Stop Copying Me: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Delkin:''' Remember that parrot game, the one in which I'd repeat everything you say? I've invented a new version!<br />

'''Delkin:''' Remember that parrot game, the one in which I'd repeat everything you say? I've invented a new version!<br />

'''Delkin:''' [[Rule of Three|Remember that parrot game, the one in which I'd repeat everything you say? I've invented a new version!]]|''[[Mezzacotta|Lightning Made of Owls]]'', [http://www.mezzacotta.net/owls/?comic{{=}}145 strip 145]}}

Remember when, as a kid, you used to copy everything a friend said? Well, you're not alone. Everyone played it, including the creators of fiction. It gets old very fast and, in some circumstances, is not even a game: it's just a way to get on someone's nerves. Obviously, this is exploited in comedy, with the end result "stop copying me!"... "I mean it!" Sometimes the victim will turn the table and force the perpetrator to either quit the game or say embarrassing things. This may still mean that the joke is on the victim, if the purpose of the game ''was'' to make them say embarrassing things.

That said, in horror, there is a niche for the game. The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 S30/E10 Midnight|Midnight]]" went down that road rather spectacularly.

* The second of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78jwi6TBGb0 these] Amazon.com commercials. A [[Call-and-Response And ResponseSong]] song.

{{quote|''Amazon dot com <br />

:''Amazon dot com <br />

''Makes me feel like a kid <br />

:''Makes me feel like a kid <br />

''Stop copying me |Stop copying me}}

* In the current{{when}} ad campaign for Cheez-It, the narrator explains that they allow the cheese to mature before putting it in thier snacks, and then show a clip where a scientist is speaking to a wheel of cheese that hasn't quite matured yet, and then usually cut to the next day, where the cheese has matured. In one commercial the immature cheese copies everything the scientist says, including the sound effects to the scientist clicking his pen, checking the box labeled "NOT READY", and clicking the pen again.

* ''[[Le Petit Spirou]]'' had this on several occasions: once when Spirou does it to get his grandfather to buy him ice cream, only for the grandfather to start copying ''him''. In another he does the "copy voice and movements" to one of his friends, until said friend punches himself in the jaw. Spirou declares that the curse that forced him to copy other people has been lifted thanks to his friend's sacrifice.

* Zuriaa played with this trope with {{spoiler|The Fleur-de-mal }} in the second book of ''The Meq Trilogy''.

* [[Played for Drama]] in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 S30/E10 Midnight|"Midnight"]]. An unknown alien ''thing'' invades the body of a passenger on a [[Bus Full of Innocents]]. It copies people's words. After a while, it starts talking in ''sync'' with the people... and eventually, it talks {{spoiler|before they talk, leaving the person they're copying paralyzed and unable to stop repeating what the monster says}}.

{{quote| '''Rosanne''': What's going on in here?<br />

'''Dan''': Darlene is repeating everything D.J. says a second before he says it.<br />

* This happened in a ''[[Morecambe and Wise]]'' sketch where Eric played the echo for the song [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|"I'm Wishing"]] but, while Ernie was still talking to him, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HgFLJLY-2o he kept repeating his instructions in his "singing" voice.]

** Hobbes, like most victims of this game. learned the hard way. The ''first'' time Calvin tried this, Hobbes reacted by insulting himself, which was exactly what Calvin was trying to trick him into doing. Calvin's dad falls into the same trap by daring Calvin to repeat that "I forfeit all my desserts for a week." (Calvin then asks if he can have them instead). But unlike Hobbes, Calvin's dad is not clever enough to get Calvin his [[PunA Worldwide Punomenon|just desserts]] later.

* Common in [[Chess]] among woodpushers--thiswoodpushers—this usually ends with the copier's queen captured or the like.

{{quote| Stops copies me!<br />