Based on Calling All Creeps!, book #50 of the original Goosebumps series.
Ricky decides to play a prank on his jerkish classmate Tasha, only for it to backfire when he starts getting strange calls... from alien beings who think he's one of them.
The episode provides examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation: The flashbacks are removed to streamline the story.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Plenty of examples.
- Ricky has black hair, dark brown eyes, and freckles in the book. The actor who portrays him in the episode has brown hair, blue eyes, and no freckles.
- The purple-skinned Creeps in the book are yellow-skinned in the episode.
- Tasha is a redhead in the book, but a brunette in the episode.
- Adaptational Intelligence: In the book, the Creeps' first attempt to transform the school students into their kind is to have Ricky put the transformation seeds into the lunch food, so the students will transform during lunchtime. However, he happens to put them all into the macaroni, which nobody eats and causes nobody to be transformed by this. In the episode, Ricky is looking for which food to put the seeds in, and he comes across it (only in this version it is tuna surprise). Realizing that nobody at his school ever eats tuna surprise, he takes advantage of this fact by putting the seeds in there, thus ensuring that no student gets transformed by this. Additionally, he keeps careful track of each student's lunch that day to make sure no one eats it.
- Adapted Out: Ricky's mom and the principal are removed.
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: Ricky's mom isn't seen or mentioned in the episode.
- Bag of Kidnapping: How the Creeps get Ricky to meet with them when they think he's their commander, by doing this trope from behind when he's walking through the woods, and releasing him when he's in their hideout.
- Crowd Chant: At the bake sale, when Ricky comes onstage, Tasha leads all of the students there to chant "Ricky the rat!" This is partly what convinces him at the moment to have them eat the cookies that will transform them into Creeps.
- Door Handle Scare: Occurs when Ricky is typing his revenge message in the school computer to put in the newspaper, when a teacher is about to enter the room, and which he decides to escape.
- Footprints of Muck: After Ricky puts the harassing message of Tasha in the computer, he sneaks back out the window, leaving a trail of muddy footprints. Unfortunately for him, Tasha herself comes into the room and spots these, which made her suspicious and realize that someone is trying something sneaky.
- Madness Mantra:
- While they're baking the Creep Cookies, and Ricky and Iris are trying to think of a way out, the creeps randomly start chanting "Humans are the past, Creeps are the future..."
- After everyone is transformed, they all start chanting, "Long live Creeps! Long live Ricky!"
- Missing Mom: As noted above, Ricky's mother isn't seen or mentioned in the episode.
- Race Lift: Described in the book as having a round face, blue eyes and blonde hair, Iris is Filipino.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: As Ricky watches the other students at the bake sale eating the cookies that will transform him into his slaves, he looks on the scene with his glasses reflecting the students as they start chewing, about to change. This shows that he really has turned morality-wise at this point.
