About

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up is a memorable phrase uttered by the character Mrs. Fletcher, an elderly woman, in a 1989 LifeCall medical alert device commercial. Used in advertisements for both Life Call and Life Alert medical communication devices, the phrase inspired numerous parodies, remixes and viral videos in the 30 years since its release.

Origin

In 1989, the phrase made its first utterance in a commercial for the medical alert device LifeCall. In the commercial, the character Mrs. Fletcher (portrayed by Edith Fore) falls while in the bathroom and uses LifeCall to call for assistance and says, "I've fallen and I can't get up" (shown below). Subscribers use the device to speak directly to a dispatch service and provide aid for seniors that are living alone.

Spread

Dispute Over Ownership

Shortly after the release of the LifeCall, a competing company, Life Alert, claimed to have been using the phrase since 1985. On December 19th, 1990, Eric Bordo, who worked on the campaign, told the Phoenix New Times,^[1] "We created the commercial five years ago but originally it was a man who made the statement."

Edith Fore, who says the line in the LifeCall ad, told the New Times that she came up with the line and based on a real incident that she described during the scripting of the city. She said, "I gave them a description of what happened and then they wrote it up for me so it made sense."

In Popculture

Since the release of the commercial, the line has been parodied and used for parodies, standup comedy and t-shirts. The commercial has been used on the television series The Goldbergs, Family Matters, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air , The Golden Girls and more. On April 20th 2014, the YouTube account iiAFX shared a compilation of references to the commercial on television. The post received more than 932,000 views in less than seven years (shown below).

Parody Videos

Parodies of the commercial have been on the internet for more than a decade. On November 12th, 2009, YouTuber RandomAsICanB shared "I've fallen and I can't get up! spoof / parody." The post received more than 10,000 views in less than 12 years (shown below, left).

Three years later, on April 11th, 2012, YouTuber West Coast Baptist College shared "Life Alarm – 'I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up' Parody." The post received more than 667,000 views in less than nine years (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References