History Main / SmallTownBoredom

* Luke Skywalker in ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope]]'' who's stuck in his family's moisture farm.

* Creator/AntonChekhov's ''Three Sisters''.

* This trope is what starts off the plot of ''AmericanIdiot.''

* This is a reoccuring theme in ''Franchise/HarvestMoon'', as the games take place in rural towns.

* Motivation for Joey on ''DawsonsCreek''.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Ruby (Red Riding Hood's counterpart) suffers from this. She actually tried to leave town prior to the show, but the curse gave her grandmother a heart attack, forcing her to stay in Storybrooke.
** Also [[spoiler: Milah]] is often seen at the town's tavern and is bored of being a wife and a mother, so she [[spoiler: fakes being kidnapped by Captain Hook to run away with him and his crew]], abandoning her husband and young child. But when [[spoiler: Rumpelstiltskin]] finds out the deception, it does not end well for her.
* In an episode of ''TheGeorgeLopezShow,'' George is considering taking a new job and moving the family to a small town in Colorado. He believes that it will be a better place for the kids instead of L.A. However, when they go there to look around, they see that the kids that live there have ''literally'' nothing else to do but smoke, drink, and get into trouble (a little girl encourages Max to steal for little more than the fact it's a cheap thrill.)
* An episode of That70sShow has Hyde use this trope as an explanation for why the gang stole the drive-through sculpture of Fatso The Clown from Fatso Burger.

* [[UsefulNotes/Hawaii Hawaii]] residents may experience "Island Fever," which is basically this trope applied to whichever island they happen to live on, since there's only so much to do on any given island, and they may rarely (or never) have the opportunity to visit other islands or visit the mainland due to the relative expense of doing so and the high cost of living in Hawaii.

* [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/Hawaii Hawaii]] residents may experience "Island Fever," which is basically this trope applied to whichever island they happen to live on, since there's only so much to do on any given island, and they may rarely (or never) have the opportunity to visit other islands or visit the mainland due to the relative expense of doing so and the high cost of living in Hawaii.

* In general, this trope can be subverted by people who actually ''enjoy'' the fact that small towns seem sleepy and boring. These people can find large, vibrant cities to be too loud, too suffocating, or what have you, and very much prefer the slower pace of life that occurs in smaller communities. What others would call boring and dull, they would call peace and quiet.

* Many children (and some adults) in the Franchise/{{Pokemon}} universe.

* Part of the reason for Nakamura and Kasuga's behavior in ''[[Manga/AkuNoHana The Flowers of Evil]]''.

* Referenced in "Hello" by Music/{{Adele}}''.

* ''Theatre/TheGoldenApple'' begins with Helen dryly complaining that "nothing ever happens in Angel's Roost."

** It gets worse in the [[DownOnTheFarm Great Plains states]], where this trope, combined with industrialized agriculture outcompeting small farmers, has been causing [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_flight a demographic crisis]]. Small towns are being abandoned as nobody shows up to replace the young people who leave, and the last Census survey holds that some areas now have a lower population density than they did in [[TheWildWest 1890, the year that the frontier was declared to be closed]]. There have even been calls to bring back the Homestead Act in order to resettle the Plains states.

* One official source states that Sonic the Hedgehog only began exploring because he was bored with his birthplace, Christmas Island.

* The Swedish movie ''[[ShowMeLove Fucking Åmål]]'' is a teenage ComingOutStory set in the titular Åmål, which Elin thinks is the most boring place in the world.
* ''PopularMusicFromVittula'' takes place in the northern Swedish town of Pajala in the 60's. A lot of the youngsters talk about moving away the moment they turn 18. In the end, Niila is the only one to actually do anything, as he hitchhikes out and becomes a rock star.

* Rusty James is stuck in Tulsa, Oklahoma in RumbleFish, which leads him to become quite angry and seeking out fights... if you interpret the movie that way.

* In ''BobAndGeorge'', [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/001206c George jumps universes to escape.]]

* This is a good portion of JJ's backstory on ''CriminalMinds''.

* The comic and film ''Film/GhostWorld''.

* The comic and film ''GhostWorld''.

* In ''Film/{{Dodsworth}}'', Fran is in around 40 and must have been unhappy for a number of years. Staying with her much older husband in a small town was suffocating to her and she wanted a totally different life before she was too old to enjoy it. That's why she plans a trip with her husband to Europe, where she meets exciting people, derailing her marriage completely.