The slang phrase “ear rape” has been used on the internet for many years. Odds are you have heard this term before, but you found your way here because you want to know what it means.
Here you will not only find the meaning of this term, but you will also discover it’s origin, find some other meanings if there are any available, and see some conversation examples to help you better understand the phrase by seeing it used in context. Finally, the article will sum up with some alternative words or phrases with similar meanings that you can use in place is the term “ear rape.”
Ear Rape Meaning
What Does Ear Rape Mean?
The term “ear rape” means assaulting someone’s ears, speakers or headphones with any type of loud, often purposefully distorted, noise that they were not expecting. This is often done for humor and in some cases revenge.
Origin
The term “ear rape” first emerged in 2005 on a website called YTMND. It was used to describe a short video where someone had taken the audio of a popular singer singing and song that was not hers and distorted the audio to be extremely loud and high pitched. This meme was shared and thus was born ear rape memes and GIFs. The practice became quite popular on YouTube and has continued being used since.
Other Meanings
Some people define the term “ear rape” to mean being forced to listen to a genre of music they don’t like or any artist they particularly dislike. For most people, the artists seem to be Justin Bieber or Nickelback.
Example Conversations
A text conversation between two friends:
- Friend 1: (sends video) Listen to this at full volume so you can really hear all of the words. It’s a great song!
- Friend 2: (clicks the link, loads the video, falls out of the chair in shock holding her ears) Ouch! Damnit! You just ear raped me!
- Friend 1: LMAO!
An online conversation between two Facebook users:
- User 1: (posts a challenging maze) I want to see if anyone can successfully navigate this maze. Make sure to turn up your volume because there’s something great that happens at the end if you make it all the way through!
- User 2: (replies after trying the maze) OMG! You asshole!! I’m glad I have a good ticker because if I didn’t that would have sent me straight the ER! That scream scared the crap out of me! Thanks for the ear rape butthead!
Alternatives for “Ear Rape”
There are several words or phrases that you could use as synonyms for the phrase “ear rape.” Some of these include:
- Assaulted my ears
- Ear piercing sounds
- Ear sewage
Ear Rape Meaning Infographic
Last Updated on March 18, 2020