Slappy the Dummy

Slappy
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
Gender Male
Family Mr. Wood (Wally, his twin brother who has red hair, but was killed) his son Jackson Stander and his daughter Rachel Stander
Children Jackson Stander and Rachel Stander

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 lead antagonist in the Night of the Living Dummy saga. He will be the main villain in the upcoming 2015 Goosebumps movie.

Inspiration

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

Character

Slappy is a ventriloquist's dummy that comes to life when the words "Karru marri odonna loma molonu karrano", which means "You and I are one now", 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."[2]

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. Contrary to popular belief that Slappy didn't appear in the first book, he actually did. However, he wasn't the book's most important villain, Mr. Wood was. It was only after Mr. Wood's destruction that Slappy really stepped up his game and became the rest of the arch's most important villain. In "Son of Slappy", Slappy hypnotizes a kid named Jackson Stander and later befriends and works with Jackson's sister Rachel, both of whom he takes under his wing as his children.[3]

Notable appearances in novels

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 (Please note that in this book even though he's present and awake Slappy is not the main villain until the very last page.) 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 bad things start happening.
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'dells dad came home one night, with the broken Slappy, which he got for free from an guy which we believes is Amy father. Shortly after that day ends, the dummy soon get fixes from healing Itself all because the Family read the infamous note that come with him, and soon was later named by their father as "Smiley" and become his new favorite dummy part of his amazing collection.But ever since after their cousin Zane have decide to spend a few nights at their house once again, problems start to occurred with the other dummies with forms 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 blame for the events which made them unhappy. Later it turned out the real trouble maker is Slappy with helps of the other dummies who he brought to life to which in the end became hell to Slappy when he was betrayed by them to project the O'dells.
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 reveled 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'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, 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 was Slappy reawakened by the magic words, he vows 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.
The Streets of Panic Park 2009 Slappy appears in this book to team up with Luke and Lizzy to escape The Menace in Horrorland and Panic Park to outsmart The Menace and escape from both parks.
Slappy New Year 2010 Ray Gordon brings an ordinary ventriloquist dummy, Slappy for his present and wanted 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.[4][5][6]

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 Slappy's are not better than one![7]

Appearances beyond the books

Slappy has also been made into an actual ventriloquist doll available from major retailers.[8] 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[9] 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".[10]

Authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child recently posted this 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."

Reception

In 2007, The Onion ran a story alleging that Slappy was gay.[11] This story was picked up by The New York Times and School Library Journal.[12][13]

In other media

He was voiced by both Ron Stefanuik and Cathal J. Dodd in the Goosebumps television series and appeared in three episodes; "Night of the Living Dummy II", "Night of the Living Dummy III", and "Bride of the Living Dummy". He will be voiced by Avery Jones and the main villain in the Goosebumps movie in 2015.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Stine, R. L. "Where Do You Get Your Ideas?". Scholastic. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  2. ↑ "R. L. Stine: A chat with the best-selling children's author," CNN (October 28, 1999).
  3. ↑ Night of the Living Dummy, 2008 rerelease, bonus material: "Fright Gallery: Slappy the Dummy".
  4. ↑ "Slappy New Year! (Goosebumps HorrorLand No. 18): R.L. Stine: 9780545161992: Amazon.com: Books". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  5. ↑ "Slappy New Year! (Goosebumps Horrorland Series #18) by R. L. Stine | 9780545161992 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble". Borders.com. 2013-09-30. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  6. ↑ "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.
  7. ↑ "Goosebumps Most Wanted #2: Son of Slappy by R. L. Stine | 9780545417990 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble". Barnesandnoble.com. 2013-09-30. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  8. ↑ "Slappy Ventriloquist Doll: Everything Else". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  9. ↑ "CAPTAIN AMERICA CASUAL ADULT/TEEN at Halloween Costume Shop". Halloweencostumeshop.com. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  10. ↑ David Lambert, "Goosebumps DVD news," TVShowsOnDVD.com(6/17/2007).
  11. ↑ "R.L. Stine Reveals Slappy From Night Of The Living Dummy Was Gay," The Onion (November 7, 2007).
  12. ↑ "Start of a Trend?," The New York Times (November 8, 2007).
  13. ↑ Elizabeth Bird, "Cookie Craziness and Why Slappy Could Never be Gay," School Library Journal (November 9, 2007).
  14. ↑ Comic-Con: Director Rob Letterman Talks GOOSEBUMPS

External links