How many of you recall the lovely Cartoon Network’s black and white logo, ah, the good old days of cable TV and when shows were truly entertaining? I am sure we all remember (at least till the 2000s) the fantastic lineup of cartoon shows that this kid’s channel had to offer. Today we will look at one of these episodes that is recognized for having a pink dog that fights the biggest horrors, and this show terrified me as a kid. Of course, we are talking about Courage The Cowardly Dog!
Courage, the Cowardly Dog is like a nightmarish nightmare, full of devils and shadows. In the early 2000s, it was also a Cartoon Network animated series that aired for four years. It was produced and developed by John R. Dilworth and tells the story of a continually scared dog named Courage, who is voiced by comedian Marty Grabstein. Courage, who had been abandoned by his previous owners, meets Muriel Bagge, played by the late Thea White, and finds a new home with her. Eustace Bagge, played by Lionel Wilson and Arthur Anderson, was Muriel’s husband and an unpleasant, envious rival for Courage.
The social consciousness of millennials who grew up watching Courage, the Cowardly Dog persisted long enough. Despite the fact that it was a children’s show, the series did not shy away from going all out in terms of camp and horror. It featured some of the most gruesome and repulsive characters and stories, some of which were borderline inappropriate for children. Certain events were certainly inappropriate, but they were not traumatic in any manner. Its longevity was reliant on the fact that it was so different from anything else at the time. It makes people who have seen it go back and watch Courage, the Cowardly Dog again to make sure it was not simply a nightmare. Today, we will look at the ten most terrifying Courage the Cowardly Dog episodes ever aired.
King Ramses’ Curse [ Season 1, Episode 7, Part – 1]
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“King Ramses’ Curse” is one of the top episodes that people may unanimously agree gave them the creeps when they were a kid. The titular character in this episode was certainly one of the most terrifying villains in an episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog. The Curse of King Ramses is the first part of Season One’s seventh episode, first aired on January 21, 2000.
Courage comes across an Egyptian stone slab near the farmhouse’s water pump. The stone slab is revealed to be a one-million-dollar treasure taken from a Pharaoh’s tomb. Eustace refuses to return the stolen slab without payment, and as a result, the entire family is cursed by the three curses. It is what happens during the night that makes this episode truly terrifying.
That night, Ramses’ spirit reappears, this time threatening the Bagges. He threatens Eustace with three “plagues,” each worse than the previous until he returns the slab. The first pandemic is then unleashed by the ghost. The water, the second representational symbol on the slab, vanishes, and the home begins to fill with water. Eustace utilizes his snorkel gear while Muriel drowns. Courage swims to the basement and pulls a drain stopper, allowing all of the water to pour out of the house, much to the chagrin of the ghost.
Eustace, unfazed by the incident, ignores the ghost’s request for an offer, triggering the second epidemic, and the sound of a skipping record blaring “King Ramses, the guy in gauze” pervades the air, bringing audible misery to the family. Eustace muffles the noise by putting cotton in his ears, but Muriel suffers as a result. To silence the noise, Courage locates the source of the disturbance behind a boulder and destroys the phonograph with a baseball bat. Eustace keeps refusing to give back the slab, typical Eustace – but we know that never ends well.
The ghost then unleashes the locusts, his third and final catastrophe. The last symbol on the slab vanishes, and the insects begin to consume the home from the roof down. Muriel prepares food as a stress reliever while the house is being devoured by locusts.
Courage and Eustace fight for control of the slab. When Eustace realizes how near they are to being consumed, he finally gives in, allowing Courage to pitch the item toward Ramses, breaking the curse. After the locusts have fled, Eustace reclaims the slab and insults Ramses, believing that he is now impotent because he utilized three distinct plagues. Ramses gets irritated and the third plague by summoning the locusts, and Eustace is consumed. A horrifying night indeed.
The House of Discontent (Season 2, Episode 12, Part 1)
The terror of “The House of Discontent” is found in its commentary on future environmental threats. Yes, it’s the floating head with the blank dark eyes and booming voice that looks so real. The Harvest Moon’s evil ghost confronts Eustace and Muriel at their farm, enraged by their lack of regard for their land and their refusal to offer anything during Harvest Moon’s night. Strange things happen as the spirit casts a spell over the area. Courage, the Cowardly Dog, and other oddities are examples of unusual things.
While Eustace was disputing and Courage was tending to the flower, the spirit began to raise the temperature in the house. It’s no accident that Eustace’s arrogance is linked to the state of their farmland’s ecology. It’s also no coincidence that the Harvest Moon spirit is a manifestation of nature, rather than the flowery picture of “mother nature” that most people are familiar with. This spirit is hostile and cruel in appearance, and with good reason. It reflects the current situation of the world’s ecology, which will only worsen if humanity’s arrogance gets in the way.
The ghost challenges Eustace and Murial in a very realistic, world view type of approach near the end of the episode. They must cultivate a single plant in ten minutes to save themselves. This only adds to Eustace’s arrogance, as he refuses to do so and instead spends the ten minutes arguing with the spirit about the semantics of farming. Courage is the one who is able to cultivate a single flower that saves both their lives and their land. This episode is deep an existential and remains relevant due to its social commentary to this day.
Demon In The Mattress (Season 1, Episode 4, Part 1)
The Demon in the Mattress is part one of Season One’s fourth episode, written by Irvin S. Bauer and broadcast on December 3, 1999. One of the main reasons this episode terrified me as a youngster was that it was based on the 1973 picture The Exorcist, according to IMDb.
Muriel acts like Reagan from the famous horror film when she is possessed by an evil green spirit from her new mattress. Muriel’s voice has been replaced by a gruff, deep growl, and all traces of her sweet and caring disposition vanish. There’s no mistaking the similarities between this episode and The Exorcist when she spins her head completely around and vomits on Eustace.
In the episode, Muriel places an order for a new mattress and accepts it regardless of the grotesque-looking deliverymen who arrive in a frightening horse-drawn carriage or the demonic face that emerges on the mattress. Courage tries to warn his owners, but they are completely unaware of the impending peril. Muriel goes upstairs and lays down on the new mattress, shutting the door behind her and locking Courage out. On a ladder, Courage peers through the bedroom window and sees odd green vapors emanating from the bed, possessing Muriel.
Muriel has been converted into a monster with fangs and wild, continually flowing red hair. To save her, Courage fights the demon in a thumb war and loses and then consults the computer for advice on how to exorcise the monster which generates an incantation. After Eustace’s fruitless attempt, the demon vomits on him. Courage then uses the computer to execute the exorcism, and the demon relinquishes Muriel. Like all other episodes, Eustace ends up getting possessed and taken away. Thus, the true horror lies in its correlation with The Exorcist, a film that was definitely not suitable for the age group that watched Courage the Cowardly Dog regularly.
Freaky Fred (Season 1, Episode 4, Part -2)
Freaky Fred is the second half of the fourth episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog’s first season, which aired on December 3, 1999. It was written by David Steven Cohen and directed by John R. Dilworth. This episode reminds me of all those family reunions where one cousin was always the one who everyone avoided. Because they only showed up for the once-a-year reunion, the one cousin had an atmosphere of mystery and danger. Except that this is a lot worse.
Fred is Muriel’s cousin who works as a barber. Fred also spends virtually the whole show narrating in lyrical poetry, almost like Dr. Seuss, and concluding each statement with the word “naughty.” If that wasn’t enough, he has a bone-chilling smile that makes the hair on the back of your neck rise up because it’s bigger than the rest of his face.
Fred’s full account of shearing the fur off his childhood hamster is enough to send shivers down an adult’s spine, let alone children. The camera cuts to still photos of the small pink hamster and back to Courage, confined in the toilet with Fred, in time with his rhyming voice. The still image transforms into a bald hamster as Fred’s lyrical speech becomes more profound. Courage’s destiny is sealed, much like the hamster’s, with Courage thrown onto the toilet seat, the shower curtain transformed into a barber’s cape, and Fred wielding the buzzing hair clippers.
What makes this scene so unsettling is the combination of being locked in a room with an unfamiliar relative and being forced into an uncomfortable situation. Finally, the deed itself – shaving Courage’s head – which is carried out against Courage’s will, establishes the tone. It’s a scenario that children who have been mistreated by someone close to them are all too familiar with. It’s an episode that, in retrospect, dared to go where no other children’s show had gone before. It is true that horror films might provide viewers with the necessary space to reconcile with horrific situations. Fred is also easily one of the scariest villains Courage has ever faced because he is literally, insane.
Perfect (Season 4, Episode 13, Part 2)
“Perfect” is the final episode of the short-lived series’ run. The series comes to a close with the scariest theme yet: perfection. If there’s one thing Courage isn’t known for, it’s a perfectionist’s attitude or demeanor. Every episode makes it seem as if he can’t do anything right.
Courage, on the other hand, is the one who sees things that others do not and is the one who saves his family. Courage is chastised by an elderly schoolteacher for his apparent flaws, leading to a series of vivid and particularly horrific nightmares for the unfortunate pup. Courage sees a twisted, blue entity known as the “Bugle Monster” that whispers the phrase “you’re not flawless” during these nightmare scenes.
The intensity of a strict school instructor who follows him around providing etiquette lectures reflects Courage’s fears and feelings of not “being enough.” This lack of self-assurance is something that many children can identify to. It’s about how precarious the world becomes as people get older. What role do they play?
Fear and worry are transformed into abstract nightmares in Courage, with a blue three-dimensional person wailing about how he is not enough. The nightmares coalesce into multiple portrayals of Courage’s character’s fallibility, emphasizing the complexity of “self.” This is one of the scariest sequences in the series, thanks to the unsettling voice and uncanny CG, as well as the creature’s sudden presence.
However, this isn’t a scary episode just because of the dreams. It’s the severe teacher’s constant thrashing of Courage. When is he going to be “perfect”? When will someone ever be sufficient in this world? How many metaphorical beatings must someone endure before they are truly “perfect”?
The episode responds to the topic with an innocuous eel that appears in Courage’s bathtub to comfort him that simply being is enough, that he is perfect in his flaws. A surprisingly joyful conclusion to a grim animated series. Ending with Courage’s newly gained confidence provides viewers a glimmer of optimism that things will improve. After all, this is a children’s show.
Car Broke, Phone Yes (Season 2, Episode 10, Part 1)
Car Broke, Phone Yes is the first part of Season 2’s 10th episode, which airs before Cowboy Courage on October 26, 2001. David Steven Cohen wrote this episode, which was directed by John R. Dilworth. In this episode, the Bagge family is visited by a mysterious entity that appears to only be capable of saying “car broke, phone yes?” The alien creature suddenly extends a long purple tentacle to enter Eustace’s nostrils and reach his brain. He does the same to Muriel, revealing himself to be an alien brain with tentacles for a body later on. The episode shocked viewers and made them second-guess going to the rescue of complete strangers, as foolish as that may sound.
The episode begins with a short man knocking on the door of Courage’s house and when he does enter, he doesn’t use the phone as he had asked to and instead turns out to be an alien who was collecting samples. He reaches up Muriel’s nose and drains all her kindness from her and leaves.
This makes Muriel as rude and terrible as Eustace and she also begins to berate Courage who then sets out on a mission to retrieve Muriel’s kindness. When Courage eventually catches up to the extraterrestrial, he notices that he’s about to enter a UFO; unfortunately, the door slams in his face because he was too slow to enter. A huge brain-like extraterrestrial sits at the center of the UFO, taking the test tube from his underling and draining the kindness into himself. Courage eventually comes up with a plan and manages to take the test tube from him.
Before returning home, Courage gives the alien a bomb after which he returns and shoves the test tube up Muriel’s nose, giving her kindness back. However, the episode ends on a frightening note as Courage is startled when a group of aliens similar to the ones they had dealt with bursts into the house shortly after.
Queen Of The Black Puddle (Season 1, Episode 9, Part 1)
Part one of Season One’s ninth episode, Queen of the Black Puddle, premiered on March 2, 2000. The titular monster from the “Queen of the Black Puddle” episode stands out as one of the most unforgettable frights from the first season of Courage. Courage sees a mysterious thing lying in the puddles outside the Bagge home after a downpour. Eustace is smitten by a sexy queen who emerges from a puddle.
Because Muriel is distraught about Eustace’s death, Courage must bravely enter the Queen’s lair and save him despite his concerns. The Queen enters the Bagge’s chamber and kidnaps Eustace, while Courage stands outside the window, terrified, as they disappear into the puddle outside, and the adventure begins.
After realizing that the puddle is receding, Courage dons a scuba suit and dives into it swiftly. Courage dives into the sea and begins swimming towards the queen’s lair. Courage sees the queen dancing for a dazed Eustace and putting a vividly colored shell necklace on him within the palace. To Courage’s surprise, the skeletons on the ground are also wearing the same necklaces. As the queen transforms into a terrifying monster, Courage stands by and watches as she prepares to devour Eustace. He does, however, discover a fishing pole and catches Eustace just as she is about to consume him. Courage does manage to save him in the end.
The Queen is a slim woman with blueish-green skin, thick purple hair that reaches her ankles, and enormous, oblong-shaped pink eyes with no pupils, and is regarded as one of Courage’s defining enemies. She’s dressed in a long, ragged black gown with a ruby brooch and a black crown. The Queen’s jaws grow extraordinarily huge in proportion to her body while she feeds, revealing her wickedly sharp fangs. The scariest part? She is sadistic towards her prey because she enjoys the helplessness of her prey.
The Quilt Club – (Season 3, Episode 12, part 1)
“The Quilt Club” is the first part of the twelfth episode of Bill Marsilii’s Courage the Cowardly Dog, first aired on August 2, 2002. It’s the thirty-eighth episode overall, and the seventy-fifth overall. Many animated children’s cartoons revolved around the concept of malevolent and sinister elder women who utilize crafts as a ruse. In the episode “The Quilt Club,” Courage the Cowardly Dog was no exception.
The conjoined twins Elisa and Eliza Stitch dressed up as Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family. In actuality, they utilize their quilting club to dupe women into joining so that they can literally stitch their bodies to their quilt. They cage their spirits in this fashion for all time, with no way out – definitely a child’s worst nightmare with regards to older relatives.
The Stitch Sisters are masters of deception. On the surface, they present themselves as simple elderly saleswomen who are nice to the general public. Elisa and Eliza, on the other hand, are cruel, deceptive, and spiteful at the core of their hearts, and once they locate a new member of their “Quilt Club,” they gradually reveal their actual nature.
The Stitch sisters have been around since the dawn of time. They fell into the custody, or rather, the service, of a wicked semi-sentient magic quilt at some time. Elisa and Eliza have used the quilt’s ability to extend their lives for endless periods by encasing the souls of women within it. Under the pretext of a “quilt club,” they do this.
In this way, the Sisters enchant Muriel, and after a while, they assist Muriel in adding her own piece to the quilt. “Weave believe belong, weave believes to belong, leave the circle never, weave the quilt forever!” the sisters chant a magical spell to bind souls to the quilt. Muriel is integrated into the Stitch sister’s quilt, and Courage arrives at her rescue, but it’s too late. Courage does save the day but that doesn’t make this episode any less scary.
Everyone Wants To Direct (Season 1, Episode 9, Part 2)
“Everyone Wants to Direct” is the second half of the ninth episode of Craig Shemin’s Courage the Cowardly Dog, which aired on March 2, 2000. The zombified film director Benton Tarantella arrives at the Bagge residence in this episode, claiming to be interested in using the farm as a set for his new film. In the film, Tarantella casts Eustace and Muriel, who is forced to perform a ritual that resurrects the filmmaker’s partner who was buried beneath the farmhouse, scary? Right! It doesn’t end there. His plan is to devour the Bagge family with the help of his newly resurrected friend.
When Tarantella arrives at their home, Courage is the only one who notices things aren’t quite right. Later, he discovers a newspaper article revealing that Tarantella and his accomplice, Errol Von Volkheim, were serial killers who pretended to be film directors in order to entice unsuspecting individuals into their hands and murder them. They were sentenced to prison after murdering 12 people.
Tarantella was left to die in prison while Volkheim was rehabilitated and was freed for good behavior. Years later, Tarantella inexplicably emerged as a zombie from his grave and resumed his former lifestyle. With the planets near conjunction, all they needed was his accomplice, Volkheim, and the suitable burial site – the Bagge Farmhouse. This confirms Courage’s theory that Tarantella was a zombie and was trying to resurrect his partner in crime.
Courage rescues the day by rewriting the film’s script so that the two zombies have to free the Bagge family and then rebury themselves. The undead filmmakers in this episode were certainly two of the most bizarrely scary characters in the Courage the Cowardly Dog series.
Courage In The Big Stinkin’ City” (Season 2, Episode 2, Part 2)
The second episode of Season Two of Courage the Cowardly Dog, Courage in the Big Stinkin’ City, aired on December 8, 2000. To begin with, who would trust a shady cockroach? For a variety of reasons, this episode gave fans the creeps, one of which was the major antagonist, Schwick, a sleazy and wicked cockroach who gives Courage and the family a place to stay.
He’s an erratic, argumentative city roach with a strangely repeated speaking pattern. He’s very convincing and cunning, living in the basement of the Radio City Music Hall and luring visitors down with false signals and promises of concessions, only to have them eaten by a mystery monster imprisoned in a mouse hole.
Schwick rose to prominence as a notorious criminal wanted for possessing an evil package. He met Muriel Bagge and her family, who were in New York City that day for a sitar concert they had won, after enticing a lot of people to their deaths. He requested that Courage collect a package without the intrusion of cops, as he was troubled by an appeal for help scribbled on the window that could warn the Baggies of his plot.
The word “help” scribbled on their dust-covered glass was the cry for help and this aggravated the situation. Courage had no option but to follow his orders and opens the door to the episode’s most horrific scene: a little girl playing the violin, who then turns around and transforms into a shrieking and terrifying claymation beast. The evil mysterious monster in question in this episode does succeed in devouring Eustace and reducing him to a mere skeleton. Quite terrifying if you ask me!
With that, we come to the end of todays video. Do you remember watching Courage the Cowardly Dog when you were younger? Did this video bring up all those memories of creepy and bizarre monsters? Let us know in the comments section below!