fish out of water

In Being There, Chance the gardener has never been outside his employer's house and knows the world only from television. The old man dies, Chance is put out on the street, and Washington starts taking his gardening talk for political wisdom. In Spirited Away, a sulky ten-year-old has to learn the etiquette of a bathhouse full of spirits fast enough to get her parents back. The Dude wants to bowl and is mistaken for a millionaire in The Big Lebowski. You can see the mistake coming and the character cannot.

The dislocation can be literal: a portal, a time jump, a wrong turn into the spirit realm. It can also be social: an eccentric in a suburb, a runaway in unfamiliar terrain, a child sent to deal with institutions built for adults. Comedy and horror both live on this shelf, often in the same film.