- "Don't judge a book by its cover!"
Airdate: November 2, 2007
After Pop buys a strange book from Toothy and reads it to Cub for a bedtime story, Cub acts strange the next morning.
"Read 'em and Weep" contains the following:
- Accidental Incantation: Pop treating the Necronomicon as a vulgar book to read to Cub at bedtime causes him to unwittingly summon dark magic.
- Accidental Murder: Zig-Zagged. Pop wanted to kill the demon inside Cub, but kills Cub himself instead due to the demon having already gotten out of his body.
- Break the Cutie: A minor one but before the demon emerges from the sink pipes to kill her, Petunia is seen crying in pain and fear.
- Brick Joke: When Pop balks at throwing a flower vase at the demon possessing Cub, the BlurB says that he loves the flowers more than Cub, but that they still die every week. At the end of the episode, the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue mentions that "Pop went on to kill the flowers".
- Caption Humor: One of the episodes with a BlurB version.
- Comically Missing the Point: Pop notices that it is starting to rain dead birds, but the only thing he does is just closing the window.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Half of Petunia's skin is ripped off her torso, then her entire body is forced into a pipe while being shredded to pieces by the garbage disposal.
- Demonic Possession: Cub gets possessed by a demon after Pop reads a Tome of Eldritch Lore as a bedtime story for him. In the end, Lumpy manages to exorcise it, only to get possessed by it himself.
- Downer Ending: Cub dies just after he's been freed from the curse, and the demon lives on in Lumpy.
- Eat the Camera: The demon under Cub's bed lunges into Cub's mouth from it's perspective.
- The End... Or Is It?: The episode ends with Lumpy seemingly having successfully exorcised the demon that possessed Cub (though with Cub himself dead due to Pop's Accidental Murder of him). Then a tentacle pops out of Lumpy's mouth, revealing that he's now possessed by the demon. Cue Iris Out.
- Exorcist Head: The newly-possessed Cub repeatedly turns his head away when Pop tries to feed him some breakfast, culminating in him doing this and vomiting green liquid on Pop.
- Flaying Alive: The demon rips off the lower half of Petunia's skin.
- Fold-Spindle Mutilation: Petunia's body is crushed and mangled when the demon pulls her through a very small pipe while she's trying to hide under the sink. And then she's ripped apart to tiny pieces by the garbage disposal.
- Halloween Episode: The first Halloween episode of Season 3.
- Hats Off to the Dead: When Pop and Lumpy mourn at Cub's grave at the end of the episode, Pop takes his hat off.
- Hidden Depths:
- Pop is shown to be pretty cheap, as he refuses to buy the more expensive story book, instead opting for something that costs less. He also prepares to smash a vase over the possessed Cub's head, only to decide against it and go find a shovel instead.
- Toothy of all people is the one to own the Necronomicon before selling it to Pop.
- Idiot Houdini: Pop gets away with reading a cursed book and killing his own son.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Lumpy is a priest this episode.
- Nightmare Face: After getting possessed, Cub's face gets sickly green and his eyes turn ghost white.
- Offing the Offspring: Pop does this to Cub near the end. He intended to kill the demon that was possessing Cub, but unbeknownst to him, the demon had already been exorcised by that point.
- Prophet Eyes: Cub's eyes turn pure white when he gets possessed by a demon.
- Rain of Something Unusual: When Pop reads a Tome of Eldritch Lore as a bedtime story for Cub, it starts raining dead birds. Pop, apparently seeing nothing unusual about this, simply closes the window.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Lumpy successfully gets the demon out of Cub! Too bad Pop kills Cub with a shovel, thinking that he's still possessed.
- Shout-Out: The book that Pop reads to Cub is the Necronomicon.
- Shovel Strike: Pop kills Cub by repeatedly smashing him over the head with a shovel in a misguided attempt to kill the demon he thinks is possessing the baby bear.
- Sickly Green Glow: The arrival of the demon that possesses Cub is heralded by a green glow underneath the child's bed.
- Skewed Priorities: When Lumpy gets into a fight with the possessed Cub, Pop prepares to throw a vase at the demon to help, only to think better of it and go get something cheaper to attack with.
- Squashed Flat: A non-cartoonish example. Pop repeatedly slams a shovel on Cub's head (keep in mind that Cub is no longer possessed by the demon) until he looks like a bloody, crushed can.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Cub and Petunia die this episode.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Cub does this after he's been scared stiff by the "bedtime story" Pop read him from a Tome of Eldritch Lore. He snaps out of it when he notices an ominous green light coming from under his bed.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Toothy, Pop, and Lumpy survive this episode.
- Tome of Eldritch Lore: Pop buys one at a book sale and reads it to Cub as a bedtime story, resulting in his son being possessed by a demon.
- Took a Level in Badass: Even though he gets possessed by another demon, Lumpy is surprisingly competent this episode. And not only that, but it's shown in the end that Lumpy has much better control over the demon than Cub had.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Done in the BlurB.Epilogue: With this new found experience, Lumpy moved to Japan and became a huge movie star!
Pop went on to kill the flowers - Whole-Plot Reference: To The Exorcist. Both stories involve a little kid getting possessed by demons who make them compulsively vomit, with a priest trying to save them.
