History Main / FISHOutOfWater

* The third season of WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman features an episode that shares a name with this trope. Bojack has to go deep underwater for a film festival, experiences culture shock, and is unable to talk because of the air helmet he has to wear. It's one of the most acclaimed episodes of the series.

* ''Literature/BubblesInSpace'': The first book, ''Tropical Punch'', has Bubbles try to escape the crooked police of HoloCity by taking a free vacation on a space luxury liner. She is completely bamboozled by the ultra-wealthy guests and their odd habits.

* The ''Literature/{{Shadowleague}}'' books give us Zavahl and, to a lesser extent, Toulac in [[MarySueTopia Gendival]]--the hundreds of different sentient creatures throw them off.

* MK in ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'', naturally Leafmen customs are all very strange to her.

* In ''Fanfic/PowerRangersMythos'', when Tommy Oliver is pulled into the future to form a new Ranger team against the current threat, he mostly copes by focusing on his duty as a Ranger, but he's still thrown by moments such as the idea that it's possible to pause live TV.

* In ''Whit'' by Creator/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.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}''. Simon Tam is a rich young doctor from the wealthy Core Planets who is forced to go on the run with the crew of ''Serenity'' because he broke his sister out of a government institution. He's not familiar with handling himself on the poorer, rougher Outer Planets, and has trouble adjusting to the rag-tag, on-the-run lifestyle he's been thrust into. As a result, he seems very out of his depth and stands out like a sore thumb. Only when he's put into situations he's trained to deal with does he reveal just how confident, intelligent and talented he really is. Even the rougher members of the crew such as Jayne take more of a liking to him when they realize that given how often they need to have bullets pulled out of them in their dangerous line of work, it's preferable to have a class-A surgeon on hand instead of the back-alley "doctors" they would otherwise have to turn to.
* ''Series/DueSouth'': a backwoods Canadian mountie in the American city of Chicago.

* Appears in a very literal sense in the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' fanfic ''Fanfic/ByTheSea'', where Commander Cody is an ocean-dwelling merman instead of a human. The surface world is strange and baffling to merfolk like Cody, and the cultural context and aquatic environment Cody grew up in is equally baffling to Obi-Wan. The two learn about their cultural differences as Obi-Wan tells Cody stories, stopping frequently to explain things that have no equivalent in merfolk culture, such as artillery, or weaving.

* ''Manga/DragonBall'':
** In the early parts of the series Goku has been raised in near isolation in the middle of the mountains and knows nothing of the outside world. Him growing up partly revolves around him getting to know the world and all the mishaps that follows because of his ignorance.
** To lesser extent, Gohan's misadventures in high school. Gohan lived a very sheltered life (fighting super-powered aliens and androids notwithstanding) where the only people he is close to are aliens, powerful humans, and a genius. Gohan learning how normal people act and behave is a major theme while he's in school.

* One of the defining traits of modern Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}. Unlike her more famous [[Franchise/{{Superman}} cousin]], who left Krypton when he was too young to remember it, Kara spent her formative years growing up in Kryptonian society before she was sent to Earth as a teenager. Understandably, she has a harder time adjusting to life on Earth than Kal-El ever did, as she still considers herself a Kryptonian at heart. In ''Comicbook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton'', Clark shows Kara around Metropolis. As she tries to figure hot dogs out, Clark mentions that adapting a new culture can be difficult.

** ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' has a human girl magically transported to a land inhabited by anthropomorphic talking amphibians.

* ''The Nanny from Moscow'' by Ivan Shmelyov has the eponymous nanny, who has spent her entire long life in the Russian capital, forced into emigration after the October Revolution. She has a lot of trouble adjusting to the life in other countries, even after her beloved ward becomes a world-famous actress and they are no longer in danger of poverty. She ends up happily settling down in Paris because at least it’s full of Russian émigrés and she can feels herself almost at home.

* Tohru from ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'' is a dragon from another world working as a maid in modern Japan. This leads to a great deal of the comedy in the series. Especially when she tries to pass on her "knowledge" to Kanna. Elma ends up suffering the same problem when she gets stranded on Earth (though she's arguably even worse since she's gets a job working at Kobayashi's company despite having never even heard of a computer). All of them get better over time.

* Pyrrha in ''Webcomic/RWBYCherish'' was raised on a secluded island by warriors. She has difficulties adjusting to Vale's social norms, leading her to have NoSocialSkills and be LiteralMinded.

* ''Manga/WayOfTheHouseHusband'' follows "Immortal Tatsu", a {{Yakuza}} of no small repute, who has gone straight after getting married and becoming a house husband. Being a former career criminal, however, much of Tatsu's personality as a hardened gangster still seeps into his new domestic life. HilarityEnsues.

** There's actually a NotSoDifferent aspect to this, since Kaname herself spent a good portion of her youth in New York and as a result has a much more "American" personality (assertive, emotionally open, and short-tempered), meaning in some ways she's just as alien to Japanese society as Sousuke. She actually has the InSeriesNickname "The School Idol Nobody Wants to Date" because while she's very attractive, intelligent, and athletic, her personality tends to drive guys away.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Fangbone}}'' derives a good chunk of its humor from Fangbone (who is a barbarian from a SwordAndSorcery fantasy world) having difficulty getting used to the peaceful customs and modern technologies of suburban North America.