TV Tropes: Love 'em or Loathe 'em

[Bort]

I have oily skin, I don’t let lotion get anywhere near me.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Melina22 said:

Maybe that's what's so weird. Why just the hands? Well, I guess it would be time consuming and awkward to do other body parts, and possibly involve nudity. Plus no one wants to watch people putting lotion on their feet, although I'd laugh if they ever showed it. Too much Truth in Television. 😁

I just thought more about it in the shower - yeah, I don't know - and came up with this:

Among real women, those who put lotion on only their hands upon getting in bed are doing it for the same reason I do my feet then rather than with the rest of me - you touch things with your hands and feet while walking around doing stuff, so they're best left for when you're going to go to sleep.  (I still don't quite get why hands need additional lotion when they get moisturized during the process of applying lotion to the rest of the body, but whatever.)

Among TV women, the reason this hand lotion routine is more common than it is in real life is that a) "background" motion (whether literally in the background or just incidental to the scene) makes scenes more visually interesting, so a scene with two people talking in bed is improved by movement and b) putting lotion on one's hands is the movement chosen because it's innocuous; pulling up pajamas to moisturize covered body parts could be distracting, and a portion of the audience is weird - in one of two extremes - about calling attention to feet, so the hand lotion routine it is.

[biakbiak]

Hands and the neck tend to show age first and without a great surgical alternative to mask that age so yes a lot of women and a lot of fashion mags and beauty blogs do in fact recommend women put lotion or extra lotion on the hands and neck.

Edited September 27, 2019 by biakbiak

[GaT]

5 hours ago, Melina22 said:

Here's an odd one. According to TV and movies, every woman keeps lotion on her night stand so she can rub it into her hands right before going to sleep, frequently while holding a conversation with her husband. I saw this trope twice just today! 

I remember in the past wondering if I was the only woman who didn't do this and feeling vaguely guilty, like I should be doing it if everyone else did. I mean I use lotion on my hands occasionally, but never right before I go to sleep. 

Did I miss the memo? 

3 hours ago, Bastet said:

I put lotion on my feet upon getting in bed each night (I go barefoot whenever possible, so my heels need all the help they can get to stay soft and smooth), and then rub the excess into my hands (and when I get out of the shower, I put lotion on most of my body other than my feet and, again, rub any excess into my hands when I'm done), and I also notice how prevalent the nighttime hand lotion routine is on screen and kind of wonder about it.  I'm curious why female TV characters' hands need so much special attention - is that the only body part to which they ever apply lotion?  If not, why do they need so much extra, given the hands are lotioned each time they use it anywhere else.

I keep a couple of bottles of hand lotion on my nightstand, & one on my desk in the other room. I use it on my hands & feet before bed & during the day if I feel like my skin is dry or I wash my hands. I'll also run lotion on my arms & legs if they feel dry.

[janie jones]

I shower in the evening, so I put lotion on my hands before bed. I don't always do my feet.  I typically only put lotion on my hands and feet because not only do I not like having rough heels, those are the only parts of my body that feel uncomfortably dry.  I can look down at my legs and see that they're dry, but they don't feel dry, so I never think to put lotion there.

[GHScorpiosRule]

9 hours ago, Bastet said:

 I'm curious why female TV characters' hands need so much special attention - is that the only body part to which they ever apply lotion?  If not, why do they need so much extra, given the hands are lotioned each time they use it anywhere else.

9 hours ago, Melina22 said:

Maybe that's what's so weird. Why just the hands? Well, I guess it would be time consuming and awkward to do other body parts, and possibly involve nudity. Plus no one wants to watch people putting lotion on their feet, although I'd laugh if they ever showed it. Too much Truth in Television. 😁

Dishpanned hands? I don't know, either.

[Melina22]

6 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Dishpanned hands? I don't know, either.

Haha. I can't remember the last time I heard that expression! But it used to be a real thing, before dishwashers. (And washing machines.) And yes, back then it was mainly women who had them, for obvious cultural reasons.

Maybe it was back then that the trope started. You know, Mrs. Cleaver using hand lotion. Although obviously not in bed, because that would have been scandalous. 😁

[piccadilly83]

RE: Lawrence Welk showcase

On 9/25/2019 at 9:11 AM, DoctorAtomic said:

Those are still on? 

LOL, honestly, I don't know.  The last time I saw them on TV was when I still had a television, around 10 years ago.  But I remember like the original poster, I was surprised to see them on because I figured the senior citizen population was a little younger than that era by now. Does anyone else know if PBS still plays them? I used to see them on KQED in the evening on the weekends.

Edited September 27, 2019 by piccadilly83

[Blergh]

1 hour ago, Melina22 said:

Haha. I can't remember the last time I heard that expression! But it used to be a real thing, before dishwashers. (And washing machines.) And yes, back then it was mainly women who had them, for obvious cultural reasons.

Maybe it was back then that the trope started. You know, Mrs. Cleaver using hand lotion. Although obviously not in bed, because that would have been scandalous. 😁

I thought Mrs. Cleaver wore rubber gloves when doing dishes but I could be wrong! Of course, one has to wonder if she wore those pearls even when conceiving Wally and the Beav! I doubt anyone in real life wore real pearls when doing chores (speaking of trope). 

[Melina22]

17 minutes ago, Blergh said:

I thought Mrs. Cleaver wore rubber gloves when doing dishes but I could be wrong! Of course, one has to wonder if she wore those pearls even when conceiving Wally and the Beav! I doubt anyone in real life wore real pearls when doing chores (speaking of trope). 

You could be right about the rubber gloves. 

I was born in the 50s, and I don't remember even one woman who swanned about her home, doing housework in pearls, dresses, lipstick and stockings like the TV shows back then implied. 

I do remember my mother dressing like that for company or parties. I always thought she was so beautiful and fancy. People dressed up way more for things back then, so that trope is true. 

[Glendenning]

Problem is that the TV shows back then were under a lot of pressure, both official and unofficial, to present a "proper" version of American society and things like the Civil Rights Movement etc. were too controversial or outright unacceptable. Again "CHILDREN" today are being stupid when they act as if shows in the fifties and sixties could have just shown boys playing with dolls etc.

[Ohiopirate02]

43 minutes ago, Melina22 said:

You could be right about the rubber gloves. 

I was born in the 50s, and I don't remember even one woman who swanned about her home, doing housework in pearls, dresses, lipstick and stockings like the TV shows back then implied. 

I do remember my mother dressing like that for company or parties. I always thought she was so beautiful and fancy. People dressed up way more for things back then, so that trope is true. 

One thing I liked about Mad Men was that they were not shy about Betty being at home in her curlers and housecoat.  

[DoctorAtomic]

2 hours ago, Blergh said:

I thought Mrs. Cleaver wore rubber gloves when doing dishes but I could be wrong!

That's not really why she was wearing them. 

[Annber03]

8 hours ago, piccadilly83 said:

RE: Lawrence Welk showcase

LOL, honestly, I don't know.  The last time I saw them on TV was when I still had a television, around 10 years ago.  But I remember like the original poster, I was surprised to see them on because I figured the senior citizen population was a little younger than that era by now. Does anyone else know if PBS still plays them? I used to see them on KQED in the evening on the weekends.

They do still show old "Lawrence Welk" episodes, yes. I don't know if/when other PBS affiliates show them, but in my area they're on Saturday evenings. My mom will watch them on occasion-it was a show that my grandma used to watch (and I'd watch it with her sometimes when I'd be over at her house as a kid), so the show brings back memories for us in that regard :). 

[auntlada]

7 hours ago, Melina22 said:

You could be right about the rubber gloves. 

I was born in the 50s, and I don't remember even one woman who swanned about her home, doing housework in pearls, dresses, lipstick and stockings like the TV shows back then implied. 

I do remember my mother dressing like that for company or parties. I always thought she was so beautiful and fancy. People dressed up way more for things back then, so that trope is true. 

My grandmother wore her pearls all the time (at least when she was awake and out of bed -- I don't want to think about other times), but she wore them with sweats around the house after she retired.

[Melina22]

48 minutes ago, auntlada said:

My grandmother wore her pearls all the time (at least when she was awake and out of bed -- I don't want to think about other times), but she wore them with sweats around the house after she retired.

I wonder why they meant so much to her? Sweet story though. 

[Chaos Theory]

This one goes all the way back to Charlie’s Angels and probably further but that was the first show I noticed it on.

Not sure if it’s a hate it or I just find it hilarious but..,,,

ya know the one with the cop/detective/secret agent tailing the other guy in the very obvious one of a kind expensive as shit  car.  

[Raja]

15 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

This one goes all the way back to Charlie’s Angels and probably further but that was the first show I noticed it on.

Not sure if it’s a hate it or I just find it hilarious but..,,,

ya know the one with the cop/detective/secret agent tailing the other guy in the very obvious one of a kind expensive as shit  car.  

Starsky and Hutch with their Ford Gran Torino beat them by a few months. As I remember the pilot episode everybody on the street knew they were cops though. During the run of the show the bad guys must have been from other streets.

Edited September 27, 2019 by Raja

[ratgirlagogo]

12 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

ya know the one with the cop/detective/secret agent tailing the other guy in the very obvious one of a kind expensive as shit  car.  

Alive and well on the current iteration of Magnum PI.  Too funny.

[Melina22]

16 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

ya know the one with the cop/detective/secret agent tailing the other guy in the very obvious one of a kind expensive as shit  car.  

Or how 2 policemen can do a stakeout, sitting in a car across the street from someone's house for hours, and NO ONE NOTICES! 

[Blergh]

1 hour ago, Melina22 said:

Or how 2 policemen can do a stakeout, sitting in a car across the street from someone's house for hours, and NO ONE NOTICES! 

Is that related to the trope of the stakeout cops themselves NOT NOTICING anything happenning at the perp's place because they're too busy gossiping and rehashing two-bit complaints?

   Somehow, I doubt the Miami Vice cops would have lasted five minutes on the streets due their rather flashy styles (yes, even for the 80s) and, especially in Crockett's case, VERY loudmouth demeanor! 

[Raja]

30 minutes ago, Blergh said:

Is that related to the trope of the stakeout cops themselves NOT NOTICING anything happenning at the perp's place because they're too busy gossiping and rehashing two-bit complaints?

   Somehow, I doubt the Miami Vice cops would have lasted five minutes on the streets due their rather flashy styles (yes, even for the 80s) and, especially in Crockett's case, VERY loudmouth demeanor! 

Well to be fair to Miami Vice they were supposed to be in permanent cover of drug game players Burnett and Cooper. It is a good thing for southern law enforcement that hardly anybody survived to be arrested. Why they showed up at crime scenes in the Ferrari is a big narrative problem

[janie jones]

3 hours ago, Melina22 said:

Or how 2 policemen can do a stakeout, sitting in a car across the street from someone's house for hours, and NO ONE NOTICES! 

To be honest, unless I was doing something in my front yard, and unless my dog was barking, I wouldn't notice if there were people parked in a car in my neighborhood.

[Melina22]

Here's a trope you can always count on. Nothing good ever happens in a bathroom, especially if the person is standing alone at the bathroom sink. Well, you might be safe if you're watching a comedy. Otherwise, prepare to watch through your fingers. 

[DoctorAtomic]

I'm nosey AF and always keeping tabs on what's going on in the neighborhood. I rescued a doggo that got loose last evening! 

To be fair, my little dog is a crack alarm system and alerts me. 

[Mittengirl]

All you need is one nosey old lady, like my mom, who will notice everything going on within spying range.  I hear waaaay more than I want to about what happens on my end of our block.

The FBI/CIA/local PD should station old people to stakeout areas and they would have every last detail about every little thing that goes on.

I missed the drug bust and the bank robbers/car thieves car chase down our (dead end) street , but was filled in Mom’s “old lady posse” before anything hit the local papers.

[magicdog]

5 hours ago, Melina22 said:

Or how 2 policemen can do a stakeout, sitting in a car across the street from someone's house for hours, and NO ONE NOTICES!

My cousin told me about how the Feds were staking out a house in her neighborhood (this was back in the 80s) and they were in a fake panel truck!  Everybody was laughing and waving as they walked by it!

Actually, I do remember a story told by Sonny Grosso (who was part of the team who helped catch the heroin smugglers from the real life French Connection case) who made a drug bust in Harlem in the early 60s.  He said that NYPD at that time didn't allow for surveillance except if the cops did it on their own time and didn't offer disguises or undercover cars.  He and a couple of other cops rented a Santa Claus costume and one of them sat outside a barber shop where the drug deals were going down.  They eventually got their man, but in the time leading up to the arrest, they had a long line of kids who lined up daily to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas - long before the holiday season began!   

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, janie jones said:

To be honest, unless I was doing something in my front yard, and unless my dog was barking, I wouldn't notice if there were people parked in a car in my neighborhood.

I wouldn't either, but judging by Nextdoor postings, every neighborhood has at least one Gladys Kravitz.

[meowmommy]

This summer, for several days in a row, a group of four expensive looking SUVs and pickup trucks with out of state plates hung out during the day along the curb across the street from my house.  There are no houses on that side of the street.  Every so often, one of them would peel off, drive around the block, and position itself in the alley perpendicular to the street, facing out.  And each vehicle had a person just sitting in the driver's seat, for hours. 

Mind you, it was about 115 degrees, every day, and I live in a very boring retirement community.  Damn right I noticed.  I was ready to call the sheriff's department to find out what the hell was going on when they finally left.

Edited September 28, 2019 by meowmommy

[Melina22]

So did you find out why they were there? 

[meowmommy]

Just now, Melina22 said:

So did you find out why they were there? 

Nope, never did.  But they made my daughter and me very uncomfortable.  

[Silver Raven]

I was driving in town a few weeks ago and a caravan of four black SUVs with tinted windshields drove through town like the villains in a spy movie.  I had no idea what they were doing.

[auntlada]

7 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

I was driving in town a few weeks ago and a caravan of four black SUVs with tinted windshields drove through town like the villains in a spy movie.  I had no idea what they were doing.

That was probably the FBI profiling unit. "Criminal Minds" wouldn't lie to me about how they work and what they drive, would it?

[Glendenning]

"Hey Dad...!" was an interesting mix of Cousin Oliver and The Other Darrin as the daughter Jenny went from 16 to 12 when she was re-cast. Can't think of many characters that are made younger like that.

[Annber03]

19 hours ago, Melina22 said:

Here's a trope you can always count on. Nothing good ever happens in a bathroom, especially if the person is standing alone at the bathroom sink. Well, you might be safe if you're watching a comedy. Otherwise, prepare to watch through your fingers. 

Oh, god, yes, this. Hell, I think about that stuff sometimes when I'm at my own bathroom sink :p. 

[Melina22]

5 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

Oh, god, yes, this. Hell, I think about that stuff sometimes when I'm at my own bathroom sink :p. 

Like it wasn't bad enough that Psycho ruined showers for me for life. 😕

[Annber03]

5 minutes ago, Melina22 said:

Like it wasn't bad enough that Psycho ruined showers for me for life. 😕

Right? Basically, it's just a bad idea to be in a bathroom in general in horror films :p. I remember that scene in Scream where Sidney was alone in the school restroom-that had me a little antsy in public restrooms for a while afterwards, too. 

Edited September 29, 2019 by Annber03

[Trini]

On 9/26/2019 at 10:11 PM, Camille said:

I love the Manly Tears trope.

Something about seeing gorgeous, sexy men breakdown is incredible to me.

I just find it really impressive when an actor can manage to 1) look pretty, 2) recite lines, and 3) squeeze out one perfect tear all at the same time.

[Melina22]

1 hour ago, Trini said:

I just find it really impressive when an actor can manage to 1) look pretty, 2) recite lines, and 3) squeeze out one perfect tear all at the same time.

I think being able to cry prettily on command distinguishes great actors from mediocre ones. What's worse than an actor doing the fake, dry-eyed cry? 

[kiddo82]

The ones who can redden their eyes in real time without cutting away always impresses me.

[DoctorAtomic]

I'm actually a decent crier on command. I got my flight changed. No one irl likes seeing a 40 something that grown ass man tearing up. 

[Melina22]

1 hour ago, kiddo82 said:

The ones who can redden their eyes in real time without cutting away always impresses me.

The very best ones can literally change the colour of their face with their emotion. Well, I've definitely seen actors faces get all flushed. I can't say I've ever seen anyone with the ability to turn pale, such as with fright. That would be worth a few million, surely. 

[Shannon L.]

I don't know that I've seen a male crier better than Brad Pitt.

[Bastet]

32 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

I don't know that I've seen a male crier better than Brad Pitt.

I know I've never seen one worse than David Duchovny.  On The X-Files he once looked like he was gnawing on Scully's arm/her hospital bed sheet and more than once like he was constipated, but never like he was, you know, crying.  (It was made all the worse to watch because Gillian Anderson was such a pretty crier.)

[MaryMitch]

14 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

I don't know that I've seen a male crier better than Brad Pitt.

Michael Landon was great too.

[Shannon L.]

2 hours ago, MaryMitch said:

Michael Landon was great too.

Yes!  One of my favorite lines from Glee was "you'll be crying more tears than Michael Landon during a sweeps week episode of Little House on the Prairie."

[Danny Franks]

On ‎9‎/‎29‎/‎2019 at 8:08 PM, Melina22 said:

I think being able to cry prettily on command distinguishes great actors from mediocre ones. What's worse than an actor doing the fake, dry-eyed cry? 

I just watched an episode of Farscape - PK Tech Girl - and for the first time I noticed a shot where Claudia Black visibly wells up while keeping her face almost completely still. I mean, her eyes fill with tears, but she tries so hard not to show any of it on her face because she's supposed to be an implacable, emotionless warrior who can never show weakness.

On the other hand, I can recall plenty of occasions where someone like David Boreanaz would get all sniffy and choked up and contort his face... but there was never a tear to be seen.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Danny Franks

[melanie.hiscock]

I love the bit in Almost Home where Alyson Hannigan's teenage girl character punches the Jerk Jock in the gut when he tries to do a Dixon from Back to the Future and forcibly dance with her. Better than the cliché trope of kicking him in the testicles.

[Melina22]

1 hour ago, melanie.hiscock said:

I love the bit in Almost Home where Alyson Hannigan's teenage girl character punches the Jerk Jock in the gut when he tries to do a Dixon from Back to the Future and forcibly dance with her. Better than the cliché trope of kicking him in the testicles.

It's so weird you posted this right when I was thinking of posting a trope that's really bothering me, but it's sort of controversial. 

I'm getting tired of the trope of small, fit young women (or older, more regular sized women!) beating up men, sometimes several at a time. It's literally everywhere. Sometimes they're superheroes, sometimes they're regular humans trained in mysteriously effective martial arts, sometimes they're normal  women who are just really "feisty". 

Now I'm all for female empowerment and the depiction of strong women. But this particular trope is so common it's skewing people's view of reality. 

Awhile ago I was at a Fireman's Challenge in my city to cheer on my son in law. About 100 local firefighters were in it, mostly men but a few super fit, tough women. It was great except for one thing. It quickly became obvious that the weakest men could easily beat the strongest, fastest women in all the challenges, which involved running, climbing, lifting, dragging, all in heavy gear. 

The women were amazing - tough and fearless, they never gave up. But they trailed way behind every one of the men. Which wasn't surprising, given the men's biological advantage. 

But here's the part that really struck me. At first the audience was wildly cheering the women on, convinced they could be the underdogs and beat at least some of the men. As it dawned on everyone (including me!) that that wasn't even close to happening, a weird, embarrassed silence fell over everyone. Like they were thinking, "You mean men really ARE physically stronger than women?" and at the time I remember thinking that the media are doing everyone a disservice in warping reality this way. 

It seems like in TV and movies, the "strong woman" trope endlessly depicts women beating up men. In reality, a strong woman is something completely different and way more inspiring. 

Sorry for the long post, but I've been thinking about this for a long time. 

[melanie.hiscock]

Plus the media makes women think only men being kicked in the crotch is painful. In the real world, a hit to the crotch is painful for a woman too.