Courage the Cowardly Dog
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Courage the Cowardly Dog

"The Revenge of the Chicken from Outer Space" is part one of the twelfth episode in Season One of Courage the Cowardly Dog, written by John R. Dilworth and Irvin S. Bauer.

The episode was produced in 1999 and premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on June 9, 2000. [2]

Plot

This episode begins by showing various things around the world (a girl's doll, a dress mannequin and the Statue of Liberty) getting their heads ripped off by a strange plunger-like device from the sky. Courage then has a nightmare where a plush toy of himself gets its head ripped off in a similar manner aboard an alien space craft. Courage wakes up screaming from the nightmare and Eustace promptly throws him out of the room for waking him and Muriel up. Courage then goes to the kitchen to get water when suddenly he hears a noise outside. When he peeks outside, he stares in horror at a UFO floating in the sky. As Courage screams in horror, a fried chicken is slowly lowered out of it on a silver platter. This is the Space Chicken, getting revenge on Courage for what he did when they last met. It then rises up, holding a plunger, and gestures to Courage implying he will lose his head. Courage screams again and very securely locks the door. Muriel comes down to see what's wrong and Courage tries to explain to her what's going on. When she goes outside to see, she gets captured by the evil chicken.

Armed with one of Muriel's slippers, Courage rushes to her aid. He sees a strange pink light coming from the barn and goes to investigate. When he peeks inside, he screams in horror when he sees Space Chicken's UFO parked inside. He walks inside the craft and confronts his arch-nemesis, who is standing in front of two things; the first is a stool with a toilet plunger overhead, and the second is a slideshow screen with which the alien chicken reveals his plan to Courage: he wants to use the plunger to remove the dog's head and use it as his own. When Courage holds up a "?" sign, the alien chicken responds with another slideshow which shows what happened to him, leaving Courage confused.

Back to business, the chicken points to the stool, wanting Courage to get on it, but Courage firmly replies "make me!" Angered, Space Chicken reveals Muriel to Courage, tied to another stool with a toilet plunger on her head. When he pulls a lever, it's clear he intends to pull Muriel's head off instead. Courage rushes outside to get help, but in his haste he trips over a plug that connects the UFO to an outlet on the wall of the barn. The ship's power suddenly goes out, turning off Space Chicken's device.

Back at the house, Eustace is still sound asleep, but he's awoken by the sound of someone barging into the room. He sees that it's only Courage, who shows the slipper to him and attempts to convey what happened to Muriel, but Eustace doesn't understand Courage's depictions and orders him to get away from him then tries to go back to sleep. Desperate, Courage smacks Eustace with the slipper, waking him again and angering him even more. Courage then leads the farmer to the barn and tries to show him the alien craft, but Eustace had only followed him outside to strangle him. He then leaps at Courage, who fortunately ducks just in the nick of time. Eustace, however, lands in the craft, face-to-face with the space chicken. Much to Courage's horror, he sees that the evil chicken has plugged the cord back in, allowing him to resume his attempt to pull Muriel's head off.

Panicking, Courage runs back to the barn and cuts the cord with a giant pair of nail clippers. As soon he tries to go back to save Muriel and Eustace, the door shuts on him, leaving him to hear Eustace scream as the space chicken pulls his head off instead. Courage manages to breach the door using a welding torch. He is delighted to see Eustace's head poke out— until he sees that it's connected to the space chicken's body. Courage flames the newly-headed space chicken with the torch, sending him flying into a barrel of water. Courage goes to save Muriel only to find she has actually fallen asleep somehow. When his efforts to wake her prove futile, Courage puts her slipper back on and carries her to the exit. However, the Eustace-headed space chicken blocks their escape, so Courage veers the other way to find another escape route. Courage and Muriel escape via a hatch on the roof of the craft and leave the barn together.

Courage sees a clothesline that is connected to the barn and the house. Carrying Muriel over his head, he attempts to walk the line like a tightrope. When he looks behind him, he sees the space chicken is hot on their tail. Suddenly Muriel loses her slipper again and Courage trips on it, sending Muriel flying down the line. He hurries to her aid, and just before she falls to the ground, he grabs her by the nightgown. Courage is then suddenly hit on the head by her slipper. When he looks up, he sees the space chicken stomping on his paw, trying to make him lose his grip. Courage sees that the stomping is causing the line, along with everyone on it, to get closer and closer to the ground. When they finally reach the ground, Courage steps off with Muriel and lets go of the line, flinging the alien chicken all the way back into the barn. Courage rejoices, but his joy is cut short when he hears the sound of a revving car engine. Suddenly, Space Chicken's UFO flies into the air, completely destroying the barn in the process. Courage and Muriel scream in horror and flee the scene jus as it deploys a mega-sized toilet plunger intended to take off both of their heads at once.

Courage tries various ways to get Muriel away from the danger, including a wheelbarrow, a raft, and a motorcycle; each of which end in failure. They are stopped by the plunger the first two tries, and during the third try, Muriel loses her slipper again, which gets caught in the back tire and causes Courage to lose control of the motorcycle, which flies apart. Courage lands smack-dab in the middle of a target painted on the ground. Amazingly, Muriel appears to be unharmed and pours herself a cup of tea, but Courage is horrified as he reads the sign over her; "WARNING: Rocket Base: KEEP OFF!" Courage is standing in the exact spot where a rocket will launch from underground. To add to his troubles, the space chicken's UFO is directly above him. The alien chicken pulls a lever and the toilet plunger lowers to the ground. Courage manages to jump away just in time as the plunger lands squarely on the target. Space Chicken pulls the plunger back up and unknowingly releases the rocket, which now heads straight for him. He tries to escape his ship via parachute, but doesn't make the jump in time. Muriel and Courage watch the demise of the space chicken and his ship from a safe distance.

Muriel and Courage finally reach home, where the two rest on the front steps. Suddenly Muriel sees Eustace walking toward the farmhouse, and quips "look, there's Eustace with my slipper!" Eustace's headless body walks toward the two, causing Courage to scream, ending the episode on a cliffhanger again, with the screen irising out and the latter delivering his final line: "this still shouldn't happen to a dog!" The screen iris effect then closes on his nose, causing him to yelp in pain.

Characters

Gallery

The Revenge of the Chicken from Outer Space/Gallery

Trivia

  • This episode is a sequel to the pilot episode The Chicken from Outer Space.
  • This is the second and last appearance of the Space Chicken (except in photographic depictions). The next episode to carry the "Chicken from Outer Space" name will be about his son.
  • During the pilot episode, Space Chicken tries to shoot Courage, angry that he lost to him. This backfires and he ends up roasting himself. In this episode however, according to Space Chicken's slideshow, Courage stole his weapon and blasted Space Chicken himself. It can be inferred that he doesn't want to blame himself as a result of arrogance, so he deluded himself into believing that Courage shot him. After the slideshow, Courage is seen scratching his head in confusion, as it differs from his own account of what actually happened.
  • When the Eustace-headed chicken is about to jump from his spaceship, he exclaims "stupid dog!" at Courage, just as Eustace often does.
  • At the end of The Chicken from Outer Space, Courage says "This shouldn't happen to a dog!" and at the end of this episode he says "This still shouldn't happen to a dog!". In both instances, he briefly stops the closing iris before it opens up and then slams on his nose, causing him to yelp in pain.
  • The plug that connects Space Chicken's UFO to an outlet in the barn reads "Dil" (presumably the brand name), as does the motorbike's engine. The word is a recurring Easter-egg throughout the series, inserted by creator John R. Dilworth as a tongue-in-cheek reference to himself.
  • At the beginning of the episode, the Statue of Liberty is decapitated by the plunger device. This episode premiered eight years before the movie Cloverfield, in which a similar scene occurs, minus the plunger.
  • During the scene where Space Chicken demands that Courage sit on the stool in his space ship, Courage's response "make me!" is a phrase normally used by Eustace when refusing someone's requests or expectations.

Errors

  • Muriel disappears right as the iris-out closes on Courage's nose at the end of the episode.
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