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Post by Belchic on May 13, 2017 0:41:22 GMT -5
I just thought of three clichés I can't stand:
Women think men are idiots
Often times, female characters, especially if they're the only one on the team, always seem to think men are complete idiots. Just because they think they are the smartest and most mature member of the team, it gives them the right to call everyone else on the team idiots. So if there is only one girl on the team, it automatically gives them immunity from being dubbed a looney? That is clearly stereotyping! This is another perfect example of one gender being superior to the other!
Escaping just in time
The heroes are in a situation where a bomb is about to go off on a countdown. Of course they always make it in time, but what annoys me is that every single time, they always make it out right at the last second! They are never given time to spare! Why do the writers always have them make it out right at the last second? It would be a little more original if they made it out and had some seconds to spare, because getting out right at the last second is way too cliche!
The long-lost relative is the villain
The Hero meets a long-lost relative, usually his father, they spend some quality time together, then suddenly, the relative reveals a plan he has, and in a surprise twist, we find out he's the villain! As if the surprise twist villain isn't annoying enough, why must it usually be someone who is related to the hero? I don't want to see someone forced to kill a family member; that's horrible!
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Post by Flowgli on Aug 5, 2017 12:26:28 GMT -5
After having posted a question about it in the "Stupid Questions" thread some time ago, I'm posting it here as another cliche that I can't stand:
"Let me go!"
What I have to say about this cliche is similar to what Belchic had to say about the "Come back!" cliche. This happens a lot in movies where a good guy gets caught or restrained by a bad guy or a group of bad guys, and when they get caught, they said to the bad guys "Let me go!" Sometimes, the good guy will tell the bad guys to let them go more than once, as if just telling them once isn't bad enough. The good guy does know that those bad guys are bad guys, right? When the bad guys catch or restrain a good guy, they do that for a reason. They're not gonna let the good guy go just because the good guy tells them to. Bad guys catch or restrain good guys and do bad things to them. That's what bad guys are supposed to do, not do what the good guy they caught says! When a good guy tells any bad guys who caught them, or even demands them to let them go, whether just once or more than that and maybe also telling them "please" or "now", the bad guys rightfully ignore the good guy's command and continue on with their bad deeds. Good guys seriously need to shut up and stop expecting any bad guys to just say "Okay." and set them free if they tell them to let them go. It really makes the good guy stupid for expecting something like that to work. This cliche is featured in some TV shows, and it's just as bad in those, as well.
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Post by Belchic on Oct 11, 2017 13:46:09 GMT -5
It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, but here’s two more I came up with:
Everyone Knows Morse Code
I see in a lot of movies when a message is delivered in Morse Code, and the person receiving the message seems to understand it perfectly and process it very quickly! Morse Code is not an easy Code to memorize, and it certainly is not a code that can be translated so quickly! It’s one thing to have a character who is a complete idiot, but having one who is such an amazing genius is just as annoying!
Women screaming at monsters
This is especially common in classic horror films. Whenever a woman sees a monster, or anything that can scare them (like bugs or a ghost), their first initial reaction is to scream. I understand that’s all part of the terror, but do they really think screaming will get the monster to leave you alone? It makes as much sense as running from a mountain lion.
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Post by Sweeney Terrier on Oct 11, 2017 20:04:31 GMT -5
That morse code one is kinda strange but I feel like the only time I've seen that distinctly used was in "Johnny Got His Gun" where the protagonist used Morse code, (tapping his head against his own bed), to "converse" with those around him so those around him had to get a morse code expert to translate, and the two basically had a brief "conversation" with morse code since the protagonist could FEEL the vibrations of the translator signaling him via morse code.
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Post by Pepper101 on Feb 10, 2018 16:49:25 GMT -5
Don't think this one has been mentioned as such...
The bit not too far from the end of a film where the main character has done something wrong - sometimes not even their fault - and everyone else turns their back on that person until he/she later rights their wrong. Find that cliche very YAWN, very GENERIC indeed.
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Post by Flowgli on Nov 3, 2018 15:23:15 GMT -5
I have two other cliches that I can’t stand:
Half-assed opening credits
If Doug Walker can point out a credit sequence in his list of movie cliches he can’t stand, so can I. When he pointed out that cliche, he explained that the opening credits in a movie roll during the opening scenes rather than before them in a separate part of that movie of its own. What I’m pointing out here is in a way close to that. Whenever there’s a movie that has opening credits rolling after the title, it shows who are the members of the main cast, who did the casting, who composed the music, who was the director of photography, executive producer, writer, and so on, with who directed the movie being shown last in the sequence. But what I believe makes an opening credit sequence half-assed is that they only show the members of the main cast after the title. Yeah, there are movies that have an opening credit sequence that just stopped after the members of the main cast are shown. This happened in The Adventures Of Pinocchio, Planet 51, and Monsters Vs. Aliens, just to name a few. Whenever I see an opening credit sequence like this happen in a movie, I always wondered why. They either have full opening credits after the title, or they don’t. It’s gotta be either one or the other, but don’t half-ass an opening credit sequence. There are people out there who say that credits don’t matter, but in actuality, credits do matter.
Incompetent adults
This happens in movies and TV shows, actually, and it happens in movies and TV shows that are made for kids and families where kids are the main protagonists. In movies and TV shows like those, a kid or a group of kids are the ones who save the day. This would’ve been fine if the adult characters aren’t so incompetent. Yeah, in movies and shows like these, the adult characters are stupid to the point where they don’t do well in what they’re expected to do well, while the kid characters are smarter than said adult characters and very capable of doing something unexpected to save the day. Now, I understand that in a movie made for kids where a kid or a group of kids are the main protagonists, makers of a movie like that are expected to make the kid characters look good and be liked by kids watching that movie, but makers of movies like that have to make the kid protagonists actually work hard to earn what they are trying to accomplish and not make the adult characters so stupid, especially to the point where they are incompetent in what they do. It’s absolutely insulting! I hate it when adult characters, such as police officers or people in the military, get made to be lazy, stupid, or careless and not even notice something bad happening in their city, land, or wherever, let alone actually do their jobs properly and handle the situation. Make the adult characters have common sense; don’t make them incompetent at their jobs, and don’t make it easy enough for the kid characters to accomplish saving the day. It’s stupid, annoying, insulting, and not funny.
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Post by Belchic on Nov 3, 2018 17:18:47 GMT -5
I just thought of this one last night!
”Nice kitty/doggie”
Whenever someone is being slowly confronted by a fierce animal like a vicious attack dog or a large cat, he always nervously says, “Nice kitty” or “Nice doggie” or Nice whatever. Do they really think saying that will make the animal instantly get on their side and love them? It takes time and training to get an animal to love you! Saying “Nice kitty” or “Nice doggie” will never work! You’re basically making a death wish by saying that!
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Post by Belchic on Dec 8, 2018 22:08:47 GMT -5
Everybody sing!
This one is similar to Flo’s “One more time!” cliché. Whenever a song is being sung, there’s a part where someone calls out “Everybody!” like he wants everybody to sing along. It doesn’t matter if it’s a movie, a TV show, a short, or even a commercial, it happens everywhere! Do they really expect everybody in the room or everybody watching the show to sing along with the song? It’s not like we’re in church or at a concert, so why is it so important that everybody sings here?
1 Girl + Another Girl = BFF’s
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love friendships. I don’t mind if certain characters become best friends, but there are times when it gets a little too out of control. Like if there’s a team of characters, and there are only two girls on the team, those two girls usually are best friends, or they become best friends later on in the series, and when they do, they really rub in their friendship like it’s nobody’s business. To me, I feel like these two girls who claim to be best friends act like they only care about each other and no one else, and it feels like they’re neglecting all their other friends. I’ve actually seen this happen in real life too! Like I said, I support friendships and all, but if you show that you only have one care in the world like this, then you’re not setting a good example.
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Post by Flowgli on Dec 9, 2018 21:59:16 GMT -5
Here are two more movie cliches that I can’t stand:
The token love interest
This is mostly seen in family films, more likely in films for kids than in films for people of all ages. In many movies like those, one of the characters in them is the love interest, someone for the main character to fight for and get together with. That would’ve been fine if the love interest is actually an interesting and useful character in that movie. There are so many movies like these that have a love interest for the main character, and some of these movies actually did not need a character like that! In many cases, the love interest is a useless character shoehorned into the movie to do nothing but serve as something for the main character to fall in love with, to save, and to fight for. The love interest in this case is just someone there to motivate the main character to work hard enough to reach their goals. The love interest in this case also has little to no personality, and they do little to nothing useful in that movie. In other words, the love interest in a movie like that is a tool, a character who is useless, helpless, and uninteresting with little to no character development. It’s love interests like these that make people view them as token love interests. Often, the token love interest is a female. There are some male token love interests, too, but not much that I can think of. I know that there are people who like movies that have characters like these in them, and I know that there are people who like those characters themselves, but I feel that they’re only liking those movies and those characters for the wrong reasons. They often like those movies and these characters because they give them something to fangirl over, which is the token love interest and the main character falling in love with each other and getting together in the end. None of that is a good reason for liking these particular movies and characters. If there’s gonna be a movie like that made with a love interest for the main character, then that love interest has to be made interesting, useful, and important. If the people behind those movies can’t be bothered to put in the effort to make love interests interesting, useful, and important, then those love interests shouldn’t be in those movies at all.
Offspring of the main characters of original films as the main characters in sequels
This is often seen in cheaply-made sequels, particularly those released directly to home media, to films made for families, a lot more likely for kids, that are obviously superior to said sequels. After original family films end on high notes and with all loose ends tied, the same companies that made those films or lower-budget companies think that it’s okay to make sequels to those films and have the main characters of those sequels be offspring of the main characters of those films. When we get sequels like those that feature characters like those, we get a cheap product that’s only made to suck money out of people’s pockets and babysit little kids. These kinds of sequels show that the people behind them have no understanding of the originals or what made said originals so loved by many people. As for the children of the main characters of the original films as the main characters in the sequels, it would seem very clear that these particular characters were created just so people can have something cute to obsess over. In some sequels like these, these particular characters can be good, decent, or okay; but in some others, these particular characters can be bland, irritating, or uninteresting. Also, sometimes, with these particular characters as the main characters of these particular sequels, their parents, the main characters in the originals, are reduced to having roles that are more minor in these sequels. You might say that the main characters in the originals had their stories there, so their children should have stories of their own in the sequels, but that just gives these sequels more of a reason to not have been made. If there’s gonna be sequels to these particular films, then those sequels have to have a point in being made, and having the main characters of those films have children in the sequels is not a good point in those sequels being made at all. It’s even more pointless when a sequel like that is a reversal or rehash of the original. If a sequel to a family film or a kid’s film or whatever you want to call it is gonna be made, then the main character of that film should still be the main character, and their children can and should still play important roles in that sequel but not override their parents. Their parents, the main characters of the originals, are the title characters, after all. Some originals have one character in the titles, and others have two characters in the titles, but whatever the case, those titles get carried over to sequels with a bit more added to those sequels. So, it’s only fitting that those characters are as important in the sequels as they were in the originals. I’ve got nothing against offspring of the main characters of the originals being had in the sequels; I just find it pointless when movies have sequels made just for the sake of the main characters of those movies having children, particularly when those offspring characters override their parents as the main characters of those sequels. Seriously, I hate it when sequels, especially those released directly to home media, are this pointless, uncreative, and lazy.
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Post by Belchic on Jan 26, 2019 23:41:37 GMT -5
How about THIS?
The group steps back
Whenever somebody asks a group of people to volunteer for something, and that person usually asks for a volunteer to step forward, what happens next? Everybody in the group takes a step backwards...except for one, and usually that person gets stuck doing it. I get that this is supposed to be a joke, but it happens far too often. If you don’t want to volunteer for something, just don’t do anything. Stepping backwards will not decrease your chances of getting picked. Plus, it’ll just make you look like a d!ck to the most gullible person in the group. Seriously, this joke needs a rest.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Jan 29, 2019 13:20:44 GMT -5
I tend to dislike this:
Sequels that bear little to no resemblance to the first movie
This may sound like I am reiterating Flo's post, but hear me out. Many times a movie may prove successful but didn't get an immediate follow-up. Then we finally do see a continuation, but rather than bring the characters back for another go, we seem to get a completely different set of characters while the original cast is jettisoned. If the original characters weren't enough to see back in the saddle for whatever reason or had all their loose ends tied up, what point is there to see a follow-up where nobody comes back? Maybe a major actor from the original cast died before then and they had to make due with what they had, but that only makes it seem like a shallow cash grab. Either find something the original characters can do or remake the film but throwing out the cast just for the sake of a sequel just plain sucks.
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Post by Belchic on Feb 3, 2019 13:12:56 GMT -5
After watching that Top 11 list that Flo shared recently, it reminded me of a cliche I can’t stand:
Stereotyping Females
This is one of the most sexist cliches I have ever seen. In an animated TV show or movie, the writers tend to add a female character to the cast just so they wouldn’t be accused of being sexist. The problem with these female characters is they’re all the same: they’re a tomboy character who prove that they’re just as good if not better than the boys. Not only that, but they also tend to be very bossy, obnoxious, and they brand everyone else on the team as idiots. I don’t have a problem with females who can be strong and are able to stand up for themselves, but stereotypes like this I find are not very good role models for girls. In fact, if a girl really did act like this in real life, it would give more people a better reason to hare them. Some good examples I can think of off the top of my head are Amy Rose from Sonic the Hedgehog, Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy, and Jailbreak from The Emoji Movie (well, everything about that last movie is garbage). It’s not just the teams of heroes that do this either. The Powerpuff Girls episode, “Equal Fights”, had the one shot character, Femme Fatale, a female criminal who hates men and thinks women should have special treatment, and she eventually gets every woman in Townsville to side with her and turn against all the men in Townsville, including the girls themselves! Look people, there are two sexes, but neither is superior to the other. They’re both equal. Now, to counter-argue, here are some female characters who I find are good role models for girls. Cadpig from 101 Dalmatians. She doesn’t care that she’s the only girl pup on her team, and she treats her brothers with love and equal respect. Sure, she can get annoyed by some of their shenanigans like Rolly’s eating habits or when Lucky gets the pups into trouble, but she still loves them and is always willing to go out of her way to help them. Another good example is Skye from PAW Patrol. In the main group of pups, she’s the only female, but she treats the other five boys with the same amount of love and care as anyone else would. She can get a little egotistical sometimes, but at least it’s not to an extreme degree. Those characters are good role models for girls, as opposed to these tomboy stereotypes that I keep coming across. Why can’t we have more sweethearts like Cadpig and Skye?
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Post by Belchic on Feb 13, 2019 15:34:34 GMT -5
Playing “All-Star”
I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a movie end with Smash Mouth’s “All-Star” playing at the end! This trend started off at the beginning of the new millennium, and it’s been going on ever since. A lot of people think Shrek was the movie that started this trend, but I started seeing it happen in movies that pre-date Shrek like Mystery Men, and even the Digimon movie! Why must movies be so insistent in playing that song? It’s not like it’s the only song they can get the rights to play. Knock it the hell off! Are you trying to make your movie so outdated it would seem out-of-place?
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Post by Belchic on May 9, 2019 10:52:41 GMT -5
Hiccups
This is a very common trope that I see happen mostly in TV shows. There’s almost always an episode where one of the characters gets the hiccups. This does happen normally to people in real life every day, but in pop culture, when a character gets the hiccups, they are taken to a more extreme level. They’re always super extreme (some even cause earthquakes), they can never get rid of them, and they always prevent the character from saying or doing anything! Yes, hiccups are annoying, but they’re not that extreme! It’s not like the person is having a seizure or anything! Also, why does it always seem to take forever for the character to get rid of the hiccups? Hiccups don’t last that long. It’s not like it’s a sore throat or a disease or anything like that! I think this hiccup cliche is more annoying than hiccups themselves!
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Post by Belchic on Aug 2, 2020 17:34:43 GMT -5
The Token Dream Sequence
Dreams are common in movies and TV shows, but what I don’t understand is why whenever a character has a dream, it’s always a lot of the same stuff. Here are a few examples of things that happen in dreams: 1. The character has a problem and finds his answer in the dream. 2. The character does something wrong, and the dream tells him about his mistake. 3. The dream reflects on something the character fears currently. 4. The character sees surreal things happen that would never happen in real life. 5. The character falls through a void of unspeakable dimensions. I’ve had plenty of dreams, and I have had some surreal ones, but I’ve had some realistic ones too. And usually the dreams I have don’t reflect on my current motivations! Another thing I’ve noticed is the dreams are always consistent and plot-driven. The dreams I have are nothing like that; they’re loaded with Gilligan Cuts! Heck, even PAW Patrol has entire episodes that are all plot-driven dreams! Another thing I noticed is that when the dream is over, the character always wakes up right at the right time. For instance, when they’re falling to their doom, they always wake up right when they hit the ground. In addition to that, they always wake up by sitting up and screaming! Tell me this, how often have you done that when you woke up from a dream? Almost never, right? All I’m trying to say is, if you’re going to have a dream sequence, try to make it more realistic and not follow all these dumb cliches!
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