# Clowns or Ventriloquist Dummies? (Bozo vs. Charlie McCarthy!) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 19, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clowns-or-ventriloquist-dummies-bozo-vs-charlie-mccarthy/270085 "2004-10-19T19:00:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TheOnlySaneOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@TheOnlySaneOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheOnlySaneOne)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clowns-or-ventriloquist-dummies-bozo-vs-charlie-mccarthy/270085/21 "2004-10-21T01:00:58Z")
**Ventriloquist Dummies** , definitely. Anyone remember the character Slappy from R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books? Yeah, that’s what started that little creep-out. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clowns-or-ventriloquist-dummies-bozo-vs-charlie-mccarthy/270085/22 "2004-10-21T01:03:44Z")
No, no. The dummies aren’t creepy, its the _ventriloquists_ who are creepy. They are all schizos who eventually take on the personality of the dummy and start killing people. At least, every ventriloquist I’ve ever seen in the movies or on TV are like that… ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clowns-or-ventriloquist-dummies-bozo-vs-charlie-mccarthy/270085/23 "2004-10-21T01:19:13Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > No, no. The dummies aren’t creepy, its the _ventriloquists_ who are creepy. They are all schizos who eventually take on the personality of the dummy and start killing people. > > At least, every ventriloquist I’ve ever seen in the movies or on TV are like that… I read that Edgar Bergen was sort of like that. Maybe he wasn’t killing people through Charlie, but when you give your doll the largest bedroom in the house and buy it more clothes than you do your own daughter, well… And I thought I heard once that Candice had to call Charlie her “older brother”. Maybe it was a Biography episode. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clowns-or-ventriloquist-dummies-bozo-vs-charlie-mccarthy/270085/24 "2004-10-21T14:56:25Z")
> [@Doctor Jackson](#): > > Ventriloquist Clown Mime Dummies. Oh, you mean Republicans! Sorry. Sorry. Really, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clowns-or-ventriloquist-dummies-bozo-vs-charlie-mccarthy/270085/25 "2004-10-21T16:46:28Z")
> [@Agrippina](#): > > Let me take this opportunity to mention the movie **Magic** , about an extremely unstable ventriloquist and his extremely creepy looking dummy. The dummy itself isn’t evil, but it _looks_ evil, and that’s enough for me. That was the first thought that came to mind when I saw the thread - Anthony Hopkins stalking Ann-Margaret with his hand up a doll’s ass. Very creepy and worth the rental if you can find it. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clowns-or-ventriloquist-dummies-bozo-vs-charlie-mccarthy/270085/26 "2004-10-21T18:14:35Z")
> [@plnnr](#): > > That was the first thought that came to mind when I saw the thread - Anthony Hopkins stalking Ann-Margaret with his hand up a doll’s ass. Very creepy and worth the rental if you can find it. I managed to buy it off of eBay, but one could find it through the Inter-Library Loan system. And you know what else is weird about that movie? Throughout the movie, the doll is sometimes wearing the same outfit as Hopkins (in one scene it’s a raincoat). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clowns-or-ventriloquist-dummies-bozo-vs-charlie-mccarthy/270085.md?page=1)