History Main / AudienceMurmurs

* Music/RidersInTheSky's novelty album ''Riders in the Sky Go Commercial'' features the fake ads "Geezer Training Course" to become a background extra in Western films. Part of the class is learning to mumble "rhubarb" and "peas and carrots."

* 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.

* Beautifully parodied in a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se6lzRKXLRU ''French & Saunders'' homage to James Cameron's ''Titanic'']], whereby the GhostExtras embrace their background-filling role by loudly saying "Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb" to one another, and [[ClassicallyTrainedExtra Gary Waldhorn]] clearly enunciates "Fah fah fah fah fah..." in [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents Received]] [[UsefulNotes/HomeCounties Pronunciation]] during the dining scene.

* Crowds in ''SpongebobSquarepants'' literally say BlahBlahBlah.

* Neatly and hilariously parodied to the point of subversion on ''FatherTed'' -- 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!"

* 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 ''OnDeadlyGround'', where amidst the standard "rhubarb"ing, utter non sequitur comments come from nowhere supporting Forrest.

* Parodied in ''Straight-Jacket'', where the (TV-)courtroom audience reacts to various shocking revelations by turning to each other and audibly murmuring, "Peas and carrots! Peas and carrots!"

* This happens in Sai's BackStory in ''HikaruNoGo'' 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.

* 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 Creator/TomBaker, he's doing it very loudly and clearly.

* Happens during important Starcraft matches in VisualNovel/{{SC2VN}}, complete with hype and [[CombatCommentator combat commentary]].

* In one episode of ''WillAndGrace'', Karen is clearly saying "peas and carrots" during a crowd scene.
* ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' used "rhubarb," "sassafras" and "peas and carrots" sometimes for crowd scenes; they would usually lampshade what ''kind'' of murmuring was going on ("Rhubarb rhubarb journalist rhubarb", "Rhubarb soldier rhubarb defending countries blah blah blah...").

* When a riot breaks out in ''LegendOfGalacticHeroes'', the crowd can clearly be heard shouting "Riot!" [[GratuitousEnglish in English]].

See StudioAudience. Compare SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud.

* Issue #34 of Marvel's "What If?" series (first series) was a series of one-page spoofs of the Marvel Universe. One such example was "What if anyone who had been ad Avenger had remained an Avenger?" So naturally, just about every Marvel hero shows up upon the call "Avengers Assemble!", with the multi-stemmed word balloon "Watermelon cantaloupe watermelon cantaloupe watermelon cantaloupe" employed to simulate crowd noise.

* Beautifully parodied in a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se6lzRKXLRU ''French & Saunders'' homage to James Cameron's ''Titanic'']], whereby the GhostExtras embrace their background-filling role by loudly saying "Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb" to one another, and [[ClassicallyTrainedExtra Gary Waldhorn]] clearly enunciates "Fah fah fah fah fah..." in [[BritishAccents Received]] [[HomeCounties Pronunciation]] during the dining scene.

* ''WebAnimation/TurnaboutStorm'': The [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic pony]] courtroom audience murmurs just as ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney's'' human one would do; except when they are laughing their lungs out at [[EmbarrassingOldPhoto embarrassing pictures]].

* '''''HOLD IT!''''' (Desk Slam!) Happens at every twist in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney''.

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', the crowd at [[SilentProtagonist Crono's]] trial murmur cheers and boos as each juror's verdict is announced.

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.

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* Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', where a background character is both the ''only one'' speaking on screen and clearly heard saying "Rhubarb, rhubarb, walla walla!".

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* Crowds in ''{{Asterix}}'' generally mutter "rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb".

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in Film/BlazingSaddles about as hard as possible:

* In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel ''Discworld/{{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..."

* 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 one episode of ''WillAndGrace'', Karen is clearly saying "Peas and Carrots" during a crowd scene.

* Spoof-Victorian comedy ''TheBrothersFaversham'' 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".

* '''''[[color:red:HOLD IT!]]''''' (Desk Slam!) Happens at every twist in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney''.

* Happens in the original [[WebVideo/DeathNoteAbridgedTioHAndDargonakis Death Note Abridged]] by [=TioH=] and Dargonakis.

** When it's played straight, though, (or as straight as South Park lets something be played straight), crowds will say "peas and carrots". See ''Two Days Before ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' for an example of this)

* Beautifully parodied in a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se6lzRKXLRU ''French & Saunders'' homage to James Cameron's ''Titanic'']], whereby the GhostExtras embrace their background-filling role by loudly saying "Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb" to one another, and [[ClassicallyTrainedExtra Gary Waldhorn]] clearly annunciates "Fah fah fah fah fah..." in [[BritishAccents Received]] [[HomeCounties Pronunciation]] during the dining scene.

* 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 TomBaker, he's doing it very loudly and clearly.

* ''FanFic/TurnaboutStorm'': The [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic pony]] courtroom audience murmurs just as ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney's'' human one would do; except when they are laughing their lungs out at [[EmbarrassingOldPhoto embarrassing pictures]].

* ''FanFic/TurnaboutStorm'': The pony courtroom audience murmurs just as the human one would do, except when they are laughing at [[EmbarrassingOldPhoto embarrassing pictures]].