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Lull Destruction: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"It never. Shuts. Up! There is always talking! Always loud music! Always something knocking in your ear! It's like [the movie]'s afraid that if it stops being loud and bouncy, [[Viewers Are Goldfish|it's going to lose the children's attention!]]"''|'''[[The Nostalgia Critic]]''', on ''[[The Magic Voyage]]''}}
A seemingly prevalent idea is that silence for more than five seconds will bore the audience.
Any empty space in the script has lines added. Voiceovers are dubbed over contemplative moments to mention blatantly obvious things. The characters may flat-out describe every last [[That Makes Me Feel Angry|thought or feeling they're experiencing]]. A narrator may show up and explain everything that's happening onscreen. Songs appear to explain anything the narrator hadn't just clarified, just in case [[Viewers are Morons|the audience still might not get it]]. Basically, the whole concept of "Show, don't tell" is thrown out the window.
This is particularly prevalent in animation imported into America. Since dubbed cartoons shown on children's television are frequently edited, this requires cutting out the original background music and making the lull more obvious. That putting dialog here completely avoids [[Lip Lock]] is another considerable bonus. This practice is largely disliked, partially because of a "[[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]" mentality, partially because many audiences resent the implication that they have [[Viewers Are Goldfish|five-second attention spans]], and partially because silence can be an [[Nothing Is Scarier|important storytelling]] tool that the original artists included for a reason.
That said, many [[Woolseyism|Woolseyisms]] take advantage of this. The original may be suffering from [[Filler]] or [[Padding|slow pacing;]] and sometimes ''too'' much silence causes the [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief|audience to become aware]] they are watching a movie. While this is not especially common with American cartoons nowadays (since many run in a [[Three Shorts]] format, and simply aren't long enough to have them), a more accepted way to fill out a lull is to add [[Mickey Mousing]]; the theatrical [[Looney Tunes]] cartoons were famous for this. Occasionally, it can add some gags that actually are funny.
There even is a comic equivalent, where every single panel MUST have a speech bubble, even if unnecessary or detracting from the scene.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', ''[[One Piece]]'' (until [[FUNimation|another company]] rescued it), and any other animated show dubbed by [[4Kids! Entertainment]].
** Taken to an extreme in [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbocrb_winx-club-comparisons-cold-spell_shortfilms this video], in which all the previously silent nightmares of the ''[[Winx Club]]'' have had plenty of dialog added to them.
** ''[[Winx Club]]'' also provides a case of this trope being a plot point: In a 2nd season episode, Musa notices a girl walking past her, and she realizes that it's Darcy in disguise. In the original, she walks past silently, but in the dub, Darcy says "Gag me" in response to their dancing, and her voice tips Musa off (and most likely the intended viewership, too, as she doesn't disguise her voice at all). (It's at the 1:00 mark in [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x37rql_winx-club-comparisons-party-crasher_fun this video].)
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** Though oddly, this trope is inverted somewhat by the Japanese insert music being mostly missing from the dub and not replaced, leaving several minutes with no music (though with new dialog added).
* Similarly, the dub of ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'' made the series' gratuitous use of [[Stock Footage]] mildly interesting to listen to.
* Done frequently in the English dub of ''[[
* ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' has a noticeable example of this in the fourth (chronological) episode.
** They actually added a line for Kyon in the DVD release. Both audio tracks have it, so it was probably seen as a problem in the original Japanese airing as well.
** There's actually an inversion as well: A space of dialogue in the original is rendered completely silent in the dub. The fact that the speaker has her back to the viewer helps.
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** The English dub of ''[[Spirited Away]]'' is also a little guilty of this, adding background chatter in scenes that originally did not have it, though Chihiro explicitly pointing out the bathhouse was likely to help the audience unfamiliar with one.
*** This is true in the screencapture manga version as well (both Japanese and English), even adding lines that weren't in the film.
*** Also, the English dub adds a line for Chihiro at the very end of the film; she reassures her parents (and, presumably, the audience) that although she's apprehensive about her new life, "I think I can handle it."
*** More importantly, the most [[Egregious]] example ("{{spoiler|Haku}} is a dragon?") is not only redundant, it actually messes with the plot. In the original, Chihiro couldn't be certain the dragon actually was {{spoiler|Haku}} until after she {{spoiler|risked her life to give him the medicine}}.
** Disney's adaptation of ''[[Laputa: Castle in the Sky]]'' has lots of extra dialogue, notably in scenes such as the opening attack on the battleship and the chase scene involving Dola's boys. The Japanese version is nearly silent during those scenes.
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* A serial occurrence in ''[[Star Blazers]]'', the English dub of ''[[Uchuu Senkan Yamato]]'', is for a character to speak when their mouth is obviously not moving.
* ''[[Robotech]]''. The narrator never shuts up. It's a text book example.
* ''[[Mega Man NT Warrior]]'': In the original version, the scene where {{spoiler|Mega Man gets deleted}} had no dialog, and the process occurred slowly, creating a very poignant scene. The dub added the logout voice, which announces {{spoiler|"Mega Man, data deleted"}} with no change in tone from its usual logout message. The animation of the process was also cut short.
* The dub of [[Mon Colle Knights]] has this. One of the instances where [[Tropes Are Not Bad|it arguably makes use of repeated footage to extend the length of the episode better and worth watching]] is during the launch sequence for the antagonists' ship is always played [[Once an Episode]]...however in the English dub, one of them brings up a logical question, mulls it over for a bit, before being told "Never mind!" by the other two, who become bored, and it becomes a [[Running Gag]].
* ''[[Chirin no Suzu]]'': The Japanese version is relatively silent, with the narrator speaking around four or five times. In contrast, the English version has the narrator speak more than four or five times, and there are more lines and sounds put in there. However, it is not quite as extreme or exaggerated as some examples listed here, and some parts like the rabbit saying "I love clover!" were considered the best parts! With that said, [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on whether more lines and sounds add to the quality or detract from the quality of the English version.
* Japanese originals are not immune to this - many hentai videos feature the female participant delivering ''non-stop'' narration during the sex scenes. Sometimes it's her thoughts, sometimes she's verbally describing exactly what the male partner is doing to her, even though the audience can already see and he should already be aware...
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== Multiple ==
* Sports broadcasts. Full stops. They have a huge tendency to just constantly describe everything on-screen and spell everything out. Assuming that [[Viewers are Morons|you weren't paying attention]].
** For that matter, a lot of commentators are like that - it can be a little annoying to watch what's going on at the game when their [[Motor Mouth|constant talking]] just keeps going on and on. Tobi-Wan of [[Defense of the Ancients|DotA 2]] is quite terrible at this.
* A poorly done [[Let's Play]] can do this too - especially if the recording quality's poor and you can barely hear what's going on. If it's a silent game, then there's not much, but video games also use sound and video. When you hear someone talking like ''[[Speed Racer]]'' over the game, it can get a little bit bothersome.
== Stand Up Comedy ==
* [[Patton Oswalt]], a comedian and voice actor, [http://youtu.be/7Kw4IE8Sr1Q talks about doing this for animated movies]. He then [[Lampshades]] the stupidity of this by sarcastically suggesting that this be applied to [[Crosses the Line Twice|footage of the Holocaust and 9/11]].
** Also, on ''Werewolves and Lollipops,'' in a rather meta example, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBguQZzXzyw Oswalt's audience has a longish pause as he sets up a scenario; an audience members shouts to fill the silence and Oswalt launches into a tirade about ruining silences.]
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* Actually a requirement for official certification for video games on [[Sony]] and [[Microsoft]] systems. They won't allow game developers any more than half a second of silent, black screen. This is to make sure that users don't think that their console has died. Given the 360's penchant for dying, this is not an unwarranted concern.
** That being said, you can have all the ''silence'' you want, as long as you're not showing a black screen.
* Variation: the original Japanese release of ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Rockman]] 6'' had silence over the "In the year 200X..." screen, and the music only kicked in once the main intro started. The American release (''Mega Man 6'') added ride bell-type percussion over said screen, and the intro music itself was replaced with [[The Jimmy Hart Version]] to fit.
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]'' is [[Memetic Mutation|well-known]] for its constant barrage of [[Captain Obvious]] comments the characters spout (to no one in particular) in each level. This trope has to be the reason.
* Performing random actions when the game can't be forced to progress faster (such as during a segment where the screen advances at a fixed pace) is common in [[Tool Assisted Speedrun]] videos. Sometimes this works to manipulate the RNG and actually has a purpose, though it is mostly to keep the viewer from being bored.
* The ''[[Gex]]'' series has the player character (voiced by Dana Gould) make a joke about the level he's in every 30 seconds or so.
* The English voice actor for Jansen in [[Lost Odyssey]] clearly strove to fill every second of screen time with a wisecrack or three.
* The Japanese version of the first two ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' games had added voice acting for whenever Spyro jumped or dashed.
** The cutscenes had a bit of this as well. Compare the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ6m18ySYDM&feature=related Japanese version] to the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf3X1l0dL-I original version] to see how much added dialogue there is. For starters, Sparx can talk.
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== Real Life ==
* Admit it...you're used to ''some'' kind of background noise.
* As most parents will tell you, they'd much rather they be hearing [[Lull Destruction]] than absolute silence - because then it means the kids are doing something bad or are hurt.
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