![]() I wonder what sensitivity readers will advise authors about this phrase in future. For knocked up he proposes a meaning ‘promoted as a deal for buyers’. Mr Perk seems not to understand knocked down here – in use since the 18th century to mean ‘dispose of (an article) to a bidder at an auction sale by a knock with a hammer’. Knocked up here means ‘subjected to sexual intercourse’ or ‘made pregnant’. Crockett himself had just proposed a toast, ‘The abolition of slavery’. It was not Crockett’s own remark but one made by a thimblerigger (a swindler using three thimbles and a pea) whom the Colonel had asked to describe Natchez, Mississippi. One from 1836 says: ‘N- women are knocked down by the auctioneer, and knocked up by the purchaser.’ (The word beginning with N is given in full.) The unpleasant play on words comes from a book attributed to David Crockett, Col Crockett’s Exploits and Adventures in Texas, published five years after his death. The happy hum stayed with me hours after the credits had ceased to roll.The example from 1813 cited in the OED has no reference to slavery. Apatow pulls off the considerable trick of making us feel protective, even parental towards these people. Two future parents in their early 20s, hardly even grownups, make a romantic, idealistic wager on the future of their love. In an age when professionals like the ones represented here are putting off having children until their careers are established, and then, we are told, agonising about their "babyhunger", Knocked Up presents us with an alternative reality. However contrived it is in some ways, there is something refreshingly unexpected and incorrect about this film. The real question is: should she keep the relationship? knock up (third-person singular simple present knocks up, present participle knocking up, simple past and past participle knocked up) To put together, fabricate, or assemble, particularly if done hastily or temporarily. As it happens, the pro-choice/pro-life debate doesn't weigh the movie down, and there is no sense that any conservative message is being peddled with Alison's decision to keep the baby. It's a chilling moment that momentarily slices through the film's feelgood buzz. Her sister made the right decision when something similar happened to her - and then, later, she reminds her, had a "real" baby. On the female side, Alison is taken out to lunch by her formidable mom (Joanna Kerns) and told that she is crazy to have the baby when her career is on the verge of breaking out. For Pete, the sight of his children's delighted faces is painful, and reminds him of his own inability to take that kind of sheer, unmediated pleasure in anything. They have a heartbreaking conversation about what it is like to be middle-aged and married, which emerges when they are in the park, watching Pete's children entranced by the sight of bubbles. These darker moments occur more in the male half of the movie, when Ben befriends Alison's brother-in-law Pete (Paul Rudd), a cool guy who is clearly unhappy in his relationship. It also has moments of darkness and pessimism, coolly absorbed into the mix, which reminded me a little of Alexander Payne. There are great gags, especially when Ben finds he can't have sex with the pregnant Alison because he can't bear the idea of his penis coming so close to his unborn child's face. But Knocked Up is a delight: smart, funny, charming and even moving. The possibilities for yuckiness are endless, and the memories of Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore in Chris Columbus's sentimental 1995 comedy Nine Months all too vivid. And this is the stormy period in which they fall in love for real. They nervously agree to stay together for the pregnancy, and both Ben and Alison have nine months to grow up before the baby arrives. He is hardly more than a big baby himself. But Alison wants to keep the baby, and feels obliged to inform Ben, who is part horrified, part proprietorial. Soon Alison finds herself stricken with morning sickness in the middle of an interview, vomiting in front of a revolted James Franco. Their one-night stand has cataclysmic results. Here she meets Ben and submits to his goofy adoration in a spirit of oh-what-the-hell. To celebrate, Alison goes to a club with her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) in whose marital home's guest cottage she is still living. The scene is a subtle joy because of Kristen Wiig playing Jill, a female executive who clearly hates the decision and tries to undermine Alison throughout the meeting. One glorious day, she is summoned to see head producer Jack (Alan Tudyk) and told that the suits like her showreel and want to try her in front of the camera. ![]() Meanwhile, in another part of the universe, or perhaps another universe entirely, Katherine Heigl plays Alison (blond, beautiful, focused), who is a TV production assistant and aspiring presenter on the E! channel, which is devoted to interviewing celebrities.
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