"Watermelon, cantalope, watermelon, cantalope, watermelon, cantalope..."

[Cherry2000]

Wow…when I used to stage work it was “peas and carrots peas and carrots”.

Guess I am old

[NoCoolUserName]

@Otto

David Gerrold in his book on making “The Trouble With Tribbles” wrote that when he was in on-screen conversations one person would say “nadder nadder nadder” and the other would say “grommish grommish grommish.”

I remember it as “natter, natter” and “grommish, grommish”…but my copy is in a box since we moved so I can’t look it up.

[DMark]

@Cherry2000

Wow…when I used to stage work it was “peas and carrots peas and carrots”.

Guess I am old

Well let me join the “old” club as that was always the phrase we were told to use in every play I was ever in.

[Wolfian]

There is also the episode of South Park in which the citizens of the town storm the mayor’s office. It sounds like generic chatter until the mayor says, “You’re not going to get anywhere just standing here all day saying ‘Rabble-rabble-rabble!’”

[Bill_Door]

I had heard that rhubarb was used for crowd noise to suggest an angry mob, and that’s how the term rhubarb came to be used as a synomym for a quarrel or fight.

[Zeldar]

@Bill Door

I had heard that rhubarb was used for crowd noise to suggest an angry mob, and that’s how the term rhubarb came to be used as a synomym for a quarrel or fight.

We were obviously exposed to the same source, as that’s my recollection, too. If I had a gun at my head, I’d say I heard it on some old radio quiz show. Back then, whatever urban legends there were held the same degree of authenticity as the ones now debunked on Snopes. For all I know, Crapper invented the toilet.

[Bryan_Ekers]

@jackelope

I saw a movie once, probably twenty years ago, in which one character is a Hollywood old-timer who’s known in the biz as the World’s Greatest Extra. Another character says, awestruck, “He invented the ‘Courtroom Walla’!” It’s explained that in courtroom dramas, when the verdict is announced, everyone in the courtroom softly says, “walla walla walla,” creating a nice, low-level hum of excitement without anything really discernible in it.

I have no idea what film that was in, though. I think I saw it on TV, and I think the scene in question took place in a lunchroom of some kind.

That was Memories of Me (1988), with Alan King as Abe, the King of the Extras. He’s introducing his son (Billy Crystal) to his fellow professional extras, in a Hollywood restaurant where they all hang out. One was an expert at “waller”, which Abe demonstrated by theatrically asking (more or less), as if in a courtroom: “And isn’t it true, Mr. Jones, that you were having an affair with both the victim and the defendant?”

Extras: gasp! waller-waller-waller-waller…
Similiarly, the Steve Martin comedy The Man With Two Brains had a scene where Martin, a neurosurgeon, is giving a presentation at a conference in Vienna. After one dramatic moment, when the crowd is murmuring excitedly:

Martin: What are they saying?
Interpreter: They are just saying ‘murmur, murmur, murmur.’
Martin: You mean it’s just sort of a general murmur?
Interpreter: Ja. Murmurmur.
Martin: Oh. [To the crowd] You may murmur all you like -
Crowd: [distinctly] Murmur, murmur, MURMUR, murmur, murmur…!

[FilmGeek]

Hubbub works like rhubarb.

There’s also a scene in Waiting for Guffman where Fred Willard and Catherine O’Hara are supposed to be the excited crowd, but since it’s only the two of them, you can see them saying “hubbub hubbub”.

[drewbert]

@Stan Freberg

King: But you better sight land soon. There’s rumblings of mutiny!
Columbus: Really?
King: Come over here and listen.
Columbus: Alright.
Crew: Rumble, rumble, rumble. Mutiny, mutiny, mutiny.

…

[mhendo]

@Art Vandelay

The infamous ‘mess hall’ scene from Alien is one particular instance of this: before the evil little thing bursts out of Kane’s chest, there are some brief shots of the relaxed crew (apparently believing the emergency is over) sitting around eating, smoking cigarettes and shooting the breeze. The first line of actual dialogue is when Parker states (paraphrasing): “this stuff tastes like shit…” Before that, the crewmembers are quietly mouthing the word “watermelon, watermelon, watermelon” over & over again. Check out the brief shot of Tom Skerrit (Dallas) and watch his lips, you’ll see what I mean.

Well, i just hauled out my Alien DVD and watched the scene three times, and at no stage did any character look like he or she was saying “watermelon.”