In the middle of a heated conversation, a person absentmindedly walks backwards into the middle of a busy street and gets hit by a bus. Even though the bus driver had plenty of time to hit the breaks, he nevertheless plows directly into the person at full speed.
Sound familiar?
That’s because—as the astute work of YouTuber Harry Hanrahan demonstrates—a scene like that has been featured in just about every movie and TV show ever made. It’s a cliché that screenwriters seem to love just as much as scenes set in classrooms where the bell rings just as the lecture is beginning, or characters who hang up the phone without saying goodbye, although you probably had no idea how commonplace it is until you’ve seen the below video, which is 12 minutes long and contains a staggering total of 94 different clips.
Warning: Video contains profanity, people getting hit by buses.
