# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [April 27, 2013, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/41 "2013-04-27T17:17:14Z")
> **[What a Dummy (TV Series 1990–1991) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098947/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)** > > What a Dummy: Created by Arthur L. Annecharico, Leslie Eberhard, Barbara Hobart, Craig Kellem. With Stephen Dorff, Joshua Rudoy, David Doty, Annabel Armour. Ed Brannigan's Great-Uncle Jackie dies and leaves a trunk full of props from his... There is always the classic, “what a dummy”. The main carachters great uncle dies and leaves him a house, they find his old ventriloquist dummy in a case in the attic, and its alive! “wackiness” ensues. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/42 "2013-04-27T18:52:17Z")
In an episode of \*Everybody Loves Raymond, \*Robert uses a dummy to teach driving safety, and as entertainment in a nursing home. At times, the dummy said things that Robert never would have. And in one scene, the dummy’s head was discovered in the freezer. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/43 "2013-04-27T20:13:32Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > In an episode of \*Everybody Loves Raymond, \*Robert uses a dummy to teach driving safety, and as entertainment in a nursing home. At times, the dummy said things that Robert never would have. And in one scene, the dummy’s head was discovered in the freezer. Traffic cop Timmy. Frank wanted to fight him when he called him “Shiny” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/44 "2013-04-27T20:25:47Z")
I always liked Wayland Flowers and Madame. Just noticed that this was a zombie thread-I feel like such a dummy. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/45 "2013-04-27T22:44:44Z")
> [@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. Sylvester Key–the other ventriloquist in _Dead of Night_, not Michael Redgrave’s character but the one who gets stabbed–always stands out for me as that rarest of fictional characters, a nice, normal, well-adjusted, and not psychotic ventriloquist. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/46 "2013-04-27T23:32:33Z")
> [@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. It’s because of the [uncanny valley](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UncannyValley). ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/47 "2013-04-27T23:47:10Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > [My childhood.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=578825) Horrifying! ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/48 "2013-04-29T23:15:59Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#): > > Sylvester Key–the other ventriloquist in _Dead of Night_, not Michael Redgrave’s character but the one who gets stabbed–always stands out for me as that rarest of fictional characters, a nice, normal, well-adjusted, and not psychotic ventriloquist. They are pretty rare in real life as well. After suffering from ventriloquism as a child, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a mental illness being presented as a form of entertainment, like mime. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/49 "2013-04-30T00:17:05Z")
Zombies aside, there is of course “Franklin” from several episodes of _Arrested Development_, and the Canadian series _Puppets Who Kill_ featured Bill, the psychopathic ventriloquist dummy who’s had 56 partners die in mysterious “accidents”. ---
**Author:** ![Slade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Slade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slade)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/50 "2013-05-03T13:00:30Z")
[Keith Harris & Orville.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGnuMxFnc1k) Now _that’s_ horrific! ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/51 "2013-05-03T13:45:50Z")
But which is scarier, [east coast ventriloquism or west coast ventriloquism?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne0RrK5qJ-k) ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408/52 "2013-05-03T15:03:59Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > One of the first-season episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer features a Dummy who hunts demons (See, he was a demon-hunter when he was human, but got his soul stuck in a wooden dummy as a curse). As an added bonus, he was a total horndog and spent the last third of the episode hitting on the female characters when he wasn’t actually trying to fight the demon in the episode. (Does that mean he had a permanent woody?) The twist: For a while, the dummy was suspected of being behind the mysterious deaths. Because the Evil Dummy is such a common villain. The episode had plenty of horror. And also hilarious comedy–because it’s Whedon! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ventriloquist-dummies-in-horror-movies-and-tv-shows/312408.md?page=2)