"It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much."
— Yogi Berra
All about the things that characters say.
See also Language Tropes and Narrator Tropes.
Tropes:
Categories:
- Accent Tropes
- Catchphrase
- Complaining Index
- Compliment Tropes
- Confession Tropes
- Excuse of an Index
- Exposition
- Externalizing Internal Monologue
- Evil Gloating
- I Am An Index
- Inane Blabbering
- Index of Apologies
- Index of Goodbyes
- Insult Tropes
- The Last of These Is Not Like the Others
- One-Liner
- Phone Tropes
- The Power of Language
- Promises and Vows Index
- Rebuke Tropes
- Repeat Index Index
- Rhyme Tropes
- Speeches and Monologues
- Stock Phrases
- These Tropes Love to Brag
- These Tropes Should Watch Their Language
- Threatening Tropes
- Truth and Lies
- Voice and Vocal Tropes
- Word Power
- What Is This Index?
- Accidental Public Confession
- Acoustic License
- Acquaintance Denial: Pretending you don't know somebody so that you won't be judged or embarrassed.
- Action Figure Speech
- After Action Patch Up
- After-Action Villain Analysis
- Ahem: Throat-clearing to get someone's attention.
- Air Quotes: A gesture made by wiggling your index and middle fingers while saying a word to represent the word being sandwiched in quotations marks and to signify that the word is either being used sarcastically or that someone else used it and you don't believe it.
- All-Cheering All the Time
- Already the Case: A request or threat turns out to have already been followed by the time the speaker finishes.
- Always Introduces Themselves
- Analogy Backfire
- And Then I Said
- And the Rest
- Angrish: A character becomes so overwhelmed with anger that all they can say is gibberish and/or incomplete sentences.
- Another Story for Another Time
- Announcer Chatter
- Answering Echo
- Anything but That!: A character pleads that they'll accept any punishment or torture except for this particular one.
- Apologises a Lot: A character tends to apologize repeatedly.
- Appeal to Familial Wisdom
- Appeal to Obscurity
- Applied Mathematics
- Aren't You Forgetting Someone?
- Argument of Contradictions: Two characters enter an argument that amounts mainly to yelling each other's opinion or choice at one another.
- Armor-Piercing Question
- Armor-Piercing Response
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: A list is ended with the weakest example for comic effect.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Rudely giving someone's question a deliberate wrong answer due to feeling the question was stupid.
- As the Good Book Says...: Someone quotes the Bible.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: A character sees something that causes them to suddenly shout something while they were talking, but the abruptly hollered word just happens to be what they were probably going to say or at least makes sense as part of the interrupted sentence.
- Atomic F-Bomb: Screaming the F-word.
- Audience Murmurs
- Backhanded Apology: An apology that deflects the blame to the person being apologized to rather than sincerely admitting fault for doing the person wrong.
- Bad News in a Good Way: Delivering bad news in a way that makes it sound like good news.
- Bad Omen Anecdote
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: It looks like they're saying that statement about one person or thing, but it turns out they meant another person or thing.
- Bathroom Search Excuse: When caught snooping, a character claims to have been looking for the bathroom.
- Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults
- Battle Cry
- Battle-Interrupting Shout
- Beam Me Up, Scotty!: An iconic catchphrase that either doesn't actually exist or is really a misquoted variant of what the character really said.
- Bearer of Bad News
- Beat Without a "But"
- Before I Change My Mind
- The Bechdel Test: Does a work feature at least two named female characters and, if so, do they have a conversation about something other than men?
- Berate and Switch
- Better Partner Assertion: A character insists to the person they love that they are the better candidate over their romantic rival.
- Bilingual Backfire
- Bilingual Dialogue
- Blah, Blah, Blah
- Blamed for Being Railroaded
- Blatant Lies: Someone makes a statement that is obviously not true.
- Blunt Metaphors Trauma: A foreign character misunderstands idioms and figures of speech or gets them wrong.
- Bold Inflation
- Bond One-Liner: Making a remark after having killed someone that makes light of their demise.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: A mundane list ends with something weird or disturbing.
- Breaking Bad News Gently
- Break Them by Talking
- Bring Them Around
- Broken Record
- But I Digress
- Buy or Get Lost
- Calling Shotgun
- Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: A character tells everyone else that they need to go to the bathroom.
- Can't Argue with Elves: A species believes that their race is superior to all others and that therefore they are never wrong.
- Casual Danger Dialogue
- Censorship by Spelling: Spelling out a word in hopes that someone hearing you won't notice the word being spelled.
- Chain of Corrections
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Changing the topic of conversation to try and avoid discussing something you'd rather not.
- Chew-Out Fake-Out: A person looks like they're going to rebuke someone for doing something bad, but it then turns out that they're proud of what the person has done.
- Closed Door Rapport
- Cluster F-Bomb: Repeatedly saying "fuck".
- Code Emergency
- Collective Groan
- Comic Role Play
- Confession Deferred
- Confirm Before Reveal: A character asks a quick question about something they're about to reveal before revealing it.
- Confusing Multiple Negatives: A character uses multiple negatives, making it confusing as to what they meant to say.
- Conjunction Interruption
- Constantly Curious: A character who doesn't stop asking questions.
- Conversational Troping
- Conversation Cut
- Converse with the Unconscious
- *Cough* Snark *Cough*: Coughing or pretending to cough in order to hide a rude remark or give the impression of hiding it without really intending to.
- Could Say It, But...
- Covert Distress Code
- Covert Emergency Call
- Cowardice Callout: Someone gets called out on their cowardly behavior/conduct.
- Critical Psychoanalysis Failure
- Cryptically Unhelpful Answer
- Cryptic Conversation
- Cue Card Pause
- Cultural Posturing
- Curse Cut Short: A character is interrupted or deliberately stops talking when they are about to swear.
- Cypher Language
- Damned by Faint Praise: Insulting something by only praising a minor aspect.
- Dare to Be Badass
- Dead Person Conversation
- Debating Names
- Delighting in Riddles
- Demanding Their Head: A character gives verbal orders to kill somebody and return with a severed head as proof.
- Department of Redundancy Department: When a character unnecessarily repeats themselves or says something that means the same thing as what they just said.
- Derailed for Details
- Derailed Train of Thought
- Description Cut
- Description Porn
- Desperate Plea for Home: A character pushed to their limits expresses a firm desire to go home.
- Deteriorates Into Gibberish
- Devastating Remark: Someone says something that leaves another person an emotional wreck
- Dialogue Reversal
- Dialogue Tree
- Did You Die?: When a character is telling the story of a dangerous event they experienced, someone else asks if the person died even though they obviously survived if they're around to tell the story.
- Different for Girls: A Crossdresser or Gender Bender is convincing as a girl, but risks revealing himself by accidentally speaking in a distinctly masculine way.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: An attempt at saving face only makes you look even worse.
- Disappointed by the Motive: Once you find out why the person did what they did, you're not impressed with the motivation.
- Disappointed in You
- Dismissing a Compliment
- Distinction Without a Difference: You insist that you're not X, you're just Y, but Y is essentially the same thing as X.
- Disorganized Outline Speech
- Dispense with the Pleasantries
- Disregard That Statement
- Does That Sound Like Fun to You?
- Do I Really Sound Like That?: A character hears themselves speaking and is astonished at how they apparently sound.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: A character mocks a being much more powerful than they are and suffers the consequences.
- Doctor, Doctor, Doctor
- Double-Edged Answer
- Double Meaning
- Double Speak
- Dramatic Deadpan
- Dramatic Ellipsis
- Dramatic Pause
- Dramatic Stutter
- Dropping the Bombshell
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Winning an Argument of Contradictions by tricking the other person into switching sides of the argument.
- Dude, Not Ironic: A character describes something as ironic when the situation isn't really an example of irony.
- Dumbass Has a Point: The dumb character actually makes a valid point.
- Earpiece Conversation
- Easily-Overheard Conversation
- The Echoer: Someone can only speak by copying another person's words.
- Either "World Domination", or Something About Bananas
- Elective Broken Language
- Emergency Presidential Address
- Enemy Chatter
- Escalating Punchline
- Especially Zoidberg: A conversation that ends on "Even X?" "Especially X!" when you'd expect X to be an exception.
- Euphemism Buster: Someone says a euphemism, but then someone else says the non-euphemistic term.
- Everyone Knows Morse
- Everything Except Most Things
- Evil Sounds Deep: Villains have deep voices.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: Villains have raspy voices.
- Exactly What I Meant to Say
- Exposition
- Exposition Already Covered
- Exposition Cut
- Facial Dialogue
- Famed in Story
- Fauxdian Slip
- Featureless Plane of Disembodied Dialogue
- Final Exchange: Replying to a person's last words.
- Finish Dialogue in Unison
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences
- First-Name Ultimatum: Hollering a person's first name to let them know that they are in big trouble.
- Flippant Forgiveness
- Fold the Page, Fold the Space
- Freudian Slip: A character accidentally says what they were thinking about instead of what they wanted to say.
- Freudian Threat: Threatening to inflict an injury upon someone's private parts.
- Friendly Address Privileges
- From the Latin "Intro Ducere"
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Calling someone by their full name to let them know that they are in big trouble.
- Funny Photo Phrase: Someone says, or is asked to say, a silly phrase in place of "Cheese" when having their photo taken.
- Fun with Homophones: Confusion between two different words that sound the same.
- Gag Echo
- Gagging on Your Words
- Geeky Turn-On
- Gender-Concealing Writing
- Gender-Inclusive Writing
- Gentleman Snarker
- Get It Over With
- Gibbering Genius
- Give Me a Reason: Someone eagerly looks for an excuse to inflict violence upon someone.
- Good Night, Sweet Prince
- Grilling the Newbie
- Hammy Herald
- Hannibal Lecture
- Head Bob
- Heartfelt Apology: Offering a sincere apology to someone who gladly accepts it.
- He Didn't Make It: "Not making it" is a euphemism for death.
- Heroism Motive Speech
- Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: If a character hesitates before answering, it's a dead giveaway that they are lying.
- Hey, That's My Line!
- Hey, You!
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier
- Hit You So Hard, Your X Will Feel It!
- Holding the Floor
- Hostage-Handler Huddle
- How Did You Know? I Didn't
- Hurricane of Aphorisms
- Hurricane of Euphemisms: A Long List of synonyms.
- Hyperaffixation
- Hypothetical Fight Debate: A debate on who would win if two people or characters got into a fight.
- I Can't Believe I'm Saying This
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...
- If I Wanted You Dead...
- I Gave My Word
- Ignore the Disability: Character unsuccessfully tries to remind themselves not to point out another character's disability or deformity.
- Ignoring by Singing: A character covers their ears and sings to try and ignore a statement they don't like or don't want to hear.
- I Have Nothing to Say to That
- I Have This Friend: A character asks for advice on how to deal with their problem, but claims that it's a friend of theirs who has the problem to avoid embarrassing themselves.
- I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That
- I'll Take Two Beers Too
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Someone says that they're "an X, not a Y".
- I'm Not Doing That Again
- I'm Thinking It Over!
- Implied Death Threat: Making an indirect threat to kill someone.
- Inaction Sequence
- Inflationary Dialogue
- Info Dump: Introducing the new characters as soon as they appear.
- Inner Monologue Conversation
- Innocent Awkward Question: A child accidentally shocks or embarrasses adults with a question.
- Instant Seduction
- Instantly Proven Wrong
- Instructional Dialogue
- Insult Friendly Fire: Insult one person with an insult that unintentionally offends another person you didn't mean to insult because it also applies to them.
- Insult Misfire: A person gets insulted but misinterprets who the insult is aimed at.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: A character can only speak gibberish, but everyone else understands them perfectly.
- Intercom Villainy: A villain uses a remote communication system to talk to the hero.
- ...In That Order
- Ironic Echo
- I Say What I Say
- Is the Answer to This Question "Yes"?: Responding to a yes or no question by asking another yes or no question that the other person should figure out has the same answer.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: A character has several insults thrown at them, but only gets offended or the most upset by the last and/or weakest of the insults.
- It Tastes Like Feet: Remarking that food you just ate tastes awful by claiming it tastes like something gross.
- I "Uh" You, Too
- I Would Say If I Could Say: A character remarks that they'd say a specific phrase were it not for one detail preventing the phrase from making any sense if they'd say it.
- Jackhammered Conversation
- Join or Die
- Joke Exhaustion
- Just Between You and Me
- Just One Man
- Just Testing You
- Kiai
- Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy
- Lame Comeback: Someone insults you and you try to insult them back, but the insult you give stinks.
- Lame Rhyme Dodge: Someone tries to cover up an insult by claiming to have said something that rhymes with the insult.
- Language Fluency Denial
- Large-Ham Announcer
- Large Ham Radio
- Last-Second Word Swap: Changing the last word you were going to say at the last minute.
- Last Chance to Quit
- Last Request
- Layman's Terms: Explaining verbose vernacular in terms that less intelligent people will understand. In English, that means dumbing down big words so we know what the brainiac is talking about.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Characters make a vow that they'll never talk about this incident ever again.
- Let's Mock the Monsters
- Lies to Children: Someone lies to children.
- Like a God to Me
- Listing the Forms of Degenerates
- Literally Laughable Question
- Little Professor Dialog
- Loves Secrecy
- Ludicrous Precision
- Lying to the Perp
- Ma'am Shock
- Made Myself Sad
- Mad Libs Dialogue
- Madness Mantra: A repeatedly spoken phrase that indicates insanity.
- Malicious Slander
- Mamet Speak
- Mathematician's Answer: An answer to a question that is technically correct, but doesn't really answer the question.
- Meaningful Echo
- Meaningful Look
- Meaningless Meaningful Words
- Melodramatic Pause
- Mirror Monologue: Someone talks to themselves while looking in the mirror.
- Mistaken Confession
- Motive Misidentification
- Motive Rant: A character goes into a rant on why they're doing what they're doing.
- Mouthing the Profanity: Mouthing a swear word instead of actually saying it.
- Mouthful of Pi: A brainy character can recite pi to many places.
- Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: The dub versions of a work have one actor reprise their role in the different languages.
- Multiple Persuasion Modes
- Multitasked Conversation
- Musicalis Interruptus
- My Defense Need Not Protect Me Forever
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Excluding someone from a group after the impression is given that they were included in the group mentioned earlier.
- My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: A character attempts to speak a foreign language, but either angers someone by unintentionally saying an insulting phrase or embarrasses themselves by unknowingly saying a humiliating or nonsensical phrase.
- The Name Is Bond, James Bond: A character introduces themselves by saying their surname and then their full name.
- Narration Echo
- Never Say That Again
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: A character will never say anything negative about the deceased.
- Newspeak
- No-Dialogue Episode: An episode where none of the characters talk.
- No Indoor Voice: Character has a tendency to shout whenever they talk.
- "No" Means "Yes"
- "No More Holding Back" Speech
- No One Else Is That Dumb: Proving a character is your dumb friend by having them confirm their idiocy.
- Not Hyperbole: What seems like a figure of speech isn't.
- No, You Go First
- Nobody's That Dumb: A dumb character reveals themselves to be aware of their stupidity and makes it clear that even they have limits to how idiotic they can be.
- Noisy Shut-Up
- Non-Answer
- Non Sequitur Distraction
- Noodle Incident: Characters mention an unseen past event and are extremely vague about it.
- Noodle Implements: Character claims to have done something or mentions an intent to do something using tools with unspecified purposes.
- Not Actually the Ultimate Question
- Not in Front of the Kid: No one swears in front of children.
- Not Listening to Me, Are You?
- Not so Dire
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging
- Oblivious Mockery
- Obviously Not Fine: A character says that they're okay when it's quite plain that they're not.
- Oh God, with the Verbing!
- Oh, No... Not Again!
- Oh, Wait!
- On Second Thought
- On Three
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations
- One-Liner, Name... One-Liner
- One Scene, Two Monologues
- One-Tract Mind
- One-Word Vocabulary
- Ordered Apology
- Or My Name Isn't...: A character says that "X will happen or my name isn't Y!".
- ...Or So I Heard
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: A character eavesdrops on a conversation and gets the wrong idea of what's going on due to missing the proper context.
- Outside/Inside Slur
- Parenthetical Swearing: The character doesn't swear, but the way they phrase their statements makes it easy to imagine that they are cussing.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat
- Perfectly Cromulent Word: Using made-up words.
- Perplexing Plurals
- The Perry Mason Method
- Personalized Pledge: "I swear upon [something personal]."
- Persuasion Minigame
- Picked Flowers Are Dead
- Playing the Victim Card: The guilty party tries to make it look like they are the victim.
- Plato Is a Moron
- Pokémon Speak: Character can only say their own name.
- Poor Communication Kills: Failure to explain your intentions clearly will have dire consequences.
- Poorly Timed Confession
- [Popular Saying], But...
- Porky Pig Pronunciation: Character struggles to pronounce a word before settling on using a synonym.
- Precision F-Strike: In a work that otherwise doesn't have profanity, or features a character who doesn't normally use profanity, profanity is unexpectedly used.
- Preemptive "Shut Up": Telling someone to shut up when they haven't even said anything.
- The Promise
- Pronouncing My Name for You: A character tells someone how to say their name.
- Proverbial Wisdom
- Publicly Discussing the Secret
- Purple Prose
- Quiet Cry for Help
- Quote Mine
- Quote-to-Quote Combat
- Quoting Myself
- Race-Name Basis: Calling someone by their race or species.
- Radio Voice
- Rage Against the Mentor
- Rapid-Fire Interrupting
- Rapid-Fire Name Guessing
- A Rare Sentence
- Rationalizing the Overkill: Rationalizing why retaliation was made with more extremes than the slight deserved.
- Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Someone reads from a script and misinterprets stage directions as lines.
- Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Dialogue in fiction is very clear-cut, unlike in real life.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Someone tears into someone else by going on a rant listing the other person's flaws.
- Recorded Spliced Conversation
- Remember That You Trust Me
- Repeated for Emphasis
- Repeat What You Just Said
- Repeated Cue, Tardy Response
- Repeat to Confirm
- Request for Privacy
- Reunion Vow
- Revenge Is Not Justice
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: Someone answers a rhetorical question due to not knowing that the other person wasn't expecting an answer.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Character speaks in rhyme.
- Rhyming List
- Rousing Speech
- Said Bookism: Authors say anything but "said" when describing a character's dialogue.
- Sarcastic Confession
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: A character says a sound effect.
- Saying Too Much
- Say My Name: A character yells out another one's name.
- Secret Identity Vocal Shift
- Scheherezade Gambit
- Screw You, Elves!: The high-and-mighty species who believe themselves to be better than everyone else gets told by a member of one of the so-called "lesser species" where they can shove their arrogance.
- Screw Your Ultimatum!
- Seamless Spontaneous Lie
- Secret Message Wink: Winking to secretly get a message across.
- Seinfeldian Conversation
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Big words.
- Seven Minute Lull
- Shall I Repeat That?
- Shamed by a Mob
- Shaming the Mob
- Shaped Like Itself: Describing something as being like itself (e.g. a house-shaped house).
- Shutting Up Now
- Shut Up, Kirk!
- "Shut Up" Kiss
- Sigh of Love
- Signature Line
- Silence is Golden
- Silent Conversation
- Silent Whisper
- Simple Solution Won't Work: One character suggests a simple solution to a problem, and another character tells them why it won't work.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Character has a tendency to swear.
- Sit Rep
- Smurfing: A character uses the same word to substitute every other word.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat
- Snub by Omission
- So Crazy, It Must Be True
- Something Only They Would Say
- Sommelier Speak
- Sorrowful Stutter
- Speak Ill of the Dead: Character has no qualms with saying negative things about the deceased.
- Speaking Like Totally Teen
- Speaking Simlish: Characters' dialogue consists almost entirely of gibberish.
- Speak in Unison
- Speaks in Shout-Outs
- Speech-Bubble Censoring: In comics, speech bubbles are used to cover up nudity.
- Speech-Centric Work
- Speech Impediment
- Spy Speak
- Stage Whisper
- Start My Own
- Stealth Insult: Insulting someone in a way that you intend them not to understand that they are being dissed.
- Stereo Fibbing
- Stock Quotes
- Stop Copying Me
- Stop Saying That!
- Strange-Syntax Speaker
- Stupid Question Bait
- Suddenly Shouting: Character abruptly raises their voice when speaking.
- The Summation
- Surrogate Soliloquy
- Survival Mantra
- Suspiciously Specific Denial
- Suspiciously Specific Tense
- Sustained Misunderstanding
- Switch to English
- Technical Euphemism: Technical vocab used euphemistically.
- Textplosion: A comics' panels are suddenly filled with (dialogue) text before reverting to illustrations.
- Think of the Censors!
- Truth-Telling Session
- T-Word Euphemism: Referring to a word as the (first letter of word)-word to avoid actually saying the word.
- Talk About the Weather
- Talking through Technique
- Talking in Your Dreams
- Talking to Plants
- Talking to the Dead
- Talking with Signs
- Talking Your Way Out
- Talks like a Simile
- Taking the Fight Outside
- Teasing from Behind the Language Barrier
- Telegraph Gag STOP
- Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him
- Tell Me About My Father
- Tempting Fate: Remarking that you're sure nothing bad will happen, only for the bad thing to happen right after you're done talking.
- Terms of Endangerment
- Terse Talker
- Thank Your Prey
- That Came Out Wrong: Character realizes to their mortification that they just said something that sounds unintentionally sleazy.
- That Cloud Looks Like...
- That Liar Lies: A person is reprimanded for or accused of lying.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Character expresses emotions by stating how they feel.
- That Mysterious Thing
- That Was Not a Dream: Character talks about a dream they had and is then told that they weren't dreaming and what they described actually happened.
- That Was Objectionable: In court, the lawyer can refute anything by hollering "Objection" or "I object".
- Thinking Out Loud
- This Explains So Much: A stupid or eccentric character reveals a detail about themselves that causes another character to remark that this may explain why the other person is the way they are.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Emphasising a declaration by ending it with "bitch".
- Time-Travel Tense Trouble: Confusion on the proper tense to use when describing the actions of time travelers, as those done in the past will technically have already happened and those done in the future haven't happened yet.
- Timmy in a Well
- "Too Young to Die" Lamentation
- Trial Balloon Question
- Trick Dialogue
- The Triple
- Trouble Entendre
- Trust Password
- Twisting the Words
- Twisted Echo Cut
- Two Scenes, One Dialogue
- Unnecessary Time Precision: Doing complicated time calculations just to say that the date requested is very recent.
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating: The winner is arrogant enough to mock the other competitors for losing.
- Unusual Euphemism: Saying bizarre words and phrases in lieu of profanity.
- Verbal Backspace
- Voiceover Letter: A character reads a letter and we hear a voiceover of the letter being read aloud by whoever wrote the letter.
- Walk-In Chime-In
- Wall of Blather
- Wasn't That Fun?: A character (sincerely or not) claims they want to do something dangerous again.
- Waxing Lyrical: Mentioning the lyrics of a song.
- Weapons-Grade Vocabulary
- Weird Aside
- Weirder Than Usual
- Welcome to Corneria: The non-player characters of a video game have limited dialogue.
- Wham Line: One line of dialogue changes everything.
- What's a Henway?: Tricking someone into asking what a nonsense word is, leading to a pun (e.g. "Have you seen my dogway?" "What's a dogway?" "Depends on the breed.")
- What the Hell, Hero?: The hero is called out by others for doing something not very heroic.
- Where Do You Think You Are?
- While You Were in Diapers: A character brags about their experience and seniority by claiming to have been at the top of their game when their younger colleagues were only infants.
- Whispered Threat
- Who's on First?: Two words are confused (for instance, a character named Watt causing confusion when asked, "What's your name?").
- Whoopi Epiphany Speech
- Who Will Bell the Cat?
- Who Would Be Stupid Enough?
- Why Are We Whispering?
- Witch with a Capital "B": Insulting a woman by calling her a "witch" instead of a certain word that rhymes.
- Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: Not realizing that the response given to your request or question was the one you wanted.
- Worse with Context
- Worth It
- Would Rather Suffer: Underscoring your distaste for something by claiming you'd rather do something very unpleasant.
- Wrong-Name Outburst
- Wrote the Book
- "Yes"/"No" Answer Interpretation: A character asks or chooses to interpret whether another character's reply or action is a "yes" or a "no".
- Yiddish as a Second Language
- You Answered Your Own Question
- You Are Not Alone
- You Can Talk?
- You Can Turn Back
- "You!" Exclamation
- You Have to Believe Me!: A character makes a claim that they know sounds odd and desperately begs to be believed.
- You Know Who Said That?
- "You!" Squared
- You Talk Too Much!
- "You Used to Be Better" Speech
- You Will Be Spared
- You're Nothing Without Your Phlebotinum