Culture

That ‘Anatomy Of A Scandal’ Gut Punch Scene Has Gone Viral

"I watched this while I had a fever and I honestly thought I was hallucinating."

by Reena Gupta  22 April 2022

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Is anyone else still thinking about the very silly ‘gut punch’ scene from the first episode of Anatomy Of A Scandal?

— Content warning: This article includes a mention of sexual assault. — 

Viewers of the British series are mocking the unexpected scene, which the The Guardian called “the silliest TV moment ever”, when the show’s main character James Whitehouse (Rupert Friend) responds to a couple of police officers who request to question him “in connection with an allegation”.

“An allegation of what?” he asks. “Rape sir”, the two reply, awkwardly and in tandem. “An allegation of rape”. That’s when things get weird, as Whitehouse launches into a kind of metaphorical dance; a bodily enactment of the ‘gut punch’ that he was experiencing.

Following the beautifully furnished lives of fictional British MP James Whitehouse and his wife Sophie (Sienna Miller), Anatomy of A Scandal traces the fallout following revelations that Whitehouse sexually assaulted his aide, Olivia (Naomi Scott).

And look, it’s hard to put your finger on what makes this scene so funny. Maybe it’s the fact this random special effect was introduced right at the end of a first episode that was very one-note and mostly involved Sienna Miller walking around in really nice clothes. Or is it the actors playing the police officers, trying their best to keep a straight face while Rupert Friend was obviously taking his carefully choreographed moves very seriously?

Whatever it is, it really took audiences by surprise, with one Twitter user commenting that the scene is “shot like a music video from 2004” while another said: “I watched this while I had a fever and I honestly thought I was hallucinating.”

Then there was the more pensive: “Your editors were so preoccupied with whether they could cut, they didn’t stop to consider whether they should cut.”

Just when you think the worst is over, though, episode two ends with Rupert Friend and Sienna Miller whirling around in space — you know, because they’re becoming unmoored, or something.

We just hope the gut punch scene gets the meme treatment that it so richly deserves.