Evil Laugh
The Simpsons, "Sideshow Bob Roberts" |
20. Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly. |
Anime & Manga
* Parodied and lampshaded in Angel Beats when Yurippe laughs during the baseball tournament she is told that she sounds like a villain. ** Again in the DVD Bonus Episode Stairway to Heaven. This time she even mimics Lelouch, and seems glad to be lampshaded. ** Tension Meter 200!!! * Justice from Afro Samurai. His laugh is just...ill. ** "YEE-HA!" * Azumanga Daioh: While Kimura's laugh isn't a bona fide evil laugh, it sure is scary. * Desty Nova from Battle Angel Alita tends to enjoy this trope. * Alan Gabriel from The Big O is prone to this, though it's more of the maniacal giggle type; the fact that it's Crispin Freeman of all people doing it just makes it more creepy. * Creed from Black Cat has a typical villain laugh. He mostly does it when Train is involved though. * Hansel and Gretel from Black Lagoon should be the poster characters for creepy laughs, and they are very, very evil. * Hollow Ichigo from Bleach. ** Grimmjow too, but only when he's fighting Ichigo. *** Or killing Luppi... ** Mayuri gives a truly spectacular one whenever he unleashes his Bankai in one of the games. *** Also, here. ** Chapter 458 gives us an awesome one, so much the two speech balloons that contain it occupy together a good half of the page. Who provides it, you ask? Ginjo, and this time it isn't an act. * Torpedo Girl from Bobobo Bobobobo laughs using the word "Torpedo" over and over again. It's really creepy. * For the protagonist of the series, Lelouch from Code Geass gets an inordinate number of evil laughs, usually when he's just pulled another utter pwnage on his enemies with some unexpected genius tactic. His most maniacal ones were in episodes 17 and 23 (quoted below) of season 1, and episodes 2, 7, and 9 of R2.Error: No text given for quotation (or equals sign used in the actual argument to an unnamed parameter) |
Comics
* Batman's enemy, The Joker, is the archetypical example of the first type of exception (The Joker is also a bona-fide psycho, prone to impressive cackling). In fact, in the "Die Laughing" crossover with Judge Dredd, when Joker manages to join the Dark Judges, his power is a laugh so mighty it kills people. ** See also the various Batman adaptations, below. * Appearances of superhero The Creeper in The DCU are accompanied by a high-pitched, manic 'Yamazaki is playing Stabby Needles' laugh with an unhealthy amount of girlish glee. Evil giggle works. In the later versions his laughter actually caused damage. * Green Goblin, from the Marvel Universe. One of them (Phil Urich, the only guy who was consistently a hero while wearing the suit) even used this as a sonic weapon. * Storm is one of the good guys, but in one issue of Marvel Adventures she gets to play the part of a weather witch. Maniacal laughter is part of the package. * Back in his Golden Age comics, Captain Marvel could tell which of his Rogues Gallery he was up against just by the sound of their specific evil laughter. * Spider Jerusalem is known to indulge in the occasional bit of evil laughter, usually when preparing a career-ending article."Moo hoo ha ha." |
Fan Fics
* Lina Eastwood/Cure Western from Pretty Cure Hollywood Stars is a rare heroic example of this trope, and BOY does she make the most of it! She tends to laugh evilly in her hammier moments, such as in episode 12.Films -- Animated
* Villain Songs have a tendency to end with the villain laughing maniacally. * Tetsuo lets out some memorable maniac laughs. * Few villains rock the Evil Laugh harder than Evil Chancellor Jafar on Aladdin, especially at the end of his song. In the Crossover with Hercules, Hades calls him on it. When Jafar actually convinces Hades to give it a shot, the big blue guy admits that "It's cleansing." * In the final battle scene of Beauty and The Beast, Gaston does an evil laugh before he taunts Beast. ** A prize example (not from a villain, but still quite scary) is given by the castle's stove. * In Flushed Away, the Toad and his henchrats (including Spike) do evil laughs repeatedly. * In Barnyard, Dag laughs evilly repeatedly. * Hexxus from Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest has a laugh at the end of his extended song, that ends with a dry cough. Can be seen as a satire, but actually justified, as Hexxus is the embodiment of pollution. ** He indulges in some much more frightening laughter when he assumes his One-Winged Angel form. * Mad Scientist Dr. Cockroach of Monsters vs. Aliens has a tendency to do this on a whim, to which Susan asks if he could please stop doing that. * In Kung Fu Panda, Tai Lung does an evil laugh at one point. ** Speaking of Kung Fu Panda, Shifu pulls an absolutely epic one while threatening Po with the Wuxi Finger Hold.Shifu: You know the hardest part? The hardest part is cleaning up afterwards, hrmhrhrhrhrhrhr... |
I can stand the sight of worms |
Films -- Live-Action
* The ending sequence in Audition, when Asami Yamazaki is playing Stabby Needles with an unhealthy amount of girlish glee. Evil giggle works. * Parodied by Dr. Evil and his minions in Austin Powers. Lampshaded when the camera fails to make the expected cut and the evil laughter just becomes awkward. * Unforgetable evil laugh from Fantomas as played by Jean Marais BUT voiced by Raymond Pellegrin in the 3 french movies made in the 1960s. Really unforgetable. * Fergie as Saraghina gets a fairly evil one during "Be Italian" in Nine * In Blazing Saddles, Hedley Lamaar gives an Evil Laugh when he comes up with the diabolical plan of sending a black sheriff to the town of Rock Ridge. ** Quickly cut off when he chokes on a sweet. *** Maybe that explains Bush and the pretzel... * In Dirty Harry, the Scorpio Killer has a sort of gibbering, intensely self-satisfied laugh that is in no way appealing. His final moments are even characterized by one last split-second of this laugh when he decides that yes, he does feel lucky. * Captain Seas gives an evil laugh for his guests in the Camp movie Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze. * Dracula doesn't have much of a laugh, but Renfield, as played by Dwight Frye, has a variation all his own. Since Frye's portrayal, a creepy laugh is a must for any future Renfield. ** A nice one in Bram Stokers Dracula. * The title character in Dr. Strangelove has a broken way of laughing on occasion that sits comfortably between Un-Evil and just plain Evil. * The Kurgan of Highlander is the undisputed King, nay, Emperor of this trope. This clip shows why. ** Because he's played by Clancy Fucking Brown, that's why. * In Independence Day, David Levinsen's Jolly Roger computer virus is polite enough to let the aliens know that they are completely boned by letting out a distorted evil cackle. * Subverted in Inglourious Basterds: Shoshanna does this after delivering her message to the Germans (that they are all going to die). It fits the trope in every respect... except for the part that Shoshanna is a hero. * J Men Forever (1979). The Lightning Bug gives a good evil laugh, but that's hardly surprising as his voice is that of legendary radio DJ "Machine Gun" Kelly. * Whenever Jim Carrey plays a villain he sometimes does a laugh like this, most notably the Grinch and his performance as Olaf in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. On the Interactive Olaf DVD feature he does do an Evil Laugh in one part. ** As Olaf, he actually goes through several different Evil Laughs at one point, trying to find his favourite. ** Also, he has a pretty sadistic laugh as Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber after he tricks Harry into drinking hot chocolate with a laxative - complete with Wicked Witch of the West theme. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onVf8jtQiLM#t=2m8s * Daryl Hannah does a quite sinister one as Elle Driver in Kill Bill Volume 2 after revealing that she killed Pai Mei by poisoning his fish heads. * In Jet Li's Last Hero In China (one of many, many names for this movie), the main villain has a ridiculously good evil laugh. Actually, it's more like an utterly psychotic laugh, at entirely wrong moments. "Wong Fei Hong! Help me! He has broken loose! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" "Our evil master will not be pleased! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" ** In the movie finale, he got his knee broken (after trying to attack Jet Li's character from behind). Then Jet Li's character says: "Now you can laugh,". He sobs like a little child. * Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean rocked a magnificent, rum-laced Evil Piratey Laugh. I mean come on, he even went "arr!" * The Predator managed a rather decent version when he was all set to blow Arnie and half the countryside to oblivion. (It was a recording of Billy's laughter from earlier in the movie, albeit in a creepy, distorted manner.) ** For bonus points, that laugh was recorded by Peter Cullen. ** This is almost an inversion, since it's not really an evil laugh, it's a normal laugh that just sounds insanely evil because of the context and the way that it becomes distorted. * Raul Julia, in every villainous incarnation. His subtler chuckles only need the broad, manic grin to crank up the menace (or hamminess). * Jimmy, the #2 thug from Road House, lets out a sinister cackle as he rides away after blowing kindly ol' Emmett's house to smithereens (luckily, Emmett is rescued). Mike Nelson is quick to hang a lampshade this in the Rifftrax commentary:Mike: It only now struck him as funny; now that he's got some distance behind him. |
Uncle Deadly: How's that for a maniacal laugh? |
Literature
* Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events has a distinctively wheezy voice and a laugh to go with it. In The Grim Grotto, he's doing his darndest to make it the most elaborate, obnoxious evil laugh ever. (This is great fun in the audio books with Tim Curry doing the reading.) ** In later books in the series, Olaf deliberately inverts this by shortening his laugh to a simple "Ha!" ** In the movie Olaf kind of experiments with it near the end. On the DVD feature Interact Olaf he demonstrates an evil laugh at one point. * There are many villains with Evil Laugh on Discworld. One of them (in Maskerade) writes his evil laugh down. With five exclamation marks. Sure sign for insanity. ** A relatively minor character in Making Money has one of the best evil laughs seen in the series. His co-worker Igor laments that it is so unfortunate that he is neither technically insane, nor evil. ** Granny Weatherwax does not do this but her genteel chuckle when she is about to do the Right Thing has been described as far FAR scarier. ** Witches of the Discworld in general try to watch themselves and each other for excessive cackling, which is a sign of going mad and turning into a fairytale-style wicked witch. ** Lampshaded with Lord Hong, who would only have laughed maniacally if he were the traditional type of Evil Grand Vizier. * Lampshaded by Harry Dresden in Grave Peril. At Bianca's party, the lights go dark, and spooky laughter comes out of nowhere. Harry notes that it's tough to beat vampires at the creepy laugh. They get a lot of practice. ** Harry points out an Evil Laugh again in Dead Beat when he encounters the vampire Mavra. He also gives a fairly apt description of what makes an evil laugh.Maybe it was the atmosphere, but something about it, the way that it simply lacked anything to do with the things that should motivate laughter... There was no warmth in it, no humanity, no kindness, no joy. It was like Mavra herself -- it had the withered human shell, but underneath it all was something from a nightmare. |
Sir Michael threw back his head and laughed and laughed. The sound set my teeth on edge, for there was little sanity in it, and it was a twisted mockery of the laugh I knew so well. |
“a hearty and insane laugh, about as far removed from polite after dinner laughter as you can get. That was the kind of insane laughter even the truly insane have to practice for years to get right.” |
Live Action TV
* The nerd trio in season 6 Buffy: "We're like... supervillains. Mwahahahaha!" ** The most complete counter-example is the Buffy season 3 ubervillain, the Mayor. His chuckles and general good humour are completely sincere and natural. * Spoofed in an episode of Angel when Lorne describes a scene where the Big Bad "mwa-ha-ha'd at us." ** Played extremely straight (and sinister) when the episode "Awakening" ends with Angelus opening his eyes and...smiling. Then chuckling, softly but continuously until the credits. * Jim Keats of Ashes to Ashes has a seriously creepy giggly one. And in the finale, when he's implied to be none other than Satan himself, he combines it with a weird hissing noise that's pure Narm Charm. * Frank Gorshin's evil high-pitched chuckle as The Riddler in the Adam West Batman series. * The cop/writer TV show Castle had an awesome evil laugh moment in the Halloween episode. The main character, Castle, has an impressive go at it with a running pumpkin drill in his hand and a mild threat to go after any boys who hurt his daughter. Impressive, that is, until he has a coughing fit. ** He has a more successful one when he suggests building a weather machine out of liquid nitrogen so that Alexis won't have to choose between staying at home to study and going with her friends out of the city. * On Firefly, Wash gives us an example of a good guy doing this in the pilot episode 'Serenity', as a conversation between...two toy dinosaurs. "I think we should call it your grave!" '"Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!", "Hahaha! Mine is an Evil Laugh! Now die!" * In the Cheers episode "The Executive's Executioner". Norm gets saddled with the soul-crushing job of "office hatchetman"; in the end he uses his new boogeyman-status to get revenge on the executive who inflicted it on him: "This is NORM PETERSON! MUHAHAHAHA!" * Parodied in Chuck Versus The Subway by Daniel Shaw after he has captured Sarah and Casey. And then in Chuck Versus the Ring by Chuck, after he has revealed to Daniel Shaw how he beat him and took down the Ring. * Some, no, any incarnations worth their salt of the Master from Doctor Who have a penchant for dramatic mad laughter. ** Jonathan Pryce's Master from The Curse of Fatal Death deserves a special mention. His Laugh is so Evil it causes thunder and lightning to strike inside his TARDIS. ** Davros combines this with a touch of Robo Speak at high volume for a memorably batshit insane Evil Laugh. If you're really lucky, it's probably the finishing touch on a spectacular Motive Rant. ** The Black Guardian's version is good, if rather traditional; it goes something like "nyaaaaahahaha". Captain Wrack, meanwhile, seemed unable to function if she didn't cackle evilly every two minutes or so. The episode Enlightenment, where they both appear, makes for some interesting watching. ** The Rani plays this trope straight in Time and the Rani, but in the mine shaft scene with the Master and Peri in Mark of the Rani, she starts choking and knocks Peri out with her poison gas capsules. ** The End of Time has John Simm's Master, having just turned the entire of humanity into copies of himself, go to an Evil Laugh that lasts 45 seconds, is echoed by all his copies and gives us the sight of John Simm in drag. ** "Flesh and Stone" has the Angels making a very alien sound that is an approximation of laughter. ** In The Masque Of Mandragora, the Helix does this, often when there is no other sign of its presence. * Appears in Friends under the name "The Plan Laugh", employed by Phoebe -- Joey tries to imitate it, but can't get it right. Phoebe: Muahahahahaha!!! |
Ahhahaha hahaha hahah- * cough, pause* And now for something completely different. |
"I will kill you all and feast upon your flesh! I will...be reborn! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" |
Music
* The beginning of the song "Bump In The Night" by Allstars has a talking section similar to the Thriller example above which is followed by an evil laugh. * Near the end of Arthur Brown's "Fire". "You're gonna burn! Burn! Burn! Buuuurrrn!!! Ah-hahaha!!!" * Peter Murphy's cackle two-thirds of the way through Bauhaus's cover of John Cale's "Rosegarden Funeral of Sores" definitely counts. Crowning Moment of Awesome ensues. * Cradle of Filth's song A Gothic Romance features a more rarely-heard female Evil Laugh. ** The last track on their album Damnation and a Day features an evil laugh at the end."And the Earth...was without form...and void. And Darkness...was upon the face of the deep. Mmm hmm hmm heh heh ha ha. AH HA HA HA HA HAA!" |
Pro Wrestling
* Even when shown as the good guy, Kane is likely to do this at the end of his promos. He didn't become a true bona fide psycho until he was unmasked, though. * "Million Dollar Man" Ted Di Biase's Evil Laugh was so important to his character that it was even part of his entrance music. * Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart had an Annoying Laugh that sometimes terrified opponents. His daughter's laugh is almost identical. * The Undertaker has been known to do these before, mostly when he was in his Ministry of Darkness phase. He laughed evilly when abducting Stephanie McMahon for example. * Vickie Guerrero began a habit of doing this during her feud for the Miss Wrestlemania title and was practically her second catchphrase as Smackdown's official consultant. * Awesome Kong, or Kharma now she's in WWE. It's now her Leitmotif * Larry Sweeney had a naturally boisterous laugh that he used to great effect when playing the Heel.Puppet Shows
* On Sesame Street, The Count would famously laugh in a somewhat sinister fashion after counting things out, accompanied by thunder and lightning. "I will now count these letters to myself! One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Five letters! Ah ha ha!" ** It was originally a lot more maniacal, but was toned down to avoid frightening children away from learning to count. * Mr. Meaty.Radio
* Adventures in Odyssey: Dr. Regis Blackgaard has a memorable evil laugh that was quite effective in small doses. When he appears in the "Darkness Before Dawn" arc, you can hear bits of it trying to escape at certain points, but he holds it in until he finally takes over Whit's End. ** A minute before the scene in question, he and his underling Mr, Glossman actually share a laugh together. The contrast makes him sound positively demented. ** In a later episode, we learn that while his twin brother Edwin may be merely a hammy actor with an inflated ego, he has the laugh in his repertoire, as well. * The Shadow, of radio, pulp, and Alec Baldwin fame, is another example of a hero using the evil laugh -- in his case, as psychological warfare. After all, maniac laughter from nowhere is unnerving, and criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot... * The French summer radio show Les Persifleurs du Mal (Deadpan Snarkers from Hell) uses the Evil Laugh in its opening credits. It fits the show's general tone, and what they do to some of the people they invite...Tabletop Games
* Dungeons & Dragons has "Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter", a spell that can give any character the opportunity to let one of these fly. Also a monster called the Gibbering Mouther has the evil laugh threaded through the cacophony of its constant utterances. * Chaos in Warhammer 40000 specializes in this; most Traitor Marines having been turned batshit insane over ten thousand years of war and slaughter, and the mind-warping effects of the Immaterium. Dawn of War has Chaos Marines randomly break down and cackle occasionally. * Mwahahaha!, naturally.Theater
* Damn Yankees has Applegate sing the Villain Song, "The Good Old Days", which while sounding a lot like an inspirational song in the way it is sung, has Applegate laughing evilly in between stanzas. * The title character in Mozart and Da Ponte's Don Giovanni has a very unsettling laugh in the beginning of act two. * The aria "Vous qui faites l'endormie", from Faust by Charles Gounod, has a number of evil laughs written into the score. This is perhaps unsurprising, as it's sung by Mephistopheles, but it does mean that this trope is Older Than Radio. * The title role in Gilbert&Sullivan's "The Mikado" has some improvised Evil Laughs in between verses in his song about the Cool And Unusual Punishments he's concocted. * In Act One of the The Phantom of the Opera, the Phantom breaks out in evil laughter when he ruins Carlotta's performance and later crashes the chandelier. Michael Crawford really makes the most of both occasions on the original cast album. * Though the Wicked Witch of the West is portrayed sympathetically in Wicked (and given the name Elphaba), she still gets her trademark cackle when Glinda slaps her. * Alberich in Richard Wagner's Ring cycle lets loose with an Evil Laugh occasionally, particularly in Siegfried when Mime gets killed. Gustav Neidlinger pulled off a memorable one at the end of scene one of Das Rheingold on the classic Decca recording with Sir Georg Solti. * Iago traditionally lets out an evil laugh at the end of his Villain Song "Credo in un dio crudel" in Giuseppe Verdi's Otello, even though the laugh isn't written in the score or script.Theme Parks
* Disney Theme Parks: While the common interpretation for the residents of The Haunted Mansion is Dark Is Not Evil, the Ghost Host still provides a rather sinister laugh.Video Games
* Kira Daidohji of Arcana Heart. A pre-pubescent Large Ham Mad Scientist with dreams of World Domination? This trope is practically required! ** Actually, as with the Wicked Witch, an evil laugh is also traditional for a Mad Scientist character (though not all of them). * What?! The Joker is featured largely in a video game and doesn't get a mention?! Shame on you, TV Tropes! Granted, it's more similar to Laughing Mad. * In Baldurs Gate, Sarevok from the first game is available in the final expansion as an optional party member. His maniacal laughter is one his battlecry and he'll sometime throw his evil laugh when you give him orders. * Gruntilda in Banjo-Kazooie. She gave out a rather impressive evil cackle whenever you hit the "Save and Quit" option in the menu. * In Bio Shock, Atlas/Frank Fontaine bursts into an Evil Laugh once you have killed Andrew Ryan and shut off the self-destruct. Arguably, this is also a moment of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, although one built into the game's plot. ** In what is probably the strangest example ever seen, the vending machines have a truly unsettling evil laugh. *** Wait till you see one in Hephestus that is broken and lobs grenated at you. * Any appearance of Big Bad Dr. Goldfire in the Blake Stone series is accompanied by his trademark "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!" * Bagular's evil laugh in Bomberman Hero is...Well, it's weird, creepy and strangely awesome at the same time. Seriously. ** Then there's Rukifellth from Bomberman 64: The Second Attack whose evil laugh can probably be considered a Verbal Tic.Rukifellth: Once I regain my earthly body, I shall create a new cosmos. MY Cosmos. A cosmos of chaos where only the strong shall survive! Ha ha... Ha ha... Bwah ha ha ha ha ha!\ |
Alistair: AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! AAAHAHAA-* cough choke gag* I swallowed my mint. |
General Tao: Heh heheh-heh heh-heh... |
Murray: I AM MURRAY, THE EVIL DEMONIC SKULL! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! |
Hee-hee-hee ho-ho-ho ha-ha-ha-ha. That-was-fun. |
- The Mother from Dragon Age: Awakening delivers an impressive evil laugh in her first scene. She is initially distraught over the loss of "her pets" at Kal'Hirol, but calms down at the urging of a follower. When asked what she will do next, she shrieks that first she will laugh.
- Spoofed in Sam and Max: Culture Shock, where Brady Culture is heard practicing his evil laugh as he spies on the Freelance Police meddling in his plans, and it grows from weak to genuinely menacing.
- Hugh Bliss lets out a rather creepy one in Bright Side of the Moon.
- But, to no one's surprise the best example of this trope in these games comes from none other than Max in The Penal Zone.
- The Fleshpound from Killing Floor will sometimes laugh as he's making his way to the players. Shooting at him will cause him to fly into an Unstoppable Rage and let loose a Roar Before Beating.
- Clive from Professor Layton and The Unwound Future gets a very nice one upon his reveal as the game's Big Bad.
- Dr. Curien, the staple Mad Scientist villain from the House of the Dead series, gets a rather memorable one in the third instalment. As the mid-chapter cutscenes up until that point had depicted him as a benevolent scientist seeking a desperate cure for his son's illness, once he lets the laughter loose, you know he's gone bonkers.
- Wheatley in Portal 2 gets one, which seals his Face Heel Turn, and later comments on how exhausting that kind of laughter is.
- Some of the defective turrets will do this when they make it past the quality control.
- The main antagonist of Kirby Mass Attack does an evil laugh.
- As it is a derivative of Fist of the North Star, Hokuto Musou does this as well--quite a few characters possess evil laughs, which is not unheard of for the series. However, what is notable is that Souther/Thouzer not only has a spectacular evil laugh which can be activated at will, but that it's also weaponized. Tapping the special move button makes him cross his arms in a Badass Arm-Fold and laugh evilly, while spontaneously making everyone within about ten feet of him explode into bloody chunks without actively touching them.
- In Captain America and The Avengers, Red Skull has one. Like many voices in the game, it comes out sounding rather silly.
- The Prince in the early parts of Rule of Rose has an Evil Laugh that varies from quick giggle to truly psychotic cackle as he has Jennifer in his power. He becomese much more subdued later on, however, as his role in the story becomes more ambigious.
The Prince: For I am the Prince, and the Prince rules! Mwahahahahaaa! This is your life, but you're playing by my rules! Hahahahahaaa! |
- Parodied in the outtakes of Jak and Daxter The Precursor Legacy.
Gol: Okay, sickly evil laughs. Hahahaha. That's too stupid. HahahaHAha! That sucks. What's an evil laugh? HA-- *cough cough* *giggles* |
- Matt Helms from No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle does this frequently whenever he uses his axe flamethrower on Travis.
- In Magical Doropie, Empress Elsyia does this frequently in her cutscenes.
- In Dark Souls, Lautrec ends all of his dialogue with an Evil Laugh. It's not surprising that he turns out to be one of the few truly evil characters in the game.
- Joey Rottenwood of The Spellcasting Series has one, which is little surprise given his status as a Genre Savvy Card-Carrying Villain. Even when the series had few sound effects, his evil cackle was always included.
- The boss fight score in Plok not only was great music (as did the entire game in general), but also featured some very evil laughter indeed.
- In Ys II, Dalles generally uses his sinister laugh to announce his presence.
Visual Novels
- M in Shikkoku no Sharnoth only ever emotes when he is destroyed one of the Metacreatures. When he does, he launches into a full blown evil laugh. Mary is quite disturbed.
Web Animation
- In the "Mental Floss" web animation Be Amazing!, around 3:12 -- "Maniacally, I said! MANIACALLY!"
- In the Halo 3 machinima, Deus Ex Machina, a villain starts laughing because he's supposed to be a robotic time-gasbomb, when it turns out to be a dud, he plays a looping laugh sound. Yes, it is creepy.
- Another earlier villain chuckles to himself in a completely normal manner. Since he is laughing about the hero's imminent doom, it still feels very evil.
- Although he's gone a long way since his villain status, Strong Bad from Homestar Runner has a pretty neat -- if seldom used -- laugh (seen in "dragon" and "Most In The Graveyard").
- In Red vs. Blue the main antagonist O'Mally often laughs in an extremely over the top way, once with a bit of lampshading when he's trying to stay undercover by possesing a Blue.
O'Mally: Everyone has played right into our hands! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!!!1 |
- At one point after delievering one of his incredibly hammy evil laughs, he actually says this to his "comrades."
O'Mally: Now be careful. Don't give away our position with maniacal laughing. |
Web Comics
- MAGISA -- The bad guy always likes to do the evil laugh for some reason... (1) (2) (3)
- In 'Eight Bit Theater, when the Light Warriors hand over the last orb of light, Sarda does one of these. Red Mage dismisses it as allergies and Sarda goes along with that.
- Khrima indulges in evil laugh in this Adventurers! strip.
- As A Miracle of Science puts it, you just know mad scientists have evil laughter competitions.
- The Beast Legion : Dragos on several occasions in the webcomic, gives out an Evil laugh.
- Bob and George, per se. Quote from Dr Wily and the Helmeted Author: "I think I'm supposed to laugh maniacally now."
- In Books Don't Work Here the Mad Scientist Sparky laughs so hard he chocks here, and again here.
- Damien from El Goonish Shive does one of these. Not because he's just done something evil, or because our heroes are falling into his diabolical trap, but because he thinks it's genuinely hilarious that Grace could ever be a threat to him.
- Likewise, Raven has a pretty well-developed evil laugh about him.
- Made creepier by him turning out to actually be good.
- In Erfworld, Wanda's maniacal laugh upon acquiring and attuning to the Arkenpliers was a break from her previous complete lack of laughter.
- The more villainous and/or powerful "Sparks" (genius gadgeteers and mad scientists) in the gaslamp fantasy world of Girl Genius ("Adventure! Romance! Mad Science!") are remarkably prone to this. But then, frankly speaking, every Spark is prone to ranting and raving and overdramatic gestures (often involving blowing things up, or sometimes, coffee) when "in the Madness Place" (sparking at full throttle). "Forward, my minions! Mhuahahaha!"
- While not quite the most evil of the lot, Rocky and his cousin from Lackadaisy Cats tend to laugh hysterically whenever they cheat death.
- Narbonic loves this trope. At one point Helen gets a manic giggle: "Bwee-hee-hee!"
- TAG of Schlock Mercenary has one of these built in as part of the general psychological warfare suite he is equipped with. It activates involuntarily, whenever he thinks he has complete power over someone (it doesn't really matter if they're in the room or not).
- Lampshaded in this Order of the Stick strip, in which Xykon declines to join Redcloak and the Monster in the Dark in an evil laugh, because he can't quite deliver one properly since becoming a skeletal (and thus lung-less) lich.
- Vaarsuvius gets a very straight one in this strip, though they can't quite help it.
- Lampshaded in The Way of the Metagamer repeatedly.
- Vriska, one of the trolls in Homestuck, gives us a particularly impressive one after mind-controlling Tavros into jumping off a cliff. Even just in text, it comes off as pretty disturbing.
- As does Andrew, the author, in this strip.
- Another of the trolls, Terezi, is almost always seen giggling evilly, not helped by the fact the first time she's introduced she's giggling after threatening to kill John. As it turns out, Terezi isn't really evil, just very passionate about justice, as well as being a very strange and funny girl in general. H3 H3 H3!
- Do honks count as laughter? HONK honk HONK honk HONK hoooooooooooonk ;OD
- Dr. Universe bemoans his lack of a truly evil laugh in Spinnerette.
- In Endstone, Herrik wishes he would Get It Over With to get away from the obnoxious cackling laugh
Web Original
- Gordon does an amusing one, actually.
- Dr. Horrible opens Act I with his unbelievably artificial maniacal laughter. Hey, he's working on it (with a voice coach).
- For his views on the evil laugh, see the top page quote.
- He gets it extremely right in Act III.
- And then there's Bad Horse, the leader of The Evil League of Evil, with his "terrible death whinny".
- From Gaia Online. Johnny. K. Gambino. Lampshaded in a later story update where Johnny, stuck in a rut, says he just doesn't have the passion for the Bwahaha stuff anymore.
- Among the site's staff, Qixter, the main dev for zOMG! makes himself out as an Evil Overlord, complete with Evil Laughter. His trademark quote is "Can I get a Bwuhahaha?" This quote makes it into the description of the item at the end of the game.
- Parodied by Adam in Maddison Atkins episode 9, and also demonstrated by Maddison in episode 38.
- Mysteriously this article on That Other Wiki.
- The best use of YouTube yet is broadcasting an Evil Laugh competition.
- Jermaine of Awkward has one that's equal parts evil and douchey, in part because he copped it from Ganondorf, but mostly because, well, he's a douchebag.
- Used for parodic purposes in the French MP 3 series Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk by the dark wizard Zangdar. It does not help that he is incompetent and brutal towards his minions and servants.
- After the Critic is defeated in Kickassia, The Nostalgia Chick and The Cinema Snob.
- Parodied in his Top 11 Coolest Cliches Video, when he wonders why villains always laugh evilly when something good happens. Then:
Nostalgia Critic: Hey, look, I found a credit card. (Beat) MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! |
- Mara Wilson pulls off an epic one in the review of A Simple Wish.
- Atop the Fourth Wall's Linkara pulls one at the end of his Ultimates 3 review. Magnificent, Mr. Lovhaug.
- Dr. Insano has a classic Mad Scientist laugh, and he also lampshades the trope in Spoony's review of The Clones Of Bruce Lee, in which villain Dr. Nye(no, not THAT Nye) is a little too laugh-happy.
Dr. Insano: You can't just start laughing maniacally at the end of every sentence! You have to earn it! You have to say something dramatic, like "soon we will conquer Thailand, and tomorrow THE WORLD!" |
- Played straight and lampshaded in the Whateley Universe story "Test Tube Babies" when the woman playing badguy in the holographic simulation turns out to be a real retired supervillainess who terrorized three continents during the Cold War.
"But of course, Herr Bardue. In the last sim, I didn't even haff time to give zem my evil laugh.” She clenched her fists and looked at the ceiling. “BWA-HA-HA-HAH!" |
- Played for laughs by Chester Cheetah here.
- Members of the league of evil villains opposed to The League of STEAM engage in one at the end of "Dead End."
Western Animation
- The sheer creepiness of Megatron's Evil Laugh in the original animated series is in and of itself Nightmare Fuel.
- The Quintessons during the "Five Faces of Darkness" arc were initially so overcome by their moment of triumph, they were at a loss as to how to go about celebrating it. Then one of them suggests a quiet chuckle. And so they do, and rather creepily.
- Because of his normally almost emotionless demeanor, Soundwave very rarely laughs in the original series. When he does, though?with his flanged, echoing voice?it is awesome creepy.
- Beast Wars has a number of the Predacons do this, including but by no means limited to: Megatron when he's feeling smug, Rampage when he's inflicting pain, and Tarantulas almost constantly... They're always the third sort, and always a pro at it.
- Lampshaded near the end of "Other Visits Part 1", where both Megatron and Tarantulas begin cackling at the same time after coming together to work on the same Evil Plan. Hard to describe on paper, but plays out very nicely.
- Almost every Decepticon in Transformers Armada indulges in this at least once, most often Psycho for Hire Cyclonus.
- Megatron in Transformers Armada is the biggest offender, though: he laughs a lot, never passing up an excuse to do so, to the point that it becomes Narmish. As the Big Bad, he has that right, but the Cybertron version, played by the same voice actor, (who also played the Beast Wars Megs) doesn't laugh nearly as much.
- Kim Possible: Señor Senior Senior views the Evil Laugh as a vital part of villainy. When Señor Senior Junior states this view to Shego (in "Two to Tutor"); she tells him that his father has "warped his mind."
- The Simpsons
- Bart Simpson's laugh is pretty evil, even when he's laughing about something innocent.
- Mr. Burns has a pretty good one too.
- Sideshow Bob.
- Kang and Kodos also have their own, as well.
- Lisa Simpson has her own share of evil laughter in a few episodes. In "Girly Edition", after elaborating a scheme against Bart, Lisa has an evil laugh which was comically followed by their monkey helper's own evil laugh, creeping out Lisa. Also, in "Last Exit to Springfield", after she has braces installed leading to a spoof of the Joker's laugh from the 1980's Tim Burton Batman film.
- Marge Simpson has a more raspy one in "All's Fair in Oven War" in which she sabotages her opponents food with Baby Ear Medicine. Also, she gives one in the third segment of TOH IV in which she reveals that she's the head vampire.
- Even Homer has one in a few episodes such as "Flaming Moe's", "When Flanders Failed", and "The Fat and the Furriest" when he makes a big cotton candy ball with caramel on it.
- "Bart Sells his Soul": Milhouse has one in this episode when begged by Bart to give him his soul back, but with a price: Fifty bucks.
- "Whacking Day": Skinner has one after tricking Bart, Jimbo, Nelson, and Dolph in receiving mountain bikes only for him to forget to turn off the microphone causing everyone to hear.
- Groundskeeper Willie has one in the second segment of TOH VI "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace".
- Hank Scorpio definitely gives one in "You Only Move Twice".
- The Smurfs: Gargamel and ... his pet cat, Azrael. Usually, the two laugh – master first and cat next – after Gargamel consecrates his latest scheme to capture and/or kill the Smurfs.
- He Man and The Masters of The Universe: Skeletor, usually after announcing his latest plan to stop He-Man and take over Eternia.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Surprisingly, the one time that Firelord Ozai gets one of these it’s more like an evil chuckle. Instead, the biggest Evil Laugh of the series goes to Toph.
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- A lampshade was hung on this in at least one episode of The Fairly Odd Parents, in which the arch-enemy of the Crimson Chin; the Nega-Chin looks at his watch and says "Oh. Time for my Evil Laugh!" He then engages in said evil laugh on cue.
- Norm the Genie also Lampshaded it:
Norm: That's my evil laugh. How is it, huh? I've been practicing. |
- Subverted by Gary, Timmy's former imaginary friend. He has a nasty laugh but he says "laughing maniacally, not cool".
- Most of the Villains in The Herculoids had one.
- The Evil Laugh of Culinary Quint on Timon and Pumbaa's Wild Adventures, which was "Le HAH! Le HAH! Le HAH!" He was French...
- In The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, the barber, advancing on Flapjack with a knife to cut his hair, lets out a utterly emotionless evil laugh. It is genuinely chilling.
- The hooded Claw from The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.
- The Powerpuff Girls. Mojo Jojo. For shame!
- In "The Tick Vs. Europe", the Breadmaster actually writes his evil laugh out, in a taunting letter to the Heroes. Which Arthur points out.
- In the Tom and Jerry short Solid Serenade, Tom traps Jerry in Spike's doghouse and gives the audience an Evil Laugh as he closes the door. Then Jerry emerges, being safely escorted out of the enclosure by Spike himself...who utters an Evil Laugh of his own as he shuts the door again. Hilarity Ensues, natch.
- In Jerry and the Lion, Tom traps Jerry in a closet and again gives one of these to the audience as he closes the door... not realizing that Jerry is accompanied by the escaped circus lion who he's befriended. Hilarity once again ensues.
- Dick Dastardly in Wacky Races (and everything else he's been in for that matter). In this case though, it doesn't make him threatening at all.
- Nox, the Big Bad from Wakfu, can sometimes get into a pretty demented Evil Laugh to conclude some of his monologues.
- It's referred to as his "psychopath laugh" in this convention video with the voice actors (a demonstration is given 40 seconds in.)
- Season 2 Big Bad the Eliatrope Qilby is no slouch in this department either. Since he actually has a visible face, unlike Nox, his Evil Laugh looks much more demented.
- Jack Spicer's obsession with his evil laugh in Xiaolin Showdown.
- Thailog from Gargoyles has a good one; the comic continuation of the series shows that he gets disappointed when he goes for long periods of time without a chance to indulge in this, and finally having an excuse to do so cheers him up immensely. When he is initially introduced and people wonder if it is Goliath (who Thailog is cloned from), Elisa doubts that the heroic and straight-arrow Goliath even knows how to laugh maniacally. Hudson even directly asks Goliath: "Do ye even know HOW t' laugh maniacally?"
- Jonny Quest episode "The Werewolf of the Timberlands". Pierre (the "werewolf") has one.
- Mandark from Dexters Laboratory. Seriously. Dexter himself.
- Invader Zim has Tak, Zim's far more competent and villainous rival, giving an evil laugh that lasts more than 10 seconds, followed by still more evil laughter as she goes over her evil plan. Zim doesn't quite get it, despite having his own evil laugh, and responds with "yes, yes, I'm a master of comedy".
- Zim himself plays it straight; after a plan to get rid of Dib appears to be successful, he struggles to find a sufficiently evil way to end his monologue.
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- Yet another Joker example, this time from Batman the Animated Series, courtesy of Mark Hamill. Naturally.
- In Thunder Cats, Mumm-Ra unleashes a very impressive one every time he transforms into Mumm-Ra The Ever-Living.
- Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes has a strangely adorable one. Lucius gives one too.
- The Monarch in The Venture Bros likes a good evil laugh. It may be because he actually works as a villain as his full-time occupation, but then he also loves his job. He's also Genre Savvy enough to know what he's doing.
- My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: Nightmare Moon, Spike, and Fluttershy each pull off an evil laugh at various points in the first season. Discord also gets a few in the season 2 opening. Discord actually has two distinct ones -- his normal, evil, and somewhat menacing laugh, and his sinister-as-all-get-out laugh. The latter happens more often when he's not onscreen.
- Non-Evil Example: This absolutely glorious clip from Megas XLR.
- Adventure Time: Princess Bubblegum pulls off a pretty insane evil laugh in "The Duke" when she thinks she finally has an excuse to lock up the Duke of Nuts. In "Mortal Folly" the Lich starts laughing when Finn is about to defeat him with a sweater.
- In Re Boot, Megabyte and Herr Doktor do this frequently. With Megabyte being voiced by Tony Jay...
- Green Goblin has a particularly psychotic one in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
- DCAU likes giving this to Batman. The original scares Harley Quinn half to death with it, when Batman II/Terry MacGinnis does it in The Movie, taunting the Joker (The Joker!) into a Villainous Breakdown.
- In Batman Beyond, Derek Powers gives an awesome Evil Laugh Template:Here http when he finds out the side effects from his radiation treatment.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
- 64 Zoo Lane.
- In The Powerpuff Girls, many villains do evil laughs (even the Powerpuff Girls do them sometimes).
- Star Wars the Clone Wars features numerous characters who thoroughly enjoy a good malevolent chortle.
- When Anakin takes off on Dooku's speeder bike to save Ahsoka in the pilot movie, Dooku is said to be "(LAUGHING MALICIOUSLY)" according to the subtitles.
- In the Mon Calamari arc, Riff Tamson seems determined to laugh evilly once for every 5-10 lines of actual dialogue he has. If not more.
- In the Umbara arc, General Krell spends the first three and a half episodes as a gruff, domineering officer. However, once he admits that he is a traitor he laughs deeply in every following conversation.
- Angelica in Rugrats has plenty of these.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy: "You've met your match, Melon Head! Prepare for... PROFESSOR SCAM!!" MUAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
Edd:...He's lost it. Honestly? |
Real Life
- Tom Cruise, in his infinite wisdom, suddenly went bonkers in an interview with him that veered into a discussion of his place in the Church of Scientology. Amongst "pew-pew"esque noises directed at "SP's", the man began laughing crazily. Naturally, the Church tried to get the video taken down, however...
- Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals unleashes a textbook example of this trope in a CCM Hockey skates commercial. See for yourself.
- Jim Jones, infamous leader of the Peoples' Temple cult, was known to have a seriously disturbing laugh that sounded like something in between cackling and hyperventilating.
- There are other real people who laugh like this. And people who usually have "normal" laughs may sound like this while hysterical.
- Steve Carrel unleashes a good one Played for Laughs after someone ask the Daily Show panel he's on whether the interviewees know they are going to be laughed at later: Ha Ha Ha! THEY HAVE NO IDEA! WE JUST SCREW WITH THEM! HA HA HA HA HA!
- And they watch it later and CRYYYYY!
- Zhawq, a psychopathic blogger, suggests the stereotype of an evil laugh may have come from psychopaths like him, who love to laugh and may laugh at things that horrify most people.
- Vincent Price was the master of the evil laugh, as demonstrated in any number of horror movies.
Muahaha...
- Oh come on, put some oomph into it! 'MUAAAAAAHHHH--HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!'
- ↑ she is played by Tiffany Grant
- ↑ usually after said teammate stands still inside of a swirling vortex of shadowy death