Captain Gasket and Pipi, our fearless heroes.
In a desolate and infinite world...
Nomads called, "Void Pirates," scavenge the strange land for resources...
And go to great length to ensure their survival...
Theft...
Murder...
Betrayal...
But for how long can they stay alive?
Scrumpers
is a 7-minute animated short by Ben Jones chronicling the less-than-stellar adventures of Captain Gasket (Scourge of the Unknown, Queen of Trepidation and Despair) and her pirate crew in an endless black void. After their ship malfunctions and crashes, the captain and her lackeys happen upon a small store in the desolate darkness. Being pirates, of course, they decide to rob the store for resources in order to repair their ship. But what secrets does this little shop hide?
Scrumpers contains examples of:
- Bad Boss: To say that Captain Gasket treats her crewmen badly would be an understatement.
- Bedsheet Ghost: Made seriously creepier by the addition of two realistic human arms and a Camera Abuse effect.
- Black Comedy: Ooooh yes. The entire short is nothing but Black Comedy.
- Boss Subtitles: GHOST HANDS
- Camera Abuse: Of the digital video kind; the recording keeps glitching out. Happens very frequently, especially if Ghost Hands is even as much as shown on the camera.
- Chest Monster: Ghost Hands is an interesting (and somewhat terrifying) variation. He is a bedsheet ghost that lives in a treasure chest and preys on anyone who opens it. He has two pitch black, realistically-proportioned arms coming out from underneath his sheet, as well as what appears to be an uncanny human face in the center of his body. If he catches you, he feeds you to the human face and shits you back out as treasure. Also, the camera glitches out like crazy if he's around.
- Dogged Nice Guy: First Mate Pipi would do literally anything to serve his captain. Too bad she treats him like shit.
- Failure Hero: Captain Gasket's blind greed, Bad Boss tendencies and idiotic judgement skills end up getting her crew into even worse a situtaion than they started out with, with no gold to show for their trouble.
- Fatal Flaw: Being a pirate, Captain Gasket's is naturally greed. Her common sense seems to switch off entirely if gold is involved.
- Floating Limbs: Pipi's arms and legs seem entirely detached from his torso.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Pipi is laughable with his overenthusiasm and high-pitched voice, but he singlehandedly rescues his captain from certain doom after repairing their ship at incredible speed. He gets a payment of literal shit for his efforts.
- Never Split the Party: Averted. In this case, splitting the party is exactly what saves the skin of the captain, with Pipi returning with the repaired ship just in time to help her escape from Ghost Hands.
- No Name Given: Gasket's second crewman. He does have a name, but Gasket doesn't care to remember it.
- Nonstandard Character Design: While Gasket's crew and Ghost Hands look like pixelated low-poly videogame characters with laggy movements, the storekeeper's motions are fluid (if awkward) and she looks more like a badly rendered bootleg of the Raving Rabbids.
- Pirate Girl: Captain Gasket, complete with six-shooter, Badass Longcoat and a comically oversized tricorn hat.
- Red Shirt: The unnamed second crewmember with the bow and arrows. Fittingly enough, he even wears a reddish overshirt. He ends up being eaten by Ghost Hands in the treasure room.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Pipi might as well be a human in a robot suit. Gasket's other unnamed lackey might qualify as well, depending on if that is really how he looks or if he's just wearing armor.
- Running Gag: "It smells like shit in here!"
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: None of the characters hold back from swearing too much, but Gasket takes the prize:Gasket: "My god! It's shit! It's all shit! Shit shit shit!"
- Sky Pirate: Whether Gasket's crew is this or space pirates is up to interpretation, seeing as they careen around in an endless black void in a mechanical-looking ship. But this void has gravity and breathable air, so it's probably more appropriate to call it sky.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Captain Gasket holds herself in much higher regard than she actually is, with her falling-apart ship and rapidly dwindling crew.
- Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Captain Gasket, Scourge of the Unknown, Queen of Trepidation and Despair.
