Air date: May 4, 1962
Ventriloquist Jerry Etherson (Cliff Robertson) is performing his act with his dummy Willie somewhere in New York City. After he's done, Jerry goes back to his dressing room and begins to drink heavily from a liquor bottle he'd hidden in a drawer. His agent Frank (Frank Sutton) comes in, growing upset that Jerry has resumed drinking. Jerry tells Frank that he drinks to handle the stress of putting up with Willie, who he feverently insists is alive and frequently talks to him. Frank does not believe Jerry's claims that his dummy apparently has him at his mercy, and instead suggests getting some psychiatric help.
Jerry decides that he is going to perform with a different dummy he has dubbed Goofy Goggles for his next performance, locking Willie inside a trunk. However, this new act isn't nearly as successful as Jerry's performances with Willie, and this prompts Frank to tell Jerry that he's quitting. Jerry doesn't care, saying that he's leaving for Kansas City to try to get away from Willie, upon which Frank tells him that he'll still have this delusion everywhere he goes unless he deals with it here and now. While standing outside the back door to the theater, Jerry hears faint whispers of Willie's voice. He sees the dummy's shadow and continues to hear his voice until a coworker from the theater walks up and asks if anything is wrong. Jerry invites her for a drink, but does so nervously and eccentrically, thereby causing the woman to become frightened and run away.
As soon as she leaves, Jerry hears Willie's voice again and runs back into the theater. He enters his darkened dressing room, opens the trunk, and throws what he believes to be Willie on the floor, brutally smashing it to pieces. When he turns on the light, he realizes that he actually destroyed Goofy Goggles, whom he was going to use in his future acts. He can't understand how he could have been mistaken, until he sees Willie sitting on the couch, laughing at him. Jerry asks Willie how he can be real when he's made of wood, prompting Willie to reveal that Jerry himself gave him life. Realizing the truth, Jerry lowers his head as Willie cackles crazily.
The episode then cuts to a club in Kansas City, announcing the next act: "Jerry & Willie". As the act begins, the camera slowly rotates to the front, where it's revealed that Willie, having mysteriously become human, is now the ventriloquist, operating a dummy that looks suspiciously like Jerry.
A Funny thing happened on the way over to the Tropes tonight:
- The Alcoholic: Jerry became a heavy drinker when he first became convinced that Willie was alive. As a result of his binge drinking, he's missed 110 performances, all of which Frank had to cover for him. Jerry tells Frank that he drinks in order to cope with the stress regarding Willie.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Willie succeeds in his plot to take over the act, having turned himself into the ventriloquist and Jerry into the dummy.
- Bittersweet Ending: Jerry and Willie swap places as the ventriloquist and his dummy, but their act continues to generate bucketfuls of laughs.
- Bookends: The episode opens during Jerry's act, where he and Willie are the respective ventriloquist and dummy. The episode wraps up with another performance, only now their roles are reversed.
- Cassandra Truth: Jerry desperately tries to convince Frank that Willie is alive and out to get him. At Frank's insistence, he's gone to numerous psychiatrists trying to convince them of the same thing, but they all diagnosed this belief as schizophrenia.
- Create Your Own Villain: Jerry asks Willie how he can be alive when he's a dummy made of wood. Willie tells him that it was him who made him what he is.
- Demonic Dummy: Willie, the titular dummy, who's fed up with his role and wants to take over the act.
- Dutch Angle: They're used extensively after Jerry starts hearing Willie in his mind and seeing his shadow while leaving the theater.
- Equivalent Exchange: In the final scene, Jerry and Willie have switched places, so that Jerry has become the dummy and Willie the ventriloquist. In his closing narration, Rod Serling notes that Jerry has gone "from boss to blockhead."
- Evil Laugh: Willie cackles maniacally when Jerry comes to the realization that it was he who gave Willie life.
- Laugh Track: One of them is used for the scenes where Jerry performs his act.
- Meaningful Background Event: Throughout the scene in Jerry's dressing room, after his first performance, Willie subtly changes position every time he's out of frame. Jerry clearly notices it a couple of times before Frank arrives, but it continues occurring even throughout the men's conversation.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jerry collapses in defeat after Willie tells him that he is the one who brought him to life.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Inverted. Willie is Jerry's not-so-imaginary enemy.
- People Puppets: At the end, Jerry has been transformed into a ventriloquist's dummy controlled by the now-human Willie.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Willie explains to Jerry that it was him who made him alive.
