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May 13, 2011
Beautiful Women Falling Down:
A Short Film
In honor of Bridesmaids, an ode to the clichés of romantic comedies.
"'To make a woman adorable,' one female sucessful screenwriter says, 'you have to defeat her at the beginning... It's as simple as making the girl cry, fifteen minutes into the movie.' Relatability is based on vulnerability, which creates likeability. With male characters, smoking pot, getting drunk, and lying around watching porn is likeable; with females, the same conduct is hateful. So funny women must not only be gorgeous; they must fall down and then sob, knowing it's all their fault." — Tad Friend in The New Yorker, April 11, 2011
Commentarium (36 Comments)
right on!
I don't know who that voice over guy is, but he must be the hardest working person in Hollywood. I salute you, sir.
For some reason I just hate that guy's voice. It's on every trailer it seems and grates on my ears so much I have a hard time concentrating on the information. Its the inflection I think.
There are a couple of regular voice over dudes in trailers. Normally, I hate it when there is any voice over but I especially hate it this one guy who has an already low and gratey voice but then the artificially make it more low and even more gratey. It's just terrible.
Ahhhh, but prat falls have been a part of comedy for-eva. Doesn't seem like a particularly rom-com-y phenomenon.
Really dude? Because that's a whole lot of women falling down. Mainly in front of men. Is it funny when a man falls down in front of a woman? Not really. That's because it's just a guy doing something normal.
Actually, I think that people falling down is funny, in general. The NYer article's point was that that's the *only* way women are allowed to be funny, whereas men can be as crude or gross or undignified or unmanly as they want.
Women can also be funny when they try to drive, or vote. Or do push-ups. Seriously, from the knees?
good one! *high fives*
Haha! Where's the "Like" button?
Haha where's the Daniel Tosh copyright infringement button
"With male characters, smoking pot, getting drunk, and lying around watching porn is likeable" .. likeable by whom? Those are highly dislikeable actions. As for the women falling down: that's not funny either; they (or their stunt doubles) could get hurt, though if they all have "great careers" presumably they all have "great health insurance" too.
are you kidding? Male characters doing all those things is the base of all those Judd Apatow movies which everyone loves.
Julia Roberts' face at the end is the best. It's like" :(" in all caps
I highly recommend a YouTube search of "supermodels falling." It is a guaranteed fart.
This is Art.
Good clip. They are falling down because the world expects women to do everything in heels.
This is a hilarious and smart feminist commentary. Funny and clever.
If a beautiful woman did not fall down then other women would hate her because she was beautiful. Falling down allows regular women to think "the beautiful woman is pretty but klutzy". "I am not that klutzy so I am still better than her" "OK I guess I can like her".
With male characters, getting kicked in the crotch is the stuff of comedy everywhere in Hollywood; the same applied to a female character would be cruel/unfunny, no? If not, why have I never seen it in the movies or on TV?
Meh. Guys getting hit in the face with a ball is a staple of pretty much every bad comedy film trailer I've seen in the last ten years, I'm pretty sure. These movies shown here are all shitty romantic comedies, too, the kind Hollywood pumps out for the niche market largely composed of women. Do you think any guy that wasn't forced to watched any of those movies? It's hardly a representation of the broader film output. How many times does Meryl Streep or Sissy Spacek fall down for a cheap laugh? It's the New Yorker's job to create gender representation 'trends' like this and it's my hobby to call bullshit.
You sound fun.
i'm just dying to date you.
Um, at 51% of the population, women are not a "niche market".
first off, it is a "niche market" but also, the movies are "largely" targeted at women who then drag their spineless boyfriends/husbands.
Not a romantic situation, but Rachel Weisz taking out a whole library in The Mummy is a classic.
Totally agreed. Damn... I haven't seen the Mummy on TBS in awhile, what the fuck happened? I am dissapoint TBS. The Mummy is an institution for your channel.
Great clips! I want some adorable women like those in my life. The gals around here are much too serious to take a pratfall. Only guys do that. And then the gals think they're clumsy, not funny.
RomComs are the epitome of movie cliches.
hahha. so funny, but so sad.
Derp de derpy derp. De derp derp, de Derp Derp!
@Rubix: And Hollywood never spends time hiring new voice overs.
In comedies, people fall down. In romantic comedies, one of those people is a woman.
In Laurel and Hardy comedies, or Three Stooges comedies, that person is generally not a woman.
People who are not willing to fall down should not be in comedies. It's part of the job description.
~~~
"Doesn't seem like a particularly rom-com-y phenomenon."
Nope. My friend proposed a short called "The History of Women in Science Fiction/Fantasy Films". Seems like there's always a pursuit where the gal twist her ankle and falls.
Oh no! How can they get away from the monster now!!
Since when does a percentage of the population equal a percentage of the movie going population?
^ In relation to andrea's comment........