Click

Click was the eighth short story found in the book, Tales to Give You Goosebumps. It was also adapted into an episode of the TV series.

Plot
Seth Gold gets a remote that can literally control the universe. At the end, he presses the power button, only to shut off the power of the world. The remote is now out of batteries, meaning he is now alone forever.

Television Episode
A teenage boy named Seth Gold mail orders a new remote control, the Verona XG-20 Universal Remote, which works on both his stereo and TV. Then, when his younger sister starts to annoy him by practicing her dancing class in the room Seth is in, he jokingly points the remote at her and hits the PAUSE button. To his amazment, she really does pause! He is then warned by Tony Hutchins, the spokesman of Armchair Electronics, that the remote "is not a toy!"

Undeterred, Seth begins to test out the remote in other ways, such as changing the color contrast of his fish, rewinding and fast forwarding people, and retaliating against bullies by changing the channel on them, all the while ignoring Tony's repeated warnings. Seth shows his best friend Kevin the remote, who thinks it's cool until Seth uses it to cheat on a test. Kevin objects to Seth abusing his power, but Seth doesn't listen.

Later on, Seth pauses his whole family so that they can stop nagging at him, but the remote begins to malfunction (due to Seth dropping the remote during a scuffle) and he can't un-pause his family. Seth and Kevin initially try to going to Armchair Electronics for help, but they can't contact or locate the company. As a last resort, Seth fixes the remote himself and manages to un-pause his family. Kevin suggests that they throw the remote away, as it's too dangerous. That night, Seth and Kevin throw the remote in a trashcan. As soon as Kevin leaves, Seth goes back to retrieve the remote.

The next day, after seeing that Seth still had the remote, Kevin tries to forcibly take it away from him, but Seth literally stops him. The remote malfunctions again, and Seth presses random buttons, hoping one would work against his friend. Finally, he pushes a button ( POWER ) and the world around Seth disappears, leaving him in an empty black void. He sees Tony there with him and Seth begs him for help. But the spokesman merely repeats that he warned him that the remote wasn't a toy and leaves the boy to his fate.

Television Episode Trivia

 * When Seth unfroze his parents and sister, wouldn't they have noticed how or when Kevin got there?


 * Tabitha Lupien (Jamie Gold) played Ginny Swanson in Season 2's Bad Hare Day.


 * Dan Warry Smith (Seth Gold) played Skipper in Season 2's Attack of the Mutant.
 * This episode is on the Shocker on Shock Street DVD.
 * This episode may have been the inspiration for the similarly-plotted 2006 movie with the same title which starrs Adam Sandler as a man who gains control of a magic remote that allows him to rewind and fast-forward different aspects of his life.
 * Clips of the Canadian game show Uh Oh! are shown on the television.