You know the deal… someone in a movie says something at a party, or enters the wrong bar, and everyone stops talking as the music stops and the needle scratches across the record.
In what movie or TV show did that first happen?
Extra credit for finding the first instance of it being used as comic punctuation outside of that context (i.e.: as a way of setting up a punchline or plot twist in a trailer.)
Probably nothing to do with your question but Victor Borge had an entire bit involving sound effects for punctuation.
Heh… not exactly what I was thinking about, but I always loved the weirdness of Borge.
Really? No takers?
I’m not sure, but these Hollywood hacks have run this shit into the fucking ground, and they need to stop using it, like, yesterday.
Doesn’t really answer the question, but NPR had a segment devoted to the useage of the record scratch effect
That is hilarious and sad.
I would suggest that one way to arrive at an answer is for you to say “I saw it in Movie XXX that came out in 1982” and wait for someone to come up with an earlier example. For example, wasn’t there such a sound gag in Animal House (1978) when the college students walk into the bar where Otis Day is playing? Though maybe not since the scratching sound wouldn’t make much sense for a live band.
It’s funny, because I was going to use that exact same example, but was unable to verify it… I doubted my memory for the same exact reason.
It’s used in movie previews far too much nowadays, usually either when a teenager does or says something stupid that gets everyone’s attention, or when a hapless guy in love does or says something stupid that has a real chance of losing his sweetheart’s affection.
And it’s doubly weird because it’s so ubiquitous yet nobody has heard the actual sound of an actual record scratching in 30 years.
Moved from General Questions to Cafe Society.
Gfactor
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It was used last night on an ep of “The Girls Next Door,” after Kendra tells her mom and g-mom that she’s planning to move out.
Find one earlier than that. Yeah, I know they’re out there
As far as television goes, was it first used in an episode of “Ally McBeal”?
Todd Rundgren used it on his “Something/Anything” album in 1972.
I could almost picture it being used in a John Hughes film. Something with Anthony Michael Hall in it like Sixteen Candles or Weird Science.
Another vote for what randwill said: I first remember noticing it on Ally McBeal.
A tie for 1972, used on “Monty Python’s Previous Record”.
Since, as someone mentions above, the sound of the needle skating across a vinyl record is largely unknown to younger people, I wonder if many even know what it is? I reckon some may not make the association to a physical thing happening, but believe it to be an abstract sound (like the ‘chung chung’ on “Law and Order”) that indicates everything coming to a halt.
There isn’t really a modern-day equivalent either. CDs and MP3s can skip, but that’s about it. I can’t even remember what a cassette sounded like when it went haywire (although I do recall having to deal with the fallout >< Fun times) and I’m (barely) old enough to have grown up with them.
I’m curious what younger generations who’re used to iPods and the like will think of the old vinyl. “You could only fit 10 songs on there? And it actually had to spin?”
I want to say Spike Jones used the effect, but I can’t prove it.
Mothers of Invention, We’re Only In It For The Money, 1968.
As for young people are being unaware of what needle scratching sounds like, don’t forget the DJ “scratching” in modern R&B/hip hop bands.