Voici certainement un des premiers mèmes de l’histoire, puisqu’il date d’avant Internet. Ce mème était au départ une private joke réservée aux bruiteurs de son qui travaillaient pour le cinéma. Ce mème s’appelle Wilhelm Scream ou cri de Wilhelm. Voici ce qu’en dit Wikipedia en français et en anglais :

Le cri Wilhelm, ou Wilhelm scream, est un effet sonore utilisé comme clin d’œil sonore dans de nombreux films. À l’origine, il s’agit d’un cri poussé par l’acteur Sheb Wooley en 1951 dans le film Les Aventures du capitaine Wyatt. Son utilisation s’est aujourd’hui répandue à d’autres média comme la télévision et les jeux vidéo. [ Wikipedia ]

The Wilhelm scream is a frequently-used film and television stock sound effect first used in

1951 for the film Distant Drums. The effect gained new popularity (its use often becoming an in-joke) after it was used in Star Wars and many other blockbuster films as well as television programs and video games. The scream is often used when someone is either falling to his death from great height or from an explosion.

The Wilhelm scream has become a well-known cinematic sound cliché, and is claimed to have been used in over 149 films and counting.

The sound is named for Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 western where the character is shot with an arrow. This was believed to be the second movie to use the sound effect and its first use from the Warner Brothers stock sound library. [Wikipedia]