Fred Armisen

Sound effects is a non-music audio category focused on recorded or designed sounds created to represent actions, environments, and phenomena. Rather than songs or compositions, it consists of single events (one-shots), short sequences, or loops used to support storytelling, worldbuilding, and user feedback in media. Its practice spans on-location recording, foley performance, and studio sound design using synthesis and processing. Typical subjects include footsteps, doors, vehicles, weather, animals, impacts, whooshes, and abstract textures. Sound effects function as building blocks for radio, film, television, games, theater, podcasts, immersive installations, and UI/UX audio.

Comedy (as a music genre) comprises songs and recorded pieces designed primarily to make listeners laugh through parody, satire, wordplay, character voices, and situational humor. It often borrows the musical language of whatever is popular at the time—pop, rock, hip hop, folk, musical theatre—then subverts expectations with humorous lyrics, exaggerated performance, and sonic gags. Rooted in vaudeville and music hall traditions, comedy music ranges from novelty songs and topical ditties to elaborate pastiches and narrative sketches. It values comedic timing as much as musical craft, using hooks, rhyme, and arrangement to set up and deliver punchlines while remaining musically engaging.