# Why did this stranger sound like she had used helium? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263 "2010-09-01T15:16:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/1 "2010-09-01T15:16:25Z")
I was shopping alongside a pair of women the other day, both probably in their fifties. One sounded normal, the other sounded like she had been sucking on helium. At first, I thought she was using a fake voice, but I don’t think so. Maybe she just had a weird voice, but I wondered if there can be diseases or disorders that lead to a voice that sounds like someone who breathed helium. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/2 "2010-09-01T15:23:08Z")
Primordial dwarfism. You probably would have noticed that, though. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/3 "2010-09-01T15:33:22Z")
Psychological stress can have an effect on the pitch of one’s voice. Perhaps she was uncomfortable in certain social settings, maybe suffered to some degree from an anxiety disorder? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/4 "2010-09-01T23:42:18Z")
She didn’t have anything unusual-looking about her physically, and she didn’t seem stressed as she was discussing the various brands of paper towel. Of course, now that I think about it, I wasn’t talking, so maybe there was helium in that aisle and I just didn’t know it! ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/5 "2010-09-02T00:24:39Z")
Comedians Felicia Michaels and Maria Bamford also have that kind of voice. No idea of what causes it. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iiwaakl2g88](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iiwaakl2g88) (NSFW) ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/6 "2010-09-02T00:48:13Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > Comedians Felicia Michaels and Maria Bamford also have that kind of voice. No idea of what causes it. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iiwaakl2g88](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iiwaakl2g88) (NSFW) This was quite a bit more extreme that she is. Her voice is squeaky, true, but this woman in the store was… more like the [Lullaby League](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KSiyaqnZYs). ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/7 "2010-09-02T02:37:24Z")
Not that this is to be taken as a peer-reviewed study, but Dr Drew Pinsky on the radio program Loveline used to have an uncanny ability to correlate a squeaky “little girl’s voice” (from women who claimed to be of normal size) with molestation at roughly the same age as the voice sounded. I’ve always been curious if there’s a medical/psychological link that’s been established for this observed phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/8 "2010-09-02T03:18:52Z")
What about Jennifer Tilly and the Lisa Simpson lady? The woman you saw could have a great career in voiceovers. ---
**Author:** ![dmatsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@dmatsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dmatsch)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/9 "2010-09-02T17:15:05Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > What about Jennifer Tilly … What about Jennifer Tilly? I’ll be in my bunk. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/10 "2010-09-03T04:47:59Z")
I remember a TV show about people whose voices just developed differently. I also know that many people can mimic the helium sound. The way it works is that helium is less dense than air, and thus sound propagates more quickly through it. To the ear that is used to sound coming through denser air, this sounds like it’s coming from a smaller throat. So if someone actually has a smaller throat, or manipulates their oral tract so that significant portions of the throat are closed off, it can approximate the sound of helium. Helium does not make the voice higher, it makes the throat sound shorter. The reason we associate this with higher pitches is two-fold: People with shorter throats tend to also have shorter vocal chords, and thus higher voices. Furthermore, recordings that are sped up not only raise the fundamental pitch (or formant), but also the higher harmonics. Since a shorter throat amplifies the higher harmonics, the sped up vocals sound like they come from a smaller throat. In googling for a link to give you more information, I see it’s been covered quite thoroughly by a [Straight Dope Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1803/why-does-helium-make-your-voice-squeaky). ---
**Author:** ![lisalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@lisalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisalan)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/11 "2010-09-05T03:51:23Z")
Maybe she had just sucked helium:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-this-stranger-sound-like-she-had-used-helium/552263/12 "2010-09-05T07:50:43Z")
Was it a “deaf accent?” I’ve been told I have a voice that sounds like a Muppet or a cartoon charector. …I believe its due to something called velnoprangnol insufficency. (prolly misspelling it)