Rabbits. Popular domestic pets. Timid, quiet, unassuming, unintelligent little creatures. Or ARE they?

In the summer of 2005 Dr Leopold Schnitzelgruber (formerly a celebrated marine-biologist) embarked on a four-year experiment which would test the intelligence and communication abilities of the common pet-rabbit. Using specially designed apparatus, Schnitzelgruber subjected ‘Frisky’ the rabbit to a constantly looped English language audiotape and monitored the animals reaction by sellotaping a pencil to Frisky’s forehead and sitting him in front of a typewriter. Unfortunately, after three years and six months, Frisky died. Schnitzelgruber remained adamant that the experiment was a success, mainly in order to secure continued financial-backing from the experiments sponsors IBM, who (upon being presented with the actual typings of the rabbit) didn’t consider ‘ZZNJRD@---9’ constituted any literal merit whatsoever and therefore ended the funding. Much to the bitter disappointment of Schnitzelgruber, who stormed out of the meeting shouting a torrent of abuse.
A fortnight later the laboratory was cleared of its apparatus. Upon moving Frisky’s hutch, several tiny envelopes and a minute diary were discovered. And so it transpired that Frisky had not only kept a day-to-day account of his life, but also enjoyed a secret two-year correspondence with his pen pal ‘Vic’, a Guinea pig from Wichita, USA.

There now follows what would have been Frisky’s last letter to Vic.....

Dear Vic,
I cannot express how much I look forward to your letters. My long days are empty and lifeless and I cling to your correspondence like driftwood in a stagnant sea.
I sat in the far corner of the hutch behind the food bowl this Wednesday and was instantly annoyed with myself for doing so, as I usually save that particular treat for Friday nights and birthdays, and as they say, you can’t burn the candle at both ends. Also, whilst on the subject of raw excitement, the laboratory staff left earlier than usual on Thursday night, and in their haste forgot to pull the window blinds down before leaving. What a night that was? I fell in love a million times over as I spent a whole night of rapturous passion hopelessly lost within the soothing bosom of a darling Moon. For this time and this time alone there would be no cage, no laboratory, no man-made restraints could hold me as I gazed in awe at this heavenly incandescence. This Sun as a ghost. This dazzling beacon of infinite wonder.
For a short while, it all made perfect sense.

Yours sincerely,
Frisky.

PS: Are you still having trouble with those raccoons?

Rejected script #2

'KINGS OF THE SCAR-FACED NOO-YOIK GODPARENTY CASINO-OWNING GOODFELLA MOBSTER TYPE CONTINGENT WHO WERE ALLEGEDLY AT THEIR MOST PREVALENT ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA'

TONY: Robert De Niro.
JOHNNY: Al Pacino.
FRANKIE: Joe Pesci.
PAULIE: Ray Liotta.
THE SCENE.

Everybody is sitting in a traditional Noo-Yoik Italian restaurant. It’s late one Monday evening and business is traditionally rare. A very old Italian man sits snoozing in a corner.
The main table of the restaurant is occupied by the film’s main characters. Camera zooms in to capture the conversation at the table.

TONY: ( Looking at Johnny as he shrugs and outwardly gestures with his arms) “Hey Johnny?”

JOHNNY: ( Looking annoyed and shrugging at Tony’s accusative tone) “Hey Tony?”

FRANKIE: (Shruggingly annoyed at the bickering of Tony and Johnny) “Hey Tony, Hey Johnny?”

TONY & JOHNNY: ( Shrugging in unison) “Hey Frankie?”
Suddenly Johnny pulls out a gun and aims it at the very old Italian man sat snoozing in the corner.

JOHNNY: (Shrugging) “Hey crony?”

CRONY: (Waking from his snooze, then shrugging) “Hey Johnny?

Suddenly Paulie enters the restaurant and is visibly disturbed by the dangerous levels of shrugging with which he finds himself confronted.

PAULIE: (Not shrugging, in order to de-shrug the situation) “Hey Frankie, hey Johnny, hey Tony, hey Crony?”

FRANKIE, JOHNNY, TONY and CRONY: (Shrugging) “HEY PAULIE?”

PAULIE: (Condescendingly un-shrugging) “Hey Frankie, Johnny, Tony, Crony?
From out of nowhere, a local confectioners suddenly turn up with a huge sugar-iced cake with an aerial sticking out of it.

EVERYONE: “HEYYYY!”

FRANKIE: ( Excited) “Hey Johnny, hey Tony, hey Crony?

JOHNNY: ( Excited) “Hey Frankie, hey Tony, hey Crony?

TONY: (Excited) “Hey Frankie, hey Johnny, hey Crony?

CRONY: (Asleep) “Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!”

Everybody temporarily forgets their differences and start to demolish the huge cake with an aerial sticking out of it.

SUDDEN SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE BY ANDY GARCIA AS BENNY.
BENNY: (Walking into the restaurant with a remote-control unit in his hands)
“Hey Frankie, Johnny, Paulie, Tony, Crony?"

FRANKIE, JOHNNY, PAULIE, TONY, CRONY: ( In unison) “HEY BENNY?”

BENNY: ( Pressing button on remote-control unit) “HEYYY...”

RESTAURANT: ‘KA-BOOM!”

The End.

MY FAULTY KEYBOARD.

My keygoards gone faulty, I’d gest have it mended.
One of the keys is now misrepresented.
Cos when I press ‘G’, I instead get a ‘G’,
and it’s guggering up all my poems you see?
The gloke who I gought it from turned kind of funny,
when I took it gack to him demanding my money.
He called me a ‘Mucker!’...
OH GLOODY HELL!
It looks like the ‘M’ key is maulty as well!

JACK: The world’s very first superstar entertainer. No other actor has had such a profound effect on the fabric of civilisation. Not even Chuck Norris. Now, for the first time anywhere, I bring to you the story of Jack and his meteoric rise to global domination...

1521: Jack is born to humble farmer John Horner and wayward wife Josephine.

1529: Eight-year-old Jack is discovered by an amateur poet who finds him sitting in the corner of a room eating a pie.

1530: ‘Little Jack Horner’ poem is put on general release and receives favourable critical revues.

1530: Upon finding his wife in the haystack with hired farm-hand Joseph Spratt, John Horner leaves, never to return.

1530: After the success of ‘Little Jack Horner’ Jack is approached by another local poet with ideas of an action/adventure poem.

1531: ‘Jack be nimble, Jack be quick’ poem released to rapturous critical appraisal.

1532: Jack’s mother marries Joseph Spratt and Jack also changes surname.

1533: Jack is visited by Jeff Spangle, a poetry Impresario from London with all the right connections.

1533: Twelve year old Jack moves to London on the behest of Mr Spangle, and co-habits with Mr Spangle’s sister Jane and her twelve year old daughter Jill.

1534: Jack and Jill get on like a house on fire, inspiring Jeff Spangle to suggest they form a double act for a drama project of his own.

1535: ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill’ released and the world gets it’s first real taste of ‘Jack mania’. Offers of work come pouring in from all the big poetry-moguls. Media coins the phrase ‘Jack the lad’.

1536: Romance blossoms between Jack and Jill as Jack makes the transition from poems to full-length feature stories. ‘Jack and the beanstalk’ cleans up at the bookstores, followed by ‘The house that Jack built’, and ‘Jack the giant-killer’. An array of related merchandise hits the shops to meet the demands of a public gone ‘Jack’ crazy. The Jack-knife, the Jack-boot, the Jackhammer, the Jack-pot (a drinking mug bearing Jack’s likeness) all of which sell millions and bolster Jack’s steadily swelling personal fortune.

1537: Jack writes, produces, directs, and stars with fiancée Jill in ‘Jack Spratt would eat no fat’, a domestic drama poem about the couples eating habits. It is ecstatically received by his overwhelmingly adoring public.

1538: Jack marries Jill on his seventeenth birthday and a euphoric nation turn up to witness. A motion is passed in parliament and the British union flag is renamed ‘The Union-Jack’ as a mark of respect.

1540: After a two year silence, rumours start to emerge that Jack has quit the world of showbiz.

1541: In a sudden and unexpected public announcement, Jack gives Jeff Spangle the sack and decides to create his own independent publishing company (Jackanory).

1542: Jack grows long hair and a goatee beard.

1543: Jack learns to play the sitar.

1544: Jack officially changes his name to Jehuknah P’tangwa F’tangwallawalla.

1545: After an eight year hiatus, Jehuknah P’tangwa F’tangwallawalla releases ‘Open up your inner-eye Daddio!’ on the Jackanory label. A three-book concept-trilogy, starting with the experimental-jazz poem ‘Hey nonny nonny, b’ding, p’tang, fernoony-fernoony’. A nation is alienated almost overnight and the backlash starts here.

1546: Jackanory release ‘Le philosophe de F’tangwallawalla’. It bombs.

1547: Jackanory rush release ‘Jack’s Greatest Hits’ in a desperate attempt to capitalize on former glories. It sells poorly, reflecting the publics shift towards the new ‘tongue-twister’ trend of which Peter Piper is a rising star.

1548: Jackanory becomes insolvent and Jack loses everything. He and wife Jill discover they are soon to be parents. Jeff Spangle surprisingly takes pity on the couple and offers Jack the position of A&R man to Peter Piper. It proves to be a highly profitable pairing.

And they all lived happily ever after.