History Main / MundaneLuxury

* When concentration camps were liberated by the US Army, many released prisoners were found to have a mysterious sickness (among many). It turned out that they had gorged themselves in a mad burst of joyful gluttony on ''[[LethalChef/RealLife spare army rations]]'' handed out by well-meaning but medically untrained [=GIs=] and had overstrained their weak stomachs. This is known as '[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refeeding_syndrome refeeding syndrome]]' and can be fatal.

[[folder:Film]]

* Literature/{{Discworld}}:

** Likewise in the story ''The Long Rain'' several soldiers are walking through the eternal rain of Venus desperately searching for a Sun Dome; eventually almost all of them go mad and the only one who finds the Sun Dome finds the luxuries of hot chocolate with marshmallows, freshly made sandwiches, hot coffee and fresh towels to dry himself off with.

* In ''LightNovel/CookingWithWildGame'', the fantasy world the protagonist finds himself in is almost nothing like Earth, so even though he has enough food to survive (courtesy of a local Good Samaritan) he longs for ''familiar'' food. When his benefactor shows him the most expensive thing in her pantry- a tiny glass vial of salt- he is overjoyed.

* ''Literature/TheStand'' At one point, Harold indulges by taking a two-bucket shower.
* Emmanuel Goldstein explains in ''Literature/NineteenEightyfour'' in his "[[FictionalDocument Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism]]" this is the end outcome of Ingsoc:
-> The social atmosphere is that of a besieged city, where the possession of a lump of horseflesh makes the difference between wealth and poverty.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Charlie Crews from ''Series/{{Life|2007}}'' is [[FruitOfTheLoon obsessed with fresh fruit]], since he couldn't get any when he was in prison.
* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', after Odo is turned into a humanoid solid he becomes fascinated with food and drink, things he ignored as a changeling. In one episode, Sisko finds him in Quark's, listening to the carbonation in his beer.
** He also finds a bed ''far'' superior to his usual bucket, and even attempts to keep using one after regaining his powers, but he slides off when he returns to his liquid state.

-->'''Wolowitz:''' Just imagine...if he says yes, we'll have an entire summer without Sheldon.
-->'''Raj:''' We could play outside.
-->'''Wolowitz:''' We could sit on the left side of the couch.
-->'''Leonard:''' I could use the bathroom at 8:20!
-->'''Raj:''' Our dreams are very small, aren't they?

-->'''Melisandre''': Have you ever seen one like it?
-->'''Gendry''': I've never seen anything like any of this. Not in my life.
-->'''Melisandre''': It's shocking, isn't it, the first time you encounter real wealth?
* On ''Series/{{The 100}}'', people who live on TheArk space station haven't set foot on Earth for nearly a hundred years. In their sterile, artificial environment, a single, small bonsai tree that they've kept alive in space is not simply a national treasure, it's the main idol of their religion.

** Exaggerated with a visit to a small space station in their star-system's asteroid belt. It's a 3 week trip from the planet, so the crew stocks up on trade goods that they can sell over there. Things like [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3300/fc03230.htm hot sauce]] and [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3300/fc03254.htm organic spices]] are mentioned to be worth several times their weight in gold.

** "Homer's Enemy": Frank Grimes spent his whole life struggling to get by, so he's shocked when he discovers that TooDumbToLive Homer lives in a two-story house, which is palatial compared to his place (an apartment above a bowling alley and below another bowling alley). Grimes is also flabbergasted that he's dining on lobster and [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun that he went to space and met President Ford]] (the last two were just odd coincidences).

* Having a pet dog in the ''Manga/DesertPunk'' manga is treated as a weird thing only rich people do. The anime changes the dog to a less mundane [[BigCreepyCrawlies dog-sized giant beetle]] (as a way to censor [[EatTheDog Kosuna eating it]]), but also has people fantasizing about fancy glasses on ''clean water''.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Having scraped by on the streets for as long as he can remember, Akira happily soaks in a bathtub once he's able to use his earnings to check into a hotel rather than sleeping in a back alley. Even when Alpha shows up naked to tease him, [[NotDistractedByTheSexy he's too busy enjoying the bath to be bothered by her]] and has to be reminded to go to bed lest he drown in the tub. When he wakes up the following morning, he's briefly confused by his surroundings because of how alien the thought of sleeping in a clean, comfortable bed is to him.

* In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', Mash is a prototype artificial Servant who spent her whole life confined in Chaldea's laboratories. During a crossover event with ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' she is excited to see ''a modern apartment building'', to Shiki's confusion.

* When concentration camps were liberated by the US Army, many released prisoners were found to have a mysterious sickness (among many). It turned out that they had gorged themselves in a mad burst of joyful gluttony on ''[[LethalChef/RealLife spare army rations]]'' handed out by well-meaning but medically untrained GI's and had overstrained their weak stomachs. This is known as '[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refeeding_syndrome refeeding syndrome]]' and can be fatal.

Compare with HumbleGoal (where gaining a Mundane Luxury is a major motivation for a character), SimpleYetOpulent (when a simple-looking object or luxury is actually very expensive), BlackMarketProduce (when certain foodstuffs, common to the audience, are rare and valuable in the setting).

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': Myne is poor child in a MedievalEuropeanFantasy setting with memories of reaching her early twenties in modern-day Japan. Even the things she re-creates using household items tend to fall into this trope, as nobody considered using those items in that specific way before she tried it.

Compare with HumbleGoal (where gaining a Mundane Luxury is a major motivation for a character), SimpleYetOpulent, BlackMarketProduce (when certain foodstuffs, common to the audience, are rare and valuable in the setting).

Contrast with the SpoiledBrat, who is so used to luxury that normal living standards are like poverty to them. When this happens to the player in a video game, it may be a case of CommonplaceRare. Can often inspire a DisproportionateCelebration.

* In ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'', Oswald Danes, a convicted kiddy rapist/murderer released from death row, is seen filling a trash bag with food from a buffet. When questioned, he makes a good point about how he'll be unable to find work, and must collect food whenever he can.
** In the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' audio drama ''Asylum'', Freda, a girl from the future, is totally amazed that people have ''real'' tomatoes on pizza.
** Earlier, in the first season episode "[[Recap/TorchwoodS1E10OutOfTime Out of Time]]", the time travellers from 1953 are amazed at the variety and amount of food available in an average supermarket; food rationing didn't end in the UK until 1954, and even then there was no comparison to what shoppers have available to them now.

-->-- '''Lucifer''', ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer''

** Russia's Boris Yeltsin became convinced that communism was doomed on a trip to Houston, Texas in 1989 to visit a NASA base. Yeltsin wasn't intimidated or impressed by the American space program, but by [[http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When-Boris-Yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-Clear-5759129.php an unscheduled twenty-minute visit to a local grocery store]] in the nearby town of Clear Lake. Yeltsin was reportedly astounded at the abundance and variety of foods available to the typical American, which even members of the Politburo didn't have access to. The trip included several now-famous photos of Yeltsin wandering through the store, looking in exasperation at the kinds of things that the average American would see as ordinary, such as different flavors of ice cream and the amount of produce on sale.

** Russia's Boris Yeltsin became convinced that communism was doomed on a trip to Houston, Texas in 1989 to visit a NASA base. Yeltsin wasn't intimidated or impressed by the American space program, but by [[http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When-Boris-Yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-Clear-5759129.php an unscheduled twenty-minute visit to a local grocery store]] in the nearby town of Clear Lake. Yeltsin was reportedly astounded at the abundance and variety of foods available to the typical American, which even members of the Politburo didn't have access to. The trip included several now-famous photos of Yeltsin wandering through the store, looking in exasperation at the kinds of things that the aaverage American would see as ordinary, such as different flavors of ice cream and the amount of produce on sale.
** During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, a German commander finally realized the Axis war effort was doomed to fail when he captured an abandoned American encampment and found a chocolate cake shipped in from a bakery in New York. The cake was something the Americans were able to obtain with relative ease, while the German couldn't even get basic supplies delivered to him.

** Apparently Boris Yeltsin became truly convinced that communism was doomed on a trip to Houston to visit NASA. He wasn't intimidated by the American space program, but by [[http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When-Boris-Yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-Clear-5759129.php an unscheduled visit to a local grocery store.]] He was reportedly astounded at the abundance and variety available to the typical American, which even members of the Politburo didn't have access to.
** Similarly, during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, a German commander finally realized the Axis war effort was doomed when he captured an abandoned American encampment and found a chocolate cake shipped in from a bakery in New York - something they were able to obtain with relative ease while he couldn't even get basic supplies.

* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-7003 SCP-7003]] is set in a future where the whole world is caught in a constant drought. Due to the lack of water, things like bullets and paper have become extremely rare. Paper, in particular, is given to the Foundation as a show of goodwill by the New Occult Coalition during peace talks.

* In ''Literature/SpaceBeasts'' there are many instances of this trope, but the ultimate example of this is when during Paradise 5 Mini-Arc where the [[TerribleTrio Three Humanimal Gladiators]] are invited to have supper with the Fellowship crew. They've never eaten food that wasn't made from other sentient animals and are amazed by the sheer variety of food the Fellowship Humanimals eat, Splash Claw is amazed they have fruit on their ship "I've heard of fruit but I've never actually seen one" he says and sheds TearsOfJoy after tasting of strawberry jam,

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': For Viktor, someone who had to walk with a cane from even a young age, just being able to just run freely [[spoiler: as a result of transmuting his leg]] is an enormous moment.

* CanonForeigner Sasuke in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' lives such a miserable life as the servant of the Kunou family that a full bowl of rice is cause for TearsOfJoy.
** Likewise Konatsu the Kunoichi, for whom sleeping in a futon is pure heaven, and, while trying to poison Ranma's rice, realized that it was so clean and tasty-looking (what with Konatsu being forced to forage for food in ''trash cans'' and fight off stray dogs for scraps) that he abandoned his mission to eat the rice himself. Heck, when Ukyou hired him, he considered his 10-yen salary ''a fortune'' and a dry fish with rice "a luxurious meal".

* ''Literature/APoisonDarkAndDrowning'': [[TheProtagonist Henrietta]] is in awe when Rook gives her an apple. Apparently, they're more valuable than gold in the universe of the book.

* When Literature/HarryPotter comes to Hogwarts, he is at first overwhelmed by the fact that he can eat food he really likes and no one is going to take it away from him. (When he was living with the [[AbusiveParents Dursleys,]] Dudley would always eat everything Harry liked out of spite.)
** This leads to something of an EstablishingCharacterMoment: Left to his own devices on the school train with a pocket full of cash, the first thing Harry does is buy loads of food off the trolley and share it with the poor kid across from him.
--> Harry... had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. [[GoodFeelsGood It was a nice feeling]].
** Also Dobby in his first few appearances, of the "simple kindness" variation--he's been a maltreated slave all his life.
** Then Dobby joins the Hogwarts staff. [[BenevolentBoss Dumbledore]] offers Dobby a fair wage and extensive holidays, but Dobby is overwhelmed by this ''and barters him down,'' accepting only a pittance and very little time off. He appreciates the recognition for his efforts, but he's still a ''house-elf.'' He has his ''pride.''
* In ''Literature/TheDrawingOfTheThree'' by Creator/StephenKing, Roland of Gilead comes from a ScavengerWorld and is completely overwhelmed by the taste of a simple tuna fish sandwich and some soda, and reacts to someone crumpling up a half-used sheet of paper as if they were casually tossing gold bars in the trash. He also initially assumes that heroin, that one of his companions is initially addicted to, is in fact the same thing as sugar, since he gets an extreme rush just from eating some raw sugar. He even wonders why anyone would need stronger drugs when sugar is so readily available.
** It's partly the privation, and partly that things from worlds that are running down (such as in ''Literature/TheLangoliers'', or Roland's own) are deadened and barely functional by comparison.
* In the Creator/RayBradbury story ''The Fox and the Forest'', time travelers can be easily detected because they immediately start sampling exotic foods, liquors, cigarettes and perfumes, which apparently aren't available in the future.
** Likewise in the story ''The Long Rain'' several soldiers are walking through the eternal rain of Venus desperately searching for a Sun Dome; eventually almost all of them go mad and the only one who finds the Sun Dome finds the luxuries of hot chocolate with marshmallows, freshly made sandwiches, hot coffee and fresh towels to dry himself off with.