Bus of the Undead

"Bus of the Undead" is the third episode of the first season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Plot

Mothmonsterman escapes from Dr. Weird's lair and is drawn to the Aqua Teens' house by lights. It turns out the lights are the "Shake Signal" which Shake is wearing on his head while watching "Assisted Living Dracula". Mothmonsterman threatens trouble for the Aqua Teens if they don't leave their lights on. Master Shake suspects that the school bus from which Mothmonsterman is calling them is actually possessed by Dracula's ghost. Frylock attempts to discover who is threatening them by putting the flag that Mothmonsterman destroyed in his cloner. Eventually, though, Frylock decides to prove to Master Shake that the bus is not Dracula by taking him to Dracula's grave.

When the Aqua Teens return home they find Mothmonsterman in their house watching "Assisted Living Dracula"; he has encased Carl in a cocoon and laid a thousand eggs in his esophagus, and Carl is "being a real baby about it." Shortly thereafter the house is taken over by cloned monsters created when Shake threw a pan of brownies into the cloner, where they spliced with the moth DNA to form brownie-monsters.

Notes/Trivia

• H. Jon Benjamin got the guest voice opportunity in this episode after a meeting at Williams Street that announced that Home Movies would be a part of Cartoon Network's newly announced Adult Swim.
• The Master Shake Signal, its design scrim and the Master Shake flag all appear in this episode.
• In this episode, the second-from-left of the four columns on the divider wall that are visible when a shot of the living room is shown, is not broken in any way. Later in this episode (and in many subsequent episodes later) in which it is visible, it will appear broken in various spots. However, in this episode it also appears in one piece but has a busted piece growing out of it in one scene.
• More changes were implemented in this episode, most notably that of the appearance of the Aqua Teens' house.
• This episode marks the first appearance of the mystic jewel on Frylock's back.
• The movie that Shake watches, "Assisted Living Dracula", is a short film directed by Jay Edwards. The "full" version of it can be viewed via an Easter egg on one of the Volume 1 discs.
• Some things visible in Frylock's room: A picture of the Aqua Teens at the beach, the Visible Frylock poster, a Periodic Table of Elements poster, a picture of a younger Dr. Weird and Frylock, a basketball hoop and a foam basketball, a ceiling mobile of the solar system, a keyboard (with unidentifiable sheet music on top of it), a globe, Niehls Bohr's atomic model, and a framed certificate.
• Frylock's cloning device first appears in this episode.
• The banner above the tent where Dracula is supposedly buried reads: "Dracula's Grave," an intentional misspelling, possibly to allow people to realize whoever claimed to have Dracula buried in Memphis was merely running some kind of tourist trap scam.
• The Dracula's Grave tourist trap is inspired by a Dracula's Grave display at Mr. Lincoln's Costume Shoppe.
• The "For Sale" sign in front of Carl's house is clearly visible in this episode. The phone number on it is: 555-0712
• The front door of the Aqua Teen's house is shown tossed in the yard when they return from Memphis. When they enter the house, it is clearly still attached.
• The Aqua Teen's cordless phone appears in this episode. Each time it is shown, it (and the charging base it stands on) are in different spots.
• Mothmonsterman is an obvious reference to Mothman.

Goofs

• After the Aqua Teens return home from their vacation, Meatwad sees the door on the ground with the tore off hinges, when Shake enters the house, the door is seen open undamaged.