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5[-[[caption-width-right:274:"And this text thingy down here, with the writing!"\
6[[RuleOfThree "You mean the caption?"]]]]-]
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11
12->''"Whedon's voice is so distinct that 'Buffy Speak' has become a mode of language unto its own--one codified by a jumbling of nouniness and adjectiviage into languagey-bits that sound like your brain forgot words before spontaneously re-remembering them."''
13-->-- '''[[WebVideo/BrowsHeldHigh Kyle Kallgren]]''', on the subject of Creator/JossWhedon's production of ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing''... [[SelfDemonstratingArticle while using Buffy Speak]]
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15%% Do not even think about making this "self demonstrating." It does not work. -- Admin Notice
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17%% Besides, the results would not be pretty.
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20
21Any of a variety of speech patterns used to indicate that a character, while intelligent, is perhaps too young, too inexperienced, and/or insufficiently educated (or simply [[MotorMouth talks too fast]]) to properly express the complex ideas and thoughts that they clearly possess.
22
23One of the most obvious elements is a lack of relevant vocabulary, leading to both unconventional adjectival-noun structures like "shooty-gun thing", and incomplete, floundering similes that [[ShapedLikeItself turn back on themselves]] in frustration: "That idea went over like... like... like a thing that doesn't go over very well." {{Metaphorgotten}} is frequently a side effect. Often includes OhGodWithTheVerbing or similar. And sometimes NameMcAdjective is employed.
24
25When properly handled, Buffy Speak can give the sense of a teenaged group's special jargon or argot without necessarily imitating anything actually found in the real world. Slang language, especially for the younger set, tends to change at warp speed. Buffy Speak allows a level of timelessness that helps avoid TotallyRadical tropes. Improperly handled, it can sound ludicrously fake and may damage WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief.
26
27In linguistics, this is typically referred to as a "nonce" -- a term or figure of speech created for a single occasion, typically to quickly move along conversation or direction.
28
29We also use Buffy Speak to name some of our tropes:
30* NonGivingUpSchoolGuy
31* ProudWarriorRaceGuy
32* SloganYellingMegaphoneGuy
33* SwirlyEnergyThingy
34* ThatRussianSquatDance (Cossack Dancing)
35* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight (Bogeymen)
36* TragicIceCharacter
37
38For some reason, this trope is named for the speech patterns of the teenage characters in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', which ran from 1997–2003. The show's creator, Creator/JossWhedon, is often credited with "creating" this form of writing (also called Whedonspeak). However, there are instances of this type of language from writers like Creator/WilliamShakespeare, Creator/CharlesDickens, Creator/HPLovecraft, and Creator/PGWodehouse, making this trope significantly OlderThanTheyThink. This type of speech has existed for as long as language itself, and is actually OlderThanDirt.
39
40Contrast with TotallyRadical or SesquipedalianLoquaciousness; also compare {{Cloudcuckoolanguage}}. Compare PersonAsVerb. See also ShapedLikeItself, DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment, LaymansTerms, RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic and DeadpanSnarker.
41
42----
43!!Examply branchy things:
44
45[[index]]
46* [[BuffySpeak/ComicBooks The Book Thingies With Drawings Inside Squares and Circles]]
47* [[BuffySpeak/FanWorks The Thingies Made By People Who Love Thingies]]
48* [[BuffySpeak/{{Film}} The Really Long Thingies With The Photos That Move]]
49* [[BuffySpeak/{{Literature}} The Book Thingies, But With Words Instead Of Drawings]]
50* [[BuffySpeak/LiveActionTV The Thingies Like The Moving Photo Thingies, But Shorter And On TV]]
51* [[BuffySpeak/{{Music}} The Thingies That Go "Dun, Dun Dun, Dun Dun Dun Dun"]]
52* [[BuffySpeak/VideoGames The Thingies That Go "Beep Boop", and You Control Italian Plumbers]]
53* [[BuffySpeak/{{Webcomics}} The Thingies With Drawings Inside Squares And Circles, But On The Internet]]
54* [[BuffySpeak/WebOriginal Thingies On The Internet, But Made By Creative People]]
55* [[BuffySpeak/WesternAnimation The Thingies With Drawings That Move, From America and Stuff]]
56[[/index]]
57
58!!Other examply things
59[[foldercontrol]]
60
61[[folder:The Things That Try To Sell You Stuff]]
62* Snapple's slogan is "Made from the best stuff on Earth". They had a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zoh0tHRXOvE commercial]] where an employee finds better stuff. Everyone refers to it as simply "stuff". "We've got better stuff." "What stuff?" "This stuff." "I like that stuff."
63* Played for laughs with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66QbX13UZT4 this commercial]] for Fruit String Thing.
64* Arby's ran an ad for its gyros, referring to them as "Mediterranean tacos!"
65* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beRAVQf1FcY This commercial for DriveTime]] features a customer touting the app's convenience in changing his payments with the help of a "slidey thingy".
66[[/folder]]
67
68[[folder:The Japanese Drawing Things That Move Sometimes]]
69* In ''Manga/{{Haikyuu}}'' Hinata likes to describe movements, tosses, and attacks with words like "bwah!" "oomph!" "gwah!" when he gets excited (which is always). Tsukishima points out that none of what he says makes sense on more than one occasion.
70** Team's libero Nishinoya uses similar sound effects when he tries to explain how he receives perfectly. His teammates point out that he sucks at explaining because it's all instinct to him.
71* In the ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' dub, on the way to Sensui's hideout, Yuusuke asks Kurama what the seeds he's spreading around are for, and our favorite red-haired {{Bishonen}} goes into an explanation about lighting their way, trailing off into phosphorus and bread crumbs. In that case, it sounded more like Kurama (who is a ReallySevenHundredYearsOld [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]]) was trying to Buffy-Speak so that [[BookDumb Yusuke]] would understand him.
72* From the ''Anime/ExcelSaga'' dub: "I have built this wooden underling-like puppet with an optional soy sauce puffy thingy!"
73* In ''Literature/FateZero'', Rider calls stealth bombers 'big black B-2 thingies,' and he describes the [[StormOfBlades Gate of Babylon]] as 'showing off with a lot of shiny-goldy things.'
74* Ali Al-Saachez from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' uses this trope to refer to his enemies, "Celestial-Whatchamacallit!". Not like "Being" is a hard word to say or remember, but try telling that to his face.
75* In the dub, Simon from ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' refers to the multiple universes created through a LotusEaterMachine as ''multi-dimensional whatevers.''
76* In the dub of ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', when a soldier saw a painting that [[NationsAsPeople Holy Roman Empire]] had done of young Italy and asked, "Is this your boyfriend or girlfriend or gender-neutral chibi thing?"
77* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'',Tanjiro is a well meaning guy and definitely not stupid, but he is quite terrible at explaining technical aspects of his sword and martial arts abilities, he earnestly tries to explain to his friends his experiences with "it was pow wow, the I was like boom, boom", said events occur when Tanjiro tried to explain his Full Focus Breathing training to Zenitsu and Inosuke, and later when he tries to explain how his body achieved the Demon Slayer Mark. Later it is also shown the freakishly strong swordswoman Kanroji Mitsuri is just as bad as Tanjiro in explaining the technical aspects of her abilties, using the same "boom, boom" terms.
78[[/folder]]
79
80[[folder:The Thing Where Someone Talks and Makes People Laugh]]
81* Comic actor Creator/SteveMartin's stand-up routines frequently employ this trope.
82** "Because a day without sunshine is like, you know, night."
83** "Some people have a way with words... and some people... uh... ''not'' have way, I guess."
84* Stand-up comedian Creator/EddieIzzard described her playing of the clarinet as sounding like "a foghorn being dragged through... uh, a place where a foghorn should not be dragged."
85** And, in a bit about toasters, said that "they have a turny-button thing... it's called a 'turny-button thing.'"
86** Honey is "in your morning, on your breakfasty toasty, in a jar, kind of."
87** In fact, a large number of her jokes, as a consequence of her very train-of-thought style of comedy.
88* On Creator/GeorgeCarlin's half-sketch, half stand-up album, ''A Place For My Stuff'':
89--> '''(Radio Ad):''' "Consolidated International! People making things so people have things to do things to other people with! And thinking up more things to do with the stuff we have!
90[[/folder]]
91
92[[folder:Those Comics On the Newspaper Things]]
93* [[http://www.gocomics.com/candorville/2012/06/08 This]] ''ComicStrip/{{Candorville}}'' strip: "I'm as bad with analogies as... something else is bad at a thing."
94* Gary Larson's ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': Some mobsters are interrogating a little man tied up in a chair. "Well," says their leader, "we've tried every device and you still won't talk--every device, that is, except for the one we simply call 'Mr. Thingy.' " The hoodlum then holds up a weird contraption that looks like a cross between a bomb and a Swiss army knife.
95[[/folder]]
96
97[[folder:The Animated Movie Things]]
98* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'''s Linguini, tired of the [[PeoplePuppets marionette]] treatment, tells Remy: "I am not your puppet! And you are not my puppet... controller... guy!"
99* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'': "Your helmet does that... that... that whoosh thing!"
100* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'':
101-->'''Chunk''': ''[referring to Buzz]'' He ain't the sharpest knife in the...[[HypocriticalHumor place where they keep the knives.]]
102-->'''Sparks:''' Neither are you, Chunk.
103* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'' has most of the song "Part of Your World" based on this when Ariel sings about her collection of land... gizmos, gadgets, whoosits, whatzits, and thingamabobs. She apparently improves her vocabulary as the song progresses, though. Probably justified, since she gets all her information about the names and functions of human artifacts from [[TheDitz Scuttle]], so it's likely she thinks those are the actual names for those objects.
104* The President from ''WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens'': "General... I propose we go forward with your [[TitleDrop Monsters vs. Aliens]] idea... thingie."
105* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' has an IResembleThatRemark example: "No, no, no... you don't talk now, okay? You're not so good with the putting the words together and their coming out good thing."
106** Also, Julien. "After much deep and profound brain things inside my head ..."
107* Heather from ''WesternAnimation/OverTheHedge'': We, like, worked our tails off, y'know? Like a lot! And the food we gathered was totally... you know! And you're, you're all whatever!
108* In ''WesternAnimation/{{TMNT}}'', Raphael says "The thing about you immortal stone guys is... you know you're immortal... and made of stone. I sound like Mikey!"
109* Kuzco in ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'': "What is he babbling about? He's like the thing that wouldn't shut up!"
110* Used to spoof TechnoBabble in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' parody ''Sev Trek: Pus in Boots''.
111-->"Here's the status report on the warp coil thing-a-ma-giggies, Captain."
112* What do we call this one? From ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox''... "If what I think is happening, is happening, it better not be."
113* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'':
114** When Héctor is rejected by the scanner, he calls it a "blinky thingy" when he sheds his disguise.
115** Imelda calls the computer a "devil box" when she is first seen.
116* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Mei describes her giant red panda form this way.
117-->'''Mei:''' It's just some, you know, inconvenient, uh, genetic thingy I got from my mom.
118* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'', while trying to console Wildstyle after Batman apparently dumped her, Emmet tries to find a simile to describe the latter's insensitivity. The best he comes up with is "as blind as a guy whose eyes stopped working".
119[[/folder]]
120
121[[folder:The Things With Ads, Comics and the Article Things]]
122* A parody of ''Antiques Roadshow'' in ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' had a few of the appraisers inspecting the "antiques" with a jeweler's loupe, or as they call it, a "thingamajig that jewelers use".
123[[/folder]]
124[[folder:The Old Stories About Magic And Monsters And Stuff]]
125* In Myth/AztecMythology, the ahuizotl's name literally translates as "spiny aquatic thing."
126[[/folder]]
127
128[[folder:The Things Where People Talk Online]]
129* ''Podcast/MomCantCook'': Luke at one point describes what is presumably an interior transom as a "hole in the wall which they deliberately put there". Andy asks if he means a door.
130* ''Podcast/PlumbingTheDeathStar'':
131** Professor Xavier's {{Telepathy}} is referred to as his "boop-boop-boop powers" because at least one of the three hosts makes sure to accompany discussion of his powers with noises that are supposed to resemble a computer.
132** The cast stops in the middle of "If You Were a James Bond Villain What Would Your Scheme Be?" to make sure everyone knows that "sinkholing" is not an actual word and that anyone who uses it will be laughed at.
133** The title of "Would You Prefer to be Suddenly 30 or 17'd again?" used ''Film/SeventeenAgain2009'' as a verb to describe suddenly becoming young again. The rest of the episode similarly uses ''Film/ThirteenGoingOnThirty'' and ''Film/{{Big}}'' to describe being suddenly turned into an adult.
134* ''Podcast/RustyQuillGaming'': During a sci-fi one-shot, Alex's character attempts to discreetly scan his colleagues to see if they're infectious, but fails his roll. Ben, who's running the game, provides an InUniverse explanation as follows:
135--> '''Ben''': Any infection would be very subtle. You can't just, like, widdly-weep them and it'll be like, "Bad! There's badness!"
136--> '''Jonny''': I'm sorry, you can't just what?
137--> '''Ben''': Widdly-weep. Sorry, it's a reference to like, the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' widdly-weep machine that Spock has that does everything. He just widdly-weeps it.
138* In ''{{Podcast/Wolf 359}}'', Officer Eiffel's speech patterns often end up here, especially when it comes to describing the more technical or complicated parts of the space station where the show takes place.
139--> '''Minkowski''': Connect two tethers together, then attach them to the restraint. That should be enough slack for me to reach him with my propulsion maneuvering unit.
140--> '''Eiffel''': Is that your jetpack thingy?
141--> '''Minkowski''': Yes, Eiffel, that's my ''jetpack thingy''!
142* From the D&D podcast ''The Lucky Die'':
143** Rhal scouts ahead, finds a room with magical artifacts and ghostly guardians, and reports back: "There was a crazy thing, and a crazy thing, and everything was crazy!"
144** The team have acquired a powerful artifact, and are debating whether to also keep the box it was in: "It's the shit that holds the shit. If you take the shit out of it, I don't need it anymore."
145** Lafian wants to share his True Name with his girlfriend, and wants to say it telepathically so no one can overhear.
146---> '''Squash:''' It's not a real name if you don't use your mouth meat-flaps to make the sounds!
147---> '''Lafian:''' I use my brain meat-flaps to make the sounds!
148---> '''Squash:''' I'm just saying, it needs to be ''wet!''
149[[/folder]]
150
151[[folder:The Wrestling Fights and Stuff]]
152* Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin, to [[Wrestling/RonSimmons Faarooq]]: "It's not a black thing, it's not a white thing--it's a me-kicking-your-ass thing!"
153* Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}} and Wrestling/{{Christian}} are reeking of awesomeness.
154* On the ''Tropical Pleasures'' [=DVD=] from 2002, Wrestling/{{Ivory}} is talking about which WWE guys she finds sexy, and says that Wrestling/BillyGunn has "confidence and cuteness and [=funness=]."
155* There was Wrestling/KurtAngle trying (and failing) to get fans to boo him during his 2005 feud with Wrestling/JohnCena by announcing that he [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6oyft_kurt-angle-dislikes-black-people-an_sport did not like "the black people."]]
156* PGWA initially dubbed Nikki Roxx's finishing move a "sit down bear hug atomic drop thingy"
157* The efforts of FunnyForeigner Wrestling/SantinoMarella to speak coherent English often result in this.
158* Matt Striker loves pulling this type of speech off, one time even declaring that [[Wrestling/LayCool Layla El]] was "hellacious Lay-lacious".
159[[/folder]]
160
161[[folder:The Things Where People Make Dolls Wiggle]]
162* ''Series/SesameStreet'' has several sketches where Grover is Professor Grover, a KnowNothingKnowItAll type who often gives lectures without knowing what he's talking about. In one such sketch, Professor Grover is in a classroom, explaining to some Muppet kids what school is. His notes are full of misinformation, such as "School is a place where you go to buy fish!" and that the tables in front of the chairs are called "tibble tabbles". Even though the students tell him that the tables are called "desks", he forgets the word moments after the bell rings and he's left alone in the classroom.
163-->'''Professor Grover:''' ''[resting his head on a desk]'' Right now, I'll just take a little rest here on this... tibble tabble.
164[[/folder]]
165
166[[folder:The Live Music and Talk Things]]
167* With Radio/TheBobAndTomShow's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIRtwBTDp2s Joe Jefferson Vocabulary Builder-Upper]], you can learn yourself many big and good words, or my name isn't Jim Johannsen. From Jack Johnson, the creator of the [[ForgetfulJones Jake Jackson Memory System]].
168* In ''Radio/CabinPressure'', as an ActorAllusion to Creator/BenedictCumberbatch's role in ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', Martin gets to cite a famous Literature/SherlockHolmes quote... somewhat less articulately.
169-->'''Martin''': The thing is, we've taken away all the things that can't possibly have happened, so I suppose the only thing that's left, even though it seems really weird, must be the thing that did happen in fact!
170-->'''Douglas''': ...Snappily put.
171* ''Radio/TheGoonShow'' has a fair few of Bluebottle's lines.
172-->'''Bluebottle''': I used his large-type front and posh-type talking to work my way to a position of importance in the BBC!\
173'''Seagoon''': Silly lad! There ''are'' no [[BitingTheHandHumor positions of importance in the BBC!]]
174[[/folder]]
175
176[[folder:The Games With the Cards and Stuff]]
177* ''TabletopGame/PsionicsTheNextStageInHumanEvolution'' ventures into this territory. Justified, since the characters are discussing things that they didn't know existed until very recently and don't have actual names for.
178* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': Orks have a very direct aproach to naming things, applied both to their own gear and their enemy's: any cutting implement (sword, axe, knife...) is a choppa, guns are shootaz, any Titan-sized combat walker is a stompa, etc.
179* In ''TabletopGame/{{Cosmopol}}'', the character Keller speaks like this to the point that others call his distinct speech pattern "Keller Speak". Justified in that he is not a native English speaker, though sometimes he speaks like that in his native German, too.
180* TabletopGame/YuGiOh has a monster called [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Interplanetarypurplythorny_Dragon Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon.]]
181* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': [[http://magiccards.info/5dn/en/70.html Krark-Clan Engineers.]] ''"Well, I jammed the whatsit into the whackdoodle, but I think I broke the thingamajigger."''
182* ''TabletopGame/MouseTrap1963'': In the original version of the game, there's a piece named "thing-a-ma-jig" above the bathtub. It's been renamed the "short ramp" in newer versions.
183[[/folder]]
184
185[[folder:Those Things You See on Broadway]]
186* In Shakespeare's ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'', Antonio faces off against Claudio and Don Pedro, and he is too angry (or, in some productions, too drunk) to properly articulate his rage. The result is quite entertaining.
187-->"Come boy, come sir boy, come follow me sir boy!"
188** Shakespeare's frequently-used bit of Buffy Speak, ShapedLikeItself?
189** He [[http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html "invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original."]]
190[[/folder]]
191
192[[folder:The Places Where You Can Ride Things]]
193* In ''Ride/JimmyNeutronsNicktoonBlast'' at Ride/UniversalStudios, Carl refers to his attack with Cosmo's wand as "super-powered laser thingy".
194[[/folder]]
195
196[[folder:The Interactive Things With the Cute Anime Girls and Maybe Boys Too]]
197* Franziska von Karma from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' TO AN EXTREME.
198-->"You huffy, puffy, loosey-goosey excuse for a whimpering whining wuss of a witness."
199-->"Don't be foolish you foolish fool wearing the foolishly foolish clothes."
200* A feature of [[HornyVikings Skaltic]] speech in ''VisualNovel/SevenKingdomsThePrincessProblem'', apparently due to language barriers. Princess Anaele, for example, refers to your [[TheJeeves guardian butler]] Jasper as a "watchy-watchy-starey-starey shadow man."
201[[/folder]]
202
203[[folder:Those Toons On the Web]]
204* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' does this a lot:
205-->''' Strong Bad:''' My internet's crawling along like... something... funny... that crawls along.
206** "What the sense make?!"
207** Reynold of the WebAnimation/CheatCommandos speaks this way.
208---> "I never get to go on any missions! I'd be a good mission... guy."'
209** Also from ''Cheat Commandos'': the name "Gunhaver" itself, and sentences like "who will have gun?"
210** "Hey Stinkoman! Everybody says you're the Guy, but I wanna be the Guy too!"[[note]][[VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy No relation]].[[/note]]
211** "Ixnay on the... cut it out throwing roses at me... may."
212** "If you can't stand the heat, get out of... y'know, that aforementioned heaty place."
213** "I'm gonna go... place."[[note]][[http://hrwiki.org/w/images/f/f7/Place.png Complete with postcard!]][[/note]]
214** "I think I've got a... food... in the oven."
215** "Here he is, the man that's about to do a thing!"
216** "Just a single congraturation they had lying around the... video game... make... place...?!"
217** Coach Z was glad to be offered free ice cream because he "can't afford the money-cost variety".
218* Parodied in ''WebAnimation/KingdumbHearts''
219--> '''Xemnas:''' Gentlemen, thanks for coming. I'm here to talk about IT.\
220'''Xigbar:''' What?\
221'''Xemnas:''' Yes... it has done IT. And now she well do THE THING, and now what I told you about will happen to him, and then will happen to HER, when IT is done. Then WE need to do... THE THING.\
222'''Xigbar:''' The who the what and the when?\
223'''Xemnas:'''' Saix, is IT done? THE THING?\
224'''Saix:''' Yes, sir.\
225'''Xemnas:''' And Xigbar, is IT ready to do IT?\
226'''Xigbar:''' What?\
227'''Xemnas:''' IS "IT" READY TO DO "IT"?\
228'''Xigbar:''' "sigh" Yeah, yeah, HE is doing IT and IT is HER doing something... whatever you say.\
229'''Xemnas:''' What?!?! She did THE SOMETHING?!? We must take action at once!!!!
230* ''WebAnimation/TheDementedCartoonMovie'' has "Evil Blah's Evil Lair Type House Thing!", inside of which are the "Evil device thingy!" the generic damsel is chained to and the "Weird evil Machine thing [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom o` doom]]".
231** "What was that? Some kind of... kamikaze, type, person?"
232* The title character of ''IAmBabyCakes'' has a surprising way of expressing the great paradoxes of life and love in simple, childish terms.
233* ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': Kayla talks like this sometimes, like saying 'ramp truck thingy'.
234* This tends not to make it into episodes of ''WebAnimation/NoEvil'', but pops up now and then in the outtakes. Sushijustask, the voice actress for Paula, has a particular line in this; as early as the first outtakes video, she delivers the line "these are my noises of me knowing what is going on. 'Ahh.'"
235[[/folder]]
236
237[[folder:The Things That Happen in the Real World]]
238* It's common for little kids (or adults who have suffered temporary word fail--or, more seriously, a stroke) to speak like this.
239* In a way, kennings are a form of this. One of the more famous ones, ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', translated as "bee-hunter", is an Old English kenning for bear.
240** These euphemisms were formed because it was considered bad luck to speak the bear's true name. Most European cultures have various different names for the same animal--"honey-eater" (medved), "brown thing" (bruin). The ones nowadays accepted as its real name ("bear", for instance) are actually euphemisms used so widely that the original name was forgotten. {{Bears|AreBadNews}} are SeriousBusiness.
241* UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, an otherwise brilliant speaker, once did this: "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade, ''and do the other things.''" [[JustifiedTrope This was a common mid-20th century expression indicating]], "There are many examples, but I don't feel like naming them all right now." Many middle-aged Americans were still using the idiom as the 1990s drew to a close. It all makes sense in context:
242--> But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Why does Rice play Texas?]] We ''choose'' to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard!
243** An more straightforward interpretation is that "the other things" are "that stuff I already mentioned but don't feel like repeating, to wit, climbing the highest mountain, flying the Atlantic, etc."
244* UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush became so widely known for this ("The Vision Thing" "The Women Thing") that the term "Bushism" was coined to describe it. It's a trait he passed down to his oldest son, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush, who arguably leans even harder into it than his father ("They misunderestimated me").
245* The French spoken in Quebec has a wide, wide range of words that mean "thing" (chose, patente, truc, cossin, bidule, and the list goes on), although sometimes with a slightly different connotation. They are frequently used in non-formal conversation, with context and non-verbal communication helping interpretation of the word.
246** Combining them is perfectly valid too: "Passe-moi le truc-machin-chouette-bidule," would easily translate as "Pass me the thing-thingy-stuff-thing."
247** This also works for metropolitan French, except the order of the words is different. A non-exhaustive list of words for "thing" would go: truc, machin, bidule, trucmuche, chose, machin-chouette...
248** Also in Swedish, with a small selection being: Sak; apparat; apparatur; grej; mojäng; mackapär; grunka.
249* German and Japanese are languages that both make heavy use of compound words by just sticking two words together. The words "Zeug" and "mono" both mean "things" and are used in combination with all kinds of word. (The German "Zeug" originally meant "gear" as in "equipment", but has come to be a generic term for "stuff" when used alone).
250** ''German'': "Flugzeug" (fly-stuff/airplane), "Werkzeug" (working-stuff/tools), "Spielzeug" (play-stuff/toys), "Fahrzeug" (drive-stuff/vehicle). ''Zeughaus'' (stuff-house/arsenal).
251** ''Japanese'': "Tabemono" (eat-stuff/food), "kaimono" (buy-stuff/shopping), "Kimono" (wear-stuff/clothing). The same applies to words with "butsu" ([[AlternateCharacterReading a different reading of the same Kanji]]), such as "doubutsu" (thing that moves/animal) or "hakubutsu" (wide learning/natural history).
252** ''Esperanto'': The suffix -aĵ- means essentially "the physical substance associated with". "Bovo" (cow) + "-aĵ-" = "bovaĵo" (beef). "Segi" (to saw) + "-aĵ-" = "segaĵo" (sawdust). "Aĵo" by itself just means "stuff".
253** ''Turkish'': The suffixes -cı,-ci,-cu,-cü,-çı,-çi,-çu and -çü mean "- person". It's mainly used to define professions: "dişçi" (tooth-person/dentist), "demirci" (iron-person/smith), "yolcu" = (way-person/traveler).
254* Kneadatite, a self-hardening paste that is used extensively used in miniature sculpting, is almost universally known as "''green stuff''". (It's an epoxy whose resin is yellow and whose hardener is blue, so when you mix it together to set, it's green).
255* People with anomic/dysnomic forms of the mental disorder aphasia often have difficulty retrieving words from memory and come up with awkward circumlocutions to describe something that they cannot name. A person with this condition might know what an apple is and how it tastes, but might be unable to name it, instead calling it something like "that crunchy fruit that grows on trees".
256* Languages
257** English speakers who want to describe something they don't have a word for sometimes employ the French "''[[GratuitousFrench je ne sais quoi]]''", usually to mean something like "unique character", as in, "He has a certain ''je ne sais quoi''." It literally means, "I don't know what" which has the same meaning in English.
258* The Polish word "wichajster" means a thing that either has no name or a thing whose name the speaker doesn't recall (it usually refers to a machine or part thereof, or some sort of gadget, but anything can be described by the word). And "wichajster" is pronounced exactly like "Wie heißt er", which means "what's his name" in German.
259** German knows "das gewisse Etwas", which means "the certain something", which is just as vague and is used in the same way.
260** Italian, meanwhile, has "aggeggio", a close equivalent to the above in that it generally refers to gadgets. "Coso" also exists (as an informal version of "cosa", thing), translated exactly as "thingy".
261* The 19th century brought English such expressions as "doohickey" and "thingamabob"/"thingamajig". They were popular enough to have entries in the English dictionary.
262* Buffy speak from Republicans:
263** When UsefulNotes/SarahPalin asked, "How's that hopey, changey thing working out for ya?" at the first-ever national Tea Party Convention, many wondered if Creator/JossWhedon had suddenly, inexplicably been employed as her speech writer. For those who haven't paid attention to American politics lately, or have just had their heads under a rock, this was an allusion to Barack Obama's campaign slogans of "hope and change." [[DontExplainTheJoke Which she was making fun of]].
264** Some of old [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush No.43's]] bushisms would qualify. "Tribal sovereignty means just that; it's sovereign. You're a--you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity."
265** Congressman Kevin [=McCarthy=], then House Majority leader and the number one choice as replacement for Speaker John Boehner after the latter retired, gave a press release of such strange coherence that the next day, political pages in major newspapers like the Wall Street Journal actually explicitly compared it to this trope.
266** As stated above, Creator/JossWhedon himself--in interviews, one can practically ''see'' the ''Buffy'' script flowing forth as he speaks. Also, Jim Butcher has fallen into this a couple of times, perhaps.
267* Many teenagers do this. Although they are often quite intelligent, many of them [[BookDumb aren't quite familiar with technical terms and jargon]], so use Buffy Speak when the right words don't come to mind.
268** Some very studious teens, especially those cramming for standardized tests, will have an immense vocabulary but no clue how to use those words properly, thus leading to a strange mix of Buffy Speak and SesquipedalianLoquaciousness.
269* If you ever work in technical support, expect to see this a lot. Many people are completely unable to properly describe a technical problem.
270* If you work in a home and garden or domestic supply store, such as Bed, Bath & Beyond, you ''will'' encounter this trope on a ''daily basis.'' No exceptions.
271-->"Do you carry that rectangular inflatable dealie that you put ice in?"
272* This trope is sadly common when speaking foreign languages you're relatively new to. Whatever education the speaker had was probably only focused on general, common vocabulary (exceptions being "medical Spanish" courses, etc.) so the speaker is limited to a very unspecialized vocabulary and has to get creative when trying to explain to a confused ER patient that the doctors are going to put in an IV to keep them from dehydrating.
273** Modern linguists incidentally consider it an important skill to know how to speak around a word that you don't know, and there are several scientific studies on the subject.
274* In Chile, the word 'wea' and its derivates can mean absolutely anything and anyone. It can get very confusing for a non-chilean to understand which thing is the 'wea' we are referring to.
275* The same in Colombia with the word 'vaina', except it's never used on people, hence being translated as a very localized version of "thing", and being one of the few words used by everyone regardless of region/accent.
276* In the immortal words of the Danish Prime minister Lars Løkke "Those who earn more, and pay a lot, and now pay a little less. Well they pay more-less, than those who earn a little less, and pay less, thus paying less-less"
277* Accidentally used in [[http://engrishfunny.failblog.org/2011/01/18/engrish-funny-that-thing-in-the-place-with-the-stuff/ here]].
278* In Norwegian, the standard formal term for motor vehicles is ''fartøy'', essentially "driving things".
279** The ending "-tøy" in general. "Leketøy2 is "playing things" or toys, and "spisetøy" means "eating things" (although most people say "bestikk"). Tøy on its own, on the other hand, means clothes or fabric.
280* Primates learning human sign language typically string together monosyllabic English words in order to express relatively complex concepts. Koko the gorilla, for one, famously referred to a mask (in ASL) as an "eye hat."
281* Much of the Chinese language is constructed this way. Since everything is in abstract characters, it's only considered natural to keep tacking simple words onto a chain until you've got a fully developed concept. Examples: The Chinese word for "love" is ''ai''. ''Aiguo'' means "patriotic" ("love country"). ''Airen'' gives us "husband" or "wife" ("love person"); and ''aizibing'' translates to "AIDS" ("love disease"), though the last one can also be viewed as transcription.
282* Japanese is also big on Buffy Speak from a grammatical standpoint. All [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_grammar#Demonstratives/ demonstratives]], and also mono and koto often only serve to exacerbate confusion in a world that is elusive as it is. [[http://ja.uncyclopedia.info/wiki/読みにくい文章/意味の分かりにくい文章/ Exhibit A (at 13.).]] This is [[AccidentalPun compounded]] by throngs of Chinese loanwords (see above) that a speaker has to live with.
283* A ConLang, UsefulNotes/TokiPona, uses this as its basic premise. It has only a hundred-something words, and concepts are formed from them exactly this way. For example, if you want to say "cutlery" in Toki Pona, you might say "ilo moku" (eating tool). If you wanted to say that the cutlery is a spoon, one way to say is "ilo moku poki" (container eating-tool); if you want to specify a fork rather than a knife, you could say "ilo moku pi palisa mute" (multiple-stick eating-tool) as opposed to "ilo moku kipisi" (cutting eating-tool), and so on.
284* On the opposite side to Toki Pona is its EvilTwin, [[UsefulNotes/RussianLanguage Russian mat]] that has only six or seven roots that are all {{Cluster F Bomb}}s. In mat, you can compose complex, perfectly legitimate and meaningful (in context) sentences [[ClusterFBomb completely out of swear words]], sometimes even working with ''one'' word base per sentence. This phenomenon is depicted in Russian humour; for example, in jokes about construction workers or engineers forced by the new superior (or a foreign consultant) to stick to decent language. This results in their inability to communicate and complete their tasks.
285* A toaster manufactured by Breville has an "A Bit More" button.
286* Literal translations from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysynthetic_language polysynthetic languages]], many of them Native American, can sound like this. E.g. the Navajo for tank (when they don't just say "[[GratuitousEnglish tank]]" in the middle of a Navajo sentence), ''chidí naaʼnaʼí beeʼeldǫǫhtsoh bikááʼ dah naaznilígíí'' is "cart that crawls around with a big-boom-maker sitting on top".[[note]]Even more literally, "cart, it crawls on the ground, and it-makes-a-big-boom is on its top"--Navajo forms agentive nouns ("-er") by what's called "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terpsimbrotos terpsimbrotos]]".[[/note]]Note that in speech that whole beast is rattled off as one huge word.
287** In Nahuatl, it's especially noticeable when comparing modern colloquial Nahuatl to Classical Nahuatl, because Classical had a style rule that limited compounds to two elements plus endings, while modern Nahuatl will just stack on strings of elements. Modern Nahuatl would probably sound very rambling to the pre-Columbian Aztecs, who probably instituted the "two element" limit precisely to avoid that (as in most cultures, rhetoric was an important part of their conception of statecraft, and rambling tends to make for bad speeches).
288* In 2006, U. S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) criticized a "Net neutrality" amendment to a committee bill...but the only problem was, his vehement eleven-minute speech had a good deal of buffy speak and revealed that he had very little idea how the Internet works. Here's the most [[MemeticMutation infamous]] bit:
289-->"And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes."
290* In Inukitut, the Inuit language, new words are formed this way. For example, the word for computer literally means "little artificial brain."
291* The way the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meal,_Ready-to-Eat Meal, Ready-to-Eat]] (MRE) flameless ration heater works, it needs to be set at an incline for it to work properly. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flameless_ration_heater.jpg instructions]] for it quite literally suggest to lay the open end on a "rock or something".
292* In the movie "Fat Man and Little Boy," John Cusak plays a young physicist working on the Manhattan Project. His character was based on Canadian physicist and chemist Louis Slotin. After the war, Slotin expressed growing disdain for his personal involvement in the project, wanting to resuming teaching and research into biophysics and radiobiology. He wrote in a letter to a friend:
293-->"I have become involved in the Navy tests, much to my disgust. The reason for this is that I am one of the few people left here who are experienced bomb putter-togetherers."
294* If you were unlucky enough to fall into a black hole, the strong gravity would pull on your feet (or whatever is pointed toward the singularity) more strongly than it would on your head. This would increase, and the gravity would begin to stretch you out, eventually ripping you in half (hopefully killing you quickly). The process would continue, stretching you and tearing you apart, until all that was left of you would be a long, thin strand of particles. The scientific word for this process: '''spaghettification.''' No one has been able to come up with a better word to describe what happens.
295* Most medical conditions have names derived from Greek or Latin roots, often causing direct translations to fall under this trope; for example, osteoarthritis comes from "osteo-", meaning bone, "arthro-", meaning joint, and "-itis" meaning inflammation, causing it to translate to "bone joint inflammation". A particularly fun one is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, colloquially known as Mad Cow Disease, which literally just means "cow spongy brain disease".
296* Have you ever found yourself speaking like this because you're all of a sudden unable to recall what something was called? This is a psychological phenomenon called 'Tip of the tongue', or 'lethologica'.
297* People on [=PlayStation=] consoles who go for [[AchievementSystem trophies]] usually use "platinum" or "plat" (the highest ranking of trophy, typically awarded for earning every other base-game trophy) as a verb. [[https://www.playstationtrophies.org/ playstationtrophies.org]] says "Approximate amount of time to Platinum" when estimating the expected amount of time to earn one of these from a fresh file, and things like "I'm platinuming this game" when beginning a game or in the process of playing it, or "platinumed" when referring to platinum trophies obtained in the past, are common sayings.
298* Music/BTraits can slip into this at times.
299-->"I just love the happy vibe of this tune. I just picture all these little... uh... elfy things... doing like, little toe dances, y'know?!"
300[[/folder]]
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