"La la la, I can't hear you!"
— Just about everybody using this trope, ever
This is when a character gets on another character's nerves, usually by talking nonstop, and the other character covers his ears and starts singing so he can't hear him.
The person doing this will almost always either start singing "The Star-Spangled Banner", or else just go "La-la-la". This is sometimes done (in-universe or in real life) to avoid hearing a Spoiler, something squicky, or anything else that a character feels he or she would be better off not hearing. Usually goes hand-in-hand with Too Much Information.
Compare I Can't Hear You (outside noises disrupt a conversation), Headphones Equal Isolation (headphones block outside sounds), and Fake Static (pretending that a remote communications channel is failing).
Examples:
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Advertising
- Done in an Australian ad for insurance, aka CUA, where many people are blocking their ears and singing 'LA LA LA LA' all for just insurance rates.
Anime & Manga
- Maki covers her ears in Chapter 216 of Kaguya-sama: Love is War while trying to block out Kashiwagi talking about the first time she had sex with her boyfriend (since she has had a longtime crush on said boyfriend).
Comedy
- Jeff Foxworthy whenever someone brings up "female problems": "Female problems? La la la la la la la la..."
- "The Vancome Lady" from MADtv (1995) was known for this among other catch phrases. "Chyaa, ya'know what? Uh-Uh" "La-La.Lalala"
Comic Strips
- Dilbert: H.R. Director Catbert covers his ears and sings "Pinball Wizard" whenever an employee tries to give him input.
- Calvin and Hobbes: In the 1987/09/21 strip, Calvin covers his ears and sings "The Star-Spangled Banner" when Hobbes tells him he'll be short all his life and his parents are planning to sell him to a sideshow.
- Taken to the extreme by Paul in a Buckles Sunday strip from summer 2007, when he refuses to give his food to Buckles, who keeps begging for it by making whining voices. This was in the last two panels.
Fan Works
- Happy Endings: When Willow and Giles try to get Buffy to talk about who Seo's father must be in chapter 9, Buffy tries to ignore them by shouting, "Lalalalalala, not listening!", and covering her ears.
- Done in the Teen Titans fic A night out:
Garfield just laughed at that. "That's what I love about you two. You're exact opposite but have such a strong friendship."
"Friend Raven is the best girl friend that I have. She even helps me during the week of blood." Said Kory with a bit too much enthusiasm.
"Too much info Kor. La la la la." Said Garfield with his hands on his ears. - In Bard of Morning's Hope Kingsley covers his ears and hums when Harry mentions the (presumably illegal) "special something" he added to the wards on Grimmauld Place.
- In Losing Control Harry's girlfriend makes an innuendo about his "wand" and her mother covers her ears and chants "LALALALALA."
- In Death Note: The Abridged Series (kpts4tv), Matsuda does this when L proves that Light is Kira.
Matsuda: La la la la la I'm not listening!
- In Final Fantasy VII Machinabridged, Tifa was telling Cloud very bluntly and explicitly how she was going to get top secret information out of Don Corneo. Aerith immediately walks away, covering her ears and singing, "LALALALALA! MOOGLES MOOGLES MOOGLES MOOGLLLESSSS!!"
- In Nails and Tails Harry asks about Seamus' definition of "mate" in an attempt to clarify their relationship and Dean covers his ears and goes "Lalalala."
- Dark Lord Hadrian:
Daphne: This is the part where someone tells a joke to lighten the mood.
Hadrian: I know a good one. A phoenix, dementor and nundu walk into a bar.
Draco: Not listening, not paying attention at all lalalalalala! - Not the Only Redhead:
Hannah: Where were you! Do you have any idea what time it is? The sun is rising!
Harry: Hear that, dear?
Susan: Sure did. Means we didn't miss class. Or breakfast. Merlin's beard! But I'm hungry! We did work up quite an appetite.
Hannah: LALALALALA! DON'T WANNA KNOW! - Third Time's the Charm:
Hermione: Fine. Henceforth, I shall refer to your father as 'The Man Who Shagged Me Rotten So You Could Be Born And With Whom I Copulate Every Single Night'. Happy?
Christopher: La la la la. I'm not listening! - In Back in Black Sam covers his ears and hums when Dean mentions what few details he can remember of a six-man orgy he participated in while drunk on Asgardian mead.
- Doing Things Differently:
Sebastian: Honestly, you kids. You go at it like rabbits, but when adults do the same, you can't control your retching. Sirius has needs, just like-
Harry: LALALALALALA! - Thunder Child:
Eli: It's the Great Hall Grim one, not the hall of greatness.
Sif: Ignore it Prince Eli, he is still in a somewhat primitive stage for words.
Hogun: You weren't calling it primitive last night.
Eli: La la la la too much information la la la la la... - In Undertale Against Humanity, this is Asriel's response to Asgore talking about Toriel's vagina.
- In The Potters Ruin Book Club Harry rents a subpar romance novel and teasingly suggests that he and Ginny could re-enact page 206.
Harry: Samuel approached Geraldine with his umbrella-
Ginny: You are going nowhere near me with an umbrella.
Harry: He placed it on the floor in front of her, and-
Ginny: La, la, la. I'm not listening. - A Chance of Family:
Remus: No Sirius, a physical relationship, I think they are having a physical relationship as well.
Sirius: Like...wrestling?
Remus: No Sirius, not unless that is a euphemism for sex.
Sirius: LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA, don't use that word in context of Harry! - In Saying No Hermione gets the idea to shave Dumbledore bald. Kreacher is happy to oblige, then reveals he removed all of Dumbledore's hair from everywhere on his body. Squicked, Hermione covers her ears and hums loudly to drown out Kreacher describing the process in detail.
- Bulma pulls this in Legend of the Monkey God after Goku curiously asked what Yamcha (who had seen Bulma nude the previous night) meant when he said "Clean-shaven".
- Curiosity Maintenance Crew: In "Filler Fillies":
"Fluttershy said she's coming! Which means all her stal—I mean, admirers will also be there. That's five stallions and three mares already!"
"...I don't even want to know how you know that."
The party pony grinned mischievously. "You're up to three stallions and four mares."
"LALALA THIS IS ME PRACTICING MY SINGING FOR SCIENCE LALALA LA LAAAAAA!" - Us and Them: When Sephiroth brings up what Aeris' parents were doing when her sister was conceived, Aeris buried her head under some blankets going, "LALALALA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
- In Raising Harry: Bonus Features Harry tells a kissing Remus and Sirius to Get a Room!, adding that all he wants is to go to bed. When Remus states that that's what they're doing as well, Harry covers his ears and loudly sings "The Sound of Silence".
- Best Laid Plans Never Work Out Well:
Hermione: Well, I sort of did this thing to Harry's earlobe—
Ron: I can't hear you! La, la, la, la! - Total Drama All-Stars Rewrite:
Mike: (Slyly) Oh? Sure this isn’t about you kissing Dawn today?
Noah: Lalalalala I CAN’T HEAR YOU, I’M IGNORING YOU!! LALALALALALA! - In The Day The Dursleys Came To Hogwarts Hermione covers her ears and hums after Myrtle states that she's been invisibly watching Draco shower and that he tends to take long showers.
- Spooky: Tombstones covers his ears and starts going "la la la laaaah!" when Komo attempts to tell him that using an expensive Paint Brush on himself isn't remotely the same thing as Tombstones making him a ghost for free.
- In Pokémpanions, Magikarp does this when Machoke threatens him with Grotle and Prinlup spoilers.
- In Ashes in the Wake of War Harry gives Hermione one of Snape's "You're an idiot" looks.
Draco: That is disturbing. You have been spending way too much time with my godfather, and please never, ever mention what you are doing during all that time you are together either.
Harry: Unfortunately, it's all very child-friendly and non-scandalous at all right now. I wouldn't mind too much that changing though...
Ron: La, la, la! - In Lasting Love Harry and Hermione's youngest child walks in on them kissing and protests.
Harry: You are not scarred for life. Besides, it’s not as if you caught us naked or anything. Get Charlus to tell you about the time he walked in on us in the bath.
Hermione: Remember when Rose caught you kissing my neck and thought you’d become a vampire?
Harry: Of course! And how about when Erik barged into the bedroom to tattle on Charlus about something, and we were not only naked, you were about to...
Amaranth: EWW! Nope, nope, nope! La la la, I can’t hear you! - In Death Among Us Aahna casts a stinging hex at Sirius' jaw.
Sirius: Hey! That's mean!
Aahna: Really? Because if I remember correctly, Amelia said that you—
Sirius: LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU.
Films — Animation
- In Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, Jonah has a dream where God asks him where he's running to. Jonah tries his hardest to ignore God by the excuse that he can't hear him, including singing loudly.
- Elsa was meant to do this during the unused Frozen (2013) song "Life's Too Short". It starts out as a sweet song about how the sisters need each other but takes a quick Mood Whiplash to the point where Anna and Elsa are basically singing insults at each other.
Both: Life's too short...
Anna: To let you treat the people out there just as coldly as you always treated me.
Elsa: *hands on head* LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA! - The Emperor's New Groove: This happens with Kuzco and Pacha after Pacha warns Kuzco not to venture into the forest. Kuzco responds "La la la la I'm not listening!" and keeps it up a bit as he starts walking on the path into the forest before "la la"-ing again and shouting back "Still not listening!"
- In The Rescuers Down Under, Frank the frill-necked lizard covers his ears and sings "Waltzing Matilda" when Krebbs the koala starts describing what the poacher is going to do to them. Then Frank uncovers his ears to see if Krebs is done, only for Krebbs to just now finish his sentence, to Frank's horror.
Krebbs: Frank will go as...
Frank: I can't hear you! LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA! WALTZING MATILDA! (slightly uncovers his ears to see if Krebbs is done)
Krebbs: ...a purse.
Frank: AAAGH! NO-HO-HO-HO-HO!
Krebs: A lovely ladies' purse!
Frank: (crying) I don't wanna go as a purse! - The Swan Princess II: Queen Uberta's constant babbling soon becomes too much for her captor, the evil wizard Clavius to handle. She doesn't even stop when Clavius turns her into a bunch of different animals.
Clavius: "YI YI YI YI YI YI - I don't hear you! YI YI YI YI YI YI - I'm not listening! YI YI YI YI YI YI YI YI YI YI...
Uberta: I am talking to you! - In Up, Carl Fredricksen desperately tries to ignore Russel figuring out how to go potty in the wilderness by putting his hands over his ears and singing.
Russel [offscreen]: Mr. Fredricksen! Am I supposed to dig the hole before, or after?
Mr. Fredricksen: Uuugh! None of my concern!Russel [offscreen]: Oh, it's before!Mr. Fredricksen: BAH! [puts his hands over his ears] Lalalalalala—
Films — Live-Action
- Done in Dr. Jekyll & Ms. Hyde during one of Richard Jacks's attempts to explain his plight to Sarah.
- Liar Liar - Fletcher (Jim Carrey) knows he is cursed to speak the truth when answering a question, but not if he can't hear the question!
- Miracle Max in The Princess Bride, when his wife is provoking him by reminding him of his treatment by Prince Humperdinck.
- Beverly Hills Cop: After messing up the cigarette sting operation Axel Foley is bothered by fellow cop Jeffrey. Foley uses the "la la la" version while trying to get Jeffrey to stop.
Foley: I am not listening to you.
Jeffrey: Great. Real mature.
Foley: I am not listening to Jeffrey, but he's still talking.
Jeffrey: I hate when you do that. - In Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, when Ron and Amy get into an argument, Ron plugs up his ears and hums "Stars and Stripes Forever". She gets back at him later by handing him a fistful of mud while softly humming the same tune.
- Veronica does this in Heathers after J.D. tries to tell her that she wanted to kill Kurt and Ram, singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
- In Blast from the Past, Calvin has his son Adam clap his hands over his ears and hum loudly to himself so he won't hear Calvin's horrifying description of the strange world of mutants and perversion outside the fallout shelter he's just seen for the first time. Adam is a bit exasperated, as he's a 30-year-old man, but he dutifully complies.
- In Dr. Dolittle, Dr. Dolittle is annoyed by the guinea pig Rodney's constant chatter during a car trip, telling him that if he says one more word, then he's going to leave him outside with the squirrels and see how much talking he does then. Rodney tells him that's fine, that he'll sing, and starts singing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," loud and off-key. Dr. Dolittle responds in turn by blasting the song "Rock Steady" on the car radio and singing along with it.
- In Rat Race, Randy’s daughter has to poop during a car ride and he refuses to pull over. As a solution, he has her put her butt out the window and poop right out it. During this, he turns on the radio to its highest volume so nobody hears the kids being dropped off at the pool.
- Used in Sister Act not out of annoyance but because the character doing it is the laywer for the Big Bad who knows damn well that his client is planning unlawful acts.
- In War of the Worlds (2005), Ray enforces this by telling his daughter to sing to herself with her hands over her ears so she won't hear the sounds of his fight with Ogilvy.
Literature
- A Dave Barry book mentions the trial of a Corrupt Corporate Executive whose defense was apparently based on the fact that he didn't know there was any embezzling going on. So the obvious procedure is to stick your fingers in your ears and yell "Lalala I can't hear what you're saying!!!" during board meetings.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw: When Greg and Rowley are being driven to a roller skating rink to impress Holly Hills and Susan overhears the conversation:
Susan: Holly Hills? Holly Hills was the only fourth grader at school who wasn't potty trained.
Greg: LA LA LA...I CAN'T HEAR YOU! - Ender's Shadow: In one of the books, Peter tells Petra that she's arguing like a nine-year-old, and that she might as well put her fingers in her ears and say "La la la, I can't hear you." Of course, she promptly does.
- It's Not the End of the World: Variant in that it's not singing, but another kind of noise — Karen tries to block out one of her parents' arguments by covering her ears and screaming as loud as she can. Her father is finally forced to give her a slap to end the outburst.
- Junie B. Jones and That Meanie Jim's Birthday: When the kids all show their invitations to Jim's birthday party to Junie B., she closes her eyes and sings a loud song at them.
Junie B.: It is called, "I Can't Hear You, You're Not Even Botherin' Me." I sang it at the top of my lungs. "I CAAA-ANNN'T HEARRRR YOU! I CAAA-ANNN'T HEARRRR YOU! YOU'RE NOT E-VEN BOTHERIN' MEEEE!" Then I kept on singing and singing that thing until they went away. Also, they did the cuckoo sign at me.
- Keeper of the Lost Cities: In Neverseen, when Sophie shares the news that Silveny is pregnant, Keefe keeps begging for everyone to stop talking about alicorn mating and birthing, eventually covering his ears and leaving the room, singing, "LALALALALA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
- Septimus Heap: Merrin Meredith does this to drown out the irritating wail of a Swamp Wraith.
Live-Action TV
- In an episode of Happy Endings, Brad does this twice. First, when someone brings up Sex and the City, going "lalalala, I have it on DVR!" Then later, when Max mentions that Jane (Brad's wife) slept with nearly every guy she dated, he says "lalalala, let me know when you're done!"
- Henry Danger: In "Spoiler Alert" as the Spoiler shows up at the Galaxy Wars 9 premiere and prepares to spoil the movie, Charlotte and the audience plug their ears and go "LALALALALALA!" to ignore him.
- Played for Laughs in an episode of True Blood: One of the main characters is a psychic, and one of her friends wanted to keep a secret from her. When the psychic tunes into her friend's thoughts, all we hear is "LALALALALALALALALALALALALALA".
- Invoked in Bones. Booth has to talk to Brennan and Sweets about something grisly in front of his young son, so he has his son cover his ears and sing a song while the adults talk.
- Attempted by Kurt on Glee when his dad gives him The Talk. Fortunately his dad forces him to sit and listen to what winds up being a very sweet discussion about the importance of self respect and sex.
- A dead serious example in Farscape where John escapes Scorpius by singing "The Star Spangled Banner" to drown out the influence of Scorpius' neural clone.
- A very funny version in Stargate SG-1 when O'Neill tries to calm down a very angry Teal'c.
O'Neill: Look, T, I'm not gonna tell you how to raise your kid, but I've always found that sticking your fingers in your ears and humming loudly solves a whole slew of problems.note
- When G'Kar objects to the Centauri Emperor's upcoming visit to Babylon 5, Sheridan sarcastically tells him that if he can't deal with it he should put his fingers in his ears and hum really loud until it's over.
- In New Girl, Nick once tried to keep his girlfriend Caroline from breaking up with him by doing this. Needless to say, it did not work.
- Odd Squad: Otto does this when he's trying to avoid spoilers for the latest Schmumberman comic.
- In the LazyTown episode "Prince Stingy", when Stingy thinks Sportacus doesn't believe he's a prince.
Stingy: Even you betray me!Sportacus: Stingy, I would never—Stingy: La-la-la-la-la. I'm a prince, and you're just gonna have to deal with it.
- A squeamish patient of Dr. Pimple Popper tries to drown out the sounds of surgery on her ear by going "lalalala".
- In Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Cruise to Nowhere", one suspect, whose mentality stopped developing when he was ten, had detectives try to tell him that his "guardian" had set him up as a suspect in a murder case and was dirty engage in this to shut them out, taking them aback quite a bit.
- In one episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when Will starts to brag about hooking up with Carlton's ex-girlfriend, the latter blocks him out by covering his ears and singing "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head", which seemingly annoys him, only to continue shouting "Over and over!" once he stops singing.
- The Haunting Hour: Played for Horror in "The Girl in the Painting." When Becky finally enters the painting's world and meets the titular girl, they chat for a while, but then giant rumbling sounds start shaking the house. The girl pulls a rope to open the ceiling and says it's "feeding time." She then covers her ears and sings as loudly as she can to drown out Becky's screams as a giant monster reaches in and eats her alive.
Music
- The filk band The Flash Girls turned this trope into an actual song: "A Meaningful Dialogue"
- Naughty Boy and Sam Smith do the same with their song "La La La". This singing is done in the lyrics to cope with a failing relationship, and in the music video, based on a Bolivian fairy tale, has a boy does this to the devilnote in order to prevent his voice from influencing mankind.
- The backing vocals in the verses of The Beatles' "I'm Looking Through You" try to invoke this: Paul sings his grievances about the failing relationship, while underneath John and George's "pa pa pa pa pa pa" is the girl doing her best to make them fall into deaf ears.
- The conceit of Eminem's "Tone Deaf" is Slim Shady blocking out people by singing badly at them in Auto-Tune, ranging from his internet haters, to unskilled trend-riding mumble rappers, to anyone telling him to stop his crusade against them because he's embarrassing, to his manager asking for Christmas off.
- FLAVOR FOLEY's "Static" revolves around a formerly-popular cartoon mascot who, while singing brightly and cheerfully, is actually deeply sad and lonely, long left behind by an audience that grew up and left her for an adult world that terrifies and tires her out, apparently retreating into her show to avoid the pain of adulthood. She tries to get anyone who might still be tuned into her show to sing along to an increasingly frantic and repetitive chorus, trying to block out her pain and sorrow with joyful theme park/cartoon music and tunes from a better childhood:
This is how it should be, in studio seats
My ego wired in the CRT!
We can skip the sign-off, ol’ familiar scene!
Repeating, "This is how it should be!"
Podcast
- During the Well There's Your Problem episode on the Texas City Disaster, the crew begin talking about how the Disaster was caused by an insecure loading dock for Ammonium Nitrate. Alice jokes about how having a Muslim talk openly about explosives is probably going to get her visited by some intelligence agency or another and starts going "LA LA LA!" whenever Justin or Liam talk about where to find Ammonium Nitrate and how it can potentially go from fertilizer form to potentially becoming explosive.
Puppet Shows
- When Charlene and Robbie on Dinosaurs ask a teacher questions he doesn't want to answer he goes "La la la, can't hear you!"
Theater
- In Avenue Q, Rod tries using "la la la" when Nickie tries to discuss homosexuality with him in the "If You Were Gay" number.
- A particularly heartbreaking example occurs in Fun Home when Alison covers her ears and loudly sings the opening theme to her favorite show, in a desperate attempt to block out the sound of her parents having a profanity-laden argument in the next room. This segues into the song "Raincoat of Love," where she imagines her family being more like the happy, singing, close-knit families she sees on television.
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: Averted. In the epilogue when Ayane resorts to Crocodile Tears to make Ann carry her, Ann silently covers her ears waiting for Ayane to stop, then decides to go along with her request and does a Bridal Carry.
- Arena of Valor: If a player-controlled Aya encounters her mentor, Krixi, as an enemy on the battlefield, Aya will show her rebellious attitude by loudly singing with her megaphone.
Aya: I won't listen. I WON'T LISTEN! LA LA LA LA LA LAAA!!
- In Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout, Ryza does this when Klaudia suggests that she(and Lent and Tao) still considers Bos a friend. They do, but Ryza was very upset with him at the moment.
- In The Darkside Detective, shortly after the one and only time Agent McScream is any help at all, he decides being helpful is too tiring and does this if the protagonist tries to persuade him to keep being helpful.
- Diablo II: Blizzard warns you, they will not recover your Hardcore Character if it dies.
Blizzard will not, and does not have the capability to restore any deceased Hardcore characters. Don't even ask. La-la-la-la-la, we can't hear you...
- In Dicey Dungeons, the Inventor sings to herself as her fifth episode begins, rejecting Lady Luck's attempt to tempt her into making a deal.
- Nepgear does this to Neptune at the start of Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory to force the latter to get out and work on her own.
- In FreudBot, one of the cards Steve can play is "Lalalalalala."
- This happens twice in Kid Icarus: Uprising. Thanatos does it during one of Palutena’s quotes, causing Pit to wonder aloud whether Thanatos is Obfuscating Stupidity or just dim, and Viridi does it when Pit comments on how the Komaytos look like Metroids (because, according to Viridi, the two video game universes have nothing to do with each other).
- Monkey Island:
- In Tales of Monkey Island Episode 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, Guybrush does this when he is talking the Voodoo Lady. To avoid her very long talking, Guybrush plugs his ears and says, "La-la-la-la! Not listening!" This mutes the Voodoo Lady's voice before Guybrush unplugs his ears, just in time to hear the rest of the Voodoo Lady's talking.
- In The Curse of Monkey Island, if you don't want to hear LeChuck's explanation of past events, one of the options is for Guybrush to turn his back to him, cover his ears and shout "Lalala, I can't hear you, lalalala".
- In Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, a desert biker in Vukovar Canyon on planet Barlow uses this trope to rebuff Ratchet after the former intimidated him; he is only willing to listen to Clank.
Biker: Oh gosh. [sniffle] You didn't have to yell. Why did he have to yell?
Ratchet: Uh... Hey, man-
Biker: I can't hear you, la-la-la-la! Only the little guy. - Isabeau does this in Shin Megami Tensei IV after the Black Samurai tells her spoilers for the manga she's reading.
- In The Simpsons: Tapped Out, Lisa does this in "Rod And Todd Prelude" when Bart mentions he wants to cherry bomb four toilets at once at Sir Putt-A-Lot's.
Lisa: La, la, la, can't hear you! Not an accessory!
- The Sims:
- In The Sims 2, if two sims have a bad conversation, one of them might cover his or her ears and go "La La La La!".
- In The Sims 3, a sim may do this when refusing an opportunity by phone call.
Web Animation
- At the end of the The Amazing Digital Circus / Murder Drones merch trailer "Uzi & Pomni Are Forced To Run The Marketing Department", Uzi and Pomni get into an Argument of Contradictions that consists of yelling, "Shut up!" "You shut up!" "No, you shut up!" repeatedly at each other. Pomni starts going, "La la la la la! I can't hear anything you're saying!" while Uzi says she's done with the argument and calling her lawyer, followed by the sound of an opening and slamming door.
- Elements of Cringe: Used by Celestia to drown out an explanation of what the titular artifacts could be, due to her belief that nothing so stupid could exist. This clip would later be included in the Title Montage at the beginning of PONIES The Anthology 6, partially as a nod to Piemations working on both.
- A How It Should Have Ended spoof of Captain America: Civil War has Bucky do this when Zemo attempts to brainwash him, preventing Bucky's transformation back into the Winter Soldier.
- In If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, Magnus does that when the Emperor starts to talk about his... troublesome sex life. Kitten, on the other hand, puts a bucket on his helmet. It doesn't help much either of them.
Web Comics
- A running gag in early Arthur, King of Time and Space was Arthur doing this every time Merlin started predicting things he didn't want to hear.
- Carry On: Kathy hints at having a thing for steam engines. Sandy doesn't want to know about it.
- In Freefall, one of the robots uses this as a "security measure" against sticky notes detailing Gardener in the Dark, an update which will effectively lobotomize every robot on the planet, and which is forced on any robot which searches the name on the network, because all they know about it is that it's so dangerous it caused one of them to open his power breaker to avoid its effects. [1]
- Grrl Power: After Dabbler starts telling Sydney more than she really wants to hear about her night with Barberian, Sydney puts her hands over her ears and mumbles "Nnnng!"
- In Hiimdaisy's Let's Destroy the Shagohod, Snake gets defeated by The End and dragged a fair distance away from the boss arena. Snake gets slightly frustrated, and starts sprinting through the jungle. When a guard spots him, Snake, while still sprinting, says "La la la! I can't hear you!"
- In Leftover Soup, Jamie takes Simon's suggestion a bit literally.
- After Lindesfarne and Fenton get married in Kevin & Kell, they explain to Fenton's "smart house" Tree that they're going to need privacy, and Tree agrees to "override [her] awareness functions" when asked. This turns out to mean going "La-la-la-la".
- Understandably done in Questionable Content by Faye while Dora and her recently out of the closet younger sister feel the need to openly discuss intimate things.
Web Original
- This Cracked article points out that in Inception Cobb could have prevented a lot of trouble if he'd put his fingers in his ears and sung while Ariadne gave the rest of the team directions instead of insisting on her telling him first.
- Duck Guy in Don't Hug Me I'm Scared notes that The Healthy Band's extremely faulty explanation on how the digestive system works makes no sense. They ignore him and continue to sing their health song with greater volume.
- Zelda Universe's video Hades' Misguidance had this in the first episode; as Pit, Viridi and Hades talk about Corrin, Hades is just about to talk about what he learned when studying Corrin (which thus would spoil the plot of the game Corrin came from), but before he can begin, Pit and Viridi do this and during that Pit tells the viewers to play the game and not listen to Hades (due to the strictness of spoilers).
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius:
- In "Brobot", the Literal-Minded Jimmy asks for a baby brother, and explains how, biologically, it would be incredibly simple to, err, initiate the process. While his mother is horrified, his father engages in this trope before abruptly changing the subject to pie.
- At the end of "Grumpy Young Men", Carl eats some of Jimmy's experimental truth-telling serum, having mistaken it for prune whip. Carl then starts saying personal things, one of which is that he doesn't think that Ultra Lord, a fictional superhero that Sheen is obsessed with, really exists. Sheen plugs his ears and shouts "La la la la la! I don't want to hear it!" upon hearing this.
- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes has Tony do this when Rhodey criticizes his decision to give up weapon-making and become a vigilante.
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force: In "Hands on a Hamburger", Shake tricks Meatwad into getting disqualified from the contest by giving him false advice that causes Meatwad to cover his ears and shouting.
- Big City Greens: In the b-plot of "Volunteer Tilly", Bill has had enough of Cricket and Gramma's pranking that he decides to take a bath; they were going to prank him again outside the bathroom, but they end up getting stuck in their own prank and get mauled by a vicious chihuahua Tilly brought over from the shelter. Hearing their screams, Bill thinks they are pranking him again and scats to himself to ignore them.
- The Boondocks: In "The Fundraiser", Riley does a 'Lalalalalala' to ignore Huey's warnings that his fundraising scheme is going to backfire horribly and that entrusting the money to Jazmine would lead to her giving it all away to charity.
- The Buzz Lightyear of Star Command episode "Shiv Katall" has Booster cover his ears and sing in response to Mira Nova saying that Shiv Katall is better than Buzz.
Booster: I can't hear Mira because she's saying wrong things!
- Camp Lakebottom: In "Buttastic Journey", Buttsquat tries this in an attempt to drown out McGee (who is talking to him from inside his head).
- The ChalkZone episode "Pop Goes the Balloon" has Rudy Tabootie's father Joe cover his ears and sing that he can't hear his wife Mildred when she considers cancelling their vacation to Hawaii after seeing that their son is upset that he can't go with them.
- Charlie does this in one episode of Charlie and Lola - revealing that he had been eavesdropping on his sister (and her imaginary friend) in the process.
- Adam West does it at least once in Family Guy, in the episode where he made a giant golden Dig'Em statue and the town protests against this waste in taxpayer money.
- Futurama:
- "Godfellas":
Fry: You can't lose hope just because it's hopeless. You gotta hope more, then put your fingers in your ears and go "Blah blah blah blah!"
- And again in "Put Your Head On My Shoulders," when Fry's body has been horribly damaged in an accident and his head has been grafted onto Amy's shoulder. When Fry wants to discuss something without Amy hearing, he asks her for some privacy. She complies by singing softly to herself in Martian while Fry is talking.
- "Godfellas":
- The Gravedale High episode "The Dress-Up Mess-Up" has Cleofatra cover her ears and sing to try and drown out Duzer's misguided plan on how she can use the expensive dress she wants to get money for the class's plan to take their teacher Max Schneider to an expensive French restaurant for his birthday.
- Histeria!: "Heroes of Truth and Justice" features a sketch involving Rosa Parks being told to move to the back of the bus...where nearly everyone from the Kid Chorus is being rowdy in general, especially Loud Kiddington who's singing "99 Bottle of Root Beer on the Wall" at the top of his lungs. Charity Bazaar apparently doesn't like that song at all; she initially tells him to be quiet, but causes him to forget where he was (55 bottles), forcing him to start over. Loud later hits 27 bottles in his song while Charity begrudgingly tolerates it by doing this trope.
- In the Hotel Transylvania: The Series episode "Married to the Blob", Hank tears his ears off and sings "La la la la la la, I can't hear you" when Wendy tries to explain how blob reproduction works.
- In the Jacob Two-Two (2003) episode "Jacob Two-Two and the Crumbling Cookie Catastrophe", I.M. Greedyguts plugs his ears and sings a bunch of "la la la la las" to drown out Nurse Bunyan before she can say that he has to go on a diet. She shouts "A DIET!" so loudly that that does not matter.
- In one episode of Kaeloo, Kaeloo gets angry at Mr. Cat for something he didn't do and does this whenever he tries to talk to her.
- Kamp Koral: In "A Tale of Two Roxies", Little Roxy forces Big Roxy to cover her ears and sing so the former can have a private conversation with Preda Tory.
- In the King of the Hill episode, "Lupe's Revenge", this is Hank's reaction to being "frisked" by a flirtatious police officer.
- The Flea did it once to his baby sister Pulgita in ¡Mucha Lucha!.
- Shaggy and Scooby-Doo do this in Scooby-Doo! in Where's My Mummy? when Velma tells them that the tomb of Cleopatra has a curse.
- The Simpsons:
- On the season nine episode "Simpson Tide", the Naval Reserve recruiter does this when Homer tries to ask him about a question on the application that got blocked out about being a homosexual, which, if asked, would get the recruiter sent to jail for discrimination.
- In the sixth-season episode "Bart's Girlfriend", Reverend Lovejoy's rebellious daughter Jessica admits responsibility for stealing money from the church collection plate, a crime initially pinned on Bart. When she claims she was crying out for attention, the reverend covers his ears and sings "Bringing in the Sheaves" as he runs out of the church with Jessica trailing behind.
- In Season 21's "Bart Gets a Z", Principal Skinner orders the students to stick their fingers in their ears and go "la la la" while the new substitute teacher is drunk and shouting about how alcohol is a great way to get rid of sadness and other similar things.
- The SuperMansion episode "Back to Black to the Future" has American Ranger cover his ears and sing that he's not listening in response to his future self (a bearded vagabond) stating that he's lived off of dog feces.
- What It's Like Being Alone: The first episode has Princess Lucy respond to Aldous' attempts at disabusing her of her delusions by covering her ears and singing that she can't hear Aldous.
Real Life
- There's a documented real life instance of this occurring during the reign of Mongke Khan (grandson of Genghis Khan) where he invited representatives of the major religions in the area (Christianity, Islam and Buddhism) and challenged them to a Mongol-style debate on the nature of the universe, the soul, and other moral questions. It was going well enough at first, except it's customary in Mongol wrestling matches for the competitors to drink from bowls of alcoholic kumis between rounds, so after a few turns everyone was getting a bit tipsy and the Christians started loudly singing hymns to drown out their competitors, so the Muslims responded by chanting verses of the Koran, and the Buddhists retreated into silent meditation. The contest ultimately ended in a draw when everyone was too drunk to continue.
- Autism spectrum disorders can cause extreme sensitivity to sound, and people on the autism spectrum sometimes cover their ears and hum to block out irritating sounds.
- Deaf people achieve the same result by covering their eyes.
- When Spanish speaking people do this, it will usually (but not always) take this form:
"¡No oigo, no oigo,note soy de palo! ¡Tengo orejas de pescado!"note
- Boris Johnson did this when he was Mayor of London to avoid dealing with some tough journalists.
Boris Johnson: No, not talking to you. Not talking to you. Nope. Nope. Nope. La, la, la, la.