I really enjoy hearing the classic gunge tank klaxon while watching a gunging! The shock of a loud obnoxious noise is pretty exciting! I have the sound downloaded from the BBC sounds archive and play it along with messy videos. Most of the producers don't seem use the klaxon, maybe some do and some don't, I'm not sure on that one.
I'd love to hear some more sounds in gunge videos. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Ha ha, yeah I can definitely see it also getting on your nerves

It's all about context. I think it works for TV but wouldn't want it added to producer/custom content. Can't really explain why, but that's just the way it is

It's not about the noise itself. It doesn't work if it's added in post - I think the appeal is seeing the reaction the klaxon provokes in the soon-to-be victim. Like on game shows, when that alarm goes off, there's that split-second where you see the victim knows what's coming, but can't do anything to avoid the torrent.

AARRRROOOOOOGGGGAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Yep, remmber it well.


Agree with this though, I think it would only really work in a full recreation game-show format.

I think it's also very specific to Great Britain. Growing up in North America, we only rarely had that aspect to our gunge-using gameshows, and as such, at least for me, it's a little incongruous. That specific klaxon, at least where I grew up, meant 'tsunami warning'!

It's kind of an annoying sound...but it is hardwired to instant boner for me

Same, there is something intrinsically rude about it, and to those of us of a certain age who grew up in the UK, it's an auditory shorthand for "this is the money shot you've been waiting for", in the same kind of way that "I don't know" is for Americans. I find it hot. And it's another reason why contraptions/tanks are hotter than just people chucking buckets over each other - the sound effect is synonymous with the machine doing its work, mercilessly spunking its technicolour load over the hapless victim below. The tank doesn't care about the person's dignity, and once it's started it can't be stopped.

I own a genuine Klaxon hooter, they are frigging loud! There is no way you could use it in a small studio or even a large set up..it would be too overpowering. It would be perfectly fine for a large television studio. Better to stick with the sound clip so at least the victim or producer does not have a heart attack when it goes off. By the way, the sound is produced in an incredibly simple way.

And for those who don't but who wish they did, I believe it's at https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07027199

I am totally the opposite on this one. I love how it pushes up the nerves and can lead to better reactions. I actually think Mesyworld should use it more as it does add to your vids when you use it.

So I'm going to awkward with this one.

I loved the use of the klaxon on old TV gungings especially on NHP.

However I think it mostly ruins most videos WAM producers use it in as most don't know how to use it properly.

If you go back through the old NHP gungings and measure the time between the start of the klaxon and the gunge hitting the person it averages about 1 second it is rarely ever longer than 2 seconds and in the case of the Ulrika gunging almost instantaneous. The only real exceptions were the NHP gungings with the foam filling tank where the klaxon started roughly midway through the foam filling so took a little longer but as I'll explain in a moment the foam filling made it difficult for the klaxon to be used in its intended dramatic purpose.

Essentially the klaxon is like the equivalent of a rabbit being caught in the headlights moment. Or as I call it an "Oh crap" moment it is the very short window in which the brain has yet to fully process what is happening. If the gunge still hits during this period you still manage to get the full surprise/shocked reaction that you would get if you just surprised them with the gunge dropping with no warning. But take any longer than that "Oh crap" window and brain fully registers it is coming and so is no longer surprised so you miss out on that reaction entirely. (Sort of the reason why the klaxon doesn't time well with the NHP foam filling tank as the foam takes longer to fill than this "oh crap," window and so regardless of when the klaxon goes off the tank filling with foam already tips off the surprise factor.

And the reactions are always more important than some sound effect. If the klaxon is being used more than 2 seconds before a gunging all it really does it sap the surprise element from the scene. The klaxon should not be being used to build anticipation 5 seconds anticipation building is massively insufficient for the nervous squirming that an anticipation scene should be looking to cultivate. In my humble opinion far too many WAM clips purporting to build anticipation don't build sufficient anticipation either because they don't spend enough time building it being too eager to get to the mess, or don't know how to build it with dramatic devices or worst of all make mistakes that sap the tension or anticipation from a scene.

So to summarise better reactions are always more preferable than sound effects. Using the sound effects too early as many producers do often leads to lesser reactions as a result. And so whilst the klaxon used well can add to a scene, used poorly it does much more harm to the scene than good so if it can't be guaranteed to be used properly better not using it at all. Especially if there is a high chance people will be watching the clip with the sound off.

Personally whether I watch with the sound on or off is directly related to the amount of talking going to be in a scene for instance I'll typically watch Plungas with the sound on as the talk adds to the scene, but I typically won't put sound on for Human Carwash because there's rarely anything worth listening to it'd be different if a host or friend walked down alongside the carwash chatting, occasionally teasing, taunting and possibly doing something messy like deliver a pie whilst the carwash train was stationary but in current form there is just general background noise. That and scenes with little talking rarely result in audible reactions from the gungee as people tend to get rather self-conscious in them and feel silly talking or making noises to themselves. Just as a stand-up comic often has a warm up act to get an audience prepared to laugh publicly having someone else to talk and interact with in a scene makes everyone involved more willing to be audible. Anyway I'm drifting off the point so will shut up now.

Piecub, the more I see of your posts the more I think we may be actual twins.

Piecub, totally get how its a sort of 'rude' sound that in the context of a tanking fits.

Shout out to Totally Gunged - I always think the dude who runs that has the squelchy/naughty /farty humour of gunge fun nailed in in terms of tone/sound.

Great points!

I still love the foam-filling tank though - I guess the foam fulfils the same kind of function as the klaxon, it tells you "the person is going to be gunged imminently and there's nothing they can do about it". Anticipation and build-up is everything (well, and coverage too...).

It is worth noting that the foam filling tank sort of came about as part of changing how NHP was looking to use the gunge tank.

If you look at the early NESR gungings you had a contestant sat in the gunge tank that was trying to escape clean in the game but could be surprised by a gunging at any moment if they took too long or accumulated too many points for the prizes they picked. The emphasis was very much on a quick surprising gunging with little warning.

Even early NHP gungings sort of followed the idea that they could win the chance of an escape. For instance the too much time on hair gunging has Noel give the victim something like 15 seconds to try come up with a reason why they shouldn't be gunged to try avoid it. Presenting the possibility of escape meant that the person in the tank was pinning their hopes on escape that when the gunge fell with little warning it came as a surprise.

However then NHP came up with the idea of Gunge Votes. And well this meant you couldn't have people sat in the tank to instantly gunge. Indeed whilst you could build tension through out the show with the votes changing and whatnot it was impossible to surprise the loser with a gunging as they actually had to get in the tank first. The surprise moment has already occurred when the final results are announced. So given that shock/surprise can't be generated in such situation the emotion focus sort of shift towards helplessly waiting for one's inevitable fate and the associated nervousness of it. When viewed from this perspective you can see how and why the evolution of the gunge contraptions associated with the gunge vote were each season attempting to prolong the time between the victim getting into the contraption and the climatic gunging. The regular gunge tank was swapped for gunge tank with one that first filled with foam which was then swapped out for the carwash style tank that took longer to get to the gunging which was itself replaced by the trip around the house. Each getting longer as the intent was to 'prolong the inevitable' rather than to surprise.

Whilst the gunge contraptions associated with the gunge vote focused on 'prolonging the inevitable,' the surprise based gungings resulted in the Number Cruncher game which would surprise the contestant if they took too long. What is notable hear is that each of these gunge devices were designed to enhance the particular emotions of a particular game or scene to get maximum entertainment from it.

Now I'm sure the question that will come up is well in that case can't the klaxon be used to support that sort of 'prolonging the inevitable,' dread building sort of type of gunging and well it is not the best audible device that can be used for that purpose. In actual fact a good old fashioned countdown works best here as it the countdown it helped produce the nervous pre-reactions to the gungings for the likes of the Mylene L&K gunging and Sophie's TSS gungings. The countdown most acutely emphasises the inevitable moment is coming sooner and sooner that the person in the tank can do nothing to stop. There's nothing to stop using the klaxon on zero when the gunge hits for the obnoxiousness of it but for gungings looking to build on the dread of the inevitable countdown beats a klaxon.

Where there is the possibility of escape or trying to surprise someone with the gunge klaxon obviously better than telegraphing with a countdown but only so long as it is not done to soon that the 'Oh crap' window is missed. Essentially there is a time and place in which various dramatic devices are best used and that tailoring the gunge device to particular games or scenes further enhances it.

As soon as I hear the claxon for the Noels House Party gunge tank I get an instant bonner, the BBC sometimes use it these days for odd bits on tv or radio and I have to be carful what happens in my trousers!

Sticky Trickster, I really enjoy reading your insights into the production/psychology of how some of the best ever telly gungings were designed & made

For me the sound is overwhelming but I understand it's use an tv for example

Thanks, I was fortunate enough to get training in things like TV production and post production from alumni in the media industry during my student media days and have consumed a whole bunch of behind the scenes guides like David Bodycombe's How To Devise A Gameshow (before anyone rushes off to purchase a copy there's just one short paragraph on gunge and it isn't anything most people here probably don't know so save your money) in TV production that whilst I don't know absolutely for certain the NHP production team was intending this or that, I just know enough of certain insider tricks and techniques that like watching a magic show when you know how to do a bunch of magic you can recognise certain things and go - "I see what you did there."

Don't get much opportunity to put much of that knowledge to use so when it does come out it just keeps spurting out. Used to give it an outlet thinking of gameshow ideas to do if I ever went into WAM production again but have now settled on a project for creating kinky games for regular people (couples and singletons on the web) to be able to do which whilst touching on some game making parts of gameshows doesn't cover any of the old TV production tricks side of things.

It's a strange thought that Alan Davies's constant bad answers on QI probably do confuse my penis.

As a result of this thread and other people having previously asked me I've decided to see about posting some of the gameshow ideas I collected over the years (at a rate of one a week) along with notes for some of the psychological purposes behind some of the ideas in them that drive the entertainment and fun factor - as a result thought I'd give a quick heads up about it.

As this thread focused on the NHP klaxon decided to start with the gameshow idea that I built around the core idea behind Number Cruncher - escape before time runs out and the gunge is released - spun out into a longer tension building gameshow working up to the race against slime/time climax. First one is up in my blog section and depending on reception will see if it is worth the time to publish more of the ideas in a similar format. Anyway back to klaxon talk...