Brown Note: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[File:brown-note_9042.png|frame|[[Classical Mythology|Medusa]] was a [[A Worldwide Punomenon|stone cold]] [[Taken for Granite|killer]].]]

 

== Anime & Manga ==

** This is possibly based on the myth of the Hungarian song "Gloomy Sunday" (see [[Real Life]] below). It was so sad that it was dubbed the "Hungarian suicide song", and caused depressed people to kill themselves when they listened to it. This, however, was all a marketing ploy (while the original lyrics were thought to cause people to become depressed, they were almost completely changed when it was released outside Hungary), and no suicides were actually linked to the song.

** The manga also contains a scene where two captives are tortured with the audio version of ''The Dark Abyss'', a book bound in human flesh and printed by five different people, one page at a time, so they wouldn't succumb to it. The pair withstood the audiobook for some 4 minutes before caving in.

** This incidentally may be a subtle demonstration of psychic powers at play, since the idea of a brain-case abducting Ghosts of other people contradicts the internal logic of the series at many levels.

** This also turned out to be how the terrorist group The Individual Eleven recruited in ''2nd Gig''. {{spoiler|A series of documents that contain the group's manifesto are scattered across the Net. If a person of suitable personality and physical qualifications reads all eleven in order, a cybernetic meme is unleashed that turns them into a fanatical soldier for the Eleven.}} People who don't fit in the mold demonstrate different kinds of personality shifts, like the reporter who became obsessed with the refugee issue, but never acted on his own right, until the virus drove him to commit suicide, or the old professor, who simply took interest in the literary value of the {{spoiler|imaginary}} manuscript, without getting a single radical idea out of it.

* The Chapter Black tape from ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' reportedly contains hours upon hours of [[Humans Are Bastards|humanity's worst deeds]], and just watching it for five minutes can turn anyone into a [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] as their respect for humanity drops to rock bottom. It's mentioned that the tape is part of a set with Chapter White, which contains all the greatest acts of human kindness and compassion. Koenma even says Chapter Black is a "One sided argument", and both tapes are apparently about the same length.

** In the Drama CD, Haruhi creates the musical equivalent, which had to be defeated by [[The Power of Rock]]. At the end of the CD, while the [[Ear Worm]] properties of the tune had been excised, Haruhi goes on to come up with the ''[[Dancing Theme|dance]]'' version of this. Kyon warns the audience to avert their eyes if they see it, even though he thinks it's already too late.

* In ''[[Madlax]]'', the words "{{spoiler|Elda Taluta}}" and others bring to life parts of a person's psyche that are buried within; only a handful can hear these and not go insane. And god help you if you read the books that these words come from.

** More accurately, it only affects "barcoders", killers who are {{spoiler|created by a shadowy government agency seeking to produce the ultimate corps of "sleeper" assassins}}; and "activates" them or transfers/replicates the control personality (based on musician-turned-terrorist Lucy Monostone) between them. The concert was intended to active them en masse.

* In ''[[Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service]]'', one story was about our [[Five-Man Band]] investigating a certain railway crossing with an unusually high suicide rate. It seems to have to do with a suicide song played near the tracks, until they go there and discover that the music is an accidental combination of the railroad warning signal, the school chime and the tune played by the recycling truck, which makes people want to die.

* In [[Shotaro Ishinomori]]'s manga, [[Tokusatsu]] and anime series ''[[Kikaider]]'', the [[Big Bad]] Professor Gill has a flute that allows him to control his robotic creations. The flute affects Jiro/Kikaider as well: because of his [[Pinocchio Syndrome|incomplete conscience circuit]], the flute's sound causes him physical pain and also sends him into a [[Brainwashed]] [[Unstoppable Rage|rage]]. Only after he [[Henshin Hero|transforms]] into his "Kikaider" form does the flute not affect him.

** That happens in the anime too, he just forgot for most of the series. After remembering, he could transmute without a circle, but refrains from doing any transmutation for other reasons.

** Similarly, Capacity Down is a sound that shuts down esper powers. And it ''is'' quite [[Hell Is That Noise|headache-inducing]] to those who have sensitive ears.

** The second season of ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'' has Index getting surrounded by armed nuns. She responds with a song that subconsciously exposes all the supposed contradictions of Christianity to every believer in range, instantly incapacitating all of her attackers, who writhe on the ground screaming in agony. The second wave responds by everyone taking out a pair of fountain pens and ''stabbing themselves in the ears to deafen themselves so that the song won't effect them''.

* ''[[Violinist of Hameln]]'' ''runs'' almost entirely on this trope, flavored with [[Rule of Cool]], [[Refuge in Audacity]] and copious amounts of crack. But what else can you say for a series whose entire premise is that the heroes use magical music to beat evil up (and to beat each other up, they're rather dysfunctional)...?

* Not a major plot element but once in a while there is mention of a whistle that is about the only thing to harm ''[[Kamen no Maid Guy]]'''s Kogarashi. (First and last episode, actually)

* Played for laughs on a national scale in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnri1Wp5sOc this clip] from ''[[Kujibiki Unbalance]]''.

* {{spoiler|Hakko}} from ''[[Canaan]]'' has the ability to kill people with her voice, but whenever she speaks or sings it sounds perfectly normal. The audience only hears how she perceives her voice ''herself'', rather than the people affected by it.

* The powerful human and crow [[Youkai|tengu]] of ''Japan Tengu Party Illustrated'' have only one real weakness: {{spoiler|seeing a "real" tengu, a large seemingly flightless bird causes instant [[De-Power|DePowering]]. This is due to the tengu's view that they are unique supernatural beings, and discovering that their legend is based on a real animal completely shatters their powers.}}

* In one chapter of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'', Keroro manages to disable Natsumi by [[Take Our Word for It|whispering something in her ear]]. Fuyuki later asks Natsumi what he said to her, but Natsumi only replies "[[Medium Awareness|Do you want to get this book banned?]]"

** Also, it's revealed Kururu can use his headphones to generate a sonic attack that broadcasts the target's least favorite sound (nails on a chalkboard, pieces of styrofoam being rubbed together, etc.) right into their brain.

* Wunder X's music in ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' causes people to go insane and kill themselves.

* The songs of the mermaids of ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' are beautiful to listen to but hurt people with an evil heart to the point of death.

* Dimitri from ''[[Kurobara Alice]]'' is a tenor who acquires this power after being turned into a vampire. {{spoiler|He accidentally kills his own audience, to start}}.

 

*** An earlier Ellis example occurred in ''City of Silence'', where a hacker overrides every TV channel so demons can "relate all the secrets of hell on live TV". Hearing these secrets drives viewers insane... except for the protagonists, who "knew it all already" on account of {{spoiler|being natives of hell}}.

** And in one issue of ''The Authority'', there's an idea so disturbing that anyone who hears it has to tell someone else, ''and then kill themselves''. It's stopped by having the last victim tell it to a film producer, then be restrained. The producer declares it "too downbeat" and promptly [[Completely Missing the Point|rewrites it to be more cheerful]].

** There also exists the Life Equation, which is the fundamental proof that life ''is'' [[No Except Yes|worth living]]. {{spoiler|The heroes use the Life Equation to counter the Anti-Life near the end of ''[[Final Crisis]]''.}}

** Of course, if you read the quote page, you will find that that equation does not work out at all.

*** Of course, you probably didn't say it out loud...

* Pied Piper, usually a mostly harmless reformed villain in [[The DCU]], turns out to be able to cause a [[Brown Note]] effect with his flute, as demonstrated in ''[[Countdown to Final Crisis]]''. Not only does he [[Your Head Asplode|kill Desaad]] with it, he ''takes out Apokolips''. And he [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|does it using the music of]] ''[[Crowning Music of Awesome|Queen.]]'' Pied Piper could do this because he was one of the rare humans who possessed the entire Anti-Life Equation inside his mind.

* An old ''[[Casper the Friendly Ghost]]'' comic had a story about a scarecrow so un-scary that the Ghostly Trio gave it the scariest face in existence: a photo of the Ogre of the Black Pool. It was so scary it even scared ghosts! In fact, the only thing it couldn't scare was a sweet little old lady who painted over the scarecrow's face with a friendly one when it came to life and went berserk. (Those old Harvey comics could get ''weird''.)

** Speaking of Harvey, ghost boos. They frighten practically ''everything'', even [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|gods and demons!]] (To be fair, though, demons in the Harvey-verse aren't [[Our Demons Are Different|exactly terrifying.]])

* From ''[[Bone]]'', Fone Bone's reading voice causes mild drowsiness for human listeners, and debilitating pain for rat creatures. This is probably mostly due to the fact that he always reads [[Moby Dick]].

* In Mike Carey's ''[[Lucifer (Comic Book)|Lucifer]]'', a primordial Jin En Mok creature in human guise punishes a janitor, who disturbed his train of thought, by giving him a gold coin bearing "the sigil Calx." As the janitor stares transfixed at the sigil, the Jin En Mok tells him that he will look at it more often each day, with a corresponding increase in pain and pleasure, until he dies within a year.

* In ''[[The Sandman (Comic Book)|The Sandman]]'' #45, Ishtar is a [[God in Human Form|goddess in human form]] working as an exotic dancer, and apparently she's been holding back the full extent of her dancing talents. After a visit from Dream and Delirium, she stops holding back. Her last dance kills the audience and burns the strip club to the ground.

* In ''[[The Umbrella Academy]]'' story arc "The Apocalypse Suite", the antagonist has constructed an orchestra of the sadistic and suicidal to play a symphony that will end the world. Similarly, The White Violin is capable of making heads explode and bodies tear themselves apart by just barely scraping her strings.

* [[Marvel Comics]] villain Angar the Screamer had the power to cause nightmarish hallucinations by screaming. He would then rob his victims while they were paralyzed with horror. Amnesia would set in after the effect faded, leaving the victims wondering where they'd left their wallets.

* Mark Waid's ''[[Irredeemable]]'' had a sonic virus that melted off its child victims' skin right down to their bones and animated their skeletons. It spread through the screams of the adult witnesses.

** Orian, a demonic hunter, is summoned by merely reading (not aloud) a mystic sigil. He arrives in our world by ripping his way out through the victim's mouth.

* In the one-shot Battle for the Cowl: Arkham Asylum, the Hamburger Lady believes that her face is so deformed that anyone not already insane can't look upon it. Dr Arkham tries to prove her wrong by looking at her face... and is later implied to have gone insane because of it. {{spoiler|Except that she was a figment of his imagination.}}

* Lars Bengtsson's novel, "The Long Ships", had an appearance by two Irish jesters/dwarfs who said they were careful to tone down their performance because they'd killed one patron by being so funny that he laughed himself to death.The Viking crew who'd picked them up decided not to tempt the fates/Norns by calling the jesters on their claim.

* ''National Lampoon'' once ran a comic about Ugly Deirdre, a little girl who was so hideous that the sight of her face caused people to lose bowel control. A kind plastic surgeon tried to fix Deirdre's face... and the results were so horrible that anyone who looked at her would violently blind or kill themselves. The cartoonist spared us the sight of the after-surgery face by covering it with a black box labeled "TOO HIDEOUS FOR PUBLICATION".

* Again in the DC Comics world, the Accomplished Perfect Physician of the Great Ten (the Chinese Justice League) is capable of both healing diseases and CREATING EARTHQUAKES, among several other things, by making special vocal sounds he learned in his training.

* The Mike Allred comic, ''Red Rocket 7'', featured a secret note of existence that if played, signaled the destruction of evil and the dawn of paradise. He used it to destroy an evil alien empire that was invading Earth (after it had taken over most of the universe) and signal the second coming of God.

 

 

* [[David Cronenberg]]'s ''[[Videodrome]]'', about a TV signal that causes brain tumors and hallucinations. The discoverers of the signal attach it to a violent [[Gorn]] show {{spoiler|in order to clean up society by killing everyone who watches violent television}}.

* In ''[[Mystery Men]]'', Casanova Frankenstein built a machine that could warp [[Reality Warper|reality itself]]. Apparently the equations underlying it were so complex that anybody who studied them would go insane. Fortunately for Frankenstein, he was [[Obfuscating Insanity|already insane]] and had spent a decade in [[Bedlam House|the asylum]] with several of those scientists.

** "Ni!" works whether it's the Knights saying it or someone else, as when King Arthur is [[It Makes Sense in Context|harassing that old woman to find a shrubberer]].

* In ''[[Mars Attacks (Film)]]!'', it is discovered that the Martians' main weakness is the singing voice of Slim Whitman, which causes [[Your Head Asplode|their heads to explode]]. Seriously.

** Which is itself likely a call back to ''[[Attack of the Killer Tomatoes]]'', where the title tomatoes are pacified by a song called "Puberty Love". The last tomato, wearing earmuffs, was defeated by {{spoiler|showing it a copy of the sheet music.}}

* According to the Metatron in ''[[Dogma]]'':

{{quote| "... human beings have neither the aural nor the psychological capacity to withstand the awesome power of God's true voice. Were you to hear it, your mind would cave in and your heart would explode within your chest. We went through five Adams before we figured that out."}}

* ''The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz'' features the Tuning Fork of Annihilation. When played back over the emergency broadcast system, it causes the destruction of all TV sets and kills all children who hear it.

* In Steve Sullivan's ''[http://www.stevesullivan.co.uk/heap.html A Heap of Trouble]'', any man who hears the naked men singing about walking down the road has an irresistible urge to join them.

* In ''[[High Anxiety]]'' Dr. Wentworth gets {{spoiler|trapped in his car and killed from an ear hemorrhage caused by the loud rock music blaring from the car radio.}}

* In ''[[Disturbing Behavior]]'', the E-Rat-icator device used by [[Almighty Janitor|Mr. Newburry]] is designed to have this effect on rats to drive them away, but it doesn't work so well. {{spoiler|[[Chekhov's Gun|It is, however]], '' damn '' effective against [[Mind Control Device|mind-control chips]].}}

== Literature ==

* The word "{{spoiler|fnord!}}", from the ''[[Illuminatus]]!'' trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea; at a young age, everybody is trained to unconsciously ignore the word, but feel unspecified fear and anxiety when they see it.

* ''The King In Yellow'' is later used by [[August Derleth]] for the [[Cthulhu Mythos]], with a performance of the play acting as a [[Speak of the Devil|summoning ritual for]] Hastur. Anyone who ''wasn't'' driven insane by reading or viewing the play can say goodbye to their sanity once ''he'' shows up.

* In the novel ''[[Infinite Jest]]'', a movie known only as "The Entertainment" was described as so fascinating, anyone who watched it became obsessed with it.

* SF author [[David Langford]] invented the ''basilisk'', also known as the ''[[The Basilisk|Langford fractal basilisk]]'' or blit ([http://data.tumblr.com/13741903_500.jpg see here]), a fictional type of computer-generated image that basically acts as a [[Logic Bomb]] to the human brain. In the story, it is explained that logical paradoxes like <small>THIS SENTENCE IS FALSE</small> aren't normally dangerous to our sanity or our health because we filter them through three or more levels of cognitive understanding; basilisks, as theorized by Langford, cut right past cognition and [[You Are Already Dead|infect you directly]] through the visual cortex. [http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/blit.htm One of the stories.] According to Langford, [[You Are Already Dead|death is not immediate]], because [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form]].

* The short story ''Von Goom's Gambit'' featured a mathematician who became the world champion chess player "by default" when he discovered a certain arrangement of pieces on the board which formed an image that would short out the brain of anyone who saw it from the opposing player's perspective. Effects of the gambit included; causing some to go blind, driving others insane, and in one instance even turning all of those who saw the gambit at one tournament to turn to stone.

** Some [[Post Cyber Punk]] writers who've used the concept have [[Shout-Out|acknowledged]] Langford as inspiration: [[Greg Egan]] calls it the "Langford Mind-Erasing Fractal Basilisk"; [[Ken MacLeod]] has the "Langford Visual Hack"; and [[Charles Stross]] has "neural wetware-crashing Langford fractals" and the "Langford Death Parrot". (MacLeod also has his narrator claim it's completely impossible, but now the ''idea'' of it is out there people feel they have to take precautions, concluding "What kind of twisted mind ''starts'' these things?")

** Almost everything in Lovecraft's stories is described as being just a little bit harmful to sanity. He must have been fascinated by the idea of things so horrifying and/or alien they're inherently upsetting. Besides of all the [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] and other [[Ultimate Evil|Ultimate Evils]] you really don't want [[Take Our Word for It|to look at too closely]], there are things such as Pickman's paintings, of which the tamer ones caused an uproar when displayed, while the ones he didn't show everyone were enough to make a jaded and prepared onlooker scream in terror.

** Played utterly straight in the story ''Out of the Aeons'' (co-written with Hazel Heald). The [[Eldritch Abomination]] featured there is so horrible and/or accursed that not just its appearance, but even any sufficiently-accurate ''image'' thereof will cause a human onlooker to soon afterwards grow stiff and be transformed into their own mummy -- {{spoiler|while their brain remains alive and [[And I Must Scream|helplessly trapped inside their skull]]}}.

* The plot of Neal Stephenson's ''[[Snow Crash]]'' revolves around the titular Snow Crash virus which ''resets'' a person to speaking and understanding only ancient Sumerian, which is described as a programming language for human beings. It allows people to be programmed directly, but leaves them gibbering crazy people spouting glossolalia until then, and shows up in the form of a bitmap image. All hackers are vulnerable, because they can understand the embedded binary code in this bitmap, which causes their unconscious to be able to pick up and mentally "run" the virus. Any [[Hackers]] who sees the bitmap, whether in cyberspace or in real life, becomes infected with the virus and instantly turns into a wandering bag-lady (or, erm... bag-lord?).

** In [[Cyberpunk]] novels, the concept of "ice" capable of killing people in [[Your Mind Makes It Real|virtual reality]] is often based on the same idea of an image [[Go Mad From the Revelation|or piece of data]] that the [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|brain cannot process]].

** [[Great Big Library of Everything|The Library of the Unseen University]] is full of books that do [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|horrible things to people]]. In particular the Necrotelecomnicon (Written by Achmed the Mad, who preferred to be known as Achmed the I Just Get These Headaches) will drive mad any man who attempts to read it. Fortunately [[No Man of Woman Born|The Librarian isn't a man]] (but an orangutan) so he has no problem with it.

** On a less-rarified level, the 128-foot "Earthquake" pipe on the UU's pipe organ is said to have caused acute bowel discomfort across a quarter of the city when sounded. Which was only attempted once, as the same subterranean-depth note also got the six students who'd worked the bellows to power the organ sucked into the ductwork, plus the university's Great Hall shifted an inch to one side.

* In the Cordwainer Smith short story ''The Fife of Bodhidharma'', the fife can cause either serenity or madness, depending on how it is played.

* Necromancers' bells in the ''[[Old Kingdom]]'' trilogy by Garth Nix. Different bells give different effects, and the effect also depends on how the bell is played. One of the bells kills everyone who hears it, including the player.

** Vogon poetry in a form of [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]].

{{quote| The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their Poet Master Gruthos the Flatulent of his poem "Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning" four of his audience died of internal hemorrhaging, and the President of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off. Gruthos was said to be "disappointed" by the poem's reception, and was about to recite his masterpiece, "Some of My Favorite Bathtub Gurgles", when his small intestine, in an attempt to save galactic civilization, leapt into his skull and throttled his brain.}}

** The "Total Perspective Vortex" (a machine that displays a map of the entire universe with a tiny beyond microscopic dot pointing out where you are) causes anyone run through it to feel so insignificant that they go mad (except Zaphod, and that was under special circumstances).

* The [[Father Brown]] story "The Blast of the Book" has a book that supposedly causes anyone who tries to read it to vanish into thin air and never be seen again. {{spoiler|It's actually all just an elaborate practical joke.}} [[Robert Anton Wilson]] brazenly plagiarizes this in [[Masks Of The Illuminati]]

* The [[Fritz Leiber]] short story "Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee" is about the discovery of a waltz rhythm that causes anyone who hears it to become maniacally obsessed with it, listen for other examples of it, and recreate it at every opportunity.

* The [[Chuck Palahniuk]] novel ''[[Lullaby]]'' is about a poem which kills anyone to whom it is recited. Or even those toward whom it is '''[[Paranoia Fuel|thought.]]'''

* ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets|Harry Potter]]''

** Passing references to books that burn out the reader's eyeballs. And also books that can't physically be put down -- readers are cursed to go around reading those books for the rest of their lives.

** The big threat of the book is a basilisk -- a gigantic one, at that.

** The legend of the Mandrake (see below). The students have to wear hearing protection when pulling them out of the ground. Immature mandrakes just cause fainting. One can even tell their level of maturity by what they do--when they start trying to move into each other's pots, they're just about mature.

* The protagonist of [[Ian McDonald]]'s novella ''Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone'' has discovered visual patterns with various effects on human neurology -- and has two of them, one that blanks memory and one that kills, tattooed onto his own palms as self-defense.

* ''The Euphio Question'' by [[Kurt Vonnegut]] was about a device which picked up the "music of the spheres" (though it wasn't called that.) Anyone who heard it experienced pure happiness and, because they had no desire to fulfill their needs, stopped whatever they were doing to listen to it.

* ''Centerburg Tales: More Adventures of Homer Price'' by Robert McCloskey has a story where someone puts a horrible song on the jukebox in the lunch counter. Anyone who hears the song-- whether the original jukebox tune or someone else's rendition-- can't get it out of their head. Ultimately the main character gets it out of his head by using ''Punch, Brothers'' (above), then gives it to the rest of the town. Now he's cleared but they have it. So, he tells them to sing it to the one person who hadn't been in town. Now everyone is cleared except that person, who now has to be smuggled out of town to keep from reinfecting the whole town.

** The flip side of the same record causes the listener to {{spoiler|get hiccups at the thought of the words "pie" or "Mississippi".}}

* The [[Words Can Break My Bones|Deplorable Word]] from ''[[Narnia]]'' was used by [[God Save Us From the Queen|Jadis]] to destroy [[Alternate Universe|Charn]], her homeworld. We don't learn what the word is--only that [[Take Our Word for It|it sounds horrible]]. We do learn that, whatever it is, it does not work on Earth.<ref>Magic isn't the same from world to world. So the White Witch had to spend ages learning how to use Narnian magic.</ref>

{{quote| '''Aslan:''' While mankind has not yet reached the levels of corruption that Charn has, there ''is'' the possibility that man could learn the Deplorable Word.}}

** Presumably it doesn't work in Narnia either, else she surely would've used it there when she realized she was about to become lion-chow.

*** Popular opinion holds that because [[An Ice Person|Jadis's powers]] [[The Magic Goes Away|are diminished]] in The Wood Between Worlds / Narnia / Earth, she simply didn't have the juice necessary to use the Word as she did in Charn. Plus, the Word was her absolute last resort, since she preferred destroying everything than submitting to her sister and her armies. Besides, destroying everyone and everything on Earth or in Narnia before she had a chance to conquer would [[Pragmatic Villainy|just be silly]].

** In fairness to Lewis, the [[Atomic Hate|Bomb]] ''is'' the first weapon humanity has ever invented that ''seriously'' has the potential to depopulate the planet. Given the antagonistic politics of the day, and the fact that the Soviet Union had until recently been ruled by a genocidal madman, and well, the ongoing danger of nuclear weapons, he was right to be worried.

*** And despite the fact that the [[Cold War]] has ended and the Soviet Union disbanded, the fact that the United States and China still hold more nukes to destroy the world at least four times over more or less turns this into an allegory for "''He who launches a single nuke on a populace effectively ends all humanity''".<ref> Reminder: cockroaches are immune to nukes as well as damn near anything but a whole lot of blunt trauma, so it wouldn't be the end of all life on earth, just everything but cockroaches and microscopic organisms underneath the Earth.</ref>

** [[It Got Worse|It gets worse]]: {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Quinn]] [[Omnicidal Maniac|Dexter]] gets the weapon at one point. He's very happy when he finds out what it does. Turns out it facilitates possession when the body is soul-less.}}

** What's disturbing is that the technology was derived from commercial memory-imprinting educational devices, which have made schools obsolete by the 25th century.

* The whole plot of Simon R. Green's ''[[Nightside|Nightingale's Lament]]'' deals with this: a singer whose songs cause (some) audience members to commit suicide.

** And in ''Macroscope'' there is a sort of video that will destroy the intelligence of anyone above a certain IQ who hasn't evolved beyond violent tendencies.

* Paul Robinson's short story ''It Can't Be That Bad'' tells how Clark Rosecrans discovered something terrible that bothered him. He goes to visit a psychiatrist. This is when the police show up as the psychiatrist, upon hearing what Clark knows, used a chair to bash a hole in the window of his 20th story office, and jumped out, screaming. His secretary calls the police, and at first it's thought Clark has killed the psychiatrist. So he's taken down to the station to be interviewed. A police officer and a deputy district attorney interview him before his lawyer show up. When they hear his story, the police officer draws his revolver and eats a bullet. The Deputy DA runs out, runs across the street, and jumps off a bridge. The tape recording of the interview is transcribed. After the transcriber finishes, she walks out of the office, walks into the ladies' room and drowns herself in a toilet. Her supervisor picks up the transcript, reads it, then walks down to the motor pool, douses himself with gasoline, and lights a match. The DA has decided not to prosecute, because first, nobody knows if he's done anything illegal, and second, because no judge will touch the case, for fear of hearing what Clark has to say. The joke is, every time Clark tells his story, he's worried, and the response is always, "Oh, it can't be ''that'' bad."

* [[Goethe]]'s book ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther]]'' is generally reputed to have raised suicide rates among European youth.

* [[John Varley]]'s short story ''Press Enter'' starts with an investigation into the suicide, possible murder, of a computer hacker and reveals {{spoiler|that somebody roaming the young Internet (or perhaps the Internet itself) defends against persistent probing with a signal that compels the intruder to commit suicide}}.

** She uses these "clumsy" cheats because {{spoiler|when Phedre speaks the Name of God, everyone later says that the word they heard was "love" in their mother tongue.}}

* Ted Chiang's short story ''Understand'' features two super-intelligent people duelling by trying to implant deadly Brown Notes in each other. {{spoiler|The one that succeeds had been subconsciously planted in its victim in the previous few days; it is then triggered when his enemy tells him to "Understand"}}

* The hero of one of [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''SERRAted Edge'' novels uses the entire discography of [[They Might Be Giants]] to do this to a group of psychics sicced on him by the [[Big Bad]]; the theory was that the nonsensical nature of the band's lyrics made it impossible to sing along to without devoting a considerable amount of conscious thought to them, meaning his (and their) minds would be too preoccupied with thinking about the lyrics to do much of anything else. (It helped that the psychics trying to pick his brain were culturally stuck in the Middle Ages and had no ''possible'' context by which to even begin to grasp what the hell was going on in his head; one of them was led off wailing helplessly about alchemical formulae.) Also, they were [[Ear Worm|Ear Worms]], so every pyschic who didn't have them stuck in their head yet would hear it from the ones who are already affected, thus infecting them too.

** However, one of the hobgoblin servants found the tunes quite catchy and was also singing them before {{spoiler|being bitch-slapped by his boss}}.

* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' universe has the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3VtzMxmPs0 Nazgul's screeching].

* Uttering the [[Words Can Break My Bones|"right names of things"]] is the basis for magic in Ursula LeGuin's ''[[Earthsea]]'' series and similar works.

* [[Andre Norton]]'s novel ''Lord of Thunder'' mentioned that subsonic noise could be used to control animals or drive them into madness.

* [[Larry Niven]] has a couple of short stories set in his ''Draco Tavern'' universe that use this trope, with Niven's typical twist applied:

** ''The Subject is Closed'' -- Rick, proprietor of the Tavern overhears a priest discussing religion with one of the most ancient, gregarious, ubiquitous and therefore knowledgeable races to visit the tavern, the Chirpsithra. The Chirp relates a tale of an ancient race with whom the Chirps had commerce who had announced they were embarking on a search for an "Afterlife", either to prove or disprove its existence. When the Chirps lost contact with the race shortly after they announced a breakthrough in their research, explorers discovered the planet abandoned. The entire race had calmly, orderly and methodically committed suicide. The Chirps decided it pragmatic to not attempt to investigate what they had discovered.

* In ''Dream Park'', an industrial spy steals samples of 'neutral scent', an odor that causes a person's pre-existing emotions to become hyperintense. Too strong an exposure can make people lose all control of their fear, anger, lust, etc.

** It's actually odd that more examples of smell don't exist, since it's been suggested that smell is the fundamental sense, and is crucial to memory-retention in most creatures.

* [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s Talents are susceptible to a "sting-pzzt" sensation whenever they're near Hivers or anything built by Hivers. Not really harmful, but as it's described as a constant metallic, acidic "smell" (for want of a better term; it's actually a psychic sensation), it tends to make them very irritable.

* ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]]'' does this. IT pulses with a deep rhythm that causes people around to experience altered heartbeats and breathing to fall in line with the rhythm. It goes on from there to total control.

* [[Stephen Dedman]]'s novel ''The Art of Arrow Cutting'' features a mujina (shapeshifting creature from Japanese mythology) whose true face is a blank gray void that causes humans who see it to become mindless vegetables.

* The ''[[Ravenor]]'' series of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' novels contains the arch-villains quest to learn Enuncia, the language of the gods. A single, out-of-context syllable read aloud causes the speakers mouth to bleed, a nearby servitor's head to explode, and drives another berserk enough to smash its head to itty-bitty little pieces against a stone wall.

* In [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''Songmaster'', the protagonist, Ansset, can manipulate people psychologically with his singing. At one time, he causes a sadistic man to disembowel himself by showing the sadist the depth of his own evil through a song.

* German sci-fi pulp series [[Perry Rhodan]] has Alaska Saedelaere, a man who had an alien fragment fused to his face in a transporter accident which made everyone go insane and die just from looking at it. He had to wear a mask to disguise it. Being one of the series' main characters who had received cell activators to make them immortal, he had to wear that mask for a very long time. He got better after a couple of centuries, but had his condition [[Reset Button|reverted again]].

* The short story ''[http://www.math.yorku.ca/Who/Faculty/Steprans/Courses/3500/Consciousness/mi269-276.txt The Riddle of the Universe and its Solution]'' by philosopher Christopher Cherniak provides an example where comprehension of a certain fact induces a coma. Often, the last word uttered by a victim is "Aha!".

* In ''[[Into the Looking Glass]]'', one of the results of the creation of the Chen Anomaly is a [[Domed Hometown|bubble covering Boca Raton]], Florida. Any attempt at recording what's inside the bubble fails, and anyone who sees it goes incurably insane. A technician assisting Weaver's investigation of the anomalies caused by the explosion at the University of Florida suggests the result is like that from a human in the Lovecraft mythos looking upon one of the Old Ones, by seeing something that's completely beyond human comprehension.

* In Stephen Tunney's ''One Hundred Percent Lunar Boy'', people with a certain genetic condition have the ability to see the fourth primary color all around them, and this color happens to be in their irises as well. This color does not bother them, but normal people who see the color of their eyes fall into a temporary catatonic state, in which they are extremely suggestible and can have their thoughts manipulated.

** The full length film following it, Everything That Ever Wasn't, was apparently such a Brown Note that it completely destroyed itself, as well as the theater and anyone watching it.

{{quote| If during the last thousand seconds you have received any High-Beyond-protocol packets from "Arbitration Arts," discard them at once. If they have been processed, then the processing site and all locally netted sites must be physically destroyed at once. We realize that this means the destruction of solar systems, but consider the alternative. You are under Transcendent attack.}}

 

 

* [[Blipvert|Blipverts]] in ''[[Max Headroom]]'', supercompressed TV commercials that occasionally make [[Your Head Asplode]].

* ''[[The Outer Limits]]'': In "Music of the Spheres", the titular music is a signal from space which, in addition to being extremely addictive, ends up causing a series of dramatic physical transformations in listeners. Notably, unlike most examples of the [[Brown Note]], {{spoiler|the changes the music causes ultimately turn out to be beneficial - it transforms humans into a form that is resistant to a high-UV environment, which is what the Earth is about to become due to the sun undergoing a "shift".}}

** One episode features an alien who uses this to distract Deanna Troi from probing his mind, basically by [[Ear Worm|sticking a song permanently in her head]]. Apparently, Troi is allergic to ethereal, tinkly music-box music, because while it's mildly annoying to the viewer Troi reacts not like she's going mad, so much as she's in intense, head-exploding pain. [[Brown Note]] indeed.

*** Troi's example doesn't really count, as there is nothing compulsive about the music. It is simply that the alien ''forces'' Troi to hear it, constantly, day and night, 24/7. No matter how innocuous the music, after a while ''anyone'' would start to crack up, begging for it to stop, especially if it was in your ''head''. And he keeps turning up the volume. Since nobody other than Troi can hear the music, this is more of a case of [[Terrible Ticking]].

* One episode of ''[[The Middleman]]'' involves a cursed tuba from the ''Titanic'' that causes anyone who hears it to "drown in the icy waters of the North Atlantic". Including people who are on dry land at the time.

* The Green Clarinet sketch from ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'' ends with {{spoiler|a put-upon waiter countering the Clarinet's forced-truth effect with a literal [[Brown Note]] from a red tuba.}} The clarinet itself may not be a literal example, but it does have the effect of compelling the listener to reveal "an embarrassing truth... that they'll be unable to deny." Call it emotional harm if you must.

* An episode of ''[[Seinfeld]]'' had to do with Elaine going out with a man who would go into near-catatonic states of bliss when he heard the Eagles song "Desperado". Irritated, she tried to get him to make a song "their song", suggesting "Witchy Woman", which he doesn't seem to particularly care for. At the end of the episode, he gets into a car accident, but unfortunately the surgeon goes into a similar state of lapse when he hears, irony of ironies, "Witchy Woman", which is playing on the speakers for some reason. It's implied the man dies as a result.

** Let's not forget Kramer's hilarious reaction to Mary Hart's voice. It's apparently [[Truth in Television]]. See the real life examples.

** A later episode had a frequency broadcast over the radio that completely wiped the memories of everyone who heard it. The backstory alluded to a radio broadcast that existed before the existence of radios. The broadcast itself was composed of a random series of numbers spoken in every different language.

* An episode of ''[[The X-Files]]'' ("Drive") involved a secret Navy communication device which generated radio waves that supposedly vibrated at a frequency that matched that of a human skull, filling listeners' head with increasing pressure that would literally blow out of their ears fatally unless the pressure was relieved surgically.

* The only thing capable of instantly defeating [[The Adventures of Pete and Pete|Artie the Strongest Man in the World]] is the sound of a whammy bar.

** It's implied that this will not kill River either, so it's probably something the Academy does in the brain.

* An episode of ''[[Masters of Horror]]'' titled "Cigarette Burns" revolved around a certain film, ''La Fin absolue du Monde'', all copies of which were thought to have been destroyed after its first screening sparked a homicidal riot amongst the audience. It is revealed at the end that the reason for this is that {{spoiler|''La Fin absolue du Monde'' was a video of an angel being mutilated, and the evil of that horror affects all who view the film}}.

* This theme also becomes an important plot point in ''[[Dollhouse]]''. {{spoiler|In the first season, we see an example of a "remote wipe", which removes the imprinted personality of the doll and restores him or her to their doll state. In the second season, Topher develops a device that can wipe anyone you point it at, even normal humans.}}

* MTV's ''FurTV'' features an episode where Fat Ed's Heavy Metal band Stinkhole discovers the literal [[Brown Note]]. Many innocents shit themselves to death listening to the song.

** He does mention that certain gifted people can perceive his true visage. His vessel Jimmy is one of them, and John Winchester is strongly hinted of also being one, given that [[Archangel Michael|Michael]] directly spoke to him at one point.

* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' contains tons of objects that are capable of this, without even going into the really dangerous things in [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Dark Vault]], like Sylvia Plath's typewriter, which sucks the will to live out of a person just by looking at it. In fact, all of the artifacts in the Dark Vault are activated by some human sense.

* [[Beach Boys|Brian Wilson]] suppressed the song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LI-KazTKw8 Fire] for allegedly causing fires; see "Real Life" below for details.

* "The Sermon II", the opening, spoken-word track on The Creepshow's album "Run For Your Life", is about a radio signal that causes a [[Zombie Apocalypse]].

* Hawkwind's song "Sonic Attack" (actually more spoken-word with a few musical undertones) features a public service announcer giving advice on what to do "In case of Sonic Attack on your region," and describing symptoms of "imminent sonic destruction," which include dizziness, vomiting, an ache in the pelvic region, and fits of hysterical shouting or laughter (at which the announcer starts laughing hysterically, revealing that the Sonic Attack has hit ''his'' region).

* [[Tim Minchin]]'s song "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UWtcSvtiQw F Sharp]" features him singing that note (which is notoriously hard to keep up) while playing piano in F major (As he claims, at least - [[Insistent Terminology|he's actually playing in the relative minor of D minor during the note]]). The combination of the two creates some definite unease and cringing.

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons]]'':

** An article in ''[[Dragon]] Magazine'', the late official magazine of the game, described a sage who delved into the study of the Lords of the Nine, the nine arch-devils who rule the Nine Hells of Baator. He went missing; all that turned up of him were a few spots of blood on his floor. It's speculated that either he [[Speak of the Devil|attracted the attention of the devils]], who spirited him away; or that that the sheer evil of the tomes he was reading caused him to spontaneously implode.

** Power Word spells, single words that can blind, stun or [[One-Hit Kill|kill]] those too weak or injured to resist without even a saving throw.

** In ''D&D'', it's possible to place spell traps on objects, which are triggered by looking at, or reading them.

* ''[[Earthdawn]]''. Simply reading about the Horrors can cause psychological problems and attract their attention upon the reader.

* ''[[Call of Cthulhu]]''. Reading Cthulhu Mythos books or seeing Mythos monsters can cause a loss of sanity and eventual insanity.

** And the Daughters of Cacophony have many ways to screw you over with their singing.

* In ''[[Seventh Sea|7th Sea]]'', there is a red jewel known as "Legion's Spike". While not everyone has been affected by it, some unfortunate cases who have stared into its depths have suffered from catatonia, madness and homicidal rampages. And there's apparently more than one such gem.

** ''[[GURPS]]: Ultra-Tech'' has a more literal brown note. Sonic nauseators make people void their bowels as side effect of knocking them out. Just don't mix one up with a Sonic Screamer, which produces a sound that ''melts'' the target.

* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' had the Flash Pak, a device that fired light bulbs in a random stroboscopic sequence that caused disorientation in anyone who viewed it.

** And, naturally, there's rules for building Brown Notes ranging from "blinding flash of light" to "self-aware infectious meme".

* ''[[Exalted]]'' features a spell called Rune of Singular Hate. It's described as a single word full of such vile and complete hatred that, when uttered at someone, curses them to debility at best, and outright death at worst. It's such a powerful word that it even affects the caster in a similar way, and can only be cast once in a lifetime.

** Similarly, the Deathlord known as the Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible is working on a mammoth collection of books about the theology of death. Some are used as holy books for ancestor cults, some are gibberish he keeps in his own personal library...and some describe Oblivion so seductively the reader goes insane.

** Pandora gates are also noted to be odd enough that they hurt your head and cause some [[Psychic Powers|asyncs]] to wig out. Most of the solar system bases that contain gates keep them covered at all times...just to be on the safe side.

* In the ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' tabletop RPG, Eredun, the language of demons, is said to be inherently evil and has a will of its own; it slowly rots the brain of any nondemon who speaks it, driving them mad and corrupting them towards evil. It's one of the reasons that warlock magic is considered so taboo, as it's required for the casting of spells.

** Any picture of Ananda, Lord of Murder, the Infinite, and the Fourth Age, induces physical and/or psychological damage in those who see it. Actually seeing him in the flesh is worse.

 

 

== Video Games ==

** In-game, any sonic-based attack counts as this. The most potent of these would be Perish Song, a song that will make all listeners [[Non-Lethal KO|faint]] in three turns if they don't switch or have an immunity to sound attacks.

* Demonica in ''[[Stretch Panic]]'', a horror movie fanatic who was mystically transformed into a monster so horrifying that seeing her is fatal.

* The [[Infocom]] interactive-fiction game ''[[Hollywood Hijinks]]'' features an unfinished film called ''A Corpse Line''; the reason it's unfinished is that it's so horrific, anyone who watches it, even its creator, dies of a massive heart attack.

* The ''[[Condemned]]'' series makes use of this in the second game. In fact, it's the main plot point of the whole series -- {{spoiler|the conspiracy responsible for the homeless population of the City going insane relies on sounds that, when heard/felt, have effects ranging from minor cranial hemorrhaging, causing omnicidal psychosis which just happens to coincide with protecting the conspiracy -- and did I mention they're only omnicidal to people who are not Influenced? -- to causing heads to explode -- for emitters and your average conspirator, just birds, while the main character can generate sounds that explode human heads.}}

** Playing the game in hard mode lets the player actually see this happening. In any other mode, [[Take Our Word for It|the game cuts away to another scene for a few seconds]], then back to the main character, who is now mysteriously alone and completely unscathed.

** In fact, the basic premise of most of this game could be considered a [[Brown Note]]. Singing or playing certain sequences of notes (called "drafts") can have a wide variety of effects on reality, from the innocuous (Dyeing) to the beneficial (Healing) to the [[Nightmare Fuel|horrific]] (Unmaking).

** It's also implied that all magic in that game is some sound- "Oh Admonishing Melody,...".

** The seventh fonon which allows fonist such as Tear to use healing spells is the fonon for sound and can cause healing, most magic and a hyperresonance which can teleport people into new locations and destroy countries.

* The [[MOTHER]] series has a lot of these. Examples include {{spoiler|singing Giegue into submission}} in the first game, Frank saying something nasty in the second, or [[That One Boss|Lucky's bass]] in Mother 3

* ''[[Quest for Glory IV]]'' has the Ultimate Joke (apparently about the wizard and the farmer's daughter, that John Rhys-Davies calls "a killer"). Telling it will make anyone laugh, no matter the situation. It's just that funny. The catch is that you can only use it once, under the principle that a joke is less funny the more often you hear it. You use it {{spoiler|against Ad Avis in the final battle, to distract him long enough to prepare and unleash your killing blow.}}

* {{spoiler|Zelenin's Hymn}} in [[Strange Journey|Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey]].

* In ''[[Star Control II]]'', learning too much about other dimensions draws the attention of some rather nasty [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]].

* The "Correspondence" (ancient alphabet whose purpose nobody knows for sure) in ''[[Echo Bazaar]]'' can drive you insane, or even cause your hair to catch fire.

* In [[Skyrim]], the [[Player Character]] must find a way to affect the [[Big Bad]] Alduin. As it is, {{spoiler|Alduin is an Aedric soul, above life, death and mortality.}} So the [[Make Me Wanna Shout|words of power]] that can bring him down to your level are {{spoiler|Mortal, Finite, Temporary}}, all concepts which are foreign to dragons and are harmful to them if used as a Shout.

** The Graybeards warn the Dragonborn against learning Dragonrend because it was a weapon forged by hatred and fury directed at Dragonkind. According to them, to learn a Word of Power is to take in everything about it into your soul. {{spoiler|Since their leader is a Dragon, the Graybeards understandably don't want anything to do with a Shout created by hatred directed at Dragons.}}

* In the world of ''[[The Demented Cartoon Movie]]'', saying the word "Blah" sometimes causes your head to pop off of your neck, although the exact rules regarding this are inconsistent. Saying or producing a recording of the word "Zeekyboogydoog" causes a nuclear explosion at the location the sound originated from. Saying the word "Gleegsnagzip" causes [[Earthshattering Kaboom|the entire planet to explode]]. And saying "Kamikaze Watermelon" cues a visit from Fooby, the Kamikaze Watermelon.

** "(Fanfare plays) Wheeee! (splat)"

* According to the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' cartoon "Fall Float Parade", Strong Sad goes into an unexplained trance whenever he hears the phrase "covered bridges". At least until Strong Bad starts hitting him with nunchucks.

** In this same series, there's the Creepy Painting Strong Mad keeps in his closet, which depicts a gargoyle-like creature named Rocoulm who says "Come on in here!" and causes anyone who hears those words to get "the jibblies."

* In ''[[RPG World]]'', it's hinted that the four Mystic Keys are these. At least it was strongly hinted that reading the Tiger Book was what made Jeff go crazy and turn evil.

* [http://www.deadboydesigns.com/kreepy/strip%2035.htm Kreepy Kat]

** Vaarsuvius [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0092.html prepared Explosive Runes this morning].

* [http://i33.tinypic.com/15zibf7.gif This comic] from ''[[The Parking Lot Is Full]]'' describes such an occurrence.

** Not to forget Sam's real er... face, which he theorizes triggers some sort of nurturing instinct in humans, since any time someone sees it they immediately disgorge their stomach contents. This is a big part of why he wears a full-body environment suit with an animated mechanical face.

** And most recently, the [[Memetic Mutation|Sticky Notes of Doom]] that cause any robot who reads them while connected to the commnet to download an upgrade that lobotimizes them.

* In ''[http://www.jaydenandcrusader.com/2008/06/27/page-74/ Jayden and Crusader]'', the character Third can apparently utter proofs of the non-existence of God so powerful Priests have heart attacks because of the conflict of their profession and the utter logic of the proof. We are of course not told what this proof is.

* For [[Final Fantasy VII|Cloud]] in ''[[Ansem Retort]]'', "[[One-Winged Angel]]" is this: it makes him flash back to to Sephiroth.

* ''[[Necessary Monsters]]'': Jonathon tells the man on the safehouse front desk ''something'' that causes him to pull his own skull apart.

* Rowasu of ''[[Juathuur]]'' makes his sword screech by draggin it on the ground to confuse his enemies.

* In ''[[Poharex]]'', Eperok uses "The Call", a high-frequency sound(which he refers to as magic), to force any dinosaur that hears it to come and aid him in battle. He only used it once in order to distract Leay, allowing Poharex to get the upper hand.

* ''[[A Miracle of Science]]'' has the book "Crank Theories on Robotics", that is a known vector of [[Science-Related Memetic Disorder]].

* The Doom Bell of [[Girl Genius]] painfully knocks out all those who hear it for the first time.

{{quote| '''Mama Gkikka:''' Keeds today. Kent even take a leedle '''existential despair'''.}}

** Mama was surprised, though, that Gil found the sound "beautiful" as it meant Agatha was still alive and fighting. It's been implied, though, that Gil may be related to the Jagermonsters, which may account for his immunity.

 

 

* In ''Star Harbor Nights'', a close-up look at the insanity causing molecule in Rhyme's blood at just the right angle causes viewers to scream until they pass out.

* An [[Easter Egg]] in the ''[[Sonic Shorts]]'' collection volume 2 features an extremely terrifying version of the Tails Doll that allegedly causes grown men to scream like a little girl.

** A "Langford-Berryman Memetic Kill Agent" triggers a fatal neurally-induced heart attack into any "un-innoculated" personnel trying to view the SCP-001 entry. [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/proposals-for-scp-001 Try your luck here]. ** SCP-701 is [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-701 play] very reminiscent of ''[[The King in Yellow]]''.

** SCP-298 is [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-298 this pipe organ].

* The "full version" of the Creepypasta video "Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv" is said to drive the viewer to insanity.

* The Choir from ''[[The Fear Mythos]]'' can distort sounds...and make them shatter glass, rupture eardrums, and ''hemorrhage people's brains''. Luckily, most of the time they seem content to simply [[Driven to Suicide|drive you to suicide]], but if you piss them off...

 

 

* In ''[[Justice League]]'', the supervillain {{spoiler|Ace of the Royal Flush Gang}} is a human Brown Note. Simply looking into her eyes, even through a television broadcast, can lead to delusions and eventual catatonia. If she really puts her mind to it, the result can last long after she's left or even become permanent. Eventually her power expands until {{spoiler|she is a full-blown [[Reality Warper]]}}.

* ''[[The Smurfs]]'' dealt with a magic flute that caused anyone who heard its song to fall into a permanent magical sleep.

** There's also an even sadder film, consisting of several hours of a baby chimp trying to revive its dead mother, but fortunately it's never released.

** It's never stated, but it is implied, with the Golden Turd. While it does have a lot of monetary value, seeing as how it's solid gold and encrusted with valuable gems, it drives the people who find it to do some insane things to keep it or to prevent others from having it, implying that it does have a more drastic immediate effect on the finders. Let's see, the first man who finds it is with his friend, {{spoiler|and he quickly kills the friend because he doesn't like the idea of sharing the value. He regrets it immediately and kills himself}}. The next person who finds it is a long-time ethical cop {{spoiler|who takes it from a crime scene two weeks before retirement, putting his pension at risk}}. He immediately regrets it, but not before his wife finds out. {{spoiler|The cop decides to return it and his wife ACTS like she agrees, but then we see her put poison in his tea...}}

* ''[[Futurama]]'' has the Hypnotoad, whose penetrating gaze lulls you into a mindless catatonic state until [[Interrupting Meme|ALL GLORY TO]] [[The Hypnotoad]]!

** "[[Exposition|The fiend!]] [[Magic Music|His voice can hit a pitch]] [[Compelling Voice|that hypnotically controls]] [[Brainwashed|anyone who hears it]]."

** The fan-favorite ending of "Band Geeks" features [[The Power of Rock]] so awesome, {{spoiler|it gives Squilliam Fancyson a heart attack.}}

* On one episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'' Peter is warned not to watch [[The Ring|a video that kills anyone who watches it]]. He scoffs and takes the [[Schmuck Bait]], and promptly keels over. The film? ''Mannequin''. [[Take That|A certain amount of]] [[Truth in Television]], to be sure....

** On another episode Quagmire tells Peter a dirty joke with the punchline {{spoiler|"P.S.: Your vagina's in the sink!"}}, which Peter finds so funny he poops himself every time he hears it. So Quagmire and Joe keep telling him the punchline through various means (texting him, having [[Nightmare On Elm Street|Freddy Krueger]] tell him in a dream).

{{quote| '''Peter:''' "Stop it, you guys, you're ruining all my clothes!}}

* In one episode of ''[[Fish Hooks]]'', Bea attempts to make friends with Albert by playing the violin. [[Dreadful Musician|Her playing is so bad]] Albert's face cracks and his organs fly out.

* [[Super Mario Bros Super Show]] episode "Stars In Their Eyes" established that certain sounds could disrupt 'Moonman' Koopa's technology. In order to save the Marios from being blown up by Koopa's spaceship, the quirks- an alien race Koopa enslaved- use their double-snouts to toot a kazoo-version of the Zelda theme.

{{quote| '''Koopa:''' You call that ''music?'' Stop that racket!}}

 

 

== Real Life ==

* Not to be confused with the real-life [[wikipedia:Brownian noise|"Brown noise,"]] which is completely harmless.

* This trope is the source of the common [[Fridge Logic]] expressed about how we know what deadly gases smell like ([[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|almonds, fresh hay, etc.]])

** Toxicity is relative; any toxin on earth is only deadly in sufficient quantities, and the quantities needed to ''smell it'' are often (but not always) miniscule enough to avoid injury. This is how [[Scarily Competent Tracker|Scarily Competent Trackers]] get away with trying to identify suspicious substances by "tasting" them.

** Oh yeah. This turboprop was fitted [[Up to Eleven|with an afterburner]].

* A 1991 [http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/14/weekinreview/headliners-all-in-the-voice.html news article] reported that a woman suffered epileptic seizures upon hearing the voice of ''Entertainment Tonight'' host Mary Hart. This was worked into an episode of ''[[Seinfeld]]'', because it is [[Rule of Funny|funny]].

** Some of these cases, especially the less-severe ones, may have been caused by mass hysteria after seeing a news report on the initial cases.

** Spoofed in ''[[The Simpsons]]'', when they went to Japan and saw the show "Battling Seizure Robots", which had the expected result.

** It should be noted that it only affected children who had a history of seizures. If a person without them watches the scene, all it does it make your eyes water.

* Proving that the [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|Python]] boys really did know the lethal joke all along, in 1989 a Danish audiologist named Ole Bentzen [[Die Laughing|died of laughter]] watching [[A Fish Called Wanda]]. [http://web.archive.org/web/20080412072030/http://www.canongate.net/Lists/Death/9PeopleWhoDiedLaughing The film made him laugh so hard that his heart lethally beat upwards up 500 beats a minute.]

** On the other hand, there is a record of a woman suffering a [[Gorn|fatal heart attack while watching]] ''[[The Passion of the Christ]].''

** In the Philippines, not only does ''My Way'' cause bar fights, but also deaths. The perpetrators are either singers who get booed after singing it, or bar patrons who didn't like the victim's rendition of the song.

*** There was a report of a guy dying of heart failure immediately after singing ''My Way'' in a karaoke-equipped pub in Singapore. Eerily enough, the tragedy happened on the exact same day as Sinatra's passing and the guy shared the same first name as Sinatra.

** Also reading about yawning. Having stopped yet?

** Slowpoke used Yawn! *player yawns*

* Due to the nature of work with Thermodynamics being pessimistic, statistical mechanics is infamous for the number of famous suicides among the scientific founders. One text book has this as the opening paragraph.

{{quote| Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the same work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics. [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|Perhaps it will be wise to approach the subject cautiously]].}}

* For a brief time in 2008, there was a rumor going around on the [[Game FAQs]] message boards (and possibly elsewhere) that watching a video entitled [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZfTBj-3HdU Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv] would cause one to go insane, tear one's eyes out, and/or commit suicide. Most of the hype died down when it was discovered that the creepy guy in the video [[Jossed|was actually a tech support worker from Florida]].

* During an Anonymous protest outside of Scientology's headquarters/armed compound in Hemet, California, Scientologists tried to drive the Anons away by using [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtzIIrMqn0s a loud organ tritone], humorously dubbed the "Gold Note" after the base, in an apparent attempt at an actual Brown Note. It didn't stop the protest, and no changes of underwear were required. They even recorded it and used it against the Scientologists [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKwHkVrJdcI at a later protest.]

* In the DVD commentary for one of the Alien movies, it is mentioned that in one of the test screenings, groups of older people kept excusing themselves. Upon asking them about this, it was revealed that they were leaving to use the restroom, due to sudden urges. It turned out that apparently the composer for the score had used brown notes in the score, unknowingly. When they changed the score, the problem stopped.

* The bizarre angles of the [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Oregon_vortex Oregon Vortex] will cause most people to lose their balance trying to cross it, or even become physically nauseous. In this case, it's the mind trying to correlate the ear's sense of gravity with the eye's [[Alien Geometries|wildly different impressions]], until it just reboots.

* Recently, several [[Let's Play]] gamers have left the community. Some of their fans claim this is because of the "curse of [[I Wanna Be the Guy]]", as most of them have played the [[Nintendo Hard]] indie game before their abandonment.

* At least one positive example exists...the [[wikipedia:Lung flute|Lung Flute]].

* There's an urban legends about an arcade game called [[wikipedia:Polybius (video game)|Polybius]]. According to the legend, players would become addicted and would suffer several side effects, including stress, insomnia, nightmares, and suicidal tendencies. The legend also tells of men in black who would frequently visit the area the game was in. While there's no proof that Polybius ever really existed, some believe that the rumors originated from an early, defective version of a Tempest arcade game that caused problems with epilepsy and motion sickness.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4coyGh1MIU Anna Karkowska's violin playing ]

* In a 1999 lecture, [[Douglas Adams]] described how human industry in China was having this very effect on the blind dolphins of the Yangtze River, and how he and his camera crew on tour there ([[It Makes Sense in Context|after a frenzied search across Shanghai for condoms]]) dipped a microphone into the river to record how it sounds to the dolphins in there, who navigate using sound. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S2jsD7gy_E Adams attempted to emulate the ][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKscVC3tvwY sound for the benefit of the audience:]

[[Category:Bathroom Tropes]]

[[Category:Brown Note]]