Ear Worm - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Ya know, at this point, it doesn't matter. Because it keeps runnin' inside my head and it won't leave unless I blow it out. With a bullet!"

And then It Got Worse

— Carl, Aqua Teen Hunger Force

"Duck Tales. It will never leave, it will never leave!"

— The Nostalgia Critic, "The Top 11 Catchiest Theme Songs"

This is the song that never ends. Yes, it goes on and on, my friends... in your head.

Ear Worms (from the German phrase Ohrwurm) are those songs that weasel their way into your head like uninvited guests and then proceed to stink up the inside of your cranium by playing themselves there over. And over. And over. And over. They're those songs that just get stuck in your head, and no amount of screaming, pounding, protesting, and banging your head into your desk will get them out. Someone infected with an Ear Worm may find themselves prone to bursting out into the song in inappropriate places, tugging at their ears in fury, and can end up distracted in the middle of conversation (or other important activities) by the continuous snatches of song wavering between their ears. And it's only a matter of time before, like Darryl Revok, they drill a hole in their forehead to let the voices out.

You may find relief by hunting down the lyrics and learning the words, but this is more effort than most people are willing to expend on a briefly-heard ditty. Worse, if the song is in a language you don't speak, this becomes pretty much impossible. And when the song is an instrumental... You could also distract yourself with another Ear Worm, but you might find it just as annoying as the first.

The Internet is a particularly notorious supplier of ear worms; lots of music memes tend to be irrationally catchy. (This is probably how they got to be memetic in the first place.) Other prime offenders include commercial jingles, Broadway musicals, whatever Top 40 hit is being overplayed right now, and video game music (including licensed music). Let's not go into show theme music, especially when they repeat and shout the name of the series over and over and over again.

Just because a song is listed here as a particularly bad Ear Worm doesn't mean it's not awesome. In fact, an awesome song can be just as catchy as a... uuhm... not as awesome one.

In fiction, Ear Worms are frequently the tool used to produce Psychic Static. Especially powerful ones can also serve as a Brown Note.

Not to be confused with the mind-warping parasites from Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan.

Compare The Tetris Effect, the video game equivalent.

TV Tropes would like to apologize to any readers susceptible to these things who, getting reminded of a song on this page, feel compelled to hear it again. For your convenience and further suffering, links will be provided whenever possible. (And sometimes this isn't possible, for various reasons; if you find a broken link, please remove it or fix it. Thanks!)

Some of these link to You Tube, so if you wish to listen to them in stereo, add "&fmt=18" to the link without the quotation marks. This may negate some of the awesome, but in some cases it may also elevate the song to godlike status. Your Mileage May Vary, so consider this fair warning.

Note: When posting links to You Tube here, make sure to strip their URLs of all unnecessary fragments — the "?v=RSsJ19sy3JI or whatever" parameter is the only one needed, really.

Also, unless it seems to have been posted with the copyright holder's blessing (look for one of those little marks like "director video" or "contains content from") or songs released under free license (e.g. Creative Commons), it probably shouldn't be linked here — it's very likely to be taken down. And also, for US users, the rest of the world may not see what you do. Links to video game soundtracks and demoscene productions are OK most of the time, though.