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Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Difference between revisions
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{{examples}}
==
* A staple of comedy shows set in the days where telegrams were the norm (especially in the present day) is the telegram reader reading the STOP that denoted the end of sentences (in lieu of the non-existent period in Morse code.) Now many people [[Weird Al Effect|aren't even aware that this was a joke]].▼
* Frank Drebin in ''[[The Naked Gun|The Naked Gun 33 1/3]]'' does this with an autoprompter.
* In the film version of the musical ''[[Annie]]'', Oliver Warbucks did this for his radio appearance, where he reads "drop page" and "Warbucks interrupts".
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* In the 1975 ''[[Rollerball]]'' film, star player Jonathan E. is giving a TV interview. He reads from a prepared script, "Hello, pause, I'm Jonathan, smile."
* A rather laughable incident in the beginning of a Puss In Boots film starring Christopher Walken: The ogre is introduced to the audience, and the ogre then says precisely this: "Laugh! [[Evil Laugh|HA]] [[Evil Is Hammy|HA]] [[Un Evil Laugh|HA]]!" This was not corrected for some reason.
== Literature ==
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*** Incidentally, having Vimes say anything along the lines of "Delete the monarch" is hilarious considering people still hold it against him that his ancestor killed the king.
** Almost anything official that the Watch reads will be a combination of this and severe warping of [[Canis Latinicus]]. One other example is the "Habby-Us Corpus" procedure from ''Making Money'', in and around which Habby is used as a verb. Written fluency is not a common trait for Watchmen.
*** Subverted in [[
** Likewise, in ''[[Carpe Jugulum]]'' the infant princess is named Esmeralda Margaret Note Spelling of Lancre, due to the Lancre tradition that whatever the priest says at the naming ceremony is your name, said priest's nervousness, and the fact that Magrat, who owed her own name to a combination of this tradition and her mother's inability to spell "Margaret", was determined it wouldn't happen again. Still better off than the former king My God He's Heavy the First or farmer James What the Hell's That Cow Doing In Here Poorchick, though.
** And an earlier book mentioned the shortest reigning King of Ankh-Morpork, who was assassinated only 1.4 seconds after being crowned. Presumably at that point he was declaring his epithet, as he is recorded as King Loyala the Aargh.
* The book and play ''Enter Laughing'' takes its title from this trope, and the example therein.
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{{quote|...introduced by the Prime Minister, who said in part, "Gents, I wish to inthrojuice this candidate for the foor hundredth and last mimbership in our orther applause --." This frustrated him a little as he hadn't meant to read the 'applause", that was for the reporters to copy in the evening papers.}}
▲== Live Action TV ==
* "Stage freeze!" in ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia|The Nightman Cometh]]'', immediately rebuked with "You don't say stage freeze, you just do it!" on stage.
* Joey Tribbiani of ''[[Friends]]'' has done this on some of the (very few) occasions that we actually get to see him do some [[Just for Pun|act]]ing. For example, the time he got to read a news report: "Good evening, I'm Name!"
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* Perry from ''[[Undeclared]]'' did this.
* [[Stephen Colbert]] did this during one of his short transition segments between ''[[The Daily Show]]'' and ''[[The Colbert Report]]''.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20071019105138/http://www.nofactzone.net/?p=1912 Here is the story] and [http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-july-24-2007/so-close here is the actual toss].
*** Hey, teleprompter! Stop telling me what to do! Pause, then yell: This is the [[Colbert Report]]!
* Jerri Blank in ''[[Strangers with Candy]]'' does this occasionally, [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]] for no adequately explored reason. ("The two hug.") Nobody else ever notices.
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* ''[[iCarly]]'': In ''iBloop'' (A combination of [[Adam Westing]] and blooper reel [[Clip Show]]), Reed Alexander (Nevel's actor) messes up his line by doing this.
{{quote|'''Nevel:''' THIS IS A MOCKERY! EAT POPCORN!}}
* In one of the [[Meta Fiction|meta]]
{{quote|'''Dean-as-Jensen-as-Dean:''' Dean, grimly..."And yet somehow you got no problem with it!"}}
* ''[[Slings and Arrows]]'' has a variant: the actors are reading through the script for the first time, and the clueless intern is given the job of reading the stage directions. She ends up tripping up the actors by trying to read ''all'' the stage directions, including little one-word tags like "angrily".
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* [[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]] has Wayne and Brad do it during a skit.
{{quote|"Wayne. That's right, Brad! Dot dot dot..."}}
== New Media ==
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* Used as a [[Running Gag]] on FCW's "The Aksana Show". One episode even had Aksana struggling to read the teleprompter and her guest had to read it out for her.
* From the third season of NXT (where the commentators leaned heavily on the fourth wall), Michael Cole said out loud to his producers for feeding him a line meant for his broadcast partner.
== Radio ==
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* Tony Blair in ''[[Dead Ringers (TV series)|Dead Ringers]]''. "[[William Shatner|PEOPLE... of Britain]] -- ''insincere smile, sweaty forehead'' -- I speak to you today on the matter of an abject cabinet betrayal -- ''angry eyebrows, pointy finger!'' -- ..."
== Recorded and Stand Up Comedy==
▲* A staple of comedy shows set in the days where telegrams were the norm (especially in the present day) is the telegram reader reading the STOP that denoted the end of sentences (in lieu of the non-existent period in Morse code.) Now many people [[Weird Al Effect|aren't even aware that this was a joke]].
==
* ''[[Sunday in The Park With George]]'':
{{quote|'''Marie:''' George begins to activate the Chromolume machine as...
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* In Act IV, Scene 2 of ''[[As You Like It]]'', there is a song that includes "The rest shall bear this burden." It's unclear whether this is part of the lyrics or a stage direction on the singing (i.e., "The rest of the cast on stage will sing the chorus") and professional troupes have performed it both ways.
* ''Dog-ear'' by Sam Nolting, has Scriptreader, ( a narrator) who reads some of the stage directions. At the end of the play, the protagonists discover her, and promptly steal her script.
== Video Games ==
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{{quote|'''Caboose:''' You told me to read everything with my name in front of it!}}
* When filming a cereal commercial in a [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail165.html sbemail] easter egg, [[Homestar Runner|Strong Bad]] actually says "Wipe my brow" while simultaneously doing just that.
== Web Comics ==
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== Web Original ==
* In ''[[Songs to Wear Pants To]]'' requests where the submitter includes lyrics, Andrew will occasionally sing parts of the message that were clearly just further instructions about the song. Some examples would be "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130514124842/http://www.songstowearpantsto.com/songs/the-girl-behind-the-window/ Girl Behind the Window]", where he sings "Refrain!" before every chorus, and the ending of "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130514085344/http://www.songstowearpantsto.com/songs/the-head-of-a-radio/ Head of a Radio]": "Look at Ed's trousers/ The Ed line must be shouted, not sung/ Because he has horrid trousers".
** One song even consisted of the words of the e-mail, which Andrew simply sings back to the listener. Hey, since they only gave him a suggestion, why not?
* BriTANicK has a sketch where Brian is trying to remember the next line in his favorite Shakespearean monologue. Being the good friend he is, Nick starts throwing out random lines, including, "Exeunt, Malvolio."
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* The Creeper in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' speaks like this even though he ''has'' no script.
{{quote|You're working for--dramatic pause--''the Joker!''}}
== Real Life ==
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* Done in one of the entries in an amateur script competition by the now-defunct Insomniak Theatre Company in Pennsylvania. The director read all of the stage directions out loud while the play was being performed. It was particularly egregious because the characters were ''performing'' the actions while they were being read.
* [[John Waters]] says a lot of takes were ruined in his underground days due to Edith Massey's tendency to do this.
* [[Hillary Clinton]] read a "sigh" out loud in a speech in a speach attempting to retort [[Donald Trump]]'s scathing attack on her repeated corruption.
----
{{quote|End examples.
Add witty [[The Stinger|stinger]] here.
Display
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:Dialogue]]
▲[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]
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