Well, Weedonwantcha neither!
"Campsite...the one with the name that sounds like somebody gave up halfway through naming it. Uh... Camp Flabanabba!"
— Morty, Rick and Morty, "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy"
A common trope in the Camping Episode is for the camp to have a Punny Name or otherwise vaguely Native American-sounding name. Usually an exaggeration of the many Native American-named camps in Real Life. May or may not overlap with Horrible Camping Trip to accentuate the horrible-ness of the trip.
May overlap with Summer Campy.
Examples:
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Comic Strips
- George Lichty's Grin and Bear It will feature on occasion Camp Runamuck, which seems to specialize in haywire hellions.
- In Peanuts, Peppermint Patty and Marcie attend a girls' nature camp every summer. She writes a letter home beginning with "Here I am at Camp Remote," to which Marcie adds, "I think they pronounce it 'remotay,' sir."
- A story arc in FoxTrot features Jason and Marcus attending a summer science camp called Camp Bohrmore.
Films — Animation
- The Emperor's New Groove sequel Kronk's New Groove has "Camp Chippamunka". Considering every character is actually Native American there is a recursive element to this particular case.
- Hotel Transylvania 2 has "Camp Winnepacaca".
Films — Live-Action
- Camp Kikakee from Ernest Goes to Camp. It's actually overseen by a Native American chief. His granddaughter (the camp nurse) and Ernest are the only two people who can directly communicate with him.
- The third Fred movie features the (incredibly juvenile) "Camp Iwannapeepee". Their slogan is "Iwannapeepee on you".
Literature
- Camp Kookooskoos from The Trumpet of the Swan. According to the camp director, it actually means "great horned owl" in Native American. When a camper asks him why it's not called "Camp Great Horned Owl", the director says it sounds better for a camp to have a kooky name.
- In Molly Saves the Day, Molly McIntire attends Camp Gowanagin, whose name is actually motivational wordplay: it sounds like "go on again."
Live-Action TV
- An episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, "Cody Goes to Camp" has "Camp Knock-a-Number".
- Camp Runamuck, a NBC Sitcom from 1965, was about a camp.
- On Nickelodeon's Salute Your Shorts, Camp Anawanna is known by the campers as "Camp I Don't Wanna".
- In a second season episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun, Mary confides to Dick that she was fat as a child and her parents sent her to a weight loss camp aptly named Knockalotofweightoff.
- Barney & Friends had a video entitled Camp Wannarunnaround.
- Lake Tikihama is the setting for a case in the Psych episode "Tuesday the 17th".
- "The Not-So-Great Escape," a 4th-season 2-part episode of Get Smart, takes place at a KAOS POW camp (somewhere in New Jersey), called "Camp Gitchie Goomee Noonee Wa-wa."
- One episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys has the show producers go on a team-building exercise at Camp Wannachuck.
- On one episode of All in the Family, Mike and Gloria are preparing for the wedding of Mike's old childhood friend Al, played by Billy Crystal. When Al arrives at their house, Mike and Al greet each other with a chant they used to use at Camp Nehoc when they were kids. Gloria asks if "Nehoc" is a Native American name, but the guys answer that the owner of the camp was Jewish..."Nehoc" is "Cohen" spelled backwards.
Music
- The Ray Stevens song "Camp Werthahekahwee"note is about the narrator's son having a Horrible Camping Trip at summer camp.
- Homer and Jethro
recorded a song titled Battle of Kookamonga, a parody of "The Battle of New Orleans" set in Camp Kookamonga.
- The Turtles had a song called "Camp Kamanawanalaya." Understandably it got no airplay.
Puppet Shows
- In a series of Sesame Street sketches from The '80s, Grover is the counselor of Camp Wannagohoma, but isn't very knowledgeable about nature, or camping, resulting his campers to question his credibility.
Theatre
- The musical Return to Camp Itchabite.
Video Games
- Afterlife has one of Hell's punishments being Camp Mennihackatorso, a Summer Campy which as the name makes clear, is straight out of a Slasher Movie.
- Pink Panther's Passport to Peril: The plot centers around Camp Chilly Wa-Wa, a very exclusive summer camp.
Web Animation
- Camp Camp: Completely averted. The titular camp is Camp Campbell, the 'bell' fell off. The only time Native American culture is brought up is in the season 1 finally where David is called out for making a mockery of the race.
- Happy Tree Friends has Camp Pokeneyeout from the episode with the same name. As you might expect from this show, lots of eye injuries happen there.
- Teen Girl Squad: In episode 11, the girls go to Camp Firstbassawassa. They briefly go to the neighboring Cosplayover Camp.
Web Comics
- There is a webcomic named Camp Weedonwantcha after the aforementioned camp.
- Paradox Space: The "Summerteen Romance" comic has a camp with a lake named Lake Hooyoogunnakahl.
Web Original
- The 2013 Neopets Daily Dare challenge featured a game development camp called "Camp Wannamakeagame".
- The Nightmare Time episode, "Abstinence Camp," features an abstinence-themed summer camp called "Camp Idontwannabang."
Western Animation
- American Dad! lampoons the trope in one episode, having Stan mistake a refugee camp for "Camp Refoogee" and appoint himself camp counselor.
- American Dragon: Jake Long has Jake, Trixie, and Spud become camp counselors at Camp Mugwomp in the episode "A Ghost Story".
- The Breadwinners episode "Love Loaf" has Camp Quackawanna.
- Camp Lazlo is set at Camp Kidney. While still a silly name, it makes a little more sense than most examples because the Bean Scouts used different kinds of beans as a naming convention.
- Camp Lakebottom has not only the title camp, but also Camp Bottomlake and Camp Sunnysmiles.
- In between the Nickelodeon and the Disney episodes of Doug, it’s revealed that Connie went to a Fat Camp called Camp Makemovers.
- The Fairly OddParents!: "Two and a Half Babies" has Foop wanting to go to Camp Wannahurtastranger.
- Freakazoid!: The episode "Candle Jack" takes place at Camp Wenamigonagohome.
- Kim Possible:
- Ron attended Camp Wannaweep. As the name implies, it is the source of many of Ron's fears and the lake ended up being so toxic it turned a kid into a mutant.
- In a later episode, the Middleton cheer squad are taken to "Camp Gottagrin" for a spirit competition. It's later revealed that the camp is really Wannaweep with a new name and a cleaned-up lake.
- In Pepper Ann, after following Pepper Ann's advice, Dieter walks away from his house, leaving behind a note that his mother understood as going to "run away from home". As Pepper Ann later deduced, it turns out he just went to join the local Boy Scouts branch at (brace yourselves) Camp Runawifframham.
- In the Rick and Morty episode "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy," Summer planned on going camping at Camp Flabanabba with her boyfriend, though they broke up before the trip happened. Morty remarks that it "sounds like somebody gave up halfway through naming it."
- Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, in its Three Shorts season of 1980-1983, had the episode "Tenderbigfoot", a Cryptid Episode, which aired on 31 October 1981. It was set in Camp Kickapoo, which sounds like a joke name or (as some of the British audience saw it and not getting the reference) a reference to kicking fecal matter, but is named for a Native American tribe.
- South Park has a special needs camp entitled "Lake Tardicaca", which Timmy and Jimmy attended.
- Total Drama: Camp Wawanakwa offers the classic Summer Campy experience alongside the usual tortures of reality television for the teenage competitors.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: A season 3 episode, taking place at a summer camp, was titled "Camp Comeoniwannascareya". The camp itself is named "Camp Kichihaha".
