| Vintage Pulp | Jul 28 2014 |
Panties go down, skirt goes up, and physics go out the window.
This Art Frahm pin-up painting, entitled “A Sudden Letdown,” lacks Frahm’s trademark bag of groceries with protruding celery stalk, but the infamous fallen panties are there, presumably shaken loose by the same gust of wind that lifted the woman’s skirt. But was the same breeze responsible for pushing the car off the jack? We know the car was elevated because its owner got two lug nuts off the wheel at some point, but that would be quite a gust, wouldn’t it? And why would the jack still be falling? If a gust pushed the car off its jack, wouldn’t the jack hit the pavement the same time as the car? Maybe the car fell spontaneously and created a gust that lifted the skirt and knocked down the panties. But if that’s the case, again, why is the jack still falling? Maybe it isn’t falling. Maybe it’s bouncing. Maybe it hit a particularly springy patch of asphalt, a substance known for its elastic properties—at least in Frahm’s world. Well, he was a painter not a physicist, so let’s just give him credit where it’s due—he originated an entire genre of fallen panty art that was imitated by many other artists and beloved by the public at large.
