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Evil Laughter in Art

Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2022 2:57 pm
by Smaragd
Inspired by the forum discussions pointing to attempts of desperate measures, I would like to start a topic where we gather attempts to express the evil laugh of Satan. You can point us your favourite or noteworthy laughters of diabolical tone from music (for example, metal music has quite alot of these), movies, books etc. This topic is meant to be a place of grounding in times of desperation.

I'll start with a classic:

Black Sabbath - Am I Going Insane
Here the possible grounding effect of laughter is at juxtaposition with the laughter of insanity.

And one of more obscure nature needin a bit of interpretation: Abruptum - Evil EP's ending. I'm approximately pointing to the following 1½ minutes from the timestamp. I take the synth voices to be a sort of evil laugther, as they ridicule the more or less set tempo of the other instruments, while there's a kind of chuckiling frequency and rhythm here and there. At the same time there's clarity to the sound reminiscent to a starlit sky, as if the "laughter" comes from a pure source. I'm not trying to be witty for wits sake, the piece with such interpretation just notes the problem of managing to recognize the laughters meaning while sunken in the obscure astral atmosphere. Sometimes the synth rhythms follows better the overall tempo, and those places seems like the starlight reaches the place obscured by the darkness.

Re: Evil Laughter in Art

Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2022 4:52 pm
by Insanus
I have considered starting a similar topic many times :) Certain evil laugh is a grotesque experience where some kind of feeling of power overwhelms the conscious mind and somehow the joy of excess with the horror of broken limits communicate as one sublime thing. Another recognizable is the despair-laugh that somehow binges with it's own pain in some kind of self-destructive rage where again the grotesque excess is the thing. Ganondorf from Wind Waker can give his interpretation of the latter. :D

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NUzsVy9HdL4

Re: Evil Laughter in Art

Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2022 5:09 pm
by Nahumatarah
Skeletor Laughing is my personal favorite. It's the most mischievous one I can think of. It used to be the ringtone for my then-girlfriend for several years.

Runner up is Palpatine, and honorary mention goes to the sardonic laughter of Pazuzu from Exorcist.

EDIT: Spelling error

Re: Evil Laughter in Art

Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2022 5:28 pm
by Nefastos
Ah, what a nice thread! :lol:
Nahumatarah wrote: Sun Jan 02, 2022 5:09 pmSkeletor Laughing is my personal favorite.

I was searching the same from YouTube at the same minute you posted this. But while Skeletor is a definite classic, I consider his evil laugh being a bit hollow – which might be understandable, since he only has a skull instead of proper head to resonate the sound.

Checking my phone in order to see whether I would have Davaeorn's nice little evil laugh to present – I hadn't – I noticed that I had also recorded a bit of my own as well. The particular example sounds pretty disturbing though, since at that point there really was no mirth in it at all. (Recording that pain was the only dark humour I managed, it's not in the laugh itself, which echoes only total suffering.) While a jolly good evil laughter would be Mercury on top of Saturn, there's also that point where Mercury is totally absent. "To laugh that madman's laugh" was an often heard line from my ex wife. As in "please don't laugh that madman's laugh out in public." Like I recently said in another discussion, when the stress becomes unbearable, there finally is nothing you can do except laugh.

People who haven't tried this out most likely do not know how much such a use of voice can actually help one's mind to release the tension. It really is uplifting, quite similar to singing out loud.

Re: Evil Laughter in Art

Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2022 11:15 pm
by Polyhymnia
I have posted this song at least once in the music thread, but it's fitting here.

After all, "madness reigns in the Hall of the Mountain King"

Not only is there actual laughter, but the main riff sounds exceptionally "mischievous" to me. And Oliva's heavy vibrato somewhat mirrors the repetition of sound found in laughter. It all hits the climax for me at about 3 minutes in! Epically Satanic.

And maybe not actually Satanic, but it's still a pretty good evil laugh scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7edeOEuXdMU

Re: Evil Laughter in Art

Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2022 11:22 pm
by Polyhymnia
OH!! How about the entirely of King Diamond's "Them," particularly the bonus track

That is one evil grandma.

This entire album has always flashed images in my head of little demons just giggling and rubbing their hands together.