History Main / NailsOnABlackboard

* [[ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy]] used this to torture a deaf character in the sixth installment.
** Freddy stole the deaf kid's hearing aid, turned the volume up to 11, gave it back, (made it unremovable via literal EarWorm) and dragged his murder-glove all over a giant chalkboard. Then the deaf kid's head exploded.
** He also used it to less fatal and more annoying effect in movie number 4. Give a guy a glove with sharp metal claws and it's inevitable that sooner or later he will do this, psychopath or no.
** Using other surfaces to evoke this trope practically became Freddy's self-made theme music.

* One ''{{Goosebumps}}'' short story features a school that punishes bad kids by making them listen to nails on a chalkboard for all eternity.

* The ''soundtrack'' of ''TheDarkKnight'' somehow manages to incorporate this (fittingly, as the Joker's motif). [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB5tbTpQvsM Have a listen]].

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* Judge Doom in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit''.

* ''[[FullMetalPanic Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu]]''. In the last episode Kaname does this to calm a mass panic. She's badass enough that it works immediately.

[shudder chill] ...no better way to arrest attention than to rake a nail or two across a blackboard. Usually works best with actual nails or a piece of chalk (especially a long, fresh piece), but some {{Badass Normal}}s can use their ''finger'' nails. In the absence of a chalkboard, a sharp object against glass produces a similar sound.

* Judge Doom in ''WhoFramedRogerRabbit''.

[[AC: {{Western Animation}}]]

* Alvin does this in the ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' episode ''The Brunch Club'' in order to get a confession out of Brittany.

<<|SoundFXTropes|>>

* Quint, making his legendary entrance in ''{{Jaws}}''.

* The ''{{Jaws}}'' scene is also spoofed in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "SpongeBob, Sandy and the Worm". The character doing it just wanted to know where the bathroom was.

* It was also in ''ExcelSaga''. Luckily for the audience, the sound was replaced with music.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fingerboard.jpg]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fingerboard.jpg ''[=screeEEEEeeeeEEEEEeeEEEEEEEK!=]''

* ''TheSimpsons'' has done this quite a few times -- one time featured Groundskeeper Willie doing it on a stained glass window, in a direct parody of Quint's use of the trope.
* In one episode of ''{{Arthur}}'', the title character daydreams that a villainous teacher is using the noise for torture rather than for straight attention-getting.

* One SouthPark episode has Mr Garrison using a rusty nail to write on the chalkboard, because lawsuits have made chalk too expensive for the school.
* In ''[[AaahhRealMonsters AAAHH!!! Real Monsters]]'', a human kid disguised as a monster wins big points with the teacher for doing this.
* The ''{{Jaws}}'' scene is also spoofed in the ''SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "SpongeBob, Sandy and the Worm". The character doing it just wanted to know where the bathroom was.

* In an episode of ''TaleSpin'', Don Karnage puts on a Tiger's Claw glove and proceeds to rake it across a chalkboard to get his victim to talk.
* Alvin does this in the ''AlvinandtheChipmunks'' episode ''The Brunch Club'' in order to get a confession out of Brittany.

See also SinisterScrapingSound, a dangerous SisterTrope. Believe it or not, TheOtherWiki actually has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_of_fingernails_scraping_chalkboard its own article]] about it.

* ''TwoStupidDogs'' had this when Mr. H wrote his name on a chalkboard when he was substituting a class. It was ''excruciatingly'' long, and was enough to blow out the school's windows out. Just when the students think it's over, he adds a final ''scrEE!'' for the period.

** ...wait, [[MindScrew what?]]
*** Freddy stole the deaf kid's hearing aid, turned the volume up to 11, gave it back, (made it unremovable via literal EarWorm) and dragged his murder-glove all over a giant chalkboard. Then the deaf kid's head exploded.
*** Oh, I see. [[BlatantLies It's quite obvious when you think about it really]].

** Using other surfaces to evoke this trope was practically Freddy's self-made theme music.

[shudder chill] ...no better way to arrest attention than to rake a nail or two across a blackboard. Usually works best with actual nails or a piece of chalk (especially a long, fresh piece), but some {{Badass Normal}}s can use their ''finger'' nails. [[HereComesTheScience Fun fact:]] certain schools of thought posit that the reaction to this sound is an atavistic response to when humanity's pre-evolved ancestors used a similar noise to warn each other of danger that should be fled from at once.

It can also be done using different surfaces, such as a pane of glass, provided it can generate ''[=screeEEEEeeeeEEEEEeeEEEEEEEK!=]''

'''Will you STOP that!!!'''

Very nearly a DeadHorseTrope, because many places there that would once have used blackboards are now using dry-erase whiteboards, and the squeak of the marker isn't nearly as grating. YourMileageMayVary, as the squeal of whiteboard markers can be exceedingly irritating to some people, and many schools (even some universities) in Europe continue to use blackboards and chalk (presumably to stop their students from sniffing the markers).

[[MostAnnoyingSound Gah! That sound!]]

[shudder chill] ...no better way to arrest attention than to rake a nail or two across a blackboard. Usually works best with actual nails or a piece of chalk (especially a long, fresh piece), but some {{Badass Normal}}s can use their ''finger'' nails. Brrr! My spine is going into conniptions and my teeth are grinding just ''typing'' about it. [[HereComesTheScience Fun fact:]] certain schools of thought posit that the reaction to this sound is an atavistic response to when humanity's pre-evolved ancestors used a similar noise to warn each other of danger that should be fled from at once.

[[AC:{{Real Life}}]]
* TruthInTelevision: this editor has encountered more than one teacher BadAss enough to do it with their fingernails. Eesh.
** And both times Ernest P. Worrell has appeared in the vicinity of a chalkboard, this is precisely what he did. [=KnowhutImean?=]
** This troper found out that teachers won't call on her when she wears acrylic nails.
** This troper's Greek faculty isn't bothered by the sound. At all. Everyone else in the class is. We behave.
** Students have been known to do it to their teachers.
** This troper's elementary school used to hand out mini chalk boards, but for this very reason stopped. Kids would do it when the teacher was talking because they wanted something (snacks, bathroom break, what have you not). Now they use try-erase boards with non-scented markers.
* Averted in this tropers secondary school. All classrooms are fitted with either SMARTboards or whiteboards.

Gah! That sound!

Believe it or not, TheOtherWiki actually has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_of_fingernails_scraping_chalkboard its own article]] about it.

[[AC: {{Anime}}]]
* ''GreatTeacherOnizuka''.
* It was also in ''ExcelSaga''. Luckily for the audience, the sound was replaced with music.
* And ''Crossworlds''. Although that was on a stalagmite. It gains extra kudos for being weaponized -- the sound being used to disable a sharp-eared cat-person.
* ''OnePiece'' has it too. It's called Usopp Noise.
* ''[[FullMetalPanic Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu]]''. In the last episode Kaname does this to calm a mass panic. She's badass enough that it works immediately.