Troperville
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Gotham City's most notorious Crime Lord still lives with his Mom.
The stereotypical setting for a Hollywood Nerd, (who may also function as a Hollywood Homely) and despite being a grown adult this character will still be trapped in an adolescent attitude, down to still living with his parents. While the decor of their Poster Gallery Bedroom is subject to the tastes of the character, be sure there will be a computer to communicate with the outside world so as to contribute to their lack of real life social skills, by chatting online or operating his online business, which May Contain Evil or double as a Hacker Cave.
Because he lacks said social skills, Mom will lock this boy ( and it's always a boy) away in the dark basement room; out of sight, out of mind, so as not to be reminded of her failure.
The guys who are depicted in this condition usually fit into one of the following:
- He is lazy and unwilling to make a living for himself.
- He is very childish and requires everything to be done for him.
- He can't get any and hasn't moved out to start a family.
Thank goodness those don't sound like nerd stereotypes, or we could be in real trouble.
Note that there will never be a character with physical or mental disabilities or other such handicaps shown in such a light regardless of the Truth In Television, as this trope; The idea of anyone over the age of 20 still living with his parents will be branded as a loser and always Played For Laughs as an Acceptable Lifestyle Target. (Or at least it is in the US of A).
Immigrant families seem to get a pass, as this type of arrangement is seen as less unnatural to Italians, Irish or Asians. The Asian will, of course, still be a nerd, the Irish will be drunks, and Italians will be gangsters.
For a more serious treatment of this as a social problem, see Hikikomori.
Examples:
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Comicbooks
Film
- In Men In Black 2, Agents J and K get intel from a conspiracy theorist guy who lives in his mom's attic. They claim to be from his therapy group.
- Live Free or Die Hard: "Warlock's" "lair".
- In The Pallbearer, David Schwimmer still lives in his childhood bedroom.
- Wayne of Waynes World
- Averted in the second movie when he and Garth move into their own place.
- The movie Failure To Launch deals with a group of grown men living with their parents who exhibit stereotypical nerd behavior.
- Subverted though, in that the 'nerdiest' of the group actually owns the home he lives in, and took in his mother because that's just what you do when she has no where else to go. In fact everyone in the group but the main character has some sort of technicality which makes them not really live with their parents, which is used to explain why only said main character is attacked by chipmunks and dolphins.
- Subverted in Galaxy Quest when Jason Nesmith is contacted by the Thermians. He thinks that they're particularly rabid fanboys who have built an exact replica of the the Protector in their parents' basement. He's only two-thirds right.
- Speaking of Tim Allen. His role as Zoom in Zoom Academy For Superheroes has him meeting his fans and asking how many of them still live in their Mom's basement. All but Chevy Chase raise their hands. This is followed by what the movie's Agony Booth Review
 refers to as "Awkward Silence Which Is Supposed To Be Funny™."
- A wonderful line granted, but the idea was best expressed in a SNL sketch with Shatner delivering that as well as the inquiry of how many attendees at the convention have even kissed a girl. Priceless.
- In 8mm the killer lives with his mom, who is completely oblivious to his problems.
- The whole plot of Tanguy involves exasperated parents who try to get their grown son to move the hell out so they can have their own lives back.
- Dave's cousin Toby from Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakel who lives in his grandmother's basement and plays video games all day.
Live Action TV
- The Trope Maker is likely William Shatner's "Get a Life" sketch on Saturday Night Live, in which he made reference to how the Trek fans should get a life and move out of their parents' basements. That sketch may have single-handedly
invented popularized every Trekkie stereotype.
- CSI episode "A Space Oddity" plays the Hollywood Nerd image ludicrously straight by showing two guys living in a reconstruction of the ship from "Astro Quest" in their mother's attic.
- Ghostwriter episode "Into The Comics": Manny Gite runs his evil operation from his mother's attic, where he resides.
- Amusingly, Garak's sheltering back at his father Tain's house on Cardassia Prime, with Mila still there (and if not his mother, since it never definitely says, she acts damn close), means he was living in his parents' basement. He is not a nerd.
- Xander Harris in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, who does not enroll in college during the fourth season and lives in his parents' basement, where he pays rent.
- Also played straight on Buffy The Vampire Slayer with the nerd troika of season six, whose evil headquarters is Jonathan's parents' basement.
- The Drew Carey Show: Drew had long been living in his parents' house, which he bought from them. When they have to move back in, he's forced to live in the basement. Naturally, he comments on being a 40-year-old man who lives in his parents' basement.
- Howard from The Big Bang Theory lives in his old bedroom instead of the basement, but otherwise fits this trope to a T.
- Frank on 30 Rock lives with his mother and pays her rent. It hasn't been mentioned if he actually lives in her basement. Subverted when he almost moved out to become a lawyer. (Jack put a stop to this after learning that all of Frank's male relatives were lawyers for The Mafia and consequently met bad ends.)
- In one episode of NCIS, Tony and Ziva interviewed the web master of a porn site who lived in his mother's basement. He also collected Star Wars toys as "investments" and met the site's owner on his paper route. If memory serves, his mother wanted to bring them snacks.
- Similar to this, people routinely make fun of the title character of Frasier for living with his father, causing him to make the same reply of "He lives with me!" Except that this is actually the case... Frasier's father moved into Frasier's apartment to be taken care of, not the other way around. Oddly enough, the writers of the show seem to occasionally forget this.
- The most extreme example of this is Ted from Scrubs, the pathetically inept sad-sack attorney who not only lives with his mother, but shares a bed with her.
- George Costanza.
- Robert Barone is forced to move in with his parents— even though he bought their house from them, and ends up having to give it back to them after he loses his apartment, he's cast as the "loser" because he's a man in his mid-40's living with his parents.
Music
Video Games
- Tony Cipriani in Grand Theft Auto III is a Mafia boss who still lives with his mom and frequently gets yelled at by her.
- The entire McReary family from GTA IV, all grown, live with their Ma with a single exception. Derek is a fugitive recently returned from Northern Ireland, Gerald is in and out of prison, Packie is a small-time thug, and Kate, wholesome and innocent, keeps their Ma safe. The odd man out, Francis, is deputy police commissioner.
Web Comics
Web Original
- Strong Bad's "Road Trip" mocks an e-mailer, calling him "Pete From Pete's Parents' Basement".
- This article at "Encyclopedia Dramatica"
- Linkara hasn't moved out of his parent's house in 30 years, as his review of Superman v. Terminator reveals.
- Maddison Atkins refers to the people commenting on her videos as basement dwellers.
- The roles are reversed in Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series were Grandpa shamefully lives in the basement.
- Until fairly recently, Spoony lived in his parents's basement. He ended one review on an explosive cliffhanger in case the circumstances of his move out rendered him unable to continue filming.
Western Animation
- Frugal Lucre of Kim Possible operates his schemes of world conquest from his mother's basement where he lives.
- Fairly Oddparents episode "Big Superhero Wish": The middle-aged writer of the Crimson Chin lives his with his mother and receives a magazine called "Geeks Who Live With Their Mothers Monthly".
- Batman The Brave And The Bold episode "Night Of The Huntress": The middle-aged "The Calculator" operates his evil ventures from his mother's basement. When Huntress comes to bust him, His mother is all too pleased that there is a girl here to see him. One wonders what she has in mind...
- Codename Kids Next Door: "Operation M.I.N.I.G.O.L.F." Involved The Great Puttinski shrinking down Numbuh 2 and challengeing him in a mini-golf course complete with models of the world's monuments. The whole course is in his mother's basement. Numbuh 2 still wins.
- Coop from Megas XLR makes for a strange non-nerd (albeit very slacker) example. Upon learning that the Monster Of The Week intends to destroy his house, he exclaims "My Mom's home! She'll kill me!"
- The Batman: Cluemaster even built his evil lair in his mom's basement.
- The Simpsons: Comic Book Guy is subject to Geographic Flexibility. Apparently someone thought this would make a worthy gag to have him living in his parent's basement after they'd already established that he lives above his shop.
- Most of the jokes about Seymour Skinner revolve around how he still lives with his beloved
smother mother in middle age (although as with Frasier, he insists "she lives with me!").
- Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before": Melllvar hits this trope dead center.
Melllvar's Mother: Melllvar! Dinner time!
Melllvar: Aw, but Mom, I'm playing with my collectibles!
Melllvar's Mother: Now!
(Melllvar groans and disappears)
Fry: All this time we thought he was a powerful super-being, yet he was just a child.
Melllvar's Mother: He's not a child, he's 34!
- A villain in Word Girl, Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy, lives in his mother's basement. (He tried to move into his own lair once, but got too homesick and moved back.)
Real Life
- Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski lived with his mother throughout his term of office. He isn't married, has a law degree, so apparently the Polish electorate didn't hold it against him. The stigma is generally less in Europe, whether because of a strong emphasis on family life (as in Poland), prohibitive property prices (as in the UK) or both.
- Uh, there actually is no stigma. At most, you might get a "wow, that's really caring of you" or a "poor you, must be tough on the nerves", especially when you're single and your job description definitely shows that you can afford your own place.
- In some parts of Europe, maybe. In the Netherlands however, it's generally seen as uncommon and somewhat overly dependent to still live with one's parents if one is comfortably in one's 20s and has some way of supporting oneself. Though some students living close enough to their educational facility continue to live with their parents, a decision often related to difficulties finding a place or Hotel Mama being more convenient and less costly, most students look down on this, especially if still done beyond the first or second year of one's studies, and prefer the freedom and independence of a grotty student room. Adults moving in with their ailing parents seems to be fairly unusual as well. There may be in-country cultural differences in this, though.
- Because of the current recession it can get rather difficult to avoid this if you're a collage student, the Basement Dweller stigma makes it even worse to live with.
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