# 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:** 218
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4347 "2024-11-02T04:29:02Z")
The business with the toilet in the Beaver episode? I remember it well. ---
**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:** [November 2, 2024, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4348 "2024-11-02T04:46:00Z")
I believe Larry’s last name was **Mondello** , not Mundelow. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4349 "2024-11-02T06:49:54Z")
Something in the same area as the ‘long story’ trope: Characters are in some sort of a sticky situation and one of them has come up with a plan. Camera zooms in slowly on them and the music as they confidently state ‘here’s what we’re gonna do…’ music then drops off and the screen fades to black, usually for an ad break edit or a jump to the execution of the plan. There’s usually quite a pause in the speech before the edit. It amuses me to imagine the action continuing, with the othrr characters stood there, motioning for them to continue, going ‘yeh, and…? What’s the plan? Why did you pause? Get on with it man!’ ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4350 "2024-11-02T07:15:29Z")
There came a point in every single police procedural from the 70s to the 2000s when cops would go into a bar full of shady characters, and for some reason the entire bar decides to go beat up these cops over a minor thing which there’s really no good ending for these bar patrons, as even if they win the fight they’re all still going to jail. It seemed like every episode of Walker Texas Ranger involved local bar thugs trying to beat up Officer Walker, and also Walker never seemed to just pull his gun out to end the potential bar fight and went out of his way to beat them up. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4351 "2024-11-02T11:18:30Z")
The final scene where two people hold guns pointed at each other, and then stop for a 3-minute conversation , in which they reveal all the loose ends in the plot. The guys with guns know each other. Maybe the bad guy is family member, or a rogue cop-gone-bad. The good guy bursts in, gun pointed at the bad guy, who has his gun pointed at a hostage. The bad guy turns his gun to point at the good guy, and then…nothing happens. Instead, they engage in deep philosophical discussion. –good guy: “Don’t do it, John!!! You know you’re better than that. Let me help you!” –bad guy: “I don’t believe you–why did you betray me last time?” –good guy: “that was for your own good. Now tell me the secret combination to the safe” –“If I give you the combination, I’ll go to jail” –“no, John—you don’t know what’s in the safe, that stuff you put in there is fake… If you cooperate, we’ll all be okay” This goes on for several overly-long minutes, both guys aiming at each other, with their fingers on the trigger the whole time. ---
**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:** [November 2, 2024, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4352 "2024-11-02T13:15:43Z")
This happened all the time in _ **Hogan’s Heroes** _. I was always amazed that Hogan could come up with “a plan” on the spur of the moment, and it never ever failed. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4353 "2024-11-02T15:05:32Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > ‘yeh, and…? What’s the plan? Why did you pause? Get on with it man!’ I’m sure I’ve said this before, in other threads, but I noticed long ago, as a child watching _Scooby Doo_, that it is possible to predict with almost 100% accuracy whether a plan will succeed. If we, the viewers, get to hear ahead of time how a plan is supposed to work, something will inevitably go awry when Our Heroes attempt to carry out their plan (because it would be bad, boring storytelling to tell us how something is supposed to happen and then show it happening exactly that way). On the other hand, if we don’t get to hear the explanation of how the plan is supposed to work, things _will_ go according to that plan. ---
**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:** [November 2, 2024, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4354 "2024-11-02T15:13:57Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > If we, the viewers, get to hear ahead of time how a plan is supposed to work, something will inevitably go awry when Our Heroes attempt to carry out their plan (because it would be bad, boring storytelling to tell us how something is supposed to happen and then show it happening exactly that way). Which is why I found the end of _An American Tail_ so unsatisfying. “Let’s run all the cats in New York out of town by scaring them off with a mechanical Giant Mouse of Minsk!” “Hey, what do you know - we did exactly that, and it worked perfectly!” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4355 "2024-11-02T15:39:49Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > If we, the viewers, get to hear ahead of time how a plan is supposed to work, something will inevitably go awry when Our Heroes attempt to carry out their plan (because it would be bad, boring storytelling to tell us how something is supposed to happen and then show it happening exactly that way). IIRC, someone once said that this _would’ve_ been the case in A FEW GOOD MEN, with Kaffee plainspokenly spelling out that, for us to win, Jessep has to say he gave the order — “And you can get him to say that?” “I think he _wants_ to say it! He made a decision, and that’s _it!_ … I’ll lead him right where he’s _dying_ to go.” “That’s the plan?” — but Jack Nicholson is so damned good at getting annoyed by Tom Cruise giving a shit-eating grin that, y’know, Oscar nominations ensued. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4356 "2024-11-02T16:49:41Z")
Or the typical scene where a cop is confronting a bad guy with his gun drawn, and the bad guy taunts him— “sure, you’re a real tough guy with a gun, aintcha?” After which the cop sets aside his gun and his badge so he can fight the bad guy Man To Man. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4357 "2024-11-02T18:23:53Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > This happened all the time in _ **Hogan’s Heroes** _. I was always amazed that Hogan could come up with “a plan” on the spur of the moment, and it never ever failed. Colonel Hogan was entrusted with one of the most deeply held Allied secrets of the war: an espionage/sabotage unit operating in the very heart of Germany itself under the German’s noses. Presumably he was one sharp fellow. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4358 "2024-11-02T18:28:14Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > It seemed like every episode of Walker Texas Ranger involved local bar thugs trying to beat up Officer Walker, and also Walker never seemed to just pull his gun out to end the potential bar fight and went out of his way to beat them up. > [@solost](#): > > Or the typical scene where a cop is confronting a bad guy with his gun drawn, and the bad guy taunts him— “sure, you’re a real tough guy with a gun, aintcha?” After which the cop sets aside his gun and his badge so he can fight the bad guy Man To Man. Hey, any Barney Fife can pull a gun; to gain the ~~fear~~ respect of the local yahoos, red necks and good ole’ boys, a lawman has to show that he can beat them to the ground any day of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4359 "2024-11-02T18:34:43Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > There’s usually quite a pause in the speech before the edit. It amuses me to imagine the action continuing, with the othrr characters stood there, motioning for them to continue, going ‘yeh, and…? What’s the plan? Why did you pause? Get on with it man!’ Subverted in an SNL skit where we open on a wedding reception and the best man is saying, “And that’s how they met.” The groom gets up and says, “That’s a weird speech. You only said, ‘And that’s how they met.’” ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4360 "2024-11-02T19:32:58Z")
Ha, that’s good! ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4361 "2024-11-02T19:33:55Z")
Reminds me of this send up… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/o8_9gHzW8vo/hqdefault.jpg "Naked Gun "Alright he's had enough" George Kennedy Lesley Nielsen") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8_9gHzW8vo) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4362 "2024-11-02T21:11:19Z")
American Dad had an episode where Francine is having a one-sided conversation on the phone to “sis” who I think by this point in the series wasn’t even introduced yet. Then she points out that is is indeed weird that she’s saying “sis” for the audience’s sake. Stan later talks to his “bro” and insists that he always talks this way, it’s not weird. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4363 "2024-11-02T21:55:29Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > Some low hangin’ fruit on this one. . . > > Another thing about bomb responses that bugs me is _just how close_ everyone is to the suspect package. Seriously, cordons in Hollywood are like, only 100’ away, with gawkers and looky-loos totally out in the open waiting for the “bang.” > > And of course, the hero **always** defaults to opening-for-a -peek/hand-cutting any motherf\*ckin wire while physically adjacent to the aforementioned suspect package. > > It’s almost as if 50 years of robotics technology just up and vanished from common sense. > > Tripler > No, one does **NOT** cut wires as a first step. I guess having the robot roll up and blast the device with a shotgun or water canon would be pretty boring. They also seem to make a big deal about binary explosives. Harmless when the components are separated but HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE WHEN MIXED TOGETHER SO BE CAREFUL!! (like Simon Gruber’s bomb’s in Die Hard 3) Um…yeah…but they aren’t mixed together, so big scary bomb is harmless. Just keep the components separate and destroy the overly complex mixing and detonating mechanism. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4364 "2024-11-02T21:58:42Z")
Has anyone ever gone to a fancy restaurant and actually been talked down to by a snooty and pretentious waiter or maitre d’? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4365 "2024-11-02T22:33:27Z")
YES! We went to a Michelin Star restaurant in Rome and they had a weird beef carpaccio. Quite good but sweet so clearly it was a sweet marinade. The server came up and asked my son how he liked the beef. You liked it? Ha!! It was watermelon made to look like beef, including the white rind to look like fat. OK, great you fooled us but did you have to make my son look like an idiot for thinking it was the food you purposely made it look like? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4366 "2024-11-02T22:52:26Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Or the typical scene where a cop is confronting a bad guy with his gun drawn, and the bad guy taunts him— “sure, you’re a real tough guy with a gun, aintcha?” After which the cop sets aside his gun and his badge so he can fight the bad guy Man To Man. Otto manipulated Archie in _A Fish Called Wanda_ to do exactly that-and promptly got the gun back. “I used to box at Oxford.” “And I used to kill for the CIA.” _fwip_ right below his groin. [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=217) [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=219)