Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Main / NothingExcitingEverHappensHere

Go To

1[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/BobAndGeorge https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bob_and_george_small.png]]]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:How this usually goes.]]
3
4->''"Nothing amazing happens here. Everything is ordinary."''
5-->-- '''Naota Nandaba''', ''Anime/{{FLCL}}''
6
7%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.
8
9Where is the most dangerous place on the planet to live? Not the [[CityOfAdventure city where something exciting is always happening]]. Not {{Mordor}}. Not a HauntedHeadquarters. Not [[BigApplesauce the crime-ridden big city]]. Not even [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Tokyo]]. Not even a PlaceWorseThanDeath. The most dangerous place to live in is the small, quiet, unknown town where "nothing exciting ever happens."
10
11Aliens landing in [=UFOs=]? They're parked in the middle of a deserted cornfield in a rural town where cattle outnumber people. Is there a magical gateway between worlds? It's in the big house in the country where you were preparing to spend the most boring summer of your life. Is there a mysterious gigantic cavern hidden just beneath the Earth's surface, wherein aliens once upon a time created all life on Earth? There's probably a secret door in your friend's dad's basement that leads right to it. New serial killer on the loose? Bodies are piling up in a small town where nothing like this has ever happened before. Plague or ZombieApocalypse spreading? The epicenter was in that middle-of-nowhere redneck town that your grandpa hails from. UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny? The county fairgrounds have your front row seats. Looking for the leader of a secret global organization of werewolves? He's enjoying a sub at the mom-and-pop pizza parlor downtown. EmoTeen moving with their divorced mother out of the BigApplesauce into the sleepy suburbs? They'll be hiding [[BatmanInMyBasement Batman in their basement]], [[RecruitTeenagersWithAttitude recruited into a team of superpower-granted teenagers]] or starting a mission to SaveBothWorlds by the end of the first episode.
12
13How can I turn my own boring, mundane neighborhood or small FlyoverCountry town into a WeirdnessMagnet, you ask? Just say the magic words "Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here," and let TemptingFate do its work. BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor (after all, [[WrongGenreSavvy you don't know what genre you're in]]) and don't say we didn't warn you!
14
15Compare AliensInCardiff and EverytownAmerica. Contrast QuirkyTown. See OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent for when this happens to a person. See also SmallTownBoredom.
16
17Everyone's going to assume that wherever you live, nothing exciting has ever happened, and if you live in a city that no one has ever heard of, it's because Nothing Exciting Ever Happened There, so no straight RealLife examples should be mentioned.
18
19----
20!!Examples:
21[[foldercontrol]]
22
23[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
24* ''Manga/{{Bakegyamon}}'': [[TheProtagonist Sanshiro]] has this opinion of his island home. He lives on a pretty small island, so there's not a lot of places for him to explore and find anything new or exciting. Then Fue shows up.
25* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', right before the Battle of Narita, two soldiers monitoring the area are actually in the middle of complaining about how boring their station is when Zero walks in and Geasses them to ignore any unusual activity. So from their point of view, they're right.
26* The plot of ''Anime/ErgoProxy'' happens in "Romdeau City. This place is undoubtedly our final paradise. Today is just another day here. Nothing changes for the better in this cradle...A boring paradise."
27* Renton spends approximately half of the first episode of ''Anime/EurekaSeven'' saying this. Of, course, this is ''right'' before the [[SuperRobotGenre Super Robot]] crashes into his garage.
28* The TropeNamer is ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'': Naota remarks in the first episode, "Nothing amazing happens here. Everything is ordinary." Only a few minutes after saying this, he gets run over by a Vespa-riding self-proclaimed Space Police officer and smacked in the head by her gas-powered guitar. Next thing he knows, giant robots are climbing out of a portal in his head and he's embroiled in a farcical space opera/coming-of-age story. Curiously enough, none of these events seem to change his mind about his life and hometown being boring and ordinary.
29* In ''Manga/{{Jagaaaaaan}}'', this is [[TheHero Jagasaki's]] opinion about his life, much to his dread until [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor ''excitement'' finds its way in his life in the bloodiest way possible]].
30* [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Part 4]] of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' takes place in Morioh, a fictional small unremarkable town in Japan. This small unremarkable town just so happens to be home to lots of dangerous [[GuardianEntity Stand]] [[FightingSpirit users]] and a SerialKiller (who also has a Stand). Mind you, all the Stand users appeared because the holder of the bow was trying to find the right Stand to [[spoiler:cure his father-turned-monster]] and was led to Morioh.
31[[/folder]]
32
33[[folder:Comic Books]]
34* ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo and the Deadly Art of Science'' opens with Robo remarking gloomily that "Nothing exciting ever happens around here"; within pages, he's become tangled up with a masked vigilante and a sinister mastermind with a crystal skull. It's played with a bit, though, with the intervening pages reminding us that Robo's baseline for "exciting" is a bit unusual in that for him UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla attempting to pierce the subatomic veil with giant arcing electrical machines is an everyday occurrence. (Also, he's a ''talking robot''.)
35* PlayedWith in an Italian ''[[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Disney ducks]]'' story: a side character reads a newspaper (with headlines such as "two cases of the flu", "chicken stolen") and laments "Humph. Nothing ever happens here", with an expression of heavy-lidded boredom. Immediately, the Duck family on one of their adventures crashes near his house on a rocket. The newspaper reader reacts with "Humph. ''Now'' what's happening?", with the ''exact same'' facial expression.
36* ''ComicBook/MisfitCity'' is set in Cannon Cove, Oregon. It's a small seaside town where the only reason anyone comes is that it was where a classic 1980s film, "The Gloomies", was filmed.
37* ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'' #149 (July 1968), the issue with special guest villains Bonnie and Clyde, opens with ComicBook/LanaLang noting to Clark how nothing ever happens in Smallville. (This is despite an alien invasion, disaster, or criminal scheme happening every other issue.) Her line's almost immediately followed by Bonnie and Clyde robbing the bank Lana and Clark are visiting.
38[[/folder]]
39
40[[folder:Comic Strips]]
41* One ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' comic has a teen working in a convenience store. He notes "Ah America, you are great. But you are also very boring." Cue the last panel, where Rosebud the Basselope and a cockroach [[ItMakesSenseInContext come in to order "a lifetime supply of rancid Ding-Dongs"]]. (This being the community of Bloom County, there's also plenty of bizarre political plans, visits from the government over computer hacking, and other weirdness)
42* In ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'', one strip has Garfield hanging on the screen door, lamenting how bored he is. He thinks "I wish something would happen". A panel later, John throws open the screen door to call Garfield to lunch, inadvertently smashing Garfield against the house.
43--> '''Garfield:''' "I'm in pain, pain, pain, pain, pain."
44* Jeremy from ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' has complained on a number of occasions how dull his town is. In one case, he and his friend Hector play a game in which they spin a globe around and randomly point at different cities or towns that are more exciting than their own. On another occasion, he laments this aloud pretty much word-for-word. In response, his dad takes his shirt off and dances around singing "Shake your bon-bon" while, well, shaking his bon-bon. When he's done, Jeremy goes to [[BrainBleach wash his eyes out]] while his mom warns him to BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor.
45[[/folder]]
46
47[[folder:Fan Works]]
48* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': Ren Serizawa observes that no less than ''three'' [[{{Kaiju}} Titans]] -- Godzilla, Rodan and Monster X -- converging on a relatively little-known Japanese island community like Yonaguni is abnormal, since the Titans have always converged on or smacked down in major cities in the past.
49* This trope is discussed in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' fan series ''Fanfic/AnotherDayInBluffingtonDuology''. This is the exact reason why people are moving out in droves. No one wanted to move to Bluffington because nothing interesting happened there. The only noteworthy event in the town's recent history was a sex scandal involving former mayor Bob White.
50* In Episode 5 of ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'', the show briefly cuts to [[EarlyBirdCameo Nail and Guru on Namek]], where Nail is complaining about how boring things are. Cue Freeza's arrival 12 episodes later...
51-->'''Nail:''' Oh God, this is so horribly dull. [[TemptingFate I hope something exciting happens around here soon. I don't care what it is.]]
52[[/folder]]
53
54[[folder:Films — Animated]]
55* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'', Special Agent Kent Mansley misguidedly believes that "big things happen in big places", and he's all too keen to get back to those places when he arrives in the sleepy Maine village where the action takes place. And then the action takes place.
56* Kokaua Town, in Kauai, Hawaii, the home setting of ''Franchise/LiloAndStitch'', starts out more or less like this, and then everything changes when Experiment 626, a.k.a. Stitch, a fugitive alien experiment lands on the island, who is pursued by Jumba and Captain Gantu, with Jumba and Stitch initially destroying Nani's and Lilo's house, and offering to rebuild it after the Grand Councilwoman sentences Stitch, Jumba, Pleakley, and Gantu to exile on Earth; applies to [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch the film]] and [[WesternAnimation/StitchTheMovie its]] [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch2StitchHasAGlitch seq]][[WesternAnimation/LeroyAndStitch uels]] as well as [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries the first TV series]].
57* The first post-opening-credits scene of ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'' (at least, the first that isn't set to music) features Ringo Starr moping around Liverpool, complaining that nothing ever happens to him -- until he realizes that he's somehow being tailed through the streets by a yellow submarine.
58[[/folder]]
59
60[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
61* Film/Alien40thAnniversaryShorts: In "Night Shift", the LV-422 Mining Colony is considered a "shitpile" where there's nothing for the locals to do except "leave". Then a missing space trucker comes home with a chestburster in the oven.
62* At the very end of ''Film/CantHardlyWait'', the two "X-Philes" complain that nothing ever happens in their town. A suspicious shadow falls over them with an unworldly sound, and they look up and grin as a blue light shines on them.
63* This is the basic concept behind the [[RecycledInSPACE Rear Window remake]] ''Film/{{Disturbia}}''.
64* [[UsefulNotes/VietnamWar Vietnam vet]] and ex-[[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous Green Beret]] [[Franchise/{{Rambo}} John Rambo]] makes the mistake of stumbling into such a town in ''Film/FirstBlood''. Its sheriff Will Teasle wants it to remain a boring town where nothing ever happens, and he’ll do anything to keep it that way. Including running a [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD stricken combat vet]] out of town, because he doesn’t like the way he looks. Then arresting that vet for “vagrancy” when he walks back into the town just to get something to eat. Then inflicting ColdBloodedTorture when Rambo is [[TraumaButton triggered]] by his experiences as a POW during the booking process at the jail. Then Rambo escapes and [[FromBadToWorse the town gets way more excitement than it can handle]].
65* Almost said ad verbatim in Film/TheGoonies by lead character Mikey. In fact, it's the very first thing he says in the movie. 'Oh, bummer. Nothing exciting ever happens around here anyway. Who needs the Goondocks? Who needs this house? I can't wait to get outta here.'
66* The 1932 film ''Film/GrandHotel'' famously [[BookEnds opens and closes]] with a character stating that "nothing ever happens" at the title locale. This is, of course, an ironic counterpoint to the many dramatic episodes which take place over the course of the film.
67* ''Film/TheHappening'' -- the massive group of people running from the unexplained mass suicide that may or may not be linked to natural causes or very intricately orchestrated terrorism (it's a long story) find themselves dumped in an isolated town in the middle of the Northwest. Mark Wahlberg says to his best friend's daughter, "Don't worry, nothing's going to happen to us here." Oh boy, is he wrong.
68* In ''Film/HomeAlone1'', Buzz claims that the family lives on the most boring street in the country "where nothing remotely dangerous will ever happen"...while Kevin is preparing to fight off burglars Harry and Marv.
69* Deconstructed in ''Film/HotFuzz'', where the reason nothing ever happens in Sandford is that [[spoiler:the Neighborhood Watch Association kills anyone who threatens their village's perfect image and covers it up]].
70* Because "nothing ever happens here ", the authorities decide to close the local police station in ''Film/{{Kopps}}''. The police officers don't put up with that and begin to increase the criminal statistics on their own to prove that their station is needed.
71* ''Film/{{Nightcrawler}}:'' Los Angeles is a city of millions, but TV stations still struggle to get news footage of dramatic events, and if enough people decide that Nothing Exciting is happening, then they might, God forbid, switch off. It doesn't help that the crime rate is ''falling,'' so when our anti-hero shows up with the pictures, not many questions are asked.
72* In ''Film/{{No Man of Her Own|1932}}'', Connie (Creator/CaroleLombard) says this word for word, and Creator/ClarkGable walks in to change everything.
73* Dinah has this lament at the beginning of ''Film/ThePhiladelphiaStory''.
74* In ''Franchise/StarWars,'' Luke complains of Tatooine that, "Well, if there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from." In the first episode of the radio dramatization of ''Film/ANewHope'', Biggs tells Luke that he only feels that way about Tatooine because he hasn't been anywhere else. It turns out Luke is quite wrong: ''everything'' happens on Tatooine. More than half the films have a major plot point on the planet, which just might be why everybody likes it most.
75** Even the [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] isn't all that expanded; everything ''still'' happens on Tatooine. Clearly Tatooine is the most significant planet in the entire galaxy -- everyone who is anyone has been there[[note]]and we do mean everyone: everyone from Revan to HK-47 to Darth Krayt to one of the few surviving Jedi knights to two generations of Skywalker males have been there[[/note]]. But you wouldn't necessarily expect Luke to know about all this, or suspect that Tatooine would become famous partly because of himself. Anyway, this trope could just as easily be called "The Tatooine Effect".
76* ''Film/StrangeNature'': According to Chuck, most of the town's young residents have moved away. The only reason to stay there is if you want to work in pesticide.
77* Lampshaded in ''Film/{{Suddenly}}'', where a policeman and a traveler discuss the idea that the town's name should be changed to ''Gradually''. The plot of the movie: A man takes hostages in the town when it is realised that a family's window is just the right place for a sniper rifle pointed at the president.
78* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''Film/SupermanII'' where the reporter is broadcasting in the small, obscure town of East Houston, Idaho, when the invading Zod, Ursa, and Non lay waste to the town and even the Army is no match for the three Kryptonian rebels.
79* ''Film/{{Thor}}'': The small town of Puente Antiguo, New Mexico. Even though [[ImpliedTrope nobody ever invokes the trope by name]], it's clear that the arrival of Mjolnir, then [[TheMenInBlack S.H.I.E.L.D.]], is the most exciting thing that's happened to the town in a long time.
80* The home-spun play of Blaine (from ''Film/WaitingForGuffman''), in which an alien's musical number is "Nothing Ever Happens On Mars".
81* Dee Dee from ''Film/VoyageOfTheRockAliens'' grumbles "They should change the name of this town to Boringsville. Nothing ever happens here," shortly before the titular aliens arrive.
82[[/folder]]
83
84[[folder:Literature]]
85* ''Literature/AbsolutelyTruly'': Truly is [=NOT=] wild of her family's move to the small town of Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire. That is, not until finding a letter in a copy of ''Literature/CharlottesWeb'' in her family's bookstore.
86* Maggody, Arkansas, the setting of Creator/JoanHess's ''Literature/ArlyHanks'' mysteries, is a too-small-for-the-mapmakers flyspeck town where the locals consider the burning of Hiram's barn to be the sole event of historical note in decades. In those same decades, said flyspeck has variously been invaded by porn movie-makers, a rehab clinic, pot farmers, UFO fanatics, tabloid reporters, militia nutjobs, golfers, Civil War buffs, country-western music groupies, fake psychics, the Internet, televangelists, and feminists, all of them with a distressing tendency to get themselves murdered. And people ''still'' play this trope straight if asked.
87* ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays'' is a somewhat more ordinary example. Phileas Fogg's house in Saville Row has been running like clockwork for years. [[CreatureOfHabit Fogg himself]] never wavers in his routine; he never travels, he has no business to attend to, and he never makes a public appearance [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman except for his daily trip to the Reform Club to play whist.]] Enter Passepartout, Fogg's new manservant. He's looking forward to a nice quiet gig, and [[TemptingFate he delightedly comments on how mundane and predictable his master is.]] On the very day that Passepartout enters Fogg's service, however, that same ordinary gentleman makes an extraordinary wager and [[YouHaveGOTToBeKiddingMe embarks on a mad dash around the world.]]
88* In Adam R. Brown's ''Literature/AstralDawn'', the protagonist, Caspian Knoll, believes this of his life in the city of Baltimore. His main gripe, however, is that nothing exciting ever happens in his personal life.
89* The main characters of the Brentford trilogy by Creator/RobertRankin claim Brentford is this. [[CityOfAdventure In spite of being the place where Julius Caesar invented football, having a nesting griffin, existing in four dimensions simultaneously and having an]] EldritchAbomination [[OncePerEpisode attack per book...]]
90* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', the protagonist complains that he's bored, not just because nothing happens, but also because there is no work to do while he's a guest at the royal palace. When he discovers a dark secret, he realizes he was ''very'' wrong ... lots of interesting things happen at the palace.
91* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': Moose County is "400 miles north of everywhere," and is described as an idyllic but boring rural location. The locals insist that crime is something that happens "Down Below," as they refer to the rest of the U.S., despite the fact that Moose County seems to have a per capita murder rate to rival [[Series/MurderSheWrote Cabot Cove]] or [[Literature/MissMarple St. Mary Meade]].
92* ''Literature/TheDarkSideOfNowhere'' centers on the protagonist discovering that ''everyone'' in his [[Creator/NormanRockwell Norman Rockwell-esque]] town, including himself, is really an alien. The frequent booster shots they've received all their lives have been chemicals to suppress their Adonis-level good looks and blend in with humanity. And the message has just come through that the time has come to gear up for the invasion...
93* In ''Literature/{{Daughters of Darkness|1996}}'', Mary-Lynette and Mark both remark that nothing interesting ever happens in the small Oregon town of Briar Creek, with Mark especially wishing at the start that "something wild" would happen. Then vampires show up in town, their eccentric neighbor Mrs Burdock goes missing and the siblings get a supernatural murder mystery on their hands.
94* Common in the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' books, although Sammy Jacobs of "My Best Friend Is Invisible" is the only one to say this phrase word-for-word.
95* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': The world's most feared dark wizard, Tom Marvolo "Lord Voldemort" Riddle, was conceived in a small {{Muggle}} village called the Little Hangleton. Tom was actually disappointed when he learned that his father was not a wizard, but rather the vain heir of the village's richest landowner. This didn't stop him from making it his headquarters.
96* In ''Literature/HillOfFire'', based on the true story of the appearance of the volcano Parcuitin in 1943, the main character is a farmer who spends the whole story using this trope's very title to gripe about his hometown. At the end of the book, [[TemptingFate there's been a volcanic eruption in his cornfield.]]
97* Blackbury from ''Literature/JohnnyMaxwellTrilogy''.
98* Creator/StephenKing's horror stories are often set in the town of Derry, Maine, which is King's fictional version of Bangor, Maine, population 31,000. Bangor itself makes an appearance in ''Literature/TheLangoliers''.
99* Visually implied in ''Literature/TheLostThing''. The suburbs are ridiculously identical, the city manages despite all its {{Steampunk}} design to be incredibly drab and filled with almost nobody but businesspeople, and, oh yeah, there are random biomechanical creatures wandering about the place. Then again, it's implied that for most people there's a WeirdnessCensor involved.
100* ''Literature/TheMidwichCuckoos'' has a few pages describing the almost completely uneventful history of the out-of-the-way English village of Midwich, where a mysterious incident is beginning to unfold.
101* ''Literature/MoongobbleAndMe'': This is Edward's opinion of Pigbone, and he longs for excitement. His mother doesn't though, to the point where when someone new moves to town in book 1, she tells Edward to just ignore it.
102* ''Literature/{{Pale}}'' takes place in Kennet, Ontario, a tourist town of about five thousand people that's slowly dying. This makes it a perfect hideaway for various supernatural creatures who mostly want to be left alone, but then the Carmine Beast, a greater power, is murdered in the heart of the town and abruptly the community of Others there is on everyone's radar.
103* ''Literature/ParadoxBound'': Eli's hometown of Sanders, Maine, seems to be stuck in TheEighties. The town still has a working video store, no Internet or cell reception, and comic books still sold on wire racks. [[spoiler:Eli later learns that Sanders is one of those towns that got "stuck" in history, 1988 in this case. He refuses to accept it at first, but then realizes it's true after thinking back.]] Apparently, it's not unusual to have [[spoiler:towns that are stuck at a certain period in history. They make a useful transition point for Searchers]]. After the events of the novel, [[spoiler:Sanders gradually rejoins the early 21st century over the next several months]].
104* Plenty of ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' stories start with Holmes complaining at length to Watson of how there aren't any interesting ''crimes'' anymore. Cue the arrival of his latest client...
105* ''Literature/SweetValleyHigh'' Sweet Valley, CA. Whenever someone is murdered, a serial killer comes to town, drug dealers show up and start taking hostages, vampires enroll in the local high school, or [[CartwrightCurse another one of Jessica Wakefield's boyfriends dies a horrible death]], the inevitable reaction from the locals is "How could such a thing happen in Sweet Valley? Things like that never happen here!"
106* Played with in ''Literature/{{TACK}}''. Agent-on-remote Abby visits from Pleasantville and complains about how boring it is. When she asks Toria and Will if anything is going on Sandy Harbor, they claim nothing exciting is going on there. Except for the boat smugglers. And the incident at the spelling bee. And the sailing lessons they got as a reward...
107* In ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'', Bella Swan finds out that the small town of Forks, WA is home to vampires and werewolves.
108* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TheWateryPlace": The crime rate of zero is why the aliens choose to land in Twin Gulch and speak with the sheriff. Unfortunately, said sheriff had a short temper, and thought they were aliens from Italy, asking him [[FirstContact to call the President over]]. It didn't go well.
109[[/folder]]
110
111[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
112* In an odd variation, Virginia Lewis of ''Series/The10thKingdom'', despite living in the BigApplesauce, thinks to herself (in voiceover narration) on the way to work at the beginning of the miniseries that she knew "nothing exciting was ever going to happen" to her and "some people just lead quiet lives". Cue her running into a golden retriever on her bicycle [[FreakyFridayFlip who is actually a transformed prince]] [[FracturedFairytale from the world of fairy tales]], [[CallToAdventure and...]]
113* In the ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' episode "The Tale of the Midnight Ride," the new kid in town at first says that, although he likes Sleepy Hollow (yes, ''that'' [[Literature/TheLegendOfSleepyHollow Sleepy Hollow]]), it's "kind of boring." One ChaseScene with the Headless Horseman later: "And I thought this place was ''boring''."
114* Sunnydale, the hometown of Buffy in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' is built right over a Hellmouth. But most citizens studiously ignore the vampires, demons, monsters, and strange occurrences or explain them away as "gang violence". Slightly subverted in that the town's founders actively work to support this masquerade.
115* ''Series/CornerGas''. If your main theme is "Not a lot going on" (by Craig Northey and Jerry Valenzuela), you must be living in a very sleepy community. Fortunately, it's never boring.
116* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
117** The Doctor and Ace are visiting the suburb she grew up in, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E4Survival Survival]]".
118--->'''The Doctor:''' So what's so terrible about Perivale?\
119'''Ace:''' Nothing ever happens here.
120::::She is, of course, 100% wrong.
121** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E11BoomTown Boom Town]]", the Doctor deems Cardiff the "safest place in the universe" for a getaway. Cut to the Margaret Slitheen engineering her EvilPlan for the city, which ultimately culminates in a world-threatening earthquake and almost causes an ApocalypseHow.
122** Leadworth, home of Rory and Amy. It's a completely boring, normal English town... of course, then the Doctor lands there, so you know it won't stay like that for long.
123** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice "Amy's Choice"]]: Rory and the Doctor both say this about ''Upper'' Leadworth, although Rory meant it as a compliment. Naturally, because [[spoiler:it's a dream created by the Doctor's EnemyWithout]], things aren't going to stay that way.
124* ''Series/EerieIndiana'', which was selected by the protagonist father as their new home because it was the most "normal" town in the country, statistically speaking, and whose many inhabitants complain about the bleakness of their lives (unaware of what's really going on). The thing was parodied in the second series, where its protagonists complained about how boring their lives are while living in a world whose quotidian is truly outrageous.
125* ''{{Series/Eureka}}''; the town looks painfully normal. Except, in a subversion of the trope, for the experimental laboratory complex where almost the entire town works, and which, for lack of a better term, leaks weirdness into the town. So it ''is'' a normal and unexciting town... strictly by ''their'' standards.
126* One of the recurring skits in the 1970's variety show ''The Hudson Brothers' Razzle Dazzle Show'' was about a very small tropical island where nothing supposedly happened. In every sketch, the infamous words would be lamented: "Ho hum. Another boring day on the island of Pegi Pegi (pronounced Peegee Peegee)." Cue the arrival of something like a huge shark fin or lava spewing from the island's only volcano.
127* ''[[Series/TheKidsInTheHall The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town]]'' takes place in the fictional town of [[CanadaEh Shuckton, Ontario, Canada]], which, prior to losing its bid for the 2028 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, was famous for its rat fur industry.
128-->'''Mayor Larry Bowman''': What do you think of when you hear our name? Probably nothing. We're not very well known.
129** And then he ends up dead. [[SmallTownBoredom Doesn't really change the boredom factor, though.]]
130* ''Series/TheLeagueOfGentlemen'' opens with Benjamin Denton on a train to Royston Vasey, reading a letter from his aunt, which includes: "I hope you...don't find our little town too boring."
131* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''. The boys are sitting together on a curb and lamenting how dull and boring their neighborhood is when a new mattress seemingly falls from the sky and lands in front of them, prompting Dewey to give us this gem:
132-->"...Even our ''miracles'' are boring."
133* ''Series/{{Misfits}}'' contains a rather amusing exchange in the tail end of the first episode that suggests the entirety of England fits this trope.
134* Variation on this trope in ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' when John says "Nothing ever happens to ''me''." Then he meets the [[ManicPixieDreamGirl titular protagonist]] and [[WeirdnessMagnet hoo boy]]...
135* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', naturally. Chronologically, one of Chloe's first lines is something like this [[spoiler:(in a flashback in ''Abyss'')]].
136* ''Series/StargateSG1'': When a bored Vala begs Mitchell to take her with him to his high school reunion, he says [[PunctuatedForEmphasis "It. Is. In. KANSAS!"]] in an effort to convince her that she would just be bored because nothing ever happens in Kansas, right? When they actually go there, bounty hunters descend on the reunion. Of course, the only reason the bounty hunters are even there is that Mitchell is there. If he hadn't gone, it would have been the typical boring, awkward reunion.
137* ''Series/TheStrangeCalls'' takes place in the small, beautiful seaside town of Coolum. Despite Sgt. Neil's insistence that the town is perfect and uneventful ("There's no X in Coolum", X being something crime-related is a bit of a catch-phrase for him), at night the town becomes full of supernatural goings-on. The show focuses on Officer Banks' attempts to deal with these events, which include ghosts, undead cats, and an addictive jingle that drives people mad.
138* Hawkins is an [[EverytownAmerica anonymous, sleepy small town]], so those locals who happen to appear in ''Series/StrangerThings'' are unlikely to believe a supernatural GovernmentConspiracy. Things are so uneventful the chief of police waves off a woman's concerns about her missing son and a reporter goes on TV to describe Hawkins as "a safe town where nothing ever happens."
139-->''"This is Hawkins. You wanna know the worst thing that’s ever happened here in the four years I’ve been working here? The worst thing was when an owl attacked Eleanor Gillespie's head because it thought that her hair was a nest."''
140* ''Series/TeenWolf'' Pilot episode has this trope. This is what motivates Stiles and Scott to go into the woods looking for half a body in the middle of the night. This, of course, leads to Scott getting bitten.
141--> '''Stiles:''' You're the one bitching that nothing happens in this town.
142* ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' episode "Boring" is devoted entirely to this trope. The main characters are bored out of their skulls and yet incredibly blind to all the exciting things happening around them.
143[[/folder]]
144
145[[folder:Music]]
146* In his epic song/monologue "Music/AlicesRestaurant", Arlo Guthrie mocks Stockbridge, Massachusetts as being this kind of town because they react to his (admittedly excessive) littering as being the "biggest crime of the past 50 years", bringing in policemen and equipment from the next town over and taking dozens of crime-scene photographs to use in a court case against him.
147* Pretty much the entire point of Del Amitri's song "''Nothing Ever Happens''"
148--> ''The Martians could land in the car park and no one would care''
149* There was a line like this in Music/WeirdAlYankovic's song "The Hardware Store"
150-->Nothin' ever (ever) happens in this town
151-->Feelin' low down (down), not a lot to do around here
152-->I thought that I would go right out of my mind
153-->Until a friend told me the news
154* Jesus H. Christ and the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse's song "Connecticut's for Fucking" is about [[https://gist.github.com/ByteEngine/772241 how boring and forgettable the state is]] except [[IntercourseWithYou sex]].
155--> Connecticut’s for fucking.
156--> There’s nothing else to do.
157--> I wanna listen to classic rock and have sex with you.
158* {{Music/Metallica}}'s "Ronnie", a song about a person named Ronnie from a small town [[spoiler: that ends with him killing a bunch of kids.]]
159--> Nothing happens in this boring place
160--> But, oh my God, how it all did change
161* A song by French-Canadian comedian [[Radio/LesDeuxMinutesDuPeuple François Pérusse]] about a village called "St-Néant" (Saint-Nothing) goes in great detail about how there's ''nothing'' of note, including lines such as "I'm neighbor with the school and I've never seen a kid", "in the evening every now and then, a dog howls at the moon, it makes the headlines", "nothing ever happens here, even the bugs seem to say What the heck am I doing here, might as well leave but not in a hurry" or "I don't know why I bought a house here, you never get visitors in St-Néant"
162[[/folder]]
163
164[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
165* Minor variation from Literature/TheBible. John 1:46: "And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (Nothing exciting ever happens ''there''.) [[MessianicArchetype We all know how that turned out,]] making this trope OlderThanFeudalism.
166[[/folder]]
167
168[[folder:Theatre]]
169* Creator/HenrikIbsen seems to have been fond of the trope. In a number of plays he wrote, action is set by the fact that NothingExcitingEverHappensHere. Thus:
170** ''Theatre/{{Ghosts}}'' has captain Alving getting destructive because he is confined to a small town with dull people.
171** ''Theatre/HeddaGabler'' makes her own action, because her life is similarly uninteresting.
172** ''Theatre/TheLadyFromTheSea'' and ''Theatre/TheMasterBuilder'' both comment on the little community where Ellida Wangel is looking for a purpose, and also where Hilde Wangel (her step-daughter) grew up. She left for town as soon as she was able to, and it didn`t end well -- for the master builder Solness, at least. But Hilde found the thing more exciting.
173** ''Theatre/TheLeagueOfYouth'' has newspaper editor Aslaksen, who solely lives for stirring things up, because nothing ever seems to happen. On a dark note, Ibsen shrewdly states that the consequences of this line of thought seldom end well. In fact, things may get ''more'' exciting than the characters actually want.
174[[/folder]]
175
176[[folder:Video Games]]
177* ''VideoGame/AlanWake'' takes place in a remote, small town. That should give you an indication of how horrible things go.
178* ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition'' is a game about serial murders, alternate dimensions, ghosts, imaginary friends, [[spoiler: {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, split-personalities, and child abuse]]. It occurs in Greenvale, which seems to have a population of about 40 people, and many, MANY lines of dialogue emphasize what a small town it is.
179* The [[AutobotsRockOut final battle theme]] of ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia 012 Duodecim Final Fantasy]]'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGcRVfOCWb4 God in Fire,]] touches on the backstory of [[spoiler:Chaos and the origin of the cycle of conflict]], and makes reference to how this trope applied with respect to [[spoiler:the town of Lufenia, where he had been created by Cid of the Lufaine as the first Manikin, and raised before being taken by the Onrac army as a weapon.]]
180-->''Backwater town where nothing happens\
181Don't let disguises fool you''
182* The town of Hometown in ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' is a quiet community where everyone knows everyone else. Police Chief Undyne laments that there's nothing to do, and mostly ends up causing trouble for other people. However, anomalies known as Dark Fountains begin appearing in the area, turning ordinary places in the town into Dark Worlds and threatening to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
183* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'': The backstory of the game has the protagonist (a nameless marine only known as "Doomguy") physically assault his superior officer during an incident where he was being instructed to gun down civilians. To save face for having to admit to committing such an atrocity by putting him on court-martial, the marines simply [[ReassignedToAntarctica reassign him]] as far out of the way as they could to oversee a very mild-mannered operation being undertaken by a large government contractor, the Union Aerospace Corporation, on the moons of Mars. However, thanks to their experiments with teleporting matter through Hell, TheLegionsOfHell end up overrunning the bases stationed on Phobos and Deimos and what was supposed to be a mundane mission turns into a brutal fight for survival.
184* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVII'', Auster and Prince Kiefer tirelessly try to find ''anything'' exciting in Estard island and don't believe the fact no other islands are out there in the world, constantly being told that they're crazy to believe there are more islands out there. Well, the fact is there really aren't any islands in the world...because the Demon King sealed them away in the past, which the duo finds out by doing a bit of sleuthing around their island for answers.
185* In ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', Ellia wishes for something exciting and significant to happen to her. And boy does she get it, though not exactly as she imagined it. Again, be careful what you wish for!
186* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' is set in Boston, 200 years after the nuclear apocalypse. In one side quest, you meet a boy who thinks he can see a sea monster. It turns out to be a pre-war submarine, which is still running. If you tell him that it was a submarine, he says "Nothing exciting ever happens here!" Depending on how much time you have been spending on side quests and exploring, it is entirely possible that you will find the quest after Boston has been invaded by an airship full of soldiers in power armour, and maybe even after a nuclear explosion. The boy will still say that nothing exciting ever happens there.
187* Nibelheim in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' until a defective Mako reactor triggers out a catastrophic and unlikely chain of events.
188** Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'', during the very first meeting between Zack and Cloud as they talk about their respective hometowns Gongaga and Nibelheim.
189--->'''Zack:''' A Mako reactor outside Midgar usually means...\
190'''Cloud and Zack (in unison):''' ... nothing else out there.
191* ''VideoGame/FurFighters'':
192-->'''1st Bear:''' Nothing exciting ever happen to this bear.\
193'''2nd Bear:''' This bear also.\
194(Seconds later a large explosion consumes them both.)
195* A certain guard in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' says this ''verbatim'' while complaining how boring the day watch is in the Castle Town. At night, he wishes that ghosts would come out once in a while because he is "really interested in ghosts". [[TheBadGuyWins We all know what happens next]], and now there's a certain little... thing in the ruins of the Castle Town who buys ghosts. BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor, kids!
196** Then there's the [[MemeticMutation much-quoted]] dialogue from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames Link: The Faces of Evil]]'': "Gee, it sure is ''boring'' around here."
197* Tazmily Village in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' is a rather sleepy middle-of-nowhere burg until the events of the plot start to disrupt its peace. The zero crime rate there is a plot point. [[spoiler:The final chapter reveals that the tranquil state of Tazmily Village was deliberately engineered by its inhabitants as part of a plan to erase their memories of a previous world that was destroyed.]]
198* Possum Springs from ''VideoGame/NightInTheWoods'' is a small, slowly dying mining and factory town in the middle of the woods. Highlights of the hamlet include the new superstore that just opened up near the highway, the hokey but charming harvest festival every Halloween, and [[spoiler: the cult of robed townsfolk kidnapping vagrants and delinquent teens to be fed to an elder god as a sacrifice to keep the town alive.]]
199* Inaba in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' is portrayed as a lazy country burg whose most exciting conflict is the new Wal-Mart-stand-in Junes putting the mom-and-pop stores out of business. Of course, the first thing that happens once the main character gets into town is a serial murder, and, by the end, [[spoiler:teenagers are fighting a god (or two, who's counting?) with the fate of the soul of humanity at stake]]. Said SerialKiller turns out to be [[spoiler:a local police detective who committed the murders specifically ''because'' nothing interesting ever happened.]]
200%%* Lahan in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''.
201* In the intro movie for ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', Lili tries to reassure a nervous Dogen by telling him "I've been coming here for years, and nothing ever happens." Shortly afterward, Razputin falls out of a tree right behind them. As it turns out, this year at Whispering Rock will be far more eventful than the last few, what with [[spoiler: the campers' brains being stolen to be turned into weapons to take over the world.]]
202[[/folder]]
203
204[[folder:Web Animation]]
205* Inverted on ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': In the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail [[Recap/StrongBadEmailE131BoringReally boring (really)]], a viewer complains that they are bored out of their mind, and asks Strong Bad if anything exciting happens in Free Country USA. Although exciting things do indeed normally happen there, nothing exciting happens in the episode. The characters instead act as if various extremely boring things are interesting, and engage in thrilling activities such as counting bricks in a wall, practicing closing their eyes, and naming all the three-letter words they can think of.
206* The first episode of ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' is all about the two squads in Blood Gulch noting how nothing happens in that canyon. Of course, two episodes later two rookies arrive, the Red one is sent on a SnipeHunt that culminates in one of the Blues dying, and it all goes downhill from there.
207[[/folder]]
208
209[[folder:Webcomics]]
210* In ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'', [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000607c George gets prompt results.]]
211* ''Webcomic/{{Counting}}'' The small, quiet town of "Thirston" is mass poisoned [[spoiler: via the water supply]] by the Colonel.
212* ''WebComic/DragonBallMultiverse'': When selecting the fighters in U3, the Vargas were surprised to find a strong fighter on Earth, and one of them said "I don't think we'll find powers there in other universes". Check the EarthIsTheCentreOfTheUniverse entry...
213* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' is set in "the pleasantly innocuous hamlet of Generictown," where nothing much ever happened until one of their residents, Mr. Bob Smithson, suddenly became the biggest WeirdnessMagnet on Earth.
214* ''Webcomic/MeatyYogurt'': Middleville's curse, cults, aliens, and occasional sitcom hijinks don't stop protagonist Jackie from bemoaning it as a deeply boring hometown.
215* ''Webcomic/RPGWorld'' had Cameotown, which was the place where people who weren't doing anything lived until they had something to do again.
216* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' Katie Zalia complains that the tiny town of Podunkton is too boring. Turns out this boringness is just a lull, however, in the town's ongoing conflict with Canadian drug lords.
217* ''Webcomic/WildeLife'': Set in Podunk, Oklahoma, which has ghosts, werewolves, helpful spiders, talking bears, and a landlady who's a "real witch".
218* Tandy Gardens, setting of ''Webcomic/TheWotch,'' is said to be this sort of place in the first strip. By now, everyone in the city's probably been [[ForcedTransformation turned into something]] once. At least once. Two words: Myth Virus.
219[[/folder]]
220
221[[folder:Web Original]]
222* ''WebVideo/TribeTwelve'':
223--->'''Noah''': "All people do around here is just come and fish and it's just really boring."\
224'''Milo''': "I never saw the point in fishing. It's kinda boring."
225[[/folder]]
226
227[[folder:Western Animation]]
228* The opening scene of ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers Galaxy Rangers]]'' episode "Galaxy Stranger." Ten years later, Mandell and company lifted the speech nearly verbatim and put it in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/PrincessGwenevereAndTheJewelRiders'' as a ShoutOut.
229* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Aang is first found ''at the South Pole'' the sleepy home [[strike:[[EskimoLand Inuits]]]] [[EskimoLand of the Southern Water Tribe]] by a couple of kids where nothing has happened for over a decade.
230** Mai laments, "This place [Omashu] is unbearably bleak. Nothing ever happens." Cue LaResistance trying to assassinate her and her mother.
231*** Amusingly, after surviving the assassination attempt and chasing the Gaang for a while, she ''immediately'' goes back to being bored.
232* The whole point in ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. No character actually says it, but the world itself does since the town the characters live in is called "Nowhere", and yet crap happens ANYWAY.
233%%* '''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'''.
234* A RunningGag on ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' was displaying various billboards and signs all over the CityOfAdventure that read things like, "Amity Park: A Safe Place To Live" or "Amity Park: It's Quiet Here." Wishful thinking by the GenreBlind.
235* If you're talking signs, how about "Bellwood: The Most Normal City in America" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}''?
236* The sign for ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' includes, [[AC:WELCOME TO GRAVITY FALLS: "Nothing To See Here Folks"]]
237* The opening of the ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' episode "Ceiling Zero Zero" opens with the narrator telling that nothing exciting ever happens in the town of Dunkelville until an earthquake shatters the skyline. It was a sonic boom caused by Vulture Squadron pursuing Yankee Doodle Pigeon with a giant amplifier.
238* ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry'' episode "Booty and the Beast" has the main plot start with Cranky Kong feeling a bit lonely. "Huh. The quiet life. Nothing ever happens around here. No one calls me, no one comes to visit..." At which point Kaptain Skurvy fires a cannonball through the front door and nearly takes off the geriatric ape's head.
239* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeathcliffAndTheCatillacCats'' episode "Cat Balloon", Cleo says this exact phrase about Westfinster. Twist #1: At the moment Cleo says this, exciting things are happening all around her, but she's too busy complaining to notice them. Twist #2: When Cleo and the Catillac Cats use a balloon to go to a neighboring town, it's hijacked by a similar gang of cats who want to leave their hometown because--you guessed it--NothingExcitingEverHappensHere.
240* The official trailer for ''WesternAnimation/{{Jellystone}}'' starts off with the narrator saying, "Nothing strange ever-" only to be cut off by a montage of wacky hijinx.
241--> "Okay, well, it's... still... [[DamnedByFaintPraise a place]]."
242* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' where Jimmy sighs "Nothing exciting ever happens in Miseryville" while dinosaurs and aliens attack the city in the background.
243* In the ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode "A Rover Runs Through It", Bobby is at his grandmother's ranch and wandering through a field playing his Game Boy commenting how boring it is out there. While he is saying this he passes by several animals including a pair of deer fighting for dominance, a flock of pheasants, and an elk; he never notices all this because he is focused on his Game Boy game.
244* An ep of ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'' sees Hazelnut (her hometown) making a big deal of an apparent earthquake because of this trope (to the point where TV news coverage precedes CCTV footage of a single jar of food falling off a supermarket shelf with disclaimers suited for more intense things)... and ends with using this trope for a gag.
245* Absolutely, completely, totally subverted in ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow''. It's not so much that the crazy shenanigans are considered mundane, so much as Rigby and Mordecai possess the inexplicable capacity to take utterly mundane situations and transform them into world-stake epics.
246* In ''WesternAnimation/VictorAndValentino'', this is Victor's opinion of Monte Macabre. He's quickly proven wrong when he and his half-brother Valentino fall into an underground labyrinth and have to work together in order to get out.
247[[/folder]]
248
249[[folder:Others]]
250* There's a sketch of a Polish cabaret, where everyone is shocked by the fact that nothing is happening there. Can be watched (with English subtitles) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8LFvNe7DpE here]]
251[[/folder]]

Top