# 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:** 21
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/401 "2021-02-11T21:10:02Z")
Cop sitting at a computer, another cop standing behind them looking at same screen over their shoulder (because reasons). “Okay, give me a list of everyone who went to a middle school west of the Mississippi River between 1986 and 1993… who had an L or an R in their middle name… and sat fewer than 3 desks away from a Presbyterian… and roots for a Western Conference NBA team, and had a vegetarian aunt.” _click click clack._ “5 results. Here are their current addresses.” _You know good and damned well there’s no databasing like that._ ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/402 "2021-02-11T21:17:20Z")
Near the end, a list of credits always scrolls up the screen. Never happens IRL AFAIK. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/403 "2021-02-11T21:17:23Z")
> Village fetes are death-traps! And some fetes are worse than death. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/404 "2021-02-11T21:18:06Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > One extremely common trope that I’ve always been skeptical of, but don’t really know how common it might be. > > Detectives are investigating some heinous crime and are trying to talk to some crucial witness or possibly even suspect. They find the guy in middle of doing some mundane task, e.g. tending bar or cleaning out his pool or whatever, and try to talk to him. The guy has no interest in talking to them and is basically just anxious to get back to his task ASAP, so he answers a few questions - often while continuing to clean the pool or whatever at the same time… Mentioned upthread. > [@Riemann](#): > > And of course that brings to mind the famous conceit that occurs in _every_ episode of Law and Order: Briscoe and Green show up to ask you some questions about somebody you know who was the victim or perpetrator of some horrific crime, but you never _stop what you are doing_ to talk to them about this shocking turn of events. You carry on polishing glasses or selling bagels or trimming a poodle’s nails while giving them half your attention. Of course it doesn’t happen in real life - how often do homicide detectives show up to talk to you about some heinous crime? (Ok, maybe 2-3 times a week if you are New Yorker in the 1980s.) In _Law and Order_ it was an unrealistic but useful dramatic device, because it’s visually more interesting than watching people just standing still and talking. But the fact that it happened like clockwork as part of the routine set of scenes in every single episode turned it into a standing in-joke for devotees of the show, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/405 "2021-02-11T21:36:41Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Mentioned upthread. I had missed your post (sorry). > [@Riemann](#): > > In _Law and Order_ it was an unrealistic but useful dramatic device, because it’s visually more interesting than watching people just standing still and talking. I don’t think that’s what it is. You actually see the same thing in print literature where this doesn’t apply. (Not so much the guy continuing to do his thing, but the disinterest in talking to the cops and eagerness to get back to whatever mundane task he was doing.) I think it’s about making the obstacles facing the detectives greater, in that they have to overcome the disinterest/disinclination of the witnesses (among other obstacles). And yet, despite it all, they manage to solve the case and bust the perps! ---
**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:** [February 11, 2021, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/406 "2021-02-11T21:39:59Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > College items: > > Professors who are recognized as leaders in their fields will happily teach entry-level courses - because they like to meet “bright young minds”. Teaching assistants are never seen. > > Students do most of their learning in short discussion sessions with their peers, leaving the rest of the day available for whatever advances the plot. Books are fetishes to be carried around or left open on desks, never read. > > (Although, I knew some students who bragged that they never cracked a book until just before final exams…) Next you’ll tell me that working chemistry labs aren’t stuffed full of huge, elaborate arrays of test tubes, glass piping, and Erlenmeyer flasks full of brightly-colored liquids bubbling over Bunsen burners! IANA scientist, so I don’t know what a real chem lab looks like. But I suspect that the six-foot racks of laboratory glassware that look like a hamster run on steroids is Hollywood exaggeration, just to establish that a character is one a’ them brainy scientist-types. Probably wearing glasses and a lab coat. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/407 "2021-02-11T21:42:20Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > I think it’s about making the obstacles facing the detectives greater, in that they have to overcome the disinterest/disinclination of the witnesses (among other obstacles). And yet, despite it all, they manage to solve the case and bust the perps! This is probably also the motivation behind the “cryptic, yet all-knowing advisor” trope. Don’t leave me vague, but actually useful, clues for me to figure out. That’s about the worst thing you could do. You either want me to solve the mystery or not. Giving me a half-assed yet truthful answer isn’t helping you toward either goal. But it makes the heroes look soooo much more heroic! ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/408 "2021-02-11T21:57:24Z")
> [@Astrid1](#): > > Someone being fired and leaving the office with a brown box full of its stuff (usually a framed family picture is the last thing to be put in it after sobbing…) > Does this happen in real life? Oh, I can assure you it does happen. But sometimes the box is one of those white ones. ---
**Author:** ![blabbermeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9a140/32.png) [@blabbermeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blabbermeister)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/409 "2021-02-11T22:07:05Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Next you’ll tell me that working chemistry labs aren’t stuffed full of huge, elaborate arrays of test tubes, glass piping, and Erlenmeyer flasks full of brightly-colored liquids bubbling over Bunsen burners! I will not tell you that! In fact, physics labs have lasers so powerful they burn holes though the walls if pointed at them, yet teenagers can easily work this equipment - don’t worry, they wear protective goggles (which apparently the laser _can’t_ burn through). Also, lasers can be easily redirected to any direction using a sequence of ordinary mirrors, which can be aligned perfectly on the first try just by eyeballing. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/410 "2021-02-11T22:11:59Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > Well the odds are apparently increased by the hundreds of people who just love to sit in the stands and watch court cases they have nothing to do with. > > In their best suits and dresses of course. That’s because they have nothing better to do. 🥱😴 ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/411 "2021-02-11T22:39:36Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > I don’t think that’s what it is. [interviewees in a cop drama continuing to work while being interviewed being a useful dramatic device] > […] > I think it’s about making the obstacles facing the detectives greater, in that they have to overcome the disinterest/disinclination of the witnesses (among other obstacles). And yet, despite it all, they manage to solve the case and bust the perps! Well I would say it is both. In a long-running episodic show, it can be nice to give episodes a background theme, so instead of a standard interview in a private room (that might visually be hard to distinguish from an interview of a perp at the station) we get say, a tennis coach, walking along courtside with the cops while people are still practicing in the background, and maybe he’s even still giving some instructions. And the cops get to use various tennis puns. (Actually this made me think a funny example would be a _diving_ instructor, and the cops needing to put on full diving gear to follow him while he continues to do his job 😃) ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/412 "2021-02-11T22:52:17Z")
One show that used it very consistently was Columbo, where the murderers generally brushed off Columbo in this manner in the early stages. In that series, it’s likely that it was intended to convey the initial hubris of the murderers and their dismissal of the unassuming Columbo, only to have him steadily close in on them. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/413 "2021-02-11T23:17:09Z")
This never struck me as strange - but that’s probably because I never assumed that they were working overtime just because they were working during the day and at night. And that’s because at my non-police agency, the officers work 37.5 hours a week. Whichever 37.5 hours fit their caseload. They don’t work 8-4 Tuesday through Saturday - they might work 6am to 8:30 am Tuesday and then again from 5-10 Tuesday night. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/414 "2021-02-12T00:15:04Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Likewise, if a young woman throws up on TV or in a movie it always means she’s pregnant, unless it’s clearly shown to be a consequence of drinking too much. Stomach bugs don’t exist. That’s definitely a common trope, but I can think of one counter example. In the 2005 remake of Fever Pitch, a high-earning businesswoman agrees, with some trepidation, to a date with a schoolteacher. But when he arrives to pick her up, she tells him she’s sick; she ate at this new place, and she has to cancel. At first he thinks she might be faking to get out of the date, but when he hears her vomiting in the bathroom, he goes in and takes care of her all night, thus proving his good guy cred. ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/415 "2021-02-12T00:25:19Z")
A man who is drinking down his rotten luck and sorrows late at night in a bar alone gets the best advice in the world from a total stranger unsolicited and later when his life turns around in a happy ending that stranger is there at a distance, never revealing himself, but proud. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/416 "2021-02-12T00:53:31Z")
> [@pjd](#): > > Near the end, a list of credits always scrolls up the screen. > Never happens IRL AFAIK. Just you wait… ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/417 "2021-02-12T01:06:08Z")
Conversely, the guy on top of the world, drinking in a crowded club/bar is approached by a silent, lone stranger who ends up assassinating the drinker after a long, prolonged, non-silent gunfight. Tripler . . . with lots of broken glass and people scrambling off the dance floor. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/418 "2021-02-12T02:57:36Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Oh I never had a class taught by teaching assistants. Labs, yes. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/419 "2021-02-12T03:01:13Z")
Oh even better. “The name we have is Bob Smith”: “OK here are the three possible Bob Smiths.” Unless the name is really, really weird, and you are sure it’s not a typo, a name is almost worthless without something else. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/420 "2021-02-12T04:04:54Z")
> [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > when he hears her vomiting in the bathroom, he goes in and takes care of her all night, thus proving his good guy cred. (tangent) I recommend not doing this IRL, unless you think there’s a likelihood of them being in danger. When I’ve had a stomach bug, I really resented people insisting on coming to look after me, since it just added to my discomfort (while at the same time I understand it is a nice gesture). [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=20) [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=22)