Supernatural: Ghostfacers
July 9, 2021 4:24 AM - Season 3, Episode 13 - Subscribe
Sam and Dean have a second encounter with amateur ghostbusters Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spengler while investigating a case that John failed to crack years earlier, and are featured in their pilot for a reality show called Ghostfacers.
Quotes:
Ghostfacers theme song: "Ghost! Ghostfacers! We face the ghost when others will not! We're ghost! Ghostfacers! Stay in the kitchen when the kitchen gets hot! Ghost! Ghostfacers! We face the nightmare, we face the dread! Ghost! Ghostfacers! We face the faceless, we face the dread! In the haunted night, looking for the fright of out life with the after-life! When you trip and fall, into the supernaturall! We're who you're gonna call cause we face them all! Ghostfacers!"
Ed: It used to be just, you know, you and I taking on the cases, just Harry and me.
Harry: Two lone wolves.
Ed: And two lone wolves need, uh... other wolves.
Maggie: Ed has been obsessed with the supernatural since we were kids, you know, and then he meets Harry at computer camp, and love at first geek.
Harry: I don't really like rats. They're gross. Rats are like the rats of the world.
Harry: [when he first sees Sam and Dean] Hey, aren't those the assholes from Texas?
Kenny: Can I ask you a question?
Dean: Sure.
Kenny: Before, when you and Sam were talking -- he said you had two months left?
Dean: It's complicated. A while ago, Sam.... You know what? I'm not gonna whine about my bullshit problems to a bullshit reality show; I'm gonna do my fuckin' job.
Kenny: Is it cancer?
Dean: Shut up.
Dean: Hey, give the lady a cigar. All right, seriously, does looking at this nightmare through that camera make you feel better or something? I mean...
Maggie: [scans Dean up and down with the videocamera] Um...I, uh... Well, yeah. Uh, yeah. I think so.
Dean: There's a box of salt in my duffel. Make a circle and get inside.
Ed: [a long pause; Ed and Harry look at each other, confused] Get inside your duffel?
Dean: The salt, you idiots!
Ed: [to Dean] Listen here, Chisel-Chest.
Ed: [after seeing Harry and Maggie kiss] My best friend... and my best sister!
Dean: [about the finished Ghostfacers pilot] You know, I kinda think it was half-awesome.
Maggie: Half-awesome? That's full-on good, right?
Sam: Yeah, I mean, it's bizarre how y'all are able to, uh, to honour Corbett's memory while grossly exploiting the manner of his death. Well done.
Trivia:
This episode and the "Ghostfacers" in particular are a parody of the 2004 show Ghost Hunters on SyFy.
At the beginning of the episode, Ed Zeddmore mentions a writer's strike. This writer's strike really did happen between November 5th, 2007 and February 12, 2008. Because of this, majority of television shows had shorter seasons during this time, including Supernatural. In fact, a mere two episodes before, "Mystery Spot" was actually intended to be the season finale if the strike had not been resolved.
Early on, Ed and Harry get out of their car and do a lamely fake slow walk as cars zip by in the background. This is mocking the cheap production values of these amateurs. To make a slo-mo hero walk you have to record or film at 3 to 4 times the normal number of frames per second then slow the playback to the normal 24 frames per second, which gives you slow motion. High speed cameras are very costly.
This episode marks the first time that Sam and Dean actually use profanity. The "reality TV show" that the Ghostfacers make, within the narrative of the episode, is meant to be "real-life" (a "found footage" film), and Sam and Dean are shown to regularly use profanity, which is bleeped by the Ghostfacers. Up until "Hunteri Heroici" (ep. 8.8) this was the only instance in the show of strong profanity, either suggested or censored. Supernatural is a prime time show on a family channel and therefore any profanity stronger than "bitch" or "ass" is not allowed. However, as both Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles have mentioned on multiple occasions, Sam and Dean, if they were real, would be much more rough around the edges and would definitely swear.
Quotes:
Ghostfacers theme song: "Ghost! Ghostfacers! We face the ghost when others will not! We're ghost! Ghostfacers! Stay in the kitchen when the kitchen gets hot! Ghost! Ghostfacers! We face the nightmare, we face the dread! Ghost! Ghostfacers! We face the faceless, we face the dread! In the haunted night, looking for the fright of out life with the after-life! When you trip and fall, into the supernaturall! We're who you're gonna call cause we face them all! Ghostfacers!"
Ed: It used to be just, you know, you and I taking on the cases, just Harry and me.
Harry: Two lone wolves.
Ed: And two lone wolves need, uh... other wolves.
Maggie: Ed has been obsessed with the supernatural since we were kids, you know, and then he meets Harry at computer camp, and love at first geek.
Harry: I don't really like rats. They're gross. Rats are like the rats of the world.
Harry: [when he first sees Sam and Dean] Hey, aren't those the assholes from Texas?
Kenny: Can I ask you a question?
Dean: Sure.
Kenny: Before, when you and Sam were talking -- he said you had two months left?
Dean: It's complicated. A while ago, Sam.... You know what? I'm not gonna whine about my bullshit problems to a bullshit reality show; I'm gonna do my fuckin' job.
Kenny: Is it cancer?
Dean: Shut up.
Dean: Hey, give the lady a cigar. All right, seriously, does looking at this nightmare through that camera make you feel better or something? I mean...
Maggie: [scans Dean up and down with the videocamera] Um...I, uh... Well, yeah. Uh, yeah. I think so.
Dean: There's a box of salt in my duffel. Make a circle and get inside.
Ed: [a long pause; Ed and Harry look at each other, confused] Get inside your duffel?
Dean: The salt, you idiots!
Ed: [to Dean] Listen here, Chisel-Chest.
Ed: [after seeing Harry and Maggie kiss] My best friend... and my best sister!
Dean: [about the finished Ghostfacers pilot] You know, I kinda think it was half-awesome.
Maggie: Half-awesome? That's full-on good, right?
Sam: Yeah, I mean, it's bizarre how y'all are able to, uh, to honour Corbett's memory while grossly exploiting the manner of his death. Well done.
Trivia:
This episode and the "Ghostfacers" in particular are a parody of the 2004 show Ghost Hunters on SyFy.
At the beginning of the episode, Ed Zeddmore mentions a writer's strike. This writer's strike really did happen between November 5th, 2007 and February 12, 2008. Because of this, majority of television shows had shorter seasons during this time, including Supernatural. In fact, a mere two episodes before, "Mystery Spot" was actually intended to be the season finale if the strike had not been resolved.
Early on, Ed and Harry get out of their car and do a lamely fake slow walk as cars zip by in the background. This is mocking the cheap production values of these amateurs. To make a slo-mo hero walk you have to record or film at 3 to 4 times the normal number of frames per second then slow the playback to the normal 24 frames per second, which gives you slow motion. High speed cameras are very costly.
This episode marks the first time that Sam and Dean actually use profanity. The "reality TV show" that the Ghostfacers make, within the narrative of the episode, is meant to be "real-life" (a "found footage" film), and Sam and Dean are shown to regularly use profanity, which is bleeped by the Ghostfacers. Up until "Hunteri Heroici" (ep. 8.8) this was the only instance in the show of strong profanity, either suggested or censored. Supernatural is a prime time show on a family channel and therefore any profanity stronger than "bitch" or "ass" is not allowed. However, as both Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles have mentioned on multiple occasions, Sam and Dean, if they were real, would be much more rough around the edges and would definitely swear.
The actor playing sweet dead Corbett is Ted on Schitt’s Creek.
The whole meta reality of found footage where they swear and the later scripted reality implies an entirely larger universe of which the episodes are a particular POV with deliberate omissions. I am very fond of the #hbosupernatural tag.
The mutual dislike between the Ghostfacers and the Winchesters is so much fun because the Ghostfacers are for non-hunters who are kind of idiots, reasonably researched and active. The Winchesters don’t see the supernatural as interesting or useful, only something to be feared and fought - at least in the early seasons - and they’re very righteous annoy anyone who isn’t perceived as anti-supernatural (Bela!)
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:59 PM on July 9, 2021
The whole meta reality of found footage where they swear and the later scripted reality implies an entirely larger universe of which the episodes are a particular POV with deliberate omissions. I am very fond of the #hbosupernatural tag.
The mutual dislike between the Ghostfacers and the Winchesters is so much fun because the Ghostfacers are for non-hunters who are kind of idiots, reasonably researched and active. The Winchesters don’t see the supernatural as interesting or useful, only something to be feared and fought - at least in the early seasons - and they’re very righteous annoy anyone who isn’t perceived as anti-supernatural (Bela!)
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:59 PM on July 9, 2021
Wait this is where HBO Supernatural came from? Huh.
There were some Some Choices in their swings at humor because of course (and other jokes I’m sure I missed never having seen the kind of show they’re parodying.) But okay, I giggled a lot and they mostly made the found footage vibe and general grossness work with the humor.
How pissed would you be if you were hiding from the FBI for over a year, fought an entire police station full of demons to get declared dead, drove to an abandoned house in the middle of the night, and walk immediately into someone’s reality TV show. (yeah “the world” isn’t ready for the Ghostfacers, okay)
Whether the Morton House was Dean’s actual Grand Canyon or his Grand Canyon for the purposes of getting Sam to go along with this trip, I kind of adore this is his idea of a bucket list and Sam will smash some furniture and go along with it anyway.
Not much reason I can see to specifically make the gross eccentric loner a janitor and not a doctor or HR guy or anything else, but gosh this show has some weird relationships with class (speaking of how “rough around the edges” Sam and Dean are shown to be.)
I may never be able to watch the end of 15x18 again without thinking about Ed and Corbett. I’m not sure how I could explain that thought even with all the spoilers and gin and leaked international dubs in the world but I had to have it, and now so do you.
Pour one out for the alternate version of this show where Sam and Dean drop f-bombs as punctuation and hunt ghosts by running up to them and yelling SNAP OUT OF IT DUDE, BE DEAD, we were robbed.
posted by jameaterblues at 12:11 AM on July 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
There were some Some Choices in their swings at humor because of course (and other jokes I’m sure I missed never having seen the kind of show they’re parodying.) But okay, I giggled a lot and they mostly made the found footage vibe and general grossness work with the humor.
How pissed would you be if you were hiding from the FBI for over a year, fought an entire police station full of demons to get declared dead, drove to an abandoned house in the middle of the night, and walk immediately into someone’s reality TV show. (yeah “the world” isn’t ready for the Ghostfacers, okay)
Whether the Morton House was Dean’s actual Grand Canyon or his Grand Canyon for the purposes of getting Sam to go along with this trip, I kind of adore this is his idea of a bucket list and Sam will smash some furniture and go along with it anyway.
Not much reason I can see to specifically make the gross eccentric loner a janitor and not a doctor or HR guy or anything else, but gosh this show has some weird relationships with class (speaking of how “rough around the edges” Sam and Dean are shown to be.)
I may never be able to watch the end of 15x18 again without thinking about Ed and Corbett. I’m not sure how I could explain that thought even with all the spoilers and gin and leaked international dubs in the world but I had to have it, and now so do you.
Pour one out for the alternate version of this show where Sam and Dean drop f-bombs as punctuation and hunt ghosts by running up to them and yelling SNAP OUT OF IT DUDE, BE DEAD, we were robbed.
posted by jameaterblues at 12:11 AM on July 11, 2021 [2 favorites]
Huh, of course the intern was Dustin Milligan. I remember thinking the actor did a really great job being awkward and sweet and scared, and that character stuck with me for a long time after I first saw this episode. I never connected he went on to play Ted in Schitt's Creek, but it fits perfectly.
posted by lilac girl at 12:07 PM on July 27, 2021
posted by lilac girl at 12:07 PM on July 27, 2021
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Ed and Harry are tiresomely naïve and immature, but they do have their moments. Ed really was very brave to try to help poor Corbett, and Corbett's crush on Ed was kind of adorable.
It's really funny that the Supernatural opening credits only roll a few minutes from the end of the episode, after the Ghostfacer episode has finished playing.
Sam and Dean destroy the Ghostfacers' footage of the events of this episode, but wouldn't the footage already have been viewed by the authorities when they were investigating the circumstances of Corbett's death?
This is another episode where we see a ghost destroy another ghost.
posted by orange swan at 4:30 AM on July 9, 2021