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Not all villains manage to develop an Evil Laugh. Some, for reasons known only to themselves, prefer to giggle. This can become highly disturbing, making the villain more evil or creepier than if they'd just done a straight-out "Muhahaha!" It's especially creepy when the villain is male, but a giggle from that otherwise dark and grim lady is also a very bad sign, since it's generally amusement at the prospect of hurting you. Badly. And Your Little Dog Too.
Oddly enough, it can work out for those bad guys who wouldn't be able to carry off a full-throated, maniacal laugh. Or even for those who can, as it provides some contrast between appearance and laugh. One suspects that these villains know exactly how unsettling it is...and derive much pleasure from creeping people out. See also Laughing Mad and The Hyena.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Kuroudo Akabane, the token Psycho for Hire from Get Backers sometimes pulls this off.
- Suigintou from Rozen Maiden.
- Mad Scientist Jail Scaglietti of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Even when Fate was bearing down on him with her BFS, he was still giggling his mad little giggle.
- Orochimaru. "Fufufufu" indeed.
- Kabuto's also been known to giggle on occasion.
- Mukuro Rokudo, from Katekyo Hitman Reborn! has an unsettling giggle similar to Orochimaru above.
- Recent chapters have shown that the First Mist Guardian Daemon Spade has a similar laugh to Mukuro.
- Belphegor's "Ushishishi" sounds like a giggle.
- Byakuran. He hardly even opens his mouth to laugh.
- Suzu giggles creepily in the Peacemaker Kurogane manga after going insane.
- Kogarashi from Kamen No Maid Guy, a Heroic Sociopath example. His chuckle, "kukuku", is normally used only by females, which only helps underline its wrongness.
- Naraku "kukuku"s with the best of them.
- Light Yagami by both Mamoru Miyano and Brad Swaile. Creepy indeed.
- Being the only markedly Axe Crazy villain in Mahou Sensei Negima!, Tsukuyomi does this often when fighting Setsuna, starting with an inhibited giggle as the fight beings, to a straight-out cackle as she gets carried away with the fight.
- In the manga, Fate does this a few times.
- Yami Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh, at least in the Japanese version. Especially back when he had a female voice actor.
- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni's main villain Miyo Takano practices this in the beginning before going completely psychotic.
- Creepy Child Maria in Umineko no Naku Koro ni. "Kihihihihihihi..."
- As well as Bernkastel. *giggle* *giggle*
- Let's not forget Ronove: "Pu ku ku ku..."
- Kururu from Keroro Gunso, as befitting of his status as a Jerkass and a Mad Scientist, has a creepy high-pitched "KU KU KU KU KUUUU!"
- Ashley in Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru.
- Hansel and Gretel of Black Lagoon.
- Masane from the Witchblade anime, despite being the protagonist.
- For another protagonist, try Lelouch Lamperouge, though Your Mileage May Vary as to whether or not he's a villain (he definitely liked to portray himself as one). Nevertheless, his laughter often starts as quiet chuckles until it evolves into full blown fits of laughter. In R2, Suzaku's laugh starts off as manic giggles when it finally clicks for him as to what he had done to the Tokyo Settlement.
- Izaya of Durarara!! (who incidentally has the same English voice actor as Lelouch) has a rather creepy, unhinged laugh/giggle he shows on a couple of occasions.
- Frieza from Dragon Ball Z does this occasionally with a distinct "Oh hohohoho" laugh in the Japanese version.
- DarkKnightmon from Digimon Xros Wars enjoys BOTH giggling and laughing.
- In the Japanese version of Our War Games, the only sound Diablomon makes is a creepy childish giggle.
- Zeus in King Of Thorn, and comes across as Faux Affably Evil.
Comic Books
- The Joker uses giggles when it suits him. Full on maniacal laughter when it doesn't.
- However, it's Frank Gorshin's take on the Riddler with his maniacal giggle on 1960s Batman series that is the real classic.
- Mark Hamill states that he uses these quite often to change up his version of Mr. J to keep it from getting stale. In an interview, he even admitted to practicing his giggles while driving on the freeway.
- Griffin in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. An already creepy characteristic is made worse by the fact it seems to be coming from nowhere.
Film
- Peter Lorre belongs at the top of this list. Even his characters that were not villains were creepy, due in no small part to his distinctive voice and laugh.
- Next is Richard Widmark's Psycho for Hire Tommy Udo from Kiss of Death, who likes sending old women in wheelchairs on short but exciting trips down the stairs. So much so that he inspired Frank Gorshin's portrayal of the Riddler in Batman.
- From Kill Bill, we have Gogo Yubari, normally a blankfaced psychopath in schoolgirl attire. Upon being asked to walk away from battle with the Bride, she gives a giggle that would be cute, if we hadn't already seen her utter insanity...and commences trying to beat the Bride up with a meteor hammer.
- Dr. Giggles...as should be apparent.
- Nazi Agent Major Arnold Ernst Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The moment he says "We...h-huh...we are...heh-heh...not thirsty..." in that breathy, stuttering sex offender's voice, you know nothing's beneath him. He lets more giggles rip when Indy and Marion are sealed in a tomb.
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Lao Che. "To the poison you just drank!" Cue chortles.
- Repo! The Genetic Opera has Pavi Largo. His giggle is so cute and effeminate, it's hard to believe he's actually something of a monster.
- The aptly-named "Giggler" from the entertaining Charles Bronson film, Death Wish 3.
- Asami from Audition giggles like a schoolgirl as she's cutting off her lover's feet with Razor Floss.
- Renfield in Dracula has one of the goofiest laughs ever, and man is it ever creepy.
- From The Road to El Dorado, Tzekel-Kan, the high priest. As he is already both comically hammy and scarily eager to perform human sacrifices and see the townspeople horribly killed, his giggling walks a fine line between creepy and hilarious.
- In Live and Let Die, this is, unsurprisingly, the case with Kananga's henchman Tee Hee.
- In King Of New York, Laurence Fishburne plays The Dragon as a giggling villain. It seems to be something between a nervous tic and an occasional psychotic break.
- In the 2010 Clash of the Titans, Medusa laughs frequently as she battles Perseus' squad.
- Robert Englund's mercinary character in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane giggles maniacally every time he makes an appearance.
- The Toon Patrol in Who Framed Roger Rabbit fit this trope, particularly Psycho, who has a very distinct giggle compared to the other weasels.
- Esteban Rojo from A Fistful of Dollars whenever someone is being tortured.
- Romero from Escape from New York, added with a heavy dollop of Ambiguously Gay.
- Calder from Prince of Darkness. A Scary Black Man with a Badass Baritone who makes high pitched giggles after being Touched by Vorlons makes for serious creepiness.
- Nigel from Rio.
- Whats Up Tiger Lilly features a giggling black thug in the Japanese film's first fight scene. His creepy laughter is carried over into Woody Allen's Gag Dub.
Literature
- The title characters in Duumvirate can do the Evil Laugh, but far more often they just do some version of this.
- This trope is at least half the reason many fans of Harry Potter hate Dolores Umbridge more than the series Big Bad. It's even worse in the movie version, thanks to Imelda Staunton's magnificent performance. There's tales of viewers with the powerful urge to somehow find a way to leap through the screen and punch her, if not worse.
- Zabulon, leader of the Day Watch's Dark Others in the Night Watch series, breaks into a giggle every so often. It serves as a warning sign that you've just screwed up in trying to counter his tactics, or that events have progressed into the category of utterly weird.
- Stephen King's Flagg is fond of this, especially in his Dark Tower incarnation. Coupled with his Slasher Smile and deathly pallor, he manages to creep the hell out of the poor bit-part villains in Wizard And Glass.
- Mr. Teatime, especially in the movie.
- IIRC, in one of the Discworld books Mad Lord Snapcase is described as having a Psychopathic Manchildish snigger that was more terrifying than any booming Evil Laugh.
- Also used in Equal Rites, where the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions induged in evil snickering during one of Esk's nightmares.
- At the end of The Pilo Family Circus, Kurt Pilo, undergoing a Villainous Breakdown and mutating due to badly-restrained anger starts chuckling and giggling to himself: "Oh hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo... Well now, well now, isn't this something? Someone's having a laugh... oh ho ho ha ha... There's, ha ha, traitors, and I'm..."
- Wilson Kemp from the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of The Greek Interpreter".
- In A Series of Unfortunate Events, Count Olaf and his girlfriend, Esme, become an extreme and ridiculous version of this in The Grim Grotto. Working on perfecting their evil laughs, they ended up with things like "Ha ha heepa heepa ho!" "Tee hee terrycloth!" "Giggle giggle glandular problems!
- From Robin McKinely's Sunshine: One of the vampires in Bo's gang giggles; it's how the titular character recognizes him in a later encounter.
- The men with no pain from the Inheritance Cycle madly giggle in battle.
- Shadowthrone from the Malazan Book of the Fallen is dramatic, partially insane (albeit Crazy Awesome) and prone to erupting into fits of the giggles at least once in most of his appearances. Though by the last book, while no one could ever really call him "good", he does prove rather less than villainous after it's revealed that he masterminded most of the plot's resolution in order to cement his place among the gods.
- Varys from A Song of Ice and Fire, who may very well not be a villain at all.
- In Ian Fleming's Live and Let Die, we see how Mr. Big's henchman Tee-Hee got his name, as he giggles while breaking James Bond's finger.
Live Action TV
- Doctor Who has The Master, a master of chuckling, chortling and guffawing.
- Anthony Ainley's Master was quietly chuckling to himself all through Logopolis and Castrovalva. Seeing as how that's when Tom Baker left the series and Peter Davison came on as the fifth Doctor, it was especially disturbing to many a fan.
- On Red Dwarf, the episode "Demons and Angels" had the crew meeting their "good" and "evil" selves; when playing Evil Lister, Craig Charles came up with an impressively scuzzy giggle.
- In the Firefly episode "Objects In Space" River Tam's maniacal giggling manages to freak out Jubal Early.
Jubal Early: You're somewhere on this boat. Somewhere with a com, playing games!
[Rivers deranged giggling filters over Serenity's com system]
Jubal Early: That's somewhat unsettling.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Warren Mears even giggles right before he shoots Buffy and kills Tara.
- The Mayor does this on occasion too.
- Gackt gives Mr. Brain's Takegami Teijirou a bizarre laugh that's a mix between Giggling Villain and Evil Laugh. The result is...creepy
 , to say the least.
- Jim Moriarty in Sherlock.
- Rumpelstiltskin does this a lot in Once Upon a Time. His Storybrooke counterpart Mr. Gold doesn't, though, even though he still remembers his true identity.
Theatre
Video Games
- KEFKA! KEFKA! KEFKA! (signature laugh)
- Even though whether or not he can actually be considered a villain is arguable, Joshua in The World Ends With You is the true antagonist of the game and spends a lot of his time giggling playfully.
- Konishi is a better fit. Uzuki too.
- Ramon Salazar, of Resident Evil 4
- Alfred Ashford from Resident Evil - Code: Veronica.
- His sister Alexia as well, though she tends to extend it into a full-blown Evil Noblewoman's Laugh as does Alfred himself when dressed as her. In Darkside Chronicles, she may even be a bigger one than Alfred.
- Larxene from Kingdom Hearts
- Seymour in Final Fantasy X giggles during the cutscene before you fight him on Gagazet. The effect has been described as fairly creepy.
- Especially when you consider what he was laughing to himself about: his decimation of most of the Ronso race, to Kimahri's face.
- Valtome from Fire Emblem 10 (Radiant Dawn), who lets out a 'Uwee hee hee' every chance he gets, just like Kefka.
- Achenar from the original Myst does a very psychotic-sounding version of this, and it's very unnerving when a big guy like him could easily pull off a full-blown maniacal laugh. Even more vaguely disturbing is the fact that it's his brother, Sirrus, who laughs maniacally.
- Vaati from The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords series does this almost every freakin' time he shows up.
- The second form of Majora's Mask seems to giggle (and dance, and, in general, act weird).
- The troper thinks they got a girl to do his giggle in Minish Cap, just to throw in some Viewer Gender Confusion.
- Zant in Twilight Princess turns out to be this after he breaks down in the battle against him.
- Akechi Mitsuhide, the resident Psycho for Hire in Sengoku Basara, though is also prone to evolve his giggling into a flat out Evil Laugh.
- Grandia II has it's fair share of laughing evils but evil brother Melfice will be giggling away throughout his fights with the heroes. Quite annoying as he's a hard boss fight and the battles can go on for a while.
- Long since driven completely insane by his own powers, Nicholas Wrightson of Psi Ops The Mindgate Conspiracy has a nasty habit of giggling madly- often through other people's lips.
- Hugh Bliss from the end of Sam And Max Freelance Police Season One.
- Yggdra Union has Nessiah, whose soft chuckle only manifests as a sign that his mind can't take much more strain. It's both heart-wrenching and really, really freaky.
- Lumine from Mega Man X 8 manages one as he gloats and destabilizes X, which mutates into a louder cackle before he's shot out of it and into Glowing Eyes of Doom territory instead.
- Marx from Kirby Super Star (Ultra) sounds like an evil Elmo when you're fighting him.
- Abyss, the final boss of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The boss' second form (after the titanic armored fiend but before the blood-red demon dog abomination) is an androgynous, humanoid puddle of green goo that giggles at you constantly while repeatedly juggling you with its energy cannon.
- Fawful, provider of the page quote above, has a very distinctive giggle. Whenever he declares he has chortles, you can expect things are going well for him.
- Tira from the Soul Series fighting games (one half of the time). It can be cute or annoying, depending on your bias.
- Arakune from BlazBlue, though sort of difficult to call a flat-out "villain" due to being so insane he can barely function beyond basic survival insticts, is prone to giggling like the loony he is, and especially so after blocking your blows.
- Hazama is also rather prone to giggling when his Terumi persona slips through.
- Albedo from Xenosaga. He can Maniacal Laugh with the best of them, but his giggles are even more chilling for how happy he sounds.
- Although you can't actually hear it (even in the voice-acted version), Admiral ZEX's "Hee! Hee! Hee!" still counts. His voice actor for the Japanese 3DO dub replaces it with a perverted cackle.
- Chortlebot in Wario Land: Shake It giggles before the Boss Battle, and before a good deal of his attacks. Okay, the name pretty much says it all, but it's one of the most annoying laughs in a video game ever.
- In the Diablo II Lord of Destruction expansion, Baal has a cutscene intro where he giggles just before casting a spell that blows Cessuron's guardian to bits. From there, it scales up into full-blown maniacal laughter.
- The Ace Attorney series has Calisto Yew, who spends most of the time laughing at Edgeworth's seriousness, even when he's accusing her of murder.
- King Watinga, the giant boss fly from the "Gnat Attack" game within Mario Paint, giggles if you die while he is on the screen.
- The Infected from Survival Crisis Z have several sound effects dedicated to them, but for whatever reason females only use a distinct giggle that they repeat over and over, and several female infected can layer the sound over one another. While it seems a case of Most Annoying Sound at first, playing the game for an extended period of time quickly takes it over to Hell Is That Noise territory.
- Team Fortress 2: This Pyro.
- Purge has a pretty impressive laugh in the Japanese version. And it's done by Akira Ishida, no less.
- Evil from Dark Blue in Custom Robo fits this perfectly. That creepy, high-pitched laugh that he makes every time you see him...
- In Enchanted Arms, the man who always follows the leader of the London Resistance. It's even Lampshaded by the party in that 'the Giggling Man' is the only thing they refer to him as. Oh, and no surprise, he and the Resistance Leader are evil.
- Done to great effect by the cunning Plexor in the third installment of Star Control.
- Lady Melodia from Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean giggles girlishly whenever things are going well for her, which is often.
- Touhou 11: Subterranean Animism has Parsee's little smile and music-note emote when she tells Reimu that it's Nothing Personal, she just wants to kill everybody who can travel freely across her bridge.
Web Comics
Web Original
Western Animation
- Professor Princess from Transformers Animated. All the time.
- From Beast Wars, Tarantulas is rarely heard without his creepy little chuckle.
- Waspinator qualifies as well, just not nearly as often.
- While Jafar from Aladdin has a full Evil Laugh once he becomes a sorcerer, his laughter shortly after discovering Aladdin has the lamp qualifies.
- Marceline from Adventure Time.
- The Clown in the animated adaptation of Spawn
- While the Changeling Queen In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic can certainly pull off a full blown Evil Laugh, she does giggle creepily when she is amused.
- Chef Hatchet from Total Drama is normally a chuckling villain; however, he has pulled off impressive evil laughs from time to time.
Real Life
- Black Widow Serial Killer Nancy Hazel "Nannie" Doss was known as "the giggling granny" or "the jolly widow", for her habit of giggling while talking about the murders she committed.
- Ina van der Vegt, a Chess Master does this everytime one of her plans works even better than expected.
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