The Coconut Effect: Difference between revisions

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[[File:~~coco_946~~.jpg|frame|"What, ridden on a horse? ... You've got two empty halves of a coconut and you're bangin' 'em together!]]

[[File:coco 946.jpg|frame|"What, ridden on a horse? ... You've got two empty halves of a coconut and you're bangin' 'em together!]]

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== Media in General / Common Tropes ==

* One of the most recent and peculiar instances of [[The Coconut Effect]] is the addition of [[Lens Flare]] to [[Post Processing Video Effects|computer-generated scenes]]. [[Lens Flare]] is a ''flaw'' resulting from the physical properties of the camera lens, but it is so ingrained in the public consciousness that its absence makes a scene look "fake;" it may be that adding it adds to the audience's [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]], by implying that the scene was actually shot by a camera (perhaps via the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]).

* One of the most recent and peculiar instances of The Coconut Effect is the addition of [[Lens Flare]] to [[Post Processing Video Effects|computer-generated scenes]]. [[Lens Flare]] is a ''flaw'' resulting from the physical properties of the camera lens, but it is so ingrained in the public consciousness that its absence makes a scene look "fake;" it may be that adding it adds to the audience's [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]], by implying that the scene was actually shot by a camera (perhaps via the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]).

** ''[[Firefly]]'' deliberately took this concept to the logical extreme: the CGI space scenes not only included [[Lens Flare]], but also moments where the camera takes a second to find or focus on an object, or where a speeding spacecraft is blurry and slightly out of frame. The new ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' makes similar use of a faux camera for many space scenes; in one episode, the camera is even struck and knocked spinning by debris from an explosion. Joss Whedon points out in his commentary that brand new, state-of-the-art lenses had too ''little'' lens flare for him, so they switched them out for cheaper ones that would have wider lens flares.

** Traditional animated programming -- [[Anime]] in ~~particular -- often~~, if not always, includes drawn-in lens flares as well. Exaggerated ersatz lens flare has become fairly pervasive in recent anime.

** Traditional animated programming -- [[Anime]] in particular—often, if not always, includes drawn-in lens flares as well. Exaggerated ersatz lens flare has become fairly pervasive in recent anime.

** It's not even limited to anime - there has been at least a few [[Manga]] out there where the artist has ''drawn'' a lens flare when a character is, say, looking into the sun. People just seem to expect to see flares.

** Not only that, lens flare occasionally crops up even in ''1st person computer games'', where it has no justification whatsoever. This was especially prevalent after the introduction of affordable 3D accelerator chips in the 90's, when games began featuring ridiculously overexaggerated, colorful lens flare en masse due to that could be rendered it without a noticable drop in performance. Thankfully the excitement of the new had given way to better taste and subtler visuals in recent years.

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* In virtually, if not literally, all 3D animated movies film grain is frequently ADDED INTO the film. The audience is so used to seeing the artifacts of film grain that when it isn't there the image seems "unnatural" to the viewers. Ironically film grain is something that the industry has been trying to reduce for years to get better image quality.

** In the making of ''[[WALL-E]]'', the Pixar animators brought in renowned cinematographer Roger Deakins to demonstrate real-world lighting and camera techniques, using real cameras, lenses and lights, which they then replicated digitally in the film. He was highly amused they wanted to duplicate effects that technicians and equipment makers have been trying since the advent of film to eliminate.

** There's been a jarring trend for makers of [[3D Movie~~|3D Movies~~]] to add in lens flare and ''then'' apply 3D effects to it. This makes ''lens flare'' come out of the screen towards you.

** There's been a jarring trend for makers of [[3D Movie]]s to add in lens flare and ''then'' apply 3D effects to it. This makes ''lens flare'' come out of the screen towards you.

* The stroboscopic effect often seen on spoked wheels, fans, helicopter blades, etc. is another example of a camera artifact which is so expected by audiences that it's left in, even though there ''are'' cameras and shutter mechanisms available which would eliminate it. Although there are situations where stroboscopic effects are visible to the naked eye, commonly observered under street lights (50 or 60 hertz flicker), and sometimes even in broad daylight (PNAS article [http://www.pnas.org/content/93/8/3693.abstract here]).

* Morse code is always received as through a WWII-era radio: bee-beep-beep-bee-bee-beep.

* Use of defibrillators (those machines that deliver a short pulse of electric current via two paddles when someone has one of a number of heart condition emergencies) always causes the recipient to flex up from the bed. And never in real life. It looks slightly less dramatic in real life, if it weren't for, erm, it being in real life.

** When using the defibrillator, the defibs must always charge with an audible, high pitch sound. And the defib paddles are always rubbed against one-another when charging. When discharged, the defibs also make a loud SHUNK. Let's not forget that the person using them always says "CLEAR!!"<br /><br />"Clear!" is sort of [[Truth in Television]]. However, in reality, the users will say, "Clear the patient," and then check to see if all persons are no longer touching the patient. A single dramatic "Clear!" followed by no safety check and a zap is pure Hollywood.

** When using the defibrillator, the defibs must always charge with an audible, high pitch sound. And the defib paddles are always rubbed against one-another when charging. When discharged, the defibs also make a loud SHUNK. Let's not forget that the person using them always says "CLEAR!!"

"Clear!" is sort of [[Truth in Television]]. However, in reality, the users will say, "Clear the patient," and then check to see if all persons are no longer touching the patient. A single dramatic "Clear!" followed by no safety check and a zap is pure Hollywood.

** In addition to this, a defibrillator is unable to revive a "flatlining" (asystolic) patient, which runs contrary to their depiction in medical dramas. The heart's electrical system controls the muscles of the heart. A defibrillator is designed to "reset" the heart's own electrical system when it's erratic and causing the muscles to contract wildly (fibrillation, as in ''defibrillator''). If the muscles of the heart are no longer responding to the electrical system (for example, Pulseless Electrical Activity), or if the electrical system is down (asystole), there's nothing to be gained by shocking the patient.

* [[Man in a Kilt|Kilts]] in Scotland. The pleated kilt as we know it today was invented in the 18th century; prior to that there was the greatkilt, which was essentially a big blanket (which may or may not have been tartan) wrapped round the waist and pinned at the shoulder. This probably dates from the 16th century. It was ''illegal'' for Highlanders to wear a kilt between 1746 and 1782 - it was seen as a rebel military uniform. And modern "Highland dress" was invented in the lowlands in the 19th century. The upshot of all this is that Scotsmen in kilts in nearly ''every'' historical period tend to be wrong, unless it's [[The Present Day]] and they're at a wedding.

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** [[Xkcd]]: When someone calls my phone, it makes a goddamn ''[http://xkcd.com/479/ ringing sound]''.

** How many [[Real Life]] cells phones actually have a dial tone?

*** A model marketed almost exclusively to senior citizens emphasizes as a selling point that it has a dial tone and other ~~features -- all~~ essentially functionless window ~~dressing -- that~~ exist solely to make the cell phone behave like a land line phone.

*** A model marketed almost exclusively to senior citizens emphasizes as a selling point that it has a dial tone and other features—all essentially functionless window dressing—that exist solely to make the cell phone behave like a land line phone.

** DTMF tones can be optionally set by the user so that the the phone makes them when pressing the number keys when not in a call (otherwise, the phone can be set to just make simple beeps or clicks during these presses, or for silent mode, no sound at all), but they will always be heard in the earpiece when pressing the keys during a call (e.g. during automated/prompted calls, where the cellphone's network [not the phone itself] actually generates the touch-tones for the other party to receive and decode).

* When a character goes to switch a TV set or radio on or off (or turn the volume up or down, etc.), the actor will invariably mime the turning of a "knob" on the electronic appliance in question, even if it's a modern one without anything resembling an actual knob. In theater the big hand gestures are easier for the techs to see and adjust stage lights on cue.

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* For all gunplay based mistakes, please see this [http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com/2007/04/egregious-gunplay.html link]. For example, people do not fly backwards when shot in real life.

** As pointed out by the [[Myth Busters]] Newtonian physics [[Sarcasm Mode|surprisingly]] applies to firing a gun.

* The ubiquitous "ping" sound heard everywhere that submarines are concerned. It's actually a ''very'' specific sound: a signal pulse of the ~~ASDIC -- an~~ early [[World War Two|WWII]] British sonar, widely used by all Allied navies in the war. It was so ubiquitous that it got thoroughly associated with every thing submarine, so it even came to be used where German submarines were involved, and their sonar pulses sounded nothing like that.

* The ubiquitous "ping" sound heard everywhere that submarines are concerned. It's actually a ''very'' specific sound: a signal pulse of the ASDIC—an early [[World War Two|WWII]] British sonar, widely used by all Allied navies in the war. It was so ubiquitous that it got thoroughly associated with every thing submarine, so it even came to be used where German submarines were involved, and their sonar pulses sounded nothing like that.

* Real bald eagles do not actually make the long, majestic "keer" noise they always make in films. That sound is actually [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33DWqRyAAUw the call of a Red-Tailed Hawk], but because Bald Eagles and some other birds of prey have really lame and silly sounding calls in real life, their calls are usually replaced with the keer to make them sound "better". And of course, this has become so ubiquitous that now if one were to use the right sound, audiences would complain. This is only untrue in the case of nature documentaries.

** Any shot of circling vultures is accompanied by those same redtail screeches. [[Real Life]] vultures are quiet birds- too quiet for the average sound-editor's taste, it seems.

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'''Lorelai''': "Hey, let's run back and speed off like we did something really awful and the cops are after us!" }}

** Then, after fastening their seatbelts, they try to produce the squealing tires by accelerating quickly, which doesn't work of course. In the end, they agree to just make the noise themselves while driving off.

* In the mid- to late 1970s, pocket calculators were just coming into their own. However, they didn't make cute bloop bleep ~~sounds -- the~~ way they did in some television shows, notably ''[[Barney Miller]]'', when Harris practically plays a tune on his.

* In the mid- to late 1970s, pocket calculators were just coming into their own. However, they didn't make cute bloop bleep sounds—the way they did in some television shows, notably ''[[Barney Miller]]'', when Harris practically plays a tune on his.

* [[Hustle]] had an in-universe example when the British character Stacie conned an American by posing as staff for the BBC. Instead of using her natural British accent, she put on an over-the-top stereotypical British accent, complete with "Toodle pip!"

* The DVD set of the documentary series ''The World at War'' had a bonus feature showing some of the raw footage that was used to make the series. The footage, like much of the film shot in combat areas of that era, is completely silent. The narrator matter-of-factly talks about adding in all the sound effects.

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{{quote|''People associate shotguns with powerful, close-range weapons ... So a shotgun blast [in the game] will punch through walls and armor just fine, even though buckshot is known for its lack of penetration in the real world.'' -- '''[http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/video-games/4255750 RSV2 game designer Philippe Theiren]'''}}

** Granted, if one has the appropriate license one could buy or create shot specifically made to do just that.

* While it has been noted that the movement speed of FPS player characters has been noticeably reduced since the days of ''[[Doom]]'' and ''[[Duke Nukem]]'' (who could manage about 50 mph at full sprint), not many know that, by scale, modern FPS player characters still move much faster than a real person (''especially'' a real soldier with their rifle readied and aimed forward). Most can manage more than 20 mph simply walking forward, with higher speeds obtained if sprinting. A character moving at real human speed would be painfully slow, especially in [[Wide Open Sandbox]] games like ''[[Far Cry]]'' or ''STALKER''.

* While it has been noted that the movement speed of FPS player characters has been noticeably reduced since the days of ''[[Doom]]'' and ''[[Duke Nukem]]'' (who could manage about 50 mph at full sprint), not many know that, by scale, modern FPS player characters still move much faster than a real person (''especially'' a real soldier with their rifle readied and aimed forward). Most can manage more than 20 mph simply walking forward, with higher speeds obtained if sprinting. A character moving at real human speed would be painfully slow, especially in [[Wide Open Sandbox]] games like ''[[Far Cry]]'' or ''STALKER''.

* The guitar peripheral for the first ''[[Rock Band]]'' game drew some criticism in that, unlike the older ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' counterpart, the strum bar didn't click. Many players were disconcerted at this, and felt as though the lack of audible feedback meant that it wasn't working properly. For this reason, [[Played Straight|later versions of the peripheral included a clicking strum bar.]]

** That said, if you actually [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|strum]] the strum bar, there will be a sound. Too loud a sound, in fact.

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** The Blackberry Storm tried to remedy this by making the entire screen a button. Needless to say, the phone didn't really take off.

** Nokia addressed this by using the vibrator to gently shake the phone when a "button" is touched.

** Talk to any serious typist and you'll find just how important physical and auditory feedback is... it's why some people will shell out $~~70-~~$100 for Model M keyboards.

** Talk to any serious typist and you'll find just how important physical and auditory feedback is... it's why some people will shell out $70–$100 for Model M keyboards.

** In fact, [[The Coconut Effect]] is an ''essential'' component of user-interface design. People (there are ''extremely'' rare exceptions) get frustrated when devices don't behave the way they expect them to, which includes fake buttons clicking.

** In fact, The Coconut Effect is an ''essential'' component of user-interface design. People (there are ''extremely'' rare exceptions) get frustrated when devices don't behave the way they expect them to, which includes fake buttons clicking.

** As well, if there's ''any'' delay between the button press and the system responding, without a visual or auditory response, it's not immediately obvious that the button-press has been registered, and many people - especially savvy computer users - don't trust the computer to actually be doing what they asked it to do, so they'll press again, which starts the process over.

** [[Mass Effect]] addresses this by stating that a man typing on a holographic keyboard usually wears gloves which provide feedback. A real hacker implants chips in his fingers.

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* There is real concern in the engineering world about the possibility of a sharp spike in traffic accidents caused by widespread use of electric cars as people may not hear them coming.

** The exception to this would be in a highway, where most of the noise actually comes from the tires rubbing against the road.

** The noise is actually caused more by the air trapped between the tires and the tarmac that starts usually between 15 and 20 mph ie. just about any drive you are likely to take. There are actually several companies developing new tarmacs to combat this problem as it is estimated to cause 50 to 80% of car produced noise. Similarly, the engine noise produced by most cars is minimal (mufflers were made for a reason). Cars not marketed as tough, rugged...etc. are typically made to run as quietly as possible but the public perception of the internal combustion engine is that of a loud roaring machine (phrases like "the roar of the engine" come to mind) causes them to believe most if not all noise comes from them.

** The noise is actually caused more by the air trapped between the tires and the tarmac that starts usually between 15 and 20 mph ie. just about any drive you are likely to take. There are actually several companies developing new tarmacs to combat this problem as it is estimated to cause 50 to 80% of car produced noise. Similarly, the engine noise produced by most cars is minimal (mufflers were made for a reason). Cars not marketed as tough, rugged...etc. are typically made to run as quietly as possible but the public perception of the internal combustion engine is that of a loud roaring machine (phrases like "the roar of the engine" come to mind) causes them to believe most if not all noise comes from them.

** Also, some electric cars can hit ~~80mph~~/130 km/h with ''entirely silent'' engines. So drivers who use engine noise as a makeshift tachometer are often unaware of how fast they're going without taking their eyes off the road to glance at the speedometer.

** Also, some electric cars can hit 80 mph/130 km/h with ''entirely silent'' engines. So drivers who use engine noise as a makeshift tachometer are often unaware of how fast they're going without taking their eyes off the road to glance at the speedometer.

** When Trolleybuses (electric buses) came into use in the UK, they were often nicknamed "The Silent Service" due to their very low sound levels. Naturally, this, combined with their speed and performance (very good for such large vehicles back when horse power was still not entirely replaced) lead to a fair number of fatalities, and them being referred to as "The Silent Death".

** This is also why trains, tramways and trolleybuses in France make a turbine-like sound when running.

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** There was a antiseptic for cuts developed to be sting-free, but it sold poorly because people didn't believe it worked. They had to put some alcohol back in it to make it sting.

** Natural Gas is likewise odorless, its characteristic smell coming from methylmercaptane added so that human beings will notice a gas leak by smell rather than by unexpected immolation. This also has the side effect that methylmercaptane leaks, despite not being really dangerous, are handled with the same urgency as a gas leak, because people have learned to associate the smell of methylmercaptane with natural/propane gas.

** Ditto for propane, after an unfortunate incident about half a century ~~ago -- a~~ high school literally exploded after a propane leak went unnoticed due to it having no smell.

** Ditto for propane, after an unfortunate incident about half a century ago—a high school literally exploded after a propane leak went unnoticed due to it having no smell.

** This is used in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', where Sokka and the Machinist eventually put rotten eggs in the sealed natural gas room to produce the common sulfur smell and warn for gas leaks.

** The smell of WD-40 is similarly totally artificial and added deliberately.

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*** Raspberry candies and ice pops are often colored blue because research showed that children like the way it stains their tongue, and also to distinguish them from cherry.

** Margarine is white, not yellow. To look more like butter, yellow colouring is typically added.

*** Even in Quebec, now. Until only ~~3-5~~ years ago margarine sold there had to be ~~undyed -- as~~ the powerful dairy lobby convinced the province to make margarine less appealing to consumers in order to protect a valuable industry that employed so many rural (Francophone) voters.

*** Even in Quebec, now. Until only 3–5 years ago margarine sold there had to be undyed—as the powerful dairy lobby convinced the province to make margarine less appealing to consumers in order to protect a valuable industry that employed so many rural (Francophone) voters.

** Flour is bleached in part so that it looks appealingly white. Naturally it would be a yellowish color that might look unwholesome to some consumers (especially now, after years of conditioning). Also to differentiate it from corn meal

** After slaughtering, meat becomes greyish, as the blood is drained from it. It is coloured red with nitrates, which are actually unhealthy in large doses. In Finland, however, uncoloured "grey-salted ham" has been around for a while and has become a hit.