History Main / TerribleTicking

Perhaps the TropeMaker is ''Literature/TheTellTaleHeart'', where the narrator goes mad from the sound of a dead man's heart beating. "Ticking" allows for AddedAlliterativeAppeal. 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.]]

* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'': "For Cryin' Out Loud" had a corrupt nightclub owner (played by Lee Arenberg) 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''.

* In ''Manga/YuGiOh'' Yami Yugi gives this as a punishment to a karaoke-obsessed bully after he loses a Shadow Game to him.

* Some people have such sensitive hearing that they can hear their own heartbeats or blood rushing in their heads or that everyday noises are painful. It's called hyperacuity and can be caused by tinnitus or other hearing damage (Music/NeilYoung has described having this after damaging his hearing in the 1980s), but when an autistic has it, it's termed "sensory integration disorder".

* An infamous example that likely inspired many historical instances of this trope is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathwatch_beetle Deathwatch Beetle]], whose larvae mature over years in old, dry, hardwood timbers- such as those found in old houses. As the larvae feed on the wood, their nail-clipper-like mandibles create a rhythmic thumping or ticking sound that, resonating through the timbers like a wooden instrument, sounds eerily like a heartbeat or knocking.

* Mr. Krabs in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Squeaky Boots". He unloads a pair of old boots on [=SpongeBob=] and is driven crazy by their constant squeaking. He steals them one night and hides them, but then he starts to hear squeaking everywhere until he is driven to madness, a WholePlotReference to ''Tell-Tale Heart''.
* A water faucet in the late 40's WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck short ''Drip Dippy Donald'', and an alarm clock in the MouseWorks-era ''Hickory Dickory Mickey''.

* {{Popeye}} did this in the short "Me Musical Nephews", destroying a radio before discovering that his nephews weren't really asleep.

** The same thing happens in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Lisa's Rival."

* This trope is ''why'' acquiring an unpleasant musical EarWorm is so annoying.

Perhaps the TropeMaker is ''Literature/TheTellTaleHeart'', where the narrator goes mad from the sound of a dead man's heart beating. "Ticking" allows for AddedAlliterativeAppeal. 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 [[DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound 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.]]

* Tinnitus. Not a mental disorder, but a physical one, usually as a result of damage to the ear(s), though there can be other causes (the best being earwax impaction, as it is 100 percent curable). [[https://www.hearnet.com/ Rock musicians are especially susceptible to this]]. If you're lucky, the ring/buzz/hum/echo in your ears won't be ''that'' bad and it won't be omnipresent - making it a DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound but nothing worse. If you have moderate to severe tinnitus though, the ring/buzz/hum/echo is ''constant'' for all of your waking hours and/or is so loud that it interferes with your ability to converse, to hear anything other than it, and even to function. Severe tinnitus is quite capable of [[DrivenToSuicide driving people to suicide]], and worse is when someone doesn't recognize it as a physical disorder and assumes it is the onset of hallucinations, resulting in bad treatment that ''doesn't work'' to help the tinnitus.

* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheTellTaleHeart'' has its UnreliableNarrator being driven mad by the beating of the heart of the man he murdered, which he believes everyone else can also hear.

* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheTellTaleHeart''.

Perhaps the TropeMaker is ''Literature/TheTellTaleHeart'', where the narrator goes mad from the sound of a dead man's heart beating. "Ticking" allows for AddedAlliterativeAppeal. 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 [[MostAnnoyingSound 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.]]

* Tinnitus. Not a mental disorder, but a physical one, usually as a result of damage to the ear(s), though there can be other causes (the best being earwax impaction, as it is 100 percent curable). [[https://www.hearnet.com/ Rock musicians are especially susceptible to this]]. If you're lucky, the ring/buzz/hum/echo in your ears won't be ''that'' bad and it won't be omnipresent - making it a MostAnnoyingSound but nothing worse. If you have moderate to severe tinnitus though, the ring/buzz/hum/echo is ''constant'' for all of your waking hours and/or is so loud that it interferes with your ability to converse, to hear anything other than it, and even to function. Severe tinnitus is quite capable of [[DrivenToSuicide driving people to suicide]], and worse is when someone doesn't recognize it as a physical disorder and assumes it is the onset of hallucinations, resulting in bad treatment that ''doesn't work'' to help the tinnitus.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* During the "Overlord" DLC for ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', a giant polygonal head keeps popping up on computer screens and making this awful [[HellIsThatNoise noise]]. It sounds like gibberish at first, but grows clearer with each repetition, until you realize [[spoiler:it's the lead scientist's autistic brother begging for someone to help him. The constant sensory input from the rig he's hooked up to has really done a number on him.]]

* Tinnitus. Not a mental disorder, but a physical one, usually as a result of damage to the ear(s), though there can be other causes (the best being earwax impaction, as it is 100 percent curable). Rock musicians are especially susceptible to this. If you're lucky, the ring/buzz/hum/echo in your ears won't be ''that'' bad and it won't be omnipresent - making it a MostAnnoyingSound but nothing worse. If you have moderate to severe tinnitus though, the ring/buzz/hum/echo is ''constant'' for all of your waking hours and/or is so loud that it interferes with your ability to converse, to hear anything other than it, and even to function. Severe tinnitus is quite capable of [[DrivenToSuicide driving people to suicide]], and worse is when someone doesn't recognize it as a physical disorder and assumes it is the onset of hallucinations, resulting in bad treatment that ''doesn't work'' to help the tinnitus.
* Hearing clattering, ticking, low-rumble near-inaudible whispers or grumbles, animal noises of animals that cannot possibly be around, sirens/horns, and beeps have many causes. Many people fear this can only mean schizophrenia (since it resembles HearingVoices) but it can also be caused by temporal lobe epilepsy and is a very common symptom of tinnitus and other ear disorders.

* Some people have such sensitive hearing that they can hear their own heartbeats or blood rushing in their heads or that everyday noises are painful. It's called hyperacuity and can be caused by tinnitus or other hearing damage, but when an autistic has it, it's termed "sensory integration disorder".

* Tinnitus. Not a mental disorder, but a physical one, usually as a result of damage to the ear(s), though there can be other causes (the best being earwax impaction, as it is 100 percent curable). If you're lucky, the ring/buzz/hum/echo in your ears won't be ''that'' bad and it won't be omnipresent - making it a MostAnnoyingSound but nothing worse. If you have moderate to severe tinnitus though, the ring/buzz/hum/echo is ''constant'' for all of your waking hours and/or is so loud that it interferes with your ability to converse, to hear anything other than it, and even to function. Severe tinnitus is quite capable of [[DrivenToSuicide driving people to suicide]], and worse is when someone doesn't recognize it as a physical disorder and assumes it is the onset of hallucinations, resulting in bad treatment that ''doesn't work'' to help the tinnitus.

* While HearingVoices is the trademark auditory hallucination of (especially paranoid) schizophrenia, it is not the ''only'' one. Clattering, ticking, low-rumble near-inaudible whispers or grumbles, animal noises of animals that cannot possibly be around, sirens/horns, and beeps are among the many others that can present.
* Perfect pitch or a sensitive ear for music can be this, with the omnipresence of music in most places and that perfect pitch or a sensitive ear for mistakes can make anything from phone hold music to bad karaoke singers to that popular EDM song playing everywhere composed by someone most definitely lacking perfect pitch grating and annoying.
* Some people have such sensitive hearing that they can hear their own heartbeats or blood rushing in their heads or that everyday noises are painful. This is common on the autism spectrum and pervasive development disorder, and is called sensory integration disorder.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia Series]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums 3]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastofTheTimeLords finale]], 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.

* [[Music/FlorenceAndTheMachine 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]]
** [[Music/FlorenceAndTheMachine As I move my feet towards your body / I can hear this beat / It fills my head / And it gets louder and louder]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia Series]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums 3]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastofTheTimeLords finale]], 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.

-->-- '''The Master''', ''Series/DoctorWho'', "Last of the Time Lords"

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.

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* In a ''Series/TheWestWing'' fanfic called "The Joshua Monologues," Josh gets revenge on CJ, Sam, Toby, and President Bartlet after a prank gone bad by getting devices from the CIA which will beep very faintly (so only the prankees will hear them) and putting them in his coworkers' respective offices.

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* 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/{{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.

* Inverted in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' novel ''[[Recap/NewSeriesAdventuresTheClockwiseMan The Clockwise Man]]'', everyone could hear the ticking ''except'' Repple [[spoiler: because he's the robot making the noise]].
* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheTellTaleHeart''.

* In ''Brain Twister'' (aka ''That Sweet Little Old Lady'') by Creator/RandallGarrett and Laurence M. Janifer, telepaths invariably go mad from the voices. Most of them wind up comatose or raving -- the one notable exception being the little old lady in the title, who would be able to easily pass for sane if she didn't keep confiding in people that she's actually [[NapoleonDelusion Queen Elizabeth I]].
* In the ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'', 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.
* Arthur C. Clarke's ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'' has the invading aliens' ambassador explain to the Earth Ambassador the useful application of energy capable of ending nations by comparing the results of the assassination of a hypothetical dictator to simply causing an unceasing, constant ticking noise within his head.
* In the first ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel something like this occurs, with some twists. The noise is the beating of drums, and everyone can hear them. The drums in question are set up by Chaos cultists and number in the hundreds. Prolonged exposure to them cause the Ghosts that are nearby to lash out violently, and one of them is corrupted by Chaos as a result.

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* In the 2007 finale of ''Series/DoctorWho'', 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 the 2009 series, 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 ThemeSong, so one wonders if that was intentional...

* Season 3 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' had the telepath variant.
* The song "All Along the Watchtower" does this to four [[spoiler:Cylons]] at the end of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'''s third season.

* The beeping that Freddy hears in the back of his head in the "iGoToJapan" episode on ''Series/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.

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* ''Webcomic/SomethingHappens'' ran [[http://www.somethinghappens.net/d/20070222.html this]] guest strip by D.C. Simpson.
* [[http://xkcd.com/740/ This]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}''. It keeps you unt-tsing all night long.

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* That [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/166521 Bananaphone Flash video]].
* WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows compares the beat of {{Music/LMFAO}}'s "Sexy And I Know It" to this trope, specifically the Creator/EdgarAllanPoe usage.
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* An episode of ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' had Lee Arenberg as a crooked night club owner who murders a reporter (Creator/FranDrescher) 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.]]

* An episode of ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' had Creator/DannyDeVito as a crooked night club owner who murders a reporter (Creator/FranDrescher) 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.]]

* Subverted in the case of [[PeterPan Captain Hook]]. Everyone can hear the ticking of the crocodile; Hook is always the one who will hear it ''first''. And yes, it drives him frantic, but it's not insanity, [[ProperlyParanoid because the sound portends a very real crocodile that has a very real appetite for him.]]

* {{Disney/Peter Pan}}: Captain Hook has a literal ''panic attack'' whenever he hears the ticking of a clock...coming from the belly of a crocodile who wants to eat him. Granted, not only is this a pretty good reason to panic, but others can hear the ticking, too.

[[folder:Theatre]]

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': Yami Yugi gives this as a punishment to a karaoke-obsessed bully after he loses a Shadow Game to him.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In a ''Series/TheWestWing'' fanfic called "The Joshua Monologues," Josh gets revenge on CJ, Sam, Toby, and President Bartlet after a prank gone bad by getting devices from the CIA which will beep very faintly (so only the prankees will hear them) and putting them in his coworkers' respective offices.

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* Deathwatch beetle got their name this way.