Common story lines that don't exist in the real world

[ta240]

Maybe I've just never encountered these but as common as they are in TV and movies I'd think I would have. Yet in movies and TV they are treated like a regular thing that all kids and parents experience.

1) Kids with imaginary friends
I haven't met a kid with an imaginary friend and none of the teachers I know have either. Yet a kid interacting with an imaginary friend in front of other people is a fairly common thing in movies and even a TV show or two. All the other characters treat it like it is an everyday occurrence.

2) Grade school career day with parents
Lots of shows and movies use this one, where the parents all come in on the same day and have to talk about what they do for a living.
If a kids parent was a cop or a firefighter they might come in and do a presentation of some sort, but never all the parents talking about their regular jobs one after another.

Have I just missed out on these common things or do they only exist in movies and TV?

I know lots of over-the-top things in movies and TV don't really happen but these two just seem so common and are widely treated as normal happenings.

 

[Rednaxela]

A sofa smack in the middle of a living room.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Have I just missed out on these common things or do they only exist in movies and TV?

They seem common to me.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Career day sometimes, but not common. I don't know if it was some kind of fad or what. I was young when TV was first available so maybe that had some effect. Many children a few years younger than me would have imaginary friends between the ages of 4 and 8 (during late 1960s early 1970s). Hadn't thought about it, but I haven't seen that in a long time now either.

This report from 2004 said 65% of children report having an imaginary friend. I wouldn't have estimated it nearly that high.

Imaginary friends: Most kids have one (or more)

Imagination is alive and thriving in the minds of America's school-age children.

www.washington.edu

 

[Philbo King]

A sofa smack in the middle of a living room.

I have 3 spread across 2 rooms. TBH, one serves mostly as a bass trap....

 

[Blumlein 88]

A sofa smack in the middle of a living room.

That is where my sofa is. Living room doubles as home theater.

 

[Mart68]

Misidentifications - a tourist is mistaken for a hit man, a janitor is mistaken for the president, that sort of thing. Leading to either dramatic or humorous outcomes.

 

[Chrispy]

Maybe I've just never encountered these but as common as they are in TV and movies I'd think I would have. Yet in movies and TV they are treated like a regular thing that all kids and parents experience.

1) Kids with imaginary friends
I haven't met a kid with an imaginary friend and none of the teachers I know have either. Yet a kid interacting with an imaginary friend in front of other people is a fairly common thing in movies and even a TV show or two. All the other characters treat it like it is an everyday occurrence.

2) Grade school career day with parents
Lots of shows and movies use this one, where the parents all come in on the same day and have to talk about what they do for a living.
If a kids parent was a cop or a firefighter they might come in and do a presentation of some sort, but never all the parents talking about their regular jobs one after another.

Have I just missed out on these common things or do they only exist in movies and TV?

I know lots of over-the-top things in movies and TV don't really happen but these two just seem so common and are widely treated as normal happenings.

I seem to remember some kids growing up that did that sort of thing. Like playing with dolls and injecting a personality/identity into them.

We did have a time or two in grade school where parents came in and explained what their jobs were....and firefighters/police were indeed favorites but there were others, too. Most parents simply didn't have the time/schedule to come I'd think.

Then again I can't think of much in the way of tv shows or movies that I watch that present this but I'm single, no kids so avoid the kids content anyways for the most part. My sofa is in the middle of my living room, tho.

 

[GD Fan]

Misidentifications - a tourist is mistaken for a hit man, a janitor is mistaken for the president, that sort of thing. Leading to either dramatic or humorous outcomes.

Perhaps the best executed of this ilk was 'Being There.'

Other than all the times Shakespeare used this device.

 

[DVDdoug]

Temporary amnesia... It was super-common in soap operas. Permanent memory loss seems a lot more common in real life, typically with no memory of the accident that caused the brain injury. It happened to my sister. She didn't lose consciousnesses but she kept asking, "What happened" every few minutes. VERY disturbing!

I had an invisible friend named Donny!

Years later in high school I had a friend named John whom my parents had never met. My mom used to tease me about "Invisible John". He worked in a store, and one day my mom happened to be in the store and she saw this kid with the nametag "John". She asked him, "Are you invisible John?" She identified herself but apparently she never explained the joke and he was a bit confused when I saw him back in school.

 

[pjug]

Temporary amnesia... It was super-common in soap operas. Permanent memory loss seems a lot more common in real life, typically with no memory of the accident

My dad had an episode of temporary global amnesia. Very weird just lasted about a day but he could not even remember that my mom had died. He did not have dementia it was just an episode that happened just once.

 

[kemmler3D]

I can think of two:

1. Hitmen / cops racking up huge body counts all over a city as if it were a normal occurrence - realistically I haven't heard of this happening in real life, certainly not with the frequency they portray in movies or TV.

2. People thinking someone was dead, but they surprisingly turn out not to be dead, at a very pivotal moment. In real life, I find people are usually pretty solid on who's still with us.

 

[Gary_G]

I have more imaginary friends now than I did as a kid!

 

[Zedly]

Guy's wife gets killed, so he devotes his life to martial arts and mastering every known weapon so that he can go on an international hunt for the killers (bonus points if the killers work for a giant corporation).

 

[ta240]

There is the hit on the head hard enough to knock a person unconscious but they wake up fine. In real life the person would likely be dead or brain damaged.

Another favorite of mine is the hand held stun gun knocking a person out.

 

[ta240]

Career day sometimes, but not common. I don't know if it was some kind of fad or what. I was young when TV was first available so maybe that had some effect. Many children a few years younger than me would have imaginary friends between the ages of 4 and 8 (during late 1960s early 1970s). Hadn't thought about it, but I haven't seen that in a long time now either.

This report from 2004 said 65% of children report having an imaginary friend. I wouldn't have estimated it nearly that high.

Imaginary friends: Most kids have one (or more)

Imagination is alive and thriving in the minds of America's school-age children.

www.washington.edu

I'm curious what the question was that they asked the kids and if some kids thought it was more fun to answer yes.

At that high of percentage it just seems like I would have encountered at least one kid with an imaginary friend.

I guess that would also include ones that they don't interact with around other people. On the shows and movies the kids seem to think nothing of telling people to say hi to their friend or to not sit on them.

 

[ta240]

Then again I can't think of much in the way of tv shows or movies that I watch that present this but I'm single, no kids so avoid the kids content anyways for the most part. My sofa is in the middle of my living room, tho.

It is mostly sitcoms that do the parents career day thing. Where the parent struggles to make their job pushing paper sound interesting after following an alligator wrestler or something like that. On the shows all the parents are there on the same day waiting and go one after another and it never matters how boring or hard to explain their jobs are, they have to get up and tell the kids about it.

 

[GD Fan]

How about the innumerable movies where 11 or 12 year old kids constantly get the better of the adults, all of whom are complete bumbling idiots.

Or body-switching, instantly going from 12 years old to 32, etc.

None of those seem to ever happen in real life.

 

[posvibes]

I long to meet a talking horse or talking mule, or any talking animal capable of an adult conversation.

 

[Chrispy]

It is mostly sitcoms that do the parents career day thing. Where the parent struggles to make their job pushing paper sound interesting after following an alligator wrestler or something like that. On the shows all the parents are there on the same day waiting and go one after another and it never matters how boring or hard to explain their jobs are, they have to get up and tell the kids about it.

Sitcoms are not representations of real life for the most part, tho....and expecting them to would take away from the comedy. City Slickers was a movie, tho