Why is it that on movies or tv shows when someone experiences something dramatic, people always give them water?

I’ve heard water referred to as “the universal solvent”, so maybe the entertainment industry wants us to think that it really can solve everything.

I think it’s more a way to get the person who’s shocked or traumatized to sit still and calm down for a few minutes. “Here, drink this – and stop running around screaming like a madman.”

1. It gives the giver something to do and the shocked person something to hold onto.

2. It keeps them hydrated.

They’re trying to drown them and their over the top BS ;)

It’s product placement by the water industry.

Just kidding. It’s probably what @Seelix said: distracting the person from running around like a maniac.

Forget about water, what I want to know is why the soft drink industry seems to think that throwing ice cubes into an open container of their product and splashing it all the hell over the place (including the foam running down the sides of the container) is such a great idea. Okay, I understand that when I buy a fountain drink and it’s half or three-quarters full of ice, that there’s a savings there, and splashing half of the stuff out of the glass by throwing one-pound cubes of ice means that I’ll have to buy more of it sooner rather than later—but I’m so turned off by the thought of all that sticky liquid on the sides of the cup or glass and dripping in my lap or on my feet…

I’ll take an iced tea, please. Unsweetened. And I’ll put in my own damn ice, thanks.

@CyanoticWasp, someone did it once and it was so orgasmic for the rest of them that they all frantically copied it. It’s funny, because all it really shows is that it is a liquid and behaves like one.

Here’s the deal, @CyanoticWasp—what you are seeing is not soda—at least, not exactly. It’s one of those new energy drinks that have 6% alcohol by volume (you know, I never understood what the loudness of music had to do with alcohol, but whatever). They have to put that much ice in them because of the volatility. They don’t want them to explode, you know. I mean, because on every set, there is an open flame gas stove, just waiting for a chance.

Which reminds me, did you ever get that horse you were looking for?

@wundayatta horse? A horse? I seem to recall something about trading a kingdom for a horse once a long time ago. Maybe it was just a dream of a kingdom that I traded for a dream of a horse. Anyway, no horse, no kingdom. But I do have an egg on a wall. Man, I really need to clean that.

No, you may be recalling one time that I wish that I had the money to buy a horse. Before it falls off a cliff and explodes in a huge orange fireball. Why is it that cars that run through guardrails and plunge down embankments always seem to land on a well-hidden pile of high explosives?

@CyanoticWasp Ever the innocent. You forget. I’ve seen that farm down in Kentucky that you said you owned.

And you can’t distract me by bringing in movie explosions. You know those things can be hazardous to actors, right? ‘Cause once I saw this movie about how they film actors jumping out of 50 story windows and surviving. It looked like fun. They fall into a giant balloon-like thing. And it’s no birthday party balloon, neither. Last time my son had a party, the balloons all popped by themselves. Self-popping balloons, like self-popping popcorn, Yeah, like I was telling you, my microwave is screwed up so the popcorn doesn’t pop itself any more.

Now, where was I?

What? Me the innocent, I’m… oh, wait… this is getting even more redundant than usual.

For the record, I’ve only been to Kentucky twice in the past ten years, and I never said that I owned a horse farm there. I’ve shoveled that much manure, no doubt. If I own a horse farm in Kentucky (or anywhere else) then I want some of the receipts, instead of just ‘the back end’.

But if I do ever own a horse farm in Kentucky (or anywhere else) then I may rent it out to a movie studio to blow up, after evacuating the horses, that is. (Otherwise they would just evacuate on their own, leaving me another fine mess to clean up, along with the mess of the explosion.) I think exploding balloons would do that, too.

All I can say is that it’s a good thing that there were no high-rises in Gunsmoke. Can you imagine the mess if some cowboy jumped from the top of a 50-story condo, for example, onto the back of his horse, expecting to ride off and evade / avoid capture? Man, that horse would blow up in a huge orange and brown fireball. Spatter everywhere; I don’t want to think about it.

Pretty much the result you’d get if you put a horse in a microwave, I guess. If you had a microwave that big or a horse that small, or could get the darn thing inside. Popcorn might do that. Do horses eat popcorn?

I really prefer potato chips, now that we’re on the topic.

They do? They often seem to be pouring a shot of strait liquor.

@Pied_Pfeffer and how. I the old movies it was always “Quick! Fetch her some brandy!”

@fundevogel LOL, are you calling me old? If so, I suppose that I resemple that remark. When did they stop the liqour to the throat or water to the face to snap someone out of it? ‘Tis a shame really. They both work rather well.

@Pied_Pfeffer Not my intention my friend. Maybe it corresponds to the fact that most people don’t keep that kinda serious booze on hand any more and movies are less likely to be about the sort of people that retire to the study for a nightcap. I wish I had a study, I would totally retire to it for a nightcap.

Once some over eager doctor waved smelling salts under my nose, that was uncalled for. Smelling salts suck.

@fundevogel Now I think you are showing your age. The last time I saw a smelling salt was when I was in junior high school and a friend nicked them from a first aid kit. They were glass capsules encased in a thick netting so that fingers weren’t cut when it was crushed open.

You have valid points on both the lack of alcohol in the home and it its appearance showing up in movies these days. On an occasional Law & Order episode, there is a drink poured in the judge’s chambers in the aftermath of a verdict.

Let us pick out a book to read in tandem, let me know you poison of choice, and I’ll invite you over for a toast and discussion on its content.

@Pied_Pfeffer I think my smelling salt experience was an anomaly, I’m 26 and I think it happened sometime around 2000 if you can believe it. At the time the smelling salts were in something like a laminated tube and the doctor broke it in half under my nose. The doctor was on the young side and I thing he must have been bursting for an opportunity to try them.

I used to ride on a volunteer ambulance corps in the early 1990’s, and we had smelling salts in our trauma bag. I never saw them used, though.