Gooflumps were a two-part parody book series. They were created by Tom Hughes (in other sources Robert Hughes), under the pen name R. U. Slime in 1995. The novels are parodies of R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. Each book featured a shot of Hughes upside down with wild, unkempt hair as “R.U. Slime” on the front.
Random House, Inc. published both novels in 1995. The books are no longer in print, although now available on Amazon.com. Although initially only available in the US and Canada, they are now offered for the first time owing to the net!
The covers of these books parodied that of the Goosebumps books, illustrated by Mark Garro. He would later illustrate the covers of the Ghost of Fear Street series.
Another interesting fact, the book mimics numbers from their respective titular parodies in the Goosebumps series. Eat Cheese and Barf! (book 4 1/2) imitates Eat Cheese and Die! (Goosebumps book 4), and Stay out of the Bathroom (book 2 1/2) mocks Stay out of the Basement, the second book in the Goosebumps series.
Gooflumps 4 1/2: Eat Cheese and Barf!
The title of this book is a spoof of Say Cheese and Die!, yet, the narrative is more comparable to Monster Blood. Eat Cheese and Barf! follows Billy Fudder, a young lactose-intolerant kid whose family has relocated from Syracuse. This is “New York” to the rural hamlet of Bledsoe, New York after inheriting a farm from his grandad.
The town’s sole economy is based on the manufacture of dairy products – which bothers Billy because he is the city’s lone lactose-intolerant child. This dull village, but, has a secret. Beneath his house lies a monster, made entirely of cottage cheese, constructed by his insane grandad.
With the help of Billy’s sister, her one-armed farmhand lover, and a talking cow, they must find a way to defeat the monster.
Gooflumps 2 1/2: Stay Out of the Bathroom
Although the book itself is more akin to Let’s Get Invisible!, the title of this book is a spoof of Stay Out of the Basement. A young boy named Joe Kohler (most likely named after Kohler, a manufacturer of plumbing products) is our protagonist. He calls himself the “toilet king,” and is the focus of the book Stay Out of the Bathroom.
Joe begins to notice odd occurrences with his toilet, including the lid slamming down on his head while he is vomiting, the toilet refusing to flush, and a trail of missing people leading straight to his bathroom. He soon learns that evil aliens visiting Earth, and are using the toilet as a teleportation mechanism.
