The Tale of Laughing in the Dark

Description: Season 1, Episode 2

Storyteller: Betty Ann

Plot Summary: A kid attempts to prove how brave he is when entering an allegedly haunted amusement park.

Review: Well, only the second episode into the series and we've reached my favorite already. I LOVE this episode! The title alone is so badass, and the Zeebo character leaves a big impact on the series as a whole. I'd also rank this fairly high among the scariest episodes as well since there is a true sense of terror. In fact, my theory for years has been that they downplayed Zeebo since he's such a creepy bastard the couple of frames we see the real him. Instead, the episode opts for the amusement park prop in all other scenes. I mean, if the real Zeebo were running around the whole episode it would probably be more on par with an adult show. It's also worth acknowledging that Aron Tager, the same guy playing Dr. Vink, plays Zeebo. Finally, in a way, this episode serves as a litmus test for the potential kids viewing the show. If the parents see they can handle this episode then it's a safe bet most of the show will be okay with them. If this scares them, then maybe they're not ready yet.

 Prop Zeebo

Now, I would be remiss to ignore my girl Betty Ann telling the story. She was always my favorite member of the Midnight Society and was another '90s crush. In this instance, I liked the back and forth with the actual story and the Midnight Society--Kristen having a case of "bozophobia" as it were and Betty Ann trying to keep going. These interludes with the Midnight Society were always so fun and usually enhanced an episode further.

 Real Zeebo. See the big ass difference?

As for the meat and potatoes of the story, Josh is clearly a scaredy-cat trying to be tough in front of his friends. To appear brave he goes into a haunted amusement park attraction, appropriately titled, Laughing the Dark. This haunted house is home to the ghost of Zeebo the clown, a crook who was burned to death when trying to steal money from his circus in the '20s. Josh bets he can steal the nose off the prop Zeebo that was added to enhance the lore of the amusement park. Josh does manage to get the nose, but quickly finds himself stalked by Zeebo's angry ghost. After coming clean about being a wimp, Josh relents and returns the nose to the amusement park along with a box of cigars he pulled from his ass. Seriously, how the hell did Josh get a box of cigars? Satisfied with this gesture, Zeebo lets Josh go where we come to realize that the guy running the haunted house was Zeebo too.

What an episode. They sure managed to pack a lot of story into one episode considering this had a fair amount of cutaways to the Midnight Society. But that's just part of why this episode is so awesome and beloved by the fan base. We get a tightly paced, horror-packed tale with great ideas and an interesting final twist to boot. The drama with the Midnight Society members further enhances the main story which allows this episode to function on all cylinders. It's crafted together perfectly with the right level of frights to not scare off the kiddies but still intense enough for adults. And, as I alluded to, had they gone with the non-prop form of Zeebo for the whole sequence this would have been ten times scarier!

While I've reached my favorite episode early on in this 90+ episode run, it doesn't mean there aren't plenty more fantastic tales to come. There are still non-scary episodes on the horizon that are written excellently as well as a few episodes some might say are even scarier than this one.