I've fallen, and I can't get up!

"I've fallen, and I can't get up!" is a famous catchphrase of the late 1980s and early 1990s popular culture based upon a line from a United States-based television commercial.

Origins

This line was spoken in a television commercial for a medical alarm and protection company called LifeCall. The motivation behind the systems is that subscribers, mostly senior citizens as well as disabled people, would receive a pendant which, when activated, would allow the user to speak into an audio receiving device and talk directly with a dispatch service, without the need to reach a telephone. The service was designed to appeal particularly to seniors who lived alone and who might experience a medical emergency, such as a fall, which would leave them alert but immobile and unable to reach the telephone.

In 1989, LifeCall began running commercials which contained a scene wherein an elderly woman, identified by a dispatcher as "Mrs. Fletcher", uses the medical alert pendant after having fallen in the bathroom. After falling, Mrs. Fletcher speaks the phrase "I've fallen, and I can't get up!", after which the dispatcher informs her that he is sending help.

Taken at its face value, the commercial portrays a dangerous situation for a senior, with perhaps dire consequences: an elderly person suddenly incapacitated at home, unable to get help, perhaps for hours or even days.

The "I've fallen, and I can't get up" ad had the double misfortune of being unintentionally campy and appearing often on cable and daytime television. The fact that the commercial was a dramatization (as clearly stated in the beginning of the commercial) using bad acting also contributed to the humor. The combination made "I've fallen... and I can't get up!" a recognized, universal punchline that applied to many comedic situations. All of these factors made the ad memorable, ensuring the line's place in pop culture history.

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, after first applying in October 1990, LifeCall registered the phrase "I've fallen, and I can't get up" as a trademark in September 1992 until its status was cancelled in 1999.[1] In October 2002, the similar phrase "Help! I've fallen, and I can't get up!" became a registered trademark of Life Alert Emergency Response, Inc.[1] In June 2007, the phrase "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" also became a registered trademark of Life Alert. Both phrases are currently used on their website as well as in their commercials.[2] The phrase is made out, however, to be much less campy. It is now usually followed by a narrator who talks about the reason behind why such a situation would be serious, giving the impression that the people behind the infamous commercial never intended it to have any humor behind it and didn't want the phrase to be used in any humorous manner.

Another catchphrase which was also used by an elderly man named Mr. Miller in the same LifeCall commercial, and also humorously popularized, was "I'm having chest pains!"

Actress portraying Mrs. Fletcher

Three women have been credited with playing Mrs. Fletcher:

It is possible different actresses were used in different markets.

Actor portraying the dispatcher

The dispatcher was portrayed by actor Bob Snead ("We're sending help immediately, Mrs. Fletcher."), who had small roles in several films and television episodes between 1983 and 1989.[7]

Other portrayals

On a 1991 episode of Married with Children, Marcy is run over by Al, and Peggy makes a comment that she "has fallen, and can't get up."

In a 1991 episode "There Goes the Bride: Part 1" of The Golden Girls, Blanche tries to get Rose off the phone and shouts, "Rose, I've fallen and I can't get up, help me!"

In a 1993 Beavis and Butt-head episode ("Sperm Bank") the line was satirized with Butt-head saying, "He's fallen, and he can't get it up."[8]

In the 1993 film Another Stakeout, the character Chris Lecce says "I've fallen and I can't get up."

In 1995, Wally, from the Dilbert comic strip is portrayed making fun of equipment specifications by saying this line.[9]

In the 1996 educational game Mario Teaches Typing 2, Mario's face says the line, then says "That is my impression of American advertising! Thank you very much! Thank you! Thank you!"

In the episode "Sonic Breakout" from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Doctor Robotnik says the line when he has indeed fallen at the end.

In the Christmas Special (episode 50) of Animaniacs, Dot says the line in the opening scene.

Steve Urkel also uttered the then-famous line in an episode of Family Matters.

In the Roseanne season four episode, "The Back Story," Roseanne throws out her back while painting her toenails and, while writhing on the sofa in extreme pain and yelling for her husband Dan, cries, "I can't get up and I don't have one of those things! I shouldn't have laughed at that old lady on TV!"

In an episode of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, the character, Meta Knight, after seeing Kirby after consuming bags of potato chips with a fictional ingredient known as Puffer-zine, says, "He has fallen, and cannot get up."

In an episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine, Christine gets her foot stuck inside the toilet when attempting to shave her legs. She calls for help, when her friend Barb comes laughing and says she will help her but only if she says "Help! I've fallen and can't get up!"

A playable character in the Zombies game mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops has a chance of randomly uttering the line when they are downed.

In Game 2 of the 1991 World Series a fan banner was placed on the outfield wall of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota which read "The Braves have fallen and can't get up". The Minnesota Twins defeated the Atlanta Braves 3-2 in that game and went on to win the Series 4 games to 3.

In the episode "Pimento" from Better Call Saul, Jimmy (Saul Goodman) tries to defend a retirement home and claims that "the most common phrase in this place: I've fallen and I can't get up."

On the 1999 game "Tiny Tank (Playstation)", when the main protagonist Tiny destroys an enemy, he will sometimes say "he's fallen and he can't get up!"

In the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, some members of the Uberwald League of Temperance (a vampire organization) carry a card reading, in part, "Help, I have crumbled and I can't get up," intended to be found should they have been reduced to dust due to exposure to sunlight or other vampire weaknesses.

See also

References

External links

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