Bike Crash as Comedy

I was watching quite a few comedies with Jasmine and one common feature was a bike race coming down the road only to have something fall or roll in front of the racers. They all fall down and everyone laughs. Is this the new banana peel joke? It never looked like anyone really got hurt. The falls were all slightly controlled looking. Is this an indication of the new popularity of bike racing? Maybe a bike racer has an opinion?