The Nightmare Before Christmas in July

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alertThis article contains major plot details for **BOTH SEASONS** of Dead End: Paranormal Park. If you haven't seen the series yet, and don't want to know anything, stop reading now.
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### Writer

* Hamish Steele
* Mia Resella

### Director

Liz Whitaker

**The Nightmare Before Christmas in July** is the fifth episode of the first season of *Dead End: Paranormal Park* and is the fifth episode overall.

## Summary

Barney, Norma, and Pugsley travel to the Demon World to compete in a game show, hoping they can win a prize and cheer up Courtney.

## Plot

On Christmas in July, the park is decorated for the season, along with Barney celebrating at Dead End by giving Norma, Pugsley, and Courtney gifts. Courtney is in a bad mood, watching TV, and tells them to leave her alone. Barney and Norma leave, but Pugsley stays and asks if she's okay. Courtney says she's upset that she's stuck in a theme park, surrounded by humans. She then gets a notification telling her she been selected for a demon game show called Hox's Castle.

Pugsley tells Barney and Norma that Courtney got selected for Hox's Castle, and that they should go on and try to win the prize for her. Barney is hesitant about what would happen to humans in the demon world, but Norma tells him that it might be fun to learn about demon culture. Pugsley finally convinces Barney that if they won the prize for Courtney it would surely beat her blues.

They get on the elevator, Norma saying she's afraid of elevators. Pugsley presses the ten button, and a very fast elevator ride brings them to plane 10. They step out and see a street full of demons.

While walking through a street with stores and demons, they're stopped by a giant, floating version of Hox's head. He presumes they're his contestants and tells them to step in, he then opens his mouth. Norma and Pugsley walk in, but Barney is hesitant and is pulled in by Hox's tongue.

The intro to Hox's Castle plays. An offstage voice introduces the show and Hox. Hox teleports onstage and gives a quick recap of they're previous week's contestants, before introducing Barney, Norma and Pugsley. He explains the rules, saying they need to complete a series of impossible challenges with only one lifeline. He spins a wheel to see what they'll be facing up against, and it nearly lands on a spider, but to Barney's relief it spins back and lands on a flower. Hox reveals they'll be going to the Garden of Pain.

## Features

### Characters

* Employees of Phoenix Parks
	+ Barney Guttman
	+ Norma Khan
	+ Badyah Hassan
* Pugsley Guttman
* Pauline Phoenix *(Voice Only)*
* Courtney Cahatel
* Gord *(Cameo)*
* Hox *(Debut)*
* The Demonic Royal Family
	+ Temeluchus *(Cameo)*
	+ Zagan *(Debut; Cameo)*
* Cuddles *(Debut)*

### Locations

#### Plane 7

* Phoenix Parks
	+ Dead End
	+ The Elevator

#### Plane 10

* Necropolis *(Debut)*
* Purgatory *(Mentioned)*

### Music

#### Songs

* ***It's Always Christmas in July, Somewhere***

### Transciprt

*Read the **transcript** for the episode here!*

## Trivia

* Barney's family being Jewish is hinted in Pugsley's dialogue, where he asks "I didn't know we celebrated Christmas."
* It is revealed that Courtney applied for the Hox's Castle gameshow five hundred years prior to the series' events.
* Pugsley breaks the fourth wall by mentioning how he is the comic relief of the cast.
* This is the first episode to have the series kill one of the main characters (and later revive them) onscreen. In this case, that being Barney.
	+ It also means that, from this episode onwards, the Barney that appears is the second Barney. With the original having canonically died.
* In the episode, Hox says "What the here was that?" replacing what would normally be "hell" with "here," because they are quite literally *in* Hell.
* In the audience of Hox's game show, the "applause" sign is actually misspelled as "applesauce."

### Cultural References

* The episode title, "The Nightmare Before Christmas in July," is a reference to the animated film, *The Nightmare Before Christmas*.
* Hox saying that the game show tests your "charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and..." is a reference to RuPaul's Drag Race.
* The mug the trio earns at Hox's Castle is a reference to the "*And All I Got Was This Lousy Shirt"* meme.

## Continuity

* Courtney's homesickness is the main plot of the episode.

## Errors

* Logs, Josh, Jennifer Swan, and the rest of Barney's family is credited in the other language credits, despite not making appearances in this episode.