Romantic Comedy Rules?

I note the popular #Romcomrules meme currently being played on Twitter. And it makes me reflect on the breakdown of the institution of marriage in our society.

Let us take a Hugh Grant fim, for example. You know, the one where he's a self-interested and rather boring repressed bloke who gets the girl. I believe those films have encouraged - nay, imposed - the current situation. All over the country, attractive, wacky, imaginative and funny people are hanging around in groups - knowing that the boring beggar who hangs around with them and contributes very little but the occasional wry quip is the only one who will ever get married.

And these films don't do much for the concept of extended family either. No parents, nieces or nephews anywhere to be seen - the parents being left to decay in Dorset or Northamptonshire or wherever. Sure, the boring one will occasionally have a wacky sister. But when the wacky sister starts a doomed relationship with a Welsh kitten-juggler or whatever, the boring one doesn't take a horse whip to him as any decent older brother should. No, instead he clasps him to his bosom - which may be good news for the solidarity of the group, but it's bad news for the kittens.

No, roaming the streets of London (or New York, for our American friends) - rootless, parentless - with no family structure as provided, even in Bertie Wooster's day, by a network of aunts - it's no wonder that they instead turn to their gangs - eight wacky people, one boring one who will eventually marry - for love and self-esteem. It's no wonder they turn to rioting and driving around London too fast.

So I have a simple test for you today. You may find this a bit distressing, but I can't help that. Look around you. Are you in London? Now think about your friends. Are they all wacky individualists who make your life a joy? If the answer to both questions is "Yes" then the good news is that you're destined to marry. The bad news? Well I reckon you can figure it out.
If the answer to the first question is "Yes" but the second is "No - one of my friends is boring, albeit with aa wry sense of humour" - congratulations. You're one of the interesting ones.
And if the answer to the first question is "No", and you're aged between 20 and Hugh Grant - sad news, I'm afraid. You're not cut out for Rom-Com.