The Wilhelm Scream is one of several similar screams record by musician Sheb Wooley, known for the song "The Purple People Eater". It was first used in 1951 for Distant Drums, a Western in which a group of cowboys are wading through the Everglades and one of them is killed by an alligator, but received its name from the film Feather River when calvary private Wilhelm his struck by an arrow. Since then, it has been used in over 150 films.[1]
The Wilhelm Scream in heard in the following episodes of American Dad!:
- "Pilot (American Dad!)"
- After Agent Duper throws a hand-grenade in "Roger Codger".
- While the Handicapped Mafia beats a victim that won't sell them short buses at cost in "Helping Handis".
- At the very end of the episode in "Meter Made".
- During the "chase" scene with the Archangels in "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever", Stan shoots and hits two of them at once. As they fall, a Wilhelm scream is heard.
- When the British agent shoots one of his attackers in "Tearjerker".
- When one of the war re-enactors is "killed" when Stan and Steve first arrive at the Langley Falls Country Club in "In Country...Club".
- When the bus goes over the cliff in "100 A.D.".
- When one of the guards is punched by the shape-shifter in "Lost in Space".
- Michael makes the Scream when he is sucked out of the airplane in "A Boy Named Michael".
- During the storm in "Anchorfran" when an alligator eats a man, echoing the original use of this sound effect.
- When the tank runs over "Bravo team's" van in "Standard Deviation".
- When Santa's henchman is knocked into the mouth of Humbaba in "Ninety North, Zero West".
- When Mikeah rolls his opponent's boulder back over him in "Bazooka Steve".
- As Soso's Pizza launches into space in "The Fast and the Spurious".