History Main / TeenageWasteland

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS4E16TheWackyMolestationAdventure The Wacky Molestation Adventure]]", when the kids cause all of the adults in town to be taken away by social services by claiming they were molested. A couple then comes to the town and finds it in ruins and overrun by children. By this time they've split into factions, developed communities and created bizarre religions. Later we find out that [[AndManGrewProud it's only been ten days since the parents were arrested.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutron'' - when the adults have been abducted by aliens in the movie. Unlike most exemples, however, it only takes them a day or two of partying before they [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome decide they]] ''[[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome do]]'' [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome want their parent's back]], and set out on a [[TheQuest quest]] to save them.

* Skvrna (Stain), czech webseries about postapocalyptic world where surviving children and teens live in gangs and commuties after all adults were killed by a plague causing stains to appears on the skin. And as the disease is still out there, noone gets to grow up (or at least not for very long).

* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutron'' - when the adults have been abducted by aliens in the movie. Unlike most exemples, however, it only takes them a day or two of partying before they [[RealityEnsues decide they]] ''[[RealityEnsues do]]'' [[RealityEnsues want their parent's back]], and set out on a [[TheQuest quest]] to save them.

* The Georg Kaiser play ''The Raft of The Medusa'' [[note]]not to be confused with the Joe Pintaura play of the same name about the AIDS crisis[[/note]] centers around a group of British children on a lifeboat after their ship is destroyed by a German submarine during World War II. At first they attempt to avert this trope, as they've seen the destruction that conflict can cause, and they want to do better, to model the behavior they would like to see in the world at large; eventually, however, fear and superstition win out over their better instincts, leading them to commit a horrendous act in the name of survival (based on little more than superstition, no less). In this case, at least one character is adamant that this breakdown isn't because they're young and don't know what they're doing, but rather that they've learned ''too much'' from the conflict-prone adult world.

* The Georg Kaiser play ''The Raft of The Medusa'' [[note]]not to be confused with the Joe Pintaura play of the same name about the AIDS crisis[[/note]] features a group of British children on a lifeboat after their ship is destroyed by a German submarine during World War II. At first they attempt to avert this trope; they've seen the destruction that conflict can cause, and they want to do better, to model the behavior they would like to see from the adults in their lives. Eventually, however, fear and superstition win out over their better instincts, leading them to commit a horrendous act in the name of survival. A slightly unusual example in that it's suggested (and mentioned in-universe) that even though no adults were physically present, the values and reasoning that led them to this act were not a reaction to the lack of adult presence so much as a culmination of everything the children had been taught by the adults in their lives.

* ''Series/{{Jeremiah}}'' takes place fifteen years after an OnlyFatalToAdults plague.

* The video for the Music/BlueOysterCult's ''Dancin' In The ruins'' is set in a Teenage Wasteland populated by teenage waifs who, unaccountably, rescued their skateboards when the Catastrophe hit.

* A more mild example: the COVID-19 virus that became a pandemic in 2020 disproportionately impacted the elderly. While everybody was susceptible to catching it and falling seriously ill, its most life-threatening symptoms, and by extension mortality rates, were heavily concentrated among older people. Once this became clear, some young people, especially those who weren't particularly sympathetic to the older Baby Boom generation, began calling the virus [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/boomer-remover "boomer remover"]] and jokingly hoping for this scenario to play out in real life.

* ''TheDriftingClassroom'' becomes this after the school is mysteriously transported into the far future when the Earth is a DeathWorld wasteland and the teachers all get themselves killed off within less than a day (one commits suicide, another goes insane and kills the others before dying himself), leaving the oldest characters around 12. The only exceptions are Sekyia, the milk delivery man, who becomes one of the antagonists and spends large parts of the story either locked up or delusionally insane, [[spoiler: and the still living time-warped arm and head of the thief who broke into the school moments before the transportation happened, leaving part of him in the future and the other in the past]].

** Happens earlier in the episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E01KampKrusty "Kamp Krusty"]], when the kids (led by Bart) take over Kamp Krusty after they are driven mad from slave labor, imitation gruel, and being given Barney Gumble in a clown costume when they were promised Krusty the Klown. It also parodies ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' with the news report showing that the kids have mounted a sow's head on a pike.

* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutron'' - when the adults have been abducted by aliens in the movie. Unlike most exemples, however, it only takes them a day or two of partying before they [[RealityEnsues decide they]] ''[[RealityEnsues do]]'' [[RealityEnsues want their parent's bac]]k, and set out on a [[TheQuest quest]] to save them.

* ''Film/{{Kids}}'' or most of Larry Clark's films in general. All throughout "Kids," teenagers just hang out freely and follow every possible kick they can find, from drugs to unprotected sex, without any regard for their environment. Adults are hardly seen, and the only one who tries to call them out for their bad behaviour is beaten up and presumably murdered by them.

* ''Film/{{Monos}}'' depicts a squad of child and teen guerrilla soldiers who occupy an isolated outpost for an unnamed paramilitary faction in South America. Largely left to their own devices, they descend into barbarism, with a few homages to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheFlies''.

* ''Film/TheWarriors'' appears to be one of these, where the street gangs of New York (mostly teenagers and perhaps 20-somethings) openly rampage through the streets, even during the police's attempts at a crackdown. Cyrus, the "President" of the Gramercy Riffs, the largest and most powerful of these gangs, was attempting to unite the various gang factions.

* As mentioned above, the Creator/StanleyKubrick film ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' describes a UK where youth groups are out of control and routinely perform acts of ultraviolence (the term came from this movie, in fact).

* ''[[VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSeasonFour The final season]] of ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' centers on Ericson's Boarding School, a school for troubled youth that was abandoned by its adult staff, so the remaining students have turned it into a working community in the ZombieApocalypse. This is fitting as the final chapter in the CharacterDevelopment of Clementine, who is now 16. She joins the group and becomes its de facto leader, forcing her to make important decisions about their survival and her upbringing of AJ without any adult guidance.

* A more mild example: the COVID-19 virus that became a pandemic in 2020 disproportionately impacted the elderly. While everybody was susceptible to catching it and falling seriously ill, its most life-threatening symptoms, and by extension mortality rates, were heavily concentrated among older people. Once this became clear, a lot of young people, especially those who weren't particularly sympathetic to the older Baby Boom generation, began calling the virus [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/boomer-remover "boomer remover"]] and jokingly hoping for this scenario to play out in real life.

* A more mild example: the COVID-19 virus that became a pandemic in 2020 disproportionately impacted the elderly. Once this became clear, a lot of young people, especially those who weren't particularly sympathetic to the older Baby Boom generation, began calling the virus [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/boomer-remover "boomer remover"]] and jokingly hoping for this scenario to play out in real life.

* All too often the case in schools, boarding schools, conscription armies etc where a lot of young people are together with few adults to rule over them.
* Many parts of southern Africa that have been ravaged by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which produced an orphan crisis as adults died of the disease. In some areas, the population pyramid is sometimes so skewed towards the young that it has compromised the basic functions of government and society, as there are precious few people with the skills needed to keep things running who aren't HIV-positive. One nation, UsefulNotes/{{Swaziland}}, has been hit so hard that the United Nations Development Programme seriously suggested that its very existence as a country may be at risk, although that country has a few compounding factors (such as rampant corruption and an arrogant and all-powerful king).

* Unsurprisingly, the [[Franchise/TeenageWastelands Teenage Wastelands]] franchise uses this trope heavily. It features the third variety, where adults still nominally hold power but [[JustBeforeTheEnd entire towns have been seized by supernaturally-endowed adolescents, dedicated to the 'cleansing' of all adults and elders.]]

Named for a line from a song by Music/TheWho, [[RefrainFromAssuming actually called]] "Baba O'Riley". Not to be confused with the ''Franchise/TeenageWastelands'', although it does make heavy use of this trope.

Named for a line from a song by Music/TheWho, [[RefrainFromAssuming actually called]] "Baba O'Riley".

* The only characters in ''Manga/SchoolLive'' are teenage girls. We do see a teacher but she [[spoiler:was bitten by zombie and [[DeadAllAlong killed prior to the manga]]]]. AdaptationExpansion also gives the girls a puppy as a TeamPet who, in the manga, was a OneShotCharacter who was only shown in a brief flashback where it [[spoiler: became a [[RaisingTheSteaks zombie puppy]]]]. The 2nd half of the manga ''does'' show some surviving adults however, such as [[spoiler: some Military Soliders/Scientists who find Yuki's Balloon Letter]], a Scientist who's hiding somewhere at Saint Isidore University, and up to 9 College Students at the aforementioned University (Though some of them might be just ''barely'' older then our protagonists).

* Charlie Higson's {{The Enemy}}, in which fourteen years ago, all people were infected with a disease which took this long to develop. Only people born since then remained. The adults either died or went mad and became cannibalistic zombies.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Series/{{Probe}}'': "Quit It" had a group of teenagers who had discovered a form of mind control that only affected people who had exited puberty. They nearly ran their entire neighborhood into the ground, ordering their parents to have constant block parties, buy boats and expensive cars, etc.

* Tsukasa Shishio of ''Manga/DrStone'' aims to create and rule one. He believes that if adults are revived from the [[TakenForGranite petrification that mysteriously struck all of humanity]], they will reintroduce the corruption and greed that plagued the modern world to [[FuturePrimitive the setting]].