History Main / RealisticDictionisUnrealistic

* "Fanfic/WithBigShellsAndWings" often averted the trope, especially in the later chapters, with characters often talking over each other, occasionally saying the wrong thing or going on irrelevant tangents; which while again isn't as frequent as the real world, still happens more than usual by fiction standards.

* The DVDCommentary for ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' mentions that they worked hard to get the dialogue to sound natural, even encouraging the actors to interrupt and talk over each other. The show includes a moment where one character mishears another due to pronunciation, and the conversation becomes derailed because of it. [[CatchPhrase Does that seem right to you?]]

* When Creator/Seanbaby 's [[http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/nes/egm.htm "Crapstravaganza" article appeared in Electronic Gaming Monthly, "The print staff...took most of the words that I wrote ending in "g" and replaced the "g" with an apostrophe, making a good portion of the article sound like I was yellin' it from the back of a pickup truck. "

* CNN did this with a blown up transcript of a Sarah Palin speech- not one of her actual deliberate "backwoods down-homey" efforts- but a perfectly normal speech. They dropped Gs and phonetically spelled "gonna" and "wanna" to make her look uneducated.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Deathloop}}'' has most of it's dialogue written to be more 'natural;' characters will stutter, mumble, pause to find a specific word, and go off on tangents constantly in personal recordings and conversations. The odd official announcement is a rare exception.

Note that this trope is an AcceptableBreakFromReality; real dialogue can be unreadable. Journalists [[GenreSavvy know]] that anyone can be made to look stupid in an interview simply by exactly writing down their speech, word for word. Verbal imperfections that we automatically filter out face-to-face become grating and irritating when written down. [[note]]A detailed exploration of this can be found [[http://gavthorpe.co.uk/2008/05/07/realism-is-fake/ here]].[[/note]] We enjoy the fruits of script-writing and acting more when they are free to be polished. Part of the reason is to make speech come across [[RealityIsUnrealistic the way it's heard]] [[RuleOfPerception rather than the way it is]]; humans are well-adapted to interpret speech, and as a result, what we experience is an interpretation of speech rather than a recording of it. Also falls under TheLawOfConservationOfDetail -- because the time it takes for a character to correct themselves could be used for more dialogue.

People in fiction don't speak like we do. In real life people stutter, pause, repeat or correct themselves, go off on tangents, have verbal tics, use, like, filler words, trail off, drone on, mumble or slur their words, repeat themselves, talk over each other, use bad grammar, and more.

See Also: BuffySpeak, MametSpeak, FunetikAksent. Related to, but not to be confused with RealityIsUnrealistic.

See Also: BuffySpeak, MametSpeak, FunetikAksent. Not to be confused with RealityIsUnrealistic.

* Generally, everyone uses proper diction in ''VideoGame/HalfLife''. The G-Man, however, is consistently stuttering, pausing, and taking in deep breaths, all of which could be considered too much even for real-life speech. It actually helps make him appear as... ''[[HumanoidAbomination something]]'' [[UncannyValley trying to appear human]], [[GlamourFailure and failing]].

* In the film version of ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', while most characters speak scripted-sounding lines, Slartibartfast speaks his with an overly realistic combination of corrections, um's, ah's and other "mistakes", having just woken up from millions of years of sleep.

* Some of the dialogue on ''Series/WakingTheDead'' is improvised and/or directed so that the actors talk over one another, giving the character interactions a realistic feel.

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' frequently has awkward dialogue with plenty of stammering. Especially George Michael whenever [[KissingCousins Maeby]] is nearby. Also, plot advancing points and important call-backs delivered in dialogue are often worked in so naturally that they're ''very'' easy to miss the first time, adding to the show's reputation for having oodles of [[RewatchBonus Rewatch Bonuses]].

* The ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' series is noted, especially in its original Japanese iteration, for being written the way people realistically speak -- with pauses, stutters, and other conversational fumbles. For the first two games, Creator/ShigesatoItoi didn't know how to use a computer, so he dictated all of the game's dialogue out loud to a programmer. He would often go over sentences several times to ensure that they sounded "right", and sometimes redo whole segments of the script if he was unsatisfied with them. This was a key difficulty in localizing ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' and, to a similar extent, the FanTranslation of ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}''.

* ''WebComic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'': [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/beep "Beep"]] does it for one panel so that a robot can complain to the human about it. The human explains filler words are used because "when two humans are silent in each other's presence for more than 4 seconds, we start to worry we're either going to murder each other or maybe have sex."

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Everyone is perfectly capable of speaking only in anecdotes and use FloweryElizabethanEnglish without getting lost in words.

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Everyone is perfectly capable of speaking only in anecdotes and use FloweryElizabethanEnglish without getting lost in words.

* Invoked in ''Literature/TheMurderOfRogerAckroyd'' by Creator/AgathaChristie. Roger Ackroyd was last heard speaking in his study, in an extremely formal turn of phrase that was unlikely to be used in everyday speech. [[spoiler: That's because it wasn't Ackroyd speaking to somebody, but a Dictaphone recording of him composing a letter. The murderer had rigged it up with an alarm clock to play at a specific time, when he would have an alibi; Ackroyd was actually already dead.[[/spoiler]]

People in fiction don't speak like we do. In real life people stutter, pause, repeat themselves, correct themselves, go off on tangents, have verbal tics, use, like, filler words, trail off, drone on, mumble or slur their words, repeat themselves, talk over each other, use bad grammar, and more.

* Assorted myths and legends from other nations, also. Whether it's one of Chretien de Troyes's [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Arthurian romances]], or ''Literature/TheShahnameh'', or a tale from the ''Literature/ArabianNights'', nobody speaks in a naturalistic manner.

* Assorted myths and legends from other nations, also. Whether it's one of Chretien de Troyes's [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian romances]], or ''Literature/TheShahnameh'', or a tale from the ''Literature/ArabianNights'', nobody speaks in a naturalistic manner.

* Before Creator/AaronSorkin, there was Creator/PaddyChayefsky. The characters of ''Film/{{Network}}'' are virtually superhuman in their eloquence. Taken UpToEleven with Ned Beatty's legendary "The World is a Business" speech. Somewhat justified in that the characters all work in broadcast media, where communication skills would be a major focus.

* Music/WeirdAlYankovic's ''Trapped in the Drive-Thru'' parodies the rambling style and interruptions of Music/RKelly's ''Music/TrappedInTheCloset'' by taking it UpToEleven. The narrator's wife mishears "delivered" as "liver" and they argue about it for several lines, a drive-thru employee zones out while the narrator asks for ketchup, and a mention of the name Paul sends the narrator off on a bizarre tangent about an unrelated guy named Paul that he used to know once.

* TruthInTelevision: the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soiled_Dove_Plea Soiled Dove Plea]]", given by [[AwesomeMcCoolname Temple Lea Houston]]. A closing argument at an 1899 trial, it ensured a favourable verdict for his client. It was delivered without preparation, a few minutes after he'd been asked to represent the client (who was unquestionably guilty of the charge), and is considered by lawyers as the greatest closing ever made.