Airdate: October 30, 2017
Costumes (in order of appearance): Homestar Runner as Power Alley Dale Murphy, Marzipan as Joanna from Chotchkie's, Strong Bad as BOB, Strong Mad as Powdered Toast Man, The Cheat as Maxwell, Coach Z as Parappa The Rapper, Bubs as Grunkle Stan, Strong Sad as Hercule Poirot, The King of Town as Alice from the "Don't Come Around Here No More" music video, Pom Pom as Violet Beauregarde, The Poopsmith as an Instant Martian, Homsar as Greg
Marzipan's hosting a Halloween party with its own photo booth, but said photo booth is apparently haunted by a ghost that appears in the photos as a sinister white face. While everyone else enjoys the festivities, Strong Bad tries (and fails) to get a picture with the specter.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Bubs' Easter egg at the end has an appearance by the Thnikkaman's Backup Singers ("Here Comes the Thnikkastan!"), which prompts Bubs to say "Yeah, shut up, Soos's Abuelita!" This is a nod to Matt Chapman's role as Abuelita Ramirez on Gravity Falls.
- Bait-and-Switch: The cartoon opens on a still of a haunted house, and we hear Homestar moaning to Marzipan about not wanting to "go in that spooky place". Then the haunted house turns out to be a backdrop for the eponymous haunted photo booth.
- Brick Joke: When trying to summon the ghost early on in the cartoon, Strong Bad makes up a Bloody Mary-esque chant about how a guy named Jaundiced Jerry will never get married. He later makes up another chant that goes "Stabby Gabby's always crabby". One of the Easter eggs (which acts as The Stinger in the YouTube version) shows Jaundiced Jerry actually getting married to Stabby Gabby.
- Call-Back: Back in "Happy Hallow-Day", Homestar referred to Halloween-themed taffies as "orange-and-black loose tooth removers". The phrase reappears here, and the candies' tooth-removing powers are central to the plot.
- Chirping Crickets: Heard after the King of Town announces himself.
- Confusing Multiple Negatives: Coach Z tries to use multiple negatives when describing a handlebar mustache, and winds up just confusing himself.Coach Z: Ooh! A handlebrah mustache! [holds a handlebar mustache prop over his face] These things'll never not ironically be unironically... always... um... [puts down the mustache prop and picks up a bacon prop, which he holds over his face like a mustache] bacon?
- Continuity Nod:
- Strong Bad brings up Strong Sad doing a summation, much like in "unnatural".
- Strong Bad's Easter egg at the end features Homsar as The Man From Another Place, saying in creepy reversed-backwards-talk "I was raised by a cup of coffee!"
- The YouTube version has a fake "next video" segment which references Clapping Party, the game Homestar played in "slumber party".
- Easter Egg:
- Per tradition, clicking on the Poopsmith activates a scene where Homsar appears. He tries out the photo booth like everyone else.
- Clicking on any of the various characters (except Homsar) while they're on the field will trigger dialogue conversations related to their costumes, which also leads to more jokes.
- Clicking on the moon at the end leads to a scene where the Jibbles Painting demon officiates a marriage between Jaundiced Jerry and Stabby Gabby. The YouTube version plays this automatically as The Stinger.
- Floating Advice Reminder: When Strong Bad realizes The Cheat's gold tooth is missing, he hears the voice of Homestar echoing in his head, talking about "Orange-and-black loose tooth removers... loose tooth removers... loose tooth removers..." Then the camera pulls out to reveal Homestar actually is saying "Loose tooth removers..." over and over, for some reason.
- Foreshadowing: You can actually see The Cheat's gold tooth in a couple scenes before The Reveal that it's the cause of the ghost appearing in the photos.
- Hypocritical Humor: Strong Sad declares "I think I has the solution!" before delivering The Summation, quoting one of Homestar's lines from "In Search of the Yello Dello". Strong Sad himself had criticized that specific line for bad grammar in that toon's commentary track.
- Insult Backfire: During the costume round-up, Strong Bad will tell the King of Town that "Don't come around here no more" wasn't a costume suggestion, but an attempt to get rid of him.
- Invisible Anatomy: In Marzipan's Easter egg, she quotes Joanna's Take This Job and Shove It scene, complete with Flipping the Bird at Homestar—even though she has no arms.Strong Bad: Whoa, Marzipan, nice invisible flair deuce!
- Lampshade Hanging: Pom Pom and Poopsmith's scene together references how the two characters have been increasingly Out of Focus as of late (since it's difficult to write stories for characters who can't speak).Pom Pom's sign: Why are we even in this cartoon?
Poopsmith's sign: Don't know, don't care. - Mythology Gag: Homestar mistakes his own costume for Mark Lemke, "Homestar Runner for the Braves", in a reference to the origin of Homestar Runner's name.
- Rule of Three: Strong Bad tries three times to make the "ghost" appear by making up Bloody Mary-style chants, which (of course) he repeats three times. The first one is about Jaundiced Jerry, the second one is about Stabby Gabby, and the third one just has him say "demonic barf powers".
- Shout-Out:
- Strong Bad expresses hope of getting "demonic barf powers" from being possessed by the ghost.
- There are several Twin Peaks references. Strong Bad's use of the phrase "Smiling bag" references the cryptic clue "There's a man in a smiling bag". Also, Strong Mad name drops Jacques Renault, a character from the show. Finally, Strong Bad's Easter egg at the end references the infamous "How's Annie?" moment, and features Homsar as The Man From Another Place standing in the Black Lodge.
- Speak of the Devil: While trying to invoke the forces that haunt the photo booth, Strong Bad accidentally summons the Bloody Mary-esque "Jaundiced Jerry" and "Stabby Gabby".
- The Summation: Strong Sad—dressed as famous fictional detective Hercule Poirot, of course—ends up being the one to explain the true cause of the "ghost" showing up in the photos: it turns out that The Cheat had been stuffing his face with Halloween colored taffies (previously called "orange and black loose tooth removers" by Homestar), and in the process, ended up having his gold tooth yanked out of his mouth. He then proceeded to stuff the gold tooth in a random spot in the photo booth, and from there, the tooth managed to become a hidden part of everyone's (with the peculiar exception of Strong Bad's) costumes, the ghostly face being created from the tooth's shininess interfering with the flash of the photo booth's camera.
- Talking with Signs: Since Pom Pom and the Poopsmith don't talk, they pull out signs to speak so the audience knows what they're thinking (in their case, lampshading their obligatory scene).
- Title Drop: After spotting a mysterious face in their photos, Homestar and Marzipan realize "it might be a... be a... Haunted Photo Booth!"
- The Un-Reveal: It's never actually explained why Strong Bad is unable to get the ghost to appear in his photos, and nothing in The Summation precludes The Cheat's golden tooth from being in the photo booth with Strong Bad.
