GIGGLING GHOUL

Real Name: Charlie Chuckles

Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Earth-88326) human ghost

Occupation: Haunting ghost;
   formerly clown

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Desert Scream, Famine, Pestilence, Ponquadragor. Watt Dowelrod

Enemies: Charlie Chuckles the Third, Ghostbusters (Ray Stantz, Peter Venkman), Ecto-X, Slimer

Known Relatives: Charlie Chuckles the Third (grandson);
   presumably Charlie Chuckles the Second (son) (see comments)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Ecto-Containment Unit, Ghostbusters HQ, Manhattan;
   formerly Chuckles Novelties skyscraper, Manhattan

First Appearance: The Real Ghostbusters#4 (7th May 1988)

Powers/Abilities: The Giggling Ghoul was a ghost, unable to be harmed by most regular means thanks to his essence being composed of ectoplasm. He originally inhabited a possessed Jack-in-the-Box, giving him a degree of physical form; this body was larger than a human and ran around on four insectoid legs. He told jokes that triggered a hypnotic state wherein the victim, i.e. anyone who heard the quip, was beset with paralyzing laughter. 

Height: Variable up to at least 7'
Weight: Unrevealed; possibly none
Eyes: Yellow
Hair: Red

History:
(The Real Ghostbusters#4 (fb) - BTS) - Charlie Chuckles was a clown, reputedly the best in the world, so good he could get a laugh out an accountant.

(The Real Ghostbusters#4 (fb)) - A proud man, Charlie's ghost felt that his grandson, the owner of Chuckles Novelties, was disgracing the family name by selling cheap novelties and jokes, so he possessed one of the company's new range of Jack-in-the-Boxes, emerging in front of his grandson, and went on to rampage through Chuckles Novelties HQ causing havoc, paralyzing the staff with paroxysms of laughter by telling terrible, terrifying jokes.

(The Real Ghostbusters#4) - The Ghostbusters were called in to stop him, and sent Peter Venkman and Ray Stantz to the scene. After learning his identify from Charlie Chuckles the Third as the unfortunate man was being carried out to an ambulance, the pair confronted the spectre on the top floor of the Chuckles Novelties skyscraper. Despite wearing earplugs in an effort to block out the ghost's hypnotic jokes, the pair began to fall prey to the haunting's power, so in a last ditch effort Venkman asked their foe if it knew any fat jokes, aware that Stantz was sensitive to comments about his weight. The ghost took the bait, but hearing jibes about his size enraged Stantz, breaking him free from the mesmeric laughter that had inflicted him. He blasted the fiend with his proton pack and then captured him in a ghost trap.

(The Real Ghostbusters#13) - The ghost was transferred to the Ecto-Containment Unit in the basement of Ghostbusters HQ. The Ghostbuster's files listed him as the Giggling Ghoul.

(The Real Ghostbusters#12/2 (fb)) - Ray Stantz was accidentally sucked into the Containment Unit, so the Ghostbuster's spectral pal Slimer was sent in to retrieve him. While there Slimer was taunted by some of the trapped spirits, including the Giggling Ghoul, who asked him if he was getting into the spirit of things.

(The Real Ghostbusters#15 - BTS) - When Ashura the Destroyer confronted Ghostbusters' secretary Janine Melnitz and falsely claimed to have already destroyed the Ghostbusters, one of his lies was that he had killed Peter Venkman while disguised as the Giggling Ghoul.

(The Real Ghostbusters#150) - With all of the other Ghostbusters out on a mission, Peter Venkman was left to mind the base and handle some much overdue cleaning. Deciding to go out instead, Venkman assigned the work to Ecto-X, a robot that Egon Spengler had originally designed to catch ghosts but later reprogrammed to be a maid. Seeking to clean the basement and needing a power socket to plug in the vacuum cleaner, Ecto-X unplugged the Containment Chamber from its power source, despite the concerns of resident ghost Slimer. Without power several spooks blew a hole in the unit and escaped Containment (see right, clockwise from top left: Desert Scream, Ponquadragor, the Giggling Ghoul, Pestilence and Famine of Quelzatalcum's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Watt Dowelrod, with Ecto-X and Slimer bottom left and right respectively), and immediately attacked Ecto-X. To save the day Slimer flew through Ecto-X's head, his ectoplasm triggering the robot to reset to its previous ghostbusting settings, something the Giggling Ghoul insisted was "not fair." Ecto-X rapidly recaptured Ponquadragor and Watt Dowelrid, so the other spectres, the Giggling Ghoul included, decided to rush it simultaneously. Ecto-X moved to plug the containment hole with its own body. When the ghosts hit it, there was a huge explosion. Slimer was launched clear, and Ecto-X destroyed; whether the remaining ghosts, Giggling Ghoul included, were imprisoned once more, destroyed or dispersed, remains unrevealed.

Comments: Created by John Carnell, Andy Lanning and Tim Perkins.

   As well as his three stories, the Giggling Ghoul also appeared in a "Ghostbusters' Fact File" in Real Ghostbusters#13. He's also on the covers of Real Ghostbusters#37 and 100, but not in the actual issues.

   The Giggling Ghoul teaming up with Watt Dowelrod (introduced in Real Ghostbusters#100) even briefly is somewhat ironic, since Watt, formerly an Elizabethan jester, is the ghost of the worst joker in the world, while the Ghoul is allegedly the ghost of the greatest.

   This profile was completed on 08/07/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary's celebratory event to represent The Real Ghostbusters.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Giggling Ghoul has no known connections to:

Charlie Chuckles the Third

Charlie Chuckles the Third was the grandson of professional clown Charles Chuckles, and the owner of Chuckles Novelties, a company that sold novelties and jokes. The business was successful enough to have a skyscraper HQ building. However the spirit of the original Charles Chuckles felt his grandson was disgracing the family name and so returned to haunt the company. Charlie was one of his grandfather's victims, and was in the process of being taken to hospital for treatment for his uncontrollable laughing when the Ghostbusters arrived to exorcise the Giggling Ghoul.

--The Real Ghostbusters#4

images: (without ads)
The Real Ghostbusters#13, p18, pan1 (main image)
The Real Ghostbusters#4, p1, pan5 (manifesting)
The Real Ghostbusters#150, p3, pan2 (escapees)
The Real Ghostbusters#4, p1, pan4 (Charlie Chuckles The Thrd)

Appearances:
The Real Ghostbusters#4 (7th May 1988) - John Carnell (writer), Andy Lanning and Tim Perkins (art), Richard Starkings (editor)
The Real Ghostbusters#12/2 (27th August 1988) - Dan Abnett (writer), Brian William and Bambos (art), Richard Starkings (editor)
The Real Ghostbusters#150 (27th April 1991) - John Carnell (writer), Andy Lanning and Stephen Baskerville (art), Richard Starkings (editor)

First Posted: 09/28/2026
Last updated: 08/07/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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