Horror tends to be at its most effective when we least expect it. When fear catches us completely off guard. Take children’s comedy series Salute Your Shorts, for example. The Nickelodeon ‘90s sitcom ran for two seasons, and revolved around a group of teen campers in the fictional summer camp, Camp Anawanna. Often the episodes centered around pranks, camp life, and the dynamics between the diverse personalities at camp, but the second episode opted to go for the jugular with its creepy slant on a camp staple: the ghost story.
Titled “The Ghost Story,” episode two sees the campers gathered around to spook each other silly with tales of terror. Resident bully, Budnick (Danny Cooksey), spins the yarn of Zeke the Plumber, the camp’s former custodian that had no sense of smell because his nose had been bitten off by a parrot. Because of this, Zeke couldn’t smell the gas leak when digging a hole. He strikes up a match and sparks an explosion, leaving only his beloved plunger behind. Anyone who finds and touches the plunger is cursed with nightmares of Zeke.
“What is this guy? The Freddy Krueger of custodians?” a skeptical camper asks Budnick.
In a way, the description fits. Both Michael (Erik MacArthur) and Telly (Venus DeMilo Thomas) touched the plunger during Budnick’s story, and both dream of Zeke the Plumber soon after. Or rather, suffer traumatic nightmares. In these nightmares, Zeke is waiting for them, digging into their deepest memories and twisting them to evoke fear. There are even threats of death. Just like Freddy Krueger. And also like Freddy, Zeke died in an explosion, and he’s covered head to toe in disfiguring burn scares. What makes Zeke so traumatic for the unsuspecting child, though, is that he covers his scars with a stiff human mask stretched over his face. His eyes lost behind it. He speaks through it in hushed tones. It’s deeply unsettling.
Granted, Salute Your Shorts is a comedy aimed at kids, so the terror eventually eased up and delivered the requisite cheerful ending. That is, Zeke the Plumber was just a figment of imagination, save for Counselor Ug Lee (Kirk Baily) trying to seek revenge by donning the costume and sneaking around the woods. Budnick did get his comeuppance in the form of arachnophobia, and all was right in Camp Anawanna again.
Still, though, for the target audience, Zeke the Plumber’s appearance was unexpected and terrifying. The mask, the unassuming outfit, and the gravelly quiet voice instilled actual nightmares for the generation that watched this infamous episode in 1991. A boogeyman that appeared out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly. At least with Nickeoldeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?, which had just wrapped up its inaugural season a month prior to the airing of this episode, you knew to expect the horror and could brace yourself accordingly. There was no mentally preparing for “The Ghost Story.” For a certain age group, Zeke the Plumber remains one of the most traumatic figures from childhood.
