Simon Pegg & Nick Frost
British humour has been illustrated by various types of works since numerous years. In a first part we have tried and introduced you to Monty Python, one of the most famous forerunners of the British humour world fame. But let's talk about more recent British entertainment!
A duo of actors has been getting itself talked about for seven years, namely Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Indeed they met success thanks to two hilarious films, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and are now two of the new wave of British comic actors up.
In this article we will discover who these two actors are, and why we have chosen to talk about them. We will then focus on their famous films while examining their humorous features.
First of all let us introduce you one of the UK's most sought after comedy actors, Simon Pegg—on the right, cornerstone of the duo. This English actor, comedian, writer, producer, singer and director has seen his reputation grow bigger since his first steps on TV with his starring role in the British sitcom Spaced. For this sitcom, which he created and co-wrote, Pegg brought in Frost—on the left, his best friend and flatmate at the time. Although Frost was not an actor before this—he was a waiter—he created the character of Mike to amuse Pegg who liked it so much that he wrote the character into Spaced. But Nicholas Frost is probably best known for his role as Ed in Shaun of the Dead as well as his award-winning role as Danny Butterman in Hot Fuzz. The film career of the two actors was launched by Edgar Wright, film and television director who directed and co-wrote Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
We have chosen to talk about these two actors because they represent a new generation of British humorists with new references and new ways of acting. Moreover we must admit to be fans of theirs. In order to show you their works we are going to explain to you briefly their two major films.
Firstly, Shaun of the Dead, a romantic zombie comedy, or "rom zom com" as it dubs itself, was written by Pegg and Edgar Wright and released in 2004. The film follows the life of Shaun, an unmotivated thirty-year-old salesman who spends his time playing video games with his flatmate Ed, or drinking beer at his favourite pub. During the film he will have to try and win back his girlfriend in the midst of a zombie uprising while coping with his various issues with his mother and stepfather. Shaun, along with Ed, will proceed to rescue his loved ones, deciding to take them to the Winchester Pub to survive the plague.
This film is notable for its in-jokes and references to other films, television shows, video games and pop-culture artefacts. It contains many homages to horror films such as the Dead trilogy of George A. Romero, moreover the name of the film is a play on Romero's Dawn of the Dead. This film is crammed with puns, funny and absurd situations and above all with black humour.
Secondly, in 2006, Pegg and Wright completed Hot Fuzz, released in February 2007. This one is a British comedy police-action film. The plot focuses on Nicholas Angel, an over-achieving police officer whose record puts his fellow cops to shame, leading to a forcible transfer to the seemingly sleepy village of Sandford in rural Gloucestershire. Once there, he reluctantly teams up with small-town cop Danny Butterman to solve a succession of grisly murders disguised as accidents.
Hot Fuzz is a spoof police-action film and parodies clichés used in other action films. Simon Pegg said he took inspiration for the script from the films he had loved as a child. Wright said that he wanted to write and direct a cop film because according to him there is not any tradition of cop flicks in the UK. This comedy, like the previous one, uses puns, funny situations and references. For instance the title was formed to appeal to the two word titles of the 80’s and 90’s action films, like “Lethal Weapon” and “Point Break”. But this film also brings a special British humour touch by using self-derision about British villages.
British humour is still spreading, as these two actors and their brilliant films show it. And it will keep on expanding for Pegg announced that there will be a concluding part of their “Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy”. Indeed, the trilogy has also been referred to by Pegg and Wright as their 'Three Flavours Cornetto' trilogy, a reference to the Three Colours film series, and we can notice that both films feature blood, and a Cornetto ice cream, red for Shaun of the Dead and blue for Hot Fuzz. Which flavour will be next?