Madness Mantra

Jeez, there are a lot of spelling errors.

"Better safe than sorry, Better safe than sorry, Better safe than sorry, I can't believe he bit me!! Better safe than sorry! I, I opened the door before and I got bit for my trouble. No. Won't fool me twice. Better safe than sorry! Better safe than sorry!"

— The Church Guy, moments before turning into a Special Infected, Left 4 Dead

Characters who are having a mental breakdown sometimes become fixated on a certain phrase that they repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat until everyone in the world is sick of it. This could be from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) or due to ruminative depression, where a person becomes trapped in a loop.

Sometimes, this chanting allows the character to snap out of their insanity. Sometimes, it becomes their life-long theme song as they rock back and forth in a padded, locked room in a psychiatric institute. If they aren't locked up, expect a room with every square inch covered with the handwitten phrase. When combined with As the Good Book Says..., the ominousness goes through the roof.

Just about every mental institution scene has someone chanting some sort of non sequitur phrase in the background. And woe betide us all if this non sequitur should be significant.

May result in the terms becoming meaningless and possibly descend into a strange form of Mondegreen thanks to the human knack of picking up patterns out of nothing.

Contrast the Talkative Loon, who at least varies the chatter. Compare to Cluster F-Bomb and Rapid-Fire "No!". If this involves singing, see Tuneless Song of Madness.

A Survival Mantra is an attempt to master fear and pain, but when it doesn't work, you find the point where that trope crosses over into this one.

Must trope. Must trope. Must trope. Must trope. Must trope. Must trope.

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Example subpages, Example subpages, Example subpages, Example subpages:

• Anime & Manga, Anime & Manga, Anime & Manga, Anime & Manga
• Films — Live-Action, Films — Live-Action, Films — Live-Action, Films — Live-Action
• Literature, Literature, Literature, Literature
• Live-Action TV, Live-Action TV, Live-Action TV, Live-Action TV
• Music, Music, Music, Music
• Video Games, Video Games, Video Games, Video Games
• Western Animation, Western Animation, Western Animation, Western Animation

Other examples, Other examples, Other examples, Other examples:

Advertising, Advertising, Advertising, Advertising

• Cigarette. Cigarette. Cigarette. Cigarette. SHAARRK! SHAARRK! SHAARRK! SHAARRK!
• Time to make the donuts.
• Drambuie Extraordinary Bar: Spices, spices, spices!

Comic Books, Comic Books, Comic Books, Comic Books

• In Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man, the Arkham inmate Psycho Pirate chants phrases such as, "Worldswillliveworldswilldie," and "One and two and ess and ex and three and four and prime." These turn out to be Arc Words, referring to the parallel Earths variously merged or destroyed in Crisis on Infinite Earths some years earlier. The Psycho Pirate is the only one in the DCU who remembers these lost worlds, and so these Madness Mantras allude to, respectively, DC's promotional tagline for the Crisis crossover and the names of various parallel Earths (Earth Two, Earth S, Earth X, etc.). His ravings are a premonition of the temporary reemergence of superheroes and supervillains from the lost Earths.
• During The Avengers story The Celestial Madonna Saga, Kang's robots and clones repeat endlessly: "Kang conquers! Kang conquers!"
• The Badger:
  • "Tear the roof off the sucker! Tear the roof off the sucker!" is the mantra of Clarence Cornice, a six-foot six architect whose short partner Frank Lloyd Wrong insisted on building houses with a six foot ceiling until Cornice became homicidally deranged.
  • Badger used the phrase in a later episode when feeling homicidal himself.
• In The Boys, Billy Butcher may be a general jerk and super killer, but he genuinely loves his inaptly named British Bulldog Terror, and he usually serves to show Billy's more human side. When Jack From Jupiter kills Terror, Billy completely loses it.
  Billy: Why did you kill my dog, Jack? Why did you kill my dog, Jack? Why did you kill my dog, Jack?
• In the Dark Souls anthology comic Dark Souls: Legends of the Flame, there's a lonely undead sitting outside the city of Quon, constantly retelling the tale of Quon's fall to himself. He dares not leave, for he knows that if he forgets the tale, he'll loose the last sliver of sanity he has left. He's Mistos, the former king of Quon.
• In Detective Comics Annual #9, Riddler finally divulges his life story to (what he believes are) the doctors at Arkham. When he discovers that the doctors behind the one way glass left the room for a snack and he's been talking to himself the entire time, he begins repeating "no one there" in shock . It is unknown when he recovered from this.
• One of the The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers tries to write a horror story while high on drugs. The result: "Andtheywentandtheywentandtheywent..." (Promptly gets him a Frankenstein/Gertrude Stein pun.)
• In an issue of The Flash, Wally's ex-girlfriend Tina McGee calls him for help because she believes there is something wrong with everybody around her. When Flash gets there he finds that she is at her keyboard, repeatedly typing "I'magoodgirlI'magoodgirl". Everyone thinks she is having a nervous breakdown, but actually her colleagues have been taken over by the Kilg%re, and she's perfectly alright.
  "He won't have a gun, Trust me Ashley. He won't have a gun, Trust me Ashley..."
• In an issue of Justice League of America, the Atom has the song Stardust stuck in his head throughout the issue, but can't remember all the lyrics. He and the other leaguers soon encounter an alien probe named Mnemon, who steals memories. After temporarily stealing the memories of the league, it is defeated and ends up drifting through space with just one memory that it repeats endlessly: the song Stardust. And it still doesn't know the words.
• In Kraven's Last Hunt Kraven the Hunter, a classic enemy of Spider-Man, is slowly being driven mad by his obsession to show that he is superior to his foe, even keeping an enormous amount of spiders in a glass cage to capture his adversary's "essence". His final descent into madness begins when he sees the spiders congregate to form a gigantic and monstrous spider that attacks him. At first, he believes that it is an hallucination and tries to fight it off. But he soon concludes that:
  Kraven: It’s true. It’s true. It’s true. It’s true. It’s true. It’s true. It’s true. It’s true. It’s true. It’s true. It’s true.
• In Legion of Super-Heroes storyline The Great Darkness Saga, -Darkseid brainwashes thee billions of Daxamites — a Kryptonian offshoot — into conquering the galaxy for him. Most of his mind-controlled slaves don't speak as they carve a path of destruction through the galaxy... except for one name.
  "Most do not speak as they trample lives and destroy riches... and those that do, simply mutter a single word over and over under their breaths... Darkseid."
• In Nova volume 4, the people zombified by Abyss mindlessly repeat the phrase "Ready or not".
• After Starr gets his genitals eaten by a dog in Preacher, he spends a lot of time fondling a gun and muttering "DOOM cock, DOOM cock".
• One of the children attacked by a Fear Demon in Saga Of The Swamp Thing #26 keeps repeating "ANIMALANIMALANIMALANIMAL..."
• After the Chameleon snapped in one issue of Spider-Man, all he was capable of saying was "Nothing nothing nothing nothing..."
• Star Wars Expanded Universe: In Kanan, after Order 66 is given, Commander Grey repeats "Good soldiers follow orders" before ordering his men to begin firing on Depa and Caleb.
• You know things are bad when Superman starts using one of these: during Grant Morrison's (Is there a pattern here?) run on JLA, in fact near the end, in "World War Three", Supes has his hope and will broken by the Old Gods' death machine from the edge of space, Mageddon. While under the influence of the doomsday device, he compulsively utters... "We can't win over this... the end of it all... oblivion... MAH-GED-DUN.."
• In V for Vendetta, after V destroys Lewis Prothero's priceless doll collection in front of him, he goes insane, and can only say "mama, mama."

Fan Works, Fan Works, Fan Works, Fan Works

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): When this phrase pops up, you know that Vivienne's post-traumatic stress disorder is really kicking into high gear:
  "DON'T LOOK UP YOU'LL DIE IF YOU LOOK UP"
• Always Visible: A whacky psychic who tries to sell Jordan a book by running after him like a mongrel and repeating "Take a book!".
• A written one from Calvin & Hobbes: The Series:
  We'renotgoingcampingwe'renotgoingcampingwe'renotgoingcampingwe'renotgoingcampingwe'renotgoingcamping
  we'renotgoingcampingwe'renotgoingcampingwe'renotgoingcamping...
• Then there's Calvin and Hobbes II: Lost at Sea: "Su... su... su... su... su... SU...su...su...su... su... su... su... su... SU...su...su..."
• Evangelion 303: In chapter 12, while Asuka is arguing with herself during a breakdown, she yells out loud: "SHUT UP!!! Shut up Shut up Shut up Shut up Shut up Shut up SHUT UP!!!"
• Everfree Infection AU: Scootaloo's profile, which shows that her infection's progressed enough for branches to be growing out of her back, has a description consisting of "IT HURTS" repeated over and over.
• HERZ: In chapter 2 Asuka remembers her words during her battle against the MP-Evas:
  "I'll kill you. Kill you. Kill you. Kill. Kill. Kill." Her mantra as she clutched her face and reached out with her right hand of vengeance. "Kill you. Kill you. Kill you. Kill you. Kill. Kill."
• The Night Unfurls: Despite being unable to speak, Hugh finds himself repeatedly mouthing the word "Boss" upon witnessing Shamuhaza thrashing in agony and seemingly dying under Kyril's literal Death Glare. Lucky for him, it is only a minor breakdown with no signs of Freak Out during the later chapters, though he definitely feels that his master seems to be far above him.
• In The Precious Book, Harry greatly cares for a copy of Alice in Wonderland given to him by a kindly bookshop owner, regarding the characters as his friends. When Quirrel uses a mind control curse on Ron Weasley to make him destroy it, Harry spends several heartbroken weeks doing little but sob "Murderer" over and over again.
• In Fate/Starry Night, Jack's killer instincts kick in when confronted with innumerable mud copies of Ritsuka, her thoughts filling nothing but the thought of, "Dismember. Dismember. Dismember. Dismember. Dismember. Dismember. Dismember."
• Queen of All Oni has Jade's thought processes degenerate into this when Lung tortures her trapped astral form.
  "Gotta get away, gotta get away, gotta get away, gotta get away, gotta get away, getaway, getaway, getawaygetaway..."
• The Second Try: Asuka uttered one when Gendo interrogated her about Aki and then taunted her with her speech not being very motherly:
  Asuka:"You bastard! You don't know anything about her! You have no right to talk about her! I swear, if you do as much as to say her name once more, I'll kill you!"
  Gendo:"Kill me? You don't seem to be in any position to make death threats. That aside... [...] That is not a very motherly way to talk..."
  Asuka:"You... I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'LL K-agh... y-y..."
• When he's unleashed on the material plane in Fate/Gag Order, eldritch god Hastur's dialogue consists of him screaming the word "King" in different languages as he begins warping reality. He's much more eloquent when he appears later in the form of Mickey Dugan.
• In chapter 13 of Passageways a time-travelling Harry attacks Abraxas Malfoy and several other Death Eaters after they show up to terrorize Diagon Alley. When Malfoy sees the lordship ring of a formerly-extinct family on Harry's hand, he goes into shock and keeps repeating "It can't be..."
• Being a crossover with The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, The Grim EDventures of Ed, Edd, n Eddy includes a similar Madness Mantra to the one in the source material in the first chapter. It comes right outta nowhere, has absolutely nothing to do with the plot (despite there not being that much of a plot yet) and nobody ever mentions it again. Yup, it's a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, alright.
  • The exact same Madness Mantra (though not done by the same character) and another Madness Mantra from The Simpsons happens in its Spin-Off Ed, Edd, Eddy n Edna, despite not being a crossover.
• In Father Mine a Death Eater who came off rather poorly during an encounter with Sailor Moon keeps repeating "Never. Coherent. Moon! Glowing...traitor...watch out! Moon..."
• In The Boy with the Magic Notebook, the way Maxwell is writing down medicinal potions nonstop for hours on end comes off like this.
  SUPER MEDICINE SUPER MEDICINE SUPER MEDICINE SUPER MEDICINE SUPER MEDICINE
• When Ginny learns the truth about her friend Tom at the climax of The Very Secret Diary, all she can do is repeat, "I do not know. I do not know. I do not know" over and over, until she passes out.
• In Hellsister Trilogy, Satan Girl keeps repeating "KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU", as well as "TearyoureyesoutandEATTHEM! RipyouapartandseveryourINTESTINES!" when she comes face to face with her genetic template.
• Breathers For Applejack: "Let us help you, Applejack..." Ponies affected by the curse are compelled to say it, but also seems to function as some kind of Trigger Phrase. When one of Applejack's friends say it, you know they're pretty much doomed to succumb to the curse.
• In the Fire Emblem: Awakening fanfiction Golden Threads Tie Us, Severa goes berserk when a Risen archer gets Lucina wounded:
  Severa: You piece of trash how dare you hurt Lucina bastardbastardbastard
• In Chapter 3 of the Freedom Planet fanfic Little Miss Heropants, Lilac is reminded of what happened to her on Brevon's ship and starts repeating "Don't tell him anything".
• Oyasumi Midoriya:
  • The endnote for layer 8 is an encoded phrase repeated 24 times. Decoding the phrase reveals it to be "brain matter all over the floor", ultimately foreshadowing Shigaraki's death during the USJ attack.
  • Layer 53's endnote, when decrypted, is the word "why" repeated 520 times, followed by the phrase "i feel bad".
• Ships Ahoy! has Olive recite two of these in rapid succession. First when Polly Graph tells her that Oscar has always wanted to be a Lab Director (or in other words, a Head Scientist) and rambles on and on, only for her to tune his cousin out:
  "Lab Director...Head Scientist...Lab Director...Head Scientist...Lab Director...Head Scientist..."
  • Then, when she realizes that Oscar and Oprah, as well as everyone else at Precinct 13579, lied to her about the former and comes to the realization that the former never cared for her, "He never cared" cycles repeatedly in her head.
• My Hero Academia: Unchained Predator: An anger-induced version. Shigaraki screams 'I hate you' to a picture of the Slayer over and over in Chapter 24.
  • Played terrifyingly straight with Ragdoll in Chapter 26 with the carvings she drew, as well as the repeated mantra: The only thing they fear is him. The carvings are enough to unnerve even Nezu.

Animated Films, Animated Films, Animated Films, Animated Films

• The animated movie 9: "The source... The source... Go back... to the source..."
• Cars 2: Mater lapsed into this when he thought that he leaked oil.
  "I'm leaking! I never leak. I never leak. I never leak. I never leak. I never leak.
• Elsa at one point in Frozen:
  "Get it together! Control it! Don't feel, don't feel, don't feel, don't feel!"
• In Nocturna, the Luminuses(?) chant the word "Kidnapper..." over and over again, due to so many of them going missing.
• Wreck-It Ralph: "We are humanity's last hope... our mission, destroy all Cy-Bugs... we are humanity's last hope... our mission, destroy all Cy-Bugs."

Puppet Shows, Puppet Shows, Puppet Shows, Puppet Shows

• Sesame Street: In the "Mine-itis" episode, anyone who is infected with the titular Somethingitis will repeatedly shout over and over: "MINE! MINE! MINE!"

Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling

• "MAY NINETEENTH! MAY NINETEENTH!"
• "YES! YES! YES!" / "NO! NO! NO!"
• "IT - WASN'T - MY - FAULT!" (Snitsky)
• "DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!"
  • "I'LL FADE AWAY AND CLASSIFY MYSELF AS OBSOLETE!"

Radio, Radio, Radio, Radio

• Madness Mantra Lite, courtesy of The Goon Show: "Ying tong ying tong ying tong ying tong ying tong iddle i po..."
  • Or Announcer Wallace Greenslade's parting line at the end of the show:
  It's all in the mind, you know.

Roleplay, Roleplay, Roleplay, Roleplay

• In Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, Crispin screams in horror upon first seeing Jenna's bug form. This causes her to suffer a Heroic BSoD and lock herself in the closet, murmuring to herself over and over that she's a monster, monster, monster...
• Survival of the Fittest v4 character Kris Hartmann has, with variation, "Voice. Jump. Spin. Squeeze. Bang. Dead." She never actually says it, but it comes up in her thoughts frequently, starting from her Accidental Murder of Reika Ishida.

Tabletop Games, Tabletop Games, Tabletop Games, Tabletop Games

• The Apocalyptic Log that opens All Flesh Must Be Eaten has a scientist, undergoing transformation into a zombie, muttering in his last log before complete zombification "God, why" about a dozen times.
• Battlefleet Gothic: +++KILLFRENZY KILLFRENZY KILLFRENZY+++ ^note The captain of the Killfrenzy, a cruiser so named because it transmits that same line over and over and over, over all channels)
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • "KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN!" Good ol' Kharn the Betrayer. He's one heck of a guy.
  • From the fluff book Xenology, containing autopsies and analysis of various xeno species and artifacts: "The Metal Lives. The Metal Lives. The Metal Lives. The Metal Lives. The Metal Lives The Metal Lives The Metal Lives The Metal Lives..."
  • BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!
  • Dawn of War: "ATTAAAACK! BREAK THEM IN HALF! ATTAAAACK! BREAK THEM IN HALF! SPLIT THEM OPEN!" Servants of Khorne are not known for their subtlety.
  • Transience of flesh; purity of form...Transience of flesh; purity of form...Transience of flesh; purity of form... (from a certain mutation cult)
  • Chaos does this a lot (it's all in the name, really). Other examples include "SANITY IS FOR THE WEAK!" and "IT IS AS THOUGH A THOUSAND MOUTHS CRY OUT IN PAIN!" and the above-mentioned BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!. And yes, upper case and exclamation marks are necessary in all examples.

Theatre, Theatre, Theatre, Theatre

• A weird one in Chicago; the "Cell Block Tango" has a madness mantra that consists of multiple words sung by six different women.
  "Pop", "Six", "Squish", "Uh-uh", "Cicero", "Lipschitz"...
• The Consul: In Magda's second-act aria of desperation, she takes great piles of documents from the Secretary's desk and hurls them around the room, shouting repeatedly: "Papers, papers, papers!"
• In LeRoi Jones' play Dutchman, the lead woman, Lula, starts repeating the conclusion of a story told by her co-star: "And that's how the blues were born" several times before completely flipping out, stabbing him, and pushing him out of the subway car they're both riding.
• At the conclusion of Ghosts, Oswald, who was infected with syphilis in utero by his philandering father, succumbs to dementia and stares blankly into space repeating the words "The sun."
• In Heathers, "Our love is God" is chanted by J.D. after he kills Kurt and Ram with Veronica, who hadn't realized the bullets she was using were real until it was too late. She repeats it with him to hide the fact that she's absolutely terrified.
• Jesus Christ Superstar: When Judas realizes that God used him to betray his closest friend Jesus, he runs off to go kill himself while screaming "YOU HAVE MURDERED ME!", which just devolves into repeated screams and sobs of "MURDERED ME! MURDERED ME! MURDERED ME!"
• Macbeth: Lady Macbeth chants "Out out, damned spot". It is stated that she has been doing this for some days.
• Marat/Sade: An early point in the musical where the inmates clamor for "Freedom" turns the call into a repeated mantra, which forces Coulmier to intervene and remind the Marquis De Sade to keep his production under control.
• The Merchant of Venice: Shylock's speech pattern is very repetitive, even at the beginning. This becomes nightmarish later when he becomes intent on killing Antonio:
  I'll have my bond, speak not against my bond:
  I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond...
  I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak:
  I'll have my bond, and therefore speak no more...
  I'll have no speaking: I will have my bond.
• Next to Normal has the song It's Gonna Be Good (reprise), where Diana repeats the phrase "what was his name?" in wanting to know her dead son's name, and Dan repeating "gonna be good" to convince Diana going back for therapy sessions.
• Oofty Goofty, a sideshow performer from the 19th century American West, started out his career as a costumed "Wild Man of Borneo" act, in which he constantly babbled the nonsense-phrase that became his stage name.
• In Shrek: The Musical, Fiona's lament in "I Know It's Today":
  Fiona: And the waiting, the waiting, the waiting, the waiting,
  The waiiiiitiiiiiing!
• Sweeney Todd has an example which actually takes place in an asylum, with the inmates singing "Sweeney" over and over again, until Johanna kills the owner of the asylum, when they screech and stop the chanting.

Webcomics, Webcomics, Webcomics, Webcomics

• 8-Bit Theater's Red Mage: Don't be crazy, don't be crazy, don't be crazy... And he obviously can't be crazy, because if he was crazy, he wouldn't worry about being crazy all the time... right?
• The inmates at Islington Asylum for the Criminally Insane in Autumn Bay are heard chanting "They don't remember...never remember."
• Awful Hospital: The doctors' oath; CURE, CONTAIN, OR ERASE.
• After an encounter with the demonic IT Guy from Bloody Urban, Murray is left with one word on his mind.
  "TROJAN. TROJAN. TROJAN."
• The Croaking: After his Sanity Slippage, Del murmurs "sickening, sickening, sickening" to himself whenever he sees Scra or anything that reminds him of Scra.
• In Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, impersonator incubi must not fear, in a reference to Dune 's Survival Mantra.
• In Doctor Who Regenerated, Daisy has "I'm in my box, and I'm safe."
• In Dominic Deegan, we have this:
  Celesto: I am Celesto Morgan. I am me. I am I. Repeat the mantra. Reassert and reflect upon your self. Establish your identity. Protect the sanctity of your being and make your mind a fortress.
• Poor Murai has a few in Digger:
  • Black Mother, pass us by, turn your face away from us, we are not here, we are not here, pass us by...
  • The Good Man is dead. Who killed the Good Man?
• Dungeons & Doodles: Tales from the Tables: In episode 19, Angela the Paladin keeps repeating to herself "Must uphold my oath..." to resist the temptation of strangling Eriawynn for wasting all of their money on a worthless certificate for a magic item they can't ever get. Redwen, on the other hand, has no such restraints.
• Girl Genius: Lars often suffers panic attacks: "HORSE! HORSEHORSEHORSEHORSE!", or later "HORSE! PIE! HORSE! PIE!"
• Hiimdaisy: From "Let's Destroy the Shagohod!":
  US President: Congratulations, Mr. Big Boss, you sure showed that traitorous whore a thing or two!
  Big Boss/Naked Snake: (thinking) Do Not Punch. Do Not Punch. Do Not Punch. Do Not Punch.
• Homestuck:
  • PLEASE TELL ME THAT'S JUST GRUB SAUCE. PLEASE JUST BE GRUB SAUCE PLEASE JUST BE GRUB SAUCE PLEASE JUST BE GRUB SAUCE. HAHA, OK, MAKE-BELIEVE TIME IS OVER! OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD
  • honk. HONK. honk. :o)
  • DO IT YO8 COW8RD KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8 KILL M8
• Irregular Webcomic!: "I will not link to TV Tropes. I will not link to TV Tropes."
• DEUS VULT DEUS VULT DEUS VULT DEUS VULT DEUS VULT DEUS VULT DEUS VULT DEUS VULT DEUS VULT DEUS VULT^Explanation This is the warcry of The Knights Templar which means "God wills it" in latin.
• BlackLillian's final round entry of the "Law of Talos" tournament... specifically, this page. That blank stare and repeated phrase during the monologue...
• Parodied in Manly Guys Doing Manly Things, when Jonesy keeps typing "all work and no play makes Jones a dull girl" in a parody of The Shining. Jared fears it's this but Commander Badass says no, she's just trying to boost her NaNoWriMo count.
• Nan Quest has one (potentially a few) of these in the journal found in the chapel area.
  • "for the love of god"
  • "into the fire into the fire into the fire into the fire"
• Questionable Content: "I must not laugh. Laughter is the Marten-killer. Laughter is the little death that brings total obliteration by an enraged Faye." A Dune reference, for those who didn't get it.
• Ruby Quest gives a written version: NEVER CATCH ME NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER
• In Sluggy Freelance, when Oasis (who qualifies as Ax-Crazy even in the best of mental states) finds out about what Zoe looks like, she goes into a frightening Yandere persona that repeats her Pretentious Latin Motto, "Nosce te ipsum". The irony of her situation ("Know thyself" is the translation, when Oasis has no idea what she is) finally halts her rampage when she realizes it.
• VG Cats: "Hey, listen!"
• In Weak Hero, Gray tells Eugene that he doesn't do rooftops. When Wolf forcibly brings him to one, Gray falls into a Tranquil Fury and starts beating Wolf relentlessly, repeating to himself "I told you. I told you. I told you."

Web Original, Web Original, Web Original, Web Original

• 17776 begins as a seemingly ordinary article about the future of American football that ends up devolving into repetitions of "Something has gone terribly wrong."
• In The Adventure Zone, as the Red Robes lose their memories: "I'm Davenport! I'm Davenport! I'm Davenport! I'm Davenport! Davenport!"
• The Angry Joe Show: "Godzilla is approaching the generator... The generator is losing power... Godzilla is approaching the generator... The generator is losing power..."
  • During his playthrough of the terrible Rambo: The Video Game rail-shooter he's reduced to chanting "HE'S A MAN, NOT A GOD!" after hearing it one too many times.
• Atop the Fourth Wall: Linkara's "Anti-life justifies my hate! Anti-life justifies my ha-ha-hate..."
  • And one that is a might bit creepier from the Entity Saga, taking up a full page in the book Linkara finds: "Iamnevershould."
• FUCK YOU BEN I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU
• Criticized: "It's just a little paperclip..."
• According to those who found him, Molly from Critical Role crawled out of his own grave, nearly catatonic, covered in dirt, and repeating the word "empty", over and over again. Gustav misheard him, and thought he was saying "M.T.", which is how he ended up with the name Mollymauk Tealeaf. When Molly is revived in the finale, he panics and tries to make a run for it while babbling "empty, empty, empty" to himself, and "empty" ends up being one of the very few words he's able to say before Jester casts Greater Restoration on him.
• The titular character of Daisy Brown tends to use these in moments of stress. In friendship bracelet she repeats, "Nothing; it's fine. Nothing; it's fine," when Alan starts scratching at the door, and in im outside, it's, "I'm not scared of cars anymore."
• Dark Viper AU has had a couple of these moments during his Pacifist run of GTA 5(he is unable to kill anyone unless he has too and if he does he uses melee if possible). During part 13 and the mission Blitz Play, there were moments where the twitch overlay repeatedly said the phrase "All pacifist% and no speedrunning makes DarkViperAU a dull boy."
  • Since he often fails in these missions due to how much harder doing it becomes without killing anyone, a lot of the dialogue can become this and probably the most well known showcase of this was during part 18 in the mission Derailed with Trevor's "Merryweather's fleet's here bro!"
• The Dionaea House: The door is open.
• Each of the last three episodes of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared features one.
  • The Teacher from episode 4 tries to demonstrate the variety of options on the internet, but there are only three things to do. It doesn't stop him from repeating the three options ad nauseum to the point that it ends up corrupting the digital world.
  Yellow Guy: Wow, look! [x]!
  Duck Guy: Digital style!
  Colin: Do a digital dancing! Hey, this is fun!
  • The Healthy Band's song descends into disharmony when they start to sing "You shouldn't eat food from a stranger's plate" with increasing intensity. It coincides with the serving of Duck Guy by to Yellow Guy.
  • As the Yellow Guy drowns in oil in the sixth episode, all the Lamp can do is happily cry "Looks like somebody's having a bad dream! A bad dream! Bad dream! Bad dream! Bad dream..."
• Episode 40 of Dragon Ball Z Abridged shows Popo in a bonafide Out-of-Character Moment, staring down at the floor of Kami's lookout and repeatedly going, "All these squares make a circle...all these squares make a circle..." When Piccolo asked about his unusual behavior, Kami tells him that Mr. Popo had just gotten down dropping a gallon of LSD. "A literal gallon. Out of a milk jug."
  • In Episode 53, the episode begins with Goku and Gohan training, but when Goku sees some of the entrance wrecked, he starts panicky muttering "Don't break Popo's stuff... don't break Popo's stuff..."
  Gohan: Uh, dad? What are you muttering?
  Goku: SIXTH RULE OF POPO'S TRAINING!
• Fluffy Pony: If a fluffy is put through too much torture or abuse, they have a chance of entering a state of complete despair, at which point they will repeat 'wan die' (want to die) over and over again.
• gen:LOCK: The Nemesis has "Kill the copy". It's the real Julian Chase, or at least his original mind uploaded into gen:LOCK. The Chase the audience knows is the "copy" Dr. Weller made.
  • Earlier, Cammie, suffering PTSD from her terrifying first field mission, and eventually digitally modifying her own personality to be more aggressive, says little during this time period other than "Not gonna get me again."
• Glove and Boots: "You gotta. You gotta do it. You gotta. You gotta do it..."
• Homestar Runner: I'm a long pants man, long pants long pants!
• In one video from Jacksfilms, he has, "THEY'RE ALL PEWDIEPIE, THEY'RE ALL PEWDIEPIE..."
  • Also, "how many hours does it take to edit a video?"
• In the volume 1 of The Mandela Catalogue, the police advice video ends with one of these: Nothing is worth the risk, Nothing is worth the risk, Nothing is worth the risk...
• The Music Video Show: "I am the Paper Bag Princess. I am the Paper Bag Princess." This only happened a couple of times.
• The Nostalgia Chick: Everybody's got AIDS and shit!
• The Nostalgia Critic says NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NO!!
• Protectors of the Plot Continuum: "I must not shirk the Duty. I must not shirk the Duty ..."
  • Agent Len's infamous "Mr. Rogers! Mr. Rogers!", shouted while he tore through the corridors of HQ, wielding a flamethrower.
• The Apathy in RWBY are a type of Grimm that cause crippling apathy to people near them, to the point that they will just lie down and wait to die. Those who fall under their influence with repeatedly comment how tired they feel as the effects worsen.
• IM HAVING FUN IM HAVING FUN IM HAVING FUN
• Fuck The Pain Away Fuck The Pain Away Fuck The Pain Away Fuck The Pain Away FUCK THE PAIN AWAY FUCK THE PAIN AWAY FUCK THE PAIN AWAY. Harry's a little...off.
• One hentai series online has a demon-domination-fetish-incarnate called Talon Talonov, who enslaves his thralls by either having one of his slaves bugger them up the ass while chanting "Talon Dominus, Talon Dominus" or by doing this himself with his four-foot-long flexible penis-tail. Yeah, it's that kind of series, sorry.
• In Episode 7 of Sex House, Tara gets one while under the influence of the "cloudy drink": "Cloudy drink kills frog!" Creepily enough, she's even seen writing and rewriting it obsessively on a piece of paper as she struggles to remember to tell her fellow housemates.
• Occasionally crops up in The Slender Man Mythos, an example being in the blog Vivere Disce: "We gave him a name. We gave him a name."
• Everything is fine...
• Courtesy English Youtuber SovietWomble, we hereby present How To Play Horror Games, the Womble Method: 1) Repeat the phrase "It's fine, it's fine, itsfine, itsfine, itsfineitsfineitsfine..." to yourself as it becomes increasingly clear that it's not fine. 2) Do the same with the phrase "I'm not freaking out, I'm not freaking out, I'M NOT FREAKING OUT!" to no greater success. 3) Have between four and seven simultaneous nervous breakdowns.
• In TANIS, the Cult of Tanis has such a mantra as part of its rituals. It also reappears over the course of an Apocalyptic Log detailing a trip into the area where Tanis is suspected to be:
  There are wondrous things. There are magical things. There are dangerous things. We get what we deserve.
• TMK: SPREAD. SPREAD. SPREAD.
• In the Unus Annus video "Mark Knows What Ethan Did...", Mark kept repeating "The grip was loose...". For context, he and Ethan had done a grip strength test earlier in the year, where the loser would have to be the winner's butler for a day. Ethan supposedly won, but as revealed in this video, he cheated - his grip was loose.
• The Weather: After going on a dark, nihilistic rant about life and death, Robby began to repeatedly ask:
  Where is the boat? Where is the boat? Where is the boat?

Real Life, Real Life, Real Life, Real Life

• CBS anchorman Dan Rather was attacked on Park Avenue in Manhattan by William Tager and an unknown accomplice. Tager kept repeating (according to Rather's own account) "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" Through Memetic Mutation and a certain R.E.M. song, everyone remembers the phrase as "What's the frequency, Kenneth?"
  • When Rather resigned, the incident resulted in a parody news story reporting the frequency.
  • According to America: The Book 104.3 is The Frequency (source: Kenneth).
  • There is a novel by Spider Robinson that has this as its punchline. It actually makes a certain sense in context. It's "Lady Slings the Booze" Kenneth is a Rather lookalike; the frequency will trigger nuclear devices hidden in major cities, and the two assailants are Soviet agents.
  • For clarification, the attacker was later discovered to be a paranoid schizophrenic, who thought the media were beaming signals into his mind and that if he found the right frequency he could block the signals.
  • Just a few weeks before this incident, the second episode of Michael Mann's short-lived TV series 'Crime Story' featured a paranoid schizophrenic serial killer who believed that he could send signals to aliens in outer space by, among other things, wearing TV antenna wire. The first scene of this episode shows the killer walking into a hair salon and asking "What's the frequency?" before killing the patrons
• Discussed in this Dane Cook routine on crying:
  Dane: ...and then as you're crying, what happens is that it starts to feel good... and what you do is that you latch on to one phrase that you just repeat over and over again; just something that means something to you, like, "I DID MY BEST! I DID MY BEST!"
• Lewis Black had one of these inflicted on him due to overhearing an Orphaned Punchline - "If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college."
• "Herzensschatzi komm komm, komm, komm, komm, komm, komm... Emma Hauck was institutionalized at the age of 30 due to dementia praecox (schizophrenia). All that remains of her life are three letters she wrote to her absent husband Mark, begging him "Sweetheart come", which then devolved into the single-word "come". The words are so crowded on paper that they looked like random scribblings.
• Sirhan Sirhan, Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, filled his diary with these. "RFK must die. RFK must be killed. Robert F. Kennedy must be assassinated."
• Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, after learning about her beloved husband Louis's death: "He is dead. He is dead. It is to me as if the whole world died today! He's dead, he's dead, he's dead..."
• From the documentary Bellevue: Inside Out:
  • "I hate this place. Nothing works here. The medications don't work. I've been here for seven years."
• Deliberately invoked in the Rosenhan Experiment from the early 1970s. Psychologist David Rosenhan wanted to reveal the poor conditions of some mental hospitals and developed a test: eight perfectly healthy individuals (including himself) from different backgrounds went to psychiatrists and explained that they had been hearing voices repeat the words "Empty," "Hollow," and "Thud" non-stop in their heads (the words were apparently chosen because they sounded vaguely nihilistic). All eight were admitted to mental hospitals, where they proceeded to act normal and say that the voices had stopped—and all eight ended up having to admit to having mental disorders and take antipsychotic drugs.
• A computer science researcher was getting very, very sick of being repeatedly spammed by a bogus computer science journal, so he submitted a 10-page paper (originally authored by an antispam group who had been similarly spammed) consisting entirely of the phrase "Get me off your fucking mailing list," complete with a flowchart and scatter plot illustrating the same phrase.
  • Aforementioned spammy bogus journal then proceeded to state that the ten pages of Madness Mantra were "excellent" and they'd publish it for $150...despite the fact that the paper was nothing but a deliberately copied and somewhat profane Madness Mantra.
• At the peak of Zhang Xianzhong's madness, after ordering his troops to slaughter one another before his throne of gore, he had his few remaining loyal servants carve a Stele to explain his actions to the Ming who were on their way to vanquish him. Heaven Brings Forth Numerous Things to Nurture Man. Man Has Nothing Good With Which To Recompense Heaven. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. It's even said that people were so terrified of the sheer malice contained in the "Seven Kill Stele" that they feared touching it, let alone destroying it, and it was only blasted to pieces in 1970. Though, bear in mind, this whole story may be apocryphal to an unknown degree.
• Bradley Curtis, flight engineer of Saudia Flight 163, muttered "No problem, no problem, no problem" to himself during the emergency, likely in an attempt to calm himself. This may have had the unintended effect of convincing his fellow flight crew that the fire aboard the aircraft wasn't as bad as it actually was.

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Must trope. Must trope. Must trope. Must trope. Must trope. Must trope.

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