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Class Clown

4 min read

Written By: Francis Moss

Air Date: December 31, 1988

Production Number: 166019A

Episode Number (Aired): 17

Episode Number (DVD): 08b

Season: 1

Boxset: Vol. 5, Disc 4

Voice Cast: Frank Welker, Cree Summer, April Hong, Katie Leigh, Danny McMurphy

"Class Clown" is a Slimer! segment from Season 1 of Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters. It aired on December 31, 1988. When Donald drops a manila envelope containing the scripts for the school talent show, Slimer flies to Reitman Junior High School to return it, getting into a running series of mishaps with Mrs. Stone, the school's famously humorless guard.

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Characters

Slimer is the lead, trying to do a good deed by chasing down Donald's dropped envelope and returning it before the talent show is ruined.

The Junior Ghostbusters (Catherine, Jason, and Donald) are students at Reitman Junior High School. Catherine and Jason share their first names with the real children of Ivan Reitman, director of the Ghostbusters films.

Mrs. Stone is Reitman Junior High's school guard. The students call her "Stoneface" behind her back because she never smiles, and she enforces the school grounds with unrelenting seriousness. She repeatedly blocks and chases Slimer throughout the episode. At the climax, when the collapsed stage curtain gets a laugh from the audience, she finally cracks a smile, takes a bow, and high-fives Slimer, to the Junior Ghostbusters' astonishment.

Mrs. Nakami oversees the school talent show. When Donald reports that the scripts are lost, she has no choice but to disqualify the Junior Ghostbusters from the performance, until Slimer arrives with the recovered envelope.

Plot

Slimer plays with a wooden paddle ball outside the Firehouse. The ball is snagged by a passing motorcyclist and carries Slimer along for a short ride before he gets tangled in a pole and tumbles into the Junior Ghostbusters. They are waiting for the school bus and warn Slimer not to come along, hinting that someone called "Stoneface" would not allow it. The bus arrives and the Junior Ghostbusters board, but Donald unknowingly drops a manila envelope containing the talent show scripts. Slimer rescues the envelope before it disappears into the sewer and flies after the bus.

At Reitman Junior High, Mrs. Stone stops Slimer at the gate. She checks her roster, finds no entry for him, and orders him off campus. Slimer is not easily deterred and phases through an alarm clock, using it to sneak back in when it rings at 9 AM sharp. Stone spots him again and gives chase. In a science classroom, Slimer first hides in a fish tank among two frogs, then climbs inside a hanging skeleton. When the skeleton cheerfully greets Stone, both she and Slimer startle each other and run off in opposite directions.

Slimer wanders onto the tennis court and ducks inside an automatic ball server. Stone seizes a racket and attempts to defend herself from the volley of tennis balls it fires, until Slimer is finally launched out and lands directly on her face. He apologizes but accidentally calls her "Stoneface," which enrages her and renews the chase.

Backstage in the auditorium, Donald confesses to Mrs. Nakami that the scripts are missing. Nakami disqualifies the Junior Ghostbusters on the spot. Slimer bursts in and hands over the recovered envelope. Stone lunges for Slimer, but he grabs a rope that raises the curtain, and the entire curtain crashes down onto the stage. The audience assumes it is part of the act and erupts in applause. Stone, swept up in the moment, takes a bow and high-fives Slimer. The Junior Ghostbusters watch in disbelief as she finally smiles.

Trivia

The Junior Ghostbusters are named Catherine, Jason, and Donald, and they attend Reitman Junior High School. Two of them, Catherine and Jason, share first names with the real children of Ivan Reitman, director of the Ghostbusters films. The school itself is also named after him.

The students' nickname for Mrs. Stone is "Stoneface." This episode is the first time she smiles on screen.

The episode was recorded on July 27, 1988.

Writer Francis Moss revealed in the visual commentary on The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Vol. 5 that his inspiration for this episode came from his own experiences as a class clown in elementary school.

The first draft of the script, preserved on The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Vol. 5, Disc 2, differs from the finished episode in two notable ways: Slimer hid in a test tube and freed five frogs rather than hiding in a fish tank alongside two frogs, and Mrs. Stone's chase also extended into a print shop where presses were running off school flyers.

References

Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters, "Class Clown" (Season 1, Episode 17, aired December 31, 1988; production number 166019A)
The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection, Vol. 5, Disc 2 (first-draft script and visual commentary by Francis Moss)

Class Clown

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Class Clown

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Characters

Plot

Trivia

References