History Main / LazyMexican

** An episode of ''Peabody's Improbable History'', the one about Pancho Villa, has a gag similar to ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' example, in which Peabody stops Pancho Villa and his gang from attacking by showing them a picture of a woman. The woman's name is Ester, and everyone knows that when you [[IncrediblyLamePun see Ester]]...

* ''WesternAnimation/OscarsOrchestra'' has Mañana the Spanish [[AnimateInanimateObject guitar]]. He appears in "Viva España!" and [[RunningGag constantly keeps falls asleep throughout the episode]], much to the orchestra's annoyance.

Although Mexicans are the people most commonly stereotyped as "lazy" in popular culture, indeed mostly because of the siesta behavior that originated in UsefulNotes/Spain, this stereotype may apply to other Latin American countries as well as Spain, Portugal, and the USA territory of Puerto Rico. This can sometimes apply to other countries on the Mediterranean and Southern Europe as well, not just the two on the Iberian Peninsula.

There is a stereotype of Mexicans as being lazy and taking siestas all the time. The classic image would be a Mexican character sleeping under his sombrero. More modern variations of this stereotype might involve Mexican and Chicano characters who don't care that they're on welfare. The two main reasons for this trope are a relaxed sense of time that Mexico is reputed for and the siestas.

In cartoons, the Mexican will typically (and illogically) be sleeping against a saguaro cactus, which are only found in the Sonora desert of southern Arizona in the southwestern USA and Sonora in north-west Mexico.

Although Mexicans are the people most commonly perceived as "lazy" in popular culture, indeed mostly because of the siesta behavior that originated in Spain, this stereotype may apply to other Latin American countries as well as Spain, Portugal, and the USA territory of Puerto Rico. This can sometimes apply to other countries on the Mediterranean and Southern Europe as well, not just the two on the Iberian Peninsula.

* In ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'', when we first see [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad PC Principal]], he just punched a man for telling a hispanic coworker that he "looks tired" because he claims it's a microagression that enforces the Lazy Mexican Stereotype. When said hispanic coworker tells him that he IS feeling tired, PC Principal punches him as well. Subverted however with Butters' Minion that he can summon via whistling for him and act as an extra teammate for three turns.

** In ''Recap/AsterixInSpain'', Asterix visits Spain, where several jokes are made about the supposed Spanish laziness. At one point, for instance, they travel over a bad road. Asterix complains about it, but his Spanish companion tells him: "Yeah, it's bad now, but in a few years you'll see it will be much better." As he says this there is one Spaniard calmly working on the road, all by himself. The underlying joke is that even today Spanish roads are still bad and the authors suggest it is because the Spaniards are just too lazy to do something about it.
** ''Recap/AsterixInCorsica'': Nothing is more sacred to the Corsicans than their siesta. Except for their pride, which is why the Corsican fighting spirit is feared by the Romans, even though the Corsicans are usually so slow and leisurely that they don't move more than absolutely necesssary,

* In ''Recap/AsterixInSpain'', Asterix visits Spain, where several jokes are made about the supposed Spanish laziness. At one point, for instance, they travel over a bad road. Asterix complains about it, but his Spanish companion tells him: "Yeah, it's bad now, but in a few years you'll see it will be much better." As he says this there is one Spaniard calmly working on the road, all by himself. The underlying joke is that even today Spanish roads are still bad and the authors suggest it is because the Spaniards are just too lazy to do something about it.
** ''Recap/AsterixInCorsica'': Nothing is more sacred to the Corsicans than their siesta, except for their pride. Which explains why the Corsican fighting spirit is feared by the Romans, even though the Corsicans are usually so slow and leisurely that they don't move more than absolutely necesssary,

* DisneyDucksComicUniverse: The nation of Volcanovia, an obvious stand-in for Mexico (or at least its mountain regions), is described by its native guide Pablo as "the one countree een the world where only lazy people are welcomed to live!" Donald Duck and his nephews have difficulty getting out of the country because you can't legally leave without being a national hero. When Donald asks Pablo what he did to leave the country earlier, he replies: "I was a great discoverer! I discovered that eef we siestaed for two hours instead of one hour, we could skip a whole hour of work!"

Although Mexicans are the people most commonly perceived as "lazy" in popular culture, indeed mostly because of the siesta behavior that originated in Spain, this stereotype may apply to other Latin American countries as well as Spain, Portugal, and the USA territory of Puerto Rico. This can sometimes apply to countries on the Mediterranean and Southern Europe, not just the two on the Iberian Peninsula.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/LuckyLuke https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tortillas_for_the_daltons_0.png]]]]

** An episode of ''Peabody's Improbable History'', the one about Pancho Villa, has a gag similar to ''Series/TheThreeStooges'' example, in which Peabody stops Pancho Villa and his gang from attacking by showing them a picture of a woman. The woman's name is Ester, and everyone knows that when you [[IncrediblyLamePun see Ester]]...

* Speedy Gonzales from ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' was created to be a StereotypeFlip of this trope, being a hyperactive and very fast Mexican mouse with a MeaningfulName. However, most of the other Mexican mice in his cartoons would seem to fit this trope. In "Mexican Boarders," Speedy tells Sylvester, exhausted from chasing the mouse, that he is going to take a siesta.

* In ''Recap/AsterixInSpain'' Asterix visits Spain, where several jokes are made about the supposed Spanish laziness. At one point, for instance, they travel over a bad road. Asterix complains about it, but his Spanish companion tells him: "Yeah, it's bad now, but in a few years you'll see it will be much better." As he says this there is one Spaniard calmly working on the road, all by himself. The underlying joke is that even today Spanish roads are still bad and the authors suggest it is because the Spaniards are just to lazy to do something about it.

* In ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'', when we first see [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad PC Principal]], he just punched a man for telling a hispanic coworker that he "looks tired" because he claims it's a microagression that enforces the Lazy Mexican Stereotype. When said hispanic coworker tells him that he IS feeling tired, PC Principal punches him as well.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/LuckyLuke https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tortillas_for_the_daltons_7.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/LuckyLuke https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tortillas_for_the_daltons_6.png]]]]

Even Southerners get the lazy portrayal sometimes, because of the American South's reputation for a more relaxed sense of time than the faster sense of time that the Northeast is reputed to have. It is also usually people from the North(east) who call people from the South lazy. Also, the lazy stereotype is also common to the USA as a whole.

* In ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'', when we first see [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoMad PC Principal]], he just punched a man for the microagression of telling a hispanic coworker that he "looks tired" because he claims it enforces the Lazy Mexican Stereotype. When said hispanic coworker tells him that he IS feeling tired, PC Principal punches him as well.

There is a stereotype of Mexicans as being lazy and taking siestas all the time. The classic image would be a Mexican character sleeping under his sombrero. More modern variations of this stereotype might involve Mexican and Chicano characters who don't care that they're on welfare. The two main reasons for this trope äre a relaxed sense of time that Mexico is reputed for and the siestas.

There is a stereotype of Mexicans as being lazy and taking siestas all the time. The classic image would be a Mexican character sleeping under his sombrero. More modern variations of this stereotype might involve Mexican and Chicano characters who don't care that they're on welfare. The two main reasons for this trope a relaxed sense of time that Mexico is reputed for and the siestas.

In cartoons, the Mexican will typically (and illogically) be sleeping against a saguaro cactus, which only found the Sonora desert of southern Arizona in the southwestern USA and Sonora in north-west Mexico.

!!Mexican Examples

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC: {{Film}}]]

[[AC:Literature]]
* In the book Frank Merriwell Down South, an acquaintance of Frank's apparently dies some miles out of a Mexican town. The heroes ride into the village and roust up an undertaker who vociferously complains about his siesta being interrupted and whines about the extra work all the way out to the shack. The body isn't there any more, but our heroes don't apologize to the undertaker.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. Invoked in one episode where Elaine invents the Urban Sombrero - two different men who received them as gifts got fired from their jobs because their bosses caught them sleeping on the job. Both men claim they've snuck a mid-day nap for years, but it wasn't until they wore their Urban Sombreros that they got caught in the act, and were fired as a result.

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''

** The "Mexican GI Joe" character is a lazy, unshaven, paunchy, cigarette-smoking man who tries to sell the kids overpriced crap.

* Speedy Gonzales from ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' was created to be a StereotypeFlip of this trope, being a hyperactive and very fast Mexican mouse with a MeaningfulName. However, most of the other Mexican mice in his cartoons would seem to fit this trope.
** In "Mexican Boarders," Speedy tells Sylvester, exhausted from chasing the mouse, that he is going to take a siesta.

[[AC: RealLife]]
* The siesta originated in Spain and Portugal and was exported to the Americas with colonisation. In Iberia, the southern European summer can be hot and oppressive in the afternoons. So much so that it is an accepted part of daily routine in Spain for everything to close down between midday and about three as there is no real point in working: it is accepted that people will have a light lunch and then take the siesta for several hours. Spanish and Portuguese people compensate by extending the working day to perhaps seven or eight in the evening, preferring to work in the cool of late afternoon and evening. Scarcely "lazy", as the missing hours are compensated for - and pragmatic, too. Mexicans, also inhabiting a hot dry climate, learnt from experts. The siesta is less prevalent in northern Iberia, where the climate is gentler and afternoons are not quite so hot.

[[AC:Comic Books]]

[[AC:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/ChappellesShow'' featured a skit styled as a documentary series about racist animals on film, ending with a preview of the next episode, about racist cars, showing [[Series/KnightRider KITT]] saying that Puerto Ricans are lazy.