Pool Cleaners by Day, Ghost Hunters by…Day in 'Bumps in the Night'

I remember when I was younger, reading The Amityville Horror back to back in one sitting. It completely freaked me out but I couldn’t put it down. I think I was so engrossed because I believed everything I read was true and there really was some sort of rank demon pig haunting that family.

As I’ve gotten older and unwiser I’ve grown more skeptical about ghosts and the supernatural. However, I admit, I LOVE paranormal shows on TV. Episodes with old abandoned asylums tend to be my favorites. I watch them all: Celebrity Paranormal Project, Ghost Hunters International, Paranormal State and the ever so special Ghost Hunters.

Ah Ghost Hunters, with the plumbing duo of Jason and Grant. They’ve got some mad toilet unclogging skillz yo as well as some insane, off the hook, I can’t believe its not butter, paranormal investigative abilities. I mean these guys really know some stuff about stuff; like how you’ve got to have the lights off before any wraiths can be seen or heard. And don’t for a second think that their plumbing abilities aren’t complimentary to their ghost hunting savvy.

In a Plumbers by Day, Ghost Hunters by Night interview on ABC, Grant says, “The plumbing does come in handy because people say their dead Uncle Fred is flushing the toilet at night. We go in there and tell them they’ve just got a bad flapper valve, fix it, and magically the ghost disappears.” Mind blowing!

This is some parody rich territory and the good people bringing us Bumps in the Night at Strike TV are in the midst of mining it. The series follows a group of paranormal experts (read: unintelligent and bumbling nerds that get aroused watching 80’s Transformers cartoons) as they search for anything out of the ordinary.

The creative geniuses of Bumps –Emmett Furey (commicresources.com and Fury of Solace), John Reha, and Greg Benevent – take the plumber element of Ghost Hunters one evolutionary step further. Instead of some feisty plumbers looking for Casper we’ve got pool cleaners, a dig I really like.

Greg and Emmett are accompanied by John (Assistant Field Manager “Senor Aqua Pool Cleaners”) who doesn’t actually believe in ghosts and takes his uncle’s pool cleaning business seriously. He just hired Greg and Emmett because they were his friends and they needed the money (a secret he doesn’t plan on letting them in on). But John isn’t the only one keeping secrets. Greg and Emmett, without John’s knowledge, are actively taking on clients who are believed to have haunted swimming pools that the other pool cleaning companies wont even touch.

The tag line sums it all up so well: “Real Evidence of the Paranormal ALMOST (hand written) Caught on Film,” which is exactly what we get, not only in this show, but also in the mainstream, self-serious versions it parodies. Bumps has it all – goofy guys calling out to the spirits to reveal themselves, special camera effects to add to the paranormal feel, and even a token registered sex offender.

I can’t say it is as scary as reading The Amityville Horror or as “Brainy” as Paranormal State, but if you are at all familiar with or especially a fan of Ghost Hunters, then you will quickly appreciate and enjoy the humor here. Go and get surprised at what the paranormal investigators do or don’t find at Bumps in the Night.