User Reviews

I grew up in the 90's & loved anything Horror related so i obviously loved the Cool & Creepy Nickelodeon series Are you Afraid of the Dark?, a perfect mix of fun & scary & a huge piece of Nostalgia from my childhood.

The Tale of Laughing in the Dark introduced us terrified kids/Teens to the scariest villain of all the series, ZEEBO the clown!!! This episode is like a mini Horror movie, it's really well directed & a creepy atmosphere. That early 90's look & feel is all there that's why i get so much Nostalgia from especially this episode, the 90's colourful fashion is fun to look at & the production/sets look excellent especially for the night time fun fair scenes & Zeebo's house of Horror lol.

This is my all time favourite episode of the fantastic series, i loved the darker & scarier tone of this episode, it feels very creepy & Zeebo was terrifying to me as a youngster.

The acting of the teen boys is good & fun & the story is very good, in fact i always wanted a full length feature film to spin off from this episode, a proper Zeebo movie!!! That would've been AMAZING. A couple of teen boys dare each other to go into a creepy fun house & steal the red rubber nose off of a model of a creepy clown called Zeebo but little do the guys know that the legend of Zeebo is true & he's not dead yet.

Anyway I'm a huge fan of this episode & the Zeebo character. A great little mini Horror episode in a fantastic kid-friendly Horror series.

"Pick the right door and you'll be free, pick the wrong door and there he'll be..." This is easily one of the most fun and popular episodes, and kind of a mini-legend of this wonderful series, and for good reason! When I first saw this many years ago it seriously gave me the creeps. I found it just so eerie...all the scenes in the spookhouse with the brightly-coloured toy-box room of doors, and the Zeebo statue which still looks pretty twisted and scarifying to this day, and the smoke around the corner of the house, the footprint in the spilt chocolate pudding, and the balloon under the door, and the phone call with the menacing high squeaky voice - at the time I found it all downright chilling stuff! I truly wish it still did, it's fun to be scared sometimes, but it's still a great little corker of an episode, and I still really enjoy it a lot. For what it is I think it still displays a decent amount of atmosphere at certain points, mostly in the sequence where the little jerk steals the round red nose from the Zeebo statue. It's very hard to notice, but if you look closely at it just before he grabs the nose, you can see the barely perceptible motion of the statue shaking its head, now that is creepy! Also most frightful is the brief image of the real Zeebo that can be glimpsed in the warped spookhouse mirror. Now I'm afraid that I really don't like the acting of little Christian Tessier as the lead, because he really sucked! Whenever this cocky and obnoxious ginger-haired brat isn't treating his only two friends like crap, the way he's walking around constantly talking to himself with this annoying endless running commentary on everything he does is just awful. I know it was a very early episode of the show and that the child actors would slightly improve as it went on, but je-sus! Not particularly a likable kid at all, can't say I'd have been too upset about it if Zeebo had got ahold of "Josh" and throttled him! I just love the way that, for the most part and where it counts, we never see any evil clown. It's a real nice display of subtlety for this show, he's basically built-up as this eerie force and is mostly left to the imagination, what you don't see is more scary. It's sort of like a circus version of "The Tell-Tale Heart". Zeebo the spooky dead clown must have made some kind of strong impression on some people involved with the series' production, because if you keep an eye out, he's referenced more than a few times down the line. A big plus for me is that it's got Aron Tager in it. I always enjoyed the stories that he appeared in. I never remembered him in this one though, as he is hard to recognise without the beard. His performance is very well done and sets up the mood perfectly. His character of the mysterious carnival barker is a little unnerving in his own right, with the sinister yellow teeth and gaudy-striped red and white outfit. And the way it's suggested in the story that he may in fact be Zeebo is very cool and intriguing... The closing scene with him as the sinister carny smoking his cigar and laughing to the spooky funfair music is excellent and wraps things up in a highly satisfying way. Brava, what a creepy clowny classic!!!

I will never forget this episode of AYAOTD. It ranks up there with one of the bests. By watching them over again i can thoroughly enjoy them more now in my 30s and really reeview what i'm watching.

Clowns are always somewhat creepy and scary in series and movies. This one especially since you don't really see it. The smoke The Laughs Makes it all worthwhile. The acting is weak in most parts but the story more than makes up for it

This one would likely fall in my top 15 Dark episodes. By watching them again and going along. I will make a list when i have them all in order and my favorite will be ranked. This one is a good watch and i recommend it!

Many AYAOTD episodes were amusing. A lot were entertaining. But I only felt like a handful were truly creepy. This was the only one I thought was terrifying. It is only the 2nd episode of the series' 90+ episode run but it gets my vote for the best AYAOTD episode ever. The acting isn't great. The actor who plays "Josh" is one of the weakest lead actors ever but what makes it the best is the clown. And the episode understands this principle: It's not what you see. It's what you don't see that scares.

The second episode "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark" is dramatically better than the first episode and the acting is way, way better. Plus, this episode has a creepy story to start with and it works because many people despise clowns. I personally don't, unless they are in scary movies or television of course.

This episode is about some kid who think he knows it all and decides to steal a clown's nose from the fun house. But the ghost of the clown, Zeebo decides to pay him a little visit.

Overall, this is an excellent episode because it was so creepy. In the final ten minutes, I had nonstop chills going through my spine. The acting may still not be the best, but at least it's way better than the previous episode and the kids are not annoying. I rate this episode 10/10.

Of the BEST decade ever. Nothing beats the 1990's.

This one got me when I was young the most!! Along with the red bicycle and frozen ghost boy

Scariest episode. Not better than goosebumps but still a good series.

This episode seemed to go for the all out scare. It was a really good episode, but it's problem was predictability. I could see the entire episode's plot at about 5 minutes into it, but this episode was well directed. It was really fresh and looked almost movie quality. The plot for this one is that a smart alec kid steals a clown's nose from a fun house and the clown comes to get it back. Another plus for the episode is the really creepy music. It was an excellent start to the series and I recommend you watch this. Guest starring Aaron Taggert as Zeebo (later plays Dr. Vink).

My rating: Pretty good episode. 24 mins. TV Y7

This episode had zero tension and zero payoff. I would rather not spoil it though I would have to explain the problem with this episode. Just know that nothing happens and the "creepy" parts are mere suggestion.

Filming Location : Montreal Canada , La Ronde in 1992 . Manège ; Le Tapis Volant , Le Moulin de la Sorcière , Bateau Pirate , Ovni etc ....

This episode is great, the Scares for a kid show are great here. There's plenty to enjoy in this very good episode. And clowns are always going to scare kids, and this episode does the job well. For 1992, the Costume and effects on Zeebo the Clown is also fantastic. So much colour and detail on the Clown it's brilliant. Clowns have always been the stuff of Nightmears, especially if you have a phobia of them, then you'll want to turn off this episode!

So the episode starts of with a group of kids enjoying themselves at a funfair, where they see the creepy features of Zeebo the Clown. Zeebo gets some backstory here. Which Is right up my street, I love episodes of TV when they give us some backstory, it's really fun and insightful. Zeebo is the smoking Clown, he loves to smoke. And that's how the building had burnt down, along side Zeebo who was trapped in the building, that's what we're expected to believe anyway.

The kids decide to do some research on the Clown, and then they go back to the funfair. They go to the Haunted house, and the ginger one is dared to go in, if he's not scared. We get some fun scenes here, some scary scenes too. A typical funhouse theme, where your intentionally scared. But the chlostrobhobia here is done incredibly well.

I love how the episode does focus on a topic, here it focuses on Zeebo the Clown smoking cigarettes and following the ginger guy until he gives his nose back, that leads to a great cliff hanger. Which I won't spoil, but this episode is cleverly written.

I love the natural elements to these horror stories. A group of kids sitting at a camp fire telling scary stories, is such a cool concept. Also cutting off pieces of the episode and sharing there thoughts is great, because it makes it seem more natural and a bit more grounded in reality. So all in all a perfect episode that I definitely recommend to anyone. Now time for my verdict.

Verdict,

9/10 A fun episode, that's solid throughout it's run.

Tale told by: Betty Ann

Betty Ann tells this creepy story about a boy named Josh who steels something from a fun house called Laughing in the Dark. beware for this episode contain CREEPY CLOWNS. honestly Zebo>Pennywise.

this honestly has to be one of the best episodes of any horror anthology series ever! (and i've seen them all...almost) This episode is so iconic. the purple cigar smoke is a nice touch and poor Josh losing all that pudding is such a tragedy. the setting is perfect and instead of relying on the setting for scares, they utilize it. They make the most out of the fun house, out of the clown, and there are some surprises in there so you don't know exactly where the plot is going. that's something i like about this show. the writers don't just settle for boring conventional plots because they think "they're kids, what will they care".

i look forward to more of Betty Ann's stories. i hope they're all as spooky as this one.

for some reason this was the 3rd episode on the torrent i'm using (uh oh) but out of the first 3 episodes this is the one that shows how good of a show Are You Afraid of The Dark truly is.