History Main / PlanetOfHats

*** All Middenlanders are hairy barbarians with a liking for [[DropTheHammer blunt weapons]].

** That said, [[http://www.vgcats.com/super/?strip_id=37 with the right tools...]]

** [[UsefulNotes/ChineseWithChopperSupport Eastern Radiance]]: Consists of light ships that focus on offensive power. [[PandaingToTheAudience Pandas]] are a recurring {{Animal Motif|s}}. Largely OutOfFocus.

* In the Season 2 finale of ''WebAnimation/BigtopBurger'', titled ''UP'', it's revealed that Steve [[spoiler:hailed from a faraway planet entirely populated by an ancient ClownSpecies]].

* In [[http://www.webscription.net/10.1125/Baen/0671318616/0671318616.htm Pandora's Planet]], the {{Alien Inva|sion}}ders are dull and gullible enough compared to humans that once we start going out and proselytizing they become more convinced than the proselytizers. A whole planet briefly bans everything artificial. Mention is made of a low-gravity world colonized expressly for the purpose of horse racing.

On the other hand, a planet's hat may be a reflection of who is looking at it. A civilization may, on its own terms, consider itself as diverse and variegated as humanity does, but those terms aren't anthrocentric ones and the diversity simply isn't recognized (at least not at first, depending on how much opportunity writers have to develop it).

** We are introduced to the Namekian race by Piccolo and God, who were original one person. Everyone in the race is green, reproduce asexually, is one gender (male), have mystical abilities, and is peace-loving with the exception of Piccolo who was the Nameless Namekian's evil side that was corrupted by living on Earth. Part of the reason for the uniformity is that the Namekians we see in the main story, with the exception of the Nameless Namekian, all came from one father after the race was brought to the brink of extinction. Which means any culture or other unique differences would be all but lost since everyone came from the same gene pool and raised by the same person. However, there are still subtypes or 'classes.' There are two castes; the Dragon Caste (consisting of those with magical abilities and being able to create Dragon Balls i.e. Dende and God) and the Warrior Caste, those who are powerful in combat (Nail.) The reincarnated Piccolo (the now good one) could be considered a hybrid due to being a fusion (but lacks God's ablities of creating the Dragon Balls).
** The Saiyans were introduced by Goku. Once Raditz comes we learned that all Saiyans are freaking strong, transform into giant apes under a full moon, are prideful, and are {{Blood Knight}}s. Goku is unique among his race because he doesn't have the Saiyan bloodlust. This is a combination of being raise on Earth, a head injury, and inheriting his mom's good nature. Part of the justification for the Saiyans is that there were good Saiyans, but they were banished or repressed by the more violent parts of their race. The Saiyans' dark nature was also exploited by Frieza who used them to wipe planets and made them advance too fast so they never evolved past their barbaric ways.

** In the episode "Mushroom Samba" (itself the name of [[MushroomSamba another trope]]), the crew of the Bebop finds that the {{terraform}}ed moon Io has developed a culture apparently inspired by 1970s {{Blaxploitation}} films.

* In ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'', each country is a separate Planet of Hats, such as a country devoted to nothing but the construction of a tower, or one inhabited by people who do nothing but secretarial work. Most amusing is the town which doesn't have a hat, and is trying desperately to get one. They show off some different 'ancient tradition' to every traveler who passes through. Kino remarks that this ''is'' their hat.

* In ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', Earth's hat is specifically noted to pretty much be our entertainment industry, which is so popular out there its a controlled substance and [[{{Masquerade}} we can't know how incredibly big our audience is]], both due to lack of supply, although the [[EldritchAbomination nature]] of our fans also factored into their decision to hide while taking advantage of our funny hat.

** One episode has them visit a series of alternate-universes-in-boxes; most of these universes are one-shot-gag Hat Universes, such as the [[EverybodyMustGetStoned hippy universe]] and the [[EyeScream eyeless universe]].

** The reverse of this is used in the episode "Cancelled": apparently every planet except Earth has only one species, with "a planet of deer, a planet of Asians," etc. Earth was started billions of years ago with creatures from all over the universe on one planet---as part of an intergalactic RealityShow.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' would often use ridiculous examples, i.e. the Neutral planet, the cannibal planet, planet of human-hating robots. In "Love and Rocket", Dr. Zoidberg (himself from a planet of Crustacean SpaceJews) talks about the planets destroyed by [[ItMakesSenseInContext love]] [[ThePowerOfLove radiation]] why not, "including two gangster planets and a cowboy world."

** Fry goes to live on the Amish Homeworld for a while.
** Also the planet of [[LadyLand gigantic man-hating tribeswomen.]]
** The episode "The Duh-Vinci Code" introduces a planet of {{Insufferable Genius}}es. How smart were they? Creator/LeonardoDaVinci left because he was the ''dumbest'' person there.
** There's also a literal ''Universe of Hats''. Namely, when visiting the edge of our universe, the crew sees on the other side their identical alt-selfs, only they're all wearing cowboy hats.

* ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim'' frequently parodied this, like with the aptly-named Planet of Easily Frightened People from "Sword of Righteousness". Asking them to guard [[GreenLanternRing the Orb of Quite Remarkable Power]] was probably not the best idea.
-->'''Easily Frightened People:''' AAARGH! Something green! AAARGH! Something not green!
-->'''[=PsyCrow=]:''' I love this planet.

Compare: GangOfHats. Contrast: MulticulturalAlienPlanet. See also RubberForeheadAliens, IntelligentGerbil, ScaryDogmaticAliens, TribeOfPriests. May result because or into ApathyKilledTheCat. If the planet's hat is being evil, it's an example of AlwaysChaoticEvil. SeriousBusiness is what happens when the show's setting gets a hat. This trope in itself is a good example of SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale. See SingleBiomePlanet when the planet is unnaturally uniform physically. OneProductPlanet is a subtrope, but focuses on economics rather than culture.

* ''Fanfic/ReimaginedEnterprise'': Usually there are some attempts to avert or reduce this trope compared to the canon show. To be fair, the prose format makes it somewhat easier to avoid reducing races to a stereotype compared to TV.

* The Polish comic ''Tytus, Romek I A'Tomek'' has an issue where the protagonists visit several "Nonsense Islands", each of which is a classic Island Of Hats where everyone is an athlete, a bureaucrat, etc.

** In one MickeyMouse detective story Mickey and WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} are employed by aliens from a planet where everyone is a thief -- its perfectly legal to steal, people are suspicious of someone who doesn't, and their leader got his position because he is such a great crook. (No, not by cheating. People ''voted for him'' because he was such a dishonest man.) They need an outsider because they are temporarily hosting an artifact shared with other, friendly planets, and they don't trust anyone on their own planet -- with good reason.

* ''Film/ThePredator'': Less pronounced in the originals, since only a single member was present, but the more the franchise progressed, the more the Yautja were shaped up to be ''all'' about hunting.

*** This is ultimately revealed to be a planned survival strategy – by being completely non-threatening, indeed actively ''welcoming'' to any would-be conquerers, the Tivolians avoid reprisal and annihilation.

** The Sonatarans are a {{Proud Warrior Race|Guy}} of clones made to be the best at fighting and conquering any planet that looks at them funny. They are so into the whole warrior thing that their form of punishment is forcing the perpetrator into a job as a ''nurse''.

** The Salarians' hat is that of the ProudScholarRaceGuy, being a race of scientists and other academics. Some of those smarts go into spycraft and black ops as demonstrated with the Special Tasks Group, the Salarians' military organization that leverages subterfuge and sabotage to compensate for their physical frailty.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'', when your race reaches the Space phase, they are assigned a hat based on their actions up until that point, which usually falls into the standard sci-fi racial norms. There's [[NobleSavage Shaman]], [[ProudMerchantRaceGuy Trader]], [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Warrior]], [[ActualPacifist Diplomat]], [[ChurchMilitant Zealot]], [[ProudScholarRaceGuy Scientist, Ecologist]], [[CloudCuckooLander Bard]], [[KnightTemplar Knight]] and Wanderer[[note]]Which can only be obtained if the player starts a new file at the space stage[[/note]].

* The [[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]] is really bad about this, due in large part to the games' near lack of plot and characterization ([[NoPlotNoProblem though that's not necessarily bad]]). Every faction has a hat that fits every character of that race. The Terrans are high-tech xenophobes, the Split are a Proud Warrior Race, the Teladi are [[ProudMerchantRace Proud Merchant]] LizardFolk, the Boron are peace-loving [[FishPeople Squid People]], etc.

** Each of the nations of the West has its own hat - unusually, each is explicitly engineered by destiny. To a first approximation, based on the characters encountered: All Sendars are farmers, all Drasnians are spies, all Tolnedrans are merchants, all Chereks are Viking warriors, and all Nyssans are drug-addicted poisoners.
** Most of the 'hats' are actually fantasy archetypes based on Earth cultures -- the Chereks are Vikings, the Algars are the Mongols likewise, the Drasnians appear to be a Renaissance Italy stereotype transplanted into a different geographical setting, the Tolnedrans are based on the Roman Empire (hence both their mercantile aspect ''and'' their obsessive road-building and disciplined legions), the Arends are medieval high chivalry myths taken to the point of self-parody, etc. The unflappable demeanour, their courtesy, and the general obsession with propriety of the Sendars seem to be more English than anything.