27 Things That Are Seen As Normal In Movies Or TV But Would Be Very Bizarre In Real Life (2025)

We recently asked the BuzzFeed Community, "What is something that’s seen as normal in movies or TV but would be suuuuuper weird IRL?"

And the answers areperfectlyon point.

So, here are 27 of their responses:

(Plus, a wonderfully wholesome anecdote at the end about someone trying to replicate one of these tropes in real life.)

1. "When people get fired from their job, they always pack up their desk with one little brown filing box with a few items and a plant sticking out the top."

©AMC/courtesy Everett Collection

"Or when they get hired for a new one, too."

—Lizzo

2. "At a bar or a diner, nobody ever asks for the bill; they just leave some money on the table."

—vandor_nandor

3. "We accept that people are carrying empty coffee cups. They should put cold liquid in the cup to add weight or at least ACT like it is heavy/full."

4. "How do people always find parking right in front of their apartment/restaurant/office without having to drive a dozen times around the block? And it’s always just the one space that fits their car perfectly."

—floatingglue33

5. "A man will wear a long-sleeved shirt and/or a jacket while a woman wears a tank top. Is it hot or cold?"

6. "How about when a bomb has 10 seconds left, and the characters manage to run about two blocks in slow motion before the explosion?"

—mechanicalman

7. "In Westerns, when the characters are always clean and have all of their teeth (which are also clean). Perfect oral hygiene in the 1800s, lol."

8. "After wronging someone horrifically, someone will expect the person they hurt to forgive them instantly after they perform some terrible song."

—Creative-Shark-17

9. "Wearing your cheerleading uniform to school. I'm a former cheerleader and I never wore it anywhere but at the game!"

10. "Couples kissing as soon as they wake up. I mean, morning breath is a thing."

—messyvampire59

11. "I call it 'The Bad Guy School of Gang Combat.' There, they learn that when attacking the good guy, they can only come one at a time. They get extra points if the good guy can use their momentum to spin them into one of their mates, a twofer."

12. "Sex in the kitchen."

—HostileLettuce

"Or shower sex. It’s always way more complicated and not as sexy."
—floozy

13. "Everyone sits on one or two sides of the table, leaving one side completely open. I first noticed this while watching That '70s Show, and I know that it’s a theatre tactic so that no one ever has their back turned toward the camera, but it’s always funny to me to see a family of four all bumping elbows when there’s an entire empty side of the table."

14. "When two characters have a fight or something, then say, 'Can we start over?' and proceed to introduce themselves and pretend to meet for the first time. I always cringe when this happens in a film or show!"

—Bsnoopy525

"Just once, I’d like to see 'Sorry…can we start over?' 'NO!!'"

—BuzzFeed

15. "Bald eagles with red-tailed hawk calls."

16. "When characters come in at the last minute and only hear part of the conversation which they totally misconstrue. And then the whole movie is propelled by that one misunderstanding when, in the real line, the characters would have a two-minute conversation and clear everything up."

—flyerboy6

"Also, when two characters are having a conversation, but they're each talking about something completely different. There's always multiple points where one of them should have been like, 'Are we talking about the same thing?'"

—kmskoby

17. "When a smoker lights a cigarette, takes one or two drags, and discards it."

18. "One thing that peeves me is when someone is saying something out loud while writing an email or a letter or just anything; nobody does that! Especially if they’re in an office setting. It never fails to break me out of the submersion I may have had, and honestly, I would prefer if they had one of those inner-monologue voiceovers instead because at least that’s more accurate to real life."

—psychicchef10

19. "Medical shows where there is always a huge throng of doctors just hanging around and constantly doing patient care. Where are all the nurses? They’re the ones that do the things in real life. They usually only have one nurse in movies and TV shows, and she’s usually crabby or in the closet, hooking up with some doctor. 🙄"

20. "All the rooms in the house are perfectly staged with decor, no matter the supposed means of the family. Are you telling me that this middle to low-income family cared more about putting knick knacks everywhere than putting food in their fridge? Okay."

—ssstege11573

21. "The instant mass text message of an embarrassing or scandalous photo being sent to literally everyone, even the people who literally don’t associate with each other."

22. "Gifts are never properly wrapped. Instead, gifts are always in a box, and the lid and base of the box are separately wrapped, and the gift is revealed simply by lifting off the lid. The ribbon is only placed on the lid and never goes around the entire box. Who in real life wraps gifts this way? No one."

—smileyturtle844

23. "Police stations with all or mostly glass walls. CSI was big with that, but there are others, too. No police station is going to have glass walls."

24. "Ripping clothes for hot sex. DO NOT MESS WITH MY CLOTHES! THEY COST MONEY."

—RockyMountainValkyrie

25. "Maybe it is actually like this in some places but, in high school movies and shows the kids always have so much time between classes. Like at my school we get four minutes so you barely have time to do anything but go to your next class."

26. "Even on a perfectly straight road, you have to be seen 'acting driving' by moving the steering wheel a lot, despite being on a straight road."

—copperghoul948

27. And finally, "One time, it was pointed out to me that if you see a horse in a movie, a whinny will be dubbed in. Horses aren’t terribly vocal. I have a horse, and it’s been, I don't know, months, maybe a year since I’ve heard him whinny? But I always hear it in movies and never at a time when the horse is excited about anything. It’s as if we’re kids, and they’re like, 'What does a horse say? Yes, that’s right. Horses say ‘neigh.' Very good!'”

And now, here's an incredibly wholesome anecdote of life imitating art. In a prior version of this post, titled 22 Things That Are Seen As Normal In Movies Or TV But Would Be Suuuuuper Weird IRL, u/KellyBluePants said, "Someone walks up to the bar and says, 'I'll have a beer.' They get served immediately."

And in the comments, somebody shared how they made that happen for their cousin:

"When my cousin visited the US, he had a list of things he'd seen in movies that he wanted to do. One of them was to walk up to a bar and say, 'Gimme a beer,' and immediately be given a beer. This had obviously not worked in the bars where he tried it on his road trip from LA to my house. So when we went out to my local pub, I texted the bartender and told him to just give my cousin a Budweiser when he asked for a beer. My cousin was DELIGHTED. Pretty sure that was the highlight of his trip."

—caelesto

So, there you have it: 27 things that would actually be cuckoo bananas if they were to happen in real life. Have you noticed any of these before? Are there any other seemingly normal (but weird) things that make you roll your eyes? Let us know in the comments!

Your responses could be featured in a BuzzFeed Community post.

Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.