An huge pet peeve of mine is the use of empty coffee cups in television and film. I've been surprised a number of times by how few people seem to realize this. In my opinion, Scrubs is one of the worst offenders, so I've brought you this clip. Just try to tell me it doesn't make you sick to your stomach.
Also, check out this one:
Coffee Beanery In "Scrubs"
Those empty lid-less perfectly-white cups are bad, but I think the worst is when you see them buy a coffee with a lid on it, then proceed to put their mouth on it and tip it 90º. If you have a full cup of coffee and do that, you'll end up with scalding coffee all over your face. Sorry, I couldn't find a clip of this.
Bottom line, put some water in your coffee cups if you want your props to seem believable when there's a lid. No lid? Get some coffee. That way when someone walks on screen with coffee, no other small parts of me will need to die.
Home Appraisals
1 day ago
June 23, 2009 2:37 PM
Yes I agree with you Andrew. It does look fake and it looks terrible.
June 29, 2010 7:49 AM
This too, is high on my TV-watching peeve list. Is it some kind of union rule? Do they think nobody will notice? I don't care how good an actor you are, a cup with liquid in it weighs and balances differently than an empty cup, and you can't "act" it full (let alone hot).
Bravo for collecting these clips - there are more out there!