The Story Behind the Metal Pipe Falling Meme Sound

It is a long metal pipe hitting hard ground — a loud first clang, then a bouncing, ringing clatter as it settles — and it can interrupt any video like a dropped prop in a serious scene. This is the story of the Metal Pipe Falling meme sound: where the recording came from, how it escaped into streams and edits, and why editors still use it for a sudden, absurd crash.

Where “Metal Pipe Falling” comes from

The sound is also filed under a much less catchy name: “Destruction_Metal_Pole_L_Wave_2_0_0.wav.” Know Your Meme traces its first known use to YouTuber Jixaw, who used it on September 17, 2020, in a video made for his 6,000-followers-on-Twitter special; that video went on to pass 70,000 views. On November 1, 2022, Jixaw posted the sound on its own under that file name, so anyone could lift the clean clip. Underneath the meme, the recording is library material: the Sound Effects Wiki identifies the clang as a Sound Ideas library effect — a metal pole drop from the Serafine L2 library, mixed with a clang from a companion “4 takes” recording. That explains the rumour in YouTube comments that the sound comes from Battlefield 4, where the same library drop can be heard; Know Your Meme notes the claim that the meme file itself was ripped from the game is still unconfirmed. A similar clang had already aired on television: in “Great Power,” the April 1, 2012 premiere of Ultimate Spider-Man, Nick Fury hits a criminal with a flag pole.

How it became a sound

The clip spread because it was easy to steal and hard to ignore. On December 25, 2020, YouTuber YMCooper posted it as a standalone video, “metal pipe falling sound effect.mp4,” which passed 55,000 views. Through 2021 it moved into ironic edits on iFunny and YouTube, and on December 20, 2021, YouTuber 10la uploaded a one-hour loop of it — the surest sign a sound has become a fixture. In 2022 extra-loud versions circulated on Twitter, and Twitch streamer Pokelawls built it into the soundboard he used to narrate and troll his Grand Theft Auto V streams, with clips of fellow streamer xQc reacting carrying it to hundreds of thousands more viewers.

How editors use it

• The random interruption: a calm clip is cut short by the clang, as if something heavy just fell off-camera.
• The impact beat: a character falls or crashes, and the pipe supplies a crash far bigger than the picture deserves.
• The soundboard troll: in streams and voice chats, one clang dropped into a quiet moment — timing does the work, though volume helps.
• The loop gag: the sound repeats, sometimes for a full one-hour version, until the repetition itself becomes the joke.

Keep the full bounce in the edit: the first hit gets the flinch, but the joke lives in the clatter that follows, so do not trim the tail or bury it under music. It is a loud clip next to most dialogue, so pull its level down a few decibels first.

Use this sound in the app: open this sound in the Green Screen Memes app and drop it over your own photo or video.

Get the sound

Download the sound free on Meme Sound Effects: Metal Pipe Falling — Meme Sound Effect.

More like this: browse the Meme Soundboard or the Sound Buttons chart.