User:Andrewa/HTKAM
This is a copy of a back version of How to Kill a Mockingbird, an article being merged to AwesomeFunny. Both have flirted several times with deletion. This copy is here to make the content easily available. For the history, see its talk page. This version is based on that of 15:33, 7 July 2005. Andrewa 19:39, 3 August 2005 (UTC)
How to Kill a Mockingbird is a parody of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Created by Stanford undergraduates Anthony Scodary and Nico Benitez in November of 2004, it is the most popular content on their humor website, AwesomeFunny. How to Kill a Mockingbird is long for a Macromedia Flash cartoon, timing in at over 12 minutes.
How to Kill a Mockingbird is an example of a short-lived Internet fad (colloquially referred to as a meme). Like similar such fads, it primarily gained popularity via a link posted on various blogs and shared among friends by e-mail.
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Synopsis
[edit]The cartoon begins as a book report from an elementary or middle school student about To Kill a Mockingbird, but after the first minute or so it becomes obvious that the narrator only read the first chapter or so of the book. The report quickly diverges into a bizarre adventure story that revolves around pirates trying to destroy an evil mockingbird after it steals their treasure. It is soon learned that the pirates must find a book called "How to Kill a Mockingbird" (which looks suspiciously like the real novel) to discover how a mockingbird can be killed. The only catch is that the pirates must travel back to ancient China to steal the book from the ninjas that hold the book in their fortress. The pirates battle the ninjas until a fleet of mockingbirds come to destroy them all. The pirates and ninjas decide to join forces and try to destroy the mockingbird the only way that works: “by hitting it with the moon.”
Long Summary
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The cartoon begins as a mock book report, simplified but true to the novel. The narrator describes a few of the main characters: Scout, Jem, Atticus, and Boo Radley, as well as the Finch family's "mysterious slave woman."
Then, the narration diverges from the novel. Jem and Scout locate hidden treasure in the forest, but Boo Radley shows up as a pirate and attempts to claim the treasure for himself. It is revealed that Scout is not actually a girl, but "a robot guy." Before Scout and the pirate Boo Radley can fight, a "mockingbird"—an enormous, vicious-looking mechanical monstrosity—steals the treasure from both of them. Boo Radley attempts to pursue it while riding a burning, flying shark, but to no avail. He boards an airborne pirate ship and engages in a naval battle with the mockingbird. The pirate ship is destroyed; the pirates fall a million feet to the ground, but survive.
The pirates, now bearing a vendetta against the mockingbird, ask Scout to help them kill it. Scout reluctantly agrees. The "mysterious slave woman" tells them about a book, originally written in "African," which contains the secret of killing a mockingbird. The book is located in the "ninja lair" in ancient China. The pirates and Scout travel to ancient China via their time-travelling castle.
In ancient China, the pirates engage in a fierce battle with the ninjas, who are led by a robot called "Zorlok 7." The ninjas transform into dangerous objects such as bears, fireballs, volcanoes, and possibly presidents. The battle lasts nine years, after which the mockingbird leads an army of undead mockingbirds to attack both the ninjas and pirates, who team up to destroy the mockingbirds. Zorlok 7 opens the ancient African book, revealing that mockingbirds can only be killed if they are hit by the moon.
A space battle commences, set to Europe's "The Final Countdown." The ninjas attempt to move the Moon with a massive titanium chain; the pirates try to use nuclear weapons to alter the Moon's trajectory. This tactic apparently works; however, "almost everyone died." Notable survivors include Scout (still a robot guy) and her slave woman. A closeup of a critical scene in the Gregory Peck screen adaptation reveals a pirate in the courthouse.
The narrator frequently interrupts his story to parody typical English course material (presenting "pirates" as a thematic element, for example).