History Main / Hobos

* The antagonist of the [[Creator/VanBeurenStudios Rainbow Parade cartoon]] "Scottie Finds A Home" is a vagrant who heckles the kittens grandma for free food in her own home.

* In ''VideoGame/PotionPermit'', Zeke is a homeless man who sleeps on the bench with his pet cat Kipps. He used to be a merchant from the capital, but a mysterious incident led him to choose to live the life of a carefree nobody in Moonbury.

* In ''Manga/{{Blattodea}}'', the protagonist Chiyuri Haijima is a kind and hard-working homeless girl raised and trained in combat by [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed a depiction]] of Creator/LeijiMatsumoto as a KingOfTheHomeless. She's portrayed as the OnlySaneWoman in a CrapsackWorld controlled by deranged SocialDarwinist assassins and rapists.

* In ''ComicBook/TheGoon'' Hobos appear as cannibalistic cavemen/jungle savages who have their own language. Their leader, the Hobo King may be a caricature of Music/WoodyGuthrie.

* ''VideoGame/ClayFighter 63 1/3'': One of the possible characters is [=HoboCop=] (yeah, like Franchise/RoboCop), a hobo who becomes a vigilante and use tin cans as his "armor". Being a politically incorrect, he was deleted from production, first for lack of time and later became the only character unadded from the discarded ones in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Sculptor's Cut]]''.

%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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Hobos are either homeless people viewed through an industrial-strength NostalgiaFilter or living Americana: [[TheDrifter freewheeling folks]], usually men, who for any number of reasons live a [[PerpetualPoverty wealth-free life]], stowing away on freight trains and [[WalkingTheEarth moving from town to town]] looking for campfires and a good can of beans. TheGreatDepression [[TheThemeParkVersion Theme Park]] isn't complete without these boxcar barons.

* In John Hodgman's ''Literature/TheAreasOfMyExpertise'', he gives a detailed history of the Hobo Conspiracy, including how a hobo (Hobo Joe Junkpan) once became Secretary of the Treasury and then gives 700 Hobo names (and 100 more in the paperback version). He does, however, make a point of distinguishing between normal homeless people and hobos (it's a lifestyle choice).
* In his ''Literature/CitiesInFlight'' tetralogy, Creator/JamesBlish has the character Mayor Amalfi liken the titular cities to the migrants of the United States, saying that most cities are hobos, migrant workers, but some are tramps, basically petty criminals, and a few are the lowest sort: bindlestiffs, migrants who live by robbing other migrants.
* The climax of ''Literature/{{Fahrenheit 451}}'' has [[spoiler:literary hobos]] after Montag [[spoiler:escapes the Mechanical Hound by jumping in a river]]. It is later revealed that these are all [[spoiler:former English professors and stuff; they're keeping the books in their heads until contemporary society crumbles]].
* Old blind Rhysling, the Singer of the Spaceways in Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheGreenHillsOfEarth'' is a kind of hobo. He's an unusual example, as he's built up something of a reputation as a wandering poet and is well-regarded by pretty much everyone.
* In the short story "The Haunted Trailer" by Robert Arthur, the narrator finds his trailer haunted by the ghosts of three hobos.

* George and Lennie from ''Literature/OfMiceAndMen'', a novel by former hobo John Steinbeck.
** Spoofed by Creator/TexAvery as hobo bears George and Junior.
* The novel ''Literature/SixthColumn'' (also titled ''The Day After Tomorrow'') by Creator/RobertAHeinlein includes a hobo character. The hobo used to be a graduate student who decided to research the hobo lifestyle. He discovered he liked it and gave up being a student to be a hobo. He also points out to the protagonist that hobos are not tramps or bums, and in fact lays out an entire social taxonomy of American transients, with bindlestiffs at the bottom and true hobos at the top.

* The Second Doctor from ''Series/DoctorWho'' was basically a [[RecycledINSPACE Space Hobo]].
* It seems to be a running gag in ''Series/ICarly'' where hobos are found or mentioned as a joke. In "iEnrage Gibby", Carly even has a "hobo party" where everyone dresses up a hobo!
** Hobos were present in pretty much ''all'' of his works, too. He actually offered [[http://danwarp.blogspot.com/2002/09/hobo-definition.html a definition for the term and how it's different than just 'homeless']] in a blog post. Not that it helped; multiple complaints forced iCarly [[http://www.epath.org/path-in-the-news/victory-icarly-wont-make-fun-of-hobos-anymore to stop with the hobo jokes]] in 2011.

Having been everywhere, seen everything and met everyone, the patricians of poverty are full of tall tales and song -- not to mention sage advice. Some may claim to have been men of status (i.e., mayors or heavyweight champs) brought low by dumb luck, while others willfully renounced the stationary life. Both varieties of hobo will recount his story in detail, if you have the time.

Compare DisposableVagrant.

These regents of the rails are never far from train tracks and almost always carry {{Bindle Stick}}s. Their natural habitats are moving boxcars and campfire circles, though ramshackle hobo metropolises do occur. Any gathering of five or more hobos will feature a hobo gentleman, identified by ragged top hat, cane and swagger.

Unlike street persons or the colloquial bum, hobos prefer rural settings, rarely panhandle, and generally conduct their affairs with some sense of dignity and etiquette. Newcomers to hoboism are often adopted by old timers and taught to observe some variety of "The Hobo's Code". When and how a hobo receives his nickname is unclear, but every hobo has one — it's usually "Boxcar" something.

* One of the possible characters for ''VideoGame/ClayFighter 63 1/3'' was [=HoboCop=] (yeah, like Franchise/RoboCop), a hobo who becomes a vigilante and use tin cans as his "armor". Being a politically incorrect, he was deleted from production, first for lack of time and later became the only character unadded from the discarded ones in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Sculptor's Cut]]''.

* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Given his name]], the titular Hobo from the ''VideoGame/{{Hobo}}'' series is naturally one of these. Several other hobos appear as enemies in the first game.
* In ''VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket9'', the ''Vagabond Nice Guy'' scenario features a honorable wanderer who helps a shopping district's community face a corrupt supermarket chain. In most story routes he hangs out by an ArtificialRiverbank with a tent and a fishing rod. It is also hinted he is the reincarnation of Red, the misguided sentai warrior from ''[[VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket7 Koshien Hero]]'', on something of a redemption journey.

* In ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'', before arriving at the diner, Lily travels to different places on the whim of an app she downloaded, not working, subsisting on her social skills and the kindness of strangers.

* ''WebComic/LaughOutLoudCats'': Hobos [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meet]] WebOriginal/LOLCats.
* In the webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Guttersnipe}}'', set in a [[TheThemeParkVersion Theme Park Version]] ''of'' a Theme Park Version of the Great Depression, hobos have become so numerous that they have taken over the entire center third of the nation, succeeding to become a sovereign nation called 'Hobotopia.' Hobos are depicted as a roaming barbarian tribe, armed with spears and wearing nothing but loin cloths and the obligatory battered top hats.
* In ''Webcomic/RealmOfOwls'' the hobos live in the outskirts of the city of Buffet. They look, act and live like real-life hobos, but are mostly perfectly fine or even happy with their [[https://realmofowls.com/comics/the-hobos lifestyle]].

* Lumpy Space Princess from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' did a stint as one of these after she [[TheRunaway ran away from home]].

* The eponymous Baggy Pants in the obscure [=DePatie-Freleng=] series ''WesternAnimation/BaggyPantsAndTheNitwits'' is explicitly described in the theme as "the hobo everyone knows." It may be because he's a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Creator/CharlieChaplin.

Having been everywhere, seen everything and met everyone, hobos are full of tall tales and song — not to mention sage advice. Some may claim to have been men of status (i.e., mayors or heavyweight champs) brought low by dumb luck, while others willfully renounced the stationary life. Both varieties of hobo will recount his story in detail, if you have the time.

->''"I worked forty years as a fireman, boy / On the Pennsylvania line / And I ended up / just a derelict / Drinkin' Boone's Farm apple wine / Oh where can a bum find bed and board? / When you gonna make it stop rainin' lord?"''
-->-- '''Music/WarrenZevon''', '''"Stop Rainin' Lord"'''

* The ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' episode "Ballad of Gentleman Jones" is set around Toronto's hobo community.

* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Given his name]], the titular Hobo from the ''VideoGame/{{Hobo}}'' series is naturally one of these. Several more appear as enemies in the first game.

* "Big Rock Candy Mountain" is a humorous folk song describing a fictional hobo paradise. Bowdlerized versions have been found on compilations of music for little kids; on the other end of the stick, probably in protest to the romanticizing of the hobo life, it has also been covered by the likes of Tom Waits, whose version is without accompaniment and consists of him slurring, screaming, and sobbing the lyrics even more drunkenly than usual. The original version, written by Harry [=McClintock=] in 1898, ends on this deeply cynical and very much non-kid-friendly note:

'''Note:''' This applies only to hobos ''as a trope''. RealLife hobos allegedly prefer to think of themselves as homeless travelers subsisting on odd jobs, whereas ''[[TheTramp tramps]]'' travel without seeking work and ''bums'' do neither. We've yet to verify this with one of their rank, and note that calling a tramp or bum ''hobo'' elicits the same nonverbal response as calling him ''Gargamel''. (Unless his name is Gargamel.)