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Watch: “Underwritten Female Character: The Movie” Skewers Manic Pixie Dream Girls

We’re all familiar with the underwritten female character tropes that appear in a multitude of movies these days. And now YouTube sketch group Nuclear Family has gathered them all up in one hilarious fake trailer for a film called “Underwritten Female Character: The Movie” that skewers the trend.

After getting dumped by yet another sad, sensitive dude, Lola finds out she’s the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” in a movie from a group of secret agents called the UFC (Underwritten Female Characters).

As Nuclear Family describes, “It’s sassy comic relief meets eye candy, in a sketch that brings together the all-stars of insulting roles for women. These are the characters who either exist solely to prop up more important characters, deliver exposition, or fulfill diversity quotas — and now they’re working together like a band of superheroes. Manic Pixie Dream Girl, the free-spirited Zooey Deschanel-in-2008 type, is recruited into the fold by a bunch of other ambulatory stereotypes, and together they’re out to, well, exist. They’re not really up to much of anything here besides establishing a broad sketch of who they are, which is a 100% accurate portrayal of way too many women in movies.”

Lola joins up with “sassy black friend,” “eye candy” and “mama bear” to take down the trope and break free of her manic pixie ways.

“Underwritten Female Character: The Movie” was written by Bree Essrig and Dani Rosenberg, directed by George Nienhuis, and produced by Bree Essrig. Watch the disturbingly accurate sketch below.


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