Beating an Un-Dead Horse

Ideas are fickle things. When I started as a clerk at the Drive-In, I was full to the brim with ideas of what I could write about. Fate, however, often has other plans. I've had my own bout of writer's block recently, even for my own blog that is separate from the Drive-In. It lasted quite a while, with everything I wrote sounding stupid to me within a few sentences. Now, however, with school once again getting my creative juices flowing, my ideas have come back from the dead. And, as my creative side feels like a zombie that's recently reanimated, it's only appropriate that my first article back should be about zombies. Specifically, about the over-saturation of the carnivorous un-dead horde in the world today.

As a lover of reading, I often peruse the humor section of any book store to find a good laugh. Often, I find books like Sh** My Dad Says, picture books about cats, or other short things to read in the bathroom. Today, however, I was greeted with one word repeated over and over: ZOMBIES! The Zombie Code, Zen of the Zombie, Diary of a Zombie Kid, The Zombie Night Before Christmas, Zombies for Zombies. I couldn't count how many zombie books were in the section. It was a little overwhelming. Out of sheer curiosity, I picked up The Zombie Night Before Christmas. It took me all of three minutes to read and appreciate the artwork. I want those three minutes of my life back. The book is unfunny and sloppily written. As a parody, it fails. As a story in itself, it fails. The best part about it was the illustrations, which were gross and fit with the book. But, I digress.

I'm pretty sure this all has to do with a book that came out not too long ago: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I haven't read it or, really, anything about it, but from what I can tell, it's a best seller. Indeed, our resident Rabbi read it, though I don't exactly remember what he thought of it. As for me, without reading the book, I think the idea isn't very good. It's just Pride and Prejudice with “zombie killing and mass slaughter” replacing things like “tea time and a ballroom party,” right? That doesn't sound funny to me, or particularly entertaining. I suppose my opinion is a bit ignorant as I have never picked up the book, but given my feelings already, I'm extremely reluctant to do so. Especially since zombies seem to have become the latest fad for anyone looking to make a humor book.

Look, I know a story with zombies can be funny. Rabbi has pointed it out in the past. In fact, Zombieland is one of my favorite movies. Shaun of the Dead is a laugh riot. The Goon looks like it may become a classic quickly. However, there's a limit to how much gore can be exposed before something is no longer funny. For me, zombie books have officially reached that limit. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. I think if we moderate ourselves on zombie comedy for a while, it'll manage to keep its dignity. Heck, before I read the horrendous Zombie Night Before Christmas, I flipped through Diary of a Zombie Kid and it looked almost clever. It still has SOME dignity left. Please, let's just wean ourselves off of those gruesome walking corpses. If we don't, we'll all be feasting on flesh before too long...