Acceptable Lifestyle Targets: Difference between revisions

** Any sort of Art major (painting, sculpting, [[Literature|writing]], [[Film]], [[Theater]], ect) is going to be portrayed as [[True Art|a stuck up artist who thinks that other art ((read Hollywood, Broadway, Publishing companies, ect)) are not really art]] or an [[Starving Artist|idiot who couldn't care less about his well being]] because art generally does not pay well given [[Crack is Cheaper|the cost of supplies]] and the fact that [[Artist Disillusionment|most artists are not hired]]. Not as common in works as real life due to [[Most Writers Are Writers]].

** Any "nerd" or "geek" character who studies their chosen field "too hard", even if it is the "right" one. Someone who spends too much time reading books clearly [[Book Dumb|isn't learning the "important" stuff in life]] and won't last 5 seconds after graduation.

** When you graduate college, don't become another overworked, underpaid, perpetually stressed graduate student whose myopia in their field only serves to make other characters seem more knowledgeable about life ''and'' the grad student's own studies. If you're a medical student, on top of that you must subsist on ramen to avoid crippling debts while you cripple patients. You'll only leave this trope to enter [[Acceptable Professional Targets]]. If you're a law student, you're the same as a med student but without a soul and become an even bigger butt of jokes when you graduate.

*** Speaking of medicine, pre-med students are stereotyped as overstressed Type A's who make [[The "B" Grade]] [[Truth in Television]].

* '''[[Goth]]s'''. Ready for mourning at any time of day? Think cemeteries are a great place to hang out? Listen to depressing music? Well then, ''clearly'' you must be either preparing to shoot someone else or meticulously planning your own suicide. And you're probably still in high school. Negative attitudes towards goths became particularly apparent in the light of school shootings such as Columbine. While those incidents often lead to public cries to teach students to tolerate each other and stop bullying, at the same time [[Broken Aesop|they ostracize and demonize goths]].

* '''Hipsters''' (please note that this type is not to be confused with ''hippies''; the two terms were once synonyms). A nebulously-deployed yet relatively specific category of cool person (or aspiring cool person), typically denoted by a constantly-shifting taste in fashion (trucker hats, white belts, skinny jeans), musical taste (indie rock, dance-punk, [[Garage Rock]] revival) and cultural interests (embrace of irony and postmodernism, being seen at cool parties). Sure, that attitude was all well and good when [[Quentin Tarantino]] was the new hot thing, but somewhere between ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'' and the rise of "metrosexuality," hipsters became associated with [[It's Popular, Now It Sucks|snobbery]], gentrification (see: the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn), superficiality, self-absorption and inauthenticity, and it is now common, almost reflexive internet parlance to attach the word "douchebag" after mention of the word "hipster". The main complaint seems to be that hipsters are simply an advanced level of poseur, re-appropriating the style and cultural trappings of a culture or counterculture they didn't get in on the ground floor of—and they're spending lots of money to do it half-assedly. Most confounding of all, unlike just about every other lifestyle target mentioned on this page, almost ''nobody'' actually admits to being a hipster, therefore making them one of the most acceptable targets of all: the self-hating and/or in-denial Acceptable Lifestyle Target.

** '''Vegans'''. Vegans are ''constantly'' made fun of and criticized for being even worse than vegetarians. Like vegetarians, God help you if you are a male vegan because then you don't even eat cheese and eggs. Also, if you're a vegan, then you are either a hippie, a member of PETA, or both. There exist numerous stereotypes about vegans doing stuff like calling 911 because a fast-food chain is serving meat.

** '''[http://www.rogermwilcox.name/vegetable/veg4.html Vegephobes]'''. While vegetarians are slowly gaining acceptance, their opposite number—those who don't like eating vegetables—are not. The assumption is that you ''must'' eat your vegetables, or there's something wrong with you. Perhaps you were defiant when your parents tried to make you eat vegetables, and now you're carrying that chip on your shoulder into adulthood. The reality is that, with adequate vitamin and mineral supplementation, the human body is adaptable enough to thrive on just about any kind of diet—vegan, exclusively carnivore, exclusively grain-eating, or otherwise.

** Smokeless tobacco users. Despite chew/dip/snuff being sold in all fifty states, if you admit to using, you're a hopeless redneck with fewer brain cells than teeth (an ever-decreasing number in both cases).

** The justification for complaining about smokers was that they will be costing taxpayers (the majority of whom are nonsmokers) and the health-care system more in the long run; this turned out to be false: smokers died years sooner than nonsmokers, so [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.9748884.html they needed significantly ''less'' of the expensive medical operations].

* '''Single Mothers''' (not to be confused with widows and divorced mothers). While they tend to be sympathetically portrayed in individual works of media, they are often ridiculed in the abstract, especially in the political concept of the "welfare queen" who keeps having children she has no interest in raising so that she can live off of taxpayer dollars.

* '''Divorced people'''.

** Men become [[Casanova Wannabe]]s with [[Dodgy Toupee]]s and [[Midlife Crisis Car]]s. Either perpetually single, or have somehow landed a much younger [[Brainless Beauty]], who [[Good Adultery, Bad Adultery|is probably what broke up the marriage in the first place]]. May be the reason why he is either [[Disappeared Dad|unwilling or not allowed to see the kids on a regular basis]].

** Women are angry, bitter [[Jerkass]] [[Old Maid]]s or Type B [[Evil Matriarch]]s in training who got everything in the [[Divorce Assets Conflict]] after her [[Toilet Seat Divorce]]. Unless, of course, she's [[Stacy's Mom]].

* '''Single people''', since we are at it. The fact that tropes like [[Old Maid]], [[Christmas Cake]] and [[Crazy Cat Lady]] are still prevalent in media, shows that this world is still not willing to let single women get away with their singleness. Single men aren't portrayed that good either. Behind the apparently awesome life of the single [[Casanova]] there's a shallow [[Man Child]], living in perpetual disorder since, you know, [[Sarcasm Mode|men aren't able to manage their own houses without a woman doing the chores]] and emptiness.

* '''Feminists'''. If there is a woman who identifies herself as a feminist, she will be a [[Straw Feminist]] with hairy legs and extreme hatred for all the men in the world. Of course, it's all because she [[You Need to Get Laid|never had any man interested in her]].

== Geeks / Nerds ==

 

** When Mike was first introduced, he was a [[Jerkass]] who was convinced that he was a [[Dogged Nice Guy]]. That could have something to do with it.

 

== Nice Guys ==

 

* ''[[The Inbetweeners]]''.

 

* The Craigslist "Letter From a Former Nice Guy" displays toxic levels of the resentment—and is skewered thoroughly [http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2007/12/16/the-internet-nice-guy-rears-his-ugly-head-once-more/ here].

 

 

 

== Living With Your Parents ==

 

* A typical example comes in the film ''[[Die Hard|Live Free or Die Hard]]'', which uses the trope to subvert the character Warlock's fearsome reputation as a master hacker. It turns out that he's a total loser who lives in his mother's basement, playing video games and collecting geek merchandise.

* In ''[[8mm]]'', {{spoiler|the killer}} lives with his mom, {{spoiler|who is completely oblivious to his problems}}.

* ''[[Wedding Crashers]]'': Chazz, who was idolized by the main characters who thought he was the best thing since sliced bread, turns out to be a complete loser. Our first indication of this? He lives with his mother (and demands that she make food for him and his friends just to drive home how stunted he is).

 

* In ''[[Frasier]]'' Frasier must frequently defend himself from the trope, pointing out that his father lives with ''him'', not the other way around. In fact, Frasier did invite his father into his apartment to look after him, which is a socially acceptable arrangement.

* The most extreme example of this is Ted from ''[[Scrubs]]'', the pathetically inept sad-sack attorney who not only lives with his mother, but shares a bed with her.

* Howard Wolowitz, [[Casanova Wannabe]] of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' is portrayed as somewhat of a loser, which is punctuated by the fact that he still lives with, and is regularly infantilized and nagged by, his mother. Apparently the writers feel that this wasn't enough to make him a complete loser, so as the series progresses his feelings toward her are becoming more and more creepily Oedipal.

 

* [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle|Malekith]], undisputed Witch-King of the Dark Elves, master of Dark Magic. [[Fridge Logic|Still lives with his mom.]]

 

* Tony Cipriani in ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] III'' is a Mafia boss who still lives with his mom and frequently gets yelled at by her.

 

* Most of the jokes about Seymour Skinner in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' revolve around how he still lives with his mother in middle age (although he insists "[[My Beloved Smother|she lives with me!]]").

* Cluemaster in ''[[The Batman]]'', who has a [[Supervillain Lair]] in his mother's basement, the point being that he's spent his entire life plotting [[Disproportionate Retribution]] for being embarrassed as a kid, so hasn't moved on in any way.

 

* An example of the difference in cultural norms can be seen in Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who lived with his mother throughout his term of office. Americans mocked him for living with his mother, but Polish voters didn't see anything wrong with in an unmarried man still living at home.

* Living with your parents is pretty much expected in China. Traditionally, it is quite normal for three generations to live under the same roof.

== Drug Users ==

 

* In ''[[Die Hard]]'', Harry Ellis establishes himself as a scumbag by using cocaine.

* The anti-drug movie ''[[Reefer Madness]]'' has gained [[So Bad It's Good|particular notoriety]], especially in the pot community, for its [[Anvilicious]] anti-drug aesop and its [[Did Not Do the Research|total ignorance]] of marijuana's actual effects. The film has been made into a comedic musical, which then received a film adaptation of its own.

 

** Don't forget the episode where he took LSD in order to figure out that week's mystery illness. Still can't work out whether that's intended to be a positive (Look! The drug can be useful!) or a negative (it was House taking it, after all) portrayal.

* Averted in ''[[Spaced]]'' where the main characters often use drugs casually with no references to side-effects or any [[An Aesop|aesops]] in sight. The only character who seems to have developed a habit is the landlady, who is a heavy wine-drinker. At the worst, their drug use is simply a distraction in the way of growing up and getting their lives in order, no worse than video games or laziness. A [[Lampshade Hanging]] occurs in ''Frost and Pegg's Perfect Night In'' where Pegg tells the audience, "Don't worry, this isn't a sitcom aimed at young people that makes tentative reference to casual drug use but then pussies out by including some punititve moral message."

 

* Drug use being bad is notably inverted within an inch of its life on ''[[Code Monkeys]]''. All of the cool and/or funny characters use drugs without any consequences. In Dave's case, a few episodes even imply his best games come out of programming sessions where he's high.

 

== Intellectuals ==

 

* Often subverted by ''[[The West Wing]]'', one of the key themes of which was the need for politicians and their staff to treat the American people as intelligent thinking adults—an approach that, in the show, often worked. This went from its sympathetic depiction of the unashamedly intellectual and knowledgeable, yet equally warm and [[Our Presidents Are Different|personable]] President Bartlet and his also intellectual, educated staff to its frequent depiction of complex or obscure political issues in a fashion that respected the audience's intelligence.

 

* The Chinese Cultural Revolution viewed anyone considered an "intellectual" as a dangerous parasite requiring "re-education". If he were lucky, an intellectual (which for the Revolution's purposes included virtually anyone with a college degree) would be "re-educated" by just being forced to work in a rice paddy or as a manual laborer; if he weren't, he'd simply disappear.

* Even worse in Cambodia where intellectuals were simply killed. Sometimes people were considered intellectuals just because they wore glasses.

== Hippies ==

 

* In the ''[[The Pursuit of Happyness]]'' the main antagonists are Hippie thieves who exist only to steal [[Will Smith]]'s income, the bone-density scanners he sells. Capitalist fairytale, indeed.

 

* The finest example of the hippie as object of derision in popular culture is probably Neil from ''[[The Young Ones]]'', a character who possesses most of the aforementioned stereotypical hippie traits and a host of others including but not limited to vegetarianism, strident if misguided activism ("vegetable rights and peace"), and disapproving upper-class parentage.

 

* Hippies are one of many unusual enemies in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'', and pretty much all of them are self-righteous, unhygienic vegan stoners.

** Considering that one of the game's creators is a self-professed hippy, this may fall under [[Self-Deprecation]].

 

* In some ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' cartoons, [[Granola Girl]] Marzipan seems to have developed into a self-righteous [[Soapbox Sadie]] type of hippie.

 

* ''[[South Park]]'', known for its Libertarian views, frequently makes hippie characters the butt of jokes or satire. The show usually characterizes hippies as disheveled dropouts or ignorant college kids who really don't understand the issues that they claim to protest and are more interested in recreation than doing anything of value. They are the sworn enemy of Eric Cartman, who takes [[Refuge in Audacity]] when bashing them in comedic ways. In one episode, a hippie rock concert is treated as a natural disaster a la ''[[The Core]]''.

* Both used and subverted by ''[[Futurama]]'''s late Waterfalls, a family of hippies who tend to wind up dead. While Waterfall Senior was an easy going, not very competent, over-the-top bleeding-heart conservationist-turned-penguin hunter, Waterfall Junior was an obnoxious, trouble-making, human-hating animal-freak, responsible for such weirdness as forcing vegetarianism on a very unhappy lion. Old Man Waterfall, on the other hand, is portrayed as a brave and noble champion of freedom, who lost practically every part of his body ([[Crowning Moment of Funny|and his spirit!]]) fighting for what he believes in. This is all juxtaposed, however, by the explanation for his dedication to freedom—his comically unpopular lifestyle. His last words: "I request a Satanic funeral!"

== Emos ==

 

* Sasuke of ''[[Naruto]]'' is often called "emo", even though he more often [[The Stoic|shows little emotion at all]], and when he does it's usually [[Perpetual Frowner|anger]]. He ''does'' angst in ''[[Inner Monologue|his head]]'' plenty (and looks very much like the typical emo—except for the [[Rummage Sale Rejects|legwarmers]] on his ''wrists'').

 

== Students/Homeschoolers ==

 

* The "art students on the bottom of the heap" position is played completely straight in ''[[Art School Confidential]]''-for the first half hour, when it's trying to be a comedy. Later in the movie, when it's trying to be a [[Mind Screw]] crime thriller, it ignores the "student" aspect almost entirely. The short comic upon which the movie is based also plays the notion straight.

* Averted in ''The Brothers Solomon'' the two protagonists were both homeschooled, but the reason they know nothing about women isn't because of being homeschooled, it's because they grew up in a remote location where there were NO women whatsoever. [[Never Trust a Trailer|The trailers, naturally, didn't let this on.]]

* Many of the jokes in the world's oldest surviving joke book, an [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] tome called [http://publishing.yudu.com/Library/Au7bv/PhilogelosTheLaughAd/resources/index.htm Philogelos], use students (and scholars in general) where the modern equivalent would be a [[Dumb Blonde]]. Example joke: Discovering that a ladder has twenty steps going up, an intellectual (sometimes translated "student-dunce") asks if it has as many going down. (Of course, this is more of the [[Absent-Minded Professor]] concept.)

 

* From ''[[Red Dwarf]]'':

{{quote|'''Rimmer''': How did you get into Art College?

* Some people ridicule The Duggar family on 19 Kids and Counting for homeschooling rather than sending their children to school.

 

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M98x-FLp7E This] Youtube video

 

* ''[[Mac Hall]]'' has had computer science major and English majors at one another's throats. The computer science majors see the English majors as intrusive and narcissistic, while the English majors see comp sci people as [[workaholic]]s who need to get laid. Both are played for laughs (it ''is'' a webcomic, after all).

* ''[[PHD]]'' pretty much is this and only this.

 

* In an episode of ''[[Futurama]]'', Guenter the monkey expresses a desire to be a moderately intelligent monkey in a suit-which is why he's decided to go to business school!

* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' will throw in a grad student joke every so often. "Bart, don't make fun of grad students. They just made a terrible life choice."

* Ezekiel on ''[[Total Drama Island]]'' could be seen as a big [[Take That]] to homeschoolers; he's portrayed as being ridiculously socially awkward, was voted off first for being a [[Straw Misogynist]] and later became [[Extroverted Nerd|convinced of his own coolness]] regardless.

 

* [[Anton Chekhov]]'s ''The Cherry Orchard'' featured an ineffectual, middle-aged man who kept going back to school, making himself a perpetual student. Definitely [[Older Than Radio]].

 

== No Kids / Lots of Kids ==

 

* The setting [[Backstory]] of ''[[Idiocracy]]'' is dependent on the "lots of kids" scenario.

 

* In an episode of ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'', Charlie Harper, the last person on Earth who should even think about raising a child, decides against a vasectomy because he spent enough time around his nephew.

** Though that sounds less like a total conversion and more like his being open to the idea after being staunchly opposed to it.

*** Also slightly subverted in that although they are a very conservative religious family, they are uniformly nonjudgmental of other people. In fact, they embody many of the good things about religion; particularly love, curiosity about the world and generosity and compassion toward others, while most representations of families with similar beliefs in the media are unflattering and emphasize the hypocrisies that sometimes occur in fundamentalist behavior.

 

* An episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' has the childless form an activist group ("The children are our future. Today belongs to ''me''.") that try to remove all child-friendly things in town. They are defeated when the children give them hugs, and succumb to the common germs carried by kids, in a nod to ''[[War of the Worlds]]''.

 

* The case of "Octo-Mom". At first it was a bit like the septuplets in terms of media coverage. Then it came out that she already ''had'' 6 kids (all via in-vitro fertilization) and was simultaneously drawing Welfare payments. [[Internet Backlash|Eep]].

 

== Hipsters ==

 

* ''[[More Information Than You Require]]'' defines hipsters as jocks who want to be nerds but won't admit it, and hilariously makes fun of the "...'ironic,' 'joke'" t-shirt, sarcastic jeans, cynical tube socks, derisive sneakers, and a morose belt."

 

* In [http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/187336/october-07-2008/stephen-s-town-hall this] ''[[The Colbert Report]]'' sketch:

{{quote|'''Hipster''': [wearing a shirt that says '"Vote" McCain'] Hey Stephen, I'm a hipster, and I can't remember if I bought this shirt ironically because I actually hate McCain, or if I in fact support John McCain, or if maybe this is a band that I'm into...

* ''[[Nathan Barley]]'' was an out-and-out attack on London's "new media" hipsters of the early and mid 2000s who were portrayed as shallow, stupid, gadget-obsessed and sexually amoral. Ironically, it's been claimed that the show's biggest fans were the very people it was parodying.

 

 

* The website [http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com Stuff White People Like] focuses primarily on hipster-type interests (Whole Foods; Michel Gondry, Sarah Silverman), and discusses the reasons white people like these things with thinly-veiled condescension. Although it was written by a white guy and a half-white half-Asian guy.

** So if white people are ridiculed for liking "world" (read: non-white) music, they are mocked. But if they like stereotypically white music (polka, for instance), they are mocked too. What are they supposed to like, if anything?

 

* ''[[Diesel Sweeties]]'' has Indie Rock Pete, a poseur obsessed with the idea of maintaining a facade of indie cred who rejects bands [[It's Popular, Now It Sucks|when they become successful]].

* [http://www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents?issuenum=14&storynum=2 This] ''[[Nothing Nice to Say]]'' comic.

 

* If a hipster gets into politics, then that adds another level of mockery; along with charges of snobbery and superficiality come charges of ill-informed unearned self-righteousness. For example, when a high-end British boutique recently debuted reusable shopping bags with "I Am Not A Plastic Bag" printed on them, many satirists often sardonically extended this to such qualifiers as "No, you're a pretentious twat" in derision of the kind of people it was perceived would buy them (particularly considering that most shops sold similar reusable shopping bags at a much cheaper price without the condescending self-righteousness).

** Then one ethical choice crashed into another, as the bags turned out to be made on the cheap in unknowable circumstances in the Far East.

== Vegetarians ==

 

* If it's a medical drama, and the victim of the week is a vegetarian, you can bet that their vegetable love is somehow responsible for their illness, especially in ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''.

 

* WWE wrestler [[Bryan Danielson|Daniel Bryan]] is a vegan, and is scathingly mocked for it by commentator [[Michael Cole]], even though Bryan is a very skilled submission-style wrestler with over a decade of independent experience that spans the entire world.

** Although, given his current [[Face Heel Turn|heel]] run, he's hated not so much for being a vegan as for being a [[Smug Straight Edge|smug little pest lecturing everyone who eats meat and dairy products about their rotting intestines and their cruelty]].

 

* [[Ron White]]'s joke was that his vegetarian friend's system was kicking back beef broth, and that he's never seen a healthy looking Vegetarian.

** Though [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstructed]] a bit, due to White saying that he has no problem with vegetarians - just his friend's ''reasoning'' for being a vegetarian is what bugged him. It wasn't that he didn't like meat or that he wanted to eat more healthful food - but because he was worried over the amount of waste cattle make and the effects they would have on the environment.

{{quote|'''Friend''': How are ''you'' helping the environment?

'''Ron White''': ...[[Deadpan Snarker|I eat the cow!]] }}

 

 

== Divorced People ==

 

* ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'': Alan's ex-wife, Judith, is portrayed as a lazy, money-grubbing misandrist whose favorite hobby is making his life a living hell. She has lightened up on him in recent seasons, but only because she remarried and her second husband, Herb, is now the target for most of her abuse (he has left her several times over it, but always goes back). His second ex, Kandi, isn't portrayed in a much better light, but in her case she's [[The Ditz|far too dumb]] to be mean.

 

== Feminists ==

 

* Blogger Amanda Marcotte had the temerity to point out that it ''is'' creepy and disturbing for a man to wait until he and a woman are alone in an elevator in a strange city at four o'clock in the morning before he invites her up to his room for "coffee". For this she found herself on the receiving end of a series of incredibly vicious attacks, accusing her of everything from denigrating the sufferings of Muslim women under sharia law (that one was from Richard Dawkins!) to calling ''all'' men rapists.

** I believe you are referring to Rebecca Watson of the Skepchicks.

== Smokers ==

 

* In [[The Eighties|the 1980s]], a sneaker company ran an ad featuring a cigarette in an ashtray, with text stating forthrightly that if smoking was the only occasion on which the reader breathed deeply, the company did not want you to wear their sneakers.

 

* Go to any discussion forum with posters who pride themselves on being diverse and tolerant. All lifestyles, conditions, orientations, etc. are defended vigorously and anyone displaying a lack of tolerance is quickly smacked down (as they should be). But bring up smoking and watch that tolerance disappear in an instant. Smokers are called everything but human beings and heaven forbid one should ever admit that they have the habit. It's as if all of the not-so-politically-correct things they ''wish'' they could say about other groups gets saved up and piled onto smokers when the topic comes up.

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:YMMV Trope]]

[[Category:Acceptable Targets]]