Slappy the Dummy

Slappy the Dummy is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the Goosebumps children's series by R. L. Stine. He is the main antagonist of the Night of the Living Dummy saga and one of the series' most popular villains, as well as its mascot. He is also the main antagonist of the franchise's film adaptation and its sequel, described by their interpretation of Stine as having a "serious Napoleonic complex" in the former. He comes alive when the words, "Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karrano," which roughly translates to "You and I are one now" (meaning he and whoever brings him to life will become inseparable) and can be found on a sheet of paper in the coat pocket of Slappy's jacket, are read aloud. After being brought to life, Slappy will try to make the person who did so serve him as a slave, to the point of framing them for his evil deeds.

Inspiration
According to R. L. Stine, Slappy took inspiration from Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio. He liked the book's idea of a wooden puppet coming to life, so he created Slappy.

Magic, a 1978 horror film where a dummy is thought to commit evil acts, was another one of R. L. Stine's inspirations for Slappy. In the television adaptation of the books, Slappy has the same sounding voice as Fats, the dummy from Magic with the voice of Anthony Hopkins.

Notable appearances in novels
He also appears in his own series Goosebumps SlappyWorld, where he serves as the narrator.

Appearances beyond the books
Slappy has also been made into an actual ventriloquist doll available from major retailers. He was first manufactured by Goldberger Doll corporation after a nine-year-old boy from Long Island sent them a letter suggesting the idea in 1998. There is also a mask and a full costume available for sale. Night of the Living Dummy III and Bride of the Living Dummy have also been adapted for VHS and DVD; the second on DVD includes Bride of the Living Dummy.

Authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child posted an announcement via their Facebook status: "We have just written a short story with the amazing author, R. L. Stine. It will be published a year from now in a new, as yet unnamed, anthology. It features Pendergast and ... R.L. Stine's most terrifying creation, Slappy the ventriloquist's dummy. This is one strange, strange story ... The title is GASLIGHTED."

This was published on 30 September 2014 as Gaslighted: Slappy the Ventriloquist Dummy vs. Aloysius Pendergast in the anthology Face Off edited by David Baldacci.

Television

 * Cal Dodd (Cathal J. Dodd) was the voice of Slappy in the original television series. Cal voiced the theme song for the series as well as on several DVDs. Slappy was performed on set and voiced by puppeteer Ron Stefaniuk, who appeared in four episodes ("Night of the Living Dummy II", "Night of the Living Dummy III Part I", "Night of the Living Dummy III Part II", and "Bride of the Living Dummy"). The original Night of the Living Dummy story was never adapted to television, nor were the six post-Bride stories.
 * Kanduu, better known as Slappy, appears as one of the two main antagonists (alongside Harold Biddle) in the 2023 Goosebumps series on Disney+, voiced by Chris Geere. In "Night of the Living Dummy", Slappy was bought in a magic shop by Ephraim, in an effort to revitalize his failed career as a magician. Ephraim found a spell in Slappy's pocket that gave him life, and with its help, he became a successful ventriloquist, but at the cost being left by his family for only focusing on the puppet. Eventually, Slappy had Ephraim retrieve the coffin of someone named Kanduu and urged him to read the spell hidden inside. However Ephraim had a vision of people dying in a large burning tower and rejected the doll's influence and locked him in a briefcase, Ephraim buys a house in Port Lawrence and hid Slappy behind a wall in the basement. In 1993, ten years after Ephraim's death, his estranged descendants, the Biddles, inherited the house. Slappy was found by Ephraim's great-grandson Harold, who was bullied at his previous school, having a hard time adjusting to the new town. He had complete influence over Harold, further isolating him and causing him to get rid of his parents by turning them into wooden puppets. After Slappy and Harold humiliate Sarah and her friends Ben, Victoria, Eliza and Nora, at a school show, Nora finds out about Slappy acting alone, and she convinced the others to take him away from Harold, in going to his house that night and stole Slappy. After Harold's death in his basement fire, Slappy is broken into pieces by Ben, who along with his friends hide his remains and keep the events of that night a secret. In present day, Harold Biddle returns from the afterlife and possessed the school teacher Nathan Bratt in order to search for Slappy and get revenge on his supposed murderers' children through the use of his personal possessions. In "You Can't Scare Me", Slappy's remains are taken by Nora to a snowy mountain until recovered by Bratt/Biddle. Slappy and Harold trying to get rid of Isaiah, the friends and parents tell Harold the whole truth, he saves Isaiah and throws Slappy off the cliff, and by forgiving them, he reunites with his parents in the afterlife. Down the cliff, Slappy, though broken again, opens his eyes. In "Night of the Living Dummy Part 2", Slappy is found again now by Mr. Bratt, who has writer's block and under pressure from his financial problems, he is resurrected, as is Bratt's deceased pet, Fifi, now as a vampire poodle. After Bratt finds Kanduu's coffin and reads the spell hidden inside, Slappy's spirit is released and restores his human body, and turns Ben into a puppet. In "Welcome to Horrorland", Kanduu's story sees how his soul was transferred to the Slappy doll by Mahar, a puppet maker. He was a soldier who was wounded while fighting in trenches during an unknown war. Under the trenches he found a hidden temple filled with magic spells, which he used to heal himself. He eventually became a famous magician using the spells he learned. Mahar, the owner of the circus he worked for learned he intended to sacrifice a thousand people to unleash hordes of monsters on humanity, so they would stop fighting petty wars and unite against a common enemy. His plan failed as Mahar trapped his soul in the Slappy dummy.

Film

 * Slappy is the main antagonist of the Goosebumps film adaptation, in which he is voiced by Jack Black, who also plays R.L. Stine and the Invisible Boy from My Best Friend Is Invisible, with Avery Lee Jones doing the puppetry of the character (Jones also did the voice of Slappy for promotional material for the film), assisted by Ironhead Studio's Jake McKinnon.
 * Slappy is voiced by actor Mick Wingert as the main antagonist of the film's sequel, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, with Jones once again puppeteering him (this time assisted by technicians from Legacy Effects) and voicing him for promotional material, as well as for a few lines of dialogue and all of his laughs in the final film.

Video games

 * Slappy appears in the Goosebumps: Horror Town video game.

Print media

 * Slappy appears in the comic book series made by IDW and the Goosebumps graphix.
 * The Bensons, a group of nonverbal ventriloquist's dummies who serve as the henchman of Gabby Gabbby in Toy Story 4, were inspired by Slappy.