How to Call for Help

In an emergency, how do we get help? Calling 911 is an obvious answer. What other avenues of assistance are available to us? 

"Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!"

You probably have seen this cheesy commercial -- it's been around for years and still runs in various versions today. If you've visited grandma in the assisted-care facility in your neighborhood, and watched some daytime TV with her, chances are you've seen it. You know, it's the one for the push-button device that you wear around your neck that is supposed to summon help if you can't get to the phone. The commercial is aimed primarily at the elderly and disabled, but the senior lady on the floor in the commercial utters her call for help with such campy melodrama, that it became as big a commercial catchphrase as "Where's the beef?" Americans find it hilarious, even though the situations the button are designed to address are no laughing matter.

Yeah, it is a pretty bad commercial, but maybe our laughter goes a little bit deeper than just making fun of horrible acting. Perhaps the reason that we find it amusing is because, in general, Americans...