# What specific character scared you the most as a kid.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 21, 2001, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364 "2001-08-21T17:01:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2001, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/81 "2001-08-24T02:44:03Z")
[sarcasm OFF] Thank you **Krunk** for mentioning that Boogeyman story. I didn’t know that was Stephen King, although I don’t know why I didn’t now that I think of it.
I saw a TV version of that story when I was about 4. When the guy met a Boogeyman in the street and it said “But I’m the Boogeyman from under someone else’s bed” I ran screaming, getting my oldest sister into trouble for watching that show in the first place. I was terrified of under my bed for years.
As soon as I get over it, _The Sixth Sense_ comes out and there’s that creepy dead girl pushing the box out from under her bed. Once again I’m in “leap across the room to get into bed when it’s dark” mode. [sarcasm ON]Thank you, M. Night Shyamalan.
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### Author:  [@Philosophocles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philosophocles)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2001, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/82 "2001-08-24T02:51:07Z")
Fritz the Night Owl, late night movie host in Columbus, Ohio
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### Author:  [@jackas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackas)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2001, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/83 "2001-08-24T11:51:14Z")
Gotta be Witchy-poo from HR Puffinstuff
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### Author:  [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2001, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/84 "2001-08-25T03:17:49Z")
The Abominable Snowman from Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer. Those teeth. Those eyes. Even with his teeth pulled, he was a killer. Don’t trust him, Yukon!!!
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### Author:  [@Lucifer12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucifer12)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2001, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/85 "2001-08-27T16:02:26Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by scredle \*
> \*\*I was scared of Tina the Talking Doll from the Twilight
> Zone. Was wary of all my dolls after that-especially my Amish one with no face. Yuck. \*\*
Yikes, I forgot about that one! (‘I’m Talking Tina, and I don’t like you!’)
I saw that one at an early age and it scarred me for life!
To this day, dolls creep me out, especially those cold, skull-like porcelain dolls…ugh!
Interestingly, I just got ‘Resident Evil:Code Veronica’ for the Playstation2 and in one area there’s a super-creepy mansion full of those disturbing dolls…
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### Author:  [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2001, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/86 "2001-08-27T19:44:05Z")
Holy Cow, **Zumba**! I thought I was the only one scared by the Count. I’d run out of the room when he was on and get my mom to make sure he was gone before I would return. I’m over it now, but geeeez, he was scary.
And although I loved the movie E.T., I was a bit creeped out by the possibility of meeting him.
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### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2001, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/87 "2001-08-27T20:29:12Z")
No contest. The **Flying Monkeys** :eek:
Runners-up: Pretty much the entire (costumed) cast of **H.R. Puffnstuff** and **Lidsville**. Sid and Marty have much to answer for :mad:
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### Author:  [@beegirl13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beegirl13)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/88 "2001-08-28T04:20:48Z")
I second Willy Wonka (he still creeps me out), The Wicked Witch of the West, the flying monkeys, the evil Gremlins, and especially Lady Elaine Fairchild. I was never really _scared_, but those characters were always vaguely creepy/disturbing to me. One strange thing that I remember that scared me was the TV ad for Nintendo when it first came out. I have no clue why.
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### Author:  [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/89 "2001-08-28T04:57:53Z")
I am definitely a boomer that was _terrified_ of Barnabus Collins on **“Dark Shadows”**. I would turn my head away from the TV in horror only to see the TV screen’s reflection in the living room window…duh!
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### Author:  [@teigra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teigra)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/90 "2001-08-28T10:33:03Z")
I hated clowns.
Seriously- what’s funny about painted people?
It’s like they’re hiding their faces.
I went to a circus with my parents a couple of times and just hoped none of those weirdos would come up to me and try to make me laugh…
Also at a christmasparty at my fathers office somebody had had a brainstorm and put two monsters hand out the boxes of candy.
Hello?
And was scared of motorbikes because of the sound they made.
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### Author:  [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/91 "2001-08-28T15:51:08Z")
Ohhhh, yes. Pennywise got me too, but not from the movie … I read the book in middle school. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever read - to this day! I had the version with a closeup of Pennywise on the cover, with the shiny white eyes … I’d read some before bed, and I’d have to turn the book on it’s face because he’s be looking at me!!! Creepy!!!
Enough about me. I have a friend who is still scared of clowns, and he was always terrified of those “Yep yep yep” aliens from Sesame Street. I always get a kick out of that one.
Me? Hmmmm … the beginning scene from Ghostbusters freaked me out for years. When the ghostly librarian explodes into that massive evil spirit. Yikes. Also, the movie Troll. Just plain freaky.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/92 "2001-08-28T16:01:28Z")
Dracula.
That Giant Tarantula from the movie…uh _Tarantula_. [sub]Great name, huh?[/sub]
Finally the Incredible Salt Vampire from that Star Trek episode. Cried like crazy when I was tiny. Doesn’t bother me , now.
When I was 8, I switched to being afraid of people, and what they do. Real, and much scarier.
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### Author:  [@jellen92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jellen92)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/93 "2001-08-28T16:28:11Z")
The guy from “Electric Company” that is carrying the cake and the song “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10, 11… 12” is going on and he falls down the stairs and gets cake all over the place. That scared me to death as a kid and I still get chills thinking about it…
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### Author:  [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/94 "2001-08-28T17:10:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Hands down, it was ‘The Boogeyman’ from the Stephen King short story of the same name. Before he succumbed to the same must-put-a-new-book-out-every-three-months disease that first claimed Dean Koontz, he published a short story about a family stalked, and then killed one by one, by a boogeyman that lived in the closet. Young Krunk reads this story at the tender age of nine…
**Krunk** , I must insist that you stop. Put my early life down, very carefully, back away from it, and put your hands behind your head. Do it slowly and no one needs to get hurt.
Crikey, that was about the single best short story a young boy with an active imagination could read, wasn’t it. Was terrified of my closet for a full year afterwards, and I too came on the solution of making sure the door was fully open to it, or fully shut with crap stacked against. The absolute worst was the first night after reading it, and the closet door being open…just a small crack…and being paralyzed. If I moved towards it to open or close fully, I knew it would burst open just as I reached for it.
There was also a scene in **The Wiz** where the groovy Oz gang is in a parking garage. The columns rip away from the ceiling and floor and begin chasing them around. That freaked me out.
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### Author:  [@Elvis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elvis)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/95 "2001-08-28T20:56:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Hamburglar. Had nightmares about him.
I can’t believe someone else posted this. I was about to make the exact same (slightly embarrassing) admission. I, too, had nightmares about the Hamburglar.
Honorable mention: the Triffids from “Day of the Triffids”
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/96 "2001-08-28T21:04:54Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jellen92 \*
> \*\*The guy from “Electric Company” that is carrying the cake and the song “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10, 11… 12” is going on and he falls down the stairs and gets cake all over the place. That scared me to death as a kid and I still get chills thinking about it… \*\*
Actually, I think that sketch was from _Sesame Street_, and the baker was none other than (a very young) Jim Henson.
jayjay
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### Author:  [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/97 "2001-08-28T21:49:05Z")
The episode of “Star Trek” (TOS) that had the aliens pretending to be witches. They killed a crew member and spoke through his body. I never saw that episode all the way through since I freaked out at the ‘witches’ in the fog early in the episode.
The voice of the Mysterons and their “Double-O” duplication symbol from “Captain Scarlet” also freaked me out a bit.
Noawdays? Pheh!
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### Author:  [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/98 "2001-08-28T22:09:39Z")
Oh My, SILENCE…!! While I’m Counting!
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### Author:  [@LindyHopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LindyHopper)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/99 "2001-08-28T22:19:58Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by SpazCat \*
> \*\*
> I saw a TV version of that story when I was about 4. When the guy met a Boogeyman in the street and it said “But I’m the Boogeyman from under someone else’s bed” I ran screaming, getting my oldest sister into trouble for watching that show in the first place. I was terrified of under my bed for years.
>
> \*\*
Actually, that was from an episode of the new Twilight Zone (the one in color), and it was called “The Shadow Man”. IIRC, it was about this totally black figure (kind of like the figures on traffic signs) who lived under this kid’s bed and protected him from danger. Then, one night, he was out in a park and saw the shadow man, who came over and was clearly going to kill him. The kid objects, because the shadow man is supposed to protect him, whereupon we get the chilling line, “I’m the shadow man from under someone else’s bed.” _brrrrrrrrrr_
Saw that for the first time in _college_ and it still creeps me out.
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2001, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-character-scared-you-the-most-as-a-kid/77364/100 "2001-08-28T22:41:26Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jsc1953 \*
> And the banshee in “Darby O’Gill and the Little People.” I wouldn’t be in the same room when it was shown on The Wonderful(ly Sick & Twisted) World of Disney.
Ah, yes! It came out in 1959, and I have a definite memory of seeing the banshee scene on our b/w TV prior to 1960. The scene where Darby opens the door and the banshee is standing right there horrified me! In my memory, it looked like some huge, awful squid complete with beak (this was probably the floating folds of the banshee’s clothes). I never saw the movie in the theater. Needless to say, when I saw it on the Disney Channel in color as an adult, it just didn’t have the same impact (even with the color turned off).
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