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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''Oh, I'm begging on my knees
''Sweet, sweet darling listen please
''Understand me when I say:
''Be-durble-diggle-doggle-diggle-doddle-diddle-day''
|'''[[Red Dwarf]]''', ''The Tongue Tied Song''}}
A Tongue-Tied character has some extremely important knowledge, and just [[Cannot Spit It Out]]... quite literally.
Sometimes a victim has to be kept quiet about what exactly has happened to him, or he may have learned a [[Secret Keeper|secret that someone doesn't want him to share]]. He can be threatened or encouraged to lie, but this is unreliable. Some villains attempt elaborate [[Brainwashed|brainwashing]] or [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]], but these options are all [[Easy Amnesia|startlingly reversible]]. In light of this, the occasional [[Magic and Powers|magically-inclined]] [[Villains]] will place a [[Curse]] on his victim that also leaves the victim Tongue-Tied.
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This "curse" is usually magical in nature, since the character will find himself unable to share the secret regardless of how badly he wants or needs to, but [[Brainwashed|mental conditioning]] ''can'' sometimes be used to similar effect.
A
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[
** This is an exact example in the movie, but not in the book. In the book it is a subversion, because ''almost'' everyone knows about it, and has tried to lift the spell from her.
** A similar case applies to the connection between Calcifer and Howl; he's unable to reveal what it is, but Sophie's allowed to guess or figure it out on her own.
* This is the effect of the Talking Heads stand from ''[[
* In ''[[Alice 19th]]'', Mayura magically "forbids" Alice to tell Kyo about her feelings for him - and about the spell she uses to do this.
*
* Sai of ''[[Naruto]]'' and all other members of Root had seals placed on their tongues to keep them from betraying any of Danzo's information. {{spoiler|However, since Danzo is now dead, those seals are gone.}}
* Ahiru in ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' cannot tell Mytho that she loves him, or else she will disappear in a speck of light.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Baron Mordo does this to [[Doctor Strange|Stephen Strange]] in order to prevent the stranger from telling the Ancient One of Mordo's treachery. It doesn't prevent Dr. Strange from asking to learn magic himself, however, and once he does so the Ancient One immediately releases him from the spell admitting he knew about it all along.
* Poison Ivy did this to the Wayne Foundation board members in one [[
* In [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Mighty Avengers]], Cassie learns that "Wanda" is actually Loki in disguise, but he curses her into not telling anyone.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[Tortall Universe|Emperor Mage]]'', Daine is prevented from telling anyone that there's a goddess running around causing havoc.
* In ''[[Ella Enchanted]]'', Ella (who has been given the [[Blessed
* In the third book of Lynn Flewelling's ''[[Nightrunner|Tamír Trilogy]]'', the evil wizard puts one of these spells on the girl he forces the prince to marry, so she can't tell the prince of the wizard's machinations, including the fact that she's only a virgin because the wizard magically recreated her hymen.
* The Summer Lady had this once in Jim Butcher's ''[[Dresden Files|Small Favor]]''; she'd been forbidden to talk about something by the Summer Queen.
* In [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''[[Ender's Game|Shadow of the Hegemon]]'', Sister Carlotta finds out the particulars of Bean's condition from a scientist who first proposed the theory. The scientist has to be very clever about telling her, because he has been conditioned to have a panic attack whenever he speaks about or even thinks about his old work.
* In ''[[Jonathan Strange
** Apparently it's actually stories that almost match up with ancient faerie activities, being [[The Fair Folk]] it sounds total nonsense.
* The Aes Sedai in Robert Jordan's ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' are unable to lie due to a magical promise on the Oath Rod; consequently, when asked a direct question about a secret, the best they can do is give a misleading but true answer. With the result that many people don't believe them at all, since they know about this oath. There's also reason to believe that the Black Ajah have a magical compulsion against betraying their fellow darkfriends, which is why they can't reveal names even under torture.
** {{spoiler|The exact function of the Black Ajah oath is that is prevents them from divulging any of their secrets until the hour of their death. In the thirteenth book, one of them abuses this loophole by poisoning herself so that she can betray the Black Ajah to Egwene.}}
* Germain from Eric Nylund's ''A Game Of Universe'' claims to have a
* One of the [[Big Bad
* The ''[[Harry Potter]]'' universe has multiple ways of invoing this:
**
** There actually is a literal and [[Canon]] example of a tongue-tying charm in ''[[Harry Potter]]''. {{spoiler|When a [[Secret Keeper]] dies, everyone who knows the secret becomes a [[Secret Keeper]]. This includes Snape, though he probably wouldn't have told anyway. To prevent him from blabbing, Moody places a literal tongue twister curse on the house, preventing him from revealing its location.}}
* [[Sheri S. Tepper]]'s ''[[The True Game]]'' series has an unusual variant: a character is prevented from speaking a certain piece of information, but is perfectly capable of writing it down. However, this bit of
* In [[James Thurber]]'s ''[[
* Mages in the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' series can place this spell on others. Ethical mages will only do it with permission.
* In the ''[[
* In ''[[The Belgariad]]'' by [[David Eddings]], the protaganist Belgarion is spied upon by the Grolim Asharak (aka Chamdar) from his childhood days but a magical compulsion prevents him speaking about it until the spell is broken.
* In a short story by Selma Lagerlöf, a young girl kidnapped by bandits has to solemnly swear she'll never tell what happened and where they're hiding to anyone. After escaping, she tells how to find them to her cat, while the family's in the room.
* Part of Sophie's curse in ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (
▲* In a short story by Selma Lagerlöf, a young girl kidnapped by bandits has to solemnly swear she'll never tell what happened and where they're hiding to anyone. After escaping, she tells how to find them to her cat, while the family's in the room.
* Non-informational variant: In ''Master of Five Magics'', sorcerers become progressively more
▲* Part of Sophie's curse in ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (Literature)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'' includes the inability to explain or describe the curse to anyone else.
▲* Non-informational variant: In ''Master of Five Magics'', sorcerers become progressively more [[Tongue Tied]] when they recite their spells, which must be repeated [[Rule of Three|three times]] without error to be effective. By the third recitation, they're usually struggling desperately to get their lips and tongue to shape the right sounds, not slip up and incur the mystical backlash from a botched spell.
* The title character of ''Spider's Song'' is born tongue-tied and mute. He's tongue is "accidentally" cut free by a friend who doesn't remember doing it afterward.
* ''[[Labyrinths of Echo]]'' had this happened a few times, both in the main series and prequels. The "non-disclosure" enchantments and [[Magically-Binding Contract|oaths]] are fairly common in the World of Rod. Some kill the subject trying to reveal the secret, others simply prevent talking. Even with the safest enchantments, the problem is that when they directly clash against magic used to get the prohibited answer (or even non-specific mind control effects used to force revealing the secret), results tend to be weird and [[Your Head Asplode|very messy]].
** It's not automatically foolproof, however. Juffin on a hunt for his former apprentice the first time ran into an explosive mishap, the second time he told the victim to say nothing, analyzed the magic, and concluded: "This enchantment is strong, but it was done by an airheaded dolt. Tell me the exact opposite of what's going on."
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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* In a Muppet version of ''The Frog Prince'', a princess is cursed to speak in scrambled sentences so that she couldn't tell that the witch who cast the spell is masquerading as the king's sister. The frog prince is the only one able to understand her, perhaps because he was transformed by the same witch.
** Or that Robin had more than two brain cells to rub together. The Princess's father wasn't exactly Einstein, you know.
* In ''[[
* In one episode of ''[[Jam]]'', a lift in an office breaks down but the security guard, who has a speech impediment, physically can't get the words out in time to warn people. Several people step into the lift and fall to their deaths because he can't call out to them in time.
== Music ==
* ''[[
== Radio ==
* The song itself was first aired several years previously in BBC radio comedy [[Son of Cliche]], set to music by Peter Brewis using words written by Brewis and Grant/Naylor.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** In a recent campaign, a friend's wizard put this spell on a particularly ego-centric and irritating character of mine, with the taboo being... Herself. [[Hilarity Ensues|Cue the laughter.]]
** In adventure I12 ''Egg of the Phoenix'', High Cleric MacKurian is put under a Geas spell that prevents him from writing or saying the name of the [[Big Bad]].
** ''[[Exalted]]'' has a a similar spell, but in this case, the victim of the spell is subjected to wracking pain and uncontrollable vomiting whenever they try to talk about the forbidden subject. In addition to being much more sadistic, this version is probably less useful, since anyone who's heard of the spell will know that something's up.
* The ritual Plague of Hiccups in ''[[
* ''[[Exalted]]'' also has the Ebon Dragon charm known as "Our Little Secret", in which you can render someone unable to tell anyone about what they saw you doing by making them feel guilt and shame. This can quite specifically only be used when the act in question would horrify the average person in the local culture.
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* The plot of ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] 2'' begins when a mysterious thief steals {{spoiler|photos}} from everyone in town. It would be almost mundane, if not for everyone's sudden inability to say the word {{spoiler|photo}} afterward.
* The [[Ancient Conspiracy]] of the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' games inject their agents with nanomachines that cause them to say nonsensical "La-li-lu-le-lo" when attempting to discuss them. See ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' example below.
* One of the effects of {{spoiler|Doopliss}} [[Grand Theft Me|stealing Mario's body]] in Chapter 4 of ''[[Paper Mario:
** It seemed like it was less of being able to understand him and more of being able to HEAR him - her response seems to indicate that, for example, Mario tried to say something but nothing came out, or it did come out but so quiet that she couldn't hear anything.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [[
* In ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'', Revolver Ocelot secretly brainwashes his teammates into being ''incapable'' of saying "The Patriots", the secret organization he works for. Instead, it comes out at "LA-LI-LU-LE-LO"
{{quote|
** [[I Knew It!|Confirmed]] by the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] Database''. Further confirmed by ''MGS4''; at one point Snake mentions the Patriots, to which a confused Meryl replies, "La-li-lu-le-lo?"
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', Gwynn curses Torg to make donkey noises when he tries to tell people about the fact that she's using magic again. Unfortunately, her wording was a bit too broad. Not only does he start hee-hawing when he tries to say ''any'' important information (like "Zoe, help! Oasis has kidnapped me and taken me to a Poconos Resort to force me to marry her!"), he starts ''actually turning into a donkey!''
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Miriam of [http://www.metamorcity.com/ Making the Cut] is forced to not tell any of her friends that's she's been turned into a vampire, and the vampires are forcing her to be their spy.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* One episode of ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'' has incompetent guidance counselor Mr. Small accidentally doing this to Gumball and Darwin: when his attempts to break them from lying fail, he resorts to traumatizing them into silence with a puppet. Then he stumbles into the drawer of his own filing cabinet and gets locked inside. Gumball and Darwin try to help, [[Hoist
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{{reflist}}
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