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Hulk Speak

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"Hulk hates stupid giant cyborg things. Hulk hates Australia. And most of all Hulk hates personal pronouns."
— The Hulk, House of M

This speak type for character has more muscle than brain.

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 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 Hulk speak and Baby Talk are usually at least six feet and 300 pounds.

The most important characteristic of Hulk Speak is its minimalism. The format is usually, "Me, (the person speaking) (verb) (subject)."

Prepositions, indefinite, and definite articles are almost completely stripped out; although given how redundant these usually are, (particularly the latter) in many cases the effect makes Hulk Speak easier to understand than plain English, at least when only a single subject is being discussed. In this sense, Hulk Speak could be considered a literal English translation of the Klingon language, which uses a very similar structure.

This is a common trait of Frankenstein's Monster, especially in adaptations of Frankenstein — although, in the original novel, the monster spoke perfect French. This is also typical of cavemen. (The Hulk Speak, not the perfect French.)

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 have a tendency to render this "broken Japanese" as out and out Hulk Speak. Ironically, in Japanese, it is common for young girls to refer to themselves by name instead of using pronouns, leading to a Hulk Speak-like effect if translated literally into English.

Sometimes this dialect will spoof itself, with the character referring to complicated issues. ("Mongo only pawn in game of life.") Consistent with this, characters who use Hulk Speak often have surprising levels of intelligence and philosophical depth. In a sense, it could even be said that their form of speech is an intellectual advantage, as it allows them to simplify complex ideas.

As with The Ditz, 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 Draak's bit here.

The trope's name is derived from the speech pattern of Marvel's Hulk.

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 Hulk Speak 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. When trying to describe more complicated concepts, will often overlap with Buffy Speak. Compare Pokémon Speak where the only thing a character says is his or her name.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • One Shreddies advert has Hunger talking like this while taunting Tarzan.
    "You, hungry! Me, Hunger!"

    Anime & Manga 
  • In Brave10, Sasuke speaks in very broken Japanese owing to his Raised by Wolves backstory. His sentiments can often be quite elegant, nonetheless, as his few words can have a lot of impact.
  • Dragon Ball Z's Majin Buu spoke in Hulk speak when he first emerged, but he began a series of transformations, and gained progressively better vocabulary in each new form. That is until he reached his final/original form of Kid Buu, who has a complete lack of sanity and only ever communicates by laughing or screaming.
  • 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.
  • The english dubbed version of One Piece has Zoro in this role when the Straw Hat Pirates are attempting to get into Enies Lobby over a fence...on a train. He even uses the trope namers catchphrase.
    Zoro: Hey frog, see fence, SMASH!

    Comic Books 
  • The Incredible Hulk, for whom this trope is named, but only the animated version and the "savage" version from the comics. In the movies, Hulk only roars, with a single line in the first three (2003 movie version has him saying "Puny human" in Bruce Banner's dream sequence; in the 2008 movie, Hulk said "HULK... SMASH!" during the final fight scene with Abomination — because it had to be said at least once — and in The Avengers, given Loki called himself a god before being beaten, Hulk walks away saying "Puny God..."). For the most part, however, he speaks correct, if terse, English. In Thor: Ragnarok he finally starts talking extensively in classic Hulk speak.
    • The Hulk says "HULK SMASH!" pretty often in the comics, even in his more intelligent incarnations that are pretty smart and can actually speak perfectly fluent English. Then there was a partial subversion in Peter David's apocalyptic far-future Hulk story The Last Titan; the Hulk was given ample space for his thoughts, which while being in Hulk speak, were well-constructed and reasonable, though also mostly misanthropic and relating to various forms of violence.
    • This is a case of Characterization Marches On, as in the Hulk's earliest appearances, he was much smarter and had better grammar. Even when he did refer to himself in the third person, it was still usually in longer, complete sentences. Later writers retconned this smarter incarnation into one of several alternate personalities within the Hulk, explaining the inconsistency.
    • The Bixby/Ferrigno The Incredible Hulk TV series from the 1970s likewise averts this trope. Lou Ferrigno mostly stands there while he flexes, and Ted Cassidy provides voice-over growls.
    • Writing Hulk-related reviews or previews as if the hero did them occurs at times — and is mostly hilarious. You can also check out how it looks when Hulk wrote his own article in this very wiki.
    • The animated adaptation of Planet Hulk subverts this, with Hulk talking like this for a few early sentences, but speaking fluent English for the rest of the film.
      • The Planet Hulk comics had that too, but it was explained as a NEW version of the Hulk known as the Green Scar, who was able to tap into Banner's intellect to some degree as far as basic intelligence and strategizing (necessary for his survival on the hostile world). The Green Scar is essentially the classic Savage Hulk (who has the mind of a small child) all grown up. As alluded to above, several of the Hulk's alternate personas (notably The Professor, Gray Hulk/"Mr. Fixit," Doc Green and The Maestro) have averted this as well.
    • This was averted in the early Marvel vs. Capcom games (Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 2), where the Hulk used complete sentences and spoke in the first person. This is because all of the MVC games prior to Marvel vs. Capcom 3 used the Hulk's Merged Hulk/"The Professor" incarnation from The '90s, rather than his more well known Savage Hulk personality. When he did use Hulk Speak, it was usually as a joke:
      Hulk: HULK SMASH!!! Sorry. I just had to say it.
    • Deadpool showed up in the Hulk books with his thought narration written in Hulk speak.
    • Parody obviously has a field day, for example Marvel "What The" having a fight between Hulk and Thor, which essentially reduces to a fight Hulk Speak vs. Flowery Elizabethan English.
    • Immortal Hulk has a newer persona, who does not speak like this, unless pushed very far (or badly injured). It's just not smash he tends to say.
      Immortal Hulk: Hulk kill. Hulk kill EVERYTHING!
  • Oddly, DC Comics used to use Hulk speak for toddler characters (most notably for Superbaby). This, along with many things about the Silver Age DC, is probably better left unexplained.
  • Supergirl:
    • In Supergirl (Rebirth), secondary character Lar-On speaks this way when he turns into a werewolf. His beastly nature overwhelms him and he refers to himself in third person, barely uses names and verbs, and doesn't care about using correct verb tenses.
      Lar-On: Zor-El — ashamed of my name. But you — never forget Lar-On!
    • In Bizarrogirl, Bizarros talk like this, omitting words or using wrong pronouns.
  • 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."
  • 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.
  • Shape, from Squadron Supreme.
  • Mongrol, from ABC Warriors.
  • Ka-Zar, Marvel Comics' signature Wild Child, speaks in this manner... though in one of his earliest appearances an author's note clarifies that this is "merely a loose translation of the original guttural swamp dialect, a tongue which very few of us majored in at college!" Ka-Zar's speech can't be expected to be very sophisticated to begin with, considering that at the time he was illiterate and had little human contact at all.
  • Jitterjack, Gloo, and Team Carnivore from Astro City.
  • The Teen Titans villain Mammoth invokes this... sometimes.
  • Suske en Wiske: Jerom also speaks like this. And he was created 11 years before the Hulk!
  • Drax the Destroyer used to speak this way in the '90s after being resurrected and coming back wrong. His current version is yet another resurrection devoid of his Hulk Speak, though still not too bright.
  • Of all characters, Tony Stark gets reduced to this by the end of his feud with Norman Osborn during Matt Fraction's run. It was a side-effect of Tony slowly deleting the contents of his brain in order to prevent Osborn from capturing him and using his secrets for evil, meaning he got less and less cognizant over time.
  • Ultimate Marvel
    • Ultimate Spider-Man: In his first appearance, the Green Goblin could only growl "Ppppaaaarrrrkkkkeeeerrrr". By the second time he got the hand of his mutated form and could speak fluently.
    • Vermin, an enemy of the All-New Ultimates, only speak nonsenses like "Vermin hungry" or "Vermin kills". Spider-Man blamed the school system for it.
  • In Heroes in Crisis, Gnaark, the Contemporary Caveman from Teen Titans, talks like this ... while quoting John Keats, and wondering if his old life is better seen as Hobbesean struggle or Rousseauan paradise.
  • Trakk: Monster Hunter: In chapter 3, Vaquoul sends a team of monsters after the kids spying on them. One of the monsters he sends is a big green one with spikes down his spine who speaks in this manner.

    Comic Strips 
  • The Far Side: One strip has Tarzan meeting Jane and mentally rehersing what he's going to say, only to of course shamefully blurt out "Me Tarzan! You Jane!"
  • The crocs from Pearls Before Swine. "BINGO! We no can fly NUTHeeng!"
  • In This Modern World Donald Trump is sometimes parodied as "The Incredible Trump", who then speaks this way.
  • Lunker in Retail, who despite showing every signs of being Dumb Muscle, not only has the "expresses complex ideas this way" subversion, but has apparently made breakthroughs in theoretical physics in his spare time.

    Eastern Animation 

    Fan Works 
  • Blixemi: The Lionblaze section of "What Your Favorite Warrior Cat Says About You" starts out in short, non-grammatical sentences about being strong and loving battle to reflect Lionblaze's "brutish meathead" stereotype.
  • Dragon Ball Z Abridged:
    • After seeing Krillin impaled by Frieza, Gohan descended into this mentally.
      Gohan: GOHAN SMASH EFFEMINATE ALIEN!!! GOHAN STRONGEST THERE IS!!!!
    • Earlier, Nappa gives a Shout-Out to the Trope Namer with "Nappa smash!"
    • In the adaptation of Lord Slug Goku gets a brief moment of this after his False Super Saiyan transformation: "I AM CHAMPION CHRISTMAS!"
  • Goyle from A Very Potter Musical speaks this way about half the time.
  • This happens to Commissar Ciaphas Cain and to Hotaru in Lovehammer whenever they try to speak High and Low Gothic, respectively. Amberley and the PDF officers can traverse the language barrier better, but Hotaru tends to want to hang around Cain for some reason.
  • A surprising amount of Kingdom Hearts fanfics take Genius Bruiser Lexaeus and strip him of the "Genius" part, resulting in him speaking in Hulk Speak.
  • In Return to Prince Manor orcs speak like this.
    Grulf: Sun Princess show respect to Ice Prince Lord!
  • In the Tamers Forever Series The Nightmare talks like this at first before it absorbs enough data from the Internet to obtain superhuman intellect.
    • This is also how a wild Cyclonemon encountered by DC talks.
  • In Tealove's Steamy Adventure, Big Jim the cave troll rarely forms complete sentences and never manages to string more than three words together.
  • Most of time when Ryuuko speaks in Cellar Secrets, it's like this, considering that, due to being a currently rehabilitated Wild Child, she never quite learned to use grammatical syntax or to speak in sentences (at least onscreen, as Nui mentions her saying three sentences). Typically, she throws about two or three words together to communicate her thoughts.
  • Triptych Continuum: She speaks this way. Twilight has to remind herself that she speaks this way not because she is stupid, but because talking is so incredibly painful that she can't get out more than a few words at a time.
  • All over the place in The Unfantastic Adventures of Bizarro No. 1, since the whole story happens in Bizarro race's homeworld Htrae, and it's narrated by Bizarro himself.
    "Bizarro No. 1 am in heap of trouble when Blue Kryptonite meanies invade Bizarro World. Worse yet, them am not even want to conquer it! Them am fiendish fiends!"

    Films — Live-Action 

    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, presumably because his brain couldn't keep up with his own vital functions. They're not so much idiots as slow in the head.
    • It's not really a case of not realizing they'll be slow in hotter climates; it's more a matter that they consider it worth it to leave, because of the much greater opportunities for advancement and mate-finding in the cities. It's also possible that they just don't realize exactly how much it will affect them despite knowing it intellectually. Trolls have in fact adapted quite well to the city, even going so far as to seek out the coldest areas of the city — like the Pork Futures Warehouse — to hold meetings. And at least a few of them actively engage in Obfuscating Stupidity — like Chrysophrase and in the later books, Detritus.
      • Greatly aided by Cuddy's development of the first Discworld computer cooling fan ...
  • In the Animorphs books, the Hork-Bajir mostly spoke in Hulk speak. 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 Hulk speak. 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. The exception is Toby Hamee, since she is a Hork-Bajir seer, meaning she is much more intelligent than the rest of her race.
  • 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 Hulk speak, including simplified names like "Hagger" instead of "Hagrid" and "Hermy" instead of "Hermione". While little mention is made of giant intelligence, very few of them speak English, so it could just be Grawp not speaking enough English to speak properly.
  • "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 Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40,000 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.
  • The barbarians in the Kedrigern books speak like this. Kedrigern lampshades this in the first book, and ponders whether it's actually Obfuscating Stupidity, with the barbarians eloquently chatting when they're sure no one's listening.
  • The Ogres of Xanth supposedly speak very simplistic, crude rhymes. But it turns out this is a result of Fantastic Racism and people who approach ogres without prejudice discover that they're actually quite erudite.
  • The meat golems of City of Devils communicate entirely in two-word sentences like "fire bad," and "girl good." They're also medical professionals, which makes one wonder about the quality of medical care in that universe.
  • In Heart of Steel, many of the chimeras have an imperfect command of the English language if they speak at all, resulting in sentence constructions like "Master okay?" and "Scarface tough."
  • The Hunger Games: Mild example, suiting for a guy of few words like Thresh. "You better run now, Fire Girl."
  • Herman Wouk, in his novel City Boy, situated this in an unusual subject: Mr. Krieger, a New York City small businessman, who uses only the minimum words needed to convey meaning; e.g., "Me and Mr. Powers go cup coffee" or "Hard feeling nothing worth. What good? Look future." Krieger is one of the rare characters who is a prosaic human native speaker of English to Hulk out his diction. He speaks this way because he lacks self-confidence and is afraid that any sentence he says might entrap him, so he never utters a full sentence, speaking "only about one word out of four. This ingenious principle enabled him to deny anything he said, on the grounds that he had been misunderstood, if it happened to sound wrong once out of his mouth."

    Live-Action TV 
  • Game of Thrones: Mord, Lysa Arryn's turnkey.
    Mord: "Dwarf man making noise!"
  • 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).
  • 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 (with the aid of reading glasses): "Superman was that rarest of things..."
    • And played straight in another skit where Barack Obama Hulks out and turned into "The Rock" Obama (naturally played by the man himself, Dwayne Johnson). Made somewhat surreal by how close Johnson sounds to Obama when he speaks.
    (to Olympia Snowe) "Put head in hand. I smash it now."
    • The "Tarzan, Tonto and Frankenstein" sketches make fun of the device, putting the titular trio on talk shows and political round-tables. Tarzan and Tonto are relatively articulate, falling more into You No Take Candle territory, and act as translators for the true hulkspeaker Frankenstein. "Fire bad!"
  • Parodied in Scrubs by the mighty Janitor — "Fork! Me 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 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.
  • Though he doesn't talk like this usually, Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters fame gives us this famous line:
    Jamie wants big boom.
  • In It's About Time, the cave people all spoke according to this trope, especially Clon, the chief's enforcer.
  • Lexx has Giggerota the Wicked. Her names for others usually involved the words "meat," "food," or "skin."
  • Doctor Who
    • Leela with an interesting variation of this — a mixture of this trope and Spock Speak. Her grammar is always correct, but her word use and sentence structure is very simple. In her case, it's to reflect that she's relatively uncivilised, but also extremely intelligent.
    • In "Day of the Daleks" we're introduced to the Ogrons, apelike aliens that the Daleks use as Dumb Muscle. The trope is played straight, only for the actor to stuff up and speak normally in his very next line (which clearly wasn't written for this trope anyway).
    Controller: Your report?
    Ogron: We... found... and... destroyed... the enemy.
    Controller: Any complications?
    Ogron: [casual] No complications.
  • Trailer Park Boys has one of Bubbles' puppets, Bobby Turkalino having a puppet that makes fun of Bubbles' friend Ricky while speaking in the pattern of this trope.
    Bubbles (As Bobby): Say Hi, Little Ricky.
    Bubbles (As Little Ricky): Hi! Me Ricky! Me fucked in the head!
  • Land of the Lost (1974)
    • Averted with Marek, who is a caveman, yet speaks perfect English. One wonders how he came to learn it.
    • Played straight with Cha-Ka. Justified in that he's a primitive humanoid learning English for the first time. The Marshalls do not do much better with Pakuni. They each get better at each other's languages over the course of the show. By season three he speaks it (almost) perfectly.
  • The Equalizer. Robert McCall mocks a thug this way in "No Conscience".
    Thug: Supposed to be one guy.
    McCall: Two.
    Thug: One. Young guy. Him.
    McCall: One young guy - him. One old guy - me. Two.
  • Ghosts (UK): One of the ghosts in Button House, Robin, is a Neanderthal who died before humans evolved proper speech production centres in their brains; while he's 'existed' long enough to develop a fairly impressive intellect and even learn some English, he has immense trouble articulating himself.

    Music 
  • Jonathan Coulton's "Code Monkey" does this throughout the whole song, in reference to B.A.S.I.C. coding syntax rather than lack of intelligence on Code Monkey's part.
  • The Paul and Storm song "Me Make Fire" is about a caveman.
  • The song "Lars Needs Women" by Tom Smith is largely in this style.
  • Rich Mullins' satirical song "How To Grow Up Big and Strong" has lines like this:
    Strong man take no prisoner
    Favor no plea
    He leave no gold in teeth of enemy
    He fit and dominant
    He rise above
    He not have word that mean love

    Pinballs 
  • The demonic monster in Gorgar talks like this. Justified, since he has a vocabulary of only seven words.note 
    Gorgar: "GORGAR - BEAT - YOU."

    Pro Wrestling 
  • Memetic Mutation gives this to wrestlers The Great Khali and Umaga, who are only allowed to "speak" with inarticulate growls and screams (at one point Khali switched to speaking in regular English and it still came out gibberish). Khali wants cake, and Umaga just wants to be friends and refers to everyone as <descriptor of wrestler> Man, leading to "conversations" like:
    Khali: KHALI WANT CAKE! KHALI GO TO RING, SEE IF CAKE THERE!
    Umaga: UMAGA IN RING! CAKE MAN FRIENDS WITH UMAGA?

    Tabletop Games 
  • Grond from Champions.
  • 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 philosophical, in the field Patchwork affects a violent persona capable only of Hulk Speak as a psychological tactic.
  • A stereotypical trait of orc, half-orc, and/or barbarian characters in Dungeons & Dragons. Or anyone with a negative intelligence modifier, for that matter.
  • It tends to come up in two different ways in Werewolf: The Apocalypse. In the case of lupus Garou (werewolves who started life as a wolf), as well as other shifters who began life as an animal rather than a human, it tends to happen because learning human language is tricky for them, and they're trying to do it while also learning all of the ins and outs of Garou society as well as the basics of their new human form (like, for example, walking upright). Thus, older/more experienced lupus Garou tend to grow out of it. Garou in Crinos (half-man, half-wolf war form) tend to talk like this regardless of their form at birth, although in this case, it's mostly because Crinos form has a canine muzzle and not the humanoid lips needed to form certain sounds.

    Video Games 
  • Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura:
    • Gar is supposedly a "smart orc" who discusses some rather complex topics for an orc, all in Hulk speak. 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.
    • Your own character adopts this trope with an intelligence stat of 4 or less, even in your written journal entries, e.g. "Law man wants me get rid of stinky thiefses on bridge".
  • Borderlands
    • The bandit boss Sledge, a very large, slow fellow who refers to himself in the third person.
    • The Goliaths from Borderlands 2 also speak like this. Oddly enough, if you knock their helmets off and make them go berserk, they become more articulate.
  • 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.
  • Golem from Castlevania: Judgment is interpreted in this way, making him an even Larger Ham than before. He is not as dumb as his speech patterns make him sound though, as he can perfectly understand what anyone says to him and philosophizes when not fighting.
  • Champions Online: The Irradiates talk like this, and one of their lines Lampshades it:
    Irradiate Projector: Grrr... Why radioactive mutants talk with poor syntax?
  • The cavewoman Ayla (Get it?...) 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.
  • Tiny Tiger of the Crash Bandicoot series speaks this way in all of his appearances, except for his debut - where he was The Voiceless - and his drastic redesign in Crash of the Titans, where he inexplicably becomes a Mike Tyson impersonator.
    Tiny: Uka Uka and Cortex want Tiny get crystals, and bring them to big coliseum in Rome. CRAAAAAASH, LEAVE THEM FOR TINY, OR CRASH GET CRUSHED!!!
  • Darksiders: Straga, the gigantic demon who kills War at the start of the game and becomes the last boss before the Destroyer.
    Straga: STRAGA IS THE MIGHTIEST OF THE DESTROYER'S CHOSEN!
  • The Giant Blacksmith in Dark Souls takes the odd route of combining this with a smattering of Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe.
    Giant Blacksmith: "I hath shiny-shiny."
  • In one of the sub-dungeons of Desktop Dungeons, Jadetooth, a barbarian, has several signs written in Hulk Speak, and even lampshades his own inability to use pronouns or conjugate verbs correctly.
  • The Elder Scrolls
  • Fallout:
    • Almost every Super Mutant speaks that way. And if you play a character with less than INT 4, they will, too. Amusingly enough, if a "Hulk" protagonist talks to another functionally impaired 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?)"
    • Fallout 3:
      • Fawkes is a notable exception / subversion — he speaks in the same grunt-like fashion as the other Vault 87-variant super-mutants, but because he is intelligent and has managed to become well-read he is actually quite articulate. Uncle Leo, for some reason, is also intelligent and peaceful. He did say he read a book a long time ago but this may be before his transformation.
      • The smart Super Mutants are all exceptions, though the Vault 87-variant as mentioned keeps the grunt-like fashion of speaking of their variant, while a significant portion of the smart West Coast variety have a habit of referring to themselves in third person for an unrelated reason note .
      • The Swampfolk in Fallout 3: Point Lookout also speak this way, due to being mutant inbred hicks.
    • Fallout 4 has a Super Mutant follower named "Strong" who's a NORMAL Super Mutant, whose principal interests are violence and... more violence. He Hulk-Speaks relentlessly.
    • Dog from Fallout: New Vegas: Dead Money also uses hulk speak, although his alternate personality "God" speaks rather eloquently. This is due to him/them being a Super Mutant Nightkin and suffering from schizophrenia and other delusions. Their merged personality will talk like a regular person.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy II had Guy, who speaks this way in both English and Japanese, and fellow Wild Child Gau from Final Fantasy VI. They both had the excuse of being raised by wild animals.
    • 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 (single kanji in the Japanese version). 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. Her single word sentences carry over to her portrayal in Kingdom Hearts II. She at least doesn't shout her words.
  • 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.
  • Dr. Mundo from League of Legends exhibits this to the point that one of his lines is "Mundo Smash". Fitting, since he's a Captain Ersatz of Hulk himself. He isn't exactly dumb, despite this; he's simply profoundly odd. According to his joke, he does it to avoid forgetting his own name, which has happened in the past.
  • Grunk the orc from the Interactive Fiction game Lost Pig speaks like this all the time, much to the consternation of a certain more erudite gnome.
  • MadWorld features a massive Frankenstein's monster called Frank, whose only line of dialogue is a booming "FRANK SMASH!"
  • Frost Man in Mega Man 8 as one of his pre-battle taunts and his Mega Man & Bass CD Data:
    Frost Man (8): Crush! I! You! Defeat!
    Frost Man (& Bass): I! You! Defeat!
  • The guardian of the sigil of Earth in Myth Match combines this with an odd sort of ellipsis, resulting in utterances like "Shiny... rock... mine!" and "Smash... Chosen... One!"
  • Gust from Neptunia talks like this at times. However, she's actually quite smart and business-savvy, so it's mostly to make her act cutesy. It's toned down in the second game, where it's also explained that this trope is being invoked because she's a foreigner.
  • Most orcs in Might & Magic X: Legacy talk like this, including the ones in your party, if you have any. Maximus, the garrison in Sorpigal, is surprisingly articulate; in fact, he says that's the reason the other orcs in his village kicked him out.
  • If give your character in Neverwinter Nights even slightly below-average intelligence, he or she talks like this in conversations.
  • Morton speaks this way in Paper Mario: Color Splash. In All Caps, even.
    Morton: FIRE BROKEN... JUST STICK... EAT STICK!
  • In Potion Permit, Ottmar, the big, dumb first mate of Leano, speaks in third person and doesn't use proper grammar when talking.
  • In Runefall 2, Princess Roslyn talks this way to a resident of Dunmer territory. When he asks if something's wrong with her, Winifred says that she must've fallen and hit her head, probably.
  • Slash in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants In Manhattan is portrayed as a mindless thug, his speech very simplistic.
  • Total War: Warhammer shows that the Beastmen use very terse, two-word sentences when speaking Beast Tongue.
    Beastlord Khazrak: Gather warherds. Hunt Man-filth. Kill man!
  • 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.
    Patchwerk: Patchwerk want to play.
  • Wuppo has the Bliones, a race of bipedal flower-lion people. At one point a patch was added to the game that took away their ability to capitalize the first letters of sentences!
    Blione: i hit things with stick when angry

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • 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.
    • Yuki's is justified; one of her first English phrases is "I don't speak good English."
  • Rather amusingly averted by the Trope Namer himself in Tails Gets Trolled, who speaks just as clearly and articulately as anyone else. (Which, considering the comic's constant punctuation failures, isn't saying much.)
  • The Order of the Stick:
    • Thog. 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?") His most awesome (and also longest) line of dialogue so far is:
      Thog: not Nale. not-Nale. Thog help nail not-Nale, not Nale. and Thog knot not-Nale while Nale nail not-Nale. Nale, not not-Nale, now nail not-Nale by leaving not-Nale, not Nale, in jail.
      Prison guard: ... pleading insanity, then?
    • Apparently, this is a common trait for the orcish people, as seen (and lampshaded) here.
    • When Tarquin is pretending to be Thog, we get this exchange;
      Fake Thog: *Ahem* THOG SMASHES!
      Kilkil: Sir, watch your grammar!
      Malack: Why, what's wrong with it?
      Kilkil: Absolutely nothing!
    • It doesn't fool the Order for a moment, either:
      Roy: That's not Thog. [...] Plus he leads with the other foot, he resisted Durkon's enchantment, and I think he used a second-person pronoun.
  • 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.
  • Schlock Mercenary has LOTA (acronym for "Longshoreman of the Apocalypse"); LOTA is a robot designed to unload cargo at high speed, made from an old anti-grav tank and an overengineered, but underdebugged AI. When asked which gender pronouns to use, LOTA replied "LOTA is too large for your puny pronouns." Thus, LOTA is only referred to as "LOTA", never "he", "she", "it", or even "you". Other than the issue with puny pronouns, puny grunts and puny mob, however, LOTA speaks normally. LOTA is willing to make one exception: when pronouns such as "we" and "us" are used to include LOTA among a group of friends. LOTA admits that LOTA's usual alternative would be less honorable and less majestic.
  • 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.
  • In Everyday Heroes, when Violet transforms into Shrinking Violent, her only comment is "ME HIT STUFF!" (a Shout-Out to another well-known catchphrase).
  • 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 8-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.
  • The zombies in Bug talk like this:
    "Zombie smash cheap aluminum siding!"
    "Zombie give compliments to chef."
    "Zombie gonna bring the pain!"
    "Zombie think you guys are jerks."
    "Zombie really identify with characters in "Twilight".
    "Zombies have song and dance number planned for finale..."
  • Hamman from "Spontaneous Combustion" talks this way, particularly the third-person variety. "HAMMAN AM HAMMAN!"
  • Tastefully averted in Frankie and Stein. With references left and right, it's really anyone's guess whether the Frankenstein's Monster being created in the first chapter will be able to speak well or not.
  • The monster Snoz from Girl Genius has a mild case:
    Snoz: Ah. Herr von Mekkhan! Snoz can be out. They rang the bell. They did!
  • Sailor Ranko has rock golems:
    Mongo like smash.
    Me have itch.

    Web Original 

    Web Videos 
  • Caveman from Time... Guys talk like this, but Caveman's prodigious cave-telligence imply this more for style.
  • YouTube personality Tobuscus is known for lapsing into this during his Let's Play series. Perhaps best seen in the highlight reel of his F.E.A.R. 3 LP: ''AARRGH! MOMMA ANGRY. [1]

 
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Video Example(s):

"Megatron back!"

Being left alone with Terrorsaur and Tarantulas causes a fearful Scorponok to lose his coherence.

Cro-Magnon Martin

"Shallow Girl!"

Babs Bunny Goes...

Dhor

Paper Morton

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"Megatron back!"

Being left alone with Terrorsaur and Tarantulas causes a fearful Scorponok to lose his coherence.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (2 votes)

Example of:

Main / HulkSpeak

Media sources:

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"Megatron back!"

Cro-Magnon Martin

"Shallow Girl!"

Babs Bunny Goes...

Dhor

Paper Morton