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{{trope}}
{{quote|A mouse in the wainscotting! Well squeaked, mouse!|'''The Doctor'''
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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It should be noted that contrary to popular belief, helium actually changes the ''timbre'' (as in the quality) of one's voice, not the pitch. Regardless, those who favor the easy and cheap way of getting things done or just [[Did Not Do the Research|didn't do the research]] still go for artificially pitch-shifting the characters' voice in spite of this tidbit.
{{examples
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qh8vuXsk5c Used in this his Twix commercial.]▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* An episode of ''[[Pokémon (
** It fails because the Pokémon are able to tell who their real Trainers are in the end.
* The ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' episode "Waltz For Venus" features an expedition to the titular planet, whose atmosphere consists largely of helium when the series takes place. Naturally, it has the expected effect on the characters' voices.
* In episode three of ''[[Wandaba Style]]'', [[The Professor]]'s latest experiment involves [[Girl Group|the girls of MixJuice]] and [[Robot Girl|Satellite Girl]] Kiku#8 taking a blimp filled with experimental helium into the stratosphere. On the way up, they end up losing most of their air supply, and Kiku replaces it with "extra" air. Unbeknownst to any of them, the air was actually some of the helium, which they find out when [[It Makes Sense in Context|they're giving a concert]].
▲== [[Commercials]] ==
▲* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qh8vuXsk5c Used in this his Twix commercial.]
== [[Film]] ==
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** Which would actually be rather dangerous since inhaling helium for too long can be deadly. [[Rule of Funny|But then that's really not important, now is it?]]
*** To be fair, it was for a demonstration of an EMT oxygen mask, so actual harm would have been difficult.
* ''
* Robin Williams has this in ''[[Club Paradise]]'' when he went diving.
* The Martians in ''[[Mars Attacks!]]!'' {{spoiler|get the same effect from huffing a nuclear explosion. It even makes sense if it was a fusion bomb, since they work by fusioning hydrogen to, well, helium}}.
* In ''[[Hot Shots]]! Part Deux!'' the President of the United States, played by Lloyd Bridges questions while diving why he brought helium instead of air - with the voice shift at an appropriate point of the [[Inner Monologue]].
** 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 ''[[
** 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
* In ''[[Dirty Work]]'', [[Norm MacDonald|Mitch]] sounds like this, after [[It Makes Sense in Context|his father]] [[Groin Attack|crushes his balls]].
{{quote|
* ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?|"When I killed you brother, I talked]]...
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the latest [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novel (''[[
** Here's the song:
{{quote|
''Where grass of green could once be seen, are only gray and brown.''
''My childhood home, while I did roam, became a place of sadness.''
''Now I return, my heart does yearn for times of light and gladness.'' }}
** A very sad song. Until you imagine it in a
* ''[[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
* In ''[[
* ''[[
** And while it did make his voice almost demonic in how deep it sounded, it would later be revealed that the Sulfur Hexafluoride displaces the gas in the lungs required to - you know, ''breathe'' - and that a potential side effect of breathing it in could very well be ''death.''
* Parodied in ''[[Will and Grace]]'', a character with a high pitched voice doesn't sound any different.
* One episode of ''[[Friends]]'' has Chandler inhaling helium and singing "I Will Survive".
* ''[[
* On ''Genius'', Dave Gorman and guest Neil Innes couldn't resist giving this a try when someone suggested Helium-filled bubble wrap.
* ''[[The Day Today]]'' uses the trope to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6UhXivPyw4 particularly hilarious effect] in a report on Sinn Fein.
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* In ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' episode "The Vengeance Formulation", when Sheldon appears on the National Public Radio talk show Science Friday, his enemy, Barry Kripke, fills his office with helium.
** In the episode "The Launch Acceleration", Leonard shows Penny how the sulfur hexafluoride he uses in his experiments causes deep voices.
* One death in ''[[
** Presumably based on this [http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2006-05.html 2006 Darwin Awards story.]
* Wayne Brady of ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' was known for pulling this off ''without actual helium.''
* The ''[[Eureka]]'' episode "What Goes Around Comes Around" has a particle accelerator that's cooled by liquid helium. Naturally the cooling line breaks and everyone becomes squeaky for about half a scene until they can shut the line off.
* ''[[Top Gear]]'' once tested how well the roofs of old convertibles had held up by putting the presenter in their vehicle with an open tank of helium. James and Jeremy's roofs were in good condition and held in the helium, resulting in them getting squeaky voices. Richard's [[The Alleged Car|heavily-modded]] convertible allowed the helium to leak and didn't change his voice at all, much to his disappointment.
* In ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'':
{{quote|
'''Darnell''': Randy, those aren't helium balloons.
'''Randy''': ''(Normal voice)'' Aw, too bad. }}
* On ''[[Cheers]]'', Norm and Cliff sing "Lollipop" this way at Rebecca's bridal shower until Frasier stops them.
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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]] ==
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* On ''[[The Far Side]]'', some big dogs take turns inhaling helium balloons and barking like small dogs.
== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==
▲* 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]] ==▼
** 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.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Rayman uses this practically in the opening of ''Rayman [[Raving Rabbids]] 2''. You'll see.
* Guybrush in ''[[Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge]]'', shown through giving his dialogue lines a tiny font (the remake of the game has voice acting, so you get to hear it). Also used in ''[[
* Helium is an important element of several puzzles in one of the ''[[Sam and Max]]'' games, since it lets Sam sing high notes. Badly.
* Used in the prologue of ''[[Ever 17]]''. Before visitors can enter the underwater theme park of LeMU, they must go through a compression chamber and adjust to the change in air pressure via helium. Earphones are given to each visitor to make everyone's voices sound normal, but when Takeshi removes them and talks to an already high-pitched Coco...
* The Science Vessel in ''[[
{{quote|
* In ''[[
{{quote|
* In ''[[The Simpsons Game]]'' one of Homer's powers is inflating himself in which he'll say random dialogue in helium speech. "I'm slightly lighter then air".
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Happened unintentionally to ''[[Earthworm Jim (
* Used in ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]''; [[Silent Bob]] inhales helium and stands in silence for several seconds. Jay tells him in exasperation, "It's only funny if you talk, stupid."
* In the third installment of ''[[Ice Age]]'' "deadly gas" turns out to be helium which, as mentioned before, can become deadly after extended periods. The characters' discovery leads to an [[Alvin and The Chipmunks]] impersonation and [[Hilarity Ensues]]. It is later explained that the deaths were because the victims died laughing.
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* In an episode of ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' in which a [[Predator]] was running around the place killing people, Dr. Quinn had the bright idea to mess around with the station's atmosphere in an attempt to hinder the alien aggressor. This ended up pumping a lot of helium into the air vents, which resulted in the crew laughing uproariously over how one of them sounded like [[Alvin and The Chipmunks|a Chipmunk]]... who is then killed by the Predator, [[Dead Baby Comedy|the crew laughing at his high-pitched screams of agony]].
* A ''[[Family Guy]]'' cutaway shows Stewie doing helium at a birthday party:
{{quote|
* ''[[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
* ''[[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
** Harold gets one in the finale after Courtney [[Groin Attack
* 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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== [[Real Life]] ==
* A new{{when}} trend around anime conventions: getting voice actors to say their characters' famous lines after inhaling helium. [[Hilarity Ensues]], usually.
{{quote|'''[[
'''[[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}}
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
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