Deeper down in the comments you get a story about how this sound came to be. Who knows if it's true, but it's more fun to give the benefit of the doubt.
Scott Chapman:
> The actual origin of the Uh Oh sound: My ex wife and I used to talk in Squeaky Voice a lot and were quite good at it. I used both WS_FTP and ICQ back in the day and I made the original recording of this sound and sent it to one or both of those companies. I think I sent it to WS_FTP first where it was used to indicate an error in connecting to a remote host. I don't recall if I sent it to ICQ or if they got it from WS_FTP. Someone below said it came from Gremlins. That is not the case. Happy Trails!
DJHEADPHONENINJA replies:
> Why would you just record your voice and send out to companies? Sounds pretty weird man. I'll go with Gremlins because I just watched the movie and heard this sound effect so I had to google the true origin of the ICQ sound.
Scott returns:
> Go with gremlins if you like but the sound is not the same. Back in those days it was not about remuneration.
After installing ICQ for the first time, I distinctly remember thinking that ICQ straight up copied the sound from WS_FTP, which I had already been using for a while and where it was used as an error sound. They are definitely the exact same samples. Interesting to hear the story.
Scott Chapman:
> The actual origin of the Uh Oh sound: My ex wife and I used to talk in Squeaky Voice a lot and were quite good at it. I used both WS_FTP and ICQ back in the day and I made the original recording of this sound and sent it to one or both of those companies. I think I sent it to WS_FTP first where it was used to indicate an error in connecting to a remote host. I don't recall if I sent it to ICQ or if they got it from WS_FTP. Someone below said it came from Gremlins. That is not the case. Happy Trails!
DJHEADPHONENINJA replies:
> Why would you just record your voice and send out to companies? Sounds pretty weird man. I'll go with Gremlins because I just watched the movie and heard this sound effect so I had to google the true origin of the ICQ sound.
Scott returns:
> Go with gremlins if you like but the sound is not the same. Back in those days it was not about remuneration.