Talking to Themselves: Difference between revisions

* [[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:

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

 

 

* 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.

* [[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.

* 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 ''[[Blake's Seven|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.

'''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.

* 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:"

'''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.

== Radio ==

* Also occurs in radio shows. Surreal [[The Fifties|1950s]] [[The BBC|BBC]] comedy ''[[The Goon Show]]'' often [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] this.

'''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'.

** [[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.

* ''[[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 [[Christmas Episode|Hogmanay Special]]) are voiced by four actors, only one of whom is female. This is frequently [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]].

'''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.

"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, I'll Read That Again|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:''' 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:''' 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.

* 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 [[Lampshade Hanging|"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.

'''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.

** A minor example in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', notable only for the "[[Subtext|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:

* Also a [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]], ''Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venus'' had some fun with this at the expense of [[Rie Kugimiya]] ([[Shakugan no Shana|Shana]], [[Toradora!|Taiga]] and [[Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan|Sabato]]; only one of them is [[Playing Against Type|not]] a [[Pettanko|flat-chested]] [[Tsundere]]) and to a smaller extent, Ai Nonoka ([[Iriya no Sora UFO no Natsu|Iriya]] and [[Asura Cryin|Kanade]]). These conversations are all restricted to the [[Hub Level]] so you don't have to worry too much about "[[Fan Nickname|teh Rie]]" monologuing when the game gets serious.

* At the same time, it averts this with ''[[Mamiko Noto]]'', offering no interaction between [[Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu|Haruka]] and [[Bonus Boss]] [[Shakugan no Shana|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

* 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 [[The Real Man|Jim]] was given control of his character's family, and [http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0267.html found himself in a situation where he had to roleplay girl talk with himself].

 

 

* [[Billy West]] has an exceptional range, playing four [[Recurrer|recurrers]] on ''[[Futurama]]'' (Fry, Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, President [[Richard Nixon]]'s head, [[My Friends and Zoidberg|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 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 [[Retcon|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!

* [[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".

'''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!