Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Things that irrationally terrified you as a child

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Things that irrationally terrified you as a child

    I don't think I've ever forgiven Jackie Wilson for Reet Petite - mind you, seems I was four when the video came out, so perhaps unsurprising that singing disembodied lips would have left me screaming at the TV.

    #2
    Hah, it's no Nick Park that's for sure. That video was on all the time when the song came out, how did you manage to watch dempsey's den?

    Comment


      #3
      Like I've said before, the kite in Pinky and Perky

      Maybe the disembodied emotionless eyes and lips thing again?

      Comment


        #4
        I loved that video, but was a bit older.

        Anyway, my copy of Scarred For Life - Volume Two - Television in the 1980s arrived last night, so I will soon be reminded of a few terrors.

        Comment


          #5
          Fenella the Witch appearing out of the floor on Chorlton & the Wheelies.

          Comment


            #6
            When I was about five I was on a playdate (it wasn't called that back then, but that's what it was) with a girl from school. When her mother said that it was time for supper I burst into tears and hid behind the sofa. I can clearly remember that even at the time I couldn't explain why I was scared of supper, and had she said tea or dinner I would have been perfectly fine, but back then it really freaked me out.

            Comment


              #7
              Irrationally.

              Comment


                #8
                Timing is key.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
                  Hah, it's no Nick Park that's for sure. That video was on all the time when the song came out, how did you manage to watch dempsey's den?
                  My sister was four years older than me, so of course she'd have been watching it anyway.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I hosted a family quiz on Zoom on Christmas Day and included a family-specific round, including the question, "Which of these did [my son] used to be absolutely fucking terrified of?"

                    A) When the baby-faced sun appeared in Teletubbies
                    B) When Postman Pat flew a remote controlled plane
                    C) When the fireman fell into the pond on Trumpton
                    D) When they gave Duck a shave on Thomas the Tank Engine

                    ...to which he cried foul in that the answer should have been E) All of the above. (He was the most terrified of B though).

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Burglars waiting upstairs when I went up on my own after dark, I was fine if I went up with with someone else, or if someone was upstairs already.

                      The opening credits of the ancient cartoon Mr Magoo, when Magoo looked through the two O's at the end of his name,his eyes got magnified, that freaked me out.

                      Standing on snails, I still don't like doing it, but growing up it was close to a phobia. The sound almost made me physically sick.

                      I had to be removed from the cinema during Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when I went into hysterics over the Child Catcher, but I doubt if I'm the only one who that happened to.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Not sure whether I was "irrationally" terrified, but Mr. MacHenry in The Magic Roundabout scared the shit out of me.

                        I thought the lower half of his body was the rear end of his three-wheeler. I was about twenty-eight when I realised he was standing on the running board and that his clothes were the same colour as his vehicle.

                        In fact, anything depicted as half-human half-something else makes me do it in my pants, even now. Last year, Wall's brought out Cornetto Mermaid (all pink and blue ice cream and flower-shaped sugary bits, with fish-shaped women on the wrapper). When I sold that shit to seven-year-old girls, I wasn't snivelling and dribbling and burying my face in The Lady I Walked To The Registry Office With's bosom and telling her to make it go away, but I wasn't far off.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          There was a BBC minidrama called Maelstrom that was a sort of ghost cum murder mystery thing that featured a room full of china dolls that were apparently moving around by themselves when not being observed. To this day I can't sleep in a room with a doll.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Big old wooden wardrobes.

                            There was one in the corner of my bedroom that I particularly hated. I was concerned that if there was a monster in there I wouldn't be able to see it if it emerged when the room was dark, but I was also scared of seeing a witch on a broomstick outside the window if I kept the curtains drawn together. Monster inside or witch outside - I plumped for the latter which was why I slept with my curtains drawn apart long after the fear had dissipated.

                            I was also terrified of the wardrobe at the top of the staircase in my granny's cottage, but that was mainly because the wardrobe legs were riddled with woodworm and it could have toppled over and flattened me had I been going up the stairs when it fell.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Peter Woods, the newsreader
                              The Open University ident

                              Comment


                                #16
                                What was the ident that had a ten or twelve 'beat' song with the Parliament buildings in the background? It was on the end of Benny Hill or Dave Allen or something.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Maybe The Prisoner, now that I think about it.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by WOM View Post
                                    What was the ident that had a ten or twelve 'beat' song with the Parliament buildings in the background? It was on the end of Benny Hill or Dave Allen or something.
                                    Sounds like Thames.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Noseybonk, although I will argue to the death that there is absolutely nothing fucking irrational about that.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post

                                        Sounds like Thames.
                                        Remember it myself from the start of some programmes that used to be shown on RTE, maybe the Best of Tommy Cooper, perhaps?

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Anyway, if you want irrational, here's an advert for Duckhams Hypergrade, "The engine's choice":



                                          I can't say I'm all that happy about watching it now, TBH. "If an engine could choose its own oil" it would be fucking petrifying, you weird voiceover bastard.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            The five-note musical theme from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

                                            I didn't see it at the cinema, it must have been used in passing in a documentary or similar on the TV. It stuck in my head and petrified me, as if just hearing it again (even being reminded of it and setting the earworm off) would prefigure an alien invasion.

                                            Odd child.
                                            Last edited by Auntie Beryl; 13-01-2021, 14:08. Reason: typo as ruddy usual

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                                              Peter Woods, the newsreader
                                              Then you must still shit yourself when you see Juergen Trittin on German telly. He's a ringer for Peter Woods.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by Diable Rouge View Post

                                                Remember it myself from the start of some programmes that used to be shown on RTE, maybe the Best of Tommy Cooper, perhaps?
                                                Minder is the one that sprngs to my mind. Also Rainbow.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by treibeis View Post
                                                  Then you must still shit yourself when you see Juergen Trittin on German telly. He's a ringer for Peter Woods.
                                                  True.

                                                  Franz Muentefering would have scared me as a child.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X