Everybody always presents laundromats in tv shows and movies as this sexy place where you meet horny singles who aren’t wearing underwear because it’s in the wash.
But in real life, that just isn’t true. The laundromat has angry people who don’t want to be there, and nobody EVER has sex, or takes their clothes off.
So why are laundromats always presented like that?
Because some of those angry lonely people are writers, and they have a lot of time to think.
Correct answer.
The people there are mainly bored because they are waiting. And sometimes creativity arises out of boredom.
Daydream, “lots of time to ‘daydream’”
Let’s be honest half the stuff a guy writes is about how to win a girl over and the other half is having sex with said girl.
Yeah I’m tired of all this laundromat sexy-washing.
I want to know what TV shows you are watching
Most of the stuff I watch have something bad happen in a laundromat, like getting chased by armed thugs
I feel like it’s kind of a meet-cute trope in older sitcoms
As I listed elsewhere in the thread I’ve seen it several times, but I think Hollywood’s use of laundromats (or apartment building communal laundry rooms) are used for 3 scenarios:
-
The meet cute. It’s a plausible place for people in different social circles to interact. The manic pixie dream girl and the uptight single lawyer both need to do laundry, so that’s where they first meet. Easily contrived shenanigans with the props, underwear jokes etc. write themselves. It can also play with a dynamic that you don’t often see in a dating environment: You meet someone in the bar or the club or at school or at work or whatever and you get to present the most polished version of yourself. Meet in the laundry room and now we get to see if you have some domestic skills which can indicate where in life the characters are.
-
The domestic date. Characters that already know each other decide to visit the laundromat together because one or both has to do laundry and it’s the only time they can have free. Thinking about the production side, I bet it’s less of a pain in the ass to film than a dinner date, because you don’t have to worry about continuity of the food etc. Easy reason for two people to be sitting in an environment together with nothing better to do than just talk, maybe you can busy their hands folding laundry or emptying/filling machines. Lots of opportunities for movie language, too. You can look down the rows of machines to frame the two in closer, you can look at them through the clear washer doors, either with it open or as if from inside one of the machines, etc.
-
The excuse to be mutually half naked. At least two people and almost always mixed company are going to wash the clothes on their backs with nothing to change into, so they’re going to sit around together in their underwear pretending very hard this is normal. This is mostly just a recipe for cheap cheesecake.
This is fun. Hey can we talk about some more weirdly common TV and movie scenes?
-
Well, off the top of my head:
-
There was an episode of Dr. Who during…I think David Tennant’s career? It was one of those that didn’t actually have much of The Doctor in it, some guy had noticed The Doctor appearing throughout history and wanted to try and meet him, so he managed to run into Rose’s mother, at a laundromat. Who proceeded to flirt with him as she loaded her underwear into the wash by saying ‘and here I am flashing you me knickers.’
-
There was a show from the 90’s that no one remembers called Relic Hunter. In one episode miss relic hunter, her assistant and I think the client of the week duck into a laundromat as a place they can look through a dossier, but the owner insists that they have to wash something to remain on the premises, because they needed an excuse to peel Tia Carrere to her skivvies.
-
The episode of Futurama where…let’s see if I remember this right? Bender gets mangled and paralyzed, meets Beck, hires him as a washboard player(?) and then the rest of the cast follow him around on tour, there’s a scene where the crew is hanging around in their underwear while all their clothes wash, and it accidentally tie dyes them because of Amy’s pink track suit.
-
Early in Friends, there’s an episode where Ross…again let’s see if I remember this correctly…Rachel was a rich girl and thus had no domestic skills, and Ross offered to teach her how to do laundry, kind of as an excuse to hang around with her to flirt. They also manage to accidentally dye her clothes pink by leaving something red in with them. IIRC Joey mocked him for his choice of Totally Not Snuggle, so he bought a detergent called Uberweisse or something. I think this was in their building’s laundry room rather than a laundromat but meh.
-
I think there’s a scene in Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog where Dr. Horrible and whatever Felicia Day’s character was named where they flirt in a laundromat. My memory of that show has kind of faded to just the Bad Horse song.
In Supernatural, Cass takes off his bloody clothes to wash them, but then he decides to use his remaining bucks on the vending machine instead, and he takes clean clothes from the lost and found.
-
Don’t believe everything you see on TV. There’s a reason it’s called “the idiot box”.
The idiot box, now there’s a term that’s a few generations old. TVs aren’t really boxes anymore, so… The idiot panel?
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Sorta related, enjoy…
“Anything and everything all of the time”
Bo Burnham - Welcome to the Internet
Seattle used to have a combination laundromat/bar that was called Sit and Spin.
Never had a chance to go. I imagine it was a very horny place. Also at the time median age in Seattle was like 23.
I lived downtown Seattle in the 90s, close enough we just walked to Sit and Spin with our laundry. Best way to do laundry ever.
Also they were reasonably priced since they made most of their money off the cafe (which had really good food).
I’ll have some of those memories for life.
Something similar in Columbus. I’ve never washed clothes there, but I have been to punk shows there
In my town, junkies hang out at the laundromat begging for money. The cops show up regularly and haul them off. I saw prostitutes outside of it once, too
I’ve definitely experienced romance in a laundromat, it was a place where I had basically nothing but time and was freshly out on my own. It was a place I could focus on texting someone I was falling for.
Also it’s one of those things I will struggle to avoid any chance I can get in the future because that time translated to an hour and a half long chore that’s mostly waiting where I couldn’t do much else. It fucking sucked lol.
Oh also there’s a bar with live music in a laundromat that I’ve been to, alcohol and punk music can definitely up the vibes
I used to go to this Laundromat and next door to it was a good burger joint that served beer and had great food. Inside the burger joint was a light up board with all the laundromat machines and they would light up green when your load was complete. Must have been owned by the same people and it was a great business model. I’d go have a burger and beer every other week and watch tv in the burger joint till the light told me my stuff was ready
Well I mean people have to strip naked in the laundromat to wash their clothes. What, you guys don’t do that?
For real though, I’d guess it’s just because it’s sort of a meet-cute type of location since patrons may kill time there while their clothes wash and dry and might chat with other patrons while waiting.
Be the change you want to see. Strip naked in the laundromat, lead by example…
Because if people wanted to see angry people who don’t want to be there, they would just go to a laundromat in real life.
It’s kind of what I liked about Baby Driver, the movie acknowledges that a laundromat is kind of a weird place to hang out for a date, but the awkwardness lets the passionate feelings they have for each other shine through.
