Fox Mulder is a Maniac is an The X-Files rewatch Podcast series started in January 2019, hosted by Dave Bell and Tom Reimann, as a part of their larger Gamefully Unemployed network. The premise is simple, yet compelling; Dave and Tom, both former writers at Cracked and both self-admitted huge X-Files fans in their respective youths, take a look back at the entire show, one of the most iconic and beloved pop-cultural pillars of The '90s, with an affectionate and humorous, yet also critical and deconstructive lens, by asking one simple question: How would the show's main character, Special Agent Fox Willam Mulder, come across when viewed, not as the main character of a Conspiracy Kitchen Sink TV-series, but as an actual government official in the real world, given the responsibility of safeguarding the lives and health of the American public and the practically unquestioned authority that his FBI badge grants him?
The results are... terrifying.
In this interpretation of the show, Fox Mulder is an utterly dysfunctional, aggressively delusional, and self-destructive Walking Disaster Area of a human being. Between his extreme fixation on proving the existence of extraterrestrials and other supernatural phenomena constantly leading him to utterly ignoring serious crimes, even as they happen right in front of him, his general lack of even the most basic of tact and social skills, and his mad quest to find his sister along with his seemingly all-consuming obvious death wish, Mulder and Scully showing up in your town to "investigate" the reports of ghouls and ghosts will only ever lead to tragedy. Sure, Scully might try her level best to run damage control, but Mulder's lunacy is next to impossible to contain. There will be wanton destruction of property, several casualties and injuries, frequent breaking and enterings (and forget any fanciful ideas of ever seeing any kind of a warrant), unauthorized exhuming of bodies, and lives will be ruined or otherwise irrevocably changed forever. And in the wake of it all, when him and Scully finally, mercifully, pack up and leave again, rarely ever will the crime they came for in the first place ever actually be solved. Instead, the few, lucky, traumatized survivors will probably be left with only one burning question: "Wait... Was that guy really an FBI agent?" In an even remotely sane world, Mulder should never have been an FBI agent, or have any authority at all; he should be locked up in a high security mental institution for the safety of himself and others. And yet, infuriatingly and inexplicably (and though it never really even remotely excuses the damage he causes), Mulder's insane theories often proves to be right on the money.
The episodes starts with a brief recap of the episode in question and some dicussion of behind-the-scenes trivia, before Dave and Tom analysis the sheer craziness that is Fox Mulder across five segments:
- The World's Luckiest Detective: Mulder often makes incredibly unlikely deductions based on little-to-no evidence or even outright Insane Troll Logic. But because he lives in a Conspiracy Kitchen Sink world, his wild assumptions turns out to be right. This also covers cases where the crucial evidence Mulder just so happens to need to crack the case ends up landing right in his lap through extremely unlikely coincidences.
- Mulder After Dark: A thorough examination of what some of Mulder's stranger statements and behavior in a given episode says about his personal life, beliefs, and fetishes.
- Fireable Offenses: Times in a given episode that Mulder flagrantly broke the law, did things that no FBI agent or other government official should ever do, or displayed behavior that, in a more realistic scenario, would have resulted in him getting suspended or fired on the spot, if not outright sundered off to jail.
- Name the Enabler: Who fed Mulder's delusions the most and who failed in their responsibility to put their foot down and put a stop to his madness?
- Crazy Like a Fox: A rating of 1-10 of just how unhinged Mulder's behavior in any given episode is.
After the introduction of Agent John Doggett, a sixth segment was added:
- Agent Doggett Doesn't Need This: Times Doggett, the most straitlaced cop ever, is confronted with the terrible reality that he lives in Mulder's mad world.
Tropes both used and discussed in this podcast are:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: A frequent point of discussion is how Mulder, despite all the supernatural and fantastical events he regularly experiences, utterly rejects and is even at times downright hostile to the idea of supernatural activity of a religious character, especially when it relates to Scully's experiences. Dave and Tom's conclusion is that Mulder fundamentally despises the idea of religion, as it represents a vision of a somewhat orderly universe; a concept which frightens him. And that, on a more personal level, he is jealous of the fact that Scully gets to experience genuine wonderment and communion with higher powers, while the supernatural phenomena he most often encounters (i.e. extraterrestrials) tends to end with him on the receiving end of humiliating beatdowns at the hands of said phenomena.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Invoked, as it is basically the premise of the podcast. Besides the obvious conclusion that Mulder is an utter and complete madman, Dave and Tom also think that Mulder, at the beginning of the show, is recently divorced, is an ex-smoker, and struggles with an methamphetamine addiction. Amusingly, as the show progresses, quite a lot of evidence for all of these appears.
- Ax-Crazy: A common observation of the hosts is that, most of the time, Mulder's behavior and weird beliefs merely causes him to be a nuisance to other people, but at times he outright becomes an active danger to the life and health of everyone around him. At his worst, he becomes an even more deathly threat than the supernatural phenomenon he and Scully are supposed to try and stop. Granted, most of the time, Mulder is not proactively or consciously trying to endanger others, but "gross negligence" are often too poor of a choice of words to describe the disasters that tends to follow in his wake.
- Beleaguered Assistant: The podcast often notice how Scully, by the fait of being The Watson and well, the Agent Scully to Mulder's Agent Mulder, often ends up having trying to prevent Mulder from wrecking too much havoc and often does so with an exhausted "Oh no, not again" expression on her face whenever Mulder is about to start another rambling spiel about aliens or ghosts.
- Chronic Pet Killer: The fact that Mulder has an aquarium in his apartment is commented on with some trepidation, as Mulder often proves to be so incredibly absent-minded, that giving him the responsibly for other living beings, even if it's something "relatively" easy to take care of, like fish, seems like a bad idea. The running theory of the podcast is that Mulder buys new fish each week, and might even be convinced that fish only have a lifespan of about a week and doesn't need to be fed, as they live exclusively on the water they swim around in.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Dave and Tom notice how Scully often ends up trying to have to act as the caretaker to the Manchild that is Mulder, as she tries to rein in some of his worse and weirder impulses, but often in vain.
- The Corrupter: One of the main thesis of the podcast, is that spending any kind of prolonged time around Mulder's general orbit just ends up slowly, but surely turning you just as mad and maladjusted as him. Both the very straight-laced and serious Scully and Skinner has their career and heads together by the time Mulder enters their lives. By the latter half of the series, they have effectively followed Mulder down the conspiracy rabbit-hole and done several increasingly unhinged and illegal acts themselves, often just in the name of protecting Mulder from the collateral damage his "crusade" has caused.
- Death Seeker: It is frequently noted how Mulder appears to be at least passively self-destructive, as he often drops everything to travel to a far-flung or directly inhospital corner of the Earth on a complete whim, with absolutely no plan for how he is going to get back home.
- Destructive Saviour: Deconstructed. Dave and Tom acknowledges that Mulder, for all his numerous and serious flaws, cannot be accused of being Windmill Crusader, in the sense that he genuinely is onto a very real and malicious Government Conspiracy involving aliens. The problem is that Mulder never really tries to stop and think on how to deal with the conspiracy in anything resembling a rational and methodical manner; he often impulsively rushes headlong into danger, with no regard for his own health and life, nor the life and health for the people he happens to drag along with him, or any other collateral damage. He will also completely ignore the threat that the Monster of the Week presents to civilians, if it means even the slightest chance of obtaining evidence of the supernatural. The crowning example being perhaps when Mulder smuggles an alien artefact aboard a crowded passenger plane in his luggage, despite known that a) the artefact is capable of releasing strong enough radiation that even short-time exposure can seriously damage someone's health, if not outright kill them and b) the aliens were already willing to openly interfere with another passenger plane in attempt to retrieve the artefact, resulting in the plane crashing and killing everyone on-board.
- Horrifying the Horror: More like Annoying the Horror, but it is noted that Mulder's preferred method against supernatural threats who try to keep a low profile is to relentlessly harass and stalk them. A notable example being the episode "Terms of Endearment", where Mulder manages to pester a demon to a degree where the demon ends up taking out a restraining order against him.
- Jerk Jock: A common observation is that Mulder, despite his obsessive interest in the supernatural, still is very much a jock at heart, and keeps an exercise regiment and regularly is shown to play sports in his free time, when he is not out hunting aliens or ghosts. Unfortunately, he fulfils the negative jock stereotypes too, and seems to compelled to, if not outright bully every nerdy person he comes across, then at least make a big show out of being much too aloof and cool to associate with them. It especially comes through in his relationship to the Lone Gunmen, who clearly want Mulder to be their friend and invite him to do social activities with them whenever he pays them a visit, which Mulder always decline under the pretense of being "too busy".
- Nepotism: The way Dave and Tom see it, the reason why Mulder even has a job as a FBI agent in the first place and is able to keep it, despite all the insane stuff he constantly does in the line of duty, is because his two fathers, Bill Mulder and the Cigarette-Smoking Man, have used their connections to not just give him a cosy job, but doggedly kept protecting him from the consequences of his madness.
- No Object Permanence: One of the theories the podcast has about Mulder is that he tends to just forget that people around him exist if they don't interact with him on a fairly regular basis. The shining example is Mulder's supposed long-time friend and colleague, Jerry Lamana, who Mulder has never mentioned before, and never does again after he dies in the same episode he was introduced in. The main reason why Mulder latches on to Scully and Skinner to the degree he does, appears to be because they are the only people who are willing to stay around and tolerate him for a prolonged period of time.
- Not So Above It All: A frequent observation about Scully, especially when it comes to the episodes that focuses on her, is, that despite being a much more level-headed and sane human being than Mulder (not that it is that high of a bar to clear), and most importantly, actually acting like someone resembling a competent FBI agent and investigator, she still has a bit of a maniac in her in her own right, which causes her to make extremely questionable judgements from time to time. Most frequently, this comes in the form of openly indulging some of Mulder's more dangerous beliefs or behavior, where a reasonable person would have shut it down.
- Weak-Willed: A common joke on the podcast is that Mulder is extremely gullible and highly susceptible to any alternate believes or conspiracy theories that happens to cross his way, especially if they involve aliens in some way, and that he could very easily be manipulated to do literally anything or follow anyone, as long the manipulator promised him he would get to meet an extraterrestrial along the way.
- Ultimate Job Security: A running theme of the podcast is that Mulder should have been fired several times over at several points, not just for his general unhinged behavior and endangering the public on a regular basis, but because the X-Files department's track record is by all means less than impressive. When Mulder finally gets kicked out of the FBI following the events of the episode "Vienen", Dave and Tom notices with much amusement that it didn't take publicly embarrassing the FBI and the federal government in general at several points and even having died two times for Mulder to lose his job, the limit was causing an international incident by blowing up a oil rig in way that the Mexican government would be in their good right to interpret as an act of war.
