An old woman living in a tumble-down mansion sees the ghost of an old man in her bed, who tells a joke before melting. She calls the Ghostbusters, and on their way, Egon explains that the woman and her husband are the Von Limburgers, who make cheese.
When they arrive, Winston wants to leave, but the others want to stay. They are greeted by Madame Von Limburger and her husband Charles, who explain that they moved in three weeks prior, and since moving in, crazy supernatural things have been happening. Egon tracks the ghosts' signal upstairs, while the Von Limburgers decide to go away for the weekend to avoid getting in the way of the Ghostbusters.
They find a hole in the wall, and Ray initially thinks the PKE meter must be broken, but then he gets a face full of blue slime. Then, Peter also gets slimed in the face and fires his proton pack into the hole. When a small, reptilian ghost comes out, he tries to trap it, but misses several times and creates more holes, out of which more ghosts emerge. Egon and Winston try to probe the initial hole, and when the probe is grabbed by something, Ray pulls on its string and is sucked into the hole. The rest of the guys widen the hole to search for Ray, but he is gone. When they follow the ghosts through another hole, they find him, but his hair is white and he's talking nonsense.
When Egon sees a tiny ghost leave a tiny hole, he realises that ghosts arrive from their dimension to ours via the holes, and the size of the hole determines the size of the ghost. Ray, meanwhile, behaves normally again, though his hair is still white. When they hear the large ghost coming out of the large hole, they try to attack it, but that just widens the hole even further. Ray suggests cutting out some wall to move a smaller hole in front of the large one to shrink the ghost, which they try, but that causes an earthquake.
The Ghostbusters drive off as the whole house falls to the ground, but the ghost is still around, and has grown to 50 feet because that's how big the hole is now. Winston then finds a piece of rubble in his pocket that has a small hole in it, and he and Egon get the idea to throw it at the ghost to implode it, which they do. It works, but the house explodes, shocking the Von Limburgers when they return.
This episode provides examples of
- Admiring the Abomination: Ray calls the tiny ghost cute.
- Apocalypse How: Discussed when Egon mentions that shrinking the ghost may end the universe.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: Madame Von Limburger says, "This is a job for the..." and then it cuts to Janine answering the phone with "Ghostbusters?".
- Covered in Gunge: Discussed when Peter complains about how often he and the others end up covered in slime.
- Cyclops: A one-eyed ghost is seen in the background.
- Dem Bones: One ghost looks like a skeleton.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Madame Limburger mentions a ghost "slobbering and drooling" at one point.
- Ectoplasm: Discussed when Peter is displeased at the prospect of being covered in slime, and then played straight when blue slime comes out of the hole (though no one gets covered in it, but it does hit them in the face).
- Episode Tagline: Several characters, most often Winston, mention having "a bad feeling about this".
- Extra Eyes: Some of the ghosts have many eyes.
- Evil Lawyer Joke: When Madame Von Limburger describes one of the horrific-looking ghosts she's seen, Peter says, "I know what that is; that's a lawyer!".
- Godzilla Threshold: The plan to implode the ghost carried a chance of destroying the universe, but the guys use it anyway since it's their best hope.
- Haunted House: The Von Limburger mansion is haunted by ghosts that come out of holes.
- I'm Melting!: The joke-telling ghost melts at the beginning.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: The Ghostbusters try to invoke this by using a smaller hole to shrink the ghost.
- Meaningful Name: The Von Limburgers are cheesemakers.
- No Full Name Given: We never find out Madame Von Limburger's first name.
- Oh, Crap!: The Ghostbusters say, "Uh-oh!" when they realise a large ghost will exit the large hole.
- Prematurely Grey-Haired: Being pulled through the hole scares Ray so much that his hair turns white.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Some of the ghosts have red eyes.
- Sanity Slippage: When Ray is pulled through the hole, he starts babbling about trees and TV shows.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Winston tries to leave when he arrives at the Von Limburger mansion, but they convince him not to.
- Shout-Out: When Ray is out of it, he mentions seeing The Twilight Zone and I Love Lucy.
- Sleep Deprivation: Discussed when Charles worries that he'll start losing sleep due to the supernatural disturbances.
- Speak in Unison: When the Ghostbusters realise that a large ghost will come out of the big hole, they say, "Uh-oh!" in unison.
- Tempting Fate:
- Ray initially thinks there is no ghost in the hole, only to get hit with ectoplasm.
- Peter expresses surprise that he's not the one getting slimed, only to get slimed.
- He then says that the reptilian ghost will be easy to zap, only to have trouble zapping it.
- Title Drop: At the end, Charles says they should have called "the real Ghostbusters".
