"A Silly Halloween Special" is the fourth episode of the first season of Smiling Friends.
Synopsis[]
Pim ventures into the forest across the road to fetch firewood for the office Halloween party.
Plot[]
The episode starts with a Twilight Zone-esque narrator (Jim Knobeloch) explaining that youth are more afraid of things such as war and terrorism rather than "real" fears such as witches and ghouls, and that the show will instill the fear of the unknown into the viewer.
Glep, his girlfriend and Alan are waiting in the Smiling Friends office, when Charlie and Zoey enter the room. Charlie explains he isn't wearing a costume since he believes that no matter what he decides to wear it would be deemed offensive in ten years and he'd be cancelled for it, much to his girlfriend's annoyance. Pim enters in a cowboy outfit and chastises Charlie's reluctance in dressing up, before the Boss enters the room and explains that Halloween is cancelled due to them not having enough wood for their celebratory bonfire. Pim offers to help collect, and the boss points Pim to the woods across the streets, but warns him not to cross the wooden bridge otherwise he'd get lost.
Pim starts collecting kindling but notices all the good firewood is on the other side of the bridge, Deciding to mark his path to prevent him from getting lost, he crosses the bridge and starts collecting firewood. Unfortunately a sudden storm washes away his markings and after a fall, he waits out the storm in an abandoned house. Pim fantasizes raising a family with an exotic (English) wife, but his fantasy is ruined once he notices a figure try to break into the house. Barely escaping through the chimney and the farm's cornfield, he hops into a wooden boat and lassos the paddle, managing to escape the unknown figure. However, as soon as he stops to rest, the figure - a Claymation forest demon - reveals itself and chases Pim to the Smiling Friends Inc. building. Pim and the demon crash into the party, and Party Bro accuses the demon of wearing blackface. The demon tries to explain that he's not wearing a costume or any makeup, but most of the partygoers become aggressive anyway and murder the demon by caving his head in, puling off his limbs and eating his flesh. The partygoers then set the demon's corpse on fire, with the boss thanking Pim for collecting firewood, much to the horror of Pim, the rest of the members of Smiling Friends Inc and their girlfriends, except Charlie, who comments that this is exactly why he doesn't dress up for Halloween.
The episode ends with the narrator attempting to end the episode, but a police officer interrupts him and tells him to leave due to loitering complaints.
Characters[]
- Charlie
- Glep
- Pim
- Alan
- The Boss
- Policeman
- Party Bro
- Forest Demon
- Mystery Show Host
- Marge Simpson
- Zoey
- Pim's Wife
- Pim's Son
- Pim's Daughter
Transcript[]
To view this episode's transcript, click here.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- As the title states, this episode is a Halloween-themed special, likely meant to be aired around Halloween prior to the show's delay.
- This is the first episode where Pim is not with Charlie for the majority of the episode and the only time in Season 1.
- The scene of the partygoers eating the demon like stemmed from an animation idea Zach had, where a mother would go to a party and give the kids there a monkey, with the kids then proceeding to eat the monkey "like a pizza."
- This episode's live-action segments were shot in an alleyway near Michael's home in South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
- Despite the scenes being recorded in South Melbourne, the law the police officer cites on "loitering and prowling at night time" — Title 18, Chapter 55, Section 5506 — is from the state legislature of Pennsylvania, United States. Zach lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania before moving to Los Angeles, California, and subsequent episodes confirm the setting of Smiling Friends to take place in the state.
- This episode is one of the first episodes that Zach and Michael started writing for the show.
- The intro and outro narrator's mannerisms were based on Dan Aykroyd and his obsession with the paranormal, as shown in his infamous Crystal Head Vodka commercial.
- Zach and Mike originally wanted to have Dan play the narrator, but they were unable to get him for the role. In addition, they also wanted to cast Norm MacDonald, but as he was suffering from cancer, they couldn't get him either.
- Whilst Pim dresses as a generic cowboy and Zoey dresses as a stripper mouse, The Boss dresses up as Charlie Brown, Alan dresses up as Joaquin Phoenix's Joker, and Glep and his girlfriend dress up as Ronald and Nancy Reagan respectively. Charlie refuses to dress up as anything because he doesn't know what will be considered offensive or what could become offensive later on, with his view validated later when the partygoers mistake the Forest Demon for a person wearing blackface.
- The end credits for the episode uses only an orange colored font with black background with Halloween-themed remix of the end credits song.