Snarky Inanimate Object



Imagine an object, say, an inanimate object. Any inanimate object. Got that? Good.

Now, imagine the characters in a show interacting with the object as if it were another character. That shouldn't be too hard to picture, should it? Good.

Now, imagine that object answers back. And it is snarky as all hell.

This can be any object, but it often takes the form of a Magic 8 Ball. Things that specifically are Artificial Intelligence in canon do not count.

Related tropes include Animate Inanimate Object, Companion Cube, and The Man in The Mirror Talks Back. See also Talking Appliance Sidekick.

Anime and Manga

 * In the Pokémon anime, the PokeDex is canonically just a database. However, Dexter (Ash's PokeDex) had shades of this in the first episode of the series, notably calling Ash "stupid."

Fairy Tales

 * In some variations of "Snow White", the Magic Mirror is a smart aleck backtalker.

Film
"Radio: Will you shut the hell up and let me sing my song?"
 * In Scary Movie 2, the protagonist is singing along to the radio when it suddenly speaks to her:

Literature

 * Bob in the book of The Dresden Files was never a real person. He's an air spirit of intellect which occupies the skull unless Harry explicitly gives him permission to come out and possess his cat or otherwise travel freely.

Live Action TV

 * The Muppets would often have ordinary-seeming objects such as vegetables suddenly sprout faces and start singing.

Newspaper Comics
"Calvin: What does this mean, "religion is the opiate of the masses"?
 * Oliver Wendell Jones' Banana 2000 computer from Bloom County. Not intended to be an animate object, it frequently was sentient.
 * Also in Bloom County and Doonesbury, frequent examples of subtrope The Man in The Mirror Talks Back.
 * On occasion Garfield will use a talking scale, which will naturally make a fat joke.
 * The ifruit computer in FoxTrot.
 * While we won't get into a debate over whether Hobbes counts, Calvin's TV got in a few good ones, always quietly to itself:

TV: It means Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet."

Tabletop Games

 * Dungeons and Dragons solo adventure Knight of the Living Dead. After becoming an undead creature, the protagonist has a weasel skull that acts as his companion, including snarky dialogue. It's implied that the conversations are his mind talking to itself.

Video Games

 * There are a whole lot of inanimate-object-based characters in Banjo-Kazooie, but even the immobile ones who can only blink may still snark at you.
 * Lilacor from Baldurs Gate 2 is not this - intelligent weapons are far from unprecedented in Dungeons and Dragons - but the Morrowind mod of the same name veers closer to this by it being unique for the The Elder Scrolls.

Webcomics

 * The On Cue Ball from Precocious certainly counts.

Web Original

 * Lisa Foiles' Blender.
 * Andy the Bomb from the Machinima series Red vs. Blue; not only is he/it snarky, he's also rude and crude, and he curses a lot.

Western Animation
"Peter: Wilson! What are we gonna do now?! Wilson! WILLLSOOON!
 * Family Guy: In a Manatee Gag, Peter pulls a Cast Away.

"Wilson": My name is Voigt, dumbass."

"SpongeBob: We blew it, pants.
 * The computer from Courage the Cowardly Dog. You twit.
 * SpongeBob's Magic Conch Shell.
 * And SpongeBob's swin trunks in "Ripped Pants"

Pants: What do you mean "we"?"


 * In Fanboy and Chum Chum, Fanboy's gloved hand comes to life in "Fanboy Stinks" due to Fanboy having gone too long without bathing.