History WesternAnimation / FreakyStories

''Freaky Stories'' is a Canadian AnimatedAnthology series created by Decode Entertainment (now part of Creator/WildBrain) and Creator/FunbagAnimation. The show is hosted by two animatronic puppets, a cockroach named Larry de Bug (voice of Creator/JamesRankin), and his gooey sidekick, Maurice the maggot (voice of Creator/DanRedican), the two of whom hang out at Ted's Diner - a 1940s-style GreasySpoon staffed by a waitress named Rosie [[TheVoice who is heard but never seen]] (voice of Creator/JayneEastwood).

As the brainchild of Steve Schnier, the pilot to ''Freaky Stories'' debuted in English-speaking Canada as part of Creator/{{YTV}}'s "Dark Night 3" Halloween block on October 28, 1995. Due to the positive reception it received, the full series was greenlit shortly afterwards and premiered as a one-hour special as part of "Dark Night 5" on October 24, 1997. The show proceeded to run for 35 episodes over 3 seasons (with each episode featuring 4 shorts for a total of 140 stories), with the final episode being shown on October 1, 2000. Outside of Canada, the show aired on Creator/FoxFamily in the United States.

* ForWantOfANail: "The Bookkeeper" involves a guy attempting to get a job as one, except he couldn't read or write, instead leading to a string of events where his decisions result in him earning more amounts of money than the last, until he ends up a wealthy tycoon owning all sorts of businesses. When discussing in an interview how he never learned to read or write, he concludes that if he had, he would have just ended up a bookkeeper in the first place.

Officially described as "a ''[[Franchise/TheTwilightZone Twilight Zone]]'' for kids", the series centers around UrbanLegends, specifically the kinds that are told as scary campfire or bedtime stories. Every episode would start Larry telling the audience, "This is a true story, and it happened to friend of a friend of mine," and also end with Larry saying, "Just because they never happened doesn't mean they ain't true." But what made the series truly stand out however was that as an anthology series, [[ArtShift the animation style and musical scoring of each half-hour episode varied between each of the stories being told]]. Furthermore, different narrators were brought on board with every story, with a wide variety of Canadian actors and voice artists appearing in the series to tell Larry and Maurice's myths and legends.

** The story that ends with TwinDesynch above was the result of the sisters trying to win the affections of the same guy, who has to put up with their attempts to sabotage the other through this trope. He agrees to go with them both to the school dance, where it's ultimately revealed that he and ''his own'' twin pulled this off to make it look like a disaster for them.

** Another story involves a pair of sisters trying to win the affections of the same guy, who has to put up with their attempts to sabotage the other through this trope. He agrees to go with them both to the school dance, where it's ultimately revealed that he and ''his own'' twin also pulled this off to make it look like a disaster for them.

** Another story involves a pair of sisters trying to win the affections of the same guy, who has to put up with their attempts to sabotage the other through this trope. He agrees to go with them both to the school dance, where it's ultimately revealed that he and ''his own'' twin pulled this off to make it look like a disaster for them.

** One episode features a new girl taking a shine to the biggest loser in the school, happily trading her candy bars for his disgusting lunches. Eventually, he starts giving her random scraps of garbage instead, which she still accepts for the candy bars. In reality, she has been harvesting the trash to use as a breeding ground for maggots, [[spoiler:the main ingredient for her experimental candy bars]].

* HorribleCampingTrip: A girl gets bitten by a possible vampire bat while on a school camping trip in "Bat Girl" while Boy Scouts encounter a possible NuclearNasty in "Puddle and the Glow Monster" and suspected {{Wicked Witch}}es in "The Meal."

Officially described as "a ''[[Franchise/TheTwilightZone Twilight Zone]]'' for kids", the series centers around urban legends, specifically the kinds that are told as scary campfire or bedtime stories. Every episode would start Larry telling the audience, "This is a true story, and it happened to friend of a friend of mine," and also end with Larry saying, "Just because they never happened doesn't mean they ain't true." But what made the series truly stand out however was that as an anthology series, [[ArtShift the animation style and musical scoring of each half-hour episode varied between each of the stories being told]]. Furthermore, different narrators were brought on board with every story, with a wide variety of Canadian actors and voice artists appearing in the series to tell Larry and Maurice's myths and legends.

* LonelyFuneral / UnexpectedInheritance: One episode featured a wealthy man who wasn't on speaking terms with any friend or relative and made a will leaving his fortune to anyone who bothered to attend the funeral. The only person to do it was [[spoiler:an old woman who didn't even know him. She simply needed a bathroom and crashing the funeral was the only option.]]

* ComicallyInappropriateFuneralUrn: This was the twist in one epside. A family in a {{Ruritania}} village monthly received a package from a successful relative in the United States. One month they received a jar with some powder, but a goat ate the letter it came with. They guessed it was some kind of spice and cooked with it all the time. They ran out of the powder, but next month they received a new package which was an urn where said relative wanted his ashes put in... Ashes which were contained on the jar.

* VandalismBackfire: One story featured an overjealous man whose wife was constantly receiving a male visitor who even once took her for a car ride. The husband one day covered the car with concrete. The visitor was a car salesman and the woman had just bought the car for her husband's birthday.

''Freaky Stories'' is a Canadian television series that originally aired on Creator/{{YTV}} from 1997 to 2000. It is an animated show about urban legends, hosted by two animatronic puppets, Larry de Bug, a cockroach (Creator/JamesRankin), and his gooey sidekick, Maurice the maggot (Creator/DanRedican), in Ted's Diner - a 1940s-style diner setting staffed by Rosie the waitress, [[TheVoice who is heard but never seen]] (Creator/JayneEastwood).

The series, described as "a ''[[Franchise/TheTwilightZone Twilight Zone]]'' for kids," centers on the kind of myths and legends that are told as scary campfire or bedtime stories. Every episode always starts with and finishes with the phrase: "This is a true story, and it happened to friend of a friend of mine." And by the words of Larry, "Just because they never happened, doesn't mean they ain't true." Animation styles and musical scoring varied within each half-hour episode, incorporating [[ArtShift 20 different looks]] in the first season alone. The short stories and changing styles were specifically designed to keep viewers' attention spans.

''Freaky Stories'' is a Canadian television series that originally aired on Creator/{{YTV}} from 1997 to 2000. It is an animated show about urban legends, hosted by two animatronic puppets, Larry de Bug, a cockroach, and his gooey sidekick, Maurice the maggot, in Ted's Diner - a 1940s-style diner setting staffed by Rosie the waitress ([[TheVoice who is heard but never seen]]).

''Freaky Stories'' is a Canadian television series. It is an animated show about urban legends, hosted by two animatronic puppets, Larry de Bug, a cockroach, and his gooey sidekick, Maurice the maggot, in Ted's Diner - a 1940s-style diner setting staffed by Rosie the waitress ([[TheVoice who is heard but never seen]]).

* FamilialCannibalismSurprise: One story involved a man who came to America to find his fortune, and upon doing so, would dote gifts to his relatives back in their native country village. Eventually, a jar with what was assumed to be a brown spice came, along with a letter that was, unfortunately, eaten by a stray goat before anyone could read it. The family and even neighbors enjoyed the spice, until another package, containing an urn, explained that said relative died and wanted his remains to rest back in the family home. Needless to say, the village was both horrified and disgusted that they accidentally ate the remains of said beloved man.

** One story revolves around a nerdy girl who scores herself a date, but is so busy arranging everything perfectly via her computer that she has nothing to eat but some nasty old chili left in the back of the fridge. Needless to say, the episode ends with her letting out a monstrously foul fart during a brief moment that her date was outside of the car... and discovering, too late, that he had brought along his parents to meet her, and they were in the back of the car when she let it out.

* MissingFloor: One story has an obsessive man trying to figure out the secret of a building's 13th floor. When he finally gets to it, [[spoiler:he finds that the door to the 13th floor locks from the inside, trapping him with everyone else who had discovered it.]]

* RulesOfTheRoad: One of the episodes involves an incredibly picky police officer, who expects everyone to follow traffic laws EXACTLY. Naturally, once he acquires a Speed Gun, he begins pulling people over for even going 1 Km/h faster/slower than the posted speed limit.

* TwinSwitch: One story involves twin brothers who use this to live as a single person, combining their completely different interests and talents to come off as the perfect person. On said "perfect person's" wedding day, the two of them were calmly talking to each other until they remembered at least one of them should show up. When they do, they see their bride marrying their [[LongLostRelative long-lost brother]]. They were triplets after all.

* AlienEpisode: There were several of these, most of them involving the Rigelians, a cycloptic race with big brains first introduced in "Fifi To Go."

* BewareOfHitchHikingGhosts: One episode (which was set {{Twenty Minutes into the Future}}, complete with hover cars) had the driver discover that the teenaged hitchhiker was really a (non-evil) old hag when she returns his borrowed jacket.

* EpisodeOnAPlane: The pilots get locked out of the cockpit in "Locked Out At 20,000" and have to rely on an arrested lockpick and a nerdy boy's braces to get through the door and save everyone before the airplane crashes into a mountain range.

* FishingEpisode: A little girls somehow keeps outdoing her father when it comes to fishing in "Fishing Hole."

** Another story revolves around a polite young boy whose parents want him to be on his best behavior when visiting his great aunt so they can inherit her fortune. The biggest problem comes when he has to keep eating baked beans, which were his least favorite food, with his great aunt constantly giving him more no matter how much he finishes or hides them. This ultimately causes him to let out a huge fart that he could no longer contain, but his great aunt was overjoyed because her late husband would fart as his way of thanking her for the food, and took it as the biggest compliment she had ever gotten. Giving him the entire fortune as his reward.

* PrisonEpisode: There were three--"Prison Break", "Court In The Act", and "So Long Sing Sing"--all of them involving botched escapes.

* PestEpisode: "Mouse in the House" has a construction worker try to get rid of a mouse for an old woman. He destroys her house in the process, and builds her an elaborate new one, free of charge, to make it up to her. [[spoiler:As soon as the new house is finished, the woman sells it for an exorbitant price as it is revealed that she and the mouse were in cahoots]].

** Maurice the Maggot was continually farting. At one point he gets the "Maggot Flu", which is like the normal flu, except you also fart whenever you sneeze. That said, Larry the Cockroach was able to beat him at a fart-off.

* LemonyNarrator: Some narrators are more snarky than others. Usually, the adult narrators are more prone to this trope (especially if they've interacted with the story's protagonist), while children or teenage narrators tend to speak without sarcasm.

* MusicalEpisode: Has quite a few, such as "The Hook", "Pirates" and "The Getaway".

* AcidRefluxNightmare: The plot of "Sweet Dreams". It's brought about by a boy named Jordon eating macaroni and cheese, a chili burger loaded with onions, a strawberry float, and week old sweet and sour kimchi.

* BuriedAlive: One episode involved a man who was deathly afraid of being buried alive, a fact his wife learned when he had a panic attack caused by the rice being thrown at their wedding. She promises him that if he died, she'd install a hot line phone that linked directly to the house, where she would wait for a year so he can call her to get him out if he's still alive. The rest of the plot involves her actually going through with this promise after her husband dies suddenly. Her friends finally convince her to go out for the evening on the 365th day. Just after she leaves, [[spoiler:the phone rings]]. The worst part is that the person who convinced her was the husband's sister, who [[FreudianExcuse caused his fear in the first place when they were kids]].
* TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse: A story involves a babysitter repeatedly getting mysterious calls from a voice that asks "Have you checked the children?" that she eventually traces and then freaks out to find are coming from a second line in the house. While the narration never confirms it, the visuals strongly imply it is just the kids playing a prank.
* ChristmasEpisode: "Mooching Roommate" takes place in the aftermath of Christmas while "Literature/TheLodger" has [[spoiler:SantaClaus get sleight-jacked by UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper]].

* FamilialCannibalismSurprise: One story involved a man who came to America to find his fortune, and upon doing so, would dote gifts to his relatives back in their native country village. Eventually, a jar with what was assumed to be a brown spice came, along with a letter that was, unfortunately, ate by a stray goat before anyone could read it. The family and even neighbors enjoyed the spice, until another package, containing an urn, explained that said relative died and wanted his remains to rest back in the family home. Needless to say, the village was both horrified and disgusted that they accidentally ate the remains of said beloved man.

** One story revolves around a nerdy girl who scores herself a date, but is so busy arranging everything perfectly via her computer that she has nothing to eat but some nasty old chili left in the back of the fridge. Needless to say, the episode ends with her letting a monstrously foul fart during a brief moment that her date was outside of the car... and discovering, too late, that he had brought along his parents to meet her, and they were in the back of the car when she let it out.

** Yet ''another'' story had a boy who ate nothing but beans, with his flatulance being so bad that his family had to resort to wearing gas masks around him at all times.

* IAteWhat: Almost OnceAnEpisode. Examples include a cheapskate siphoning from the wrong tank of an RV, a couple finding a corpse in their wine barrel, and an escaped convict blindly looting the contents of a fridge, which turned out to be storing things like medical waste. One story had a man visiting an elderly woman's house, and eating a jar of peanuts when she left the room; after he apologized, she responded with:

* InflatingBodyGag: One of the stories is about a pageant contestant who, in a desperate attempt to stay thin, takes black market diet pills. However, the pills come with a warning label saying not to drink anything with them. After going days or possibly even weeks without drinking a drop, she is obviously extremely thirsty. A fit of nervous hiccups forces her to take a small sip of water to try and remedy them, but since she's so thirsty, tasting that one sip makes her snap and start drinking all the water she can get her hands on. It's at that point that she finds out ''why'' the pill bottle told her not to drink anything: the pills are actually tiny sponges, which absorb all of the water that she drank and expand inside of her, making her swell up. [[ArtisticLicenseBiology Even her arms and legs swell up for some reason]].

* LemonyNarrator: Some narrators are more snarky than others. Usually, the adult narrators are more prone to this trope (especially if they've interacted with the story's protagonist), while children or teenager narrators tend to speak without sarcasm.

* AcidRefluxNightmare: The plot of "Sweet Dreams". It's brought about by a boy named Jordon eating macaroni and cheese, a chili burger loaded with onions, a strawberry float, and and week old sweet and sour kimchi.
* AgeWithoutYouth: One story was about a wealthy businessman who wanted to live forever out of fear his estate would be inherited by someone who'd squander it all. [[{{Irony}} Not only did his immortality cost him his wealth]] (he hoped to build another one - never happened), but he forgot about the trope.
* ArtShift: The show did not have a set animation style; instead, the stories cycled through a couple of different styles, some more cartoony than other depending on the story.
* BewareOfHitchHikingGhosts:
** A man picks up a hitchhiking girl on the road; she disappears during the drive but leaves her jacket. The man goes to her house to return the jacket, but is greeted by a woman saying the girl died several years ago, wearing that same jacket.
** Another episode (one actually set {{Twenty Minutes into the Future}}, complete with hover cars) had the teenaged hitchhiker turn out to be a (non-evil) old hag.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: Some of the shorts inspired in horror urban legends tone down the violence and make the main characters survive. Other shorts omit or tone down adult themes from the original legends.
* BuriedAlive: One episode involved a man who was deathly afraid of being buried alive, a fact his wife learned when he had a panic attack from the rice being thrown at their wedding. She promises him that if he died, she'd install a hot line phone that linked directly to the house, where she would wait for a year so he can call her to get him out if he's still alive. The rest of the plot involves her actually going through with this promise after her husband dies suddenly. Her friends finally convince her to go out for the evening on the 365th day. Just after she leaves, [[spoiler:the phone rings]].
** The worst part is that the person who convinced her was his sister, who [[FreudianExcuse caused his fear in the first place when they were kids]].
* TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse: A story involves a babysitter repeatedly getting mysterious calls from a voice that asks "Have you checked the children?" that she eventually traces and then freaks out to find they are coming from a second line in the house. While the narration never confirms it, the visuals strongly imply it is just the kids playing a prank.
* DeadPetSketch: An airport crew went through a lot to find a replacement for a dog believed to have died during flight, unaware that it was already dead.

* FamilialCannibalismSurprise: One story involved a man who came to America to find his fortune, and upon doing so, would dote gifts to his relatives back in their native country village. Eventually, a jar with what was assumed a brown spice came, along with a letter that was, unfortunately, ate by a stray goat before anyone could read it. The family and even neighbors enjoyed the spice, until another package, containing an urn, explained that said relative died and wanted his remains to rest back in the family home. Needless to say, the village was both horrified and disgusted that they accidentally ate the remains of said beloved man.
* {{Gasshole}}: Maurice the Maggot was continually farting. At one point he gets the "Maggot Flu", which is like the normal flu, except you also fart whenever you sneeze. That said, Larry the Cockroach was able to beat him at a fart-off.

** Another story revolves around a polite young boy whose parents want him to be on his best behavior when visiting his great aunt so they can inherit her fortune. The biggest problem comes when he has to keep eating baked beans, which were his least favorite food, with his great aunt constantly giving him more no matter how much he finishes or hides them. This ultimately causes him to let out a huge fart he could no longer contain, but his great aunt was overjoyed because her late husband would fart as his way of thanking her for the food, and took it as the biggest compliment she had ever gotten. Giving him the entire fortune as his reward.
* GenreMashup: The stories featuring Joe The Traveling Salesman are a mix of sci-fi, and noir drama.
* GrossOutShow: Some of the stories revolve around disgusting revelations, particularly of the IAteWhat variety. One comparatively tame example involves a delivery boy who eats all of the peanuts at an old woman's home and, when he apologises, she waves it off, explaining that with her bad teeth all she can do is ''suck the chocolate off them''.
* HarassingPhoneCall: One story involves a babysitter constantly being called and asked "Have you checked the children?". She loses it when she finds out the calls are coming from a second line in the house, but it's strongly implied that it was the children making the calls.
* HookHand: The classic urban legend 'The Hook' was done as a MusicalEpisode.
* IAteWhat: Almost OnceAnEpisode. Examples include a cheapskate siphoning from the wrong tank of an RV, a couple finding a corpse in their wine barrel, and an escaped convict blindly looting the contents of a fridge, which turned out to be storing things like medical waste. One story had a man visiting an elderly woman's house, and ate a jar of peanuts when she left the room, after he apologized she responded with:
-->"That's alright, with teeth like mine, all I can do is suck the chocolate off of them."
* ImmortalitySeeker: A wealthy old man spends his entire fortune in the search for immortality [[spoiler: He got it, but forgot to specify he also wanted to stop aging.]]
* InflatingBodyGag: One of the stories is about a pageant contestant who, in a desperate attempt to stay thin, takes black market diet pills. However, the pills come with a warning label saying not to drink anything with them. After going days or possibly even weeks without drinking a drop, she is obviously extremely thirsty. A fit of nervous hiccups forces her to take a small sip of water to try and remedy them, but since she's so thirsty, tasting that one sip makes her snap and start drinking all the water she can get her hands on. It's at that point that she finds out ''why'' the pill bottle told her not to drink anything: the pills are actually tiny sponges, which absorb all the water she drank and expand inside of her, making her swell up. [[ArtisticLicenseBiology Even her arms and legs swell up for some reason]].

* NeverTrustAHairTonic: One story involves a boy inventing a hair tonic that, while capable of growing hair on any surface, doesn't seem to work on him. After dousing himself with it in a panic, he realize all to late that it takes longer for the tonic to grow hair on a human, and it turns him into a werewolf.

* PottyFailure: One story had a small kid in boy scouts that would wet himself from nearly anything, including making him laugh too hard, scaring him, or hurting his feelings. Which is why his fellow scouts nicknamed him "Puddle".

* SewerGator: An episode is about a young boy who flushes his pet baby alligator down the toilet because his parents won't let him keep it. As an adult, he encounters the now-grown alligator while he is working in the sewers.
* TheVoice: Rosie the waitress

* TwinDesynch: One story ends with bitter rival twin sisters eventually patching things up and dying their hair different colours.
* TwinSwitch: One story involves twin brothers who use this to live as a single person, combining their completely different interests and talents to come off as the perfect person. On said "perfect person"'s wedding day, the two of them were calmly talking to each other until they remembered at least one of them should show up. When they do, they see their bride marrying their [[LongLostRelative long-lost brother]]. They were triplets after all.

* WeirdnessMagnet: Pretty much every featured character is this.

* MusicalEpisode: Has quite a few that feature varied musical genres. "The Hook" is done through do-wap music, while "Pirates" is in the style of sea shanties.