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[[quoteright:333:[[Series/SaturdayNightLive http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unfrozen_cave_lawyer.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:333:[[SarcasmMode This courtroom is totally unfamiliar to him.]]]]
->''"Ladies and gentlemen of the City Council, I'm just a caveman... Your world frightens and confuses me. When I see your tall buildings and flashing neon signs, sometimes I just want to get away as fast as I can, to my place in Martha's Vineyard. I'm more at home hunting the woolly mammoth than I am hunting a good interior decorator. And when I see a solar eclipse, like the one I went to in Hawaii last week, I think 'Oh no, is the moon eating the sun?', because I'm a caveman... but there is one thing I do know. The new resort housing development proposed by my partners and myself will include more than adequate greenbelts for recreation and aesthetic enhancement. Thank you. (smug grin)"''
-->-- '''Keyrock, The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer''', ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''
We've all seen it. A character is placed in a completely unfamiliar environment, perhaps sent forward through time, or to a ship in outer space, or something equally ridiculous, and quickly becomes a FishOutOfWater.
This case doesn't seem any different. Just like every other time, the [[FishOutOfWater fish]] is flapping around, and is running out of air. But wait, why does it look like that fish is trying to ''walk'' on its hind fins? IT'S LEARNING TO BREATHE AIR! Something's fishy here.
Take it to the illogical extreme, and you could end up with a [[TropeNamer caveman, frozen in ice for thousands of years, who awakes to the modern world and promptly becomes a lawyer]]. It's when a former FishOutOfWater [[LikeAFishTakesToWater becomes well adapted to their new environment]], to the point where they almost fit there better than the people that actually ''belong'' there. Makes you think this is where they should have been in the first place.
Often justified in that the person coincidentally [[BornInTheWrongCentury had an affinity for the very environment they ended up in]], and thanks to their GenreSavvy manage to adapt with little fuss. i.e. [[AscendedFanboy a person who reads a lot of sci-fi novels ending up in space]] and thanks to all the stories he's read about aliens, is inoculated against the shock of being around them and easily wraps his head around their whacky explanations of all the {{Phlebotinum}} they tote around.
Sometimes the justification is that the newcomer's fresh viewpoint makes them superior to the natives at operating in his new environment. An alternate justification is that the newcomer possesses a trait he always considered useless, but is of incredible utility in his new environment.
Named for ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'''s Keyrock, TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer, who slyly manipulated the jury by playing the [[SimpleCountryLawyer "I'm just a caveman"]] card, who wore nice suits, and had a smug charm stereotypical of modern laywers.
Despite the name, the character is not necessarily a ContemporaryCaveman. Compare LikeAFishTakesToWater, GoingNative, MightyWhitey, and IKnowMortalKombat; contrast FishOutOfWater and FishOutOfTemporalWater. An UnfazedEveryman may [[CharacterDevelopment grow]] into this. VillainsBlendInBetter is a subtrope. Very like a BunnyEarsLawyer in that they're strange but competent and accepted as such.
----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''LightNovel/FateZero'' and ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': Most Heroic Spirits --souls of heroes of (usually) ancient ages given form to participate in a ThereCanBeOnlyOne tournament-- easily adapt to modern day living. Some have their justification, e.g. Saber having the innate ability to ride anything including modern cars[[spoiler:; this includes jet fighters!]]. But Alexander takes it to a whole new level, he considers buying jet fighter, tanks, and other war machines of modern times.
** Actually a JustifiedTrope. When summoned, they receive instant knowledge of the modern day living, much like Arcueid does. So, they know the basics.
* Whenever a human transfers from Earth to [[Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld El-Hazard]], they gain PersonalityPowers. A boisterous gym teacher gains SuperStrength (when sober). A shy geek becomes a {{Technopath}}. A HighSchoolHustler gains a ThirdEye. A ControlFreak becomes TheChessmaster ([[InformedAbility offscreen]]).
* ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'' is all about this, since it focuses on characters from a HeroicFantasy universe who cross dimensions and end up in modern-day Japan. The title character goes from EvilOverlord of a demon army to the assistant manager of [[BlandNameProduct MgRonald's]] in a relatively short amount of time; in fact his passion for the job and dedication to the customers are the first sign that [[DarkIsNotEvil just because he's called "Demon King" doesn't mean he's a bad guy]]. There are still some FishOutOfTemporalWater aspects, but they're downplayed (such as the character who uses slightly outdated mannerisms and speech patterns).
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* One issue of Marvel's ''ComicBook/WhatIf...?'' comic featured ConanTheBarbarian being stranded in the twentieth century, where he promptly becomes a successful gang leader. This was actually spun out of a story arc from Conan's own comic, where he was sent back to his proper time and place eventually instead.
** Another "What If...?" had the Hulk becoming a barbarian king.
*** As did the major, canonical arc "Planet Hulk."
* Travis Morgan quickly adapts to life in the LostWorld of Skartaris and ends up becoming its greatest warrior in ''Comicbook/TheWarlord''.
* Harrison Oogar, the caveman of Wall Street, from the ''Age of the Sentry'' miniseries. He beat market five years straight!
* Java, the unfrozen caveman butler, of Simon Stagg in ''ComicBook/{{Metamorpho}}''.
* Kang the Conqueror is a villainous example of this. Bored with his life in a peaceful 30th Century, he traveled back in time to conquer AncientEgypt, and then hopped forward to take over a war-torn 40th Century. He was so successful, he became [[TimeyWimeyBall a few]] of Marvel's biggest villains.
* [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverted]] by ComicBook/BoosterGold. Originally a screw-up in his native 25th century, he stole some future tech and a time machine to travel back to modern times, figuring he could become a beloved hero. Instead, he gained a reputation as a screw-up. He later does manage to find his niche, but as [[TimePolice a guardian of space-time]]...which requires him to [[ObfuscatingStupidity maintain his reputation as a screw-up]] to ensure that "[[RetGone kill Booster Gold back when he was still a loser]]" doesn't become the first step in every time-traveling villain's EvilPlan.
* Belgian comic ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'', has Jerom, an [[ContemporaryCaveman actual caveman]] who after being unfrozen managed to become in essence a sophisticated everyman, even while retaining his prehistoric HulkSpeak and SuperStrength.
* Played with somewhat in the origin of DC villain Vandal Savage - while absorbing the radiation from a meteorite has made him [[EmperorScientist intelligent and cunning enough to thrive in the modern world]], it also gave him [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld thousands of years to adapt along with it]], and he's still fondly retained some of his old brutish habits (cannibalism, for example).
* An early issue of ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' had Reed, Ben, and Johnny heading back to the 1700s. Ben had to be convinced to come home after he discovered that while he was a freak of nature back home in "civilized" New York, he made a pretty kick-ass pirate.
* The Adèle Blanc-Sec adventure "Le Savant Fou" has an especially weird example: the (literal) unfrozen caveman turns out turns out to be fluent in French and immediately asks the scientists who unfroze him for clothes, a stiff drink and -if it wouldn't be asking too much- a cigar. The drop-jawed scientists comment that "We'll have to revise our understanding of the Prehistoric ages."
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/EncinoMan'', an unfrozen caveman (played by Creator/BrendanFraser) becomes the most popular kid in school without even trying.
* Several of the historical personalities in ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure''.
* With Creator/BrendanFraser again, in ''Film/BlastFromThePast'' he plays a guy raised in a fallout shelter by parents who have no experience of the outside world beyond the Cuban Missile Crisis. Upon emerging, he finds his old-fashioned manners and values render him impossibly charming to the average modern joe.
* Played with in ''Film/NeverBeenKissed''. The protagonist was an outcast in high school the first time and she's on her way to becoming one this time around, despite her theory that she could study her way into the popular clique. Her brother, on the other hand, drops in and becomes the most popular guy in school with no effort. Again.
* This is the implied fate of Dr. Gillian Taylor, a whale specialist from the 1980s who essentially bullies her way into going back to the 23rd century with Kirk and company in ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. After Kirk's trial, she takes a post on a science vessel, exclaiming excitedly that she has "three hundred years of catching up to do!" This may be a case of FridgeLogic depending on the nature of the assignment. Unless said vessel is an ocean ship, it would be more than a bit odd that her first act be to ship off and leave the ''whales'' to fend for themselves, especially considering that she'd justified coming along with them by the fact that no one in the 23rd century would know anything about taking care of ''whales''.
** To be fair, the whales are intelligent to a degree and like dogs or dolphins have personalities, so she'd be able guess their moods and other behaviors, also how many people specialize in extinct species' that control giant monoliths that cause monsoons?
** The Vonda [=McIntyre=] novelization clarifies that the science vessel in question is going to an aquatic planet, to recruit divers to help with the whales.
* ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'': Alex Rogan is stuck in a rut in his trailer park, and the only thing he's really good at is a video game. Turns out the game's actually an alien flight simulator that was delivered to his park (instead of Las Vegas) by mistake, and [[IKnowMortalKombat he's scoring in the top percentile]]. He finds his place in life as a hotshot Gunstar pilot for the Star League, thousands of light years from home.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'':
** Marty [=McFly=] travels through time back to the old west. Despite being only a teenager who has presumably never shot a real gun before, he turns out to be an expert at quickdraw and pistol shooting (once he adjusts to the recoil) because of his [[IKnowMortalKombat familiarity with a video game from 1985]].
** Despite being considered a [[MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold crazy, dangerous nut]] in his own time, Doc Brown's love of the Old West made him fit in perfectly with Hill Valley in 1885. Throughout the third film, he's shown to be well-liked and on first name terms with many local townspeople, including even the Mayor and until he learned that Marty came back to prevent Buford Tannen from shooting him, Doc was quite content to simply live out the rest of his life in the past.
* In ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'' the cave people of 3000 quickly learn how to fly implausibly still functioning Aircraft and beat the Psychlo who defeated the real military.
* Dick Nelson of ''Film/MomAndDadSaveTheWorld'' quickly becomes a brilliant military strategist on the planet Spengo despite being an ordinary American suburbanite simply because all of the natives are idiots.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* Two of the modern characters in Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'' ends up living with ease and comfort in Late Medieval France. The first is a marine with an uncanny knack for languages. The second is a history grad student with a passion for all things from his period of study; language, clothes, culture, sports, war... The first insinuates himself into a French court. The second lives his natural span, happily married as an English nobleman.
* One of the ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' Books was called ''The Cave of Time'', which, predictably enough, involved time travel. In one of the endings, you're aided in your journey home by a man in the colonial US who is dying from TB. Once the two of you return to your time, the guy is cured thanks to modern medicine, becomes a history teacher, and becomes renowned due to his expert knowledge of the colonial US.
* Alan Dean Foster's novel ''Literature/GloryLane'' features an '80s punk rocker who gets abducted by aliens along with his brother and a random girl from the local college. He fits in much better in space than he did on Earth.
** Flores Quintera in ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' also prefers the Wizard's World to home.
* ComicStrip/BuckRogers is probably the paramount example of this trope. No matter what version you hear, it's all about Buck, a guy from today's times, being sent a couple of centuries in the future where he turns out to be such a hot shot ace at everything that he single-handedly saves the world, defeats the evil empire, or whatever it is needs doing.
* Lord Jagged of Canary in Creator/MichaelMoorcock's ''The Dancers at the End of Time'' cycle is a time traveller, who ventured to the eponymous End of Time, made his home there, and became more at home there than many of the era's native inhabitants, and being more pro-active than the rather clueless and almost purely hedonistic natives, ends up solving many of their problems, all while cheerfully embracing their (from our point of view) decadent hedonism.
* Pham Nuwen from Creator/VernorVinge's ''[[Literature/ZonesOfThought A Fire Upon The Deep and A Deepness In The Sky]]''. Medieval prince of a human planet that has lost spacefaring technology. He then has to adapt to life as a programmer-at-arms after his planet is visited by traders from another human civilization, and computers, travel between stars and life extension become commonplace. Millennia after, his corpse is unfrozen and he is confronted by a world where faster-then-light travel, antigravity, and thousands of civilizations of sentient beings, including godlike powers are a reality.
* Matthew Mantrell in Christopher Stasheff's ''[[AWizardInRhyme Her Majesty's Wizard]]'' (and later, other characters in sequels, including a grad school buddy and Matt's mother), decodes runes he finds in a book in the library, and is transported to a magical kingdom under siege. He finds that not only does he fit in perfectly to this fantasy kingdom, but that being an English major is a distinct advantage in a world where poetry IS spellcasting.
* Also in Christopher Stasheff's works, there is Yorick, the telepathic Neanderthal from ''[[TheWarlockInSpiteOfHimself King Kobold Revived]]''. (Justified by the fact that he, and his entire tribe of caveman espers, were rescued by a time traveler and relocated to another part of the planet the series takes place on in order to save them from extinction.)
* There is a Creator/PoulAnderson short story in which a white-collar worker has his soul switched with a Conan-esque barbarian warlord. In the end, the goddess that switched them offers to return them to their original bodies. [[spoiler:They both turn down the offer.]]
* When [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Carrot Ironfoundersson]] first arrives in Ankh-Morpork he has no idea about city life and is completely naïve about nearly everything. By his very next book he's completely at home, in some ways more so than his boss Samuel Vimes, a classic city man who's lived in Ankh-Morpork all his life.
** Justified in that it is strongly implied that he is the rightful king of the city, and thus the whole city bends to his will.
** Carcer in ''Night Watch'' is thrown through time and adapts with terrifying speed, to the point that he ends up [[spoiler: becoming a secret policeman]].
** Zig-Zagged whenever DeathTakesAHoliday; his attempts to engage in non-Death activities will either show him to be extremely competent, or extremely ''in''competent. He gets a job as a cook at a greasy spoon in {{DiscWorld/Mort}} and excels, turns out to be a great farm hand in {{Discworld/Reaper Man}}, and even has success as a beggar in {{Discworld/Soul Music}} (it's hard to say no to him). But when he turns up on a stage in {{Discworld/Wyrd Sisters}} he forgets his lines (even though he ''can't'' forget), has middling success standing in for the Disc's equivalent to SantaClaus in {{Discworld/Hogfather}}, and can't learn music to safe his "life".
* Tom Billings, the hero in Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs ''Literature/ThePeopleThatTimeForgot'', who adapts to life very easily in the primeval LostWorld of Caspak and elects to stay there with the woman he loves. Possibly crosses over into BornInTheWrongCentury.
** Similar to the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series. As a military man, he adapts easily to the warrior culture of Mars and quickly becomes legendary among its people. His biggest advantage is that in the lower gravity of Mars, an Earthman is a HeavyWorlder.
* The main point of Jared Diamond's nonfictional ''Literature/GunsGermsAndSteel'' is based on this trope and how, under the right circumstances, this applies to ''literally everyone on earth''.
* There is a Frommer Files story where Erich Brunner, a disaffected aristocrat living in the late 21st Century, develops time travel and sends himself back to 1919 in an attempt to (of course) stop Hitler. He fails miserably, but winds up as a medievalist historian at Cambridge and works there happily for the rest of his life.
* The downtimer community in the ''Literature/TimeScout'' series adapt to varying degrees. Some are FishOutOfTemporalWater, some are TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer. The same is true of people who travel to the past. Some are conspicuous tourists, others are invisible. Being a downtimer tourist is only possible down a gate developed for that; uptime is more friendly to downtimers. They even provide counseling.
* In Leo Frankowski's ''The Cross Time Engineer'' series, Conrad rapidly adapts to being stranded in medieval Poland.
** Justified in that he is college educated, military trained, and is unwittingly receiving assistance from the time travelers that stranded him.
** Also, in Conrad's Time Machine, a whole time traveling society known as the 'Killers' revel in joining ancient societies, especially in combat. At the same time, subverted by the other time traveling society of 'Smoothies' who are incapable of coping with so much as a scraped knee.
* Arthur Dent in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' is completely out of his depth for nearly all his adventures in space, but eventually tries to settle down on a nice peaceful planet and live a normal life. The people there are primitive, so he hopes to use his comparatively advanced knowledge to aid them, only to realize he has no idea how any earth technology actually works. Getting depressed, he makes himself a sandwich, only to discover that the locals have never seen one before and think it's a stroke of genius. He becomes a highly respected member of the village as a sandwich artisan.
* Susan Shaw in Edward Ormondroyd's ''Time at the Top'' was much more at home living in the 19th century than in the 20th.
* In the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, someone figured out how to clone neanderthals. It turns out they are a bit different from homo sapiens, most importantly, they are unable to lie. This leads to a literal caveman lawyer, a neanderthal who figured out how to deceive others by not saying the whole truth. As everyone knows his kind is unable to lie, he promptly became a successful lawyer.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Keyrock, [[TropeNamer the unfrozen caveman lawyer]], from the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch. Keyrock becomes a sleazy lawyer who repeatedly uses his past to help make his arguments in court.
* Lisa on ''GreenAcres'', who ironically wants to return to New York, but adapts better than her husband to the unique ways of Hooterville. Justified in that she is a CloudCuckoolander and Hooterville is prime CloudCuckooland real estate.
* John Crichton, star of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' has his season-or-so of being a regular FishOutOfWater. However, after that season ends, the series sees John pull stuff that not even the EvilPlan-wielding villains had ever once considered- with the possible exception of [[MagnificentBastard Scorpius]]. And, boy, was he just getting ''started...'' Heavily justified as though every other race is [[PunyEarthlings stronger, faster, tougher, and/or smarter]], Crichton has three little aces up his sleeve; first, he's the only man in the Uncharted Territories who is ''not'' from a PlanetOfHats, making him both [[GenreSavvy familiar with most of those Hats]] and fairly skilled at facilitating communication between different ones; secondly, he simply [[TheDeterminator doesn't know when he's been beaten]]; and thirdly, he is completely and totally '''[[CrazyAwesome batshit insane]].''' By the end of the series, Crichton is willing to strap a nuclear weapon to his hip and stroll right into TheEmpire's most secure facility and blackmail them as part of a rescue mission - '''''[[CrazyEnoughToWork and it works!]]'''''
** This sentiment is expressed in the series finale "Bad Timing", though (presumably) not meant to be taken literally.
--->'''John''': What did you imagine for your life?
--->'''Aeryn''': Service, promotion, retirement, death. You?
--->'''John''': This is exactly what I imagined...and a couple of kids.
* Elizabeth Bennet in ''LostInAusten'' adapts to the 21st century a lot better than the nominal heroine adapts to RegencyEngland, despite her assumption of being GenreSavvy from reading and re-reading ''PrideAndPrejudice'', the book she's trapped inside.
* Nimrod the neanderthal adjusts pretty well to being a butler in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "Ghost Light", and later an interstellar explorer.
** As does Ancelyn, the medieval knight catapulted to the late 20th century in "Battlefield". He manages to hook up with Bambera, the commander of UNIT in that era, and get a job as a gardener for then-retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
* ''SpacePrecinct 2040'': Intelligent races tend to [[PlanetOfHats homogenize]] and eventually [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong follow rules as a manner of etiquette]]. Then FasterThanLightTravel was discovered, they started interacting, finding that they had different forms of etiquette, and parts of their civilizations started rediscovering crime. Solution: find a race that still practices criminal investigation and recruit them as SpacePolice!
* An interesting villainous example in ''Series/LoisAndClark''. A time-traveler from the 30th century, a time with no war, crime or poverty, visits the 20th century. He's so enthralled by the violence and vice of the era that he decides not only to stay but to try and take it over.
* On ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', when Sam and Dean get sent to prison, Dean adapts to the situation with ease and actually seems to be ''enjoying'' his stay. It gets to the point where Sam asks, "Dean, doesn't it bother you how well you seem to fit in here?"
* This is the basis for the short-lived sitcom ''Series/{{Cavemen}}'', featuring modern-day Neanderthals who evolved alongside "modern" humans. The opening credits even show cavemen involved at different points in world history, such as one caveman accompanying George Washington crossing the Delaware River.
* One of the escaped souls in ''{{Series/Reaper}}'' was a Hun. Although initially unfamiliar with the modern world, being frightened off by Sam's cellphone, by the next time they encounter him he's fully adapted businessman.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Scotty from ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' becomes one in "Relics", as he tries to show that his engineering expertise is still useful in the 24th century, despite all the advances in technology since his time.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Radio]]
* Arthur Dent becomes one of these towards the end of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', but given the things he's seen by that point it's not surprising that he's desensitized to the bizarre.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Video Games]]
* Zoey from ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' was doing poorly in college and spent most of her time watching horror movies about zombies. After the world is overrun with zombies, she is GenreSavvy enough to survive.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', despite most potential Wardens having fairly humble origins, they have the potential to become a better Grey Warden than the more experienced and Templar-trained Alistair. For example, the City Elf and Dwarf Commoner Wardens are self-taught fighters with no formal combat training, the Dalish Warden have little knowledge of the world outside of their clan and the Human/Elf Mage Warden is simply a BadassBookworm. Justified as most Grey Wardens recruits are often picked precisely for this reason, having unique qualities that can be honed to make them excellent at fighting Darkspawn.
* Eddie Rigg of ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' not only fits in better than the natives of his new land, he is genuinely shocked they would think he'd want to go home again.
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', the entire human race comes across as this to the other alien races, who are a little perturbed how [[LikeAFishTakesToWater quickly]] humanity is adapting, integrating and rising to prominence within the galactic community. Especially since humanity went from discovering mass effect technology and unsealing their Mass Relay, to making first contact, to gaining a seat on the [[TheFederation Citadel Council]] in just under [[HumansAdvanceSwiftly forty years]].
* Present in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' with [[NonHumanSidekick Teddie]]. The rate at which he adapts to living in the human world is startling, given the fact that just less than 2 months earlier, he didn't even know that "Evidence" isn't a type of food, that a human hand isn't edible or what filming is, among many other things. In fact, he didn't even have a humanoid body until a short while before entering the human world, yet within a mere span of days he is part-timing at a Department Store, pleasantly enjoying modern commodities and flirting through half the female population of Inaba. Some concepts do remain unfamiliar to him for a longer while, but they are not the ones you would expect.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Parson Gotti of ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'', {{Justified|Trope}} in that he was specifically summoned in order to be able to adapt rapidly. Also, the spell was supposed to summon someone who would find the place familiar.
** There's also the fact that he's by reputation a hardcore (and pretty ruthless) wargamer, and Erf is a wargame. In his mind, he's been living in a series of close cousins of Erf for ''years'', his biggest problem is that he doesn't know what the rules are at first. As soon as he finds out, he begins finding ways to subvert them.
* Rina Lee in ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'', a girl turned to stone and left in an abandoned mine for 2000 years before being rescued by the magical doctors. Society has actually been destroyed fully four times in a row over the course of 2000 years and is currently more or less back at the same level that Rina is able to relate to, though she's still horribly traumatized at first. The doctors point out that if she had been frozen during one of the Dark Ages she wouldn't have fared nearly as well. It also helps that she already knew magic before emerging into a magical world.
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', [[{{Expy}} Gav, the former webcomic artist]] who wrote ''Webcomic/{{Nukees}}'', was a HumanPopsicle for a millennium (ever since the 21st century). When he was defrosted, he became... a wormhole physicist. Justified as [[spoiler:he was defrosted just as an alien technology-suppressing conspiracy was broken, meaning he has an untainted viewpoint.]]
* ''The Compozerz'' is set in modern times, with five [[PublicDomainCharacter famous classical music composers]] inexplicably transported to the desert of the American Southwest, where they suddenly speak [[EternalEnglish perfect English]] and get used to modern conveniences in no time. [[http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Compozerz/5031437 With a little help from their new friend Connie.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/TheTimeGuys'': [[ContemporaryCaveman Caveman]] the intern, a native of the 40th millennium B.C., is leagues more competent than [[NotThatKindOfDoctor Dr. Chronos, D.D.S.]].
* Nordkapp Man, a member of the [[Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse Global Guardians]], is an [[TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer Unfrozen Caveman Superhero]]. Within a few years of his being thawed out of the glacier he'd been trapped in for 30,000 years, Nordkapp Man (a neanderthal with superpowers) had become a university professor, a regular club-hopper, and, of course, an ice-wielding crimefighter.
* In ''WebVideo/{{Dragonbored}}'', Jimbroth is a BarbarianHero from [[CaptainErsatz Skyguard]] thrown into the real world, who ends up stealing his former player's promotion at work after he [[AchievementInIgnorance successfully applies]] the rules of medieval warfare to that of the corporate business structure.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The businessmen from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' were literally unfrozen from an iceberg.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'' is a pastiche of Buck Rogers, and is made a captain because IQ High is WrongGenreSavvy, who expects him to be better at everything because he's from the past. He wises up pretty quick, but Dodgers still has his uses as [[NoOneElseIsThatDumb no one else in the 2250's is stupid enough]] to attempt some pretty crazy stunts. And [[CrazyEnoughToWork some of those stunts actually work]]. ''[[LoserProtagonist Some.]]''
* Fry from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', who went from completely freaked out and dumbstruck by the future to almost ''too'' comfortable in 3000 A.D.
** Played for laughs in one episode when he sees a huge light in the sky and stares at it in wonder, calling forth all the usual imagery of alien abduction, and suddenly the interest on his face evaporates when he realizes what it is:
--->'''Fry:''' Oh, it's just a flying saucer. ''You can't park here!''
** When his ex-girlfriend from 1999, Michelle, shows up, she is confused and terrified by the world of the future; Amy and Leela point out that Fry was a bizarre outsider in his own time, and so he has adapted much better to the bizarre world of 3000.
** "That Guy" ([[AllThereInTheManual Steve Castle]]), another stereotypical 80's guy, picks up right where he left off as a successful corporate raider. Granted, he and Fry met in a counseling group for unfrozen people. A caveman at that group was having the hardest trouble coping with the fact that his wife was on display in a museum.
* The animated series ''WesternAnimation/MartinMystery'' has a character named Java, a caveman that was frozen in ice for 200,000 years. He works at the titular Martin's high school as a cook and janitor and helps him and his stepsister Diana solve supernatural mysteries for The Center. He's rather wary of technology and has terrible hygiene and grammar, but otherwise has adapted to 20th century life quite well.
** And of course, the character is based on a character of the same name from an Italian comic, and works as an assistant and sort-of butler for Martin Mystère. No bad hygiene or wariness of technology is evident, in fact, he almost seems to fit everyday modern life a bit better than his boss. His only seeming flaws are his lecherousness and 'wandering hands'.
* Inversion: "Gorak" from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Frozen in the ice nearly 32 months previous; after thawing, was difficult to train in "modern" communication, unable to adapt to "modern" ways, and ultimately moved to Des Moines, Iowa, because they're nearly three years behind everyone else.
* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' did a joke with a caveman who kept on ripping off Frylock's inventions while pretending to be just a stupid cave man.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': Brooklyn, Lexington, and Broadway take pretty quickly to the world of 1994, despite being a thousand years out of date. All the Gargoyles have shades of it, really, but it's most noticeable with the trio.
** Hudson too, once he discovers television. And reclining easy chairs...
---> '''Hudson:''' Well, now. This isn't too bad!
* Heloise of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', according to WordOfGod, was originally from Earth and came to Miseryville at the same time as [[FishOutOfWater Jimmy]]. However, she's such an evil person that in a town designed with the sole purpose of making people miserable, she fits in perfectly.
* The titular ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' quickly becomes this in the future where Aku flings him. The demon had intended him to be lost and helpless in a world where HE rules, but the samurai rapidly adapts quite well seeing how most of it feels like a Kurosawa movie.
[[/folder]]
----
[[caption-width-right:333:[[SarcasmMode This courtroom is totally unfamiliar to him.]]]]
->''"Ladies and gentlemen of the City Council, I'm just a caveman... Your world frightens and confuses me. When I see your tall buildings and flashing neon signs, sometimes I just want to get away as fast as I can, to my place in Martha's Vineyard. I'm more at home hunting the woolly mammoth than I am hunting a good interior decorator. And when I see a solar eclipse, like the one I went to in Hawaii last week, I think 'Oh no, is the moon eating the sun?', because I'm a caveman... but there is one thing I do know. The new resort housing development proposed by my partners and myself will include more than adequate greenbelts for recreation and aesthetic enhancement. Thank you. (smug grin)"''
-->-- '''Keyrock, The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer''', ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''
We've all seen it. A character is placed in a completely unfamiliar environment, perhaps sent forward through time, or to a ship in outer space, or something equally ridiculous, and quickly becomes a FishOutOfWater.
This case doesn't seem any different. Just like every other time, the [[FishOutOfWater fish]] is flapping around, and is running out of air. But wait, why does it look like that fish is trying to ''walk'' on its hind fins? IT'S LEARNING TO BREATHE AIR! Something's fishy here.
Take it to the illogical extreme, and you could end up with a [[TropeNamer caveman, frozen in ice for thousands of years, who awakes to the modern world and promptly becomes a lawyer]]. It's when a former FishOutOfWater [[LikeAFishTakesToWater becomes well adapted to their new environment]], to the point where they almost fit there better than the people that actually ''belong'' there. Makes you think this is where they should have been in the first place.
Often justified in that the person coincidentally [[BornInTheWrongCentury had an affinity for the very environment they ended up in]], and thanks to their GenreSavvy manage to adapt with little fuss. i.e. [[AscendedFanboy a person who reads a lot of sci-fi novels ending up in space]] and thanks to all the stories he's read about aliens, is inoculated against the shock of being around them and easily wraps his head around their whacky explanations of all the {{Phlebotinum}} they tote around.
Sometimes the justification is that the newcomer's fresh viewpoint makes them superior to the natives at operating in his new environment. An alternate justification is that the newcomer possesses a trait he always considered useless, but is of incredible utility in his new environment.
Named for ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'''s Keyrock, TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer, who slyly manipulated the jury by playing the [[SimpleCountryLawyer "I'm just a caveman"]] card, who wore nice suits, and had a smug charm stereotypical of modern laywers.
Despite the name, the character is not necessarily a ContemporaryCaveman. Compare LikeAFishTakesToWater, GoingNative, MightyWhitey, and IKnowMortalKombat; contrast FishOutOfWater and FishOutOfTemporalWater. An UnfazedEveryman may [[CharacterDevelopment grow]] into this. VillainsBlendInBetter is a subtrope. Very like a BunnyEarsLawyer in that they're strange but competent and accepted as such.
----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''LightNovel/FateZero'' and ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': Most Heroic Spirits --souls of heroes of (usually) ancient ages given form to participate in a ThereCanBeOnlyOne tournament-- easily adapt to modern day living. Some have their justification, e.g. Saber having the innate ability to ride anything including modern cars[[spoiler:; this includes jet fighters!]]. But Alexander takes it to a whole new level, he considers buying jet fighter, tanks, and other war machines of modern times.
** Actually a JustifiedTrope. When summoned, they receive instant knowledge of the modern day living, much like Arcueid does. So, they know the basics.
* Whenever a human transfers from Earth to [[Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld El-Hazard]], they gain PersonalityPowers. A boisterous gym teacher gains SuperStrength (when sober). A shy geek becomes a {{Technopath}}. A HighSchoolHustler gains a ThirdEye. A ControlFreak becomes TheChessmaster ([[InformedAbility offscreen]]).
* ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'' is all about this, since it focuses on characters from a HeroicFantasy universe who cross dimensions and end up in modern-day Japan. The title character goes from EvilOverlord of a demon army to the assistant manager of [[BlandNameProduct MgRonald's]] in a relatively short amount of time; in fact his passion for the job and dedication to the customers are the first sign that [[DarkIsNotEvil just because he's called "Demon King" doesn't mean he's a bad guy]]. There are still some FishOutOfTemporalWater aspects, but they're downplayed (such as the character who uses slightly outdated mannerisms and speech patterns).
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* One issue of Marvel's ''ComicBook/WhatIf...?'' comic featured ConanTheBarbarian being stranded in the twentieth century, where he promptly becomes a successful gang leader. This was actually spun out of a story arc from Conan's own comic, where he was sent back to his proper time and place eventually instead.
** Another "What If...?" had the Hulk becoming a barbarian king.
*** As did the major, canonical arc "Planet Hulk."
* Travis Morgan quickly adapts to life in the LostWorld of Skartaris and ends up becoming its greatest warrior in ''Comicbook/TheWarlord''.
* Harrison Oogar, the caveman of Wall Street, from the ''Age of the Sentry'' miniseries. He beat market five years straight!
* Java, the unfrozen caveman butler, of Simon Stagg in ''ComicBook/{{Metamorpho}}''.
* Kang the Conqueror is a villainous example of this. Bored with his life in a peaceful 30th Century, he traveled back in time to conquer AncientEgypt, and then hopped forward to take over a war-torn 40th Century. He was so successful, he became [[TimeyWimeyBall a few]] of Marvel's biggest villains.
* [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverted]] by ComicBook/BoosterGold. Originally a screw-up in his native 25th century, he stole some future tech and a time machine to travel back to modern times, figuring he could become a beloved hero. Instead, he gained a reputation as a screw-up. He later does manage to find his niche, but as [[TimePolice a guardian of space-time]]...which requires him to [[ObfuscatingStupidity maintain his reputation as a screw-up]] to ensure that "[[RetGone kill Booster Gold back when he was still a loser]]" doesn't become the first step in every time-traveling villain's EvilPlan.
* Belgian comic ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'', has Jerom, an [[ContemporaryCaveman actual caveman]] who after being unfrozen managed to become in essence a sophisticated everyman, even while retaining his prehistoric HulkSpeak and SuperStrength.
* Played with somewhat in the origin of DC villain Vandal Savage - while absorbing the radiation from a meteorite has made him [[EmperorScientist intelligent and cunning enough to thrive in the modern world]], it also gave him [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld thousands of years to adapt along with it]], and he's still fondly retained some of his old brutish habits (cannibalism, for example).
* An early issue of ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' had Reed, Ben, and Johnny heading back to the 1700s. Ben had to be convinced to come home after he discovered that while he was a freak of nature back home in "civilized" New York, he made a pretty kick-ass pirate.
* The Adèle Blanc-Sec adventure "Le Savant Fou" has an especially weird example: the (literal) unfrozen caveman turns out turns out to be fluent in French and immediately asks the scientists who unfroze him for clothes, a stiff drink and -if it wouldn't be asking too much- a cigar. The drop-jawed scientists comment that "We'll have to revise our understanding of the Prehistoric ages."
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/EncinoMan'', an unfrozen caveman (played by Creator/BrendanFraser) becomes the most popular kid in school without even trying.
* Several of the historical personalities in ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure''.
* With Creator/BrendanFraser again, in ''Film/BlastFromThePast'' he plays a guy raised in a fallout shelter by parents who have no experience of the outside world beyond the Cuban Missile Crisis. Upon emerging, he finds his old-fashioned manners and values render him impossibly charming to the average modern joe.
* Played with in ''Film/NeverBeenKissed''. The protagonist was an outcast in high school the first time and she's on her way to becoming one this time around, despite her theory that she could study her way into the popular clique. Her brother, on the other hand, drops in and becomes the most popular guy in school with no effort. Again.
* This is the implied fate of Dr. Gillian Taylor, a whale specialist from the 1980s who essentially bullies her way into going back to the 23rd century with Kirk and company in ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. After Kirk's trial, she takes a post on a science vessel, exclaiming excitedly that she has "three hundred years of catching up to do!" This may be a case of FridgeLogic depending on the nature of the assignment. Unless said vessel is an ocean ship, it would be more than a bit odd that her first act be to ship off and leave the ''whales'' to fend for themselves, especially considering that she'd justified coming along with them by the fact that no one in the 23rd century would know anything about taking care of ''whales''.
** To be fair, the whales are intelligent to a degree and like dogs or dolphins have personalities, so she'd be able guess their moods and other behaviors, also how many people specialize in extinct species' that control giant monoliths that cause monsoons?
** The Vonda [=McIntyre=] novelization clarifies that the science vessel in question is going to an aquatic planet, to recruit divers to help with the whales.
* ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'': Alex Rogan is stuck in a rut in his trailer park, and the only thing he's really good at is a video game. Turns out the game's actually an alien flight simulator that was delivered to his park (instead of Las Vegas) by mistake, and [[IKnowMortalKombat he's scoring in the top percentile]]. He finds his place in life as a hotshot Gunstar pilot for the Star League, thousands of light years from home.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'':
** Marty [=McFly=] travels through time back to the old west. Despite being only a teenager who has presumably never shot a real gun before, he turns out to be an expert at quickdraw and pistol shooting (once he adjusts to the recoil) because of his [[IKnowMortalKombat familiarity with a video game from 1985]].
** Despite being considered a [[MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold crazy, dangerous nut]] in his own time, Doc Brown's love of the Old West made him fit in perfectly with Hill Valley in 1885. Throughout the third film, he's shown to be well-liked and on first name terms with many local townspeople, including even the Mayor and until he learned that Marty came back to prevent Buford Tannen from shooting him, Doc was quite content to simply live out the rest of his life in the past.
* In ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'' the cave people of 3000 quickly learn how to fly implausibly still functioning Aircraft and beat the Psychlo who defeated the real military.
* Dick Nelson of ''Film/MomAndDadSaveTheWorld'' quickly becomes a brilliant military strategist on the planet Spengo despite being an ordinary American suburbanite simply because all of the natives are idiots.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* Two of the modern characters in Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'' ends up living with ease and comfort in Late Medieval France. The first is a marine with an uncanny knack for languages. The second is a history grad student with a passion for all things from his period of study; language, clothes, culture, sports, war... The first insinuates himself into a French court. The second lives his natural span, happily married as an English nobleman.
* One of the ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' Books was called ''The Cave of Time'', which, predictably enough, involved time travel. In one of the endings, you're aided in your journey home by a man in the colonial US who is dying from TB. Once the two of you return to your time, the guy is cured thanks to modern medicine, becomes a history teacher, and becomes renowned due to his expert knowledge of the colonial US.
* Alan Dean Foster's novel ''Literature/GloryLane'' features an '80s punk rocker who gets abducted by aliens along with his brother and a random girl from the local college. He fits in much better in space than he did on Earth.
** Flores Quintera in ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' also prefers the Wizard's World to home.
* ComicStrip/BuckRogers is probably the paramount example of this trope. No matter what version you hear, it's all about Buck, a guy from today's times, being sent a couple of centuries in the future where he turns out to be such a hot shot ace at everything that he single-handedly saves the world, defeats the evil empire, or whatever it is needs doing.
* Lord Jagged of Canary in Creator/MichaelMoorcock's ''The Dancers at the End of Time'' cycle is a time traveller, who ventured to the eponymous End of Time, made his home there, and became more at home there than many of the era's native inhabitants, and being more pro-active than the rather clueless and almost purely hedonistic natives, ends up solving many of their problems, all while cheerfully embracing their (from our point of view) decadent hedonism.
* Pham Nuwen from Creator/VernorVinge's ''[[Literature/ZonesOfThought A Fire Upon The Deep and A Deepness In The Sky]]''. Medieval prince of a human planet that has lost spacefaring technology. He then has to adapt to life as a programmer-at-arms after his planet is visited by traders from another human civilization, and computers, travel between stars and life extension become commonplace. Millennia after, his corpse is unfrozen and he is confronted by a world where faster-then-light travel, antigravity, and thousands of civilizations of sentient beings, including godlike powers are a reality.
* Matthew Mantrell in Christopher Stasheff's ''[[AWizardInRhyme Her Majesty's Wizard]]'' (and later, other characters in sequels, including a grad school buddy and Matt's mother), decodes runes he finds in a book in the library, and is transported to a magical kingdom under siege. He finds that not only does he fit in perfectly to this fantasy kingdom, but that being an English major is a distinct advantage in a world where poetry IS spellcasting.
* Also in Christopher Stasheff's works, there is Yorick, the telepathic Neanderthal from ''[[TheWarlockInSpiteOfHimself King Kobold Revived]]''. (Justified by the fact that he, and his entire tribe of caveman espers, were rescued by a time traveler and relocated to another part of the planet the series takes place on in order to save them from extinction.)
* There is a Creator/PoulAnderson short story in which a white-collar worker has his soul switched with a Conan-esque barbarian warlord. In the end, the goddess that switched them offers to return them to their original bodies. [[spoiler:They both turn down the offer.]]
* When [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Carrot Ironfoundersson]] first arrives in Ankh-Morpork he has no idea about city life and is completely naïve about nearly everything. By his very next book he's completely at home, in some ways more so than his boss Samuel Vimes, a classic city man who's lived in Ankh-Morpork all his life.
** Justified in that it is strongly implied that he is the rightful king of the city, and thus the whole city bends to his will.
** Carcer in ''Night Watch'' is thrown through time and adapts with terrifying speed, to the point that he ends up [[spoiler: becoming a secret policeman]].
** Zig-Zagged whenever DeathTakesAHoliday; his attempts to engage in non-Death activities will either show him to be extremely competent, or extremely ''in''competent. He gets a job as a cook at a greasy spoon in {{DiscWorld/Mort}} and excels, turns out to be a great farm hand in {{Discworld/Reaper Man}}, and even has success as a beggar in {{Discworld/Soul Music}} (it's hard to say no to him). But when he turns up on a stage in {{Discworld/Wyrd Sisters}} he forgets his lines (even though he ''can't'' forget), has middling success standing in for the Disc's equivalent to SantaClaus in {{Discworld/Hogfather}}, and can't learn music to safe his "life".
* Tom Billings, the hero in Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs ''Literature/ThePeopleThatTimeForgot'', who adapts to life very easily in the primeval LostWorld of Caspak and elects to stay there with the woman he loves. Possibly crosses over into BornInTheWrongCentury.
** Similar to the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series. As a military man, he adapts easily to the warrior culture of Mars and quickly becomes legendary among its people. His biggest advantage is that in the lower gravity of Mars, an Earthman is a HeavyWorlder.
* The main point of Jared Diamond's nonfictional ''Literature/GunsGermsAndSteel'' is based on this trope and how, under the right circumstances, this applies to ''literally everyone on earth''.
* There is a Frommer Files story where Erich Brunner, a disaffected aristocrat living in the late 21st Century, develops time travel and sends himself back to 1919 in an attempt to (of course) stop Hitler. He fails miserably, but winds up as a medievalist historian at Cambridge and works there happily for the rest of his life.
* The downtimer community in the ''Literature/TimeScout'' series adapt to varying degrees. Some are FishOutOfTemporalWater, some are TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer. The same is true of people who travel to the past. Some are conspicuous tourists, others are invisible. Being a downtimer tourist is only possible down a gate developed for that; uptime is more friendly to downtimers. They even provide counseling.
* In Leo Frankowski's ''The Cross Time Engineer'' series, Conrad rapidly adapts to being stranded in medieval Poland.
** Justified in that he is college educated, military trained, and is unwittingly receiving assistance from the time travelers that stranded him.
** Also, in Conrad's Time Machine, a whole time traveling society known as the 'Killers' revel in joining ancient societies, especially in combat. At the same time, subverted by the other time traveling society of 'Smoothies' who are incapable of coping with so much as a scraped knee.
* Arthur Dent in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' is completely out of his depth for nearly all his adventures in space, but eventually tries to settle down on a nice peaceful planet and live a normal life. The people there are primitive, so he hopes to use his comparatively advanced knowledge to aid them, only to realize he has no idea how any earth technology actually works. Getting depressed, he makes himself a sandwich, only to discover that the locals have never seen one before and think it's a stroke of genius. He becomes a highly respected member of the village as a sandwich artisan.
* Susan Shaw in Edward Ormondroyd's ''Time at the Top'' was much more at home living in the 19th century than in the 20th.
* In the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, someone figured out how to clone neanderthals. It turns out they are a bit different from homo sapiens, most importantly, they are unable to lie. This leads to a literal caveman lawyer, a neanderthal who figured out how to deceive others by not saying the whole truth. As everyone knows his kind is unable to lie, he promptly became a successful lawyer.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Keyrock, [[TropeNamer the unfrozen caveman lawyer]], from the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch. Keyrock becomes a sleazy lawyer who repeatedly uses his past to help make his arguments in court.
* Lisa on ''GreenAcres'', who ironically wants to return to New York, but adapts better than her husband to the unique ways of Hooterville. Justified in that she is a CloudCuckoolander and Hooterville is prime CloudCuckooland real estate.
* John Crichton, star of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' has his season-or-so of being a regular FishOutOfWater. However, after that season ends, the series sees John pull stuff that not even the EvilPlan-wielding villains had ever once considered- with the possible exception of [[MagnificentBastard Scorpius]]. And, boy, was he just getting ''started...'' Heavily justified as though every other race is [[PunyEarthlings stronger, faster, tougher, and/or smarter]], Crichton has three little aces up his sleeve; first, he's the only man in the Uncharted Territories who is ''not'' from a PlanetOfHats, making him both [[GenreSavvy familiar with most of those Hats]] and fairly skilled at facilitating communication between different ones; secondly, he simply [[TheDeterminator doesn't know when he's been beaten]]; and thirdly, he is completely and totally '''[[CrazyAwesome batshit insane]].''' By the end of the series, Crichton is willing to strap a nuclear weapon to his hip and stroll right into TheEmpire's most secure facility and blackmail them as part of a rescue mission - '''''[[CrazyEnoughToWork and it works!]]'''''
** This sentiment is expressed in the series finale "Bad Timing", though (presumably) not meant to be taken literally.
--->'''John''': What did you imagine for your life?
--->'''Aeryn''': Service, promotion, retirement, death. You?
--->'''John''': This is exactly what I imagined...and a couple of kids.
* Elizabeth Bennet in ''LostInAusten'' adapts to the 21st century a lot better than the nominal heroine adapts to RegencyEngland, despite her assumption of being GenreSavvy from reading and re-reading ''PrideAndPrejudice'', the book she's trapped inside.
* Nimrod the neanderthal adjusts pretty well to being a butler in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "Ghost Light", and later an interstellar explorer.
** As does Ancelyn, the medieval knight catapulted to the late 20th century in "Battlefield". He manages to hook up with Bambera, the commander of UNIT in that era, and get a job as a gardener for then-retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
* ''SpacePrecinct 2040'': Intelligent races tend to [[PlanetOfHats homogenize]] and eventually [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong follow rules as a manner of etiquette]]. Then FasterThanLightTravel was discovered, they started interacting, finding that they had different forms of etiquette, and parts of their civilizations started rediscovering crime. Solution: find a race that still practices criminal investigation and recruit them as SpacePolice!
* An interesting villainous example in ''Series/LoisAndClark''. A time-traveler from the 30th century, a time with no war, crime or poverty, visits the 20th century. He's so enthralled by the violence and vice of the era that he decides not only to stay but to try and take it over.
* On ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', when Sam and Dean get sent to prison, Dean adapts to the situation with ease and actually seems to be ''enjoying'' his stay. It gets to the point where Sam asks, "Dean, doesn't it bother you how well you seem to fit in here?"
* This is the basis for the short-lived sitcom ''Series/{{Cavemen}}'', featuring modern-day Neanderthals who evolved alongside "modern" humans. The opening credits even show cavemen involved at different points in world history, such as one caveman accompanying George Washington crossing the Delaware River.
* One of the escaped souls in ''{{Series/Reaper}}'' was a Hun. Although initially unfamiliar with the modern world, being frightened off by Sam's cellphone, by the next time they encounter him he's fully adapted businessman.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Scotty from ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' becomes one in "Relics", as he tries to show that his engineering expertise is still useful in the 24th century, despite all the advances in technology since his time.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Radio]]
* Arthur Dent becomes one of these towards the end of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', but given the things he's seen by that point it's not surprising that he's desensitized to the bizarre.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Video Games]]
* Zoey from ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' was doing poorly in college and spent most of her time watching horror movies about zombies. After the world is overrun with zombies, she is GenreSavvy enough to survive.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', despite most potential Wardens having fairly humble origins, they have the potential to become a better Grey Warden than the more experienced and Templar-trained Alistair. For example, the City Elf and Dwarf Commoner Wardens are self-taught fighters with no formal combat training, the Dalish Warden have little knowledge of the world outside of their clan and the Human/Elf Mage Warden is simply a BadassBookworm. Justified as most Grey Wardens recruits are often picked precisely for this reason, having unique qualities that can be honed to make them excellent at fighting Darkspawn.
* Eddie Rigg of ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' not only fits in better than the natives of his new land, he is genuinely shocked they would think he'd want to go home again.
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', the entire human race comes across as this to the other alien races, who are a little perturbed how [[LikeAFishTakesToWater quickly]] humanity is adapting, integrating and rising to prominence within the galactic community. Especially since humanity went from discovering mass effect technology and unsealing their Mass Relay, to making first contact, to gaining a seat on the [[TheFederation Citadel Council]] in just under [[HumansAdvanceSwiftly forty years]].
* Present in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' with [[NonHumanSidekick Teddie]]. The rate at which he adapts to living in the human world is startling, given the fact that just less than 2 months earlier, he didn't even know that "Evidence" isn't a type of food, that a human hand isn't edible or what filming is, among many other things. In fact, he didn't even have a humanoid body until a short while before entering the human world, yet within a mere span of days he is part-timing at a Department Store, pleasantly enjoying modern commodities and flirting through half the female population of Inaba. Some concepts do remain unfamiliar to him for a longer while, but they are not the ones you would expect.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Parson Gotti of ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'', {{Justified|Trope}} in that he was specifically summoned in order to be able to adapt rapidly. Also, the spell was supposed to summon someone who would find the place familiar.
** There's also the fact that he's by reputation a hardcore (and pretty ruthless) wargamer, and Erf is a wargame. In his mind, he's been living in a series of close cousins of Erf for ''years'', his biggest problem is that he doesn't know what the rules are at first. As soon as he finds out, he begins finding ways to subvert them.
* Rina Lee in ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'', a girl turned to stone and left in an abandoned mine for 2000 years before being rescued by the magical doctors. Society has actually been destroyed fully four times in a row over the course of 2000 years and is currently more or less back at the same level that Rina is able to relate to, though she's still horribly traumatized at first. The doctors point out that if she had been frozen during one of the Dark Ages she wouldn't have fared nearly as well. It also helps that she already knew magic before emerging into a magical world.
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', [[{{Expy}} Gav, the former webcomic artist]] who wrote ''Webcomic/{{Nukees}}'', was a HumanPopsicle for a millennium (ever since the 21st century). When he was defrosted, he became... a wormhole physicist. Justified as [[spoiler:he was defrosted just as an alien technology-suppressing conspiracy was broken, meaning he has an untainted viewpoint.]]
* ''The Compozerz'' is set in modern times, with five [[PublicDomainCharacter famous classical music composers]] inexplicably transported to the desert of the American Southwest, where they suddenly speak [[EternalEnglish perfect English]] and get used to modern conveniences in no time. [[http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Compozerz/5031437 With a little help from their new friend Connie.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/TheTimeGuys'': [[ContemporaryCaveman Caveman]] the intern, a native of the 40th millennium B.C., is leagues more competent than [[NotThatKindOfDoctor Dr. Chronos, D.D.S.]].
* Nordkapp Man, a member of the [[Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse Global Guardians]], is an [[TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer Unfrozen Caveman Superhero]]. Within a few years of his being thawed out of the glacier he'd been trapped in for 30,000 years, Nordkapp Man (a neanderthal with superpowers) had become a university professor, a regular club-hopper, and, of course, an ice-wielding crimefighter.
* In ''WebVideo/{{Dragonbored}}'', Jimbroth is a BarbarianHero from [[CaptainErsatz Skyguard]] thrown into the real world, who ends up stealing his former player's promotion at work after he [[AchievementInIgnorance successfully applies]] the rules of medieval warfare to that of the corporate business structure.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The businessmen from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' were literally unfrozen from an iceberg.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'' is a pastiche of Buck Rogers, and is made a captain because IQ High is WrongGenreSavvy, who expects him to be better at everything because he's from the past. He wises up pretty quick, but Dodgers still has his uses as [[NoOneElseIsThatDumb no one else in the 2250's is stupid enough]] to attempt some pretty crazy stunts. And [[CrazyEnoughToWork some of those stunts actually work]]. ''[[LoserProtagonist Some.]]''
* Fry from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', who went from completely freaked out and dumbstruck by the future to almost ''too'' comfortable in 3000 A.D.
** Played for laughs in one episode when he sees a huge light in the sky and stares at it in wonder, calling forth all the usual imagery of alien abduction, and suddenly the interest on his face evaporates when he realizes what it is:
--->'''Fry:''' Oh, it's just a flying saucer. ''You can't park here!''
** When his ex-girlfriend from 1999, Michelle, shows up, she is confused and terrified by the world of the future; Amy and Leela point out that Fry was a bizarre outsider in his own time, and so he has adapted much better to the bizarre world of 3000.
** "That Guy" ([[AllThereInTheManual Steve Castle]]), another stereotypical 80's guy, picks up right where he left off as a successful corporate raider. Granted, he and Fry met in a counseling group for unfrozen people. A caveman at that group was having the hardest trouble coping with the fact that his wife was on display in a museum.
* The animated series ''WesternAnimation/MartinMystery'' has a character named Java, a caveman that was frozen in ice for 200,000 years. He works at the titular Martin's high school as a cook and janitor and helps him and his stepsister Diana solve supernatural mysteries for The Center. He's rather wary of technology and has terrible hygiene and grammar, but otherwise has adapted to 20th century life quite well.
** And of course, the character is based on a character of the same name from an Italian comic, and works as an assistant and sort-of butler for Martin Mystère. No bad hygiene or wariness of technology is evident, in fact, he almost seems to fit everyday modern life a bit better than his boss. His only seeming flaws are his lecherousness and 'wandering hands'.
* Inversion: "Gorak" from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Frozen in the ice nearly 32 months previous; after thawing, was difficult to train in "modern" communication, unable to adapt to "modern" ways, and ultimately moved to Des Moines, Iowa, because they're nearly three years behind everyone else.
* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' did a joke with a caveman who kept on ripping off Frylock's inventions while pretending to be just a stupid cave man.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': Brooklyn, Lexington, and Broadway take pretty quickly to the world of 1994, despite being a thousand years out of date. All the Gargoyles have shades of it, really, but it's most noticeable with the trio.
** Hudson too, once he discovers television. And reclining easy chairs...
---> '''Hudson:''' Well, now. This isn't too bad!
* Heloise of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', according to WordOfGod, was originally from Earth and came to Miseryville at the same time as [[FishOutOfWater Jimmy]]. However, she's such an evil person that in a town designed with the sole purpose of making people miserable, she fits in perfectly.
* The titular ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' quickly becomes this in the future where Aku flings him. The demon had intended him to be lost and helpless in a world where HE rules, but the samurai rapidly adapts quite well seeing how most of it feels like a Kurosawa movie.
[[/folder]]
----
to:
[[caption-width-right:333:[[SarcasmMode This courtroom is totally unfamiliar to him.]]]]
->''"Ladies and gentlemen of the City Council, I'm just a caveman... Your world frightens and confuses me. When I see your tall buildings and flashing neon signs, sometimes I just want to get away as fast as I can, to my place in Martha's Vineyard. I'm more at home hunting the woolly mammoth than I am hunting a good interior decorator. And when I see a solar eclipse, like the one I went to in Hawaii last week, I think 'Oh no, is the moon eating the sun?', because I'm a caveman... but there is one thing I do know. The new resort housing development proposed by my partners and myself will include more than adequate greenbelts for recreation and aesthetic enhancement. Thank you. (smug grin)"''
-->-- '''Keyrock, The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer''', ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''
We've all seen it. A character is placed in a completely unfamiliar environment, perhaps sent forward through time, or to a ship in outer space, or something equally ridiculous, and quickly becomes a FishOutOfWater.
This case doesn't seem any different. Just like every other time, the [[FishOutOfWater fish]] is flapping around, and is running out of air. But wait, why does it look like that fish is trying to ''walk'' on its hind fins? IT'S LEARNING TO BREATHE AIR! Something's fishy here.
Take it to the illogical extreme, and you could end up with a [[TropeNamer caveman, frozen in ice for thousands of years, who awakes to the modern world and promptly becomes a lawyer]]. It's when a former FishOutOfWater [[LikeAFishTakesToWater becomes well adapted to their new environment]], to the point where they almost fit there better than the people that actually ''belong'' there. Makes you think this is where they should have been in the first place.
Often justified in that the person coincidentally [[BornInTheWrongCentury had an affinity for the very environment they ended up in]], and thanks to their GenreSavvy manage to adapt with little fuss. i.e. [[AscendedFanboy a person who reads a lot of sci-fi novels ending up in space]] and thanks to all the stories he's read about aliens, is inoculated against the shock of being around them and easily wraps his head around their whacky explanations of all the {{Phlebotinum}} they tote around.
Sometimes the justification is that the newcomer's fresh viewpoint makes them superior to the natives at operating in his new environment. An alternate justification is that the newcomer possesses a trait he always considered useless, but is of incredible utility in his new environment.
Named for ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'''s Keyrock, TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer, who slyly manipulated the jury by playing the [[SimpleCountryLawyer "I'm just a caveman"]] card, who wore nice suits, and had a smug charm stereotypical of modern laywers.
Despite the name, the character is not necessarily a ContemporaryCaveman. Compare LikeAFishTakesToWater, GoingNative, MightyWhitey, and IKnowMortalKombat; contrast FishOutOfWater and FishOutOfTemporalWater. An UnfazedEveryman may [[CharacterDevelopment grow]] into this. VillainsBlendInBetter is a subtrope. Very like a BunnyEarsLawyer in that they're strange but competent and accepted as such.
----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''LightNovel/FateZero'' and ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': Most Heroic Spirits --souls of heroes of (usually) ancient ages given form to participate in a ThereCanBeOnlyOne tournament-- easily adapt to modern day living. Some have their justification, e.g. Saber having the innate ability to ride anything including modern cars[[spoiler:; this includes jet fighters!]]. But Alexander takes it to a whole new level, he considers buying jet fighter, tanks, and other war machines of modern times.
** Actually a JustifiedTrope. When summoned, they receive instant knowledge of the modern day living, much like Arcueid does. So, they know the basics.
* Whenever a human transfers from Earth to [[Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld El-Hazard]], they gain PersonalityPowers. A boisterous gym teacher gains SuperStrength (when sober). A shy geek becomes a {{Technopath}}. A HighSchoolHustler gains a ThirdEye. A ControlFreak becomes TheChessmaster ([[InformedAbility offscreen]]).
* ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'' is all about this, since it focuses on characters from a HeroicFantasy universe who cross dimensions and end up in modern-day Japan. The title character goes from EvilOverlord of a demon army to the assistant manager of [[BlandNameProduct MgRonald's]] in a relatively short amount of time; in fact his passion for the job and dedication to the customers are the first sign that [[DarkIsNotEvil just because he's called "Demon King" doesn't mean he's a bad guy]]. There are still some FishOutOfTemporalWater aspects, but they're downplayed (such as the character who uses slightly outdated mannerisms and speech patterns).
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* One issue of Marvel's ''ComicBook/WhatIf...?'' comic featured ConanTheBarbarian being stranded in the twentieth century, where he promptly becomes a successful gang leader. This was actually spun out of a story arc from Conan's own comic, where he was sent back to his proper time and place eventually instead.
** Another "What If...?" had the Hulk becoming a barbarian king.
*** As did the major, canonical arc "Planet Hulk."
* Travis Morgan quickly adapts to life in the LostWorld of Skartaris and ends up becoming its greatest warrior in ''Comicbook/TheWarlord''.
* Harrison Oogar, the caveman of Wall Street, from the ''Age of the Sentry'' miniseries. He beat market five years straight!
* Java, the unfrozen caveman butler, of Simon Stagg in ''ComicBook/{{Metamorpho}}''.
* Kang the Conqueror is a villainous example of this. Bored with his life in a peaceful 30th Century, he traveled back in time to conquer AncientEgypt, and then hopped forward to take over a war-torn 40th Century. He was so successful, he became [[TimeyWimeyBall a few]] of Marvel's biggest villains.
* [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverted]] by ComicBook/BoosterGold. Originally a screw-up in his native 25th century, he stole some future tech and a time machine to travel back to modern times, figuring he could become a beloved hero. Instead, he gained a reputation as a screw-up. He later does manage to find his niche, but as [[TimePolice a guardian of space-time]]...which requires him to [[ObfuscatingStupidity maintain his reputation as a screw-up]] to ensure that "[[RetGone kill Booster Gold back when he was still a loser]]" doesn't become the first step in every time-traveling villain's EvilPlan.
* Belgian comic ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'', has Jerom, an [[ContemporaryCaveman actual caveman]] who after being unfrozen managed to become in essence a sophisticated everyman, even while retaining his prehistoric HulkSpeak and SuperStrength.
* Played with somewhat in the origin of DC villain Vandal Savage - while absorbing the radiation from a meteorite has made him [[EmperorScientist intelligent and cunning enough to thrive in the modern world]], it also gave him [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld thousands of years to adapt along with it]], and he's still fondly retained some of his old brutish habits (cannibalism, for example).
* An early issue of ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' had Reed, Ben, and Johnny heading back to the 1700s. Ben had to be convinced to come home after he discovered that while he was a freak of nature back home in "civilized" New York, he made a pretty kick-ass pirate.
* The Adèle Blanc-Sec adventure "Le Savant Fou" has an especially weird example: the (literal) unfrozen caveman turns out turns out to be fluent in French and immediately asks the scientists who unfroze him for clothes, a stiff drink and -if it wouldn't be asking too much- a cigar. The drop-jawed scientists comment that "We'll have to revise our understanding of the Prehistoric ages."
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/EncinoMan'', an unfrozen caveman (played by Creator/BrendanFraser) becomes the most popular kid in school without even trying.
* Several of the historical personalities in ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure''.
* With Creator/BrendanFraser again, in ''Film/BlastFromThePast'' he plays a guy raised in a fallout shelter by parents who have no experience of the outside world beyond the Cuban Missile Crisis. Upon emerging, he finds his old-fashioned manners and values render him impossibly charming to the average modern joe.
* Played with in ''Film/NeverBeenKissed''. The protagonist was an outcast in high school the first time and she's on her way to becoming one this time around, despite her theory that she could study her way into the popular clique. Her brother, on the other hand, drops in and becomes the most popular guy in school with no effort. Again.
* This is the implied fate of Dr. Gillian Taylor, a whale specialist from the 1980s who essentially bullies her way into going back to the 23rd century with Kirk and company in ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. After Kirk's trial, she takes a post on a science vessel, exclaiming excitedly that she has "three hundred years of catching up to do!" This may be a case of FridgeLogic depending on the nature of the assignment. Unless said vessel is an ocean ship, it would be more than a bit odd that her first act be to ship off and leave the ''whales'' to fend for themselves, especially considering that she'd justified coming along with them by the fact that no one in the 23rd century would know anything about taking care of ''whales''.
** To be fair, the whales are intelligent to a degree and like dogs or dolphins have personalities, so she'd be able guess their moods and other behaviors, also how many people specialize in extinct species' that control giant monoliths that cause monsoons?
** The Vonda [=McIntyre=] novelization clarifies that the science vessel in question is going to an aquatic planet, to recruit divers to help with the whales.
* ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'': Alex Rogan is stuck in a rut in his trailer park, and the only thing he's really good at is a video game. Turns out the game's actually an alien flight simulator that was delivered to his park (instead of Las Vegas) by mistake, and [[IKnowMortalKombat he's scoring in the top percentile]]. He finds his place in life as a hotshot Gunstar pilot for the Star League, thousands of light years from home.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'':
** Marty [=McFly=] travels through time back to the old west. Despite being only a teenager who has presumably never shot a real gun before, he turns out to be an expert at quickdraw and pistol shooting (once he adjusts to the recoil) because of his [[IKnowMortalKombat familiarity with a video game from 1985]].
** Despite being considered a [[MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold crazy, dangerous nut]] in his own time, Doc Brown's love of the Old West made him fit in perfectly with Hill Valley in 1885. Throughout the third film, he's shown to be well-liked and on first name terms with many local townspeople, including even the Mayor and until he learned that Marty came back to prevent Buford Tannen from shooting him, Doc was quite content to simply live out the rest of his life in the past.
* In ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'' the cave people of 3000 quickly learn how to fly implausibly still functioning Aircraft and beat the Psychlo who defeated the real military.
* Dick Nelson of ''Film/MomAndDadSaveTheWorld'' quickly becomes a brilliant military strategist on the planet Spengo despite being an ordinary American suburbanite simply because all of the natives are idiots.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* Two of the modern characters in Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'' ends up living with ease and comfort in Late Medieval France. The first is a marine with an uncanny knack for languages. The second is a history grad student with a passion for all things from his period of study; language, clothes, culture, sports, war... The first insinuates himself into a French court. The second lives his natural span, happily married as an English nobleman.
* One of the ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' Books was called ''The Cave of Time'', which, predictably enough, involved time travel. In one of the endings, you're aided in your journey home by a man in the colonial US who is dying from TB. Once the two of you return to your time, the guy is cured thanks to modern medicine, becomes a history teacher, and becomes renowned due to his expert knowledge of the colonial US.
* Alan Dean Foster's novel ''Literature/GloryLane'' features an '80s punk rocker who gets abducted by aliens along with his brother and a random girl from the local college. He fits in much better in space than he did on Earth.
** Flores Quintera in ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' also prefers the Wizard's World to home.
* ComicStrip/BuckRogers is probably the paramount example of this trope. No matter what version you hear, it's all about Buck, a guy from today's times, being sent a couple of centuries in the future where he turns out to be such a hot shot ace at everything that he single-handedly saves the world, defeats the evil empire, or whatever it is needs doing.
* Lord Jagged of Canary in Creator/MichaelMoorcock's ''The Dancers at the End of Time'' cycle is a time traveller, who ventured to the eponymous End of Time, made his home there, and became more at home there than many of the era's native inhabitants, and being more pro-active than the rather clueless and almost purely hedonistic natives, ends up solving many of their problems, all while cheerfully embracing their (from our point of view) decadent hedonism.
* Pham Nuwen from Creator/VernorVinge's ''[[Literature/ZonesOfThought A Fire Upon The Deep and A Deepness In The Sky]]''. Medieval prince of a human planet that has lost spacefaring technology. He then has to adapt to life as a programmer-at-arms after his planet is visited by traders from another human civilization, and computers, travel between stars and life extension become commonplace. Millennia after, his corpse is unfrozen and he is confronted by a world where faster-then-light travel, antigravity, and thousands of civilizations of sentient beings, including godlike powers are a reality.
* Matthew Mantrell in Christopher Stasheff's ''[[AWizardInRhyme Her Majesty's Wizard]]'' (and later, other characters in sequels, including a grad school buddy and Matt's mother), decodes runes he finds in a book in the library, and is transported to a magical kingdom under siege. He finds that not only does he fit in perfectly to this fantasy kingdom, but that being an English major is a distinct advantage in a world where poetry IS spellcasting.
* Also in Christopher Stasheff's works, there is Yorick, the telepathic Neanderthal from ''[[TheWarlockInSpiteOfHimself King Kobold Revived]]''. (Justified by the fact that he, and his entire tribe of caveman espers, were rescued by a time traveler and relocated to another part of the planet the series takes place on in order to save them from extinction.)
* There is a Creator/PoulAnderson short story in which a white-collar worker has his soul switched with a Conan-esque barbarian warlord. In the end, the goddess that switched them offers to return them to their original bodies. [[spoiler:They both turn down the offer.]]
* When [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Carrot Ironfoundersson]] first arrives in Ankh-Morpork he has no idea about city life and is completely naïve about nearly everything. By his very next book he's completely at home, in some ways more so than his boss Samuel Vimes, a classic city man who's lived in Ankh-Morpork all his life.
** Justified in that it is strongly implied that he is the rightful king of the city, and thus the whole city bends to his will.
** Carcer in ''Night Watch'' is thrown through time and adapts with terrifying speed, to the point that he ends up [[spoiler: becoming a secret policeman]].
** Zig-Zagged whenever DeathTakesAHoliday; his attempts to engage in non-Death activities will either show him to be extremely competent, or extremely ''in''competent. He gets a job as a cook at a greasy spoon in {{DiscWorld/Mort}} and excels, turns out to be a great farm hand in {{Discworld/Reaper Man}}, and even has success as a beggar in {{Discworld/Soul Music}} (it's hard to say no to him). But when he turns up on a stage in {{Discworld/Wyrd Sisters}} he forgets his lines (even though he ''can't'' forget), has middling success standing in for the Disc's equivalent to SantaClaus in {{Discworld/Hogfather}}, and can't learn music to safe his "life".
* Tom Billings, the hero in Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs ''Literature/ThePeopleThatTimeForgot'', who adapts to life very easily in the primeval LostWorld of Caspak and elects to stay there with the woman he loves. Possibly crosses over into BornInTheWrongCentury.
** Similar to the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series. As a military man, he adapts easily to the warrior culture of Mars and quickly becomes legendary among its people. His biggest advantage is that in the lower gravity of Mars, an Earthman is a HeavyWorlder.
* The main point of Jared Diamond's nonfictional ''Literature/GunsGermsAndSteel'' is based on this trope and how, under the right circumstances, this applies to ''literally everyone on earth''.
* There is a Frommer Files story where Erich Brunner, a disaffected aristocrat living in the late 21st Century, develops time travel and sends himself back to 1919 in an attempt to (of course) stop Hitler. He fails miserably, but winds up as a medievalist historian at Cambridge and works there happily for the rest of his life.
* The downtimer community in the ''Literature/TimeScout'' series adapt to varying degrees. Some are FishOutOfTemporalWater, some are TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer. The same is true of people who travel to the past. Some are conspicuous tourists, others are invisible. Being a downtimer tourist is only possible down a gate developed for that; uptime is more friendly to downtimers. They even provide counseling.
* In Leo Frankowski's ''The Cross Time Engineer'' series, Conrad rapidly adapts to being stranded in medieval Poland.
** Justified in that he is college educated, military trained, and is unwittingly receiving assistance from the time travelers that stranded him.
** Also, in Conrad's Time Machine, a whole time traveling society known as the 'Killers' revel in joining ancient societies, especially in combat. At the same time, subverted by the other time traveling society of 'Smoothies' who are incapable of coping with so much as a scraped knee.
* Arthur Dent in ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' is completely out of his depth for nearly all his adventures in space, but eventually tries to settle down on a nice peaceful planet and live a normal life. The people there are primitive, so he hopes to use his comparatively advanced knowledge to aid them, only to realize he has no idea how any earth technology actually works. Getting depressed, he makes himself a sandwich, only to discover that the locals have never seen one before and think it's a stroke of genius. He becomes a highly respected member of the village as a sandwich artisan.
* Susan Shaw in Edward Ormondroyd's ''Time at the Top'' was much more at home living in the 19th century than in the 20th.
* In the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, someone figured out how to clone neanderthals. It turns out they are a bit different from homo sapiens, most importantly, they are unable to lie. This leads to a literal caveman lawyer, a neanderthal who figured out how to deceive others by not saying the whole truth. As everyone knows his kind is unable to lie, he promptly became a successful lawyer.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Keyrock, [[TropeNamer the unfrozen caveman lawyer]], from the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch. Keyrock becomes a sleazy lawyer who repeatedly uses his past to help make his arguments in court.
* Lisa on ''GreenAcres'', who ironically wants to return to New York, but adapts better than her husband to the unique ways of Hooterville. Justified in that she is a CloudCuckoolander and Hooterville is prime CloudCuckooland real estate.
* John Crichton, star of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' has his season-or-so of being a regular FishOutOfWater. However, after that season ends, the series sees John pull stuff that not even the EvilPlan-wielding villains had ever once considered- with the possible exception of [[MagnificentBastard Scorpius]]. And, boy, was he just getting ''started...'' Heavily justified as though every other race is [[PunyEarthlings stronger, faster, tougher, and/or smarter]], Crichton has three little aces up his sleeve; first, he's the only man in the Uncharted Territories who is ''not'' from a PlanetOfHats, making him both [[GenreSavvy familiar with most of those Hats]] and fairly skilled at facilitating communication between different ones; secondly, he simply [[TheDeterminator doesn't know when he's been beaten]]; and thirdly, he is completely and totally '''[[CrazyAwesome batshit insane]].''' By the end of the series, Crichton is willing to strap a nuclear weapon to his hip and stroll right into TheEmpire's most secure facility and blackmail them as part of a rescue mission - '''''[[CrazyEnoughToWork and it works!]]'''''
** This sentiment is expressed in the series finale "Bad Timing", though (presumably) not meant to be taken literally.
--->'''John''': What did you imagine for your life?
--->'''Aeryn''': Service, promotion, retirement, death. You?
--->'''John''': This is exactly what I imagined...and a couple of kids.
* Elizabeth Bennet in ''LostInAusten'' adapts to the 21st century a lot better than the nominal heroine adapts to RegencyEngland, despite her assumption of being GenreSavvy from reading and re-reading ''PrideAndPrejudice'', the book she's trapped inside.
* Nimrod the neanderthal adjusts pretty well to being a butler in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "Ghost Light", and later an interstellar explorer.
** As does Ancelyn, the medieval knight catapulted to the late 20th century in "Battlefield". He manages to hook up with Bambera, the commander of UNIT in that era, and get a job as a gardener for then-retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
* ''SpacePrecinct 2040'': Intelligent races tend to [[PlanetOfHats homogenize]] and eventually [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong follow rules as a manner of etiquette]]. Then FasterThanLightTravel was discovered, they started interacting, finding that they had different forms of etiquette, and parts of their civilizations started rediscovering crime. Solution: find a race that still practices criminal investigation and recruit them as SpacePolice!
* An interesting villainous example in ''Series/LoisAndClark''. A time-traveler from the 30th century, a time with no war, crime or poverty, visits the 20th century. He's so enthralled by the violence and vice of the era that he decides not only to stay but to try and take it over.
* On ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', when Sam and Dean get sent to prison, Dean adapts to the situation with ease and actually seems to be ''enjoying'' his stay. It gets to the point where Sam asks, "Dean, doesn't it bother you how well you seem to fit in here?"
* This is the basis for the short-lived sitcom ''Series/{{Cavemen}}'', featuring modern-day Neanderthals who evolved alongside "modern" humans. The opening credits even show cavemen involved at different points in world history, such as one caveman accompanying George Washington crossing the Delaware River.
* One of the escaped souls in ''{{Series/Reaper}}'' was a Hun. Although initially unfamiliar with the modern world, being frightened off by Sam's cellphone, by the next time they encounter him he's fully adapted businessman.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Scotty from ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' becomes one in "Relics", as he tries to show that his engineering expertise is still useful in the 24th century, despite all the advances in technology since his time.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Radio]]
* Arthur Dent becomes one of these towards the end of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', but given the things he's seen by that point it's not surprising that he's desensitized to the bizarre.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Video Games]]
* Zoey from ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' was doing poorly in college and spent most of her time watching horror movies about zombies. After the world is overrun with zombies, she is GenreSavvy enough to survive.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', despite most potential Wardens having fairly humble origins, they have the potential to become a better Grey Warden than the more experienced and Templar-trained Alistair. For example, the City Elf and Dwarf Commoner Wardens are self-taught fighters with no formal combat training, the Dalish Warden have little knowledge of the world outside of their clan and the Human/Elf Mage Warden is simply a BadassBookworm. Justified as most Grey Wardens recruits are often picked precisely for this reason, having unique qualities that can be honed to make them excellent at fighting Darkspawn.
* Eddie Rigg of ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' not only fits in better than the natives of his new land, he is genuinely shocked they would think he'd want to go home again.
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', the entire human race comes across as this to the other alien races, who are a little perturbed how [[LikeAFishTakesToWater quickly]] humanity is adapting, integrating and rising to prominence within the galactic community. Especially since humanity went from discovering mass effect technology and unsealing their Mass Relay, to making first contact, to gaining a seat on the [[TheFederation Citadel Council]] in just under [[HumansAdvanceSwiftly forty years]].
* Present in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' with [[NonHumanSidekick Teddie]]. The rate at which he adapts to living in the human world is startling, given the fact that just less than 2 months earlier, he didn't even know that "Evidence" isn't a type of food, that a human hand isn't edible or what filming is, among many other things. In fact, he didn't even have a humanoid body until a short while before entering the human world, yet within a mere span of days he is part-timing at a Department Store, pleasantly enjoying modern commodities and flirting through half the female population of Inaba. Some concepts do remain unfamiliar to him for a longer while, but they are not the ones you would expect.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Parson Gotti of ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'', {{Justified|Trope}} in that he was specifically summoned in order to be able to adapt rapidly. Also, the spell was supposed to summon someone who would find the place familiar.
** There's also the fact that he's by reputation a hardcore (and pretty ruthless) wargamer, and Erf is a wargame. In his mind, he's been living in a series of close cousins of Erf for ''years'', his biggest problem is that he doesn't know what the rules are at first. As soon as he finds out, he begins finding ways to subvert them.
* Rina Lee in ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'', a girl turned to stone and left in an abandoned mine for 2000 years before being rescued by the magical doctors. Society has actually been destroyed fully four times in a row over the course of 2000 years and is currently more or less back at the same level that Rina is able to relate to, though she's still horribly traumatized at first. The doctors point out that if she had been frozen during one of the Dark Ages she wouldn't have fared nearly as well. It also helps that she already knew magic before emerging into a magical world.
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', [[{{Expy}} Gav, the former webcomic artist]] who wrote ''Webcomic/{{Nukees}}'', was a HumanPopsicle for a millennium (ever since the 21st century). When he was defrosted, he became... a wormhole physicist. Justified as [[spoiler:he was defrosted just as an alien technology-suppressing conspiracy was broken, meaning he has an untainted viewpoint.]]
* ''The Compozerz'' is set in modern times, with five [[PublicDomainCharacter famous classical music composers]] inexplicably transported to the desert of the American Southwest, where they suddenly speak [[EternalEnglish perfect English]] and get used to modern conveniences in no time. [[http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Compozerz/5031437 With a little help from their new friend Connie.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/TheTimeGuys'': [[ContemporaryCaveman Caveman]] the intern, a native of the 40th millennium B.C., is leagues more competent than [[NotThatKindOfDoctor Dr. Chronos, D.D.S.]].
* Nordkapp Man, a member of the [[Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse Global Guardians]], is an [[TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer Unfrozen Caveman Superhero]]. Within a few years of his being thawed out of the glacier he'd been trapped in for 30,000 years, Nordkapp Man (a neanderthal with superpowers) had become a university professor, a regular club-hopper, and, of course, an ice-wielding crimefighter.
* In ''WebVideo/{{Dragonbored}}'', Jimbroth is a BarbarianHero from [[CaptainErsatz Skyguard]] thrown into the real world, who ends up stealing his former player's promotion at work after he [[AchievementInIgnorance successfully applies]] the rules of medieval warfare to that of the corporate business structure.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The businessmen from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' were literally unfrozen from an iceberg.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'' is a pastiche of Buck Rogers, and is made a captain because IQ High is WrongGenreSavvy, who expects him to be better at everything because he's from the past. He wises up pretty quick, but Dodgers still has his uses as [[NoOneElseIsThatDumb no one else in the 2250's is stupid enough]] to attempt some pretty crazy stunts. And [[CrazyEnoughToWork some of those stunts actually work]]. ''[[LoserProtagonist Some.]]''
* Fry from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', who went from completely freaked out and dumbstruck by the future to almost ''too'' comfortable in 3000 A.D.
** Played for laughs in one episode when he sees a huge light in the sky and stares at it in wonder, calling forth all the usual imagery of alien abduction, and suddenly the interest on his face evaporates when he realizes what it is:
--->'''Fry:''' Oh, it's just a flying saucer. ''You can't park here!''
** When his ex-girlfriend from 1999, Michelle, shows up, she is confused and terrified by the world of the future; Amy and Leela point out that Fry was a bizarre outsider in his own time, and so he has adapted much better to the bizarre world of 3000.
** "That Guy" ([[AllThereInTheManual Steve Castle]]), another stereotypical 80's guy, picks up right where he left off as a successful corporate raider. Granted, he and Fry met in a counseling group for unfrozen people. A caveman at that group was having the hardest trouble coping with the fact that his wife was on display in a museum.
* The animated series ''WesternAnimation/MartinMystery'' has a character named Java, a caveman that was frozen in ice for 200,000 years. He works at the titular Martin's high school as a cook and janitor and helps him and his stepsister Diana solve supernatural mysteries for The Center. He's rather wary of technology and has terrible hygiene and grammar, but otherwise has adapted to 20th century life quite well.
** And of course, the character is based on a character of the same name from an Italian comic, and works as an assistant and sort-of butler for Martin Mystère. No bad hygiene or wariness of technology is evident, in fact, he almost seems to fit everyday modern life a bit better than his boss. His only seeming flaws are his lecherousness and 'wandering hands'.
* Inversion: "Gorak" from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Frozen in the ice nearly 32 months previous; after thawing, was difficult to train in "modern" communication, unable to adapt to "modern" ways, and ultimately moved to Des Moines, Iowa, because they're nearly three years behind everyone else.
* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' did a joke with a caveman who kept on ripping off Frylock's inventions while pretending to be just a stupid cave man.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': Brooklyn, Lexington, and Broadway take pretty quickly to the world of 1994, despite being a thousand years out of date. All the Gargoyles have shades of it, really, but it's most noticeable with the trio.
** Hudson too, once he discovers television. And reclining easy chairs...
---> '''Hudson:''' Well, now. This isn't too bad!
* Heloise of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', according to WordOfGod, was originally from Earth and came to Miseryville at the same time as [[FishOutOfWater Jimmy]]. However, she's such an evil person that in a town designed with the sole purpose of making people miserable, she fits in perfectly.
* The titular ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' quickly becomes this in the future where Aku flings him. The demon had intended him to be lost and helpless in a world where HE rules, but the samurai rapidly adapts quite well seeing how most of it feels like a Kurosawa movie.
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* The Adèle Blanc-Sec adventure "Le Savant Fou" has an especially weird example: the (literal) unfrozen caveman turns out turns out to be fluent in French and immediately asks the scientists who unfroze him for clothes, a stiff drink and -if it wouldn't be asking too much- a cigar. The drop-jawed scientists comment that "We'll have to revise our understanding of the Prehistoric ages."
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* The titular ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' quickly becomes this in the future where Aku flings him. The demon had intended him to be lost and helpless in a world where HE rules, but the samurai rapidly adapts quite well seeing how most of it feels like a Kurosawa movie.
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[[quoteright:300:[[Series/SaturdayNightLive http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unfrozenCaveLawyer_1040.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[SarcasmMode This courtroom is totally unfamiliar to him.]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[SarcasmMode This courtroom is totally unfamiliar to him.]]]]
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-->--'''Keyrock, The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer''', ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''
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* BuckRogers is probably the paramount example of this trope. No matter what version you hear, it's all about Buck, a guy from today's times, being sent a couple of centuries in the future where he turns out to be such a hot shot ace at everything that he single-handedly saves the world, defeats the evil empire, or whatever it is needs doing.
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* BuckRogers ComicStrip/BuckRogers is probably the paramount example of this trope. No matter what version you hear, it's all about Buck, a guy from today's times, being sent a couple of centuries in the future where he turns out to be such a hot shot ace at everything that he single-handedly saves the world, defeats the evil empire, or whatever it is needs doing.
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-->--'''Cirroc, The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer''', ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''
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Named for ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'''s Cirroc, TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer, who slyly manipulated the jury by playing the [[SimpleCountryLawyer "I'm just a caveman"]] card, who wore nice suits, and had a smug charm stereotypical of modern laywers.
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Named for ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'''s Cirroc, Keyrock, TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer, who slyly manipulated the jury by playing the [[SimpleCountryLawyer "I'm just a caveman"]] card, who wore nice suits, and had a smug charm stereotypical of modern laywers.
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* Cirroc, [[TropeNamer the unfrozen caveman lawyer]], from the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch. Cirroc becomes a sleazy lawyer who repeatedly uses his past to help make his arguments in court.
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* Cirroc, Keyrock, [[TropeNamer the unfrozen caveman lawyer]], from the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch. Cirroc Keyrock becomes a sleazy lawyer who repeatedly uses his past to help make his arguments in court.
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* [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverted]] by ComicBook/BoosterGold. Originally a screw-up in his native 25th century, he stole some future tech and a time machine to travel back to modern times, figuring he could become a beloved hero. Instead, he gained a reputation as a screw-up. He later does manage to find his niche, but as [[TimePolice a guardian of space-time]].
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* [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverted]] by ComicBook/BoosterGold. Originally a screw-up in his native 25th century, he stole some future tech and a time machine to travel back to modern times, figuring he could become a beloved hero. Instead, he gained a reputation as a screw-up. He later does manage to find his niche, but as [[TimePolice a guardian of space-time]].space-time]]...which requires him to [[ObfuscatingStupidity maintain his reputation as a screw-up]] to ensure that "[[RetGone kill Booster Gold back when he was still a loser]]" doesn't become the first step in every time-traveling villain's EvilPlan.
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* Alan Dean Foster's novel ''GloryLane'' features an '80s punk rocker who gets abducted by aliens along with his brother and a random girl from the local college. He fits in much better in space than he did on Earth.
** Flores Quintera in ''{{Spellsinger}}'' also prefers the Wizard's World to home.
** Flores Quintera in ''{{Spellsinger}}'' also prefers the Wizard's World to home.
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* Alan Dean Foster's novel ''GloryLane'' ''Literature/GloryLane'' features an '80s punk rocker who gets abducted by aliens along with his brother and a random girl from the local college. He fits in much better in space than he did on Earth.
** Flores Quintera in''{{Spellsinger}}'' ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' also prefers the Wizard's World to home.
** Flores Quintera in
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** Similar to the ''JohnCarterOfMars'' series. As a military man, he adapts easily to the warrior culture of Mars and quickly becomes legendary among its people. His biggest advantage is that in the lower gravity of Mars, an Earthman is a HeavyWorlder.
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** Similar to the ''JohnCarterOfMars'' ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series. As a military man, he adapts easily to the warrior culture of Mars and quickly becomes legendary among its people. His biggest advantage is that in the lower gravity of Mars, an Earthman is a HeavyWorlder.
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* Belgian comic ''SuskeEnWiske'', has Jerom, an [[ContemporaryCaveman actual caveman]] who after being unfrozen managed to become in essence a sophisticated everyman, even while retaining his prehistoric HulkSpeak and SuperStrength.
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* Belgian comic ''SuskeEnWiske'', ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'', has Jerom, an [[ContemporaryCaveman actual caveman]] who after being unfrozen managed to become in essence a sophisticated everyman, even while retaining his prehistoric HulkSpeak and SuperStrength.
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* Nordkapp Man, a member of the [[GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse Global Guardians]], is an [[TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer Unfrozen Caveman Superhero]]. Within a few years of his being thawed out of the glacier he'd been trapped in for 30,000 years, Nordkapp Man (a neanderthal with superpowers) had become a university professor, a regular club-hopper, and, of course, an ice-wielding crimefighter.
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* Nordkapp Man, a member of the [[GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse [[Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse Global Guardians]], is an [[TheUnfrozenCavemanLawyer Unfrozen Caveman Superhero]]. Within a few years of his being thawed out of the glacier he'd been trapped in for 30,000 years, Nordkapp Man (a neanderthal with superpowers) had become a university professor, a regular club-hopper, and, of course, an ice-wielding crimefighter.
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** ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'', on the other hand, is made a captain because IQ High is WrongGenreSavvy, and expects him to be better at everything because he's from the past. He wises up pretty quick, but Dodgers still has his uses as [[NoOneElseIsThatDumb no one else in the 2250's is stupid enough]] to attempt some pretty crazy stunts. And [[CrazyEnoughToWork some of those stunts actually work]]. ''[[LoserProtagonist Some.]]
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* ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'' is a pastiche of Buck Rogers, and is made a captain because IQ High is WrongGenreSavvy, who expects him to be better at everything because he's from the past. He wises up pretty quick, but Dodgers still has his uses as [[NoOneElseIsThatDumb no one else in the 2250's is stupid enough]] to attempt some pretty crazy stunts. And [[CrazyEnoughToWork some of those stunts actually work]]. ''[[LoserProtagonist Some.]]''
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** ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'', on the other hand, is made a captain because IQ High is WrongGenreSavvy, and expects him to be better at everything because he's from the past. He wises up pretty quick.
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** ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'', on the other hand, is made a captain because IQ High is WrongGenreSavvy, and expects him to be better at everything because he's from the past. He wises up pretty quick.quick, but Dodgers still has his uses as [[NoOneElseIsThatDumb no one else in the 2250's is stupid enough]] to attempt some pretty crazy stunts. And [[CrazyEnoughToWork some of those stunts actually work]]. ''[[LoserProtagonist Some.]]
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** ''DuckDodgers'', on the other hand, is made a captain because IQ High is WrongGenreSavvy, and expects him to be better at everything because he's from the past. He wises up pretty quick.
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** ''DuckDodgers'', ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'', on the other hand, is made a captain because IQ High is WrongGenreSavvy, and expects him to be better at everything because he's from the past. He wises up pretty quick.
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* In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', ''Marty [=McFly=]'' travels through time back to the old west. Despite being only a teenager who has presumably never shot a real gun before, he turns out to be an expert at quickdraw and pistol shooting (once he adjusts to the recoil) because of his [[IKnowMortalKombat familiarity with a video game from 1985]].
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* In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', ''Marty [=McFly=]'' ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'':
** Marty [=McFly=] travels through time back to the old west. Despite being only a teenager who has presumably never shot a real gun before, he turns out to be an expert at quickdraw and pistol shooting (once he adjusts to the recoil) because of his [[IKnowMortalKombat familiarity with a video game from 1985]].
** Marty [=McFly=] travels through time back to the old west. Despite being only a teenager who has presumably never shot a real gun before, he turns out to be an expert at quickdraw and pistol shooting (once he adjusts to the recoil) because of his [[IKnowMortalKombat familiarity with a video game from 1985]].
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* ''FateZero'' and ''FateStayNight'': Most Heroic Spirits --souls of heroes of (usually) ancient ages given form to participate in a ThereCanBeOnlyOne tournament-- easily adapt to modern day living. Some have their justification, e.g. Saber having the innate ability to ride anything including modern cars[[spoiler:; this includes jet fighters!]]. But Alexander takes it to a whole new level, he considers buying jet fighter, tanks, and other war machines of modern times.
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* ''FateZero'' ''LightNovel/FateZero'' and ''FateStayNight'': ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': Most Heroic Spirits --souls of heroes of (usually) ancient ages given form to participate in a ThereCanBeOnlyOne tournament-- easily adapt to modern day living. Some have their justification, e.g. Saber having the innate ability to ride anything including modern cars[[spoiler:; this includes jet fighters!]]. But Alexander takes it to a whole new level, he considers buying jet fighter, tanks, and other war machines of modern times.
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* There is a Frommer Files story where Erich Brunner, a disaffected aristocrat living in the late 21st Century, develops time travel and sends himself back to 1919 in an attempt to (of course) stop Hitler. He fails miserably, but winds up as a medievalist historian at Cambridge and works there happily for the rest of his life.
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* ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'' is all about this, since it focuses on characters from a HeroicFantasy universe who cross dimensions and end up in modern-day Japan. The title character goes from EvilOverlord of a demon army to the assistant manager of [[BlandNameProduct MgRonald's]] in a relatively short amount of time; in fact his passion for the job and dedication to the customers are the first sign that [[DarkIsNotEvil just because he's called "Demon King" doesn't mean he's a bad guy]]. There are still some FishOutOfTemporalWater aspects, but they're downplayed (such as the character who uses slightly outdated mannerisms and speech patterns).
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* Parson Gotti of ''{{Erfworld}}'', {{Justified|Trope}} in that he was specifically summoned in order to be able to adapt rapidly. Also, the spell was supposed to summon someone who would find the place familiar.
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* Parson Gotti of ''{{Erfworld}}'', ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'', {{Justified|Trope}} in that he was specifically summoned in order to be able to adapt rapidly. Also, the spell was supposed to summon someone who would find the place familiar.
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* Rina Lee in ''TheDragonDoctors'', a girl turned to stone and left in an abandoned mine for 2000 years before being rescued by the magical doctors. Society has actually been destroyed fully four times in a row over the course of 2000 years and is currently more or less back at the same level that Rina is able to relate to, though she's still horribly traumatized at first. The doctors point out that if she had been frozen during one of the Dark Ages she wouldn't have fared nearly as well. It also helps that she already knew magic before emerging into a magical world.
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', [[{{Expy}} Gav, the former webcomic artist]] who wrote ''{{Nukees}}'', was a HumanPopsicle for a millennium (ever since the 21st century). When he was defrosted, he became... a wormhole physicist. Justified as [[spoiler:he was defrosted just as an alien technology-suppressing conspiracy was broken, meaning he has an untainted viewpoint.]]
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', [[{{Expy}} Gav, the former webcomic artist]] who wrote ''{{Nukees}}'', was a HumanPopsicle for a millennium (ever since the 21st century). When he was defrosted, he became... a wormhole physicist. Justified as [[spoiler:he was defrosted just as an alien technology-suppressing conspiracy was broken, meaning he has an untainted viewpoint.]]
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* Rina Lee in ''TheDragonDoctors'', ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'', a girl turned to stone and left in an abandoned mine for 2000 years before being rescued by the magical doctors. Society has actually been destroyed fully four times in a row over the course of 2000 years and is currently more or less back at the same level that Rina is able to relate to, though she's still horribly traumatized at first. The doctors point out that if she had been frozen during one of the Dark Ages she wouldn't have fared nearly as well. It also helps that she already knew magic before emerging into a magical world.
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', [[{{Expy}} Gav, the former webcomic artist]] who wrote''{{Nukees}}'', ''Webcomic/{{Nukees}}'', was a HumanPopsicle for a millennium (ever since the 21st century). When he was defrosted, he became... a wormhole physicist. Justified as [[spoiler:he was defrosted just as an alien technology-suppressing conspiracy was broken, meaning he has an untainted viewpoint.]]
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', [[{{Expy}} Gav, the former webcomic artist]] who wrote
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Similar to what? It\'s nothing like the example above it.
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* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' did a similar joke with a caveman who kept on ripping off Frylock's inventions while pretending to be just a stupid cave man.
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* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' did a similar joke with a caveman who kept on ripping off Frylock's inventions while pretending to be just a stupid cave man.
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* Heloise of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', according to WordOfGod, was originally from Earth and came to Miseryville at the same time as [[FishOutOfWater Jimmy]]. However, she's such an evil person that in a town designed with the sole purpose of making people miserable, she fits in perfectly.
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* In the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, someone figured out how to clone neanderthals. It turns out they are a bit different from homo sapiens, most importantly, they are unable to lie. This leads to a literal caveman lawyer, a neanderthal who figured out how to deceive others by not saying the whole truth. As everyone knows his kind is unable to lie, he promptly became a successful lawyer.
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* There is a PoulAnderson short story in which a white-collar worker has his soul switched with a Conan-esque barbarian warlord. In the end, the goddess that switched them offers to return them to their original bodies. [[spoiler:They both turn down the offer.]]
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* There is a PoulAnderson Creator/PoulAnderson short story in which a white-collar worker has his soul switched with a Conan-esque barbarian warlord. In the end, the goddess that switched them offers to return them to their original bodies. [[spoiler:They both turn down the offer.]]
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* Lord Jagged of Canary in MichaelMoorcock's ''The Dancers at the End of Time'' cycle is a time traveller, who ventured to the eponymous End of Time, made his home there, and became more at home there than many of the era's native inhabitants, and being more pro-active than the rather clueless and almost purely hedonistic natives, ends up solving many of their problems, all while cheerfully embracing their (from our point of view) decadent hedonism.
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* Lord Jagged of Canary in MichaelMoorcock's Creator/MichaelMoorcock's ''The Dancers at the End of Time'' cycle is a time traveller, who ventured to the eponymous End of Time, made his home there, and became more at home there than many of the era's native inhabitants, and being more pro-active than the rather clueless and almost purely hedonistic natives, ends up solving many of their problems, all while cheerfully embracing their (from our point of view) decadent hedonism.
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* Two of the modern characters in MichaelCrichton's ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'' ends up living with ease and comfort in Late Medieval France. The first is a marine with an uncanny knack for languages. The second is a history grad student with a passion for all things from his period of study; language, clothes, culture, sports, war... The first insinuates himself into a French court. The second lives his natural span, happily married as an English nobleman.
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* Two of the modern characters in MichaelCrichton's Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'' ends up living with ease and comfort in Late Medieval France. The first is a marine with an uncanny knack for languages. The second is a history grad student with a passion for all things from his period of study; language, clothes, culture, sports, war... The first insinuates himself into a French court. The second lives his natural span, happily married as an English nobleman.
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* [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverted]] by BoosterGold. Originally a screw-up in his native 25th century, he stole some future tech and a time machine to travel back to modern times, figuring he could become a beloved hero. Instead, he gained a reputation as a screw-up. He later does manage to find his niche, but as [[TimePolice a guardian of space-time]].
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* [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverted]] by BoosterGold.ComicBook/BoosterGold. Originally a screw-up in his native 25th century, he stole some future tech and a time machine to travel back to modern times, figuring he could become a beloved hero. Instead, he gained a reputation as a screw-up. He later does manage to find his niche, but as [[TimePolice a guardian of space-time]].
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fixed wick
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* The main point of Jared Diamond's nonfictional ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'' is based on this trope and how, under the right circumstances, this applies to ''literally everyone on earth''.
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* The main point of Jared Diamond's nonfictional ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'' ''Literature/GunsGermsAndSteel'' is based on this trope and how, under the right circumstances, this applies to ''literally everyone on earth''.
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* Susan Shaw in Edward Ormondroyd's ''Time at the Top'' was much more at home living in the 19th century than in the 20th.
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** Actually a JustifiedTrope. When summoned, they receive instant knowledge of the modern day living, much like Aruceid does. So, they know the basics.
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** Actually a JustifiedTrope. When summoned, they receive instant knowledge of the modern day living, much like Aruceid Arcueid does. So, they know the basics.
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* In ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'' the cave people of 3000 quickly learn how to fly implausibly still functioning Aircraft and beat the psyclo who defeated the real military
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* In ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'' the cave people of 3000 quickly learn how to fly implausibly still functioning Aircraft and beat the psyclo Psychlo who defeated the real militarymilitary.
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* One of the escaped souls in {{Series}}/Reaper was a Hun. Although initially unfamiliar with the modern world, being frightened off by Sam's cellphone, by the next time they encounter him he's fully adapted businessman.
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* One of the escaped souls in {{Series}}/Reaper ''{{Series/Reaper}}'' was a Hun. Although initially unfamiliar with the modern world, being frightened off by Sam's cellphone, by the next time they encounter him he's fully adapted businessman.
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* Eddie Rigg of ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' not only fits in better than the natives of his new land, his is genuinely shocked they would think he'd want to go home again.
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* Eddie Rigg of ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' not only fits in better than the natives of his new land, his he is genuinely shocked they would think he'd want to go home again.
