The Night Owl

The Night Owl is the twenty-second season two episode (and thirty-fourth episode overall) of Regular Show. It premiered on May 30th, 2011.

Plot
In a future timeline, Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man, and High-Five Ghost are drinking soda and listening to the radio where they suddenly hear a broadcast from the Night Owl, who says that there is a contest where anyone could win a vintage Dodge Challenger if they are the last person standing on a local billboard. The guys decide to work together to win the car and hitch a tent on the billboard then work together to get the other contestants off through various methods which works, and they are in the final four. Unfortuantely, the Night Owl refuses to believe that the four are just working together to win the car, so he manages to tell them that the others are planning to take the car for themselves. As they start fighting, the Night Owl puts a strange tube inside their tent and fills it up with liquid nitrogen, planning to do this just to make himself famous. The contest goes on for days, weeks, months, years, decades, and even centuries, (and during this time the area near the billboard changes) when finally, the liquid nitrogen melts and frees them, where they learn that they are in the year 4224 A.D. and that they are inside a display case with them, their tent, the billboard, and the car. A security guard catches them free and attempts to prevent them from escaping, but they hot-wire the car to activate and escape by crashing through the display case. The Future Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man and High Five Ghost decide to go find the time machine exhibit to get back to the past while being chased by more security guards. They manage to get away from the security guards and get to the time machine exhibit, but they are encountered by the Night Owl, who has lived for thousands of years by placing his head inside a owl-like robot. They defeat the Night Owl by knocking over his robot body, and use the time machine to get back to the first day, of the contest. They reach the period when the Night Owl was going to use the billboard, car, and liquid nitrogen in an attempt to make himself famous, but his plan is now foiled when the guys crash into the set and stop him. As they are walking back to the park, they are being watched by their past selves (the real Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man and High Five Ghost) and look confused.

Character Appearances

 * Mordecai
 * Rigby
 * Muscle Man
 * High-Five Ghost
 * Benson

Minor Characters

 * Museum Guards (minor antagonists)
 * The Night Owl (antagonist)

Trivia

 * Muscle Man said they could fight to the death, with their past selves; however, if they kill their past selves, then they would die too, due to them needing their past selves to be alive so they could survive and if their past self kill them, then they would die in the future.
 * A paradox occurs when the gang takes the time machine back to the present. When they destroy the car, they effectively stopped their past selves from entering the contest, making the entire ordeal of being frozen and escaping from the future not logically possible and thus, they should have dissapeared because they stopped their past selves from entering the contest.
 * Muscle Man makes fun of Mordecai's name ("Eat on that, Wrongecai!"), making him the second person to do so, the first being Rigby. (in "Do Me A Solid", he said Mordecai would "mordecry" himself to sleep)
 * This is the third time both Skips and Pops don't appear at all. The first was "Grilled Cheese Deluxe" and the second "High Score".
 * When Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man and High Five Ghost go past Benson, the entrance to The Night Owl Amphitheater is seen.
 * Muscle Man and High-Five Ghost are heard shouting "Yeeeauhhhh!" at one point, but the way their lips move looks like they're saying "Yes!", which makes them sound off-track; this was also like in "Really Real Wrestling".
 * When Muscle Man shouts at Rigby, "don't call me a barfsack" his voice sounds like the tone he spoke in "Caffeinated Concert Tickets".
 * This episode is before "Over The Top", but for unknown reasons the airdates changed.
 * Like in "It's Time", almost none of the park members appeared Muscle Man and High-Five appear but as main characters and Benson appears but shortly.
 * This is the second time Mordecai travels back in time; the first was in "It's Time".
 * The chase scene uses 3D computer graphics as the set. 3D was also used in "A Bunch of Baby Ducks".
 * Two ladies from the contest appear next to the picture of Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man and High-Five Ghost being frozen by The Night Owl in the future.
 * This is the third where the setting isn't mainly the park. The first was High Score. The second was But I Have A Receipt.
 * The gang appear to have been cryogenically frozen, where a subject is instantaneously frozen to effectively stop any biological clock, such as aging.
 * The man who said to the Night Owl that they all were working together sounded just like Muscle Man; thus voiced by Sam Marin.
 * This is the first or only episode where Muscle Man is a supporting character and not also partly an antagonist.

Goofs

 * Goof: When Mordecai and Muscle Man first board the car, Mordecai was in the passenger seat. When Muscle Man steps out of the car, Mordecai drives the car all the way to the time pavilion. However, when the gang gets out of the car, Mordecai is once again sitting in the passenger seat.
 * Goof: When Muscle Man said "Working together, baby", his belly button is not shown.
 * Goof: When High-Five Ghost helps Muscle Man beat up the guards, he disappears for a second inside the car, but is later seen with Rigby.
 * Goof: When Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man and High-Five Ghost were huddling Muscle Man's shirt disappears.

Running Gags

 * Running gag:  Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man, and High Five Ghost getting rid of the people in the contest by being annoying or disgusting.

Gallery
The gallery for this episode can be viewed here.