# What was the first instance of using a record scratch as comic punctuation? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 27, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-instance-of-using-a-record-scratch-as-comic-punctuation/487708 "2009-02-27T19:55:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ee7513/32.png) [@Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kim_o_the_Concrete_Jungle)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-instance-of-using-a-record-scratch-as-comic-punctuation/487708/41 "2011-05-13T04:20:25Z")
So far the answer seems to be Goon Show. Which just goes to show, the answer to everything is always Spike Milligan. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-instance-of-using-a-record-scratch-as-comic-punctuation/487708/42 "2011-10-10T14:57:52Z")
A more recent contender than the Goon Show, although it’s not for comedic effect, but does serve as punctuation of sorts: In “Dirty Dancing (1987),” Patrick Swayze drags the needle just before Neal (Neil?) tells him that he wants him to do. . . The Pechanga!. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-instance-of-using-a-record-scratch-as-comic-punctuation/487708/43 "2011-10-15T11:57:40Z")
_Living Doll_ with Cliff Richard & The Young Ones (1986) ends with one of these, cutting Rick off before he can utter an expletive. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-instance-of-using-a-record-scratch-as-comic-punctuation/487708/44 "2015-07-18T22:49:45Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > 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. It was indeed used in “Weird Science,” when Lisa and the boys first walk into the Kandy Bar. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-instance-of-using-a-record-scratch-as-comic-punctuation/487708/45 "2025-12-13T18:39:55Z")
Another cite: “Trading Places” (1983). Eddie Murphy does a record scratch just before he throws his party-goers out of his new digs. Edit: Whoa! Ten years since the last post? ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-instance-of-using-a-record-scratch-as-comic-punctuation/487708/46 "2025-12-13T20:18:23Z")
Pretty sure it was used on _The Goon Show_, which was a pre-Monty Python British radio comedy show [[airing 1951-1960](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goon_Show)]. Sound effects were always a big part of the humour and both parodied normal noises and subverted expectations. There were many scenes where a cliche version of one of our heroes walking into a noisy bar would be interrupted with a record scratch and silence would fit the story. Sorry, cannot be more precise or quote a specific show. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-instance-of-using-a-record-scratch-as-comic-punctuation/487708/47 "2025-12-14T03:53:34Z")
[Tvtropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RecordNeedleScratch), which is not intended to be a historical record, mentions that Stan Freberg used the sound effect in his short-lived 1957 radio show. Between that and The Goon Show, we’re somewhere in the 1950s. Can anyone go further back? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-instance-of-using-a-record-scratch-as-comic-punctuation/487708.md?page=2)