Can we finally kill the meme about shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theatre?

[Denzil_DC]

29. That's obviously the ax you're trying to grind.

But it doesn't really work as an analogy in this case anyway.

If you read the longer article and view the videos, the shouter mentioned wasn't by any means the only one who noticed the ceiling collapse--a ripple of realization was running through the audience, because it was a real event and a real danger, not a fiction or a false alarm.

How do you think others alerted their neighbors to the danger? Other audience members noticed what was happening, and for all we know, may have called out in a similar way, though perhaps not as loudly. Word seems to have gotten around pretty quickly, then more chunks of ceiling started falling, so the danger quite quickly became clear.

As it is, it doesn't sound like there was guaranteed safe place to shelter inside the theater, at least nowhere that would have been obvious, so moving immediately might not have helped that much, but nobody would have known how bad the collapse was going to get at that stage, and in the longer term, getting the hell out of there was no doubt the advisable thing to do.

In this case, that ripple of realization was probably the best thing to happen--not everybody moved at once, and there was probably less panic, hence fewer injuries from the crush of people trying to get to the nearest exits.

Allied to this is the other saying about the boy crying "WOLF!"

To continue the analogy, if people (and especially the same person) were to make a habit of shouting "FIRE!" and it repeatedly turned out to be false alarms, after each incident audiences would be progressively less likely to pay attention.

In the real world, I'd imagine if there are any other theaters running shows that feature interjections of this type from plants in the audience, they'll be looking at modifying them, at least while this incident is fresh in the public memory.