Christian's actual voice -

[milkshark]

We're all familiar with Christian's strange voice, and how it seems to have become higher in his adulthood. In the "Song of Christian" video, filmed when he was 16, his voice sounds much deeper and almost unrecognizable from his later Youtube uploads. Here's the video if you haven't heard what teenage Chris sounded like.

[youtube]eC4XNixKBq4[/youtube]

Chris was a lot more "normal" during these years, at least compared to his strange adult life. He went to school five days a week and interacted socially with people his age and adult faculty. It's hard to tell if this is just one of Chris' forced vocal affectations or if this is how his voice naturally occurred during this time. If I had to guess, the voice we hear in "Song of Christian" is most likely his natural speaking voice.

There are lots of videos of adult Chris that illustrate his preferred, personal voice pattern. The "Ta-Tas" video has stood out in my mind for a while because there's this strange laugh Chris utters that sounds spontaneous, and it's a much deeper voice than we're used to hearing. The laugh is at 0:13 in the video, right after he comments on breast size.

[youtube]SjV-rVRV-TU[/youtube]

That laugh can be heard in another video where Chris is remarking on his huge rack, but I can't find it. The voice thing with Chris reminds me of a story I heard about Michael Jackson where someone called him on his personal telephone and a deep black guy voice answered the phone and said "Hello?" but the rest of the conversation was in Jackson's trademark high, soft voice. What do you think, does Chris alter his voice to sound higher or is that his natural speaking voice? What other strange things does Chris do while talking to sound more like who he'd like to be than who he actually is?

 

[Pikonic]

I think he's going for a more girly voice

 

[milkshark]

I think he's going for a more girly voice

Definitely. It's his never ending voice altering schtick that's been evident since his first YouTube upload. The Tomgirl voice is a wacky concoction of its own. It's the bookworm girl from lame anime, the quirky female sidekick from a Disney knockoff movie, or some other pop culture inspired idiocy for Chris to play out for jollies. My curiosity is what his natural voice of a 31 year old man is, or if he even has an actual voice at all.

 

[Iä! Iä!]

He doesn't drink or smoke and watches squeaky MLP cartoons all day. Maybe that got some influence.

 

[The Dude]

No you guys! Christian has a deep, sultry voice that brings to mind Frank Sinatra! GET IT RIGHT!

 

[Bridechu]

John Cleese has a story about how Peter Sellers, an incredibly talented character actor, didn't have a real voice of his own and had to find his "normal" Peter Sellers voice every morning before he spoke as "himself".

I've found some autistics are like this. They have a hard time regulating their voice (pitch, volume, tempo, pretty much everything), so they just imitate others and take cues from them. However, that only happens if they're consciously doing it. Chris hasn't had regular social interaction to crib off of, and he has less motivation now to do so. It's also possible Chris thinks talking higher makes him seem younger, which seems to be a theme with him.

 

[Picklepower]

You know once I was wondering what Chris would sound like laughing, cuz they only time you hear him laugh in a video it is a fake, or forced laugh, like he is some Autistic version of Data, trying to imitate human laughter. I found some sex chat he did, that was uploaded on last fm, and in that he actually laughs, that's the only time I've heard him really laugh. In case anyone else was curious.

On the subject of his voice, sometimes I wonder if Autists and Aspies are more prone to having shitty voices, maybe because we keep quite so much (especially during childhood and preteen years), and we are less used to talking, our voices develop weird? I have a super awkward voice, and I always kept quiet around others as a kid, well more so then other classmates, it isn't like I NEVER talked or anything, but when I was in 1st grade everyone called me the "quiet kid" which drove me nuts. And I have assburgers, so I was thinking maybe that's why, like when I hear my voice I think, "oh god that's what I sound like?" LOL



(note: I have Ass burgers, not Bawwwtism so I am still nothing like Chris! )

 

[NobleGreyHorse]

You do hear some of the squeakiness in "Song of Christian," like at the point where he has to adjust his shirt collar and says something like "Darn that collar!" well above the speaking pitch of the rest of the video. (Is this the school assignment where he got an F? I cannot imagine what sort of assignment, correctly executed, would produce that.) You can also hear what might be interpreted as a "sarcastic" tone when he says, with infinite reluctance, "D-R-U-G-S." He's definitely used that tone in later videos, sometimes the way you might do air quotes around a word, sometimes when saying something like "slow-in-da-mind" (in the context of something he claims he's not). And his enunciation is abysmal. I don't know when he had his speech therapy, but in this video, it's not doing anything to stop him slurring consonants.

I mean, yes, it's overall more vocally normal in "Song of Christian," but that is the very definition of damning with faint praise.

 

[Picklepower]

In song of Christian he sounds like Donald Duck.

 

[Tubular Monkey]

Chris was in the middle of puberty during Song of Christian. I don't think there's anywhere near as much testosterone flowing through his veins now. Probably far less than the average 30 year old man.

 

[Francine StripeCheer]

Chris was in the middle of puberty during Song of Christian. I don't think there's anywhere near as much testosterone flowing through his veins now. Probably far less than the average 30 year old man.

The problem is that testosterone dissolves in gravy, so it can't be taken up by the tissues.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

In song of Christian he sounds like Donald Duck.

It might be because I've watched too many episodes of The Simpsons. But I thought he sounded like Barney Gumble in that video.

 

[Golly]

You know once I was wondering what Chris would sound like laughing, cuz they only time you hear him laugh in a video it is a fake, or forced laugh, like he is some Autistic version of Data, trying to imitate human laughter. I found some sex chat he did, that was uploaded on last fm, and in that he actually laughs, that's the only time I've heard him really laugh. In case anyone else was curious.

On the subject of his voice, sometimes I wonder if Autists and Aspies are more prone to having shitty voices, maybe because we keep quite so much (especially during childhood and preteen years), and we are less used to talking, our voices develop weird? I have a super awkward voice, and I always kept quiet around others as a kid, well more so then other classmates, it isn't like I NEVER talked or anything, but when I was in 1st grade everyone called me the "quiet kid" which drove me nuts. And I have assburgers, so I was thinking maybe that's why, like when I hear my voice I think, "oh god that's what I sound like?" LOL



(note: I have Ass burgers, not Bawwwtism so I am still nothing like Chris! )

I think everyone thinks they sound weird when they hear themselves on a recording.It's because you never truly hear your real voice. What you hear when you speak is what your vocal folds produce before they hit the resonators in your mouth (ie the hard palate in the roof of your mouth), which change your tone a bit.

However, you do raise an interesting point about vocal development. Chris doesn't talk in a normal speaking register (normally a range dominated by the chest voice with some head voice influence), choosing to live more in a mixed head/chest area, making his voice higher due to the additional head voice contribution. With the Tom Girl influence, and when he's trying to be endearing, though, he'll cut his chest voice out all together and just live in his head voice/falsetto. Over time, this would strengthen the upper registers of his voice and cause him to favor them out of habit.

 

[Princess]

I might be because I've watched too many episodes of The Simpsons. But I thought he sounded like Barney Gumble in that video.

I can totally hear that.

 

[Marvin]

You know once I was wondering what Chris would sound like laughing, cuz they only time you hear him laugh in a video it is a fake, or forced laugh, like he is some Autistic version of Data, trying to imitate human laughter. I found some sex chat he did, that was uploaded on last fm, and in that he actually laughs, that's the only time I've heard him really laugh. In case anyone else was curious.

On the subject of his voice, sometimes I wonder if Autists and Aspies are more prone to having shitty voices, maybe because we keep quite so much (especially during childhood and preteen years), and we are less used to talking, our voices develop weird? I have a super awkward voice, and I always kept quiet around others as a kid, well more so then other classmates, it isn't like I NEVER talked or anything, but when I was in 1st grade everyone called me the "quiet kid" which drove me nuts. And I have assburgers, so I was thinking maybe that's why, like when I hear my voice I think, "oh god that's what I sound like?" LOL



(note: I have Ass burgers, not Bawwwtism so I am still nothing like Chris! )

I think everyone thinks they sound weird when they hear themselves on a recording.It's because you never truly hear your real voice. What you hear when you speak is what your vocal folds produce before they hit the resonators in your mouth (ie the hard palate in the roof of your mouth), which change your tone a bit.

However, you do raise an interesting point about vocal development. Chris doesn't talk in a normal speaking register (normally a range dominated by the chest voice with some head voice influence), choosing to live more in a mixed head/chest area, making his voice higher due to the additional head voice contribution. With the Tom Girl influence, and when he's trying to be endearing, though, he'll cut his chest voice out all together and just live in his head voice/falsetto. Over time, this would strengthen the upper registers of his voice and cause him to favor them out of habit.

That's a good point. You're not going to sound the same way outside of your head than how you'll sound from inside of your head.

Although, I guess a lifetime of hearing myself on various recordings has affected my internal understanding of how my voice sounds.

 

[Lefty's Revenge]

I never thought about it until now but yeah I think Chris is altering his voice. I'm kind of clueless on the "why" though. The only thing that I can think of is how some kids default towards a very high pitched voice even if they don't necessarily need to speak that high. Actually now that I think about it, Chris is probably trying to sound like a cartoon character. Subconsciously or not. His whole life up until his father died was basically some sort of cartoon world. Thats probably where the voice is coming from.

 

[hellbound]

In song of Christian he sounds like Donald Duck.

I might be because I've watched too many episodes of The Simpsons. But I thought he sounded like Barney Gumble in that video.

I think he sounds like Mark Levin (right-wing radio host) if you took away the Philly accent.

 

[bradsternum]

He thinks he sounds cute.

 

[The Nameless One]

I never thought about it until now but yeah I think Chris is altering his voice. I'm kind of clueless on the "why" though. The only thing that I can think of is how some kids default towards a very high pitched voice even if they don't necessarily need to speak that high. Actually now that I think about it, Chris is probably trying to sound like a cartoon character. Subconsciously or not. His whole life up until his father died was basically some sort of cartoon world. Thats probably where the voice is coming from.

Considering that he's said that he thinks he sounds similar to Sonic the hedgehog, and that his Sonichu voice is just his regular voice in a higher pitch, I think you're on to something with that suggestion.

 

[XYZpdq]

I think he sounds like Mark Levin (right-wing radio host) if you took away the Philly accent.

hahahahahaha I'll never unhear that