Line #42 Main/HighClassCannibal


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3	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Take care to put your example in its proper place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings!
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7	[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{Hannibal}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hannibaleatingwill.jpeg]]]]
8	[[caption-width-right:350:"This isn't cannibalism...It's only cannibalism if we're equals."]]
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10	->''"'That being said, it's not a particularly even divide,' Dr. Warren continued. 'You know, it turns out that having access to eating people without getting in trouble is a pretty privileged pastime. And at the end of the day, even cannibals identify as rich before anything else.'"''
11	-->-- '''[[Website/TheHardTimes Hard Drive]]''', [[https://hard-drive.net/wealthy-cannibal-conflicted-on-eat-the-rich/ "Wealthy Cannibal Conflicted On 'Eat The Rich'".]]
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13	Sometimes you get to EatTheRich. Other times, [[RussianReversal the rich]] [[ImAHumanitarian eat you.]]
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15	Rich characters usually enjoy ConspicuousConsumption and have to screw over the poor and lower classes to be successful. Sometimes, that consumption is taken very literally and they eat human flesh. If they deliberately prey on those lower classes, expect it to overlap with KillThePoor, though this is not necessarily the case. The cannibalism also doesn't need to be by choice, but it often is.
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17	The other association is with SnootyHauteCuisine. After all, the logic goes that rich people [[HauteCuisineIsWeird eat so many weird things]], so why would eating human flesh really be any different? SapientEatSapient is virtually guaranteed to be in play when this trope comes up. Sapience is often needed to grasp the concepts of wealth and poverty in the first place. Plus, the ability for the wealthy cannibals to [[ForTheEvulz taunt their sapient dinner with their impending fate is too good to pass up]].
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19	Contrast DevouredByTheHorde, which can often involve a crowd (generally associated with the poor) eating another person. At times, it can overlap with WickedCultured, but it doesn't need to. The HumanTraffickers would be under their employment. Compare VampiresAreRich, when another form of consumer is associated with wealth, and ExoticEntree, another type of food dish it's inherently evil to enjoy. It can also overlap with ConsumingPassion, because rich suitors are generally portrayed as more attractive. Contrast CannibalTribe, which associates cannibalism with stereotypes of low culture and savagery. Frequently paired with AristocratsAreEvil.
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21	!!Examples:
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23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Comic Books]]
26	* ''ComicBook/EatTheRich2021'': The rich residents of Crestfall Bluffs not only ritualistically kill and eat their staff at the end of their contracts, they enjoy it and are physiologically unable to return to non-human meat. Astor later implies to Joey that this is in fact a ''global'' operation. [[spoiler:Inverted at the end when Joey leads the staff in an uprising against the rich people, who are then feasted upon.]]
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
30	* ''Film/TheCannibalClub'' is a Brazilian movie about an upper-class couple who eats lower-class people.
31	* ''Film/TheCookTheThiefHisWifeAndHerLover'': Played with. Spica is an ignorant oaf lacking in class, but he's an extremely wealthy gangster and [[WickedPretentious fancies himself an intellectual]] (especially where food is concerned). Georgina falls in love with Michael, who has a genuine appreciation for books and culture. [[spoiler:Spica kills Michael when he learns of their affair, but Georgina gets her revenge by cooking Michael's body and forcing Spica to eat some of it at gunpoint. This is portrayed as LaserGuidedKarma not only for Michael's murder and Spica's violence, but more in keeping with this trope, due to Spica's mistaken belief that money makes him classy or cultured and his bullying desire to rub it in everyone's faces.]]
32	* In ''[[Series/TheComicStripPresents Eat the Rich]]'', a disgruntled waiter kills the wealthy clientele of the high-end restaurant he works at and feeds them to the other patrons.
33	* ''Film/Fresh2022'': Steve is a wealthy doctor who always had a cannibalism fetish, then procured women for "the 1% of the 1%", cuts off their body parts and sells their meat to this sizeable network.
34	* ''Film/TheNeonDemon'': Jesse flees from the fleapit motel to a gorgeous mansion where Ruby is apparently housesitting. Ruby, Sarah. and Gigi then kill Jesse and cannibalize her for youth. It's left ambiguous ''how'' wealthy they really are, but it's a common theory that Ruby is [[OlderThanTheyLook much older than she seems]] and that was her house.
35	* ''Film/{{Parents}}'': Downplayed. Nick and Lilly are a wealthy upper middle-class couple who move their family to spotless suburbia, and they're also cannibals.
36	* ''Film/{{Society}}'': Billy's family, and the rest of their Beverly Hills elite, are revealed to be [[spoiler:[[HumanSubspecies a "variant" species]] who eat humans, or at least suck all the nutrients from their bodies. Billy was kidnapped from ordinary people and raised by a family of them for this express purpose]].
37	* ''Film/TheTheatreBizarre'': The "Sweets" segment features a secret club of high-class gourmets who regard dining on human flesh as the ultimate culinary experience.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Literature]]
41	* ''Literature/TheBalladOfSongbirdsAndSnakes'': Tigris and Coriolanus saw the ImpoverishedPatrician, Nero Price, cannibalize his maid during the Dark Days. He is still regarded as one of the most wealthy and important Capitol citizens, as is his daughter Persephone, to whom he's implied to have fed human meat without her knowledge.
42	* Dorothy Daniels, the protagonist of ''A Certain Hunger'', is a celebrated food critic who can lecture at length on the qualities of any gourmet meal, raised in Connecticut upper-middle-class privilege and able to indulge her palate across the globe. The book is told as her memoirs after she's been imprisoned for killing and cannibalizing a series of people.
43	* The short story "Excerpts from the Records of the New Zodiac and the Diaries of Henry Watson Fairfax" by Chet Williamson details a tycoon starting a fancy dinner club with other rich industrialists, hoping to broker peace among them. It goes awry when another member declares that being wealthy gives them absolute power over others... and demonstrates by serving several valued employees at his turn to host dinner. The club members then try to one-up each other at their own turns, murdering and serving more employees, loved ones, and ''their own family members''. [[spoiler:Eventually the founding member takes matters in his own hands, and buys out all their companies one by one, then ends the club with a delectable solo meal... using all the other members as ingredients.]]
44	* ''Literature/TheFifthSeason'': During the Seasons when the planet becomes a DeathWorld, it's a grim fact that "[[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty you don't ask about the meat]]". Some of the Sanzed elite, however, developed a taste and quietly continued the practice into peacetime, to the disgust of outsiders who know.
45	* Rupert Wong, the protagonist of ''Literature/FoodOfTheGods'' by Cassandra Khaw, is a professional chef who's frequently stuck preparing human flesh for his boss, a wealthy, powerful [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghoul]]. He notes that it's more about the ''consumption'' than the sustenance.
46	* Franchise/HannibalLecter is a WickedCultured "pure sociopath" famed for eating people. He's arrested early in ''Literature/RedDragon'' for eating the "sweetbreads" (thymus and pancreas) of several people, including an annoying flute player, confesses to eating the liver of a census taker with Amarone in ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', and [[BrainFood eats a man's brain]] while the poor fellow is still alive in ''Literature/{{Hannibal}}''.
47	* ''Literature/HorowitzHorror'': In "Harriet's Horrible Dream", spoiled rich girl Harriet is sold by her parents to a restaurant called the Sawney Bean, which serves human meat to rich patrons "who have tried everything else, and want to try something different."
48	* ''Literature/InheritanceTrilogy'': The [[TheEmpire Arameri Dynasty]] rule the world with the power of [[CapturedSuperEntity four enslaved gods]] and enjoy whatever hedonistic pleasures they want in the palace of Sky. Some of them revived the old tribal practice of cannibalism, more or less ForTheEvulz.
49	* Downplayed in Creator/LuXun's ''A Madman's Diary''. The "madman" realizes that cannibalism is a normal part of society. While it's not explicitly associated with enormous riches, the only way to escape cannibalism is to become homeless and drop out of society altogether.
50	* Creator/JonathanSwift's satirical essay ''Literature/AModestProposal'' advances the idea of impoverished Irish people selling their babies to the British aristocracy as food. For bonus humor, the essay concludes with a list of reasonable solutions to Irish poverty, all of which Swift sarcastically dismisses as ridiculous.
51	* Played with in the ''Literature/SkeletonCrew'' story "Survivor Type". The narrator is an [[UnreliableNarrator apparently]] great doctor who resorts to {{Autocannibalism}} out of desperation after being stranded by the sinking of a yacht. However, he repeatedly insists that this is proof of his much stronger will to live than ordinary people.
52	* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': For Lord Ramsay Bolton's wedding to an impostor girl posing as "Lady Arya Stark", Lord Wyman Manderly has his cooks prepare three massive wedding pies the size of wagon wheels, filled with chunks of seasoned pork and vegetables swimming in a savory brown gravy. [[spoiler:The "pork" is implied to be the flesh of Rhaegar, Symond, and Jared Frey, served up to their relatives and allies as retribution for the perfidy and ''heinous'' violation of SacredHospitality of the Red Wedding.]] Downplayed, though, as the Freys are a very important family, but are viewed as the odd one out of the Westerosi noble houses and uncouth by the other aristocrats.
53	* Referenced in the Creator/NeilGaiman short story "Sunbird" when Crusty reveals that a past incarnation of the Epicurean Club had tried human flesh, which was apparently legal at the time it had happened, provided it came from someone sentenced to death in the electric chair, and that it was nothing special and prompted no one to pursue cannibalism regularly, save for one member who was already prone that way.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
57	* ''Series/{{Atlanta}}'': "Terrare" reveals that Van is involved in a particularly extreme version of FrenchCuisineIsHaughty, running hands backwards and forwards for an extremely fancy private chef who works for Creator/AlexanderSkarsgard.
58	* ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'': Dr. Lecter is a ManOfWealthAndTaste, a SupremeChef, and, of course, a cannibal who sneaks a ''lot'' of human flesh into his {{Fancy Dinner}}s. It's all linked to [[{{Narcissist}} his sense of superiority]]:
59	-->'''Hannibal:''' This isn't cannibalism... it's only cannibalism if we're equals.
60	* ''Series/IClaudius'': Caligula might be despised by everyone, but he is still the third emperor of Rome. He impregnates his sister, Drusilla, and eats the fetus. However, in opposition to KillThePoor, Caligula does this because he fears the child will be more powerful than him (with the implication that he may believe he's absorbing the fetus's power by consuming it).
61	* ''Series/InsideNo9'': Feigned in "[[Recap/InsideNo9S3E3TheRiddleOfTheSphinx The Riddle of the Sphinx]]". Tyler forces Squires to eat a piece of Nina for revenge, to make it look as if the snooty [[EliteSchoolMeansEliteBrain Cambridge]] academic had lost his mind and believed that he ''was'' the RiddlingSphinx (who ate her victims).
62	* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQv72I6Ryfc&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive this]] ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' parody of ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'', Mr. Warbucks is part of an exclusive club that ritualistically dines on human flesh. The provider tries to reassure Annie that it's [[WouldNotHurtAChild adult meat only]]; she's not on the menu.
63	[[/folder]]
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65	[[folder:Music]]
66	* ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'': In the song "Evil Food Eater Conchita," a noblewoman named Conchita makes a deal with the Demon of Gluttony and becomes able to eat anything. Every night, she enjoys a supper consisting of the most disgusting, inedible dishes her chef can come up with. When her fifteenth chef asks to take a vacation, she eats him, and then proceeds to eat the rest of the servants. Finally, when no one is left, she declares, "There's still something I haven't eaten," and [[{{Autocannibalism}} eats herself]].
67	* The video for "Sick Sick Sick" by Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge has the band performing for a gorgeous, wealthy woman who's also a cannibal. She has the band shackled and performing for her at dinner. One by one, she has each member sent to the kitchen to be cooked so she can eat him in front of the other members. Eventually the lead singer is the only one left, but she cooks and eats him too.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Mythology & Folklore]]
71	* Myth/ClassicalMythology: Kronos was once the [[TopGod King of the Gods]]. To avoid getting overthrown by his children he ate his daughters and sons (they survived, being immortal).
72	* Typically speaking, [[OurOgresAreHungrier ogres]] were often depicted this way in {{Fairy Tale}}s (while modern fantasy depicts them as barbarians). Ogres like those in ''Literature/SleepingBeauty'' and ''Literature/PussInBoots'' lived in castles and had ogrish royal titles, all the while [[ChildEater kidnapping children to eat]]. Ogres often display AffablyEvil traits in many fairy tales.
73	[[/folder]]
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75	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
76	* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'': The Macellarius [[VampireVarietyPack bloodline]] are OldMoney even by vampire standards and claim to cultivate [[PickyPeopleEater only the most rarefied tastes]]. Not content merely to drink human blood, they've also taught their undead bodies to digest flesh in [[VillainousGlutton tremendous excess]].
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Video Games]]
80	* In ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga 2'', those infected with the Demon Virus have to eat human flesh or go insane, but has the unexpected upside of being able to withstand the corrupted sunlight that turns organic matter to stone. Madame Cuvier's plan to [[KnightTemplar save humanity from the sun]] is to infect her chosen elite with the Virus. Her chosen elite live [[CosyCatastrophe idle lives in the apocalypse]], blissfully unaware that Cuvier's canned meat is made from the people of the slums.
81	* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': The White Glove Society are a tribe who run the Ultra Luxe casino, wear tuxedos and evening wear, indulge in fine dining and generally [[UpperClassTwit maintain an air of being a cut above the common savages of the wasteland]]. They were a CannibalClan at some point in their history, but were made to swear off that lifestyle as part of a contract with Mr. House, owner of the New Vegas Strip where their casino operates. However, some of their members have reverted to "the old ways" and are trying to manipulate the rest into breaking the contract.
82	-->'''Mortimer:''' There is a meat sweeter than the most cornfed livestock. Most of you have tasted it. All of you have coveted it. [...] For our society to be truly elite, we must dine on the most delicious, the most exclusive food known to us.
83	* Donald Love from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' is a wealthy businessman and has been photographed at a "morgue party". The prequel ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories'' confirms his cannibalistic tendencies with one cut scene showing him eating a clearly human corpse. One of his last missions involves stealing a couple of corpses (one of whom is [[spoiler:Avery Carrington]]) to be eaten on his plane.
84	* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'': While Lady Alcina Dimitrescu needs to eat human flesh as a side effect of her mutation, the fact remains that she's a rich aristocrat who literally preys on her servants and appears to take sadistic pleasure in killing and eating people, torturing them to death slowly in the dungeons of her castle as well as making their blood into wine, and seems to view her victims as lesser compared to herself.
85	* ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns'': [[StreetSamurai Gaichu]] from ''Hong Kong'' was raised in a wealthy corporate family and is shown to be a very cultured individual. Forced into cannibalism by [[OurZombiesAreDifferent his condition]], he still observes traditional Japanese culinary customs, going into detail on how he makes sashimi out of the flanks of his kills and treats them in saltwater to bring out the collagen before lightly seasoning his meal.
86	* This is the general hat of the Phamysht from ''VideoGame/StarControl: Origins'', who are one of the only species in the game who show signs of high society: art, etiquette, et cetera. They are also cannibals who eat other intelligent beings alive and conscious. According to them, this is the highest form of fine dining in existence: [[SapientEatSapient to be able to talk to your meal as you consume it]]. You can take advantage of this by [[spoiler:giving them a RemoteBody to eat]] -- they're willing to discuss some very important topics with their meals.
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Websites]]
90	* ''Website/TheHardTimes'': The spin-off ''Hard Drive'' has [[https://hard-drive.net/wealthy-cannibal-conflicted-on-eat-the-rich/ "Wealthy cannibal conflicted on 'Eat the Rich.'"]]
91	* ''Website/SCPFoundation'':
92	** Marshall, Carter, and Dark Ltd., a club for the [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney extraordinarily wealthy and utterly amoral]], owned a [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-604 table]] that [[ArtificialCannibalism transforms all food set on it into human flesh]]. It was introduced as a curiosity at {{Fancy Dinner}}s but became popular enough to become a permanent installation.
93	** The [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/log-of-anomalous-items log of anomalous items]] mentions an illegal South American restaurant that caught the eye of the Foundation by offering snow leopard, chimpanzee, woolly mammoth, human, and SCP-███ meat as {{Exotic Entree}}s. It apparently catered only to the very wealthy, as it once held an auction selling a strange egg from an unidentifiable species to a rich Chinese stockbroker for at least a million dollars.
94	** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3288 SCP-3288]] are a collection of deformed humanoids descended from the royal Austrian Habsburg family. They kidnap "peasants" and take them to the sewers where they live and eat them.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Western Animation]]
98	* ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'': Alastor was a cannibalistic serial killer when he was alive, and he has not given up these habits now that he's in Hell. However, he's also an AffablyEvil SouthernGentleman wearing a nice suit who places a high degree of importance on manners.
99	* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'': In "[[Recap/TheVentureBrosS7E7TheUnicornInCaptivity The Unicorn in Captivity]]", Dr. Venture is invited to an ''Film/EyesWideShut''-style sex-party hosted by a cabal of wealthy elites that (allegedly) control the world from the shadows. When Venture helps himself to party snacks, he is told that he is sampling "orphan patee"; Venture nearly throwing up when told this.
100	[[/folder]]

Context Main / HighClassCannibal