The Dung Ages: Difference between revisions

== Film ==

* Combined with [[Gorgeous Period Dress]] in ''[[Flesh And Blood]]''.

* Robert Bresson's 1974 film ''Lancelot Du Lac'', in many ways, instigated this trend in film. Most people do not realise that ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' is a send up of Lancelot du Lac, but the grime and hyperviolence (as in the Black Knight scene especially) are directly related to the earlier film.

* ''[[Monty Python and The Holy Grail]]'', in which practically everyone runs around bedraggled, shabby and covered in filth, as noted by one character's caustic observation: "He must be a king. He hasn't got shit all over him." In fact, according to backstage reports, the attention of the two Pythons who were directing (Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam) to keeping things authentic in this regard eventually began to take on slightly obsessive tones and really began to piss off the other Pythons (and the other cast and crew members, for that matter), who were having to seriously suffer for their art. This eventually made it a pretty difficult shoot at times and also perhaps provided a reminder of why this trope exists in the first place. This said, however, Gilliam at least was willing to go through what he was putting everyone else through; his two main characters are probably the filthiest main characters in the movie.

* Terry Gilliam's film ''[[Jabberwocky]]'', overall depicting the Middle Ages as a pretty damn nasty place to live. Even the king's clothes are ragged and dirty.

* The French movie ''[[Les Visiteurs]]''

** Paris was also originally built on marshland, so it was pretty boggy until the swamp was drained in the 19th century.

* Mel Gibson's ''[[Braveheart]]''.

* The village landscape in ''[[Dragonheart]]'' are several shades of brown.

 

* Played with in [[George Macdonald Fraser]]'s novel ''[[The Pyrates]]''. The opening pages describe an idealized picture of England during [[The Cavalier Years]] with buxom wenches and lots of [[Gorgeous Period Dress]], but then refer to scholars' conclusion that the actual standard of living and cleanliness of the time made it closer to [[The Dung Ages]]. Fraser then dismisses these conclusions in a tongue-in-cheek way as [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]] and announces that he would prefer to write about 17th century England as it should have been.

* ''[[The Warlord Chronicles]]'' by Bernard Cornwell rips the [[King Arthur]] mythos from the medieval version of [[Gorgeous Period Dress]] setting into this one.

** Not just bad hygiene, bad ''health'' as well. They actually specifically call attention to the fact that even the really important kingy people have giant sores in their faces from smallpox and what have you. When they say "clean" they actually specifically mean "doesn't have a face full of holes".

* Averted in Leo Frankowski's ''[[Conrad Stargard]]'' series. Good hygiene doesn't show up in the medieval town of Okoitz until the titular [[Time Travel|time-traveling]] engineer's reforms start taking effect.

* Sometimes averted, sometimes upheld in [[Eric Flint]]'s ''[[1632]]'' series. The "downtime" Germans of the 17th century are notable in their day and age as having some of the cleanest cities and towns in Europe, but some other places - Edinburgh, for one - are every bit as filthy as stereotype would have it. {{spoiler|Indeed, Julie Sims Mackay's infant daughter contracts a severe infection while passing through Edinburgh from which she almost dies.}}

* Invoked by Ellie, word for word, in ''[[Avalon High]]''. While others may have romantic notions of the Middle Ages, this daughter of Medieval scholars has absolutely zero desire to be one of them.

* Deliberately avoided in the ''[[Codex Alera]]'' novels, where everyone bathes regularly if they can, including public baths. Of course, this is a setting where everyone has access to at least some degree of [[Elemental Powers]], so hot, fresh water is commonplace thanks to fire and water furies. The injured and wounded are actually the cleanest, as the healing abilities of watercrafting usually require the patient to be submerged in a tub. Bathing for cleanliness is a bit harder to acquire for the Legions when they're in the field, to the point where the camp followers can make a decent income off of providing hot baths for legionaires. The hero, Tavi, has to regularly take baths while in the Legions because he pissed off his immediate superior (a logistics officer) by investigating his corruption and got handed an assignment to precisely measure the depth, length, and width of the latrine trenches to make sure "they were up to standard."

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

** The second series as well, the couple decide to buy Blackadder's house specifically because it doesn't have an indoor toilet.

* HBO's ''[[Rome]]'' has [[The Dung Ages]] for the plebs, and [[Gorgeous Period Dress]] for the patricians. Which is pretty close to the way it would really have been.

* ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' had Herc's greedy friend Salmoneous invest in a dung-fertilizer business run by brothers who had become ''way'' too desensitized to the substance.

 

== Video Games ==