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Informed Poverty
- 287 statements
- 55 feature instances
- 39 referencing feature instances
| Informed Poverty | type |
FeatureClass | |
| Informed Poverty | label |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty | page |
InformedPoverty | |
| Informed Poverty | comment |
In Real Life, poverty is a hard thing. People live from paycheck to paycheck, having to skimp on meals and healthcare, and having to live in poor conditions, if they aren't homeless entirely. In works of fiction, though, this isn't always the case. Informed Poverty is when a character is stated to be poor, but in fact seems very well off. In some works, if a character doesn't live in a mansion and have an expensive car, they can be considered poor. In works where a teenager is supposed to be in a poor family, it's common for this "poverty" to be shown by them not having cars (or at least not having new ones) and having to work to afford luxuries. It's rare for them to be shown working to pay for necessities like food and house bills. The viewer is usually expected to accept the character's status as "poor" because all the other characters are filthy rich. This trope is more common in works aimed at teenagers. From a filming standpoint, this trope is usually in play because it's easier to film in large homes and sets, though it still doesn't justify having a pristine interior and exterior, fancy furniture, or multiple cars. Poor characters are also often seen as more sympathetic, so the "poor" label may be tossed on for that reason. There may sometimes be some Values Dissonance with this trope. What is considered poor for some places may be seen as normal or even wealthy for others. For example, in the United States, houses tend to be larger than in many other countries. Related to "Friends" Rent Control, where characters live in homes they shouldn't logically be able to afford. Also closely related to Pottery Barn Poor, where characters have large homes and nice furniture even if they're supposed to be poor. May also be related to Penny Among Diamonds where a character is only poor compared to others around them. Bath of Poverty avoids this trope. Examples |
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| Informed Poverty | isPartOf |
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| Informed Poverty / int_10b060ee | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_10b060ee | comment |
Dork Tower: Matt is an unemployed, unpopular cartoonist, Igor is running on a scholarship for a fictitious course and the occasional bribe from the U.S. military to never enlist, ever, and Carson is a talking muskrat. And Igor buys everything - video games, new pen and paper games, a metric ton of D20 modules, and so on - usually by raiding the rent jar. Despite this, the only actual penalties they seem to suffer are occasional references to cheap food, selling plasma, and being unable to afford something they end up having a few strips later anyway; they regularly visit conventions, keep up with geek culture movies and their DVD releases and are seen playing dozens, if not hundreds, of different games over the strip's history. Either Ken, the only one with an actual paying job, is very generous, or this trope is going on. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_10b060ee | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_10b060ee | featureConfidence |
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| Dork Tower (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_10b060ee | |
| Informed Poverty / int_11e3f224 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_11e3f224 | comment |
The first few episodes of Everybody Hates Chris imply that the family is barely above the poverty line to the point that they can barely afford food. However, throughout the series, this becomes increasingly downplayed. One episode's plot dealt with Julius having a sudden streak of generosity and ending up spending almost a thousand dollars by doing people favors, with no visible negative consequences to be seen in the following episodes. Acknowledged in another episode, in which Chris is denied financial aid for an elite school on the grounds that his family wasn't doing poorly enough to qualify. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_11e3f224 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_11e3f224 | featureConfidence |
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| Everybody Hates Chris | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_11e3f224 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_1331990c | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_1331990c | comment |
Sayaka Miki, in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, describes herself as "glad I wasn't born rich," implying herself to be poor or at least working-class. However, it's shown later on in the series that Sayaka lives in a two-story house. This is very rare in Japan, where property values are very high, particularly in an opulent city like Mitakihara, implying the Mikis to be very wealthy in reality but poor by the standards of Sayaka's peers (Madoka's house is huge). | |
| Informed Poverty / int_1331990c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_1331990c | featureConfidence |
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| Puella Magi Madoka Magica | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_1331990c | |
| Informed Poverty / int_16aa3232 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_16aa3232 | comment |
Mike and Susan in the last season of Desperate Housewives. They rent out their house to move into a cheap apartment, are prepared to do anything for extra cash, and claim to be in terrible poverty, but at the end of the day, they're living in a large, comfortable, attractive flat and don't seem to have changed their lifestyle at all. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_16aa3232 | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_16aa3232 | featureConfidence |
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| Desperate Housewives | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_16aa3232 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_22147342 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_22147342 | comment |
Arrow: At one point Oliver starts having serious money problems, to the point that he makes a gift for his friend's daughter instead of buying one. He still has a very nice apartment and secret base (though that one probably isn't on his tax returns). Stephen Amell was asked about this, and he simply said "a broke billionaire is still a millionaire." | |
| Informed Poverty / int_22147342 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_22147342 | featureConfidence |
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| Arrow | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_22147342 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_24ffd341 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_24ffd341 | comment |
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: None of the gang make much money from the bar, yet Dee lives by herself in a very nice apartment. None of the gang ever seem to lack funds for whatever crazy scheme they cook up each week. Frank's presence helps explain some of this, though he's not involved in every adventure. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_24ffd341 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_24ffd341 | featureConfidence |
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| It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_24ffd341 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_25c8ce49 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_25c8ce49 | comment |
In Some Kind of Wonderful, it's a similar situation to the above. The "poor" characters don't really have it that all that bad, and are really only considered poor because the other kids drive Corvettes and don't have to work for their college fund. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_25c8ce49 | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_25c8ce49 | featureConfidence |
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Informed Poverty / int_25c8ce49 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_261c8d3f | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_261c8d3f | comment |
Done in The Simpsons. While many episodes claim they're in the lower income bracket and that they have many financial problems (probably thanks in part due to Homer being a reckless spender), the family lives in a large two-story house, each child has their own (big) bedroom and the family has two cars (though one is in a constant state of disrepair). They also seem to be able to afford to travel a lot, even when one ignores the trips they got for free. Some gags even implies Homer's salary is in the four digits and Marge once said she feeds them a whole week on a $12 budget (she uses sawdust for Homer's meat) which, reality wise, means they should get food stamps. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_261c8d3f | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_261c8d3f | featureConfidence |
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| The Simpsons | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_261c8d3f | |
| Informed Poverty / int_2a8943c0 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_2a8943c0 | comment |
Miraculous Ladybug: Marinette claims in the opening that she's "a normal girl with a normal life" and her family appear middle class, even though they run one of the most popular bakeries in France and live in a very expensive part of Paris. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_2a8943c0 | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_2a8943c0 | featureConfidence |
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| Miraculous Ladybug | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_2a8943c0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_2e2efbf9 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_2e2efbf9 | comment |
Back to the Future: The McFlys at the beginning of the movie are depicted as poor losers. In actuality, their lifestyle is relatively luxurious. Tellingly, in the improved timeline where they're better of, they still live in the exact same house as in the original timeline, albeit with fancier furnishings and cars. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_2e2efbf9 | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_2e2efbf9 | featureConfidence |
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| Back to the Future | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_2e2efbf9 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_331a41a7 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_331a41a7 | comment |
A weird example in Life as a House, Kevin Kline's character is a middle-aged architect who lives in a run down house, and the movie takes place in a supposedly middle-class neighborhood. The problem is that kind of real estate on the edge of a cliff with a view of the ocean anywhere in California would be obscenely valuable. | |
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| Informed Poverty / int_331a41a7 | featureConfidence |
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| Life as a House | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_331a41a7 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_3729373e | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_3729373e | comment |
Detroit: Become Human has Todd, who despite being dead broke lives in a sizable (if filthy and decaying) house and owns an android (two, in fact), which he has the money to repair. However, it isn't entirely a case of "just because we say so" - in Kara's first chapter, you can find Todd's mail, revealing that he's massively in debt and has a terrible credit score. In addition, throughout the game you find indications that androids are cheaper than they look. | |
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1.0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_3729373e | featureConfidence |
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Informed Poverty / int_3729373e | |
| Informed Poverty / int_3af6f979 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_3af6f979 | comment |
Without mentioning Little Women by name, its attitudes are mocked in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn when Francie has to endure a teacher pontificating about poverty. Her replies are internal: | |
| Informed Poverty / int_3af6f979 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_3af6f979 | featureConfidence |
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| A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_3af6f979 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_42dcaf37 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_42dcaf37 | comment |
In Growing Up, since requesting items from your parents costs Pride Points instead of money, you're asking them to spend their money on what you want. If they're proud of you enough, they'll be willing to take you on an international vacation regardless of the job one of them got in your previous run. | |
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1.0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_42dcaf37 | featureConfidence |
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| Growing Up (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_42dcaf37 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_436556fe | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_436556fe | comment |
The Chances from Raising Hope are poor but get to live in a pretty nice house by taking advantage of their senile grandmother. What isn't explained is how they can afford many of the things they buy, though it is implied that a lot of their possessions (like the computer) were acquired by Burt and Virginia through their jobs, and another episode showed Virginia is an Extreme Couponer. Virginia and the other maids all fight over the stuff that the very rich people they clean for throw out, so seeing as the computer was an older desktop, it's quite possible she got it that way. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_436556fe | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_436556fe | featureConfidence |
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| Raising Hope | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_436556fe | |
| Informed Poverty / int_4617a9f2 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_4617a9f2 | comment |
The Bundys of Married... with Children. A running gag is that Al earns next to nothing at the shoe store and drives a 20-year-old wreck of a Dodge, yet they live in a large, two-story house in a neighborhood that is at least nice enough for their wealthy next-door neighbors. Of course, there is the fact that Peggy spends as much as she can on useless junk she impulse-buys, to the point where there are frequent jokes about there literally being no food in the house. |
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| Informed Poverty / int_4617a9f2 | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_4617a9f2 | featureConfidence |
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| Married... with Children | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_4617a9f2 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_489580cb | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_489580cb | comment |
In Pretty in Pink, Andie is stated to be poor and even gets picked on for it, but she lives in a nice little house and even has her own (pink!) car. She's only poor in comparison to her classmates, who are all filthy rich. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_489580cb | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_489580cb | featureConfidence |
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| Pretty in Pink | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_489580cb | |
| Informed Poverty / int_4bd693d0 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_4bd693d0 | comment |
As Told by Ginger downplays it. Although Lois is a single mother, and has an episode involving a nurses' strike that leads to her taking up a cleaning lady job to get by, the only financial trouble in said episode is her not being able to give Ginger $50 for a class trip to New York (and even then the problem is solved when Ginger helps her, allowing her to clean more houses). The episode "Kiss and Make-Up" also shows that Lois has an extremely fancy personal bathroom en-suite, despite later claiming that she hasn't finished paying for the house yet. | |
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Informed Poverty / int_4bd693d0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_4c99197e | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_4c99197e | comment |
On the original version of The Muppet Show, the Muppet Theater doesn't make much — if any — income. Tickets to the show are free, and the annual payroll (which Kermit can't even afford the episode it's mentioned) is $24.14, with at least a few of the cast not salaried at all, including Fozzie. Despite this, they can somehow afford some rather elaborate sets, props, and music, along with enough pull to get some of the biggest names in show business to appear. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_4c99197e | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_4c99197e | featureConfidence |
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| The Muppet Show | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_4c99197e | |
| Informed Poverty / int_4f1f3628 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_4f1f3628 | comment |
Maddie from The Suite Life of Zack & Cody constantly complains about being poor as dirt, but when you actually get to see the apartment that her family lives in, it's not that bad at all. Likely supposed to be seen as poor, because she's being compared to her crazy-rich friend who constantly goes on shopping sprees, while Maddie (gasps) has to work to get luxuries. It is mentioned her father has been unemployed for five years, and her grandmother lives with them, however. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_4f1f3628 | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_4f1f3628 | featureConfidence |
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| The Suite Life of Zack & Cody | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_4f1f3628 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_51f5fe4b | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_51f5fe4b | comment |
In Vampire Academy, Mia Rinaldi's parents are servants of the Drozdov family. Yet Mia wears fashionable clothes, and at least good enough at faking it to get in with the royals… | |
| Informed Poverty / int_51f5fe4b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_51f5fe4b | featureConfidence |
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| Vampire Academy | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_51f5fe4b | |
| Informed Poverty / int_57e02043 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_57e02043 | comment |
Inverted in Danny, the Champion of the World: Danny never describes himself or his father as "poor", and his father mentions having learned to poach pheasants because "times were hard, and people were poor" when he grew up. However, their home is an old abandoned caravan without power, running water or gas, and they can't afford a car, in spite of Danny's father being a skilled mechanic. People around them often comment on their... rather basic lifestyle, but Danny has never known anything else, and his father (possibly related to growing up in poverty) seems quite comfortable with it. That said, they have enough money to buy an electric stove and freezer on a whim when they score a decent haul of pheasants, so... | |
| Informed Poverty / int_57e02043 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_57e02043 | featureConfidence |
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| Danny, the Champion of the World | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_57e02043 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_58b479d7 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_58b479d7 | comment |
Night School (2018) Inverts this with regards to the main character, Teddie. He's not as wealthy as he appears to be, but he's painstakingly put together a system of finances that allows him to appear to have much more money than he actually does. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_58b479d7 | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_58b479d7 | featureConfidence |
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Informed Poverty / int_58b479d7 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_60f02ddb | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_60f02ddb | comment |
An in-universe example in American Dad!. Unlike other examples on this page, it doesn't try to make the viewer believe the characters are poor, instead hangs a lampshade on the characters viewing themselves as "poor". Stan Smith is very well off and isn't afraid to show off (he does work for the CIA, after all), to the point where he invites his half-brother Rusty and his family over every Thanksgiving to brag about the stuff he has. Later, he visits Rusty's home and finds out that Rusty is a billionaire: anything Stan has, Rusty has it times a thousand. Suddenly Stan and the rest of his family (excluding Hayley, who had run off a few episodes prior) start complaining about how little they had because they were comparing themselves to Rusty. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_60f02ddb | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_60f02ddb | featureConfidence |
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Informed Poverty / int_60f02ddb | |
| Informed Poverty / int_6cb2d709 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_6cb2d709 | comment |
The Weasleys in Harry Potter are constantly described as being a poor family. In practice, this usually comes down to them having lots of hand-me-downs and secondhand supplies. They live in a big house, always have plenty of food for their large family (and frequently Harry and Hermione as well), and are never mentioned to be in debt. Mrs. Weasley doesn't have to work. The food thing may be justified when you remember that, while wizards can't make food from nothing, they can multiply it. It's possible Mrs. Weasley is feeding eleven people for the price of one. The same for the house, since spells that make things larger or more spacious seem pretty simple and it's implied that magic is the only thing keeping the house together. It's also possible they are only poor by comparison as a pure-blooded family (their poverty and their "blood-traitor" status are held in hand-in-hand disdain by other, significantly wealthier pure-blood families); the only frame of reference we have are with Harry, the Malfoys, and the Blacks. All three are enormously wealthy by wizard standards. | |
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| Informed Poverty / int_6cb2d709 | featureConfidence |
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Informed Poverty / int_6cb2d709 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_76580c92 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_76580c92 | comment |
Ménage à 3: The lead characters don't suffer from informed poverty so much as informed mediocre jobs. Aside from a couple of successful models, the primary cast are mostly waitresses, a call center worker (who may be making a bit more money, but who spends it all on geeky collectibles), a comics shop assistant (hired with minimal negotiation, albeit as "counter candy"), and similar. But the lead trio share what looks like a nice apartment, seem to have adequate free time, and rarely worry where the next month's rent is coming from — despite their landlady being a serious hardass who greets new tenants not with "Hello" but rather "JOB?!?!" Likewise, waitress Sonya can afford her own apartment, in a building with its own swimming pool. This is partly explained by their living in Montreal, where, for much of the 90s, 00s, and 10s, somewhat decent (if aging) apartments were easy to come by for a decent price. | |
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Informed Poverty / int_76580c92 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_8529459f | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_8529459f | comment |
Don Ramón and his daughter Chilindrina in El Chavo del ocho are supposed to be the poorest characters aside from El Chavo (who is essentially homeless) especially because Don Ramón is often unemployed and when he's not he has extremely low-income jobs, yet they live in a middle class apartment building, are reasonably well dress and well fed and Chilindrina has money for toys and the school's textbooks. Of course a Running Gag is that Don Ramón seldom pays his rent, always been at the edge of eviction and it's implied that he not only manages to find credit with the grocery store and other salesmen, he also manages to pull some Zany Scheme often to multiply his incomes. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_8529459f | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_8529459f | featureConfidence |
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| El Chavo del ocho | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_8529459f | |
| Informed Poverty / int_90642471 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_90642471 | comment |
In Hush, Hush, Nora and her mother are stated to be poor, which is shown through her mother working a low-paying job and Nora occasionally lamenting being unable to afford the expensive clothing her Alpha Bitch wealthy rival wears. The two live in a huge house that seems to take a lot of fuel to heat (bought when her father was still alive, but there's no mention of debts or difficulty in maintaining it), own two cars, and seem to eat well. Additionally, Nora's mother hires someone to check in on Nora occasionally when her mom is on business trips. Nora herself has no job (even though she's old enough to at least work part time) and seems to have enough money for frivolous things like eating out constantly or visiting amusement parks. Crescendo has Nora's mother stop paying the housekeeper and sell Nora's car, but Nora continues to do things like eat out without issue and only gets a job later on in the book (for the purpose of buying a new car and distracting herself from Patch, not to help with the house finances) and loses it by Silence. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_90642471 | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_90642471 | featureConfidence |
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| Hush, Hush | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_90642471 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_91e45f5 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_91e45f5 | comment |
In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix is now debarred and making a living playing poker/badly playing the piano in a bar, raising a teenage daughter (who has a job of her own, but at least once goes on a shopping binge), and officially hires Apollo (who himself is implied to be in similar financial difficulties). Again, money troubles are just treated like a running joke. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_91e45f5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_91e45f5 | featureConfidence |
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| Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_91e45f5 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_9688ee61 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_9688ee61 | comment |
In-universe example in Ouran High School Host Club. The fabulously wealthy host club members believe that Haruhi lives in abject poverty, but when they finally visit her home, it turns out that she and her father live a fairly normal working-class existence. While they do talk about money being tight, they're not destitute. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_9688ee61 | featureApplicability |
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| Informed Poverty / int_9688ee61 | featureConfidence |
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| Ouran High School Host Club (Manga) | hasFeature |
Informed Poverty / int_9688ee61 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_9a0cb5f4 | type |
Informed Poverty | |
| Informed Poverty / int_9a0cb5f4 | comment |
Zig-zagged in Bob's Burgers: The Belchers are frequently shown to have financial troubles and Bob being late on rent is a running gag. Their spacious apartment near a seaside resort can be explained by coming with the restaurant. However, they manage to furnish it well, and there are few repercussions when the plot demands them to pay an exorbitant amount of money for something. | |
| Informed Poverty / int_9a0cb5f4 | featureApplicability |
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Informed Poverty / int_9a0cb5f4 | |
| Informed Poverty / int_9c2dce7b | type |
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Little Women is likely to strike the modern reader as this trope due to Values Dissonance; it's hard for 21st c. girls to see a family with a live-in servant as "poor" even if the older girls have to get jobs rather than just sit around the house looking pretty until marriage. | |
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Despite being described as dirt poor, the family of Malcolm in the Middle very rarely suffers serious consequences from the debt they accrue due to their nearly constant destructive antics. Also, the cost of sending Francis to military school (typically at least $25,000 a year) is rarely addressed. Season 6 did have the family fall deeply in debt due to Hal nearly being incarcerated on false accusations and Lois quitting her job due to the aforementioned event destroying her sanity, but for the most part, their living standards didn't change that much. They do avert Pottery Barn Poor, as their house, furnishings, and vehicles are all clearly older and well-used. | |
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Septimus Heap. Despite being called a poor Wizard family, the Heaps notably seem to lack any financial trouble. | |
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Gremlins (1984): The Peltzers. Billy is said to be supporting his family as a lowly bank teller. Indeed, his father is shown to be a rather inept inventor who has difficulty making sales. Billy's mother starts crying in the middle of making breakfast, apparently due to the family's financial woes. However, the family lives in a nice house, Billy's mother is a housewife, and Billy's father has $200 (over $600 in 2023) on hand to spend on an exotic pet. They must not be doing that bad. | |
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A Christmas Carol: Scrooge sneers at his nephew Fred for being poor, even though Fred seems to be doing reasonably well for himself (definitely better than Bob Crachit and his family). It's possible that this is intentional given that Scrooge has a rather skewed idea of what constitutes "poor", and his dislike of Fred makes him critical of anything his nephew does. | |
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I Love Yoo: Inverted. Shin-Ae doesn't seem any different from her friends at first, and when she shows up at a Masquerade Ball with a borrowed dress and an ugly home-made mask, the obvious conclusion is that she's a tomboy, who doesn't care about her looks. A lot of Shin-Ae's actions takes on a new light once you realize she's so poor, she relies on her friends for meals, which her friends doesn't seem to realize. | |
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In Wallace & Gromit, Wallace is periodically indicated to be skint — his business ventures invariably go belly-up and his inventing tends to cost him money rather than earn it. In one of the comics, he only gets involved in the plot because he can't afford to replace the drum in his washing machine, and his statement of finances in the "Cheese-Lover's Yearbook" receives a typewritten annotation of "Broke" from Gromit. Despite this, Wallace can afford the raw materials for all his inventions, can rebuild his house between shorts, manages to buy another vehicle for Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and so on. | |
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Bratz: We're told that Cloe's poor, yet she has a computer in her bedroom, a moped, and a ton of expensive clothes. She has no part time job to explain having those things. Then again she might just be poor compared to the other characters, but we're not told for sure. | |
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SpongeBob SquarePants: There are many jokes throughout the series regarding how abysmally SpongeBob and Squidward are paid for their work at the Krusty Krab (some episodes even suggest that SpongeBob works for free), yet they both live alone in nice two-story houses, have plenty of food and amenities, lots of disposable income and are almost never shown to struggle financially in any way (and when they do, it's usually something brought on by themselves). Even if one assumes that they somehow don't have to pay for their houses, no fast food worker in real life would be able to afford many of the things they buy. Squidward especially is shown in various episodes to own lots of fancy art and decorative pieces, imported foods, exotic clothing and so forth. | |
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Roys Bedoys: Wen is occasionally stated to be poor, even to the point of struggling to afford food in "It's April Fool's Day, Roys Bedoys!". However, she can afford to have a cell phone (despite being only about five) and never seems to struggle unless the plot calls for it. | |
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Bumblebee: We're told that the family is living on a tight budget and doesn't have enough money to buy the teenage protagonist a car. This is in spite of living in a nicely furnished three-bedroom house near the beach in the notoriously expensive San Francisco Bay Area. Part of this may be due to the current husband's current unemployment and the previous husbands death, so it might just be a rough patch. | |
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The ladies on The Golden Girls. We're constantly reminded of how tight money is. Blanche seems to rely on the money she receives from renting her rooms out, her "job" at the museum being decidedly part=time and low-effort. Sophia only gets a small amount of Social Security; Dorothy works as a substitute teacher; Rose doesn't get enough from her late husband's pension to live on, and relies on her grief counseling paycheck or else she'll be on the street. In spite of all this, the girls seem to have plenty of expendable income. Vacations, dining and shopping are never an issue. | |
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The Selection features America Singer insisting to the reader that her family is struggling to make ends meet. As early as the first chapter, it's shown that they can afford chicken and tea. They don't have enough for seconds, but they apparently have enough to bribe America with half the paycheck for every job she does with no drawbacks for the family. America uses this to splurge on sweets without even a gentle recommendation to put that money to better use and the narration reveals right then that America and her younger sister have a Sweet Tooth. Later the family is seen eating popcorn as if they're having a movie night. So, from what the story shows us, they're not great but decent. Yet the book expects the reader to take America's word for it that they've gone hungry. Kay... | |
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My Cafe: Ben spends a large portion of his early appearance being broke, but is still able to regularly visit the cafe for expensive coffee and snacks, including "special orders" worth thousands of gold coins. | |
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South Park: South Park has been described in several episodes as a "low income community". With the exception of Kenny's family, everyone in South Park seems to be at least comfortably middle class. Played for Laughs in the episode "The Poor Kid." Kenny, who is legitimately poor, goes into foster care with his siblings, and Cartman is horrified to discover that he is technically the poorest kid left in school. (He was trying to find out who it was so that he could make fun of them.) Note that Cartman lives in an average-sized house and is a Spoiled Brat by his Extreme Doormat mother, who even Lampshades the fact that they only make a little less money than any other family in town. Ultimately subverted in "City People", where Cartman's mom is forced to get a job as a realtor in order to pay for the rising rent costs. After Cartman effectively bullies her into quitting, they lose their house and are forced to move into an abandoned hotdog stand. |
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Wallace and Veronica from Veronica Mars fit this trope. Wallace's house is huge and the worst Veronica has to put up with are cold showers, yet they're both supposed to be "lower class". They are, however, in comparison to the 09ers, the Silicon Valley-esque upper-class rich kids — notably, our visits to the homes of the other characters in the opening credits, Duncan, Logan, and the Casablancas brothers, frequently see the 09ers using their own private backyard pools, as opposed to Veronica's apartment complex's communal one, or the lack of one at Wallace's. The divide between Neptune's wealthy and poor is a frequent source of tension. | |
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Gossip Girl has the Humphreys. They aren't upper crust, but they are definitely played up as being poor...yet they can somehow afford a two-story loft and pay for both children to go to college (one of which is in France!). When describing her poverty, Jenny says that she was reduced to...taking the subway each day. This is another case of relative poverty, as they're comparing themselves to the billionaires and heiresses with whom they attend school and socialize. |
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One of the problems given by critics of Eragon. The main character's family is supposedly very poor, but they are given money to waste on trinkets and are described with relatively lavish dinners. They also seem to own an enormous amount of land and live in quite a large house. | |
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2 Broke Girls tries to avert this trope by regularly pointing out that two waitresses have to spend all their money on rent and food, and they have to obtain any additional spending money by working extra jobs or by selling a possession. The one area where the trope is played straight is with Caroline's horse, which is a leftover from her days as a rich heiress. With their income, they should never be able to afford to maintain and feed the horse. The horse ends up Put on a Bus and sent to a farm outside the city. | |
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Ace Attorney: It's implied that Phoenix doesn't seem to have very much money in general - most of his clients expect him to defend them for free and he's often called on to buy Maya enough burgers to keep her full (and other characters for that matter, since the fifth game ends with everyone freeloading and expecting him to buy them lunch). There's no mention of debts or money troubles with his business. (It's possible he is being paid, but he acts like he doesn't have a lot of money anyway.) In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix is now debarred and making a living playing poker/badly playing the piano in a bar, raising a teenage daughter (who has a job of her own, but at least once goes on a shopping binge), and officially hires Apollo (who himself is implied to be in similar financial difficulties). Again, money troubles are just treated like a running joke. Detective Gumshoe is always having his salary slashed and seemingly can't afford to eat anything other than noodles. It's never mentioned if his low funds also affect paying the bills and the like, besides him once mentioning living by candlelight at the end of the month because he can't pay his electric bill. |
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In an episode of Family Guy where Chris goes to an expensive, private boarding school, he tells his roommates that he's poor. While one could make the argument that he's poor compared to the other students there, it's a little jarring that he's so quick to call himself "poor" when his family has two cars and a nice, large two-story house. One episode had them mention that they got the house as part of a settlement with a condom company, so their ability to have such a large house may stem from that. Although in a more recent episode Peter flat-out admits that Lois's rich parents pay for the home entirely. This is lampshaded in one episode when Joe wonders how Peter can afford things like a helicopter. | |
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Deck the Halls has Buddy Hall and his family. Buddy is an incredibly talented man who's Allergic to Routine and regularly gets bored with his life, uproots his family, and moves them somewhere else so that he can start a new life. According to his wife, they've racked up "monumental" debt after repeating this cycle so many times. In spite of this, they're able to buy a large two-story house and Buddy is able to afford a beyond-opulent amount of Christmas decorations. The only time he's shown to be hurting for money is when he needs to purchase an absurdly expensive piece of equipment and pawns the priceless family heirloom vase to purchase it, and even then he's able to buy it back at the end of the film will no apparent issues. | |
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Done in She's All That. Lanley gets teased by the bullies with comments like "Isn't your dad my pool man?", yet when we see her house, it's actually very nice and could easily go for a good deal of money in real life. Apparently just being comfortably middle-class is too low for her schoolmates. | |
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Frasier: An episode discusses this in depth. Frasier floats Roz a loan when she mentions she's struggling while they were laid off. However, soon after, she frequently mentioned going to an exclusive spa, carrying bags of expensive shoes and perfumes, and dining in nice restaurants. When Frasier confronts her about this, she mentions how her finances were as bad as she said, and all the luxuries were easily explained: her friend took her to lunch, her mother treated her to the spa, and the shoes were a store credit. | |
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