Web Video / Mr Peterson

Mr Peterson is a 2020 Irish Black Comedy written by Miranda Hamilton and directed by Ronya Phoenix.

One morning, in a small Dublin suburb, an eccentric recluse called Mr Peterson is found murdered in his own front garden. It turns out the deed was done by the equally strange Robbie and Bonnie Clyde - who high tail it shortly after. But Hilarity Ensues as the police try to solve the case.

The film was the result of a lengthy improv Miranda Hamilton came up with in an acting class, transcribing most of what the actors came up with to create the script. Many of the actors reprised their roles for the screen version.

The full thing can be watched here.

Tropes:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Sgt Levine can be seen grinning at Melanie's imitation of a budgie, as opposed to being irritated at how useless the contribution was.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Mona's news report has a lot of words starting with D, prompting her to wonder if the writers are trolling her. Monty's likewise has the same with H.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: One possible motive behind Bonnie and Robbie's killing of Mr Peterson.
• All There in the Manual: Aunty M is Bob Clyde's sister, and he and the other two are living in her house.
• Alliterative Family: There's Alan and his mother Agnes.
• Alliterative Name: Patsy Pinkett, the local weather girl.
• Always Identical Twins: Zoe and Maggie are identical, though complete opposites in personality.
• Ambiguously Gay: Archie is a Pretty Boy who has a Held Gaze with another officer and seems to be annoyed at his best friend's crush on the local weather girl.
• Asshole Victim: Mr Peterson by all accounts was a grumpy old man who probably won't be missed.
• Berserk Button: Mikey really doesn't like being called 'boy'.
• Big Little Brother: The script confirms that Bob Clyde is Aunty M's younger brother, and he is in fact twice the size of her.
• Blind Weapon Master: Concetta claims she's "lethal" with her stick in a fight - and apparently fended off Mr Peterson rummaging in the pawn shop's bins.
• Brother–Sister Team: Bonnie and Robbie Clyde, the duo who murdered Mr Peterson.
• Car Fu: How Mr Peterson met his end. In addition to being stabbed in the back.
• Cassandra Truth: Alan won't believe his mother's claims that she saw Mr Peterson's murder.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Robbie, Bob, Alan, Archie, Deco and both Prey and Hope are certainly all quite pleasing on the eyes.
• Casting Gag: Robbie is a reckless driver who murdered the titular character with Car Fu. Bobby Calloway didn't know how to drive when his scenes were shot.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Mikey in particular changes his fantasies from one minute to the next.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Agnes screams "Oh Jesus" when the Clydes drive off. Alan remarks that Jesus wouldn't be driving a mini.
  "A Honda maybe, at a push."
  • Sgt Levine tells the cops to look lively. Officer Hope then does jumping jacks. Then clarifies it helps him prepare.
  • Archie says something about "the place with the hole-y roof" and Deco responds that they didn't hide anything in a church.
  • Mikey and Sgt Levine have this exchange:
  Sgt Levine: May I call you 'Michael'?
  Mikey: No. Why would you do that?
  Sgt Levine: Is that not your Christian name?
  Mikey: No, I'm an atheist.
• The Comically Serious: Sgt Levine is the Only Sane Man but that just makes it funnier. Officer Prey sometimes as well.
• Cool Aunt: Aunty M Clyde would like to think she is.
• Curse Cut Short: Archie is about to say "that cat's the closest thing you'll ever get to..." when Deco cuts him off.^note Presumably he was about to say 'pussy'.
• Dope Slap: Alan gets one from Agnes when he doesn't pay attention to her. And he gets another when he ignores her pleas for help.
• Dumb Blonde: Well dirty blonde, but Deco isn't the brightest bulb.
• Dumbass Teenage Son:
  • Alan brags about the girls he's trying to score with in a skeevy way, and doesn't seem too bright.
  • Robbie is a little older than most examples, but boy does he qualify.
• Easily Forgiven: Selina and Concetta forgave Mr Peterson for rummaging in their bins and getting into an altercation with the latter - after he apologised and bought two garden gnomes.
  Concetta: Life is too short.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Concetta jumps up when she hears the word 'mouse'.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Patsy is fantasised about by two characters, so of course she's a blonde.
• Eye Take: Robbie when he discovers the newspaper article about the murder.
• Extreme Omnisexual: Alan is described as "shagging anything with a pulse".
  "You can't expect me to have steak every night of the week."
• Fair Cop: Officers Prey gets flirted with by two school girls.
• Girlish Pigtails: Bonnie's are used ironically, considering she stabbed a senior citizen last night.
• Groin Attack: Aunty M threatens to do this.
  "There's not a woman alive who can't drop a man in an instant. These knees have a very good aim."
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Bonnie is said to have one - which explains how she became a murderer.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Patsy is described as "a fine looking creature" by Officer Hope, and Deco dreams of running away to Hawaii with her.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Sharon thinks Mr Peterson was a nice man, based off him saying hello to her in the cafe.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Aunty M and Mr Peterson each make fun of the other for having bad hair.
  • Mr Peterson also called the Clydes thieves, when he's the one who stole their coin collection from the recycle bin.
• I Call Her "Vera": Concetta calls her walking stick 'Jackie', after Jackie Chan.
• I Take Offence to That Last One: Robbie and Bonnie refute that when Mr Peterson called them "dirty thieving bastards", they told him they'd had a bath and shower that morning.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Maggie wears her hair up, Zoe wears it down.
• The Illegal: Lola Jones doesn't appear to be, but seems worried that the cops are there to accuse her of being.
• Insane Troll Logic: Deco is convinced that all dogs are brown. He also doubts the existence of Labradors.
• It Runs in the Family: Defied by the Clyde siblings. Their mother is in prison for robbery, so they insist they're not thieves. Murderers on the other hand...
• It's All About Me: Aunty M frequently tries to make the discussion about Mr Peterson's murder all about her.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Deco stole the dead Mr Peterson's cat because he knew it would starve without anyone to feed it.
• Like Goes with Like: Downplayed. Officer Prey (who is Indian) has a moment of sexual tension with the mixed-race Archie, rather than the white Deco.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Both Concetta and Selina appear to be quite feminine, dressed very classily in dresses on their date night.
• London Gangster: Deco jokes that Aunty M likes to think she's one. She's got the thick Statham-accent for one.
• The Lost Lenore: Mr Peterson's wife died years ago, and she appears to be the only person he was remotely pleasant too.
• Lower-Class Lout: Mikey seems a bit sensitive that he's this. It has to be said, Archie and Deco are as well (without the shame though).
• Messy Hair:
  • It's a Running Gag that other characters point out Mr Peterson's messy hair.
  • Aunty M is introduced with one roller in her hair, while the rest is in tangled disarray.
• Missing Mom: The Clyde mother is said to be in prison.
• Mood Whiplash: Sharon at first talks about what a 'nice' man Mr Peterson was, then remembers he never tipped her in the cafe and grumbles that she's glad he's dead.
• Never Heard That One Before: Concetta and Selina aren't amused when Sgt Levine tries to flatter them with "you've been in business since you were two years old?" after they say they've been together nearly twenty years.
• The New Irish: Quite a few actually. The Joneses have mother Lola, who is an African immigrant, and her mixed race daughter Melanie. Maggie and Zoe are Eastern European. Officer Prey and Selina are Indian. The Clydes appear to be British.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The three cops include the friendly (if bumbling) Hope, the mean spirited Prey and the stern but fair Sgt Levine.
• No Kill like Overkill: Bonnie apparently ran over Mr Peterson's back to leave the tyre tracks in the shape of a Union Jack.
• Not So Stoic: Bonnie appears to be the calmer of the two Clyde siblings, but she immediately lunges at Robbie and screams "don't you dare!" when he begins to confess the murder.
• One-Steve Limit: The Clyde family has a father called Bob and a son called Robbie.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Monty wonders if "Old Man Peterson" is really the man's given name.
• Police Are Useless: Subverted. Officers Hope and Prey appear to be bumblers who can't do anything besides antagonise their witnesses, but they end up uncovering the culprits and end the film busting Bob Clyde.
• Precision F-Strike: From Sharon after spending several minutes praising Mr Peterson, then remembering he never tipped her.
  "What a fucking wanker! I'm glad he's dead."
• Precocious Crush: Deco - a teenage thief from the Wrong Side of the Tracks - has the hots for the local weather girl Patsy Pinkett.
• Punny Name: A lawbreaker called Bonnie with a last name Clyde.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Mr Peterson lived by this attitude.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mr Peterson calls his coins "my precious" of course.
  • Patsy compares Monty and Mona to Sonny and Cher.
  • From Sgt Levine to Officer Prey - "this isn't Hawaii Five-0."
• The Shut-In: Alan's mother hasn't left her house in years.
• Skewed Priorities: The Clyde siblings are especially annoyed with Mr Peterson calling them thieves. Even after he's been found dead.
• Slut-Shaming: Maggie lets her sister have it for trying to flirt with the officers investigating a murder.
  "You're a filthy slut, you know that."
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Melanie imitates next door's budgie and asks if the cops want to write it down as a statement.
  Hope: It wouldn't do it justice.
• Spy Speak: Archie wants Deco to use this, referring to the coins they stole as "treasure".
• Stepford Smiler: Patsy is a mild example, trying to keep up a smile when reading extremely depressing weather predictions.
• Strange Minds Think Alike:
  • Melanie talks about how a budgie could be an eye witness to the murder. Deco later snarks that Archie is worried Mr Peterson's stolen cat could be an eye witness.
  • Both Mikey and Archie hate being called "boy", which is lampshaded by Officer Hope.
• Sudden Downer Ending: Bonnie and Robbie are outed for their crime and leave town, but we see Bob answering the door to the police and looking devastated.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Sgt Levine seems to realise he is.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Mrs Jones keeps insisting that her papers are in order.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Patsy when she sees a storm headed for Dublin, while the rest of the country is getting sun.
  "The weather's gonna be crap alright."
• Those Two Guys:
  • Concetta and Selina, the two pawnshop owners.
  • Archie and Deco, the two teenage delinquents.
  • Maggie and Zoe, the two school girls who lived next door to Mr Peterson.
• Toilet Humor: Aunty M is introduced complaining about falling into the toilet seat.
  "Felt like I'd been branded. Freeze marked. Like a cow."
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The twin sisters include the casually dressed and foul-mouthed Maggie, and the pink-wearing and flirty Zoe.
• Tsundere: Sharon initially thinks Mr Peterson is nice and speaks fondly of him...then remembers he never tipped her and immediately launches into a rant.
• Unexplained Accent: The Clyde family appears to be English, going off the accents on Bonnie, Robbie and Aunty M. Bob Clyde however has an Irish accent, and the script lists him as Aunty M's brother.
• Unusual Euphemism: Alan compares the girls he repeatedly sleeps with to having a balanced diet.
  "It's good to have a roast dinner every once in a while."
• Weather Report:
  • Monty and Mona, reading the evening news.
  • We get a glimpse of Patsy Pinkett, the snarky weather girl, giving a deadpan report on an upcoming storm.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Sgt Levine disappears after interviewing Mikey, with Prey and Hope being the ones to find the rest of the information.
  • Agnes was an eye witness to the murder but is never questioned, possibly because she was too afraid to go to the police or her reputation as an eccentric curtain twitcher meant that she wouldn't be believed.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Last name variety. Deco takes the time to wonder "what kind of stupid last name" Clyde is for Bonnie and Robbie.
• World of Snark: Every other character has a snarky response to something.