The Killing of an Egg

The Killing of an Egg (Dutch title Ei om Zeep, literally "Egg for Soap") is an animated short produced by Paul Driessen and Nico Crama in the Netherlands in 1977. It has been frequently broadcast in the United States, often on the Nickelodeon network and once on MTV's Liquid Television.

Synopsis

The film starts with a bald, obese man in a bright yellow shirt preparing to eat breakfast, a soft boiled egg. As he taps the shell with his spoon, a voice (in heavily accented English) says "Hey, who is it?" As the man continues to tap, it becomes clear the voice is coming from the egg. The man continues tapping away over the egg's protests, then gets carried away and ends up smashing the egg with his fists, silencing the voice.

He has no sooner stopped than he hears a tapping from outside his home. He says, in a voice identical to that from the egg, "Hey, who is it?" He sees no one at the door, but the tapping continues, and the unseen force starts smashing the roof and walls, until the whole house comes down over the man's horrified objections.

Additional Note

This short film also influenced the genesis of the "Black Hole Universe" or "Bubble Universe" Theory in the late 1980s.

External links

• British Film Institute's entry on The Killing of an Egg
• The Killing of an Egg at the Internet Movie Database