Bump in the Night was a
Stop Motion animated series, lasting from September, 1994 to December, 1995. Covers the adventures of Mr. Bumpy (
Jim Cummings), a small green monster living under the bed of a 10 year old boy, and his friends Squishington (
Rob Paulsen), a blue monster that lives in the bathroom's toilet tank, and Miss Molly Coddle (former
Saturday Night Live cast member Gail Matthius
* Matthius was a member of the notoriously awful sixth season, which lasted from November 1980 to March 1981
), the comfort doll who belongs to the boy's sister.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Destructo.
- Artificial Limbs
- Big Bad Ensemble: Destructo and the Closet Monster are both threats to Mr. Bumpy and his friends, but they seldom work together and have different methods - Destructo only harms those that break the rules and the Closet Monster is just a mindless beast. There were also some episodes where Bumpy and friends were menaced by alien duo Sleemoth and Gloog, who tried to conquer Earth in each of their appearances.
- The Bus Came Back: Little Robot in the episode "Made In Japan II".
- Christmas Episode: An hour-long Christmas special was made at the end of the series' run.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Closet Monster, which is a living pile of clothes, would be this from the characters' point of view.
- The Faceless: We never see the faces of the family of four that lives in the house the series takes place, even when Bumpy and friends directly interact with them.
- In a more literal sense, there was also an episode where Squishington lost his face after scrubbing it with the bathroom towel.
- Fluffy Tamer: Molly.
- Fountain of Youth: Not good for a baby hater.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: In "I Got Needs", after encountering a trio of rhyming Vikings, Squishington asks them if they "knew the one about the man from Nantucket".
- There were also some occasions where Mr. Bumpy would use the word "bump" as an expletive.
- On "Dr. Coddle, MD," The first thing Squishington says when he wakes up from being given mouth-to-mouth by Molly Coddle: "Doctor Molly, Not here...there are people watching."
- Human Popsicle: Subverted
- Living Toys: Molly
- Loads and Loads of Characters: Aside from the main cast of Mr. Bumpy, Squishington, and Molly Coddle, there's also Destructo, the Closet Monster, the Cute Dolls, Germ Girl, aliens Sleemoth and Gloog, Little Robot, Phil Silverfish, Odiferous J. Stench, etc.
- Medium Awareness: Bumpy often expresses how he knows he's in a cartoon.
- Mind Screw: In "Farewell, 2 Arms" Molly goes mad with power and replaces all her parts. Soon Squishington finds Molly's original parts and puts them back together, bringing back the normal Molly. So in the end there are two dolls that both have Molly's mind at the same time.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Mr. Bumpy has used a few of these before. He once messed with Destructo by disguising himself as Molly Coddle (who Destructo had a crush on at the time). On another occasion, Bumpy tried to avoid being punished for allegedly stealing Molly's feet by disguising himself as Squishington's "Cousin Bela".
- Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat
- Schmuck Bait: The closet monster repeatedly uses dirty socks to bait Mr. Bumpy into his range and eat him. He always falls for it by pulling off a narrow escape.
- Shout Out: The episode "Night of the Living Bread", whose title is a Shout Out to Night of the Living Dead. At the end of the episode, they list a number of sequels, all of which are bread-based puns on other horror film titles. There were also many other nods in the series, such as Bumpy referencing Mortal Kombat in one episode.
- Stock Footage: Not a single episode doesn't use footage from another. Hell, some even use footage from episodes that don't air until later, which makes it confusing as to what was done first in the show's production.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial
- Take That: In one episode, Squishington loses his face. While drawing a new face as a temporary replacement, Mr. Bumpy says to him that if he makes one small mistake, he'll look like Ross Perot. Incidentally, the replacement face drawn is a simple smiley face.
- Talking to Himself: Jim Cummings (who voices both Mr. Bumpy and Destructo).
- Team Mom: Molly, as a comfort doll, gets a lot of her enjoyment out of comforting the various inhabitants of the room.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Socks for Mr Bumpy.
- Villain Song: "I'm Bigger Than You", a song by Destructo in one of the Karaoke Cafe segments.
- Why Am I Ticking?
- Wild Take: A staple of the show, especially from Bumpy.
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