# Things you assumed would happen in life, based on sitcoms/movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137 "2015-10-19T13:58:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137/141 "2015-10-31T12:34:08Z")
I assumed a valid career path entailed solving crimes, a red sports car, and a black friend with a helicopter. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137/142 "2015-10-31T14:57:38Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I would somehow find myself alone in a freezing cold environment, having to survive all by myself with no help. I once took a class in winter camping based on this idea. šŸ˜• whatā€™s this from? ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137/143 "2015-10-31T16:13:39Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > We donā€™t have ā€œhomecomingā€ either. We got a prom, but I quit school before I got to go to one. I also thought football games would be way more important than they turned out to be and that cheerleaders would be way more popular than they turned out to be. You obviously didnā€™t go to high school in the South. In regard to football and cheerleaders at my high school, Hollywood wasnā€™t too far off the mark. > [@TV\_time](#): > > When I became a newspaper editor, I quickly found many people wanted this myth to be true. So I kept a cheap bottle of rot gut in the bottom drawer. It came in handy a couple of times. Mind you, Iā€™m not saying booze is an answer, but holding a quarter coffee cup of cheap whiskey and talking can help deal with a day of a lot of stuff. I toured the Washington Post newsroom on a school trip with a girl (my soon-to-be very first girlfriend) who understood ASL. She spotted two deaf guys in the background talking about strolling off to the print room for a spliff. Maybe you should keep a dime bag of Maui Wowee, as well. I was certain that two or three classmates would die by jumping off the roof in the angel dust-induced belief they could fly. (On the othe hand, no TV show ever intimated that I would lose one to suicide.) ---
**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:** [October 31, 2015, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137/144 "2015-10-31T16:22:54Z")
That any female walking alone after dark would receive unwanted attention. And maybe be raped and/or killed. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137/145 "2015-10-31T16:23:16Z")
Iā€™ve visited London and Paris both, a handful of times. In none of those vacations have I ever had a hotel room with a view of Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower. I lived in NYC for 20 years, but never did I hang out with the exact same group of people at a diner / coffee-shop on a weekly basis. I never met my evil twin double. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137/146 "2015-10-31T16:53:06Z")
When TV shows do Halloween-themed episodes, the kids and the adults are shown in costumes that look like they are the product of professional makeup and costume people, probably because they are. When I was a kid, I always wondered why the costumes I tried to throw together for Halloween never looked that good. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137/147 "2015-10-31T17:19:49Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > When TV shows do Halloween-themed episodes, the kids and the adults are shown in costumes that look like they are the product of professional makeup and costume people, probably because they are. When I was a kid, I always wondered why the costumes I tried to throw together for Halloween never looked that good. Also, Halloween usually does not include any elaborate pranks that require half a dozen accomplices and some seriously intricate stage-setting. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137/148 "2015-10-31T17:48:53Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I would somehow find myself alone in a freezing cold environment, having to survive all by myself with no help. I once took a class in winter camping based on this idea. > [@Lumpy](#): > > šŸ˜• whatā€™s this from? A sitcom riffing on ā€œTo Build a Fireā€ by Jack London? ---
**Author:** ![oara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b77776/32.png) [@oara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oara)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137/149 "2015-10-31T18:32:16Z")
I thought that, unless you were a popular football player, girls would find you (you = teenage boy) annoying and theyā€™d prefer that you leave them alone. So, in my shyness, I thought I was being a good person for not talking to them. I also thought that, if you have a relationship in high school, you will go to different colleges and have a painful and somewhat protracted breakup. (And a relationship in college would have a similar painful breakup when you got jobs in different states.) So I thought it was unwise to have relationships until one reaches the adult working world. Thanks, assorted television movies and bullshit sitcoms! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137/150 "2015-10-31T18:38:40Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > I lived in NYC for 20 years, but never did I hang out with the exact same group of people at a diner / coffee-shop on a weekly basis. I did in the Bronx when I was in my 20s. At least, the same group of friends would go to the same bars, and often end up at the diner at some point during the night. (We knew the menu pretty much by heart.) ---
**Author:** ![rock\_party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@rock\_party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rock_party)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137/151 "2015-11-01T02:51:45Z")
I learned that there are readily available, easy to obtain substances that you can take or slip to others unknowingly that will make you (or them) Very smart Very funny Very strong Fall asleep Forget everything Hear everything Stay awake Put the room in suspended animation. Laugh and giggle Totally change personality (Jekell/Hyde) This ā€œdeviceā€ was used in so many 60ā€™s and 70ā€™s sitcoms. (Gilliganā€™s Island was really bad about it) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-assumed-would-happen-in-life-based-on-sitcoms-movies/735137.md?page=7)