The only good part of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was when the hero only fell in love with the hot weatherbabe when she put on her glasses, put up her hair, and let her inner geek out.
As for me, I can’t remember the last time I saw a good amnesia plot, I hate rushes to the hospital to have a baby, and don’t much like the old minor character tells relatives that he/she is rich/important, and the major characters have to act as if he/she is. It didn’t even work when Lurch was that character.
The two characters that have a generally trusting and supportive relationship. One of them finds an object or hears a piece of information and jumps to a completely insane conclusion.
Example: Husband tells his wife he will be working late at the office regularly for a while to meet a deadline. One evening the wife calls his office and finds out that he has not been working late. :eek: Instead of, you know, asking him about it like a normal person, she freaks out and assumes he is cheating on her. Then she proceeds to harass his friends, accuse a woman he knows of sleeping with him, or stalks him in an effort to prove his disloyalty. Of course, it turns out that he’s taken a second job and didn’t want her to know because he will be using the money to buy her a super special present.
This type of scenario makes up like 80% of the Dick Van Dyke Show.
Both the set-up AND the trope were beautifully lampshaded in Not Another Teen Movie.
The cocky jock who made the bet to date the ugliest girl in school: “Oh, the albino folksinger doesn’t count, no, not the siamese twins…”
Jock friend: “How about the cute girl, except for the glasses and ponytail?”
“No, not Janey! She’s got glasses! Ugggh! And a ponytail! Ooooh! And she’s wearing paint-covered overalls! Ugggh!”
And later in the movie, the more experienced hottie does a “makeover” on Janey, which consists of just pulling her hair down and glasses off.
I’d like to take a moment to just point out that I have never seen any of those “parody” movies, and would probably hate them. But this was recommended as a Quality Trope-Bustin’ Comedy… and it is!
Bonus points if, as a result of eavesdropping, a character thinks he only has X weeks to live. Extra bonus if the misunderstanding is cleared up while the character is standing on a precipitous building ledge (I’m looking at you, WKRP!).
I hate the “two protagonists are about to consummate their sexual tension with a kiss and then threepio shows up to fuck it up and the moment is gone” trope. Screw that, I’m not letting any interruption stop me from doing some liplocking.
I also hated that Three’s Company episode with the misunderstanding.
“Vitameatavegamin” was more about her getting tipsy while doing the thing she supposed to do. Inappropriate but not against expectations of type exactly.
Examples closer the above would be Lucy getting debilitating eye drops put in right before she does the dance number when Ricky finally lets her be in the show, or taking too many seasick pills right before she has to get her passport by affirming she’s a citizen but she’s too drowsy. (A different type of example is Lucy getting completely sunburned after making a deal with Don Loeper to get his expensive dress for free (since Ricky’s too cheap to pay for it) if she models one of his wool dresses (ouch!) in a charity fashion show.
Along the lines of the OP, it’s cliche when one character asks another character to pretend to be a significant other or spouse to fool the parents, the boss, etc.
I hate when the writers create some implausible scenario which throws a bunch of co-workers together for a major holiday. People spend Christmas and Thanksgiving with their families, not the buffoon in Accounting.
(Examples: Bones, Cheers)
Similarly, I hate Halloween episodes which show normal people in costumes that were would cost hundreds of dollars and were clearly designed by professionals. If you’ve ever been to a Halloween party, you will see lame, cheap, mass produced costumes – a devil with horns glued to a hair band and a safety-pinned-on-the-ass sequined tail, a vampire with a polyester cape and plastic teeth… with maybe one gem in the whole bunch.
(Examples: Roseanne, Buffy)
I never minded when Mulder and Scully were working during Christmas or whatever. But by then, who else have they got?
I hate defensive older brothers who don’t stop to listen to a damn thing and just barrel their way through everybody being all TOUGH and MANLY. The girl can take care of herself. Bill Scully, I’m looking at you.
PunditLisa, I hear you however, you have not hung around with enough Geeks. We tend to actually spend a lot of money on our costumes because not only do we wear them at Halloween, we also wear them to conventions and fairs throughout the years
The scene where a character is in the bathtub and more people than I’ve known in my entire life parade though the bathroom. Fortunately, the character used more bubble bath than I have used in my entire life.
How about…when a TV character (primarily a drama or police procedural) gets married, is in the hospital, or dies. Who is at the wedding, visits at the hospital, or attends the funeral? Co-workers! Where is the grieving family? These people live in a vacuum of work/one personal relationship/office buddies. I’m thinking of Jimmy Smits dying in NYPD Blue. Except for Diane and Sipowitz, he never had any visitors. … A comedy is different, the family is played for laughs . But in a drama, our strong, silent hero journies through life a Lone Wolf. No nagging mom, no Troublesome Little Sister, no relative hijacking the wedding/funeral.
Nobody has mentioned the entire cast of supporting characters that will stalk you? You cannot get rid of them even if you go to a different school, get a job, or move cross country! They will follow you to your grave and then jump in!
On Friday Night Lights this season, a character (high school student) has an abortion (breaking the cycle of single motherhood and poverty which her own mother is in), and the coach’s wife got in deep doo-doo with fundamentalist parents and school board for having providing her with contact information on that option as well as all the other options.
Neighbors in sitcoms who just barge in, spout one line, and then leave! As if they could predict the future and know that the line was their entire point without knowing that a context to utter that line would be available.
Let me illustrate that with an example from Seinfeld. This was during the Bizarro World episode:
(knock on the door of Kevin’s [Bizarro Jerry] apartment)
Feldman (Bizarro Kramer) enters.
Feldman: Hey Kevin, look who I ran into
Vargus (Bizarro Newman) enters.
Vargus: Hello, Kevin
Kevin: Hello, Vargus
They laugh and shake hands
Kevin: Hey, you wanna catch a ballgame this weekend?
Vargus: Great, I’ll see you later!
Now WTF was he there for if Kevin didn’t ask about the ballgame? Was he just going to show up, say hi, and leave? They’re friends! At least give him a credible reason to be there! This happens all the time in Seinfeld and sometimes when I think about it, it drives me crazy
God, I hate that! It seems like half (or more) of romantic comedies have this happen. Really now. Any woman who’s so fickle that she’d dump her fiance on their wedding day, isn’t someone that any sane man would want to have a relationship with. How long is it going to be before she dumps you for the next guy? I always feel sorry for the jilted fiance.
