Shaun Of The Dead Analysis

On 10 June 1990, a mechanic of British Airway Flight 5390 installed retention bolts that were 0.1 inches smaller than the required bolt size. He installed smaller bolts based on his experience because he was lazy to look at the service manual. As a result, the left windscreen on captain’s side blew, while dragging the captain halfway out of the plane. The captain was left hanging in the window for 20 minutes and he suffered multiple injuries. Laziness is one of the greatest enemies of humans. Many people have attempted to show the impact of laziness in various forms of entertainment likes movies, television, sports etc. One such movie was Shaun of the Dead, which shows a story of survival in a zombie apocalypse. People have contradictory views

on the themes associated in Shaun of the Dead.

According to Kim Edwards, one such theme in Shaun of the Dead is, “a satirical social commentary on the drudgeries of modern life and a witty validation of the sedentary lifestyles of young males refusing to grow up” (Edwards 99). Edward argues that Shaun of the Dead is criticizing the laziness in modern lifestyle among the young growing males. However, laziness in Shaun of the Dead can be interpreted differently. The lazy attitude of the two main characters, Shaun and Ed, creates humor in the film, ultimately, leading to a delay in understanding of a critical situation.
According to Merriam Webster dictionary, laziness is defined as not liking to work hard and be active. The lazy attitude of the main characters is introduced very early into the film. The scene succeeding the opening sequel speaks highly of both Ed and Shaun’s character. The scene begins in the morning where Ed is sitting on a couch with a video game controller in his hand and with his foot placed on top of a table. Usually, adults don’t play video games in the morning because morning is a symbolism of work and education for majority of the adults. Ed playing video games in the morning implies that he doesn’t work (which is later confirmed by Pete). Additionally, there are a lot of cans and plastic wrapper on the table, there is a pizza box underneath the table and there is a trash can that is flipped on side with all of its garbage coming out of it. All of this evidence implies that the individuals living in the house are very lazy to clean their mess. A few minutes later, Pete, Shaun’s other roommate, is trying to convince Ed to do some household chores; meanwhile, Ed is ignoring his words and is totally focused on his video game. The audience may infer this scene to be funny because for few last minutes Shaun has been trying to talk to Ed about his behavior and lack of work, but he couldn’t speak to Ed. After speaking with Ed, Shaun’s roommate leaves the room and there is a paper hanging on his back stating, “I am a prick”. The audience might perceive this scene to be funny. This is extremely important because Pete’s conversation with Ed is kind of putting emphasis on the importance of being active (work), however, Ed’s humor prevents him from grasping this important concept.
After some time, there is a zombie apocalypse in the movie.

During this zombie apocalypse, there are many instances in which Shaun and Ed show their lazy attitude, which leads to a formation of humor in audience’s mind. A perfect example of this is the scene when Shaun walks to the convenient stores from his house. The scene begins with Shaun waking up from a hangover. The first thing that Shaun sees is a white board which has things written on them, “Go round mums, get Liz back, sort life out”. This is humorous because Shaun (whom the audience considers to be a sluggish person) has made a resolution of things that he needs to accomplish. People often make resolution after realizing their mistakes and to improve themselves. However, things that Shaun has written were suggestions given to him by his friends and family. Pete told him to sort his life out, Philip told him to go round mums and David told him to get Liz back. This supports the idea that Shaun cannot even make right decision for his life because he has to be reminded about things to do in his life. This dependence on others for making decisions in his life, has delayed Shaun’s ability to make rational decisions for

himself.
After Shaun wakes up, he leaves his house to get his breakfast from the convenient store. During his route to the store, he sees there is trash everywhere outside the convenient store and he isn’t suspicious about it. Furthermore, as walks into to the store, he walks directly to the soda refrigerator. He opens the refrigerator and grabs a Coke, without even noticing two bloody handprints on the glass. As he walks towards the checkout counter, he slips (possibly on the blood) and he doesn’t even bother to look down. There are multiple inferences that can be made from this scene. Firstly, majority of the audience may infer this scene to be scary because blood on any object is a connotation of a crime and violence in society. Additionally, the audience may have realized that zombie apocalypse has begun and they might be thinking, “What the heck is Shaun doing”. However, Dirk Eitzen, the director of Film and Media studies program at Franklin and Marshall College, suggests that this scene is funny. He states, “I find it funny that Shaun slips in the grocery store just because he seems so clumsy and clueless” (Eitzen 5). Eitzen argues that he finds the scene funny because of Shaun’s clumsiness (which mostly arises due to Shaun’s laziness). Furthermore, audience can infer this scene to be funny because clumsiness often leads to embarrassing and socially awkward events, which often tend to be funny (Eitzen 5). This humor, which arises partly due to Shaun’s lazy attitude, hinders him from understanding that zombies have taken over the city and they are attacking everyone.
After Shaun leaves the convenient stores, he walks back to his house. After he reaches his house, he turns on his television. He doesn’t pay any close attention to any channel especially news channel because the news channels are informing everyone in the city about the zombie apocalypse. This small scene attempts to create another lazy humor moment in audience’s mind because even though he is just scrambling through channels, the message of zombie apocalypse is still conveyed by combining all the words from previous channels. Yet, Shaun doesn’t realize the severity of the problem because those zombies can kill him at any moment, if he doesn’t take proper safety measure. In conclusion, laziness may seems to be playing a role in criticizing the modern mundane lifestyle; however, laziness leads to formation of humor, ultimately, delays the understanding of a critical situation.