History Main / WisdomFromTheGutter

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda:'' The noodle chef Mr. Ping's personal philosophies in both of the films also happen to be the secrets of ultimate kungfu wisdom [[spoiler:the importance of being yourself and being able to let go of the past.]]

[[folder:Film]]

* Played for laughs in an ''Series/InLivingColor'' skit, where an old, washed up, and implied homeless Jazz musician Calhoun Tubbs played by Creator/DavidAlanGrier, gives singing advice to an Music/AxlRose expy played by Creator/JimCarrey. The expy is having writers block, and Tubbs helps him find his creative side again by teaching him the meaning of the {{Blues}}. Hilarity ensues.

* Subverted in the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "The Wages of Sin", where a bum who the cops are currently questioning offers a cryptic-yet-wise statement that foreshadows the hubris the cops and district attorneys, in their quest to bring down a high-ranking mob boss that takes up the next two episodes, will face and which they would do well to pay attention to. However, because he's a bum and because what he's saying has absolutely no connection to what the cops are currently talking to him about (and indeed have not even ''begun'' chasing the mobster, thus having no lesson to learn at this point), they just ignore him and wearily ask him to focus on the point at hand.

->''"Accept the truth from whatever source it comes."''
-->-- '''Maimonides'''

Sometimes this is combined with the idea that [[AngelUnaware angels disguise]] themselves as beggars and homeless people. It even goes back to {{fairy tale}}s that have fairies disguising themselves as old beggar women, making this one of TheOldestOnesInTheBook.

Frequently overlaps with MagicalHomelessPerson, for when vagrants have supernatural powers, and BarefootSage, since homeless people are often shoeless as well. See also DumbassHasAPoint, JerkassHasAPoint, SimpleMindedWisdom. If the source of wisdom isn't just poor, but also oppressed, uneducated, and/or mentally challenged, it may be a WhoopiEpiphanySpeech. Compare ArmorPiercingResponse when it's the response, rather than the responder, that is shocking.

** There is an UrbanLegend about a university where occasionally a homeless man sits quietly out of the way in an amphitheater. The students and staff let him be, thinking it keeps him out of the cold, until one day at the end of the lecture he stands up and asks a particularly on-topic question. Then it's revealed that he too, used to be a student at the university, [[ADegreeInUseless where he got his degree...]]

* Diogenes was a Greek philosopher who was the founder of the cynic philosophy and was also known to live only in a barrel. According to one myth: Alexander the Great approached him and offered him a wish of his choosing, Diogenes told him to step aside because he was standing in his light. While Alexander's peers laughed at the situation, Alexander himself saw this as a lesson in wisdom because Diogenes was in fact happier than him despite his way of living.
--> "But truly, if I were not Alexander, I wish I were Diogenes."

[[folder:Comics]]
* In ''ComicBook/BatmanGothamAdventures'' #26, Batman, caring for a lost baby, is educated on how to hold it properly by some thugs whose mugging attempt he had foiled.
* ''[[ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison Batman RIP]]'' had an amnesiac Bruce Wayne receive guidance (and a [[ChekhovsGun Chekov's Gun]]) from a homeless man, or quite possibly said homeless man's ghost. He also receives helpful advice from a drug-induced hallucination Bat-Mite.
* [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson]] is actually an example of this. In the Pre-Flashpoint comics, Billy was forced to live on the streets for several years before being granted the power to become Captain Marvel by the Wizard Shazam. It's all but stated that much of his courage, cleverness and resourcefulness came from having to survive on his own. During one fight with Black Adam, Adam attempted to sucker Cap with a similar bit of treachery Adam used to kill Billy's father. Instead, Cap sidestepped the attack and turned the tables on Adam, telling Adam that he shouldn't expect someone raised on the streets to fall for such a simple trick.
* The only person both smart enough and sufficiently uncorrupt to dispense useful advice in ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} is The World's Smartest Garbage Man. Not just the world's smartest garbage man, but the world's smartest man. Period. Apparently, those who can't figure out why he wants to work as a garbage man just aren't as smart.
* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} once got a pep talk from [[PsychoForHire Bullseye!]]

* In the ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse this is sometimes Donald's role: he's full of debts and will often spend money wastefully, but that's because he doesn't ''care'' of being rich (he has in fact struck rich dozens of times, and the first thing he always does is to pay his current debts), and can often give Scrooge good advice. His most notable moment is when he called Scrooge and Magica out on their greed, pointing out they're so obsessed with money they'll ''never'' be able to enjoy it - something for which they have no reply and Donald is compared to Solon, the ''wisest man in history'' (who had dispensed very similar advice to the wealthy yet greedy Croesus).

[[folder:Fanfics]]
* From the ''Fanfic/Gensokyo20XX'' series, you would not normally be expecting something wise from age-regressed, pessimistic, fatalistic and mentally unstable Reimu, doubly so when she pointed out how difficult their lives, especially hers, have been and how they don't complain, while Baka does nothing but complain and, to her surmising, Wangst, saying, "All you do is complain of your life, yet you never do anything to make it better."
* From ''Webcomic/KillLaKillAU'', we have Rei Houmaru, otherwise and commonly known as "Rei the Drunk Secretary", who is, as her nickname states, a drunkard but, as the others find out, she is actually smarter than she seems with wisdom to match, which is proven when she talks Satsuki out of taking revenge using metaphors and comparisons of broken glass to life and points out how phones can be tracked allowing them to find Ryuu.

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', Inosuke who had been pretty oblivious, borderline insensitive early on, till then on how to react to death happening around him due living like a WildChild alone in the mountains, stepped up to give a pretty rousing speech once [[spoiler:Kyojuro died against Akaza, Tanjiro was feeling devastated over his death, thinking Kyojuro lost only because he had to look out for demon slayers weaker than him and all 200 passagers on the train, Tanjiro thought it would have been better if he died instead of Kyojuro; Inosuke steps up, telling Tanjiro to remember Kyojuro's words of trust towards them, he trusted that all three boys will become great demon slayers even better than he was, so Tanjiro shouldn't ever think about dying, it would invalidate all hopes for the future placed on him]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': "The Question" has Gumball and Darwin asking everywhere about what's the meaning of life, after everyone they know give them unsatisfying answers, the finally get a good one from the local CloudCuckoolander, Sussie, that clearly and concisely says that life is about the journey, and making friends along the way, as well as finding your own way to enjoy it.

** UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} was a homeless carpenter from what was generally regarded as one of the more backwater parts of the Roman Empire, and spent time with the most despised (and consequently most disenfranchised) members of society, including whores, lepers, and other homeless people. Despite this, the guy's reformist take on Judaism, which emphasized following Mosaic law to the spirit rather than the letter and emphasized social justice, was revolutionary enough to form the basis of [[UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} one of the biggest religions in the world]].

** Arguably, UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} is an example. He spent time with the most despised members of society and people seen as sinners.

-> ''"Accept the truth from whatever source it comes."''

* After the heroes figure out that selenium is the weakness of the alien menace in the film ''Film/{{Evolution}}'' (through [[SolveTheSoupCans a completely arbitrary deductive method]]), they wonder where they're going to get enough selenium to save the day. It's the comic relief idiots who reveal the answer (selenium is the active ingredient in [[ProductPlacement Head & Shoulders shampoo]]). When asked by their disbelieving biology professor how they knew ''that'' when their final coursework essay was entitled, "Cells Are Bad", they point out how silky and dandruff-free their hair is.

* Subverted in ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic: The Second Raid'' when a floozy Kaname-look-alike gives Sousuke some very bad advice (mixed in with a few minuscule truths). Furthermore two episodes later Sousuke is spouting the wisdom of ''Gauron''! HeroicBSOD is not fun.

* In ''Film/TwentyFourHourPartyPeople'', Tony Wilson gets a pep-talk from [[Creator/ChristopherEccleston a bum on the street]] who claims to be the philosopher Boethius. Tony later repeats this quote word for word during a broadcast of ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' he's hosting, and the director of the episode (played by [[TheCameo the real Tony Wilson]]) promptly instructs the editor to cut around that tedious bullshit.

Frequently overlaps with BarefootSage, since homeless people are often shoeless as well. See also DumbassHasAPoint, JerkassHasAPoint, SimpleMindedWisdom. If the source of wisdom isn't just poor, but also oppressed, uneducated, and/or mentally challenged, it may be a WhoopiEpiphanySpeech. Compare ArmorPiercingResponse when it's the response, rather than the responder, that is shocking.

See also DumbassHasAPoint, JerkassHasAPoint, SimpleMindedWisdom. If the source of wisdom isn't just poor, but also oppressed, uneducated, and/or mentally challenged, it may be a WhoopiEpiphanySpeech. Compare ArmorPiercingResponse when it's the response, rather than the responder, that is shocking.

** Ezekiel tried to get the attention of Judah through public attention-grabbing acts - including sleeping on one side for 390 days, eating a scroll, and using dung as fuel. All of this was to warn people about the fall of Jerusalem. He would later be proven right.

* The [[http://randomactsofshark.blogspot.com/ The Obamadaemmerung]] plays with this by turning the concept just as EPIC as it turns the rest of the 2008 election.