History Main / CutAndPasteSuburb

--->''Another Pleasant Valley Sunday (Sunday)''
--->''Charcoal burning everywhere''
--->''Rows of houses that are all the same''
--->''And no one seems to care''

* The Hidden Cameras' song "Mississauga Goddam":
-->Mississauga skyline,
-->Filled with the shadows of the power lines,
-->With the garbage and refuse
-->we'll build a mountain to the moon on top of Mississauga Goddam.

* One episode of ''{{Angel}}'' uses a dimension full of this sort of housing as a holding area.

* The film ''OverTheHedge''. The homeowner association makes sure that nobody is different.

After World War II the veterans came home, married and bred creating the Baby Boom in the United States. Houses were needed. Lots and lots of houses. Entire [[{{Suburbia}} neighborhoods]] were built with houses only slightly different from each other. Minor variation in detail from house to house, only accentuated the similarities and made each neighborhood hopelessly dull. The yards are also uniform. One common tactic to make them look different by flipping the blueprint. As if having the garage on the left instead of the right would create visual interest.

* An early ''{{Animorphs}}'' book has an alien getting confused at the sight of two identical houses. His human companions must explain the concept to him.

After World War II the veterans came home, married and bred creating the Baby Boom in the United States. Houses were needed. Lots and lots of houses. Entire neighborhoods were built with houses only slightly different from each other. Minor variation in detail from house to house, only accentuated the similarities and made each neighborhood hopelessly dull. The yards are also uniform. One common tactic to make them look different by flipping the blueprint. As if having the garage on the left instead of the right would create visual interest.

-->-"...every time we leave th houce, we'll have to leave a child on the front lawn as a landmark..."

* DaveBarry once joked that one should build a house by taking the prefabricated unit out of a big (no kidding!) box and just drop it onto a big hole.

Similar communities exist in throughout North America, [[CouncilEstate Great Britain]] and the rest of Europe, but the degree of conformity may differ.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In the opening action sequence of ''MinorityReport'', John Anderton is chagrined to find that he can't identify the house the murder will take place in because of the identical look to everything in the housing complex. (It's only because of the open door he is able to find it.)
* HarryPotter's relatives the Dursleys also live in one of these neighborhoods in [[Film/HarryPotter the movies]]. Identical cars are present as well. ProductPlacement or trope emphasis?

* The Russian film ''IronyOfFate'' involves a man, having been put on a plane while drunk, ending up in an apartment in Leningrad all but identical to his Moscow apartment, even down to having the same lock on the door. As entire standardized districts of USSR show, the phenomenon of copy-and-paste housing is not limited to suburbs.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In the ''HomerPrice'' stories by Robert [=McCloskey=], the local millionaire decides on a whim to build a new suburb for Centersburg. One hundred identical houses with her mansion in the center. HilarityEnsues when said mansion is moved away accidentally, and the hundred-and-first house put in its place. Did I mention that the road sign guy got into the hooch buried under said mansion and has yet to start putting up the street signs?

* Where Pete lives in TheLostThing, right down to the oddly-shaped chimneys.

[[AC:{{Live-Action TV}}]]

[[AC:{{Music}}]]

[[AC:{{Theatre}}]]

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* Parodied in ''TheOnion'''s ''Our Dumb Century'', with an article about post-war housing headlined "Ant-like Conformity Now Affordable".

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* OggyAndTheCockroaches live in such a suburb. Oggy's house has its roof of a different color.

[[AC:RealLife]]

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http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mordillo04.jpg
[[caption-width:280:Sometimes, someone tries to make their home distinctive.]]

* Parodied in ''{{Asterix}}.'' When in Britain, Asterix and Obelix walk down an endless row of absolutely identical houses, and Asterix says, "Good thing we have the house number. Its description might not have been enough."

Some call these Levittowns after William Levitt, who innovated several improvements in planned communities (TheOtherWiki uses this as the official term). Others use the term "tract housing" because a whole line of them is built at once. Nowadays we use the term "development" or UncannyValley.

* In the ''HomerPrice'' stories by Robert [=McCloskey=], the local millionaire decides on a whim to build a new suburb for Centersburg. One hundred identical houses with her mansion in the center. HilarityEnsues when said mansion is moved away accidentally, and the hundred-and-first house put in its place. Did I mention that the road sign guy got into the hooch buried under said mansion and has yet to start putting up the street signs?
* In the ''SchoolhouseRock'' short "Energy Blues" the sameness of the houses even extend to the identical puffs of smoke coming out of the chimneys.
* {{Classic Disney shorts}} are full of these neighborhoods. DonaldDuck and Goofy in particular enjoy the lifestyle.
* Parodied in ''TheOnion'''s ''Our Dumb Century'', with an article about post-war housing headlined "Ant-like Conformity Now Affordable".

* HarryPotter's relatives the Dursleys also live in one of these neighborhoods in the movies. Identical cars are present as well. ProductPlacement or trope emphasis?
* ''EdwardScissorhands'' also contains one of these.
* Malvina Reynolds' song "Little Boxes."

* The film ''OverTheHedge''. The homeowner association makes sure that nobody is different.
* One episode of ''{{Angel}}'' uses a dimension full of this sort of housing as a holding area.
* [[TruthInTelevision In the Netherlands]] this conformity is enforced by local government. Remodeling must be approved by the community.
* The Russian film ''IronyOfFate'' involves a man, having been put on a plane while drunk, ending up in an apartment in Leningrad all but identical to his Moscow apartment, even down to having the same lock on the door. As entire standartized districts of USSR show, the phenomenon of copy-and-paste housing is not limited to suburbs.
* DaveBarry once joked that one should build a house by taking the prefabricated unit out of a big (no kidding!) box and just drop it onto a big hole.
* ''TheIncredibles.'' Similar cars in the driveways as well.
* Parodied in ''{{Asterix}}.'' When in Britain, Asterix and Obelix walk down an endless row of absolutely identical houses, and Asterix says, "Good thing we have the house number. Its description might not have been enough."
* ''{{Pleasantville}}''. No difference and no color!
* The song "Pleasant Valley Sunday" by ''TheMonkees.''

* ''MadMagazine'' once had an article about road signs they'd like to see, and one of them was "Ugly Tract Housing Development Ahead." It showed a picture of a driver asleep at the wheel driving past identical houses.
* An early ''{{Animorphs}}'' book has an alien getting confused at the sight of two identical houses. His human companions must explain the concept to him.
* Used in ''LittleShopOfHorrors'' to highlight how little Audrey wants.

* The {{Rush}} song ''Subdivisions'' deals with the conformity of suburban life.
* The chillingly homogenous neighborhood in Kamazotz, used to great effect in ''AWrinkleInTime''. All the houses are the same, as are the yards, [[IndividualityIsIllegal everyone does everything exactly the same or else they are penalized...]]
* Trude in InvisibleCities is a Cut and Paste ''city'' which is implied to have covered the Earth. [[ClosedCircle You can't leave]].
* ''ASeriousMan'' is largely set in such a suburb in [[TheSixties the 1960s]].

Some call these Levittowns after William Levitt, who innovated several improvements in planned communities (one current name). Others use the term "tract housing" because a whole line of them is built at once. Nowadays we use the term "development" or UncannyValley.

Similar communities exist in [[CouncilEstate Great Britain]] and the rest of Europe, but the degree of conformity may differ.

Some call these Levittowns after William Levitt, who innovated several improvements in planned communities (one current name). Others use the term "tract housing" because a whole line of them is built at once. Nowadays we use the term "development" or NightmareFuel.

* {{Classic Disney shorts}} are full of these neighborhoods. Donald Duck and Goofy in particular enjoy the lifestyle.