Normally, raucous laughter would earn you a glare from a librarian. But this fall, the D.C. Public Library wants to hear your creepiest cackles, terrifying titters, and hair-raising howls.

It’s time for the second annual Evil Laugh Contest.

DCPL will be accepting 10-second clips of your spookiest laugh until midnight on October 21. According to the library, submission is open to screams from anyone or anything — “your grandmother, your screaming baby, your pet guinea pig, all of your cousins, your school principal.” The library will compile entries into a “showstopping” YouTube video and award trophies in categories including best vocals, art direction, and dramatic performance.

If you need inspiration for your performance, you can watch last year’s video, which features (among other spooky sights) a puppet, a confused family dog, and a finicky main character who went off script and repeatedly yelled “BOO” in the middle of a corn maze … so there’s really very few guidelines for your guffaws.

Feel free to pull out your artistic license (it’s probably in your wallet behind your library card!) and get creative with your shrieks.

The Evil Laugh Contest isn’t DCPL’s only user-submitted contest. Last summer, the library gave residents a chance to utter (perhaps a much needed) guttural scream in its inaugural dinosaur-roaring contest. Checking out this past summer’s winners might give you just the chuckle you need to warm up your vocals for this October’s entry.