The X-files

Humbug
Episode: 2X20
First aired:03/31/95
Written by: Darin Morgan
Directed by: Kim Manners

I actually didn't like this episode very much....but it's interesting anyway.

Jerald Glazebrook, a man suffering from ichthyosis, so that he looks like a reptile man, swims with his kids in his pool. He is suddenly attacked by an invisible creature, filling the water with blood.

Mulder and Scully investigate by going to Glazebrook's funeral where they see Dr. Blockhead emerging from the casket and pounding a nail in his chest. Mulder says that this attack is similar to 48 other attacks during the last 28 years.

They find the town filled with sideshow performers. At their motel they meet Mr. Nutt, the midget propiertor and Lanny, a man with a congenital twin growing out of his side. That night, a sideshow performer is attacked by the same creature.

Mulder encounters the Conundrum, a heavily tatooed man who eats anything, and sees him eating a live fish. Later, they see the the attacker must have gotten in through a small window to kill a man. They discover that the sheriff was once Jim Jim the Dog-faced Boy but they find nothing to suspect him. Meanwhile, Mr. Nutt is killed when attacked and draged out the doggie door. They find one of Blockhead's pins in his palm.

However, they find that Lanny has been attacked and that it's actually his twin, Leonard, who's been inadvertently commiting the murders, somehow disjoining himself from Lanny's body.

Mulder and Scully chase after Leonard, who is a wierd ugly liitle skeleton (really disgusting) who runs into the fun house. The creature runs into the Conundrum who is found unhurt, but rubbing his stomach contentedly. Lanny passes away and Leonard can't be found.


Important Quotes:
Nutt -- "Well, then why should I take offense? 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 F.B.I. 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 F.B.I. agent."

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

Mulder -- "Does Agent Scully know that you're under her crawlspace?"
Nutt -- "I was merely repairing the plumbing on this unit. I know what you're thinking, my friend, but you are grossly mistaken. Just because I am not of so-called "average" height does not mean I must receive my thrills vicariously. Not all woman are attracted to overly tall, lanky men such as yourself. You'd be surprised how many women find my size intriguingly alluring."
Mulder -- "And you'd be surprised how many men do as well."


Back to The X-files: Season 2
Humbug was also a text-based adventure game, created by Graham Cluley. (The game was not Rogue-like; in that there is no attempt at graphics of any sort. If you've played the game Adventure then you know what I mean.)

The game ran under DOS and was released as freeware, with hints and maps given to you if you registered your version of it. In May of 1997 the game was placed in the public domain; (This information, and downloads, available at http://www.grahamcluley.com
note: Graham Cluley is also the creator of Jacaranda Jim.

I'd tell you more about the game, but I haven't played it in years. I do remember that you're visiting your granddad, there's a gardener named Horace who'll bust your head with a tin of lozenges if you attack him. There's a shark in a room with some marzipan. I think you need the marzipan to lube up the tuba or something, but I never got very far in the game. There's a robot and a monkey in the basement. There are some pants and a particle accelerator upstairs. The vikings are to the east.

A traditional english mint flavoured hard sugar confection. To be the real mint humbug, must have black-and-white stripes running from one end of the lozenge to the other.

The difference (apart from the appearance) between these and murray mints is that murray mints have a slight buttery flavour that these lack. Humbugs also tend to have a chewy centre (still minty, still sugary), as well (which murray mints don't).


Thanks to Albert Herring for reminding me about the chewy bits

Hum"bug` (?), n. [Prob. fr. hum to impose on, deceive + bug a frightful object.]

1.

An imposition under fair pretenses; something contrived in order to deceive and mislead; a trick by cajolery; a hoax.

2.

A spirit of deception; cajolery; trickishness.

3.

One who deceives or misleads; a deceitful or trickish fellow; an impostor.

Sir J. Stephen.

 

© Webster 1913.


Hum"bug`, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Humbugged (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Humbugging (?).]

To deceive; to impose; to cajole; to hoax.

 

© Webster 1913.

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