"Virtual Freak" is Freakazoid! Episode 18, but it was the seventeenth to air, on 11/02/96. It was the fourth episode in the second season. It was written by Melody Fox and John P. McCann and directed by Peter Shin. John P. McCann and Tom Ruegger wrote the cold open.
Cold Open: Joe's Very Own Story[]
Joe Leahy, the Announcer, tells a story about bad things happening in a seemingly peaceful New York City neighborhood. The Network Censor objects to the story, so Joe has to tell a nicer one.
Synopsis[]
While helping Steff to shop for her father's birthday present, Freakazoid and Cosgrove become trapped in the virtual reality game Virtual Tussle due to the Lobe's scheming.
Characters[]
- Announcer
- Arcade de Triumph Attendant (voiced by John Rubinow)
- Babeheart (voiced by Tress MacNeille)
- Big Wide Hats Manager (voiced by Jeff Glen Bennett)
- Two men named Bob (video game installers, both of whom want to date Agent Scully from The X Files; voiced by Frank Welker and Paul Rugg)
- Sergeant Mike Cosgrove
- Dino the Pterodactyl (voiced by Frank Welker)
- English soldier in Babeheart (voiced by Frank Welker)
- Freakazoid
- The Lobe
- Mel (Virtual Tussle warrior; from the suburb of Morton Grove; Cosgrove's avatar)
- Emmitt Nervend (in mall, in the middle of the Portho vs. Mel fight)
- Portho (Virtual Tussle warrior; from the Glim System; Freakazoid's avatar)
- Steff
- Virtual Tussle Narrator (voiced by John Rubinow)
Other[]
Main Title Version: Hand-wringing chimp; free kazoo
Gag Credit: No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a homunculus.
Tag: Cosgrove says, “Ha. That’s funny.”
Trivia[]
- Virtual Tussle is a parody of the 1991 virtual arcade game Dactyl Nightmare.
- Steff references the Lobe tying her to a rocket in "Relax-O-Vision." The Lobe says the "long time falling" shtick is even stupider than the "Handman" episode.
- The movie theater is playing Sister Sister: The Movie, referencing the TV series that was then airing on the WB's Sunday night lineup.
- The figures in the hall of wax are mostly caricatures that have appeared on Freakazoid! before: Hillary Clinton ("Mo-Ron," "Freakazoid Is History!" and "Deadpan"), Bette Midler ("Dexter's Date"), Michael Jackson ("Dexter's Date"), Judge Ito ("Dexter's Date," "The Freakazoid"), Newt Gingrich, Barbra Streisand ("Freakazoid Is History!," "Deadpan" and "Dexter's Date"), Alan Hale Jr. as the Skipper from Gilligan's Island ("Dexter's Date"), Princess Diana (cold open to Episode 3, "Deadpan," "The Freakazoid"), President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey ("Dexter's Date"), Leonard Nimoy ("Ode to Leonard Nimoy"), Joan Rivers ("Freakazoid Is History!," "The Freakazoid") and Rush Limbaugh ("Freakazoid Is History!," "The Freakazoid").
- In the first version of Joe's story in the cold open, a man-eating plant (a la Little Shop of Horrors) devours a man, a man fighting with his spouse stands on the ledge trying to kill himself and then is seduced by a sexy neighbor, Dracula (last seen in "House of Freakazoid") and King Kong are on the loose, ghosts push over a defaced Freakazoid! billboard, and a couch potato continues to obliviously watch TV throughout.
- The neighborhood in Joe's story is the same backdrop as the cold open to Episode 5.
- "Am I Blue?" is a real song, written in 1929 by Harry Akst and Grant Clarke, and recorded by many artists, including Ethel Waters, Billie Holiday, Brenda Lee, Fats Domino, Cher, and Kevin Conroy as Batman in the 2004 Justice League Unlimited episode "This Little Piggy" (written by Paul Dini and directed by Dan Riba).
- During the pterodactyl chase, one scene is a homage to the famous cropduster chase in North by Northwest, with a similar music score.
Voice Credits[]
Paul Rugg as Freakazoid
Edward Asner as Sgt. Cosgrove
Tracy Rowe as Steff
David Warner as The Lobe
Tress MacNeille as Babeheart
Frank Welker as Dinosaur
John Rubinow as Attendant
Jeff Glen Bennett as Manager
Joe Leahy as Our Announcer