Nonverbal Miscommunication: Difference between revisions

{{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.

* As you might expect from a work that is saturated with misunderstandings, at least a couple of them would be non-verbal. Such is the case with the manga ''[[Saga of Tanya the Evil]]''. One example is Tanya gave her men an 'eager fighting spirit, and by extension, boost there morale. And their morale was boosted, but for a reason she didn't intend. They interpreted it as her [[Outscare the Enemy|threatening them]], because she used the same smile when [[Training from Hell|she first trained them]].

* 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.]]

== 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.

* 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!?"}}

* [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s song [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY6I4MwrX7k "Jackson Park Express"] is a nine-minute-long Cat Stevens-flavored exploration of this trope, in which the singer tells the story of an entire relationship that from beginning to end was a) communicated entirely nonverbally, and b) almost certainly existed solely in the singer's head, consisting as it did of his interpretations of the movements and expressions of a woman sitting across from him on the bus, who apparently never even noticed him.

* 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])

** [https://web.archive.org/web/20140108034756/http://lissiyu.com/ Here] is a Buddhist take on the same concept.

** 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.

{{quote|"You have been ..." (''waving'') "away ..." (''holds up all fingers twice, points to ears'') "ten, twenty, ears ... twenty years!" (''looking around'') "You are ... searching ..." (''rocking baby in arms, holding up two fingers'') "for a child ... '''two''' children!" (''flexes muscles'') "A fine big boy ..." (''bats eyelashes, swivels hips'') "...and a strange little boy?"}}

== 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.

* [http://thosedestined.pensandtales.com/?date=20080802 This]{{Dead link}} ''[[Those Destined]]'' strip.

* 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:

* 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.

* Discussed by Claudia in ''[[Kaspall]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20110308205419/http://kaspall.xepher.net/archive/pg238.html here], with some [[Alt Text]] lampshading.

== 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."

* Drives the plot of a [[No Dialogue Episode]] of ''[[CatDog]]'' that [[Something Completely Different|parodied old, black-and-white silent works]].

== 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]]

[[Category:A Failure to Communicate]]