History Main / LowerClassLout

* Lauren Cooper from ''Series/TheCatherineTateShow'' ([[{{Catchphrase}} "Am I bovvered?"]]).

This trope deals with the various varieties of lout, hooligan, and delinquent that appear in various media. While these stereotypes are TruthInTelevision to some degree, it's debatable whether the stereotype comes from RealLife, or said real-life examples are [[MisaimedFandom imitating the stereotype]]. A typical Lower-Class Lout is a [[TeensAreMonsters teenager]] or young adult (with the occasional EnfantTerrible) who embodies [[WorkingClassPeopleAreMorons the worst stereotypes of the working class]] (or middle class). One variant of this type would be the [[BlackShirt the Brownshirts]] of the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Party]] ''Sturmabteilungen'' (SA) and the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan, who were recruited from the lower layers of German and white American working classes respectively and who were used to terrorize the political opponents.

* ''Series/CoronationStreet'' being a working-class soap has played with this trope every possible way over the past 60 years. Most of the characters have some aspects of it especially the men. Combine it with JerkWithAHeartOfGold and you get a Corrie "Hardman" (Len Fairclough, Jim [=MacDonald=], Peter Barlow) or a zany schemer give you the "Chancer" (Stan Ogden, Jack Duckworth, Tim Metcalf). Usually, the success of these characters depends on how well the character shows their HiddenDepths

* The Kankers from ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''. Three half-sisters raised by a single mother, living in a trailer park called "Park n' Flush", getting their kicks out of tormenting everybody else and sexually harassing the protagonists, with very little in the way of redeeming qualities.

* Many of the more unflattering parodies of former US President UsefulNotes/BillClinton (when they weren't celebrating him as a GoodOlBoy made good) took this route, focusing on his dirt-poor upbringing in Arkansas, his [[AndADietCoke love of junk food]], his serial womanizing, and later on, his ability to talk his way out of any scandal with his popularity intact through sheer RefugeInAudacity (the "Slick Willie" image). Toni Morrison famously [[https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/08/toni-morrison-wasnt-giving-bill-clinton-a-compliment/402517/ referred to Clinton]] as America's "first black President", comparing his treatment by the media and political establishment to the scorn heaped on black men for acting "ghetto". While Clinton was also a [[SouthernFriedGenius Rhodes scholar]] and a [[UsefulNotes/IvyLeague graduate of Yale]], he willfully embraced a "hillbilly" image to sell himself to the American people, most notably when he [[SexySaxMan played the saxophone]] on ''Series/TheArsenioHallShow''.

* Mucinex commercials tend to personify congestion as a rude, slovenly green thing that willingly and knowingly annoys the person whose body it's occupying.

* While ''Manga/BlackLagoon'''s Roanapur is [[WretchedHive an entire city]] full of these, Revy stands out the most. She grew up in a poor trashy household with a violent, abusive drunkard for a father [[spoiler:whom she murdered]], has had a significant amount of contact with law enforcement prior to coming to Roanapur, and is homicidally violent, incredibly foul-mouthed, rather racist, alcoholic, chain-smoking, and money-grubbing, on top of [[{{stripperific}} wearing revealing clothes]].
* ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'' has a downplayed example with Rosehip of St. Gloriana Academy. [[PennyAmongDiamonds She's a commoner]] in an AristocratTeam and has a bit of difficulty in matching her upperclassmen's elegance and manners, though she certainly gives it her all. It's implied that this is why she wasn't present during the practice match with Oarai because the alumni didn't approve of her less-than-graceful temperament.

* The Ewells from ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' are classic white trash, living in the city dump. While most of the kids are decent people just suffering from a combination of their horrible living situation and social isolation, father Robert "Bob" E. Lee Ewell is every negative stereotype about poor southern whites in one man- he's an AbusiveParent, a PoliticallyIncorrectVillain even for the time and place, an alcoholic, and his hygiene is so bad that people are reluctant to even shake his hand. He mostly subsists on [[EvilPoacher poaching]], which is the only thing keeping his children from starving because he spends all his welfare checks on whiskey.

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s whole persona is that he was a broke, underemployed, white trailer-trash outcast (until he became a famous rapper, anyway). Sometimes he plays this character in a more optimistic way, such as on his [[CanonDiscontinuity juvenilia]] album ''Infinite'' and his movie ''Film/EightMile'', but he's much more likely to parody it by rapping in-character as Slim Shady, an over-the-top parody of this kind of character - a StupidEvil SerialKiller and rapist, GoingPostal in a HockeyMaskAndChainsaw while [[UndiscriminatingAddict swallowing handfuls of his mother's prescription pills]] and [[SelfHarm slitting his wrists]].

[[folder: Philosophy]]

* {{Juggalo}}

* [[Comicbook/XMen Boom-Boom]] was from a shitty white trash family with an ignorant, bigoted, and physically abusive father who tried to beat the mutant out of her, and while Tabitha herself isn't as bad as her parents, she's still plenty trashy herself. Exaggerated in ''Comicbook/{{Nextwave}}'', in which she's depicted as uneducated and kleptomaniac.

On one end of the social spectrum, we have the UpperClassTwit proving that money doesn't make good people. But that doesn't mean a lack of money does the same. [[{{Jerkass}} Coarse]], [[SirSwearsALot vulgar]], [[InsufferableImbecile ignorant]], [[AxCrazy violent]], [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain bigoted]], [[{{Schemer}} scheming]], [[StickyFingers theft-prone]], disproportionately proud of the few non-contemptible traits that they have to their names (most of which are [[WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency basic requirements for being considered a decent person]]), [[RedemptionRejection disdainful of any desire or attempt to better oneself]], and generally greatly at odds with propriety, they are not exemplary members of society by any stretch of the imagination. They will frequently live in a TrashyTrailerHome.

* A Canadian version is the cartoon ''WesternAnimation/KevinSpencer''. Kevin is a teenager with chronic substance abuse problems, serious mental health issues up to and including an ImaginaryFriend that [[PoisonousFriend spurs him to commit crimes]], is TheSociopath and openly proud of it, and has a long criminal record which he commits partly for gain and partly ForTheEvulz. His parents are no better - his father Percy is a chronic jailbird and his mother Anastasia ReallyGetsAround, have the same substance abuse problems and criminal tendencies as Kevin, and laugh at his mental illness instead of getting him treatment.

* The word "villain" originally meant peasant in Medieval Europe. Due to this trope and its derogatory usage by the upper classes, over time it had evolved from "a rude and uncouth person similar to a peasant" to an antagonist.
* Similar to the above, the word "Burakumin" means "village/hamlet people" in Japanese but it was used as a derogatory term by the upper classes to describe people who performed menial labor tained with death and filth and thus lied outside of the Tokugawa class system, such as butchers, slaughterhouse workers, entertainers, prostitutes, tanners, undertakers, executioners, and street cleaners. The continuous discrimination against such persons contributed to many of their descendants turning to crime and joining criminal organizations like the {{Yakuza}}, further reinforcing this trope.

* [[FriendInTheBlackMarkek Black Market Dealers]]

This trope deals with the various varieties of lout, hooligan, and delinquent that appear in various media. While these stereotypes are TruthInTelevision to some degree, it's debatable whether the stereotype comes from RealLife, or said real-life examples are [[MisaimedFandom imitating the stereotype]]. A typical Lower-Class Lout is a [[TeensAreMonsters teenager]] or young adult (with the occasional EnfantTerrible) who embodies [[WorkingClassPeopleAreMorons the worst stereotypes of the working class]] (or middle class). One variant of this type would be the [[BlackShirt the Brownshirts]] of the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Party]] ''Sturmabteilungen'' (SA) and the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan, who were recruited from the lower layers of German and American working classes respectively and who were used to terrorize the political opponents.

This trope deals with the various varieties of lout, hooligan, and delinquent that appear in various media. While these stereotypes are TruthInTelevision to some degree, it's debatable whether the stereotype comes from RealLife, or said real-life examples are [[MisaimedFandom imitating the stereotype]]. A typical Lower-Class Lout is a teenager or young adult (with the occasional EnfantTerrible) who embodies [[WorkingClassPeopleAreMorons the worst stereotypes of the working class]] (or middle class). One variant of this type would be the [[BlackShirt the Brownshirts]] of the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Party]] ''Sturmabteilungen'' (SA), who were recruited from the lower layers of German working classes and who were used to terrorize the political opponents.

On one end of the social spectrum, we have the UpperClassTwit proving that money doesn't make good people. But that doesn't mean a lack of money does the same. [[{{Jerkass}} Coarse]], [[SirSwearsALot vulgar]], [[InsufferableImbecile ignorant]], [[AxCrazy violent]], [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain bigoted]], [[TheSchemer scheming]], [[StickyFingers theft-prone]], disproportionately proud of the few non-contemptible traits that they have to their names (most of which are [[WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency basic requirements for being considered a decent person]]), disdainful of any desire or attempt to better oneself, and generally greatly at odds with propriety, they are not exemplary members of society by any stretch of the imagination. They will frequently live in a TrashyTrailerHome.

On one end of the social spectrum, we have the UpperClassTwit proving that money doesn't make good people. But that doesn't mean a lack of money does the same. Coarse, vulgar, ignorant, violent, bigoted, scheming, theft-prone, disproportionately proud of the few non-contemptible traits that they have to their names (most of which are [[WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency basic requirements for being considered a decent person]]), disdainful of any desire or attempt to better oneself, and generally greatly at odds with propriety, they are not exemplary members of society by any stretch of the imagination. They will frequently live in a TrashyTrailerHome.

* Conversely, going against this trope is a great way to doom one's Presidential campaign, as Mitt Romney learned the hard way in 2012 with his "47%" comments[[note]]In short, arguing that conservatism had an uphill battle in America since 47% of Americans didn't pay income tax, and would simply vote for whoever best promised to keep their welfare checks and food stamps coming[[/note]] and (ironically, given her aforementioned husband Bill) UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton did in 2016 with her "basket of deplorables" comments[[note]]Intended to criticize [[ANaziByAnyOtherName alt-right]] internet {{troll}}s, but the phrasing she used was interpreted by many blue-collar voters as a slam on them, calling them {{Bourgeois Bumpkin}}s who would simply vote for whoever best pandered to their prejudices[[/note]]. Both were branded by voters and the media as [[UpperClassTwit Upper-Class Twits]] who looked down on [[FlyoverCountry Middle America]] as a land of Lower-Class Lout stereotypes, and lost close elections as a result. The Midwest, politically and culturally dominated by farmers and factory workers, is a key swing region in Presidential elections, and voters in those states ''[[BerserkButton do not]]'' like being tarred with this brush.

* Later Marxist theorists, however, took a lighter approach to the ''Lumpenproletariat'', seeing them as victims of capitalism who had been kicked to the bottom of the ladder due to economic, cultural, and in some cases racial prejudice, and often had a very clear class consciousness. Some theorists of the "New Left" in TheSixties even argued that the ''Lumpenproletariat'' were, in fact, the only hope for true revolutionary change in the face of [[BourgeoisBumpkin a "productive" working class that had been co-opted by the system and had thus lost its class consciousness]] -- precisely the opposite of Marx's perspective.

* ''Film/Aquaman2018'': Aquaman himself is a subversion. He is brash, loud, hard-drinking, and hard-brawling and seems most comfortable being the king of the pub crawl, and he isn’t above playing up these traits to mess with people who think this is unworthy of a prince of Atlantis. However, under the facade is a keen mind, cultivated by both his father (implied to be a voracious reader and keen autodidact by the look of his home) and his mother’s advisor Nuidis Vulko. By the time the film rolls around he is conversant in at least five languages as well as able to tell who Roman statues are meant to be off at a glance.