Has anyone ever tracked down the very first use of the now-clichéd slowed-down "OOOOOH NOOOOO" in film? No guesses, please—I'm looking for an informed answer.
— Terry Teachout (@TerryTeachout1) December 27, 2021
December 28, 2021
A question I wasn't asking, but I'd like to know.
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28 comments:
Sounds like something Lucille Ball started on TV.
BTW, I loved “Being the Ricardos.” Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardam were great.
Mr Bill!
"Mr Bill!"
Great answer... but is it the slowed-down cliché Teachout is looking for?
I was thinking Mr Bill but I read on down the twitter thread and found Oprah's Covid restrictions that her friend Gayle couldn't meet in time for a party...for Gayle. Whatttt? Ooooh Noooo
Great answer... but is it the slowed-down cliché Teachout is looking for
If there’s a question the Mr. Bill version is/not the correct cliché perhaps there’s no cliché?
I did not even know a slow-motion “oh no” was a cliché. I am familiar with the “Big No” trope, where a character shouts a sustained “NOOOOO...” at some pivotal dramatic moment. But that is not usually filmed in slow motion, and never preceded by an “oh.”
It seems to me that a "slow-mo oh no" would be best suited to a lowbrow comedy, as a setup for some pratfall, watching some disaster slowly reach its inevitable consummation. I remember a shot like that in Boss Baby, if that helps. But I can't even recall another film with that weirdly specific thing happening.
I guess I would ask Mr. Teachout for one or two examples of this cliché, before I tried helping him to find their earliest instance, just to know what sort of thing he is talking about.
Great answer... but is it the slowed-down cliché Teachout is looking for?
Yes
And of course there's a Wikipedia page title, "Oh No". Nothing exactly answers this question but still interesting ...
"Oh No", by Frank Zappa from You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 1988 and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, 1970
Wikipedia
I don't know if the first, but that's George's response on Seinfeld to the Bubble Boy when he answers "Moors" and the Trivial Pursuit card has the misprinted answer "Moops".
Ooooh Noooo
Gotta be from a silent movie. Slowed down so the audience can clearly see what is being said, followed by the dialog card.
Some here.
Anchorman, AustinPowers, Zoolander as examples.
-Loren
Best use of “oooh noooo” came from the last season of episodes, where one character made sure to use it once in every interaction with another character as an accusation that she Yoko’d his writing team.
When the question is about the first use in film, and someone comes up with a line from an SNL skit, they're really not very good at paying attention.
But yeah, I figure it was some silent film.
I am thinking of a cartoon flick from the 50's, such as Mickey Mouse.
Here's my idea of Ohhh noooo.
Customer bulletin board posts:
"I recently started receiving this error for no reason, just within 15 seconds within starting the vehicle while being parked at my driveway or even being stopped at a red light. After getting this error message and the constant beeping, the emergency brake turns on and the window from behind driver's door lowers like 5 inches from top. At this point, I cannot lower window and I cannot turn off emergency brake. So in order to reset, I have to turn off the engine then open behind driver door(where the window is lowered) and when closing it back I turn on engine. This makes the error go away, everything goes back to normal. So ODD but so annoying too. This has happened 3 times in the last 2 weeks.
ohhhh nooooo - I hope [the error light I'm getting doesn't turn into that.]"
And I see that as Mr. Bill.
The end of "MacArthur Park".
I want to know where the meme of two ladies screaming at a cat eating at a table came from.
One of the replies at Teachout's thread came up with an example that immediately occurred to me, too- the one from "A Christmas Story" where Ralphie says "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh Fu.........." when he spills the bolts when his father is changing the tire.
The last play of the game in the Burt Reynolds version of "The Longest Yard" (1974) is accompanied by audio of a quintessential slow motion "nooooooooooooooooo!!!". Alas, it is a monumental achievement of mediocre filmmaking, poorly imitated by thousands of boys with Nerf footballs, doorways and furniture, but is not preceded by an "oh".
"When the question is about the first use in film, and someone comes up with a line from an SNL skit, they're really not very good at paying attention."
Sorry, Karen.
“Karen” and “Curmudgeon” are NOT synonymous!
In A Christmas Story they substituted "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck." Which was funny.
Hey Wilbur: Big belly-laugh for "MacArthur Park". Thank you.
Mr. Bill was more, "O Nooooo" wasn't it? Different beat? Or maybe my memory is bad.
Mediocritus used the expression in a skit he put on in 433 B.C. Even then, it was considered trite and panned by the critics as derivative.
Feris Bueller had the "Ooooooooh Yeaaaaaaah" when he was checking out Cameron's Dad's Ferarri.
Knowyourmeme.com would be a good place to look, but how many o's do you type into the search engine?
SNL's Mr. Bill saga made it famous, but it had to have been around before that.
"No! Oh God, no!" is attributed to "The Office," but that's not the same.
I would like it inserted into Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”
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