Plot
Cubby, a disheveled man who lives above several chicken stands and restaurants, has grown sick of smelling and seeing chicken all the time. One evening he wanders to a park to try to hold onto his sanity, but after a woman tells him he smells like a chicken, he snaps. He goes to the New York Public Library and checks out Spirit Summonings and Conjurations, Lochmore's Guide to the Lower Regions, and the latest volume of Who's Who and What's That. There he is approached by Egon Spengler, who is after the same books. Egon takes one look at the titles, confirms with his P.K.E. Meter that Cubby is human, and warns him the books are extremely dangerous. Cubby ignores him and runs out screaming about chickens. The librarian, who becomes smitten with Egon, also gives him her own address alongside Cubby's when he later returns to ask for it.
Back at the firehouse, Ray Stantz works on Ecto-1 while Slimer helps Egon work through an equation in the laboratory. Meanwhile, Cubby recites an incantation from the borrowed books. In the Nether Regions, a Clerk Demon registers the event as a Class 5 Summoning and instructs the demon Morganon to answer it by granting the client's wish in exchange for his soul. Morganon brings along an Imp he dislikes and appears before Cubby. When he learns that Cubby only wants to get rid of all chickens, he is dismayed at the waste of his power and suggests a better wish would be to rule France. Cubby will not be talked out of it, so Morganon compromises and grants him the power to make anything disappear or reappear at his command, then leaves having exacted an unnamed price. His Imp follows, laughing hysterically at the absurdity of the bargain.
At dawn, Cubby tests his new power on a rooftop and then removes every chicken. As vortexes teleport the birds away, he also accidentally sends off the two-ton plaster chicken statue from P.J.'s Chicken. Once all the chickens on Earth vanish, Egon remembers the man from the library. The librarian gives Egon Cubby's address, and the Ghostbusters track him down. Cubby sends them to the same dimension he sent the chickens to, dropping them miles above the ground. They fall through a cloud of chickens and, a second before hitting the rocks, are pulled into the Nether Regions. There Morganon asks the Ghostbusters to help reverse the bargain, because it has made him the laughing-stock of the Underworld. They agree and are returned home.
Egon builds some animatronic chickens and approaches Cubby again, convincing him they have returned and brought all the chickens back. Cubby, furious, tells the chickens to "go back where you came from," which sends the real chickens home to Earth. With the wish reversed, Morganon can break the contract and reclaim his power. He thanks the Ghostbusters and hints he will see one of them again; Ray, Egon, and Winston Zeddemore immediately turn to stare at Peter Venkman. The Ghostbusters commit Cubby to a psychiatric hospital. In the final scene, a nurse brings Cubby his dinner, but it is Morganon in disguise, and he has brought chicken.
Characters
Cubby is the episode's central figure and nominal antagonist. A hapless New York resident, he occupies an apartment above multiple chicken restaurants and is driven to magical extremes by the relentless smell. He is not malicious, simply overwhelmed, and ends the episode committed to psychiatric care. He is voiced by Robert Towers.
Morganon is a deal-making demon who serves as a contractor for the Underworld. He describes himself as "one of the greatest demons" and cuts a distinctive figure: horns, beard, tail, and goat-like legs, but no wings; he hovers without them. His design was reportedly influenced by DiC's Inspector Gadget. Frank Welker voices Morganon using a higher-pitched variation of the voice he gave the original Galvatron in the Transformers animated series. After his reputation is wrecked by the chicken deal, Morganon recruits the Ghostbusters to help undo it. At the episode's close, he disguises himself as an orderly to deliver Cubby's punishment: a meal of chicken.
The Imp is Morganon's reluctant companion on the Cubby call. He spreads word of the humiliating bargain through the Underworld, setting off the chain of events that forces Morganon to seek the Ghostbusters' help. Morganon clearly dislikes him and eventually implicates him as the gossip source with a withering glare.
The Clerk Demon is a bureaucratic figure in the Nether Regions who logs Cubby's ritual as a Class 5 Summoning and dispatches Morganon to fulfill it.
The Flirty Librarian assists Egon by providing Cubby's home address, then supplements this with her own. She is voiced by Susan Silo.
Dr. Hargrave is the psychiatrist who receives Cubby at the hospital at the episode's end.
Janine Melnitz appears but has no dialogue.
Production
Straczynski drew on personal experience for the story. The DIC offices were next to an Amber's Chicken Kitchen, and the writer, who walked to work, was overwhelmed by the constant smell of cooking chicken until he decided to channel his frustration into a script.3 The episode was recorded on October 15, 1986.2
The story's strangeness was noted even at the time. It remains one of the show's odder and more divisive episodes, and the script reportedly led some of Straczynski's co-workers and superiors to question his mental health after he turned it in.
Trivia
Although Slimer is usually portrayed as dim, here he helps Egon complete a complex equation, suggesting an advanced grasp of math and physics, though Egon notes he misplaced a decimal. After looking over Slimer's work, Egon mentions the astrophysicist Carl Sagan.
The incantation Cubby uses to summon Morganon runs: "Zinga zinga rastaphari; walla walla wackamore. zim zam hows it goin? havin' a good time, Vishnu was here. Right in your fine work! Hooboy! Hooboy! Hooboy!" It is mostly nonsense built from words chosen for their unusual or comic sound, with apparent nods to the Rastafari movement, the town of Walla Walla, Washington, and a pun on the Hindu god Vishnu and the phrase "wish you were here."
Other small details: the librarian wears a perfume called Essence of Fungus, which briefly catches Egon's attention; as the team falls toward the ground, Egon notes they are 47 seconds from impact while it takes one minute and ten seconds to rewire a Proton Pack for alternate thrust.
"Poultrygeist", another chicken-themed episode of the series, is often confused with this one.
Morganon's design as an orderly at the episode's close was later referenced in IDW's Ghostbusters International #2, where a background server figure is visually based on that disguise.
On page 4 of Transformers/Ghostbusters #3, Slimer eats from a Chick in the Box bucket, a restaurant brand that appeared in this episode when Cubby begins hallucinating that every building is chicken-related.
Quotes
Laughing Dealmaker Demon: "Hey Morganon! Seen any chickens lately? Eh hahahahaha! The boss was looking for someone to handle a new deal, but he couldn't use you! The King of Rowdania doesn't have feathers! But I just want to say! Ah hahahahahaha!"
Morganon: "Does THAT answer your question? For a demon of my status to strike a bargain over... chickens... is embarrassing. It's ruining my reputation!"
Ray: "How did they find out?"
Morganon: (glares at his imprisoned Imp) "I have a pretty good idea."
Morganon: "So we made a deal, and I gave him the power to make anything vanish, and he used it on... chickens! I could've given him wealth, power, fame! But he wastes it! Wastes ME on chickens! CHICKENS!" (catches Ray making a crazy gesture behind his back) "I need you, but don't push it."
Peter: "What I can't figure is what do you need us for? I mean, you've fulfilled your half of the deal, why the concern?"
Release
The episode appears on The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection DVD set as part of Volume 2, Disc 1. In broadcast order it followed "Adventures in Slime and Space" and preceded "Captain Steel Saves the Day".
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
