Old, caked blood isn't crimson, it's ''[[Color Coded for Your Convenience|black]]'', or, if it's somewhat fresh and in a thin enough layer, a kind of rusty red. In fact, dried bloodstains are often almost impossible to distinguish from the rust stains without proper chemicals. It's kinda understandable, given that the main oxygen-bearing agent in a human blood is, well, ''rust''.
** The less said about [[Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant|Nurgle followers]] and their (lack of) hygiene, the better...
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* ''[[Persona 2]]'': Maya Amano's apartment is a complete pigsty. Upon visiting it in ''Eternal Punishment'', policeman Katsuya immediately assumes there's been a break-in.
* ''[[Persona 3]]'': In a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBArA1sF-qE similar case] to the above, when Mitsuru notices Junpei's door open, she calls the police assuming it was a break-in. However, Junpei states that his room is always like that, embarassing Mitsuru and Junpei.
* A ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' quest centres on giants trashing the plains from their castle in the sky
* Marisa of ''[[Touhou]]'' is a [[Kleptomaniac Hero|notorious thief]] that grabs anything that interests her. However, she lives in a small cottage, and it is filled with everything she hasn't bothered to sort or throw away (which considering her short attention span is a lot). At one point in ''Curiosities of Lotus Asia'', [[The One Guy|Rinnosuke]] even manages to find the legendary [[wikipedia:Kusanagi|Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi]] in one of Marisa's junk piles!
* The Dust Men from ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'' embrace this trope, as they bulit their base from pieces of steel plates and garbage over a park.
** They also construct some of their weapons for garbage as well. From annoying little spider drones to '''HUGE''' trash robots that are controlled by psychic hobos.
* Savage Terminal in ''[[Maple Story]]'' is a small planet where the folks in Grandis throw their garbage. There are two known settlements, though both are [[Wretched Hive]]s, populated mostly by criminals, outcasts, and scroungers. [[Mega Corp| The Angler Company]] and their cohorts believe the Savage Terminal [[Soiled City on a Hill| is beyond saving]] and two storylines (the starting zone storyline for Cadena and the “Detective Rave” storyline) involve their plan to eradicate life on it so the planet itself can be sold for scrap, a plan the hero has to foil, as good people do still live in the Savage Terminal.
== Web Comics ==
* The dorm room of the (male) main characters in ''[[
* The character of [http://questionablecontent.net./view.php?comic=1413 Marigold] in ''[[Questionable Content]]'', at least before [[Super OCD|Hanners]] gets to her.
{{quote|
'''Marigold:''' ''Pet'' rat? }}
* Ratliff from ''[http://www.eyebeam.com Eyebeam]''. The pile of mess in his room [http://eyebeam.com/toons/index.php?num=75 is] [http://eyebeam.com/toons/index.php?num=111 a] [http://eyebeam.com/1983/index.php?num=105 running] [http://eyebeam.com/toons/index.php?num=225 joke] throughout the comic. When Ratliff moves into his own house, Eyebeam comments that it is nice how the trash piles up to a lower level, only to be reminded of "the tides". Once, and only once, does Ratliff actually [http://eyebeam.com/toons/index.php?num=241 clean his room]; [[Hilarity Ensues]]. A quick de-cleaning restores the natural order of things.
* Fox's desk in an early ''[[Friendly Hostility]]'' strip resembled a trash heap.
{{quote|
'''Desk''': "I have not."
'''Fox''': "See? Two against one." }}
* In ''[[Freefall]]'' Sam Starfall's initial reaction to the sound of every loose object on the ship being pushed to the back:
{{quote|
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*** To be precise the Black Death was most likely caused mainly by the pneumonic plague, a slightly different and extremely virulent from of this disease. Bubonic plague isn't nearly transmissible enough to cause such devastation. Pneumonic plague, on the other hand, could be transmitted by the air, which is much quicker and surer than the fleas. Current theory says that plague entered Europe in a bubonic form with the Brown Rat, and then somehow mutated into the pneumonic form, ensuring its lightning-fast transmission.
** That being said, cities in the 1800's and early 1900's were cesspools of disease. New York was one of the worst, along with London, but every crowded city would have this problem. This may have also facilitated the spread of the Spanish Flu pandemic.
* The filth and overcrowded conditions in Paris in the second half of the eighteenth century were a contributing factor to the French revolution. (Short version: The king had decreed Paris could not expand beyond its walls, for fear that the common people would take over the countryside and displace the nobility. Whoops.)
* Perhaps the scariest real-life version of this trope would be the [[wikipedia:Collyer brothers|Collyer Brothers]]. Over 100 tons of garbage was found in their house, and they even built traps to keep people from stealing anything. Unfortunately for both of them, one of them was [[Hoist by His Own Petard|killed by the very traps they set]], while the surviving brother was trapped by the rubbish and slowly starved to death.
** "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale, depicted in the documentary film ''[[wikipedia:Grey Gardens|Grey Gardens]]'', were another famous real-life example.
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* [http://community.livejournal.com/housematehorror/1451.html The Worst Roommate Ever] Warning: language definitely NSFW, narrative definitely not [[Nausea Fuel|stomach-]] or [[Brain Bleach|sanity-]]safe.
* Some people hoard garbage in their cars, till all but the front seat are inaccessable. You can only wonder what their houses are like.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130728083450/http://www.citypages.com/1997-03-12/news/behind-closed-doors/ The infamous Eggert house]. "[[It Came From the Fridge|The refrigerator from which years-old food and roaches spilled out]]". "To get into bed, they had to climb up a mountain of trash and slide down the other side, slick with human feces". "The toilet and bathtub were overflowing." "A baby's crib coated in gray mold". "Conception, believe it or not, occurred here."
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100904004706/http://www.overthelimit.info/curiosity/2010/08/29/missing-hoarder-found-dead-in-her-own-home/ Las Vegas hoarder found dead after missing for four months].
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqVekHHObLg This guy] hoarded buckets of his own urine and feces.
* On a smaller scale, many rapidly-urbanizing Third World cities don't have the infrastructure in place to handle all the garbage its citizens produce. In Cairo, for instance, garbage is sometimes stored on the roofs of houses.
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[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Cleanliness Tropes]]
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