History Main / ThriftyScot

** A few years later, Black's student and fellow Scotsman James Watt, working off Black's research, made a small but significant modification to the Newcomen steam engine. This change made it much more efficient, which--surprise, surprise--saved fuel. When Watt went into business selling his new engines, he and his partner didn't charge for the machines directly--they charged a percentage of the buyer's savings in fuel costs for a year.

* The Creator/TexAvery cartoons "The TV of Tomorrow" and "The Car of Tomorrow" have a "thrifty Scotchman's model" joke; a flashlight on the former, a pedal-operated car on the latter.

* In one essay George Orwell comments on a joke at the time: when a collection plate at a lecture comes around, a Jew faints and a Scotsman carries him out. He points out this also fits the stereotype of the Scots being physically strong and the Jews being physically weak (this was before modern Israel).[[/folder]]
* In ''Literature/PhineasFinn'' Phineas is shot at by a Scottish MP who suspects him of having an affair with his wife. Phineas asks for a glass of brandy to steady his nerves. The landlady, also Scottish, proclaims that such a terrible deed has never happened in her house- then tells Phineas "that will be sixpence for the brandy, sir".

[[/folder]]

* ''I'll Be There'', a 2002 movie starring Charlotte Church and Creator/CraigFerguson, had Ferguson's drunken, profligate ex-rock star character [[CrazyAwesome crash through his mansion's window on a motorbike]]. While in the hospital the next day, the doctor asked him if he had suicidal feelings; he replied, "Why would I do that? I'm rich, and I'm Scottish."

* Scrooge Mc Duck, of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'' fame, is perhaps Disney's best-known example of this trope. His thriftiness varies from a virtue to being outright miserly depending on the story. It's widely believed he was based on both Ebeneezer Scrooge of AChristmasCarol and Andrew Carnegie, the latter being a fabulously wealthy Scottish industrialist. Later in life Carnegie became a philanthropist, but Scrooge remained quite ungenerous with his wealth and adhered to this trope.

* ''Series/TheCrown'': [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother]] finds herself in an accidental [[KingIncognito Queen Incognito]] situation when Captain Terry, the owner of the Castle of Mey (which she wants to buy) on the far northern coast of Scotland, doesn't recognise her on sight. When the captain finds out that she is the widow of George VI and mother of the Sovereign, he asks her why he never told her. She says that it's partly for the wonderful sensation of not having the pressure of being royal and partly because he would have doubled the price if he had known. His response?

Part of the reason for the Scottish reputation for thriftiness is the dominance of the (Calvinist) Presbyterian church and the importance of the Scottish school of economics in the tradition of Adam Smith. Indeed, the Scottish reputation for thrift probably comes from the early 18th century, shortly after the union with England, when a lot of business-savvy Scottish Covenanters (i.e. Serious Scottish Presbyterian Calvinists) started to come to England to start commercial ventures; the role of these Scottish businessmen in the Industrial Revolution--also pairing up with very thrifty English Nonconformist Protestants--cemented the association of the Scottish people with fiscal caution. All this has tended to make large parts of the world look on the Scots as embodiments of the Protestant work ethic who are "all work and no play", combining the stereotype of the Thrifty Scot with that of the Dour Scot.

Another major factor attributed to this trops was the massive failure of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darien_scheme Darien Scheme]] to establish colonies in Panama, which bankrupted many Scottish nobles and pushed forward the 1707 Act of Union.

Another major factor attributed to this trops was the massive failure of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darien_scheme|Darien Scheme]] to establish colonies in Panama, which bankrupted many Scottish nobles and pushed forward the 1707 Act of Union.

* When Creator/DavidTennant appeared on ''Series/{{Qi}}'', Lee Mack made a joke about Tennant being a Thrifty Scot. Tennant then started waving his pen around like it was a [[Series/DoctorWho Sonic Screwdriver]]. He then made an observation that during World War II, the British army had a tank touring throughout the UK, and encouraged people to chuck their spare change into the tank for the war effort.

* Scottish thriftyness has been a source for countless jokes over the years. A typical example:
** Two Scots once took a bet for a penny. The gamble? Which one of them could stay under water the longest. The outcome? They both drowned.
** How was copper wire invented? Two Scotsmen fighting over a penny.
** A Scotsman and an Englishman were leaning on a store counter, when a robber walked in carrying a gun. The clever Scotsman took out his money and handed it to the Englishman, saying "Here's the ten pounds you lent me."
** An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman are eating dinner at a restaurant. A fly lands in the Englishman's soup, so he sends for the waiter and the waiter fetches another one. As soon as the waiter returns with the new bowl, a fly lands in the Irishman's soup, so the waiter goes and fetches him another one, too. The waiter returns with the Irishman's bowl of soup, at which point a fly lands in the Scotsman's soup. The waiter goes to take the bowl away and get another one, but the Scotsman waves him off, fishes the fly out, pins it by the wings, and says, "Spit it oot, ye wee bugger!"

* Scrooge McDuck, of DuckTales fame, is perhaps Disney's best-known example of this trope. His thriftiness varies from a virtue to being outright miserly depending on the story. It's widely believed he was based on both Ebeneezer Scrooge of AChristmasCarol and Andrew Carnegie, the latter being a fabulously wealthy Scottish industrialist. Later in life Carnegie became a philanthropist, but Scrooge remained quite ungenerous with his wealth and adhered to this trope.

!!'''Examples''':

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

** In ''The Micro-Ducks From Outer Space'', when the micro-ducks (who are all no more than three inches tall) offer Scrooge a bag of gold coins in trade, Scrooge has to examine them under a microscope to see them properly and comments "How about that? [[SelfDeprecation Gold coins no bigger than a Scotsman's tip!]]"

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''I'll Be There'', a 2002 movie starring Charlotte Church and Creator/CraigFerguson, had Ferguson's drunken, profligate ex-rock star character [[CrazyAwesome crash through his mansion's window on a motorbike]]. While in the hospital the next day, the doctor asked him if he had suicidal feelings; he replied, "Why would I do that? I'm rich, and I'm Scottish."

[[folder: Literature ]]

* {{Literature/Flashman}}'s father-in-law is a wealthy Scotsman who does not approve of Flashman's profligate ways and often threatens to stop supplying him with money.
* [[Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie Laura Ingalls Wilder]] was of Scottish descent on her mother's side. A couple of times in the books, Pa makes an admiring comment about Ma's Scottish resourcefulness with food when they're living in the middle of nowhere.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

'''Creator/LeeMack:''' Well, I have to say, the idea of saving money on paper clips is absolutely ridiculous, although the accent is swinging it a little bit... Okay, we think that's true.\\
[[spoiler:It was true.]]

-->'''Tennant''': And where did they get the most money? Glasgow!
-->'''Creator/LeeMack''': Yeah, 'cause they thought it was a big fruit machine. 'Look, I won a soldier, Mummy!'"

[[folder: Magazines ]]

* There's a famous cartoon from ''Magazine/{{Punch}}'' showing two stereotyped Scotsmen in kilts:
-->'''Peebles Body (to a Townsman who was supposed to be in London on a visit)''': E-eh, Mac, ye're sune home again!
-->'''Mac''': E-eh, it's just a ruinous place, that! Mun, A had na' been the-erre abune Twa Hours when - Bang - went saxpence!

[[folder: Music ]]

* Possibly the least insulting stereotype thrown around in "A Song of Patriotic Prejudice" by Music/FlandersAndSwann.
* Music/EricBogle often pushes this stereotype about himself, usually at the expense of of other band members; such as suggesting that he doesn't pay them.

[[/folder]]

-->''You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I'd left him behind on an Aleutian island and had sent a destroyer back to find him—- at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars—- his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since.''

[[folder: Radio ]]

* The characters Radio/HamishAndDougal, created by Graeme Garden and Barry Cryer [[SpinOff originally]] for the Sound Charades round in ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue''. The CatchPhrase "You'll have had your tea?" is intended to be heard as "You're not expecting me to feed you, right?"

[[folder: Stand Up Comedy ]]

* This, combined with ViolentGlaswegian, is a major part of Creator/BillyConnolly's act. "My uncle once dropped ten pence; he bent over to pick it up, and it hit him in the back of the head."
** "You may have heard that nasty rumour floating around that copper wire was invented by two Scotsmen fighting over a penny."
** One time, Connolly was on Creator/ConanOBrien explaining that he once bungee jumped naked on his travel show because the bungee place had a policy that if you jumped completely naked, it was free. When Conan asked why he did this just to save a few tens of dollars, Connolly replied "You'd have to be a Scotsman to understand".

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In the Disney cartoon ''WesternAnimation/{{Pigs Is Pigs|1954}}'', the conflict in the story is partially because the Scottish [=McMorehouse=] doesn't want to pay an extra 4 cents to have the guinea pigs shipped as "pigs" rather than as "pets".
* In the wartime cartoon ''WesternAnimation/TheSpiritOf43'', WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck's thrifty side is represented by a Scottish duck (who coincidentally looks like Scrooge but predates him by a few years.)
* In the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes cartoon "WesternAnimation/MyBunnyLiesOverTheSea," the Scotsman whom WesternAnimation/BugsBunny messes with is shown as being thrifty. He has only one bullet that he has kept in the family for years, and he is tricked into lowering Bugs' golf score because Bugs makes it seem like an auction and his immediate reaction is to want a lower number.
* The Creator/TexAvery cartoons ''The TV of Tomorrow'' and ''The Car of Tomorrow'' have a "thrifty Scotchman's model" joke; a flashlight on the former, a pedal-operated car on the latter.
* In the AnimatedAdaptation of ''Literature/SoulMusic'', Mr Clete, the Guild of Musicians president who is horrified by the idea of people playing or listening to music without the Guild getting a cut, has a Scottish accent.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* While he doesn't have a typical Scottish accent (he talks like a pirate), [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants Eugene H. Krabs]] otherwise fits the bill here ''EXTREMELY'' well.

* In the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes cartoon "My Bunny Lies Over the Sea," the Scotsman whom WesternAnimation/BugsBunny messes with is shown as being thrifty. He has only one bullet that he has kept in the family for years, and he is tricked into lowering Bugs' golf score because Bugs makes it seem like an auction and his immediate reaction is to want a lower number.

* In Disney's ''Disney/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad'', in the ''Literature/TheWindInTheWillows'' segment Angus [=McBadger=] is in charge of Toad's finances and thus is very concerned about money. However since Toad is an UpperClassTwit whose various manias and hobbies have threatned to bankrupt him, and his tendencey to cause huge amounts of damage without a care, this is very justified.

* In the AnimatedAdaptation of ''Discworld/SoulMusic'', Mr Clete, the Guild of Musicians president who is horrified by the idea of people playing or listening to music without the Guild getting a cut, has a Scottish accent.
* While he doesn't have a typical Scottish accent (he talks like a pirate), [[{{WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants}} Eugene H. Krabs]] otherwise fits the bill here ''EXTREMELY'' well.

* The Scotch brand of tape gets its name from an incident where the first attempts didn't have enough adhesive on them, prompting buyers to call the makers "Scotch" (which used in this sense is a pejorative). The story goes that the tape was originally manufactured by 3M[[note]]Standing, at the time, for "the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company," and as such involved in the Midwestern industrial network[[/note]] for UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} engineers and auto stylists to separate different colors of paint, e.g. in two-tone paint jobs. The original tape only had adhesive on the two edges, leading to bleeding paint. The Detroit guys sent a message to 3M's chief engineer telling him some variation on "take this Scotch tape to your Scotch bosses and tell them to put adhesive down the middle."

** A Scotsman and an Englishman were leaning on a store counter, when a a robber walked in carrying a gun. The clever Scotsman took out his money and handed it to the Englishman, saying "Here's the ten pounds you lent me."

* In the wartime cartoon ''WesternAnimation/TheSpiritOf43'', WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck's thrifty side is represented by a Scottish duck (who coincidentally looks like Scrooge but predates hims by a few years.)

* {{Literature/Flashman}}'s father-in-law is a wealthy Scotsman who does no approve of Flashman's profligate ways and often threatens to stop supplying him with money.