History Main / ServiceSectorStereotypes

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* One of the early arcs in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' takes place in a diner, where the waitress is a friendly matron-type who inserts the people she sees into her stories. It's later revealed that she had a son who ran away from home, [[spoiler: became a male prostitute in New York, went to prison for knifing his pimp, and continued selling his ass behind bars. An on-off relationship of hers reveals that while he was doing time, he screwed her son.]] [[DysfunctionJunction The rest of the clients aren't better.]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Live-Action Television ]]

[[folder: Video Game ]]

[[folder: Visual Novels ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* '''Bartender:''' The type who usually gets the most plot significance. World-weary and often a DeadpanSnarker, he nevertheless has a good heart and sound advice -- and since he is constantly around people [[DrowningMySorrows drowning their sorrows]], he gets the chance to exercise his sagacity slightly more often than his female counterpart, the 'fourth type' of waitress. May show some level of control or authority over the protagonists as the keeper of their favorite watering hole. Since he's the one who's ''not'' drinking, it would perhaps make sense for him to be the clearest-headed in his milieu. Often engages in ObsessiveCompulsiveBarkeeping. Although most commonly male, women can also serve in this role. If this character is black (or otherwise a member of an ethnic minority), the writer should be careful lest they end up accidentally writing this character as a MagicalNegro.

* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Tifa]] can generally be described as the World's Friendliest Barmaid...although this may have something to do with having seen/done it all, losing almost everything including her life as a kid and having nowhere to look but up, and having to put on a poker face to disguise the fact that she is a terrorist working in enemy territory.

* Subverted in the movie ''Film/TheGame''. The slightly incompetent waitress that Michael Douglas feels noble and nice about is far more important than she first seems.

* '''{{Suck E Cheeses}}:''' Possibly the very lowest rung on the ladder is working in a Chuck E. Cheese's or fictional equivalent thereof, because of the added humiliation (not to mention questionable hygiene) of having to dress up in a giant grotty old animal costume and sing/dance/emote for the entertainment of bratty kids. Like BurgerFool, this is usually the job of a teenager, and its pointless and cloying nature will contribute to his/her existential high-school angst.

* In ''Film/AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore'', basis for TV's ''Series/{{Alice}}'', the titular Alice is reduced to being a waitress in a small town diner from ambitions of being a singer.

* The prototype for all TV diners is Mel's Diner, the setting for ''Alice''. Complete with sassy waitress Flo ("Kiss my grits!").

* ''Film/ReservoirDogs'': we discover in the very first scene that Mr Pink doesn't tip, because he doesn't believe in it. The other crooks all press him to defend his decision and he is eventually shamed into tipping, but the actual waitress is never even ''seen''.
** Pink's actor reappears in ''Film/PulpFiction'' playing the waiter. Due to the nature of Tarantino movies [[spoiler: and the ambiguity of Pink's fate]] it is actually possible that the waiter ''is'' Pink.

* In ''Film/AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore'', basis for TV's ''Series/Alice'', the titular Alice is reduced to being a waitress in a small town diner from ambitions of being a singer.

* Moe of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is a subversion of the stereotypical bartender. Rather than be wise and helpful, he seems to be the only one worse off than his patrons, and his advice is rarely helpful. The school cafeteria worker, Lunchlady Doris, plays her {{stereotype}} straight with all the apathy and health-code violations you's expect from Springfield.

* Ernie, owner of the titular juice bar Ernie's, and Hayley proprietor of Hayley's Cyberspace in PowerRangers and PR Dino Thunder respectively may well be subversions in that Ernie appears to love his bar and his customers, and Hayley's is well respected in Reefside.

* In ''Film/AliceDoesn'tLiveHereAnymore'', basis for TV's ''Series/Alice'', the titular Alice is reduced to being a waitress in a small town diner from ambitions of being a singer.

* In ''Film/AliceDoesn'tLiveHereAnymore'', the titular Alice is reduced to being a waitress in a small town diner from ambitions of being a singer.

* Penny from ''Series/{{The Big Bang Theory}}'', while only ditzy in comparison to the rest of the cast, is the typical young diner/Family Restaurant waitress who hopes to make it as an actress. Subversion with her friend and colleague Bernadette, who works at the Cheesecake Factory to pay her way through microbiology grad school.

* Naturally, ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' is chock full of this. Roseanne herself serves as the surly, middle-aged waitress during her long stint at a department store's in-house diner. In a later episode, when she escapes a particularly stressful night of child management, she meets an even ''more'' surly, but sympathetic widow at a random crappy diner.

* The Waiter in the classic movie/play ''VictorVictoria'' startes out as the waiter in a hole-in-the-wall Parisian eatery (with some excellent lines), works his way up to being waiter at a ritzier semi-gay-bar, until at the end where he is working at one of the classiest joints in Paris.

* '''Coffee Shop:''' Staffed by teenagers/young adults (with a somewhat higher proportion of males than in diners) trying to fund their way through college--or more recently, pay off student loans because having graduated college, they can't find work in their field. Use the obligatory coffee-speak ("Is that a grande mocha latte or a regular?"), annoying the protagonists in the process. One of the few types who are shown to have ambitions beyond the restaurant, and as a result, have an air of "I'm too good for this job." They exhibit a similar pretentious attitude to that of the exclusive restaurant waiter, but without the class. Or the moustache--although if the story is set anytime since about 2010, a male barista is rather likely to sport an rather impressive beard.

* Subverted in the movie ''The Game''. The slightly incompetent waitress that Michael Douglas feels noble and nice about is far more important than she first seems.

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* Cecil, the maître d'hôtel of Dot's Diner in ''{{Reboot}}'', is the classic snobbish waiter. He's also a subversion however, in that he works in a modern cosmopolitan diner, not an upmarket restaurant, and as such is a comedic character.

* Moe of ''TheSimpsons'' is a subversion of the stereotypical bartender. Rather than be wise and helpful, he seems to be the only one worse off than his patrons, and his advice is rarely helpful. The school cafeteria worker, Lunchlady Doris, plays her {{stereotype}} straight with all the apathy and health-code violations you's expect from Springfield.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:Film]]
* The depressing scenario in ''Film/SlidingDoors'' had the heroine fired from her job to become a waitress/delivery girl for a sandwich bar, much to the delight of her boyfriend's "other woman", who revels in exploiting and insulting her, knowing that her rival can't fight back.

[[AC: Live Action Television]]
* Any British SoapOpera will have its Landlord- or Landlady-in-residence.
* Al Murray's comedy character, The Pub Landlord (used as a stand-up persona as well as a character on ''Time Gentlemen, Please''), is a send-up of the negative traits of the stereotypical landlord: obsessive "Britishness," hatred of the French and misogyny are all played for laughs.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' used the "reduced to waiting tables" plotline for ''half'' its main cast. At the beginning of the show Rachel, who has just decided to be independent of her father's money, has to accept a job at the coffee shop where the characters all hang out. Later Monica, after a period of joblessness, is forced to take a job cooking at a 1950s theme restaurant, where she also serves food, in costume, on roller skates. Later still, Joey has trouble getting acting jobs and has to become a waiter at the same coffee house Rachel worked at. Both Rachel and Joey were terrible at their waiting jobs, and all three characters rebounded, becoming an executive at Ralph Lauren, head chef at a snooty restaurant and a cast member of ''Days of Our Lives'' respectively.
* The waitress of the "Waffle Haus" (an American diner decorated as... well as the American idea of a cozy German eatery, famous for their waffles with syrup) in the TV series ''Series/DeadLikeMe'' is a middle-aged motherly black matron. Considering that all the main characters meet for breakfast and lunch at the Wafflehaus nearly every episode, that waitress is a recurring character, and one that often offers advice and always has a smile when someone feels down.

[[AC: Video Game]]

[[AC: Web Original]]

* Webtoon ''Foamy The Squirrel'' features a recurring antagonist to/ victim of Foamy in the form of a coffee shop boy who insists on using the correct "coffee terminology." He should have learned by now all this results in is a vicious attack by a caffeine-ingesting rodent.
** Quite a few of the ''Foamy'' webtoons discuss (read: rant about) the catering industry. One focuses on restaurants, complaining about the aforementioned "Happy Birthday" and obligatory "Are you enjoying your meal?" questions asked by the staff.

[[AC: Western Animation]]
* Cecil, the maître d'hôtel of Dot's Diner in ''{{Reboot}}'', is the classic snobbish waiter. He's also a subversion however, in that he works in a modern cosmopolitan diner, not an upmarket restaurant, and as such is a comedic character.
** The original design for Dot herself was a "ditzy waitress," but that idea was soon scrapped.

* '''[[BikiniBar Breastaurant Waitress]]:''' A fast-casual type of joint where the selling point is [[FanserviceWithASmile the waitress corps of young, perky women in revealing outfits]]. Expect the waitstaff here to be bubbly [[BrainlessBeauty Brainless Beauties]] between 18-28, though one or two may have HiddenDepths, while the cooks are pathetic, frustrated men kept out of the public eye. This setting is the ideal place to show off a lot of tropes; to put the main cast's MsFanservice into something both titillating and embarrassing, for example, or to show that one or more male character is NotDistractedByTheSexy.