It would not be Halloween around Jasperwood without a mention of Him Who Certainly Can Be Named: Spookie Ookie.
He had two appearances on Rolie Polie Olie – once as a scary creature who scared kids in Polieville, and once as a dream-demon who made Zowie into the Queen of the Pumpykins, so he could convince her to climb the pumpkin staircase to his house, where he could frighten her into giving him the Super-Remote. (I will go to my grave knowing the plot of this cartoon.) Supposedly he wanted to get into his house, but there was a darker implication; give him the Super-Remote, and who knew what Spookie Ookie would wreak. Zowie insisted he not bad, he just want to go home, but she would, wouldn’t she?
Those pictures take me back, they do. Almost makes me glad Olie was cancelled, so it didn’t turn into utter crap, and makes it a part of her childhood that didn’t join the eternal Remix In the Cloud, where nothing is fixed to a particular era. On the other hand, I have no idea why no one saw the stupidity in killing this show and its characters.
A surplus of obligations has bitten deep into blogging time, and so it will be for tomorrow as well. So:
If you go to this page, you will find a thumbnail for a video about things to do on Halloween, notable for the fact that I attempt to sing two themes from the score of “Psycho.”
Universal Monsters! Oh, I could make it a blog post, but then I’d have to duplicate it for the Black and White World section. Drac 2 is here. Drac 3 is here.
Annnnd . . . the Halloween Diner. It’s the second half that really earns your patronage, I think.
I wish you a fine Halloween, however you wish to spend it. Comments are open; feel free to discuss the issues of recollected childhood costumes, and the merits of particular candies. We will meet again on the cold stone steps of November. See you then!
Pass it along, if you wish
73 Responses to The spookiest pumpkin-bot that ever was
Host with the Most
I can’t believe “Gay Hitler” makes it through the censor when the well-known S-word (describing an economic philosophy) gets you flagged, even if you spell it with a B, like on Monty Python (“I gave him my baby to kiss, and he bit it in the head”).
I don’t like the sound of these “boncentration bamps”
@hpoulter: you can’t get “sensationalism” through the filters? geez, that’s just Marxian
On OTR, they often refer to Lucille Ball’s program “My Favorite Husband” as “the new gay family program… Where they live together, and LIKE it!” It always strikes my modern ear as funny, even though gay in those days meant something completely different.
And now for something completely different… Mr. Hilter and Mr. Bimmler are looking at a map…
Speaking of OTR, I was listening to a later Johnny Dollar and on the show it was New Year’s Eve 1961. Since the show aired on Sunday nights I quickly realized that it actually aired on that date and it was also the exact day I was born.
I feel so old
@browniejr: … and the housing crisis begins, as they begin to plat the “Moishe Peaceful Village: A Lifestyle Center. Financing by Allianz. Construction by Speer Fine Homes.”
I suspect you could call that a “Ninja post.” it slashes in so many directions at once you can’t keep track of ‘em.
i think they were just trying to win that bi-election.
@bgbear: we could call it redistricting
(ducks)
“Expense account report from Johnny Dollar to ‘Floyd’s of England’ for ‘The Bear Matter’:
Item one: $4.39 for flowers for the new mother.
Item two: $2.19 for cab fair and incidentals to the hospital. I can report mother and bouncing baby boy are doing fine. Talked to the father about extending his life insurance coverage. “
@browniejr, tee hee.
Sister, get this shamus out of the maternity ward
Just wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy All Hallow’s Eve. In relation to our Host’s original topic starter, I didn’t really have a favorite candy, unless it was chocolate. The one candy I did hate getting was those peanut butter log things that come in the striped wrapper. I hated those with a passion. They were so cheap. A ripoff. A sham.
After several years of receiving those, I had vowed that when I was an adult, handing out candy, nothing smaller than the fun-size candy bars would be coming from my house. I didn’t care how much money I had, I was not stooping down to such low levels of candy distribution.
Now here I am as an adult, and I have kept that solemn oath. When I moved in with my parents, they had bought the el cheapo candy, including aforementioned peanut butter things. I quickly redeemed them and our household by running to the store and picking up a bag of Reese’s, Snickers, Milky Ways, Mounds, and Almond Joys. Give them those peanut butter thingies if you want. Hand out boxes of Nerds. They’ll be getting the real goods from me. I have been pretty much in charge of the purchasing of Halloween candy from then on.
As for costumes, I think I was a vampire more frequently than anything else. I remember one year going as a ghost, but not in the sense I thought. I was imagining myself like the cartoon ghosts, a sheet with two holes for eyes. My mom didn’t like the idea of cutting holes in the bedsheets, so she wrapped the sheet around my head and body like a toga, then painted my face a pale blue.
Another year I went as a mummy, but my mom had to work late on Halloween that year (she was usually in charge of the makeup), so my dad pitched in. I thought he had done a pretty good job.
I remember when I was about 7 I went as a werewolf. To complete the effect, my mom dressed herself as a werewolf too. The teeth didn’t fit me, so she wore them. Any time someone knocked on the door, she’d open it very quickly and growl and snarl. Most people laughed at it, but she made one little girl nearly wet her pants. She was too afraid to get close to the house, so her dad had to come up to the door to get the candy. My mom washed off the makeup after that.
The ownership of a Frito Bandito pencil eraser was a major status symbol in my elementary school. I wonder if it’s possible to find one of those anywhere these days?
I had one as well, and of course it was never actually used to erase anything; the Bandito just rode proudly atop the pencil. (I didn’t think of this when I was a kid, but it amuses me now to think that in order to get him to do that, you had to stick the pencil top where the sun don’t shine.)
I think The Diner should be a live show on XM! Make it so, important movers and shakers.
frito bandito about $10 on Ebay
Born & raised in Sonoma, I have to watch “The Birds” every Halloween. Are those ‘peanut butter log things’ the dreaded ‘chick’o'stix’? I like the Arabic sounding AbbaZabba’s best. James once said your choice of Halloween costume reveals something about your inner character. Hmmm…I’ve been a gypsy, a cheetah, a green worm sticking out of an apple, a pirate, a black cat, a dragon, a cowgirl, a witch, a pharmacist, Minnie Pearl(complete with price tagged hat & square dancin’ get up),and a belly dancer. I’ve been Kali(goddess of destruction smeared with ashes & a bra made of paper mache skulls) & a sacred cow(snazzy black and white spots with appropriate tikka & garland of marigolds)since moving to India. I hope no Hindu’s have been offended. Sincerely. At least everyone was laughing.
Speaking of “gay”, he lisped (rim-shot [heh]), try singing this little Civil War ditty down San Antone way:
We’re the boys so gay and happy
Where so ‘ere we chance to be
If at home or on camp duty
’tis the same we’re always free
We’ve left our homes and those we cherish
In our own dear Texas land
We would rather fight and perish
Side by side and hand in hand
Chorus:
Then let the Yanks say what they will
We’ll be gay and happy still
Gay and happy, gay and happy
We’ll be gay and happy still
There are several more verses but I don’t think you’ll get to them. ‘Course, they may join in and buy you a round or ten. Down Texas way ya sez yer piece and takes yer chance.
@fizzbin: them’s fightin’ words, you thilly boy.
Oh yeah, I remember. My last last costume. In 2nd year university I did myself up as Kubrick’s Malcolm “Alex” MacDowell. Jockstrap, false eyelash & everything. Don’t know if I’d do that today. Happy hallowz all.
Only one thing worse to a kid than Chick-o-Stix:
Applets and Cotlets.
Not the Chick-O-Sticks, although those were just as vile.
No. these things.
*Twitch*
I think my bag was filled 75% of the way with those things.
I absolutely loved Halloween as a child, even better than Christmas, and it had nothing to do with getting candy. The allure was being able to dress up as someone or something else and going out to roam the neighborhood after dark, being able to approach the houses of strangers that you would never go near any other day of the year, to knock on their doors, and to hold out a papier mache hollow pumpkin or a brown paper bag and repeat the yearly ritual “Trick or Treat”, and to get the treat without fear of them seeing the real you, who might be capable of doing the trick. It was even more magical because you had gaggles of cousins or friends going along, because then you were safe in case there really were witches and goblins and ghosts abroad on that night. Halloween used to give children a sense of power they didn’t get at other times, the power to whatever they wanted, and to demand and receive a reward for commanding that power.
Alas, I hand out candy now and observe that Halloween has become just another night where mom and dad stand nearby and insist on a “thank you”.
alas, we had some neighbors whose Halloween was something rather frightful. the cat got out and got away.
“Have you seen my black and white cat? A little bit of a terrorist.”
“Last time we saw that one, our Pumpkins had it on its back ready for the kill. I don’t think it’s coming here any more. I’ll look in the front for you.”
something shy of two dozen little nippers came around for cavities. we obliged.
don’t think I’ll take my blood sugar tomorrow. save the supplies for when the test means something.