The Journal of Popular Culture published an essay by Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, communications specialist at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. In it, the author asks the question of the origin of ominous laughter in literature and cinema and understands why it has such a strong emotional impact on the viewer and why ominous laughter is so fond of the authors of pop cultural stories with black and white morality aimed at the ingenuous consumer.
Towards the end of the cartoon "Aladdin" the evil Jafar, the hero's rival for the heart of Princess Jasmine, finds and steals a magic lamp. He summons a genie and wants to become the most powerful wizard in the world, and after that he exiles Aladdin to the ends of the Earth.
If you do not remember this fragment, then Jafar appears in close-up before the audience. There is delight on his face. It has become so huge that it now takes up the entire screen and looks really menacing. When the plan succeeds, he breaks out into ominous laughter that echoes throughout the area.
This scene is a perfect example of archetypal evil laughter. Such a manifestation of violent delight from the contemplation of someone else's misfortune is a classic cliché in the works of mass culture. We can meet him both in children's cartoons and in thrillers and horrors of the 18+ category.
There are many examples of the use of the stamp: just remember the enthusiastic laughter of an alien from the movie "Predator" when he is about to blow himself up, taking at the same time Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or Jack Nicholson's chilling chuckle in the ending of The Shining. Or at least Vario's manic cry when he defeats Mario.
The Journal of Popular Culture recently published an essay by Jens Kjergard-Christiansen, communications specialist at Aarhus University in Denmark. In it, the author asks the question of the origin of sinister laughter in literature and cinema. In search of answers, he turns mainly to evolutionary human psychology.
In his essay, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen argues that all villains in popular culture have one thing in common - a disregard for social well-being. All negative characters are somehow isolated from the community. They pursue selfish interests, deceive and steal, giving the group nothing in return.
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Even today, this behavior is frowned upon. And in the past, it could literally lead to disaster, because people were much more connected than they are now. And the wrong behavior of one of the members could lead to the death of the entire community.
Because of this historical memory, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen says, we have a subconscious aversion to this behavior. To such an extent that we understand it quite naturally if, as punishment, the deceiver and the thief are expelled from the community or even killed.
However, even evil varies in scale. And the most dangerous and despised by people are not just scammers and thieves, but psychopaths-sadists who commit heartless acts for pure pleasure. These are the people we call truly evil. Because we do not see any way to justify or explain their immoral actions and, therefore, we believe that they deserve the most severe punishment.
Let's go back to laughter. Kjeldgaard-Christiansen is sure that devilish laughter is one of the characteristic and understandable signs that an irrational evil lurks in the character. What Schopenhauer called "open and frank delight" from the suffering of others.
Science fiction and horror writers understand this intuitively and assign evil laughter to the darkest characters in their fiction.
The power of villainous laughter is partly in its visibility. Usually this is not only a rolling shrill sound, but also an expression of pleasure on the hero's face, as in the case of Jafar.
Real laughter is difficult to fake: it arises involuntarily, the sound appears due to vibrations of the internal muscles of the larynx, which we cannot control. Laughter reproduced by volitional effort sounds strained and unnatural. Therefore, in the course of evolution for people, this sound has become a reliable social signal of a person's true reaction to what is happening.
We trust the laughter we hear. Unlike, for example, speech - the hero can lie very truthfully, even in children's works. Sadistic and malevolent laughter, unlike monologue or dialogue, leaves very little room for ambiguity. When we hear him, we do not doubt the truth of the villain's motives.
Such laughter is especially frightening because it completely contradicts its usual pro-social function of expressing affection. After all, laughter usually occurs spontaneously during a friendly conversation or other interaction and serves to strengthen social ties.
There are more practical reasons for using this sound in children's films and other mainstream products, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen explains. In early Nintendo video games such as Mario, the graphics were primitive and did not elicit an emotional response from the player.
Thanks to evil laughter, the creators managed to create a conflict between good and evil and encourage people to actively engage in the fight against the "bad guys".
In fact, this is the only communicative gesture of these vague anthropomorphic pixel creatures. However, it does its job perfectly.
Evil laughter, despite its initially powerful effect, has its limit. Rather, he gets in the way in complex narratives, where the feelings of the characters are multi-layered. Such a vivid demonstration of the pleasure of others' suffering makes it difficult to find deeper motives or the role of context and circumstances in the behavior of the hero.
However, the sinister laugh is perfect for stories with black and white morality. Therefore, it can be found much more often in products aimed at a young consumer who has not yet developed a subtle understanding of the world. Here he has no equal in terms of emotional impact.
Kjeldgaard-Christiansen's article is one of the most curious psychological studies of recent times. It raises many questions: for example, it would be interesting to compare the acoustic properties of laughter and find out which sounds we perceive the most evil. But, in my opinion, the first place in this rating will always belong to Jafar.
Adapted from There's a fascinating psychological story behind why your favorite film baddies all have a truly evil laugh, first published in The British Psychological Society's Research Digest