Why Not To Stick Cotton Swabs In Your Ear. Submitted by rodrie14 on Mon, 2013-04-01 09:05. A recent episode of âGirlsâ featured an excruciating scene in which Hannah, grappling with OCD, inserted a cotton swab deep into her ear canal and âheard air hiss out the holeâ sheâd apparently poked in her ear drum.