- We're Europeans alright, but never quite...—Narrator
Bai Ganyo - amazing tales of a modern Bulgarian, original title Бай Ганьо - невероятни разкази за един съвременен българин is a 1895 series of feuilletons by Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov about the life of titular charcater Bai note Ganyo Balkanski, a rose oil salesman. The work is divided in two parts, Bai Ganyo Went To Europe, dealing with his travels from a newly liberated Bulgarianote to Western Europe and Russia, and Bai Ganyo Came Back From Europe, detailing his political career when he returned. The book is hailed as a satire (and Trope Namer) of the backwards, oriental-influenced mentality of the average Bulgarian and for that reason it remains relevant to the present day.
Bai Ganyo has those rose-scented tropes to offer you (if you got something to give, natch):
- Balkan Bastard: It's in the name - Ganyo Balkanski is an amalgamation of all the negative traits associated with the (post-)Ottoman Balkans. In Western Europe, he mostly exhibits the comedic side of the trope, being a stingy, brash, clueless and paranoid bumpkin. Back in Bulgaria, he takes on darker aspects thereof, using manipulation, sucking up, slander and violence to rise to power.
- Big Eater: Bai Ganyo loves food, especially when it comes free (or when he helps himself to it).
- Cultural Posturing: Bai Ganyo sees himself as superior for being an "honest" Bulgarian compared to the "pretentious" Western Europeans. That said, he isn't familiar with much of Bulgarian culture either, beyond pub music and the occasional folk song.
- Culture Clash: Bai Ganyo is fascinated by the technical progress and the wealth of Western society, but refuses to spend any times and, God forbid, money, on high culture. He also considers good manners unnecessary and fake, but it's exactly fake pleasantries that he later learns and employs.
- Delusions of Eloquence: He loves using big words even if he can't actually get them right, such as "leberal" or "costentution".
- Dirty Foreigner: Aside from being sweaty, unkempt and averse to baths, he has lice! Even his compatriots look down on him for it.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- In Russia, he bears witness to a pair of Bulgarian Professional Butt Kissers literally kiss the boots of Prince Alexander Dondukov-Korsakov to get his signature on fake documents to legitimize stealing scholarships from students. Even he is appalled.
- When he runs an election he asks his thugs to tone down the violence when he hears of people getting killed.
- Election Day Episode: Bai Ganyo runs an election: he hires a crowd of thugs, intimidates the voters, does some ballot stuffing, frames the opposition and gets himself elected as a parliamentary representative.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Bai Ganyo starts out as a poor, laughable, if backwards, merchant. Having made some money and gained some self-esteem in Europe, back in Bulgaria he climbs the social ladder to become a corrupt, bullying, fake-news producing politician.
- Gonk: Ganyo Balkanski is a mustachioed, hairy, obese, sweaty, slovenly man. He also has Jabba Table Manners, slurping and burping all the while.
- Improperly Paranoid: Bai Ganyo, projecting his own vices on anyone around him, is deathly afraid that Weeterners might try to scam him. His biggest fear is that someone might steal his flasks with rose oil, which he carries everywhere he goes, including a public bath.
- Jabba Table Manners: He eats like a barbarian, slurping, burping and smacking, even at a royal dinner at the Prince's palace:Bai Ganyo: I'd kiss a hundred hands for such a meal. Oh well. That chore was done too, then we rushed, my brother, downstairs... Believe if you will, I hopped three steps at a time, almost bumped into the mirror, but let no one get ahead. Got my hands on the caviar, then got digging like crazy with the spoon... That fish with mayonnaise, so many snacks, don't know all their names, whoa. I ate, ate, stuffed myself, even now I'm wondering how my stomach didn't burst.
- Lethal Chef: Having had enough of the sophisticated European cuisine, Bai Ganyo decides to show them how it's done, messily preparing some roasted trout. He also loves adding hot peppers, to everyone else's discomfort.
- Miles Gloriosus: When the Orient Express passes through Serbia, he is quick to brag about the Serbians' defeat in the recent war. He later admits his participation mostly boiled down to looting.
- Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: A particularly egregious example In-Universe. When he can't find shelter in Prague, Bai Ganyo crashes at the home of Czech historian Konstantin Jireček, who doesn't know him personally, he was just a minister in Bulgaria for a time.
- Plunder: How Bai Ganyo acquired his lands in the 1877-1878 war of Bulgarian liberation, capturing mills abandoned by fleeing Turks. He also looted in the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian war. He has no problem calling others on it, but when it's about him, the past is in the past.
- Primal Chest-Pound: He does that at a public bath in Vienna, roaring "Bulgar, Bulgar" after splashing in the water to everyone else's annoyance.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: He is a master at sucking up to whoever is currently in power. Talking to Jireček, he mentions defending him, only to slander him later. Also, when there is a coup in Bulgaria in 1894, he and his cronies are getting ready to welcome the Prince with a proclamation heaping praise on the current Prime Minister, Stefan Stambolov, thinking he's still in power, calling him "a Cicero and Neeton of Bulgaria" and praising the Prince's decision to support this "most enlightened statesman". When they read that Stambolov has fallen and Konstantin Stoilov was elected instead, Ganyo orders the proclamation rewritten to express the opposite sentiment, now calling Stambolov "a Tamerlane and a Caligula" as well as a "savage and barbaric tyrant".
- Public Bathhouse Scene: Bai Ganyo at the bathhouse, where he, having never been to one before, splashes around, treating it like a swimming pool, to the dismay of the other patrons.
- Trope Namer: A national one for a Bulgarian (or sometimes a person from the Balkans, or Eastern Europe in general) with a backwards, crude mentality and a desire to leech profits from society.
- Ungrateful Bastard: In his correspondence as a politician. When fellow scoundrel Mr. Bodkov, who have Bai Ganyo shelter in Prague (with strings attached) asks for help, he bluntly refuses.
- Villain Protagonist: Early on he's just laughably uncultured and a jerk. When he returns to Bulgaria, he goes full Politically Incorrect Villain.
- You No Take Candle: Bai Ganyo dosn't bother to learn much of any foreign language.
