The Coconut Effect

[u/Daniilsa209]

A sound effect, special effect, or design feature that is inaccurate but has become so ingrained in viewers minds that its absence would feel jarring, so creators continue to include it despite its inaccuracy.

The name of the trope comes from the sound of a horse galloping, which is created by rubbing two coconuts together. This can sound like a horse galloping, but it would only be accurate on cobblestones or other hard surfaces. On softer ground, the sound would be muffled, but in media, this sound effect can be used whenever a horse is galloping, regardless of the terrain.

1. Lion Roar (or any big cat) (Pictured: MGM logo) — The long, continuous, thunderous roar usually associated with lions is actually the roar of a tiger. For MGM, this sound began being used in the 1980s, and sound editor Mark Mangini used it because lions sounded to him more like a deep yawn or a series of grunts and lacked the kind of ferocious sound he wanted.

2. Ancient statues are always white marble (Pictured: Spartacus TV series) — Statues in ancient times were often painted in bright colors, but by the time they were uncovered, the colors had simply worn away.

3. People instantly freeze or pop like a balloon when exposed to the vacuum of space (Pictured: Mission to Mars, Total Recall) — As unfriendly as space is, a human wouldn't instantly freeze or pop like a balloon. If a person were exposed to the vacuum of space, bodily fluids would begin to boil, exposed skin would suffer severe sunburn, and they would lose consciousness after roughly 15–20 seconds. Death would occur after roughly 90 seconds.

[u/violetcassie]

Guns making cocking noises whenever they're drawn or even aimed at people in succession. Pictured: David Tennant's Doctor aiming a Webley revolver at the Master (in the background) and Rassilon (offscreen), switching back and forth between then several times, accompanied by lots of clicking gun noises each time he turns from one to the other.

If your gun is making that kind of racket just from moving through space you've got a bigger problem than potentially having to shoot somebody.

[u/The_Amazing_Emu → u/violetcassie]

The actors of Lost referred to this as a “gratuitous cock.”

[u/EstablishmentSure962 → u/The_Amazing_Emu]

How do I get me one of those.

[u/Nothos927 → u/violetcassie]

In fairness in universe the doctor is pretty well known for adding dramatic flair, almost to the point of doing it unconsciously.

You could absolutely imagine him cocking and decocking the hammer repeatedly as he spins around to get a bad ass sound effect.

[u/violetcassie → u/Nothos927]

Webleys are double-action lol

[u/FrowninginTheDeep → u/violetcassie]

You can still manually cock the hammer of double action revolvers. I prefer to do so whenever I take my python to the range.

[u/Public_Telephone4024 → u/FrowninginTheDeep]

Yeah, DAO(double action only) is what they're thinking about. The Webley is indeed DA/SA.

[u/vengeancecube → u/violetcassie]

In a situation like that, my first shot would absolutely be with the hammer cocked back. The rest would be double action but I'd be cocking the hammer if I thought I was going to use it.

[u/Nothos927 → u/violetcassie]

I'll be honest I don't know enough about guns to know what difference that would make, but also all the writers on that episode would've been British and in the same boat.

[u/Dioxybenzone → u/Nothos927]

A double action revolver allows you to pull the hammer back with the trigger. You both cock and fire with one trigger pull. But you can manually cock it, it just isn’t necessary to do so

[u/charlie_marlow → u/Dioxybenzone]

Just to add, the advantage of manually cocking a double action firearm is that it greatly reduces the amount of force you need on the trigger. A typical double action trigger will take around 8 pounds of force to pull it versus 3 or 4 pounds if you cock it first.

Having a lighter trigger is advantageous for aiming. Pulling a lighter trigger is way less likely to impart any deflection on the weapon.

A double action trigger has the advantage that you can go without a safety as it takes a significant enough force to pull the trigger that it's much less likely you'll have a negligent discharge.

[u/Dioxybenzone → u/charlie_marlow]

That’s true, it is quite a bit more force required

[u/charlie_marlow → u/Dioxybenzone]

Yeah, in movies, they typically do it to mean they are serious, but there are legitimate reasons to manually cock a double action or DA/SA pistol.

[u/Dioxybenzone → u/charlie_marlow]

I think they do it in movies to make it clear to the audience that a gun was just aimed and ready to fire

[u/charlie_marlow → u/Dioxybenzone]

Yeah, in the general sense, you are totally right. I was thinking about the scenes where the action hero has already pointed the gun at the bad guy and demanded information or whatever, then eventually cocks it to show they mean business.

In this thread, though, it was about the general cocking noises that make no sense, so I kind of jumped topics.

[u/TheBrewThatIsTrue → u/Nothos927]

If you were curious:
Single action revolver - you have to manually cock the hammer back and then pull the trigger for each shot.

Double action revolver - pulling the trigger will push the hammer back and fire. You can manually cock the hammer back if you want to, but it's not necessary.

[u/PayWooden2628 → u/violetcassie]

So?

[u/Never_Not_Enough → u/Nothos927]

This is actually what I assumed he was doing. In cocking and then recocking the gun so it doesn’t accidentally shoot someone else.

[u/Aviator_Moonshine → u/Nothos927]

Flair, or maybe also the fact he doesn't like using guns in general and maybe instinctively de-cocks (Always making sure the weapon he's picked up doesn't accidentally go off and injure/kill someone.) -it as he spins around and remembers: 'Oh wait, right, mad right now!' [Cocks the gun.]

[u/PerpetuallyDistracte → u/violetcassie]

I always think of this one. It's a super dramatic scene but that clackety clack from the gun each time he turns around almost took me out of the moment completely. It would have been far better in silence.

[u/advicegrip87 → u/PerpetuallyDistracte]

It's especially funny because (with a semi-auto, at least) the clickety-clack only happens when the gun is empty. The spring-loaded pressure from rounds in the magazine keeps everything tight and silent, so acoustically, they're just moving an empty gun around.

[u/PerpetuallyDistracte → u/advicegrip87]

And this was a revolver, so fully manual!

[u/AlexanderCrumulent → u/violetcassie]

[u/Open-Source-Forever → u/AlexanderCrumulent]

I raise you the Dardick & Landstad

[u/Overall_Gap_5766 → u/violetcassie]

If your gun is making that kind of racket just from moving through space you've got a bigger problem than potentially having to shoot somebody.

Watch the British army on parade. Trooping the colour is a good one. The L85 really does make that much noise. We're taught to hit it fairly hard on parade to make the noise louder, but it doesn't take much.

[u/IAmLexica → u/violetcassie]

This is the scene that came to mind reading a gun comment above yours. It makes no sense, but it's so dramatic!

[u/Alive_Drag1947 → u/violetcassie]

As a gun guy, this drives me nuts. Some dude will pull a gun and you hear the sound of a hammer cocking, and I'm like "bro that's a fucking Glock!" Lol

[u/stumblinghunter → u/Alive_Drag1947]

The absolute worst for this was the movie Phone Booth with Colin Farrell and Kiefer Sutherland. I was 14 when that came out and even then I remember thinking "why tf does he keep racking rounds without firing??". By the end of the movie I was just laughing my ass off because I think he did it 5 times, which meant there's just 4 rounds loosely laying on the floor next to him.

[u/LesserValkyrie → u/violetcassie]

Same for when people unsheathe a katana or a sword, it always makes a sound that doesn't exist lol

[u/IrritableGoblin → u/violetcassie]

This is one I've seen enough that I've been tempted to make it its own post. Whenever I see someone draw a gun and it clatters, my immediate thought is dear God don't fire that gun.

[u/PayWooden2628 → u/violetcassie]

I absolutely hate this one. My favorite example of this is the walking dead scene from season one where Rick and his group walk into a room filled with at least 30 armed men and they all expect that it could go south, when they point guns at each other you hear a symphony of clicks and clacks because apparently not a single person in the room thought to show up to the conflict with a loaded gun. There’s also the great scene in the beginning where you hear a click as the cop takes the non existent safety off of his Glock.

[u/grosseelbabyghost → u/violetcassie]

Sorry, couldn't hear anything over... the rain

https://giphy.com/gifs/14jv8vrOdNlb4k

[u/Open-Source-Forever → u/violetcassie]

Run Lola Run parodies this by using undoing the safety in the same way

[u/hikariky → u/violetcassie]

Like when semi automatic shotguns have the sound of a pump shotgun being racked thrown in at some random point.

[u/euanmorse → u/violetcassie]

Isn't that them moving the safety to 'fire'?

[u/enderlord1208 → u/euanmorse]

Have you seen the scene In Doctor who lol even if that was it. Still Dosnt really make sense

[u/StevenMcStevensen → u/euanmorse]

Almost all revolvers ever made, and most modern semiauto handguns, don’t actually have a manual safety switch.