History Main / SteelEarDrums

* Played with in ''Series/{{Friends}}'' when Ross and Phoebe are rehearsing scenes with Joey for a ''Film/JamesBond'' type movie. A big bang goes off, and the following exchange occurs:

* Justified in ''Franchise/MassEffect'': All of your weapons are essentially rail/coil guns firing rounds the size of a grain of sand. Even with the bits of metal reaching relativistic speeds, there's probably not a loud '''BANG''' to accompany each round being fired. Explosions still dampen sound when you're hit.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/26558347/chapters/64743250#workskin Class of Bun-A]]'': Averted. AfterBakugou hits Izuku on the face with his Quirk, Recovery Girl informs Izuku he'll likely have some level of hearing loss on that side.

* ''Film/TheUntouchables'':
** The baby in the carriage sequence.
** An aversion occurs in the movie as well, oddly enough. When Jimmy Malone is killed, you can hear a baby in the background crying afterwards.

* Comically averted in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' episode 290, after the ship Guts's party is travelling on repels a pirate attack. Isidro and Puck were temporarily deafened by the noise of the cannons while watching from the deck, and when they go below deck to gush to their companions about how cool it was, they don't realize [[NoIndoorVoiceloud how loudly they're talking]]. Their friends cover their ears in agony and beg them to lower their voices, but of course they misunderstand this, too.

* Comically averted in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', when Isidro and Puck view a ship battling from its deck. The sound from the cannon fire severely impaired their hearing, [[NoIndoorVoice making them unable to realize how loud they're talking.]] When the rest of their group is in the middle of one, they cover their ears and Puck is [[{{Hammerspace}} suddenly wearing earplugs.]]

* ''Series/TheRedGreenShow:'' At least one episode ends with Red and Harold yelling at each other due to temporary explosion-induced hearing loss.

* ''ComicBook/BlackCanary'' has this as a RequiredSecondaryPower; without it, her MakeMeWannaShout powers would render herself deaf.

* In the Soviet film ''Film/ComeAndSee'', the protagonist suffers ringing in the ears after the Nazis shell the partisan camp.

** Touched on in the sequel ''Film/Tremors2Aftershocks'' as well, when Burt tells the other heroes to cover their ears when he fires off the BFG he is wielding. (He himself has earplugs.)

* Averted in ''Film/WonderWoman2017'' where Diana is temporarily deafened out by an explosion and can't even hear Steve's FamousLastWords, including a LoveConfession.

* Averted in ''ComicBook/TheNewUniverse'' series ''Justice'': The title character rescues a baby from an explosion (caused by the events of ''ComicBook/ThePitt'') that wipes out a city park. After finally bringing the baby to safety, he sadly points out that although he saved the child's life, the baby is now deaf; he snaps his fingers next to the infant to demonstrate its lack of reaction.

* ''Film/SplitSecond'': Stone fires his HandCannon six inches from Durkin's face to shoot at a giant rat behind him. He's not half-deaf afterwards.

-->'''Professor Sprout:''' Longbottom's been neglecting his earmuffs.

[[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/DeltaTenn https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/del9.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300: Nothing says "evil" like having handguns fired inches from both ears.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Mr. Mighty of ''Webcomic/EverydayHeroes'' can break up a family argument with a [[https://www.smackjeeves.com/discover/detail?titleNo=141697&articleNo=23 snap of his fingers]]. However, his super-powered daughter is immune to the resulting sonic boom.

* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', Mello blows up a building he was standing in, with only a gas mask for protection, in order to escape the Japanese police. [[spoiler: Mello planned to blow up the building with Rod Ross and his gang inside, from a safe distance, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness once they were no longer useful to his investigation of Kira]]. Soichiro and co. derailed that plan.]] Although he comes out with third-degree burns that leave him permanently scarred, his hearing is not even temporarily damaged by the explosion.

** An aversion occurs in the movie as well, oddly enough. When Malone is shot, you can hear a baby in the background crying afterwards.

* ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Averted by the shooter in season 2. When Bushmaster goes to the drug lab where Hi-Qing Yang is manufacturing heroin that is being distributed in Harlem with Bushmaster's name on it, Hi-Qing Yang's men open fire on him before Luke intervenes. One of the henchmen is a man firing a Gatling gun of the back of a van, and he's seen wearing headphones.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': While played straight most of time, the second episode of season 2 averts it as Matt spends most of the episode concussed and for a period, deaf, as a result of getting shot in the head (the bullet being stopped by his helmet) by Frank at point-blank range.

This is an AcceptableBreakFromReality, as no one wants to hear about the badass losing his hearing from trying to [[OutrunTheFireball outrun a fireball]] or surviving a shootout.[[labelnote: note]]As an aside, there is some TruthInTelevision here, since numerous police officers and soldiers have reported hearing normally ''but for gunfire'' during combat situations. This is sometimes referred to as "[[http://panicdisorder.about.com/od/glossaryah/g/AuditoryExcl.htm auditory exclusion]]."[[/labelnote]] And no one wants to see him putting in earplugs or wearing gigantic earmuffs, either. Typically, only coward-type characters will cover their ears while anticipating an explosion.

* ''Advertising/AirNewZealandSafetyVideos'': The Western portion of "Safety in Hollywood" has Anna Faris and Rhys Darby filming a ShowdownAtHighNoon. Anna keeps telling Rhys to "Draw!" but he's got hearing damage from all the gunfights he's been in. "Or? Or what?"

* The animated movie of ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' plays this totally straight - while in the novel Quasimodo goes deaf after long exposure to the bells of Notre Dame, in the movie, nothing stops him from bursting into [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic wonderful melodious song]] on a regular basis.

** Averted: Boris the Blade[=/=]Bullet-Dodger[=/=]Sneaky-Fucking-Russian puts earplugs in before shooting [[spoiler:Frankie Four Fingers]]

** Later in the film, Agent Coulson uses an explosive to open a door. Civilian Pepper Potts covers her ears while Coulson and his fellow SHIELD agents do not. Though it was a small explosion, they may have simply known they wouldn't need to.
** Indirectly supported in the sequel, which has a POV shot of a dazed [[spoiler: Rhodey with his War Machine suit shut down]] accompanied by [[ShellshockSilence very muffled audio.]]

* ''Tremors'':
** Mostly played straight in ''Film/{{Tremors}}'', particularly in the famous rec-room barrage scene. Heather does cover her ears when Burt resorts to the elephant gun, but only to demonstrate that it's even more powerful than the rest of the Gummer arsenal. However, there was a fairly long cutaway between when the graboid breaks in and when Burt and Heather are actually shown shooting, during which they could have easily popped in some earplugs, so there's that.

* ''Film/DieAnotherDay'': During Q's demonstration of the glass-shattering ring, he casually shoots at a plate of bulletproof glass at point blank range without giving himself or Bond any ear protection.

* Played straight in ''Film/CharliesAngels2000''; the angels have stood in front of huge explosions and get back up without hearing problems.

* Averted in ''Film/MrHollandsOpus'' during the parade scene, when the fire truck sounds its powerful air-horn. Young children are crying from the pain, and even many adults are visibly wincing, but when Iris turns to her stroller to check on Cole, [[spoiler:she finds him still sleeping peacefully, which is her first clue that Cole already is almost entirely deaf.]]

* Averted in ''Film/WonderWoman2017'' where Diana is temporarily deafened out by an explosion and can't even hear Steve's PartingWords, including a LoveConfession.

* Both averted and justified in ''Literature/MercyThompson''. Mercy is deafened by the blast and has to wait for her hearing to return, but the werewolves' super healing factor means that they hardly notice any inconvenience.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds''

* {{ZigZagged|Trope}} in ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' episode "The Box". Peter needed to disarm a device that kills by sound, so he was deliberately deafened by firing a gun next to both ears. By the end of the episode his hearing is completely back to normal and there's no indication that he's suffered permanent damage.

** PlayedWith throughout the series. Andrea [[spoiler: has to shoot her turned-sister at point-blank range?]] No hearing problems, but in a later season [[spoiler: Rick warns Carl and Michonne to cover their ears when he has to shoot a walker through an open car window, where he and the others are inside said car]], showing at least awareness of this trope from time to time.

* Mostly played straight in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', where explosions and other loud noises are commonplace and nobody reacts to anything but the hitboxes. In ''one'' aversion, however, [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Snake]] will duck and cover his ears if one of his grenades explodes sufficiently close to him - though he won't react the same way to his forward smash attack, which involves shooting an RPG almost directly at his feet.
** While Snake doesn't return in ''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS'', newcomer VideoGame/DuckHunt -- a master of projectiles, one prominent one being an explosive can fired at and kept in the air by an offscreen marksman -- will do the same thing if a shot is fired too close to them, leaving them momentarily vulnerable.

* Mr. Mighty of ''Webcomic/EverydayHeroes'' can break up a family argument with a [[http://eheroes.smackjeeves.com/comics/1891169/a-mans-home-is-his-hassle/ snap of his fingers]]. However, his super-powered daughter is immune to the resulting sonic boom.

* Modern earplugs that can allow different amounts of sound into the ear via switches are issued for 21st century US ground troops (and presumably others). However, many soldiers prefer to leave them out and risk eardrum damage if it means a better chance of hearing something that happens to be both quiet and vital to his or her survival, not to mention it's one less piece of kit to hassle with in a warzone. Colonel Kathy Gates, audiology consultant to the US Army surgeon general, stated in an [[http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/09/army_ear_protection_090509w/ Army Times article ]] that soldiers who wear the issued earplugs properly are protected from most hearing damage.
** The [=USMC=] experimented with issuing every single Marine a suppressor in 2016, even on the heavy machine guns. The result was drastically improved comunication.

* Creator/WilliamShatner suffers from tinnitus because of standing too close to explosions going off on ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'', as did the late Creator/LeonardNimoy and [=DeForest=] Kelley. The last specifically from the FX explosions at the beginning of "Arena".
* Creator/DannyElfman suffers similarly from hearing loss due to his days in Music/OingoBoingo.