History Main / Yuppie

Despite their material wealth, it was common in [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructive works]] to have yuppies facing failure in their personal lives with such problems as substance abuse, marital strife, or [[WhenYouComingHomeDad lack of family commitment]]. Their perceived [[ItsAllAboutMe self-absorption]], insufferable trendiness, snobbery, latent class anxiety, smugness, and fixation on making money also made them [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets easy comic targets]], or even [[HateSink outright villains]], in many works during the '80s and '90s. In a SlobsVersusSnobs conflict, yuppies would definitely be in the former category.

* ''Film/FatalAttraction'' typified the subgenre occasionally referred to as "yuppies in peril". Dan is an example of a yuppie who has (in theory) chosen family life, as a Manhattan lawyer who lives in a refurbished suburban house with his young daughter and stay-at-home wife. Dan uses his city, corporate existence to sleep with Alex Forrest. She lives in a swanky, gentrified apartment, and she is an apparently happily single, independent publishing executive (and she's a huge fan of shoulder pads). Except her supposedly "bohemian", open-minded lifestyle is actually a front because she goes absolutely crazy in her pursuit of Dan's suburban lifestyle.

* In ''Film/VampiresKiss'', Nicholas Cage plays a young, affluent literary agent in '80's New York who balances out his business days with hedonistic nights filled with casual sex. His character then comes to believe he's turned into a vampire, a metaphor for the predatory nature of capitalism and the yuppie class.

* ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'' deals with the life of crooked Wall Street broker Jordan Belfort and portrays him as the embodiment of the worst of Yuppie greed as he trains his employees to sell bogus stocks while being fueled by a healthy diet of hookers and cocaine.

Yuppies were the members of the later Baby Boom generation, or "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones Generation Jones]]" who became successful (or at least well-paid) [[WhiteCollarWorker white-collar workers]] while in their twenties and thirties, usually in finance, law, sales, architecture or management consulting. In the era's StandardOfficeSetting, yuppies stood out in that they were often young for their rank, typically {{Workaholic}}s, and obsessively materialist (see below). In the case of yuppie women, this also included such [[TheFashionista fashion statements]] as [[LadyInAPowerSuit power suits]] with [[ShouldersOfDoom large shoulder pads]], [[EightiesHair voluminous]] or [[BoyishShortHair slick]] hair, and work-appropriate makeup that was also heavy and striking.

Outside of the office, yuppies tended to live in pricy--and often gentrified -- inner-city apartments or restored older homes. More affluent ones could be classified as NouveauRiche since they were prone to displays of ConspicuousConsumption but usually of the SimpleYetOpulent variety. Until it became commonplace, the yuppie's most distinctive attribute was the use of the StatusCellPhone; which allowed the yuppie to become a ClockKing with a meticulously planned work schedule. As [[TechnologyMarchesOn technology marched on]], other attributes came to define them, such as trendy physical exercise (including yoga and advanced weight machinery), novelty electronic devices, a CoolCar (usually a BMW or Mercedes), and [[MustHaveCaffeine caffeine addiction]], with an [[OvercomplicatedMenuOrder elaborate taste for exotic kinds of coffee]].

Yuppies grew up in {{Suburbia}} as the children of middle-class or working-class parents but had a tendency to [[CulturalCringe distance themselves from their upbringing]] due to the [[StepfordSuburbia cultural, political, social, artistic attitudes, and tastes attached to it.]] A [[{{Flanderization}} common (but not always applicable) stereotype]] about yuppies was, in their youth, [[CulturalRebel they rebelled]] [[DefectorFromDecadence against the materialism and conformity]] of [[TheGenerationGap their parents]] and joined [[NewAgeRetroHippie the 60s counterculture]] only to later [[FormerTeenRebel re-enter mainstream society]] and [[SellOut embrace]] -- [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis to an even greater degree]] -- many of [[{{Hypocrite}} the same moral failings they condemned their parents for indulging in.]] The younger boomers, who were too young to experience the sexual revolution and would have grown up during the 1970s and early 1980s, would have skipped the counterculture phase and embraced consumerism and pop culture growing up, while also turning their noses up against the antics of the earlier boomers.

Despite their material wealth, it was common in [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructive works]] to have yuppies facing failure in their personal lives with such problems as substance abuse, marital strife, or [[WhenYouComingHomeDad lack of family commitment]]. Their perceived [[ItsAllAboutMe self-absorption]], insufferable trendiness, snobbery, latent class anxiety, smugness, and fixation with making money also made them [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets easy comic targets]] -- if not [[HateSink outright villains]] -- in many works during the 80s and 90s. In a SnobsVsSlobs conflict, yuppies would definitely be in the former category.

Since they seemed similar upon first glance, it was easy to confuse a yuppie with [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant a preppy]]. However, there was one key difference between the two: yuppies were [[NouveauRiche new money]] while preppies were OldMoney. There was also some slight overlap between the yuppie and the SelfMadeMan except that the latter grew up lower-class in economically stressful circumstances while the former grew up middle-class in comfortably stable surroundings.

The yuppie trope was at its strongest during the '80s and early '90s but is now becoming a DeadHorseTrope with the aging of the Baby Boomer demographic group. By the mid-to-late [[TheNewTens '10s]], the concept of yuppies had evolved into [[BourgeoisBohemian Bourgeois Bohemians]] and {{Hipster}}s (who are similar but focus more on lifestyle than a career), as well as {{Tech Bro}}s working for Silicon Valley corporations.

Asian equivalents were {{Salaryman}} and OfficeLady.

* The Meachums from ''Series/IronFist2017'' all have the look and feel of the typical '80's yuppie. They are a rich family that run [[Characters/MCUCompaniesRandEnterprises Rand Enterprises]] with the Rand Family gone (until Danny shows up, alive and well). Both Harold and his son Ward wear three-piece suits and combed-over hair that fits the look and are different flavors of CorruptCorporateExecutive.

[[caption-width-right:350:Don't you worry about sexual harassment allegations, let me worry about blank.]]

** Harry Ellis is a young businessman working for the Nakatomi Corporation who is [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introduced]] snorting cocaine off of Holly [=McClane's=] desk and hitting on her, even though she's married (albeit separated) with kids and her husband John is in the room with them. Later in the film, Ellis tries to sell John out to the BigBad Hans Gruber, not realizing that Hans and his men aren't terrorists but a HeistCrew, [[spoiler:and gets shot dead for the trouble despite John warning him how stupid he was being]]. It's saying something that, in a film whose villains are planning to murder dozens of people as part of their getaway plan, he still comes off as [[HateSink the biggest scumbag in Nakatomi Plaza]].

* The characters on ''Series/{{thirtysomething}}'' were textbook examples of Baby Boomers who were part of the counterculture during the'60s and yuppies during the '80s.

* ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'': The Deetzes, obnoxiously eccentric urban folk with tacky art preferences who move into a nice house in the country, which is still haunted by the ghosts of its' prior inhabitants.

* ''Film/NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation'': The Griswolds' contemptuous next-door neighbors, Todd and Margo, are yuppies who often suffer collateral damage caused by the many misfortunes Clark creates during the film. However, they are both so shallow, smug, self-absorbed, and hipper-than-though (they find Christmas "dirty and messy and corny and cliched"), that it's hard to feel sorry for them.

* ''Film/FatalAttraction'' typified the subgenre occasionally referred to as "yuppies in peril". Dan is an example of a yuppie who has (in theory) chosen family life, as a Manhattan lawyer who lives in a refurbished suburban house with his young daughter and stay-at-home wife. Dan uses his city, corporate existence to sleep with Alex Forrest. She lives in a swanky, gentrified apartment, and she is an apparently happily single, independent publishing executive (and she's a huge fan of shoulder pads). Except her supposedly "bohemian", openminded lifestyle is actually a front because she goes absolutely crazy in her pursuit of Dan's suburban lifestyle.

The yuppie trope was at its strongest during the 80s and early 90s but is now becoming a DeadHorseTrope with the aging of the Baby Boomer demographic group. By the early 21st century, the concept of yuppies evolved into [[BourgeoisBohemian Bourgeois Bohemians]] and {{Hipster}}s (who are similar but focus more on lifestyle than a career), as well as {{Tech Bro}}s working for Silicon Valley corporations.

* ''Film/KramerVsKramer'': Arguably an UnbuiltTrope, as the two main characters fulfill the definition of yuppies already in 1979, just before TheEighties. The main plot is however not about career, but describes their personal sacrifices, as they divorce and struggle for their son.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' parodied this trope mercilessly in "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E21FutureStock Futurestock]]" with [[NoNameGiven That Guy]], a typical '80s corporate raider who had been cryogenically frozen when he was in his 30s. He dresses in an expensive suit with suspenders, has a cell phone seemingly attached to his hand, is obsessed with the latest trends and gadgets, works in finance, and thinks greed is a virtue. He eventually takes over Planet Express and grooms Fry in the yuppie lifestyle, acting like the eighties hadn't ended a thousand and ten years before, [[spoiler:only to end up dying of the very disease he was frozen for because he had been too busy "being an eighties guy" to get cured.]]

The yuppie trope was at its strongest during the 80s and early 90s but is now becoming a DeadHorseTrope with the aging of the Baby Boomer demographic group. By the early 21st century, yuppies evolved into either [[BourgeoisBohemian Bourgeois Bohemians]] or {{Hipster}}s (who are similar but focus more on lifestyle than a career).

Yuppies were the members of the later Baby Boom generation who became successful (or at least well-paid) [[WhiteCollarWorker white-collar workers]] while in their twenties and thirties, usually in finance, law, sales, architecture or management consulting. In the era's StandardOfficeSetting, yuppies stood out in that they were often young for their rank, typically {{Workaholic}}s, and obsessively materialist (see below). In the case of yuppie women, this also included such [[TheFashionista fashion statements]] as [[LadyInAPowerSuit power suits]] with [[ShouldersOfDoom large shoulder pads]], [[EightiesHair voluminous]] or [[BoyishShortHair slick]] hair, and work-appropriate makeup that was also heavy and striking.

Yuppies grew up in {{Suburbia}} as the children of middle-class or working-class parents but had a tendency to [[CulturalCringe distance themselves from their upbringing]] due to the [[StepfordSuburbia cultural, political, social, artistic attitudes, and tastes attached to it.]] A [[{{Flanderization}} common (but not always applicable) stereotype]] about yuppies was, in their youth, [[CulturalRebel they rebelled]] [[DefectorFromDecadence against the materialism and conformity]] of [[TheGenerationGap their parents]] and joined [[NewAgeRetroHippie the 60s counterculture]] only to later [[FormerTeenRebel re-enter mainstream society]] and [[SellOut embrace]] -- [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis to an even greater degree]] -- many of [[{{Hypocrite}} the same moral failings they condemned their parents for indulging in.]]

Yuppies were the members of the Baby Boom generation who became successful (or at least well-paid) [[WhiteCollarWorker white-collar workers]] while in their twenties and thirties, usually in finance, law, sales, architecture or management consulting. In the era's StandardOfficeSetting, yuppies stood out in that they were often young for their rank, typically {{Workaholic}}s, and obsessively materialist (see below). In the case of yuppie women, this also included such [[TheFashionista fashion statements]] as [[LadyInAPowerSuit power suits]] with [[ShouldersOfDoom large shoulder pads]], [[EightiesHair voluminous]] or [[BoyishShortHair slick]] hair, and work-appropriate makeup that was also heavy and striking.

Despite their material wealth, it was common in [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructive works]] to have yuppies facing failure in their personal lives with such problems as substance abuse, marital strife, or [[WhenYouComingHomeDad lack of family commitment]]. Their perceived [[ItsAllAboutMe self-absorption]], insufferable trendiness, snobbery, latent class anxiety, smugness, and fixation with making money also made them [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets easy comic targets]] -- if not outright villains -- in many works during the 80s and 90s. In a SnobsVsSlobs conflict, yuppies would definitely be in the former category.

* ''Literature/TheseWordsAreTrueAndFaithful'': When Ernie first looks up Sam's apartment building, he sees that it is "marketed to young professionals, within walking distance of both the [[{{gayborhood}} gayborhood]] and the main campus of Uxbridge University, well appointed, and not cheap." Later, when Ernie writes his personal ad to find someone different from Sam, he specifies, "No workaholics, yuppies, or college students."

Yuppies grew up in {{Suburbia}} as the children of middle-class or working-class parents but had a tendency to [[CulturalCringe distance themselves from their upbringing]] due to the [[StepfordSuburbia cultural, political, social, artistic attitudes, and tastes attached to it.]] A [[{{Flanderization}} common (but not always applicable) stereotype]] about yuppies was, in their youth, [[CulturalRebel they rebelled]] [[DefectorFromDecadence against the materialism and conformity]] of [[TheGenerationGap their parents]] and joined [[NewAgeRetroHippie the 60s counterculture]] only to later [[FormerTeenRebel re-enter mainstream society]] and [[SellOut embrace]] -- [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis to an even greater degree]] -- many of [[{{Hypocrite}} the same vices they condemned their parents for indulging in.]]

Despite their material wealth, it was common in [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructive works]] to have yuppies facing failure in their personal lives with such problems as substance abuse, marital strife, or [[WhenYouComingHomeDad lack of family commitment]]. Their perceived [[ItsAllAboutMe self-absorption]], insufferable trendiness, snobbery, latent class anxiety, smugness and fixation with making money also made them [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets easy comic targets]] -- if not outright villains -- in many works during the 80s and 90s. In a SnobsVsSlobs conflict, yuppies would definitely be in the former category.