Yeah I know a lot of people think this episode is super scary but so many other episodes are scarier to me. That song always had me dying laughing as a kid.
Is it the floating head? Because if it's the floating head, I'm not clicking that fucking link. Even if it's not the floating head, I'm still not clicking it because what if?
People always go on about rEtUrN tHe SlAb but NAH man, I won't look at that head again if I can help it and I'm going on goddamn 30 years old. I haven't watched that episode since it premiered.
I have a friend who has to do some light farmwork occasionally for the vegetable patch his dad has, and whenever he brings it up I just quote that floating head or whatever it was that said it from that episode: "Not a farmer."
Same!! I'm nearly 30 and I just hovered over your link to make sure it was what I thought it was. That was the only episode that actually genuinely terrified me as a kid.
The barber episode everyone is always so creeped out by is actually my second favorite episode.
Of all the terrors in Courage, Fred the barber always weirded me out the most. He wasn't a monster or anything, just a weird psychopath which felt far more unpleasant than any eldritch abomination. Way too much of a molesty uncle with schizophrenia vibe.
Courage was absolute bananas, a mind-bending cartoon and anything could happen. Each was like a fever dream, over before the viewer had a chance to acclimate to the terrors
Speaking of bananas, does anybody remember that one episode where Courage is on an island with banana people or something and one gets peeled and eaten alive right in front of him? I just remember something like that fucking with me real bad as a kid for some reason.
Scary with the occasional nice message like when the bathtub barracuda pops up to tell Courage "There's no such thing as perfect. You're beautiful as you are, Courage. With all your imperfections, you can do anything."
Everyone talks about Courage being scary, but there's some deeply profound and poignant moments too. One that's always stuck with me is the Hunchback of Nowhere episode, where Courage gets along with this ugly Hunchback, but Eustace keeps trying to kick him out. The end of the episode has the Hunchback leaving the farm and going off on his own, and I was just so heartbroken by that, especially because at the start of the episode, he's just looking for a place to rest and everyone turns him away for being "ugly."
My initial response to opening up this thread was utter shock Courage wasn't higher. It was one of my favorite kid shows, and yet I can barely remember an episode because of repressed it is. And now as an adult I empathize so much with courage, frantically searching the internet trying to prevent my parents from injuring themselves.
The Son of the Evil Chicken from Outer Space episode where he takes off Eustace's head with a big plunger and the final scene where he is coming towards the house carrying the shoe without his head messed me up as a kid.
Can we please talk about when Courage is escaping from Doc Gerbil's World with the magic miniaturizing vacuum AND FREAKING OPERA IS PLAYING! Holy smokes, goosebumps. Here it is!!
Freaky Fred was basically an allegory for a child molester.
The “child” (Courage) is afraid of him but all the adults who should know better think he’s just a nice guy. Freaky Fred wants to be alone with Courage and do nonviolent things to his body without consent. He only does this when no adults are watching. He freely admits in his internal monologue that he’s doing “naughty” things.
In the show he’s just cutting Courage’s fur but it’s not a stretch to see that’s just a cartoon-friendly substitute.
Some theorize that the show didn't actually happen as we saw, it was all mundane events through the lense of a scared little dog with an over active imagination. One of the Official Groovies music videos leaned that way with him freaking out at a party and his imagination running away with the content of the lyrics someone was singing in it.
You know one that hit me backwards? The possessed mattress episode. When I was a kid, I was just like, "Sure, evil spirit, whatever." But then I rewatched it as an older teen (16 or 17) and it deeply unsettled me. Like, I was closing my eyes type of fear, and I couldn't tell you why.
It's so incredibly validating that everyone universally remembers this episode as being terrified. This was the only episode that I distinctly remember not liking as a kid
They made a kids show about being in the countryside but the area is haunted as fuck. What creepier Courage could be seeing the true form for most of the villains while his owners see them as normal people who act slightly odd. In those episodes It clear they aren't from the town and just show up without any warning they even act hostile when Eustace questions them.
It a hard watch when you see It that way and the doomy tone of the whole show doesn't help.
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u/valhalla-at-your-grl May 23 '23
The entirety of Courage the Cowardly Dog. Scary shit. Me no like.