Sound effect cliches

[JaseSF]

The ones in the Kung Fu films are hilarious. The "whoosing" sound is one thing but something when guys are fighting and one strikes the other with a blow, sometimes it also sounds like car doors slamming.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

One kung fu film had every noise foleyd... walking had a "tap tap tap" sound, turning had "whoosh" etc.
-Ed

[fortunato]

Can anyone verify that the sound effects in the opening theme of Ginger Snaps are some of these same cliched effects we're talking about. The girls laughing definitely sounds like one to me.

[biff_debris]

The one that gets to me every time I hear it -- and it's hard to describe -- is that "rowwlll" sound heard every once in a while on the old TV shows with canned laughter. I dunno if it was originally a sound that a human made, and it somehow became mangled in some sort of magnetic tape hell, but it doesn't sound remotely human, and always makes me think some hideous giant cat-thing is digging on The Brady Bunch or Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.

[Yaddo 42]

In Kung Fu movies: The rustling noise all flapping clothes make when anyone jumps through the air.

I noticed the gun reports in the Indiana Jones flicks, most of the gun fire seemed amped up not just his revolver. Good added emphasis and distinctive from gunfire in most films, but not too realistic at least from the shooter's POV.

Another one is the whistling sound whenever something falls from a great height.  In WWII, the Germans put some sort of whistle (or something) on their bombs to make that noise, yet Hollywood seems to have gotten the idea than anything that falls makes that noise.

Yet I've always found the light noise of just the wind rushing past more effective when something is falling in a film. The quietness seems to add to the drama of the fall. Maybe we should blame cartoons, like the old WB shorts, when characters dropped stuff in those they began to "scream" instantly.

[Raffine]

If someone in a comedy throws something offscreen it always hits a cat and makes it yowl.

Thurder always sounds at the exact same time when you see the lightening.

Bird pop always makes a loud "sploich' noise whenever it hits someone.

Cockroaches always make a loud skuttling noise even when they run over carpet.

When a cow appears on camera it will immediately moo.

[Dennis]

The monkey sound for every jungle.
-Ed

There is one other sound that I hear in almost every jungle movie or TV episode in a jungle, doesn't seem to matter which continent their supposed to be on either. The strange part is the sound is the call of the kookaburra bird from Australia, apparently the good folks in movieland think this guy hangs out in jungles all over the world.

[Yaddo 42]

Yeah, funny how thunderstorms can sneak up on people like that in movies, just all of a sudden be right on top of them so the delay between lightning and thunder is gone.

Between me and the horse farm (it really is too small to be called a ranch as I think about it) is pasture land. There were some donkeys, cows, and even a pair of sheep out there until recently. The cows rarely mooed, snorted and huffed more than anything. The donkeys brayed and hee hawed more often, but not that common without a cause. If you bring them treats and they get to hoping everytime they see you they will get carrots or apples or such, they will bray but they quickly learn. There was a young jack that would bray on his own when he would play and run around and get excited. But nothing like the movies.

[Raffine]

I recently learned the reason so many people keep a donkey or two in with their cows and horses is that cows and horses will run from a coyote but a donkey will stand its ground and fight.

I thought is was because the donkeys were just so darn cute.

[Capt_Scrummy]

This isn't a sound effect, but something that always p**sed me off was when sitcoms were filmed in front of a live television audience that provided a "natural" laugh-track. 

I specifically got annoyed when two characters would kiss and the audience would go "woooooOOOOOOh!" or something like that.  It was even funnier when they made that sound for a character who had just made a dramatic stand - a "woooooOOOOOOh!" usually followed by clapping. 

I miss the low quality laugh-tracks.

[Joe the Destroyer]

The sound effect I've always hated is the that really annoying scream that's like "NNNNRRRRAAAAAAWWWWWW!"  I think it was on Mortal Kombat, but I know for a fact it was on The Medallion, and Jackie Chan's character actually made the scream.  It's also on countless low budget movies and commercials.  I don't even know what it's called, but I've heard that no one knows the actual origin of the scream.  It just showed up in one movie and has been around since. 

I also kind of hate the roar that Jaws made in Jaws: The Revenge.  It's been used quite a bit in horror films, but JtR really made it despicable.

[Joe]

that godforsaken scream track, i particularly remember it from the "Ahhh! real monsters' cartoon ot the end of the intro. ive heard used a million times and i hate it.

[DistantJ]

Whenever there is a group of kids playing I hear the same sound effect of kids laughing.

God, that one laughter sample drives me nuts. It's so easy to recognise.

What about the continued use of the 'theme' and sounds from the ATARI 2600 Pac-Man(duhn...duhn duhn...duhn...POK! oooEEPP!)for any and all video game representations in films?

Am I the only one who finds it insanely stupid that even today in movies, where games have reached the point where they're almost cinematic, you'll see somebody playing on a videogame and it'll be making 'bleep bleep zap zap' sounds like something from the Atari 2600?

Sometimes it's really wierd, because they'll be holding like a PlayStation 2 controller or something, and it'll be making sounds from Pac-Man.

[Ash]

There's one that I always hear and that's the one of a crowd of people gasping in surprise.
It's usually used on TV shows.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

WHen someone is typing on a computer, each keystroke beeps. 
-Ed