Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for November 20, 2021

Rat and Pig finally got a flatscreen tv — 15 years after everyone else.

Sometimes it happens that from the TV, in a movie or serial scene, they phone. It is instinctive to answer so it seems to come from the home phone.

I notice that their heads got bigger when they thought someone was trying to send them a message.

Theater, often, attempts to sound realistic. On the other hand, for a very small outlay of time (and, if you prefer, cash), you can set your personal device to sound different from all those other identical robotones. My phone has about 50 different rings for free. Just pick one for “ring” one for “notification” one for “email” and one for “message” and Bob’s your uncle!

No. That was the microwave.

What would be a better sound? An AWOOOOGAH?

Walking home from work, i heard a sound that sounded exactly like ‘Can you hear it, left or right’ hearing test in the booth at work. A second of realization later, i aha’ed it was the backup sound on a distant snowplow.

Made sure my text announcement is not a ping, and phone incoming sound is not a tiki from someone I don’t know

Poll: What is your favorite burger chain?

And don’t say Alexa!

Doorbells on TV used to fool my dogs, but they learned to ignore that sound.

TV broadcasters are trying to reclaim your complete devotion, taking it back from your phone. THEY. WILL. FAIL. You cannot serve 2 (ad-ridden) masters!

My ring tone used to be the theme from Indiana Jones, then that last movie came out and at every commercial I thought my phone was ringing.

Doorbell on TV + dog = bark bark bark bark bark bark

The worst are songs that have police siren sounds that come on the radio when you’re driving.

This is true! Annoying constant sounds are here to stay!

I want to ((((((( S. C. R. E. A. M. ! )))))))))

I always use vibrate.

I keep my phone in another room when I’m home and check it at bedtime for texts etc. Emergency calls come on land line.

It’s a pretext.

For a while I had the theme from The Exorcist as my ring tone. You should have seen the heads turn for that.

We live way off the road. Hoking horns on TV set my dog off. He thinks someone’s here.

I knew an elderly couple who would answer the phone or door if one sounded on TV. Personally, if I hear a siren in a radio commercial while driving my car, I start and look in my mirror and around for an emergency vehicle. Every time. Believe It or Not!

Worse than this are radio ads that include sirens. Hearing that in heavy traffic is distracting and nerve-wracking.

No more “my dog hates the doorbells on tv” replies – unless it’s me. ;-)

What really gets me is the radio stations using sound effects like tires squealing or horns honking while I’m driving my car.

We have a live news commentary program on one of our tv channels that is one of my wife’s favorite shows. I hate it!

Viewers can send in live their gripes against the world via texts, or pictures on WhatsApp or Twitter. That part I don’t mind.

What drives me bonkers is that the programmers have decided it’s cute to alert the commentators and the viewers if a new item by using the Twitter bird whistle or that annoying sound that WhatsApp has! I can’t tell if it’s one of our cell phones, computers, or the damn television doing the alerts.

Has anyone heard the ‘beeper bird’?

Commercials, especially with Christmas ones starting up, have lots of bells and beeps….always come on when I wasn’t looking at the TV and/or left my phone in another room.

Raises hand: That has happened to us. Even had the dog bark at a tv doorbell once!

There are countless sounds in the world. Try something unique, like a xylophone, for the text message signal.

just make your own ringtones ;-)

Darn it all when they say “Alexa.”

Like sirens on music when I’m listening to the car radio.

My pet peeve is car horns in radio ads.

The Rat and Pig have finally upgraded the TV from the ancient console! And moved to a sofa instead of a pillow on the floor.

Like when a doorbell rings and my dog barks or I hear a siren and have to mute the TV to see if it’s outside.

I have the same problem with radio ads using horns and police sirens.

And the go-to TV cellphone ring tone is the same default mostly everyone uses.

I feel the same way when a commercial on the radio has the sound effect of a police siren while I’m driving.

On our mid-fi audio system some TV sound effects sound too real. The door knock is disturbingly good.

How about you two jamokes turn off the TV and get some outdoors exercise—maybe tossing around a football?

Fry and Laurie did a sketch in which the telephone rang, and then they stopped the sketch and said to the audience “I wonder how many of you got up to answer that?”

When a doorbell rang on tv the dogs barked and ran to the door. I got another tv to watch in another room. Doorbell sounds are different. The dogs no longer related doorbell sounds to our house.

Been there, done that…