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* The people and environments in ''[[Monty Python]]'s The [[Life of Brian]]'', mostly likely due to the practices of the Ancient Romans, and even one of the characters mentioned how sanitation and hygiene have improved since the Romans have been in charge. The fact that it's set in the warm, dry Middle East as opposed to squalid, damp and muddy old England also helps things a bit. Of course, the majority still live in disgusting, tiny hovels, begging lepers are a common sight (unless Jesus comes along) and people are executed horribly for minor offenses.
* [[Keira Knightley]]'s Guinevere in ''[[King Arthur]]'' was immaculately manicured despite the fact that the audience is told that she had had her fingers broken while in captivity -- during a closeup on her perfect nails.
* In the film of ''[[Eragon (Filmfilm)|Eragon]]'' the hero, an ordinary farmboy, lives in a house roughly the size of an aircraft hangar despite the fact that his family is portrayed as ''so poor he has to sleep in the barn with the animals'' rather than having a bedroom of his own.
* Played straight in ''[[Bill and Ted|Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure]]''; our heroes travel to -- and pick up hitchhikers -- from ancient Greece, ancient Mongolia, and medieval Europe (among other eras), yet any and all unpleasant hygienic issues are ignored.
* ''[[A Kid in King ArthursArthur's Court]]'' had medieval England a pretty nice place where women can learn how to fight.
** Some [[Truth in Television]], surprisingly -- noblewomen were indeed taught the basics of combat and siege defense, in the case the enemy attacked when their husbands weren't around. Passive princesses were the ideal of a later age.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
 
* [[GKG. K. Chesterton]] was often accused of making the past look better than the current age. He responded by saying he was correcting the "Whiggish" view of history. That being the view that all the mistakes of the past lead towards a better future.
* [[The Pyrates]] is set firmly in a [[Ye Goode Olde Days]] version of [[The Cavalier Years]]. [[George Macdonald Fraser|The Author]] lampshades this immediately following the idyllic introduction, saying that historians would no doubt point out the complete lack of sanitation, hygiene, or social services. He concludes that the historical characters, "happy conscienceless rabble that they were," likely wouldn't care, and urges the reader not to, either.
{{quote| "There wasn't even a London School of Economics, which is remarkable when you consider that Locke and Hobbes were loose about the place."}}
* Averted in [[Time Scout (Literature)|Time Scout]]. In fact, the suggestions given in the first paragraph of are taken up by people in the book! They get multiple shots, they take many, many preparations against death and disease, they understand that they may have to be quarantined when they return, and men intending to go brothel-hopping downtime even get ''surgically restored'' '''''foreskins.'''''
* ''[[Septimus Heap (Literature)|Septimus Heap]]'', despite [[Word of God|being set in a world like the 17th century]], has quite high living standards and sanitation.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
 
* Ancient Japan seemed awfully tidy in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', although there is a degree of accuracy here; cleanliness and hygiene were both quite advanced and socially important in Japan. Of course the punishments for failing to uphold the proper level of cleaning etiquette could be pretty draconian.
* The film version of Irish Potato Famine novel ''Under the Hawthorn Tree'' featured three starving, destitute orphans walking the width of Ireland to reach their aunts' home. For malnourished vagrants, their skin and hair were immaculate.
* Several years ago a British reality programme tried to get people to live as an Iron Age tribe. Virtually the first thing they did was to elect a woman leader. There are at least two things wrong with that sentence<ref>Try "elect" and "woman leader". Yes, Boudicca was a female ruler, but she inherited her husband's power. And the Romans weren't happy about it.</ref>.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Hard to Be A God (Literature)|Hard to Be A God]]'' by the [[Strugatsky Brothers]]. The plot centers around historians from a 22nd Century, Socialist Utopian Earth going deep undercover on a planet those human-like society is going though an equivalent of early Renaissance. The heroes have to deal with all the discomforts and prejudices of that age, and, over time, some become so engrossed in their roles that they begin to lose sight of their idealism.
* In the ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' novel ''Elfangor's Secret'', the soldiers and villagers of Europe circa the Hundred Years' War are notably ridden with diseases and parasites. This becomes a plot point when the Animorphs need to figure out which soldier of the massed armies is a fellow time traveller, and they eventually look for the one person who is as healthy and unmarked as they are.
* The ''[[Outlander]]'' series by Diana Gabaldon. The protagonist is sent back in time to 1745 Scotland from 1945 post-war Scotland. She's generally horrified by the sanitation and hygiene of the day (not to mention the morality), but she does admit that they're better off in some respects than she might have thought. (Judicious use of leeches to ease bruising, for example; Claire would have suspected them of being used for fevers.)
* Otto Bettmann's (non-fiction) book ''The Good Old Days -- They Were Terrible!'' is dedicated to debunking this trope, in regards to American society in the late 19th/early 20th century. Child-labor sweatshops, streets filled with manure and trash, malnutrition amongst frontiersmen, etc.
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* The ''[[Homestar Runner (Web Animation)|Homestar Runner]]'' game ''Peasant's Quest''. Most of the game is spent trying to convince a guard that you are indeed a peasant; one of his three issues is that the protagonist "doesn't smell like" one. Also, note that all the thatched-roof cottages are realistically one-roomed and have mud floors.
 
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