I have something to tell you--you'd better put down the nitro.
July 2, 2007 10:34 AM Subscribe
A common movie/tv trope is that people drop whatever they are holding (usually something that crashes impressively) when they hear shocking news. Does this occur in "real life"? I can't recall this ever occurring to me personally. You?
I drop my coffee in slow-motion whenever fate decides a white shirt was a good idea that day.
posted by geodave at 10:46 AM on July 2, 2007 [4 favorites]
posted by geodave at 10:46 AM on July 2, 2007 [4 favorites]
Not me personally, but I have a friend who I must be somewhat careful about telling surprising things to. She's one of those people for whom "Are you sitting down for this?" was invented.
Fortunately I got most of the red wine out of the carpet from the worst incident.
posted by Ookseer at 10:47 AM on July 2, 2007
Fortunately I got most of the red wine out of the carpet from the worst incident.
posted by Ookseer at 10:47 AM on July 2, 2007
My grandmother dropped the phone upon hearing the news of the death of one of her grandchildren. She was later briefly hospitalized from the shock.
posted by saladin at 10:52 AM on July 2, 2007
posted by saladin at 10:52 AM on July 2, 2007
I really feel for the wonderful Wilder, and big hugs to her, but I think (and hope) that her case is indeed very, very rare -- as the poster said, it's really something that makes for good (and cheap) dramatic effect for a screenwriter. but then in movies people lose and regain consciousness all the time after getting hit on the head -- in reality, you either don't lose consciousness or suffer brain damage. sometimes both, and waking up is much harder, if at all possible.
posted by matteo at 10:56 AM on July 2, 2007
posted by matteo at 10:56 AM on July 2, 2007
Response by poster: I guess I also wanted some idea of the mechanism of such a thing. The body diverts blood to the trunk protectively so you lose feeling in your extremities? The mind is suddenly so preoccupied that it ceases to register the physical self? Interesting phenomena.
posted by thebrokedown at 11:08 AM on July 2, 2007
posted by thebrokedown at 11:08 AM on July 2, 2007
I received some surprising news once while I was driving. I didn't crash, but I did space out for about 15 seconds as the gravity of the situation took hold. Luckily, the road was empty. So, maybe people wouldn't necessarily drop things from shock, but drop them because they sorta forget where they are and what they're doing for a few seconds. Or maybe that just happens to me.
posted by MidAtlantic at 11:20 AM on July 2, 2007
posted by MidAtlantic at 11:20 AM on July 2, 2007
I've lost muscle control a number of times when surprised or shocked. I've dropped things, and I've also fallen down.
This is a really dumb example: When I went to Paris, I had no idea how big the Eiffel Tower was. I saw it from far away several times, and it looked pretty small. I took the Metro to near the tower, then walked amongst buildings that blocked it. When I stepped out from behind a building and it was there, I was so stunned by its size and magnificence that I collapsed to my knees. Ripped a nasty hole in my pants and my knee, too, so that I spent the rest of the day wandering around as a bloody mess.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 11:30 AM on July 2, 2007 [4 favorites]
This is a really dumb example: When I went to Paris, I had no idea how big the Eiffel Tower was. I saw it from far away several times, and it looked pretty small. I took the Metro to near the tower, then walked amongst buildings that blocked it. When I stepped out from behind a building and it was there, I was so stunned by its size and magnificence that I collapsed to my knees. Ripped a nasty hole in my pants and my knee, too, so that I spent the rest of the day wandering around as a bloody mess.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 11:30 AM on July 2, 2007 [4 favorites]
I have dropped the phone upon hearing shocking news.
Also, last week I actually spat a mouthful of coffee at a computer screen in response to a work-mate's joke, something I have always assumed to be a LOL U OWE ME A NEW LAPTOP!!11!! cliche/urban legend. So there you go.
posted by hot soup girl at 11:30 AM on July 2, 2007
Also, last week I actually spat a mouthful of coffee at a computer screen in response to a work-mate's joke, something I have always assumed to be a LOL U OWE ME A NEW LAPTOP!!11!! cliche/urban legend. So there you go.
posted by hot soup girl at 11:30 AM on July 2, 2007
Response by poster: Huh, crouton. That's really interesting and reminds me of something that may be connected. Folks with narcolepsy can lose muscle tone when shocked or highly amused. I suppose that is just an exaggeration of this phenomena.
posted by thebrokedown at 11:37 AM on July 2, 2007
posted by thebrokedown at 11:37 AM on July 2, 2007
most people scream or fall silent, two things that don't work very well in a :30 commercial. the dropping-stuff thing is a cliche used by hacks who can't write real dialogue. it plays to our fear of such a situation - the usual suspect here being driving into a wall. everyone knows what a shock feels like and this is a simple visualization - here are the symptoms you know, connect the dots.
the problem with it is that it's just comical. your aim is to say "here is a problem, imagine yourself in this situation, now here is the solution." when you add over-the-top effects like this you make it all the more difficult for people to imagine themselves in this situation. you create an artificial distance - when this doesn't happen in reality, it won't happen to you, so why care?
it's like over-the-top CG (bruce willis fighting the F35 jet, anyone?) that takes you, the viewer, out of the scene and puts you at the distance of an observer.
and puns, for the record, are a sign of lazy writing. krusty had that one right.
posted by krautland at 11:40 AM on July 2, 2007
the problem with it is that it's just comical. your aim is to say "here is a problem, imagine yourself in this situation, now here is the solution." when you add over-the-top effects like this you make it all the more difficult for people to imagine themselves in this situation. you create an artificial distance - when this doesn't happen in reality, it won't happen to you, so why care?
it's like over-the-top CG (bruce willis fighting the F35 jet, anyone?) that takes you, the viewer, out of the scene and puts you at the distance of an observer.
and puns, for the record, are a sign of lazy writing. krusty had that one right.
posted by krautland at 11:40 AM on July 2, 2007
I guess I also wanted some idea of the mechanism of such a thing. The body diverts blood to the trunk protectively so you lose feeling in your extremities? The mind is suddenly so preoccupied that it ceases to register the physical self?
I don't know enough about neurophysiology to opine on the details, but I think you may be overestimating the complexity of the actual being-caused-to-drop-things situation. Most times I've seen/had this sort of thing happen, it's more of a simple rude moment of shock than a dramatic, glass-eyed stare and ensuing slow-mo collapse of motor skills: a person twitches, a thing falls.
posted by cortex at 11:43 AM on July 2, 2007
I don't know enough about neurophysiology to opine on the details, but I think you may be overestimating the complexity of the actual being-caused-to-drop-things situation. Most times I've seen/had this sort of thing happen, it's more of a simple rude moment of shock than a dramatic, glass-eyed stare and ensuing slow-mo collapse of motor skills: a person twitches, a thing falls.
posted by cortex at 11:43 AM on July 2, 2007
I have both dropped the phone and fallen out of my chair on occasion, when hearing surprising news. It's not completely unheard of.
posted by donajo at 11:47 AM on July 2, 2007
posted by donajo at 11:47 AM on July 2, 2007
I've dropped a drink.
posted by miss lynnster at 11:54 AM on July 2, 2007
posted by miss lynnster at 11:54 AM on July 2, 2007
I'm actually fascinated by the neurophysiology of shock. All I can re-call is the feeling that everything went ice-cold, seemed to be happening in slow motion, and that coldness felt like total weakness of my legs and arms. My fingers had no feeling and therefore no control and the fucking thing dropped. Luckliy Mr Wilder is an anaesthetist, the nerve block is history.
posted by Wilder at 11:54 AM on July 2, 2007
posted by Wilder at 11:54 AM on July 2, 2007
I've never dropped anything from shock, but I've definitely felt my medicarples go tingly and weak as the blood-flow left them. This, however, would take a minute to really make me lose muscle control to drop whatever I was holding, which I probably would've set down by then.
For the most part, krautland is right, except for the bit about them being hacks who can't write real dialog. They're hacks, alright, but they are at least correct in looking for a visual solution over the ALWAYS inferior dialog solution.
Anyway, it's what you say it is: a trope. Somebody used it once, and it was funny, because it was unexpected, and makes enough logical sense to have the audience get it. People start stealing the joke, until the joke itself gets lost and the act of dropping something just becomes what happens when you hear something shocking. Like how cartoon characters used to invariably wear barrels once they were flat-broke.
posted by Navelgazer at 12:03 PM on July 2, 2007
For the most part, krautland is right, except for the bit about them being hacks who can't write real dialog. They're hacks, alright, but they are at least correct in looking for a visual solution over the ALWAYS inferior dialog solution.
Anyway, it's what you say it is: a trope. Somebody used it once, and it was funny, because it was unexpected, and makes enough logical sense to have the audience get it. People start stealing the joke, until the joke itself gets lost and the act of dropping something just becomes what happens when you hear something shocking. Like how cartoon characters used to invariably wear barrels once they were flat-broke.
posted by Navelgazer at 12:03 PM on July 2, 2007
I have been known to drop my jaw.
posted by king walnut at 12:10 PM on July 2, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by king walnut at 12:10 PM on July 2, 2007 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Wikipedia says that tetany, an involuntary contraction of the muscles, can be brought on by hyperventilation, which can in turn be brought on by emotional shock or stress. It seems like this could make you drop things, if the finger-straightening muscles contract more than the finger-clenching ones. In any case, it can make you lose control of your muscles.
Low levels of carbon dioxide causes tetany by altering the albumin binding of calcium such that the ionised (physiologically influencing) fraction of calcium is reduced; the most common reason for low carbon dioxide levels is hyperventilation.
This page from the Violence Policy Center has a lot of interesting info about the physiological reactions (and loss of coordination) that come about in stressful situations. I haven't checked up on their references, but it's heavily foot-noted if anybody cares to dig deeper.
I am no expert in this subject, this stuff just piqued my interest.
posted by vytae at 12:24 PM on July 2, 2007
Low levels of carbon dioxide causes tetany by altering the albumin binding of calcium such that the ionised (physiologically influencing) fraction of calcium is reduced; the most common reason for low carbon dioxide levels is hyperventilation.
This page from the Violence Policy Center has a lot of interesting info about the physiological reactions (and loss of coordination) that come about in stressful situations. I haven't checked up on their references, but it's heavily foot-noted if anybody cares to dig deeper.
I am no expert in this subject, this stuff just piqued my interest.
posted by vytae at 12:24 PM on July 2, 2007
The mind is suddenly so preoccupied that it ceases to register the physical self?
That's happened to me at moments when I've very suddenly become completely absorbed by what I'm doing or seeing - dropping a notebook and pen while looking at a painting, spilling my drink while listening to music - but I suppose that's almost the opposite of shock, really.
posted by jack_mo at 1:25 PM on July 2, 2007
That's happened to me at moments when I've very suddenly become completely absorbed by what I'm doing or seeing - dropping a notebook and pen while looking at a painting, spilling my drink while listening to music - but I suppose that's almost the opposite of shock, really.
posted by jack_mo at 1:25 PM on July 2, 2007
Hey now, y'all, take it easy on the writers. A good screenwriter doesn't make acting choices- we write, "The shock overwhelms Character" and the actor chooses to play it anyway s/he likes.
On topic, I don't drop things in surprise. I do knock things over, though. Shock + me = megaclumsy.
posted by headspace at 1:30 PM on July 2, 2007
On topic, I don't drop things in surprise. I do knock things over, though. Shock + me = megaclumsy.
posted by headspace at 1:30 PM on July 2, 2007
A combination of having a flight-or-fight response that is both easily triggered, and kind of wonky due to dysautonomia, means that this actually happens to me occasionally. I would note that it's not that actual shock that does this to me. It's more that the shock triggers my autonomic nervous system, and if my ANS is weird that day, the trigger might mean I could get what I can only describe as "half-conscious" (not having fainted, but just really, really out of it) and that's when I'll forget that I'm holding something --
posted by RobotHeart at 1:54 PM on July 2, 2007
posted by RobotHeart at 1:54 PM on July 2, 2007
I've never done this involuntarily, but I've always wanted to adopt the habit of doing so when receiving trivial news or hearing something that is not shocking at all.
Catherine Tate has a character who screams at every little noise (like a cough), which I think is hilarious. I would like to do that as well, but it would be harder to get away with at the office.
posted by troybob at 2:19 PM on July 2, 2007
Catherine Tate has a character who screams at every little noise (like a cough), which I think is hilarious. I would like to do that as well, but it would be harder to get away with at the office.
posted by troybob at 2:19 PM on July 2, 2007
Falling to your knees at the sight of the Eiffel Tower points either to drama-queen tendencies or to cataplexy.
posted by booksandlibretti at 3:29 PM on July 2, 2007
posted by booksandlibretti at 3:29 PM on July 2, 2007
Well, I have a pretty single-tasking-only brain, so on occasion, I have dropped things like a coffee cup when I'm thinking about something else, like an interesting problem. So I imagine if someone told me something that fascinated me or otherwise got ALL of my attention I might drop something.
I think a lot of people do it for dramatic effect, though, for minor surprises. Learned from the movies.
posted by ctmf at 6:04 PM on July 2, 2007
I think a lot of people do it for dramatic effect, though, for minor surprises. Learned from the movies.
posted by ctmf at 6:04 PM on July 2, 2007
My old high school marching band once travelled to California to play in the Tournament of Roses (Rose Bowl) Parade. A friend of mine--a very talented and disciplined trumpet player with no drama-queen tendencies or signs of cataplexy--lost his step, stopped playing, and nearly dropped his trumpet when we turned a corner and saw the mountains on the horizon for the first time. (We were from New England and not used to seeing this).
posted by Alabaster at 6:18 PM on July 2, 2007
posted by Alabaster at 6:18 PM on July 2, 2007
When I was a kid my Dad, who is typically a mild-mannered accountant, decided it would be fun to play with me. He grabbed a toy gun and he must have been excited, because he came barreling up the stairs with it just as I (coincidentally) turned the corner from my bedroom.
Every muscle in my body went slack and I collapsed into a heap. There was no time to process -- not even a recognition of what happened -- it was just one instant, I'm walking down the hall and the next I'm crumpled on the carpet. A second later, I was fine.
He felt bad and we didn't get to play.
posted by callmejay at 6:44 PM on July 2, 2007
Every muscle in my body went slack and I collapsed into a heap. There was no time to process -- not even a recognition of what happened -- it was just one instant, I'm walking down the hall and the next I'm crumpled on the carpet. A second later, I was fine.
He felt bad and we didn't get to play.
posted by callmejay at 6:44 PM on July 2, 2007
Falling to your knees at the sight of the Eiffel Tower points either to drama-queen tendencies or to cataplexy.
Hmmmm. Nobody has ever accused me of either of those before. I do fall down in other situations, too. Just last weekend I collapsed when people around me started being really silly. And after I stood up, they were silly again and I fell down again. I've never had any of the accompanying symptoms of cataplexy described by the wiki gods, though, so I'm just going to keep on living my life, and falling down from time to time if I must.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 7:35 PM on July 2, 2007
Hmmmm. Nobody has ever accused me of either of those before. I do fall down in other situations, too. Just last weekend I collapsed when people around me started being really silly. And after I stood up, they were silly again and I fell down again. I've never had any of the accompanying symptoms of cataplexy described by the wiki gods, though, so I'm just going to keep on living my life, and falling down from time to time if I must.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 7:35 PM on July 2, 2007
One time a motorcycle hit an elderly lady crossing the road about 15 feet in front of me and I experienced a kind of shock paralysis: I was unable to do anything - shout, help, call 911. I just stood rooted to where I was standing. I'm guessing that had I been holding a microwave at time, I would have probably dropped it.
posted by forallmankind at 12:37 AM on July 3, 2007
posted by forallmankind at 12:37 AM on July 3, 2007
From a film maker's point of view: it is a handy short hand to externalise something internal. It is easier to show a coffee cup breaking than it is showing a persons heart breaking.
posted by slimepuppy at 4:51 AM on July 3, 2007
posted by slimepuppy at 4:51 AM on July 3, 2007
Hey now, y'all, take it easy on the writers. A good screenwriter doesn't make acting choices- we write, "The shock overwhelms Character" and the actor chooses to play it anyway s/he likes.
that may be true for features but in advertising it's the creative team that directs what the actors do. they also hire the director him-/herself based on his/her treatment.
posted by krautland at 10:39 AM on July 3, 2007
that may be true for features but in advertising it's the creative team that directs what the actors do. they also hire the director him-/herself based on his/her treatment.
posted by krautland at 10:39 AM on July 3, 2007
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I didn't break the toe but the bruising was also spectacular.
posted by Wilder at 10:39 AM on July 2, 2007