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Live-Action TV
Screenwriter A: Close the scene with her worried.
Screenwriter B: F5.
Screenwriter A: Astonished.
Screenwriter B: F4.
Screenwriter C: Fade screen to black.
Screenwriter B: F7.
Screenwriter C: Bewildered.
Screenwriter B stare at the keyboard.
Screenwriter C: Don't you have it?
Screenwriter B shakes head
Screenwriter C: Astonished.
Screenwriter B presses F4
Screenwriter B: F5.
Screenwriter A: Astonished.
Screenwriter B: F4.
Screenwriter C: Fade screen to black.
Screenwriter B: F7.
Screenwriter C: Bewildered.
Screenwriter B stare at the keyboard.
Screenwriter C: Don't you have it?
Screenwriter B shakes head
Screenwriter C: Astonished.
Screenwriter B presses F4
— Boris
Newspapers
At each rise of the curtain it was possible not only to anticipate the argument but the phrasing of the lines. Probably the only thing that kept the audience from chanting the speeches with the actors was the incurable optimism implicit in theatregoing which engenders the hope that the author just could not dare to use such familiar stuff: 'Doctor, he's just got to get well!' — 'Go ahead, son, every man has to cry sometime,' etc.
— Donald Maggini, quoted by George Jean Nathan in his review of the play Winged Victory by Moss Hart
I had already taken in a Deanna Durbin musical and had just settled down miserably to a 1938 Warner Brothers gangster movie called Angels with Dirty Faces. Then it happened. Midway through the first reel, one of the supporting players snarled, "Them rotten coppers will never get Rocky Sullivan—he's too smart for them," and at that instant I knew, as if by magic, everything that was going to take place during the rest of the movie, right down to that final scene where Rocky Sullivan would be dragged screaming to the electric chair... Once the experienced viewer extracted this essence he could switch off his set and go to bed, where simply by adding a generous amount of mental hot water he could turn it into a full-length feature, creating what I've lately come to think of as the Instant Movie, a potion that can be consumed in two or three fast gulps just before sleep.
— Thomas Meehan, "Add Hot Water; Serves Fourteen Million"
Radio
Gort: You think I'm finished, don't you! Well, just you wait till next week's episode!
Kremmen: This is next week's episode, Gort.
Gort: You'll never get away with this!
Kremmen: You said that in Episode 12.
Gort: You'll not take me alive?
Kremmen: You said that in Episode 15.
Gort: All your efforts are doomed?
Kremmen: Episode 23...
Gort: I'm invincible?
— Captain Kremmen
Video Games
"WHAT'S THIS? THE VAULT HUNTER IS BREAKING INTO TORGUE SECURITY! WHAT A RENEGADE! A RENEGADE COP WHO DON'T PLAY BY NOBODY'S RULES UNTIL THE COMMISSIONER ASSIGNS HIM A TALKING ROBOT DOG FOR A PARTNER WHO HELPS HIM TRACK DOWN THE CRIME SYNDICATE THAT MURDERED HIS FAMILY ALL THE WHILE TEACHING HIM A LITTLE SOMETHING ABOUT LIFE IN THE PROCESS THURSDAYS AT NINE!"
"Don't you think it's all so droll? The usual stories of Heroes, Princesses, and Demon Lords? Why tell a story we already know? Wouldn't you rather have a bit more fun than that? What will the story hold in store for you now? Ho ho ho..."
—The Puppeteer, Brave Hero Yuusha
In a World… where people live and die.
"Do you think you can just go in there and handle this by yourself!?"
"If that's what it takes."
He was about to meet his greatest foe.
"Kill them all. Alllll of them."
And a girl.
"Hello!"
"Hi."
And a comic relief sidekick who won't make it to Act III.
"I picked the wrong month to cancel my life insurance."
"Do you think you can just go in there and handle this by yourself!?"
"If that's what it takes."
He was about to meet his greatest foe.
"Kill them all. Alllll of them."
And a girl.
"Hello!"
"Hi."
And a comic relief sidekick who won't make it to Act III.
"I picked the wrong month to cancel my life insurance."
— Radio ad from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Che: Wait, Mav wants me to be in a movie? What's it about?
Zachary: How should I know, man? It's a sports movie. It's overcoming odds, overbearing dads, and training montages. Does that sound about right to you?
Zachary: How should I know, man? It's a sports movie. It's overcoming odds, overbearing dads, and training montages. Does that sound about right to you?
— NBA 2k20
Web Original
Bad News Bears is the story of Morris Buttermaker, an alcoholic former baseball player who's recruited to coach a team of incompetent misfits. If you guessed that what they really win is a valuable life lesson, step forward and claim your prize.
— Sari Cohen, "5 Classic Movies The Have Become Horrifying With Age
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"There are too many stories about hot elf chicks and poor village boys. Or farm boys, whatever. They all seem to get their villages burned down and a parent murdered here and there by a dark overlord.
— Soap Committee, How Not to Run a Comic
, How Not to Run a ComicWhile highly predictable, there wasn't one moment I didn't enjoy in this book.
— Celeste, about Curse of the Sandtongue
, about Curse of the SandtongueBrave is the latest animated film from Pixar, and therefore becomes the film the parents of the world will be dragged to by their kids. The good news is that the kids will probably love it, and the bad news is that parents will be disappointed if they're hoping for another Pixar groundbreaker...this one finds Pixar poaching on traditional territory of Disney, its corporate partner. We get a spunky princess; her mum, the queen; her dad, the gruff king, an old witch who lives in the woods, and so on.
— Roger Ebert, review of Brave
Web Video
"It has an orphan, a dame, and a rusty old fighter nobody believed in, and damned if it doesn't play every terrible cliché completely straight."
— Onion A.V. Club, on Real Steel
, on Real Steel"If you've ever seen a sci-fi trope ever, it's in this film."
"Meet Gene, the meh emoji. He needs to believe in himself, get the girl, save the world, and probably some other generic protagonist goals you'll miss while you nap through the second act."
— The Honest Trailer for The Emoji Movie
"That's all it is. It's just clichés from kids' movies, romantic comedies, bland adventure tales, with nothing charming or fresh thrown on top of it. You're just watching these clichés play out, and nothing else. Clichés are fine, we need them once in a while, but if you're not gonna add anything or give a unique spin on it, it's just clichés and nothing else."
So now, to add to the cliche list, you're an undead Chosen One who has to avenge his master's death. Never Heard That One Before!
"The gameplay is quite adequate. Of course it is; it's been blanketly ripped off. Not a single element of it hasn't been tried and tested in at least three popular previous games. Even the story has been nicked bodily from at least five adventure movies that I can think of — seven if you let me count all the Indiana Jones films."
"You start Until Dawn and it's so fucking excited with itself you have to watch a little video going 'Decisions have consequences! Is your mind blown? Let's hope so because then you won't notice our complete lack of creativity', because the main cast are straight from the teen slasher film default creation wizard. Every single one of them could have their personalities summarised in a single five letter word: Brave, Hunky, Bitch, Funny, Timid, Weird, Whore, and let's not forget Black."
As for the actual plot, well, why don't you fill in the blanks yourself? You're a cop on the blank, you get blanked for a blank you didn't commit, and now you're out for blank and to clear your blank.
"…And the way they write Neo Metal Sonic is very, like, fanfiction-y, "I don't know how to write a villain, so I'm just going to write him to be… the ultimate evil bad guy who's the most powerful-est, evilest, strongest bad guy we've ever encountered before, and he's outsmarted everyone 'cause he's the smartest-est, most brilliant-est, evilest bad guy ever! How are we ever going to defeat him?" And it's scene after scene after scene with Neo Metal Sonic, basically just saying, "Aw, man! This guy's so fuckin' badass!" and I really got tired of it fast."
