ROBLOX_OOF.mp3

The Origin of the “Oof”

The video begins by investigating the origin of the Roblox “oof” sound. Hbomberguy compares it to famous reused sound effects, such as the Wilhelm scream, then traces it to Messiah, a 2000 game in which a cherub named Bob possesses other characters. The sound appears throughout the game, not just in the ending clip that first drew attention online. Its file metadata points to 1999 and names sound designer Joey Kuras.

The mystery seems straightforward until the video turns to Tommy Tallarico, whose studio owned the Messiah sound effects. Tallarico wanted Roblox to pay to keep using the “oof,” while insisting he did not want it removed. The narrator jokes that the situation boils down to “Tommy wants money” and pokes fun at Tallarico’s reluctance to say how much he requested, even as he hinted it was roughly 100 times Roblox’s offer.

Roblox eventually arranged for the sound to be removed and later offered it through a marketplace, alongside a sound pack Tallarico made. The marketplace had still not appeared by the time of the video.

Tallarico, the Amico, and the “Oof”

The story then veers into Tallarico’s delayed Intellivision Amico console. The narrator mocks its pitch as a family-friendly system built around playing together in person, as well as repeated fundraising appeals that promised the “rocket ship” was nearly ready to launch. The console remained unreleased, while Tallarico argued with critics online and called them “gaming racists”—a phrase the video treats as an especially absurd highlight.

The central question becomes whether Tallarico actually made the “oof.” The narrator compares Tallarico’s changing descriptions of the sound’s creation with Kuras’s Messiah credits and his work on other games. Tallarico first credited Kuras, then described the sound as something “we” made, and later claimed he recorded it himself.

The video also examines disputes over who did sound work on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Metroid Prime. It points out that Tallarico sometimes claimed major involvement, while credits and other accounts suggested Kuras or other developers did much of the work. Hbomberguy acknowledges that he cannot prove exactly who made this particular sound, but argues that the surrounding evidence makes Tallarico’s account hard to trust.

Guinness World Records and Other Claims

That skepticism expands into a long comic audit of Tallarico’s Guinness World Records. His stated number of games worked on keeps growing, while the lists the narrator finds are much shorter and sometimes count the same game across multiple versions. Tallarico also describes records using more impressive-sounding titles than the plaques show.

The video’s most striking example concerns a claimed concert audience of hundreds of thousands. The narrator argues that the venue Tallarico names had far fewer seats, and that Guinness’s own account gives an in-person audience of just over 2,000. After emailing Guinness about the evidence for one record, the narrator discovers that it has disappeared from the organization’s search results, prompting a mock alarm that he and producer Kat may have sent it to the “Shadow Realm.”

The investigation also revisits Tallarico’s claim that his home appeared on MTV Cribs. The narrator concludes that the footage came from a different gaming program. The video covers Tallarico’s guilty plea in a customs case involving more than $100,000 brought into the United States, and raises concerns about Amico investment materials that continued to present former employees Cara Acker and J Allard as part of the team after they had left. At this point, the tone shifts from gleeful takedown to serious concern about whether investors received an accurate picture of the company.

Credits and Recognition

In the conclusion, the “oof” becomes a broader case study in how game creators’ work gets credited—or erased. Hbomberguy argues that people like Kuras, sound designers, composers, and early game developers can disappear from history while more prominent figures receive recognition. He connects this to the under-crediting of women in game music, including Yoko Shimomura and the Capcom sound team.

The final joke is that Tallarico’s long-running Cribs claim was wrong after all: “It wasn’t even Cribs!” A brief postscript finds a decades-old school bookmark tucked into the used Guinness book the narrator bought. He asks its owner to get in touch so he can return it.

Personalities Featured or Discussed

Hbomberguy (the narrator), Tommy Tallarico, Joey Kuras, Ben Burtt, Shigeru Miyamoto, Clark Wen, Victor Lucas, producer Kat, Cara Acker, J Allard, Yoko Shimomura, Michael Jackson, and Brad Buxer.