Show For Children is the first uploaded entry in Local 58’s second season and the fifth uploaded overall in the series. The episode takes the form of a children's show broadcast of an animated cartoon.
Synopsis[]
The episode begins with a Local 58 ID card, stating that the Show for Children show starts at 4:15 AM. The broadcast displays a bumper with a clown figure signifying the start of the show before fading into the titles for the animated cartoon "Cadavre".
The animation begins with the titular character Cadavre walking through a graveyard at night while the moon watches overhead. He comes across an empty grave, where he thinks he will be able to find his wife. Peeking into the grave, Cadavre instead finds a realistically drawn skeletal corpse, which frightens him and causes him to run away. Scared by what he has found, Cadavre walks around the graveyard some more and finds another open grave. He peeks into it and discovers a decayed, bird-like creature which meows at him. Cadavre once again runs away.
The weather becomes windy, and Cadavre has become even more unnerved. The moon is no longer smiling, and as Cadavre walks we see the moon pass in front of a tree. After walking further through the graveyard, he finds another open grave which leads into a seemingly bottomless hole. Descending into it and finding himself in a cave, Cadavre continues walking but is extremely cold and weak.
After some time, Cadavre is shown lying on the ground, staring up at the entrance to the grave he came down from where the bottomless pit he saw seems to be stretching upward. The moon slowly slides into view and Cadavre is suddenly shown as an inanimate skeleton. The cartoon ends with the Local 58 clown figure bumper from before, saying "See You Next Time". The clown figure's eyes are looking in a different direction and its mouth is widened since the start, and as the video cuts out, the eyes move to look towards the camera.
Trivia[]
- Cadavre is a continuously recurring character in Kris Straub's comics on Chainsawsuit and his series Broodhollow.
- For one frame after the second grave's contents appear (the creature), the first grave's contents (the horrified skeleton) is briefly visible.
- The clown figure in the closing moments of the episode has a wider mouth compared to its first appearance. The figure's eyes also slowly move to stare at the viewer before the video cuts off.
- The music used in the title for the show Cadavre is from the 1935 Ub Iwerks animated picture, The Brementown Musicians. The score for the short was composed by Carl Schilling, a reference to the song's actual composer, Carl Stalling.
- The music used during the show is from the 1939 Max Fleischer Color Classic, The Fresh Vegetable Mystery, which was composed by Sammy Timberg.
- The date on title card, MCMXXIX says 1929, which means the cartoon was made in 1929.
- The cartoon was inspired by other YouTube creepypasta videos like Suicide Mouse, as well as 1930’s theatrical cartoons like Max Fleischer’s Swing You Sinners!
- The clown at the beginning is from the stock footage "Clown Shaped Garbage Can At Carnival" by Spafron. The stock footage can be found here.