apocalypsos | (no subject)

You know what I would love to put a moratorium on in my entertainment?

-- I see this in books mostly, but when a female character insists on using the word "poop". God, that drives me nuts. Do you know anyone who stills uses that word? 'Cause I sure as hell don't. And as a curse word? ARGH. I might buy it from a character who's an upper-crust snobby Northeasterner, but please don't expect me to buy it from a city chick with no money. Trust me, we curse. We really curse. If adult men in stories don't say it, why the hell should a thirty-year-old woman who's supposedly had a hard life say it?

-- Heavily pregnant ladies in elevators. Dude, NO. Stop that. Nobody finds it funny, because it's the same dumbass jokes every time, and nobody watches a pregnant lady get into an elevator during an action movie and go, "Oh, no! She's getting into the elevator! Whatever will happen!" It's annoying, so stop that.

-- Any "I'm supposed to be a callous jerk" male sitcom-or-comedic-film character who says to a fat lady, "And when is your baby due?" Because at that point, I don't think he's a jerk -- I think he's either mentally handicapped or clinically insane, neither of which is amusing.

Anybody else want to put a moratorium on a stupid cliche or character trait while we're at it?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm adding to that the bad gun use cliche of person having the gun kicked out of their hands before they ever get to fire, particularly if the person is a police officer or FBI agent (thinking here of x-files, where I swear they never pulled a gun but they lost it. I watched that show for four seasons and I don't think I ever saw an agent successfully fire a firearm).

Can we please assume that people who have guns might actually know how to fire them?

I have to agree with you there. Especially on the X-Files. =rolling eyes= I think Mulder lost his gun at least once per every two episodes. Not just from getting in kicked out either, he dropped it a lot too.

In a martial arts movie I'd be more lenient on the whole gun kicking schtick, but not every person getting drawn on is going to be a Jackie Chan/Jet Li/Bruce Lee clone. If that were the case, no-one would ever pack a gun 'cause they wouldn't need the damned thing.

Yes, X-Files and the Sentinel were particularly bad about that, though Ellison (from Sentinel) at least got to shoot his gun a few times, and rarely missed because of his sooper sekrit majik vision. I read an X-Files fanfic once that had Scully musing about how she might go about permanently affixing a glove made of the loop side of Velcro to Mulder's hand, and the hook side to his gun. :-)