Bub the Zombie

Bub the Zombie salutes

Bub the Zombie action figure from Amok Time toys

The part of the most beloved screen zombie of all time, Bub, was played by the actor Howard Sherman in George Romero's third zombie movie, Day of the Dead. Bub is Dr. Frankenstein's star pupil, and the lead subject in his experiment to get the zombies to "behave." beginning with classical conditioning and operant conditioning techniques, Dr. Frankenstein is able to "teach" Bub to duplicate simple activities he remembers from his days of being alive, such as shaving, listening to a Walkman, and saying "Hello Aunt Alicia on a telephone." 

However, Rhodes, the de factor leader of the military attachment sent to facilitate the work of the scientists is not a strong believer in science, communication, or underacting. This leads to one of the most classic confrontations in zombie movie history between Rhodes and Bub. I'll let you watch that for yourself.

Day of the Dead is largely a movie about entropy of social institutions, primarily communication. The characters yell and it's a very distracting movie, but that's one of the points. Communication breaks down, and all civility and social order follows. Even as the scientists are trying to make the zombies behave, the humans are regressing towards their base animal natures. It's a profound statement about the value of culture and civilization, and a cynical commentary on human nature. We believe we are civilized, when in the end all we're doing is obeying our masters in return for a treat.

As the behavior of the humans around him becomes more and more inhuman, Bub starts to become more and more human, in the end offering what little hope remains. 

It is possible Bub is still wandering around that underground bunker in southern Florida, or equally possible he found a means to escape and lead other zombies into the modern age of thinking zombies.

Bub the Zombie making a cameo on the March 23, 2014 episode of The Walking Dead