Plot
The Ghostbusters track a ghost by scent through the city, with Slimer serving as an unwilling bloodhound. Slimer finds the Sleaze hiding in a trash-filled alley and takes a beating before leading the team to the ghost. All four Ghostbusters blast the Sleaze and Slimer traps him, though the ghost is so foul that his stench permeates even the Ghost Trap.
Back at the Firehouse, Ray deposits the Sleaze into the Containment Unit and warns Slimer not to tease him. Slimer ignores the warning and dangles a sandwich at the captive ghost. The enraged Sleaze screams and knocks Slimer back into the Ecto Gas Release Valve, accidentally freeing himself. The Sleaze inflates himself like a balloon and floats up through the roof. Slimer, knowing the Ghostbusters will return from a call and dreading the consequences, recruits the Junior Ghostbusters, Donald, Catherine, and Jason, for help.
The group traces the Sleaze to the City Dump using Jason's PKE Meter. Their attempt to snare him with plungers fired from Ecto-Junior fails: the Sleaze chews the plungers into one and fires it back, sending the children diving into the mud. At the City Dump they regroup and next set a trap at the Silver Diner, a restaurant owned by Catherine's uncle. Jason cooks up a pot of repulsive "Sleaze Soup" and runs a fan to waft the stench outside. The Sleaze follows the scent to the diner and is seated by a disguised Slimer. When an entire vat of the soup is wheeled out, the Sleaze jumps right in. Donald and Jason drop the lid on the vat, but the Sleaze sticks a foot out and overwhelms them with odor, escaping again.
For the final attempt, Slimer dresses as a woman and catches the Sleaze's attention on the street. He bats the smitten ghost around with a purse, deflects a request for a kiss with a fish, and leads him across town to the Firehouse, which has been disguised as "Club Sleaze." Despite the Sleaze finding the building oddly familiar, Slimer keeps him distracted long enough to maneuver him into the basement. The Junior Ghostbusters give the signal, Slimer tosses the Sleaze onto the Containment Unit slot, and Jason hits the lever. The Sleaze is sucked back in.
When Peter returns and empties two more Ghost Traps into the unit, he notices the Sleaze pounding furiously on the viewport. Slimer warns Peter not to tease the Sleaze, but Peter muses that the ghost surely cannot escape.
The Sleaze
The Sleaze is a large, belligerent ghost whose defining trait is an overwhelming stench. He first appears living rough in a city alley, immediately tormenting Slimer before the Ghostbusters subdue him. Inside the Containment Unit he is volatile but containable, and his escape relies on Slimer's own taunting. His bad breath alone is enough to melt Slimer on contact, and removing a shoe produces a stench capable of driving off a group of children.
The character returned in The Real Ghostbusters episode "The Slob," making the Sleaze one of the few ghosts to cross over from Slimer! to its parent series.
Trivia
- The episode was recorded on July 6, 1988.
- In the Slimer! Series Bible, Slimer was helping Egon and Ray with a basement project when he teased the Sleaze, and it was Egon who scolded him rather than Ray.
- In the episode introduction on The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection, writers Dennys McCoy and Pamela Hickey describe the gag of Sleaze inflating like a balloon to escape as something they had tried to get onto three other series.
- The original City Dump scene had the Sleaze farting at Slimer. After network resistance, the scene was reworked so that Sleaze removes one of his shoes instead.
- This episode received a sequel in The Real Ghostbusters episode "The Slob," which features the return of the Sleaze.
- Slimer accidentally triggering a device to free a ghost mirrors a similar moment in the RGB episode Ghosts R Us.
- Jason uses the old PKE Meter that Egon gave him, sharing continuity with The Real Ghostbusters episode "The Boogieman Is Back."
- Ecto-Junior returns following the RGB episode "Halloween II 1/2."
- This is the only Slimer! episode in which the Ghostbusters actually caught a ghost during the episode.
- The Containment Unit viewport introduced here was later incorporated into The Real Ghostbusters.
Animation Errors
- When Ray delivers the line "Well, what do you think?", Peter's lips move instead.
- Lip sync is noticeably off when Donald says, "Hey, don't worry, Slimer. We'll get the Sleaze back before the Ghostbusters find out."
Quotes
Screen Caps
References
Ghostbusters Wiki, "Don't Tease the Sleaze."
