You know that drum beat that accompanies a corny joke on many late night television shows? What is the best way to describe the sound in text? I’m not trying to describe it, I merely want a way to give a word to the various sounds, if that makes any sense at all.
There seem to be two versions of this noise, and either seems to be called a rimshot.
“Technically” a rimshot is played by striking the rim of the snare drum at the same time as the drumhead to produce a sound I can only describe as “tonk!”
There’s also a more vaudeville-esque version that might be spelled out as “barump-bump”
I appreciate the response, but it’s not quite the answer I was looking for (though given my very confusing question, your response was admirable). You were on the right track with the “barump-bump” part; could you elaborate on that? Generally that sound if followed by a chime at the end.
Perhaps if I describe what I’m trying to do, it will make more sense. I’m writing a comic, and a character just made a very corny joke and I wanted a way to describe that sound in the comic.
Badabum-ching!
Damn, it was so simple. Thank you for helping out a local retard 
It’s actually called a rimshot.
Sigh… That is the accepted terminology…
I have heard a real rimshot used to follow a joke that bombed, like:
I’m so rich, I take golden showers! [tonk]
I’d say you were pretty durn close, [gotpasswords].
i usually just go with badoomtish
The household that I grew up in used “bah-doom-boom” for the drum pattern, followed by a “tsssss” to signify the high hat. The high hat impression was only used for jokes with extremely corny punch lines.
I was only saying that it’s a rimshot because it’s definately not a drum roll. As a percussionist, I can assure you that rimshots and drum rolls are VERY different things. I’ve never heard a drum roll follow a joke - they usually precede jokes.
He wasn’t looking for the name of the rimshot. He was looking for the onomonopoetic word/sound for it. Hope I spelled that one right!
duh-doom chh!
BTW, I knew he wasn’t looking for the name. However, I wanted to clarify it, because the title of this thread is very misleading.
I guess it’s too late to add my two cents, but I’ve always used “Ba-dump-bump-chee!”
Misleading? You knew what I was talking about apparently. Besides, the “corny joke” pretty much clarified any possible confusion.
Actually, I knew what you were talking about from everyone else’s responses. I though I had missed out on something when you were talking about a drum roll following a corny joke. I’m not typically into fads.
I like to use ba-DUM Pssssshhh – I pronounce the cymbal crash with a “P” to allude to the bass drum which is most often struck along with a crash.