| 1 | %%% |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks! |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | %%% |
| 6 | |
| 7 | %% Image moved per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1298591501098640000 |
| 8 | %% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 9 | %% |
| 10 | [[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/killing_joke_joker_laugh.png]]]] |
| 11 | [[caption-width-right:350:''[[Film/Joker2019 "I used to think that my life was a tragedy, but now I realize, it's a fucking comedy."]]'']] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ->''"Laughter is a good medicine but if you laugh for no reason you need medicine"'' |
| 14 | -->-- '''rose mary''', ''[[VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry Higurashi]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5nNyocQAH8&lc=UghyS9lpeqEDbXgCoAEC Laugh Collection]]'' |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Trauma and tragedy tend to follow characters like plagues, and they often break them down, turning them into insane, jaded shadows of their former selves. This can often happen in various ways, but the best way to tell if a character [[FreakOut just can't take it anymore]] is if they break down and start laughing for no reason at all, or for all the wrong reasons. When this happens, they will usually just continue sitting there and laughing uncontrollably, as if in a trance, until someone breaks them out of it, often by a [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan slap in the face]]. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Expect the laughing character to either gain control of themselves and apologize for losing it (while still [[SanitySlippage emotionally fragile]], of course), or, alternatively, simply [[StoppedCaring stop caring about life]]. This may lead to them becoming [[TheStoic distant]] and/or [[AntiHero more harsh than before]]. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | More often extreme cases occur, causing a character to turn to complete madness, going into an insane asylum. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | On the flip side, villains are also prone to this. It is often shown as being fundamentally different from an EvilLaugh, usually as them either laughing a lot longer than normal, having the laugh sound more deranged than cold and boastful, or a combination of the two. This is normally used if the writer wants to characterize the villain in a much more psychotic light and have a more frightening nature than normal. Expect it to also be used for a VillainousBreakdown in some cases. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Like InsaneEqualsViolent, this phenomenon is rare in real-life instances of severe mental illness. In fact, a common characteristic of schizophrenia is the ''absence'' of laughter, or indeed of other indicators of emotion ("flatness of affect"). Of course, the TruthInTelevision here might come from Bipolar Disorder, where mania causes inappropriate laughter on a euphoric scale — or Schizoaffective Disorder, which is the two in a blender. Then there's the simple fact that inappropriate laughter can accompany intense grief, anger or other forms of distress, without actual mental illness needing to be involved — a related phenomenon is "hysterical laughter", where an intense bout of InelegantBlubbering starts to resemble a laughing fit. Yet another related if rare phenomenon is Pseudobulbar Affect, which can cause laughter or sobbing at inappropriate times usually in response to stress -- like Tourette's syndrome, this is not something the person can control; unlike Tourette's, it usually is the result of severe head trauma and not mental illness. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Not necessarily related to EvilLaugh, but definitely a type of FreakOut. Also see PutTheLaughterInSlaughter for maniacs who engage in this regularly, and GigglingVillain for a constant if contained laugh. Sometimes overlaps into DieLaughing, especially if it is the result of a VillainousBreakdown. May be the cause of OminousAdversarialAmusement. Compare {{Corpsing}}, involving laughter at inappropriate times ([[TensionCuttingLaughter probably because repressing is maddening]]). Contrast MirthlessLaughter, which similarly involves someone bursting into laughter at an inappropriate/stressful situation but without the extreme of being driven insane. |
| 27 | ---- |
| 28 | !!Example subpages |
| 29 | [[index]] |
| 30 | * [[LaughingMad/AnimeAndManga Anime & Manga]] |
| 31 | * LaughingMad/VideoGames |
| 32 | [[/index]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | !!Other examples: |
| 35 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 36 | |
| 37 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 38 | * This is generally how ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'''s ArchEnemy [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker the Joker]] is portrayed as going insane. [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Upon seeing his new, ghastly appearance]], he laughs uncontrollably while clutching his hair in anguish. The Joker is also frequently shown laughing excessively long after he's gone mad. |
| 39 | * ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy:'' |
| 40 | ** When Major Vance Astro reached Alpha Centauri after a thousand year long journey at sub-light speed, he found mankind had managed to beat him there thanks to advancements in space travel technology, thus rendering everything he'd done ''completely pointless'' (for added tragedy, he was now stuck in the very suit meant to keep him alive, since no-one in the 31st century knew how to get him out without causing him to instantly age to death). He then had a manic breakdown. |
| 41 | ** Later on, in "Marvel Presents Guardians of the Galaxy", he gets into an argument with the others and storms off to his quarters, where he starts having another manic fit. |
| 42 | * Played very tragically in Chapter 11 of ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'', where Scrooge drives away his family out of greed. He is about to try to make amends... Only to notice that he's now the richest man in the world, and break out in triumphant laughter. The laugh reads more like a mad cackle. |
| 43 | * A flashback in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' shows this happening to Delight during her transformation into Delirium. |
| 44 | * ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': |
| 45 | ** In a flashback to the future, Hobgoblin 2211, after having her brain warped by a computer virus, cackles psychotically and goes on a rampage. |
| 46 | ** The [[Characters/MarvelComicsNormanOsborn Green Goblin]] has shades of this. |
| 47 | ** Hobgoblin -- the Phil Urich version -- has a [[SuperScream weaponized laugh]]. |
| 48 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': After Circe's rather violent and unhinged reaction to her time spent as Donna Milton and her defeat by Wonder Woman she reacts to Diana and Lyta accusing her of [[DeathSeeker trying to get Diana to kill her]] by laughing herself sick without even bothering to try to get up. |
| 49 | [[/folder]] |
| 50 | |
| 51 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 52 | * In an early ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' arc when both Garfield and Odie run away, Jon calls out for them, thinking they're playing a joke. Then, he starts laughing. [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1986/08/28 Cue his neighbor's reaction]]: |
| 53 | -->'''Hubert:''' Call the wagon, Reba! That's not a natural laugh! |
| 54 | * A post-Valentine's Day ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' strip has Charlie Brown [[https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1963/02/15/ reacting in this manner]] after he's asked how many valentines he got. |
| 55 | [[/folder]] |
| 56 | |
| 57 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 58 | * In the ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'', Vivienne Graham, who endures one ''hell'' of a TraumaCongaLine over the story's first several chapters, is reduced to mirthless, insane giggles and guffaws several times when the mental strain becomes too much. Sergeant Travis, when deep into his ''painful'' SanitySlippage, ends up giggling when he recalls his friend's insanity-induced suicide. |
| 59 | * In the ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' DarkFic ''Aoi'', Misato, her mental health already severely tested by a chain of events beginning with Shinji's untimely death and [[FromBadToWorse getting worse from there]], finally and permanently loses her mind when she sees Ritsuko's failed attempt to clone Shinji as she had done with Rei. |
| 60 | --> Misato laughed, high and mad, as the last bastion of her sanity – the one centered on her belief in the sanctity of human life – exploded like a watermelon hit with a mortar shell. She laughed, and laughed, and laughed, until tears streamed down her cheeks, passing her insanely gaping mouth to patter onto her boots. The vision of the thing in the tube (she refused to think of it as ''him'') filled her eyes, making it impossible to see anything else… so when her mind shut down, dropping her face-first onto the hard floor, she never saw it coming. |
| 61 | * In ''Fanfic/TheButcherBird'', [[MadScientist Captain]] [[DeadlyDoctor Grigori]] [[BioAugmentation Vinci]] has an episode of this after [[spoiler: the members of the [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores pirate alliance]] he started, TheWildHunt, swear fealty to him, as the notion of pirate captains giving up their pride nearly leads to a VillainousBreakdown.]] |
| 62 | * In ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', this is a symptom of a truly too-far-gone [[spoiler:Dark Phoenix.]] |
| 63 | * In ''Fanfic/CodeGeassMegiddo'' has Suzaku give out a chilling one that both informs Lelouch and the readers just how ''insane'' he is at this point, but [[spoiler: the real reason that Suzaku killed Genbu all those years ago.]] |
| 64 | * ''Fanfic/DoingItRightThisTime'': Shinji has this reaction when he finds out what Rei said to his father, and again when she snarks (accurately) about how them being [[PeggySue time travellers]] and being completely mad [[BadFuture is not at all mutually exclusive.]] Asuka is more than a little creeped out. |
| 65 | * ''Fanfic/ExperimentingFear'': After being tortured with high-pitched sound frequencies, having them turned off and realizing he can still hear, Nando lets out an insane, hysterical laugh. |
| 66 | * ''Fanfic/FracturedSunlight'': When Sunset explains she's a magical unicorn from another dimension, and there's a Twilight who is an alicorn princess, Twilight falls over laughing helplessly for ''thirty minutes''. When human Sunset died, she and Twilight were in the middle of playing a game where they were magical ponies, so the whole thing seems like a cruel joke for Twilight. |
| 67 | * ''Fanfic/GreySkiesUniverse'': At the end of ''Grey Skies Over London'', Alfred is rendered into such a state after [[spoiler:his InterruptedSuicide after being ForcedToWatch his ParentalSubstitute's PublicExecution]]. |
| 68 | -->It was a horrible sound, nothing like his usual laugh that lifted spirits and brightened faces throughout the colonies. This laugh was hollow and cynical, deep in the throat, cracking vocal cords with maniacal callousness. Alfred would not stop the laugh, no matter what Arthur tried, until it finally drove the man from the room. |
| 69 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/6248479/chapters/14316103 I Do?]],'' this is one of several reactions from Adrien/Chat Noir after he ''finally'' realises that [[spoiler:his ([[RunawayBride until recently]]) fiance Marinette and his crime-fighting partner Ladybug who he once had an unrequited crush on are the same person]]. |
| 70 | -->He didn't even know he was laughing until he was doubled over and falling to his knees. The crack that was sent through his body as he collided with the roof hardly registered, his stomach still wanting to throw itself up as his laughter grew manic.\ |
| 71 | But perhaps laughter wasn't the right word to use. He wasn't sure there was a word for it. Insane cackling, maybe, accented by sobs and tears that tore him in the same moments. Two conflicting actions that felt as though they were ripping his body apart.\ |
| 72 | A mental breakdown. That was what it was. He was having a mental breakdown.\ |
| 73 | Because the two women he'd loved were the same person, and she'd rejected him twice for himself and he'd fallen in love with her twice and now they were standing on a rooftop after she'd abandoned him at the altar for himself! |
| 74 | * In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainKnightOfTheOrangeLily'', Specter gets struck by lightning via Death Eye taunting him and saying what he fears the most is change. When the lightning dies down, Specter starts gasping and wheezing for breath...before he unleashes a loud, maniacal, wild laugh that reveals that his SplitPersonality ''Easter'' is coming out to play. |
| 75 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' crossover fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Kage}}'' (part of ''Fanfic/ProjectDarkJade''), Drago does this during his VillainousBreakdown, starting when he casts the spell to cast Jade from her reality (as part of his being a SoreLoser, he wanted to taint her victory, as he considered her his ArchEnemy), and continuing even as he and and his father are dragged into their prison. |
| 76 | * In the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' DarkFic ''Fanfic/TheJadedEyesSeries'' Harry does this on a couple of occasions. The most notable one is his VillainousBreakdown when he ''snaps'' during the Yule ball: |
| 77 | -->''He stood in the middle of it all in a puddle of blood as more poured down his front and it was almost ironic that a few heartbeats later Harry was hit by another stray curse. Clark had joined the fray with his mother and luckily his jinx was almost harmless. It only banished the top part of his clothes away and that was when Harry started shaking. In the end it wasn't the teachers that stopped the chaos building inside the ballroom... it was the sound of sharp cold laughter.\ |
| 78 | It pulled everyone's attention as they turned their eyes to Harry who stood bleeding with a star burst wound on his chest blood flowing from him steadily as he laughed. Harry laughed harshly with no humor as he raised a shaking hand to his face inspecting the blood painted on it before he fisted his hair with both hands and cackled brokenly. Blood was smeared across his face; he was covered in spatters of blood giving him a ghastly image. The cool rush of the air reminded him that now most of his worst scars were on display and made him cackle harder.'' |
| 79 | * ''Fanfic/JohannaMasonTheyWillNeverSeeMeCry'': Johanna launches into terrified, angry laughter in the middle of the town square for several seconds after watching the broadcast condemning her to the 3rd Quarter Quell arena. |
| 80 | %%* Hago from ''Fanfic/TheLionKingAdventures'' is in love with this trope. |
| 81 | * ''Fanfic/MrAndMrsGold'': Unicorns have a hallucinative bite. When one manages to bite Belle, she devolves into a giggling mess. |
| 82 | * ''Fanfic/MyDreamIsYours'': Precinct 13579's resident CuteAndPsycho Scientist, Oona, goes through a short bout of wild laughter as a result of SleepDeprivation when Olympia asks her if she's been having any strange dreams lately. |
| 83 | * In the ''Manga/OnePiece'' fanfic ''[[Fanfic/NewGamePlusOnePiece New Game Plus]]'', when Dadan sees Luffy’s record-breaking bounty poster, she falls into a laughing fit that lasts at least 10 minutes. |
| 84 | * ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'': Chapter 5 of the original has Olga giggling uncontrollably when she and Celestine are reading the contents of Kyril's journal, an ApocalypticLog that doubles as an ArtifactOfDoom. Luckily {{subverted}} later as she managed to stop rocking back and forth to pull herself together. |
| 85 | * Twilight Sparkle in ''Fanfic/PagesOfHarmony'' does this several times, one of the more notable ones from Chapter 11 when she's [[spoiler:bleeding from wounds caused by an AxCrazy Fluttershy]] after [[spoiler:Kindness has been taken]]. |
| 86 | --> ''"Ha, I'm no masochist, my friend!" Twilight was shaking her head in response to the other pony's inquiry, gasping for breath from her half-shrieks. "Heheh, haven't you heard that, hahaha, laughter a way to trick your body into, haha, not feeling pain?!" Her smile widened as she managed to dodge [[spoiler:Fluttershy]]'s frenzied attacks, angling herself to more easily control the blood flow from her wound. "Heheheh, that's why I laugh, [[spoiler:Fluttershy]]! It enhances me! I sill feel pain, but, heheheh, it's not enough to kill me!" Her eyes were bright despite the obvious pain in her body, practically drunk with the imagined extent of her plan and the laughter which accompanied it. "Imagining helps too, just as I'm doing now, ha, thinking of just how existence will be when I've helped purify it under my guidance as a good friend and teacher! [=HahahahaHA!=]"'' |
| 87 | * In the beginning of ''Fanfic/ThePowerOfTheEquinox'', Twilight Sparkle starts laughing madly when the Entity enters her body, with her thoughts about what kind of revenge she'll exact upon the false Princess Cadance (Queen Chrysalis) growing increasingly morbid. She doesn't even notice the [[ImMelting dissolving of her body]] as she continues laughing, stopping only when her throat has melted away. |
| 88 | * ''Fanfic/PastSins'': When [[spoiler: the Children of Nightmare Moon cast their second spell on Nyx and causes her to become Nightmare Moon again]], she laughs from the stress of [[spoiler:regaining her memories]], which are horrific. |
| 89 | * Draco Malfoy's greatest fear in ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'', shown to him by a boggart, is that his mind will break under the strain of [[spoiler: his uncontrolled emotion sense]] and that he'll be reduced to this permanently. He's able to overcome the fear through [[spoiler: confidence that Rigel will be there for him and help him through it]]. |
| 90 | * ''Fanfic/SunsetOfTime'', in a flashback we see the StartOfDarkness of the BigBad, Vesper Radiance. At the sight of [[spoiler:Twilight's coronation]], she breaks down first into giggles, then into hysterical laughter, declaring her intent to commit genocide all the while. |
| 91 | * After slaughtering an entire family in ''Fanfic/RiseFromDarkness'', Samus starts laughing. |
| 92 | * [[HeroicComedicSociopath Kirito]] falls into this a few times in ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'', first when Rosalia gives him a BreakingSpeech that slams ''several'' of his {{Berserk Button}}s, and later when he [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge says "hi"]] to Gary, an NPC whose ArtificialStupidity got Kirito's first real friend killed. |
| 93 | * ''Fanfic/ThisBites'': [[SelfInsertFic Self-Inserted]] character Jeremiah Cross becomes this whenever things get dangerous; that is, when his adrenaline junkie tendencies kick in. |
| 94 | * In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13722414/6/The-Villainess-quits The Villainess Quits]]'', Malty breaks down in drunken insane laughter at Naofumi ''still'' being framed for rape despite her doing all she could to prevent it. This naturally convinces both Naofumi and his alleged victim that she planned the whole thing. |
| 95 | [[/folder]] |
| 96 | |
| 97 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 98 | * ''Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon'': |
| 99 | ** ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' has TheHyena, Ed, who communicates entirely with obnoxious laughter. Banzai and Shenzi also qualify, but to a far lesser extent. Cancelled storyboards indicated that [[spoiler:Scar]] would have undergone a heavy dose of Laughing Mad shortly after throwing Simba off Pride Rock before being consumed in the flames that destroy Pride Rock. |
| 100 | ** It was also originally intended that Gaston from ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' would have undergone similar reactions to the Joker from ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' when [[spoiler:falling to his doom upon stabbing the Beast (i.e., proceed to laugh maniacally while falling)]]. |
| 101 | ** In ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameDisney'', Frollo laughs evilly as he goes to stab Esmeralda with his sword. Given that his next line suggests he thinks he's doing God's will ("And He shall smite the wicked, and plunge them into the fiery pit!"), it's pretty likely he'd also gone mad with power. |
| 102 | ** ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'': Subverted when Jafar starts laughing for seemingly no reason while he's being searched for by the guards, causing Iago to think he's gone insane, but then he stops and explains that he's just realized the genie lamp he thought was lost forever was in the hands of "Prince Ali". Played straight in the climax, as Jafar is constantly [[EvilLaugh laughing in a psychotic fashion.]] |
| 103 | * In ''Animation/FiringRange'', a general start laughing madly after [[spoiler:realizing he can't stop the tank from killing him.]] |
| 104 | * Buzz Lightyear in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'' does this after realizing he's just a toy. ("You see this hat? I am Mrs. Nesbitt!") He stops after [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan Woody slaps him]] [[CrossesTheLineTwice with his own detached arm.]] |
| 105 | * Ben Gunn from Creator/{{Filmation}}‘s adaptation of Literature/TreasureIsland is depicted this way from years of isolation after being marooned, to the point where he ends most of his sentences with insane laughter, he even sings a song about it. |
| 106 | [[/folder]] |
| 107 | |
| 108 | [[folder:Films — Live-Action]] |
| 109 | * ''Film/TheAdventuresOfPriscillaQueenOfTheDesert'': Adam/Felicia is running for his life, in heels and a dress, from a pack of enraged Australian rednecks... and he's ''laughing his ass off'' until they catch him. |
| 110 | * ''Film/{{Alive}}'': When the survivors of the plane crash are trying to get the radio working, they ask the plane's mechanic if he can fix it. The mechanic goes into throes of laughter as he explains that it needs batteries, and the batteries are in the plane's tail that broke off a couple miles back of the crash. |
| 111 | * ''Film/AssassinsCreed2016'': Callum giggles deliriously as he's dragged to his second trip in the Animus while also singing Patsy Cline's "Crazy", because he's going through SanitySlippage thanks to the Bleeding Effect. |
| 112 | * ''Film/Asylum1972Horror'': At the end of "Lucy Comes to Stay", when Barbara asks Dr. Martin if he can see Lucy in her mirror, she starts cackling in a clearly unhinged matter. [[spoiler:After Starr strangles Dr. Martin to death with a stethoscope, he uses it to listen for a heartbeat; after confirming that Martin is dead, he begins to giggle madly, which slowly turns into full-blown maniacal laughter.]] |
| 113 | * ''Film/AustinPowers in Goldmember'' has Dr. Evil dunking the Japanese CorruptCorporateExecutive Mr. Roboto into his "sharks with lasers on their head", which were gifts from his son Scott Evil. Although Dr. Evil and his followers do a simple EvilLaugh, Scott Evil's laughter, as well as Dr. Evil's horrified reaction to Scott Evil's amount of laughter, is more similar to Laughing Mad. |
| 114 | * In ''Film/Batman1989'', the Joker laughs a ''lot'' during the film, with him going way off the deep end near the climax when he is taunting Batman and Vicki while they are hanging for dear life. Joker even lampshades it in the same climax, where he goes into a fit of laughter, turns to a gargoyle behind him and yells "What're you laughing at?!" and then resumes laughing. Just as in many of the comics, this tendency starts as soon as he gets a look at his new visage post-accident -- in this case, in a mirror handed over by his BackAlleyDoctor. One look, and he starts cackling and never really stops... |
| 115 | * ''Film/BeyondReAnimator'': After Philip's girlfriend is murdered, Dr. Herbert West brings her back to life by infusing her with the lifeforce of the corrupt warden who killed her along with his previously developed reagent so she can retain her memories, skills, and motor functions as a zombie. Unfortunately she comes back as a kinky crazed and dangerous zombie and Philip is forced to incapacitate by cutting off her head. When the guards find Philip weeping over her headless corpse, they drag him away as he tries to convince them that she is still alive by urging her and her headless body to speak to them. When she doesn't respond, he goes into a fit of insane laughter and then when he and the guards are out of sight, her head starts laughing and thus the movie ends. |
| 116 | * ''Film/CircusOfHorrors'': When Evelyn sees the botched job Rossiter has made of her face, she goes mad and starts laughing hysterically. |
| 117 | * ''Film/{{Conjoined}}'': Alisa sometimes starts cackling madly when she is committing murder. |
| 118 | * Richard Vickers in ''Film/{{Creepshow}}'' as he is given his LaserGuidedKarma by the zombie corpses of his victims. |
| 119 | * The Joker from ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' embodies this trope. Heck, he was even laughing when about to face certain doom before Batman saved him from hitting the ground. |
| 120 | * ''Film/DoctorSeries'': |
| 121 | ** ''Film/DoctorAtSea'': Captain Hogg cackles maniacally during his drunken episode after he throws a bottle at Mr. Hornbeam. |
| 122 | ** ''Film/DoctorAtLarge'': Pascoe cackles like a madman after quoting ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' to Sir Lancelot. |
| 123 | * Bartleby of ''Film/{{Dogma}}'' is a disgraced angel who ended up CrossingTheLineTwice in his attempt to get back into heaven. He starts laughing hysterically after his wings are shot off by Jay. |
| 124 | * In ''Film/DonnieDarko'', Donnie laughs hysterically when he finally [[spoiler:comes to terms with the fact that he's going to die and is waiting to be crushed by the airplane turbine]]. |
| 125 | %%* Creator/DwightFrye's Renfield in the 1931 ''Film/{{Dracula|1931}}''. |
| 126 | * Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in ''Film/Dune1984'' definitely qualifies, given how the film basically made him [[CharacterExaggeration even more deranged]] in it than in [[Literature/{{Dune}} the book]] or [[Series/{{Dune}} the TV miniseries]]. |
| 127 | * In ''Film/EightHeadsInADuffelBag'', one of the main character's best friends goes exactly this kind of crazy after having been tortured by a Mafia hitman, repeatedly told he's going to be killed, and forced to cut off the heads of cryogenically frozen people as replacements for the missing ones, among various other extremely stressful events. The final straw was when the aforementioned hit man started talking about using his head as one of the replacements. [[FromBadToWorse He spends the rest of the movie getting worse]]. |
| 128 | * The ''Film/EvilDead2'' has Ash doing it after everything in the cabin comes to life and starts laughing at Ash, shortly after he cut his own possessed hand off. "Who's laughing now" indeed. |
| 129 | * ''Film/TheFieldGuideToEvil'': After [[GoMadFromTheRevelation being driven mad by what he saw]] in "The Palace of Horrors", Henry wakes up in a hospital in Calcutta, compulsively singing a hymn and laughing uncontrollably at those times when he cannot sing. |
| 130 | * Richard Attenborough's character in ''Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix1965'' when he discovers that [[spoiler:the man building the plane to take them out of the desert, and save them from slow and painful death, only has experience designing model airplanes.]] |
| 131 | * The bad guy in ''Film/Flodder3'' completely loses it when an attempt to destroy the Flodders and their party by crashing a tanker truck into their house instead causes the entire rest of the neighbourhood to burn down, including his own home. He bursts into manic laughter as he's watching his own fireworks go off. |
| 132 | * The "Daffy" gremlin in ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'', being based on Daffy Duck just laughs and laughs and laughs. |
| 133 | * In many ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' adaptations Ophelia's madness is like that: she switches between sadness (tears) and moments of happiness (insane laughter). |
| 134 | * Sirius Black, when convicted of killing Pettigrew in the movie of ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''. |
| 135 | ** And then once again in the film version when Harry is set on killing him. This is a strong contrast to the book's character: [[DullSurprise "You're going to kill me, Harry?"]] |
| 136 | * In ''[[Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2]]'', President Snow laughs uproariously to the point of coughing up blood [[spoiler: right before [[DieLaughing he is killed by an angry mob.]]]] |
| 137 | * In the movie adaption of ''Literature/IMissYouIMissYou'', Tina goes for a short walk with her friend Frida to calm herself down shortly after her twin sister Cilla died in an accident. They pass the school's theater and Tina remembers how Cilla, who was director of the school's theater group, predicted that everyone will cry at her theater performance. Tina begins to laugh hysterically at this memory until Frida [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan slaps her several times]]. |
| 138 | * Film/JamesBond in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'', while he is being [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]] by [[BigBad Le Chiffre]]. |
| 139 | --> "Now the whole world's gonna know that you died scratching my balls!" |
| 140 | * Arthur Fleck already laughed due to mental illness even before he snapped out to become the Film/{{Joker|2019}}. |
| 141 | * In ''Film/AJollyBadFellow'', VillainProtagonist Bowles-Ottery lights a cigarette while talking to the police. He suddenly starts laughing at nothing at all. Knowing that euphoria is one of the first symptoms of his PerfectPoison, he realises that is smoking [[HoistByHisOwnPetard one his own]] [[TaintedTobacco poisoned cigarettes]]. At this his mind seems to snap and he starts laughing insanely and continues to do so until her perishes in a car crash while fleeing the police. |
| 142 | * In ''Film/TheLastWinter'', Dawn goes insane and murders Motor, the station mechanic. When Abby finds her shortly afterwards, Dawn starts laughing insanely and attacks her. |
| 143 | * ''Film/LeatherfaceTheTexasChainsawMassacreIII:'' After a week of living in constant fear of a brutal death, Sara occasionally breaks out giggling at odd points. |
| 144 | * ''Film/LizzieBordensRevenge'': Amanda's flashback explaining why Vanessa is screwed up shows her finding her parents' murdered bodies. She is briefly shocked and then starts laughing and is unable to stop. |
| 145 | * After a long and miserable afternoon watching his dream home go to pieces on him, Walter and his fiancée Anna in ''Film/TheMoneyPit'' try to prepare a relaxing bath, only to have the tub sink through the floor and shatter into smithereens in the foyer below. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CJ9EDtZ2p8 Walter's reaction]] is both a sterling example of this trope, and one of the funniest parts in the movie. |
| 146 | * Insurance fraud investigator John Trent punctuates his [[GoMadFromTheRevelation snapping mind]] with laughter at the end of ''Film/InTheMouthOfMadness'', due to [[spoiler:surviving a [[CosmicHorrorStory Lovecraftian]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt apocalypse]], only to witness the entirety of his ordeal play out as a movie adaptation of [[TomeofEldritchLore Sutter Cane's novel of the same name]], which turns out to be [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou the very film we were watching the whole time]].]] |
| 147 | * In ''Film/TheMummy1932'', after Ralph Norton sees the eponymous creature rise from its tomb and walk off, he is reduced to a cackling lunatic, gibbering "he went for a little walk!". Soon, we later learn that the experience has left Ralph so mentally damaged that he had to be institutionalized, where he would later die, still laughing, in a straitjacket. |
| 148 | * In Creator/GuillermoDelToro's ''{{Film/Nightmare Alley|2021}}'', Stan Carlisle [[DespairEventHorizon snaps]] and breaks down laughing upon realizing [[spoiler: his ultimate fate of working as a carnival geek after [[RichesToRags losing everything]] to Dr. Lilith Ritter.]] |
| 149 | * In ''Film/ThePinkPantherStrikesAgain'', (former) Chief Inspector Dreyfus has a small bit of this after being "saved" by Clouseau on the day of his sanity hearing, triggering his escape from the asylum and sending him on a course to try to TakeOverTheWorld. |
| 150 | * Norman Bates occasionally laughs at inappropriate points during his dinner with Marion in ''Film/{{Psycho}}''. He also lurches from laughter to complete seriousness a couple of times, which is equally scary. {{Downplayed|trope}} in that it's a nervous chuckle rather than a full-lunged hysterical laugh. |
| 151 | * ''Film/TheRawhideTerror'': After his parents are murdered by the renegades, the older son's mind snaps, and he starts laughing uncontrollably and wanders off into the desert. |
| 152 | * In ''Film/AReasonToLiveAReasonToDie'', Sgt. Brent snaps and starts laughing insanely while machine-gunning enemy soldiers who are attempting to surrender. |
| 153 | * In ''Film/RiotOnSunsetStrip'', Andy laughs hysterically after she's gang raped. |
| 154 | * In the ''Film/Scrooge1951'', when Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning and can't stop laughing out of joy, his housekeeper thinks, justifiably, that he's gone quite mad. |
| 155 | * ''Film/TheShadow'': |
| 156 | ** Farley Claymore, in spades. By the time the Shadow finishes with him, Claymore doesn't have a shred of sanity left, and pretty much all he can do is laugh and drool. |
| 157 | ** Subverted with the Shadow himself: his laughter is just as mad-sounding as Claymore's, but as with his radio counterpart, it's just an act intended to fool and frighten his opponents. |
| 158 | * In ''Film/ShockingDark'', Paul Drake, the deranged, partially mutated [[MegaCorp Tubular Corporation]] scientist living in the tunnels underneath the cordoned-off near-future UsefulNotes/{{Venice}}, is constantly breaking into fits of insane laughter in-between his hammy ravings. |
| 159 | * Data in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' briefly goes laughing mad while attempting to investigate with Geordi the space station that Dr. Soren was working on, due to a combination of both the dampening field in place as well as Data's emotion chip going beyond his control. |
| 160 | * In ''Film/TheTrumanShow'', Truman bursts into laughter several times [[spoiler:when he tries to call out his "wife" on the fact that the world he's in is fake.]] |
| 161 | * ''Film/VHS2'': At the end of the "Safe Haven" segment, when Adam barely survives a car crash while trying to flee the rampant demon and then hears it [[spoiler:call him "Papa" (which confirms to him that the demon was made from the unborn fetus he fathered)]], he breaks down into sobbing, hysterical laughter at the revelation. The facts that he watched a mass suicide followed by reanimation as hostile zombies, [[spoiler:and that all his friends have died brutally]], are likely additional contributing factors. |
| 162 | %%* Happens to Dr. Leo Marvin in ''Film/WhatAboutBob'' |
| 163 | %%* Cody Jarrett winds up this way in ''Film/WhiteHeat''. |
| 164 | * ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' has the weasel Psycho, who giggles and laughs a lot. |
| 165 | * In the film adaptation of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', the Wicked Witch of the West frequently bursts into hysterical, exhilarated laughter whenever pain and suffering caused by her is happening. |
| 166 | [[/folder]] |
| 167 | |
| 168 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 169 | * ''Literature/AllForTheGame'': Andrew Minyard is on medication that forces him into a manic state against his will, and typically his only reaction to anything is to smile or laugh. After being [[spoiler: raped by Drake, and witnessing his brother's subsequent murder of Drake in his defence]], Andrew is too traumatised to move, but still laughing. |
| 170 | * Vera Claythorne does this in ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'' when she realizes U. N. Owen is enacting the bedtime rhyme and they're all gonna die. |
| 171 | * Creator/WilliamFaulkner's Darl from ''Literature/AsILayDying''. Near the end, he goes insane and when he's not reciting a MadnessMantra of "yes, yes, yes, yes...", he's laughing his head off. |
| 172 | * In both ''Literature/WhoGoesThere'' and ''Litetature/FrozenHell'', several of the men once the alien is loose start cracking up, with Blair going so badly he has to be sedated. |
| 173 | * ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'': After the only happy moment in her life ends in humiliation, the telekinetic [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds titular character]] undergoes a SanitySlippage so severe that she is described as losing all conscious thought and uses her powers to carry a [[spoiler: murder rampage]] across her town. The giggle she emits after the first round is described as "an insane sound: triumphant, lost, victorious, and terrified.". |
| 174 | * [[HunterOfHisOwnKind The Thorn of Istra]] from Creator/HollyBlack's ''Literature/TheColdestGirlInColdtown''. |
| 175 | -->"The Thorn of Istra, the mad vampire. [[[TheHero Tana]]] thought of the grainy video of him she had seen, head tipped back, [[AxeCrazy so covered in blood]] that she hadn't remembered his features, hadn't remembered him as looking like anything but a monster, laughing, [[LaughingMad endlessly laughing.]] Mad as a dog. Mad as a god. [[spoiler: [[LoveInterest Gavriel.]]]]" |
| 176 | * In Creator/RobertEHoward's "Literature/ThePoolOfTheBlackOne", while Literature/ConanTheBarbarian and Sancha are watching the inhuman giants who have captured their comrades, he has to slap his hand over her mouth to prevent her hysterical giggle. |
| 177 | * Mr. Joyful in the ''Literature/DiogenesClub'' tale "You Don't Have To Be Mad..." is a literal case, having been brainwashed to enjoy tasks that any sane person would hate. It works too well and he [[DieLaughing dies laughing]] while carrying out an assassination. |
| 178 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': In ''Literature/MakingMoney'', [[spoiler: Mr. Bent, who normally has NoSenseOfHumor,]] [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness cracks up laughing]] (mirthlessly at first, then manically) when his SanitySlippage reaches its peak. |
| 179 | * ''Emperor Mollusk versus The Sinister Brain'' by A. Lee Martinez. The eponymous Brain turns out to be an AncientConspiracy of preserved brains of the great minds of human history except UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein who turned down the offer of becoming a BrainInAJar, claiming the process had turned them into delusional megalomaniacs. The Council thinks this idea is so ridiculous they spend a good deal of time [[IResembleThatRemark laughing maniacally over it]]. |
| 180 | * In ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' the titular doctor starts losing it more and more after he first creates his creature. He starts laughing so hysterically that his friend Henry gets worried, right before he collapses into hallucinations and his first fit of BrainFever. |
| 181 | * In Creator/GeneStrattonPorter's ''Literature/{{Freckles}}'', the emotional stress of his SecretLegacy coming to light causes this in Freckles. |
| 182 | -->''A laugh burst from him. The terrified Angel caught him in her arms and tried to stifle the sound. She implored and commanded. When he was too worn to utter another sound, his eyes laughed silently.'' |
| 183 | * Bellatrix Lestrange from ''Literature/HarryPotter''. All the freaking time. |
| 184 | ** Sirius Black - after his best friend James Potter and his wife Lily Potter died, started laughing as he was arrested [[spoiler:although he was in fact innocent]]. The laughter was probably a combination of all the emotions piled up on him, like [[spoiler:betrayal]], grief, and hatred. |
| 185 | ** During the big fight at the end of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Ron gets hit by an "IntoxicationEnsues" spell and becomes uncontrollably giggly despite still being in mortal danger. |
| 186 | ** In the same book Harry starts laughing at ''Bellatrix'' [[spoiler: after she kills Sirius]] and realizes he sounds like her when she frantically [[spoiler: tries to get him to give her the prophecy, which has been destroyed]]. |
| 187 | ** Voldemort himself sometimes indulges in a laugh that narrator-Harry describes as "humorless and insane" - usually just before or after killing someone. |
| 188 | * In the book ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' Frollo lets loose with a deranged laugh when he completely loses it in the finale. It is described as "the laugh of a demon, a laugh which one can only give vent to when one is no longer human." |
| 189 | * The men with no pain from the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' giggle madly in battle. |
| 190 | %%* [[spoiler:Bertha Mason]] in ''Literature/JaneEyre''. |
| 191 | * Tabaqui from the ''Literature/TheJungleBook'' is most likely rabid, psychotically insane, and prone to hysterical fits of laughter (so much that [[TheDreaded he is infamous throughout the Jungle]], and [[PsychoSidekick feared possibly more than Shere Khan himself]]). |
| 192 | * At one point in ''Literature/TheLongWalk'', a [[spoiler:DeadlyGame involving the sometimes-gory deaths of teenage boys involved in the Walk]], Garraty (the protagonist) loses it and momentarily goes Laughing Mad. It's only because [=McVries=] [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan takes the time to get him to snap out of it]] that Garraty's fit of Laughing Madness doesn't slow him down to the point where he [[DeadlyEuphemism "buys his ticket"]]. |
| 193 | * Creator/HPLovecraft: |
| 194 | ** "Literature/TheHound1924": As the narrator flees the Holland churchyard to escape the undead Dutchman, his screams morph into peals of hysterical laughter. |
| 195 | ** "Literature/{{Dagon}}": The narrator begins giggling insanely after seeing the eponymous god. |
| 196 | ** "Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu": One of the two people who survive an encounter with Cthulhu [[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes insane]] and laughs himself to death before they make it back to safety. |
| 197 | * Two examples from Creator/MichaelMoorcock's ''[[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric]]'' stories: |
| 198 | ** ''The Weird of the White Wolf''. Elric wounded Yyrkoon while fighting him. Yyrkoon starts laughing, indicating his sanity had broken. |
| 199 | ** ''The Stealer of Souls''. When Elric finally catches up to him, Theleb K'aarna has lost his mind and is tittering to himself. |
| 200 | * In a variant, there's a really nightmarish scene in ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' where a character prophesizes the slaughter of Penelope's suitors by seeing them all racked with painful, hysterical laughter and choking up blood. And still continuing to laugh as they're slaughtered. |
| 201 | * In ''Literature/{{Pharaoh}}'' Sarah [[BreakTheCutie breaks down laughing]] when she learns that [[spoiler: Lykon murdered her baby]]. |
| 202 | * In ''Literature/ReapersGale'', the seventh book of the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', High Mage Quick Ben has a moment where he starts laughing hysterically right after he has to confront three bloodthirsty dragons head-on and all hell breaks lose. Having been reminded of all the friends he's lost over time, seeing Hedge, one of his last friends left, knocked out by a flying dragon vertebra pushes Quick Ben over the edge for the moment. |
| 203 | * In ''Literature/SecondApocalypse'', Sarl of the mercenary Skin Eaters company suffers a psychological break during a particularly brutal campaign. He becomes prone to cackling and shouting, "The slog of slogs, boys!" over the following weeks. |
| 204 | * In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': |
| 205 | ** Catelyn Stark starts laughing hysterically after [[spoiler:Summer, Bran's direwolf, unexpectedly breaks into her son's room and tears the throat of an assassin who was about to kill both mother and child]]. And she does again in the third book, ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'', after [[spoiler:she witnesses her only remaining (she thinks) child Robb get stabbed through the chest]]. |
| 206 | ** Tyrion Lannister has one in ''A Storm of Swords'', after [[spoiler:seeing Oberyn Martell, his last hope getting out of execution, being brutally killed by Gregor Clegane, handing the latter victory and condemning Tyrion to death. He has a nervous breakdown and starts laughing uncontrollably.]] |
| 207 | * ''Literature/TheStormAravDagli'': As her husband bleeds out, the realisation that she truly killed him setting in, the wife smiles and laughs uncontrollably, the moonlight reflecting the blood on her face. |
| 208 | * ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' book 2, ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'': More like Grinning Mad. Dalinar calls Szeth's combination of horrified, haunted eyes and gleeful grin to be the most evil thing he's ever seen. |
| 209 | * In Ben Mikaelsen's ''Touching Spirit Bear'', [[TeensAreMonsters Cole]] starts laughing manically after [[spoiler: burning Garvey's shelter]]. He's not insane; this is probably because of his anger, and his DarkAndTroubledPast. |
| 210 | * ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': In ''Lioness Rampant'', book 4 of ''Literature/SongOfTheLioness'', [[spoiler:Duke Roger dies [[KilledOffForReal for real]] this way. He tried to use magic to pull Alanna towards him by summoning her sword, which was partially made of an EvilWeapon he created, but she lets go of it and it impales him in the chest. Roger, in his deranged mind, finds this so funny that he goes out laughing.]] |
| 211 | * In Ruth Frances Long's ''Literature/TheTreacheryOfBeautifulThings'', when Jenny definitively realizes she's in {{Fairyland}} and Jack tells her that no one will believe her, Jenny starts this. She doesn't realize it's her own for a moment after the first laugh, and it lasts a good long time. Since her brother had been swallowed up by the woods before her, she ''knows'' she won't be believed, quite thoroughly. |
| 212 | * ''Literature/TheWanderingInn'': Tom, after being summoned with dozens of people to another world, realized that he can't fight against the demons he was supposed to fight, decided to dress up as a clown, hoping to bring others to laugh, when they all feel misery from being taken from their homes, though without much success. When the village he lives in is attacked by demons, and sees that a little boy, who he regularly interacted with, is heavily wounded,resulting in seeing him slowly dying, something snapped inside him, driving him to insanity. He starts to laugh crazily, and changes from the rather unfunny clown to a clown one is used to see in horror movies, making even the demons fear him. |
| 213 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': In Creator/DanAbnett's Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''His Last Command'', after they kill a Chaos stalker, Gaunt laughs and taunts the darkness with his still being alive. Ludd finds it more frightening than the stalker. |
| 214 | * Rand Al'Thor in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' occasionally breaks down into 'mirthless laughter' when something really terrible happens. As the series goes on, these episodes become more frequent. |
| 215 | * ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Luban Chan, a rookie witch at an evil WizardingSchool, laughs maniacally as she tries to kill off the protagonist and a couple other witches who are competing against her in a race. |
| 216 | * In "You Don't Have to Be Mad...", a short story from the ''Literature/DiogenesClub'' series by Creator/KimNewman, Richard Jeperson investigates a clinic run by [[MeaningfulName Dr. I. M. Ballance]] which is turning people into functioning psychopaths (some of whom are implied to be infamous politicians and entrepreneurs of TheEighties). The story opens with a government bureaucrat laughing as he does things like chopping down a preserved tree for a highway or firing employees. Finally he tries to assassinate a troublesome journalist, only to fail because he's laughing so much, he gives himself a seizure. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 220 | %%* The virus in "The Tale Of The Renegade Virus" of ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark''. |
| 221 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'' turns a bleak scene -- two mortal enemies about to die together -- into an inappropriately hilarious one through this trope. In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E02Convictions Convictions]]", a bombing leaves Londo [[LockedInAFreezer trapped in a burning elevator]] with G'Kar, right after [[spoiler:he orchestrated the total defeat and violent subjugation of G'Kar's people, which has driven G'Kar to desperation and despair]]. He points out that they are likely to die if they don't work together to escape, and that, whatever their differences, G'Kar wants to live just as badly as he does. Cue AnAesop, right? WRONG! G'Kar refuses to help, and tells Londo that he doesn't want to live ''nearly'' as much as he wants to see Londo die, and [[MurderByInaction this way he doesn't even have to do anything that would prompt retaliation]] -- [[GallowsHumor all while giggling so hard he can barely speak]]. |
| 222 | -->'''Londo:''' You are insane!\ |
| 223 | '''G'Kar:''' And that is why we'll win! |
| 224 | * ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': Fisk, XO of the Pegasus, has a disturbing laugh that he gives after relating how Admiral Cain executed his predecessor. Fisk gives another such outburst in "Resurrection Ship", earning himself a puzzled look from everyone in CIC, who are unaware that [[spoiler:Cain had just cancelled her orders to terminate them all.]] |
| 225 | * ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'': In "[[Recap/BlackadderS1E6TheBlackSeal The Black Seal]]", Edmund Blackadder is trapped in a dungeon with an insane old man who laughs maniacally after Edmund asks if there's a way out. We are shown a cue card reading "[[TimeSkip Twelve Months Later]]". And the man is ''still'' laughing. |
| 226 | * Avon from ''Series/BlakesSeven''. In the season 4 episode "[[{{Recap/BlakesSevenS4E10Gold}} Gold]]", upon realizing that he and his crew had not only accomplished nothing in the episode itself despite risking their lives repeatedly, but had actually benefited the villainess, he begins to laugh hysterically under the frightened stares of the crew. |
| 227 | * ''Series/BreakingBad'': In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS4E11CrawlSpace Crawl Space]]", [[spoiler:Walt's reaction when Skyler tells him she gave Ted the $600,000 they needed to escape Gus, who said he would kill them all if Walt interfered by tipping off the DEA about the hit on Hank... which Saul had done on Walt's orders mere minutes before.]] |
| 228 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS1E12ProphecyGirl Prophecy Girl]]", Buffy has a mild episode of very unsettling laughter after she overhears [[spoiler:Giles talking about her upcoming prophesied death]]. Played straight with characters who are insane: [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity Masie the invisible girl]], MadOracle vampire Drusilla, and Spike at the beginning of Season 7. |
| 229 | * Victor, in ''Series/BurnNotice'', had a tendency to grin or giggle disturbingly when contemplating violence. He laughed the same way when he described why he was that way: [[spoiler:"And then the punch line, the really, ''really'' funny part was, it was [[TheHandler Carla]]. She [[DarkAndTroubledPast had my family killed]] [[ManipulativeBastard as part of my recruitment]]."]] |
| 230 | * ''Series/ColonelMarchOfScotlandYard'': When the murderer is revealed in "The Sorcerer", his facade of sanity breaks and he starts laughing crazily as Ames leads him off. |
| 231 | * ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' has some murderers do this after Columbo figures them out. The most notable cases are [[Recap/ColumboS01E06 Roger Stanford]] who cracked after Columbo tells him that he doesn't have the real [[ItMakesSenseInContext cigar box]], and [[Recap/ColumboS02E04 Nicholas Frame]] who giggles and mutters a piece of monologue from ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''. |
| 232 | * Chang on ''Series/{{Community}}''. The study group refuses to let him join even after he dances for five hours representing them in the pop and lock contest. He ends up collapsing to the floor laughing maniacally. |
| 233 | * ''Series/TheDevilJudge'': Young-choon bursts out laughing when he realises [[spoiler: Yo-han replaced his money with blank pieces of paper.]] |
| 234 | * ''Series/TheDickVanDykeShow'': In "[[Recap/TheDickVanDykeShowS4E9ThreeLettersFromOneWife Three Letters from One Wife]]", Rob descends into hysterical laughter when he learns that Millie had sent fourteen fake letters to Alan Brady praising him and Rob for a high-risk appearance on a cultural program (which hadn't aired yet): |
| 235 | -->'''Millie:''' Rob, what can I do?\ |
| 236 | '''Rob:''' ''[still laughing]'' Take advantage of my temporary insanity and get out of here! |
| 237 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'' |
| 238 | ** The Sixth Doctor goes a little bit nutty after his regeneration in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E7TheTwinDilemma "The Twin Dilemma"]]. This was meant as a return to the character's dangerous unpredictability. |
| 239 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek "Dalek"]]: The Ninth Doctor indulges in a bit of this when he sees that the Dalek's gunstick is broken and thus, as it's chained up, it can't actually kill him. |
| 240 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth "The Stolen Earth"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]]: After his venture into the Time Vortex, Dalek Caan becomes the first "pure" Dalek to ''giggle''. |
| 241 | ** And reused over in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] regarding the Master. [[spoiler:All six billion of them.]] |
| 242 | ** The Twelfth Doctor maniacally laughs when he smashes a massive tanker into a dock in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E8TheLieOfTheLand The Lie of the Land]]". |
| 243 | ** The Master ends up laughing hysterically once again in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls The Doctor Falls]]". [[spoiler:After finally dropping her internal trauma and embracing her HeelFaceTurn, taking out her homicidal past self and heading back to stand with the Doctor, [[HeelFaceDoorSlam only for that past self to shoot her in the back,]] therefore condemning her to die alone, with the Doctor never knowing what she did, [[StatusQuoIsGod because the Master will never allow himself to change]]… well, it's no wonder Missy snapped again right before the end.]] Bonus points for [[spoiler:the Saxon Master guffawing at the realization he's finally killed himself permanently ([[JokerImmunity well...]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall not really]])]]. |
| 244 | * Happens to John a bunch in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' as a result of all the [[MindScrew mindscrewing]]. His tendency to inappropriate laughter is a big part of what clues his shipmates in on his SanitySlippage throughout season 2. |
| 245 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 246 | ** In Season 4 [[BadassAndChildDuo Sandor Clegane and Arya Stark]] arrive at the Eyrie after traveling across the war-ravaged Riverlands [[spoiler:and seeing the massacre of Robb Stark and his army just as Arya was about to be returned to her family, only to be told that the aunt Sandor hoped to ransom her to - Arya's last confirmed living relative and her only hope of being reunited with family - has also died only three days before.]] Arya's response (after a few seconds of stunned silence) is to break down in peals of laughter at the Hound for not getting his reward as [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior everyone stares at her in disbelief]]. Like several other incidents over the past couple of seasons, it hints at Arya's increasing SanitySlippage as she turns from heroic TomboyPrincess to [[BreakTheCutie cold-blooded killer]]. |
| 247 | ** When the "Battle of the Bastards" finally comes down to a one-on-one between Ramsay and Jon, Jon ends up straddling Ramsay's chest, pummeling him to a bloody pulp with his fists for all the hell Ramsay has done to his family and the devastation Ramsay has wreaked. After the first couple of punches, Ramsay starts laughing deliriously. After a few more punches, he suddenly ''stops'' laughing when it becomes clear that Jon is going to kill him then and there -- but Jon stops when he sees his sister Sansa, who puts Ramsay awake (and smiling the best he can) in the dungeons. Then Sansa [[FedToTheBeast feeds Ramsay to Ramsay's own starving dogs]]. |
| 248 | ** Euron cackles maniacally as he cuts people down on the battlefield. |
| 249 | * ''Series/GetSmart'': Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 are captured by a MadScientist. |
| 250 | -->'''99:''' [[YoureInsane You're mad!]]\ |
| 251 | '''Dr. Zharko (Creator/TomPoston):''' Mad, am I? MAAAD, AM I?! MWAHAHAHAAA!\ |
| 252 | '''99:''' ''[anxiously]'' Don't ''do'' that!\ |
| 253 | '''Dr. Zharko:''' ''[utterly straightfaced]'' Don't do what? |
| 254 | * ''Series/TheGoesWrongShow'': In "The Lodge," Robert has a scene where his character is supposed to do an EvilLaugh and exit, still laughing. The problem? This show [[TheShowMustGoWrong being what it is]], the door he was supposed to exit out of is locked. So he keeps laughing and tries to find another door... which leads to a brick wall. So he keeps laughing and tries to find ''another'' door... and it leads to a ten-foot drop. This goes on for ''[[OverlyLongGag almost two minutes]]'', Robert's laughter devolving into exasperated, desperate screaming, before he finally manages to squeeze out of a cupboard door, still cackling. |
| 255 | * In the season one finale of ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', Eleanor is so stunned and horrified by the realization that [[spoiler:she and the others have actually been in the Bad Place from the very beginning]] that all she can do for a good few seconds is laugh and say, "''Wow''!" She recovers pretty quickly, though. |
| 256 | * In ''Series/{{Gotham}}'', several of the villains have mental breakdowns that involve mad laughter, and then there's Jerome Valeska, who laughs excessively about everything, even his horrifically abusive childhood, and even laughs while he [[spoiler: is falling to his death because he decided to commit suicide by throwing himself off a building]]. He also creates Joker gas with the help of the Scarecrow, causing several other people to go mad with laughter, most importantly, [[spoiler: his brother, [[ComicBook/TheJoker Jeremiah Valeska.]]]] |
| 257 | * ''Franchise/KamenRider'': |
| 258 | ** In the movie ''Series/KamenRiderDouble Returns: Kamen Rider Eternal'', the villain of the movie tries to emotionally break Katsumi Daido, the eponymous rider. It worked a little bit too well, as Katsumi breaks down in insane laughter, followed by a CurbStompBattle with the villain on the receiving end. |
| 259 | ** Professor Banno [[spoiler: in his incarnation as Gold Drive]] of ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' has an ''EvilLaugh'' that veers sharply into this territory on a regular basis, as he chuckles in a somewhat subdued yet decidedly eerie manner, his head lolling at odd angles. |
| 260 | ** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': [[spoiler: Kuroto Dan]] devolves into this over the span of the story's second arc as he slowly discards his MaskOfSanity in favor of being a [[FountainOfMemes memetic]] CardCarryingVillain. |
| 261 | *** The otherwise well-adjusted Emu Hojo tends to chuckle a little in an unhinged manner when pushed dangerously close to HeroicRROD. |
| 262 | ** ''Series/KamenRiderSaber'': Bahat, the Phoenix swordsman, has been driven insane by the murder of his family and languished in his grief for thousand years. As an OmnicidalManiac, he tends to react to stuff with either inappropiate, derranged laughter or [[AxeCrazy violence]]. |
| 263 | * Lampshaded in ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "The Light That Failed". The characters spend the entire episode arguing over who committed the murder in a mystery novel with the last page missing. In the end Hawkeye pretends to go mad and confesses to the whole thing. He gives a mad laugh that's interrupted when he has to sign for some supplies, then takes up where he left off. |
| 264 | * Adrian Monk in the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "[[Recap/MonkS5E2MrMonkAndTheGarbageStrike Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike]]" briefly went laughing mad after deciding to dump garbage trucks overflowing with garbage into the San Francisco Bay one at a time, and coming up with an insane theory about who murdered the Garbage Union Leader (it being the rock star Alice Cooper over envy over a chair) that was more or less done due to the piling garbage driving Monk completely insane, in addition to his previous theory being wrong (and for the record, the debunked theory was actually a lot closer to being correct compared to the second theory). |
| 265 | * Inverted in the ''Series/OddSquad'' episode "The Jackies". When Oprah, confident that she and her precinct will win the eponymous awards, explains that the winner of the awards the previous year has to announce the winner of the current year's awards, she begins to laugh in a stiff but rather hysterical manner. Olive and Otto watch her with smiles on their faces before their expressions turn into concern, and they begin BackingAwaySlowly out of the office before running away (at Olive's insistence). Oprah then abruptly stops her laughing to demand that Oscar make her dress "very sparkly" before resuming. |
| 266 | ** Also inverted in another example from the same episode. Orville, Ms. O's rival, calls her as part of her TemptingFate, as she believes he is calling her to tell her how worried he is. After the number of cases for his precinct grows substantially so it's 150-100, he taunts her by saying that he hasn't felt this victorious since he and his agents won the very first Jackie Awards, before hanging up and delving into maniacal laughter as he strokes one of his previously-won awards. |
| 267 | ** Played straight in "Show Me the Money" where [[CuteAndPsycho Oona]] delves into a short bit of hysterical laughter when she finds out that Olympia and Otis released an unlucky coin of hers and Oscar's into the town and chews them out accordingly. |
| 268 | * ''Series/OnTheHouse'': Dr. Stanley ends his deranged [[BreakingTheFourthWall direct-to-camera]] rant in "Take Me to Your Leader" by wildly cackling. |
| 269 | %%* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': "Hobby Show" ends with Miss Brooks laughing hysterically, and smearing finger paints over her face. |
| 270 | * Although any number of inmates in ''Series/{{Oz}}'' (such as Tobias Beecher) would qualify, probably the best example would be former prison guard Clayton Hughes after he goes insane and murders an inmate. Particularly disturbing when it happens in front of Warden Glynn, who regards him as a surrogate son. |
| 271 | * ''Series/PsychopathDiary'': In-woo has a very unhinged half-laugh half-grin that he uses when planning to kill someone. |
| 272 | * ''Series/QueenForSevenDays'': Lee Yung bursts out laughing after he's deposed. |
| 273 | * In ''Series/SisterSister'', Lisa Landry was breaking out into a fit of laughter during a funeral. It's justified, however, as just beforehand, she went to the dentist, and was exposed to a large, almost lethal dose of LaughingGas due to the dentist ranting about the person the funeral was for. |
| 274 | * In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' series finale "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E25E26WhatYouLeaveBehind What You Leave Behind]]", the Cardassian resistance is trying to storm Dominion headquarters, but they can't break down the door. At that point Garak, who has just seen his mother murdered and his childhood home destroyed, and is witnessing the genocide of his people literally happening all around them, cracks up. Then the others start following suit, before the Jem'Hadar open the doors to execute the puppet Cardassian leader, and the resistance takes advantage. |
| 275 | * In ''Series/{{Superstore}}'', it's noted that Cheyanne has a habit of laughing out of nervousness. However, when a tornado tears through the store at the end of season 2, she's seen rocking side to side in hysterics, uttering "We're all gonna die..." as she does. |
| 276 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Need to Know", Jack Henries begins to laugh hysterically when Wiley Whitlow tells him the meaning of life, which causes insanity in anyone who hears it. Jack then breaks into tears just as quickly as he started to laugh. |
| 277 | * ''Series/TheUntamed'': Jin Guangyao starts laughing as he explains how Jin Guangshan mistreated him until Jin Guangyao finally killed him. |
| 278 | [[/folder]] |
| 279 | |
| 280 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 281 | * [[Music/{{Anthrax}} "It's time for your medication, Mister Brown..." "BUHUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"]] |
| 282 | * The end of "Music/MasterOfPuppets" by Music/{{Metallica}}. |
| 283 | * Just before the first guitar solo in the Music/ThinLizzy track "Chinatown". |
| 284 | * Music/{{Disturbed}}: |
| 285 | ** "Inside the Fire" combines it with the EvilLaugh; the character in which the song is being described to is most definitely going insane, but the main narrative is being told by his dead girlfriend whispering over his shoulder (who may or may not be TheDevil). In other words, it sounds both crazed and demonic. |
| 286 | ** "Perfect Insanity" features a deranged laughter, [[SanitySlippageSong naturally]]. |
| 287 | * "Afterlife" by Music/AvengedSevenfold features this in the bridge. |
| 288 | * Twilightning's "Rolling Heads" from the ''Bedlam'' EP ends with mad laughter. |
| 289 | * Heard in the end of Music/RunningWild's "Diamonds of the Black Chest" when after a lifetime of searching, the song's protagonist finds the eponymous chest. [[GoMadFromTheRevelation And it's empty]]. |
| 290 | * Music/NapoleonXIV's "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" It's right there in the title. |
| 291 | * Music/TheBonzoDogBand did a cover of "Monster Mash" that was pretty faithful to the original, until the ending, where vocalist Vivian Stanshall goes into an EvilLaugh that grows more and more manic through the fade-out. |
| 292 | * "Departure", the Graeme Edge poem that opens Music/TheMoodyBlues' "Ride My See-Saw", has Edge dissolving into mad laughter as it crossfades into the latter track. |
| 293 | * Music/PinkFloyd's "Brain Damage" from ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon''. (''The lunatic is in my head... (laughter)'') |
| 294 | * Music/ThePolice's "Mother," about a man whose [[MyBelovedSmother overprotective]], constantly-phoning mother has driven him mad, ends with manic cries that turn into laughter. |
| 295 | * Music/DoctorSteel can be heard engaging in a mad laugh near the end of his self-titled song, "Dr. Steel." |
| 296 | * The end of Music/BlackSabbath's "[[Music/SabotageBlackSabbathAlbum Am I Going Insane? (Radio)]]" has Music/OzzyOsbourne breaking into a series of distorted, crazed laughter. Ozzy is quite notorious for this, to the point where many a song of his features it. It's practically his trademark. |
| 297 | * Arthur Brown does this a bit near the end of "Fire" as he's shouting "Burn!" over and over at the top of his lungs. |
| 298 | * In one version of "Beginning to look a lot like Christmas", the second chorus of 'and mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again' is immediately followed by the female backup singers doing a not quite sane laugh just like the parents finally snapping due to holiday stress. |
| 299 | * Music/EbenBrooks engages in one of these at the end of his filk "Hey There Cthulhu" as the narrator finally succumbs to madness. It ends with a bloodcurdling scream as he apparently succumbs to something far worse. |
| 300 | * The singer of Music/PoetsOfTheFall's "[[https://youtu.be/f0w_WYXPIMc?list=PLjACqN5i5sDWU8BGL5afu1ynDxAMPX2rH Psychosis]]" opens and punctuates his bitter ranting with nasty chuckling. |
| 301 | * "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" by Set It Off, TheInsomniac / SanitySlippageSong features a deranged laughter. |
| 302 | * Grobschnitt "Schweine im Weltall" ([[Franchise/TheMuppets Pigs In Space]]). Excusable, since selfsame pigs just stole a rocket to escape a most sausageous fate. |
| 303 | * "Song for Ancestors" by Music/JunoReactor features Dorona Alberti cackling wildly. |
| 304 | [[/folder]] |
| 305 | |
| 306 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 307 | * In the 41st episode of ''Podcast/WellTheresYourProblem'' Justin pulls off a truly terrifying one lasting nearly a full minute upon being informed that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died mere months before the 2020 election and paved the way for a far-right majority on the US Supreme Court. |
| 308 | [[/folder]] |
| 309 | |
| 310 | [[folder:Pro Wrestling]] |
| 311 | * Wrestling/TerryFunk in his famous 1981 "Florida Cracker" promo. |
| 312 | * Wrestling/BuzzSawyer was prone to fits of it; particularly remembered is a bit during a Wrestling/KevinSullivan promo where he just starts laughing for no discernible reason and just won't stop. |
| 313 | * Wrestling/DanSpivey tended to degenerate into maniacal laughter when applying his [[FinishingMove sleeper hold]]. |
| 314 | * By definition, almost every time [[Wrestling/SidEudy Psycho Sid]] burst into laughter was a case of this. |
| 315 | * [[Wrestling/BillDeMott Hugh Morrus]]' whole [[TheGimmick gimmick]] was based on this, starting with his PunnyName. His RedBaron was "The Laughing Man." In the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom vignette where [[Wrestling/KevinSullivan "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan]] introduced him to [[Wrestling/KingCurtisIaukea the Master]], Sullivan said that he was giving him "the greatest gift of all, laughter." |
| 316 | * Willow The Wisp in the Omega Promotion, he is but a product of Wrestling/JeffHardy's imagination, "Raaahahahaha!" He tended to laugh even when being beat up. |
| 317 | * During [[Wrestling/HunterJohnston Delirious]] matches where he is allowed to idle or otherwise given breathing room, he tends to talk to himself and laugh. |
| 318 | * Tyler Bateman tends to stare off into the distance silently. When something gets his attention or he's asked to speak he'll usually let out a prolonged wheeze before degenerating into laughter. |
| 319 | * Wrestling/MikeyWhipwreck after joining the [[Wrestling/JamesMitchell Sinister Minister]] in Wrestling/{{M|LW}}ajor League Wrestling. |
| 320 | * Wrestling/{{Boogeyman}} was often laughing, particularly after singing to his hosts, spouting off poetry or squeezing the heart on his necklace. |
| 321 | * After Wrestling/MickieJames attacked Wrestling/TrishStratus for suggesting they should spend some time apart, she was later found cackling over a [[StalkerShrine Trish Stratus shrine.]] |
| 322 | * Wrestling/{{Sting}} frequently during his "Joker" phase, as opposed to his previous and more famous stoic "Crow" phase. |
| 323 | * Wrestling/CodyRhodes during his "un-dashing phase", where his recollection of events was clearly off base. (He believed himself disfigured and thus un-dashing, having to hide behind a mask, except his mask was see-through so everyone could see he looked exactly the same.) |
| 324 | * Leva Bates as the Joker during the final stages of her SHINE feud with Kimberly, going into the "[[GimmickMatches Arkham Asylum match"]]. |
| 325 | * Wrestling/{{Bayley}} full stop during her feud with Bianca Belair with the latter as Smackdown Women's Champion. She essentially got a title match with the champion doing nothing but laughing at her! |
| 326 | [[/folder]] |
| 327 | |
| 328 | [[folder:Roleplay]] |
| 329 | * In the ''{{Franchise/Danganronpa}}''/''[[Manga/{{Doubt}} Rabbit Doubt]]'' hybrid ''Roleplay/DoubtAcademy'', [[spoiler:Akari Kagome, the Super High School Level Hockey Player, has one of these when she realizes she's going to be executed for a murder she didn't commit.]] |
| 330 | [[/folder]] |
| 331 | |
| 332 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 333 | * Invoked in-universe with the spell "Hideous Laughter" (also known as "Tasha's Hideous Laughter") from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''; it's an Enchantment school spell that compels the victim to laugh like a maniac for the duration of the spell, effectively paralyzing them with the most intense, histrionic laughing fit they are physically capable of. In most versions of the game, this is its only effect, but in the 4th edition of the game, victims actually took damage from the spell, and could literally laugh themselves to death. |
| 334 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', Adorjan the Silent Wind is considered the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Yozi]] patron of AxCrazy. As a result, her chosen Infernals tend to get access to Charms that reflect this, such as Broken Silence Laughter Defense (which allows the Infernal to throw off attempts to influence them by laughing inappropriately) and Eloquence in Unspoken Words (which gives the Infernal telepathic communication, at the price that they can only vocalize laughter). |
| 335 | * Numerous followers of [[TheCorruption Chaos]] in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' alternate between this and EvilLaugh, sometimes combining the two for extra madness. Sort of inevitable when one allows TheLegionsOfHell to use one's skull as their metaphorical playground. |
| 336 | [[/folder]] |
| 337 | |
| 338 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 339 | * ''Electricidad'', Luís Alfaro's modern retelling of ''{{Electra}}'' ends with [[spoiler: Orestes doing this after killing Clamencia as he stumbles away from Nino, and collapses on top of the charred, rotting remains of his father's body]]. It's chilling. |
| 340 | * ''Theatre/AFunnyThingHappenedOnTheWayToTheForum'': Hysterium does this after one verse of his song "I'm Calm". |
| 341 | -->''I'm calm, controlled\ |
| 342 | So cool that I'm cold\ |
| 343 | Aloofer than any giraffe\ |
| 344 | When something's the matter\ |
| 345 | Where others would shatter, I laugh!''\ |
| 346 | (''bursts into hysterical laughter'') |
| 347 | * ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors'' has the song “Now (It’s Just The Gas),” in which a dentist goes laughing mad due to an overdose on LaughingGas, before he eventually suffocates on it |
| 348 | * ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'': |
| 349 | ** The song "Epiphany" details his DespairEventHorizon and the whole song has a lot of anguished laughter, especially the end where he declares he's "full of joy". Then comes the MoodDissonance of the next song "Little Priest", where he is really upbeat, but completely over the edge of sanity. |
| 350 | ** Also his wife Lucy when she enters Sweeney Todd's parlor. She lapses into a disturbing giggle before she imagines herself sitting with infant Johanna in her arms. |
| 351 | * Creator/WilliamShakespeare uses this one in ''Theatre/TitusAndronicus'': Titus' daughter has been raped and mutilated, his sons have been accused of the crime, and he's been told they'll be pardoned if he just chops off his hand, so he does, and when he's given his hand back along with their severed heads, he begins to laugh. And plot [[ImAHumanitarian tasty, tasty revenge.]] |
| 352 | * In ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' depending on the actress playing her (as well as the one playing Glinda), Elphaba can have shades of this when she cackles after Glinda slaps her during the cat fight scene. Bonus points if it's the exact same cackle from the film. |
| 353 | [[/folder]] |
| 354 | |
| 355 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 356 | * In the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series, [[spoiler:Luke Atmey]] and [[spoiler:Kristoph Gavin]] laugh disturbingly upon defeat, possibly to indicate madness (they're both pretty crazy). [[spoiler:Damon Gant]] gets [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkb_svMvYVQ#t=12m49s the most epic one]], however: [[spoiler:he claps as he laughs, and as the laugh revs up, his hands slam together so quickly they throw off ''sparks''!]] |
| 357 | ** The tradition continues in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'', where [[spoiler:the killer of case four, Calisto Yew,]] ends up doubled over laughing by the time he/she is done... [[spoiler:and then shows just how sane she is by pointing out Edgeworth just accused her of murder... in a case [[OhCrap where one of the pistols is still missing]].]] And then [[spoiler:case five happens]] and holy hell is [[spoiler:Shih-na's breakdown]] some quality horror. |
| 358 | ** A non-villainous example is Lotta Hart from ''Justice For All''. She thinks that the crime scene will be her one big break and starts laughing crazily as she runs to it. Even Phoenix got scared when that happened. |
| 359 | * ''{{Franchise/Danganronpa}}'': |
| 360 | ** In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', [[spoiler: Genocide Jack]] is usually this when they're not fawning over [[spoiler: Byakuya]]. And at the climax of the game, [[spoiler: Junko Enoshima has several bouts of mad laughter, especially as she prepares to execute herself.]] |
| 361 | ** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' gives us [[spoiler: Nagito Komaeda]], with no less than three instances of this: their VillainousBreakdown in Chapter 1, their discovery of [[spoiler: the Funhouse's secret weapon in Chapter 4]], and after [[spoiler: blowing up the hotel to weed out the traitor in Chapter 5]]. |
| 362 | * In ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'', the final scene with Yuri during her SanitySlippage has sounds of giggling in the background, and she specifically laughs as she [[spoiler: happily stabs herself to death.]] |
| 363 | * ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'': |
| 364 | ** [[spoiler:Ace/Hongou]] is revealed to have done this [[spoiler:when he locked Akane in the furnace to force her to use morphogenic fields to survive.]] |
| 365 | ** He does the same thing when confronted as the villain in the Safe ending. |
| 366 | * In the good ending of ''VisualNovel/ShinraiBrokenBeyondDespair'', [[spoiler:Kamen]] erupts in a fit of mirthless and crazed laughter after relating the events that led to the murders. |
| 367 | * Beatrice in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' [[InvokedTrope does this intentionally]] to unnerve opponents (which is probably where Maria learned her own creepy laugh,) and is quite at ease when laughing mad. This is in contrast to Erika, who laughs more madly when under more pressure, up to and including full VillainousBreakdown. |
| 368 | [[/folder]] |
| 369 | |
| 370 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 371 | * ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': Ethan and Curien, as part of their [[ObfuscatingInsanity insanity act]], this is a given. |
| 372 | * Flippy of ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' whenever he goes into AxCrazy mode. Also, the hyperactive squirrel, Nutty. |
| 373 | * ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': In "Seeing Stars", Blitzo is mistaken for a human comedian and gets to perform on a stage where the audience laughs because they are told to. He gets way carried away with it and apparently makes a long performance that is anything but funny, to the point that the only person who still manages to laugh does so in a crazy fit before passing out (or knowing this show, quite possibly dying). |
| 374 | * ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Strong Bad goes into a rather creepy mad laughing fit in the Sbemail "isp" after discovering that Strong Mad has screwed up his Internet connection by [[ItMakesSenseInContext literally sucking up bandwidth]]. |
| 375 | * ''WebAnimation/{{Murder Drones}}'': The titular androids are programmed to kill worker drones and consume their oil. Whenever hunting them, they gain a [[SlasherSmile face-wide smile]], X’s for eyes and often start to giggle maniacally out of bloodlust. |
| 376 | ** [[spoiler: This also happens to Uzi, when her body is corrupted by the Absolute Solver, which basically turns her into a robot zombie prone to fits of hysterical laughter.]] |
| 377 | * ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': [[BloodKnight Tyrian Callows]] absolutely '''loves''' this trope, giving the [[RedBaron Joker]] from DC's universe a '''very good''' run for his happy-go-lucky money, without question. |
| 378 | ** After reaching a low point of near-despair upon learning he has lost all his options for obtaining Penny so that he can save Atlas with the Relic of Creation, Ironwood learns that the SDC is using cargo ships to rescue the Mantle citizens. He laughs in a mixture of relief and madness, as he realises that he can hold Mantle hostage to force Penny to be delivered to him. It's another sign of his increasingly unstable mental state. |
| 379 | [[/folder]] |
| 380 | |
| 381 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 382 | * Ellen in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' does one of this, complete with a line that goes behind a character's head to show they've snapped when she is first brought into existence, and she thinks that she'll die in a month. [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-08-01 The comic title says it all]]. She then decides to become Elliot's {{evil|Twin}} [[CardCarryingVillain twin]], which she's... [[HarmlessVillain not too good at...]] |
| 383 | -->'''Tedd:''' ''[[[GenreBlind not too Genre Savvy]]]'' Oh good! She's laughing! |
| 384 | %%* Jane Unpleasant in ''Webcomic/EverydayHeroes'' [[http://eheroes.smackjeeves.com/comics/2133682/ch14-04/ enjoys a chuckle.]] |
| 385 | * Cake Girl from ''Webcomic/{{Gloomverse}}'' tends to randomly burst into laughter. |
| 386 | * Anthony Carver from ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' starts laughing hysterically as he explains how some unknown etheric entities tricked him into [[https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1555 almost killing his daughter while trying to bring back his wife's spirit]], then segues into [[CryLaughing crying]] as [[https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1559 he acknowledges just how horribly he'd treated his daughter in recent strips]]. |
| 387 | * A less extreme version is seen in ''Webcomic/ILoveYoo'', when Nol gets [[spoiler: punched off a banister, landing on a glass table,]] he reacts by laughing and then immediately leaving the party. |
| 388 | * When Computer returns to perform horrifying acts of vengeance against the ''[[http://www.jaydenandcrusader.com Jayden and Crusader]]'' cast she is always seen grinning madly, though not laughing. |
| 389 | * Rocky and Freckle in ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'', mostly whenever they're either cheating death or [[https://www.lackadaisycats.com/comic.php?comicid=49 dealing it]]. |
| 390 | * Valentino descends to this after being tricked into [[DeadlyGraduation killing her one and only friend]] from her TrainingFromHell during a side/[[StartOfDarkness origin story]] in the comic ''[[http://www.marilith.com/archive.php?date=20070712 Marilith]]''. |
| 391 | * According to the story hidden in [[spoiler:the filenames]] of ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'', this is how Helen went mad: |
| 392 | -->[[spoiler:''She laughed hysterically for a minute or so. Not a good sign, she thought. And then the thought fluttered away. Her face, when it skipped into focus, was pale and blotchy. Possibly she had been crying. Yes, someone had definitely been crying sometime. Not her. Not when everything was so funny and she had so many interesting ideas...'']] |
| 393 | * ''{{Webcomic/Sarilho}}'': Nikita, at the end of chapter four, along with some... interesting threats. |
| 394 | * ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-06-15 2011-06-15]] jokes that when you play peek-a-boo with a baby, it laughs because it's going mad at the thought that everything in the world has vanished. |
| 395 | * Hyde from ''Webcomic/TheSearchForHenryJekyll'' cackles hysterically after killing his first victim. |
| 396 | * [[spoiler:Rachel]] at the end of the Knot of Wool arc in ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod''. |
| 397 | * ''Webcomic/WeakHero'': |
| 398 | ** Wolf has so much fun beating poor Rowan into a bloody paste that he breaks out into hysterical laughter, freaking out even his subordinates. |
| 399 | ** When Wolf tries to resign from the Union, Donald breaks into laughter so maniacal that it sends chills down Wolf's spine. And that's saying something, considering [[AxCrazy what Wolf is like]]. |
| 400 | * [[spoiler:Sandra Eastlake]] in ''Webcomic/ZebraGirl'', [[http://www.zebragirl.net/?date=2007-05-26 just after her heroic BSOD/Face Heel Turn.]] |
| 401 | [[/folder]] |
| 402 | |
| 403 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 404 | * During a run through some online battles in ''VideoGame/Tekken7'' with his custom [[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983 Skeletor]] character, [[WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} Joel of Vinesauce]] encounters another player using a He-Man character. As his version of Skeletor has [[ItMakesSenseInContext a throwable pizza weapon]], this leads to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VZ7uXIz_40 following golden moment]] when Joel tries to use it: |
| 405 | -->[''Activates special attack''] |
| 406 | -->'''Joel:''' [''inhales deeply''] "[[LargeHam THE PIZZA HE-MAN,]] '''[[LargeHam EAT IT!]]'''" |
| 407 | -->[''The pizza is thrown, but clips through He-Man harmlessly''] |
| 408 | -->'''Joel:''' "aaaaaaaaAAAAAAAA'''AAAAAAAAAAAAA''''''''HAHAHAHAHAHA-''''' '''''[[BigWhat WHAT?!]]''''' OHOHO '''SHIT''', WHAT THE FU-HU-HUCK!?" |
| 409 | * [[MadScientist Dr. Insano]] of ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'' and ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'' is prone to this. |
| 410 | * ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': Linkara did this himself in his ''WebVideo/HistoryOfPowerRangers'' review detailing ''Series/PowerRangersMegaforce'', as his reaction to [[spoiler:Robo Knight's UnexplainedRecovery]], cutting to video of him laughing as he grabs a gun, walks off, empties the magazine, and his laughing turns to screaming. |
| 411 | * ''WebVideo/DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog'': Dr. Horrible starts out maniacal laughing because he's GenreSavvy, and then does the laugh again because it's situationally appropriate. Even though we see his SanitySlippage happening immediately in the next song... we never see him laugh again. It's almost like he went sane. |
| 412 | * ''WebVideo/EverymanHYBRID'', "Joke's Over": Evan, on seeing what was inside the garbage bags hung up by the Slender Man. He hadn't completely snapped yet, but this was probably one of the first warning signs. |
| 413 | * WebVideo/CellSpex breaks into maddened laughter upon revealing that ''WesternAnimation/NormOfTheNorth'' got a wide release, despite [[WesternAnimation/{{Anomalisa}} much]] [[Anime/WhenMarnieWasThere better]] [[WesternAnimation/TheLittlePrince2015 movies]] getting limited releases. |
| 414 | * ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'': |
| 415 | ** At the end of his review of ''[[Film/TheNeverEndingStoryIIIEscapeFromFantasia The NeverEnding Story III]]'', the Critic starts laughing nonstop as he leaves his house, drives to a Home Depot to pick up a crowbar, and heads back home. He stops laughing when he smashes up the DVD, [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd AVGN]]-style. |
| 416 | ** He does it again in the ''Master of Disguise'' review, where he responds to a "funny" joke by flipping out, laughing insanely, and beating three people with a baseball bat. |
| 417 | --->'''Critic:''' ...Where was I for the last two minutes? |
| 418 | ** [[Creator/DougWalker Doug]] himself has a tendency to do this, annoying Rob in the ''Film/ManOfSteel'' Sibling Rivalry and painting himself as TheWoobie in the first ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' review. |
| 419 | * ''WebVideo/OneHundredYardStare'': Ellie goes laughing mad for a moment in episode five. And later several times, also this is her basic mode in season two. |
| 420 | * The Website/{{YouTube}}r WebVideo/TheOrangeInsanity slowly but surely starts [[http://youtu.be/yN3PFkJgrHM?t=36m34s laughing maniacally]] in his review of ''Film/TheLastAirbender'', before going into CryLaughing after seeing the scene in which [[spoiler:the dragon tells Aang that the Avatar is not meant to hurt others.]] |
| 421 | * [[WebVideo/RedLetterMedia Mike Stoklasa]] during the 2018 Christmas episode of ''Best of the Worst'' randomly breaks into laughter while watching a terrible movie. He later admitted that his mind just broke. Notably, Rich Evans, who frequently breaks into wild peals of laughter at the drop of a hat, just stared at him while Mike was laughing. |
| 422 | -->'''Mike Stoklasa:''' (''laughing so hard he's practically crying'') This is the worst thing I've ever seen! |
| 423 | * [[WebVideo/SomeCallMeJohnny The Super Gaming Bros.]] had a moment in their multiplayer ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' playthough. Elliot dies to three meteors in a row; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHabbKNkvFo causing Matt to laugh himself insane]]. |
| 424 | * Poor LetsPlay/{{slowbeef}}. In his ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' Let's Play on the WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}} channel, after losing his last life in Silver's version of the Kingdom Valley level, he realises that the last time he'd saved was over an hour in the past, meaning that he'll be forced to replay the sections with [[EscortMission Anna]] and the LetsPlay/ProtonJon [[ItMakesSenseInContext priests' tests.]] Upon this realisation, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5orzCJcBtM&t=19m25s all he could do was burst into laughter,]] while LetsPlay/{{Diabetus}} could only utter a FlatWhat. |
| 425 | * In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcs8gwsdBr0 this video]], WebVideo/TBSkyen becomes temporarily incoherent with mad laughter after accidentally hitting the "cancel out of conversation" button once too often and rolling backwards off a cliff. |
| 426 | * LetsPlay/{{Turpster}} falls into this when he plays either as the titular character in ''VideoGame/TheHiddenSource'', or as the murderer in ''VideoGame/GarrysMod Murder'', and decides to [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide ham]] [[EvilIsHammy it]] [[EvilLaugh up]]. |
| 427 | * The ending of the ''LetsPlay/TwoSaiyansPlay'' of ''VideoGame/{{Outlast}}'' has Krillin laughing maniacally. This was in the official, re-recorded version. |
| 428 | [[/folder]] |
| 429 | |
| 430 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 431 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}},'' the ending of the episode Anne Theft Auto shows Anne laughing crazily after finding out that she needs to repeat the whole ordeal again. This laughter easily disturbs Hop Pop. |
| 432 | -->'''Hop Pop:''' I don’t feel safe. |
| 433 | |
| 434 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime,'' we have Lemongrab's utterly disturbing laughing fit in Too Young. He doesn't even SMILE- his head just flails around and bounces with weird squishy noises, and his eyes are wide. |
| 435 | -->'''Lemongrab:''' "...Prank? F-for laughs? Yes, of course; just a harmless prank... F..for laughs... Ha..a.a? HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH-OH! HAHHAHOAHAOHAOAHOAHAOAHAHAOAOAAHAOAHAOAHAOA-" *immediately returns to normal* "Twelve years dungeon! All of you- DUNGEON! Seven years, no trials! C'mon... LET'S MOVE IT!!!" |
| 436 | ** He comes by it honestly; his mother Princess Bubblegum reacted similarly to the prospect of Finn bringing the [[SitcomArchNemesis Duke of Nuts]] to justice. "The justice... of a COLD DUNGEON! MWAHAHAHA-AHAHAHAHAAHAAA!!!" Jake Lampshades the moment by saying with an awkward laugh, "She's completely ''bonkers''." |
| 437 | * [[spoiler:Azula]] in the series finale of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', during a FreakOut. |
| 438 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheBabaloos'': Mrs. Coffeepot acts like this after losing her lid in “Mrs. Coffeepot Blows Her Top”. |
| 439 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'''s Harley Quinn episode, the way the viewer can tell that Harley's returned sanity is fleeting is when she starts laughing maniacally. |
| 440 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': The Demon's Quest, when Ra's al Ghul comes out of the Lazarus Pit. |
| 441 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb8fWUUXeKM Any time the Joker laughs]]. |
| 442 | ** Then there's Jack Ryder, who as the Creeper giggles like a stoner watching [=YouTube=]. |
| 443 | * At the end of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'''s first episode, when CorruptCorporateExecutive Derek Powers sees that he has transformed into a glow-in-the-dark radioactive skeleton man, his immediate reaction is to begin laughing maniacally. The doctors are appropriately freaked out. |
| 444 | ** Coincidentally, he reacted to his new appearance in a manner that is eerily similar to the Joker from the 1989 Batman film under eerily similar circumstances. |
| 445 | ** There's also the brief moment where Ian Peeks [[spoiler:realizes, with [[IntangibleMan his torso phased through the basement floor]] and with Batman unable to grab him and pull him out, that he's beyond saving. He goes down laughing and screaming until he fully sinks below, [[AndIMustScream presumably realizing he'll be stuck beneath the earth until he dies]]]]. |
| 446 | ** In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'' Tim does this after being BrainwashedAndCrazy by ComicBook/TheJoker and Harley. It's pretty damn creepy, [[spoiler: until he starts CryLaughing]]. |
| 447 | * Averting this in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' is central to Earth-23's Red Hood. When Owlman pushed Jack Napier into the Ace Chemical Plant vat, Napier's skin was bleached, his hair turned green, and his lips became bright red. When Napier returned home, he sat in front of a mirror, looked at himself, and began to laugh... [[RageAgainstTheReflection before smashing the mirror]]. It was at this point he began his vengeful crusade with other hero as Justice Underground against the tyrant Owlman and his Injustice Syndicate of Amerika. |
| 448 | * ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': In "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E1MindPollution Mind Pollution]]", Verminous Skumm starts peddling a [[GRatedDrug designer drug]] called "Bliss." Among other symptoms, Bliss causes fits of hysterical laughter, even when the person has injured themselves or suffered some other setback. It's probably related to the [[FeelNoPain pain numbing.]] |
| 449 | * In one episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/CareBearsAdventuresInCareALot Adventures in Care-a-Lot]]'', a sleep-deprived Bedtime is portrayed this way. |
| 450 | * The ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' pilot short ''WesternAnimation/TheChickenFromOuterSpace'' has Eustace break into insane laughter when he starts turning into a chicken. |
| 451 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheCrumpets'' episode "Acne Dents Happen", the Crumpet children's adoptive cousin Cordless does this after snatching back his radioactive acne cream from Li'l-One. |
| 452 | * ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': In "[[Recap/DarkwingDuckS1E51StressedToKill Stressed to Kill]]", a super-stressed Darkwing cackles as he tries [[FlyCrazy to blow up a fly.]] |
| 453 | * In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'', Marvin removes Dodgers' brain and attempts to link his own brain to it to learn Dodgers' secrets. The machinations of Dodgers' subconscious drives Marvin to madness, resulting in this. |
| 454 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode "The Duck Knight Returns", Jim Starling descends into this [[spoiler:after his SanitySlippage caused him to become this series' Negaduck]]. |
| 455 | * ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': Eddy does this in "Little Ed Blue" after realizing why [[BewareTheNiceOnes Ed was angry and antisocial all day.]] [[spoiler:There was a pebble in his shoe.]] |
| 456 | ** In "Cleanliness is Next to Edness", [[NeatFreak Edd]] goes insane after failing to find a place to bathe and getting dirtier with every attempt. He snaps out of it, eventually. |
| 457 | * In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' Meg is sometimes portrayed as deranged or disturbed out of [[DesperatelyCravesAffection a desperation for love and attention]]. In one scene Chris asks her what kind of gifts boys have gotten for her and she describes imaginary gifts given to her by her imaginary boyfriend prince William before laughing crazily and running out of the room in tears. |
| 458 | * In the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Flintstones]]'' episode "A Haunted House is Not a Home", Fred is set to inherit his recently-deceased kooky uncle's fortune if he spends the night in his uncle's creepy estate, and if anything happens to Fred, his uncle's staff will receive the inheritance instead. The staff tries to kill Fred (and by extension, Barney, who spends the night with Fred). It turns out, however, that his uncle is not dead, but had faked his own death as a prank, which apparently his staff was in on the whole time. In retaliation, Fred, [[SlasherSmile smiling sadistically]], takes out a HUGE cleaver and chases after his uncle and staff with it, cackling crazily as he does so. |
| 459 | * In ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2002'' "The Price of Deceit", a flashback shows Keldor's transformation into Skeletor. Upon seeing his new face in a reflection, Skeletor bursts into a fit of maniacal laughter signifying his transition from charismatic EvilOverlord to insane superpowered monster. |
| 460 | * ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'': When Simon thinks he's [[spoiler:killed Grace]], [[VillainousBreakdown he has a total mental breakdown]], CryLaughing maniacally as [[spoiler:his passenger number rapidly climbs up far enough to completely cover his face.]] The laughter stops ''really'' fast when he realizes [[spoiler:Grace survived]]. |
| 461 | * ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', being rather AxCrazy, has moments like this. |
| 462 | * On ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', when Lucius suffers a VillainousBreakdown, he begins laughing wildly before completely cracking. |
| 463 | * WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes -- WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck. |
| 464 | * Fluttershy in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "The Best Night Ever". |
| 465 | ** Twilight Sparkle as well, in "Lesson Zero". |
| 466 | ** Nightmare Moon, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAp8DFBb7XM arguably]]. |
| 467 | ** Spike's turn: "Owl's Well That Ends Well". |
| 468 | ** The Mane-iac, who is essentially a pony version of the Joker. Pretty much every single line is either just her laughing or punctuated by her laughing. When she gets tangled up in her mane, it makes it appear as if she's in a straitjacket. |
| 469 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' episode "Detective Mindy", [[ItMakesSenseInContext Jet looks for a black hole in the trash can]]. He puts it over his head and starts laughing like a madman. |
| 470 | * Hexadecimal from ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' enjoys her {{evil laugh}}ter, but, being pretty crazy, she tends towards Laughing Mad on more than one occasion. Then she becomes outright ''insane'' in season 3, due to a combination of [[spoiler:being nearly destroyed in an explosion and subsequently rebuilt, her [[WhiteMaskOfDoom mask]] becoming cracked, and being [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured and used as a weapon]] by Megabyte.]] After this, pretty much ''every time'' she laughs is an example of Laughing Mad. (At least, until [[spoiler:Bob defragments her head]].) |
| 471 | * [[AxCrazy Ren]] of ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' is often portrayed as this. |
| 472 | ** Most extreme cases include when he was under the effects of the happy helmet (complete with a full set of grimaces), and when he was beating George Liquor up with an oar in a banned episode, "Man's Best Friend". |
| 473 | * Stu of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' does this during his SanitySlippage moment in the episode "Angelica Breaks A Leg." |
| 474 | * [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Lisa Simpson]] briefly went Laughing Mad when seeing her new braces in the episode ''Last Exit To Springfield'', of which it was a direct homage to Jack Napier's reaction to his new appearance due to botched reconstructive surgery ''and'' falling into the vat of chemicals. |
| 475 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgflCE7zRpc When Sideshow Bob ran for mayor and won, he burst into a maniacal laugh.]] |
| 476 | --> '''Kent Brockman:''' [[DevilInPlainSight And look how happy he is!]] |
| 477 | ** Homer, after a [[ItMakesSenseInContext trampoline pushes him over the edge]], tries and fails to destroy it with a circular saw. |
| 478 | -->'''Homer''': Alright, alright, you win for now. But someday you'll RUST! ''[[SanitySlippage RUST,]]'' [[SanitySlippage I TELL YOU]]! ''[Descends into deranged, maniacal laughter]'' |
| 479 | ** Also one of the show's Halloween episodes, which features a certain painting, the mere glimpse of which drives people mad: |
| 480 | -->'''Homer''': They're dogs, and they're ''playing poker!'' ''[Screams, more deranged laughter.]'' |
| 481 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', when [[spoiler:Harry Osborn thinks that he was blacking out and becoming the Green Goblin]], one of his many reactions, besides depression and anger, is semi-maniacal chuckling. |
| 482 | * Another Spider-Man Example. In fact, another Harry Osborn example. In the [[WesternAnimation/SpidermanTheAnimatedSeries 90's Spider-Man show]], when Harry finds out that The Green Goblin [[IAmYourFather was his father]], he goes into a laughing fit (his mind wasn't too stable at the moment, he was talking to his father's ethereal head from another dimension and all that... long story...) and then decides to "fulfill his destiny" and become the second Goblin. |
| 483 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' during the season 4 episode Bummer Vacation. "I've been WAITING for you Patrick!" |
| 484 | ** Squidward during the episode "Squid's Day Off" after he goes crazy from paranoia as he's nailing his door shut. |
| 485 | * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Log Date 7 15 2", having [[HeelFaceTurn just committed treason against Homeworld]] by disobeying and [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu insulting Yellow Diamond]], [[spoiler: Peridot is having the FreakOut of a lifetime, alternating between fits of horror and fits of manic giggling while replaying the phrase "traitorous clod" over and over again on her tape recorder. When Steven asks if she'll be okay, she turns around with a manic grin and delivers an equally deranged [[BluntNo "No!"]]]] |
| 486 | ** In "Say Uncle", after a sequence in which everyone's heads float around the Earth and return to their necks, Pearl responds by laughing insanely, then falling over. |
| 487 | ** In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'' episode "Fragments", a DrunkWithPower Steven does this in his CurbStompBattle with Jasper. |
| 488 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' "Nevermore" when Robin and Starfire go onto the roof of Titans Tower to tell Raven about her door being broken down, she breaks out into hysterical laughter which sounds just like something out of VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry, then she just abruptly stops and goes inside. |
| 489 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'' Season 2 Episode 20, [[spoiler:Qilby goes completely nuts after merging with the Eliacube]] and laughs maniacally during his TeleportSpam at the tail-end of his fight with [[spoiler:Adamai]]. |
| 490 | * The animated adaptation of ''Literature/WyrdSisters'' has Felmet going more and more insane, and as he slips further off the slippery slope he sure lets out a lot of maniacal laughing. |
| 491 | [[/folder]] |
| 492 | |
| 493 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 494 | * In the famous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment Milgram Experiment,]] which was meant to test how far normal people would go when obeying the orders of someone in a position of authority,[[note]]the experiment involved the participant quizzing another individual, who is to pretend that he is receiving painful electric shocks with each wrong answer; the participant is led to believe that the shocks are real[[/note]] one of the subjects, an encyclopedia salesman, went into fits of hysterical laughter when he heard the screams of pain from his supposed victims, to the point where the session had to be discontinued. He wasn't a sadist, or insane; the laughter was just an indicator of the extreme emotional stress he was under. |
| 495 | * There's a condition called Pseudobulbar Affect, in which the patient loses the ability to regulate emotional expression. They may collapse into a sobbing heap at the sight of a kitten, show absolute terror at their loved ones or laugh hysterically and uncontrollably at the loss of something dear to them. This is involuntary. |
| 496 | * Inappropriate and/or involuntary emotional expressions (including laughter) are a common feature of schizophrenia. It is considered a key symptom of the disorganized subtype, where it often alternates with a [[TheStoic complete lack of emotional expression]]. |
| 497 | * According to legend, UsefulNotes/{{Nero}} was laughing [[WhileRomeBurns while watching Rome burn]], though we only have his enemies' word on this. It's unclear whether he was even in the city at the time. |
| 498 | * According to Suetonius,[[note]]see the above caveat about Nero[[/note]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}} Caligula]] once broke into a laughing fit at a banquet. When two of the guests asked him what he was laughing about, the emperor said, "What do you suppose, except that at a single nod of mine both of you could have your throats cut on the spot?" |
| 499 | * Music/JohnLennon broke down into hysterical laughter upon hearing that his friend Stu Sutcliffe had died. He did the same thing after his mother had passed away. |
| 500 | * Many people use laughter as a defense mechanism, in order to deal with some terrible thing. |
| 501 | ** A minor variation common in real life is to chuckle or smile when nervous, upset, or unsure. |
| 502 | * Shellshocked veterans after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI happened to laugh madly in some cases. One soldier discharged from the US army broke down laughing for most of his remaining life after being ordered to drive his tank over soldiers who were NotQuiteDead. |
| 503 | * There are some cultures that use laughter as a means of dealing with emotionally heavy moments, e.g. Australia and the UK, which can seem like this trope to those unfamiliar with this. |
| 504 | * This trope is one of the things that led to the HeinousHyena stereotype. Hyenas make a sound very similar to human laughter when stressed, which made humans assume they were evil, eerily human-sounding creatures laughing maniacally as they ripped prey apart. |
| 505 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Main / LaughingMad
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
