# 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:** 23
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/441 "2021-02-12T21:23:50Z")
Yeah, my experience was like a very localized version of that. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/442 "2021-02-12T22:11:07Z")
I have been to several company dinners or other events where people dressed very nicely, all in a room together. In some instances the food was on a couple of tables to serve buffet-style. Fair enough. I have never seen a table at any such gathering filled almost-to-overflowing with pies and cakes. I have never seen an argument break out where one patron picks up a pie to hurl into the face of the other. I have never seen this sort of altercation escalate to where everyone in the room is now throwing pies at one another…usually with uncanny accuracy where **every** cream pie impacts a man or woman in the face, splattering messily and burying their features in cream and fruit and flaky brown crust. I have never seen an entire room of dinner-party guests flinging such pastries at one another, looking like an army of snowmen. Never. I must not go to the right parties. ---
**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:** [February 12, 2021, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/443 "2021-02-12T22:40:30Z")
Well, [The Battle of the Century](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_the_Century) was almost a hundred years ago. It’s time for a new one. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2021, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/444 "2021-02-12T23:21:39Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > 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. Depending on the institution, this can happen. In the US, for example, there are quite a few prominent researchers with positions at liberal-arts undergraduate colleges with no graduate teaching assistants, who will routinely teach regular undergraduate courses, including some entry-level ones. The most striking example of this phenomenon I know of personally is a currently-emeritus Fields Medalist mathematician (the Fields Medal is basically the mathematics equivalent of a Nobel Prize for research in other disciplines) who occasionally taught introductory-level courses for non-majors at an Ivy League university. Ordinarily, however, at the large research universities where most distinguished researchers are found, it’s rare to see one of them in an undergraduate class, let alone an entry-level one. But when you do find one there, it’s because they want (or are being forced by their department) to do their share of the routine teaching load along with their colleagues. Not because they’re on the lookout for “bright young minds” to mentor. Superstar researchers know perfectly well that if they just keep plugging along in their research offices and graduate seminar rooms, many of the brightest of the “bright young minds” will work their way up into upper-level courses and come to find them. The typical mentees of a superstar don’t need to be “discovered” in an entry-level course; they already placed out of the entry-level courses with a bunch of AP credits and went on to ace the upper-level courses as well. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/445 "2021-02-13T00:06:04Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Some people salt their beer. I only knew this from Murch, the driver in the Dortmunder caper novels. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/446 "2021-02-13T00:25:15Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > I have never seen an entire room of dinner-party guests flinging such pastries at one another, looking like an army of snowmen. > > Never. I must not go to the right parties. > [@markn\_1](#): > > Well, [The Battle of the Century](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_the_Century) was almost a hundred years ago. It’s time for a new one. 1965 isn’t exactly _new_, but try this one on for size anyhow: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/SDJQ7zn3-2g/hqdefault.jpg "The Great Pie Fight") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDJQ7zn3-2g) Truly epic. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/447 "2021-02-13T00:56:09Z")
Yes, _The Great Race_ pie fight is a masterpiece of the art form. (My only complaint: only one woman. OTOH it’s Natalie Wood in her prime, in a bustier). The point of my post - and one indeed, this thread - this never happens IRL… Or at least, not with such epic results. For one thing, real pies would not splatter and stick like that to someone’s face. ---
**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:** [February 13, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/448 "2021-02-13T03:28:40Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > For one thing, real pies would not splatter and stick like that to someone’s face. I’ve read in several places that in fact real pies were used. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/449 "2021-02-13T03:32:04Z")
Look like Meringue , those woudl stick. ---
**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 13, 2021, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/450 "2021-02-13T05:02:11Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Superstar researchers know perfectly well that if they just keep plugging along in their research offices and graduate seminar rooms, many of the brightest of the “bright young minds” will work their way up into upper-level courses and come to find them. The typical mentees of a superstar don’t need to be “discovered” in an entry-level course; they already placed out of the entry-level courses with a bunch of AP credits and went on to ace the upper-level courses as well. This is another difference between film + TV versus the real world: hard work is completely devalued. The “chosen one” student will usually just be innately skilled at some topic, right from the get go without apparently needing to do much. Alternatively, they may be the geek stereotype where we see them going through a stack of books or whatever. But usually this is their character trait; it’s rarely something they _must_ do to achieve some level of qualification or understanding, and they are almost never surrounded by others helping to push them along. I understand why these differences exist of course; reality isn’t always that interesting or suitable for fun stories. But it does plant the seed in many people’s mind that succeeding in academia is merely a matter of being born “book smart”. ---
**Author:** ![blabbermeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9a140/32.png) [@blabbermeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blabbermeister)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/451 "2021-02-13T05:06:00Z")
On that note, whenever there’s a “studying” scene, someone goes to the library and takes out a huge pile of books, and apparently has time to study them all in one night. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/452 "2021-02-13T07:50:16Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > ext 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. My grandfather was a chemist for Alcoa. He said when the company big wigs came down all the way from St. Louis for a tour he had to set up the lab exactly like that using food coloring and water. So maybe it does happen from time to time in real life but it’s still b.s. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/453 "2021-02-13T12:01:18Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > This is another difference between film + TV versus the real world: hard work is completely devalued. > The “chosen one” student will usually just be innately skilled at some topic, right from the get go without apparently needing to do much. > Alternatively, they may be the geek stereotype where we see them going through a stack of books or whatever. But usually this is their character trait; it’s rarely something they _must_ do to achieve some level of qualification or understanding, and they are almost never surrounded by others helping to push them along. > > I understand why these differences exist of course; reality isn’t always that interesting or suitable for fun stories. But it does plant the seed in many people’s mind that succeeding in academia is merely a matter of being born “book smart”. Thank you for this. I could not agree more. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/454 "2021-02-13T12:05:12Z")
Although not EXTREMELY common, there’s an ongoing thing about chemistry labs with colored fluids running around elaborate constructions of glassware: The brownish end product drips into a beaker. The chemist picks up the beaker, drinks from it, and sighs “Good coffee!”. Bonus points if a visitor is offered a cup first. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/455 "2021-02-13T12:08:55Z")
> [@JackieLikesVariety](#): > > > [@kayaker](#): > > > > Some people salt their beer. > > I only knew this from Murch, the driver in the Dortmunder caper novels Hey, I read Westlake too, Jackie!!! ---
**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 13, 2021, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/456 "2021-02-13T16:54:04Z")
I did this all the time in college. The thing is, you don’t need to read ALL the material to pass a quiz/eaxm or write a term paper. All you have to do is review the main points and/or select the information that will support or refute your thesis. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/457 "2021-02-13T17:35:30Z")
Often, in films and TV, there is justice. ---
**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 13, 2021, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/458 "2021-02-13T17:44:14Z")
Unless, of course, it’s really Fat Bastard’s stool sample. 🤮 ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/459 "2021-02-13T17:48:17Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > Tv detectives and even regular street cops work a case 24 hours a day. Day shift, night shift, it doesn’t matter. No one seems to be interested in getting paid overtime and the bosses never seem to be concerned about paying overtime. Of course that’s exactly how it is in real life. > > The papers here are full of stories about lack of uniformed police, because they aren’t rostered on. But when the ex-homicide detectives are interviewed here, they say things like ‘The first 48 hours are important’ and ‘It interferes with your family life, because when a case is active you’re working 20 hour days’. Some overtime is inevitable. I have also been told very directly from a boss that overtime is a failure of management. Even though overtime is inevitable what doesn’t happen is that no one cares about it. Those that are working are very aware of making extra money. Bosses are trying to get them off work as soon as possible. Their boss is asking why it was necessary to pay overtime. Whatever level of civilian government is above them is constantly bitching about how much money is being paid out. Some people like overtime and seek it out. Some complain every minute they are forced to work extra. What is unrealistic is how no one at any level in the chain seems to care about overtime. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/460 "2021-02-13T17:57:17Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > My grandfather was a chemist for Alcoa. He said when the company big wigs came down all the way from St. Louis for a tour he had to set up the lab exactly like that using food coloring and water. Complete with a small chunk of dry ice for the bubbles, I’d wager. [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=22) [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=24)