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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Oh, no, Johnny Steps is losing! And that's me!"''
|'''Johnny Steps'''|''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]''}}
A '''Third-Person Person''' is a character who always refers to himself or herself in the third person.
In Japanese media, young children and girls who are childish or [[The Cutie|cutesy]] may refer to themselves in this manner. In older characters, however, it may be a sign of [[Hollywood Psych|psychological issues]], such as a very traumatic event in their past. It also may be a sign of humility, so [[Samurai]] and noblewomen usually refer to themselves in the third person when talking to their lords. If a character ''transitions'' into a [[Third
On the other hand, a Western character who refers to himself in the third party will usually either be vain, egotistical, or self-absorbed—the implication being that he is so in awe of himself that even ''he'' views himself objectively—or a [[Hulk Speak]]ing primitive. Or, the character could be just a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] with a weird speech mannerism. An [[It's All About Me|egotistical villain]] will especially refer to himself in this fashion if he has a cool or impressive-sounding name or title. Sometimes a character with [[Acquired Situational Narcissism]] will temporarily become a
The technical term for this is "[[wikipedia:Illeism|illeism]]", from the Latin word for "that" (sometimes also used like "he") with "-ism" attached. If the speaker does this for only for a story in which they are revealed as the central character, its [[And That Little Girl Was Me]] or [[Narrator All Along]].
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* A commercial for Progressive auto insurance has a guy who comes into "the Progressive store" to talk with Flo about auto insurance refers to himself in this manner, confusing her at first. Then another associate shows up and he gets confused as well, leading Flo to be all "Here we go again."
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'': [[Big Bad]] Dr. Hell occasionally refers to himself in third person when he is ranting, angry or uttering [[Badass Boast]]s. [[Go Nagai]]'s ''[[Great Mazinger]]'' manga offers a good example:
{{quote|'''Dr.Hell''': "Destroy me? How arrogant. A tiny island country intends to destroy Dr. Hell, the future ruler of the world? Alright! I swear I shall crush Japan in merely ten days! And the whole world shall witness the true power of Dr. Hell!"}}
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* ''[[Mai-HiME (manga)|Mai-HiME]]'':
** Shiho in the manga. At times, she'll even only use other characters' names instead of personal pronouns.
** Fumi also occasionally uses Third
* Nodame, in ''[[Nodame Cantabile]]''. It indicates her eccentric, often childish personality.
* Spoofed by Poemi in ''[[Puni Puni Poemi]]''. She not only speaks in third person, but refers to herself as "Kobayashi"... which is the name of her voice actress.
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* Mayu from ''[[Ai Yori Aoshi]]''. Aoi and Chika do it too in the manga, but it could be because of translation problems (pronouns are tricky across languages).
* Rena Ryuguu in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]''. In her case, it's both cutesy ''and'' [[Creepy Child|sinister]].
* Chi(i) from ''[[Chobits]]'' graduates from [[Pokémon-Speak]] to Third
* In a variation of this, in the English dub of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' Kamina would refer to himself in the third person on occasion when making some sort of declaration (which is based on the original's use of occasional "[[Japanese Pronouns|ore-sama]]"):
{{quote|'''Kamina:''' Hey, hey, hey, hey, ''hey''! Listen up ya walking faces! Having left his homeland, he never yields, never retreats, and never regrets! He faces forward, and never looks back! He's ''manly''! He's tenacious! Kamina of Team Gurren is here to take you on! Let's go!}}
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* In the ''[[Fruits Basket]]'' manga, Yuki's fellow student council member Kimi does this, apparently to make herself more [[Moe]].
* Nagisa in the ''[[Strawberry Panic!]] '' manga and light novels. Thankfully, this "cute" habit didn't make it into the anime. (The official manga translation ignores it, too.)
* The 20,001
* ''[[Ranma ½]]'':
** Shampoo. In her case, of course, it was to point out that she was a [[Verbal Tic|foreigner]].
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* Amae Koromo of ''[[Saki (manga)|Saki]]'', who fits both the cute anime and villainous Western types. Depending on her mood, watching this [[Insufferable Genius]] of a little girl speak in the third person can be adorable, intimidating, or both.
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'': Mokona is wondering where [[Ambiguous Gender|Mokona]] is on this list, as [[Shaped Like Itself|Mokona is Mokona.]] (Yes, this is because pronouns have gender in Japan, and it's a [[Running Gag]] that Mokona's gender is unknown.)
* Mafuyu in ''[[
* Freyr from ''[[Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok]]''.
* Kero from ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' uses this at times, calling himself "the great Cerberus".
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* Aoko Nakamori from ''[[Magic Kaito]]'', who is 17 years old and talks like a little girl. It's hinted, though, that this comes from [[Heroic Self-Deprecation|her rather low self-esteem]]: Aoko views herself as childish, so she acts accordingly.
* ''[[Yotsuba&!]]'': Yotsuba does this a lot (in Yen Press' translation, but not ADV Manga's translation).
* Yuma from ''[[Puella Magi Oriko Magica]]''. She's the [[Token
** [[All There in the Manual|A drama CD]] for ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' reveals that {{spoiler|Kyoko's little sister, Momo Sakura, was one too. Fittingly, she's the local [[Token
* Haruka and Yuuto from ''[[Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu]]'' tend to do this to each other.
* Sara from ''[[Ai no Shintairiku]]'' refers to herself by her name.
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* Nessa does this in [[Fractale]], makes sense since she is a doppel and {{spoiler|the original Nessa is a bunny plushtoy}}.
{{quote|'''Nessa:''' Nessa loves love.}}
* The ghost girl Menma from [[
* ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'', ''[[Digimon Savers]]'' and ''[[Digimon X Evolution]]'': [[Self-Demonstrating Article|I, Dukemon, spoke in a construct based around this.]] Oddly, there's no reason why he should have in ''Tamers'' - neither Takato nor Guilmon, his base forms, spoke like that; one could argue that when [[Fusion Dance|Matrix Evolved]], the resulting Dukemon has shades of its own personality, supported by having a very different-sounding<ref>[[Masako Nozawa|except not actually any different]]</ref> voice to Guilmon.
* Momose from ''[[Bloody Cross]]'' talks like this.
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* In ''[[2000 AD]]'' there is the Lowlife strip, featuring a wally squad (undercover) judge named Dirty Frank. He's pretty...odd...and generally refers to himself in the third person (and occasionally brushes against the fourth wall).
* ''[[PS238]]'' has eccentric tailor-engineer [http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/01182012/ Amir Praxis].
* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' has a short arc where Calvin demands that he be called "Calvin the Bold", going on to say that "Calvin the Bold will begin referring to himself in the third person." Then his dad knighted him with the name Mud, and the whole charade disappeared very quickly.▼
* Lucy van Pelt did this when she was very young, in early ''[[Peanuts]]'' strips.▼
* ''[[Terry and the Pirates]]'' has several of these: Dragon Lady, Sanjak, Rouge, Klang...▼
== Fan Works ==
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* Some fanfics like [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3042174/Dead_Men_Tell_No_Tales this one] describe [[Pirates of the Caribbean|Tia Dalma]] as one of these. It may be the result of her [[You No Take Candle|broken English]].
* Stalkkus in the [[Fan Film]] ''[[Godzilla]] vs. the Kaiju Killer''.
* During the segment of the 1990s-vintage ''[[Ranma ½]]''-centric [[Mega Crossover]] ''[[A Tale of Two Wallets]]'' inspired by the ''Ranma'' theatrical film ''Big Trouble in Nekonron, China'', Prince Kirin's inability to use first-person pronouns gets lampshaded and mocked multiple times.
== Films -- Animation ==
* Gaston of Disney's ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]''. Played with in the ''[[House of Mouse]]'' cartoon.
* Stitch of Disney's ''[[Lilo and Stitch (Disney film)|
* Gurgi of Disney's ''[[The Black Cauldron]]''.
* Dim from ''[[A Bug's
* The Foosas from ''[[Madagascar]]''.
* Petrie from ''[[The Land Before Time]]''.
* In the German dub of ''[[Hercules (1997 film)
* An early draft of ''[[Atlantis: The
== Films -- Live-Action ==
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* Data in ''[[The Goonies]]'' occasionally slips into this.
{{quote|'''Data:''' Data's okay. But Data's tired of falling and Data's tired of skeletons.}}
* Lampshaded and [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[The Tuxedo]]''. [[Jackie Chan]]'s character, who is impersonating his boss Clark Devlin, inadvertently mentions that "Mr. Devlin liked insects too", and tries to remedy this slip by claiming that "I like to refer to myself in the third person." His partner Agent Del Blaine counters: "Del Blaine thinks you're an idiot."
* Syd in ''[[Children of Men]]''. Syd doesn't know why they want to get inside the camps. Syd doesn't want to know. Syd doesn't care.
* Rico in ''[[Little Caesar]]'', the film considered the [[Trope Codifier|codifier]] for the gangster genre, did this quite a bit. In fact, his {{spoiler|dying words}} are "Mother of Mercy -- is this the end of Rico?"
* [[Blazing Saddles|Mongo like to play!]]
* In ''[[Phantom of the Opera]]'' Erik has an unfortunate tennancy to slip into this.
== Literature ==
* "This Trope thought it could get away with not noticing him, but it failed to account for [[Hercule Poirot]]." In an [[Insufferable Genius]] way, usually after [[The Reveal]].
* The artist Boday, from [[Jack Chalker]]'s series
* In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], nearly all members of the Gand species refer to themselves in the third person, due to their belief that referring to yourself as "I" assumes everyone knows who you are and is the height of arrogance—unless a Gand has been officially declared notable enough to warrant it.
** Young Gand have no names; only after they've done something (say, learning to pilot a ship) do they even get a basic name. Doing something more noteworthy (say, mastering advanced pilot techniques and astronavigation) nets them a personal name, and they have to be truly special to be put through the ceremony that lets them go by "I". Embarrassed Gand use the less specialized names—to make it clearer, [[X Wing Series|Ooryl Qrygg]] goes by Ooryl normally, Qrygg if he's uncertain or embarassed, and Gand if he's being really humble or has screwed up massively. Being deemed noteworthy enough for "I" just adds another layer; he slips back into third person from time to time.
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* In the semi-dystopia of [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everlasting-Mann-aus-Zeit-fiel/dp/3805250169 "Everlasting" by Holly-Jane Rahlens], the first-person singular pronoun was abolished some centuries earlier as part of an ideological war, and is now known only to historians and to the residents of a few vaguely Amish-like enclaves.
* Quid from the ''[[Xeelee Sequence]]'' novel ''Raft''.
== Live-Action TV ==
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* Zathras, Zathras, and Zathras from ''[[Babylon 5]]''. Presumably, they're brothers—Zathras and Zathras did the same thing.
** Zathras told you that he and Zathras were brothers. And that Zathras has seven more brothers named Zathras. [[Catch Phrase|No one listens to Zathras.]]
** Captain Jack is also a Third
* Chris Rock's "Terry Armstrong" routine from ''Bring The Pain''.
{{quote|'''Exasperated Interviewer:''' You can't go through life not using the word "I"!
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** The Ken Burns documentary ''Prohibition'' mentioned that the historical George Remus was also known for doing this.
* In one of the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPGc9lYFyZ0 sketches] of ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'', Julius Caesar is instructed to talk about himself in this way. It doesn't work at all.
== Music ==
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* "Whatever [[Jay Z|Jigga]] say, Jigga probably do"
* [[Eminem]] does this a lot.
== New Media ==
* This Troper [[Self-Referential Humor|has seen this]]... [[
** And it shouldn't be there! Stop doing it!
* It is almost instinctive in [[Gender Bender]] stories to refer to one's opposite-gender self in the third person, usually as her name.
* ''[[I Love Bees]]'' has Monster Ann, a minor antagonist who speaks this way.
== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' has a short arc where Calvin demands that he be called "Calvin the Bold", going on to say that "Calvin the Bold will begin referring to himself in the third person." Then his dad knighted him with the name Mud, and the whole charade disappeared very quickly.
▲* Lucy van Pelt did this when she was very young, in early ''[[Peanuts]]'' strips.
▲* ''[[Terry and the Pirates]]'' has several of these: Dragon Lady, Sanjak, Rouge, Klang...
==
* [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] says... he is going to lay the smackdown on the [[Jobber|jabronis]] who neglected to mention him here!
* Not as common, but Mr. Kennedy (...KENNEDY!) still makes it a big deal in his pre-match promo.
** [[
* It's not uncommon for wrestlers to use their title nicknames to refer to themselves. [[Triple H]] has been quite guilty of this lately (King of Kings going back on his throne, you know the deal).
** ... and that's the bottom line, 'cause [[Steve Austin|Stone Cold]] said so!
== Puppet Shows ==
* This is a permanent feature of the puppet for Alain Delon (see Real Life below) in ''[[Les Guignols
* Elmo of ''[[Sesame Street]]'' does this; it's part of the reason he's so adorable. Not so much ego as [[Justified Trope|he hasn't learned pronouns yet]].
** The Mexican version, ''Plaza Sesamo'', has Lola doing it as well, since she's the show's Elmo equivalent.
== Radio ==
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* Most of the cast of ''[[The Navy Lark]]'' would slip in and out of [[Rule of Funny|whenever it was funny]], but C.P.O. Pertwee and Fatso Johnson would do it more than most.
* Denis King of ''[[Hello Cheeky]]'' would do this whenever he had just told a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|terrible]], ''[[Stylistic Suck|terrible]]'' joke. Usually the statement would go along the lines of "How does he think of them?" or "He's working well tonight!"
== Theater ==
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{{quote|"...what?...who?...no!...''she!''..."}}
* One [[Shakespeare]] editor noted that "[[Hamlet]] frequently speaks of himself in the third person; which is characteristic of the philosophic man,--reflective, thoughtful, given to moralize and speak in the abstract."
== Video Games ==
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* The Tankers in ''[[Oni]]'', if the quote "Can't stop Tanker!" is anything is go by.
* There's a good reason the multiplayer arcade game [[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]] tells you which character is doing things but in single player mode 'Warrior needs food'' becomes this trope.
* ''[[League of Legends
* The mafia of ''[[A Hat in Time]]''. Confusingly they are also a [[Planet of Steves]] who address other members of their group as "fellow mafia".
== Visual Novels ==
* Angie in ''[[Shikkoku no Sharnoth]]'', which is kind of odd considering it takes place in [[Victorian Britain]]. Ah well.
* Rizu in ''[[A Profile]]''. At one point Masayuki is worried for her when she uses the more standard "[[Japanese Pronouns|atashi]]" to refer to herself.
* ''[[Katawa Shoujo
* Remi from ''[[My Girlfriend is the President]]''.
* ''[[Da Capo
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Magellan]]'' has The Man Who Can, who is very particular about his name.
* Faz of ''[[Walkyverse|Shortpacked]]'' often does this.
* Thog of ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' also talks like this. In fact, most orcs do. This is eventually lampshaded when one orc abandons a chase to attend grammar class, hoping to learn personal pronouns.
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* [[Funny Foreigner]] Konsta from ''[[Plus EV]]''.
* In ''[[Questionable Content]]'' Samantha as "[http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2346 Skullmaster], [[Redundant Department of Redundancy|master of skulls]]". [http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3590 AI can keep up], obviously.
* Red from ''[[Skyvein]]'' always talks about Red in the third person.
== Western Animation ==
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** Of course, there's "never room for Old Sweepy".
* The Flea of ''[[Mucha Lucha]]'' is an even more obvious parody, although he does say "I", "me", or "my" occasionally.
* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
{{quote|"You're not the boss of Dracula!"}}
* ''[[Transformers]]''
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* The title character of ''[[Invader Zim]]'' does this multiple times per episode, although he still uses personal pronouns when speaking normally, using this trope usually only when he's shouting. "VICTORY FOR ZIM!"
** In most instances, you can expect almost pornographic [[Large Ham]] emphasis on 'Zim.'
{{quote|"Zim needs no vacation!"
"Treachery! Lies! ZIIIIIMMM!"
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* ''[[El Tigre]]'' villains Dr. Chipotle Sr., and his son, Dr. Chipotle Jr., do this. SWINE!
* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'': "Foolish biologicals! OVERLOAD WILL DESTROY!"
* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' gives us the animated version of Harm, a ruthless serial killer of superhumans, how apparently likes to do this a lot. On a related note, he also says [["It" Is Dehumanizing|"it" instead of "you"]].
{{quote|"Mediocrity such as this is never far from Harm."}}
* ''[[My Little Pony:
** Iron Will the minotaur from "Putting Your Hoof Down" speaks like this as well.
* Proto from the ''[[Batman: The Brave
== Real Life ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:All the Tropes Superhero Team]]▼
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Stock Characters]]
▲[[Category:All the Tropes Superhero Team]]
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