"John Hughes Must've Grown Up On Mars": People Are Debunking All The Bizarre Myths That Movies Perpetuate About American High School
The topic of how accurate American movies and TV shows are in depicting everyday life in the US is a hot topic on social media recently.
Disney / Via media.giphy.com
A lot of people outside the country are apparently baffled to learn that we ACTUALLY take yellow school buses to school and drink from red solo cups at parties.
The other day, u/Many-Guide-8986 asked, "Americans, how true are ‘American high school movies’ compared to real life high school?" Here are some of the best responses:
1."The fact that Superbad spent a whole movie trying to obtain alcohol is totally realistic. We absolutely had whole evening adventures trying to get booze, and several people at school had fake Hawaii IDs."
2."Most high school students don’t tailgate in the parking lot every morning."
3."School fights in the movies make it seem like students go at it like prize fighters. In reality, they throw a couple of pathetic punches, grab each other's shirts, and roll around until security breaks them up 25 seconds later."
4."Cheerleaders don't actually wear their uniforms 24/7."
5."Cliques aren't as well-defined in real life as they are in movies."
"I went to school in the '80s. We intermingled. It was not often you saw a stoner hanging out with a goat roper/cowboy or drama kids hanging out with the jocks, but most of groups intermingled."
6."Parties are more lowkey affairs. They're nothing like those giant 'everyone's coming' events in the movies — unless you know someone with a giant house that can host 100+ students."
"If there really were parties with all that drinking and sex, I sure as hell wasn’t invited to any of them."
7."There's more truth in Napoleon Dynamite than there is in Bring It On or Mean Girls."
"Napoleon Dynamite captured Preston, Idaho high school life circa late '90s/early '00s better than any other movie has ever captured anything."
8."TV shows make it seem like kids have time to talk in the middle of the day by their lockers. In reality, you're booking it across the building because you have five minutes to go from the first floor, get to your locker on the second floor, and then run all the way across the third floor to your fourth-period class."
"You forgot the part where a teacher catches you running to your next class and makes you turn around and walk from the end of the hallway, making you late for the third time which means you have to spend the first half of class at the principal's office."
9."Most American high schools are basically the exact opposite of Euphoria."
10."We do have active shooter drills. There are a lot of entitled parents. We don't go to school at 10 a.m. — the sun is almost never up until after we arrive. And yes, we do get 2–3 hours of homework most days."
11."One time, I was walking down the hall with my books in my arms. A random bully slapped them down, sending all my stuff flying everywhere. In a movie, everyone would point and laugh. In reality, the other kids gasped, and a few random students stopped and helped me gather up my things. I remember one girl saying, 'That was so mean.'"
12."Most people aren’t that attractive. Most people aren’t in their twenties."
13."All my European friends ask if we wear those square hats at graduation and drink from red solo cups at parties. Yes and yes."
14."I swear John Hughes must have grown up on Mars or something."
"The John Hughes rich kid, poor kid cliches were not accurate. I went to high school in Newport Beach, CA, in a very wealthy neighborhood. Some of the most popular kids were not wealthy. In fact, several of the most popular kids were from single-parent working-class homes."
15."On TV, all the lockers are huge and at eye level. I remember getting to high school and being disappointed that we had these cubby-sized lockers stacked on top of each other. And they were scattered all over the school in the most inconvenient places."
16."Morning announcements are real and just as ridiculous as the ones on TV and in the movies."
17."Prom is way less of a big deal in real life. And no one really cares who wins prom queen."
"Prom also much less elaborate than on TV in terms of theme and decor. They're basically just balloons in a hotel ballroom."
18."Friday Night Lights is actually pretty realistic as far as Texas schools go. Football is a religion there. In some cases, a high school head coach could make more than the teachers or even the principal."
19.And finally, "There are way fewer vampires in real life high schools."
H/T r/AskReddit
Some replies have been edited for length and clarity.
What's a myth about American high schools that needs debunking? Let us know in the comments! ??
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