"In at least one scene in any movie about the "jungle" — no matter where in the world — the soundtrack must feature the demented call ("who-who-who-ah-ah-ah-ah-HA-HA") of an Australian kookaburra."
— Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary
One of the Stock Sound Effects that pop up whenever films, cartoons or TV series depict a jungle environment with a Noisy Nature is the cackling laugh of the kookaburra, which sounds something like: "OOOOOO-HOOO-OOO-HOO-HOO-AHAHAHAHA"
and is often assumed to be a monkey by people unfamiliar with the bird. It doesn't help much that we typically hear the sound without actually seeing the animal making it, thus adding to the confusion. The laugh sounds great and really puts in the right mood for a mysterious adventure set in an impenetrable jungle.
The thing, though, is that this bird is actually only native to northern Australia and New Guinea and the islands between the two, yet in popular culture you can hear him in every tropical forest from Latin America over Africa to Asia. Still, the kookaburra laugh has become so prominent for scenes taking place in a jungle that creators will still add it to the soundtrack, because somehow it just doesn't sound the same without it.
It should be noted that Australia does have areas of tropical jungle in the northeast (though presumably you don't always hear a kookaburra the moment you enter them). Incidentally, the kookaburra's habitat is not limited to jungles either.
Can also be Played for Laughs, by depicting a regular forest or somebody's backyard at night.
Subtrope of Misplaced Wildlife (unless a story is set in Australia) and Music and Sound Effects. Compare Spooky Animal Sounds, for another trope where usually unseen animals are used to provide ambience-reinforcing noises.
Examples
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Comic Strips
- This Mark Trail strip lampshades the kookaburra's cry in the jungle.
Film — Animation
- Oddly averted in, of all places, FernGully: The Last Rainforest. The movie takes place in an Australian rainforest, where one would expect to find kookaburras, yet there are none to be heard.
- A kookaburra laugh is heard in the opening scene of The Jungle Book, which takes place in the jungles of India.
Film — Live-Action
- The sound of a kookaburra can be distinctly heard in the Peace Corps flashback of Airplane!! when Elaine and Ted meet the isolated jungle tribe, the Molombo.
- In Aquaman, a kookaburra sound is heard in the hidden jungles at the Earth's core.
- In Black Narcissus, the kookaburra can be heard in the bamboo forests of Himalayan foothills.
- In Cape Fear (1962), a kookaburra sound appears during the third act of the film, along the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, USA. Given that a kookaburra sound is usually assumed to be a monkey, note that there are neither kookaburras nor monkeys native to the American South.
- In Jess Franco’s Count Dracula (1970), a kookaburra can be heard in the Borgo Pass, aka the Tihuta Pass of Romania.
- The distinctive cry can be heard throughout Creature from the Black Lagoon which is set in the heart of the Brazilian Jungle.
- Francis (1950) is set in Burma. Not only are there sound effects of kookaburras, in one jungle scene a sulfur crested cockatoo is shown in the branches.
- Exaggerated in Freaked. We not only get the obligatory kookaburra call, but it's also followed up by Woody Woodpecker's signature laugh.
- Bethany is in South America at the beginning of Jumanji: The Next Level, and the distinct laugh is heard next to a waterfall.
- When Spencer first arrives in the jungle in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the distinctive cries of kookaburras can be distinctly heard. The fictional land of Jumanji features wildlife from all over the globe, so kookaburras might actually be native.
- In The Leech Woman, when the characters travel to the African jungle, a kookaburra is heard yet again.
- Looney Tunes: Back in Action. One scene takes place in the African jungle and yes, the kookaburra cackles again.
- One sonorized version of The Lost World has the sound of the kookaburra used in the establishing shot of the jungles that the explorers are making their way through to the plateau.
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park: Kookaburras can be heard on the tropical Isla Sorna, a fictional island that is supposed to be west of Costa Rica.
- In The Naked Gun, Frank Drebin hears a Kookaburra shouting when he gets lost in the hills of Los Angeles.
- In Objective, Burma! (1945), the kookaburra is heard early in the movie, in Burma (which is not Australia).
- Raiders of the Lost Ark has a kookaburra laughing in the Action Prologue when Indy is looking for treasure in the Amazon.
- In Revenge of the Creature the kookaburra is heard during the opening scenes, in the Amazon river basin of South America. Drawn attention to when the film appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000: "Hey, it's the 'ooh-ooh-ooh-oh-oh-ah-ah-ah-ah' creature."
- Kookaburra sounds can be heard in Romancing the Stone in the segments that are set in the Colombian jungle.
- Spy Hard parodied this. As a spy sneaks into a secret base in a Caribbean jungle, a bunch of jungle sounds can be heard, including the kookaburra call. Then the camera moves to the side a little, where we see that a guard is making all these sounds, while reading from a book: The Cries of Common Jungle Animals.
- In Swiss Family Robinson, a kookaburra can be heard on the deserted tropical island. In the original novel, the family is shipwrecked in the East Indies (which definitely isn’t kookaburra territory), but at least they were on their way to Australia.
- Tarzan. Definitely the Trope Codifier, as this franchise, set in the African jungle, used the kookaburra sound effect first in the 1930s.
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. When the protagonists enter the Mexican forest a kookaburra can be heard in the background, despite not living there at all.
- In West of Zanzibar (1954), kookaburras can be heard while the poachers are hunting for elephants. Zanzibar is in Tanzania, in eastern Africa, which you will note is not Australia.
- In The Wizard of Oz, a kookaburra can briefly be heard in the forest. Could be explained away by noting that Oz is a Dream Land.
Live-Action TV
- The old pirate serial The Buccaneers repeatedly uses kookaburra sound effects. It's set mostly in the Bahamas.
- One episode of McHale's Navy has McHale and his crew trying to capture a toucan bird who was keeping the whole base awake at night by screaming like a Kookaburra. They never manage to capture or kill it, but they did manage to drive it over from their island to right outside Captain Binghamton's office window.
- The Twilight Zone (1959): The episode "The Jungle" takes place in the African jungle, yet the kookaburra sound pops up.
Music
- Kate Bush: In "Big Stripey Lie", Bush briefly mimics the call of a kookaburra after the lines "Oh my God it's a jungle in here; you've got wild animals loose in here."
- "Jungle Fever" by Dick Dale (available as a bonus track on Surfers Choice) evokes this trope, as the band members imitate the sound of a kookaburra.
- "Tarzan" by Johnny "Guitar" Watson kicks off with a jungle atmosphere, including kookaburra sounds.
- "Jungle Love" by The Time starts with a kookaburra sound over the song.
Video Games
- In the Donkey Kong 64 level Jungle Japes, the kookaburra ambience is audible with its soundtrack.
- The ambient noise used for the Chilean jungle in the Hitman: Blood Money mission "A Vintage Year".
- Suddenly prominent in Faron Woods in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, of all things. They were not heard in the same places in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
- The ambient noise used throughout My Exotic Farm includes a kookaburra.
- Syberia has this in the aviary at Barrockstadt.
- The unreleased Mortal Kombat clone Tattoo Assassins features a level taking place in a jungle, which is infamous for having a loud kookaburra sample as part of its ambience. Whether it be due to the incompleteness of the game or the result of improper sound emulationnote , the sound gets played way more often than it probably should.
Western Animation
- In Duck Amuck, Daffy Duck of all birds makes this classic jungle Stock Sound Effect of a bird noise. Also counts as a Silly Animal Sound as Daffy is a duck.
- Goofy: One short had Goofy going tiger hunting in the Indian jungle and the first shots of the jungles start off with all kinds of jungle sounds, including the kookaburra.
- The moonbird that the little boys find in Moonbird makes a cry like a kookaburra.
- A rare instance of the sound being used appropriately, given the location, a kookaburra can be heard at the beginning of the opening theme to Taz-Mania.
