A tribute today to the super amusing and charming skull from The Curse of Monkey Island (1997). This chap may have no body, but that sure as heck won’t stop him!

In the game, he’s a bodiless skull who rants and raves wildly about his demonic fantasies, sort of befriending protagonist Guybrush Threepwood along the way.

The Story of Murray the Skull

At the start of the game (a point-and-click adventure), you accidentally blow Murray up as his horde invades a nearby castle. That’s during the Battle of Plunder Island.

Threepwood even picks up the skeleton’s arm and takes it with him, much to the latter’s irritation.

For the rest of the experience, you occasionally bump into the skull—voice actor Denny Delk is behind the wild ranting.

Murray was part of LeChuck’s Army of the Undead, but after the failed invasion he seems to just go off on one alone.

As he has no body, he has no control over where he ends up in the gaming world. But throughout, you bump into him occasionally.

And when you do, he typically starts ranting quite wildly about how he’s going to annihilate the world and destroy Guybrush Threepwood.

That’s fairly standard stuff from him right there. Quotes go along the lines of the below, rounded off with a demonic evil laugh (of course):

"I'm a powerful demonic force! I'm the harbinger of your doom! And the forces of darkness will applaud me as I STRIDE through the gates of Hell, carrying your head on a pike!"

Such statements usually lead to Threepwood mocking the skull for his lack of movement abilities.

Murray may want to enslave the human race, but he really doesn’t have any other capacity than to jabber quite mindlessly.

Murray also appears in Escape from Monkey Island (2000) and Tales of Monkey Island (2009), but those titles were actually a bit disappointing.

All the same, you can listen to him ranting away in the below clip.

Anyway, it’s for The Curse of Monkey Island that Murray remains most famous. We remember him very fondly, he’s a constant source of entertainment in the experience.

Part of the amusement factor is it’s unclear quite how Murray ends up in the various places he does.

He ends up on a totally different island with Threepwood at one point, the reason for him being there totally unclear.

Murray does explain early in the game some kids shifted him into the swamp.

So, we must presume his constant ranting caught the attention of various folks. Who pick him up and carry him off around the pirate world.

Anyway, you can get the game on Steam if you’d like to hang out with Murray the Skull. Or, you know, just enjoy all his assorted moments below.

Murray is, then, a sidekick of sorts in The Curse of Monkey Island.

Despite his apparent animosity towards the human race (and it’s Threepwood who cost him his body), he seems to get on pretty well with the protagonist.

But he’s also just funny, in his crazed little way. Bwahahahaha!