History Main / TheOldCountry

* Rolf from ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' claims to be from "the old country", which is a land of strange folk tales, ghastly traditions involving seafood, and lederhosen. Perhaps he's actually from {{Cloudcuckooland}}. An old photo of him (in black and white of course) shows mountains and Bavarian looking clothing, but his skin tone is Southern European (or Romani) and his customs come from all over. [[WriteWhatYouKnow Rolf is based (and exaggerated) from childhood experiences of the show's creator, Danny Antonucci]], himself the child of Italian immigrants, dealing with the culture shock that sort of upbringing provides.

* Didi's parents on ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' are like this. Especially her father. Apparently, in the old country, a woman gives birth in the potato fields, puts the child on her back and keeps going. He also claims they grew up "sleeping with the goats" at which point Didi states that he actually came from a well-off family, and wouldn't know a goat if it bit him.
** In the Chanukah special they said he grew up in Russia.

* Anyone can feel this if they emigrate to a new country, but the most famous iteration is pre WWII or ColdWar refugees from Europe going to America, as Europe wasn't that cosmopolitan yet outside England and France. By now, most people won't experience the culture shock that much due to globalization giving everyone an advance idea of what life on the other side is like.

The old country is usually a {{Ruritania}} or {{Uberwald}}, with splashes of [[{{Oktoberfest}} Bavaria]], [[OliveGarden the Mediterranean]], the Former Soviet Union, [[NorseByNorsewest Scandinavia]] and {{Scotireland}}. Expect everyone to drive [[TheAllegedCar Ladas]] and tractors (if not goat carts), eat some sort of [[ForeignQueasine bizarre offal sausage]] and speak in a lilting yet guttural tongue. May be a case of WhereTheHellIsSpringfield but you can guarantee they're never from France or England, where many Americans and Canadians descend from and see as cultured already. In fact, it's possible to play this trope straight with contintental Europeans settling in England, which was the most advanced (but maybe not cosmopolitan) nation on Earth until America overtook it in the first half of the 20th century.

Note that this has definitely ''not'' been TruthInTelevision since World War II, where the Soviets and Americans dominated both sides of Europe, and being Cosmopolitan Empires, kinda drifted or even forced the traditional cultures and rural sides to act accordingly. By TheSixties, most of Western and Northern Europe was as urban, well-off and cosmopolitan as the United States with its pop culture dominating. Those from CommieLand still played it kinda straight but in a "we're political refugees" kind of way and by TheNineties, post communist eastern and central Europe (with a [[{{UsefulNotes/Albania}} couple of]] [[{{UsefulNotes/Belarus}} exceptions]]) is doing a lot better now and is relatively Americanized. And naturally, the ''people'' that come from such developed countries are not going to be poor, unlettered [[AlterKocker stereotypical 19th century Central European Jews]], unless they're the European equivalent of the Amish. Thus, the trope is largely played for laughs in a modern setting with the immigrant's European homeland for some reason being stuck 200 years ago as opposed to the modern Americanized nation that it would be today.

* Several of Jack O'Connell's ''Quinsigamond'' novels involve characters who came to the US from the Central European state of Old Bohemia, which appears in the world of the novels to be an actual country rather than a romanticised name for a region.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairyOddparents'' has Ustinkistan. Timmy's maternal grandparents hail from this place. We see the country is a bleak and barren territory where the main exportation are turnips and everything is made of that plant. Even fairies can only grant turnip-related wishes. The country also celebrates Yaksgiving, a holiday that must hold a record in terrible Yak-related injuries.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairyOddParents'' has Ustinkistan. Timmy's maternal grandparents hail from this place. We see the country is a bleak and barren territory where the main exportation are turnips and everything is made of that plant. Even fairies can only grant turnip-related wishes. The country also celebrates Yaksgiving, a holiday that must hold a record in terrible Yak-related injuries.

* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', the homeland of protagonist Niko Bellic is not named, and he and his cousin refer to "the old country". However, they speak Serbian in-game and Niko is quick to correct people that he's definitely ''not'' from Russia due to being born in the Balkans. Due to being based off a Serbian character from the Yugoslav wars film BehindEnemyLines and having fought in that war, the wiki treats him as Serbian.

* Rolf from ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' claims to be from "the old country", which is a land of strange folk tales, ghastly traditions involving seafood, and lederhosen. Perhaps he's actually from {{Cloudcuckooland}}. An old photo of him (in black and white of course) shows mountains and Bavarian looking clothing, but his skin tone is Southern European (or Romani) and his customs come from all over.
** Rolf is based (and exaggerated) from childhood experiences of the show's creator, Danny Antonucci, himself the child of Italian immigrants, dealing with the culture shock that sort of upbringing provides.

* The titular character in ''Borgel'' by Creator/DanielPinkwater claims to be from TheOldCountry (more recently, he lived in The Old Apartment in The Old Building in The Old Neighborhood). His Old Country is in AnotherDimension instead of Europe, but otherwise is very much a parody of this trope; everyone there is so poor they all sleep in ditches and use dead skunks for clothing, they speak a language that sounds like someone preparing to spit, and Borgel has a number of stories from there which are generally total nonsense.

The old country is usually a {{Ruritania}} or {{Uberwald}}, with splashes of [[{{Oktoberfest}} Bavaria]], [[OliveGarden the Mediterranean]], the Former Soviet Union, [[NorseByNorsewest Scandinavia]] and {{Scotireland}}. Expect everyone to drive [[TheAllegedCar Ladas]] and tractors (if not goat carts), eat some sort of [[ForeignQueasine bizarre offal sausage]] and speak in a lilting yet guttural tongue. May be a case of WhereTheHellIsSpringfield but you can guarantee they're never from France or England, where many Americans and Canadians descend from and see as cultured already.

Note that this has definitely ''not'' been TruthInTelevision since World War II, where the Soviets and Americans dominated both sides of Europe, and being Cosmopolitan Empires, kinda drifted or even forced the traditional cultures and rural sides to act accordingly. By TheSixties, most of Western and Northern Europe was as urban, well-off and cosmopolitan as the United States with its pop culture dominating. Those from CommieLand still played it kinda straight but in a "we're political refugees" kind of way and by TheNineties, post communist eastern and central Europe (with a [[{{UsefulNotes/Albania}} couple of]] [[{{UsefulNotes/Belarus}} exceptions]]) is doing a lot better now and is relatively Americanized. And naturally, the ''people'' that come from such developed countries are not going to be poor, unlettered [[AlterKocker stereotypical 19th century Central European Jews]], unless they're the European equivalent of the Amish.

* Played with in Creator/ChannelFour's ''ophers!'', which was made and set in the UK but had an Australian character (Merv Wombat) who called it the Old Country. ([[BellisariosMaxim Don't worry too much about why an Australian-native species would think that.]])

* Troper SilentHunter used this term at PhoenixRoleplaying to euphemistically describe Roleplay/AJJEGames (where much of the membership originated from and left in unpleasant circumstances) and it seems to have stuck.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* In the [[{{Superhero}} superhero]] [[{{WebSerialNovel}} web serial novel]] ''[[{{Literature/GamerGirl2016}} Gamer Girl]]'', Tomboy refers to the United Nations member states as the ''old countries'' collectively. This makes sense since the nation in which ''Gamer Girl'' is set, Superia, is a [[{{FictionalCountry}} fictional North Atlantic island country]] which the United Nations uses as an island of exile for all of its member states' unwanted superhumans and superhuman-sympathetic humans.

* Pierre, on ''Series/{{Danger 5}}''. While the other members of the eponymous MultinationalTeam of spies represent the major Allied powers of WorldWarTwo - the USA, UK, and USSR - [[CreatorProvincialism plus Australia]], Pierre is simply "from Europe", and seems to be a mishmash of French, Italian, and Spanish stereotypes.

Note that this has definitely ''not'' been TruthInTelevision since World War II, where the Soviets and Americans dominated both sides of Europe, and being Cosmopolitan Empires, kinda drifted or even forced the traditional cultures and rural sides to act accordingly. By TheSixties, most of Western and Northern Europe was as urban, well-off and cosmopolitan as the United States with its pop culture dominating. Those from CommieLand still played it kinda straight but in a "we're political refugees" kind of way and by TheNineties, post communist eastern and central Europe (with a [[{{UsefulNotes/Albania}} couple of]] [[{{UsefulNotes/Belarus}} exceptions]]) is doing a lot better now and is relatively Americanized. And naturally, the ''people'' that come from such developed countries are not going to be poor, unlettered [[AlterKocker stereotypical 19th century Central European Jews]].

* Tish's family in ''TheWeekenders''. Again, it is just called ''The Old Country'' and nobody knows which one. When a television report was done on Tish, they said experts were unable to locate on a map or even ''pronounce'' the country. Presumably it no longer exists...

Note that this has definitely ''not'' been TruthInTelevision since World War II, where the Soviets and Americans dominated both sides of Europe, and being Cosmopolitan Empires, kinda drifted or even forced the traditional cultures and rural sides to act accordingly. By TheSixties, most of Western and Northern Europe was as urban, well-off and cosmopolitan as the United States with its pop culture dominating. Those from CommieLand still played it kinda straightm but in a "we're political refugees" kind of way and by TheNineties, post communist eastern and central Europe (with a [[{{UsefulNotes/Albania}} couple of]] [[{{UsefulNotes/Belarus}} exceptions]]) is doing a lot better now and is relatively Americanized. And naturally, the ''people'' that come from such developed countries are not going to be poor, unlettered [[AlterKocker stereotypical 19th century Central European Jews]].

* In the [[{{Superhero}} superhero]] [[{{WebSerialNovel}} web serial novel]] ''[[{{GamerGirl2016}} Gamer Girl]]'', Tomboy refers to the United Nations member states as the ''old countries'' collectively. This makes sense since the nation in which ''Gamer Girl'' is set, Superia, is a [[{{FictionalCountry}} fictional North Atlantic island country]] which the United Nations uses as an island of exile for all of its member states' unwanted superhumans and superhuman-sympathetic humans.

* In [[{{Superhero}} superhero]] [[{{WebSerialNovel}} web serial novel]] ''[[{{GamerGirl2016}} Gamer Girl]]'', Tomboy refers to the United Nations member states as the ''old countries'' collectively. This makes sense since the nation in which the web serial is set, Superia, is a [[{{FictionalCountry}} fictional North Atlantic island country]] which the United Nations uses as an island of exile for all of its member states' unwanted superhumans and superhuman-sympathetic humans.

* In [[{{Superhero}} superhero]] [[{{WebSerialNovel}} web serial novel]] ''[[{{GamerGirl2016}} Gamer Girl]]'', Tomboy refers to the United Nations member states as the ''old countries'' collectively. This makes sense since the nation in which the web serial is set, Superia, is a [[{{FictionalCountry}} fictional North Atlantic island country]] which the United Nations uses as an island of exile for all of its unwanted superhumans and superhuman-sympathetic humans.

* In [[{{Superhero}} superhero]] [[{{WebSerialNovel}} web serial novel]] ''[[{{GamerGirl2016}} Gamer Girl]]'', Tomboy refers to the United Nations member states as the ''old countries'' collectively. This makes sense since the setting, Superia, is a [[{{FictionalCountry}} fictional North Atlantic island country]] which the United Nations uses as an island of exile for all of its unwanted superhumans and superhuman-sympathetic humans.

* In [[{{Superhero}} superhero]] [[{{WebSerialNovel}} web serial novel]] ''[[{{GamerGirl2016}} Gamer Girl]]'', Tomboy refers to the United Nations member states as the ''old countries'' collectively. This makes sense since the setting, Superia, is a [[{{FictionalCountry}} fictional North Atlantic island country]] which the United Nations uses as an island of exile for all of its unwanted superhumans and superhuman sympathisers.

* In [[{{Superhero}} superhero]] [[{{WebSerialNovel}} web serial novel]] ''[[{{GamerGirl2016}} Gamer Girl]]'', Tomboy refers to the United Nations member states as the ''old countries'' collectively. This makes sense since the setting, Superia, is a [[{{FictionalCountry}} fictional North Atlantic island country]] which the United Nations uses as an island of exile for all of its unwanted superhumans and superhuman-sympathetic humans.

* In [[{{Superhero}} superhero]] [[{{WebSerialNovel}} web serial novel]] ''[[{{GamerGirl2016}} Gamer Girl]]'', Tomboy refers to the United Nations member states as the ''old countries'' collectively. This makes sense since the setting, Superia, is a [[{{FictionalCountry}} fictional North Atlantic island country]] which the United Nations uses as an island of exile for all of its unwanted superhumans and superhuman-sympathisers.

* In [[{{Superhero}} superhero]] [[{{WebSerialNovel}} web serial novel]] ''[[{{GamerGirl2016}} Gamer Girl]]'', Tomboy refers to the United Nations member states as the ''old countries'' collectively. This makes sense since the setting, Superia, is a [[{{FictionalCountry}} fictional North Atlantic island country]] which the United Nations uses as an island of exile for all of its unwanted superhumans and superhuman-sympathetic humans.

* In [[{{Superhero}} superhero]] [[{{WebSerialNovel}} web serial novel]] ''[[{{GamerGirl2016}} Gamer Girl]]'', Tomboy refers to the United Nations member states as the ''old countries'' collectively. This makes sense since the setting, Superia, is a [[{{FictionalCountry}} fictional North Atlantic island country]] comprised of superhuman and superhuman-sympathetic exiles from across the world.

* In [[{{Superhero}} superhero]] [[{{WebSerialNovel}} web serial novel]] ''[[{{GamerGirl2016}} Gamer Girl]]'', Tomboy refers to the United Nations member states as the ''old countries''. This makes sense since the setting, Superia, is a [[{{FictionalCountry}} fictional North Atlantic island country]] comprised of exiles from across the world.