History Main / InOneEarOuttheOther

* ''Question:'' What goes in one ear, comes out of the other yet still stays in the head?\\
''Answer:'' [[BlackComedy The pickaxe]].

* In ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and Cleopatra'', when the workers are on lunch break, Artifis addresses them. One turns his head towards him but keeps moving his spoon, sending food into his ear until it comes through.

* Invoked in ''Series/OperationOuch'' when one of the doctors is looking in his brother's ear and claims to be able to see daylight on the other side. His brother hen tries to look for himself.

* In a ''WesternAnimation/FreakyStories'' story, an earwig climbs into a man's ear. When it is finally removed, he realizes the earwig was extracted from the opposite ear it went in.

* Happens in French comedy ''La folie des grandeurs'' (a parody of Victor Hugo's ''Ruy Blas''), where Don Salluste's servant attempts to dry his master's ear after his bath, and ends up pulling the towel from the other ear.

** Yet another episode has Moe, depressed over Christmas, run through a monatage of failed suicide attempts ([[BungledSuicide all played for laughs.]]) At one point he sticks a relvover in one of his ears, pulls the trigger and a "bang" flang pops harmlessly out his other ear, much to his frustration.

* An early ''ComicBook/BouleEtBill'' page had Boule's dad try to administer some eardrops to Bill. The first ear goes fine, but when he switches to the second ear, the drops in the first start leaking out just at the right time for Boule (and soon Dad as well) to mistake it for this trope.

* An Australian KFC Hot and Spicy ad campaign from the 90s had customers gain the [[FireBreathingDiner ability to breath fire]] after eating the spicy chicken. One commerical featured a guy tucking into a bucket of extra hot chicken while his DumbBlonde girlfriend sitting beside him is ''completely'' absorbed in a very cliche sounding soap opera. Without taking her eyes off the screen she asks him what he is eating. He responds by leaning over and blowing softly in her ear causing a jet of flame to shoot straight out of her other ear. As he leans back she blinks, shakes her head slightly, comments that it sounds nice and reaches for a piece herself, still without taking her eyes off the screen. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaA8Xg7Z0UA (See it here.]]

* An Australian KFC Hot and Spicy ad campaign from the 90s had customers gain the [[FireBreathingDiner ability to breath fire]] after eating the spicy chicken. One commerical featured a guy tucking into a bucket of extra hot chicken while his DumbBlonde girlfriend sitting beside him is ''completely'' absorbed in a very cliche sounding soap opera. Without taking her eyes off the screen she asks him what he is eating. He responds by leaning over and blowing softly in her ear causing a jet of flame to shoot straight out of her other ear. As he leans back she blinks, shakes her head slightly, comments that it sounds nice and reaches for a piece herself, still without taking her eyes off the screen ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaA8Xg7Z0UA see it here]].)

* In ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', Raz is able to look directly into the brain cavity through the ear, and can see right out the other ear of brain-theft victims.

->''"After you'd known Christine for any length of time, you found yourself fighting a desire to look into her ear to see if you could spot daylight coming the other way."''
-->-- '''Terry Pratchett''', ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}''

The ear drum is a sensory organ within the ear canal, and can be damaged if you stick an object deep enough in it. In addition, there's no direct path from one ear to the other inside the head, even if material could get through the eardrums - rather, the ears hook up to the nose and throat via the Eustachian tubes, though the eardrum is designed to be watertight. In an ideal situation, nothing should pass through the ears and enter the throat!

* An episode of ''Webanimation/{{RWBY Chibi}}'' has a firefly doing this on Penny. Justified in that she's a robot.

* An old episode of ''Series/NightGallery'' had a man in a jungle being tortured by having an earwig tunnel through his head, going through one ear and out the other. He survived, but [[spoiler: it left eggs inside]]. Needless to say, the whole thing was biologically wrong.

* Invoked in the ''Series/HannahMontana'' episode 'Get Down, Study-udy-udy':
-->'''Lilly:''' (''Lifts Miley's hair and peers into her ear'') "Hey Oliver, I can see you!"
-->'''Oliver:''' (''Looks into Miley's opposite ear'') "Oh, I see you too!" (''They wave at each other.'')
* In ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "From Within", a small town is invaded by prehistoric slug-like parasites who crawl into a victim's head through nostrils or earholes and turn them into hedonistic deliquents. A waitress has one slug crawl in her right ear, then much later falls out of her left ear dead, leaving her back to normal. This might have been a mistake but she did come across as [[BrainlessBeauty pretty ditzy]] so this might have been a stealth pun...
* In the short lived sitcom ''Series/ThePitts'' Lizzy Caplan played a ButtMonkey BrattyTeenageDaughter who at one point gets a pipe lodged through her head (side to side rather than front to back) at ear level and is completely unharmed (other than the social embarassment of being a teenage girl with a pipe through her head.) At one point a doctor shone a torch through her pipe and could see out the opposite side.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' had Cat get a butterfly stuck in her left ear. After several attempts to get it out Robbie enlists the aid of Andre's grandmother who yells into Cat's left ear, causing the butterfly to fly out the opposite ear. {{Lampshaded}} by a confused Robbie:
-->'''Robbie:''' "But it came out of your right ear."
-->'''[[TheDitz Cat]]:''' "[[ComicallyMissingThePoint It's a miracle!]]"

* In one episode of ''Series/SisterSister'' Ray is in the middle of chastising Tamera, notices she isn't paying any attention and adds "Why do I get the feeling that everything I say is going IN ONE EAR AND OUT THE OTHER?!". The camera pans to Tamera daydreaming while Ray's suddenly visible dialogue goes in her left ear and out her right.
* Played on ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' when they're showing what the doctor sees when he looks in someone's ear. Ryan looks into Colin's ear and sees Greg on the other side of the stage.
* ''Series/HomeImprovement'': On one episode of ''[[ShowWithinAShow Tool Time]]'', Al shined a flashlight on the side of Tim's head, and the light shone through to the far side of the set.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the 1953 Creator/BobHope film ''Film/OffLimits'' Mickey Rooney is being evaluated for Army service, a doctor uses his penlight to examine Rooney's ears and Hope holds his palm up at the other side to show the light is going straight through unimpeded.

* The trope image is a one-panel gag taken from the 1940s ''Good Humor'' comics (now in the public domain, readable [[http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=26728 here.]]).

* ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace''. When [[NumberTwoForBrains bumbling henchman Lonzak]] has a laser-sighted pistol pointed up his nose, a faint red glow can be seen coming from his ears. Implied with

* ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9 from Outer Space''. When [[NumberTwoForBrains bumbling henchman Lonzak]] has a laser-sighted pistol pointed up his nose, a faint red glow can be seen coming from his ears. Implied with

* ''Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space''. When [[NumberTwoForBrains bumbling henchman Lonzak]] has a laser-sighted pistol pointed up his nose, a faint red glow can be seen coming from his ears.

* A 1940s-era political cartoon by Creator/DrSeuss showed a line of citizens waiting to have {{Uncle Sam|WantsYou}} spray a "mental insecticide" into their ear. Out of the other ear was blown a "[[FantasticRacism Racial Prejudice Bug]]." The citizen is shocked to realize that such a creature was living in their head.