# Stories where stalking actually works **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 14, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316 "2011-02-14T16:25:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/41 "2011-02-16T08:52:21Z")
There’s some '60s movie where a guy sings a whole song about how overjoyed he is just to be on the pavement outside of some girl’s apartment. It’s creepy as hell, really. Doesn’t count for the thread, though; she ditches him and winds up shacking up with some other old geezer. Probably just wants his money. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/42 "2011-02-16T08:59:07Z")
Is it any wonder there are so many genuine stalkers when fiction promotes it as the right and successful thing to do? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/43 "2011-02-16T09:02:42Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > There’s an episode of Frasier called Desperately Seeking Closure where a woman breaks up with Frasier. He spends the episode calling repeatedly and showing up where he knows she’ll be to get her to tell him why they broke up and reconsider. An episode of _Cheers_ used “stalking” to describe Fraiser’s early (and successful) pursuit of Lilith. ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/44 "2011-02-16T09:06:23Z")
‘Notes on a Scandal’ (the novel, rather than the movie); Barbara doesn’t stalk from secrecy, but she manipulates her way into Sheba’s life, ending up right where she wants to be. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/45 "2011-02-16T13:04:18Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > There’s some '60s movie where a guy sings a whole song about how overjoyed he is just to be on the pavement outside of some girl’s apartment. It’s creepy as hell, really. _My Fair Lady_? “The Street Where You Live”? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/46 "2011-02-16T13:20:14Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I think the ultra-creepy _Seven Brides for Seven Brothers_ takes the crown on this one. I agree. Who the hell greenlighted a project with the pitch “It’s the ‘Rape of the Sabine Women’, but with singing and dancing!”? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/47 "2011-02-16T13:28:42Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Is it any wonder there are so many genuine stalkers when fiction promotes it as the right and successful thing to do? I place the blame squarely on the head of Nora Ephron. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/48 "2011-02-16T18:35:13Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > As has been mentioned, an awful lot of romantic comedies. I remember in the movie version of _Bus Stop_, the guy goes to the bus station and lassos Marilyn Monroe and drags her off, it was played as whacky fun. Like when Borat went for Pamela Anderson! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/49 "2011-02-16T18:44:39Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > An episode of _Cheers_ used “stalking” to describe Fraiser’s early (and successful) pursuit of Lilith. Would it qualify, in your opinion? (Though I’m a huge Frasier fan, I haven’t seen all that much Cheers, so I’m a bit spotty on how Frasier/Lilith got together.) Speaking of Frasier and Lilith, on Frasier his threatening to jump off a building after she cheated on him has come up on “Frasier” a few times. Not exactly stalkerish but I suppose it qualifies as unstable romantic behavior… ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/50 "2011-02-16T19:01:20Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > _My Fair Lady_? “The Street Where You Live”? Yes. It doesn’t strictly count for this thread, since Eliza doesn’t end up with Freddy, but it seems to be intended as romantic. Read the lyrics, though, very stalkerish. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/51 "2011-02-16T19:30:38Z")
How about _Addicted to Love_? That has Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick playing two people who turn out to stalking a couple and plotted to break them up. Come to think of it, there was a _Seinfeld_ where Jerry and Elaine were lurking over some couple waiting for a breakup. How about the _How I Met Your Mother_ episode where Ted paid a neighbor to let him know if a girl he was interested in broke up with her boyfriend. Of course, the ultimate stalker is Rose on _Two and a Half Men_. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/52 "2011-02-16T19:30:40Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Yes. It doesn’t strictly count for this thread, since Eliza doesn’t end up with Freddy, but it seems to be intended as romantic. Read the lyrics, though, very stalkerish. I agree that, looked at objectively, it _is_ stalkerish. I’m reluctant to admit that, though, since I’ve DONE that a couple of times. (Not the singing…the “‘happen’ to be walking in the neighborhood my crush lives in”.) ---
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/53 "2011-02-16T19:34:33Z")
I came in to vote for “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”. I loved that movie as a kid, and it wasn’t until I had kids of my own that the full psycho-ness of it struck me. Prime example of how our societal views change over a few decades. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/54 "2011-02-16T19:38:04Z")
> [@Heyoka13](#): > > It has happened at least once. If you have a copy of Tomas Guillen’s book Toxic Love, you can read about Stephen Harper’s weird little life. The Prime Minister of Canada!? ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/55 "2011-02-16T19:53:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Is it ever played that way? I mean stories where the obsessed stalker gets the object of his/her affection in the end – gets as in “I have her/his heart in my keeping,” not “I have her/him chained up in the basement” – and gets her/him **by** stalking or stalking-related activities, not because of some unconnected and impossible set of circumstances. Twilight. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/56 "2011-02-16T22:43:42Z")
I came here to post about “Addicted to Love” except of course: The stalkers don’t get the objects of their obsession in the end. But damn, those are one pair of unhappy, obsessed stalkers that Broderick and Ryan play. And “Holiday in Handcuffs” was severely hampered by the fact that I could not buy the notion that any character played by Melissa Joan Hart, who plays the woman who kidnaps a guy to be her boyfriend for the holidays, would ever do such an evil, psycho thing. She exudes “nice” too powerfully. Still, it did add believability to the fact that when the guy told Melissa’s parents that she had abducted him, they didn’t buy it for an instant. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/57 "2011-02-18T07:04:58Z")
Danny Tripp’s pursuit of Jordan McDeere on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip definitely qualifies. Stalking is cool if you’re charming, glib, heartfelt, and bright. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/58 "2011-02-18T07:31:52Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > The novel \*Seven Types of Ambiguity \* by Elliot Perlman. Good book! (But I only counted 6 types of ambiguity. I’m not sure if I’m entitled to get all my money back or just one 7th of it. It’s…puzzling) ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/59 "2011-02-18T07:49:46Z")
In Runaway Bride, Richard Gere is ostensibly writing an article about Julia Roberts, but his behavior is creepy and invasive beyond the tenacity of a features writer even from a national magazine. He snoops and trespasses, he charms his way into learning all manner of deeply private things about her including sexual history details, he shows up every single place she’s meant to be, he even beats her to places where he predicts that she’s going to go. And of course, of course, she eventually ends up with Gere, in the most convoluted way possible. Ultimately, his stalking leads to the ultimate prize of a marriage to the woman who wouldn’t marry anybody. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316/60 "2011-02-18T08:00:11Z")
Could someone define “stalking” for me? I think the definition is a whole lot broader than it used to be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-stalking-actually-works/571316.md?page=4)