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Pull My Finger is a strange sound that is heard at the end of a videocassette. It is also called the Moaning Sound or the Garbling Sound.

It is a blare that is heard for 5 seconds over a black screen, then either static appears on-screen when the recording ends, and/or the tape stops itself. Sometimes, the sound plays twice. This sound only appeared on tapes duplicated at Rank Video Services America from 1986-1998. Sometimes, the White Screen of Death precedes this ending. On some tapes, a high pitched beep tone can be heard before this blare. In some rare cases, this blare can be heard at the start of the tape. This is a binary data test pattern, which tells the videotape duplication machine where to stop recording the tape.

This is mostly on tapes distributed by companies like:

  1. Paramount Home Video
  2. Pacific Arts Video
  3. RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video / Columbia/TriStar Home Video / SVS/Triumph
  4. Sony Wonder
  5. Avid Home Entertainment / Family Home Entertainment / International Video Entertainment / Live Home Video / Artisan Home Entertainment
  6. Warner Home Video (on select pressings of Batman and Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters)
  7. Vidmark Entertainment
  8. MCA Home Video / MCA/Universal Home Video
  9. CBS/Fox Video / Key Video / Playhouse Video / Fox Video / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
  10. Golden Book Video
  11. Random House Home Video
  12. Royal Sound Video (on numerous tapes under the Cartoon Greats line)
  13. ABC/Signal Video
  14. VideoVisa
  15. View-Master Video
  16. Touchstone Home Video (on select pressings of Who Framed Roger Rabbit)

How to Find a Tape with This Sound[]

  • To find the White Screen of Death with the normal 1000 hz tone, followed by the Moaning Sound, at the end of a videotape, make sure that there's a sticker underneath the tape label on the front of it and no barcodes on the tape guard at all. Also, make sure the tape has no printings.
  • If there’s no WSOD at the end at all, or if the WSOD is followed by static before the Moaning Sound, this particular blare can only be heard in the linear track (mono) and not on HiFi.
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