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Gunther: I need a Catch Phrase Belinda: You speak in third person. Gunther: That is only a pretentious affectation. — Las Vegas
The preferred mode of speaking for a character with far more muscles than brains.
They substitute "Me" for "I", or else refer to themselves in third person. They put special emphasis on nouns and verbs, and most extra parts of the sentence are lost. If any name is too long, it gets substituted with a cruder name/description (often " (Descriptive adjective)-man or -lady"). They also skip any and all articles ("a," "an," and "the"). Favored words in the Hulkspeak include "Smash", "Puny", and "Blank-thing" (e.g. "HULK SMASH PUNY LIZARD THING!" when fighting a velociraptor). Yes, the all-caps is necessary. The primary differences between Hulkspeak and baby talk are usually at least six feet and 300 pounds.
This is a common trait of Frankensteins Monster, especially in adaptations of Frankenstein - despite the fact that in the original novel, the monster spoke perfect English. This is also typical of cavemen.
There is also a version sometimes seen in Japanese works (albeit not quite as often as in those written in English), where a character (usually a Funny Foreigner or Raised By Wolves type) is shown to speak in a somewhat broken fashion. Although still retaining the use of pronouns, they will often miss words used to bridge sentences and come off as simple or uneducated. English translations (particularly those written by Trish Ledoux), have a tendency to render this "broken Japanese" as out and out Hulk Speak.
Sometimes this dialect will spoof itself, with the character referring to complicated issues. ("Mongo only pawn in game of life.")
Contrast with Genius Bruiser and Spock Speak: the former is when a big tough guy is highly intelligent, the latter is when someone speaks with an excessively stiff, formal language. The Genius Bruiser will sometimes use Hulkspeak to hide his intelligence. You No Take Candle is when a foreign character, usually as a result of poor grasp of English, speaks like this, often with Unfortunate Implications attached.
As with a Ralph Wiggum, an easy way to derive humor from a character using Hulk Speak is to occasionally give them lines expressing more complicated concepts than their usual diction would imply they were capable of grasping. E.g. Thog's first line here and Drak's bit here.
And if it isn't obvious enough, the trope is derived from the speech pattern of Marvel's Hulk
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Examples
Comics
- The Incredible Hulk, for whom this trope is named, but only the animated version and the "savage" version from the comics. The 2003 live action film version just growled, and his movie counterpart only spoke once, in Bruce Banner's dream sequence. (It was even a Mythology Gag: "Puny human."
- In the 2008 Movie, Hulk said "HULK... SMASH!" during the final fight scene with Abomination. Because it had to be said at least once. Aside from that, though, he mostly just roared as Hulk. For the most part, however, he speaks correct, if terse, English.
- GameSpot did a hilarious preview of a Hulk video game as if it was written by the hero.
- Oddly, DC Comics used to use Hulkspeak for toddler characters (most notably for Superbaby). This, along with many things about Silver Age DC, is probably better left unexplained.
- Also in DC comics, Solomon Grundy tends to speak this way — mostly. However, he comes back from the dead different each time, sometimes subtly, sometimes with major differences. So it varies with each resurrection. Bizarro am not use variant of trope, too.
- Eghad from Godland has an odd variation; He can't seem to form complete sentences, instead expressing key ideas or phrases in the message he's trying to convey... as well as some seemingly random pop culture stuff. "Master! Incoming. Sizzle. Leather bee-yotch. Prosecution. Film at eleven." = "Master, I saw on the news that Adam Archer took out Discordia, who is awaiting trial."
- The crocs from Pearls Before Swine. "BINGO! We no can fly NUTHeeng!"
- Grossout from Scare Tactics talked somewhat like this. He didn't refer to himself in the third person, but he did use the shortest words possible and left out bridging words. This was in large part thanks to his stutter.
Anime & Manga
- Ranma ½ has several characters (nearly all of whom are Chinese People, and thus Funny Foreigners) who speak the Broken Japanese variant, most notably Shampoo and the Jusenkyō Guide. Fridge Logic rears its ugly head when the translated scripts by Trish Ledoux had the guide speaking broken English and thus retaining his Funny Foreigner-ism, while Shampoo's dialogue degenerated into Hulk Speak, which, coupled with her really high-pitched voice, tended to make her sound kind of retarded.
- Ku Fei of Mahou Sensei Negima also uses broken Japanese to denote her status as a Funny Foreigner Chinese Girl, coupled with the stereotypical Verbal Tic of "-Aru ne" tacked on to the ends of her sentences. When her role becomes extended in the manga, her dialogue is translated exactly like Shampoo's was, Hulk Speak and all. Funny fact: most of her Del Rey translated dialogue was translated by Trish Ledoux (see above).
- Ikuto Noguchi of Digimon Savers and Mikoto Minagi of Mai-HiME both start out using broken Japanese due to being Raised By Wolves. Both of them eventually grow out of it during their time spent as members of their respective series' Nakama. Mikoto however, does tend to slip back into it every once in a while.
- From the start, Dragon Ball Z's Majin Buu gained progressively better vocabulary until his final/original form of Kid Buu, whose complete lack of sanity is a major contributor to such gems as "Me Buu, not you!" and "Buu squish you like bugs!"
- Parodied in one of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga extras, when Al tries this manner of speaking to become more popular, but stops after realizing, how stupid it is.
Films
Literature
- The trolls in the Discworld books often speak like this. Since their brains are essentially superconducting computers, the colder they get the smarter they get, and they often engage in the "complicated issues" subversion when sufficiently chilled. It is implied that, in their natural environment up in the mountains, they're actually quite cunning and it's the smarter ones who seek better life in the cities. Makes you wonder why, if they're the smart ones, they don't realize they're going to turn into babbling idiots in the lowlands.
- Completely justified with the superconducting computers fact. Troll brains in Discworld are made from silicon, and heat essentially makes them "lag" immensely. Detritus almost dies when they take him to the desert area of Klatch, assumedly because his brain couldn't keep up with his own vital functions. They're not so much idiots as, quite literally, slow in the head.
- In the Animorphs books, the Hork-Bajir mostly spoke in Hulkspeak. In the earlier books, they also had a tendency to mix alien words into their sentences, but this decreased before long, and most of the things a Hork-Bajir says are pure English Hulkspeak. In the Hork-Bajirs' case, this is clearly an effect of Aliens Speaking English. We can tell, because in a book that takes place on their own world, The Hork-Bajir Chronicles, the Translation Convention is in effect and all their sentences are rendered with normal grammar.
- In Robert Lynn Asprin's Myth Adventure novels, Chumley the Troll is quite refined and erudite, while his professional persona is "Big Crunch", who uses Hulk-speak.
- The giant Grawp in Harry Potter uses Hulkspeak, including simplified names like "Hagger" instead of "Hagrid" and "Hermy" instead of "Hermione".
- "Danders Anders" (Andrew) in How To Ditch Your Fairy.
- While all Gamorreans in Star Wars are Dumb Muscle, only Gartugg, one of Jabba's guards, has Hulk Speak, and is teased for it by other Gamorreans.
- In the Star Wars novel Wraith Squadron, Voort "Piggy" saBinring, the genetically-enhanced experiment has genius-level intelligence and incredible grasp of math and science. Of course, when the Wraiths need to sneak into somewhere Imperial, Piggy is quick to disguise himself as one of his nonverbal, grunting kin...and his advanced state makes him feel ashamed of his people and their 'lowness', but that's another trope. Fantastic Racism?
- In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40000 Ultramarines novel Dead Sky Black Sun, the Lord of the Unfleshed speaks like this. Though some of it may be his extremely limited practice in speaking.
Live Action TV
- Kubiak from Parker Lewis Can't Lose, more so at the beginning of the series (when he was a violent, bullying thug) than at the end (when he was an almost-sympathetic near-ally of the leads).
- Of course, the "Tarzan, Tonto and Frankenstein" sketches on Saturday Night Live make fun of the device, putting the titular three on talk shows and political round-tables. "Fire bad!"
- Saturday Night Live memorably spoofed Hulk Speak in their "death of Superman" sketch. Hulk, taking the podium at the Man of Steel's funeral, announced "Hulk... not... good... with... words" to excuse his reliance on notes, from which he read quite eloquently: "Superman was that rarest of things..."
- Parodied in Scrubs by the mighty Janitor — "Me no understand! Can't eat soup!" while attempting to eat soup with a fork. JD accidentally implied he was stupid earlier in the episode, so the Janitor is mocking him. (Remove the "he was stupid" part by "something" and you basically have the set up for any given episode of Scrubs there.)
- Animal from The Muppet Show also uses this style of speech when he isn't just panting pensively or screaming unintelligibly.
- The Cookie Monster.
Pro Wrestling
Tabletop Games
- GURPS International Super Teams includes among its sample characters a hero known only as "Patchwork", who is a Frankensteinian hulk created by a would-be villain out of parts of dead supers. Although he is intelligent, well-spoken and even philosophical, in the field Patchwork affects a violent persona capable only of Hulk Speak as a psychological tactic.
Video Games
- Similarly, Russell from the video game Bully starts out as a thug who only communicates in Hulk Speak, but after Jimmy impresses him by besting him in a one-on-one fight, he becomes both an ally and more coherent.
- Borderlands features the bandit boss Sledge, a very large, slow fellow who refers to himself in the third person.
- Final Fantasy X features the Ronso, a bipedal leonoid race who always refer to themselves by name and tend to speak in simple sentences.
- Final Fantasy VIII has Fujin, one of Seifer's flunkies, who speaks in single words and ALL CAPS. When she and fellow flunky Raijin (who ends all his sentences with "ya know?") decide to ditch Seifer, she gives a long non-capped speech about how they can't follow along with his self-destructive behavior.
- Proving that this trope has been a part of Final Fantasy for a while, let's not forget that Final Fantasy II had Guy, who speaks this way in both English and Japanese, and fellow Wild Child Gau from Final Fantasy VI. But at least they both had the excuse of being raised by wild animals.
- Khajiit in Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind have the same linguistic condition. When they don't use their own name instead of a pronoun, they use "Khajiit" instead. Interestingly, this is not shared with the Khajiits of any other The Elder Scrolls game. It's Handwaved in that their are multiple species of Khajiit forming different tribes.
- Gar from Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is supposedly a "smart orc" who discusses some rather complex topics for an orc, all in Hulkspeak. It is revealed however that Gar is actually a human (called Garfield Thelonius Remington III) from wealthy heritage who was born with a horrid similarity to an Orc, and is far more intellectual than he seems; specially if you discuss tea with him.
- The cavewoman Ayla from the Squaresoft RPG Chrono Trigger, at least in the English text American version. In the Japanese version, she speaks in very simple sentences with plain-form verbs.
- Ditto Yeto and Yeta, from The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
- Almost every Super Mutant in Fallout speaks that way. And if you play a character with less than 4 intelligence, he/she will, too. Amusingly enough, if a "Hulk" protagonist talks to another functionally retarded character (Torr in Klamath), their speech is subtitled. Example: "Me Torr. (Greetings, my name is Torr. How do you do?)" "You Torr.(Quite well, thank you. Do you know where I might find work?)"
- Battalion Wars 2: Ubel
- Boomers and Grinders in Gears Of War yell "boom!" and "grind!", respectively. Fortunately they do this before firing their weapons, giving you a little time to get out of the way of their horrific rocket launchers/miniguns.
- The Warcraft series has (most) Ogres and Kobolds speak in this manner, and it is the Trope Namer for You No Take Candle to boot. It's particularly hilarious with some World of Warcraft bosses, since — unlike regular enemies — they get voices as well as text.
- Grunk from the Interactive Fiction game Lost Pig speaks like this all the time, much to the consternation of a certain more erudite gnome.
Web Comics
- Junpei from Megatokyo speaks like this. At first it appears to be justified by his limited knowledge of the English language, but his Japanese lines seem to be spoken in the same way. Then you realize that, as a parody of old movies with foreigners and ninja in particular, he should talk this way. An example from the issue #1012:
Junpei: If zombies crush and try eat, it real. Please excuse, Junpei need wipe goo off shoes before ruined.
- Yuki speaks normal Japanese, but she also speaks English this way; this might be more because Magical Girl anime often runneth over with Gratuitous English.
- Thog in The Order of the Stick. He refers to the twin brother of his boss, Nale, as "Not-Nale" and he has the classic line, "Thog not in this book. Thog sad." (Also, when breaking out of a prison, Thog becomes a darker green and yells "Thog smash puny prison!" as he obliterates the cell bars; once he goes back to his pale green, he wonders "How Thog's pants turn purple?") Apparently, this is a common trait for the orcish people, as seen (and lampshaded) here.
- Parodied in Narbonic, by a giant robotic foot built by Professor Madblood. "A robot foot?" "MASTER INTEND TO CONSTRUCT ENTIRE GIANT ATTACK ROBOT, BUT MASTER RUN OUT OF FUNDING AFTER ONLY FOOT COMPLETED. *click* MASTER ALSO RUN OUT OF FUNDS TO PROVIDE FOOT WITH ARTICLES OR PAST TENSES." This attracts the attention of heroic grammar enforcer, Antonio Smith, forensic linguist. The Foot also brilliantly comments "FOOT FACE MANY PERSONAL DEMONS IN FOOT LIFE" and "IF FOOT NOT STOMP, WHAT IS FOOT PURPOSE?"
- In the Fantasy plot of Irregular Webcomic, Draak (a lizard man in the party) is quite eloquent in his own language and arguably the smartest person in his party. However, his English is limited to monosyllables, though he's still able to occasionally express complicated thoughts.
- The Clutter Monster in a number of January 2008 Sluggy Freelance strips.
- Thomas, from UG Madness.
- Honorable mention to LOTA from Schlock Mercenary. Lota's name is an acronym for "Longshoreman of the Apocalypse"; Lota is a robot made from an old anti-grav tank, designed to unload cargo at high speed. When asked which gender pronouns to use, Lota replied "Lota is too big for your puny pronouns!" Thus, Lota is only ever referred to as Lota, never "he", "she", "it", or even "you".
- Grooona (the third "o" is silent) from WCI High is an orange-skinned reptilian monster created by one of the students in the science labs. She tries to mingle with the other girls, with mixed results.
- Drowtales: Smashy Smash!
- In Everyday Heroes, when Violet transforms into Shrinking Violent, her only comment is "ME HIT STUFF!" (a Shout Out to another well-known Catch Phrase).
- MSF High: Orcs, the main Redeemed race, tend to get this. In a subversion, however, in many cases they are just as intelligent as any other race. (See especially their card in the Card Game.)
- In Eight Bit Theater, Berserker talks like this when he's...er...berserking. The rest of the time, he's perfectly eloquent. The Sulk plays this straight.
Berserker: CRAP, PISS, KILL!
Red Mage: I hope that's not a declaration of intent.
Western Animation
Fan Works
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