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30 Movie And TV Cliches That Drive Us Nuts

November 01, 2021

A cliche is a phrase in a piece of art that has been overdone to the point of meaninglessness. A car breaking down when a murderer is on the trail of the hero may have formerly worked as a suspenseful device. Now we just expect to hear the wheezing of a worn out engine. It's time to start putting these cinematic cliches and well worn tropes to rest once and for all.

Whenever it relates to clichés, Hollywood does have a long history of relying on them. Tinseltown has never encountered a theme it didn't like to death. Whether it be superheroes who walk casually away from clashes that would kill regular humans to those rom com sprints past security at the airport, which would land any regular person in jail (yeah, you, True Romance).

How difficult is it to come up with unique ideas? According to Hollywood, it's actually impossible since movies and shows can't seem to stop recycling tired stereotypes. Keep scrollin’ for more eye rolling examples:

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... TELL US NOW. VIRGINITY Amber M. says, Virginity is not sexy, and even if there are people out there whose first times were great (mine was), the story line of 'You've never given head before but man you are the best at it that there ever was' trope just has to stop. It is not sexy; inexperience is not sexy. CRACKED.COM — Tell Us Now: 17 Sexy Tropes That Don't Translate To Real Life

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30 Movie And TV Cliches That Drive Us Nuts — 6 Painful Things Nobody Tells You About Fighting

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... TELL US NOW. Just give it to us straight! CRACKED Brian В. is sick of buildup to the twist or 'hidden truth' you know was coming. It's why Ragnarok is one of my favorites. Cleared the table right out the gate: 'It's the apocalypse and it's being led by your sister I never told you about, godspeed.' Perfect. — Tell Us Now: Which Superhero Movie Tropes Drive You Nuts?

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Hellboy Batman Begins IT If it rains at a funeral, the guests will be prepared with matching black umbrellas. John Wick Across the Universe The Amazing Spider-Man CRACKED.COM — 20 Movie Universe Tropes (That Never Actually Happen)

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30 Movie And TV Cliches That Drive Us Nuts — 28 Played-Out Scenes In Sci-Fi Movies & Shows

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Not every children's character needs a depressing origin story. CRACKED.COM — 21 Hate-Worthy Plot Devices

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Nothing reminds you that you are watching a sitcom faster than all the characters sitting on one side of their kitchen table. CRACKED COM — 37 Incredibly Distracting Things Hollywood Won't Stop Doing

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CAT SCARES ARE OVER 200 YEARS OLD. Yes, of course cats have been aggravating people since forever (that's basically their function). But as a storytelling device to frighten a character before the real danger strikes, they already show up in Robert Southey's God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop, a poem published in 1799. CRACKED.COM — University of Toronto Libraries

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If a character gets a gift, STARTREK transporter - room - SAN FRANC BONJOV you can count on that gift getting ruined by the of the episode. CRACKED.COM — 14 Movie And TV Tropes (So Common We Can Chart Them)

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Draco Malfoy Jack Sparrow Cocky pricks love them apples! James т. Kirk Ryuk CRACKED.COM Sokke Indiana Jones — 25 Eyebrow-Arching Movie Stereotypes

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CRACKED COM It's the apocalypse, and yet our hero has to spend much of his time dealing with a surly adolescent The Walking Dead Falling Skies The Strain - - I War of the Worlds The Day the Earth Stood Still Probably so that we no longer mind that the world is coming to an end. — 18 Baffling Tropes Hollywood Can't Stop Using

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ONLY ON TV DO YOUNG ADULTS LIVE COMMUNALLY, FOREVER, EVEN AFTER MARRIAGE. F.R.I.E.N.D.S THEN NOW a GRACKED.COM the BiG BANG THEORY — 15 Bizarre Movie & TV Myths About Young People Today

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KILL THE BOSS THE 13TH WARRIOR AND SOMEHOW THE REST OF THE BAD GUYS WILL JUST KINDA CHILL OUT AND GO AWAY CRACKED.COM — 43 Movie Tropes (That've Been Beaten Into The Ground)

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CRACKED.COM superman has barely ever changed in a phone booth. While Superman has been known to use a phone booth on occasion, that has only happened a handful of times across all media in all the decades since the character was created-a far cry from it being Supes' go-to place to take his pants off. — CBR

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CRACKED.COM Enough with the mandatory NOOOOO! scene. — 22 Movie Cliches That Just Won't Die

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TELL US NOW. ... Debrah S. says medical dramas get doctors wrong. Any time a film or show shows doctors or nurses performing medical lab tests. They don't. Medical technologists do those tests for them. CRACKED.COM — Tell Us Now: 20 Dumb Mistakes Hollywood Makes About Your Life

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... TELL US NOW. SWIMMING POOLS Roger S. reminds us, Chlorinated water is NOT a lubricant. CRACKED.COM — Tell Us Now: 17 Sexy Tropes That Don't Translate To Real Life

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Being a pro fighter doesn't mean you can fight. Martial artists often find it extremely difficult to adapt to an actual fighting situation. When you've spent years following strict rules, it's pretty hard to let go of all the restraint and just defend yourself. CRACKED.COM — 6 Painful Things Nobody Tells You About Fighting

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... TELL US NOW. Villains need some consistency, while we're at it! CRACKED Douglass P. doesn't get how Thanos might punch the Hulk into the next time zone, in one scene. Then in the next, he'll punch Starlord, and Starlord won't immediately vaporize into a cloud of red mist. — Tell Us Now: Which Superhero Movie Tropes Drive You Nuts?

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People in movies/TV must be very trusting, because they always leave a spare key in their car's sun visor. Terminator 2: Judgement Day Breaking Bad CRACKED.COM Cop Car — 20 Movie Universe Tropes (That Never Actually Happen)

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28 Played-Out Scenes In Sci-Fi Movies & Shows

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Can we get rid of the scene where a character gets all their signature traits at once? CRACKED.COM — 21 Hate-Worthy Plot Devices

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GERRY LANE WAR IS ENJOYING A DELICIOUS Z PEPSI WHILE THE WORLD IS GOING TO SHIT. BUT IT REALLY JUST LOOKS LIKE BRAD PITT IN A PEPSI COMMERCIAL! CRACKED.COM — 37 Incredibly Distracting Things Hollywood Won't Stop Doing

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CRACKED.COM GIOVANNI ALDINI WAS WIDELY KNOWN FOR REANIMATING CORPSES. Aldini, an Italian physicist, became notorious in the early 1800s for zapping animal and human corpses with electricity in front of audiences, causing them to flail about. (The corpses, not the audiences- although those were presumably quite shocked too.) — 9 Real Life Mad Scientists

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TV personality shows up at struggling business and samples the goods. TV personality tells owner how disgusting their establishment is. They get into a screaming match. TV personality and owner have an emotional heart-to-heart. The business is saved (for now). ANS Gose CRACKED.COM — 14 Movie And TV Tropes (So Common We Can Chart Them)

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Fear The Walking Dead All Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind Twilight - 24G THE Gran Torino Suburban heroes drive pickup trucks. CRACKED.COM — 25 Eyebrow-Arching Movie Stereotypes

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A male character who likes Rock or Heavy Metal music? Better make them either goofy or stupid. We can't suggest that people who listen to that stuff could be intellectually normal. WAYNES WOURLO Union CRACKED.COM — 18 Baffling Tropes Hollywood Can't Stop Using

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Apparently, millennials only hang out with people of their own race. GIRLS how i met your mother ONe TReeHiLL GOSSIPGIRL DAWSON'S CReek OC CRACKED.COM — 15 Bizarre Movie & TV Myths About Young People Today

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CRACKED.COM this is my estranged father... he's a con-man CHUCK LOST psychNew Girl DEXTER 3OROCK — 43 Movie Tropes (That've Been Beaten Into The Ground)

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NO silent movie villain has ever tied a woman to the train tracks. Ok, maybe it does happen in some movie no one knows about-but similar tropes come not from early movies, but Victorian theater (and the victims were often men). On the silver screen, this has never happened except in spoofs. CRACKED.COM — Movies Silently

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