History Main / FishoutofWater

* The film version of ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'' and was about back country folks living in the city.

* The film version of ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'' and ''Series/GreenAcres'' was about back country folks living in the city.

* ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'' and ''Series/GreenAcres'' featured premises which were the exact inverse of one another. The former was about country folks living in the city while the latter was about city folks living in the country.

* ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'': a group of hillbillies who strike it rich and move to Beverly Hills.
* And, from the same production team, ''Series/GreenAcres'', about two city-slickers who buy a farm.

* [[AlienAmongUs Ax]] from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', frequently played up for comedic value.

* The titular character of ''Literature/{{Christy}}'' when she first comes to Cutter Gap. She barely goes a page or two without something new shocking her sensibilities.
* ''Literature/ACourtOfThornsAndRoses'': Feyre in Prythian - she's a human girl surrounded by Fae.

* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'':
** Cordelia Vorkosigan, ''nee'' Naismith never wholly fits the niche of Barrayaran Vor-class Womanhood, and rarely bothers to try beyond letting herself be dressed "properly". Indeed an exasperated [[ParentheticalSwearing "Barrayarans!"]] remains her favorite explitive for over thirty years.
** ''Literature/EthanOfAthos'': Ethan Urquhart of Athos, a literal NoWomansLand, gets sent on a mission to find ovaries. He has never even seen what they are normally attached to.
* The ''Literature/{{Shadowleague}}'' books give us Zavahl and, to a lesser extent, Toulac in Gendival--the hundreds of different sentient creatures throw them off.

* In Creator/GeneStrattonPorter's ''Literature/{{Freckles}}'', Freckles's arrival in the Limberlost swamp gives him weeks of terror. FaceYourFears works, however, and by the time he gets his first pay and kills his first rattler, he's adapted to it.
-->Each hour was torture to the boy. The restricted life of a great city orphanage was the other extreme of the world compared with the Limberlost. He was afraid for his life every minute. The heat was intense. The heavy wading-boots rubbed his feet until they bled. He was sore and stiff from his long tramp and outdoor exposure. The seven miles of trail was agony at every step. He practiced at night, under the direction of Duncan, until he grew sure in the use of his revolver. He cut a stout hickory cudgel, with a knot on the end as big as his fist; this never left his hand. What he thought in those first days he himself could not recall clearly afterward.
* Leo Colston, in ''Literature/TheGoBetween'', comes from a modest background and is completely lost among the guests at a grand country house. That and his naivety makes it all the easier for him to be manipulated by others.
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's Literature/TimePatrol story "Delenda Est", Deirdre is this after their rescue. They tell her YouCantGoHomeAgain but [[DirtyBusiness lie about why]]: they are obliterating her AlternateHistory. [[spoiler:At the end, one rescuer has her brought to his era on Venus, as the most like her own; Everard doesn't argue the point.]]
* ''Literature/{{Chimera}}'': Michael, who's had little exposure to the world outside of field trips and the occasional movie.

* {{Deconstructed}} in ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'' with Nutt. Until he got to Ankh-Morpork, he knew about the world outside his Ladyship's castle only from reading.
%%* Played in ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' with Tigger.
* ''Literature/PaddingtonBear'' spent most of his life in Peru before he came to England, and he's a bit unaccustomed to modern British life, shall we say,

* In ''Literature/{{Whit}}'' by Creator/IainBanks, the main character, Isis, grew up in a mildly puritanical {{Cult}} that rejects all modern technology and considers her the ChosenOne. While she understands on an intellectual level that the rest of the world isn't like that, she's not prepared for how uninterested the outside world is in even trying to understand her beliefs.
* ''Literature/TheSecretGarden'': Mary, who travels from British-occupied India to England.

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' involves our hero, Arthur Dent, being whisked away from his cozy existence and forced to deal with an insane and slightly larger galaxy than he'd previously known with the help of Ford Prefect.

* ''Literature/TheNannyFromMoscow'' by Ivan Shmelyov has the eponymous nanny, who has spent her entire long life in the Russian capital, forced into emigration after the October Revolution. She has a lot of trouble adjusting to the life in other countries, even after her beloved ward becomes a world-famous actress and they are no longer in danger of poverty. She ends up happily settling down in Paris because at least it's full of Russian émigrés and she can feels herself almost at home.
* ''Literature/FangboneThirdGradeBarbarian'' and its AnimatedAdaptation ''WesternAnimation/{{Fangbone}}'' derives a good chunk of its humor from Fangbone (who is a barbarian from a SwordAndSorcery fantasy world) having difficulty getting used to the peaceful customs and modern technologies of suburban North America.
* Ria from ''Literature/TheEasyPartOfImpossible'' has dedicated every minute of the last eleven years to diving. Now that her coach has kicked her off the team, and she doesn't feel she can work with anyone else, she tries to live a normal life, but she has no idea how to do regular teenage stuff and feels like an alien in her own hometown.
* In his autobiographical memoir ''Literature/HillbillyElegy'', J.D. Vance stated that he felt like this while at Yale Law School. Unlike the vast majority of his classmates, who were from middle- and upper-class backgrounds, he grew up in a working-class family in UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}'s UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}}n diaspora.
* Uido from ''Literature/IslandsEnd'' is a member of an isolated tribe on one of the Andaman Islands. When her little brother Tawai catches a deadly disease from visitors, Uido takes him in a canoe to another island so he can be treated in a hospital. When Tawai regains consciousness, he's fascinated by the "magic" the people use, especially cars and airplanes, but Uido is dismayed by the hunger and income inequality she witnesses and longs to return to her island.
* ''Literature/TheMermaid'': Amelia, the titular mermaid, took the form of a human woman to marry the fisherman Jack Douglas several decades ago. Jack taught her everything she knows about humanity, which isn't much - Jack was practically a hermit and never expected her to follow human social norms. After Jack's death, she moves to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity and is confused by almost every aspect of the culture, especially the many rules governing how proper ladies are supposed to act, and finds it almost impossible to behave in the ways expected of her.
* In ''Literature/ADayOfFallenNight'', Dumai is a godsinger -- a cleric -- in the temple of Mount Ipyeda and knows everything there is about teligion and high-altitude living. Then the Emperor turns up and says that she's his long-lost daughter and asks her to come to the capital to serve as an heir his EvilChancellor can't control. After thirty years of looking after herself and living in a quiet, honest place, Dumai is constantly stressed by submitting to servants, dancing around hidden meanings in conversation, and trying to become a strong option for empress.
* In ''Literature/RealMermaids Don't Hold Their Breath'', a teenage mer named Serena, who has spent her whole life in Talisman Lake, turns into a human for the first time and moves in with the Baxters on land. She doesn't understand any human social norms and is totally confused by things like the bathroom mirror, which she spends thirty minutes trying to talk to because she thinks there's another girl trapped inside.

If the character quickly adapts to the new conditions and finds it better than back home, it's LikeADuckTakesToWater. If however, they decide to change things to how they used to be back home they are a BlitheSpirit. See also GracefulInTheirElement.

-->''Each hour was torture to the boy. The restricted life of a great city orphanage was the other extreme of the world compared with the Limberlost. He was afraid for his life every minute. The heat was intense. The heavy wading-boots rubbed his feet until they bled. He was sore and stiff from his long tramp and outdoor exposure. The seven miles of trail was agony at every step. He practiced at night, under the direction of Duncan, until he grew sure in the use of his revolver. He cut a stout hickory cudgel, with a knot on the end as big as his fist; this never left his hand. What he thought in those first days he himself could not recall clearly afterward. ''

* In ''Literature/ADayOfFallenNight'', Dumai is a godsinger--a cleric--in the temple of Mount Ipyeda and knows everything there is about teligion and high-altitude living. Then the Emperor turns up and says that she's his long-lost daughter and asks her to come to the capital to serve as an heir his EvilChancellor can't control. After thirty years of looking after herself and living in a quiet, honest place, Dumai is constantly stressed by submitting to servants, dancing around hidden meanings in conversation, and trying to become a strong option for empress.

* ''Series/{{Knuckles|2024}}'' follows the epynomous Echidna as he trains Wade in the ways of the warrior, while at the same time learning more about how to live on Earth after spending his whole life as a warrior.