Slappy the Dummy
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| Slappy the Dummy | |
|---|---|
| Goosebumps character | |
| First appearance | Night of the Living Dummy |
| Last appearance | The Streets of Panic Park |
| Created by | R. L. Stine |
Slappy the Dummy is a fictional character in the Goosebumps children's series by R. L. Stine. He is one of the series' most popular villains, and the star of the series' most successful plot arc, the Night of the Living Dummy saga. Slappy is a ventriloquist's dummy that comes to life when the words "Karru marri odonna loma molonu karrano", found on a sheet of paper in his pocket, are read aloud. After coming to life, Slappy spends most of his time searching for a slave to serve him (usually the child who brought him to life). Slappy is shown to be a rude, sadistic control freak who likes to pull mean pranks and frames the main protagonist(s) in each book for them. Other defining characteristics are his raspy voice and near-superhuman strength. Stine has said, "I love writing Slappy because he is so rude."[1]
As revealed in "Bride of the Living Dummy", Slappy was carved out of coffin wood by an ancient sorcerer. "Slappy's Nightmare" reveals that he has a twin brother Wally, carved from the same coffin; however, this revelation is only a dream. When "Night of the Living Dummy" was re-released in a special Horrorland edition, bonus material included with the book revealed that Slappy did indeed have a brother: Mr. Wood, the primary antagonist of the book, and that the coffin wood they were made from was cursed. Mr. Wood's destruction made Slappy twice as evil, and a thousand times ruder.[2]
Slappy fell in love with one of his owners; Jillian from "Bride of the Living Dummy"
Contents |
[edit] Notable appeareaces in novels
[edit] Night of the Living Dummy
When Lindy Powell finds a ventriloquist dummy Slappy in a dumpster, her sister Kris gets jealous of her and soon gets a dummy named Mr. Wood. Strange things start happening, and Kris is blamed for all of it. Later, she finds out that it was Lindy all along and gets very upset at her. Kris finally gets a show when she finds Mr. Wood's card with the spell on it. During the show Mr. Wood comes to life and sprays everyone with weird green slime. Lindy soon sees the dummy moving on his own herself, and the sisters try to kill Mr. Wood by burying him and cutting his head off with a pair of scissors. He is finally killed when he's run over by a steamroller, crushing him to powder. When they go back in, they find that Slappy is alive as well. His first and only words in the book (spoken with a throaty growl) are "Hey, slave - is that other guy gone? I thought he'd never leave!"[3] The book was turned into an episode and was planned to be released for the 5th season of the Goosebumps television series, but due to the cancellation of season 4, the episode was never shown
[edit] Tagline
He walks. He stalks.
[edit] Night of the Living Dummy II
Amy has a act for ventriloquism and has a dummy called Dennis. She performs with Dennis at her own family's little 'talent show'. But the head of Dennis won't stop coming off. Amy seriously wants a new Dummy! Luckily Amy's dad did. He bought it at a pawnshop. Its name is Slappy. Sound familiar? Amy accidentally reads the ancient words to bring Slappy alive. At the next little 'talent show' Amy performs with Slappy! But her act goes horribly wrong. Slappy is making jokes about all the members of her family. The family think it is Amy saying those things so Amy's mom sends her to her room. Amy is angry with her new dummy! When Amy's friend comes over for a visit to help decorate the poster for their school's dance Amy's friend's sister pulls Slappy out of the bedroom cupboard. Amy takes Slappy away from her but suddenly Slappy grasps hold of the little sister's finger and tries to rip it off! Once Amy's mom arrives on the scene Slappy deliberately falls into lifelessness. Amy is then grounded and her best friend dumps her forever! That night Amy wakes up and sees just outside her bedroom cupboard that Slappys suitcase is empty! Amy hops out of bed to go and find him. Amy finally sees Slappy holding her dad's guitar in a position to beat him with. But Amy spear tackles Slappy just in time to save her dad's life! But unfortunately her dad's guitar is broken, which worsens the tension between Amy and her family. In the morning on the way to school Amy throws Slappy down a sewer. That night Slappy appears back in Amy's room. He threatens to hurt her family unless Amy becomes his slave! She denies and tackles him to the ground. Sara (Amy's sister) comes in and sees that Slappy is alive. Slappy chases them both around the house when suddenly he disappears.....up onto the LAMP? He jumps on Amy and Sara and loudly confesses that he is in control of the family now! But all of a sudden A red figure tackles Slappy and he is then cracked into two. All of Slappy's green magic pours out. Amy and Sara's parent's then come to see what the problem is! Sara confesses that their brother Jed saved them! But Jed was asleep the whole time! At the door they see that Amy's other dummy Dennis is alive. He then says " it's good to be back in the family again" in a goofy tone of voice.
[edit] Tagline
He's still walking, he's still stalking!
[edit] Night of the Living Dummy III
Trina's dad used to be a famous ventriloquist, but now he's retired and works in a camera shop. However, he still collects and refurbishes old ventriloquist dolls in his spare time. He even calls his attic the Dummy Museum. As the book opens, Trina and her younger brother Dan enter the attic. Trina and Dan begin looking at all the creepy dolls, all of which have names, such as Wilbur and Rocky. Rocky is described as dressing like "a tough guy," due to his red and white striped shirt and jeans. Dan picks up Miss Lucy, the only female dummy in the collection, and begins to threaten Trina via the doll. He is interrupted by Rocky, who leans forward in his chair from across the attic and also begins threatening Trina. The children discover that Rocky did not really come to life; he was operated by Trina's dad, who had snuck up to the attic. Dad shows his kids his new doll: Slappy. He says he found it in the trash and the only thing wrong with it was that his head was split in half. Because of the doll's big grin Dad calls the new doll Smiley. The phone rings and while their dad goes downstairs to answer, Trina finds a yellow sheet of paper in the dummy's pocket. She reads the magic words out loud and the doll reaches up and slaps her. Dad comes back and tells the kids that their Uncle Cal and cousin Zane are coming to spend the week with them. Trina and Dan hate Zane because he's a total loser. Dad makes everyone promise to not scare Zane. Trina tells the reader about some of the mean tricks she and her brother had played on Zane in the past: they pretended they were ghosts; they borrowed their mom's pantyhose and made him think that they were ghost-legs, and they also hid in his closet and made him think his clothes were dancing. Zane shows up and he's grown. He looks like he works out and begins taking pictures of everything. He tells Trina's dad that he enjoys taking still-lifes and candids. Shortly after he takes a picture of the banister, he goes upstairs to unpack and screams like a little girl when a doll falls on him. Trina and Dan think Zane must be trying to get them back for all their tomfoolery, and so the siblings devise a plan wherein they wait upstairs in the attic to catch Zane retrieving a dummy. They spend quite a long time up there, but eventually they do spy Zane retrieving Rocky. They confront him and tell him that just because they made his clothes dance is no reason to play with dolls. Zane promises to quit the funny business, however Rocky keeps showing up and doing things. The dummy ruins a dinner party and smashes Zane's camera, and Trina's parents think she and her brother are responsible. Trina's dad threatens his kids with the promise that they won't be allowed to go to camp. Trina and Dan decide to wait up in the attic again, this time armed with a camera to snap Zane in action. They discover the party responsible for carrying out Rocky this time is Slappy the dummy. Trina calls him Smiley and he corrects her, then punches her in the head. Trina and her brother wrestle the doll to the ground. They carry Slappy outside and dump him in an abandoned well in their backyard. That night, Trina dreams about Slappy dancing around with Miss Lucy and the other dolls upstairs. Trina comes downstairs the following morning only to discover a filthy Slappy waiting for her on the breakfast table. That night during a thunderstorm, Trina and Dan confront Slappy. He tells them about how they're his slaves. There is still the sheet of paper with the magic words on them, and Trina figures that if she can say the words again, he'll stop being a living dummy. Dan holds Slappy down and Trina retrieves the paper. She reads the words but they have no effect on Slappy other than amusement, as he laughs and mocks her for thinking it would work. However, the twelve other dummies in the attic suddenly begin encircling Trina, Dan, and Slappy. Trina thinks they're screwed until the dolls race past the humans and begin savagely beating Slappy. Zane shows up in the attic and sees Trina and Dan standing in the middle of a pile of now-lifeless dolls. Zane tells them that he knew they were the ones causing all the trouble and goes to tattle. Trina and Dan get grounded for life. While saying goodbye to Uncle Cal and Zane, Trina's dad tells Zane he'd like to buy him a new camera to replace the smashed one. Zane tries to suck up and tells her dad that he's not interested in photography anymore, and what he'd really like is a ventriloquist dummy. Trina's dad tells his daughter to run up to the attic and fetch Zane a dummy. Trina, still upset with Zane singling her and her brother out for the crimes they didn't commit, brings down Slappy. She sees the dummy wink as Zane happily escorts the doll into the car.
[edit] Tagline
Every Dummy has his Day - and his Night! or Can't Dummies have a little fun once in a while?
[edit] Bride of the Living Dummy
A girl called Jillian takes her twin sisters Katie and Amanda to a ventriloquist's show but the dummy (Slappy) treats the ventriloquist (Jimmy O. James) badly and makes jokes about Katie and Amanda who go on stage. They carry around a doll called Mary-Ellen and treat her like a living being. Jimmy O. James gets rid of Slappy but Jillian's friend, Harrison, discovers Slappy in a dumpster and takes him out to keep him. He wants Jillian's dad, who likes making and repairing things, to fix Slappy as they think he was broken. Slappy bites Jillian on three occasions in the book. He is seen scribbling Where Is My Bride on Jillian's mirror with lipstick, throws food around the kitchen, fixes Jillian and Harrison's clown tricks (for a party) and also has Jillian's pet lizard, Petey in his mouth. Jillian blames the twins who always play tricks on her, although they say it was not them.
Nevertheless, it seems that Mary-Ellen did all this as she reveals herself to be living at a kid's birthday party and read out the words "Karru marri odanna loma molonu karrano" beforehand, which makes Slappy alive (Jimmy, his previous owner, managed to somehow put Slappy to "sleep") but Slappy wants Jillian to be his wife and a fight between Mary-Ellen and Slappy break out but Slappy pushes Mary-Ellen through a whirling buzz-saw blade. Slappy would have survived but was pulled through by Mary-Ellen. The two dolls presumably died but in normal Goosebumps fashion, the closest human standing near Slappy when he dies gets the evil spirit, this is Jillian who throws up green liquid over her twins (in the TV version, it's Harrison, who becomes possessed by the spirit of Slappy, complete with ventriloquist dummy eyes).
It's a match made in horror!
[edit] Slappy's Nightmare
This story begins when Jimmy O James, a magician, has cold sweat and fears. Among other weird things, his ventriloquist dummy, Slappy, has been committing pranks. But, when Jimmy buys another dummy (Wally), Jimmy has a curse put on him. He needs to commit 3 good deeds by the end of the week, or be put to sleep forever. After being given to a girl, Slappy starts to do those deeds. But they keep getting messed up by, as Slappy thinks, the girl's sister Stella. But, near the end, the other dummy turns out to be behind everything. Slappy wakes up and realizes this was all just a bad dream. Just then, Jimmy receives a package at the door, hinting its Wally. Jimmy tells Slappy that sometimes, dreams do come true...
Sweet Screams!
[edit] Revenge of the Living Dummy
Britney Crosby is mad because her mean cousin Ethan is coming to stay for a while. When Ethan comes, he has Slappy the dummy with him, but calls him Mr. Badboy. Mr. Badboy a.k.a. Slappy has been coming to life at several different parts but Britney doesn't believe it. In a dream she some how finds that Mr. Badboy is actually Slappy and she finds the card with "Karru Marri Oddona Loma Molonu Kurrano". She said the words to put slappy to sleep (when he was not alive) accidentally giving him life. When she wakes up she finds Slappy right next to her and Slappy says, " Thanks. Thanks for waking me up SLAVE!" Following several occasions of his normal behavior, Slappy is finally beaten when he attempts to use a Mind Stealer doll(Which her friend Molly's dad found on an Indian island) to take Britney's mind so he can take over. Instead, she manages to use the doll to steal Slappy's mind, and buries the Mind Stealer again. As she walks away, she hears his voice coming from within the Mind Stealer: "I'll be back, Britney. I'm a BAAAAAAD boy!"[4] Slappy appears again at the end in a photo on Mr. Crosby's digital camera. The photo shows Slappy in the hotel room where they're staying.[5] The photo appears again in the Horrorland segment of "Creep From the Deep". Slappy himself also makes a minor appearance in Doctor Maniac vs. Robby Schwartz, and also appearing in Julie's digital camera in Say Cheese - And Die Screaming!, and he has also appeared in The Streets of Panic Park.
[edit] Slappy's New Year
Slappy's New Year is part of the Goosebumps Gold series, but the series was never released.
Slappy New Year!
[edit] Escape from the Carnival of Horrors
He made a cameo appearance in this book.
[edit] Appearances beyond the books
Slappy has also been made into an actual ventriloquist doll available from major retailers. He was first manufactured by Goldberger Doll corporation after a nine year old boy from Long Island sent them a letter suggesting the idea in 1998.[6] Night of the Living Dummy 3 and Bride of the Living Dummy have also been adapted for VHS and DVD,the second on DVD includes "Bride of the Living Dummy".[7] Many people on the popular video sharing website YouTube have posted fan videos showing their own Slappy the Dummy dolls that they have bought over the internet.
[edit] Reception
In 2007, The Onion ran a story alleging that Slappy was gay.[8] This story was picked up by The New York Times and School Library Journal.[9][10]
[edit] See also
Chucky the killer doll, a similar character from the Child's Play series.
[edit] References
- ^ "R. L. Stine: A chat with the best-selling children's author," CNN (October 28, 1999).
- ^ Night of the Living Dummy, 2008 rerelease, bonus material: "Fright Gallery: Slappy the Dummy".
- ^ Night of the Living Dummy, pg. 134.
- ^ Revenge of the Living Dummy, pgs. 92 and 93.
- ^ Revenge of the Living Dummy, pg. 128.
- ^ 30" Slappy from the Goosebumps Tales - Ventriloquist Doll with Tote Bag and Instruction Booklet
- ^ David Lambert, "Goosebumps DVD news," TVShowsOnDVD.com(6/17/2007).
- ^ "R.L. Stine Reveals Slappy From Night Of The Living Dummy Was Gay," The Onion (November 7, 2007).
- ^ "Start of a Trend?," The New York Times (November 8, 2007).
- ^ Elizabeth Bird, "Cookie Craziness and Why Slappy Could Never be Gay," School Library Journal (November 9, 2007).
[edit] External links
- Slappy the Dummy - Official Site
- "Slappy the Dummy," The Goosebumps Wiki
