History Main / BornInTheWrongCentury

* ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'': Marz is the typical modern-day, first-world teenager: she like shopping for clothes, being TheFashionista, consuming new media and making a little extra money on the side selling hand-crafted objects. There is just one problem: she's born on a ColonyShip half-way to SettlingTheFrontier on an entirely new planet, fleeing a dying Earth where wealth ineaquality got so bad there was no middle ground between Fiction500 and definitely too poor to afford her ideal lifestyle.

* Invoked and deconstructed in French-Italian musical comedy ''Film/BeautiesOfTheNight''. A music teacher Claude lives a very unsatisfying life in the 1950s. His job sucks, children hate his lessons, he writes music at night and keeps falling asleep at day, making the whole town sneer at him; he is harassed by {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s, debt collectors and neighbours, who [[{{Jerkass}} take their jokes too far]]. One day he falls asleep at a lesson and dreams that his music is appreciated in TheGayNineties. Then an old man in a bar tells [[NostalgiaFilter how good 19th century was]] and Claude's dream continues. Then in his dream the same old man gets nostalgic about 1830, and Claude slips to 1830s and heroically fights some colonial war. Then the old man gets nostalgic about Louis XVI, and Claude starts giving lessons to aristocrats and campaigning for UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution. He enjoys his three dream lives far more than the waking world (for one, he's more popular with women there), so he downs extra sleeping pills "to never wake up", prompting his friends [[MistakenForSuicidal to start trying to save him]]. Then the dreams become nightmares: revolutionary court [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized mistakenly]] sentences him to death, sultan [[ShotgunWedding chases]] him for visiting his sister and his symphony premiere [[YankTheDogsChain flops]] because he [[AccentuateTheNegative inadvertently included]] every modern sound he hates (klaxons, jackhammers, vacum cleaners). He wakes up, friends try to help him, but nightmares get progressively bizarre and he is chased by anachronistic angry mob through all history from [[OneMillionBC Stone Age]] through The Deluge, AncientRome, TheMiddleAges and so on. Eventually friends help to solve Claude's legal and financial troubles, his music gets its due recognition, pills wear off and he confesses his love to the GirlNextDoor.

* ''Film/TwoDaysInTheValley:'' After the up-and-coming hitman Lee Woods brags about how he psychologically torments his victims, his girlfriend Helga comments that he should have been born during UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition.

* Van Rijn from ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' he died 200 years before the events of the story and, the exquisite craftsmanship and intricacy of his Muses remain unsurpassed by other clank designers. He was also able to make ''sentient clanks'', something that's considered widely to be impossible even 200 years later. Although there have been hints he got a leg up thanks to his conversations with [[spoiler:The Muse of Time]].

* ''ComicBook/TheWarlord'': Not exactly time travel, but close enough -- was a lot happier in the savage LostWorld of Skartaris than he ever had been in the 20th century.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "Gettysburg", Andy Larouche, a borderline white supremacist and the descendant of a Confederate Army veteran, is StillFightingTheCivilWar and regrets that he was born more than 100 years too late to actually fight in the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar conflict]]. To a lesser extent, he believes that he unfairly missed out on UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar Desert Storm]].

* The original ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" had Edith Keeler, a pacifist activist who was born in the wrong century. Her ideals matched the future Federation's exactly, but had her movement succeeded, [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel Hitler would have won World War II]]. She herself was not a Time Traveller.

* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' gives us [[SamusIsAGirl a female]] H. G. Wells, who after over a century of being suspended in bronze, shows little surprise at the wonders of the 21st Century, as she had already predicted most of it in her writing. At various points, it could even be argued that given the ingenuity she displays in evading Warehouse agents, as well as her century old gadgets still outclassed them, even the 21st Century may still be a century or two behind her.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode 'First Contact', a progressive scientist is greatly disappointed that her President believes their race isn't ready to meet alien life (humans) and [[spoiler:turns away the Federation's offer of First Contact. She gets a consolation prize in getting to leave with the ''Enterprise'']].

** In ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'', newly appointed Low King Rhys Rhysson describes his primary political opponent as this, claiming he would have made a fine king two hundred years ago. Mind you, as a dwarf, said opponent was probably alive two hundred years ago, but probably not eligible for kingship at the time.

* ''Fanfic/{{Dermabrasion}}'': Aparently, in Japan's criminal underworld, even well into the [=23rd=] century, some gang families that are descended from {{Samurai}} or Shoguns still act like it. Dabi relays an incident where he got hired by one such family where the family head was caught cheating on his wife by his son. His son ordered him to commit {{Seppuku}} to "cleanse the shame" which he did, they bribed the woman he was cheating with to change her name and never speak of this to anyone, and then they decide to burn the body ''with the house where the cheating took place in'' (which is where [[PlayingWithFire Dabi comes in]] so they can erase the taint. They even ask Dabi to wear a ceremonial kimono for that one.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with 29th President UsefulNotes/WarrenGHarding, who's general recklessness, moral debauchery, and obliviousness to the corruption of his cabinet and general reluctance in office would have fit with Baby Boomer presidents at the end of the 20th and 21st century such as UsefulNotes/BillClinton or UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump than contemporaries such as UsefulNotes/WilliamMckinley or UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson. His belief that businesses should should be aided by governments as much as possible would not be out of place in the late 2000s with the use of corporate welfare and the bailing of banks.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with 29th President UsefulNotes/WarrenGHarding, who's general recklessness, moral debauchery, and obliviousness to the corruption of his cabinet and general reluctance in office would have fit with Baby Boomer presidents at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century such as UsefulNotes/BillClinton than contemporaries such as UsefulNotes/WilliamMckinley or UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson. His belief that businesses should should be aided by governments as much as possible would not be out of place in the late 2000s with the use of corporate welfare and the bailing of banks.

* [[InvertedTroped Inverted]] with 29th President UsefulNotes/WarrenGHarding, who's general recklessness, moral debauchery, and obliviousness to the corruption of his cabinet and general reluctance in office would have fit with Baby Boomer presidents at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century such as UsefulNotes/BillClinton than contemporaries such as UsefulNotes/WilliamMckinley or UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson. His belief that businesses should should be aided by governments as much as possible would not be out of place in the late 2000s with the use of corporate welfare and the bailing of banks.

* 29th President UsefulNotes/WarrenGHarding's general recklessness, moral debauchery, and obliviousness to the corruption of his cabinet and general reluctance in office would have fit with Baby Boomer presidents at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century such as UsefulNotes/BillClinton than contemporaries such as UsefulNotes/WilliamMckinley or UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson. His belief that businesses should should be aided by governments as much as possible would not be out of place in the late 2000s with the use of corporate welfare and the bailing of banks.

* 29th President UsefulNotes/WarrenGHarding's general recklessness, moral debauchery, and obliviousness to the corruption of his cabinet and general reluctance in office would have fit with Baby Boomer presidents at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century than in the beginning such as UsefulNotes/BillClinton than contemporaries such as UsefulNotes/WilliamMckinley or UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson. His belief that businesses should should be aided by governments as much as possible would not be out of place in the late 2000s with the use of corporate welfare and the bailing of banks.

* 29th President UsefulNotes/WarrenGHarding's general recklessness, moral debauchery, and obliviousness to the corruption of his cabinet and general reluctance in office would have fit with Baby Boomer presidents at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century than in the beginning such as UsefulNotes/BillClinton than contemporaries such as UsefulNotes/WilliamMckinley or UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson

* 29th President UsefulNotes/WarrenGHarding's general recklessness, moral debauchery, and obliviousness to the corruption of his cabinet would have fit with Baby Boomer presidents at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century than in the beginning such as UsefulNotes/BillClinton than contemporaries such as UsefulNotes/WilliamMckinley or UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson

* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': Paige Sinclair, star IntrepidReporter, in her Mid-Atlantic accent and flowing dresses and fancy hats of the early twentieth-century, is QuittingToGetMarried as soon as she cracks her latest story so she can become a dedicated {{Housewife}}, saying "the newsroom has no room for a domesticated woman"; she's basically the female protagonist of a ScrewballComedy (most obviously ''Film/HisGirlFriday''), and her partner for the investigation seems to also be from one of those films (as the male lead who has sparks fly with the headstrong female). Only thing is, Paige is an anthropomorphic pig. Paige's sister (who definitely is in the right time period) [[LampshadeHanging openly questions why his sister talks like that]], since they're from Fresno.

* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': Paige Sinclair, star IntrepidReporter, in her Mid-Atlantic accent and flowing dresses and fancy hats of the early twentieth-century, is QuittingToGetMarried as soon as she cracks her latest story so she can become a dedicated {{Housewife}}, saying "the newsroom has no room for a domesticated woman". Her partner fir the investigation seems to have stepped right out of an old movie, specifically the ones where he and heroine go chasing glory and sparks end up flying.

* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': While attending an AA meeting Sherlock Holmes shares that he's often wondered if he would have been better off living in an earlier time period. His heightened senses and observation skills are constantly being stimulated by the modern era's endless flow of information. He turned to drugs to try and cope with being so overwhelmed. He muses that if he'd lived in a quieter time period, such as the [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Victorian era]], with fewer demands on his attention then he might not have needed to use drugs.

* The hunter vs. farmer hypothesis is basically an extreme example of this, and it's a proposed explanation for ADHD. The theory states that the hyperfocus and hypersensitivity of individuals with ADHD would have been greatly benifitial for hunters in hunter-gatherer cultures, but not so much in the classroom or workplace. According to this theory, individuals with ADHD aren't just born in the wrong century, but the wrong ''age''.

* The hunter vs. farmer hypothesis is basically an extreme example of this, and it's a proposed explanation for ADHD. The theory states that the hyperfocus of individuals with ADHD would have been greatly benefitial for hunters in hunter-gatherer cultures, but not so much in the classroom or workplace. According to this theory, individuals with ADHD aren't just born in the wrong century, but the wrong ''age''.