How to Kill a Mockingbird
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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 an Adobe Flash cartoon, timing in at over 12 minutes.
[edit] Summary
The cartoon begins as a mock book report, simplified but true to the novel. The narrator, Benny Miller, describes a few of the main characters: Scout, Jem, Atticus, Dill, and Boo Radley, as well as the Finch family's "mysterious slave woman" Calpurnia.
Then, the narration diverges from the novel, presumably because Benny stoped reading after chapter 1. Jem and Scout and Dill locate hidden treasure in the forest, but Boo Radley shows up, revealed to be 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 mechanical monstrosity that has "blades like a helicopter"--steals the treasure from both of them. Boo Radley attempts to pursue it while riding his burning, flying shark, but to no avail. He boards his airborne pirate ship, with lens flare and motion blur, and engages in an aerial battle with the mockingbird, who triumphs, because "no one can kill a mockingbird...or can they?" The pirate ship is destroyed; the pirates fall a million feet to the ground, but survive, "'cause they're pirates."
The pirates, now bearing a vendetta against the mockingbird, ask Scout to help them kill it. Scout refuses at first, because Boo Radley tried to steal the treasure from him. However, he then agrees for no apparent reason. Scout is the only one who believes that the mockingbird can be killed. Calpurnia tells them about a book, How to Kill a Mockingbird, 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 and Calpurnia 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 ninja called "Zorlok 7." The ninjas transform into dinosaurs, fireballs, volcanoes, and possibly presidents. The battle (which Zeus found highly amusing, as he is immortal) lasts nine years, after which the mockingbird returns, leading an army of undead mockingbirds to destroy the few remaining ninjas and pirates that aren't on fire, 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 "all the nuclear weapons in the world" to alter the Moon's trajectory. This tactic apparently works; however, "almost everyone died." Notable survivors include Scout (still a robot guy) and Calpurnia, both of whom have learned about "growing up, and the human dignity that unites us all." A closeup of a critical scene in the Gregory Peck screen adaptation reveals a pirate in the courthouse. The animation ends with the credits (which is just the names of the two creators) playing to Vangelis's famous song 'Titles' from the movie Chariots of Fire.
Benny frequently interrupts his story to parody typical English course material (presenting "pirates" as a thematic element, for example).
