2025 Monster March Madness

[00:00:02] The most thrilling, spikingly series ever! From the pages of R.L. Stine's best-selling books, and the screens go on forever and ever. We now return to Goosebumps.

[00:01:06] Greetings Goosebumps fans, young and old, big and small, living dead and undead. Welcome back to the Goosebumps Crew Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Isaiah Vargas, and I'm joined by my good buddies Bjorn Pownick and Nick Shaw. We are the Goosebumps Crew, and we are back to, as always, talk some Goosebumps. If this is your first time joining us here on the Goosebumps Crew Podcast, I want to sincerely welcome you all. If you are or have ever been a fan of the popular Goosebumps series of books or the monster franchise those books spawned, I have a feeling this podcast is going to be right up your alley

[00:01:34] because as I always say, me, Bjorn and Nick are some of the biggest Goosebumps nerds in the entire planet. We can talk about four Goosebumps hours on end, and that is exactly what we do here on this podcast. Every week we have a brand new episode talking about everything Goosebumps, whether it be the books, TV shows, movies, video games, merchandise, whatever it is. If it has Goosebumps in the name, we're going to talk about it so much. We're going to talk about it until the cows come home. So, with all that said, if you end up liking today's episode, make sure you leave a like and comment. If you're watching us on YouTube, subscribe to our YouTube channel,

[00:02:03] hit that bell notification to get updates when new episodes go up every Wednesday at noon central, 1 p.m. Eastern. If you are dying to get those episodes early, however, you can catch them a day early over on our audio platforms. We're available on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. And, of course, you can follow the Goosebumps crew over on social media. You can follow us on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, and our brand new accounts over on Blue Sky, Tumblr, and Threads.

[00:02:33] So you can follow us over there. You can also follow Goosebumps, Saucyfan, and Sean, respectively. That's Bjorn and Nick at Goosebumps, Saucyfan, and Sean, respectively, on their social medias and their YouTubes. Check them out. All those links are in the description below. Join the Goosebumps crew today. Become a crew member. And we thank you in advance for your support. So, ladies and gentlemen, it is officially March. And that means one thing. That means March Madness. For those of you who are big basketball fans, March is the biggest month besides the playoffs.

[00:03:02] And today we are doing something similar for our own sort of little March Madness. But it doesn't really have anything to do with basketball. Surprisingly, it's actually going to have something to do with Goosebumps, of course. So we're doing our own little March Madness here on the Goosebumps Crew podcast, our own little March Madness bracket, to find out what book is the best book in the original 62, plus a couple of Series 2000s that fell at the bracket.

[00:03:32] So this is just for fun. We're doing this little one this week for fun, just to be topical for March Madness. Everyone knows our best book. Everyone already knows what we consider our best book. Well, we're going to see how it backs up in the tourney and on our bracket. So all 62 original books plus the first two Series 2000, that's 64 books in total that we will be tourneying and seeing which one comes out on top.

[00:04:00] Cry the living movie and Cry the Cat as well. That is correct. So before we get into it, we do have a bracket that we'll be using. And actually, I do want to read off from this article really quick. Back in 2015, there was a Forbes article that went up that says, official Goosebumps March Madness bracket is already wrong. So basically, in the lead up to the 2015 movie, the Goosebumps Tumblr account set up their own March Madness bracket.

[00:04:31] And this article on Forbes I bring up, because it talks about how many of the voting that was being done at the time was objectively incorrect. So reading off of the article, it was released on March 23rd, 2015. So this whole thing is almost 10 years old, just about. From David Gonzalez, he writes, which brings us to using nostalgia to pass on these books to a new generation of children.

[00:04:58] Scholastic is well aware and launched a bracket style competition amongst the original 62 books and two selections from Series 2000 to see which Goosebumps book will reign supreme before this August Goosebumps movie hits theaters. So this was back when they were thinking it was going to be in August. It says, spurs more interest in reading amongst the horror comedy-loving middle school youth of America. They released an official blank bracket.

[00:05:25] The voting on these individual pairs are all going down on the official Goosebumps Tumblr. And it's hilarious how the official announcement of the competition encouraged the children of the 90s who have had kids of their own to get involved. This is a Tumblr poll, after all. And what good are parents on Tumblr if they aren't voting for their favorite Goosebumps? Also, do middle school kids' days even know what Are You Afraid of the Dark is? Overall, get yourself to the Goosebumps Tumblr over the next week because whomever is voting in this poll

[00:05:54] is getting some of these key face-offs completely wrong. Last week in the Lawn Gnomes division, Let's Get Invisible beat Attack of the Jack-o'-Lanterns by almost 2,500 votes. Let's Get Invisible features a group of kids who find a magic mirror that lets them turn invisible for a short amount of time. Eventually they realize it gets harder and harder to become visible again. Attack of the Jack-o'-Lanterns features a story that takes place over three years as some shy kids try to get Halloween revenge on their bullies.

[00:06:25] The victory of number six over number 48 is wrong. Last week in the Slappy division, Stay Out of the Basement, where a mad scientist father accidentally makes a plant clone of himself and his kids start to catch on, it lost 5,871 to 5,241 against Monster Blood. So Monster Blood beat out Stay Out of the Basement.

[00:06:54] Blood 6, man. He says, Stay Out of the Basement is a frightening story where the protagonists are not even safe with their parents and Monster Blood is a story about a magical cat witch casting an evil spell on a container of green goo, basically Nickelodeon slime. Gack was big in 92 and 93. The victory is as close as... As we found out, I think that's what they used even in the show. In the show, yeah. And last week in the early division, the Beast from the East beat Monster Blood 3

[00:07:23] by a little more than 500 points. That's fine. Beast from the East is not a bad Goosebump book. It's just a quick, fun one. It's kind of a mid one. It's a mid one. It's a mid one. But you know what? Surprisingly, I know a lot of people that love that book.

[00:07:53] My friend Logan, that's one of his favorites. It's weird, Beast from the East. It's like, I'm not a big fan of it, but I know people that are. Yeah, I was going to say, I don't think I've come across anybody who says that's their favorite. Well, continuing, it's... It's like some people enjoy it. I don't know. I mean, the cover art is beautiful, Tim. Love it. Love the colors with all the plants and stuff. One more. The most egregious error in week one of the Goosebumps bracket was in the horrors division.

[00:08:24] Two of my favorite Goosebumps books, this being the author, of all time went head to head too early in the bracket for this to even be a matchup. It was the horror of Camp Jelly Jam against the Cuckoo Clock of Doom, and Jelly Jam took the W with a score of 6,500 to 4,765. So that's almost 2,000 votes over. Hey, I wasn't YouTube famous yet, so I have nothing to do with that.

[00:08:52] That was just strictly people saying... But then Screen Rant did a recent thing where their favorite book was the Horror Camp Jelly Jam. They had like Holden Mosk and Not a Living Dummy like kind of... People say they hate it, so it's a toss-up, that one. But it says, The Cuckoo Clock of Doom is the closest R.L. Stine ever got to a Twilight Zone episode featuring a Goose Cuckoo Clock that sends our protagonist further back in time each day. Horror at Camp Jelly Jam has a surprise ending

[00:09:20] that makes no logical sense but is so wild I still have fun explaining the reveal to those who don't remember. In terms of structure and craft, though, Cuckoo Clock deserved to go longer in this bracket. Though now Camp Jelly Jam has to go against Monster Blood 2, the book that ends with the protagonist wrestling a two-story tall hamster, we can't let Monster Blood 2 win. Or Camp Jelly Jam will win, I guess. Join me over at the Goosebumps Tumblr this week, trying to turn everything around and read with your children. That's always good advice.

[00:09:51] So that is what we have right now for that bracket. Of course, that was back in March of 2015. Now it's March of 2025 and we are turning our own spin on this Goosebumps bracket. Alright, so here we are with the Goosebumps Monster Madness 2025. So here, of course, as I said, we have the original 62 books plus two Series 2000 to round up the required 64 slots.

[00:10:20] Now compared to the 2015 bracket that was done officially by the Goosebumps Tumblr account, I switched around the titles. So this is not one-to-one with the original bracket. This is entirely new and we're going to see where these books go. Of course, we have... Well, the night everyone is champion. I'm going to call it now. Different divisions. We have the slappy division. Chicken champion. The curly division. What's the chicken chicken division? The horse division and the lawn gnomes division.

[00:10:49] And we're going to see... We make one chicken chicken division? What? Well... That's just fun to say. Chicken chicken division. Chicken chicken division. There's an honorary chicken chicken division. But we're going to see which one of these 64 books makes it to this champion slot. Now... Okay, to make this interesting, are we not allowed to put our favorite books in? Because it's too obvious. I would say let's just go in with

[00:11:18] what book of the two is objectively better. So... Leave our biases at the door. Which one is objectively better than the other? Hmm. So... This is... That's not entirely fair. We already know what's going to be in champion. In champion, it's either going to be the haunted mask... Well, we can't just say chicken chicken is going to win because chicken chicken is a book that we like. So... The greatest books ever. Okay. It's going to be

[00:11:46] one of the three favorites that ends up in champion. This is all opinion. This is just for fun. You know... Yeah. If your favorite book doesn't win a certain matchup, nothing against it. It's our own personal opinions and it's just for fun. So, with all that said, we're going to start right here with the slappy division. And our first matchup is the blob that ate everyone versus the cuckoo clock of doom. I think the blob. I'm going to end it with the blob. I think the cuckoo clock of doom.

[00:12:17] So, are we judging this by, like, the monster of the book or are we judging this by the story? The story of the book. Okay. I would say... If this is monster versus monster bracket, blob clearly is going to take everything, I feel. But not all of these books have, like, you know, identifiable monsters in them. So, let's say it's mostly on... It's, like, 80% the story, but if it has a cooler monster, that can be another factor. And we can also contribute

[00:12:46] Tim's cover art. And the image cover art. We can... Why not? We're going to come together. It's got to have, like, a small factor, though. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do all three factors. Cover art, story, and monster. Yep. So, I would say... Me, personally, I actually like, in terms of the cover arts, I do like Blob more, but I like the story of Cuckoo Clock more. And Blob... I would say Blob has a better monster, but I think the story of Cuckoo Clock is overall better.

[00:13:17] While I like the Blob monster, it's really only relegated to the end of the story. And it's a fun climax, but a lot of Blob They Ate Everyone is mostly build-up. It's a lot of mystery and tension. And the Blob's just sort of, like, the center of the climax. So, while I like the monster, I love the cover art, I personally think Cuckoo Clock is... Yeah, I think Cuckoo Clock as well.

[00:13:45] I think it's overall better. And if we're also adding in the TV episode, the TV episode was a lot better. Yeah. The Leaps and Bounds. I think Cuckoo Clock wins in a few more brackets. No, definitely. Well, we're doing justice to Mr. Gonzalez here because Cuckoo Clock is going on to the next bracket. All right.

[00:14:14] I didn't get to say mine. What the fuck? Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll do it then. I mean, it was Cuckoo Clock but it doesn't matter. You skipped me. I don't play anymore. Okay. You got to be quicker than that. This is March Madness.

[00:14:49] Cuckoo Clock episode is absolutely awful. Yeah. I think Gummy 2 is like a nostalgic, iconic one and Paris Adventure is not. So, I think that easy. This is a... All right. So, next one we got Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes versus I Live in Your Basement. I like... I think I Live in Your Basement. I think the monsters... I do like Keith as the monster.

[00:15:20] The whole concept of the inside-out creature. I like the cover art more. Both are good cover arts but I do like the I Live in Your Basement one. And I think I Live in Your Basement in general is one of the most underrated Goosebumps stories especially in the original series. So, I would say I Live in Your Basement sweeps for this one. What do you guys think? I don't know. See, when you factor in because it didn't have an episode.

[00:15:51] I do love the Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes episode though. The Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes episode is good. I think the book is pretty mid to be honest. I don't think it's one of the best Goosebumps books. I do think it's a good episode but in terms of the book it's not one of my favorites. Yeah, I think I'm giving this one to I Live in Your Basement. Yeah, I Live in Your Basement is a better story for sure. It's definitely one of the most underrated. Lawn Gnomes is just it's again it's like what you said

[00:16:20] about Monster Blood. It's recognizable. The episode was good. The movie really pushed the Lord Gnomes. No, definitely. But you know what? They worked for the movie because they're like little destructive little annoying things. You know, like it works for the movie. Yeah, but it's such a shame that I Live in Your Basement is such a rare book because I think it is a really good story in terms of I'm not going to re-release I'm not going to re-publish one.

[00:16:50] Who knows? All right. I think this one's going to be pretty easy. We got Night of the Living W3 versus Monster Blood 4. Monster Blood 4 is objectively one of the worst Goosebumps books ever and unpopular opinion. That's not a hot that's a very cold to take to say Monster Blood 4. I was going to say a majority of people will agree with that. I mean, I have seen people say that's their favorite book which, whatever, to each their own like I said, but like majority

[00:17:20] they hate Monster Blood 4. Yeah. Night of the Living W3 has it takes every box. Good episode, good book, good cover art, good book, good monster. I mean, what do we even like, what do we even debate? I will say, I will give Monster Blood 4 credit, I do like the cover art. I do like the little blue blobs, maybe your opinion varies, I think it's funny and I like the cover art but that's the only thing about that

[00:17:50] that I like. Yeah. Well, that's what we've talked about before on this podcast where we love Tim's art or not even just Tim's art, you know, it could be Mark or Craig as well. The story itself though, just blue. Yeah. Well, Living Dummy 3 is not even my favorite sloppy book. Not every story's a winner. Yeah. It's like my second favorite, third favorite sloppy book and Tim said it was his favorite cover out of the sloppy books. Remember he said Living Dummy 3 I think Living Dummy 3 and this is a topic for another time too.

[00:18:19] I think Living Dummy 3 was greatly improved by the episode. I don't personally care for the book because I thought it was too unfair to the main characters. I felt that Zane was a little too much of a little shit. The episode sort of like humanized those characters a little more and they were a lot more bearable. So Living Dummy 3 it's not one of my favorite sloppy books but in terms of this leaps and bounds. So Night of the Living Dummy 3 wins this one.

[00:18:48] The episode was very good. It's a great one. It's a very good one. I go back and forth on which one's my favorite slappy episode because I think all three of them are very enjoyable. It's one of the better season 2 episodes I guess if you put it that way. Like especially like two-parts. Welcome to Dead House It really just depends on the type of slappy you're into. Like part 2 was more scary. Part 3 was more like weird because of

[00:19:18] the actor they had in a suit of slappy but I guess you could say it was more comedic side I guess. Part 3 was very tension focused. Yeah. Some parts were. It was different because it was two-parter. So they had more time to really like build up the suspense and I feel like because slappy in that episode was able to turn people into dummies I feel like he had he was more of a threat

[00:19:49] because in to be incredibly honest in 2 and Bride he really doesn't do a whole lot that's threatening he just kind of exists and people are scared of him. So. He psychologically messes I guess but yeah. I think part I think part 3 he's a psychological threat and an actual like threat physically in a sense. So. Yeah. Anyway

[00:20:18] moving on to our next bracket we got One Dad Horrorland versus Piano Lessons Can Be Murder. That's hard to me. This one is actually hard. The last few were pretty easy. This one is pretty difficult. I love the cover. I love the episode of Piano Lessons. Yeah. Piano Lessons is a great story. I do think it's a great book but I'm torn because I like Horrorland. I love the Horrorland book. I like the episode.

[00:20:47] I don't love it but I like it. I do I will say I do like the I do think in terms of monsters the horrors are definitely more iconic. I do personally prefer the Horrorland cover art to the Piano Lessons cover art. Yeah. I actually really like both. I mean for different reasons. I mean the fact that you just got a pair of hands playing a piano really

[00:21:29] some of that book without meaning to without really meaning to so it's kind of detriment in its own right. I think we're thinking about the TV show as well a lot because when you really think about it Paralyze is going to be murder is a better episode just way better. The actors it was kind of disturbing you know I mean Wonder Horrorland was fun but obviously it was a bit you know it was very season three goosebumps but it was also hindered by its

[00:21:58] budget yeah exactly that one was kind of done over the piano lessons could be murder episode had the really creepy moments like genuinely creepy moments I think piano lessons is a I gotta give it to Horrorland yeah horrorland wins I would say horrorland piano lessons is a better story but I feel like in terms of cover art monster it just kind of you this

[00:22:30] one actually this one is also difficult but not for the exact opposite reasons because I don't really like either of these books I don't like you can't scare me the book I like the gonna be honest I think why I'm afraid of bees is a better story

[00:23:02] because I like the sort of body horror aspect I like the sort of takeoff on the fly the 1950s fly I will say though it has the edge because it has a good episode you can't scare me and you can't scare me cover is one of my absolute all time favorites from Tim so this is a little difficult not for me I'm going with you can't scare me yeah I

[00:23:33] mean realistically it did have a good story but the cover art is far superior than why I'm afraid of bees and go eat worms obviously this one's a sweep we all know what one this is it's the

[00:24:03] haunted guys come on no if we actually went with going worms we would probably get tons of nasty all of our followers would fucking leave no I wouldn't blame a single one of them this is there there is someone out there in the goose bum community that loves going at worms okay remember that oh yeah just like George

[00:24:33] Clooney is the best Batman there would be someone out yeah be be real don't don't just say it to say it if goey worms is your favorite

[00:25:03] legitimately over the haunted mask tell us why let us know why we just want to know no man in terms of obviously story definitely tv episode and just overall you know cover art definitely every every single box it just trumps goey worm episode now goey worms had a giant phallus worm so I mean that was

[00:25:32] a better chance if it wasn't going up against the goat okay right if they would have put that phallus worm in the Carly Beth sandwich when she bit into it maybe I will say I'm a little nervous that this is going to turn out to be predictable because haunted mask we always say is like one of the best goosebumps books if not the best goosebumps book gonna be hard to beat and that's why I say maybe we should have like

[00:26:02] took out the top dogs we should take out the top dogs like realistically we should take out like series 2000 books in there or something you know what we should at least take out our three favorites so Isaiah I think 911 W2 should be taken out haunted mask and hard cam jellyjam well I feel like again we would get some comments no you can't do that you can't do that so you can't win you know what I think this would be more

[00:26:32] fun to figure out which one we say is our favorite that's not our favorite because we wouldn't know what's going to end up in the champion slot we'd be like oh my god it could be anything like and it depends what goes head to head that could be the champion well maybe maybe for the next round we just have to pick the other book that would not be we just have to pick the other book for the next round of those three moving on

[00:27:03] we got headless ghost and chakra on shock street oh this is difficult for me actually this one is pretty rough I like both I think it's just because I like ghost stories more but I also really honestly I love the cover I did like the episode a bit more than a chakra on shock street episode the episode is one of my favorite episodes headless ghost I think headless ghost wins but that is

[00:27:32] like in terms of the book I'm not both relatively the same yeah quality wise I do like the headless ghost yeah you know what yeah I'm gonna say the headless ghost shocker on shock street is a great story but I am a sucker for ghost stories and I do think that it has a great TV episode so the next one's easy yeah I mean honestly the story because it could be a shitty ghost story but it

[00:28:01] actually does have a good ghost story it's definitely one of my favorites I don't know okay so yeah we got it welcome to camp nightmare and my best friends invisible I think we can relatively say it's camp nightmare this is a quick one much like the haunted mask one this is a quick one yeah this next one's easy best friends invisible I thought was okay it's I do think let's get invisible is the better of the

[00:28:30] invisible books but I thought it was okay I think it's just because again Stein in the early days was a bit more dark on his stories and that really worked for that kind of story whereas my best friend is invisible not so much I did not really enjoy that book to be honest no all right next up we got ghost next door and vampire breath this one's for you um my good friend goosebumps uh ultimate goosebumps

[00:29:00] man I say ghost next door yep our good friend Micah is gonna be very happy because I would definitely say ghost next door I actually well here's one thing look I love ghost next door cover but me personally I actually think I like vampire breath cover more no I was gonna say I actually like vampire breath cover more yeah than ghost next door after the ghost next door it bad it's just not it's simple

[00:29:30] it's not provocative enough to really capture my interest in the story uh compared to like vampire breath if you're looking at them objectively like that so yeah yeah but story-wise I mean I'd go with ghost next door for sure yeah I would certainly say so and I like the episode tragic one it's a tragic story and they didn't and it's really well done so well and here's the thing I like the episode for vampire breath but obviously ghost next door is it's

[00:30:00] a lot like haunted mask where it's a very tragic story and honestly ghost next door is even more tragic than than haunted mask because it deals with a dead child yeah I mean yeah he died in a fire yeah yeah yeah it's a very deep story so yeah definitely I would say but I'll be honest the episode puts me to sleep this next one this next one this one this one is gonna be fun we have monster blood versus I think

[00:30:29] I prefer the barking ghost cover because I always love the cover up it's really I love that dog it looks really like I gotta disagree I do like monster blood's cover monster blood one I think had a pretty good cover because of the slime going down the stairs even just like the glasses and it is an iconic cover but barking ghost makes a better t-shirt with the people barking ghost doesn't make a better story don't disagree barking ghost look you know we have the joke monster blood can't win anything I'm sorry in this

[00:30:59] scenario barking ghost most of blood might win in this one shit I'm sorry guys I gotta say it's monster blood for me what do you guys think yeah obviously yeah I mean I really have to think about this one so Bjorn knows I'll let him go I'll say I say monster blood overall like I'm comparing to two piles of shit which one has less corn in it but if I was if I was what's the more nostalgic

[00:31:29] more nostalgic more nostalgic cover art is monster blood but if I was getting a t-shirt I would get one that has the fucking big dog on it because it's more productive like you said I said earlier I would have that then the story I think monster blood is just a notch let's say it's one notch above they both have episodes I think barking ghost is a terrible episode too terrible book terrible episode monster blood even though I didn't like the first one I do like more monster blood so if you were to count

[00:31:58] that I think that kind of gives it the edge in that scenario cover art's up in the air but yeah I gotta say that in terms of story monster blood has to win this one I would say I already have my answer for the next one I don't know yeah well you know what this one is hard because I know you like horror camp jelly jam and I love the cover and it's a good story but I actually oh man you gotta go with the cover and the story I

[00:32:28] pick both for that one well we also got to go off the monster I was gonna say like going by cover I give it to jelly jam but by story that's really tough for you honestly really liked both stories but I will say haunted school was probably one of the more scary books stein had written in a while since probably the original stuff was book like it's oh yeah man yeah that's a tough and also the monster it's got a better monster

[00:32:57] jelly jam does and that's two out of three you just answered the question but the story is the main bread and butter with the whole thing the story it all comes it didn't get an episode either jelly jam didn't get an episode but haunted school did and we do love the haunted school episode haunted school didn't get an episode perfect school was the perfect school but yeah all right crossing schools here yeah it comes down I think

[00:33:27] it's gonna come down to story like it's yeah it has better cover art and it has better monster this is tough this is tough because I love both these books you guys pick what you want I'm honestly I think I'm gonna give it to jelly jam while I wasn't a fan of like the ending like some people have said before you can pick what you honestly pick

[00:33:55] I gotta say I'd honestly pick haunted school this is I think this is like the first one where we're at a crossroads because I love haunted school I jelly jam is a great book but I just I can't get over haunted school that was just one I was like thinking I agree haunted school has a really scary story it's a scary story I gotta say it all comes down to story I'm afraid so I don't know Adam's favorite is the haunted school so but then I'm also like I don't want to pick it just for

[00:34:25] the fact that I don't want to pick my favorite book because like I don't want I don't want I was I was hoping I didn't ever have to put my favorite book in this if you look at it objectively which one because right now like not going by like cover let's just go by story which is the better story I gotta say it's haunted school for me it's haunted school man I don't know smart cap jelly jam is my

[00:34:54] favorite like all around I still pick that for my all around but it's up to you guys what about you you're our tiebreaker on this one well I was gonna say if that was the choice you made we already had the decision of jelly jam because I voted for jelly jam okay and I guess we're going with horror camp jelly jam you could almost just say you know what it's a coin toss you didn't know it doesn't make it to the next round

[00:35:24] sucks yeah no it's that sucks it was a coin toss that's all it was it was a coin toss flip a coin hey I actually do have my Halloween medallion here I can flip no you guys you guys jelly jam no we're not getting jelly jam but what would it have been if you flicked the coin heads folks is the scary one tails the happy one

[00:35:54] I don't think jelly jam is very happy my slave would burn that one what do we got what do we got okay yeah what we already all right I said let the coin decide next one we got werewolf of fever swamp versus deep trouble this one's pretty pretty that's an open and closed case yeah it's a real fever swamp

[00:36:24] clearly oh shit I thought it was going to be deep trouble come on guys of course you did some people really like deep trouble like some people really do deep trouble one is okay deep trouble two I think is personally not good in terms of being a book even though it was on the best seller list it was on the best seller list yeah but well I think that's I feel that's only because goosebumps was like hyped extremely by the show at

[00:36:53] the time yeah so the books were doing extremely well too because of that yeah so but not to say because it was a good story deep trouble one oh my god is this beast from the east attack of the jack-o-lanterns okay that's another easy one oh yeah that's a given yeah attack of the jack-o-lanterns I can't even joke about that one that one's just how's that's the all-round better there's no there's no TV episode I love Tim's cover out of these from these because the use of

[00:37:23] colors is really pretty down the bottom with the plants like if I'm going based on like a real artsy in colors like he just did such a good job with those colors like the mixtures yeah he did on the attack of the jack-o-lanterns too that's one of renee's favorite books because she's I don't know if you guys know but she does a lot of art and she actually looked at the cover of that one day and just went wow those are really pretty colors like how he's blended those um in like the bottom not even the monster it's the bottom of

[00:37:52] the book like all those plants she said it's such a good use of colors and really nice to look at like from an art perspective so like how Tim got the job pretty cover yeah all right so that one's pretty cut and dry next up we got say cheese this one man ride monster oh man this is difficult hardest one that's the hardest one yet because the tv episode is fucking like 10 out of 10 or 11 out of 10 for me

[00:38:22] um girl crying monster is good very good and it's one of the best so scary like it's terrifying the ryan goesling one is iconic but it's also really cringy at the same time too uh i would say i do like say cheese and die's cover uh more than girl cried monster um but again it all comes down to story um and that's hard man i love story

[00:38:50] i love it i like say cheese and die as well oh my god this is the can we do a coin toss for this one no we can't do it i can't answer this one no okay all right here here's how i'll put it um say cheese and die is super iconic but but girl cried monster does have a better episode it does have one of the best twists in the entire

[00:39:19] goosebump series and i do think that overall i do think that girl cried monster is a tighter story like i feel like it's more closely woven together um i love girl cried monster that's so big that's a big means me so much but yeah i think i gotta say i'm going with girl cried monster i think i gotta say cheese and die are all star and it's one of your great it's one of your goat it's one of the goat stories but i just

[00:39:47] i do agree with you i i think the cover for say cheese and die is better but everything else i gotta give it to girl cried monster look i'm gonna flip the coin anyway and we got oh we got tails which is what i had for girl cried monster anyway well there we go then that answered my question because i really couldn't decide on that one but yeah no i think that was difficult the last uh first bracket of uh the horrors division and we got a bomb

[00:40:17] the snowman of pasadena versus return of the mummy turn of the mummy for me like it's like battle of them honestly it's like battle of the mid because i think both these books are kind of me i think i'm just giving it to return of the mummy due to the cover return of the mummy return of the mummy i think has a better um slightly better location in terms of story i do like the cover art more um it does have an edge of having an episode even though i don't think it's a great episode um

[00:40:47] and i think in terms of the monster i do like the mummy more than i like the abominable snowman so it's prince kuru like he wins yeah he was all over 90s merch and stuff too so i mean he's a he was he was popular yeah all right now we're moving on over to the curly division starting off we got haunted mask 2 versus calling all creeps this is difficult because haunted mask one is obviously like so much

[00:41:17] better than one must too but like story-wise like but then calling all creeps is really good but it's calling all creeps better than the haunted mask tunic not better than the original but is it better than story-wise by the books yes 100 in my opinion because i i didn't like the story of what they did with uh steve in the book that's why i'm glad the episode was rewritten and they did so much better with the story for the

[00:41:44] haunted house to like i would it is one of those cases where the episode greatly improved on

[00:42:14] the book because i think the book is not great i don't think steve is a very great character to follow in the book because he's just too much of an asshole no i think i would god yeah what do you think i i would honestly because i love both covers so for me it had to come down and i like both episodes now granted i like the episode of the haunted house two more than calling all creeps although i like both so it already wins there in that term but like yeah when you look at story man i gotta go calling all

[00:42:43] creeps it's just based on the book story in my opinion because yeah you know great episode but we are mainly focusing on the book here and in terms of the book calling uh calling all creeps is the better book so oh my god you know they would have made the book story what the episode story was it would be a no-brainer i'd pick haunted house two if it was like the episode it would it would have been haunted yeah all right next up we got how to kill monster versus stay out of the

[00:43:12] basements dr brewer man yeah funny i enjoy how to kill a monster but stay out of the basement wins in every category well funny enough the cover arts both have green hands working out of doors no that's true hey tim this is the one time where i'm going with a different cover art to yours no i do think stay out of the wait a minute how do you know it's not his cover of stay out

[00:43:39] of the basement oh you're going off i still like the original i like his how to kill a monster more than his uh stay out of the basement but uh but yeah stay in the basement it's an iconic story it's a great story um great episode two-parter how to kill monsters episode was fine it was it was okay it's one i enjoy watching personally don't agree i didn't have to watch it again for any reason i

[00:44:09] don't it's not it's not barking ghost level but i mean it's i'd watch it obviously over barking ghost or something like that but yeah but i think in terms of mid episode all the all the check marks we got stay out of the basement all right curse of the mummy's oh and ghost beach ghost beach ghost beach wins the cover i think in

[00:44:39] terms of the cover ghost beach wins over the cover um yeah both not great stories though curse movies tomb didn't have an episode ghost beach's episode though was terrible in my opinion i think ghost beach the episode was very very bad i think both episodes were rough the skeleton faces that was bad oh yeah that was terrible one of the worst in the whole show so i guess if you were to hurt me but yeah ghost beach was rough

[00:45:08] like i mean even taking out the bad 90s graphics at the time i mean overall the between the acting the the whole concept the the concept of the story was fine until you get to the point it's like oh we're your relatives and we eat dogs and what kind of mom by the way sends these kids to visit their what they what were they like distant cousins or something

[00:45:36] how old are their cousins twice grandparent yeah no well the episode wait was it was it the episode only that was just the the old people were they old in the book i don't remember i don't remember it's been such a long time since i read either way too many books to remember every detail but either way i mean when you look at the episodes like jesus christ like what what the hell like they're

[00:46:04] they're literally like grandparent age but they're your cousins and then how does your mom send you there but not know their ghosts not those like like how did you not know they're dead it's like i think i actually picked curse of the mummy's tomb have you ever met these people have you been there before like well that's the thing it's like i i don't think curse of the mummy's tomb is a particularly standout book i think return of the mummy is a

[00:46:34] better book um compared to curse of the mummy's tomb i i just don't really remember much about it i think it's better than ghost beach though in terms of the book book was okay book i think ghost beach book over the curse of the mummy's tomb i would say book of ghost beach over uh curse mummy's tomb because honestly it's another battle in the mid i think they're both kind of mid stories i do think the book version of ghost

[00:47:03] beach is better like by just a little bit i love the cover uh it was one of my favorites it is a better cover yeah so that's another feels it for me i think i'm gonna say ghost beach yeah so that's what we got i mean that's one of the from tim's website i mean like that's in my house so i love that cover as nick knows it's on one of the binders that is very nostalgic to me yes it is because that's one of the binders i got from you too yep yep

[00:47:33] make sure you got one next up we got bad hair day and how i learned to fly battle of the mid this is easy for me yeah but i think bad hair day there yep bad hair day i would say bad hair day i actually you know what i don't think how i learned to fly is that bad i've heard some people say it's one of the worst i don't think it's one of the worst goosebumps books um but it's it's an unremarkable one and it's the only one in the whole series where i feel like

[00:48:03] it's not remotely scary i don't think there's anything scary in it at all there's no supernatural aspect there's no monsters not even really any villains or anything like that it's a pretty stakeless that's gonna be the main focus of season three of goosebumps how are they wearing to fly yeah that's like episode one it'll be like could you imagine that'd be and the kid has to be wearing red combo sneakers when he starts flying if they do

[00:48:32] if they do adapt it they has to be wearing the red converse sneakers though like by all accounts all right next up we got uh cry of the cat and it came from beneath the sink again we're putting in two series 2000s to round out the 64 slots i'm gonna say cry of the cat just because like i think it's cry of the cat i want i think it's a better i think it's better overall and also like that is just such a nostalgic book and cover for me both and there's a tv episode for both

[00:49:02] but i think cry of the cat just to have a series 2001 go on i think yeah besides just that i do like we're gonna have a series 2000 based on that next bracket but we're we're just saying like between the two yeah i mean cry of the cat i'd say cry of the cat episode is okay i do think the episode of it

[00:49:31] came beneath the sink more than cry of the cat oh yeah yeah yeah in that sense because while not like i just love the super great episode the whole yeah the the killer sponge and the the killer potato at the end really got me like i love it that was great i love that i love great stuff um but i don't know when you go in the books i love both but cry of the cat was better as book yeah in my opinion and yeah seriously we're gonna win again bright of the living dummy versus legend of the lost legend

[00:50:01] i think this one um yeah no brighter here bright of the living dummy legend of the lost legend is just such a nothing burger book bright of the living dummy was actually like a good book like it was a good one it was fun legend of the lost legend is what i is like i compare that to a potato chip bag i.e. there's nothing in it this is the one where slappy literally drags the kid across the floor by his neck like he is violent in this one like to me that's like one of the most violent slappies in all the books

[00:50:31] and i really like that one but bride bride is a good slappy book like it is a good i like it better than three's book i like it better than one i like it better than one's book i think it's probably my second favorite slappy book i would say that too i'd say living dummy one and then bride i think are like my personal rankings um and then i'd say one in three yeah see i think i'm going nine living dummy two is my favorite not one then bride then one

[00:51:01] three yeah yeah bride one three yeah three that i have i have two bride one and three two bride one and three so two bride one and three yeah yeah that's pretty much two bride one and three and again it's a toss up between one and three like i would toss a coin i like both but also yeah yeah that's definitely a good order sorry legend of the last legend you suck oh pretty much yeah next up

[00:51:30] i'm picking fan fan fan i would say fan well in terms of yeah in terms of book i would say fan of the auditorium the book of don't go to sleep is better than the episode um oh god i am going to say too i do like the cover art for don't go to sleep more than fan of the auditorium because i just like the big hand coming over the bed over the kid in bed uh i think is a great cover art but i think in terms of story phantom is better so

[00:52:00] yeah lauren you move on to the next round your favorite book you'll be watching this so all right oh here's a pretty easy one right here deep trouble two and welcome to dead house we're talking like the most the most violent goosebump book going up against deep trouble two okay um i'm gonna say welcome to dead house in terms of episodes dead house beats deep trouble and i like deep trouble i i'm probably on an island with that one but

[00:52:29] i like deep trouble um but dead house dead house beats dead house beats the story dead house beats the monsters the zombies are better than the mutant fish people and creatures so yeah it's welcome to dead house and it's very violent and i love it yeah all right oh my god why'd you do this to me we're and and we got terror

[00:52:59] versus terror tower why didn't you chicken chicken against freaking deep trouble or something yeah just have one instance where i could have gone to the next round nah guys we got to give it to terror tower terror tower is one of my all-time favorites ever it's in my top 10 episode book cover everything there's like all the running chicken chicken doesn't have running uh as much running in it so i that's like one point above

[00:53:28] sorry wait were we meant to pick chicken chicken though like all three of us depending on no matter what it went up against we were meant to pick it no i never said that but no that was down we're supposed to do let's just do it terror tower nothing we're not putting it over terror tower there's no way in hell we're putting chicken chicken over terror tower drop the at let's drop the joke for one second we're not putting chicken it's not a joke all right it's not a joke

[00:53:57] okay this next one is pretty easy we got say cheese and die again yeah yeah this one all the camp stories have won these have gone through no reason to discuss that again say cheese and die again is the only one among the two with an episode and yet say cheese and die again is a dog shit episode see there's no there's no having an episode over the other if the episode is garbage so

[00:54:27] not even ryan goes like let's save that no i i don't think so say cheese and die again is right up there with the monster blood sequels and like why why does this exist why do we need to say cheese and die although i love the cover of say cheese and die again as well i do love the cover um but that's the only thing i like is the cover i still think green cold lake has a better cover like so oh yeah yeah no no like no no like it's got a better cover camp cold

[00:54:57] like i'm just saying say cheese and die again does have a good cover i like it yeah it's a good cover but it's a terrible story terrible sequel why did he go get the camera i still can't get over the theory greg what the fuck are you thinking like why do you go get the camera again like it is because your teacher won't believe why are you writing a story about the stupid fucking camera you know nobody's gonna believe you and he's like well i gotta prove myself so i can get a good grade so i'm gonna go get the camera that nearly killed my family and my friends last time

[00:55:27] yeah it's it's it's like why not let's go to bed at cover if you're comparing them it's more ominous and eerie but i do like the set cheese and die again cover greg banks do the darndest things greg banks and evan ross could have a fight out for who is the dumbest motherfucker in goosebumps oh god okay next up oh this is good go nowhere book this one is difficult one for me we got how i got my shrunken head versus be careful what you wish for i love shrunken head easy for me

[00:55:58] what do you what do you think what you wish for you're here for what you wish for yeah i like shrunken head uh man that cover art's more nostalgic to me shrunken head shrunken head i think is a better cover i love the warped like yeah like tim's style in that um well funny magic centric they're both they both have to do with magic yeah they're good they're good head to head i honestly i gotta agree with nick i i think it's be careful yeah

[00:56:27] because i don't like i'm just going by story the story is careful what you wish for because i don't have to hear that dumb clear well i didn't i don't say that but story and definitely episode uh i think be careful what you wish for triumphs because yeah oh yeah oh next one's easy

[00:56:57] you wear the snowman that's it just like just put it in now put it in now yeah i like i like the cover for monster blood too but again yeah it just goes down to to story because neither one of those got an episode so yeah just going by the story itself beware the snowman was where the snowman yeah i think monster blood 2 i say is probably my favorite of the monster blood quadrilogy but only because of cuddles it cuddles is the only thing that

[00:57:26] like differentiates that book he's a he's a mascot he's a mascot i think i think australia agrees because that's like all over their merch over there look cuddles is you know what it is it's like weird it's such a bad but cuddles is so nostalgic like it's so nostalgic he is on everything i would say cuddles beats no cuddles i'd say cuddles beats out over the monster category um because he's more iconic um as a monster yeah yeah that's it

[00:57:56] but better story for beware the snowman oh boy here we go with the zack we got versus attack of the mutant um sorry sorry i gotta say let's get invisible i say let's get visible man yeah i think this is when he's saying no no boo hoo hoo no why why

[00:58:25] are you picking my favorite this list is rigged bullshit let's get invisible it's a better story it's a better episode i do like i do like the cover off attack of the mutant and i will say the masked mutant technically is a more identifiable monster um than the mirror people so i would say like those are the two things um it goes over but again we're going down to story let's get invisible

[00:58:55] triumphs yeah all right this one i think is another i don't think attack of the mutant story was that bad it was okay the story wasn't that bad for attack of the mutant the episode like we talked about was a little rough i mean i do but like again like we've talked about the episode could just been one episode you really didn't need really part one most of part one that they showed i mean part two is pretty much all you really needed some of the filler from part two and then just like slapped a little bit of part one in there

[00:59:24] just call it a full episode or the you know what they could have done and it might and it would have been better you know what they could have done if they wanted to have the two parts like why does he have to leave constantly like can't he just get trapped in there and then come across a bunch of different superheroes like i feel like that's a way they could have made that work for a two-parter um it's just yeah around in my opinion they probably blew their budget on adam west though so it was like we can't get any other superheroes yeah

[00:59:53] it's kind of like the dead maybe don't get adam west last one thing to say it's like they can't afford to get more superheroes you know been a fourth wall deadpool break there this next one ghost camp is such a good story i know it was a great story and it's going up against monster blood 3 which is a dog shit book so it's ghost camp it's one of the creepiest it's a creepy ghost story and i didn't i didn't care for monster blood 3's cover either i know it's at this point a lot of the og 62 covers are practically iconic

[01:00:22] but ghost camp had a better one of the ghost camp was a good cover ghost camp had a much better one the dark it's such a it's a really dark book it's a dark book when you actually read it it is creepy it's really like it's an eerie book yeah um they it's they it's a good ghost story and goosebumps and i know a lot of people love that one these next two i actually wish they made an episode over as much as i love horror camp jelly jam is it wrong for me to say i would have preferred a

[01:00:52] ghost camp's episode because i think if they handled those camp episode ghost camp would have been a really creepy episode if they did it i think a creepy one yeah definitely all right next up we got like i think would have been a good episode yeah well this is hard because egg monsters from mars like i think i like the story more than the original high living dummy um but my living dummies cover art is like if not the most horn and mask my living dummies original cover arts are the two most iconic they used on

[01:01:21] everything it's the slappy up like it's just so good but like i think egg monsters i think i like the story this is tough i like neither one got an episode so you can't have that that in either well and then this one in terms of monsters you technically can't say slappy you gotta say mr wood um yeah you're not saying we're not counting you slappy in this one and you don't worry it's mr wood and he sucks ass

[01:01:53] um oh god but then the cover art for my living gummy cover art is great but i also like egg monsters i'm going by story yeah i'm going to egg monsters i think egg monsters has a better story even i'm saying that i i i think egg monsters did have a better story yeah i think egg monsters has a better story yeah this is the one slappy book that doesn't make it through every other one day when you compare it easy yeah covers my living dummy but you compare story egg monsters and

[01:02:22] at the end of the day because we're doing this by the story being the heavyweight because egg monster decision making for most of it is so paranoia centric because like it's a kid trapped being held hostage with these alien creatures like i think it's just because there's so much like uh paranoia and claustrophobia because he's stuck in this place it's just it does better at being scary than living dummy one um and living dummy one to be honest i feel like the sequels outdid

[01:02:51] what that book was doing anyway like just did those scenes better um like look as iconic as that cover art is it's like it's literally the two most iconic is that and haunted miles it's the friday the 13th yeah like but so story-wise egg monsters like yeah the monsters we knew all right look the cover room is so iconic i've got 50 copies of the books i just like it's pretty to look at it's pretty i'm gonna say if

[01:03:21] you're going strictly by the cover i mean this wouldn't be a fair bracket i mean because you know we have our opinions about everything of course but not let me down i mean he's a far superior cover to egg monsters let's be let's be real um it's you're it's literally that it's eerie and it would and it like you said it would come down i do believe to the haunted mask and night living dummy we wouldn't even need to do this bracket if it was just based on cover art because those

[01:03:51] are the two most iconic covers yeah so going by story if it store if story gets the most weight out of all the categories and yeah egg monsters for show yeah now werewolf skin in the scarecrow walked in midnight that is super tough for me yeah um i love the werewolf stories books i love both episodes i love both yes yes but yes scarecrow walks in midnight doesn't have a pigeon in it

[01:04:20] no but it has chocolate chip pancakes and scarecrow walks at midnight but then you had the bus lady in weevil skin give me back my head my fat heart says go with chocolate chip pancakes oh my god this is hard oh man stories dude that's the problem i love werewolf stories but i also know i do too at midnight i love the werewolf skin episode but scarecrow walks in midnight is one of my favorite episodes of all time it's creepy it's creepy

[01:04:50] god but we're going based on the book okay what am i thinking here if you had to squeeze my arm and force me to choose i would probably have to go with scarecrow mostly because um i think because it's so isolated and scarecrows i think the scarecrows are the more creepy monster um of them because they're sort of walking a werewolf in front of me and a scarecrow i think the world's a bit bit scarier but yeah i

[01:05:20] mean they're but they're both scary monsters don't get me wrong fast and slow much much fast so we can went to the west you know i just give that scarecrow a little fire and it's all good to go he's gone werewolf though how many people walk around with silver bullets you know what i mean it's like okay yeah you guys have more of a dad than australia does so at least you got that i'll just say it we don't really have guns here yeah not it's not heard of when you hear of

[01:05:48] australia i'm not a gun advocate um at all so when you hear i'm very much against guns yeah i gotta say i think i gotta i i personally am gonna say uh scarecrow walks in midnight i i'm coin tossing this one i actually cannot decide like i like both very evenly here likes book i'm actually gonna cross this one tail i'm gonna give it to my i'll let bjorns figure out you want to do my coin toss for okay i'm gonna

[01:06:18] say tails is werewolf skin and heads is scarecrow okay i can already see what it is i got tails so werewolf skin what do you think nick uh see for me i'm because i love both but i have to go with my nostalgia route and that's scarecrow yeah that's one book i size the haunted mask like when it came out i read multiple times i really enjoyed it it doesn't matter

[01:06:48] which one they're both the same i evenly sorry werewolf skin fans we gotta go with scarecrow wax in the night when it comes down to werewolf stories too we have fever swamp and that's gonna be a tough one to beat fever swamp is the better of the werewolf stories and right so when it comes down to that i think we made the right choice here yeah i i like honestly even more so than haunted school i would have been sad if scarecrow got left in the in the qualification round so

[01:07:18] anyway scarecrow is one i've got on my wall too so i mean i love that art i love the story love the episode yeah actually my cavity color shirt just shipped of that scarecrow so i'm excited about that well right next round preliminary final we have gotten past the qualification round so we have eliminated 32 books and we're down to now the other 32 which are making it into the next round so

[01:07:48] again we're gonna start with the slappy division slappy wins again for me so yeah i gotta say uh versus living dummy two i think i gotta say living dummy two on this one yep yep i like both but two just had a really good story living dummy two and i like to cover our stories i like it is a better cover i like the cuckoo clock cover art but the night of living dummy two and like we talked about like it was so rare for

[01:08:18] them to use like that pink and green combo and it works so well with this cover uh that's so so memorable um slappy looks super creepy and that story's better yeah it does story's better i think it's i think it's a great story like both but yeah look at like you're literally ranking like the best slappy book to that the best one not like you not like you're ranking living dummy three cuckoo clock or like one of the bad ones i would think

[01:08:47] if i went against living dummy three i probably would have said cuckoo clock but it's going up against two which i think is better so yeah it's hard to that that's an easy one for that yeah so at least cuckoo clock got one round in but uh now we have i live in your basement and living dummy three and i think i gotta i think i gotta keep with i live in your basement yeah yeah i live in your basement sorry one slappy's been knocked out now yeah well um and the story's good don't get me

[01:09:16] wrong but i do like the live in your basement story in terms of yeah like yeah episode of living dumb well there is no living in your basement hey if we're comparing episodes there's only there is no living your basement episode oh no but you can't throw that in to make your i think uh i live in your basement's just a better story it is again it's an underrated book now we got yeah well that's horrorland versus you can't scare me

[01:09:44] oh i think i got horrorland here horrorland yeah and i think the least too yeah yeah horrorland is more iconic and it is a better story overall we were we were trimming we were really trimming with uh you can't scare me and why i'm afraid of bees but this one i think it worked for you too because you both love you can't scare me again great cover like love the cover but again when you go to the story it's one day at horrorland well yeah if i if we were going off of cover art alone i would have said you can't scare

[01:10:13] me because i just love that one so much but uh it'd be tough pick but yeah yeah all right here we go we got your favorite ghost story and your favorite mask story oh man choose now which is your favorite because they're both your favorite of genres i mean well you know my answer on a mask 100 yeah as much as i love it was ghost you can't like the mask as well that's that story was

[01:10:42] near perfection for stein like and that's the reason that's one of his no not one of his it is his favorite story he said it multiple times it's his favorite book yeah so there's a reason for that actually the next one's easy for me still camp nightmare still yeah that's easy for me we're back in the horror division sorry micah welcome to camp nightmare and the ghost next door all right micah you made it through the one sorry micah yeah gotta go with well he did say his his uh favorite has

[01:11:12] changed of late he still really likes ghost next door but he said upon reading he's got a new fit jelly jam's gonna make it through again well yeah yeah well uh just one quick thing i will say what's gonna happen now bjorn it's gonna be nightmare against jelly jam oh that's a good point wait hang on that's my favorite goosebumps episode book when we when we get there i don't know what you're gonna do it'll be

[01:11:41] interesting to see but i do want to add on really quick ghost next door is a great book and a great episode but camp nightmare is more iconic and i feel like just in general it's a more i don't want to say like i don't want to say it's more interesting it's more it is more interesting that's what it is yeah so it is more action-packed which makes it more interesting to me at least yeah it goes next to a more emotional story where camp nightmare is a more action-oriented story again we think of the episode don't we nick we

[01:12:10] just it's so nostalgic it is like i fall so during the episode or even in terms of the book that the book of camp nightmare is more action-oriented yeah and the cover's better for camp nightmare well monster boy you got one you got one in it's horror camp jelly jam yeah yeah i'm just glad you made this one no this one i'm happy that made it as far as it did oh this is gonna be a tough one for you guys now

[01:12:38] oh yeah oh god this is me right here this is personal halloween versus werewolf nick pumpkins versus werewolf i mean i love both covers tremendously i have both of those in my wall too but oh god it's difficult now it's getting tense now both stories uh both endings were great both

[01:13:07] episodes were great but i know you know what i you would think because i'm just i clearly i mean i have a lot of my hands stuff i think i think i'm a jack-o'-lanterns i i gotta go with fever swamp i gotta go with fever swamp too i'm sorry it is it is just so good pull three he was one it was hurt it was hard this was a hard one because i love attack of the jack-o'-lanterns but werewolf man that that's a

[01:13:36] that's a fucking classic book right there it is it just based on story alone edges out a little bit more to me and the werewolf again i love werewolves but werewolf stories um specifically god that's tough that hurt me a little bit inside well this one won't hurt as much we got girl cried monster versus yeah prince koru love you but you know but now what we have for

[01:14:06] the next bracket gminy christmas that is well that's the thing like you know we're all the best ones you know that's gonna be hard get there all right i don't know we're already up to the other side now oh yeah we'll be narrowing it down yeah so some of these have been really easy though so we don't have to spend much time on yeah we got all creeps versus stay out of the basement i'll start i'll start i think stay out of the basement still for me is still my favorite

[01:14:34] i gotta say so too calling out creeps is great but i love calling out creeps yeah but stay out of the basement so much better the next one better story um i think i think oh i don't know see i like the story better for ghost beach and the cover so i'm gonna go with ghost beach yeah i think because like episode blue ass because i mean but the story i thought was was decent or about weird a i'm like

[01:15:05] yeah this was i love pride my second favorite slappy versus they're both they're both great the only series 2000s together yeah isn't that i know really exactly oh man i love crying i've read bride i picked bride because i've read it more i think i like it more overall i think i think i gotta say cry the cat i think cry the cat's better you're right at a good episode good book good

[01:15:34] right as a better episode right as a better episode but i think cry the cat's a better book and i do like according to style right the living dummy style when he's like oh it's my like me's favorite yeah oh that was awful i didn't believe he said that what do you think nick where are you landing oh i already said but i mean i'll say it again i'm totally going bride on this one i mean i love cry the cat but i personally think cry the cat but

[01:16:04] let's go i say bride because slappy literally chokes a kid and drags him by his neck so i'm like that that is like you don't get that slappy book and i'll take it i think the episode the episode is what pushed it over a little bit i mean i like both stories pretty equally but with the way they were created as episodes is what edges it out i think bride was a better episode yeah yeah all right next up we got phantom of the auditorium versus

[01:16:34] oh storyboard i picked dead house yeah that's yeah that's a sad that's a sad decline for phantom but at least it made it i guess passed around yeah dead house is for sure better dead house is just iconic it's a way more iconic it's oh my god it's more gruesome than the auditorium oh yeah what's our choice on this one okay i think we're officially all right we're back in the wand gnomes division so yeah we got terror tower oh god no

[01:17:04] nick what do we pick on this one could we both i gotta say camp cold lake i think camp cold lake is gonna win this one for me personally oh fuck i love terror tower so much like i love the i love the book like the book is so good the cover is so good i love the the it's like the only medieval goosebump book out there there's like full camp books already which is why this is hard like

[01:17:33] i'm picking terror tower i wish there was an episode so i could maybe edge one out of the other because i like both books the story wise and i like both the cover of the lot i actually just ordered a night in terror tower print from tim i'm still waiting on it to come in the mail but i just like camp cold lake is good camp cold lake i i'm a sucker for a ghost story especially at a camp and camp cold lake is a creepy story

[01:18:02] and it's gonna edge that for me personally it edges it out i pick terror tower because it's like i love it i've read the book so many times it every time i read it i love it i love medieval like that just that the setting of it and it's kind of like the only goosebump book that really does that so i yeah i still pick terror i'm the tiebreaker but i'm telling you this is tough boys i don't know camp cold lake's good but i mean we've already picked two camp books

[01:18:32] and i'm like oh god yeah but i can't base it on that because i have to base it on the story um but i like both a lot so i think i'm gonna have to give it to camp cold lake though yeah sorry i think it was a bit scarier had a again i'm i like the ghost stories quite a bit um i love tear tower but i think i gotta be of cold lake oh yeah

[01:19:02] what's the next one all right next up we got be careful what you wish for versus beware the snowman i still pick snowman for me i would say snowman i like beware the snowman i like the snowman i'm a sucker isolated environments and this like village that they're living in and beware the snowman uh with like the you know the cave in the mountains something like that i think is just infinitely sort of scarier

[01:19:32] setting for a story care for what you wish for is okay in terms of that aspect um but yeah i gotta say beware the snowman for myself personally you're ghost camp let's get invisible in ghost camp i think ghost camp ghost camp ghost camp for me i would say ghost camp yeah i think ghost camp is a scarier story

[01:20:01] it's one of the scariest ghost camp was one of the scarier goosebump stories like creepy what do you think nick yeah i think i'm in that same camp uh yeah that same camp every camp looks animated yeah there's a reason for that man i'm telling you like if they do a season three of the disney plus show it needs to be camp themed i think so like science camp stories are fantastic all of them every camp book you have

[01:20:31] camp cold lake which is you know you have camp night moon over here you have uh jelly jam over here you have just all of them they're all there every camp is in them all right next up we got uh egg monsters versus the scarecrow walks at midnight i'm gonna probably this one's easier i'm gonna go for scarecrow walks at midnight yeah this one's easier for me scarecrow yeah egg monsters was great but i just

[01:21:01] like the story of scarecrow more so yep that's uh and i like you know scarecrow oh god how many we got now uh we are officially starting round four so uh we have uh one two three four five six seven we have sixteen books now we've eliminated sixteen this is our top six three two four books if you really this is sixteen yep so right now all right well let's keep going through it

[01:21:30] so back in the slappy division we have night of living w2 versus i live in your living dummy two living dummy two god it's your favorite book i say you gotta still i love i live in your basement so much but god i do as well but yeah like when it comes to these head-to-heads sometimes you're like fuck well i'm gonna tell you guys right now when we get to the semi-finals it's gonna hurt i can already um it will

[01:22:01] oh speaking of hurts one day at horror lane versus the haunted mask i think it's still haunted mask haunted mask it's haunted mask it's haunted mask for me sorry horror land gotta go horror land made it two rounds three no sorry one two yeah two all right next up bjorn oh i know what you guys have picked already welcome to camp nightmare versus the horror of camp jelly jam i will say camp nightmare

[01:22:31] 2 only because it's my favorite episode i'm gonna say welcome to camp nightmare it's i was gonna say i'm giving it to nightmare yeah only because of the ending jelly jam had if it had a better ending yeah camp nightmare is just is way more brutal it's got i feel bigger stakes uh because and there's more mystery to it like i feel like the mystery in camp nightmare is better than the mystery in camp jelly jam um personally so

[01:23:00] all right and then here in the horrors division so that was the horrors division yeah make me choose this werewolf fever swamp versus girl cried monster and make me choose i gotta say fever swamp i gotta i gotta say fever swamp because i like werewolf stories more and girl cried monster is iconic as hell but they both had such good stories good endings

[01:23:30] i wasn't choosing covers i'm giving it to fever swamp and i think that's what edges it out bjorn refused to choose i was letting you two choose unanimously oh man i'm telling you man i love that story all right back here in the division we got stay out of the basement versus ghost beach this one's easy this is an easy one yeah stay out of the basement

[01:24:02] better episode let's not waste let's not waste our audience's time here this is stay out of the basement yep oh here's a tough one oh i picked it right versus welcome to dead house i picked dead house gotta give the dead house yeah it's kind of easy look if it was not living dummy 2 versus dead house then i have a problem okay but it might get to that we don't know yet who knows yeah it might all right now we got camp cold lake versus beware the snowman i think i gotta give it to camp

[01:24:31] cold lake yeah camp cold lake sorry you made it you made it pretty fast snowman yeah yeah that was actually surprising pretty decent all right and then the last one of the lawn gnomes division ghost camp versus scarecrow wax at midnight now this one is tough air crow for me it might be somewhat scarier for you love both but i got it both are scary but i still think scarecrow is the better book of the two another camp book

[01:25:01] bites the dust what was your pick Bjorn i wasn't choosing it's getting difficult you can't plead the fifth when we're down to the final 16 man we need you to pick we are officially in the semifinals we have oh wait this is tricky Isaiah's favorite book

[01:25:30] versus the haunted mask this is the okay i know nick is going to i know nick is going to choose haunted mask that is you know where i'm falling on okay just to make this interesting for the fact of the game playing now because i'm looking at this as a game now nick haunted mask just to be interesting i'm going to say living dummy 2 so that it

[01:26:23] okay it's your personal choice here okay and it just so happens that the head to head had to be his favorite book versus probably his second favorite book okay so just this this is this is this is but it's just oh god only to be divisive i did this for fun and to cause you pain oh god

[01:26:52] i really i really really want to choose a living dummy too but i honestly objectively haunted mask is the better book like if you honestly it would be funny to just say living dummy too so that we can just see which remember you're also comparing your monster you're doing your story and your monster monster don't worry about the episode because not every book had

[01:27:22] well we weren't doing monster because not every book had monster if it episode just go based on monster and story monster and story if I monster is more powerful even that doesn't help because I prefer

[01:27:51] slappy as the monster but I think it just haunted mask has a better story oh god I only did this to make it fun I was like I'll pick this for you guys for me I'm struggling no not for not for me because if Haunted Mask loses I'm taking my ball and going home fuck this game what about the haunted mask lives that doesn't exist exactly it's ran alright alright I have my

[01:28:21] and as much as it pained me I gotta say do a coin toss if you really can't decide the Haunted Mask is an objectively better book I may personally prefer Living Dummy 2 and I personally prefer slappy but the Haunted Mask is the objectively better story so I gotta go with the Haunted Mask I feel like I was struggling so hard I almost gave myself some kind of hernia

[01:28:51] we already know it's one then you're doing the Haunted Mask versus Camp Nightmare yeah well it was going to come down to one of the other ones anyway but sorry so we got Camp Nightmare and Werewolf Fever Swamp I'm still going with Fever Swamp I think I'm going to go with Fever Swamp too Fever Swamp yeah Werewolf Fever Swamp what what you think we should have played this with you know what

[01:29:21] would have made this more interesting if we played this with a fourth person yeah that would have been interesting I feel like head head how how did that happen so the slappy

[01:29:51] division is currently represented by the haunted mask and the horrors division is represented by Werewolf Fever Swamp going to the curly division we have the first preferred Welcome to Dead House over Stay Out of the Basement

[01:30:21] so I still take Stay Out of the Basement but it's barely edged out so this is gory like let's just say the most gory goosebump book it was dark it was creepy it was eerie oh yeah it was I will say I do love zombie stories so that's one advantage for me over Stay Out of the Basement Dead House made it close to the finish line yeah

[01:30:52] yeah yeah well it was hard this one was definitely hard welcome to Dead House for the curly division and for the lawn gnomes division we have Curse of Camp Cold Lake and Scarecrow Walks Midnight I'm staying out of this one I'm still going with Scarecrow I don't know what I would pick oh god this is tough you guys were so Camp Cold Lake and Scarecrow I think I gotta go

[01:31:21] I'm still Scarecrow I it did go pretty far I'm the Scarecrow made it this far like it's a really good book I think Scarecrow just went up against a weak bracket until maybe the end because now it's going to get its dead house yeah

[01:31:51] partial mistake I said last this round was semifinals this is actually the semifinals okay we're down to four books 60 have been eliminated the final four final four your two favorite books Nick between the division and the parz division we have like Isaiah said objective which story do you like more all right it's not about the monster now well actually what would you be more scared of

[01:32:20] would you be more scared of a werewolf chasing you at full speed or someone you could out run oh that's not even a question I mean like I said earlier werewolves are I think more scary than why don't why don't okay to make it interesting now because we already know what would be subjectively the champion it would

[01:33:12] top top top top top top these four books with 9. Literally to cure me, like these four books, in my opinion, Haunted Mask, again, Haunted Mask is the objectively

[01:33:41] best story, but I also really like Werewolf Fever Swamp. I personally prefer Werewolves as a monster, and honestly, I might say something incredibly blasphemous right now, but I think I actually might prefer Werewolves cover. I think I actually might prefer the cover of Werewolf Swamp over the cover of Werewolves. I'm gonna go based on, okay, Haunted Mask is the better story out of these two. No questions. Hands down, the better story. But if I was literally having to run for my life

[01:34:10] of actually thinking I'm gonna be killed, the Werewolf Fever Swamp would fucking catch up to me in two seconds and probably eat me. Well, and you know what, too? Haunted Mask has the best episode. Haunted Mask is the best episode of the show. That's another thing, too. I think it's... This is hard, man. I think it's Haunted Mask. I think it was inevitable. I think it's Haunted Mask. Nick, do you concur? Yeah, Haunted Mask.

[01:34:41] See, this is really tough. Bjorn even went Haunted Mask. Oh, wow. I picked Haunted Mask because I was like, well, if we're just going based on the story and not really counting the other things anymore, then... Well, I mean, at the end of the day, we were always going... You still count everything else, too. I mean, you still count the cover. You still count if it had an episode. I was just trying to make a lot of... Haunted Mask is the best story. It does have the best... The better episode. I personally prefer Werewolf's cover, but I'm probably in a minority on that one.

[01:35:11] Look, I'd be more afraid if the Werewolf was chasing me. That's what I'm just saying. And yes, I would be like, well, I can't outrun this. I can't outrun it. I can't outrun it. I can't outrun it. I don't have a silver bullet. Like, I'm gonna die. Yeah, but I mean, like, if you're gonna use that logic, if Slappy made it to the end, it's no different than, like, Awesome Powers versus Mini-Me. You just kick that little bastard and fly across the room. Hey, but if it's Movie Slappy... You'd be like a living dummy 3 and try up his arms and legs and he can't do anything. You'd be in trouble if it was Movie Slappy because then you'd just use some magic.

[01:35:41] No, Movie Slappy, I'd just grab his book, apparently, and suck him back in. It's all good. Yeah, Nick, I mean, we've already probably gotten our vote, but what do you think, Nick? I know this is probably tougher. Yeah, it would be 2 out of 3 anyway, even if I voted for a few. I hate that I have to choose between these two. I love them both so much. But yeah, no, I mean... Yeah, Haunted Mask for sure. Haunted Mask, yeah. I feel like this was inevitable. This was inevitable.

[01:36:11] All right. I think so, too, but you never know. I mean, it really could have been a twist here that came in, you know, knowing you guys could have voted against Haunted Mask against me. If you knew where I was going this whole time, probably, but... I genuinely picked that out of a fever slump. I feel like the stars aligned. It'd have to be Haunted Mask. But again, I mean, this is our opinion, too. Maybe there probably are people out there who would have probably eliminated Haunted Mask before we got to this. Who knows?

[01:36:41] But now we have the Curly Division versus the Lawn Gnomes Division, and that's Welcome to Dead House versus the Scarecrow Walks at Midnight. I picked Dead House. As much as I love Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, I... Dead House is the most, like, graphic goosebump. I think Dead House is... Like, of course I think... I think Dead House has just a better story because it was early days and Stein was darker. Yeah. When I read the first time it said, oh, he smacked his head against his skull, like, skull against the fucking tombstone. I was like, what?

[01:37:11] This is book one. Wait, it's that fucking tombstone? Yeah. I guess it's a tombstone. What was that? You don't remember that? Yeah, tombstone from Spiney. I don't remember the fucking tombstone. When did Stein cut in his books? Like, he gets his skull, like, smacked onto the tombstone. And it's just like, what? I know, but you were saying, you know, smack the skull against the fucking tombstone. It's like, when did he do that? Fucking tombstone, where was that? Tombstone the wrestler, Tombstone the Spider-Man villain. Wow.

[01:37:41] Yeah, Welcome to Dead House. This is the F-bomb that Stein dropped that really caught me off guard. Okay. This might be, this might be a sweep. This might be tougher for you guys. To me, obviously, it's still The Haunted Mask. The story resonates with me just too much, and it's near perfect for goosebumps stories. No, it's honestly not as hard. Unfortunately, I can't say it's hard. It does have to be Haunted Mask for me. I love Dead House.

[01:38:11] I love zombies. But Haunted Mask is, it's a great story. It's, it's creepy and it's emotional. Bjorn? Yep, the same. Yep. And that's it. I mean, there's no point even playing this game. What was the point of the game? It was said we should have changed the rules a bit. Like, we should have taken either out the ones that are our favorite or like, did a different bracket because we were like, it was just going to be the same answer. Like, should have changed

[01:38:41] the rules a bit because then it would have been interesting to see which one would have been our favorite had it not been those. Our favorite? Yeah. If you took out our favorites and replaced them with other books, you mean? Like, yeah, like just put in like, I don't know, maybe instead of having Haunted Mask, Living W2 and Jelly Jam for me, I guess, put in three of the series 2000, three of the other series 2000 books. Who knows?

[01:39:10] Put in Graveyard Ghouls, I don't know, Scream of School. If you put in Headless Halloween, it probably would have sweep a few. Headless Halloween. I think it's Halloween probably in my pick-up role at that point. If we did the bracket of just monsters, what monster is the scariest? That would have to be fair and, you know, again, out of the 62 originals, you know, on a mask. The monster that scares me the most out of any monster is Pennywise because he can turn into any fucking monster. Chicken, chicken.

[01:39:41] Yeah, to be fair, once you find out all you have to do is insult him and he cries like a bitch, it's like, God, Pennywise, is this all it took? Yeah. But like the fact that Pennywise can literally just turn into anything, that's terrifying. Like he can literally turn into any monster you're afraid of and like, what are you afraid of? What, if something was chasing you, what would be the thing that would make you actually like scream and run away? Chicken, chicken. There you go. Again, I don't think

[01:40:10] Pennywise is a goose bumps monster. This whole tournament would have been won by chicken chicken if we were going by monster. Yeah. But that is our goose bumps monster March madness 2025. You know, it was a little, a little bit of a predictable final outcome, but honestly, it was cool to go through these books and see the different matchups and, you know, Deadhouse made it to the final round. Deadhouse was a finalist, man. It was, it was right there and, you know, scared.

[01:40:40] That didn't really surprise me. I figured it might be Deadhouse or maybe, maybe living dummy too, but it just, the unfortunate circumstance of its bracketing to go against the haunted mask. I honestly thought it was going to come down to a the haunted mask in one of the slappy books. Yeah, it really did. So, I mean, caught me by surprise. It was, but, you know, and again, this is just how the bracket turned

[01:41:10] out and our own personal opinions. So, obviously, you know, you, you folks at home may have your own different opinions. That's totally fine. This was just for us to have a little bit of fun and, you know, debate a little bit. We will probably have to do a proper tier ranking of these books at some point, just for fun. I personally think so. I already know it's in the top five. Yeah, that one will probably be a little more predictable. This is just our own

[01:41:39] personal opinion for fun and we'll probably revisit this, maybe a monster. Let's do a monster ranking at some point. Well, there are many other times, things that we could do to rank and tier list and all that stuff, but figured for March Madness, we do something a little fun, a little stakeless just to see where it all ends up. But we'll go ahead and share our goosebumps crew March Madness bracket with you guys.

[01:42:08] and I'll probably go ahead and leave the blank bracket down below. If you guys want to give your own March Madness bracket on the original 62 Goosebumps books, I'll leave the link in the description below. You can tag us on social media. Let us see. Where do you guys rank on these books? Are they similar to our picks? Are they way different? Let us know. We'd be interested to see where you guys land. But that is going to do it for tonight's episode of the Goosebumps Crew Podcast.

[01:42:38] As always, make sure you follow Bjorn and Nick at Goosebumps, Oxyfan, and Sean, respectively. If you liked today's episode, make sure you have a like and comment. Subscribe to us on YouTube, follow us on our audio platforms and our social medias. We'll have a new episode for you next week, but until then, this has been the Goosebumps Crew Podcast, and from all of us here, we want to wish you all as always to take care, stay safe, and have a very scary day. Have some jazz hands. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.