Tickling in books…..?

[Deleted member 289867]

I read Anathema by Keri Lake and there's a noticeable overuse of the word "tickle" throughout the book you can count them in every chapter, and one short instance where the main character gets tickled by her sister. It's a gothic fantasy, pretty gruesome, pretty erotic, but no actual tickling in the erotica part. The story itself is really good, though. I liked it a lot.

 

[Marvel_Tickling]

It comes up a couple of times in Sara Pascoe's debut fiction novel Weirdo, which seems to be a self insert. Considering what we think about her relationship with tickling.

 

[bluey1]

It's not in the movie, so probably a deleted/left-out scene. But in the novelization of Halloween 4: The Return Of Micheal Myers. Which I haven't read for a LONG time, and I am not sure where my book is, so I hope I remember it correctly.

At the start of the book/movie where Rachel (Ellie Cornell) and Lindsay pick Jamie (Danielle Harris) up from school, in the car, there's a line in the book, (as far as I can remember) that Jamie, I think tickles Rachel's ribs in the car.

My quotes are the best I can remember, without actually reading them.

Jamie - "I want to go trick or treating, like the other kids".
Rachel" - "But, I thought you didn't want to go Trick or Treating?"
That's all in the movie. But the novel adds in something like -
Jamie - "A girl can change her mind.... can't she?"
"And with that, Jamie reached around her little fingers catching Rachel's ribs and began to tickle, making her older sister let out a giggle and squirm in the passenger's side seat".

 

[Deleted member 289867]

Bringing this back because I found one! Paper Towns by John Green, the friends are on a long road trip and one of them constantly says he needs to pee. Everyone makes fun of him which makes him laugh, and he says not to make him laugh, because makes him need to pee more, so his girlfriend tickles his sides and he whines.

 

[natscott6282]

I did this all the time as a kid 😂

 

[Jone9242]

If you are into Epic fantasy, New Spring is a prequel novel to the Wheel of Time series which includes a reference to Moiraine being nervous about sharing a bed with her fellow Aes Sedai, Siuan, because Siuan knows she's very ticklish. There is also a past tense description of Moiraine training to cast spells while being distracted, including by tickling.

 

[Sunriseticklee]

I spent countless hours reading about tickling in old psych books in a university library where my mother used to work. I don't remember the names, but there were quite a few.

I do enjoy the reading about tickling... Especially true accounts.

 

[Navegazer11]

The Pool of the Black One, a 1933 short story by Robert E. Howard featuring Conan the Barbarian, has a mention of the pampered female protagonist of the story giggles when her sensitive toes contacts some rough sands on a beach.​

 

[natscott6282]

I spent countless hours reading about tickling in old psych books in a university library where my mother used to work. I don't remember the names, but there were quite a few.

I do enjoy the reading about tickling... Especially true accounts.

same!!!

 

[A/S/H]

So I wasn't around for when this originally came out, but apparently at one point Goosebumps was very popular. A couple of snack companies partnered up with R.L. Stine to include one of 3 original Goosebumps short stories. One of them is called Don't Make Me Laugh. It's literally all about tickling. Main characters are Luke and Josh, they call themselves the Laugh Police because they like to hold other kids down and tickle them until they cry and beg, because they think it's funny. They are abducted by purple aliens who have been watching them for a while. The aliens have not laughed in decades and demand the boys put their skills to use and make their king and queen laugh. But the king and queen are numb to it all. So they demand the boys be disintegrated as punishment. This scares them to tears, but the aliens start laughing, finding their crying and begging funny. Once they've had their laugh though they remember the reason they never laugh is because it hurts, and so the boys are sent to be disintegrated anyway.

So, uh, the lesson here is get consent or get disintegrated I guess lol

 

[LeatherRebell]

So I wasn't around for when this originally came out, but apparently at one point Goosebumps was very popular. A couple of snack companies partnered up with R.L. Stine to include one of 3 original Goosebumps short stories. One of them is called Don't Make Me Laugh. It's literally all about tickling. Main characters are Luke and Josh, they call themselves the Laugh Police because they like to hold other kids down and tickle them until they cry and beg, because they think it's funny. They are abducted by purple aliens who have been watching them for a while. The aliens have not laughed in decades and demand the boys put their skills to use and make their king and queen laugh. But the king and queen are numb to it all. So they demand the boys be disintegrated as punishment. This scares them to tears, but the aliens start laughing, finding their crying and begging funny. Once they've had their laugh though they remember the reason they never laugh is because it hurts, and so the boys are sent to be disintegrated anyway.

So, uh, the lesson here is get consent or get disintegrated I guess lol

Dear God that's a messed up ending 🤣

 

[Stargazy]

The protagonist in Something Wicked This Way Comes gets tickled close to death by a spell from the Dust Witch.

Surprised to see someone mention the scene in Something Wicked This Way Comes! I was kind of shocked that a weird almost abstract existential tickle scene was the whole book's turning point. Spoilers in the next paragraph -

The Dust Witch isn't even intending to tickle him, she's trying to stop his heart, but either the spell trying to find his heart physically tickles him, or he's just one of those people who are so ticklish all you have to do is wiggle your fingers in the air at them, which she is doing to make her spell. (He's a dad in his fifties or so, too, which makes it fun that he's still so ticklish.) He starts laughing because it tickles, and then keeps laughing because it's so absurd that the thing that's killing him tickles. He has this whole little existential moment about how life is absurd and he shouldn't be taking it so seriously and fearing death and age and the Dust Witch so much. And the Dust Witch doesn't know what to do with being laughed at, she's confused/affronted/cowed by it, and that gives him the clue he needs to save the day: that the spooky people in this book, who feed off fear of death, lose power when they aren't taken seriously enough. And he only learns that because he's ticklish! I was not expecting it at all in a book like this.

 

[A/S/H]

I have another one! Almost forgot, this one is a surprisingly old example. Back when Tales From The Crypt was just a black and white comic series they came out with a story called "The Last Laugh". It involves a grown man who spends his whole life pranking random people. He goes to see his doctor for a stomachache. When the Doctor asks what happened the Prankster reveals he pulled the worst prank in his life just now. He bought hunks of raw and bloody horsemeat and stuffed them in kid's clothing. He takes it over to the train tracks where other kids play, and as the incoming train passes by he throws the meat at the tracks, tricking a bunch of boys who are playing by the tracks into thinking one of them has just been ran over. The boys run off and the Prankster is satisfied, claiming he almost laughed himself to death as a result. Hearing this story, the Doctor gives the Prankster pills to take for his stomachache, and has him come back the next day for a follow-up.

The next day the Doctor indirectly reveals to the Prankster that as a result of his prank, one of the boys assumed it was his little brother he forgot about while playing. He tried running home but was struck by a car. His little brother was actually being bathed by his mother, and she hears the commotion outside. Wailing at the sight of her dead son, she forgets about the little brother who's only 3 years old. He drowns in the tub, and after discovering her second boy dead, the mother dies of a heart attack right then and there.

The Doctor then reveals this was his family. They are all now dead because of his prank. The capsules he gave the Prankster were full of tiny fish hooks. He then straps the Prankster to a table, and brings out a machine with whirring feathers. He tells the Prankster, "You said you almost DIED laughing, now you will!" Final panel is of the now-insane Doctor watching as the Prankster is literally tickled to death. The Cryptkeeper then makes it clear the Prankster does not survive.

I wonder who thinks of this kind of stuff sometimes lmao

 

[TMF Jeff]

The book The Cement Garden has an extensive tickling scene in it, as does the movie adaption.