Why were the writers obsessed with possums?

rolnxyz

New member
Let me remember some episodes with possums:

Army Buddy: "you don't have to worry about that possum any longer"

The episode intro when Lois runs over a possum with the car and serves it for dinner

When Francis lives in an apartment with a stolen bench and he says he could train a possum and make it walk like John Wayne

Intro when Hal is in the bathroom, and Reese gets a boot where a possum gave birth in (or something like that)

I don't remember more right now. :)

possum.jpg
 
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PeterU

Super Moderator
My immediate response -- why not? :p

Having in-jokes and running motifs that don't really make any sense is one of the most fun things about any long-running creative work. They are cool little things for the real geeks to notice and they perhaps are even reminders that the creators can go back and laugh about in years to come.

It's not just MITM -- Maxis, who created the SimCity series and then the myriad of The Sims games, have an obsession with llamas (and a great geeky sense of humour elsewhere too -- read some of the object descriptions in The Sims). Llamas are referenced everywhere in those games!
 

rolnxyz

New member
Another one:

In Butterflies, when Reese works for a corrupt exterminator

Krijak - "You didn't do too bad today kid. Till that possum got up your pant leg you were way ahead"

or something like that. ;)
 
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rolnxyz

New member
Another one:

Buseys Take a Hostage

Lois - "Hal, tomorrow you are cleaning the dead possum out of the chimney. The smell has gotten so bad I can't tell when Jamie needs changing anymore"
 

Richiepiep

Administrator
Great discovery, rolnxyz! No, I never noticed it either. It's like the rolling hamster ball (containing 'Bernard') that Dewey lost, which appears in a number of episodes, and that's just a very funny in-joke or throwaway gag (whatever you'd like to call it, the official term is running gag of course) for die-hard fans.

You'll find a lot of that in series of books, cartoons, TV sitcoms etc. I can only think of comic book hero Gaston Lagaffe's broken down vintage car and his 'Gaffophone' at the moment, though!

Oh, and of course the Peanuts gag with Charlie Brown trying to kick a football out of Lucy's hands, also referenced in MITM's "Grandma Sues" cold opener:

http://www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2384

Rich
 
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yblackie

New member
Season 7-Episode 7: "Blackout"
Lois:"What was that?"
Hal:"I'll check. Maybe an emboldened possum..."

Season 7-Episode 8: "Army Buddy"
Abby:"Ma'am your back yard is more than adequate. Oh, and you folks don't have to worry about that possum any longer."
 
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K174

New member
If you watch certain comedians they will often use particular things when attempting to be completely random, Eddie Izzard for example uses "Jam" and "Banjos" a great deal. It may be because of a childhood incident or something similar but when being supposedly "random" a lot of people will think of certain things before others, I find myself doing it often. Linwood Boomer probably has something similar to this with possums
 

rolnxyz

New member
When Dewey lost Craigs cat, and Hal was helping him find it. Hal uses sleeping pills in the food and when they come back there is a bunch of animals.

Hal says something like, OK let's separate the animals in piles:
One for not Jelly Bean, another for probably not Jelly Bean, and another for not even a cat. You can start with that possum Dewey.
 
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