The Speechless: Difference between revisions

Someone who does not speak onscreen because he cannot speak at all.

 

 

Often surprisingly competent, and tends to understand what's going on better than voiced characters, while being hilariously unable to communicate that understanding. Also, often voiced by Frank Welker when they're voiced at all.

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

** She communicates by way of hand gestures and body language/expressions.

* Garyu of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' is clearly intelligent and can understand human speech but never speaks. Being a humanoid insect that lacks a mouth may have something to do with it.

* Mokona, from ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' can only say "Puu", making him also [[The Unintelligible]]. While he may not seem to act like it and is accorded little respect, Mokona is arguably more intelligent than anyone else in the cast -- but the details are a monumental spoiler.

* Shiro in ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]'' -- he's a reanimated skeleton and therefore has no vocal cords.

* Gola Mosca, the robot from ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]''. Didn't stop him from getting his own [[Image Song]].

* TEX from ''[[Eve no Jikan]]'', {{spoiler|since he's a [[Three Laws Compliant]] robot who's been ordered not to speak}}.

** {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Beautifully]] [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] later on, if only temporarily, when the First Law overrides the order}}.

 

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The Torso from Newcastle in ''[[Strontium Dog]]'', owing to lack of a head. In one strip, he makes a witty comment in sign language - but, as the [[Narrator]] notes, since nobody was looking at him at the time, his remark is lost forever.

* [[Superman|General Zod's]] associate Non is mute because he was lobotomized. Although his intelligence did suffer, he occasionally shows signs that he is smarter that he looks. Before his surgery, he was Jor El's lab partner.

* Remy from ''[[Ratatouille]]''. The movie manages to maintain some sense of realism by having him unable to converse with his human co-star Linguini. However, he's very good at charades and can largely control the actions of Linguini when the human allows him to ride on his head and pull on his hair.

** Remy ''can'' speak, however. It's just that he speaks "rat." Humans hear his squeaks as squeaks, and the other rats hear them as English.

** Abu, however can speak in screeching gibberish, occasionally venturing into screeching English, placing him closer to [[The Unintelligible]].

* The Giant Magnet and Car Crusher from ''[[The Brave Little Toaster]]'' (although the latter may not be intelligent or sentient).

** In the storybook adaptation of the movie, however, he's given an interior monologue, so we "hear" him "speak" that way.

** He apparently ''did'' learn to talk when the [[Disney Channel]] did the [[Spin-Off]] series ''Dumbo's Circus'', though. (His voice is mumbly and kind of quiet, but he does have a fairly extensive vocabulary.)

*** Well, what do you expect? He was still a ''baby'' in the original!

** He was originally meant to be voiced by [[Mel Blanc]], but in the end all of his dialogue was cut, and Blanc's only contribution to a Disney movie was a hiccup.

* Despite making lots of noise, Scrat from ''[[Ice Age]]'' doesn't speak. Also, the humans in the first film and Mama T.Rex and Rudy in the third film.

 

 

* Pip, the Chipmunk from ''[[Enchanted]]'', can't talk in New York because... well, in the real world, animals can't talk. He actually knows what's going on from the beginning of the movie, but despite his very creative charades, is never able to convey it to the air-headed Prince Edward.

** Ironically in [[Magical Land|Andelasia]] he has a Noo Yawk accent.

* Asham, the mute slave in the Biblical epic ''[[The Prodigal]]''. He lost the ability to speak because of some childhood illness.

* For much of the film ''[[Tommy]]'', the title character is rendered entirely deaf, blind and mute after being traumatised as a young child by the sight of his stepfather killing his (previously believed killed during [[WW 2]]) father in front of his mother very shortly after the father re-appears. He does get better...eventually, but it is a couple of decades (at least) before he snaps out of it.

* The [[Professor Guinea Pig]] from the original ''[[The Fly]]'' couldn't speak after his teleporter accident swapped his head with a housefly's, so communicated with chalkboard, typewriter, and by knocking on tables.

* In ''[[Lightning Jack]]'', Jack's sidekick is mute, which creates a funny moment when he knocks on a door, and when asked who's there he can't answer.

* Gymnasia in ''[[A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]]''. See ''theater'' for her theatrical counterpart. In the movie version, instead, she gets her [[Fetish Fuel]] tendencies toned down, but she's still a towering blonde [[Hot Amazon]] expressing herself in made-up language (resembling just a funny barrage of unrelated charades) who Pseudolous only can understand. When Pseudolous reveal that Gymnasia's gestures meant something, the others show genuine surprise, believing her to be just [[The Unintelligible]].

 

 

* Dramatically subverted at the very end of the children's book ''Cheltingham's Party''. The title character is a cat who throws the feline equivalent of a [[Wild Teen Party]] while his master is away. When the master returns, she sees the mess everywhere and teasingly tells Cheltingham, "You have a lot of explaining to do!" Without any hesitation, [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Cheltingham looks right at her and says, "Cats don't talk."]]

* Madame Raquin in ''[[Therese Raquin]]''. As her health deteriorates, leaving her with locked-in syndrome. Ironically, the worse she gets, the more she realizes what happened to her son.

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* Poncho in ''[[Funky Squad]]'', the Australian [[Affectionate Parody|spoof]] of 70's cop shows. The idea being that an actor with poor English skills was accidentally hired, so the creators had to think up the ridiculous plot device of Poncho being mute because he'd been shot in the tongue.

* The brothers Darryl and Darryl in ''[[Newhart]]''. Frequently played with, as when Dick answers the phone and hears only silence: "Hello...Hello?...Oh hi, Darryl."

** {{spoiler|Subverted}} in the series finale, when the brothers {{spoiler|shout "QUIET!" at their constantly chattering wives}}.

* The mysterious aliens from the 1970-1 TV series ''[[UFO]]'' are never heard to speak, though they can apparently communicate with traitors and those [[Brainwashed|under their control]].

** In a late episode, the UFO pilots are revealed to be human abductees under the control of an unseen alien intelligence.

* [[Top Gear|The Stig]] Sort of qualifies, since he knows how to drive like hell, and use a credit card, but knows nothing about ducks. He also happens to be illegal in 17 states.

 

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

 

 

** {{spoiler|Jak's younger self never vocalizes either. A [[Fanon]] theory is that he lost his ability to speak due to the trauma of being separated from his actual family; Jak's utter hatred for the Baron simply let him overcome this mental block}}.

* Shizune from ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]''. Like the description she's smart, perceptive and wilful, though it's noted that the aggressive personality she has cultivated to compensate often ends up driving people away.

 

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

** However, {{spoiler|he sings the intro song for Strong Bad's 200th email. He's voiced by one of the members of [[They Might Be Giants]]}}.

* Most of the cast of Adam Phillips' ''[[Brackenwood]]''; only one, the Auld Sage, has ever actually spoken. Besides him, there's only three likely candidates we've been introduced to who even have the capacity: Bingbong, in whom nature compensated his great physical strength with the IQ of a retarded pigeon, Lemonee Wee, who hasn't really had a lot of screen time (but may be the unidentified narrator of "Last of the Dashkin"), and Bitey, who Phillips assures us can talk, but doesn't because he spends most of his time around animals who can't talk back, and thus doesn't see the point.

 

== [[Web Comics]] / [[Web Original]] ==

* The title character of ''[[Little Dee]]'' is preverbal and only utters nonsense syllables, such as "Eee" when excited and "Wah wah" when ''imitating'' speech. Dee does speak in Vachel's dream (where she's actually Napoleon's wife Josephine) and in [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|out-of-continuity]] strips where she's an actor playing herself.

* Punch from ''[[Girl Genius]]'' is this

* The Protagonist in ''[[Persona 3 FTW]]'' almost never has any spoken dialogue due to the fact that he was something of a [[Heroic Mime]] in ''[[Persona 3]]''.

* ''[[Bob and George]]'': [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/011028c Nate].

* The Mutali in ''[[Fite]]'' cannot speak, but they can summon portals by howling.

* ''[[Strays]]'' Feral. With scars on his throat to prove it.

* In ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]'' the titular heroine (a [[Captain Ersatz|pastiche]] of [[Wonder Woman]]) sells her voice to an [[The Little Mermaid|Ursula rip-off]] for being granted her long awaited flight powers. After a brief stint as a [[Silent Snarker]] she gets her voice restored ([http://nonadventures.com/2011/08/13/the-trill-is-gone/ and her newfound powers forcibly removed]) because of her apparently awful singing voice.

* Three from ''[[Land Games]]''.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Snake-Eyes, of ''[[G.I. Joe]]'', is incapable of speech due to injuries to his larynx. He spends the time another would use for talking to be extra [[Badass Normal|badass]].

* Godzilla and Godzuki from ''[[The Godzilla Power Hour]]''.

* Brainy from ''[[Hey Arnold]]!'', who usually just stands behind Helga, wheezing.

** He actually has spoken a few words in some episodes.

* The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote from ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' shorts.

** Wile E.'s ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' counterpart, Calamity Coyote, notably has spoken even ''less'' than Wile E.

* The ''[[Pink Panther]]'' (not Inspector Clouseau, after whom the films were not named, but the actual Pink Panther cartoon).

** Except for two episodes: Sink Pink and Pink Ice.

** Also, the character was voiced in the 1990s TV revival.

** Which is kinda sad. [[Informed Ability|Don't you know she has a beautiful singing voice?]]

** There are a few non-canon episodes (including several Halloween specials) where she ''does'' talk, usually in a deep, scary masculine voice. Other than that she has said two canonical words in the series: {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Daddy]]}} and {{spoiler|''Ja''}}.

** According to [[Word of God]] (or possibly just [[Word of Dante]]; I forget my source on this one), they could converse, but generally don't have anything to say to one another that would be any more meaningful than the slapstick violence they already visit upon one another.

* Gromit, of ''[[Wallace and Gromit]]'', who somehow makes his feelings clear to the audience (but not Wallace) purely by moving his clay eyebrow.

* [[Noggin|Moose A. Moose's]] best friend Zee doesn't speak. [[Ambiguous Gender|Zee]] communicates to Moose through [[Squeaky Eyes]].

* The Blue Spirit from the ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode of the same name appears to be this at first, communicating with [[The Messiah|Aang]] only by motioning with one of his swords. {{spoiler|This is because he turns out to be [[The Rival|Zuko]] and speaking would have given away his identity. Later in the series, he speaks minimally as his Blue Spirit persona when dealing with characters who would not recognize his voice.}}

* Shelby Bitterman from ''[[Baby Blues]]'' never speaks during the series he does use hand gestures and motions with his wiffle bat he carries everywhere, he is also mostly emotionless except for when he shot a teddy bear through the eye with a crossbow he is shown giving a smile, but he has audibly coughed and sneezed at some points.

* The fan named Playboy Penguin from two ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' shorts is one of these, at the end of his first appearance after Bugs Bunny decides to leave he whispers something to him and he finds out that they have longer days in Antarctica.

* The firefighter "Beef" from the ''[[King of the Hill]]'' episode, "A Firefighting We Will Go", never says a single word onscreen and uses hand gestures to communicate. However, he laughs plenty throughout the episode.

* In the cult [[The BBC|BBC]] preschool show ''[[Kerwhizz]]'' the three teams each consist of a kid and his/her android pet. Pip, the android dog, is constantly frustrated by the fact that although he's smarter than his girl partner Ninki he can only bark and growl, which means she often fails to realise when he gets the answer right, and shouts out the wrong answer instead. Ninki got her comeuppance in one episode where their voices were temporarily swapped. This caused Pip to launch into a long speech about how his talents would at last be recognised, while Ninki could only howl in despair.

* ''[[Freakazoid]]'''s mute butler Ingmar.

** [[Catch Phrase|He's mute, ya know!]]

 

{{reflist}}