History Main / SmallTownBoredom

* The titular character in ''Film/BigFish''.

* The aptly named "Small Town" by Kero Kero Bonito:

* Creator/SamanthaFish's song "Cowtown" is about someone who has finally made the decision to leave the dead-end life in the small "cow" town.

* The titular heroine of ''Disney/{{Moana}}'' lives on an island but feels a draw to the ocean. Everyone on the island is forbidden from sailing past the reef, not that most even want to. The first portion of the film deals with Moana trying to reconcile her desire to sail with her role as the chief's daughter.

* ThisCountry. Set in a tiny village in the Cotswolds, and following the lives of two of its bored young residents, the sitcom pretty much is this trope.

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

* TruthInTelevision: Happens even with some good-sized cities that aren't as huge as others.
** Some states, such as [[FlyoverCountry Indiana]], have problems keeping up job rates because college grads and other people of age immediately flee to larger cities such as Chicago or LA to seek gainful employment.
** 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bring back the Homestead Act ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Land_Policy_and_Management_Act_of_1976 which was repealed in 1976]]) in order to resettle the Plains states.

* Inverted in some areas of the American Rust Belt (particularly Michigan) where young inner suburbanites and city dwellers go from universities in the bigger cities to high-paying jobs in the exurbs. Inverted in Michigan, where the fastest growing towns in the state are all boring bedroom communities 45 minutes from anywhere of import.

* [[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 Creator/DevonMonk's ''[[Literature/AgeOfSteam Dead Iron]]'', Rose wants to leave and go somewhere where even a girl can make devices. (It doesn't help that they all think she's touched in the head.)

* Inverted in some areas of the American Rust Belt (particularly Michigan) where young inner suburbanites and city dwellers go from universities in the bigger cities to high-paying jobs in the exurbs. Inverted HARD in Michigan, where the fastest growing towns in the state are all boring bedroom communities 45 minutes from anywhere of import.

* "Centerville" and "Wind Up Working In A Gas Station", among others, by Music/FrankZappa.

* In ''Manga/InnocentsShounenJuujigun'', many of the protagonists, especially Nicolas, express a desire to get away from their small village.

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

** Karen, who also has an aggressive and possibly [[AbusiveParents abusive dad]], in ''VideoGame/{{Harvest Moon 64}}'' has wants to leave Flowerbud Village to be a dancer in the city. If you don't befriend her, [[LostForever she will leave]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'': Said boredom is such [[spoiler:that it drives someone to murder]]. This was also a key point in Shadow Yosuke and Shadow Yukkiko's dialogues. [[ShadowArchetype Shadow Yosuke]] taunts Yosuke about how boring the town is to him, while Yukiko's shadow mentions how much she hates the town and just sits on her '''ass''' waiting for her prince to come rescue her from it. It should be said that the whole town's leisure facilities basically amount to one small diner, the shrine, the river, and if you're really desperate the food court of the local supermarket. That is literally it.

* TaylorSwift, particularly in "White Horse".

* The titular ''Disney/{{Moana}}'' lives on an island but feels a draw to the ocean. Everyone on the island is forbidden from sailing past the reef, not that most even want to. The first portion of the film deals with Moana trying to reconcile her desire to sail with her role as the chief's daughter.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]

* The titular ''Disney/{{Moana}}'' lives on an island but feels a draw to the ocean. Everyone on the island is forbidden from sailing past the reef, not that most even want to. The first portion of the film deals with Moana trying to reconcile her desire to sail with her role as the chief's daughter.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* Ariel from ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid''. She's an odd example, though, in that in her case the "small town" is actually ''the ocean''.