Pamela Winchell is the former mayor of Night Vale until she was replaced by Dana Cardinal in the 2014 election. During her tenure as mayor, she often made statements and held press conferences regarding important issues, and was known to answer journalists' questions with hollow stares, gritted teeth, or pounding her bleeding fists on the podium. She has since become Director of Emergency Press Conferences for Night Vale. [1]
History[]
In Pamela Winchell's first appearance in the podcast, she gives a 90-second impromptu press conference denying Eldritch noises coming from the Dog Park. She reiterated that citizens are not even supposed to be consciously aware of the dog park, so they could not possibly be hearing instructions to bring precious metals and toddlers there. And besides, the dog park is not real and could never be.[2]
Her next appearance was to announce that the menacing graffiti-spraying dog pack was actually just some plastic bags which had been returned to the dog park. When journalists asked about the vandalism caused by the dogs, Winchell shook the podium off its base and whispered through gritted teeth, "PLASTIC BAGS -- P-L-A-S-T-I-C B-A-G-S." Police dispersed the journalists with pepper spray.[3]
Winchell responds to Hiram McDaniels' possible candidacy for mayor by citing a city law that prohibits prisoners from running for office. When Cecil accused her on his radio program of being a career politician using dirty campaign tactics, Winchell left a message on the station's voice mail explaining exactly why McDaniels was ineligible. She reminded Cecil that there was considerable paperwork involved and that a person "can't just.... ARGH." Cecil, naturally, responded with a brief editorial suggesting that Winchell was prejudiced against five-headed dragons and endorsing McDaniels for mayor.[4]
In response to increasing demands for her to step down on the part of McDaniels supporters, she got positively Lovecraftian in describing what the mayor of Night Vale is and is not; the podium spontaneously combusted and the ceiling flew off the building.[5] Such displays are not unique for mayor Winchell, as she's later seen making further bizarre statements and then vanishing in a puff of green smoke.[6]
Before a violent sandstorm, Mayor Winchell declared a state of emergency, asking residents still without shelter to return home immediately. A moment later, she was heard to announce "She's lying, you shouldn't listen to her. She's not the real mayor, I am!" then, "Give me the microphone and get away from the podium! This is my press conference, you replicant clown!" As she and her double duked it out, the press corps doubled at the same time and began fighting itself.[7] Later we learn that the mayor of Desert Bluffs is Pablo Mitchell, and it is clear that he is not Winchell's double.[8]
During Poetry Week, Mayor Winchell contributes this verse (also intended as legislation):
No one will
have to be
anyone
ever again.
In fact,
it will not
be
allowed.[9]
Mayor Winchell is involved in the community; she congratulates two boys who had achieved the rank of Eternal Scout and produces colorful balloons from her mouth, which she gives to the strange mute children who stood nearby.[10] She also occasionally practices pottery making.[citation needed]
She went missing, for a while, following a press conference. She had apparently been speaking with the Apache Tracker. When found, Mayor Winchell announced her intention to step down effective by year's end, then climbed into the Dog Park.[11]
This did not prevent her from reappearing and observing commuters who seemed "thinner somehow, spiritually, like you think it's the afternoon but it's almost evening. That's what they're like."[12] Her frequent press conferences continue unabated, making four announcements in one week about her decision to step down.[13] She was seen holding aloft her official mayoral bloodstone towards A Blinking Light up on the Mountain.[14]
Her response to the weird sleeping plague was to call a press conference during which she simply took a nap. No one showed up anyway.[15]
Following her retirement, Pamela Winchell continues to call emergency press conferences about her retirement, despite the fact that she is no longer is involved in politics. In response, Mayor Cardinal decides to offer Pamela the role of Official Night Vale Director of Emergency Press Conferences. Although touched by the new mayor's consideration for her, calling Dana "a wonderful woman" and calling an emergency press conference to let people know how wonderful the new mayor is, Pamela initially refuses to take up the position.
Pamela's retirement emergency press conferences become increasingly dangerous and destructive. Despite pleas from local, regional, national, international, and interstellar authorities, Pamela refuses to stop. In a possessed state, she is close to destroying the Night Vale Community Radio center, but, as per Cecil's reporter book, The Man In The Tan Jacket successfully talks her out of performing dangerous retirement emergency press conferences and convinces her to take up the position of Official Night Vale Director of Emergency Press Conferences.
Following the rescue of Mayor Cardinal from the antiques, Pamela Winchell holds an emergency press conference saying “Clouds are the belt of the sky. Cinch them tighter! Make the clouds go tighter! Make the sky come closer!”. She then hurled herself into the sky until she was just a dot in the upwards distance.[16]
Pamela Winchell will have been one of the last mayors preceding a 30+ year period without a Night Vale mayor.[17]
Relationships[]
She has an antagonistic relationship with the media, including Cecil. When she is questioned, her press conferences end with the police dispersing the journalists with pepper spray or disappearing them.[3][6]
Mayor Winchell seems to feel threatened by McDaniels possibly running for mayor, as she's quick to issue a statement following Cecil's reading of McDaniels' "If I were mayor of Night Vale, [...]" blog post.[4]
Her staff uses their disappearing powers sparingly, "out of respect for the Mayor".[11]
She claims her grandfather was a bird whose middle name was Bumpfbumbfffgggwq [18].
She has a crush on Deb, saying she likes both her clothes and her character, and asking Cecil if she is single. [19]
Mentions[]
- Episode 6 "The Drawbridge"
- Episode 10 "Feral Dogs"
- Episode 12 "The Candidate"
- Episode 17 "Valentine"
- Episode 18 "The Traveler"
- Episode 19A "The Sandstorm (Part A)"
- Episode 20 "Poetry Week"
- Episode 23 "Eternal Scouts"
- Episode 24 "The Mayor"
- Episode 26 "Faceless Old Woman"
- Episode 29 "Subway"
- Episode 30 "Dana"
- Episode 31 "A Blinking Light up on the Mountain"
- Episode 35 "Lazy Day"
- Episode 37 "The Auction"
- Episode 42 "Numbers"
- Episode 43 "Visitor"
- Live show "The Debate"
- Episode 46 "Parade Day"
- Episode 48 "Renovations"
- Episode 52 "The Retirement of Pamela Winchell"
- Episode 54 "A Carnival Comes to Town"
- Episode 59 "Antiques"
- Episode 63 "There Is No Part 1: Part 2"
- Episode 69 "Fashion Week"
- Episode 71 "The Registry of Middle School Crushes"
- Episode 74 "Civic Changes" (vocal appearance)
- Live show "The Investigators (vocal appearance)
- Episode 100 "Toast" (vocal appearance)
- Episode 107 "The Missing Sky" (vocal appearance)
- Live show "Ghost Stories" (vocal appearance)
- Episode 110 "Matryoshka"
- Episode 116 "Council Member Flynn, Part 3"
- Episode 128 "A Matter of Blood Part 2"
- Episode 130 "A Story About Us"
- Live show "All Hail" (vocal appearance)
- Episode 133 "Are You Sure?"
- Episode 144 "The Dreamer"
- Episode 158 "The Battle for Time"
- Episode 185 "Fair"
- Episode 191 "The Many, Many Lives of Frank Chen"
Trivia[]
- Trish Hidge, one of Winchell's staffers, claimed that mayors can disappear and that Pamela does so all the time. In addition, she can fly and turn into a horse. Trish also showed that she could vanish at will (like all mayors' aides) to prove her point. [11]
- Pamela is seen to disappear into a puff of green smoke in Bonus Episode 4.
- Winchell is described as having olive skin. [13]
- Pamela suspects Mayor Dana Cardinal of being a group of super sentient lizards in a meat costume.
References[]
- ↑ Episode 52 "The Retirement of Pamela Winchell"
- ↑ Episode 6 "The Drawbridge"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Episode 10 "Feral Dogs"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Episode 12 "The Candidate"
- ↑ Episode 17 "Valentine"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Episode 18 "The Traveler"
- ↑ Episode 19A "The Sandstorm (Part A)"
- ↑ Episode 19B "The Sandstorm (Part B)"
- ↑ Episode 20 "Poetry Week"
- ↑ Episode 23 "Eternal Scouts"
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Episode 24 "The Mayor"
- ↑ Episode 29 "Subway"
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Episode 30 "Dana"
- ↑ Episode 31 "A Blinking Light up on the Mountain"
- ↑ Episode 35 "Lazy Day"
- ↑ Episode 59 "Antiques"
- ↑ Episode 7 "History Week"
- ↑ Live show "Ghost Stories"
- ↑ Live show "All Hail"