Subliminal Seduction: Difference between revisions

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[[File:tetris_evil_6228.jpg|link=Tetris|frame|I ''[[Dirty Communists|knew]]'' it.]]

{{quote|'''[[The Stoner|John]]:''' By the way, Nicky, check this out... ''(plays a record backwards)'' What's [[Ozzy Osbourne ~~(Music)~~|Ozzy]] trying to say there?

{{quote|'''[[The Stoner|John]]:''' By the way, Nicky, check this out... ''(plays a record backwards)'' What's [[Ozzy Osbourne|Ozzy]] trying to say there?

'''[[Anti-Anti-Christ|Nicky]]:''' John, absolutely nothing. The Blizzard always came straight with his messages. But wrap your minds around this, gentlemen - Chicago. ''(puts the record on)''

'''[[Ambiguously Gay|Todd]]:''' I love this song.

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* In ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]] a la mode'', the Saint Rose Crusaders use subliminal messages on TV and in random text messages to turn the public against the heroes and their token [[Mary Sue]].

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZlIcJbbm08 Leo Burnett and 4Kids are the devil!]. Eventually 4Kids admitted to, ironically, creating the Leo Burnett part as a jokey shout-out to his use of subliminal messaging. But how the 4Kids part was added from there...

* Done in the opening of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni]]''. The first opening [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P07K3ZIyHGQ reversed] sounds an awful lot like the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk3Nmu8Kq6Y&feature=related second opening.] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwb0QhZmizM&feature=related The second opening returns the favor.]

* Done in the opening of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]''. The first opening [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P07K3ZIyHGQ reversed] sounds an awful lot like the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk3Nmu8Kq6Y&feature=related second opening.] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwb0QhZmizM&feature=related The second opening returns the favor.]

** As a side note, the repeated phrases mean [[Nightmare Fuel|"You cannot escape."]]

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== Film ==

* ''[[Josie and ~~The~~ Pussycats (~~Film~~)|Josie and The Pussycats]]'' is the best film EVER!!! (jointhearmy)

* ''[[Josie and the Pussycats (film)|Josie and The Pussycats]]'' is the best film EVER!!! (jointhearmy)

* They actually tried to do this with a movie a few years back. The message spliced in was 'Call Home!'. When audience members were later asked how the movie made them feel, or did they want to do anything ''special'', many people said they... felt a little hungry. In any event, no one had the urge to make a phone call to Mom.

* Tyler Durden from ''[[Fight Club]]'' placed subliminal porn images into family films, strictly for his own amusement.

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* In John Carpenter's ''[[They Live]]'', aliens control the world through subliminal messaging (backed by [[Applied Phlebotinum]]) hidden in billboards, magazines, and pretty much everywhere.

* Used as a bit of a plot point in ''[[Spy Kids]]''. Junie's favorite show employs several characters in costume speaking gibberish, but when the tape of the show is played backwards you can clearly hear their cries for help.

* The horror movie ''Trick Or Treat'' takes the urban legend about Satanic messages hidden in music and runs with it. The movie is ''about'' a heavy metal star who was into black magic (and died in the middle of a magical ritual) who put a backmasked summoning spell on his next-to-be-released album. The hero, a put-upon headbanger (played by the guy who played Skippy in ''[[Family Ties]]''), gets the only prerelease copy of the album. Playing the album backward in short bursts gives the nerd headbanger advice for defeating the jocks and preps at his school who torment him, but the album keeps wanting to be played backwards in it's entirety -- and when he does, the dead metal star is summoned in demon form ''from Skippy's stereo speakers'' and runs amok. The plot is a little tongue in cheek rather than pure [[New Media Is Evil]]--the radio DJ is played by [[Kiss|Gene Simmons]] and [[~~Ozzy Osbourne (Music)|~~Ozzy Osbourne]] cameos as an anti-metal evangelist.

* The horror movie ''Trick Or Treat'' takes the urban legend about Satanic messages hidden in music and runs with it. The movie is ''about'' a heavy metal star who was into black magic (and died in the middle of a magical ritual) who put a backmasked summoning spell on his next-to-be-released album. The hero, a put-upon headbanger (played by the guy who played Skippy in ''[[Family Ties]]''), gets the only prerelease copy of the album. Playing the album backward in short bursts gives the nerd headbanger advice for defeating the jocks and preps at his school who torment him, but the album keeps wanting to be played backwards in it's entirety -- and when he does, the dead metal star is summoned in demon form ''from Skippy's stereo speakers'' and runs amok. The plot is a little tongue in cheek rather than pure [[New Media Is Evil]]--the radio DJ is played by [[Kiss|Gene Simmons]] and [[Ozzy Osbourne]] cameos as an anti-metal evangelist.

** The hero's radio DJ friend discourages a young heavy metal fan from trying to hear backmasked lyrics on records. Why? Because he insists that it's nothing more than a scam by record company executives to make kids ruin their albums playing them backwards, so they'll have to buy more. (This would've been a subversion of the trope, had the records in question not ''really'' contained hidden incantations invoking demonic forces.)

* ''[[~~The Exorcist (Film)|~~The Exorcist]]'' has short flashes of a demonic face during some scene changes.

* ''[[The Exorcist]]'' has short flashes of a demonic face during some scene changes.

* In ''[[The Ring]]'', the corpse's of Samara's victims are shown for a split second at two points in the movie.

* Then, of course, there's the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doWOdB1d0mg "Fruity Oaty Bars"] from ''[[~~Serenity (Film)|~~Serenity]]''...

* Then, of course, there's the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doWOdB1d0mg "Fruity Oaty Bars"] from ''[[Serenity]]''...

** Justified, though, since she is triggered by a code which she has already been programmed to respond to. She didn't just see 'kill kill kill' flash up on the screen for a second, and decide, hey, I really don't like the people in this bar . . .

* In ''[[~~Memento (Film)|~~Memento]]'', {{spoiler|after his wife's death, Sammy is shown sitting in a mental institution. Briefly, just after someone walks in front of him and before the scene cuts back to Leonard on phone, Sammy's character is actually replaced by Leonard sitting in the same chair.}}

* In ''[[Memento]]'', {{spoiler|after his wife's death, Sammy is shown sitting in a mental institution. Briefly, just after someone walks in front of him and before the scene cuts back to Leonard on phone, Sammy's character is actually replaced by Leonard sitting in the same chair.}}

== Literature ==

* In Aldous Huxley's ''[[Brave New World (~~Literature~~)|Brave New World]]'', children are fed subliminal messages during sleep that are meant to reconcile them to their social class. Beta children, for instance, are fed messages like "I'm so glad I'm a Beta. Being an Alpha would be ever so hard, and I'm not stupid like a Gamma or a Delta."

* In Aldous Huxley's ''[[Brave New World (novel)|Brave New World]]'', children are fed subliminal messages during sleep that are meant to reconcile them to their social class. Beta children, for instance, are fed messages like "I'm so glad I'm a Beta. Being an Alpha would be ever so hard, and I'm not stupid like a Gamma or a Delta."

* [[Dean Koontz]]'s horror novel ''Night Chills'' has the villains testing their subliminal-message technology on a small isolated town.

* In the [[Discworld]] book ''[[Discworld ~~(Literature)~~/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'', awkward entrepreneur [[CMOT Dibbler|Cut-me-own-Throat Dibbler]] figures that if people can be subtly influenced by showing an advertisement for a fraction of a second, they would be influenced a hundred times stronger if the ad was shown continuously for a full five subliminal minutes. Fortunately, his nephew Sol Dibbler not only has more common sense, but catches wind of this scheme.

* In the [[Discworld]] book ''[[Discworld/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'', awkward entrepreneur [[CMOT Dibbler|Cut-me-own-Throat Dibbler]] figures that if people can be subtly influenced by showing an advertisement for a fraction of a second, they would be influenced a hundred times stronger if the ad was shown continuously for a full five subliminal minutes. Fortunately, his nephew Sol Dibbler not only has more common sense, but catches wind of this scheme.

* In the ''[[Johnny Maxwell Trilogy]]'', Wobbler claims that if you play [[Cliff Richard]] records backwards there are messages like "Stay in school!" and "It's cool to go to church!"

* The "Fnords" from ''[[The Illuminatus Trilogy]]''.

* A short story from the 1930s called "Daymare" contains an example of this: a man implants a hypnotic message into a speach broadcast across an Orwellian television network to control a colony on a moon of Jupiter. Possibly making this trope [[Older Than Television]].

* In ''[[~~Artemis Fowl (Literature)|~~Artemis Fowl]]: The Lost Colony'', Artemis persuades his opponent to choose [[wikipedia:Taipei 101|Taipei 101]] as a meeting place by dropping words into the conversation. That it actually works seems like a far-fetched [[Xanatos Roulette]], except that the man is already intimately familiar with the location and calls it "his second home".

* In ''[[Artemis Fowl]]: The Lost Colony'', Artemis persuades his opponent to choose [[wikipedia:Taipei 101|Taipei 101]] as a meeting place by dropping words into the conversation. That it actually works seems like a far-fetched [[Xanatos Roulette]], except that the man is already intimately familiar with the location and calls it "his second home".

{{quote| '''Artemis''': I'm going to be wearing a burgundy ''tie''. ''Pay'' attention to that. There are ''a hundred and one'' ways this could go wrong.}}

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* Used in an episode of ''[[The IT Crowd]]'', when Douglas Reynholm shows a video to Jen about the company... also, him being naked.

** Subverted in that it backfires horribly for him; Jen and everyone else who sees it see exactly what's going on and are, not surprisingly, freaked out.

* [[The Documentary]] episode in ''[[~~Babylon Five|~~Babylon 5]]'' contains a commercial for the PsiCorps; the commercial has text frames reading, "TRUST THE CORPS" and "THE CORPS IS YOUR FRIEND", inserted for just long enough not to run afoul of the laws mentioned above.

* [[The Documentary]] episode in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' contains a commercial for the PsiCorps; the commercial has text frames reading, "TRUST THE CORPS" and "THE CORPS IS YOUR FRIEND", inserted for just long enough not to run afoul of the laws mentioned above.

* Shamelessly spoofed on ''[[The Young Ones]]'' where "liminal" (i.e. just long enough to be half-registered by the conscious mind) images entirely irrelevant to the plot (if there was a plot that episode) would be sneaked in, apparently just to stoke the viewers' paranoia.

* A recurring ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' character performed by Kevin Nealon in the 1980s featured a parody of this trope. "[[wikipedia:Mr. Subliminal#Mr. Subliminal|Mr. Subliminal]]", as the character came to be known, initially appeared as an advertising executive named Phil Maloney who would use subliminal cues and messages in his own speech to influence the people around him. Later Nealon would apply the device in his role as anchor on the "Weekend Update" segment, where he would lace his "official" editorials with ironic and often biting commentaries.

* Happened in one episode of ''[[Saved By the Bell]]'', when Zack put subliminal messages on audio tapes to cause Kelly to fall in love with him, and to end Mr. Belding's interfering with his scams. Of course, people heard the tapes who weren't supposed to, Zack's scheme is exposed, and [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* Happened in one episode of ''[[Saved by the Bell]]'', when Zack put subliminal messages on audio tapes to cause Kelly to fall in love with him, and to end Mr. Belding's interfering with his scams. Of course, people heard the tapes who weren't supposed to, Zack's scheme is exposed, and [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** ''Zaaaack. Zaaaack."

* The ''[[~~Doctor Who (TV)|~~Doctor Who]]'' episode 'The Sound of Drums' {{spoiler|features the Master persuading the population of the United Kingdom to vote for him as Prime Minister with a subliminal message carried over a mobile phone network, and then in 'Last of the Time Lords' uses it to dull any thoughts of resistance to his regime.}}

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode 'The Sound of Drums' {{spoiler|features the Master persuading the population of the United Kingdom to vote for him as Prime Minister with a subliminal message carried over a mobile phone network, and then in 'Last of the Time Lords' uses it to dull any thoughts of resistance to his regime.}}

** True, but its stated specifically that the {{spoiler|Archangel Network actually linked and utilized the latent telepathy of humanity...maybe a bit justified. Also, despite this, it was still a very simple message ("trust" and "despair," respectively).}}

* An episode of ''[[Eerie Indiana]]'' plays with this; a young boy who is frequently put-down by his verbally abusive and overbearing father starts getting into a alt-rock band who are accused of putting subliminal messages into their music. When the kid's personality starts changing to be closer to that of his heroes - including standing up to his father - his father begins to become obsessed with the subliminal messages that are seemingly corrupting his son, leading to him storming into a music shop and playing one of their records backwards to prove it to the main characters. Much to his mortification and horror, however, what is heard when the album is played backwards is a repeating litany of his bullying and verbal cruelty to his son.

* The initial research model was the basis for a ''[[~~Columbo (TV)|~~Columbo]]'' episode, in which a murderous film-maker lures his victim out into the lobby for a drink of water via strategic inserts. It's actually a really clever, well-done ep, considered among the best...once you overlook the teeny little hitch that its 'cutting-edge' science turned out to be totally made up.

* The initial research model was the basis for a ''[[Columbo]]'' episode, in which a murderous film-maker lures his victim out into the lobby for a drink of water via strategic inserts. It's actually a really clever, well-done ep, considered among the best...once you overlook the teeny little hitch that its 'cutting-edge' science turned out to be totally made up.

* In the ''[[~~Red Dwarf (TV)|~~Red Dwarf]]'' episode "Backwards", one long backmasked monologue actually turns into: "You are a stupid, square-headed bald git, aren't you? I'm pointing at you, I'm pointing at you! But I'm not actually addressing you - I'm addressing the one prat in the country who's bothered to get hold of this recording, turn it round and actually work out the rubbish that I'm saying! What a poor, sad life he's got!"

* In the ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' episode "Backwards", one long backmasked monologue actually turns into: "You are a stupid, square-headed bald git, aren't you? I'm pointing at you, I'm pointing at you! But I'm not actually addressing you - I'm addressing the one prat in the country who's bothered to get hold of this recording, turn it round and actually work out the rubbish that I'm saying! What a poor, sad life he's got!"

* Having fallen out with the Channel 4's director and never knowing how far is too far, [[Chris Morris]] inserted a single-frame image into his news-special satire ''[[Brass Eye]]'' that said "[[Biting the Hand Humour|Grade]] is a {{spoiler|[[Country Matters|cunt]]}}".

* In Season 3 of ''[[Lost]]'', some characters have to rescue a prisoner that is being forced to watch a brainwashing tape while loud music plays. The video is already eerie enough (with messages like 'God loves you as he loves Jacob'); however, fans discovered if the music in the scene is played backwards, the message "Only fools are enslaved by time and space" appears.

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{{quote| '''Servo:''' "Is this that subliminal advertising you hear about?"

'''Crow:''' "I dunno but suddenly I'm hungry for a guy with glasses." }}

* Parodied in ''[[A Bit of Fry and ~~Laurie|A Bit Of Fry And~~ Laurie]]'' where a woman is suing a rockstar for backmasking, the rockstar then sings a song called 'Drop All Charges.' (She does drop the charges.)

* Parodied in ''[[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]]'' where a woman is suing a rockstar for backmasking, the rockstar then sings a song called 'Drop All Charges.' (She does drop the charges.)

** She also asks the judge for "permission to get out of his face" -- part of the lyrics to the 'Drop All Charges' song.

* In an episode of ''[[CHiPs]]'' a subliminal message was inserted by a band's agent without their knowledge, found by playing the album backwards at [[Number of the Beast|66.6 RPM]].

* Done in a few episodes of ''[[The ~~Chasers~~ War On Everything]]'', usually mocking the viewers who would bother to watch in slow-motion and read it.

* Done in a few episodes of ''[[The Chaser's War on Everything]]'', usually mocking the viewers who would bother to watch in slow-motion and read it.

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'':

** The story writing for the historic Icelandic tome "Njorl's Saga" gets picked up halfway through by the North Malden [[The Icelandic Sagas ~~(Literature)~~|Icelandic Saga]] Society. After momentarily lapsing into a P.R. film for business investment in North Malden, an action scene unfolds with "INVEST IN MALDEN" occasionally flashing on the screen (along with knights carrying signs shilling for Malden.)

** The story writing for the historic Icelandic tome "Njorl's Saga" gets picked up halfway through by the North Malden [[The Icelandic Sagas|Icelandic Saga]] Society. After momentarily lapsing into a P.R. film for business investment in North Malden, an action scene unfolds with "INVEST IN MALDEN" occasionally flashing on the screen (along with knights carrying signs shilling for Malden.)

** And in another sketch, where someone is undergoing persuasion to quit the Masons, we see what he's seeing as a voice-over asks "do you want to stop being a Mason?". The image he's looking at is repeatedly replaced for brief intervals with an image of a naked woman alongside a large "YES". When the sequence is over, {{spoiler|he of course answers "no"}}.

* ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "Wetwired" dealt with subliminal messaging on cable television driving people to murder. Mulder finds that he is immune to this subliminal messaging because he is red/green colorblind, and the messaging is heavily reliant on that. Scully, on the other hand, is temporarily brainwashed, convinced that Mulder is one of the men who abducted her and has been lying to her from the beginning. This almost ends tragically as she pulls a gun on him in her mother's home.

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== Music ==

* [[~~Judas Priest (Music)|~~Judas Priest]] were sued over two teenage suicides claimed to be provoked by backwards messages in their music. The claim was shredded in court. After the trial, frontman Rob Halford pointed out the logical fallacy in many of the prevalent backmasking claims -- if you put subliminal messages in music telling your fans to kill themselves, then nobody will buy your music, because your fans are all dead. It would be more productive to put in messages saying things like "buy more records."

* [[Judas Priest]] were sued over two teenage suicides claimed to be provoked by backwards messages in their music. The claim was shredded in court. After the trial, frontman Rob Halford pointed out the logical fallacy in many of the prevalent backmasking claims -- if you put subliminal messages in music telling your fans to kill themselves, then nobody will buy your music, because your fans are all dead. It would be more productive to put in messages saying things like "buy more records."

* A number of artists have made songs with intentional backmasking, to poke fun at the phenomenon and/or cheese off [[Moral Guardians]] and [[Media Watchdog|Media Watchdogs]]:

** The Mindless Self Indulgence song ''Backmask'' is a blatant poke at subliminal messages. When played forwards, the lyrics tell the listener to "go kill yourself", "don't forget the guns - you're gonna need 'em to destroy", et cetera; played backwards, a large section consists of a pleasant female voice telling the listener to be a good person, e.g. "Don't stay out too late", "Get dessed for church".

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*** This bit can also double as [[Fridge Brilliance]] since in the context of the album, it's a bit of [[Foreshadowing]] about Pink's mental breakdown. Also, one ''[[Everybody Is Jesus in Purgatory|incredibly detailed]]'' analysis of the album points out that Waters abandoning the message to pick up the phone reinforces the entire album's theme about the importance of communication.

*** On his solo album ''Amused To Death'', Waters includes a backwards message as a [[Take That]] to [[Stanley Kubrick]] who wouldn't let him use a sample from ''2001''.

{{quote| '''Roger Waters''': Julia, however, in the light and visions of the issues of Stanley, we changed our minds. [[Lampshaded Trope|We have decided to include a backward message.]] Stanley, for you, and for all the other book partners... [[Careful ~~With~~ That Axe|(unintelligble screaming)]].}}

{{quote| '''Roger Waters''': Julia, however, in the light and visions of the issues of Stanley, we changed our minds. [[Lampshaded Trope|We have decided to include a backward message.]] Stanley, for you, and for all the other book partners... [[Careful with That Axe|(unintelligble screaming)]].}}

** [[Weird Al Yankovic]]'s song "Nature Trail to Hell" contains the backwards message "Satan eats Cheez-Whiz!" His song "I Remember Larry" has the backwards message "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands."

** [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s song "Nature Trail to Hell" contains the backwards message "Satan eats Cheez-Whiz!" His song "I Remember Larry" has the backwards message "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands."

*** PLUS [[Last-Note Nightmare|"Bite Me"]], Which is probably the weirdest example ever. If you slow it down 800% (300% in Sound Recorder), it has a segment of a different song in it.

** "Detour Through Your Mind" by the B-52s contains the backwards message "I buried my parakeet in the backyard. Oh no, you're playing the record backwards! Watch out, you might ruin your needle."

** [[~~Iron Maiden (Music)|~~Iron Maiden]]'s album ''Piece of Mind'' contains, between the songs "The Trooper" and "Still Life", a backwards recording of Nicko McBrain doing his impression of Idi Amin Dada: "What ho, said the thing with the three bonce, don't meddle with things you don't understand."

** [[Iron Maiden]]'s album ''Piece of Mind'' contains, between the songs "The Trooper" and "Still Life", a backwards recording of Nicko McBrain doing his impression of Idi Amin Dada: "What ho, said the thing with the three bonce, don't meddle with things you don't understand."

** The Bedroom Philosopher placed a slowed-down, whispered backwards message on the song "I'm So Postmodern", targeted at soap actor Shane Porteous: "Shane Porteous, buy a smock". Then the last line of the song is "I'm so postmodern I prerecorded this song, and laced a message subliminally telling Shane Porteous to buy a smock". On the CD, this is followed by the song played backwards rapidly, so you can see for yourself.

** The Aquabats' song "Why Rock", a parody of the metal style associated with this trope (and claimed to be a cover of a band called Leather Pyrate) contains the backwards message "It's worth it to graduate; your parents have the right idea. Brush your teeth."

** The song "Echo Side" by [[~~Dark Lotus (Music)|~~Dark Lotus]] (a [[Psychopathic Records]] supergroup featuring members of [[~~Insane Clown Posse (Music)|~~Insane Clown Posse]] (who were already the target of [[Moral Guardians]] and ''proud'' of it) and [[~~Twiztid (Music)|~~Twiztid]]) features a backmasked message which when reversed is actually an anti-Satanic message: ''Fuck the devil, fuck that shit, we believe in life legit. If you hearin' what we say, why you throw your soul away?''.

** The song "Echo Side" by [[Dark Lotus]] (a [[Psychopathic Records]] supergroup featuring members of [[Insane Clown Posse]] (who were already the target of [[Moral Guardians]] and ''proud'' of it) and [[Twiztid]]) features a backmasked message which when reversed is actually an anti-Satanic message: ''Fuck the devil, fuck that shit, we believe in life legit. If you hearin' what we say, why you throw your soul away?''.

** Similarly subverted in the [[~~Oingo Boingo (Music)|~~Oingo Boingo]] song "Cry of the Vatos" which features drums, screaming, and full-volume backmasked lyrics... which when played in reverse, say things like "Accept Jesus into your heart and you will be saved. You will receive everlasting life."

** Similarly subverted in the [[Oingo Boingo]] song "Cry of the Vatos" which features drums, screaming, and full-volume backmasked lyrics... which when played in reverse, say things like "Accept Jesus into your heart and you will be saved. You will receive everlasting life."

** The song "Heavy Metal Poisoning" from [[~~Styx (Music)|~~Styx]]'s message-heavy 1983 album ''Kilroy Was Here'' includes a heavily-distorted voice reciting the [[Ominous Latin Chanting|Latin slogans]] from the dollar bill. And if that weren't enough, the second side of the album begins with a short clip of reversed speech all by itself.

** The song "Heavy Metal Poisoning" from [[Styx]]'s message-heavy 1983 album ''Kilroy Was Here'' includes a heavily-distorted voice reciting the [[Ominous Latin Chanting|Latin slogans]] from the dollar bill. And if that weren't enough, the second side of the album begins with a short clip of reversed speech all by itself.

** [[They Might Be Giants]] do this all the time, most noticeably in the song simply called "Subliminal". If you play "On Earth, My Nina" backwards, you'll actually hear "Thunderbird", another song of theirs. They Might Be Giants being They Might Be Giants, they released the "reversed" song half a decade before the forwards one. The demo version of "Which Describes How You're Feeling" has a bridge that, when played backwards, gives the message "They Might Be Giants wanted to include a verse about the suffering people in the world, but we couldn't figure out where to put it into the song". And "Hide Away Folk Family" ends with ''fake'' back-masking: It's actually just John Flansburgh singing a string of backwards-sounding nonsense.

*** They do a double reverse in the song "Dinner Bell". They take a string of spoken parts of the body (ex. shoulder, bicep, elbow, arm), reverse the line, sing what they heard of the reversed line, and then reverse the reversed lines that they sung, and put those lines into the song. It's a cool effect.

** The ending of Soul Coughing's "The Bug" features a just barely audible loop of Mike Doughty repeating "George Clooney is Satan!" Not only is it a parody of the supposed message "I buried Paul" hidden in "Strawberry Fields" by the Beatles, it's also something of a [[Take That]] [[Biting the Hand Humor|to the very film it was written for]]... ''[[Batman and Robin (~~Film~~)|Batman and Robin]]'', starring George Clooney.

** The ending of Soul Coughing's "The Bug" features a just barely audible loop of Mike Doughty repeating "George Clooney is Satan!" Not only is it a parody of the supposed message "I buried Paul" hidden in "Strawberry Fields" by the Beatles, it's also something of a [[Take That]] [[Biting the Hand Humor|to the very film it was written for]]... ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'', starring George Clooney.

** "<nowiki>P5hng Me A*wy</nowiki>", a song from [[Linkin Park]]'s remix album ''Reanimation'', contains a backmasked section which is simply one of the song's verses.

*** Inverted with Linkin Park's "Announcement Service Public." YOU SHOULD BRUSH YOUR TEETH! AND! YOU SHOULD WASH YOUR FACE!

** "The Poet And The Pendulum," the first track on Nightwish's ''Dark Passion Play'', opens with backmasked verses from the end of the song.

** [[~~Soundgarden (Music)|~~Soundgarden]] attempted to cash in on this satanic messages thing on the song ''665'', but a bout of dyslexia lead them to leave a message to Santa.

** [[Soundgarden]] attempted to cash in on this satanic messages thing on the song ''665'', but a bout of dyslexia lead them to leave a message to Santa.

** "Please Don't Release This Song", [[Mitch Benn]]'s parody of "new" Beatles songs "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" on the album ''Too Late To Cancel'', ends with a backmasked section that turns out to actually be the chorus of "We Haven't Got A Clue", the first song on the album.

** The [[Franz Ferdinand]] song ''Michael'' has "She worries about you, call your mother" backmasked into it.

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* The infamously "pornographic" song "Darling Nikki" by Prince has a backward-masked sequence that, when played forwards, says "Hello, how are you? I'm fine, 'cause I know the Lord is coming soon. Coming, coming soon."

** "Sucker" by Self ends in an [[Affectionate Parody]] of this: It has a backmasked sequence that sounds identical to the one in "Darling Nikki", but changes the message to "Hello, how are you? I'm fine, 'cause I know that breakfast is coming soon" (It's from an album called ''Breakfast With Girls'', and the next song on the album is the title track).

* You can find "backwards message" videos on [[YouTube]] for hundreds, possibly even thousands of songs, for everything from [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Led+Zeppelin+backwards&search_type=&aq=f Led Zeppelin] to [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Spongebob+Squarepants+theme+backwards&search_type=&aq=f the theme song to] ''[[~~Spongebob~~ SquarePants]]''.

* You can find "backwards message" videos on [[YouTube]] for hundreds, possibly even thousands of songs, for everything from [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Led+Zeppelin+backwards&search_type=&aq=f Led Zeppelin] to [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Spongebob+Squarepants+theme+backwards&search_type=&aq=f the theme song to] ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''.

** What you have to remember though, is that some of them are only ''perceived'' reversed messages (e.g., the alleged "Yes, I'm Alive" message in one of 2Pac's songs).

* Apparently [[The Beatles]] did this for a while. Long story short it resulted in a lot of people thinking Paul was dead. Blame the drugs.

** It also allegedly resulted in Sharon Tate's death, but let's not get into that...

* Parodied [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/daftpunk here], revealing the hidden meanings behind [[~~Daft Punk (Music)|~~Daft Punk]] 's ''Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger''.

* Parodied [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/daftpunk here], revealing the hidden meanings behind [[Daft Punk]] 's ''Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger''.

* The outtro of Information Society's cover of Gary Numan's "Are Friends Electric?" has the backmasked message "Obey your parents. Do your homework. Winners don't do drugs." At first I thought it was the voice of the broken-down robot, with the mechanical noise in the background.

* In Trip Theory's "Times Up(The Bomb Remix)", there's a timestretched and backmasked(?) vocal sample in the transition to the third break. Can't find a transcription of it.

* The end of the title track of the first [[Overkill (~~Music~~)|Overkill]] album, on original pressings, has the message "There's no message here, you're going to ruin your needle, asshole!"

* The end of the title track of the first [[Overkill (band)|Overkill]] album, on original pressings, has the message "There's no message here, you're going to ruin your needle, asshole!"

* Semi-similarly, the end of Vicious Rumors' album "Digital Dictator" contains a very obvious backwards message which reverses to play "Be nice to your mom and dad. Don't abuse. Don't blow your brains out on drugs. Rock your brains out. By the way, you're ruining your needle."

* [[~~Caparezza (Music)|~~Caparezza]] included a backmasked message in one of the tracks of his latest CD. You can read more about it [http://www.staperarrivarelafinedelmondo.com/2011/02/messaggi-subliminali-sul-nuovo-cd-di-caparezza/#comments here] (in Italian). The message means more or less: "I know how religion makes slaves out of you... but darkness will make its light". One of the album tracks (not the one where the message is) indeed talks about conspiracies and secrets.

* [[Caparezza]] included a backmasked message in one of the tracks of his latest CD. You can read more about it [http://www.staperarrivarelafinedelmondo.com/2011/02/messaggi-subliminali-sul-nuovo-cd-di-caparezza/#comments here] (in Italian). The message means more or less: "I know how religion makes slaves out of you... but darkness will make its light". One of the album tracks (not the one where the message is) indeed talks about conspiracies and secrets.

* [[Five Iron Frenzy]]:

** They mentioned backmasking in "So Far, So Bad". The song describes the band's fictional [[Magnum Opus]] (which we'll never hear because [[The Man]] is suppressing it), and among its other features, "If you ever tried to play it backwards, it told the kids to stay in school."

** FIF also used backmasking themselves to hide nonsensical messages. On ''Quantity is Job 1'', the space between "Riot Gear" and "The Untimely Death of Brad" includes Reese saying "Brad is dead. Let's kill Brad." On ''The End is Here'', "That's How the Story Ends" starts with Reese saying "Sandwiches make the best friends."

* "Sucks" by [[~~KMFDM (Music)|~~KMFDM]], among other fun claims, has:

* "Sucks" by [[KMFDM]], among other fun claims, has:

{{quote| KMFDM forward the ultimate sound

and a message from Satan

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** Another time Jason put a subliminal message into a magic eye pattern. He got his father to give him money.

* Nina Paley, creator of ''[[Fluff]]'', wrote a comic strip for the University of Illinois student paper while in college. Arriving at a heavy metal concert, the main characters are confronted by a picket-line of protesting Satanists, up in arms over the band's rumored use of backmasked messages that advocate going to church on Sundays.

* One ''[[~~Shermans~~ Lagoon]]'' strip features a character trying to convince Sherman to believe the [[The Beatles|Paul Is Dead]] conspiracy, and he points to a backwards message in a Beatles song as evidence. ''"It sounds like a recipe for cranberry sauce." "Maybe it's the sauce that killed Paul!"''

* One ''[[Sherman's Lagoon]]'' strip features a character trying to convince Sherman to believe the [[The Beatles|Paul Is Dead]] conspiracy, and he points to a backwards message in a Beatles song as evidence. ''"It sounds like a recipe for cranberry sauce." "Maybe it's the sauce that killed Paul!"''

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* In the video game ''Prince of Persia: Warrior Within'', the Dahaka of Time occasionally yells backmasked phrases at you while chasing you. If you use the game's built-in "reverse time" feature during these phrases, you can actually hear what he's saying.

* Similary, the ghosts of ''[[Thief]]'' speak like this. The backmasked words are bits of Victoria's speech in {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|a cinematic where one of the hero's eyes is forcibly removed.]]}}

* ''[[~~Wario Ware (Video Game)|~~Wario Ware]] Touched!'' is famous for containing a (supposed) subliminal message. Selecting gothic character Ashley's theme in the jukebox and running the record faster than normal distorts the words, which supposedly forms phrases like "I have granted kids to hell" and "I work in a kitchen". Both are probably coincidence.

* ''[[Wario Ware]] Touched!'' is famous for containing a (supposed) subliminal message. Selecting gothic character Ashley's theme in the jukebox and running the record faster than normal distorts the words, which supposedly forms phrases like "I have granted kids to hell" and "I work in a kitchen". Both are probably coincidence.

** A [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ0mYWpnPFw backwards message video] for Ashley's theme he saw that interpreted one part as "Ear! Shut up!"

* The Nightmares in the [[Milkman Conspiracy]] level in ''[[~~Psychonauts (Video Game)|~~Psychonauts]]'' sometimes shout things that sound like gibberish while you're battling them. In reality, they're actually saying things like "Death, I'll get you" backwards, possibly to play with the whole conspiracy theme of the level. (The Nightmares that appear in other minds {{spoiler|Like Milla's}} speak normally)

* The Nightmares in the [[Milkman Conspiracy]] level in ''[[Psychonauts]]'' sometimes shout things that sound like gibberish while you're battling them. In reality, they're actually saying things like "Death, I'll get you" backwards, possibly to play with the whole conspiracy theme of the level. (The Nightmares that appear in other minds {{spoiler|Like Milla's}} speak normally)

* ''[[Halo]]'': The music tracks "Mausoleum Suite", "Dread Intrusion", "Black Tower", and "Gravemind" all contain backmasked speech: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Reversed_Messages. Not all of the speech is decipherable, though. eg. in the third part of Mausoleum Suite, the voices are just backmasked gibberish.

** This is also how they got the Elite language in the first game (which is pretty much the only appearance of said language before the humans developed [[Translator Microbes]]). The Elites' phrases are Johnson's phrases played backwards. For example, the famous "Wort wort wort" said by the Elites is "Go go go" played backwards and a couple octaves lower in pitch.

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* The irritating squawk made by the Doozers from ''[[Creatures]] 2'' turns into a crowd shouting "HELL NO WE WON'T GO!" when played backwards and slowed down. The voices are employees from Creatures Labs.

* Fiddle around on the menu screen of ''[[Manhunt]]'' after beating it on the hardest difficulty and a voice says something backwards. Turned around, the voice says, "Daddy didn't see what would happen if she left me. Mommy would've cared, but she was never there." Then the voice recites a series of buttons. Input that sequence in reverse and you get [[God Mode]].

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]]'' features [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnL7t_nY2IA Zelda's Lullaby in reverse in its theme song]. {{spoiler|[[Foreshadowing|There's a very good reason for this.]]}}

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword]]'' features [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnL7t_nY2IA Zelda's Lullaby in reverse in its theme song]. {{spoiler|[[Foreshadowing|There's a very good reason for this.]]}}

** And of course, ''[[The Legend of Zelda ~~Majoras~~ Mask]]'' had you playing certain songs backwards to do different things (the Song of Time Reversed slows down the progression of time by half).

** And of course, ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'' had you playing certain songs backwards to do different things (the Song of Time Reversed slows down the progression of time by half).

* Not-so-subliminal: In ''[[~~Deus Ex (Video Game)|~~Deus Ex]]'', in the VersaLife offices on the Hong Kong level, over the programmers heads are screens that repeatedly flash single words in black and white, such as, "OBEY", "TRUST", and "LOYALTY."

* Not-so-subliminal: In ''[[Deus Ex]]'', in the VersaLife offices on the Hong Kong level, over the programmers heads are screens that repeatedly flash single words in black and white, such as, "OBEY", "TRUST", and "LOYALTY."

* In the first ''[[Mass Effect]]'', the battle theme for {{spoiler|the first battle against Saren}} whispers the words {{spoiler|"listen to Sovereign"}} while you are fighting.

* In the Atari Lynx version of ''[[Rampage]]'', one of the gag newspaper headlines shown at the start of the level read "There are no (Buy a Lynx) subliminal messages (Or two) in this game (Buy a Lynx)."

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* The ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' episode "Sins of Our Fathers" featured villainous character Destro performing a strange chant to lure away a monster. When played backwards, it is clear that the chant is just Destro's voice actor saying "Anybody listening to this backwards, secret, 'occult' message is a real dweeb."

* In an episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', [[Balance Between Good and Evil|the balance]] is disrupted by a bad guy taking over Hell, causing all the League's magic-users to start writhing in pain. Zatanna, who always speaks her spells backwards, says this if the episode is played in reverse: "All is lost. Faust sits on the throne of hell."

* Parodied in an episode of (what else?) ''[[The Simpsons (~~Animation~~)|The Simpsons]]'' which focuses on Bart joining a boy band that gets caught up in the US Navy's evil scheme to corrupt the minds of the youth into supporting and joining the Navy through subliminal messages in the band's lyrics ("Yvan eht nioj! Yvan eht nioj!" - not really the message played backwards, but the message written backwards and the result sung phonetically). Upon being confronted with this, the officer in charge explains that it's part of a three-pronged approach to increase enlistment, with the prongs being subliminal, liminal and superliminal messages -- with superliminal messages essentially boiling down to him shouting "Hey you! Join the Navy!" out of his office window at people passing by.

* Parodied in an episode of (what else?) ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' which focuses on Bart joining a boy band that gets caught up in the US Navy's evil scheme to corrupt the minds of the youth into supporting and joining the Navy through subliminal messages in the band's lyrics ("Yvan eht nioj! Yvan eht nioj!" - not really the message played backwards, but the message written backwards and the result sung phonetically). Upon being confronted with this, the officer in charge explains that it's part of a three-pronged approach to increase enlistment, with the prongs being subliminal, liminal and superliminal messages -- with superliminal messages essentially boiling down to him shouting "Hey you! Join the Navy!" out of his office window at people passing by.

** Also on ''The Simpsons'', [[Paul McCartney]] claims that playing his song "Maybe I'm Amazed" backwards reveals a "really ripping" lentil soup recipe. The song itself plays at the end of the episode; a version that indeed has a lentil soup recipe backward-masked into it (and it's not bad.) "Oh, and by the way, I'm not dead."

*** Also parodied in one of the blackboard segments in the titles: "I will not plant sublimin[[Subliminal Seduction|al]] messa[[Subliminal Seduction|gore]]s.

*** And then there was Homer's ad for Marge's political party, which featured several really, really obvious appearances of "NO ON 232". Homer being...well, Homer, Marge's party needed a YES on 232, a NO on 2''4''2.

** A literal example of subliminal seduction comes with Artie Ziff's snore-sound converter, in the form of a message aimed at Marge, urging her to leave Homer for Artie. It fails when he sings out "[[Stalker ~~With~~ a Crush|I'm watching you through a camera!]]"

** A literal example of subliminal seduction comes with Artie Ziff's snore-sound converter, in the form of a message aimed at Marge, urging her to leave Homer for Artie. It fails when he sings out "[[Stalker with a Crush|I'm watching you through a camera!]]"

*** In the middle of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics.

* At the end of one ''[[Rex the Runt]]'' short, a picture of some bizarre looking burger is shown that you have to freeze frame to catch. There is no reason for this other than the show just being weird as usual.

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* This is the entire schtick of [[Homestuck|The Felt]] [[Fake Band|album]] (what with the characters this album is based on [[Timey-Wimey Ball|having forms of time manipulation powers]] and all). To hear all of the songs reversed, [http://www.youtube.com/user/Mewchu11 a kind YouTube user] has done the reversing for us.

** On Alpha Earth, the Betty Crocker company seems to have put subliminal messaging in everything with the brand name - and considering it's a multi-global corporation, it's got a lot of merchandise.

* In an early ''[[College Roomies ~~From~~ Hell]]'' arc, Dave embedded a subliminal message in his shirt in a failed attempt to get Margaret to like him.

* In an early ''[[College Roomies from Hell]]'' arc, Dave embedded a subliminal message in his shirt in a failed attempt to get Margaret to like him.

* [[Sluggy Freelance|Hamster NOM]], an online game forces players who play it to become addicted to it. Then the programmer who made it hacks the game and starts a zombie apocalypse to get back at the company that stole the code from him. Fortunately, only animals are zombie-fied. Unfortunately, the main cast has a whole host of animals in their house, and they're ALL playing Hamster NOM.

== Web Original ==

* Little Kuriboh throws in a message in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh ~~the~~ Abridged Series|Yugioh: The Abridged Movie]]''. During Yugi's "thinly veiled foreshadowing" dream, where Yami and Kaiba duel, Yami loses, and Kaiba is attacked by a gibberish-spouting Anubis, the gibberish, played backwards..."Watch [[Naruto the Abridged Series]]!"

* Little Kuriboh throws in a message in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yugioh: The Abridged Movie]]''. During Yugi's "thinly veiled foreshadowing" dream, where Yami and Kaiba duel, Yami loses, and Kaiba is attacked by a gibberish-spouting Anubis, the gibberish, played backwards..."Watch [[Naruto the Abridged Series]]!"

** In the [[Clip Show]] episode, Rebecca's teddy bear also spouts a backwards message. It says {{spoiler|"You have too much time on your hands"}}

* [[Zero Punctuation|Yahtzee]] plays with this trope a bit - for example, in the [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/616-50-Cent-Blood-on-the-Sand 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand review] - by inserting short clips into the animation that vanish before you can properly read them.