The Crazy Carnival Caper is the second half of the eighth episode of The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show and originally aired on October 13, 1985.
Written by Gene Ayres, this episode sees the gang returning to their high school for the Central High Carnival. Here they run into their old science teacher, Mr. McDabble, who has created a ruby laser that can cut through the hardest metal. But of course, the ruby goes missing, and it’s up to the gang to figure out what happened.
The Crazy Carnival Caper
Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne, and Scrappy head to a the Central High Carnival being held by their former school. While exploring the grounds, Scooby and Scrappy discover a jack-in-the-box, only to be startled when a clown pops out. The four of them rush into a nearby tent, where they run into their old science teacher, Mr. McDabble, along with his student assistant, Jerry. In a very funny scene, Mr. McDabble begrudgingly mentions how he remembers Shaggy.
Mr. McDabble and Jerry
Mr. McDabble demonstrates how the ruby can cut into the hardest metal and then dismisses everyone, including high-school student Jerry who is also there for the demonstration. After the group leaves, it becomes clear that Mr. McDabble has some sort of scheme involving a ruby, and a police officer is seen secretly watching him.
Later, Jerry runs a game where people can dunk their favourite teacher into a tank of water. Mr. McDabble is voluntold to do the event and he asks Daphne to hold the box containing the ruby. Scrappy tosses a ball and hits the bullseye causing Mr. McDabble to fall in the tank. When they go back to find him, he has vanished, and the water tank is completely empty, even al the water is gone. A clown appears and tries to take a box from Daphne that supposedly contains the ruby Mr. McDabble tossed to her. The clown chases them, but suddenly disappears.
The gang search the tent for Mr. McDabble, but fail to find him, however, by the dunk tank, they find a letter on the ground than reads “From the Desk of Mr. McDabble – don’t forget the Rattle.”
The gang are about to open the black box to see if there is a Rattle inside, however, the clown shows up and we get another chase sequence. During the chase Scooby is distracted by a pie eating contest and the clown almost gets his hands on the box. Fortunately Scrappy is there to get his paws on the box before the Clown can.
The gang move on to the next event which is a raffle where they then run into Jerry who is also looking for Mr. McDabble as Mr. McDabble is supposed to draw the winning raffle ticket. This makes absolutely no sense as Jerry was there when Mr. McDabble went missing. At the same time, Daphne figures out the note says Raffle, not Rattle, but the clown has other ideas and once again tries to steal the box.
Hiding from the clown, the gang find a very dry Mr. McDabble (who should be sopping wet after falling in a dunk tank, tied up in a small hut. Mr. McDabble asks for the box back but Scrappy refuses to give it back, so the gang run off with Mr. McDabble threatening to expel them all.
During the final clown chase the gang end up on a carousel and they toss the box back and forth to one another. Eventually Shaggy throws a big switch causing the carousel to stop suddenly, throwing the clown off into a vat of molten hot caramel used to coat candy apples.
The caramel hardens and Daphne unmasks the clown, revealing it to be Jerry. We also learn the ruby was never in the box, but in Mr. McDabble’s inner jacket pocket. Inside the box was a pocket watch, and this was the prize for the raffle drawing. Jerry is arrested and Shaggy orders four orders of hotdogs, hamburgers, fries and milkshakes. Unfortunately Scooby in a clown costume and on a unicycle wheels by and steals the food away from everyone.
My Score
I give this episode a 6 out of 10. It’s a lot of fun. I enjoyed the carnival setting and we get a lot of funny scenes. The clown, while not overly scary, makes for a fun villain. The crankiness of Mr. McDabble also creates a lot of fun scenes. Will I remember this episode among the 690ish episodes of Scooby-Doo that have aired. Probably not as it’s only 10 minutes long so it’s not as fleshed out as I’d like it to be. But I’d still like to revisit this one once again in the future.
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