# Stupidest recent moment in television **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271 "2013-01-24T23:41:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/61 "2013-01-26T02:50:46Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I dated a girl who was taking shorthand with her friends in High School. THis would have been the late seventies. > Her friend was writing down what my date and I said to each other. I found this very disturbing. :dubious: That she brought her friend on your date? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/62 "2013-01-26T02:57:31Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > A friend of mine recently commented how she came across some medical show she did not watch. A doctor was performing an operation and for some reason, absolutely had to have someone stab her in the foot while she was operating. > > The show was Grey’s Anatomy. It was a prosthetic foot, somehow being stabbed stopped her phantom limb pain. I don’t know enough (or anything really) about phantom limb to know if that’s stupid or not. But it’s certainly not the stupidest moment on Grey’s Anatomy. That show’s had so many stupid moments I can’t even come up with one, the whole show is pretty damn stupid (says the guy who keeps watching it for some reason). ---
**Author:** ![James\_Otto\_Sweet\_Heart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@James\_Otto\_Sweet\_Heart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Otto_Sweet_Heart)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/63 "2013-01-26T15:14:38Z")
Yesterday on the Entertainment Tonight show, a new upcoming “reality” show was talked about and who will be front and center on this show will be shrinks and therapists who could use a dose of the medicine that they give to the patients that they see. It was said that actual therapy sessions were going to be shown during this show and I thought to myself, “The doctor/patient confidentially thing will go right out the window if people are going to be seen on TV talking about what is really going on with themselves, so you know that what will be shown as a part of this “reality” show may very well be scripted stuff.” :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: God bless you always!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Holly ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/64 "2013-01-26T15:38:21Z")
_Bones_ a couple weeks ago had a skeleton found in a quarry that was heavily coated with jewels. Supposedly, the minerals from the quarry water formed “crystals” on the skeleton. But they were clearly prop department fake jewels, not crystals. And they were different color. Mostly whitish but some green, red, etc. All from the same quarry water. That’s not the really stupid part. The mega-stupidity was that the flesh rotted away and the crystals formed within a matter of something like 6 days. This made the next corpse-of-the-week, found completely covered by caterpillar webbing, plausible by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/65 "2013-01-26T19:41:23Z")
There was the episode of _Psych_ where they stated that CPR had to be done on a real, living person to become certified in it. Not a dummy. You can kill a normal person by doing chest compressions on them. ---
**Author:** ![Astral\_Rejection](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@Astral\_Rejection](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astral_Rejection)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/66 "2013-01-26T20:00:31Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > There was the episode of _Psych_ where they stated that CPR had to be done on a real, living person to become certified in it. Not a dummy. > > You can kill a normal person by doing chest compressions on them. I’ve heard it both ways. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/67 "2013-01-27T01:55:34Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > That she brought her friend on your date? 🙂 It involved a motel room, but it was a long time ago. I think they were at some short hand convention or workshop. I don’t have a clue why I was there, perhaps I gave her a ride or something. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/68 "2013-01-27T02:49:15Z")
A recent Castle episode I watched clearly was written by a 60-something and tried to deal with the concept of music piracy. SPOILERS for those inclined to care about such things. The _villain du jour’s_ nefarious plot consisted of breaking into the studio where a rival musician was recording the master tapes for her next album and, get this… leaking the music in the Internet!!! Now, apparently, the fact that the whole album would have been leaked five seconds after the first CD hit the stands anyway wouldn’t have hurt the sales as much as having it leaked a week beforehand… ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/69 "2013-01-27T03:00:41Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > The first movie was filmed in England in 1888. It was only a few seconds long, so having longer films in 1889 is a little unrealistic, but they only had to push the development of film back a few years. I’d hardly call it the “stupidest recent moment in TV”. More like “minor nitpick a few people who are well read in film history might pick up on, and of which the writers were probably aware but decided to ignore so that their script would work in recent tv”. It was stated that the photographer had devised the camera himself.\* ‘Whatever happens, whatever punishment is seen fit for this, THAT is extraordinary’\* ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/70 "2013-01-27T03:11:37Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > I’m a fifty-six year old secretary, and was taught Gregg shorthand in _college_, which I attended rather later in life than the other students. It was oh, 1978 or so? > > And I still use it today, constantly. 1. Learned Gregg shorthand in high school. Used it through college and was still using it in 1988 in a secretarial job 🙂 I don’t use it today, though. It would have been a handy skill to maintain, but I lost it sometime in the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/71 "2013-01-27T03:17:55Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > As for the OP, it seems a perfectly reasonable way to do it. It might take you a few hours to find a secretary who was still fluent in Gregg (tell me, where would you look for one?), but only a half hour or so to decode the message using a listing of the Gregg alphabet (which could be [downloaded](http://i.imgur.com/6p4Oa.png)). That’s what I was thinking. Unless the message was quite long it seems _less_ plausible to me that the investigators would take the time to “go to a secretarial college” (do secretarial colleges even exist anymore?) rather than just doing it themselves. > [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > I used to read the weekly threads on The Office just for the lulz of watching geniuses do their “THIS COULD NEVER HAPPEN IN A REAL OFFICE!” routine. After a while it becomes less funny and more bewildering that some of these people really think a television satire should be realistic. Then again, it takes all kinds. My sister really went off once on how she hated _The Office_ because “it’s so unrealistic”. I pointed out that she had never actually worked in an office. I’ve _always_ worked in an office, and I have to say the show is sometimes chillingly realistic. (I used to have a boss who was basically Michael Scott.) Sure, there are also silly things that would be unlikely in real life, but I don’t think _The Office_ is more out there than the average TV comedy in that regard. _Glee_ IS more out there than the average TV comedy, but even there some of the elements I’ve seen criticized as “unrealistic” are things that I’ve actually experienced. Although to be fair, more than once I’ve thought “Oh come ON!” while watching _Glee_ only to realize a moment later “Wait, that pretty much happened to me.” For instance, “Oh come ON, no high school in America is going to do a production of _The Rocky Horror Show_” … “Wait, I was IN a high school production of _The Rocky Horror Show_.” (I was the Criminologist.) We didn’t actually do the whole thing, just Brad and Janet’s arrival at the castle/“Time Warp” through “Sweet Transvestite” as part of a variety show. But this was an official school production overseen by the theater teacher and performed for the whole school, not something put together by a student-run club or anything. Of course, just because something has actually happened doesn’t make it _plausible_. Ideally fiction shouldn’t be making people go “Oh come ON!” too much, but at the same time “That’s never happened to me” or “That’s not what I would do” isn’t the same thing as stupid/impossible/unrealistic. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/72 "2013-01-27T18:50:48Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > A recent Castle episode I watched clearly was written by a 60-something and tried to deal with the concept of music piracy. SPOILERS for those inclined to care about such things. > > The _villain du jour’s_ nefarious plot consisted of breaking into the studio where a rival musician was recording the master tapes for her next album and, get this… leaking the music in the Internet!!! Now, apparently, the fact that the whole album would have been leaked five seconds after the first CD hit the stands anyway wouldn’t have hurt the sales as much as having it leaked a week beforehand… Dude - I am over 60 and even I raised an eyebrow over that plot. Perhaps it was written by some Amish dudes? ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/73 "2013-01-27T19:39:44Z")
I still use shorthand to scribble notes to myself that I don’t want other people reading (like ‘buy Teavana gift card for Sue’s b’day/put back the $10 “borrowed” from Joe’s stash/family members social security numbers’). I have to read those notes a couple of times! Also jotting down instructions or directions hastily given over the phone. I used to take-a-letter from the boss and could still be writing his last sentence - if someone came in to ask a (short) question, I could write and answer the question. Drove him crazy - “how do you DO two things at once like that??” ---
**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:** [January 27, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/74 "2013-01-27T21:45:44Z")
In (weak) defense of the _Castle_ plot, the scheme was the work of another pop singer, and them’s ain’t so bright to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/75 "2013-01-28T18:32:56Z")
I have to agree with others about Castle’s format. It is _always_ the first person they talk to, and that person _always_ sticks around to get caught later, rather than getting the hell out of Dodge. And I don’t like the retcon of Mom suddenly showing up. They’d obviously set it up so that the girl got her red hair from her grandmother, then someone walked in who looked exactly like an older version of the girl and ran with it. And they made her such a sweet person. So where the hell has she been all this time? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/76 "2013-01-28T18:38:00Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > So where the hell has she been all this time? Counting her money. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/77 "2013-01-29T07:31:56Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > It was a prosthetic foot, somehow being stabbed stopped her phantom limb pain. > > I don’t know enough (or anything really) about phantom limb to know if that’s stupid or not. But it’s certainly not the stupidest moment on Grey’s Anatomy. That show’s had so many stupid moments I can’t even come up with one, the whole show is pretty damn stupid (says the guy who keeps watching it for some reason). Ok I was confused by my friend’s post. I thought the surgeon was being stabbed in the foot. I stopped watching Grey’s when it had the shooting at the hospitable. Both for the shark jumping and they killed off that really hot new doctor with the short hair. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/78 "2013-01-29T11:40:26Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > I can’t believe they’re **still** doing the “zoom in and enhance” thing. Last week’s **Elementary** , a show I enjoy, had Sherlock watching video footage from a security camera outside an airplane charter business from about 100 feet away, drag-selecting one guy’s shirtsleeve, zooming in and enhancing until he could read the shirtsleeve logo. Ugh. Compare that to the BBC’s **Sherlock** , in which the technology they show being used is damn near flawless. Except the military complex that allows six-character passwords that spell out a name, with no mixing of cases :dubious: It was a good scene to show off Sherlock’s cold reading skills, but was still a bit much. I’d have preferred him to realise that the guy who owned the computer had trouble with his memory and from that deduced that he’d have the password on a post-it, or something. It would at least have been different from the typical, “He likes Orson Welles - try Rosebud!” which always seemed to be the climax of that Superman show with Teri Hatcher. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/79 "2013-01-29T13:02:02Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > And I don’t like the retcon of Mom suddenly showing up. They’d obviously set it up so that the girl got her red hair from her grandmother, then someone walked in who looked exactly like an older version of the girl and ran with it. And they made her such a sweet person. So where the hell has she been all this time? The mother first appeared in season 1. They even cast the same actress both times. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271/80 "2013-01-29T13:49:46Z")
I usually don’t have a problem with absurd “science” on television, but I do draw the line at computer forensic analysis things. For example, when they get the hard drives of several people on NCIS (or CSI or whatever) and in the span of a couple hours, they’ve not only scanned the drive, but indexed it and analyzed it and found everything useful there is to find on it. It just doesn’t work that way- it takes a LONG time to do that kind of thing. As in, they’d be coming back a day or two later to hear that indexing was done and they were starting to search but hadn’t found anything yet. I’d like for once to see the writers of TV cop/detective shows actually build dramatic tension through mundane stuff- like Gibbs and DiNozzo getting stuck in traffic, or Abby having to wait on a long boring process, or McGee having to grind out hours of effort to get no results on hacking, and have the clock ticking in the background while the killer/terrorist/etc… is on the loose. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-recent-moment-in-television/648271.md?page=5)