# Things everybody "knows" are cliches, that aren't **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 24, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129 "2009-02-24T00:14:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/41 "2009-02-25T01:41:29Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > Good guys wear White Hats, bad guys wear Black Hats. Before I saw _Star Wars_ for the first time, my sister, who had seen it, was telling the family that we’d all love it, and in particular was telling my grandmother that she’d really like it because it was a real good vs. evil story where the “bad guys even wear black hats.” I remember being very confused during the opening battle when everybody had white hats, on both sides! The thought process was something along the lines of “Well, those guys have white hats, and those guys have white hats. How’m I supposed to tell who’s wh-- oooooh. This guy. He’s a bad guy.” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/42 "2009-02-25T02:38:36Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, in Moolight Is that the one about the vampire cows? ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/43 "2009-02-25T02:52:21Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > This site has one of the best quotable lines of all time: “But there is nothing in women’s kisses, nor in their vaginas, that magically makes a man straight.” Am I the only one who imagines Zapp Brannigan saying this? (Yes, I know he’s based on Kirk.) ---
**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:** [February 25, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/44 "2009-02-25T03:36:44Z")
> [@](#): > > I did check Wikipedia before posting, but it gives the cause of death in Son of Dracula as fire rather than sunlight. Or maybe he bursts into flames upon exposure to the sun? I don’t know why thwey’d say that. I watched SoD only a few months ago – it’s on the Universal “Legacy” collection DVD for Dracula – and it’s pretty clear that it’s sunlight that does hi in. But I’ll check again. ---
**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:** [February 25, 2009, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/45 "2009-02-25T04:03:27Z")
The end of **Son of Dracula** : > **[Son of Dracula - MoviePooper](https://moviepooper.com/movie/son-of-dracula/)** > > Katherine “Kay” Caldwell (Louise Allbritton) is a southern belle obsessed with occultism and death, to the worry of her sister Claire (Evelyn Ankers) and fiance Frank (Robert Paige). She has invited the mysterious Count Alucard (Lon Chaney, Jr) for a... ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/46 "2009-02-25T08:21:07Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > The _Twilight_ vampires avoid direct sunlight even though it does not harm them. The reason given for this may be the stupidest thing in all of vampire fiction: > > Their skin SPARKLES in the sun. No, really. They’re big bloodsucking disco balls. To avoid arousing suspicion, they stay away from direct sunlight when humans are around. The main vampire characters choose to live (if that’s the right word) in Washington state because it’s so often cloudy there. Haven’t read the books nor seen the movie and have no desire to do either, but this doesn’t sound all that awful. What’s wrong with having them avoid sunlight because… …the way the sun reacts to their skin make it obvious they aren’t human? There are species that “glitter”, aren’t there? Why not vampires? Seems like a pretty cool literary device to me. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/47 "2009-02-25T11:40:33Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Haven’t read the books nor seen the movie and have no desire to do either, but this doesn’t sound all that awful. What’s wrong with having them avoid sunlight because… > > …the way the sun reacts to their skin make it obvious they aren’t human? There are species that “glitter”, aren’t there? Why not vampires? > > Seems like a pretty cool literary device to me. Nope. It’s lame. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/48 "2009-02-25T15:03:47Z")
Yeah, it’s just one lame part of an overall lame-ass book. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/49 "2009-02-25T15:55:50Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > Good guys wear White Hats, bad guys wear Black Hats. This was one that used to confuse me. To my mind, “black hats” were ultra-Orthodox/Hassidic Jews. So when I’d hear the term “black hat”, I’d think Jewish guy. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/50 "2009-02-25T16:39:29Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Is that the one about the vampire cows? Yes, and you have to see the what we have to use to steak them…😛 ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/51 "2009-02-25T18:54:34Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Kirk didn’t bang any green chicks, and the evidence for any of the other dozens of women is pretty slim as well. While we’re on Trek, they were on a mission to boldly go where no one had gone before, but most episodes involved planets that they already new about and lifeforms that had already been encountered. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/52 "2009-02-25T19:31:32Z")
In addition to the ‘vampires die in sunlight’ trope, I’ll pipe in that there is no ‘reincarnated long lost love’ in Bram Stoker’s original novel “Dracula.” Mina Murray-Harker is not a twin double of the living Count’s “beloved Elizabeta” or anything like that. While Dracula does bite her, and she’s in mortal jeapordy of becoming a vampire after her own death, the evil count has no vested interest in her, other than sating his bloodlust and perhaps thumbing his nose at Van Helsing & Harker who are his principle enemies. The bit about an evil supernatural undead creature who sees a woman who resembles his long-dead lover actually did come from the 1938 version of “the Mummy.” That plot-point was lifted & adapted to several vampire stories, including the late 60s soap opera “Dark Shadows” (waitress Maggie Evans is a lookalike for the vampire Barnabas Collins’ long-dead Josette). The idea worked it’s way into Werner Herzog’s 1979 version of “Nosferatu” and by the time Francis Ford Coppola adapted released “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” in the early 90s, most vampire fans (who never bothered to read the original novel) simply accepted that this was part of the original story. Humphrey Bogart never said the line “Play It Again Sam!” in “Casablanca.” “Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!” OK, Eve Plumb DID once utter that infamous line, but only one single time. It was not an oft-repeated catch-phrase. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/53 "2009-02-25T19:38:20Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > Humphrey Bogart never said the line “Play It Again Sam!” in “Casablanca.” Nor did Jimmy Cagney utter “you dirty rat” in any of his movies. Or so I’ve been told. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/54 "2009-02-25T19:41:59Z")
nevermind ---
**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:** [February 25, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/55 "2009-02-25T19:42:31Z")
> [@](#): > > The bit about an evil supernatural undead creature who sees a woman who resembles his long-dead lover actually did come from the 1938 version of “the Mummy.” That plot-point was lifted & adapted to several vampire stories, including the late 60s soap opera “Dark Shadows” (waitress Maggie Evans is a lookalike for the vampire Barnabas Collins’ long-dead Josette). The idea worked it’s way into Werner Herzog’s 1979 version of “Nosferatu” and by the time Francis Ford Coppola adapted released “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” in the early 90s, most vampire fans (who never bothered to read the original novel) simply accepted that this was part of the original story. You left out a significant version using this idea – Richard Matheson’s script for the Dan Curtis TV version of Dracula, starring Jack Palance. If Francis Ford Coppola lifted it from anywhere, that’s where I’d place my bet. Curtis, of course, is responsible for Dark Shadows, too, so it’s not surprising the trope shows up in two of his productions. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/56 "2009-02-25T22:10:11Z")
The name of Dr. Frankenstein’s hunchbacked assistant in the 1931 Boris Karloff version of _[Frankenstein](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021884/)_ was not Igor (nor was it Eye-gor). It was Fritz. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/57 "2009-02-25T23:36:25Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > Good guys wear White Hats, bad guys wear Black Hats. One NPR critic said that, in Stars Wars The First, the good guys, mostly, were Americans, and the bad guys were British. I haven’t seen it, but a certain killer told me of an off-beat vampire flick set in the southwest US, called Sundowners, or something. The vamps wore big sombreros and sunglasses, and they lived in a little town in the middle of nowhere. The dim back of my brain tells me, when the good folks are fleeing the eeeevil folks, the leading lady always **turns her ankle.** Is that really a pattern? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/58 "2009-02-26T00:24:46Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > One NPR critic said that, in Stars Wars The First, the good guys, mostly, were Americans, and the bad guys were British. > > I haven’t seen it, but a certain killer told me of an off-beat vampire flick set in the southwest US, called Sundowners, or something. The vamps wore big sombreros and sunglasses, and they lived in a little town in the middle of nowhere. > > The dim back of my brain tells me, when the good folks are fleeing the eeeevil folks, the leading lady always **turns her ankle.** Is that really a pattern? It’s not as clear as an ankle always being turned, but yes, the hot blond damozel frequently stumbles. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/59 "2009-02-26T00:35:42Z")
> [@](#): > > The name of Dr. Frankenstein’s hunchbacked assistant in the 1931 Boris Karloff version of Frankenstein was not Igor (nor was it Eye-gor). It was Fritz. Dwight Fye came back to play a twisted asistant in the second film, **Bride of Frankenstein** , who wasn’t named Igor, either. Ygor was the deformed shepherd in the third film, **Son of Frankenstein** , played by Bela Lugosi. He was twisted because they tried to hang him, and didn’t kill him. He was tough to kill. Even though he died in Son of Frankenstein, he came back _again_ in the next film, **The Ghost of Frankenstein**. There was an assistant named “Fritz” as early as the 19th century in stage adaptations (and in Peggy Webling’s 20th century play that was nominally adopted for th 1931 film). He isn’t in Shelley’s novel, but Dr. Frankenstein needed someone to talk to onstage. “Fritz” is a pretty generaly, all-purpose German name, so it must have seemed natural. I suspect it didn’t sound EVIL enough, though, to American audiences (“I am Dr. Frankenstein, and this is my Evil Hunchbacked Assistant… Fritz!”), so comedians and the like used the name of the later assistant, Ygor. Of course, since **Young Frankenstein** was practically a spoof of Son of Frankenstein, it made sense to use Ygor, but I’ll bet they woulda used it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129/60 "2009-02-26T15:20:15Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Of course, since **Young Frankenstein** was practically a spoof of Son of Frankenstein, it made sense to use Ygor, but I’ll bet they woulda used it anyway. “Well, they were wrong then, weren’t they?” RR [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-everybody-knows-are-cliches-that-arent/487129.md?page=4)