I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up

The other day, I had the throwback experience of seeing an ad for Life Alert featuring the "I've fallen and I can't get up!" slogan. This line debuted in 1989 and by the early 90s had become a veritable catch-phrase in pop culture, most notably attributed to Urkel. I kind of assumed that its use as a literal advertising slogan had been abandoned after it became a widely-shared cultural joke, but apparently these ads are still running.

Which got me thinking: Are we at the point where the people who were the target audience for the pop culture joke "I've fallen and I can't get up" -- those who laughed at Urkel contemporaneously and unironically -- are now the target audience for the Life Alert product?

Time is a vengeful mistress indeed.