Sound designer Ben Burtt secretly slipped an obscure, exaggerated stock sound effect called the Wilhelm Scream into the original Star Wars movie as a private joke among his audio engineering friends.

A closer look

Sound designer Ben Burtt secretly slipped an obscure, exaggerated stock sound effect called the Wilhelm Scream into the original Star Wars movie as a private joke among his audio engineering friends. The ridiculous, melodramatic yelp was originally recorded in 1951 for a completely forgotten western film, but thanks to Burtt's nerdy prank, it became a mandatory inclusion in hundreds of massive Hollywood blockbusters. Directors like Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson started demanding it in their films, turning a cheap archival audio clip into the most overused audio cliché in cinematic history. It perfectly illustrates how an entire industry of highly paid, supposedly brilliant creative professionals will endlessly recycle the exact same terrible sound effect for decades