History Main / BedsheetGhost

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocong pocong]] of Indonesian mythology are spirits of recently deceased people who appear wrapped in their funeral shroud. As most Indonesians are Muslims, and Islamic funerary rites require the deceased to be wrapped in a white shroud, this gives them the appearance of this trope. They are sometimes known as the "candy ghosts" because of the way the shroud is wrapped by ropes at the top and bottom, which actually figures into the mythology; the ropes are supposed to be untied after the bodies are lowered to the grave under the belief that it will allow the souls to enter the afterlife, and failure to do so may risk the bodies to rise up as pocong.

* ''A Day In The Life Of A Super Hero'' has a villain known as the Ghost who's described as resembling "a kid with a sheet thrown over him and holes cut in it for his eyes".

* ''VideoGame/MatchingtonMansion'': Rex dresses up as one in an ill-conceived attempt to scare Tiffany into selling him the mansion.

* Myth/EgyptianMythology: The Egyptian Book of the Dead makes reference to an obscure deity known as Medjed, who for some reason is depicted as a person wearing an enormous veil that covers everything but his eyes and legs, and makes him look like a man in a cheap ghost costume.

** And let's not forget that one in the opening.

* ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'': In "Let's Get Invisible", after becoming invisible Noah covers himself in a sheet to tease his brother.

* The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' features a characteristically dark version in [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6096 SCP-6096]], a bedsheet ghost which is normally passive but every so often picks out a person at random, hunts them down and kills them. Unlike a number of similar SCPs, it isn't outwardly indestructible, amazingly strong, or otherwise empowered; rather, it can't be stopped because ''everyone'' who interacts with it, besides the target themselves, is compelled to help it reach its victim, and nobody is able to bring themselves to take actions which would hinder or harm it. In fact, the SCP Foundation itself was ''compelled to give it a dedicated MTF team specifically to help it,'' with its containment procedures simply being to let it track down its target when active and then do damage control after because it's fundamentally impossible to try and contain it. Even attempting to disband the MTF would count as attempting to hinder it now, so the agents are stuck.

* The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' features a characteristically dark version in [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6096 SCP-6096]], a bedsheet ghost which is normally passive but every so often picks out a person at random and hunts down and kills them. It can't be stopped because anyone who sees it on the way to kill the next victim is magically compelled to help it, and only the people it's attacking are able to deliberately try and kill it. The Foundation have basically given up on stopping it for this reason and it can leave containment whenever it wants.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/GarfieldSpecials Garfield's Halloween Adventure]]'' featured the "laugh at the bedsheet ghost, oh no there's nothing under the sheet!" scenario, as well as a few variations where other monsters dressed up as bedsheet ghosts.

While the Bedsheet Ghost is rarely played straight as an attempt to ''scare'' the audience, he can still work as a mournful, sympathetic figure. The imagery also seems to have evolved into the design of ghosts as disembodied cloaks or robes with hooded faces, who still tend to be treated as spooky figures due to the whole "Grim Reaper" parallel.

* The HalloweenEpisode of ''Series/DuckDynasty'' features Uncle Si dressing up as one (complete with his hunting cap and blue Tupperware tea cup) and acting like he's a ghost when the Duck Commander crew is busy turning the warehouse into a "haunted house" attraction for the kids. However, he ends up breaking character (and the sheet gets pulled off) once Jep, who earlier in the episode considered ''Film/{{Ghost}}'' to be the scariest film of all time, brings up that film again.

* The page image comes from a ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' Sunday strip where the duo is having an argument over who should get more bed sheets. Hobbes steals all of them after Calvin says that he, as an animal, should be sleeping on the floor, and when Calvin goes to retrieve them Hobbes pounces on him with the covers over his head. The strip ends with Calvin asking to his parents to let him sleep in their bed.

* ''WesternAnimation/DorgVanDango'': Yooki is one of these. In her original form (seen briefly in the intro) she looked like a dirty patchwork bedsheet. However her disguised form still looks like a sheet, this time much cleaner with no visible stiches, a purple frill along the bottom and some GirlishPigtails for good measure.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' has a surprise cameo from the last person you would expect pulling this. [[spoiler: [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]].]]
* The ghosts in ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat'''s HalloweenEpisode are of this variety. Although the ghost that Eek befriends is more like a party balloon.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries'' featured a YetAnotherChristmasCarol episode where Aunt Zelda as the Ghost of Christmas Present was dressed as one of these. Unfortunately for her the only sheet she could find was a blue-colored one with a pink flower pattern on it and according to Gem it belongs to her mother.

If ghosts in Western media aren't [[JacobMarleyApparel dressed as the deceased did in life]], then chances are they're dressed as the deceased did in death. Originally, this meant grave clothes and a long, [[WhiteShirtOfDeath white]], flowing burial shroud. Of course, if the same reasoning were applied to modern burial customs, this would mean that most contemporary ghosts would dress in their Sunday best, but the trope is [[DiscreditedTrope seen as far too cheesy in the present day]] to be updated in such a logical manner.

Like many images common to modern culture, the Bedsheet Ghost began as a theatrical convention that has long [[ForgottenTrope lost its context]]. In Shakespeare's day, it was common to portray ghosts in armor on stage (this is why Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'s father is often depicted in a full suit of armor in historical depictions.) In Elizabethan England, armor was no longer worn in combat, and the costuming convention at the time was to dress characters in contemporary (Renaissance) clothing. So, by dressing a character in armor, the character was given an out-of-date look, and recognized as a ghost. However, as special effects became more elaborate, it became common to lower the actor playing the ghost onto stage with a pulley. Of course, the heavy armor clanked loudly, and by the 19th century, the sight of an armored ghost on stage [[{{Narm}} was more likely to bring laughter than fear]].

If ghosts in Western media aren't [[JacobMarleyApparel dressed as the deceased did in life]], then chances are they're dressed as the deceased did in death. Originally, this meant grave clothes and a long, [[WhiteShirtOfDeath white]], flowing burial shroud. If the same reasoning were applied to modern burial customs, it would mean that most ghosts would dress in their Sunday best, but the trope is [[DiscreditedTrope seen as too cheesy in the present day]] to be updated in such a logical manner.

* The Creator/MontagueRhodesJames story "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" has... ''something'' that manifests itself in the sheets of the unused bed in the narrator's hotel room. It's implied that the thing has next to no physical form of its own.

* A few examples from ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}''...
** In the first HalloweenEpisode "Candy Bar Creep Show," when the babies are hiding in Stu and Drew's makeshift haunted house among hearing Angelica and other trick-or-treaters about to enter, a sheet section of the tent falls onto Tommy, and the nearby electric fan that was blowing paper bats around gives the sheet-covered Tommy a more ghostly appearance. This manages to scare Angelica AND Grandpa Lou.
** In "Toys in the Attic," Grandpa Boris is trying to find Tommy and Angelica wandering their attic, which they think is haunted. The wind blows the attic window open and sends a white sheet flying onto Grandpa Boris. Naturally, Tommy and Angelica think he is a ghost, and Boris blindly trying to get around with the sheet over him doesn't help much either.
** Spoofed in the "Chanukah" special; as an attempt to try and defeat the "Meany of Chanukah," Phil suggests taking Tommy's white pillowcase and wearing it over his head to disguise as a ghost. It doesn't work, and Phil only ends up walking into a table leg.

* Paul ([[{{Catchphrase}} who is a ghost]]) from ''Webcomic/PicturesForSadChildren''. 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". He is, after all, also a little kid]].

[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* In Season 4 episode 27 of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'', Little M. goes around the city wearing a cheap ghost costume to scare people as part of Big M.'s evil plan to take over Planet Xing.
* In the ''Animation/NoonboryAndTheSuper7'' episode "The Gury Monster", Totobory dresses as one of these to scare the Gurys away from Noonbory's house.
* In ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf: Joys of Seasons'' episode 94, Wilie and Wolffy dress in cheap ghost costumes to scare the goats in the woods after they inadvertently interfere with Wilie's bravery test.
* In the ''Animation/SimpleSamosa'' episode "Dadi Ke Saath", Samosa tries to scare his friends by pretending to be a ghost, using this kind of costume when he does so. The trick is seen through by his friends pretty quickly.
[[/folder]]

* Great-Aunt Pneuma from ''Webcomic/GastroPhobia'' shows up like this.

* Paul ([[CatchPhrase who is a ghost]]) from ''Webcomic/PicturesForSadChildren''. 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". He is, after all, also a little kid]].

** In "''Gloria's Cafe''", Gloria opens up a cafe but she has to stop Officer Keys from closing it down as she doesn't have the proper paperwork for it. One of her attempts is trying to convice Keys the shop is haunted by having all the customers wear ghost costumes. Keys is fooled at first but soon realizes its a trick as none of the ghosts are saying boo.

* In ''Series/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 all of their costumes were enchanted to turn them into the things they were dressed as. Cue scantily clad ghost Willow.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Chelmsford 123}}'', Wolfbane attempts to persuade Aulus to pardon Badvoc by using this trope in combination with a JacobMarleyWarning; needless to say [[spoiler: it doesn't work]].

* Referenced in the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode ''Film/CaveDwellers'': when TheHero is fighting an invisible enemy, he tosses his cloak over the foe to reveal his location. Cue Crow: "Ah! Now they're ''really'' scary! Booga booga booga!"
** In the episode featuring ''Theater/{{Hamlet}}'', Crow and Tom try to be the ghost of Mike's father dressed up like this. Too bad all of Mike's relatives are still alive.

* Subverted in ''Series/PushingDaisies'' where in a flashback, young Ned is shown on Halloween in a sheet with fire engines on it.
** However, Chuck shows up in a white sheet later that episode.

* The Janitor on ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' dresses up as one of these to haunt pediatrics.
** As the ''Ghost who hates spills''! Woooooohooooooo!
*** Also, in-line skates.
---->'''Carla:''' You're a monster.\\

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': In "Trick or Treat, Freak," Hopper is making French toast for breakfast when Eleven manages to pull a JumpScare on him, wearing a bedsheet over her head in the manner of a ghost.
-->'''Hopper:''' Ahhh! Jesus....
-->'''Eleven:''' [[CaptainObvious Ghost]].
-->'''Hopper:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Yeah I see that]]...
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Seen in the SpecialEditionTitle of "Changing Channels" when the Winchesters are TrappedInTVLand, including a sitcom version of ''Supernatural'' showing Sam frightened by a bedsheet ghost he finds in a cupboard.