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: [
Compare [[Men Can't Keep House]], [[The Pig Pen]], [[It Came From the Fridge]], [[Down in
And guess what... it's [[Truth in Television]], as you can see in [http://www.squalorsurvivors.com/ this site!]
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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
* ''[[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
** 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
** [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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== Film ==
* [[Fear and Loathing
* Sebastian's workshop/living quarters in ''[[Blade Runner]]''.
* "The Great Garbage Avalanche of 2505" in ''[[Idiocracy]]''. They had mountains of garbage at least as high as some buildings, streets were littered, etc.
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== Literature ==
* One of the ''[[
** Lister generally managed to create a smaller but no less deadly version of this in his living quarters.
{{quote|
* In ''[[The Long Dark Tea
* In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to
* ''[[
* The Wyler/Garin household in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[
* 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.
* [[Dave Barry]] once wrote a column called "[[Exactly What It Says
* Subversion: [[
== Live Action TV ==
* In one episode of ''[[Friends]]'', Ross goes out with a beautiful scientist who happens to live in an absolute mess of an apartment. Joey doesn't seem to care much about spilling stuff or making a mess either, but this being a [[
** Well, he lives across the hall from obsessive neat-freak Monica. She's been known to make clean-house-calls. She even showed up at the above mentioned scientists' apartment begging to let her clean it. That said, she also has a massive collection of trash in her own apartment, hidden behind the mystery door. Chandler is shocked when he finally gets it open.
* The television [[Ur Example]] would be Oscar Madison from ''[[The Odd Couple]]''. (It was also a play and a film, though.)
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** It had also begun to play habitat to "something with fur and a beak". I like to think it was a chicken riding pig riding a bear.
*** And [[It Got Worse|it got much, much worse after he left]]. For example, "Turn left, at the dead badger."
* The family's house in ''[[Malcolm in
* The main point of ''[[How Clean Is Your House]]?'' is seeing Kim and Aggie scream and squirm at the unbelievably messy houses they come across.
* When Burke sees Cristina's apartment for the first time on ''[[
* On ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', Sheldon is constantly deriding Penny for her apartment's constant state of disorder.
* ''[[Hoarders]]'', a [[Reality TV]] series about [[Exactly What It Says
* 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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== Music ==
* [[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
* 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 [
* The Dust Men from ''[[
** 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 ''[[
{{quote|
== Western Animation ==
* The [[Trope Namer]] is the title of the 200th episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' (in which, notably, [[
** "War of the Simpsons" has Bart and Lisa throw a house party and trash the house so bad that Grampa starts crying, only to learn that {{spoiler|Grampa faked it so he could make the kids feel sorry for taking advantage of him}}.
** "Homer Alone" has Homer looking after Maggie, while Bart and Lisa are at Patty and Selma's apartment and Marge is at a resort following an arrest for obstructing traffic.
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* The Griffins' house in ''[[Family Guy]]'' becomes like this after Lois is arrested for being a kleptomaniac.
* This was shown to have happened in Earth's past in the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "A Big Piece of Garbage". The city of New York had become so messy that all of the landfills and New Jersey were full. They ended up having to send all of the garbage out into space. This came back to bite humanity in the ass, as the giant garbage ball was heading back and would destroy the whole planet. Only Fry's skills at making more garbage in order to create another garbage ball of the same size was able to save the Earth.
* [[Cloudcuckoolander|Ed]] in ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]''. Also an example of [[The Pig Pen]], his room is pretty much nearly unihabitable for human life, including a bath tub filled with gravy.
* Played literally in ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]'' when Timmy accidentally ends up trashing Mount Olympus while partying with them. The Greek Gods, being who they are, [[Wild Teen Party|do the same to Timmy's house.]]
** In another episode, Timmy is ordered to clean up his room, which has become so bad that there are creatures living under his bed and grabbing anything they see as food, unidentifiable green molds, rats crawling all over, other stuff.
* In the ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' episode "Trash-O-Madness", Rocko's house becomes so filthy that even his dirty underwear develops a form of intelligence and tries to crawl away. Rocko's house is also seen as absurdly messy in several episodes, although [[Zig Zagged Trope|not every one]]; sometimes his house actually is acceptably clean.
* Beezy on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' lives in these conditions, to the point that he's [[Incredibly Lame Pun|literally]] renting space to garbage.
* In the ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'' cartoon series, one episode involves Christopher Robin having a messy room and stuffing all of his trash under the bed rather than cleaning his room properly. The plot gets interesting when Christopher Robin and the other characters [[Down the Rabbit Hole|find that the space under the bed is a whole world of its own; that they are trapped there until they can find a way out]], and that this world underneath the bed is not only [[Down in
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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 [
** "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale, depicted in the documentary film ''[
* In 2007, the entire city of Naples, Italy was subjected to this. Factors blamed were incompetent local government, restrictive environmental laws, and in-fighting among organized crime.
* [
* [[Incendiary Exponent|The burning of]] [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1642 the Cuyahoga River] in [[Cleveland]]. When a ''body of water'' becomes flammable, you know you have a pollution problem.
** Which time? It caught on fire at least thirteen times between 1868 and 1969.
* [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]]
[[Category:
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