Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Giselle:''' ''To finish your [[Let's Duet|duet]]!''|''[[Enchanted]]''}}

 

 

Generally comes in two forms-- the single line and the complex dialogue. The single line goes something like,

Alice: Glasses? Check your head. }}

 

The complex dialogue is more elaborate:

Bob: "A forgetful lout like you," yeah, I know. }}

 

 

* [[Catchphrase Interruptus|Lampshading]] a [[Catch Phrase]] or [[Arc Words]]

Bob: Someone else. }}

* Mocking someone for their clichéd ideas:

Bob: Rescue you? I think not. }}

* [[Last-Second Word Swap]] ([[Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion|especially when]] the audience was expecting it to [[Rhymes on a Dime|rhyme]]):

Bob: Potato gun! }}

* Making a quick gag by having the finished sentence be [[Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?|nothing at all]] like what the first person was going to say.

Alice: I was going to say call the police. }}

* Showing that two people who don't know each other are thinking the same thing.

Bob: To raise the deflector shields! [[Geeky Turn On|Marry me]]. }}

* And more!

== Film--Live Action ==

* From ''[[Scary Movie]] 4'':

'''Cindy''': ...sentences. }}

* The twins from ''[[Snatch]]'' do this.

* In ''[[Stuart Little]]'', Mr. and Mrs. Little do this so frequently that they panic when they ''don't''. Stuart cutely lampshades this as he hears his future adoptive parents do this for the first time.

* From ''[[Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid]]'':

'''Rigby Reardon:''' Jerk! }}

 

* In [[The Hunger Games]], [[Cloudcuckoolander|Wiress]] tends to trail off or just stop speaking abruptly in the middle of her sentences, at which point Beetee finishes them.

* In Spindle's End by [[Robin McKinley]], Rosie and her best friend Peony take this one step further.

* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Artemis Fowl]] and the Opal Deception''. Mervall and Descant are twins, which are very rare among fairies.

"Shut up, you utter imbecile," snapped Opal, shooting Merv a poisonous glare. }}

* Reynolds and Claude's promotion interview in the penultimate chapter of [[The Pale King]]. {{spoiler|Chris}} incredulously wonders how long they had to practice it.

== Live Action TV ==

* Played with in (something like) this exchange in ''[[Community]]'':

'''Abed''': Exactly. It's creepy. }}

* ''[[Spin City]]'' got meta:

'''Carter:''' ...romantically involved. }}

* A ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' sketch had a housewife receive a visit from a doorman who helped her finish sentences by first finishing them for her, then starting them so that she'd have to finish them.

** Another ''Python'' sketch had an interview show with the host interviewing three men: one who only said the beginnnings of words, one who said the middles, and one who said the ends. After each said their own version of "Good evening," he had them all say "Good evening" together.

Third man: --ng. }}

* Similar to the ''[[Community]]'' example, ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)/Recap/S3 E11 Family Ties|Arrested Development]]'' had this exchange:

'''Michael:''' ''That'' time I was going to say "sandwiches". }}

* In ''[[Broken News]]'', the newscasters for PVS News routinely complete each others' sentences, or even words.

* Lampshaded by Brian in a season five episode of ''[[Queer as Folk]]'' after Justin has told him to stop being cynical:

'''Brian:''' "Do you mind if I finish my own sentences? I despise when couples do that." }}

* Sheridan and Delenn in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' do this a little.

* Attempted in ''They Think It's All Over'':

'''Gary:''' ...finish each others' sentences? }}

* It happens so frequently on ''[[Castle]]'' between Castle and Beckett that fellow detectives overhearing their conversation had to Lampshade it:

'''Esposito''': ''(just shakes his head)'' }}

** Another time, Ryan asks if they practice doing it when he and Esposito aren't around.

* ''[[NCIS: Los Angeles]]'' has Nell annoying the hell out of everyone by doing this on her first episode. [[Characterization Marches On]], though, and now she's just doing it to Eric. It's played for laughs, and incredibly cute. Other partners on the show tend to do this as well.

* All over the place on ''[[NCIS]]''. McGee/Abby, any partners, any time the field agents brief Gibbs, any time Gibbs gives orders and the others anticipate him . . .

* On ''[[The West Wing]]'', Will Bailey and Kate Harper do this in front of C.J., while trying to hide the fact that {{spoiler|they're a couple}}. Both lampshade how bad they are at it.

* In the episode ''Sateda'' of ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' Teyla attempts to do this with Sheppard; however it takes her three guesses to figure out what he's saying, and at one point she offends him by saying he has no friends.

'''Teyla''': A family? }}

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32 E6 The Almost People|"The Almost People"]], the Doctor and a doppelganger of the Doctor do this.

== Magazines ==

* In a TV Week interview, Hamish Blake and Andy Lee were talking about their close friendship.

'''Andy''': "Well done, you got that one." }}

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* A ''[[Dilbert]]'' [http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2002-04-16/ strip] features a guy who does that in a sinister way:

'''Sentence Finisher:''' Uncanny accuracy? }}

 

== Theatre ==

* One performance of ''[[Henry VI]] Part II'' has Suffolk dragged offstage and killed before delivering his last line, leaving it to be completed by the pirate captain, which adds a wonderful creepiness to the scene.

'''Pirate:''' Dies by pirates. }}

* Speaking of Shakespeare's Henry plays, in ''[[Henry IV]], Part I'', Prince Hal finishes Hotspur's dying speech for him:

'''Hal:''' For Wormes, braue Percy. }}

* ''[[Rent]]'': "Light My Candle":

'''Roger:''' Fingers. }}

* In ''The Serpent'', a dark version of the [[The Bible|Adam and Eve]] [[Adam and Eve Plot|story]] the Serpent manages to do this to ''itself'' [[Evil Gloating|every time it speaks]]. The Serpents' lines often also [[Meaningful Echo|overlap words]] and start before the previous line finishes.

'''Serpent 1:''' And [[The Omniscient|he knows]] [[Forbidden Fruit|you want to]].<br />

'''Serpent 5:''' [[Schmuck Bait|Is a crime]]<br />

'''Serpent 5:''' [[Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught|When you're caught?]] }}

** The [[Greek Chorus|chorus women]] also do this, though without the overlap.

'''Second WC:''' They are [[Epiphanic Prison|a prison]]:<br />

'''Third WC:''' Someone is locked inside them.<br />

'''Fourth WC:''' Sometimes, when it's [[It's Quiet... Too Quiet|very quiet]], I can hear them breathing. }}

* In ''The Gondoliers'' by [[Gilbert and Sullivan]], when Marco and Giuseppe agree to jointly become the King of Barataria, they announce this in a verse where each of them sings only every other bar. It works like this, with Marco's part in plain text and '''Giuseppe's''' in boldface:

'''Your Re'''publican '''fallacies.''' }}

 

== Web Original ==

* The Twins of Thermopylae from ''[[Girlchan in Paradise]]'' episode 3 do this, but end up subverting it:

*Both twins get shot by Kotomaru* }}

* In Thatguywiththeglasses.com's 3rd year anniversary special ''Suburban Knights'', the two groups, on a quest to find a hidden treasure, in seperate locations, invoke this trope.

''(Camera cuts to show they are right back where they started)'' }}

 

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'': Agnes Skinner says this trope complementing her relationship with Comic Book Guy in "Worst Episode Ever" when they meet Homer and Marge.

** In a recent episode, Homer tries desperately to make a connection with the new security guard:

'''Homer''': Each other's...? Sen...? Ten...? Ces? }}

* <s>Iggy and Lemmy</s> Hip and Hop in the [[Super Mario Bros. (animation)|Mario cartoons]].