# A Meme to banish forever... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 8, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135 "2009-06-08T19:54:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/21 "2009-06-08T21:44:00Z")
> [@sohvan](#): > > This is more a documentary trope, but I get annoyed every time someone “finds” something extremely interesting while taking a walk in front of the camera. Are we expected to believe that the 250.000 year old intact human skull has been lying there in the dirt just waiting for a documentary team to walk by and pick it up? It takes me out of the documentary every time. Actually that is what happens all the time. That’s the whole reason they invite documentary film crews on digs, otherwise they’d never find anything. (possibly incorrect) ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/22 "2009-06-08T21:46:56Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Yeah. Ammo is cheap, or at least cheap enough to spare a couple of rounds to make absolutely sure. I heard that the only way to achieve that degree of certainty required the use of atomic weapons from extreme altitude… ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/23 "2009-06-08T21:56:02Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > The other cliche that’s gotta be retired is the whole “fall from a great height” crap. > > The good guy beats the bad guy. But killing the bad guy would be wrong. So he lets the bad guy live. The second the good guy turns his back, the bad guy attacks again. But the good guy ducks, and the bad guy falls to his death from a great height. > > This cliche allows the writers to tell us that killing is wrong–although often the good guy who suddenly discovers that killing is bad, m’kay, has previously slaughtered dozens of minions without even half a qualm. But it prevents the good guy from having to deal with the consequences of letting the bad guy roam free to spread evil. The bad guy dies, but the good guy didn’t kill him, he was killed by his own evil! > > Either the bad guy needs killing, in which case someone should step up to the plate and pay the karmic price, or he needs to be not-killed, in which case someone should also have to step up to the plate and pay the karmic price. You shouldn’t get to let the cake live and kill it to. Even worse is the sub-cliche wherein the Good Guy grabs the hand of the Bad Guy as Bad Guy goes over the edge, and attempts to save Bad Guy’s life, before finally losing his grip and watching him die. Good Guy is so good, he was trying to save Bad Guy up until the last! But Bad Guy still gets what’s coming to him. Everyone’s happy. Then there’s the sub-sub-cliche where Bad Guy is dangling from a great height, held only by Good Guy, and then the Good Guy intentionally lets him fall. Sure, it adds a bit of otherwise lacking moral ambiguity, but why did he catch Bad Guy if he is only going to drop him a few seconds later? Sounds like a good way to get pulled off a building to me. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/24 "2009-06-08T22:04:55Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I’m quite fond of the bit involving Mal getting tortured: > > [spoiler]Zoe, Wash and Jayne bust in to find Mal struggling with the torturer. > > Zoe: Stay back, this is something the captain has to do for himself. > > Mal: [off-camera] No, it’s not! > > Zoe: Oh. [she, Wash and Jayne shoot the torturer about thirty times][/spoiler] You’re remembering the scene somewhat wrong. [spoiler]Wash was tied up with Mal - it was a catalyst for the two of them getting a chance to talk over Wash’s jealousy over Mal’s closeness to Zoe. It was Book who was in the rescue team. Book also delivered by other favourite line in the episode, while preparing for the rescue mission. Zoe: Preacher, don’t the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing? Book: Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/25 "2009-06-08T22:15:39Z")
> [@Rhodes](#): > > It’s nearly impossible to really kill an important character, good or bad. A minor character can be bumped on the head or kneed in the groin, and he’s out for the remainder of the movie. And we have smart ammo, which kills when it hits a spear carrier anywhere, but only grazes a major character. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/26 "2009-06-08T22:17:15Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Actually, the amount of abuse people take in movie fights is pretty ridiculous if you think about it. How many times do we see some guy falling a couple stories…onto a coiuple of crates, get their head bashed a gainst a metal pipe, knocked around with a shovel, their car rolls over down an embankment, they are shot…in the shoulder, and then get caught in an explosion that rams against the windshiled of a parked car…only to have them get up and keep fighting as if it is just a scratch. **The Last Action Hero** (which I enjoyed more than I expected to) handled this very well, as the Arnie character was shocked to find that injuries actually hurt in our world. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/27 "2009-06-08T22:31:20Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > You’re remembering the scene somewhat wrong. No, you’re remembering the _episode_ somewhat wrong - the scene I described was near the end, while the scene you describe was much earlier. From the wiki summary of “War Stories”, which I have never personally edited: > [@](#): > > As Zoe leads Jayne and Wash toward the torture room, Book, Simon, and Kaylee stay behind to prevent the station personnel from taking the shuttle. … The rescuers arrive to find Mal being throttled by the torturer. Though Zoe initially suggests Mal must face his torturer alone, he exclaims in the opposite, and the crew guns the torturer down. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/28 "2009-06-08T22:34:05Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Actually, the amount of abuse people take in movie fights is pretty ridiculous if you think about it. How many times do we see some guy falling a couple stories…onto a coiuple of crates, get their head bashed a gainst a metal pipe, knocked around with a shovel, their car rolls over down an embankment, they are shot…in the shoulder, and then get caught in an explosion that rams against the windshiled of a parked car…only to have them get up and keep fighting as if it is just a scratch. The opposite can be as bad though - one hit to the back of the head and a character is instantly rendered unconscious, to revive at a later moment when the demands of the plot so require. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/29 "2009-06-08T22:37:23Z")
> [@jharvey963](#): > > There is a movie meme that bugs the heck out of me and one I wish would be banished from all action / horror pictures. You could call it “never finishing the job.” > > For instance: good guy and bad guy are fighting. Or good guy sneak attacks bad guy while bad guy is fighting with another good guy (usually female, in this scenario). Bad guy falls down motionless. Good guy rushes to other good guy or turns his back on bad guy who gets back up and re-attacks. > > I am SO tired of this cliche. Just finish the job fer pete’s sake! If you hit bad guy and he falls down, hit him a couple of more times so he stays down! If you shoot him once, shoot him a couple of more times. Finish the friggin’ job! > > J. This is one reason why Army Of Darkness is a great film. A monster is down and seemingly destroyed. Hastily, Ash informs everybody “It’s a trick. Get an axe!” Buffy The Vampire Slayer riffed on this meme a few times as well. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/30 "2009-06-08T22:43:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The point of being the good guy is that you avoid killing unless absolutely necessary. Otherwise, you’re just a bad guy in a white hat. Bob: Ever faced another good guy before? Rex: Nope. Bob: Me neither. Rex: Kinda makes you wonder what’ll happen. Bob: I figure the good guy’ll win, just like always. Rex: Yeah, except we’re both good guys. Bob: Then I figure the most good good guy will win. Rex: That’s how I figure, too. Bob: Yep. and Wait, he shot you in the _hand_? Man I love that movie. I want one movie, one big, splody, actiony movie to have magnetic glass that cuts. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/31 "2009-06-08T22:49:06Z")
> [@jharvey963](#): > > If you shoot him once, shoot him a couple of more times. Finish the friggin’ job! I agree with you 100%, except enough of the audience watching it would freak out about the supposed unfeeling brutality of it that it’d cause problems. In fact there’s a pit thread right now calling someone a cold-blooded murderer because he didn’t take any chances with a member of a group of armed robbers and finished him off. If they don’t excuse a real life individual in fear of his life such behavior, they’re unlikely to grant a fictional hero character such license either. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/32 "2009-06-08T23:29:26Z")
It’s actually something I have instructed the wife over. If she ever finds herself in the ‘horror movie’ situation, where she has managed to turn the tables on the psycho killer, whatever she has to hand, she is to continue to bash said killer in the head until such times as there is copious amounts of actual brain matter splashed all over the ground/walls/furniture etc etc. 😃 There isn’t going to be any of this getting up after malarky going on! [That was one of the really disappointing things about _Wolf Creek_, which was hailed as a fresh new breakthrough horror movie, but still trotted out the same old tired cliches.] ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/33 "2009-06-09T00:38:26Z")
> [@Tanbarkie](#): > > Even worse is this trope’s idiot cousin: Good guy and bad guy fight. Bad guy beats the living tar out of good guy. Good guy falls to the ground, defeated… or not really because he then reaches into some inner reserve of strength (often coupled with some sort of Big Epiphany) and gets back up. Then, despite having just been ground into a white-hatted paste, he proceeds to pummel the as-yet unhurt bad guy into oblivion. > > This particular trope made for my least favorite moment of “Serenity,” particularly since it’s exactly the kind of cliched climax that Joss Whedon has made a career of subverting. It’s simple: at that moment, the good guy gained enough experience points to go up a level. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/34 "2009-06-09T00:48:52Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > The one that always bugs me is the person in a gunfight, obviously not carrying much or any spare ammo, who shoots one opponent (out of many) and leaves the opponent’s gun just lying there. Thirty seconds the fool is somewhere else with another opponent and uses his last bullet, while the opponent is still shooting at him. Hello? This. Maybe it’s from all the FPS’s I’ve played but leaving a servicable weapon with ammo behind always makes me go “huh?”. Doubly so if the Good Guy ignores a dropped **submachine gun** and keeps using his handgun! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/35 "2009-06-09T00:59:02Z")
Quoth **Erdosane** : > [@](#): > > Even worse is the sub-cliche wherein the Good Guy grabs the hand of the Bad Guy as Bad Guy goes over the edge, and attempts to save Bad Guy’s life, before finally losing his grip and watching him die. Good Guy is so good, he was trying to save Bad Guy up until the last! But Bad Guy still gets what’s coming to him. Everyone’s happy. > > Then there’s the sub-sub-cliche where Bad Guy is dangling from a great height, held only by Good Guy, and then the Good Guy intentionally lets him fall. Sure, it adds a bit of otherwise lacking moral ambiguity, but why did he catch Bad Guy if he is only going to drop him a few seconds later? Sounds like a good way to get pulled off a building to me. No, the worst variant is when the Good Guy is actively trying to save the Bad Guy right up to the end, but the Bad Guy is too proud to accept being saved by the Good Guy, and so he’s the one who lets go, or punches the Good Guy in the face to make him let go, or wriggles out of his dog collar, or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/36 "2009-06-09T01:06:31Z")
The first two _Scream_ movies deal with the OP’s cliche quite well (particularly the second one). ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/37 "2009-06-09T01:09:26Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > No, you’re remembering the _episode_ somewhat wrong - the scene I described was near the end, while the scene you describe was much earlier. > > From the wiki summary of “War Stories”, which I have never personally edited: Yeah, the missing piece is in the middle, where Zoe has amassed a large sum of money with which to ransom Wash and Mal. She goes alone into Torturer’s lair and they have a conversation something like this - Torturer: Unfortunately, this is not quite enough for me to let _both_ of them g… Zoe: [Immediately pointing at Wash] That one. [pause] ``` Oh, I'm sorry. Were you about to ask me to choose?* ``` Then after Wash accompanies her back to the ship, they stock up on a shitload of weaponry and come back together to finally kick Torturer’s butt ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/38 "2009-06-09T01:23:56Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Bob: Ever faced another good guy before? > Rex: Nope. > Bob: Me neither. > Rex: Kinda makes you wonder what’ll happen. > Bob: I figure the good guy’ll win, just like always. > Rex: Yeah, except we’re both good guys. > Bob: Then I figure the most good good guy will win. > Rex: That’s how I figure, too. > Bob: Yep. Rex O’Herlihan: You’re not a good guy at all! Bob Barber: I’m a lawyer, you idiot! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/39 "2009-06-09T01:33:57Z")
> [@](#): > > There is a movie meme that bugs the heck out of me and one I wish would be banished from all action / horror pictures. You could call it “never finishing the job.” > > For instance: good guy and bad guy are fighting. Or good guy sneak attacks bad guy while bad guy is fighting with another good guy (usually female, in this scenario). Bad guy falls down motionless. Good guy rushes to other good guy or turns his back on bad guy who gets back up and re-attacks. > > I am SO tired of this cliche. Just finish the job fer pete’s sake! If you hit bad guy and he falls down, hit him a couple of more times so he stays down! If you shoot him once, shoot him a couple of more times. Finish the friggin’ job! > > Let’s banish this meme forever! Are you with me? I’ve long hated this one. Corollaries: 1.) If you kill Jason or The Terminator or The Alien, cut off its head for good measure. And its arms and legs. And gouge out its eyes. Even if, against all odds, it comes back to life, it’s going to be blind and in pieces, and that’s sure to slow it down. 2.) If you can, drop it into a really deep well, or entomb it in concrete. If it comes back to life and starts crawling up or breaking out, at least you’ll have warning. 3.) If it has acid for blood, try shooting it full of extremely strong base. Eveb if it doesn’t kill it, it’ll keep it occupied for a while. Other cliches: Standing near a window, especially one that’s open, and/or one you can’t see out of, is just askin’ for trouble. Vampires, zombies, werewolves, and the like might not be technically vulnerable to submachine gun fire, wood chippers, meat grinders, and a we;;-wielded ginsu knife, but it’ll probably still be effective. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135/40 "2009-06-09T01:41:30Z")
Bystander: You shot him in the _head!_ Rex: I missed his hand? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-meme-to-banish-forever/499135.md?page=3)