Culture Shock

“Culture Shock”
Telltale episode
Episode #	101
Villain	Brady Culture
Musical number	More Than Jerks
Release date	October 17, 2006 (GameTap) November 1, 2006 (Telltale Shop) June 17, 2009 (XBLA)
Sam & Max Season One ← Previous Next → "None" "Situation: Comedy"

Culture Shock is the first episode of Season One of the Sam & Max game series created by Telltale Games and published by GameTap.

Synopsis

Sam & Max find that a group of former child stars — Whizzer, Peepers & Specs, known as the Soda Poppers — are committing various crimes in their neighborhood to promote ocular fitness guru Brady Culture.

In-Depth Synopsis

Having not got a case for quite some time, Sam is amusing himself by trying to shoot an apple off of Max's head. Then the phone rings, and they realise that someone has stolen their phone. That someone turns out to be Jimmy Two-Teeth, a rat that lives in a hole in the wall of their office. He demands Swiss cheese as a ransom, but when Sam and Max pay him, starts making additional demands. However, they get their phone back after Max dangles Jimmy out of the window.

Then the Commissioner calls to tell them that there have been multiple reports of malfeasance in the neighbourhood. They go outside to find Specs, who they initially assume is a street urchin but turns out to be one of the underdeveloped stars of the Soda Poppers, a 1970s TV show, spraypainting pictures on buildings. Specs tells them that the paintings are of Brady Culture, a former star he admires and who has released an "ocular fitness" video.

Sam and Max enter Bosco's Inconvenience to find that Whizzer, another one of the Soda Poppers, is delivering Brady Culture's videos to the store, to Bosco's distress. Whizzer is just as enthusiastic about Brady Culture as Specs is.

Watching a TV show on former child stars, Sam and Max discover that Brady Culture was the star of Culture's Clubhouse, a children's show that ran opposite the Soda Poppers for six episodes in 1970. The Soda Poppers proved to be more popular, and Culture's Clubhouse was cancelled. They also watch one of Brady Culture's ocular fitness videos, but leave the room before it starts. This is fortunate, because when they come back, they discover that the video has hypnotised Jimmy into adoring Brady Culture.

"I have a new light in my life, and his name is Brady Culture."

In another building, Sybil's, Sam and Max meet the other Soda Popper, Peepers, who's claiming to be Sybil Pandemik, licensed psychotherapist. Sam lets the real Sybil out of the closet where Peepers had locked her, and she tells them that Peepers has been hypnotized. To snap him out of it, they need to knock him out. As he keeps running away, they make him cry so that he won't see them coming, then Max knocks him out. Sybil wakes him up by telling him to destroy the intruder in his dreams, and Peepers is cured of his hypnotism. He tells Sam and Max that the last thing he remembers is checking into Brady Culture's Home for Former Child Stars. However, he can't remember the address, and suggests asking his brothers.

Sam and Max knock out Specs by dropping a bowling ball on his head, and he tells them the street number of Brady Culture's Home for Former Child Stars, but can't remember what street it was, saying that Whizzer would know. They utilise Bosco's security system, B-TADS, to knock out Whizzer, who panics when he hears that Sam and Max are police and drives away in a van. Sam shoots his tires while chasing him, and they reassure Whizzer that they're not going to hurt him. He tells them that Brady Cultures Home for Former Child Stars is right behind them.

(This sequence can also happen with Specs' and Whizzer's roles reversed if Whizzer is revived first)

Sam and Max can't get into Brady Culture's Home for Former Child Stars without a diagnosis of Artificial Personality Disorder, which is common in child stars, so they return to Sybil's and convince Sybil that Sam displays all the symptoms. Once inside, Brady emerges from a stage playing the organ, and tells them about his craving for attention and his plan to hypnotize everyone in the world into loving him. He then tries to hypnotize them, but only succeeds in hypnotizing Sam.

Sam finds himself delivering videos to Bosco against his will, but manages to knock himself out with B-TADS. He then has a dream in which several versions of Brady are in his office telling him to do things, including one that has stolen Max's body. Once Sam gets rid of them all, he wakes up, no longer hypnotized.

Sam realizes that Brady kidnapped Max, but he can't go and rescue him without some sort of protection against getting hypnotized again. He asks Sybil if she knows how to protect against hypnotism, and she gives him the plans to an anti-hypnotism helmet that one of her patients made, rationalising the breach of client confidentiality with the belief that Sam is a policeman of sorts.

Bosco makes the helmet from the plans, and Sam goes to rescue Max, who is tied up in Brady Culture's Home for Former Child Stars. Just as Brady discovers that he can't hypnotize Sam anymore, the Soda Poppers reappear to help Sam defeat him. However, Brady just hypnotizes them again, and commands them to attack Sam. Sam tricks Brady into commanding the Soda Poppers to attack Brady instead, and then unties Max and destroys Brady's hypno goggles. As Sam comments on how annoying it would've been if the hypotism plot had been taken any further, the camera pans in on a TV screen showing a man on Myra's show who has been hypnotized.

Characters

• Sam - The player character, who along with Max, must stop Brady Culture & the Soda Poppers.
• Max - Sam's best friend who helps Sam with the case.
• The Commissioner - Phones Sam & Max to tell them about the case, and is never seen/heard from thereon in the episode.
• Mr Spatula & Hubert - Sam & Max's office pets of a goldfish & office plant respectively.
• Jimmy Two-Teeth - Living in Sam & Max's rat hole and ransom's the two for there phone at the beginning of the episode.
• Soda Poppers - A trio of 1970's child stars (Specs, Whizzer & Peeper) who are brainwashed by Brady Culture to deliver his video tapes.
• Bosco - Owner of Bosco's Inconvenience which is invaded by the Soda Poppers to sell tapes.
• Sybil Pandemik - Owner of her office across Sam & Max's street who occupies as a Psychotherapist (only to change careers throughout the season).
• Brady Culture - The main antagonist of the episode, who tries to brainwash a mass audience of people to gain popularity.

Deaths

• Brady Culture

Notes

Trivia

• One of the posters outside the Black Hole Theater depicts Harry Moleman.
• If you turn on the TV before talking to any of the Soda Poppers, it will show an advertisement for Prismatology, narrated by Brady Culture.

Glitches

• If you right click on an item in your inventory when Sam is delivering videos, he will put his arms by his sides, causing the box he's holding and his body to occupy the same space. He will also stop moving his legs but continue moving forward, making it look like he's floating.

Awards

• Won GameSpot's Funniest Game of 2006 Award

Transcript

Culture Shock Transcript

External links

• Telltale's page for Culture Shock
• Interview with Steve Purcell and Dave Grossman about Sam & Max: Culture Shock
• Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock Walkthroughs
• Playable demo
• text derived from wikipedia