Recall Mr. Peepers, one of Chris Kattan’s go-to characters on Saturday Night Live in the late nineties. The sort of chimp-man, who squatted and ate (and spit out) apples and humped things? And said “bah!” a lot? Well, some creative and mirthful human has written a full-length screenplay called Peepers, a canticle and is planting it at California bookstores. You can also read the whole thing here. It’s a pretty magical take on Being There, except instead of Peter Sellers, it’s Mr. Peepers. Also, George W. Bush is there, and there is more humping than in the Sellers version, and the famous closing shot finds Mr. Peepers walking on water and then turning around and humping the earth with “deliberate thrusts.” Otherwise, though, the scripts are pretty similar!
The S.F. Weekly received a hard copy of Peepers, a canticle in the mail that someone allegedly found at City Lights Books. It’s a paperback, and like the online version it includes the screenplay, introduction, and a faux Q&A that took place the day after the screenplay was “released” — September 11, 2001.
Weird cultural specimens like this are often met with the derisive comment “someone has too much time on their hands.” That could not be less true in this case: Peepers, a canticle is wonderful. (As a script. Watching an actual movie of it would probably be excruciating.) It’s funny and strange and wholly unexpected, and it’s also exceptionally well done. Somebody’s got a bizarre little masterpiece on their hands.
