History Main / TheFutureIsShocking

* Played with in ''Series/{{Timeless}}''. Two past characters end up in 2018: a UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne soldier and a 17-year-old [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy JFK]]. The former adapts pretty quickly, although he still prints out the entirety of Wikipedia, as a tablet screen huts his eyes. The latter is both shocked and pleased. Shocked at all the technology and his own future, and pleased at all the social progress (he went to an all-white boys-only school) since 1934.

** In "Pilot", Richard initially has trouble grasping the fact that things have improved dramatically for African-Americans since he disappeared in 1951. At a café, he is astonished to see white and black people socialising in public and sitting at the same tables with no one finding it the least bit unusual or objectionable. This hits home as immediately before he was abducted, he was beaten up by the white members of his army unit because he was dating Lily's grandmother Lily Bonham. Richard is also shocking to discover that the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor are both black in 2004.[[labelnote:more]]This refers to Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.[[/labelnote]] The term "black" itself is new to him as he called "Negro, colored or worse" in 1951.

* ''Literatue/TheManInTheHighCastle'' features a variation: In the midst of a nervous breakdown, Mr. Tagomi begins seeing visions of the San Francisco of our world, where the Axis Powers lost World War II, and is appalled at the sight of the Embarcadero Freeway, which doesn't exist in his world.

* "Literature/RipVanWinkle" is the UrExample. He awakens dacades later to find that the American Revolution happened and everything is very different from how he remembers it.

* Retellings of Comicbook/CaptainAmerica's origin often touch on this. Fortunately, Cap is also udually portrayed as a pretty broad-minded guy who can learn to adjust.
* Marvel's ''Comicbook/TheTwelve,'' on the other hand, was specifically about this trope. Twelve Golden Age heroes are cryogenically frozen and awoken in the present day. They all have trouble adjusting, but some have a lot more trouble than others.

* In ''Series/ElMinisterioDelTiempo'', one of the first things Abraham Levi and his wife see when they leave 1491 is a female agent dressed in the most-exaggerated [[TheSixties sixties]] fashion imaginable.

* ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' has the Revivals, people who were put on ice to await cures for terminal illness or injury. They're easily revived in the comics "present day" (the actual date is unknown, the future society has lost track of it). Unfortunatly, society only sees the Revivals as an ancient obligation (the original cryogenic agreements) whom they revive and dump on the street to fend for themselves, there is no system in place to help them adjust. Even worse, the future is such a chaotic mess that most Reveals simply cant cope and become borderline catatonic upon their first exposure. Spider Jerusalem spends some time writing about their plight and is critical towards society for refusing to help them.

* Two ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' stories have Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian end up in 1970s New York City. In the original story he ends up there during a blackout and thus doesnt experience too much of modern society, and winds up in his own time again by the end, but in the second, he misses his chance, and is actually stranded in modern day. Subsequently, he has to adjust himself to the modern world and ends up running his own gang after he learns modern English and customs.

* The entire purpose of the Christian film ''Film/TimeChanger'' is to have its protagonist, a 19th century theology professor, be shocked at how immoral the present day is.

* In Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''[[Literature/WorldWar Homeward Bound]]'', the Yeagers return to Earth 30 years after leaving it (they left on a SleeperStarship and came back on a new FTL-capable ship) and spending a few decades as {{Human Popsicle}}s before that. They are shown the most popular game show on TV and are shocked (Karen Yeager especially) that Rita, the hot assistant, wears a Minoan-style dress that completely exposes her breasts. Moreover, most of the women in the audience as likewise topless, some with bodypaint covering their bodies, and some without. While going topless was a growing trend among the younger generation in their time, they didn't think it'd go ''that'' far (or be acceptable TV content). Jonathan and Karen go see a movie and are further shocked by an extremely graphic sex scene of the main heroes (and Creator/MattDamon being merely a secondary character). Slightly subverted in that this is not our future (as far as we know) but that of an AlternateUniverse where human culture is influenced by that of the [[TheReptilians Race]].

* ''Fanfiction/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'' presents the ponies in the human world in this vein. Though it's strictly speaking not ''their'' future, much of humanity's magicless technology is completely foreign to ponies. Queen Chrysalis for one, spends her first encounter with a live television arguing with the newscaster and getting cross with singing televangelists.

* Retrothinker's character arc on ''[[Creator/BobChipman The Game Overthinker]]'' was built around this trope. Retrothinker was a 1980s version of the Game Overthinker who hosted a public access cable TV show about video games from the basement of the Sharkcade. Excited to see what the future of gaming would hold, Retrothinker made himself a HumanPopsicle to awaken in 2025. However, when the Sharkcade was destroyed by arsonist ninja Pyrothinker, Retrothinker awoke early and was horrified by the world. Social gaming, online gaming, EA Sports, Gamestop, gaming gimmicks, creative stagnation, VideoGame/BombermanActZero, and VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 led to [[spoiler: his FaceHeelTurn into Necrothinker who summoned an army of undead retro video game characters to destroy modern gaming. The Overthinker manages to defeat and heal him back to normal.]]

* ''{{Moviebob}}'': Retrothinker's character arc was built around this trope. Retrothinker was a 1980s version of the Game Overthinker who hosted a public access cable TV show about video games from the basement of the Sharkcade. Excited to see what the future of gaming would hold, Retrothinker made himself a HumanPopsicle to awaken in 2025. However, when the Sharkcade was destroyed by arsonist ninja Pyrothinker, Retrothinker awoke early and was horrified by the world. Social gaming, online gaming, EA Sports, Gamestop, gaming gimmicks, creative stagnation, VideoGame/BombermanActZero, and VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 led to [[spoiler: his FaceHeelTurn into Necrothinker who summoned an army of undead retro video game characters to destroy modern gaming. The Overthinker manages to defeat and heal him back to normal.]]

* Two ''WhatIf'' stories have ConanTheBarbarian end up in 1970's New York City. In the original story he ends up there during a blackout and thus doesnt experience too much of modenr society, and winds up in his own time again by the end, but in the second, he misses his chance, and is actually stranded in modern day. Subsequently, he has to adjust himself to the modern world and ends up running his own gang after he learns modern English and customs.

* ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' has the Revivals, people who were put on ice to await cures for terminal illness or injury. They find the future as shocking as the reader often does; Spider Jerusalem is critical of society for not having a system in place to help them adjust.

* ''Film/{{Life}}'': Forty years into his life sentence (which began in [[TheGreatDepression 1932]] [[DeepSouth Mississippi]]), Claude is accidentally released in a parking lot where he finds himself surrounded by [[TheSeventies black youths sporting Afros and listening to funky music]]. Coupled with seeing the reflection of his old self, he is so shocked that he decides to wait for the warden in the car instead of attempting to escape.

* In Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''[[WorldWar Homeward Bound]]'', the Yeagers return to Earth 30 years after leaving it (they left on a SleeperStarship and came back on a new FTL-capable ship) and spending a few decades as {{Human Popsicle}}s before that. They are shown the most popular game show on TV and are shocked (Karen Yeager especially) that Rita, the hot assistant, wears a Minoan-style dress that completely exposes her breasts. Moreover, most of the women in the audience as likewise topless, some with bodypaint covering their bodies, and some without. While going topless was a growing trend among the younger generation in their time, they didn't think it'd go ''that'' far (or be acceptable TV content). Jonathan and Karen go see a movie and are further shocked by an extremely graphic sex scene of the main heroes (and Creator/MattDamon being merely a secondary character). Slightly subverted in that this is not our future (as far as we know) but that of an AlternateUniverse where human culture is influenced by that of the [[TheReptilians Race]].

* ''{{Transmetropolitan}}'' has the Revivals, people who were put on ice to await cures for terminal illness or injury. They find the future as shocking as the reader often does; Spider Jerusalem is critical of society for not having a system in place to help them adjust.

* A variation occurs (no actual time travel, but EastGermany was in a sort of stasis) in ''Film/GoodbyeLenin'' -- after the Berlin Wall falls, the protagonist goes to see WestGermany and instantly encounters a TV with porn on.

* Inverted in ''{{Film/Maxie}}'', in which a 1920s flapper possesses the body of a woman from the present day, i.e. 1985. The flapper finds the life of a 1980s housewife too sexually repressed for her taste.
* ''{{Film/Life}}'': Forty years into his life sentence (which began in [[TheGreatDepression 1932]] [[DeepSouth Mississippi]]), Claude is accidentally released in a parking lot where he finds himself surrounded by [[TheSeventies black youths sporting afros and listening to funky music]]. Coupled with seeing the reflection of his old self, he is so shocked that he decides to wait for the warden in the car instead of attempting to escape.

* In Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''[[WorldWar Homeward Bound]]'', the Yeagers return to Earth 30 years after leaving it (they left on a SleeperStarship and came back on a new FTL-capable ship) and spending a few decades as {{Human Popsicle}}s before that. They are shown the most popular game show on TV and are shocked (Karen Yeager especially) that Rita, the hot assistant, wears a Minoan-style dress that completely exposes her breasts. Moreover, most of the women in the audience as likewise topless, some with bodypaint covering their bodies, and some without. While going topless was a growing trend among the younger generation in their time, they didn't think it'd go ''that'' far (or be acceptable TV content). Jonathan and Karen go see a movie and are further shocked by an extremely graphic sex scene of the main heroes (and Creator/MattDamon being merely a secondary character). Slightly subverted in that this is now our future (as far as we know) but that of an AlternateUniverse where human culture is influenced by that of the [[TheReptilians Race]].

* ''{{Series/Primeval}}'': The [[KnightInShiningArmor Medieval knight Sir William de Moray]] wasn't exactly off to a good start when he travelled to the future, given that he thought the time warp was a gateway to Hell, but the future did little to cause a good impression by happening to have a Carnival parade in that very same day and placing a gang of [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels Satanic bikers]] almost immediately in Sir William's path.

John Smith is a goodhearted farm boy from sometime in the past - but not earlier than the 13th century [[EternalEnglish (as modern English would be near-totally incomprehensible to a speaker of that time or earlier.)]] But then he foolishly plays with the mystic Nazi time portal or there's a temporal equivalent of the TeleporterAccident, and ZAP!, he falls, screaming, into the PresentDay (whenever that happens to be).

* In ''TabletopGame/D20Modern Urban Arcana'', elves, dwarves, halflins, and so on arrive in the modern world straight from the MedievalEuropeanFantasy setting that is ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. almost no one in this new land knows anything about the magic they brought up with them, but then again they don't know about modern tech either. At least, until they learn.

* SpongebobSquarepants: Squidward [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk7IDVzLiQo reacts poorly]] after awakening in the distant future.

* In ''TabletopGame/D20Modern Urban Arcana'', elves, dwarves, halflins, and so on arrive in the modern world straight from the EuropeanMedievalFantasy setting that is ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. almost no one in this new land knows anything about the magic they brought up with them, but then again they don't know about modern tech either. At least, until they learn.

* SpongebobSquarepants: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk7IDVzLiQo Squidward reacts poorly]] after awakening in the distant future.

Inevitably, within minutes of arriving in the bright, blinky, flishy-flashing future, he will be culture-shocked from his head to his toes. To drive home how much of a FishOutOfTemporalWater he is, the filmmakers will slap him in the face repeatedly with the seamiest parts of contemporary culture, whether or not it's even remotely realistic in context.

* In the ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'' episode "Operation: C.A.K.E.D.-F.I.V.E." the unfrozen Numbuh 19th Century is perplexed by the notion of cake and ice cream going together.