# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/161 "2018-06-21T13:23:49Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > “But didn’t you serve five years for armed robbery?” > “OBJECTION!” > “Withdrawn.” [/takes a step back, holding up two palms] > > It’s cool, everybody; he made the gesture while cheerily saying the word. Judge: Jury will disregard what the defense counsel said. Please try to forget that the suspect committed an identical crime before, right down to stabbing a bank guard between the thumb and forefinger with a 15th century darning needle while screaming “Darn it, Dougie!”… even though it’s now indelibly inserted into your memory banks. And by the way (speaking of the wrong ballet teaching), wouldn’t it make sense to call up someone who knows a profession if you’re going to use if for a main character? “And our protagonist is a… chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring!” “Ok, can we call up a chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring?” “Why would we…?” “So we get artificial banana flavoring chemistry right.” [blank stare] “Wait, you’re proposing we literally call up a chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring? What for?” "“Scuse me, sir. I know a chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring!” “So?” “Well, if our hero is a chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring…” “That doesn’t mean we have to go through all the rigamarole of actually calling a chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring. That could take, well, not hours, but some amount of actual work.” “Oh, don’t worry, I can write chemists that make artificial banana flavoring… I’ll just have lots of flasks bubbling and they’ll be wearing expensively-tailored lab coats with stethoscopes and pocket protectors and Italian shoes.” “Ooh, can their dialog be full of long chemical names?” “Sure, do they have to have anything to do with artificial banana flavoring?” “Pfft, you kidding?” ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/162 "2018-06-21T13:36:22Z")
> [@digs](#): > > And by the way (speaking of the wrong ballet teaching), wouldn’t it make sense to call up someone who knows a profession if you’re going to use if for a main character? > > “And our protagonist is a… chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring!” > “Ok, can we call up a chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring?” > “Why would we…?” > “So we get artificial banana flavoring chemistry right.” > [blank stare] “Wait, you’re proposing we literally call up a chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring? What for?” > "“Scuse me, sir. I know a chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring!” > “So?” > “Well, if our hero is a chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring…” > “That doesn’t mean we have to go through all the rigamarole of actually calling a chemist that makes artificial banana flavoring. That could take, well, not hours, but some amount of actual work.” > “Oh, don’t worry, I can write chemists that make artificial banana flavoring… I’ll just have lots of flasks bubbling and they’ll be wearing expensively-tailored lab coats with stethoscopes and pocket protectors and Italian shoes.” > “Ooh, can their dialog be full of long chemical names?” > “Sure, do they have to have anything to do with artificial banana flavoring?” > “Pfft, you kidding?” Even if they did make that call, afterwards you would probably hear this: “Gosh, the details of making artificial banana flavoring are pretty dull, aren’t they?” “They sure are. That’s never going to make for good TV.” “What was that you were saying earlier about the flasks and the lab coats and the Italian shoes? That sounded pretty good.” “Sure, I can get an exciting scene out of that.” God knows I would never want to see my job portrayed accurately on TV. My job is boring! ---
**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 21, 2018, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/163 "2018-06-21T13:39:26Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > I swear by all the gods past and present if I saw/heard this I would have an aneurysm right on the spot. **tears hair out** When I was in the SCA, I knew a guy who rigged his scabbard specifically to do this. (Before you freak out completely, it was along the flat of the blade and not the edge. 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/164 "2018-06-21T14:11:15Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > Nothing new to contribute but a hearty seconding of the fat, dopey husband kept from disaster by his unrealistically hotter and smarter wife. Always bugged me. I’d say that just having the fat man be either a figure of fun, gluttony or incompetence is a trope I could entirely do without. I mean I’d love to see a show where there’s a fat character who’s none of those three things- I can’t think of the last time I saw a show\* where a fat man was a competent, serious character; they’re always some kind of comic relief or incompetent/flawed in some major way that’s implied to have to do with their fatness. I’d like to see a fat badass at some point! (\*actually I just remembered that McGee on NCIS was pretty pudgy early on, and it wasn’t played for anything other than the way he was, which was pretty unusual) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/165 "2018-06-21T14:35:48Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > What about when the cops show up to some nightclub or bar the suspect frequents? Like the dude has one bar that he is at so regularly it’s a reliable spot to pick him up? Strip joint. It is always a strip joint. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/166 "2018-06-21T14:39:15Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > What about when the cops show up to some nightclub or bar the suspect frequents? Like the dude has one bar that he is at so regularly it’s a reliable spot to pick him up? Eh, plenty of people are like that, like my former housemate; if he wasn’t in the house, he was more often than not at one particular pub. He was sufficient of a fixture there that when there was a house fire next door to the pub, which was reported on the local news, more people called my housemate to find out if the pub was damaged/closed than phoned the actual pub. Not sure if it counts as a trope, but the filming technique commonly used with ‘dangerous’ animals, where they’ll have footage of a real animal happily noodling along, minding its own business, clearly totally unaggressive, then suddenly switch to a model/CG version of the animal attacking. Like every wild animal just sees a human and _launches_ itself straight at them. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/167 "2018-06-21T17:43:00Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’d say that just having the fat man be either a figure of fun, gluttony or incompetence is a trope I could entirely do without. > > I mean I’d love to see a show where there’s a fat character who’s none of those three things- I can’t think of the last time I saw a show\* where a fat man was a competent, serious character; they’re always some kind of comic relief or incompetent/flawed in some major way that’s implied to have to do with their fatness. I’d like to see a fat badass at some point! > (\*actually I just remembered that McGee on NCIS was pretty pudgy early on, and it wasn’t played for anything other than the way he was, which was pretty unusual) I don’t watch Roseanne, but isn’t John Goodman’s character portrayed as pretty competent? ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/168 "2018-06-21T17:59:30Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > Adventurers find a lost civilization or temple which ends up getting destroyed, usually by earthquake and/or flooding, for no good reason. “Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life”!! The holographic map that reveals the location of Pandora’s Box has been hidden in a temple, now underwater, for thousands of years. During all those millennia, given the nature of the region, there must have been dozens of earthquakes of varying intensity, yet the temple survived just fine. But then, just when Laura was acquiring the map, an earthquake completely destroys the temple. What are the odds? LOL ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/169 "2018-06-21T18:29:09Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > “Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life”!! > > The holographic map that reveals the location of Pandora’s Box has been hidden in a temple, now underwater, for thousands of years. During all those millennia, given the nature of the region, there must have been dozens of earthquakes of varying intensity, yet the temple survived just fine. But then, just when Laura was acquiring the map, an earthquake completely destroys the temple. What are the odds? LOL It was probably a load-bearing map. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/170 "2018-06-21T18:40:53Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’d say that just having the fat man be either a figure of fun, gluttony or incompetence is a trope I could entirely do without. > > I mean I’d love to see a show where there’s a fat character who’s none of those three things- I can’t think of the last time I saw a show\* where a fat man was a competent, serious character; they’re always some kind of comic relief or incompetent/flawed in some major way that’s implied to have to do with their fatness. I’d like to see a fat badass at some point! > (\*actually I just remembered that McGee on NCIS was pretty pudgy early on, and it wasn’t played for anything other than the way he was, which was pretty unusual) Detective Goran(played by Vincent D’Onofrio) on Law & Order: Criminal Intent was a competent, serious character; so was the detective played Anthony Anderson on the original Law & Order. They were both overweight; Goran only more towards the end of the series. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/171 "2018-06-21T19:45:46Z")
Haven’t read through the entire thread, but I’m annoyed by the trope that has the male and female protagonists meet and hate each other before they find common ground and fall in love (or lust). This is EVERYWHERE. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/172 "2018-06-21T20:00:30Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Haven’t read through the entire thread, but I’m annoyed by the trope that has the male and female protagonists meet and hate each other before they find common ground and fall in love (or lust). This is EVERYWHERE. Heck, Shakespeare was using that trope. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/173 "2018-06-21T20:59:43Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Heck, Shakespeare was using that trope. Well Shakespeare was a very derivative writer. All he did was string a bunch of cliches together. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/174 "2018-06-21T21:44:09Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Detective Goran(played by Vincent D’Onofrio) on Law & Order: Criminal Intent was a competent, serious character; so was the detective played Anthony Anderson on the original Law & Order. They were both overweight; Goran only more towards the end of the series. Well, it’s a trope, not an absolute rule, but yeah, those two characters and Dan Conner on Roseanne were pretty competent I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/175 "2018-06-21T22:52:13Z")
> [@](#): > > I’d say that just having the fat man be either a figure of fun, gluttony or incompetence is a trope I could entirely do without. > > I mean I’d love to see a show where there’s a fat character who’s none of those three things- I can’t think of the last time I saw a show\* where a fat man was a competent, serious character; they’re always some kind of comic relief or incompetent/flawed in some major way that’s implied to have to do with their fatness. I’d like to see a fat badass at some point! > (\*actually I just remembered that McGee on NCIS was pretty pudgy early on, and it wasn’t played for anything other than the way he was, which was pretty unusual) I must admit I diodn’t see that many episodes, bump, but the old “Cannon” detective show might fight your bill. ---
**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 22, 2018, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/176 "2018-06-22T00:03:52Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > When I was in the SCA, I knew a guy who rigged his scabbard specifically to do this. > > (Before you freak out completely, it was along the flat of the blade and not the edge. 😃 ) Now that would make me laugh like a loon–it’s almost as good as the guy who accidentally discovered his lady had included a squeaky toy in his codpiece because he honked it at a friend and really, really honked at his friend. Then he became delighted by his new toy and squeakied EVERYONE! ---
**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 22, 2018, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/177 "2018-06-22T00:18:11Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Now that would make me laugh like a loon–it’s almost as good as the guy who accidentally discovered his lady had included a squeaky toy in his codpiece because he honked it at a friend and really, really honked at his friend. Then he became delighted by his new toy and squeakied EVERYONE! I knew another guy who always packed an orange in his codpiece. When we did Renaissance festivals, women would line up to be photographed with him. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2018, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/178 "2018-06-22T00:23:23Z")
If blue fork lightning really did dance across failed electronics my work would be more interesting. ---
**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 22, 2018, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/179 "2018-06-22T00:30:01Z")
> [@Lizard](#): > > The corollary to the Big Dumb Average Guy is his Smart Wife, who is always right/always knows best, and is usually more attractive than her husband. Sometimes it is a True Representation. Any Doper who has met my wife and I can attest to this fact. 😛 The trope that always annoys me is someone walking into a bar and ordering “a beer.” When in the history of Mankind has a bar only had 1 selection of beer? Hell, I bet Ninkasi provided at least 2 recipes. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2018, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269/180 "2018-06-22T00:37:54Z")
It’s amazing how the laws of physics are constantly broken during rainstorms. Lightning and thunder always seem to happen at the exact same time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-tropes-that-infuriate-you/816269.md?page=10)