History Main / TerribleTicking

Compare BrownNote, an awful sound that anyone can hear, and BloodyHallucinationsOfGuilt, when one's guilty conscience regarding another's death has them hallucinating blood. See also HearingVoices, which is technically a subtrope. Unrelated to WhyAmITicking, which is terrible for [[StuffBlowingUp a different reason]].

* Joshua in ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'' 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.

* In ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', it's not uncommon for one of the characters to start hearing footsteps, or occasionally a [[HearingVoices 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.]]

* In ''Manga/YuGiOh'' Yami Yugi gives this as a punishment to a karaoke-obsessed bully after he loses a Shadow Game to him, forcing him to hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears like thunder.

* In ''Film/AChristmasCarolGoesWrong'' Scrooge's opening monologue has him bedeviled by a clock and its chimes, feeling it's always staring at him.
* In ''Film/TheClimax'', Dr. Hohner is haunted by the singing of Marcellina: the mistress he murdered because he was jealous of her voice which was taking her away from him.
* ''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.
* In ''Film/{{Hook}}'', despite having killed and stuffed the crocodile Hook is still afraid of the sound of ticking clocks. It's later revealed that he's scared of time ticking away.
* Cameron Vale, the hero of ''Film/{{Scanners}}'', has to tell a telepathy-suppressing drug in order to go out in public or even sleep in his hotel room, because the thoughts of everyone around him are too much to handle, and as explained toward the beginning, the constant telepathy all his life has basically stopped him from developing any sense of self, turning him into a complete dysfunctional wreck. In the backstory of the film's villain, Darryl Revok, we learn that he went mad from it, and there's a taped conversation where he insists that it's not just voices in his head, but entire people, and he drills a hole in his forehead trying to get them out.
* In ''Film/{{Song of Love}}'', a romanticized biopic of Robert Schumann, the composer hears a constant ringing or whistling in his ears, always playing the tone A. He rants about "the A" driving him mad. What he's got is probably tinnitus, which afflicted numerous musicians including Beethoven and which really can make you crazy.
* In ''Film/TowerOfLondon1962'', Richard is haunted by the mocking laughter of those he murdered in order to gain the throne.

A character goes mad from a sound that only they can hear. Because of this, they may go AxCrazy 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 HeadphonesEqualIsolation, abandoning the world in favor of just getting away from the horrible noise.

Perhaps the TropeMaker is ''Literature/TheTellTaleHeart'', where the narrator goes mad from the sound of a dead man's heart beating. "Ticking" allows for AlliterativeName. The noise of a clock ticking is a very common motif - especially if it underlines a theme of time running out. Other popular motifs include a noise like someone (or some''thing'') breathing, very distant music, some extremely annoying sound such as scraping or scratching, or [[BeatStillMyHeart a heartbeat]]. Another possibility is for [[SuperpowerMeltdown new telepaths to go mad from all the voices around them.]]

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': In this ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' Franchise/MonsterVerse fanfiction, Ghidorah's SlowlySlippingIntoEvil in its backstory was caused by Terrible Ticking called "the Old Noise", an aggressive sound which causes the mind to scream attempting to block it out and which, in the original language of [[spoiler:Ghidorah's [[AbusivePrecursors creators]]]] persistently screamed at Ghidorah to "'''Kill Them All'''". [[TwoBeingsOneBody Monster X]] has inherited a mild form of it from Ghidorah, which only stirs up when Monster X is on the brink of insanity or hearing an ORCA signal.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'': "For Cryin' Out Loud" had a corrupt nightclub owner (played by Creator/LeeArenberg) kill a woman, then imagine his [[GoodAngelBadAngel Shoulder Angel]] [[spoiler:voiced by Sam Kinison!]] admonishing him for it. In an attempt to shut it up, he jams tissue and Q-tips in his ear. Later, he stumbles into the club and sees everyone staring at him; assuming that they can see his guilt, he screams a confession to all of them... only to realize that they were actually staring at the wad of cleaning items sticking out of his ear. The story has similarities with ''The Telltale Heart''.

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-->-- '''The Master''', ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords "Last of the Time Lords"]]

* A more literal and meta example in ''VideoGame/{{Darktide}}'' has an enemy known as a poxburster that creates a low, rhythmic ticking when it spawns. As it gets closer, its ticking increases in speed until it explodes, and if you're caught in its blast radius, expect to recieve alot of damage and be thrown far from the group, possibly even off the map. What makes it worse though is not only are poxbursters on their own very difficult to pick out from a horde of infested, only distinguishable at all from DangerClose ranges is a small red light on their front that can be easily obscured by hordes and the environment, but at least in earlier versions of the game, there was a glitch where the ticking wouldnt stop for several seconds after the burster was killed, making many players paranoid there was a second poxburster in the area they hadnt spotted.

* A more literal and meta example in ''VideoGame/{{Darktide}}'' has an enemy known as a poxburster that, as it gets closer, its ticking increases in speed and if you're caught in its blast radius, expect to recieve alot of damage and be thrown far from the group, possibly even off the map. What makes it worse though is not only are poxbursters on their own very difficult to pick out from a horde of infested, but at least in earlier versions of the game, there was a glitch where the ticking wouldnt stop for several seconds after the burster was killed, making many players paranoid there was a second poxburster in the area they hadnt spotted.

* A more literal and meta example in ''VideoGame/{Darktide} has an enemy known as a poxburster that, as it gets closer, its ticking increases in speed and if you're caught in its blast radius, expect to recieve alot of damage and be thrown far from the group, possibly even off the map. What makes it worse though is not only are poxbursters on their own very difficult to pick out from a horde of infested, but at least in earlier versions of the game, there was a glitch where the ticking wouldnt stop for several seconds after the burster was killed, making many players paranoid there was a second poxburster in the area they hadnt spotted.

* A more literal and meta example in ''VideoGame/{WarhammerDarktide} has an enemy known as a poxburster that, as it gets closer, its ticking increases in speed and if you're caught in its blast radius, expect to recieve alot of damage and be thrown far from the group, possibly even off the map. What makes it worse though is not only are poxbursters on their own very difficult to pick out from a horde of infested, but at least in earlier versions of the game, there was a glitch where the ticking wouldnt stop for several seconds after the burster was killed, making many players paranoid there was a second poxburster in the area they hadnt spotted.

* A more literal and meta example in ''VideoGame/{Warhammer:Darktide} has an enemy known as a poxburster that, as it gets closer, its ticking increases in speed and if you're caught in its blast radius, expect to recieve alot of damage and be thrown far from the group, possibly even off the map. What makes it worse though is not only are poxbursters on their own very difficult to pick out from a horde of infested, but at least in earlier versions of the game, there was a glitch where the ticking wouldnt stop for several seconds after the burster was killed, making many players paranoid there was a second poxburster in the area they hadnt spotted.

* [[CatsHateWater Aquaphobic]] villainess Queen Tsarmina of the ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' series is driven to insanity by the sound of dripping water, which her minions [[ItsProbablyNothing 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.
** Then the noise goes away, and Tsarmina is at peace; except the reason it's gone away is that [[spoiler:now it's not just dripping, there's too much water for that.]]

* In the televised miniseries ''Series/IClaudius'', 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.

* Mr. Krabs in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Squeaky Boots". He unloads a pair of old boots on [=SpongeBob=] and [[MisophoniaGag is driven crazy by their constant squeaking]]. He steals them one night and hides them, but after seeing how torn up Spongebob is about "losing" the boots, Krabs starts to hear squeaking everywhere until he is driven to madness, a WholePlotReference to ''Tell-Tale Heart''.

* The deathwatch beetle got their name - and their disturbing reputation as an [[PortentOfDoom omen]] - this way. The beetles are woodboring and lay their eggs on wood so their larvae have something to eat. This often results in them living in the rafters of old houses. To attract a suitor they tap or tick against the wood, which is usually ignored day to day as it's fairly soft. However, on silent nights, such as when a family waits for someone to die, the noise is not drowned out. Hearing a ticking noise while you wait for death is [[NightmareFuel not pleasant]].