### Author:  [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/1 "2003-07-10T14:31:15Z")
What sound makes you want to go postal? It doesn’t need to be loud, it doesn’t need to be shrill, it just has to be a sound that crawls under your skin and needles around until you just want to peel your ears off your head.
For me…well, sorry **brachyrhynos** , but the sound of a begging baby crow makes me want to pull my hair out. Imagine the normal caw of an adult crow, made whinier and a pitch or two higher, repeated over and over and OVER again right outside, say your bedroom window at Damn It’s Early in the Morning. What gets me is how the pitch rises so feverishly as the crowling’s (or whatever it’s called) parent succombs to the berating whine and actually feeds the damn thing. You can actually hear them caw and choke on their food at the same time. ARGH! It sounds somewhat like this… “Eh! Eh! Eh! EH EH EH EH EH EHHHHHHH EHHHHHHHH **EHHHHHHHH! EEEEEEEEHHHHHHHH** \ Eh eh.”
:::shudder::: Now we know why some choose to eat their young. UGH.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/2 "2003-07-10T14:34:44Z")
A human baby crying - think about it, the sound is _designed_ to annoy you so that you do something about it.
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### Author:  [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/3 "2003-07-10T14:36:09Z")
Whistling.
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### Author:  [@moejuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejuck)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/4 "2003-07-10T14:39:13Z")
Haven’t you people seen Dumb and Dumber?
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/5 "2003-07-10T14:42:04Z")
That screech that fingernails on a chalk board make.
I read somewhere (might have been Straight Dope?) that the reason that particular sound affects humans so is that it is the sound a female ape makes to call her young (or warn them of danger), and that our primate brains retain that from whenever. Be that as it may, that sound causes pain for me.
That and leaf blowers.
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### Author:  [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/6 "2003-07-10T14:46:29Z")
The sound of driving your car 55mph and only one window down. That hum drum sound is enough to make you get in an accident.
Also fireworks!
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### Author:  [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/7 "2003-07-10T14:54:22Z")
Gas-powered leaf blower
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### Author:  [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/8 "2003-07-10T15:05:51Z")
Of course I have, **moejack**. That’s where the thread title comes from.
And, IMHO, the whining crow beats Jim Carrey’s siren by a mile.
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### Author:  [@Mariachi\_Kitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mariachi_Kitty)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/9 "2003-07-10T15:51:00Z")
Irregular vibrations bug the hell out of me. I love white noise, but if the fan or whatever I have producing it starts making clicks, sqeaks or any other non-constant sound it just drives me batty.
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### Author:  [@n2o](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/n2o)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/10 "2003-07-10T15:55:10Z")
the phone ringing at work. hands down
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### Author:  [@jillzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jillzy)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/11 "2003-07-10T16:04:23Z")
A co-worker who sits 4 cubicles away cuts his fingernails at his desk 2-3 times a week. Every _click_ _click_ _click_ makes me grit my teeth and I find I am unable to continue typing until he finishes.
And my grandmother’s voice when she (frequently) calls at 6am on a Saturday.
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### Author:  [@purrtygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purrtygirl)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/12 "2003-07-10T16:30:58Z")
Hands down, it’s the sound of my husband’s ex-wife!!!
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### Author:  [@purrtygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purrtygirl)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/13 "2003-07-10T16:37:53Z")
Hands down, it’s **the sound of my husband’s ex-wife’s voice!!!** :smack:
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### Author:  [@hebesphenomegacorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hebesphenomegacorona)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/14 "2003-07-10T16:44:03Z")
definetly the sound of one of my sixth grade teacher’s voice.
It reminded me of the noise of an annoyed pig
Or the noise of a crying baby.
Or the background music in one specific(and stupid) anti smoking PSA.
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### Author:  [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/15 "2003-07-10T16:58:17Z")
The _dee-duh dee-duh dee-duh_ sound of the garbage truck backing into the alley under my window. I hate to wake up angry.
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### Author:  [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/16 "2003-07-10T17:06:05Z")
I’d say it was a tie between one coworker’s laugh and…another coworker’s laugh.
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### Author:  [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/17 "2003-07-10T17:06:34Z")
My three year old whining. Conversley, the best sound in the world is him laughing.
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### Author:  [@smam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smam)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/18 "2003-07-10T17:08:44Z")
It’s gotta be Diva’s for me, the way they stretch out one syllable words so that they last 15 seconds really makes me want to slide a butter knife under my knee-cap and pop it open then bring the cap to my mouth and swallow the contents as if it were an oyster.
Really, can anyone stand watching Mariah sing the word “I” while she taps out each change of note in her voice with her finger on an invisible xylophone that is suspended in mid-air without cringing?
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### Author:  [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/19 "2003-07-10T17:12:38Z")
The chomp-chomp-chomp of someone chewing gum or eating with their mouth open. I think it is the wet, squishiness of the sound that makes it the most annoying.
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### Author:  [@Wearia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wearia)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2003, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/187468/20 "2003-07-10T17:25:08Z")
Alarm clocks. Can’t stand the _EEEE EEEE EEEE EEEE EEEE EEEE EEEE EEEE_ _shiver_
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