Why do films/tv shows use the same familiar soundclips!?

[zorkuus]

Because audio engineers are lazy bums.

[Poopymonster]

It sure was funny to people who had 2 digits in their age at the time :P

34 here, and I also didn't find Friends funny. I will admit I did watch it. Muted.

Lisa Kudrow. Rawr.

[Deleted]

Want to hear an amusing story? The Naked Gun movies are considered some of the funniest movies ever made yet the TV series that inspired it (police squad) failed despite the fact that Naked gun copied many jokes from it scene for scene. Know why it failed? Police squad never had a laughter track so American audiences did not know it was supposed to be funny, The naked gun redid the same jokes, added a laughter track and received huge praise for its genius.

[Tiev]

Seinfeld was awesome. You guys are lunatics.

[Pachycrocuta]

Why you only link 2 and 3 minute Wilhelm Scream compilations? I present you, 12:22 of Wilhelm Scream. Of course, this is 2 years old, and I am sure there has been another 4 minutes worth of clips that could be added on to this. I get a laugh whenever I hear this scream in a movie or on a TV show.



Now, to be fair, they have greatly reduced the amount of canned sound effects being used. Watch nearly any 80s cartoon and you will hear the exact same sound effects. Same with cartoons and other shows from earlier decades as well. I honestly hope they never stop using the Wilhelm Scream.

[Arkenaw]

Was just watching Captain America:TFA again, and paused at around 1:30:00 when I heard the Wilhelm Scream lol.

[Sierra85]

Because audio engineers are lazy bums.

so it's just lazyness. if i was in charge of shows/movie with a lazy audio engineer id can his ass asap.

[OzoAndIndi]

No doubt just stock sound effects that are cheaper and quicker to simply buy and edit in. Same kinda stuff happens with ads and clip art, just easier to buy clip art than go through the time and expense of having someone create it for you.

The only one I tend to notice and bugs me is a particular scream (a woman's scream in this case) I've heard used in animation. On a rare occasion I've hard a "futuristic" sound effect an old computer of mine came with and had it set to expanding/minimizing a window. Was very odd to hear that one elsewhere.

[Tribunal]

The Wilhelm scream is an in-joke at this point... a quick nod and jab in the ribs for those in the know, and something instantly forgotten by those not.

Have a few foley artists do your whole movie from scratch just isn't "in" anymore. Easier to pull from fancy digital libraries and just create a few key things.

There's also something to be said for the general tone of sound direction moving away from the out and out 'sound effect' application. Yes you still need them, but (and I blame having been up for too damn long for me not really conveying this properly) it's not as 'core' currently. So even better excuse to just pull from libraries/spend less time on it.

[Deleted]

Sometimes when I hear a familiar sound in a TV show, I can't help but smile - for instance when I hear a death scream from C&C or a town portal sound from Diablo 2. I have a feeling TV makers know this effect happens, and they do it for this reason. Or at least they don't mind reusing sounds people will recognise. Or maybe I'm just weird that way (I also smile every time I see Ed in Anger Management because of his role in Red Alert).

About the laugh tracks.. not sure where I stand on this. When I start paying attention to them, they become really annoying (like on Big Bang Theory). It's like the TV maker is trying to tell us when something was supposed to be funny. Maybe they should make jokes that are actually funny - I laugh my arse off all the time when I watch Family Guy and there's no laugh track there.