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Comedy
In The Red
By coosh
13 March 2007
[EXT. TWO EXTREMELY FAT AFRICAN STATESMEN, BOTH WITH SUNGLASSES, ONE IN COMBAT GEAR WITH A MONTECRISTO (YAKUBU), THE OTHER IN NO MORE THAN SILKY, BLUE SHORTS (IBRAHIM), LOUNGING BY A SWIMMING POOL, IN THE BAKING SUN, IN THE GROUNDS OF A MANSION. YAKUBU IS READING A TABLOID. IBRAHIM IS VIEWING A LAPTOP. THERE IS A SMALL TABLE NEAR YAKUBU, WITH A COCKTAIL, NOTEPAD AND PEN]

YAKUBU – Extraordinary. Dee Delly Mell. Normally soo accurate wid its infomairshun. [SHOWING HIM NEWSPAPER] Where do dey get deeze rideekulass figass?

IBRAHIM[PEERING CLOSELY AT NEWSPAPER AND READING SLOWLY AND DELIBERATELY] Tie yarr assets app in silicon.

YAKUBUUnder dee summits meetin’ in Jordan. Where it say “two English pounds can feed an entire family in our country for six months”. What family is diss? I barely ‘ave enough to rab two wives togedder.

IBRAHIM[LOOKING DOWN AT HIS ROLLS OF FAT] I too have tightened my belt recently. You will nat believe diss, but my brodda can no longer afford to consume iz own wairght in jam every afternoon. [IBRAHIM CONSIDERS THIS STATEMENT FOR A MOMENT, QUIZZICALLY] An’ yet, iz mouth still attract mountains o’ flies. Every time ‘ee address dee National Assembly.

YAKUBU – I feel eh big wind comin’. In my water. [SQUIRMS UNEASILY] Eh wind of chenge. Bringin’ untold relief…..

IBRAHIM [POINTING TO COCKTAIL]: Perhaps you are overdoin’ dee brandy. In your Gaviscon.

YAKUBU – … when dee generous people of dee UK pay each other to rairn manny an us, farra little while.

IBRAHIM – By dee fertile knob of Haile Selassie, dat Bloody Nose Day don’t ‘arf cam round quick…

YAKUBU – Red Nose Day.

IBRAHIM - Red Nose, bluenose, fuck knows which calla baddy-part it all camm from. What we gat on diss yarr’s shappin’ list?

[YAKUBU PUTS DOWN THE NEWSPAPER AND PICKS UP THE NOTEPAD AND PEN]

YAKUBU – As Minister of Social Welfare and Vote-Rigging, your wishes come first.

IBRAHIM [CONCENTRATING ON HIS LAPTOP] - I am biddin’ for eh nice little set of Eh-K-47s, on E-bay. To cheer me up. After dee death of my poor modda. On ‘oliday, in Switzerland.

YAKUBU - What make you decide to send 84 year-old Nigerian lottery winner ‘ang-glidin’ down dee Matterhorn? Eh-part fram y’brodda own dee insurance company.

IBRAHIM – She wurra very lucky lairdy. ‘Ee wanted ta swappa farra a vat o’ peanut butter. Under dee Fairtrade agreement. Anyway, ‘oo am I to complairn eh-bout people’s wishes? [BANGING THE KEYBOARD WITH HIS FIST] Damn! Sam bastard in Peckham jast offah sixty-two quid. You gat any better ideas?

YAKUBU -   I could eliminate dee Basket Tribe.

IBRAHIM -  Who?

YAKUBU - Doze nomad bastards. Tie rocks to dare cocks in kindergarten, get to twenty-one, an’ roll up ‘em in a giant piece’ah wicker. [IMITATES MAN ROLLING UP HOSE-LIKE PENIS]

IBRAHIM  -  Really?

YAKUBU - You should see dee size a’ summa dem? Totem to scrotum, tree furlongs. Believe me, you don’t want to be in dee vicinity when dey get one a’dare mood swings.

[IBRAHIM GRADUALLY RAISES AN ARM, IN AN EFFORT TO MEASURE THESE HOSE-LIKE MONSTERS, REALISES HIS HAND WILL RISE NO FURTHER, AND  LOOKS UP INTO THE SKY]

IBRAHIM -  Best natta get ‘em too excited.

YAKUBU – Ashually, I was tinkin’ marra samtin’ to replairce my first wife, Quinn Loosanlesi.

IBRAHIM
– I could lend you eh Chieftain tank.

YAKUBU
- She warr everything ya want inna woman. Moist an’ bendy. Wid a cleavage soo deep, it almost strack oil. Took years a’ drug-traffickin’ to pay farr all dat plastic surgery.

IBRAHIM
- Unfortunately, tootally frigid. You could have fired eh guided missile up ‘er quim, an’ never found dee G-spot.

YAKUBU
– Still, she medd a very tairsty sacklin’ pig.

IBRAHIM
– Yes, I personally saw to dee stuffin’ of ‘er myself.

[YAKUBU LOOKS BACK AT HIS NOTEPAD]

YAKUBU
– It say ‘ere, we still ‘ave to find samtin’ to enhance dee lives of dee apparently starving, destitute, ‘omeless children of diss country.

[IBRAHIM CONSIDERS THIS FOR A MOMENT]

IBRAHIM
– ‘ow eh-bout eh bouncy castle?

YAKUBU
– If we could rent one farra day.

IBRAHIM
– So watta we gat now an’ dee wish-list?

YAKUBU
[ADJUSTS HIS GLASSES AND READS CAREFULLY] Five andred semi-automatic rifles, tirty-six racket-launchers, two jam factories…. [PAUSES MOMENTARILY]… an’ eh bouncy castle.

[LOOKS AT IBRAHIM]

You think we gat enough fadee kids?

IBRAHIM
– Twill light app der little fairces. As dee grairt Lord Jemmy Allivah of Sainsbury ‘imself say, “It’s nat every day you get to mairke such a big difference ta someone’s life”.

Reviews

Written by stevetroster (1399 comments posted) 13th March 2007
Angola, Uganda, Sierra Leone, the list goes on and on. Almost too true to be funny, but funny none the less. 
Yakubu: 'Why am day callin it de red nose day?' 
Ibrahim: 'As you edder tried to take my wife up de chuffa!?'  
 
Best wishes 
 
Estee
Hilarious...
Written by Clifftown (619 comments posted) 13th March 2007
I loved this...especially the accents. This begs to be read aloud, and I have to admit I did just that as I was reading it (on my own, I might add!) Too surreal for words; had me laughing out loud in several places (especially the image of an 84 year old Nigerian Lottery winner hang gliding down the Matterhorn!) and the ending was just brilliant. 
 
(At some point I'll try to find something a bit more constructive to say about your comedy scripts...so far I've thoroughly enjoyed each one I've read).

Written by woody44 (761 comments posted) 13th March 2007
Once I got into the swing of the accents I really enjoyed this one David. Reminds me of Idi Amin, a buffoon of a human being with an undercurrent of sheer evil.Daily Mail, accurate with their information? Now that is pushing credulity a step too far. My compliments to you on a piece well thought out and written. 
 
Woody

Written by ellipinnock (1753 comments posted) 13th March 2007
Ah you had me from the start although I'm not sure that 'in no more than silky blue shorts' was an image I wanted in my head! 
 
'You could have fired eh guided missile up ‘er quim, an’ never found dee G-spot.' - had to laugh at that - still, using a guided missile you gotta be maximising your chances lol 
 
Some good bits in this - liked it. 
 
Elli 
 

Written by Bottleblondesurfer (3141 comments posted) 13th March 2007
Half the fun of this was translating to get the jokes,but like Nina I read it aloud in my head. I loved the meandering nature of the conversation just on the border of out-right zany and daft and then you remember people like Mugabe and Amin and realise it's taking some serious pot-shots 
While reading this I had a picture of Bird and Fortune doing the voices. 
My compliments to you on a great bit of scripting,even if it does disappear before I get to post this 
cheers 
J

Written by Phil (6393 comments posted) 13th March 2007
Very good piece. Some cracking lines, Elli picked my favourite, but many more. Just enough on the far side of reality to be funny and not totally depressing. 
 
Very glad The Daily Hate/Fascist is the reading of choice of third world despots. Just about sums it up. 
 
Phil.
Superb
Written by givitsum (651 comments posted) 13th March 2007
Very, very good work sir. I imagine this took a while, as doing the accents is the most time consuming bit of typing I have found.  
 
Good lines, made funnier in cases by accents, and just a nice length (!). 
 
My compliments to the chef. 
 
G.

Written by coosh (822 comments posted) 15th March 2007
Thanks stevetroster, Clifftown, Woody, Elli, BBS, Phil, givitsum - for taking the time to decipher the phonetics. 
Aye, took a lot of work to come up with this unique Zimbabwean-Jamaican dialect spoken only... in my head, I imagine. It's an offshoot of what I think is a better idea relating to Latin America (with which I'm a lot more familar), a continent which Red Nose Day seems largely to ignore. The inclusion of the Daily Mail was, on reflection, probably too controversial. 
 
Er- the Basket Tribe do exist - although not by that name, perhaps - a French girl showed me some photos many years ago, just before she emigrated to Burkina-Faso to live with them. She found it a very good way of putting down any attempts to chat her up - "if you can't beat this mate, you ain't got a hope in hell".

Written by Witzl (1585 comments posted) 15th March 2007
I wrote what I fancied was a witty, acute, detailed review of this late last night (around 1:00 in the morning in fact), and now I find that it is not here. How could this happen?  
 
Okay -- I'll never manage to reproduce it and I weep to think of how much better it was than whatever pitiful rubbish I can churn out after only five hours of sleep -- but for what it is worth, I thought this was a very clever bit of writing, just chock-a-bloc with funny bits. The dialects of the men, be they Jamaican or Zimbabwean, remind me a lot of the way a friend of mine from Zaire (as was) spoke; the descriptions of the men's body language all work, and I loved the bit about lengthened members rolled up in wicker. Never in my wildest imaginings did I suspect that there were people who did this; I think I would have been pals with that French girl who went to Burkina-Faso -- what a great line for discouraging unwanted male attention. I used to find that scratching myself all over did the trick.  

Written by coosh (822 comments posted) 15th March 2007
No worries, Witzl - your feedback is much appreciated. With regard to your first sentence, maybe there's a correlation with the time of the morning. With regard to your last sentence, it depends how and where you do the scratching. Cheers.

Written by Witzl (1585 comments posted) 15th March 2007
One o'clock in the morning or no, I absolutely did not delete my own review. I would put money on it.  
 
As for the scratching, the idea is to do it everywhere, though obviously on top of the clothes and not under, for decency's sake. This trick stood me in good stead when I was traveling in Mexico and Guatemala and stood out too obviously as a gringa, much to my great annoyance and inconvenience. Nobody wanted a nasty case of body lice even for the pleasure of hounding a likely-looking gringa, and it was great fun. I've passed this tip on to a lot of women who travel alone, and they were all enormously grateful for it and used it effectively.

Written by coosh (822 comments posted) 15th March 2007
That's great, Witzl! Are you in the Rough Guide To Central America? - With your tips, I mean.

Written by Witzl (1585 comments posted) 15th March 2007
No, but feel free to pass that one on. There are a few fellows in Oaxaca that probably still remember me to this day -- I may have gone a little overboard, but so did they. . .

Written by wltshr (300 comments posted) 15th March 2007
Once I got the Nigerian sing song in my head it was plain sailing. 
 
Nicely nasty!! 

Written by coosh (822 comments posted) 20th March 2007
Thanks wltshr - and my apologies to any Nigerians for this feeble attempt at the accent.
Excellent presentation...
Written by gerardconnolly (1186 comments posted) 1st April 2007
Nice work David, 
 
And thank you for the e-mail to which I will reply in deatai as soon as I get a moment. 
 
I admire yor insistence on the autheticity of the spoken voice. Though I don't think you need go beating yourself up too literally for a general readership since most actors will be cast to reproduce the tenor of your instructions rather than the minutiae of your text. 
 
Nonetheless well done. Yourself, Paul, Jane, Woody, have kept this site alive with solid, witty scripts. I think it is no accident that there are so many scripts in the site's 'Best Read' pieces, despite being only a fraction of the overall total posted works.  
 
I think you could do a lot worse than look in detail at Graham Duff's 'IDEAL'. Super. Original and sharp as a razor in its obsevation and surreal detail. I understand he is coming to primetime TV. Also if you have a moment try to catch Whitehouse and Higson's ' Down the Line '. That's what audio wrirting is all about. Masterly. 
 
My compliments to you.  
 
Slan. 
 
 
 

Written by coosh (822 comments posted) 6th April 2007
Many thanks, Gerard. Yes, I did go over top with the accents, although to no avail in terms of accuracy - what you say, of course, makes perfect sense - although I have noticed on occasions you suggest that some actors find it difficult to stick to the script, and therefore require a sharp slap round the head. 
 
I've now found and read a few professional comedy scripts - including "Ideal" - which has made me realise just how high the bar is, and how far down I am - yes, the combination of Cartoon Head, a necrophiliac and two pregnant lesbians having an affair is right up my street - will check out more "Down The Line" at some point. Again, many thanks.

Written by Bondvillain2k (15 comments posted) 6th April 2007
Superb. The accents were spelled in a way that made them 'sound' in my head, and it just made it all the funnier.  
 
Brilliant, clever humour. Very Bremner, Bird and Fortune :grin
HI Coosh
Written by jean.day (2196 comments posted) 13th April 2007
I decided I had to read this to find out why you are on the top of the leader board. It was very funny and very clever - and a bit uncomfortable - thinking where all that red nose day money is going.

Written by coosh (822 comments posted) 19th April 2007
Thanks Jean. Just more about exploring the ideas of political corruption, rather than taking a pop at Red Nose. I think this may be proof that the star-system doesn't work - I was never a great fan of it, and now you have to post a comment if you wish to submit a star, everything seems to have ground to a halt in that respect - or maybe there are technical reasons. Once again, many thanks.
devastating
Written by kevinrobson73 (371 comments posted) 3rd May 2007
enjoyable from start to finish
Great stuff
Written by Seagull (174 comments posted) 23rd July 2007
Not sure how I've managed to miss this on my meanderings around the site until now. A very funny piece of work that’s just begging to be performed. Like some other I had a problem with the accents to begin with and had to read it a couple of times to get in the right rhythm but it was well worth the effort. 
 
Best line for me: You could have fired eh guided missile up ‘er quim, an’ never found dee G-spot. 

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