History Main / MayorOfAGhostTown

* The protagonists of both the original ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'' and [[Film/DawnOfTheDead2004 the remake]] do this on a smaller scale with a shopping mall. In fact, this is largely the point (of the older movie, at least). It gets very {{Anvilicious}} when you see the little perfect world the protagonists have constructed for themselves, with things "borrowed" from the mall. The zombies are largely a distraction from the commercialism-[[BuffySpeak things]]. Sorry for FanWank.

* Franchise/{{BIONICLE}} plays with this in the description of what the Toa Of Light was flying around doing in other dimensions. The villanious/HeelFaceTurn applying Toa Tuyet in an alternate dimension specifically ignored and never mentioned outside of descriptions of said alternate dimension) specifically says (while contemplating drowning everyone in the alternate universe) that she would be ruling over an empire of corpses.

* Played literally for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_villages_destroyed_in_the_First_World_War six French communes]] which still legally exist and thus have a mayor named by the prefect in spite of [[DoomedHometown being totally destroyed]] during WorldWarI.

* The protagonists of both the original ''Film/DawnOfTheDead'' and [[Film/DawnOfTheDead2004 the remake]] do this on a smaller scale with a shopping mall. In fact, this is largely the point (of the older movie, at least). It gets very {{Anvilicious}} when you see the little perfect world the protagonists have constructed for themselves, with things "borrowed" from the mall. The zombies are largely a distraction from the commercialism-[[BuffySpeak things]]. Sorry for FanWank.

* Played literally for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_villages_destroyed_in_the_First_World_War six French ''communes'']] which have still a legal existence and thus a mayor named by the prefect in spite of [[DoomedHometown being totally destroyed]] during WorldWarI.

* Distinct possibility in DwarfFortress. Most fortresses will eventually suffer catastrophes and get wiped out, but in case one of the inhabitants became a vampire, he/she is much likely to survive and keep the fortress going as the sole inhabitant as he/she requires no sustenance.

* Played for laughs in Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}. The Wayward Vagabond, a non-human wanderer of post-apocalyptic Earth, is fascinated enough by the idea of democracy that he becomes a mayor over a stash of cans.

* Named for the ''TheSimpsons'' episode in which Homer divides Springfield into two towns, Old Springfield and New Springfield. When Homer erects a wall to this effect, the citizens of New Springfield quickly realize that they suddenly have no means of obtaining supplies. All but the Simpson family climb over the border, leaving a disgruntled Homer alone, to which Bart says 'Face it Homer, you're mayor of a ghost town!'

* One of the countries that [[LightNovel/KinosJourney Kino]] encounters is the last remaining member of a "democracy" that voted by majority. Ultimately, everyone else had voted each other to death until one man was left.

* ''TheStand'' had one bomb-happy character blow up oil storage silos for the explosions, since no-one was going to stop him.

** Homer also has the run of Springfield for about half a Treehouse of Horror segment, after a Neutron bomb kills all the people. [[spoiler: And turns many others into cannibal zombies.]]

* This trope is a plot point in the zombie-apocalypse novel ''WorldWarZ''. When TheCavalry finally arrives in some reclaimed towns, they are never quite sure if the Mayor has all his or or her marbles.

** Moe became mayor (emperor) of the starved lawless en-domed Springfield in the deleted scenes of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie''.

* This is how an alternate-future version of Vandal Savage has lived for thirty millennia in the ''JusticeLeague'' episode, "Hereafter."

* ''TheQuietEarth'': With apparently no-one else left on Earth, protagonist Zac Hobson sets a radio station to emit a message in case anyone's out there, moves to a mansion, raids shopping centres, plays with train sets in a store- and then the real trains- cracks up, starts dressing up in women's clothes and declares himself emperor of the world before an audience of cardboard cutouts. (He gets better.)

* In ''TheOmegaMan'', Charlton Heston doesn't take much advantage of this trope, since he spends his time hunting zombies. However, his love interest, Lisa, likes to go "shopping" in abandoned department stores. At least until she gets TheVirus and does her FaceHeelTurn.

* This is how an alternate-future version of Vandal Savage has lived for several [[strike: years]] centuries in the ''JusticeLeague'' episode, "Hereafter."

** In one of the short films made with the sequal, a man left in this situation kills himself out of loneliness. As he's dying he hears the helicopters returning.

* One of the countries that [LightNovel/KinosJourney Kino]] encounters is the last remaining member of a "democracy" that voted by majority. Ultimately, everyone else had voted each other to death until one man was left.

* One of the countries that [[KinoNoTabi Kino]] encounters is the last remaining member of a "democracy" that voted by majority. Ultimately, everyone else had voted each other to death until one man was left.

* Played litteraly for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_villages_destroyed_in_the_First_World_War six French ''communes'']] which have still a legal existence and thus a mayor named by the prefect in spite of [[DoomedHometown being totally destroyed]] during WorldWarI.
* Rotten boroughs: Until 1832, some British [=MP=]s had constituencies with very few voters, due to the towns having declined centuries earlier. E.g. Old Sarum, Wiltshire, had only seven voters.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'': Father Grigori of Ravenholm.
* Thumper's ending in ''TwistedMetal''.

* ''SuikodenV'''s Tageyl stands on the verge of this: Lordlake has fallen out of favor with the queen and is slowly dying without any water.

* One of the most dramatic examples is Andrew Ryan in ''VideoGame/BioShock''; even as Rapture slowly began to break apart, its people going mad and slaughtering each other in its halls, he remained convinced that it would all be well and good with just a ''little more time''...

* Rotten boroughs: Until 1832, some British MPs had constituencies with very few voters, due to the towns having declined centuries earlier. E.g. Old Sarum, Wiltshire, had only seven voters.

* Until 1832, some British MPs had constituencies with very few voters, due to the towns having declined centuries earlier. E.g. Old Sarum, Wiltshire, had only seven voters.

* Jadis, the Last Queen of Charn from ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia.'' In ''TheMagiciansNephew'', we find out that she single-handedly eradicated every other lifeform in her universe because her sister had raised a rebellion against her queenhood; with her sister's army at the door, she proved herself to be a sore loser. She then [[SealedEvilInACan magically preserved herself as a statue]] until the heroes accidentally freed her, then hitched a ride with them to Earth and ultimately to Narnia, where she became known as [[TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe the White Witch]].

* The protagonist of the post-pandemic London of JohnChristopher's novel ''Empty World''.

* The heroes of ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'' don't limit themselves to one town, but they raid grocery stores for food (in search of the elusive Twinkie), trash a store just for fun and crash for a while in BillMurray's mansion (which isn't as abandoned as they thought).