Talkative Loon: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

When a character is meant to be completely, irretrievably unhinged, and it's inconvenient (as it would be in 95% of television scenes) to have them exhibit typical deranged behavior such as detached wandering, violent outbursts or obsessive drawing/crocheting/self-mutilation/etc, the general method for conveying their insanity is to have them constantly spout rambling incoherent phrases, e.g. "The avenue is clear and we must use it to convert the extra limbs - not yet though, not until the pastor has been distracted, or do they have the right parts? White fish elephant man which was lettuce matrix!"

 

See also [[Word Salad Philosophy]], [[Cloudcuckoolander]], and your average porn spam. If they're the main character, try [[Through the Eyes of Madness]]. A similarly disjointed title is a [[Word Salad Title]]; the musical equivalent is [[Word Salad Lyrics]]. Can often be caused by an [[Intoxication Ensues]]. The babble they spit out might include an [[Ice Cream Koan]] occasionally.

 

{{examples}}

* A story arc in [[Tintin]] ''(Cigars of the Pharaoh/The Blue Lotus)'' had the bad guys shooting people with poisoned darts to make them go mad; pretty much all the victims became this.

 

{{quote|''"I don't like limpid tears and I have to, invoke the ass," Xaldin shook his amazing voice..''}}

 

== [[Film]] ==

{{quote|"Aximo-portable talus! A wall with encystation--repetition from the headland unneccesary--the access at an azimuth of--multicrystalline metamorphism…"}}

 

* In ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', the E. Henry Thripshaw's Disease sketch. "And the thing about saying the wrong word is, A, I don't notice it, and B, sometimes orange water given bucket of plaster."

* Drusilla (and, briefly, Spike) on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Also the ward full of Glory's "brain-suck" victims in the Sunnydale hospital, {{spoiler|and Tara, who got brain-sucked late in the season and was later restored}}. All three examples also had some degree of prophetic or otherworldly knowledge.

** Also, the rest of the universe considers Crichton to be one as well, and upon learning that there is an entire planet where he's considered to be normal ("Erp"), Moya's crew resolves to avoid it like the plague.

* In the episode "Signals and Codes" of ''[[Burn Notice]]'', Michael is approached by a schizophrenic man named Spencer who, despite being a pattern-seeing computer genius also believes that Michael is a member of a secret group of guardian aliens fighting against the forces of darkness. At the end of the episode {{spoiler|he's on medication and Sam's gotten him a job with a cryptographer friend of his, so the babbling is a bit lessened}}

** Sometimes they're prophetic: "Find the hand that lies in the shadow of the light. In the eye of the husband of the eye of the cow."

** Sometimes [[No Fourth Wall]]: "Throughout history the nexus between man and machine has spun some of the most dramatic, compelling and entertaining fiction."

'''Hugo''' ''(on first meeting them)'': I know who you are. You're President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and the snowman. You've come because it's Arbor Day, and there aren't enough zippers to go around.

'''Myka''': Well, at least he's not evil or dead. }}

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

 

== [[Theater]] ==

** See also Beckett's ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNti7qCn-kg Not I]''. Justified that the subject is, in fact, a mute woman who has a lot to say about her traumatic life, but who would understand that from the rantings alone?

* Blanche from ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire]]''.

** Hamlet himself invokes this trope while feigning madness.

 

== [[Toys]] ==

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* This happens to the Colonel {{spoiler|generated by the AI GW}} at the end of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'':

{{quote|''"I hear it's amazing when the famous purple-stuffed worm in flap jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw-blink on Hara-kiri Rock. '''I need scissors! 61!'''"''}}

*** "Dad, I'm in space! 'I'm proud of you, son.' Dad, are you space? 'Yes. Now we are a family again.'"

*** SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE! YEEEEEEEHAAAAW!

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Giygas:''' Ness! Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness Ness!}}}}

* Some hobos in [[Kingdom of Loathing]], ''especially'' Hodgman the Hoboverlord, whose dialogue is randomly generated. A sample:

{{quote|"Which... PORCH swing? Tell me which porch swing. Growl... Where's... The Pope?" }}

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** Curiously, Chef Brian is actually somewhat comprehensible in this comic, in a completely roundabout way. Mostly.

* ''[[Narbonic]]'' had Dana, the last of the insane superintelligent gerbils.

* [[Purple Prose/Quotes|An example on this very wiki.]]

* The [[Ultimate Warrior]]. What makes it really scary is, it's hard to tell how much is [[Kayfabe]] and how much is serious. The reason [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony's]] parody version is so damn funny is because it's pretty accurate (with the possibly exception of the random pop culture references - "You'll need an [[Transformers|Energon cube]] the size of Wyoming to defeat ''my'' Autobots, [[Verbal Tic|Hoakogan]]!").

* In the field of mental health, this is known as schizophasia, sometimes called "word salad". It is usually symptomatic of other serious mental conditions, including schizophrenia. Schizophasia also falls within the broader term of formal thought disorder, or FTD.

* Macaws usually become this if they learn how to speak.

[[Category:Madness Tropes]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Word Salad Tropes]]