History Main / PotteryBarnPoor

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': Both [=SpongeBob=] and Squidward work at the Krusty Krab, a fast food restaurant, and Squidward often complains about how badly their paid. Some episodes even imply that [=SpongeBob=] works for free. Yet both of them live in nice two story houses with plenty of food and amenities. Squidward also collects a lot of fancy art, clothes, imported foods and decorative pieces, which no fast food worker could realistically afford.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' have a long history with this trope. The eponymous family's financial situation is often implied to be very poor on account of Homer usually being the sole breadwinner, but they live in a large four-bedroom house with an attached garage, own two cars, their family of five is usually able to be fed and clothed no problem, and they can afford to go on vacation frequently. This is heavily lampshaded in "Homer's Enemy", where Frank Grimes sheds light on the fact that a perpetual screw-up like Homer Simpson still somehow has enough resources to live an upper-middle-class lifestyle. Some episodes then deconstruct this by showing this is all surface-level comfort; on various occasions, the house is falling apart, the cars have no insurance (and may also be falling apart), Marge engages in various tricks to stretch the family's resources without anyone realizing, and Homer relies on loans and credit to pay for things and is on the verge of bankruptcy due to his debts. (There's also the complication that the show is such a LongRunner that cost-of-living increases mean in the latest seasons Homer realistically couldn't afford a tiny fraction of what he could afford for his family in the earlier seasons: a season 33 episode points this out.)

* ''Film/{{Transformers}}'': The Witwickys are described (by Sam's roommate) as being "poor". In truth, [[SubvertedTrope they're just cheap.]] It's implied that Sam's dad (who drives a classic convertible) ''could'' afford to buy him a Porsche, but he thinks that a boy's first car should be a piece of crap. At the end of the first movie, though, they get an unknown but probably quite large amount of hush-money from the US government, which helps with sending their son to Harvard, remodeling their house, and going to France for a vacation.

--> '''Duchess''': "Are we to live like rabbits crammed in a hutch!?"
--> '''Victoria''': "We do live a palace, mama, we're a lot better off than most people."

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' have a long history with this trope. The eponymous family's financial situation is often implied to be very poor on account of Homer usually being the sole breadwinner, but they live in a large four-bedroom house with an attached garage, own two cars, their family of five is usually able to be fed and clothed no problem, and they can afford to go on vacation frequently. This is heavily lampshaded in "Homer's Enemy", where Frank Grimes sheds light on the fact that a perpetual screw-up like Homer Simpson still somehow has enough resources to live an upper-middle-class lifestyle. Some episodes then deconstruct this by showing this is all surface-level comfort; on various occasions, the house is falling apart, the cars have no insurance (and may also be falling apart), Marge engages in various tricks to stretch the family's resources without anyone realizing, and Homer relies on loans and credit to pay for things and is on the verge of bankruptcy due to his debts. (There's also the complication that the show is such a LongRunner that cost-of-living increases mean in the latest seasons Homer realistically couldn't afford a tiny fraction of what he could afford for his family in the earlier seasons.)

* [[https://variety.com/2023/tv/global/david-beckham-victoria-posh-working-class-netflix-docuseries-1235745890/ In a segment for the Netflix docuseries]] ''Beckham'' that went viral, Victoria "[[Music/SpiceGirls Posh Spice]]" Beckham is shown describing both her and her husband David's families as "working class" when they were growing up. David then interrupts the interview from an adjacent room and tells her to tell the documentary crew what kind of car her father drove her to school in. Victoria sheepishly admits it was a Rolls-Royce.

* Exaggerated to the point of {{Lampshade|Hanging}}ing in the D.H. Lawrence short story "The Rocking Horse Winner". The family is middle class and lives in a big, nice house with paid help, but the protagonist's mother still perceives them as poor because they're not as successful as their neighbors or relatives, and all the children are aware of the constant whispers of, "There must be more money!" The family is also in considerable debt due to keeping up such an expensive lifestyle, but it seemingly never occurs to them to just live a little more modestly.

* Exaggerated to the point of {{Lampshade|Hanging}}ing in the D.H. Lawrence short story "The Rocking Horse Winner". The family is middle class and lives in a big, nice house with paid help, but the protagonist's mother still perceives them as poor because they're not as successful as their neighbors. She then drives herself deeper and deeper into debt trying to keep up appearances.

* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'': Pokey's father Aloysius Minch mentions he loaned a lot of money to Ness' dad ("It may have been a hundred thousand dollars or more...") and was never repaid so his family lives in poverty now. In a house bigger than Ness' and after coming back from dining in a fancy restaurant.

* [[https://variety.com/2023/tv/global/david-beckham-victoria-posh-working-class-netflix-docuseries-1235745890/ In a segment for the Netflix docuseries]] ''Beckham'' that went viral, Victoria "[[Music/SpiceGirls Posh Spice]]" Beckham is shown describing both her and her husband David's families as "working class" while they were growing up. David then interrupts the interview from an adjacent room and tells her to tell the documentary crew what kind of car her father drove her to school in. Victoria sheepishly admits it was a Rolls-Royce.

* On her 2014 book tour, [[UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton Hillary Clinton]] claimed with all apparent sincerity that she and [[UsefulNotes/BillClinton her husband]] were "dead broke"[[note]](They were earning nearly $350,000 a year from Bill's presidential pension and Hillary's salary as a US senator, as well as $15 million and $8 million advances, respectively, for their memoirs)[[/note]] when they moved from the White House into a mansion in Chappaqua, New York. [[http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/06/hillary-clinton-stumbles-from-dead-broke-to-not-truly-well-off/ This was met with well-nigh universal eye-rolling.]]