Silent Snarker



""Don't you roll your eyes at me; it's a good plan!""

- Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Phineas and Ferb

The Silent Snarker is just that. A combination of Deadpan Snarker and The Voiceless, The Speechless or The Unintelligible. A character who does not speak, usually a sidekick, who is a lot more competent than his superior, who does things most Deadpan Snarkers would have a field day with. But since they cannot or don't speak, they communicate their snark through eyerolls, facepalms, furrowed brows and aside glances. These characters normally have very expressive faces to properly convey their silent exasperation.

May overlap with The Silent Bob. If the character is The Unintelligible, this can sometimes overlap with Repeating So the Audience Can Hear. Contrast with Deadpan Snarker, the vocal version of this trope.

'''The Voiceless, The Speechless, and The Unintelligible characters only (Silent Bobs are exceptions). If they can talk, or at least talk frequently, they don't count for this trope.'''

Anime & Manga

 * Pikachu in the earlier seasons of Pokémon.

Comic Strips

 * Odie from Garfield, every once in a while. Garfield himself is an odd case of us actually seeing what the Silent Snarker is thinking. If we couldn't read his thoughts, he would count for this. This is explored with the Silent Garfield experiment, which removes his dialogue but leaves him in the panel, still making his grins and aside glances.

Films -- Animation

 * Gromit from Wallace and Gromit is the long-suffering master of this trope and the Trope Codifier.
 * Gromit's silent snarking so effective that back when A Grand Day Out was in production, he was originally supposed to talk, but a scene where he reacts silently to Wallace stood out so much to the creators that they made him permanently silent.
 * In the "Cheese Lover's Yearbook" (their diary) Gromit leaves tiny, neatly typewritten notes for his snark.
 * Also from Aardman is Bobo the Chimp from The Pirates in An Adventure With Scientists, who speaks entirely with cue cards.
 * Several of the animal sidekicks from Disney movies.
 * WALL-E: Eve has enough "furrowed brows" and annoyed groans to count.
 * How to Train Your Dragon: Toothless picks up some of Hiccup's snarkiness.
 * Remy from Ratatouille, when he's around humans.
 * Tinkerbell from Peter Pan, before she became Suddenly Voiced in the sequels.
 * Pangur Ban in The Secret of Kells is a borderline example: as an ordinary cat, she doesn't understand the greater significance of most things that happen to her, and will therefore react with expressions of annoyance, indignation or plain puzzlement that are great for puncturing otherwise dramatic moments.
 * Pascal the chameleon in Tangled. Maximus the horse as well.
 * From Despicable Me, we have Kyle, Gru's dog-thing being The Speechless variation of this trope, while a few of The Minions fit The Unintelligible variation.
 * Jojo from Horton Hears a Who,
 * Melvin, The Once-ler's horse from The Lorax.

Films -- Live-Action

 * Star Wars
 * Based on C-3PO's reactions to some of the things he says, if his speech were translated, R2-D2 would be a definite Deadpan Snarker who speaks in robot noises.
 * Chewbacca as well, if you pay attention to how people react to what he says he's probably one of the most sarcastic characters in the franchise.
 * In Return of the Jedi, when Lando Calrissian has ownership of the Millennium Falcon, Chewbacca's role is filled by the monkey-faced alien Nien Nunb, and Lando bilingually bickers with him in much the way Han Solo did with Chewie.
 * Burt Lancaster had a childhood friend, Nick Cravat, who appeared in several of Lancaster's movies. Cravat was never able to get rid of his thick Brooklyn accent, so he communicated -- and often snarked -- by mime in any movie where the accent would be inappropriate. He gets the last "word" in The Crimson Pirate, for instance.
 * Clint Eastwood is a master at getting across any emotion wordlessly.
 * Cosmic Creepers the cat in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, notably in the scene where Ms. Price is trying to fly.

Literature
"Baddeley: (to Fanny, whose suitor has come to discuss things with her and her uncle) Sir Thomas wishes to speak with you, ma'am, in his own room.
 * Jane Austen's Mansfield Park includes a brief appearance by a Silent Servile Snarker:

Mrs. Norris: Stay, stay, Fanny! What are you about? Where are you going? Don't be in such a hurry. Depend upon it, it is not you who are wanted; depend upon it, it is me, but you are so very eager to put yourself forward. What should Sir Thomas want you for? It is me, Baddeley, you mean; I am coming this moment. You mean me, Baddeley, I am sure; Sir Thomas wants me, not Miss Price.

But Baddeley was stout. "No, ma'am, it is Miss Price; I am certain of it's being Miss Price." And there was a half-smile with the words, which meant, "I do not think you would answer the purpose at all.""


 * Mouse, from The Dresden Files. Crosses over with Even the Dog Is Ashamed frequently.
 * Ilyn Payne of A Song of Ice and Fire, a mute headsman, is very mocking of Jaime Lannister, "laughing" at his monologues openly. Theon's squire Wex also shows signs of this.

Live-Action TV

 * Teller of Penn and Teller Bullshit
 * Diefenbaker from Due South is treated as one of these thanks to the various reaction shots from his human co-stars.
 * Glee has Brad the Silent Pianist.

Video Games

 * The Legend of Zelda: Link on occasion, suprisingly enough. Most notable in Majora's Mask. In Wind Waker as well. Link's dialogue options can also have a fair share of snark.
 * Classic Sonic, who was retconned into being a Heroic Mime for Sonic Generations, would glare towards the camera and impatiently tap his foot as his Idle Animation in the classic trilogy. We can only wonder how snarky he'll be in Generations.
 * Wonder of wonders, Freddy Krueger is turned into one in his cameo appearance in Mortal Kombat, aside from the occasional Evil Laugh.
 * Sis from Alpha Protocol is mute (and cute), but makes it clear through some expressive body-language that 1) she is in command of her squad and 2) you are all imbeciles. She's armed with a glare that could strip paint along with her twin revolvers.
 * Shizune Hakamichi is the Visual Novel Katawa Shoujo is deaf and mute and communicates primarily through Japanese Sign Language, she also has a very dry and cutting wit that becomes all the more obvious in her route when Hisao learns JSL himself and he (and the player) can understand her without relying on Misha.

Web Animation

 * PomPom and The Cheat from Homestar Runner.

Web Comics

 * Dietzel from Wapsi Square owes something to Gromit.
 * Feral from Strays.
 * In The Non Adventures of Wonderella, the title heroine (a pastiche of Wonder Woman) tries briefly to be one. (However, her abysmal sense of humor, coupled to her unintelliggible writing make her attempts laughable at best).
 * Klik from Goblins shows this on occasion.
 * Mr. Fluffycuddles from Samurai Princess, the non verbal raccoon companion of Nicholas.

Web Original

 * Big Box Model from The Big Box.

Western Animation
"Private: That won't be necessary. Private LIKES big.
 * Phineas and Ferb
 * Perry the Platypus could probably give Gromit a run for his money in this, silent snarking in regards to his nemesis Dr. Doofenshmirtz, and his allies Major Monogram and Carl the Intern. He also at one point mocked Candace behind her back.
 * Ferb could count since he rarely talks, and spends more time rolling his eyes at the stupidity of his peers.
 * Spot from Hong Kong Phooey. He only ever makes annoyed sighs as he's bailing Phooey's dumb ass out of trouble.
 * Gary from SpongeBob SquarePants, who meows snark to his master.
 * The Simpsons: Maggie Simpson
 * Chowder: Shnitzel. "Radda radda."
 * Ruby Gloom: Doom Kitty
 * Rico from The Penguins of Madagascar sort of fits, as he is (usually) The Unintelligible. Although oftentimes his snarks are the only intelligible things he says.

Rico: Oh boy."

"(after Coyote tries to tar and feather Road Runner) "Road Runners already have feathers!""
 * Snoopy from Peanuts combines this with Large Ham. He doesn't just snark Charlie Brown, he gets angry, yells and throws books at him. This only applies to the animated specials, where Snoopy is silent (most of the time).
 * Looney Tunes
 * Wile E. Coyote (at least, during the Wile E Coyote and The Road Runner cartoons; he's Suddenly Voiced in his shorts with Bugs Bunny). Have you read the things on his signs?
 * Road Runner is similar, but with an amused smile and equally snarky signs.


 * On My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Fluttershy's pet bunny Angel is like this sometimes, as is Rarity's cat Opal. Opal is especially silent-snarky in "Sweet and Elite", since she can only communicate with meows and facial expressions and is constantly having to deal with the ridiculous ramblings of an owner with a messed up sense of priorities.
 * The original My Little Pony and Friends series had Moochick's assistant Habbit the Rabbit.
 * Soundwave of Transformers Prime.
 * It should be noted that he pulls it off despite not having a face.
 * Horace the ferret from My Gym Partners a Monkey.
 * Azrael in The Smurfs snarks in meows.

Real life

 * Babies. Before they learn how to talk, they're capable of giving some very withering looks, particularly if you're trying to make them laugh.
 * Deaf people can often communicate snark through sign language.
 * And some elements of sign language seem to be born from snark. For example, the sign for "idiot" is mimmicking shooting yourself.
 * Cats.