Wanna See Something REALLY Scary? Demonic Baby Laugh-A-Lot
“Wanna see something REALLY scary?”
To horror fans who came of age in the 1980s, the line above instantly invokes memories of Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks from the intro to Twilight Zone: The Movie: A nighttime road trip takes a nasty turn when a seemingly innocuous question leads to major terror. Now, on a bi-monthly basis, I’ll be asking, “Wanna see something REALLY scary?” with the goal of shocking you with chilling footage plumbed from the darkest corners of YouTube.
In the early 1970s, a bizarre talking doll caused masses of young girls to fall into uncontrollable fits of maniacal laughter. This isn’t the logline for the next Annabelle film, this is the very real case of Baby Laugh-A-Lot, a toy from Remco that took the country by storm. The idea of a laughing doll may seem cute and sweet as candy, but Baby Laugh-A-Lot had a cackle that wouldn’t be out of place in a haunted funhouse.
In the vintage commercial below, a series of tweens seem, at first, stunned by Baby’s irrepressible laughter, but they soon fall into similar states of unabashed hysteria. Then, Baby’s laughter combines with multiple exclamations of chaotic merriment until even the spokesperson, a grown man, finds himself enrapt by the same overpowering urge to giggle like a lunatic—like the victim of some medieval disease or warlock’s incantation. And what the hell is so funny in the first place? Have a look:
Baby Laugh-A-Lot has become something of a cult phenomenon; a throwback to the psychedelic 1970s and an example of something so unintentionally creepy it’s ridiculous. If you’re lucky enough to find one on Etsy or EBay, it’ll likely set you back at least a couple hundred dollars, depending on the doll’s condition. Now, wanna see something REALLY scary? Check out what Baby Laugh-A-Lot sounds like when her batteries run low. Is that you, Chucky?
Got an idea for a future installment of “Wanna See Something REALLY Scary?” Hit me up on Twitter @josh_millican!
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