Interclass Friendship

Interclass Friendship is when people are friends regardless of their vastly different social status. This is usually represented by a rich person being chummy with a commoner. However, a master-servant or employer-employee relationship is just as common.

Often times the friendship will be vitriolic in nature due to the difference in upbringing. Expect the rich friend to be insensitive to the commoner's living and the commoner believing the rich to be snobbish.

A common plot involving this trope is that the poorer friend finds themselves in a financial crisis. Logic would indicate that it be an easy solution for the richer friend to give them money. However, the poorer friend would have too much pride to accept the offer and instead insist on earning their keep.

Another common plot is having the rich friend lose all their money and move in with their poorer friend. Hilarity Ensues as they learn what it's like to be "poor."

The romantic variant of this is Uptown Girl — or, if their class inexorably divides them, Star-Crossed Lovers. Might also be seen as the mundane version of Pals with Jesus. Friendships falling under this trope are often an Odd Couple and may be subject to weird looks from other people. If the reason the two characters are friends is that they went to the same school, it becomes School Forced Us Together. It often overlaps with The Outsider Befriends the Best.

Anime & Manga

• Doraemon has high-classed Suneo, who is best friends with middle-classed Gian, Shizuka, and Nobita.
• The strongest and most wealthy team from Fairy Tail consists of Natsu, Lucy, Ezra, Gray, Wendy, Happy, and Carla.
• Middle-classed Tohru from Fruits Basket becomes friends with several family members from the highly rich and influential Sohma family.
• Big working-class Nao Midorikawa and wealthy and traditional Reika Aoki from Glitter Force were Childhood Friends before they became Pretty Cures.
• The Heroic Legend of Arslan: Arslan and Narsus are the former lords, Daryun is a high-ranking military officer, Elam is a freed slave, Farangis is a priestess, and Gieve, Alfarid, and Jaswant are commoners.
• In Hunter X Hunter, Gon comes from a small fishing island while his best friend, Killua, is the scion of an obscenely rich family of assassins.
• Shirogane from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is working-class and gets along with several wealthy and famous people from the School Council.
  • Kaguya also gets along well with higher-classed people, such as her personal maid, her scholarship student, and the school pariah.
• Atsuko Kagari and Diana Cavendish from Little Witch Academia have this type of friendship after a while of butting heads over their opposing appeals of magic.
  • And so do Akko and Lord Andrew Hanbridge.
• Lyrical Nanoha is the daughter of a baker and a retired bodyguard, and is Childhood Friends with Arisa and Suzuka, two Ojous.

Comic Books

• Archie Comics has Betty and Veronica, who are good friends when not fighting over Archie.
• The DCU: Clark Kent a.k.a Superman is a refugee space alien and reporter who was raised on a farm, while Bruce Wayne a.k.a Batman is the world's richest man and was raised by a wealthy family.
• Working-class Samuel Guthrie and multi-billionaire Roberto de Costa from New Mutants.
• Runaways: Molly Hayes comes from the upper-middle class and is the daughter of a dentist and a speech therapist, while her very best friend, Klara Prast, is a poor immigrant from Switzerland.
• Peter Parker a.k.a Spider-Man, who lives with his widow aunt, used to be friends with Harry Osborne, despite that Osbourne was the son of an evil multimillionare, but their friendship sadly falls apart after Parker learns Osbourne was Green Goblin.
• Channon Yarrow and Yelena Rossini from Transmetropolitan.
• Queen Elyon and her maid Nagadir from W.I.T.C.H.

Films: Animation

• Aladdin is a poor street urchin who gets along well with wealthy Princess Jasmine, and aside from lying about being a prince, Jasmine accepts him for who he is, and the two become an Official Couple by the end of the film after defeating Jafar.
• Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper: Anneliese is a Princess Classic who becomes best friends with Erika the pauper. Erika becomes as wealthy as Anneliese by the time she marries King Dominic.
• The Princess and the Frog: Tiana is a low-classed waitress who dreams of having her own restaurant while her Spoiled Sweet Childhood Friend, Lottie, is a wealthy debutante who dreams of marrying a prince. But aside from being very supportive of Tiana's business, Lottie also sacrifices her own dream to help Naveen transform back into a human and make Tiana happy.

Films: Live-Action

• In the 2019 Aladdin live-action film, Princess Jasmine gets along very well with her handmaid, Dalia.
• All of the members of the Breakfast Club all become friends with snobby Claire Standish.
• Bride Wars has Liv, who is a rich and successful attorney, and Emma, a medium-classed middle school teacher.
• Catherine, Called Birdy: Birdy is close friends with the goat boy, Perkin.
• In The Cheetah Girls, Dorinda (a foster child who works as a janitor at the community center) is best friends with Aqua, Chanel, and Galleria (who come off from well-off families).
• Craig and Neil from The Cinema Snob.
• Parry (homeless) and Jack (high-classed) from The Fisher King become friends after Parry saves Jack's life.
• The Goonies has Andy, a feminine cheerleader, and Stef, a tomboyish dockworker.
• The Princess Diaries: Princess Mia and commoner student activist Lilly have been long time friends.
• Princess Protection Program has Princess Rosalinda and bait shop salesgirl Carter.
• Richie Rich is the world's richest kid who ends up becoming friends with the children of the workers of the factory his dad acquired.

Literature

• American Girls Collection: Samantha Parkington is a girl growing up during the Edwardian Era who lives with her rich grandmother and a high-classed household who befriends Nellie O'Malley, who is an Irish immigrant, a maid, and a servant. Samantha often teaches Nellie how to read and cheers her up over her struggles, and she even helps her and her sisters escape from an abusive orphanage. Not to mention that Samantha's aunt and uncle adopt Nellie and her sisters throughout the series, and Nellie becomes Samantha's sister too.
  • Kit Kittredge and Ruthie Smithens are two best friends growing up during the Great Depression. The Kittredge family was very medium-classed until Kit's father struggles with making money and needs to leave Ohio to make money elsewhere, which makes Kit worried about the mortgage. Meanwhile, the Smithens family is more medium-classed and isn't affected by the Depression. That being said, Ruthie is very generous and compassionate to Kit, and the Smithens family do certain things to help the Kittredge family, including helping reaching Kit's Aunt Millie to help pay the mortgage.
  • Marie-Grace Gardner is a low classed girl in New Orleans during the Yellow Fever pandemic, while her best friend, Cecile Rey, is more high-classed. That being said, the two girls get along well, support each other for their goals, and both help out at an orphanage.
• Shannon Kilbourne from The Baby Sitters Club is a high-classed neighbor of Kristy Thomas, who has an Odd Friendship with her after Shannon becomes Kristy's friend and bonds with her over her the loss of her Canine Companion. Shannon also becomes friends with the other BSC members and joins the club as an associate member.
• Circle of Magic: Sandry (a noble) is siblings with Briar (a street rat), Tris (a merchant), and Daja (a member of a nomadic people).
• Harry Potter is implied to be from a rich household while Ron Weasley, his friend from Hogwarts School, is a member of the poorest family depicted in the novels.
  • There's also a backstory where James and Sirius were from wealthy families and befriend the poorer Remus Lupin.
  • Lily Evans (middle-classed) befriends the poor Severus Snape, who also befriends the wealthy Lucius Malfoy.
• The Heroes of Olympus: Leo, who is an orphan and the son of a working-class single mother, becomes friends with Piper, the daughter of a famous actor.
• King Maer Alveron and Old Retainer Stapes from The Kingkiller Chronicle have been best friends since boyhood, have always been trusting each other, and even have Affectionate Nicknames for each other.
• A Little Princess: Sara Crewe, a pet student at a boarding school and quite off, and she befriends Becky, a scullery maid.
• Frodo (one of the wealthiest hobbits) and Sam (a gardener and a manservant) from The Lord of the Rings.
• The whole plot behind The Prince and the Pauper with Tom Canty and Prince Edward's friendship.
• Arya Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire develops a strong friendship with the butcher's son, Mycah.

Live-Action TV

• Arrow: Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn, two sons of billionaires, become best friends with Laurel Lance, a lawyer and the daughter of a police detective and college professor.
• Middle-classed Brandon and Brenda Walsh are friends with the rich kids of Beverly Hills, 90210.
  • There's also a sequel series where Annie and Dixon Wilson become friends with their wealthy and privileged classmates, like Annie's best friend, Naomi.
• Boy Meets World has low-classed Shawn Hunter who lives in a trailer park, and his "only rich friend," middle-classed Cory Matthews.
  • There's also Cory's brother, Eric Matthews, who is friends with Shawn's brother, Jack Hunter, who is more well-off.
• Sean (working-class) and Murray (rich) from the TV adaptation version of Clueless.

Theatre

• Prince Hamlet is good friends with Horatio, a university student and an only commoner at Elsinore.
• Wicked has Glinda (very privileged and popular) and Elphaba (more lower-classed than Glinda).

Video Games

• Super Mario Bros: Mario and Luigi are may be plumbers, but they are great friends with the princesses, Peach and Daisy. (Although there are some Ship Tease moments Mario has with Peach and that Luigi has with Daisy.)