Talking Appliance Sidekick: Difference between revisions

A subtrope of [[Non -Human Sidekick]], normally a [[Snarky Non Human Sidekick]], that has become very popular in [[Web Comics]], the [[Talking Appliance Sidekick]] is an inanimate object, normally a household appliance that talks and... [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|you see where we're going with this]]. Beyond that, they are very likely to be part of a comic with a technological or a fandom bent; if it's [[Two Gamers On a Couch]], expect something related to game consoles, and if it's a comic about the Surrey Woman's Institute knitting circle, expect it to be a sewing machine. Such a character will have a lot of similar attributes of the [[Robot Buddy]], but sometimes is used as a parody or deconstruction of it and, like a lot of webcomic sidekicks, will be the outrageous [[Comedic Sociopath]].

Probably codified for its many imitators by ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' and their walking, talking DIVX platter, but the trope could well be [[Older Than They Think]] for examples that don't fit into the "Surrey Woman's Institute Knitting Circle" mold. For instance, KITT from ''[[Knight Rider]]'' was a talking car who was a very deadpan [[Non -Human Sidekick]] who inspired a number of other talking cars.

{{examples|Examples:}}

* By Season 3 of [[Script Fic]] ''[[Calvin and Hobbes The Series (Fanfic)|Calvin and Hobbes The Series]]'', [[Do -Anything Robot|the MTM]] is one of these.

* The ''[[Fallout New Vegas]]: Old World Blues'' expansion has ten appliances in the player's apartment with simulated personalities [[For Science!|as part of a scientific experiment]]. The cast includes [[Terrified of Germs|a germophobic sink]], [[Casanova Wannabe|a smooth-talking]] agricultural research station obsessed with "[[Does This Remind You of Anything?|seeding]]" everything it can, a [[Red Scare|virulently anti-Communist]] book processor that turns [[Orwellian Editor|potential seditious documents into blank sheets of paper]], and a [[Robotic Psychopath|psychopathic toaster]] that would [[Kill It With Fire|burn the world]], if only its heating coils were more powerful.

* A ''[[School House Rock]]'' series from the early 1980s, now largely forgotten, was titled ''Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips''. [[Non -Indicative Name|Scooter was a human; Mr. Chips was his computer sidekick.]]