Famous backwards talkers

Record holders and performers

• Reem Al Karim. Holds the Guinness World Record for most words spoken in reverse in 30 seconds: 27, set in Dubai on 13 November 2024.
• David Fuhrer, "Mr Backwards". Started reading road signs backwards at age ten, appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and invented the board game Backwords (1988).
• Steve Briers. Says he recited all of Queen's A Night at the Opera backwards on BBC Radio 1 in 1988 and won the record back in 1989.
• David Klempfner, "Backwards Dave". Beat Fuhrer in a live contest on Triple J in 2007 and later appeared on Australia's Got Talent.

On screen

• Twin Peaks (1990). Michael J. Anderson, who could talk backwards as a child, played The Man from Another Place. He and Sheryl Lee said their lines phonetically backwards and the scene was reversed.
• Amadeus (1984). Mozart teases Constanze with phrases said backwards that she has to decode.
• The Simpsons and Gravity Falls. The Simpsons parodied the Red Room, and Gravity Falls hid clues in reversed whispers.

In music

• Robert Wyatt, Rock Bottom (1974). Sang a track backwards so that reversing it produced eerie forwards vocals.
• Kate Bush. Used backwards vocals on "Leave It Open" (1982) and "Watching You Without Me" (1985).
• Radiohead, "Like Spinning Plates" (2001). Thom Yorke learned to sing the vocal backwards for the recording.
• Midge Ure. His stage name is his first name, Jim, said backwards.

Hidden in plain sight

• Harpo Productions is Oprah spelt backwards.
• Llareggub, Dylan Thomas' fictional Welsh town, is a rude joke read backwards.
• Stromae is verlan for maestro.

You, on the reverse singing challenge

The newest backwards talkers are everyone filming the reverse singing challenge: sing a line, play it backwards, learn the gibberish, film it and reverse the video so it comes out right. It is the Twin Peaks technique, one short line at a time.

Questions