Dripping Disturbance

The faucets are dripping in old New York city
The faucets are dripping and oh, what a pity,
The reservoir's drying because it's supplying

The faucets that drip in New York.

—Malvina Edwards, "The Faucets Are Dripping"

So, the night comes rolling in and it's time to go to bed. You brush your teeth, put on your pajamas, and get all snuggled nice and warm in bed. You then close your eyes and begin to drop off to sleep...

Drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip-drip!

You suddenly hear a loud dripping sound from the bathroom and go to see what it is. You see that the faucet is dripping because you apparently didn't turn it off all the way. Once you turn off the faucet, you go back to bed, but as you get back in the bed, the faucet starts dripping again, even when you turned it off! One of the things that can result in a Do It Yourself Plumbing Project.

This is a Comedy trope that can be Played for Laughs or Rule of Funny in any form of media. Expect to see it in Western Animation. Compare Fly Crazy for a situation similar in execution.

Examples of Dripping Disturbance include:

Anime and Manga

• At the beginning of the Bount arc in Bleach, Orihime has this before an impostor disguised as her brother shows up and kidnaps her (the rest of the cast also notice it when they search her empty house).

Film

• In the film musical Chicago, a dripping tap is one of the noises Roxie hears as she tries to get to sleep on her first night in prison. It turns into part of the rhythmic accompaniment to "Cell Block Tango".

Newspaper Comics

• A few Garfield strips had Garfield face this dilemma. First he turns the shower head upside down to stop the dripping, only for it to keep dripping even upside-down ^{[dead link]} , he notices it as one of the sounds commonly heard at night ^{[dead link]} and he stops the faucet from dripping by using Jon's toe ^{[dead link]} .

Literature

• Showed up in Exile's Valor. Selenay is already having trouble sleeping due to grief over her father's death, and the drip in the royal suite's bathing room isn't helping matters.

Live-Action TV

• This is one of the ordinary noises played with in the Twilight Zone episode "Sounds and Silences".
• An episode of House MD has a patient who has been incapable of falling asleep for several days. When we first see her she is in bed, eyes wide open, as the sound of the faucet seems thundering to her.
• Happens to Karl in Mot i Brøstet. Being Karl, he eventually decides to solve it by dressing up like Rambo and taking a chainsaw to the faucet.
• In an early episode of Sesame Street, Bert can't sleep because a dripping faucet is keeping him awake, so he sends Ernie to take care of it. But instead of turning off the faucet, Ernie turns on a radio that plays loud music to drown out the dripping.
  • Soon after, Ernie turns on the vacuum cleaner to drown out the radio.

Music

• The novelty song "Bloop, Bleep," written by Frank Loesser.
• "10.15 Saturday Night" by The Cure. I'm sitting/In the kitchen sink/And the tap drips/Drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip...

Western Animation

• The Tex Avery short "Doggone Tired" had this done deliberately by the rabbit, as one of the tactics to keep the hunting dog awake at night.
• As in the Garfield examples above, the Garfield and Friends episode "Peace And Quiet" also had Garfield annoyed by a dripping faucet while trying to get some rest.
• One Donald Duck cartoon takes this trope Up to Eleven
• The animated short based on "The Tell-Tale Heart" uses a dripping tap as the sound the murderer thinks is his victim's accusing heartbeat.