Terrible Ticking: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A character goes mad from a [[Brown Note|sound that only they can hear]]. Because of this, they may go [[Ax Crazy]] and try to destroy the source of the sound, or at least what they ''think'' is the source of the sound -- or end up resorting to [[Headphones Equal Isolation]], abandoning the world in favor of just getting away from the horrible noise.

* In one of the short stories from [[Stephen King]]'s ''Everything's Eventual'', a maître d’hôtel flips out and starts killing people, while shrieking about a barking dog that only he can hear. Or possibly one that had barked at him once years ago. It's a little [[Word Salad|word salad-y]].

* In [[HP Lovecraft]]'s ''Rats in the Walls'', the hero starts going crazy because he keeps hearing rats within the walls. Of course that's just the beginning, and it gets a lot weirder from there.

* [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s ''The Telltale Heart''.

* [[Cats Hate Water|Aquaphobic]] villainess Queen Tsarmina of the ''[[Redwall]]'' series is driven to insanity by the sound of dripping water, which her minions [[It's Probably Nothing|assume are the normal noises from the underground lake]]. {{spoiler|Subverted in that it's not her imagination; the good guys have dammed the river and are causing said lake to overflow and slowly flood the castle.}} Also, in the same series, Gabool the Wild is kept awake by the sound of a stolen church-bell in his hall ringing on its own, though on one occasion it's not his imagination; his drunken followers throw apples at the bell while he's out of the room.

 

* Mr. Heckles on ''[[Friends]]''. It must be noted that the level of noise isn't in in his head, it's more of a case of [[Malevolent Architecture]] creating absolutely teethgrinding acoustics.

** It's interesting to note that he seems to like it, the way you can like something you've had all your life. He doesn't know what he'd be without that sound. When he's revived during "The End Of Time", he says he's missed the drums.

** In the finale of series 4, it's revealed that {{spoiler|he wasn't just insane, the Time Lords ''put'' the drumming in his head as part of a plan to try and save themselves from death in the Time War.}} It's noted that the rhythm of four drumbeats is the same rhythm as the double-beat of a Time Lord's two hearts. Interestingly, it's also the same underlying beat found in the famous [[Theme Song]], so one wonders if that was intentional...

* In ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'', the ticking clock sound effect that plays whenever Sylar's up to his old tricks evokes this trope. Even though it's not literally a ticking he can hear, it symbolizes that he can see how everything works in a way no one else can, which drives him batty.

* Season 3 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' had the telepath variant.

* In the televised miniseries ''[[I Claudius]]'', Caligula goes mad, partly due to the sounds of running horses which only he can hear. (The series implies he was nuts from the beginning, and only got worse after he suffered an illness.) Caligula himself claims that, as a god, he hears many things that keep him from sleeping, and that's one reason he acts so strangely.

* ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]''. An alien (disguised as a human) plants the sound of a music box in Counsellor Troi's head so she won't be able to detect him. The sound drives her to madness, so he removes it once his identity is revealed.

[[Category:Sound FX Tropes]]

[[Category:Terrible Ticking]]