'Shock Theatre' a.k.a. Shocking Laffs was a set of 50 cards released in 1976 by Topps Chewing Gum Inc. and printed in the U.S.A. The set features colour photos from mainly Hammer Dracula films. Films that were covered in the Shocking Laffs cards were 'Dracula a.d.1972', 'Frankenstein must be destroyed', 'The Satanic rites of Dracula', 'Dracula has risen from the grave', and 'Taste the Blood of Dracula'.

The cards have a corny caption underneath and on the back an equally corny joke usually between 2 monsters, ghosts, witch doctors etc. Underneath these were a little description about the film scene featured on the front. The jokes and description were framed by cartoon monsters, the same on each card. Shocking Laffs background colour on the backs of the cards were either light red or dark red (light red printed on cream card and dark red on grey card).

The set of 50 cards did not have a number 17 but instead had 2 number 47 cards. There is also 2 number 40 cards both have the same photo on the front but a different joke on the back, there is also a rare American test set that features some cards with different photos on the front, about 1/3 of the set is different to the UK set, there are more Frankenstein pictures in this set.

Back