History Main / KitschCollection

* ''ComicBook/{{Starman}}'': While on one of his buying trips, Jack Knight buys a collection of carnival glass off a creepy old farmer. The farmer says that the collection belonged to his late and, since she died, he has taken to every so often shooting a piece of it with his shotgun. Jack leaves wondering exactly ''how'' the wife died.

[[folder:Comic Books

* On ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', the villain [=DNAmy=] is obsessed with collecting Cuddle Buddies stuffed toys.

** Nanny Ogg has a kitsch collection of her own, but ''she'' uses it as a means of extortion towards her numerous relatives. To clarify: if you travel off somewhere, you had best bring back a '''stunning''' gift for her, or your portrait is moved to a less favorable place. Nanny Ogg has a ''very'' extended family, extremely prone to infighting which Nanny encourages as a pastime, and they ''will know'' and ''will take advantage of'' how favorably Nanny regards you.[[note]]And the general guideline for how she regards someone seems to be: 1.) Main/Living room (where she spends most of her time). 2.) Hallways -- the further away the worse. 3.) The wobbly end-table by ''Greebo's litter box''.[[/note]]

** Nanny Ogg has a kitsch collection of her own, but ''she'' uses it as a means of extortion towards her numerous relatives. To clarify: if you travel off somewhere, you had best bring back a '''stunning''' gift for her, or your portrait is moved to a less favorable place. Nanny Ogg has a ''very'' extended family, extremely prone to infighting which Nanny encourages as a pastime, and they ''will know'' and ''will take advantage of'' how favorably Nanny regards you.[[note]]And the general guideline for how she regards someone seems to be: 1.) Main/Living room (where she spends most of her time). 2.) Hallways -- the further away the worse. 3.) The cat's ''litter box''.[[/note]]

* In the film ''Film/The40YearOldVirgin'', Andy (Steve Carell) owns a collection of action figures. He sells them at end of the movie when he starts to mature.

* The massive collections of sci-fi/fantasy and comic-book tie-ins accumulated by the core cast of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' would probably be a male equivalent. It is interesting that when Penny calls Leonard out on his, and he seeks to sell it all off to please her, Sheldon hits back by referring to Penny's own compulsive accumulation of Care Bears, My Little Ponies, et c. The capping instance must be Doctor Lorvis,[[note]] A dermatologist with a lot in common with howard - single and living with his mother[[/note]] who compensates for being single and living with his mother by spending a private practice salary on ''really-high-end'' movie and television tie-ins, filling the whole basement with them to create his Fortress of Solitude.

*** [[spoiler:In the Beta universe, Jane's version of Dad collects hard-boiled private-eye memorabilia in a more successful attempt to bond with her.]]

** Dave's brother is obsessed with puppets, and their apartment is filled with ventriloquist dummies, muppet-like stuffed and foam dolls, etc. He even runs a collection of puppet porn sites. However, Bro Strider is such a master of esoteric levels of {{Irony}} that it's impossible to tell whether the line between "being creepily into puppets" and satire of the them even exists. Dave pretends to be cool with this. [[spoiler:Dirk, Bro's beta-universe counterpart, has pretty much the same collection with some [=SB&HJ=] merchandise of Dave's tossed in.]]

** Miss Flitworth in ''Discworld/ReaperMan'' has one. It's implied they're all souvenirs from her late fiancee.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' - a supervillain named Pig Leg, a man with a fully formed, sentient pig for a leg, had a collection of pig figurines - he sheepishly explained that he told a friend in passing that he liked pigs, so his friend bought him a little pig figure, then someone else saw it and bought him another; it sort of just happened.

** Nanny Ogg has a kitsch collection of her own, but ''she'' uses it as a means of extortion towards her numerous relatives. To clarify: if you travel off somewhere, you had best bring back a '''stunning''' gift for her, or your portrait is moved to a less favorable place. Nanny Ogg has a ''very'' extended family, extremely prone to infighting which Nanny encourages as a pastime, and they ''will know'' and ''will take advantage of'' how favorably Nanny regards you.

* This is common among players of Bethesda [=RPGs=]. It's not uncommon to see people with entire rooms dedicated to monster skulls, or empty/rare soda bottles.
** An in-game example in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' add-on Old World Blues with Muggy, a robot that was programmed to collect coffee mugs. He hates it.

* A ''Series/{{Mash}}'' episode has Klinger decking the company clerk office out in various "treasures" sent from his family in Toledo, to this effect.

* Annie Wilkes from Creator/StephenKing's ''{{Literature/Misery}}'' has a collection like this, and she knows ''exactly'' how they're placed.
** See also Nettie Cobb and her carnival glass in ''Literature/NeedfulThings''. She tolerated her husband's abuse for many years, but when he smashed one of her pieces she took his life.
** Also, "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away", a short story in ''Literature/EverythingsEventual'' about a traveling salesman who collects graffiti.
** Also, [[MyBelovedSmother Kirstie Carver]] in ''Literature/TheRegulators'' collects Hummel figurines. Her goal in life is to design one that looks like her SpoiledBrat son.

--> '''Jack''' We never had any cookie jars in my home, because my mother never baked any cookies, 'cause she never felt we deserved any cookies, so obviously it has nothing to do with my childhood
--> '''Liz:''' But that cookie jar says "mom" on it.\\

--> '''Liz:''' But that cookie jar says "mom" on it.
--> '''Jack''' I don't think so; I always viewed it as an upside down "wow"

* In the video for the {{Vocaloid}} song "Fear Garden," [[Characters/{{Vocaloid}} Rin Kagamine]] collects people's hands (that she has severed from her living friends/family/fellow Vocaloids) and puts them in a garden as flowers.
* Another {{Vocaloid}} example: "Heartbeat Clocktower," "Girl of the Miniature Garden," and "Judgement of Corruption" all feature the character [[HangingJudge Gallerian Marlon]] (KAITO), also known as The Collector, who... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin collects things]]. Specifically, his greatest pride was a doll that was part of his collection [[spoiler: which he believed to be hisdeceased daughter.]]

* In Charlotte [=McLeod's=] novel ''ExitTheMilkman'', one of the characters has a huge collection of porcelain.

[[folder:Film]]
* In the film ''Film/AboutSchmidt'', Warren Schmidt's wife, Helen, collects little Hummel figurines, to Warren's displeasure. Later in the film Warren visits a museum full of them and has to admit they aren't all so bad. Warren and Helen are both in their late 60s, and Helen is depicted as grandmotherly, though technically not a grandmother.
* In ''Film/FallingDown'', William Foster's mother has such a collection. When the police were interviewing her to try and see where her rampaging son might go next, she was incredibly nervous because she felt that William might kill her and wouldn't say anything. The lead detective dramatically calmed her down just by asking which figurine was her favorite, guessing that it was a dog (it was the giraffe).

* In the film ''Film/The40YearOldVirgin'', Andy (Steve Carell) owns a collection of action figures. He sells them at end of the movie when he starts to mature.

* Creepy... semi-subversion, maybe, in ''TransformersAnimated''. Lockdown has a collection of all sorts of trophies. However, he is not extremely old [[note]] he doesn't look/act it, at least - being a Transformer, he's probably a couple million years old[[/note]], and the "trophies" are various mods (read: body parts) he's ripped off of his bounties.
* ''TheTick'' - a supervillain named Pig Leg, a man with a fully formed, sentient pig for a leg, had a collection of pig figurines - he sheepishly explained that he told a friend in passing that he liked pigs, so his friend bought him a little pig figure, then someone else saw it and bought him another; it sort of just happened.

* In an episode of ''TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' it is revealed that Arwin's mother collects owls.

* PawnStars: Played straight, as occasionally someone will bring in an assortment of things that an older relative collected. Said relative has now passed on, and the family is looking to sell the collection. The problem is that such collections are rarely actually ''worth'' anything...

* One episode of Series/ThirtyRock deals with Jack having to abandon his large secret cookie jar collecton "because the guy with the weird hobby never gets the corner office". (it is explained that Giuliani only became mayor of NY after ditching his doll collection). He does insist you don't have to be weird to have a collection like that though:

* This is common among players of Bethesda RPGs. It's not uncommon to see people with entire rooms dedicated to monster skulls, or empty/rare soda bottles.

*** "Of course I'm obsessed! They made me this way! You think I don't know how crazy I sound? Of course I do! THEY PROGRAMMED ME TO KNOW THAT TOooo-arrr..."

* In the film ''Film/The40-Year-OldVirgin'', Andy (Steve Carell) owns a collection of action figures. He sells them at end of the movie when he starts to mature.

** See also Nettie Cobb and her carnival glass in ''NeedfulThings''. She tolerated her husband's abuse for many years, but when he smashed one of her pieces she took his life.

* ''TheLeagueOfGentlemen'' -"Do not touch the precious things of the shop!"

* One episode of ThirtyRock deals with Jack having to abandon his large secret cookie jar collecton "because the guy with the weird hobby never gets the corner office". (it is explained that Giuliani only became mayor of NY after ditching his doll collection). He does insist you don't have to be weird to have a collection like that though:

* In TennesseeWilliams' ''TheGlassMenagerie'', Laura, a young, introverted woman who is shy due to a physical disfigurement, is obsessed with her collection of glass animals.

* The massive collections of sci-fi/fantasy and comic-book tie-ins accumulated by the core cast of ''TheBigBangTheory'' would probably be a male equivalent. It is interesting that when Penny calls Leonard out on his, and he seeks to sell it all off to please her, Sheldon hits back by referring to Penny's own compulsive accumulation of Care Bears, My Little Ponies, et c. The capping instance must be Doctor Lorvis,[[note]] A dermatologist with a lot in common with howard - single and living with his mother[[/note]] who compensates for being single and living with his mother by spending a private practice salary on ''really-high-end'' movie and television tie-ins, filling the whole basement with them to create his Fortress of Solitude.