The Wilhelm Guffaw

Like the Wilhelm Scream, am I the only one who's noticed a similarly distinctive guffaw in the laughter track of many, many programmes?

i can recall hearing this from early 1990s "You've been framed" episodes, to TV Burp and others programmes in the early 1990s to programmes shown to this day. I can recall hearing it on a recent you've been framed episode (within the last year)

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This particular example is from Father Ted series 2 episode "New Jack City" just before the break.

So, is the insertion of this particular sound effect a fluke or coincidence as many broadcasters/edit suites are using the same library of laughter tracks or is it some in-joke?

does anybody have any information about the origin of this sound? i'd be really interested if any of you have noticed how regularly it pops up.

I haven't heard that one, but this one is a common one that I've heard in many American shows over the years:

There's also a laugh in friend's which I've noticed which sounds like some woman cackling. I'm led to believe it's Marta Kauffman as the laugh sounds the same to hers when watching behind the scene's stuff.

I knew exactly what that laugh would be before I clicked and I don't even watch that programme.

Reminds me of http://www.slashfilm.com/lol-the-reoccurring-prop-newspaper/

I mis-read that URL as newsreader. Now that would be something!

They've used the Wilhelm Scream in Gupta's segment in The Angelos Epithemou Show. Freaky considering I've just read about this on Wikipedia.

Similarly, there's an awfully distinctive "kids laughing" sound effect which is used *everywhere* - it became stuck in my head because of Rare's use of it in the intro for Diddy Kong Racing circa 1997 (obscurely enough).

Also, during a tragic period a while ago I don't care to repeat, I saw a lot of episodes of Will & Grace in a very short period of time, and became aware of one hideous shrill female laugh used to 'enhance' the audience two or three times an episode (no YouTube video to hand, unfortunately). Identifying that became the most entertaining part of that particular experience.

It's even older than that - it appears on the Windows 95 installation CD and was an available sound theme for that version of Windows. You'll also find it in Rollercoaster Tycoon.

God knows how old that sound effect really is, because as you say, it is used practically everywhere.

soaps are the same, Corry has been using the same baby crying sound effect for every baby featured on the show from paul Cheveski to Joseph Armstrong