In the genre of romantic comedy film, a Meet Cute is the encounter of two potential romantic partners in unusual circumstances, a comic situation contrived by the filmmakers entirely in order to bring them together. Sometimes used as a verb, "to meet cute," or uncapitalized, "the meet cute," or hyphenated, "the meet-cute." Romantic comedy films are a sub-genre of comedy films as well as of romance films. ...

In many romantic comedies, the potential couple comprises polar opposites, two people of completely different temperaments, situations, social statuses, or all three (It Happened One Night), who would not have anything to do with each other under normal circumstances. The meet cute provides the opportunity. It Happened One Night is a 1934 romantic comedy in which an elite socialite (Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her fathers thumb, and falls in with a rogue reporter (Clark Gable). ...

In movies, the chemistry of the lead characters must be established quickly and firmly. The subject matter of romantic comedies are the obstacles that the potential pair must face before they can acknowledge, fulfill, or consummate their love, and the audience must care enough about the relationship enough to finish the movie. The meet-cute, by virtue of its unusual situation, helps to fix the potential relationship in the viewers' minds, and the spark of the meeting is the impetus by which initial vicissitudes of the developing relationship are overcome.

Certain movies are entirely driven by the meet-cute situation; circumstances throw the couple together for the span of the movie. However, movies in which the situation is the main feature, rather than the romance, are not considered "meet-cutes" (Some Like It Hot). Some Like It Hot is a 1959 comedy film by Billy Wilder. ...

The use of the meet-cute is less marked in television series and novels, in which there is more time to establish and develop romantic relationships. In situation comedies, relationships are static and meet-cute is not necessary, though flashbacks may recall one (The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mad About You) and lighter fare may require it. The Dick Van Dyke Show was an American television situation comedy which aired on CBS from October 3, 1961 to September 7, 1966. ... Mad About You is a United States situation comedy which appeared on NBC from September 23, 1992 to 1999. ...

Roger Ebert, a film critic, popularized the term in his reviews, and may have originated the term. The culture of the extremely compressed movie pitch meeting may have also contributed to its continuing usage. Roger Ebert (right) with Russ Meyer, 1970. ... A pitch is a concise verbal (and sometimes visual) presentation of an idea for a film, generally made by a screenwriter or director to a producer or studio executive in the hope of attracting development finance to pay for a screenplay to be written. ...

While the device seems clichéd today, it may be a victim of the decline of rigid class consciousness in the U.S. since its heyday during the Great Depression. Screwball comedy, which made heavy use of these contrivances, also peaked during this period. A cliché (from French cliché, onomatopoeia for stereotype) originally was a printing term for a semi-permanently assembled piece of type which could easily be inserted into the document being printed (see Block printing). ... Class consciousness is a category of Marxist theory, referring to the self-awareness of a social class, its capacity to act in its own rational interests, or measuring the extent to which an individual is conscious of the historical tasks their class (or class allegiance) sets for them. ... The Great Depression was a massive global economic recession (or depression) that ran from 1929 to approximately 1939. ... The screwball comedy has proven to be one of the most elusive of the film genres. ...

Examples

Canonical examples of meeting cute include:

• In My Man Godfrey ditzy socialite Irene (Lombard), following her sister to a dump, chooses Godfrey (Powell) to be her "forgotten man" for a charity scavenger hunt
• It Happened One Night throws runaway heiress Ellie (Colbert) and world-weary ex-reporter Peter (Gable) together in a dispute over the last seat on a bus
• In Bringing Up Baby nervous paleontologist David (Grant) finds that his golf ball and his car get inadvertently driven by strong-willed heiress Susan (Hepburn)