Fancy Camping

This is roughing it?

"What it was, to be honest with you, was a campground. It was one of those modern ones with swimming pools and miniature golf and video games, the kind that's popular with people whose idea of getting close to nature is to turn the air conditioning in their recreational vehicles down to medium."

— Dave Barry, "Valuable Scam Offer"

Oh, look. It's Alice Sue spending her day in an expensive upholstered chair with her feet on an ottoman, wearing fine clothes and sipping on what looks like an espresso or a martini. A fridge filled with snacks and a plate with a gourmet meal sits nearby as she watches a big-screen TV. She looks like she's living a luxurious life.

But there's just one thing... Alice is spending the day with her friends camping in the woods; where everyone else is sleeping on mats in regular tents, fishing at the lake and roasting marshmallows.

Often called "glamping", this is usually done by the City Mouse or just about anyone who couldn't bear the mere thought of, "roughing it." The things this person brings with them can range from televisions and refrigerators to even the furniture you'd expect in a house or mansion: a full-size bed, sofa, a dining table, and so on. Everyone else who sees this (especially if one of them has experience in living in the woods) will surely point out that that person is Comically Missing the Point.

Obviously a comedy trope. Often coincides with Lots of Luggage (how else are they going to get all that stuff there?) and Horrible Camping Trip.

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Examples:

Advertising

• An Australian TV spot for the lottery depicted a family going camping after a big win, in enormous tents with real beds, electricity, and running water, and having meals delivered by helicopter.

Anime and Manga

• Ayakashi Triangle: Lu's camping trip starts out with her personal attendants setting up a camp with a full living room (with entertainment center and hardwood flooring), showers stalls, portable toilets, gourmet meals, and even food stands. She shoes them away so Kachofugetsu can camp on their own with more limited supplies—though they need Matsuri's experience and leadership to get by, and Lu wishes they still brought the porta-potty.
• In Laid-Back Camp, the Outdoor Activities Club discusss this trope in one of the manga omakes. Chiaki starts out fiercely opposed to this idea, saying it's not really camping. However, when others asks her whether she'd like to do that herself, she says she'd do it every weekend, if she could afford it.

Comic Strips

• Calvin and Hobbes: One Sunday Strip ends with the duo retreating to their tent surrounded by dozens of lights to keep them safe from ravenous monsters they know from campfire stories.
  Hobbes: You were right. I'm glad we carried a generator all this distance.
• Garfield. In the strip on May 19, 1981, Garfield tries to bring the television along on a camping trip.
  Jon: Anything else?
  Garfield: Yes, 250 miles of extension cord.

Fan Works

• A Diplomatic Visit: Chapter 23 reveals that Rarity brought along her two-story tent from the season 3 episode "Sleepless in Ponyville", to the surprise of the wolves. Rainbow Dash's response to this is that "Rares' idea of roughing it is leaving her hair dryer at home." Rarity in turn justifies it by pointing out that her tent has enough space for everyone who didn't think to bring a tent of their own.
• In The Horsewomen Of Las Vegas, Sasha Banks and Bayley go away for a weekend doing this, as Sasha doesn't like "roughing it".

Films — Animation

• In A Goofy Movie, Goofy runs into Pete while camping. Pete is in an enormous RV with all the amenities, including a pool and a bowling alley.

Films — Live-Action

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days: When Greg and his Wilderness Explorer troop go on a camping trip, they hear Stan Warren, the leader of one of the other troops insulting Greg's dad; thus, Greg decides to plot revenge against him. He goes inside Stan's tent (which is very large) and finds that he's brought a TV, a refrigerator, and a s'more maker, among other things. When Stan's tent is destroyed, the other troop leaders find that he's been hiding these luxuries in his tent and condemn him for it.

Literature

• Downplayed in Harry Potter—the Weasleys (and apparently many other wizards) own a pair of magical tents that are Bigger on the Inside, with each containing a sitting room, bunks, and a kitchen with a stove. They seem to lack running water, though, so it's about on par with a small cabin than a full house. They're used for the Quidditch World Cup in the fourth book and the Horcrux hunt in the last.
• White Plume Mountain, a Dungeons & Dragons novel based on the classic module, has several characters who were outfitted by their religious orders for the expedition to the titular mountain. As such, they have pack animals laden with fine wines, expensive silks, and other frivolous things that are completely unnecessary, and on top of that they're all decked out in heavy, noisy armor they're unaccustomed to wearing. The protagonist, the Justicar, despises them for it, and before they reach the mountain he gets his partner Escalia the fairy wizard to disperse their pack animals with magic, forcing them to continue on with only what they can carry.
• A variant in The Legend of Sun Knight. The Demon King Grisia joins an adventuring party but hates camping and the outdoors, so he regularly pitches a tent and wards it so nobody else can enter. Once inside, he teleports back to his castle, where he can sleep in luxury. While frivolous on the surface, it's somewhat justified; the Demon Kings are so powerful that they cast spells in their sleep, so they have to sleep in specially warded beds to not destroy their surroundings.

Live-Action TV

• One of the girls in Nickelodeon's Sizzling Summer Camp Special brings with her a microwave, a home theater system, and even a collection of first lady commemorative plates.
• In one episode of Parks and Recreation, the Parks and Rec team go on a camping trip and Tom brings a luxurious tent complete with an absurd amount of accessories and electronics. When asked how he affords it all, he says he buys it from Sky Mall and then returns it the next day. He powers his electronics with the car battery, which quickly kills it and strands the group.

Web Animation

• Parodied in Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse. Whenever Barbie and company (who are all invariably ridiculously wealthy) go camping, it's always in an overly extravagant trailer that has more amenities than most houses (including a hot tub!).

Web Video

• Critical Role: Campaign Two: In the second-last arc, the team wizard becomes powerful enough to conjure up a temporary Pocket Dimension for the adventuring party to rest safely while traveling. It takes the form of a sumptuously furnished Mage Tower, complete with a banquet dinner.

Western Animation

• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Jimmy uses his inventions to make a luxury campsite (guided by a holographic butler) not only because he couldn't bear to enjoy any trip without those conveniences, but also because his father is bad at being a camp leader.
• In the Beverly Hills Teens episode "Roughing It", Troy takes Larke to camp in a secluded, untouched spot. Bianca wants to join them, but once she finds it's too much for her... Troy and Larke arrive only to find the whole gang along with several airdropped high-tech tents.
• In the Bob's Burgers episode "Go Tina On The Mountain", the Belcher kids meet a hermit living in the wilderness while they're out on a field trip to a national park. The hermit tells the kids she's been living off the land for months after she decided to leave her modern life in the city behind. Gene and Louise later catch her inside her hut and discover she actually has a bunch of modern furniture and appliances that she stole from the ranger station and admitted that she couldn't even last a day living without modern conveniences and comforts. Gene lampshades this by calling her a "glamper".
• Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese: In the episode "Camp Champs", instead of camping, the boys decide to "glamp", so in their tent they have a TV, microwave, hot tub, bidet, and many other comforts.
• In an episode of Garfield and Friends, while on a camping trip Garfield not only brings the television, but also the fridge, microwave and whole lot of other stuff....even an inflatable house to store it all in!
• In the Darkwing Duck episode "Bearskin Thug", Drake and Gosalyn go camping, and it isn't long before the Muddlefoots turn up. They do so in a modern RV that, by comparison to Drake and Gosalyn's miniscule tent, is pure luxury, and their idea of "roughing it" is a portable TV with no cable.
• Subverted in an episode of Dexter's Laboratory, where Dexter brings an "inflatable lab" to replicate his own laboratory while camping. After taking a very long time to inflate, it turns out to be just a balloon shaped like lab equipment, and thus completely nonfunctional.
• In one episode of Hattytown Tales, Sancho recommends to the king to have a picnic. Unfortunately, he isn't quite clear with explaining what it means, so he finds the king in the forest, sitting behind a large table with dishes being served.
• Hey Arnold!:
  • Arnold, Gerald, and Grandpa Phil go for a traditional camping experience, and end up down the road from Helga, Phoebe, and Big Bob, who use an RV so huge that it makes a campsite by running down trees. Arnold and especially Gerald are envious of the luxuries the other camp has, but Phil's survival advice comes in handy when both groups (minus Phil) go on a hike and all the electronic appliances Bob brought (and arrange the whole trip to test) malfunction.
  • Another episode had Arnold and Helga spend a weekend inside a greenhouse as part of a science project. Helga brings a bunch of unnecessary luxuries like a portable TV and a popcorn popper. Her plans of goofing off the whole weekend are shot down once she finds out the greenhouse doesn't have any electricity.
• In the Mickey Mouse (2013) short "Roughin' It", Donald and Goofy go camping in an RV with all the amenities, while Mickey insists on camping the old-fashioned way. Mickey has a miserable experience, mostly because of the other two's reckless behavior (dumping their trash around his campfire, inciting animal attacks with noisy ATVs). Things take a turn for the worse when Donald cranks up the power, causing the RV to go haywire.
• One episode of American Dad! features the annual CIA hunting trip, which is conducted out of RVs with a large tent serving catered gourmet meals. The actual hunting is done by a Kill Sat instead of guns or arrows, and everybody freaks out when a deer wanders into their camp.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In "Sleepless in Ponyville", Rarity bring a two-story tent on the sisterly camping trip with Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Applejack, Scootaloo, and Rainbow Dash. She even adorns the place with flowers in a fancy vase.
  • Rarity is a bit better about this in "Campfire Tales", sleeping in an ordinary tent like the other ponies. Though she still packs three bags' worth of luggage and insists on decorating the campsite with paper lanterns.
• The Proud Family: Oscar takes his family out camping using a fairly state-of-the-art RV, but their rich neighbors, the Boulevardezes, use a massive collapsible mansion. When both groups try "real" camping in three groups (men, women, and kids), a Macho Disaster Expedition ensues.
• Tiny Toon Adventures: When Montana Max goes to the woods to hunt deer, he brings his entire mansion with him!
• Clifford the Big Red Dog: In the episode "Camping it Up", Jetta and Mac bring over fancy camping equipment such as a television and microwave as she thinks it would be boring camping in the woods. However, she does realize it doesn't seem special when she sees Mac looking outside being glum and decided to hang out with their friends.

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