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In Charlie Brown's world, whenever a kid talks to an adult (teacher, parent, etc.), the adult always emits a kind of nonsensical "mwa mwa mwa mwa" response. We'll never know how Charlie and his friends are able to understand, but we did solve one mystery -- how the show producers came up with the sound. The Peanuts Animation and Video Page, lovingly compiled by Scott McGuire, explains the bizarre sound was made with a trombone. According to Leonardo Moran of Bill Melendez Productions, "Composer John Scott Trotter directed his trombonist to 'enunciate' the
teacher's dialog as though it were a trombone riff. Trotter...would read the teacher's line, e.g., 'Linus, where's your homework?' then direct the trombonist to repeat Trotter's inflection through his instrument." User-edited site Wikipedia explains that this called for a "trombone with a plunger mute opening and closing on the bell to simulate adult 'voices.'" Snoopy.com concurs. Of course, in the real world, kids aren't the only ones who hear "mwa mwa mwa" from people in positions of authority. We hear it during boring meetings all the time.
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