History Main / FISHOutOfWater

->'''Riley''': "What is that smell?"\\
'''Huey''': "Clean air. My guess is we'll get used to it eventually."\\
'''Riley''': "I hope so, this place stinks."

* ''Firefly''. Simon Tam takes on this role as a rich young doctor forced to go on the run with the crew of ''Serenity'' because [[spoiler: he broke his sister out of a government instituion]]. He doesn't adapt to life on board immediately, and misses his old life. River, on the other hand, never shows fish-out-of-water tendencies- to the point where Simon says that the ship is more home to her than any other place.

* ''{{Gargoyles}}'' has the titled creatures waking up after a thousand year sleep in modern day New York, spending much of the first episodes just trying to understand the world around them.

Naturally, Fish Out Of Water have a danger of becoming awkward the longer a show runs.

* In ''Whit'' by IainBanks, the main character, Isis, grew up in a mildly puritanical {{Cult}} that rejects all modern technology and considers her the ChosenOne. While she understands on an intellectual level that the rest of the world isn't like that, she's not prepared for how uninterested the outside world is in even trying to understand her beliefs.

* ''NorthernExposure''

* Castiel, an angel, in the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' has difficulty blending into humanity, which may be even more apparent [[Recap/SupernaturalS09E01IThinkImGonnaLikeItHere when he becomes human]].

* Darwin from ''{{The Amazing World Of Gumball}}'' is a more literal example of this trope. Darwin used to be the family's pet fish until he grew legs and got too big to be in his bowl all the time.

* Zig-zagged in ''Series/TheXFiles'' episodes "Tunguska" and "Terma", which see Mulder and Krycek stuck in a Russian gulag. Mulder is very much out of water, but Krycek not at all - it doesn't count as VillainsBlendInBetter because Krycek is in his element on account of his Russian heritage and connections, and is let out of his cell. The trope is then subverted when Krycek leaves the gulag as Mulder's hostage, becomes separated from him and has his left arm cut off. It's then played straight again at the end of "Terma" when Krycek, still in Russia and now sporting a prosthetic arm, is revealed to have hired an assassin to sabotage American efforts in the "arms race" to develop a vaccine for the black oil.

* In ''{{FanFic/Ragnarok}}'' when L sends Mello and Matt to spy on Light. Since they are in the middle of Tokyo, Light notices the blonde kid spying on him almost immediately.

* LincolnHeights, the Sutton kids are very much so out of their element upon moving to the overwhelmingly black Lincoln heights after having spent their entire lives in a mostly white suburb. It takes them an entire season but they learn to love it.

--> -- ''TheBoondocks''

Naturally, FishOutOfWater have a danger of becoming awkward the longer a show runs.

* ''{{McCloud}}''

** One such animal, Bull Sharkowski, is a literal FishOutOfWater, and has to carry a headset filled with water in order to breathe.

* ''KappaMikey'', who features an American cartoon actor in a Japanese anime show after winning a contest. It is even explained that Mikey got his nick name because of the Kappa, literally a FishOutOfWater.

[[quoteright:349:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fish_therapy_session_1318.jpg]]

* In ''Anime/SuiseiNoGargantia'', a young soldier of a human galactic civilization gets stranded on a planet where the environment and culture are completely different from what he's used to.