# What is the most annoying sound in the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 12, 2014, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068 "2014-12-12T22:39:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/41 "2014-12-13T18:00:33Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > Neil Young Any sound produced by Yoko Ono’s mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/42 "2014-12-13T18:26:53Z")
People chewing with their mouth open. I really don’t understand why some people do this. How do they \*not \*know that the majority of others are disgusted by them? \*Why \*can’t they close their mouths? ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/43 "2014-12-13T18:29:24Z")
Running a piece of wood through your planer that has a super hard furniture finish on it. It will destroy about 25% of your hearing in less than a minute. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/44 "2014-12-13T18:46:37Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > … > > There’s a guy in my building at work, a smoker, and every damned time he walks down the hall he has the same disgusting two-part “hock-snort” sound. It’s impossible to explain, but it is exactly the same disgusting sound every time. I hear it dozens of time a day. > > I know this guy and he’s on his like 10th wife/girlfriend in his life. There is no fucking way I could live with someone making that noise every half hour every day forever. Jeez, we might work in the same building! No, maybe not (mine doesn’t smoke) but the same sound… rearranging mucous in the nose and sinuses and then swallowing it. Absolutely disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/45 "2014-12-13T18:50:51Z")
Late night motorcycles revving their little engines up to impossible revs, while the cops apparently are all in bed for the night. and in the same vein: idling motorcycles where the rider revs up, for no apparent reason, every 15 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/46 "2014-12-13T18:57:45Z")
Well, not the most annoying sound in the world, but honorable mention to the alter-cocker who had pulled up to the path of the local restaurant and was honking for his elderly wife. How can you get into your 70’s and not realize that blasting the horn when someone is walking in front of your car is a goddamn rude thing to do? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/47 "2014-12-13T19:14:24Z")
Turning on your car & finding you forgot to change your radio station. Doesn’t seem bad, does it? Except it was night time before, when it was a music format, but now you’re getting treated to some “whacky morning radio show” replete with “whacky” voices, spin on current events that isn’t remotely accurate or funny, and the forced braying of some young girl (paid to laugh about it in the background as if it was the single funniest thing she’d ever heard). Ick. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/48 "2014-12-13T19:17:23Z")
The person who thinks it necessary to be the last person to yip-yip after the chanting on the Colbert Report. STFU. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/49 "2014-12-13T20:19:31Z")
What? No mention of fingernails on a chalkboard. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/50 "2014-12-13T20:27:39Z")
Whining. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/51 "2014-12-13T20:53:34Z")
You lose your ability to hear high frequencies with age, I believe one of the most annoying sounds is a pitch that is near your hearing loss range but still audible. So it will vary over your lifetime which one really annoys you. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/52 "2014-12-13T20:53:39Z")
Our local NPR station got new microphones a couple of years ago. They are so good that you can actually hear the mouth moisture and tongue movements of the guests they are interviewing. I can hear whether or not the guest has dentures. Yech! I listen far less than I used to. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/53 "2014-12-13T20:54:35Z")
It’s the loud humming sound made by [zillions of tiny mating toadfish](http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2013/10/the-hum-heard-round-the-world-from-sausalito-to-seattle-to-south-hampton-mating-midshipmen-fish-keeping-the-neighbors-awake/). Or so they apparently think in Sausalito. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/54 "2014-12-13T21:51:07Z")
Even worse (if you’re a Bach fan) is the humming of Glenn Gould on recordings of Bach keyboard music. It has to be heard (especially on headphones) to be believed. Thankfully, you can purchase [the Glenn Gould De-Vocalizer 2000](http://www.davegrossman.net/gould/) to filter out the irritating humming on Gould’s recordings of the Goldberg Variations and other classics. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/55 "2014-12-13T22:36:33Z")
Yes, Iggy, one day us kids didn’t shut up and Teach did it till we begged for mercy. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/56 "2014-12-13T22:45:40Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Our local NPR station got new microphones a couple of years ago. They are so good that you can actually hear the mouth moisture and tongue movements of the guests they are interviewing. I can hear whether or not the guest has dentures. > > Yech! I listen far less than I used to. It may be a network wide thing; this seems to happen a lot in NPR interviews. It definitely is something audible on the air from the San Diego affiliate. I wonder if they have a policy of “really high fidelity” that leads to this unfortunate side-effect. Anyway, yeah, total agreement. (Years ago, Dan Rather used to do an opinion segment for CBS radio. Every time he finished a sentence, his mouth made a “click” noise. “Opinion. [click.] Reason for it. [click] More opinion. [click]” It was nasty!) ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/57 "2014-12-13T22:51:12Z")
Drunk Asians performing karaoke at the 2 in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![ptr2void](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ptr2void/32/3406_2.png) [@ptr2void](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ptr2void)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/58 "2014-12-13T23:28:01Z")
The excessively loud voices of the others with whom I share a home. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/59 "2014-12-14T21:51:13Z")
Yes to the buzz-buzz-buzz of the standard digital alarm clock. Thank god for smarphone alarm clocks. Try this one: be the Scoutmaster with a bunch of first-time campers. The most annoying sound is the sound of a tent zipper opening at 2 o’clock in the morning, because it means you need to get up to see what’s happening and so one of the scouts doesn’t disappear into the woods. Repeat at twenty minute intervals all night long. ---
**Author:** ![Archeonomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Archeonomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archeonomist)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068/60 "2014-12-14T23:34:52Z")
Whistling. That sound is almost painful to me, and it makes me irrationally angry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-annoying-sound-in-the-world/707068.md?page=4)