"They train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won't allow them to write 'fuck' on their airplanes because it is obscene."
— Kurtz, Apocalypse Now
- In Airplane II: The Sequel, Elaine tries to tell the passengers that the Mayflower lunar rocket plane is off-course, but they don't panic until she mentions that the plane is out of coffee.
- Apocalypse Now:
- Colonel Kilgore orders an air-strike on a VC-controlled village not because of its tactical significance, but because he wants to go surfing on the nearby beach. In a deleted scene that was restored in the Redux version, he orders a manhunt for Willard via helicopter because Willard stole his surfboard.
- Near the very end of the film, Kurtz makes a point about how the soldiers are taught to drop firebombs, but Nose Art with the word "fuck" is too obscene.
- When the Grace Brothers staff get stuck in the middle of the revolutionaries' gunfire in Are You Being Served?, all Mrs. Slocombe can complain about is her holiday:Mr. Rumbold: But what shall I say?Mrs. Slocombe: Just tell them we're British an' they're spoilin' our 'oliday!
- Early on in Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan chews Anakin out for losing his lightsaber. Later on, when Anakin is trapped inside a wild droid factory with No OSHA Compliance, his lightsaber is destroyed, he's surrounded by battle droids and a Mandalorian, and his response is "Not again. Obi-Wan's gonna kill me."
- The Babysitter (2017): Seen twice by Allison, whose only concern is her body.
- When she gets shot, she gripes that the bullet hit her breast and how it'll ruin her chances of finding a boyfriend. Heedless of the fact that the shot had nearly been fatal since the bullet struck just above her heart, nor was she concerned that her friends had just murdered two police officers!
- Later in the film, she accuses Cole of being a pervert for poking her injured breast, completely overlooking that he only did it in self-defense because she was trying to kill him. Not to mention, Cole was only 12 years old.
- Back to the Future Part II: While in 2015, Marty sees a newsflash that the Chicago Cubs had won the World Series against the fictitious Miami Gators team. As a 1985 teenager, Marty's more amazed that there's a Miami-based team than the fact that the Cubs won a World Series note . Back then, there was no Miami-based team in the MLB until the Miami Marlins (originally the Florida Marlins) got established in 1993. However, the Marlins are also part of the National League, meaning there could never be a World Series between the two teams.
- The Big Lebowski:
- When Lebowski's daughter Maude's limo driver is forcefully pulling The Dude to Lebowski's limo (after the drop-off), Dude warns the guy, "Careful, man! There's a beverage here!"
- Later, when he, Walter and Donny are confronted by Nihilists at the film's climax, all the Dude cares to notice is his car having been trashed.
- During an early attack on Rock Ridge in Blazing Saddles, one of the townsfolk is lassoed and dragged behind a horse. As he's pulled away, he laments, "That's the end of this suit!"
- In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when Pike cuts off Amilyn's arm, his main concern is his ruined jacket.
- Cabin Fever: People all around are dying of a deadly flesh eating disease. Suddenly, the caring hero finds himself laying underneath a woman who just wants to have sex. In most discussions about this scene in forums, etc., viewers agree that the woman's priorities are severely messed-up, though a lot of guys add that if they were sitting beside the woman themselves, they'd be more then happy to let her do her thing. Later on, the same girl decides to have a bath and shave her legs while everybody else is either dying, searching for survivors, or trying to escape from homicidal rednecks.
- A Cadaver Christmas: Happens here and there throughout the movie, such as when the Janitor throws a fit over front desk security following protocol over even trying to explain that the Zombie Apocalypse occurring at the campus.
- In Dawn of the Dead (1978) during a Zombie Apocalypse, station manager Dan Givens insists on keeping the outdated rescue station list on the air because viewers will tune out otherwise. He's putting lives at risk to keep up WGON's ratings, even though the government emergency networks will soon take over the airwaves.
- In the 2010 remake of Death at a Funeral, Aaron is dumbfounded by his brother's reaction to finding out that their father was having an affair with Peter Dinklage's character.Aaron: Our father was having gay sex with a guy who could fit in his pocket...and you're mad 'cause he's white?!
- Don't Look Up: After it appears that some mysterious malfunction caused the spacecraft intended to stop the Comer Of Doom to turn around on a mission that was guaranteed to be surefire success, confusing not only the general populace and other world governments, but also our main characters, it is revealed that the presidential cabinet aborted the mission themselves. Turns out that instead of the safer plan of destroying or diverting the comet, they'd later let it hit the planet in hopes of mining the asteroid for trillions of dollars worth of valuable ore.Kate: They found a bunch of gold and diamonds and rare shit on the comet. So they're gonna let it hit the planet to make a bunch of rich people even more disgustingly rich!
- Dredd. Ma-Ma has just put Peach Trees under Lock Down and announced on the PA system that every member of her gang is to hunt down and kill Judges Dredd and Anderson. As armed gangbangers can be heard coming down the stairwell towards them, Anderson is startled when Dredd demands a tactical evaluation, as she's still a rookie under assessment. To Dredd, of course, this is just another day at the office.
- Lampshaded in Ferris Bueller's Day Off:Cameron: Ferris, my father loves this car more than life itself.
Ferris: A man with priorities so far out of whack doesn't deserve such a fine automobile. - In The Force Awakens, Finn gets scarred in the back defending Rey from Kylo. Then Kylo gets scarred by Rey in the face while he tries to capture and use her. In The Rise of Skywalker, Rey learns Force Healing. Guess which scar she heals.
- Early in The Game Changer, the two protagonists - respectively a suave hitman and a revolutionary soldier - escapes the prison they're locked in, and as they made it out into the courtyards they realize their only exit is a sewer. The suave hitman protests he will be a laughingstock among his fellow mobsters for crossing the sewers, nevermind the amount of armed guards coming after them, leading to the soldier literally dragging him through the manhole.
- Ghostbusters II: While searching for the source of the slime underground, Winston, Egon, and Ray see a ghostly train heading their way, which passes through a terrified Winston. Once it goes away, Egon says "I think that was the old New York Central City Albany! Derailed in 1920! Killed hundreds of people! Did you catch the number on the locomotive?", Winston simply answers "Sorry, I missed it.".
- Glass (2019): The reaction of Dennis to being shot and bleeding to death is to complain about how this is ruining his pants. His last words are to tell someone to wash the pants.
- In Glass Onion: Duke Cody carries a gun around with him at all times because "you never know when shit's gonna go down," but doesn't carry an epi-pen for his deadly pineapple allergy, because he considers having an allergy embarrassingly un-macho. Guess which one of those he needed more?
- The Godfather:
- The Godfather: During a mob hit, Clemenza famously reminds Rocco, "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." As evidence linking them to the crime, the gun is less incriminating on its own than if found in the characters' possession, given the state of forensic science in the era. The cannoli probably was good though.
- In The Godfather Part III, a helicopter surprises and begins to massacre a large meeting of Mafia bosses. One boss refuses to leave the room without his lucky coat and is mowed down before he can even take the coat off the rack.
- In The Hangover, this is a defining trait of Alan Garner.
- In Part I, when everybody is berating Alan about him putting roofies in their drinks, Alan gets shocked at Stu cursing at him.
- In Part II, everybody is held at gunpoint and Alan is more concerned about a monkey.
- In Part III, everybody is freaking out about a man getting murdered before their eyes and Alan is more concerned about almost losing his phone.
- Harry Potter: Hermione always treats getting expelled from Hogwarts as a Fate Worse than Death, since if she were expelled, she'd have to return to the Muggle world. Examples include:
- In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Hermione states, "I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed. Or worse, expelled!" It's lampshades when Ron responds, "She needs to sort out her priorities!"
- This is also manifested in Hermione's boggart, which is not Voldemort, or death, or giant monsters, or anything like that — but failing all her classes. It's at a time when she's heavily academically stressed due to taking so many classes she needs to resort to time travel just to attend them all.
- In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, after Harry illegally does magic outside school (and gets pardoned), Hermione says, "It's not funny. Harry was lucky not to be expelled." He responds icily, "I think I was lucky not to be arrested, actually." (In this instance possibly closer to Worrying for the Wrong Reason?)
- In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when they've just had to flee from the Death Eaters twice, Hermione suddenly wails that they didn't celebrate Harry's birthday. He reminds her that there's a war going on around them. And she actually lampshades herself: "Oh, right. Perspective."
- Home Alone: It's more than obvious that Uncle Frank doesn't care that Kevin has been left behind, but in a pathetic attempt to try and comfort Peter and Kate, he simply says: "If it makes you feel any better, I forgot my reading glasses".
- Hook: When Tinkerbell grows into a life-size and destroys her house, Peter response is "You broke your house" and then "You're humoungous".
- Howl (2015): Paul decides that leaving the barricaded carriage to take a dump with some ghost of decency in another carriage's toilet compartment is somehow not Too Dumb to Live; with a super-strong, man-eating werewolf stalking outside the train. It gets him killed.
- The Hunger Games:
- In the first movie, Effie Trinket is more upset that Katniss stabbed the table ("That is mahogany!") than that she almost stabbed Haymitch in the hand.
- Leans on Comically Missing the Point: "Careers train for the games until they're 18, but they don't get dessert! And you do!"
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: Subverted; when everyone ends up trapped in Jumanji in new bodies, the first thing Bethany does is scream "Where's my phone!?" When the others chew her out for this, she counters that having a working cell signal in the middle of a jungle would be pretty useful. Once it becomes clear that there's no way for her to get her phone back, she stops worrying about it and focuses on surviving.
- During the pterosaur attack in Jurassic World, one guy (played by Jimmy Buffett himself) takes care not to spill his margaritas as he hurries to shelter.
- Killer Klowns from Outer Space: When Jojo the Klownzilla comes to destroy the ice cream truck, Dave orders the Tenenzi brothers to get out of there but they can't because the ice cream truck they're using is rented.
- In Killer High, Sabrina has spent the past decade devoting her life to planning her high school's tenth reunion, all so that she can show up her high-school rival. Her obsession is so bad that she's donated blood every month for several years in order to sock away money for the reunion.
- In Ladyhawke, the corrupt Bishop of Aquila is about to conduct the year's most important religious service with his city's security compromised (a young thief just escaped from a purportedly inescapable prison) and his archenemy Navarre in the area. He is nevertheless obsessed with Navarre's hawk, which he wants delivered to him unharmed. (Said hawk is actually the woman he 'loves,' transformed by the Bishop's curse).
- Played for Drama in the 2024 action flick Land of Bad. The Mission Control guys at Nellis Air Force Base are too busy watching a March Madness basketball game to bother handling the phone calls informing them that an airstrike is about to blow their own comrades to kingdom come. Reaper is forced to personally run back to base to call off the strike, and afterwards destroys their TV in a fit of understandable rage.
- In Legally Blonde, Brooke has an airtight alibi for her husband's murder (she was getting liposuction) but refuses to use it in her defense because she made a fortune on her fitness empire and doesn't want to hurt her reputation. Apparently the idea of saying she was having surgery or in a doctor's appointment, but not specifying what kind never occurred to her. In Brooke's defense, the prosecution would have likely pressed to find out what the appointment was for, which would have easily leaked the information to everyone. Still, a damaged reputation isn't as bad as going to prison.
- Lampshaded in Looper, when Old Joe calls out Young Joe for wanting to talk about the time travel mechanics while the former is trying to discuss more pressing matters like the Rainmaker and what they need to do to survive:Young Joe: So you know what's gonna happen? You've done all this already? As me?
Old Joe: I don't want to talk about time travel. If we start talking about it, we're gonna be here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws. - Played with in Lord of War: Andre Baptiste Sr., a dictator, shoots one of his own men with a gun that Yuri, an Arms Dealer, is showing to him. Yuri shouts "Why'd you do that!?", then follows up by explaining that Baptiste will now have to buy the gun since he can't sell it used. It's not a straight example because Yuri doesn't actually feel that way - he genuinely reacted to the man's death, then realized doing so was a mistake and made it into a joke to keep on Baptiste's good side.
- M3GAN: One advertisement for M3GAN tells parents they can turn over all of the repetitive tasks and reminders that involve raising a child (in other words, actual parenting) to M3GAN so the parents can "focus on the things that really matter," which is portrayed by Gemma watching television on the couch whilst surfing her laptop.
- The Martian: When Watney recovers the radioisotope thermoelectric generator, he elects to ignore the fact that he is sitting on enough plutonium to fry him instantly if it breaches, and will probably lead to several new cancers being named after him even if it doesn't, and instead focuses on the fact that the least disco song that got left behind with him on Mars is "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Iron Man: Upon returning to America after three months in terrorist captivity, Tony insists on first getting an American cheeseburger and holding a company press conference rather than going to the hospital.
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Peter Quill holds up the gang's escape from the Kyln solely so he can go recover his Walkman. Admittedly, it is pretty important to Quill, but given the Kyln guards are shooting to kill, the others are not so impressed.Drax: You will be a keen ally in the battle against Ronan! What have you recovered?
(Quill shows him his Walkman)
Drax: ... you are an imbecile. - At one point in Ant-Man, Scott Lang busts into what he and the Pyms believe is just going to be an old abandoned warehouse, only to discover that it's actually become a base for the Avengers. This means that Scott, who has only relatively recently trained as Ant-Man, finds himself in a one-on-one fight with none other than Falcon, an experienced Avenger. During the fight, Hank Pym gripes that Scott's in danger of losing Hank's Ant-Man suit. Hope snaps back that, thanks to them, he's now in rather more serious danger of losing his life. Hank has the decency to look appropriately sheepish at this.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Baby Groot gets repeatedly distracted from the task of busting Rocket and Yondu free, because he is a baby. His odd attitude rubs off on Rocket, as they get into a back and forth about Groot's hatred of hats.Yondu: This is an important conversation right now?
- Thor: Ragnarok: During the gladiator fight with the Hulk, Thor is less concerned that he's facing one of the most dangerous creatures in existence and more concerned that Hulk is making him look bad.Thor: You're embarrassing me! I told them we were friends!
- Avengers: Infinity War: Immediately after crash-landing on an alien planet, Peter Parker's first declaration to Iron Man and Doctor Strange is pre-emptively apologizing in case he's turned into an alien incubator, rather than simply telling them there's people approaching.
- In Monty Python's Life of Brian, the Roman Centurion who catches Brian in the act of writing anti-Roman graffiti doesn't take issue with the message itself, but with the atrocious grammar of the message.
- In Of Dice and Men, John Francis and Jason are angry at Edward for cheating on Tara because he broke her heart. John Alex is angry at Edward for cheating on Tara because now they have to decide which one to kick out of the gaming group. And he's genuinely conflicted about which one to keep: on the one hand, Edward is a complete Jerkass, but on the other hand, "he gives really good roleplay."
- In the climax of Outrageous Fortune, the two heroines are being pursued by both Michael and the FBI on a dangerous mountain Lauren holding the dangerous biochemical weapon he stole; Sandy eventually slugs one of the agents... Then looks at her hands and says, "Aw, nuts!" (Clearly, she's upset at having broke a nail.)
- In The Producers remake, Max cries "Oh no!" after stepping out of the way instead of catching a little old lady, who hurtles away; however, it turns out he is upset because she forget to sign the check.
- Raiders of the Lost Ark: Jock is fishing from one of the floats of his floatplane when he sees Indy running from a tribe of angry natives. Jock spends several seconds trying to reel in his fish before getting the plane ready for take-off.
- Revenge of the Nerds: During the Panty Raid sequence, Booger and Takashi break into an Alpha Pi's (played by Colleen Madden) room while she is sitting in a chair topless and wearing only panties, and she is only upset about them trying to steal her panties, not the fact that they are seeing her topless.
- The Room (2003): After Mark tries to kill Peter for no reason, Peter is more concerned by the fact that Mark smokes weed.
- In Scream (1996), when Stu, one of the killers, is bleeding out in Sidney's kitchen, the first thought that comes to his mind is how angry his parents are gonna be with him when they find out what had happened. Never mind that he was just stabbed deep and has lost a lot of blood, and probably won't even live to see his parents.
- In Semi-Pro, when Jackie Moon is in the ring with a bear and the bear is all over him like a cheap suit, he implores, “Watch my hair! The only thing I care about is my hair!”
- The climactic destruction of the title cities in Sodom and Gomorrah shows just how awful their inhabitants really are; they would rather fight over valuables than try to save themselves, much less each other. There are multiple shots of people half-buried by collapsing buildings being relieved of their possessions by passers-by (who are themselves killed by falling debris shortly thereafter), while a couple start kissing against a wall seconds before it falls over and crushes them to death.
- In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic gets into an argument with Tom upon finding out he wants to move from Green Hills just as Robotnik manages to locate their truck and sends a ground drone after it. Even when it starts attacking the car, he still continues to argue with him about it.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022);
- Tom and Maddie call Commander Walters out on setting up a whole government task force to try and capture Sonic when he's proven himself to not be a threat to Earth, particularly when they have the bigger problem of Robotnik's return to worry about. To be fair to Walters, he was unaware of the last part.
- When Agent Stone is knocked out during the climactic battle, Robotnik is more concerned about a potential "complaint about an unsafe work environment" than about the fact that his most loyal minion has been rendered unconscious, not to mention the fact that he now has to pilot the Humongous Mecha all by himself.
- Titanic:
- Played for Drama to show off what an asshole Cal is. After hearing that half the people on the ship are going to die, what's he concerned about? "You know, it's a pity I didn't keep that drawing. It'll be worth a lot more by morning."
- And by Rose's mother, when she asks a crewman as everyone is piling into the few remaining lifeboats if the seating will be divided by class.
- And another woman who asks, "Can you hold the boat for a moment? I have to go back to my room for just—" She gets cut off as a fed up Lightoller bodily picks her up and dumps her into the boat. And dumps all of her luggage overboard.
- In Unfriended, the main characters cling to their high school drama as if it's life and death stakes, even though there are actual life and death stakes at hand. This is used to show what petty, immature jerks they all are—even in the face of an angry ghost racking up horrific kill after horrific kill, not a single one of them can get it together and admit to doing something wrong.
- In Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, Wendy Wu is told that she is The Chosen One and must save the world, but she at first thinks that becoming Homecoming Queen is more important. She eventually gets her act together and saves the world.
- West Side Story (2021): At the dance at the school gym, Officer Krupke calls out both the Jets and the Sharks for caring more about fighting each other than being at an event with several attractive girls who want to dance with them.
- Taken to a hilarious extreme in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, as people grow increasingly desperate to find the final Golden Ticket. Over the course of the movie's first act we see people going to higher and higher extremes to get chocolate bars that might contain the tickets (growing as each ticket is found). This finally culminates in a tense hostage-negotiation scene straight out of Dragnet where the frantic, horrified wife of the kidnap-victim is left speechless when the criminals demand her chocolate.Cop: Did you hear me? It's your husband's life or your case of Wonka bars!
Woman: How long will they give me to think it over?- When Augustus falls into the chocolate river and proves unable to swim, Wonka is more concerned that the boy is polluting the chocolate than the fact that he's drowning. This one is rather to be expected, as Wonka has already shown himself to be an eccentric whose social skills are a bit lacking.
- Zombieland sees Tallahassee's quest to find Twinkies. Something of a subversion as his motive for wanting the Twinkies so bad actually makes sense.Witchita: You're risking our lives for a twinkie?
Columbus: Just humor him.
