The Internet Has Turned This Taco Bell Sound Into A Horror Meme

Whether it's the shuffling of footsteps behind you on an empty street or hearing a door creak when you're the only one home, life is full of moments that might send shivers down your spine. But, what some people may find terrifying, others may think is ridiculous — and vice-versa. It's why you might have been able to watch Ronald McDonald hawking Happy Meals on TV as a kid, but your friend had to close their eyes to avoid looking at his clownish chalk-white face and crimson lips. 

The genre of horror and true crime has exploded in recent years, and just about anyone with technical know-how and a talent for making spine-tingling content has been able to give a good scare. The internet in particular seems to be a place to find all sorts of ways to make you sleep at night with the lights on. And, most recently, those on YouTube have been living in fear — and not over any stories about child-stealing monsters or interstellar cosmic horrors — but rather about Taco Bell. More specifically, a very specific sound long associated with the popular fast food chain that's now taken a grim turn.

The terrifying piece is actually a YouTube video aptly titled, "1 hour of silence randomly interrupted by the Taco Bell noise." And exactly as the title suggests, the video consists of the Taco Bell logo against a black background, with an hour of total silence punctuated at random points by the ringing of the "bell" featured in the fast food chain's advertisements. While it's not the clanging sound that is terrifying listeners, it's more of the suspense that comes in not knowing when it will happen.

"Listening to this is scarier than any horror game," said one person in the comments section. "You never know when the Taco Bell noise is coming, you just have to sit in silence filled with suspense. Truly horrifying." Another person took it as a chance to explain why it's so effective. "To all you film students out there, it isn't the jumpscare that's scary," they said. "It's the tension." Other commentators claimed that waiting for the first "bong" was the most suspenseful moment they have ever experienced.

This isn't the first time horror and fast food have been strange bedfellows, either — although most times it's done unintentionally. McDonald's former Happy Meal mascot "Happy," a Happy Meal box with wide eyes and a grin filled with shining white teeth, was met with vocal disdain and disgust by Twitter when it was introduced in 2014 (via The Atlantic). And who could forget Quiznos' once bizarre attempt to sell hoagies through the magic of shrieking, wide-eyed hamster-like creatures that danced and wailed around the screen (via The Huffington Post)? With the latest Taco Bell video, it doesn't seem this trend is going away any time soon, so brace yourselves!