Nonverbal Miscommunication: Difference between revisions

 

Contrast [[Talking Through Technique]] and [[Hand Signals]], where gestures can get a very precise message across.

{{examples}}

* Pretty much the entire premise of ''[[Mitsudomoe]]''

* In one of the ''[[One Piece]]'' movies, the villain captain and one of his underlings attempt to communicate through eye contact and subtle gestures. It fails.

Underling: (thoughts) ''he must be asking if I have the situation under control'' "Leave everything to me!" (thumbs up) }}

* A similar incident to the above happens in ''[[Elemental Gelade]]'', wherein poor [[Butt Monkey|Rowen]], across the ship from his [[Trigger Happy]] boss Cisqua, tries frantically to signal to her not to intervene in his battle with the opponent of the day (for fear that her bullets will damage the ship). Cisqua cheerfully misinterprets this as a plea for assistance and breaks out the guns. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** Later, Mamori frantically tries to signal to the Devil Bats that the opposing team is planning something, but most of the team thinks she's trying to cheer them on.

* In ''[[Kemonozume]]'' Toshihiko and Yuka are hiding from the enemy. They try to discuss what to do via hand gestures (subtitled on screen). [[Hilarity Ensues]].

 

* A variation is used in an old comic of ''[[The Moomins]]'' where the Moomins are being held by pirates. A pirate orders them to work "or else", and makes a cutting gesture across his throat. The Moomins are appropriately horrified: "We must do what he says or he'll commit suicide!"

 

== Film ==

* Mel Brooks' ''[[Young Frankenstein]]'' features a scene where the monster grabs and chokes Frankenstein. Since he cannot talk, he frantically uses Charades to communicate to his assistants that they should sedate his monster. They take a long time about it before Igor finally guesses "Sedagive!". Frankenstein is not pleased.

** In the Broadway version, it is 'Flying down to Rio', which may be a reference to [[The Producers|another Mel Brooks movie turned Broadway musical.]]

* The scene in the film ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'' where the attractive female medical examiner attempts to signal to Agent J that there's a hostile alien in the room with them, and he thinks she's flirting with him.

** This is only partly nonverbal.

'''Gwen:''' No, you gave me the 'we're dead' sign. I was agreeing with you. Like I know where the 'hold' button is. }}

* ''[[The Gods Must Be Crazy]]''. The natives shake their heads to say yes, so when one character asks them to back his story that rhinos stomp out fires they look like they're disagreeing with him.

* Happens from time to time in [[The Marx Brothers]]' movies, when [[The Voiceless|Harpo]] tries to communicate something to Chico in pantomime. For example, as they try to buy a train ticket in ''Go West'':

'''Chico:''' Ohhhh. You buy a snake, huh? }}

* In ''[[The Losers]]'', when on top of a tall building, villain nods to his agent, who then throws a businessman down. Villain then "complains" that it wasn't that kind of nod and he just wanted the agent to beat the victim. It's one of the [[Big Bad]]'s [[Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor|not so funny jokes.]]

* In ''[[Down Periscope]]'', [[Kelsey Grammer]]'s character is the captain of an old diesel submarine pitted in a training exercise against the nuclear navy. During one engagement, they hide on the bottom of the ocean, while a nuclear submarine is right above them. Trying to get the other sub to leave, he tries to get Sonar to make whale-like noises, like the ones he recorded on tapes. He tries, unsuccessfully, for about a minute with only gestures, which results in another crewmember making completely different gestures, completely confusing Sonar.

* In ''[[Rush Hour]] 2'', [[Jackie Chan|Lee]] takes [[Chris Tucker|Carter]] to a massage parlor in Hong Kong because Lee wants to have a talk with the [[The Triads and the Tongs|Triad]] boss Ricky Tan (also a friend of his late father's {{spoiler|and his murderer}}). When Carter finds out, he takes his "LA cop" image a little too far and tries to strongarm Tan into going with them to the police station, not realizing that nearly every other client in the partlor is a Triad member. When Lee half-winks and nods to the side, he's trying to get Carter to leave before it's too late. Unfortunately, Carter assumes Lee wants him to grab Tan and drag him out of the parlor. Cue dozens of henchmen getting up to defend Tan.

 

== Literature ==

* The novel ''[[Good Omens]]'' contains a scene in which two conspirators exchange nonverbal signals and each, knowing something the other doesn't, receives a different message from what the other intended to send. A particularly extreme example, since a single wink manages to screw up {{spoiler|the End of the World}}!

* In the [[Discworld]] series, The Librarian, a orangutan who was once a human, routinely fails to convey things to other characters, as all he can say is "Ook."

** He has begun work on a dictionary to ease this problem. He has got as far as "Ook".

** Of course, the weird part is really when this trope is averted; those who've known the Librarian for a while understand him ''perfectly'', despite his limited vocabulary.

* In the ''[[X Wing Series]]'' this trope is mentioned when it is explained to Dia that charm-signing, a body language/gestures thing, is, like flowers, another way people communicate.

'''Face:''' "That's an interesting interpretation..." }}

* ''[[Dune]]'': At one point in the first book, the Duke makes an offer to a Fremen, one of the wild men of the desert. In response, the Fremen spits on the floor. As most of the men in the room rise to defend the Duke's honor, whereupon the guy who knows the Fremen's ways stops them and thanks the ambassador, then quietly informs the Duke that Fremen value water very highly, and he had basically just given the Duke a compliment.

** In the [[David Lynch]] film, the Duke himself recognizes the gesture, stopping Gurney from stabbing Liet/Kynes. In the miniseries, Paul is the one who steps in (this showing he knows the ways of the desert), although it's Stilgar who's doing the spitting this time.

* In ''[[Hand of Thrawn|Specter of the Past]]'', Wedge Antilles, two other Rogues, and Lando Calrissian all meet somewhere in a marketplace, and while the other two Rogues know the local language and customs, at least to some extent, Wedge and Lando do not. Wedge barely makes it past a very pushy melon seller to see Wes.

'''Wes''': "Not quite. It means you don't want it at that price but that she might want to try a better offer." }}

** When Lando meets up with them, he had a melon under one arm.

* Averted in ''On Wings of Eagles'' (set during the Ayatollah revolution in Iran) when an American reminds his companion not to flag a lift with a raised thumb, as it's an obscene gesture in Iran.

 

* "The Unicorn and the Wasp", an episode of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', has a similar situation of Charades under pressure. {{spoiler|As the Doctor tries to flush cyanide out of his system, he has to silently ask for a list of seemingly random things to help detoxify himself. Donna has a great deal of trouble with this, interpreting "salt" (represented with a shaking fist, ie. sprinkling salt on food) as a cocktail shaker ("What do you want, a Harvey Wallbanger?") and "a shock" as a song (for which she suggests "Camptown Races?")}}

** {{spoiler|"How is 'Harvey Wallbanger' one word!?"}}

** Other than the guy who was choking, of course.

* An entire episode of ''[[Seinfeld]]'' is built around this trope: George, with a piece of pulp in his eye, gets one of his co-workers fired and accidentally sells George Steinbrenner's birthday card to a sports memorabilia shop by way of some badly-timed winks.

** Another episode included Robin desperately trying to communicate to Lily that she should not open the gift Robin brough to the Bachelerotte party in front of all her family. Lily SEEMS to have completely understood the telepathic message and leans over to whisper something to her mother, who then discretely passes Robin a tampon. Lily then looks over with a very self-pleased "your welcome".

* [[Bones]] is given a signal to try and perk up an unconfident intern who had missed a small but important piece of evidence.

'''Bones:''' [[The Spock|You know I can't read body language that well!]] }}

* Used in ''[[30 Rock]]'' Liz Lemon tries to hide the fact that Tracy went to a strip club by telling his wife that he took his pet snake to the vet. When Tracy returns and his wife asks where he was (because "I'm back from doing whatever Liz Lemon said!" wasn't sufficient enough), Liz ALMOST saves the day.

'''Tracy''': And then my thumb got caught in my butt so I nodded my head until it came out. }}

* In ''[[Extras]]'', a journalist is interviewing Maggie under the pretense that she is Andy's assistant. Andy sits behind the journalist and tries to mime answers to her that will make him look good. Maggie constantly misunderstands his mimes, giving bizarre and unflattering answers.

* In ''[[Chuck]]'', Devon needs to lie to his wife about where he was when he was doing spy work with Chuck, who is trying in vain to guide the story using hand gestures. Astonishingly, she doesn't buy it.

'''Devon:''' Yeah, babe, I... I had to decapitate the bear. In self defense! In order to survive! I'm just glad you weren't there to see it. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|It was really grisly.]] }}

* ''[[The Middle]]'': When Sue is at the meeting listing all the activities she tried (and failed) at in a speech, Frankie gives her a 'hurry up' gesture from the audience. Sue sees this and concludes "Oh, yes, and tumbling."

* In an episode of ''[[Psych]]'', Shawn and Gus see a Bounty Hunter wink at them, and practically grow to [[Hero Worship]] him. It isn't until in their adult life, they find out said Bounty Hunter's wink was merely a facial tic.

 

 

* The classic old joke in which the Pope and a representative of the Jewish community debate each other in mime. ([http://www.scripting.com/98/04/stories/moisheAndThePope.html link])

** It always gets this troper that the former is a joke, while the latter is a significant religious parallel, yet containing the same humour value as the former.

 

* In ''[[A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]]'', Pseudolus pretends to be a soothsayer telling an old man's fortune, while Hysterium gestures frantically behind the old man's back.

 

== Video Games ==

* Quite prominent in ''[[CROSS†CHANNEL]]''. An example would be eye contact communication meaning "Please for the love of God get me out of this situation" (an awkward second meeting with Kiri) being mistaken for "Could you give us some privacy?"

* Fuuma from ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' never speaks and keeps his face hidden, so when he invades the Tokugawa camp in ''3'' and starts beating everyone to a pulp, it's understandable that Ieyasu thought he was an enemy. As it turns out, he just wanted to deliver a message.

* ''[[Mass Effect]] 2'' has a wonderful example from Mordin Solus. If you pursue a romantic relationship with a crew member he'll offer advice, which is quite helpful in the cross-racial routes. If you don't pursue a relationship, he turns ''you'' down. Apparently you ''blinked'' at him in a suggestive manner.

 

* Bad case for R2 in [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0171.html this] ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' strip, because Anakin can't understand R2's beep, first he thinks R2 talks about [[Timmy in a Well|Timmy In A Gravity Well]], then the worse came:

'''Anakin:''' So that's a yes? }}

** Note this is also [[Heroic Sociopath|Annie]] being a [[Jerkass]].

* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=507 here], you can tell Annie is just feeling intimidated, but Reynard, whose most anthropomorphic form is a teddy bear, mistakes it for something else entirely.

* This [[Karate Bears]] guy probably won't [http://www.karatebears.com/2011/12/attack-stance.html get any of these girls to go out with him.] No matter what he actually says.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'' has a scene where Nani communicates to Lilo through hand gestures behind Mr. Bubbles' back on what she should say to him. Lilo correctly understands the "brushing teeth" and "looking both ways before crossing the street" gestures, but (possibly intentionally) misinterprets Nani's <s>triumphant gesture of approval</s> grow strong gesture as "getting disciplined," and the following "stop" gesture as "five times a day."

* On one episode of ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'', Eddy is rendered speechless after swallowing a fly, and is given a bell to communicate with. Rolf claims to understand what the bell rings mean, but the things he does for (or rather, to) Eddy are clearly not what Eddy wants.

* Happens in an episode of ''[[Storm Hawks]]'' when Aerrow is attempting to interpret Radarr's mime:

* In ''[[Family Guy]]'', the news had a Mime Weatherman. When he tried to communicate rain, Tom thought he was stating that "parents would throw fecal matter on their children." Until an angry glare from said mime set Tom straight.

 

== Real Life ==

* This can happen pretty often when dealing with those with NLD and/or Asperger's Syndrome.

* Nonverbal communication in general is something of a craps shoot. That little nod that carried a simple message in your mind could be completely incomprehensible to someone else.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]