In the film satire, The Weather Man, downtrodden TV meteorologist Dave Spritz - played by Nicolas Cage - is often struck by fast food thrown by viewers who recognise him in the street.
'It's always fast food. Things that people would rather throw out than finish. It's easy, it tastes all right, but it doesn't really provide you with any nourishment. I'm fast food,' complains the battered and stained celebrity weather guy.
China's forecasters suffered similar indignity this week - but the objects hurled at them were verbal and written complaints about their wild inaccuracies. Like most government institutions in China, the country's meteorology department is expected to get things right all the time. After all, the Communist Party uses its well-honed propaganda machine to convince the populace from the cradle to the grave it is in control of all phenomena, real, imagined, human-made and natural.
So you can imagine the backlash when the weather comrades promised a warm and sunny start to spring and said it was time to pack away the thermals and cat fur-lined boots and shake out the T-shirts and flip-flops.
The elderly - who had been cooped up for the six long winter months - were led out on to the quads to sun themselves along with the barking dogs and take deep gulps of the seasonal change.
The Beijing Meteorological Station predicted last Tuesday's temperature to top 12 degrees Celsius, very nice for the time of year, indeed.