History Main / HorribleCampingTrip

Simply put, several members of the cast go on a camping trip, and disaster ensues. This plot is sometimes used even in situations where the characters do not live anywhere near the wilderness, nor seem the type who would even go on camping trips or have any experience doing so. In fact, you can guarantee that out of a whole group only one person will even think the trip is a good idea: Dad (if it's a family SitCom) or the guy who remembers doing it as a kid it with rose-colored glasses.

* ''ParksAndRecreation'', "Camping". Leslie sends the parks department on a camping retreat to come up with new projects. Ironically, everyone in the parks department save for Ron and Leslie hate camping. Tom brings so many electronic gadgets he drains the van's battery, stranding everyone, while Andy goes to the wrong camping site and has to trek through rough terrain to get there. In the end they all go to a nearby bed and breakfast run by a CrazyCatLady.

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': The Bundys/Rhodes spend a week in a cabin. No food (until the women find a trap door filled with it near the end of the episode), all the women come on their periods after the first day (at first, it was just Kelly who was on her period, much to the surprise of Bud, who constantly makes fun of her for being sexually promiscuous and not using protection), and said cycling attracts animals who surround the house.

* The Music/{{Yes}} song "South Side of the Sky" sounds like it's obliquely describing something like this.
** It's worse. It actually describes the experience of mountain climbing/traversing a tundra and dying of hypothermia. Though the way it's written, it's not so obvious how dark the song is.

* Bill Watterson did this a few times in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', when Calvin's dad drags the family along on a camping trip. One time, Calvin dropped a bag of supplies in the lake and accidentally broke his dad's glasses; another time, it rained the whole trip and didn't stop until Dad, having decided to pack it in and go home, had finished loading the car. Cue FacePalm (and then [[NarrativeProfanityFilter shouting words that Calvin didn't understand]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Call Of The Simpsons", where Homer's new RV falls off a cliff, and after a string of disasters, he eventually ends up covered in mud and mistaken for Bigfoot.
** Another chapter from ''The Simpsons'' showed Bart going to Kamp Krusty, a summer camp that turns out to be a badly run-down place guarded by Krusty's heartless accountant Mr. Black and the school bullies Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney. After the campers are forced into working in a sweat shop, enduring natural hazards of all kinds and miserable living conditions, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking being subject to Barney Gumble dressed as Krusty]], Bart gets fed up and leads a rebellion against the suit running the camp.
** In yet another episode of ''The Simpsons'', a river rafting trip results in Bart, Homer, Ned Flanders, and Rodd Flanders stranded at sea after Homer loses the map of the river. Thankfully, their lives are saved when they run into an offshore oil rig that just happens to have a Krusty Burger franchise aboard (which was about to close as the oil rig was unmanned and therefore had no potential customers).
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': "The Teachings of Don Jake" -- The family go on a camping trip, get lost, then Jake, Helen and Quinn eat psychotropic berries and go crazy. Daria saves the day when she finds the cell phone hidden in her mother's bag and has the family airlifted to safety.
** There was also the class mountain retreat which included a snowstorm (the season four episode "Anti-Social Climbers")

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', "Phish and Wildlife", where Hank takes Bobby with him and the guys on a camping trip. All is well until an army of hippies show up for "The Gathering".

* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' has Orel going on the worst camping trip ever with his father resulting in what was the darkest episode of the show. And then it just got darker...
** Let's put it like this: [[spoiler: The culminating moment was when his father, in a drunken rage, ''shot Orel in the leg''. Then drank the rubbing alcohol that could have kept Orel's leg from getting worse. Then passed out for two days while Orel suffered. Then denied shooting Orel, saying that since he didn't remember it, it wasn't his fault. And was only concerned that Orel killed a bear rather than his son's well-being. And, months later, admitting (in front of the town no less) that he was ''glad'' he shot Orel.]] Yeah, it's that kind of show.

** It's worse. It actually describes the experience of mountain climbing/traversing a tundra and dying of hypothermia. Though the way it's written, it's not so obvious how dark i is.

* ''HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'': by page count, the camping trip from Hell is 1/4 of the book, it '''feels''' much longer.

* ''TheBradyBunch'': "A Camping We Will Go," a Season 1 episode. It's anything but (of course), but the trope is imagined by the boys pre-trip, who are sure it will end up this way since they believe the girls will ruin everything.

** It's mentioned Dad takes them on these trips every summer, in spite of Mom and Calvin openly hating them. Dad on the other hand, seems to enjoy the great outdoors no matter how many bad things happen on every trip. One comic however had him explain he takes them on those trips every summer instead of a cruise or more enjoyable vacation so the rest of their year will feel better by comparsion, but given his habit of sarcasm it's hard to say if he's being serious about that.

Typical disasters include being snowed in, freezing in a cabin, never-ending rain, running out of food, or getting attacked by incredibly fake-looking bears (or Bigfoot. Or [[EverythingTryingToKillYou every animal]].). It would seem much safer to go to a lodge to avoid such things, but that's not usually in the budget. It's much cheaper to use an old wood cabin set, or dark set obscured by bushes where the camera never moves away from a campfire. An even cheaper device is characters going ''ice fishing'', sometimes ''in'' said cabin.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* TruthInTelevision. Anytime people who don't know what they're doing and/or don't realize that they don't actually like roughing it, this happens.
* There is a popular misconception that camping or caravanning holidays are cheap. This is not true; a tent or caravan ''of reasonable quality'' is a fairly substantial one-off investment, and a pitch at a campsite is only slightly cheaper than a modest hotel room. This seldom prevents a certain type of dad -and it's nearly always the father- who's pathologically opposed to spending money trying to do it with the cheapest gear he can find and then wondering why everyone has a thoroughly miserable time.

* In ''Series/TheMiddle'', the Hecks go on a camping trip during summer vacation, since Frankie wants them to have a family bonding experience and they can't afford anything else. Axl gets fed up with Sue constantly pestering him about what high school will be like, Brick spends as much time as he can reading instead of actually experiencing the great outdoors, and Mike and Frankie reflect on how their honeymoon was ''also'' a HorribleCampingTrip. To top it off, Sue gets [[NoPeriodsPeriod her first period]] during the night, which attracts a [[BearsAreBadNews nearby bear]] and forces everyone to seek shelter in the car. [[MyCarHatesMe They can't even escape from the bear by driving away]], since Brick had inadvertently drained the car's battery by keeping the dome light on for hours so he could read by it.

* The aftermath of a HorribleCampingTrip interferes with the game in this ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'' [[http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn/index.php?date=2003-07-16 strip]].

* ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject'', much like ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'', turns things into horror as the three filmmakers learn that they are being hunted.

* The ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Countrycide"...with the twist that the camping trip is a stakeout in response to suspected alien activity. The 'alien' turns out be in fact a cannibalistic human family who nearly end up killing and eating most of the cast.

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', "Strange New World"

* In the ''Series/FatherTed'' episode "Hell", Ted is granted the use of a caravan for the weekend which turns out to be barely large enough to accommodate Ted, Dougal, and Jack. It begins pouring with rain almost as soon as they get settled in (and Dougal has forgotten to pack any board games, reducing them to hide-and-seek and the famous "Small... far away" explanation of perspective), the only nearby attractions are St Kevin's Stump (an ordinary tree stump) and the Magic Road (on which objects roll uphill in defiance of gravity), the caravan turns out to have been double-booked to the flamboyant Father Noel Furlong and his youth group (who cause the caravan to fall on its side with a re-enactment of ''Riverdance''), and Ted and Dougal repeatedly anger a fellow camper who ultimately leaves them stranded on a country road with four slashed tyres.

* ''Series{{Skins}}'' did this a couple of times.

* ''{{Deliverance}}'', like the James Dickey novel on which it's based, plays this trope completely straight and to its logical, tragic extreme.
* The premise of ''CheaperByTheDozen 2'' has the Patriach of the Baker family taking his family to a camping lodge. Of course, things do go awry but what really dampens the trip is the father competing with his arch-rival and his family.
* The Great Outdoors. Possibly a Defining Moment.
* CannibalHolocaust portrays this in the most scary, bloody, gory and violent way imaginable.

* ''TheBlairWitchProject'', much like ''CannibalHolocaust'', turns things into horror as the three filmmakers learn that they are being hunted.

* ''HappyDays'', "Ugh, Wilderness"
* ''MrBelvedere'': Wesley's trip to a summer camp takes a frightening turn when a camp counselor "rubs his shoulders" in an attempt to molest him. Fortunately, Wesley speaks up, and the counselor (who resigns) is forced to admit he has a problem and needs help.
* The trope image comes from ''{{Bottom}}'', ''s Out'', where Eddie remembers to bring the can opener but Richie forgets the canned ''food''; they attempt to go blowpipe hunting with a tentpole and darts, and Richie is repeatedly injured; Eddie almost burns his own face off while trying to light the gas stove (he forgot to put the valve in); and since Wimbledon Common is technically just a giant public park, they're harassed in the middle of the night by a flasher. Also, they appear to have set up camp in an area labelled 'dog toilet', meaning there's dogshit all over the place.
* Taken to the most extreme levels of parody in ''{{Stella}}'', as Michael, Michael and David descend into desperate savagery within minutes of entering the woods.

* The ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode ''Countrycide''...with the twist that the camping trip is a stakeout in response to suspected alien activity. The 'alien' turns out be in fact a cannibalistic human family who nearly end up killing and eating most of the cast.
* ''TopGear''. Most of their long-distance overseas trips invariably feature something along this line, but the most famous example is when the three go on a caravan holiday to see what the fuss is about and if they'd enjoy it. They do not, most likely since it ends with the caravan on fire.
* ''{{Taxi}}'': the episode "Call of the Mild".
* ''{{Skins}}'' did this a couple of times.

* In one episode of ''{{Monk}}'', Randy Disher and Adrian Monk go camping with a group of kids. They have to deal with a bear and two criminals.
* ''{{Eureka}}'' has this trope n spades, starting with the tent acting up, and ending with an angry TINY trying to attack them all.

* TheInbetweeners did this for their Season 3 finale. It involved sinking a car in a lake, eating raw sausages and then throwing them back up in the tent.
* ''FatherTed'' episode "Hell"

* ''MarriedWithChildren'': The Bundys/Rhodes spend a week in a cabin. No food (until the women find a trap door filled with it near the end of the episode), all the women come on their periods after the first day (at first, it was just Kelly who was on her period, much to the surprise of Bud, who constantly makes fun of her for being sexually promiscuous and not using protection), and said cycling attracts animals who surround the house.

* In one episode of TwoAndAHalfMen, Alan feels bad about not doing enough father-son activities with his son Jake, so he drags him out into the middle of the woods for a camping trip. Cue Alan desperately trying to entertain the bored Jake in a tiny tent, including making an attempt at a truly horrible GhostStory and getting him to sing songs.
** Did we mention the torrential rainstorm?
* In ''TheMiddle'', the Hecks go on a camping trip during summer vacation, since Frankie wants them to have a family bonding experience and they can't afford anything else. Axl gets fed up with Sue constantly pestering him about what high school will be like, Brick spends as much time as he can reading instead of actually experiencing the great outdoors, and Mike and Frankie reflect on how their honeymoon was ''also'' a HorribleCampingTrip. To top it off, Sue gets [[NoPeriodsPeriod her first period]] during the night, which attracts a [[BearsAreBadNews nearby bear]] and forces everyone to seek shelter in the car. [[MyCarHatesMe They can't even escape from the bear by driving away]], since Brick had inadvertently drained the car's battery by keeping the dome light on for hours so he could read by it.

* Comics example: Bill Watterson did this a few times in ''CalvinAndHobbes'', when Calvin's dad drags the family along on a camping trip. One time, Calvin dropped a bag of supplies in the lake and accidentally broke his dad's glasses; another time, it rained the whole trip and didn't stop until Dad, having decided to pack it in and go home, had finished loading the car. Cue FacePalm (and then [[NarrativeProfanityFilter shouting words that Calvin didn't understand]]).

* Any of Roger's family camping trips in ''FoxTrot''. In fact, they were usually so bad, that the kids notably cheered louder when they learned that after Roger got his job back, they won't go on the camping trip, and usually have to find some sort of excuse to get out of it (such as trying to cram the car with luggage, with some of them being filled with nothing but packaging peanuts, just so there wouldn't be enough room in the car to accomodate them, and taking Roger's attempts at encouraging via exact words and exploit them to delay the camping trip.

* ''TheFamilyCircus'' did this ''twice'' - once in the 70s, and modified and rerun again in 2009.
* {{Garfield}} has been forced to go an a few of these.
* ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} has also gone on one - to Clyde Canyon, which turned out to be a three foot hole in the ground. After spending the weekend sitting in the hole, Dilbert and Dogbert learn that the ''real'' Clyde Canyon was just over the next ridge.

* TruthInTelevision, there's gotta be a fair few TroperTales to back this up.
** Anytime people who don't know what they're doing and/or don't realize that they don't actually like roughing it, this happens.
** There is also a popular misconception that camping or caravanning holidays are cheap. This is not true; a tent or caravan ''of reasonable quality'' is a fairly substantial one-off investment, and a pitch at a campsite is only slightly cheaper than a modest hotel room. This seldom prevents a certain type of dad -and it's nearly always the father- who's pathologically opposed to spending money trying to do it with the cheapest gear he can find and then wondering why everyone has a thoroughly miserable time.

* JimGaffigan: You ever notice that whenever someone uses the phrase "happy camper" they're being sarcastic? [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qle-vjHoQa4 That's because they only happy camper is the guy who's leaving the campground!]]

* In ''MegamanBattleNetwork 2'', Lan decides to go on a camping trip with his friends out of boredom. First, they run into a swarm of bees. After dealing with that, they soon run into a [[EverythingIsOnline malfunctioning electronic bear]] in which Lan sends Megaman.EXE to go delete the virus that is causing it to malfunction. Finally, they find themselves in the middle of an internet terrorist plot to blow up the nearby Okuden dam.

* As mentioned above in the anime section, the school camping trip in {{Persona 4}} quickly turns miserable for the main characters; highlights include such moments as the introduction of "[[LethalChef Mystery Food X]]", and a swimming incident that the guys [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain desperately try to forget]]. [[FunnyMoments The player, however, is likely laughing their ass off]].

* The aftermath of a HorribleCampingTrip interferes with the game in this FullFrontalNerdity [[http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn/index.php?date=2003-07-16 strip]].

* Lampshaded in [[http://www.applegeeks.com/lite/index.php?aglitecomic=2010-03-29 this]] ''{{Applegeeks}}-Lite'' strip.

* ''RockosModernLife'', "Hut Sut Raw"
* ''FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', "Camp Keep a Good Mac Down", where in the time it takes to walk from the camp to the campsite, Bloo eats all of the food, then finds blueberries. On the way back to the campsite he eats them all to test that they're safe, then drinks all of their water trying to wash the taste out. Herriman's no help either, keeping the others from putting up a tent by repeatedly criticizing every inconsequential detail and then having them tear it down.
* ''HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'', "Camping Caper"
* ''KimPossible'', "Camp Wannaweep", after their bus breaks down. Ron saves the Cheersquad from a mutant human/fish-monster.
** A monster which turns out to be a former camper who fell in the toxic lake...
*** Then again, that camp was traumatizing in general.
* ''TheSimpsons'', "Call Of The Simpsons", where Homer's new RV falls off a cliff, and after a string of disasters, he eventually ends up covered in mud and mistaken for Bigfoot.

* ''{{Daria}}'': "The Teachings of Don Jake" -- The family go on a camping trip, get lost, then Jake, Helen and Quinn eat psychotropic berries and go crazy. Daria saves the day when she finds the cell phone hidden in her mother's bag and has the family airlifted to safety.

* One episode of ''DannyPhantom'' renders a mandatory camping trip for Danny and Maddie when they are stranded in the forest. Maddie does fine, but Danny is a complete dunce at it. This hatred is taken with the ''actual'' camping trip episode where the only one visibly excited is Sam. Unfortunately the trip is a typical disaster when nearly all the students and faculties are kidnapped by ghosts. By end though, Danny realizes camping has its merits and enjoys it.
* ''KingOfTheHill'', "Phish and Wildlife", where Hank takes Bobby with him and the guys on a camping trip. All is well until an army of hippies show up for "The Gathering".

* In at least four episodes of ''SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** In ''The Camping Episode'', where Squidward is continually attacked by a sea bear.

** In the episode with the conch shell ("Club [=SpongeBob=]")where [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick do fine, but because Squidward doesn't believe in the powers of the conch shell, he's not allowed to eat anything.

* In the ''KaBlam'' episode "The [=KaBlair=]! With Project", Henry, June, Mr. Stockdale, Mr. Foot, Henry's mom and Jimmy [=McGee=] go on a company camping trip, but they hear the loud roar of a {{bear|sAreBadNews}} and Mr. Foot freaks out and escapes in the camper, leaving everyone else stranded. HilarityEnsues.
* ''HeyArnold!'' has two horrible camping trips:
** In "Roughin' It," Arnold and Gerald are taught by Grandpa Phil camping the old-fashioned way, much to their chagrin. Meanwhile at a adjacent camping spot, Helga and Phoebe live high on the hog as Big Bob Pataki tests out the high-tech (but cheap) camping gear that he plans to sell. When the gear fails the kids and Big Bob during a hike in the woods, Arnold saves the day by applying the survival skills Phil taught him earlier to get back to camp.
** In "Fishing Trip," Gerald, Sid, Harold, and Eugene (and their dads), Arnold and Grandpa Phil head to the woods for a fishing trip. After failing to catch any fish and losing their provisions to a bear (except for [[{{Fartillery}} cans of beans]]), the boys (and their fathers/grandfather) are all miserable, but refuse to tell the others for fear of disappointing them. After much suffering, they finally admit this to each other and decide to to to the nearby resort for a not-so-back-to-nature trip. (Oh, and [[{{Cameo}} Davy Jones has a cameo at the end of the episode]].)

* In the ''[[TheFlintstones Flintstones]]''[=/=]''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' crossover this was played straight for Fred and Barney. Not so much for Wilma, Betty and Sam, who got a little help from Sam's magic.
* MoralOrel has Orel going on the worst camping trip ever with his father resulting in what was the darkest episode of the show. And then it just got darker...

* An episode of GarfieldAndFriends has them going on a camping trip, against Garfield's will. They end up chased by a bear and have to keep dancing and singing to keep the bear entertained. They end up doing this late into the night Garfield notes that sadly of all the times he's been camping with Jon, this is the best time he's ever had.
* ''KickButtowski'' gets "Those Who Camp, Do" in which Kick, currently obsessed with a Survival-style tv-show, decides to camp on his own out in the forest rather than the family's camping site. Kick, being who he is, takes on every challenge the wilderness has to offer him like a boss... however, his older brother Brad goes through his worst nightmare while tagging along.
* ''RegularShow:'' "Camping Can Be Cool". Nobody thought to bring matches, Rigby intentionally forgot the tent and accidentally forgot the tarps, Mordecai locked the keys in the car and the park rangers showed up to yell at them for camping in a restricted area. Then it started to rain. And then [[BeastMan Deer Man]] showed up...

* ''HomeImprovement''
* ''{{Frasier}}''
* ''FamilyMatters''
* ''That70sShow'', but they one up it and drop the ''car'' in the lake.
* ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'' has an example where they're trapped in the shed by a bear.
* ''GoodLuckCharlie'' features the fishing pole being dropped in the water. They get it back when Teddy falls in the hole.

* ''{{Futurama}}'': Fry falls into the ice, catches a cold, and this results in New New York almost getting thrown into a sun because the people of the future have cured the common cold and thus have no immunity against it, resulting in a city-wide pandemic.

* Outdoor humorist PatrickMcManus, who has written for such magazines as ''Field & Stream'' and ''Outdoor Life'' and whose articles have been collected in numerous books, more or less specializes in chronicling bad camping/fishing/hunting trips.

* "Community" has one of these in a flashback, though the trip became horrible due to an argument between the group about how to pronounce s'mores, among other almost indecipherable dialogue.

[[quoteright:339:[[{{Bottom}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bottomsout_2267.png]]]]

-->--'''Mom''', ''CalvinAndHobbes''

->''"Maybe if I die, I won't have to go."''
-->--'''{{Garfield}}'''

* Pretty much becomes this in ''YetiALoveStory''.

* One of the ''Literature/BerenstainBears'' books details a horrible camping trip that's tainted not only with everything imaginable from floods to swarms of insects, but HypeBacklash. (Papa bear spends the first third of the book hyping the trip up to be the experience of a lifetime)

* Outdoor humorist PatrickMcManus, who has written for such magazines as ''Field & Stream'' and ''Outdoor Life'' and whose pieces have appeared in numerous books, more or less specializes in chronicling bad camping/fishing/hunting trips.

* As mentioned above in the anime section, the school camping trip in {{Persona 4}} quickly turns miserable for the main characters; highlights include such moments as the introduction of "[[LethalChef Mystery Food X]]", and a swimming incident that the guys [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain desperately try to forget]]. [[{{CMOF}} The player, however, is likely laughing their ass off]].