Has anyone else seen the new versions of these? My god the woman sounds like she’s reading the line off a cue card. WHY did they bring this back? Didn’t they realize that it was universally made fun of the first time around??
Yes, I saw it. My first instinct was to laugh. I guess it’s callous and mean to make fun of something like that, but that was by far the worst actress I’ve seen in a commercial in a long time.
My personal favorite is that little old lady in that commercial for “the Clapper” who smacks her frail little hands together like an orangutan, then just flops into bed like a sack of potatoes. Never fails to crack me up, and I always add a little “Aaaaaaa!” sigh when she does it.
“Honey, I needs me some sleep!”
And just think, that was probably the best take the director find.
" Okay Nana, I need you to clap twice and curl into bed. On the downbeat now. Cue music!!"
((Smakk! Smakk! Flop!))
“That’s a take.”
It’s almost as if “the Clapper” caused her pacemaker to shut down!
[sub]Oh man, I’m going to hell for that, I know it.[/sub]
Maybe the people who use “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” don’t care that we’re making fun of it. It helps people remember the ad. (Although I can’t remember the name of the company.)
Wait forty years. [Abe] It’ll happen to you![/Abe]
No kidding, I laughed so hard when I saw those commericials.
Can someone please explain the ad to us overseas Dopers?
Pretty please with sugar on top?
ok:
it’s a company that sells a device marketed towards elderly people.
it is a ‘remote control’ of sorts that when pressed, will connect you to their office. they in turn will call help for you.
so, if grandma fell and say, broke her hip, she wouldn’t be there for hours in pain because she couldn’t reach the phone.
now that you know the product, here is the commercial.
there is an announcer (it looks like it was filmed in the 80’s or something) telling you about the product.
they show an elderly lady who has ‘fallen’.
she clicks the button and says into it:
I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.
she says, perhaps, the world’s worst actress. It really sounds like it is being read off of a cue card.
another commercial shows an elderly man:
“I’m having a heart attack”
(he apparently went to the same acting school as the lady).
and now it sounds like there is a third ad.
the acting is so bad, it is really hard to not laugh when you see the ads. the sayings “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” and “I’m having a heart attack” have become foder for comedians jokes, etc.
I used this on my answering machine one year. “I’ve fallen and cant reach the phone… Leave a message.”
It didn’t last long, Gramma called one day and got seriously offended. Don’t know why, she used to laugh at the commercials too.
[hijack] Years ago on the Tonight Show, Carson did a gag where he was going to demonstrate the sound of a tree falling in the woods when no one was around. The idea was apparently just to play a tape “recording” that had no sound on it for a few seconds, with the audience expecting something to happen. The gag was that there would be no sound at all. As Johnny & Ed sat listening in silence, someone in the audience shouted out the infamous “I’ve fallen” phrase. This sent everyone, including Carson, into complete hysterics. One of the funniest bits I’d ever seen, & it was a complete accident. (supposedly, anyway) [/hijack]
Know this is old, but I’m always late on MPSIMS. There was an episode of Roseanne where her back seized up while she was painting her toenails. “Ooh! Oh god, my back…I can’t get up and I don’t have one of those things!..I shouldn’ta laughed at that old lady on TV!” That cracked me up, more than other instances of people just saying the line. Stupid poetic justice!
The woman was not an actress; she was an actual user of the Med-Alert device who was rescued because of it.
Hasen’t the widespread availability and inexpense of owning cellular phones rendered Med-Alert type things oblolete?
I, a certified techie geezazoid, can barely figure out all the functions on my cell phone. Now let’s talk about Gramma’ Inky, who once yelped in fear after accidently activating my little cousin’s digital sketch pad. Nope, the simpler the better.
Also, anybody else have those ad’s for the little electric scooters for the elderly playing in their area?
“I’m a little rascal again now that I have a Little Rascal[sup]TM[/sup]!”