Last night I was watching episode 5 of Moon Knight and then just this morning I have Ghostbusters 2 on in the background. What’s the connection between those two? Aside from playing fast and lose with other entities possessing mortal bodies, they both have scenes where characters are wearing those pointy party hats.

I’ve never in my life seen anyone in real life wear those things, swear to sweet Baphomet. Yet, those are persistent in presentation as the go-to for “This is a party! We wear our party gear!”

Maybe there’s a time and place for the pointy party hat. Perhaps it is meant to be worn ironically, but we now live in the post-post-ironic world, where things that were once done ironically are now free from irony and whatever is ironic now has been flipped on its head.

Or maybe I never knew what was what and the fact that I’ve never seen these in real life parties means that I’ve not been attending the cool parties. Tell me where your Eyes Wide Shut party hat parties are! I want to belong!

What are some other tropes you see in popular media akin to the pointy party hat that you have yet to encounter in real life? What lies has Hollywood shown you that you know aren’t true, or what things did you think were always fictional but then you found out was a real thing and it blew the pointy party hat right off your head?