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It's Quiet... Too Quiet: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''It's quiet...too quiet...''[gunshot; bullet whizzes past his head] ''Now, suddenly, it's too loud. I preferred it when it was quiet.''|'''O'Malley'''
{{quote|''How could it be too quiet? It's your house, man. It doesn't get quieter before a missile shoots your house. I haven't had a missile shoot my house but I can't think of any reason why if a missile did shoot my house, why it would get quiet first. Do missiles kill all the birds or something? I don't get it.''|[http://outlawvern.com Vern], reviewing ''[[The Transporter]]''}}
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Compare [[Nothing Is Scarier]].
Often happens when the [[Jungle Drums]] stop.
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{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' parodies this in their Blooper Reel.
{{quote|'''Kenshin''': Where are the animals? The birds?
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* Kurama remarks on the quiet in episode 74 of ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]''.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Even the usually reliable ''[[Elf Quest]]'' comics couldn't resist having a character say "it's too quiet" in the expanded version of Volume One.
* Played with in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|BtVS]]'' Season 8:
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* The line gets thrown about in [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[Miracleman]]''.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* Lampshaded during the story that brought [[Aria (manga)|the undines]] into ''[[My Apartment Manager is not an Isekai Character]]''.
{{quote|'''Aika''': It's so quiet.
'''Alice''': Maybe too quiet. Like... it's unnaturally still.}}
==
* [[Disney]]'s ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' has a scene where Captain Phoebus doesn't like the quietness of the catacombs:
{{quote|"Speaking of trouble, we should have run into some by now. You know, a guard, a booby trap..." '''*his torch is blown out leaving only complete darkness*''' "...or an ambush."}}
* ''[[Shrek]]'' utters this line when he and Donkey enter a deserted Kingdom of Duloc. (Everyone there has gone off to watch the tournament.)
* In ''[[The Fox and the Hound (film)]]'', Vixey is afraid to enter a copse when she realises it's too quiet, while Todd has no such qualms {{spoiler|and narrowly avoids falling foul of Copper, Amus' shotgun and a ''shitload'' of bear traps}}.
* Robert Stack says the line to Lloyd Bridges as their characters await the arrival of the [[Airplane!]].
* In ''[[Asterix]] Mission Cleopatre'', the Egyptian architect, trapped in Cleopatra's Palace under Roman siege, utters this line as everything is silent and a [[Dramatic Wind|tumblewheed rolls by]]. Right after, the Romans show up with siege engines.
** "It's quiet... Too quiet... I like
* Done in the first scene of ''[[Galaxy Quest]]'', right before an ambush attack on Tim Allen and company.
* Used seriously at the time in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (film)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] II'', but sets up a joke shortly afterwards:
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'''Donatello:''' Look! It's Raph!
'''Michaelangelo:''' Yeah, a little ''too'' Raph!
''<Leo [[Dope Slap|hits Mikey on the head]] for turning it into an [[Overly Long Gag]]>''
'''Leonardo:''' You guys, knock it off!
'''Donatello:''' ''<[[Face Palm]]>'' Oh brother. }}
* A variation in ''[[Lake Placid]]'', where one character, shortly before another attack by the giant alligator, says: "I suddenly got the feeling that everything's perfectly safe".
* When Native Americans who aren't slaves show up for the first time in ''[[Aguirre, the Wrath of God]]'', the ambient sounds (birds and insects mostly) go dead. The "Emperor" makes this remark, and soon {{spoiler|a spooked horse kicks some fire onto a gunpowder barrel}}.
* In the movie ''[[The Marksman]]'', the main character runs back late to the extraction point, he can clearly hear the helicopter waiting although he's still in enemy territory, he turns around frequently watching for potential pursuers, but after a while he stops, and notices no one is chasing him. He correctly assesses he and his team have been set up, and the extraction chopper is destroyed shortly after by a traitor.
* While the exact words aren't used, there is a scene in ''[[Sleepy Hollow (Film)|Sleepy Hollow]]'' where local Young Masbath points out to city slicker Ichabod Crane how quiet the forest is, and has to explain that forests are supposed to be ''noisy,'' like crickets and birds and stuff - noises that the forest lacked at that point.
* A variation on the trope is seen in ''[[We Were Soldiers]]'' when the Mel Gibson's character arrives at a section of the American Line that's too quiet. When asked what's wrong he explains, "There's nothing wrong here...[[Genre Savvy|except that there's nothing wrong...]]"
** Later in the movie, during an especially dark night, one character starts freaking out because it's so quiet, and his commanding officer asks for a flare to see by...revealing that it was quiet because the Vietnamese soldiers were a couple of feet away, trying to sneak attack.
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* In the remake of ''[[Assault on Precinct 13]]'', one character remarks that it's "awful quiet out there", and Lawrence Fishburne replies that that's what worries him.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* Parodied by Terry Pratchett's ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[
▲== Literature ==
▲* Parodied by Terry Pratchett's ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]'', in which a soldier thinks to himself that after ten years of guerrilla warfare, ''nothing'' can be too quiet and the ''best'' part of war is the waiting (especially when you're waging war against [[Blood Knight|the D'regs]]).
* In ''[[Dragaera|Five Hundred Years After]]'', one of Khaavren's guardsmen says that since most of the civilians were evacuated, Dragaera City is so quiet that the Guards aren't really needed. Khaavren asks if he's ever spent any time in the jungle, where there are dzur or dragons? The guardsman says he has. Well, if he was out in the jungle and all the birds and little critters suddenly hid or went quiet, would he feel ''safe''? The guardsman sees Khaavren's point.
* In Jerry Pournelle's ''[[CoDominium|Falkenberg's Legion]]'', Falkenberg says, "Things are going well. When that happens I wonder what I've overlooked."
* In ''h.i.v.e.: the overlord protocol'', Nigel specifically tells Franz not to say this. After Nigel leaves, Franz says it anyway.
* In [[Tamora Pierce]]'s ''Trickster's Choice'', Aly notes that the jungle animals are all quiet...however, her sneakiness and the experience of the guards thwart the subsequent ambush.
* In ''[[The Zombie Survival Guide]]'' by Max Brooks, this trope is invoked in numerous ways; wildlife of all kinds instinctively flee when they detect Solanum, the virus responsible for reanimating zombies. In areas abundant with noisy wildlife such as jungle and swamps, silence means that the undead must be close as these areas would never, ever be silent normally. In addition, heavily infested areas are found devoid of any wildlife by survivors as everything has been consumed by ghouls, so cities especially but also other areas known for constant noise, whether human or wildlife created, become jarringly and eerily silent.
* Happens more often than not in ''[[The Hounds of the Morrigan]]''. The main characters are looking for a [[McGuffin]] that, in theirs hands, will bring down the Celtic goddess of war; in hers, [[It Got Worse|well...]] However,
* The first chapter of ''[[The Day of the Triffids]]'' is a very effective combination of this trope and [[Nothing Is Scarier]]. The protagonist is in hospital recovering from an injury that required both his eyes to be covered in bandages for several days and is lying awake in what he assumes is the early hours of the morning, because the building is very close to the main road and the noise from the traffic is near-deafening from dawn to midnight. But then he hears a clock chiming eight...
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* In ''[[Band of Brothers]]'', O'Keefe mutters that it's "awfully quiet" while a handful of soldiers are on patrol in the German woods. Moments later, they stumble across a Nazi concentration camp.
* Used in the movie ''Zombie Nightmare'', featured on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', where it was parodied by Mike and the Bots:
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'''Rimmer:''' Kryten, isn't it 'round about this time of year that your head goes back to the lab for retuning?
'''Lister:''' No, no, he's right. There's no sounds because the engines are dead. We've lost all power! }}
* On ''[[Deep Space Nine]],'' Quark once used this line literally. He noticed the ambient noise in his bar was 35 decibels below normal, which made him the first to realize something was wrong with his [[Boisterous Bruiser|Klingon]] clients. When ''Klingons'' are quiet, you know something's up.
* A good twist put on it in "[[Doctor Who]]" on a couple of occasions, in that it's not that it's quiet, but the fact that it's NOT quiet that's the problem. Two excellent examples of [[Oh Crap]] moments (both courtesy of [[Steven Moffat]]) follow.
** ''The Doctor Dances'', where the Doctor is listening to a tape recording of the Empty Child, but there's a whirring flapping noise in the background.
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* Used in ''[[Primeval]]''. While investigating a possible creature sighting on a golf course, Abby notes that it's too quiet. In this case, she's specifically referring to the absence of birdsong.
== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==
* A [[Bob Newhart]] [[Stand-Up Comedy]] routine, "The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline and Storm Door Company," involves the pilot on a low-budget airline talking to the passengers, a short time into the flight.
{{quote|I'm sorry, sir, I can't hear you over the roar of our engines.
''Beat''
Oh, wait, they've stopped now, sir.}}
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' mentions that some Beasts come from a jungle where the only silence is when the jungle's Fae lord is on the hunt. As a result, those Beasts who escape from him prefer to live in the city. In the city, it's ''never'' quiet...
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Inverted in ''
▲* Inverted in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]: [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]''; occasionally an Imperial Guardsman will say this phrase. You can [[Hilarity Ensues|take the cue to make things noisy.]]
* Straight video game example: ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star FOX]] 64''.
** And kinda ruined by the fact that the game's lockon system will mark the first enemy (hidden behind an asteroid) way before the "trap" goes off.
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'''Second Soldier:''' Exactly. It's ''too'' quiet.
Needless to say, they shortly fall prey to a Nod ambush. }}
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the [[
{{quote|'''Elika''': [[Genre Blind|It seems quiet]].
'''Prince''': [[Genre Savvy|Don't say it's quiet. Don't EVER say it's quiet.]] }}
** During a boss fight in that level, the Prince might say, "I told you, ''never'' say it's quiet." If you knock the boss off a cliff, he says, "''Now'' it's quiet."
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* A NPC exchange from ''[[City of Heroes]]'', where the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Rikti]] have taken a human sympathizer hostage, doubles as an inversion of [[Perp Sweating]]:
{{quote|'''Rikti Captor 1:''' Status: Quiet.
'''[[Meaningful Name|Lk'Onik]]:''' ...: ...
'''Rikti Captor 2:''' Status Correction: Too Quiet.
'''Lk'Onik:''' [[Lampshade Hanging|...: Heh.]] }}
* From ''[[Evil Dead|Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick]]'':
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* Used as a device in [[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion]] and, to the lesser extent, in [[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]. When you travel cross-country, there is usually soft music in the background. When you enter dangerous area with enemies lurking about, thw music fades and there is a brief moment of silence before enemies engage you and the combat music starts playing. When player reacts quickly and plays a stealthy character this can nicely increase the suspense value of stalking the enemies.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [http://www.bmoviecomic.com/?cid=320 This] ''[[The B-Movie Comic|The B Movie Comic]]'' strip and the associated [[The Rant|rant]].
* Used in ''[[The 10 Doctors]]''.
* ''[[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]]'' page "[http://yafgc.net/?id=2165 Watching the Fireworks]" starts with Adwen's observation that "it's so quiet" and, as the title suggests, gets better.
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
* Used as part of a string of action movie parodies in ''[[The Fairly
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* Used as part of a string of action movie parodies in ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'', "Action Packed".
** A lot of cartoons Butch Hartman seems to be involved with parodies this trope.
* Xandor says it in ''[[The Herculoids]]'' episodes "Mission of the Amatons" and The Island of the Gravites".
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* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "Lisa's Rival", in a scene at an apiary after all the bees leave to steal Homer's sugar.
{{quote|'''Beekeeper 1''': Well, sure is quiet in here today.
'''[[Large Ham|Beekeeper 2]]''': Yes, a little ''too'' quiet...if you know what I mean.
'''Beekeeper 1''': Hmm... I'm afraid I don't.
'''[[Large Ham|Beekeeper 2]]''': You see, bees usually make... a lot of noise. NO NOISE... suggests no bees. }}
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', "Stare Master": Fluttershy says this before she discovers that the Cutie Mark Crusaders (whom she was babysitting) had snuck out of her house.
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* In ''[[Taz-Mania]]'', dropped into the middle of one of Wendall T Wolf's neurotic monologues: "..and then the suddenly the jungle gets quiet [insane paranoid [[Aside Glance]]] ''too'' quiet.."
* Used in an episode of the original ''[[Transformers]]'' cartoon. Prowl even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] it by saying "Yeah, like they say in the movies, too quiet."
* This was lampooned in an episode of ''[[Rick and Morty]]'':
{{quote|'''Rick:''' Shh, wait. It's too quiet.
''Beat''
'''Summer:''' You skipped "quiet".
'''Rick''' ''(annoyed)'': I didn't "skip" quiet, it's obviously quiet if it's "too quiet".
'''Summer:''' Yeah, but you're supposed to say -
'''Rick:''' No, Summer, ''now'' it's not quiet enough!}}
=== Machinima ===▼
▲== Machinima ==
* One of the page quotes is from ''[[Red vs. Blue]]''; the situation is parodied.
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
▲== Real Life ==
* This first developed from the fact that natural background noise in the wilderness will disappear when the animals making the noise are alerted to intruders. If you are in the woods, and everything suddenly goes quiet, it is a safe bet that [[Paranoia Fuel|you are not alone]].
** Inverted if you're hiking in bear country, in which case ''you'' being "too quiet" is more likely to get you killed, because you might unintentionally startle one into attacking.
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* Many parents of young children consider "too quiet" an urgent signal to find out what the kids are up to.
** In his stand up special ''Lock 'n Load'', Denis Leary mentioned how much he missed quiet in his house with 7 and 5 year old kids, and one day when he was reading the paper enjoying a rare dose of quiet, it suddenly hit him that he hadn't seen the kids in a while. Turns out one of them was defacing his truck, and the other was giving the dog a bath. In the toilet.
* In 2008, the USAF held a major air exercise over Alaska, primarily to test the [[
** Walk out on a USAF flightline on a rare day when no one is working and you'll have to clear your throat to make sure you still have your hearing.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Stock Phrases]]
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