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There are a bunch of reasons why zombies on “Walking Dead” are called “walkers,” but mostly it’s because they’re slow as hell.
Walkers are also extremely loud. They constantly make this guttural sound like they’re trying to hawk up a loogie but just can’t, which could also explain why they’re so cranky.
Despite all this, the zombies on the show seem to move around like military black ops. They pop up around corners, they reach out and grab people from the trees and just suddenly show up out of nowhere and eat everything like an unwanted college friend. And everyone’s always surprised until they’re already eating their faces off.
To some it seems like a big plot hole that walkers can move around with such stealth, but it turns out there could be a logical explanation after all:
The explanation: Walkers get so close unnoticed because everyone has massive hearing loss from all the guns they fire without ear protection.
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The theory was posted on Reddit recently, and it does make a lot of sense. The Redditor explains:
Rick went mostly deaf in that tank in Atlanta, everyone else had a similar experience off-camera. Now they don’t even flinch when a gun goes off, they’re all deafer than fuck, stomping through the woods, yelling at each other constantly. That’s why they keep attracting walkers: They have no clue how loud they’re being.
Comments on the post just offered more support. One person confirmed, “firing guns indoors without protection is absolutely terrible for your ears. Another added, “This is very plausible. Every time [I] fire my weapon I immediately know if my hearing protection is in properly.”
The University of Chicago Medicine website actually cites “firing guns and other weapons” as one of the primary examples of noises that can cause hearing loss “immediately or over time,” while the Cleveland Clinic lists one of the signs your environment is too loud as “difficulty hearing someone who is within three feet of you.” Hm … sound familiar? You almost wish they’d add, “For example, see every character on ‘The Walking Dead‘ ever.”
Could hearing loss actually be the reason walkers sneak up on people so easily? If anything, this at least explains why Rick needs to yell Carl’s name so much.
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Image: Pinterest
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H/T Reddit
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