Monster Blood III

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Monster Blood III
Monster Blood III.jpg
Book information
Number 29
Released: March 1995
Blog date: January 21, 2008 (~16 years ago.)
Preceded by: The Cuckoo Clock of Doom (chronologically)
Monster Blood II (blog entry)
Followed by: It Came From Beneath the Sink! (chronologically)
Monster Blood IV (blog entry)

Establishing the Blogger Beware tradition of quiz entries.

Transcript[edit | edit source]

Front Tagline: Evan's growing up way too fast!
Back Tagline: It's The Slime That Never Dies!

Official Book Description:
Evan can't stand baby-sitting his genius cousin, Kermit. Kermit refuses to play video games. He won't even play Frisbee! All he likes to do is hang out in the basement doing strange experiments and playing mean practical jokes on Evan and his friend Andy.
But now Andy's found something that will teach Kermit a lesson once and for all.
It's green. It's slimy. And it comes in a can marked... Monster Blood!

Brief Quiz:
That Monster Blood III is bad was probably a given based on the quality of the two books that came before it. But unfortunately it's bad in a really boring, predictable way. How predictable? Why, take the Monster Blood III Quiz and see:

01 Monster Blood III begins with
A The promise of a refund
B A story about an evil bank teller that RL Stine thought up at the last minute while standing in line to cash his royalty check
C Evan dreaming about Monster Blood
D Werewolves

02 Andy tricks Evan into thinking she put Monster Blood in his sandwich. Evan reacts by
A Turning into a giant, gets drafted by the Sonics[1]
B Laughing it off. After all, she's his friend and he's no idiot
C Screaming and panicking. After all, he's an idiot
D Turning into a werewolf

03 Evan has to babysit his younger cousin Kermit. Kermit conveniently lives next door to what Monster Blood II character?
A Mr. Murphy
B Cuddles the hamster
C Conan Barber
D Robbie Greene,[2] who was a werewolf

04 Kermit performs complex science experiments, even though he's only in grade school. This is plausible because
A The Atlanta school system is generally considered the barometer by which academic excellence is measured
B Kermit's mom was Rosalind Franklin's[3] lovechild
C It isn't plausible, this is a Goosebumps book
D Werewolves have a keen interest in science. Because Kermit's a werewolf you see. Get it, all the D answers involve werewolves

05 Kermit concocts a potion to cure his dog's case of
A Amnesia
B Bubonic plague
C Hiccups
D Werewolfitis. See, I told you, werewolves again!

06 Kermit's potion
A Succeeds. Kermit is scooped up by Pfizer[4], forced to wear ladies' lab coat until he hits puberty
B Fails. The dog explodes like that girl in Cloverfield.[5] Oops, ***Spoiler Alert***
C Succeeds then fails, as the dog starts running around like... a dog
D Turns the dog into a werewolf. These are kind of getting stupid by this point

07 Oh I almost forgot, Kermit's dog is named
A Wolfbane[6]
B Silverdog[7]
C Dogface
D Werewolf the Dog. I'm going to quit doing werewolf answers

08 Andy is really nice to Kermit because
A She's a good person, like Michelle Williams in Land of Plenty[8], only without an Apple giftcard
B She's trying to bilk him out of money via an elaborate Ponzi scheme[9]
C She wants him to do her math homework
D She's a werewolf. Gotcha, you thought I was gonna quit but then, BAM, another werewolf answer

09 Conan hassles Evan because Evan
A Is Evan, it's just inevitable
B Was looking at Conan's lawn
C Both A and B
D Is a vampire. See what I did there, the ol' switcheroo!

10 Andy discovers that Kermit gave her the wrong answers to her math homework. Her logical conclusion is that in retaliation, she and Evan should play a trick on him involving
A Shivs in the prison shower
B Andy's twin sister whom she only just met at summer camp[10]
C Monster Blood
D Werewolves

11 Kermit gives Andy and Evan a concoction that causes them to
A Pop and Lock[11] in time to the beat from Kermit's boombox
B Pee just a little
C Laugh uncontrollably
D Werewolves

12 Kermit sprays Conan with a liquid that causes Conan's shirt to A Become bedazzled with hundreds of exquisite rhinestones
B Turn from a 100% cotton tee to a 50/50 blend
C Dissolve
D Werewolves

13 Conan beats up Evan. Since he refuses to hit girls, Conan retaliates against Andy by
A Borrowing her widescreen copy of Mean Girls[12] and returning the fullscreen version
B Spoiling the series finale of Designing Women[13]
C Throwing her high atop a tree
D Holy cat, do you realize that was the correct answer

14 Andy sneaks some Monster Blood into one of Kermit's potions while Evan distracts him by
A Regaling him with the plot of Aces: Iron Eagle III[14]
B Getting beat up again, this time by the mailman
C Eating a chocolate bar
D Performing a traditional Mummenschanz[15] routine

15 The Monster Blood causes the dough Kermit was mixing to
A Turn into delicious banana nut bread
B Turn into lousy banana nut bread
C Explode
D Grow fists and beat Evan up

16 Evan accidentally ___________ the Monster Blood mixture
A Marries
B Fondles
C Swallows
D Buys the wrong size sweater for

17 The Monster Blood causes Evan to
A Achieve self-actualization. Andy gives him a congratulatory plaque for achieving the highest level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs[16]
B Consider the lasting impact of the Treaty of Taipei on Taiwan's independence[17]
C Grow
D Question whether or not Best New Music[18] holds any weight

18 Evan escapes out of the house and spies Conan terrorizing some neighborhood kids in a surprisingly violent fashion. What is Conan doing to the kids?
A Throwing chainsaws at them
B Summoning lightning bolts in their direction
C Waving a baseball bat and threatening to hit them
D Playing them the new Mars Volta[19] album

19 Conan reacts to Evan's huge size by
A Making a lewd joke about horses
B Making a wholesome joke about horses
C Mocking Evan
D Quipping, "How's the air up there, Kevin Bacon?"[20]

20 Giant-size Evan uses his new-found height to
A Swat away satellites like gnats
B Form lakes with his tears
C Play a baseball game
D It's a good thing you know C is the right answer because look at that

21 Conan gets revenge on Giant-Evan by
A Beating up his little toe
B Taking Monster Blood-- on a date. That'll make Evan so jealous!
C Calling the fire department to hose-down Evan
D Jesus christ

22 The firefighters and police think Evan is
A Really lame
B Too large to be David, too small to be Goliath.[21] They consult Biblical scholars for another, more appropriate scriptural reference
C An alien from another planet
D An alien from Mexico, where's his green card[22]

23 Evan runs away and hides
A In Chelsea[23], opens a hip mattress store
B On a train with an all-woman band, "forced" to dress in drag[24]
C Behind some lumber
D In plain sight, makes noises like a building[25]

24 Evan thinks of a solution to his predicament by recalling that earlier, Kermit gave Andy a potion that
A Somehow caused Evan to die in a fire, making Andy the lead character
B Turned even her skin a Day-Glo color, thus fulfilling her lifelong dream[26]
C Shrank her mosquito bite
D Induced her first period

25 While Kermit gets to work concocting a new shrinking potion for Evan, Andy has her priorities straight: She A Decides it's now or never to start reading the Brothers Karamazov[27]
B Calls the local five and dime to see if they have Prince Albert in a can[28]
C Cleans up the mess they made inside the house so Kermit's mom won't be upset
D Stops to consider the plausibility of the events occurring, resulting in the universe folding in on itself

26 Kermit's mixture doesn't cause Evan to shrink. Instead, Evan
A Sees a shrink and talks out his feelings
B Agrees, Pepsi-Cola is the better tasting beverage[29]
C Turns blue and can't stop hiccuping
D Gets beaten up by Rodan[30]

27 Kermit fixes the potion. This time the potion
A Turns Evan straight
B Shortsheets[31] Evan's bed and stifles its laughter from the top bunk
C Causes Evan to grow feathers
D Does some other shit to pad the page length

28 Just as the cops pull into the driveway, Evan is given a third potion. This potion
A Lacks the tangy zip of Miracle Whip[32]
B Makes him snort like a pig, causing the cops to draw their weapons[33]
C Shrinks him back to normal size, thus ending the extended the Sword In the Stone[34] homage
D Turns him into a werewolf

BONUS QUESTION
After another (!) dream sequence, Evan awakes to discover that to his horror
A The wheels have come off his race car bed
B It's still several years until Two Guys, A Girl, And a Pizza Place[35] will be created
C He's still shrinking
D RL Stine actually gets paid for this garbage

PENCILS DOWN

Memorable Cliffhanger Chapter Ending:
Ch. 9/10
Evan agrees, they must use the Monster Blood. Evan disagrees, they must not use the Monster Blood.

Great Prose Alert:
Out of the corner of his eye, Evan saw a monarch butterfly fluttering over the low hedges. I wish I were a butterfly, he thought.

Conclusions:
There's a reason no one could remember what happened in this one beyond what the Honey I Blew Up The Kid[36]-aping cover promises. Monster Blood III is probably the least-plausible book in the series, and sister, that's saying something.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. The Seattle Sonics are a basketball team.
  2. In case you forgot, that kid who made the stellar sunflower seed joke in the last book.
  3. A member of the King's College scientific team who investigated the DNA helix.
  4. A major pharmaceutical company.
  5. In this monster film, the character Marlena is infected by one of the monster's parasites, and in one scene it erupts from her body shortly after she's ushered behind a medical screen.
  6. The name of the dog in Beware, the Snowman.
  7. The name of the dog in Legend of the Lost Legend.
  8. A 2004 Italian drama about an American girl (Williams) who has lived in the Middle East for most of her life, only to return post-9/11.
  9. A general term for an investment scam run like a pyramid scheme.
  10. A reference to the plot of The Parent Trap and its remake, wherein two identical twins are separated at birth and meet up again at summer camp, then proceed to swap places.
  11. A hip-hop dance.
  12. 2004 comedy film about a homeschooled girl being thrust into public high school, woefully unprepared for the troubles of attending said institution.
  13. A show about four women and a dude who work at an interior design firm.
  14. A 1992 installment in the Iron Eagle series of films, all of which are about an Air Force pilot and his action-packed escapades.
  15. A popular Swiss mime troupe.
  16. A psychological theory shaped like a food pyramid, with five levels of necessity for a comfortable life ⁠— the lowest being simple physical needs (food, water, rest) and the highest being self-actualization, of course (including creativity, morality, and social acceptance).
  17. Said treaty was signed in 1952, and ran into problems because of the confusion over China's true government.
  18. A music ranking by Pitchfork Media.
  19. An American rock band.
  20. A reference to The Air Up There, a 1994 comedy starring Bacon as a high school basketball coach who travels to Africa in search of a team.
  21. The Book of Samuel describes David (a humble shepherd) defeating Goliath (a giant).
  22. A Permanent Residency Card, which offers several rights to non-citizens (including, eventually, the chance to become a citizen).
  23. More specifically, Chelsea, New York.
  24. This is the premise of the 1959 comedy Some Like It Hot.
  25. In case you forgot, it's a reference to the stellar sunflower seed joke in the last book.
  26. Andy wears bright clothes. (Day-Glo is a brand that produces fluorescent products. Sometimes the name is used as a generic descriptor for very bright colors.)
  27. An epic novel concerning three brothers at odds who end up sharing guilt after the fourth son, an unknown bastard child, murders their father.
  28. A traditional prank call, relying on the fact that Prince Albert is a canned tobacco brand.
  29. A reference to "The Pepsi Challenge," an advertising campaign where people are given two unlabeled drinks (typically Coca-Cola and Pepsi). The ads show people preferring Pepsi.
  30. Giant monster/kaiju who sometimes gets tangled up with Godzilla.
  31. A common prank enacted by double-tucking in a bed so that the victim can't get in properly, despite looking perfectly normal on the outside.
  32. Another ad campaign.
  33. "Pig" is disrespectful slang for a cop. Making pig noises would also insinuate disrespect.
  34. A Disney feature about young King Arthur being brought up by Merlin. This probably refers to the duel scene between Merlin and Madame Mimm, featuring the two shape-shifting to counter one another.
  35. An American sitcom whose title sums up the entire premise. (Fun fact: when the pizza place was removed from the show in its third season, the title changed to simply Two Guys and a Girl.)
  36. Seen here. The 1992 sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, wherein a scientist accidentally causes his toddler-aged son to grow to gigantic proportions.