Movie Contrivance #16: Getting a Drink Thrown at Your Face

A Google search for “Jeff Daniels The Newsroom drink in the face” included a photo of this beautiful creature, one of the reasons I like the show.

A few weeks ago I was watching an episode of The Newsroom (it’s not a movie, but it is HBO) in which Jeff Daniels’ character repeatedly gets drinks thrown in his face on date after date. It’s a running joke, but every time it happened, I was taken out of the scene, because I’ve never seen that happen in real life.

And trust me, I’ve seen plenty of drunk people who are perfectly capable of throwing drinks in each others’ faces. But no one actually does it. Drunk people want to keep drinking, not waste a good Bud Select on someone’s face.

But in movies and TV shows, it’s not drunk people who are doing the drink-throwing. It’s scorned, insulted, and offended people (mostly women) on dates.

I’ve gone on way too many first dates, and I’ve seen thousands of first dates happening all around me (over time, not on the same day). Odds are that many of these dates did not go well. Surely one of them might have ended with a drink in the face considering the rate at which it happens in movies. And yet, nothing. Nada. Not once.

I have a feeling this gesture isn’t based in reality at all. Someone probably used it in a film years ago, and other writers and directors started associating it with a bad date. So from then on, in every movie with bad date, someone gets a drink thrown in their face. Rom com writers, I hold you to a low standard, but I know you can do better than that.

Please note that this is NOT an open invitation to throw a drink in my face to prove me wrong. I will force a smile and pretend that I’m a good sport, but deep down inside I will be plotting your demise.

Have you ever had a drink thrown in your face? Or seen it? Or done it? Ever?