Up next we head to the twisted world of Billy & Mandy, where Jack O'Lantern gets his chance for vengeance against Grim. The spookiest night of the year begins with Billy, scared by a chainsaw commercial, getting a visit from Mandy. She's out for the night as Hamlet, with Grim serving as her skull. This frightens Billy again until they point out it's Halloween, and he rushes back inside to dress as Grim, complete with his real scythe. Though Billy assures Grim he'll be careful, he almost kills himself within seconds, but surprises the reaper by remembering that whoever holds the scythe could open a vortex to the underworld and take control of our world. The group heads to pick up Irwin, but are disgusted to find he's not in a scary costume; he's dressed as sleeping beauty. Mandy promises to wait for him while he changes costumes, but of course as soon as he's back inside, they leave. We get one of the earliest shows of Irwin's obsession with Mandy as we go inside with him, where he has pictures all over his walls. Mandy and the others walk up to the house of a crotchety old lady, who rants about those "little hippies" showing up every year for her candy. She claims to not have any, despite holding a candy cane and having a room overflowing with sweets. Billy turns to leave when she slams the door, but Mandy stops him to plan a trick: she puts glue on the woman's doormat and rings the bell. When the woman comes out again and gets stuck, Mandy looses a fire hydrant's bolt, spraying her with water, and they make their way inside. With a massive supply of candy, they head to a graveyard, where Billy asks why people play tricks on Halloween. Grim reveals it might be his fault, as years prior when Endsville was a village, there was a man named Jack who, while nice, loved playing pranks. We get clips of Jack pulling pranks in old Endsville, and even sleeping with gag items under his pillow, but the villagers could stand his jokes no longer. They sent the queen a fake candy can with fake snakes inside. Enraged, she sent out a knight to teach Jack a lesson. Grim dropped by to reap Jack, who now had an ax sticking out of his back, but the prankster, after refusing, managed to take Grim's scythe by tickling him with the feather in his hat. Jack agreed to give the scythe back on the condition that Grim grant him eternal life. Although Grim did so, he didn't like being tricked and chose to chop Jack's head off. Jack later got a pumpkin to wear as a new head, and unable to go out aside from on Halloween, remained there as time past and society progressed around him. Billy doesn't believe the story and gets scared when Irwin arrives, annoying Mandy again as he is dressed as a female sea turtle. Mandy decides to split the group so they can cover more houses. She tells Irwin to change again, into a scary costume, and Grim warns Billy again about his scythe. After the group splits, Billy sees Jack's house and heads up for candy, only to find the pumpkin-headed prankster glaring at him Jack decides to trick, rather than treat, giving Billy a skunk, and shoves him aside to prank others. He tells Billy to leave with his "phony scythe," prompting Billy to tell him it's real. He eagerly demands the scythe, but Billy turns him down, so he pulls out his feather and tickles the boy as we fade back to Mandy and Grim. Back at Jack's house, he has successfully taken the scythe, and agrees to trick-or-treat with Billy, deciding the bring along some "friends." They journey to a pumpkin patch, where Jack rips a hole in the sky using the scythe, allowing Underworld spirits to enter and possess the pumpkins as bodies. Jack declares it'll be Halloween every night as they freely walk the Earth, cackling as Billy commends his "Halloween spirit." The duo parades through the town on an enormous pumpkin, and Jack realizes he has one more thing to take care of: his vengeance on Grim. Elsewhere, Grim states the obvious about their supernatural situation, and Mandy tells Irwin to go away when he arrives dressed as a banana. Banana boy falls over as Billy and Jack arrive, snatching up Grim with their pumpkin. Mandy leaves Irwin on the ground to go save the others. Jack takes Billy and Grim to a cemetery, where Grim demands to know from Billy where his scythe is. Jack refuses to give it back, explaining he's going to rule forever and use the weapon to cut off Grim's head. Mandy walks through the remaining remains of Endsville, brushing past Irwin Bo Peep, while in the cemetery Jack rants about his inability to even go to the store as a result of Grim beheading him and ending up a pumpkin-headed freak. Billy points out that Grim's head is removable, but Jack reveals he can get his vengeance because any head removed with the reaper's scythe stays off forever. Deciding he can't do anything, Billy walks off as Jack makes puns about the coming beheading and leaves Grim on a chopping block. Billy realizes his mistake and runs around screaming, finding Mandy who begins to formulate a plan to take down Jack before he can behead Grim. This is another favorite from my childhood that I tend to watch every year, both for the nostalgia and the general enjoyment I get.
One of the key aspects to making this work is having actor and comedian Wayne Knight playing Jack O'Lantern. Others know him as Seinfeld's Newman, Nedry in Jurassic Park, or for those like me who watched more cartoons growing up, Al from Toy Story 2 or possibly Dojo from Xiaolin Showdown. These are just a few of the roles he's played over the years, and I tend to enjoy him in whatever he does. His voice fits the prankster well, giving us a range of great cackles and always sounding right, whether delivering menacing and/or angry lines, or giving the perfect inflection for a lighthearted, pun-delivering Jack. The others, as always, do a great job as well, but Maxewll Atoms was able to bring some bigs names in as special characters at times, and this is one of my favorites. Since the series revolves around the activities Billy and Mandy are able to get into as a result of having the grim reaper for a friend, there is a lot of creative, magical potential for a Halloween episode, and the writers made good use of that. Jack and his story are an interesting way of altering an old folktale, and potentially mixing it with another. According to an article from the University of Illinois, the tradition of carving jack-o-lanters comes from the Irish folktale of "Stingy Jack." Jack was a man who invited the Devil to drink with him, and not wanting to pay, convinced the Devil to become a coin he could use to pay for both of them. He chose instead to pocket the coin next to a silver cross, keeping the Devil his prisoner. Jack let him go after the Devil agreed to not bother him for a year, and not take his soul if he dies. A year later he tricked the Devil again, trapping him in a tree, and demanded 10 years this time. Though he died before the time was up, God didn't want him in Heaven and the Devil chose to honor his promise. Jack was given a coal from Hell, which he then put in a carved out turnip, left to wander a dark Earth. People who saw his spirit began calling him "Jack of Lantern," which then became "Jack O'lantern." I tend to think a part of Jack's background in this show partially comes from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Of course we know there Ichabod Crane faces the Headless Horseman, who is often portrayed as carrying a pumpkin or jack-o-lantern in place of his missing head. This Jack definitely seems to have roots in the Irish tale, considering how he tricked Grim, or death, and having his head then removed and replacing it with a pumpking matches what happened with the Headless Horseman. In this way, the writers did more than just update and do their own version of a classic story; they took aspects of multiple tales and combined then in their own way. The jokes are typical for Billy and Mandy, though obviously Halloween themed, and one I always find entertaining is Irwin's repeated costume failures. Throughout the series, he's always the character who does what he thinks is cool, only to be mocked, and that is shown perfectly here in a running joke that actually has importance on the overall story. Whether you enjoy this particular gag or Jack's beheading jokes as much as I do, this special from a popular cartoon gives a lot of Halloween-themed fun.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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