Right Through the Wall/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Basic Trope: Noisy neighbors...especially in the bedroom.
  • Played Straight: Alice and Bob can hear Claire and Dan having sex in the next apartment.
  • Exaggerated: Alice and Bob can hear Claire and Dan having sex three blocks away.
  • Justified: The walls are wafer-thin, and Claire (and/or possibly Dan) is very prone to the Immodest Orgasm.
  • Inverted: While Claire and Dan are having sex, they hear Alice and Bob doing something innocuous next door.
  • Subverted: Alice and Bob can hear Claire and Dan, but they're not having sex. (May or may not be a case of Not What It Sounds Like. )
  • Double Subverted: But they have sex later...which Alice and Bob can hear.
  • Deconstructed: All this could traumatize Alice and Bob, make them jealous, and/or lower Claire and Dan's standing in the community. (If it's an apartment, they could be evicted.)
  • Reconstructed: Claire and Dan learn some consideration for their neighbors, and resolve to quiet things down, get their place soundproofed, move elsewhere, etc.
  • Parodied: Claire and Dan aren't even home, and Alice and Bob can still hear them.
    • A burglar is doing a number on Alice and Bob's place, hears Claire and Dan next door, and leaves immediately.
  • Enforced: Claire and Dan are a Foil to Alice and Bob in a Dom Com.
  • Lampshaded: "Keep it down over there!"
  • Invoked: Claire and Dan decide they don't like Alice and Bob, and decide to be as loud and obnoxious as possible to annoy them and/or make them want to move away.
  • Defied: Claire and Dan don't want the neighbors to hear, so they either have sex very quietly, or they get the place soundproofed, or they buy a house out in the Middle of Nowhere.
  • Discussed: "They sure are loud tonight..."
  • Conversed: "Oh! Remember when we used to be just like them?"
  • Played For Laughs: Almost always is
  • Played For Drama: This causes Alice and Bob to become jealous, and have marital problems as a result.
  • Played For Bow Chicka Wow Wow: Alice and Bob come over and decide to join in.
    • Or, Alice and Bob do their own thing next door just as noisily.
  • Plotted A Perfectly Good Waste: All the noise next door is Claire and Dan getting into a heated game of Monopoly.
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