Terrible Ticking: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Will it stop Doctor? The drumming. Will it stop?"''|'''The Master''', ''[[Doctor Who]]'', "Last of the Time Lords"}}
|'''The Master''', ''[[Doctor Who]]'', "Last of the Time Lords"}}
 
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.
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Compare [[Brown Note]] (where anyone can hear the sound) and [[Out, Damned Spot!]] (the visual version of this trope). And, of course, [[Hearing Voices]], which is technically a subtrope.
 
{{examples}}
 
== Anime and Manga ==
 
* Joshua in ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' gets the telepath variant when he gets Chrono's horns stuck on his head. He complains about "the noise" and uses his new powers to "stop the time" of the people around him, freezing them in stone.
* ''[[Cromartie High School]]'' had a chapter of the manga, also adapted into the anime, which completely centered on the ''entire school'' trying to figure out what one song stuck in Hayashida's head was.
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* In ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'', it's not uncommon for one of the characters to start hearing footsteps, or occasionally a [[Hearing Voices|voice]] saying "I'm sorry" over and over. This is usually a sign that that said character is about to go off the deep end. Most of the time someone ends up dead. {{spoiler|Much to the unhappiness of the being that was making the footsteps and apologizing.}}
 
== ComicsComic Books ==
 
* In a ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' strip paying [[Homage]] to ''The Tell-Tale Heart'', a jealous man who murders and, literally, steals the heart from the lover of a woman whom he adores from afar is driven insane by the sound of his victim's still-beating heart, which he then decides to get rid of by returning the body part to the woman in person (and, consequently, completely freaking her out).
 
== Film ==
 
* ''[[Gaslight]]'' is an inversion of this trope. One character tries to convince another that the light isn't flickering, it's just them going crazy.
 
== Literature ==
 
* 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 [[H.P. 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.
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* In the ''[[Jedi Academy Trilogy]]'', Luke seeks out a Force-Sensitive hermit, Streen, to recruit for his academy. Streen agrees to leave only if Luke teaches him to block out the thoughts and feelings of other people, which had overwhelmed him into hermitude.
 
== Live -Action TV ==
* 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 teethgrindingteeth-grinding acoustics.
 
* 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.
* In the series 3 finale of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Master claims to have been hearing the sound of drums in his head all his life from when he was 8. Duh-duh-duh-DUM. Duh-duh-duh-DUM.
** 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...
*** [[Word of God|Word Of Russel]] is that it's based on his ''alarm'' clock of all things going BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP! in the morning, and it's maddening.
* In ''[[Heroes (TV series)|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]]'' had the telepath variant.
* The song "All Along the Watchtower" does this to four {{spoiler|Cylons}} at the end of ''[[ Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'s'{{'}}s third season.
* 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.
* The beeping that Freddy hears in the back of his head in the "iGoToJapan" episode on ''[[iCarly]]''. He doesn't know it, but the beeping is the tracking device in action that Mrs. Benson had implanted in his head when he was a baby.
* An episode of ''[[Tales from the Crypt]]'' had [[Danny De VitoDeVito]] as a crooked night club owner who murders a reporter ([[Fran Drescher]]) who threatens to expose him; shortly afterwards, his conscience starts nagging him that everyone will find out. Sure enough, he goes out into the club and everyone is staring at him, causing him to confess. {{spoiler|It turns out, all they were staring at was the bloody wad of tissue paper and Q-tips he shoved in his ear to try and silence his conscience.}}
 
 
== Music ==
* [[Florence + the Machine]]:
 
** [[Florence + the Machine|There's a drumming noise inside my head / And it starts when you're around / I swear that you could hear it, it makes such an almighty sound]]
** [[Florence + the Machine|As I move my feet towards your body / I can hear this beat / It fills my head / And it gets louder and louder]]
* [[Anthrax|]]: (Time!) Got the time tick-tick-tickin' in my head / (Time!) Got the time tick-tick-tickin' in my head / (Time!) Got the time tick-tick-tickin' in my head / Tickin' in my head / Tickin' in my head / Tickin' in my head]]
 
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* When the [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Tyranids]] of ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' descend on a world, they cast a "shadow in the [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|Warp]]" before them strong enough to incapacitate or [[Your Head Asplode|kill]] any nearby psykers: "They are coming! I feel them scratching inside my mind, scratching, screaming, roaring, so many, so, so many voices. They're coming for us flesh and blood, body and soul!" Since psykers are the key to interstellar travel and communication, a planet under Tyranid attack is effectively isolated and thoroughly boned.
 
== Video gamesGames ==
* When the [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Tyranids]] of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' descend on a world, they cast a "shadow in the [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|Warp]]" before them strong enough to incapacitate or [[Your Head Asplode|kill]] any nearby psykers: "They are coming! I feel them scratching inside my mind, scratching, screaming, roaring, so many, so, so many voices. They're coming for us flesh and blood, body and soul!" Since psykers are the key to interstellar travel and communication, a planet under Tyranid attack is effectively isolated and thoroughly boned.
* In the backstory of ''[[Nie RNieR]]'', hearing bells ringing in your ear is a sign that the White Chlorination Syndrome is driving you mad, and you'll soon turn into Legion
 
== Video games ==
 
* In the backstory of ''[[Nie R]]'', hearing bells ringing in your ear is a sign that the White Chlorination Syndrome is driving you mad, and you'll soon turn into Legion
 
== Webcomics ==
 
== WebcomicsWeb Comics ==
* ''[[Something Happens]]'' ran [http://www.somethinghappens.net/d/20070222.html this] guest strip by D.C. Simpson.
* [http://xkcd.com/740/ This] ''[[Xkcdxkcd]]''. It keeps you unt-tsing all night long.
 
== Web Original ==
 
* That [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/166521 Bananaphone Flash video].
* [[Potter Puppet Pals|What is that mysterious ticking noise?]]
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[[Category:Madness Tropes]]
[[Category:Sound FX Tropes]]
[[Category:Terrible Ticking]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:Terrible Ticking{{PAGENAME}}]]