History Main / BedsheetGhost

* The [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Ghost Wizard]] from ''{{The Adventures of Doctor McNinja}}'' looks like this... with a white mustache and a wizard's cap.

** The series also has literal Bedsheet Ghosts in ''[[YoshisIsland Yoshi's Island]]'' and the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series.

** The series also has literal Bedsheet Ghosts in ''[[YoshisIsland Yoshi's Island]]'' and the ''PaperMario'' series.

!!Examples

* ''TheMuppetChristmasCarol'''s version of The Ghost of Christmas Past, which also somewhat resembles a [[GhostLights Will'O Wisp]].

* ''TheMuppetChristmasCarol'''s version of The Ghost of Christmas Past.

* Parodied in a comic strip this troper has seen. In it, a girl tries scaring off her brother by using the old BedsheetGhost trick but fails as the brother replies, "What's so scary about a bedsheet on your head?" Then she walks out from the room. Next thing you know, she finally gets to scare her brother... by putting a ''pillow'' over her head.
* Brazilian character [[MonicasGang Penadinho/Bug-a-booo]] and other ghosts from the same series (though they just look like white humanoids).
* In the graphic novel Odd Is On Our Side (a tie-in to the OddThomas novels) a young girl killed by poisoned candy appears to Odd still wearing her bedsheet Halloween costume.

* This was lampshaded in the film version of ''{{Beetlejuice}}''. The Maitlands actually are ghosts, and have the ability to manipulate their appearance into grotesque forms, and manipulate material objects as well. However, they're completely invisible to everyone [[spoiler:except Lydia]], so in an attempt to scare the Deetzes out of their old house, they put on bed sheets so they would be visible. This obviously doesn't work. [[spoiler:but does reveal their existence to Lydia, who realizes they're ghosts only because they don't show up on film.]]
** It doesn't help that they use floral patterned designer sheets of the Deetzes.
* In the horror film ''{{Halloween}}'', killer Michael Myers briefly dresses as a bedsheet-ghost while toying with one of his victims. Over top of the sheet, he's wearing the glasses of the victim's boyfriend (whom he just knifed), causing her to think it's him.
* Played for drama in TheSixthSense. When Cole is sitting in his bedsheet fort and the ghost of a vomiting girl suddenly appears and frightens him, he runs away, inadvertently covering her with the bedsheet. It's only when he gathers the courage to go back and pull the sheet off, that he realizes that the ghost is not scary at all, but just a poor, sick little girl who needs his help.

* In CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory, a child Willie Wonka goes dressed as a bedsheet ghost for Halloween. When his sheet is lifted, we find he probably picked this costume because his [[BracesOfOrthodonticOverkill headgear]] wouldn't fit in any other costume.

* It's [[OlderThanDirt older than gravedirt--]]:''Julius Caesar'': "The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets."

*** There's something darkly comical about it all. The protagonist, Parkins, is a po-faced academic who has very definite views on ghosts, so it's deliciously ironic that the thing that terrorizes him chooses to manifest itself in a bedsheet. Not that it makes the story any less terrifying.

* One of the solve-it-yourself mysteries of the ''Clue'' books features Mr. Boddy's six guests all dressing up as ghosts to try to scare each other, which makes them all feel a little silly-until they notice there are ''seven'' ghosts in the room, and one of them doesn't have feet...

** It should be noted, though, that the Lethifold is black, not white, and it doesn't float at all, it just slithers through the ground.

* In the series 3 episode of {{Father Ted}}, The Mainland, Father Noel Furlong wears a bedsheet when he confronts Father Ted and Dougal in the caves.
-->Father Noel (in bed sheet): Ooooo! Oooooo!\\
Ted and Dougal: *scream*\\
Father Noel (throws off bed sheet): Ted!\\
Ted and Dougal: *scream louder*
* In the British kids' show ''The Ghosts of Motley Hall'', the ghosts want to scare off some people who've been hanging around their house, but the problem is they're invisible to most humans. Solution: one of the ghosts covers himself with an old bedsheet. In other words, a ghost [[LampshadeHanging dressing up as a ghost]].
* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Willow was originally going to go out on Halloween in a sexy outfit that she and Buffy made. She chickened out and, mostly to cover up, went as a Bedsheet Ghost instead. Then everyone's costumes were enchanted to turn them into the things they were dressed as. Cue scantily-clad ghost Willow.
-->'''Willow''': I'm a ghost!\\
'''Giles''': Yes. Um... the ghost of ''what'', exactly?
* In ''BigBadBeetleborgs'' the girl turned invisible in one episode, she tried convincing someone she was a ghost by donning one of these and watching them laugh at her... till it was pulled off and there was no-one underneath.

*** Also, rollerblades.
--->'''Carla''': You're a monster.
--->'''Janitor''': Hey! Do you know how messy kids can be? This place has been spotless since ''the ghost'' showed up.

* In his stand-up days, WoodyAllen told a story about how he attempted to go to a costume party dressed as a bedsheet-ghost... in the DeepSouth. Four guys in "ghost costumes" drive up to him and tell him to get in. HilarityEnsues.

[[AC:{{Videogames}}]]

** When Pac-Man chomps the ghosts {{Hanna-Barbera}}'s AnimatedAdaptation, they get new ghost suits in the appropriate colors out of Mezmaron's closet.

* The Sega Genesis version of ''{{Ghostbusters}}'' uses this in the form of white ''tablecloth'' ghosts. As in: the tablecloth floats off the table, comes toward you, and "ties you up" if you don't eliminate it.

[[AC: Web Original]]

* The [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Ghost Wizard]] from ''{{The Adventures Of Doctor McNinja}}'' looks like this... with a white mustache and a wizard's cap.

* ''{{Peanuts}}''. Charlie Brown's favorite Halloween costume. Of course, he always ''botches'' said costume with too many eye holes.
** Oddly enough these holes are all rendered as black dots of ghostly nothingness rather than simply showing whatever part of him or his regular clothes that's underneath.

* While not using an actual sheet, at least one villain (the magician, Bluestone the Great, in the episode "Hassle in the Castle") in ''ScoobyDoo Where Are You?'' had this appearance.

-->'''Tucker''': Nice costume, dude! Are those flaming bedsheets?
-->'''Fright Knight''': Flaming bedsheets '''''of death!'''''

--->'''Cartman''': Wow, Chef must be really scared of ghosts!
* In the episode "Boo!", SpongeBobSquarePants tries to go as the FlyingDutchman and scare everybody, but his costume consists of a sheet and wooden clogs. Because of his square shape, everyone called him a "haunted mattress", so he asks Patrick to shave his head down to a round shape. He goes to the Halloween party and almost gets away with scaring all his friends, but he is found out eventually. Just then the ''real'' Flying Dutchman arrives and, insulted by such a pathetic impersonation, unmasks him. He takes one look at him and runs screaming into the night, followed by everyone else, and eventually Patrick. Seems [=SpongeBob=] has been sheared down until there was nothing left but his ''brain''.

* In the made-for-TV movie ''[[YogiBear Yogi's Great Escape]]'', Yogi dresses up as a BedsheetGhost to scare away the trapper that's after him. The trapper even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this: "Here comes some uninvited laundry!"

[[AC: Music Video]]
* One is shown in Deadmau5's music video [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rHngwaJKUE Ghosts n' Stuff]]. [[OurGhostsAreDifferent It can't go through walls]], [[TheDeadCanDance but it can get tattoos and dance]].

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Because of this, by the 1800s, theatres realized they had to create a new, recognizable look for ghost characters, one that would allow the actor to enter and leave silently. Perhaps inspired by traditional burial shrouds or depictions of ghosts as ethereal, misty creatures (both attributes predating the Bed Sheet Ghost), actors began to appear draped in white cloth to portay ghosts.

As a result, the white sheet has become pop culture's visual shorthand for spirits of the dead, and a bedsheet with eyeholes is the standard costume for fictional characters trying to dress like ghosts. This idea dates back at least to the Post-U.S. Civil War period--the white robes and hoods of the Ku Klux Klan were intended to look ghostly. (This Klan connection, in turn, is why the pointy-headed Bedsheet Ghost is no longer a popular design.)

* A suprisingly scary scene in the third ''{{Scream}}'' film features this. When the killer attacks Sidney in the set recreating her Mother's death, under a sheet covered in blood no less!

* OscarWilde's ''The Canterville Ghost'' is the original popularizer of this trope.

*** There's something darkly comical about it all. The protagonist, Parkins, is a po-faced academic who has very definite views on ghosts, so it's deliciously ironic that the thing that terrorises him chooses to manifest iself in a bedsheet. Not that it makes the story any less terrifying.

** As the ''Ghost who'' ''''hates'''' ''spills''! Woooooohooooooo!

* Paul from ''{{pictures for sad children}}''. He actually has JacobMarleyApparel (and he's oddly physical, to boot), but he wears a bedsheet over it because he [[http://www.picturesforsadchildren.com/index.php?comicID=2 "wanted to look ghosty"]].

* ''{{Peanuts}}''. Charlie Brown's favorite costume. Of course, he always ''botches'' said costume with too many eye holes.

* CliveBarker's ''Confessions of a (Pornographer's) Shroud'' uses this as an intentionally ridiculous core premise of what's otherwise a relatively serious horror story -- although some read the story as a black comedy instead. The main character manages to come back as a ghost by transferring his spirit from his body to the shroud used to cover him at the morgue.

* It's [[OlderThanDirt older than gravedirt--]]:''Hamlet'': "The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets."