History Main / SuddenlyFluentInGibberish

* Used as the major plot device of ''Manga/MidnoghtOccultCivilServants'', where the protagonist, Arata, is the only person on Earth who can understand the [[StarfishLanguage incomprehensible language]] spoken by all mythical creatures on Earth.

* One episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland Total Drama World Tour]]'' has Izzy, the queen [=Cloudcuckoolander=], is able to talk to a camel. It's even been confirmed that camel is her favorite foreign language.

** [[MyLittlePonyG3 G3's]] Pinkie Pie had the ability to communicate with any pink creature (although this was only shown when she talked to some pink fireflies in ''Twinkle Wish Adventure''). Apparently Pink is a language in G3-land.

* Sid in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge4ContinentalDrift'' converses with the non-speaking Hyrax via a stream of gibberish and pantomine.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the Doctor can speak baby... or at least enough to tell Craig that his son Alfie prefers the name Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All. The Doctor can also understand it when baby [[spoiler: Melody Pond/River Song]] makes fun of his hair and bow tie. He also speaks ''Horse''.

* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': In "Fins, Femmes and Gems", Joxer thinks he is 'Atis, the Ape Man' and claims to be able to speak to animals. It is unclear if if he actually can or if this is just part of his delusion.
* When Jean Stapleton guest starred on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', she revealed the Swedish Chef's shameful secret - that he doesn't really speak Swedish. Fortunately, Jean was fluent in Mock Swedish and was able to convince him to switch to his native language - Mock Japanese.

* One episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland Total Drama World Tour]]'' has Izzy, the queen [=Cloudcuckoolander=], is able to talk to a camel. Its even been confirmed that camel is her favorite foreign language.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/IAmWeasel'', titled "Fred, The Last Idiot", Weasel finds a specimen of feral humans thought extinct, named Fred. Unfortunatly, Fred can only communicate in unintelligible gibberish, but Baboon reveals that he's fluent in it, and says Fred is speaking "Idiot".

* ''GoldenSunTheAbridgedSeries'': When Isaac and his gang finally reach Kolima, Ivan demonstrates an ability to speak tree. Garet's understandably sceptical... until the tree actually ''answers him''.

* In ''{{Persona 3}}'':

* In ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'', Quinn, the MadScientist [=CloudcuckooLander=], is very concerned about her pet alpaca, Otis, whom she left back home. Zoey arranges for Otis to come to school. Quinn makes alpaca noises at Otis, and Otis makes the noises back. Nicole says, "Quinn speaks alpaca?" Zoey's response: "Are you surprised?" (We later see Quinn and the animal playing chess.)

* ''NarutoTheAbridgedSeries'': Naruto's group come face to face with Zabuza... except they initially can't understand a word he says because of his face mask. Cue Kakashi revealing he can speak muffle.

* The Librarian from ''Literature/Discworld'', who is an orangutan, only ever says "ook" and occasionally "eek". This ''should'' be incomprehensible, but some characters perfectly understand what he's saying. As time passes, more and more characters develop this comprehension, generally depending on how long they've known the Librarian.

* The Librarian from ''{{Literature}}/Discwrld'', who is an orangutan, only ever says "ook" and occasionally "eek". This ''should'' be incomprehensible, but some characters perfectly understand what he's saying. As time passes, more and more characters develop this comprehension, generally depending on how long they've known the Librarian.

** The jive passenger is black, as you'd expect. The translator? A grandma.

* The Librarian from ''{{Literature}}/DiscWorld'', who is an orangutan, only ever says "ook" and occasionally "eek". This ''should'' be incomprehensible, but some characters perfectly understand what he's saying. As time passes, more and more characters develop this comprehension, generally depending on how long they've known the Librarian.

* In ''HappyDays'', Richie has an unexpectedly rough first day at work and he is so tired coming home that he can't speak coherently. Fortunately, Fonzie is fluent in Tired and provides translations.

* In ''{{Zoey 101}}'', Quinn, the MadScientist [=CloudcuckooLander=], is very concerned about her pet alpaca, Otis, whom she left back home. Zoey arranges for Otis to come to school. Quinn makes alpaca noises at Otis, and Otis makes the noises back. Nicole says, "Quinn speaks alpaca?" Zoey's response: "Are you surprised?" (We later see Quinn and the animal playing chess.)

** The jive passenger, is of course black. The translator? A grandma.

SisterTrope to SuddenlyBilingual, which involves sudden fluency in an actual language. When a character has speaking to animal as a StockSuperPower see SpeaksFluentAnimal

* The Librarian from ''{{Literature}}/DiscWorld'', who is an orangutan, only ever says "ook" and occasionally "eek". This ''should'' be incomprehensible, but some characters perfectly understand what he's saying. As time passes, more and more characters develop this comprehension.

* ''Series/{{Community}}'': In the episode ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons'' (the role-playing game episode) Abed, as Dungeon Master, speaks in the voice of NPC Kyle the Gnome. He only speaks Gnome, and Britta discovers from her CharacterSheet she's the only who can understand him, and must ask him the necessary question about acquiring a Pegasus - which she doesn't because she gets sidetracked by gnomish civil rights. [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]] and [[ParodiedTrope parodied]] when Abed as the Goblin recognises the word "Pegasus" in the players' conversation - "A word I understand in ''all'' languages".

* When Jean Stapleton guest starred on TheMuppetShow, she revealed the Swedish Chef's shameful secret - that he doesn't really speak Swedish. Fortunately, Jean was fluent in Mock Swedish and was able to convince him to switch to his native language - Mock Japanese.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Stoked}}'', Broseph is apparently able to comprehend seagulls.

* One episode of [[WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland Total Drama World Tour]] has Izzy, the queen [=Cloudcuckoolander=], is able to talk to a camel. Its even been confirmed that camel is her favorite foreign language.

* Bubbles' counterpart on ''DemashitaPowerpuffGirlsZ'' shocks her teammates when she starts talking to puppies while they're trailing Him.

* Sid in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge2ContinentalDrift'' converses with the non-speaking Hyrax via a stream of gibberish and pantomine.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''TheMeteorMan'': Speaking with animals turns out to be one of the meteor's powers, learned when casually asking the dog what he wanted to eat.
* Sid in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge: Continental Drift'' converses with the non-speaking Hyrax via a stream of gibberish and pantomine.
* In ''Tooth'', at one point the main characters come across a mermaid and out of nowhere the sister is fluent in mermaid language, which consists entirely of glub sounds.
* Famously done in ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' where a passenger volunteers to translate for another passenger who only speaks "jive."
* In ''Film/WreckItRalph'', Fix-It Felix Jr., despite being an 8-bit character, can speak [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4xdmpy3ESs Q*Bertese.]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext Don't ask.]]

* In ''CodenameKidsNextDoor'', the kids are trying to save babies at a hospital. Numbuh Three, TheDitz, reveals that "I speak baby," and indeed she does.
* The second season of ''JosieAndThePussycats'' has the team flying into outer space and encountering a [[SmallAnnoyingCreature dog-bird alien]] named Bleep, who communicates as follows: "Bleep bleep bleep." Melody, the Ditz, says, "Bleep bleep bleep, bleep bleep?" Bleep responds, "Bleep bleep bleep, bleep." Melody then gives an English translation.

* On the ''MonstersVsAliens'' HalloweenSpecial, ''Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space'', B.O.B. tries to reason with the evil pumpkins because, since he's part tomato, he's fluent in produce.

* In the ''StrawberryShortcake'' episode "The Legend of Sherry Bobbleberry", Sherry can speak to hummingbirds, something no fairy generally does.
* On ''DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'', Zilly's sole redeeming talent is being able to translate the goobledygook of noises and sound effects coming out of Klunk.
* One episode of IAmWeasel, titled ''Fred, The Last Idiot'', Weasel finds a specimen of feral humans thought extinct, named Fred. Unfortunatly, Fred can only communicate in unintelligible gibberish, but Baboon reveals that he's fluent in it, and says Fred is speaking "Idiot".