Unsound Effect

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The plot thickens - or strikes - in Erfworld.

STAB* *:Actually, the sound of a wombat being stabbed is a scratchy noise of bristles scraping on steel followed by a rather unpleasant "squlorp!" noise, followed by a damp smack of hilt. But "scratch-squlorp-squithud!" lacks a certain pithiness. —Digger

The Written Sound Effect is a basic technique for illustrating non-dialog sounds in visual media. The text is a transliteration of the sounds, usually written as onomatopoeia. But then some authors will start writing as sound effects words which only sound like onomatopoeia. "Bash!" and "Kick!" for instance, just happen to sound a bit like the impacts they're describing.

And then, some authors will take it too far, with words that aren't the least bit like sound effects, and are actually just the words for that action in loud capital letters. "Glare!" "Leap!" "Flourish!" and even "Idea!"

This is the Unsound Effect. It's a humorous technique, although it is also seen in fight scenes ("Block!" "Slash!").

This is usually attributed to Richie Rich in the original Harvey Comics versions, which lasted from the 1950s to the 1980s. They included such effects as "BOUNCE!" for large rubber balls impacting a hard surface, and went on to "EXPAND!" when Richie utilized one of Prof. Keenbean's Applied Phlebotinum devices meant to go from pocket-size miniature tool/vehicle/etc. to full-size.

It's worth noting that Manga has different but similar conventions regarding onomatopoeia. Manga has much more than can be done with an Unsound Effect. Japanese writers will use sound effects to denote sounds, like heartbeats or door slams, but also to represent more abstract events like "smiling" ("niko niko"), "sudden realization" ("ha"), "the sound of silence" ("shiiiiiiin") or even "the sound of blushing" ("kaaaaa"). These are known as phenomimes when they describe external phenomena and psychomimes when they describe psychological states. Some Anime, generally the more surreal sort, turn these into actual sound effects.

And sometimes, the sound effect isn't even written. A Super-Deformed version of the character in the margin, a mascot, an animal, or other living thing in the background will say or represent the character's feelings.

Related to Editorial Synaesthesia. See also Visible Silence, the Unsound Effect for no sound; and Sound Defect for real sounds that go wrong. When this occurs in-universe it's Saying Sound Effects Out Loud.

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Examples!

Advertising

• It is common practice for closed captioning to caption sound effects as well. There is a Windex ad in which the mother cleans a window with Windex to let the sun shine in and wake up her kids. The kids rush out while the mother smirks—because it's Saturday. Her smirk is captioned as "(mother smirks)."

Anime & Manga

• In One Piece Chimney did her own sound effect for staring (jiiiiiii).
  • In this page during the Alabasta arc, the camel in the last panel gets, appropriately, CAMEL!!
  • When Zoro battles with Kaku in Enies Lobby, he is so underwhelmed and shocked by the lameness of Kaku's semi-human form he says "You look like sh*t!" To which Kaku says "GABEEN!!"
• The "Kaa" onomatopoeia is seldom used for a blinding sunlight in manga. The same sound effect is also used for Luminescent Blushes.
• The Mahou Sensei Negima manga does this a lot. Of course, this is probably due to the translators being very faithful to the original; during a silent scene you'll see the giant "shiiiin" kana with tiny English "the sound of silence" written underneath.
  • There's also a rather humorous "Pettanko" sound effect when Anya first sees Yue and Nodoka.
  • When Negi goes all out the Kanji for "Destruction" appears when he hits someone.
  • Having a sound for silence can actually be done quite seriously. In the Death Note episode entitled "Silence", a prominent scene combines a "shiiiin" noise with Muted Soundtrack, to great effect. (Along with For Doom the Bell Tolls, and Ominous Latin Chanting, and Red Filter of Doom, because Death Note is melodramatic even when it's not given a decent excuse to be.)
• The anime versions of Pani Poni Dash!, Lucky Star, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei have all used "staring" ("jiiiiiiiiii") as a vocalised sound effect, in SZS's case as a Running Gag.
  • Russia does this too in one episode of the anime of Axis Powers Hetalia - as in, he actually says "jiiiiiii..." while staring at someone. A second later, he does it again, only louder. The other character looks severely uncomfortable by this point.
  • Also in SZS, when The Voiceless Meru types abusive messages with her cell phone, we hear the sound "Meru Meru".
  • The later seasons of SZS have all of the sound effects written on screen and read out loud with a humorously monotone, bored-sounding voice.
  • Lucky Star also has "ira-ira" appear as Kagami gets progressively more irritated with Tsukasa's attempts at texting.
  • Tsukasa goes into lala-land about something, and she actually makes the sound "kira-kira" while her eyes twinkle. (This might even have been preserved in the English dub, with "twinkle-twinkle".)
• Manga publisher Tokyopop used to do this, with some such sounds including "Stand", "Glare" and "Turn".
  • Probably one of the funnier ones was "Cadillac!" in Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders.
• The manga MPD Psycho employs this trope in both humorous and straight forms, for instance, when Amamiya's glasses gleam with light, the other characters swear they can hear the "shing" noise that results. An example of the serious form of the trope in action is the "dokun" or "kadoom" noise that indicates Amamiya's personality changing.
• A burn victim in Detective Conan had a speech balloon reading "mouthing words" or something to that effect, having been too injured to say anything discernible.
• From Hayate the Combat Butler, we also have the inestimable: COINCIDENCE!
• Ouran High School Host Club, with "POINT".
• One translation of the Hentai doujin Blue Eyes featured such sound effects as "ORGASM!", "CLIMAX!", and possibly funniest of all of all, "KA-FUCK!"
• In the space of two pages in the first chapter of Pandora Hearts, we have "GRAB," "FIDGET," "SURPRISE," and of course, "THREATENING ATMOSPHERE."
• Otome Kikan Gretel has a rather freaked out Yuu with the effect "startle." (next to, of course, someone who talks with hearts
  • The very next page has "Confused" and "Realization" on the same panel, then "The Culprit" immediately after
• Chi's Sweet Home uses a number of these, including things like "dejected" and "loom."
• When the author of Kaiji discovered there wasn't an onomatopoeia for dramatic tension, he invented his own: ZAWA.
  • He also uses this same sound in his other works, like Akagi and Gambling Emperor Legend Zero.
• Manga such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Bleach, and Shaman King often throw "DOOM" on dramatic panels. Even more dramatic panels might get "DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM".
• In Doctor Slump, Genki Girl Arale's greetings are so loud and boisterous that the sound effect for it ("KON'CHWA!", approximately, due to a Verbal Tic) easily dwarfs her and knocks the people she greets off their feet. The aliens attempt to weaponize this power, but fail every time.
• Fai of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle starts saying "Fiuuu" instead of whistling, for which Kurogane mocks him. It later turns out that he did that because his whistling has magical powers, though.
• In The Mikos Words and The Witches Incantations, the Mountain God offers Isuzu some sweet rice balls with a "Proffer!".
• The presence of a Battle Aura or similar mind state (even an unshown one) is often accompanied with a "go go go ..." ("ゴ ゴ ゴ ...").
• As demonstrated by the above examples, manga has sound effects for everything. There's even a sound effect to indicate silence.
  • Shi—in
• One episode of Soul Eater parodies this trope. A fistfight between two gangs features such Unsound Effects as 'AH!', 'YEAH!' 'NICE!', 'PENCIL!' and 'AMERICA!'.
• In Area no Kishi when Kouta gets especially irritated with his teammate Nishijima, a "Glare" sound effect is displayed in the panel.
• Rika's catchphrase - "Ni-pah!"
• Baby Steps: After his first grueling day of tennis training, protagonist E-chan's inability to stand up from his desk was denoted by "shivering" sound effects.
• The Ranma ½ manga is lousy with the "Boot" onomatopoeia for whenever someone gets punted into the sky by a Megaton Kick. Ironically enough, NONE of the characters in the series, with the exception of Ryoga, ever wear boots.
  • We also got LOOOOOOOOM for bad guys looking Badass followed by a much smaller LOOOOM for the good guys trying to but not managing it.
• A Lollipop or A Bullet features a non-humorous in-universe example when newly-arrived Strange Girl Umino Masachika introduces herself to the class:

Masachika: Then please treat me well. Masachika: Bow. Nonplussed Student: She actually said "Bow"!

• By the fourth episode of Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt, the sound effects have branched out into unusual territory. "Nice Dunk!", "Muffin Top", and "Red Carpet" (yeah...) are just a few examples.
  • A crowning example occurs in Episode 11: Panty is channel-surfing, and while we can't see the TV, we can see the Written Sound Effects that each channel produces. The first channel goes "Blah Blah Blah," the second channel goes "Yak Yak Yak," and the third channel goes "A Cock Sucker."
    • Perhaps the third was a random Buddy Cop Show?
• During an undersea episode early in the Keroro Gunsou anime, Keroro's platoon accidentally fire several torpedos at a city on the bottom of the sea. He hopes they all miss, but...they all hit. All of them. Direct hits too. The platoon's reaction can only be described as "Atmosphere of Oh Shit".
  • In one chapter of the manga, Kululu decides to shake his team-mates out of a streak of complacency by brain-washing their friends and forcing them to fight. Fuyuki offers to face Keroro in a riddle contest instead, to which Keroro responds "Alright, but I should warn you, Master Fuyuki, I filibuster all riddles!" As the other members of the Keroro Platoon do battle, you can see little word balloons with the words "Riddle!" and "Filibuster!" in the background.
• The Naruto manga has "DREAMY!".
  • At least one scanlator translated the sound made by Madara teleporting to some place as "appear".'
  • Deidara's explosions are always preceded by Yeeaagh! in the English manga. This lends itself to a Woolseyism when some of his bombs land near Tobi:

Tobi: Time out, partner! Don't Yeeaagh yet!

• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple once had Kenichi outlining to a bunch of delinquents exactly why being a delinquent was a bad lifestyle choice, punctuated with the words "SOUND ARGUMENT!" dramatically appearing at the end of his speech.
• Misaki's "INDIRECT KISS!" in Junjou Romantica
• The everpresent "WOW~!" used to punctuate fanservice in Fairy Tail.
• GASCOIGNE!
• One Scanlation of the Yumekui Merry manga uses "apocalyptic CRUNCH!" in a dream-world sequence where the moon appears to be shattered.
• Houou Gakuen Misoragumi has sounds effects such as 'gets up' and 'barf'
• Sumomomo Momomo also, at one point, uses the aforementioned Petta~n sound effect for both Momoka and Iroha, for good reason.
• Akkariiin!, the sound of someone turning invisible from sheer lack of presence.

Comic Books

• Acme Novelty Lirary by Chris Ware, auther of Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid On Earth takes this trope to a new level by featuring a panel that says "Onomatopoeia: front door opening"
• In X-Men, at least one X-Babies encounter ("Mojo Mayhem") has gone this way (with arguing murmurs written as "argue" or "debate" or "mutter" and the like.)
  • Chris Claremont (as noted above, since he wrote the X-Babies storyline) tended to use this device, especially toward the end of his stint on Uncanny X-Men. In one issue we see an angry mob in the distance, and as they approach their angry murmuring is expressed as unsounds expressing their intent to do horrible things to the object of their wrath, such as "murder," "mutilate," "bludgeon", and "sue."
  • In one issue by Claremont, Jubilee is served some Foreign Queasine and reacts with "That's it, that's it, that's IT!", followed by a speech bubble simply saying "hate, scream, cry, rage, rant, gripe, shriek!"
• Subverted in an issue of the Thor comic book, where the Hulk hits Thor with an entire freight train (complete with attached cars). The editor's note on the page confesses that there's no onomatopoeia there because nothing they could think of would do the scene justice.
  • The same thing happened when the Thing punched Sandman into his component particles while both were underwater.
• Mad, illustrating the reality of a six-man utility crew - one guy digging a hole (accompanied by the sound effect "dig") while the other five are in various states of leisure (accompanied by "eat", "siiiip", "snooze", "hang out", and "read").
  • Another comic features a massive five-way collision accompanied by "HORRENDOUS UNSPELLABLE SOUND EFFECT!"
  • Wally Wood once told a detective story entirely in pictures and exaggerated sound effects (with a couple of unsounds). All the murder victims produced the same sequence of AAAARGH!..THUD...BOUNCE BOUNCE and, in the first case the guy who had been shot rounded off with a quiet BLEED BLEED. The detective was quite mystified by the screams until he realized that the killer was one Joe Aaaargh, alias Joe Eeeech, alias Joe Uuuuugh.
• The New Yorker had a cartoon by Roz Chast called "No Action Comics." It had sound effects like "MULL! MULL!" and "WORRY! WORRY!"
  • Similarly, The Daily Show featured a comic mocking George W. Bush with sound effects such as "STALL!".
• Tiny Titans gives us some like CHAIR! and TIE!
• Frequently used in Twisted Toyfare Theatre. Examples include Spider-Man running across some assorted Beanie Baby animals. Some go "moo moo", some go "oink oink" and some go "kangaroo sound kangaroo sound". And when he gets them to stampede, it's "angry moo, angry moo" and "angry kangaroo sound, angry kangaroo sound".
  • A much, much later strip features Christian Bale interrupting the Manly Men of Action's dancing with the sound effect of "record screeching to a halt!" Dolph Lundgren then displays his musical talent by playing a drum solo; the sound effect is "Drum Solo!"
• Spider-Man: BUTTT!
• German comic artist Ralf König is good at this. he rather describes the mood of scenes with his unsounds. One scene shows a guy laying in bed, hearing "sounds" like "cooking coffee" and "doorclap".
• The Tick (animation) is also fond of this, with the best being "CONTEMPLATE!"
  • In the first issue, The Tick and Clark Oppenheimer are fighting in a subway tunnel, when a train hits them, making the following noises: *BANG* *CRASH* *REALLY LOUD NOISE!*
  • *TUSSLE*
• Amerimanga Ninja High School has used literal sound effects from the beginning of its run. They do sort of mirror manga's onomonepetic effects, but Ben Dunn has admitted he got the idea from Richie Rich.
  • One example: a character lifts a huge tree out of the ground, to the sound of *UPROOT*
  • The Time Traveling schoolteacher whisks a cloth away from her time machine: REVEAL! Also, two girls ponder a question with the effects: THINK THINK THINK THINK.
• The City of Heroes comic has a Mook cry out in pain: "MMORPG!!"
• De Familie Fortuin, a Dutch comic about the titular white trash family, has used such sound effects as *ENORMOUS EXPLOSION! FLYING BODY PARTS! BLEEDING GUMS! COOL MAN!* and *EXPLODING SCHOOL WITH EVERYONE INSIDE*.
• Dinosaurs for Hire featured Archie the T.rex dusting himself off ("dust, dust") and Reese the Stegosaurus adjusting his eyepatch ("adjust").
• Another Dutch comic, De Generaal had one when the eponymous general is dropped with tank and all from a hot air balloon (don't ask): *SMASH OF GIGANTIC PROPORTIONS!*
• A series of Disney albums had Goofy playing different historical persons. In the Beethoven story all sound words were composer names. Knocking on a door sounded like BACH BACH, knocking over a pile of stuff produced a loud BRAHMS and so on.
• Speaking of Disney, a Darkwing Duck comic in Disney Adventures had some offstage action indicated with words like "BLUDGEON" and "ASPHYXIATE." Lampshaded by onlookers.
• Unsound effects were used a lot in Erika Fuchs's German Disney translations (one of her more creative ones was where "censored" was replaced by "Einziger Aufschrei der erregten Massen" (single outcry of the excited masses"). German-speakers brought up on Fuchs' Donald Duck comics will sometimes use such unsound effects like "grübel, grübel" (ponder, ponder), and at conventions of the D. O. N. A. L. D. (Deutsche Organisation Nichtkommerzieller Anhänger des lauteren Donaldismus = German Organisation of Non-Commercial Adherents of Pure Donaldism) they customarily applaud by chanting "klatsch, klatsch, klatsch!" (clap, clap, clap!).
• BOWL! (Note that it's not the sound of bowling; it's the sound of some guy going to a bowling alley. Yeah.) Also, DREAM! MAGIC!
• The Incredible Hercules no longer even tries to have standard sound effects. Instead, the sound of an impressive punch to the face is WHATAMANNN, a dragon's firebreath goes SMAAAAAAAAAUG and an attack aimed squarely at the opponent's nipples is represented with a bright purple NURP.
  • Arguably the best sound effect ever: Hercules smashing a wall while impersonating Thor: GODDATHUNDAA!
  • Hercules punching Thor in the face in mid-sentence: SUKKAPUNCH!
  • The sequel miniseries, Prince of Power, carries on the grand tradition with getting chucked into a table being IKKKEA!, among others.
• Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics had unsound effects in the early days before they went down the toilet. Two that stand out are "RABOOM" and "ROBOOMNIK". Guess who was getting blown up on those occasions.
• Scott Pilgrim has a number of these, including "GLARE", "FLING", the rather puffy and cute "POUT", and "BOSS FIGHT."
  • The live-action movie has these, too, like "HOP".
• Brandon Graham's King City has "TOAST" as a sound effect for when some bread pops out of a toaster.
• In The Goon, rather than show all the gruesome details of Frankie's signature "attack," it's just presented as a black panel with "KNIFE TO THE EYE!" written in big white letters.
• Hate does this a lot.
• Scud the Disposable Assassin uses such sound effects as "KICK UP!" (Scud kicking a Mook's laser cannon out of the way) and "GROSS!" (A character getting his head graphically blown apart)
• The Super Mario Adventures series does this fairly frequently, with onomatopoeia such as "PEEP", "LEER", "DASH", "LOOOM", "SKEDADDLE" and "TIPPITY-TOE"
• A Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic decided to represent the sound of Buffy and Dracula crashing to the ground from a tower in a shower of broken glass as "Land!"
• At least one Matt Howarth comic used the effect "REALLY LOUD SOUND BUT YOU CAN'T HEAR IT" repeated over and over in the background of a panel for some kind of reality warping effect.
• Whenever superspeedster the Blur uses his powers in Grounded, the sound effect is "Sonic BOOM!"
• The Impaler, the cool-as-hell stake gun from the French graphic novel series Requiem: Vampire Knight, goes "TEPES!" when it's fired.
• Brazilian comic Monica's Gang has a huge slew of onomatopoeia, but a few enter this trope, such as "COICE" (Portuguese for horse kick) and "HOPPITY" (to which a character asks "what kind of onomatopoeia is that?").
• In The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, "The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark", our intrepid hero experiences the Krakatoa explosion firsthand (he did, however, stuff his ears full of cotton, which somehow worked). We are treated to a beautiful rendition of the explosion, but the sound-bubble only contains an asterisk. A note from the editor points out:

In consideration of the fact that on August 27, 1883, the island of Krakatoa exploded with a force equivalent to 10,000 hydrogen bombs and produced the loudest noise in history, we deemed it wise to delete the sound effect to preserve the sanity (and ears) of our readers.

• The Wallace and Gromit comic Anoraknophobia had sound effects including "LOUD CLICK" and "DEEP GLOOM AND CONCERN".

Fan Fic

• From Calvin and Hobbes The Series: UN-BOINK!

Film

• Subtitles for the hearing impaired can come off a bit like this when done badly. There's no better mood killer in the middle of a romantic moment than seeing *dramatic music intensifies* pop up on screen.
  • How about "Cows moo"?
  • This annoys the hearing impaired to no end. There are two versions of subtitles on some (or most) dvds, CC (Closed Captioning) and another one - the one that has the "music intensifies." CC is just the words that they say, and should basically reflect the script's dialog in a timed fashion.
• In Blazing Saddles, this is lampshaded during a meeting with the governor. After it's announced that Rock Ridge had been bombed, the Governor shouts "We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harumph! Harumph! Harumph!" Everyone else says Harumph along with him, with one notable exception. "I didn't get a 'harumph' out of that guy."
• Yyyyaaaaaaaaakkkkk....
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World includes this as abundantly as it was in the comic book.
  • DEATH GLARE.
• In the movie Despicable Me, Gru actually says "Lightbulb" whenever he gets an idea.
• Simon Pegg's character in Hot Fuzz says "idea" when, well, coming up with an idea. Thanks to the numerous cop show references there are a number of instances of characters Saying Sound Effects Out Loud.

Literature

• Gaspode, a talking dog in the Discworld series, says 'woof'. Due to a near-universal Weirdness Censor, this mostly just makes people look at him funny.
  • And there's a recurring theme in Discworld of "words for the sounds that things would make if they did make a sound except that they don't".
    • These are usually associated with reflected light, and for some reason usually begin with "gl." "Glint," "gleam," and "glisten" are given as examples.

Live Action TV

• The "Bicycle Repairman" sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus has intertitle cards with effects like: "Screw!", "Bend!", "Inflate!", and "Alter Saddle!"
• The 1960s Batman TV series had sound effects in every fight scene, and always slipped a few unsounds in as well (e.g. "Sock!" or "Ouch!").
  • The Monkees parody this in one episode with a fight that has words like Rumble! Plink! Plank! Plunk! Miss! Foo! Bing! Bong! Bang! Splat! Kretch! Plop! Splinter! on the screen. (At the word Kretch, Peter Tork stops fighting, looks into the camera, and says, "Kretch???" before they agree to stop fighting and start breaking furniture.)
  • The Avengers also parodies this in "The Winged Avenger". At the end of the episode, Steed fights the villain by hitting him with poster-sized mockups of comic book panels, each containing a word like "Pow!" and "Splat!" Meanwhile, "Batman"-like music is playing in the background.
• When a piece of viewer mail on Attack of the Show asked what kind of sound effect they would want to have if they were in a comic, Kevin Pereira admitted he would want the word "SKANK!" to pop up when he slapped someone in the face.
• The Muppet Show did a sketch entirely in action and spoken sound/unsound words. It started with a creature (possibly played by Animal) trudging through the wilderness while muttering "trudge trudge trudge" until it got interrupted by something flying past with a loud "FLY! FLY!" which made it stop and go "ponder... ponder... ponder..." as it, well, pondered the strange event. After this had happened a couple of times the wanderer lost its patience and went "fret foam" as it picked up a heavy stick, and the next time the flyer passed it got stopped by a massive SMASH SMASH!
• On The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien visits a Foley stage and makes his own sound effects, including a shout of "Throw baby!" when a character throws a baby.
• While the well-loved "Sound Effects" game in Whose Line Is It Anyway? tends to slip into Saying Sound Effects Out Loud instead, a recent session in Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza flies straight into this trope when one audience member, faced with voicing over flexing biceps, actually goes "Magnificent!" and "Powerful!" for each arm. And flexing buttcheeks go "Beyonce!" for some reason.
  • During one game of "Props", Wayne had to somehow mime being a lamp that was turned on. So he just simply said "ON!" loudly.

Music

• P.D.Q. Bach's Good King Kong Looked Out has a choir singing an Unsound Effect - "hear", in this case - because seriously, what onomatopoeia could possibly used?
• In Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Christopher Columbus' crew indicate their displeasure with a chant of "rumble rumble rumble, mutiny mutiny mutiny". This has achieved a Memetic Mutation status, and Tyne Daly mentioning the phrase to Freberg got her a role in the sequel to the program.
• On the Who song "A Quick One While He's Away," the band had originally planned to have a cello accompaniment in one section. But the money ran out, so the band just sang "cello cello cello cello" in the background over and over.

Newspaper Comics

• In an early (1950s-era) Peanuts strip, Charlie Brown is perplexed when Lucy tosses a pebble into a pond with a "ker-SPLASH!", and Linus jumps into a pile of leaves with a "ker-LEAF!".
  • There was also one about how Snoopy doesn't like to be scratched on the head; he prefers to be "skritched." Sure enough, when Schroeder works his fingers on Snoopy's head, the sound is "Skritch skritch skritch."
  • Another strip has Linus telling Charlie Brown that it's "soppping wet" outside. Charlie Brown remarks "I think you mean sopping wet", followed by Snoopy walking in accompanied by sound effects of "SOPPP SOPPP SOPPP".
  • In yet another strip, one of Snoopy's bird friends goes, "Gripe gripe gripe, complain complain complain, crab crab crab," after which Snoopy wonders, "If he doesn't like it, why does he go there every year?"
• One Bloom County featured the wonderfully memorable "unprovoked KICK!"
• A Calvin and Hobbes strip has Calvin walking around in galoshes that go "galosh galosh galosh".
  • In a school strip, the teacher asks Calvin to name the old capital of Poland, and hears him mutter, "KRAKOW! KRAKOW!" which happens to be the right answer but is really a sound effect from his Imagine Spot about Spaceman Spiff fighting aliens.
  • Yet another involves Calvin asking Hobbes to go spelunking. When Hobbes points out that there are no caves nearby, Calvin takes him to a lake and they proceed to drop rocks into the water... which make a "spelunk" sound effect.
• The Wizard of Id is fond of this trope, using such sound effects as "Deliberate deliberate deliberate" for a jury.
  • Or (from the underground press) "Print print print".
• There is a Garfield comic where Garfield is unscrewing a saltshaker with the sound effect *unscrew* hanging in midair. It's unclear how that sounds any different from just plain ol' screwing.
  • Pictured here is the sound effect hammer, which is what Jon is using on a really long nail.
• One FoxTrot strip used *crank* and *uncrank* for the sound of someone turning up, then turning down, a thermostat.
• For Better or For Worse is in love with this trope—partly because every other Sunday strip is mostly silent, save for the Unsound Effects flying all over the place. One panel where the family dog was eating something was accompanied by *gobble snarf eat*.
  • Another, dealing with Elly's frustrations with a fax/copier, had UNPLUG, although the design of the balloon made it ambiguous whether that was a sound effect or Elly loudly vocalizing the action as a form of venting.
• A Zits strip showed Jeremy taking a test, with the Unsound Effect "Essay! Essay! Essay! Essay! Essay!"
  • At one point he was also seen using a computer, with the UE "double-click"
• Pens in the Pearls Before Swine world make "write write write" and "scribble scribble scribble" sounds when used. The creator, Stefan Pastis, admits to this bit of creative license in the book commentaries.
  • At least in the early days of the strip, there would also be "sound" effects such as "run run run run" and "hurl!"

Video Games

• In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, you have to help a Kimono Girl whose sandals are frozen to the ground in the Ice Cave. You do this by shoving her. The sound effect shown in the text box for this? "Shove!"
• Nanaca Crash has "DEATH?" when you hit one of the guys, as well as "SLOW DOWN" and "STOP!" and others, though those might just be describing what happened to you rather than being actual sound effects.
• The instruction manual for the PlayStation 2 game Flower, Sun, and Rain includes screenshots accompanied by ordinary sound effect words, until one image gets the effect "KATHARINE!"
• *gobble* *snarf* *snap* HP/MP restored, and status ailments like Poison cured!
• In Team Fortress 2, scoring a Critical Hit on an enemy causes CRITICAL HIT!!! to appear over his head. These are only visible to the player responsible.
  • Subsequent updates have added "MINI CRIT" (from the Jarate and Buff Banner), "MISS" (from Bonk), and "YIKES!" (being scared by the ghost in the Halloween event map.
  • This Saxton Hale comic has soundeffects that include "BRAVE JUMP" and "FLAWLESS ROLL"
  • The Mac Update features PROPERTY DAMAGE!
    • And BRAVE PRESS and A BOLD NEW PLAN!. Saxton Hale uses this trope a lot.
      • If Saxton Hale says that "PROPERTY DAMAGE" is a sound effect, it IS a sound effect. If you want to question this fact, Saxton Hale will gladly demonstrate.
    • NEMESIS KICK!
    • Not even Saxton's ancestor Barnabus is immune to this. COUGAR!
    • The Smissmass Update also brings us COMPOUND ELEVATED SKULL FRACTURE.
• Any Valve game since Half-Life 2 has this in the closed captions. Includes things like "*pain!*", "*laughter*", "[Crowbar Thwap!]", "[Bullet--Near Miss!]", "[Engine starting in water]", "[Headcrab Burning]", and of course, "[Beep-beep-beeeeeeeeep.] User Fatality.". Portal brings us "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee[bzzt]", "[Peppy Music]" and "[Calming Wind]".
• The planting of a Doom-Shroom in Plants vs. Zombies is immediately followed by an explosive "DOOM!"
• In Return to Zork, the first hint that a duck is really a transformed wizard is the fact that it actually says "quack quack" in a human voice.
• The World Ends With You: Bling!
• A cheat in Age of Empires III, in reference to Teen Girl Squad (see just below), causes an effect that when a unit dies, the name of its killer pops up above it, followed by "-ed". So units can get "Musketeer'ed!", "Imperial Rocket'ed!", or, in one campaign level, "Fixed Gun Ruins'ed!".
• In Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario World, when a bomb explodes (or when Mario destroys a castle), "BOMB!" appears.
• An April Fool's joke for City of Heroes was that all in-game sounds would be replaced with onomatopoeia, including for energy-based attacks FREEM!!!
• Persona 3 has "GLARE" appear occasionally.
• In Brutal Legend, there is a scene where Ophelia stabs a Druid. SHANK!
• Freedom Force, as a homage to the Silver Age, features this in spades. Every attack has an Unsound Effect.
• In fanworks based on Touhou, the "ZUN!" unsound effect is popular. It's often used for dramatic or shocking moments. It's a reference to ZUN, the pen name of the series creator.
• In Final Fantasy VIII, the Tonberry summon has a pronounced "doink!" to accompany the GF stabbing the summon's target with a chef's knife.

Web Animation

• On Homestar Runner, the Teen Girl Squad comics do this a lot. "Children!" "MSG'd!" "Weirded Out!" "Late 360 Shove-It to Boneless'd!" and the immortal "POSSUMS..."
  • Dwayne!
  • Also, Gunshots in a Crowded Mall.
  • One more: "SHAKESPEARED!"
  • 404'd!!!
  • And in the dictionary sbemail: "Hurl!" "Tooth!", actually SAID by Strong Bad and Homestar respectively.
• The Angry Video Game Nerd parodies the Adam West Batman show's visual onomatopoeia in the second Batman episode. Visuals include "Biff! Marty!", "Splash!", "Jugyiop!", "Wakawaka!", and "FUCKBALLS!"
• One segment from AMV Hell 4 involved a Paranoia Agent / Batman mash-up. In it, Shonen Bat/Lil' Slugger is beating down people with his bat, while the typical Written Sound Effect staples seen in Adam West's Batman. The last one of the bunch (it's very briefly seen; you have to be quick to catch it) is OMGWTF!. The clip was titled "Shonen Batman".
• The Ogres on Unforgotten Realms frequently mutter the words "Ogre Sounds" to no one in particular.
• Yahtzee does this occasionally in his Zero Punctuation reviews. One notable example showed someone rotoscoping images by sitting at a computer that made the sound, "Rotoscope rotoscope."

Webcomics

• In The Optimist: EXPIRE, THROW, GOUGE, FLEX & SWELL, REND & MASTICATE, SUBMIT & REFRESH, FOLD, and this comic and this comic have multiple examples. This comic has a very large unsound effect as a punchline.
• Flying Man and Friends uses "scamper" as a sound effect in this strip.
• Erfworld, as pictured above. Also includes sound effects like "Warn", "Sweep", or even "redox". Interestingly, it avoids this trope more often than not, sometimes confusing readers as to what the sound effect represents. For example, some were unsure what "free-deep" was, until it was explained that it was a cricket chirp.
  • Some of the comic's pop-culture references are written into sound effects (e.g. "NWOBHM"—New Wave Of British Heavy Metal).
  • The joke of the PLOT effect is, of course, that it is also representing the sound of what's happening.
  • Other sound effects include "YTMND," "NSFW," and "4CHAN."
    • And the incantation for the spell that caused the "NSFW" sound effect was "Lemonparty, Tubgirl, Meatspin, Goatse." The epitome of NSFW sites.
  • And someone was killed by the sound effect RROD referring to the Red Rings of Death.
• Nicely parodied by Antihero for Hire.
  • EXIT CLOSED!
• Done at least once in Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Well, what sound would you expect when you lamp someone with a lamp?
• Framed!!! used effects like "walk" for walking.
• Dead Winter used "mop" for someone being hit with one in this strip.
  • Also, the sound effect "RECOILLESS" here.
• Sinfest uses this nearly every other strip, notably here, here, here, here, and here ("VERKLEMPT!" It's Yiddish for "quite upset or emotional.")
  • The bullies' attack on Crimney had no words in the entire panel, but many sound effects, and unsound effects such as such as snatch and tackle.
• Gunnerkrigg Court: "Spankies!", "Trundle", SLAM DUNKIN, "Rocket!".
  • Also, GC deserves props for possibly being the first ever use of "Blink" for something completely unrelated to Squeaky Eyes.
  • This is lampshaded by the author in the footnotes of this page: "Single bound!".
    • There's also, for a door slamming, "SLAM" and then "SLAM AGAIN"
• Badass Muthas does this.
• "Sucker Punch'd!" in many Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures strips. [1] [2] [3]
  • DMFA also had "De-Pantsu'd!" and "De-Dressu'd!".
  • And "Ker-Pwned!"
  • And now: "(magical) SUCKERPUNCH!"
• User Friendly had some 'interesting' sounds for coffee brewing: "sizzle", "congeal", "fold proteins", "curdle", "sprout". Of course, given that previous coffee-brewing efforts have intentionally created a brew that has the properties of Xenomorph acid-for-blood and one that was made with parts of Hastur, this may indicate a success.
  • In another strip, when someone was writing a program to trick someone else, the Unsounds were 'Code Plot Plan' as he was typing.
• No Need for Bushido uses these in nearly every comic.
  • Some that stand out are Holycrap! and Head... Butt!
  • Oh? No! He Didn'!
  • Also, It's A Trap!
  • And, REBUTTAL!
  • Not to forget, Hat!
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja: Dr McN jumps on a motorbike driven by a ninja and whispers something in his ear to creep him out and throw him off the bike. The resulting sound effect is "CREEPED OUT ENOUGH TO BE THROWN EASILY FROM THE BIKE". This is then Lampshaded in the Alt Text which reads "Oh come on. That is not a real sound effect at all."
  • SICKNASTY!
  • Also, BUTT PUNCH.
  • CEASE AND DESISTED!
  • Played with left to right and back to front here. WHCRUNCH
  • MAGIC! Followed by the Alt Text admission "I uh... I couldn't figure out a sound effect."
• The Wotch and its spinoff Cheer! do this heavily, with examples such as: *Ka-girl* *open*, *swap*, *stare*, *harm*, *regress*, *swap*, *gravity*, *vertical ascent*, *tie up*, *disguise*, *not there*, *...psyche* , and many more. Yes, with the asterisks.
  • Both series use them to the point that an actual sound effect in either goes on to become pretty rare, and there's a running gag of "ka-something" sounds. "Ka-zap" eventually becomes "Ka-*effect here* " which is how "ka-girl" got started (and eventually became a verb. "Why am I always the one you ka-girl for a joke?") Eventually, you have stuff like "Ka-annoyed!" after too many transformations, and "Ka-meraderie!" when 32 tries to gloss over the fact that nobody believes she's the person she's standing in for by acting all chummy. The best is "ka-asking-for-it!"
    • "Pretty Cosmic Crystal Rainbow Overhead Smash!"
    • "1812 Overture'd"
• These two The Heroes of Middlecenter strips.
• Here's a variation from Pastel Defender Heliotrope (panel 4)
• In El Goonish Shive, shrinking with "shrink soda" gives off a "sha-rink!" sound.
  • And also "insert rather ordinary door bell sound here".
• Grey Is: Check check check
• Zebra Girl uses this in one strip, alongside a Message From Ed that states that the creator has no idea what the actions depicted would actually sound like, so he's just gonna make things up.
• This A Lesson Is Learned but The Damage Is Irreversible comic uses "GASOLINE". Others used include "MOONROCK" and "COMBINE".
• "Bang" not for you? Gone with the Blastwave has -BULLET SOUND-
  • Don't forget the legendary "shotgun" sound from the impossible to find green comic.
• Xkcd dabbles with this occasionally. This strip has "park" as a sound effect.
• Eight Bit Theater examples include:
  • ORGY OF VIOLENCE
  • BOMBASTIC CLASSICAL MUSIC! -- Ominous Latin Chorus ~ Ominous Latin Chorus
  • 8-bit also uses the occasional "walk walk walk" sound effect, and so forth.
  • Strip #742 has a particularly fine example in the last panel: COMPLETELY JUSTIFIED
  • SHIPWRECK!
  • REALLY LOUD SUMMONING AND RUMBLE NOISES!
  • PUNCHED! AGAIN!
  • COUNTERPOINT!
  • KER-INQUIRY!
  • Also KER-BLOCK! and KER-PARRY! from Fighter's battle with Drizzl.
  • NONCHALANT GLANCE! CONSPIRATORIAL CHECK!
  • DISBELIEF
• This Irregular Webcomic strip is composed entirely of Unsound Effects.
  • This one also has some good ones, including "Maintain Precarious Grip!", as well as a link to this very page.
  • This one has "Appear!"
  • This one includes "Silence!" as a lack-of-sound effect.
  • This one features Adam turning on the spaceship with accompanying "Button Press" unsound.
  • TRANSCEND!
  • ICE!
• Adventurers! had several. One strip in the final boss battle gives us "Slash! Cleave! Bisect!" Another from earlier has "That sound ninjas make when they jump silently!", and then later "That same sound from the last comic about jumping ninjas!"
  • Sound associated with a falling safe!
• Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki: *non-squish non-squish*
• A staple in Beaver and Steve comics.
• T-T-T-TIMEWARP!
  • Spamusement has "KER-TIME-TRAVEL!"
• Casey and Andy has the Mime Assassin firing an invisible sniper rifle with "SILENCE!"
  • Also this strip, which has "Silence" amongst others.
• From Bigger Than Cheeses: SPINE!
  • Also "SMITE!" and "Headdesk!" and probably a few more.
  • BOJANGLES! serves both as a description of WHAT is getting hit and a pretty damn good Unsound Effect for getting hit there. I use it myself now.
  • SPLODE!
• Bludgeon! Scythe!
• Loserz had "Flee!" in this strip, "Stampede!" in this one, and also "Splurge!" and probably more.
• Amazoness! gives us "Maim!" "Eviscerate!" "Impale!" "Slice!"
• The Face Full Of Alien Wing Wong VG Cats script has "icky noise" in the penultimate frame.
  • This one has *monocle*
  • *waddle* *waddle* *waddle* FACE!
  • Don't forget *pee noises*!
  • And recently, *Raped*, and Geodude wasn't even getting raped!
  • *DERP!*
• Jeph Jacques uses these quite frequently. Notable and amusing examples include:
  • The reviving effects of CAFFEINE! (also pictured in Must Have Caffeine) are shown in this Questionable Content strip.
  • In one guest comic Jacques drew, the characters of Niego walk into Coffee of Doom and are promptly assaulted by Raven with a chair, with the Unsound Effect of "CHAIR!" and "CHAIR AGAIN!" as they're beat upon.
  • It would appear that SCORN! seems to have a corporeal form.
  • Dancing is emphasized by the dancing sounds..."DANCE DANCE". The caption suggests this is less about humor and more about making sure the readers know she's dancing.
  • Library carts move to the sound of Trundle Trundle.
  • "ASS GRAB!"
• The Dada Comics Listening to 11.975MHz takes Unsound Effects to a whole new level. Of course, it makes some sort of twisted sense in a comic where the dialogue also makes no sense...
• David Gonterman seems fond of "Kick!" There is also this strip. If you can figure out what the heck is going on, please share.
  • The "chief" character's warning came too late, it seems, as someone already made a move and got trashcanned, while the "vixen" is now blowing a bubble of chewing gum. The rest of the comic goes directly into "I Am Not Making This Up" territory (and in several places, makes me wish for some kind of mind/eye bleach).
  • Also, Gonterman's short-lived "Kitsune .44" gives us the infamous ""AUTOMATIC MACHINE GUN FIRE!", "TAKE OFF...", "tap tap tappity tap tap and so on tap tappit", "DISARM!" and "...HOLSTER" and one instance where a character says ":-)".
• Schlock Mercenary: Schlock's signature plasgun charges up with the sound effect "Ommmminous hummmm....". On one occasion where it's broken and he tries to fire it, the (lack of) sound effect is "Ominous silence."
  • A lot of older strips have TERAPORT! - what it sounds like is described here.
  • And then there's this strip:

Lieutenant: What are they going to do? Take a potshot through two layers of hullmetal? P O T S H O T Corporal: Correction. Two layers of hullmetal and one lieutenant.

• • A demi-sound effect: De-ploytch!
  • SPRIINT... squib. And "ABLATE" (as the sound of ablative armor popping apart).
  • So it goes on. DISMOUNT. SHRUBBERY.
• This cartoon from Deviant ART utilizes a lot of unsound effects, like *drink*, *belch*, *incredible loud belch*, and *crickets chirp*. Strangely, it also includes the best onomatopoeia for a power belch ever seen.
• Strip 12 of OMFE averts another trope by having an orbital cannon fire with a mighty "NOSOUNDINSPACE"
• Irritability used DETERMINATION!
• Used in place of actual sound effects most of the time in Reality Experiment, particularly "Sound of window smashing!"
• The Noob has "Zerg! Zerg! Zerg" for an onrushing horde. Zerg rush, get it?
  • That's not an unsound effect, but a battle cry. A particular (rather clueless) guild is named Z.E.R.G. (short for Zealot Elite Righteous Guardians). That, of course, is the joke.
• NerfNow has "ZEEEERGLINGS" for the sound of Zerglings, er, being Zerglings. And loving it.
  • There's also CAPTURE, Loot Loot and even MAIN PLOT HOOK!
• After several more conventional sound effects, the sound effect on the last panel on this page gets a bit abstract.
• Used to indicate a Groin Attack in Order of the Stick #586.
  • In an early strip, Belkar says he could probably sunder Elan's sword just by talking too loudly. Shortly after, they get spotted by a chimera, and Belkar exclaims "DAMN IT!", and Elan's rapier breaks in two, the sound effect being written as "sunder".
  • Pierce! Slash! Bludgeon!
  • AOO! is the sound effect for an attack of opportunity, apparently.
  • Sneak!
  • Smooch! Grope!
  • Quarter!
  • Deflect!
  • Unfurl!
  • Swinganamiss! Rich Burlew seems to really like these.
  • Eee! Eee! Eee! Eee! is the sound of someone being stabbed in the shower.
  • FTTH! is the sound of someone getting a Foot To The Head. Also, SCHTUTH! may or may not stand for something similar.
  • Thjunk!
• One episode of Bristled features GRAB!
• Ironic Shining Light of Doom!
  • Violence! Mangle! Dismember!
• Geist Panik is absolutely in love with this trope. Notable examples include "Ka-Evil!", "SPAS-12", and, in one case where even the author appeared at a loss, "Um... Fish Noises?" Brian Wilson, the author, has stated that he struggles with coming up with sound effect noises and eventually decided to simply write what was happening.
  • And even more recently, "Hoping! ... Real Hard!!" along with "Ominous!" as the Knob squeezes a juice-box.
  • There's also "Bush Hat!" "Shadow!" and "Steve Says Hello!". By the way, Steve is a plant.
    • Steve is taken even further, his sound effect being "Omghax!", then "Steve accepts!"
  • And then there's "Passive Aggression!"
  • A recent strip features perhaps the ultimate: a sound effect in Unsound Effect form. "WHOOSH SOUND!"
  • A recent one gave a little Squick with "Better than Sex!" Of course the reason it was squicky was that it was associated with a headshot on a zombie from a sniper rifle.
  • "Shit Guy!" sound effect used when someone knocks Steve over.
  • And a even-more-ultimate example: "Whatever Sound Something Like That Makes!!!"
  • How about "No HMO Will Ever Cover This!"? That's another good one.
  • FOOT!
• Girl Genius had lots of fun with these:
  • One of Gil's inventions is the Hand Cranked Runcible Gun, which makes the sound "Spork! Spork! Spork!" as it fires... Sporks.
  • Boot! Boot! Boot!
  • Agatha hits Zola in the head with a large book (entitled Using Found Objects as Weapons) to the resulting sound effect "TOME!"
• The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob makes frequent use of this trope, perhaps most notably when space explosions are depicted as "SILENT KABOOM!"
  • A deflected borfomite beam "careens off into deep space..."
• Achewood has one that crosses over with Bilingual Bonus: diis aliter visum translates from Latin to "the gods decided otherwise". Highly appropriate for one who has come Back From the Dead.
• Dandy and Company: Christmas decorations appear with a massive JINGLE!
• Tails From The Mynarski Forest inverts this by using real words and names that sound like real sound effects, such as "GDANSK!"
• MS Paint Masterpieces uses "telprot!" (yes, that's spelled correctly) for teleportation.
  • It's a reference to an early strip involving a l33t-speak DOS prompt in Reset Man's head, visible whenever he closed his eyes. "Wtf telprot"
• This Stuff of Legend strip: SUPER SPECIAL SHOVE OF DOOM!
• The defunct Sprite Comic 194X had a strip wherein a character hits several people with his "Volunteerin' Stick," making sound effects such as "PERSUADE!" (194X's archive doesn't allow direct links to comics; this happens in #70.)
• Double K brings us BAIL. And later on, "C4." Yes, period and all.
• This Tale of the Cave strip features insults hidden in the miss sound effects. Naturally, the protagonist shoots the sound effect guy. This is the only shot he has successfully made to date.
• Mac Hall had one strip where a human character in The Matrix universe who points out the film's plotholes is blasted by a laser gun, which makes the sound *VOIP!*. Not really an Unsound Effect...until one sees the strip immediately after, where one of the machines points out a plothole, and is blasted by a *VERY ADVANCED VOIP!*
• Three Panel Soul: Mustache Mustache Mustache Mustache...
  • Followup strip brings us BROFACE.
• Friendly Hostility does this a lot. One strip featured a character opening and then closing a sash window, with the sound effects *UUUUP* and *DOOOWN*.
  • Another strip simply used the effect "*sound of pants falling*". Not What It Sounds Like, by the way.
  • "*The Sound of Clothing Dropping at a Rapid Speed*", "*unbutton unbutton unbutton* ". Definitely what it sounds like, by the way.
  • *BOOT!*
• The Cyantian Chronicles has used:
  • "*Pity Me*", Including the asterisks while Khaelis was giving Darius Puppy Dog Eyes.
  • Akaelae has recently used both "Pounce" and "Glomp" as sound effects.
• This keyboard in Wasted Talent goes "leet leet!"
• ILLUMINATE PLEASANTLY
  • Also from Sluggy Freelance: "glitch" (for sword-stabbing), "chakat" (for gun-cocking... but only if they're set to "Mexican Standoff"), "wallet" (for mugging), and of course "lower da boom".
  • "Glitch" and "chakat" are proper sound effects, positively visceral and metallic, respectively. Anyhow, overall the unsound effects in Sluggy Freelance vary on a scale between humorous and action-explicating; these often overlap, such as in "stabbity stabbity STAB" being used for three consecutive attempts at stabbing the same target that keeps moving out of the way. Of course, the line to sound effects isn't entirely straightforward either.
  • Ahem! May I present: Hugamundo!
  • "CREEPY ORGAN MUSIC BUILDING TO CRESCENDOOOOOOOOOOO"
    • You Keep Using That Word... I don't think it means what you think it means...
  • "Spla-taminate!"
  • "Sound-effect-representing-one's-spleen-being-shoved-through-an-eye-socket"
• Honeydew Syndrome once used *facepalm*.
• Not So Distant uses this quite a bit. Amusingly, "stab" was not used when the main character was stabbed in the leg (splorch), but it WAS used earlier when a pillow got stuck to one of his head spikes (preceded by "flop" as he flopped onto his bed).
• BOOOAAAT!
• Scary Go Round has Ryan DESPAIR at Shelley and Amy's antics.
  • John Allison likes Unsound Effects: Scary Go Round's follow-up Bad Machinery already includes "FLING", "RUMMAGE RUMMAGE" and Amy fixing Ryan's hair with "fuss fuss comb interfere".
  • STUNTS
• Lampshaded in Ansem Retort, by the titular character.
  • Much later, bats. Then Larxene.
  • One strip even had the sound effect of "TIME GETTING F***ED".
• Lampshaded and justified in Digger a number of times, including the page quote, as well as with SOUNDS OF DISTANT ETHEREAL CHANTING!.
  • SOMEWHAT MORE DISGRUNTLED ETHEREAL CHANTING!
  • BY-NOW-FAMILIAR SOUNDS OF GRUMPY ETHEREAL CHANTING!
  • And eventually, POOF!
• Something Positive: "Throwing sound here."
  • "Sound of liver having an orgasm".
  • "Insert the sound of fat being angrily displaced."
• Woods for The Trees had an "ASS-PINCH."
• Hijinks Ensue featured a chainsaw that goes "CHAINSAW".
• A Skewed Paradise: Stool to the face!
  • Also, SABOTAGE VIA GNOME!
• These have become something of a Running Gag on Daisy Owl. A recent strip indicates the tucking in of a bib with "tuck tuck", while the Alt Text explains "that sound effect was originally going to be "bib bib bib" but I felt the world was not ready".
• Kevin and Kell: Dope Slap Slap!
• Turn Signals on a Land Raider used these occasionally. The effect in the last panel of the last comic is, fittingly, "KA-DISCONTINUE!" when an Imperator Titan kicked Jack.
• Anthronauts recently gave us the unusual "Ker-Squid".
  • Exactly what sound should a squid make when it crash-lands on somebody's head?
• The Fancy Adventures of Jack Cannon gives us AWWKWAAARD!
  • *STRUGGLE STRUGGLE*
• The Touhou fancomic Touhou Nekokayou often uses these to compensate for the fact that it's hard to show actions in create.swf, i.e. "ready to pounce," or even for exposition, i.e. the same strip also has "was just faking it."
  • KER-SLAMUEL!
  • And now, JOKE STOLEN VERBATIM!
  • Is that sOWNED~
• Las Lindas: MESS!
  • HOSED!
• In Ragnarok Wisdom we have YOU GOT OWNED SO HARD YOU DON'T GET AN ONOMATOPOEIA!
• Lucy Knisley makes good use of this one, particularly in "Some Thumb Sucking", in which she uses 'stress stress stress', 'calm', 'suspicion' and 'sneaky' (not to mention the variant 'sneeeaky' and then some more 'calm') as sound effects in only 9 panels.
• Used and abused by Chicanery, with such sterling examples as "*spork*", "STEVE!", and "Brain refusing to function noises".
• Hark! A Vagrant shows us what exposing fascism while on the run sounds like: write write huff write huff write
• Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name uses this occasionally: for example, "awkward."
• Homestuck: "Egg!"
  • Lampshaded (uh, sort of) a little later, when Wayward Vagabond hears "EGG" and thinks "it sounds like a giant egg just materialized in the sky and fell to the ground" or something along those lines.
  • Inverted with PCHOOOOO, which John believes is a blast-off rocket sound effect, but it's actually the captcha code for the rocket pack.
  • Due to Homestuck's animated nature, it mostly doesn't need sound effects. Any that show up are for humourous effect. Meaning this trope.
  • "WHALE!" followed quickly by "FISHFOOD"
  • "STRONGJUMP!" as well as "RUIN!"
  • When Tavros is finally show falling down a flight of stairs, the effect is simply "HAPPEN".
  • "DEAD." is a pretty spectacular example, along with a continuation of the comic's tradition of emoticon soundeffects.
    • And again, now accompanied by a "KO'D."
    • And again. And again, and again, and again, and again. (Obviously, major spoilers in all the links.)
  • "HOPESPLODE!"
  • griiiiinb
• In Sonichu, the abilities are presented as such, as is teleporting in. Lampshaded in the Audiobooks when Dethchemist describes a character as using "TELEPORTS IN."
• Brawl in the Family: FALCON SLEEP! FALCON SLEEP! FALCON SLEEP!
• Steve of Life and Death, being who he is, goes right for the nuts with the sound effect, "Cheap shot!" Don't worry, the guy on the receiving end didn't feel a thing (at the moment), and he's a Jerkass anyway.
• Keychain of Creation gives us the "Bro" fist bump.
• The Way of the Metagamer includes "Temporarycollapse!" several times.
• Planescape Survival Guide has many, including "Dulcet Tones" for the sound of a banjo being used as a club.
• A Loonatics Tale has BWARB, along with a "Twitch" sound effect for... well, whenever Riley's eye twitches.
  • And in this animation, we see that the twitch DOES make an actual sound.
• In Gone With the Blastwave; we get *Bullet Sound* for-what else?-bullets whizzing by.
• Generic collision noise!
• Curvy has quite a few of these, including (NSFW) plug for a shark being used to plug a hole in a ship, and inflate for someone being magically inflated so she can breathe underwater.
• Played with to good effect in the last three strips of this Absurd Notions page. (To best get the layered jokes, you should know that the character seen in the last strip is named Biff.)
• Occasionally seen in A Miracle of Science, though the comic usually uses onomatopoeic sound effects. Like "crumple." on this rather spoilery page.
• Moe has several, including 'BRIBE SLIDE'
• Shortpacked!: SPIT-TAKE
• Dragon Mail gets off to a running start with this trope, using "Quicky Quicky!" on the third page.
• Far Out There has featured several, including but not limited to:
  • Look Look
  • DOES NOT COMPUTE
  • BegBegBeg
  • REALIZATION'D!
  • EMOTIONAL SNAP
  • DOOR OPENING SOUND
  • Eerie Silence
  • ANGRY ROBOT NOISES
  • HEYGUYSISOUNDLIKEI'MGONNABLOW!
• Bob the Angry Flower: *mumble* *disperse*
• Awkward Zombie: BELAY!, and ANGST!, among others.
• In Overcompensating, an olfactory assault makes a STAAAAAANK sound. Lampshaded in the caption.
• Whenever some machinery activates in The Mansion of E, especially in the SubShafts, and it goes, say, click, there's a good chance that it's going to deactivate with an unclick.
• Played with in this Housepets strip
• This Mountain Time offers "gentle descent!" and "suspenseful ascent!"
• Vexxarr has "Explode!!!. No "Kaboom!" in space, you see. Another time, "fusion reaction!"
• Rusty and Co improved the one with "stab". Also, "VANCE!" and "MELF!", and THAC0.
• When pookas go back to being visible in Never Never, they go "Foop!"
• Fruit Incest uses a few, including the frequently occurring "Explosion" and "Barge In".
• Life with Lamarr gives us tl;dr. There's also the regular use of 'Sqwerk!' for Lamarr.
• Not sure if this was on purpose, but when a character in Ménage à 3 suggests that Gary enjoyed an accidental Ho Yay encounter, Gary chokes on his drink, which makes the sound Glb!
• Wapsi Square once used the sound effect cricket cricket.
• "Chibi!" tends to be a favorite of Fiyora Nya.
• Quest by Elsie "Lady Sol" Denton has used "levitate" and "heal", among others.
• Luke Surl Comics has "unbuckle".
• In one of Mike Russell's "Sabretooth Vampire" strips, there is "RUMMAGE!" "PRODUCE!" and "AFFIX!"
• Jacq of all blades uses these excessively, in between normal written sound effects. In just the last 3 strips:
  • BREAKER FLIP!, EMERGENCY DOOR OVERRIDE!
  • DETACHABLE HAND!Burning dopplegoo!
  • OVERKILL! DUE DILIGENCE! RAGDOLL PHYSICS TEST!
  • It may actually be easier to link to strips that don't use this trope.
• Ratfist : BRUCK-HEIMER
• Servants of the Imperium includes such unsounds as GLARE and WHIRL
• Sarab has STEP, HOLD, JUMP, SLASH, THRUST, SWING and TREMBLE just on the first page.
• Blip constantly parodies this, often reacting to real onomatopoeias in-universe.
• Goblins: KERSPLOSIONFORNOREASON!
• In Sandra and Woo, the sound of Woo enjoying a pretty bird is: >catch< >behead< >devour<.
• Arthur, King of Time and Space has "UPSIDE".
• Unsound effects occur regularly in Not a Villain: for example, "ELONGATE" and "IGNORE".
• Swords And Sausages used both "shove" and "violence!" in a Big Ball of Violence.
• This Is Not Fiction uses these often. Almost any given sound effect will just be a regular word with the vowels removed, in addition to classics like "NAKED" and "CRIMINAL".
• This page of Commedia 2X00 has Pantalone playing a guitar (autographed by Mozart) to announce his imminent engagement. The sound effect: "EPIC CHORD!"
• Frankie and Stein uses this frequently, purposely misspelled, to hysterical affect. THUNDER!! Dust off. Poke. ^{[dead link]}
• Lackadaisy has it in a Christmas special! Word of God says so!
• Octopus Pie gives us ALTERCATE
• Our Little Adventure uses STAB.
• In Scandinavia and The World, Finland doesn't really talk much so there is a lot of this trope around him like. "VIHTA!!!" "SNOW!!!" "WEAK PROTEST!!!" and "crocodile tears to get ice cream." There are also non-Finland-related ones like "kiss of beer."
• Skin Horse has "SCYTHE!"
• In Does Not Play Well With Others, John Johnson, the muscle wizard, attacks with a Ka-Fist!.
• PS238 has MOOSE!

Web Original

• Some hovertext on CuteOverload includes "Perforate! Unspool!" and then goes into "Verb! Another verb! Yet another completely different verb!"
• During The Angry Video Game Nerd's fight with The Joker in the second half of his Batman review, sound effects such as 'MARTY', 'JUGYIOP', and 'FUCKBALLS' appear.
• Cracked.com does it here with trailers
• At FiveMinute.net, "GAK!" is always the sound of a character dying, regardless of how they die.

Western Animation

• The Fairly Odd Parents once had "Replacement hamster!" as a Written Sound Effect. For someone being punched: HURT!
  • Unsound Effects are practically a Running Gag at this point; they show up in nearly every episode.
  • The words written on the "Poof" clouds when Cosmo and Wanda (actually any magic-using character, actually) does something with magic are usually related to a wish or another event. Norm the Genie, on the other hand, only has "GONG!". The Pixies have "PING!", as well. Unsound effects show up a great deal in the Crimson Chin comics, which of course are parodies of normal superhero comics, which love this trope.

KA-CHIN!

• • The best comes from the opening cutscene of a videogame, where Cosmo summons up Da Rules with the "Poof" cloud "PLOT DEVICE!"
• Appearances by Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy on SpongeBob SquarePants often use these as part of their being a Batman spoof: "HANG UP!" "SIT!" "WINK!"
  • NAP!
  • KING ME! when the characters were playing checkers.
  • Not to mention the production values of their old show: PROP! CARDBOARD! LAME!
• The Looney Tunes short "Now Hear This" climaxes with a gigantic explosion, accompanied by the words "GIGANTIC EXPLOSION" appearing onscreen, probably one of the most unimaginative onomatopoeia ever devised.
  • Rule of Funny
  • It was used again in the Wile E Coyote and The Road Runner short "Soup or Sonic", to cap off the penultimate scene.
  • When Bugs first sees the spaceship in "The Hasty Hare", he says "Gulp!"
• When the townspeople of South Park get upset, they form a mob and just yell "RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!"
  • Which was once lampshaded by the mayor when she responded by asking the crowd how they thought standing around yelling "RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE" was going to help.
• In the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "Batmantis", Space Ghost notes the presence of word balloons out of the 1960s Batman series: "Oh, look! Shoot a ray, and you get a word." He then produces word balloons reading "Obvious Parody!", "Insipid!", "Kenny Rogers!", and three paragraphs of unreadably-small text on the theory of evolution.
• The Self-Medication episode of The Venture Brothers features a bar fight chock full of these: examples include "Judo!" "Cower!" and "Torn Meniscus!"
• A Scott Pilgrim parody on MAD had "PUBLIC DOMAIN MUSIC".
• In the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic episode "Party of One", Applejack and her friends are up to something in the barn at Sweet Apple Acres, and keeping it a secret from Pinkie Pie. Applejack tells a skeptical Pinkie that they're doing renovations, and has the other girls make construction noises in the background... which includes Twilight Sparkle shouting "Safety gear!" and Rainbow Dash saying "Drill, drill!"
• The "Good Manners with Max" shorts on the old Playhouse Disney block always began like this:

Max: Hi, my name is Max, and this is my dog Banjo. Say hi, Banjo. Banjo: Bark!

• Family Guy got in on the act with a '60s Batman cutaway reference, with four "Teabag!" exclamations directly following Peter standing over a knocked out Riddler.