A question.

[andpuff]

You know the drum emphasis after someone makes a joke... that ba dum Bump?

What's that called?

It's not a drum roll.  Or a drum beat.

Erg.

At the moment, I'm going with:  Charlie mimed a drum response.   But that's definitely a rough draft place holder.

Anyone?  Bueller?

ETA:  And we have a winner.  Except it wasn't actually a contest.  The word I

Comments

[pocketnaomi]

I've heard that occasionally too, though mostly on the west coast. Seems to be a Californianism which may have spread from there.

[andpuff]

Rim-shot! Thank you! Y'all just made the acknowledgement page!

[ext_209138]

Firefox is saying otherwise, but I don't believe it's hyphenated, actually.

[pocketnaomi]

It isn't the same thing as what's usually called a drumroll, but nevertheless, "drumroll" is the term I have heard consistently used for that response. If you want to go with what people call it, rather than what makes sense, I think drumroll is what people call it.

[mycroftca]

Drum roll is what you use to run up to an announcement or something similar. The proper term for a drum beat to accentuate the punchline of a joke is a rimshot.

[wood_dragon]

Rim shot?

[mycroftca]

Rimshot.

[peteralway]

Rimshot