Hmmm, poit.com is a real site.

January 6, 2012 6:06 PM

Today marks the 12th anniversary of the passing of Don Martin, "MAD Magazine's Maddest Artist." Don's visual style was arguably exceeded by his "endless capacity for newly coined, onomatopoetic sound effects," leading to the inevitable question: Web 2.0 Site or Don Martin Sound Effect?

An exhaustive list of Don Martin sound effects from his MAD strips (not his own books, sadly*) are captured and cited at the Don Martin Dictionary (an old link can be found previously on the blue). On a related vein, why doesn't a Don Martin soundboard exist yet?


*My favorite Don Martin sound effect? It was from one of his books, maybe Don Martin Forges Ahead: FZZZZWONT! It's the sound of a blender being used by an airport bartender to mix drinks...and also the name of a passenger at the airport, Mr. Arthur J. Fizzwont.

posted by stannate (23 comments total)

Favorite Don face? Grimace with anger, perfect teeth.
posted by Mblue at 6:15 PM on January 6

Oh those floppy shoes.
posted by moonmilk at 6:20 PM on January 6 [3 favorites]

This is my inevitable sense of disappointment as I realize that the third link does not, in fact, link to a soundboard of Don Martin sounds.
posted by lekvar at 6:27 PM on January 6 [4 favorites]

SKLERCH! Man's Popping Eyes Stopped By Glasses MAD #174, April 1975, Page 31

Context: he was looking at boobies.
posted by ovvl at 6:35 PM on January 6

No whois match for the following sounds:

Dabwak.com
Klupada.com
Beeyoop.com
Boorft.com
Sizafitz.com
Wawkle.com
Gishklork.com

The rest are taken. Many of them for several years now.
posted by bz at 6:37 PM on January 6

No match for Sklerch.com, either.
posted by bz at 6:37 PM on January 6

I would totally use an app called BBFRPRAFPGHPP*

* (Doctor farting, MAD #110, Apr. '67, p. 10)
posted by briank at 6:50 PM on January 6

*thoint*

If I remember correctly, that's the sound of an arrow hitting either an apple, a target or a human head. Probably a head.
posted by fleetmouse at 6:57 PM on January 6

why doesn't a Don Martin soundboard exist yet?

Because someone would have to actually record the sounds.

Hmm...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:13 PM on January 6 [2 favorites]

Ah, I adored his cartoons. The way he 'transcribed' sound effects was like the closed-captioning for a Spike Jones record.
posted by twsf at 7:15 PM on January 6 [2 favorites]

*goes to register Florbst.com*
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:53 PM on January 6

Do I remember correctly that he had personalized Florida license plates that said SPLORP?

Because I so very, very much want that to be true.
posted by gimonca at 8:03 PM on January 6

(Indeed, Martin himself owned a vanity license plate which read "SHTOINK," patterned after one of his famed "onomatopoeic" sound effects.)

I can die happy now.
posted by gimonca at 8:06 PM on January 6 [4 favorites]

Coming up: National Gorilla Suit Day, January 31st.
[To the tune of: Nasi Goring (2:50), on Proctor & Bergman's TV or Not TV].
posted by 0rison at 9:09 PM on January 6 [1 favorite]

Timely, and eerily related
posted by timsteil at 10:08 PM on January 6

Ploobadoof!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:17 PM on January 6 [1 favorite]

FUCK!!!!!!!!

I posted that before I read the article through.

I fwded it to a couple of people saying..."Hey doesnt that look just like this guy we know?" as a laugh

As it turns out, IT IS the guy we know.

Fuckin epic.
posted by timsteil at 10:23 PM on January 6

"....Born in a log cabin he helped his father build"
An unforgettable line from the intro to one of his books
posted by Redhush at 10:31 PM on January 6 [2 favorites]

Eons ago my friends and I used Don Martin books as a kind of diagnostic tool: are you stoned? It was not possible to be stoned and read a Don Martin book and not laugh.
posted by mrhappy at 4:31 AM on January 7 [1 favorite]

Fring?
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:26 AM on January 7

I loved the way his character's fully shod toes would turn down over the edge of curbs.
posted by lordrunningclam at 7:07 AM on January 7 [3 favorites]

Eons ago my friends and I used Don Martin books as a kind of diagnostic tool: are you stoned? It was not possible to be stoned and read a Don Martin book and not laugh.

Man, your dealers could have been giving you the weakest shit imaginable...

"Oh man, I'm so stoned!! I mean, even Don Martin is making me laugh!" seems like a sentence that no human being would ever have uttered.
posted by yoink at 7:36 AM on January 7

The man was a genius. If this country had any class at all, Fester Bestertester would be on the $20 bill.
posted by thelonius at 11:21 AM on January 8 [1 favorite]