Verbal Tic/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Verbal Tics in Live-Action TV include:

  • Scrubs has one of J.D.'s girlfriends constantly saying "That's so funny" any time someone says something.
    • To make matters worse... she never even laughs.
    • Also a patient once complained about Turk constantly using the phrase "That's what I'm talkin' about"
    • But sometimes, it is what he's talking about!
    • Dr Cox and his syllable elongation ("I re-e-e-e-e-a-a-lly don't have time to repeat myself.")
  • Boba Fett in The Star Wars Holiday Special, friend.
  • Model/actress Misa Kikouden appears often on Japanese TV, spoofing the Kawaiiko phenomenon. Her Kawaiiko parody, an airhead Genki Girl calling herself Hakyuun, can hardly finish a sentence without throwing in a cutesy nonsense phrase (e.g. "Pakyunwa" or "desu nyo" or the occasional "Kyuiin!" borrowed from Kurumi above).
  • Doctor Who: The First Doctor, William Hartnell, had a habit of ending many if not most of his lines with a "hmmm?", plus interjecting the terms "young man" and "my child" into seemingly every third phrase.
    • Not to mention the habit of mangling his companion's last name ("Chesterton" becomes Chatterton, Chesterfield, Chessington, etc.)
    • The Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, tended to roll his R's, leading to a deeply unfortunate incident when he encountered aliens known as the Gods of Rrrrrrrrrrrragnarrrrrrrrrrrrok. Oh boy.
    • The Eighth Doctor liked monosyllables. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" "No, no, no, no, no..." "Grace, Grace, Grace, Grace!" Like that. Generally when he was excited, really thinking, or, as one character in the Expanded Universe observes, when he was distressed.
    • And Ten uses 'brilliant' every few sentences. He also says 'weeeell' a lot, similar to the Fourth Doctor.
    • Chantho, an alien in the episode "Utopia"', begins every sentence with "Chan" and ends it with "to" or "tho" (depending on your preferred spelling - TV subtitles used the latter). When asked why she does so, she explains that to not begin and end her sentences thusly would be her species' equivalent of profanity.
    • The Eleventh seems to use a lot of more generic verbal tics, in the manner one might when trying to stall while they puzzle out a half-formed thought.
  • Toku example: Mahou Sentai Magiranger's Small Annoying Houseplant Mandora Boy de gozarimasu desu!
  • Another Super Sentai example is the Engines in Engine Sentai Go-onger. All of them have a verbal tic, usually the last syllable of their name. Speedor, for example, usually says "doru doru!". It's also onomatopoeia of their vehicles' sounds, in some cases ("doru" doubles as the drrrrr! for engine revving, for example.)
    • Several Monsters of the Week mimic this, as is sentai tradition (though Go-Onger has every monster do it.) Oddly enough, the leading villains' verbal tics occur nowhere in their names: Kitaneidas '-zoyo', Kegalesia '-ojaru', Yogostein '-nari', and his father Yogoshimacritein '-narina'.
  • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger has an example of a Verbal Tic battle; in one episode, Luka turns into the Boukengers' Pokemon Speaking ally Zuuban and uses his tic to annoy the Dogormin, who respond with their own tic "Dogou".
  • In another toku example, Tomica Hero Rescue Fire, Chukaen, Ukaen, and Sakaen have the tendency to end all of their sentences with "de shii (C)", "de aru (R)", and "de eru (L)" respectively. This is a gag based on the fact that they always stand in that formation, with Chukaen in the center, Ukaen on the right, and Sakaen on the left.
  • Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV series, like anime catgirls, laced virtually every sentence she spoke with some variety of catlike vocalization.

Purrrrrrrfect!

    • In the movie based on this series, she repeatedly slips into this while disguised as a Russian reporter. Presumably due to Rule of Funny, Batman never actually notices what should be a very familiar verbal tic.
    • On the same show, compare the Penguin's muttering "wah-wah" chuckles.
    • And the Otto Preminger version of Mr. Freeze often said "Wild!"
  • Count Blah from Greg the Bunny, blah. It even extends to his writing:

Gil (reading) "Greg the Bunny is a filthy old sock, blah" (sarcastic) People, if you don't sign your names, we're not gonna know who wrote it!
Count Blah That one's mine, blah.
Gil Yes, Blah. We're all aware of your ridiculous verbal tic.
Blah Hey. Blah me!

    • And his wife's tombstone read "Beloved Wife, Blah. R.I.P.B."
  • Martin Short's SCTV and Saturday Night Live character Ed Grimley, I must say!
  • James Carville played a rather exaggerated version of himself on Thirty Rock that ended every sentence with "Cajun style."
  • The Vicar of Dibley's Jim would start every sentence with 'No..no..no..no..no...'. In one episode it is revealed his wife starts her sentences with 'Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes...'
    • At the start of the series finale, Jim tells the village council how he went on Deal or No Deal, where his Verbal Tic cost him 100,000 pounds. He ended up with 50p.

Jim: So I said "No, no, no, no, no ... Deal". And for some reason I cannot begin to comprehend, they thought I said "No, no, no, no, no ... No deal".

  • Desmond on Lost is almost guaranteed to end his sentence with "brotha" when he's initiating a conversation with someone.
    • Rather amusingly, one episode featured flashbacks to his time in a monastery that served no apparent purpose besides explaining this habit, brotha.
    • Likewise, Hurley likes to say "dude". It even warrants a Lostpedia article, dude.
  • Guppy on iCarly, which sometimes doubles as Pokémon-Speak and Catch Phrase.

Guppy: Happy birthday!

Timebomb: Powers are against pub rules.
Fusebox: ...prules.
Timebomb: What is this shit you're doing?
Fusebox: It's a nervous tic-- word fusion... wusion.
Timebomb: It's fucking annoying.
Fusebox: Sorry. Bad habit... babit.

Rude Man: Hey, I heard that!
Alice: Bite me.

to himself

  • Penelope Taynt from The Amanda Show also has a verbal tic, please!
  • Bones has Caroline Julian, cherie.
  • Guerrero from Human Target adds 'dude' to the end of a lot of his sentences, dude.
    • He even says that to his boss, Ilsa Pucci. If you haven't guessed, she's not a dude.
  • Lie to Me: Cal Lightman wants you to consider him as well, love.
  • Ernest P. Worrell, the Jim Varney character, ends a solid half of his sentences with "you know what I mean?".
  • Brazilian comedian Mussum, of Os Trapalhões, liked to add the suffix "is" to words - i.e. turning heart into "heartzis". And apparently when he got the advice to do this, he asked "What if I have to say 'pena'?"
  • Jesse from Breaking Bad, yo. The other druggie characters also toss it out occasionally.
  • At one point, Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords is described as possessing a verbal tic of "Wut" by his friends. This is rarely, if ever, demonstrated in the show.
  • Munter from Outrageous Fortune uses bro about once every sentence, occasionally more.
  • Big Brother Brasil had Igor and his "Tá ligado?", which translates to something like "Get it?", and has been made fun of a few times.
  • General Melchett in Blackadder goes Forth. Baa!
    • The various incarnations of Flashheart. WOOF!
  • Hercule Poirot, no?
  • Nerdy Harold from The Red Green Show has a tendency to punctuate sentences with odd sounds like "Whaaa", which is amplified when Ranger Gord turns him into a character in his animated educational films.
  • Actually, Reid from Criminal Minds does love correcting people by opening the sentence with "actually".
  • More informed by Vic Mackey, but in the premiere of the fifth season of The Shield, it's revealed that the newly promoted Captain Billings ends all his daily roll calls with "and so forth."
  • The title characters of Jeeves and Wooster have all the same tics as they do in the short stories. Jeeves' tic becomes especially prominent in a scene where Bertie pulls him into a Call-and-Response Song (and note that even after the following dialogue, he still mouths the word "sir").

Bertie: I don't mean to be overly critical Jeeves, I mean, I know you're doing your best...
Jeeves: Thank you, sir.
Bertie: I just think that perhaps we could dispense with the 'sir' at the end of every line. You know, shows the proper feudal spirit and all that, but I'm afraid it doesn't play merry hell with the rhythm of the thing.

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