Have you ever used sound effects?
Yesterday, I overheard a strange yet familiar sound coming from the hallway. It sounded like the noises my younger brother would make when we played pretend as kids. I doubt he would admit it, but I’m fairly sure that’s what he was doing – making up scenes and acting them out, sound effects included.
I have a friend who punctuates her stories with sound effects. She’ll make the screeching sound of tires or her interpretation of a bomb going off. It’s terrifically amusing and few people I have met do this beyond their childhood.
On the flip side, my older brother and I never made sound effects except for lightsabers. How do you convey a pantomime weapon is a lightsaber without making the noise, anyway?
Have you ever used sound effects in conversation? Did you use them as a child and dropped the habit you grew older? Do you only imitate certain sounds?
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I’m pregnant and I use sound effects when I talk for my baby ^-^
I use a kazoo quite often for effect! ;)
I will make a noise like a foghorn just as my opponent is about to throw a horse shoe.
It sets the mood for some intense competition. ;)
When my daughter was little I used to tell her a version of the Three Little Pigs with all the sound effects and voices and everything. I wasn’t so much telling the story as acting it, and she loved it.
When I was a kid I used to put a whoopie cushion on people’s chairs… I guess that would count.
My friend uses sound effects when he talks. Sometimes its funny to watch.
Not really no, the Québec way here when describing a sound effect is to make a word out of it, kinda like those old Batman shows.
I am good at making the screeching noise of a car slamming on the brakes. I do that one often. Like when I tell my kid to stop a moment and wipe some dirt off her cheek.
I do, often when describing the actions of certain machines or adding color commentary to some catastrophic occurrence.
For instance, you really adequately describe the sound of a chipped cutting insert going across some 15–5 alloy at 2000 RPM at 40in/min (unless you can imagine the sounds of bad brakes, machine gun fire, and a sodomized pig, and then combine those sounds in your head) but it’s a different sound than a good cutter that merely has the feed rate too high (more machine gun and no pig). It’s easier to impersonate them than to describe them, so I have fun with it. I turn it into a show, make a few gestures, and just have a ball.
@Symbeline Do any examples come to mind? I am quite curious.
@downtide That’s exactly the kind of thing I was thinking about when I asked the question. When I took Children’s Literature, we had to read aloud at the beginning of class. The majority of my classmates read in the dullest, driest manner imaginable. It was painful. My readings were more animated, but it was nothing in comparison to my professor who practically a cartoon (to be fair, she is one of our resident Shakespearean scholars.)
@GeorgeGee Thanks for the link! I like the culinary set-up. It was fairly clever.
@jerv I cannot imagine what that sounds like, but I’d give you a million lurve if you would record a sampling of your sound effects :)
@Jeruba: I have been waiting here on the edge of my seat to see what lovely response you are crafting.
Not really, although I used to give pretty dramatic renditions of storybooks when I read to my kids. My older son loved it, and my younger, in his turn, told me to cut out the special effects and just read the story, for Pete’s sake, ma.
When I took Early Childhood Literature, I read this story with such animation that my reading was the only one (out of the whole class) to draw spontaneous applause from my classmates, who were all K-2 teachers. At the end of the course they asked me to read it again.
But my son wasn’t impressed.
If a nonverbal sound is the only way to explain something (“The car is making a funny noise, like this…”), I do, but I don’t consider that sound effects.
Sorry, @muppetish, my friend arrived and we went out to dinner. That was hours ago.
Yes! Years ago I participated in a few puppet skits, so I created my own “voices.” Also, occasionally, just for fun I like to talk like Elmo or some other Sesame Street or Muppets character. When I was in my young twenties, I used to have Elmo’s voice down almost perfect. At the time, my nephew was a little boy who loved Elmo, so I had an excuse to be ultra silly!
@muppetish A popular one here for something crashing or breaking would be like, and then it went ker-PLOW!
@Symbeline At least it beats SQEEUUUUAAAA-BANG! (breaking) or a dull but loud KLUNK accompanied by flashing red lights (a “crash” in machining terms, often followed by a call to a $200/hr repair technician, and possibly an ambulance)
@prolificus I used to be able to do a spot-on Marvin the Martian. I aspire to be able to do Popeye, but I need to learn a couple of tricks from Tibetan monks, namely throat-singing and singing in chords, before I can pull that one off.
@prolificus Have you watched any of the interviews with Kevin Clash (the muppeteer who performs Elmo)? He’s a talented, charming person :) If I were your kid, I’d squee with delight every time you mimicked a muppet.
@jerv – LOVE Marvin!! Have never tried doing his voice, though.
@muppetish – Will watch sometime! I love the Muppets!! Started when I was a kid (go figure). I remember having a Muppet mask kit and bringing it to show-n-tell for elementary school. While I talked about my Muppet love, I wore the Super Grover mask. Fun memories.
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