Some people were in for a surprise when they read an X post (archived) in July 2025 that claimed about movie sounds, "fyi if you like listening to 'rain sounds' they're almost all recordings of chicken being fried." The post had been viewed 4.6 million times as of this writing.
(X user @paularambles)
That was far from the first time the claim spread to millions over social media. In 2024, users shared TikTok (archived) videos (archived) claiming that rain sounds in movies and videos were actually sounds of chicken or other foods being fried. The rumor spread widely enough that by October 2024, KFC partnered with Hatch, a sleep wellness company that creates devices that make sleep sounds, to release a "Kentucky Fried Chicken Rain" content channel for Hatch's sleep devices.
There is some weight to the suggestion that the sound of rain in any given movie may actually be the sound of food frying. A 2015 Guardian article that interviewed a film sound designer said the sound of rain in movies comes from frying bacon.
One Foley artist (a person who recreates everyday sounds for movies) posted a TikTok video in which she did exactly that — emulated the sound of rain by cooking bacon.
But frying food, whether bacon or chicken, is not the universal source of rain sounds across movies, videos and audio recordings. Sound designers may also use real recordings of rain, and Foley artists have a number of different ways to recreate the sound even if they don't use the real deal.
"In addition to creating rain sounds in various ways which may include actual recordings of rain and/or other white noise rich sounds like frying, modern Foley often relies on sound effects libraries or synthesizer patches," Gary Gottlieb, president of the Audio Engineering Society, told Snopes.
Pro Sound Effects, a service that offers sound libraries for movies, television shows and video games, has a sound library entitled "Rain." In a video interview between Pro Sound Effects and the library's creator, Mark Mangini, Mangini talked about the process he used to record real rainfall in a variety of different ways to create the library. Mangini also showed off some of the equipment he used and photos of him recording during the interview.
While some people in the comments and replies of popular social media posts on this topic bemoaned that they'd been falling asleep to the sounds of frying chicken — a reference to Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) videos and audio recordings people use to help them sleep — there is evidence that this isn't necessarily the case. The creator of one ASMR rain video viewed over 18 million times posted multiple videos of his equipment and the locations he visited to record the sounds for his videos. In one of those videos, he was outside recording the sound of rain as it fell over a lake.
"There are specific 'rain' microphones that are designed to record rain in a
People using sleep sound devices also aren't necessarily falling asleep to frying chicken just because they listen to rain sounds. A spokesperson for Hatch, the sleep company that ran the collaboration with KFC, confirmed none of its current sleep sounds are made from frying chicken or anything food-related.
There are plenty of ways rain sounds can be emulated without frying food, too.
A sound designer for the animated movie "The Boy and the World" explained that one of the movie's rain sounds, for example, is the sound of hands clapping with reverb. Students in a Foley class at Pomfret, a private high school in Connecticut, recreated the sound of a rainstorm by rustling bubble wrap.
Moore said that when she creates rain sounds, usually the sound of it hitting something like an umbrella or window, she uses a watering bucket with a spout. In a video she shared, Moore and her colleagues create the sound of rain falling on a felt hat by sprinkling water from a watering can onto a boot.
"Most of the best Foley artists will layer their sounds, so they might combine two or more rain cues from a library with either a fabricated or prerecorded sound, such as a babbling brook or something frying (personally I think bacon frying sounds a lot more like rain than chicken frying)," Gottlieb said. "Keeping in mind that the sound of rain is not actually the sound of rain — it is the wind and the sound of droplets hitting something — a window pane. a stone, a puddle, etc."