Season 2, Episode 20: “Humbug”
Original Airdate: March 31, 1995
Behind this show’s cool exterior, beneath its layered mythologies, its paranoia, and lingering sense of dread there lies...comedy? Absolutely. Flip a drama as intense as this and you’re bound to find it has a soft, giggly underbelly. Usually when The X-Files deals in humor, it’s of the gallows variety — Mulder’s quips and Scully’s dry retorts can cut the tension when the tension desperately needs cutting — but every so often we get an episode that’s straight-up fun.
“Humbug” was the first episode written by Darin Morgan, who up to this point had been better known to you as The Flukeman. That’s right. The Flukeman wrote an episode, and it’s funny, and it’s also great. What have you done with your life?
[Do you recall what Barnum said about suckers?]