History Main / SubliminalSeduction

** The single version of "Tropical Iceland" adds an extra verse where the first and last lines are reversed. Playing the song backwards reveals that the full contents of that verse are:

* Bloodrock was one of the first to poke fun at the concept; in "Gotta Find A Way" a backwards message has one of the band members saying "Anyone who is stupid enough to play this record backwards deserves what he is about to hear", followed by a quote from Literature/{{Jabberwocky}}.

* Approximately 10 seconds into the title screen music of the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} game ''Lotus Turbo Challenge 2'', someone says "you will not copy this game" too quiet to hear. [[https://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/Lotus_Turbo_Challenge_2 According to the composer,]] there was originally a message saying "You must kill mommy and daddy," but they "didn't have the balls to leave that in the game," though the same composer, Barry Leitch, later included it in text form in ''Harlequin''.

* The outtro of Information Society's cover of Music/GaryNuman's "Are Friends Electric?" has the backmasked message "Obey your parents. Do your homework. Winners don't do drugs," in a voice similar to the broken-down robot, with the mechanical noise in the background.

* Music/KlausSchulze's debut album ''Irrlicht'' features a heavily filtered recording of an orchestra rehearsal played in reverse.

* There's a longstanding rumor about an arcade game called ''{{VideoGame/Polybius}}'', which variously mention the high scores being monitored by TheMenInBlack, as well as players suffering night terrors and suicidal thoughts. The only existing [=ROMs=] and cabinets seem to be [[{{Defictionalization}} inspired by the legend]], though.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'': If you play the noises that the headcrab zombies make backwards, you can hear muffled voices screaming "Oh God!" and "Help me!".

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehDU-S2Jrfs "Fruity Oaty Bars"]] scene from ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', where [[MysteriousWaif River]] gets brainwashed by an ad on TV whose subliminal messages turn out to contain her TriggerPhrase, leading her to start a BarBrawl and single-handedly knock out over a dozen people before her brother Simon reads off another trigger phrase to put her to sleep.

* Apparently Music/TheBeatles did this for a while. Long story short, it spawned a conspiracy theory that says Paul died at some point and was replaced by a look-alike. Blame the drugs. It also allegedly resulted in Sharon Tate's death, but let's not get into that...

* In ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'' (Unrated Version), during the quick cuts of the action during the fight scene between the mercs and the prison wardens on Crematoria, you will see a quick shot of only the female merc's (clothed) breasts as she turns -- for no apparent reason. You cannot see her face or hands or weapons -- just breasts.

* ''Film/JosieAndThePussycats'' is the best film EVER!!! (jointhearmy)

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': Parodied in the episode "Undercover Carl". After Carl shows a recording of Phineas' iconic CatchPhrase, he plays it backwards in a completely random order to Mayor Monogram and somehow gets "Let's help Doofenshmirtz to destroy the Tri-State Area." Naturally, this gets Monogram worried, kicking the events of the chapter.

* The seemingly babbling sounds of the [=ChuChus=] in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' are [[http://www.zeldainformer.com/news/dykg-wind-wakers-chuchus-are-voiced-by-angry-japanese-men voices from two Japanese men arguing, but the speeches were sped up and in reverse.]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'', if you reverse [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g75HDyL2BGc Lorule Castle's music]], eventually you get [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3x3EaEA3nI&t=3m the classic Hyrule Castle theme]].

** [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] on the Conspire radio show from ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned]]''. A caller claims that the Redwood Cigarettes logo depicts a man masturbating & says she constantly catches her children smoking & masturbating. The host seems interested in steering her toward the possible correlation, but she claims that it was their father, not the logo, who they learned the behavior from.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' has you playing certain songs backwards to do different things (the Song of Time Reversed slows down the progression of time by half; and the Double Song of Time pushed half of a day forward in time). The {{Creepypasta}} ''WebVideo/BenDrowned'' features a reversed Song of Healing nicknamed the "Song of Unhealing".
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'': The seemingly babbling sounds of the [=ChuChus=] are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p33g_wkgGuw voices from two Japanese men arguing, but the speeches were sped up and in reverse.]]
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'''s main theme, the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23hJeaLotEw Ballad of the Goddess]]," is the series' RecurringRiff "Zelda's Lullaby" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKgljOPCbso in reverse]]. Similarly, the theme of the Big Bad's second phase [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl_6NHVKxyE in reverse sounds akin to Ganondorf's]]. [[spoiler:[[{{Foreshadowing}} There's a very good reason for both cases.]]]]

* ''VideoGame/WarioWare Touched!'' is famous for containing a (supposed) subliminal message. Selecting gothic character Ashley's theme in the jukebox and running the record faster than normal distorts the words, which supposedly forms phrases like "I have granted kids to hell" and "I work in a kitchen". Both are probably coincidence. A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ0mYWpnPFw backwards message video]] for Ashley's theme he saw that interpreted one part as "Ear! Shut up!"

* Creator/DeanKoontz's horror novel ''Night Chills'' has the villains testing their subliminal-message technology on a small isolated town.

* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIIBackwards Backwards]]", one long backmasked monologue actually turns into: "You are a stupid, square-headed bald git, aren't you? I'm pointing at you, I'm pointing at you! But I'm not actually addressing you -- I'm addressing the one prat in the country who's bothered to get hold of this recording, turn it round and actually work out the rubbish that I'm saying! What a poor, sad life he's got!" Today, the comment about the ''"one prat in the country"'' is definitely a relic of the episode's original air date (being from Series 3, this would be only a year or two into the 1990s). Back then, with home computers being woefully unequipped for any kind of audio manipulation and even something as currently rudimentary as an ''operating system'' only just starting to cross into the realm of widely affordable (with Windows 3.1), the act of recording the audio on the PC and flipping it around was near enough impossible for anyone short of an actual audio engineer.

* Parodied, of course, in the liner notes for Creator/GeorgeCarlin's 1990 album ''Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics'':

** Carlin also parodied the concept earlier, in his disc jockey parody bits, referring to (for example) "the new John Lennon single which, if played backwards at slow speed, screws up your needle."

-->Life of vengeance, a passive test, Until the grave I will rest, Engage the pressure until it crumbles,\\
The existence of the lifeless black souls, Onward to the sacred battlefield, Where justification and limits are revealed,\\
Hail to a father of divine, To the son the light will shine, From the angst of lost memories, A just revenge to cure misery.

* In ''Film/TheRing'', the corpses of Samara's victims are shown for a split second at two points in the movie.

[[folder:Anime]]

* TheDocumentary episode in ''Series/BabylonFive'' contains a commercial for the [=PsiCorps=]; the commercial has text frames reading, "TRUST THE CORPS" and "THE CORPS IS YOUR FRIEND", inserted for just long enough not to run afoul of the laws mentioned above.

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode 'The Sound of Drums' [[spoiler:features the Master persuading the population of the United Kingdom to vote for him as Prime Minister with a subliminal message carried over a mobile phone network, and then in 'Last of the Time Lords' uses it to dull any thoughts of resistance to his regime.]] Later, [[spoiler:her]] theme actually does contain backmasked lyrics. Played forward, they sound like nonsensical chanting. Played backward, they contain spoilers, such as a mention of hearing drums.

* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Backwards", one long backmasked monologue actually turns into: "You are a stupid, square-headed bald git, aren't you? I'm pointing at you, I'm pointing at you! But I'm not actually addressing you -- I'm addressing the one prat in the country who's bothered to get hold of this recording, turn it round and actually work out the rubbish that I'm saying! What a poor, sad life he's got!" Today, the comment about the ''"one prat in the country"'' is definitely a relic of the episode's original air date (being from Series 3, this would be only a year or two into the 1990s). Back then, with home computers being woefully unequipped for any kind of audio manipulation and even something as currently rudimentary as an ''operating system'' only just starting to cross into the realm of widely affordable (with Windows 3.1), the act of recording the audio on the PC and flipping it around was near enough impossible for anyone short of an actual audio engineer.

* Used in episodes 8-10 of ''LightNovel/DogAndScissors''. Kirihime keeps getting attacked by random people, though she easily defeats them all. [[spoiler:Hami reveals in episode 10 that she hid a subliminal message in her book to attack the long haired lady with scissors, hence why she kept getting targeted. She does note that it doesn't work on everyone, such as Sakura, or her father.]] Kirihime then uses this on Kazuhito for comedic effect. After reading her latest work, his front paws start moving on their own towards her, despite his attempt to resist it.

** And then there was Homer's ad for Marge's political party, which featured several really, really obvious appearances of "NO ON 232". Homer being...well, Homer, Marge's party needed a YES on 232, a NO on 2''4''2.

** The most significant backwards message is in the final episode where right before [[spoiler:being defeated, Bill says, "A-X-O-L-O-T-L, my time has come to burn! I invoke the ancient power that I may return!"]]