# What is extremely common in TV or movies but almost never happens in real life? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 6, 2021, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311 "2021-02-06T04:16:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 158
**Author:** ![ColdBrew50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@ColdBrew50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdBrew50)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3142 "2024-01-08T21:15:07Z")
Falling down in the mud and getting kicked in the head by an iron boot. Never happens. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3143 "2024-01-08T22:31:45Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > But… it is acknowledging that, even for Nazis who have spent years being brainwashed into thinking of Jews as subhuman, killing people is not easy. And what’s hard is not the physical labor but the psychological toll. One of the reasons the Nazis turned to gas chambers was because of the emotional toll shooting innocent people in the head and having them fall into a mass grave was taking on the German soldiers. So they looked for a more impersonal, ‘industrial’ way of being incredibly evil assholes. As for .22 penetrating power, I’ve shot lots of .22 (and I’ve been shot by one - a ricochet that mashed flat on a train track and hit me on the flat - didn’t penetrate my skin through my jacket). I can’t imagine a .22 going through 6" of solid wood. Pine boards maybe if the bullet is just splitting the fibers of the softwood or something. A .22 can be a dangerous round, though. They tend to penetrate the body but instead of smashing through bones along the way they’ll deflect and tear up more soft tissue. There are stories of peoole being shot in the hip and having the exit wound be in the neck or something, or finding that the bullet deflected off a bone and ripped through a liver, kidney, stomach, etc. In some cases, a .22 has killed people that would have survived a more energetic bullet. For example, getting shot in the head, some bullets will just pass right through and if the bullet didn’t hit something critical the person might survive. A .22 in the same position might penetrate thr skull but instead of going through the back and out, ricochet off the back of the skull and rattle around inside the head. But stopping such a round with even a small bible is possible in some circumstances. For example, if the bullet already went through something else and flattened or fragmented, or if the first surface causes the bullet to tumble and hit the bible on its side. Some composite armor does this - one layer will disrupt the bullet, and other layers will absorb the fragments. Or the top layer will flatten the bullet, making it easier to stop in subsequent layers. And I hate to say it, but in the Revolutionary and civil wars, a common wounding projectile was bone fragments from another soldier. It’s common in many wars. Flak jackets are made for secondary impacts and generally won’t stop rifle rounds shot directly at you. But they might save you from bone shrapnel or other shrapnel. > [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > Anyone else wondering why it was necessary to gather a bunch of phone books from a crack house? > > Because people that live in crack houses shouldn’t stow phones. That deserves another mention. Nicely done! ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3144 "2024-01-09T18:27:46Z")
> [@ColdBrew50](#): > > Falling down in the mud and getting kicked in the head by an iron boot. > > Never happens. That’s true. People rarely wear iron boots anymore. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3145 "2024-01-09T18:43:00Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > That’s true. People rarely wear iron boots anymore. They rust in the mud. ---
**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:** [January 9, 2024, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3146 "2024-01-09T18:45:12Z")
Not sure if this has been brought up before, but when someone on TV or film pours a drink at home, it’s invariably from a glass decanter rather than the bottle it came in. Does anyone really do this? Why pour the booze from the bottle into another container? Ditto for milk served in a glass pitcher- I have never seen this in real life. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3147 "2024-01-09T19:46:11Z")
> [@ColdBrew50](#): > > Falling down in the mud and getting kicked in the head by an iron boot. > > Never happens. I think I need to up the class of my series/movies/books, because I’ve seen and read about people being “curb stomped”. It seems so brutal that I react viscerally… but then I think “It’s okay, that only happens in media about tough street thugs. You’re not going to face that in real life.” And if my heart rate’s up, I say “In fact, it’ll probably show up in that _Extremely Common, But Not In Real Life_ thread.” And that calms me down… Oh, look, it IS mentioned in that thread! ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3148 "2024-01-09T21:00:49Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Not sure if this has been brought up before, but when someone on TV or film pours a drink at home, it’s invariably from a glass decanter rather than the bottle it came in. Does anyone really do this? Why pour the booze from the bottle into another container? Ditto for milk served in a glass pitcher- I have never seen this in real life. I don’t know about booze, but my mother used to put milk and juice into pitchers. She also could never put a cooking pot onto the dinner table. Food had to be placed in serving dishes before bringing it out of the kitchen. As someone who loathed washing dishes, I hated the practice, but to my mother, this was The Way Things Are Done in Polite Society. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3149 "2024-01-09T21:05:50Z")
Good one. It does seem a fussy/hoity-toity trapping compared to my experiences at the dinner table as a pre-adult. In the case of the liquor from a decanter, I would offer that maybe it got the producers around showing a specific brand of liquor through the label and/or distinctive shape of the bottle. I would imagine a label-less decanter shows off the colored liquid better as well. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3150 "2024-01-09T21:31:38Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > In the case of the liquor from a decanter, I would offer that maybe it got the producers around showing a specific brand of liquor through the label and/or distinctive shape of the bottle. I would imagine a label-less decanter shows off the colored liquid better as well. Comedian Ron White used to perform with a bottle of scotch on a table. When I saw him, he hadn’t gotten a sponsor yet, so it was a decanter, saying “People ask me what scotch I drink. I’ll just say, if they pay me I’ll pull _their_ bottle on the table instead of mine.” (He’s recently gone sober.) ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3151 "2024-01-09T21:52:08Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > A .22 can be a dangerous round, though. They tend to penetrate the body but instead of smashing through bones along the way they’ll deflect and tear up more soft tissue. There are stories of peoole being shot in the hip and having the exit wound be in the neck or something, or finding that the bullet deflected off a bone and ripped through a liver, kidney, stomach, etc. In some cases, a .22 has killed people that would have survived a more energetic bullet. For example, getting shot in the head, some bullets will just pass right through and if the bullet didn’t hit something critical the person might survive. A .22 in the same position might penetrate thr skull but instead of going through the back and out, ricochet off the back of the skull and rattle around inside the head. Exactly what I was told by a California Highway Patrolman, explaining why he was more worried about getting shot with a .22 than a larger caliber handgun. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3152 "2024-01-09T22:20:22Z")
Yeah. The bullet is also small and it can be hard to find the entry wound, and if the bullet doesn’t pass through the body it could be deflected anywhere. However, the .22 is still a terrible defensive round, because it’s unlikely to kill or incapacitate quickly, and it doesn’t have enough energy to create hydrostatic shock that can drop someone instantly. If you don’t hit a critical point like the brain, the person might not even know they have been shot and will continue attacking you. And even if you aim for the head, there’s a chance the bullet will just ricochet off the skull if there was any angle involved. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3153 "2024-01-09T22:30:33Z")
Searching “liquor decanter” on Amazon brings up several pages of decanters, so apparently lots of people do it. If you want to be really posh, you buy a bottle and a set of glasses, all in a matching pattern. I was kind of intrigued by the Star Wars stormtrooper set, and the world globe set. ---
**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:** [January 9, 2024, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3154 "2024-01-09T22:37:15Z")
I saw that too so some people must do it, but I’ve personally never seen it in the flesh. Most likely is they don’t want to give free product placement to a distiller. Or they want us to think their rich character is drinking Crown Royal when it’s really Kessler. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3155 "2024-01-09T22:40:50Z")
If I went to someone’s house and they said “Make yourself a drink” (which has also never happened) and I saw a table full of decanters, I think my first question would be “How the hell am I supposed to know what’s what?” ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3156 "2024-01-09T22:43:53Z")
Amazon also sells a set of sterling silver tags, to label each bottle. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3157 "2024-01-09T23:03:49Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > If I went to someone’s house and they said “Make yourself a drink” (which has also never happened) and I saw a table full of decanters, I think my first question would be “How the hell am I supposed to know what’s what?” My pro-tip: pour yourself one shot glass of everything and drink them, then you’ll know. ---
**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:** [January 9, 2024, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3158 "2024-01-09T23:15:21Z")
Or you could shake the decanter so that a little of the booze is on the underside of the stopper, then just lick the stopper. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3159 "2024-01-09T23:21:45Z")
I find my method more fulfilling and hygienic. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3160 "2024-01-09T23:27:45Z")
I stayed in a suite at the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath and the ‘minibar’ was a bunch of decanters labelled whisky, vodka, gin etc. At checkout they send someone to measure the levels and then charge accordingly. They seem to trust their customers won’t just top up the clear liquors with water. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/3161 "2024-01-10T01:16:30Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > A .22 in the same position might penetrate thr skull but instead of going through the back and out, ricochet off the back of the skull and rattle around inside the head. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/KZQSo5VCJic/hqdefault.jpg "Testifing in New York - My Blue Heaven") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZQSo5VCJic) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311.md?page=157) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311.md?page=159)