Those who saw the first Karate Kid film likely remember the scene where Mr. Miyagi jumped a fence and singlehandedly took on five Cobra Kai goons to save Daniel LaRusso. If you saw this as a kid, it likely made many of you believe that knowing Karate was pretty much a superpower that could save you in a similar situation.
The reality is that street fights are ugly. It could land a person in jail, in the hospital, or worse. People will bite, headbutt, strike the groin, maybe even have a weapon involved that can instantly nullify your Karate.
This misrepresentation of hand-to-hand combat is just one of the many responses to a Reddit thread from a while back. People also shared how they felt Hollywood romanticized high school life, being in the military, and the physical act of love, among many others.
#1
Being relentlessly pursued by someone you keep telling you are not interested.
It’s not romantic or comedic, it’s just a mixture of stalking and harassment if you keep showing up in their life and/or throwing romantic gestures their way.
Maybe you can try again at a later date if you feel your initial approach or the timing might have been off. But really leave the other person alone until then. Truly alone – no following them in real life or on social media – even if they don’t find out (they will), you will inevitably let something slip when you do reconnect and that will be very bad.
Image source: zazzlekdazzle, Getty Images
#2
Living “off the grid”
My guess is most people do well for the first few months, then cant handle losing modern conveniences long term.
Image source: bevymartbc, Getty Images
#3
Gunfights.
#4
Life.
Image source: Skyys_, Getty Images
#5
Losing your job and finding yourself.
Image source: Mardanis, Getty Images
#6
Small town living.
Oh, I’ll catch hell for it, I’m sure, but I’ve never been impressed with small towns. Some people really do enjoy living in small communities, but I grew up in one and lived in another for 10 years, and it was awful.
There’s a lot of judgment in small towns, especially for people with “those families” – you know, the ones from the wrong side of the tracks. There’s also a lot of judgment if you’re not a straight, white, Christian. You’re going to face a lot of discrimination and gossip.
You’ll either be in the small town where everyone knows everyone’s business, or the small town where you are frozen out for 10 years because you weren’t born there and your family isn’t from there. I’ve lived in both.
Image source: will_write_for_tacos, Tanya Prodaan
#7
Kissing someone without their consent. This goes for both genders not just men. They just push them against the wall and start kissing them. I feel like it teaches young people that this is romantic and not potentially sexual harassment. It happens a lot on tv shows like Grey’s Anatomy for example. You really shouldn’t kiss someone like that without their consent.
Image source: Jdubgirl
#8
Running as fast as you can, chasing someone, for blocks and blocks, and not winded much.
Image source: Vernerator, Eduardo Ramos
#9
High school.
Image source: forestmango, Daniel McCullough
#10
Hand to hand combat.
Image source: CrackedEight, freepik
#11
A guy you’re not interested in that won’t give up on trying to be your boyfriend.
Image source: kirbyspinballwizard, freepik
#12
Making a big hot breakfast for a large family.
Image source: Scrappy_Larue, freepik
#13
Jumping in piles of leaves.
First you have to rake everything, then you jump into a shockingly not soft pile of dirt and animal feces, then you have to rake it all over again!
Image source: KDsmackeroni, Image-Source
#14
‘Mr Bond, your plane leaves in one hour’
what! I need three days to prepare clothing, medicin, house/pet/kids-sitter, cancel the giggolo.
Image source: OldMork, Jakob Rosen
#15
S*x.
#16
Shooting without ear protection. All these action heroes would be deaf from all the shooting in enclosed spaces they do.
Image source: archSkeptic
#17
Being in the f*****g military.
Image source: AlphaWhiskeyOscar, wavebreakmedia_micro
#18
Jealousy.
It’s not cute or sweet, nor does it mean that this person really loves you. They just see you as a possession and that’s disgusting.
Image source: anon
#19
Toxic relationships.
Image source: Accomplished-Rate564
#20
NYC 🤷🏻♀️ sorry but it’s terrible lol.
Image source: Mysterious-Low8446
#21
Waking up in the morning.
Image source: alohanouiloha, Getty Images
#22
Months and months of hard physical training… the power of “montage” would be the most amazing super power ever lol.
#23
Fighting on top of a train.
Image source: MegaZombieMegaZombie, user16450298
#24
Years ago, I had the privilege of flying in a Navy attack jet. It was an “orientation flight” to see if we wanted to pursue a career flying combat fighters. It was brutal. It convinced me that those guys are crazy, and I wanted nothing to do with it, but I still enjoy watching the Blue Angels at the air show.
Image source: fredzout, Pixabay
#25
When someone comes to visit someone, they are asked if they want a drink, they accept, then leave without touching it.
If that happened irl, I’d lose it.
Image source: mindtropy, Mikhail Nilov
#26
Moving. In the movies, there’s just the fun of unpacking important keepsakes and placing them on the mantle. In real life, packing up all your s**t and carting elsewhere sucks.
Image source: anon, Ketut Subiyanto
#27
Working in the medical field. Saying it “sucks” is maybe too harsh, but I feel it’s often glamorized or even over-dramatized to seem like a more fun job than it actually is. Sometimes it’s super messed up, other times it’s boring and mundane as hell, it can be fun too, but shows/movies get it wrong more often than not.
Image source: BrainShort7824, DC Studio
#28
Real life might be a stretch, but I heard people often romanticize apocalypse scenarios. This was really prevalent during the zombie fad from the mid to late 2000s.
“It’d be just you and me against the world, baby!!!” Yeah, I’ll pass on the constant threat of infection, starvation, shelter, etc, etc. Sounds f*****g awful.
Image source: RecipeAsleep7087
#29
I feel like tragedy in general is romanticized in movies/books. Like it’s the tragedy (of any kind, a death, accident, disaster, fire, illness, etc.) that brings the couple closer or makes their love stronger. In reality, the trauma would be much more complex and wouldn’t always bring people closer.
Image source: pretty_kitty_808021
#30
Depression.
Image source: aes7288
#31
Serial killers.
Image source: Energy_Overshoot
#32
Talking to people.
Image source: Alibaba_gonnamessya, freepik
#33
Children.
Image source: Ian_Dima, Alexander Dummer
#34
Fall in love.
Image source: Altruistic_Angle9539, EyeEm
#35
Raves.
Image source: YourGreatPappyJoe
#36
Driving.
Image source: VY_Cannabis_Majoris
#37
S*x on a beach.
Image source: darthwalt45
#38
Hanging out alone in a bar, they always end up having a great conversation or meeting an interesting person, while in reality, you either end up silent and solo or chat with a talkative, annoying fella.
Image source: anon
#39
Fixing the bad boy.
Image source: KandieKane-21
#40
I’m just going to throw this out there, risking to upset a lot of people😅. But what about having children?
Image source: Kind-Eyes9733, stocky01
#41
That the love of your life will automatically read your mind just like in the movies. Real life doesn’t work like that, you need to make efforts at communicating with each other.
Image source: quiet_lemon009
#42
Bonnie and Clyde.
Image source: Extension-Tap-9333
#43
Take a romantic novel and play out the script in real life. You’ll be appalled with the main character’s behavior.
Image source: Glorifiedcomber
#44
Houses with open floor plans! All the home renovation and home-buying TV shows glamorize them, but there are so many negatives to them!
They can smell bad, as odors from the kitchen waft into other areas.
They are noisy, as sounds reverberate throughout the open area, so if there’s a microwave or kettle going, it makes it hard to hear conversations or the TV. Everyone in the home has to put up with whatever is the noisiest activity in the main room, so if one group is having a boisterously fun time playing a board game, another group that’s trying to watch a movie will have trouble hearing it.
Unless the home is built with a ton of storage, things can look perpetually messy because there’s less space to stow items away, and there are so few walls to prop shelves or cabinets up against. And if you are entertaining, everyone gets to see you cooking and any messes you make while preparing food, adding pressure to wash dishes immediately rather than spending time with your guests and dealing with the dishes and other kitchen messes later.
And they are not at all energy efficient since you have to heat or cool a large room rather than smaller spaces.
Image source: SharingMy2Cents
#45
Caffeine a*******n. It’s always about collecting energy drinks cans, casually drinking 10 gallons of coffee, etc, and never about horrible headaches, blood pressure swings, and heart problems. I literally have a friend younger than me that drinks more than ~6 cans per day and jokes about it, flexing it in her social media, and thinks it wouldn’t affect her much, no matter how often I try to argue with her about it.
Image source: peachymarchi
#46
I hate it when people romanticize going to war. They don’t know what it’s like to live with a vet with PTSD.
Image source: kana503
#47
Road trips.
Image source: MujoBosnianKing, Natalia Blauth
#48
Watching street performances. 99% of the time, they’re s**t.
#49
Sailing.
Image source: sleeplesslion82
#50
Fixing your broken car in a desert.
Image source: BanditQ21
#51
Weddings.
Image source: OkVolume1
#52
Jumping through a glass window.
Image source: stupidsidekick
#53
Flying down the highway with the top down at close to 100mph
There’s no way she wouldn’t be frizzy when they arrived, and you feel like a Saint Bernard with its head out of a window if you try to talk. Also, bugs hit you in the face when they bounce off the windshield.
Image source: CaffeinatedHBIC
#54
Being a hit man, wouldn’t want to constantly looking over my shoulder or making absolutely sure everything went to as planned or making sure the crime scene was left perfectly clean so I don’t go to prison.
Image source: ALL-HAIL-TALOS
#55
Killing people.
Image source: EpicUNFLAIRED1231332
#56
Eating disorders.
Image source: anon
#57
War.
Image source: Current_Grass_9642
#58
Stalking (like in “romance” novels and movies).
Image source: PomPomMom93
#59
Being in a relationship with someone leagues above your station.
So many shows and stories make it seem romantic, but it can be incredibly precarious to be with someone who has 10 times more power and money than you do. It can create an extreme power imbalance.
Image source: tsh87
#60
Being skinny (not unintentionally but fighting for it every day, while other think you don’t do anything).
Image source: CustomerMean5229
#61
The Notebook.
He threatens to let go from hanging onto a ferris wheel if she turns him down for a date. Meanwhile she’s already on a date with someone. He repeatedly doesn’t accept her saying no.
Parts are sweet, sure… But there’s been too much “no means try harder,” for men.
Look at Indiana Jones and even Han Solo with how he was to Leia.
007 in a ton of movies, too.
Image source: CthulhuLovesMemes
#62
True crime and podcast based off true crime stories. These stories are the worst moments of someone’s life and we listen to them like entertainment.
Image source: SweetPotato_Gamgee
#63
Country life ☹️ a doctor, a medical emergency? No. Is something missing from the fridge? Well done for you. Schooling for kids? They will take the bus for 40 minutes every morning and sometimes it won’t even make it because it will snow. Tranquility? Forget. You’re too likely to come across a noisy family, a group of messy individuals, a couple who bicker 24 hours a day, old idiots who will scrutinize your every move.
People who hate each other but want to know everything about everyone else’s lives. The slightest fact that will give rise to speculation and rumors. Hatred of others, especially if they come from the city.
Honestly, I don’t want to go back, it’s crazy.
Image source: anon
#64
Flying overseas.
Image source: TheBimpo
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