# Those annoying cliches in movies and TV shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 23, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858 "2006-04-23T15:28:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/121 "2006-04-28T21:13:41Z")
Christians are always closed-minded and ignorant, at least in films made after th '80s. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/122 "2006-04-29T00:10:34Z")
> [@Mississippiene](#): > > The Prom is the end-all, be-all of your existence. You might as well committ ritual seppukku if you don’t have a date. I forgot about my prom until about 7pm on prom night, threw on a dress, went stag, and had a great time for a couple of hours. I didn’t stress about it for months beforehand, and it’s not the most important night of my life by any means. That’s not entirely inaccurate for a lot of high school students. Myself and the other couples in my group of friends coordinated everything down to the letter, with limo/restaurant/hotel reservations, one guy got his dad to stock the hotel room with the requisite alcoholic supplies, and another guy brought his music collection and turntables to the hotel and even coordinated a collective group pot buy and divvied the stash up in a little baggy for each individual and also got me a great deal on some llello to enjoy with my prom date. [hijack]She happily smoked and snorted my drugs, let me pay for her share of everything else, ignored me for most of the prom itself in favor of dancing with a mutual (female, at least) friend, and then dropped out of my life completely and got pregnant with some other guy. I haven’t heard from her since prom night two years ago. Her ambivalence towards me, after proclaiming her love for me and begging me to take her to prom (despite having a boyfriend at another school who wasn’t me), caused me to unfortunately forget to send her half of the pictures to her. (I actually tried to for a while and couldn’t get her address, and then decided to forget bout it). Whoops.[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/123 "2006-04-29T04:10:02Z")
Godlike beings who are supposed to sound impressive and mysterious because they don’t speak proper English. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/124 "2006-04-29T07:37:06Z")
I am sick to death of conversations taking place at urinals. It was bad enough when it was just the guys, but now they are dragging women in to talk with them while they pee. Oh, please. I’m drinking a margarita for God’s sake. ---
**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:** [April 29, 2006, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/125 "2006-04-29T07:42:35Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > I’m drinking a margarita for God’s sake. Me too!! Another one: the ridiculously hot chick that’s supposed to be ugly because she’s “pre-transformation.” Like Ally Sheedy was gross in **The Breakfast Club** before she wore makeup and pretty clothes. (I liked her better before, but that’s just me). c.f. Linda Carter, Sandra Bullock, Rachel Lee Cook, etc etc) ---
**Author:** ![Hogwash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@Hogwash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogwash)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/126 "2006-04-29T13:34:36Z")
If there are a group of people sitting together and two or more of them need to talk about somebody present without being heard, they’ll just stand up, move three feet away and carry on talking at normal level. It usually goes something like this: > [@](#): > > Joe (murder suspect): So I took her out to dinner and she got really sick from the shellfish she ordered. > > Jane (cop): Bob, can I talk to for a second? > > Bob (cop): Sure > > [Jane and Bob stand up, walk over to the drinks cabinet three feet away and carry on talking] > > Jane: Didn’t the victim have shellfish in her stomach? > > Bob: Yeah. I think this is our guy. > > [They walk back and sit down] > > Joe (who’s apparently been temporarily deaf for the past 30 seconds): Is everything OK? > > Jane: Fine It’s even worse when there’s only three of them, because the guy they are talking about won’t have anything to do besides eavesdropping on the conversation talking place right next to him. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/127 "2006-04-29T15:36:07Z")
Guy crossing the desert, stops, takes out his canteen, tries to take a drink, turns it upside down after failing to notice when he picked it up that it was empty, and then **throws it away, angrily.** There is so much wrong with that entire sequence I don’t know where to start. Five guys in an indoor setting, like an apartment, all firing automatic weapons for a minute or more, and no one hits anyone else! Later, the hero, who was one of the people involved hits the bad guy in the brachial plexus from fifty yards away with a handgun. The disguise never quite makes the actor unrecognizable, but fools the character’s mother and girlfriend completely. The ugly girl always wears glasses. If she ever takes off the glasses, she is now the hot chick. Her vision is suddenly improved, as well. Usually she will now be wearing a push up bra that was not evident earlier. Series television generally has one, and only one hot chick per cast. If a new hot chick is added, the old one will die that same episode. The hot chick wears high heels everywhere, even at home, in her bedroom, or out camping. ## Tris “It was a woman drove me to drink and I didn’t even have the decency to thank her.” ~ W.C. Fields ---
**Author:** ![Hogwash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@Hogwash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogwash)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/128 "2006-04-29T15:46:33Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > Guy crossing the desert, stops, takes out his canteen, tries to take a drink, turns it upside down after failing to notice when he picked it up that it was empty, and then \*\*throws it away, angrily. Similarly, when somebody on the verge of death by dehydration manages to eventually find a bottle of water, they’ll tip it in their mouth from two feet above their head, spilling it all over their face, spit some out, write their name in the sand with the spray, have a water fight with their hallucinatory talking cactus friend or other equally moronic acts of water wastage. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/129 "2006-04-29T23:53:23Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > I am sick to death of conversations taking place at urinals. It was bad enough when it was just the guys, but now they are dragging women in to talk with them while they pee. Huh? I’ve never seen this. Does this really happen? ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/130 "2006-04-30T00:36:47Z")
The Magical Disappearing-Reappearing Bra, most noticeable in B-flicks from the 70s. Our Heroine runs screaming from whatever heinous thing is chasing her - no bra! Twenty seconds later, after she’s stopped running to indulge in some Plot Exposition - bra! Heinous thing crashes through a wall and she takes off running again - no bra! Wonder Woman’s Wonder Stilettos are a closely related phenomenon. When she’s running her boots are flat-soled, when she’s standing still she could anchor a tent with the heels on those things. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/131 "2006-04-30T01:34:37Z")
Have we the done the “clothes go back on after sex” bit yet? I mean, come on! You wake up after having collapsed into sleep with the person who you had clothes off with, sticking things into each other and whot not, but right as you wake up, you suddenly have on boxers or a negligee? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Arien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arien)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/132 "2006-04-30T03:47:56Z")
Everyone knows their neighbors, whether they like them or hate them. Or maybe I’m weird for not knowing mine? Crazy people always have a Wall of Crazy (name from a now defunct message board) dedicated to whoever they’re obsessed with, complete with photos and newspaper clippings. Sometimes there’s a Shoebox of Crazy instead. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2006, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858/133 "2006-04-30T04:40:20Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Speaking of audio cues (we were, weren’t we?), I always enjoy it when mechanical devices make mechanical noises only when we need to be reminded of their mechanical nature. For instance, normally Data could pass as a regular human, but pop open his skull flap, and suddenly he’s beeping, whirring, buzzing, and flashing. Or Star Wars - Luke’s mechanical hand, again, seemed perfectly normal from the outside. But when he pops open the little flap to work on it, it starts making clicking noises with every movement. Or yet again, the Terminator movies. Most of the time, the terminators appear totall human. But let them get one small little hole in the human covering, or, worse, be reduced to their mechanical skeleton, and it’s “whirr, clonk, clonk, whine”. > > I guess they just have really really good soundproofing materials in the future that happens to look just like human flesh. Well, this doesn’t really cover the terminator, but the other mechanical devices were obviously entering a ‘maintenance mode.’ 🙂 The components are designed to be whisper-quiet during normal operation. However, in maintenance mode each component will make a slightly different sound designed to convey information about its operating condition, or simply to help you identify it from a number of superficially similar widgets. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-cliches-in-movies-and-tv-shows/353858.md?page=6)