Airdate: October 2000
Costumes (in order of appearance): The King of Town as Cap'n Crunch, Coach Z as Flavor Flav, Bubs as Rerun, Homestar as Kurt Cobain, Strong Bad as Carmen Miranda, Strong Mad as Slim Goodbody, The Cheat as Garfield, Pom Pom as The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, Marzipan as Jeannie, Strong Sad as Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Poopsmith as TRON.
Homestar Runner throws a Halloween party, and he and his friends take turns telling a story about a goblin.
Tropes:
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Each of the three girls with Pom Pom's head are each one of these: the blonde is the girl with the kitten, the brunette is the one with the puppy, and the redhead is the Republican.
- Cool Car: The Goblin's Gremlin.Bubs: And then the Goblin, he had a Gremlin! And he jacked it up on some fat tires, and uh, and he tuned it up on some 4.11 positrak out back, 750 double pumper, Edelbrock intake, bore over 30, 11-to-1 pop-up pistons, turbo jets, 390 horsepower! I mean, he had some freakin' muscle!
- Diabolus ex Machina: In Strong Sad's turn for the story, the robot turns out to have the living brain of a man whose two children find him, but his tears of joy at being reunited with them cause him to short out, and in his death throes he squashes both his children and the Goblin. "And none of them lived..."
- Downer Ending: Both in-universe and out; Strong Sad's ending for the story is so depressing it spoils the party for everyone else and they all leave in a funk, leaving Strong Sad by himself.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- On top of the different-sounding voices and simpler animation, Homestar actually recognizes Coach Z's costume ("Oh, Coach Z is down with the P.E.!
"). - This toon didn't have the "Later That Night" screen where characters could comment on others' costumes. (That started with the next Halloween toon, "The House That Gave Sucky Treats".) This and other early weirdness was lampshaded in "2022 Costume Pack Now Available".
- On top of the different-sounding voices and simpler animation, Homestar actually recognizes Coach Z's costume ("Oh, Coach Z is down with the P.E.!
- Everybody Cries: Bubs, Coach Z, The King of Town, and Marzipan all burst into tears in reaction to Strong Sad's Downer Ending. Even Homestar, Strong Bad, and the Poopsmith appear depressed.
- "Everybody Dies" Ending: Attempted by Strong Bad, who has a robot come in and start wrecking stuff, and pulled off successfully by Strong Sad.
- Faux Horrific: Homestar's attempt at starting off the story. "Once there was this green goblin, and he used to, um, look around, and um, I guess he did a dance." He immediately admits "Oh, man, that was terrible."
- Food Porn: The King of Town gets caught up in describing all sorts of delicious foods when it's his turn to add to the story.
- Ghost Story: The gang takes turns telling a scary story.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Implied after Strong Bad takes his turn telling the story, where he shouts about the arrival of the robot that attacks the Gremlin.Strong Bad: I need to get some more punch.
- Orphaned Punchline: The cartoon opens with Coach Z talking to Bubs and the King of Town:Coach Z: Oh, geez, I don't know, I think I prefer his work with the Furious Five. Uh, he had more street cred back then.
- Shout-Out: Bubs' description of the Gremlin is a nod to the description of Pickford's GTO from Dazed and Confused.
- The Triple: During Marzipan's part of the story:Marizpan: One of the girls had a cute little kitten named Kitty-kitty, the other girl had a cute little puppy named Chris, and then the third girl was a Republican.
- Tutti Frutti Hat: Strong Bad's Carmen Miranda costume comes complete with an abundance of fruit in his hat.
