For our fourth annual Mystery Sound Game Show, we pitted the winners from the past three years against each other. The result? Chaos and hilarity. So unclog your ears, put on your listening cap, and get ready to play along. Featuring Travis McElroy, John Lagomarsino and Emily Jankowski.

MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE

Got Your back by Messi
Wicked Games by Philip Ayers
We Wish You A Merry Christmas by Chad Lawson

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View Transcript ▶︎

You’re listening to Twenty Thousand Hertz.

[music in]

People often tell me that one of their favorite things about this show is the Mystery Sound. As most of you know, in each episode, we play a mysterious sound and ask you to guess what it is. Anyone who guesses it right is entered to win one of our super soft T shirts. Then, in the next episode, we reveal what that sound was, and announce a winner.

Now, for the past few years, we’ve made it a tradition to end the season with a special Mystery Sound game show. Each time, we invite some of our favorite podcasters to come on the show and see how many Mystery Sounds they can guess. But this year, we have something special in store. We took the winners from the past three years and pitted them against each other. And I gotta say, the results were pretty hilarious. So without further ado, unclog your ears, put on your listening cap, and get ready to play along.

[music in]

Announcer: Welcome to the Twenty Thousand Hertz Mystery Sound Tournament of Champions. In this fierce competition, three former winners will go head to head to see who can become the Ultimate Mystery Sound Champion.

Announcer: The rules are simple. Each sound is worth a total of three points. If the sound is guessed correctly without any hints, the guesser will receive all three. If one hint is given, the guesser will earn two points. If two hints are given, the guesser will receive a single point.

Announcer: Three players will enter. Only one will emerge victorious. Let the games begin.

[music out]

Dallas: I'm so nervous, because Grace and I have been going back and forth on these sounds, and I've been pushing it, like, simpler and simpler, and she's been pushing it more complex…

Emily: Grace, no! Grace! Noo.

Dallas: So now I'm worried that everything's gonna be way too easy, but we'll find out.

Travis: See, I'm just worried that I'm only good at it in comparison to my brothers, right? That, like, in comparison to normal people, I won't be very good.

John: Giving us that warning at the beginning also sets us up for a horrible, embarrassing failure when we actually don't do well.

Dallas: Oh yeah. So be embarrassed. It's an easy one. We'll see.

Emily: Really? Okay. Oh man.

Dallas: So we have the winner of our 2020 game was uh Travis McElroy, from all of the podcasts. So My Brother, My Brother and Me, The Adventure Zone, Schmanners and every other podcast that's out there. Uh, so he rose to victory in our first Mystery Sound episode by identifying iconic sounds like the Ring Wraith, [sfx] and got pretty darn close to guessing the sound of a herring fart. [sfx] So that's Travis.

Travis: Yeaaah.

Emily: Wow.

Dallas: We also have John Lagomarsino, the winner of our 2021 Mystery Sound game show. Uh, he co-hosts the podcast Underunderstood. So John, totally just swept the competition last year, or a few years back, and clinched the victory by identifying the recreation of an ancient Egyptian mummy's voice. [sfx]

John: Oh, that's right!

Emily: Oh, man, I think this is the one I listened to and I was like, “Forget it, I’m… I'm out. Gonna lose hard.”

Dallas: Last year's winner is Emily Jankowski, Emily is a sound designer for WBR's podcast department, mixing Endless Thread, Last Seen and The Common. So Emily won last year by guessing one of the most obscure Mystery Sounds ever, which was a sound sculpture in Croatia. [sfx]

John: Now, wait, did you get the Croatia part?

Emily: No. No.

John: Okay.

Travis: Now remind me, because it's been three years since I played. Do we ring in?

Dallas: Oh, I'm gonna leave that to our scorekeeper, Grace East.

Grace: Hello hello. I'm one of the producers at Twenty Thousand Hertz. You can just dive right in with your answer and then, um, we'll award points based on if you got it with no clues, one clue or two clues.

Travis: Got it, okay.

Dallas: Okay, and if that doesn't work, we'll just change the rules as we go.

Grace: Yeah.

Travis: Sick, I love that.

Grace: Yeah. We're

John: Sounds fair.

Dallas: So, uh, I'm ready to dive into this. This year we have 18 sounds. Uh, so, is everyone ready to start with sound number one?

Travis: Let's do it.

Emily: Ready.

John: Ready as I'll ever be.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number one.

[Universal Studios Fanfare]

John: Universal.

Emily: Fox Searchlight?

Grace: All right, John, that was correct.

[Correct SFX]

Emily: Oh man, I knew these, the movie ones are gonna kill me.

Travis: Okay, when are we starting? Uh, anytime now, let's go.

Dallas: That was practice.

Dallas: Uh, so that's Universal Studios Fanfare. The original version was composed by Jerry Goldsmith in 1997. He also composed the music for iconic movies like Poltergeist, Alien and Gremlins. Uh, the little fanfare received a little update in 2012, which is the version we just played, but they made sure to preserve the iconic melody from the 90s.

[Universal Studios Fanfare ending]

John: I thought that was older than the 90s. That’s wild.

Travis: Yeah, I would've guessed that too. ‘Cause I think of like all of those, you know, like, planes flying around Claymation Earth and stuff of like 1950s and 60s, I would've guessed way older.

John: Yeah.

Dallas: Me too.

Grace: So fun, fact, the original original is quite old, but Jerry Goldsmith's iconic version is from the 90s.

Travis: Before, there was a lot more like slide whistle and harpsichord and stuff.

Grace: Exactly, exactly.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number two.

[Slack Message]

Travis: Oh, that's a message!

Emily: Slack?

John: Slack.

[Correct SFX]

Travis: Your guys’ was right.

Grace: Oh man, John, was that you again?

Emily: I thought I won.

Dallas: Emily also chimed in right then, but I'm going to leave this to the scorekeeper.

Grace: It was very close. I think everyone was like on the ball here. I'm gonna do an even three points across the board.

John: Nice.

Travis: Thank you.

Dallas: So that sound is the Knock Brush notification on Slack. So Slack’s notification sounds are largely taken from its video game predecessor, Glitch. If that knock brush sounds uh, haunt you in your sleep, Slack has a bunch of other options.

[Other Slack sounds]

Travis: Oh, gross. Oh God!

Dallas: For some reason, they even have a person, uh, quietly saying “hummus.”

[Slack Hummus]

Emily: What?

John: What the?

Emily: They do? That's hilarious.

Dallas: And apparently in 2016, Slack tweeted that this was a goofy tribute to one of their beloved coworkers.

Travis: That's how I'm going to ring in for now, “hummus”

John: Hummus.

[Slack Hummus]

Travis: Hummus.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number three.

[Nien Nunb Line]

Emily: No idea.

Dallas: Alright John.

John: Wait, am I supposed to know this? Because I do not.

Emily: Yeah.

Travis: One more again? Can we play it again?

[Nien Nunb Line]

Travis: Nothing.

Emily: Nope.

Dallas: Okay, hint number one. Fans of this series often mistake this for an alien language.

John: We are all far too nervous right now to even attempt to identify the language that's being spoken in this clip.

Travis: Mmm. Mmm hmm. I'm guessing it's something from Firefly?

Dallas: Mmm, that's a good guess.

Travis: ‘Cause they used a lot of like mixes of different languages to give it like a spacey cross cultural feel.

Grace: You are so—That's a very, very good guess, but no.

Dallas: Yeah.

Travis: I mean, Star Trek?

Grace: Ooh, so close again.

Travis: Star Wars!

Grace: That's right.

Dallas: There we go. Okay, so it is a character from Star Wars that I don't think anyone's going to get. Any guesses before we reveal this?

John: None.

Emily: Oh, man. Is it one of those Ewoks?

Dallas: It's not. But, John said “None,” which is so close, uh, honestly.

Emily: What? That doesn't make sense.

Dallas: Well, here's the reveal. So, no points, but the character's name is Nian Nunb from Star Wars Return of the Jedi. He co-pilots the Millennium Falcon, with Lando during the attack on the Death Star. Yeah.

Travis: Oh that’s right! The jowly looking guy!

Dallas: The jowly looking guy.

John: Yeah.

Grace: The very same.

Travis: What language is it?

Dallas: So while many people assume the character is speaking an invented alien language, he's actually speaking a real Kenyan called Kikuyu. And he was voiced by Bill Kipsang Rotich?

Grace: Yep, Rotich.

John: What's the translation?

Grace: So, I actually verified this with a former colleague of mine who's familiar with this language, and it says, “All you guys over there, come over here.”

John: Is that relevant in what's going on in the—in the movie?

Travis: Oh, they're flying around!

Grace: They're flying!

Travis: Man, I’ve watched… I've watched Top Gun before, and that's how they give commands in Top Gun too, like, “Hey, move your planes closer to my plane! Get over here! This is where the bad guy is. The bad guy is here where I am! Come here, please!”

John: “Shoot your guns now!”

Travis: “Shoot your guns in that direction! No, no, closer to there! Where I'm pointing!”

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number four.

[Cisco hold music]

Emily: It's the hold music. Woo!

Travis: Aww, yeah.

Emily: That hold music.

Dallas: It is hold music. But which, which company is that hold music for?

Emily: Oh man. But it's been a bunch of, on a bunch of companies though.

Dallas: You’re right, that is technically correct. But there is a very, I don't know, corporatey, you know. It's exactly like the company that you would expect this would come from, I think.

John: Holdcom.

Emily: Think I remember this when I was like getting a Vitamix. And I couldn't get…

John: By phone?

Emily: They were backordered.

Travis: I know, like, I've heard this in the wild.

Emily: Oh man. I don't know, like an IT company? An insurance company? Hmm.

Travis: Is it AT&T?

Dallas: Oh gosh, I really want to give some points on this one. Um, and both of the hints are like basically just leading to hold music. Um, I don't know, I'll just make up a hint. It's like part of the name of a big city in California.

Travis: Uh huh.

Emily: Silicon… Snowy…

John: Angel…

Travis: Is it Cisco hold music?

[Correct SFX]

Dallas: There it is.

Grace: Yes.

Emily: Cisco!

Grace: Ding, ding. Ding.

Emily: Nice.

Grace: So I think I'm going to award at the very least some partial points, ‘cause you all got hold music, but Travis, I think—

John: I did not, honestly. I got nowhere near it.

Grace: Oh, John. Thank you.

Dallas: Thank you for being honest.

Grace: Thank you for your honesty.

Travis: I didn't get it either. I think I just said, “Yeah,” and agreed.

John: Hahaha! That's enough!

Travis: I don't think so. Listen, as much as I love just skating off the back of the work of someone else by agreeing with them and then getting the credit for it, I didn't say, “hold music.”

Grace: Emily, was our first entry for Hold Music. I heard you loud and clear. So I think you're going to get two points, Emily, for that contribution.

Emily: Yes!

Grace: And then Travis, I'm going to give you one for identifying Cisco.

Travis: I'll take that.

Dallas: Yeah, the points are kind of negotiable if you really wanna… wanna negotiate.

Travis: Okay. I'll give you a hundred dollars if I win.

John: This is a fun new layer of the game. I like that.

Dallas: So, that was the Cisco Hold Music, also known as Opus No. 1. It was created in 1989 by a 16 year old named Tim Carlton using a drum machine and a synthesizer.

[Cisco hold music in]

Dallas: Uh, years later, Tim's friend got a job at Cisco and programmed the track as the default hold music for the company's new phones. And the rest is history.

[Cisco hold music out]

John: Did Tim get to a second opus?

Dallas: I hope so.

Travis: More than that, did Tim get paid?

Emily: Yeah.

John: That’s a better question.

Emily: Royalties?

Dallas: That is a better question. Yeah.

Emily: Where is he today?

Travis: Right here. Come in here, Tim.

Dallas: Okay, so where are we with points, uh, Grace, overall?

Grace: Yeah, so Emily is in the lead with five.

Emily: How?

Grace: Travis is in a close second with four, and John is in a close third with three.

John: Oh boy.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number five.

[PS1 Startup]

John: Is this HBO?

Dallas: It is not HBO.

Travis: Then it must be TV.

Emily: Hmm.

John: Is it Viacom? From the 90s?

Dallas: Maybe these are not as easy I thought.

Travis: Take that, John.

John: This is like a home video thing.

Emily: Mmm. I get the home video vibes from that, yeah. “Coming to home video.”

John: Yeah, exactly!

Travis: Well, can you play it one more time?

[PS1 Startup]

Emily: Hmm.

John: It's really good.

Travis: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah.

Dallas: Yeah.

John: This is the sound that Slack should play every time you get a message.

Travis: Right. I would like this sound to play when I enter a room.

Emily: Yes!

Dallas: My favorite thing about the Mystery Sound Show is that there are at least 10,000 people simultaneously

Emily: Hating us.

Dallas: Freaking out, because they know the sound.

Emily: Yes. Yeah.

Grace: Just furious.

Emily:Is it a startup sound

Dallas: It sure is.

Emily: For like… For like Sega Dreamcast?

Dallas: Oh, you keep going.

John: It's the PlayStation.

[Correct SFX]

Grace: We had the correct answer between John and Emily. It is the first gen PlayStation startup.

Travis: Ohhhh.

Emily: Mmmm.

Grace: Yes.

Dallas: But then again, John was working off of Emily's “startup sound.”

John: Yeah, exac—yeah yeah yeah.

Emily: I do deserve a point.

Grace: I think, again, what we're gonna do is Emily gets two,

Emily: Hooo.

Grace: And John gets one.

John: Okay.

Dallas: Uh, so this is the startup sound from the first PlayStation console. It was created by a Japanese sound designer, Takafumi Fujisawa. And, uh, 1994, uh, he also created an alternate version where he whispered the words “PlayStation” over the animation…

John: Hummus.

Emily: Hummus.

Dallas: But, it was ultimately nixed by the rest of the team.

Travis: Aw, bummer.

Dallas: Uh, alright, So, um, the next one is a song, and we're looking for the song title. So…

John: Oh no.

Dallas: Let's go.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number six.

[Prisencolinensinainciusol Clip 1]

Emily: I know this is that Italian song.

Dallas: Oh, yeah.

Travis: Oh yeaaah.

Emily: It’s Italian and it's not English, but it sounds like English.

Dallas: Oh, you got it. Yeah.

Travis: Yeah yeah yeah.

Emily: And I don't know what it's called, but it's, it's a fantastic song from like the seventies.

Travis: The video's incredible for it, too.

Grace: Emily, you absolutely got it.

[Correct SFX]

Grace: Well done.

John: Wow!

Dallas: All the points. So yeah, I would award 10 points if anybody could actually say the name of this. But I will go ahead and reveal it and do my best. Okay, it is the beginning of the song “Prisencolinensinainciusol?” Did I get that, Grace?

Grace: It—it is, it is, Not that this is a real word, it's “Prisencolinensinainciusol.”

Dallas: Did you practice that? There's no way that you just got that on the first try.

Grace: Oh, no no.

Emily: Prisencolinensinainciusol. Did I say it>

Grace: Alright!

Emily: Alright!

Grace: Yeah, yeah, you got it.

[Prisencolinensinainciusol Clip 2]

Dallas: So that's Italian pop star Adriano Celentano. Did I get that one?

Grace: It's, um, Adriano Celentano.

Travis: So, no.

Dallas: And if you have trouble identifying the words that's because Adriano, Adriano, wrote the song entirely in gibberish as a playful ode to the way American English sounds to non English-speakers.

Dallas: And he actually improvised the entire song over a series of looped drumbeats. And here's, uh, here's a little bit more of that song.

[Prisencolinensinainciusol Clip 3]

Emily: Love the horns.

John: Does he speak English?

Emily: Good question, I don't know.

Dallas: There's a lot of questions coming back to us that I was unprepared for.

Travis: This is the real quiz.

Dallas: Luckily, we have the power of editing, so, uh..

Grace: Exactly.

Dallas: We will...

John: The question will happen and then an abrupt cut with you saying, “He did not speak English.”

Dallas: Yeah, exactly.

Travis: Should we give you some reactions like, “Oh, okay!” Or like, “Aw, disappointing. Ugh.”

Emily: Oh really?

Travis: Oh!

Dallas: Yeah, exactly.

Travis: Oh! I thought you’d say the other way.

Emily: I thought so.

John: He only spoke French and he was from Italy? Huh!

Emily: Huh.

Travis: Weird. Okay.

Grace: Go figure.

Travis: It was Kenyan! Oh, okay.

John: You can use that one earlier.

Travis: Yeah.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number seven.

[Camel dulla]

Emily: Well, that's something underwater.

Travis: Is that a brontosaurus from Jurassic Park?

Emily: It sounds like a dinosaur groan-fart.

Travis: Yeah.

John: You got it! It's a dinosaur drown—

Travis: I knew it!

Emily: Just a dinosaur going, “Ohhh,” and then just letting it loose. Yeah.

[Camel dulla]

Dallas: So this sound is made by an animal that is alive and well today.

Emily: A hippo?

Dallas: Nope.

Emily: An alligator?

Grace: Nope.

Emily: Is it a water animal?

Dallas: It is not. You don't find them in North America.

Emily: What is in the world? Interesting.

John: It’s not found in North America. Is it a… A polar bear?

Dallas: Um, it is not, no.

Emily: Is it a mammal?

Grace: Yes.

Dallas: Uh, yes.

Emily: Is it a gorilla? Is it a, um…

Dallas: So, hint number two, which is not going to get us very far, but this sound might even be considered attractive to some.

Travis: It's a mating call of a... Aardvark. Uh, anteater. Uh...

John: I mean, everything is attractive to someone.

Dallas: That's true. Yeah.

Travis: Not everything.

Grace: Aww.

Travis: Okay, I ran out of alphabetical animals after two. That's not good. A beaver.

John: Definitely exists in North America, Travis.

Grace: So I can give a geographical hint.

Travis: Yes, please.

Grace: It's found in deserts.

Emily: A camel!

[Correct SFX]

Grace: Yes.

Dallas: That’s it!

Emily: Oh my goodness!

Grace: Very goo—

Travis: I was almost to the Cs! I was so close!

Emily: Oh! I know what that is! That's the weird bulbous thing coming outta their mouth.

Grace: Exactly. Yes.

Emily:Ew! Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew! Have you ever seen this before you guys?

John: No!

Emily: Camels, they have this thing, they have like this organ or skin or something, but it blows out like a giant bubble out of their mouth and it's disgusting and it's so weird and you have to Google it.

Grace: Yep.

Dallas: Yes.

John: Oh no.

Dallas: So that is the sound of a using an organ in its mouth called a doula. Uh, it almost looks like a big inflatable tongue, which they fill with air to make that gurgling sound. Uh, so male camels use this technique when it's time to attract a mate and assert their dominance to any other males nearby.

John: Oh my god. I'm looking at a photo of it.

Emily: See?

John: Oh!

Emily: I told you! Ugh.

Travis: So, what we're led to believe, is not only is this attractive to females, okay. But also, that the camel would do this and another camel would be like, [panned voices] “Oh! Look at the inflatable mouth organ on that guy. No way I'm messing with him. Look at him!” And the other camel would be like, “Wait, what are you afraid he's gonna do with the big mouth organ?”

Travis: “I don't know, man, but with a mouth organ that big, you know he's like a real scrapper.” “Why would you assume that?” “Well, you know what they say. ‘Big mouth organ, he's gonna mess you up in a fight.’” “Nobody says that, Derek.”

John: Where does this go when it's not being used?

Travis: They just chew on it.

Emily: Ugh!

John: Ugh! Oh, I hate that

Travis: For, in order for that to have evolved that way, then, there had to be a first camel that had a little bit of a pink bubble that could pop out. And all the lady camels were like, “Whoa, whoa! Step aside, everybody!”

Emily: “Look at his little pink bubble mouth bubble.”

Travis: “Clearly, they've got something going on there, and I definitely want my kids to be able to do that.”

Dallas: Can I hear that sound one more time before we move on?

John: Oh no, with the image now in front of me.

[Camel dulla]

Emily: Oh.

Travis: Ugh, it's the warble for me.

Emily: The last, little “Rooo.”

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number eight.

[Tribble]

Travis: It’s a Star Trek tricorder.

Dallas: Ooh!

John: Is this a sonar from a submarine?

Dallas: No. Travis is in the universe.

Grace: Travis is closest.

Travis: Ooh really?

Dallas: Yes.

Travis: Is it from Star Trek?

Dallas: It is.

Travis: The scanner? Or when they're hailed by another ship?

Dallas: It is organic.

[Tribble]

Travis: Oh no, it's a Tribble!

[Correct]

Dallas: That’s it!

Grace: Yes! Correct.

Emily: Hmm. What even is that? What is that?

Travis: Tribble was in Star Trek, and they got it as this little, like, ball of fur, right? But the thing about it is it replicates, like, it reproduces at an astronomical rate. So there's a famous original series episode called “Trouble with Tribbles,” where they get one, and by the end of the episode, like, the ship is just overrun with these things, right?

Travis: But all they are, they have no face, they have no defining features, it just looks like... kind of a deflated, like, basketball, but covered in fur. So there's all these scenes of, like, Spock and Kirk and stuff, just like in rooms up to their necks in these things, trying to act like, “Well, the problem is they’re just clogging everything up,” but it just seems like, “Okay, cool, man. Um, put ‘em somewhere. I don’t know.”

Travis: I have to assume they, like, just open the airlock and drop him out somewhere.

Emily: Yeah exactly.

John: Yeah, easy problem to solve.

Travis: Yeah.

Dallas: So that is indeed called a Tribble from Star Trek, and these furry multiplying aliens debuted on the original series in 1967. The sound designer is Doug Grindstaff, and he used recordings of doves cooing and then experimented playing the tape backwards and changing the playback speeds. To get the desired effect, he even altered the tape itself using scissors, nail files, and steel wool.

[Tribble]

Emily: Cool.

John: Wow!

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number nine.

[TikTok Audio Logo]

John: Oh my God, I know this one.

Emily: Me too.

John: Oh no.

Emily: Oh, I know it's okay It's I don't nope.

John: Could you play it again?

Travis: Play again.

[TikTok Audio Logo]

Emily: Oh my God, it's in commercials. It's a brand.

John: Is it T-Mobile?

Dallas: It is not.

John: Is it—

Travis: Sprint.

John: Is it Mint Mobile?

Dallas: It is not. I would argue it's probably, like, the most prolific brand sound out there.

Emily: Netflix? Hulu? It’s…

Dallas: I'm just letting the thousands and thousands of people freak out in this moment.

John: AT&T?

Dallas: It is not AT&T, although it does sound like an AT&T sound.

Travis: Hmm. One more time. Play it one more time.

[TikTok Audio Logo]

John: Somebody said Verizon already, right?

Dallas: It is not a phone—well, it's not a phone, but you do find it on a phone most of the time.

Travis: The Gmail?

Dallas: Uh, no.

Travis: Google.

Emily: The Google?

Travis: The Google. Google sound. When you Google something?

John: Makes that sound, yeah.

Travis: Bing. Bing? Is it Bing?

Emily: Yeah. No, I know we all know this, but it's...

Dallas: So you might recognize this if you frequent social media.

John: Is it TikTok?

Dallas: It is TikTok.

[Correct SFX]

Emily: Oh, yeah.

Grace: Yeah.

Emily: Yeah, that's right, it plays at the end of the videos. That's, that's, I'm not a TikToker. That’s what’s going on here.

Travis: But here's the thing though, it plays at the end of the videos unless you're watching it on TikTok.

Dallas: That’s right.

Travis: Because then it just loops.

Emily: Mmm, really?

Dallas: Yeah. You're right.

Travis: So the only time you ever see that is when it's like been posted somewhere else.

Dallas: That's exactly right. So that is the TikTok outro music that plays after a video. The creators at Massive Music saw Tic Tac—ugh, psh.

Travis: Alright boomer!

John: Do you think it bothers the folks at Tic Tac that their brand has been, like, ruined by the social media company?

Travis: I guarantee Tic Tac's just happy to be talked about, right? It wasn't like, “Man, before that we were so prevalent, everyone loved Tic Tacs.”

Travis: I'm not, and listen, before you come at me audience, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Tic Tacs. I'm just saying, when was the last time Tic Tacs were cool? You know what I mean?

Dallas: That's true. So the creators at Massive Music saw TikTok as the playground of the internet and wanted to evoke creativity and joy in a sound. That first bass hit and following ascending melody is a nod to TikTok's musical origins.

[TikTok Audio Logo]

Grace: So I'm gonna give two points to John.

John: Finally!

Grace: Because correctly guessed. Um, I think with just one hint.

[music in]

Announcer: We’re halfway through the game, and the competition is heating up. Who will become the Maestro of the Mystery Sounds? And who will be left in the dust?

Announcer: We’ll find out, after these messages.

[music out]

MIDROLL

[music in]

Announcer: Welcome back to the Mystery Sound Tournament of Champions. With nine sounds remaining, it’s still anyone’s game.

[music out]

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number ten.

[Final Fantasy Victory Fanfare]

Travis: That’s Zelda when you open a chest! Or Final Fantasy when you open a chest.

Grace: Travis, very close.

Travis: Yeah, it’s when you beat the boss, right?

[Correct SFX]

Dallas: Yeah.

Grace: Nailed it, nailed it.

Dallas: So that is the so called Victory Fanfare from the original Final Fantasy game on the NES. It was created by Japanese composer I really should have practiced these names before I, I just got into a recording session.

John: What a strange last name.

Dallas: I’m gonna go with No—Nobao Uematsu.

Grace: Nobuo Uematsu.

Dallas: And unlike, uh like the, the Zelda se—I'm gonna have to re record all this stuff. And like the secret unzo—and like the Zelda secret unlocked melody, this fanfare has appeared in almost every Final Fantasy game. So here it is in Final Fantasy 4.

[Final Fantasy IV Victory Fanfare]

Dallas: Final Fantasy 7.

[Final Fantasy VII Victory Fanfare]

Travis: Oh, ooh.

Emily: Ooh, I like that.

Dallas: And Final Fantasy 16.

[Final Fantasy XVI Victory Fanfare]

Emily: That one’s just scary.

John: I love that it's reharmonized every time. This is so cool!

Dallas: I wasn't a Final Fantasy player as a kid, now I just want to relive it.

Travis: Oh, it's good. It's good, man. There's some moments that scarred me for life.

John: Oh! Hmm.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number eleven.

[Cortana sound]

Emily: It sounds like a glass harmonica.

Dallas: It sure does.

Travis: It almost sounds too like a connecting a call sound.

John: Is it the beginning of Man in the Mirror?

Dallas: That's close.

Dallas: I mean, that's not close. It's not close at all—

John: Oh, okay.

Dallas: But that does sound exactly like that.

John: You really know how to build someone up and then break them down here on the show.

Travis: That's really close, not in accuracy way, but…

John: Yeah!

Dallas: Sonically, yeah.

Dallas: So this sound is... AI powered? Did I get that right?

Grace: Mmm hmmm!

Dallas: Okay, that's hint number one.

[Cortana sound]

Dallas: Oh yeah, okay, I get it now.

John: So this is like a recreation of... or like a model of, uh, running your finger over glasses?

Dallas: So I'm gonna go with hint number two, which is, um, this sound wishes it was Siri.

Emily: Cortana?

[Correct SFX]

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: There it is.

John: Ohhhh.

Dallas: So that's the sound of Cortana, the Microsoft Virtual Assistant. Cortana never quite made it as big as Siri or Alexa, and was just recently phased out for good in August of this year. The Virtual Assistant was actually named after the Synthetic Intelligence character from Halo.

[Cortana Halo Clip]

Travis: That's weird. Isn’t that? Like, it's weird that Microsoft will be like, “You know, we already got one. Let's just use that!” Like, if Apple had been like, “Yeah, this is, uh, the, this is our helper, Angry Birds.”

Announcer: Sound number twelve.

[Fox MLB Theme]

Travis: Monday Night Football?

John: Football.

Emily: Yeah.

John: Well, just Fox Sports in general?

Dallas: Not football.

Grace: Oooo. Yes. Very close.

Emily: Basketball,

John: Baseball.

Emily: Baseball.

[Correct SFX]

Grace: Yes!

Dallas: There we go.

John: I think I overgeneralized because baseball is the only sport I watch and I figured it was just what they put on all the sports.

Dallas: Right. So that is the MLB on Fox theme, and, uh, yeah, it was written by someone named Scott Schreer, who also composed the NFL theme for Fox, which sounds like this.

[Fox NFL Theme]

Emily: Oh, there it is.

John: Ah, yes.

Dallas: There it is, yeah.

John: Those blasts are so good.

Travis: Why does that sound so menacing? It's so men—Like, “Watch out, football's coming! Football heard what you were saying about it, and it's coming to kill you!”

Dallas: So in 2010, the NFL theme actually replaced the official theme for all Fox Sports broadcasts, including the MLB theme, and they did that for nine years. But after almost a decade of sitting on the bench, the MLB theme made a triumphant comeback in 2020.

[Fox MLB theme]

Grace: There you have it.

Dallas: Uh, Yeah. Where are we with points?

Grace: For sure. So, on the MLB on Fox theme, I heard John and Emily chime in, so, I am gonna give each of them two points.

Grace: So, so far, John, you are in third place with eight.

John: Oof.

Grace: Travis is in second place with 10 and Emily is in the lead with 14.

Travis: Oh, boy. Okay.

Emily: There's still plenty of time.

Travis: I’m just glad I'm still in it! More questions about Star Trek and Final Fantasy, please.

Emily: I know, those are the ones that I dread.

Dallas: So this next one, we're not gonna play it all at once. We're gonna play one sound at a time to see if it can be guessed.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number thirteen, part one.

[Tetris sound 1]

Dallas: There it is.

John: Ooh. It’s Space invaders?

Dallas: It is not. Play the second sound.

Announcer: Sound number thirteen, part two.

[Tetris sound 2]

Dallas: Any, anything?

Emily: Pong?

Dallas: Ope, that's it.

[Correct SFX]

Emily: Oh my god, I got a video game one! Woo!

Dallas: Play that third sound.

Announcer: Sound number thirteen, part three.

[Tetris sound 3]

John: Yeah.

Dallas: Can you play them all together?

[Tetris all sounds]

John: Wow, Emily.

Emily: I’m so proud of that one. That's my favorite one I've gotten so far.

Grace: Emily did not come here to play around.

Emily: I can't tell you how terrified I was today. I still am.

Travis: I did come here to play around. I think I might have misunderstood. I thought this was a game.

John: Emily was listening to Pong all night last night, so…

Travis: Yeah.

Dallas: So those are the sound effects from the 1972 game Pong, and they were created by Alan Alcorn, an engineer at Atari. The sounds from Pong come from the actual circuitry of the game itself. The hardware was already making those beeps and buzzes, so Alan used those for the game's sound effects.

Travis: It shouldn't make those noise—Like I'm not… I’m not like a science person, but if you're playing a game and it's buzzing on its own, you might want to check it

John: We don't know why it's doing that, let's just build it into the game.

Travis: Yeah, right?

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number fourteen.

[Banjo Kazooie sounds]

John: This has to be like a flash game or something.

Travis: Is it Homer Simpson in a blender? Homer Simpson falling down stairs.

Emily: That’s great. That's a great guess.

[Banjo Kazooie sounds]

John: Outtakes from the Yahoo! recording session.

John: Was I close on the Flash game thing?

Dallas: Mmm no. Oh, game part. So you did get that part.

Emily: Mmm!

Travis: Oh wait, that's Banjo Kazooie!

[Correct SFX]

Dallas: That’s it!

Grace: That’s right.

Emily: Wow. What in the world even is that?

Travis: Well, Banjo Kazooie were two friends, Kazooie. Banjo's the big bear, Kazooie was the bird who stayed in his backpack. And together, they went on adventures and they could use their different abilities to get you through a world of fun.

Grace: I love it.

Emily: Awww. You've sold me.

Grace: Perfect description. Unlikely animal friends.

Travis: Uh, I think that they were also Sega. Uh, were they Sega?

Grace: I think they were N64.

Dallas: N64. Yeah.

Travis: Was it Rare?

Grace: Rare. Yep.

Dallas: So both of these characters were voiced by the same person, Chris Sutherland, a programmer who worked on the game. Chris also voiced nearly every character in Donkey Kong 64, including Diddy Kong, [Diddy Kong voice] Lanky Kong [Lanky Kong voice] and King K. Rool. [King K Rool voice]

John: Actually, the video—the game console was just making those noises anyway, and they decided to integrate them into the game.

Travis: Yeah, his consciousness was already trapped inside each console…

John: Yeah.

Travis: …so we just decided to use it.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number fifteen.

[Spongebob walking]

John: Sawing a log, but recorded from the inside.

Travis: Running on a treadmill.

Dallas: Wow.

Emily: What?

John: I said, “sawing a log, but recorded from the inside.” The log is wet.

Travis: And I say running on a treadmill, but inside. And the treadmill's wet.

Travis: A clown running.

Emily: Hmm.

Grace: I will say, Travis was close with a clown running. A little.

Dallas: LIttle close.

Grace: You're warm.

John: Wet shoes?

Dallas: Technically walking, but it is a character.

Travis: Is it Krusty? Krusty the Clown walking?.

Dallas: Not Krusty the Clown. Um, so you can always hear this character, uh, walking. Wet shoes would be accurate in this case.

John: Harry from Harry and the Hendersons.

Dallas: Should I do hint number two?

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: Absorbent and yellow and porous is he.

Travis: Oh, Spongebob.

[Correct SFX]

Grace: Yes.

Dallas: That’s it.

Travis: Spongebob walking.

Emily: Nice.

Dallas: So those are the iconic squeaky footsteps of Spongebob Squarepants. The sound design team created those using a high balloon squeak [FX] a low balloon creak, [FX] which alternate from left to right.

[Spongebob walking]

Emily: Cool.

Dallas: Production designer Jeff Hutchins uh created Squidward's squishy steps just by making a funny sound with his mouth that sounds like this.

[Squidward walking]

Travis: That's a good one. That's a good one. It’s a good funny mouth sound.

Emily: Mhmm. Very cool.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number sixteen.

[Rufio line]

Travis: Oh, that's, uh, Rufio, from Hook.

[Correct SFX]

Dallas: That’s it.

Grace: Ding, ding, ding! Well done.

John: God.

Emily: Yeah. Would have never guessed.

Travis: Love that movie.

Grace: A classic.

Travis: Kidding me? Rufio! Yeah! Dante Basco? Incredible!

Dallas: So that is a line from the 1991 movie Hook. In this scene, the character Rufio swings his sword so close to Robin Williams' face that Steven Spielberg opted to film the in reverse to avoid any accidents.

Dallas: Actor Dante Basco had to learn to say the line backwards so that his mouth movements would look right when the shot was played forwards. So here’s a behind the scenes clip of the actors talking about it years later.

[Hook 25th anniversary clip]

John: Huh.

Emily: Very cool.

Travis: Nice.

Dallas: Uh, we only have two sounds left, so where are we on points?

Grace: Okay. John, you are in third place with eight points.

John: Oh boy.

Grace: And in the lead, we have a tie between Travis and Emily at 17.

John: Oh, so there's—I don't have a chance now. Okay.

Travis: John, you're working with me now, bud. Get over here. You're on my team.

Grace: John is absorbed.

Travis: John, if I win, we win, bud.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number seventeen.

[Law & Order Dun Dun]

Travis: X-Files!

Emily: Law & Order.

Travis: Ah, you were right.

Emily: Law & Order, yep.

[Correct SFX]

Travis: I got so excited. I got so excited.

Travis: You are absolutely correct.

Dallas: So that is the Law and Order Dun Dun, and to create this, composer Mike Post sampled a jail door clanging, [sfx] a guy hitting an anvil with a hammer, [sfx] and some drum noises. [sfx] To add more oomph, Mike found a recording of a hundred men stomping on a wooden floor in Japan and added that in. [sfx]

Travis: Somebody should have told them about instruments.

Dallas: So Dick Wolf, the creator of Law and Order, loved it so much and it became the iconic crime drama sound that we know and love today.

[Law & Order Dun Dun]

Dallas: Okay, so we're down to the very last one. We're making great time here. Where are we with, uh, points? ‘Cause that's important.

Grace: Okay. So with last sound that we played, um, Emily got full points. So she is now at 20, Travis is at 17, John is at 8.

Travis: Well, with John and I together, it's 25.

Grace: Right, exactly.

John: Well, I was going to say this, this last question is worth a bonus 25 points, right?

Grace: Exactly.

John: I've still got a shot?

Emily: Oh man.

Grace: There's still time.

Dallas: So, uh, we're gonna also play this out in phases.

Announcer: [sfx] Sound number eighteen, part one.

[Wilhelm - First scream]

John: Willem scream?

[Correct SFX]

Grace: Oh my goodness gracious.

Dallas: Oh, we have a big tie and we don't have another... Wait, was that a 3 pointer?

Grace: That was a three—

Dallas: No, you're in last place. I'm sorry.

Grace: Wow Dallas, salt on the wound.

John: Was that too little too late?

Travis: You could have given it to me, John.

John: Did you know it Travis?

Travis: No, but you could have told me. You could have said like, “Hey Travis, say Wilhelm Scream.”

Dallas: So that is the world famous Wilhelm Scream. It's been used in hundreds of movies like Batman, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Toy Story, tons more. The person that we all believe, uh, voiced that was someone named Sheb Wooley on the set of the movie Distant Drums. And there are a number of takes recorded on the Warner Brothers soundstage for this scream. Uh, Sheb made a few initial attempts, including the one we just played, before letting out the one that would become famous. And we have the whole clip?

[Wilhelm - Full recording]

Dallas: There it is.

Emily: Okay.

John: I'm glad they kept going they did pick the right one.

Travis: What I love about it, it has a quality of simultaneous, like, abject terror, but also kind of falling over? Right? And not like falling off a cliff, but like you got really scared and so scared that you lost your balance and kind of started to fall over.

John: Yeah, like you've lost control halfway through the scream.

Travis: Yeah, right, right, right.

Emily: Well like yeah, there’s like a flip to falsetto or whatever in the middle of it that's, “Ahhh!”

Travis: Right, like you're kinda surprised in the middle of it. Like, “Aahhh!”

[Wilhelm Scream classic]

Emily: Yes!

Dallas: The Sheb Woolley is famous for though, is that he was the singer on Purple People Eater. That song.

John: Oh wow.

[clip: Sheb Wooley - Purple People Eater]

John: Oh, you're saying he was the singer, not the purple people eater.

Travis: Yeah.

Dallas: He was the singer. Yeah.

Grace: Yes!

John: The Purple People Eater has the voice of a chipmunk in the song.

[clip 2: Sheb Wooley - Purple People Eater]

Dallas: So Grace, who, who won this whole thing?

Grace: So Emily is gonna be defending her title uh, with a total of 20 points.

[Final Fantasy Victory Fanfare]

Dallas: Wow.

Travis: Nice. Well done.

John: Congratulations.

Emily: Thank you.

Dallas: Just saying, the sound designer? Very proud.

Emily: Thank you.

[music sneaks in: Chad Lawson - We Wish You A Merry Christmas]

Travis: Now if, if Emily should become disgraced in any way, do I step up and take over? Is this like a Miss America kind of thing?

Grace: Of course.

Travis: Okay. Great.

Grace: She'll keep the seat warm for ya.

Travis: I'll stay sharp, just in case. Not that I’m saying anything’s gonna happen to Emily.

Emily: Oh my god!

Travis: I'm just sayin’.

[laughter fades, music up, then under]

Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the sound design studios of Defacto Sound.

Other Voices: This episode was written and produced by Casey Emmerling, with help from Grace East. It was sound designed and mixed by Brandon Pratt and Joel Boyter.

Thanks to our guests, Emily Jankowski, John Lagomarsino, and Travis McElroy. They're all fantastic podcasters whose shows include Endless Thread, Underunderstood, My Brother, My Brother & Me, and many more. You can find more details in the show notes.

And a special thanks to voice artist Ally Murphy for her amazing performance as the announcer on this episode.

I'm Dallas Taylor. And from all of us here at Twenty Thousand Hertz, have a great holiday season, and we'll see you next year.

[music up, then out]