When is a cliché not a cliché?

A recent comment on this post re “The Beaver” (written by Kyle Killen) from over a year ago from mx:

Alarm goes off. He slaps it dead.

“I’m lucky if by P. 4 the main character has finished brushing his teeth after the typical alarm-goes-off-struggling-to-wake-up-day-in-the-life opening that is so prevalent in scripts.”

Oh You mean like what happens EXACTLY ON THE FIRST PAGE OF YOUR SO CALLED CLICHE FREE SCRIPT?!

When is a cliché not a cliché? Is the fact that Killen writes “Alarm goes off. He slaps it dead.” a cliché because there are so many “typical alarm-goes-off-struggling-to-wake-up-day-in-the-life opening” scenes to begin generic, ordinary screenplays?

No.

Why?

Three reasons.

First, “Alarm goes off. He slaps it dead.” is not a typical version of the “alarm-goes-off-struggling-to-wake-up-day-in-the-life”opening scene. It’s a concise description of a moment, not a run-on blow-by-blow account of dragging oneself out of bed, shuffling across the floor, brushing teeth, head under shower nozzle, and so on.

Second, a cliché version of such an opening does little to nothing to establish anything of significance about the Protagonist. Rather it is simply a rather generic way to start a script. “The Beaver” uses the description — “Alarm goes off. He slaps it dead.” — as part of an important, indeed, crucial point about the story’s Protagonist Walter: He is depressed. Part of that depression is the fact that rather than being a conscious individual, Walter would rather sleep, a symptom of depression.

Third, “The Beaver” satirizes contemporary American domestic life. In order to do that, the script has to establish the ordinary nature of that American life. Walter’s routine of sleep & wakefulness does that.

The script’s use of “Alarm goes off. He slaps it dead.” is not a cliché. Rather it is a concise description of a moment in Walter’s life, part of a string of events that convey something of significance about the story’s Protagonist, and establishes the ‘norm’ of that Protagonist’s world so the script may satirize it.

Any narrative element can be a cliché. It’s mere appearance does not necessarily meant that it is one. Rather it’s what the writer does with it that determines how original (or not) the element is.