Shaun, Shaun!

I was about to stumble off for bed when I heard the familiar piiing! sound. E-mail! From Outlook! Amazing! From the bloody e-mail program that rarely works! Absolutelybloodyamazing! Enough with exclamation marks. I'm in shock that someone actually used my old email address to send me a message. Who could it be?

It's from my brother's long-time girlfriend with a great piece of news. She knows someone who's agreed to give me a DVD copy of Shaun of the Dead, so she wants to know to where should he send the DVD.

SHAUN OF THE DEAD! I AM GETTING TO SEE SHAUN OF THE DEAD AGAIN! WHOO HOO!

Honestly, Simon Pegg is a genius. He's behind fabulous TV series SPACED and this time SHAUN OF THE DEAD. The film is basically a British comedy film about zombies. No, no, don't run away yet. It's honest-to-God funny. It has it all: one liners, comical situations, dead-pan delivery from Simon Pegg himself, Very English romantic development between Pegg's character - the unwilling hero that saves the Day - and a cranky blonde, and the script is superb.

Here is some examples of Pegg's writing:

Shaun of the Dead: Shaun [Simon Pegg]

Evidence #1:

Shaun: *accidentally runs someone over with his car* Arghh! Jesus! *looks at the body lying on front* Excuse me. *pause* Excuse me? Are you alright?
Ed: Why can't we just go?
Shaun: I've got to be sure. *looks at the body* Are you Ok? *the body rises and moans* Ohh, thank God! Let's go.

Evidence #2:

*looking through Shaun's LPs for suitable records to throw at two approaching zombies* Ed: Stone Roses?
Shaun: No.
Ed: ...Second Coming?
Shaun: I liked it.
Ed: Dire Straits?
Shaun: Chuck it!

And from SPACED:


Spaced: Tim & Daisy

Evidence #1:

[On Daisy's party decorations]
Brian the Artist: I see at as a tribute to Christo, the artist.
Tim the Flatmate: I see it as a waste of Baco, the foil.

Evidence #2:
Mike: Wanna go into your party?
Tim: But they were playing 'The Timewarp'. I hate 'The Timewarp'.
Mike: Daisy likes it.
Tim: So what? I hate it. It's a boil-in-the-bag perversion for sexually repressed accountants and first-year drama students with too many posters of Betty Blue, The Blues Brothers, Big Blue and Blue Velvet on their blue bloody walls.

Evidence #3:

Bilbo Bagshot: I used to know this guy, Minty. He had a dog who he'd train to attack rich people. He was into the whole class-war thing. He called the dog Gramsci after an Italian Marxist. Rumour has it, it could smell wealth from up to 20 feet. The thing is, it all backfired. Minty won 100 grand on a scratchcard and Gramsci bit his knees off.
Tim: That's terrible.
Bilbo Bagshot: Not really. He used the money to buy new knees.

Evidence #4:

*Tim is being dumped by girlfriend Sarah*
Tim: Just... give me a reason. You think I'm unemotional, don't you? I can be emotional. Jesus, I cried like a child at the end of Terminator 2.

Evidence #5:

Daisy: So how are you, you big bloody man?
Tim: I'm good, I'm good. Just, had a few things to sort out.
Daisy: With Sarah?
Tim: No, with George Lucas.
Daisy: Tim, it's been over a year.
Tim: It's been 18 months, Daisy. And it still hurts.
Daisy: Well, I didn't think The Phantom Menace was that bad.

Evidence # ... I lost the count:
*Daisy finally notices that her dog is missing*
Daisy: Colin's gone.
Tim: What?
Daisy: He went next door.
Tim: Oh, Daisy. I'm sorry. How did that happen?
Daisy: He walked.
Tim: Right, right. Sorry. My mum used to use "going next door" as an euphemism for being dead.
Mike: Whoa. Does that mean my rabbit's dead?
Tim: It's been 18 years, Mike, where did you think he was?
Mike: *sobbing* Next door!

If you have only twenty-five pounds to spare, get SPACED. Or with SOTD coming up, get the DVD. Pegg finetunes the Art of writing British comedy to a higher level. Genius.

Be good, be bad & be safe.