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Helium Speech: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|A mouse in the wainscotting! Well squeaked, mouse!|'''The Doctor'''
▲{{quote|A mouse in the wainscotting! Well squeaked, mouse!|'''The Doctor''', ''[[Doctor Who]]'', ''The Robots of Death''}}
Because helium is lighter than air, when you inhale it and try to talk it causes the vocal cords to vibrate at a higher frequency, resulting in reedy, duck-like voices which can be used to great comic effect. This can be tried in real life, although it should be noted that helium displaces oxygen in your lungs, so breathing it too long can be harmful.
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** Also, in the first movie, a character injures his groin on the tail of a plane, and squeaks "I'm okay."
* Used to get the voices of the [[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] Martians, rather than artificially speeding up the voices.
* [[Inverted Trope|Turned on its head]] in the first ''[[Alvin and the
** A definitive [[You Fail Physics Forever]] moment, even if it ''is'' funny.
* In ''[[Flubber]]'', Robin Williams' character's flubber experiment causes a helium gas tank to leak open and you know what happens after that.
* ''[[Sneakers]]'': Carl does this during a party at the team's HQ, much to the amusement of the other hackers.
* ''[[Broadway Danny Rose]]'': [[Woody Allen]] with a helium voice. Heh heh.
* ''[[Max Keeble's Big Move]]'' had Robe trying to pass the time waiting for Max to arrive for his going away party by blowing up balloons to get the desired effect. As soon as he does get it, he shouts "Yee-haw!" in a very high-pitched voice, and sounds this way for the remainder of the scene.
* In ''[[Dirty Work]]'', [[Norm MacDonald|Mitch]] sounds like this, after [[It Makes Sense in Context|his father]] [[Groin Attack|crushes his balls]].
{{quote|Note to self: Forget about having kids.}}
* ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?|"When I killed you brother, I talked]]...
== [[Literature]] ==
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* ''[[The Eye of Argon]]'' is often read aloud this way.
* The title character of ''[[Stepsister From Planet Weird]]'' is from a shapeshifting alien race that lives off helium. When her Earthling stepsister walks in on her sucking the helium from a party balloon as a snack, the alien tries to explain herself and is surprised that her human form suddenly has a high, squeaky voice.
* This trope often shows up in works set deep underwater, like the book ''[[Sphere]]'' (not the [[The Movie|godawful movie]]). This is [[Truth in Television]] to some extent; the nitrogen in normal air becomes toxic at very high pressure, so deep divers breathe a gas mixture which has had some or all of the nitrogen replaced with helium.▼
** However, films in such settings often purposely ignore the effect when it should be present. Having live actors breathe helium for every line would be distracting to the audience, not to mention being somewhat dangerous and ridiculously expensive.▼
* There's a ''[[Mad Magazine]]'' gag where two men come across a vending machine labeled "A hit of helium - $1.00." The first man takes a hit and then speaks in a squeaky voice (represented by a lot of whitespace in his speech balloon). The second man, having only a quarter, puts his money in a machine labeled "Helium substitute," and a boot comes out to [[Groin Attack|kick him in the 'nads]], having a similar effect on his voice.▼
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
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== [[Music]] ==
* [[Ween]]'s ''Push Th' Little Daisies'' is popularly believed to invoke this trope. Also overlaps with [[Lyrical Dissonance]].
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* In one ''[[FoxTrot]]'' strip, Jason imagines himself floating to the ceiling after inhaling helium, only to express his disappointment (in [[Painting the Fourth Wall|curly letters]]) that it only makes his voice funny.
* On ''[[The Far Side]]'', some big dogs take turns inhaling helium balloons and barking like small dogs.
== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==
* In the [[Robin Williams]] stand up routine ''Weapons of Self Destruction'', he states that this is the reason why we need to invent cars that run on helium. Because there would be nothing funnier than two angry guys getting out of the car after a wreck and having them going "I'm gonna kick your ass... Crap, I think one of us has a gas leak."▼
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* A ''[[Family Guy]]'' cutaway shows Stewie doing helium at a birthday party:
{{quote|'''Stewie:''' I'm a female! I have a high voice! I have reproductive organs inside of me, and I buy groceries!}}
* ''[[The Simpsons]]''{{'}}s Sideshow Bob, while broadcasting his plan to destroy Springfield from inside the Duff blimp; Lisa figured out where he was from the squeaky voice, and when she tells him, he says "Pesky helium! Shoo! Shoo!" and waves his hands, and his voice goes back to normal.
* ''[[Batman: The
* ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' depicts [[Alvin and The Chipmunks]] as having fairly deep voices until Dave floods the recording studio with helium in an attempt to asphyxiate them.
* In ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', one of Dr. Doofenshmirtz's evil plans involved filling the entire tri-state area with "Doofelium" making his high squeaky voice lower in comparison, because making his own voice lower would be too much of a hassle. Ended up affecting himself and yelling out his [[Catch Phrase]] [[Once Per Episode|("Curse you Perry the Platypus!")]] in helium speech.
* Happens once in ''[[Fanboy and Chum Chum]]'' when Boog's [[Bubble Boy|plastic bubble]] gets filled with helium, right as he's about to punch the titular characters. He notes that it's
* Noah gets one of these in ''[[Total Drama Island|Total Drama World Tour]]'' after a serious [[Groin Attack]] with a golden statue head.
** Harold gets one in the finale after Courtney [[Groin Attack]]s him, hilariously, he does a literal ''speech'' while in Helium Speech mode.
* The ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short "Long Haired Hare". Bugs Bunny replaces an opera singer's throat spray with liquid alum; as he does warm up exercises singing Figaro, each time he says it his head shrinks and his voice becomes higher pitched.
* In the ''[[Screwy Squirrel]]'' cartoon "Lonesome Lenny" at one point Screwy sticks Lenny's head into a bucket of alum and he says while his head is shrinking "Why did you put my head in the bucket George?, you shouldn't have put my head in the bucket George, why did you do it?" in a high pitched voice.
* In an episode of ''[[Rocket Power]]'' Sam accidentally spreads the "Fiji Flu" to his friends where one of the side effects is having a very high pitched voice.
* In an episode of ''[[Class of 3000]]'', helium is released into the cooling vents as a practical joke. Those affected included [[Cool Teacher|Sunny Bridges]], [[Butt Monkey|Kam]], [[Book Dumb|Li'l D]], and Principal Luna.
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* [[Donald Duck]]: [[Trope Codifier]] and he could be the [[Trope Namer]]. The [[Other Wiki]] even has him as the [[Trope Namer]]!
==
▲* There's a ''[[Mad Magazine]]'' gag where two men come across a vending machine labeled "A hit of helium - $1.00." The first man takes a hit and then speaks in a squeaky voice (represented by a lot of whitespace in his speech balloon). The second man, having only a quarter, puts his money in a machine labeled "Helium substitute," and a boot comes out to [[Groin Attack|kick him in the 'nads]], having a similar effect on his voice.
▲* In the [[Robin Williams]] stand up routine ''Weapons of Self Destruction'', he states that this is the reason why we need to invent cars that run on helium. Because there would be nothing funnier than two angry guys getting out of the car after a wreck and having them going "I'm gonna kick your ass... Crap, I think one of us has a gas leak."
* [[Truth in Television]] of course.
* A new{{when}} trend around anime conventions: getting voice actors to say their characters' famous lines after inhaling helium. [[Hilarity Ensues]], usually.▼
** One professional use: Tony Shaloub in the ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'' movies, as the head of his character is blown and grows back.▼
▲* This trope often shows up in works set deep underwater, like the book ''[[Sphere]]'' (not the [[The Movie|godawful movie]]). This is [[Truth in Television]] to some extent; the nitrogen in normal air becomes toxic at very high pressure, so deep divers breathe a gas mixture which has had some or all of the nitrogen replaced with helium.
▲** However, films in such settings often purposely ignore the effect when it should be present. Having live actors breathe helium for every line would be distracting to the audience, not to mention being somewhat dangerous and ridiculously expensive.
▲* A new trend around anime conventions: getting voice actors to say their characters' famous lines after inhaling helium. [[Hilarity Ensues]], usually.
{{quote|'''[[Travis Willingham]]''': "My friends wanna know, 'When you go out of town, what do you do?' 'Oh, you know, [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|eat cake...huff balloons...]][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}YZFIxM7SWr0 make a big dumbass out of myself...'"]
'''[[Vic Mignogna]]''': "[[Fullmetal Alchemist|Don't call me small]]--''[[Crowning Moment of Funny|(barely avoids headslamming the table)]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}lRq9Y4sMUMI I'll break off your feet and stick 'em on your head!]" }}
* [[Lilo and Stitch|Chris Sanders.]]
* [[Inverted Trope|Inversion]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-XbjFn3aqE sulfur hexafluoride].
▲
{{reflist}}
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