Companion Cube - Television Tropes & Idioms

This IKEA commercial makes fun of the phenomenon.
- Also inspired this VG Cats strip.
Geico is currently using the "money you saved from using Geico" which is a stack of money with eyes. They have been known to do things off camera like texting.

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The Angels in Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer. If you hear "it's just a doll/toy/robot", you know that person needs a dose of The Power Of Friendship, despite your parents probably thinking they have a valid point.
Rebecca's Teddy Bear in Yu-Gi-Oh!, who she called Teddy-chan, despite being American. It was actually a possessed bear in Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series.
- Heck, the cards themselves fit the bill. Whole "Heart of the Cards" thing and all.
The doll Emily from Soukou No Strain at first heads in this direction, being Sara's only confidante. Then you find out she's alive — she's Powered By A Forsaken Child's still-living brain.
Yamada the rock in Minami-ke has gained a lot of respect for a small stone.
- Also, Chiaki's teddy bear Fujioka (at least in the first season). She talks to it quite often and viewers can only hazard a guess as to whether its reactions are real or all in Chiaki's Ahoge.
The lizard Ellis picks up in episode 3 of El Cazador De La Bruja is hardly an inanimate object, but the only thing it does in the entire series, aside from belch in Nadie's face, is crawl away in the end of the said episode. Nevertheless, it immediately became target of wildest Epileptic Trees and gained an affectionate Fan Nickname "Squenchy". And there is also another matter with the Sniper Cat in the ED video, too...
Then there's the Vulcan 300, a "toy robot" made from a pocky box, in Konjiki No Gash Bell!! Then again, only Gash considers it an actual person...
- Or maybe not. Tio has her own pocky box toy, named "Valunlun". In some endings, Kanchome and Umagon are shown with green and orange pocky box toys as well, although God only knows how Umagon made his....
The houseplant in Noir (which may be a reference to Leon below).
Nekozawa's hand-puppet Beelzeneff, Tamaki's teddy, and Honey's stuffed pink rabbit in Ouran High School Host Club.
Table-Kun, the table that was sexually abused by Nina in episode 12 of Code Geass.
Crona of Soul Eater refers to the corner that s/he hides in as Mr. Corner.
Strawberry Panic's Kagome has a teddy bear named Percival that she treats like it's alive. Being very shy, she tends to channel her feelings through the bear. After a random act of kindness from Nagisa, Kagome asks Percival "Was that a friend of yours?" (Side note: You may know the bear as something like "Oshibaru", as it was a hard name for the subbers to make out.)
In one episode Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu , Sosuke was coaching the lousy school rugby team. He made them go through physical and mental training from hell. At the end of the training, he gave each of them a football and made them assign female names to them. Cut to the one of Football players caressing his ball saying "Don't worry, baby. I won't be rough. I won't hurt you" with a mentally disturbing smile and crazy eyes.
In the earlier parts of the Golden Age Arc of Berserk we see Guts as a child being taught how to use a sword. He uses a two handed blade which is considerably oversized for a kid. We later see him hugging that sword like a teddy bear while he's going to sleep. Considering that he was raised in a mercenary band, blamed for the death of the only mother figure he ever had, and the abuse he suffered from the guy he considered a father figure, it's not too far fetched to believe that for Guts the sword 'was' his only friend at that time.
- Guts is often visibly shown having trouble sleeping without a sword and claims he can't relax without it on hand.
- Played for laughs with Puck and the Behelit Guts carries around. Despite being an Artifact Of Doom, he affectionately calls it "Betchi."
For as much as she treats it like an actual guitar, Yui in K-ON! treats her guitar more like a pet dog. She gives it a name, sleeps with it, and dresses it up. The only reason she went with it was because it was "cute". Yui's never been totally right in the head to begin with.
In Sumomomo Momomo, Tenka has a soccer ball that he named Becky. She talks to him, and he often asks her for advice. She actually gives pretty good advice, too, considering she's a soccer ball...
In Historys Strongest Disciple Kenichi, Kenishi's father owns a double-barrelled rifle named Sebastian, which he treats more like a pet than an object. He also at one point has a heartfelt conversation with a jar of tomato sauce.
Something of a subversion in Bleach with the Soul Reapers' Zanpaku-to swords. Each sword is part of the Soul Reaper's being, but also has its own spirit and name. We rarely see a Zanpaku-to's spirit (Ichigo's Zangetsu usually only speaks to him in his own mindscape, and Renji's Zabimaru only appears a couple times), but all the principle Soul Reapers have learned their swords' names. While the swords are rarely treated as characters, in one episode Yumichika gets so mad at his he beats it against a rock. Rangiku's sword kind of rubs her the wrong way, too.
Seravy, from Akazukin Chacha has a ventriloquist doll named Elizabeth. They're a couple.

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The Doomguy in the Doom comic treats his BFG-9000 as a Companion Cube.
The Mother Box is a series of devices used by the characters of Jack Kirby's "Fourth World" comic books. Each Mother Box is actually sentient and super-powered; the Forever People share one (and use it to merge into the Infinity Man when things get desperate), and another is built into the costume of Mister Miracle, who often has conversations with "her".
- In Seven Soldiers, Shiloh Norman reveals that he can't actually understand what his Mother Box says, but he tries to talk to it anyway to keep himself calm.
Shmee, the creepy teddy bear carried by perpetual victim Squee in Johnny The Homicidal Maniac. Both Johnny and Squee refer to the toy speaking to them, and the things it tells them are rather disturbing (enough to get Johnny to take a knife to the toy at one point). In the follow up comic, there is a dream sequence where Shmee reveals that he is Squee's own personal trauma sponge, possibly an analog to the thing behind Johnny's wall, but this is open for interpretation since this IS All Just A Dream, Or Is It?
Cheeks, The Toy Wonder, Ambush Bug's trusty young ward is... a stuffed animal. Even when turned into an OMAC, all he does is sit there. This is made especially clear when he's cast in the role of "Sgt. Cheeks, Frontline Medic." Yeah, that was a dark time for everyone involved.
Though perhaps a marginal example, given the object in question acts as the face of the character's split personality, just try to tell Batman villain the Ventriloquist that Scarface is just a puppet.
In Transmetropolitan, Spider Jerusalem briefly but memorably made use of the "wise and terrible" Chair Leg of Truth while interviewing Fred Christ (with extreme prejudice). The Chair Leg was quite a fan favorite.
Hobbes of Calvin and Hobbes, depending on your interpretation. Aside from Calvin, the characters treat Hobbes as inanimate (though Susie has occasionally interacted with Hobbes similar to how Calvin does). When Calvin's mom laundered Hobbes, he stumbled around a bit after coming out of the drier.
- On occasion, Susie treats Mr. Bun, who is always depicted as a stuffed rabbit, as real.
  - And Hobbes is at one point disturbed by the fact that Mr. Bun appears to be in a coma.
- Calvin's evil bicycle ambushed and assaulted him several times.
Quincy from Fox Trot, despite being a live iguana, fits this trope perfectly. When Jason uses Quincy (and some old clothes) as part of a "Lone Iguana" persona, the effect is that of a guest character.
In one storyline of My Cage, Norm, the main character spent a week out sick, but no one noticed, as his secretary placed a potted plant with a face and the word "Norm" drawn on the pot at his desk instead. The plant later showed up as a member of the company's softball team.
In Peanuts, Linus has his blanket.
- In one week-long sequence, Lucy became convinced The Blanket was out to get her, refusing to be in the house alone with it. One strip even shows The Blanket leaping from Linus' hands to pounce on Lucy. No one else witnessed anything of the sort; as Charlie Brown commented during the riff, "I never thought she would be the first of us to crack." (Interestingly, this was the only sequence of Schulz' strips ever to be rejected by his syndicate. They have turned up in collections, but never had a newspaper "first run.")
- Don't forget the Kite-Eating Tree!
- Sally used to have conversations with the school building (or at least one wall of it). Eventually, the wall began to produce thought balloons expressing opinions and making observations on life and its philosophical approach to wall-ness. (When the building collapsed, Sally interpreted this as the school "committing suicide.") Occasionally Charlie Brown's pitcher's mound would have thoughts and opinions as well.
Garfield's teddy bear, Pooky.
- In Pet Force, Pooky's alternate universe incarnation was extremely intelligent...although still perhaps not quite "alive", as he became "Compooky".
- Garfield himself is either holding a conversation with John, thinking quietly, or else behaving like a normal cat and John is just imagining the whole thing, depending on your interpretation. (Word Of God is notoriously inconsistent about this point.)
The brick in Krazy Kat was, at times, presented as a character with a mind of its own; this was not unexpected in such a surreal series.
Get Fuzzy's Satchel has taken time to name just about everything in the apartment, though usually Mr. Hands (his wristwatch) and Mr. Bones (chewtoy) appear most often.
- Also, Bucky and his little toy bear, Smacky.
World manga Hollow Fields has Lucy's stuffed dinosaur (later converted into a grappling hook) Dino.
Spider Man villain the Looter thinks the meteor that gave him his powers is alive and can talk to him; According to Spidey, he even watches TV with it.
Mafalda often makes sarcastic comments to her terrestrial globe - once even tucking it in bed and acting as if it's sick!
- It's a tad deeper than most examples seeing as she talks to it as a stand in for the world. It can get quite Anvillicious sometimes, such as in the "sick" example.

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The Log in Naruto The Abridged Series, who is apparently hugely powerful, despite being a log. In fact, the only creature who might have a shot at beating him is Clucky... who is a chicken!
- Naruto, jealous of Sasuke's rivalry with The Log, gets his own Companion Cube rival: the One-Foot-Tall Brick Wall!
  - And Kakashi has his milk carton from time to time. "Heh-heh...moo."
- Ren And Stimpy had a commercial for "Log, from Whammo!"
  - Which is parodied in AMV Hell Championship Edition. With a Naruto connection, no less!
Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series: "The Ocean and I are getting married."
- May not count anymore, after all it forgave him.

Close Fan Works

Wilson, the volleyball with a face drawn on from the film version of Cast Away.
- In Family Guy's brief parody, Peter screams "WILSON! WILSSOOOON!", only to have the volleyball reply "My name is Voit, dumbass!"
And then there's Spalding, the basketball from Madagascar.
- Surely this should be a subheading of the above, being an obvious parody?
The 2007 film Lars and the Real Girl is about a man who treats a RealDoll as a real woman.
- This also happened in Pushing Daisies (the episode "Bitter Sweets").
- ... Not unlike Mr. Universe and his LoveBot companion, Lenore, from Serenity.
Penny's teddy bear, Teddy, in The Rescuers. It even becomes a plot point in the climax.
The houseplant in Léon (aka The Professional).
In the film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Natalie Portman's character is presented with a literal block of polished wood that her mysterious, eccentric employer calls the "Congreve Cube," which he indicates is extremely significant and powerful, although we're not sure how seriously to take anything he says. In at least one scene, we see her (skeptically) trying to talk to it as though it could understand her. It may or may not be a Magic Feather.
In the 2007 film I Am Legend, Robert Neville sets up several department-store mannequins around the video-rental shop and treats them like people. Understandable, since he's the only human left in the city and he's trying to keep sane by emulating human interaction.
- He finds one standing randomly in open daylight... It's part of a trap the mutants prepared for him.
- The Omega Man, an earlier adaptation of the same story, has Charlton Heston doing this as well.
- Done earlier in 1959's The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, with Harry Belafonte's character acquiring a mannequin and dubbing it "Snodgrass".
Darkly subverted in Child's Play. Nobody but Andy believes that Chucky the doll is alive... at first.
Otto, the automatic pilot—who happens to be an inflatable doll—in Airplane!
- Subverted, in that Otto is actually capable of a degree of independent action.
Blazing Saddles. Arch villain Hedley Lamarr has a small blue rubber frog.
Hedley Lamarr: Daddy love Froggy. Froggy love Daddy?
(squeak squeak)
Hedley Lamarr: Aaaaaahhh.... ribbit... ribbit... ribbit...
In Full Metal Jacket, Gunnery Sgt. Hartman orders all of the Marines to personify their rifles with a girl's name. Pvt. Lawrence/Pyle takes this a little too far and is later seen whispering to it like a lover... before he snaps and kills the Gunny and himself.
- Don't forget the rifle creed: "My rifle is my best friend. It is my life."
In the 1982 film Tron, there's "Bit", an animated single bit capable of answering only "Yes" or "No" to any question. (Yes...No...1...0...get it?)
- Although the Bit is capable of emphasis, too. When Bit first arrives, the protagonist mumbles "Great. Another mouth to feed." Bit's answer? "Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes..."
  - Bit's analysis of Flynn's flying skills? "NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!!!!"
Sweeney Todd and his razors, as demonstrated in the song "My Friends" — just about the only Companion Cube trait they don't have is individual names.
Speak to me, friend
Whisper, I'll listen
The Really Useful Book from Mirror Mask. Whether it's actually alive or not is left a little bit vague, but it's really useful.
- There's also Valentine's flying tower, with which he apparently had an argument.
In Muppet Treasure Island, Squire Trelawney (Fozzy Bear) has an imaginary friend who lives inside his finger.
"Your finger hired the crew?"
"No, that's silly: The man who LIVES inside my finger hired the crew."
Billy Madison: "Stop looking at me, Swan!"
The new Star Trek movie has Scotty refer to the Enterprise as a woman.
Scotty: I'd like to get my hands on her ample nacelles, if you'll forgive the engineering parlance!
Rosebud in Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane.
Stranger Than Fiction. Harold Crick's wristwatch.

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Close Films

Though not actually inanimate, the Discworld novel Wintersmith featured an ill-tempered sentient cheese named Horace who was adopted by the Nac Mac Feegle.
- He's a Lancre Blue. I defy you to keep one of those devils in line.
Another example from Discworld, and probably one of the weirdest ones. Hex the calculating machine has a Teddy Bear after the events in Hogfather. Any attempts to remove the teddy bear results in Hex refusing to work.
- Which leads to the wizards saying that one of the requirements for Hex to work is that it is FTB Enabled, which stands for Fluffy Teddy Bear.
  "I don't actually think," Ponder Stibbons said gloomily, "that I want to tell the Archchancellor that this machine stops working if we take its fluffy teddy bear away. I just dont think I want to live in that kind of world."
  "Er, you could always, you know, sort of say it needs to work with the FTB enabled."
Mason & Dixon has a scene in which a pair of clocks have a conversation, although it could just be the narrator (who is a weirdo) speculating on what they would be saying. Somewhat more notably, there is Robert Jenkins' Ear, which, although severed and pickled in a jar, is still alive and has magical powers derived from its enormous historical significance. Did I mention that Thomas Pynchon wrote this book?
In the Norwegian children's series Knerten by Anne Cath Westly, one of the main characters is a stick that looks like a human. The other main charater, a little boy, treats him like his best friend and has apparently not realised that he's inanimate. Sort of like Calvin and Hobbes, although this one is older.
The Velveteen Rabbit. Subverted, in that the titular rabbit becomes real at the end of the story.
- The very first Winnie-the-Pooh story makes it quite evident that Edward Bear (aka Pooh) and all of his friends are actually Christopher Robin's stuffed animals.
By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz has Jilly and her potted plant, Fred. Fred is a stalwart, if silent, companion on whom Jilly practices her stand-up comedy routines.
In Virtual Mode by Piers Anthony, Colene has a stuffed horse from her childhood named Maresy Doats, named after a misheard song lyric.
Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls by Jane Lindskold has an interesting twist — inanimate objects constantly talk telepathically to the austistic main character, Sarah. And no, she's not imagining it: they sometimes tell her useful things, like the combinations to locks and safes, or the location of hidden items.
As mentioned in the main article, this happens to starships a lot, often to the point where the ship itself is a main character (sometimes literally). Larry Niven invokes this trope a lot, such as with the battlecrusier INSS MacArthur in The Mote In Gods Eye. A non-Speculative Fiction example would be the eponymous submarine in The Hunt For Red October, arguably the main character.
In Etgar Keret's short story Breaking the Pig, a boy becomes emotionally attached to his piggy-bank. When the bank gets full, he "sets it free" in the field so he won't have to break it.
Warrior Cats: Jayfeather and his stick. To the point where he always looks for the stick when he needs answers, and was horrified when he almost lost it in the lake. Feeling it also seems to calm him down (Is anyone thinking what I'm thinking?). JayxStick is also a very popular Cargo Ship within the fandom.
In the Star Wars anthology Tales from Jabba's Palace, Dumb Muscle Gartogg hauls around and talks to the dead bodies of the cook's assistant and a B'Omarr monk after stumbling onto the mystery of their murder and being tasked with solving it. Even though he did solve it eventually, he kept hauling the bodies everywhere he went because he'd gotten attached to them; they were the only people who didn't seem to mind his company.
Anne McCaffrey's book The Rowan has the title character treating her Pukha this way. The Pukha is essentially a child monitor and stuffed toy in one, but Rowan has one-sided conversations with it, even as she's clearly aware that it's an inanimate object.
"You'd scorch your fur and blow your circuits!"

Close Literature

Mrs. Beasley in Family Affair.
- Similarly, Kitty Carry-All in The Brady Bunch.
Radar's teddy bear in M*A*S*H.
- "My bear went off!"
Mr. Bear in Full House.
Scrubs has Rowdy (and, in the later series, Stephen), the stuffed yellow labradors owned by JD and Turk.
Myth Busters gives us Buster, an oft-destroyed and rebuilt crash test dummy that the crew uses in most of their experiments. Most of the cast (and quite a few of the show's fans) jokingly treat him like a real person.
- Not to mention Earl, the car they dropped from a crane to test "Buster 2.0". And several one-time ballistics gel dummies they named.
- It also doesn't help that almost all of the ballistics gel busts they use in experiments are molds of Grant.
  - Or that they devote entire montages to lovingly dressing the busts up in a wig, glasses, bandana, whatever's in-character for the myth's scenario.
- And let's not forget (or maybe we should) Kari's ballistics gel "Zombie Dogs."
  - Which she was actually baby-talking to.
- In the Dynamite Surfing episode, Kari wonders if anyone else has noticed the disturbing amount of Grant robots that have been built over the course of the series.
- During the Supersized Myths Jet Taxi segment, to make him even more animate than usual, they added a voiceover of Buster's thoughts just before they pulled his taxi behind the jumbo jet's engine exhaust: "I wonder if Mike Rowe is hiring."
In the short-lived cult tv show Sledge Hammer, Sledge has a habit of talking to his gun.
In an unusual Panel Show example, after the third time Roy Hattersley MP cancelled his appearance as a guest on Have I Got News For You at short notice, his place on Paul Merton's team was filled by "The Rt. Hon. Tub of Lard MP" "imbued with much the same qualities and liable to give a similar performance", which Merton would confer with during the show. They won, despite such obvious jibes as a "missing words" question from a Japanese language newspaper, or consisting of all missing words.
Ian Hislop: It is getting rather sad that I can't win against Paul when he's acompanied by a tub of lard and his questions are in a foreign language.
In a parody of Cast Away, an episode of Being Ian has Ian trapped on a sandbar and talking to polystyrene coffee cup.
While a semi-intelligent killing machine and thus not very inanimate, Rover from The Prisoner is a large, white bouncing ball. Needless to say, he is a favorite among fans and a common icon of the series.
Firefly's Jayne Cobb treats his very favorite gun, Vera, as if its a real person — so much so that he's willing to trade it for Mal's Accidental Wife.
- Also, the ship's mechanic, Kaylee, often talks about the ship Serenity as if its a real person. In the pilot movie she strokes the inside wall of the engine room and coos, "That's my good girl" after a jury-rig allowed Serenity to pull off a difficult maneuver. Mal treats her like a person occasionally, as well.
  - In the commentary to the Big Damn Movie, Joss Whedon claims Serenity is the tenth character. And River's feet are collectively the eleventh.
Oliver, Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond's beloved 1963 Opel Kadett. Despite his age and third-hand ownership, Oliver survived a one-thousand mile cross-country trip straight across the spine of Botswana, including the entirety of the Makgadikgadi Pan, the largest salt flat in the world. Hammond loved the car so much that he bought it with his own money and paid to have it shipped to Britain.
- To prepare to cross the Makgadikgadi Pan, the presenters were advised to remove as much weight as possible from their cars. May and Clarkson undertook the task with relish, but Hammond refused to remove anything from Oliver. After a while, May and Clarkson joked that it would be like asking him to cut pieces off his wife. (It should be noted that Oliver had almost no problems the entire trip, compared to the other two presenters vehicles, which sank in the mud on the Makgadikgadi Pan even after removing practically everything but the frame and engine.)
- Oliver was endangered again in the first episode of Season 12, in which the presenters did challenges in transport trucks (obUK/Commonwealth: "lorries"). One of the last ones was a hill start — starting the trucks (with their cargo in tow) on a hill without rolling backward. To inspire each other to do well, their most prized items were placed behind them. Richard's was...Oliver (with a smashing new "OLI V3R" vanity plate). Hammond forfeited the challenge rather than risk his precious car.
- Oliver is now a supporting character in the children's science programme Richard Hammond's Blast Lab, where 'he' has a Herbie-esque personality.
Mr Bean's Teddy, and to some extent his car. Much of the humour comes from the inconsistent way in how he treats them — one minute gently lowering Teddy into his own miniature bed, the next absent-mindedly ripping his head off so he'll fit in the drawer. Then when his car gets run over by a tank, he kneels down in front of the wreckage as sad music plays — only to retrieve the lock and seem perfectly happy with this.
Captain Oats and Princess Sparkles of The OC fame. When you start warning your plastic horse of possible overtures to rape, you know you've got yourself a Companion Cube.
The Impala (known to fans as Metallicar) in Supernatural is considered by some to be the third main character. It features prominently throughout the series, and Dean is occasionally found to be whispering sweet nothings to it.
- Oh... to be that car... *sigh*
One episode of The Mighty Boosh has them stranded on an island, talking to women they've made out of coconuts.
Margaret Lanterman (aka "The Log Lady") on Twin Peaks always carried around a small log in her arms. She seemed to share a psychic connection with it, sometimes dispensing advice and visions which she claimed came from the log itself.
- Parodied in the "Twin Beaks" episode of Darkwing Duck, with Launchpad talking to a log-reduced Bushroot.
"Mr. Flibble is very cross...."
Similar to the above, "No... no, Sweetness... these people understand." Made worse because Sweetness is not a stuffed penguin — she's a gun.
In Farscape, John Crichton's favourite weapon is a Peacekeeper standard issue pulse pistol, he will risk his life to retrieve the weapon he calls Winona: "Winona would never have let me down". Similarly, when D'Argo gets a ship, he names her Lo'la in memory of his wife and becomes quite fond of her. Moya is a subversion, as she's an actual living organism.
Doctor Who, "The Chase": companion Steven Taylor goes back into a burning city/building to rescue Hifi, the stuffed panda ("my mascot") which has been his only company for two years of captivity.
- The Doctor himself is very closely attached to his sonic screwdriver. When it was destroyed in a 1982 episode, he remarked "I feel as if I've lost an old friend."
- And the Tardis, too. So much that the new series has established that they are "grown", and are "alive".
Captain Janeway sometimes talks directly to her ship in Star Trek Voyager.
Dr. Bashir's teddy bear Kukalaka in Star Trek Deep Space Nine
"And, on my right, putting the case against the government, is a small patch of brown liquid."
- Another (not completely different) sketch had a round-table discussion on customs enforcement with a duck, a cat and a lizard. The duck, cat and lizard were obviously played by wooden models, so their inability to respond to questions is unsurprising.
- And another sketch had a panel discussion with various pieces of wood. Oddly, they could talk.
Drusilla's dolls in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, including Miss Edith.
- And then there's Spike's Buffy dummy, shortly replaced by the Buffybot.
One of MadTV's sketches includes a fake commercial about a woman in an abusive relationship with a bottle of shampoo.
Another panel show example: Billy the Answer Head of Figure It Out.
All That: Lori Beth Denberg's lifelong companion "The Big Ear of Corn".
Father Jack and his Brick.
My Name Is Earl has a HUMAN EAR fill this role for a soldier in Korea.
Once again, a lot of TV spaceships have this trope evoked upon them; perhaps the most famous being the USS Enterprise and MilleniumFalcon.
- Somewhat subverted. Both the Enterprise and the Millennium Falcon are known to have computers capable of interacting with people.
In Lost, John Locke, in no uncertain terms, talks with the island and believes it has a will. Though, depending on further reveals, there may be a significant element of truth to this.
Arkwright's till from Open All Hours is an inversion. Arkwright and Granville treat it as though it's alive, but it's a malevolent being that does its best to trap your fingers every time you use it.

Close Live Action TV

In the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Dramatic Dream Team (DDT), several inanimate objects have held the promotion's "Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship" (a joke title defended any time at any place during any match against anyone or anything, in a parody of WWE's retired Hardcore Title and its infamous "24/7 Rule"). Several of these inanimate "performers" include Kitty-Chan (a Hello Kitty plushie), a wooden baseball bat, and — most memorably — Ladder. All of these "wrestlers" were treated by actual wrestlers and DDT performers/crew as if they were any other human competitor.
- In fact, not one, not two, but three different Ladders have held the belt. And the baseball bat lost the title by a "KO" decision after being broken in half.
- Note that the WWE's Hardcore Title received this treatment at least once itself — one of the most prominent members of the Hardcore division was Al Snow, a Cloud Cuckoo Lander who carried around a mannequin head and treated it as if it was alive, and, in Al's mind at least, Head once held the Hardcore Title after she turned on Al.
- Perhaps the ultimate version came with Internet wrestling parody Brawlers on a Budget, where the You Gotta Be Kidding I Ain't Doing That Are You Out Of Your Fricking Mind title belt won itself on three separate occasions. On one occasion winning it from another title belt.
Of course, the WWF of the 90's and early 2000's loved this trope, too. Several wrestlers utilized Companion Cubes, such as Mankind (Socko!), Al Snow (Head!), and Perry Saturn (uh... mop with a wig!).

Close Pro Wrestling

The entire premise behind ventriloquist acts.
Jeff Dunham takes this up a level and frequently lampshades it during his routines.
Zoe of Sesame Street has a pet rock named Rocco, which she treats as alive. It is often scorned by Elmo, though he sometimes goes along with the charade just to get it over with.
- Big Bird had his teddy bear, Radar.
- Ernie had his rubber duckie.
Amy, The Dancing Brick in Its A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. In theory, not totally disimillar from Gonzo's usual acts (Yollanda, The Dancing Cheese, for example), except that "she's" not a Muppet brick; she's just a brick.

Close Puppet Shows

The Adeptus Mechanicus "Machine Cult" of Warhammer 40000 treat all machines as if they contain sentient "machine spirits". Interestingly, actual artificial intelligences are considered anathema by the Cult Mechanicus, as it's believed that "thinking machines" nearly destroyed humanity at one point.
- Though, it is notable that Titans, The Giant Mecha of the Warhammer universe, are Semi-sentient, with each having its own mind. On one occasion, the mind of a Titan commander is also resident inside the machine, after he dies while still linked up to it.
- It should also be noted that Machine Spirits seem to be real, particularly in more advanced machines; Land Raider tanks in particular have a reputation for continuing fighting long after their crew has been killed. Either the vehicles genuinely are possessed, quite possible in the demon and god filled setting, or the Techpriests are building A Is into their machines without realising it, since many machines are made by creating exact copies of ancient designs that nobody really understands anymore.
- In a short comic about a dying space marine woundering if the Emperor as abondom him after years of loyal servas turns out what's talking was his bolter
- The closest things to being "cute" in a non-ugly way in that world are the drones the Tau use.
In GURPS 4th Ed., the example for Delusion is "all purple things are alive", afflicted characters can ranged from saying hello to purple objects and patting them all the way up to attacking purple things on sight and refusing to talk until all of them are taken from the room.
Dungeons & Dragons has a feat named Familiar Item. The Item actually can be alive and have personality and ego only for the owner... and just because the owner likes its so much.
- The Prestige Class Kensai forms a bond with a specific weapon strong enough to embue it with magical powers. There are also ceremonies that most any character can undergo to magically/spiritually bond with the weapon of their choice. Not to mention Intelligent Items, which, being sentient, can actually form friendships with characters.

Close Tabletop Games

The Ball Jointed Dolls fandom.
The RealDoll.
- A man in England took the Hans Bellmer route with his RealDolls and actually gave them fully fleshed-out personalities, occupations, and histories. A photo of one such doll named "Rebecca" by Bay Area photographer Elena Dorfman was featured in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
This custom made figure.

Close Toys

The namesake of this trope, the Weighted Companion Cube from Portal; while the player doesn't treat the Cube as a real person, GLaDOS and the unseen previous escapee certainly do.
- In the commentary, the developers explain that, by making GlaDOS talk about the cube a lot as if it were alive, players went from abandoning the cube and trying to solve the puzzles without it to always keeping it by their side. One of the developers has stated that this was based on a declassified CIA document which stated that people in isolation would bond with inanimate objects.
  - Which makes it even crueler when eventually GlaDOS announces that the player must now "euthanize" Weighted Companion Cube by dropping it into an incinerator.
  - And then later proceed to try and use this act to make you feel guilty (which it shouldn't, given the ending, as the bastard thing stole your cake), both by commenting on how you euthanized the cube faster than any other test subject, and reminding you later on how you heartlessly murdered your only friend.
  - Whis makes the ending all the more poetic when the player avenges the death of the Companion Cube by disposing of all of GLaDOS's parts in the same way.
The L-Block from Tetris won the November 2007 GameFAQs character battle.
- And the day after its victory, the site's daily poll was a "bonus" battle between the L-Block, the Companion Cube, the Paddle from Pong, and the [?] block from Super Mario Bros. Question Mark Block won.
- For the 2008 contest, the Weighted Companion Cube itself is an entrant in the main battle, along with L-Block aiming to retain its title. There was a rally for the Surveillance Camera from Shadow Moses heliport in Metal Gear Solid, but it didn't get enough nominations.
Mr. Bear, Penny's teddy bear, from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Since Penny is utterly, utterly Ax Crazy, Mr. Bear comes off as rather... sinister in the process.
Penny: Penny likes you... but Mr. Bear HATES YOU!
The 2007 Crimbo season of Kingdom Of Loathing had the Bulky Buddy Box as a prize for fighting the Crimborg Elves — a reference to the Weighted Companion Cube.
- Earlier Crimbo seasons offered the Pet Rock and the functionally identical Toothsome Rock.
  - The Sombrero and Bloodfaced Volleyball as well, though they do do things...somehow. (though at least Sombrero is partially justified by being combined with a chicken's ghost.)
  - The Blood-Faced Volleyball is a direct Shout Out to Cast Away. Though the game will reject any attempt to name your volleyball companion any form of "Wilson".
  - The various incarnations of Teddy Bears may qualify for this, since they don't actually do anything except block hits and get the stuffing knocked out of them. And you can name them endearing names.
Sasha, the Heavy Weapons Guy's minigun in Team Fortress 2, as seen in the Meet The Heavy video.
- And the ingame taunts involve him hugging the gun saying things like "Kiss me!" and "You did well!".
  - The recent update adds similar unlockable gun, Natasha.
  - The Sandvich from the same update appears to be getting the same attention as well. It even got its own video.
  - On Natasha: It is heavily implied that the Heavy is having an affair with it. Seriously.
  - Homewrecker!
Trilo from case 3 of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All is a ventriloquist's dummy who seems to have a mind of his own. He may have been derived from the Batman character The Ventriloquist (see below), as he also abuses his handler.
- The Ace Attorney series also has "Charley", a potted plant in the main character's office. It's one of the few characters from the original series to show up in the fourth game.
  - "Charley" could also be a reference to "Chuck the plant," from Maniac Mansion, which became a running in-joke and appears in many adventure games afterwards, such as Day Of The Tentacle and Enclosure.
  - That's Mr. Charley you mean! You better apologize!
This shows up in Devil May Cry fanfiction with the Devil Arms, but since those bear the sentient souls of the defeated demon in question, it's something of a Justified Trope. More straightforwardly, in an early scene of the fourth game, Nero and Kyrie talk about Nero's "Red Queen" sword as if discussing a female.
The cardboard box from Metal Gear Solid is referred to repeatedly as if it were a person.
- "Take care of your cardboard box, and it'll take care of you."
- In the world record attempt on the largest number of video game cosplayers in one area, at London Expo 2008, the Box (brought along by a Metal Gear cosplay group) was counted by the Guiness team as a character.
  - I think it's because cosplaying cardboard box is quite popular on conventions.Also people tend to bring along Companion Cubes with 'Portal' music inside or they even wear one on head !!
- In the fourth game hiding in the box increases the rate at which Snake's psyche meter refills, implying that he finds it comforting to be in there. The trophy for it in Super Smash Bros Brawl even notes that Solid and Liquid Snake have "a deep affection for cardboard".
Boo, the Miniature Giant Space Hamster of Baldur's Gate fame, served as a biological version of this trope for the brain-addled Minsc. Although it's also entirely possible Minsc was right.
Some Angband players treat slime molds as pets rather than as food items.
- Likewise some nethack players and the custom-named —-Bane items, or random artifact items of popular use.
Sweet Tooth's motivation for entering the first Twisted Metal tournament was to find his lost best friend, Crazy Harold the Wacky Lunch Sack. Yes, it's just a paper bag.
- Somewhat lampshaded by Calypso, even. The sheer incredulousness of the wish completely blows his mind.
The Fallout series has Harold the Ghoul and the plant atop his head, Bob.
- Fallout 3 has Brick (from Reilly's Rangers) and her minigun, Eugene.
Cute Shotaro Boy Carl Clover from Blazblue has an automaton named Nirvana that he talks to and treats like his older sister. It's animate, and is implied to be sapient... but isn't actually capable of talking. He acts like it is, anyway, and no-one seems to really question it, much.
The enchanted pyrite parrot in Tales of Monkey Island is getting this treatment.
Marky Dubois's (of Backyard Sports) frog, whose name is Frog. Also, Luanne's teddy bear.
Aida, of Unreal 2: The Awakening fame, has a magnum pistol which she calls. This troper theorises that she's even more emotionally attached to the ammunition, because the game gives you so few bullets for the damn thing.

Close Video Games

Several inanimate objects from Homestar Runner are treated as characters, like The Stick. Some of them, like Strong Bad's computers, seem to actually have minds of their own!
- This was also parodied in the Strong Bad Email "Original", in which Strong Bad tells the tale of "Original Bubs", who supposedly left the series on unfriendly terms and whose absence was excused through a series of increasingly ridiculous tricks and guest stars, the most popular of which was "Onion Bubs" (just an onion with Bubs' face drawn on it).
- Hell, even the sound made by Strong Bad's chair when he gets up has been turned into a character. Two characters, actually (The Geddup Noise and "his cousin, Chairscoot").
- A list can be found here.
Hubert Cumberdale from Salad Fingers. In fact, it's used an awful lot to emphisize just how messed up Salad Fingers really is.
Subverted in Red vs. Blue since, though characters interact with Andy the Bomb, who is an actual bomb, he is given a voice (and quite a nasty personality).

Close Web Animation

Mistah Beah in Applegeeks.
Luna, Colin's life companion in Dragon Tails.
And let's not forget the mysterious Walkyverse psuseudocharacter known only as the refrigerator skull.
Man-Man featured a log as a detective on TV show "Log And Order". It was a loose cannon whose implacable manner would break the most uncooperative suspects.
Banjo the Clown, Elan's beloved Handpuppet "God" from The Order of the Stick.
- Of course, Banjo is functionally a real god, complete with smitings.
- Not to mention Giggles, God of Slapstick, Banjo's brother/nemesis.
Poodle the Beating Stick, weapon of convenience wielded by Nanashi in Earthsong.
Fluffy, Roger's pet rock (not the sort described below, but a rather large rock specimen from a museum) in College Roomies From Hell!!!'The part that get weird is that, while Fluffy is never shown to move, Roger claims he followed him home, and Mike later complains that Fluffy had tried humping his leg. Occasionally, Roger claims that Fluffy wants a hump massage, and describes violence as 'erosive behavior'.
Thadius, Buwaro's pet rock from Slightly Damned.
Gordon Frohman of Concerned gets a little too attached to the gravity gun, which he calls "the claw"
This is how Aiden treats all cars in Misfile, whether he is right to do so is left a a little unclear. Emily seems to have absorbed some of those qualities too judging by a recent strip.
Lucile the Gnarled Staff of Ass Whoop and (to a lesser extent) Escape Dummy, from A Modest Destiny.
This seems to be the main purpose of AnthroPCs in Questionable Content. That, and downloading porn on their own while you're at work.
Butch R. Mann's knife as evidenced by this episode of "Chopping Block".
The eponymous Moo from The Wisdom of Moo is a cow hand puppet which character Emm only speaks through. The human characters understand what's going on... but the toys treat Moo as if he's his own character, even when Emm is clearly visible — or even actively brought to their attention.
Larxene from Ansem Retort has a skull she named Skull-Fucky. She uses Skull-Fucky in Pokémon battles (where it uses Mega Punch) and is implied to be in a relationship with the skull.
Plant from Station V3 is a character in his own - he comments on stuff, people know he's there and he has his own thought bubbles. But he's just a potted plant. Besides getting watered, cynically thinking about things (and talking whenever it would creep members of station v3 out), he's just a part of the scenery.
Brat Halla here:
"Stones are an adventurer's best friend."

Close Web Comics

There are a lot of examples in lonelygirl15, most notably the purple monkey puppet, P. Monkey.
Subverted in the Whateley Universe, where Generator (Jade Sinclair) has a toy rabbit, a stuffed toy lion, and what looks like a Hello Kitty compact. But Jade's superpower is the ability to cast a psychokinetic copy of herself into objects, so they really are temporarily alive, and intelligent, and often very dangerous.
Perfect Jones, the sanest double Darkwell in Star Harbor Nights, confides in her stuffed bunny Mr. Buttons, occasionally taking him on patrol. He also doubles as her Berserk Button.
Survival of the Fittest has this with Hannah Rose and her "magic hat". Alice Jones and her stuffed rabbit (complete with a Shout Out to Paranoia Agent) could have been counted as a borderline example, too, until she discarded it in favour of Guy Rapide's head.
In Baman Piderman, Baman and Piderman's friends Pumpkin and Tuba... except they appear to actually be alive and at least as intelligent and Baman and Piderman themselves.

Close Web Original

The Simpsons once had Mr. Burns give an employee of the month award to... an inanimate carbon rod. Later in the same episode, a second inanimate carbon rod is hailed as the one who saved a space mission from disaster, and said rod ends up on the cover of Time, with the title "In Rod We Trust!" Homer is not happy.
- In a Continuity Nod, a much later glimpse at the nuclear plant employee chart gives us just enough time to see that Homer is right at the bottom... and the rod is his immediate superior.
- Don't forget Bobo.
Mr. Hat and Mr. Twig on South Park. At least, Mr. Garrison treats them as real characters. To the point of rushing Mr. Twig to the hospital and accusing Mr. Hat of trying to kill him. It doesn't make things much clearer when Mr. Hat, despite being an inanimate doll who never moves onscreen at all, manages to drive a truck into the side of the jail to break Mr. Garrison out.
- "How the hell did he reach the pedals?!?!?"
- Mr. Hat also manages to vanish from Mr. Garrison's hand when Garrison refuses to take him to a Klan meeting. Mr. Hat is then seen sitting on the ground of the meeting later in the episode, though he doesn't do anything.
- Somewhat subverted by a single instance of seeing him move by himself; his eyes turn in "Summer Sucks."
- Mr. Hat is also a boss in the South Park video game, seen piloting a Giant Robot.
  - Mr. Hat is a two-timing whore.
Johnny Two-By-Four's best buddy Plank in Ed Edd N Eddy, a wooden board with painted eyes and a smile.
Rupert, Stewie's teddy bear, from Family Guy. Stewie evidently views him as... a big, muscular thong-clad man with a teddy bear head. Ho Yay, indeed.
- Although only shown for a few seconds in a flashback vignette, Chris' Christmas present from Brian, namely a long-dead cat, buzzing insects and all. I'm gonna call you Sticky Head. I love you Sticky Head.
Cynthia, Angelica's tattered fashion doll, on Rugrats.
One of Darkwing Duck's Rogues Gallery, Quackerjack, had Mr. Banana Brain, a doll which he treated as completely real, despite speaking the doll's side of the conversation also.
- This reached a particularly strange point in the episode The Haunting of Mr. Banana Brain in which Mr. BB becomes possessed by a demonic spirit. Even though the doll was actually moving and talking on its own for once, Quackerjack never seemed to notice much difference besides commenting on how Banana Brain's voice was deeper than usual.
- Another villain, Megavolt, is either insane or an electrical empath (both have been implied). He considers all electrical devices to be sentient beings, and many of his crimes revolve around "rescuing" or "freeing" his electrical brethren. He also gets rather upset when he goes through all the effort of setting them free and they just sit there doing nothing.
Slightly weird preschool TV example: Little Bear has a human friend named Emily, who in turn has a doll named Lucy, which she treats as sentient. Her intelligent talking bear friend and his likewise chatty forest buddies think talking to a doll is hilarious.
Phillip, Cosmo's (female) nickel in The Fairly Oddparents.
A spool of thread, which was said to be Pinky's sister in Pinky and the Brain.
- In another episode, Pinky's actor is "married" to a sock puppet. When Brain's actor's wife kicks him out, Pinky said that his "wife" did the same... "or maybe she just fell behind the dryer."
A variant in the crime "duo" of Scarface (a ventriloquist's dummy) and Arnold "The Ventriloquist" Wesker in Batman The Animated Series. Wesker suffered from multiple-personality disorder, but Scarface came up with all the evil schemes, and ruthlessly bullied his alter ego (whom he called "Dummy", just to hammer home the point of who was really in charge). Even the other members of the gang feared and respected Scarface.
- When the Scarface doll was destroyed, Wesker used a sockpuppet that he called Socko in his therapy. Socko was a lot nicer.
- In Justice League, there's a quick, creepy visual gag that implies giving the puppet a lobotomy with heat vision is all it takes to cure Wesker.
One episode of Gargoyles featured an Unknown Rival of Goliath's who wanted revenge. He was a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of John Travolta, and talked to his bazooka, naming it "Mr. Kotter". He spends the entire episode talking about how Goliath is going to "get creamed". The bazooka? Shot pies.
- Actually it was scripted as "Mr. Carter," but because of the character's accent, it sounded identical to "Kotter."
- Over the course of the episode, the character flashes back to other episodes when Goliath inadvertently cost him a string of jobs, and he appears at least once more as a Quarryman (his work with Mr. Carter evidently made him feel better at the time but in the long run didn't help his grudge), but he doesn't seem to have bonded with his hammer the way he did Mr. Carter, and he does a Heel Face Turn after Goliath saves his life. He eventually decides to go to Japan, where he thinks he can get away from Gargoyles.
  - He can't.
Several times in SpongeBob SquarePants:
- Patrick enters a rock in the snail race. Somehow, "Rocky" wins.
- SpongeBob's "Bubble Buddy", though he turns out to be animate after all.
- In the episode "Safety Freak", SpongeBob shuts himself in his house with his three "new friends" Penny (a copper one-cent piece), Chip (a potato chip), and Used Napkin (take a wild guess). He acts as though they can speak, and carries on one-sided conversations. ("I could do without your sarcasm, Used Napkin!")
  - Patrick at least also treats them as being real, tearfully commenting on Penny's beautiful singing voice, as well as thanking chip when he 'showed them the door', an act apparently done by Spongebob tossing it at the door.
Stump from The Angry Beavers. Stump is clearly a sentient being. He just never shows any signs of life onscreen.
The Tick once created his own Companion Cube sidekick, Little Wooden Boy.
- And unfortunately was forced to burn him in order to escape the belly of a whale.
- There was also Arthur's nemesis Handy, a hand puppet belonging to The Human Ton.
- In the live action adaptation, The Tick converses and attempts to reason with a clogged toilet.
Tire and Feather Duster from Ellen's Acres.
Although he's capable of creating other sentient robot minions, Grizzle from Adventures in Care-a-lot prefers the company of Mr. Beaks, a completely inanimate bird made from scrap metal that he treats as a living being.
Lampy, Awful Alvin's "sidekick" on Larry-boy: the Animated Series.
To an extent, Sokka's boomerang in Avatar The Last Airbender.
- But he really does always come back!
  - Except the last time:(
In Get Ed, Loogie has a sock puppet named Dr. Pinch who is a good deal saner than the hand that he sits on. The other characters treat him as if he's perfectly normal (Dr. Pinch, not Loogie - they know Loogie's insane). He's also capable of carrying on a full conversation while Loogie is soundly asleep, and will even maintain his voice and personality if one of the other characters picks him up... In fact he was once able to enter a computer simulation when the mind scanner was on his head.
Mister Pück is Aelita's doll in Code Lyoko, first introduced as a living elf in her dreams. It is also the basis for her Lyoko Avatar.
- The titular teddy bear from the first episode, "TeddyGozilla", might also count... until it was possessed by XANA.
Code Monkeys has this with Todd's on again, off again girlfriend, a doll named Tiffany, who in recent episodes comes off as rather abusive.
Mr. Buns from Ruby Gloom is a weird sort of cross between this and a Living Toy; when he's on-screen, he seems totally inanimate, and just to be treated as though he's a character by the other characters. But the moment he's off-screen, he seems to be genuinely animate, doing things like stealing buns or, in one case, fencing with Poe.
- This is highlighted in "Missing Buns", when Misery shocks everyone else by claiming that Mr. Buns is just a stuffed sock and therefore irrelevant to their game of hide-and-seek. By the next morning, she concedes defeat to Mr. Buns and goes to bed.
In Moral Orel, Nurse Bendy has a teddy bear family at home she treats as actual family figures, up to making meals and talking broken child-talk with them. This is due to her loneliness and her feeling that men only want her for sex. Later on she is reunited with her real son and chooses to abandon the fake teddy-son for the real thing.
Let's not forget Megatron's rubber duck in Beast Wars.
Dewey, Vanessa, Jeffy, and Boxy Brown.
In one episode of Total Drama Island, Owen has a very intense emotional bonding experience with a coconut. Later, the producers vote it off the island. It even takes a ride on the Boat of Losers.
The Brave Little Toaster is based around this trope.
Two Williams Street examples:
- Meatwad's best friend is a Blaxploitation hero named Boxy Brown. You figure it out.
- In one episode of The Brak Show, Zorak finds Brak talking to a lobster doll named Hippo ("He's a hell of a guy!") and throws it away because he's just mean. Brak gets a replacement, Dr. Grumbles, who actually can talk, but in something of a subversion, only Zorak and Thundercleese can hear him.
Sammy, a dead rat, in Wayside. Miss Mush seems to be able to interact with him with no problem, and he routinely beats her at cards. "How you do that? You dead!"
Dexter's Laboratory had a Suck E Cheeses episode featuring a stuffed Monkey doll that Dee Dee believed could talk to her. Their conversations were surprisingly dark, almost veering into The Shining territory.
Dee Dee: What was that, Monkey? (listens intently) Yes, Monkey! I too can see into the future!
Mom: Dee Dee! Time to go! Have you seen your brother?
Dee Dee: What was that Monkey? (listens intently) Monkey says that Chubby Cheeses took him into the deepest, darkest shadows!
- Naturally, this is completely accurate.
The Candy Wife from The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is a really, really creepy version of this. It seems designed specifically to creep you out if you don't manage to get an Uncanny Valley response from her appearance.
Stan from American Dad seems to have a rather intimate relationship with his gun. It "laughs" by shooting.
There are times in Danny Phantom when Tucker shares special bonding moments with his PDA, sometimes with the former treating the latter like a lover.
Tucker: If I don't make it, tell my PDA I love her. The cell phone meant nothing to me."
Ivan Dobsky from Monkey Dust has his space hopper which he calls Mr Hoppy. It was implied that Mr Hoppy was the force behind some of Ivan's crimes; having said that, the results when the prison staff took Mr Hoppy from Ivan definitely count as Squick and probably count as High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Ivan fashioned a new space hopper out of some dead guards. Needless to say, people weren't laughing at him then

Close Western Animation

The Pet Rock, a 1970s phenomenon, was based around this idea.
As people who have witnessed isolated orphans with stuffed animals (or any object they can personify) or even grown people in some pretty tough circumstances can tell you, the declassified CIA study referred to in the trope namer's entry is pretty much valid.
- Tough circumstances? Thanks to the Internet, entire social groups have formed around what basically amount to people talking about their pets...or their children. Calvin And Hobbes planted a seed in a lot of people's minds.
In 2000, a ficus tree ran against incumbent Rodney P. Frelinghuysen for the 11th district New Jersey house seat... and won the election by a 4:1 ratio before being disqualified. The Ficus campaign was masterminded by Michael Moore for his TV show The Awful Truth.
Campaign ad: Rodney wouldn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, Ficus' ass IS a hole in the ground.
A New Scientist article on human interactions with robotics and attempts to bridge the Uncanny Valley notes incidents of US troops in Afghanistan seeking counseling after their bomb disposal robot was destroyed by an I.E.D. Other incidences include a report that an bomb disposal robot had been stolen, in helmand, only to find the Commonwealth solders had taken advantage of is dexterous remote control arm to take it fishing with them.
This is basically why ships and other craft are always referred to as "she" and why men are compelled to paint naked ladies onto warplanes. The practice of personifying ships goes back so far it's very deeply rooted in tradition, and has since spread to other forms of transportation.
- Figureheads and eyes painted on the front of ships...
  - Making this trope Older than dirt.
US Marines are made to memorize an oath that basically personifies their rifle. Presumably so that they remember to take care of the firearm and have it at their side whenever possible.
Utada Hikaru owns a plush bear, which she named Kuma Chang. Kuma was issued a staff pass at one of her concerts.
One university's engineering department has a teddy bear sitting in the dean's office. If a student comes in with an engineering problem that they can't handle, they are first urged to "talk to the bear". Often, after they go over the problem with the bear, they do actually come up with a solution.
A number of people name their cars and talk to them. There's even a service to register your car's name and get it a birth certificate.
- Computers too. Especially, but not exclusively by geeks.
  - This can also apply to electronics like external hard drives and MP 3 players or things like bicycles- basically anything that can "exhibit a personality" regarding its performance. Note that naming computers can be really helpful when you have a lot of them hooked up to a network, and making those names somewhat specific to the machine in question helps the users keep track of which one is which.
  - It doesn't help that Windows XP and later (and most Linux, while we're at it) force you to fill in a name for your computer as a part of the installation process. The intention was probably to give the computer a meaningful hostname for private networks (e.g. home LAN), but that's not the way it comes off to even experienced home users.
In a similar vein, Serge Kahili King in his book Urban Shaman explains that he named his personal computer and speaks to it. "All things have their own spirit. They cooperate better if you can relate to them well."
It's not entirely uncommon for musicians to name their instruments, especially adolescents in high school band. Girls almost always give the instrument a male name and boys give them a female name.
- As a musician, I can attest that this is very common. Andres Segovia at times ended up with rumors of a woman in his live via booking transit tickets for his guitar-by name.
Steam Locomotives are always refered to as she, even if they have a male name. This often causes... confusion to the punters.
- Some drivers go even further. Joe Duddington apparently gently encouraged Mallard to help her break the World Steam Speed record.
Champion Detroit Tigers pitcher talked to the ball before throwing it, among other eccentricities. Proof that the Bunny Ears Lawyer exists in Real Life.

Close Real Life

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