“Pick-Up” Line—USA

“Did it hurt?”

“Did what hurt?”
“Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?”

Marysia first heard this pick up line from one of her male friends at high school.  While her friend did not use it in an effort to “make a pass at her,” she has been told of instances where the line has been used to engage a member of the opposite sex.  The theory behind pick up lines is simple: say something clever to someone whose attention you want to get.  While they are usually used by males on females, there are indeed female pick-up lines.  Above all else, pick-up lines are supposed to be funny.  Some writers and comedians spend countless hours developing funny ones, usually not having the intention of making them operational.  It is for this reason that there are a number of pick-up lines out there, many of which were created for comedic purposes.  There are however, lines such as this one, that some individuals (usually males) use if they feel confidant enough saying them.  There are a number of dirty and inappropriate ones, and Marysia cautions all males to be weary of insulting a girl with a pick-up line.  While I am personally not a big fan of pick-up lines as a way of initiating communication with members of the opposite sex, I do think that there are some funny ones out there.

I think it interesting to note that amongst all of the vulgar and offensive ones, this line “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” emerged as a favorite in Dallas, Texas.  In her opinion, this is because people in Texas are into politeness and as a result, don’t see the significance of saying something inappropriate and potential rude to someone.  The pick-up line can be seen in the 1996 film Bio-dome.  In the film, Pauly Shore’s character Bud uses the line to try to sleep with the girl of his dreams.  Though the line exists in this form in the film, it has certainly demonstrates the folkloric quality of multiplicity and variation.  While I had not heard the exact same line before I had come to school, I had heard a varied form of it back in my hometown of Scarsdale, New York.  In this form, a male examines the tag on the back collar of a female’s shirt, and when she asks “what are you doing?” his response is: “Just as I had thought…made in heaven.”  The line has clearly traveled and evolved through word of mouth and is thus an excellent example of folklore.

Biodome. Dir. Jason Bloom.  Screenplay by Kip Koenig and Scott Marcano.  Perf. Pauly

Pauly Shore, Steven Baldwin.  Miramax, 1996.