# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/141 "2021-02-07T01:13:08Z")
Perfect breasts. If a woman is going to take her top off, she will have full, symmetrical, unblemished breasts. They’ll never be flat, or saggy, or one bigger than the other, or veiny, or have stretch marks or be oddly shaped. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/142 "2021-02-07T01:30:50Z")
Sleeping with a gun under the pillow, common in spy movies and Westerns, not 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:** [February 7, 2021, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/143 "2021-02-07T01:43:11Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Sleeping with a gun under the pillow… Hi, I’m Mike Lindell with the greatest product ever: it’s the _My Pillow With Built-In Holster!_ ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/144 "2021-02-07T01:49:54Z")
[h/t to my wife] Nobody on TV or in the movies uses toothpaste. You see lots and lots of characters brushing their teeth, but … you really don’t ever see toothpaste in play. Hard(er) to speak intelligibly with the foamy stuff in your mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Apodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apodder/32/17727_2.png) [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/145 "2021-02-07T01:50:20Z")
Or doctors that do any sort of patient care at all. Exceedingly rare. Honestly, House was more a comedy than anything… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/146 "2021-02-07T01:51:52Z")
And in TV commercials for toothpaste, they use over a inch of paste- whereas you are supposed to use about the size of a pea. ---
**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 7, 2021, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/147 "2021-02-07T04:07:24Z")
> [@ThisOneGuy](#): > > You must not hike much. Over 40 years or so of hiking I’ve been surprised by rattlesnakes twice. Isn’t once every twenty years “almost never”? I too hike extensively in the backcountry of the desert Southwest, and in a decade I’ve seen _one_ live rattlesnake, about 5 inches long. Either I smell bad to rattlesnakes, or encounters are much less common than movies (and general perceptions) would have it. ---
**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 7, 2021, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/148 "2021-02-07T04:10:13Z")
> [@Apodder](#): > > House was more a comedy than anything… In real life, it’s almost never _not_ Lupus? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/149 "2021-02-07T04:15:56Z")
Likewise movies would have you think that in the jungle you can’t walk 20 paces without a giant snake leaping out of a tree on top of you or stepping on a poisonous snake. In 35 years hiking in tropical forests I can count on the fingers of two hands the number of times I’ve seen a dangerous snake. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/150 "2021-02-07T04:16:18Z")
Four rattlers in one two hour hike. Now that was the most, sure. ---
**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 7, 2021, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/151 "2021-02-07T04:30:18Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Four rattlers in one two hour hike. Were you doing laps of a 30-minute trail loop? ---
**Author:** ![ThisOneGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@ThisOneGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisOneGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/152 "2021-02-07T04:31:05Z")
Yeah, I guess it is about like how often a police person draws a gun. I have seen another half dozen or so that weren’t “surprises” like those two tho. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/153 "2021-02-07T04:33:55Z")
Nope, up the hill and down. It was baby rattler season. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/154 "2021-02-07T04:43:14Z")
Or a criminal tells a cop to drop their gun AND S/HE DOES! Nope, nope, nope, and at least where I live, when an officer does use their gun, it’s usually to shoot an injured animal. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/155 "2021-02-07T04:54:24Z")
People on TV are always carrying empty to-go cups of coffee. Watch them next time if you don’t believe me — there’s nothing in that cup, cuz if there was, it would have spilled. ---
**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:** [February 7, 2021, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/156 "2021-02-07T05:02:59Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > > [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > > > IIRC, there was a scene in Dragnet where Joe Friday said something to the effect of, “In my career, I’ve pulled my gun twice and fired it once.” Or something like that. > > Not meaning to nitpick but to demonstrate my encyclopedic knowledge of Dragnet (the 1960s version), Friday says in his 12 years on the job he’s drawn his gun 8 times and fired it twice and says that’s about average (in 1968). Your encyclopedic knowledge of “Dragnet” is indeed most impressive. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/157 "2021-02-07T05:18:10Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Four rattlers in one two hour hike. It really can be a little surprising just how dense rattlesnake populations can get in the right area. They’re very energetically efficient predators. I’ve gone looking for them in the context of herpetology field trips and you can really rack up quite a count, especially cruising desert roads early in the evening in spring. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/158 "2021-02-07T05:18:25Z")
Yep, cops are trained to never, ever drop their gun. _Lower it,_ maybe. But never drop it. That just gives the bad guy another weapon. Maybe his gun is out of bullets, or is a replica. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/159 "2021-02-07T05:19:20Z")
Yeah, Alum rock park was overrun with ground squirrel, etc. ---
**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 7, 2021, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/160 "2021-02-07T05:32:59Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > All cop shows and movies, but most egregiously Law and Order, seem to solve all their crimes by asking bar staff, “Did you see this guy last night? Who was he with? What time did they leave? Where were they headed?” Seriously? This does not ever happen in real life. 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. [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=7) [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=9)