
A Brown Note is a sensory input that is inherently harmful. Exactly how it works is left up to the imagination of the writer. In older works, especially the classic myths that codified the trope, this was almost always supernatural, typically a curse or strange spell. More modern or "grounded" works will try to pass it off as psychological. It's also pretty common for there to never really be any explanation as to how a piece of information does the things it's doing.
Named for the urban legend about an audio tone that, when played, causes the listener to lose control of their bowels and spontaneously defecate. Not to be confused with the real-life "Brownian, aka Brown, noise,"
which is completely harmless and sounds a bit like a poorly maintained air conditioner (or a waterfall).
Usually we don't get to see or hear it ourselves, for obvious reasons.
Overlaps with Supernatural Language for languages that do this naturally, which may themselves overlap with Black Speech for inherently evil languages, which may also overlap with this for people who aren't evil enough. Trigger Phrase is for brown notes created through psychological conditioning. A Brown Note Being is an entity that causes this by something of its very nature, and is a common trait of Eldritch Abominations, due to how mind-breakingly alien they are. The nastiest forms of this also force their victims to propagate them, overlapping with Mind Virus.
Compare Suckiness Is Painful, for when the "Note" is an awful work of art, and Sonic Stunner for sounds that cause physical harm due to their extreme volume. In stories where it can be communicated, writers like to have it end up on some kind of mass media. See also Sensory Abuse, which can be a Real Life version of this.
Example subpages:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Tabletop Games
- Video Games
- Webcomics
- Web Original
- Western Animation
- Real Life
Other examples:
- Kuai Le Xin Xin: In the first episode, whistling causes a Potty Emergency; and, if they're asleep, bedwetting. It's Justified, because many Chinese parents potty-train their kids by whistling.
- In Beetle Bailey, swearing forcefully (usually but not always when done by Sergeant Snorkel) can have effects such as stunning people or killing flowers. Not to be confused with the times when Sarge shouts so loudly the sheer volume or wind of it has a physical effect.
- Li'l Abner:
- "Lena the Hyena" is supposed to be so ugly that the sight of her face causes insanity in Dogpatch residents and the reader, so her face isn't shown at first. Eventually, there was a contest to decide what she looked like. Basil Wolverton won.
◊ Lena later made a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (as a sex offender in Toontown).
- Stupefyin' Jones is the opposite — she's so stunningly beautiful that any male who looks at her freezes, rooted to the spot. (She's a deadly hazard for any confirmed bachelor on Sadie Hawkins Day, and she often uses her powers then on purpose, simply for fun.) Her cousin Available Jones (who is always available — for a price) isn't above providing her power for a fee if anyone needs someone else subdued.
- "Lena the Hyena" is supposed to be so ugly that the sight of her face causes insanity in Dogpatch residents and the reader, so her face isn't shown at first. Eventually, there was a contest to decide what she looked like. Basil Wolverton won.
- Zits: Pierce's drum solos have been known to cause spontaneous nosebleeds.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Ghidorah's decapitated head retains a psychic influence on humans among Alan Jonah's organization even after San's mind has Brain Uploaded out of it. Gradually, it induces Sanity Slippages in the affected, and those who don't experience More than Mind Control are Driven to Suicide.
- Against the Deep,
: Shipgirls and Abyssals have this effect on Thinkers. Coil winds up bumping into Taylor Hebert, the natural-born USS Lord's Port, and passed out when he couldn't model her at all.
- Amazing Fantasy: Phil has the ability to produce a "Lunatic Laugh", an Evil Laugh that instantly paralyzes others with fear. Phil uses this to completely disarm Daniel, giving him the opportunity to free himself and stab him with his own sword.
- Aurora Falls: Apparently, the TRIDENT array can be set to the resonant frequency of the gastrointestinal system. Exactly what that does isn't directly elaborated upon, but it was evidently enough to push Tomar over the edge.
- Back in Time to Live a Life
: Ginny casts an Egyptian spell which produces a very low-pitched sound that causes everyone in the Great Hall to shit their pants.
- Besides the Will of Evil: The screams of the fell beasts cause anyone who hears them to be overwhelmed by visceral terror.
- In Blood Moon (Rising)
, an Ancient Greek god tries to say his name to a person who is none of those things. The attempt isn't even verbal, but just seeing it gives the person a headache.
- The Bolt Chronicles: In "The Spaceship," Rhino blows on a dog whistle that proves intensely painful to both Bolt's ears and those of the dog-like aliens who try to abduct the hamster.
- Cadetship Calamity: Portrays Jenova as this for anyone with mako in their systems. For Sephiroth it's merely irritating and slightly headache inducing, but for Cloud (who recently fell into a pool of raw mako and gained the voices of time-traveling Sephiroth and Cloud) it's outright debilitating, causing physical harm unless specifically warded off.
- Child of the Storm: Sean Cassidy's powers are upgraded from simply 'screaming at people' and 'improbably flying', to a number of other sound related applications. One of these is being able to hit the resonant frequency of various kinds of woods, the point at which they shatter. Wand woods, to be specific. If that didn't make him dangerous enough, chapter 70 reveals that he can also hit the resonant frequency of bone. He's also figured out how to use his powers to create a Compelling Voice, which he used to avenge the death of his wife: All we know about how that went down is that even Nick Fury can never unsee the mess he made.
- Children of an Elder God: In episode 9, "The King In Yellow" play makes an appearance. When it's performed, a lot of people goes mad and dies, and Hastur shows up at the end. However, it's defeated and destroyed.
- The End of All Things
: A magical reaction destroys the Horcrux in Harry's scar during second year. It's stated that if Madame Pomfrey had been unlucky enough to hear its dying scream, it would've shattered her mind.
- Equestrylvania: Just looking at Death's face Mind Rapes the viewer, causing them to relive every terrible memory they have.
- Stolen Years
: In the Danny Phantom fanfic of the Facing the Future Series, Jack invented a device that emitted a painful sound that only ghosts could hear. He got the effect backwards. It is later used to disable the Guys in White, to rescue Danielle.
- Fallout: Equestria: Contact with the Pink Cloud transforms anything capable of emitting sound (radios, loudspeakers, etc.) into 'corrupted broadcasters' that emit literal ear-piercing noises. Prolonged exposure to their signal can cause heads to explode.
- For the Glory of Irk: The Parasite known as Q usually speaks in a telepathic simulation of human voices. When he speaks in his own language, it's enough to cause Dib pain and nearly overwhelm him.
- Apparently, an age-regressed Reimu and trying to understand her (or rather understand her personality and antics) is this for some, as Ran noted that trying to do so would cause mental distress, making the effect rather psychological. The fact that Reimu, by this point, is a youkai doesn't help matters either.
- Harry Potter and the Edge of the Light
: A howling from the Veil which only Hermione can hear causes physical damage which results in her eardrums needing to be regrown.
- The Herald and Her Knight: In this work and its side stories, a bizarre radio signal is being broadcast from the planet Leng to the whole solar system. Anyone who listens to the signal grows sickened and begins to see apparitions of Ariane Yeong, before either dissolving into a puddle of black goo if they're a Gestalt or turning into a crazed, regenerating cyber-zombie if they're a Replika.
- Here Comes the New Boss: Cricket's power lets her emit waves of nauseating, debilitating sound. By studying that and the Butcher's pain blast ability, Elpis is able to replicate some of the effect in a module on her spear. Just the edges of it, without being the direct target, sound to her like "a high-pitched shriek like someone playing a violin with a hacksaw."
Even for someone who didn't currently have ears, that had to hurt.
- In Flight: Has Jinki act like this for Shirou, as they completely confound his Structural Grasp.
- Interdimensional Cartoon Discussion and Support Group: Polly's amazingly tone-deaf singing in "Fiddle Me This" manages to be this for the entire audience. In addition to the pain to their eardrums, it makes Dipper's pen explode, sends Stan's fez flying off his head, cracks Candy's glasses, snaps all the strings on Robbie's guitar, knocked everything Eda had been keeping in her hair out, sent Hooty into a frenzy that left him tied in knots, disrupted Darius's abomination hair leaving him briefly bald, sent everyone in the Amphibia waiting room flying out of their seats, and sent the animals in the stables into a frenzy. The only ones who liked it were King and Grime, and the latter only because he saw it as a "sonic attack" they could have used during the rebellion.
- Intermezzo
, a Discworld story by A.A. Pessimal, deals with an orchestral performance at Ankh-Morpork's prestigious Disharmonia Hall. A professional violinist with experience is explaining to her guest how it all works, and points out the massive Dwarf Horns which mark the part of the stage claimed as the Brass Family's territory. She explains that by necessity, these require built-in muffles and limiters, as otherwise, any member of the audience in direct line with them will find the orchestral experience to be both unedifying and embarrassing.
- The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World: Ringo's mindsight turns out to function this way. Any genuine telepath (John is not one) who taps into Ringo while he's using mindsight will instantly become addicted to it, and unless he's heavily shielded, he'll also get the mental equivalent of a bad sunburn. And don't think the mindsight isn't having a comparable addictive effect on Ringo—hence his extreme Blessed with Suck.
- It's Always The Quiet Ones: Merely being exposed to the eldritch dimension housing the Wrackspurts and Deep Ones for a few minutes is enough to traumatize everyone in Hogwarts' Great Hall. Numerous patients end up checking into St. Mungo's, developing incurable phobias of tentacles and fishy smells.
- The Night Unfurls:
- In Chapter 16 of the original, right before Shamumaza reveals himself in the courtyard, a Black Speech is present that gives Sanakan, Hugh, and Lily visible anxiety and discomfort.
- Kyril advises Sanakan and Hugh not to look too hard at the Alien Geometries of the Malys Estate, noting how lesser men and women would be driven mad by the place.
- Anyone who catches a glimpse of what's behind Kyril's mortal mask gets mind-raped to a Fate Worse than Death. He even says to his first two apprentices that this would do "very bad things" to their heads. The insect beast who was once Shamuhaza learns this in the worst way possible.
- Number 48
: Harry's Grim Reaper says that Leviathan's true form is so impossibly beautiful that looking at him causes mortals to feel pain unless he decides otherwise.
- Pages of Harmony: In a case of Real Life Writes the Plot, Twilight Sparkle uses infrasound on Fluttershy as part of the procedures to break Kindness from her. The process causes Fluttershy to feel disoriented, a nearly tangible fear that completely overwhelms her as she experiences horrifying visions.
- Pokemon Black & White: Tale of a Legend: Volan, Thrin, and their dragons are filled with intense pain and anger when they hear Kyurem's cry.
- Pony POV Series: There's Havoc, Anthropomorphic Personification of Mass Hysteria. Looking at his true form will terrify ponies so badly they'll likely never sleep again. His voice will reduce them to horrified wrecks.
- Power of the Nargles part 2
: When Harry meets Death she states that her current form is a construct intended to keep his mind from exploding across the multiverse.
- The Power of the Press
: The screaming of a Horcrux being destroyed gives Sirius nightmares and makes an American observer physically ill.
- The Punishment
: In the prequel
to this ''Portal 2}' fanfiction, Wheatley falls victim to a glitch programmed into all personality cores which makes them "fall asleep" at the sound of human singing.
- Remnant's Blonde Bard: One of Jaune's bardic skills is Discordant Song. It can frighten the enemy into screams and panic. Even if he plays on non-musicial instrument. Even if he plays a single note. Once he gets his charisma high enough, he can kill with it.
- Re: My Hostage, Not Yours: The living computer core of the Valkians' ship is so obscenely bizarre in appearance that, combined with the concussion she's suffering from, Gaz gets sick just looking at it.
- Robb Returns: The entity behind the Hightower Gate emits an aura of fear to everyone in its proximity, and the effect is stronger the closer you get. At a certain distance (marked on the floor), the aura causes people to lose control of their bowels. Get closer, and you'll collapse from fear. And if you get too close, you die of sheer terror, then the entity possesses your corpse and tries to break out from behind the gate. However, wielding Otherbane renders you immune to the aura.
- Simplified
: Played for Laughs when Nathaniel and Alix are hit by Simpleman's Stupidity-Inducing Attack twice, and decide to paint on the same canvas when they can't agree who uses it. Once they are back to normal, whatever was on canvas causes Alix and Marc to throw up.
- The Shape of the Nightmare to Come: Saying the full name of "the Nexus of ever fated rising madness hope of all turned black doom to all the belligerents and their gods all hail doom nightmares" causes severe nausea and vomiting, and wreaks havoc on recording equipment.
- She Summons Sea Things by the Sea Shore
: The Wards are curious about the book Taylor can summon, full of "interesting things", but she warns that other people can't handle seeing them. When they keep asking, however, she lets them look, "just for a second, though." A moment later, Vista drops to the ground, wide-eyed but unconscious, while Clockblocker freezes in place, Gallant is kneeling on the floor with his hands over his face, Aegis' skin has turned yellow, and Kid Win is vomiting in a corner.
- The Stars Will Aid Their Escape:
- During the attack on Canterlot, Herald has Trixie conjure the Red Sigil, which causes intense pain if you just glimpse it, and insanity if viewed directly.
- If Herald removes his mask and shows his true face, the viewer's mind is filled with knowledge of the Outer Gods, which drives them insane. This is what he does to Twilight Sparkle.
- This Bites!:
- Soundbite learns to produce a sound that causes extreme nausea and disorientation in everyone who hears it, enabling Cross to take them down easier. He and Cross christen it "Gastro-Phony" (going off of cacophony) in Chapter 25.
- When DJ Gappa of Baron Omatsuri's crew, possessed by Lily, broadcasts on the SBS to invite them to come to their island, the sheer fakeness being broadcasted sends chills up everyone's spine. To say nothing of what happens when anyone tries calling Soundbite while on the island. All they get is a completely unholy sound, with a hint of something underneath. What?
- Triptych Continuum: Ascribes this to her cutie mark, stating that ponies looking at it are quite disturbed, with Twilight nearly experiencing it as a breaking event. The mark is animated, and up until she came along, no mark had ever moved: the disruption of that level of constant doesn't go over well. Notably, however, some individuals aren't affected and claim it's beautiful, while Spike seems to be aware that something is off, but isn't sure what.
- Unprecedented Competition
: A mosaic of Merlin states that the Welsh Red dragon had a cry which could stun or kill animals and Muggles. This eventually resulted in its deliberate extinction.
- With This Ring: When Paul makes an alliance of convenience with Hell to protect him from an attack by angels gone rogue, he discovers that the imprisoned angel Gabriel has been tortured and twisted into a weapon against holy power.
Some.. sort of arcane device is being winched into place, another Scabbie… With a hole in his chest where his heart used to be. Chains are pulled taut, and some sort of arcane device lights up-.
Gabriel screams, and black mists rise from the ground throughout the battlefield.
"What-?"
Angel songs falter and fail, angel wings shake and shed their feathers…
"That's-. Nono-."
"The Song of Creation's Antithesis." Rosacarnis smiles as I shudder inside my armour.
- π is about a number sequence that helps define the universe. However, the process of determining this number is fatally destructive to a computer, be it machine or human.
- 1985: At one point, a factory worker is mentioned to have died from a noise pollution-induced Sensory Overload which was initially believed to be a fatal heart attack. Before that, footage is shown of an experiment performed by University of Wisconsin researcher Kenneth Henry that induced a similar reaction in a laboratory mouse.
- The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle: The villains use a television program that causes the viewers to become zombies and attempt to broadcast it across the United States so Fearless Leader can become president.
- Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!: The eponymous tomatoes are pacified by a song called "Puberty Love". The last tomato, wearing earmuffs, was defeated by showing it a copy of the sheet music.
- Banshee Chapter features something mysterious that affects people in various nasty ways. When this something comes somewhere close to its victims, they either begin to bleed or go mad from terror or move out of sight and disappear.
- Bird Box: The mere sight of the creatures causes this. It drives most people to suicide. With those who were already mentally unhinged, they became obsessed with it, and force others to look.
- The Chase (1994): Played for Laughs when Jackson Hammond tells his kidnapping victim to stop screaming at him because her voice is so high and whiny he can almost feel it boring into his skull. ("It's like a drill!")
- The last segment of the horror anthology Chilling Visions: 5 Senses Of Fear features video recordings of experiments with a lethal Brown Note musical piece that makes listeners tear themselves apart. The researchers had to destroy the eardrums of their pianist just to let him play the whole thing, and it still killed him when he finished.
- Coming Soon: Watching the scene of the film within a film "Evil Spirit" where the Big Bad Shomba is hung to death after being discovered kidnapping children will cause whoever watches it to die.
- Constantine (2005): When John is trying to exorcise a demon from a little girl, he tells the men helping him not to look. One of them does and his hair instantly turns white.
- Cuckoo (2024): The scream of the "Cuckoo" is paralyzing and even causes the victim to undergo a sort of time loop where they repeatedly experience taking action in their mind without having actually done so.
- Deathgasm: The protagonist stumbles upon some sheet music that when played, turns anyone within earshot into demons.
- Deliver Us from Evil (2014): The (apparent) head villain repeatedly leaves graffiti in the form of Latin/Persian incantations written in strange places. It turns out that simply reading these incantations, not necessarily even out loud, allows the reader to be possessed by a demon.
- Disturbing Behavior: The E-Rat-icator device used by Mr. Newburry is designed to have this effect on rats to drive them away, but it doesn't work so well. It is, however, damn effective against mind-control chips.
- Dogma: According to the Metatron, "... human beings have neither the aural nor the psychological capacity to withstand the awesome power of God's true voice. Were you to hear it, your mind would cave in, and your heart would explode within your chest. We went through five Adams before we figured that out." At the end of the film, God kills a now-mortal Bartleby by speaking a single word. His head blows up. The viewer hears only a deep, loud thrumming noise.
- Dune:
- Dune (1984) shows Atreides advanced weaponry that is sonic in nature, using ultra and/or infrasound to shatter structures, inflict pain in enemy soldiers, et cetera. When Paul becomes The Chosen One, he acquires the ability to imitate the effects of this sonic weaponry with just his voice.
Atreides: I can kill with a word.
Soldier: And his word shall bring death eternal for all those who stand against the righteous! - In Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two, people trained in the ways of the Bene Gesserit can shout orders using the Voice, which compels their target to obey.
- Dune (1984) shows Atreides advanced weaponry that is sonic in nature, using ultra and/or infrasound to shatter structures, inflict pain in enemy soldiers, et cetera. When Paul becomes The Chosen One, he acquires the ability to imitate the effects of this sonic weaponry with just his voice.
- A Heap of Trouble
: Any man who hears the naked men singing about walking down the road has an irresistible urge to join them.
- High Anxiety: Dr. Wentworth gets trapped in his car and killed from an ear hemorrhage caused by the loud rock music blaring from the car radio.
- Iron Man 1: One of the weapons Stark Industries has developed is an auditory paralysis device. It causes anyone who hears the noise to be temporarily paralyzed unless they are wearing special electronic earplugs to counter the noise.
- Kick-Ass 2 has the Sick Stick, a stun baton of sorts that induces instantaneous nausea and diarrhea on its victims. Hit-Girl uses it on the Alpha Bitch and her Girl Posse for humiliating her.
- Kingsman: The Secret Service: The villain develops a signal (transmittable by cell phone) which causes anyone nearby to become violently homicidal. The first live test is done in a crowded church, while a highly competent secret agent happens to be present. The resulting four minutes of deadly free-for-all is epic.
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The concussion from the tank's main gun firing in the opening sequence puts the pursuing constables on the ground, groaning and helpless. Justified considering that they just had several artillery shells powerful enough to blow the vault door off its hinges go off in a confined space; the bigger surprise is that the overpressure didn't outright kill them and that the Fantom and his men can still hear each other (apparently, the tank cabin has very good sound insulation).
- Live and Let Die: Opens with the assassination of the United Kingdom's ambassador to the United Nations, carried out through sound piped through his translation earpiece.
- Mars Attacks!: It is discovered that the Martians' main weakness is the singing voice of Slim Whitman; a recording of "Indian Love Call" causes their heads to explode. Seriously.
- Minority Report: The Sick Sticks cause the victim to projectile-vomit.
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Knights who say "Ni!". Like their name makes clear, they utter the word "Ni!" in a very screechy, high-pitched voice to hurt passing travelers and scare them into doing their bidding. "Ni!" works whether it's the Knights saying it or someone else, as when King Arthur is harassing that old woman to find a shrubbery. It's later revealed the word "it" serves as a Brown Note against the Knights themselves, which is a bit of a plot hole since the lead knight says the word without issue.
- Mystery Men: Casanova Frankenstein built a machine that could warp reality itself. Apparently, the equations underlying it were so complex that anybody who studied them would go insane. Fortunately for Frankenstein, he was already insane and had spent a decade in the asylum with several of those scientists.
- The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz features the Tuning Fork of Annihilation. When played back over the emergency broadcast system, it causes the destruction of all TV sets and kills all children who hear it.
- Pontypool is about a memetic virus that is spread through human speech, leading to confusion and murder.
"For your safety, please avoid contact with close family members, and refrain from the following: all terms of endearment, such as 'honey' or 'sweetheart'; babytalk with young children; and rhetorical discourse. For greater safety, please avoid the English language. Do not... translate... this message."
- A Quiet Place Part II: The invulnerable armor-plated alien monsters are blind but have extremely sensitive hearing. This turns out to be their Achilles' Heel when humans discover that a certain sonic frequency inflicts pain on them. The monsters' heads open involuntarily as if to scream, exposing their vulnerable insides, which allows them to be killed.
- Raiders of the Lost Ark: Whatever's inside the Ark of the Covenant will melt your face off if you look at it when the cover comes off.
- R.I.P.D.: A dead-o weapon releases a sound that's harmless to their own kind but cause R.I.P.D. officers to move at a snail's pace.
- Shocking Dark: The deranged, partially mutated Tubular Corporation scientist Drake lets out an ear-piercing scream that knocks out the Megaforce personnel long enough to snatch one of them and run away with him.
- Shredder Orpheus: Watching Hades' broadcasts first brainwashes people, then sucks the souls out of their bodies. The programming is accompanied by a sustained droning sound to accentuate its effects.
- The Signal (2007) features an audio/video signal that has a psychological effect on anyone who hears/sees it, causing people to go insane, or become obsessed with the signal, and trying to make others experience the signal.
- Videodrome is about a TV signal that causes brain tumors and hallucinations. The discoverers of the signal attach it to a violent Snuff Film show in order to clean up society by killing everyone who watches violent television.
- "Just": The music video for the Radiohead song begins with a man lying down in the middle of the street and refusing to budge. As people gather, they ask him (all the dialogue being in subtitles) why he's lying there, and after refusing over and over again, he finally caves in. The camera zooms in on his mouth as he's speaking, but with the subtitles suddenly removed, the audience has no idea what he's saying. The final scene of the video is of all the people around him lying on the ground in the same posture, his words presumably having had the exact same effect on them as on him. The closeup has him repeating "God help me, I'll tell you." and it's implied that he's actually saying it during the shot of Radiohead looking out the window.
- The Kate Bush song "Experiment IV": "But they told us All they wanted Was a sound that Could kill someone from a distance." And in the video, the scientists deliver; although the sound does not manifest anything like what might have been expected.
- "The Sermon II", the opening, spoken-word track on The Creepshow's album "Run For Your Life", is about a radio signal that causes a Zombie Apocalypse.
- Hawkwind's song "Sonic Attack" (actually more spoken-word with a few musical undertones) features a public service announcer giving advice on what to do "In case of Sonic Attack on your region," and describing symptoms of "imminent sonic destruction," which include dizziness, vomiting, an ache in the pelvic region, and fits of hysterical shouting or laughter (at which the announcer starts laughing hysterically, revealing that the Sonic Attack has hit his region).
- DYE's "Fantasy" music video ends with the protagonist seeing an Eldritch Abomination so horrible that the mere sight of it made her eyes explode into flame.
- They Might Be Giants:
- In "Experimental Film"
the ending of the titular film supposedly "makes your face implode".
- In "Spiralling Shape", the eponymous "hypnotic and strange" shape "will make you go insane", despite which "everyone wants to see that groovy thing".
- In "Experimental Film"
- Devo performed a live cover of "In Heaven" from Eraserhead in 1979, with Mark Mothersbaugh as Booji Boy on vocals. In the middle of the song Booji would give a speech about future "holographic" Devo concerts, which would include the following feature: "And we'll pass out diapers at the door for everyone, so that when you all get in here, we'll turn on the sub-sonic frequencies, and we'll all sh*t our pants together!"
- The Lonely Island's "WHEN WILL THE BASS DROP?" (featuring Lil' Jon), a parody of dubstep DJ's, is this in the music video. When the bass finally drops, Lil Jon says "Get turned up to death!" and people immediately start exploding and/or killing themselves.
- According to Chromeo's video for "When The Night Falls", their music apparently has the ability to instantly make women nine months pregnant.
- Classical composer Erik Satie wrote a piece called "Vexations", which consists of two faintly unsettling bars of music that would otherwise be unremarkable save for the instructions to repeat it 840 times, which takes at least 24 uninterrupted hours to perform. When Australian pianist Peter Evans tried to perform it as instructed in 1970, he reported that he started panicking and hallucinating before he had to stop. He was at repetition number 595.
"I would not play this piece again. I felt each repetition slowly wearing my mind away. I had to stop. If I hadn't stopped I'd be a very different person today... People who play it do so at their own great peril. ... [I] had to stop because [my] mind became full of evil thoughts, animals and 'things' started peering out at [me] from the score."
- Japanese all-girl metal band Nemophila in their announcement for their January 9 2022, Line Cube Shibuya concert tell their future concert goers to schedule an appointment with a doctor as they boast of different kinds of damage that their instruments will do, including bassist Haraguchi saying that "the heavy sound of my bass will make all your bodily fluids come out of your ass".
- The Octobass
is a musical instrument designed for classical performance which is effectively an eleven-foot tall double bass. It only requires three strings, and its size is such that for fret work, the fingerboard is operated remotely via a system of switches and capos, as the performer would otherwise be physically incapable of reaching. It plays bass notes which are inaudible to the human ear as they are pitched so low, and the effect can only be felt. It was designed, in fact, to be felt as a whole-body experience and not perceived via the ears. Only seven examples were ever built, and one is occasionally used in performance by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
- The audio play Space Station Z-43 tells the tale of the titular Earth-orbiting station through the recollections of its commander and senior medical officer as the crew inexorably go insane and die in horrible agony. At the end, a hissing voice informs the listener that the alien presence responsible travels on sound waves, and that by listening to the log of the events, they too have been infected.
"I saw you bite your tongue to stop the pain until your mouth filled with blood!"
- Two spoken-word interludes in Linkin Park's "Step Up":
Using the waves of sound, the true master paralyzes his opponents, leaving them vulnerable to attack.After years of painstaking research by the world's leading sound scientists, we here at the sound institute have invented a reliable audio weapons system. Actual movement of musical sound in space used to carefully attack and neutralize the cellular structure of the human body, and the question must be asked-*cut to chorus*
- Some plants are said to have this power:
- The root of the mandrake plant looks a bit like a tiny person. Naturally, people were afraid it would scream if cut, then that it would scream if ever dug up, and finally that if anyone heard it scream, they would die. In some cases, violently.
- They say that Bluebell flowers will make a sound when there is wind. They say that the bells toll your death, after you hear it, you die on the spot.
- There's the Irish legend of the harp of Daghda, which could cause pain, laughter, or peace through music.
- The Basilisk and/or Cockatrice take this trope to a new level:note
- They are small and can easily hide and sneak about and pop up anywhere, they are pure evil, they must come into this world by unnatural means (often by a rooster laying an egg), and to meet their gaze is to drop dead on the spot. Or to turn into stone. Or they kill/petrify you just by looking at them. Or by touching you or breathing on you. Or they leave a path of desolation ("creating a desert") wherever they walk. Or... it may be easier at this point to say that the Reptiles Are Abhorrent trope is very old, and has much to do with the wildly exaggerated dangerousness of poisonous snakes.
- They're so deadly that even trying to stab them transmits their Brown Note to you. As Lucan wrote, "What though the Moor the Basilisk hath slain, and pinned him lifeless to the sandy plain, up through the spear the subtle venom flies; the hand imbibes it, and the victor dies."
- There is one definite Brown Note connected to the basilisk legends: the crow of a rooster will kill it.
- Greek Mythology:
- The sight of Medusa and her Gorgon sisters turns you into stone. In most versions, this power remains with her hideous visage even after she's been beheaded, and it ends up mounted on Athena's shield or breastplate for exactly that reason. Medusa was killed by the hero Perseus who had (along with various god-given tools) a mirrored shield — not to reflect her gaze back NetHack style, but to look into, so he could aim his sword to kill her without looking directly at her.
- The Sirens are like an auditory version of the Gorgons, as they lure sailors to their death with their song.
- Seeing the true form of the Greek Gods was said to have this effect on mortals. One of the more famous cases being when Semele, a human princess, was tricked by Hera into convincing Zeus to reveal his true form to her since he had been coming to her in the night in disguise. When he finally relented and threw off his disguise, she was incinerated instantly. Since the gods by and large did not want to wipe out humanity, the desire not to kill humans forces the gods to enact a masquerade Thankfully, her demigod fetus was immortal so Zeus was able to take it and bring it to term in his thigh and eventually gave birth to Dionysus.
- The cobra was long believed to be able to hypnotize its prey with its gaze and movements.
- The Pied Piper could lure victims anywhere with his music, including to their own certain deaths. Yeah, using it on rats was hailed as a public service, but: he used it on children when their parents wouldn't pay him as agreed.
- There are oodles of urban legends about a house of horrors exhibit which pays you back part of the admission price for every floor of the building's unimaginable contents you clear. The typical version of the legend has it that no one so far has ever fully managed the task, though some people have been found dead of fright on the fifth and final floor. According to Snopes,
there is no known evidence for any real life basis for this legend.
- The eyes of cemetery statue "Black Aggie" are said to glow bright red in the middle of the night, either blinding or killing anyone who looks into them. (source
)
- The Bible:
- Seeing the full glory of God is harmful for mortals; none can see God's face and live. Moses asked to see God's face, and after explaining the aforementioned, God placed him in a crevice and passed over while showing His back to Moses. That was enough to make Moses' face shine when he went down. Saul saw God's light while on his way, and closing his eyes during the encounter still rendered him blind. On the other hand, the Beatitudes mentioned how the pure of heart are blessed, for they will see God.
- David's harp playing drove out evil spirits, particularly from Saul.
- The draugr of Icelandic mythology are an interesting example, because though the sight of them is a Brown Note, not everyone responds the same way. Some are "merely" driven mad by them while others scream uncontrollably until they eventually die of exhaustion. Some people aren't affected at all, although the only way to guarantee that is to have Heroic Resolve.
- 2020: Worst Year Ever: A Played for Laughs example with co-host Cody Johnston's attempt at making a time machine noise, which despite only showing up once so traumatized the hosts they keep bringing it up episodes later.
Robert Evans: I can just... I can hear our listener numbers plummeting... Listening in their cars with their stereos all the way up, just started vomiting at the side of the road.
- The Black Tapes: The third episode is about the Unsound. It's supposed to be the sound of an Archdemon beckoning the listener to invite it into their world, and anyone who listens to it is supposed to die within a year.
- Friends at the Table: A plot point in the Road to PALISADE series involves one character trying to get her hands on an issue of a fashion magazine that was recalled and destroyed because it contains a centerfold that kills you if you look at it. (The clothes were made, very deliberately, by avant-grade Mechanical Lifeforms who were immune to the effect and thought it couldn't propagate through photographs.) She wants it for the articles.
- Kakos Industries:
- Episode 6, "Echoes", has Corin tell the story of the Echo Tree Forest, which is now off-limits after a man stubbed his toe and went insane from the Echo Trees repeating his own scream back at him. When the company sends their body-collectors-who-happen-to-be-deaf, they complete their job but, despite being unable to hear the screaming, also complained about a cold vibration inside of their bones.
- Any exposure to the contraption is capable of driving people into obsessive fits simply by its ambiguity. It somehow inspires two scientists to try and kill one another, the one that lost having their blood poured into the device only to get the same baffling results as before. Corin in particular spends over a month set on learning what secret it's holding and points out how terrifying he finds it.
- The Magnus Archives: Episode 42 describes a band called "Grifter's Bone", an urban legend that allegedly makes people rip off their ears. It also is implied by John in the post-statement that the effect works through a recorded version, too.
- The Message: The titular Message is one. It's included in the podcast before anyone figures it out, but it doesn't always take effect.
- On the Threshold: Creating these is the goal of Zoey Evans through VR environments. Specifically she's tried to induce "the inversion of religious ecstasy" through her Cathedral of Bar Shacath and "mnemonokyklosia" through her newest project.
- Car Talk: A very weird example Played for Laughs as a Running Gag twice per episode. At the end of every episode or when going to a commercial break half way though, one of the hosts of the show would say "And even though (random person has a humorous negative reaction) every time they hear us say it, this is NPR, National Public Radio."
- BIONICLE has several:
- Tren Krom and Anonna, Eldritch Abominations that can potentially drive people who see them insane.
- The Klakk's scream, which can cure Shadow Matoran of their corruption.
- Fate/stay night: Ea acts as this for Shirou. On seeing it he instinctively attempts to use Structural Grasp on it, but due to its divine origins and composition his mind overloads and he temporarily loses all senses. However, Shirou can apply Structural Grasp to plenty of other objects that were "merely" made by gods; Ea, however, was forged from the unlivable hell that was the earliest days of the earth and predates the very concept of "Sword" — it can only be called a sword because the world has no term for what Ea is other than "Ea". And in a setting where age = power...
- Pizza Game: A more literal example than most cases. In Chris’s route, Sav reads part of a magical haiku that causes diarrhea. He stops before the diarrhea-inducing seventh verse when it’s pointed out that haikus do not have more than three verses.
- The Song of Saya: The titular Saya has this effect on most people who see her. Fuminori, who perceives her as a Girl in White because of his extreme (and possibly supernaturally influenced) agnosia is the only exception.
- Spirit Hunter: NG: The Screaming Author's screaming is so harsh and piercing that even just hearing it a little can induce unconsciousness, and prolonged exposure leads to insanity and death.
- The Demented Cartoon Movie!: Saying the word "Blah" sometimes causes your head to pop off of your neck, although the exact rules regarding this are inconsistent. Saying or producing a recording of the word "Zeekyboogydoog" causes a nuclear explosion at the location the sound originated from. Saying the word "Gleegsnagzip" causes the entire planet to explode. And saying "Kamikaze Watermelon" cues a visit from Fooby, the Kamikaze Watermelon.note
- Dick Figures: Red finds an adorable kitten he dubs "Kitty Amazing" (because that's what he is). The kitten is so adorable it melts the hearts of all who look at it... Blue recently had eye surgery so he is spared, but no explanation is given for why Red is immune.
- Homestar Runner:
- According to the cartoon "Fall Float Parade", Strong Sad goes into an unexplained trance whenever he hears the phrase "covered bridges" — at least until Strong Bad starts hitting him with nunchucks.
- There's also the creepy painting Strong Mad keeps in his closet, which depicts a gargoyle-like creature named Rocoulm who says "Come on in here!" and causes anyone who sees the painting to get "the jibblies."
- And apparently, a drawing of a one-legged puppy nicknamed "Li'l Brudder" can make Homestar break down in tears.
Homestar: Li'l Brudder! I... I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING WITH MY LIFE! I'm thinking of getting into male modeling... or maybe high finance... I JUST DON'T KNOW!!
- If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device: There's a conversation that goes about like this:
"Can we check how they are doing now?"
"It won't hurt to take a look."
"Actually, since we'll be looking into Comorragh, it kind of will." - Nightmare Tales: "Tomino's Hell
" is about a cursed poem of the same name that supposedly kills anyone who hears it read aloud in full. Thinking it's just a harmless prank a London DJ for an experimental radio station decides to read it out in it's entirety for his listeners. As expected, this goes very badly for him and anyone else who was unfortunate enough to be tuned in to the station at the time.
- In "Scout's Amazing Adventures (Part 3/6)
", a Garry's Mod video, Heavy starts playing "Friday", which is so awful that it sends Soldier into a series of contortions until he eventually explodes.
- Sonic Shorts: An Easter Egg in the volume 2 collection features an extremely terrifying version of the Tails Doll that allegedly causes grown men to scream like a little girl. Watch at your risk!
And then, he comes back in the fifth one. Enjoy!
- YouTube Poop: An Off-Model picture of Luigi, nicknamed "Weegee", has gradually developed this power. Anyone who looks at him for too long will become him. It's been used as a metaphor for how memes spread.
- American High Digital:
- According to "The Reality Of Eggnog", said drink can give you stomach problems just from looking at it.
- Ryan and Julia's presentation in "When Someone Uses Prezi For The Group Project" has transitions so extreme that they cause their audience to be physically shaken from their seats.
- THE BOILED ONE PHENOMENON: Unfiltered footage of PHEN-228 has extremely hazardous effects on people: Those witnessing him will be unable to get his face out of their heads, they will hear trumpets when they fall asleep that night, and when they wake up, they will be completely unable to move anything but their eyes and eyelids, and he will be there, watching over them. Forever. Notably, the memory itself seems to be the vector; mainlining amnestics to forget the whole thing before going to sleep has been known to stop the effects in their tracks.
- Parodied in College Saga, as singing a corny song is the only possibility to defeat the Chocolate Tree.
- Parodied (we hope!) by The Cynical Brit, who once jokingly remarked that "YouTube comments gave [him] cancer."
- The GREYLOCK Tapes: The tunnels beneath the eponymous Mount Greylock seem to have this effect; within just a few days of uncovering them, the construction workers fall severely ill, their food begins to rot, and they themselves are slowly driven insane and mutated into bloodthirsty monsters.
- Jerma985: One fan dreamt that Jerma became a mainstream celebrity by letting the livestream audience "peep the horror" from time to time, the horror being a strange visual of a red pulsating mass that all viewers would perceive as the funniest thing they've ever seen, at the cost of killing a random viewer each time.
- Kid Time Storytime: Parodied in the video for Once Upon a Zzz. Corny and Hooty try to read the title but fall asleep, so Maleficent thinks that it's black magic.
- Nazo no Eizou - CM Channel: The video CD titled "Nature of Tokyo (Island City, Former Yamanashi Prefecture)" shown in "Apology and Request for Product Recall"
from the Tokyo Special Ward is implied to be this, with the flashing messages warning that those who viewed it already died and imploring viewers to not watch the video. After the apology-issuing caption fades, another warns that they waive responsibility for any repost of the video in file-sharing sites.
- Nightmare Time: "Killer Track" is a living (practically demonic) heavy metal song that kills whoever listens to it (aside from its chosen vessel, Kale) within seven days, first slowly driving them mad by causing them to hear the song incessantly wherever they go.
- The Nostalgia Critic: The Doug theme tune is a Brown Note for the Critic. He calls the resulting brain tumor "Pork Chop".
