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May 7, 2020

Twitter Users Reveal The Things That Drive Them Crazy In Movies & TV Shows

A few days ago, I asked people on Twitter a very simple question: What are the things that characters do or don’t do in movies and TV shows that bother you?

And, well…it blew up.

Over 8,000 people responded, whether directly or on their own timelines – more than most scientific studies or official surveys. Apparently, the internet has been waiting for the chance to vent about their greatest pet peeves in movies and television. The responses ranged from hilarious to incredulity to faux-outraged, but the interesting thing was that while there were thousands of different answers, the same triggers kept popping up over and over again – even though there are specific reasons for certain clichés. We might be individuals, but apparently the same sorts of things drive us collectively nuts.

Here they are, the annoyances that drive us the most nuts when we see them happen in a movie or TV show, sorted by category.

Food & Beverage Blunders

By far, the #1 (okay, 1A – I’ll get to that later) answer was when people carry coffee cups that are clearly empty. So great was this annoyance that even Lin-Manuel Miranda weighed in!

And so did plenty of others…

Another strong contender in the food and beverage category was when a character makes an elaborate breakfast and no one bothers to eat it before running out the door.

Closely related to that is when characters order food in a restaurant and take two bites then leave or just push it around on their plates:

But restaurants weren’t the only culprits. Bad bar etiquette in movies drives us nuts, too.

For real. Go ahead. Say “Gimme a beer” to a bartender in real life and see how that works out for you.

Communication is also a huge area of contention for TV and movie fans, as it turns out. How characters talk to each other always rings a little false.

Communication Weirdness

If the empty coffee cups thing is 1A, then people not saying “goodbye” when they hang up on the phone is 1B.

See also, the characters who agree to meet up later…but then don’t say when or where.

…but it also bothers us when people are told a location and address but never write it down, like they’re memory wizards who never forget a thing.

People in movies and TV shows just…do not seem to understand how technology works, in general. Like, at all.

Seriously. It’s like every character in a movie is my mom when she first made a Facebook account years ago and then immediately proceeded to inform me “I can’t see your stuff” because she’d accidentally hidden me from her timeline.

But just like technology seems to trip up characters, so do locks.

Safety Concerns

Apparently, every character in a movie or TV show exists in a world in which home invasions and sexual assault just don’t exist.

Uninvited guests walking right into someone’s house or apartment are a subcategory of this, too.

Speaking of proper house etiquette, it really, really drives people nuts that characters never take their shoes off.

But there are also very specific peeves, too. Particularly when it comes to Hollywood so often getting highly-specialized professions completely wrong.

Medical & Military Inaccuracies

Oh, man. We all know “fake doctor mode” when we see it.

Unrealistic Fight Scenes & Action Sequences

Seriously, so many unrealistic fight sequences.

And while we know it’s to keep a certain rating, it’s still always a little weird to see a character take multiple punches to the face and walk away without a speck of blood. We guess it makes cleanup easier in their alternate reality.

Speaking of cleanup…that really bothers people, too.

Weird Hygeine & Bathroom Habits

Look, everyone has their own rituals and personal weirdness when it comes to the bathroom and hygiene. But characters in movies do things that no one, ever, anywhere, does. Tooth-brushing was an especially big peeve.

But other things grate, too.

Black Twitter also had a lot of thoughts about black women not wrapping their hair before bed. True points.

So many black women responded with that, which really drives home the point that we need inclusion not just in front of the camera but also behind it, writing and directing, in order to get these little details right.

And now, let’s talk about sex, baby. Specifically, just how bad it is in movies.

Unrealistic Sex Scenes

There are literally thousands of answers to my tweet, most of which I couldn’t include here. And plenty of quote retweets that have since been lost in the river of my notifications. The entire thing is well worth scrolling through. I guarantee you’ll laugh and relate to quite a few of the answers. When the world is so divided, it’s nice to know that empty coffee cups and rude phone habits can bring us together.

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