Line #4 Main/AGoodOldFashionedPaintWatching


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16	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pinkies_watching_paint_dry.jpg]]]]
17	[[caption-width-right:350:Fun for the whole [[SelfDuplication magically cloned family!]]]]
18
19	->'''Snowman:''' What do you think they do for entertainment in this town?\
20	'''Bandit:''' Oh, I don't know, sit around and watch the cars rust?
21	-->-- ''Film/SmokeyAndTheBandit''
22
23	Our parents and grandparents did not have as much entertainment media available as we do [[WhenIWasYourAge When They Were Our Age]]. Fine. So they had to do other things instead. OK. But often fiction will use this as a source of humor with the activities engaged in by previous generations verging on the utterly moronic.
24
25	From the sarcastic expression "as exciting (interesting, fun, etc.) as watching paint dry".
26
27	A specific form of IncrediblyLameFun. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] sending a badly behaved child to sit in the corner and stare at the wall as punishment. Compare WashyWatchy.
28	----
29	!!Examples:
30	[[foldercontrol]]
31
32	[[folder:Advertising]]
33	* Played for laughs in one of the Advertising/KevinButler [=PS3=] ads, this one for the Blu-ray player feature.
34	-->'''Kevin Butler:''' You know what [your grandma] did for fun when she was young? She pushed a hoop with a stick.
35	* An old Taco Bell ad featuring WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle has the citizens of Frostbite Falls [[TakeThat so bored by traditional fast food]] (namely, Boris and Natasha's "[=McBoris=] Burgers") that they are willing to pay to watch grass grow. Then it turns out they weren't even watching ''real'' grass.
36	-->'''Bullwinkle:''' Hey, this is [=AstroTurf=]!
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Comic Books]]
40	* ''ComicBook/TheSimpsonsTreehouseOfHorror'': One issue has pod-people taking over Springfield, and they manage not only to get Krusty, but the entire production staff of Itchy and Scratchy, so instead of mindless violence, the show consists of Itchy and Scratchy watching a wall dry (and commenting on it).
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
44	* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': In a StoryArc where the television set in Calvin's house is stolen, he tries watching the blank wall where it used to be and finds that it's not fun at all:
45	-->'''Calvin''': So here I am, not being entertained.\
46	'''Hobbes''': A pointless existence, huh?\
47	'''Calvin''': I mean, the wall is even plain old ''white!''
48	* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide''
49	** A pre-television family is sitting on and around a couch, all staring at a blank wall.
50	** Another one shows cavemen trying to play RockPaperScissors before scissors and paper were invented. Every round they play ends in a tie.
51	* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}''
52	** Jon's rural brother loves watching his clothes spinning inside the washing machine.
53	** Garfield also finds the idea of CowTipping moronic.
54	** Jon's family is also excited seeing a white mouse. Garfield remarks: "These people need a TV."
55	** Another strip has the entire family pile into the pickup to head to town and see the newly-installed traffic light, with Garfield commenting about how they'd reacted the same way about a place that got indoor plumbing.
56	* In a ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' strip, Walt talks about leaving UsefulNotes/{{Woodstock}} because it was raining and going to paint his grandmother's kitchen (which he seems to have preferred).
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Fan Works]]
60	* ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries''
61	** They play with this in ''Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Movie'' Where it is stated that "Thousands of years ago people were very bored because card games hadn't been invented yet, so in order to pass the time they started killing each other with magical powers."
62	** In episode 2, Yugi comments that the Card Game channel is "almost as fun as the Watching Paint Dry channel".
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	[[folder:Films — Animation]]
66	* In Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', Scuttle the seagull tells Ariel that before they discovered music, ancient humans "used to sit around and stare at each other all day. Got very boring."
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Literature]]
70	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
71	** Granny and Nanny comment on how there is too much "making your own entertainment" these days, they never had time for it when they were young. Nanny certainly did make her own entertainment, though. [[ReallyGetsAround With the help of many handsome young men.]]
72	** In ''The Art of Discworld'', Creator/TerryPratchett says Lancre is based on what people think England was like in the days when everyone sat around in the evening and waited for television to be invented.
73	* In "Literature/ItsAGoodLife," television night in Peaksville involves everyone pulling up chairs and staring avidly at a television set that ''isn't turned on''. (Not that turning it on would help, there being no electricity.) It's a ''good'' thing that most folks in Peaksville agree that it's better than any television they've ever seen.
74	* In the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel ''Literature/{{IQ}}'', it's mentioned that this is a sport on Sraticon IV, complete with a LargeHamAnnouncer.
75	* Another Creator/PeterDavid ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel, ''Triangle: Imzadi II'', has Lwaxana Troi put Worf through several tedious tasks before she gives her blessing for him to marry Deanna, including, of course, the old standby.
76	* In a novel by Creator/TomHolt, ''[[WarriorHeaven Valhalla]]'' is being locked in a theatre forever - watching an exciting performance of paint drying.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
80	* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': In "The Clean Room Infiltration", Amy organizes a traditional Victorian Christmas party. For entertainment there are ParlorGames dating to this period. The first seen involves blowing a ball of wool across a table. Penny and Dr. V. M. Koothrappali play along. But by their reactions, they find this game extremely boring.
81	* In ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'', there is a TV channel about ''grass growing''. [[FridgeLogic Doubly strange, given that the family is noted to be carnivores]]. If they were herbivores it would be analogous to all the cooking/food channels we have on cable.
82	* Played with in ''Series/DoctorWho''. Given that he's a time traveller who's used to jumping ahead to the exciting bits of history, the Doctor finds ordinary linear life rather boring. Even watching [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E10VincentAndTheDoctor famous artist Vincent van Gogh paint]] is as exciting to the Doctor as watching paint dry.
83	* ''Series/GetSmart'': In a parody of ''Film/TheTreasureOfTheSierraMadre'', Max arrives at the tiny town of Mira Lodo, Mexico.
84	-->'''Max''': Mira Lodo - what's that mean?\
85	'''Local''': Look at the mud.\
86	'''Max''': What do you do around here for excitement?\
87	'''Local''': Look at the mud.
88	* ''Series/GhostsUS'': The ghosts are doing this at the start of "Viking Funeral". They decide that watching Sam and Jay would be more interesting to watch. Once Jay and Samantha finish their discussion, the ghosts return to paint watching.
89	* An episode of ''Series/ModernMarvels'' was about paint. One man who tests paints for a paint company is required by his job to watch paint dry. He finds it interesting.
90	* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': DiscussedTrope. "sigh... Y'know, guys: this whole time, we could have been watching an apple brown."
91	* In ''Series/OddSquad'' episode "License to Science", one of the Negative Town residents was watching paint dry when she heard footsteps behind her and saw a bright flash, and began dancing.
92	* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' Weekend Update segments in the early 1990's would occasionally feature Dana Carvey as "A GrumpyOldMan" who would make comparisons between modern day and "his day" similarly to the Music/WeirdAlYankovic example below, always concluding his remarks with, "...and that's the way it was, and we ''liked'' it!"
93	* One game of "World's Worst" on ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' was the "world's worst TV shows", so Ryan Stiles does this trope: "...and now that we've got that second coat on, let's just watch it dry!"
94	* During the ''Series/XPlay'' review of ''VideoGame/DrakeOfThe99Dragons'', Adam Sessler is so bored by the game that he actually watches paint dry as filler. And seems wildly entertained by it in comparison to the actual game.
95	* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': In "Little Green Men and a Fella's Marriage Proposal", it turns out that looking for life in outer space entails looking at number data from the telescope in Hawaii and looking for anything out of the ordinary. Thus, we are treated to the sight of Sheldon and Dr. Prakash staring at monitors full of numbers looking for deviations in the data, which never come. During TheTag, Linkletter and Sturgis join them.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Music]]
99	* Music/CWMcCall: Referenced in "Audubon" -- apparently, there are only two things to do in the titular town, and one of them is to go downtown and watch haircuts.
100	* Music/WeirdAlYankovic
101	** The song [[Music/OffTheDeepEnd "When I Was Your Age"]] has lyrics about not having Creator/{{Nintendo}} games as a kid and having to pour salt on snails as entertainment.
102	** Another song from the same album, "I Can't Watch This", invokes this trope literally while decrying the state of modern television: "It's about as much fun as watching paint dry!"
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
106	* Wrestling/JeffHardy once mocked [[Wrestling/JohnMorrison Johnny Nitro]] by saying he would rather watch paint dry than watch him wrestle. [[BrickJoke Jeff later showed]] [[NotHyperbole he wasn't kidding]].
107	[[/folder]]
108
109	[[folder:Video Games]]
110	* ''VideoGame/NightInTheWoods'': Jeremy says the only reason he watches the gang's rehearsals is because he's bored. He flat out says it's not because he's a fan of their music, it's just literally something to do.
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Web Animation]]
114	* In ''WebAnimation/DeclineOfVideoGaming'', the gamers relate something about the villains' games being less fun than "watching paint dry," complete with cheering ("C'moonnnn, blue!"); watching grass grow (one watcher cheats with fertilizer); watching ice melt (with the help of flamethrowers), and the greatest insult of all -- ''[[RunningGag watching Tom burn]]''.
115	[[/folder]]
116
117	[[folder:Web Comics]]
118	* Mab from ''Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures'' is the fae kingdom's champion grass watcher five years running.
119	* Staring at a wall, in [[http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/298 a strip]] of ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}''.
120	* Hannelore from ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'' enjoys watching paint dry.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Web Original]]
124	* The WebVideo/BadMovieBeatdown/WebVideo/TheRapCritic crossover review of ''Big Momma's House 3'' has Rap Critic quickly decide watching paint dry is preferable to the film. Film Brain envies him.
125	-->"I'm not sure if this is even paint."
126	* When WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic reviews ''Film/WarriorsOfVirtue'', he says that he'd rather watch paint dry while watching grass grow and watch a TV show about Creator/MrT, Wrestling/HulkHogan, and Creator/BruceCampbell filing their taxes.
127	* As a 2017 April Fool's joke, ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan: The Movie!'' is revealed to be Jeffy painting a fence and then watching the paint dry for an hour.
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Western Animation]]
131	* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'': In "Park Pandemonium", Gramma just wants to sit on a bench and look at a pothole on the sidewalk... waiting for skaters to trip on it so she can laugh at them.
132	* ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek'': In "Tea Timer's Ball", Kelsey imagines being old and married to Aaron watching paint dry. He is excited about it, while Kelsey just wants to get out of it.
133	* In the U.K. ''ComicStrip/{{Dennis the Menace\|UK}}'' cartoon, Dennis' granny jokes that before TV was invented, they all sat around waiting for TV to be invented. Her actual youth activities however (reading, hunting dodos and listening to the wireless) are little better, as far as the main character is concerned.
134	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', Dexter is sent to live with an Amish family whose main recreation is churning. [=DeeDee=], his dippy older sister, quite prefers the recreational value of using a butter churn to other, more boring pursuits (like Space Camp).
135	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In "Viral Vidiots", Cosmo posts a video of him watching paint dry (although he gets frustrated and starts yelling at it to dry faster and pounding on the wall). He thinks the video has 1 million hits because people like watching paint dry. Actually, they like seeing the wall collapse on Cosmo.
136	* On ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', Garfield compares visiting Jon's cousin to watching paint dry. Sure enough, Jon's cousin makes Jon watch boring slides mostly of his wife waving while on vacation.
137	* ''WesternAnimation/GreenEggsAndHam2019:'' Part of what shows that Guy-am-I's about to hit the DespairEventHorizon is that he's considering taking up an actual ''job'' as a paintwatcher, advertised in the newspaper as something that takes no skills whatsoever, since all his actual ventures have bombed ([[MadeOfExplodium literally]], in his inventions' case).
138	* Billy, of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', drives the Goddess of Chaos crazy by watching paint dry. In his underwear. He shushes her when she talks, as he can't hear the paint drying.
139	* ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'' features Paint Drying as a spectator sport, albeit one that is extremely boring. Kaz seems to enjoy it though. In "Chow Down" he is still amazed how the underdog "Orange" won the title, while in "Disco Capers" the following season, [[NegativeContinuity he berates Ami and Yumi for doing nothing other than literally watching paint dry]] and in a slight subversion recounts the fun of a Seventies disco with a convenient time machine.
140	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'' episode "Father Figures", when Porky Pig joins the Father Figure Program and becomes a father figure to Henery Hawk, some of the activities he takes him on is watching paint dry and grass grow. Henery was not amused. Henery even {{lampshade\|Hanging}}s how Porky's idea of fun is acting out the expression of watching paint dry.
141	* ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'': In "Panfake" Peppermint Larry is forced to perform puppet shows for money after the Candy Barrel temporarily goes out of business. His initial attempts prompt people to watch a painted fence dry.
142	* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E3TooManyPinkiePies "Too Many Pinkie Pies"]], this -- a literal watching-paint-dry test -- is how the other Mane Five determine who the real Pinkie is. The fakes can't stand not having fun for so long, but the real, more complex Pinkie Pie (who suggested the idea) can withstand anything if it means she won't be made to leave her friends. And besides, while the real Pinkie Pie would have been afraid of the unknown consequences of failing, the fakes had nothing to lose that way.
143	* * ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': When [[DefectorFromDecadence Lilith]] begins to learn glyph magic in Season 2, she expresses [[IncrediblyLameFun great excitement]] at watching the paint dry on the glyphs she inscribed, describing it as the best part.
144	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
145	** Candace described reading as something people did before they invented fun.
146	** After the boys get zapped with a [[ItMakesSenseInContext Dull and Boring-inator]] by accident, their usual antics are replaced by playing with a lint roller and watching grass grow. The thought of paint watching actually ''excites'' them.
147	--->'''Phineas:''' What color paint? Can it be beige?
148	* Literal example: both ''WesternAnimation/QuackPack'' and ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' have the main characters channel surfing, and one of the TV shows is about watching paint dry.
149	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
150	** When Bart falls down the well:
151	--->'''Jasper:''' A Good, Old-Fashioned Hole Digging, my gods it's been a while.
152	** One of the most exciting pastimes in Grandpa's retirement home is sitting at the window of the rec room watching a tree. Keep in mind that this is one of many gags about how bleak and depressing retirement homes are and how there is basically nothing to look forward to.
153	* ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'': In "Royal Twist", Piper (involuntarily) swaps places with Princess Peregrine in a PrinceAndPauper plot. She discovers that the Princess's duties consist of a never ending stream of mindless activities designed to keep her busy and out of affairs of state. One of these activities is judging a paint drying competition.
154	* An episode from the ''WesternAnimation/VivaPinata'' cartoon is about visiting a character's old uncle at a retirement home. One of the gags used is that paint drying is actually an exciting pastime for the residents (along with the Grass channel, which featured grass growing in real time).
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Real Life]]
158	* There is a considerable amount of research on the effects of the environment on various inks and paints, and people who work for companies which produce paint and ink whose job is quite literally to watch ink fade from pages or paint peel off of wood. Of course, as many of these things are designed to last for hundreds of years, there are machines designed to emulate a year's worth of exposure in a single day.
159	** Observing the process by which paint dries immediately after application is also important for such companies. This is necessary to determine if new formulations will bubble, streak, or otherwise develop undesirable flaws on particular types of surface, and under varied conditions of temperature and humidity.
160	* In 2016, independent film-maker Charlie Lyne produced a movie that was over ''ten hours long'', consisting [[LeaveTheCameraRunning entirely of silent footage of a freshly-painted brick wall]]. ''Paint Drying'' was created as as way to protest the fees charged by the British Board of Film Classification, by way of forcing BBFC agents to literally watch drying paint for 607 minutes. They rated it U, for it containing 'no material likely to offend or harm'.
161	* On the commentary for the ''Doctor Who'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]", ''Who'' scribe Terrance Dicks likened the process of watching his scripts being acted out before the cameras to this (owing to ''Who's'' lengthy effects setups and other problems).
162	[[/folder]]
163

Context Main / AGoodOldFashionedPaintWatching