What do they ALWAYS get wrong in fictional depictions of your occupation or hobby?
——-
For me, artists are usually depicted wrong (not always), but it's usually from an outsider's perspective, so they look cool and mysterious or aloof and clever, when in reality artists who are sort of like that are usually idiots who're just covering up their shyness or imposter syndrome by acting a part in public (usually younger or less experienced artists).
Conversely Graphic designers are often depicted mostly accurately as are advertising people because a lot of film makers and writers start out in that industry so they know it, which is why there are so many graphic designer characters in films.
Start publishing on
DD Comics!
Advertise with us
Comic Talk and General Discussion *
What do they ALWAYS get wrong in fictional depictions of your occupation or hobby?
Most park rangers that appear in TV and film seem pretty realistic. The only ones that are totally off are ones that are being unfriendly or authoritative because I have never met an unhappy park ranger irl. Most of the time, the characters are shown as helpful save-the-day figures and wells of information, which is spot-on. They always carry radios and volunteer help when someone seems in need. They show up as Deus Ex Machina – which is basically an accurate job description. They also are rarely in groups. Typically one ranger is seen in a film, and they alone are the guardian for that vast wilderness area or historic site. This is also, unfortunately, quite true to life.
"Vicky" from So I Married an Axe Murderer is a less realistic ranger, unless he's play-acting a bit for his tour. Rangers typically smile and are usually a bit less graphic in descriptions for the general public (but do alter tour content on-the-fly to fit the audience). So, theoretically, "Vicky" has an entirely different tour and persona for children or church groups…
EDIT:
I just thought of some things they do get wrong. Sometimes they have a ranger show up and warn some protagonists not to go into a restricted area and then the ranger just leaves. Irl, that ranger would radio dispatch, let them know about the people, give a description, and law enforcement would check out that area again in a few hours. Trespassers wouldn't just be able to go backcountry camp illegally after encountering personnel that told them not to. (If they DON'T encounter personnel and just see a sign, that is entirely feasible. But a number of stories have an actual person warn the characters of the dangers.)
Another thing they get wrong is having people be all alone camping in summer. This doesn't happen, not at designated campgrounds nor in popular back country areas. Popular trails are crowded at all scenic overlooks and locations. Parking lots are full.
Sometimes cell phones in movies work in places where they absolutely would not. If you are backcountry hiking without a satellite phone, you are absolutely cut off from the world.
Wildlife in movies is always more aggressive than in real life and also more visible. If you have ever walked in the forest, you've probably walked past dozens of snakes that did a very good job doing what they do, staying camouflaged. Bears leave when people are near. Talking while you hike is the best wildlife safety advice. Wildlife want nothing to do with you.
On that note, park rangers don't carry long guns. Law enforcement carry the same side arms as any city law enforcement. No one else is armed with the exception of biologists on a specific project (either a hard release of a nuisance animal or culling invasive species).
And park rangers absolutely do not care for sick or wounded wildlife. Period. Park rangers preserve ecological processes. Ecology does its own thing, and it is completely against the NPS mission to interfere. The most a ranger will interact with wildlife is if a park biologist is attaching monitoring equipment or culling invasive species. Law enforcement might use their weapons to occasionally put down a severely inured hit-by-car or a sickly raccoon too close to a campground or trail (for visitor safety). The only thing routinely done for wildlife is moving venomous snakes away from frequented areas (just far enough for visitors to stop freaking out about it), helping turtles cross the street, and protecting shorebird nests as required by law.
Cartoonists and comic artists can be hugely popular and successful with seemingly little or no effort.
The first I saw was Jack Lemmon in How To Murder Your Wife, who drew a daily comic strip and lived in a gorgeous townhouse with his butler Terry-Thomas, spending most of his time at his private members club, or throwing/attending cocktail parties.
Most recently in an episode of Midsommer Murders at a comic convention (in the middle of nowhere?), we learned of a cartoonist who had become internationally popular and collectible by anonymously putting out a few self published copies in the local village once a year. The latest hotly anticipated issue contained vital clues to the identity of the murderer would you believe? (I knew it was Pickles Lumbar all along. )
Though pole dancers are universally portrayed as strippers working in sleazy bars, that description is only partially correct. As a pole dancing instructor, I have generally observed that professional strippers constitute about one tenth of a percent of the dancers in the studio where I teach. From what I have seen in my 13 year involvement in the pole dancing community, that percentage seems to be fairly consistent worldwide. These days, the majority of people are doing pole dancing as a workout, and many approach it as a serious contemporary dance form.
Interesting topic. I work as a law librarian when not making comics. SO i have a lot to say about this!!!
Librarians have been dealing with professional stereotyping for decades. Since 1992, American Library Association inevitably has at least one panel about how to break the image of the mousy old lady with bad fashion sense and zero social skills. On the other hand, there is the "sexy librarian" fetish which is really annoying. A lot of us do tend to be introverted types who love learning and want to help people.
I've also worked in law firms my entire professional career, and yes, there is some drama, but nothing hyped to the level of what you would see on your average TV show. There is a LOT of work that goes into prosecuting and defending cases…boxes of discovery, document review, dealing with government red tape, etc…stuff that is NOT sexy or good for TV. :p
I started watching the show Suits because I was curious as to how they would portray a corporate law firm, and it was so off the mark…
Also, nearly all the legal research materials are online, so the image of the law library is not necessarily this:
My comic character is actually a lawyer, and having working with lawyers, they really do get stereotyped and get a bad rap of being arrogant a-holes, when that is actually far from the truth in most cases.
Imagine, if you will, that there is a scene of a person getting ready to watch a movie in present day, as in right now. Than they sit down at a Moviola with a hand crank, he talks about having 800 CM (not MM) grade film and he plays the audio on an Akai reel to reel machine, he does not plug in headphones or speakers of any kind. All of the equipment is connected to a Trinitron television. The results is a full holographic display ala Star Wars Christmas Special.
Now, imagine the father coming in and saying how childish it all is, to go get a girlfriend and that movies will never be a thing.
That's how it feels to watch whenever any American media handles video games, and it confuses me. Are the writers pulling scripts out from 1974?
Also, Furries. I hate when media tries to handle what being a furry is like because it is always, always negative and treats us like monsters.
Furwerk studio wrote:
That's how it feels to watch whenever any American media handles video games, and it confuses me. Are the writers pulling scripts out from 1974?
Also, Furries. I hate when media tries to handle what being a furry is like because it is always, always negative and treats us like monsters.
This is so true. Even if furries aren't monsters at the least they're depicted as kinky perverts.
I guess I should be grateful that model building is mostly not depicted outside of anime. Anime is very positive and pretty accurate even going into the attention to detail and other skills model building gives someone. And they even show adults doing it. As far as I remember the last TV character with a train layout was Gomez Addams. The comic strip "For Better or Worse" the father was a railroad hobbyist.
Kind of funny considering how many celebrities have train layouts and/or build models and miniatures. Then there are special effects companies including the CGI ones where half the staff or more are modelers of one kind or another.
The membership rolls of California model building clubs read like a who's who of the special effects community.
Peter Cushing built models, as well as collected and painted toy soldiers. Bruce Springsteen is a HUGE model rail hobbyist. He's in his local Hobby shop regularly.
Yeah, Furies are typecast into super creeps :(
————
Doctors are usually always super sexual from what I remember in fiction. Often into kinky stuff. But always up for parties and drug taking etc.
…But I know many doctors like that in reality so…
Also Nurses USED to be portrayed as sexy women who're always partying and doing kinky stuff. Now they're only portayed as hard-working careworn struggling mothers (the males are rarely portrayed).
In my experience the first stereotype is still actually true (NOT at work, but always outside of it). They're a hard partying group!
bravo1102 wrote:Hmmmm…
I guess I should be grateful that model building is mostly not depicted outside of anime.
Robin And Wendy's Wet Weekends - https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/robin_wendys_wet_weekends/
It's a radio sitcom about a childless middleaged couple who're very very "white", and precious, and naive, and a bit childlike, and a bit conservative. Their pride and joy is the little town they made called "Mayfield" and it has a train that goes through it. They love it…
British drama and comedy tends to be SUPER tropey. Tropes on steroids, protein, and illegal growth hormone. Characters are solidly constructed from trope-crete and they rarely ever grow out of it or move beyond it… if they do they're reined back pretty soon.
Anyway, Robin and Wendy are products of that:
Model-makers = dorky adults who're uncool, naive, undeveloped, inexperienced, immature, conservative things because they don't know any better. And they're white in every way possible because of course they are.
It's a good show, it's worth getting into because it's fun and well written. It's just that the main characters are limited stereotypes. YES those people certainly DO exist, but they're not representative of the group. Here they've been chosen to be that way because the writers think they are.
Ok so Im a mechanic , ive worked on almost everything at some point or other and man can I tell you they get so so much wrong . When watching a show and they're talking about how something works , and they're so far off ot ruins the whole show . I mean there are a lot of us mechanics around , you'd think they could just ask one and we could set them straight ? Anyway the only movie i can think of that actually gets the stuff they talk about right is the Mad Max movies .
And then theres the stereotypes for mechanics , often shown as simple types who aren't so brite …do they not know mechanics have to deal with electrical ,electronic , hydraulic , pneumatic , and mechanical systems ? You have to have a good grasp of many disciplines to perform the job effectively . Actually out of my class of 30 students in tech school there are only two of us who are still in the business because it's so hard to be effective enough to make a good living …but the thing that gets me most is Scotty on star trek ..Kirk says how long will it take to fix this or that …in space …with no parts , and Scotty says 8 hours , and Kirk says well I need it in twenty minutes and Scotty says ok … broke is broke and it takes what it takes. Also theres this idea that most mechanics are out to screw over their customers , which is far from true . People don't do their maintenance and operate their vehicles and equiptment till they break , then can't understand why it needs such expensive repairs , or if you only fix the part that fails them when the next poor abused component gives out they blame you ..so how does one win ? Anyway …yea
Ozoneocean wrote:bravo1102 wrote:Hmmmm…
I guess I should be grateful that model building is mostly not depicted outside of anime.
Robin And Wendy's Wet Weekends - https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/robin_wendys_wet_weekends/
It's a radio sitcom about a childless middleaged couple who're very very "white", and precious, and naive, and a bit childlike, and a bit conservative. Their pride and joy is the little town they made called "Mayfield" and it has a train that goes through it. They love it…
Anyway, Robin and Wendy are products of that:
Model-makers = dorky adults who're uncool, naive, undeveloped, inexperienced, immature, conservative things because they don't know any better.
Everything I read about it mentions that the main builder is obsessed and displays all the classic symptoms of OCB. The next door neighbor is interesting as a shut-in recovering from a nervous breakdown.
So it could be super tropey, super stereotypes of the mentally ill as those delightfully kooky folks next door.
Considering I'm a model builder who recovered from an emotional breakdown– about the time the writers came up with their idea– hey – so that's why my therapist was making all those long distance calls to the UK!
Ozoneocean wrote:bravo1102 wrote:Hmmmm…
I guess I should be grateful that model building is mostly not depicted outside of anime.
Robin And Wendy's Wet Weekends - https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/robin_wendys_wet_weekends/
It's a radio sitcom about a childless middleaged couple who're very very "white", and precious, and naive, and a bit childlike, and a bit conservative. Their pride and joy is the little town they made called "Mayfield" and it has a train that goes through it. They love it…
Anyway, Robin and Wendy are products of that:
Model-makers = dorky adults who're uncool, naive, undeveloped, inexperienced, immature, conservative things because they don't know any better.
Everything I read about it mentions that the main builder is obsessed and displays all the classic symptoms of OCB. The next door neighbor is interesting as a shut-in recovering from a nervous breakdown.
So it could be super tropey, super stereotypes of the mentally ill as those delightfully kooky folks next door.
Considering I'm a model builder who recovered from an emotional breakdown– about the time the writers came up with their idea– hey – so that's why my therapist was making all those long distance calls to the UK !
I don’t see many distribution centers on many shows but what I do see wrong is the equipment used. Almost always it’s sit down LP forklift. You never see a electric pallet jack, electric forklift, electric reach truck, electric, RC electric forklift. Almost every dude, (they never show women), as some low intelligent person who don’t know how to speck properly. Always outside on some dock.
cdmalcolm1 wrote:You're right! All the scenes in warehouses it's almost like they hide everything other than the sit down LP lift.
I don’t see many distribution centers on many shows but what I do see wrong is the equipment used. Almost always it’s sit down LP forklift. You never see a electric pallet jack, electric forklift, electric reach truck, electric, RC electric forklift. Almost every dude, (they never show women), as some low intelligent person who don’t know how to speck properly. Always outside on some dock.
And security is portrayed as a bunch of totally oblivious senior citizens or police wannabes to get beaten up or killed en mass.
I’m a retired printer, so of course I know about (and even have known people arrested for) counterfeiting. Most TV or movies that portray counterfeit printing plates have these big letterpress blocks with etched images of a bill on them. The printing presses are these little tiny hand platen presses The one movie that I’ve seen that showed the actual act of counterfeiting is the movie, “To Live and Die in LA”.
Most people simply used an offset printing press using printing plates that are thin sheets of aluminum with the printed image on it. The paper (even back then) was of a certain percent of rag paper. Any paper that is even remotely close to what you could print money onto is already known by the Secret Service, and a paper purchase gives off a red flag. Many times the Secret Service will sting out-of-luck printers with paper to later bust them.
Naturally, now days, it’s all done digitally with all sorts of tricks of that trade to fake the newer counterfeiting-counter measures.
And the counterfeiters that I’ve known were never bloodthirsty gangsters as portrayed on TV or in movies. They were really just sad schlubs trying to make easy money and don’t want to hurt or kill anyone. Still, they’re making some bad choices in life, and they always get caught.
Advertise with us
DDComics is community owned.
The following patrons help keep the lights on. You can support DDComics on Patreon.
- Banes
- JustNoPoint
- RMccool
- Abt_Nihil
- Gunwallace
- cresc
- PaulEberhardt
- Emma_Clare
- FunctionCreep
- SinJinsoku
- Smkinoshita
- jerrie
- Chickfighter
- Andreas_Helixfinger
- Tantz_Aerine
- Genejoke
- Davey Do
- Gullas
- Roma
- NanoCritters
- Teh Andeh
- Peipei
- Digital_Genesis
- Hushicho
- Palouka
- Cheeko
- Paneltastic
- L.C.Stein
- Zombienomicon
- Dpat57
- Bravo1102
- TheJagged
- LoliGen
- OrcGirl
- Fallopiancrusader
- Arborcides
- ChipperChartreuse
- Mogtrost
- InkyMoondrop
- jgib99
- Call me tom
- OrGiveMeDeath_Ind
- Mks_monsters
- GregJ
- HawkandFloAdventures
- Soushiyo