Tongue Tied
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Spacemumps

"I look like something that belongs up a whale's nose"

SpaceMumpsII

Lister's head explodes over Cat

Space Mumps is an illness portrayed in Red Dwarf. The illness manifests itself as the afflicted person's head swelling to several times its normal size in an extremely exaggerated way, filled with a mucus-like substance.

According to Kryten, the swelling had definitely gone down overnight as it almost interfered with the ceiling fan yesterday afternoon.

Dave Lister suffered from this illness in the first half of "Justice", prompting Cat and Rimmer to insult him, most notably by comparing his head to a cantaloupe and the Taj Mahal.

However, Cat got some comeuppance shortly after when Lister decided to scratch his head to relieve the itching whilst co-piloting Starbug, subsequently making it (apparently) explode in much the same way a blister or abscess would, and covering Cat and himself in mucus/pus. Cat found this experience unpleasant to say the least, asking somebody to shoot him in the head with a bazookoid.

Lister felt much better after this, and showed no signs of the illness after this incident. ("Justice")

Behind the Scenes[]

  • In the Red Dwarf script book Primordial Soup, published by Penguin Books in March 1993, the opening scene of "Justice" describes Lister's head as having "swollen to the size and shape of the Mekon's".



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