Jerry Springer is nowhere in sight and empty beer cans do not litter the floor, but a new breed of "trailer trash" has set up camp in the grounds of Saddam Hussein's former presidential palace.
Thousands of government staff mostly from the US have spent the past few months living in "sardine cans" -- rows of grey, tin caravans as well as tents in the old backyard of the ousted dictator.
Beds have even been packed into a palace throne room to house the overspill.
Onsite facilities are pretty impressive, with free access to an extravagant swimming pool, a large gym and Chinese restaurant.
But the daily grind of the cramped trailers that fit four or the large tents and so-called chapel room that take anyone else is hard to bear, residents say.
"Welcome to the trailerhood," said one young woman who has spent the past two months sharing a two-roomed trailer with three strangers, and a flamingo.
"You can't have trailer trash without a plastic flamingo so my friends sent me two pink inflatable birds," said the women who, like most other people living in and around the palace, works for the Coalition Provisional Authority.
"I called one of them Nimrod, he lives in the trailer, and the other one Nebuchadnezzar, who keeps me company in the office," said the young American.
Andrew Goledzinowski was one of the first four coalition members to enter Baghdad after the war in May 2003, and he has lived through the whole range of sleeping options from bedrooms to office floors and caravans.
Directly after the war, coalition staff roughed it on the first floor of the presidential palace, while setting up offices on the ground floor.
"It was pretty uncomfortable because although the palace itself was not hit during the war the building that powered the air-conditioning was destroyed so it was unbearably hot," recalled Goledzinowski, an Australian national.
The first trailers, which have air conditioners, arrived in June and were quickly occupied before many coalition workers were transferred to a nearby hotel, the al-Rashid, the following month.
Unfortunately, a wave of rocket attacks hit the hotel, forcing Goledzinowski to move eventually on to a mattress in his office in the palace for four months.
"I then returned to the trailer park. It is very basic but marginally better than living under my desk," he said.
The trailers are lined up side-by-side in rows with minimal space in between. Largely H-shaped, the van itself consists of two bedrooms, about 5.5m by 2m, connected by a small shower-toilet room.
The bedroom is very simple, fitted with two beds, two cupboards, a small refrigerator and television.
"It is often hard to sleep at night because you can hear people outside through these thin walls," moaned one resident.
But unlike the samples of trailer trash that appear on Jerry Springer shows, there are no reports of trailer-triangle love wars, obese, hairy men running about outside chased by camera crews, or caravan feuds between the neighbors.
"Everyone gets along pretty well because we are all in this difficult situation together," said another trailer park local.
And the trailer trash count themselves relatively lucky.
Newcomers to Baghdad spend their first weeks in one of six communal tents or on a bunk bed in the palace chapel while waiting for a trailer space.
One young American in the chapel set up her bunk bed where Saddam's throne once stood, under a giant picture of missiles.
"If I look to my right I see the missile and if I look to my left I see a painting on the ceiling of galloping horses so I either go to sleep with peaceful thoughts or troubled thoughts," said the woman, who was number 168 on the trailer waiting list when she arrived in February and is now 98.
Security is heavy to protect people from rocket attacks that periodically hit the grounds, known as the Green Zone, which are sealed off to the public.
But nothing is airtight as coalition worker Stevens Susens discovered when he arrived at trailerville on Christmas Eve just before a rocket strike.
Susens stayed in his "tin mansion" until the all clear was sounded but later discovered that a rocket had landed behind his trailer without exploding.
"Ever since then, we've nicknamed the neighborhood Mortar Round Villa Estates," he said.
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