History Main / WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant

** An episode contained a one-off CutawayGag in which Peter and Chris observe "a wasps' nest". The camera pans out to show that he's observing a WASP family having dinner.

** Also, Mr. Bottomtooth, complete with Tidewater/"Posh" accent (though it's distorted by his comically-exaggerated lower jaw).

** Actually averted by the white residents of Springfield much of the time, who are more likely to be ethnically Irish (politicians and cops), Italian [[TheMafia (the mobsters)]], Polish/Russian Jewish (a children's TV clown), vaguely Slavic or Hungarian (the bartender), or of Dutch/German/Scottish/whatever descent and low-income more often than not. The town's founder, Jebediah Springfield, ''could'' be considered the 19th-century frontier variant of this trope: earnest, morally righteous, and stiflingly wholesome. [[note]] And that was just a cover anyway, since he was secretly a Dutch pirate. [[/note]]

* Christopher Walken once succinctly described his roles to ''Equire'' : "I am the malevolent WASP" (although his father was a German immigrant).

The White[[note]]or less commonly: Wealthy since White and Anglo-Saxon is tautological[[/note]] Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or WASP, is a largely American trope that today is used to describe the stereotypically "white" (and mostly upper- or upper-middle class, as the term is usually not applied to working-class poor whites associated with DeepSouth stereotypes.... even though they ''technically'' fit the definition) person in American culture.

'''Executive:''' Well, I guess you could say they extend to when the Anglos met the Saxons.\\

** Creator/ChrisClaremont's run with Creator/JohnByrne brought in a much more diverse bunch of X-Men, largely by bringing in individuals from multiple nationalities, such as the German Nightcrawler, the Kenyan Ororo Monroe, the openly Jewish Kitty Pryde[=/=]Shadowcat (while also making the famous villain, Magneto, Jewish), the Cajun ComicBook/{{Gambit}} and the Southern Belle Rogue, the Russian Colossus[[note]]Leading a few snarky observers to note that the Mutant Metaphor of [[StartXToStopX combating discrimination and stereotypes is hampered by themselves being a bunch]] of ethnic foreign stereotypes[[/note]]. And of course, the most famous of all X-Men, the Canadian Wolverine. Incidentally, Wolverine's later origins revealed him to be an immortal whose family came from Canada's patrician colonial gentry, complete with the Preppy name of James Howlett. So Wolverine is technically Canadian-WASP but he comes across as an anti-establishment bad boy.

The term originally referred to New Englanders, New Yorkers, and Tidewater Southerners from wealthy, Anglo-Saxon (English) backgrounds, generally either [[UsefulNotes/AmericanChurches Congregationalist or Anglican/Episcopalian doctrinally]], but eventually came to be applied as well to inland Southerners, Midwesterners, and Westerners as well, regardless of income level or sect. It also came to be roughly synonymous with "Protestant", so that even Protestant Irish, Scandanavians, Dutch and Germans were eventually called [=WASPs=]. "White Protestants" wasn't as snappy a term as WASP, so usage of the term has hung around. The stereotype might be extended to upscale (or not) Catholics or Jews who either intermarry with Protestants or internalize Protestantism as the standard for "normal" Americans.

Strictly speaking, it is hard to generalize about [=WASPs=]. Since a majority, albeit a slim majority, of Americans are both white and Protestant, [=WASP=] covers a lot of demographic ground. They can be either liberal or conservative politically ([[BourgeoisBohemian socially conservative but culturally liberal]] being a frequent combination), and fill any socioeconomic niche. This trope is primarily for figures who meet the most stereotypical WASP criteria: affluent, generic, bland personalities, usually with a little bit of [[BritishStuffiness stuffiness inherited from their British ancestors]] and a preoccupation with keeping up appearances. These days, much of the WASP characteristics can be found ironically enough, in the non-WASP Irish-American community, especially in Boston. Thanks to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_succession_theory ethnic succession]] with Irish Catholics being the first immigrant waves, they have integrated and assimilated strongly into the WASP hegemony, with UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy's election being a symbol for the acceptance of the Irish Catholic community into the mainstream, and Kennedy being, alongside UsefulNotes/BarackObama, the ''only'' non-WASP President of the United States.[[note]]Sometimes UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren is also included as a non-WASP president, as he was of Dutch descent and not British ("Anglo-Saxon"). It also helps that he was the only US President to speak English as a second language (Dutch was his first). Others however still feel he qualifies as WASP since he's non-immigrant, and comes from a country and culture that is Protestant and allied to England, so while he may not be Anglo-Saxon, he's still White/Protestant and non-immigrant.[[/note]]

The White[[note]]or Wealthy since White and Anglo-Saxon is tautological[[/note]] Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or WASP, is a largely American trope that today is used to describe the stereotypically "white" (and mostly upper- or upper-middle class, as the term is usually not applied to working-class poor whites associated with DeepSouth stereotypes.... even though they ''technically'' fit the definition) person in American culture.

The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or WASP, is a largely American trope that today is used to describe the stereotypically "white" (and mostly upper- or upper-middle class, as the term is usually not applied to working-class poor whites associated with DeepSouth stereotypes.... even though they ''technically'' fit the definition) person in American culture.

'''Executive:''' Well, I guess you could say they extend to when the Angles met the Saxons.\\

UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode had this effect on [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood classic Hollywood cinema]]. Although written by two Irish Catholics, the Code was enforced mostly by Midwestern Protestants, and the films under its jurisdiction cut according to their biases which in turn reflected the biases of America's conservative ideology of that time. American characters in movies from the 1930s and '40s do tend to [[MonochromeCasting all look and talk the same]], with only minor regional differences. Non-Nordic Americans don't tend to show up - and when they do, [[RaceLift they are "conventionalized" as much as possible]]. Not until the 1950s would the existence of "ethnic" whites be openly acknowledged. Many of the classic Hollywood actors weren't WASP themselves but became WASP to fit in with the values of the time. Hispanic-American Creator/RitaHayworth is a famous example, as are a number of Jewish-origin actors who changed their names to better fit in (Creator/LaurenBacall for instance). This ended in the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood era with ''Film/TheGodfather'' with its Italian-American setting and cast, marking the start of greater on-screen diversity and largely ending the age when actors needed to alter their ethnic make-up or personal names to pass as WASP. In fact, nowadays the opposite will often be the case, at least in fiction: SuddenlyEthnicity is used to [[ForeignCultureFetish "spice up"]] an otherwise "ordinary" protagonist, especially if this person does not otherwise conform to WASP stereotypes.

The term originally referred to New Englanders, New Yorkers, and Tidewater Southerners from wealthy backgrounds, generally either [[UsefulNotes/AmericanChurches Congregationalist or Anglican/Episcopalian doctrinally]], but eventually came to be applied as well to inland Southerners, Midwesterners, and Westerners of Anglo-Saxon (English) descent as well, regardless of income level or sect. It also came to be roughly synonymous with "Protestant", so that even Protestant Irish, Scandanavians, Dutch and Germans were eventually called [=WASPs=]. "White Protestants" wasn't as snappy a term as WASP, so usage of the term has hung around. The stereotype might be extended to upscale (or not) Catholics or Jews who either intermarry with Protestants or internalize Protestantism as the standard for "normal" Americans.

* Chavo Guerrero's suburban, golf-playing alter ego, "Kerwin White."

* Played with in ''Film/MississippiBurning'': The phrase is used word for word at the [[BlatantLies not]] Klan meeting. This is after said meeting's speaker had repeatedly called the US government things like "atheist, Communist, Jewish, nigger-loving", among other things. Earlier in the movie the speaker had also essentially given a ''detailed explanation'' about why the county was so racist, doing things like the "Jews are all bankers in a moneymaking conspiracy" conspiracy theory and various other crackpot pieces of garbage like that. Paradoxically, then, the Klan's attitude here is partly rooted in resentment of wealth, which of course could also be applied to [=WASPs=]; the speaker was obviously arguing in an ethnic/religious vein rather than a class-based one. [[note]] And even there he was on shaky ground, for the core of the Klan was Scots-Irish by blood - a mixture of not just Anglo-Saxon but Scottish, Ulster Irish and Danish/Norwegian blood too. [[/note]]

* William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting in ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'', based on the real life William Poole, leader in the anti-immigrant pro-WASP "Know Nothing" movement. [[WickedCultured His "dignified" WASP exterior is naturally only skin-deep]], making him a PsychoSupporter of more traditional [=WASPs=].

* ''Literature/GrizzlyTalesForGruesomeKids'', although a British series, has a few characters in its stories like this, such as the rich family the move next door and hunt a neighbours' fox in "The Urban Fox"; the snobbish athletic schoolboy-hero from "Athlete's Foot" who has a double-barrel surname and is a stuck-up snob to everyone (narrators on audiobooks even give him a Received Punctuation accent); and the Crumpdump family from "An Elephant Never Forgets". The Chipper Chums gang from "The Chipper Chums Go Scrumping" is a downplayed group of WASP kids, since we never find out how rich they are, but they are a parody of Creator/EnidBlyton stories that had characters similar to WASP culture, act the same as the other [=WASPs=] from other ''Grizzly Tales'' stories.

[[folder:Professional Wresting]]

** An episode contained a one-off CutawayGag in which Peter and Chris observe "a [=WASPs=]' nest". The camera pans out to show that he's observing a WASP family having dinner.

%%* WesternAnimation/{{Antz}} has the wasp couple Chip and Muffy who act like well, [[LiteralPun wasps.]]

* Charles Emerson Winchester III from ''{{Series/Mash}}'', played by Creator/DavidOgdenStiers with a full-on BostonBrahmin accent. Winchester has occasionally shown distaste for Catholic ethnicities, in one episode being heartbroken at the news of his sister getting engaged to an Italian, remarking to the (Irish) Catholic Father Mulcahy, "at least she's not marrying an Irishman".

* {{Bryan Fuller}}'s ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'' centers of the Tyler family, which while not explicitly stated to be WASP, demonstrates the culture and interaction style that is associated with them, especially in the pilot.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' brings us Judge Whitey, who only likes the "pore" people who do his pores at the spa, and has declared the poverty a mental illness, and there's also Ms. Astor from the revival episode "The Mutants are Revolting", who is a typical posh, rich, old woman who likes to grant generous donations to those less fortunate than her, but still looks down upon them (such as the sewer mutants).

* In VideoGame/Fallout4 we meet the Cabot family, still living comfortably in their pristine mansion 200 years after a nuclear apocalypse. There are also the Croup family who have all been turned into feral post necrotic humans. The Codmans living in the upper stands of Diamond City also count - with the snooty attitude to match.

* WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} brings us Judge Whitey, who only likes the "pore" people who do his pores at the spa, and has declared the poverty a mental illness.
** Ms. Astor from the revival episode "The Mutants are Revolting" is a typical posh, rich, old woman who likes to grant generous donations to those less fortunate than her, but still looks down upon them (such as the sewer mutants).

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' contained a one-off CutawayGag in which Peter and Chris observe "a [=WASPs=]' nest". The camera pans out to show that he's observing a WASP family having dinner. Lois's parents, Carter and Babs Pewterschmitt, are about as rich and WASP-y as you can get. One of the many reasons her father hates Peter is because Peter is Irish Catholic. That and he's a poor, fat, drunken, rude, idiotic slob. Later subverted when it is revealed that Lois' mother is Jewish. Carter is then shown treating Babs pretty much exactly the way you would expect him to treat any non-WASP.

** Charles Montgomery Burns. Truth be told, different episodes of the show have provided wildly conflicting backstories for him. Originally he was from a clan of stuffy New England snobs (Monty himself being a Yale graduate), but then the episode "Rosebud" hinted that he was Jewish, the older brother of comedian George Burns (although that was obviously a CutawayGag, and not to be taken seriously). More recently, it's been mentioned (in "The Color Yellow") that he is the son of a Southern slaveholder.

The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or WASP, is a largely American trope that today is used to describe the stereotypically "white" (and mostly upper- or upper-middle class, as the term is usually not applied to working-class poor whites associated with DeepSouth stereotypes.... even though they ''technically'' fit the definition) person in American culture. It originally referred to New Englanders, New Yorkers, and Tidewater Southerners from wealthy backgrounds, generally either [[UsefulNotes/AmericanChurches Congregationalist or Anglican/Episcopalian doctrinally]], but eventually came to be applied as well to inland Southerners, Midwesterners, and Westerners of Anglo-Saxon (English) descent as well, regardless of income level or sect. It also came to be roughly synonymous with "Protestant", so that even Protestant Irish, Scandanavians, Dutch and Germans were eventually called [=WASPs=]. "White Protestants" wasn't as snappy a term as WASP, so usage of the term has hung around. The stereotype might be extended to upscale (or not) Catholics or Jews who either intermarry with Protestants or internalize Protestantism as the standard for "normal" Americans.

The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or WASP, is a largely American trope that today is used to describe the stereotypical "white" person in (and mostly upper- or upper-middle class, as the term is usually not applied to working-class poor whites associated with DeepSouth stereotypes.... even though they ''technically'' fit the definition) in American culture. It originally referred to New Englanders, New Yorkers, and Tidewater Southerners from wealthy backgrounds, generally either [[UsefulNotes/AmericanChurches Congregationalist or Anglican/Episcopalian doctrinally]], but eventually came to be applied as well to inland Southerners, Midwesterners, and Westerners of Anglo-Saxon (English) descent as well, regardless of income level or sect. It also came to be roughly synonymous with "Protestant", so that even Protestant Irish, Scandanavians, Dutch and Germans were eventually called [=WASPs=]. "White Protestants" wasn't as snappy a term as WASP, so usage of the term has hung around. The stereotype might be extended to upscale (or not) Catholics or Jews who either intermarry with Protestants or internalize Protestantism as the standard for "normal" Americans.