# TV Show Plot Cliches You Hate **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 9, 2010, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689 "2010-08-09T09:21:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [August 9, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/21 "2010-08-09T14:34:34Z")
Fat guys married to hot babes. ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/22 "2010-08-09T14:35:21Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The ugly female who takes off her glasses and lets her hair down suddenly becomes beautiful. This. Or the tomboy working on the car cleans up good but still sits like a boy. Oh, and the teen hunk who is friends with the fat girl but doesn’t want to date her because he’ll be made fun of. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/23 "2010-08-09T14:42:18Z")
Any show that starts with someone walking in on the aftermath of some event, and then all the other characters tell their own self-aggrandizing versions of what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/24 "2010-08-09T15:22:06Z")
One of the main characters meets a close relative he never realized he had (e.g., Homer’s half-brother Herb Powell on _The Simpsons_, and Hank Hill’s half-Japanese half brother on _King of the Hill_). These relatives appear in no more than one or two episodes and then are completely forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/25 "2010-08-09T15:24:38Z")
Herb Powell never appeared again because he became rich so he was too good to talk to the Simpsons anymore Hank’s brother never appeared again because he lived on the other side of the world ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/26 "2010-08-09T15:25:26Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > For me, it is “twins”…one bad/one good…one dead/the other alive…same old same old. As soon as I see the story of “…and twins…” in the capsule, I dread seeing it. There was an episode of BUFFY that handled this trope very well indeed (primarily by setting it up as an “evil twin” story and then revealing that it was not so). ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/27 "2010-08-09T15:37:37Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > > [@DMark](#): > > > > For me, it is “twins”…one bad/one good…one dead/the other alive…same old same old. As soon as I see the story of “…and twins…” in the capsule, I dread seeing it. > > There was an episode of BUFFY that handled this trope very well indeed (primarily by setting it up as an “evil twin” story and then revealing that it was not so). Are we talking about the Xander split? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/28 "2010-08-09T15:52:56Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > For me, it is “twins”…one bad/one good…one dead/the other alive…same old same old. As soon as I see the story of “…and twins…” in the capsule, I dread seeing it. I make an exception to this rule for The Dukes of Hazzard, where Abraham Lincoln Hogg was of course the polar opposite of Jefferson Davis Hogg. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/29 "2010-08-09T15:59:50Z")
When one person is deceiving the other person in the relationship about who they really are, and s/he’s about to tell the other person, but is interrupted, and doesn’t bother trying again, and then the other person discovers it on their own, gets pissed off, and finally the deceiver convinces them of their true love. ---
**Author:** ![osme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/df788c/32.png) [@osme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/osme)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/30 "2010-08-09T16:01:21Z")
The husband leaving his pregnant wife at home while he races to the hospital or having a baby in an elevator. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/31 "2010-08-09T16:02:28Z")
Witty quip, followed by one of [putting sunglasses on or taking sunglasses off]. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/32 "2010-08-09T16:11:40Z")
> [@BobArrgh](#): > > Witty quip, followed by one of [putting sunglasses on or taking sunglasses off]. YEEEEEEEAHHHHH yeah ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/33 "2010-08-09T16:12:37Z")
> [@melodyharmonius](#): > > > [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > > > There was an episode of BUFFY that handled this trope very well indeed (primarily by setting it up as an “evil twin” story and then revealing that it was not so). > > Are we talking about the Xander split? That one. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/34 "2010-08-09T16:15:06Z")
I’m not a fan of any dream sequences. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/35 "2010-08-09T16:21:53Z")
Any seen where they disarm a bomb while the clock ticks down. This is a scene that is supposed to be dramatic, but we all know they will succeed (unless it is a guest star) with 001 left on the clock. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/36 "2010-08-09T16:26:29Z")
Yeah, do real bombs have countdown clocks anyway? ---
**Author:** ![vertizontal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@vertizontal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vertizontal)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/37 "2010-08-09T16:28:48Z")
I thankfully haven’t seen this one in a while, so maybe the concept is on the shelf for now, but I used to get very annoyed about the scenario where the guy would somehow get talked into having dates with two different women at the same restaurant. Hilarity ensued as he would constantly get up and run between tables to try and get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/38 "2010-08-09T16:35:35Z")
> [@Reverse](#): > > Two characters are talking, then a third character shows up behind a door or something and overhears part of the conversation. The third character then proceeds to draw wildly inaccurate conclusions based on the bit of the conversation s/he heard and drama ensues. That was every episode of Three’s Company. And yet I still watched for the T&A, the Roepers, and Mr. Furley. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/39 "2010-08-09T16:37:27Z")
Mentioned earlier, but I’ll elaborate: The one where the pregnant woman and the teenage doofus get stuck in an elevator. Something about being stuck in a sit-com elevator always causes pregnant women to immediately give birth and it also causes teenagers who can’t find their own behinds with a road map and a flashlight to suddenly develop obstetrical skills. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689/40 "2010-08-09T16:40:16Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Any seen where they disarm a bomb while the clock ticks down. This is a scene that is supposed to be dramatic, but we all know they will succeed (unless it is a guest star) with 001 left on the clock. I thought **Galaxy Quest** lampshaded that nicely. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-plot-cliches-you-hate/549689.md?page=3)