Talking to Themselves

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Three of those characters are in the main cast. And three more are recurring characters.

"Don't get me wrong, I love the voice acting in this game. But occasionally we have Chris Metzen congratulating Chris Metzen for slaying Chris Metzen." —World of Warcraft forums

Professional voice actors pride themselves on range. So, hiring a few good VAs means you can take care of many, many characters with a small cast (especially if one or two actors are a Man of a Thousand Voices).

Oftentimes, this results in funny situations, like two characters played by the same person having intense conversations and heated arguments with each other. The talent is in making sure the audience doesn't know it. If jokes are made about this, it's Actor Allusion.

In voice acting, the process is fairly simple, with the actor just doing a different take (although some good voice actors can do it in real-time). The actor's vocal range is the only thing that might betray commonality.

This is sometimes actually invoked on purpose, as it can make you think, "Ohey, they're a clone? Why didn't I realize that before?"

Not to be confused with Adventure Narrator Syndrome, Sounding It Out, Thinking Out Loud or Inner Dialogue. Compare Acting for Two, which is the live-action version. Compare also Holding Both Sides of the Conversation, which is an in-universe example of this trope, where a character is pretending to hold a conversation with another non-present (or non-existent) character, in order to maintain some kind of charade. Compare also Solo Duet, which is when one singer performs both sides of a duet.

Examples of Talking to Themselves include:

Anime

• 1977's Yatterman by Tatsunoko Production had the Dorombo gang consisting of Doronjo (Noriko Ohara), Boyacky (Jouji Yanami) and Tonzura (Kazuya Tatekabe). Following Yatterman is Zenderman, Rescueman, Yattodetaman, Ippatsuman, and Itadakiman, and they all featured expies of the first trio all voiced by the same trio of seiyuu. So you can imagine what happens when all of these trios would meet in the 1993 Time Bokan OVA....
• Bleach
  • Being alter egos, Ichigo and Shirosaki/Hollow Ichigo, both voiced by Ichigo's seiyuu in any language, have a few conversations, though most of them are conversations with their swords.
  • Due to being a Long Runner and having Loads and Loads of Characters, English dub actors are now voicing ABOUT FIVE popular to obscure roles each!
• There is frequent doubling among the actresses playing the 31 schoolgirls from Negi's class in the North American dub of Mahou Sensei Negima It's relatively common to find two or more girls all performed by the same actress chattering among themselves:
  • Alison Retzloff plays both of the twins Fumika and Fuuka Narutaki, who are always talking to each other.
  • Monica Rial plays Konoka Konoe, Kazumi Asakura and Satsuki Yotsuba; in episode 16 she has to voice both sides of a "sports announcer" team when Konoka and Kazumi host a contest broadcast to the dorm TV set.
  • "Love Sensation", featuring Laura Bailey as Ayaka Yukihiro and Laura Bailey as Evangeline McDowell.
  • Notably averted in the original, where each girl has a different VA, quite impressive.
• Shaman King's dub also had this with the main hero Yoh Asakura and the Big Bad Hao being voiced by the same actor, Sebastian Arcelus, which made the later interactions and fight scenes all the more impressive.
• Because of its Loads and Loads of Characters, some of the voice actors in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS had to voice multiple characters. Luckily for the studio, it is nearly impossible to tell in many cases.
  • Chiwa Saitou voiced lead Action Girl Subaru, her antagonist counterpart Nove, and The Dragon, Quattro. Particularly impressive considering that one is a Genki Girl, one is angry all the time, and one is dripping villainy.
  • Shizuka Ito did Shari, Otto, Cinque, and Deed.
  • Kaori Mizuhashi did Yuuno, Vivio, and Sein, though this is generously averted in the main series as Yuuno was Demoted to Extra. However in the PSP game Gears of Destiny this is played straight with Yuuno and Vivio.
  • Mai Nakahara did both Teana and Laguna Granscenic, also averted.
  • Natsuko Kuwatani did both Arf and Lutecia, though like in Kaori Mizuhashi 's case, averted.
  • Marina Inoue did both Wendi and Erio, so this is played straight.
  • While StrikerS hasn't been dubbed yet, the first season of Nanoha had a similar moment when both Momoko and Falin (both voiced by Michelle Ann Dunphy) had a scene together.
• The titular characters of Ranma ½ and Inuyasha get a moment of this.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Most voice actors who dub Yugi Muto also voice Yami Yugi in the second anime series. Also, Megumi Ogata in the first.
• Both the Japanese and English versions of Dragonball Z.
  • Christopher Sabat is most notable in the dub, playing Vegeta, Piccolo, and Yamcha, among numerous bit characters. This led to a hilarious slip-up when Vegeta's line of "Now what?" in internal monologue came out in Jeice's voice instead.
  • The Japanese version, meanwhile, has Hiromi Tsuru (mother/daughter Bulma/Bra), Daisuke Gori (Mr. Satan/Gyuumaou, Gohan and Goku's fathers-in-law), Yuuko Minaguchi (mother/daugher Videl/Pan) and Masako Nozawa (Goku/Gohan/Goten/Bardock/Goku Jr., father/son/son/grandfather/great-great-grandson! In other words, Every male member of his family except Raditz)
  • Also, Josh Martin plays both Fat Buu and Kid Buu in the dub, who spend about four episodes fighting each other.
    • Same with Kozo Shioya in the Japanese version, who voices all of Boo's forms—so in addition to the above, there's also Fat Boo and Skinny Evil Boo's brief fight.
  • In the Mexican dub of Dragon Ball Jes ús Barrero does the voices for both Yamcha and Puar, who are always together. He only voiced them in the first episodes, though.
  • Let's not forget how Laura Torres voices Goku, Gohan AND Goten as children. They got different male VA's for their adult selves, though. Though this may not count, since kid Goku, kid Goten and kid Gohan do not interact with one another. (Except in the video games.)
• This is actually a plot point in Excel Saga: The Great Will of the Macrocosm is, in reality, just another facet of Pedro's Wife simply on the grounds that they share the same voice actress. Lampshaded with a quick title card mentioning: "Tough; she still only gets one paycheck."
• Mashiro Kazahana and Fumi Himeno share a voice actress in the original Japanese version of My-HiME, which partially underlines the otherworldliness of both characters.
• Gundam SEED
  • In one scene of Gundam SEED Destiny, the two idols, Lacus Clyne and Meer Campbell face off in the ruins, resulting in their voice actress (both Japanese and English dubs -- Rie Tanaka and Chantal Strand, respectively) acting out this trope.
  • Prior to Destiny, in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Houko Kuwashima performs the voices of both Natarle Badgiruel and Fllay Allster, and ends up Talking To Herself on at least one occasion towards the end of the series.
• Rie Tanaka (see above) must have had deja vu when she voiced Chi and Freya in Chobits.
• Even as a guest star, Tanaka-san doesn't seem to avoid this. Consider Hell Girl ep. 12, where she voiced a shy girl and the online voice of her Internet pen-pal. (The actual person is a male.)
• Out of 8 characters played by Rina Satou in Hayate the Combat Butler, the Mad Scientist Shiori and Robot Eight play out this trope.
• Yukino Satsuki as well as her dub counterpart Megan Hollingshed, as Mion and Shion Sonozaki in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Justified—they are identical twins.
• This trope appears in an episode of Zettai Karen Children. With Rie Kugimiya playing the teleporter Mio and the psychic squirrel Momotaro, she gets a few chances to talk to herself and once, Momotaro becomes Mio's Head Pet.
• Naruto
  • Averted by the dub. In Shino Aburame's first appearance, he was voiced by Sam Riegel, who also voiced Zaku. Later on, they fight each other in the chunin exam, but by that point, Derek Stephen Prince had replaced Sam Riegel as the voice of Shino.
  • Something similar happened with Itachi, who was voiced by Might Guy's VA Skip Stellrecht in his brief first appearance, but Crispin Freeman had taken the role by the time that they ended up talking to each other about fifty episodes later.
  • They also invert is: Zetsu has a Split Personality, with two different halves of his body sounding different. In the original is was just one voice, but the ViZ dub gave each side a different voice one, so instead of one voice actor pretending to be two different characters at once, you have two voice actors pretending to be one character (though this was only in his first appearance).
  • There's also Gamakichi and Gamatatsu in the English version, who talk to each other in several scenes. They're voiced by Kakashi's VA, Dave Wittenberg, but don't ever talk to him.
• The English dub of Code Geass used Michelle Ruff for several voices, including Euphemia li Britannia and the stray cat that would come to be known as Arthur, who had a conversation of sorts in episode five, when they both had their first speaking roles.
• Michelle Ruff also does a large portion of the incidental female characters in Zatch Bell.
• Lucky Star:
  • Barely averted where the same English-dub voice actress does Tsukasa and Minami. (In the original Japanese, they have different seiyuu.) Minami's in Yutaka's group though, and she's also The Quiet One.
  • Many background characters share the same seiyuu or dub voice actor, but they don't interact.
• Pokémon
  • In the 4Kids dub, there were a few examples of this, and all of them were main characters. Veronica Taylor—Ash, May, and Delia Ketchum ("The Right Place At The Right Mime" had May and Delia sounding very similar). Rachel Lillis—Misty and Jesse. Eric Stuart—Brock and James. Oh yeah, Ted Lewis did James for the first several episodes, didn't he? Well, he went on to do Giovanni and Tracey, though that's not an example.
  • PUSA isn't innocent of this either. Jimmy Zoppi/Billy Beach, as well as still doing Gary, took over as James and Meowth, while Michelle Knotz voiced Jessie, May and Misty.
  • And in both dubs, it's incredibly common for members of the main cast to also voice many of the Pokémon on the show, and in the case of Pokémon on their own teams, it essentially mean they are commanding themselves. Just look up who voices who; you'll find plenty of trainer/Pokémon crossovers.
  • This happens in the original Japanese, too. Megumi Hayashibara, for example, not only voices Musashi (Jessie) but also Fushigidane (Bulbasaur), Pidgeon (Pidgeotto), and Hikozaru (Chimchar).
  • Quite a bit less known than her main role in the series, but Ikue Ohtani voices Manene (Mime Jr.).
  • Emily Jenness voiced both Cynthia and Dawn.
  • Ritchie in the Indigo League ended up battling a trainer with the same voice actor.
  • In one of the more bizarre incidents of Talking to Themself in the English dub, Professor Ivy and all three of her triplet research assistants were voiced by Kayzie Rogers.
  • In the current dub, Bill Rogers is the voice of Brock, Brock's Sudowoodo and Brock's Croagunk. (His Happiny is voiced by Emily Jenness.)
• The American dub of Seven of Seven only avoids this if you consider the various Nanas to be one character; if not, you have Veronica Taylor doing all seven Nanas (and two of them use her "Ash" and "May" voices!). The original Japanese version used different actresses for the different Nanas.
• Happens quite a bit in Slayers.
  • In episode 15, mother and daughter characters Cally and Paula are both voiced by Rachael Lillis (and just to make it funny, it's in her Jessie and Misty voices)
  • In episodes 10 and 11 of NEXT, Rachael does it again playing both Martina and Kira.
  • Later in NEXT, we have Veronica Taylor voicing both Amelia and Auntie Aqua.
  • In TRY, Scottie Ray plays both Valgaav and Erulogos. They just barely invoke this trope.
• Digimon
  • In Digimon Tamers, Renamon (and evolutions), Ruki's mother, and Ruki's grandmother are all voiced by Imai Yuka. She probably had a lot of fun when said characters had lunch together in one scene.
  • Digimon Adventure 02 also had Iori and Armadimon, who were partners and both voiced by Megumi Urawa in the Japanese version, and the dub had Veemon and Ken both voiced by Derek Stephen Prince.
  • In the Latin-American dub, Roberto Mendiola voiced Yukio Oikawa, Mummymon... and Malo Myotismon. And made the three sound very different. Crowning Moment of Awesome for Mr. Mendiola, indeed.
  • Funny enough, that's exactly the case in the original Japanese as well, where Oikawa, Mummymon and BelialVamdemon are all voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa. You really have to listen carefully to hear any resemblance between the three characters' voices.
  • Speaking of the Latin-American dub, Digimon Adventure's main voice cast was the same size as the group of Digidestined, which meant each main character shared a voice with a Digimon partner: Tai with Gomamon, Matt with Agumon, Sora with Gabumon, T.K. with Biyomon, Mimi with Patamon, Izzy with Palmon, and Joe with Tentomon. When Kari joined, she and Gatomon would share their voice actor with almost no differentiation, making their case the most blatant one (not to mention that, being partners, they played this trope much more frequently than the others). 02, however, recast Kari, Gatomon, and all human males besides Joe, drastically decreasing their use of this trope.
  • In Digimon Adventure, Jou and his older brother, Shin, are both voiced by Masami Kikuchi. In Digimon Adventure 02, Kikuchi also voiced their middle brother, Shuu, and in the CD dramas, he also voiced both their parents. In one family dinner with Gomamon, a six-person conversation is voiced by two actors. It's interesting because the characters (Jou and Shuu especially) have similar inflections, but distinct voices.
  • Steve Blum barely avoided it in Adventure 02 (neither Flamedramon or Raidramon got to chat up BlackWarGreymon, though Poromon gets awfully close in episode 33), but in Tamers he voices three main characters that sound completely different: Guilmon, Kenta, and Yamaki!
  • In the Latin American dub of Digimon Savers Rolando de la Fuente voices both Thomas and Agumon, funny because they have completely different voices.
  • Digimon Xros Wars has Daisuke Kishio voicing both Zenjirou, Beelzebumon, Blastmon and, in the sequel series, Dracmon. Then there's Bin Shimada, who voices Tactimon, Omegamon and Starmon.
  • Then there's the fact that Miki and Megumi are both voiced by Karina Altamirano.
• Both the title character of Afro Samurai and his annoying sidekick/hanger-on Ninja-Ninja are voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. Turns out it's like this in series to some degree, as Ninja is a figment of Afro's imagination.
• Blood+
  • Saya's adopted little brother, Riku, and the Big Bad, her twin sister, Diva, are both voiced by Akiko Yajima in the original. So she not only talks to herself, she rapes and kills herself. Of course, poor little Riku doesn't actually do much talking during that particular interaction as opposed to whimpers of absolute terror. It also makes Diva's later transformation into Riku's appearance and using his voice all the more flawless and disturbing.
  • In the English dub, Kari Wahlgren voices both Saya and Diva. Crispin Freeman voices Hagi, Van Argeno, Joel Goldscmidt, and several other characters. Wally Wingert voiced Amshell, Nathan, and George.
• Talking to Himself is relatively rare in Brazilian dubs, especially nowadays, since there are rules about it, but there were some exceptions. In Inuyasha's dub, voice actress Leticia Quinto voices both Kagome and Kikyo. In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Marik and Odion were both voiced by voice actor Jose Parisi Jr... A season later they must've noticed that the move was not wise, as Marik's voice actor was changed.
• Briareos and Tereus share the same voice actor in Appleseed Ex Machina, by the virtue of having nearly identical genetic makeup.
• In the Horitsuba Gakuen CD dramas for Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and ×××HOLiC, twin brothers Fay and Yuui are both voiced by Daisuke Namikawa.
• Axis Powers Hetalia
  • Namikawa also voices twins, where he uses a Fay-like voice for spacey North Italy and a deeper, louder voice for grumpy South Italy.
  • Katsuyuki Konishi does the same trick with America and Canada, the difference being that America TALKSLIKEHE'SJUSTHADANESPRESSO and Canada is Konishi speaking as quietly as he can, eh.
  • While this trope is mostly averted in the English dub, Eric Vale plays America and Canada in pretty much the exact same way.
  • Atsushi Kousaka takes the cake by voicing the Jerkass Prussia, Meganekko Estonia, and The Philosopher Greece.
  • Raivis/Latvia is a VERY weird case. In the CD dramas he was voiced by the female Rie Kugimiya, who voices the Token Loli Liechtenstein. In the anime, he's voiced by the male Kazutada (later "Kokoro") Tanaka, who also voices Poland.
  • While Namikawa voiced the younger South Italy for a line in the first episode, both him and Chibitalia are now voiced by the same actress, Aki Kanada. While Chibitalia's voice is shrill and the epitome of Tastes Like Diabetes, Chibiromano's voice is rougher and more fitting of his brattier, grumpier personality.
• Shugo Chara has lead heroine Amu and Dia, one of her Charas, voiced by Kanae Itou. Dia is essentially a part of Amu herself, but Amu's other charas have different voices.
• The dub of Great Teacher Onizuka does this frequently, with Steve Blum and Wendee Lee voicing several major and minor characters.
• Sara Werec of Soukou no Strain and Mariette, the bully who torments her, are voiced by Kawasumi Ayako in Japanese and Caitlin Glass in English. Tanaka Rie also played two characters, but they never spoke to one another.
• In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, the nine Tachikomas are all voiced by Sakiko Tamagawa, and they frequently chatter with each other. The English dub uses several different actresses.
• In Ronin Warriors, Sage and Cye are both voice-acted by Michael Donovan, which is why Cye has an inexplicable sort-of-British-like accent.
• In both Tenchi Muyo! and the Pretty Sammy OAVs, Sasami and Tsunami talked to each other in both the Japanese (Chisa Yokoyama) and English (Sherry Lynn) versions.
• In the OAV Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 2 - Shiroki Ryuu no Miko, Ikue Ohtani voices both Fujiwara no Yukari and Fujiwara no Misono. Justified in that not only they are twins, but both are clearly expies of Fuji-hime from the original Harukanaru Toki no Naka de (also voiced by Ohtani in the first OAV and the TV anime series). The voices are slightly different, as Yukari is female and Misono is male.
• In the Japanese version of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, both Alphonse Elric and the miniature panda Shao May are voiced by Rie Kugimiya.
• The Swedish dub of Cyborg 009 is ridiculously blatant about this. How bad is it, then? One person does all the voice for all characters. Men, women, children, what-have-you. Any scene where any two or more characters are talking thus falls under this trope.
• Magnificently averted in Legend of Galactic Heroes, where only two characters in a cast of 660 share a voice actor, and they never interact.
• Occurs in One Piece when Jimbei and Moria, both voiced by Katsuhisa Hoki, briefly clash during the Marineford arc. Thankfully, the two have completely distinct voices, Jimbei's being deep and gruff while Moria's is high and shrill.
• Some combinations imitate ventriloquism. Vampire Princess Miyu has Megumi Ogata voicing both Reiha and her Creepy Doll Matsukaze. Galaxy Angel has Mika Kanai counterbalancing Vanilla's lack of speech through Nomad gushing over her.
• Early European Portuguese dubs had this bad: Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, and Sailor Moon had less than ten voice actors. They were fairly versatile, though.
• Sailor Moon had a couple of shared seiyuu (Keiko Han as both Luna and Queen Beryl, Chiyoko Kawashima as Haruna-sensei, Shingo and Sailor Pluto), but usually the characters were too different, not allowing even for a small conversation between them. Then came the fifth season and brought in Chibi-Chibi, voiced by Usagi's seiyuu Kotono Mitsuishi—it's rather easy to pull off this trope when one of the characters has a trait of Pokémon-Speak. Worth noting that the last pair actually ends up playing the role of a Red Herring, especially with all the guesses and jokes about Chibi-Chibi being Usagi's second daughter. Had the anime followed the manga closely, the shared voice would've had a justification, as Chibi-Chibi is Sailor Cosmos, who is hinted to be a form of Usagi from a distant future. In the anime, she is a completely different entity, namely, Galaxia's own Star Seed -- meaning that in this continuity she has nothing to do with Usagi apart from wanting to encourage her to defeat Galaxia.
• Fairy Tail has a lot of characters played by the same person in the Japanese version. For example: Jet, Macao, Horologium, and Sagittarius are voiced by Masaki Kawanabe.
  • In a literal example of people talking to themselves, a bunch of characters get to meet their Edolas counterparts, leading to plenty of this trope throughout the arc.
  • Special mention goes to episode 98, which features Cana and Aquarius bickering with one another—both voiced by Eri Kitamura. Lucy even lampshades how similar the two are (note while Lucy makes such a statement in the manga, it's arguably more effective in the anime to compare just how similar the two sound together).
• All of the five characters from Mori no Ando are voiced by Takishi Taniguchi.
• In one episode of Detective Conan, Conan voices one of that week's victims, a female pop star. Many jokes are had at Conan's expense, especially considering that he can't sing for his life, but his voice actress is really a singer.
• THE iDOLM@STER - Ami and Mami are both voiced by Asami Shimoda. Justified in that they're twins.
• Spanish group Luk Internacional is infamous for this, having only a few voice actors, yet doing many series with Loads and Loads of Characters. An example of this was the same VA, with the exact same voice, doing Crayon Shin-chan's Masao and Shinko-chan, among other minor characters. Amusingly, half of the Kochikame male characters seem to be voiced by Shin-chan's dad, recognizable because he always sounds the same.
• The English dub of Let's Go Quintuplets features Chantal Strand voicing best friends, Vanessa and Bridget. Due to their friendship, this tends to happen.
  • A sample
• Risky☆Safety: Rie Iwatsubo plays both of the title characters in the original Japanese. In episode 23, she sings both sides of their duet.
• In the original Japanese version of A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun, Sasaki Nozomi plays all of the Misaka Sisters except for the much younger Last Order. In the English dub, Brittney Karbowski plays all of the Misaka Sisters including Last Order, and the original Misaka Mikoto as well.

Fan Works

• ItsJustSomeRandomGuy does all of the male voices in I'm a Marvel And I'm a DC. Mostly, he's very good at making each voice different—with the exception of the strangely gentle Captain America voice, they're all similar, but distinct. However, when characters are worked up they all sound the same.
• The internet radio drama Fobbies Are Borange, at one point, had a voice actor have a knife fight with himself.
• Every character in Reynaldo the Assassin is voiced by the same man. This is very noticeable at some points.
• Little Kuriboh of Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series. Also by extension any Abridged Series. LittleKuriboh gets extra points though for doing a live-action reenactment of his first episode. Basically him being taped on a street in England switching voices/characters from one second to the next.
• Generally averted in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney fandub of "Rise From The Ashes", with one notable exception: Phoenix and Edgeworth are the same actor. Of course, there is much shouting back-and-forth between them.
• A minor one in Turnabout Storm; one of the Ponyville Detention Center's guards that Phoenix Wright speaks with is voiced by the same guy that voices Phoenix.

Films -- Animation

• Peter Pan
  • In the Disney animated version, in the scene where Mr. Smee is harassed and threatened by some of the other pirates, that's Bill Thompson having one long conversation with himself.
  • Also, as part of a tradition, Hans Conreid, the voice of Captain Hook, also does the voice of Mr. Darling.
  • And in the film's sequel, as well as several spinoffs such as House of Mouse, Kingdom Hearts, and Epic Mickey, all of the pirate characters from this movie (with the sole exception being Captain Hook) are all now voiced by Jeff Bennett.
• Repeat The Ten Commandments Moses/God example below for Val Kilmer in The Prince of Egypt, due to a few last-minute changes in recording times.
• In its original language, the animated film Terkel in Trouble had a pretty huge cast all voiced by one single person, including songs.
• In Pocahontas, David Ogden Stiers voices both Governor Ratcliffe and his valet Wiggins.
• Robin Williams was the voice actor for both Ramon and Lovelace in Happy Feet.
• In Mad Monster Party Allen Swift voiced all the characters with the exceptions of Baron von Frankenstein, Francesca, and the Bride of Frankenstein the Monster's Mate.
• In the Brazilian dub of Beauty and the Beast, where Beast and Gaston are voiced by the same actor. But the fight between the characters is brief in dialogue (the only line the Beast says to Gaston is "Go away").
• 90% of Disney's new A Christmas Carol is basically Jim Carrey showing the viewer he is still insane.
• Likewise the film of The Polar Express is Tom Hanks enjoying his own company and then narrating it all.
• Eight Crazy Nights has Adam Sandler voicing Davey, Whitey, Elanor, and the helpful forest deer; the first three talk to each other a lot because Whitey and Elanor take in Davey because he has no place to live after his trailer was burned down.
• In Lady and the Tramp Bill Thompson plays five characters Jock the Scottish terrier, a bulldog, Joe the Italian cook, a dachshund, and a police officer; the bulldog and the dachshund talk to each other in a few scenes.
• In The Brave Little Toaster, both the Air Conditioner and the Hanging Lamp are voiced by the late Phil Hartman.
• Alvin and The Chipmunks
  • One of the older movies features the Chipettes; you can find videos on Youtube showing that if you slow down the audio, it's just one woman voicing all three.
  • Likewise Alvin, Simon, and David are all voiced by Ross Bagdasarian Jr., and in the original records and cartoon his father Ross Bagdasarian Sr. voiced David as well as all Alvin and Simon. Theodore was voiced by Janice Karman (voice of the Chipettes).
• Lilo and Stitch: Chris Sanders actually not only voiced Stitch, but also his Evil Counterpart Leroy as well.
• An early example would be fact that in Pinocchio, Charles Judels actually voiced both Stromboli and the Coachman, both villains that became Karma Houdinis at the end of the film.
• Lea Salonga actually does the singing voice of both Jasmine and Mulan. This is especially noticeable in several Disney Princess CDs and music videos where the two are both singing at the same time.
• If you listen very closely at the very beginning of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, you can actually hear Cree Summer voicing the former Queen of Atlantis. Cree is normally the voice of Kida, who ends up becoming a queen at the end of the film, and is the only princess created by Disney to ever actually become one.
• Lampshaded at the end of Cars where Pixar Regular John Ratzenberger, who voices Mack the semi truck in this film, is actually making comments about the fact that "some cheap production company" is using the same voice for the automobile versions of Hamm, P.T. Flea, and Yeti the Abominable Snowplow, respectively.
  • In the sequel, both Luigi's Aunt Topolino and the Queen of England are voiced by the same actress, as with the actors playing Siddeley and Leland Turbo and Fillmore and Tony Trihull.
• Subverted in The Little Mermaid II where Pat Carroll (the voice of Ursula) actually does the voice of Morgana, Ursula's younger and skinnier sister and the film's main antagonist, but Ursula is now long dead when the sequel took place (which explains why Morgana was the villain in the first place).
• Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui has Lhikan, Krekka (Both voiced by Michael Dobson), Onewa and Matau (both voiced by Brian Drummond). Expect a fair amount of this trope happening amongst them. Web of Shadows continues the trend with Onewa and Matau again.
• In Spirited Away, the sisters Yubaba and Zeniba are voiced by the same actress both in Japanese and English. The English actress, Suzanne Pleshette, indicated that she changed the differences between the two voices; the Japanese voice of Zeniba was lower-pitched, whereas she changed her voice to be higher-pitched.
• J. Pat O'Malley actually voiced both Colonel the sheepdog and Horace Badun in One Hundred and One Dalmatians and both Colonel Hathi the elephant and Buzzy the vulture in The Jungle Book.

Films -- Live-Action

• Over the course of the three Austin Powers movies, Mike Myers played Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, Fat Bastard, and Goldmember. So, in the scenes between Austin and any of the villains, Mike Myers was basically talking to, or fighting, himself.
• In Resident Evil Extinction, Doctor Isaacs clones Milla Jovovich's character Alice. While these clones do not interact for most of the movie, in the final battle sequence between Alice and Isaacs, Alice watches a clone of herself die in her arms - therefore Jovovich was watching herself die. The movie ends with Alice and a clone standing side-by-side and looking at dozens more clones. The fourth movie, Resident Evil: Afterlife, starts with Alice and her clones bringing down an Umbrella facility, resulting in two or three Alices, all played by Jovovich, featuring in shots at the same time.
• Back to The Future Part II:
  • There's a scene in which future Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, sits down at the dinner table with his son, played by Michael J. Fox, and his daughter, also played by Michael J. Fox.
  • In a later scene, an elderly Biff Tannen converses with a young Biff Tannen, both played by Thomas F. Wilson. One even hands a book to the other.
  • Not forgetting the scene where 1985 Doc Brown has a conversation with his "1955 counterpart".
  • In the future cafe, time-traveling Marty and Marty junior are both crouched down behind a bar. Marty quickly grabs Marty junior's hat off the latter's head, even though they're both played by Fox.
• In Dave Kevin Kline plays both the president of the U.S. (Bill Mitchell) and the head of a local employment agency who gets hired by the Secret Service to stand in for the president (Dave Kovic). At one point President Mitchell inspects Dave to make sure he'll be convincing.
• Perhaps in a nod to this, in Wild Wild West, Kline plays Artemis Gordon, who on multiple occasions impersonates President Ulysses S. Grant... also played by Kline. They interact quite a bit, with Gordon even trying to fool the villain into abducting HIM by decrying the real deal as a poor imitation. It, like the film, could have gone better.

Dr. Arliss Loveless: We'll take 'em BOTH!

• Peter Sellers, after honing his gift for voices on radio (see below), became famous for this on film:
  • He plays three characters in The Mouse That Roared, including a woman. The film lampshades this by noting they are all descendants of the founder of their very small country.
  • Two of his three characters in Dr. Strangelove share scenes and converse.
  • He plays both the hero and the prince he's impersonating in 1979's The Prisoner of Zenda.
  • The penultimate scene of his final film, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, has a conversation between his two characters (Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith).
  • A scene that didn't make it to the final cut of Murder By Death had Sellers, as a Charlie Chan parody, giving driving directions to Sellers, as a Sherlock Holmes parody.
• The late Alec Guinness played eight roles in the 1949 comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. Only two at a time ever had a conversation, though.
• Kung Pow: Enter the Fist is essentially a dubbed-over wuxia film with some new footage spliced in. Steve Oedekerk did all the dubbing himself, with a single exception (the new character "Whoa"). Essentially it's an entire movie of him talking to himself, with a single scene in which another performer is heard.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
  • Lawrence Makoare has a short scene giving orders to himself, as he plays both the Witch King and Gothmog (the butt-ugly chief orc).
  • Gimli (played by John Rhys-Davies) talking to Treebeard (voiced by John Rhys-Davies).
  • Andy Serkis, famous for portraying Gollum, does the voices for a number of orcs and Uruk-hai. Particularly, the argument at the beginning of Two Towers about whether they should eat the hobbits? All Andy Serkis, Talking to Himself.
• Manos: The Hands of Fate was apparently so cheaply filmed, the camera could not record sound and as such, all the voices had to be dubbed in later and were done so with just four people. As Joel pointed out in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, there is a scene where it is fairly obvious that one person is voicing two characters in conversation.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Graham Chapman voices God and plays Arthur in just one example.
• Moon: Other than his robot buddy and a few barely-seen side-characters, this movie is entirely Sam Rockwell and his clone, interacting and at one point even having a fistfight.
• Tron has David Warner playing Senior Executive VP Dillinger, the Master Control Program, and a villainous program named Sark. Sequences in both worlds have the MCP interacting with the other two. In this case, he deliberately makes no effort to change his voice for the various characters; in Tron, programs are meant to resemble their creators and are all played by the same actors; Dillinger wrote both Sark and the MCP, so all three share the same actor. Though for the MCP, Warner's voice was modulated to a lower pitch.
• Warner later did this trope again in the film Quest of the Delta Knights, where he played both The Obi-Wan and the Evil Overlord, including a scene where the former is arrested by the latter.
• Eddie Murphy has done this multiple times in live-action film, notably The Nutty Professor movies and Norbit, but there are plenty more.
  • Parodied in Tropic Thunder, with Jack Black's character playing most of the cast of The Fatties.
• In the 1952 version of Moulin Rouge, there are several scenes in which Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, played by José Ferrer, argues with his father, the Comte, also played by José Ferrer.
• Voice actor Paul Frees was known for doing voice dubbing in many live-action movies. In Spartacus, he was said to have dubbed three people having a conversation.
• In the film Adaptation, Nicolas Cage appears to simultaneously play the hero, Charlie, and his twin brother (and total opposite), Donald.
• In both versions of the film The Parent Trap, the two twin daughters are played by the same actress (Hayley Mills in the original; Lindsay Lohan in the 1997 version).
• The Ten Commandments had Charlton Heston as Moses talking to Charlton Heston as God.
• In Fanboys, Seth Rogen plays three roles; Admiral Seasholtz, Alien, and Roach. In one scene, Admiral Seasholtz and Roach get in a fist fight.
• In The Spiderwick Chronicles, Freddy Highmore plays both the Grace brothers including one fistfight where they are rolling around the ground with each other.
• In Paulie, Jay Mohr provides the voice of the titular parrot, as well as playing one of Paulie's owners.
• In the German dub of The Expendables Thomas Danneberg who is known for dubbing Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger dubbed their brief conversation with each other.
• Peter Jackson's debut movie Bad Taste has one character (played by Jackson himself) torturing another character also played by him.
• In Vampire in Brooklyn, Eddie Murphy as Maximillian the vampire king briefly speaks to two of his victims Preacher Pauly and Guido also played by Murphy before he kills them and assumes their forms.
• Brendan Fraser plays three different characters in Looney Tunes: Back in Action: D.J., himself and the voice of Taz. Towards the end of the film, he even punches himself.
• The Man in the Iron Mask: Leonardo DiCaprio playing twins who are enemies.
• Jeremy Irons played identical twins in David Cronenberg's psychological thriller Dead Ringers.
• In Oh God You Devil, George Burns plays both God and Satan.
• Star Wars has this in the prequel films where Temuera Morrison plays Jango Fett and also provides the voices for all of the clone troopers. Justified as it is firmly established in the plot that Jango's DNA was the genetic template from which the clones were created. The clones are usually wearing full body armor, allowing them to be physically portrayed by stuntmen, though Morrison does physically portray a few of the clones himself for scenes when they are seen with their helmets removed.
• In The Matrix sequels, the former Agent Smith gains the ability to copy himself. Predictably, all the copies are played by Hugo Weaving. At one point, there are over a thousand copies of Smith on-screen at the same time. The fact that Neo's fight against 200+ Smith copies in the second film ends in what is effectively a draw only reaffirms how absurdly powerful of a fighter Neo is.
• In the 2005 film, King Kong, Andy Serkis plays both Kong and Lumpy, the ship's cook. There's one shot on the log sequence where Lumpy fires at Kong with a machine gun...meaning that Andy Serkis is shooting at himself.

Live-Action TV

• This happens in Sanctuary any time Bigfoot and John Druitt/Jack the Ripper share a scene. Both characters are physically portrayed by actor Chris Heyerdahl, although when he is Bigfoot, he has quite a bit of make-up and prostheses on.
• Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: there was a three-way conversation between the ship's computer, a hologram generated by the ship's computer, and the robotic version of the ship's computer (all played by the same actress, of course).
• In a segment of Beakman's World, Mark Ritts as Harry Pitts converses with Mark Ritts as Lester the Rat.
• Beetleborgs did this in the episode "Buggin Out" where Flabber slowly turns into Kombat Gnat. Kombat Gnat's provided by Billy Forester who played Flabber.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • One episode was dubbed into French with one single male actor and one single female actor. They didn't even try to disguise it.
  • The episode "Doppelgangland" had Willow meeting her Lesbian Vampire counterpart from an alternate universe. This resulted in Alyson Hannigan not only talking to herself, but licking her own neck.
  • Several episodes had Buffy interacting with a robotic duplicate of herself.
  • Season seven's Big Bad was The First Evil, who can only take the form of people who have died, which leads to Buffy and Spike both having conversations with "themselves".
  • Oddly enough, the season five episode where Xander is split into two people is a subversion. The actor, Nicholas Brendon, has an identical twin, Kelly Donovan. Their conversations and interactions are done completely without special effects.
• In the Angel episode "Orpheus", Angelus and Faith share a dream/vision where they watch Angel's tormented past. At the end, the memory of Angel becomes an active participant and physically fights Angelus (both played by David Boreanaz).
• Nicholas Briggs voices both the Daleks and the Cybermen in Doctor Who, leading to a rather memorable scene in the second-season finale "Doomsday". (This also means any conversation between Daleks is Briggs Talking to Himself.)
• In season 2 of the new Doctor Who, the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey accidentally travel to an alternate universe and meet up with Mickey's alternate self and his gang. In season 1, there was a running gag where the Doctor would call him Ricky instead of Mickey, and while the Doctor no longer gave him the name in season 2, Mickey's alternate self was called Ricky in reference to this.
• In a minisode of the new Doctor Who, the Tardis materialises inside itself, meaning that when a character left the Tardis, they re-entered the Tardis. This resulted in actors Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill all interacting with themselves, including Gillan flirting with herself.
• In the original Doctor Who, the 3rd Doctor (Jon Pertwee) has a brief conversation with himself (his attempt to get his TARDIS working causes his and his companion's future selves to appear for a minute). Tom Baker had conversations with himself in "The Android Invasion" and "Meglos" (The Doctor and an evil doppelganger, in both). The first Romana had a short conversation with her Identical Stranger. The 5th Doctor had a conversation with Omega, who had copied his body, but it may not count, as it was Peter Davison's body with Omega's previous voice.
• In The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode "Allison From Palmdale," Cameron has several lengthy and creepy conversations with Allison, the girl who her physical appearance was copied from, and at the end breaks Allison's neck. Naturally, both of them are played by Summer Glau.
• Chuck (ventriloquist) and Bob (dummy) regularly had conversations with each other on Soap. (Also see below)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
  • Majel Barrett once played both sides of an argument between Lwaxana Troi and the Enterprise's computer.
  • In "Brothers", there's a scene between Data, Lore and Dr. Soong—all played by Brent Spiner.
  • Another episode has younger Riker circling older Riker, in a seconds long sequence which kept director Levar Burton up for days trying to work out.
    • Not to mention "Second Chances" where there are two same aged Rikers.
• Stargate SG-1
  • Michael Shanks plays both Daniel Jackson and the Asgard character Thor. (Asgard look so different from humans that they get only voice actors, although this is a live-action show). Teryl Rothery, who plays Janet Fraiser, also does the voice of an Asgard named Heindall, but these two characters never interact or even meet.
  • In the film Stargate: Continuum, Ben Browder played both Cameron Mitchell and Mitchell's unnamed grandpa.
  • Another Michael Shanks example—in the episode "Holiday", he plays both Daniel and an alien character, Ma'chello, under heavy makeup. Ma'chello uses a machine to swap bodies with Daniel, leading to an interesting scene where Michael Shanks, as Ma'chello is Daniel's body, argues with Michael Shanks, as Daniel in Ma'chello's body!
• In one episode of Mork and Mindy, Mork met Robin Williams and discussed clothing tastes.
• In-universe example: On one episode of Remember WENN, after Jeff Singer leaves and before Scott Sherwood is hired as an actor, Mackie Bloom is forced to voice every single character himself, until he forgets what his own voice sounds like.
• Subverted in The 7:30 Report, an Australian current affairs programme that has a weekly political satire sketch of a fake current affairs interview, starring Bryan Dawe (usually the interviewer) and John Clarke (the interviewee—a different character each episode but usually portraying an actual person. Often it's a politician). On rare occasions there will be multiple interviewees, with John playing each one. The most confusing aspect of it is that John makes no attempt to imitate who he's impersonating (i.e. they all look and sound like John Clarke in real life, as well as having a habit for dodging Bryan's questions) so at times it looks as though he really is talking to himself.
• On Mystery Science Theater 3000, at least one of the "Mads" played one of the 'bots at all times. (Dr. Forrester/Crow, Dr. Erhardt/Tom Servo, Brain Guy/Crow, Bobo/Tom Servo)
• In Mortal Kombat Conquest Jeffrey Meek played both Raiden and Shao Kahn, who shared a number of onscreen conversations.
• Phoebe and her Evil Twin Ursula on Friends, (both played by Lisa Kudrow) sometimes interacted with each other.
• An Australian talkshow had a pre-recorded interview with Rolf Harris. However, apparently when Harris arrives the host wasn't there, so Rolf interviewed himself.
• On Hogan's Heroes, Richard Dawson provided the voice of their London contact over the shortwave. In at least one instance, his character Newkirk was the one receiving the message.
• Smallville
  • When Bizarro appeared, Tom Welling was both the hero and villain.
  • That wasn't the first time that Tom Welling fought himself on the show. He did so as early as Season 1 in an episode when the Freak of the Week was a shapeshifter who disguised herself as Clark during her fight against the real Clark.
  • It also occurred when Clark's Mirror Universe counterpart, Ultraman, showed up in Season 10.
  • Smallville even had one Freak of the Week whose meteor ability was to literally clone himself. Predictably, the original guy and the clone appeared on-screen together being played by the same actor.
• In The Peter Serafinowicz Show, the titular comedian plays all four of The Beatles in the same sketch. It's quite impressive.
• In on episode of Frasier, the title character tricks Niles into doing this for a radio play.
• Supernatural
  • In the teaser for the episode "Caged Heat," Mark Sheppard plays both Crowley and the Alpha Skinwalker. You can tell that Sheppard has a lot of fun with this.
  • Jensen got to play two Deans in "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "The End". The former was a demonic version of Dean, the latter Dean's future self in a Crapsack World.
  • Jared Padalecki plays three different versions of Sam in "The Man Who Knew Too Much", and while only two of them are ever onscreen at the same time, it still veers into this trope a couple of times.
• The nonexistent budget ensured that PJ Katie from PJ Katies Farm did the voices for every character on the show.
• In multiple episodes of Fringe, Anna Torv plays two version of Olivia Dunham—one from "our" universe and one from another universe. While the two characters are usually seen separately, in the season two finale "Over There", our Olivia and alternate Olivia engage in hand-on-hand combat—meaning Torv is fighting herself.
• Happens in any episode of Farscape in which Crais (played by Lani Tupu) and Pilot (voiced by Lani Tupu) interact.
• Peter Tuddenham did the voices of the various talking computers in Blakes Seven. On one occasion Slave and Orac get into a brief tiff; Tuddenham was asked if he wanted to record one of the voices first but he did them both live.

Slave: Uh, I don't wish to interrupt, Master... Orac: Then kindly don't. Slave: I wasn't talking to you. Orac: You were attempting to override a superior system. Be silent!

• • Unfortunately, Slave was trying to warn the crew about an impending attack on the ship. Way to go, Orac.
• In Mister Rogers Neighborhood, Fred Rogers voiced several characters in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe puppet segments.

Music

• A rare example tends to happen in Ayreon concerts, where multiple vocalists were used to represent different characters before, they have a drastically reduced cast. This has led to some amusing moments where you can hear a Me from The Human Equation asking AND answering his own questions.
  • An acoustic version of "Castle Hall" features a single singer playing both the Barbarian being horrified by the ghost of the women he raped and the Knight calling on Merlin, Excalibur and the Knight of the Round table to help him.
  • E=MC2 which originally featured 5 fish people aliens arguing over whether to save Earth from a course of destruction they set it on; however, the acoustic version features Irene Jansen have a near breakdown arguing with herself over the same query.
• In 2006, Aled Jones made a recording alongside his boy treble self with a new rendition of "Walking in the Air."
• The lyrics to Thank You Pain by The Agonist consist of a back-and-forth between a judge and a defendant. Both are voiced by the same singer, who uses growling vocals for the judge's lines and clean vocals for the defendant.
  • Alissa has admitted that she considers singing this song live Difficult but Awesome.
• Ray Stevens is fond of voicing multiple characters in the same song:
  • In "The Dooright Family," he voices all five members of a fictional gospel family band.
  • In "Dudley Doright of the Highway Patrol," he has a conversation between himself and the title character, also voiced by himself.
  • In "Theme from The Monkees," he voices an entire Austrian singing troupe and a narrator.
  • In "Gitarzan," he voices the title character, Jane and the monkey, all of whom sing together at the end.
  • In "Moonlight Special," he voices the host of a fictional rock & roll show and all the "acts" on it. This includes a hilarious Lampshade Hanging in which a lead singer questions why the backing vocalists keep repeating her.
  • In "The Streak", he's both the reporter, and the guy being interviewed.
• Brad Paisley's "Born on Christmas Day" includes elements from a recording that he made at age 13. On the final chorus, he and his 13-year-old self sing together.
• Jeff Foxworthy has a conversation with himself in "The Redneck 12 Days of Christmas:"

Jeff's other voice: These ain't normal Christmas presents. Jeff himself: No, they're redneck gifts. Other voice: Redneck gifts?

• In Pink Floyd's The Wall, the last full-length song, "The Trial", has lots of characters, all voiced by Roger Waters. And it's awesome.
• Bryn Terfel's "Bad Boys" album ^{[dead link]} includes a scene from Don Giovanni that features the titular character, his manservant and his ghostly nemesis. All three parts are within Terfel's vocal range, and he duly performs all of them, singing to himself in triplicate.
• Postive K's "I Got A Man" consists of a rapped conversation where a man tries to pick up a woman and she very bluntly rejects him. Both parts are played by Positive K himself, with added pitch-shifting to make the woman's voice more convincing. For the music video, they had an actress lip-syncing the woman's lines.
• "Keep Punching Joe" by Daniel Johnston begins with "someone" introducing Daniel Johnston, followed by Daniel thanking the person and then he starts singing. Both voices clearly belong to the same person.
• In the title track of Rush's 2112, Geddy Lee voices both the unnamed protagonist and the priest in an argument about music.
• A Mitch Benn song has him sing both halves of a duet between Barry Gibb (In the Style Of The Bee Gees) and Johnny Cash's house (in the style of Cash).
• In the Dream Theater song "The Case That Stumped Them All", vocalist James LaBrie portrays a baffled doctor and a female nurse who trade vocal lines during the verses. The result are...slightly disturbing. Their concept album Scenes from a Memory could also be an example as he plays most of the characters when singing, but he doesn't try to do special voices for them.
• Frequently heard in recordings made by Filk singer Tom Smith where he multi-tracks himself, such as in his song "Talk Like a Pirate Day".

Puppet Shows

• Averted more often than not in The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and other productions featuring The Muppets. While the operators all perform multiple characters, they must operate each Muppet as well as do the voice, making it virtually impossible for one performer to handle two characters at once. So we seldom, for instance, see Fozzie and Miss Piggy (both performed by Frank Oz) interact. When they do interact, the standard method is to pre-record the character that is easier to handle. This is why, for example, it was Floyd Pepper (performed by Jerry Nelson) who represented the Electric Mayhem band in backstage discussions with Kermit the Frog (performed by Jim Henson), even though Dr. Teeth (also performed by Henson) was actually the band's leader.
• The Muppet feature films, on the other hand, enabled more of this to occur. The Muppet Movie, for instance, features a duet with Kermit the Frog and Rowlf the Dog, both voiced at the time by Jim Henson.
• Big Bird and Oscar are both voiced by Carroll Spinney; in scenes with the two of them together Spinney would pre-record Oscar's dialog and someone else would operate him, since he's easier to handle than full-body Muppet Big Bird. This has changed a little as the performers have grown older, retired, and/or had health issues. Carroll Spinney still operates Big Bird; they cast a replacement, Matt Vogel, only when Spinney is unavailable. Jerry Nelson, on the other hand, now handles only the voices of his characters, not the puppetry.
• One impressive bit by ventriloquist Jeff Dunham involves him getting in a rapid-fire three-way argument with two of his characters. In another routine, the same two characters start having a conversation in presumably fluent Spanish, and Jeff remarks that he feels left out because "I don't speak Spanish!" No wonder one of his shows is called Arguing with Myself.
  • Technically this trope applies to all ventriloquists, as the traditional format is of them having a conversation with the dummy. The fact that Dunham can do this with multiple dolls at the same time just shows what a master of the technique he is.
  • In one of his early skits, his puppet, Peanut, has his own puppet. It involved Dunham, Peanut, Peanut's puppet Mini-Jeff, Jose Jalapeno (On A Stick), and the worm at the bottom of a bottle of wine. You can see it for yourself here.
    • That skit seems to have returned in his latest installment, Controlled Chaos. Only it's a conversation/argument between Jeff, Peanut, Mini-Jeff and Mini-Peanut (a hand puppet of Peanut on Jeff's other hand).
  • Peanut also does some epic lampshading of ventriloquism in Spark of Insanity as he tells Jeff, "We cannot talk at the same time!"
• British kids' show Rainbow features George and Zippy, a classic Odd Couple who are permanently arguing with each other, interrupting and talking over each other—despite being both products of the same actor who is not only Talking To Himself but doing it live.
• The 60s British marionette science fiction show Space Patrol, a.k.a. Planet Patrol in the US, has a very small voice cast who often play multiple roles, and according to one interview they would simply switch voices while recording their lines, rather than relying on editing.

Radio

• Also occurs in radio shows. Surreal 1950s BBC comedy The Goon Show often lampshaded this.

Bloodnok: (voiced by Peter Sellers) Mind your language! There may be sensitive Scots Guardsmen present! Flowerdew: (voiced by Peter Sellers) It's all right, I don't mind really, honestly, it's quite all right. Bloodnok: Sellers! How dare you change your voice from mine into his for one joke only!

• • Another example from the Goon Show episode 'The Histories of Pliny the Elder'.

Moriarty: Why don't you stop him Julius Caesar? (Ceasar uses Grytpype's voice, played by Sellers) Bloodnok: How can I when I'm playing the part of Bloodnok? Spike Milligan was absent for one episode and Sellers performed his parts as well! (His Eccles in particular was flawless.) But just wait until you hear Sellers' albums...

• • Becomes even more amazing when you realise that most of the roles were done by the three main cast members and Harry Secombe only played one of them (main character Neddie) most of the time. Sellers was doing well over 90% of the one-off characters.
• Former Goon Michael Bentine also did a radio sketch show where he performed all the voices, but that was done by editing. The Goons did it live on stage.
• Adventures in Odyssey
  • This trope has been known to occur quite a bit, especially when farmer Tom Riley and shady businessman Bart Rathbone were running against each other for mayor. Ed Walker, who played both, switched voices in real time, meaning he was literally debating with himself.
  • This also happens when Dr. Regis Blackgaard runs his brother Edwin out of town.
  • ...and whenever Eugene Meltsner converses with Harlowe Doyle, P.I.
• When Kevin Clash (Elmo's puppeteer and voice) was on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, he managed to interrupt himself with Elmo's voice. It really creeped the host out, especially when it sounded like they were speaking at almost the same time.
• The Phil Hendrie Show: All the guests on his spoof talk radio show.
• In the entirely improvised sitcom The Masterson Inheritance, each performer would inevitably end up playing several different roles, most of them made up on the spot and many with ridiculous voices. Naturally, they often ended up talking to each other. Paul Merton ended up doing this pretty much ever episode (especially when the others deliberately arranged things so he'd have to). He'd sometimes wriggle out of it by having one character tell the other(s) to shut up while he spoke, or just have whichever one had the most annoying accent drop dead from a heart attack.
• I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
  • In the spin-off You'll Have Had Your Tea?: The Doings of Hamish and Dougal, all the characters (except in the Hogmanay Special) are voiced by four actors, only one of whom is female. This is frequently Lampshaded.

Mrs MacAllister: How can you stand here and say that to me? Mrs Naughtie: It isn't easy.

• • In another episode, the Laird (played by Jeremy Hardy) had an argument with his mother (played by Jeremy Hardy with a silly high-pitched voice) which ended "Now take me home before anyone realises you're doing both voices". Not being a show to let a joke rest, the Laird's mother later had a party with Mrs Dougal, Mrs Hamish, and Grandpa Naughtie.
• Spoofed repeatedly on BBC comedy The Burkiss Way, which on several occasions features conversations between characters with exactly the same voice. Usually Lampshaded in the most blatant way possible, and without the performer even pausing between lines.

"Over to Professor Norman Stillmetalking. Hello!" "Now, a man whose voice isn't done by me. Good evening. Except on special occasions."

• • In one episode, Jo Kendall uses the same voice for two different characters, simply by introducing every other sentence with "in a different voice".
• I'm Sorry Ill Read That Again
  • In one spectacular example, John Cleese is required to have one of his characters eaten by another. There are almost twenty seconds of discussion whether it's physically possible, before he is told to get on with it.

John: I don't come here and grace you with my acting skills to be eaten. Anyway, if there's animal eating to be done, I want to do it. David: You did do it.... You ate yourself. John: Well, that's even worse. That's auto-cannibalism. Makes you deaf.

• • In another episode, Tim Brooke-Taylor, playing Tim Brown-Windsor, Lady Constance and Lady Constance's sister Flossie, genuinely gets mixed up when the three of them have to share a scene. Naturally, they Throw It In.
  • In yet another episode, two of Graeme Garden's characters have an argument together. The scene is introduced by John Cleese explaining that it isn't going to be very funny, but Graeme would like a round of applause anyway to imply to the home audience that it's very difficult, even though (according to Cleese) it isn't.
  • And in the end of that season, Graeme takes over the serial—and is, at that point, playing the main hero (Professor Prune), the main villain (Fetish), and the narrator. Naturally, chaos ensues.

Fetish: So, professor, We Meet Again! Professor: Oh, you monster! But I'm not beaten yet! Fetish: Oh no? Professor: No! Fetish: Oh! Professor: You see-- you see-- Fetish: Go on! Professor: I will! Fetish: Please do!

• The Walton & Johnson show has, alongside John Walton and Steve Johnson, three characters voiced by Johnson: Billy Ed Hatfield, a redneck Army veteran, Mister Kenneth, a gay hairdresser, and Mr. Eaux, a militant black nationalist from New Orleans. Needless to say, all three characters frequently get into fights with one another and with callers.
• The Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama Caerdroia has Paul McGann do this, as the Doctor has developed a Literal Split Personality. Despite the fact one man is playing three of the same character with only minor variations, it only gets confusing once or twice. It's partially done by having the moody, snarky one have a lower and more monotone and deadpan voice than the Doctor ordinarily has, and the cheerful, quirky, scatterbrained one have a higher voice and speak more quickly. Not only does he talk to himself, he (rather unsurprisingly) argues with himself.
  • Ever since Katy Manning started playing Paul Magrs's dotty Time Lady Iris Wildthyme for Big Finish, it was inevitable that eventually there'd be a story where Iris met Jo Grant. It happens in the Companion Chronicles audio Find And Replace.
• In the Haruhi Suzumiya Sound Around radio drama a musical monster causes Kyon, Itsuki, Yuki and Mikuru to lose their voices and speak with Haruhi's voice instead. Thus we have Aya Hirano talking to herself as four different characters (although with Mikuru it is almost impossible to tell the difference). It gets even more confusing when Itsuki does an impression of Haruhi.
• As a ventriloquist, Edgar Bergen naturally did this a lot on The Chase and Sanborn Hour.
• Often happened to Bob and Ray, as a consequence of playing both hosts and (often multiple) guests on their various shows, assisted by their uncanny timing and familiarity with each other. The effect is most spectacular when baritone Ray and his falsetto character Mary McGoon hold rapid-fire discussions—often with Ray's other character Webley Webster chiming in—with Bob and two or more of his characters.
• One That Mitchell and Webb Sound sketch features a radio debate on the death penalty between two men both played by Robert Webb, who sound exactly the same. It degenerates into chaos as the moderator, played by David Mitchell, desperately tries to find a way to tell the two men apart. At the very end, Webb starts playing the moderator as well.
• On the sketch show Hello Cheeky, there were four actors, one of whom generally only played one role. They mostly managed to avoid talking to themselves, except for a few sequences in which Tim Brooke-Taylor plays a woman and a man in the same scene, at one point even muttering "You do feel a fool talking to yourself..."
  • In one episode, a sketch is completely derailed as the cast change their roles around in an attempt to avoid talking to themselves.

John: I am Lieutenant Jeffrey Snob, and I don't know what I'm doing here. And don't bother trying to tell me, foreign milkman, because I'm playing that part as well. Barry: Don't worry. I will take over the part of Klaus while you play that part. Tim: Isn't it confusing enough as it is? Let me explain...John was playing Klaus, so Barry took over the role of Klaus so Klaus could talk to Mungo...no, wait, Barry's playing Mungo...er, when Mungo became Jeffrey, John started playing Jeffrey but he's also playing Klaus...

• Done literally by Brian Phelps of the Mark & Brian Radio Program. One sketch one the show had him portraying George W. Bush and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking to one another. Brian also challenges his co-host Mark to try and trip him up at the end of the sketch, which he does by rapid firing questions to Arnold and then Bush.

Recorded and Stand Up Comedy

• Eddie Izzard does this on-stage, as would most stand-up comedians who do voices. However, he regularly lampshades it. Also, the only voices he can really do are Sean Connery and James Mason. Which he lampshades too.
• Jeff Dunham is an exemplary showcase of this trope, what with being a ventriloquist and all. Epically lampshaded by Peanut in Spark of Insanity, after Peanut jokes about the pronunciation of Jeff's name:

Peanut: You know, the weird part is I am actually pissing him off. And he would like to kill me! But he will not because that would be a form of suicide!

• Michael Mcintyre has been known to perform conversations with himself on stage, often adopting different voices while doing so.

Mcintyre: I've been down there and it's not pretty, they're all wearing trousers, so we're gonna open with a skirt. Modelling it here is Scott. You alright, Scott? I'm alright. But you've got me in a skirt. I'm not happy about that yet.

Tabletop Games

• In any given roleplaying game, the Game Master will, by necessity, be voicing all the NPCs. More talented or imaginative Game Masters will even give them distinct voices (which can get damn funny at times).
  • Some campaigns have two Game Masters, averting the trope. On the other hand, in some games (such as Ars Magica) even the players will have several characters.
• In one hilarious game of Dungeons & Dragons, one player simultaneously played an elf and a dwarf who were Vitriolic Best Buds on the best of days. He used hand signals to indicate who was who whenever they got in an argument (again).

Theater

• Similarly to the example with The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, Avenue Q features the same actress playing Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut, the same actor as Princeton and Rod, and the same actor as Nicky and Trekkie Monster. The conversations with themselves are particularly impressive because all the puppeteers are onstage and usually one of the puppets is being controlled by a completely different puppeteer who had to match the mouth movements to the other actor's words. Also, they sing too. Possibly lampshaded when you notice that the voice of Nicky/Trekkie Monster has the only puppets that require two people to work (can be used by one, but not as effective).
• Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep heavily invokes this trope (and occasionally lampshades it in the script). It's a show with four male characters and four female characters, with two male actors playing all of the roles. In particular, the actor playing Nicodemus and Enid not only holds conversations with himself during costume changes, but also plays out a scene involving playing the monster that's mauling Nicodemus off-stage.
• This was commonly done in-story in Shakespeare's plays by his "clown" characters (played by comic actors who were presumably able to do multiple voices):
  • Feste in Twelfth Night stands outside the dark cell in which Malvolio is imprisoned and enacts a conversation between himself (Feste) and "Sir Topas", the minister supposedly sent to "cure" Malvolio of his insanity. Malvolio falls for it, of course.
  • Launce in Two Gentlemen of Verona performs the scene of his departure from home for the audience, using a pair of shoes as his parents, his staff as his sister, his dog as himself, and himself as his dog.
  • Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice parodies the conventions of a medieval morality play by playing himself, his conscience, and the "fiend" who wants him to run away from his master.
  • In A Midsummer Night's Dream Nick Bottom begs to play all the parts in the play-within-a-play, and acts out a scene between Star-Crossed Lovers Pyramus and Thisbe before roaring to represent "the lion."
• In The Wizard of Oz On Ice, Bobby McFerrin voiced all of the characters except for Dorothy. (Yep, even Toto.) In the TV special, he also voices Dorothy.

Video Games

• In Half Life 2, there is only one voice actor each for all male and female rebels. This means any time two same-sex rebels have a conversation, it's with the same voice.
• The Italian version of Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc featured Dario Oppido who voices: Rayman, Globox as well as Reflux, resulting in quite some moments of him actually talking to himself.
• The English version of Beyond Good and Evil had far fewer voice actors than any other version, resulting in some interesting conversations. Most of the side female characters are quite clearly the same woman, especially obviously in the case of The Faceless, the Science Center woman, and the governor. Even funnier, the Elite Mooks, the Alpha Sections, obviously have the same VA as Playful Hacker Nino, leading one to wonder just whose side that guy is on.
• Conker's Bad Fur Day has dozens of characters with major speaking roles, yet only three people do the voices for all of them, and one of those three does only one voice. Chris Seavor actually voiced over forty characters; every single male part except the Great Mighty Poo. Now that's some incredible range.
• Disgaea: Hour of Darkness has one man playing General Carter, Thursday, and Archangel Vulcanus. While Thursday never has any lines with either of the other characters, both Vulcanus and Carter get a whole scene together.
• Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories has Rozalin and Taro voiced by the same woman in English. This leads to the disturbing fact that the Cute Shotaro Boy has an unhealthy obsession with himself. In the original audio, Yukari Tamura provides the voice of Rozalin, and Hiro Shimono voices Taro.
• Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice has Salvatore and the returning Etna both voiced by Michelle Ruff.
• In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, one actor performs every character of the same race and gender, sometimes doubling up, and they rarely try to change it up by character. If you hear a female wood elf and a female dunmer talking to one another, they sound like the exact same person, sometimes repeating bits of the same conversation back and forth. The exception is the characters voiced by Patrick Stewart, Terence Stamp and Sean Bean. This is mainly due to the rumour function, which is randomised. If the actors gave each character distinct vocal traits, they'd have to re-record the rumours hundreds of times more. This is exemplified with the beggar in Bruma who actually does sound weak and decrepit, but switches to upbeat and healthy as soon as you ask about the weather.
  • The page quote is from Zero Punctuation's review of Oblivion. Yahtzee's biggest gripe with the game was this, claiming that it completely yanked the immersion of the game out, as you're having a fabulous adventure of some sort, only to hear one of the NPCs' stale voice acting, sounding exactly like a guy you just killed or bought stuff from, and you're suddenly back in your room, staring at a screen and listening to shitty voice acting.
• Many of the voice actors in the Fatal Frame series play multiple roles as attacking spirits. In Fatal Frame 2 and Fatal Frame 3, this is done deliberately, doubling several seiyuu as both major protagonists and major antagonists, to blur identities as the living characters are drawn deeper into the ghosts' stories.
• Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas have the same problem, running on the same engine (and with Oblivion and Fallout 3 being made by the same company). Liam Neeson and Matthew Perry both voice-act one character each, and each of the companions have their own unique voice (except Charon, who has the generic "male ghoul" voice, though Raul does not). Pretty much everyone else boils down to the same handful of voices. It's most jarring with Ghouls, who, with a handful of exceptions (Raul, Desmond...and I think that's it) have 1 male voice and 1 female voice per game.
  • Fallout: New Vegas seems to introduce the player to a world inhabited by clones of Gregory Alan Williams.
• In Sam and Max Freelance Police Season One and Two, Roger L. Jackson voices Abe Lincoln, Grandpa Stinky, the Mariachis, Satan and "every deep voice" according to the commentaries.
• Speaking of Jackson, American McGee's Grimm. Just American McGee's Grimm. And yes, that includes the female voices too.
  • William Kasten also voices Max, Jurgen and the Mariachi spaceship's computer AI, in four different styles (Politically Correct, Abusive, Suggestive and Passive-Aggressive)
  • Then there's Jared Emerson-Johnson, who voices three of the C.O.P.S. They're never seen apart, so Talking to Himself occurs very frequently.
  • Joey Camen voices Bosco, Jimmy Two Teeth and his family.
  • And in the E3 2006 trailer, David Knowlin noticeably voiced both Sam and Max.
• A particularly terrifying example of this trope takes place in the first level of Knights of the Old Republic II, as HK-50 relates the Maintenance Officer's agonized last words.
• Charles Martinet does the voice of not only both of the Mario Bros., but their evil counterparts Wario and Waluigi, their baby versions, and Toadsworth. And the Boos all appear to be voiced by the same actor who plays Bowser. Do you know how you actually figure this out? If you play a Boo's laughter very slowly, it'll actually sound like Bowser, and vice versa!
• In Xenosaga, both Albedo and Gaignun are voiced by Crispin Freeman. Their voices do sound somewhat similar, but they are 'brothers', so this is acceptable. However, the dramatic, split-screen, mental discussion the two hold with one another in Episode II loses some of its drama when one remembers its just one man talking to himself. This was most likely a deliberate casting choice to reflect their origins, since in the Japanese version, Yamadera Kouichi is also double-cast for the same roles.
• Tales of the Abyss
  • Luke and Asch are voiced by the same voice actor and reasonably so, as one is a clone of the other. Thus, a climactic scene near the end of the game where their enmity plays out is possibly more impressive when you realize it's just one guy screaming at himself.
  • In the same vein, Fon Master Ion and Sync the Tempest are also voiced by the same person, as they are both clones of the same person. This is actually used by Sync to deal a very low blow towards Anise at one point.
• Super Robot Wars has a lot of fun with this one, whether it's actually done or merely implied; many characters involved in this Massive Multiplayer Crossover are played by the same voice actors in their respective Humongous Mecha Anime.
  • The most extreme one is in Super Robot Wars Z in one save-quit dialogue, whereas Asuham Boone and Gym Ghingham had a contest of who is the larger ham by shouting at each other, while Neo Roanoke nonchalantly comments on it. The catch? They're all voiced by Takehito Koyasu.
  • It gets better. In one of the Z2 game over screens, Ozma, Johann, and Kamina talk with one another about how they're all stuck with a little sibling. They're all voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi. Also, Amuro gets to fight Ribbons.
  • F/Final the first fully voiced SRW game probably has the most of this. To save money perhaps nearly all the original and Masou Kishin characters are voiced by VAs that all had another role in game and usually a main character one as well. (Hikaru Midorikawa for example is Heero Yui, and also was cast as Masaki Ando) Although most of these characters haven't appeared since, a few of them have and nearly eclipse the other characters in popularity. Masaki for example became one of Midorikawa's favorite roles, despite initially only getting the part to save time while he was recording Heero.
• Kingdom Hearts
  • The German version of faces the problem that most male heroes in Disney movies are voiced by the same person in German, resulting in Aladdin, Prince Eric, and Hercules sharing the same voice. Luckily, they never really met in the game.
  • And in the English version, there's Corey Burton in both games with five to seven roles. Thankfully, they still never meet.
  • In the Japanese version we have Kôichi Yamadera, who voices Donald Duck, Genie, Sebastian, Beast, Mushu, and Stitch.
  • Don't forget the most literal example of this in RE:Chain of Memories, with David Gallagher playing both Riku and the Riku Replica.
• In the original Warriors Orochi, when Zhuge Liang sniggers at Zhao Yun's inability to comprehend why The Strategist is working under Orochi, it's the same seiyu (Masaya Onosaka) acting out this trope. Also, since the game has a character switching system, it's possible to hear the same seiyuu doing the "swop-in" lines for two very different characters. By hearing them, you won't believe that Date Masamune and Fuma Kotaro are done by the same person.
• Sonic the Hedgehog and his Evil Counterpart Shadow the Hedgehog share the same voice actor (Jason Griffith) as of the latter's spin-off game. In Sonic Shuffle, Sonic and Knuckles are both voiced by Ryan Drummond, and Sonic Heroes has the same actor for Big and Omega. Sonic Riders contains Sonic and Shadow, plus the new character of Jet, also voiced by Jason Griffith. Although Shadow doesn't appear in the game's storyline, Sonic and Jet are rivals.
  • Before the 4Kids voice actors took over, Sonic's voice actor Ryan Drummond also voiced Metal Sonic in Sonic Heroes.
  • After they changed voices AGAIN, now in Sonic Free Riders, both Tails and Wave the Swallow are played by Kate Higgins, both Storm the Albatross and Knuckles are played by Travis Willingham, and both Omochao and Blaze are voiced by Laura Bailey.
  • In Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes, Omochao shared its voice actress with Rouge.
• The Thief series, at least at first, only had a handful of voice actors, which resulted in Stephen Russell playing Garrett (the Deadpan Snarker Anti-Hero), Benny (the resident Butt Monkey and Running Gag), Father Karras (a Big Bad) and many other extras and bit parts, all of which are very different characters with distinct voices (fortunately). At one point, he complains about himself prattling on.
• Chris Metzen, best known as a story-writer, also voice acts two characters in Warcraft III. These characters, Thrall and Rexxar, happen to get a lot of dialogue in the Expansion Pack's Orc campaign.
• Psychonauts. Andre Sogliuzzo voices both halves of a split personality, Fred/Napoleon Bonaparte, who argues with himself. Napoleon has an outrageous French accent. Fred sounds like a classic slacker.
• In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Sam Witwer (somehow) voices both Villain Protagonist Galen Marek and Emperor Palpatine. In the final battle, he ends up having rather lengthy conversations with himself, switching back and forth between what is apparently his natural voice (Galen) and an excellent impression of Ian McDiarmid's Large Ham-ish Palpatine voice.
• In a bit of Team Fortress 2 irony, the Pyro and the Spy share a voice actor, as do the Heavy and the Demoman. Both pairs have little to no dialogue that directly refers to the other, save for the Pyro calling "Spy!" and the Spy's Pyro-domination quotes since the Sniper vs. Spy update, but many fledgling Spies tend to be revealed as moles by enemy Pyros, and Heavies tend to be perfect prey for a Demoman's sticky bomb trap.
• In Gears of War, John Dimaggio, aka Bender, voices both Marcus and Hoffman, which is amusing when the two of them lock horns.
• Final Fantasy X
  • John Dimaggio also voices both Wakka and Kimahri, although Kimahri talks so little that it doesn't matter all that much. Still, the guy's got amazing vocal range.
  • A minor example in Final Fantasy X, notable only for the "oh man, what are the odds" factor: The same actress voices Seymour's mother and his wife in English—and Seymour canonically has one hell of an Oedipus Complex.
• There is a scene in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers where Southerner Gabriel Knight (portrayed by Tim Curry), posing as Mosely, first visits Malia Gedde's mansion and has to negotiate his way past her English butler Robert, also voiced by Curry. Especially funny after Malia has Gabriel thrown out, leading to this little piece of dialogue:

Gabriel: (very sarcastic) Thank you very much! I had a looovely time! Aw shit...

• Also a Massive Multiplayer Crossover, Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venus had some fun with this at the expense of Rie Kugimiya (Shana, Taiga and Sabato; only one of them is not a flat-chested Tsundere) and to a smaller extent, Ai Nonoka (Iriya and Kanade). These conversations are all restricted to the Hub Level so you don't have to worry too much about "teh Rie" monologuing when the game gets serious.
• At the same time, it averts this with Mamiko Noto, offering no interaction between Haruka and Bonus Boss Hecate (despite Haruka being a non-playable party member, so technically they do meet). Ditto for Kazuhiko Inoue and Kimiko Koyama, who both reprise roles across two different series; their respective characters don't meet at all
• And yet 'nother Massive Multiplayer Crossover example: For Nicktoons: Globs of Doom, THQ figured that Rob Paulsen talking to himself is cheaper and since Nicolai Technus is already a playable character, they decided to let him reprise the role of Tak and the Power of Juju antagonist Tlaloc/Traloc despite the TV adaptation of that video game series (where the character got The Other Darrin'd with Jeff Bennett) being depicted in the game. Indeed, the scene where the Evil Syndicate snaps back is mostly a Paulsen monologue; easily the most amusing thing in the game next to the hamminess that is Invader Zim himself.
• Oracle of Tao: the voice actress for Ambrosia, the lead character, also plays her evil twin (which is an example, even though they are technically the same role, since the evil twin is a Literal Split Personality), and the villain Estheriel. Oddly, there's an inversion, as she is supposed to be one and the same with God, but this role has its own actor.
• Street Fighter
  • In the Street Fighter Alpha and EX series, as well as some of the Vs. games, Bison ("Dictator") and Akuma are both voiced by Tomomichi Nishimura. Amusing, since Akuma beats up Bison in Super Turbo.
  • Not so, nowadays. In Street Fighter IV, Akuma's now voiced by Taketora, while Bison is voiced by Norio Wakamoto (reprising the role from SVC Chaos, where Nishimura still voiced Akuma).
  • In fact, Street Fighter IV is probably the first game where everyone is voiced by different actors. The Alpha series had Toshiyuki Morikawa as Ryu and Charlie, Tetsuya Iwanaga as Ken and Guy, Koichi Yamadera as Balrog and Cody, Akiko Komoto as Cammy, Juni, and Juli, Wataru Takagi as Zangief, Sodom, Birdie, Gen, and Adon, and others. Street Fighter III has Len Carlson as Q and Hugo, and Lawrence Bayne as Gill, Urien, Necro, and Twelve. The original Street Fighter II used the same sounds for Ryu and Ken, and everyone (save Chun-Li, for obvious reasons) had the same death scream.
  • The Japanese version of IV averts this trope completely. The English version mostly averts it as well, with the exception of Taliesin Jaffe, who voices Blanka and Adon. It gets better when one realizes that he's the voice director, so he was also directing himself.
• Even if the voice-acting is minimalistic to barely existent, in The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker, Link's voice (consisting of battle-cries, screams of agony and surprise, a "Hey!" and a rarely used "come on!") is done by the same woman who does his sister Aryll's voice (consisting of screams of fear, some giggles and a loud "Ooooooy!!!")
• The consciences in Black and White are voiced by the same actor, and frequently disagree between eachother on what the player should do in any situation. This is lampshaded in the downloadable outtakes, where the voice actor gradually morphs his voice from the good conscience's to the bad one's and back, in the middle of a conversation between the two.
• The Metal Gear Solid series manages to avert this for most part, even though many of the voice actors in both, the Japanese and English versions, voiced various different characters thorough the games. A notable exception in which this trope is played straight is in the Japanese version of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, in which Akio Ohtsuka played both Solid and Solidus Snake.
  • Notably averted in Guns of the Patriots, where Big Boss has a new voice actor to avoid having the big payoff of the entire series wind up as a conversation between David Hayter and David Hayter.
• Legacy of Kain
  • Michael Bell is Raziel, and occasional minor roles, like the first of Raziel's brothers he kills in Soul Reaver. Bell being a Man of a Thousand Voices, it's hard to tell without knowing beforehand. This happens literally in Soul Reaver 2 when two versions of Raziel from different time periods meet.
  • The series purposefully averted this trope on one occasion; Tony Jay voiced Mortanius in the original game, and then the Elder God for the next two, spurring no small amount of speculation on how the characters could be related. When the two characters finally ended up in the same game, a different actor was cast as Mortanius as a way of telling the audience that the characters aren't meant to have a connection, because the plot is so crazy at times that a simple absence of a confirmation that they're related would be seen as a confirmation.
• In yet another Massive Multiplayer Crossover, Cross Edge, Rina Sato plays both Mikoto Aiba, AND Liliane Vehlendorf. Amusing since Lilian has an Ojou feel on her.
  • And in the American version, Yuri Lowenthal plays both Rozeluxe Meitzen and Zelos. Of course, one's his normal voice, and the other is his Gig voice
• Professor Layton
  • In the series, the English-language releases of the games have Christopher Robin Miller tripling up as not only the titular character, but also Inspector Chelmey and his "arch-nemesis" Don Paolo. He's apparently skillful enough that nobody realized it.
  • The games also have Lani Minella as not only the titular character's apprentice, but also their companion Flora, "guest characters" Sophia and Katia in the second game, Claire and Celeste in the third game, plus Emmy Altava and "guest" Arianna in the fourth game (and some more female smaller parts). Minella and Miller voice more characters in the series than all other voice actors combined.
• Persona 3
  • Main character, Pharos, Ryoji Mochizuki, and Nyx Avatar share the same VA in both English and Japanese. All 4 are more or less the same person.
  • This also applies to Shinjiro and Jin (Grant George) and Chidori and Ken (Mona Marshall) while in Persona 4, both Nanako and the gas station attendant are voiced by Karen Strassman and both the main character and Adachi are voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch. However, at no point do any of these characters directly talk to each other; as Shinjiro and Jin only have one scene together where Jin doesn't talk, Chidori and Ken don't have any scenes together, and the silent protagonist obviously doesn't talk. Nanako and the gas station have one scene together where they both talk, but not to each other.
• American video gamers are so used to voice actors being tasked with several roles in a single game that it's no surprise to hear the same voice actor for both Warden Quincy Sharp and the Spirit of Amadeus Arkham in Batman: Arkham Asylum; the same actor also has a few other minor roles. What makes this noteworthy is that the two characters of Nominal Importance are related. Bravo, Eidos, using our knowledge of the industry to lead us to ignore the most obvious solution!
  • In the sequel, Kevin Conroy voices both Batman, naturally, as well as Thomas Elliot. Given the latter's motivation, this is probably Fridge Brilliance again...
• The English version of Snatcher narrowly avoids this trope literally, even though there's only three male voice actors (Jeff Lupetin, Jim Parks, and Ray Van Steen) out of seven in the whole game for all the characters.
• Michael Bell also voices multiple characters in the Ratchet and Clank series, with minimal interaction, but at one point narrates a mini game featuring another of his characters. Similarly, both Captain Qwark and his mascot Skrunch are voiced by Jim Ward.
• In Halo, the pilot of the escape pod Master Chief rides in has the same voice as Cortana (Jen Taylor). Also, Pete Stacker voiced one of the Sergeants as well as Capt. Keyes. And sometimes, there's two or more Red Shirt Marines with the same voice onscreen at the same time.
• In the voiced versions of Key Visual Arts Visual Novel Little Busters, Tamiyasu Tomoe voices the male protagonist Riki, the main heroine Rin, and Rin's rival (and possible heroine) Sasami.
• In Backyard Skateboarding, Marky, Pete, Pablo, and Erik are voiced by the same woman. The latter three can try Marky's challenge, so when they talk, it is Talking To Herself. This is averted in the other games, however, as there is no dialogue.
• In Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, Maggie Powers and Mara Aramov are both voiced by Jennifer Hale.
• Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People naturally has most of the characters voiced by Matt Chapman (see below example in Web Animation), but also includes an in-universe example. In Dangeresque 3, Homestar plays two characters. In one scene, the two characters talk to each other, resulting in a really obviously bad split-screen shot (though in all the other scenes involving both characters, Strong Sad serves as a Stunt Double for one.)
• Lorne Lanning is not only the co-founder of Oddworld Inhabitants and director of all of their games, but he also voiced 80% of the cast in those games
• Like Arkham Asylum above, Singularity uses this to toy with the player; Nolan North lends his distinctive voice to two characters, but one of them only has one line, and he delivers it when he can't be clearly seen; if you notice his voice and you don't assume it's the other character, you'll assume it's just this trope.
• Nolan North voices more than a few pedestrians in Mafia II which occasionally leads to him talking to himself as demonstrated in this video.
• The Phoenix Games version of Peter Pan has one low-quality voice actor doing narration and characters. Figuring out who is saying what is a minigame in itself.
• World of Warcraft
  • Chris Metzen voicing both Thrall, warchief of the Horde and Varian Wrynn, the new leader of the Alliance. They often meet in official machinima, cutscenes and lore sequences in dungeons, so Metzen ends up yelling at himself every other patch. The best example is probably the Secrets of Ulduar trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSbEr5ar0Zo
  • Blizzard generally prefers using voice changers and echos instead of hiring voice actors, so this is probably not the only case in WoW.
  • A common joke is: "For every male character not voiced by Chris Metzen, down a shot."
• In Dragon Age, Steve Blum voices three major characters. The notable instance of Talking to Himself is when the dwarven companion Oghren is talking to a dwarven man, Gorim. The only real change in voice a bit more grit to Oghren's voice.
• Since there's a ton of characters in Record of Agarest War, don't be surprised that a few seiyuus who will talk with one another. The most obvious one would have to be Leo and Rex who are both voiced by Takashi Kondo.
• Rather common in the Spyro series (before the Legend of Spyro series, at least). Spyro could talk to himself when rescuing certain dragons in the original, he can talk to himself when asking the Professor for information or Hunter and Ripto can speak to themselves when facing off in Spyro 2, Bentley can talk to himself when scolding Moneybags in Spyro; Year of the Dragon, and Spyro can speak to himself in various situations in Spyro; A Hero's Tail (either having a witty banter with Hunter or a more stern banter with Red the Dragon Elder). He avoids having a conversation with Moneybags, though.
• In Comic Jumper, Christopher Sabat plays both Captain Smiley and his belligerent sidekick Star.
• Interstate76 Nitro Pack has a mission in which Skeeter and Natty Dread do battle. They also have a few conversations over the radio. Both characters are voiced by Tom Kane.
• At the end of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Monkey, the hero of the game voiced and motion captured by Andy Serkis, has a conversation with Pyramid, the mastermind behind the capturing and enslaving of villagers, who is also voiced and acted by Andy Serkis.
• The Infinity series loves this trope. In short, if two characters share a voice actor or one character has their voice actor hidden, you can bet it's going to be important.
  • Never 7: Haruka and Kurumi, because the former is a clone of the latter.
  • Ever 17: Takeshi and the Kid. Slightly complicated- on one hand, this is because the "Takeshi" and "Kid" that are physically seen by the other character turn out to be the same person. On the other hand, the real Takeshi and the second Kid have the same voice actor, but aside from being father and son, they have no reason to share a voice actor. Furthermore, in the Drama CD "2035", Blick Winkel shares the same voice actor as those three. The two Yous also have the same voice actor.
  • Remember 11: Yuni shares a voice with Junichi for no real reason. However, when Yuni manages to calm Utsumi down from her Unstoppable Rage against Hotori, the fact that his voice is the same as her deceased son's contributes to her finally calming down.
    • In addition, Keiko, Hotori, and Sayaka all share the same voice actor, due to Hotori only speaking when in Keiko's body and Sayaka (probably) being the same person as Keiko. In one of the Drama CDs, a fourth character, only known as "Alice", also shares the same voice actor as them.
    • Also occurs literally in Bad Ending #28, where 2012!Satoru ends up in 2011, and meets 2011!Satoru. Notably, while 2012!Satoru has a standard "young man" voice, 2011!Satoru has a cold, deep voice.
  • 12Riven: Shinkuro shares a voice with Ohtemachi, Maina shares a voice with Narumi, and Omega shares a voice with Renmaru. The first one is because the former is an RSD program created in the likeness of the latter, in the second, the former is the physical manifestation of a part of the latter's mind that she lost (It Makes Sense in Context), and the third one is because the two are the same person.
  • I/O: Twins Mayumi and Masami Shinozuka have the same voice actress. He shares a voice with Hinata, "Ashur", and Isaiah, and Lem shares a voice with Mutsuki, "Marduk", and Ereshkigal. A bunch of other characters share voice actors, but this is because the voice cast is about half the size of the cast.
• In the Tokimeki Memorial 2 games, Hikari Tachibana voices both of the Shirayuki twin sisters, and as such this trope applies in the few scenes where Miho and Maho are together and talking to each other.
• Like Super Robot Wars, the Gundam crossover games (including SD Gundam G Generation and the Gundam vs. Series) have this as a result of combining characters from over 30 years worth of animation. Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus lampshades it: if you partner Mu La Flaga with Zechs Merquise, Milliardo Peacecraft, or Gym Ghingham (all Takehito Koyasu characters), Mu will say "Looks like I've - I mean we've got a lot of work ahead!"
• The 2009 edition of Punch-Out!! features Canadian singer Riley Inge as both Little Mac's trainer, Doc Louis, and the final boss, Mr. Sandman. Both are African-American boxers (one retired, one the champion), and strangely, both refer to Mac as "Mac, baby."
• The King of Fighters has a lot of this. Just to name a few, we have Harumi Ikoma as King, Blue Mary and Yuri; Monster Maezuka as Benimaru Nikaido, Choi Bounge and Ralf Jones; and Haruna Ikezawa as Athena, Foxy and Diana.
• Marc Graue voiced everyone in Hotel Mario except for Princess Peach.
• Subverted in Phantom Brave, while Flonne and Marona have the same voice actress and the exact same voice, they scenes they share are the only ones in the entire game that aren't voiced.
• Dawn of War has quite a bit of this, with Paul and Michael Dobson playing pretty much every non-named unit in the game, Keith Ferguson playing Mr. Nailbrain, Heretics, Ronahn and Plague Marines, Steve Blum playing Cyrus, Martellus, and Eliphas, and Fred Tatasciore playing Davian Thule, Ulkair, Bloodletters, and Veldoran.
• Surprisingly averted in The Operative: No One Lives Forever. Kit Harris voices both Cate Archer (the main character) and Inge Wagner (one of the major villains, who is eventually a boss), but the two never actually talk to each other.

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner has nine main characters voiced by Matt Chapman. Nearly every conversion in the show is an example of this trope, since there are only three main characters not voiced by him (Marzipan, Pom Pom, who is The Unintelligible anyway, and The Poopsmith, who has made a vow of silence. In order to celebrate Strong Bad checking his 200th email, the Poopsmith finally broke his vow of silence to sing the intro song. Here he is voiced by John Linnell of They Might Be Giants. As of his subsequent appearance, he's gone back to being silent, though.) The ultimate example is in One Two, One Two, which has Matt singing/talking to himself in six different voices at once. The only time that this isn't the case is if circumstances render it too difficult for Matt to do a voice; for instance, his brother has had to voice Strong Sad at least once, as Matt had strained his vocal cords.
  • Matt also voices nearly all of the secondary characters as well, including the cast of show-within-the-show Cheat Commandos, alternate Anime and "old-timey" versions of the main cast, and the lead vocals for Fake Bands Limozeen and Taranchula, the former in an impressive '80s-metal falsetto and the latter in a deep death-metal growl. Matt could give Mel Blanc a run for his money.
  • It's all the more impressive when one of his characters starts doing impressions of another character.
  • Talking to Himself also occurs in-universe: The "Teen Girl Squad" sketches are created and completely voiced by Strong Bad, and the "Powered by the Cheat" animations are all voiced by the The Cheat, imitating the regular characters' voices (these imitations are voiced by Mike Chapman, doing his darnedest to sound like his brother).
• Because many webtoons are a one-person operation, they tend to have only one voice actor: Matt Wilson does all the voices in Bonus Stage and Ed Atlin does all the characters in Space Tree, although both did when get another voice actress, Kagome Higurashi (not to be confused with the other Kagome Higurashi), who ended up voicing the female characters.
• The characters in Retarded Animal Babies are all voiced by creator David Lovelace, but tuned to different pitches. In one episode, the exact pitch levels he uses for each character are even revealed in the credits.
• Unforgotten Realms may justify this, in that the whole premise is two guys playing a homebrew tabletop RPG (and a little brother), and so it makes sense that there wouldn't be too much variation.
• While other people play minor characters, all three main characters in Park Bench are played by Anthony Mercer.
• The antagonism between The Leet World's Jerk with a Heart of Gold terrorist leader Cortez and counter-terrorist Team Dad Westheimer is made all the more interesting by the fact that they are both voiced by Eddie, who also voices the Camp Gay terrorist Montrose. Fellow crew member Daniel voices both hard-drinking fratboy Chet and the creepy Producer.
• J.I.M., creator of Neurotically Yours, voices every male character on the show regardless of species. It is obvious this trope would come up at one point or another.
• Much of the main cast on "The Loud Ponies" share voice actors: we have all 4 male main characters (Lincoln, Clyde, Bobby and Spike) and Applebloom voiced by Jason Griffith, Scootaloo, Lynn, Lana, and Rainbow Dash being voiced by Ashley Johnson, Luan and Lola voiced by Natalie Wilde, and Lori and Twilight being voiced by Kira Buckland.
• Several characters on Happy Tree Friends share voice actors. Cub, Giggles and Petunia (whose VA was replaced twice); Splendid and Lumpy (VA replaced once); Pop and Flippy. Lifty and Shifty also shared a voice actor until their VA left the show and was replaced by Kenn Navarro, also the VA for Cuddles. More recently, Pop and Flippy's VA left the show as well; while said VA is sampled for Pop and Flippy's evil side, Kenn now voices Flippy's good side.
• Animator Brad Neely voices (almost) all of the characters in his cartoons, notably the eponymous Frank and Steve Smith of The Professor Brothers and Cox and Combes of the viral "Washington Rap." Just in these two examples, Neely has not only had lengthy talks with himself, but has duet-rapped.
• Two of the main staff members from Rooster Teeth, Burnie Burns and Matt Hullum, voice multiple main characters from Red vs. Blue. In fact, Burnie made a point of voicing all of the Alpha AI fragments (except Delta, who is voiced by Mark Bellman), which are Literal Split Personalities of his original character, Church.
  • Lampshaded at a particularly memorable occurrence during a live table read where Matt Hullum must voice Sarge and the effeminate Doc conversing all while reading the script for the very first time. Things seem to be heading toward a phone conversation between Church and Vic, both voiced by Burnie Burns, but unfortunately it's averted at the last moment.

Web Comics

• In the Watchmen motion comic, ALL the characters are voiced by one guy. Needless to say, the biggest problem with the presentation is that female characters come off sounding like stereotype transexuals.
• As mentioned above, Game Masters do this often, so it's no surprise that the GM of Darths and Droids does this as a lot. There was also that one time when Jim was given control of his character's family, and found himself in a situation where he had to roleplay girl talk with himself.

"Um, do you need some time alone?"

Web Original

• Doug Walker is known for his roles as Ask That Guy, The Nostalgia Critic, and Chester A. Bum. In the Nostalgia Critic's review of Mortal Kombat Annihilation, Doug has his beard shaved, and all three of his characters pop up in the intro with their own explanation of why they had their beard shaved (Nostalgia Critic shaved it because he made a bet that John McCain would win, That Guy shaved his because he thought the bet was about him posting his next video with the viewer responses within a week, and Chester just did it because he didn't want to be left out of the group). They quabble for a bit until NC dismisses Chester and then knocks out That Guy with a brick.
  • Almost everyone on Channel Awesome plays multiple characters. In The Spoony Experiment Noah Antwiler plays both himself (the Spoony One) and pretty much every other character that shows up: Dr. Insano, Squall Leonhart, a hobo, etc.
• In the series There Will Be Brawl, Kirby and Meta-Knight are both voiced by Matthew Mercer.
  • ...Who also does the live acting for Ganondorf.
• Lego Pirate Misadventures has, for its first two episodes, all but a single character voiced by Mayhem. This trope is mentioned by name in the third episode, which coincidentally was the first episode to have an expanded roster for the other actor. Actually becomes noticeable when two characters voiced by Mayhem are conversing with each other, as they have fewer distinct pauses between their lines and may end up sounding a bit more like each other than normal.
• Tobuscus frequently voices multiple roles in his animated videos. In "Tobuscus Animated Christmas Adventures", he plays both himself and Santa Claus. In "Safety Torch", he plays himself and Little Timmy. Hilariously, in his Let's Play of The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, he acts out the voices for all of the characters in the game.

Western Animation

• On Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, Lee Kanker and Sarah have Janyse Jaud as their voice actor. Marie Kanker and Kevin have Kathleen Barr voicing for them. And May Kanker and Nazz have Erin Fitzgerald as their voice actor.
• The Simpsons
  • Most of the cast of hundreds are voiced by about a dozen people. Yeardley Smith (Lisa) and Marcia Wallace (Edna Krabappel) are the only ones with a single regular character (though Yeardley Smith has voiced girls who were similar in personality to Lisa, such as the island girl in "Missionary Impossible" and Lisabella from "Last Tap Dance in Springfield.") This trope plays out most often with Mr. Burns and Smithers, who interact in almost every episode that contains either of them, and who are both voiced by Harry Shearer (making the Ho Yay between them a strange case of Screw Yourself).
    • The Simpsons also called attention to this trope in "The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show", where the same voice actress was revealed to do the voices of both Itchy and Scratchy (which she demonstrated for Homer). Which is awkward, because Itchy and Scratchy are voiced by Dan Castellaneta and Harry Shearer, and the voice actress's normal speaking voice was played by Tress MacNeille.
  • Other examples include Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor "Diamond" Joe Quimby, the Mexican bumblebee man, Arnie Pie (the hapless helicopter pilot who hates Kent Brockman), the Squeaky-Voiced Teen (real name: Jeremy Freedman), and the Crazy Old Jewish man; Julie Kavner as Marge Simpson and all the women on Marge's side of the family (twin sisters Patty and Selma, her mom Jackie, her Great Aunt Gladys from "Selma's Choice," and an unnamed grandmother in "Fear of Flying"); and Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders, Lewis (one of Bart's friends from the early seasons. He was a black kid with a grayish-black afro), Nelson Muntz, and Kearney Zzyzwicz (the bald bully who looks like a teenager, but isn't).
  • Lampshaded in one episode, where the sound of Bart's "conscience" turns out to be a record of barnyard sounds recorded by Tress MacNeille. Later, Homer muses that the PA system in a slaughterhouse also sounds like her.
• And speaking of Tress MacNeille, she did many female voices on Animaniacs, including Dot Warner, Maria Hippo, Miss Flameel, Mindy's mother, and many other background/one-time female characters in virtually every episode.
• This is very common in Transformers media:
  • On Beast Wars, Scott McNeil was often found arguing with himself as Rattrap and Dinobot. (And the entire Golden Disk talk between Waspinator and Dinobot, and the issues Rattrap has with Silverbolt...) He also does a large chunk of each cast he's a part of, in anime dubs, American cartoons and video games. In a Gundam video game, he played the leaders of both factions, the player's wingman, and ATC at the base they were due to land at, in one scene.
    • It's worth mentioning that Scott himself gets a real kick out of this trope, and frequently recites some of his more popular Talking To Himself scenes (particularly from Beast Wars) for audiences at anime conventions.
  • Peter Cullen played both Optimus Prime and his right hand man, Ironhide (meaning that he's talking to himself in the first post-credits scene of the 1986 movie). Frank Welker voiced Megatron, Soundwave and most of the first-year Decepticons aside from Starscream. This is perfectly demonstrated in this clip, in which he voices all the Decepticons.
  • Daniel Riordan was both Optimus Prime (well, his combined form, anyway) and Megatron in Transformers: Robots in Disguise.
  • In Animated, David Kaye is Prime, Grimlock, Lugnut, and Highbrow. Jeff Bennett is Prowl, Ultra Magnus, Captain Fanzone, Soundwave, Angry Archer, and Mixmaster. Bumper Robinson is Bumblebee, Porter C. Powell, Blackout, and does three voices for Blitzwing, whose Split Personality occasionally talk amongst themselves. Tom Kenny is Starscream (as well as all of the Starscream clones except the female one), Isaac Sumdac, Scrapper, Wasp, and Jetfire. Corey Burton is Megatron, Ratchet, Shockwave (reprised from G1), Longarm Prime (who is Shockwave but has a slightly different voice), Colossus Rhodes, Ironhide, and Spike. Besides Sari, Tara Strong is pretty much every female and child except Blackarachnia, Arcee, and a brief appearance by Flareup. Bill Fagerbakke is Bulkhead and Hot Shot. While he only voiced Jazz for the first two seasons, in the third Phil LaMarr is also Oil Slick, Jetstorm, and replaces Kevin Michael Richardson as Omega Supreme. Most of them also do a few minor characters. Come to think of it, Animated has this at least as bad as the original did.
    • Lampshaded in a script-reading called Bee In The City, which had Bumblebee suggest to Beast Wars Megatron (also voiced by David Kaye, who was doing Prime in the same reading) that they try to get help from Lugnut or Grimlock. Megatron responded, "Who do I look like, Scott McNeil?"
• Billy West has an exceptional range, playing four recurrers on Futurama (Fry, Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, President Richard Nixon's head, and Zoidberg), as well as both Ren and Stimpy from The Ren and Stimpy Show (after Ren's original voice actor, John Kricfalusi, was fired from Nickelodeon) and also playing the modern versions of most of the characters Mel Blanc was known for. Hell, Billy can do things with his voice that normally require electronic alteration to achieve.
  • Besides Billy West, there's also Tress MacNeille, who doesn't do any regulars, she does pretty much every secondary female character, most notably Linda, the female reporter. There's also Lauren Tom, who voices both Amy and her mother.

John Dimaggio: (commentary) I love it when Billy gets to talk to himself during scenes.

• John DiMaggio has been known to do bit roles in the same episodes in which he features. On Kim Possible, a voice he did as a joke between takes (an homage to the motorheads that he grew up around in New Jersey) was given his own villainous character, Motor Ed. Ed was then revealed to be the cousin of DiMaggio's main role, Doctor Drakken. He plays random background characters in many episodes without Drakken or Ed. Seriously.
  • One Futurama commentary laughes at the fact that a very funny scene is really just John having a bitchy argument with himself. He shrieks in delight that he's just like Billy now!
• Charlie Adler played the three main characters on Cow and Chicken, and I.R. Baboon and the Red Guy its Spin-Off I Am Weasel. He also provided many other background voices on the show.
• In Jem he was the voice of villain Eric Raymond and his henchman Zipper. As well as Techrat, Eric Raymond's pet mad scientist.
• Everybody in the UK dub of Magic Roundabout is voiced by Eric Thompson.
• In Rocko's Modern Life he voiced Ed Bighead and his wife Beverly as well as his boss Mr. Dupette.
• Tom Kenny voiced numerous minor or recurring characters along with one or two regulars in shows such as Rocko's Modern Life, Camp Lazlo, SpongeBob SquarePants, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Xiaolin Showdown and Stripperella.
• Maurice LaMarche is, well, Maurice LaMarche. His range is well established in Futurama with Kif Kroker and Lrrr (of the planet Omicron Persei VIII) as extremes. Though he's not above mocking a certain lack of variety in his characters on the commentary for the episode "The Route of All Evil".

David X: Tell me, can you show us the difference between Morbo, Lrrr, and the H.G.B? Maurice: This is Morbo! (virtually identical voice) This is Lrrr! (virtually identical voice) And this is the Horrible Gelatinous Blob!

• His lack of variety thing can be seen in The Real Ghostbusters as well—an episode wherein Winston plays a game of baseball that will decide the fate of a single human soul, Maurice provides the voice for the Umpire as well as for Egon. It's vaguely amusing, actually, since the Ump was just Egon with a large reverb!
• Rob Paulsen played many roles on Animaniacs, The Tick (animation), and bit parts on pretty much every cartoon made in the last decade.
• Series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone do most of the male voices on South Park, but they intentionally call attention to their own lack of range. Everyone really does sound the same. Before her death, Mary Kay Bergman did all the female voices on the show. Now, they are split between April Stewart and Mona Marshall.
• Almost the prototype example, Mel Blanc did all the male voices in most of the Looney Tunes shorts (with some minor exceptions, like Elmer Fudd), so unless Granny or another female character was needed, Mel Blanc was the only voice actor. He did, among others, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck (which was his Sylvester voice sped up), Porky Pig, Tweety, Yosemite Sam, Pepe le Pew, Foghorn, Marvin, The Tasmanian Devil, Wile E. Coyote (when he spoke), Elmer Fudd (after the death of Arthur Q. Bryan), and Sylvester (apparently the closest to his natural voice). The Bugs Bunny Show's theme song even features a duet between Bugs and Daffy.
  • And if they did need a female voice, it was usually June Foray.
  • In the cartoon "Hollywood Steps Out" Kent Rogers voiced all of the male celebrities with the exception of Jerry Colonna (voiced by Blanc), while Sara Berner voiced all the female celebrities.
• In the short lived 1999 cartoon Rayman: The Animated Series, Danny Mann voiced both Rigatoni and Lac-Mac, and Carlos Alazraqui voiced both Razorbeard and Cookie. So not only did Mann get to order himself around, Alazraqui got to argue with himself...in the same episode.
• Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein of Family Guy do most of the voices, male and female respectively. Mike Henry also does a few.
  • Lampshaded in one episode, in which Peter (Seth MacFarlane) tells Dr. Hartman (Seth MacFarlane) that he sounds almost exactly like his father-in-law, Carter Pewterschmidt (Seth MacFarlane). Just to drive the point home, Carter randomly shows up at that moment and has a conversation with Dr. Hartman where they wonder how they hadn't noticed it before.
  • In the 1996 Cartoon Network short Larry and Steve, which Seth MacFarlane made when he was at Hanna-Barbera (and was essentially a Family Guy prototype), MacFarlane voiced all the male characters, including Larry (whose voice was identical to Peter Griffin), Steve (a dog with a voice like Brian), and a pilot who was a precursor to Quagmire. The only other cast member was Lori Alan, who went on to do voices for Family Guy.
  • It becomes a Crowning Moment Of Awesome when Quagmire delivers a well-deserved "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Brian, voicing every concern the viewers built up over the years over Brian's actions.
  • In the original Life of Larry (MacFarlane's student film for animation), to which Larry and Steve was a sequel, he did all the voices, including Larry's wife Lois.
• American Dad isn't as reliant on this trope, with most of the characters having their own voice actor. Nonetheless, the two most important characters, Stan and Roger, are both voiced by MacFarlane.
  • They even both lampshade it in their own ways, Roger dressing up as Stan and upon, ironically, not being able to get Stan's voice right, just makes him sound like Sean Connery and Stan after imitating the voice of his own Body Double says he can also make a good Roger, which ALSO sounds just not right.
  • Also pointed out in MacFarlane's Hulu commercial, which has him going from one voice to another throughout the commercial.
  • Seth Green also does multiple voices. Two main characters, Chris Griffin and Neil Goldman, and many walk-ons. He also does most of the voices on Robot Chicken, so he no doubt talks to himself a lot on that.
  • Seth MacFarlane does the voices of Brian and Stewie, so this is taken to its ultimate extreme in the episode "Brian and Stewie", in which the titular duo are the only characters to appear and they're locked in isolation, so all they can do for the half hour is play off each other. It's literally 22 minutes of Seth MacFarlane talking to himself, and nothing else.
  • It's really neat when there's a musical number. For example, in the Freakin' FCC number, Seth does a trio with himself and himself. It's pretty sweet.
• Bump in the Night has multiple scenes in which Bumpy and Destructo, both voiced by Jim Cummings, have lines. The show also contains other one-time characters with his voice.
• An older example is Wacky Races and both of its spinoffs, especially Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. Except for the uncredited female voice in "Barnstormers" and some Magnificent Muttley shorts, Paul Winchell and Don Messick did all the character voices.
  • Don Messick voiced the female pooches in the Magnificent Muttley segments.
• On Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Dave Willis voices Meatwad, Carl, and Ignignokt. Most episodes feature Carl interacting with Meatwad, and any Mooninites episode will usually feature Ignignokt interacting with both of them.
• Rocko's Modern Life has roughly five main characters (if you count Rocko's dog Spunky), and a lot of recurring characters, yet, the show had only five people in the main voice cast; four of them male actors, and only one actress. They consisted of Carlos Alazraqui (voices Rocko, Spunky, Leon Chameleon, Squirmy, and a few other incidental male characters), Tom Kenny (voices Heffer, Chuck Chameleon, Mr. Smitty, Peaches, Flecko, Really Really Big Man, Bloaty, the Newscaster, and practically half of the incidental male voices on the show, as well as a few incidental females), Doug Lawrence (voices Filburt, Peter Wolfe, and a few other incidental characters), Charlie Adler (voices Ed and Bev Bighead, George Wolfe, Grandpa Wolfe, Gladys the Hippo Lady, Mr. Dupette, and several other incidental males and a few females as well), and Linda Wallem (voices Dr. Hutchison, Virginia Wolfe, Cindy Wolfe, Tammy, and many other incidental female characters.) Though there were a few minor exceptions, such as Richard Simmons voicing himself in an early episode, and series creator Joe Murray voicing Ralph Bighead (and himself in one episode).
• A Static Shock episode, "A League of Their Own", had Phil LaMarr voicing Green Lantern and Static. One of the creators (either Paul Dini or Bruce Timm, I forget which) commented that he wanted to do more of Static and GL talking, to drive Phil nuts. They got to do so in the episode "Fallen Hero", which features only John Stewart as the guest hero of the episode.
• They do it to him again in the Justice League Unlimited episode(s) "The Once And Future Thing". The episode also has Batman talking to his future self. The differences are subtle.
• Justice League
  • Maria Canals-Barrera voiced both Shayera Hol and Fire. In the episode "I Am Legion", Shayera and Fire share every scene with each other.
  • Jennifer Hale handles Killer Frost and Giganta. In the latter's first episode, Grodd puts them through a series of trust exercises, with little Frost catching immense (6' or so) Giganta... who is letting herself fall off a cliff into Frost's arms. Predictably, pain ensues.
  • And in the episode "Injustice For All", Mark Hamill voiced both Joker and Solomon Grundy, who of course start arguing.
  • In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Perchance to Dream", Bruce Wayne talked to his father—also Kevin Conroy. Even better: in that same episode, Bruce has an argument with his alter-ego. Conroy is said to have switched between his "Bruce Wayne" and "Batman" voices in real time, rather than recording the characters separately.
  • He also has a long argument about ways and means with alternate-universe Batman in the episode "A Better World". Even better is that the two Batmans (Batmen?) are deliberately hidden in shadows the entire time, making it so that the conversation could be interpreted as either one starting it.
  • The ultimate example in The DCAU comes in the Justice League Unlimited episode "For the Man Who Has Everything", where Batman, voiced by Kevin Conroy, has a flashback of his father, voiced by Kevin Conroy, being mugged by Joe Chill, voiced by Kevin Conroy.
  • All these examples of Batman are literalised examples of the character talking to himself, so it's no real surprise...
• Tim Daly, the voice of the titular character from Superman: The Animated Series also voiced Bizarro, which is justified in that Bizarro is a clone of Superman, but they sound different as the former sounds more guttural and simple and backwards than the first. In one sequence, a yet to be corrupted Bizarro does talk as Superman and at one point saves Clark Kent from falling.
  • This was carried over to Justice League Unlimited, following (though with a three-year delay) the change of Superman's voice actor from Tim Daly to George Newbern, even though he and Superman don't interact directly here.
• An early episode of Hanna-Barbera's version of The Little Rascals had Patty Maloney doing at least one brief exchange between Darla Hood and her beauty-pageant rival, whose family had just moved to Greenpoint.
• It would seem that Phil LaMarr (Wilt) voices basically every male side character on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends... some better than others.
• The Boondocks does this a lot because two of the main characters (Huey and Riley) have the same woman, Regina King, doing their voices.
• Drawn Together makes extensive use of this practice by having its actors voice numerous minor characters in addition to their regular roles. Most of the female characters are voiced by Cree Summer or Tara Strong while most of the male characters are voiced by Jess Harnell or James Arnold Taylor. Strong, in fact, voices two regular characters, Princess Clara and Toot Braunstein. In one DVD commentary, the creators state that they often give Clara and Toot scenes together just to watch Tara have conversations with herself.
• Code Lyoko
  • This show features a situation where two characters, Jérémie and Aelita, are voiced by the same actress [Sharon Mann]. Because the two characters are both best friends and the show's most blatant and canonical couple, this must've been fun to watch for everyone in the voice acting studio.
  • Another example from the same show is David Gasman, who has a laundry list of voiced characters: a gruffer "older guy" voice used for the likes of Jim, Mr. Ishiyama, and various minor MIB, TV reporters, and teachers, and a lighter "kid voice" used for Herb, William, Chris [Jim's nephew] and various students.
  • Nine voice actors cover all the voices in the English dub of the show. Here's a breakdown.
• Codename: Kids Next Door
  • In the Mexican dub, voice actor Óscar Flores often does the voice of Nigel Uno and one of the several secondary characters that he also interprets. Still, in an episode where three of his characters appeared, he voiced only two.
  • In the original English-language version, Ben Diskin voices both Numbuhs 1 and 2.
  • Also, Lauren Tom is again her own mother, with Number 3 and Mrs. Sanban; and Cree Summer is 75% of an entire family, being Number 5, her older sister Cree, and their French-accented mother, all seen having dinner together in one episode.
  • And Dee Bradley Baker voices Numbuh 4 along his baby brother Joey and many villains like Mr. Fibb, The Toilenator, Lunk, and Heinrich,and many of the monsters.
• Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
  • Tress MacNeille played both Gadget and, yes, Chip. They talked to each other. (And spoke simultaneously in other situations, including but not limited to "Rescue Rangers away!", but that's another story.)
  • This video shows just how similar their voices are: the pitch (but not the speed) is increased to achieve Chip's voice.
  • Also, Corey Burton voiced both Dale and Zipper.
  • And Jim Cummings voice Fat Cat and his Mook Wart, as well as Monterey Jack (replacing Peter Cullen); The Five Part Pilot "To the Rescue" has a few instances of this.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man already has a few instances of this. John Dimaggio's Hammerhead coaxes his Flint Marko into adopting the Sandman identity. Clancy Brown's Captain Stacy tries to order his Rhino to stand down. Daran Norris performs both sides of a conversation between J. Jonah Jameson and his son John. Steven Jay Blum plays both the Green Goblin and a thug that he recruits.
• Teen Titans
  • Hynden Walch played both Starfire and her evil sister Blackfire—and the characters ended up fighting pretty much every time Blackfire showed up. Scott Menville also played Robin and Red X — which made sense since the first time the character showed up he really was Robin, but all of his subsequent appearances were when an unnamed villain stole the old Red X suit.
  • Not to mention when Beast Boy faught Adonis in "The Beast Within". Both characters were voiced by Greg Cipes.
  • Taken to a bit of an extreme with the episode "Hide and Seek", which has Tara Strong as Raven and baby Teether, and Russi Taylor (voice of Minnie Mouse since the mid-1980s) as Melvin and Timmy. The four characters spend the entire episode together, starting from before the theme song even starts. Of course, there were only a total of six main characters in the episode, but still...
• On Superfriends, Shannon Farnon did most of the female voices, including Cheetah. As Seanbaby points out, if you couldn't see the screen, it "sounded like Wonder Woman was kicking her own ass."
• Likewise, every female character on Thundercats except Wily Kit sounded an awful lot like Cheetara doing a Katherine Hepburn impression.
• Daria
  • Wendy Hoopes voiced both Helen and Quinn Morgendorffer. In the Musical Episode, she even sings a duet with herself. Plus she voices Jane Lane, who also converses with each of the other two at least once.
  • There's also Timothy O'Neill and Anthony Demartino (Both voiced by Marc Thompson), who have a lot of conversations together.
• Gets a bizarre Lampshade Hanging in the season finale of Stroker and Hoop, where it turned out all of the extras that had the same voice were actually all the same guy, who was taking revenge after the title characters ruined his life over and over again. Doubly so because Jon Glaser does the voice of both that guy and Stroker.
• Grey DeLisle does this on the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender where she as Princess Azula berates herself as a handmaiden for leaving a pit in her cherry. Though they didn't actually end up talking to each other she ended up playing Ta Min [Roku's wife] and Kya [Katara and Sokka's mother], as well as the actress-playing-Katara in the episode Ember Island Players. Dee Bradley Baker is also most of the animals on the show (and Chong), so there's all the time Momo and Appa were bickering with each other.
• The Fairly OddParents
  • Grey DeLisle also plays sisters Vicky and Tootie.
  • Cosmo, Jorgen, Anti-Cosmo and Mr. Turner all have the same voice actor, Daran Norris.
• Grey DeLisle, again, plays Frankie, Duchess and Goo in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, none of which get along especially well.
• And best friends Ingrid and Lupe in My Gym Partner's a Monkey.
• And twins Jeanette and Therese in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, who can often be found arguing with one another. Very loudly. And, in fact, turn out to be a single person -- Tourette -- with severe split-personality disorder, meaning that she is literally talking to herself.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy has a few:
  • With Richard Horvitz doing both Billy and his father Harold, Greg Eagles doing Grim and Sperg, and of course Phil LaMarr doing Irwin's entire family (sans him and his mom, whom were also voiced by the same person, Vanessa Marshall); his father, his grandmother, and grandfather Dracula.
  • Note, though, that Irwin, a young black boy, is voiced by an adult white woman. ComicCon panel interviews confirm that she was unaware of Irwin's ethnicity when first introduced to the character's design as a colorless sketch.
• Home Movies
  • H. Jon Benjamin does the voices of both Coach McGuirk and Jason, and converses with himself quite often.
  • Lampshaded in the "Home Movies Drinking Game" on the Season One DVD set: the viewers are told to yell "Jon-Jon!" whenever this happens, and whoever yells first has the power to make anyone or everyone do a shot.
• O'Grady
  • All characters except guest star voices are done by the same six people. In one episode, three teenaged characters all played by H. Jon Benjamin have several lengthy scenes together.
  • This is subverted in an outtake that was featured on The-n.com, where a completely different actor is trying to come up with a suitable voice for a one-time character and he sounds suspiciously like one of Benjamin's regular teen characters. The teen in question then asks the other actor, "Father? What are you doing here?"
• Seth Green does at least half of the voices on Robot Chicken.
• Muppet Babies
  • Frank Welker voiced both Baby Kermit and Baby Beaker, while Greg Berg voiced both Baby Fozzie and Baby Scooter, and in the first two seasons, Howie Mandel assumed triple duty as Baby Animal, Baby Skeeter and Baby Bunsen Honeydew. In the third season, Howie Mandel left the show, and Dave Coulier (a.k.a. Joey Gladstone of Full House) took over as Baby Animal and Baby Bunsen, while Frank Welker took over the triple-duty, voicing Baby Skeeter in addition to Kermit and Beaker.
  • Dave Coulier also voiced Bean Bunny, Janice, Statler and Waldorf. Russi Taylor voiced Gonzo and Robin.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars
  • Dee Bradley Baker does the voices of all the clones. The episode Rookies becomes almost the ultimate example of this trope, as the main plot features a number of rookie clones in over their heads being led by older, more experienced clones. The actor barely varies his voice from one to another. If you choose to annoy Karen Traviss and assume they're all one person, it's almost in-world Talking to Himself. Justified in this case, since all the clones are cloned from the same man and raised in the same setting.
    • Umbara arc would be the best example. Nothing but clones and one Jedi general for four episodes.
  • James Arnold Taylor voices both Plo Koon and Obi Wan. When they have conversations with each other, it veers into this trope.
• Metalocalypse
  • Both Senator Stampingston and Mr. Selatcia are both voiced by Mark Hamill with the former basically being a less raspy and malevolent version of the latter. They are part of the same group that doles Infodumps almost Once an Episode. This is very noticeable. In the same group, General Crozier and Cardinal Ravenwood are both voiced by Victor Brandt, which is less noticeable.
  • The entire Five-Man Band is voiced by two people. Toki and Murderface are both played by Tommy Blacha (who also voices Dr. Rockso and more); Nathan, Pickles, and Skwisgaar are all played by Brendon Small (who also voices Ofdensen), meaning he does the most Talking to Himself of the cast.
  • The entire list of recurring characters is voiced by maybe six people. Considering these are split into 2 groups that rarely interact, you're more likely to find someone following this trope than talking to anyone else.
• Rugrats
  • Michael Bell voiced Chazz Finster and Drew Pickles who often had conversations with each other. In an earlier episode, he also voiced both of the criminals who kidnap Tommy after mistaking him for a millionaire's child.
  • Also Kath Soucie voices twins Phil and Lil, who often argue with each other, as well as their mother, Betty Deville.
  • The actress for Didi and Minka (Melanie Chartoff, from the early 1980s sketch show Fridays and the late 1980s sitcom Parker Lewis Can't Lose), who thought it was amusing that she could have a mother-daughter conversation with herself.
• In Beavis and Butthead, Mike Judge voices both the title characters and most of the adult male characters who interacted with them (the hippie teacher David van Dreisen, the militant gym coach Mr. Buzzcut, their neighbor Tom Anderson and Principal McVicker).
• In King of the Hill, Mike Judge voices Hank Hill, Boomhauer and Stuart Dooley; Lauren Tom voices Connie Soupanoosinpone and her mother Mihn; Toby Huss voices Cotton Hill and Kahn Soupanoosinpone; Pamela Adlon voices Bobby Hill and Clark Peters, and Stephen Root voices Bill Dautrieve and Buck Strickland.
• Jim Cummings (a voice actor of considerable talent) is the voice of both Winnie the Pooh and his best friend Tigger, ever since halfway through the late-1980s Saturday morning series (although Paul Winchell did return for the sequel film).
  • ... And the voice of Darkwing Duck and his Evil Counterpart, Negaduck. Darkwing also talked to Herb Muddlefoot and Professor Moliarty, who were also... Jim Cummings!
  • And Bonkers and his partner, Lucky Piquel, in Bonkers
• Kath Soucie voiced Cadpig, Rolly, and Anita in 101Dalmatians the Series. The first two are half of the show's main cast.
• In the Legion of Super Heroes cartoon, Superman and Superman X were both voiced by Yuri Lowenthal.
• Similar to the example for Tom Kenny above, both he and fellow Handy Manny VA Nika Futterman have this happen a lot to their characters; Tom Kenny voices Pat, of the main cast and Mr. Lopart of the supporting, who occasionally have dialogues. Nika Futterman has it happen a bit more though, because both her main characters (Stretch and Squeeze) will frequently chat between themselves, and she also voices many of the adult female supporting cast members. Another VA, Carlos Alazraqui, also has this happen to a degree because besides Felipe in the main group, he also voices many of the adult male supporting cast.
• In the series The Animals of Farthing Wood, Rupert Farley voiced Fox, his sons Bold and Friendly, his grandson Plucky, Mr. Hare, Mr. Peasant, Measley and Mr. Newt; Stacey Jefferson voiced Vixen, her daughters Charmer and Dreamer, Adder, Kestrel, Lady Blue and Mrs. Rabbit; Ron Moody voiced Badger, Toad, Mr. Hedgehog, Mr. Vole, Mr. Fieldmouse and The Great White Stag; Jon Glover voiced Scarface, and his sons Ranger and Bounder; Jeremy Barrett voiced Whistler, Mr. Rabbit, Mr. Shrew, Mole and his son Mossy; Sally Grace voiced Owl and Weasel, and Pamela Keevilkral voiced Whisper, Mrs. Squirrel, Mrs. Hedgehog, Dash, Cleo and others.
• G.I. Joe: Resolute has a cast of roughly twenty characters, each voiced by Charlie Adler, Steve Blum, Grey DeLisle, or Eric Bauza.
• In Star Trek: The Animated Series, the regulars also did many of the one-shot guests (and even secondary and recurring characters). With rare exception, any woman you hear that wasn't a member of Star Trek: The Original Series' main cast will be voiced by Majel Barrett (when they're not voiced by Nichelle Nichols), and any man will be voiced by James Doohan (a.k.a. Scotty). This means there are several conversations in which the two Talk To Themselves—even if Scotty and Nurse Chapel aren't in on the conversation.
• Veggie Tales
  • Most of the main characters are voiced by either Phil Vischer or Mike Nawraki, the series' creators. A recurring trick is that whenever there is a pair of closely-associated characters (Jimmy and Jerry Gourd, the French Peas), one is voiced by Phil and the other by Mike, but the voices are performed similarly.
  • Over the years some of the minor characters have started sounding more like the major characters voiced by the same actors. This is finally lampshaded when Larry comments that he had always thought Archibald was the announcer for the "Silly Songs with Larry".
• On Jackie Chan Adventures, Shendu, Chow and Jackie "himself" were voiced by James Sie.
• Gargoyles
  • Averted: despite the fact that Keith David voices both Goliath and Officer Morgan, the two only ever met in the comic.
  • Although David does get to do it whenever Thailog shows up, you know, since Thailog is an evil clone.
  • Also played straight with David Warner when the Archmage has conversations with his future self in "Avalon, Part Two."
  • Not to mention Kath Soucie does this when Princess Katharine is talking to Ophelia on Avalon.
• The Powerpuff Girls
  • An episode has the Mayor and the Narrator (both voiced by Tom Kenny) talking to each other.
  • Other examples in the show include Brick and Boomer of the Rowdyruff Boys are voiced by Rob Paulsen, the Gangreen Gang is voiced by two people (Jeff Bennett voices Ace, Big Billy, and Grubber and Tom Kenny voices Snake and Arturo), and all three members of the Amoeba Boys are voiced by Chuck McCann.
• X-Men Evolution episode "Ascension", Professor X and Apocalypse were arguing with words, both voiced by David Kaye.
• Bernard Cribbins provided the voices of all the main characters on the original The Wombles.
• Occurs in the frist two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons.
  • The first one had a handful of actors performing multiple roles, so you'd have Cam Clarke doing both Leonardo and Rocksteady, Barry Gordon as Donatello and Bebop, Pat Fraley as both Krang and Baxter Stockman, and Tress MacNeille as two of the three Neutrinos.
  • Although rarer in the second cartoon, since characters voiced by the same actors tended not to appear together, it also had a handful of examples, mostly involving voice actor Sean Schemmel, the most notable being with the Foot Mystics, a five-man mini-boss squad voiced entirely by Schemmel and fellow actor Brian Maillard.
  • In the Mexican dub of the first cartoon, both Shredder and Krang were voiced by voice actor Herman López.
• Happens constantly in The Venture Brothers, considering writers Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick voice about three quarters of the regular cast between them, and James Urbaniak voices the main character. Urbaniak does it pretty often, voicing Dr. Venture and his twin Jonas Jr., while he also voices Phantom Limb and the Sovereign in his David Bowie form. Publick also does it a lot, providing the voices of Hank, The Monarch, Sgt. Hatred, 24, Col. Gathers, Action Man, Pete White, Tim-Tom, Watch and, for one episode, Professor Impossible (after Stephen Colbert's departure and before Bill Hader took the role). Finally, Doc Hammer voices Dr. Girlfriend, Kevin, Ward, 21 and Billy Quizboy. Expect any one-shot character to be voiced by one of these guys.
  • The season 4 episode "The Revenge Society" has Urbaniak in a three-way conversation with himself.
  • The season 3 episode "Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny", an episode with over a dozen characters, was voiced entirely by three people.
• In Jungle Cubs, Jason Marsden in the first two seasons voiced both Shere Khan and Louie who often had arguments.
• The Mexican dub of Dennis the Menace US had voice actress Patricia Acevedo do the voices for Joey, Margaret and Alice [Dennis' mom]. Likewise, Dennis and Gina are both voiced by voice actress Gabriela Willert.
  • Likewise in the English version, Phil Hartman and later Maurice LaMarche voiced Henry Mitchell, Mr. Wilson and Ruff, Marilyn Lightstone voiced Alice Mitchell and Mrs. Wilson, and Jeannie Elias voiced Joey, Margaret, Tommy and P.B.
• A crossover episode of The Mask had the main character interact with Ace Ventura. The Mexican dub had both characters being voiced by voice actor Mario Castañeda.
• Cartoon Network's relatively new Marvel project, The Superhero Squad Show, has Tom Kenny as regulars Iron Man, MODOK, and Captain America (comics), all of whom almost always end up interacting in one combination or another. They also have Steve Blum as both Wolverine and Abomination, who again, get a lot of screen time together (and in one episode actually play a round of golf).
• The only Omnitrix aliens in Ben 10 Alien Force and Ben 10 Ultimate Alien who are not voiced by Dee Bradley Baker are Alien X, Ghostfreak and Rath; even then, the latter two have voices outside of the aliens (Azmuth and Will Harangue, respectively and for starters). But since the aliens hardly interact with one another (being part of the same person and all), it's mostly averted.
  • Yuri Lowenthal voices Ben and Albedo. Justified in that the latter was stuck in Ben's human form (long story).
  • We also have Ashley Johnson, who, in one episode, provides the voice for main character Gwen and her distant cousin, Sunny.
  • In fact, this was intentionally avoided in the episode "Fused": by having Lowenthal as the voice of Omnitrix alien AmpFibian in his first appearance because Baker was already Ra'ad (the alien who supplied the DNA but was temporarily still a part of Ben). In future episodes, Baker had replaced Yuri as the voice of AmpFibian.
• Due to the limited amount of main characters of KaBlam!'s Henry and June shorts, many of the one-appearance characters will be done by a member of the regular cast (most notably is Billy West, who did most of the recurring characters). One of the most shown examples was in "A Nut in Every Bite!", in which Dawn, the executive's grand-daughter comes to visit the show. Dawn was done by Julia Mcilvaine, who did June, one of the main characters.
• From 1999 to 2001, Scott Innes voiced both Scooby-Doo and Shaggy Rogers. You only have to watch half an episode to understand how often those two interact.
• Jaleel White voices all three of the characters in Sonic Underground (Sonic, Manic, and Sonia), which takes talking to himself to a whole new level.
  • In that same vein, Kath Soucie voiced both Princess Sally and her computer {=NICOLE=} in Sonic the Hedgehog
• An episode of Nightmare Ned had Kath Soucie voicing a set of twins, essentially repeating what she had been doing on Rugrats.
• Jeff Bennett voiced both Pith Possum and his villains on The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show, meaning he was essentially fighting himself.
• Fanboy and Chum Chum has him voicing a good 60% of the cast, and there are three straight cases of Talking to Himself - in "Sigmund the Sorcerer", where Sigmund and the Necronomicon have a conversation, in "A Bopwork Orange" where Boog and Agent Johnson talk to each other several times, and on a few occasions when Man-Arctica and his Arch Enemy, The Global Warmer are interacting.
• On Jimmy Two Shoes, Sean Cullen voices both Lucius VII and his father, Lucius VI.
• Happens with many characters on The Mr. Men Show. Perhaps the strangest example is Mr. Grumpy and Mr. Happy in the US dub.
• Willow the Wisp was voiced by Kenneth Williams (or in The Remake James Dreyfuss). That's it. Six main characters, two of whom were female, and various guest roles, all done by one man.
• Frank Welker also voices both Odie (reprising the role from Garfield and Friends) and Garfield on The Garfield Show. Welker also voices various extras and secondary characters. In one episode, Garfield is terrorized in a nightmare by a talking scale (also voiced by Welker); over the course of the dream, the scale slowly changes its shrill voice until it winds up with Welker's Dr. Claw voice. Jason Marsden also does several voices on the show.
• On Wakfu, Benjamin Pascal provides the voices for both Nox and his underlings.
  • And, on a sinister note, the voice of the Cube. Talking to Himself indeed.
• Cle Bennett voices both DJ and DJ's mother in Total Drama. He also voices Chef Hatchet, who has frequently interacted with DJ.
  • From the same program, Peter Oldring voices Cody, Ezekiel, & Tyler, which meant Total Drama World Tour must have been a fun experience for him.
  • A better example would be Scott McCord, who plays both Owen & Trent, who've interacted a few times.
• In the PBS animated show Arthur, both Binky Barnes and Arthur's father are actually voiced by the same actor.
• On My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, there are three examples:
  • Rainbow Dash and Applejack are both voiced by Ashleigh Ball. Carried to extremes in "Fall Weather Friends", where both ponies spend the entire episode arguing with each other.
  • Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are voiced by Andrea Libman.
    • Which leads to a bit of Fridge Brilliance, as Pinkie Pie won't play any pranks on Fluttershy, as she claims Fluttershy is too sensitive and would take it seriously. However, it's often implied that Pinkie Pie is well aware of the Fourth Wall.
  • Rarity's voice actor, Tabitha St Germain, also voices Princess Luna/Nightmare Moon, Granny Smith, Mrs. Cake, Rarity's mom, and Photo Finish. The only time Tabitha actually talks to herself is in the episode with Photo Finish, "Green Isn't Your Color." and "Sisterhooves Social", in which Rarity talks to her mom. Tabitha also voices some of the background ponies, including fan-favorite Derpy Hooves (in the original).
    • Tabitha St Germain had a lot more of this in the Generation 3 My Little Pony cartoons where she played Minty, Wysteria, and Thistle Whistle, though it was less of an issue for one-shot character Fiesta Flair and the Core 7's Scootaloo.
    • She also voices Twilight Sparkle in the recordings done at The Ocean Group (Tara Strong, Twilight's voice actress, is based in Los Angeles, The Ocean Group is in Vancouver), so while she does a lot of this (for example, most of season 2 episode 4 is Twilight talking to Luna, not to mention all the times Rarity and Twilight have a conversation), most of it is dubbed over later.
  • In "Party Of One", Pinkie Pie goes a little crazy when she believes her friends don't attend her parties anymore. So she makes new friends...out of a pile of rocks, a dust bunny, a bucket of turnips and a sack of flour. And then starts arguing with them. They argue back (she's voicing them, of course.)
• Filmations Ghostbusters, full stop. To wit:
  • Pat Fraley: Jake Kong, Jr., Ghostbuggy, Scared Stiff, Jake Kong, Sr., etc.
  • Alan Oppenheimer: Prime Evil, (possibly) Long John Scarechrome, (possibly) Fangster
  • Peter Cullen: Eddie Spenser, Jr., Eddie Spenser, Sr., Haunter, etc.
  • Lou Scheimer (also Filmation's founder): Tracy, Ansabone, Sir Trance-a-Lot, Fib Face
    • This, of course, is to say nothing of the myriad one-shot characters.
• On The Penguins of Madagascar, James Patrick Stuart voices both Private and Joey, and John Dimaggio voices both Rico and Burt. The former is interesting in that Stuart is a California native, but he uses a British accent for the former and an Aussie accent for the latter. The two characters also have a conversation in "Kanga Management".
• Batman the Brave And The Bold
  • John Dimaggio: Aquaman, Black Mask, Vigilante, Ubu, Black Adam, Gorilla Grodd, etc.
  • Tara Strong: Billy Batson, Mary Marvel, Toddler Batman, Huntress, etc.
  • Dee Bradley Baker: Clock King, Oberon, Scarecrow, Etrigan, Detective Chimp, assorted animals
  • Kevin Michael Richardson: B'wana Beast, Lex Luthor, Black Manta, Monsieur Mallah, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Steppenwolf, Starro.
  • James Arnold Taylor: Green Arrow, Guy Gardner, Nabu, Major Disastor
  • Jeff Bennett: The Joker, Captain Marvel, Batman's singing voice
• In The Problem Solverz, Ben Jones voices Alfe and Roba.
• In Regular Show, J.G. Quintel voices Mordecai and High-Five Ghost, and Sam Marin voices Benson, Pops and Muscle Man. In his first appearance, High-Five was voiced by Jeff Bennett, who splits most of the background character voices with Mark Hamill (Skips). William Salyers as Rigby is the only VA who doesn't pull double duty.
• Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes
  • Fred Tatasciore voices not only The Incredible Hulk, but also Graviton, the first villain the Avengers defeated together.
  • Tatasciore also does some taking to himself in an episode guest-starring the Fantastic Four, as rivals The Hulk and The Thing.
  • Another character Fred Tatasciore voiced, Volstagg the Voluminous, became one of the first mythological beings to greet the Hulk to his realm.
  • Rick D. Wasserman voices The Mighty Thor and the Absorbing Man, who have a fight in "Gamma World" while exchanging battle cries.
  • Robin Atkin Downes voices Baron Zemo and The Abomination, the two Masters of Evil who argue the most.
• Danger Mouse had David Jason as Danger Mouse, Flying Officer Buggles and Count Duckula. (Edward Kesley was Colonel K and Baron Greenback, but the format of the show meant they didn't interact.)
• The Adventures of Blinky Bill takes this trope to the extreme, with only 2 voice actors in the whole series: Keith Scott and Robyn Moore.
• Most of the characters in Taz-Mania were voiced by only a handful of people, though only a few instances involved interaction between characters with the same VA (given how Taz himself was generally the central character of nearly any given episode). Taz himself was voiced by Jim Cummings, who also voiced Bushwhacker Bob (Taz's boss), Wendal T. Wolf (a minor character who would bother Taz in attempting to befriend him) and Buddy Boar (Taz's self-appointed best friend). In addition, both Taz's father and uncle (Hugh and Drew) were voiced by Maurice LaMarche, who, in the episodes that Drew featured in, interacted almost exclusively with one another.
• Young Justice
  • Bruce Greenwood: Batman, Pieter Cross
  • Danica Mckellar: Miss Martian, Marie Logan
  • Kevin Michael Richardson: Martian Manhunter, John Stewart, Mal Duncan, Vykin, Bruno Mannheim.
  • Crispin Freeman: Red Arrow, Guardian
  • Masasa Moyo: Secret, Karen Beecher, Cat Grant, Wendy Harris
  • Nolan North: Superboy, Superman, Match, Marvin White
  • Khary Payton: Aqualad, Black Manta, Brick
  • Yuri Lowenthal: Icicle Jr., Tempest, Lagoon Boy
  • Cree Summer: Aquagirl, Mattie Harcourt
  • Vanessa Marshall: Black Canary, Firebrand/Red Inferno, Amanda Spence
  • Kelly Hu: Cheshire, Huntress/Paula Crock
• Ultimate Spider-Man
  • Tom Kenny: Doctor Octopus, Curt Connors, Wizard
  • Tara Strong: Mary Jane Watson, Thundra
  • Matt Lanter: Harry Osborn, Flash Thompson, Klaw
• King Leonardo and His Short Subjects: Jackson Beck was King Leonardo and Biggy Rat; Allen Swift was Odie Cologne, Itchy Brother, the narrator, and the King's twin nephews Duke and Earl.
• The Beatles cartoon: Paul Frees was John and George, Lance Percival was Paul and Ringo.
• In all the old school Donald Duck cartoons not only was Donald voiced by Clarence Nash but so were his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie; so every short that exclusively focused on the four of them was simply just Mr. Nash providing all the voices. Not only that, but in her first few appearances Nash voiced Daisy Duck as well. The short "Mr. Duck Steps Out" solely features Donald, Daisy, and the nephews, with Nash voicing all five.
  • For that matter, with the exception of Quack Pack which gave them each a distinct voice, this trope always counts for the nephews. All three are always voiced by one singular actress or actor.
    • And speaking of Huey, Dewey, and Louie appearances, we might as well add in DuckTales (1987) as well. Russi Taylor voiced not only the nephews but also Webby, and the four often worked together being the main kids on the show. The four main Beagle Boys (Big Time, Bouncer, Burger, and Baggy) were voiced by two actors each: Frank Welker as Big Time and Baggy, and Chuck McCann as Bouncer and Burger. Hal Smith also provided the voices of Flinthart Glomgold and Gyro Gearloose, and although not as common as the previous two examples, the two characters did share a couple scenes together; for example one early episode has Glomgold hire Gyro to build giant construction robots for him.
• Tara Strong does the voices of Harley Quinn and Batgirl in both the DC Animated Universe and DC Super Hero Girls, so she clearly has to do this a lot.