It’s eight years too late for the one-time Democratic presidential front-runner, but that manic scream Howard Dean screeched after losing January 2004 Iowa caucuses didn’t happen the way TV showed it. In fact, it was drowned out by cheering Dean fans, according to an exhaustive new study of the much-mocked yell of “Yeaaah.”

The journal Media, Culture & Society has determined that the sophisticated microphone Dean had in his fist was built to filter out surrounding noise for news crews filming the event, and by doing so unfairly broadcast his scream minus the building crowd chants the former Vermont governor felt compelled to yell over just to be heard.