Professor Pericles genetically engineers a herd of evil "skull cattle" to devour Crystal Cove.
The episode provides examples of:
- Big Damn Kiss: Sheriff Stone and Mayor Nettles finally get theirs.
- Call-Back: The farmer from The Night The Clown Cried returns, having his home destroyed by the herd.
- Continuity Nod: Sheriff Stone is cooking maple-cured bacon for a bacon hat. In a Season 1 episode, when Fred called him to his house under the pretense that there's a barbeque going on, he brought maple-cured pork and lamented that he would've made bacon hats if there really was a barbeque.
- Continuity Snarl: The farmer from "The Night the Clown Cried" says that his farm hasn't had cattle for years, despite Scooby having been housed in a barn with cows in that episode.
- Crunchtastic: Shaggy and Scooby calls the cheese/honey mix created by the herd "Cheese-tastic!"
- Didn't Think This Through: Scooby and the gang hatch a plan to dispose of the eponymous herd by luring them into the ocean. It's only when the plan succeeds that the gang remembers that Professor Pericles used piranha DNA in the herd's creation, and thus, the monsters can swim.Stone: It's best to just walk away from this one, kids. Just... walk... away.
- Exact Eavesdropping: The gang just happens to tap into Destroido's security system just in time to hear Pericles talking about his plan in great detail
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The Herd is part Cow part Piranha and part Bee.
- My God, What Have I Done?Shaggy: You mean, like, other than release unnatural super-predators into the ecosystem?
- Never Say "Die": One of Mr. E's issues with Pericles's herd is that, because of the herd, he has to list 28 of his scientists as "presumed missing". The subsequent screams and Mr. E amending it to 29 makes it clear that those scientists aren't missing, they're dead, eaten by the skull cattle.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The gang try to get rid of the titular herd by drowning them in the ocean, only to remember too late that they can swim because they have piranha DNA. The gang can only walk away in horror at the realization that they just released unnatural super predators into the ecosystem.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Ricky/Mr. E chews out Professor Pericles for the damage the skull cattle have caused... because their creation has put a big strain on Destroido's budget and the herd itself has eaten over two dozen scientists.
- Shout-Out:
- Shaggy comments on how "its time to stand behind Velma while she researches things", a reference to an event from the original series title sequence.
- Top GunMayor Nettles: You can be my co-pilot any time.
- Aliens: The Cattle Queen is designed to resemble the Alien Queen
- The Lion King (1994): Disney Death during a stampede.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: Fred comments on how Daphne looks great carrying the smoke gun. It really balances out her abnormally large hands.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The helicopter explodes after landing, despite only being damaged a bit.
- Title Drop: The farmer's wife screams "It's some kind of Horrible Herd!" in the teaser.
- Toilet Humor: Taking into consideration that the skull cattle are in fact mutant hybrids of cows, bees, and piranhas, the honey cheese residue left behind in the wake of their rampages means that is essentially their droppings. Which both Scooby and Shaggy eat even though it was collected off the ground.
- Pericles: My plan, ruined by those meddling kinder. They will pay. All of them. They will pay.
