The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Easter Eggs, Trivia, and Secrets

Guybrush was originally supposed to turn to talk to Elaine in the final scene. This was cut because of disk space constraints, and Guybrush ended up just shifting his eyes. See the full animation over at The Video Game History Foundation.

Originally, the SCUMM Bar was one large, scrolling room where the kitchen was seen from a different perspective. Courtesy of The Video Game History Foundation.

An early version of the Mêlée dock had a door where the poster would ultimately show up. Too, “SCUMM :) Bar” was known as “SCUM Bar,” meaning in some separate timeline, you’d be visiting scumbar.com. Courtesy of The Video Game History Foundation.

You could originally see a lot—or a bit—more of Monkey Island from the Sea Monkey. The line shows where the cutoff is in the final game. Courtesy of The Video Game History Foundation.

An early version of the Governor’s Mansion was shown from a very different perspective. Courtesy of The Video Game History Foundation.

An early concept for the “troll bridge” puzzle involved the bridge collapsing. Exactly what the puzzle would have entrailed is unknown, but the scene was fully animated. View it over at The Video Game History Foundation.

In “Rise of the Pirate God,” co-director Jake Rodkin asked Michael Land to echo LeChuck’s Revenge’s underground theme:

I was nervous to ask Michael Land if the music in the Crossroads could allude to the music in the underground tunnels in 2 because I’m a lifelong Monkey 2 fanboy and it felt like asking to touch a live wire. He was happy to, of course!

Source: Bluesky

Tim Schafer famously has a distaste for mushrooms and wrote the line, “I had a feeling that in hell there would be mushrooms,” specifically for when descending through the Monkey Head. Conversely, he added a callback to the line in Psychonauts 2. Source: I mean, it’s just commonly known, but you can witness it in PsychOdyssey if you don’t believe us. 🤷

(And Otis does, too.) The Cook will have many thoughts about the IOUs that do not benefit him.

A common misconception is that the Phatt Island jail’s dog, Walt, is named after Walt Disney. Rather, he’s named after Steve Purcell’s dog. (Who at one point bit Dave Grossman. The dog did. Not Steve Purcell.)

Strangely, voices were recorded for the deleted LeChuck/Largo scene in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge Special Edition. The scene doesn’t appear in that version of the game, either, but through the magic of reconstruction, here’s what it would have sounded like. (Video taken from VGHF’s fireside chat video.)

Another (very) early piece of The Secret of Monkey Island concept art, courtesy of Gary Winnick. Source: Heritage Auctions.

While never mentioned (or visited) in Monkey Island 2, the top-right island off Booty is called “The Mysterious Island of Cleptomaniac Parrots.” Source: The Mojo Forums.

At some point, Booty Island featured a nighttime setting and was known as Crooked Island. Source: Various pieces of concept art.

When Guybrush chooses to go by “Captain Loogie” in the Booty spitting contest, it is not just another random name. Going by the Phatt Library, Captain Loogie is already a published spitting champ. “Great Expectorations” isn’t a random title, either. Other than the obvious “Great Expectations” reference, “expectorations” means “to spit,” and when Guybrush examines the book, he’ll describe it as ”thick.” Much like how he describes the green drink from The Bloody Lip that thickens his spit. Also, the book is green—another hint.