“ | Hi! I'm Hugh Bliss! | „ |
~ Hugh Bliss's Catchphrase |
An unusual figure, Hugh Bliss is an albino human-looking figure who promotes his philosophy of Prismatology while being unnervingly cheerful. He serves as the main antagonist of the first season of the Sam and Max Telltale games.
He is voiced by David Boyll.
Characteristics[]
Hugh Bliss is essentially the embodiment of a human being at total bliss with a personality of the most wholesome and polite individual, complete with an unusually high-pitched voice and refusal to be crude. He also demonstrates unusual abilities, such as teleportation and changing his skin color. Throughout season one, he appears promoting his religion/philosophy of Prismatology which assures any of its adherents to achieve pure bliss with a particular focus on mental exercises and the colors of the rainbow. In a manner parodying Scientology, Bliss hawks copies of the Prismatology book, Emetics.
During episode five Reality 2.0, Sam and Max's world is blended with a virtual reality counterpart led by the actions of an anthropomorphic Internet. Sam and Max defeat the Internet to save their associates, although the Internet mentions that it was being manipulated by a "Roy G. Biv". A cut to the sky reveals Bliss' face superimposed on the moon.
The Bright Side of the Moon[]
In the final episode, Hugh Bliss is followed to his base on the moon where he has gained several of the series' characters as adherents. Sam and Max have to gather some Talismans connected with Prismatology (including the "Magician's Talisman" that allows the user to switch places with another) in order to prove themselves worthy of seeing Bliss.
Bliss reveals his true intention of using a massive hypnotic devise in order to transform every resident of the Earth into people as blissful as himself. (It is shown that he had several operatives, such as Agent Chuckles and the Toy Mafia setting out his plan.) Seeing Max as a threat to his operations, he splits up the lagomorph into incarnates representing his Gluttonous, Slothful, and Wrathful selves. Sam is forced to defeat the various incarnations in order to restore Max. Unfortunately, Bliss succeeds in hypnotizing those on Earth.
Confronted again, Max is entrapped in the massive crystal Bliss uses for his mind control/hypnosis. Sam shoots Bliss only to find out that the villain is not even human-but is actually a colony of alien bacteria. These particular bacteria feed on the endorphins produced as a human experiences true bliss. As it turns out, Bliss' real scheme isn't truly world domination, but to force the Earth's population into a state of total bliss so that he can continuously feed without being interrupted. Hence, he started Prismatology as a way to initiate his master plan and soothe his hunger.
Angered by their intrusion, Bliss devises a series of death-traps with the intention of tormenting Max by making him watch Sam die, revealing himself to be quite sadistic. (Among these include a repurposed Lunar Lander and a tank of water Bliss calls the "Cleansing Bath of Annihilation"). Sam manages to escape several of these with the help of the Magician's Talisman although Bliss remains unaffected. Using a saw, Sam cuts off one of the Lunar Lander's legs to tilt it with its thrusters directed at the tank of water. After using the Talisman to swap places with Bliss after being put into the tank, Sam activates the Lander's thruster which boils Bliss alive, destroying him once and for all. Following Bliss' defeat, Sam and Max return to earth to literally knock sense back into the hypnotized masses.
Aftermath[]
The remnants of Bliss were contained in Sam and Max's office. He also later appears in Hell during season two's segment What's Up, Beelzebub? as Hell's censor. Bliss is oddly forgiving of Sam and Max despite these events.
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Villains | ||
Beast from the Cereal Aisle | Mack Salmon | Conroy Bumpus | Lee-Harvey | Deadly Dangly Deever | Herzog | Lactose the Intolerant | Lorne | Uglion High Ruler | Toy Mafia (Agent Chuckles & Hugh Bliss) | Brady Culture | Soda Poppers | Jurgen | Santa Claus | Baby Jimmy Hoffa | The Narrator | General Skun-ka'pe | Anton Papierwaite | Sammun-Mak | "Junior" Max | Charlie Ho-Tep |