History Main / UnaccustomedAsIAmToPublicSpeaking

* In a punning reference to this phrase, the first film that Creator/LaurelAndHardy made after the advent of sound films was called ''Unaccustomed as We Are''.

* The schoolteacher in ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' starts off reading a telegram she wrote to the governor in a small, meek voice, when the crowd tells her to speak up. She apologizes, citing this trope, then [[SuddenlyShouting gets incredibly loud all of a sudden]].

* ''Film/DjangoUnchained'': Dr Schultz speaks with impeccable grammar and elevated diction. Whenever a yokel can't follow his erudite language, he apologizes and says that English is not his first language.

* In ''Film/Batman1989'', when DA Harvey Dent makes his first public appearance he begins his fairly decent speech with, "I am a man of few words, but I will make those words count...".
* Subverted in ''Film/{{Madadayo}}''. At the first Not Yet Fest, one student gets up to speak. He says that he's not good at giving public speeches--so he will recite every single station on a particular commuter railway line. And he does, reciting every last station on the line, continuing long after everyone has stopped listening, continuing while other students give their tribute speeches, continuing while the party morphs into a drunken conga line, and ''still'' continuing until the party is over and all the other guests have gone.

* The [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Force_Unleashed_(novel) novel version]] of ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'' multimedia project subverts this. When the apprentice joins a meeting of a group of {{Rebel Leader}}s, the narration notes that public speaking is as familiar to him as the Whirling Kavadango Dance. That is, he's heard of it and probably could identify it, but that's it. And so he doesn't say anything.

[[folder:Videogames]]

See also LargeHamRadio, where people seem remarkably at home giving a radio broadcast, and ThrowingOutTheScript, which can lend a similar air of authenticity but tends to be more sincere. Someone who genuinely lacks confidence speaking may be advised to ImagineTheAudienceNaked, which doesn't usually work.

* Destiny of the Endless makes this claim in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' (Desire, who is present, mimics him and mockingly adds "or speaking at all"). Other characters gradually realize that Destiny ''still'' isn't really speaking publicly; he's ''reading'' publicly. It comes in handy to have a book containing everything that is, was, and will be.

* In episode 2 of ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'', Kurisu Makise starts her lecture on the implausibility of time travel by claiming to have little experience giving lectures and asking the participants bear with her. Rintaro, having introduced himself to her earlier as "Kyouma Hououin," immediately jumps from his seat arguing for the possibility of time travel. Cut forward to Rintaro having been thoroughly humiliated by her knowledge on theoretical physics that she so eloquently used to debunk his every claim, punctuated with a patronizingly drawn-out "Hououin-san."

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

* In ''Film/Batman1989'', when DA Harvey Dent makes his first public appearance he begins his fairly decent speech with, "I am a man of few words, but I will make those words count..."

* Also in Literature/TheBible (New Testament) - Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11 "I may indeed be untrained as a speaker..." Paul was highly educated. He was probably somewhat playing this trope, somewhat slyly comparing himself to others whom he considered to be lying windbags/false teachers.

* In ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', the Franklyn starts his tale by interrupting the last speaker (whose story was extremely tedious and seemed to be going on forever,) to praise him extravagantly until he gets told to shut up and get on with his own tale, at which point he gives an equally lengthy pre-emptive apology for how crude and unrefined his own speech will be. Needless to say, there is nothing wrong with his story at all. Some of the other storytellers make similar comments before starting their tales, with varying degrees of reasonableness; the Miller pre-emptively apologises for offending anyone with his tale because he can tell that he's drunk and likely to be vulgar. He's right, and his story is consequently one of the most memorable and popular with the schoolchildren who end up studying the Tales.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E5TheHornsOfNimon The Horns of Nimon]]", the Fourth Doctor is being chased through a building, and runs onto a stage, pausing at the podium to say "Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I stand before you desperate to find the exit." He then goes down into the audience and starts talking to them, as the guards chasing him run past across the stage and out.
* ''{{Series/Firefly}}'': Jayne, when forced to give a public speech for the "Jayne's Day Parade" (ItMakesSenseInContext, though that's not how Simon sees it), starts off with "I'm no good with words. Don't...don't use em much, myself." This is pretty much true, but he makes a surprisingly good effort (for Jayne, anyway) commending the gathered "Mudders" for enduring the hardships they face and continuing on despite the raw deal life (and their bosses) have dealt them. Then, when [[spoiler: he's exposed as a fraud and someone's killed ''saving his life anyway'']], he gives another, much more impromptu speech that's also more heartfelt (and Jerkass-ish), calling them idiots for thinking of him as a hero who would look out for them, but is much more awesome all the same (in no small part because he finishes by singlehandedly tearing down the statue of himself they had built).

* Parodied on the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer"]]. He'd begin every summation by saying: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm just a caveman. I fell into some ice and was later revived by some of your scientists." He would then go on about how unaccustomed he was to the entire modern world, until the jury found in his favor out of sympathy.

-->''"The point I’m trying to make is that I am the most unpleasant, rude, ignorant and all-around obnoxious arsehole that anyone could possibly have the misfortune to meet. I am dismissive of the virtuous, unaware of the beautiful, and uncomprehending in the face of the happy. So if I didn’t understand I was being asked to be best man, it is because I never expected to be anybody’s best friend. and certainly not the best friend of the bravest and kindest and wisest human being I have ever had the good fortune of knowing..."''

** Mark Antony says this during his funeral oration in ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'': "I am no orator, as Brutus is." He then proceeds to completely eclipse Brutus' previous speech; his claim that Brutus is an orator is one of the many [[StealthInsult Stealth Insults]] in his speech; he's hinting to the crowd that Brutus (who had previously convinced them that killing Caesar was the right thing to do) was a crafter of words rather than a narrator of facts, and thus was just fooling them with propaganda.

** In ''Theatre/RichardIII'', Gloucester rants to his political enemies about how unpopular he is, "because I cannot flatter and speak fair." One scene earlier, he just convinced the widow of someone he murdered to fall in love with him through sheer force of personality. ''At the victim's funeral!''

** Berowne, in ''Theatre/LovesLaboursLost'' is called out on this by another character - he makes a speech about how he's going to give up all this wordplay and express his love plainly, then goes on to say "My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw," to which she interrupts "Sans 'sans,' I pray you!" - ''sans'' being french for "without," and something of an affectation of posh speech.
** In ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'', during the "wooing scene", after Petruchio makes two affected praises of her beauty, Katherine sarcastically asks him, "Where did you study (i.e. memorize) all this goodly speech?". Petruchio responds, "It is extempore, from my mother wit."

* In ''VideoGame/{{Killzone}} 3'', EvilGenius villain Jorhan Stahl prefaces his big speech with the words "This is something of a rarity for me because speeches are not my forte, but honesty is." He's lying on both counts.

* Parodied in the WebAnimation/HomestarRunner toon ''[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/xmas08.html A Death-Defying Decemberween.]]'' Right before performing his death-defying stunt, Homestar announces "I'm not very good at speeches..." After an awkward pause, he launches right into the stunt without any further words.

** "If I could just say a few words ... I'd be a better public speaker."

---> "Captain Tenille wishes to address you!"

** Used well in "Trash of the Titans"

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'': A character hitting on Leela says, "I've never been much good with words, which is why I find myself in such a delicate conundrum."

-->'''Dog''': (clears throat) Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking...From the rock-bound coasts of Maine, to the sun-kissed shores of California..."

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}} the Third''. Prince George hires two actors to help him prepare to give a speech:

[[folder:Film]]
* In a punning reference to this phrase, the first film that Creator/LaurelAndHardy made after the advent of sound films was called ''Unaccustomed as We Are''.
* Played for laughs ([[BlackComedy like everything else]]) in ''Film/DrStrangelove''.
--> '''Major "King" Kong:''' Well, boys, I reckon this is it -- [[UsefulNotes/FromRussiaWithNukes nuclear combat]] toe to toe with the [[GloriousMotherRussia Roosskies]]. Now look, boys, I ain't much of a hand at makin' speeches, but I got a pretty fair idea that something doggone important is goin' on back there. And I got a fair idea the kinda personal emotions that some of you fellas may be thinkin'. Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be human bein's if you didn't have some pretty strong personal feelin's about [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt nuclear combat]]. I want you to remember one thing, the folks back home is a-countin' on you and by golly, we ain't about to let 'em down. I tell you something else, if this thing turns out to be half as important as I figure it just might be, I'd say that you're all in line for some important promotions and personal citations when this thing's over with. That goes for ever' last one of you regardless of your race, color or your creed. Now let's get this thing on the hump - we got some flyin' to do.

* The educational short ''Self Conscious Guy'' (featured on Podcast/RiffTrax), the lead stammers out the Trope verbatim while under a spotlight, saying he'll just "sit down and shut up".

* Quoted verbatim for laughs in WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation in his review of ''[[https://youtu.be/df68JrM7XdM?t=204 Middle Earth: Shadow of War]]'' to parody orcs as eloquent politicians.

-->Um, thank you. I'm not much for public speaking. Or much for speaking. Or, come to think of it, much for the public. And I'm not very good at lying. So let me just say that, in my experience, high school sucks. If I had to do it all over again, I'd have started advanced placement classes in preschool so I could go from eighth grade straight to college. However, given the unalterable fact that high school sucks, I'd like to add that if you're lucky enough to have a good friend and a family that cares it doesn't have to suck quite as much.

* Series/GameOfThrones: Davos Seaworth loves to play up his humble, plebeian origins in an apologetic way before delivering accurate, powerful and convincing dissertations worthy of the best statesman. This is both out of genuine humility and an awareness that bragging in any way of his eloquence or intelligence is not going to be well recieved by the very people he is trying to win over to a cause. The result is that the arguments he follows up such self deprecating introductions with tend to be highly effective and compelling.

* Parodied in the WebAnimation/HomestarRunner toon ''[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/xmas08.html A Death-Defying Decemberween]]''. Right before performing his death-defying stunt, Homestar announces "I'm not very good at speeches..." After an awkward pause, he launches right into the stunt without any further words.

* Hans Landa in ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'' claims eloquently in French that his French is bad and can they switch to English? Of course, his real reason for switching had nothing to do with his proficiency.

** Mark Antony says this during his funeral oration in ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'': "I am no orator, as Brutus is." He then proceeds to completely eclipse Brutus' previous speech; his claim that Brutus is an orator is one of the many [[StealthInsult Stealth Insults]] in his speech; he's hinting to the crowd that Brutus (who had previously convinced them that killing Caesar was the right thing to do) was not a great orator and thus was just fooling them with propaganda.

** Mark Antony says this during his funeral oration in ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'': "I am no orator, as Brutus is." He then proceeds to completely eclipse Brutus' previous speech; his claim that Brutus is an orator is one of the many [[StealthInsult Stealth Insults]] in his speech; he's hinting to the crowd that Brutus (who had previously convinced them that killing Caesar was the right thing to do) was a great orator and thus was just fooling them with propaganda.

* The TropeNamer, as mentioned earlier, is of course Creator/{{Plato}} in his ''Literature/ApologyOfSocrates'', where he has Creator/{{Socrates}} use this to preface his speech defending himself before the Athenian court. Socrates begins by saying that just as they would forgive a foreigner for speaking before them with an accent, he is so "foreign" to public speaking that they should forgive him if his rhetoric isn't very flowery. As you'd expect, an epic and eloquent [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech rhetorical smackdown]] is about to ensue. [[spoiler:He loses anyway.]]