History Main / SmallTownBoredom

* In ''Film/TheHalfOfIt'', Ellie is a Chinese American high school girl growing up in Squahamish, a small rural town. She clearly hates being stuck there. Aside from maintaining perfect grades and play the guitar, she spends her free time hanging out at the train station and watching it go by. She also runs a secret essay writing cheating scheme to make money on the side.

* All the main characters of ''Manga/BoysAbyss'' feel this way. Chako wants to go to school in the city and takes up work with her favorite author despite knowing his infamy. Reiji bounces between bouts of suicidal attempts and SexForSolace. His teacher, Ms. Shibasawa, started a relationship with him out of crippling lonliness. Gen makes Reiji buy cigarette packages he never uses and bullies others into leaving him alone because he'd otherwise have no one else in town left to connect to. Everyone's using everyone else as a LivingEmotionalCrutch, which means either that boredom is fulfilled in exactly the way they want with their chosen crutch on pain of jealousy and misery, or they suffer together in town.

* The entire planet orbiting Betelgeuse in ''Anime/SpaceDandy'' is essential Rural Japan InSpace-- a low density, post-industrial area with nothing to do and lots of poverty. Meow hated growing up there, and got away as soon as he could to travel through space. He was very reluctant to return.

* ''Film/AfterMidnight:'' Abby went to university in Miami, and only meant to come back to her small home town to say goodbye to her parents. Ten years later she is somehow still there, and increasingly dissatisfied, so one day she goes back to Miami for a few weeks. She visits galleries and museums, sees people from different cultures, and eats food that isn't brown. "Just four hours from our front porch."

* ''Film/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.

** Expanded Universe materials (and a deleted scene with his friend Biggs) show this is why the few "friends" Luke has on Tattooine resent him: because they know hes's gonna leave Tattooine, while they're stuck there.
* ''Film/{{Swelter}}'' is set in the town of Baker, Nevada. At one point, another character speculates that the protagonist, Sheriff Bishop, may be the only person there who doesn't wish he was some place else. Of course, one of the reasons it's so boring is his insistence on closing down anything fun but even slightly illegal (including a ''church bingo night'').

** This however, is against L. Frank Baum’s Dorothy from his books, who was completely content with living in Kansas.

** Downplayed with Emma's feeling about Highbury, her home village (almost town) in Surry. She's a bright young woman who has lived there her entire life and takes care of her elderly father. She enjoys being the first lady in the Highbury society, but considers others to be rather inferior (with the exception of Mr and Mrs Weston and Mr Knightley). When Emma meets Frank Churchill, he speaks of Highbury so handsomely, that Emma begins "to feel she has been used to despise the place rather too much". Emma's desire to travel is hinted at, e.g. when she jokingly complains that she's the only one who has never seen the sea.

* The aptly-named "Small Town Bringdown" by Music/TheTragicallyHip.

** "Burma Shave" from ''Music/ForeignAffairs'' by Music/TomWaits deals with a girl who runs away with a handsome out of town stranger in order to escape this. Again, it ends kind of darkly.

* "Down Home" by Alabama. The narrator couldn't wait to get out of his home town when he was young. But now that he's older, he appreciates how peaceful and friendly the town is and he wants to raise his family there.

* "Anchorage", the SignatureSong of Michelle Shocked, is about a woman who has moved to Alaska from New York and is trying to downplay her small town boredom.

* During Episode 398 of the ''Rooster Teeth Podcast'', Chris and Blaine talk about the weird stuff they did in their small towns as teenagers because there was just ''nothing to do''. Both admit that it's pretty common to just... randomly climb buildings, among other things, which Miles jokes is them looking for an escape. Miles then quickly jots down the hallmarks of small town America, which match Chris and Blaine's hometowns, before noting that it's a miracle they didn't succumb to hard drugs.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFlaminThongs'', 14 year old Narelle considers Whale Bay to be the most boring place on earth and desperately wishes she could move to 'the big smoke'. This is despite the chaos her family wreaks on the town every episode.

** Oklahoma has successfully documented the "Great Brain Drain", a finding that 50% of all university graduates leave the state for any state which has both better odds of employment and appears less boring to their university-educated eyes. One consequence of this finding has been reluctance for Oklahoma parents to allow their children to attend university because they fear that a university education will take their children away from them.

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

* Overall, the Western world has undergone (at the very least) one major cycle of this over the last two hundred years or so. When the industrial revolution came, many people left behind their small towns and villages for jobs in the city. Sure, they had NoOSHACompliance, you lived on the WrongSideOfTheTracks, but it still beat being stuck in a dead-end agricultural job, same as your ancestors all the way back to the Stone Age. Later on, the Railroad, the Streetcar, the bicycle and then the Automobile enabled people to move "further out" and still work in industrial jobs, which would one day result in "drive till you qualify" suburbs in some places. Jobs would also move out and ultimately people would live in one place, work in another, play in yet another and drive everywhere. Some jobs even allowed working from home. Ultimately all the effects of this trope hit hard, and starting some time in the 1980s, 1990s and picking up steam with the great recession, more and more people - particularly young, childless folk, are flocking back to cities.

* "Cool Enough" by Nicole Atkins.

* In [[{{Literature/ThisQuestIsBullshit}}]], this is what kickstarts the entirety of the story of Evelia Greene.

* Music/DixieChicks' "Long Time Gone," where the narrator, desperately attempting to achieve their dreams of music stardom, ditches their small country town, which they view as stifling and unable to help them achieve their dream. However, they do eventually return, abandoning their lofty dreams in favor of settling down.

* Music/The Chicks' "Long Time Gone," where the narrator, desperately attempting to achieve their dreams of music stardom, ditches their small country town, which they view as stifling and unable to help them achieve their dream. However, they do eventually return, abandoning their lofty dreams in favor of settling down.

* Part of the reason for Nakamura and Kasuga's behavior in ''Manga/AkuNoHana''.

* ''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 Yukiko'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. Yu (pun intended) can also play this trope straight or avert it depending on dialogue choices given to the player. (They don't appear to have any real affect on the story, and are mostly just there for flavor.) 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.

* This is the reason Camille's little sister [[StrictParentsMakeSneakyKids Amma]] gives for why she acts out in ''Literature/SharpObjects''. [[spoiler: Unbeknownst to Camille, Amma is not just referencing her sneaking out at night, flirting with older men, and hard drinking and drug use, but also her murdering two little girls from the town]]. Amma says multiple times during the book that she wishes she could live with Camille in the big city.

* Veronica Sawyer in ''Theatre/{{Heathers}}'' expresses her desire to get to college somewhere more sophisticated than her small Ohio town populated by [[AdultsAreUseless useless adults]], JerkJocks, and a fearsome GirlPosse.

* Rita in ''Anime/ElCazadorDeLaBruja'' desperately wants to escape her small town and go to the big city. The narrative treats her as mentally ill, which depending on taste can be an interesting anti-urbanist {{Deconstruction}} or an obnoxious example of ValuesDissonance.
* Part of the reason for Nakamura and Kasuga's behavior in ''Manga/AkuNoHana''.

* Makoto from ''LightNovel/GroundControlToPsychoelectricGirl'' is glad to leave his town to live in the city with his aunt.

* Hodaka Morishima from ''Anime/WeatheringWithYou'' is so unhappy with his endlessly shallow (and possibly abusive) lifestyle on his home island, that he decides to get away from it all and kickstarts the plot of the movie where he gets involved with a girl from Tokyo who has magical weather-bending powers.
* In ''Manga/InnocentsShounenJuujigun'', many of the protagonists, especially Nicolas, express a desire to get away from their small village.
* The entire planet orbiting Betelgeuse in ''Anime/SpaceDandy'' is essential Rural Japan InSpace-- a low density, post-industrial area with nothing to do and lots of poverty. Meow hated growing up there, and got away as soon as he could to travel through space. He was very reluctant to return.

* Amy enters through the interdimensional Rift in [[{{Fanfic/Traversal}} Traversal]] in hopes of escaping this.
* Mei from ''FanFic/KyoshiRising'' yearns for a chance to move away from the small village she lives in and see the world, in contrast to the title character (her younger sister) who is quite happy living in isolation but [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive is forced to leave due to being]] [[PhysicalGod the Avatar]]

* ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': The Apple Clan has their own name for this - the "Apple Itch", where they get the urge to leave their hometown, go out in the world and create their own farm. Slice n' Dice felt the urge one day, and it led her to the Packlands. Applejack also mentions the time she felt something very close, which led her to Manehatten; inverted when she realized she belonged at the family farm and her return there earned her her Cutie Mark.
* ''Fanfic/DoYouBelieveInFairies'': Toucan Island is very pretty but Selena thinks of it as a GildedCage. It's so small, there's nothing to do, and the internet is terrible. She wants to see the world, but her parents disagree with her. Selena ends up running away without telling her family.

* In ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'', this is Tom's motivation for wanting to leave Green Hills for San Francisco. He wants to join the SFPD because he wants to be challenged in his abilities as a police officer and have someone rely on him. There's no challenge for Tom in helping people recover bagels stolen by ducks and sitting at a speed trap. Sonic calls him out for wanting to stop defending Green Hills just for a higher ranking position in a bigger urban city. [[spoiler:At the end of the film, [[IChooseToStay he chooses to stay in Green Hills after all]] and let Sonic live with him and Maddie]].
* Luke Skywalker in ''Franchise/StarWars'' Episode IV: ''Film/ANewHope'' who's stuck in his family's moisture farm on the planet Tatooine.
-->'''C-3PO:''' I'm only a droid and not very knowledgeable about such things, not on this planet, anyway. As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure which planet I'm on.\\
'''Luke:''' Well, if there's a bright center in the universe, you're on the planet it's farthest from.
** Expanded Universe materials (and a deleted scene with his friend Biggs) show this is why the few "friends" Luke has on Tattooine resent him: because they know hes's gonna leave Tattooine, while they're stuck there.
* The Swedish movie ''[[Film/ShowMeLove Fucking Åmål]]'' is a teenage ComingOutStory set in the titular Åmål, which Elin thinks is the most boring place in the world.
* ''Film/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.
* George Bailey from ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' wants nothing more than to leave Bedford Falls forever. Life intervenes.
* Dorothy in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' is a girl who hates living on her small farm in Kansas. This is a reason why she dreams up Oz.
** This however, is against L. Frank Baum’s Dorothy from his books, who was completely content with living in Kansas.

* In ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', while Clarice Starling is interviewing a girl in Belvedere, Ohio, the girl asks her:
-->'''Girl:''' Is that a good job, FBI agent? You get to travel around and stuff? I mean, better places than this?
** This is also the theme of the big HannibalLecture, delivered by the TropeNamer.
* In ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'', Alex Rogan really wants to get out of the boring trailer park where he lives.
* 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.
* In the rarely seen ''De Laatste Zomer (The Last Summer)'', the character Tim often vents about wanting to escape to somewhere different.
* Janie in ''Film/AnotherTimeAnotherPlace'' is fed with living in her village, but she acknowledges she'll never be able to break away from it.

* ''Film/IVitelloni'': Five young men in an Italian small town chafe against boredom and think about getting out. Only one of them does.
* The titular character in ''Film/AnnaAndTheApocalypse'' feels this way about her small town, and had plans to head for Australia after graduation instead of going to university. [[ZombieApocalypse "Had" being the operative word here.]]
* In ''Film/LustForGold'', Julia decides to latch on to Walz (and dump her husband Pete) because she has no intention of staying put and becoming "dried-up" like all of the other townswomen.
* In ''Film/TheHalfOfIt'', Ellie is a Chinese American high school girl growing up in Squahamish, a small rural town. She clearly hates being stuck there. Aside from maintaining perfect grades and play the guitar, she spends her free time hanging out at the train station and watching it go by. She also runs a secret essay writing cheating scheme to make money on the side.
* ''Film/{{Swelter}}'' is set in the town of Baker, Nevada. At one point, another character speculates that the protagonist, Sheriff Bishop, may be the only person there who doesn't wish he was some place else. Of course, one of the reasons it's so boring is his insistence on closing down anything fun but even slightly illegal (including a ''church bingo night'').

* Patrice introduces the town of Appleton, Indiana as "The Lamest Place in the World" to new kid Evan in ''Theatre/Thirteen''.

* This is the reason Camille's little sister [[StrictParentsMakeSneakyKids Amma]] gives for why she acts out in ''Literature/SharpObjects''. [[spoiler: Unbeknownst to Camille, Amma is not just referencing her sneaking out at night, flirting with older men, and hard drinking and drug use, but also her murdering two little girls from the town]].

* Mikasalla in ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge''. The locals even tell you that if you're looking for someone, the best place to look is somewhere else.

* One official source states that ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' only began exploring because he was bored with his birthplace, Christmas Island.

* Both ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002'' and ''WesternAnimation/RatchetAndClank'' feature this trope InSpace, with Ratchet living on the backwater world of Veldin where Ratchet has very little future ahead of him. In the [=PS2=] game he leaves purely for the fun of adventure, while in the movie [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2016 and its video game]] Ratchet leaves to become a famed hero with the Galactic Rangers.

* In ''Webcomic/DragonSanctuary'', this is Dean's main motivation for getting away from his village and becoming a Slayer or Bannerman or anything, really.

* The title character from ''WesternAnimation/KatyLaOruga'' begins her adventure because she considers the safe cherry tree where she and her sisters live to be "ever so boring."
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFlaminThongs'', 14 year old Narelle considers Whale Bay to be the most boring place on earth and desperately wishes she could move to 'the big smoke'. This is despite the chaos her family wreaks on the town every episode.

* In the novel ''Literature/DandelionWine'', one of the characters is complaining about just this when the Lonely One returns.
* The main reason Zoë in ''Literature/SavingZoe'' decides to try to become a model. [[spoiler: It leads to her death.]]
* Rusty, the first protagonist of ''Literature/WarriorCats'', decides to give up his place as a house cat and join the Clans because of this.

* This is one of the many, many reasons why Joe from ''Literature/TheTenetsOfFutilism'' left his home for Boston. Of course, Boston doesn't end up being that amazing, either.
* In Michael C. Bailey's ''Literature/ActionFigures - Issue One: Secret Origins'', Carrie observes that other people have this problem, but she thinks she will love living in this small town.

* The source of Indira's ambivalence toward the town where she was raised in ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown.''

* ''LightNovel/PocketMonstersTheAnimation'' goes into depth on this in the ''Pokemon'' anime's 'verse. Many people end up becoming trainers in order to leave their towns, but many of these people end up failing their journey. A lot of them refuse to come home deadbeats. Ash's father and even his maternal grandfather ran off on journeys and never came back.
* ''Literature/{{Emma}}'':
** Downplayed with Emma's feeling about Highbury, her home village (almost town) in Surry. She's a bright young woman who has lived there her entire life and takes care of her elderly father. She enjoys being the first lady in the Highbury society, but considers others to be rather inferior (with the exception of Mr and Mrs Weston and Mr Knightley). When Emma meets Frank Churchill, he speaks of Highbury so handsomely, that Emma begins "to feel she has been used to despise the place rather too much". Emma's desire to travel is hinted at, e.g. when she jokingly complains that she's the only one who has never seen the sea.
--->''"I must beg you not to talk of the sea. It makes me envious and miserable;—I who have never seen it!"''
** Frank Churchill grew up in a secluded BigFancyHouse and once he's adult, he's travelling in England (e.g. he visits Weymouth, a popular spa town) and he has a great desire to travel abroad.
--->'''Frank:''' As soon as my aunt gets well, I shall go abroad. I shall never be easy till I have seen some of these places. You will have my sketches, some time or other, to look at—or my tour to read—or my poem. I shall do something to expose myself.\\
'''Emma:''' That may be—but not by sketches in Swisserland. You will never go to Swisserland. Your uncle and aunt will never allow you to leave England.
* Early in ''Literature/FrostDancers'', Skelter looks at birds in the sky and wishes he could fly away to a better place. He gets his wish when humans kidnap him.