Python & Pygame: Can't get out of paused state

I'm new to Python and Pygame and I programmed a little game and tried to implement a pause menu. While I can get to the pause menu I can't get out of it. I followed a tutorial by sentdex and changed the code a bit to my liking. I'm working with Python-Idle but I don't get any error messages there either so I have no idea what I'm doing wrong.

import pygame
import time
import random
import shelve

pygame.init()

display_width = 800
display_height = 600

black = (0,0,0)
white = (255,255,255)

starfighter_width = 160

highscore = 0

paused = False

gameDisplay = pygame.display.set_mode((display_width,display_height))
pygame.display.set_caption('A bit Racey')
clock = pygame.time.Clock()

backgroundImg = pygame.image.load('background.jpg')

asteroidImg = pygame.image.load('asteroid.png')
asteroidImg = pygame.transform.scale(asteroidImg, (100,100))

starfighterImg = pygame.image.load('x_wing.png')
starfighterImg = pygame.transform.scale(starfighterImg, (160, 100))

def save_score(score):
    d = shelve.open('score.txt')
    if score > d['score']:
        d['score'] = score

    d.close()

def get_highscore():
    d = shelve.open('score.txt')
    global highscore
    highscore = d['score']
    d.close()

def display_highscore():
    global highscore
    font = pygame.font.SysFont(None, 25)
    text = font.render("Highscore: " + str(highscore), True, white)
    gameDisplay.blit(text,(660, 0))

def things_dodged(count):
    font = pygame.font.SysFont(None, 25)
    text = font.render("Dodged: " + str(count), True, white)
    gameDisplay.blit(text,(0,0))

def things(thingx, thingy):
    gameDisplay.blit(asteroidImg, (thingx, thingy))

def starfighter(x,y):
    gameDisplay.blit(starfighterImg,(x,y))

def text_objects(text, font):
    textSurface = font.render(text, True, white)
    return textSurface, textSurface.get_rect()

def message_display(text):
    largeText = pygame.font.Font('freesansbold.ttf',85)
    TextSurf, TextRect = text_objects(text, largeText)
    TextRect.center = ((display_width/2),(display_height/2))
    gameDisplay.blit(TextSurf, TextRect)

    pygame.display.update()

    time.sleep(2)

    game_loop()

def crash():
    message_display('Crashed you have')

def pause():

    global paused

    while paused:
        for event in pygame.event.get():
            if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
                pygame.quit()
                quit()
            if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
                if event.type == pygame.K_ESCAPE:
                    paused = False

        largeText = pygame.font.Font('freesansbold.ttf',85)
        TextSurf, TextRect = text_objects("Paused", largeText)
        TextRect.center = ((display_width/2),(display_height/2))

        gameDisplay.blit(TextSurf, TextRect)
        pygame.display.update()

def game_intro():

    intro = True

    while intro:
        for event in pygame.event.get():
            if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
                pygame.quit()
                quit()
            if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
                intro = False

        gameDisplay.blit(backgroundImg, (0,0))
        largeText = pygame.font.Font('freesansbold.ttf',85)
        TextSurf, TextRect = text_objects("Starfighter", largeText)
        TextRect.center = ((display_width/2),(display_height/2))
        gameDisplay.blit(TextSurf, TextRect)

        smallText = pygame.font.Font('freesansbold.ttf',35)
        TextSurf, TextRect = text_objects("Press any key", smallText)
        TextRect.center = ((display_width/2),(display_height/2 + 50))

        gameDisplay.blit(TextSurf, TextRect)
        pygame.display.update()



def game_loop():
    x = (display_width * 0.45)
    y = (display_height * 0.8)

    x_change = 0

    thing_startx = random.randrange(0, display_width)
    thing_starty = -600
    thing_speed = 4
    thing_width = 100
    thing_height = 100

    dodged = 0

    gameExit = False

    get_highscore()

    global paused

    while not gameExit:

        for event in pygame.event.get():
            if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
                pygame.quit()
                quit()

            if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
                if event.key == pygame.K_LEFT:
                    x_change = -5
                elif event.key == pygame.K_RIGHT:
                    x_change = 5
                elif event.key == pygame.K_ESCAPE:
                    paused = True
                    pause()


            if event.type == pygame.KEYUP:
                if event.key == pygame.K_LEFT or event.key == pygame.K_RIGHT:
                    x_change = 0

        x += x_change
        gameDisplay.blit(backgroundImg, (0,0))

        things(thing_startx, thing_starty)
        thing_starty += thing_speed
        starfighter(x,y)
        things_dodged(dodged)
        display_highscore()

        if x > display_width - starfighter_width or x < 0:
            save_score(dodged)
            crash()

        if thing_starty > display_height:
            thing_starty = 0 - thing_height
            thing_startx = random.randrange(0, display_width)
            dodged += 1
            thing_speed += 0.3

        if y < thing_starty + thing_height:

            if x + starfighter_width > thing_startx and x < thing_startx + thing_width:
                save_score(dodged)
                crash()

        pygame.display.update()
        clock.tick(60)

game_intro()
game_loop()
pygame.quit()
quit()

You need to replace type with key here: if event.type == pygame.K_ESCAPE:.

You also don't need the global paused variable, just stay in the pause function until the user presses escape and then simply return from the function.

import sys
import pygame


pygame.init()

display = pygame.display.set_mode((800, 600))
clock = pygame.time.Clock()


def pause():
    while True:
        for event in pygame.event.get():
            if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
                pygame.quit()
                sys.exit()
            elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
                if event.key == pygame.K_ESCAPE:
                    return

        pygame.draw.rect(display, (250, 0, 0), display.get_rect(), 3)
        pygame.display.update()
        clock.tick(60)


def game_loop():
    x = 0
    gameExit = False

    while not gameExit:
        for event in pygame.event.get():
            if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
                gameExit = True
            elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
                if event.key == pygame.K_ESCAPE:
                    pause()

        x += 1
        display.fill((30, 30, 30))
        pygame.draw.rect(display, (0, 200, 250), (x, 200, 20, 20))

        pygame.display.update()
        clock.tick(60)


game_loop()
pygame.quit()