- Lisa
- Richard
- Serendipidy
- Tom
- Norval Joe
- Planet Z
LISA
Mad World: Tears for Fears
It’s a party; everyone’s my age. I think someone thought it was fancy dress – a nurse chats with someone in the corridor. Maybe I’ve had too much to drink because I’m not too sure where I am, everyone seems familiar but I couldn’t tell you anyone’s name.
I hear the nurse telling someone that wants to leave that it’s a home for people with memory issues & they live here. Heartbreaking really.
I enjoy the music, lots of familiar songs but feel I’m ready to go. The doors locked. The nurse approaches and puts her hand gently on my shoulder.
RICHARD
— Mad —
He had that sign on his desk, you know the one ‘You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps”.
It was that sort of inappropriate attitude that had led to this meeting today, not that it would matter soon.
“Jeff, I’ll come straight to the point. You’re fired.”
His face was a picture, “Fired? But, why?”
I shrugged. “You know, the usual… spending cuts, the economy, rationalisation. And, oh yes, you’re crap at the job!”
“But what’ll I do?”
I grabbed the sign, handing it to him. “You’ll fit in – it’s a mad world out there!”
LIZZIE
The pictures on his wall looked old. Was he ever in Paris, she asked. He shrugged. The stamp, what was it, she asked. He shrugged. And the certificate, she asked. He shrugged. I’m starting to doubt this is your home. It isn’t, he replied. Her heart started racing. Why did you bring me here? He chuckled. Is it your mother’s home? He lowered his eyes and pointed. The door was closed. Don’t go in there, she thought. You’ll understand, he said. She opened the door. The woman was sitting, her rocking chair moving gently, her mummified fingers clutching a knife.
TOM
The Opening scene
Sometimes a line is drawn and everything on one side is consider old and
quaint. The other is the new new. There was everything before Star Wars
and everything after. It all happened in a weeks’ time. Guys in San
Fransisco were screaming about this new sci-fi movie. So, I got the last
ticket to the midnight show. The excite in the room was through the
roof. Cheers at the opening title. Then a beautiful space ship crosses
the screen … and a battleship fill the screen. People screamed I
screamed. Greatest single moment I ever had in a theater.
Mad World
One turn to the left instead of one right, your whole life would have
been a different life, filled with different people, like the Pope. It
is highly possible I meet the Pope as a kid. I am sure I was in the same
rooms as him. I was accepted to the same seminary he attended. The high
school I did attended was literally across the street from the
Augustinian Major seminary. In school we were on student government, ran
the year book, on the debate team. It’s a mad world when one degree of
separation separates you from the pope.
SERENDIPIDY
Six days now since the world went mad.
All my fault, of course. Who else would it have been?
It was me that sent the offensive messages, and that’s all it took.
Everything else was simply down to human nature; the need to retaliate, the sense of entitlement, the propensity to blow things up out of proportion.
On day two, warning shots were fired. Day three, all-out war. And now, the few who are left are picking up the pieces.
Thanks to a few insulting messages, the world’s gone mad.
But it was a mad world to begin with.
NORVAL JOE
Billbert frowned. “Well. We can’t let John kill you and your mother. It would be a mad world without you. Empty husks and all that. Still, in this world, you can’t poison people and get away with it. We need to go to the police.”
Mandi hesitated, then nodded.
They flew to the police station and landed in the back alley.
When they told the officer their story, he shook his head. “If there was evidence of poisoning, we surely would have found it by now. Go home and rest your imaginations.”
John was waiting for them outside the station.
PLANET Z
I can never remember how many times the word mad appears in the title of the film. Let’s just call it. It’s a mad world. spotting classic and then current comedians in cameos must’ve been fun. Although there is nothing sadder than seeing the mummified remnants of the three stooges show up as fireman. not even the real three stooges. Shemp and curly were long dead, and Joe Derita there gawking like a fish out of water. Or was it Joe Besser? Hella fine now. And I don’t feel like watching the movie again. Or looking it up on Wikipedia.