Before you continue any further in this, I do want to warn you. This might make you giggle in the middle of a horror movie or something. Once you know this and start recognizing it in other life, you might be unable to take things seriously as much anymore. It's happened to me several times.
Since you've apparently decided to continue, please keep the warning in mind and don't blame me if you start thinking about it.
That scream, known as the Wilhelm Scream, has been part of a lot of movies over the last 75 years. It's a well known sound effect that is possibly one of the most-used in the industry. It's also strangely hilarious once you know about it and start listening for it. It got named as the 'Wilhelm Scream' in the 70's, when some film students were sifting through sound effects from Warner Bros and used it in their projects, using the name of one of the characters that used the scream in 1953. Those film students then went on to use it in their directing careers after they graduated, including Indiana Jones and Star Wars, among a lot of other movies.
Through the 80's and 90's, it became pretty popular and sometimes considered either a 'rite of passage' or an in-joke for sound engineers, then in 2010, when the Hollywood Museum of Sound came around and started making a list of the movies more, then everyone started using it-- movies, tv shows, video games, and even some commercials.
It's a giant in-joke and comedic effect to a lot of people because once you know that this same scream is what gets done in Toy Story and Indiana Jones and Resident Evil, among other things, it becomes something to laugh at no matter how dramatic the scene is. That's why I provided warning above. You might laugh at inappropriate times because it's so hilarious now.
Now that you know, I hope you'll be amused by it and you'll sound like an expert when you have to explain why Kill Bill makes you giggle. Let me know if that actually happens and how it goes.
Sources:
Video/Audio of Wilhelm Scream from Youtube
Wikilist-- List of Films with the Wilhelm Scream, not complete
Sound Effects Fandom Wiki-- Wilhelm Scream
Kennedy Center- Sound Design and the Wilhelm Scream
Backstage- History of the Wilhelm Scream
Hollywood Lost and Found-- Wilhelm Scream Usage List up to 2010
LAist- The Original Wilhelm Scream
On Advertising-- The Wilhelm Scream
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