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My Zombie Apocalypse Novella

2010-12-08 · story · John · 3:45 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: song or performance, calendar ritual, civic or action cta, community lore

John reads what he calls the first page of his zombie apocalypse novella, narrated by a survivor in a Chicago cellar, then says it will never be published and its only copy will be a Project for Awesome raffle prize, urging Nerdfighters to make P4A videos for December 17-18.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Novella, part 1: the narrator's father, obsessed with the idea that corn controls us, and the question of who runs our desires

  • ★★★ John presents the beginning of his zombie apocalypse novella, a first-person story he performs as the video. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ In the story, the narrator's father, before 'zombification', was obsessed with an idea from a book that corn controls humans, evolving us to want more corn. (fiction) — 00:00:03
  • ★★ The narrator thinks his father was fascinated because he sensed he was not in control of his own desires, wondering why he wanted granite countertops at all. (fiction, hedged) — 00:00:44

00:01:26 — Novella, part 2: shooting his Z'ed-up father, 'completing' Marcos Marcos, fleeing with Mr. President, alone in a cellar

  • ★★ The narrator recalls shooting his zombified father a year ago; the Z'ed-up often smile when killed, and a sentimental kid called killing them 'completing' them. (fiction) — 00:01:26
  • ★★ When Marcos Marcos was Z'ed up and went for the narrator's puppy, Mr. President, the narrator 'completed' him and fled their Lincoln Park townhouse. (fiction) — 00:01:57
  • ★★ Now alone in a cellar, running out of gas and food and drinking a bottle of expensive wine a day, the narrator wonders what keeps him going rather than giving up and getting Z'ed up. (fiction) — 00:02:29

00:03:05 — The novella will never be published because it is bad; its only copy will be a P4A raffle prize

  • ★★ John says the novella will never be published, not because he dislikes the genre but because his is bad, and it gets worse after the first page. (playful) — 00:03:05
  • ★★★ John announces that the only copy of the novella that will ever exist will be one of many Project for Awesome raffle prizes. — 00:03:15 · Project for Awesome

00:03:19 — P4A 2010: make videos; featured all over YouTube on December 17 and 18; DFTBA sign-off

In the description and comments

Humor (significant)

  • The narrator says he inherited his father's penchant for intellectualism. — 00:01:19

    “a character flaw that these days can only be thoroughly eradicated by getting Z’ed up”

  • The narrator's father smiled as he died after being shot. — 00:01:33

    “He took a minute to die, and it was the smilingest minute I’d ever seen from him”

  • After a kid's euphemism of 'completing' zombies, the narrator describes killing Marcos Marcos. — 00:02:11

    “I completed his head all over the dining room credenza of that fancy townhouse”

  • John says his zombie novella will never be published, and not because he dislikes zombie novellas. — 00:03:08

    “mine is BAD. That's by far the best page of it”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Zombicorns

Also: in your pants · Lincoln Park, Chicago · Marcos Marcos · Mr. President · Project for Awesome · the narrator's father (zombie apocalypse novella) · YouTube · zombie

Only in the description or credits: Los Angeles

Also centred on Zombicorns: CONCUSSED Question Friday · QUESTION FRIDAY: Spelling is Hard Edition · Am I ... Good? · Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff!

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