tw for this chapter - discussion of an actual murder and arson.
Who is Laughing Jack? Laughing Jack is an imaginary clown turned killer. He originally had fair skin and was very colorful, topping it all off with a cone nose. After being abandoned for over a decade, those, his colors faded and he became completely monochrome. Before being forgotten, Laughing Jack was sweet, innocent, and loved to play games; he was granted the ability by a guardian angel to reflect the nature of his owner. He later became a sadistic murderer to reflect his owner's change.
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(by Saiko Chan13-d)
The kind protector is no longer present in Laughing Jack, and he is instead a merciless murderer who enjoys torturing the very people he was placed on earth to protect– children. He can teleport and turn invisible, cause hallucinations and nightmares, and useses telekinesis to move objects. His body is not biological, and he is instead like a giant ragdoll or puppet, with stuffing and fabric beneath his clothes– which are attached to his body.
To hunt his victims, Jack will find young children, usually ones who come from broken homes or are experiencing big stressors in their lives as they are the most vulnerable. He'll pretend to be a kind imaginary friend and trick them into an allusion of safety. He'll cause mischief which will be blamed on the kid he is targeting – because what parent would believe it was an imaginary friend? – and slowly escalate to violence. Eventually he kills his victim and leaves them behind for their family's to find, as he only hurts children. (Some depictions may have him kill the entire family but that is not part of his murder objective.)
Although most refer to Laughing Jack with masculine pronouns (he/him), he is technically genderless. It could be just as correct to assign Laughing Jack gender neutral (they/them), feminine (she/her), or non-human (it/its) pronouns.
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Origins of Laughing Jack Laughing Jack was created by Steve Aikins, also known as SnuffBomb on DeviantArt, and published to said website on March 3, 2013. This story was simply titled "Laughing Jack," and it became so popular that Aikins posted a prequel titled "The Origin of Laughing Jack." This prequel explains how Laughing Jack came to exist and why he was so evil.
The Laughing Jack Murder In November of 2015, a 12-year-old girl from Elkhart, Indiana, killed her step-mom, Maria Torres, and burned down their shared home. The girl claimed that Laughing Jack made her do it, also stating that she had an "alter ego" and had been hearing voices for months. She went to her father for help, but it appears he didn't seek out professional treatment for his daughter.
The unnamed girl was diagnosed by doctors as having post traatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dissociative identity disorder (DID).
I'd like to make a quick note here that while her traumatic experiences and mental illnesses played a part in her actions, people who are plural (having DID, OSDD, ect.) are NOT more likely than anyone else to commit violent crimes. Do not use this single case as an example to stigmatize a large group of people; as someone who personally knows multiple people who are part of a system, or group of people in one body, they're some of the most understanding people I've ever met.
Summary of "Laughing Jack" In an unspecified year in the modern era, Laughing Jack visited a lonely suburban 5-year-old boy named James, under the guise of an imaginary friend. James told his mother, but she dismissed it as a "phase". One night, his mother had a nightmare, witnessing the souls of Laughing Jack's past victims in an abandoned fairground. The next day, Laughing Jack places James' action figures on top of his mother's nightstand, presumably as a way to taunt her. She questions James, but he simply tells her the truth, much to her disbelief.
Later, James receives a handful of candy from Laughing Jack in the garden. His mother notices this and demands him to tell her how he got it. James, again, tells her the truth, but she assumes that one of the next-door neighbors gave him the candy. Laughing Jack eventually kills Fido, the family dog, hangs its body on the kitchen light fixtures, and trashes the rest of the kitchen. He also guts its stomach open and replaces it with candy. The mother witnessed this and took her son next door, where she called the police. The police dismiss it as a robbery, but the mother refutes their assertions, claiming that all the doors were locked and none of the windows were open during the incident. She presumes that whoever did this was already inside her house prior to the incident.
They both return home and the mother decides to check on her son via the baby monitor. The mother hears a soft moan and enters James' room, where she sees her son nailed on the wall, disembowelled with his eyes gouged and tongue and teeth removed. She also sees Laughing Jack, in his true, monstrous form, who sadistically cackles at the sight of his "work". Having enough, the mother grabbed a knife and tried to kill Laughing Jack, but he simply vanished into a black cloud. This distracted the mother, causing her to accidentally plunge her knife into James's beating heart instead, killing him instantly. The police arrest her and send her to the Phiropoulos House for the Criminally Insane. She claims that being institutionalized is not that bad, despite noting that somebody (presumably Laughing Jack) keeps playing "Pop Goes the Weasel" outside her room.
Summary of "The Origin of Laughing Jack" Created by a guardian angel, Laughing Jack was initially a colorful Jack-in-the-box clown whose personality reflected the personality of his owners. He was later sent as a Christmas present to a lonely boy named Isaac Grossman in the 1800s.
Isaac then abandoned Laughing Jack after being sent to boarding school. Laughing Jack grew monochrome and emotionless as a result of his isolation. Meanwhile, Isaac grew up to become a cold-hearted serial killer who kidnapped, tortured and murdered several innocent neighborhood residents. Although horrified at first, Laughing Jack's personality soon emulated Isaac's evil personality. One day, Laughing Jack was accidentally released and he appeared to be a taller, darker and demonic version of himself. Resentful of his traitorous owner, he tortured and killed Isaac with the same weapons he used on his victims.
As time passed, Laughing Jack visited several other children, most of them lonely or neglected, and pretended to be their imaginary friend. However, he would eventually torture and kill them all, with their souls trapped in the nightmarish realm of an abandoned fairground. To make matters worse, the song "Pop Goes the Weasel" plays in the background forever, tormenting them. His victims are only said to be freed when The Second Coming of Christ occures.
Sources: 1. Art above by Madpattii from DeviantArt. 2. Dictionary.com, Laughing Jack, published March 1, 2018, accessed January 25, 2022. 3. Creepypasta Files Wikia, Laughing Jack. 4. Villains Wiki, Laughing Jack. 5. NYDaileyNews.com, Indiana girl, 12, killed stepmother because creepy clown character ‘Laughing Jack’ told her to do it: reports, by Tobias Salinger, published November 19, 2015.
