A dead ska band returns from the grave to turn the citizens of Crystal Cove into dancing zombies!
The episode provides examples of:
- All Up to You: Shaggy and Scooby
- Arc Words: Nibiru is coming. Doubles as a Wham Line this episode.
- Battle of the Bands: Rude Boy and the Ska-tastics vs The Hex Girls
- Call-Back: The Hex Girls and the "Stuck in my Throat" Singer from "Battle of the Humungonauts" return.
- Cool Bike: Or at least used to be cool; the Skatastics all have multiple mirrors on their mod scooters, hinting at how it's not just their musical style that's passed its time.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Skipper Shelton, having received a conquistador’s helmet marked “S. Llaive”, assumes that its owner is named “Susan Llaive” and hands it to Velma under the implication that she is Susan. As Velma points out, the S actually stood for “Segundo”.
- The Dead Can Dance: The villains, Rude Boy and the Ska-tastics, goal is to hypnotize people with their music, turning them into dancing zombies.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The music the Hex Girls hum from the Planispheric Disc is the same musical chord used throughout the show to indicate something is "mysterious" — which is the same melody Mr. E plays on his keytar.
- Disguised in Drag: Shaggy and Scooby. Again. This time as harem girls to get on to the sheik's yacht.
- Failed Future Forecast: Rude Boy and the Ska-tastics fall victim to this thrice; first when their
One-Hit Wonder doesn't keep them relevant as long as they wanted; second, after they fake their deaths, when their plan to return after a year is delayed by their failure to write another hit song; and third when they finally create the perfect song, only for ska music to now be out of style. - Faking the Dead: Rude Boy and the Ska-tastics are still alive, but since using this as a publicity stunt backfired on them, they continue to pretend that they're actually undead when they return.
- Flatline: Nova dies — just long enough to sit up and say "Nibiru is coming". She's alive in later episodes, though.
- Improvised Weapon: Fred uses a graveyard shovel to knock out a zombie. He refers to it as an "I.T. Improvised Trap".
- Ink-Suit Actor: Martha Quinn "As Herself".
- Irony: Shaggy and Scooby dress as harem girls to enter the sheik's yacht and nobody else there is wearing Arabian clothes.
- Lampshade Hanging: Shaggy references how they always have to investigate spooky settings at night rather than during the day.
- Scooby also asks "Doesn't anyone stay dead around here?"
- The Hex Girls go back to wearing their original costumes. When Shaggy asks why, Thorn states that some of their fans preferred their original looks, which is referring to the split between fans regarding their previous redesigns.
- Monster of the Week: Rude Boy and the Ska-tastics, a band of undead musicians who seek brainwash everyone into dancing to their music.
- Musical Episode: More like musical third act as its almost all band performances.
- Mythology Gag:
- At their concert, the Hex Girls perform "Who Do Voodoo" from Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire, and are initially dressed in their classic outfits — which Shaggy draws attention to.
- Mama Cass Elliot from The New Scooby-Doo Movies appears as one of the ska zombies.
- To sneak into a shiek's yacht, Shaggy and Scooby wear the same harem outfits as in Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights.
- No-Sell: Shaggy and Scooby are the only ones immune to the Skatastics' Mind-Control Music, Shaggy because he's tone deaf, and Scooby because as a dog, music is "just noise" to him.
- Our Zombies Are Different: They dance to ska.
- The Power of Rock: Used by Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and the Hex Girls to beat the zombies and save the day.
- Stating the Simple Solution: When Scooby and Shaggy find the Hex Girls performing, Shaggy tries to yell to get their attention. Scooby simply unplugs the equipment leaving Shaggy yelling loudly about needing the Hex Girl's help to fight a bunch of zombies.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The ska band's plane crash.
- Tempting Fate: Velma tells the gang to be on the lookout for anything suspicious. Cut to the Noseless Skipper Shelton wearing a metal helmet and posing like Captain Morgan.
- Scooby: Oh Nova, it's getting weirder and weirder. Things aren't as easy to explain anymore. It feels like something is going to happen, something bad. What do you think, Nova?
<Watches the heart monitor and slowly, it stops>
Scooby: Nova? Nova?
<Nova's eyes open>
Nova: Nibiru…Nibiru is coming.
