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This needs a stretch. (Feel free to remove when satisfied of completion.) Needed: * Synopsis is missing details * Objects is incomplete * Miscellaneous is incomplete |
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 game return 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:
- Mayor Fred Jones, Sr.
- Barty Blake
- Nan Blake
- Angie Dinkley
- Colton Rogers
- H.P. Hatecraft (first appearance)
- Harlan Ellison (first appearance)
- Rhino (only appearance)
- Ernesto (first appearance)
Villains:
- Char Gar Gothakon (only appearance)(no lines)(Howard E. Roberts' disguise)
- Howard E. Roberts (first appearance)
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 (only time heard)
Locations[]
Objects[]
- Char Gar Gothakon: The Beast That Hath No Name
- My Fiction is Better
- Veggie burgers
- Char Gar Gothakon mask
- Mask
Vehicles[]
- Fred Jones, Sr.'s car
- Blakes' car
- Angie Dinkley's car
- Colton Rogers's car
- Harlan Ellison's car
- The Mystery Machine
- Police car
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[]
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[]
- Everybody knows about Shaggy dumping Velma for Scooby in Howl of the Fright Hound.
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 doesn't like it at all.
- It's 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.
- Also, it turns out that Daphne's parents have donated so much money to the school that there's a building on campus named after them.
- While Ernesto says that someone should protest "old person smell" later in the episode Fred says that old person smell is "awesome".
Miscellaneous[]
- "Zoinks" count: 1.
- "Jeepers" count: 0.
- "Jinkies" count: 1.
- "Hold the phone" count: 0.
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.
- The phrase 'Happy Tapioca' is mentioned by Fred.
- 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[]
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[]
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Season One, Volume 3 DVD released by Warner Home Video on September 27, 2011.- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: The Complete Season 1 DVD set released by Warner Home Video on October 8, 2013.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystères associés: L'intégrale de la saison 1 (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: The entirety of season 1) DVD set released by Warner Home Video on October 3, 2012.
- Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection: Scooby-Doo! DVD set released by Warner Home Video on August 13, 2019.
Quotes[]
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? |
Scooby-Doo: Yeah. We're so hungry, we'd even eat vegetables. |
Velma: But when Hatecraft admitted he made it up? |
References[]
- ↑ Wyatt, Derrick J. (July 5, 2013). "@Vangelus This is the Dan Clowes character cameo in SDMI". Twitter. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
- ↑ 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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When the Cicada Calls |