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Enigma
11-04-2005, 02:38 PM
This was lifted from MSN this morning and I thought it was amusing. The reporter elected to ignore giving the pratical reason for some/all of them but it does serve to point out how weird and bent out of shape the public can get over some of the most dumbest things.

Will the clichés never end?
OK, "CSI," we're giving you a break. For now. Because we really don't need to concentrate solely on the TV clichés you bring us when there's a whole world of TV and film out there going wanting.

Gifts…
“Whenever there is a gift-giving occasion on TV especially, the top and bottom of the gift box are always wrapped separately, so that the recipient only has to lift off the perfectly wrapped top, with the bow and ribbon intact, to get to the gift inside. Nobody wraps presents like that in real life, and more importantly, most people like to rip the paper and ribbon off in shreds. That's half the fun.” --Kim

Survivor…
“I have a pet peeve: On Survivor, he ALWAYS "goes and tallies the votes." I used to work in the election polls (before computers), and we tallied the votes by counting...that is putting a hash mark (tally) at the item that is being counted. Hasn't ANYONE ever corrected him?!” --Luanne

Goons
“I would like to know where the movie villains hire their goons. They are extremely loyal and even if the hero singlehandedly takes out a dozen of them, they keep coming. Sorry, but if the guy in front of me is shot, then I am gone.” --Jo

Rock the car...
“The worst car cliche is when you get a frontal shot of a person driving and they are constanly rocking the steering wheel left to right as they drive in a perfectly straight line. It especially happens a lot in soap operas.” — Rashia

Knock three times...
“In movies and TV shows, whenever a character rings the doorbell the person on the other side IMMEDIATELY opens the door, even if it is 2 in the morning or he/she lives in a mansion. It's like the person is standing at the door waiting for someone to ring the bell.” — Priya

Taxi!
“I just wanted to add one point to all of this, what about in New York movie or TV show people never have trouble hailing a taxi cab even when it is raining. I mean come on, I am a native New Yorker and catching a cab in Manhattan isn't ever that easy.” — Joyce

Timers…
“The ‘one second left’ cliché reminded me of the Timer Cliché: There's 30 seconds left on the timer, but in actual ‘real-life’ time that's going to be at least 5 minutes, unless, of course, that timer is for something that will Hurt the Bad Guy — then the timer will be right on time!” — Chelsea

“And ‘they’ always know EXACTLY which wire to cut-the blue or the red one! In Lethal Weapon, Gibson & Glover ALWAYS guessed correct! And it's always one second before.” — Diane

“Regarding the cliché about bombs and timers stopping with one second left, there's a notable exception to this. In the movie, ‘Goldfinger,’ James Bonds stops the bomb from detonating with seven seconds left to go. Why? Because the counter now reads, ‘007.’ (That's a great trivia question, by the way — people probably don't know it, but it can been logically worked out.)” — Bruce

Joe Calabrese
11-04-2005, 06:13 PM
And let's not forget that the villain almost always explains his/her evil plans (especially with Bond films) before killing the hero, giving said hero just enough time to escape and defeat the villain's nefarious plans.

If it were me, I would kill first, take over the world and then explain it to my subjects.

scripter1
11-04-2005, 06:33 PM
we, your faithful followers, await the marvelous unfailing of your glorious plan for dominating Hollywood.

We live only to serve through our writing.

Joe Calabrese
11-04-2005, 06:41 PM
If only I had a plan....

dpaterso
11-04-2005, 07:30 PM
Speaking of Goldfinger, Bond guessed Goldfinger's real plan involving the bullion in Fort Knox, Goldfinger didn't feel the need to reveal everything. And his reason for keeping Bond alive instead of allowing the laser to splice his mainbrace was almost logical. A golden "avoid the cliche" lesson for us all.

-Derek
My wittle web page - hack stories, failed novels, dud screenplays, terminal writer's block. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
The fool, the meddling idiot. As though his ape's brain could contain the secrets of the Krell.

Enigma
11-04-2005, 09:39 PM
... If it were me, I would kill first, take over the world and then explain it to my subjects.

Isn't that the current administration's plan? :Hail:

Write4Fun
11-04-2005, 11:34 PM
Joe If it were me, I would kill first, take over the world and then explain it to my subjects. you said it best, but If it were me I would Kill first take over then do the 60 minuites interview, then write the book. You have to seize the moment!

DaveKuzminski
11-04-2005, 11:50 PM
Speaking of Goldfinger, Bond guessed Goldfinger's real plan involving the bullion in Fort Knox, Goldfinger didn't feel the need to reveal everything. And his reason for keeping Bond alive instead of allowing the laser to splice his mainbrace was almost logical. A golden "avoid the cliche" lesson for us all.

Actually, Bond knew only the name of the plan and then later that it involved more gold. Goldfinger was already smuggling gold. Bond learned the full scope once they got inside the vault.

Goldfinger couldn't find out beforehand how much Bond knew and passed along to his people. With that in mind, Goldfinger didn't want to call Bond's bluff that another agent would be assigned so he decided to keep Bond alive to make it look like Bond had successfully gotten close to him with the full intention of killing Bond once it no longer mattered.

For those reasons, keeping Bond alive wasn't at all cliche since it was actually quite logical and reasonable under the circumstances. As well, the theft of the gold along with the planned destruction of the vault and radioactive contamination of the remaining gold was actually quite inspired. It was certainly quite beyond any other plots advanced by other stories since Fleming took the weight and mass of the gold into account in advancing a realistic solution to how to rob Fort Knox.

Joe Calabrese
11-05-2005, 12:17 AM
It's a good thing I didn't say "all" Bond films.

That aside, cliché's are not a bad thing all the time as long as you can make it fresh or even work for it.

A good case in point is in a lot of cop films where the junior partner always gets killed at the mid point of the story arc. "To Live and Die in LA" did a great job in taking that cliche and turning it on its side by having the "lead" cop (protagonist) die versus the rookie partner. It was then the rookie that became the protagonist from mid point on.

I personally love when (in the TV Show Stargate SG1) Colonel O'Neil (Richard Dean Anderson) notices a cliche about to happen in the story and he jokes about it or mutters about how he hates cliché's. The writers, who are constrained to occasionally have a cliche because of the genre and subject matter are having fun with them and in turn the audience does too.

So lesson is cliché's are good to a point because they are a familiar we can instantly understand, but it works best when it is unexpected, poked fun at or done in a different way that makes in unique and fresh.

thewritingbug
11-05-2005, 12:48 AM
Those are great! Thanks for sharing them

scripter1
11-06-2005, 05:29 AM
What are you doing out of bed!!!!
This is too involved and deep a subject for you to take!
Only yes or no answers allowed!!

Now get some rest ...............


unless you will be working on that plan.

How are you doing by the way?