Audience Murmurs

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    Something very shocking has happened in front of a large audience! It's so shocking that the audience must immediately discuss amongst themselves how utterly shocked they are by proceedings. Of course, we, the actual audience, don't hear what they're saying—we just hear a low murmur.

    May be preceded by an audience-wide GASP!

    Often happens in a courtroom, when a lawyer or witness has revealed a big twist in the case ("A murmur went through the courtroom..."). It also appears in general crowd scenes (parties, bars, restaurants, stadiums) as ambient noise.

    In the business, this is sometimes called "rhubarb," "walla," "watermelon," and "peas and carrots," after the theater trick of using those words because (in theory) they sound like real conversation when mumbled indistinctly. In TV and movies, most recordings are actually of little snippets of pocket dialogue—unfinished phrases related to whatever is going on in the scene. This adds realism to the story, while saving the writers the effort of coming up with complete sentences for bit characters to say.

    See Studio Audience. Compare Saying Sound Effects Out Loud.

    Examples of Audience Murmurs include:

    Anime

    • When a riot breaks out in Legend of Galactic Heroes, the crowd can clearly be heard shouting "Riot!" in English.
    • This happens in Sai's Backstory in Hikaru no Go during a public game of Go. After his opponent blames him for cheating (the opponent was actually the one who cheated) and Sai denies, the whole crowd begins to whisper.

    Comedy

    King: But you better sight land soon. There?s rumblings of mutiny!
    Columbus: Really?
    King: Come over here and listen.
    Columbus: Alright.
    Crew: Rumble, rumble, rumble. Mutiny, mutiny, mutiny.
    Columbus: I see what you mean.

    • In a bit discussing PM's Question Time, Eddie Izzard renders the background murmurs in Parliament as "Toilet paper! Toilet paper! Toilet paper in our time!"

    Comic Books

    • Crowds in Asterix generally mutter "rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb".

    Film

    Cabinet men: harrumphharrumphharrumphharrumphharrumphharrumphharrumph
    Governor: I didn't get a "harrumph" outta that guy!
    Hedley Lamarr: Give the governer a "harrumph!"
    That Guy: Harrumph.
    Governor: You watch your ass!

    • Also parodied in The Man With Two Brains; when Michael makes his announcement about "being able to put the brains of brilliant people in the bodies of dumb people", the German audience engages in murmuring of this nature. When he asks his host what they're saying, he's informed that it's just "a general murmur," and they're just repeating 'murmur' over and over. When he challenges them to "murmur all you like!", the response is the audience loudly yelling "Murmur Murmur!" at him.
    • Done really badly in On Deadly Ground, where amidst the standard "rhubarb"ing, utter non sequitur comments come from nowhere supporting Forrest.

    Literature

    • Dave Barry has mocked this a few times, as when a murmur ran through a courtroom--then jumped up and bit the judge on the nose.
    • In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Maskerade Nanny Ogg, having joined an angry mob in order to divert them from their target, is revealed as the rest of the crowd dissipates to be waving her torch and pitchfork and muttering "Rhubarb...rhubarb..."

    Live Action Television

    • Parodied on quite a few episodes of 30 Rock. In "Future Husband," Liz makes it seem as if Jack is in a meeting while on the phone by saying "Rhubarb rhubarb, golf prostate." In another episode, Rob Reiner said "Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, peas-and-carrots rhubarb" while on a congressional committee board, pretending to be conversing with the people around him after it had been pointed out during that he really had no business being there.
    • In an episode of Becker, Becker is facing a malpractice suit. When the plaintiff is on the stand, he identifies Becker as his doctor for the record. Cue the audience gasping and murmuring. Cue Becker telling them to shut up, because it's not like that's a big surprise or anything.
    • On Community Shirley can be heard murmuring "pepperjack cheese" when the whole group starts talking at once.
    • Neatly and hilariously parodied to the point of subversion on Father Ted—as Ted's making a lot of surprising revelations at a "Sheep of the Year" contest, the audience in general engages in a bit of shocked murmuring amongst themselves... except for one chap (actually played by series co-creator Grahame Linehan) who can very audibly be heard exclaiming "Fuckin' hell!"
    • Parodied in the Blackadder II episode "Potato": when Blackadder and his crew are shouting at each other after getting lost at sea, Captain Rum is just saying "Rhubarb" over and over. And since he's played by Tom Baker, he's doing it very loudly and clearly.
    • On The Daily Show, after showing a clip of a rather raucous chat show, Jon compared it to a shouting Bohemian Rhapsody. It then cut to the correspondents in the Rhapsody position, of whom Jason Jones (as Jon lampshades at the end) is simply saying "watermelon".
    • In one episode of Will and Grace, Karen is clearly saying "Peas and Carrots" during a crowd scene.
    • Mystery Science Theater 3000 used "rhubarb," "sassafras" and "peas and carrots" sometimes for crowd scenes. Mocking of Prince of Space (a Japanese film), Mike and the Bots riff on the Media Scrum by muttering random Japanese phrases ("Wasabi." "Samurai saga.").
    • Parodied by Monty Python's Flying Circus: "Dim of the Yard! Consternation, uproar!"
    • The Monkees parody this with the "rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb" variation in the episode "Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers".
    • Beautifully parodied in a French & Saunders homage to James Cameron's Titanic, whereby the Ghost Extras embrace their background-filling role by loudly saying "Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb" to one another, and Gary Waldhorn clearly annunciates "Fah fah fah fah fah..." in Received Pronunciation during the dining scene.

    Radio

    • The Goon Show Lampshaded this - audience murmurs were always played by the full cast muttering "rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb". Considering that "the full cast" was only three people, and that they would occasionally intersperse the "rhubarbs" with "custard!", the effect was usually unconvincing.
    • Spoof-Victorian comedy The Brothers Faversham had a running gag one episode using this. Whenever something astonishing happened, a crowd would murmur over each other: "Good Lord! - I say! - Unbelievable! - What! - That's impossible!". Unfortunately, the murmurs would die down just as one of them said, very distinctly, "Shit".

    Theater

    • In the script of The Complete History of America (abridged), the announcement of the Boston Tea Party is followed by these lines spoken together:

    Austin: Peas and carrots, peas and carrots...
    Adam: Harumph, harumph, harumph...
    Reed: Rutabaga, rutabaga, rutabaga...

    • In The Golden Apple, when Ulysses is working his Divide and Conquer plan on the citizens of Rhododendron, they divide up into groups which say, "Mutter mutter and grumble grumble."

    Video Games

    • HOLD IT! (Desk Slam!) Happens at every twist in Ace Attorney.
    • Happens in Final Fantasy VI during the Opera Scene when your party (and Ultros) crash into the scene from the ceiling. Locke Large Hams an improvisation once he realizes the lead actor has been knocked unconscious, and the guy who owns the opera house decides to Throw It In, and the orchestra starts up some nice thematic battle music for you.
    • In Chrono Trigger, the crowd at Crono's trial murmur cheers and boos as each juror's verdict is announced.

    Web Original

    Western Animation

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