2x20: Humbug

[wendelah1]

This is Darin Morgan's maiden voyage as a writer for The X-Files. He previously appeared in season two in "The Host" as Flukeman. I haven't watched it yet (World Cup!) so let's see what I remember. Well, Scully eats a cricket. They exhume a potato. Mulder looks hot. It's the first episode conceived to be humorous, as opposed to having a quip or two.


Writer: Darin Morgan
Director: Kim Manners
Originally aired: March 31, 1995

Synopsis: Mulder and Scully travel to the small town of Gibsonton, Florida to investigate the latest of a series of mysterious attacks, which occurred throughout the US over the past 28 years. They begin by attending the funeral of the most recent victim, who was a member of a community of former side-show performers.

Most Memorable Quote:
Mulder: Tell me, have you done much circus work in your life?
Mr. Nutt: And what makes you think I've ever spectated a circus? Much less been enslaved by one?
Mulder: I know that many of the citizens here are former circus hands, and I just thought that...
Mr. Nutt: You thought that because I am a person of short stature, that the only career I could procure for myself would be one confined to the so-called 'Big Top'. You took one quick look at me, and decided that you could deduce my entire life. Never would it have occurred to you that a person of my height could have possibly obtained a degree in Hotel Management.
Mulder: I'm sorry. I meant no offence.
Mr. Nutt: Well then why should I take offence? Just because it's human nature to make instantaneous judgments of others based solely upon their physical appearances? Why I've done the same thing to you, for example. I've taken in your all-American features, your dour demeanor, your unimaginative necktie design, and concluded that you work for the government; an FBI agent... but do you see the tragedy here? I have mistakenly reduced you to a stereotype. A caricature, instead of regarding you as a specific, unique individual.
Mulder: But I am an FBI agent.

Links:
Not Just a Fluke: How Darin Morgan Saved The X-Files
TWOP Recap
The 10 Funniest X-Files Episodes
Sarah Stegall
Transcript

Fanfiction: Alas, no. Let's go write some!

Comments

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

ONE OF US. ONE OF US. GOBBLE GOBBLE. GOBBLE GOBBLE.

Just as Ice drew its inspiration from The Thing, it is pretty obvious Humbug draws its inspiration from Tod Browning's amazing 1932 film: Freaks. And just like Freaks, Humbug is a tale about acceptance and rejection.

This ep is one of my all time favourite.

I love the opening, how it turns the familar trope of the scary monster lurking in the shadows on its head. Here the monster (well, one of them) is a dad, much beloved by his children. When I first saw this, I knew I was in for a great ride.

I like that Mulder asks Scully what her initial thoughts are.

"Imagine going through your whole life looking like this" Empathy!Scully or Shallow!Scully? Maybe a little of both.

Don't you think Scully seems a little ill at ease at the beginning of the wake? As if the 'Otherness' of the crowd is making her feel like an outsider.

"I THINK I HIT MY LEFT VENTRICLE!"

Yep, it still makes me laugh.

I like how the Sheriff puts Scully in her place at the Diner with his speech about being normal in the inside.

"Who are the Rubes?"

"You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?"

The parallel amused me.

IT'S A TABERNACLE OF TERROR!
It's a fun house.

I love the story of the Fiji Mermaid. Weird Fish. *nods*
I also saw it spelt Feejee? Which is right?

Mulder's Mad Leap of Logic: from Siminan like tracks to Fiji Mermaid. Bless him.

"You remember what Barnum said about suckers?" That's twice she called you 'sucker' G-Man. Must be love.

"But I am an FBI agent."
Scully is covering her mouth not to burst out laughing, you can be sure of that.

Did you catch Scully's head swivel when Mulder asks Lanny if he's ever done circus work? It was her "Don't you ever learn?" look.

"Mr Nutt convinced me that to make a living by publicly displaying my deformity lacked dignity - so now I carry other people's luggage."

I absolutely adore that line. So many layers.

RUN FORREST MULDER RUN!

Lanny and Scully closing their respective bathrobe chokes me up every time. The potency of the stare of others encapsulated in these few seconds. Maybe someone was making a point about beauty - represented in the curve of Scully's breast - attracting the same kind of stare as deformity. Or maybe I'm just reading way too much into this.

See, I had this friend at school when I was eighteen who had developped this habit of pinching the skin of her cheeks between her fingernails until the skin broke. It wasn't major self-mutilation but she often had this little cuts on her face. One day I asked her about it, and she said, she could not stand the way people, men especially, were staring at her. So if she messed up her face, they wouldn't look at her so much. It absolutely floored me. This girl was beautiful. Not just pretty, beautiful as in stunning. She looked like Carole Bouquet's younger sister. And yet her too obvious beauty was a source of discomfort and embarassment to her. She never wore makeup, she dressed in jeans, baggy sweaters and wore nothing but Stan Smiths during the whole time we were at school together. She was quite messed up back then. Then she got better. She now owns a posh little fashion boutique, which is terribly ironic.

Anyway just to say that stares - be it at deformity or beauty - are both an invasion of someone's physical integrity. And that people on the receiving end handle it very differently. Lanny didn't mind being the object of people's stare when he worked at the circus. He loved being a headliner.

I'd never noticed before the little sizzle when Dr. Blockhead's feet briefly touch the cauldron before he jumps off.

"I could be mistaken. Maybe it was another bald-headed, jigsaw-puzzle-tattooed, naked guy I saw."

Hey, it could happen. Maybe he has a twin.

The banter between M&S - the uncles amateur magicians one - reminded me of the Amazing Maleeni. Observe.


Right. Must stop here for now. Tis past my bedtime. Might add more thoughts tomorrow if I can.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Not yet up for the deep stuff, but when M & S observed the carni chaos at the funeral, that was NOT a wake. It was a funeral. This is proven by one of my favorite lines, uttered by Mulder after everyone has roared off and several chairs have fallen: "I can't wait for the wake."

After Mulder receives the PC lecture from Mr. Nutt, I examined his later babbling about having seen the Conundrum. There's just this hint of "damn, gotta be careful. Could have been, etc."

Darin Morgan hiked the show up several notches. Then he disappeared. Call me, Darin! We could have a romantic relationship based on old movies and never seeing each other.

[wendelah1]

Disappeared? For someone who disappeared, he sure has a long list of credits at IMDb, including executive producing credit on Fringe, and a couple of shows after that.

Darin Morgan.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

He disappeared from THE X-FILES! That's what matters. sob...

Long list of credits, huh? Should check.

[wendelah1]

Oh, when you said he'd disappeared, I thought you'd meant he'd become a hermit, not left the show to do something else.

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

"See, I had this friend at school when I was eighteen who had developped this habit of pinching the skin of her cheeks between her fingernails until the skin broke. It wasn't major self-mutilation but she often had this little cuts on her face. One day I asked her about it, and she said, she could not stand the way people, men especially, were staring at her. So if she messed up her face, they wouldn't look at her so much."



Wow. I wish I had that problem.

[tri-sbr.livejournal.com]

Scully's "Imagine going through your whole life looking like this" near the beginning gets reflected at the end, with a twist, by the blockhead:

---
BLOCKHEAD: And you never will again. Twenty-first century genetic engineering will not only eradicate the siamese twins and the alligator-skinned people, but you're going to be hard-pressed to find, uh, a slight overbite or a not-so-high cheek bone. You see, I've seen the future and the future looks just like him.

(He points at Mulder, who is standing in front of a trailer in a classic model pose. Hands on his hips, one foot up on the step, looking off into the distance.)

Imagine going through your whole life looking like that. That's why it's left up to the self-made freaks like me and the Conundrum to remind people.

[wendelah1]

Lanny and Scully closing their respective bathrobe chokes me up every time. The potency of the stare of others encapsulated in these few seconds. Maybe someone was making a point about beauty - represented in the curve of Scully's breast - attracting the same kind of stare as deformity. Or maybe I'm just reading way too much into this.

You're right, it's about how easy it is to turn a fellow human being into an object. She was staring at his deformity--he was staring at her breasts--and they both got caught out, leaving them both feeling exposed physically, and embarrassed for being voyeuristic.

[murielle.livejournal.com]

This is the episode that turned me into an X-Files fan. I don't believe I'd ever watched an episode before, and, in fact strictly speaking I didn't watch that one either. I came in just before Scully ate the bug. The show, while being satisfyingly creepy made me laugh. After that I began watching the series regularly.

I never had too much patience for Mulder, so I didn't ship him with Scilly. My favorite characters were Skinner and Mulder's mother. I shipped them a few times. As I'm sure a lot of people can say, my first fanatic was a short X-Files fic.

Love the expression on Mulder's face when Scilly "ate" the bug.

(Posted from my kindle).

[wendelah1]

I love hearing how people became fans of the show.

"My favorite characters were Skinner and Mulder's mother. I shipped them a few times."

Now, that's a rare pairing. I really like Teena Mulder, too, but I'd never thought to ship her with Skinner.

"As I'm sure a lot of people can say, my first fanatic was a short X-Files fic."

My first fanfic was for The X-Files as well.

[murielle.livejournal.com]

While I loved Teena Mulder, I hated that name. For a long time we didn't have a name for her, couldn't find it in cannon, or in fic. But I read somewhere that her name was Elizabeth. That seemed to fit better so I regarded "Teena" as a nickname, when it finally surfaced. And yeah, loved the idea of her and Skinner. They were both seemed to be from an older generation, not just in years, but in attitude. Both suffered in silence. Mulder didn't suffer in silence, he suffered in neon lights with a marching band. :-)

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I suspect that look was spontaneous. She really did chow down on that bug!

[murielle.livejournal.com]

I've seen people do it. In an anthro class in college. I was not one. :-)

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

My thinking about the Files is that they expanded their audience dramatically by adding comedy to the repertoire. I'd like to think DD kind of created the idea, because as we know he is a wellspring of wisecracks and probably adlibbed a few. Darin, the little flukey tagalong, turned out to be a genius at it, and I believe the two were friends.

"Humbug" is representative of DM's work in that there is a sweet and sympathetic center to all the craziness. Like most funny people, Darin felt the dark side intensely. This was especially obvious in CBFR, which is IMO his best ep.