The Belief that popular=good looking & the corresponding losers=ugly. I've never been what anyone would consider popular, however I'm not ugly by any means. To prove this I'm going to take a picture of myself right now. No, seriously, right now in the middle of this post.
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| Seriously just took this. No make up. No Photoshop. Just hair dye. |
While I'm not proclaiming I'm hot shit, I know it's not my looks that determine my social status. They might have done so in the past, but it's also my behavior, which I'll get into in a moment. I used to have braces and I didn't have contacts therefore I wore glasses, but I wasn't popular during the few years I had both. I also wasn't popular before I got my braces (I got glasses young enough it didn't matter) and my popularity didn't shoot up the day I got contacts or the day my braces were removed. Part of the reason Mean Girls (which is still one of my favorite movies despite this) 'works' is because Lindsay Lohan is far more 'beautiful' than the other losers in her highschool who she initally hangs out with. In movie-land this immediately keys the audience that she'll be climbing the social ladder soon enough. However as I hinted already there's another cliche that bugs the crap out of me.
Geeks like Star Trek and Star Wars and are all Science Nerds . In several films/TV shows/books/ect. the second most defining feature in geeks/nerds is that they are all really into science and math and classic literature. The few pieces of pop culture they are familiar with are generally nerdy shows and movies (and generally bad ones at that). Now, I like shows like Doctor Who, Star Trek, and X-Files over shows like One Tree Hill, Jersey Shore and True Blood. I like that type of show because I like that type of show. My social status never affected my interests, except for maybe giving me more time to enjoy the things I like. But I also shows like Glee, House and Say Yes to the Dress. These are all popular shows that normally 'nerdy' people like me wouldn't like in Movie-world. Also, my science and math grades are not what a normal geek would get. I'm right brained, therefore I'm better at art and more subjective things. Yes I like classic literature, but that's because I'm an English major (or I'm an English major because I like classic literature...) but it's my love of books I've had since I was a child that drives this. On the flip side, there have been plenty popular people I know who have done much better than me in certain classes. I knew people who were popular who were really into weird shows which were loved as equally by people less popular than me. Interests in real life have nothing to do with social standing. Again Mean Girls shows that the easiest way Cady is a "geek" is because she's good at Math, however her love interest is in the same math clas and while he's not great at it he obviously was smart enough to get into advanced math.
Geeks have No idea whats going on in pop culture. Just because I don't like Jersey Shore doesn't mean I don't know what it is. I may not be able to give a synopsis of everything that's happened, but I know who Snooki is and that she got punched in a bar one time. I also know what's going on in the world right now, probably more so than popular people. I don't know that many people who are considered 'popular' who regularly watch or read or listen to the news, but this may just be personal bias on this subject matter. However, I do know that many memes start in corners of the internet most non-geeks don't know about. Geeks were rick-rolling way before Oregon's state congress did it. Similarly, the V mask (or rather Guy Fawkes mask) has been the mark of anti-Scientology protests for quite a while, but I doubt any 'popular person' knows either what it is or where it came from. Or that it is actually Guy Fawkes.
Geeks are Loners. While we don't have quite the insanely busy social schedule as other people Geeks are not depressed and lonely (no more so than the average). While I do like to sit at home and read a good book or watch Myazki Films I like to go out and have fun too. I like to dance and act goofy with my friends as much as the next person. One of the nerdiest traits you can give a person in a movie is to have it come out they play Dungeons and Dragons. In the land of fiction this means they are loners. However, as any real D&D player can attest to, this is not true in the slightest. Dungeons and Dragons is played in a group, of at least 3 people but generally 4-5 is an ideal size. You hang out with friends, eat junk food, go on adventures and connect with your friends on different levels. This isn't what Hollywood thinks it is, but I think it's just an honest "We haven't played, we've only heard the name" misunderstanding and nothing malicious.
And now I'd like to try and move off this topic of Geeks vs. Popular people because honestly I don't know what popular people do.
The Completely Out of Touch Parent. This Cliche is all about parents 'who just don't understand.' Whether they be overprotective or just plain clueless as to what's going on with their child's lives. Apparently, in Hollywood a good parent doesn't exist. I know there are just as many examples of good parents in films, but they aren't as common. While I treat the threat of abusive parents seriously I feel that this kind of fictional parents are just plain neglectful. Whenever I see a film where the child has to be an adult because the adult is more like a child but the child seems completely normal and adjusted just mature it feels off. Just because I wanted to be an adult I still regularly relied on my parents for almost everything and they're still helping me out today (I am only a freshman in college). The only book I've seen handle this type of parent well was The Hunger Games. Katniss positively freaks out when her mom checks out and goes through all kinds of hell just scraping by caring for her and her sister and her mother. Similarly, the overprotective stereotype and the clueless stereotype are just that stereotypes to make the young protagonist look better in a lazy way.
The Spoiler Credit. This one mostly applies to TV so books/movies get a pass (generally). Back when I actually watched Heroes it was really obvious when certain characters would pop up because their actor would be listed in the opening credits. Like I don't mind if someone is in the credits and then they're in the episode for a while actually doing stuff in that episode. It gets annoying when credits list someone who is in an episode and the character showing up is a surprise/twist at the end of an episode. Yeah, there isn't a lot to say about this (I don't know if this is a cliche) but it sucks when this takes me out of an episode/movie series (maybe?) when a character is a twist that shows up in the credits. I realize you want to credit your actors and stuff, but seriously spoiling a twist is a pain in the ass. The only way this works is if you show flashbacks elsewhere in the show where you can hide it. Oddly, Heroes did this too, but too many times it didn't work right.
I'm having trouble thinkinging of cliches. I can think of the type of stories that bug me, but it's not the same as a cliche, but that's another post.
Like I hate Mary Sues, but who doesn't? I also hate title dropping (or in other ways alluding to other) great works of literature, especially when the author gets it wrong (Stephenie Meyer, I'm looking at you). I also hate seeing the same plots over and over in my films.
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