{"id":59854,"date":"2026-01-03T12:01:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=59854"},"modified":"2026-01-02T23:48:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:48:31","slug":"the-wilhelm-scream-should-go-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=59854","title":{"rendered":"The Wilhelm Scream Should Go Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wilhelm scream is a staple in media and has been for over 60 years. Everybody reading this likely knows exactly what I\u2019m talking about, but if you don\u2019t, go ahead and look it up on YouTube. There will be plenty of videos to refresh your memory. It\u2019s a classic. It\u2019s a constant. I hate it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If I\u2019m in the middle of watching a SciFi-Fantasy Space Epic, like, say, a Star War and I hear a Wilhelm scream it doesn\u2019t really bother me. It\u2019s a goofy environment that allows for some levity in a way that some other stories and themes don\u2019t. But when I\u2019m watching Lord of the Rings and I\u2019m deeply immersed in a dark but beautiful world and story, I don\u2019t want to hear some poor prick from the 50s do his best to sound scared and dying.<\/p>\n

I know the justification is that it\u2019s a fun easter egg thrown in by sound designers and foley artists. I get that, and I don\u2019t like yucking other people\u2019s yum for no reason. That\u2019s just it, though, I think it does ruin my experience sometimes. The end of a movie called Dante\u2019s Peak, there\u2019s an emotional death scene punctuated by a Wilhelm scream. That is not the place for a silly haha fun-fun joke to be thrown in. Half of the uses on Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies are abominations. The death of Thrain in the extended edition of The Desolation of Smaug is probably the most infuriating usage of the sound in history. The Hobbit movies are far from perfect but they had a great scene going and then might as well have played a fart sound effect over it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just not a worthwhile addition to any movie anymore. It\u2019s not even funny anymore unless used ironically. The world of media consumers know the sound exists whether they know the actual name or not. It\u2019s a tired gag. It\u2019s a dead meme. And like all dead memes in existence, it needs to be ignored until its evil power fades. Then we can all remember it as nostalgic cringe like \u201can arrow to the knee\u201d or \u201cdo you know de wae?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wilhelm scream is a staple in media and has been for over 60 years. Everybody reading this likely knows exactly what I\u2019m talking about, but if you don\u2019t, go ahead and look it up on YouTube. There will be plenty of videos to refresh your memory. It\u2019s a classic. It\u2019s a constant. I hate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethanirl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59854"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59859,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59854\/revisions\/59859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}