This piece is meant to address a claim I’ve often seen made online, which is that in The Real Ghostbusters, Egon is the most likely to have bizarre supernatural things happen to him. My guess going into this is that this is true, but I thought the only surefire way to know is to go through every episode, note down the ones that have something supernatural happen to one or more of the Ghostbusters, and then count the number of incidents involving each one.

Here are some things you may need to know before reading:

The event has to be explicitly supernatural in itself, so things like being tied up or threatened with death don’t count.
I’m only focusing on the Ghostbusters, so characters like Slimer, Janine, and Louis don’t count.
I’m not counting the “Slimer” shorts.

Season 1

Mrs. Rogers’ Neighbourhood - Peter (gets possessed).
Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream - Peter, Ray, Egon (get put to sleep by the Sandman).
Janine’s Genie - Egon (gets made to fall in love with Janine).

Season 2

Play Them Ragtime Boos - Ray (gets put into a trance by Malachi).
Doctor, Doctor - Peter, Ray, Egon, Winston (grow goop on their bodies, which turns into a monster).
Banshee Bake a Cherry Pie? – Peter (gets made to fall in love with Shanna the banshee.)
Egon on the Rampage - Egon (gets his soul removed and then gets possessed without it.)
Slimer, is That You? - Egon (gets body-swapped with Slimer).
Egon’s Ghost - Egon (turns noncorporeal).

Season 4

Poultrygeist - Egon (gets turned into a werechicken).

Season 5

Something’s Going Around - Peter, Ray, Egon, Winston (get made “allergic” to ghosts).
Til Death Do Us Part - Egon (gets mind-controlled by Dixie the ghost.)
If I Were a Witch Man - Egon (gets possessed).
Three Men and an Egon - Egon (ages backwards).

Season 6

Ghostworld - Peter, Ray, Winston (get possessed).
Spacebusters - Ray, Egon (get absorbed by the monster).
Stay Tooned - Ray, Egon, Winston (turn into anthro animals).
Very Beast Friends - Peter, Ray (get possessed and made to turn into monsters when angry)

Total Score:

[*] Peter: 6
[*] Ray: 7
[*] Egon: 12
[*] Winston: 4

And so, it's true! Egon is the most common Ghostbuster to have weird things happen to him. Why is that?

Well, I don't know, but here's my personal guess: drama. Y'see, Egon is the one most likely to have a solution, being the smart guy and all, and so if he's put out of commission, that means that the writers have to get creative.

And in-story, it gives the others opportunities to do smart stuff. I think sometimes people forget Ray's also far smarter than the average person, he just gets overshadowed by the even smarter guy he works with. (Venkman's smarter than he seems but he's lazy. Well, except post-Q5, where he really is stupid.)

And since Egon's so curious and sometimes lacking in common sense, it's easy to justify while being in character.

Very good analysis.

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