| 1 | %% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=rbp2dd1s |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13350380440A15238800 |
| 4 | |
| 5 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1403067719017160500 |
| 6 | %% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
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| 8 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/womendriversshrunkbyseptimusheap_2752.png]] |
| 9 | ->'''Vance:''' Most fathers teach their daughters to drive. I have ''you'' to blame for this?\ |
| 10 | '''Eli David:''' This she learned from her mother. |
| 11 | -->-- ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', "Enemies Foreign", about [[DrivesLikeCrazy Ziva]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | A ([[UndeadHorseTrope supposedly]]) [[DiscreditedTrope long-dead comedy trope/stereotype]] which maintained that a woman behind the wheel of a car ''automatically'' [[DrivesLikeCrazy became a danger to life and limb]]. Regardless of how intelligent and thoughtful a woman was, this trope insisted she would become a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} -- or worse, TheDitz -- the moment she slipped into the driver's seat: incapable of using turn signals, checking her gear shift position, or even looking where she's going. Even parking could become a major challenge. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Any problems -- or worse, accidents -- she caused would be dismissed with a breezy carefreeness that husbands and traffic cops inevitably found grating, women drivers as often as not blaming the car for operator errors. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Being a male driver on a road anywhere within a half mile of a woman driver was grounds for elevated blood pressure and/or anxiety attacks. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | If a male character had a traffic accident or fender-bender in a comedy made before 1970, a woman driver was most likely the cause. And if the mom of a pre-1970 DomCom got behind the wheel, it was all but guaranteed she'd come home with a crumpled fender and an improbable story that completely exonerated her by shifting the blame to another driver or perhaps a tree which lunged out into the street at her. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Still sometimes used in fiction, often set in the Asian parts of the world and UsefulNotes/{{California}} or [[HollywoodNewEngland Massachusetts]]; the common joke here is that every time you see a car do something incredibly stupid (as opposed to incredibly dangerous or obnoxious), chances are the driver is a woman. With a high probability of them [[AsianDrivers being Asian]].[[note]]Unless Massachusetts is used.[[/note]] It's also very popular in the comments sections of car accident videos on sites like Website/YouTube. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Statistically speaking, women report more accidents to the police/insurance companies than men do. However, the accidents men report are far more serious -- women are more likely to claim for scratching a car on the parking lot, but men are more likely to drive past a red light and into a car at 100 kmph. In locales where insurance companies are allowed to give different premiums for men and women, women's premiums will be ''less'' than men's, as the overall cost to the insurance company of covering women is actually lower than the equivalent men. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | From the late 1940s to roughly the mid 1960s, women did tend to be poorer drivers than men of the same age simply because they usually learned later in life, from poorer instructors (their husbands, rather than professionals), and until the two-car family became commonplace, had less opportunity to practice, as men made more use of the car. Also, before power steering became standard, driving needed a fair amount of upper-body strength, especially large vehicles. Even during that period, though, this trope was at best a considerable exaggeration of the actuality. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | The trope has been somewhat replaced by DrivesLikeCrazy, in which the driving is the joke, rather than the womanhood. See DirectionlessDriver for another gender-based driving stereotype. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Due to the way this trope uses gender stereotypes, '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' |
| 30 | |
| 31 | ---- |
| 32 | !!Examples: |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 37 | * Glaringly present in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td6m3OhO5zE&eurl=http://www.cracked.com/article_17036_8-tv-ads-that-hate-women.html# this 1970s Goodyear commercial.]] |
| 38 | * Allstate has recently taken to [[http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/08/16/depicting-teens-cell-phones-suvs-and-mayhem playing this trope]] in their commercials with "Mr. Mayhem" pretending to be a teenage girl (whose SUV, of course, [[PrincessesPreferPink is pink]]) who gets distracted while texting (in one version just from a normal text, in the other by becoming "emotionally compromised" by a text about a boy she likes) and slamming into another car without noticing. Mr. Mayhem seems to quickly be becoming TheScrappy, and with good reason! |
| 39 | ** One of Allstate's commercial defies this trope. It features a woman rubbing the fact that she got a safe-driving bonus check from Allstate in the face of her male companion after he tries to claim that men are better drivers (with the implication that he isn't a good enough driver to receive one). |
| 40 | * Inadvertently invoked in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrKaQRIXPNw this commercial]] for a women only car insurance company. Three women singing about how women are safer drivers and deserve lower premiums, while [[DrivingADesk "driving"]] a pink convertible is made all the more hilarious by the fact that they don't watch the road, hold the steering wheel (instead, waving their arms in the air in time to the song), notice that for much of the commercial the car is in ''reverse'' (watch the scenery going by), and at one point even allow [[TooDumbToLive a kangaroo to drive]]. |
| 41 | * A surprisingly early aversion is present in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ODExo7vESU Spinning Levers,]] a 1936 Chevrolet advert for synchromesh transmissions. In it, a driver operates a car equipped with the new transmission while the narrator explains how the transmission works. The driver--whose driving is even more ordinary than what's seen in most of today's car advertisments--is eventually revealed to be a woman. Not once does the ad draw attention to her gender, not even a comment along the lines of "it's so simple a woman can drive it!" |
| 42 | [[/folder]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 45 | * In contrast to all the competent women drivers in ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'', we have TeamMom, Shamal, who is revealed in the Wolkenritter-centric ''[[AudioAdaptation Sound Stage M4]]'' to be a bad driver. To wit: |
| 46 | -->'''Vita:''' I think I just heard a car? I wonder if it's Hayate? \ |
| 47 | '''Signum:''' No, given the sound of difficulty the person has with parking the car in the garage... \ |
| 48 | '''Shamal:''' Hi! \ |
| 49 | '''Vita:''' Oh~.... |
| 50 | ** Note that she's also a LethalChef, so the joke isn't really on her driving but on her inability in everyday tasks. |
| 51 | * In ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku,'' Kyoko has a license but hasn't been behind the wheel in years. As Shun puts it when asked to ride shotgun, 'Nothing would make me happier than to die at your hands.' She would have had very professional instruction, but has no seat time without an instructor (in Japanese slang a "paper driver"). Interestingly, her Niece says that she "Drove like a man, and passed lots of cars." |
| 52 | * ''Manga/FamilyCompo'': Yukari is a {{housewife}} who has a driver's license but hasn't actually been behind the wheel in fifteen years. On the one occasion when she does take the car out, she winds up driving against traffic and ''jumping a barrier'' to get onto the right side of the road. |
| 53 | * Subverted in ''Manga/WanganMidnight'', when Yamamoto gives a highly tuned Skyline GT-R demo car with over 600bhp to resident lady Reina Akikawa to drive, his fellow tuner Gaa-chan starts to doubt her ability and Yamamoto's judgement. Reina then proceeds to show complete mastery of the car, no surprise since she has a highly tuned GT-R of her own. [[StrawmanHasAPoint In Gaa-chan's defence]], that's a powerful enough car that ''anyone'' who was used to a regular sedan or compact car instead of a tuner could come to mischief in it very easily, regardless of gender. |
| 54 | * Highly averted in ''Over Rev!'', a manga similar to ''Manga/InitialD'' (street racing specializing in drifting), but with {{Action Girl}}s. |
| 55 | ** ''Manga/InitialD'' itself double subverted this trope. The women drivers ([[AmazonBrigade Impact Blue team]] and [[FauxActionGirl Kyouko Iwase]]) are [[ActionGirl reasonably good]] (much better than [[ButtMonkey Itsuki and the Akina Speed Stars]] at least), but they are middling-to-low leveled compared to the big guns like Takumi or Keisuke, much less to [[CoolOldGuy the old guys]]. |
| 56 | *** This trope was inverted once in ''[[ADayInTheLimelight Extra Stage]]'' where Team Emperor calls one of their henchmen to challenge Impact Blue team. The Emperor henchman's Evo was crashed halfway when racing against Impact Blue's Sileighty, which succeed the battle. |
| 57 | * Averted in ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'', all the best drivers/riders in the series (Chihiro, Megumi and Belldandy) are women. Even the American off road racing champion that Aoshima hired in one episode was a woman. The only notable male driver is Keiichi. |
| 58 | * Subverted in ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'' - while Yukari Tanizaki is the most ''[[DrivesLikeCrazy dangerous]]'' driver on the face of the Earth, no other women shown driving are depicted this way. |
| 59 | * For the most part, this is averted in ''Anime/SoundOfTheSky'', in which most of the female characters that do drive are competent at it, save for one instance in one of the bonus episodes for DVD, in which Kanata nearly crashes into a pillar and ends up driving down a flight of stairs with Yumina panicking beside her. She does know how to drive correctly, in theory; but she's [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny incapable of focusing]]. |
| 60 | * Averted in ''Anime/RoninWarriors'', Mia is actually very capable of driving (And is shown driving the team throughout the series and in the second OVA). |
| 61 | * Subverted in ''Manga/YoureUnderArrest'', Natsumi's the only female shown to exhibit this "ability". |
| 62 | * Another Aversion - Anthy in the [[GainaxEnding Rather]] screwed up ending of ''[[Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena The Adolescence of Utena]]''. |
| 63 | * ''Manga/GunsmithCats'' is an aversion: the female protagonist, Rally Vincent, is an expert driver who loves powerful muscle cars like her beloved Shelby Cobra. Sure, she wrecks cars like no one's business, but that's because of the insane antics she gets into. rather than her driving ability. The other exception is Riff Raff, who was on the receiving end of Bean Bandit's above diss on her driving. After slugging him in the face (where he commends her for throwing a punch that hurt more than a stun-gun), she promptly proves she's just as good as Rally. |
| 64 | * ''{{Manga/Saki}}'' is much like Azumanga Daioh in that Satomi Kanbara may be a girl who DrivesLikeCrazy, but she's the only one shown doing so. |
| 65 | * Referenced but averted in ''Anime/AppareRanman''. Set some time in the late 19th or early 20th century, Chinese immigrant Jing Xialian works at a racetrack where she's constantly told that driving automobiles is something beyond a woman's capabilities, and that her simply getting behind the wheel would be a novelty circus act at best. Despite this, she practices driving on her off hours and is at least as good as any of the male racers she works with, since she ends up participating in a highly competitive race across America and places second just behind the main character himself. Allowing her to be a full-time racer for the team. |
| 66 | [[/folder]] |
| 67 | |
| 68 | [[folder:Comedy]] |
| 69 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3JvGyj8pI8 Bob Newhart's routine "The Driving Instructor"]] features a woman driver who is treated this way. |
| 70 | * An Israeli stand-up comedian once pointed out that the main reason women drive worse is actually because men undermine their confidence, and begins to describe in detail how she can try and park normally, but will suddenly panic when a man gives her "that condescending 'heh, woman driver' look" and make her panic and bumble her way through the attempt to park, scratching her car and anything around it on the way. |
| 71 | * Deconstructed in the UsefulNotes/NewZealand comedy show ''Funny Girls'' [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3822534/New-Zealand-comedians-Funny-Girls-sketch-uses-fake-Holden-car-advert-mock-sexism.html in this spoof truck advert.]] |
| 72 | * Bennett Cerf quotes a friend in his book, "Laugh Day." |
| 73 | -->'''Mike Frith:''' What I hate most about women drivers is how they turn out to be men after you've criticized their driving to your girlfriend. |
| 74 | [[/folder]] |
| 75 | |
| 76 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 77 | * Seccotine in the ''ComicBook/SpirouAndFantasio'' album ''Le nid des Marsupilamis''. |
| 78 | * A frequent, frequent, frequent punchline to ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' circa 1960. Arch was always afraid of lending [[TheAllegedCar Ol' Betsy]] out to Betty, for fear that she'd "drive like a woman" and somehow destroy it (more). Particularly funny considering Betty [[CharacterizationMarchesOn eventually evolved]] into a WrenchWench and one of the only people who could successfully get Betsy running. |
| 79 | ** {{Invoked}} and parodied in one where Betty realizes Betsy's fender is crumpled, and is certain Archie will blame her. Veronica helps her get it fixed. [[spoiler:Turns out, ''Archie'' did the damage.]] |
| 80 | * ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'': |
| 81 | ** Exploited by Mortadelo. One trick he has pulled once or twice to shake off pursuers in a car chase consists in disguising as a woman, then [[BatmanGambit using blinkers properly]]. |
| 82 | ** "¡El carnet al punto!" shows that Ofelia is a terrible driver, going so far off the road that she ends up driving ''on the city roofs''. |
| 83 | [[/folder]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 86 | * ''ComicStrip/TheLockhorns'' still uses this. The real question is: are they newly drawn panels or simply endlessly recycled material from TheFifties? |
| 87 | [[/folder]] |
| 88 | |
| 89 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 90 | * In ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'', when the gang crashes on [[spoiler:fake]] Namek in episode 12, it results in this exchange: |
| 91 | -->'''Krillin:''' This is why women shouldn't drive!\ |
| 92 | '''Bulma:''' That's rich coming from the [[AsianDrivers Asian!]]\ |
| 93 | '''Gohan:''' Well, I'm [[HalfHumanHybrid half-Saiyan]], so what does that make me?\ |
| 94 | '''Krillin & Bulma:''' FIVE! |
| 95 | [[/folder]] |
| 96 | |
| 97 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 98 | * Near the end of ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', Cruella tries to run a truck off the road because the puppies she wants to use for a fur coat are escaping in it. The truck's driver, unaware of any of this, yells at her for her to get off the road, before turning and muttering, "Crazy women drivers!" |
| 99 | [[/folder]] |
| 100 | |
| 101 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 102 | * Played with in ''Film/AdamsRib'': Amanda is driving down a busy street and arguing heatedly with her husband about the DoubleStandard, and suddenly pulls over in front of a cabbie who grumbles about "lady drivers." |
| 103 | * In ''Film/ChildsPlay2'', Kyle drives so fast to force Chucky out. Then she tries to ram him, and Chucky grabs hold of the bumper shouting "Damn women drivers!". |
| 104 | * ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang'': Truly Scrumptious has trouble starting her car, and Caractacus Potts takes notice. |
| 105 | -->'''Potts:''' If women want to drive motor cars, they should learn to operate one. |
| 106 | * Viciously subverted in all of the ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' movies; some of the most badass (badassest?) drivers are women, and the men tend to respect them for that. |
| 107 | * The 2000 remake of ''[[Film/GoneInSixtySeconds2000 "Gone In Sixty Seconds"]]'' remake (with Nicholas Cage) makes a two-scene joke of an Asian Woman Driver that was not only horrifyingly bad at driving, but had some pretty destructive misconceptions about traffic laws... |
| 108 | -->'''Asian Driver Woman:''' ''[[[FunnyBackgroundEvent after failing a test at the DMV]]]'' It's not fair!! I thought that you were supposed to ''go faster'' if someone was following you! |
| 109 | * Definitely averted (or subverted?) in 1914 silent ''Film/MabelAtTheWheel'', starring Creator/MabelNormand, who stands in for her boyfriend in a car race after he gets kidnapped by the villain (unusually played by Creator/CharlieChaplin)- and, despite his attempts to thwart her at every turn, wins. |
| 110 | * ''Film/OnTheBuses'': Everyone at the depot barring Blakey believes in this trope, which is defied as the female bus drivers are better at their jobs than the men and only lose their positions due to Stan and Jack's sabotage. |
| 111 | * In the campy BMovie ''Film/QueenOfOuterSpace'', our straight-jawed heroes express disbelief that a [[LadyLand planet of gorgeous dames]] could invent the DeathRay they saw destroying a SpaceStation. TheCasanova asks how they could even aim it properly. "You know what women drivers are like!" Even his fellow astronauts look exasperated at that line. |
| 112 | * A variation with a moped rather than a car in ''Film/SmallSoldiers''. Christy drives herself and Alan (and Archer in his backpack) away with the Commandos chasing after them. After they've been dispatched, Alan and Archer invoke the trope. |
| 113 | -->'''Alan:''' Maybe I should drive us back.\ |
| 114 | '''Archer:''' Good idea.\ |
| 115 | '''Christy:''' Hey! |
| 116 | * ''Film/{{Speed}}'' plays with this with Annie, the woman who has to drive the bus against all odds when the driver is shot, had her drivers' license suspended for speeding. As it happens, she does great under the circumstances, no matter how [[DrivesLikeCrazy crazy she has to drive]] to stay alive. [[Film/Speed2CruiseControl The follow-up film]] has her dipping fully into this trope, with her [[WalkingDisasterArea utterly]] [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny disastrous]] attempts at passing her driver's test providing the film's BookEnds. |
| 117 | * ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'': Major Anya Amasova is [[ActionGirl skilled at many things]], but DrivingStick is not one of them. For that scene, Creator/BarbaraBach was [[EnforcedMethodActing genuinely struggling with the transmission]], while all of Creator/RogerMoore's snarky commentary was unscripted. |
| 118 | * Benny the Cab from ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' calls everyone he passes "lady", even though he is the one who DrivesLikeCrazy. Jessica Rabbit, however, drives relatively competently for a toon. |
| 119 | [[/folder]] |
| 120 | |
| 121 | [[folder:Jokes]] |
| 122 | * A joke involves a man coming to work and tell his coworker that he was driving to work and saw a woman on the highway putting on makeup and drying her hair at the same time. He was so shocked, he [[SubvertedTrope dropped his razor]] [[HypocriticalHumor into his coffee cup]]. |
| 123 | * Another joke that uses DiscriminateAndSwitch: |
| 124 | -->'''A:''' Why can't Helen Keller drive?\ |
| 125 | '''B:''' Because she's blind?\ |
| 126 | '''A:''' No, because she's a woman.[[note]]Or sometimes "because she's dead."[[/note]] |
| 127 | * A dialogue between two men: |
| 128 | -->'''Q:''' What are you afraid of on the road?\ |
| 129 | '''A:''' Bikers.\ |
| 130 | '''Q:''' What else?\ |
| 131 | '''A:''' Soldiers.\ |
| 132 | '''Q:''' Anything else?\ |
| 133 | '''A:''' Drunkards.\ |
| 134 | '''Q:''' What about women?\ |
| 135 | '''A:''' Oooh! A woman driving is [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot a drunk soldier on a bike]]! |
| 136 | * A common insult is to state that someone "drives like an old woman". Despite the fact that many elderly drivers have problems, no one ever seems to say, "you drive like an old ''man''" or "like an old person" in general. |
| 137 | [[/folder]] |
| 138 | |
| 139 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 140 | * In ''Literature/AConfederacyOfDunces'', the plot begins because Ignatius' mother crashes into a historic French Quarter balcony, forcing him to get a series of jobs to pay for the damage. [[{{Jerkass}} He repeatedly complains to her about this]], which is made doubly annoying to her as she only hit it because he wouldn't shut up. |
| 141 | * In ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'', both female leads are awful drivers though they both tends more to the DrivesLikeCrazy. [[spoiler:Daisy Buchanan eventually kills someone who runs out into the middle of the road]], and Jordan Baker admits to being a reckless driver and doesn't care at all about other drivers. Her irresponsible driving is used as another example of her extreme selfishness. It should be noted that Tom Buchanan is no careful driver either, and the only character who claims to be concerned with road safety is [[TheNarrator Nick Carraway]]. TheRoaringTwenties, huh? |
| 142 | * Bella from ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' is this played straight. Though given Bella has had accidents ''walking through a door'', it would be jarring if she ''wasn't'' a bad driver. |
| 143 | * Creator/EphraimKishon's wife in his satirical stories. |
| 144 | * Lori's poor driving is something of a running joke in the ''Literature/AuntDimity'' series. She frankly admits to it, noting that the retired mechanic Mr. Barlow had "come to depend on the income he earned banging out the dents and retouching the scratches I tended to accumulate whenever I drove in England." The Range Rover Bill gives her and its replacement (after an accident due to a washed out road) are both canary yellow, with the colour choice said to be intended as a warning to other drivers. |
| 145 | * Becomes an InvokedTrope in an Ian Fleming [[Literature/ForYourEyesOnly short story]], when a female agent in Paris tells Literature/JamesBond that she drives a battered car so other drivers will stay well clear and she can get to work faster. |
| 146 | * In the ''Literature/CormoranStrikeNovels'', Strike is biased against them due to several past bad experiences and knows it. He reluctantly allows his partner Robin to drive him in ''The Cuckoo's Calling'' and is surprised but pleased to have his biases challenged when Robin turns to be a hypercompetent driver who has taken advanced driving courses. |
| 147 | * Averted in ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' where women are DropShip pilots because they have quicker reactions and can tolerate more G-force. |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 151 | * This trope was such a staple of old sitcoms that on at least one occasion, [[Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} Nick at Nite]] devoted an entire marathon to episodes featuring bad women drivers. |
| 152 | * ''Series/TheBradyBunch'': Part of the plot driver in Season 5's "The Driver's Seat" ... eldest son Greg needles his sister, Marcia (who is trying to get her driver's license) over her driving abilities. At one point, her nervousness gets to her and she is unable to take her driver's exam. She later re-takes the test and passes, but Greg still wants to see how his abilities compare to Marcia's. In the end, his theory that women drivers are naturally bad are debunked ... realizing in the end that the Brady household has two careful, responsible teenaged drivers. |
| 153 | * ZigZagged ''and'' {{justified|Trope}} with ''Series/BritainsWorstDriver'' and its international spinoffs: played straight in that the women are truly terrible, subverted in that the ''male'' contestants are no better, subverted the ''other'' way that judges are often women drivers who are anything from just fine to ''bona fide'' {{Badass Driver}}s, DoubleSubverted whenever the winner happens to be a woman, and justified in that the shows are literal TruthInTelevision. |
| 154 | * ''Series/CanadasWorstDriver'': The Canadian version has gone through ten seasons now. So far the 'worsts' are five men and six women (yes, that's eleven winners; Season Eight ended in a tie). Mind the season five "winner" was pretty much the DumbBlonde brought to life, and the Season 6 runner-up was [[TheDitz just as clueless.]] |
| 155 | * An old ''Series/CandidCamera'' prank invokes this trope by placing a car in a garage door in such a way that the frame of the door is only an inch away from the bumper. Then they had an attractive woman call a mechanic (or some other professional) to help her out before "Her husband comes back and see what she did to the car". |
| 156 | * ''Series/TheDickVanDykeShow'': In "[[Recap/TheDickVanDykeShowS3E26ScratchMyCarAndDie Scratch My Car and Die]]", Rob is enamored with his new car and feels unhappy when Laura has to borrow it because the other car is in the shop. While Laura is in a store for less than five minutes, somebody scratches it. The stereotype about women being lousy drivers comes up multiple times from both sides. |
| 157 | ** Sally brings up the stereotype that women are lousy drivers, but she blames it on men designers continually changing where vital things are to bewilder women. |
| 158 | ** Millie insists that Laura shouldn't tell Rob about the scratch because if she does, he'll use it as evidence that women are lousy drivers and Laura will be responsible for shaming their whole sex. |
| 159 | ** After reassuring Laura that the scratch incident could have happened to anyone, Rob mentions that all drivers have problems, even male ones. He then proceeds to reel off a series of incidents he caused that evening that are much worse than anything that happened to the car under Laura's care. |
| 160 | * For all the [[{{Pun}} stick]] they give to some people, and despite their TestosteronePoisoning personae, the hosts of ''Series/{{Top Gear|UK}}'' never have a bad word to say about women drivers. In fact, they even had racing driver Sabine Schmitz coaching Jeremy Clarkson (in a Jaguar) round the Nürburgring, and then trouncing his lap time. Then in a later episode nearly beating his time in a ''Ford Transit van''. Having guest stars like Jennifer Saunders, Billie Piper, Jodie Kidd, and yachtswomen Ellen [=McArthur=] (who set the fastest lap in the old car) drive the Reasonably-Priced Car round the track quite rapidly also subverts this one rather nicely. |
| 161 | ** "Look at me, I'm a man in my Porsche... and then suddenly they're overtaken by a ''Van'' driven by ''a girl''!" is how Richard Hammond described Sabine Schmitz's driving of the Ford Transit van around the Nürburgring. |
| 162 | ** In one of the episodes after Jodie Kidd's appearance a photo of rock star Jay Kay's Ferrari Enzo was shown after someone wrote "Jodie was faster" on the hood. |
| 163 | ** Cameron Diaz was also the fastest driver in the Cee'd, for all of ninety seconds... until Creator/TomCruise absolutely ''demolished'' her time. It was also revealed before her lap that she was also a rather good stunt driver, with footage of her doing doughnuts with a car while Jezza was her passenger. |
| 164 | ** They've also been pretty critical of when the automotive world panders to or exploits women. On one occasion, Clarkson complained about a poll that asked not who was the best or fastest female driver in the world, but rather the ''sexiest''. Slightly worryingly, James May came in tenth in said poll... |
| 165 | * ''Series/{{Top Gear|UK}}'''s rival shot ''Series/FifthGear'' has Vicki Butler-Henderson (who also used to be a presenter on the old version of ''Top Gear'') happily averting this trope. |
| 166 | * Mrs. Webb, the student in Creator/BobNewhart's classic "Driving Instructor" routine. |
| 167 | * Toshiko once accused the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' team of not letting her drive because she is a woman, but it turns out that they barred her from the wheels because she is a lot shorter then the rest of the team, and they don't like to keep on readjusting the driver's seat and mirrors. |
| 168 | -->'''Owen:''' Look, I've shared cars with women before and I know what'll happen. There'll be an emergency, we are all roaring to go, I jump in, what do I find? Seat's in the wrong position, the rear-view mirror's out of line, and the steering wheel's in my crotch. In the time it takes to sort it all out aliens will have taken Newport. |
| 169 | * Fiona in ''Series/BurnNotice'' has invoked this trope to create a distraction. Michael's monologue mentions taking advantage of other people's preconceptions in order to [[ObfuscatingStupidity Obfuscate with Stupidity]]. |
| 170 | * Always a goldmine of outmoded gender stereotypes, ''Series/HomeImprovement'' featured an episode in which Jill damaged a car by continuing to drive with the oil light on. When Tim confronted her about this, she claimed that she thought "it would blink, or a buzzer would go off" if it was serious. In another episode, she touches up a car's paint job with red nail polish. |
| 171 | * ''Series/MadMen'' is set in the 1960s and sometimes alludes to and defies this trope. One episode featured the junior admen listening to Bob Newhart's Driving Instructor bit about teaching a woman how to drive, Betty onetime comments that Don hates her driving but she learned from her father, plenty of the housewives drive cars (with Betty possessing a CoolCar in the form of a lemon yellow station wagon and later inheriting her Father's black Lincoln), Peggy is entrusted by Don to drive himself and his mistress out of a police station, Joan has a driver's license, and finally we see Lois (the office ditz) drive a John Deere tractor over a guy's foot with no "woman driver" comment (likely because everyone there works and/or lives in Manhattan where driving or owning a car is unnecessary). |
| 172 | * ''Series/ModernFamily''. Gloria gets into several car accidents in one episode and Haley has failed her driving test several times and runs over her father at one point. There's also a pediatrician who sucks but the joke is more based on her being Asian, not a woman. |
| 173 | * Trina from ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' although this could be because she's so [[ItsAllAboutMe egotistical]] that she thinks she's above the rules of the road. |
| 174 | -->'''Cat:''' Trina, maybe you should pull over if you're going to put on lip gloss.\ |
| 175 | '''Trina:''' Maybe you should talk less.\ |
| 176 | '''Cat:''' That's what my dad always says! |
| 177 | ** And then after a driver honks at her... |
| 178 | --->'''Trina:''' ''[honks horn]'' YEAH, I GOT A HORN, TOO, BUDDY! ''[honks horn again]'' |
| 179 | * [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Deanna Troi]] developed this reputation. First, she is at the helm when the ''Enterprise'' crashes on Veridian III in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations.'' Later, she takes the helm just in time for Picard to order her to [[RammingAlwaysWorks crash the ship into the bad guy]] in ''Film/StarTrekNemesis.'' |
| 180 | ** Parts of the novel ''Imzadi'' are set shortly after ''Generations.'' In it, Troi gets very tired of being teased with the phrase, "Nice landing." |
| 181 | *** On the other hand, according to the ''[[AllThereInTheManual Tech Manual]],'' deorbiting a ''Galaxy''-class saucer section had never been tried before, and it was generally regarded as ''extremely risky.'' "Minimal casualties" indicates some ''exceptional'' flying. |
| 182 | *** For perspective, in the real world, ditching is considering one of the most difficult and hazardous maneuvers you can pull off, because it involves controlled flight into terrain as slowly as possible, with an already-damaged aircraft. Ditching anything with only a handful of casualties is the mark of an exceptional pilot, to the point that ditching an Airbus A319 (a tiny fraction the size of the ''Enterprise's'' saucer) in the Hudson River without killing anybody was considered a "miracle." |
| 183 | ** In the ''Gateways'' series of novels, Troi is given command of a small scout vessel as part of a hastily-assembled fleet. Commander Riker gives her what he believes to be an "appropriate" gift upon taking command: a crash helmet. |
| 184 | ** Though maybe it's a Betazoid thing - the pilot flying ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'' in the first episode was a Betazoid, and we all know how well that turned out... |
| 185 | ** ''Recap/StarTrekPicardS3E10TheLastGeneration'' gives Troi one last shot at the driver seat, where she finally manages to avoid running into anything. |
| 186 | * ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. Sure enough Q makes the ObligatoryJoke on encountering his first female starship captain, who happens to be 75,000 light years off course. |
| 187 | * ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' mined this for humor more than once - Lady Penelope in particular was a frightening driver in Vault of Death, leaving Parker (her usual chauffeur) and the governor of the Bank of London terrified in the back seats. Thankfully the series rectified this with a later episode briefly showing her handling herself in a car chase. |
| 188 | ** The plot of the episode "City of Fire" began when a careless female motorist crashes her car in a parking garage and sets the entirety of the world's tallest building on fire. After the disaster is resolved Tin-Tin is embarrassed to admit the investigation blamed a woman driver, and the epilogue shows her alive, well, and once more driving like a maniac behind the wheel of another car. |
| 189 | * ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' is given a job driving a rich witch's Porsche. Naturally he comes home grateful he's still alive. Although justified since Sabrina is seventeen and doesn't own a car of her own yet. |
| 190 | ** One season earlier, Sabrina and Valerie both buy a car together. In about a week the car is a complete wreck and Sabrina resorts to buying a magical car that drives itself. |
| 191 | * ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', while sporking the 1950s driving safety film ''Film/LastClearChance'': |
| 192 | -->'''Narrator:''' Another problem on our modern highways...\ |
| 193 | '''Mike Nelson:''' Women drivers!\ |
| 194 | ''[Tom and Crow have "Oh no he didn't!" reactions]'' |
| 195 | * ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn'' had a joke about a feminist drive-a-thon being canceled, after all the participants got into their cars and promptly backed in to each other. |
| 196 | * In ''[[Series/TheOfficeUS The Office (US version)]]'' episode "Diversity Day", everyone is supposed to treat the others as the race named on a card stuck to their forehead. Dwight demands that Pam treat him as his new ethnicity (Asian), so he could figure out what it was. |
| 197 | -->'''Pam:''' Okay, if I have to do this, based on stereotypes that are totally untrue and that I do not agree with, you would maybe... [[AsianDrivers not be a very good driver.]]\ |
| 198 | '''Dwight:''' Aw, man! Am I a woman? |
| 199 | * Lisa Douglas of ''Series/GreenAcres'' plays this trope straight in an episode where she's forced to go to high school, though her lack of driving skills comes less from the fact that she's a woman then the fact that she's... well, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Lisa.]] |
| 200 | ** Fortunately, the car has an automatic transmission (or, as Lisa calls it, a PRNDLL). Unfortunately, she thinks the R stands for "Right ahead" and the D stands for "Don't go forward". |
| 201 | * Similar to the ''Series/GreenAcres'' example, in ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'', Darrin tries to teach Samantha to drive and loses his patience when Samantha can't comprehend the letters. Why should she shift in to D when she wants to move forward? Shouldn't it be F for Forward? |
| 202 | ** Darrin had already invoked the trope at the start of the lesson. Teasing Samantha, as soon as they were seated he told her the "important" first step, without which no woman can operate a vehicle: smoothing her hair. He then went on to tell her that in more advanced lessons, they'd cover drying her fingernails while steering with her knees. Samantha didn't much appreciate the humor. |
| 203 | * ''Series/{{Tosh 0}}'' devoted an entire segment to women drivers, specifically ParallelParking. Two women managed to bump into the neighboring vehicles, one even asking in a bubbleheaded fashion, "Did I hit something?" One teenager who only had her learner's permit, though, completed the test successfully. |
| 204 | * Shows up in ''Series/DoctorWho'', of all places. In "[[Recap/DoctorWho2011CSTheDoctorTheWidowAndTheWardrobe The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe]]", the 2011 Christmas special, the Doctor lands in 1938, wearing a space suit backwards, and is found by Madge Arwell. When Madge tries to drive the Doctor to the TARDIS, he comments that "We seem to bump into quite a lot of things" when she crashes to a stop. Her excuse: "Well, a lot of things get in the way, it's hardly my fault." |
| 205 | ** It also shows up in a short where it is discussed that Amy once crashed Rory's car into "an unexpected house" and only managed to get her driver's license by blinding the instructor with her attractiveness in a miniskirt. |
| 206 | ** Within days (or quite possibly hours) of the casting announcement of Creator/JodieWhittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, there were already jokes online regarding how long it would take her to crash the TARDIS. These were often followed by other fans kindly pointing out all of the times the ''male'' Doctors have (nearly) crashed the TARDIS. |
| 207 | ---->'''Martha:''' Blimey, do you need to take a test to fly this thing?\ |
| 208 | '''The Tenth Doctor:''' Yes, and I failed. |
| 209 | ** In the cliffhanger ending to "Twice Upon A Time", the newly regenerated Thirteen presses a single button, causes an immediate error message and StuffBlowingUp and finds herself ThrownOutTheAirlock, watching a fire-wreathed TARDIS dematerializing before her horrified eyes as she's falling to her death. In fairness, this is entirely in keeping with what her predecessors did post-regeneration; Ten had the TARDIS bouncing around a council estate like a pinball, Eleven started out in a TARDIS that was on fire and crashing, and nearly pitched himself out mid-air over London, and Twelve got the TARDIS swallowed by a dinosaur! For the rest of her run, Thirteen was no better or worse than her previous selves, and in her final episode she was notably the first Doctor in a long time to have the sense to ''park'' the TARDIS before regnerating, and to do it ''outside''. |
| 210 | ** Subverted in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]'', where it turns out that new Companion Romana (who had both gotten better grades than the Doctor at the Academy and had taken the time to ReadTheFreakingManual), was actually a ''better'' pilot than Four, quite probably ''because'' she had taken the time to ReadTheFreakingManual. |
| 211 | * Taken to an extreme with Lori Grimes in ''Series/TheWalkingDead'', who somehow manages to flip her car despite likely being '''''the only person driving on the entire planet''''' at that moment. |
| 212 | * Addressed by the Series/MythBusters in a 2012 episode. They determined there was some difference between gender and driving competency--on a police driving course, on a scale from 0 to 100, the ten men scored a 79 on average, while ten women scored an average of 71. (The test was done "blind"; the sex of the person driving was hidden from the examiner to eliminate bias.) There was, however, significant overlap (some good female drivers, some poor male drivers), so there is less of a difference than the trope would suggest. What's more, the way points were lost were surprisingly similar -- both men and women were almost as likely as each other to exceed the speed limit, for example (in fact, the test showed ''women'' more likely to do so). |
| 213 | ** In parallel parking, there ''was'' a significant difference once you dug into the numbers; ''most'' women parked perfectly but a few panickers dragged down the average while ''no'' men panicked but all had a looser standard of "good enough" than the women. |
| 214 | ** Tory will often make cracks about Kari being involved in a driving test (unfairly, judging by what we've seen). |
| 215 | ** Kari was the only one who had trouble driving in snow while going forward, but that had mitigating factors--Kari had no experience driving in snow and was driving a front-wheel-drive car, while Grant had the four-wheel drive vehicle, and Tory had had experience in "drifting" cars through turns which helped him here. |
| 216 | * ''Series/ILoveLucy'': The first time Lucy Ricardo gets behind the wheel of a car, she tries to make a U-turn in ''the Holland Tunnel''. |
| 217 | -->'''Ethel:''' Boy, [[NoodleIncident that must have been something]].\ |
| 218 | '''Lucy:''' Yeah... the police said the cars were backed up all the way to East Orange, New Jersey. |
| 219 | * In a ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' episode, Barney talks trash about "lady drivers" so as to hide the fact that [[spoiler:he can't drive]]. |
| 220 | * [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy Summers]] is notorious for being unable to drive. What is the one phrase from the series that is repeated several hundred years in the future? |
| 221 | -->'''Fray:''' Wow, Summers! You drive like a spazz! |
| 222 | * Betty from ''Series/HeyDad'' is a spectacularly awful driver, as part of her general characterization as TheDitz. |
| 223 | * A ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' ''Weekend Update'' joke regarding a RealLife incident in which a man was charged with child endangerment after not only taking his 8 year old daughter to a bar, but making HER drive home because he was too drunk to do it himself. Needless to say, the poor child very rapidly got into an accident (no one was hurt, fortunately). Then-anchor Norm [=MacDonald=] promptly cracked, "This just proves what I've been saying for years. Women can't drive!" |
| 224 | * In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHgqx8dsHgw this]] skit from the Israeli skit show ''Domino Gross'', a student gets a driving lesson from his teacher’s wife, who is filling in for him. She teaches him the ‘women’s method’ of driving, instructing him to drive in a constant state of insecurity, very slowly, change lanes frequently, and basically any checkbox one could imagine in the ‘bad driver’ checklist, telling him that next time they’ll go over ‘accidents and how to tell your husband’. |
| 225 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1GTa9Gp778 Another Israeli skit show example]]: a woman tries to back up into the road out of her driveway, goes too far, and blocks another car. The other driver angrily asks, ‘Who taught you how to drive, you dumb bitch?!’ She answers, ‘You!’ The camera pans out and shows he’s driving a driver’s ed car. |
| 226 | * In the sci-fi sitcom ''Series/ComeBackMrsNoah'', one of the BridgeBunnies pilots the rescue rocket sent to retrieve the title character, only to miss their launch window because she [[RuleOfFunny floods the engine]]. |
| 227 | * In the first episode of ''Series/AlteredCarbon'', Takeshi Kovacs is taken by a female chauffeur in a FlyingCar to the estate of Laurens Bancroft. When she crashes the limousine trying to land it, it's revealed she's actually [[CowboyCop Detective Kristin Ortega]], who had the driver arrested on a DUI charge so [[NotMyDriver she could take his place]] in an attempt to find out what Bancroft wants with Kovacs. JustifiedTrope as she's not familiar with flying that model of car, and it's implied Ortega crashed it deliberately as she has her own grudge against Bancroft. |
| 228 | * ''Series/AllMyChildren'''s Adam Chandler snaps at ex-wife [[note]] One of ''many''[[/note]] Natalie "You drive like an old woman!" when she insists on taking them somewhere. It gets less funny when they get into an accident that kills her and leaves him temporarily paralyzed. |
| 229 | * The "You drive like an old lady" criticism is used in an episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds,'' though interestingly enough, it's a middle-aged woman (talking on a hands-free cell phone, no less) criticizing a middle-aged man for driving slowly after she cut him off. |
| 230 | * Danish sketch show ''Finnsk Fjernsyn'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNNPzifp-0 one scene]] where a man makes a perfect parallel parking, walks into a gender-change clinic, comes out as a woman, and promptly drives into both adjacent cars. |
| 231 | [[/folder]] |
| 232 | |
| 233 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 234 | * Is featured in its full sexist glory in the aptly named ''Sheila's Wheels'' — a song by the English duo Music/AmateurTransplants, parodying an almost-equally sexist advertising campaign for a women-only insurance provider of the same name. |
| 235 | -->If you want to leave your car alive,\ |
| 236 | Never let the woman drive! |
| 237 | * Music/WeirdAlYankovic has a song on the ''Film/{{UHF}}'' soundtrack titled "She Drives Like Crazy" [[note]]a parody of "She Drives Me Crazy" by Fine Young Cannibals[[/note]] which is about (you guessed it) a woman who's a bad driver. But despite this he never says that she's a bad driver ''because'' she's a woman. |
| 238 | * Music/RayStevens has the song "The Day I Tried To Teach Charlene Mackenzie How to Drive". Charlene is pretty, but has the great misfortune to be "deaf as a post". Unable to clearly hear Ray's instructions, she steps on the gas, wreaks havoc over half the county, and puts him in the hospital. |
| 239 | * The last part of "Little Bo Peep Has Lost Her Jeep" by Music/SpikeJones is basically the titular Bo Peep trying to drive a jeep and crashing into a police officer. |
| 240 | * Chubby Checkers' "Toot" is about his girlfriend's motor scooter. |
| 241 | -->Be careful when you hear that little [toot sound]\ |
| 242 | Oh yeah\ |
| 243 | She don't know how to steer that little [toot sound]\ |
| 244 | And though I really love her little [toot sound]\ |
| 245 | Oooo oooo\ |
| 246 | I've gotta run for cover from her [toot sound] |
| 247 | [[/folder]] |
| 248 | |
| 249 | [[folder:Pro Wrestling]] |
| 250 | * Played with on a 2000 episode of ''Wrestling/WWESmackDown'', when Wrestling/TripleH pulled the Women Drivers card while trying to figure out who ran down [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin Stone Cold]]... [[BaitAndSwitch and then immediately called out]] Wrestling/KurtAngle. |
| 251 | [[/folder]] |
| 252 | |
| 253 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 254 | * The 40s-50s comedy series ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'' used this at least once when the titular character drove her own car (which was not that often since her vehicle was usually broken down and in the shop). She got rides to school from one of her students, Walter, who sometimes mentioned how many mistakes his mother made while driving. |
| 255 | * Alice in ''Radio/ThePhilHarrisAliceFayeShow'' is often a scatterbrained driver. She has to do "eenie meenie miney moe" to tell which pedal is the clutch and once drove in between two streetcars, ending up with a "tall, thin Chevrolet." |
| 256 | * Jeremy Hardy on ''Radio/TheNewsQuiz'' and ''Radio/JeremyHardySpeaksToTheNation'' sometimes takes on the persona of a patronising sexist twit, with the joke being intended to be at the expense of sexist twits (key sign: putting on a posh voice and referring to "the ''la''dies" or "women of the opposite gender"). Quite common in these routines are references to women putting on their makeup in the rear view mirror, or leaving the shopping on the car roof. |
| 257 | * ''Radio/TheShadow'' references this in the 1939 episode ''Ghosts Can Kill'', in which Lamont Cranston asks his companion Margo for a lift in her car. We don't hear many sound effects, but Lamont chides her for driving too fast and comments he wanted her to pull ''up to'' the sidewalk, not ''onto'' it. |
| 258 | [[/folder]] |
| 259 | |
| 260 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 261 | * Inverted with Youko in ''VisualNovel/CrossChannel'', she seems to be able to drive competently while the males make a wreck out of the parking lot. |
| 262 | * Yuka Suzuki of ''VideoGame/RacingLagoon'' is a lone female racer of BLR, and she's the worst driver comparing to other males. This is subverted for [[AmazonBrigade the Queen team]], though. |
| 263 | * Some pieces of Fan Art for ''Franchise/MassEffect'' depict Female Commander Shepard as this, such as [[http://cerviero.deviantart.com/art/ME2-Just-like-old-times-153854073 this piece.]] This is more a joke about how ''nobody'' can drive the Mako in a straight line. |
| 264 | ** Averted in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. The DLC "Lair of the Shadow Broker" features a short section where Shepard engages in a car chase with the antogonist. Apparently, going by the increasing panic of your companion in the passenger seat, Shepard is a terrifyingly reckless driver whether your character is male or female as the two voice actors receit the same lines throughout. |
| 265 | * ''VideoGame/RidgeRacer'' depicts [[HoodOrnamentHottie Reiko Nagase]] as a professional racer driving the [[CoolCar Assoluto Fatalita]]. |
| 266 | ** Rena Hayami, from ''[[GaidenGame R: Racing Evolution]]'', is an ambulance driver turned racer, and is a straighter version before [[ActionGirl she progresses her racing career]]. |
| 267 | * Ashley manages to crash the bulldozer she's driving right through a wall in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', but considering she's about to have a head-on collision with the giant flaming truck speeding towards her it's understandable that she swerved to avoid it. It's also quite impressive that a 20-year-old college student could even drive a bulldozer in the first place, and she was doing a pretty good job of it up until this point. |
| 268 | * Maya Amano of ''VideoGame/Persona2'' confidently pilots every vehicle the cast comes across in ''Innocent Sin'', citing that she's the only one with a driver's license. She crashes every time. Granted, she's trying to apply a car license to a boat, a blimp, and a submarine. In contrast, Tatsuya Suou (a high school student who explicitly does not have a car license) successfully pilots everything from a motorcycle to a MiniMecha, although part of it is rumor magic at work. |
| 269 | * Subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' ''[[UpdatedRerelease Golden]]''. When the girls are studying for their motorcycle licenses, Kanji (who's too young to apply) wonders whether they're any good as drivers, as does Rise, and even the fairly intelligent Yukiko has some trouble with the material. In the end, though, they pass and are no less competent than the males. |
| 270 | * ''VideoGame/Persona5'': |
| 271 | ** Justified with Haru, who is an extremely bad driver that crashes Morgana almost immediately because she's never actually driven before and has no idea what she's doing. |
| 272 | ** Averted with Makoto, who's the best driver of the Phantom Thieves due to the fact that she's the only member of the team who actually got a driver's license. Her Persona even takes the form of a badass motorcycle. |
| 273 | [[/folder]] |
| 274 | |
| 275 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 276 | * Referenced in the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' cartoon "Halloween Fairstival", where Bubs is giving a comedy act that consists of [[StylisticSuck a mish-mash of bare-bones stand-up jokes]]: |
| 277 | -->'''Strong Bad:''' Say, Bubs, your comedy club bears a striking resemblance to the side of your concession stand.\ |
| 278 | '''Bubs:''' Aw, that's rich. You know something else that bears a striking resemblance to something else?\ |
| 279 | '''Strong Bad:''' I dunn--\ |
| 280 | '''Bubs:''' Women can't drive! |
| 281 | * ''WebAnimation/BarbieLifeInTheDreamhouse'' reveals that Barbie didn't start taking driving lessons until ''after'' she got her license, which she lacked during a previous stint as a race car driver[[note]]Track racing doesn't require a license[[/note]]. She does manage to build a sportscar by herself, though. |
| 282 | [[/folder]] |
| 283 | |
| 284 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 285 | * ''Webcomic/SuicideForHire'' gives us one from the mouth of Altair Anunnaki, pizza [[Literature/SnowCrash deliverator]] and "definitive source of all things meretricious, vivacious, and delicious" -- although [[http://suicideforhire.comicgenesis.com/d/20080120.html he adds the caveat "on a cell phone."]] |
| 286 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'' -- while female Ash struggles to drive the day of her transformation. It's {{justified|Trope}}, however, because she isn't used to her new smaller feet and… other features. |
| 287 | * Jodie from ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'' [[http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/3 managed to jump with her car over a McDonald's.]] |
| 288 | [[/folder]] |
| 289 | |
| 290 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 291 | * Referenced and averted in the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' episode "[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E34DoubleODuck Double O Duck]]"; Launchpad yells at enemy agent Feathers as she tries to run him off the road, saying that "it's people like you who give women drivers a bad name!" |
| 292 | * Referenced in several WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes shorts, usually by Witch Hazel: "[[HadTheSillyThingInReverse I had the silly thing in reverse!]]" |
| 293 | * Creator/TexAvery's ''[[http://www.trilulilu.ro/video-animatie/tex-avery-mgm-1951-09-22-car-of-tomorrow The Car of Tomorrow]]'' has a gag about a garage that lifts up so that the little woman can park without crashing into it. Another gag features a car equipped with speaking turning signals; when the woman is about to turn, it goes "Turning left... no, right... no, left..." Interestingly enough, later rebroadcasts of the cartoon on Creator/CartoonNetwork edited out a couple of the other politically incorrect gags, but the jokes about women drivers were left in. |
| 294 | * An episode of ''Disneyland'' devoted to the future of the freeway had a sequence of humorous suggestions for bettering the nation's highways. The very first one is having his and hers lanes. A car on the hers lane weaves out of control and crashes. |
| 295 | * Referenced on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in an episode where Homer reads a "Motoring Ms.-Haps" cartoon in ''Reading Digest''. Marge tells him off for thinking there is any truth to the stereotype. |
| 296 | ** A parody of ''The Lockhorns''? |
| 297 | ** Also referenced by Krusty the Clown, nostalgic for the days of "time tested jokes about doctor bills and women drivers" |
| 298 | ** When Burns sent goons to run Homer off the street, Homer blamed it on Women on cars and "helicopters". |
| 299 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. |
| 300 | ** In one episode, Peter is blindfolded, but still drives. When Lois asks if she should drive, since she's not blindfolded, he laughs her off. HilarityEnsues. |
| 301 | --->'''Peter:''' [[ArtisticLicenseLaw Lois, you know it's illegal for women to drive]]. |
| 302 | ** Also, during a cutaway when Lois is watching the news on September 11, 2001. [[DudeNotFunny Peter walks by the screen, takes a glance and comments the pilot must've been female.]] |
| 303 | ** The {{Asian|Drivers}} woman version happens, too. "How much signal I need to cut across eight lane? None? I turn now. Good luck everybody else!" [[HilarityEnsues Pandemonium ensues]]. |
| 304 | ** Referenced in "Love Thy Trophy" when Stewie turns a multicultural group of kids against each other. |
| 305 | --->'''Chinese Girl:''' Dammit, Ghandi! Santa is Asian!\ |
| 306 | '''Indian Boy:''' How can he be Asian? Santa doesn't drive his sled 20 miles under the speed limit with his blinker on! Go back to your rice paddy, WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}! |
| 307 | * Referenced in ''Little Rascals''. A female teacher is driving her brother, and when she brings the car to a hard stop he comments simply, "just another woman driver." |
| 308 | * In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'', Jane goes in for her driver's license much to the horror of the driving instructor. The car has the standard "STUDENT DRIVER" sign flanked by a couple of barely-noticed decorative frames. When the instructor first sees Jane, he turns a dial, and the "decorative frames" flip to make the car read "WOMAN STUDENT DRIVER BEWARE". After Jane is forced by a bank robber to be his escape vehicle, the instructor professes concern for "that poor creature" -- not Jane, [[PityTheKidnapper but the robber she's driving]]. |
| 309 | ** Since it's supposed to be [[IWantMyJetpack the 21st century]], one wonders [[FutureSocietyPresentValues why she didn't learn to drive years before]]... |
| 310 | ** In another episode, Judy takes driving lessons and is also rather bad. She only gets her learner's permit through what amounts to blackmail. |
| 311 | ** This was a staple of Creator/HannaBarbera shows, especially the family-centered ones, even until the end of Hanna-Barbera as a separate entity in the 90's. |
| 312 | ** George was confused when the woman in the car ahead of his made random signs that made no sense in the order she used them. She had more feminine meanings for them and berated George for not understanding them. |
| 313 | * Possibly spoofed in the ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' episode "My Date With an Antelope". The reason Johnny's date Carol (the eponymous antelope) can't drive is not because she's a woman (despite one surly cabbie's remark about "Crazy women antelope drivers!"), but because she doesn't have opposable thumbs. |
| 314 | -->'''Carol:''' Oh, there goes my premium again! |
| 315 | ** In another gag, Johnny crashes while attempting to hit on a woman he's driving alongside. He blames woman drivers. |
| 316 | * Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''. Spongebob is the terrible driver and his driving instructor is a woman. |
| 317 | * One episode of ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' had the other characters running in terror whenever Kitty was looking for someone to take her driving. Kitty tries to convince either Scott or Jean to ride with her because she has a learner's permit. It's ''Jean'' who shoves Scott at Kitty and runs off. At some point, Professor X tricked Wolverine into riding with her. She made '''Wolverine''' fear for his life. Wolverine extracted payback by having her drive the Professor's limo. Of course, it should be pointed out that her driving is likely less because she's a woman and more because she has absolutely no concern for traffic hazards since she's a mutant who can just phase through them, often unphasing too soon and [[TeleFrag getting random objects melded into the car]]. |
| 318 | * ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'': In two episodes, Penelope Pitstop (AKA: "the glamour gal of the gas pedal") unwittingly made the turn left sign while drying her nails. Usually averted, however, as Penelope is still a good enough driver to make it to the top three places in several races. |
| 319 | * In the "Road Apples" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', Mrs. Pipe is driving an RV with her eyes closed, hitting objects along the way. |
| 320 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Korra is forced to take the car home after her friends are captured and ends up crashing it into a lamppost and netting about 10 parking tickets. When critiqued, she points out that she doesn't know how to drive, and Bolin says she did well, all things considered, and the joke has more to do with her [[CountryMouse extremely sheltered upbringing]] than her gender. The trope is also completely averted with Asami, who's probably the best driver in the series. Also, Korra is shown to get considerably better at driving once Asami starts teaching her, though she's still more comfortable for others to be behind the wheel. |
| 321 | * Averted (maybe Inverted) on ''WesternAnimation/{{MASK}}''. Gloria Baker, the team's only female member, has the cover job of race car driver. |
| 322 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' episode "Driving Mrs. Wolfe," Heffer's mother is revealed to be a rare straight example in modern animation, which leads to chaos when she accidentally finds herself driving on a racetrack. |
| 323 | * Also averted (or inverted) in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' episode "Intrigue at the Indy 500" where Jerrica (as Jem) ends up participating in the race. |
| 324 | * This is the subject of two ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'' shorts: "Wimmin Hadn't Oughta Drive" from the [[Creator/FleischerStudios Fleischer]] era, and "Car-azy Drivers" from the [[Creator/FamousStudios Famous]] era, both of which deal with Popeye trying to teach Olive Oyl how to drive. In the latter short, Olive even calls him out on this trope when he shows up wearing a suit of armor. |
| 325 | -->'''Olive Oyl:''' Popeye, take off that silly costume right way, or I [[PunctuatedForEmphasis will, not, go!]] |
| 326 | * In the first episode of the Israeli animated series ''Animation/MK22'', the (fictional) first female Israeli astronaut is interviewed before take-off. She talks about how how NASA has no room for stereotypes and women are involved in all parts of the organisation, while [[FunnyBackgroundEvent in the background]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI1oam1fI5o a woman driver crashes into two parked cars while trying to park herself.]] This becomes a running gag throughout the episode. |
| 327 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' episode "Help Wanted: Mommy", Miss Miller drives the boys to school and crashes into a streetlight. |
| 328 | -->'''Miss Miller:''' Of all the foolishness, a streetlight right in the middle of the street! We could have been killed!\ |
| 329 | '''Simon:''' My thoughts exactly. |
| 330 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', neither Leela nor Amy can parallel park, even though they're flying VTOL vehicles. Leela states this when she becomes the pilot, and Amy is shown sliding her vehicle pefectly into position horizontally, then dinging the cars on both sides anyway. |
| 331 | [[/folder]] |
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