Recap / Sam And Max The Devils Playhouse 301 The Penal Zone

General Skun-ka'pe, a gorilla from outer space, arrives in town bringing a message of peace and love. However, Sam and Max find out about his true intentions thanks to Max's new psychic power to see the future before his arrival. Now these two must stop him.

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Tropes:

• Actor Allusion: It's probably not a coincidence that Roger L. Jackson is playing an unnaturally-colored megalomaniacal primate.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Sam looks as if he's luring one of Skun-ka'pe's henchman over so he can slip on a banana peel into a manhole, but Max jumps out and bashes his head with two garbage can lids and falls into the manhole.
  • It's implied Girl Stinky is in cahoots with Skun-ka'pe, judging by the mysterious note from "S" that Flint Paper found. Then it turns out Girl Stinky isn't interested in him at all.
• Brain in a Jar: Skun-ka'pe's ship is powered by the brain of an alien being named Gordon.
• Broken Pedestal: Grandpa Stinky is all for a tough, ruthless leader like Skun-ka'pe taking over the Earth, especially when he bribes Stinky with a place in his armada and a "badge" (that's actually the Penal Zone homing beacon). But he becomes disgusted when he learns he's not really a space captain, but a "sous chef, 8th class".
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": Max gets a few giggles out of hearing the phrase "Penal Zone" thrown around.
• In Medias Res: Kind of a subversion. The episode starts on Skun-ka'pe's spaceship with Sam and Max trying to send him to the titular penal zone, however, it's not explained how they got there until later. After Sam and Max succeed, it's revealed to be a vision of the future. Unfortunately, by the time they get to where the game started, Skun-ka'pe has seen what they were planning with the Future Vision toy and taken steps to thwart their plan, forcing the Freelance Police to come up with a new idea.
• Malicious Misnaming: Girl Stinky continues her trend of calling Sam and Max the wrong names. When she calls them "Barney and Jug-jug", Max accuses her of not even trying anymore.
• Noodle Incident: When Sam reveals that he thought Girl Stinky and Skun-ka'pe were a thing, she replies "You only have to date an evil gorilla once to learn that's a bad idea."
• Obviously Evil: As Max observes, Skun-ka'pe makes his appearance on Earth in a giant warship shaped liked his own head, with laser-beam eyes. It's not hard to connect the dots from there.
• Prison Dimension: The Penal Zone.
• Talkative Loon: Gordon the Brain starts to mix up his words after suffering damage from the strain of maintaining Skun-ka'pe's ship.