# 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:** 228
**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 16, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4547 "2025-01-16T17:51:50Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Even leaving their socks on? Sometimes. If they’re cold. So I hear. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4548 "2025-01-16T18:10:04Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > After some time women kept their bras on for TV shows and in movies once actresses no longer felt the need to appear topless to demonstrate their serious commitment to the art. But there are bras under pajama tops. That is what Mrs. Cad says almost never happens. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4549 "2025-01-16T18:10:27Z")
Yes, a garbage disposal is basically a powered cheese grater that uses water, not a blender or fan. You should still physically unplug the disposal under your sink before reaching in, I’m pretty sure house demons can’t plug things in. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4550 "2025-01-16T18:22:23Z")
For many women with larger breasts it is more comfortable to wear a bra or top with support (“shelf”) to sleep. The weight can just pull and be uncomfortable in various positions. I slept with a nursing bra for the better part of a year when I was nursing. It was much more comfortable with respect to engorgement and sensitive nipples and I could wear pads to deal with the letdown leaking when baby latched. Sexy, huh? I suspect it’s more common than your wife thinks, but also just isn’t something discussed unless in particular communities (message boards for things like breast reduction, or breastfeeding). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4551 "2025-01-16T18:32:23Z")
My wife does that occasionally but usually not. I’m guessing most women want to get those things off after wearing them all day. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4552 "2025-01-16T18:41:26Z")
They make a sort of breast bolster for women with larger breasts. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4553 "2025-01-16T19:25:18Z")
I don’t know how anyone could know if it’s extremely common or not - I know what I do but I don’t even know the answer for my sister or my friends, much less the rest of womankind. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4554 "2025-01-16T19:28:46Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Even leaving their socks on? You can leave your hat on. (Generic “you”) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4555 "2025-01-16T19:36:02Z")
> [@solost](#): > > If you had your hand down there and it suddenly turned on, you’d probably get the tips of your fingers torn up, and it wouldn’t be fun, but you’d immediately be able to pull your mostly intact hand out. Yeah, it would hurt, and maybe you’d want to go to urgent care, but not that bad. I have known a couple of women that left a sexy bra on when going to bed- but it was removed when it came time for sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4556 "2025-01-16T20:11:01Z")
I dated a woman with huge breasts who literally only took off her bra during a normal day when taking a shower or when we were about to get intimate, and after that was done she’d get out of bed and immediately put the bra back on. I asked her about it and she said they were so heavy she needed all the support she could get, so she slept in it almost all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4557 "2025-01-17T06:08:00Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Sometimes. If they’re cold. Nothing gets me going like a pair of cold socks. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4558 "2025-01-17T08:10:18Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Instead of racing to untie his beloved from the train tracks, our hero could have sent a telegram by phoning the nearest station, which would contact the moving train via a system of induction. ([Granville Woods - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Woods)) Aside from the fact that racing the train on horseback is more visually engaging, probably a lot of the audience did not know that. Also, I doubt the villains provided map co-ordinates. They probably gave directions like “go to the overhanging black rock and turn north, come to to the cross track and follow the upper left leg of the X for seven minutes at full gallop, then find her 10 yards from an apple tree” > [@solost](#): > > If you had your hand down there and it suddenly turned on, you’d probably get the tips of your fingers torn up, and it wouldn’t be fun, They make a child- & poltergeist-safe kind of disposal that my parents had installed in our house. Instead on a wall switch, the switch is engaged by putting a disposal drain cover over the disposal, and turning the T handle on top of it. It is impossible to turn it on without it being covered, in other words. > [@TriPolar](#): > > My wife does that occasionally but usually not. I’m guessing most women want to get those things off after wearing them all day. Oooooh! Teacher, Teacher! Pick me! And I’m a 38DD who nursed a baby for over 2 years (if I hadn’t forced him to wean, I think he’d still be at it, and he just turned 18). I hate the damn thngs. And the dude who invented them. And his horse. And dog. OK, maybe not the dog. Unless it was one of those little yappy ones. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4559 "2025-01-17T21:04:15Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > OK, maybe not the dog. Unless it was one of those little yappy ones. LOL 🤣 😆 ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4560 "2025-01-18T03:34:56Z")
In the mostly excellent series _Orphan Black_, there is an episode in which a character is leaning over a sink wearing a scarf around their neck. The scarf gets caught in the garbage disposal gets pulled in, strangling the person. They cannot reach the switch to turn off the disposal because it’s way over on the other side of the room, far out of reach. I guess it’s VERY remotely possible for a scarf to get tangled in a disposal in such a way that it will get pulled in like that, but to me the part that was hard to accept was that a kitchen would be designed with the disposal switch out of reach of the sink. How would you even use a disposal in normal operation with such a design? You turn on the water, walk across the room to turn on the disposal, walk back to the sink and put the items into the disposal, walk back to the switch to turn it off, then walk back to the sink to turn off the water? Has there ever been a kitchen with such a bizarre positioning of the disposal switch? (But I don’t think that either the scarf-caught-in-disposal motif nor the disposal-switch-out-of-reach motif is common, so they don’t really belong in this thread.) ---
**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:** [January 18, 2025, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4561 "2025-01-18T15:21:19Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > I guess it’s VERY remotely possible for a scarf to get tangled in a disposal in such a way that it will get pulled in like that I don’t really think it would be possible. As I mentioned a little bit upthread, the ability of garbage disposals to cause us serious harm has been greatly exaggerated in TV and movies. Death by scarf misadventure has actually happened, when [Isadora Duncan’s long scarf wrapped around a car axle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isadora_Duncan#Death), and a garbage disposal does spin, but there’d be nothing really to wrap the scarf around, and the disposal would probably jam long before it pulled the scarf in to any great degree. ---
**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 18, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4562 "2025-01-18T15:53:49Z")
“Garbage disposal scarf death” would have made a great Mythbusters episode. ---
**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:** [January 18, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4563 "2025-01-18T16:03:51Z")
A Mythbusters ‘Garbage Disposal Scarf Death’ segment probably would have gone like this: 1. The Mythbusters quickly and anticlimactically prove that it isn’t possible. 2. They blow up the garbage disposal with dynamite just to literally end the lackluster segment with a bang. ---
**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 18, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4564 "2025-01-18T17:09:09Z")
Or, they build a giant disposal and hook up an industrial vacuum pump to it to suck Buster into it. ---
**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 18, 2025, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4565 "2025-01-18T17:21:46Z")
Serge could make it work. Too bad Tim Dorsey has left us. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/4566 "2025-01-18T17:33:04Z")
There would be a rocket motor involved somehow as well. Oh, oh, and a giant industrial press. [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=227) [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=229)