History Main / PeekABogeyman

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' is about a society of monsters who did this to gather power from the screams of frightened children.

* Tatara Kogasa from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' is probably the most harmless non-human in the whole franchise. She's a {{karakasa}} that [[EmotionEater eats surprise]], and she always try to surprise people. However, she's actually pretty bad at it, and will sulk if she fails. [[MrExposition Akyuu]] even suggested to the townspeople to pretend to be surprised just so they won't feel bad seeing her sulking. Other than harmless surprises, she doesn't actually attack any humans at all.

* This is what ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' was in the beginning of the film, scaring others as a device to maintain his privacy.

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionSeries'':
** ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'': The normal species of ghosts that hang from the ceiling. All they do is drop down to scare Luigi, and then vanish (however, there is a subspecies that attacks with bombs). [[MoneySpider Blue ghosts]] also act like this; they pop out to scare Luigi, then run.

* [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-650 SCP-650]] of the Website/SCPFoundation. It uses OffscreenTeleportation to teleport behind its victim, then waits for the person to turn around and freak out upon seeing it. And if you've gotten used to that, it'll start getting ''creative''; it's been reported it has been [[NothingIsScarier acting innocuously]] to people that got used to it, and in one instance it popped into a visible corner, looking terrified of a nonexistant something right behind the person it was trying to scare.

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* The Disney/Pixar movie ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' was about a society of monsters that did this to gather power from the screams of frightened children.
* This is what ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' was in the beginning of his movie, more as a device to maintain his privacy.
* The citizens of Halloween Town in ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' scare people for fun. It's a tradition. The scale of meanness in the scaring varies from harmless (Jack) to sadistic (Oogie Boogie).

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* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'':
** The normal species of ghosts that hang from the ceiling in ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion''. All they do is drop down to scare Luigi, and then vanish. (However, there is a subspecies that attacks with bombs.)
** [[MoneySpider Blue ghosts]] also act like this; they pop out to scare Luigi, then run.
** In [[VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon the sequel]] Gold Greenies are like the Blue ghosts in the first game. (Except the two that come out of the hockey goal in the fourth mansion, which ''do'' attack.)

* [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-650 SCP-650]] of the Wiki/SCPFoundation. It uses OffscreenTeleportation to teleport behind its victim, then waits for the person to turn around and freak out upon seeing it. And if you've gotten used to that, it'll start getting ''creative''; it's been reported it has been [[NothingIsScarier acting innocuously]] to people that got used to it, and in one instance it popped into a visible corner, looking terrified of a nonexistant something right behind the person it was trying to scare.

Sometimes overlaps with ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight, but not always. Often the foil of the ReluctantMonster. Compare to the NobleDemon, who is a more serious version of this. Shouldn't be confused with the ''real'' [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight Bogeyman.]] Not to be confused with the actually scary PeekABooCorpse.

* In ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' in the episode "Ghost Of A Chance", there is a platoon of ghosts whose job is to scare people. McCraven is a harmless ghost and is friendly enough but his rival Diablo is this trope to a T. He does nothing more than scare Garfield, Odie, and Jon, never showing intent to actually harm them. He's even [[GoKartingWithBowser friendly enough to agree to watch TV with Garfield until]] [[HorrifyingTheHorror he's scared off by the program choices Garfield puts on]].