"PUMP! It's-a Spooky Month!" "Let's start a trope page!"note
What an eerie, spooky night!
Pump: To be scared!
Skid: To get fright!
Creepy crawlies come from down!
Be afraid and move around!
Pump: To be scared!
Skid: To get fright!
Creepy crawlies come from down!
Be afraid and move around!
— Skid and Pump, "Tender Treats"
Spooky Month is an annual Halloween Horror Comedy cartoon series made by Sr. Pelo for Newgrounds
and YouTube.
The series follows the misadventures of Skid and Pump, two hyperactive and Halloween-obsessed children who regularly venture out into the night to enjoy the titular Spooky Month — even if it isn't October. Things quickly take a strange series of turns from there as bullies, creeps, criminals, cultists, demons, eldritch entities whose eyes form the stars above, clowns and who knows what else have the (mis)fortune of bumping into these children.
The first episode was released in October 2018. The series is set to have a total of 10 episodes as a whole.
It is the 𝒮𝓅𝑜𝑜𝓀𝓎 tropes! Ayyy!:
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- 20 Minutes into the Past: "Unwanted Guest" was released on November 25, 2020, but according to Lila's phone, takes place the night of June 17, 2012, so each episode takes place approximately eight years (give or take) before its release. Going off this, the first episode "It's spooky month" (released on October 30, 2018) is set in October 2010; while the fifth episode "Tender Treats" (released on November 5, 2022), which is explicitly stated to be set three years after the first episode, takes place on the night of Halloween 2013.
- Abuse Discretion Shot: In a series that doesn't shy away from slapstick and characters getting hurt, Roy's uncle abusing him is only briefly implied by Roy himself, and his uncle's one scene of him predatorily creeping on Skid and Pump is stopped before he's able to actually do anything to the two.
- All There in the Script: A lot of the characters' names aren't spoken aloud, instead being revealed by the credits or character sheets.
- Alternate Reality Game: Starting with "Unwanted Guest", each episode has a hidden QR Code that leads to images related to the series' lore. While the QR code in "Unwanted Guest" was just a picture of the listings in the phone book, following episodes expanded on the concept, with an initial image that contains multiple links and codes to other images, sometimes even videos, that must be deciphered.
- Anachronism Stew: The show takes place around the early to mid 2010s, but there are several Shout Outs to media that wouldn't yet exist around that time — in particular, "Tender Treats" takes place in 2013, and has Roy steal costume parts from kids dressed as Sans from Undertale, which released in 2015, and Boyfriend from Friday Night Funkin', which released in 2020.
- Angry Animalistic Growl: Thrice with Kevin.
- In "Deadly Smiles", as Kevin hears Skid explaining his and Pump's lost doll, Kevin quickly pieces together that the same doll was the one that attacked him earlier, letting out a low, notably lupine growl as his face increases to that of bestial rage.
- In "Tender Treats", after Bob Velseb has been distracted, Kevin quickly has Skid and Pump escape into the back, where he growls like an angry dog before giving the two a box of candy and telling them to scram.
- An easy-to-miss one is emitted in "Hollow Sorrows" right as he gives two candy jars to Skid and Pump from the trampled stack.
- Arc Words: "Everything". The concept of "everything" seems to carry negative connotations behind it, as not only do damaged pictures of Skid's father come with the phrase "You are everything", but Mr. Clown implies to John and Jack in the Newgrounds ending of "Unwanted Guest" that he and the cult plan on seizing this supposed "everything". The word even comes up in unrelated contexts, such as Dexter's slogan, Mayor Evermore' surname and the name of the town's newspaper.Mr. Clown: We will take all and get everything! Everything will give us MORE THAT IS ALL!
- Artifact Title: The only times when it's actually Spooky Month are "It's spooky month", "The Stars", and "Tender Treats". In "Unwanted Guest", Skid and Pump believe it to be Spooky Month despite it actually being June. In "Deadly Smiles", there's no mention of it being Spooky Month at all, not even by Skid and Pump, since it's January. In "Hollow Sorrows", Skid and Pump celebrate "Hangover Spooky Month" in November.
- Art Shift:
- "Unwanted Guest":
- Patty's freakout about the corpses in the morgue, and Kevin's internal freakouts regarding the Candy Dealer's package of sugar, are drawn in a much looser, sketchier style with incomplete coloring.
- The credits panoramic for this episode is drawn in a lineless, shaded, and more detailed style than the rest of the episode.
- The credits panoramic for "Deadly Smiles" is in CGI, depicting everyone as 3D toys.
- "Tender Treats":
- When Ignacio refuses to give Skid and Pump candy for breaking down his front door with a hammer, the graphics distort as the two make disturbing faces and noises; as it is shown later, it seems that it is actually an effect that children want to achieve.
- when Carmen dismisses Kevin and when he gets angry at Skid and Pump for the trouble they caused him, the background style becomes more distorted while screeching music plays.
- When Jack and John accidentally run over Bob, the event is abruptly depicted in CGI, with Bob as a 3D model ragdolling. Bob's body is subsequently shown as a clay model, while Jack and John are still animated in 2D.
- The credits panoramic for this episode is drawn in a lineless, shaded, and more detailed style than the rest of the short.
- "Streber's Rehearsal" is animated lineless, compared to the purple outlines of the series proper.
- "Unwanted Guest":
-
Author Appeal: Sr. Pelo loves the Touhou Project, and based the mall and most of its customers in "Unwanted Guest" off of the franchise to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Various pictures around Skid's and Pump's houses also show their respective families dressed as Touhou characters for Halloween, Nitori and Hina make a short cameo at the Candy Club in "Deadly Smiles", and four little girls dressed as Reisen, Marisa, Alice, and Nazrin are seen repeatedly applauding John and Jack for brutalizing Bob at the end of "Tender Treats". - Bilingual Bonus:
- While the series is in English, many background gags and props are written in Spanish, Sr. Pelo's native language.
- One of the movies in "Deadly Smiles" is in German.
- A poster in Susie's room during "Deadly Smiles" has a young boy with smoke coming out of his mouth and empty eyesockets. The text above the boy is Japanese hiragana spelling out "Utsuwa", or "Vessel" in English.
- Various texts and scriptures related to the cult are in Latin, which offer lore about them and their ultimate goal.
- Black Comedy: While this show's sense of humor isn't too overly sadistic most of the time, morbid jokes still pop up on a regular basis due to being a Horror Comedy cartoon, especially with most of the villains being Laughably Evil.
- Brick Joke:
- "The Stars":
- Moloch is still stuck in the attic since he was summoned in the first episode.
- Roy's uncle (the stranger that locked Skid and Pump inside the house on the hill) books it when one of Eyes' tentacles bursts out of the floor and grabs the two. When Eyes and the Spooky Kids leave the house to engage in Spooky Month shenanigans, Eyes accidentally tramples Roy's uncle (who was still fleeing from the house), leaving a small blood splatter on the ground.
- Come "Unwanted Guest", Moloch is still trapped in the attic (two years have since passed in-universe), and he becomes so pissed off that he causes this episode's main conflict.
- "Deadly Smiles":
- At the beginning, Lila talks to Jaune on the phone, complaining that Skid and Pump spend all their time sharing the Happy Fella. At the end of the short, Jaune arrives at the house with a new Happy Fella for Pump, having misunderstood Lila's complaints.
- After John sneezes on the Happy Fella, Jack simply says "told you". In the Newgrounds ending of the short (which is set before the short itself), Jack notices how dirty John's coffee mug is and remarks that drinking out of it will get him sick, which John brushes off.
- "The Stars":
- Cerebus Syndrome: The first three shorts were primarily comedy-driven, with "Unwanted Guest" having more worldbuilding to its name beyond just Skid's and Pump's random antics. Although comedy wasn't lost on the series after the fact, "Deadly Smiles" is the first episode to take itself seriously and focus on telling an engaging story, which would carry on into "Tender Treats" and especially "Hollow Sorrows". This is also notable in the villains, who start off comedic and incompetent, but ascend to legitimate threats by said episodes, primarily with Moloch and Bob Velseb.
- Chekhov's Gag:
- In the attic scenes in both "It's spooky month" and "Unwanted Guest", a dusty mannequin in the background slides across the floor. In "Deadly Smiles", the mannequin conveniently tips over onto Dexter right when he's about to attack Lila and the boys, giving them time to escape and form a plan.
- "Tender Treats":
- At the first house they trick or treat at, Skid and Pump bust down the guy's door with a hammer to get his attention. Later when they begin playing "hide and seek" with Bob, the two use the hammer to bust open a restaurant's back door so they can hide in there.
- The boys are seen looking both ways before crossing the street early in the episode. Later when the protagonists are accosted by Bob, they quickly look both ways before crossing the street. Bob does not and is immediately run over by John and Jack.
- Chekhov's Gun: In the episode "Hollow Sorrows", Kevin is given holy water by Gregor. Later in the episode when Moloch escapes the hospital and goes on a rampage, Radford uses the same holy water to save Kevin from being possessed by Moloch.
- Comic-Book Time: Despite the series taking place in the span of 3 years (as of "Tender Treats"), none of the characters seem to visibly age at all. Skid and Pump were stated by Sr. Pelo to be 8 and 7 before the release of "Unwanted Guest", but their ages have never been stated in the series itself, and everyone else has a Vague Age.
- Continuity Nod:
- "Deadly Smiles":
- The male actor in the horror movie is the same actor that gets spooked by Ooga Booga in the movie the boys were watching in the first short, just with a different outfit.
- In the attic scene, Lila hides behind the portrait of her and Skid's dad that was hung up on the wall in "It's spooky month", now with Skid's dad's face torn out.
- While Jaune is flicking through channels on the TV in "Tender Treats", she comes across a horror movie with the same brunette actress from the horror movie playing at the theater in "Deadly Smiles".
- "Deadly Smiles":
- Covers Always Lie:
- The thumbnail for "Deadly Smiles" has Skid and Pump looking uneasy, presumably because of the Happy Fella. In the episode itself, the two not only don't take him seriously as a threat, but actually get mad at him for his mistreatment of them and Lila.
- The thumbnail for "Streber's Rehearsal" shows Streber as Bob looms over him, implying it takes place during "Tender Treats". Bob doesn't make an appearance, and the short is set while Streber and his friends are getting ready for the haunted house.
- Crapsack World: Aside from Skid's and Pump's unnamed hometown being ridden with neighborhood bullies and violent criminals, there's a festering supernatural influence that's attracted various monsters and an evil secret cult to the town, and numerous missing persons posters are strewn about every wall. However, Skid and Pump themselves aren't aware of any of this, simply just having fun around town regardless while keeping an optimistic attitude.
- Creator Cameo:
- Sr. Pelo himself appears down the street in "It's spooky month", screaming as he gets abducted by Frank.
- One of the various ice creams advertised on Frank's van in "The Stars" is based on Sr. Pelo's Author Avatar.
- One of the background artists for "Deadly Smiles", Sifyro, snuck a plush of her author avatar◊note into one of the backgrounds she did.
- Two of the haunted house workers in "Tender Treats" are loosely based on animators for the episode, Fangz and MrBlaz.
- Sr. Pelo makes another in-person appearance in "Tender Treats", only to be immediately killed by Bob so he could use the bathroom stall he was in.
- Sr. Pelo's Author Avatar makes another appearance in "Hollow Sorrows" while he is eating a lollipop outside the Candy Club, shortly before Moloch causes the shop wall to collapse on him and crushes him as he escapes.
- Credits Running Sequence: The credits for "The Stars" have Skid and Pump running on a hill as the credits scroll beside them.
- Curse Cut Short:
- "Unwanted Guest":
- The Candy Dealer starts to say "What the fu—" in response to Skid and Pump playing dead after saying they want to go to the hospital, only for a hysterical woman to start screaming that he killed the kids.
- In the ending, one of the Wheel of the Worst hosts somehow hears Skid and Pump say that "it's Spooky Month" through the TV, causing him to start dancing. His baffled co-host replies "What?! What the fu—", with the episode cutting to the credits before he's able to finish.
- Subverted in the Newgrounds ending; when John and Jack bust into the house on the hill and find a group of robed cultists looking into the hole in the floor, John utters an uncensored and uninterrupted "What the fuck are you?".
- "Deadly Smiles":
- Dexter almost calls Lila a "dumb bitch", but he gets interrupted by Skid and Pump shoving him into the oven.
- Confused at Lila's hysterical panicking over the new Happy Fella doll she brought over, Jaune starts to mutter "What the fu—", but Dexter's yelling startles her before she's able to finish.
- "Tender Treats":
- When Lila calls Jaune to tell her about Bob stalking her, Jaune thinks Lila has a new boyfriend and congratulates her, saying that, "You've gone so long without di-", but the scene cuts back to Lila before Jaune finishes saying "dick".
- When the teen dressed as Bob tells Kevin that kids are stealing from the currently-unattended candy store, he runs towards the door with an "Ah, shi-" before the Smash Cut to the next scene interrupts him.
- Subverted by John in the Newgrounds ending, where after realizing Jack propped up Bob's corpse to scare him, he says, "Jesus fucking Christ, Jack!"
- "Hollow Sorrows":
- after Radford makes Moloch run away from the Candy Club thanks the holy water, a recently exorcised Kevin coughs while muttering a swear word: "F(COUGH COUGH)ing kids."
- "Unwanted Guest":
- Darker and Edgier: Each episode ups the ante from the last, with more dangerous threats arising.
- "It's spooky month" has no actual antagonist for the most part, and is just about Skid and Pump wandering around town to spread Spooky Month cheer. The worst that happens is a brief scene in which Lila is being threatened by a then-unnamed murderer (Bob Velseb), which is then immediately played for laughs as she easily pacifies him.
- "The Stars" has the two boys encounter a real monster, albeit one that's benevolent to the two. The closest thing to an antagonist in this short, Roy's creepy pervert of an uncle, only gets to menace Skid and Pump very briefly before he cowers away from that aforementioned monster, later getting killed by it in the most anticlimactic way possible.
- "Unwanted Guest" has the episode's main antagonist, a demonic monster possessing a hapless (though unsympathetic) man, directly chase after Lila, and later prepares to attack Skid and Pump, with every intent of inflicting serious harm on the protagonists. However, he ultimately fails because of a humorous mistake he made.
- "Deadly Smiles" has the main antagonist constantly follow Skid and Pump around, trying (but still failing every time) to kill them or other people, eventually culminating in Lila expressing true fear when running away with Skid and Pump.
- "Tender Treats" expands on the same serial killer from the first short (Bob), who, unlike Dexter, successfully kills at least one or two people while chasing Skid and Pump, all the while talking about his creepy hobby of cannibalism. He's relatively more of a serious threat compared to previous antagonists, and he tries to kill most of the protagonists and their allies at one point or another.
- "Hollow Sorrows" has the demon return to possess more people, going on a rampage around town and thus being more of an active threat. In addition, while the demon is taken care of, the episode regardless ends on a bleak note for most involved.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Skid and Pump putting themselves between Gregor and Moloch to protect their "friend" even though the latter has always made his hatred for them abundantly clear brings to mind examples of abuse victims defending their abuser. Made worse when Moloch asks to be allowed inside their bodies and they agree, and even after that end up protesting Moloch's ultimate defeat by crying that he didn't do anything wrong, apparently not realizing how traumatic Moloch's actions have been for the city's residents.
- Dramatic Irony: Near the end of "Streber's Rehearsal", Streber complains about how sore his arm is because he's been working on props all morning, and remarks that he "doesn't want it to fall off on him". His friends then joke about him dropping dead because of him overworking; lighthearted banter for them, a reminder of Streber's unfortunate fate in "Tender Treats" for the audience.
- Everybody Do the Endless Loop: The series' signature "Spooky Dance" is a simple three-frame animation of the character rapidly shifting from left to center to right. Even as the episodes increase in animation quality, the animation for the Spooky Dance continues to just be three frames, because it's funny.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- "The Stars": After sending Skid and Pump off to the house on the hill, Roy mentions it's the place where his uncle takes him. When Skid and Pump burst into the manor in the next scene, a creepy stranger locks them inside and references Roy tricking them into coming, revealing him to be Roy's uncle.
- "Deadly Smiles": When Jaune presents the Happy Fella doll she bought for Pump, it has Dexter's white eye, indicating he's already possessing it. Lila understandably begins to panic, and Dexter tries to break out of the doll's box shortly after.
- "Tender Treats":
- After John and Jack accidentally run Bob over, Pump gains his blue eyes again as he pokes Bob's body. Sure enough, Bob isn't dead, and tries to attack them again while the cops are distracted.
- In The Stinger, when Patty calls the two cops to give John the amulet she found on Bob, Jack sees something offscreen and gets a devious smile as he walks towards it. Shortly after, John sees Bob seemingly still alive and shoots at him again, before Jack reveals he propped up Bob's body to scare them.
- Foreshadowing:
- In "The Stars", Susie's room, which the kids broke into earlier, has a poster of a large monster with two kid-sized characters standing before it. By the end of the short, pretty much the exact same scenario is playing out for the boys with The Eyes of the Universe.
- While walking out of the mall in "Unwanted Guest", Pump remarks that they should burn the Happy Fella doll they just bought to see if it screams. This ends up coming to pass in "Deadly Smiles", where they force the doll into the oven and Lila sets it to burn, the doll screaming as it melts from the heat.
- Since the first episode, a mannequin in Skid's attic has subtly shifted around, seemingly on its own, in later episodes even inexplicably propping itself back up to block or distract hostiles to the family like Bob or the Thieves. It is only revealed in "Hollow Sorrows" a Giant Spider within the attic is picking up and moving items in the attic when no one is watching.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- In "It's spooky month", when Skid and Pump are running down the stairs, you can see within the walls a skeleton wearing a wedding ring on one finger. The immediate next shot has a picture of Lila and Skid's father, with the wedding ring on the same finger as the skeleton.
- In "Unwanted Guest", the quick shot of Lila slamming the phonebook on the table reveals a QR code on the cover, which leads to a post on Imgur showing off multiple ads from the phonebook.
- In "Deadly Smiles", the various papers in Pump's toy chest seen for a brief moment have the pieces of a QR code on them, which when put together lead to an Imgur post showing a picture of notes Dexter wrote while he was possessing the Happy Fella.
- When Jaune changes channels in "Tender Treats", the short frame of static has a QR code hidden in it which, when color-corrected, leads to a base picture with other links.
- In "Kevin's Dream Job", going frame-by-frame during the montage of the misfortunes Kevin suffers on the job thanks to Skid and Pump shows off Call Backs to events from "The Stars", "Unwanted Guest", "Deadly Smiles", "Tender Treats" and "Hollow Sorrows", as well as Skid and Pump bringing friends with them. Said friends include Frank, who robs the store, Boyfriend, who engages in a rap battle with the duo, and a Giant Spider that covers the store in webs and wraps up Skid and Pump before taking its leave.
- Funny Background Event:
- "Tender Treats": as the Hatzgang are talking about their lack of candy, Jaune and Lila can be seen in the background searching for Skid and Pump, mimicking the two's goofy faces as they talk to someone.
- "Streber's Rehearsal":
- As Streber is talking, the guy in the werewolf costume tries to drink a soda, but misses his mouth and pours it on the floor. He then walks away dejectedly.
- Still behind Streber, Leon sneaks up on Ethan and Aria to scare them.
- Fun with Subtitles: There are multiple official subtitles on the YouTube versions of the videos; while most of them are standard and straightforward, there's at least one set per episode that has a lot more fun with it, spelling letters incorrectly, adding in its own gags and commentary (such as every instance of the word spooky being typed as 𝒮𝓅𝑜𝑜𝓀𝓎), or even something completely different from what the characters actually say. Be prepared to either watch one frame at a time or at half speed while constantly pausing.Pump: Let's go to the graveyard!
His subtitles: Fellow comrade, I bear the unrelenting desire for you and myself to heed our X, Y and Z coordination upon the premises of our local death keep- *I MEAN* Les go to de graveyard! - The Ghost:
- Skid's father has thus far only been seen through pictures, and not even entirely, as they're all either torn or have his face scribbled out.
- Starting with "Unwanted Guest", Robert mentions his thus far unseen little sister at least once per episode; she actually factors into the Hatzgang's subplot in "Tender Treats", as they're trying to get candy for her because she was too sick to go trick-or-treating herself.
- Pump and Susie's parents haven't made a physical appearance, and are only mentioned or seen in photos. The closest one of them has to an actual appearance is the silhouette of Pump's mom coming across the package her kids sent her for Mother's Day in a comic Sr. Pelo posted to Twitter.
- In the Newgrounds ending for "Deadly Smiles", John's daughter is seen in the background in family photos, and again in a photo in John's wallet in the Newgrounds ending for "Tender Treats"; she doesn't appear in the series otherwise, and her fate is left ambiguous since John's house burns down in the fourth episode.
- Ross' dad has currently only appeared in some family photos in Jaune's house during "Tender Treats". Word of God states that he's still married to Jaune, however, and is not a Disappeared Dad like Skid's father; he makes his first appearance in "Hollow Sorrows", with Pelo confirmed that his name is Aaron.
- Grave Humor:
- When Skid and Pump visit the graveyard in "It's spooky month", all of the tombstones say various funny things, such as "Here lies my boner", "I am fine", and "t You later".
- When Skid and Pump visit the haunted house in "Tender Treats", two of the tombstones in the front yard say "LET IT RIP" and "RIP UR ASS".
- Hair Color Dissonance:
- The series' outlines are in dark purple rather than black, meaning every black-haired character is visually purple (the exception being Lila, whose hair actually is purple, and is a much lighter shade to distinguish it as such).
- As Ross' hair is already black — er, purple — the highlights in his hair are instead drawn in a light blue.
- Halloween Enthusiast: The main characters, Skid and Pump, are two kids who love Halloween and candy more than anything, calling October "spooky month". In many episodes, they aren't even aware that it's not Halloween as they roam around town in their costumes unsupervised and get into various antics.
- Halloweentown: Skid and Pump are always celebrating Halloween around town and wearing their costumes even when the holiday is still a long way off, believing it to be Spooky Month; even when others tell them to snap out of it because it's not October, Lila still reaffirms that it's indeed a Spooky Month so as not to disappoint them.
- Heinousness Retcon: When introduced in the first episode, the then-unnamed Bob Velseb was little more than a gag, holding Lila at knifepoint but then happily letting go once Skid reminds them both that it's Spooky Month and Lila offers him some candy. When he appears again in "Tender Treats", he's revealed to be a serial killer with an incredibly high body count and taste for human flesh, and a flashback to the first episode shows that Lila called the cops on him moments after Skid left the house.
- Hereditary Hairstyle:
- Pictures of Skid without his mask show he has the same bob-like haircut as his mom, with hers going down the shoulder and his stopping at the neck. Lila purposefully styles her hair like Skid's because them having the same haircut makes him happy.
- Photos of Pump's dad and one of his grandfather when his dad graduated college show them both with the same poofy hairstyle, complete with the same swoop in the back and a stray pointy tuft on the left side. Other photos of Pump without his costume show he also has the same hairstyle, including the tuft.
- Roy has his mother Carmen's wavy, reddish hair, the only difference being that it is shorter than hers.
- Ross' hair points out to the sides in a very similar way to his mother Jaune's hair.
- Holiday Aficionado: at least early on, would have Skid and Pump spend all of October (and sometimes earlier in the year) wax energetic about various Halloween activities. Both of them are rarely seen out of their monster costumes. At the end of the first short, Skid's mother shows herself to be of the Christmas season-obsessed variety, as she sets up her Christmas decorations the exact second October is over.
I-Z
- I Know Your True Name: Throughout "Hollow Sorrows" Father Gregor attempts to exorcise Moloch fall short of sending him back to Hell because he does not know the demon's name. Humorously, he accidentally interrupts Skid and Pump yelling out his name several times. When he finally lets them finish and learns his name, his next exorcism where he invokes his name turns Moloch to stone.
- Idiosyncratic Cover Art: Every thumbnail starting from "The Stars" depicts Skid and Pump in the foreground while a green-tinted version of the antagonist/catalyst of the episode is in the background. The thumbnail for "Hollow Sorrows" changes the formula significantly by having one of Moloch's glowing eyes in the background behind Skid and Pump while hands belonging to Father Gregor and Moloch are on their shades. The Spooky Shorts series also changes it slightly so that the focus character is in the foreground instead, while the short "Kevin's Dream Job" plays with it by having Skid and Pump themselves (who aren't antagonists but are the catalysts for the plot) as the background characters.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode in the series starting from the fourth one, which marked a major jump in production, episode plot and length, and the start of Cerebus Syndrome, is titled in the format of "(adjective) (plural noun)" (e.g. "Deadly Smiles", "Tender Treats", "Hollow Sorrows", etc.).
- In the Back:
- As part of her plan in "Deadly Smiles", Lila comes up behind the Dexter-possessed Happy Fella and stabs him in the head with a knife while Skid and Pump are distracting him. It doesn't do anything because, as Dexter himself points out, he's a doll and therefore doesn't have a brain.Dexter: [Evil Laugh] I'm a doll! You DUMB BI- [Skid and Pump shove him into the oven]
- In the climax of "Tender Treats", as Bob attempts to get into the police car to attack the boys, Lila and Jaune, John and Jack come up behind him and shoot him in the back, making him fall to the ground. After John asks if they think he's dead, the two decide to unload the rest of their bullets into his chest just to make sure. This still doesn't kill him, so Jack runs him over three more times, which finally finishes the job.
- As part of her plan in "Deadly Smiles", Lila comes up behind the Dexter-possessed Happy Fella and stabs him in the head with a knife while Skid and Pump are distracting him. It doesn't do anything because, as Dexter himself points out, he's a doll and therefore doesn't have a brain.
- Inconsistent Episode Lengths: As the series goes on, the main episodes increase in runtime: the original "It's spooky month" was around a minute forty in length, "The Stars" is six minutes, and "Unwanted Guest" ten, with "Deadly Smiles", "Tender Treats", and "Hollow Sorrows" clocking in past twenty minutes.
- Instant Wristwatch:
- In "The Stars", right before Skid and Pump enter the Candy Club, Kevin checks the time on his watch. The watch disappears after he puts his arm down, and it's the only time in the series that he's drawn with one.
- In "Unwanted Guest", Lila stares at her watch after realizing how long Dexter has been in the attic. It stays on her wrist as she walks out of frame, but disappears after this scene.
- Jump Scare:
- Overused excessively by Ooga Booga in "It's spooky month", who somehow always appears either in person, on the phone, in a film, or in a video game to scream OOGA BOOGA!.
- "The Stars":
- Ooga Booga returns in the Newgrounds post-credits ending scene, trying to scare the cops in a police car as they're barreling right towards her, with predictable results.
- Mr. Clown instead appears in the Youtube ending credits to give the camera a wallop with his mallet and try to steal the viewer away, Laughing Mad all the while.
- Ooga Booga returns in HD glory for the Youtube ending of "Unwanted Guest", jumpscaring after the credits are done rolling.
- Ooga Booga appears again for the Youtube ending of "Deadly Smiles", trying to jumpscare the viewer with a Happy Fella doll, but gets freaked out when it talks, only to then use that as an opportunity to give a real jumpscare.
- Ooga Booga makes another return after the credits for the YouTube version of "Tender Treats" end, asking the viewer "OOGA or sugar", then jumpscaring the viewer when she pulls out an apple on a stick.
- Ooga Booga scares the viewer by coming to life from the drawing in the background and, after teasing them, she leaves.
- Laughably Evil: Many of the bad guys' deeds are offset by just how comical they are: from Frank who's just as excited to do the Spooky Dance as he is to abduct children, the Monster Clown who lets out a really goofy Evil Laugh while bludgeoning kids with a mallet, Moloch the demon complaining about being stuck in the attic until he has a Villainous Breakdown, to Dexter the cat-killing creep suffering all kinds of slapstick abuse (especially after being turned into a Creepy Doll). Even Bob, despite being treated more seriously as a villain, is not immune to suffering some goofy slapstick at his expense.
- Lighter and Softer: Though not entirely without darker themes, Spooky Month is by far less deranged and less loony compared to most other works of Pelo, bordering on kid-friendly at times.
- Limited Wardrobe: with the exception of those wearing work uniforms and Skid and Pump in their Halloween costumes, most of the characters appear to wear the same clothes or a slight variation of them during the winter periods; this is particularly true with Lila, who has a different outfit for almost every episode.
- Literally Apoplectic: Skid and Pump startle Mr. Wonder so badly that he clutches his chest and appears to have a heart attack, but he quickly recovers once they tell him it's Spooky Month.
- Long Pants: Characters wearing both black pants and shoes are drawn as if they're wearing black stockings, with no lines of separation between the two. Characters with pants and shoes of different colors have a much clearer distinction between where the pants end and the shoes begin.
- Mature Work, Child Protagonists: Downplayed. The shorts are rated "Teen" on Newgrounds and contain dark humor and horror, while the protagonists are a pair of young children.
- Meaningful Background Event: Sometimes to build on a joke, other times for a little bit of world-building.
- Lila is an architect working from home, as seen with her schematics and work laptop. This is never addressed in person.
- Skid's Disappeared Dad is implied with the torn-up pictures of where he should be in the family pictures, along with some of his shelves having cultist attire and gear implying his family's ties to the occult. In those same pictures, you get to see Skid without his costume on.
- We get to see how Pump's and Susie's parents gradually went from loving and attentive to being too busy for their children in the photos throughout their house.
- Ooga Booga can be seen staring at the viewer behind windows or standing around somewhere hidden in "It's spooky month".
- Mr. Clown stalks the boys in a few scenes after his initial appearance in "The Stars".
- In the night sky of "Unwanted Guest", two larger than average stars tend to follow Skid and Pump around, implied to be their new friend the Eyes of the Universe, whom they befriended in the previous episode. Made more obvious in the credit reel of this short, with Eyes being one of the few characters physically missing from the artwork — except for Skid and Pump being illuminated by his two stars in the sky.
- Among the various missing person posters in the background of "Deadly Smiles" is one of Dexter, confirming that no one outside of Lila, Skid, and Pump even knows he's dead. This poster along with a photo of him on the police station's corkboard also shows what he looks like without his gas mask on.
- In "Deadly Smiles", while the cops are handing the Happy Fella off to Kevin, a fire truck passes by. The prequel stinger for this episode revealed that one of the cultists broke into John's house and set it alight to destroy all the intel they've gathered about the cult.
- In the Newgrounds stinger of "Deadly Smiles", a photo next to John's String Theory board is of him and a little girl, with a mug on his desk and a drawing behind him further clarifying that she's his daughter.
- In the "Tender Treats" scene where the Hatzgang discuss Roy's lack of a costume, Lila and Jaune can be seen in the background asking trick-or-treaters if they've seen Skid and Pump. Surprisingly, none of the Hatzgang boys seem to notice or care that Ross' mom is standing just across the street from them.
- Medium Blending:
- In the advertisement for the second edition of the Skid and Pump plushies, the dolls are real-life photos that were turned transparent and pasted into the short, which then provides a very stark contrast when Lila picks up the Skid doll and starts pleading with it.
- In "Tender Treats", Bob turns into a 3D model when he first gets run over by the cops, and then becomes a clay model as the still 2D Jack and John check on his body. The clay model is still visible as Jack puts the boys' candy into the trunk of the police car.
- Mythology Gag: Sr. Pelo makes some references to a few of his other animated cartoons:
- One of the movies playing at the theater during "Deadly Smiles" is El Dia Del Payaso, an actual video created by Sr. Pelo.
- The two rookie cops whom Mayor Evermore threatens to replace John and Jack with in "Tender Treats" are based on The Captain and Shotgun Man from Every StoryTime Animation, another video by Sr. Pelo.
- In "Tender Treats", Lila has a flashback to the scene in "It's spooky month" when she was attacked by Bob Velseb. For this brief moment, she is voiced by Sr. Pelo himself, like she was in that video. At the end of the flashback, Lila, once again voiced by Elsie Lovelock, says "Huh. My voice was so different back then."
- Seen behind Edd, Matt, and Tom's cameo in "Tender Treats" is a movie poster of a red mass with multiple smiling faces, referencing Sr. Pelo's COMEDY. Another poster is of a red present in a spotlight, referencing Sr. Pelo's 2022 April Fool's Day animation, UN REGALO GRATIS PARA TI.
- One of the movies playing at the theater during "Deadly Smiles" is El Dia Del Payaso, an actual video
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: One of the haunted house workers in "Tender Treats" is dressed as a zombie pirate, and another is dressed as a werewolf with a bomb fuse on his head.
- Not So Above It All: Father Gregor, who is deadly serious for the entire episode he's focused on in, still does the spooky dance along with Skid and Pump. He can't keep it up due to his age, but it's the thought that counts.
- OOC Is Serious Business: In the ad for the physical versions of the Volume 1 soundtrack, John is noticeably more panicked at the thought of the Piper's return compared to everything else he and Jack deal with, making the Piper seem like that much more of a threat in comparison.
- One-Steve Limit:
- Downplayed Trope. The cannibalistic serial killer in "Tender Treats" is called Bob, which is a diminutive form of the name Robert. One of the Hatzgang is also named Robert.
- Downplayed: the series has two Richards: Rick, the depressed jobhopper (introduced first), and Richard, Roy's father. Rick is only ever referred to as Rick, and it being short for Richard is only known through a picture Sr. Pelo posted to Twitter.
- Painted CGI: In "Hollow Sorrows", when Father Gregor is walking up the stairs of Lila's house, he is briefly animated in 3D, but it's hard to notice because his model is edited to look like it still belongs in the show's 2D artstyle.
- Pictorial Letter Substitution: In the title logo, the holes of the two Os in "Spooky" are pointed stars, the symbol of The Eyes of the Universe, while the hole of the O in "Month" is a diamond, resembling the amulets the cultists wear.
- Pint-Sized Kid: Young kids in the series are always drawn as very short, barely reaching knee-height to most adults. This is exaggerated by Skid and Pump, who are both about elementary school age, but are shorter than the Happy Fella, a doll made for children.
- Possession Levitation: After possessing Dexter, the demon Moloch floats off the ground in Dexter's body as he chases Lila. In "Hollow Sorrows" the only one who has the same thing happen is Patty after Moloch possesses her, while everyone else who gets possessed later (Roy, Kevin, Skid and Pump) doesn't levitate.
- Precision F-Strike: The series generally tends to avoid swearing that's any worse than a "hell" or "damn", and cuts them off whenever a character tries to say worse, so John directing an uninterrupted "What the fuck are you?" to the cultists is very noticeable.
- Propeller Hat of Whimsy: The child Frank kidnaps in "The Stars" — only referred to as "Kid" in the character sheets and confirmed later that his name is Lucky— wears a multi-colored propeller hat and a pair of overalls, reminiscent of stock depictions of young boys.
- Purple Is the New Black: The style of the series calls for the outlines of the characters to be dark purple instead of black; the same thing goes for those with black clothes, sclerae and/or hair.
- Rapid-Fire Comedy: Befitting Sr. Pelo's style, there's rarely a moment in the shorts without some joke being attempted in either the foreground or background.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Father Gregor delivers a brutal one to Lila for leaving Skid behind to go drinking.Father Gregor: I understand you are a widow, but your negligence has put your son in many dangers! You don't even know why he's here and all you can do is DRINK?... You are an irresponsible mother.
- Retraux: The ads for the second edition of the Skid and Pump plushies and the Volume 1 soundtrack have heavy film grain and noise, meant to imitate old VHS recordings. The videos even have an aspect ratio of 4:3 instead of the usual 16:9, to further the effect of it being recorded off an old TV.
- Rule of Three:
- Three characters attempt to say "what the fuck" over the course of "Unwanted Guest"; the first two were interrupted, while the third gets it out.
- Shortly into "Tender Treats", Skid and Pump look both ways before crossing the street. Near the episode's end, they, Lila and Jaune again look both ways before crossing the street as they're being chased by Bob. Bob crosses the street without looking and instantly gets hit by a car.
- Over the course of "Tender Treats", Lila gets asked by three different characters about why she's not wearing a costume: first "Costume Bob", then Jaune, and finally Skid.
- Running Gag:
- Nearly everyone without fail won't resist performing the Spooky Dance when they find out it's Spooky Month; taken to its extremes when even monsters, dead people, an old man almost dying of heart failure, and a cop who is still driving a car can't help but cheerily dance.
- When a character has an Oh, Crap! moment, they'll quietly look at the camera with Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises, all while a chicken echoes in the background. This is seen with Lila at the end of "Deadly Smiles", and Kevin halfway through "Tender Treats".
- Pump tends to appear out of nowhere whenever Skid summons him, first nonchalantly standing outside of Skid's house in seconds of being called, then hurling himself across the sky and landing in front of Skid after a phone call, and then rising from a grave planted in the yard in the third short.
- Ooga Booga, who spends the whole first short delivering an absurd amount of jump scares and showing up in the background, including appearing after the credits to try one last scare. In the second episode's Newgrounds ending, she tried to do her scaring routine while standing in the middle of a road in the path of a police car, leaving her temporarily hospitalized during the third episode. Afterward, she reappears in the YouTube credits of each episode to do more of her classic jump scares.
- In "Deadly Smiles", many characters remark that the Happy Fella doll looks ugly, with Dexter being personally offended by these comments.
- In "Tender Treats", there is an unnamed guy wearing a devil costume who is repeatedly mistaken for Bob Velseb, and getting attacked for that at least twice. When the cops repeatedly shoot Bob in the climax, the same guy with the devil costume flees in terror before he can end up as the victim again.
- Self-Deprecation:
- In "The Stars", one of the trending tags on Divver is "Pelodidn'tdoitontime", a reference to how the short came out in November rather than October.
- In "Unwanted Guest", one of the sticky notes on Lila's corkboard is "Tell creator to finish the damn animation on TIME!!", a reference to how the short came out towards the end of November rather than October.
- One of the ads in the "Unwanted Guest" phonebook is an ad deriding Sr. Pelo for the delay of the episode, and a call to action for the readers to kick his ass for it. The ad right below it echoes the sentiment, and there are two additional phone numbers that agree with it.
- Seven Deadly Sins: Sr. Pelo has stated that the major villains in the series will embody the Seven Deadly Sins. Of the currently released episodes, the sins represented are:
- Wrath: Moloch, a demon summoned by Skid and Pump in "It's spooky month" who grows enraged at being trapped halfway inside an Ouija Board in Skid’s attic for 2 years, and goes on a furious rampage in both "Unwanted Guest" and "Hollow Sorrows".
- Lust: Dexter Erotoph, though as an exterminator who takes pleasure in killing animals and later people, he’s Lust more in the sense of bloodlust than sexual lust. This is emphasised by his surname being likely taken from Erotophonophilia, which quite literally means “lust murder”.
- Gluttony: Bob Velseb, a fat, cannibalistic Serial Killer who knows a lot of facts about eating humans, and also is just a Big Eater with a major Sweet Tooth. Additionally, he used to work as a restaurant cook, and his name is a chopped-up pun on "Beelzebub", the name of the Demon Prince of Gluttony in demonology.
- Short Teens, Tall Adults: Early teenagers like the Hatzgang and Susie are around half the usual height of adult characters, with younger kids being even shorter.
- Show Within a Show:
- In "It's spooky month", Skid and Pump watch a horror movie titled Really Spooky - The Ooga Booga, featuring Ooga Booga scaring the bejeesus out of some poor sap.
- At the beginning of "Deadly Smiles", Skid can be seen watching a Happy Fella cartoon, which consists of a Happy Fella trying to make a sad guy happy. The ending shows the end of the Happy Fella episode, with the sad guy now much happier and friends with the Happy Fella.
- Later in "Deadly Smiles", Skid and Pump watch a horror movie titled Dioboloma, with a scene of a man becoming possessed and undergoing a horrific transformation while trying to reassure his female companion.
- In "Tender Treats", Jaune is seen watching an untitled horror movie on TV, starring the same actress from Dioboloma being menaced by a man invading her house (coincidentally when she gets a phone call from Lila, about how Bob was standing outside Lila's house).
- In "Hollow Sorrows" Jaune and Aaron are watching a parody film of the Exorcist, with the two recurring actors as the priest and the possessed woman: this anticipates the exorcism that Gregor will carry out to chase Moloch away.
- Side-Story Bonus Art:
- On Halloween 2021, Sr. Pelo posted a picture of Lila taking Skid, Pump, and Susie trick-or-treating, featuring most of the cast decked out in costumes.
- On Mother's Day 2022, Sr. Pelo posted art of Skid giving Lila a drawing for Mother's Day, while Pump tries and fails to call his mom. A followup comic then depicts Susie telling him that he can mail their gift to their mom.
- On Father's Day 2022, Sr. Pelo posted pictures of Pump and Susie at the post office handing off a gift for their dad, while Lila and Skid visit the cemetery.
- On Halloween 2021, Sr. Pelo posted a picture
- Special Occasions Are Magic: Played for Laughs. In "Unwanted Guest", Skid and Pump visit the hospital's morgue and cheerfully inform the worker there that it is Spooky Month. The corpses in the morgue then inexplicably rise and begin to dance, only for the morgue worker to inform them that it is actually June, not Spooky Month. They all die (again) on the spot.
- The Stinger: Happens after the end credits of each episode, and they differ between the YouTube and Newgrounds uploads; with the YouTube version being a quick gag (almost always involving Ooga Booga attempting a Jump Scare), while the Newgrounds version is more like a post-credits ending scene (from the second episode onward, following an ongoing story arc about the policemen John and Jack investigating the cultists' plans).
- "It's Spooky Month": The YouTube version features Ooga Booga jumpscaring the audience. The Newgrounds version has Moloch realize it's now November, stop doing the Spooky Dance, and then get slapped silly by Santa Claus.
- "The Stars": The YouTube version has Mr. Clown (instead of Ooga Booga) attacking and kidnapping the viewer. In the Newgrounds version, John and Jack notice that something strange is happening with the spooky old house on the hill, and then they accidentally run over Ooga Booga.
- "Unwanted Guest": The YouTube version gives us the return of Ooga Booga after she had been seen wearing a full-body cast in the hospital earlier in the episode. The Newgrounds version shows John and Jack interrupting a cult meeting in the spooky house that's seemingly led by Mr. Clown, with Jack shooting the Clown to death in a panic.
- "Deadly Smiles": On YouTube, Ooga Booga scares us with (and then gets scared by) her own Happy Fella doll. On Newgrounds, John contemplates a String Theory board in his house before he and Jack go to get donuts; while they're gone, a cultist sets it on fire to destroy all the gathered evidence. The cultist subsequently catches fire before running offscreen.
- "Tender Treats": On YouTube, Ooga Booga scares us and opens a bag with candy (or an apple). On Newgrounds, John and Jack visit Patty in the morgue, who had found a cult necklace in Bob Velseb's chest, which causes John to realize the cult and Bob were working together, and that they had been the ones to free him in the first place; after which Jack props up Bob's corpse to pull a prank, which angers John and Patty.
- "Hollow Sorrows": Ooga Booga comes alive from the background art and does her usual jumpscare in the credits. On Newgrounds, the Candy Dealer is revealed to be the leader of the two thieves and a member of the cult: after the two fail to rob Lila's attic (in which it is implied there is something important related to her ex-husband), he says their luck is about to run out.
- Supernatural Hotspot Town: The unnamed town the series takes place in is home to a variety of ghosts and ghouls, such as actual ghosts, a supernaturally powered Serial Killer, zombies that rise from the dead at the mere mention of Spooky Month only to die when told it's not, a Magical Flutist that leads people to their deaths, an Eldritch Abomination whose eyes are the stars that dot the night sky, and a cult that worships said eldritch being. "Unwanted Guest" also introduces the Happy Fella toys, dolls that are specifically made as ghost trappers first and children's toys second.
- The Television Talks Back: At the end of "Unwanted Guest", Lila and the kids are watching RedLetterMedia's Wheel of the Worst, which is being hosted by versions of Rich and Mike. The kids exclaim that it's Spooky Month - and somehow. Mike hears the exclamation. He excitedly yells, "It's Spooky Month?!" and proceeds to do the Spooky Dance. Rich, understandably, is completely befuddled by this and exclaims, "What? What the fu-?!"
- Town with a Dark Secret: Skid's and Pump's unnamed hometown isn't a normal or pleasant place to live in. In addition to the surprisingly high level of crime (for such a small town) with robbers, kidnappers, and murderers running around at night, it's also a Weirdness Magnet for occult and supernatural activity; with various monsters suddenly appearing with little or no explanation (like the dancing zombies in the hospital morgue), along with being the home base of a mysterious evil cult that worships an Eldritch Abomination lurking under the town's surface, plotting sinister schemes for their unknown agenda in the background.
- Toy Transmutation: The advertisement for the second edition of the Skid and Pump plushies features a witch turning Skid and Pump into stuffed toys, with Lila implied to suffer the same fate.
- Trapped in the Host: To escape imprisonment in the attic, Moloch possesses the body of a human exterminator named Dexter, and makes his way free... only to foolishly get Dexter paralyzed while trying to prove that Moloch really was possessing him, and winds up stuck inside Dexter's body.
- Vanity Plate: Seen after the stingers of the Newgrounds uploads, starting with "Deadly Smiles":
- "Deadly Smiles" concludes with a short animation of the Hatzgang running away from Skid and Pump driving a tank, which turns into the Newgrounds logo when the tank is fully in frame.
- "Tender Treats" has Skid and Pump now accompanied by Lila and Jaune in the tank. The four cheerfully shout the site's name and its slogan ("Newgrounds: Everything by everyone!"), before Bob appears behind them and makes them run away from the tank, with Skid almost leaving the logo's frame before Lila pulls him back.
- Wacky Sound Effect:
- Whenever Skid and Pump run together, it's almost always accompanied by the harsh sound of metal crashing violently against metal, but the ground is no worse for wear.
- "Deadly Smiles" includes many more sound effects than previous episodes — while most are simple sounds of characters walking or things being moved around, there are also plenty of silly ones, such as Kevin's building anger and subsequent resignation being accompanied by a tea kettle whistling and a slide whistle.
- Played for Horror: to further illustrate how imposing Bob is, his footsteps are accompanied by a distinct thud sound effect, much louder than the footsteps of other characters.
- Wham Episode: "Hollow Sorrows" is where the series' Cerebus Syndrome really kicks into high gear. Pump and Skid are shown to both live in broken homes, which was previously only implied and even Played for Laughs. Lila's attempts to have some time away from Skid come back to bite her when Moloch returns and he's so clueless he genuinely believes the latter to be his friend. Dexter's mom appears multiple times and is shown to be grieving for her son (who previously died in a Black Comedy bit) and then dies herself. Moloch possesses Skid and Pump only to be vanquished at the hands of Father Gregor. Lila comes home drunk only to receive a not-unjustified "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Gregor, Skid and Pump grieve for Moloch without ever realizing he was using them, and the episode ends with Lila and Skid sobbing in each other's arms. And by the way, remember the funny robbers and the Creepy Good Eyes of the Universe from Episode 2? The former is working for the evil cult at the heart of the series' Meta Plot and the latter is the Eldritch Abomination they worship, who also ends the first Stinger by mind-raping Father Gregor despite everything he did to protect the boys, showing that Eyes did not care for them after all. Oof!
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The series is set in an unnamed small town, and its exact location is unknown. It seems to be a generic North American suburb, and everyone speaks English, so it's probably somewhere around the United States or Canada. The phonebook from "Unwanted Guest" implies that the series takes place somewhere in Arizona, as all the phone numbers have Arizona area codes (928). However, there are nearby forests and there is some snow on the ground in winter, so if the town really is in Arizona, it would have to be located up in some of the state's high-altitude mountains.
- Whole-Plot Reference: While the episodes are chock-full of references to horror movies, "Deadly Smiles" as a whole is a direct homage to Child's Play (1988), with the possessed "Happy Fella" doll being an expy of the possessed "Good Guy" doll on the movie, and the episode recreating a few of the movie's scenes, like when the doll is burned by the protagonists on their house (an oven in here and a fireplace in the movie).
- Workplace Horror: Kevin's subplots revolve around him working at the Candy Club and being forced to deal with dangerous and/or supernatural events that Skid and Pump, either directly or indirectly, bring along with them; such as an Eldritch Abomination that momentarily breaks Kevin's mind, a bag of sugar that looks like cocaine right as two cops enter the store, and being attacked by both a killer doll and a cannibal on two separate occasions. He also mentions an offscreen Noodle Incident in which he had to clean up fake blood off the floor.
- Your Size May Vary: Character heights tend to fluctuate depending on what's needed for a scene, with characters being shorter or taller than they actually are. Best exemplified with Susie and the Hatzgang, where they're drawn smaller when in frame with Skid and Pump to better scene composition.
- Zoomed-Out Reframing Gag: When Ignacio refuses to give them candy, the camera zooms in on Skid and Pump making horrific deranged faces at him. After a Beat of Ignacio being completely unfazed, the camera pulls out to show Skid and Pump harmlessly hopping up and down as they beg for candy.
OOGA BOOGA! HAHAHA! OH, YOU SHOULD'VE SEEN THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE! HEH HEH HEH!
