Slappy the Dummy

Slappy the Dummy
'Goosebumps' character
Slappy on the cover of Revenge of the Living Dummy.
First appearance Night of the Living Dummy
Created by R. L. Stine
Information
Nickname(s) The Dummy that is no Dummy, Mr. Bad Boy, Old Crazy Eyes, Smiley , Potatoe Man
Gender Male
Occupation FireMan
Family Mr. Wood (Wally, his twin brother who has red hair, but was killed), Snappy (his second twin brother who has brown hair, and more damage to his face than Slappy's), his son Jackson Stander, and his daughter Rachel Stander.
Children Jackson Stander and Rachel Stander

Slappy the Dummy is a fictional character and antagonist in the Goosebumps children's series by R. L. Stine. He is one of the series' most popular villains and the main antagonist of the Night of the Living Dummy saga and a major villain in later series. He is also the main antagonist of the Goosebumps movie and it's sequel. He is a "ventriloquist's dummy with a serious Napoleonic complex" that comes alive by these words, "Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molanu Karrano" (which roughly translate as "You and I are one now"), and they can be found on a sheet of paper in Slappy's jacket pocket. After coming to life, Slappy will try to make the person who brought him back to life serve him as a slave, to the point that he will frame that person for things that he does.

Inspiration

According to R. L. Stine, Slappy was inspired by the literary classic The Adventures of Pinocchio. He liked the idea of a wooden puppet coming to life due to the book so he decided to create Slappy.[1]

The movie Magic was also R.L. Stine's inspiration for the dummy, "Slappy", in his children's horror story series Goosebumps. In the television adaptation of the books, Slappy has the same sounding voice as Fats, the dummy from Magic with the voice of Anthony Hopkins.

Notable appearances in novels

Slappy The Dummy
Title Year Released Information
Night of the Living Dummy 1993 In the first Night Of The Living Dummy book, Twin sisters Lindy and Kris Powell are taking a walk when they come across a dummy who Lindy names Slappy. Lindy decides to keep Slappy even though Kris does not like Slappy. Lindy becomes a good ventriloquist and Kris gets jealous. So, Kris gets a dummy named Mr. Wood and from there on bad things start happening. Mr. Wood is defeated by the end after getting crushed to death by a streamroller. However, Slappy then comes alive and grabs Kris as she is going to shut the window.

Unlike other books Slappy never causes any trouble despite being alive. This is explained that Slappy became twice as evil and a thousand times ruder than Mr. Wood after the latter died implying during the events of this book Slappy is a kind and friendly dummy.

Night of the Living Dummy II 1995 Slappy becomes the main antagonist in Night Of The Living Dummy II, when Amy Krammer, the main character, wants a new ventriloquist dummy for her family's weekly 'talent show.' Her dad finds Slappy at a local pawn shoppe, and gives it to her as a gift. She takes out a slip of paper that has the magical words on it, reads it aloud, and Slappy slowly comes to life, causing mischief and havoc for Amy and her family. In the end, he is destroyed by Dennis, Amy's old dummy.
Night of the Living Dummy III 1996 Trina and Daniel O'Dell's dad came home one night with the broken Slappy, which he got for free from a guy which he believes is Amy's father. Shortly after that day ends, the dummy soon gets fixed by healing itself all because the family read the infamous note that came with him, and soon was later named by their father as "Smiley" and became his new favorite dummy. A part of his amazing collection. But ever since their cousin Zane had decided to spend a few nights at their house once again, problems start to occur with the other dummies in the form of pranks, the main one being Rocky who was first found in an event with him being seen by Zane in his bedroom. In all these cases Trina and Daniel were blamed for the events which made them unhappy. Later it turns out the real trouble maker is Slappy, with help from the other dummies who he brought to life, which in the end becomes hell to Slappy when he is betrayed by them to protect the O'Dells. However, despite seemingly being killed, the evil dummy is caught by Trina winking at her as Zane carries him to the car.
Bride of the Living Dummy 1998

A girl named Jillian takes her little sisters Katie and Amanda, accompanied by their doll Mary-Ellen, to a puppet show of a teenager named Jimmy O'James, with Slappy the Dummy as his partner. At the show, Slappy spies the twins and Jillian with Mary-Ellen. Slappy then pulls the twins up on stage with Mary-Ellen and makes fun of them. The twins, who are hurt by what he said, take off after the show to give him a piece of their minds and Jillian has to find them. While trying to find her twin sisters, Jillian finds Jimmy and Slappy's dressing room and walks in on Slappy giving Jimmy a punch in the nose. Jimmy tells her that he and Slappy are just working on a new act. She asks if they have seen her sisters. Jimmy responds with that he has not seen them since they were on stage. After she leaves, Jimmy puts Slappy to sleep and throws him out. Jillian's friend Harrison finds Slappy and brings him to Jillian's house as he believes that Slappy is broken and wants Jillian's dad to fix him. After a series of troublesome events, Jillian and Harrison host a birthday party and try to put on a show only to have it be revealed that Mary-Ellen is alive and that she re-awoke Slappy so she could marry him, but Slappy hates Mary-Ellen and desires to marry Jillian. Slappy and Mary Ellen end getting cut to pieces by a saw blaze but Slappy's spirt ends up possessing Jillian.

Slappy's Nightmare 1999 Slappy starts out being the disobedient puppet of Jimmy O'James. Fed up with Slappy, Jimmy replaces Slappy with Wally, who tells Jimmy how to control Slappy's evil: cursing him to doing three good deeds in one week. Although it is, in the end, revealed to be a nightmare of Slappy's, the book ends with his nightmare slowly coming true.
Revenge of the Living Dummy 2008 Britney Crosbey and her friend, Molly Molloy, have to put up with Britney's obnoxious cousin, Ethan, and his new friend Slappy, whom Ethan calls "Mr. Bad Boy". Slappy, though, seems to be the one causing the trouble this time, and Britney decides to put Slappy to sleep, after seeing that she only had to say the magic words again—simple as that. But then when she finds out that Slappy was reawakened by the magic words, he vows revenge and comes up with a plan to use a special 'Mind-Stealer' doll to make Britney into his own personal perfect slave. At the end, Britney decides to use the 'Mind-Stealer' doll against Slappy, whose mind gets stolen at the end of the book. Slappy later makes another appearance in Dr. Maniac Vs. Robby Shwartz where he hunts down Britney and Molly and cruelly has them send Robby back to Horrorland's arcade and in Say Cheese and Die Screaming where after taking a picture of Madam Dooms booth Julie sees Slappy in the picture leaning against the both.
The Streets of Panic Park 2009 Slappy appears in this book where he turns Britney into a dummy but later teams up with Luke and Lizzy to escape The Menace in Horrorland and Panic Park to outsmart The Menace and escape from both parks. Slappy is evantully taken home by Lizzy.
Slappy New Year 2010 Ray Gordon brings an ordinary ventriloquist dummy, Slappy, for his present and wants to scare his brother, Brandon with it.

Slappy New Year was a book in a planned to be released series called, Goosebumps Gold. The series was never released due to the expired contract that R. L. Stine had with Scholastic at the time. However R. L. Stine did release the book, but changed the plotline. It was originally going to be the sequel to Slappy's Nightmare, but over the years since R. L. Stine changed the book's plot he dropped the idea of it being a sequel. It was released on November 1, 2010.[2][3][4]

Son of Slappy 2013 Jackson Stander is every parent's dream. He doesn't get into trouble, he always does his homework, and he never, ever lies. His teachers all trust him completely. He even volunteers at the local Youth Center. But that was all before Jackson came across an evil ventriloquist dummy. Now he must deal with Slappy and the son of Slappy as they wreak havoc on his family and friends. Jackson will soon see that two Slappys are not better than one![5]
Gaslighted: Slappy the Ventriloquist Dummy vs. Aloysius Pendergast 2014 Pendergast wakes up in Stony Mountain Sanatorium and confronts himself with a great dilemma: is Slappy the Dummy part of his dream? Or is reality itself the dream of an insane man? (The book's title is a reference to gaslighting.)

He also appears in his own series Goosebumps SlappyWorld where he serves as the narrator.

Appearances beyond the books

Slappy has also been made into an actual ventriloquist doll available from major retailers.[6] 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. There is also a mask[7] and a full costume available for sale. 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".[8]

Authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child recently posted an announcement via their Facebook status:

"We have just written a short story with the amazing author, R. L. Stine. It will be published a year from now in a new, as yet unnamed, anthology. It features Pendergast and... R.L. Stine's most terrifying creation, Slappy the ventriloquist's dummy. This is one strange, strange story... The title is GASLIGHTED."

This was published in 30 September 2014 as Gaslighted: Slappy the Ventriloquist Dummy vs. Aloysius Pendergast in the anthology Face Off edited by David Baldacci.

In other media

He was voiced by both Ron Stefanuik and Cathal J. Dodd in the Goosebumps television series and appeared in four episodes:

  1. "Night of the Living Dummy II"; episode 10 aired 2 January 1996
  2. "Night of the Living Dummy III" Part I; episode 43 aired 20 July 1997
  3. "Night of the Living Dummy III" Part II; episode 44 aired 20 July 1997
  4. "Bride of the Living Dummy"; episode 60 aired 14 February 1998

The original Night of the Living Dummy story was never adapted to television, nor were the six post-Bride stories.

He is the main antagonist in the 2015 Goosebumps movie, where he was voiced by Jack Black, who also is R.L Stine, and the Invisible Boy, from My Best Friend is Invisible.[9] Slappy will also appear in the sequel.

Slappy appears in the comic book series made by IDW and appears in the Goosebumps graphix.

Slappy appears in the video games.

See also

  • "The Rival Dummy", a 1928 short story by Ben Hecht.
  • The Great Gabbo, a 1929 film inspired by "The Rival Dummy".
  • Dead of Night, a 1948 horror film with a ventriloquist's dummy sequence.
  • Studio One episode 22 (season 2 episode 2) adapted "The Rival Dummy" on 19 September 1949.
  • "The Dummy", a 1962 episode of The Twilight Zone.
  • "Caesar and Me", a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone about an evil ventriloquist dummy who can speak and walk on his own.
  • Magic, a 1978 horror film where a dummy is thought to commit evil acts.
  • Arnold Wesker, aka "the Ventriloquist", a comic book supervillain who unconsciously expresses aggression through his ventriloquist dummy, Scarface.

References

  1. ↑ Stine, R. L. "Where Do You Get Your Ideas?". Scholastic. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Slappy New Year! (Goosebumps HorrorLand No. 18): R.L. Stine: 9780545161992: Amazon.com: Books". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  3. ↑ "Slappy New Year! (Goosebumps Horrorland Series #18) by R. L. Stine | 9780545161992 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble". Borders.com. 2013-09-30. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  4. ↑ "Slappy New Year! (Goosebumps Horrorland Series #18) by R. L. Stine | 9780545161992 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble". Search.barnesandnoble.com. 2013-09-30. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  5. ↑ "Goosebumps Most Wanted #2: Son of Slappy by R. L. Stine | 9780545417990 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble". Barnesandnoble.com. 2013-09-30. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  6. ↑ "Slappy Ventriloquist Doll: Everything Else". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  7. ↑ "CAPTAIN AMERICA CASUAL ADULT/TEEN at Halloween Costume Shop". Halloweencostumeshop.com. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  8. ↑ David Lambert, "Goosebumps DVD news Archived 2008-07-20 at the Wayback Machine.," TVShowsOnDVD.com(6/17/2007).
  9. ↑ Comic-Con: Director Rob Letterman Talks GOOSEBUMPS

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