# Things that are extremely common in TV shows/movies that you've rarely seen in real life **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161 "2009-08-29T16:20:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![kitemaker\_chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e4f/32.png) [@kitemaker\_chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitemaker_chuck)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/121 "2009-08-30T17:08:48Z")
One thing I’ve noticed is when they show men in the military, (in uniform), many times the person’s hair is much too long, and it seems to be accepted as normal. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/122 "2009-08-30T18:00:16Z")
> [@StuffLikeThatThere](#): > > I’ve never seen anyone _else_ do it, but my husband does this. Or if it goes all crackly and he can’t hear, he’ll do the same thing. He’s goofy. 🙂 I’ll do it if the reception’s bad, just to look at my bars and/or make sure the phone’s not suddenly disconnected. ---
**Author:** ![Obsidian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/51bf81/32.png) [@Obsidian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obsidian)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/123 "2009-08-30T18:02:09Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Obsidian did you even read the thread? Most of those have been mentioned more than once already. Yep. I was trying to make a point about them being common in California, specifically where much of the entertainment industry is located, and so made a conglomerated list. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. It was 2:34 AM. Bakery boxes and Chinese cartons were the only items mentioned multiple times, including by **you** immediately before me. Did you desperately need to be the last and final word on paper food containers or something? ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/124 "2009-08-30T18:28:26Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > People smoking weed with plastic bongs. (I have never encountered anyone who didn’t use real glass. Even pot smokers who are totally broke and live in shitholes will have hundred-dollar glass.) I take issue with this. I used to know people who got stoned regularly and still resorted to making bongs out of milk jugs and water bottles. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/125 "2009-08-30T18:29:53Z")
You know those sitcoms that had bachelor auctions? And wackiness always ensued? I’ve never seen or heard of a bachelor auction in real life. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/126 "2009-08-30T18:31:22Z")
How about how people always yell “HE’S GOT A GUN!!!”? Isn’t it likely that in real life, that would virtually guarantee that somebody is getting shot? ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/127 "2009-08-30T18:43:48Z")
> [@kitemaker\_chuck](#): > > One thing I’ve noticed is when they show men in the military, (in uniform), many times the person’s hair is much too long, and it seems to be accepted as normal. In film and television shows, extras get paid about $50 a day. Few want to have a real military cut just to earn $50, so many casting agents simply live with what they get and pick the guys with the shortest hair who show up that day. A lead actor, getting paid a lot more, will have no problem getting the hair cut. Plus, some extras who will be on a film for several weeks and get a larger paycheck will probably be convinced to get the haircut as well. Not an excuse for bad casting, but that is probably why you see it. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/128 "2009-08-30T18:57:54Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > How about how people always yell “HE’S GOT A GUN!!!”? Isn’t it likely that in real life, that would virtually guarantee that somebody is getting shot? and the opposite: there’s a guy holding a gun pointed someone, and intsead a shooting, you get 3 minutes of small talk between the characters, as they calmy re-hash the enitire plot of the episode. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/129 "2009-08-30T19:01:05Z")
Bickering people trapped together in basements, elevators, storage rooms etc. After they are rescued, they are the best of friends with no more issues with each other. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/130 "2009-08-30T19:31:19Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Beers are interchangeable to some of us. I could see myself not thinking and just ordering a beer if I ever found myself in a bar. I used to order “lager,” knowing that in Philadelphia I’d get a Yuengling unless I specified something else. I’d want to see how many taps the bars are running on TV before I thought it was odd that someone would just order “beer.” ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/131 "2009-08-30T19:37:37Z")
> [@coffinjumper](#): > > Make out points. The one spot where all the cars are that the police are never at. They’re so ingrained in films and tv that they must have existed at some point, but no one I know has ever seen them. And this is out of 3 generations we’ve asked. Here in my town it was called “Pecker Point”. It was a large turnout on the side of a road that was up on a hill overlooking the city. The official purpose of the turnout was, of course, to provide a place for people to pull off the road and enjoy the view of the valley and town, but at night it was an ideal makeout spot. It’s fallen into disuse in the last ten years or so, due to new houses being built on the sidehill right above it, removing the privacy the spot once enjoyed. I don’t know where the kids go now. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/132 "2009-08-30T20:02:22Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > I take issue with this. I used to know people who got stoned regularly and still resorted to making bongs out of milk jugs and water bottles. And in contrast, I knew an apartment of super broke college students who relied on their minimum wage food service jobs’ free food for more than half their meals each week who had a gorgeous iridescent glass bong, several glass pipes, and an electric bill that hadn’t been paid in months. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/133 "2009-08-30T20:11:08Z")
We were just watching _The Wire_, and I was struck by something - for once, somebody said something really funny and _somebody else in the scene laughed_. That never happens on TV! In real life, if there’s me and you and our buddy Bill and I say some badass hilarious putdown to you, Bill is going to crack up laughing. That’s the point! Why am I trying to be funny if nobody’s going to laugh? ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/134 "2009-08-30T20:17:27Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > We were just watching _The Wire_, and I was struck by something - for once, somebody said something really funny and _somebody else in the scene laughed_. That never happens on TV! In real life, if there’s me and you and our buddy Bill and I say some badass hilarious putdown to you, Bill is going to crack up laughing. That’s the point! Why am I trying to be funny if nobody’s going to laugh? Actually, one thing I really liked about **The Drew Carey Show** was that they regularly laughed at each other’s jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/135 "2009-08-30T20:34:44Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Maybe I grew up in the lower classes, but I have never once in my life had a friend who had one of those well-dressed, affluent, tipsy, country-club luncheon- going WASP ladies who are such a hideous EMBARRASSMENT to their yuppie daughters. The WASP mother calls them ‘Dear’ and pries into their business. The yuppie daughter is annoyed and embarrassed - “Mooootthhhheerrrrr!!! Please!” (example: Maggie’s mother on Northern Exposure.) Corrollary: the WASP father can do no wrong, and the daughter is Daddy’s Little Princesss… I know they exist, I know they are out there, and I know money and ‘breeding’ have nothing to do with parent/child love. It’s just that they’re such cliches. They weren’t WASPs (they were Jewish), but this makes me think of Rachel and her parents on “Friends.” ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/136 "2009-08-30T20:47:40Z")
Anytime you see a man without his shirt on in almost any TV show or movie since about 1995, the man’s torso will be entirely free of hair except for his armpits. I don’t know _any_ men, myself included, who habitually shave/wax their chest hair. ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/137 "2009-08-30T20:50:10Z")
People who wake up from a nightmare with a gasp and sit bolt upright in bed. On a related note, people who wake up in the morning looking perfect, sit up straight and stretch their arms above their heads. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/138 "2009-08-30T20:53:00Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > Actually, one thing I really liked about **The Drew Carey Show** was that they regularly laughed at each other’s jokes. It makes, say, Joss Whedon characters look undeservedly smarmy when they don’t laugh at each other’s jokes. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/139 "2009-08-30T22:01:47Z")
> [@Leiko](#): > > And in contrast, I knew an apartment of super broke college students who relied on their minimum wage food service jobs’ free food for more than half their meals each week who had a gorgeous iridescent glass bong, several glass pipes, and an electric bill that hadn’t been paid in months. Believe me, I’m aware some stoners have extravagant bongs, but some don’t. Some alcoholics drink from fine crystal, some drink from the bottle. ETA: …_and_ I finally realize I’m kind of fighting the premise of the thread, which is “things you personally don’t encounter regularly,” so I’ll take my plastic bongs and pink bakery boxes and go home. ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/140 "2009-08-30T22:04:21Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Apple Mac computer are much more common on TV or in movies as household items than IRL. Same here - NZ soap Shortland St everyone that has a computer has a Mac. I’ve always assumed that Apple has organised product placement. I am a merchandiser & I see one of my products on the same soap all the time. & this is mainly Shortland St as wll but I have seen it on other shows. People walking off jobs without giving proper notice. I’ve worked most of the last 36 years & have only known one real life person to do that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161.md?page=8)