Newspaper Zombie

The  is a low-health Zombie reading an upside-down newspaper. When it loses its newspaper, it gets angry and faster. It appears to be an elderly person with glasses and heart-patterned boxers. When your plants destroy the newspaper, it pauses, a question mark appears above his head, and then it will make an angry sound and then it quickly charges forward at your plants in a rage. Melon-pults, Winter Melons, Fume-shrooms, Gloom-shrooms and Flaming Peas damage both the zombie and the Newspaper at the same time. It is first encountered in Adventure Mode level 2-1. It is the 6th Zombie to be encountered in Adventure Mode.

Suburban Almanac Entry
 Newspaper Zombie 

His newspaper provides limited defense.

Toughness: low

Newspaper Toughness: low

Speed: normal, then fast (after losing newspaper)

Newspaper Zombie was *this* close to finishing his Sudoku puzzle. No wonder he's freaking out.

Overview
Absorbs 16 normal damage shots. Appearance changes upon absorption of 3, 6, 8 (at this point, the Newspaper is destroyed), 12 and before dying at 16 normal damageshots. When the newspaper is destroyed, this zombie will start to run faster due to his destroyed newspaper. Maybe the reason he gets angry is because he couldn't finish his Sudoku puzzle

Appearances
Adventure Mode: 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-4, 3-5 (DS, DSi), 5-10

Mini-games: Wall-nut Bowling, It's Raining Seeds, Beghouled, Beghouled Twist, Last Stand, Wall-nut Bowling 2, Dr. Zomboss's Revenge, Buttered Popcorn, BOMB All Together!

Puzzle Mode: Last Stand: Night, Last Stand: Fog, Last Stand: Endless

Survival Mode: all levels

Co-op Mode: all levels except Co-op Day and Co-op Bowling

Others: Vs. Mode

Strategy
The newspaper is useless against the lobbed-shot plants, instants, the Fume-shroom, and the Gloom-shroom. In Wall-nut Bowling and Wall-nut Bowling 2, the zombie loses the newspaper after being hit by one Wall-nut, and dies after a second hit, like the Conehead Zombie. The Newspaper Zombie pauses and charges very quickly towards the end of the row after your plants destroy the newspaper, so you will need to be fast in order to kill it. The Snow Pea, Winter Melon, or Ice-shroom are effective for this, as they can slow its movement leaving plenty of time to kill it. If you are facing multiple Newspaper Zombies, Ice-shrooms and Peashooters can be used effectively to paralyze and kill them, or you could just use lobbed shot plants (preferably Melon-pult or Winter Melon)

Trivia

 * The Newspaper Zombie has the 2nd lowest physical health out of all the zombies(only the Imps in I, Zombie are weaker, since they have only 3 hitpoints). He himself has 8 HP but his newspaper also has 8 HP making his total HP 16.
 * The Newspaper Zombie glasses are available in the Xbox Live Marketplace for 80 Microsoft Points.
 * If the Newspaper Zombie bites a Garlic and loses its newspaper right after, it will bite the Garlic a second time before switching lanes.
 * If the Newspaper Zombie bites a Garlic after losing its newspaper, he'll switch lanes as usual and will keep moving fast, but will not have the angry expression.
 * When the game is paused, the Newspaper Zombie will appear above the "Resume Game" tab.
 * Even though the Suburban Almanac states that the Newspaper Zombie is close to finishing a Sudoku puzzle, it is not holding any writing material at all.
 * It could be because he was just looking at the answers of the puzzle instead of solving it.
 * This could be why he is holding the newspaper upside-down, or he is just too dumb to notice.
 * He could also be using the newspaper to conceal his boxers, which would explain why he gets angry when the newspaper is destroyed.
 * If a Newspaper Zombie gets hit by a Lawn Mower or a Giant Wall-nut, a question mark will appear for a brief moment as the newspaper gets destroyed before the zombie.
 * The title of the newspaper is "ZOMBIE" and there is also a picture of a head on it.
 * The newspaper is upside down.
 * There is a glitch on the DS version that sometimes when the Newspaper Zombie loses it's newspaper, it will suddenly run on a spot instead of looking down with a question mark.
 * There is also a glitch on the online version that even if it has not lost it's newspaper, it will still have angry eyes when eating.
 * This might be because he has to eat instead of "read" his paper.
 * The Newspaper Zombie is one of only two zombies that can get a question mark above its head. The other is the Digger Zombie after it's Pickaxe is stolen by a Magnet-shroom.
 * Newspaper Zombie is officially and technically considered a shield zombie because he holds the newspaper up in front of him, it protects him from damage and it has all the traits of a standard shield. However, there is one small exception to his shield capabilities. His newspaper will protect him from Frozen Peas, but will not cancel the splash effect of flaming peas. This is understandable because it is made of paper and will burn.