Slappy the Dummy is a villain in the Goosebumps series. He is the star of the the Night of the Living Dummy saga, and appears in many of the other books, usually as a main character and antagonist of the titular story and series. Slappy is a ventriloquist's dummy that comes to life when the words "Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karrano" are read aloud. The words are translated to "You and I are one now", and most times are found on a sheet of paper in his jacket pocket. Slappy, after coming to life, tries to make the person who read the words aloud, most often the main character, serve him as a slave. In the end, he is either sold, broken, or takes part in a surprise ending. Slappy will be the primary antagonist of the upcoming 2015 Goosebumps film, as he is involved in tempting Zach and Hannah to unleash all the monsters from Stine's books.
Slappy as he appears in the 2015 Goosebumps movie.
History
As revealed in Bride of the Living Dummy, Slappy's Nightmare, Revenge of the Living Dummy and Son of Slappy, Slappy was carved out of coffin wood by an ancient sorcerer. When the sorcerer died, he placed his soul inside the dummy, waiting for the day he will awaken again when someone says the magic words, which are written in a card kept in Slappy's pocket, "Karru marri odonna loma molonu karrano" which translates to, "You and I are one, now." Slappy's Nightmare reveals that he has a twin brother Wally, carved from the same coffin. However, this is only viewed as a dream. But when "Night of the Living Dummy" was released in a special Horrorland edition, bonus material included with the book revealed that Slappy did indeed have a brother: Mr. Wood, the primary villain of the first 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. He carries the chant that brings him to life in his pocket.
Night of the Living Dummy
When Lindy Powell comes and finds a ventriloquist dummy (Slappy) in a dumpster, her sister, Kris, gets jealous of her. In contrast to what most readers believe Slappy did talk in the book more than most people think he did. The first thing he said (without Lindy's involvement was) "Do your eyes move?" when a question about if his eyes moved that was asked by a kid named Ben (who Lindy and Kris used to babysit for). Soon Kris gets a dummy of her own and she names him 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 (Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karrano). During the show, Mr. Wood comes to life and sprays everyone with disgusting green slime and also insults Mrs. Berman (the music teacher). Kris and Lindy soon see the dummy moving on his own. After seeing it, they try to kill him by burying him and trying to cut his head off. He is finally killed when he is run over by a steamroller, crushing him to powder after a chase in the rain. When they go back into their home, they find that Slappy is alive as well. His last words in the book (spoken with a throaty growl) are, "Hey, slave - is that other guy gone? I thought he'd never leave!"
Night of the Living Dummy II
In this book and all other "Night of the Living Dummy" books succeeding it, Slappy is the lead villain. In this particular story, a girl named Amy Kramer performs with her dummy, Dennis, at her family's little "talent show" they have every Thursday. Unfortunately, Dennis has become almost unusable with age and his head keeps falling off. Jed uses it to pretend to be Dennis on one occasion to frighten his sister. Soon after, Amy's father buys her a new one at a pawnshop that just happens to be Slappy. They find a moldy sandwich crammed inside his head, presumably the work of Kris and Lindy Powell.
After Amy reads the little card with the magic spell inside Slappy's pocket, Slappy came to life and started to cause a lot of accidents, including slapping Amy's father on the cheek, ruining a birthday party, and trashing her sister Sara's bedroom. Amy's sister Sara, as well as her younger brother Jed, repeatedly accuse Amy of doing all these things, and Amy's parents believe them, since Amy is the middle child. Amy gets punished for all of the accidents, but one night, she hears Slappy breaking out of the closet inside of her bedroom that she keeps him in, and sees the dummy actually walk out of her bedroom to Sara's bedroom and ruin her watercolor painting even further. Sara soon confesses that she saw Slappy wrecking her bedroom. The two decide to prove it by having their parents see him moving, with Jed disguised as Dennis again in order to shock Slappy long enough for the girls to grab him. When the lights come on, "Dennis" does startle Slappy, and knocks his head into Sara's iron bedpost, breaking it in two. However, when Jed turns out to have been asleep the whole time, it is implied that Dennis himself had come to life to stop Slappy.
Night of the Living Dummy III
In Night of the Living Dummy III, the main characters are Trina and Dan O'Dell. Their father collects dummies (He was once a ventriloquist with an act), and he brings Slappy home after finding him in a garbage can. After repairing his broken head, he names him Smiley, unaware of the dummy's past. Trina finds a piece of paper in Slappy's pocket and reads the words aloud, after which Slappy slaps her across the face. Naturally, nobody believes her. Trina and Dan's cousin, Zane, comes to visit for awhile. Their father makes them swear not to scare Zane, as they had the last few times he was there. A dummy called Rocky (one of the original twelve dummies Mr. O'Dell owned) pops up in weird places, scaring Zane, and Trina and Dan are blamed for each incident. Many things are ruined, like Zane's camera, the dinner table, and the film in Zane's camera. Dan and Trina catch Zane taking Rocky from the attic and it is revealed that Zane was trying to frame them for revenge. The three make a truce not to scare each other.
After this, more catastrophes occur, each with Rocky at the scene of the crime. Dan and Trina suspect Zane, but nobody else believes them. To prove that Zane is guilty, Dan and Trina sneak up in the attic to wait for Zane to come up and steal Rocky. To their horror, they discover Slappy trying to sneak off with Rocky. Slappy tells them that they are his slaves after revealing his true name. Dan and Trina try to dump Slappy in a well, but he comes back the next morning, sitting at the table and dripping with well water. Trina remembers the words she read on the day they found Slappy. Trina and Dan sneak up to the attic, steal the words from Slappy's pocket, and read them aloud. To their surprise, Slappy does not die, but all the other dummies in the room come to life. They all huddle around Slappy, who screams, but it is never revealed what they do to him. At the end of the book, Trina gives Slappy to Zane as a parting gift, since he has decided he wants to become a ventriloquist. When Zane is getting in the car with Slappy, Trina catches the evil dummy winking at her, indicating that he was still alive. He may have turned Zane into his slave, but there's really no way to tell.
Bride of the Living Dummy
A girl named Jillian takes her twin sisters, Katie and Amanda (plus their life-sized doll, Mary-Ellen, who they treat like a real person), to a ventriloquist's show. But the dummy (Slappy) treats the ventriloquist, Jimmy O'James, meanly and makes jokes about Katie and Amanda, who go on stage. Jimmy 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 father, who likes making and repairing wooden objects, to fix Slappy, as he thinks 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, throwing food around the kitchen, fixing Jillian and Harrison's clown tricks (for a party) and also puts 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.
However, it seems that Mary-Ellen did all this, as she reveals herself to be living at a child's birthday party (she had been alive all the time, controlling the twins and forcing them to be her slaves) 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 lovely wife (instead of Mary-Ellen, who brought Slappy to life in order to become his bride) and a fight between the doll and the dummy breaks out. Slappy pushes Mary-Ellen through a whirling buzz-saw blade. Slappy would have survived, but was pulled in by Mary-Ellen at the last second. The two toys presumably died, but in normal Goosebumps fashion, it was revealed that the spirit of Slappy's creator, which was inside the dummy, could not be destroyed. Instead it passes on into the person that was closest to the dummy when it was destroyed. That person was Jillian.
Slappy's Nightmare
This story begins when Jimmy O'James, a magician, has been fearful and covered in a cold sweat. Among other
The cover.
weird things, his ventriloquist dummy, Slappy, has been committing pranks, especially during their show that night.
But, when Jimmy buys another dummy (Wally / Mr. Wood, Slappy's brother), Jimmy has a curse put on him. He needs to commit three good deeds by the end of the week, or be put to sleep forever. After being given to a girl as a present, Slappy starts to do those deeds, with certain anger about it. But they keep getting messed up and ruining Slappy's chance at life, making him believe the girl's sister, Stella, is behind it all.
Near the end, Wally turns out to be alive and the one ruining Slappy's deeds. But it turns out to be a dream Slappy had, at least until Jimmy gets a package at his dressing room door...
Revenge of the Living Dummy
Initially scheduled for an April 2008 release, this book was released early in some places.
Britney Crosby is mad, because her annoying 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 has been coming to life at several different parts, but Britney does not believe it. Following several occasions of his normal behavior, Slappy is finally beaten when he attempts to use a Mind Stealer doll to take Britney's mind.In doing so, he tries to take over her mind and force her to be his slave. For most of the book, Ethan had made the dummy talk by using computer chips to scare Britney into believing he had come to life (However, somethings are questionable like the fact that after waking Britney up Slappy mentions that he heard Ethan talking about Britney taking the mind stealer to the graveyard. Another factor would be how Ethan angrily reacted to Britney not beliving that Slappy was alive. It is possible that Ethan could have put him back to sleep before Britney chanted the words). Believing it, Britney tries to put him to sleep, but instead wakes him up.
Revenge Of The Living Dummy (Front Cover)
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 Slappy: "I'll be back, Britney. I'm a BAAAAAAD boy!" When she goes into HorrorLand with Molly Molloy, her best friend, and her parents, they get their own room where all the clothes in the closet fit them. But when they try to show her parents, they are gone. They find a surprise, however, whilst searching for them, in the form of Mr. Crosby's camera on the floor. Picking it up and turning it on, they find a photograph of the kidnapper: Slappy!
Goosebumps HorrorLand
Slappy appears again at the very end of the Horrorland section of Revenge of the Living Dummy, in a photograph on Mr. Crosby's digital camera. The photograph shows Slappy in the hotel room, where they are staying. Slappy appears in about half of the HorrorLand books - maybe around the same amount as Dr. Maniac. In the twelfth book, The Streets of Panic Park, Slappy appears in the Hall of Mirrors and after insulting half of the children, changes Britney's head into a dummy's head. Thus revealing another one of Slappy's powers. Later, he and the other villains must team up with the children in order to escape.
Slappy New Year!
One of the newest Goosebumps Horrorland is, Slappy New Year! In this book, twelve-year-old Ray Gordon goes to
Slappy New Year(Front Cover)
Horrorland for its thrills and chills. He loves to scare his brother, Brandon. So, when he finds Slappy at Chiller House, he has to have him. He uses Slappy to scare his brother. He finds the words to bring Slappy to life, but does not fully read them. Ray is having a New Years party, and he is no longer allowed to scare Brandon. Afterwards, Brandon's room is destroyed and maple syrup is dumped on his clothes, where Slappy is at the scene of each crime. Brandon has been doing this to frame Ray, so Ray brings Slappy to life to scare his brother. Later on, he goes to a Christmas celebration. Slappy insults everyone and gets Ray grounded. His mother puts Slappy in the garage, so Ray and Brandon go to see. Slappy threatens to cut off their heads with hedge clippers, but Brandon throws him in a garbage truck. Later on, Ray has the New Years party, but still alive, Slappy shows up and crashes it by throwing cans of paint everywhere. Slappy chokes Ray, but Ray puts him back to sleep by reading the ancient words. In the end, Ray's mother brings Slappy back to life.
Son of Slappy
In Son of Slappy, a twelve-year-old boy named Jackson Stander is a really good kid. He's described as the type of kid that every parent dreams about. However, Jackson's younger sister Rachel is just the opposite and they do not like each other very much. Jackson views her as a pest and as a troublemaker while she sees him as a goodie-goodie. However, after a trip to grandpa's house and meeting Slappy, Jackson's behavior starts to change from being a good-boy to being a really bad boy and he can't stop being a bad boy. Is Jackson just acting-out or is Slappy demonstrating some type of control over Jackson?
Son of Slappy (Front Cover)
Escape from the Carnival of Horrors
He made a cameo appearance in this book. When you are trying to escape, you run into a tent full of dummies, noticing one that "looks like the dummy from that Goosebumps book" (the book does not mention Slappy by name, but it is obviously him, from the reference) you are given the option to bring him to life, and remember the correct chant to do so. And you are given a choice to either get the right way to say the words or another way to bring them to life.
Enter Horrorland (Website)
In the website, he appears in the first and last level of the game as a boss.
Screams In The Night
Slappy makes an appearance in this limited edition goosebumps book at "Slappy's Fun House" He first appears in Chapter 11, where he grows twenty feet tall and keeps the children hostage.
Welcome to HorrorLand: A Survival Guide
Slappy is voted best villain here and you also get a slight interview with him. He is also sitting in the roller coaster on the cover of the book, next to a Horror.
Slappy in a roller coaster in the front cover.
Trivia
- Jimmy O' James is the only character to appear in more than one of the Slappy books.
- Each installment typically introduces a new set of characters.
- As Mr. Wood's death altered Slappy's personality, it could be guessed that perhaps he was kind and friendly before Mr. Wood was destroyed.
- Slappy is one of the most well known characters in the series, and is arguably one of the most popular next to the Haunted Mask, Curly the Skeleton, and Monster Blood.
- Slappy tells the viewers, "Viewer Beware, You're in for a Scare!" in the opening credits of the television show. He also laughs in the Ultimate Goosebumps intro.
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- When he says,"Viewer Beware, You're in for a Scare!", his voice is a deep pitch.
- Jimmy O' James is the first true male "slave" of Slappy. Mainly before, most of them were females.
- Slappy's appearance changes between the book series and the television: In the books, he has wavy dark brown hair and cold, realistic blue eyes. But in the television show, he is suddenly a ruly-haired redhead with paler skin (His skin tone is darker on the cover of the books) with iridescent green eyes. Plus, on the cover of the updated Night of the Living Dummy cover, he looks as he did in the books, except with evil green eyes.
- During a Q&A at the Macaulay Honors College building on November 13, 2012, R.L. Stine mentioned that Slappy was his favorite character from the Goosebumps books.
- Slappy may or may not have been at least partially inspired by Chucky the killer doll from the "Child's Play" horror films.
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- Both have similar-sounding names, are possessed by the soul of an evil person, and Slappy from the tv show (as well as Mr. Wood) have orange/red hair. In addition, in the TV episode of Night of the Living Dummy II, Slappy says "Wanna play?", which is Chucky's catchprase.
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- The differences are that Slappy is a ventriloquist dummy while Chucky is a doll, Slappy is dressed in a tux while Chucky is dressed in overalls, a shirt and sneakers, Slappy wishes to make others his slave while Chucky wishes to get out of his doll body, and Slappy is more of a cruel prankster while Chucky is homicidal.
Gallery
TV series
