Halloween Pumpkin Carving: Gateway to Mass Murder

By Roode

Kids love Halloween. It's the one time of year they can get free candy that doesn't involve creepy old men in bathrobes. Adults love it, because it's the one time of they year that dressing up like Tyra Banks isn't exclusively for drag queens.

Remember when Jamie Fox was funny? Of course you don't.

I don't dress up. I don't trick or treat. I don't have kids so I'm not forced to pretend I give a shit. This may surprise some of you, but I'm not a happy go lucky holiday celebrating person. I wouldn't put up that fucking Christmas tree if I didn't get a guilt trip from the wife each and every "have to buy new strings of lights because the ones from last Christmas never fucking work" year. I suggested we just forgo the tree one year. It was like I proposed we put on cleats and go kitten stomping.

My bags are always packed for the latest guilt trip provided by The Wife Travel Agency.

Last weekend I hung out with Ren. I was bored and sober. I knew that belligerent Irish drunk had booze. I had wifey in tow for a low key Saturday evening. Adel was out of town making plans for her wedding (that's right kids- more on that another time) and who the hell knows what Tresckow was doing. Maybe storming Poland?

Tank rental is surprising affordable.

I was quite happy to sit there, watch TV, and suck down Guinness. The hens were yapping in another room and Commando was on TV. Awesome! Beer, violence, and HDTV. I defy you to come up with a better combination. Defy you, I say!

Somewhere around the part when Schwarzenegger is slaughtering the island army lead by Nick Tortelli Ren had the most horrible idea since CNN's coverage of the Michael Jackson funeral. "Hey! Let's make Jack O'Lanterns." Bitch.


Sure, I protested. You married guys out there know resistance is futile. Over the years my "Fuck it! Whatever!" switch developed a hair trigger. I learned about three years into married bliss that it's the path of least resistance that gets you laid. So, when someone has a fucktarded idea like this and the wife is into it, fuck it. I'm as powerless as Valtrex is on Tila Tequila.

This fucker is pretty much always set to "on."

I knew I was in for a rocket ship to a ball taggingly painful night when it took the girls 30 minutes to find the right pumpkins. It was the like the Goldilocks of pumpkin searching. This one is too small. This one has too many bumps. This one has a funny looking stem... damn it! At this point I didn't give a shit if the son-of-a-bitch was oozing blood while demonic voices chanted an ode to Satan. Why the fuck can't women find ANYTHING in under half an hour? Holy yeti piss, the fucker's going to end up a rotting corpse on the stoop anyway.

Pictured: Good investment.

After buying four medium sized pumpkins (four, because the odds of fucking up are excellent when you've been drinking since 3) we carted the orange bastards back to the house. First off, let me say it's completely fucking ridiculous the amount of goddamn work you have to put in just to cut the top off. Then, there's a shitload of stringy, gag reflex slapping innards that have to be scooped out. This shit looks, feels, and acts wrong. Not only does it feel like goopy, stringy shit from a camel with diarrhea, it's nye impossible to keep it in one place. If you're lucky, it just falls on the floor like so much spaghetti of the damned. If you're not so lucky, it can find its way into your pants. Don't fucking give me that look. It happens.

Look at this putrid, stringy mess and tell me you don't want to blow chunks.

It's not over yet. Oh no, there's more labor intensive bullshit waiting to play ping pong with your dangly parts. Now you have to scrape the meat of the friggin thing. There's nothing remotely appealing about that phrase. Scrape the meat? That conjures up all sorts of fucked up Donner Party images.

Delish.

Hold on! Before you start scraping chunks of pumpkin meat, you need to know two things; 1) No kitchen utensil in the known world is built for this and 2) if you take too much out the whole fucking thing will collapse. Who knew this was a science?

I don't know, Bill. Maybe there is no cure for Jack O'Lantern carving rage.

Of course, my wife is a friggin genius with this shit. She's the artsy crafty one. I'm the one that gets pissed off and dynamites random things in nature. Ren, the dumbass that came up with the idea, redefined suck. She bought one of those stencils that is supposed to help you carve designs. That fucker was too complicated for a drunken Mick. It didn't end well.

After giving up on ever stenciling this thing right, she decided to carve the fucker with a hammer.

Well, that gourd was out of commission. Mine, on the other hand, was still in the race. Sure, it frustrated me a little...

The fucker had it coming.

This sucks! Who started this butt fucking tradition anyway? Liquored up, pissed off people shouldn't be asked to hack the almighty shit out of produce. That's how Bundy got started.

Bundy.

After another (4) beer, I went back to the taunting, round poop stain. OK, I just stabbed it a few times. It's fixable. I'll just get to work cutting out the nose and smile. This shit has to be getting me brownie points with the wife, right? RIGHT? Besides, I know I can do better than Ren's second attempt.

I've never seen a Jack O'Lantern with Downs Syndrome before.

I decided, then and there, that I would not be defeated by a piece of fruit... or vegetable... whatever. With each slip of the knife and fucked up tooth, I started to fantasize about setting fire to all it's smug ass brethren. All of a sudden I understood punkin chunkin. Its not a bunch of drooling momma's boys who smell like a mix of body odor and Red Bull (not exclusively, anyway). It was mankind's way of getting back at those sack lickers.

This may have cost more money and time than any sane person would invest,
but, it must be therapeutic to see that mother launched into the air and disintegrate on impact.

When the dust settled, there were three Jack O'Lanterns. Mine looked like it was married to Ike Turner. Ren's did an amazing Sling Blade impersonation. My wife's... that's not important. Shut up!

One of these days she's going to fuck SOMETHING up and I'll be there to see it.

If the night wasn't rage inducing enough, this Jack O'Cock Knocker saved the best for last. As soon as I picked it up to carry outside the asshole started to cave in. Remember that whole don't scrape too much of the meat off thing? Well, guess what? I didn't fucking pay attention to that at all. The face started collapsing faster than Michael Jackson's cosmetic surgery (yes, two MJ references in one article. I'm not proud).

Stick a candle in his skull and it's the spitting image of my imploding Jack O'Lantern.

It was over. The damn thing didn't even stay together long enough for me to make it out the door. I snapped. To quote a great philosopher, "That's all I can stands and I can't stands no more!"

Wise beyond his years.

I bellowed "Fuck you gourd!" OK, so it was a bit loud and I'm pretty sure someone called the cops, but I didn't give a shit. This sadistic orange fuck has toyed with me for too long! I let it drop to the ground and I nailed the mocking tea bagger in the mouth. That's right, pumpkins everywhere can eat me. It's on now. Every assclown pumpkin I find will die. I hereby declare my plan for pumpkin cleansing! Pumpkins, watch your backs (wherever the fuck your "backs" are). It's war now!

He was, but the first to fall!

Sincerely,
Roode