18 Forgotten Movie Tropes That Used to Be Everywhere

Society and technology have changed a lot since we started making movies. Once upon a time, you couldn’t even be talking on your cell phone in the background of a Charlie Chaplin movie without causing pandemonium a century later. Seriously, though, Blockbuster used to be a warehouse of cliches ranging from the oppressive (sexism, racism, etc.) to the simply outdated to the inexplicable. Like, why don’t people in non-musicals break into choreographed dance numbers anymore? Why, Disney?!

As pointed out by u/AporiaParadox over on r/movies, “pretty much anything involving phones,” like waiting impatiently for an available payphone or keeping a caller on the line while the police trace it, has been rendered “obsolete” in the smartphone era. Which inspired them to ask their fellow redditors, “What other clichés used to be common but are now mostly forgotten outside of period pieces and parodies?” 

Their fellow redditors more than delivered…

18 Jocks and Nerds

17 The Stoner Movie

16 The Binaca Blast

15 Consequence-Free KOs

14 The Fruit Crash

13 The Hall of Mirrors

12 RIP “In a World” Guy

11 The ‘Psycho’ Effect

10 Dance Numbers

9 The Gay-chotomy

8 Piss Vision

7 Gendered Violence

6 Stalking

5 The Reverse Librarian

4 Sexual Assault

3 They Sure Do Be

2 Evil Russians

1 We Were All Lied To