In Mindy Kaling’s “Flick Chicks,†part of this week’s New Yorker, the Office writer explains her love for the bizarre, deeply unnatural beings that populate modern rom-coms. “I regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world operates according to different rules than my regular human world,†she explains. “For me, there is no difference between Ripley from Alien and any Katherine Heigl character. They are equally implausible.â€
Kaling also identifies a host of inscrutable alien entities like the Klutz, the Ethereal Weirdo and the unrealistically young rom-com mom. “[W]hen ‘Mom’ was an adolescent, the very week she started to menstruate she was impregnated with a baby who would grow up to be the movie’s likable brown-haired leading man. I am fascinated by Mom’s sordid early life. I would rather see this movie than the one I bought a ticket for.†As if that wasn’t enough, if you bring in a print copy of the article, you get a discount at the chic dildo store I run in the West Village! These dildos could not get more chic!