History Main / TerribleTicking

* 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]].

* 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.

* The deathwatch beetle got their name - and their disturbing reputation as an {{Omen}} this way. The beetles are woodboring and lay their eggs on wood so their larvae have something to eat. 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]].

[[folder:Folklore and Mythology]]
* The deathwatch beetle got their name this way. The beetles are woodboring and lay their eggs on wood so their larvae have something to eat. 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 not pleasant.
[[/folder]]

* Hearing clattering, ticking, low-rumble near-inaudible whispers or grumbles, animal noises of animals that cannot possibly be around, sirens/horns, and beeps is also a very common symptom of tinnitus and other ear disorders. It can also be caused by temporal lobe epilepsy. It's also common for schizophrenics, similar to HearingVoices, but don't assume you (or whoever is experiencing it) are becoming schizophrenic if you have this.

Compare BrownNote (where anyone can hear the sound). And, of course, HearingVoices, which is technically a subtrope. Unrelated to WhyAmITicking, which is terrible for [[StuffBlowingUp a different reason]].

Compare BrownNote (where anyone can hear the sound) and OutDamnedSpot (the visual version of this trope). And, of course, HearingVoices, which is technically a subtrope. Unrelated to WhyAmITicking, which is terrible for [[StuffBlowingUp a different reason]].

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

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. 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 with her empathic abilities. The sound drives her to madness, so he removes it once his identity is revealed.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''

* The [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/166521 Bananaphone Flash video]]. In it, a man gets driven insane by "Bananaphone" by Raffi playing in his head, and it does all sorts of crazy things like suddenly raising in volume. The two friends staying with him don't believe him when he tells them about the song. 10 hours later, he's [[spoiler:in a comatose state as he's listening to the song, then drops unconscious when it ends. When the friend in the suit goes to examine the body, the song starts playing in his head as he accuses the bald friend for causing blunt force trauma to the man with a remote, before starting to go mad himself. When the bald friend punches the friend in the suit for the accusation, HE gets the song in his head, and starts beating his remaining friend to a bloody pulp.]]

* Music/{{Anthrax}}: "(Time!) Got the time tick-tick-tickin' in my head / (Time!) Got the time tick-tick-tickin' in my head]] [[Music/JoeJackson / (Time!) Got the time tick-tick-tickin' in my head / Tickin' in my head / Tickin' in my head / Tickin' in my head"

* On Music/PinkFloyd's ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'', "Speak to Me" and "Time" briefly have the sound of a clock ticking.]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Mao was driven mad by the constant thoughts of everyone around him. He wore headphone to block it out. This made him a {{yandere}} for C.C. because she was the only person whose mind he couldn't read.
* 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.
* ''Manga/SoulEater'': Stein has something like issue in the anime whilst he's [[spoiler: with Medusa.]]

* [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8288823/1/Host This]] ''Anime/YuGiOh'' fanfic involves Ryou Bakura being pulled into a Shadow Game revolving around stopping every clock in the house, leading him to note how similar they sound to bombs.

* 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.
* In ''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.
* ''Film/TheBullOfTheWest'': Whenever Ben Justin is under stress, he hears a rattlesnake rattling inside his head.

* Creator/StephenKing:
** In one of the short stories from ''Literature/EverythingsEventual'', 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 [[WordSalad word salad-y]].
** In another book ''Literature/{{Insomnia}}'', the main character Ralph can hear a soft ticking in his head which he calls the "deathwatch" when a person is about to die. He first heard it when his wife was dying of brain cancer. Near the end of the novel [[spoiler:Ralph hears the deathwatch again, and knows that this time it's counting down for him.]]

* [[Music/{{Anthrax}} (Time!) Got the time tick-tick-tickin' in my head / (Time!) Got the time tick-tick-tickin' in my head]] [[Music/JoeJackson / (Time!) Got the time tick-tick-tickin' in my head / Tickin' in my head / Tickin' in my head / Tickin' in my head]]
* [[Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon "Speak to Me" and "Time" briefly have the sound of a clock ticking.]]

* In the backstory of ''VideoGame/NieR'', 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.

* A water faucet drives WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck crazy in the short ''Drip Dippy Donald'', and an alarm clock in the ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouseWorks''-era short ''Hickory Dickory Mickey''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAlvinShow'' episode "Squares," Mrs. Frumpington (a society matron trying to put the kibosh on anything hip) mistakes the stoccato dripping of a leaky faucet as the beat of the contemporary hip music she detests. Dave sets her straight on it.

* In [[http://xkcd.com/740/ This]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'', the protagonist keeps hearing "unn-tss" sounds since he murdered Daft Punk.

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%%[[folder:Webcomics]]

%%* [[http://xkcd.com/740/ This]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}''. It keeps you unt-tsing all night long.
%%[[/folder]]

** This is actually TruthInTelevision as fire alarms ''do'' tend to keep beeping after you take the battery out, as there is still some power left in the device for a while, so it likely wasn't in Phoebe's head.

* 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 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''.

* Sigma from ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' has a piano melody that plays in his head after his FreakLabAccident, with it and his "imprisonment" slowly wearing away his sanity.

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* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': In this ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' Franchise/MonsterVerse fanfiction, Ghidorah's SlowlySlippingToEvil 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:Fan Fiction]]

* [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8288823/1/Host This]] ''Anime/YuGiOh'' fanfic involves Ryou Bakura being pulled into a Shadow Game revolving around stopping every clock in the house, leading him to note how similar they sound to bombs.

%%* That [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/166521 Bananaphone Flash video]].

* 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 annoying 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.