Hello Spongey here. Sorry if you were expecting the Villain songs thing, but I wanted to do this.
Hello and Welcome to my first review.
Before we start the review, let’s look at some backstory.
In 1992, R.L Stine, author of several Horror novels, including the Series Fear Street, decided to write a children’s Horror series known as Goosebumps.
The series was VERY successful even spawning a Tv Series in 1995, which ran for 4 Seasons. There were several spin off series, including Series 2000, Give Yourself Goosebumps, and recent Goosebumps Horrorland..
Now let’s talk about another popular thing: Parodies. Even since popular works have entered the world, people have been mocking them trough parodies time and time again.
So naturally, Goosebumps got one. Which brings to today’s Subject: Gooflumps: Stay Out Of The Bathroom.
In 1995, a man named Robert Huges took the penname of “R.U. Slime” (Get it?) and write a 2 part parody series of Goosebumps. The 2nd being “Eat Cheese and Barf!”. But I haven’t read that one so here we are.
So, is it a good satire, or a bad one? Let’s take a look.
Plot: Joe is a regular kid, but then one day, he breaks the toilet, so they gotta buy a new one, from a strange man. Then, odd things happen, such his family acting batshit insane. Soon, he finds out that the toilet is actually a transporter made by aliens, so they can kidnap humans and replace them with androids do they can- you guessed it, take over the world. (OF COURSE!). Now, Joe must stop them before it’s too late.
Final Thoughts:
Now, I’m gonna judge this both as a satire, and as a book by itself.
As a attire, it’s decent. It doesn’t parody any specific Goosebumps book, but the series itself, and Stine’s writing style. It feels like an actual GB book at some points, but when something un Goosebumps-like happens, it feels out of place. Example: A short rap. No I’m not kidding.
But it goes hit several Goosebumps elements: The stupid chapter breaks, the parents being scientists, supernatural things happening to normal kids, the stupid parents, the bitchy siblings, and of course….the things jumping out that seem like a monster, but is really something normal.
Anyway, this is decent satire. It makes fun GB, in a affectionate way. But I wish they had referenced other aspects of the series, and parodied specific books more often.
As a book itself, it’s pretty good. The jokes are usually funny, and story is silly, but interesting. Some parts were kinda stupid, and some things didn’t work too well.
But overall, it’s nice, funny story. My main complaint, is that it feels more like a parody of kids horror in genral, rather then goosebumps. But, if you look it at like that, it’s much better.
I give Stay out the bathroom as 8 out of 10
