Clicker Clatter Script

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“CLICKER CLATTER”

Benjamin Radford

FINAL DRAFT

Benjamin Radford

“CLICKER CLATTER”

FADE IN:

1. INT. LIVING ROOM – DAY – PRESENT

Camera opens with blank screen and moves up to reveal the back of a couch, and then a room and television in background. BRAD comes into scene from right side, seen from the waist up. He centers himself in front of the TV, pauses for a beat, then sits directly down on the couch, his head just above the couch line.

INSERT: Frame is masked top & bottom, close up on Brad’s eyes as he looks down at…

INSERT: Remote control in his right hand; most buttons are readable, including one by man’s thumb that says “Title.” Brad pushes “Title” button with thumb, hear CLICK. Cut back to close up on his eyes, looking back up at the television.

BACK TO SCENE

TV screen comes on and reads: “Clicker Clatter.” Man CLICKS again, and the station changes to:

2. DATELINE PAPERCUTS

Standing anchor ROCK FLATHEAD plugs an upcoming segment in front of a title on a TV set background.

ROCK

(ominous; Stone Phillips gravitas)

It’s the silent threat in every home.

(beat) Our children use it every day.

It looks harmless; but how much do

you really know about…

INSERT: ONSCREEN LOGO: “The Hidden Danger of Papercuts”; graphic below: two simple sheets of paper in the background begin to drip blood, maybe with a child’s hand or finger spewing blood.

ROCK (V.O.)

(continuing)

…paper? It’s even found in schools! Is

your child safe? A story every parent must see.

3. CAMEL TOADS

Long shot on generic morning show set, with a crowd outside the studio windows, waving like idiots, holding up signs, flashing, etc. (Background crowd includes Sgt. Pepper characters, Waldo, Soy Bomb, Zevon, bin Laden, Dan Rather, etc.) Camera pans to medium shot of DIANE, a typical morning show co-host.

DIANE

It’s a shocking new trend: teen boys

in search of “camel toads.”

INSERT: PHOTO OF (REAL) NEWSPAPER STORY ON “CAMEL TOADS”; inset image of Ralph Steadman-style, crazed-looking teen getting high licking an irritated frog.

DIANE (O.S.)

The toads apparently contain some

sort of drug, and young men are

scouring beaches for these “camel

toads.”…

4. TIFFANY BELLE 1

Full screen photo of attractive young blonde on cell phone.

ANDREW BONANNO (O.S.)

…search continues for teenager

Tiffany Belle. Belle has been missing for

nearly a day, and thousands of searchers

are scouring her Beverly Hills neighborhood.

Photo of Tiffany reduced slightly, seen to be on large Wholesome, Low-fat White milk carton. A dozen images of other missing persons run quickly along the bottom of the screen, on pints of chocolate milk. All the faces are Black or Hispanic.

ANDREW BONANNO (O.S)

If you see Tiffany (or any of these

other missing persons) contact police.

5. NATURE CHANNEL / OZZY 1

African wildlife footage of two rhinos beginning to mate.

OZZY (V.O.)

(excited whisper, Australian accent)

Crikey! It seems the male rhino has

picked up her scent…

6. OXYFELCHER COMMERCIAL

Cartoon man’s smiling face is next to a logo for a new drug, Dolorax (Oxyfelcher Hypochondrate). Cut to a wide shot of cartoon man’s outline body, with the drug logo at the top right of screen. 6. Below, a serene butterfly alights a sun-kissed flower in a faded-in inset scene. Man’s expression goes from smiling to unease as side effects are read.

FEMALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.)

(pleasant, reassuring delivery)

…side effects are often mild and may

include bloating, tremors, migraines,

chronic ennui, greasy rectal leakage…

7. CNN CLUTTER

Typical cluttered 24-hour news screen: logos, screen crawls,

weather reports, sports updates, Asteroids or Tetris screen, cookie recipes, etc. Amid this garbage is a talking head EXPERT with the ID caption, “Media Whore Ass Clown.” Expert’s face is mostly obscured as he makes BLAH BLAH BLAH noises. Screen crawls include: “Flava Flav breaks silence: “Yeah Boyeeeee!”; “Rev. Falwell calls for own assassination”; “Atty General: controversial short film “Clicker Clatter” is “salacious, offensive”; “George W. Bush legally changes name to ‘Captain Freedom’”; “Sudoko misprint injures dozens.”

8. ERNIE 1

Fat, earnest, Hemingway-esque guy in front of a mud hut is sitting on a log holding Ndugu, a big-eyed third-world kid close, rubbing his shoulder absently while the kid looks like a puzzled prop, inert and faintly uncomfortable. Ndugu is wearing an obviously too-large, outdated, and third-hand “Where’s the Beef?” T-shirt. Shirt message is subtle.

8. ERNIE

(sympathetic, faint huckster)

Ndugu here eats twigs, and, when he’s lucky,

crumbs he finds in my beard. He lives in a

house with a floor made of dirt and a

roof made of bugs. (beat)

How do you sleep at night? On satin sheets

in your adjustable solid gold bed?

Little Ndugu sleeps standing up–—

on sharp rocks. If only…

9. SCRAMBLED PORN

Brad flips ahead a few channels (insert split-second gag glimpses of next two scenes after each ). He stops when he hears OVERACTED PORN SEX MOANS and MOUTH-MADE CHICKA-WOW MUSIC.

INSERT: Back to scene 1 image of his eyes, one eyebrow cocked. He makes an interested “HM?!” sound and flips back. Cut to a scrambled channel pattern, snow, wavy lines, but with faint figures amid the scramble. Cut back to his eyes, looking irritated. He tries hard to squint to make out figures in the scrambled signal. Figures go in and out of focus. He emits a disappointed grunt.

10. HOW DO YOU FEEL?

Medium shot on anchor Katie Couric, who has exaggerated, worried look. She is on location with sad, haggard WOMAN in a parking lot, a burning building in the background. She is clearly distraught, being rained on, and a dog is pissing on her leg. Katie is holding an umbrella.

10. KATIE COURIC

(voyeuristic, exploitative sincerity)

Your home is gone, your husband lost a lung,

is brain damaged, and could die at any minute.

Camera gets closer on women as Katie reaches out into the rain with the microphone to the woman.

(a beat)

How do you feel?

11. RECALL

Medium shot of news anchor DON. Inset graphic says “Recall” above images of “Support Our Troops” and “God Bless America” bumper stickers and ribbons.

DON

… the consumer group demanded

the recall of millions of magnets and

bumper stickers sold since 2001.

INSERT: Close up on ribbon magnet and bumper stickers; beneath each is a short bulleted list. List below ribbon reads: “Inadequate armor; Backdoor draft; No exit strategy.” List below bumper sticker reads: “Hurricanes; Poor economy; Terrorism.”

11. DON (O.S.)

(continuing)

They claim U.S. troops have not been

supported, nor it is clear that

God has in fact blessed America.

A company spokesman called the group

“unAmerican, terrorist-comforting faggots.”

12. DRIVING LIKE ASSHOLES

Anchor Bonanno at news desk reading copy; he has name caption.

ANDREW BONANNO

…new Highway Safety Bureau study found

that 92 percent of car accidents…

INSERT: Image of official-looking government document showing typeset summary. Most of the page is blurry, highlighting the following passage: “…single greatest highway threat was people driving like assholes. Assholish behavior included…” Small “Asshole on Board” graphic appears.

ANDREW BONANNO (O.C.)

(continuing)

…are caused not by cell phones or alcohol,

but instead, by quote, “driving like an asshole.”

13. NATURE CHANNEL / OZZY 2

One rhino is now mounting the other, a lion and giraffe nearby.

14. THANK GOD

Scene of candlelight vigil. It seems very somber at first, but one candle lights a woman’s jacket on fire.

WALTER (O.S.)

… The families of the surviving miners

thanked God for their rescue, while the

widows of the dead took comfort that their

husbands are with God.

Cut to respected veteran anchor WALTER at news desk as others slap at the flames on her head.

WALTER

(continuing)

Reached for comment, God said, “I collapsed

the mine, you morons!” The deity also

acknowledged responsibility for centuries

of famine, as well as last season’s NBC sitcoms.

15. OXYFELCHER 2

Cartoon man nervously edges off screen as side effects list continues.

FEMALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.)

…crabs, toe rot, mild coma, and flatulence

during orgasm. If you are pregnant,

or may become…

16. ERNIE 2

Ernie is standing, a squalid village in the background, pushing Ndugu’s face toward the camera.

ERNIE

Can you say no to a face like this?

Ernie squeezes Ndugu’s head into a more pitiful shape, pulling it into a lost puppy dog expression.

ERNIE

How about this face? Can you say,

‘No, Ndugu, I don’t want you to eat?’

INSERT: Cut to a clip of a young, big-eyed Hispanic girl picking her nose. When she realizes she’s on camera, she quickly pulls her finger out and smiles sweetly.

17. FOX / TIFFANY 2

Similar to CNN setup, but less screen clutter. Big “Fux” logo on the left hand side. Clean-cut, Republican-looking anchor is wearing an American flag shirt and George W. Bush tie tack. Image of Tiffany Belle inset. Thompson Twins’ “Lies Lies Lies” CLIP.

FOX ANCHOR

Belle was found under a mountain of

what were described as “really cute pumps”

at a local mall; her cell phone had died.

18. SPEAKING OF KILLING

Long shot of co-hosts Katie Couric and Walter at a desk.

18. KATIE

…about Dr. Phil’s new book,

“Simplistic Solutions.”

WALTER

(alarmed, listening to earpiece)

We have breaking news: genocide in Africa.

So far thousands have been killed;