The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

[oroborous]

When I first saw the thread on the Death Note, I thought it was going to be about a noise of certain frequency and intensity sufficient to cause death. While that may be fearsome, indeed, there is the oft maligned, but just as deadly Brown Note.

 

For those of you who don't know, the Brown Note is a legendary tone that when played causes the person hearing it to release his bowels, causing a brown stain in their underpants. The Mythbusters even dedicated a show to it and were unable to reproduce the legendary results.

 

As an aging raver/clubber and current volunteer EMT I have first-hand knowledge that there is some sort of phenomenon that, given the correct circumstance, results in a loss of control. Bass notes in the frequency lower than the audible human range none the less have an effect on the body, and I have been in a room where when subjected to these sounds I felt the odd urge to defecate or vomit. Add E or alcoholic impairment and there you go. Not being a candykid myself, I had the good sense to leave the immediate area and recover.

 

All this got me thinking, what if there was a villain that applied those types of sound waves towards some inscrutable end? In low doses, vomiting or releasing your bowels uncontrollably will result in embarrassment and minor incapacitation, but prolonged exposure could lead to dehydration, hydrosonic shock and other potentially deadly effects. The most insidious part of this repulsive power would be that even opponents without ears could be affected because the noise is already lower than many creatures can hear in an intensity that is only measurable with scientific equipment.

 

Just imagine if those sound waves were directed at hapless museum guards. While they are heaving their guts up or crapping their pants, the villain could waltz right past and take what he wanted. Or a hero could be strapped to a torture device and subjected to those waves over a period of time, losing valuable hydration and succumbing to psychoses related to the physiological effects of not having enough water in his system.

 

I guess even a hero could use it as a less-than-lethal deterrent when trying to quell an angry mob, although I think they would try the regurgitation version, as even anti-heroes have some sense of decorum.

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

 

UHm... I.... uh....

 

Well, you could.. when you think of it it might...

 

no

 

 

======================

Well, I doubt we'd see this in DC:TAS. Unless it runs on [adult swim]?

[oroborous]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

Well' date=' I doubt we'd see this in DC:TAS. Unless it runs on [adult swim']?

 

Yeah! Someone gets the joke.

 

BTW I wouldn't be suprised to see a villian like The Crapper on The Venture Brothers or Minoriteam.

 

He would never be intended to be a serious villian, although what I said about the effects of dehydration are totally true.

[Ephelides]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

Total urban myth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note

 

In fact, the whole thing is a bunch of...um...

[AdamLeisemann]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

Crap?

 

Seriously, there is no Brown note, but there is a phobosonic range, a wavelength of sound that creates anxiety and fear. That I learned from Mythbusters.

[Pavanne]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

Any low note, played loud enuf, will make you feel bad. The rattling it gives your bones makes your heart palpitate (did I spell that right?).

 

So it's no mystic mumbo-jumbo super-secret "Brown Note." It's just how your body reacts when sound makes your bones shake.

[oroborous]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

I'm pretty sure the myth of the Brown Note was started by some reveller who was drunk or stoned while subjected to subaudable noise which in combination with their weakened state brought about an embarrasing accident. No one wants to admit incontinance, so they had to come up with some plausible reason, and the Brown Note is born.

[J. Chamberlin]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

Even used in combat or torture, the Brown Note is still just as funny as I thought. A mean, a sound that makes people crap their pants? Priceless!

 

J

[Lethosos]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

*coughcoughs*

 

Captain Freespeech vs. The Brown Note

 

Not my work, though.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

Let us also not forget the joys of Transmetropolitan and Spider Jerusalem, who held a senator at point blank range to a disembowler, a weapon whose entire function was to take over YOUR functions. It had settings from 'queasy' all the way up to 'liquify.'

[Pavanne]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

*coughcoughs*

 

Captain Freespeech vs. The Brown Note

 

Not my work, though.

 

I agree it's funny...

 

But one more yet again a repetition of some one else who needs the "difference then" brown note and brown noise explained.

 

Brown NOISE links, for those who want:

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/BrownNoise.html

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=534826

http://ccms.ntu.edu.tw/~karchung/Phonetics%20II%20page%20sixteen.htm

http://www.mediacollege.com/audio/noise/brown-noise.html

http://www.musicdsp.org/phpWiki/index.php/how%20do%20i%20make%20white,%20pink,%20brown,%20pale%20or%20friendly%20noise%3F

 

[Drhoz]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

Let us also not forget the joys of Transmetropolitan and Spider Jerusalem' date=' who held a senator at point blank range to a disembowler, a weapon whose entire function was to take over YOUR functions. It had settings from 'queasy' all the way up to 'liquify.'[/quote']

 

actually that was a Bowel Disruptor, and the president. IIRC, he set the weapon to "Prolapse". Hence the cries from his bodygaurds "Help! the President's shat himself!" as Spider and his assistant saunter away from the scene.

 

pedant point to me

[Ephelides]

Re: The Brown Note: Not as funny as you think.

 

Adam: Naugty!

 

Pavanne: Yeah, that's right.

 

oroborous: Suspect you're right.

 

Lethosos: