Doomdah: The Signature Sign-Off

The Question is: What is a Doomdah?
None but Waldorf & Statler would dare to slag the Doomdah. Or is it 'Doomdap'? Is there a difference? Does it even mean anything?

This bizarre made-up word, sometimes (incorrectly) spelt Dum-Dah by passing YouTube commenters, is a bit of a mystery. It might be onomatopoeia or infant babble. Was it the name of one of FAH's childhood pets? It'd be an excellent name to give an Irish setter, that's for sure! "Doomdah, heel!" Whatever its meaning and origins, the Doomdah is 'uniquely FAH' and should be protected at all costs.

The main research effort for this article was, unsurprisingly, watching every single one of 214 outros to date (27/07/2020). The cut-off is the premiere of 'Thrift Shop Mannequins', which had a Doomdah of epic proportions and directly prompted the creation of this piece of writing. I may update this page after a while, should any milestone Doomdahs turn up.

There are very few quotes to be found from the lads about their signature sign-off line in interviews. We will try and trace these sources to the exact article or video they appear in, but the following summary is mostly based on FAHn memory for now. We've also gathered some information from replies on YouTube comments, but it's always a safe bet to take these with a pinch of salt.

From this research, we can be certain that the Doomdah story starts much earlier than FAH outros.

Arms & the Mouth Trumpet
The 'Doomdah song' was apparently something Arms came up with as a young lad. Perhaps not containing a Doomdah - and definitely never written down that way - he had a habit of scatting jazzy nonsense tunes around the house. He also developed and perfected his mouth trumpet skills very early on in life, according to the replies he left in the comment section of this gem of a vine from 2016:

A selection of comments and replies: Oh Arms... fair play to him, he cannot let a pun go to waste.
 * Masterpiece; Bring the curtains on tour! - Reply: Great idea! They could open the second half
 * Crazy accurate note hitting. Good much practice that take? - Reply: thanks, i dunno, ive been doing that trumpet thing for years!
 * ...aaaaaaaaand how many takes did you need to get this perfect? - Reply: at least 476
 * This made me subscribe. Thank you so much for making this, this is beautiful. - Reply: bahaha, im delighted. Thought of it one morning when i was opening them.
 * A Masterpiece - Reply: I'll be doing 'Curtains concerto in E minor' next
 * You pulled that together really well - Reply: I had a lot of inspiration to draw on

Somehow, this vine got picked up for a compilation video uploaded a couple of days later called Sounds like Music (21/01/2016). It received a whopping 17 million views, as opposed to the original vid's 160 K. Nevertheless, Arms's mouth trumpet solos were already famous among FAHns before the first Doomdah was ever put on screen. He still 'plays' the mouth trumpet during every live show warm-up whilst navigating his way through the audience towards the stage (more on that later). It's a hell of a crowd-pleaser and he knows it all too well!

YouTube sketches in which the outros are livened up by particularly elaborate improvised “Doomdah-ing” always receive a torrent of positive comments. It's very telling how the comments praising the singing, scatting or trumpeting''' tend to override any praise for the jokes in the sketch. '''

One viewer thought the outro in Movie Voice Syndrome was the best trumpet mouth they'd ever seen, to which Arms replied:

"'Thank YOU! finally getting something from annoying people for over a decade'"

That (loosely) dates his mouth trumpet back to the very early 2000s when Arms was still a teenager. Other comments about the Doomdah scatting in that same outro include:

Fans also had even more praise for the outro following How To Speak Dublin: A mouth trumpet tutorial by Arms on Patreon would be a blast, to say the least! He's quite keen on letting people know he's the one and only trumpetting FAH, replying to a viewer who admitted they "always thought that it was either Foil or Hog doing the trumpet part."
 * I applauded at the end. Pure brilliance.
 * Sharing a long car journey with these three could either be an absolute hoot or torture! Still love them!
 * Improv at the end was nearly better than the sketch! ... Nearly! - reply: Haha! Oh god no, don't say that!!
 * Scrap the comedy writing and just giggle along to a mouth clarinet. We love that shit. - reply: It has been taken under consideration
 * help! my friend swallowed a trumpet!
 * damn guys... that improv was on fire o_O
 * Does anybody else notice their remarkable musical talents? So subtle but so harmonious. Should consider dropping an album sometime. It'll be FAH-r out.
 * End of video is lowkey kinda like R U Mine from Artic Monkeys xD
 * I think Arms was possessed by the ghost of Loius Armstrong there for a second.
 * can you make a vid on the trumpet sound tho? i would love to learn it

"'yeah screw those guys! Arms'"

Yes, he signs his replies when pointing out his talents are going unrecognised. Of course he does.

More on those incredible freestyle outro jam sessions (or as Arms called them: 'FAH-T sounds') further down the page, but let's crack on with the subject of this article: the Doomdah!

The Live Show Theme Tune
The live show Doomdah, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2016, was named long after the Doomdah was already commonly used in FAH videos. The registration process for EdFringe, including show title submissions, starts early in the year, which neatly fits the chronology of the Doomdah chant's on-camera premiere late January 2016.

SkiddlyWup which premiered the year before (2015) was a reference to the jingle of course, which is older than the Doomdah Chant as we've discussed. Arms commented on the reasoning behind calling their 2015 show SkiddlyWup in a radio interview (which you can also find on the radio interview page).

"We wanted a name that would sound funny when the people from the venue had to announce it. So they'd go 'everyone ready for the SkiddellyWhop starting in 5 mins' (...) The more elderly the funnier they are: 'Excuse me is this Skid-el-y-wuup?'"

Incidentally, for their four most recent shows FAH have switched to pig references in their show titles, honouring their logo: Oink (an English language onomatopoeia for pig noises), Craicling (a variation on pork cracklings referring to the well-known Irish slang for 'having fun'), Swines and the sadly cancelled (or postponed?) Hogwash (meaning 'nonsense', the 'hog' part obviously referring to the large domestic pig).

The Doomdap jam warm-up is as old as the Vicar Street birthday show in April 2014 (as featured on their first DVD), if not older. They left it to the second half of that show because it didn't fit with their opening sketch Mass, which also involved 'mass audience participation' (pun intended of course). But as a rule, the song goes at the front, right after the 'messing-with-the-audience bit'. Foil, the Master of Ceremonies at every live gig, holds the fort on stage and calls an end to the coat stealing and pint drinking or whatever else Hog and Arms are getting up to while 'set to roaming'. He makes some formal introductions and then asks the audience to join in with the theme tune, also called the DoomDap Song in the subtitles for SkiddlyWup.

When you switch on the subtitles on the DVDs or streams, you can read along with the 'lyrics'. Remember of course that the subtitles were written in 2020, long after the DVDs came out, so the subtitler (Hog) worked by ear just like us FAHns would. The SkiddlyWup tune wasn't subtitled and let's be fair: writing down scatting is a ridiculous thing to do anyway. 

In Craicling, Foil calls the song a  'repetitive number ' that's simple to sing, which is of course perfectly true. The tune is in common time and the key in a medium-low register suited to all vocal ranges. For example, in Craicling Foil chooses the B minor key for the theme tune, starting on an anacrusis (C). After a few bars, Hog comes in with a simple harmony, starting on the octave above and working his way down to the ground note in triads.

Being unsuspectedly FAH-pressured into a singsong can be quite daunting for any audience member, but if everyone in the room joins in, this song gets very infectious very quickly. Importantly, it's a clever way to get the vocal cords warmed up and to get rid of any hesitation the audience might have to laugh out loud to support the artists on stage. ''Foil, the warm-up comedian! ''

After a couple of bars from the audience, Foil calls for Arms to give them a 'little bit of trumpet' (mouth trumpet). Arms makes up a different riff at every show while miming playing a brass instrument (usually a trombone) and often standing on an empty (let's hope!) chair or stool. He went for a syncopated beat that looks utterly impossible to decipher on the page (and it took a while to figure out too!). In freestyle jazz, a solo like that wouldn't be written down at all of course - it is improvised on the spot after all! Here's what it might look like, written down ( scroll vertically down the page, and then horizontally to see page 2!):



Doomdah Evolution
Over the years, FAHns have grown accustomed to a FAHntastic  'outro Doomdah tradition'. As one viewer put it:

"'Who else is always watching to the end for the Doomdah?'"

Well quite! In fact, not watching to the end is considered a cardinal sin in the FAHn community. We only repeat what FAH (the great educators) themselves have taught us: always stay for the credits!

All of these playful and luxurious  'variations on a Doomdah' were of course particularly worth watching all the way to the end for and were taken from 5-year-old outros no less! As any FAH playlist binger knows, not all outros in FAHistory are made of the same stuff and the Doomdah itself had very humble beginnings indeed.

Doomdah-less Beginnings
In the very, very early days (2012-2013), FAH underscored their logo bearing end cards with various music tracks, most commonly those they had already used in that sketch. For example, there's a church organ tune in Pope Job Interview, and some funky electronic beats in Business Squash. Occasionally they just threw on a track with an action movie feel to it, for the craic I suppose. After Baby Head Clamp you're hearing the classic rock track Glory Days by Chaos and in Business Dudes 1 (Heroin) it's Council of War by Jean Yves Rigo. It’s my educated guess that they just Googled something like "Suspense Music" after a long day editing, but who knows.

In sketches such as Excuses and Hashtag, they didn't use any outro music at all! These sketches don't simply end on silences though, because in each case the logo is laid over the last fragments of dialogue, adding to the awkwardness portrayed in each sketch. For instance, Dennis waking up from a fevered dream only to be confronted with his battleaxe wife in his face, and the Twitter Twats adding an extra layer to the hashtag nonsense by wondering about a retweet. Having no 'distracting' or unfitting tunes at the end of a sketch is without a doubt an artistic decision!

The Doomdap Jingle
Not long into their YouTube career, the boys made a studio-recorded version of their signature jingle. Click the thumbnail to listen to the jingle in full (with a fade-out, because unlike outros this tune could go on forever!). If you listen to it closely, you can't actually hear many 'Doomdahs' as such. There are many variations though, as the subtitles clearly show.

A full live version of their jingle, including a unique mouth trumpet variation by Arms, is performed by the lads while their interviewer (Alison Spittle) introduces them to the audience in this interview on Soundcloud (airdate 03/09/2016). Click the picture on the right to listen to the excerpt.

The first time this jingle was used to underscore the end frames was in the sketch Dole Moments: Dentist (released on 27/05/2013) and subsequently in Haircut, Cinema Food, The Vet, Business Dudes 2 (Newspapers) ... and many other sketches until mid-2015.

The Doomdap Sound Bite
A sound bite is a short extract from a recording (a song or speech) and mostly used as a creative 'punctuation mark' for logos or end cards. The sounds or music underscoring production company logos in the cinema (e.g. VFX) are good examples. It's a well-known trope from the world of advertising that is slightly spoofed when used for sketch comedy, although it does definitely help to identify a brand. That's exactly what Foil Arms and Hog intended to do: '''no one hears that DOOMDAP! recording and forgets about it. '''Staying with the interpunction analogy: it's not an ellipsis, it's an exclamation mark!

Does that remind you of anything similar that happens during the Live Shows? That other signature feature of Foil Arms and Hog sketches? Why of course! To quote a Fringe review (Jay Richardson reviewing Swines at the Edinburgh Fringe for Chortle.co.uk, 2019):

"'It is perhaps disappointing that after more than a decade, the trio are still deploying the crashed cymbal get-out as an arbitrary, emergency pull to end their skits.'" Oh okay, so Mr Richardson probably wouldn't care for the Doomdah either (we simply must ask him sometime). Rather than a get-out, we prefer to call it a sign-off. It's crystal clear across language and cultural barriers, just like a confetti cannon. It's quirky yet familiar, traditional yet uniquely FAH, and we wouldn't have a live show without it!

We FAHns link the jingle to the sound bite automatically, having heard both of them so often while bingeing playlists. But they are not the same creature! The exact point where the jingle had to make way for the DOOMDAP! could be located as the outro of the crowd favourite - and the YouTube version of a much older Radio Show sketch - A Very Irish Film (9/04/2015). The grey end card with the old logo pops up and the jingle starts, but it doesn't go any further than:

"'Ehhhhh Doomdap...'"

...before being cut off. Doesn't that sound familiar now? I thought so!

The very next sketch, Life Hacks (17/04/2015), had the end card with the recorded DOOMDAP soundbite in place. Without chords, it's just a single voice C sharp for both syllables, in a spondee metre (stressed-stressed) and ending on a very pronounced plosive (P). The hard P-ending, as opposed to the 'soft' drawn-out AH-ending, is occasionally still used in the improvised harmonic versions, usually by Foil if not all three (e.g. in the outro of Start-Ups Vol. 1). It does make a funny sound along with their facial expressions, but most importantly, it fits the purpose of a sound bite in general: it's essentially punctuation for your ears, an audible full stop!

When and how they recorded this soundbite is unknown to us. If any FAH member should like to leave a comment on its 'making of' (if they even remember), we'd be thrilled! Nevertheless, neither the jingle nor the sound bite signals the endpoint for this article.

On occasion, even after the Doomdap recording was launched, they would return to the jingle when they needed the extra seconds, for example in the outro of Problems with the UK (23/04/2015) where they used subtitles over the end card to plug tickets. This outro is particularly interesting for another reason: after a fluent delivery of their scripted 'please subscribe to the channel' line, Arms seems to reflect on the point of a Doomdah even before they started using it:

"'We always like to leave really awkward pauses at the end of our videos.'"

The awkward pauses would soon be abandoned in favour of something of a thrill ride for many FAHns. A change, I'm sure you'll agree, for the better!

Singsongs & Jam Sessions
After a hilarious behind-the-scenes treat in A Very Irish Film(9/04/2015), the outro shows Hog still dressed as the blonde character Mary. Doing voices and staying in character is something we're very used to now, but what's interesting about this pre-Doomdah outro is Hog and Arms's singsonging on another word:

"'Subscriiiiibe!'"

For Mobile Hospital (16/07/2015) all three of them even rehearsed a chant on the words 'subscribe' and 'live', as they executed this in perfect unison while pulling faces. Another rehearsed outro is the very short one at the end of Modern Small Talk (19/03/2015), where they parody a scene from their own sketch by doing very exaggerated lip syncing to each others' voices.

Some pre-Doomdah era outros had attempts at music or noise making as their way of concluding the video. The outro to the RTE Teresa Mannion sketch (10/12/2015) saw the lads cheering on a live audience. But it's the amazing jam sessions in How to Speak Dublin and Movie Voice Syndrome (also both from 2015, see also the mouth trumpet chapter above) that stand out as two of the most memorable musical variations on the Doomdap jingle to date. With the link between the jingle, the sound bite and the chant firmly in place, it seems legitimate to identify these freestyle jingle jams as the 'Eh Doomdah' chant forerunners as well.

All of these examples are from outros before the Doomdah was installed as the signature sign-off (in 2016, see below). The connection between singsonging keywords and the Doomdah chant certainly seems straightforward, even though none of the lads has expressed it as such. Should a Q&A on Patreon bring us more insight into the origins of the Doomdah, we'll adjust and add to this article accordingly (note: there are indeed plans for this, as mentioned by the lads themselves in their Q&A session on 6 August 2020).

Eh... Doomdah!
In the first outro where the lads singsonged on the Doomdah instead of their chosen keywords and phrases, they didn't even have their faces on screen! Referencing the punchline of the sketch Skype Interview Fail (28/01/2016), they aimed the shot at waist level and did a mini-choreography: a little knee-bend on the 'doom', in their boxers. They had clearly rehearsed this bit and there was no signalling from Arms with an 'Ehhh' yet either. It's easy to just give each other a clear nod when your head isn't on camera.

Interestingly, there is a 3-month gap between the underwear themed Doomdah and the next one, which happened in Hospital Chef (21/04/2016). The lads' faces were in shot as per usual, so we can clearly see what's going on. You'll also have noticed they switched from a regular full-screen outro to an inserted frame on top of the end card, which at the time had clickable buttons (YouTube has been updated quite a few times since then). There is no cut before the Doomdah like in many later sketches, so the lads had planned to 'do a Doomdah' after each had said their bit. Arms takes an audible breath, goes 'Ehhh', and then the others join in for a brief, single voice Doomdah. Plain and simple: the basic Doomdah standard was set.

What did they end on for the five available outros in between? Some had epilogues (e.g. Jim Everyman's campaign song in Election Time in Ireland), partly rehearsed plugs in character (Matt Warehouse and Not a Scam. Unbelievable!), and just them messing and being silly: doing a band pose at the end of Hog's vine style solo sketch Ryanair Website Fail is definitely a FAHn favourite.

After Hospital Chef, the Doomdahs became a regular feature straight away with only very few exceptions. The following week was one of those exceptions though, as all three lads stayed in character for the outro of New Irish Government and after their bilingual English - Gaeilge (Irish) plug performed with politicians' mannerisms, Arms added:

"'Agus Doomdap.'" ('and Doomdap'), before the video cut out.

The first harmonised Doomdah was performed in The Driving Instructor 2 outro. Short and sweet, it was edited with a soft crossfade into the outtakes of the sketch. There weren't many harmonised renditions at the time and most Doomdahs were done in the simplest variation possible, which makes them sound very much like the Doomdap from the end cards. There was however a beautiful and special harmony done on the Doomdah at the end of The World is Fked, accompanied by a bagpipe track. Again, there's no cut before the Doomdah, so either Arms remembered the pitch for the soundtrack he'd already selected, or he had to find one later in the editing room to match their key. Tricky! Yet either way, it shows the lads were, by then putting some thought and effort into their performance of the Doomdah, having decided it was there to stay.

FAHns have gotten used to Arms being the resident tenor in the FAH trio, but the first few rounds of harmonised Doomdahs curiously had Hog hogging the high notes (see for example Money Talks: The Business Nobs and How to Pretend you are Listening ). In A Really Bad Lease! (no longer available) he hilariously messes it up and ends up doing the high note - deliberately badly - by himself while the other two giggle. Still, harmonies were rare and most Doomdahs were swift and plain.

There is perhaps a milestone in Doomdah harmonies to be found in the outros in which they started plugging their gigs at the Wexford Opera House: How to Sneak a Peek at Someone and St Patrick's Day Isn't Irish. Having made a habit out of tailoring their Doomdah to suit the plug content since the very start of Doomdahs in outros, it comes as no surprise that the lads performed this one in a mock-operatic style. The perfect occasion, of course, to do some scales and show off their ranges, with a delicious Doomdah as a result! After these two outros, Doomdahs became markedly more elaborate and the lads even started to compete with each other to see who could Doomdah the longest. Arms beat Foil in their duet outro at the end of Insults, while Hog shows off his freakishly large lung capacity in Talking to Inanimate Objects.

At last, we can say that a template for the harmonised Doomdah was in place by March 2016. After rattling on about tour dates, plugging their merch, nudging viewers to subscribe or buy merch, and generally messing around in and out of character (read all about outro content here: coming soon), one of the lads signals the end with an elongated 'Ehhhh...', usually while pulling a silly face. Frequently, there's a cut just before the 'Eh' so we can't be sure how exactly the switch from outro babble to Doomdah chant happened on set. There are the occasional outros without that cut and these give us a lovely insight into how well the lads play off of each other and how acutely they are attuned to what the others are about to do. That's improv training for ya!

The sheer joy the lads take in singing in combination with the endless possibilities for messing around will prove to be the magic formula for the Doomdahs staying power.

Doomdah Harmonies
The one who signals the "Ehh..." obviously gets to decide the key in which the Doomdah is performed. The boys have different vocal ranges and singing styles, but Arms and Hog are both definitely very comfortable in a higher range. As they frequently stay in character for the Doomdah, including their female characters for which they might use their head voices, this chord-deciding note might land anywhere between an F4 (e.g. Killing a Houseplant) and a D5 (e.g. Engagement Nightmare, with Arms in character as Mary McCormack).

The other two lads then join in for a unison 'Doomdah', modulating down to a perfect fifth. An 'Eh' on a G will have a 'Doomdah' on the C below, the ground note. The charm of the chant is in the harmony, which is created using an oblique motion, i.e. Foil staying on the ground note while the others harmonise. The harmony is usually a major triad, essentially the most 'clean' and pleasing sounding harmonies in Western music. Either Hog or Arms can take the middle note (a major third), but it's Arms who's known for his elaborate and perfectly pitched grace notes at the top of the chord. While they started out keeping to the classic triad, they quickly made a habit out of extending the chord to the octave or higher.

Both Hog and Arms take delight in displaying their - very impressive - vocal ranges. Foil is the bass of the group and has a gorgeous booming voice that carries the chosen chord and all its improvised frills all the way to the end... and beyond! He might have built a reputation for himself, but it's not just Arms who has pipes in this sketch boyband! Play the compilation added at the bottom of this chapter to enjoy the full musical scale of Doomdahs in their most melodic renditions to date!

Messing with the Doomdah
For most outros (but not all!) the Doomdah is completely improvised, which can lead to hilariously botched results. It's often Hog who misses the cue due to inattention, which is of course totally on-brand. In How to Stop Worrying, he merely tried a harmony that didn't quite work. Hog is also the one most likely to sing his part in a weird voice (e.g. the 'Doomdah for Glasgow' in Don't Recycle, It's Garbage). Foil's favourite schtick is to do a tongue wiggle on his bass note: watch his best work in The Pc Pc Shop, Parents on First Day Back to School, Brexit Weather Forecast and How to Fix the Health Service.

Of course, all three of them are messers and pulling silly faces on the long notes is definitely part of the Doomdah brand. Watch them do 'creatures' at the end of the Doomdah in How to Speak Dublin (Live) and marvel at their 'frozen faced' Doomdahs in When the Wind Changed. One of my personal favourites is the one where the lads started an improvised fake fight - Foil and Arms against Hog - in the outro of Nightclub Secrets Revealed. Hog remains 'beaten' on the floor in the background for his Doomdah and promptly gets another pounding by Foil.

Melodically, they've experienced a bit of trouble finding the right note at times, but not very often. It's endearing how they will sometimes leave their meta-discussion about their Doomdahs in the final cut, asking each other:"'Was that off?'"See! They care about their Doomdahs as much as their FAHns do! Watch Morning Bathroom Rush, Parents When you're Sick (Foil & Hog) and Competitive Office Lunches (Foil & Arms) for the best examples. It's no coincidence that two of these only feature two-thirds of FAH, for '''it takes three to Doomdah! '''

Although, it just so happens that the lads recorded their CUTEST EVER Doomdah to date - 4 years ago! - with a little help from a pair of enthusiastic extras!

Doomdah Morphs
Based on their strategy to singsong on a word in the very early days of Doomdah history (see above), one of the lads (mostly Arms) will occasionally let his Doomdah morph into a different word. When just one of them does it and the others are seen giggling before the video cuts out, you can be sure this Doomdah morph was completely improvised. However, when all three lads chant a different word in perfect unison, you'll know it's planned ahead, which makes these Doomdah renditions extra special. Just think about there being a point about how to do the Doomdah on FAH's weekly meeting agenda!

Watch the compilation and check for yourself: can you tell which ones of these Doomdah morphs were planned?

Doomd-and Cut!
There's always a price to pay, isn't there. A mere two years after the on-screen improvised Doomdah was installed a permanent feature in outros, the novelty wore off... in the opinion of the editor at least. Doomdah after Doomdah got cut short, its remains left on the cutting room floor. Arms is the culprit here, having taken on the role of FAH's editor-in-chief. As FAHns we understand that a Doomdah can't last forever (although a Spotify Album would be AWESOME!) but c'mon Arms, throw us a bone!

You can find many, many examples in sketches uploaded in 2018 and 2019, at the height of what must have been Arms's Doomdah fatigue. We don't recommend watching all of these half-Doomdahs in a row, or if you do, make sure to end your binge on a Doomdah at the opposite end of the spectrum: the delightful deluxe Doomdah renditions discussed in the following chapter.

Doomdahs in Character
Outros in character are always a treat (as we shall see in the companion article). These Doomdahs usually aren't classed as the best performances musically, but they are often hilarious. Depending on the characters and the dynamic between them, just one might do the Doomdah while the others react to it.

Sketch series like 'Oisín and Parents', the 'Old Millennials', 'Evil Gran' and the 'McCormack family' have well-rounded characters that FAH can take effortlessly into the outro for an extra bit of improvisation. These Doomdahs are essentially part of the sketch itself. As usual, Mrs Flanagan takes home the prize for best performance, as her reaction to Oisín and Barry's Doomdahs ranges from clutching her pearls to wiping away tears of pride. And remember when she was pressured into performing a Doomdah by herself by her own son? Click the thumbnails below to see her best Doomdah moments along with our other top picks for in-character Doomdahs.

Doomdah Carols
The lads have been known to improvise all kinds of silly variations of the Doomdah chant. For their Christmas themed sketches in 2018 and 2019, they set the carol 'We wish you a Merry Christmas' to Doomdahs, which worked surprisingly well. You'll find them at the end of these sketches:

It is however quite obvious that these Doomdah renditions are rehearsed. We shall see in the following chapter: rehearsal and planning aren't necessary at all to produce something rather magical...

Doomdah Deluxe
After the Doomdah had become a habit, the lads started hamming it up a bit for the craic. When they are in a certain mood, a full jam session is never far away... and the best performances happen when the tune and 'lyrics' are completely unrehearsed. Being expert improvisers, when one FAH member kicks something off the other two will instantly follow. Sometimes it takes them a couple of seconds to find their footing, but by the end of the session, they have on occasion created a brilliant, brand new composition. The FAHns in the comments cheered!

The most memorable examples are all thanks to Arms taking charge of the melody line in the Doomdah and taking it somewhere else, with the other lads following him as best they can. To paraphrase the great artist Paul Klee: a Doomdah is simply a triad going for a walk!

This most recent outro caused YouTube viewers to explode into the comment section equivalent of a standing ovation. It was indeed, as they mused in the outro:

"'A beautiful day for a Doomdah!'" One FAHn shared her entire train of thought during the Doomdah in a comment and absolutely nailed it:

"'Ah, that's a nice Doomdah... oh are they...... erm... okay now it sounds a bit Irish.... How do they even breathe? I had to breathe at least four times watching this. Ooookay now they've gone full Irish. Nice. Where did that cooking spoon come from?'" But she wasn't the only one focussing on the sign-off in favour of the actual sketch. In fact, if you had wanted to find a remark on any of the gags, you would have found yourself wading through a torrent of Doomdah talk before finding anything. All over the comment section, this Doomdah was lauded as the best, greatest, quality, tasty, killer, beautiful, wonderful, impressive, glorious, heavenly, legendary, epic, ... (well, you get the idea) ever Doomdah-ed in any outro to date.

To get further insight into the depth of emotion experienced by FAHns who experienced this 'epic' Doomdah at the time of the premiere, read through the list of hand-picked comments below. I've split this up into two sets... see if you can find out why!

The first set :
 * First Doomdah together since lockdown and you didn’t disappoint. Loved it!
 * Oh how I've missed the in-person doomdahs
 * that magnificent Doomdah has me grinning ear to ear!
 * It's been a hard going week and I didn't know what was going to make me feel better... turns out it's a 30 second-long Doomdah
 * What! a! doomdah! Thanks for not cutting the impro part in the end that was awesome!
 * The blending on that Doomdah was phenomenal!
 * Lads the Doomdah with the uileann pipes was as good as the sketch - Ye are brilliant
 * A super long doomdah, what a treat! I didn't even know this was what I needed until I saw it

On to the second set : The second set of comments listed stand out because these commenters didn't use the actual word Doomdah, whereas the ones in the first set did. It is perhaps no coincidence these were nearly all posted on Facebook, where viewer engagement is slightly less committed than on YouTube and the other social media channels.  'A Doomdah' as a noun is such an integral part of the outro that FAHns hardly think about it anymore, but a first time or casual viewer will likely process it as a random vocal improvisation, maybe even not realising they have been doing this FOR YEARS!
 * The Doomdah we didn't ask for, but needed.
 * That doomdah was the stuff of fever dreams, and I loved it
 * The doomdah at the end killed me.
 * Needed this Doomdah in my Life
 * Now THAT is the Doomdah we have been gagging for!!
 * Lads, the Doomdah this week brought tears to my eyes.
 * My eyes welled with the most beautiful doomdah I have ever heard! thanks guys
 * why did the Doomdah at the end make my eyes water??? A masterpiece, when are you guys setting up a Spotify?
 * The doomdah to end all doomdahs! Brings a tear to the eye and blood to the ear canals
 * Man, you've just set the doomdah bar to a new maximum awesomeness. I think I'll unsubscribe, so I can subscribe for that doomdah
 * I need this doomdah as a track to keep as my ringtone. I'm not kidding. Somebody help?
 * Best doomdah so far. It's almost like I'm here just for the doomdah.
 * In case you usually don't watch the end of the video, you have to check out this week's rendering of their 'Doomdaaaaaa"
 * Let’s be honest with ourselves ... the only reason most of us are stillwatching these clips is for the doom-dahs at the end; the rest is just mediocre filler.
 * Fabulous sign off!
 * Am I the only one that looks forward to the harmony at the end?
 * The singing at the end was magical!!!
 * Guys. The 'singing' at the end? Man, I could listen to that all day! Well, perhaps not all day but, for a good few hours. Maybe an hour. Or one videos worth. 20 mins minimum.... Bottom line? I liked it. Do more.
 * Please do more harmonies like the ones in the end. It was gold and almost entirely gorgeous sounding
 * Please continue to do a full musical show tune for every episode ending
 * The folk-style ending is great. You should do an album of that. People eat that stuff up
 * Click for the skit, stay (and stay, and stay) for the "bagpipes"!
 * Thought you were going to go down the Peruvian highland route there at one point with the makeshift flute
 * Casually morphing from sad to comedy to choral singing and uillean pipes. Love it!
 * If u guys make a CD with your acapellas, I'll buy them all
 * Loved the a cappella style Irish Celtic music at the end. When is the CD coming out? - Reply: Christmas of course - Reply from commenter: Looking forward to a cappella version of Spancil Doomdah Hill, The Rocky Road to Doomdah and The Cliffs of Doomdah as well as others.

Yet another FAHn imagined a scenario in which this was the first Foil Arms & Hog video someone watched, writing down a hypothetical running commentary that seems accurate:

"“What are they singing for? Do they sign off like that every time? Jesus, that must take ages!”" It must indeed raise an eyebrow: click the link you got sent by your cousin or classmate, watch a sketch (laugh, hopefully) and as you get to the end, finding your mind wandering off and your finger hovering (huvvering?) over the back button while the comedians are plugging their stuff... then out of nowhere they burst into song, apparently nonplussed about the whole thing, messing around while still staying in tune (and then some!). Odd!

Remember how the Doomdah started as a snappy sound bite to punctuate their sketches? The equivalent of a cymbal smash? Well, these Doomdahs translated into Cymbal Smash would surely be a drum solo performed on a full drum kit!

And lastly... what do you make of Arms's reply to another commenter, who specifically congratulated him and not the others for the Doomdah:"'it's time I went solo I think. Those two losers have been holding me back'"I hope you enjoy this compilation of the best Doomdahs ever, my own personal picks. Most of the Doomdahs discussed above are included, but do go and rewatch each sketch (just click the links!) in order to see the Doomdah in its 'outro context'.

The full compilation and a much shorter older version can be downloaded in mp3 format from Heleendje's Soundcloud. More compilations will be added and you can always place a request for your ringtone, alarm call or any other purpose you can think of! Drop me a note in the comments below this article or on Twitter (@Heleendje).

''Click the thumbnail to have a listen. More tracks coming soon!''

The Point of the Doomdah!
Besides bingeing through outro after outro for the sheer fun and joy of it, what have we learned? We know when they started, how they evolved and what FAHns think of them. We've also made an educated guess about their origins and the reasoning behind their continued success. Now, let's finally summarise: what is a Doomdah actually for?

It's all very lovely to read how FAHns are 'living for the Doomdah' and how that simple and silly improvised tune at the end of a sketch can bring a smile to FAHns' faces for the entire day. Nevertheless, we simply can't overlook the fact that an outro is still 'just' a sales pitch! The two main actions FAH want to coerce their viewers into taking are subscribing to their channel and buying tickets to live shows (with buying merch added much later, in 2017). Faithful FAH subscribers are very well aware of this connotation, but even a casual viewer has been heard exclaiming:

"'They're just selling stuff now!'"

Because of the (more or less) straight line from singsonging 'subscriiiibe' and 'liiiive' to close harmony singing a made-up word, we can perhaps think of the Doomdah as a variety of outro sales pitches condensed into a single call. As any advertising agency will tell you, an easily recognisable tune is essential as an attention grabber. Much like birdsong in fact.. only not so much looking for a mate, but an audience!

Addendum: The Great Lockdown Doomdah Drought of 2020
On 22 April 2020, in the middle of lockdown, FAHns started to really miss the YouTube sketch outros and their signature Doomdah endings. Arms in his post-production home office had dialled back the clock and only used the end card with the recorded DOOMDAP. Obviously they couldn't get together to film sketches, let alone outros, but they had done separately recorded outros before!  

Feeling deprived of their Doomdahs, FAHns created a hashtag in the PUBG Twitch stream chatroom one Tuesday night (21/04).



The next day, Heleendje launched the campaign on Twitter with this little compilation.



Completely unexpectedly, the lads wrote a lovely reply, saying: "Well this is just fan flippin tastic."

We spammed the hashtag again the following week (28/04) and Hog picked up on it... here's how that went down:



We had to wait a few more weeks but then, finally, the outro for Disease Convention 2 delivered not only a sublimely executed - in all its atonal imperfection - Doomdah on 3 screens squished together from the lads in their individual homes... the lads also revealed they had finally set up a Patreon page! Good times for locked down FAHns indeed!

The Thrift Shop Doomdah featured earlier clearly caused a ripple of pleasure to flow through the FAHndom, partly because of the stellar quality of performance, partly because this was their first Doomdah back together after lockdown. Knowing full well how much we had been gagging for the Doomdah, having teased us about it even, leaving this Doomdah uncut in the final edit was without a doubt their gift to the FAHns.