Am I the only one?

Many if not most stories have one or more cliches in them, but it's not the cliche itself, it's what is done with it. If you can give it a twist and a bit of a spin and stand it on its head, then it can work.

Movies, like stories, tend to show the cliches more, but it depends on the script. Rocky (the first one) was a cliche from start to finish, but it worked due to having great dialogue, music, and a terrific punchup at the end. Avatar, OTOH, sucked rocks. Books are the same way. I usually toss in a cliche for the sake of doing so and TELL the reader it's a cliche so it's like admitting the truth and having them laugh with you as opposed to against you, if that makes any sense.

I've found cliches rather useful in my comedy writing. My first novel (TEC) is a comedic fantasy, so all those old cliches that are so familiar to everyone - well, I was able to turn a lot of them into something more literal, or out of left field, or whatever.

Like, using a cliche, and then explaining it as something messed up and fantasy-ish. Seemed to work for me. And Douglas Adams did that to some extent, though I've tried to avoid using his cliche-jokes.

As for reading a cliche in a book... it doesn't really bother me, but then it's also not something I especially get much enjoyment from.

Cliches to me are like kitsch. Sometimes I just lurve them to death, and other times I roll my eyes. It's all in the presentation. If I could set a table for eight with decorative plates of say Mount Rushmore, Nashville, Elvis... with the 'souvenir' silverware, and fast food collector glasses... I'd bust out in giggles.

=)

You might also look at the "Discworld" series by Terry Pratchett; plenty of cliches in them. And very funny, too.

That's why I like Bat Out of Hell. "Like a bat out of hell (I'll be gone when the morning comes);" "You took the words right out of my mouth" (she was kissing him and that's why he didn't say "I love you"); "For crying out loud, (that's why I love you)."

I love romantic tropes, too.

In the play, Our American Cousin, Lord Dundreary famously mixed cliches, "Birds of a feather gather no moss."

Too bad no one performs it anymore.

Snitchcat said:

You might also look at the "Discworld" series by Terry Pratchett; plenty of cliches in them. And very funny, too.

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Although pretty much every one is turned on their head (this applies to the early ones, he satirises other stuff later)

Which is one reason why they are funny

The unkillable barbarian! Who is,er, past retirement age, and is merely good at Not Dying

The mage! Who is afraid to say the only spell he knows

The rightful king! With a sword and birthmark and everything! Who just wants to have a normal life, cheers.

I love spoofs. They only work if they throw in every cliche going.