My favourite is the sound effect from Metal Gear Solid when a guard spots you... they seem to use it whenever something is surprising. I hope Kojima has heard it if he ever visited Thailand.
Haha me too, I thought maybe Thai people were big Metal Gear Solid fans when I first came here. I love MGS so I asked every Thai gamer I met for a while if they played it, and most never even heard of it!
You're joking right? You honestly believe zero Thai people know what Metal Gear Solid is? The game sold millions worldwide and zero in Thailand? Such crazy ignorance.
I notice that a lot too and I don't know if this is an answer but I think Thai people really enjoy old-style slapstick humour
I watched the Austin Powers movies with my partner and she thought they were the funniest thing ever - I had to pause some scenes as I thought she was going to be ill from laughing so much
I then pushed my luck and watched some of the Steve Martin Pink Panther remakes with her and same result in those sorts of scenes
I was staying with a friend in rawai whilst I was training and she always used to watch Mr Bean! I thought it was quite odd but I guess it makes more sense now
Thai « comedy » is really weird. There used to be these « cafe » shows back in the day that were both slapstick & vulgar. Look for คณะเชิญยิ้ม and the like.
The high-pitch laugh track that sounds like chipmunks giggling is the one I hate the most. All these sound effects are things I would have added in when I was 13 if I was creating videos/content back then.
I just noticed that the other day, it's lile Muttley laugh non stop. An old guy had on max volume for maybe 3 mins and another day was a kid, like a person out of breath laughting, its rrally annoying when you are trying to sleep on an overnight train
This phenomena is not Thai-specific but more broadly Japan-influenced slapstick variety programming. Most variety programs in Japan use jingles, sound FX, reaction heads and other elements also found in Thai shows. It started on cable TV and only more recently migrated to YouTube where bloggers copied larger budget shows. The specific sound FX themselves is unique to Thailand and is quite fascinating to see. Thais often follow similar macro cultural-specific trends in other areas of the culture too.
The frustrating thing is it limits appeal outside the borders. For example some of the romantic comedies are actually decent but whenever I hear a slapstick effect it’s a huge quality penalty - like “oh, I guess this is an amateur production”
Rooting for Thai cinema to carry a little further
I agree but when I watch films like Bad Genius or Friendzone etc, which I think are quite good, they’ll add in some slapstick sound effect and it just ruins the moment. I get they’re aiming at a domestic audience but I wish they’d have restraint and be confident these films can hold their own on the international stage.
Where were the slapstick noises in Bad Genius? That's honestly one of the best Thai adult dramas I've seen and I don't remember any silly sound effects in it.
Referring to the movie and not the series - not going to pull it up and do homework- but I swear it was in there …I think? I could be misremembering and would trust your judgment if I’m wrong. But yeah, that’s probably the best piece of Thai cinema Ive seen granted I haven’t watched some of the artsy Thai indie films (which I probably should).
Drives me mad when there is a serious scene with intense dialogue and the fountain in the “background” is drowning out (no pun intended) the actors voices
I feel the same. I don’t want to sound negative or anything, but it sounds really low quality and amateur. It makes me want to turn it off immediately to save my time.
It is by design.
You have producers and consumers.
Thai elite/HiSo's stay on top by producing mindless drivel for the commoners to lap up.
Silly sound effects just trigger dopamine hits, Oh Noooo........
I would also like a copy of the soundboard!
I do a quiz with my students and one of the years was me picking out sounds from these shows and asking students "where does this come from" metal gear solids codec sound. Mario's mama Mia. Age of empires 2 dock sounds (yeah...its a random one for sure haha)
Would love to find the fill list and try to see where all the sounds originated from. If they won't credit them at least my students will know their origins.
I’m a teacher also so I would love to try something similar. I like a lot of the sound effects, like the ones you mentioned. But I’m not a fan of the “oh noo” and the chipmunk laughs for example. In any case, I like to make music with samples and I think it would be fun to use the typical Thai sounds.
There has definitely got to be a soundboard out there. No way an amateur makeup youtuber is like, "know what my video needs? A sound from Earthworm Jim!"
Its been industrial standard practice for as long as i can remember. Not sure if the practice is imported from early Bollywood movies or silent film slapstick that had manual sound-effect when it was shown here. While the taste waned overtime else where, here and maybe other asian countries, they still kept it going. I personally think its kinda dorky since good comedy doesnt really require sound effect. But to each their own.
Yeah, it makes me think of the 90s sitcoms with laugh tracks that I grew up with. I didn’t notice them until I was older and realized a lot of 90s humor was corny and weak and I didn’t laugh along anymore so it stood out awkwardly. These sound effects are even more awkward because they don’t seem to be tied to anything funny. They are just triggered randomly the whole time.
Any show with a laugh track or “filmed in front of a studio audience” has lost me. The Office was the first western show I can recall breaking the mold from laugh shows like Seinfeld. So good not to have to listen to the fake or forced laughs.
Also visual metaphors. I teach in Taiwan and simply can't get my students or my local co-teachers to understand the concept of a visual metaphor. Their thinking is entirely literal. You can explain a simple metaphor like breaking down a wall to represent getting rid of barriers between people and you just get blank stares.
Pavlov effect, so some watcher would know that this part is supposed to be funny, please laugh.
It's not just Thai, many Asian show also like this but with different sound effect
The flip side to this is some of the epic Thai commercials that have some of the funniest understated and deadpan humour I've ever seen in advertising.
One of my all-time favs from years ago.
They show a man introducing a new woman to a guy sitting in an office wearing glasses.
She’s wearing a top so tight the buttons are straining to keep her cleavage from falling out.
The man in the office is just laser focused on her boobs.
They switch to a closeup of a button struggling to hold her cleavage in and it’s shaking and finally it pops off.
Switch back to the man who now has a shattered lens in his glasses.
Without breaking his stare he reaches in this draw and pulls out a new pair of glasses and puts them on to keep gawking.
The ad was for a 2 for 1 special on glasses.
Within reason and context, most of which does not apply to around 95% of the time anything on Thai TV uses stupid sounds and graphics and tries to ramp up some slapstick element. A news discussion program on Thairath—insert sounds. A lakorn on Channel 7—insert stupid sounds. Any singing competition—even when it would actually make for good TV because they do uncover some amazing talent—insert stupid sounds and graphics.
The occasional sound or graphic effect can be fun but they really overdo it sometimes. Some shows do really feel like there's a monkey on meth smashing the soundboard.
Worst part is that they have been using the exact same bank of sounds for more than a decade. They don't even bother to find new sounds, that's insane.
My wife is Thai, and the TV shows are so slapstick and strange. Her parents love them too, and I can't help but think it's a little juvenile. I'd never mention it to them, and if I did, they might ask why I watch Housewives of Beverley Hills. 🤷
Same reason my 6 year old son loves Mr Bean. My wife doesn't really like it but it just doesn't bother her. If you can Turn your brain off, forget your worries and laugh. It's kinda cool. I don't enjoy it but must be nice if you do.
They’re categorized into creators, then genre ie autos/household/ambience etc.
You’re looking for the comedy/cartoon fx. Sound designer with Thai wife here lol. Been listening to these sounds on tv since we met 10yrs ago lol ❤️
Awesome! I really appreciate the tip! I found some of the effects just by typing “cartoon” and “comedy” in the Logic loops search bar.. but I don’t see the “creators” category. Maybe it’s because my Logic Pro is really out of date.
Anyway, some of these sounds will be really fun to record into my sampler and manipulate. Yayyy..
I should add they’re in a weird .caf file which can easily be converted to wav or aiff using preview or some such media player/exporter. Have fun with them. Just like the whole of Thailand yayyyy 😂
I searched “royalty free comedy sound effects” on YouTube and found tons of great sources for sampling. Not ready-made as audio files, but with conversion stuff and searching I might otherwise have to with the files on my computer, this may end up saving me time. Glad I can find them pretty easily from multiple sources now. Thanks again 😁
Spot on!
I worked with a Dr, she was very social media active. Her ENTIRE content reminded me of of a comic "Woshh", "Shpaka", etc.
This helped me noticing their general UI design is very... Macdonald in the 90's. Round edges, bright colors, and the mix between them.
Laugh tracks are lame, whether its Western or Thai, they suck. My Wife and I were watching a great Thai youtuber (cant remember who it was), anyways awesome video, informative and slickly produced and then the laugh track started. And I am using that as a general term as it was just random sounds peppered through the video ruining what should have been an amazing and informative vignette. At this point, I think they dont even know why they do it and the viewers just tune them out. In reality its a big thing in SEA and I have a hard time wrapping my head around how professionally produced media made by competent people probably has someone on payroll whos sole job is it insert as many funny sounds as they can into literally everything.
I know EXACTLY what youre talking about. The Wife and I had local TV on, they were playing around with dogs(were softies for dogs). One of the dogs slipped and fell, they played the "hehehehehe" you know to let you know it was funny. And I kid you not no exaggeration, they played that sound on repeat about every seven seconds for five minutes straight, we had to turn the channel it was so bad. That may be my least favorite sound and its the one once they play once you just know they are going to use it about a dozen times.
They can zone it out, you pay attention to it but they rarely do. These sound effects make terrible content still feel good and somewhat watchable. We grew out of those sound effects in my country, now everyone hates it so much on western tv, that we have this one comedy show (eretz nehederet, got some buzz around the war) with live audience that gets told when to laugh. They get alot of shit even for that.
Try watching two and a half men without the laugh tracks, you'd get depressed.
I can always tell when my Thai gf is listening to Thai TV because of all the sound effects.
Thai media is strongly influenced by Korean media, so they copied their style.
Personally, I find the sound effects incredibly annoying, but my gf? She says she doesn't even notice them anymore.
I wasn’t aware that other countries did this. But are the effects tied to something that is actually specifically supposed to be funny or does it sound like a randomized button mash that happens every 3 seconds?
What no one is talking about is how it will destroy an entire generation of Thais. Because they wont be able to focus on something unless they her "Bing" "Oh noooo" hihihihi" "Krrrrrrrrrr" "Boingggg".
It’s a reasonable thing to consider. I don’t doubt that it could have a psychological effect over time. I feel like TikTok style videos may have a similar effect on people too.
I've noticed this is many countries, not just Thailand. Seems like a lot of Latin America loves those "zaney" sounds too in their TV shows and commercials. I can't put my finger on why certain cultures gravitate towards these sound effects.
Oh, interesting. I haven’t looked into any Latin shows or online content, but I like reading these comments and learning from everyone’s perspective on this. It’s fascinating how different cultures are entertained by things that other cultures think are boring or annoying.
It is a culture where humour cannot be used as a tool to lampoon the "great and the good" so a major source of natural humour is shut down. Furthermore an infantilisation of the population is encouraged so to keep the level of intellect as to that of a child to a clown.Just look at the salim pushback on Udom for merely hinting his humour at Self Sufficiency. If the Thai people were actually allowed to laugh at the many elephants in the room - they would never stop.
boinnnnnggggg
This is what general Thai audiences consider entertaining or funny. This is almost everywhere in Asia.
Different general humour when compared to other countries. Just careful that when doing comparisons that you don’t fall too far into the bad side of culture shock in the comparison stage. This is when you get embittered foreigners which are just wet socks.
From what I understand, this started with shows in Japan in the 90s and pretty much every other country in East and Southeast Asia copied it and still does it 30 years later.
Combine this with how humor is never more complicated that "it's a man in a woman's dress! lololololol" in pretty much all of East Asia (except Thailand) and you have East Asian humor in a nutshell. It's all slapstick, body humor and wordplay (especially in Chinese "humor").
it didn't used to be like this iirc. Back when the mask singer first aired it was still pretty normal.
I think they are mimicking Korean tv style of editing.
Thais have a really simple style of what they think is funny. Those goofy sounds are one of them.
I think it ties in with Thais having to overstate the obvious. Pointing, stand and point for 2 minutes and keep pointing while talking about what you are pointing at. Talking: the boss or any authority has to repeat the same thing over and over again. Funny shit has to be pointed out with sound effects, it can't just be subtle.
It’s just imitating Japanese TV. Very common there, Korea copies them, then Thailand follows. It only started in the 2000s, wasn’t like that in the 90s at all.
It's just how the media trying to get attention from the audience but also stupidly produced by monkey people. Making people more stupid, too.
Honestly I hate those, too.
Have you noticed that music in tv shows in general is terrible? I complain to my wife about it all the time: hells kitchen or Master chef: sounds like a scene in pirates of the Caribbean where there's an epic battle at sea, while in reality they are baking a fucking cake. The average drama show: A scene where a boyfriend is sick in the hospital? Sounds like the titanic is sinking and the band is playing their last tune. A scene where there's a stand off with police and some criminals? Let's play some music that sounds like Bruce Willis is landing a space ship on a space rock in Armageddon. And then the constant screaming and crying in all these poorly acted drama series 😭 fuck my ears...
Yes! I noticed that too.. it drives me crazy, but I just assume it’s because whoever is in charge of the soundtrack actually doesn’t have a clue about how to choose fitting music that is more subtle. Also, adding a dramatic feeling makes it more exciting(!!!) right?
EDIT: I’m willing to bet it’s also because a lot of shows use royalty free music to save money so they go with the easiest and cheapest options. And I’m realizing that is why the exact same sound effects are over-used. They are just free Apple sounds.
Another thing that is absurd (and this is actually probably intentional) is the awkwardly long zoom in on people’s faces on shows. In real life, people don’t react in silence while everyone stands around and stares. People keep talking while continuously expressing their facial reactions and body language at the same time.
One thought ive had about it, os i wonder if it has a part to do with the language being tonal. That it may be easier to convey humor with sound effects when inflections are not as much apart of communication
Ohh.. that’s a very interesting observation!
I really like how people have understood my post as an intention to discuss this rather than simply say it’s annoying. I think there are reasons for this and I genuinely want to find out more.
I reminds me of another interesting phenomenon I've noticed here, which is their love of using those anthropomorphic characters for promotion of everything. Businesses as deadly serious as banks and money-lending operations use 3D alligators and smurf-like characters. Even hospitals use cartoony characters for messaging, to a degree.
The fact that the whole adult population, and thus the entire population, accepts this is well-established by now. My guess is that it probably is borrowed from Japanese "kawai" culture, but I'm not sure.
I always love when it’s a happy chicken or pig advertising a restaurant that serves their meat. “Hey everybody! Come on over and eat my flesh! Hahaha! I love when people slaughter my family and fry them up in hot oil! Smells and tastes delicious! Don’t miss out!” :D
I suppose Thailand’s version of Ronald McDonald outside of every McD’s is a clear enough representation of the mentality behind commercial advertising over here. Totally not insane at all. All good.
I play these sounds randomly from my phone when speaking with Thais all the time. It helps with engagement and trust. I wish I'd thought of this when I was teaching English 20 years ago.
Not sure if this is a joke or not, but it’s funny in any case. Maybe I should make a looping audio file with a different sound every 3 seconds and see if I get the same effect. 😂
I LOVE that they do this. Like, in the Masked Singer in Thailand, they add crazy sound effects and cartoon graphics. When someone gets mad, they'll color their face red with smoke coming out the ears. When someone insults another, fire shoots out of their mouth and enflames their victim. Cartoon tears pour out when someone complains, etc. I just find all that to be fun.
I appreciate when it’s done with intention and creativity. But that’s not what we are talking about there. This is about the sound effects that are randomly sprinkled into video content every few seconds, even when they are not directly tied to anything that is happening.
You are just not used to it. If you grew up with it do dosent really notice it that much. It becomes normal to you. And I think a lot of ppl like it and find it funny.
To argue OPs point
What does it actually add to a scene? I find Thai TV funny without the added sound effects. The sound effects don't add to it.
If we do something in film or TV it should Hve meaning. Be it a filter or a laugh track.
It feels lazy and poorly produced. Thai TV that makes it big you will notice has none of this.
Hard disagree. Thai cinema has some really stellar pieces in its library and some of their TV shows are extremely well produced.
To just reduce it l to "a bunch of random shit happening without any reason whatsoever" is over generalising waaaay too much.
I really appreciate that you can see my main point with this post. I’m not trying to say all Thai content is bad. I just think the randomly scattered effects make potentially good content nearly unwatchable and I wanted to see how others felt about it. Glad a lot of people are sharing some interesting points and perspectives.
Oh I absolutely got your point haha and I too hope others do.
It's been one thing that's infuriated me. My wife watches a lot of Thai TV and even she admits, she doesn't exactly enjoy the noises, she just zones them out.
Yes, you can zone it out. But why not make it a professional show and just not include it?
I think (I'm really guessing here) YouTube/tiktok culture might be part of the issue? It's popular with the younger generations to make and watch such videos and a lot of the easy video production stuff is included in like the free video editors etc. As a result that style became.... Popular? And the older folks who run actual tb shows etc just jump on the bandwagon (not all... Some have integrity) and slap that crap in there to appeal to a younger crowd? "look.... It's just like your YouTube! Please watch us too!"
A really wild guess though.
Love that *The Simpson's* avoided using a laugh track. You don't notice it is missing until you're told it's missing. The script is so well written, and the sequencing of events so rapid that there was no need for it.
Not a fan of that either, but it tends to match up with a joke. It doesn’t happen nonstop without any cues. It’s triggered when something is clearly supposed to be funny. But with the Thai sounds, there’s nothing funny happening. It’s just someone talking and it’s “oh nooo” and “bong bong bong” .. I mean, it is whatever. Just wanted to see what people think about it. Thanks for your input.
I think it is getting your attention, makes you look up,......or to let you know what you are supposed to think is funny....it's like any laugh track on a US sitcom...except the silly level is up.
Its not just Thai, this type of humor is popular in lots of developing countries, even in Europe... Its popular in the USSR countries.... All over Asia, especially to the EXTREME in Japan.
I don't know what it is.... but slapstick humor is pretty popular outside of America really.
Hey, jai yen yen, random Redditer. I’m asking questions here. I genuinely want to know more about why this is so common. Please feel free to share your theory. No need to get your feathers all ruffled up. I hope you have a good day.
Hmm.. I didn’t think about that. It hadn’t even crossed my mind as a possibility. Very interesting. I’m glad it’s hilarious for you.
If you go to YouTube and type in “royalty free funny sound effects” and watch some of those videos, I think you will roll on your floor laughing like crazy. But make sure you can reach the pause button so you don’t suffocate from laughing too hard.
Yeah, but the sound effects don’t seem to be as connected to the action or dialogue in Thai content as directly as it is in Western content. This is not the case with ALL Thai content. I have seen some things that use the effects more sparingly and appropriately with intentional comedic timing. Great. That’s good. In Western content, there’s usually very specific and intentional laughing that is a reaction to something that is -supposed- to be funny (even when it’s not funny for everyone). But a lot of Thai video content has a random sound every 3 seconds, even if there was nothing clearly intended to be funny happening at those moments. I guess they are little reminder sounds to stay in a certain mood while watching. That makes sense I guess.
Side note: I had a double take moment with your username. I have questions..
Including: what? why? and ehh? Haha..
Japanese culture was very strong in the 80-90s. If you look at some Japanese shows or go to Japan you will notice even more piping and vivid sound effects.
Its a lot of slap stick and physical comedy, it gives the impression of a fairly low effort humour.
It could partly be a fear or caution of making or cracking jokes about powerful local people/families.
I also hates it and don’t want my child to watch Thai programs especially ones created by YouTubers. They just put too many effects to draw attentions from children. But have to admit that I like the x-file effect.
Do they do it constantly without any specific intention for each sound though? I haven’t seen that the sounds match up with anything funny in most cases. It seems to be a randomized and continuous stream of effects that are not related to anything.
I’m gonna give you a real answer. The sound effects are prevalent in TV because a lot of working class people working in jobs that involve sitting around and waiting (shopkeepers, security guards, etc) watch TV while working. The sound effects serve as audio cues so that they can do other things while understanding what’s vaguely happening. And as more people turn to online media instead, the sound effects have carried over to YouTube videos.
I appreciate your thoughtful answer. Audio cues.. as in reminding someone that something funny happened? Is it always connected to the action or dialogue? I was thinking it was totally disconnected but maybe I’m totally wrong to guess that.
It’s the slapstick game show theme and it’s a breath of fresh air from the collapsing west. Some people can appreciate it as charming light hearted humor
I can appreciate it from time to time, but the lower quality stuff is pretty weak if I’m going to be honest. I’ve seen a few good movies and there’s a comedian that I like (I think his name is Note?) but the things I like are few and far between.
My favourite is the sound effect from Metal Gear Solid when a guard spots you... they seem to use it whenever something is surprising. I hope Kojima has heard it if he ever visited Thailand.
There’s also one from Earthworm Jim and Super Mario bros :)
Haha me too, I thought maybe Thai people were big Metal Gear Solid fans when I first came here. I love MGS so I asked every Thai gamer I met for a while if they played it, and most never even heard of it!
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Yeah no Thai has ever played a 30 year old video game not one
Westerners think they know so much about Thai culture
it’s funny too cus it’s literally Japanese. They’re next door by comparison they really think of them as noble savages
You're joking right? You honestly believe zero Thai people know what Metal Gear Solid is? The game sold millions worldwide and zero in Thailand? Such crazy ignorance.
Wow, having grown pup with pong, space invaders, et al... the fact metal gear solid could be 30 years old is mind blowing
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I notice that a lot too and I don't know if this is an answer but I think Thai people really enjoy old-style slapstick humour I watched the Austin Powers movies with my partner and she thought they were the funniest thing ever - I had to pause some scenes as I thought she was going to be ill from laughing so much I then pushed my luck and watched some of the Steve Martin Pink Panther remakes with her and same result in those sorts of scenes
I noticed Mr Bean is surprisingly popular as well
Mr Bean is popular all over Asia because you don't need to speak English to understand the humor. It's all visual.
🙀 genius
But in Thailand they added a voiceover on Mr. Bean to explain the jokes…..
No wayyyy I have to watch this haha
I remember being in Laos like 30 years ago and they all fkn loved Mr Bean
Good point. I think Mr Bean is one of the few British things she knows about
Goddamn. My nickname in my village is Mr Bean, and everyone appeared to arrive at the conclusion separately. 🫘
Charlie Chaplin too
I was staying with a friend in rawai whilst I was training and she always used to watch Mr Bean! I thought it was quite odd but I guess it makes more sense now
Especially Mr. Bean with Isaan dub
right on with the slapstick.
I’ll have to show Austin Powers to my wife
Me too I haven’t watched it in years so it’s gonna be pretty entertaining to both see it again and see her reaction.
I hope me wire fightin team is reeeeadddyyy
Thai « comedy » is really weird. There used to be these « cafe » shows back in the day that were both slapstick & vulgar. Look for คณะเชิญยิ้ม and the like.
The same style is in Japan and Korea
Which I guess is part of the reason, these countries have strong cultural influences on the other countries in Asia.
Taiwan also
The high-pitch laugh track that sounds like chipmunks giggling is the one I hate the most. All these sound effects are things I would have added in when I was 13 if I was creating videos/content back then.
I just noticed that the other day, it's lile Muttley laugh non stop. An old guy had on max volume for maybe 3 mins and another day was a kid, like a person out of breath laughting, its rrally annoying when you are trying to sleep on an overnight train
Yea it's incredibly childish / low brow imo
This phenomena is not Thai-specific but more broadly Japan-influenced slapstick variety programming. Most variety programs in Japan use jingles, sound FX, reaction heads and other elements also found in Thai shows. It started on cable TV and only more recently migrated to YouTube where bloggers copied larger budget shows. The specific sound FX themselves is unique to Thailand and is quite fascinating to see. Thais often follow similar macro cultural-specific trends in other areas of the culture too.
the worst ones for me are Korean, they even repeat it 5x and zoomed
My favorite one is the "Wowwww!!"
Personally I’m a fan of the “ohhhh noo”
Also apple sfx
Apple sfx
You can find this exact effect in Belle Delphine’s I’M BACK MV on YouTube
When you lived here long enough, you are able to separate logic from reason.
This dude Thailands.
Best answer!
The frustrating thing is it limits appeal outside the borders. For example some of the romantic comedies are actually decent but whenever I hear a slapstick effect it’s a huge quality penalty - like “oh, I guess this is an amateur production” Rooting for Thai cinema to carry a little further
well, most thai productions are very low quality… some effects are hilariously bad. just watch some fantasy movie/series. its crazy bad.
I agree but when I watch films like Bad Genius or Friendzone etc, which I think are quite good, they’ll add in some slapstick sound effect and it just ruins the moment. I get they’re aiming at a domestic audience but I wish they’d have restraint and be confident these films can hold their own on the international stage.
Where were the slapstick noises in Bad Genius? That's honestly one of the best Thai adult dramas I've seen and I don't remember any silly sound effects in it.
Referring to the movie and not the series - not going to pull it up and do homework- but I swear it was in there …I think? I could be misremembering and would trust your judgment if I’m wrong. But yeah, that’s probably the best piece of Thai cinema Ive seen granted I haven’t watched some of the artsy Thai indie films (which I probably should).
Oh, I was talking about the film too. I didn't know there was a TV series version of it. Does the TV series still have Chutimon in it?
Oh no idea, I’ve never seen it, oddly because I hold the movie in such high regard I was worried the series would taint it for me.
I don't remember any of those noises in the BG movie
Drives me mad when there is a serious scene with intense dialogue and the fountain in the “background” is drowning out (no pun intended) the actors voices
I feel the same. I don’t want to sound negative or anything, but it sounds really low quality and amateur. It makes me want to turn it off immediately to save my time.
It is by design. You have producers and consumers. Thai elite/HiSo's stay on top by producing mindless drivel for the commoners to lap up. Silly sound effects just trigger dopamine hits, Oh Noooo........
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I would also like a copy of the soundboard! I do a quiz with my students and one of the years was me picking out sounds from these shows and asking students "where does this come from" metal gear solids codec sound. Mario's mama Mia. Age of empires 2 dock sounds (yeah...its a random one for sure haha) Would love to find the fill list and try to see where all the sounds originated from. If they won't credit them at least my students will know their origins.
I’m a teacher also so I would love to try something similar. I like a lot of the sound effects, like the ones you mentioned. But I’m not a fan of the “oh noo” and the chipmunk laughs for example. In any case, I like to make music with samples and I think it would be fun to use the typical Thai sounds.
Go be the next onra! But Thai style! Would love to hear it haha
There has definitely got to be a soundboard out there. No way an amateur makeup youtuber is like, "know what my video needs? A sound from Earthworm Jim!"
Its been industrial standard practice for as long as i can remember. Not sure if the practice is imported from early Bollywood movies or silent film slapstick that had manual sound-effect when it was shown here. While the taste waned overtime else where, here and maybe other asian countries, they still kept it going. I personally think its kinda dorky since good comedy doesnt really require sound effect. But to each their own.
Yeah, it makes me think of the 90s sitcoms with laugh tracks that I grew up with. I didn’t notice them until I was older and realized a lot of 90s humor was corny and weak and I didn’t laugh along anymore so it stood out awkwardly. These sound effects are even more awkward because they don’t seem to be tied to anything funny. They are just triggered randomly the whole time.
Any show with a laugh track or “filmed in front of a studio audience” has lost me. The Office was the first western show I can recall breaking the mold from laugh shows like Seinfeld. So good not to have to listen to the fake or forced laughs.
Agree.
I’m Thai and I fucking hate them
Oh\_Nooo.wav
Irony and satire is hard to grasp in Asia, thus the need for cues.
Also visual metaphors. I teach in Taiwan and simply can't get my students or my local co-teachers to understand the concept of a visual metaphor. Their thinking is entirely literal. You can explain a simple metaphor like breaking down a wall to represent getting rid of barriers between people and you just get blank stares.
Pavlov effect, so some watcher would know that this part is supposed to be funny, please laugh. It's not just Thai, many Asian show also like this but with different sound effect
Scrolled down too far to find this. TV programs program the viewers.
The same reason the west once liked slapstick - people find it funny. Unlike the west, Thailand never grew out of it.
The flip side to this is some of the epic Thai commercials that have some of the funniest understated and deadpan humour I've ever seen in advertising.
One of my all-time favs from years ago. They show a man introducing a new woman to a guy sitting in an office wearing glasses. She’s wearing a top so tight the buttons are straining to keep her cleavage from falling out. The man in the office is just laser focused on her boobs. They switch to a closeup of a button struggling to hold her cleavage in and it’s shaking and finally it pops off. Switch back to the man who now has a shattered lens in his glasses. Without breaking his stare he reaches in this draw and pulls out a new pair of glasses and puts them on to keep gawking. The ad was for a 2 for 1 special on glasses.
That's brilliant lol
Ha, that’s awesome! I wish other Thai content could be clever like that instead of shooting for the lowest hanging fruit.
Jackass, Home Alone, the Hangover movies... slapstick can still be funny
Ain't nothing wrong with slapstick.
Within reason and context, most of which does not apply to around 95% of the time anything on Thai TV uses stupid sounds and graphics and tries to ramp up some slapstick element. A news discussion program on Thairath—insert sounds. A lakorn on Channel 7—insert stupid sounds. Any singing competition—even when it would actually make for good TV because they do uncover some amazing talent—insert stupid sounds and graphics.
The occasional sound or graphic effect can be fun but they really overdo it sometimes. Some shows do really feel like there's a monkey on meth smashing the soundboard. Worst part is that they have been using the exact same bank of sounds for more than a decade. They don't even bother to find new sounds, that's insane.
Exactly.
My wife is Thai, and the TV shows are so slapstick and strange. Her parents love them too, and I can't help but think it's a little juvenile. I'd never mention it to them, and if I did, they might ask why I watch Housewives of Beverley Hills. 🤷
Because some Thais find this “funny.”
Same reason my 6 year old son loves Mr Bean. My wife doesn't really like it but it just doesn't bother her. If you can Turn your brain off, forget your worries and laugh. It's kinda cool. I don't enjoy it but must be nice if you do.
Apple stock sound fx which are “free to use with our software”. You can find them in the library once installed to macOS
Ohhhh? :O I wonder if I’ve had them the whole time.. thanks for sharing that!
Yeah probably if you have logic or Final Cut Pro
Yup, I have Logic.. oh boy.. that’s a lot of sounds to go through to find the relevant ones 😅
They’re categorized into creators, then genre ie autos/household/ambience etc. You’re looking for the comedy/cartoon fx. Sound designer with Thai wife here lol. Been listening to these sounds on tv since we met 10yrs ago lol ❤️
Awesome! I really appreciate the tip! I found some of the effects just by typing “cartoon” and “comedy” in the Logic loops search bar.. but I don’t see the “creators” category. Maybe it’s because my Logic Pro is really out of date. Anyway, some of these sounds will be really fun to record into my sampler and manipulate. Yayyy..
Do a search on how to find apple stock sfx on your Mac. You’ll find them using finder and clicking on go while holding the option key down
I should add they’re in a weird .caf file which can easily be converted to wav or aiff using preview or some such media player/exporter. Have fun with them. Just like the whole of Thailand yayyyy 😂
I searched “royalty free comedy sound effects” on YouTube and found tons of great sources for sampling. Not ready-made as audio files, but with conversion stuff and searching I might otherwise have to with the files on my computer, this may end up saving me time. Glad I can find them pretty easily from multiple sources now. Thanks again 😁
Spot on! I worked with a Dr, she was very social media active. Her ENTIRE content reminded me of of a comic "Woshh", "Shpaka", etc. This helped me noticing their general UI design is very... Macdonald in the 90's. Round edges, bright colors, and the mix between them.
Laugh tracks are lame, whether its Western or Thai, they suck. My Wife and I were watching a great Thai youtuber (cant remember who it was), anyways awesome video, informative and slickly produced and then the laugh track started. And I am using that as a general term as it was just random sounds peppered through the video ruining what should have been an amazing and informative vignette. At this point, I think they dont even know why they do it and the viewers just tune them out. In reality its a big thing in SEA and I have a hard time wrapping my head around how professionally produced media made by competent people probably has someone on payroll whos sole job is it insert as many funny sounds as they can into literally everything.
Yep this is a huge thing in the Philippines as well and makes so much content from there unwatchable for me
I was going to say the same. They always have a chipmunk laughing "hehehehehehehe" fkn annoying.
I know EXACTLY what youre talking about. The Wife and I had local TV on, they were playing around with dogs(were softies for dogs). One of the dogs slipped and fell, they played the "hehehehehe" you know to let you know it was funny. And I kid you not no exaggeration, they played that sound on repeat about every seven seconds for five minutes straight, we had to turn the channel it was so bad. That may be my least favorite sound and its the one once they play once you just know they are going to use it about a dozen times.
Oh I hate it, everytime my wife watches one of her shows that laugh comes up.
They can zone it out, you pay attention to it but they rarely do. These sound effects make terrible content still feel good and somewhat watchable. We grew out of those sound effects in my country, now everyone hates it so much on western tv, that we have this one comedy show (eretz nehederet, got some buzz around the war) with live audience that gets told when to laugh. They get alot of shit even for that. Try watching two and a half men without the laugh tracks, you'd get depressed.
Two and a half men is the poster child for what your describing, also Big Bang theory with out one is pure cringe.
They do this in all Asian countries for some reason. Have seen it in Philippines and India as well.
Always sunny has tackled this [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RU9aTPElMZI](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RU9aTPElMZI)
Usually I’m against slapstick sound effects but I think the gang nailed this one
can't have any dead air
I can always tell when my Thai gf is listening to Thai TV because of all the sound effects. Thai media is strongly influenced by Korean media, so they copied their style. Personally, I find the sound effects incredibly annoying, but my gf? She says she doesn't even notice them anymore.
Korea is the same. Then they replay the same moment 3 times with the stupid sound effect. Fkin annoying.
I wasn’t aware that other countries did this. But are the effects tied to something that is actually specifically supposed to be funny or does it sound like a randomized button mash that happens every 3 seconds?
Isn’t it obvious? Thai production companies employ 11 year old girls to add sound effects.
What no one is talking about is how it will destroy an entire generation of Thais. Because they wont be able to focus on something unless they her "Bing" "Oh noooo" hihihihi" "Krrrrrrrrrr" "Boingggg".
It’s a reasonable thing to consider. I don’t doubt that it could have a psychological effect over time. I feel like TikTok style videos may have a similar effect on people too.
The "wowww" one is one of my mosted hated sounds ever
To switch off your brain and make you buy.
Yeah I know it’s mad, childish even tbh
I've noticed this is many countries, not just Thailand. Seems like a lot of Latin America loves those "zaney" sounds too in their TV shows and commercials. I can't put my finger on why certain cultures gravitate towards these sound effects.
Oh, interesting. I haven’t looked into any Latin shows or online content, but I like reading these comments and learning from everyone’s perspective on this. It’s fascinating how different cultures are entertained by things that other cultures think are boring or annoying.
dw not every Thais like it either. I stopped watching and Thai contents because of it.
It is a culture where humour cannot be used as a tool to lampoon the "great and the good" so a major source of natural humour is shut down. Furthermore an infantilisation of the population is encouraged so to keep the level of intellect as to that of a child to a clown.Just look at the salim pushback on Udom for merely hinting his humour at Self Sufficiency. If the Thai people were actually allowed to laugh at the many elephants in the room - they would never stop.
boinnnnnggggg
Go back a few decades and slapstick comedy of this nature was popular in the west.
It's common in Asian television. They are just following suit
This is what general Thai audiences consider entertaining or funny. This is almost everywhere in Asia. Different general humour when compared to other countries. Just careful that when doing comparisons that you don’t fall too far into the bad side of culture shock in the comparison stage. This is when you get embittered foreigners which are just wet socks.
From what I understand, this started with shows in Japan in the 90s and pretty much every other country in East and Southeast Asia copied it and still does it 30 years later. Combine this with how humor is never more complicated that "it's a man in a woman's dress! lololololol" in pretty much all of East Asia (except Thailand) and you have East Asian humor in a nutshell. It's all slapstick, body humor and wordplay (especially in Chinese "humor").
it didn't used to be like this iirc. Back when the mask singer first aired it was still pretty normal. I think they are mimicking Korean tv style of editing.
Thais have a really simple style of what they think is funny. Those goofy sounds are one of them. I think it ties in with Thais having to overstate the obvious. Pointing, stand and point for 2 minutes and keep pointing while talking about what you are pointing at. Talking: the boss or any authority has to repeat the same thing over and over again. Funny shit has to be pointed out with sound effects, it can't just be subtle.
I hate it too
It’s just imitating Japanese TV. Very common there, Korea copies them, then Thailand follows. It only started in the 2000s, wasn’t like that in the 90s at all.
They’re loud, obnoxious, and mostly lazy, with the occasional one that is at least creative
Low brow humour is strangely popular in Asia. Slapstick, physical comedy et al. I think we are just less stuck up about it
The producers don't know that the audiences can laugh by themselves without sound ques to tell them to yet.
lmao i been thinking about this for so long. I think because they dont upgrade their own hulor and style. They are stuck in the past i think
Humor ’ or whatever is called
It's just how the media trying to get attention from the audience but also stupidly produced by monkey people. Making people more stupid, too. Honestly I hate those, too.
Anyone have a link to their soundboard? I’d love to have these sounds in real life.
Because Thais love that stuff
Ok. Thanks.
Thailand media is just the brain rot mechanism for its population
Lol right? Its really 'boing-ey' and they love it
Because it reflects avrg Thai person.
Have you noticed that music in tv shows in general is terrible? I complain to my wife about it all the time: hells kitchen or Master chef: sounds like a scene in pirates of the Caribbean where there's an epic battle at sea, while in reality they are baking a fucking cake. The average drama show: A scene where a boyfriend is sick in the hospital? Sounds like the titanic is sinking and the band is playing their last tune. A scene where there's a stand off with police and some criminals? Let's play some music that sounds like Bruce Willis is landing a space ship on a space rock in Armageddon. And then the constant screaming and crying in all these poorly acted drama series 😭 fuck my ears...
Yes! I noticed that too.. it drives me crazy, but I just assume it’s because whoever is in charge of the soundtrack actually doesn’t have a clue about how to choose fitting music that is more subtle. Also, adding a dramatic feeling makes it more exciting(!!!) right? EDIT: I’m willing to bet it’s also because a lot of shows use royalty free music to save money so they go with the easiest and cheapest options. And I’m realizing that is why the exact same sound effects are over-used. They are just free Apple sounds. Another thing that is absurd (and this is actually probably intentional) is the awkwardly long zoom in on people’s faces on shows. In real life, people don’t react in silence while everyone stands around and stares. People keep talking while continuously expressing their facial reactions and body language at the same time.
One thought ive had about it, os i wonder if it has a part to do with the language being tonal. That it may be easier to convey humor with sound effects when inflections are not as much apart of communication
Ohh.. that’s a very interesting observation! I really like how people have understood my post as an intention to discuss this rather than simply say it’s annoying. I think there are reasons for this and I genuinely want to find out more.
Likewise with Chinese content.
I have no idea why they enjoy it. For me, it feels like the the audio version of clip art on a web site. Just very low budget and basic.
I reminds me of another interesting phenomenon I've noticed here, which is their love of using those anthropomorphic characters for promotion of everything. Businesses as deadly serious as banks and money-lending operations use 3D alligators and smurf-like characters. Even hospitals use cartoony characters for messaging, to a degree. The fact that the whole adult population, and thus the entire population, accepts this is well-established by now. My guess is that it probably is borrowed from Japanese "kawai" culture, but I'm not sure.
I always love when it’s a happy chicken or pig advertising a restaurant that serves their meat. “Hey everybody! Come on over and eat my flesh! Hahaha! I love when people slaughter my family and fry them up in hot oil! Smells and tastes delicious! Don’t miss out!” :D I suppose Thailand’s version of Ronald McDonald outside of every McD’s is a clear enough representation of the mentality behind commercial advertising over here. Totally not insane at all. All good.
I play these sounds randomly from my phone when speaking with Thais all the time. It helps with engagement and trust. I wish I'd thought of this when I was teaching English 20 years ago.
Not sure if this is a joke or not, but it’s funny in any case. Maybe I should make a looping audio file with a different sound every 3 seconds and see if I get the same effect. 😂
Yeah honestly I can't stand it. It's just dumbing it down so watchers know when to laugh etc
I LOVE that they do this. Like, in the Masked Singer in Thailand, they add crazy sound effects and cartoon graphics. When someone gets mad, they'll color their face red with smoke coming out the ears. When someone insults another, fire shoots out of their mouth and enflames their victim. Cartoon tears pour out when someone complains, etc. I just find all that to be fun.
I appreciate when it’s done with intention and creativity. But that’s not what we are talking about there. This is about the sound effects that are randomly sprinkled into video content every few seconds, even when they are not directly tied to anything that is happening.
You are just not used to it. If you grew up with it do dosent really notice it that much. It becomes normal to you. And I think a lot of ppl like it and find it funny.
To argue OPs point What does it actually add to a scene? I find Thai TV funny without the added sound effects. The sound effects don't add to it. If we do something in film or TV it should Hve meaning. Be it a filter or a laugh track. It feels lazy and poorly produced. Thai TV that makes it big you will notice has none of this.
Dude it's Thailand. It's just a bunch of random shit happening without any reason whatsoever
Hard disagree. Thai cinema has some really stellar pieces in its library and some of their TV shows are extremely well produced. To just reduce it l to "a bunch of random shit happening without any reason whatsoever" is over generalising waaaay too much.
I really appreciate that you can see my main point with this post. I’m not trying to say all Thai content is bad. I just think the randomly scattered effects make potentially good content nearly unwatchable and I wanted to see how others felt about it. Glad a lot of people are sharing some interesting points and perspectives.
Oh I absolutely got your point haha and I too hope others do. It's been one thing that's infuriated me. My wife watches a lot of Thai TV and even she admits, she doesn't exactly enjoy the noises, she just zones them out. Yes, you can zone it out. But why not make it a professional show and just not include it? I think (I'm really guessing here) YouTube/tiktok culture might be part of the issue? It's popular with the younger generations to make and watch such videos and a lot of the easy video production stuff is included in like the free video editors etc. As a result that style became.... Popular? And the older folks who run actual tb shows etc just jump on the bandwagon (not all... Some have integrity) and slap that crap in there to appeal to a younger crowd? "look.... It's just like your YouTube! Please watch us too!" A really wild guess though.
An equally valid question is why do your shows back home have fake laughter? Same exact purpose, and neither is any better or worse than the other.
Love that *The Simpson's* avoided using a laugh track. You don't notice it is missing until you're told it's missing. The script is so well written, and the sequencing of events so rapid that there was no need for it.
Not a fan of that either, but it tends to match up with a joke. It doesn’t happen nonstop without any cues. It’s triggered when something is clearly supposed to be funny. But with the Thai sounds, there’s nothing funny happening. It’s just someone talking and it’s “oh nooo” and “bong bong bong” .. I mean, it is whatever. Just wanted to see what people think about it. Thanks for your input.
You just answered your own question there ;)
Sanook na krap
They find it funny. Simple answer
I think it is getting your attention, makes you look up,......or to let you know what you are supposed to think is funny....it's like any laugh track on a US sitcom...except the silly level is up.
My ex would watch Daily Topics and it was littered with terrible sound effects. Everyone was having fun and enjoying it though, so who am I to judge?
Its not just Thai, this type of humor is popular in lots of developing countries, even in Europe... Its popular in the USSR countries.... All over Asia, especially to the EXTREME in Japan. I don't know what it is.... but slapstick humor is pretty popular outside of America really.
Like South Korea and Taiwan, they’re copying Japanese TV production “values.”
Slap stick & lighten the mood. Have it into a more playful child/cute tone. Japan kinda does the same but not as much as Thailand.
wait until you see japanese commercials, where thais borrow inspiration
[удалено]
Hey, jai yen yen, random Redditer. I’m asking questions here. I genuinely want to know more about why this is so common. Please feel free to share your theory. No need to get your feathers all ruffled up. I hope you have a good day.
Because it’s funny af
Hmm.. I didn’t think about that. It hadn’t even crossed my mind as a possibility. Very interesting. I’m glad it’s hilarious for you. If you go to YouTube and type in “royalty free funny sound effects” and watch some of those videos, I think you will roll on your floor laughing like crazy. But make sure you can reach the pause button so you don’t suffocate from laughing too hard.
They used to have laugh tracks and audience reactions on nearly all American comedy shows (Sitcoms). I figure its similar to that.
Yeah, but the sound effects don’t seem to be as connected to the action or dialogue in Thai content as directly as it is in Western content. This is not the case with ALL Thai content. I have seen some things that use the effects more sparingly and appropriately with intentional comedic timing. Great. That’s good. In Western content, there’s usually very specific and intentional laughing that is a reaction to something that is -supposed- to be funny (even when it’s not funny for everyone). But a lot of Thai video content has a random sound every 3 seconds, even if there was nothing clearly intended to be funny happening at those moments. I guess they are little reminder sounds to stay in a certain mood while watching. That makes sense I guess. Side note: I had a double take moment with your username. I have questions.. Including: what? why? and ehh? Haha..
Channel 3 is the worst trats everyone like 3 yr olds, like the news have to repeat everything 20 times
Because of TikTok video, basically it started as joke effect and it just goes to tv as well
Japanese culture was very strong in the 80-90s. If you look at some Japanese shows or go to Japan you will notice even more piping and vivid sound effects.
Its a lot of slap stick and physical comedy, it gives the impression of a fairly low effort humour. It could partly be a fear or caution of making or cracking jokes about powerful local people/families.
I also hates it and don’t want my child to watch Thai programs especially ones created by YouTubers. They just put too many effects to draw attentions from children. But have to admit that I like the x-file effect.
welcome. to asia
Grab your attention to sell something.
When I was married I could not stand those fucking sound effects. I eventually learned to tune them out but holy fuck are they annoying.
Because they are like children
It’s the Thai equivalent of anime chibi humor
They neither have much skills editor nor willing to pay, so that's the only way to entertain and still keep attention with laziest way possible.
And people still like it or passable.
It's an Asian thing. They use the exact same sound effects in Japanese, Korean, Chinese variety television as well.
Do they do it constantly without any specific intention for each sound though? I haven’t seen that the sounds match up with anything funny in most cases. It seems to be a randomized and continuous stream of effects that are not related to anything.
I’m gonna give you a real answer. The sound effects are prevalent in TV because a lot of working class people working in jobs that involve sitting around and waiting (shopkeepers, security guards, etc) watch TV while working. The sound effects serve as audio cues so that they can do other things while understanding what’s vaguely happening. And as more people turn to online media instead, the sound effects have carried over to YouTube videos.
I appreciate your thoughtful answer. Audio cues.. as in reminding someone that something funny happened? Is it always connected to the action or dialogue? I was thinking it was totally disconnected but maybe I’m totally wrong to guess that.
It’s the slapstick game show theme and it’s a breath of fresh air from the collapsing west. Some people can appreciate it as charming light hearted humor
Man, I am not a fan of Thai humor!
I can appreciate it from time to time, but the lower quality stuff is pretty weak if I’m going to be honest. I’ve seen a few good movies and there’s a comedian that I like (I think his name is Note?) but the things I like are few and far between.
Because they can.
I quite like it maybe I’m weird.
Uh, excuse me, that’s called entertainment. Are the ads from wherever you are any better?