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The Shows The Shaped Us: The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (2001-2007)

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (GABM) was a Cartoon Network show that followed the strange adventures of two friends Billy and Mandy accompanied by their enslaved companion, the Grim Reaper. On the surface, this is a silly kid show that might be likened to SpongeBob SquarePants due to its loud characters, bright colors, and “random” humor. However, I consider GABM to be my introduction to the world of horror. Rewatching the series now, I realize the method to its madness. Yes, the show had imaginative minds behind every episode, but for a large majority, GABM was a parody show of horror/ pop culture references molded into a child-friendly context.

The most in-your-face example of this is one of the shows main characters, the Grim Reaper. While typically depicted as a hooded skeletal being that us mortals cower from, GABM flips the script by enslaving Grim to Billy and Mandy’s will, forcing him to be friends with them forever. We watch as characters scream in fear when they see him (particularly Billy’s Mom), but we the viewers know that the true evil lurks within Mandy, as she plans to use Grim’s powers for world domination. Not to mention, the possibilities of you getting frightened by Grim drastically decrease after you watch him bake cookies. This holds true for most of the show’s antagonists (not that Grim is an antagonist), no matter how scary they might be, Billy and Mandy always find a way to belittle or mock them. By making a monster vulnerable, it’s stripped from its previously frightening aspects, allowing the child audience to feel power over what’s hiding underneath their beds.

Personally, the character that sticks out to me the most is Pinface, who makes his appearance in season 7 episode 1 “The Show that Dares Not Speak its Name”. From the slight variation of the main characters name to the puzzle box that connects our world to the depths of hell, I knew the basic plot of Hellraiser before I knew who Clive Barker was! Once I got a little older, I become more interested in the horror genre and was drawn to Hellraiser specifically because of my previous exposure to the stories parody.

While doing research, I discovered that the writers of this show were die-hard horror fans and included characters and quotes for other die-hard fans to recognize. I’ll admit, not all the humor holds up for an older audience, but there are more than enough pop culture references scattered around the show to make for a fun game of I Spy.

For the sake of brevity, here is a list of some of the most memorable horror-themed characters or plot references made by The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy that I could find along with their context:

* Atrocia (S1E8 “Grim or Gregory”)- Elvira

* Hoss Delgado (first appeared in S1E10 “Hoss Delgado: Spectral Exterminator”)- Evil Dead’s (1981) Ash

* Eris & the Apple of Discord (first appeared in S1E10 “To Eris Human”)- Eris the Greek Goddess of chaos

* “Little Rock of Horrors” (S1E13)- Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

* Mr. Voorhees (S2E9 “Grim for a Day”)- Friday the 13th ‘s (1980) Jason Voorhees

* Jack (S2E15 “Billy & Mandy’s Jacked-Up Halloween”)- The Headless Horseman

* “Dumb Luck” (S3E2)- Contains classic superstitions such as spilling salt, stepping on cracks, black cats, and lucky objects.

* The Boogie Man (S3E7 “Bully Boogie” and TV movie Billy & Mandy’s Big Boogey Adventure)- The Boogeyman

* Wishing Skull (S4E6 “Wishbones”)- The Monkey’s Paw, a short story by W.W. Jacobs

* “Billy Idiot” (S4E13)– similar plot to Suspiria (1977)

* Dracula (first appeared in S5E7 “Home of Ancients”)- Count Dracula, people speculate that he is a specific reference to Blacula (172) and the actor Redd Foxx

* Dora (S6E7 “Pandora’s Lunch Box”)- Pandora’s Box

* Billy says, “it rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again.” (S6E13 “Billy & Mandy Begins)- Silence of the Lambs (1991)

* Pinface (S7E1 “The Show That Dare Not Speak Its Name”– Hellraiser’s (1987) Pin Head

* BONUS: John Kassir voiced Pinface along with the other GABM iconic character, Lord Moldybutt. Kassir is most known for his voice work for the Crypt Keeper in TV show Tales from the Crypt (1989-1996)

* Lionel Van Helsing (S7E10 “Dracula Must Die”)- Van Helsing, a vampire hunter from Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula

out of all his work for cow and chicken, i think maxwell atoms’ best contribution to the show was the line “real men aren’t afraid to play with sissy dolls!“

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