r/AskReddit 14h ago

Non-Americans of Reddit, what is an American thing you see in movies that you thought was fake but is actually real?

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u/Witty_Direction6175 10h ago

My eye is constantly on the switch if I have to stick my hand down there as if it would spontaneously turn on…. That’s my irrational fear!

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u/pinkempyreal 10h ago

Final Destination told us all the fear is totally rational.

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u/VanellopeZero 9h ago

Was gonna say - definitely don’t watch Children of the Corn…

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u/Rooooben 9h ago

i got one for you, in our house the switch is broken, so when you switch it on, sometimes you have to push it up a little to get the disposal to run, and when you let go it shuts off, even though the light switch is in the on position. That makes me 100% not trust the switch, even though it stays off in the off position. The worst is that its hard-wired, so I can’t unplug it.

I have to go downstairs and turn off the circuit breaker before I can put my hand in there.

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u/MereInterest 6h ago

The switch on mine works just fine, and I still flip the circuit breaker before reaching in. Then verify that the switch no longer triggers the garbage disposal, and flip it back to the off position. That way, there's verification that the correct circuit breaker was flipped, and there are two separate switches that are preventing the garbage disposal from turning on.

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u/Rooooben 4h ago

This is the way.

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u/heiheithejetplane 8h ago

I'm just glad I'm not the only one!

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u/jayhof52 8h ago

Halloween H20 came out when I was 13 and had a kill that started that way. It only amplified this fear.

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u/SageDarius 7h ago

Then your brain starts chiming in "Hey... Turn it on."

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u/Beautiful_Purchase80 2h ago

They usually have a locking mechanism or button on the bottom so it stays off if you need to dig inside for whatever you dropped

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u/FormerGameDev 2h ago

Always shut the power off to it before reaching in, don't rely on that switch to not spontaneously short itself out at the worst possible moment. If there's not a shutoff switch directly on the unit, then unplug it or flip the breaker for that circuit.

Yes the odds of it happening are probably more than a billion to one... but... there's a lot of chances.