Line #34 Main/CrapsackOnlyByComparison


1	[[quoteright:319:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cityscape_and_village_smaller_1149.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:319:You know if you scroll down a little, it's really not too bad.[[note]] Sourced from [[http://radoxist.deviantart.com/art/Worth-enough-73247873 DeviantArt.]][[/note]]]]
3
4	->'''Ron Wizard:''' I had... bad pizza yesterday.\
5	'''King Radical:''' There is... a lot of bad pizza in this land too.\
6	'''Ron Wizard:''' WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE YOU MONSTER!!!
7	-->-- ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDoctorMcNinja''
8
9	This world is actually quite okay, at least by standards that can be expected by the audience. However, it is very much a matter of perspective whether a certain world is a CrapsackWorld or a {{Utopia}}. And thus, sometimes a character or cast of characters are faced with a world that is awful ''for them'' without being particularly bad in itself.
10
11	These characters might come from a world where boredom, lies, [[NoPoverty poverty]] or even death itself simply doesn't exist. When they encounter a world just like ours (and a rather kind version of it at that), it looks horrifying in comparison. In some cases, they learn to appreciate this new world after a while. In others, they remain repulsed by it.
12
13	If the character is unbalanced enough, this could possibly lead to him wanting to PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery.
14
15	Compare AppealToWorseProblems, HumansAreTheRealMonsters, LifeWillKillYou, and PerfectionIsAddictive. DeliberateValuesDissonance and CultureClash are bound to come into play.
16
17	Needless to say, this is TruthInTelevision. In the modern world, it can be easy to forget that access to electricity, plentiful food, clean drinking water, effective medical care, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the internet]], and innumerable other things simply weren't as widely available as they are today if they existed at all. And ''still'' are not widely available in many parts of the world. What the contemporary population saw as luxuries or opulence might be easily available in today's world[[labelnote:Example]]Hundreds of years ago, spices and dyes used to be more valuable than gold. Nowadays you can find dozens of different spices at the local grocery store, and even the cheapest clothing can be dyed with colors like violet and indigo that were literally worth a king's ransom.[[/labelnote]] if they're not looked down on as primitive or barbaric.[[labelnote:Example]]Medical care used to be [[MeatgrinderSurgery very unpleasant]], especially before the advent of modern anesthesia.[[/labelnote]] In light of this, [[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease any real-life examples are simply redundant.]]
18
19	[[noreallife]]
20	----
21	!!Examples
22
23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
26	* Inverted in ''Manga/Amakusa1637''. Modern-day Japan sounds heavenly when described to 17th century persecuted serfs.
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Comic Books]]
30	* ''The Adventures Of Oliver and Columbina'' features two worlds: The rosen dream lands, and reality-where-you-get-bored. The latter is simple and unproblematic for the readers, but incomprehensible for the characters.
31	* ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2020:'' The alternate universe Phyla-Vell starts getting increasingly unhappy with Earth-616, since it's so much more unpleasant compared to the dimension she and her wife came from (well, before it got eaten). In fairness, Earth-616 legitimately ''is'' a CrapsackWorld most of the time, but Phyla's unhappiness is also not being helped by [[spoiler:her wife merging with her much less heroic counterpart without even telling her.]]
32	* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'': [[ComicBook/Supergirl1982 Several]] [[ComicBook/Supergirl2011 incarnations]] of ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} were raised in incredibly technologically advanced, peaceful societies before being sent to a wartorn and - by her standards - primitive world. Earth looked from dull and backwards to awful in comparison with Krypton, and it takes some time for Kara to find what's good about her new home.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Fan Works]]
36	* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'': Eostia has its flaws -- the FantasticRacism, the [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slavery]], the [[WarIsHell war]], and the imminent threat of a {{PMC}} aiming to make a NoWomansLand SexSlave [[TheEmpire Empire]]. The last one would've been realised if it weren't for [[OutsideContextProblem Kyril's]] intervention. Despite these flaws, the country is a functioning place rather than a miserable shithole. Several P.O.V. characters have indicated that in spite of the war going on, life moves on, with the merchants making money and the townsfolk buying stuff and all that. To give a comparison between [[VideoGame/BloodBorne Yharnam]] (the place where [[PlayerCharacter Kyril]] hails from) and Eostia as illustration, Yharnam [[SoiledCityOnAHill collapsed]], while Eostia persisted for centuries. One thing is certain though: if you are a dark elf, or an InnocentBystander from an outermost village, you are screwed.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
40	* Film/DemolitionMan is this for John Spartan, as the future he winds up in is one where profanity is illegal, no one eats meat anymore, and product jingles are considered pop music. However, while the world of Demolition Man is, as Honest Trailers once put it, the world that conservatives think liberals want to create, it is a world that has gone so long without violent crime that the police no longer know how to deal with it, and where homelessness, disease, and hunger appear to be non-existent, barring the Scraps, who are people who chose to remove themselves from that system since they see Cocteau's rulership as tyrannical. [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans However, that tyrannical rulership is helmed by the man who is considered the father of the modern age, where war, famine, and disease have been wiped out and a golden age of prosperity is in full swing, with only the people choosing to live outside of that system experiencing any visible hardship whatsoever,]] so YMMV as to whether that is worth the price of a peaceful world.
41	* The characters in ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'' find themselves as FishOutOfTemporalWater in TheEighties, and Doctor [=McCoy=] in particular is horrified by modern-day medical practices, angrily comparing them to "the Dark Ages" and "the Spanish Inquisition". Since it's a rather lighthearted film, the whole thing's treated as comedy rather than serious criticism.
42	* ''Film/PansLabyrinth'' plays this straight for a few minutes, [[spoiler: as the problem with our world is claimed to be that it has bright sunlight and cold. Strongly averted for the rest of the film]].
43	* ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'' sends Giselle to a place where True Love doesn't exist and there are no happy endings... [[TheBigRottenApple New York.]] Giselle spends most of the movie wanting to return to the brightly colored, musical, and happy land of Andalasia. The movie itself ends up not condemning either place -- New York, for all the dirt and cynicism, is ultimately celebrated.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Literature]]
47	* Creator/VondaNMcIntyre's ''Literature/ThievesWorld'' short story "Looking for Satan". A group of people come to Sanctuary and find it appalling. This is not so unusual (Sanctuary is a WretchedHive after all) but the reason is that the place they come from is idyllic: everyone lives together without jealousy or greed and with a FreeLoveFuture orientation.
48	* Creator/HGWells' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_Like_Gods Men Like Gods]]'' (1923). As the result of an interdimensional accident, a group of English citizens find themselves in another world. The people there are perfect by human standards, and Wells uses their comments on the visitors' attitudes and values to criticize English society of the time.
49	* Inverted & played with in ''Literature/TheGiver'' and ''Literature/GatheringBlue'': Jonas at first ''thinks'' that he's in a utopia, but it's actually more of a CrapsackWorld. The town of ''Literature/GatheringBlue'' thinks itself a utopia, but it really isn't. [[spoiler: ''Messenger'' implies that both towns genuinely get better with time.]]
50	* Inverted in ''Literature/InterestingTimes'', with a traveler who considers Ankh-Morpork to be ''not'' crapsack because his own homeland is so much worse. Rude and obnoxious guards are celebrated for not torturing random innocents to death, and so on.
51	* This trope, or possibly its inversion, shows up in ''Literature/TheDispossessed'' by Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin. The protagonist, Shevek, goes from an anarcho-syndicalist utopia on the planet/moon Anarres to its planet/moon Urras (it's a double-planet system, and the two bodies aren't too different in size), which is dominated by the capitalist parliamentary republic A-Io and the totalitarian socialist Thu ([[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything if this reminds you of anything]], [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar it]] [[SpaceColdWar should]]), both of which have rigid class structures. After encountering the way the lower classes live and then being forced to take refuge in the embassy from a post-apocalyptic Earth, he says that the planet seems like hell to him; the ambassador comments that, compared to the way things are on Earth, it looks like heaven.\
52	\
53	''The Dispossessed'' has a subtitle: "An Ambiguous Utopia"; [=LeGuin=] takes pains to portray the problems of an anarcho-syndicalist system in practice, and Shevek frequently has his doubts about his own society.
54	* In ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', John the Savage views the "utopian" world of London as amoral, unnatural, and pointless, while Lenina sees John's home on the savage reservation as backwards, uncivilized, and barbaric.
55	* ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast'' by Heinlein has our protagonists run into several such worlds. One of these, merely described, indicates abrupt EarthDrift.
56	* Most citizens of ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' (magical realm) who travel to "drear Mundania" (non-magical rest of the world; in other words, modern-day Earth) feel that way about it.
57	* ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' would constitute a TropeCodifier in that Swift was using the fantastic societies Gulliver encounters to viciously lampoon British society at the time.
58	* The central conflict in ''Dies Irae'' is between the [[{{Order Vs Chaos}} conflicting ideologies]] of Heljanita the Toymaker and Darkscar of Despair. Heljanita thinks the time he comes from is terrible due to stagnation and tedium; Darkscar quite likes that society and is terrified of what Heljanita will create.
59	* In ''Nausea'', Antoine the lugubrious, [[TheWoobie Woobie]], protagonist laments his own infuriating hopeless extreme melancholic and pessimistic take upon the world and is viewed via the contrast of other people's happiness. He deconstructs in twain their glee and joy to his own level of woe. This trope plays out by Antoine being the "CrapsackWorld" and the rest are the comparison.
60	* Covenant, the setting of Creator/{{Greg Egan}}'s short story "Literature/{{Oceanic}}", is a pretty clear example of this trope. The narrative goes to great lengths to set it up as a BadFuture, but all of its flaws (religious fundamentalism, charlatans taking advantage of the uneducated, ''etc.'') are also present on Earth right now. That said, its population is descended from a society that used advanced technology to make themselves immortal, and the fact that most of the people follow a new religion instead of one that actually exists in real life implies that society collapsed at one point and they had to discover science all over again, so it's a bit more understandable that the narrator has a less-than-positive opinion of his own time, especially since [[spoiler:his mother dies halfway through the story from an exotic disease]], which could never have happened in a society whose knowledge of medicine is so advanced that no one ever dies.
61	* Brandon Sanderson's ''Literature/TheReckonersTrilogy'' has [[spoiler:Calamity, the being that gave humanity their powers,]] come from a world where they are basically intellects, and so our world with its bright lights and sounds seems shockingly terrifying and therefore evil.
62	** In the first book, ''Literature/{{Steelheart}}'', some would consider [[NewNeoCity Newcago]] to be this compared to [[AfterTheEnd pre-Calamity Chicago]] -- sure, you could be killed by [[BewareTheSuperman an Epic]] just for [[DisproportionateRetribution looking at them funny]], but in comparison to [[CrapsackWorld the rest of the world]], [[TheTrainsRunOnTime Newcago is about as close as you can get to a stable place to live, with electricity, career opportunities, and education, among other things]]. But as [[CapeBusters Prof]] points out, [[InvertedTrope Newcago is "good" by comparison only.]]
63	-->'''Prof''': Yes, there are worse places, but so long as this hellhole is considered the ideal, we'll never get anywhere. ''We cannot let them convince us this is normal!''
64	* A big part of George Orwell's classic ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' is the idea that the entire world in the book has been ConditionedToAcceptHorror. The world is only an utterly nightmarish totalitarian dystopia ''to the reader''; to an Oceanian citizen, this kind of horror world is all they really know. Even if the Party was ever overthrown, the world order would stay as-is because political and intellectual freedom have long since ceased to exist as concepts in the human psyche.
65	* In Eliezer S. Yudkowsky's ''Literature/ThreeWorldsCollide'', the second alien race - known as "The Super Happy People" - are consummate hedonists who believe that experiencing and sharing pleasure (especially sexual) is the most important thing, ever. They are profoundly saddened when they realize that humans cannot share their thoughts during moments of intense pleasure as they do (in fact, their only method of communication is through sex), and believe that we live a dreary existence devoid of love and happiness. They are then horrified (to the point that most of their crew have a hysterical breakdown and have to be temporarily relieved of their duties) when they discover that ''we allow our children to experience pain''. They think that children should just not experience bad things until they are mature enough to deal with it responsibly, and therefore inhibit their ability to do so. The fact that we don't is essentially viewed as allowing senseless cruelty to happen.
66	* In ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'', Elves were really meant to live in Valinor, the land of the gods; the ones in Middle-earth either never made it there or returned (see ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''). By the Third Age they basically cope by living in mini-utopias created by the rings' powers, but once those are gone they must either leave for good or fade away into obscurity as humanity rises to prominence.
67	* ''Literature/{{Eldraeverse}}'': Strictly speaking, the Voniensa Republic isn't all that bad, and would almost be a Utopia by Earth standards - for most unmodified organic species. It's just that, next to the Empire's extravagant prosperity, its own claims of superiority are starting to ring a little hollow.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
71	* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer,'' season five ended with her pulling a HeroicSacrifice; the sixth season premiere has her friends resurrect her. However, it turns out that she had been in "Heaven" (described simply as a state of pure contentment and safety) for what felt like a very long time, and as a result the normal world seems harsh and cruel to her. Her main arc for the season is basically coming to terms with reality again, which WordOfGod paints as a metaphor for the period when young adults need to figure out what they want to do with their lives.
72	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
73	** [[{{Ultraterrestrials}} The Silurians]], whenever they appear, are usually appalled that evolved apes (humans) have, millions of years after their time, taken over Earth.
74	** Control, an alien who appears in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E2GhostLight "Ghost Light"]], considers Victorian London a nightmare. (We might think, too.)
75	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace "The Girl in the Fireplace"]] has Madame de Pompadour briefly visit the 51st century, seeing the inside of the spaceship that has the unexplained windows into her time. This, combined with whatever she saw in the Doctor's mind, has her firmly convinced that she is better off staying in 18th century France.
76	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice "Amy's Choice"]] has the Doctor trapped (possibly) in a dream world where his two married companions are in a humdrum rural town that is incredibly boring. The Doctor asks, "[[CrossesTheLineTwice So, what do you do to stave off the self-harm?]]" Apparently the CallToAgriculture is a death knell to him.
77	* The ''Series/PhilipKDicksElectricDreams'' episode "[[Recap/PhilipKDicksElectricDreamsS1E5RealLife Real Life]]" shows us two version of a future: one that is only slightly ahead of us (most things look pretty much the same, but some tech is more advanced), and one that is the stereotypical "flying cars and holograms" distant future. [[spoiler:The distant future turns out to be the real one.]]
78	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is consistent in its negative portrayals of 20th-21st century life over several different shows. This is especially prevalent in any episodes in which the cast is sent back into time. You can often expect characters to reference the period as barbaric, ignorant, greedy, or hateful this despite the fact that the modern era has seen far less war, illiteracy, poverty, or genocide than any era preceding it.
79	** It should be noted, however, that the 21st century of Star Trek takes place during, between, and after multiple global wars. At a minimum there's the Eugenics War in which [[BewareTheSuperman Khan Noonien Singh and his genetically-enhanced followers attempted to take over the world]] and a nuclear WorldWarIII in which ordinary non-enhanced humans nearly wiped themselves out. While World War III is only vaguely alluded to, the Eugenics War and [[BigBad Khan Singh himself]] are central to [[Recap/StarTrekS1E22SpaceSeed a TOS episode]] and [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan two]] [[Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness movies]].
80	** A particularly pointed example appears in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekS2E26AssignmentEarth "Assignment: Earth"]], as Gary Seven looks out the window at a 20th-century street and disgustedly mutters, "You're right, Isis. It ''is'' primitive. It's incredible that people can exist like this."
81	** Played for laughs in the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Message In A Bottle", where The Doctor finds himself aboard a prototype Starfleet vessel, the ''Prometheus'', and [[SnarkToSnarkCombat bickers with]] the ''Prometheus'''s own EMH program.
82	--->'''EMH:''' Get me the thrombic modulator.
83	--->(''The Doctor looks at the various devices on the instrument tray, then picks up one like a small flying saucer'')
84	--->'''EMH:''' (''rolling eyes'') [[RummageFail It's the cone-shaped device]]. Hand it to me, please. Medical science has made a few advances while you've been off in the Delta Quadrant, did you say?
85	--->'''The Doctor:''' That's right.
86	--->'''EMH:''' We don't use scalpels or leeches anymore. I suggest you let me handle the medical side of things. As for retaking the ship, I'll leave that in your experienced hands.
87	** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' Has Raffi complain about how she lives in a "hovel" with practically nothing. That hovel is a luxury cabin inside a protected national park, with all the necessities, communications, and luxuries like narcotics, that she wants even after being fired from Starfleet and not working in any other profession. She might not be living the best 24thC life, but it is still a pretty fantastic life by any objective standards.
88	* In ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', Tahani Al-Jamil is shown both in flashbacks and real time to be talented in various arts, but is outshined by her sister and is made to feel inadequate by her parents' comparisons.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Music]]
92	* {{Music/SPOCK}}'s song "Beam Me Up", (surely inspired by ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'') sums up our world with the words "Beam me up, there's no intelligent life down here where I am".
93	* Similarly, Music/EricBogle's "Beam Me Up, Scotty" declares "I'm stuck here in a place I do not care for" and "There must be intelligent life out there, I hope so, there's not much down here."
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
97	* In ''TabletopGame/InvisibleSun'', this world and existence are Crapsack since they're a diminished, twisted shadow of a magical realm called the Actuality; the only reason any magic users came to it in the first place was to flee a horrific magical war in their own realm. The other Suns, where magic is normal and only limited by the imagination, are far more imaginative and interesting (though not necessarily nice) places.
98	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The Imperium Of Man is deliberately written and marketed as "the cruelest, most bloody regime imaginable" and quite a lot of fiction is dedicated to showing that. However, novels and stories that step away from the front lines and show the civilian worlds that ''aren't'' currently being attacked (the Eisenhorn and Caiphas Cain novels are the most famous examples) are fairly average. There are Civilian Worlds that have a quality of living roughly equivalent to our modern Earth, they just don't get shown as much because that's not where the colossal wars are happening.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Video Games]]
102	* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' has Aerie, a winged elf who lost her wings in a traumatic backstory. If recruited into the party, she spends a good chunk of the early game whining about how awful life on the ground is. [[PlayerCharacter Charname]] can eventually convince her that it's not so bad.
103	* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', this is a major theme [[spoiler:of the "Tower" ending included with the Phantom Liberty expansion. If V ends the storyline by cooperating with the NUSA and surrenders Songbird to them, they gain access to an experimental procedure for their Relic infection. Unlike what happens if you work with Arasaka or assault Mikoshi, this cure actually ''works'' at saving V from their terminal condition. Unfortunately, it also renders V incapable of using combat cyberware, [[CareerEndingInjury effectively killing off their Edgerunner career]] and making them no more powerful than the average Joe on the street. This, combined with a two-year coma that made them distant from most of their friends and allies, has V incredibly distraught, [[WasItReallyWorthIt potentially even wondering if getting cured was worth it at all]]. However, while the ending clearly illustrates how NothingIsTheSameAnymore, it also establishes that most of V's misery is simply borne from them being used to such a different life. They may not have the abilities or reputation they once did, but that just makes them another face in the crowd of people trying to get by in Night City, and they still have their whole life ahead of them and enough opportunities and connections to make a fresh start, painful though it may be.]]
104	* ''VideoGame/Destiny2'': The Awoken people got their start as the crew and cargo of a human colony ship sucked into a pocket dimension, transforming them into blue-skinned, ageless TranshumanAliens at the cost of near-complete LossOfIdentity. Nonetheless, on the new world of Distributary, they built a CrystalSpiresAndTogas utopia almost from scratch. Then a demagogue, the Diasyrm, began claiming that when the colonists first entered the pocket universe, they could have been transformed into transcendent godlike beings, free of pain or want, but that the Queen of the Awoken (the first to awaken on Distributary) had made a deliberate choice to incarnate everyone as humans, murdering their potential and condemning them to an eternity of the struggle and suffering inherent to being human. Which, again, they had just built a utopia as. This new philosophy triggered a civil war. (The Diasyrm was completely right about the godhood thing, but accused the wrong person — the ''real'' first Awoken ''agreed'', but believed transcendent godhood was a trap that could only lead to stagnation.)
105	* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition:'' The GreaterScopeVillain turns out to be [[spoiler:your elven companion Solas, who is revealed to be an ancient elf from the days of Arlathan, a world said to be so resplendent that “it would blind you with its beauty,” filled with [[OurElvesAreDifferent immortal and magical elves]] and magical wonders like floating cities of shining crystal and other similar wonders. He finds modern Thedas (a [[StandardFantasySetting standard medieval fantasy setting]]) to be an utter hellhole ([[CrapsackWorld which isn't completely wrong]]) beyond saving by comparison, and would rather destroy the current world to magically restore the old one at the expense of those still living in it. A friendly PlayerCharacter can vow in their final confrontation that [[SequelHook they'll prove to him that the current world is worth saving]], and he sounds half-hopeful that you'll succeed.]]
106	* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' is this compared to hard canon, especially compared to [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG.]] It's almost half a century later, the Federation is at war with the Klingons and [[PlayerCharacter newly commissioned officers are being fast-tracked to their own full commands because of losses incurred,]] Romulus and Remus have been destroyed, the New Romulan Empire is largely trying to make a new home for its people but is wrought with internal conflict, the Borg are making a new incursion, most of this has been set up by [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Species 8472]] infiltrators, the Iconians are researching how best to break the various species when they come back and are hinted at manipulating Species 8472 into manipulating the conflicts into existence to soften everyone up... it's much bleaker than even [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]] at the height of the Dominion War. It's still Franchise/StarTrek, though, so most civilizations, certainly Federation members, are still post-scarcity and despite the various conflicts going on, it's paradise compared to any actual CrapsackWorld.
107	** It's especially nice compared to the CrapsackWorld shown in-game. One storyline shows what would have happened if the Enterprise-C from the TNG episode ''Yesterday's Enterprise'' hadn't made it back to correct the timeline; the Federation lost the war with the Klingons,[[note]] the war from that episode, not that Federation-Klingon War from the game which takes place decades later and doesn't happen in this altered timeline,[[/note]] a resistance movement got going, but then the Dominion invaded and crushed all opposition (and the Tholians cut a deal with the Dominion and now has a greatly expanded territory and large amounts of humanoid slaves). The cutscene when time changes shows the player's character going from captain of their ship to captain of a run-down freighter, with some of the player's bridge officers living dreary lives elsewhere.
108	[[/folder]]
109
110	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
111	* Several of the main cast members in ''VisualNovel/SharinNoKuni'' live under extremely harsh legal restrictions which they have mostly come by undeservedly, and the main character was put through a [[TrainingFromHell nightmarish training program]] in order to become qualified to oversee and rehabilitate such individuals. However, the legal system of the setting, which is explicitly intended to ''prevent'' crimes and socially destructive behavior, rather than conferring fair and proportionate punishments on the guilty, is stated to result in much lower crime rates than our own, and such restrictions are implied to be very rare compared to imprisonment in Japan, which already has low crimes rates by real-world standards, such that a town which is considered to have an unusual concentration of social unrest has a grand total of three residents living under restrictions.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Webcomics]]
115	* In one ''Webcomic/BobTheAngryFlower'' comic, Bob dies and goes to heaven; he realizes that everything up there is so awesome that people still living on earth are in agony, relatively speaking. He then jumps down to earth, saying "I've gotta kill everyone!" (doubles as a cruel parody of DamagedSoul).
116	* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', the PerfectPacifistPeople of the so-called Dimension of Lame are rather disturbed by being visited by someone who's willing to use violence in self-defence and swear, which definitely implies they couldn't handle his world either. It kind of works the other way around too, because they're doing okay there [[spoiler:before the demonic invasion]], but Torg from "our" world gets really fed up with such a conflict-phobic and wussy dimension. This is an {{inversion}} since the world is too ''nice'' for him.
117	-->'''Torg''': Why the '''BLEEP''' does it smell like flowers down here?\
118	'''Alternative Zoë''': It's a sewer, silly!\
119	'''Torg''': I hate this dimension!
120	** Their world is so utopian, they don't even understand the ''word'' "evil" - they use the expression "rather nice" to describe anything less than utopian.
121	* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDoctorMcNinja'': The refugees from the Radical Land consider [=McNinja's=] world to be a horrifying dystopia since [[TalkingAnimal only humans can talk]], Mountain Dew is a mediocre soda instead of the nectar of the gods, and there isn't a single helicopter-head ent. Unfortunately, Sparklelord's corruption is destroying the Radical Land, forcing them to flee in the face of all the terrible things happening in their home.
122	-->'''Ron:''' I had... [[SeriousBusiness bad pizza]] yesterday.\
123	'''King Radical:''' There is... a lot of bad pizza in this land too.\
124	'''Ron:''' WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE YOU MONSTER!!!
125	* {{Discussed}} by Florence in [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3200/fv03145.htm this]] strip of ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}''. Compared to a human, her status as an UpliftedAnimal comes with a lot of downsides. But compared to a ''non''-uplifted animal...
126	[[/folder]]
127
128	[[folder:Web Original]]
129	* In ''Literature/FineStructure'', characters from universes with high numbers of spacelike and timelike dimensions, where intelligence arises spontaneously everywhere, land in our universe of 3+1 dimensions, where the laws of physics are limited and intelligence is barely tenable at all. It's compared to a kind of hell.
130	* In ''Literature/ThreeWorldsCollide'' a human spaceship makes first contact with a species who eat their own young. This naturally horrifies the humans. Meanwhile, the Babyeaters are ''equally horrified'' that the humans ''don't'' eat babies, since [[BlueAndOrangeMorality they consider baby-eating the cornerstone of morality and decency.]] While both species grapple with this discovery, a ''third'' species show up: the Maximum Fun-Fun Ultra Super Happy People, who have [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul eliminated all capacity in themselves to feel anything but absolute pleasure at all times,]] and are aghast that humans have not done the same.
131	[[/folder]]
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133	[[folder:Western Animation]]
134	* The Creator/TexAvery cartoon ''The Cat That Hated People'' is about, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a cat who hates people.]] The cartoon starts with an alley cat complaining about his miserable life, how humans throw boots at him, hit him with brooms, and even ''shoot'' at him. He complains about how he doesn't get along with children (who tie paper bags onto his feet) babies (who flail him about a playpen), and housewives (who hit him over the head with broomsticks when he scratches their furniture). As he complains on the sidewalk, his point is proven by people who step all over him, the last one kicking him for good measure. He [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere finally decides to leave people forever]] by hitching a ride aboard a rocket and flying to the moon. However once there, he finds the moon is [[CloudCuckooLand a crazy place]], full of weird creatures who assault him in bizarre ways. (For instance, a lipstick applies itself to his mouth, then a giggling pair of lips gives him a wet smacker; then a living diaper, safety pin, and bottle of baby powder chase him, then diaper him and shove a bottle in his mouth; he has a tantrum, and his head is diapered too). Realizing this place is worse than Earth, he [[CartoonPhysics golf drives himself back]], and is ''happy'' to be back. Even though he's no better off than he was before, with people ''still'' stepping on him, he has a newfound appreciation for his home.
135	* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Zig-zagged all over the place. The Crystal Gems are permanent residents of the Earth and have been for a [[TimeAbyss good while now]]. On the one hand, Earth's a far cry [[TheresNoPlaceLikeHome from their own Homeworld]] and they're [[PunyEarthlings not very impressed]] [[FantasticRacism with humans]]. On the other hand, [[NobleBigot they're also]] [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight more than willing to protect both the planet and its inhabitants]], [[spoiler:[[BackstoryHorror up to and including]] [[CivilWar starting a war]] [[DefectorFromDecadence for their sake]], because Homeworld seems to be TheEmpire and their initial interest was [[PlanetLooters to bleed the Earth dry]]...]]
136	** However, as time passes, this is revealed namely to be Pearl's issue. Amethyst was born on Earth and was closer to humans than anyone else except Rose, and her natural attitude tends to be "whatever". Garnet, meanwhile, has her future vision and being leader to occupy her time. Pearl, however, tends to look down on humanity the most (which is painfully ironic given how Pearls were a ServantRace who only surpassed Pebbles in Gem society's caste system). Though the massive reveal that [[spoiler:Pink Diamond was Rose Quartz means that Pearl serving her meant she had a higher status than her fellow Gems.]] Furthermore, thanks to Steven, the Gems grow fonder of their newfound home, with Amethyst rebuilding her old friendship with Vidalia and the Gems interacting more with humans.
137	* ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons''. George Jetson is always complaining about how hard his job is, even though he's living in an idealised {{Zeerust}} future and his hard work consists of pushing a button. Mind you that might have something to do with the way [[PointyHairedBoss Mr. Spacely]] is constantly on his back[[note]]that, or the carpal tunnel syndrome from all that button-pushing[[/note]].
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Context Main / CrapsackOnlyByComparison