Only on TV (or Film): On-screen clichés

Probably one of my favorite clichés.

Also, kind of related-- parking. Somehow, the character is ALWAYS able to park directly in front of the building, restauraunt, you name it. And for some reason, a majority of these shows are set in NYC. As a New Yorker, I can tell you that being able to park directly in front of the building you wish to enter is about as likely as not being sexually harassed in the Subway.

>The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window of any building in Paris. = I always found it crazy, it's like every little character can pay a rent on the Champs de Mars, Lucky them !

 

Also, Damn these L-shaped sheets !

You mean there are people out there who aren't addicted to TV Tropes.com?

I don't know that I'd call it a cliche but nowhere on TV -- ever -- do people brush their teeth. You see a lot of restaurant scenes, shower scenes, waking up in the morning scenes, bathroom scenes, etc, but seriously, when do you ever see people brushing their teeth?

The hero has a weapon pointed at the conquered villain, and is in a position to kill them and prevent their ever doing anything evil again. After an amount of time which is probably the same to within a second for any given variant of this scene, the hero slowly lowers the weapon, deciding not to kill because they're a hero and it's the right thing to do.

It's worse than always running into a cul-de-sac, I swear. However, I do enjoy a good chase across a rooftop now and then.

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No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always boom tomorrow.
--Susan Ivanova tells it like it is

When the uptight female lead loosens up near the end of the film: She's the 'ugliest' girl in school and no one will ever date her - but no, wait! Take away the glasses and let down the ponytail... She was a goddess the whole time - who knew? 

Great list - Very true.

 

In Australia there is a show called Mcleod's Daughters - whole bunch of women run a farm in the middle of the outback (none of them lesbians of course), and despite the rugged terrain, heat and the fact they do farm stuff a lot, their hair, make up, and clothes are perfect the whole time.

 

First, being French, I believed for a long time that all phone numbers in the States begun with 555... And also, that all moms cooked eggs, bacon and waffles every morning even if nobody eat them.

Another one ! You can be sure that if a man and a woman hate one another, they're gonna end up together...

And if you're a cop, your partner will be your exact opposite.

I'm sure we could find hundreds of clichés !

 

 

The Villian NEVER wins. He/She is always defeated 2 minutes before the show ends. Example: Charmed. For about 98% of the show, the villian always loses, there's probably one 2-3 instances where it lasted for 2 episodes. (They lose because they take too much time into telling what their evil plans are.)

 

this is one I've always seen...

Whenever there's a good guy with a gun, he can shoot bad guys 100 miles away with his eyes closed, but when he has to take down the REALLY bad guy, it takes him hours and hours to shoot him at close range... It goes both ways too, bad guys waste a lot of time chasing down the lead to shoot him, when they've shot thousands from a far...

...the fact that every show that has both a male and female lead has to add sexual tension between them. (They can even be RELATED, and it doesn't seem to matter!) Why can't they have a story where they're both sincerely interested in other people just ONCE?

_____________________
Obsessive? Me? Never!

I'm not sure if these are as common anymore, but on old TV shows especially, if people are sitting at a table, they always sit in a u-shape and leave one side of the table completely empty. Also, when someone is watching TV on TV, they always turn it off immediately after the show/segment they are watching is over.

the pet thing was something i noticed years ago and the only other times I've seen anyone else acknowledge it was twice here on AE. I used to be watching something and they'd show the dog or whatever for just that second too long and I'd be like "oh crap, they're going to kill the dog, something horrible's going to happen to it" and whoever I happened to be watching with would think I was really weird. But it ALWAYS ends up happening...except for the horse in the middle of the desert in Jarheads, I left the room when I saw the horse because I was sure something bad would happen to it but I was told after I came back in that nothing did....if my friend lied to make me feel better, please don't tell me otherwise!

One cliche that annoys the hell out of me is when there's a romance, but one of the people involved is already with someone else, and that person is a total jerk. That's one reason I really like Imagine Me and You, because Heck was a nice, likeable guy and wasn't some jackass who you were supposed to hate. I of course wanted Rachel and Luce to be together, but I still felt bad for Heck. Then you get movies like Wedding Crashers where the sweet and nice girl is with some total idiot guy who treats her like crap.

Ok this cliche is probably a cliche in itself, but it always happens and it realy bugs me.

When ever a woman and/or girl is being chased she always always has to trip and fall

Also the ugly duckling and beautiful swan stories piss me off coz they are so stupid and have been done so many times 

 

~Elvis Presley~

Lmao at the one about people turning off the tv as soon as the show is over.

1.One that i notice is the impossible towel that stays on the characters for long periods of time while they move around and never adjusting it. I guess that is just because i am a failure at that but still, anyone see Lucky Number Slevin?

 

2.Whenever someone is robbing a bank, the teller is always a nervous newbie and always a woman.

3. When people go to an elevator, it's always on their floor and they never have to wait unless, of course, they're being chased then they usually resolve to taking the stairs last-minute.

4.When someone is chasing another person and takes like 5 minutes to talk to the another character about their plan while the bad guy has more than enough time to get away, but then the good guy starts chasing him and catches up to him in a second.

5. In general, the important conversations/epiphanys/plans that the character rants about during the most inconvenient times.

 

"Even in his heart the devil has to know the water level."

In romantic comedies the mother and friends of the leading role, specially if it's a woman in her late 20s, are always obsessed with finding her/him a partner. And they say really mean things like "you are not getting any younger" or "nobody will love you if you are like this or like that.." ... I find it shocking, I can't imagine my mother saying those things! or thinking it's more important to be married than to have self esteem.

Also, in movies where the drama is set before 1900 and someone caughs he/she is going to end up having a deadly disease.

The most annoying thing to me, but this is a pop culture in general problem, is mixing up schizophrenia with disassociative identity disorder.  The two are not the same, and simple fact checking could alleviate that terrible misconception.

Mental health, though, makes me think of a movie I watched a while ago named Neverwas, where Ian McKellan plays a mental patient who believes that a children's fantasy world is reality.  It was a nice movie, but my mom, a psychology major, had issues with some things (for instance, despite the main character's mention of it, there is no such thing as "borderline schizophrenia").

 

Ave Messer, 66, B24, GO SHASTA!!!

On the other hand, if you're watching a disaster movie, the dog will live. The black guy will die, the flamboyantly gay guy will die, and you better believe the weasly corrupt businessman will die... in fact, entire cities and civilizations will be razed to the ground in an orgy of destruction... but the dog will be okay.

In fact, the only living thing with a higher survival rate than a yellow lab is a curly-haired precocious young moppet who's wise beyond her years. Those things are like teflon-coated cockroach Twinkies.