What is the origin of the face fault? In many anime, when characters are surprised or seen to do something stupid, the other characters will sometimes fall or keel over on their faces in some comical positions with their legs in the air. Where did this originate and is it used in any other case and or culture where stupidity or shock is (or) not implied?



This link offers some information on it but it doesn't verify or explicitly state its origin.


  When shocked or surprised, often by an absurdity or non sequitur, the
  listener may fall over onto his face, his limbs in a twisted mass
  above him. In its typical form, the character in question has just
  heard someone else say something so incredibly stupid that it, quite
  literally, floors them.
According here


  When shocked or surprised, often by an absurdity or non sequitur, the
  listener may fall over onto his face, his limbs in a twisted mass
  above him. In its typical form, the character in question has just
  heard someone else say something so incredibly stupid that it, quite
  literally, floors them. A device usually limited to humorous anime,
  this may have been imported from a similar trope in early American comic strips called the 'flip-take'. A variation used mainly in films
  (as falling on one's own face in real life tends to be dangerous) has
  the characters briefly faint backwards, as opposed to forwards. Often
  includes, and is confused with, Wild Takes.