this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2026
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No Stupid Questions

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I often see tv shows and video creators quickly put together compilations where, for example, a politician repeats the same word or phrase across many different appearances. How are they able to find and organize these clips so efficiently?

Is there a specific tool, database, or workflow used to index and search video/audio by spoken words or ideas Iโ€™m curious what this process is called and where something like this is accessed.

EDIT: Transcripts can be searched, which are accessible through various means, but it is time consuming and most people don't have libraries built up that contain the content for quick access.

I'm thinking more about something like The Daily Show, SNL, or any late night TV show. I can't imagine that they're manually doing all this work independently.

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[โ€“] SpicyTaint@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Thinking about sound effects specifically, there are libraries, both paid and free, that you can find online. Those contain a whole bunch of various audio clips. The same general thing applies to graphics, video, and other stuff. That's usually why you might hear the same effects in different media. Some video game devs might buy the same audio library and you'll hear the same sound effect in their games. This goes way back to where you would buy CD packs of stock sounds or earlier.

Just doing a quick search online for "sound effects library" took me to https://freesound.org/. I've never used it, but it might be good. There's content all over the internet.

"B-role" would be the term to use if you wanted stock video clips.

[โ€“] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Exactly. I'm so very curious if something like this exists for processing high profile figures like politicians and celebrities. A catalog of things they've said, actions and insinuations, and etc.

I mean, maybe there's a team that manually looks up every single time X politician mentions or is seen eating McDonald's. Or... perhaps there's this awesome database that maintains this kind of info.

You never know when you need a reference every time X politician talks about grabbing ๐Ÿˆ.

[โ€“] SpicyTaint@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

That sounds a bit more specific, so it'll be harder to find. It's probably out there somewhere. Or maybe you could start one.

When in doubt, there's probably a YouTube video that's a compilation of stupid shit a politician said. Download it with yt-dlp and cut it up, lol.