British Comedy Guide

The wrong man for the job

Not sure about this, it came to me last night and it's a bit different. You may all hate it, I don't know. There are no real jokes or actual laughs until the reveal at the end, when hopefully what has gone before is then seen in a more humourous light. Anyway, for what it's worth, here it is. Should it receive any sort of interest/praise I may expand this into a small series.

Apologies beforehand for the language: the guy is a prick. And American. ;)

Scene opens with the camera framing a large, red-face, scowling man who is hunched over the wheel, sweat running down his face, his hands white-knuckled on the steering column. He sounds the horn irritably.

"Come on, come on! Jesus! My old granny drives faster than that, and SHE's been dead for ten years! Move out of the f**king way! Some of us are in a hurry!"

Camera moves around 180 degrees to show the view in his rearview mirror. Other cars lined up behind him, quite close. The face of the person in the car immediately behind him is one of bafflement and slight annoyance.

After a moment the irate driver flings the wheel to the right, screeching out of his lane and roaring past the small yellow VW bug and its elderly lady driver, who is almost forced off the road. With a squeal of rubber and the roar of a powerful engine the car powers out into traffic, narrowly missing being flattened by a fuel truck which is coming down the opposite lane.

"STUPID BITCH!" shouts the irate driver at the old lady, while giving her the finger, and "ASSHOLE! Where did you learn to f**king drive? Go back to Jersey!" This to the departing lorry driver, who blasts his own horn in anger and continues on. In the rearview, it can be seen that the cars behind the irate driver are now trying to keep up with him, which seems to piss him off even more, and he increases speed. The look on the face of the driver nearest him, and behind him, turns to one of shock, then anger, and finally determination. That car speeds up too.

Coming to a red light the irate man slams his foot down on the accelerator, powering through the crossway and causing an ambulance to slew sideways to avoid him. It skids across into the other lane and smashes up two cars. An ice-cream van, coming from the other direction, ploughs into a truck carrying chickens, eliciting a huge bang, a puff of smoke and fire and the rather unusual sound of panicking chickens playing counterpoint to the strangled strains of "O Sole Mio". The irate driver snarls a laugh, and speeds on his way. Trying to avoid the traffic accident, the other cars behind him do their best to follow him.

Directly in front of him is a bridge across the motorway, which is half-open. He eyes it menacingly. "Oh no you f**king don't!" he warns the bridge, and pushes the accelerator into the floor. The car jumps forward , powering up the incline and as it leaps the gap between the two sides of the bridge, the camera pulls back to show a rectangular box smashing its way out of the back. The coffin slides out and falls into the gap, landing on the flat deck of a container ship with the words YANG MING CONTAINER LINE emblazoned across it.

As the hearse hits the other side and powers away, the lead car following it pulls up at the bridge. The whole cortege stops and watches silently as the Dearly Departed floats away in the increasing distance.

"Well," observes one mourner, trying to make the best of a bad thing, "he always did say he wanted to see the Far East!"

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