This is a weird stream of consciousness thing that is both me critically reflecting on Ghostbusters in 2023, and also sort of reinventing it with a proposed infomercial. Why this all rushed into my head this afternoon I’ll never know.

“Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters” is a catchy lyric and a fun in-universe slogan for the freelance ghost catchers, but it’s also a truncated set-up and punchline. “Uh oh I have [crazy problem x]! I know, I’ll call [crazy problem x]busters!” It’s a goof on what crazy times we live in, and how New York City really is the city that has EVERYTHING. As time goes on, the problems of the world get stranger and more unpredictable–new problems mean new solutions that can be sold for a premium… enter the Ghostbusters. 

I started playing around with the set-up and punchline of Ghostbusters. Movies and TV shows about exorcisms and spiritual combat with the supernatural have been consistently HOT for the last 10 or 15 years. The Conjuring and Insidious movie series both come to mind. Even still, nobody else besides the Ghostbusters are out there doing Secular Humanist ghost removal. What if you’re not Catholic? What if it turns out that there aren’t as many rabbis trained to fight dybbuks as the movies would have you think? What if an exorcism is just too damned expensive? 

Who ya gonna call?  Ghostbusters!