Women Falling Down On Film, Over And Over And Over Again

Whatever you think of the prospect of the diarrhea-vomit-wedding dress scene in Bridesmaids, it’s palpably more original than the romcom standby of a girl falling down. (Though let’s not forget Sex And The City‘s less-committed diarrhea gag.) Here, Nerve’s compendium.

Why does it happen so often? Tad Friend’s New Yorker piece on Anna Faris and Hollywood’s funny lady problem has become like a handy decoder tool for this crap, and it’s also cited by Nerve:

‘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.”

Of course, men fall down in movies too; they also get smacked in the face and the balls by things and a whole other range of things. But it never seems to be about bringing them down a peg.

Beautiful Women Falling Down: A Short Film [Nerve]
Earlier: Hollywood Insiders Admit That Hollywood Hates Women