# Pop Culture tropes that infuriate you. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2018, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269 "2018-06-17T17:13:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/81 "2018-06-18T23:01:03Z")
In all the Law and Order series, whenever two cops show up to interview a witness at work, the interviewee always continues doing what they were doing (mechanic tinkers with car, restaurant worker wipes down tables, etc.) while talking to the cops. Makes me laugh every time it happens, and it happens _every single time_. Obviously it makes for better visuals, but when you think about it it’s just so silly. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/82 "2018-06-18T23:20:57Z")
The fat sidekick. The gay sidekick. The gay [indeterminate ethnicity] sidekick. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/83 "2018-06-18T23:24:52Z")
Posted this some months ago: “Can I ask you a question?” ---
**Author:** ![moojja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@moojja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moojja)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/84 "2018-06-18T23:34:29Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Person 1: “I have something extremely, earth-shatteringly, life-alteringly important to tell you.” > > Person 2: “Me too! I’m getting married!” > > Person 1: “Oh! Um… That’s… great. I’m so happy for you” (_while looking very sad_) > > Person 2: “Thanks! Now, what were you going to tell me?” > > Person 1: “Oh… Nothing.” > > Person 2: “OK, I’ll just ignore your body language and verbal cues, not ask any follow-up questions, and never mention this conversation again. Bye!” That’s believable to me. If Person 2 doesn’t love Person 1 back, then what can they do but ignore it. ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/85 "2018-06-18T23:43:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I learned about the comic book “hero” Bozo the Iron Man (who long predated Tony Stark) from Jon Morris’ **League of Regrettable Comic Book Heroes** > [https://www.amazon.com/League-Regrettable-Superheroes-Half-Baked-History-ebook/dp/B00NEUI19K](https://www.amazon.com/League-Regrettable-Superheroes-Half-Baked-History-ebook/dp/B00NEUI19K) If you have this book handy, be sure and check out the “Acknowledgements” section on page 255. _ahem_ I’ll wait … ---
**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 18, 2018, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/86 "2018-06-18T23:50:33Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > This may be too obvious because I think it gets complained about fairly frequently, but bad guys who corner the good guy and then stand around talking instead of shooting him in the guts and/or head immediately. Related, good guy defeats bad guy after a brutal fight on a ledge or dock or catwalk. Good guy risks his own life to save bad guy, after briefly debating whether or not to just let him die (sidekick says: “Don’t do it, you’ll be just as bad as he is!”). Bad guy makes a final lunge at good guy, misses, falls to his death. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/87 "2018-06-19T00:37:14Z")
How about the “plain” girl who in the real world would be just short of a knockout. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/88 "2018-06-19T00:56:52Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > How about the “plain” girl who in the real world would be just short of a knockout. … Provided, of course, she takes off her glasses and lets her hair down. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/89 "2018-06-19T01:19:17Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > … Provided, of course, she takes off her glasses and lets her hair down. And no one notice how beautiful and is until then, just like nobody in the Daily Planet newsroom realizes how much Clark Kent looks like Superman. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/90 "2018-06-19T02:42:16Z")
> [@susan](#): > > The fat sidekick. > > The gay sidekick. > > The gay [indeterminate ethnicity] sidekick. Male nurses that turn out to be gay particularly get under my skin. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/91 "2018-06-19T02:59:41Z")
Every goddamned time someone sheaths or unsheaths a sword or dagger or hunting knife it makes that metal on metal _ssshhhhhIIINNNG!_ noise. WTF would you have anything inside a sheath that’s gonna wreck your edge? So fucking annoying. Also people who stick their sword through some dude’s guts then sheath it all covered in blood. If you ever get the fucking thing OUT of that scabbard again you’re gonna be lucky, and then you’re gonna have to replace the scabbard because it’s gonna smell awful in a couple days. Have some respect for weapons, sheesh. I’ve heard literally hundreds of live steel swords come out of their scabbards and they make NO noise, and only a final “clack” when you put them away, if that. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/92 "2018-06-19T03:31:42Z")
From Roger Ebert’s glossary of movie terms: > [@](#): > > Hand-in-Hand Rule: In many Hollywood action pictures, the woman characters are incapable of fleeing from danger unless dragged by a strong man, who takes the woman’s hand and pulls her along meekly behind him. This convention is so strong it appears even in films where it makes no sense, such as SHEENA, in which a jungle-woman who has ruled the savage beasts since infancy is pulled along by a TV anchorman fresh off the plane. This seems to have abated somewhat in the 33 years since he wrote the piece, but it’s still out there. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > But most of the time there’s no rhyme or reason to it. Godzilla and Rodan and all those _kaiju_, right down to the _Pacific Rim_ crowd, seem to attack cities because of pure cussedness, and they Can. You seem to be suffering from confirmation bias, friend. Pacific Rim provides an explanation for why the kaiju are attacking cities. They’re targeting population centers to in order to soften us up and make it easier for their makers to colonize earth. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/93 "2018-06-19T03:55:14Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > If a Native American shows up, he’s always a mystic who can commune with nature. Nobody’s Asian in the movies Nobody’s Asian on TV If there is a part there for us It’s a ninja, a physician Or a goofy mathematician Or a groupie in the chorus That’s me _But Maurissa, movies couldn’t even be made without Asians! We need them to play the parts we’re not willing to._ You’re right, Jed. Without the Asians in the movies Without the Asians on TV Who’d play the goofy mathematician The computer technician A wise old healer from Japan A short but wealthy businessman Sell Korean groceries Do your laundry, thank you prrease We’re the victims of a crime We’ll be loving you long time (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Commentary Soundtrack) ---
**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 19, 2018, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/94 "2018-06-19T11:45:48Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Godzilla and crew were dreamed up in the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They were the result of the Earth responding to the danger with something of destructive power of its own. So their explicit reason is “because Nature is fighting back”. It’s a different trope, but it’s a reason. Yeah, I know – Godzilla is the Personification of the Bomb. I’ve written about it. But it still bugs me when people don’t get their symbolic reasons to agree with rational ones. Nature CAN fight back without striking mainly at the cities. But bombs were directed there. 'Tain’t confirmation bias – monsters attack cities disproportionally. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/95 "2018-06-19T12:01:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 'Tain’t confirmation bias – monsters attack cities disproportionally. That’s where the people are! ---
**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 19, 2018, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/96 "2018-06-19T12:21:25Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > That’s where the people are! Ah – the “Godzilla as Willie Sutton” approach. It annoyed Godzilla in his retirement when people would drive up and ask “Hey, Godzilla! Why did you attack cities?” just so they could hear him say “Because that’s where the people are!” Actually, he eventually started to like the attention. But he never really did care for snacking on people. Even _gaijin_. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/97 "2018-06-19T12:36:45Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > In all the Law and Order series, whenever two cops show up to interview a witness at work, the interviewee always continues doing what they were doing (mechanic tinkers with car, restaurant worker wipes down tables, etc.) while talking to the cops. Makes me laugh every time it happens, and it happens _every single time_. Obviously it makes for better visuals, but when you think about it it’s just so silly. Yes! And they keep their backs to the cops most of the time. They’re all, “ugh, cops always asking me stuff, SO BORING.” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/98 "2018-06-19T12:46:32Z")
Final showdowns between the good guy and the bad guy always have to happen on a high catwalk or precipice, in the rain. ---
**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 19, 2018, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/99 "2018-06-19T13:03:03Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > Final showdowns between the good guy and the bad guy always have to happen on a high catwalk or precipice, in the rain. It still bugs me that, in the middle of a huge battle or hand-to-hand melee the leader of the Bad Guys and the leader of the Good Guys manage to find each other and duke it out man-to-man. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/100 "2018-06-19T13:11:58Z")
People who confront the killer alone, without telling anyone where they are going. I’d call the cops. Two cops walk up the walk way together to confront the perp. Real cops walk up ina V-formation so if the guy comes out shooting a gun, he can only hit one before the other shoots him dead. This drives me bonkers (yes, I’m talking to you, Munch and Finn). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269.md?page=6)