8/25/22, 5:29 PM Fish out of Temporal Water - TV Tropes

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"Greetings. Do kids still say 'greetings'? I haven't been in this dimension for a really long time."
— Stanford Pines, Gravity Falls

A Fish out of Water situation that results from characters being placed in an unfamiliar time period.
This may be caused by:

Time Travel (and quite possibly a Time Travel Escape)

Being Trapped in TV Land (if the show they enter is reasonably old or not set in the present)
Being a Refugee This is page
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Being a Human Popsicle

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Being canned
Surviving an apocalypse as a Living Relic
Traveling to another world whose culture is somehow similar to that in a different time period of
their own.
Having just been released from prison after a long sentence.
Waking up from a Convenient Coma
Going into the future without aging through Time Dilation
Being away from Earth for a longer time.
Living in a poor rural village in a very poor country, without or with very limited modern media
access.
Travelling the wildernesses for many years, with no or little contact with settled civilization.
Being kidnapped and held locked up by the kidnappers for many years.

In addition, the story will most likely follow one of these scenarios:

Someone from The Present Day ends up in The Future: In this case, the "fish" will be awed by an
incredibly wonderful future, be horrified by a dystopian future, enjoy the benefits of a mostly positive
future or be surprised by a future that's strange in an unexpected way. Whichever version it is, the
future depicted will inevitably end up being completely inaccurate when the year given actually rolls
around.

If the story is a comedy, the time-traveller is likely to discover that Ridiculous Future Inflation has
occurred. Then there will be the pop culture references that no one understands ("Elvis Presley?
Who's that?"). There will also probably be humorous references to how the celebrities of The Present
Day have ended up by then. An amusingly and horrifyingly dated one of these appeared in Back to
the Future Part II, which had a newspaper in 2015 make reference to "Queen Diana." (On the
amusing side, Elizabeth II was still Queen in 2015... and on the horrifying side, Princess Diana never
lived to see the 21st century as she died in 1997, eight years after the film came out.)

If the story is not a comedy (or is a Black Comedy) you get Cold Sleep, Cold Future.

Someone from The Present Day ends up in The Past: This past is usually sometime before the
"fish" was born, ranging from about twenty years ago to The Middle Ages. Not that their form of
English would be the least bit intelligible to modern-day time-travellers, but hey.

The "fish" will probably make little effort to fit in, awing the locals with A Little Something We Call
"Rock and Roll", telling them that This Is My Boomstick and possibly becoming a Blithe Spirit.
Apparently it's the sworn duty of all time-travelers to show the people of the past how to be hip in The
Present Day. If they get anywhere near a military installation, they'll probably be mistaken for a spy.
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The "fish" may also describe the future in an ironic way or tell people about things which would have
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Doc: Who's President of the United States in 1985?

Marty: Ronald Reagan.

Doc: Ronald Reagan! The actor? Who's vice president, Jerry Lewis?!

The savvy time traveller (or the one who thinks they are) in the past might also decide to be the one
who invents velcro only to find that when he return to the future, the fact that they now aren't wealthy
like they thought they would be is the least of their problems.

If a Trapped in TV Land situation fits this trope, it will fall into this scenario.

Someone from The Future ends up in The Present Day: In this case, the "fish" will be confused by
the simplest things, which are, of course, completely obvious to the audience. They will also likely
refer to the newest and most advanced technologies as "quaint". Fortunately, they will have brought
back lots of Applied Phlebotinum, just in case there was any doubt that they really were from The
Future. They may have a flawed view of The Present Day reality influenced by idealizing revisionism
of the historians of The Future, sometimes disenchanted that they lied. The traveler, unless downright
awesome at all times, will almost inevitably be dangerously Genre Blind and equally likely to nearly
get killed almost as much as the next type. They will also be horrified and disgusted by some of the
mundane tropes and conventions until they are carefully explained. "Hot dog? You mean I just ate
a..."

Someone from The Past ends up in The Present Day: The humor will result from the "fish"
attempting to relate to The Present Day with only the knowledge of a previous time. Naturally, they will
make mistakes and/or be awed by things which the audience has come to take for granted. The
Values Dissonance between the two eras may come up. This is now its own subtrope — The Future
Is Shocking.

If they're from any time after about the midpoint of the Industrial Revolution (when people first began
to take for granted that the future will be different from the present), the "surprised by a future that's
strange in an unexpected way" trope will probably apply.

If they're from far enough back, their first encounter with a motor vehicle will involve the words "metal
demon", or alternately "horseless carriage". They will also be completely unfamiliar with the word
"computer" in spite of this being a common retooled word, which once meant someone who does
calculations or 'computes' for a living. Not knowing the word "accountant" would be just as unusual.

If the character is from one of the more romanticized time periods, such as the Middle Ages, Antiquity
or any age dominated by warriors, princes, kings and Old-School Chivalry, they will regard the people
of the present as soft, weak, and uncultured (especially the men) and will often upstage and shame
the modern men, winning the present day women over with gallant or gentlemanly behavior. In more
recent works, this has however, become more subverted due to the influence of feminism and the
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historical fact that these time periods look better in fiction than they did in reality.

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he's living there, but is just more comfortable with the attitudes, mindsets and styles of the past than
the present is Born in the Wrong Century

Someone from The Future ends up in The Past: Fairly common Star Trek plot (and cause of some
of the best episodes and a couple of the worst). Essentially combines The Present Day to Past and
The Future to The Present Day tropes. Thank you for being unusual, Data. Thank goodness he had
amnesia.

Someone from The Past ends up in The Future: Also a common Star Trek plot (although not quite
as common, and usually done in a more unusual way than straight out time travel. Usually.) Here's
looking at you, Sam Clemens.

Someone from The Future ends up in The Future: Can involve either going forward or backwards
(but generally backwards). Does your mind hurt yet? Will be generally played for laughs (like
somebody complaining that the technology that would be super-advanced to somebody from The
Present Day is an antique) or for Continuity-based Fanservice (Trials and Tribble-ations, anyone?)

Someone from The Past ends up in The Past: There's a LOT of Past. Can usually result in one
Historical Figure or archtype meeting; befriending or fighting another. Ninjas, Pirates, Napoleon, Hitler,
Genghis Khan, Neanderthals, Dinosaurs; etc.
Spam with other types for time travel annoyance.

Compare Technologically Blind Elders.

Examples:

Anime & Manga

Comic Books
Fan Works
Live-Action Films
Literature
Live-Action TV
Video Games
Western Animation

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    Comic
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    Film — Animation 
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    Music 
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    Pinball 
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    Professional Wrestling 
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    Radio 
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    Tabletop Games 
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    Visual Novels 
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    Webcomics 
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    Web Original 
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    Real Life 
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Video Example(s): Feedback

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Anne Frank
This video is from the Mentors TV show. A time-displaced Anne Frank experiences freedom in modern-
day Canada after months stuck in the Annex, happy to learn that in the future Jews can live their lives
lik l

Ya Boy learns a... Polaroids (ENG) The Kwamis Dick Jett Jean

Alternative Title(s):
Connecticut Yankee Plot

Previous Index Next

Fighting Across Time and Space Time Travel Tropes Fling a Light into the Future

Fire Keeps It Dead Older Than Radio For Your People, By Your People

First World Problems Complaining Index Fish out of Water

Escaped from the Lab Fish out of Water Foreign Exchange Student

Fish out of Water These Tropes Are Fishy Give a Man a Fish...

Fair for Its Day Values Dissonance Fish out of Water

Felony Misdemeanor Index Myopia Fish out of Water

Firefighting Episode Plots Flatline Plotline

Exergaming QuoteSource/Western Animation Hyperactive Sprite

Finish Dialogue in Unison Comedy Tropes Fishing for Sole

ImageSource/Live-Action Films (M to
The Unholy Three Unthinkable
Z)

Brain Bleach Overdosed Tropes Teacher/Student Romance

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