From Dog City
"Dun dun dun", along with the occasional variations (such as the four note "dun dun dun DUN"), is the verbalization of a musical sting to punctuate suspenseful moments, often in mystery or horror contexts. The three notes, sometimes rendered on an organ or through other dramatic orchestration, have become so cliched that characters will often speak/sing them, either as commentary or in place of actual music.
The use of such dramatic stings, though not always three notes, dated back to the 1900s (including the stage melodrama spoof Desperate Desmond) and became particularly common in radio (on such series as Suspense and The Mysterious Traveler, which often used actual organs). A common recorded version used as stock music is titled "Shock Horror" composed by Dick Walter; while five variations exist, A through E, A is the best known three note dramatic sting.
While not the same sting, distinctive dramatic musical punctuation with varying notes and more distinct relationships to their sources include the motifs from Jaws, Psycho, and the four notes from Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5" (particularly used in World War II propaganda as a musical denotation of "V for Victory.")
References[]
- Dog City uses the four beat version, which first catches Ace Yu off-guard when included in a written note. However, soon he and Colleen Barker engage in dun dun dun DUNning of their own.
- A Mopatop's Shop episode is titled "Dun Dun Dun," in which a storyteller wishes to purchase it as suspenseful punctuation.
- The text copy on the Sesame Street DVD M is for Mystery plays with the mystery connection, using a written "Dun dun dun!"
- Elmo utters a "dun, dun, dun" when introducing his "Dark Nine" cosplay at Numeric-Con in Sesame Street Episode 4504.
- Treelo utters a “dun, dun, dun” when he and Ojo, playing doctors, “diagnose” Bear with “Big Bear-Itis” in Bear in the Big Blue House Episode 105: Picture of Health.
- A "heist music sting" of the same nature is heard throughout The Cookie Thief. At one point, Chris vocalizes the sting himself, going "dun, dun dun," to avoid it being used. The sting ends up being played anyway, to his dismay.
- Mummy and Duddy in Muppets Haunted Mansion provide dramatic "Dun dun dun"s. However, the second time, Duddy gets it confused with "Shave and a Haircut," while Mummy tells him it's meant to be an "ominous sting."