"Had ya pretty scared, didn't I?"
For Halloween, Butch shares three terrifying tales from the playground.Tropes:
- Acid Pool: Galileo tells the story of the “Gothicshire Monster” who was captured by the Scotland Yard and held above a vat of sulfuric acid.
- Actually Pretty Funny: When everyone is cornered by the bikes, TJ says that it's still cool that their bikes came to life.
- Asshole Victim: The lunchladies, who Cornchip Girl attacks when they laugh at her rather polite suggestion of adding the new chips to the menu.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Cornchip Girl becomes a monster.
- Big "NO!": Done by Mikey as he watches his beloved, but evil, bike get its wheels popped.
- Chekhov's Gun: When Mikey is grabbed by one of the Finster zombies, Spinelli tackles it to save him, causing the zombie's glasses to skid underneath the lunch counter. At the end of segment, when the gang are surmising that they may have imagined the whole thing, the audience is shown that the glasses are still there.
- Continuity Nod:
- Miss Finster compliments Prickly on the SAL 4000, something he told her he was getting after the SAL 3000 from "Schoolworld" in Season 4.
- The gang defeat the zombie Finsters with Tomato Suprise, something that hasn't been mentioned since the first episode.
- Creepy Crows: One is hanging around the Diggers’ Hole when Vince goes to fulfill his dare at night.
- Episode of the Dead: “Night of the Living Finsters” focuses on the Recess gang dealing with a hoard of zombies.
- Et Tu, Brute?: “Et tu, red rocket?” - said by Gretchen to her own bike as it turns evil too.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences:Lunch Lady #1: Look girly, if we wanted kids eating food that tasted good -Lunch Lady #2: - we’d retire!
- From Bad to Worse: When Mikey's bike goes on a rampage and can't be stopped, everyone evacuates the school and traps it inside, seeming to end the problem. But then, all the other bikes come to life.
- Halloween Episode: While none of the stories themselves take place on Halloween, the episode as a whole does.
- His Name Is...: Galileo is about to give the vital information about the monster attacks, but then his batteries die. Fortunately, Gretchen changes them and gets the information.
- Horror Host: Butch acts as this for the episode as he presents the tales to the viewers and provides segues between them.
- I'm Melting!: The gang use Tomato Surprise to destroy the Finster zombies.Gus: Poor, dumb, ghastly freaks. They never knew what hit 'em.
- Indian Burial Ground: Parodied, as "Night of the Living Finsters" is about the kids discovering the school was built over the Finster Burial Ground (as in, the ancestral graveyard for Miss Finster's ancestors).
- It's Like I Always Say:TJ: You know what I always say, "A buddy never lets a buddy sneak out without telling his parents, climb down into a dark creepy hole at night, and stay there by himself."
- Lightning Can Do Anything: Like make bikes come to life.
- May Contain Evil: Ye Olde Crisps contain wolfsbane flavor.
- No Sympathy: When Mrs. Finster confiscates the toy tank from Gus, she's unconcerned by the fact that he had borrowed it from Milton. Needless to say, Milton's not happy with Gus for getting his toy taken away.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: The creature Cornchip Girl becomes is only called a "monster", but with the canine look and all the way down to the mutagenic ingredient in the chips being wolfsbane, it's pretty clear she became a werewolf.
- Oh, Crap!: Mikey tries to comfort his bike after the gang pops its tires, only for them to run when they reinflate by themselves.
- Ominous Fog: Fittingly, a thick fog rolls in as the kids start their hunt for the monster in “Children of the Cornchip.”
- Pinky Swear: Gus unleashes bad luck on the playground when he breaks the pinky promise he made with Milton that he’d return his toy tank to him.
- Pokémon Speak: The various zombie Finsters only ever repeat synonyms for misbehaving kids, such as "Miscreants," "Hooligans," and "Ne'er do-wells."
- Repeated for Emphasis:TJ: Well, be careful. There’s a monster prowling around school.Cornchip Girl: I know!” [Beat] “I know.
- Roof Hopping: The kids chase the Cornchip monster along what starts off as the school’s rooftop but then morphs into London-esque shingled roofs and brick chimneys.
- Rousing Speech:Gus: Guys, there comes a time in every 9-year-old’s life when he’s gotta face his monsters!
- Scare Dare: Lawson dares Vince to go down into the Diggers’ Hole at night and stay there until morning. He goes through with it, but since his friends showed up to keep him company, this counts as cheating on the dare and compounds on the bad luck Gus caused by breaking his pinky promise.
- Separated by a Common Language: The gang is confused when Gus says he was so scared, he slept with a torch. He then clarifies that this is what the British call a flashlight.
- Sherlock Homage: Gus dresses as Sherlock Holmes to hunt down the monster, though he appears to be referencing the Show Within a Show, “Monster Hunter P.I.”Gus: Elementary, my dear Spinelli.
- Sherlock Scan: Befitting his Sherlock Homage, Gus uses this method of deduction to predict that not only will Cornchip Girl will be fine after falling off the roof, but that the fear of it will turn her back into a human as well.
- Shout-Out:
- The title of the story, "Night of the Living Finsters", is a reference to George A. Romero's famous zombie movie, Night of the Living Dead (1968).
- The title of the story, "Children of the Cornship", is a reference to Stephen King's book/movie Children of the Corn, despite the story itself having a completely different subject matter than King's.
- Gus dresses like Sherlock Holmes in "Children of the Cornchip".
- After transforming and attacking Mr. Kelso, Cornchip Girl casually switches the store sign to 'Closed', similar to the opening of Friday the 13th Part 2 when Jason Voorhees casually takes a pot of hot water off a stove after claiming his first victim.
- The Three Shorts Halloween Episode format of this episode seems to be a reference to the Treehouse of Horror episodes of The Simpsons.
- Skewed Priorities:
- When Cornchip Girl goes on a rampage in "Children of the Cornchip," Principal Prickly chastises her for running in the halls and ripping off the lunch room doors.
- Menlo in "When Bikes Attack!" He objects to the gang's misuse of a window jimmy to stop the possessed bike, and then, when the entire school gets aboard a single school bus, he’s concerned that they’ll be way over the maximum capacity.
- Truth in Television: Gus mentions how in England flashlights are called torches, which is true, the British term for "flashlight" is "torch".
- Twist Ending: Each story ends with one.
- "Children of the Cornchip": Of the Here We Go Again! variety. Gus saves Cornchip Girl, and the gang gather all the bags of chips. Vince throws them onto the roof, but they are blown off and Captain Sticky (and presumably the other Kindergartenders) eats one of the chips.
- "When Bikes Attack!": Of the Afterlife Express variety. Cornered by their bikes, the entire school escapes on a single school bus...only to find there's no driver.
- "Night of the Living Finsters": Of the Or Was It a Dream? variety. After defeating the Finster zombies, the gang can't find any evidence that their night of horror actually happened and dismiss it as something they imagined. Then...we see one of the Finisters' glasses under the lunch counter.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Ye Olde Crisps hadn’t been tested before being sent to Mr. Kelso, but Cornchip Girl eats them before he can send them back.
- Vignette Episode: This episode contains different horror-themed stories told in the Three Shorts format and hosted by Butch.
