"Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary" is the 14th episode of the second season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and the 32nd episode overall. It originally aired on October 19th, 2003.
Plot
Cold Open
Dr. Weird appears outside the lab and shouts, "Bulls***!!"
Main Plot
It's Meatwad's birthday, and Master Shake can't stand "Happy Birthday to You", so he commissions a new heavy-metal song written by Zakk Wylde and Geddy Lee. Frylock discovers that the entire endeavor cost $1.4 million because Shake paid for and fed Zakk's train of white stallions (which needed to be bleached white), and Shake needs to figure out a way to pay for it. However, Shake is sure the royalties for the new song will roll in. His logic? Shake mistakenly believes that there are (only) hundreds of birthdays a year. (Shake: "Do you know how many birthdays there are a year? Hundreds. Literally...hundreds."
Unfortunately for Shake, no one is willing to buy the song (titled Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary), and he is in deep financial trouble. He decides that the best way to get out is to sell the house, but that is foiled when the man he tries to sell to runs off with the TV and the complementary muffins. Almost immediately afterwards, a snow machine starts spraying snow everywhere, with a chariot driven by a train of white stallions riding with it. It's Zakk Wylde coming for his money, and Shake goes to hide in the kitchen, where Zakk sees him and puts his axe-shaped guitar through his skull.
After all is settled, the Aqua Teens head over to the abandoned Pizza Potamus restaurant where Shake decides that this would be the place for the song to best be played for children (who love pizza and squalor, according to Shake). But Shake is not going to play it...it will be played by the Black Mountain Scorpion Hoedown Bluegrass Experience Gang, consisting of two robotic scorpions and "featuring Zakk Wylde on washtub bass". Eventually, Zakk gets fed up with all of Shake's shenanigans, and finally decides to play on his own with the robot scorpions as backup. Finally, the scorpions decide that the song sucks, and fight to the death with each other, killing Zakk Wylde in the crossfire.
On their way back to the house, Frylock spots a jet shaped like a bass guitar, painted with an owl swooping down from the moon- Geddy Lee's private jet. Shake shoves Frylock into the Danger Cart and tells Meatwad to roll them to Mexico.
Featured Characters
Dr. Weird
Frylock
Meatwad
Dewey and Vanessa
Boxy Brown
Master Shake
Geddy Lee (mentioned only)
"Tree Wizard" (also known as Homeless Guy)
Zakk Wylde
Black Mountain Scorpian Hoedown Bluegrass Experience Gang
Consuela (mentioned only)
Deaths
- Zakk Wylde and the Black Mountain Scorpain Hoedown Bluegrass Experience Gang are all killed in an explosion.
Notes/Trivia
- Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary is one of the few songs in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force series not featuring mc chris. It was performed by Matt Maiellaro (playing Geddy Lee) and Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society. Apart from being aired on television, Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary has also been performed by the original artists at venues around Atlanta, the city where Aqua Teen Hunger Force is developed. The third DVD volume of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which contains the episode "Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary", has the song is included as a bonus feature containing two sung versions and a karaoke version.
- This is the second episode to have Meatwad's birthday after "Super Birthday Snake".
- This episode once aired in 2007, rated as TV-14-L, despite the episode being actually rated TV-PG-DL. The episode took the place of an episode that was supposed to air in syndication that was in fact rated TV-14-L.
- When Meatwad is carrying Frylock and Shake in the Danger Cart, he is singing to himself the melody of the song Tom Sawyer. He also makes reference to the bridge of The Spirit of Radio the first time Shake mentions Geddy Lee. Meatwad also made a reference to the Rush song "Fly By Night."
- The Scorpions are voiced by John DiMaggio under the pseudonym B.B. Leeland
- The Scorpions later appear as common enemies in the video game, Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Zombie Ninja Pro-Am.