The Robotic Fanfare

September 28, 2006 6:11 PM

What's with that awful, seemingly random series of electronic notes played over the Fox logo at the end of the credits on the Simpsons?

At the end of each episode, it seems to be a coin-toss as to whether you'll hear the well-known Fox horn fanfare, but occasionally it sounds like, well, Kraftwerk getting drunk or something. Is that a new official corporate fanfare, or is something else happening?

Note that this isn't the DTMF "telephone dialing" sound that you occasionally hear to activate commercials on affiliates or cable networks.

posted by I EAT TAPAS to media & arts (5 comments total)

Are we talking about actual television broadcasts here? I assumed it was added by the pirates. I mean, I would assume that, if I watched illegally pirated Simpsons episodes.
posted by riotgrrl69 at 6:16 PM on September 28, 2006

Indeed, I'm talking about the genuine, over-the-air VHF broadcasts here. (Why bother with Bittorrent when you can leech for free off the city-wide wireless networks? ;)
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 7:03 PM on September 28, 2006

That wmm WA doo doo DA doo? It's some "cute" version of the 20th Century Fox fanfare.

No, it makes no sense to me.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 7:37 PM on September 28, 2006

I always assumed it had some origin in 'futurama'--accompanying that '30th Century Fox' logo.
posted by oats at 7:51 PM on September 28, 2006

I'm with oats, sounds like you're talking the 30th Century Fox version of the standard 20th Century Fox TV sting (which itself is a snippet of the long form movie sting). I didn't realize it was being used with the Simpsons, though.
posted by schoolgirl report at 7:21 AM on September 29, 2006