Before I get started, a belated happy birthday to Eric Kripke, who celebrated on Thursday. I only hope he wasn’t stressing out too much about the airing of the latest episode and enjoyed himself instead. He shouldn’t worry too much, for this episode was very well received.

“Ghostfacers” proved to be another of the great comical, standalone episodes this show manages to deliver once or twice every season. This one perfected the entire “mockumentary” genre, guaranteeing that it will be talked about for a while among the fans. These comedy episodes are usually fun for all involved, giving everyone a chance to let loose and forget about the mythology and intense character angst for a while. These episodes are always wildly creative, deliver memorable lines, and come with inside jokes that fans manage to catch with delight.

This episode is an extension of season one’s “Hell House”, the first of the light-hearted episodes to air for this series. As a reminder for the few who either haven’t seen season one or don’t remember that episode (how could you not!), we were introduced to the clueless ghost hunters Ed and Harry, the so called “Hellhounds”, in Texas (the first time I saw that episode, I instantly noticed that Texas looked pretty lush, more like British Columbia). That episode let us know in no uncertain terms what happens when practical jokes, vivid imaginations, and the Internet culture collide. All I remember is Sam with itchy shorts and Dean with a beer bottle glued to his hand.

This is the third comical episode penned by Ben Edlund, and “Ghostfacers” had his fingerprints all over it. Since I’ve made no secret how much I adore his writing, I didn’t need to see the credits (which were strangely at the end) to know whose work this was. He also wrote “Hollywood Babylon”, which was a delightful self-mocking look at the making of a bad horror movie and “Bad Day at Black Rock”, a strange slant exploring how the curse of a rabbit’s foot can take us to wacky perceptions of divine intervention vs. superstition, all while putting Sam through physical comedy hell and turning Dean into Batman. This time, reality TV is the target, and oh, and how he got the parody right.

Parody Is Love, Ghost Hunters Fans

For anyone who has seen Ghost Hunters, this mockumentary was pretty damn close. It started as the actual show does, showing “the team” getting together and planning their big new adventure. Of course, those trademark Ben Edlund under-the-radar jabs were used to inform the viewer that these were a bunch of losers who didn’t have a clue what they were doing. Ed and Harry have the flexibility to ghost hunt and do their day jobs at  Kinkos (they can usually get off by six), and do their best to look legit with a faux slo-mo while hoping we won’t notice their arrival came courtesy of an AMC Gremlin (the junk one can find on a studio back lot).