Awesome Voices

Like that guy from the Police Academy movies, beatboxer J-COP has the amazing ability to imitate just about any sound. But that’s not the best part of his videos – it’s his hype team – a group of friends and breakdancers who celebrate each achievement with more enthusiam than the guys in a How Ridiculous video after they hit a perfect target. More here.

There have been lots of complaints about Chris Pratt using his own voice in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. But what if another actor or character had gotten the part and stuck with their own voice? Impressionist Brock Baker imagines just that, with everyone from Nick Offerman to Patrick Warburton to Gilbert Gottfried.

Al Pacino has a very distinctive vocal and acting style, but it’s actually changed a bit over the years. In this interview from The Rich Eisen Show, actor Titus Welliver explains the differences through a series of spot-on vocal impressions of Pacino from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’90s.

It’s pretty easy to meow like a cat or bark like a dog, but Finnish entertainer and voice artist Rudi Rok is a verifiable show-off. Watch and listen as he impersonates the sounds of 40 different animals, including tricky ones like a screeching eagle, a chirping cricket, and a woodpecker pecking on a tree.

Star Wars fans know that Yoda has a particular way of speaking English – puts verbs at the end of sentences he does. Chewie’s Meme Town wondered what it might be like if Yoda spoke like the rest of us, and the resulting dialogue does not compute in our brains.

Folks from the US, UK, and Australia all speak the same language, but there are clear differences in conversational speech. Language of Earth asked three English speakers to demonstrate the variations in accents, pronunciation, and terminology for some common words. Also, we feel like we just watched The Electric Company.

We all know that inhaling helium can make your voice higher, and many of you know that sulfur hexafluoride can make it sound deeper. But Cody’s Lab is here to demonstrate what happens when you breathe in perfluorobutane, a non-toxic gas that’s almost twice as dense as the sulfur hexafluoride.

Lucy Griffiths‘ boyfriend Greg Jones is a professional voiceover artist, and sometimes she asks him to do rapid-fire vocal impressions. We’re especially impressed with his on-the-fly Star Wars voices, which include spot-on copies of franchise faves like Kylo Ren, Darth Vader, C-3PO, R2-D2, and even a convincing Jabba the Hutt.

There’s a certain kind of fake sincerity and strained emotion that comes through in most commercial voiceovers, and voice actor Shelby Young totally nailed it in this TikTok duet she did for the Commercial Voiceover Challenge, posted by Noble Son. Also, who comes up with the awful names for prescription drugs?

Having voiced cartoon characters including Ren and Stimpy, Fry, Zoidberg, Professor Farnsworth, Doug Funnie, and Bugs Bunny, Billy West is one of the most respected and prolific actors in animation. In this interview with Vanity Fair, he breaks down some of his characterizations and his sources of inspiration.

UK tech company Sonantic has developed an AI-driven text-to-speech system that can generate digital voices with much greater expression than others. In this clip, you’ll hear “Faith” a completely artificial voice character act out a story with tremendous emotion. Look out voice actors, the robots are coming for you!

Dee Bradley Baker has brought characters to life on everything from American Dad! to Samurai Jack. He also has the ability to imitate the sounds of all kinds of creatures, from birds to pigs to angry squirrels. Great Big Story sat down with Dee and asked him to improvise some animal noises. Those alien sounds were insane.

You might not know Pamela Adlon’s face, but she’s the talented actor behind Bobby on King of the Hill and Spinelli on Recess, among others. In the latest of Vanity Fair’s voice improv videos, they asked her to come up with eight new character voices on the spot. The scenarios she comes up with are just as imaginative as the voices.

Cartoon fans will recognize Phil LaMarr as the man behind the voices of Samurai Jack, Hermes Conrad on Futurama, and hundreds of other characters. Vanity Fair asked Phil to improvise 12 new character voices entirely based on their illustrations. If there’s one thing the clip proves is just how impressive his range is.

The 1979 Sugar Hill Gang track Rapper’s Delight put hip hop on the map for many of us. Now enjoy a cover of the seminal rap track, as performed by the trio of Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, courtesy of YouTuber Steven Rosenthal. It seems like Siri has the best sense of rhythm.

Best known as SpongeBob Squarepants, voice actor Tom Kenny has been featured in numerous cartoons since the 1990s. In this funny Vanity Fair clip, he was put on the spot and asked to improvise voices for five new characters. It’s amazing how he brings all of them to life.

(PG-13: Language) While working on the hilarious Pickle Rick episode of Rick and Morty, co-creator and voice actor Justin Roiland struggled to get through even the most mundane lines as the multiverse’s favorite dill- and alcohol-infused grandpa.

“After probably about 200 sketches, I decided on the free-range chicken… and that makes sense to me.” TheCrafsMan shows us how he designs then sculpts a figure for resin casting, while wooing us with the most soothing voice in an art lesson since the mighty Bob Ross.

(PG-13: Language) Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland presents a series of not so useful tips to help budding voice actors hone their craft and perform just like he does. No time to watch? Rescue some dogs, drink lots of Hennessey, and you’ll be a star in no time.

He might not be a household name, but you’ll quickly recognize actor Phil LaMarr as characters like Hermes on Futurama, and Jack in Samurai Jack. He also played a pivotal role in Pulp Fiction, and was a regular on MADtv. Great Big Story recently sat down to chat with Phil.

It’s time for today’s dose of politically incorrect humor. This Is Barry presents a rundown of the complete English alphabet, as interpreted by folks in India. We’re so singing this instead of the old Alphabet Song from now on.

On Nerdist series Talkin’ Toons, actor Billy West bounced between his Professor Farnsworth and Fry voices from Futurama while reading a scene with Doc Brown and Marty McFly from Back to the Future. We so want to see this movie now. Thumbnail image by John Dayluke.

The Royal Institution shares a 1985 lecture by professor David Pye as he shows off a vintage analog device which allowed a skilled player to synthesize sounds that approximated a human voice. He then showed off what was then state-of-the-art electronic speech synthesis.