History Main / BreakfastClub

* The victors in ''Literature/{{The Hunger Games}}'' lean towards this. At least, the ones who aren't trying to kill each other. [[spoiler: Katniss, Peeta, Finnick and sort of Johanna, for the most part, and also Wiress and Beetee at first and Annie later.]]
** They're implied to have been more like this before the twist of the Quarter Quell (i.e., that they'd be competing to kill ''each other'' now) was announced. Katniss notes they (both competing victors and the victors mentoring them) are much more social than the usual pack of brand-new scared kids are every year. Haymitch in particular is seriously bothered by the whole thing, at one point telling Katniss and Peeta that he didn't want to be responsible for them getting his friends killed off.

* ''Series/{{Misfits}}'', ''oh'' so much. Five criminal teens find themselves united by social alienation, superpowers, and the accidental murder of their rampaging AxCrazy zombie probation worker.

* Creator/DCComics' ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'' and ''ComicBook/MetalMen''.

* Creator/MarvelComics' ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'', especially the Steve Gerber era.
* The ''Comicbook/XMen'' started out like this, but it's softened tremendously in recent years.
* ''Comicbook/{{Runaways}}'', to the power of ten.
* Most of Franchise/TheFlash's RoguesGallery have formed a tight little group (actually referred to as "the Rogues") and they come off as this.

* The [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} Planet Express Crew]] is composed entirely of individuals who wouldn't fit in anywhere else, particularly the main characters, FishOutOfTemporalWater Fry, RoboticPsychopath Bender, [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming who was programmed to bend girders]], and Leela, a one-eyed DoorstopBaby who for most of the original run doesn't even know her own species [[spoiler: and then turns out to be part of an ostracized race forced to dwell in Earth's sewers]]. It's acknowledged several times, most memorably by Fry in "The Cyber House Rules," after Leela gets surgery to appear "normal" and begins dating her aggressively normal plastic surgeon:

A gang of misfits whom no one likes and/or don't like themselves get together or an elder, often a ZenSurvivor, brings them together. A circle of TrueCompanions forms out of everyone's lives sucking so much they ended up stuck with each other. If they actually want to stick together because otherwise they would be alone, they are LonelyTogether.

* The members of the [[Series/{{MASH}} 4077th M* A* S* H]]. It's not so much that no one liked them at home (except maybe for [[{{Jerkass}} Frank]] [[ButtMonkey Burns]]) and more like they all happen to be stuck in a war zone together (they hate it).

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''. The group is a RagtagBunchOfMisfits that all met by chance by virtue of being friends of friends with everyone, who decide to take the wrong shortcut one night. Jake, their fearless leader, is probably the only actually normal one of the group, and his brother is [[AndIMustScream trapped inside his own mind by a parasitic alien]]. Marco lives with a depressive single father who never got over his wife dying, [[spoiler:although she's actually not dead and the real truth is far, far worse - she's the leader of the alien invasion]]. Rachel is a shopaholic who's also an ActionGirl in disguise to the point where Marco calls her Xena on a regular basis (and can become quite AxCrazy and sometimes, dangerously, dangerously sane if you threaten her friends...), while her best friend Cassie is a socially awkward African-American who is unpopular because she doesn't care anything for fashion and works as a vet assistant on her family farm. Tobias is TheWoobie of the series, whose parents are dead ([[LukeIAmYourFather well, sort of...]] [[LaserGuidedAmnesia it's seriously]] [[DeusExMachina complicated]]) and who suffers [[ParentalNeglect horrible treatment]] at the hands of his aunt and uncle. Did we mention that he's permanently [[ShapeshifterModeLock trapped in the body of a hawk?]] Because being an ''animal'' was so much better than living at home that he ''didn't care if it happened''? [[spoiler: It most likely was deliberate.]] [[spoiler: And his father's the alien that gave them the ImportedAlienPhlebotinum]] Certainly fits the DysfunctionJunction element quite nicely. And their hideout, if it could be called one, is Cassie's barn. [[spoiler:At least, until [[TheUnmasquedWorld they tell everyone about the alien threat.]]]] And Ax, the alien, is the "student living in his amazing brother's shadow" who (from what he missed in school) was a total slacker. [[spoiler:And also Tobias' uncle on his father's side.]]

* ''Literature/TheSunAlsoRises'' is about a Breakfast Club of American expatriates living in France in TheRoaringTwenties. The group consists of a UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veteran (who is impotent due to an injury sustained during the war), a jaded ChristmasCake [[LadyDrunk party girl]], and a shy guy who just wants everyone to get along. Each dealing with their own problems and drama. The book is a deconstruction of the trope.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheBreakfastClub http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/breakfast_club.jpg]]]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/breakfast_club.jpg]]

* ''Film/TheFaculty'' is basically ''The Breakfast Club'' with parasitic aliens.

* Most of TheFlash's RoguesGallery have formed a tight little group (actually referred to as "the Rogues") and they come off as this.

* Of all the protagonist ensembles in the series, the cast of ''{{Persona 3}}'' fits this trope best.

* ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'' (separate groups)
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}''
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}''

* ''TheInbetweeners'': The four friends at times seem like they have little reason to be friends due to their contrasting personalities. At the same time, their misfit status in school means that they're the only people who can stand each other.

* ''{{Leverage}}'': Five self-proclaimed loners discover that their whole is more than the sum of their parts, at first professionally, but increasingly emotionally as the series progresses.

A gang of misfits whom no one likes and/or don't like themselves either get together or, more often, an elder, often a ZenSurvivor, brings them together: he (or, more rarely, she) just hides it better. A circle of TrueCompanions forms out of everyone's lives sucking so much they ended up stuck with each other. If they actually want to stick together because otherwise they would be alone, they are LonelyTogether.

A concise way of saying it: most, if not all of the cast, in the group count as TheWoobie (or at least have a lot of {{Wangst}}) in their own individual way, even if it may not seem so at first.

* JohnFord's acclaimed Western film ''{{Stagecoach}}'' did this trope way back in 1939, making the trope OlderThanTelevision. The seven passengers on the stage to Lordsburg, New Mexico, include [[JohnWayne an outlaw]], a prostitute, an alcoholic, and [[StillFightingTheCivilWar an ex-Confederate who isn't shy about expressing his political views]]. [[note]] The "alienation from society" theme, while not overt, is certainly there: the alcoholic refers to himself and the prostitute as "victims of social prejudice" - and they are, although the prostitute has a little more self-respect. [[/note]] In the end, however, they have all developed respect for each other, largely as a result of [[FireForgedFriends cooperating to fight off a war party of Apaches]] - [[spoiler: except for the ex-Confederate, who is killed by the Apaches]].

* The Sinners from ''ChronoCrusade''. [[spoiler:Disowned by their people, and dwindled down to frighteningly small numbers,]] this group of demons formed together around Aion to carry out his plans, while becoming an [[TrueCompanions odd sort of family]].

* BillyJoel's "Piano Man". The bar is full of lonely, sad people [[DrowningMySorrows drowning their sorrows]] "sharing a drink they call Loneliness, but it's better than drinking alone".

* DCComics' ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'' and ''ComicBook/MetalMen''.

* MarvelComics' ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'', especially the Steve Gerber era.

* Film/TheBreakfastClub is the TropeNamer.

* ''Literature/TheSunAlsoRises'' is about a Breakfast Club of American expatriates living in France in TheRoaringTwenties. The group consists of a UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne veteran (who is impotent due to an injury sustained during the war), a jaded ChristmasCake [[LadyDrunk party girl]], and a shy guy who just wants everyone to get along. Each dealing with their own problems and drama. The book is a deconstruction of the trope.

* Villainous example: The Seven from ''YuYuHakusho''. They're all pretty troubled people...

* The ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' started out like this, but it's softened tremendously in recent years.

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Very common in superhero teams who, while, fighting evil, tend not to have flashy headquarters or a get a lot of public support or respect. Also could be used for villains, when they're not qualified to be a QuirkyMinibossSquad. The villain version is usually led by a StrawNihilist.