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The Shrieking Madness

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The Shrieking Madness is the twelfth episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

Premise[]

Despite splitting up, Mystery Incorporated all end up visiting Darrow University, where the monster Char Gar Gothakon has come to life.

Synopsis[]

In the Campus Burger, a Harlan Ellison fan ridicules a group of students who are reading H.P. Hatecraft's book "Char Gar Gothakon: The Beast That Hath No Name". When he goes out into the car park, he is attacked by the creature.

At Darrow University, Barty and Nan Blake drop Daphne off, Mayor Jones drops Fred off, Angie Dinkley drops Velma off, and Colton Rogers drops Shaggy and Scooby off. The gang look at each other and part wordlessly.

Fred arrives at Mu Gamma Tau Fraternity and introduces himself. The other members tell him that the main thing they do there is wrestle.

Daphne arrives at the Blake Family Centre for Self-Named Buildings and finds a group of revolutionaries protesting against... something.

Shaggy and Scooby visit the Campus Burger and order their most famous food. When it arrives they discover that the restaurant changed management last week and is now organic vegan.

Velma attends a lecture by Harlan Ellison where a student, Howard E. Roberts, asks Ellison to compare his writing to Hatecraft's The Shrieking Madness of Char Gar Gothakon. Ellison dismisses Hatecraft as an interesting scribbler, but minor; Roberts says he is a brilliant writer who understands the dark creatures of other dimensions.

That evening, as Ellison is going to his car, he is attacked by Char Gar Gothakon. The gang all separately hear his cry for help and run to the scene. After the creature and Ellison leave, Velma finds a copy of Hatecraft's book, which Daphne finds has sentences underlined and the smell of old clam chowder being gargled by a seal.

The gang visit Professor Hatecraft at his home, but he is worried that his writing he has unleashed the creatures into the world. Velma notes that a lot of his fan mail is in the same handwriting. As they leave, Fred suggests they stay together to solve the mystery, but the others just walk away.

Shaggy and Scooby find Velma in the Campus Burger; it's vegan but there's nowhere else to eat for miles. Fred and his wrestling friends leave to teach him the Happy Tapioca move. Char Gar Gothakon attacks the Campus Burger, causing Shaggy to grab Velma and run past where Fred is being lowered into pudding. Daphne is discussing with Ernesto what they should protest next when Fred grabs her as they continue to run away.

The gang bump into H.P. Hatecraft, who was spying on them, and he decides to reveals the dark truth. In the lecture hall he tells his students that his writings are a fraud. From the audience, Howard E. Roberts refuses to believe it and asks who's forcing him to lie. Unexpectedly, Ernesto and his followers perform a song to explain why Char Gar Gothakon should not be silenced, but before they finish the creature appears and kidnaps Hatecraft.

Back at Hatecraft's house, the gang split up to search for things to build a trap. Shaggy thinks he's been attacked by something with a tentacle, but the others realise it's the strap of a book bag. A book inside has stories in the style of H.P. Hatecraft and the same rancid fish smell as they found earlier. Hearing someone asking to be let out, Fred breaks open the door and the boy who was attacked in the opening scene is revealed to be trapped in a room full of Hatecraft's books.

From the roof they hear H.P. Hatecraft and find his about to be thrown to his death by his creation. Whilst Fred, Daphne and Velma chant to distract the creature, Shaggy and Scooby attack it; Hatecraft falls but is caught by Shaggy; the creature falls and is caught by Hatecraft.

After Fred smothers the creature's scream with his ascot, Velma reveals it is Howard E. Roberts, Hatecraft's biggest fan. The monster´s shriek was created using a special loudspeaker in his mask. The funny smell came from the real octopus legs in the monster's face.

As the police take the criminal away, Harlan Ellison and H.P. Hatecraft agree that fans are the biggest menace and that they should collaborate on a book about. The gang returns to the Mystery Machine and find a box containing the Darrow Family Archives has been left there by Mr. E.

Characters[]

Main characters:

Supporting characters:

Villains:

Other characters:

  • Ben (only appearance)
  • Todd (only appearance)
  • Blakes' driver (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Ernesto's followers (first appearance)
  • Waitress (only appearance)
  • Cook (only appearance)
  • Newscaster (voice only)

Locations[]

Objects[]

Vehicles[]

Suspects[]

Suspect Motive/reason
H.P. Hatecraft To make publicity for his books.

Culprits[]

Culprit Motive/reason
Howard E. Roberts as Char Gar Gothakon Devotion to the myths written by Hatecraft.

Cast[]

Frank Welker Scooby-Doo
Fred Jones, Jr.
Barty Blake
Char Gar Gothakon
Matthew Lillard Shaggy Rogers
Grey DeLisle Daphne Blake
Newscaster
Mindy Cohn Velma Dinkley
Gary Cole Mayor Fred Jones, Sr.
Frances Conroy

Angie Dinkley

Kath Soucie

Nan Blake
Campus Burger waitress

Casey Kasem

Colton Rogers

Carlos Alazraqui Ernesto
Todd
Harlan Ellison Himself
Jeffrey Combs Professor H.P. Hatecraft
Crispin Freeman Howard E. Roberts
Rhino
Ben
Campus Burger cook

Songs[]

Song Credits Performed by Character performance by
"Char Gar Gothakon, The Beast That Hath No Name" Written by Mitch Watson and Robert J. Kral Robert J. Kral and Carlos Alazraqui Ernesto

Continuity[]

Notes/trivia[]

  • Casey Kasem, who used to play the original Shaggy, and this incarnation of Shaggy's father, is a strict vegan and had suggested Shaggy should be a vegetarian as well. In this episode, however, when this version of Shaggy is forced to eat vegan, he does not like it at all.
  • It is worth noting in this episode that Scooby's jealously against Velma has ended, as the former realizes how much she cares for Shaggy and attempts to make things right with her.
  • The fictional Ellison in this episode is an old friend of Velma's mother, whom he nicknamed "Cape Cod Dinkley."
  • The balding, gray-haired middle-aged guy does not appear again in The Siren's Song, with Ernesto and his followers.
  • According to Daphne's parents, all of her older sisters had attended college at Darrow University and finished by the time they were only 13.

Miscellaneous[]

Cultural references[]

  • One of the nerds in the cold open is an homage to a comic book character by Daniel Clowes[1], which was deemed so close to the original that they got Clowes' permission for using the character.[2]
  • The name Howard E. Roberts is a play on the American pulp fiction writer Robert E. Howard, most famously known for creating Conan the Barbarian, and who corresponded with H.P. Lovecraft.
  • This episode is full of references to H.P. Lovecraft, a horror writer (famous for this type of monster) and his works, namely "The Call of Cthulhu":
    • The name "H.P. Hatecraft" is a play on the name H.P. Lovecraft.
    • Char Gar Gothakon himself bears a strong resemblance to Lovecraft's most well-known creation: Cthulhu.
    • The episode title may be a reference to In the Mouth of Madness, a movie in which Lovecraftian horrors come to life out of books. The movie title itself is similar to the title of one of Lovecraft's stories, "At The Mountains Of Madness".
  • Harlan Ellison plays a fictionalized version of himself in this episode.
  • The line "By Grabthar's hammer", spoken by Mayor Jones, is a reference to the movie Galaxy Quest.
  • When Char Gar Gothakon attacked the Campus Burger, a Wilhelm Scream was heard.
  • One of the items in the box sent by Mr. E is a picture of a piece of the Planispheric Disk with the numbers, 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 above it. These are the same numbers that frequently appeared on the show, Lost.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]

  • Fred's arm below Ben's hand turns the color of the wall when the latter breaks out of the library.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]

  • Ben runs with the gang to the rescue of Professor Hatecraft, but in the next scene, he completely disappears.
  • All the gang members are dropped off at Darrow College by their parents, so, logically, the Mystery Machine should have been left at Fred's house. However, after solving the mystery, the gang approaches the Mystery Machine in the Campus Burger parking lot.
  • In the end credits for this episode, Howard's surname is credited as "Robertson" when it is supposed to be "Roberts".

In other languages[]

Languages

Name Meaning
French Le Chaos Hurlant The Howling Chaos
Greek Η Στριγκιά Τρέλα (Star TV Dub)
Το Τρελό Ουρλιαχτό (Boomerang TV Dub) 		The Shrieking Madness (Star TV Dub)
The Mad Shriek (Boomerang TV Dub)
Hungarian Pusztító őrület Destructive Frenzy
Italy Non Aprite Quel Libro Don't Open That Book
Polish Rycząca wściekłość The Roaring Madness
Portuguese A Loucura Gritante The Shrieking Madness
Spanish (Latin America) Una Bestia de Otra Dimensión A Beast From Other Dimension

Home media[]

Quotes[]

Fred: Man, it feels weird being here without the Gang. Things sure have been pretty rough since Shaggy and Velma split up.
Fred Jones Sr.: By Grabthar’s hammer Fred. The Rogers kid chose a dog over a girl. What’s he thinking? This isn’t some reality show!


Daphne: (reading a nameplate at Darrow University) The Blake Family Centre For Self-Named Buildings.


Harlan Ellison: By the way, "Jinkies" is not actually a word.


Velma: Mr Ellison, are you OK?
Harlan Ellison: OK? I've been violated by a figment of a fantasists fabricated falsehood, for the sole function of fame and fortune.


Scooby-Doo: Yeah. We're so hungry, we'd even eat vegetables.


Velma: But when Hatecraft admitted he made it up?
Howard E Roberts: That's when he had to fall. And he would have too, if it weren't for the dark elder forces conspiring in the inky black of time most foul! Oh, and you meddling kids.

References[]

  1. ↑ Wyatt, Derrick J. (July 5, 2013). "@Vangelus This is the Dan Clowes character cameo in SDMI". Twitter. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  2. ↑ Wyatt, Derrick J. (March 22, 2020). "They thought this homage was so close that they asked Dan Clowes for permission to use his character". Twitter. Retrieved March 23, 2020.

External links[]

  • TBA


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