Loud Sleeper Gag

She's both a Loud sleeper and a loud sleeper!

Catherine: Well, she should be getting on with breakfast.

David: I passed her room on the way down. Know she snores like a squadron of bombers.

— No Kidding

Sleeping. It is commonly known as a quiet activity, a way to recharge for the next day. There are those who are silent sleepers, those who are light sleepers...and then there are those who are loud sleepers.

Their noises keep other characters up and cause them to suffer from Sleep Deprivation, leaving them cranky the next day while the noisy character feels fully rested. This is quite prevalent in fiction, but in Real Life, snoring in particular can leave the snorer fatigued as well as the people who are disturbed by it.

Taken to extremes, a character who makes a lot of noise when they sleep could catch the attention of other characters who live outside of the main setting and invoke a Distant Reaction Shot. Loud sleepers may also drool in their sleep.

A specific instance of Misophonia Gag. If the trope is exploited, it's a case of Torment by Annoyance. Sleepyheads are prone to doing this often, as are Heavy Sleepers.

Compare Catching Some Z's, when characters have "Z's" fly out of their mouths while snoring that may affect other characters, Snot Bubble, the anime version of the former trope, and Talking in Your Sleep, which might overlap with this trope.

This is Truth in Television, as loud snoring is very common in Real Life. As such, No Real Life Examples, Please!.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• Asterix: In "Asterix and Son", Brutus has a new Roman camp built near the Gaul village, in order to kidnap the baby under Asterix's guard. An entire page shows how organized Roman legionnaires are into building a camp; one of them, however, builds his tent outside because can't stand the others' snoring.
• Gold Digger: Britanny Diggers sleeps with Curly-like snoring (chainsaw-sounding inhalations, exhales with a funny little whistle). One of the things that initially attract her to her (then-) future husband Stripe is that he finds the "whistle" part of her snoring adorable.

Comic Strips

• Beetle Bailey: One strip has Beetle and his friends make a bet with the soldiers of a neighbour company, that SGT Snorkel snores much louder than theirs. They bring a sleeping Snorkel to the other sergeant's tent. Their bubble speeches have drawings comparing their snoring to things like a jackhammer, a rocket, and a volcano; but the other sergeant's snoring makes Snorkel turn around and mumble it's raining, which is considered forfeit. When the disappointed soldiers bring him back, Snorkel snores like an elephant, making a frustrated Beetle yell: "Shut up! You already had your chance."
• Calvin and Hobbes: In one story arc where Calvin accidentally leaves Hobbes behind at home while he and his parents leave to attend a wedding, Calvin is having trouble getting to sleep without Hobbes with him while he and his parents are at the hotel they're staying at once the wedding is over, citing that he's usually able to fall asleep to the sound of Hobbes's breathing when his awakened mother asks him why it's so hard for him to go to sleep without Hobbes. His mother then looks towards the very much asleep and loudly snoring Dad and suggests that he perhaps try to fall asleep to the sound of his father's snoring. Calvin's response?

  Calvin: That's dad? I thought those were trucks downshifting down the highway.

• Dennis the Menace (US): In "Teacher's HELPer", Ms. Johnson serves as the substitute teacher for Dennis' kindergarten classroom, since Dennis' regular teacher Mrs. Garner is out sick. Dennis manages to drive Ms. Johnson crazy, so she insists that everyone take a nap after recess is over (mostly so she can take a nap herself). Dennis manages to keep her awake during naptime, first by snoring like Henry, his father, then by barking like Ruff, his pet dog, saying it's the way they sleep. While Dennis' classmates are amused, Miss Johnson, unfortunately, is not.
• Garfield:
  • In one strip, Garfield is snoring loudly, which keeps Jon awake, so Jon puts a muffler on him to drown out the noise.
  • In another strip, when Garfield and Jon are going to bed, Jon ends up snoring loudly, resulting in Garfield shoving his pillow down his throat.
    Jon: GAHHHHFEE!!!
    Garfield: Oh, pipe down and gimme your pillow.

Fan Works

• In The Casagrandes fanfic The Bestie That Stole My Heart, Ronnie Anne can't sleep because her pet bird, Sergio, is snoring and talking in his sleep.
• In the Fireman Sam fanfic Everyday Craziness in Pontypandy episode "No Power, No Problem", when Penny and Briar find the male firefighters in the same bed, Briar describes Elvis' snoring as akin to a freight train.
• In the Ghostbusters (1984) fanfic Under the Weather, Ray once comments that Peter is a loud snorer.
• In the Noonbory and the Super 7 fanfic In-Tents-ly Sick, Noonbory proves to be a comically loud snorer, which keeps Jetybory awake.

Films — Animated

• The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze: Ducky's adopted brother Spike keeps her up all night with his snoring.
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: When Pooh is stuck in Rabbit's burrow entrance, he keeps Rabbit awake with his snoring.
• In The Mitchells vs. the Machines, while the Mitchells are driving towards the PAL Labs campus late at night, Rick starts snoring. Katie, his daughter, thinks initially that he's dying, but Linda (his wife) then tells her that's what she always has to deal with during the night. She even tells Katie to pray for her.
• In Pinocchio, when Jiminy Cricket tries to sleep in Geppetto's house, the noises that keep him awake (besides the many ticking clocks and clinking grains of hourglass sand) include Geppetto's loud snoring and Cleo's tiny, bubbly snores in her fishbowl. But when Jiminy finally shouts "QUIET!", all the noises stop, including Geppetto and Cleo's snores.
• In PAW Patrol: The Movie, the boy pups snore so loudly that it visibly annoys Skye.
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Grumpy is kept awake by the other dwarfs' snoring. Each dwarf's snoring is distinct — Sleepy inhales water dripping from the faucet, causing him to gurgle; Bashful sleeps inside the cupboard, opening and closing the drawer doors as he snores; and Dopey whines like a sleeping dog.
• In A Goofy Movie when Max is stuck in the car next to Goofy, and Bigfoot sleeping on the hood (long story), both of them are snoring so loud, all Max can do is stare at the both of them in a mix of astonishment and horror.

Films — Live-Action

• Problem Child: In the second film, Junior is forced to share his bunk bed with his step-grandad Big Ben, whom not only is an obnoxious Jerkass but snores very loudly. Junior first puts a sock into Big Ben's mouth, but the old man gags, spits it out, and starts snoring even louder. Junior then pulls his blanket, making him fall down.
• Little Nicky: Nicky, the youngest son of Satan, is shown to be a very loud sleeper... the inhale of his snore is followed by very loud demonic bellows in an unknown language.
• A running gag between in the Three Stooges shorts. When the three are going to bed, Larry will usually fall asleep first and start snoring loudly, prompting Moe to nudge him awake.
  Moe: Hey!
  Larry: (groggily) Huh?
  Moe: Wake up and go to sleep!
• Cook from No Kidding snores terribly according to David, who compares her to a squadron of bombers.

Literature

• The whole premise of the children's book Daddy Snores is that the narrator's mother is trying to sleep in all different places because the father snores and sleep-talks.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: In "The Long Haul", while staying at a hotel, Greg complains that either his mother or his father (who both snore) is snoring, and takes out some earplugs.
• Discworld: In Wintersmith, Tiffany and Annagramma have to watch over a corpse through the night. The latter falls asleep, and snores with a sound described as being like "ripping planks". Tiffany thinks that the noise would probably scare away any evil spirits lurking about, and when Annagramma wakes up and innocently asks her if she got any sleep, all Tiffany can do is glare.
• Elephant & Piggie: In "I Will Take a Nap", Gerald and Piggie try to nap, but Piggie's snoring wakes up Gerald.
• Encyclopedia Brown: Encyclopedia's friend Benny Breslin is notorious for his loud snoring, and it's been a plot point a few times:
  • In Book 4, Chapter 3 ("The Case of the Underwater Car"), it's said that the last time Benny went camping at the state park, his snoring frightened some other campers so badly that they mistook it for a wild animal. Consequently, the park was closed for two days while state troopers tried to track down what they thought was a bear. Despite this, Encyclopedia and some other friends let Benny come along... but despite Benny's taking precautions (wearing a special strap under his nose, while the other boys stuff cotton in their ears), he snores as loud as ever, and as a result, Encyclopedia is awake to witness the chapter's crime (a man faking a car crash to get the insurance money).
  • In Book 17, Chapter 9 ("The Case of the Leaking Tent"), Benny's father buys him a soundproof pup tent that's "as thick as leather" to keep his snoring from disturbing other campers. It doesn't work because two other campers, in revenge for Benny catching more fish than they did, poke the tent full of holes and ruin it; once again, Encyclopedia finds that cotton does nothing to keep the noise out. (Fortunately, he also catches the one responsible the next day, and the father of one of the culprits replaces the tent.)
• Goblins in the Castle: In Goblins on the Prowl, Bwoonhiwda snores. Very loudly. While Fauna is able to fall asleep before Bwoonhiwda did and started snoring, she figures she can't get back to sleep once she awakens and hears it, so she ends up taking her blankets and making a bed in the main room of the wagon.
• How To Care For Your Monster: In the chapter on mummies, one illustration shows a man sleeping so heavily and snoring so loudly that he doesn't notice the loud thumping from the mummy wandering about overhead in the attic.
• Moongobble and Me: In Book 5, the titular "Naughty Nork" snores quite loudly. Moongobble creates a soundproof magical barrier around his head to allow the rest of their group to get some sleep, but the Oggledy Nork's snoring is so loud and powerful that the barrier is found to have inflated the next morning. When said barrier is subsequently popped, the sound of all that released snoring is compared to the noise produced by fourteen bears fighting in a thunderstorm.
• Nina Tanleven: Book 2 (The Ghost Wore Gray) has Nine learn that her friend Chris snores, very loudly, and so deeply that she doesn't even realize there's a ghost in the room until Nine calls out to her and wakes her up.

Live-Action TV

• One episode of Bonanza had Ben Cartwright unable to sleep because of noise around the house, which included Hoss's snoring. As a result, Ben decides to sleep in a hotel instead, but other guests keep him up.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine: In the episode "Chasing Amy", Gina, after manipulating the Boyles into going to Aruba, suffers cosmic retribution when she finds herself unable to sleep in a room with 18 Boyles using loud CPAP machines for sleep apnea.
• Played for laughs in the CSI: NY episode "Brooklyn 'Til I Die". A group of thugs kidnap a hedge fund billionaire's son for ransom and take him back to one's apartment, which he shares with his mother. Right before the cops arrive, the mother is asleep in a recliner in front of a TV playing at high volume. She's snoring so loudly the gang in the next room can hear her over the TV and her son shouts, "Ma! Shut up!" She keeps on snoring, but instantly wakes up fully alert when the cops bust through the door.
• Friends: In "The One With All The Wedding Dresses", Joey is snoring so loudly Chandler can hear him from his own bedroom. Chandler eventually drags Joey to a sleep clinic when he can't handle it anymore.
• On J.O.N.A.S L.A, to get back at Stella for taking a stylist job on her movie set, Vanessa forcibly moves in with her and Macy at the guest house and keeps them awake all night with her snoring. When she wakes up, we get this exchange:
  Vanessa: I slept like a baby.
  Stella: Well, you snored like a water buffalo.
• M*A*S*H: In the final season episode "Strange Bedfellows", Winchester's allergies are causing him to snore, and keeping Hawkeye and B.J. up all night. Winchester refuses to believe it until Hawkeye hides a microphone near his bed so the whole camp can hear him. In The Tag, B.J. starts talking in his sleep, which wakes Hawkeye and Winchester up.
• Mike & Molly: In "Mike Snores", Molly is unable to sleep due to Mike's loud CPAP machine which is played for laughs.
• My Cat from Hell: Played for Drama with Elvis from Season 7, who weighs 21 pounds (9.5 kg) and has sleep apnea, so his snoring wakes up both the newborn baby and the dad (who works as a truck driver and sleeps at all times of day).
• Worzel Gummidge: Discussed in the first episode, when siblings John and Sue are arguing over whether John had fallen asleep.
  John: I wasn't sleeping!
  Sue: You were snoring, I believe. Horrible!
  John: I don't snore!

Manhua

• Big Potato, the Fat Comic Relief from Old Master Q, is known for his excessively loud snoring. One panel has Potato taking an afternoon nap and snoring to the point of disturbing Master Q, who's trying to read the newspaper. Master Q then puts a plaster over Potato's mouth, only for Potato to snort instead. Cue Master Q pinching a plastic cloth-peg over Potato's nose, and Potato then starting to chime through his ears.

Music

• Australian country and folk singer John Williamson has a song on his kids' album titled "My Dad Snores", where the singer laments his dad's snoring and describes the family's increasing desperate attempts to get him to stop.

Puppet Shows

• Sesame Street:
  • One skit has roommates Ernie and Bert get awakened by a dripping faucet. Ernie tries drowning out the dripping with other loud sounds, but that just makes it worse. Bert turns off all the sounds, only for Ernie to snore and Bert to complain, "It's not fair!"
  • Another skit has Elmo sleeping over at Telly's house, only to be kept awake by Telly's snoring. First, Elmo tries playing music, but that keeps them both awake. Then Telly tries covering his nose and mouth, but he finds it hard to breathe. Finally, Elmo puts on earmuffs and it works. Elmo then snores, but luckily, Telly has another pair of earmuffs.
  • One cartoon skit has a man named Mr. Tweak, who can't sleep because his upstairs neighbour is snoring.

Video Games

• Scribblenauts Unlimited: In the fire house, one starite mission has a firefighter unable to sleep because of his coworker's loud snoring. Accepted solutions are to wake her up, make him very tired, make her mute, make him deaf, give him earplugs, or kill either of them.
• Twisted Wonderland:
  • Deuce grinds his teeth at night. Since his room is shared, this causes his roommate Ace grief.
  • Epel snores very loudly despite his Token Mini-Moe appearance. This is remarked upon by Rook at one point.
• In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, Loudred's snoring is shown to keep Bidoof up late multiple times during the first special episode. Fitting, since it's a Running Gag that Loudred shouts a lot when he's awake.
• This is the entire premise of the online game Snoring, where an elephant is snoring very loudly, and you have to solve a series of puzzles to help the other animals wake him up.

Web Animation

• My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale: In "Nightmare Roommate", Zipp, Pipp, and Sunny get very little sleep as a result of Izzy's snoring being too loud, as well as her sleep-talking.

Webcomics

• In the webcomic version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Greg is staying with his grandfather at one point, and is woken up by him having a night terror and yelling, "There are monkeys in the walls!"
• Digger: On the journey to the monastery, Digger notes that "Grim Eyes snored like a mole with a busted snout."

Web Originals

• BuzzFeed: In "Sleep Talk", Zack has to share a bed with his friends Quinta and Justin. However, when he says in his sleep that he wants to murder Justin and have children with Quinta, he becomes scared of him, and she worries he has a crush on her. However, he doesn't; his sleep talking was meaningless.
• The Nostalgia Critic: The review of Fox Kids begins with Critic, Tamara, and Malcolm having a sleepover, and Critic's ridiculously loud snoring (which escalates into construction noises, elephant trumpets, and other extremely loud stock sound effects) keeping them up all night.

Western Animation

• The first episode of 101 Dalmatians: The Series has the 3 main pups having a hard time sleeping due to the farm animals making too much noise.
• Arthur: In the teaser for "Night Fright", Arthur's puppy Pal annoys the monster under the bed with his snoring. That gives the monster under the bed a headache.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog: In "Sandman's Sleep", Courage has trouble sleeping due to Muriel's loud snoring. The Villain of the Week steals Muriel's sleep to cure his insomnia and he gets the snoring as well, which is what leads Courage to his lair when he tries to help his owner sleep again.
• The end of the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Quiet Riot" has Dexter falling asleep under Dee Dee's bed, causing her to develop a sleepless night due to his snoring.
• One episode of The Flintstones, "Pebbles' Birthday Party", begins at night when everyone is asleep — or is at least trying to. Fred is snoring so loud and strong, the palm trees outside the window are literally swaying back and forth with each breath!
• Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs: Discussed in one episode, when Harry has been turned into a frog and the dinosaurs are trying to convince the Princess to kiss him and break the spell. She refuses on account of needing to marry any Prince Charming she kisses, so the dinosaurs try to make Harry come off as a Prince Charmless. One of them claims he snores.
• Lalaloopsy: In "Too Close for Comfort", Sunny has been snoring a lot at night, so she and Berry talk to Bea about possible solutions. Not a single one of them is successful, so Berry muffles out Sunny's snoring by covering her own house with pillows.
• Little Princess: In "I Don't Want to Go to Bed", the Princess gets lonely in the middle of the night, so the Maid is sent to bunk with her, but she snores, keeping the Princess awake. After a few failed attempts to get the Maid to stop snoring, the Princess goes to sleep in the pets' basket.
• In the Looney Tunes short Wild Wife, the first part of Marsha's flashback has her finding trouble sleeping due to her husband's snoring. She jokingly calls him "the human buzzsaw" in reference to the loudness of his snoring.
• The Loud House:
  • In "Brawl in the Family", Lana complains that Lola snores (they're twin roommates). Lola retorts that she's surprised Lana can hear it over her own sleep-farting.
  • In "Space Invader", one of the things that Lincoln doesn't like about his sister Lynn bunking with him is when she snores.
  • In Listen Out Loud, the official podcast, one episode has a sleep-deprived Luan complaining that her sister and roommate Luna had been yelling, "Stage dive!" in her sleep.
• Mr Krbec and his Animals: In one episode, Ruprecht and Kokesh can't sleep due to Mr. Krbec snoring far too loudly, to the point where the entire castle shakes. Ruprecht keeps waking him up in repeated and failed attempts to stop the noise, and as a result of being constantly woken up, Mr. Krbec oversleeps the next morning.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Road to Friendship", Starlight Glimmer proves to be a very loud snorer, much to Trixie's chagrin. Though Trixie herself is a serial sleep-talker.
• The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: In "Goodbye Mr. Pooh", Pooh moves into Piglet's house. He breaks Piglet's bed when they are sleeping together. Pooh keeps Piglet up at night with his loud snoring. The next day, Pooh asks Piglet how well he had slept, bringing him to tears.
• Peppa Pig: In "George Catches a Cold", George keeps his sister Peppa (who sleeps on a bunk bed above him) awake by snoring due to congestion brought on by his cold.
• The Pink Panther: In "Rock-A-Bye Pinky", Little Man is camping with his dog, unaware that his snore is keeping the Panther from sleeping, up on the tree where Little has tied his hammock. Pink tries to get rid of Little Man at any cost, causing the man to think his dog is trying to kill him, while the poor animal thinks that his master is crazy.
• The Ren & Stimpy Show: At the end of "The Littlest Giant", Wee Ren is in bed, but Giant Stimpy is outside his house and he's snoring so loudly that the house is shaking.
• Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donnie wins the Lair Games and finally breaks Leo's massive winning streak, with his prize being trading his room for his brother's considerably nicer one. However, Leo confesses to April that he lost on purpose so he could swap rooms and move away from Splinter's horrifically loud snoring, a problem that's now passed on to Donnie.
• Rocko's Modern Life: In "Bedfellows", Heffer is staying over at Rocko's house. He starts snoring loudly, so Rocko tries to shut him up by putting a fishbowl on his nose and zapping him in the rear with a cattle prod.
• One episode of Shaun the Sheep involves the sheep trying to get Shirley to stop snoring or muffle the sound of her snores so they can get some sleep.
• On The Simpsons episode "Half Decent Proposal", Homer's intense snoring is making life miserable for Marge and has escalated to the point he snores while wide awake and active. This kicks off the plot (a play on Indecent Proposal). There is a surgery that would correct it, but the family can't afford it. Enter Marge's high school Stalker with a Crush, Artie Ziff, now a tech billionaire, who offers the family $1 million if Marge will spend a weekend with him.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Home Sweet Pineapple," SpongeBob struggles to sleep under Patrick's rock after his own home gets destroyed. One issue is that Patrick snores so loud that SpongeBob shoves corks in his ears (or, well, holes). The other issue is Patrick's night-terrors cause him to continually crush SpongeBob, believing him to be a spider.
• Thomas & Friends:
  • In the special Calling All Engines, the engines have to sleep in other places on the Island of Sodor while Tidmouth Sheds is under renovation. Thomas stays in Knapford Sheds with Emily, who gets annoyed with him telling her about his day and tells him to go to sleep. When Thomas does, he whistles in his sleep, which keeps Emily awake. When Thomas is too tired to head back to Knapford Sheds one evening, he sleeps in a siding. Emily is pleased to have Knapford Sheds to herself again at first, but soon finds it lonely without Thomas to tell her about his day. She even begins to miss the sound of his sleep whistle. At the end of the special, when Tidmouth Sheds is rebuilt, a seventh berth is added for Emily to stay in.
  • In the episode "A Shed for Edward", Edward tries sleeping at many places while waiting for his berth to be repaired, one such place being Brendam Docks. However, he soon learns Salty sings sea shanties in his sleep. Porter tells Edward that he took a while to get used to it, but now he can't fall asleep without them.
• In the WordWorld episode "Waterlogged", Frog is forced to move into Pig's house when his log home ends up sinking and needs rebuilding by Ant and his friends. One of the many things that Frog does as a rude houseguest is snoring loudly enough to keep Pig up. Realizing that he won't get any sleep, Pig decides to visit Ant and the others to see how the reconstruction of Frog's home is coming along. Unfortunately, they don't listen to him when he tells them that the letters they pull up (G, O, and L) are the right letters but are in the wrong order, and he is forced to go back home and put up with more of Frog's antics.

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