History Main / SlummingIt

RedLightDistrict on the WrongSideOfTheTracks. After all, if so many people are doing it, it can't be so hard to dress down! While debauchery may be one motivation, another reason, especially with royalty who are usually sequestered in a guarded castle, is to see how the regular folks live.

So, you're an IdleRich character suffering from RichBoredom, and you're facing ennui from your luxurious life of lounging and ConspicuousConsumption. So what do you do? Pretend to be poor, so you can mingle with the hoi polloi and explore the bars and
RedLightDistrict on the WrongSideOfTheTracks. After all, if so many people are doing it, it can't be so hard to dress down! While debauchery may be one motivation, another reason, especially with royalty who are usually sequestered in a castle, is to see how the regular folks live.

teenage daughter or a young prince/princess or heiress may need to DitchTheBodyguards to accomplish this. Even once they've escaped to the regular world, the posh character is a FishOutOfWater in the poor neighborhood, so they'll have to try to blend in and not give away their elite status.

* In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' fanfic ''FanFic/BuildYourWingsOnTheWayDown'', Gabby and Aviv are poor college students who live in a crumbling building. [[spoiler: Since Gabby is actually [[BlueBlood Catherine]] [[FictionFiveHundred Armstrong,]] ]] it's implied that Gabby lives like this willingly after she had a falling out with her family.

teenage daughter or a young prince/princess or heiress may need to DitchTheBodyguards to accomplish this.

RedLightDistrict on the WrongSideOfTheTracks. After all, if so many people are doing it, it can't be so hard to dress down!

So, you're an IdleRich character suffering from RichBoredom, and you're getting a little too bored with your idle life of lounging and ConspicuousConsumption. So what do you do? Pretend to be poor, so you can explore the bars and

So, you're an IdleRich character suffering from RichBoredom, and you're getting a little too bored with your idle life of lounging and spending. So what do you do? Pretend to be poor, of course! After all, if so many people are doing it, it can't be so hard!

Compare KingIncognito, SecretlyWealthy, PrinceAndPauper, BourgeoisBohemian, and {{Hipster}}. Contrast MockMillionaire, a poor person putting on a show to appear richer. A character doing this may or may not be RichInDollarsPoorInSense.

* When average office worker Retsuko hooks up with wealthy entrepreneur [[spoiler:Tadano]] in ''Anime/{{Aggretsuko}}'' , her friend Heida (who still has a crush on her) accuses the boy of doing this. The English dub even name-drops this trope.

* In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' fanfic ''FanFic/BuildYourWingsOnTheWayDown'' Gabby and Aviv are poor college students who live a crumbling building. [[spoiler: Since Gabby is actually [[BlueBlood Catherine]] [[FictionFiveHundred Armstrong,]] ]] it's implied that Gabby lives like this willingly after she had a falling out with her family.

* The first season of ''Series/{{Newhart}}'' had Leslie, a wealthy heiress and [[IvyLeagueForEveryone Dartmouth]] grad student who took the maid's job to "find out what it's like to be normal". In season 2 she was replaced with her cousin Stephanie, who was a SpoiledBrat to Leslie's nice girl and took the maid's job because her parents had "cut her off".

* Some people in industrialized countries engage in what's called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slumming "slum tourism"]] in African, East Asian and Latin American countries.

** This can happen closer to home; New Orleans was plagued by "disaster tourists" for years following Hurricane Katrina. Residents in the hardest-hit areas (e.g. the 9th Ward) were particularly mad about busloads of visitors who were out to take pictures instead of to help.

* One of the characters in ''Literature/{{Haunted}}'', known only as "Lady Baglady", her now-deceased husband, and friends of theirs made a habit of playing at being street people to experience something different from their normal lavishly wealthy lives. Then someone starts killing street people to eliminate possible witnesses to a murder...

* When average office worker Retsuko hooks up with wealthy entrepreneur [[spoiler:Tadano]] in ''Anime/AggressiveRetsuko'' , her friend Heida (who still has a crush on her) accuses the boy of doing this. The English dub even name-drops this trope.

* In ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', Jasmine tries this and very quickly learns that she knows nothing about life on the streets. Later, when she sees through Aladdin's "Prince Ali" disguise, Aladdin claims that he's a prince who makes a habit of going about the streets dressed as a commoner.
* In ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', while Naveen doesn't actually try to convince anyone he's poor, he does enjoy sneaking away from his duties as prince of Maldonia in order to listen to jazz music, dance with the everyday folk of New Orleans, and buy everyone within earshot drinks. [[spoiler:At the end of the movie, he gets along very well living with Tiana in New Orleans, helping run her restaurant.]]

* In Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein's ''[[Theatre/CinderellaRodgersAndHammerstein Cinderella]]'', this is how the prince and Cinderella meet for the first time. [[spoiler:Most of the conversation gets a MeaningfulEcho at the end.]]

* [[DiscussedTrope Mentioned]] in ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'': Nanny Ogg says that those princes dressing up as paupers always make sure the peasants don't get too close.
** In ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'', Teppic reflects that peasants have more freedom, before correcting himself with "yeah, freedom to be starve, to be worked to death, to die of a horrible plague..."

* Tsumugi Kotobuki in ''Manga/KOn'' is completely fascinated by the lifestyles of normal people, and one of her favorite things to do with her friends is exploring all the things they find mundane. She eventually gets a job working at a fast-food restaurant to see what it's like, and later in the manga she cuts herself off from the Kotobuki family fortune save for her college tuition due to how much she's found she prefers this lifestyle (that, and maybe to make her own way in the world).

So, you're a RichIdiotWithNoDayJob, but you're getting a little bored with your idle life of lounging and spending. So what do you do? Pretend to be poor, of course! After all, if so many people are doing it, it can't be so hard!

* In Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''Cinderella'', this is how the prince and Cinderella meet for the first time. [[spoiler:Most of the conversation gets a MeaningfulEcho at the end.]]

* The first season of ''Series/{{Newhart}}'' had Leslie, a wealthy heiress and [[IvyLeagueForEveryone Dartmouth]] grad student who took the maid's job to "find out what it's like to be normal". In season 2 she was replaced with her cousin Stephanie, who was a SpoiledBrat to Leslie's SpoiledSweet and took the maid's job because her parents had "cut her off".

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* Tsumugi Kotobuki in ''Manga/KOn'' is completely fascinated by the lifestyles of normal people, and one of her favorite things to do with her friends is explore all the things they find mundane. She eventually gets a job working at a fast-food restaurant to see what it's like, and later in the manga she cuts herself off from the Kotobuki family fortune save for her college tuition due to how much she's found she prefers this lifestyle (that, and maybe to make her own way in the world).

[[folder: Fan Works ]]

* In ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', Jasmine tries this, and very quickly learns that she knows nothing about life on the streets. Later, when she sees through Aladdin's "Prince Ali" disguise, Aladdin claims that he's a prince who makes a habit of going about the streets dressed as a commoner.

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action ]]

* ''Film/SullivansTravels'': A rich movie director, famous for comedies, pretends to be a bum to suffer enough to make a film adaptation of the [[FictionalDocument fictional]] epic drama "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou" from the Great Depression era. He is warned by his butler not to do it as one of his previous employers did it as a lark and hasn't been seen since--back in 1919.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* One of the characters in ''Literature/{{Haunted}}'', known only as "Lady Baglady", her now-deceased husband, and friends of theirs made a habit of playing at being street people to experience something different from their normal lavishly wealthy lives. Then someone starts killing off street people to eliminate possible witnesses to a murder...

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/FreshMeat'' has two distinct types of slummers: [[UpperClassTwit Braying toff]] JP, who is posh and proud and living in a slummy student house for fun, and [[SecretlyWealthy Oregon]], a hipster who is embarrassed by her privleged upbringing and living there because she wants to fit in with her cool, working class housemates.

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

* In ''Theatre/{{Camelot}}'', King Arthur meets Guenevere in this way, intending to avoid an ArrangedMarriage to her. It turns out to be a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage, but all the same they find themselves singing "What Do The Simple Folk Do?" in the second act.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Mr. Burns remarks, "A blue collar bar! Let's go slumming!" upon seeing Moe's Tavern.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* The Pabst Blue Ribbon brand of beer has this to thank for its popularity among {{hipster}}s. It's generally regarded as ATankardOfMooseUrine aimed at blue collar workers, but middle-class hipsters drank it [[SoBadItsGood "ironically"]].

** Marie Antoinette also did this, and said (or was said having said): "The peasants don't know how lucky they are!" We all know how that turned out...