The Ghostbusters are on vacation and have brought Slimer with them, so a family of ghosts (Foul the father, Pig the mother, and their two children Bug, a boy, and Smelly, a girl) and their pet monster (Yuck) are shown around the firehouse by a realtor ghost. Most of them are excited to move in, but Foul isn't so sure as he thinks the place needs a lot of work. They throw out all of the Ghostbusters' inventions and mistake the proton packs for leaf blowers.
The Ghostbusters and Slimer arrive home, but they find the locks are changed. Slimer looks in to find the ghost family, then when Foul lets everyone in, they find the whole first floor changed. The Ghostbusters and Foul argue over who owns the property and Foul sics Yuck on the guys, forcing them out. The Ghostbusters drive to the dump to get their proton packs and traps back, while Slimer finds some other things he wants to keep.
At the firehouse, Bug and Smelly play music, and Foul and Pig let the ghosts out of the containment unit, thinking it's a washing machine and they're squatters. Egon detects the PKE surge and tells the others they must get back and close the containment unit promptly. Winston suggests they change clothes so the ghosts won't recognise them, so they go to a clothing store and disguise themselves as utility workers (Egon and Ray), a fireman (Winston) and a safari guide (Peter).
Then, they send Slimer in to breach the energy field and he does so (scaring off Yuck with his own reflection) and determines that they have an hour, fourteen minutes, and 37 seconds to restore power before the containment unit explodes. Egon and Ray enter, pretending to be gasmen, and while they get to work, Smelly and Bug start playing music again, which speeds up the "plasma dynamic buildup", worsening the situation.
Peter, Winston, and Slimer try to enter through the sewer, while Egon and Ray get tied up by Foul and Pig. Then, the gravity turns off in the firehouse with only nine minutes to spare. Peter, Winston, and Slimer are attacked by alligator ghosts, but deter them by heating up the water with the proton packs. Peter shoots at another ghost, creating a hole to the basement in the "ceiling", and they climb through it and also start floating. Smelly finally decides to stop playing music, so Bug tries to turn it off but gets caught in a power surge.
Ray and Winston turn the containment unit back on, while Egon disconnects the machine that was zapping Bug, freeing him. Foul then decides to let the Ghostbusters keep the firehouse, and Pig demands that he apologise and that Bug thank the Ghostbusters for freeing him, and they do but hate it. The ghost family then leaves.
This episode provides examples of
- Are We There Yet?: At the beginning, Peter asks in a whiny way if they're home yet.
- Badass in Distress: Egon and Ray end up tied up.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Bug and Smelly jump on the beds and play annoying music, and in Bug's case, he hates thanking people.
- Call a Human a "Meatbag": One of the ghosts calls Peter "Flesh Head".
- Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: Slimer says in the car, "I need to go to the bathroom".
- Continuity Nod: Some of the ghosts from previous episodes fly out — the Mean Green Teen Machine ("Mean Green Teen Machine"), the alien ghost ("Spacebusters"), Destricon and Lucifus ("My Left Fang"), and Animax ("Short Stuff").
- Creepy Family: The main villains are a family of ghosts and their pet monster.
- Cyclops: One of the liberated ghosts has one eye.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Downplayed — Peter insults Foul, who's a ghost but not a very powerful one.
- Distressed Dude:
- Egon and Ray get tied up.
- Bug almost gets blown up by a power surge.
- A Dog Named "Cat": Two of the ghosts are named Pig and Bug, despite seemingly being the ghosts of humans.
- Entertainingly Wrong: The ghost family thinks the proton packs are leaf blowers and the containment unit is a washing machine.
- Episode Tagline: Peter says, "All in favour of ___, say, 'I'!".
- Failed Attempt at Scaring: Before showing Yuck the mirror, he tries to scare him by making faces, but it doesn't work.
- Fear Is the Appropriate Response: Peter says, when the ghosts in the containment unit escape, that everyone in favour of running away should say, "I". They do.
- Green and Mean: A few of the evil ghosts that get released are green, and Pig wears a green dress.
- Heel–Face Turn: Downplayed — the ghosts decide to stop bothering the Ghostbusters, but only Pig seems to actually feel remorseful.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Foul at one point says, "No more Mr. Nice Ghost".
- Horrifying the Horror: Yuck's reflection scares himself.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Pig gets excited over the huge "washing machine".
- Lightmare Fuel: New York is in danger of being overrun with ghosts and/or blowing up, but the ghosts responsible act like a generic sitcom family.
- Meaningful Name:
- Foul has a bad attitude and is an ugly, tentacled ghost.
- Yuck is implied not to be housebroken.
- Mythology Gag: Peter calls Slimer "spud", which is what Ray called him in the movie.
- Naked People Are Funny: When Winston says they should get out of their uniforms so they wouldn't be conspicuous, Peter points out that they'd be more conspicuous naked.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Downplayed — the villains' names (Foul, Pig, Bug, Smelly, and Yuck) sound gross instead of threatening.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: When Egon and Ray try to act "natural", they whistle.
- Pain to the Ass: Foul accidentally zaps Bug in the butt with a proton pack.
- Psycho Pink: Smelly wears a pink dress, and some of the freed ghosts are pink.
- Pun: When Egon tells the ghosts they don't get the "gravity" of the situation, and then everyone starts floating, he adds, "I don't think we do either".
- Sewer Gator: Played for Horror — In the sewers, Peter, Winston, and Slimer find ghost alligators.
- Shout-Out:
- The ghost family is yellow, the father wears a white shirt and is fat, the mother has tall blue hair and a green dress, and the son has points on his head, an orange shirt, and blue shorts, referencing Homer, Marge, and Bart from The Simpsons.
- The ghost families' names are puns on those from the protagonists of Married... with Children (Al, Peg, Bud, and Kelly becomes Foul, Pig, Bug, and Smelly), and they have a pet named Yuck, referencing the dog Buck from that show.
- Bug listens to a parody of The Grateful Dead called The Ungrateful Living.
- Sizeshifter: Yuck can grow huge.
- Snakes Are Sinister: The ghost family keeps a pet snake.
- Speak in Unison: When Peter says that whoever's in favour of running away should say, "I", the others respond, "I!" in unison.
- Squat's in a Name: The girl ghost is named Smelly, but she's not said to smell bad.
- Tentacled Terror: Foul has tentacles.
- Terms of Endangerment: Peter and Foul call one another "pal".
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Egon once states that he feels like screaming.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When Slimer hears that being sent in would be "scary", he groans.
- Toilet Humour: Foul, mistaking a proton pack for a leaf blower, decides to keep it to "clean up after" Yuck, implying Yuck isn't housebroken.
- Undead Child: Bug and Smelly are ghosts who don't look a day over twelve.
- Unusual Pets for Unusual People: The ghost family keeps a monster and a snake as pets.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Downplayed — while the ghost family did wilfully move into the firehouse and let the ghosts out, they didn't know that doing so could cause a big explosion, nor did Bug and Smelly know (initially) that playing music would worsen it.
- Women Are Wiser: While all of the ghosts in the family cause trouble, the female ones seem to be a little morally superior — Pig apologises and makes Foul and Bug apologise and thank the Ghostbusters for saving him respectively, while Smelly at one point admits the music is more trouble than it's worth. Foul and Bug, on the other hand, are only polite because they were told to be and hate being polite.
