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3[[quoteright:230:[[Recap/AsterixAndTheNormans https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cacofonixsing.jpg]]]]
4
5->''"Ouch, that was painful. So very, very lame."''
6-->-- '''Momoko Hanasaki''', ''WebVideo/WeddingPeachAbridged''
7
8Something really bad, such as horribly out-of-tune singing or violin playing, bad {{poetry}}, a terrible movie, or {{Pun}}s to traumatize those exposed to it, distract an opponent, punish someone, or even, in extreme cases, weaponized. The horribleness of it can range from hurting ears or eyes to giving nightmares, to blowing up cities.
9
10Can take the form of a BrownNote, but there can be other effects than that trope. Sometimes this can be invoked with using the horrible thing as CoolAndUnusualPunishment.
11
12In RealLife, it's fairly common to at least describe a very bad movie as being "painful to watch", or to say that it "hurts to read" a bad book. The concept of an "eyesore" isn't limited to English either; Japanese has ''migurushii'' (見苦しい), literally "painful to look at".
13
14Can overlap with AnythingButThat, FauxHorrific, ComicalOverreacting, DreadfulMusician, EvenEvilHasStandards (if a villain decides a work would be too horrible to inflict). A CriticBreakdown will often to invoke this regarding the offending piece. Many a LamePunReaction involves retching in pain.
15
16Compare/Contrast AwesomenessIsVolatile.
17----
18!!Examples:
19
20[[foldercontrol]]
21
22[[folder:Advertising]]
23* A 1980s advert for Castela Classic cigars featured comedian Russ Abbot going fishing in a rather unusual way. He put on a record of Des O'Connor's Greatest Hits and lowered a speaker into the water, then sat back with his cigar. As he watched, the horrified fish leapt out of the water and into his net.
24[[/folder]]
25
26[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
27* Blink and you'll miss it, but in ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', Itoshiki-sensei's suicide kit, filled with poisons, pills and all manner of lethalities, also contains an Music/{{Enya}} CD (though it might also just be relaxing suicide mood-music).
28* In ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'', Kotomi Ichinose's violin playing is so terrible that people collapse into the fetal position clutching their heads in extreme pain whenever she plays. She's oblivious to this and thinks her playing sounds beautiful.
29-->'''Tomoya:''' ''[to students, after interrupting Kotomi's introduction]'' And her weapon is the violin: it only takes 0.2 seconds before sound waves come out from the moment she takes position. The number of people she's felled is countless.
30* ''Anime/KujibikiUnbalance'': Tokino's singing goes beyond BrownNote territory, as it is shown to cause vomiting, babies crying, flowers blooming and dying in a matter of moments, car crashes, cats becoming angry, cardiac arrest, rats fleeing ''en masse'', glass breaking, birds dying, plane crashes, and explosions.
31* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'': Takeshi Gouda is so [[DreadfulMusician bad a musician]] that his singing can do serious damage to his environment. It does not help that the guy [[MilesGloriosus believes the opposite]].
32* Chapter 25 of ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'' has Sakura and Nozaki reacting badly to Kashima's tone-deaf singing, to the point that they're crawling on the ground in agony.
33* Shirogane's singing in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' approaches BrownNote levels and has been compared to having sea cucumber guts shoved in your ears on multiple occasions. That's not even getting into his rapping, which caused Fujiwara to collapse and start foaming at the mouth.
34* In ''Manga/KeepYourHandsOffEizouken'', the main characters convince Doumeki to be the sound consultant for their anime project by demonstrating how amateurish their current sound effects are. Doumeki, who considers audio and sound design to be SeriousBusiness, is so distressed by their mediocre sound effects that she [[VomitDiscretionShot throws up offscreen]] ''twice''.
35[[/folder]]
36
37[[folder:Comic Books]]
38* In ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'', [[MeaningfulName Cacofonix's]] music is so bad, it's the only thing that can teach the meaning of fear to the Normans. In fact, short exposure to it mentally scars them. It also summons thunderstorms and drives the wildlife away.
39* [[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow Ren and Stimpy's]] "U.S.Ohhhhhh Noooooo!": The army has Ren and Stimpy drag a horrible comedian on a platform with speakers through a battlefield, causing their enemies to run in fear while one of them clutches his ears and shouts "Oh the Humanity!"
40* ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'':
41** Crappy music and films are used as a method of torture. The title characters are tortured by their boss with an LP of Spanish blockbuster songs (apparently repeated ad infinitum). They are driven mad, and other characters talk about the cruelty.
42** [[TakeThat Also repeated speeches by a politician.]] In later albums these are often replaced with whatever [[TakeThat sensationalist TV show or politician speech]] Ibáñez seems to have a problem with at the moment.
43* ''ComicBook/{{Superlopez}}'': In ''Los Alienígenas'', captured alien spy Xonxa boasts that her shape-shifting species is virtually unkillable:
44-->'''Xonxa:''' Our bodies are like rubber! My people only die of old age or boredom.\
45'''Superlópez:''' Funny you should mention that: we happen to have this big collection of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWzelwW3hoI Manolo Escobar]] films...
46[[/folder]]
47
48[[folder:Fan Works]]
49* In the [[AuthorFilibuster incredibly long author's introduction]] to ''Fanfic/MyInnerLife'', Jenna [[SarcasmBlind fails to understand hyperboled criticism]] that claims this.
50-->'''Jenna:''' Also as a side note, I NEVER physically hurt ANYONE with this story. I got one reviewer that said. "Oh God please stop writing, your hurting everyone." Now I want to know where I physically touched that person. I want to know how I'm twisting anyone's arms to read this. I have never done anything of the sort in any way, shape or form and I DO NOT appreciate being accused of that!
51* The last thing the ghosts scare the heroes with while on the tunnel to Threed is a copy of ''VideoGame/Superman64''. Doubles as a TakeThat to the game.
52* In ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' Marik being forced to watched ''Film/BeverlyHillsChihuahua'' was so horrible it drove him to evil.
53* ''Fanfic/NotThisTimeFate'': Jaune's guitar solo is described as utterly horryfying and downright painful to listen to. Somewhat justified, as Jaune is actively trying to play awfully, as to annoy everybody present.
54* ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': As described in chapter 8 of the third story, ''Diplomacy Through Schooling'', yak amateur poetry. The yaks used to force criminals to listen to it as punishment, though they discontinued the practice centuries ago. In the present day, after some PVE members decide to cause trouble around the borders of Yakyakistan, Prince Rutherford vows to bring this punishment back and use it on any PVE members who show their faces around his country again.
55[[/folder]]
56
57[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
58* The song "Puberty Love" in ''Film/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes'' is so bad, it defeats the tomatoes. Not that they were weak against music, but that this song was so awful, that even the ''sheet music'' had this effect.
59* In the ''Series/BigTimeRush'' hour-long feature, Gustavo and Kelly are tortured by the British government by having a guy sing the band's songs horribly, but they hold out.
60* Similar to the ''Killer Tomatoes'' example, in ''Film/MarsAttacks'' Slim Whitman's song "Indian Love Call" causes the Martians' [[YourHeadASplode heads to explode]].
61* In the movie ''Film/TopSecret'', after the Nazis have been psychologically and physically torturing Nick Rivers only for it not to break him...
62-->"Do you want me to break out the [=LeRoy=] Neiman paintings?"\
63"No. We cannot risk violating the Geneva Convention."
64* Subverted in ''Film/FunnyFarm''. Liz indeed starts crying when she reads Andy's manuscript and sees just how bad it is, but it's not so much because his book sucks as it is her realizing that it will never sell to a publisher, so all the crap they've put up with since moving to Redbud (so that Andy could focus on his new career as a novelist) has been for ''nothing''.
65* In ''Film/Ghost1990'', Sam's ghost gets Oda Mae to cooperate with him by singing (excruciatingly badly) "I Am Henry the Eighth, I Am" over and over till she can't stand it anymore. When told of this, Molly reveals that Sam did the same thing to get her to go on their first date.
66* ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' and ''Film/AirplaneIITheSequel'' has Ted Striker deliver long, rambling stories about his life to various people. These stories are so excruciatingly boring that people keep killing themselves just to stop listening, while one woman literally ''dies'' of boredom and is reduced to a skeleton by the time Ted's done.
67[[/folder]]
68
69[[folder:Literature]]
70* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1'': Vogon poetry, which is used in-universe as a torture device, Vogons having no illusions about the reputation of their poetry, and the poetry of the Azgoths of Kria, which has literally killed several listeners. There's a poet on Earth, Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings, who's worse than both of them, but we are mercifully spared its effects (the poet named after Paul Neil Milne Jennings, [[BlackComedy a friend of Douglas Adams]]).
71* Similarly, the Literature/{{Discworld}}'s Nac Mac Feegle have Gonnagles, bards whose poetry is so bad that [[BrownNote it's used on the battlefield]]. They are presumably named for the legendarily-bad Scottish poet William Topaz [=McGonagall=].
72[[/folder]]
73
74[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
75* The "plot" of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' involves a MadScientist attempting to find a movie so bad it could be weaponized. And while they haven't yet succeeded, they've come close a few times:
76** ''Film/MonsterAGoGo'' and ''Film/TheCastleOfFuManchu'' are two top candidates for the worst movie ever featured on the show, on a technical level. The hosts never really went that nuts, but quite a few viewers did.
77** ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate'' was so god-awful that Dr. Forrester and Frank actually apologized to Joel for making him watch it.
78** ''Film/InvasionOfTheNeptuneMen'' was such an ordeal that Mike and the 'bots had to take turns stepping out of the theater for a few moments. It might have done the job, had it not been for a surprise visit from [[Film/PrinceOfSpace Krankor]] cheering everyone up.
79** ''Film/{{Hobgoblins}}'' was so painful that Pearl frequently used it as her go-to threat, against the hosts or her henchmen -- just mentioning "the movie" made Bobo scream. She kept it in the Ark of the Covenant to try to mitigate its power. When she finally breaks it out on the hosts, the 'bots start trying to flee during the opening credits, then made cardboard cutouts of themselves to try to sneak away.
80** ''Film/LostContinent'''s "rock climbing" segment was so dull and monotonous that just mentioning it in later episodes would make the 'bots shudder.
81** ''Film/HerculesAgainstTheMoonMen'''s sandstorm sequence was also painfully boring. The Mads knew exactly what they were doing and presaged it with the phrase, "''Deep huuurrrting!!''"
82** ''[[Film/FugitiveAlien Star Force: Fugitive Alien II]]'' was so terrible that Tom Servo's head exploded less than thirty minutes in.
83** ''Film/RedZoneCuba'' came the closest to actually inflicting mental harm on Mike and the 'bots -- but it was equally as effective on the Mads themselves.
84* Averted in ''[=MST3K=]'''s SpiritualSuccessor ''The Film Crew'', where Mike, Kevin and Bill work for a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} CEO who thinks the bad movies are just ''awesome''. The guys themselves never despair -- at worst, they suffer BrainBleach moments with a giggle.
85* A story arc in ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'' features a street musician whose singing (a rock-rap fusion he calls "spilk") is so horrible it kills birds in mid-flight and [[HarsherInHindsight causes an earthquake]]. The conflict comes from his winning an ''Series/AmericanIdol''-style TV show despite his competition including actually competent singers ([[TheCastShowOff as well as members of]] Music/AKB48 in RealLife), who hire the detective protagonist because they're sure the guy's cheating.
86* This is the constant reaction to Sophie's BadBadActing in ''Series/{{Leverage}}''. Eliot once called one of her performances the "worst night of [his] life," a statement that was juxtaposed with a flashback to him being forced to play RussianRoulette alone by some unsavory-looking brutes. As Parker once said, quoting a reviewer:
87-->'''Parker:''' "Never before has a production of ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'' made me [[RootingForTheEmpire root for the Nazis]]."
88* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
89** "Fool for Love". In one of Spike's flashbacks, an aristocrat says of his poetry, "I would rather have a railway spike rammed through my skull than listen to that drivel." Considering that when Spike was first introduced, Giles had mentioned that he was infamous for impaling people with railway spikes, he may well have been TemptingFate.
90** An earlier episode showed Giles grimacing his way through Talent Show auditions, particularly Cordelia's rendition of 'The Greatest Love of All.'
91* "Nossan", the Blue Ranger of ''Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger'' is known for his bad puns. While they usually tend to only conjure a tumbleweed when used, there was an instance where his jokes were so bad they ''gave the [[AnIcePerson monster responsible for the last great Ice Age]] a case of the chills''.
92* ''Series/RedDwarf:'' When imprisoned in season 8, Lister and Rimmer find that the inmates of Red Dwarf's secret prison are forced to watch god-awful B-movies (such as ''Attack of the Giant, Savage, Completely Invisible Aliens'', which openly admits in the trailer that it's "horrible"). Rimmer speculates that it's a deliberate effort on the staff's part to sap their morale.
93-->'''Rimmer:''' Next month is George Formby season. ''[in an imitation of Formby]'' Git yer hang'ing rope while there's still some left! Hey-hey!
94* In ''Series/AlloAllo'', Madame Edith's singing is god-awful enough that it can cause Nazi officers and hardened resistance fighters alike to flee the building (or at least to stuff cheese in their ears). The only thing worse is a sensual song-and-dance by her eighty-year-old mother Fanny.
95* In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E12TheRoyale The Royale]]" from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', an Apollo astronaut is the only survivor of an alien kidnapping, and the aliens tried to create an appropriate environment for him to live out the rest of his days in as an apology because they didn't actually mean to kill his crew-mates. Unfortunately, they base their re-creation on the text of a novel called ''Hotel Royale'' that he had taken with him on the journey, and he is forced to live out the rest of his days in a re-creation of a "badly written book, filled with endless cliché and shallow characters." He welcomes the death that eventually comes in his sleep.
96[[/folder]]
97
98[[folder:Music]]
99* A music critic reviewing the 1978 soundtrack album for the ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' movie (with the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton) was quoted as saying that if you play it backwards, you can hear Paul saying "I wish I was dead." [[note]]Serves as a MythologyGag as it refers to the "Paul is dead" conspiracy during the Beatles' twilight years.[[/note]]
100[[/folder]]
101
102[[folder:Radio]]
103* In ''Radio/OldHarrysGame'', writers in Hell are forced to listen to dialogue from [[TakeThat Jeffrey Archer's books.]]
104* ''Radio/BleakExpectations:''
105** When Pip Bin winds up in Hell, Mr. Benevolent tortures him by tying him up, then putting a cat on his lap so it will claw him incessantly, summoning a wren to peck out his spleen, tying his belt too tight, and placing in Pip's view a TV showing ''Holby City''. Pip Bin considers this an even worse fate than all three of the other tortures combined.
106-->'''Sir Phillip Bin:''' A cat was clawing my lap, a bird was pecking out my spleen, my belt was too tight, and an unconvincing medical drama was on.\
107'''Pip Bin:''' Ah, cat! Ah, spleen! Ah, ''trousers!'' Oh, for goodness' sake, that's not how a ''real'' person talks in a medical emergency!
108** A few episodes later, Mr. Benevolent abducts Pip's wife Ripely, and makes her read celebrity autobiographies. She laments the simplistic "yet clearly ghostwritten" prose, and worse, the terrible puns every title has.
109-->'''Pip Bin:''' Surely it can't be that bad.\
110'''Ripely:''' ''(acidly)'' You try reading Florence Nightingale's ''From Bad, to '''Nurse'''''
111* ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresSouvenirProgramme:'' In one Storyteller sketch, he is advised not to make an incredibly obvious joke by his boss on the grounds that his boss is an old man, and the joke is so bad it might ''actually'' kill him.
112[[/folder]]
113
114[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
115* The villains of the ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' adventure ''Clones in Space'' are [[spoiler:aliens]] with a finely developed aesthetic sense. Their torturers primarily make use of human pop culture (country music, the Three Stooges) to extract confessions. The [[PlayerCharacter Troubleshooters]] are unaffected, while the torturers (and GameMaster) cover their ears and writhe in agony.
116[[/folder]]
117
118[[folder:Video Games]]
119* ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'': {{Exaggerated|Trope}} when singing all possible shanties to Van Helgen in a optional conversation causes him to have a mild stroke.
120* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'':
121-->'''Sasha:''' Say something hideous and horrible jumps out at you, something so disgusting that it simply must die.\
122''[he pushes a button; a tiffany lamp appears]''\
123'''Sasha:''' Ach! So... tacky... can't... look... directly at it...
124* Inga Wagner's singing in ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever''. Mooks are ''relieved'' when she "punishes" them by forcing them to miss her singing performances.
125* In ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'', Team Chaotix' [[CombinationAttack Team Blast]], "Chaotix Recital", lives up to its name by having Espio, Charmy and Vector perform music ''extremely badly''. They don't even seem to be coordinated with each other; Espio plays a shamisen and sings an edgy song about the ninja's creed, Charmy bangs on a drum and sings an upbeat song about himself, and Vector takes lead vocals and yells into the microphone, and not in a RockAndRoll kind of way, instead just shouting and laughing like a goofball. Like all other Team Blasts, this destroys all the enemies in the surrounding area, purely from the awfulness (and possibly the volume) of the recital.
126* One of the books you can study in ''VideoGame/Persona4'' is a "ploddingly-written romantic comedy about a girl on her first day of school in a new town. [[TakeThat Vampires are]] [[Literature/TheTwilightSaga involved.]]". The narration explicitly says "the content of this book was almost physically painful for you to read". It boosts your Diligence stat, presumably for pressing through and finishing the whole thing despite how bad it is.
127* In ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', after finding out that a minor villain calls himself Frog Morton because "he croaks people," your only choice of response is "Ohhhh. Ouch. That's terrible. The pain, the pain!" The person who tells you it says that [[LamePunReaction a pun that bad is another reason to kill him]].
128* Undead Warlock Tehd Shoemaker in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': ''Legion'' has this reaction to the Burning Legion's slapdash efforts in summoning more demons for their invasion.
129-->'''Legion:''' This physically hurts me and I haven't felt real pain in decades.
130* ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'':
131** The sidequest "Out of Body Experience" has you finding an A.I. core from a Hyperion robot and trying to find it a new body. However, every time you put it in a new body, it tries to kill you. Even when you install it in the radio in Moxxi's bar in Sanctuary, it tries to [[DrivenToSuicide torment the patrons into suicidal despair]] with terrible country music.
132** Another sidequest has you helping [[GeniusDitz Scooter]] compose a love poem. The result (with lines like "You are a diamond in the rough / or a flower surrounded by shrapnel and stuff") is so awful the intended recipient [[spoiler:calmly walks back into her house [[SuicideAsComedy and blows her brains out]].]]
133* in ''VideoGame/{{Crusader Kings II}}'', characters with the 'Poet' trait can torture their prisoners by declaiming bad poetry. This has a small chance of driving the prisoner insane.
134* In ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', one of the ways you can [[CriticalExistenceFailure potentially die]] is by reading "Sixteen Days in Coldest April", a book of depressing, wordy, incredibly worthy literature that deals not only morale damage, but ''health'' damage over and over as you read it. (At high levels, your Pain Threshold skill, who encourages you into suicidal masochism, will ''love'' it and beg for more.)
135* Franchise/{{Kirby}}'s Mic ability gives three uses to do a ton of damage to enemies. Minor enemies are defeated immediately, while minibosses will be internally begging for a quick death after the first use to spare themselves from the puffball's atrocious singing.
136[[/folder]]
137
138[[folder:Visual Novels]]
139* Inverted in Morgan’s epilogue in ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'' when [[spoiler:Uncle Tommy, Morgan, and the protagonist play in a punk rock concert together]]. As the protagonist notes, nobody cares how bad they are; in fact, they all seem to enjoy it.
140* ''VisualNovel/IdolHakkenden'': Kooky King's pose is so idiotic it tends to drain other characters' strength or make them fall to the floor.
141[[/folder]]
142
143[[folder:Web Comics]]
144* Astos in ''WebComic/EightBitTheater'' was taken down by a combination of Red Mage and Black Mage's [[LamePunReaction corny attempts at a]] PreMortemOneLiner.
145* In the version of Videoland we see in ''Webcomic/CaptainSNES'', Music/GarthBrooks is this, as shown by [[https://www.captainsnes.com/2005/05/14/480-nightmare-of-an-evil-genius/ Proto Man threatening to force Dr. Wily to listen to his music]] if the former ever even '''''suspects''''' the latter is planning to be a [=Vice-=]PresidentEvil after running beside Mike Haggar for President of Nexus, '''''regardless''''' of whether Wily [[NotMeThisTime really is hatching such a plan]], prompting Wily to [[YouMonster call Proto Man a monster]] just for ''making'' such a threat.
146* ''Webcomic/DeanNalaVinny'': Nala is writing a birthday card for Dean's grandmother and reading it to Vinny:
147-->'''Nala''': "Happy Birthday, Gran. Feeling old? At least you are not a Greenland Shark with eye parasites." No, wait... "at least you '''don't''' have eye parasites?"\
148'''Vinny''' ''(feelers bending downward in despair)'': Dear God.
149* In ''Webcomic/MinionComics'' one of the torture options is a Comedy Central special: [[http://www.meetmyminion.com/?p=1045 George Lopez: It's Funny Because He's Hispanic]].
150* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' suggests Music/CelineDion as a [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0258.html weapon of torture]]. Never used, [[EvenEvilHasStandards since Nale is still civilized]].
151* Inverted in [[http://www.explosm.net/comics/2726/ this]] ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness'' strip. A character's drunkenness is cured by a bad joke.
152* One of the attempts to scare the protagonists by the ghosts in ''Webcomic/TheChosenFour'' was a copy of VideoGame/Superman64
153* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Elliot looks up an unnamed movie (stated by WordOfGod to be ''Film/JackAndJill'') on Rotten Tomatoes, and finds that it's only listed as 4% fresh. However, the important thing is the one visible review: [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1483 "I'd rather have my wisdom teeth removed again..."]]
154[[/folder]]
155
156[[folder:Web Original]]
157* Website/ChannelAwesome: This is kind of the Nostalgia Critic's whole schtick, except when he's reviewing something that's actually good or doing a top-eleven countdown. A lot of the reviewers on his site, in fact.
158** When WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic reviewed ''Film/{{Junior}}'', he saw the baby dream with the greenscreen face of Arnold on the baby, and it made him scream like a girl, and then vomit all over the place.
159** Linkara in ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'', driven mad by a bad pun ("Re-Todd") in ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'': "[[Comicbook/FinalCrisis ANTI-LIFE JUSTIFIES MY HATE! Anti-life justifies my haaaaaattteee...]] [breaks down sobbing]"
160** In ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWallTheMovie'', a CutawayGag shows the Nostalgia Critic couldn't make it to Linkara's birthday party because he traumatized himself by watching ''Film/TheGarbagePailKidsMovie'' again:
161--->'''Calluna:''' For the love of god, Critic! Why did you watch ''Garbage Pail Kids'' again? What were you thinking?!\
162'''Critic:''' I don't know! I thought it would get better with age!\
163'''Sage:''' Critic, open the door before you are permanently traumatized!\
164'''Critic:''' I don't know what happiness is anymore! Joy is a lie! A LIIIEEE!!!
165** [[WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow Angry Joe]] accuses ''[[VideoGame/SonicRiders Sonic Free Riders]]'' of "Assault in the First Degree to knowingly inflict bodily harm."
166** ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeastTheEnchantedChristmas'' was so hard on WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick that she'd rather go through "seven holocausts" than watch it again.
167** The [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4Kids version]] of the ''Manga/OnePiece'' theme song reduces WebVideo/MarzGurl to {{angrish}} and crying.
168** WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows:
169*** He writhes in pain at a musical number of ''Series/HannahMontana: TheMovie''.
170---->'''Todd:''' I've seen ''Film/Grease2''. I saw that [[Film/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand Sgt. Peppers movie]] with Music/TheBeeGees. I've seen two ''Film/{{High School Musical}}s''. But this ought to be the worst musical number ever.
171*** "Break Up" by Mario feat. Gucci Mane and Sean Garrett makes his hair fall out in clumps and his nose bleed. Later he claims he's lucky it didn't give him cancer.
172*** Parodied in his review of Music/{{Rihanna}}'s "S&M", saying he doesn't get UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}} and likes the song even though he thinks it's a very flawed song without any virtues, only to realize he likes the song because he's a masochist.
173** WebVideo/DiamandaHagan follows the cast of ''Film/ProjectMillion'' into the "It's a Small World" ride. She doesn't take it too well.
174** Spoony of ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'' has a few videos listed under the title of "Experience BIJ", Bij being Klingon for "punishment"[[note]]The term and the opening credits come from the ''Star Trek: The Next Generation -- A Klingon Challenge'' VCR board game[[/note]]; the videos themselves largely consist of whatever Spoony has seen on the internet which is horribly annoying, and the goal is to see how long you can watch the videos without pausing, going to another window, or muting it. Few can make it.
175** WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob:
176*** He experienced this in the aftermath of watching ''Video Violence'' -- about three years later, as he was reviewing its sequel, he had just recovered from the debilitating effects.
177*** ''Gross Out'' manages not to set him off with its VulgarHumor antics... but the lead actress's horrible performance makes him vomit.
178*** Also, ''Film/{{Nukie}}''. The entire episode. The only one where Snob seems in more pain is ''To Catch a Yeti''.
179** Oancitizen of ''WebVideo/BrowsHeldHigh'' shouts out "OW!" after TheReveal in ''Film/{{Zardoz}}'' that Zed's religion is based on ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''.
180** WebVideo/JesuOtaku once stated that attempting to watch ''Manga/IkkiTousen'' left him "in physical pain".
181* Observing the effects of bad writing on a 'verse can cause Agents of the WebOriginal/ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum to [[EyeScream spork their eyes out]], GoMadFromTheRevelation, or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking get a headache]].
182* This is the reason ''Website/TheAgonyBooth'' named itself after the pain device from ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''.
183* Pretty much the central theme of the [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/166521 Banana Phone flash animation]].
184* The resident PungeonMaster of the ''LetsPlay/SpoilerWarning'' LetsPlay group occasionally makes puns so bad they make the other members groan.
185* Of the LetsPlay/FreelanceAstronauts, Ferr is usually the one making painful puns (pipes!: [[VideoGame/Superman64 "Solve my maze!"]] Ferr: Well, it's on fire, so maybe you should ''salve'' it first. Evek: ''I'm in physical pain!''), but occasionally, Maxwell gets in on it. Witness the final boss fight of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime: [[UpdatedRerelease Master Quest]]'', where he tells the others that Ganondorf "really puts the 'try' in 'Triforce'."
186-->'''Evek:''' ''That was fucking painful!''
187* ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'':
188** During his first attempt to review ''Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde'' for the NES, the Nerd spoke about it being so bad that it traumatized him, and had a hard time bringing himself to playing it.
189** Later, he would go to review ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIII'', and said this about the ending:
190--->'''Nerd:''' What's the best way to end a shitty movie? With a shitty ending. One so bad that it leaves me scarred for life.
191** The [=AVGN=] Movie and episodes leading up to it established his phobia of ''VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''. He couldn't even stand to look at the cartridge, and vomited after watching a sequel of it for a few seconds.
192* In Alex Navarro of Gamespot's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3a0gixfwI video review]] of ''VideoGame/BigRigsOverTheRoadRacing'', he never says a single word. For 2 minutes he just stares at the gameplay footage in disbelief, occasionally just shaking his head or [[FacePalm face-palming]], before standing up, walking outside, and [[MercyKill lying down in the middle of the road]].
193* WebVideo/TVTrash: Chris "Rowdy" Moore is scarred by the pilots for "Series/HeilHoneyImHome" and "Series/TheGroovenians". The former sends him into a depression, and the latter has him taking pills.
194* Website/SCPFoundation: [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-504 SCP-504]] enforces this. A tomato that will fly at high speed toward the source of bad humor. The worse the pun, the harder it hits.
195-->'''Item:''' Three mature SCP-504 tomatoes, one for each test subject.\
196'''Subject:''' After the introduction to the following news item, 'Bomb blows hole in Lenin statue', the three following jokes were made.\
197'''Test Subject 1:''' Ooh, that's gonna leave a Marx.\
198'''Result:''' Tomato number one "twitched", but did not displace from its original location.\
199\
200'''Test Subject 2:''' BBC is just Stalin the good news.\
201'''Result:''' Tomato clocked at 152 mph. Chipped tooth and hairline jaw fracture.\
202\
203'''Test Subject 3:''' That blows.\
204'''Result:''' Tomato clocked at [REDACTED]. Subject is hospitalized with a massive skull fracture.
205* Website/SFDebris:
206** Reviewing the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Angel One": The perfume scene is met with cries of "Oh, for the love of God! Five, there are five lights! ''Five!''", [[CallBack calling back]] to the torture scene from "Chain of Command".
207** In ''Comic History 8'', he puts forward the idea that Creator/RobLiefeld put forth a comic so bad that it actually gave Marvel Comics editor Mark Gruenwald a fatal heart attack.
208* The ''WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay'' enjoy using this trope. WebVideo/{{Pat|StaresAt}} in particular has '[[DeathIsCheap died]]' several times over the course of playthroughs of terrible games, such as during the Broken Bond LP (Woolie brought him back with a ressurection jutsu) and in the Omikron playthrough he simply continued talking from beyond the grave.
209* ''WebVideo/PatTheNesPunk'':
210** In the review of ''VideoGame/Action52'', he starts this trope and expanded on it more and more as the review went on. He started out self-confident, trying to find a decent game in the compilation. As the review went on, he started praying to find a decent game. At the very end of the review you can see him literally faint.
211** The antagonist in Pat the NES Punk's M82 madness hoped that Pat would achieve the same effect when he would review "awful" games on his M82. Sadly, most of those so called "awful" games turned out not to be as awful as the antagonist thought they were, with Pat even saying that those games weren't even bad, which only made the antagonist more angry.
212* The [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/that-post-gave-me-cancer That Post Gave Me Cancer]] [[MemeticMutation meme]].
213* ''WebVideo/WoolieVersus'': During the ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' playthrough, Woolie suffered a HeroicBSOD as a result of the game's HurricaneOfPuns and stated the wordplay was physically painful.
214* WebVideo/TheMysteriousMrEnter has strongly reconsidered using the words "painful to watch" after his review of an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheProblemSolverz''; that is, in no way, implying that his Animated Atrocities subjects wouldn't qualify for the phrase in the metaphorical sense, but the aforementioned episode's bright and constantly-shifting coloring made the episode ''physically'' painful for him to watch, even worsening his myopia.
215* ''WebAnimation/{{HFIL}}'' introduces us to the Ginyu Force's newest dance, the twerkarena - a hybrid of the macarena and twerking. Just ''seeing'' it is enough for Cell to want to get out of there, but that's not the worst part. In life, Frieza hired these guys as his secret police, meaning he knew of their quirks, and yet here he calls their practice sessions "terrifying" before shuddering at the thought, as if they became even kookier in death.
216* ''WebVideo/MadBecauseSmall'':
217** In "2.56", Urianger's FloweryElizabethanEnglish speech is so painful it causes everyone to die
218** In "3", Fordola and Lyse's "sick dance off" causes Alisaie to die from the lameness again.
219* WebVideo/{{Kitboga}} is a scambaiter popular on Website/{{Twitch}} and Website/YouTube.
220** After about an hour and twenty minutes into "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwhzqepj2PM Buying Hot Dogs Instead of Gift Cards (For Scammers)]]," Kitboga can't help but note that the scammers still having managed to pretend to send any money to his bank account and can't figure out the screen-sharing software they're using and are trying to install another. He points out that while he's trying to waste their time, the whole thing is just getting a bit ridiculous that they're so incompetent they're wasting their own time.
221** In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSgFRq2pY0Q When Scammer Think You're a Bitcoin Millionaire]]," Kitboga tricks a group of refund scammers into believing that his character has just over a million dollars in Bitcoin. After leaving them on this, he ends the call for the day. When they call back the next day, he's astonished to the point of near speechlessness and having to compose himself of the fact that instead of coming up with anything even remotely creative, they just try to run the standard refund scam, and rather badly too. The fact that he ends up spending nearly 7 hours total on the phone with them is a testament to their sheer persistence more than anything else, as he tries to simply end things with them several times due to not wanting to waste time on ineffective scammers.
222* ''Webvideo/CinematicExcrement'' has many cases, specially once Smeghead decided to look up the Usefulnotes/GoldenRaspberryAward winners. He agreed that ''Film/DirtyLove'' deserved to be chosen as the worst picture of 2005 because "it hated me and wanted me to suffer", and his review of ''Film/TheLoveGuru'' opens with an exhausted Sean admitting watching the Worst Picture nominees was taking its toll on him.
223[[/folder]]
224
225[[folder:Western Animation]]
226* Happens twice in ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'':
227** In "Fanning the Flames", Danny weaponizes Tucker's horrible HollywoodToneDeaf singing to break Ember's MagicMusic trance on everyone watching her televised concert.
228** Later, in "Girls' Night Out", Jazz disguises herself as one of Ember's backup singers, but her singing's almost as bad as Tucker's and she ends up [[ProducePelting getting trash thrown at her]].
229* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
230** In one episode', the [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi Ewok-filled]] special edition of ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' was so horrible it had the same effect as the ark in the actual movie, killing Creator/GeorgeLucas, Creator/StevenSpielberg, and Creator/FrancisFordCoppola. [[NegativeContinuity Spielberg and Lucas came back in a later episode, though]].
231** "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining": The boys go on a camping trip that is apparently so painfully dull that [[TheyKilledKennyAgain it killed Kenny]] (as in, Kenny [[LiteralMetaphor literally dies of boredom]]).
232** Russell Crowe's singing in [[Recap/SouthParkS6E5TheNewTerranceAndPhillipMovieTrailer one episode]] is so bad that Tugger shoots himself to avoid having to listen to it any longer.
233* On ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic,'' Creator/RogerEbert was interviewing a potential new partner and showed him the kind of bad movies he'd have to watch. A version of ''Film/MrsDoubtfire'' with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role fully skeletonized him.
234** And when Roger starts up his next review, [[Creator/SylvesterStallone Sylvester]] and Frank Stallone in "[[Theatre/WaitingForGodot Yo! Godot! I'm Waitin' Here!]]", the corpse's skull falls off.
235* The poetry of [=PedXing=] in ''WesternAnimation/DaveTheBarbarian'' has this effect on everyone but Dave and Princess Irmaplotz.
236* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' revolves around Patrick's self-composed song, which is so awful that it [[BrownNote actually]] ''[[BrownNote kills]]'' the band that records it. Also, there's [[GiftedlyBad Squidward's clarinet skills.]]
237** Squidward's dancing is unbearable to watch that it hurts people's eyes, and makes some throw up. His art doesn't fare much better, seeing how it literally burns people's heads off.
238* A cutaway gag for ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Peter and a young girl stand in the living room, and she hands him a tape but warns him that if he watches it, he will die. Peter plays it on the VCR. The tape in question turns out to be ''Film/{{Mannequin}}''; in the next scene Peter dies with a contorted appearance, similar to victims of ''Film/TheRing''.
239* At one point in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Bender auditions for a part on the ShowWithinAShow when a role opens up. His lousy "Spanish accent" prompts this response from Calculon (who is a robot):
240-->'''Calculon:''' That was so terrible, I think you gave me cancer!
241** Calculon's acting, meanwhile, is so bad that when he does a one-bot show, it hospitalizes twelve people. Nine of them were expected to recover. And the Robot Devil (who ''gave'' Calculon his acting "talent" in the first place) regards it as worse than the torments he inflicts on the damned.
242* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' episode "One of Us", this trope is how Jimmy describes ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Happy Show Show]]'' after his hypnotized friends convince him to watch it.
243-->'''Jimmy:''' I thought my TV would explode! I thought I might faint from the show's supreme stankiness!
244* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
245** Pinkie Pie's "You Gotta Share, You Gotta Care" song. It is so awful that two warring tribes only strengthen their resolve to go to war after she performs it once. The second performance, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero when the tribes are RIGHT on the precipice of a truce immediately before commencing battle]], makes the chief of one tribe so enraged that he leads his people into battle simply because the song pissed him off so much.
246** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E18MaudPie Maud Pie]]", Pinkie's sister Maud comes to visit, and the rest of Pinkie's friends find her stoic, anti-social, and only interested in rocks. At one point, Twilight asks Maud about her poetry and Maud provides a sample. Twilight's reaction shows how bad this poetry is, and it's only the tip of the iceberg.
247* The ''WesternAnimation/YogisTreasureHunt'' episode "Yogi's Heroes" had Dick Dastardly and Muttley capturing Snooper and Blabber and forcing them to watch episodes of ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines''. Blabber even states that it will turn their brains to mush.
248* On ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'', while [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Star]] likes her crush Oskar's keytar music, in his first appearance his terrible playing causes everyone else to writhe on the ground in pain.
249* Ed's violin music in the ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "Pain in the Ed" is ''literally'' painful to listen to since it's able to peel bark and crack stone from the sound alone. Even better, a musical note manifests itself from Ed's violin and caves in Eddy's face like a dropped bowling ball!
250[[/folder]]

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