The Crazy Series of Surreal Dreams

Cadence wrote:

tendra91 wrote:lol if Arnold were ever to be knocked unconscious, I would find it SUPER funny if he got knocked out by something minor (i.e. lame) after escaping a more severe injury.

Like for example, I don't know, Arnold merely escaped from getting hit by a car, and just as he is walking off the road, he trips on a pebble and bumps his head. But something funnier in our case.

He trips on a banana peel. o_o

Arnold wakes up

Arnold: What happened?

Helga: You were bested by a cliche, Footballhead.

That is FANTASTIC! I love that line...

You know, I saw a movie recently that reminded me of Tendra and Cadence's idea.
There was a man who almost got hit by an air conditioner falling out of a window, but he steps into the street and it narrowly misses him. Then just as he was about to tell someone on his cell phone what had happened, he gets hit by a bus.

Obviously we wouldn't want to have Arnold get hit by a bus though, and the banana peel idea is too priceless to pass up.

It reminds me of series "Life on Mars" I watched not so far.

I really love this idea and totally wish it would be animated. D':

I, for one, think it should be Arnold doing the dreaming, simply because we all know what Helga already feels for Arnold. Personally, I'm more curious as to what Arnold thinks about Helga, given that it is subconsciously. I mean, I think Arnold knows more than most give him credit for (whether he truly understands the meaning behind his dreams, though, is another matter completely). Anyone recall the ending of his dream in the episode "Married?" Heck, he even dreamed of Helga as Hilda! Remember? Those episodes were fun!

Anyway, I only find one problem with this idea. I think it's been established that we want to have Arnold as the original dreamer, right? But we want that fact to be the twist in the end, because we want to give the effect that it's been Helga whose been dreaming the whole time, right? So if we show Arnold getting knocked out in the beginning, won't that give our secret away?

Maybe we should show a scene at the beginning where Arnold AND Helga both get knocked out in the same incident. That would give reason as to why Arnold dreams about Helga (because she could have been the last thing he saw when he got knocked out), and throw the audience off and make them think that Helga is the one dreaming (as she so often does).

I'm favoring this idea

me too I like your idea saphine

Sapine wrote:Maybe we should show a scene at the beginning where Arnold AND Helga both get knocked out in the same incident.

How about Arnold and Helga knock heads with each other (maybe due to a couple of banana peels?) and we never actually show anyone going unconscious.

So, in panel A we would show Arnold and Helga running into each other (maybe close-up on their heads to emphasize that they actually hit each other in the head). Panel B could just be a lot of colors and stars (maybe the word CRASH or something). Panel C would be black. Panel D begins with Helga dreaming (of course, it's actually Arnold dreaming but readers won't know that yet).

Then when Arnold wakes up at the very end we could let the readers know that he was the only one to go unconscious in the first place. The panel where he first wakes up, I was imagining everything being from Arnold's point of view (i.e. we see what he sees); and Helga is standing (kneeling?) over him, trying to wake him up.
I guess Helga's reason for not being knocked out could be that she's thick skulled or something like that.

Yeah, I like that idea, funnybones!

Maybe Helga won't be knocked out because she bumps into Arnold with her chin, cause she's taller XD

Yup, you guys got it. Helga and Arnold should be in an accident together, with the "crash" panel not showing specifically who got hit. Then we show Helga getting up, so we think that we're going to watch the episode from Helga's POV when we're actually looking through Arnold's dream.

So refining Funnybones' idea:

1) Helga and Arnold nearly get hit by a fruit truck. Some of the fruits drop off the truck and onto the road (i.e. banana peels; I guess the driver or even Monkeyman (a truck stowaway) was eating bananas in the truck and threw them out on the road)

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Edit: Make that Monkeyman hijacking a fruit truck! (:D
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2) Helga and Arnold comment on how that was a close call and both of them trip on said banana peel. So panels would show them just about to trip or the beginning of the trip (e.g. close up of their feet slipping on the banana)

3) Funnybone's crash panel. So, yeah, lots of colors and stars, but no specific indication of who bumped their head.

4) Black-out (black panel)

5) Helga wakes up. This wake up scene would actually be part of Arnold's dream, but it looks like it's Helga's dream.

I really like Cadence's Helga quote ("You were bested by a cliche, Footballhead.") but it's only funny if it's said right after the banana trip, as opposed to saying that line when we reveal that it's actually Arnold's dream. So maybe after Helga wakes up, she takes a look at the banana peel and says, "Criminy, I got bested by a cliche!".

But we could also say Cadence's original Helga line after Arnold wakes up for real, so that two versions of the line get said in the episode. Which means there could show some parallel aspects betw. Helga and Arnold's dream.

So, reiterating:
Helga looks at banana peel and says something like, "Criminy, I got bested by a cliche" with an annoyed look on her face.

Then you get this series of crazy surreal dreams.

Then we get Arnold to wake up for real and we get Cadence's line:
Arnold: What happened?
Helga: You were bested by a cliche, Footballhead.

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And a thick-headed Helga. XD lol That'd be so Helga

indeed I love it completely!

How about the truck is full of old banana peels, clown noses, cream pies, ect. Written on the side of the truck is something like,
"JEFF AND SONS' SIGHT GAGS" and down below it says "We deliver!"

lmao... I could see that... and it could be racing down the streets with the Jolly Olly Man... like their racing to get to a party or something.

So what exactly does Arnold dream of Helga dreaming of Arnold?

Pretty much anything and everything.

The thing with this episode is that, unlike the normal episodes, we can have "non-canonical" (sub)plots in it, because the whole episode is a dream afterall. So if there's any episode idea you wanted to do, but couldn't because of the "canon restriction" we have, now's your chance (as long as it still falls in the PG category that is ).

We're probably going to throw in a couple of Helga confessions, ect., maybe even a warped Arnold confession, a little Helga-Pataki family interaction, ect. By heck, we might even throw in SquirrelTamer's gender bender design for a little "WTF?" moment.

But overall, as you delve deeper into Helga's "life", you have to consider whether or not it corresponds with what Arnold thinks of Helga, because that's what the deep underlying message of the whole dream (episode) is.

I love that idea... sorry it seems like that's what I always say. But everyone here has great ideas... xD

We're probably going to throw in a couple of Helga confessions, ect., maybe even a warped Arnold confession, a little Helga-Pataki family interaction, ect. By heck, we might even throw in SquirrelTamer's gender bender design for a little "WTF?" moment.

I think that would be funny... that way maybe giving a hint that we're making it a dream.

Hey! Sorry if someone already pitched this...

But what if one of the surreal dreams is the whole Helga loves Arnold thing being switched. As in Arnold swooning/going-off-into-a-lovey-dovey-monologue/making-googly-eyes/stalking Helga.

I think that would be GREAT! I've always thought that would be interesting to see. I'm actually working on a fanfic like this.

Ya'll go ahead and tell me if it sucks or not. I like it though...

funnybones021 wrote:

Then when Arnold wakes up at the very end we could let the readers know that he was the only one to go unconscious in the first place. The panel where he first wakes up, I was imagining everything being from Arnold's point of view (i.e. we see what he sees); and Helga is standing (kneeling?) over him, trying to wake him up.
I guess Helga's reason for not being knocked out could be that she's thick skulled or something like that

Yeah, but Arnold tends to be the one "thick-headed"! LOL!

Just a joke... A really stupid one, but then again, this is coming from me. Really, I like the idea.

Yeah! I was hoping someone would bump this topic back up toward the top
This is one of my favorites.

That's a great idea, where Arnold is swooning for Helga as one of the surreal dreams lol.

Arnold may be thick headed, but I actually remember that both he and Helga were knocked out by a baseball at least once in the show.

dreams are so confusing. I just read this entire topic in ...twenty-one minutes, and all I can say is this:

"NEVER EAT MOLDY RASPBERRIES!"

love this idea sooooo much I'm excited.

This topic really reminds me of Inception. I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it, but those of you who have already will catch on to what I'm talking about. Since, in the film, they explore the possibility of having multiple persons' subconscious within a given individual's dream at any one time, what if we did a parody on the film with Arnold and Helga in this case? Their dream states would have to be "synced up" in some way; maybe they get hypnotized together or something. If this were the case, then we wouldn't be limited to just having the characters be projections from the subconscious of one of them, but they could actually be representative of each of them in the dream state just as in the real world (i.e. Helga is still Helga rather than being an image of Helga that Arnold's mind conjures up from his memories and experiences of her). For the sake of the canon, this knowledge could only be limited to the hypnotist leaving Arnold & Helga under the impression that the dream was only relevant to them individually. I don't know...it's a head trip .

Could anybody make a short summary?

"The sting" - http://watch-futurama-online.info/2010/12/31/the-sting/ - is one of my favorites episodes in Futurama so I definitely support this idea!

Wow, what the heck happened this episode? It seemed like such a fun idea and then it just randomly died. In fact, all the episodes that are in production officially seem to have died as well. What happened to everything?

On the subject of contributing, I'm thinking if you end up making it Arnold's dream, then he shouldn't remember everything fully. It might imply that he's picked up on Helga's affections completely and not just subconsciously, so there should be a line where he says to Helga "You were in the dream and really out of character, but I can't remember how" or something along those lines.

Hi WillBill,

I have to agree that things have been a little slow around the forums, one of the main reasons why being that many of us are students, and hence we are more idle around the school months. However, we see that summer months are coming and that the forum is stirring again.

Right now, me and some fellow staff members are working to pick up current episode projects off their feet. I am currently waiting for responses from certain staff members. If you wish to discuss this further you can email me at tendra.p@gmail.com

I still love this episode idea to death, and still have my eye on it. Once I get the current episode projects sorted out, we can see if we can pick up some other episode ideas off their feet.

Now to talk about this episode idea, I completely agree that Arnold should not remember everything. After all, dreams do imply activity in the sub-conscious (especially if it's a dream within a dream!), right?

So, once I get the current episode projects sorted out, I will try to do my best to summarize this thread in one easy-to-read post. If anyone else would like to do this, please let me know. Other than that, keep up with the fantastic ideas!