Spooky Tales

*Spooky Tales* is the third episode of *VeggieTales Abridged*, based on the *Tales from the Crisper Segment* of the *VeggieTales* episode, *Where's God When I'm S-scared?!*.

## Plot synopsis

The episode begins with Junior watching *Food Fight*, describing it as having "weird monsters", an obvious jab on the writer's part against the character animation found in that movie. Considering he has been watching TV for four days straight, Junior's mom demands he go to bed before he gets nightmares from the movie, before they express their mutual hatred toward each other.
On the way up, Junior sees a portrait of his family with bolts on their necks, similar to that of Frankenstein's monster as portrayed by Boris Karloff, transitions to a portrait of the family in a normal pose, causing Junior's eyes to expand and retract in rapid succession. Junior does not know why or how this is occurring, but immediately enjoys it before his attention goes once again to the picture of his family in a regular pose, which Junior also perceives to be monsters, prompting him to run towards his room in fright.
When Junior is in his room, Bob and Larry phase through the roof. Junior believes them to be child molesters before calling for his dad. Bob explains that the authorities do not need to be notified while Larry emerges from Junior's toy chest wearing a bonnet that he wore, according to Bob, at a recent party. Junior tells the two that he just saw a movie that frightened him, which Bob and Larry do not initially care about. Larry uncharacteristically prioritizes the needs of those starving to death in Somalia and those living under oppressive governments, saying that a kid dealing with a first-world problem is not worth his or Bob's attention. Junior implores them to sing a song, which Larry only agrees to because he is certain Junior will be silent afterwards. Bob begins to sing, since Larry sang a song in the previous episode, but Frankencelery entering Junior's room to hide from the police interrupts. Junior seems to be concerned very little that three grown strangers, including a known, self-proclaimed fugitive, are suddenly in his room, instead asking Bob to resume singing. Bob sings, off-beat and somewhat off-tune, a song his own mother sang to him which is used to describe whoever sings it as having a ghastly appearance. The other three along with three small creatures in Junior's drawers join in. A title card at the end states that Frankencelery murdered the other three.

## Appearances

* Junior
* Mom Asparagus
* Bob
* Larry
* Frankencelery (not specified as such in the episode itself)

## Trivia

* The exact motivation for Bob and Larry to enter Junior's room is never made clear. As soon as Junior discloses his problem, Larry immediately expresses reluctance to help (obviously satirizing the pilot of *VeggieTales*, in which three grown men seem to coordinate a visit to a frightened child they've never met in his own room behind closed doors and use magic to do so), and they do not seem to be hiding from the police nor, as Junior first guessed, planning to molest him.
* Junior, Bob, and Larry appear in further episodes alive and well, despite the title card at the end. This episode thus begins a running gag in *VeggieTales Abridged* in which characters would die (usually by being eaten alive by other characters) only to show up in further episodes, or occasionally later on in the same episode.
* Larry refers to Junior's problem as a "first-world" problem, but this is a misnomer. The "first world" was a Cold War-era category referring to NATO and its allies, who just happened to be generally economically and technologically developed nations. The "second world" referred to the Warsaw Pact and its allies, and the "third world" referred to nations who had no stake in the conflict and at the time just happened to be underdeveloped. These terms have been technically obsolete since the early 1990s, but continue to be inaccurately used to refer to nations by differing levels of development. Note, however, Papua New Guinea and Mozambique were technically "first-world" for most of the Cold War while Finland and Switzerland were technically "third-world".