The scene: A pleasant beach. The surf is quietly rolling in, seagulls can be heard in the distance, and a gentle breeze moves the palm fronds to and fro. And in the midst of this pleasant scene sits Satan. He’s stretched out on a folding beach chair, sipping from a coconut drink he holds in his mighty clawed hand.
Satan (contentedly): Now this is the life.
Satan lies back in his chair with a grin stretched across his face. He finishes his coconut drink, slurping the last bit noisily through the straw, then snaps his clawed fingers impatiently. A few seconds pass. Satan clears his throat, which sounds a bit like feeding gravel into a wood chipper, and lowers his sunglasses menacingly.
Satan (irritated): My drink is empty!
In response Litre Cola comes scurrying out of the jungle, a replacement drink in hand.
Litre Cola: Sorry. The still broke down again. It’s tough to find spare parts on an island, eh?
Satan (exchanging coconut drink glasses with Litre Cola): These things happen. By the way, is my deck waxed? I wanted to catch some waves this afternoon.
Litre Cola: Unsurprised is working on it. He said what you really need is a new board, though. Your hooves have kind of messed up the old one.
Satan (pouting): I like that board! Kelly Slater gave it to me!
Unsurprised (walking up with the surfboard): Huh. It all makes sense now. Anyway, I did the best I could, but that board is pretty much done.
Satan gets up and takes the board in his yuuuuge clawed hands. He towers over Unsurprised and Litre Cola, standing on immense cloven hooves, and his large, leathery wings stretch out menacingly.
Then he grins like a kid in a candy store and races out to the surf to ride some waves.
Satan (as he runs off): Keep my drink cold! I’ll be back in a few hours!
Unsurprised: Man, how did we get ourselves into this mess?
Flashback to: The end of the fabled HRTN Horror Double Feature! The Moosemobile, having crashed through the side of the cabin where Unsurprised, Litre Cola and The Maestro were being held for sacrifice by the Angry Girl Scout, tips and falls into the fiery pits of Hell itself.
Unsurprised (looking over towards The Maestro): So…friends of yours?
The Maestro: They…were…?
Satan clears his throat. He’s looking down at the pentagram which was keeping him contained. It has a big tire mark across it, destroying its power to contain the devil.
Litre Cola: Uh-oh…
Unsurprised: Crap! This is bad, right? I mean, I dated a chick who was into this occult stuff one time, and she told me that you should never cross a pentagram. But come to think of it, she had this huge pentagram around her bed…
Satan: Guys…
The Maestro: Boy, if that’s not a big “Keep Out” sign, I don’t know what is.
Litre Cola: Oh, yeah? How about that gal you were dating who told you she couldn’t have sex because she was allergic, eh?
Satan: Guys!
Unsurprised: You fell for that?
The Maestro: It’s not funny! She got married and died on her honeymoon!
Litre Cola: You mean she was being serious?
The Maestro: No, it was this freak bungee-jumping accident.
Unsurprised (sarcastically): Oh, yeah, that’s a one-in-a-million thing to happen.
The Maestro: Speaking of a million, turns out she was pretty darn wealthy. I heard her husband married a Totronto Argonauts cheerleader a few months later.
Litre Cola: Poor guy.
The Maestro: Right? Those rebound romances never work out, eh?
Satan (in a voice that could shatter stone): GUYS!!!
The Canadian DFOers and Unsurprised (who is neither a Canadian, nor an official DFOer) recoil, their eyes wide with fear.
The Maestro: Crap!
Litre Cola: Double crap!!
Unsurprised: Mother CENSORED ing CENSORED son of a CENSORED ing CENSORED CENSORED !!!
Satan and the Canadian DFOers look aghast at Unsurprised.
Satan: I mean…
Litre Cola: Watch the language there, Unsurprised!
The Maestro: Gee willikers, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?
Unsurprised: Oh, give me a break! We’ve got the Devil himself here ready to chow down on our souls and you guys are getting upset about a few f-bombs?
Litre Cola: More than a few, eh?
Satan: Guys, really, I don’t want your souls. Honest.
The Maestro: You…don’t? How come?
Litre Cola: Yeah, I’m thinking we have darn nice souls, eh?
Unsurprised (disgusted): Guys, could we not talk him into taking our souls?
Litre Cola: I’m just saying, I keep my soul in pretty good condition. It’s a real find, eh?
Satan: I told you before, Hell is overflowing with souls. They’re everywhere. I even offer to let some of them go, y’know…upstairs, but they just think it’s some sort of conspiracy. When did you all get so paranoid? And what in you-know-who’s name is Qanon…?
Unsurprised: You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. But if you don’t want our souls, what do you want?
Satan: Well, I was telling you about my vacations before, right? And how they’re always interrupted?
The Maestro: Oh, sure. That’s tough, eh?
Litre Cola: Hey, did you want us to help you out with that? Make sure you have a trouble-free vacay? We can do that!
Satan (clicking his large claws together): Why, yes, that’s just what I had in mind…
The Maestro (to Litre Cola): Why are you always such a keener, eh?
Flash-forward to: The present day deserted beach again! Unsurprised is wiping the sand off of Satan’s beach chair and glaring at Litre Cola. Litre Cola is trying unsuccessfully to look completely innocent.
Unsurprised: Oh, yeah. Now I remember…
Litre Cola: Hey, I was just trying to help the guy out! Everyone deserves some fun in the sun!
Unsurprised: It’s been two years!
Litre Cola: We’ve had some good times, though, right? Remember Unguja?
Unsurprised: I remember being chased by a Zanzibar leopard…
Litre Cola: But that was a good thing! Here we thought they were extinct, then all of a sudden one pops up and decides to play with you!
Unsurprised (glaring): I got thirty-two stitches.
Litre Cola: Ah, you Americans. Always so gloomy, eh?
Unsurprised: Look, my point is, he’s never going to be satisfied! We are going to be doing this until we’re old and grey!
Litre Cola (looking closely at Unsurprised’s hair): Grey-er, eh? Looks like you’re getting those distinguished temples.
Unsurprised (smacking the empty coconut drink glass out of Litre Cola’s hand): That’s it! I am done! He can throw me into the abyssal pits of Hell if he wants, but as far as I’m concerned…
There’s a rustling noise from the jungle behind the pair. They turn to look, with Litre Cola surreptitiously taking cover behind Unsurprised in case it’s a leopard.
A figure emerges from the leafy cover. It stops at the edge of the jungle, still shrouded in shadow. Then the figure steps forward with a confident swagger. Litre Cola and Unsurprised gasp in recognition.
JJ Fozz (emerging from the jungle): Now just what in hell are you two dumbasses doing here…?
To be continued…
WOO HOO!
The Flyers getting pantsed?
Just out, taking the lizard for a walk…
Okay, I laughed, holy shit. Loved the censored (redacted) ….
I’ve been riding a titanic wave of shit for over a month. And one line of copy has ended it. Thank you, kind sir.
“I’ve been riding a titanic wave of shit”
Satan grabs his surf board “WHERE? TELL ME WHERE, MAN!!!”
A bunch of odd looking Germans follow…….
It seems like the whole band is getting back together.
We’ll drive over in our Ford 1966 Bronco Dune Duster.
Fantastic. IRL I believe that Unsurprised would get tired of my stoner positivity real quick!
Any accuracy in dialogue is purely coincidental (and not the result of my lurking around the comments sections, furiously taking notes).
So which one of us is Satan?
It’s clearly Sill
“Aw, c’mon, that’s just uncalled for.”
-Satan
69!
Both the German and Japanese contingents enjoy this.
All art should have many interpretations.
Hey, guys! I meant to post this with last week’s HRTN, but we had a massive internet outage. I did post the link later in the day, but I think several people missed it, so here it is again:
https://www.redbubble.com/people/zombotronic/shop?artistUserName=Zombotronic&collections=1529343&iaCode=all-departments&sortOrder=relevant
That takes you right to the HRTN store (and so far my only store) on Redbubble. The Diggler’s merch is there, and last week I added stuff for Iguana Mart and the Taboo Region. Let me know what you think! And for you guys that have ordered something already, thank you! Let me know how it turned out, as I’m curious.
BTW, never feel obligated to buy anything. You’re not “supporting the channel” as the YouTube kids say…I just design this stuff for fun and put it up so you can grab a tee, a mug or whatever (or just ignore it altogether…that’s cool too).
Hope you enjoy the next few weeks of the HRTN: Boys of Summer!
I’m glad I got my HRTN poster when I did.
I will soon look like a loyal Iguana Mart (TM) employee.
The “Bark At The Moon” video sure looks different 30 years later.
I just thought it was a typical date night photo, but now that you mention it.
Thbpt!
The posters are still on the Zazzle site, although I’ll probably be moving that stuff too (Zazzle is kind of a PitA on the biz end of things).
Diggler’s Donuts, fucking pure money. I’d buy one but my kids would figure it out in two seconds, inform my wife, and hell would break loose.
That gives me an idea for a “Snitches Get Stitches” tee…
I wish I knew where my shirt was. But that means I can potentially get a new HRTN shirt…
I’ll put the HRTN stuff on Redbubble (probably in the next week).
TShirt sizes go from small to 5XL. Talk about knowing your demographic
Babies to Steak-n-Shake?
Yowza, sir. Yowza, I say!
I got my Diggler’s Donuts coffee cup and it’s great! It’s funny to see my parents drinking coffee out of it…
I demand pics! 🙂
Very cool, I’m really glad it looks good. That design seems so obvious, but it took me forever to get there…