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3%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out.
4%% Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
5%%
6%%
7->''"Omit needless words."''
8-->-- ''William Strunk Jr. and Creator/EBWhite'', '''''The Elements of Style'''''
9
10[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Brief descriptions,]] simple structure, short sentences, plain words, few figures of speech.
11
12[[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Effective if it works for a character, bad if it doesn't.]] Use carefully.
13
14Compare {{Minimalism}}, FunWithAcronyms, Administrivia/BrevityIsWit, LaconicWiki, {{Understatement}}, IKEAErotica. May be BoringButPractical.
15
16Contrast WallOfText, PurpleProse.
17
18Common in PrivateEyeMonologue or from a TerseTalker. SpockSpeak is known for it.
19
20----
21!!Examples
22[[foldercontrol]]
23
24[[folder:Advertising]]
25* Advertising/HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead. Advertising/HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead. Advertising/HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead. (Done because [=HeadOn=] is homeopathic, and can't make any medical claims in its ads.) Eventually included a second ad, where people lampshaded the first ad being annoying.
26* Advertising/BurmaShave:
27-->A Miss\
28A Curve\
29He Kissed the Miss\
30And Missed the Curve
31--->''Burma Shave''
32* Many advertising spots end with various disclaimers being spouted in this way by a motor mouth.
33--->Dealer may sell or lease for less. Transport and preparation included. Taxes extra. See dealer for details.
34** For pharmaceutical advertisements, this may actually be half of the spot in itself.
35* Ritter Sport, a German quadratic chocolate has a slogan in German that simply goes "Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut." - "Square. Practical. Good."
36[[/folder]]
37
38[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
39* In ''Literature/VioletEvergarden'', Violet's stunted emotional intelligence due to her [[TykeBomb military background]] means her first several letters qualify as this. She ends up flunking a letter-writing course because her final assignment sounds like a military report, not personal correspondence. However, after connecting with her classmate Luculia, Violet manages to write a successful, but still very beige, letter to Luculia's shell-shocked brother on Luculia's behalf. Despite its incredibly dry wording, it has a powerful effect on the siblings and Violet's teacher decides to pass her instead.
40-->"Dear brother,\
41I am happy that you are alive.\
42Love, Luculia."
43[[/folder]]
44
45[[folder:Comic Books]]
46* ComicBook/{{X 23}}, an escaped {{Tykebomb}} with few social skills, talks like this. For most of her childhood, she was trained to be a mindless slave who never spoke back or questioned orders, and her [[ProfessionalKiller main occupation]] was one in which communication wasn't important. Her BeigeProse dialogue is likely the reason we never hear any narration from her perspective. (Before certain CharacterDevelopment occurred, she didn't speak at all, implying that her ability to express emotions and concepts is gradually evolving.)
47* An ad for ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily: "Robin is dead, murdered by the Joker."
48* [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Cass Cain]] keeps her speech simple and to the point after learning to talk and read as a teenager since she was raised to be the perfect [[{{Tykebomb}} assassin]] and being able to talk wasn't one of the skills her father felt she needed.
49[[/folder]]
50
51[[folder:Fan Works]]
52* An entire sub-genre called "[[ScriptFic script format]]", by people who have no idea what a script is like.
53* ''Fanfic/MyImmortal''. Except when discussing [[strike:Enoby]] [[strike:Ebory]] [[strike:Ebola]] [[CostumePorn Ebony's appearance]]. Then it turns [[PurpleProse purple]].
54* ''Fanfic/LegolasByLaura'': "and then one of the orcs striped her and then he raped her and then laura said 'go away you bastard'."
55* ''Fanfic/HalfLifeFullLifeConsequences'' and sequels (and pretty much anything else written by squirrelking). The fics don't even bother with describing things and only focuses on the motorcycle and boss fight action.
56* ''Fanfic/SoullessShellRedwall''
57-->Ahh he yelled as he slashed him his blood hit the floor
58* [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/86976/Tuxedo_Mark Mark Moore]] a.k.a. Tuxedo Mark writes some of his stories like this. Here's an example that's sometimes nicknamed "Linda! Laundry!"
59-->She got a plastic box off of the shelf in the closet and opened it. She put the comforter into the box and closed the box. She put the box back on the shelf in the closet.\
60Linda put fresh sheets on the bed.\
61She put the old sheets in the laundry basket.
62** Reads like fiction written by a computer, once offered in ''The Book of Lists II''.
63* ''Fanfic/GurrenJesus'', a crossover fic. ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' and Literature/TheBible. Makes it better.
64* Anything by [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/923867/S_Michael S-Michael.]]
65%%* ''Fanfic/DarkSecrets''. Its sequel? Moreso.
66%%* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6089198/1/Daughter_of_Nienor Daughter of Niënor:]]'' "Only a few months later, the sons of Fëanor came and my world was again destroyed. This time, it was less scary and more sad and annoying, like I was getting used to it."
67* A good majority of what [[http://www.fanfiction.net/~incendiarist Incendiarist]] writes is in this style. Notable is ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6799182/1/ Perennial Tears (Descend In Gems).]]''
68-->Green light, unnatural shine.\
69Voice grating, ethereal.\
70Prophetic ''nightmare'', she's terrified.\
71''("What did I say?")''
72* ''Fanfic/TheDarkerKnight''
73* ''Fanfic/CalvinAtCamp''
74* ''Fanfic/MarioAndLuigiDarkestTimeline'': Most of the fic isn't like this, but the fight scenes specifically have very little detail put into them other than just very generally describing that they happened.
75* Pretty much all of the descriptions in ''Fanfic/SherlockSeason4'' uses this. For example, this is the first sentence:
76-->''Sherlock wsa seated at home typin on his compter stting on chair and solvin logic puzzles in hed.''
77* The majority of ''FanFic/OjamajoDoremiRiseOfTheShadows'' and its sequel is written with little, if any, description. The author does try to turn it [[PurpleProse purple]] during action scenes and whatever other scene is important.
78-->"Let me go!" Jou-Sama started to struggle in Evil Rin's hold, but it was no use. "Let me go!"\
79"Fighting will do you no good." Black Queen said. "Besides, with you, my other prisoner won't be so lonely."
80* Used to [[SoBadItsGood hilarious]] effect in Fanfic/TwilightSparklesAwesomeAdventure.
81--> "You foal! Why did you capture Liara? She's just a background pony so Twillight will not care if I kill her." screamed Celesia and started to kill the guard. \
82"No we captured the other lesbian called Rainbow Dash. The one who's part of the harmony elements." said the almost death guard. \
83"Oh that are very good news so I'm not killing you." said Celesia and stopped killing the guard. \
84"Thanks my Queen." said the guard and left the room and lived happily even after.
85* Sephirothslave's Fanfic/ShinraHighSOLDIER.
86* Some of POV chapters in the Fanfic/Gensokyo20XX series can be more or less written like this, depending on who is narrating and how much they have to say. In 20XXV, this is noted, when Reimu narrates chapter 87. She isn't very descriptive and neither are the sentences very long, although it is to show how detached from world that she is, as such a worldview doesn't give her much of an understanding, along with the fact that she doesn't talk much. However, Reimu will only narrate like that if a chapter demands.
87* ''Every single story'' by [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/2097849/ShakespeareHemmingway ShakespeareHemmingway]] is Beige Prose to the max - but the ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' fanfictions, such as ''FanFic/GarfieldRoyalRescue'', take things up a notch and have to be [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5824573/1/Garfield-Effect-Galaxy-Adventure seen]] [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9690929/1/Zero-Dark-Garfield to]] [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11013421/1/The-Garfield-Bowl be]] [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6928423/1/The-King-s-Garfield believed.]]
88* ''Fanfic/CitadelOfTheHeart'' is this unintentionally; [[Creator/MF217 the author]] is actually intending for PurpleProse a majority of the time since he doesn't like being too simplistic, but what he ends up with instead is a bastard FusionDance of Beige and Purple Prose; too complicated to be beige prose, and too simplistic to be purple prose.
89* ''Fanfic/FledglingsOrEverythingsBetterWithPenguins'': The prose making up Tawaki Penguin's missions has minimal descriptions of things and a lack of narrative connecting the plot points. This has the side-effect of the setting appearing incredibly generic to the agents due to being underdescribed and the stories occurring at a rapid pace due to lack of additional prose to create more downtime between events.
90* ''Fanfic/HordeChampion'': Continuing from the trend of Orchard's work, there's little description and most narration is fixated on the characters' thoughts and feelings rather than the environment.
91[[/folder]]
92
93[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
94* ''Film/TheBeastOfYuccaFlats'' features a narrator who speaks almost entirely in Beige Prose, and is a pretty good example of how this can be done badly. “[[MemeticMutation Flag on the moon. How did it get there?]]”
95[[/folder]]
96
97[[folder:Jokes]]
98* A German-Jewish joke (as quoted by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salcia_Landmann Salcia Landmann]] in her book on Jewish humor) is about a Jewish landlord who will only let his tenant cancel the rental contract if the latter can express his desire in a single word. The following correspondence ensues:
99-->Tenant: "Judicium"[[note]] When pronounced according to the traditional German pronunciation of Latin, this sounds like "Jud' I' zieh' um" - "Jew I am moving". The Latin itself isn't very meaningful in this context[[/note]]
100-->Landlord: "Officium" [[note]] When pronounced according to the traditional German pronunciation of Latin, this sounds like "Oh Vieh, zieh' um" - "Oh animal, move"[[/note]]
101[[/folder]]
102
103[[folder:Literature]]
104* Creator/AntonChekhov. Very simple and beige. The description of mill dam under moonlight in short story "The Wolf" is classical.
105* Creator/IsaacAsimov:
106** In ''Gold'', a bunch of frustrated film writers desperately try to cobble together a screen adaptation of an Asimov story (''Literature/TheGodsThemselves''), cursing Asimov's dialogue-laden, non-descriptive, and beige prose the entire way.
107** Due to the [[FlashFiction tight time constraints]], "Literature/InsertKnobAInHoleB" is positively minimalist, using physically descriptive adjectives with emotional connotations to drive the viewer's imagination. Because he was performing in front of an audience when he initially wrote this story, [[FeaturelessPlaneOfDisembodiedDialogue he didn't describe the protagonists very much]], relying on the fact that he was [[WriteWhoYouKnow using his fellow panelists]] to tell the story.
108%%* Literature/HowNOTToWriteANovel.
109* Creator/RingLardner's style derives from his journalistic background and has had a huge influence on many authors in the first half of 20th Century.
110* Creator/ErnestHemingway is known for his simple writing style that lacks flowery language and keeps descriptions to a minimum. He called it "the theory of omission" or "[[http://www.lostgeneration.com/hemfaq.htm#iceberg The Iceberg Principle]]." While some authors criticized him for it, his style is widely considered to be very effective. Hemingway himself attributed his terse style to his training as a foreign correspondent for the ''Toronto Star''. Because he had to communicate from Europe to North America by the expensive medium of cable, it was naturally expected that he should compose his reports to be as succinct as possible while including all the story's salient information.
111* Creator/JackLondon wrote like this, partly because he had so much experience as a newspaper reporter. His [[http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist5/jlondon.html reserved yet heartfelt style]] contrasted with the more PurpleProse usual in many newspapers at the time.
112* Creator/AlbertCamus' ''Literature/TheStranger''. Done to ape Hemingway--Camus [[ForeignCultureFetish admired "manly" American writers]]. And Meursault is ''supposed'' to be emotionally detached.
113* 1940s and 50s pulp novels. Readers wanted books full of plot, with no introspection or relationships. Writers were happy to oblige. Iconic example: Creator/JamesMCain (''Film/DoubleIndemnity'', ''Literature/ThePostmanAlwaysRingsTwice'').
114* The ''Literature/XWingSeries'':
115** Michael A. Stackpole. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Great]] [[JustForFun/MadeOfWin ideas]]. Plain description.
116** Creator/AaronAllston, from the same series, is completely different. The shift is a bit shocking, moreso when it switches back.
117* Parts of Literature/TheBible, especially Leviticus. Major stories and incidents, including Sodom & Gomorrah and the Tower of Babel, are dispensed and dismissed in 3-4 verses. The creation of man is summed up in a page. One time in the Bible, someone saves all the Israelites, equaling what Moses did earlier. This is told in two paragraphs.
118* The Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novel ''The Pit'' is written entirely in this. A good example comes early on, when a police officer goes from looking over the horribly mutilated corpse of a teenage boy to wondering what his wife's going to cook for dinner, with no change at all in the writing style. What might have come across as a nice bit of black humour in the hands of another writer instead just seems like a bizarre tonal shift.
119* Creator/TerranceDicks's [[Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations novelisations]] of ''Series/DoctorWho''. Can be forgiven, since he was doing many, but it made them dull to read. His original novels can be better.
120* ''Literature/TheBookOfLies1986'' novel trilogy (''The Notebook'', ''The Proof'', and ''The Third Lie''). More commonly known by the title of its first novel, ''The Notebook'', not to be confused with [[Film/TheNotebook any other novel]] of the same name.
121* Cash's sections in ''Literature/AsILayDying'' by Creator/WilliamFaulkner. First section is a list of what to do to properly construct Addie's casket. Next two sections, the third being 1½ sentences long, are about the casket's imbalance.
122* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': In-story; "{{Newspeak}}".
123* George Orwell in general prefers to write in this fashion; his five writing rules include "never use a long word where a short one will do", "if it's possible to cut out a word, then do so" and "don't write in jargon." Of course, when he does decide to expand himself, i.e Clover's internal monologue in ''Literature/AnimalFarm,'' it's quite magnificent.
124** ''Literature/BurmeseDays'', Orwell's first novel, was also a bit of an exception, as it had quite a few PurpleProse sections in it, mainly descriptions of the Burmese landscape, local culture and various goods sold.
125* Creator/CharlesBukowski tells you only what you need to know. Very rarely uses multisyllabic words. The times when he breaks those rules are powerful.
126* ''Literature/{{Candide}}'', by Voltaire, who manages to fit a 1,000 page epic story into just 75 pages, while still conserving the important details.
127* Creator/JamesEllroy. Early works aren't too bad, but ''White Jazz'' and ''Blood's A Rover'' and after? Every. Sentence. Is. Like. This. Brevity is one thing, but what about bookisms? When told ''White Jazz'' overran its intended length, he took out everything that wasn't BeigeProse. Made it short enough but hard to read.
128* Shortest Science Fiction Story: "Time stopped. ''[[MindScrew Yesterday]]''" by David Gerrold. Shortest short story ever?
129* Everything by Creator/CormacMcCarthy. His books, ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' in particular, switch between this and purple prose.
130* "Knock" by Creator/FredricBrown is an expansion of a 17-word horror story: "The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door." An alternate version ends with: "There was a lock on the door."
131* ''Tao Te Ching'', the text of taoism. One hundred pages in book form. Even shorter in the original Chinese. Spoken, modern speakers don't grasp it: the homophones.
132** Also notable for not simply for using BeigeProse, but also ''advocating'' its usage:
133---> "True words aren't eloquent; eloquent words aren't true."
134%% * Certain parts of ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''. Other parts use needless SesquipedalianLoquaciousness.
135** One could argue, though, that the author is parodying both of these tropes. The default narrator setting is "mockery."
136%% * ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}''
137%% * Some of the narrator's lines can be this in ''Literature/TheBookThief''.
138* ''Literature/OneDayInTheLifeOfIvanDenisovich'', being narrated by a simple ''zek''.
139* ''Literature/TheCuriousIncidentOfTheDogInTheNightTime'', in virtually every sentence. You'd be hard pressed to find more than ten sentences with multiple clauses.
140* Ronald Syme wrote ''The Roman Revolution'' like this: a book on the Republic's fall and the Empire's rise.[[note]]Roman, not [[Franchise/StarWars another]][[/note]] Syme was writing like Tacitus.
141** In the words of my Roman History Professor: "Syme wrote in an abrupt, punchy style, writing sentences without verbs, or nouns, or sometimes even words."
142* Mannie's minimal narration in ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', intended as "Loonie" speech.
143* Much of ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' series (the last two books in particular) are written with this. This is probably where the joke about the books being written entirely in sentence fragments comes from. It's used to demonstrate Katniss's emotional withdrawal, what with her living in [[CrapsackWorld Panem]].
144* Humorist Will Stanton would often lapse into terse sentence fragments in his written works. Still very funny.
145* Creator/KurtVonnegut wrote in this style in a lot of his books, and it's very effective. In ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'' we see a reason/parallel to it: He's imitating the writing style of his fictional aliens, the Trafalmadorians.
146* Historical fiction author [[Film/TheAssassinationOfJesseJamesByTheCowardRobertFord Ron Hansen]]'s writing is a hybrid of this and PurpleProse.
147* A key ingredient of Creator/RichardBrautigan's trademark style.
148* The ''Literature/DickAndJane'' series of beginning reader books, {{justified|Trope}} as they were sticking to a purposely limited vocabulary for young children.
149-->"See Spot. See Spot run. Run, Spot, run!"
150* ''[[WebOriginal/GrowingAround Growing Around: Party Panic]]'' rarely bothers to describe the physical appearance of its supporting cast, and offers very little description.
151* ''Literature/HowNotToWriteANovel'' has a few sections on this, showing how this can be done badly.
152-->"There were naked actors standing around the pornography studio: three women and one man. Two other actors were having sex on a bed. There were some cameramen filming them, who had their clothes on. There was a desk in the corner with papers on it, and a bulletin board with messages."
153* Creator/AnneRice did this ''once'' in one of the many story threads in ''Queen of the Damned''. From Anne "PurpleProse" Rice, this was... unexpected, to say the least.
154* ''Literature/DearMrHenshaw'': In the sequel ''Strider'', Leigh Botts writes an assignment for his English class (based on his experience on the track) that runs on this, including sentences like "Sun shines." and "I rejoice."
155* ''Literature/IronWidow'': Yang Guang in the prologue has bland, exposition heavy prose to show how emotionally detached he is to the suffering around him, barely noting his copilot's death or the emotions coming from the hunduns he's killing. It's a sharp contrast to the protagonist Wu Zetian, whose prose is both emotional and poetic.
156* Creator/DonDeLillo's later works are these, compared to the jazz-infused rhythmic prose style of his previous works.
157[[/folder]]
158
159[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
160* ''Series/{{Beetleborgs}}'' villain's description of [[NeverRecycleYourSchemes last time they tried this plan]]: "Been there. Done that. Got beat."
161* ''[[Series/{{Blackadder}} Blackadder the Third]]'': UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfWellington's report on the Penninsular War simply reads "We won. Signed Wellington."
162* ''Series/{{Screenwipe}}'' once did an hour special on writers. One of them was famed for writing realistic dialogue on ''Series/EastEnders'', his method was to write the sentence and then cut down any unnecessary words. So "See you later, we must do this again some time" would after a series of cuts simply become "Later".
163[[/folder]]
164
165[[folder:Music]]
166* Music/JonLajoie's "I Kill People" rap is written this way to lay bare common rap subjects. Sample lyrics:
167-->''I buy a lot of expensive things, because I have a lot of money\
168You can't afford expensive things 'cause you ''don't'' have a lot of money\
169Ha ha, you want these things, but you cannot afford them\
170That means that you're not cool 'cause you're just a poor person''
171* The Music/{{Minutemen}}'s "Take 5, D.":
172-->''Tub has to be properly caulked prior to any showering\
173Walls are drenched\
174Both roofer and plumber here\
175Had to pay for two service calls''
176** Lyrics taken straight from a landlady's note about a leaky bathtub. D. Boon thought Mike Watt's old lyrics for the song were [[WordSaladLyrics "too spacey"]]. He changed them to something mundane.
177* The title track to ''The Downward Spiral'' by Music/NineInchNails. The lyrics are sparse, spoken instead of sung, and are mostly bare description. "Eraser," from the same album, could count as well - it only has a few lines, all two words long with just a verb and a noun (either "you" or "me").
178* Music/NeilDiamond's "Solitary Man" summarizes his failed relationships in this style. It's devastating.
179* Music/TheBeatles' "Love Me Do" contains only 20 different words, all of them simple if not monosyllabic. However, they take this to even more of an extreme with "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" and "Christmas Time Is Here Again."
180* Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "School" contains only 15 different words and three different lines.
181** "Sliver" has significantly more words, but they're mostly monosyllabic, with the occasional two syllable word - the narrator is meant to be a young child with a pretty basic vocabulary. The chorus is the repeated line "Grandma, take me home", while the entire first verse is:
182---> ''Mom and dad went to a show''
183---> ''They dropped me off at grandpa Joe's''
184---> ''I kicked and screamed, said "please don't go!"''
185[[/folder]]
186
187[[folder:New Media]]
188* Website/{{Twitter}} posts [[http://twitter.com/search?q=%23tvtropes #tvtropes]]
189* Simple English Wikipedia. Webcomic/{{xkcd}} [[http://xkcd.com/547/ demonstrates]].
190* Plain old Website/{{Wikipedia}}, when not talking about academic or scientific topics anyway, counts as well. The website aims to deliver information in a very straightforward and plain manner and heavily discourages editors engaging in SesquipedalianLoquaciousness or writing Administrivia/WordCruft.
191* Even Website/ThisVeryWiki invokes this trope. See Administrivia/WordCruft, LaconicWiki (especially Laconic entry on Beige Prose), Administrivia/{{Wiki Word}}s, and CamelCase.
192[[/folder]]
193
194[[folder:Poetry]]
195* Haiku, the poetic form, is essentially this.
196* William Carlos Williams.
197-->''The Red Wheelbarrow''\
198[[SeriousBusiness so much depends]] / upon / a red wheel / barrow\
199glazed with rain / water / beside the white / chickens.\
200\
201''This Is Just To Say''\
202I have eaten / the plums / that were in / the icebox\
203and which / you were probably / saving / for breakfast\
204Forgive me / they were delicious / so sweet / and so cold
205* This poem from Creator/OgdenNash:
206-->''Fleas''
207-->Adam\
208Had 'em
209** Also:
210--->I...\
211Why?
212* Some poetry by Music/YokoOno:
213-->Water\
214(''Grapefruit'', 1964)
215* Epigrams, the Greek ones however could be a lot longer and almost indistinguishable from elegies. Modern ones are only a couple of lines long. The most famous one was written by a Roman named Creator/{{Catullus}}.
216* This piece by Alexander Blok (translated from Russian):
217-->Night, square, apothecary, lantern,\
218Its meaningless and pallid light.\
219Return a half a lifetime after –\
220All will remain. A scapeless rite.\
221Then die, then have a new beginning,\
222And all will turn the same as ere:\
223Night, rippled water's frigid grinning,\
224Apothecary, lantern, square.
225* And from the master Creator/RichardBrautigan:
226-->crows / the\
227crows / the\
228(the tree)\
229
230[[/folder]]
231
232[[folder:Radio]]
233* ''Series/DeadRingers:'' The main characters of ''Normal People'' speak in, as they put it, "infuriatingly spare dialogue". Usually in-between bouts of lots of sex. They do wonder if the show's writers get paid by the line or not.
234
235[[/folder]]
236
237[[folder:Tabletop Gaming]]
238* The Dungeon Master's guide for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' includes the advice "Sometimes, it's unavoidable to say, 'You miss. He hits. You take 7 damage.'" It's meta-commentary that not every action needs an elaborate set piece or PurpleProse; sometimes, you need to use beige prose to keep things moving at a decent pace.
239[[/folder]]
240
241[[folder:Video Games]]
242* The Bunnymen in ''VideoGame/DontStarve'' are prone to this, always uttering single-word exclamations to indicate their thoughts.
243* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''. Monster datalog. Inversion of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'''s PurpleProse bestiaries. Most monsters described as "Unremarkable".
244* ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'': Agent Superball talks like this, Mr. President. Short sentences. No emotion.
245* Mordin Solus in ''Videogame/MassEffect2''. [[MotorMouth Rapid delivery]] tends to mask.
246* Sten in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', to the point of annoying the player who wants more information.
247* ''VideoGame/TalesSeries''
248** The summon spirit Shadow talks like this throughout the series, with sentences rarely going over three words. The party in ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' have fun imitating his speech style during a skit, while [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Sheena]] [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it.
249** Ludger of ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'' is as close to a HeroicMime as the ''Tales Series'' ever gets. He'll usually just [[CallingYourAttacks call his attacks]] in battle or give vocal grunts. Whenever Ludger does talk, it's in short bursts of beige prose, like "yes"/"no", "okay", or "got it".
250* Midbus's dialogue gimmick in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory''.
251* Subject Abathur. Advisor to Kerrigan. ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm''. Talks like this. Other modes, inefficient. Also in ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm''. Playable and announcer.
252* ''VideoGame/ADarkRoom'' combines this trope with the occasional jarringly uncommon or pretty word, to great effect.
253* ''Videogame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink''. Dialogue is brief, with occasional abbrevs & odd syntax. Necessity of translation.[[note]]Zelda II's dialogue was programmed for katakana, the American translation had to convey the same information in the same amount of characters, and katakana provides more information per character than written English.[[/note]]
254* ''Videogame/SunlessSea'' is normally full of flowery, Victorian-style PurpleProse, but will delve into beige [[NothingIsScarier to punctuate certain events]].
255* In ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'', Kevin often speaks informally, but sometimes he instead omits words without also omitting context. In the case of the latter speaking style, when one of the villains, Malocchio, announces the plans to revive his leader, Dark Majesty, at the end of the Seaside Cavern, Kevin responds by saying "Who is 'Dark Majesty'? Why stop us?" instead of "Why do you want to stop us?" or "Why does he want to stop us?"
256* ''VideoGame/MysteryScienceTheater3000PresentsDetective'' mocks the original game's tendency to use this.
257--> You are outside. You can go north, south, east, or west.\
258'''Mike:''' You know, it's the vivid descriptions that make this game come alive.
259* In the ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' series, this trope is the main reason why [[ArchnemesisDad Gehn]]'s Descriptive Books are regarded as a ShoddyKnockoffProduct in-universe, as Gehn treats the Art as a science instead of an art, relying too much on "formulas" and copied phrases to preserve his supplies of ink. As a result, his Ages tend to be unstable - the Age in which ''VideoGame/{{Riven}}'' is set is a prime example of this, with Atrus barely being able to keep Riven going just long enough for the [[PlayerCharacter Stranger]] to accomplish their mission and to save Riven's native population.
260* Just about any game penned by the screenwriter Tadashi Satomi, known for the early [[VideoGame/Persona1 Persona]] [[VideoGame/Persona2 games]] and the [[VideoGame/TheCaligulaEffect Caligula]] [[VideoGame/TheCaligulaEffect2 titles]], typically tend to be written in a very utilitarian manner with dialogue and text that is very to the point and only gives the player whatever info they actually need with finer details having to be discerned from context as well as generally only stating things once. This makes him very unusual in the space as he primarily works with JRPG's, games that often tend to be very verbose and at times repetitive.
261* In ''VideoGame/{{Bonfire}}'', the description for all Failure enemies is simply, "A failure." This is a striking contrast to other enemy descriptions which, while not terribly lengthy, are much more jocular and tongue-in-cheek.
262[[/folder]]
263
264[[folder:Webcomics]]
265* Used in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' for sending spells, which have limited word count. [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0741.html This strip]] is an example (spoilers within beware)[[note]]Both the message and the reply are exactly on the limit - at 25 words. Words such as "we'll" and any ending with "apostrophe-s" count as one for the purpose of being a single verbal word.[[/note]]
266** Subverted for laughs with the Power Word spells. Despite being only one word long each, they take up dozens of pages.
267** Also, all spells, when cast, are [[CallingYourAttacks simply the spell name shouted out]].
268[[/folder]]
269
270[[folder:Web Original]]
271* ''Roleplay/TheGunganCouncil'' for some writers. [[PurpleProse For others]]...
272* The Website/SCPFoundation's files are written in a plain, clinical tone. It's very effective. Especially with [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4807 SCP-4807]], an [[BrownNote infohazardous thing]] which can only be described in even-curter-than-normal phrasing and minimal formatting.
273* The [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/doge "Doge" meme]]. Wow. Such page. Many examples.
274* ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' for one episode. "''Videogame/{{Undertale}}'' is a good game." Yahtzee's review of the game in its entirety.
275* The Website/RottenTomatoes consensus tries to sum up the general critic opinion in few words. Sometimes, to the extreme: ''Westernanimation/TheEmojiMovie'' was "🚫".
276* ''WebVideo/Formula1'': The fact that Kimi Räikkönen will never answer a reporter with two words when he can get away with one, and masterfully avoids any answer requiring more than three words at almost all times is pointed out in their "unofficial rules" video, where he gets his own rule: Never expect a long answer from Kimi. This "rule" applies to fellow Finn Mika Häkkinen as well.
277[[/folder]]
278
279[[folder:Western Animation]]
280* This is the entire shtick of "Blac-U" Weather forecaster Ollie Williams, from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. The man gets his weather forecasting across with this, and a combination of NoIndoorVoice.
281-->'''Tom Tucker:''' We now go to Ollie Williams, for the "Blac-U" weather report. Ollie?
282-->'''Ollie:''' ''IS GON' RAIN!''
283-->'''Tom Tucker:''' Thanks Ollie.
284* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Stan Smith lapsed into a similar pattern when he tried to get back into the dating scene.
285-->'''Stan:''' [[NoIndoorVoice FOREPLAY THEN INTERCOURSE]]!
286* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', both Soundwave and Omega Supreme: Dialogue limited.
287* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Butters's writing style in his book ''The Poop that Took a Pee''.
288* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic:'' The poetic stylings of Maud Pie:
289-->''Rock,\
290You are a rock.\
291Grey,\
292You are grey\
293Like a rock,\
294Which you are,\
295Rock.''
296* This is part of Ice Bear's charm in ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears''. [[TheQuietOne When he speaks at all]], his lines are brief, straight to the point, and [[TheStoic completely deadpan]] [[TheComicallySerious no matter how silly]].
297[[/folder]]
298
299[[folder:Real Life]]
300* [[AC:telegrams charge per word [[TelegraphGagSTOP STOP]]]]
301* Text messages. Even with smartphones, people tend to send brief, direct communications.
302* Website/{{Twitter}} has a character limit, forcing people to be brief, but they'll often squeeze more words in with arcane abbreviations. Or they'll just do tweet threads to bypass this.
303* Newsprint article titles, news copy in general.
304* Low-word-count English reports.
305* Manuals, memos.
306* Dr. Nakamats speech upon getting the Ig Nobel Prize for nutrition:
307-->"Life should be lived long. Speech should be short!"
308%% http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/oct/06/kids-in-care-tv-review
309* The Spartans, whose simplicity of speech gave rise to the word "laconic," after the region they came from, Laconia (contemporaries called them Lacedaemonians). For example, when Philip II of Macedon threatened them with the message: "If we enter Sparta, we will [[RapePillageAndBurn raze all your buildings and ravage all your women]]," Sparta sent back the answer, "If." Philip, as well as his son UsefulNotes/{{Alexander|TheGreat}}, left Sparta alone.
310* UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge, a.k.a. "Silent Cal." Apocryphal example:
311-->'''Party Guest:''' Mister Vice-President, I bet my friends over there I couldn't get you to say more than two words tonight.\
312'''Coolidge:''' You lose. ''(he leaves the party)''
313** Another example:
314--->After church one Sunday, notoriously terse Calvin Coolidge was asked what the preacher had talked about.\
315"Sin", replied Coolidge.\
316"What did he say about it?"\
317"He's against it."
318* Police reports.
319* Many military messages. Good military orders are short, concise, and cannot be misinterpreted. Thus many military men often write in this style even in civilian life. UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant is an example. UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar is another, placing him in distinct contrast to the PurpleProse favored by many ancient Roman authors.
320* [[http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Simple English Wikipedia]].
321* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style Omit needless words]].
322* The artificial language [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_Pona Toki Pona]] based on Taoist philosophy of the virtue of simple thought, life, and communication. It takes this to pretty extreme levels - for example, "pona", the word for "good", is intentionally designed to also mean "simple", and "ike" for "bad" or "evil" intentionally also means "complicated".
323* Guy Steele once gave a talk on computer language design, [[http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/steele.pdf "Growing A Language"]], in which he restricted himself to using English words of one syllable, and allowed himself to use longer words only when he defined them first.
324* San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is known for speaking like this. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7or145LgvX0&feature=player_embedded Here]]'s a sample interview:
325-->'''ESPN sportscaster Doris Burke:''' Pop, what happened offensively in that period?\
326'''Popovich:''' Turnovers.\
327'''Burke:''' What about on the defensive end? They had their most productive quarter, what'd you see there?\
328'''Popovich:''' Turnovers.
329--->''Interview ends.''
330* "The enemy came. He was beaten. I am tired. Goodnight." Vicomte Turenne, Message sent after the battle of Dunen, 1658
331* Some Latin American Spanish dialects (like Mexican Spanish) tend to be rather straightforward when compared with European Spanish, which is often the [[PurpleProse exact opposite]]. For example, in Spain, people use the present perfect tense ("Yo he ido", "I have gone") much more often than the simple past ("Yo fui", "I went"), which is more common in Latin America. Although the former ''is'' technically the correct way to address certain past events, it's used so rarely outside of Spain that many native Spanish speakers are unaware that there's a difference. Spaniards keep insisting they're using the correct grammar, while Mexicans just wonder why they use so many syllables to get to the same point as they do with two (or sometimes one).
332* People with Aphasia can have fragmented speech.
333** Alogia, or poverty of speech, is also a common symptom of schizophrenia.
334* There was a long stretch around the mid-twentieth century where the prevailing literary orthodoxy decreed that everyone write like Hemingway (see above) and/or Jack London: BeigeProse and bleak realist stories about war, hunting, and other [[RatedMForManly manly pursuits]].[[note]]Which itself was [[PopularityPolynomial reaction]] to the late 19th/early 20th Century [[{{Escapism}} escapist]] PurpleProse detached from Real Life.[[/note]] Fashionable writing was constantly being described as "lean," "muscular," and other macho-sounding adjectives ([[HeManWomanHater because masculine is good and feminine is bad, right?]]). Many "genre" or "outsider" authors of the period from Tolkien to Mervyn Peake to the Beats cheerfully thumbed their noses at it.
335* Law schools teach students to get to the point, avoid rhetorical flourishes, and cut any word that does not add meaning. Clients pay lawyers to convince tribunals that the clients' positions are right, not to impress the tribunals with eloquence. Also, the rules of practice often dictate maximum word or page counts and sometimes even require that page counts be met using specific line spacing and font size. [[http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/susman_godfrey_is_sanctioned_for_wrong_line_spacing_in_brief/?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_email This is serious business.]]
336* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webby_Award Webby Awards]] are famous for having a 5 word limit on speeches. Take Steve Wilhite's[[note]]inventer of the .GIF format[[/note]] for example:
337--> '''Steve Wilhite:''' It's pronounced 'Jif', not 'Gif'.
338* Victor Hugo sent a letter to his publisher about ''Literature/LesMiserables'' sales.\
339The text: "?"\
340The reply: "!"
341** According to the ''Guinness Book of World Records'', the shortest correspondence ever.
342** And it was a telegram, not a letter, which makes more sense since you had to pay by the word.
343* Classical Chinese is known for an extremely concise writing style. A text in Classical Chinese may have around half as many characters as it would if it were translated into modern vernacular Chinese.
344* Most mathematical proofs tend to avert this due to the rigor required to make the proof foolproof. However, there are instances of very short proofs. One such example is "Counterexample to Euler's Conjecture on Sums of Like Powers".
345--> ''A direct search on the CDC 6600 yielded''
346--> ''27[[superscript:5]] + 84[[superscript:5]] + 110[[superscript:5]] + 133[[superscript:5]] = 144[[superscript:5]]''
347--> ''as the smallest instance in which four fifth powers sum to a fifth power. This is a counterexample to a conjecture by Euler [1] that at least'' n n''th powers are required to sum to an'' n''th power,'' n ''>2.''
348[[/folder]]
349----
350->'''Statler:''' That was the page?\
351'''Waldorf:''' It was dumb!\
352'''Statler:''' It was pointless!\
353'''Waldorf:''' It was obvious!\
354'''Statler:''' It was... short.\

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