So there I was, sitting in a theater of families and wide-eyed Disney fangirls waiting for Frozen II to begin. While sitting through the plethora of trailers, one trailer stood out to the audience for the oddest reason. The trailer for Scoob! isn’t anything special, but according to most members of the audience, they thought it was incredibly strange that Scooby-Doo was talking. Not just speaking a few words here or there, but uttering full sentences and cracking jokes like he was in a mid 2000’s kids movie. Apparently that’s too much for some people since Scooby-Doo never talked this much before!
Except he has. Sure, he never spoke the amount that was shown in the trailer, but Scooby-Doo is known as a talking dog. So no one should be at all surprised that the talking dog is talking. Besides, if that’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen in a Scooby-Doo movie or show, then you don’t really know Scooby-Doo.
While it’s not surprising to say that Scooby-Doo is an odd show, I’m not talking about your run-of-the-mill oddities. No, I’m talking about the moments that sound like a copious amount of drugs was involved in the creation of these moments. These parts of the franchise are so insane, so ludicrous, that the only reaction that you can think of is to just go “what the fuck, Scooby-Doo!” Jumping the shark doesn’t do these moments justice. These are straight-up insane.
Scooby-Doo teams up with the WWE. Twice.
Starting off this list with something not quite as insane, we have two straight-to-DVD movies where Mystery Inc. worked alongside the WWE to solve some capers. In the first one, Shaggy and Scooby win an all-expense paid vacation to WWE City (is that in Saudi Arabia?) where they have to help several WWE superstars deal with a Ghost Bear. In the sequel, the gang is invited to the WWE Off-Road Challenge to help Mr. McMahon deal with a flaming racer interfering with the Challenge.
Featuring a plethora of WWE superstars at the time, including the Undertaker, Triple H, and John Cena just to name a few. All of them are voiced by their real-life counterparts, which is just strange to watch. Seeing Mr. McMahon talk with Mystery Inc. is a concept that shouldn’t work, and it most cases it doesn’t, but if you’re a wrestling fan then you’ll get a few good chuckles out of the strangeness of it all.
An Eldritch abomination nearly destroys reality
Mystery Incorporated was a great animated series that nobody watched. Predating the intrigue of Gravity Falls, Mystery Incorporated experimented with telling a more serious and serialized Scooby-Doo story, one that most people didn’t even acknowledge when it released. Over the course of two years, the series built up to a dark evil bent on destroying the universe known only as the Evil Entity. The Evil Entity is an alien whose sole purpose is to consume all life in existence, so naturally, it’s a perfect fit for a franchise that featured Shaggy turning into a werewolf because Dracula needed a werewolf for a race.
Now I’m not saying that Lovecraft inspired hell beasts have a place in Scooby-Doo, but when you watch Scooby cry out in terror as the world around him is engulfed in fire as his friends get are attacked by ruthless monsters, it’s a bit excessive to say the least. I mean, it’s awesome! But in a series with several goofy plots like “a baseball computer virus tries to beat the gang in a video game,” universe ending horrors from another plane of existence tend to stand out.
Legend of the Phantosaur. Just… all of it.
I tried really hard to think of only one mad moment from Legend of the Phantosaur to put on this list, but the more I thought about it, the more that the entire movie screams of lunacy.
For the record, this is the movie that introduced the God Shaggy meme onto unsuspecting audiences. While that’s notable in its own right, it’s probably the most normal thing about the movie. Shaggy is hypnotized to believe in himself, making him a badass in nearly every regard, which is cool I guess, but a Scooby-Doo movie is only as good as its main antagonist. And wow do we have a winner with this.
So get this; apparently there are two separate factions of bad guys in this movie that somehow come up with the exact same plan to enact their goals. Their plan is to scare people off with giant dinosaurs, one mechanically engineered, one holographic. I just can’t get over the fact that two different sects of bad guys, completely independently of each other, decided to create giant dinosaurs to scare off civilians as they accomplished their goals, which only God Shaggy can stop. Oh, and once the dinosaurs are beaten and the bad guys are in jail, everyone is hypnotized into believing they’re Shaggy and turn the Mystery Machine in a giant Shaggy head.
KISS is an interdimmensional Sentai team
We all know KISS, right? Legendary rock band with larger than life personalities? Well did you also know that according to Scooby-Doo and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery, KISS are actually descendants from a warrior tribe from the dimension of KISSteria and they all have superpowers that are awakened by performing a Sailor Moon magical girl transformation. Also, KISS is in possession of a magical diamond that, if used by evil forces, will unleash a being called The Destroyer to wipe out humanity. Also, the Destroyer is a combination of Galactus and Darkseid because at this point why not just go all-in on the random imagery. Speaking of DC…
Scooby Apocalypse
There was never a doubt in my mind that when compared to the half-century of Scooby-Doo content, nothing is quite as outrageous, as insane as Scooby Apocalypse. Running for 36 issues over the course of three years, the series follows Mystery Inc. as they try to survive their greatest challenge yet; the apocalypse. The gang must deal with a nanite engineered apocalypse where humanity has been infected, causing their greatest fears and weaknesses to be exposed. For the record, Velma sort of engineered the apocalypse, though she didn’t know that when she originally created the nanite virus, but her brothers re-purposed it to cause the end of the world. You know, as you do.
The series is such a strange take on the franchise, and not just including the new sci-fi, teenage targeted direction. This was part of DC’s attempt to make their Hannah-Barbara line of characters more mature with several great series spawning from this, like the deconstructionist take on The Flintstones. Scooby Apocalypse isn’t one of those series. It’s so strange to read it since it’s chocked full of moments that feel so out of place for the franchise. Scrappy-Doo is a hulking cybernetic enhanced brute that wants nothing more than to kill Scooby. Fred dies and comes back to life as a nanite infused zombie. SHAGGY AND VELMA HAVE SEX AND HE GETS HER PREGNANT. Just the very thought of seeing Shaggy’s O-face should be enough to justify its placement on a list of crazy Scooby-Doo moments.
