This February 2nd Punxsutawney Phil has declared that we’re in for six more weeks of winter. What better way to celebrate this unwanted news than by recalling suicide attempts (fictional suicide attempts silly, by the wonderful Bill Murray in the equally wonderful Groundhog Day). As unthinkable as it is to contemplate the loss of one of comedy’s all time greats, It is pretty good fun watching Murray’s obnoxious weatherman Phil Conner’s attempting, and failing, to kill himself four times in this 1993 comedy classic. So without further adieu let’s countdown the the ways that Phil tries to escape the never-ending curse that is a perpetual February 2nd in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
- The class teenage girl favourite; toaster in the bathtub (I believe It is a different toaster to man-eating toaster in Ghostbusters 2, It could be related though. I’m not sure).
- Stepping in front of a truck.
- Taking a swan dive from some sort of tall clock-tower thing.
- Driving himself (and Punxsutawney Phil, the infamous fat Groundhog rat thing) off a cliff-face, into a quarry, and a sweet fire-ball of death.
But that’s just the visual stuff, Phil also confides in ‘wet weekend’ Andie MacDowell that he’s been “stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted, and burned.” Technically then, Phil has died some eleven times. Poor bastard. But fun memories.
So on this February 2nd let’s all raise a glass to you Mr Bill Murray (and Harold Ramis) for putting this bizarre American tradition on the pop culture map. And while Dan Aykroyd is pulled out of a metaphorical tree stump every year to predict the coming Spring of Ghostbusters 3, It would seem that the rest of us will have to linger in the perpetual 1984 as Bill Murray continues to deliver an unending winter for everyone’s favourite ghost franchise (collective sad face).
Happy Groundhog Day. Yeah.
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