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* AdolfHitler
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* BenitoMussolini
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* A full list of America's enemies throughout history:
** King George III
** Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
** Jefferson Davis (assuming Confederates are considered "un-American")
** Kaiser Wilhelm II
** AdolfHitler
** BenitoMussolini
** Hideki Tojo
** Ho Chi Minh (and the last part of his name will always be pronounced "min", even though [[ItsPronouncedTropay the man himself pronounced it more like "ming"]])
** The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
** the Sandanistas
** Manuel Noriega (and he's a footnote at best)
** SaddamHussein
** OsamaBinLaden
** King George III
** Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
** Jefferson Davis (assuming Confederates are considered "un-American")
** Kaiser Wilhelm II
** AdolfHitler
** BenitoMussolini
** Hideki Tojo
** Ho Chi Minh (and the last part of his name will always be pronounced "min", even though [[ItsPronouncedTropay the man himself pronounced it more like "ming"]])
** The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
** the Sandanistas
** Manuel Noriega (and he's a footnote at best)
** SaddamHussein
** OsamaBinLaden
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** Indeed, if one considers Ho Chi Minh (or his followers, after he died in 1969) to have been the main actor in the Vietnam War, then that war lasted for ''more than thirty years'' (first against the Japanese, then against the French, and ''then'' against the Americans).
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** Even among Civil War buffs, knowledge of the war often remains restricted to Virginia and a few specific Western battles like Shiloh and Atlanta. Other campaigns - Grant's Siege of Vicksburg, Union landings along the Carolina coast, the capture of New Orleans and subsequent campaigns in Louisiana, constant fighting in border states like Missouri and Kansas, the entire naval war - are generally ignored.
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** Even among Civil War buffs, knowledge of the war often remains restricted to Virginia and a few specific Western battles like Shiloh and Atlanta. Other campaigns - Grant's Siege of Vicksburg, Union landings along the Carolina coast, the capture of New Orleans and subsequent campaigns in Louisiana, constant fighting in border states like Missouri and Kansas, the entire naval war - are generally ignored. And anything west of the Rio Grande? ''Totally'' ignored. Only the hardest of hardcore buffs know about the Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico Territory, or can tell you what the political scene was like in California at the time (pro-Union around San Francisco, pro-Confederate everywhere to the south).
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** Other battles that might get mentioned are Bull Run (and always the ''first'' battle there, and only because [[TooDumbToLive some picnickers foolishly came along to watch the show]]), Antietam (because it almost looks like and sounds like [[TheVietnamWar "Vietnam", which is just cool]]), and Appomattox (because that's where General Lee surrendered - and don't be surprised if people mispronounce it so that it rhymes with "tomahawks", when [[ItsPronouncedTropay it's actually "appa-matticks"]]).
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* Spain was ruled in succession by the [[MoorishSpain Moors]], the [[TheSpanishInquisition Inquisition]] and [[TheFrancoRegime Franco]]. There was also a [[SpanishCivilWar civil war]] at some point that must have lasted a hundred years or so.
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* Spain was ruled in succession by the [[MoorishSpain Moors]], the [[TheSpanishInquisition Inquisition]] and [[TheFrancoRegime Franco]]. (Franco died way back in 1975, before most of today's generation were ''born'', so it's high time we came up with something after him.) There was also a [[SpanishCivilWar civil war]] at some point that must have lasted a hundred years or so.
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** Today (roughly 1990 to the present)
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** Today (roughly 1990 to the present)The [[TheNineties 1990s]]
** TheWarOnTerror
** TheWarOnTerror
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** And everywhere ends in -stan. (Ironic, since the suffix ''-stan'' is from the Urdu language, which is actually from ''South'' Asia.
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** And everywhere ends in -stan. (Ironic, since the suffix ''-stan'' is from the Urdu language, which is actually from originated in ''South'' Asia.)
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** And everywhere ends in -stan.
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** And everywhere ends in -stan. (Ironic, since the suffix ''-stan'' is from the Urdu language, which is actually from ''South'' Asia.
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** If you want a [[DarkestAfrica jungle setting]], there are Congo and Cameroon, and maybe the island of Bioko (or Fernando Pó, in older works). For savannas, there Tanzania, Kenya, and if you are lucky, Botswana.
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** If you want a [[DarkestAfrica jungle setting]], there are Congo and Cameroon, and maybe the island of Bioko (or Fernando Pó, in older works).works, unless [[HehHehYouSaidX it's misspelled "Fernando Poo", as it commonly is, and therefore gets laughed at]]). For savannas, there Tanzania, Kenya, and if you are lucky, Botswana.
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** All teenage girls in TheEighties wore leggings, oversized T-shirts, and bands or scrunchies in their [[EightiesHair (flamboyantly teased)]] hair. All businesswomen wore suits with gigantic shoulder pads. (Again, see PopularHistory.)
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** And that's if the Turks are lucky; if they're unlucky, Istanbul is still called Constantinople and is in Greece.
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** And everywhere ends in -stan.
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* France's history:
** Caesar and the Gauls.
** Charlemagne (and that was his actual name, it doesn't mean 'Charles the Great').
** Lots of kings called Louis, all of whom were the same person. Cardinal Richeleu might have been present at some point, and if so the then The Three Musketeers were real, historical figures.
** Revolution, which just consisted of cutting people's heads off.
** Napoleon.
** ''LesMiserables''.
** The Western Front of World War I was in France? And French soldiers actually fought in it?
** German invasion.
** Some guy called De Gaulle did something.
** Caesar and the Gauls.
** Charlemagne (and that was his actual name, it doesn't mean 'Charles the Great').
** Lots of kings called Louis, all of whom were the same person. Cardinal Richeleu might have been present at some point, and if so the then The Three Musketeers were real, historical figures.
** Revolution, which just consisted of cutting people's heads off.
** Napoleon.
** ''LesMiserables''.
** The Western Front of World War I was in France? And French soldiers actually fought in it?
** German invasion.
** Some guy called De Gaulle did something.
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** Some people are able to work out that LBJ must have been Vice President at some point if he became President when JFK was shot. But that logic doesn't extend to Lincoln; after Lincoln was shot there just wasn't a President.
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** All the Kings of France were called Louis, except for Charlemagne and Napoleon.
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* All Americans with Eastern European roots are Jewish. Slavic Americans who are Christian won't show up very often, and when they do they're often fresh off the boat.
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* All Americans with Eastern European roots are Jewish. Slavic Americans who are Christian won't show up very often, and when they do they're often fresh off the boat.boat, despite the large wave of Polish, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian immigration between the 1880s and 1920s.
* All Southerners are devout Baptists or evangelicals. Don't mention the traditionally Catholic Southern populations like the Cajuns and Louisiana Creoles.
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** The island of Honshu IS Japan; Hokkaido and Shikoku are just atlas doodles...
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** The island of Honshu IS Japan; Hokkaido Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Shikoku the Ryukyus are just atlas doodles...
* Istanbul is the only city in Turkey. Ankara (the capital), Izmir, Adana, Konya, and other large cities are just random names written on the map.
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** Films set in Scotland seem to be ''either'' set in Edinburgh, the capital, or Glasgow, the largest city, if they're not set in the middle of nowhere up north...
** The only cities in native Virginia are: Alexandria (which is only Arlington National Cemetery), Langley (which only consists of CIA HQ) and maybe Richmond (as the capital). The only Tidewater Area/coastal city is Norfolk (which is just the navy base). If the show is about ship building the only city is Portsmouth. The only military installation is the aforementioned Norfolk Naval Shipyard, no mention is ever made of the master jet base at Oceana in Virginia Beach. And the only thing related to Chesapeake is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. If you have a Revolutionary War documentary you ''might'' hear something about Williamsburg.
** The capital of Spain is Barcelona.
** The only cities in native Virginia are: Alexandria (which is only Arlington National Cemetery), Langley (which only consists of CIA HQ) and maybe Richmond (as the capital). The only Tidewater Area/coastal city is Norfolk (which is just the navy base). If the show is about ship building the only city is Portsmouth. The only military installation is the aforementioned Norfolk Naval Shipyard, no mention is ever made of the master jet base at Oceana in Virginia Beach. And the only thing related to Chesapeake is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. If you have a Revolutionary War documentary you ''might'' hear something about Williamsburg.
** The capital of Spain is Barcelona.
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** Haiti is the only French-speaking area. Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, and Saint Barthelemy do not exist. And Haiti's history only goes back 50 years, despite it being independent for over 200.
*** And it is a fight solely between Japanese and Americans. Filipinos, who were major players, are never shown.
** Greek history after the Roman Empire is too insignificant to merit mention.
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** Averted by ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', who talked about Nicolas Sarkozy in one episode.
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** Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is becoming popular in recent works.
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* Everyone in Africa is black. The only white people are the GreatWhiteHunter or the MightyWhitey. All black Africans will be ''dark'' black. This means they're probably Bantu or from some other Niger-Congo tribe (the tribes from which most American slaves were chosen). You'll never see the reddish-brown Pygmies or the yellowish-brown Khoisan (unless you're watching ''TheGodsMustBeCrazy'', of course). There are no Arabs, Indians, Asians or anyone else.
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* Everyone in Africa is black. The only white people are the GreatWhiteHunter or the MightyWhitey.MightyWhitey (or sometimes Afrikaners, who are all racist against blacks). All black Africans will be ''dark'' black. This means they're probably Bantu or from some other Niger-Congo tribe (the tribes from which most American slaves were chosen). You'll never see the reddish-brown Pygmies or the yellowish-brown Khoisan (unless you're watching ''TheGodsMustBeCrazy'', of course). There are no Arabs, Indians, Asians or anyone else.
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* All Arabs are Muslim - and, to a lesser extent, vice versa. In fact, there are many Christian Arabs, at least in the United States, Israel, and Palestine. Similarly, there are a great variety of Muslim peoples (Albanians being European, Iranians sharing much of their linguistic and racial heritage with both Europeans and Asian Indians, Turks ultimately from East Asia, and Indonesians mostly of Malayo-Polynesian stock),[[note]]the majority of Muslims in fact come from Indonesia, Pakistan, or Bangladesh; less than 20% of the world's Muslims live in Middle Eastern or North-African countries.[[/note]] but a Muslim character in popular fiction will always be rendered an Arab or a quasi-Arab unless his/her being of a different nationality is pertinent to the plot.
* All Indians are Hindu. Not Muslim, not Christian, not Sikh, not Budhist, not Jain or any of the other religions present in India. They're just funny people celebrating gods with many arms.
* AllJewsAreAshkenazi, of course. And their only holiday is Hanukkah (an extremely minor commemoration of military victory on the Jewish calendar that post-dates the Bible and the many more important festivals it contains). When celebrating this apparently Christmas-like occasion, it is ''always'', '''''always''''' the eighth night (if the number of candles is to be believed).
* All Indians are Hindu. Not Muslim, not Christian, not Sikh, not Budhist, not Jain or any of the other religions present in India. They're just funny people celebrating gods with many arms.
* AllJewsAreAshkenazi, of course. And their only holiday is Hanukkah (an extremely minor commemoration of military victory on the Jewish calendar that post-dates the Bible and the many more important festivals it contains). When celebrating this apparently Christmas-like occasion, it is ''always'', '''''always''''' the eighth night (if the number of candles is to be believed).
to:
* All Arabs are Muslim - and, to a lesser extent, vice versa. In fact, there are many Christian Arabs, at least Arabs - mostly in the United States, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Israel, and Palestine. Similarly, there are a great variety of Muslim peoples (Albanians being European, Iranians sharing much of their linguistic and racial heritage with both Europeans and Asian Indians, Turks ultimately from East Asia, and Indonesians mostly of Malayo-Polynesian stock),[[note]]the majority of Muslims in fact come from Indonesia, Pakistan, or Bangladesh; less than 20% of the world's Muslims live in Middle Eastern or North-African countries.[[/note]] but a Muslim character in popular fiction will always be rendered an Arab or a quasi-Arab unless his/her being of a different nationality is pertinent to the plot.
* All Indians are Hindu. Not Muslim, not Christian, not Sikh, notBudhist, Buddhist, not Jain or any of the other religions present in India. They're just funny people celebrating gods with many arms.
arms. And they will often wear turbans, even though most Hindus do not wear turbans.
* All Russians are either ethnic Russian or Jewish. Chechens appear sporadically, and will always be depicted as Islamic extremists. What about Tatars, Bashkirs, Ossetians, Dagestanis, Chuvash, and Circassians (among others)? Good luck finding them!
* AllJewsAreAshkenazi, of course. Forget about Sephardim and Mizrahim. And their only holiday is Hanukkah (an extremely minor commemoration of military victory on the Jewish calendar that post-dates the Bible and the many more important festivals it contains). When celebrating this apparently Christmas-like occasion, it is ''always'', '''''always''''' the eighth night (if the number of candles is to bebelieved).believed).
* All Americans with Eastern European roots are Jewish. Slavic Americans who are Christian won't show up very often, and when they do they're often fresh off the boat.
* All Indians are Hindu. Not Muslim, not Christian, not Sikh, not
* All Russians are either ethnic Russian or Jewish. Chechens appear sporadically, and will always be depicted as Islamic extremists. What about Tatars, Bashkirs, Ossetians, Dagestanis, Chuvash, and Circassians (among others)? Good luck finding them!
* AllJewsAreAshkenazi, of course. Forget about Sephardim and Mizrahim. And their only holiday is Hanukkah (an extremely minor commemoration of military victory on the Jewish calendar that post-dates the Bible and the many more important festivals it contains). When celebrating this apparently Christmas-like occasion, it is ''always'', '''''always''''' the eighth night (if the number of candles is to be
* All Americans with Eastern European roots are Jewish. Slavic Americans who are Christian won't show up very often, and when they do they're often fresh off the boat.
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** If white Latin Americans show up, expect them to be from wealthy families. In real life, while most of the wealthiest Latin American families are white, most white Latin Americans are not rich.
** Everyone in Latin America has a Spanish surname - even in countries like Argentina, Chile, and Brazil where non-Spanish/Portuguese surnames are just as common.
* Everyone in Australia is of British or Irish heritage, and will most likely be blond. The few that aren't are Aborigines.
* Italian-Americans are always from Southern Italy. Northern Italian Americans do not exist.
* American Catholics are either Irish, Italian, or Hispanic. Forget about the American Catholics of French, Polish, German, Dutch, Portuguese, and other heritages. African American Catholics don't exist either.
** Everyone in Latin America has a Spanish surname - even in countries like Argentina, Chile, and Brazil where non-Spanish/Portuguese surnames are just as common.
* Everyone in Australia is of British or Irish heritage, and will most likely be blond. The few that aren't are Aborigines.
* Italian-Americans are always from Southern Italy. Northern Italian Americans do not exist.
* American Catholics are either Irish, Italian, or Hispanic. Forget about the American Catholics of French, Polish, German, Dutch, Portuguese, and other heritages. African American Catholics don't exist either.
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* Ask someone to name all the planets in the solar system, and they'll eagerly respond with "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus (which will ''always'' be mispronounced and [[UranusIsShowing giggled about]]), Neptune, and Pluto (which is now technically a "dwarf planet"). Ask someone to name all the ''moons'' in the solar system, and..."Well...there's '[[ShapedLikeItself the Moon]]'...and...uhhh..."
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** Ponytail (for [[ActionGirl Action Girls]]
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** Ponytail (for [[ActionGirl Action Girls]]Girls]])
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** Mullet (if the character is a redneck)
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** Mullet (if the character is a redneck)redneck or a hockey player)
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* Common female hairstyles:
** MarilynMonroe-style (proper term: pageboy)
** Beehive hairdo (seen on middle-aged women)
** Ponytail (for [[ActionGirl Action Girls]]
** Pigtails (for little girls or [[{{Lolicon}} "Lolita" types]])
** Unbraided mane (for hippie chicks)
** MarilynMonroe-style (proper term: pageboy)
** Beehive hairdo (seen on middle-aged women)
** Ponytail (for [[ActionGirl Action Girls]]
** Pigtails (for little girls or [[{{Lolicon}} "Lolita" types]])
** Unbraided mane (for hippie chicks)
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* Common male hairstyles in fiction:
** Buzz cut (for "patriotic" Americans and military personnel)
** Mullet (if the character is a redneck)
** Fifties-style pompadour (if the character is a snobbish redneck)
** Mop-top (for [[{{Nerd}} nerds]])
** EightiesHair (for rock musicians, bikers, and the occasional urban redneck)
** Buzz cut (for "patriotic" Americans and military personnel)
** Mullet (if the character is a redneck)
** Fifties-style pompadour (if the character is a snobbish redneck)
** Mop-top (for [[{{Nerd}} nerds]])
** EightiesHair (for rock musicians, bikers, and the occasional urban redneck)
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* All big fashion designers before Calvin Klein (the only American most people can think of) have been French (Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent) or Italian (Giorgio Armani, the Versaces). Occasionally Mexican designer Oscar de la Renta will get a mention.
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* All big fashion designers before Calvin Klein (the only American most people can think of) have been French (Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent) or Italian (Giorgio Armani, the Versaces). Occasionally Mexican designer Oscar de la Renta will get a mention.mention - though often simply to be humorously confused with lightweight boxer Oscar de la Hoya.
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* Until about the 1950s, all white Americans in fiction worth focusing on were of Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, or Irish stock. When "ethnic" whites did show up, it was just to [[JustAStupidAccent talk in funny accents]] and get called "wop" and "polack" and such.
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* All hispanics speak Spanish as their mother tongue and only Spanish (when it is not broken English littered with GratuitousSpanish[[hottip:*:which most of the time will be slang from Southern California/Northwestern Mexico]], that is). The men are squat, brown, and have black hair and moustaches. The women are curvy, leggy and slutty.
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* All hispanics speak Spanish as their mother tongue and only Spanish (when it is not broken English littered with GratuitousSpanish[[hottip:*:which most of the time will be slang from Southern California/Northwestern Mexico]], that is). The men are squat, brown, and have black hair and moustaches. The women are curvy, leggy and slutty.slutty - except for the ones who are fat and have really gross facial and body hair.
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* Spain was ruled in succession by the [[SpanishReconquista Moors]], the [[TheSpanishInquisition Inquisition]] and [[TheFrancoRegime Franco]]. There was also a [[SpanishCivilWar civil war]] at some point that must have lasted a hundred years or so.
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* Spain was ruled in succession by the [[SpanishReconquista [[MoorishSpain Moors]], the [[TheSpanishInquisition Inquisition]] and [[TheFrancoRegime Franco]]. There was also a [[SpanishCivilWar civil war]] at some point that must have lasted a hundred years or so.
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* All hispanics speak Spanish as their mother tongue and only Spanish (when it is not broken English littered with GratuitousSpanish[[hottip:*:which most of the time will be slang from Southern California/Northwestern Mexico]], that is). The men are squat, brown, and have black hair and moustaches. The women are curvy, leggy and slutty.
** The capital of Spain is Barcelona.
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* Spain was ruled in succession by the [[SpanishReconquista Moors]], the [[TheSpanishInquisition Inquisition]] and [[TheFrancoRegime Franco]]. There was also a [[SpanishCivilWar civil war]] at some point that must have lasted a hundred years or so.
* TheVietnamWar and TheKoreanWar are the only wars that happened in their respective countries. Never mind the fact that they had other conflicts with certain nations with major consequences in the long run.
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* TheVietnamWar and TheKoreanWar are the only wars that happened in their respective countries. Never mind the fact that they had other conflicts with certain nations with major consequences in the long run.
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[[folder:Universe as presented in Science Fiction]]
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[[folder:Universe as presented in Science Fiction]]
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* It's worth noting that while most films about a country are set in that country's capital or the "largest city in the country". In most Old World countries this matches up. There are some examples and notable exceptions:
** Most of the ones about Australia show Sydney rather than Canberra.
** Toronto is the capital of Ontario; Ottawa is the capital of Canada. This is not a distinction you're likely to ever see. Joked about in ''Series/CornerGas'' -- Hank thinks Toronto is the capital of Canada.
** Virtually all fiction set in the Republic of Ireland takes place either in Dublin or a tiny rural village. The other cities (Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Kilkenny) hardly get a mention, nor do the large towns. If a town does turn up, it will always inexplicably be Ennis or Killarney.
** Far more movies take place in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity than in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC. Of course, New York City is way bigger and is home to Wall Street and the largest Federal Reserve bank by far, so it's a de facto economic (as opposed to political) capital of the U.S., as well as a cultural hotspot.
** Or California: 90% of stuff set in California takes place in Los Angeles, San Francisco or San Diego; 9% in small coastal towns, and 1% elsewhere. Unless the film is specifically about state politics, it's unlikely that Sacramento, the state capital, will even be mentioned. Only films set during the 19th century gold rush avert this.
** Films set in Scotland seem to be ''either'' set in Edinburgh, the capital, or Glasgow, the largest city, if they're not set in the middle of nowhere up north...
** The only cities in native Virginia are: Alexandria (which is only Arlington National Cemetery), Langley (which only consists of CIA HQ) and maybe Richmond (as the capital). The only Tidewater Area/coastal city is Norfolk (which is just the navy base). If the show is about ship building the only city is Portsmouth. The only military installation is the aforementioned Norfolk Naval Shipyard, no mention is ever made of the master jet base at Oceana in Virginia Beach. And the only thing related to Chesapeake is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. If you have a Revolutionary War documentary you ''might'' hear something about Williamsburg.
** Most of the ones about Australia show Sydney rather than Canberra.
** Toronto is the capital of Ontario; Ottawa is the capital of Canada. This is not a distinction you're likely to ever see. Joked about in ''Series/CornerGas'' -- Hank thinks Toronto is the capital of Canada.
** Virtually all fiction set in the Republic of Ireland takes place either in Dublin or a tiny rural village. The other cities (Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Kilkenny) hardly get a mention, nor do the large towns. If a town does turn up, it will always inexplicably be Ennis or Killarney.
** Far more movies take place in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity than in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC. Of course, New York City is way bigger and is home to Wall Street and the largest Federal Reserve bank by far, so it's a de facto economic (as opposed to political) capital of the U.S., as well as a cultural hotspot.
** Or California: 90% of stuff set in California takes place in Los Angeles, San Francisco or San Diego; 9% in small coastal towns, and 1% elsewhere. Unless the film is specifically about state politics, it's unlikely that Sacramento, the state capital, will even be mentioned. Only films set during the 19th century gold rush avert this.
** Films set in Scotland seem to be ''either'' set in Edinburgh, the capital, or Glasgow, the largest city, if they're not set in the middle of nowhere up north...
** The only cities in native Virginia are: Alexandria (which is only Arlington National Cemetery), Langley (which only consists of CIA HQ) and maybe Richmond (as the capital). The only Tidewater Area/coastal city is Norfolk (which is just the navy base). If the show is about ship building the only city is Portsmouth. The only military installation is the aforementioned Norfolk Naval Shipyard, no mention is ever made of the master jet base at Oceana in Virginia Beach. And the only thing related to Chesapeake is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. If you have a Revolutionary War documentary you ''might'' hear something about Williamsburg.
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** UsefulNotes/LosAngeles - the second-largest city in America. Contains Hollywood (which only has a sign and movie studios), palm trees, maybe South Central, and little else. Given that the U.S. film industry is headquartered in the area, setting your film or show here is often simply a case of WriteWhatYouKnow. Prone to earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires, and rioting; other than that, a veritable paradise. Because of movie studios being based in Hollywood, many of the other cities represented in fiction often end up [[SoCalization looking much like Los Angeles anyway]].
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** UsefulNotes/LosAngeles - the second-largest city in America. Contains Hollywood (which only has a sign and movie studios), palm trees, maybe South Central, and little else. Given that the U.S. film industry is headquartered in the area, setting your film or show here is often simply a case of WriteWhatYouKnow. Prone to earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires, and rioting; other than that, a veritable paradise. Because of movie studios being based in Hollywood, many of the other cities represented in fiction often end up [[SoCalization looking much like Los Angeles anyway]]. Any district or neighborhood of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles other than "Downtown" or "Hollywood" that is mentioned will be thought to be a different city. Even the two major ones [[RealityIsUnrealistic won't be depicted correctly]]: Downtown will be shown as some kind of combination between Bunker Hill and Skid Row to create a version that [[TelevisionGeography doesn't really represent anywhere]], and Hollywood will be some generic city where the Hollywood Sign is visible, with a number of movies depicting Hollywood by having an EstablishingShot of the Sign followed by scenes shot in a completely different city. Even places that ''should'' be popular, such as South Park ([[WesternAnimation/SouthPark not THAT one]]), home of the Los Angeles Convention Center and Staples Center, are obscure outside of L.A. itself. The East and South sides are sometimes shown, but appear rather small, even though they make up 2/3 of the inner city.
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philosophers added
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[[folder:Philosophers]]
* Creator/{{Socrates}}
* Creator/{{Plato}}
* Creator/{{Aristotle}}
* Creator/FriedrichNietzsche. Usually referenced by being a [[StrawNihilist Nietzsche Wannabe]].
* The phrase "I think, therefore I am" indicating that Descartes popped into existence long enough to make one pithy comment, which states that only people who think can be proven to exist -- and then, only to themselves -- then disappeared again.
* Creator/AynRand, if the character mentioning her is supposed to be edgy or [[VideoGame/Left4Dead in the middle of a zombie apocalypse]].
[[/folder]]
* Creator/{{Socrates}}
* Creator/{{Plato}}
* Creator/{{Aristotle}}
* Creator/FriedrichNietzsche. Usually referenced by being a [[StrawNihilist Nietzsche Wannabe]].
* The phrase "I think, therefore I am" indicating that Descartes popped into existence long enough to make one pithy comment, which states that only people who think can be proven to exist -- and then, only to themselves -- then disappeared again.
* Creator/AynRand, if the character mentioning her is supposed to be edgy or [[VideoGame/Left4Dead in the middle of a zombie apocalypse]].
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[[folder:Universe as presented in Science Fiction]]
* If it's not just stars, the background is either the Crab Nebula, or the Horsehead Nebula.
* The only stars anyone visits are Rigel, Alpha Centauri, Antares, "Orion", and the "Belt of Orion." (The latter two of which aren't even individual stars.) "Alpha Centauri" is always one star. Alpha Centauri B does not exist, or so would have you media believed.
* Betelgeuse is popular, but only because it sounds funny (and has a ChaoticNeutral MonsterClown from ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' indirectly named after it).
* When it comes to stargazing, the only stars are Polaris, the Big Dipper (which Polaris will be thought to be in) and Sirius... and that last one only occasionally.
* The only galaxies are the Milky Way and Andromeda. Perhaps justified, as those are two of the only known galaxies lucky enough to have names that are not cryptic (Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte), or numbered (Andromedas I through X), with the exception of the Triangulum galaxy. Admittedly, that last one really should be used more often because its name is awesome.
* The only comet is Halley's (which always gets mispronounced "Haley's" thanks to a pioneering 1950s musical group).
* The only asteroids that exist are the ones on a collision course with Earth.
* The only crewed space missions ever were "John Glenn's flight" (Friendship 7), Apollo 11, {{Apollo 13}}, the Challenger disaster, and whatever one is going on right now.
* Light-years, and to a lesser extent, parsecs, are the only units of astronomical measurement (Astronomical Units, or [=AUs=], are reserved solely for "hard" Sci Fi). Any alien race capable of star travel encountering humans will instinctively know how long a light year is, even if there's no way they could know how long a year is on Earth.
** Add to that "hours" and "days".
** Even a depressingly large number of human beings mistake light years for being a measurement of time instead of distance.
** Or how long a parsec is, for that matter, as it's based on the "parallax-second", which a civilization would only have if it divided circles and spheres into 360 degrees, degrees into 60 minutes, minutes into 60 seconds, ''and'' lived on a planet with the same orbital radius as Earth.
** Or made the [[Franchise/StarWars Kessel run]] in twelve of them.
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[[folder:Scientists]]
* Galileo Galilei (who got persecuted by the church). To most people, he's just Galileo, or worse, he's Galileo Figaro.
* Copernicus (who died before he could get persecuted by the church)
* SigmundFreud ([[AllPsychologyIsFreudian who invented all forms of psychology]] [[FreudWasRight and reduced all problems to sex with people's mothers]])
* Carl Jung (notable for being the only other psychologist than Freud.)
* UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein ("invented" E=mc[[superscript:2]])
* IsaacNewton ("invented" gravity when an apple fell on his head)
* CharlesDarwin (developed the theory of evolution, and is supposedly worshiped as a god by scientists)
* Thomas Edison ("invented" the light bulb)
* NikolaTesla (Had a picture taken of him in front of a lightning machine.)
** Tesla is a Johnny-Come-Lately; he's gotten a lot more press since the 1990s, and is usually depicted either as a total nutjob (which he was) or a misunderstood genius (which he ''also'' was).
* Dmitri Mendeleev (invented some kind of table, presumably for putting vodka on)
* Marie Curie (for being a woman, and for getting killed by her research)
* StephenHawking (for being in a wheelchair while talking with a funny robot voice)
* CarlSagan ([[BeamMeUpScotty who said "billions and billions" a lot]])
* RichardFeynman (for being an eccentric [[ReallyGetsAround skirt chaser]])
* Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Elisha ''Who''? (It's Gray, by the way).
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[[folder:Politics]]
* American Presidents
** GeorgeWashington
** ThomasJefferson
** AbrahamLincoln
** TheodoreRoosevelt
** FranklinDRoosevelt
** HarryTruman (even though the papers said Dewey won)
** JohnFKennedy
** LyndonJohnson
** RichardNixon, if you're looking for a bad one.
** GeraldFord (whom no one voted for)
** JimmyCarter
** RonaldReagan, will mention Nancy at some point or say "Well".
** GeorgeBush (read my lips, no new taxes)
** BillClinton, who did nothing for eight years but have an affair with an intern.
** The current and previous three or four at any moment in time
** In some cases, it's only Washington, Lincoln, and the most recent one(s) (Right now, Bush Jr. and Obama).
* AlGore, DanQuayle, Spiro Agnew, Walter Mondale, Dick Cheney, and JoeBiden are the only Vice Presidents.
* AdolfHitler
* JosefStalin
* BenitoMussolini
* America's enemy of the moment (or America itself, DependingOnTheWriter).
* The only {{Ancient Gree|ce}}k states are Athens and Sparta, which only existed during the Persian wars, and the Empire of Alexander the Great. Also, Sparta didn't exist until ''Film/ThreeHundred'' came out. Hellenism does not exist at all.
* Ancient Egypt:
** Cleopatra and King Tut are the only Egyptian pharaohs. Ironically, although she was the last pharaoh of Egypt, Cleopatra was ethnically Greek.
** Queen Nefertiti, whom most people wouldn't recognize by name, but would recognize [[http://www.edu.pe.ca/rural/class_webs/art/images/Nefertiti.jpg a certain statue of her]]. Incidentally, Nefertiti just happens to be King Tut's stepmother. [[IncestIsRelative And his mother-in-law.]]
** Ramses the Great is becoming more well known recently.
* Ancient Rome:
** [[Creator/GaiusJuliusCaesar Caesar]], Nero, and the emperor that was most recently portrayed in a BBC mini-series are the only Roman emperors (and ''maybe'' [[EmperorCaligula Caligula]]).
** People know [[Series/IClaudius Claudius]]. [[SarcasmMode Give people a bit of credit, jeez...]]
* England (and it really is just "England")
** "England" has only had four sovereigns: HenryVIII, [[TheVirginQueen Elizabeth I]], {{Queen Vic|ky}}toria, and [[HMTheQueen Elizabeth II]]. Americans know King George III. For obvious reasons.
** "England" has also had at most six Prime Ministers: BenjaminDisraili WinstonChurchill, NevilleChamberlain (only to emphasize how good Churchill was), MargaretThatcher, whoever is currently in office, and ''maybe'' TonyBlair.
** Averted on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "Pitt the Elder!" "Lord Palmerston!"
** Princess Diana
* France:
** France has had only one president, CharlesDeGaulle, mostly remembered for his activities during World War II and long presidential term during the 1950s and 1960s. And his height makes it impossible to overlook him.
** Averted by ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', who talked about Nicolas Sarkozy in one episode.
** MarieAntoinette (who liked cakes more than bread and was the only person who died in the guillotine... besides her husband)
* Grand Duchess Anastasia (who will be called a "princess")
* Princess {{Grace|Kelly}} (in works from before her death in 1982)
* SaddamHussein
* Ayatollah Khomeini, if the work was made in the '80s.
* Applies to [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]]. The only conservative character we ever seem to see is either the "Bible-thumper" or the CorruptCorporateExecutive.
* Any character noticeably more left-wing than average and created after the 1960s will most likely be either a NewAgeRetroHippie or a {{Dirty Comm|unists}}ie.
* TheVietnamWar and TheKoreanWar are the only wars that happened in their respective countries. Never mind the fact that they had other conflicts with certain nations with major consequences in the long run.
[[/folder]]
* American Presidents
** GeorgeWashington
** ThomasJefferson
** AbrahamLincoln
** TheodoreRoosevelt
** FranklinDRoosevelt
** HarryTruman (even though the papers said Dewey won)
** JohnFKennedy
** LyndonJohnson
** RichardNixon, if you're looking for a bad one.
** GeraldFord (whom no one voted for)
** JimmyCarter
** RonaldReagan, will mention Nancy at some point or say "Well".
** GeorgeBush (read my lips, no new taxes)
** BillClinton, who did nothing for eight years but have an affair with an intern.
** The current and previous three or four at any moment in time
** In some cases, it's only Washington, Lincoln, and the most recent one(s) (Right now, Bush Jr. and Obama).
* AlGore, DanQuayle, Spiro Agnew, Walter Mondale, Dick Cheney, and JoeBiden are the only Vice Presidents.
* AdolfHitler
* JosefStalin
* BenitoMussolini
* America's enemy of the moment (or America itself, DependingOnTheWriter).
* The only {{Ancient Gree|ce}}k states are Athens and Sparta, which only existed during the Persian wars, and the Empire of Alexander the Great. Also, Sparta didn't exist until ''Film/ThreeHundred'' came out. Hellenism does not exist at all.
* Ancient Egypt:
** Cleopatra and King Tut are the only Egyptian pharaohs. Ironically, although she was the last pharaoh of Egypt, Cleopatra was ethnically Greek.
** Queen Nefertiti, whom most people wouldn't recognize by name, but would recognize [[http://www.edu.pe.ca/rural/class_webs/art/images/Nefertiti.jpg a certain statue of her]]. Incidentally, Nefertiti just happens to be King Tut's stepmother. [[IncestIsRelative And his mother-in-law.]]
** Ramses the Great is becoming more well known recently.
* Ancient Rome:
** [[Creator/GaiusJuliusCaesar Caesar]], Nero, and the emperor that was most recently portrayed in a BBC mini-series are the only Roman emperors (and ''maybe'' [[EmperorCaligula Caligula]]).
** People know [[Series/IClaudius Claudius]]. [[SarcasmMode Give people a bit of credit, jeez...]]
* England (and it really is just "England")
** "England" has only had four sovereigns: HenryVIII, [[TheVirginQueen Elizabeth I]], {{Queen Vic|ky}}toria, and [[HMTheQueen Elizabeth II]]. Americans know King George III. For obvious reasons.
** "England" has also had at most six Prime Ministers: BenjaminDisraili WinstonChurchill, NevilleChamberlain (only to emphasize how good Churchill was), MargaretThatcher, whoever is currently in office, and ''maybe'' TonyBlair.
** Averted on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "Pitt the Elder!" "Lord Palmerston!"
** Princess Diana
* France:
** France has had only one president, CharlesDeGaulle, mostly remembered for his activities during World War II and long presidential term during the 1950s and 1960s. And his height makes it impossible to overlook him.
** Averted by ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', who talked about Nicolas Sarkozy in one episode.
** MarieAntoinette (who liked cakes more than bread and was the only person who died in the guillotine... besides her husband)
* Grand Duchess Anastasia (who will be called a "princess")
* Princess {{Grace|Kelly}} (in works from before her death in 1982)
* SaddamHussein
* Ayatollah Khomeini, if the work was made in the '80s.
* Applies to [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]]. The only conservative character we ever seem to see is either the "Bible-thumper" or the CorruptCorporateExecutive.
* Any character noticeably more left-wing than average and created after the 1960s will most likely be either a NewAgeRetroHippie or a {{Dirty Comm|unists}}ie.
* TheVietnamWar and TheKoreanWar are the only wars that happened in their respective countries. Never mind the fact that they had other conflicts with certain nations with major consequences in the long run.
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[[folder:Cities]]
* UsefulNotes/{{Paris}} is the only city in UsefulNotes/{{France}}. In fact, Parisians think so, too. A good way to [[BerserkButton piss off a non-Parisian French person is to assume they're from Paris]]. And a good way to [[BerserkButton piss off a Parisian is to assume they're not]]. FrenchJerk might a trope (perhaps even JustifiedTrope) for a reason if the French are so touchy.
* German cities:
** {{Berlin}} and Munich are the only cities in UsefulNotes/{{Germany}}.
** Munich exists only during Oktoberfest. [[OlympicGames The one time it existed outside of Oktoberfest]] a bunch of competitors were murdered.
** Berlin exists only in spy thrillers. What remains is one big YodelLand with {{Oktoberfest}}.
** To many people, Berlin is just the former site of a wall.
** Hamburg and Frankfurt are sometimes mentioned. Almost always as stations of either illegal goods or illegal financial transfers. In the US, it probably doesn't hurt that there are popular foods named after these particular cities.
* Vienna is the only city in UsefulNotes/{{Austria}}. Except for [[Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic Salz]][[Creator/WolfgangAmadeusMozart burg]]. And if Tyrol and Carinthia are ever portrayed, it's because of the [[YodelLand Alps, where everybody yodels and wears lederhosen. ]] Bonus points if they mention the Grossglockner.
* Great Britain:
** BritainIsOnlyLondon. London is the only city in England which is the same thing as the United Kingdom.
** In music, you're allowed to know about Liverpool as well thanks to Music/TheBeatles, but you have to regard it as a suburb of London.
** Fans of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' novels will have heard of Surrey, but have no idea what it is. It's a county.
** Many non-British people only know Birmingham (the second-largest city in England) as the birthplace of Music/HeavyMetal, namely Music/BlackSabbath and Music/JudasPriest. Either that, or they'll mistake it for [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement that town in Alabama with the dogs and the fire hoses]].
** Southampton is only where a ship left. She later sunk in the Atlantic Ocean because of one big iceberg.
** There are no cities in UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} at all, only a few rustic Highland villages like Brigadoon and, presumably, someplace where they manufacture {{violent Glaswegian}}s. And Loch Ness (with added monster). When characters go visiting Scotland, they really want to see or at least want to joke about everyone's favourite StockNessMonster.
** Similarly, there are no cities or even large towns in Wales (if it exists at all), just a single in-bred farming village near a coal mine with a long unpronounceable name.
** There is no such thing as Northern Ireland (except if you're referencing TheTroubles). It's also the birthplace of the ancestors of many white Southern Americans (who are of Ulster, or Scots-Irish, descent), and thus the original home of fiddles and folk/country music... but this will never be brought up unless a work is set in colonial times.
* Dublin is the only city in UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}}, aside from ten thousand tiny rural villages populated by leprechauns who say "they're always after me lucky charms" every 10-15 minutes.
* Switzerland
** Switzerland has Zurich, which is nothing but [[SwissBankAccount banks]].
** The rest of the country is all snow-capped mountains, which are full of clocks, chocolate, and cheese with holes in it.
** Geneva might be referred to as a place where a little document known as the Geneva Conventions were signed. They concern the treatment of wartime non-combatants and prisoners of war.
* [[FreestateAmsterdam Amsterdam]], Holland, and the Netherlands are the same thing, even if the writer is Dutch. Characters go there to get high on weed legally.
* The (former) Eastern Bloc consists of two parts, a generic {{Ruritania}} and the city of Prague. No, there isn't anything else between Germany and Russia.
* UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}
** Russia has UsefulNotes/{{Moscow}}, full of some combination of crime (in the UsefulNotes/MoscowMetro!), vodka, and secret police.
** Siberia is known as a former home to TheGulag.
** Stalingrad usually gets a mention in WorldWarII pieces.
** St. Petersberg might get brought up as the other city in Russia in more modern settings (or in works set in pre-revolution Russia), e.g. in works of Creator/AlexanderPushkin. It is also where the Hermitage is.
** Stalingrad's current name (Volgograd), and St. Petersberg's older names (Leningrad and Petrograd) nearly never get brought up.
** Vladivostok occasionally gets mentioned, usually in connection to its proximity to Alaska, but people seem to act like it's not part of Russia.
* UsefulNotes/{{Italy}}
** Italy seems to have a few cities: UsefulNotes/{{Rome}}, UsefulNotes/{{Venice}}, Naples, Milan, and Florence.
** Rome might be just the home of the Colosseum and the Pope.
** Venice is known only for its channels and gondolas.
** ArtisticLicenseGeography: All the cities somehow seem to have Pisa's leaning tower nearby. The City of Pisa has nothing but the leaning tower in it though.
** The Tuscan countryside
** A sinister Sicilian village abounding with Mafia.
** Non-Italians only know Genoa (the capital of the province of Liguria) as the birthplace of ChristopherColumbus, who first discovered and then did ''not'' discover America.
* UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}, UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City Quebec]], and UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}} are the only cities in UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}. Justified, as fully half of the Canadian population really does live in those cities. The inclusion of Quebec is odd, though; the country does contain three other cities significantly bigger than Quebec besides the others listed above (Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton) and two others almost exactly the same size as Quebec (Winnipeg and Hamilton). Probably Quebec is just used as a stand-in for the ''province'' of the same name.
* UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} consists solely of Mexico City, Tijuana, Acapulco, Guadalajara, (arguably) Chihuahua, and Cancún.
** And Ciudad Juárez, if you want a WretchedHive.
** Though in Europe, you're lucky to hear about anything beyond Mexico City at all.
** Also, Tijuana is nothing but whorehouses and cheap tequila. Cancun (and to a lesser degree, Acapulco) is 100% beach front resorts.
** Chihuahua is known only for the little dog and for the stock Mexican cuisine: tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and all the other foods you can get at Taco Bell (but not nachos, since they're actually American).
* UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}} is the only city in UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}. [[ArtisticLicenseGeography And it's the capital]], of course.
** Or Brisbane, if you're from the BBC.
** And Melbourne.
* Rio de Janeiro is the only city in UsefulNotes/{{Brazil}}. And it's the capital, of course, too.
** Even on the remote off-chance characters do real Portuguese accents (pronouncing "Rio" as "Hio"), they won't do Rio's accent, even if they're from there ("Qkhio").
* UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}}, Osaka, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima are the only cities in UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}.
** And if the writer is from Japan, [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo the latter two]] [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse don't exist.]] But the Kansai area does.
** The island of Honshu IS Japan; Hokkaido and Shikoku are just atlas doodles...
** Fukushima is now allowed to exist, but as [[NeverLiveItDown a far Eastern version of Chernobyl]].
* UsefulNotes/{{China}} is fortunate enough to have ''three'' cities, Beijing, UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}}, and UsefulNotes/HongKong (the latter being a territory and not a city), and a great wall.
** Unless it's ancient China, which is just Xian.
** In some works (both set in Ancient and Modern China), there are also Suzhou and Qingdao.
** Ironically, most Chinese things Americans are familiar with (the food, especially) are from Canton (Chinese name: Guangzhou), which is almost never discussed when talking about China itself. (Either that, or Canton will only be known as that town in Ohio where American football began.)
* UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates has an amazing ''eight'' distinct cities which regularly show up in movies and on TV!
** UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity - almost the default choice when you need a large American city. See BigApplesauce. Doubles as Metropolis in the Christopher Reeve ''Film/{{Superman}}'' movies. It will almost always be shown to consist of only one of its five boroughs (Manhattan), and people there will always ride the subway or take a taxi somewhere (never the bus), and speak with pronounced accents.
** UsefulNotes/LosAngeles - the second-largest city in America. Contains Hollywood (which only has a sign and movie studios), palm trees, maybe South Central, and little else. Given that the U.S. film industry is headquartered in the area, setting your film or show here is often simply a case of WriteWhatYouKnow. Prone to earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires, and rioting; other than that, a veritable paradise. Because of movie studios being based in Hollywood, many of the other cities represented in fiction often end up [[SoCalization looking much like Los Angeles anyway]].
** UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} - in gangster movies (''Film/{{Chicago}}'', ''Film/TheUntouchables'') or in [[Creator/JohnHughes '80s movies]] about the [[SarcasmMode challenges]] of being a [[Film/TheBreakfastClub white, suburban,]] [[Film/RiskyBusiness upper-middle-class twentysomething who's still in high school]]). The setting of {{dueling|Shows}} [[TheNineties '90s]] {{medical drama}}s ''Series/{{ER}}'' and ''Series/ChicagoHope''. Doubles as Gotham City in Creator/ChristopherNolan's ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga''. Prone to very cold and unpleasant weather during the winter. Also home to [[AcceptableEthnicTargets dumb, fat Polish people]] who eat too much ''kielbasa'', play accordions and dance the polka. And if you've been [[TheFugitive unjustly accused of killing your wife]], [[ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans you can always find a St. Patrick's Day parade]] to cover your tracks.
** Also, there is only one sports team, the Cubs, and everybody roots for them, going to Wrigley Field whenever possible in order to do so.
** UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco - famous landmarks include [[EiffelTowerEffect the Golden Gate bridge]], the Transamerica pyramid, and, depending on the genre, either a gay club or [[Franchise/StarTrek Star Fleet Headquarters]]. Wineries, Silcon Valley, Creator/GeorgeLucas and hippie communes are nearby. ''Film/DirtyHarry'', ''{{Journeyman}}'', and ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' all make their homes here. Prone to earthquakes. Traditional greeting is "Oh, hi <name>."
** [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]] - home to casinos, {{Elvis impersonator}}s, and Film/{{showgirls}}.
** UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC - exists but consists solely of TheWhiteHouse, the Capitol, the Smithsonian, the Lincoln and Washington Memorials (the ''Jefferson'' Memorial usually doesn't exist in fictional settings for some reason), and UsefulNotes/ThePentagon, which is actually across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia. The only time "The District" is used as a setting is if your story somehow involves the U.S. Government.
*** In other words, the fact that it is the capital of the USA is the only reason it exists. Which is sort of TruthInTelevision actually: the city didn't exist until it was decided that the US capital should be on the border between the North and the South (New York City was serving as the temporary capital at that point), and the site of the city was picked, and then developed. In fairness, the Pentagon's phone numbers ''are'' in the DC area code (202).
*** On rare occasions, spies will allude to the CIA headquarters in Langley, but are unlikely to mention that it is an actual town in Virginia.
** And all residential areas in D.C. are quiet streets of graceful townhouses a la Georgetown. Neighborhoods like Washington Heights and Barry Farms must have been accidentally displaced from UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}}.
** UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} - which is the capital city of HollywoodNewEngland. Home to America's [[Film/TheSocialNetwork best and brightest students]] at [[IvyLeague Hahvad University]] and [[Film/GoodWillHunting MIT]] (both of which are actually in neighboring Cambridge). The default setting for a [[Series/AllyMcBeal David E.]] [[Series/BostonPublic Kelley]] [[Series/BostonLegal show]] and also the setting of ''Series/{{Cheers}}''. Also home to [[Film/TheDeparted Irish-American]] [[Film/TheTown criminals]], Red Sox baseball fandom, and what qualifies as old money and aristocracy in America. In historical settings, expect either the prominent figures of TheAmericanRevolution to be around if the setting is the 1700's, or expect the Kennedy family to show up if the setting is in the 20th century.
** UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} - the tropical, coastal city in southeastern UsefulNotes/{{Florida}} where the rich and the beautiful play. Lots of boats and beaches, and thus plenty of opportunities for {{Fanservice}}. Expect characters of Cuban heritage; everyone else will be either [[YouHaveToHaveJews Jewish]] or gay, or both. See ''Series/MiamiVice'' and ''Series/CSIMiami''. Very flat landscape. Prone to hurricanes. Expect the city's first in-story appearance to be accompanied by video shots of the beaches and nightlife, accompanied by GloriaEstefan's singing (or in more recent works, Music/{{Pitbull}}'s rapping).
*** Indeed, all of Florida is represented by the above cliches of South Florida (Palm Beach, Breward and Miami-Dade counties). If it looks like Miami, but there are tropical mountains in the background, and many of the characters appear to be of Asian rather than Latin American descent, then you are probably in UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}, most likely the city of Honolulu.
** There are numerous generic urban hellholes with boarded-up buildings covered in graffiti, a corrupt police force, drug dealers on the street corners, violent gangs indiscriminately firing machine guns, and lots of [[ScaryBlackMan Scary Black People]]. The Bronx, Queens, the South Side of Chicago, and South Los Angeles are popular choices. Sometimes, however, for the sake of variety, the filmmakers might choose a less-visited city for this backdrop. ''Series/TheWire'' used UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}}. UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}, UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, Memphis, UsefulNotes/NewOrleans, and UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} are also possibilities. In Britain, this is either south London, or Manchester.
** There's one small, generic, Midwestern town where everyone is white, middle-class, conservative, religious, honest, and full of common sense, if a little naive.
*** Amusingly for Midwesterners, this "small Midwestern town" is often UsefulNotes/KansasCity, which in reality contains nearly a half-million people, with a suburb/sister city (Independence) of approximately the same size. More savvy writers might choose ''North'' Kansas City instead, which despite having a population of over a quarter-million people, really is "rural" in the sense that it does include large tracts of agricultural land (with the skyscrapers of downtown KC proper on the horizon).
** There's one small, generic, Southern town where everyone is gossipy, racist, insular and more conservative and religious than the folks in the Midwestern town.
** There's one small, generic, Western town where everyone is a taciturn, weatherbeaten cowboy.
** There's one small, generic, ski resort town in the Rocky Mountains full of rich socialites, hot tubs, and upscale shopping.
** In other words, either Aspen or Jackson Hole.
** [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texas]] contains the city of [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas]], and that's about it; everyone else in the state either lives on a vast oil-bearing ranch, or works in a tiny grubby nameless convenience store in the middle of nowhere. UsefulNotes/{{Houston}} is in Texas, too, but it's just a stretch of desert surrounding the Space Center.
** Much like with Munich, Germany, and Oktoberfest, there are a number of American cities that are one-trick ponies:
*** UsefulNotes/{{Indianapolis}} holds a big car race once a year.
*** Louisville, Kentucky, holds a big horse race once a year.
*** Nashville = CountryMusic
*** Memphis = Music/ElvisPresley
*** UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} = The Space Needle, grunge, computers,{{Fraiser}}, smart people, and a lot of coffee. And it rains a lot.
*** UsefulNotes/NewOrleans = [[ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans Mardi Gras]], Jazz, and Katrina.
*** UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} exists solely to make cars in which you will get shot at by a ScaryBlackMan.
*** UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}} only has breweries and taverns, and only big macro breweries and sleazy dives at that... never any craft breweries or brewpubs.
*** St. Louis has nothing but the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St_Louis_Gateway_Arch.jpg Gateway Arch]] (and Budwiser, Don't forget Budwiser). This city's lucky to even get a mention.
*** UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} = The Liberty Bell, [[Film/{{Rocky}} Rocky Balboa]], Philly Cheesesteak, The Phillies and the Flyers
*** Atlanta = Stone Mountain, TedTurner, Coca Cola, and the Atlanta Braves
** Many European teenagers will be surprised to learn that UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC is ''not'' a district of New York. Also, San Francisco/Los Angeles and (to a lesser extent) Chicago/Seattle are often considered one and the same place, respectively. And don't even try to get any of those places pointed out on a map.
* All you need to know about UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} is that ‘Jerusalem’s for praying and Tel-Aviv’s for playing’. If Israel is ever anything but a country full of religious Jews, expect Tel-Aviv to be somewhat like a modern, liberal European capital (mentioning southern Tel-Aviv, which has poorer and more backward places like [=HaTikva=] neighbourhood or the even worse [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Shack Neighbourhood]] is never present, and places where dirt-poor work immigrants and refugees live), and Jerusalem will be all about Jesus and a strong religious presence (only ''somewhat'' of a case of TruthInTelevision, as Jerusalem is becoming increasingly Haredic, though it is still a very diverse city). In more egregious cases, people might think [[ArtisticLicenseGeography Tel-Aviv is the capital of Israel]] (perhaps {{justified|Trope}} because no foreign embassies are in Jerusalem, due to the political wars waged around it with the Palestinians). The Bahá'i temple in Haifa and mentioning of a ''kibbutz'' might come up every now and then. No other town is ever mentioned (again somewhat justified, as few of them have anything in them to interest tourists; the situation in Israeli media is [[CaptainObvious clearly different]]).
* UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast supposedly consists of Israel, an oil-backed city with palm trees and rich princes (probably in Saudi Arabia), and Baghdad, Iraq, full of dusty slums and terrorists. Nearby states like UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}} (which has no cities) and UsefulNotes/{{Egypt}} (which has Cairo and ruins) may miraculously appear on the peninsula.
** Thanks to ''MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol'', UsefulNotes/{{Dubai}} is now on the map.
* UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean will only be resorts and locals who are always stoned Rastafarians. The women will be AmbiguouslyBrown hotties. If you're lucky, it will be a crime-infested slum full of illegal drugs and gangs. The only country portrayed will be Jamaica, or maybe the Bahamas.
** The Bahamas (NOTE: not technically in the Caribbean) will be treated as one island, despite the name clearly being plural. That island is nothing more than a strip of beach with a stand selling exotic liquor. Despite there being no civilization to be seen, it is jam-packed with offshore banks for shady businesses.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Fashion]]
* All big fashion designers before Calvin Klein (the only American most people can think of) have been French (Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent) or Italian (Giorgio Armani, the Versaces). Occasionally Mexican designer Oscar de la Renta will get a mention.
* Fashion models: ClaudiaSchiffer and NaomiCampbell
* If you ever see a man wearing a hat and he isn't a cowboy or into sports, chances are it will be a fedora (which is, admittedly, TruthInTelevision); trilbies, homburgs, and porkpies are unknown. Bowlers, or derby hats, are sometimes mistaken for top hats. The only hats women ever wear are "fancy" hats (pillboxes, berets, etc.).
* All men between the ages of 20 and 50 in TheSeventies wore bell-bottomed trousers and had [[SeventiesHair outrageously long sideburns]]. When they got dressed up, their suits were always in fruity pastel colors (blue, especially) or had a wild plaid or paisley pattern. (See also PopularHistory.)
** All teenage girls in TheEighties wore leggings, oversized T-shirts, and bands or scrunchies in their [[EightiesHair (flamboyantly teased)]] hair. All businesswomen wore suits with gigantic shoulder pads. (Again, see PopularHistory.)
* Whenever [[PrettyInMink a fur coat is mentioned by type]], the majority of them are mink. Others, like rabbit, fox, ermine, and lynx, are mentioned, but not quite as often, and usually just to highlight whether the fur is less or more expensive than mink. [[PantheraAwesome Leopard]] furs are worn only by Franchise/{{Tarzan}}, Jane, [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones the Flintstones]], hookers, and porn stars.
** If someone in a cartoon (and sometimes in other media) has a fur stolen, it will almost always be the full fox with the head, legs and tail still attached or some variation thereof. This is often played for laughs, as in an episode of the 1980s reincarnation of ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' in which Jane's mother wore one and when she tossed her head back in disgust the fox did the same.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Geography]]
* Central America is one country. In fairness, it was, for a while. About 180 years ago.
* Canada is a small country consisting only of Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and rural Quebec (and possibly the Yukon, although that's as likely as not to be part of Alaska instead), despite which everyone will talk like they're from Newfoundland, which none of these places are anywhere near. It's always winter, with lots of snow, even though Vancouver has warmer and less snowy winters than, say, New York.
* The only islands in the Caribbean are Puerto Rico, Cuba, Jamaica, and The Bahamas (which aren't actually even in the Caribbean).
** The Bahamas are also one place (despite the hint in the name). The Cayman Islands get a mention as the only place besides Switzerland to have an offshore bank account, though no one seems to know where they are.
* South America consists solely of Brazil, where they speak Spanish, and Generic BananaRepublic Dictatorships led by either a Nazi sympathizer, drug lord, or corrupt military commander.
* Asia consists of Russia, India, China, Japan, and Korea, unless the work is about TheVietnamWar. (If it is, Vietnam itself does not exist except as a backdrop for American characters.)
** There's no such thing as Central Asia... except for [[Film/{{Borat}} Kazakhstan]].
** [[Series/{{Mash}} The Korean War is precisely the same thing as the Vietnam War.]] Koreans will be portrayed as living in straw huts, and they certainly don't have three major cities—Seoul exists, but it looks like the poor parts of Shanghai. Pyongyang is only whichever Kim dictator's weird little palace/bunker. Busan is ''purely apocryphal''. Incheon? What's that?
* UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast consists of Israel plus any country that the US is currently at war with.
* If your characters visit Europe, they will only go to England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Greece, the Netherlands and/or Austria. And they will always visit the capital cities, but then suddenly deviate into other countrysides typical for that country as if they are only a few miles away from the capital. The only exception is Italy, because besides Rome, you can also visit Venice,Tuscany,Milan, Pisa and the Isle of Sicily.
* When you visit Paris the Eiffel Tower HAS to be present somewhere in the background! If your characters visit other landmarks it will be the Louvre and only to see the Mona Lisa.
* [[{{Scotireland}} Scotland is the same country as Ireland]] unless the author is from the UK. Northern Ireland doesn't exist even if the author ''is'' from the UK except in works specifically about the Troubles, the same is true for Wales only without the exception, and for a long time Cornwall didn't exist ''even in this trope entry''.
* There are no distinct countries in eastern Europe (or central Europe, because it's part of eastern Europe).
* Africa is Egypt, South Africa, and a [[{{Bulungi}} Generic Tinpot Dictatorship]] headed by a corrupt, violent Oxford University graduate.
** If you want a [[DarkestAfrica jungle setting]], there are Congo and Cameroon, and maybe the island of Bioko (or Fernando Pó, in older works). For savannas, there Tanzania, Kenya, and if you are lucky, Botswana.
* There is no Oceania, except on the rare occasion that Australia exists. New Zealand doesn't exist at all. (However, if it does, it's known only for producing Rachel Hunter.)
** And sometimes Creator/PeterJackson.
* The Pacific Islands consist of Fiji, Hawai'i, occasionally Samoa, and more often some undefined beach with lots of grass skirts. You can just forget about Papua New Guinea.
* AllDesertsHaveCacti since all [[TheWestern Westerns]] were filmed at KirksRock.
* UsefulNotes/{{Iceland}} is a frozen rock [[CriticalResearchFailure with lots of Eskimos]] and one Björk somewhere near the North Pole. And now, also that darn flight-impeding volcano that no one can spell, [[TheUnpronounceable much less pronounce]].
* The only place in UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}} are Bali (home of dancing girls in [[PimpedOutDress Pimped Out Oriental Dresses]]) and Java (home of tigers, prehistoric humans, and - apparently - coffee).
* Creator/JaneAusten's geography of England is quite varied. You learn something about Bath and also that many English counties end in ''-shire''. Derbyshire of ''PrideAndPrejudice'' is probably the most famous as Mr Darcy's BigFancyHouse Pemberley is situated there
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Historical Periods]]
* The prehistoric (13.7 billion to 5,000 BC)
* The Stone Age (OneMillionBC to 4,000 BC)
* The Classical/Bronze Age, (4,000 BC-500 AD) overlapping with AncientGrome.
** Roman-centric works have a tendency to focus on the period surrounding the fall of Julius Caesar and the rise of Augustus Caesar. The fashions and politics depicted will be from this period no matter what century it is.[[note]]Creator/RidleyScott's ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' is one of the best-known examples of this. The senators scheming to restore republican government are also anachronistic - it's about as realistic as portraying scheming 20th century British parliamentarians trying to restore the House of Stuart.[[/note]].
** AncientEgypt is portrayed as pyramids and pharaohs' tombs and not else. Never mind that its history lasted for more than three millennia, and brought as many changes as you'd expect in such a long span of time.
** Most depictions of ancient societies in general forget that these were living, developed cultures that changed constantly over the centuries in terms of fashions, politics, attitudes etc. You'll be lucky if other ancient societies of the Mediterranean are mentioned at all.
* TheMiddleAges (500-1500 AD)
** AKA the "Dark Ages" and perceived as a period of stagnation of [[MedievalMorons intellectual]], [[MedievalStasis technological]] and [[TheDungAges sanitary]] development. Which it wasn't.
* TheRenaissance (1500-1800 AD; actually ended in the 1600s at the latest)
* [[BuffySpeak that in-between time when everyone wore powdered wigs (unless they were pirates)]]
* The Victorian era (1800-1900 AD)
* The Wild Wild West (also 1800-1900 AD)
* Everyone living between the fall of Rome (late 400s A.D.) and TheSixties will have a stereotypically repressed Victorian view of the world.
** Though with young women in the fifties, it will always just be a [[SeeminglyWholesomeFiftiesGirl facade]].
* Speaking of which, every single human society before TheSixties was at least as sexist as Victorian times. Women were never allowed to do anything of economic worth. And racism in its present form has existed in every historical era everywhere [[PositiveDiscrimination (except in nonwhite countries; there everything was cool)]].
* America has its own chronology:
** [[TheAmericanRevolution Revolution]] (before which nothing happened worth mentioning, except for the first Thanksgiving and [[BurnTheWitch some witches being burned]])
** [[TheAmericanCivilWar Civil War]]
** The Wild, Wild West
** TheRoaringTwenties/Prohibition (which lately has been getting more love, like ''Film/{{Chicago}}'' and ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'')
** TheGreatDepression
** WorldWarII (which occasionally blends with TheFifties)
** The 1960s (TheSeventies usually, and inaccurately, falling under this umbrella)
** The [[TheEighties 1980s]]
** Today (roughly 1990 to the present)
** Non-Americans usually skip the Civil War, the 1920s, the Great Depression, and the 1960's in their "Timeline of the USA".
* China
** The Ming Dynasty.
** [[DirtyCommunists Red China]].
* AncientRome began with [[Creator/GaiusJuliusCaesar Caesar]] and ended with Nero. Their only enemies were the Gauls, Germanic tribes, and rival factions during civil wars.
** The Fall of Rome was caused by the Huns.
* The entire history of Japan consists of early Tokugawa shogunate and Meiji restoration, despite the fact that this doesn't leave the latter with much to restore. If WorldWarII is depicted in a Japanese work, it will only be to show the suffering of good ordinary people, probably in the countryside, and will be strangely divorced from all actual context.
** The Sengoku is popular as well. Before that, not so much.
* World War II:
** In American shows and movies, during World War II, [[AmericaWinsTheWar all of the Allies are Americans]] and the Axis consists of either [[ThoseWackyNazis mindless umlaut-sputtering Nazis]] or sadistic Japanese killers. Definitely no Italians, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, or Yugoslavs.
** The War started when Germany invaded Poland (never mention the Munich Agreement, known as the Munich Betrayal or the Munich Dictation in former Czechoslovakia). There might have been some blitzkrieg in France and some rumble around Stalingrad.
** Nothing much happened until Japan attacked [[WorldWarII Pearl Harbor]]. The Allies fought some naval battles with the Japanese and then after [[Film/TheLongestDay D-day]] everything just seems to have resolved itself though there were some bumps in the road like the BattleOfTheBulge and the [[NukeEm atom bomb on Hiroshima]] (Nagasaki is often forgotten).
** Oh yeah, and there were the camps]], as presented for example in ''Film/SchindlersList''. The {{Holocaust}} only took place in the camps, and the only death camp was Auschwitz. Which is always mentioned without its second name, Birkenau.
** Any and all Holocaust survivors/victims are Jewish. Slavs, homosexuals, Gypsies, handicapped, or rarely get mentioned.
** The Enola Gay was the only plane involved in the bombing of Hiroshima. The Great Artiste and Necessary Evil did not accompany it, and by extension the Great Artiste was not accompanied by the Bockscar and Big Stink for the Nagasaki bombing.
* The only Mongol is GenghisKhan (whose title is likely to be misspelled as Ghengis Kahn or similar), and the only Hun is Attila. Mongols and Huns are the same thing.
* When was the last time you saw Russia pre-Revolution? Peter the Great? Catherine the Great? Who were ''they''? Didn't they rule the Soviet Union sometime between [[VladimirLenin Lenin]] and [[JosefStalin Stalin]]?
* In works not made by/for Jews, ancient Israel consists entirely of the Roman period (i.e. the very end), and the debut of Christianity was really important (apparently in spite of the fact that few noticed it for a few centuries).
* British Schools would have you believe history is just the following:
** AncientRome
** TheHouseOfTudor
** The EnglishCivilWar (if you're lucky)
** The Victorians
** WorldWarII
** And ''nothing'' worth noting happened after 1948.
* In Canadian history, the following happened:
** Settlers
** Settlers
** Settlers
** Confederation! (And therefore, by extension, Sir John A. Macdonald.)
** WorldWarOne
** TheGreatDepression
** WorldWarII
** PierreElliotTrudeau
** Maybe a vague mention of some stuff specific to the province where children go to school. For examples, Manitobans know something called "the Riel rebellion" happened, but not much else (including the fact that there were actually ''two'' such rebellions).
** At some point Canadians burned down the White House. And Laura Secord might have been involved? She's female!
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Military]]
* WorldWarOne
** WWI media are almost always set on the Western Front, and almost nothing about the Eastern Front (Russia & Romania vs. Germany/Ottoman/Austria-Hungary/Bulgaria), the Italian Campaign (Italy/UK/US/France vs. Germany/A-H), never mind the Balkans, Africa, or the Middle East.
** Except in Australia, where WorldWarOne media inevitably focus on the Gallipolli campaign of 1915, despite the fact that more Australians fought (and died, for that matter) in France than in Turkey.
** Most often it features the British Empire and the US vs. Germany. The French don't appear nearly as often - never mind that France mobilized just as many men as the UK ''and'' was the setting for much of the Western Front's battles. The other countries are rarely mentioned at all.
** Except for Lawrence of Arabia, but it's rarely mentioned that this was part of WorldWarOne.
** All British WWI brass were upper-class, incompetent, and indifferent as to their failures or the resulting loss of life.
* WorldWarII:
** Military fiction and documentaries set on the battlefields of WWII usually revolve around a select few well-known battles:
*** If it is about US forces it is usually about Normandy and The Bulge.
*** British get North Africa and Market Garden.
*** The Soviets get Stalingrad and the capture of Berlin.
** It would seem the only battle which didn't happen in Europe was El Alamein.
** It's very rare to see a depiction of any battle in the European Theater before 1942 or 1943 (probably because people don't like to hear about the Allies ''losing''). The Eastern Front is horribly under/represented in Western works, despite the fact that the vast majority of the fighting and 90% of the casualties occurred there. There are war movies which somehow manage to avoid even ''mentioning'' the Soviets! The invasion of Poland is often mentioned, but never depicted (except in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''). The invasions of Denmark, Norway, and the Low Countries never happened. There was no fighting in the Balkans either, and the only [[LaResistance resistance movement]] was French (and occasionally Polish, but certainly never Yugoslav or Greek, except in Alistair [=MacLean=] books). Even in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', the invasion is depicted in seconds with no resistance. No Polish soldiers are ever seen. So it hardly counts, and not just because it perpetuates an incredibly offensive cliche.
** No Canada and Juno Beach, even though it was one of the most successful victories in Normandy. It's all Utah and Omaha, since all the Americans died. A movie about Dieppe, where the Canadians were simply cannon fodder, is a rare sight. ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106720/ Dieppe]]'' hasn't been likely shown outside of Canadian TV.
** It's rare to find stuff about the Pacific Theater that was made within the last 20 years or so. Both the ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' series took 5 games before either of them had a campaign set in the Pacific. Most likely because if all 10 games are put together, every major event in the European theater from 1941 onward was already done.
** When the Pacific Theater does get portrayed, the entirety of it was apparently Pearl Harbor, sometimes Midway, something about a flag on Iwo Jima, and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Leyte Gulf, the largest sea battle in history, apparently never happened.
** There are a few mostly Soviet films about [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kursk The Battle of Kursk]], it goes largely unnoticed despite being the largest land battle in history: 3.4 million Soviet and German troops, 10,000 tanks, 54,000 artillery pieces etc. Mind-boggling in both scope and obscurity to the general public.
** The Battle of Prokhorovka is another one of the biggest battle of the armored forces ever fought, yet it gets rarely mentioned.
** The Axis consists of Germany and Japan plus maybe a few Italians in North Africa. Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Finland (not technically part of the Axis, but it did have an alliance with Germany against the Soviets), Thailand, Iraq, and the numerous puppet regimes are almost always ignored.
* TheAmericanCivilWar
** It lasted three days, in 1863, and the entire war started and finished near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Also, all Confederate soldiers wore gray uniforms.
** The only naval battle during the war was between the Monitor and the Merrimac (which never had its name changed to ''CSS Virginia'' when it came into Confederate hands).
** Even among Civil War buffs, knowledge of the war often remains restricted to Virginia and a few specific Western battles like Shiloh and Atlanta. Other campaigns - Grant's Siege of Vicksburg, Union landings along the Carolina coast, the capture of New Orleans and subsequent campaigns in Louisiana, constant fighting in border states like Missouri and Kansas, the entire naval war - are generally ignored.
* The CrimeanWar is remembered, if at all, for the Charge of the Light Brigade. In other words, a small portion of an indecisive skirmish (Balaclava) gains more attention than the huge, decisive battles at the Alma, Inkerman and Sevastopol, let alone Russia and Turkey's brutal fighting in the Caucasus or various naval campaigns. For American readers, it would be like if Ball's Bluff or North Anna River were the best-known battles of the Civil War.
* The AngloZuluWar ended after the Brits won at Rorke's Drift, right? Actually that and Isandlwana were just the first round: six months of fighting with far larger battles lay ahead.
* Custer's Last Stand remains far more recognizable than any other battle or massacre in the 100+ years of American Indian Wars.
* Western accounts of [[RedOctober The Russian Revolution]] tend to ignore or downplay the 1918-1921 Civil War.
* There was The Boer War in South Africa at the begging of twentieth century. The Brits thought they would win easily, but they didn't. The Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers were bigger pain than they had imagined, but they beat them later. There might have been the first concentration camps.
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Anthropology]]
* If television features American Indians, all American Indian tribes can be summed up as Cherokee (typically a white man with Cherokee ancestry), Lakota (not Dakota), Cheyenne, or Apache. And sometimes Navajo.
* American Indian history stops in 1890. Any mention of 20th century American Indian history is a throwaway comment about Leonard Peltier or the Siege of Wounded Knee. One exception is made for World War II Code Talkers, but only the Navajo ones will be mentioned—nobody has ever heard of the Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I.
* Regardless of their ostensible tribe, they will nearly always be played by Sioux or sometimes Cherokee actors—for some reason, virtually never by Mexicans, many of whom are full-blooded Indian, physically. Whatever the ethnicity of the actors, expect NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent. Because plainly, Apaches from New Mexico have the same accent as Sioux from Canada.
* South American Indians are either [[{{Mayincatec}} Inca]] or from the Amazon jungle, typically Yanomamo or Kayapo.
* Everyone in Africa is black. The only white people are the GreatWhiteHunter or the MightyWhitey. All black Africans will be ''dark'' black. This means they're probably Bantu or from some other Niger-Congo tribe (the tribes from which most American slaves were chosen). You'll never see the reddish-brown Pygmies or the yellowish-brown Khoisan (unless you're watching ''TheGodsMustBeCrazy'', of course). There are no Arabs, Indians, Asians or anyone else.
* Rural Africans are all Masai or Zulu. Or from Papua New Guinea.
* All Arctic peoples are Eskimos. All Eskimos are [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad Inuit, even the Yup'ik]], and Eskimo women, though ''inuit'' is specifically a masculine plural. There are no Russian Eskimos.
* And all indigenous people have been completely cut off from the world, with no modern influences on their fashion or culture whatsoever.
* All people in the Caribbean are black. There are no Indian, Chinese, or white people.
* All Arabs are Muslim - and, to a lesser extent, vice versa. In fact, there are many Christian Arabs, at least in the United States, Israel, and Palestine. Similarly, there are a great variety of Muslim peoples (Albanians being European, Iranians sharing much of their linguistic and racial heritage with both Europeans and Asian Indians, Turks ultimately from East Asia, and Indonesians mostly of Malayo-Polynesian stock),[[note]]the majority of Muslims in fact come from Indonesia, Pakistan, or Bangladesh; less than 20% of the world's Muslims live in Middle Eastern or North-African countries.[[/note]] but a Muslim character in popular fiction will always be rendered an Arab or a quasi-Arab unless his/her being of a different nationality is pertinent to the plot.
* All Indians are Hindu. Not Muslim, not Christian, not Sikh, not Budhist, not Jain or any of the other religions present in India. They're just funny people celebrating gods with many arms.
* AllJewsAreAshkenazi, of course. And their only holiday is Hanukkah (an extremely minor commemoration of military victory on the Jewish calendar that post-dates the Bible and the many more important festivals it contains). When celebrating this apparently Christmas-like occasion, it is ''always'', '''''always''''' the eighth night (if the number of candles is to be believed).
[[/folder]]
