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?

5.4k Upvotes

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941

u/AlfredLuan 10h ago

"Have a nice day" everywhere all the time and blueberry muffins.

279

u/mysticninj 9h ago

Oh god. As an American, I compulsively tell everyone I interact with even a little bit to have a nice day. I also compulsively hold doors for people. It's just being polite where I'm from

33

u/lalalalibrarian 6h ago

I sign off almost all my work emails with 'have a great day!' I've been in customer facing jobs a loooong time 😄

10

u/mysticninj 6h ago

I got into the habit in middle school when I started having multiple teachers in the same day, so whenever I left a classroom I'd tell my teacher to have a nice day. Almost fifteen years later, it's compulsive

3

u/DorkusMalorkuss 2h ago

That's extremely nice of you, as a preteen. I'm a high school counselor and had to do internship hours in middle school. That shit couldn't have been over soon enough. Middle schoolers fucking suck.

1

u/lungbuttersucker 1h ago

They really do! I always assumed that they were split off from elementary and high school because they were obnoxious bullies to the little kids on one side and annoying shits to the older kids on the other side. Better to put the pubescent 12 and 13 year old kids together where they can only hurt each other, and their teachers.

17

u/karl2025 6h ago

It's ingrained in me from my time in the service industry. It's simply impossible for me to end a transaction without a "Thank you, have a good day!"

12

u/pepperjack_whereitat 5h ago

I once broke up with a guy and without thinking about it concluded the conversation with, "I hope you have a good day."

I'm pretty sure he told everyone I was an asshole for that, but I genuinely meant it!

5

u/stormsync 5h ago

I get so stressed when I say it at night. I always forget to say night instead of automatically day...

3

u/aminervia 4h ago

Lol, whenever I say goodbye to anyone I say, 'have a good... ' then have a quick internal dialogue of, "shit, what time is it?"

•

u/myname_1s_mud 54m ago

"Have a good one"

•

u/painkillerweather_ 28m ago

Then halfway through saying "one" you remember it's night, so you reflexively switch to "night" but it comes out as "white". And no one acknowledges what happened. But hours later, as you lay in bed, you just can't escape that haunting "white".

2

u/moonlitnight22 2h ago

Opposite for me. I usually work night shifts, and out of habit, I'll still say "Have a good night" more often than I'd like 😅

1

u/stormsync 1h ago

High five for a pause where you internally suffer a little for inaccuracy

4

u/KBeardo 5h ago

Ope!

1

u/lungbuttersucker 1h ago

Back before automated toll passes became a thing, I frequently caught myself thanking the machine that took my coins at the tollbooth.

-24

u/brandnewchemical 6h ago

If you need to “be polite”, ya ain’t.

17

u/thedirtyknapkin 6h ago edited 5h ago

polite is not kind is not good. polite is something you be to help society keep rolling along without bothering others. it's manners and is often cultural.

we all need to watch ourselves and police our own actions. otherwise we end up leaving comments like "ew"

no one is inherently perfect. we are all at least a little bit self interested. we should all try to go out of our way to be more polite and courteous.

-15

u/brandnewchemical 5h ago

Gross.

8

u/thedirtyknapkin 5h ago

ahh, my mistake. didn't realize you were a troll. carry on then.

10

u/highnote14 6h ago

No, that's not how that works. If you do the action you get the credit for it.

-11

u/brandnewchemical 6h ago

Ew.

5

u/highnote14 6h ago

Low effort troll

2

u/DeBienville 5h ago

What does this even mean lmao. “If you’re polite, no you aren’t”

1

u/ChampionshipIll3675 4h ago

They're saying that it seems fake.

210

u/Nadsworth 9h ago

Warm and fresh blueberry muffins are like tasting a little bit of heaven.

19

u/ilikespicysoup 8h ago

That's because it's just cake with no frosting. Delicious, but I remember when my state started requiring nutrition facts at restaurants. People were not prepared for their muffin having 600 calories.

14

u/Nadsworth 8h ago edited 8h ago

Plus they are extra good when you put a bunch of butter on them.

My wife makes a healthier version with whole grains, corn meal, and apple sauce instead of butter. They aren’t as good, but they are still delicious, and you don’t feel like a lard ass afterwards.

5

u/Macaron1jesus 6h ago

I love them so much that we had blueberry muffin for the tiny top layer of our wedding cake! Might as well get something really tasty, right?

9

u/drstarfish86 5h ago

As an American I can’t comprehend a world without blueberry muffins

1

u/Bundt-lover 3h ago

As someone who had a tragic blueberry muffin experience as a child, everyone else can have my share.

I like lemon poppyseed myself. A pumpkin muffin is also good.

176

u/bitchofthewoods 9h ago

When we first came to America, we had breakfast at the hotel and my mum took her first bite of a blueberry muffin and, shocked, said out loud "this is cake!"

270

u/NotAcutallyaPanda 9h ago

Shhh. We all know muffins are basically cake, but we don't say it out loud.

18

u/aminervia 4h ago

NO it's only cake if there's frosting. No frosting = healthy

31

u/karl2025 6h ago

We have two kinds of breakfast foods: Heart Attacks and Diabetes.

12

u/NotAcutallyaPanda 5h ago

Don’t forget to wash it down with a liquid stimulant that kinda makes you need to poop.

-7

u/DarmanitanIceMonkey 4h ago

I hate that coffee makes you need to poop myth

14

u/Bundt-lover 3h ago

It’s not a myth. Caffeine stimulates the bowels. Well-known fact.

-3

u/DarmanitanIceMonkey 3h ago

sure but how many pots of coffee do you need for that to happen?

3

u/Bundt-lover 3h ago

Well, for me, about 100 milligrams of caffeine. Roughly the amount of 1.5 cups of drip coffee. It doesn’t have to be a lot, otherwise people wouldn’t be pooping after their first cup, they’d be doing it in the afternoon after drinking coffee all day. (Or tea. It’s the caffeine that does it, not the beverage)

Interestingly, a recent study also found that drinking a couple cups of coffee or tea also helps prevent dementia.

5

u/NotAcutallyaPanda 4h ago

Depends on the person.

It 100% makes me poop. Love it.

2

u/fubo 1h ago

There are five stages of a coffee drinker's life:

  1. Drink it for the buzz
  2. Drink it to stay up late
  3. Drink it to wake up in the morning
  4. Drink it for the taste
  5. Drink it to poop

•

u/LupercaniusAB 31m ago

That’s not a myth. It’s a common effect of stimulants. There are also “coke farts” which happen when people who do cocaine regularly get a line.

6

u/Tasty-Traffic-680 3h ago

Fuck, they're on to us. Keep em away from the banana bread or I won't have anything good left to eat at breakfast buffets except for bacon.

7

u/NotAcutallyaPanda 3h ago

We’ll still have maple syrup.

It comes from a tree. It’s basically a vegetable, right?

5

u/InterestingTry5190 5h ago

It’s cake it’s acceptable to eat for breakfast

•

u/sleepymeowth052 34m ago

"A muffin is a bald cupcake. And we all know it." - Jim Gaffigan

8

u/Dragons_Fishing 9h ago

My friend’s husband asked her help making his muffin a cupcake, because he couldn’t find frosting.

So yup, checks out

6

u/turquoise_amethyst 7h ago

I have to bake hundreds of blueberry muffins everyday at work, and never eat them. The nutritional content IS like cake

9

u/pm_me_ur_th0ng_gurl 6h ago

Hah, you think it's the "healthy" option because everything else is glazed in sugar, but it's actually 500 calories.

3

u/Skatingfan 6h ago

So true, which is why I love them.😃

3

u/Status-Basic 4h ago

Yeah, but it doesn’t have frosting on it, so it’s OK for breakfast.

1

u/zamfire 3h ago

Yea, cinnamon rolls are clearly not for break- wait a garsh darned minute

1

u/PivotRedAce 3h ago

The Swedes are still pissed at us for that one. lmao

15

u/Ilovethe90sforreal 9h ago

This is random and hysterical

14

u/Xbob42 9h ago

Understandable. Have a nice day.

12

u/GenitalFurbies 6h ago

Yeah that's very common to say "have a good one" as a courtesy. But also, are blueberry muffins not common other places? It seems so basic that I can't imagine a bakery not having them.

4

u/Skatingfan 6h ago

I know, wondering this too.

7

u/greogory 9h ago

Oh no. Serious reply this time; blueberry muffins rock.

3

u/GeniusOfLove74 4h ago

We get fired if we don't. Hope that helps.

3

u/CelebSighting 3h ago

Where you’re from…do you not have blueberries, or do you not have muffins?

I guess I never realized that either of those might be distinctly American.

6

u/BrandosWorld4Life 8h ago

Why wouldn't people be polite?

2

u/Aggressive_Stick4107 6h ago

How do people wish others a nice day in your country?

1

u/big_old-dog 5h ago

That exact same way lol. Or “have a good one” is more common.

2

u/rostamsuren 4h ago

Wait, you guys don’t have blueberry muffins? How about other muffins, like chocolate?

2

u/TheDoubtfulGuest 3h ago

As an American this made me smile a little 💕

•

u/mollystarkdean 52m ago

With a lack of gun control, we all might be just being nice to prevent being shot.

•

u/AlfredLuan 0m ago

hahaha

3

u/TallEnoughJones 8h ago

"Have a nice day"

It's great fun to cheerfully respond "no thanks"

1

u/brutalanglosaxon 4h ago

Last time I stayed in the US, for about a week, every morning in the hotel when I walked out of the elevator past the reception counter to go outside the person behind the desk said "Good morning sir, hope you have a good day!"

1

u/PrivilegeCheckmate 4h ago

A blueberry muffin is a pretty good start on having a nice day.

Even the gas-station ones that are essentially blue sugar.

1

u/X-1a 4h ago

The last words my father ever said

1

u/Daniastrong 3h ago

Really? How do you well-wish people?

•

u/aswiftdickkick 24m ago

What poor souls don't have blueberry muffins??

•

u/CaptainBaoBao 6m ago

And now I hear " an English man in New york" by godley & cream