History Main / WhereTheHellIsSpringfield

* ''Webcomic/LittleNuns'' The convent's location remains a mystery. Fanon placed it somewhere in Australia based on a few strips involving kangaroos, but this was disproven by a strip where a platypus (actually a disguised mole) was explicitly identified as a "non-native animal" and other strips involving winter season indicates that this series takes place in any country on the northern hemisphere area.

* It's very ambiguous where Amestris is in the AlternateUniverseFic ''Fanfic/ImGivingYouANightCall''. Countries like the U.S. and Japan exist separately, and Amestris is further implied to have been created post-WWII [[spoiler: based off [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist Edward I's]] stories of the actual Amestris]].

* ''Fanfic/DJINNWayToHome: the author, koolkame, has stated that [[Comic/{{WITCH}} Heatherfield]] is located somewhere in northern California

Compare CityWithNoName, EverytownAmerica, and FictionalProvince. Contrast NoCommunitiesWereHarmed and CanadaDoesNotExist, where the setting is based on a real-life location but never outright identified, and InformedLocation, in which the location is clearly specified. If the place is given a generic MathematiciansAnswer of a name, then its a BusinessOfGenericImportance. The temporal version of this trope is AmbiguousTimePeriod.

-->-- '''Lisa Simpson''' (being unusually cryptic), ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Blame It On Lisa"

* The Garden of Eden from the ''Literature/BookOfGenesis''. [[https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/shows/secrets/garden-of-eden/1003102/3446874 Could it have been a (semi-)real place]]? It's possible. All we know is that its location was ''somewhere'' between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and there are two more rivers mentioned that have no modern equivalent. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, though, are real, and would put the location "somewhere in the Fertile Crescent," or modern-day Iraq, Syria, Iran, Jordan, or Turkey.

[[caption-width-right:349:Each of these states are hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from each other.]]

The trope is [[TropeNamers named after]] Springfield, the hometown of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', which even has its own JustForFun/SeparateSimpsonsGeographyThing. “Springfield” is one of the most common names[[note]] 34 cities, 3 unincorporated communities, and 12 townships (nine in Pennsylvania!)[[/note]] for towns and cities in the United States, so the name serves as an indicator of an EverytownAmerica.[[note]]Although if you are wondering, the city with the most legitimate claim (if you can call it that) is Springfield, Oregon, as the show's creator Creator/MattGroening is from that state and has [[WriteWhatYouKnow used many elements from Oregon as inspiration]].[[/note]]

The trope is [[TropeNamers named after]] Springfield, the hometown of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', which even has its own JustForFun/SeparateSimpsonsGeographyThing. “Springfield” is one of the most common names for towns and cities in the United States, so the name serves as an indicator of an EverytownAmerica.[[note]]Although if you are wondering, the city with the most legitimate claim (if you can call it that) is Springfield, Oregon, as the show's creator Creator/MattGroening is from that state and has [[WriteWhatYouKnow used many elements from Oregon as inspiration]].[[/note]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Naturally, in RealLife many cities in the same or different regions can share the same name. Sometimes this was deliberate, where one city is named after another; sometimes they might just refer to common geographic features which recur frequently; or multiple cities are [[{{Egopolis}} named after the same person or entity]].
** UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat was one of the most prolific such people; not only were eight cities in his former empire named Alexandria (including the modern Egyptian city of Alexandria), several other cities of that name have popped up around the world, including two in Canada, three in Australia, and nineteen in the United States, plus one in Italy named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_III a completely different Alexander]].
** Over fifty places in the United States are named after the UsefulNotes/MarquisDeLafayette, a key figure in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. As a rule, any location named "Lafayette", "Fayette", or "Fayetteville" will have been named in his honor.
** There is at least one town or city named after UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington in almost every state in the United States, plus Washington, D.C.
* Website/NotAlwaysRight gives us [[http://notalwaysright.com/location-is-clearly-not-your-vocation/3361 a caller]] who lives in Springfield and can’t seem to tell what state she's in herself.
* Many people on the internet and social media never reveal their location, Justified due to safety reasons. A lot of videos and photos could be in any state, city, region, or country.
[[/folder]]

** Similarly, the telephone exchange [[FiveFiveFiveNumber "FiveFiveFive"]] in the US and Canada is not affiliated with any town, city, county, state, or province, and most often is used to denote a fictional phone number, or a number for training purposes in the telecommunications field.

* UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground has a fake station called “Ashfield West,” which has no particular location and is served by no particular line. It’s technically used for training purposes.
** Similarly, the telephone exchange "FiveFiveFive" in the US and Canada is not affiliated with any town, city, county, state, or province, and most often is used to denote a fictional phone number, or a number for training purposes in the telecommunications field.

* The whole concept of PartsUnknown with all of its different "communities" would seem to apply here, especially because wrestlers from these places are never shown "there". Because of {{Kayfabe}}, it's never explained how these wrestlers get paid, how they get home, if they have passports, etc. The MST3KMantra was made for situations like these.
** [[Wrestling/JohnCena The Prototype]] and [[Wrestling/TheColonyWrestling Soldier Ant]] were both billed from "Classified" at different times in their careers. Was it the "same" "Classified?"

** [[Wrestling/{{Kane}} Doomsday]] and Wrestling/TheAscension were billed from "The Wasteland."

* JennysNumber by Music/TommyTutone. It's a TelephoneSong that references the phone number 867-5309. However, it doesn't include an area code or country code, meaning that the number referenced could be ''anywhere'' in the US, Canada, or a country that uses a similar-looking phone number (such as many Caribbean countries, or a US territory such as Guam). WordOfGod has it that the number belonged to the lead singer's ex, to flood her phone with [[HarassingPhoneCall nuisance calls]], but there's no telling what town, city, county, state, province, or country "Jenny" is in from the number.

* Some real-life places are undefined as well, likely because they're a part of the legend:
** Polynesian culture, as a result of being spread around several distant Pacific islands, tended to refer to TheOldCountry in this way. [[Myth/PacificMythology Hawaiian mythology]], for instance, refers to “Kahiki”, which is often interpreted to be Tahiti, but can theoretically mean anywhere in Polynesia that isn't Hawaii. The Maori concept of "Hawaiki" is similar (and may or may not refer to Hawaii). Recent DNA and linguistic studies have suggested that Taiwan could be the original Polynesian homeland.
*** According to the legends of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), its inhabitants originally came from the island of Hiva, possibly the Marquesas Islands.
** Aztlán, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztl%C3%A1n the ancestral home of the Aztec people]], is in an undefined location; the descriptions of the place seem to contradict each other. The only thing everyone agrees on is that it was somewhere north of where Mexico City is today.
** The Garden of Eden from the ''Literature/BookOfGenesis''. [[https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/shows/secrets/garden-of-eden/1003102/3446874 Could it have been a (semi-)real place]]? It's possible. All we know is that its location was ''somewhere'' between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and there are two more rivers mentioned that have no modern equivalent. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, though, are real, and would put the location "somewhere in the Fertile Crescent," or modern-day Iraq, Syria, Iran, Jordan, or Turkey.
** Some historians believe that the legend of {{Atlantis}} was inspired by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_civilization Minoan civilization of the island of Crete]], and its decline as a result of various natural catastrophes.

* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' and Gillitie Wood are located somewhere in the UK (apparently in CampbellCountry). So far, only two further clues to their location have been given: the nearby Annan Waters (a real river in Scotland), and a letter from Kat (whose contents imply that the Court is ''not'' in Scotland). It's eventually revealed that while the entrance to the Court is somewhere in the U.K., [[spoiler:most of the Court is contained inside a PocketDimension.]].

* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' and Gillitie Wood are located somewhere in the UK (apparently in CampbellCountry). So far, only two further clues to their location have been given: the nearby Annan Waters (a real river in Scotland), and a letter from Kat (whose contents imply that the Court is ''not'' in Scotland).

* ''Webanimation/StupidKids'': Sometimes it is implied [[DescriptiveVille HiVille]] and other locations shown take place in Usefulnotes/{{Hungary}} but the series also presents kind of places the country itself lacks, such as oceans, active volcanos, and a desert '''right next''' to the protagonists' home town.

* Joe the Great takes its sweet time getting around to telling you that Joe, Fred, and Sam are originally from the city of Boomfield. But neither it nor its sequels Magic Squad, Ultimate Magic, or Superverse (which actually stays close to home instead of [[WalkingtheEarth going all over the US]]) ever bothers to mention which state Boomfield is in. It never snows there and there is a desert within fifty miles; WildMassGuessing usually puts it somewhere in California or Nevada. Although in Joe the Great: Magic Flock, a map on a computer showed Boomfield to be in the upper Midwest near the Minnesota-Wisconsin area. However, in Joe the Great: Ultimate Magic, it is revealed Ethan and Joy ran away to New York City as children and the now abandoned fashion show appears which is the same one Joe, Fred, and Sam met Ethan and Joy, this would indicate Boomfield is in New York.

* ''FanFic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'' goes back and forth on this. An earlier episode revealed it to be near Yellowstone National Park (''i.e.'' Montana or Wyoming). A later episode {{lampshade|Hanging}}d when the weather reporter simply calls the nearest county “that unnamed county that’s next to us.”
* It's very ambiguous where Amestris is in the AlternateUniverseFic ''FanFic/ImGivingYouANightCall''. Countries like the U.S. and Japan exist separately, and Amestris is further implied to have been created post-WWII [[spoiler: based off [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist Edward I's]] stories of the actual Amestris]].
* ''FanFic/PrettyCurePerfumePreppy'' takes place in the fictional town of Oriyama, which neighbours the equally fictional town of Tsukimiya. Add another equally fictional town, [[FanFic/PrettyCureHeavyMetal Isuten]], and you have the Tri-Cities. The author is still not sure where exactly they’re located.
* We don’t know where exactly ''FanFic/CellarSecrets'' is set, but we can assume it’s in America (the [[CreatorProvincialism author’s home country]]), based on little details like the house having a basement and characters having middle names. But we don’t know exactly where in America they live.

** Kermit's swamp, initially in an undisclosed location in ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'', is revealed to be in Florida during ''Film/TheMuppetsAtWaltDisneyWorld'', and then ''Film/KermitsSwampYears'' puts it in Mississippi, not far from Creator/JimHenson's birthplace. That seems to have stuck, with Denise commenting that his state tree is magnolia in ''Series/TheMuppets'' episode "The Ex Factor".
** The locations of the Muppet Theatre in ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' and KMUP Studios in ''Series/MuppetsTonight'' are never revealed in the original series either, since what exists beyond the show isn't relevant. (The CGI background of the [=MuppetVision=] studio in ''Series/TheJimHensonHour'' arguably isn't intended to ''have'' a realspace location.) There's a slight hint early on that the Muppet Theatre might be in London (the spelling of "theatre", a reference to UsefulNotes/TheTube in ''The Muppets Go to the Movies'', and, of course, that's where they were actually filming), but it mostly seems to be in the US. ''Film/ItsAVeryMerryMuppetChristmasMovie'' establishes it's in a city with a park, a bank, and, for some reason, [[Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas Whos]], but doesn't name it (even the Official Historical Landmark certificate just says "the City". The skyline outside Piggy's window in the alternate universe is New York, but there are some issues with taking that literally). ''Film/TheMuppets'' makes it part of Muppet Studios in Hollywood.

* ''WebComic/ElGoonishShive''’s Moperville is in an undisclosed location somewhere in the US. At one point, in order to avoid revealing the location when Sarah is [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-08-22 trying to search obituary records]], the State abbreviation is replaced with asterisks. Fans have established that Moperville is most likely [[spoiler:based on Naperville, Illinois, at least according to [[http://elgoonishshive.wikia.com/wiki/Moperville the wiki]]]].