The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special (2017)

In 2017, NBCUniversal decided to take their newly established SNL character and like many Saturday Night Live concepts before (Blues Brothers, Wayne’s World, the list goes on…), the studio decided to give it its own entry. While this cartoon isn’t considered horror, it uses horror iconography (such as ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and more) that has been also adopted and “domesticated” by the Halloween holiday. This entry will look at the use of the Yellow Raincoat motif in The David S. Pumpkins Holiday Special.

The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special was concocted in a vein similar to many other Halloween specials and references some Christmas/Holiday specials in its presentation as well (like a rhyming scheme reminiscent of Frosty the Snowman, narrated by Andy Griffith). This animated short starts in reference to those cartoons by going out of its way to say that there is no singular Halloween mascot – no “Santa” of the Halloween season as the narrator mentions. Our host Kevin (voiced by Peter Dinklage – who played Miles Finch in Elf, another popular holiday flick) narrates and introduces us to a time where a magical character arrived to make the holiday magical and make the impossible possible. Dinklage’s character spins a yarn, showing us a time where he and his younger sister Dottie met the legendary David S. Pumpkins one Halloween night.

In this feature, the Yellow Raincoat motif is used in the spirit of a modern-day bogeyman story. As the story goes – a local man who hated kids tried to remove the tree from his front yard that kids would often play on. In doing so, he apparently is struck by lightning and his face “melts off”. Now he haunts the neighborhood, scaring kids to get his revenge. It is In this way that the yellow raincoat is used as a symbol of fear to those who witness it.

As mentioned before, this Halloween Special isn’t considered horror, but does use a lot of bone-chilling imagery that could be seen as frightening (especially since this cartoon is aimed at children). The appearance of David S. Pumpkins acquaintances – the Skeleton Dancers – personify the undead that they are and come up from underground. The Pumpkins group even strike a spooky pose before breaking out in a dance routine.

We later see various kids who have had their candy stolen by the “Raincoat Man”. Many of these characters embody other horror imagery as they are dressed like a devil, a vampire, and one kid is even dressed up and depicted as a soldier riddled with PTSD due to losing his candy. While the mysterious yellow-garbed legend appears to the trick-or-treaters, the viewers later find out there there really isn’t really a “Raincoat Man”. The Ditmeyers (the antagonists of the cartoon) are the ones keeping the folklore alive by maliciously abusing the fear associated with the myth in order to rob other kids of their Halloween candy.

This is actually the most interesting aspect of this special in that it depicts the yellow raincoat-wearing character as the antagonist while most of the time, this device is seen with the protagonist. The origin of a villain wearing a yellow coat dates back (at least) to 1976’s film Alice, Sweet Alice (and may date back even farther!). Very few films have used this motif as a literary device as a costume for the villain of the story.

To get back at the terror haunting the neighborhood, the protagonists storm “Raincoat Man’s” creepy, dilapidated house. In doing so, the triplet’s ruse is found out as they all three appear simultaneously in a miscommunicated attempt to scare away their last victims. It is then that David S. Pumpkins decides that he will show them what real fear is and psychologically traumatizes the boys (Pumpkins says he will make the boys “pee [their] pants”) – sending them running. After devising a way to give the candy back to the neighborhood kids, the spirit of Halloween returns with his dancers to the elevator, never to be seen again.

Ironically enough, the Ditmeyer group are the only characters ever scared by David S. Pumpkins. The reason for this is that they are “wearing” the fear just like they are wearing the yellow raincoats. In much the same way they used the jacket to instill fear in others, it has trapped them in a web of fear, one with David S. Pumpkins in full control.

This holiday special doesn’t utilize the yellow raincoat with as much meaning beyond the legend told in the story. It is interesting, however, to see a literary device that is not fully recognized as a full-fledged trope of horror being embodied in a short cartoon about a relatively new and unknown Halloween character. If you haven’t checked out this special, it’s worth seeing. It’s great to see modern Halloween specials added to the mix that gives the holiday season much-needed new flavor!

This article was initially written on my blog, Yellow Raincoat of Horror. You can view the original post here.