RJ Writing Ink

Jay’s Month of Scares, Day 9- Regular Show, Terror Tales II

We’re back with another round of Regular Show: Terror Tales of the Park! As the Park Gang is headed to a Halloween party, they get lost on the road from Benson’s bad directions. So, they start telling each other scary stories!

Payback

In Mordecai’s story, his Uncle Steve passes away after Mordecai gets his tie stuck in that belt thing in bowling alleys. Mordecai’s wracked with guilt, and starts thinking his Uncle’s haunting him from beyond the grave. Turns out he actually is!

This story was a classic guilt-trip turned ghost story, albeit one told in the style of Regular Show. There’s a twist at the end, though: Steve came back from the dead to give Mordecai back $5 he borrowed. While it may seem lame, I thought it was a funny twist ending.

Party Bus

This next story’s told by Margaret over the phone. Mordecai, Rigby, Eileen, and Margaret try to go to a Halloween movie by taking a bus. As it turns out, they get on a party bus, and the party is killer! As in, the partygoers dance until they die.

I’ve never been on a party bus, but I don’t think I’d want to after this. This story wasn’t among my favorites of the specials, but it did give Mark Hamill a chance to shine. I’d recognize that trademark “Joker laugh” of his anywhere, and he was driving the party bus. Come to think of it, it almost sounds like something Joker would do.

Wallpaper Man

The last story’s told by Benson, who gets fed up with the stories. In this one, he forces Mordecai and Rigby to wallpaper the house, but they can’t due to laziness and lack of instructions. So they hire a wallpaper man to do it; and he wallpapers everything, and everyone. He then turns into a giant spider, because reasons.

To be honest, this was my least favorite story, and that’s mainly because the plot ends up being Benson’s fault. He just orders Mordecai and Rigby to do a job without any training. Rigby even calls Benson out on how dumb they’re portrayed in the story.

Unfortunately, that causes the Park Gang’s ride to crash, and they all turn into ghosts. Don’t worry, it’s non-canon. Happy Halloween 🎃

Click here to see the FANDOM Article I did for Halloween last year.

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By the way, here’s a photo from Nostalgia Critic’s review of IT: Chapter Twos. Watch it, it’s hilarious

I would like to thank cakedablerd from Pop Culture Uncovered for giving me the idea to watch this. Go check out her original post. I have never been one for work by Sanrio, but Aggretsuko might be an exception, especially since the main character is the opposite of Hello Kitty. Retsuko is a 25-year-old accountant in some random company… and she hates every minute of it. A lot of her co-workers are annoying, her boss is a jerk, and she just wants out. A lot of people can relate. Most of her co-workers don’t know, but she channels her anger by singing death metal karaoke.

So, I spent a whole day binge watching the first season, because the Christmas Special came out today: We Wish You A Metal Christmas.

We Wish You A Metal Christmas

If you remember my posts about the Fairy Tail and Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Christmas Specials, you may remember that I said Christmas is more about romance in Japan. That, and eating KFC, but that’s beside the point. It’s Christmas Eve, and everyone is making plans for the holiday. Everyone except for Retsuko. She’s been too busy trying to get Instagram likes to make plans, and then her jerk-boss, Ton the pig, gives her extra work. Because he’s a jerk.

Meanwhile, Retsuko’s friends, Haida and Fenneko are out drinking. Haida has had a crush on Retsuko, but she turned him down, and he still hasn’t gotten over it. So he’s getting wasted to get over the pain. Especially since he thinks Retsuko has plans.

Fortunately for him, Fenneko’s social media detective skills help her realize that something’s up with Retsuko’s Instagram posts and that she doesn’t have anything to do for Christmas Eve. So Haida tries to rush over and help her, only to find out she already left. Love is never easy.

Luck is on Haida’s side, though, as he happens to run into her as she’s out with some of her friends, and they end up getting some time together. It’s a cute way to end the episode, but the clincher is the heavy metal version of “Jingle Bells”. I never knew how badly I needed that.

Retsuko Is an Exception

As I said before, Sanrio is normally not my cup of eggnog, but I’m glad I tried this show out. It’s got enough of anime in it to keep me interested, while the premise is relatable enough for non-anime fans to get into it. What makes this enjoyable, though, is that it serves as a reminder of how no one should be alone for the holidays. Yet many people out there are. They don’t have any family or friends nearby, so the holidays can be a sad and lonely experience. But when you have people you care about with you, they become a lot brighter.

I also find this to be an interesting commentary on how some in our generation go out of their way to look amazing on social media to make up for the fact that they don’t like where they are right now. While stuck at work, Retsuko even fakes a fancy dinner photo just get people’s approval.

My advice: social media is fun, but it doesn’t beat having physical friends to hang out with. But I don’t want to preach, so instead, I’ll wish you a Merry Christmas!

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Kneel Before Zim!

Do you remember this show? Invader Zim, the cult classic of Nickelodeon. Created by comic book writer Jhonen Vasquez and premiering in 2001, this show isn’t like other Nicktoons. It was extremely dark for a kids cartoon. Too dark, it seems, for some kids to watch, and it worried a lot of parents.

Me, I didn’t care one bit. I loved Invader Zim because it was dark and different from other Nicktoons. I did think some of the episodes were a little too scary (I don’t even remember the “Dark Harvest” one that well). But it holds a special place in my heart for the amazing use of CGI. It was one of the first times I had ever seen CGI in a kids show, so I was mesmerized by it!

All the love can’t help with bad ratings, though, and the show got pulled in the middle of its second season, with a bunch of episodes remaining unreleased or unfinished. The last episode I ever saw was its Christmas Special, which aired sixteen years ago tonight. In honor of that, I decided to rewatch it for my 25 days of Christmas. So without further ado, I give you The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever.

Zim Ruins Christmas Forever

The entire story takes place in flashback, being told by a robotic snow who is a clear parody of Frosty the Snowman. He explains that two million years ago, Zim discovered the concept of Christmas, and more importantly Santa. 

After seeing how much humanity loved and adored Santa, Zim got an idea. An awful idea. Zim got a wonderful, awful idea. *cue the evil Grinch smile*

Using alien nanotechnology, Zim creates a robotic Santa suit for him to control, then with a flourish, presents himself to the world as the real Santa Claus.

Humanity successfully fooled, he summons them to the North Pole for a huge rally. In hindsight, the decorations, chanting, and the sinister overtones of the song, reminds me of a cult rally. It does give us the most oppressive and tyrannical Christmas Song ever, though. And I loved it!

Zim’s master plan is to build a teleporter and beam humanity to the Irken Empire to use as slaves. The only one with enough sense to oppose him is Dib. But since humans in Zim are stupid, they don’t believe Dib and Zim throws him in Jingle-Jail.

Fortunately, Dib doesn’t have to do anything this time around. Zim made the Santa Suit too good, and it’s started to think it’s the real Santa. Anything Christmas-related makes it take over.

Despite his best efforts, the suit manages to overpower Zim, trapping him inside.

So Zim’s trapped forever and Santa is real. Happy ending for all! Until Dib shows up with a giant robot suit and causes the suit to go berserk. 

The Fight I Couldn’t Show You

After a giant monster fight, Dib weakens the suit enough for Zim to escape, shrink it down, and have Dib throw it into space. There might have been a moral behind all that, but for the life of me, I still don’t know.

But despite thinking him destroyed, the Santa Suit, in fact, survived to gather power in deep space. Now it comes back every year on Christmas and terrorizes the Earth, so everyone has to live inside domes and placate him with milk and cookies. Dark

Dark Show, But I Loved It

Yeah, Invader Zim was a dark and scary cartoon more often than not, but that’s what it was supposed to be. That’s why I liked it so much: it was different, and not seeing it canceled leaves a hole in my heart. I know it’s sounds sappy, but I wanted to see where the series would go. This Christmas Special was the last episode that ever aired; the rest were released years later by Nickelodeon.

In hindsight, maybe it would have been a good idea to just leave Zim trapped inside the suit. It would have been a good way to end the series: Earth saved, Santa is real, and Dib got what he wanted with Zim stopped. At least we still have the comics and the upcoming movie. And even after all these years, I still love this Christmas Special! Ho-ho-ho, Happy Holidays one and all!

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Growing up, A Charlie Brown Christmas had always been a staple of Christmastime, as it was with many kids in America. This special, alongside It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, is what introduced me to the Peanuts. I actually went through a phase in my childhood where I read, watched, and played anything related to the Peanuts. But I think I like their Christmas Specials the most out of all of them. There are, in fact, more than one, like Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales.

I actually missed most of this year’s broadcast of A Charlie Brown Christmas, but I was able to watch the follow up, Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales. It’s not as classic as the first Peanuts Christmas Special, being released in 2002, but it’s still a fun little special to watch. 

There is no overarching plot to the special: it’s just the kids and animals preparing for Christmas. But I think this actually works to its advantage. It hearkens back to the comic strip from which Peanuts was born. It’s Peanuts at its simplest, but also it’s most entertaining.

Peanuts Are the Best

I will always like Peanuts, and I hope that they manage to stick around for a long, long time. This is a brief blog, but that is because I don’t think I can say anything that hasn’t already been said about the Peanuts. I like Charlie Brown, and no matter how many times I may see his specials, I will always want to watch them once more when the holidays come around. They are timeless classics and staples of the American Holiday Season.

I hope that Charlie Brown and his friends stay popular well into the future, as they help to tie generations of people together through a common interest. And if The Peanuts Movie proved anything, its that the gang still has some stories left to spare. Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

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This is one of the stranger Christmas Specials that I’ve seen. I actually found it by complete accident one day. Supermansion is this show that is done in the style of Robot Chicken: with action figures for the characters. It’s got a lot of good talent on it, with Bryan Cranston playing the lead, and Matthew Seinrich and Seth Green from Robot Chicken working on it as well, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Plus, Jim Parsons is in it, and I like him from The Big Bang Theory. So here is Supermansion: War on Christmas. Lets see some Santa!

Evil Santa is Born

After Cooch the talking cat learns from Titanium Rex that Santa Claus isn’t real, she stumbles into his hall of confiscated villain weapons and meets a magic alien doll thing, voiced by Jim Parsons. I wish I could show you the video of his song and dance, but Sony won’t let me.

Bottom line, Mr. Skibumpers grants a person a wish in exchange for his freedom, and Cooch wishes for Santa to be real. It’s awesome at first, but Santa is quickly freaked out by all the job entails and goes crazy!

Honestly, I think this special is supposed to be a commentary about how scary it would if Santa were real. I don’t really know. The good news is the heroes resolve everything and turn Santa sane again using his magic bag to give him peace of mind. He moves to the North Pole and promises to come back every Christmas like the legends say.

This is not your normal holiday special, but it pretty much admits that at the end, courtesy of Mr. Skibumpers… who says that if he gets out of being wood (he got tricked by Titanium Rex), he’s gonna kill everyone. It’s still a laugh riot, though. I thought this was one of the most original holiday specials I had seen in a while, hence why I came back to it. If you haven’t seen it, you can buy it on YouTube or watch it if you have Sony Crackle. Just make sure no one under 17 (16 at the least) watches it. Happy Holidays!

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There are plenty of Christmas specials out the wazoo, but there are more holidays in December than just Christmas. Coincidentally, as a kid the only specials I remember watching that had anything to do with Chanukah or Kwanzaa were made by the same show, Rugrats on Nickelodeon.

Rugrats was a personal favorite show of mine growing up, and with the revival of the series announced earlier this year, I’d thought now would be a good time to look back at their holiday specials. I’m not actually Jewish, so I don’t celebrate Hanukkah. But ever since I learned about the story behind the holiday, I’ve had a mild fascination with the holiday. Plus, I think driedels look like a lot of fun! So, here’s my look back at the Rugrats Chanukkah.

The babies, being babies, don’t really understand the meaning behind Chanukah. They take one look at the Menorah, how Tommy get’s presents every night, and their conclusion: it’s HIS BIRTHDAY! To be fair, that does have some logic to it from a kid’s point of view. 

The whole special is about the kids learning the meaning of Chanukah, though they are, at first distracted. So is Grandpa Boris: his childhood rival, Shlomo is playing the role of King Antioch, and when the Rugrats hear Boris complain about him, they decide they need to beat the “meany of Hanukkah”

As for Angelica… I don’t really care about Angelica. I never really liked her, because she’s mean and bossy all the time. She also personifies the kid at Christmas: she doesn’t give two cents about Hanukkah, she just wants to watch a dumb Christmas special. Then she enlists the Babies in order to do that at the Synagogue.

Eventually, all the plots come together as Boris and Shlomo resolve their rivalry and the babies (and Angelica) learn about the meaning of Hanukkah.

I honestly liked this special as a kid. It was different from the other Holiday Specials that I had been seeing, it was about something new, and I appreciated it for it. For the life of me, I cannot think of any other Hanukkah Special that was on for me as a kid to watch. As an adult, I can appreciate even more, because, and this sounds really corny, the holidays are universal. No matter what religion you are, this should be the time of year when we together and celebrate and have fun. So, to all my readers, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays.

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS, everyone! It’s time to kick off my 25 days of Christmas. I watch a new Christmas Special every day and talk about it with you guys. And it just so happens that a new one came on this morning. So, here’s my first special, Last Christmas from Disney’s Ducktales!

A Dr. Scrooge Christmas

Next to Ducktales, Scrooge McDuck is probably most famous for playing his namesake in Mickey’s A Christmas Carol. When this special starts, he also seems to hate Christmas as much as Ebeneezer Scrooge did. He scoffs at everything Christmas related, and even goes “Bah, humbug!” It looks like he’s set for another Christmas Ghost visit. And he gets it… though not in the way you’d think!

Turns out the Ghosts of Christmas met him years ago after mistaking him for Ebeneezer, and every year they go back in time to party for Christmas. Scrooge’s just faking hating Christmas… except for Santa, he hates him.

Things Get Crazy

Long story short, Scrooge goes off to party, only for the Ghost of Christmas Past to get upset at the idea of Scrooge leaving them to spend Christmas with his family. Fight ensues, and Past (played by Jack McBrayer) gets stranded in the past.

The second half… okay, I didn’t pay attention as much as I should have. But Dewey ends up back in the past where he meets his Uncle Donald as a kid. He also manages to meet his mom as a kid. Considering how hard he tried to find out what happened to their mom last season, this was a very emotional moment for him. It doesn’t take long for Donald and Della to figure out he’s a relative from the future (Duck Family after all) and then Scrooge comes to get him, along with Past.

Oh, yeah! Past got stuck in the past and got turned into a monster because he was so lonely missing Scrooge. So to make up to him, Scrooge invites the Ghosts to a Christmas Party with his family.

I Love This!

I loved this special overall. The “Christmas Carol” premise has been repeated a lot in the annals of Pop Culture, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it subverted and then tossed like this! There were also plenty of references to Mickey’s A Christmas Carol, and even a reference to Scrooge’s first appearance! But the best part is that we get a look at Della in the present day. The Season One finale revealed that she’s still alive and stuck on the Moon (how is she breathing, though?), and from the looks of things, she’s working on making a new spaceship to get her home. I really hope we get to see that play out to the end. Ducktales is one of the best cartoons Disney has right now, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Overall, this was a memorable Christmas special and the perfect way to start my countdown. Happy Holidays Everyone! I love Ducktales Christmas!

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Ho-ho-ho, Internet!! Tomorrow marks the start of the Christmas Season. For me. I don’t count the days after Thanksgiving until December 1st. It’s a quirk. It’s the 25 Days of Christmas!

But that’s not why I am here. I’m here for Holiday traditions. It’s a tradition of mine during this time of year where I watch at least one holiday special or movie a day to get me jazzed for Christmas. This year, I have a blog, so I thought “why not make this a theme?” So that’s my plan.

Check back every day leading up to Christmas to see what special I’ve watched. I’ll be giving you my honest thoughts and what I liked and hated about it, all leading up to Christmas Day. If you’ve got a good holiday special that I haven’t seen, let me know in the comments below! If I watch it, I’ll give you a shout out.

Until tomorrow, Happy Holidays, no matter what religion you follow!

Now, let’s watch a clown ride a christmas tree. Take it away, Joker

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