“Mr Nut, the kindhearted manager here, convinced me that to make a living by publicly displaying my deformity lacked dignity. So… now I carry other people’s luggage.” – Lanny.
HUMBUG [Standalone] Aired March 31, 1995
Episode: 2×20 / 44 Overall
Director: Kim Manners • Writer: Darin Morgan
The agents search for a killer in a Florida town inhabited by sideshow performers.
Darin Morgan’s first script for The X-Files, not counting his story credit on Blood, was a seminal moment for the series. Morgan weaved his irreverent style of black comedy so seamlessly into the Monster of the Week format that while it represented a significant tonal shift for the series, it was at the same time such a natural fit that it feels like a perfectly logical direction for the writing to take. The absurd nature of the X-File cases that Mulder and Scully investigate often tread a fine line between comical and horrifying, accepting the ridiculousness of the situation and embracing the comedic element was a very smart decision by the writers. Morgan was instrumental in this realisation that the show could weave comedy through the established horror/thriller format that they had developed up to this point. It really shouldn’t be so surprising that it works since comedy and horror have always gone hand in hand. Horror films often use comic relief as a reprieve from the scares. Duchovny has always played Mulder with a sense of humour, ever since the Pilot, and here he showed that he was able to utilise his offbeat sensibility to great effect by simply turning up the dial from deadpan to goofy and finding just the right balance. All of Morgan’s contributions as a writer used this ‘comedy’ format and while others followed suit by delivering some fan favorites in this style it’s important that we give credit to Morgan for daring to push the envelope so early on in the life of the show.
By injecting just the right about of comedy and a certain self-awareness in to the mix, Morgan was able to save his story from being seen as a parody of the show and have it be not only accepted but embraced by fans and critics. It’s clear we’re not supposed to take things too seriously here, but it’s still the X-Files and there’s still some genuinely creepy moments throughout. The idea of a conjoined twin detaching itself and attempting to find a new host by gouging out their stomach flesh is admittedly funny in one sense but on the other hand a deeply disturbing image. Unlike some later comedy episodes the actors don’t ham up their performances much at all, rather they take a ridiculous situation and play it with dramatic integrity. This stops the episode from being too jokey, and the comedy is more understated than too on-the-nose.
A well known piece of trivia from this episode involves a scene between the agents and Dr. Blockhead. Having been offered a jar of live cockroaches, Scully takes one from the jar and eats it, only to reveal moments later to Mulder that she hid it with a slight of hand. During filming however, Gillian Anderson actually took the live bug and put it in her mouth, she held it there, pretending to chew until Manners yelled cut and then she spit out the still live cockroach. Duchovny apparently stated that he liked the fact that Morgan’s scripts almost seemed like he was trying to destroy the show. It’s not hard to imagine this attempt at comedy failing dismally. This could have easily earned a place among the worst of the X-Files episodes. However thanks to a willingness of the fans to embrace this new direction, the future of the series was irrevocably altered for the better. Without the tenacity of Morgan’s genre bending script writing we would likely never have gotten to experience such gems as Bad Blood, Small Potatoes and the season six two-parter Dreamland. Also, without this comedic touch it’s entirely possible that the show might not have lasted as long as it did, offering no respite from oftentimes overbearingly gloomy atmosphere. I can only speculate but I would imagine that episodes like this would have drawn in a wider audience or simply a different crowd that were initially not so willing to invest in a dramatic science fiction horror show about aliens and monsters.
★★★☆☆
The X-Files Retrospective Project 