History SugarWiki / CandleCove

%% Since thorough research hasn't found any information on the show's production company, and the episodes didn't have numbers attached, please refrain from referring to the show's creative process. We've had some talk about the directors and the planning for different seasons, but after some looking, these turned out to be rumors without substantiation.

%% In other words, unless you can find info on the show's creators that confirms it (such info being about as easy to locate as the Holy Grail), please don't try to talk about any of the behind-the-scenes stuff.

->''"[[CatchPhrase You have.]] [[LargeHam To go.]] [[RunningGag Inside!]]"''
-->-- '''The Laughingstock'''

''Candle Cove'' was an obscure children's show that aired in syndication in 1972. It chronicled the adventures of a little girl named Janice, who sailed Candle Cove with Pirate Percy aboard their talking ship, the Laughingstock. As they searched for treasure, they had to stay one step ahead of the Skin-Taker and his accomplice, Horace Horrible, who tried to end their journey at every turn. They also occasionally talked to the Banana King, who they would go to for information on treasure. Season 2 brought a new minor villain with Milo, a rival pirate and Pirate Percy's older estranged brother who attempted to upstage Percy at every turn.

Remembered by the few who saw it for its [[SpecialEffectFailure god-awful special effects]], [[NightmareFuel inappropriately creepy villains]] and omnipresent soundtrack of calliope music, the show didn't air for very long and little information is available. So if you were fortunate enough to record it, remember to KeepCirculatingTheTapes.

Not to be confused with JustForFun/CandleJack, who is going to run out of rope soo[[spoiler: [[JustForFun/CandleJack Oh, you know me like a book.]] And I just used up all my rope.]]
----
!!Tropes demonstrated:

* AffablyEvil: Captain Milo is a nice guy, when not trying to prove he was better than Percy, although as the show went on obsession got the better of him.
* TheAgeless: Abyssians (which includes The Skintaker) are unable to be killed.
** Also Sir. Periwinkle, for unexplained reasons. He also implies the above may not be true after all. Little wonder the Skin Taker kept his distance.
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Percy gets a lot of flack for being a "wimpy" pirate but really he's not. I mean, the dude goes out of his way to pick up a targeted, defenseless little girl and keep her out of the clutches of Horace Horrible and the Skin Taker. Think about that. He does his best to save this little girl he doesn't even KNOW from possibly the creepiest villans ever to grace puppetry and then tries to keep her entertained with "adventures" and the like as he does his best to keep them both alive. That takes some serious BALLS man, Pirate Percy was a hero. Fear of the dark and all.
* AnachronismStew: The Skin-Taker's "[[IncrediblyLamePun skeleton crew]]"[[labelnote:*]][[DontExplainTheJoke Get it? Because they're all skeletons!]][[/labelnote]] which show up in the episode "Rocks of Arcadia" are equipped with a bizarre array of weaponry, from cutlasses to muskets to wicked-looking surgical equipment to what looks suspiciously like an SKS rifle. Perhaps even weirder are their clothes, which include traditional pirate garb, one of those [[BuffySpeak cone-shaped Asian hat things]], and what may or may not be (you can't really tell since it's so tattered and faded) a British redcoat's uniform. They play a pretty important role in the episode (especially the part where [[spoiler:they capture Pirate Percy]]) but no explanation is ever given for why their appearances are so varied and unsuited to the setting.
** And then there's the episode that had a group of [[StreetMusician street musicians]] performing a SurfRock arrangement of "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_Among_the_Dead_Men_(song) Down Among the Dead Men]]."
* AndIMustScream: One episode of the second series featured no storyline at all. Instead, all the puppet characters screamed and jerked around spasmodically, while Janice sobbed in fear and exhaustion. The entire episode consisted of nothing but close ups of the various characters, screaming and crying into the camera. It has been theorised that this was actually some sort of test broadcast, sent out in error, as the episode was never repeated.
* AnimateDead: The Skin Taker can do this due to being born under the sign of Death Magic.
* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: In one scene, Horace Horrible holds Percy and Janice at gunpoint and does some minor EvilGloating while gesturing emphatically with his pistol, waving it about and even pointing it at ''his own head'' at one point.
* AsideGlance: When asked why his jaw slides back and forth, the Skin-Taker looks to the ''audience'' to give his reply. [[spoiler: "''To grind your skin!''"]]
* BadBoss: The Skin Taker. See under Nightmare Fuel below.
** Milo as well. By the end of his run almost all of his crew are gone and the rest are too frightened to even breathe.
* BadassBeard: Poppy, the captain of the Laughingstock, has one.
* BigBad: The Skin Taker.
* BigBadWannabe: Milo is this during his first appearance he believe he has the strongest fleet on the sea and seems to not even know of the skin taker's existence.
* [[BigBrotherBully Big Sister Bully]]: Melrose in the Pilot.
* BigNameFan: Creator/KrisStraub, and to a lesser extent, [[Series/ChannelZero Nick Antosca]], have both been very open about [[JustForFun/OneOfUs including elements from Candle Cove within their work]].
* BizarroEpisode: Yeah, the show got darker as it went but... Even so, what was ''with'' the "screaming episode?"
* CainAndAbel: Milo tried to kill his younger brother Percy on multiple occasions.
* CatchPhrase: "''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis You have... to go... INSIDE.]]''"
* CannibalTribe: The ''Laughingstock'' crew run afoul of a rather stereotypical tribe of HollywoodVoodoo practitioners who intend to cook Percy in their [[StewedAlive enormous cast iron cooking pot]].
* CanonDiscontinuity: There was a 2 parter that had the Laughingstock getting destroyed and being replaced by another similar ship. At the end of the story arc, it was revealed they were AllJustADream.
* CerebusSyndrome: The show gets progressively more disturbing and disjointed throughout the series.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The Banana King is last seen in the episode introducing Milo. [[FunnyAneurysmMoment He makes a joke about giving up pirating and is never seen again.]]
** Horace is not seen after Milo accepts his job. [[spoiler: You hear him do his trademark giggle when it cuts to black after Milo dies]]
* CigarChomper: The Banana King.
* CoconutMeetsCranium: Something of a running gag throughout the series. Virtually every major character fell victim to it at least once.
* CoolShip: The Laughingstock, sorta. At least it's got a talking face on it. That's gotta count for something.
** The war ship Manrow from the dream episodes was this as well.
** CoolAirship: The Laughingstock briefly became one when it was equipped with a balloon in order to escape from a tree it had been thrown into by a hurricane.
* CowardlyLion: Pirate Percy, of course.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Milo gains this when he becomes so fed up with losing to Percy that he decides to try to join The Skin Taker. He appeals to Skin Taker by killing his own crew and when that wasn't enough, he tracked down and skinned a girl he apparently used to be good friends with.
* CuteGhostGirl: Mina, the title character of "The Ghost of Misty Moors" is perfectly sweet and harmless. Of course, Percy is still afraid of her.
* DastardlyWhiplash: Horace Horrible combines this with {{Cloudcuckoolander}} to make an... interesting character.
** One way to describe him is the mixture of one half of the namesake, Dick Dastardly and Fearless Leader of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
* DeadpanSnarker: The Banana King in Season 1.
** Captain Milo could be such a snarker to put the Banana King to shame.
* DemBones: The Skin-Taker
* DownerEnding: [[WildMassGuessing It's been suggested]] that final episodes were actually about [[spoiler: an EldritchAbomination eating the universe]].
* DragonInChief: Most viewers forget Skin Taker only shows up a handful times in the whole series, and Horace was more the main antagonist for the rest of it.
* DressedToPlunder: Most of the characters.
* TheDeadCanDance: Skin-Taker and his troupe of skeletons.
* TheDeadHaveEyes: The Skin-Taker's eyes are too big for their sockets.
* EarWorm: The one thing everybody remembers about this show (apart from the Skin Taker, that is) is the calliope music. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gY-6BM28Ds Supposedly this is what it sounded like]].
* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler: In one of the last episodes, the Skin Taker is seen sitting on a rock and whispering inaudibly to what appears to be a small, bubbling whirlpool in the water. The whirlpool's voice actor is the same as the Skin Taker's, but its only lines are high-pitched giggles filled with either NightmareFuel or {{Narm}}, depending on the viewer. This scene cuts immediately to one of Percy and Janice on a beach, and [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment is never mentioned again.]]]]
** [[spoiler: Some fans speculate that the final episode was a result of one of these eating the universe. Perhaps the whirlpool monster and the final episode monster are one in the same?]]
* EnsembleDarkHorse: Though the Skin Taker doesn't make a great number of appearances (as mentioned above), any discussion of the show is practically guaranteed to bring him up at some point.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: [[LocalHangout The Candle Snuffer]]'s bartender is only ever called "Barman."
* EyepatchOfPower: Scary-Ann has one.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: How most of Milo's plans end.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Milo slips from genuinely AffablyEvil to this as the show goes on.
* FiringInTheAirALot: Pirates are seen doing this with impunity, [[BottomlessMagazines firing round after round into the air from their flintlock pistols without ever having to reload]].
* FiveFingerFillet: One of the [[FunnyBackgroundEvent background pirates]] in [[LocalHangout The Candle Snuffer]] can be seen playing this in a few episodes. In one of the later episodes [[{{Fingore}} he's missing a finger]].
* FlayingAlive: The Skin Taker.
* {{Flynning}}: The sword fighting scenes are pretty much made up entirely of the characters waving their swords while lunging forward and back. This was later parodied by the puppet fight scenes in ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice''.
* FollowTheLeader[=/=]SpiritualSuccessor: ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'' may well have drawn a lot of influence from this show. One could even make a strong case of it being a {{deconstruction}} or parody.
** Dr. Heartfelt, the Laughingstock's resident medical officer (as mentioned on the now-defunct Troper Tales page), is very similar to [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 the Medic]] in both voice acting and personality.
** It is has been suggested that Thurop van Orman watched it, but Pendleton Ward may also have seen at least one episode, as [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime the Lich]] is eerily reminiscent of the Skintaker.
** Michael Dante Dimartino and Bryan Konietzko's [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Korra]], when she is [[spoiler:spiritually regressed into a child,]] is heartrendingly helpless, and her scenes bring to mind similar ones from Candle Cove, such as when Janice, at the request of the Banana King, begs the [[spoiler:clearly dead]] wishing fish to "wake up and come home with [her] now..." in ''song''.
** Musically, it's clear Music/DoctorSteel himself borrowed parts of the Candle Cove theme song's leitmotif, as well as incorporating the melody of One Year Closer ([[RuleOfSymbolism played]] [[GrowingUpSucks backwards!]]), for his song "Childhood (Don't) A Go-Go."
** Much of ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'''s WomanScorned episodes seem to be inspired by Milo's encounter with a one shot character, "Tempest the Merlady."
** Most surprisingly, references to Candle Cove pop up throughout Creator/RebeccaSugar's work. References to Pirate Percy and Janice's familial relationship occur in [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime "I Remember You", and "Simon and Marcy"]], and the most disturbing scene in "[[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse Rose's Room]]" parallels a meeting between Janice and [[spoiler: an illusion of]] her sister in "Paradise Isle." "So Many Birthdays" borrows so liberally from Janice's Birthday Episode that it's unnerving.
** Hoody Hans looked remarkably like [[{{BFS}} Hell's]] [[RedEyesTakeWarning Chef]] from ''Anime/GregoryHorrorShow''. He was more like [[LargeHam Judgement]] [[SadisticChoice Boy]] in terms of personality, though.
** It more recently seems that the British know about the show, as [[WesternAnimation/DangerMouse Jeopardy Mouse]] is [[Main/{{Expy}} eerily reminiscent]] of Captain Milo.
* FridgeHorror: When Janice's actor changed, the Skin-Taker's cape ''got longer''. Could be purely coincidental, but it's still pretty damn terrifying.
** Coincidence. His cape would get longer several times over the course of the series. That one instance just stood out because he was wearing an elaborate costume made of the same material while doing that trippy dance with all the skeletons.
*** [[GenuineHumanHide Not that the Skin-Taker's cape getting longer at all isn't fridge horror on its own...]]
* FrothyMugsOfWater: Averted. [[LocalHangout The Candle Snuffer]] is explicitly called an "alehouse" and it is shown to serve a veritable GargleBlaster as its "Special."
* FunctionalMagic: It was stated in the show that all Abyssians (or descendants of Abyssians) could use magic, although it was rarely shown.
** The Skin Taker was stated to be born under the sign of Death Magic
** Red Mary was born under the sign of Fire Magic
* GainaxEnding: Descriptions from people who watch the show indicate the final episode makes no sense. There's a Website/YouTube video that's supposed to have the final episode, but the entire second half of it is static.
** What are you talking about? It's the first half that's static.
** That video is fake. The Skin Taker was never seen without his cape, Horace never wore a hood, and his teeth were always visible, and while [[FanNickname ManBearPig]] or what's his name only appeared in the last episode (besides a brief cameo in the first), he was in a cave, and wasn't wearing a plaid shirt.
*** Before that WesternAnimation/SouthPark episode, nobody thought to nickname it that. Its original name was [[spoiler: Bigfoot]], and it threw big rocks at Pirate Percy if he came near its treasure. Rumor has it, it's a brown painted and badly damaged replica of [[spoiler: the Abominable Snowman from the Rudolph Christmas special]] and it was claymation rather than the puppet format the rest of the show was, hence why it took so long to produce episodes with him in it and why he was never used outside of a few appearances.
*** Only Janice called him [[spoiler:Bigfoot]]. Everyone else called him 'Gorger' or 'Hungry'.
** It's been suggested that the "Screaming Episode" wasn't a real episode or even the final episode but just a [[EmergencyBroadcast test broadcast]]. Why it involved everyone screaming and why no later episodes have surfaced remains unknown. Others suggest that that it's the result of [[spoiler: an EldritchAbomination driving the cast except Janice insane, later going on to eat the universe]].
*** [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Another longtime fan]], however, suggests that it was just a tape error that looped what was merely a reaction to the Skin-Taker's latest plan.
* GargleBlaster: The vaguely defined "Special" served at "[[LocalHangout The Candle Snuffer]]." One sip of it [[FireBreathingDiner causes smoke to shoot out of Percy's nostrils and ears]].
** Hilariously, though in the subsequent scene while Percy and the banana King are discussing their plan to thwart Horace, Janice [[FunnyBackgroundEvent can be seen in the background]] taking a sip from Percy's unfinished drink. She makes a face, but is otherwise unaffected. Is Percy just a lightweight who can't handle his drink? Was Janice's actress going off script and trying a prop drink out of curiosity? We may never know.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The Skin-Taker, obviously. Though there were several episodes with some pretty surprising content, ranging from the subtle to the not-so-subtle. Seems the Radar was sleeping on the job. Some of it was pretty funny in hindsight, though others... yikes.
* GodivaHair: Tempest the Merlady sports this rather than the SeashellBra you'd be likely to see in most kids' shows.
* HighClassGlass: Horace Horrible's monocle.
* HookHand: [[FunnyBackgroundEvent One of the background pirates]] in The Candle Snuffer is seen in several episodes drinking from a flagon held in his hook.
* HornyVikings: Captain Sven, a [[VillainOfTheWeek one-episode villain]] who despite the show's ostensible Caribbean setting wears a horned helmet and a fur cloak and sails a Viking Longship. The closest we get to an explanation for this is that he's from "the North."
* HumanoidAbomination: The Skin Taker, probably.
** Hoody Hans might be one as well, considering that nothing is known about his physical appearance aside from the fact that he covers himself with a yellow raincoat (the hood of which conceals his face, showing only his sharp teeth)
* JunglesSoundLikeKookaburras: Invoked pretty much any time the characters visit an island with dense foliage.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Even though it has a strong nostalgic fan base online, there's pretty much no chance these days of finding any recordings of the show.
* KilledOffForReal: Milo, Percy's brother and [[Main/SiblingRivalry rival]], is killed off screen during his last appearance.
** It's rumored that because of his abrupt departure and the change in his voice when he speaks his last lines, that this may actually be an example of TheCharacterDiedWithHim.
* KnightInShiningArmor: Sir Periwinkle the Deep Sea Knight, who dressed in an old-fashioned diving suit and carried the magic anchor Durendale as a weapon. Implied to be immortal. Notably the one person to scare the Skin Taker, he unfortunately only appeared in one episode.
** Strangely, in the penultimate episode his voice echoes in Janice's mind to keep running from the Skin Taker when she exhausts herself.
-->'''Sir Periwinkle:''' [[IronicEcho "You have... to go... OUTSIDE!!!"]]
* KnightOfCerebus: The Skin-Taker
* LargeHam: The Skin-Taker and the Laughingstock.
* LaughablyEvil: Horace Horrible could be pretty damn funny. The time he threw a trash bag at Percy comes to mind.
* {{Leitmotif}}: The melody which is played every time the Laughingstock goes inside; it's mostly known as the "Muddy Boots Song" because it was also the melody of said song.
* LocalHangout: "The Candle Snuffer" attracts clientele a bit too unsavory to be classed as a GoodGuyBar, although it is frequented by the Banana King and Percy, and it seems many of its customers [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything don't do much actual pirating anyway]].
-->'''Banana King:''' "The Candle Snuffer. [[DeadpanSnarker Best place to go for bad food, bad drinks and rumours that probably aren't true."]]
* MediumBlending: The occasional animated sequences, which invariably slipped into DerangedAnimation and DisneyAcidSequence.
* MemeticMutation: There's a pretty random forced meme of people claiming they only see static when shown footage of the show, or alternately saying they see the show when shown static. It's kind of weird, actually. The infamous "[[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Screaming Episode]]" has made a lot of Website/YouTube cameos, as well.
** That's also a way of trolling others who haven't heard of the show.
* MisplacedVegetation: Sandy Isle has ''cacti'' growing on it.
* MissingEpisode: There have been numerous "last episodes" that have surfaced, some more obviously fake than others.
* [[MrImagination Ms. Imagination]]: One theory says that the whole show actually took place in Janice's imagination.
** Another theory holds that the show took place in Pirate Percy's imagination.
* MoralEventHorizon: It was played for laughs, but the episode where Milo rigged a chest full of bombs and tried to trick Percy into opening it showed just how insane Milo had gotten by wanting to ''murder'' his own brother.
* MusicalEpisode
* NarmCharm: Even though the bad special effects should kill any WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief, the storytelling was effective enough that nobody really paid attention to how obviously low budget it was until after the fact, preventing the show from being a {{Narm}}-fest.
* NightmareFuel: The Skin-Taker, a living skeleton wearing a top hat and cloak made from the skin of children.
** The puppets in general were pretty damn creepy looking.
** There was this one scene in the second-to-last episode that featured the Skin Taker in a fit of anger curb-stomping Horace face-first into the corpse of a giant dead rat. The scene [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment made no sense and was never mentioned again]], but the ''cruelty'' of the Skin Taker in that scene was bone-chilling; also, Horace could not stop uttering "master, master" in the saddest voice for a good twenty seconds.
** And there's Milo's death scene. The Skintaker grabs a sword, the silhouette of Milo's falling head, and then the cut to black is damn chilling. Supposedly if you turned the volume up just after the cut to black there was a faint grinding noise, and the next episode he got new gloves...
** The Screaming episode is probably THE most notable example, it has no relation to the plot and came right the fuck out of no where.
** The multiple implications that Janice is insane, and hallucinating the whole show.
* NoEnding: Due to the show being canceled there was no real conclusion for any of the story arcs.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The Laughingstock sounds like Ed Wynn.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Most fans consider both Horace and Milo this as their plans were more slapstick.
** Horace had invented a weather machine which he used to make the Laughingstock crash. [[spoiler:It turns out that was AllJustADream though.]]
* NotSoSafeHarbor: The eponymous Candle Cove.
* OffTheShelfFX: Pirate Percy is made up of various doll parts.
* OnionTears: Horace Horrible attempts to [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment torture]] Percy on one occasion by cutting onions in front of him. This results in both of them bawling their eyes out.
* OneSceneWonder: Typical for a kid's show; besides the main characters and villains (and Milo), most characters show up once and are never seen again.
** Some viewers may recall Danny, Milo's dragon. He managed to be so over the top [[IncomingHam in his debut episode]] [[SpotlightStealingSquad he overshadowed Milo]]. The rest of the episodes with Milo never had Danny make an appearance.
* TheOtherDarrin: Milo had a British accent, but it changes noticeably in the lines before his death, to the point that it sounds like someone doing more of a mock british accent than the real deal.
* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: The Banana King states that The Candle Snuffer is "the finest alehouse in Candle Cove." He then adds that "[[LampshadeHanging it's also the only alehouse in Candle Cove]]."
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: In one episode, they discover the Banana King's dead brother Henry, who haunts a bowl in a cave near Walter's Warf.
* PirateGirl: Scary-Ann is a rather by-the-numbers example, being TheLadette, and a FieryRedhead to boot.
* PirateParrot: The Banana King has one.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Pirate Percy can barely work up the courage to go after treasure.
** The Banana king's brother Henry, spent most of his time complaining about his unusual circumstances. Which is fair, since he's [[OurGhostsAreDifferent a ghost inextricably bound to a small wooden bowl]].
** Subverted with Captain Poppy who, when he was seen, was usually on his way to the high seas to go adventuring.
* PortTown: The eponymous Candle Cove.
* PublicDomain: Possibly. So far, no one has stepped forward and claimed ownership. It was on local stations in the US but no syndicated studios produced it. In fact, many of the local stations that supposedly aired it claim to have no recollection of the show.
* QuicksandSucks: Invoked in the episode where Percy blunders into a pit of quicksand while searching for buried treasure on Isla Somna. Of course, Janice manages to pull him out just in the nick of time.
** And then at the end of the episode Horace Horrible [[BrickJoke blunders into the same pit]]. [[UnexplainedRecovery He's fine in the next episode, though]].
* ReactiveContinuousScream: The infamous encounter with [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Bigfoot]] (AKA [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Man-Bear-Pig]]). He was enough to scare all the characters into simultaneous hysterical screaming.
* TheRival: Milo was this to Percy for some of the second season.
* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Percy, unsurprisingly.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Most stations aired it late in the afternoon, instead of in their usual children's morning lineup.
* ShoutOut
** One of the background pirates seen in a few episodes sitting atop a barrel looks nearly identical to one of the pirate animatronics from Disney's ''Ride/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' ride.
** In one episode, Horace Horrible [[ICallItVera calls his cutlass]] "[[Literature/PeterPan Jimmy Corkscrew]]."
** The Skin Taker's VillainSong, "One Year Closer" (below) sounds like the Oompa Loompa songs from ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory''. Now try to imagine them singing that.
** Sir. Periwinkle apparently ''quoted [[Creator/HPLovecraft The Nameless City]]'' as a BadassBoast to the Skin-Taker, after the latter asserts that he died long ago.
-->'''Sir. Periwinkle:''' "Ah, but that is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons ''[[ImpliedDeathThreat even death may die.]]''
** Horace Horrible would occasionally exclaim "[[Theatre/PunchAndJudy That's the way to do it!]]" upon accomplishing a task.
** When Pirate Percy first told Janice about his relationship with Milo, he showed her a photo which showed [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Milo pulling a football away just as Percy was about to kick it]].
* SiblingRivalry: Milo and Percy have a pretty severe case of this, although it's pretty one-sided since Percy doesn't care about one-upping Milo.
* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: This seems to be what the show was going for, as Janice is subjected to many of the same "comical" mishaps as the males in the cast, but while Percy or Horace's reactions are usually comical, Janice often looks so sad that it instead seems more tragic. For example, when Percy and Janice fall face-first in the mud, Percy's sputtering reaction is hilarious, but Janice looks like she's going to cry and you can't help but feel bad for her.
* SpecialEffectsFailure: Damn near everything. You can even see the fishhook they use to make the Laughingstock's mouth flap.
** If there was an award for this, it would go to the giant octopus seen in 'Eight Legs Under The Sea'. Its head was a soccer ball painted purple with a face drawn on it (the face was admittedly well-drawn), and its tentacles were purple tongue depressors. What really puts it over the top, however, is that every time it changes its expression they use a whole new soccer ball, which are usually painted in completely different colors!
*** Possible FridgeBrilliance, as some species of octopus will change color with mood.
* StepfordSmiler: Probably unintentional, but Janice sometimes seemed this way. In a couple of episodes she started crying for no reason.
* SuckinessIsPainful: Percy's piano playing has this effect on Horace.
* TalkLikeAPirate: Oddly enough, almost no one save a few incidental characters indulged in this.
* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: In the 2-part dream episode, "Mrs. Skintaker" looks exactly the same as the normal Skintaker, only with big red lips, big eyelashes, and a big pink bow.
* TokenEvilTeammate: Milo was a member of the Laughingstock crew until he went out on his own.
* UnusualEuphemism: Horace was fond of saying "Bilgewater!" whenever he got sufficiently annoyed.
* VillainSong: In one episode, the Skin Taker finds out it's Janice's Birthday, and he sings an eerie song called "One Year Closer", made creepier by the minimalist, singsongy melody. Seriously, [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar how did they let kids see this stuff?]] The fact that it sounds like [[Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory the Oompa-Loompa songs]] doesn't help at all.
-->One year closer
-->Another year's past
-->Soon you'll find out that your body won't last
-->One year closer
-->Another year's end
-->A few more years with your family and friends
-->One year closer
-->The time flies by
-->Get on your knees and begin to cry
-->because
-->One year's closer
-->You can't hold on
-->You will slip away and then you'll be gone
-->One year closer
-->Its too late
-->Everyone in the world will share your fate
-->One year closer
-->Time grinding away
-->I'll sew you in on that day
-->So remember
-->One year closer
-->One year dies
-->One year wasted
-->No matter how you try
-->No matter how you try
-->One year closer
-->One year closer
-->I will hunt you
-->And then it'll begin
-->You will scream
-->And I will grind the skin
-->I will grind the skin
** Milo had one called simply "Wimp", mocking Percy for his [[AmbiguouslyGay perceived unmanliness.]] Percy's [[DeathGlare offstage frowning]] during the number is rather disturbing.
*** There's a reason that look was disturbing. His normal wooden face wasn't capable of making that expression, and a completely different head was needed just for that scene. That's the one and only time it's used as well.
* VillainousBreakdown: Milo gets a bad one at the beginning of the episode "A Drastic Team Up" .
* VineSwing: Done a few times by various characters over the course of the series. Notably, the one time Percy attempts it, he accompanies his swing with a Franchise/{{Tarzan}} yell that quickly turns into ScreamsLikeALittleGirl.
* YellowPeril: [[VillainOfTheweek Minor villain]] Captain Lao, who is pretty obviously an {{Expy}} of Literature/FuManchu.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Poor Milo. You should have never joined the Skin Taker.
** To clarify: during his last two episodes, Milo became fed up with losing to Percy, and decided to join the Skin Taker, replacing Horace's role. He assumes that [[BigBadDuumvirate the two are in an equal partnership.]] [[EvilerThanThou He's wrong.]] [[spoiler: ''[[EldritchAbomination Very]]'' [[FateWorseThanDeath wrong.]]]]
----

* EarWorm: The one thing everybody remembers about this show (apart from the Skin Taker, that is) is the calliope music.

* BigNameFan: Creator/KrisStraub, and to a lesser extent, [[Series/ChannelZero Nick Antosca]], have both been very open about [[OneOfUs including elements from Candle Cove within their work]].

* BigNameFan[=/=]OneofUs: Creator/KrisStraub, and to a lesser extent, [[Series/ChannelZero Nick Antosca]], have both been very open about including elements from Candle Cove within their work.

* BigNameFan[=/=]OneOfUs: Creator/KrisStraub, and to a lesser extent, [[Series/ChannelZero Nick Antosca]], have both been very open about including elements from Candle Cove within their work.

* BigNameFan: Creator/KrisStraub, and to a lesser extent, [[Series/ChannelZero Nick Antosca]], have both been very open about including elements from Candle Cove within their work.

* BigNameFan: Creator/KrisStraub, and to a lesser extent, Nick Antosca, have both been very open about including elements from Candle Cove within their work.

* BigNameFan: Kris Straub, and to a lesser extent, Nick Antosca, have both been very open about including elements from Candle Cove within their work.