# Ventriloquist Dummies in Horror Movies and TV Shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408 "2005-07-13T20:43:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/21 "2005-07-14T00:12:40Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > And of course, the [other Gabbo](http://uloc.nerdtank.org/screenshots/9/9f19_gabbo.jpg). And few things were more horrific than Krusty’s fist shattering the skull of his own, competing dummy, before throwing it into the audience of kids. So lame. I was going to say that, but my computer messed up, and by the time I got here, you had beat me to it. Anywho, “Family Matters” had an evil dummy. Urkel had made a dummy of himself, but when the dummy came alive, it was evil, and his name was Steven. So he changed it to… Stevil. Honestly, I laughed at that for a good hour. ---
**Author:** ![pope\_hentai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@pope\_hentai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pope_hentai)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/22 "2005-07-14T03:24:24Z")
there was an episode of “tales from the crypt” with a dummy which turned out was the verntriloquists demented conjoined twin brother ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/23 "2005-07-14T03:31:20Z")
**Friday the 13th, the Series** (as in the TV show, not the movies) had an ep with a ventriloquist’s dummy animated by a cursed silk flower. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/24 "2005-07-14T03:36:00Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > And Sampiro began the non-horror dummy references anyway. :smack: Somehow I read it as _Ventriloquists in (Horror Movies) and (TV Shows)_ rather than as _Ventriloquists in Horror (Movies and TV Shows)_ ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/25 "2005-07-14T15:17:57Z")
Thanks for all the comments! I remember the Buffy episode and the “Friday the 13th” TV series episode. Was there a “Kolchak – Night Stalker” episode dealing with this subject? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/26 "2005-07-14T16:38:17Z")
> [@](#): > > While he was a popular figure on radio, Edgar Bergen’s one television program, Do You Trust Your Wife?, lasted only one season. Proof that truth is stranger than fiction, and show business is stranger than both combined: Edgar Bergen’s career as a radio ventriloquist. ---
**Author:** ![GraphicsGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@GraphicsGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraphicsGal)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/27 "2005-07-14T16:52:26Z")
There is an episode of “Murder, She Wrote” that features a socially backward ventriloquist and his dummy. The dummy is kidnapped and the ventriloquist is accused of murder. ---
**Author:** ![GraphicsGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@GraphicsGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraphicsGal)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/28 "2005-07-14T16:56:09Z")
There was also an episode of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” in which Rob deals with a ventriloquist and his puppet, a snail who keeps hitting Rob with a Punch’n’Judy stick. ---
**Author:** ![GraphicsGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@GraphicsGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraphicsGal)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/29 "2005-07-14T16:58:30Z")
I justremembered an episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in which Ted Baxter tries to be a ventriloquist and fails miserably. I also believe there is a “MASH” episode in which a USO show has a ventriloquist, but I don’t remember that as central to the story. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/30 "2005-07-14T17:09:39Z")
> [@](#): > > There was also an episode of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” in which Rob deals with a ventriloquist and his puppet, a snail who keeps hitting Rob with a Punch’n’Judy stick. The ventriloquist was the recently deceased Paul Winchell, who also provided the voice of Tigger until recently. The snail was part of his own real-life TV show, although not under the name “Jellybean”, IIRC. A science fiction example of a ventriloquist horror story, with changing identities, is Fredric Brown’s “Puppet Show”, which has been anthologized at least twice (see “The Best of Fredric Brown”) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/31 "2005-07-14T21:45:18Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > **Friday the 13th, the Series** (as in the TV show, not the movies) had an ep with a ventriloquist’s dummy animated by a cursed silk flower. Not just any silk flower, it was a boutaniere once owned by - Adolf Hitler! The ventriloquist realizing that the abusive, obnoxious side of his personality vents through his dummy, Oscar has long wanted to get rid of it even before he suspected it was magically evilicious. But, his pals and the audience demand Oscar. Re Tales From The Crypt Bobcat Goldwaite has long idolized ventriloquist Don Rickles. A terrible fire burns down the club Rickles is performing in and his right hand is destroyed. Years later, Bobcat visits Don to announce he’s starting his own career as a ventriloquist and begs him to attend his debut. Don reluctantly agrees. Bobcat stinks. After beeing booed off stage, he eventually returns to Don’s house to ask for advice. Don wants to be left alone. Bobcat discovers that Don was about to inject himself with morphine. Don says it’s the only thing that keeps Morty (his dummy) calm. Bobcat insists that Morty is just a dummy. He opens the dummy case, Don kept him away from before. The dummy’s head is only a mask. Morty is a parasitic twin Don was born with in place of a hand. He has a head, arms, and that’s it. His abusive banter and lechery are the result of his inability to attract women or have sex. Don faked the fire and the injury to retire his murderous twin. But his visit to the club has woken him up, and Bobcat has destroyed the morphine that would put him back to sleep. Morty takes control of Don and tries to kill Bobcat. Don manages to amputate Morty with a meat cleaver. Bobcat is about to kill Morty when he offers him fame. The final scene has Bobcat and Morty doing an act at a club. Morty refuses to take orders or stick to routine. The last shot is of Morty and Bobcat’s right hand. Morty has somehow managed to permanently graft himself to Bobcat. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/32 "2005-07-14T22:01:37Z")
The “R.L. Stine” series “Gosebumps” featured at least three “Night of the Living Dummy” books, at least one of which has been filmed (although the IMDB, curiously, doesn’t list it. But MilliCal has watched it often enough). ---
**Author:** ![MiCharlie124](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce73a5/32.png) [@MiCharlie124](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MiCharlie124)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/33 "2013-04-27T12:34:13Z")
Neil, on _Freaks and Geeks_, had a ventriloquist dummy in one or two episodes. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/34 "2013-04-27T13:57:19Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > **Magic** , an Anthony Hopkins flick from the late '70s. I only watched it for Ann-Margaret. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/35 "2013-04-27T14:04:04Z")
[My childhood.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=578825) ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/36 "2013-04-27T14:48:25Z")
The 90’s horror shows **Goosebumps** and **Are You Afraid of the Dark** both have dummy episodes. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/37 "2013-04-27T14:58:34Z")
It IS curious that ventriloquist dummies, supposedly created for entertainment, keep cropping up in horror movies. You will occasionally find them in non-horror contexts (_Soap_, _Victorious_), but it seems that in movies and TV, horrorribles outnumbers comedic dummies. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/38 "2013-04-27T15:00:25Z")
The Cheney and Bush show. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/39 "2013-04-27T15:08:14Z")
This wasn’t a horror show, but there was a really funny episode of [\*Wings \*](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0749240/)where the guys and gals compete to see who has the worst date. Joe goes out with a woman ventriloquist and her dummy. Actually, the date was with the dummy, as the woman didn’t say a word except through the dummy. At the end of the evening, the dummy suggests they ditch her owner and go off together. The whole episode is hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/40 "2013-04-27T15:51:32Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > It IS curious that ventriloquist dummies, supposedly created for entertainment, keep cropping up in horror movies. You will occasionally find them in non-horror contexts (_Soap_, _Victorious_), but it seems that in movies and TV, horrorribles outnumbers comedic dummies. Not strange at all – it’s a viscerally vivid way of portraying two contrasting personalities. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408.md?page=3)