Couch Tour

This article is about the animation/furry term, Couch Tour. For the term that refers to the mainstream music/social phenomenon where fans join together online to experience live performances in real-time, see Couch Tour.

The Couch Tour, also known as the Tour de Couch, is a term originally coined in the late 1970s by Southern California animators (some with ties to furry fandom).

Overview

The Couch Tour describes the practice of animation personnel staying with friends and/or fellow artists while traveling across the US and Canada in search of animation work.

Couch Tour and furry

The usage of the term grew to also encompass furry artists and fans, used in force during the 1980s/1990s.

It expanded in meaning to include furries traveling from their old lodgings to a new place of residence, as temporary lodging, or just as a simple multiple furry houses vacation (a practice normally reserved to vacationing foreign furries visiting the US for vacation or prior to a furry event like a convention).

Amenities

The guest(s) is normally given a spare room during his/her/their stay, with air mattresses, futons, cots, or couches (from where the term takes its name from) being acceptable substitutes, along with bath access and transportation.

Guests in good standing are also offered food privileges and WIFI connection, among others. Stimated guests, normally friends or close friends, receive almost full roommate privileges, especially if they provide assistance to the house's owner or living roommates in the form of monetary or work help (especially prior to a furry convention or other related event).

Controversy

Although the Couch Tour is a friendly, helpful way to assist somebody by offering them temporary lodging, there have been accounts of people abusing the generosity of their hosts to the point of the hosts having to demand a person to leave, or physically having to vacate them (this is not to be confused with the simple notion of "bad roommates").

The most common faux pas is food-related (overeating and/or eating from reserved food items), while others include accessing restricted house areas, use of personal items (toiletries et al), accessing personal computers, damage to property, stealing, etc, etc.

See also

• Furry house

This stub about a term could be expanded.