Comments on: Falling

By: Robert Foster

Robert Foster — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 00:43:59 +0000

Just listened to this – great episode. Talking about falling in Ancient Rome, they had an actual rock that they used to do executions!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarpeian_Rock

Also, re:movies, I was surprised Disney movies didn’t come up. The falling trope is used to kill off almost all of their villains.

By: Derek Weber

Derek Weber — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 04:13:20 +0000

In reply to funkyjulia.

+1 for Alice in Wonderland — an excellent book. 🙂

And of course there’s the sperm whale from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (books, radio plays or the tv series, if you please, not so much the movie).

By: funkyjulia

funkyjulia — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 20:24:07 +0000

When you mentioned “that guy with eight legs”, I immediately thought of Yagrum Bagarn from Morrowind. Am I a video game nerd or what? Anyway, I was surprised you didn’t mention Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole.

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 10:50:41 +0000

Not sure what source the guys used, but I found this on Dick Wertheim: http://voices.yahoo.com/linesman-dick-wertheim-killed-tennis-ball-served-10186721.html
It states he was a linesman, which would imply he’s just watching the line and not the umpire so wouldn’t be on the tall chair, however it states he was in a chair when he was hit. In any case he fell backward and smacked his head on the ground, never woke up and died several days later. Although his family sued the USTA for over $2m, it was overturned on appeal, so I don’t know if they got much, if anything.

By: Jaytheist

Jaytheist — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 00:47:54 +0000

I think this movie is worth a peep and an honorable mention as it hinges on whether the protagonist takes the plunge: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535970/

By: Derek

Derek — Fri, 31 May 2013 13:18:30 +0000

If we can pick our own experience of madness for the Lesser of Two Evils, can I pick how that Pyro guy from the Psychosis episode has? That looked like fun. 🙂

By: Jon Paynter

Jon Paynter — Tue, 28 May 2013 14:21:04 +0000

In reply to Jon Paynter. Sorry, it was the Sarah Silverman Program, not show.

By: Phav Nosnibor

Phav Nosnibor — Mon, 27 May 2013 03:17:48 +0000

If anyone woke up this morning and thought “I’d love to play a computer game on this bright and sunny Sunday morning, but I just can’t think of one that involves much falling”, there’s always Stair Dismount, the entire point of which is to throw a man down a flight of stairs and see how much damage you can inflict. (http://jet.ro/dismount/) There have been subsequent versions for smartphones that add all kinds of nutty and improbable levels to the mix, but nothing quite matches the purity of the original, and its grunts and shrieks are wonderfully evocative.

By: thickets

thickets — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:20:17 +0000

In reply to Pavel Lishin. We'll talk about him when he dies from necrotizing fasciitis

By: Pavel Lishin

Pavel Lishin — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:10:02 +0000

I’m surprised you left off Felix Baumgartner – the man who broke the soundspeed barrier while diving from the edge of space. Not particularly caustic, since nothing awful happened to him, but still seems worthy of being mentioned in the news segment.