Those Meddling Kids
Posted on October 9, 2007 Posted by John Scalzi 12 Comments
Hey, look who we met down by the abandoned amusement park:
Yes, the abandoned amusement park! You know, the one owned by Old Man Withers? Yeah, that’s the one. Apparently there have been some strange things going on, and some people even say it’s haunted. But these two and those other plucky teenagers have decided to solve the mystery. To which I said, well, here’s another mystery: Why aren’t you kids in school? And wouldn’t you know, I got an answer: Apparently, Scooby has his masters in education from Villanova and homeschools the lot of them in The Mystery Machine as they travel from one town to the next. Would you believe last year Shaggy was a National Merit Scholarship finalist? And Velma has been accepted to Smith! The things you learn while you’re on the road.
I don’t care how much you paid for this photo. It was worth every penny. Made my day. Good luck with old Mr. Withers. Jinkies all that sure sounds awful fishy.
Figures Velma went to Smith, though I’d a pegged her as a Bryn Mawrtyr.
Shaggy looks like som Shovelhead from Kintucky. But Athena seems thrilled!
Boy, the Creation Museum is a lot more fun than I thought!
A few years ago I drove past a van customized to look like the Mystery Machine. It was parked in front of a house and had a for sale sign on it. It was gone, I presume sold, when I came back with a camera. I have hung out around old mansions and spooky museums ever since hoping to see it again.
Velma and Daphne aren’t speaking. Daphne insists it was just an “experiment” and won’t return Velma’s emails.
The game designer in me can’t help but wonder why there hasn’t been a “How to Host a Mystery” with a Scooby-Doo theme …
JD
It never occurred to me to wonder why they weren’t in school because I never believed they were teenagers. Clearly they were grown-ups.
The animated scooby teens, like their live action contemporaries, appeared to be well into their twenties.
JD — obviously it is because there is only one plot used in the whole series. In a game based on the series, you guess that plot and you win. What’s the fun in that?
“My plot would have been ruined by you damn kids, so I called the local truancy officer and had all your asses hauled back to third period! Now I’ll get away, HAHAhahahahahhaaaaa!”
…homeschools the lot of them in The Mystery Machine….
Somehow, I never pegged the lot of them as right-wing fundies. It’s a vastly more plausible explanation that they dropped out of school to form a cult. “Mysteries Inc.” is the cover for a cross-country chain of dead hobos whose deaths are usually explained by the authorities as having been caused by “exposure” or “fighting over hootch.” Eventually a semi-rogue FBI agent assigned to bizarre and mysterious open case files will realize that the death sites, when connected on a map, form a ginormous version of the Elder Sign. (This contention will be flatly rejected by his skeptical-although-devoutly-Catholic partner, a beautiful redheaded medical expert and certified pathologist.)
Don’t blame Shaggy, though. He was never anything more than a patsy.
JJS–Well, it wouldn’t be based on the series, exactly. (That would be like Data playing Sherlock Holmes simulations in the Holodeck.) It would be based on the characters.
JD
As a Villanova grad, I’m not sure if I’m flattered or insulted that Scooby went to the same school as me. I guess as he’s the brains of the group, I’m flattered.