History Main / SlummingIt

* In TheEighties, when it was new, much noise was made about the newly-rich tech sector billionaires simply continuing with the (generally) middle-class lifestyle that they were used to, instead of [[SocialClimber trying to move upwards in the society]], except some rare cases like Bill Gates, [[OldMoney whose family was quite affluent to begin with]].

* Tsumugi Kotobuki in ''Manga/KOn'' is completely fascinated by the lifestyles of normal people, and one of her favorite things to do with her friends is explore all the things they find mundane. She eventually gets a job working at a fast-food restaurant to see what it's like, and later in the manga she cuts herself off from the Kotobuki family fortune save for her college tuition due to how much she's found she prefers this lifestyle (that, and [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation maybe to make her own way in the world]]).

-->There�s nothing rich folks love more
-->Than going downtown and slummin� it with the poor.

* The Pabst Blue Ribbon brand of beer has this to think for its popularity among {{hipster}}s. It's generally regarded as ATankardOfMooseUrine aimed at blue collar workers, but middle-class hipsters drank it [[SoBadItsGood "ironically"]].

* The Pabst Blue Ribbon brand of beer has this to think for its popularity among {{hipster}}s. It's generally regarded as ATankardOfMooseUrine aimed at blue collar workers, but middle-class {{hipster}}s drank it [[SoBadItsGood "ironically"]].

* The idle rich have never even heard of instant coffee crystals in ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub''. One of them tries it and is delighted. "So this is why commoners drink it all the time!"
** All over ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub''. The "commoner" Haruhi is so fascinating to everyone else because they're all so rich and high society that a normal middle class lifestyle is like a different world.

* ''FanFic/{{crawlersout}}'': Downplayed example. Fem!Harry has enough money for her and Tom to live off of for the rest of their lives. However, she still gets a job for more monetary support. It's notable because what passes as "very wealthy" in the twenty-first century equates to "stinking rich" in the 1930s, and that is where Tom and Harry spend most of their time. However, instead of living like royalty, they settle happily for a moderately large house in a suburban neighborhood like a normal middle-class family.

* Bruce does this in ''Film/BatmanBegins.''

* Mentioned in ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'': Nanny Ogg says that those princes dressing up as paupers always make sure the peasants don't get too close.

* In the {{Literature/Kydd}} series by [[http://julianstockwin.com Julian Stockwin]], this is what Renzi is doing as penance for the suicide of a son of a farmer whose land was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure enclosed]] by his own family.

* The RealityShow ''TheSimpleLife'' featured Creator/ParisHilton and her friend Nicole abandoning their pampered lifestyles to live less-wealthy lives (for example, DownOnTheFarm) and seeing how well [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense (or rather, poorly) they'd cope.]]

* The Pabst Blue Ribbon brand of beer has this to think for its popularity among {{hipster}}s. It's generally regarded as ATankardOfMooseUrine aimed at blue collar workers, but middle-class hipsters drank it [[SoBadItsGood "ironically"]].

Compare KingIncognito, SecretlyWealthy, PrinceAndPauper, BourgeoisBohemian, and {{Hipster}}. A character doing this may or may not be RichInDollarsPoorInSense.

* Music/{{Pulp}}'s "Common People" (the page quote) describes a student from Greece who does this - and then [[TakeThat skewers her mercilessly for thinking "that poor is cool"]]. This is widely believed to be a TakeThat about the general tendency in the {{Britpop}} era for musicians with affluent backgrounds to idealise and appropriate traditional British working-class culture, with a particular target being Music/{{Blur}}'s "Park Life".

* Hipsters have also attracted criticism for gentrifying poor inner-city neighborhoods, causing rents to go up, thus forcing their original residents to leave.

* In ''SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', Rin poses as an [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent ordinary public high school student]] despite being wealthy enough to do whatever she wants. Her brother Nozomu doesn't have any reason to be a teacher. Plus, two of her other brothers, Mikoto and Kei, are a doctor and a surrealist artist, respectively.

* The idle rich have never even heard of instant coffee crystals in ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub''. One of them tries it and is delighted. "So this is why commoners drink it all the time!"
** All over ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub''. The "commoner" Haruhi is so fascinating to everyone else because they're all so rich and high society that a normal middle class lifestyle is like a different world.

* One of the characters in ''Literature/{{Haunted2005}}'', known only as "Lady Baglady", her now-deceased husband, and friends of theirs made a habit of playing at being street people to experience something different from their normal lavishly wealthy lives. Then someone starts killing off street people to eliminate possible witnesses to a murder...

* The Music/DashboardConfessional song "Matters of Blood and Connection" is a TakeThat directed at a wealthy young socialite who does this so that she can have a vacation. Among other things, she uses a fake accent to try and convince the locals she is one of them. As you might imagine, the song's POVCharacter isn't having any of it.

* The Music/DashboardConfessional song "Matters of Blood and Connection" is a TakeThat directed at a wealthy young socialite who does this so that she can have a vacation. Among other things, she uses a fake accent to try and convince the locals she is one of them.

[[folder: Film ]]

* Bruce does this in ''Film/BatmanBegins.''
* In Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''Cinderella'', this is how the prince and Cinderella meet for the first time. [[spoiler:Most of the conversation gets a MeaningfulEcho at the end.]]

* In ''ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', while Naveen doesn't actually try to convince anyone he's poor, he does enjoy sneaking away from his duties as prince of Maldonia in order to listen to jazz music, dance with the everyday folk of New Orleans, and buy everyone within earshot drinks. [[spoiler:At the end of the movie, he gets along very well living with Tiana in New Orleans, helping run her restaurant.]]
* ''Film/SullivansTravels'': A rich movie director, famous for comedies, pretends to be a bum to suffer enough to make a film adaptation of the [[FictionalDocument fictional]] epic drama "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou" from the Great Depression era. He is warned by his butler not to do it as one of his previous employers did it as a lark and hasn't been seen since--back in 1919.

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-->There’s nothing rich folks love more
-->Than going downtown and slummin’ it with the poor.

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* Miss Dorothy [[spoiler:and Jimmy]] does this in ''Theatre/ThoroughlyModernMillie''. She even has an IWantSong about it, titled "How The Other Half Lives."

* Miss Dorothy [[spoiler:and Jimmy]] does this in ''ThoroughlyModernMillie''. She even has an IWantSong about it, titled "How The Other Half Lives."

* ''Film/SullivansTravels'': a rich movie director, famous for comedies, pretends to be a bum to suffer enough to make the [[MagnumOpusDissonance epic drama]] ''Oh, Brother Where Art Thou'' during the Great Depression. He is warned by his butler not to do it as one of his previous employers did it as a lark and hasn't been seen since--back in 1919.

->''I want to live like common people,\\
I want to do whatever common people do.''

* In ''SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', Rin poses as an [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent ordinary public high school student]] despite being wealthy enough to do whatever she wants.
** Let's not forget that her brother Nozomu doesn't have any reason to be a teacher. Plus, two of her other brothers, Mikoto and Kei, are a doctor and a surrealist artist, respectively.

* Music/{{Pulp}}'s "Common People" (the page quote) describes a student from Greece who does this - and then [[TakeThat skewers her mercilessly for thinking "that poor is cool"]]:
-->''And still you'll never get it right,''
-->'''cause when you're laying in bed at night''
-->''watching roaches climb the wall,''
-->''if you called your dad he could stop it all, yeah.''
-->''You'll never live like common people.''
-->''You'll never do whatever common people do.''
-->''You'll never fail like common people.''
-->''You'll never watch your life slide out of view,''
-->''and dance, and drink, and screw,''
-->''because there's nothing else to do.''
** This is widely believed to be a TakeThat about the general tendency in the {{Britpop}} era for musicians with affluent backgrounds to idealise and appropriate traditional British working-class culture, with a particular target being Music/{{Blur}}'s "Park Life".
*** to hear this song at its snarky best, you ''must'' hear William Shatner's rendition.

*** to hear this song at its snarky best, you ''must'' heard William Shatner's rendition.

* In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' fanfic ''FanFic/BuildYourWingsOnTheWayDown'' Gabby and Aviv are poor college students who live a crumbling building. [[spoiler: Since Gabby is actually [[BlueBlood Catherine]] [[FictionFiveHundred Armstrong,]] it's implied that Gabby lives like this willingly after she had a falling out with her family.