The actor who played Voldemort has literally no idea where that iconic laugh came from

Every villain needs a memorable evil laugh, whether it’s Cruella de Vil laughing maniacally about skinning puppies (in retrospect, that’s really messed up) or Ursula the Sea Witch LOLing about ruining Ariel’s life, a villain is not complete without the laugh. One of the most memorable evil laughs is, of course, Voldemort’s — sorry— He Who Shall Not Be Named’s, when he awkwardly chuckles in the final film.

Everyone remembers that moment, since it’s inspired GIFs and memes galore (the ultimate sign of cultural significance today), and YET, Ralph Fiennes (aka Voldemort), doesn’t remember creating the infamous laugh!

How is this possible?, you might ask. The answer is: WE DON’T KNOW! That laugh in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) is one of the funniest Voldemort moments (aside from the Harry Potter Uptown Funk parody), and it’s baffling to think that Fiennes didn’t craft that laugh intentionally.

Here’s the laugh, in case you forgot:

Warning: SPOILER ALERT (but also, if you haven’t seen all the Harry Potter movies or at least read the books, you might want to re-evaluate your priorities).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfQS59vPqFw?feature=oembed

On that particular moment, Fiennes told the Irish Examiner, “I can’t actually remember what that scene was or why I did it.” He continued to explain his motivation for his portrayal of Potter’s arch-nemesis:

"It wasn’t useful going into it as evil. I just thought, ‘I want to destroy Harry Potter, he is really annoying me and the world will be a better place without him in it.’"

According to Fiennes, he tried to bring an “air of melancholy” to the character, which actually makes a lot of sense. Maybe it was that special touch of sadness that made the evil-laugh so memorable.

Regardless of whether or not Fiennes remembers the weirdly funny-yet-dark scene or not, we still owe a lot of LOLs and giggles to him for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWegh6TRx6c?feature=oembed

Thanks for the memories (and the memes), Voldy.