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The character stumbles upon a seemingly normal animal/inanimate object. Turning away from it, they hear a voice addressing them. Confused, they look around to see no one but the animal/object. When they finally realize it was the animal/object that spoke they freak out and exclaim their disbelief whilst stating the obvious.
Often coupled with: "Why didn't you say anything before?", which is usually replied with " You Didn't Ask."
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Bleach: Uryu is asking Orihime who their master will be. Orihime says that the master was standing there the whole time. Yoruichi speaks up to tell Uryu that it is "he" who will be training them. Uryu predictably freaks out at the notion of a talking cat. After regaining his composure over the issue, Uryu calmly states he can't believe that there is such a thing as a talking cat. Later, when Yoruichi reveals her true, human form to Ichigo, she plays with this trope by telling him it was silly of him to believe that a cat could talk.
- In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Erio and Caro had this reaction when Zafira spoke. This is a It Was His Sled moment for the audience, who knew he could do so, but he had never spoken in front of them before, and he was spending all his time in his wolf form.
- This happens between Captain Shiki and Dr. Indigo in the One Piece movie Strong World. Dr. Indigo tries to explain something to Shiki through charades or mime or something. When Shiki doesn't get it, Indigo just comes out and says it, and Shiki gives the reaction with much surprise. This happens more than once.
- Japan from Axis Powers Hetalia has this reaction after his cat Tama praises the tuna he's eating out loud. However, the strip ends after that, so we never see what comes from it.
Comic Books
- In Alan Moore's Skizz from 2000 AD, the characters contrive a plan to break Skizz (an extra-terrestrial who crash-landed and stranded himself on Earth) out of an RAF airbase in Birmingham, not knowing that he has been taught English by his captors. When Loz discovers this, he has the following to say:
Loz: You can talk! Well I'll be! We've had our budgie for seven years and all it can do is whistle.
- Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire
- Played for Laughs (well, as a joke, anyway) in Transmetropolitan: for Spider Jerusalem's first interview with presidential nominee Gary "The Smiler" Callahan, it's his sycophantic campaign manager who actually answers most of the questions, while Callahan just sits there, immobile... smiling. When Spider finally gets fed up and forces the issue, there's a long silence before Callahan extends his hand and re-introduces himself, prompting a reaction of mock horror.
- At the beginning of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run, Larry Trainor's Negative Spirit suddenly begins speaking after twenty-plus years. When queried on this, he responds that he "had nothing to say." Things quickly get weirder from there...
- H. P. Lovecraft is quite, er, surprised to discover that Atomic Robo (whom he has mistaken for an armored pygmy) can speak.
Lovecraft: Ah! Look, it's attempting to communicate. No doubt the savage thing knows the language like a housepet knows its reflection in the mirror. The sense is taken in, but the process, the meaning, is lost forever.
Robo: Yer razzin' me.
Lovecraft: See how it cobbles together a string of sounds not unlike words? Take. Us. To. Magic. Thunder. Man.
Robo: Uh-huh.
Lovecraft: Oh, back to its native grunts. I say, the poor beast is devolving'' before our eyes, Charles.
Comic Strips
- In one printed Garfield story, Garfield and the other animals sense a huge storm approaching that will destroy the town. Garfield convinces the other animals that they need to warn their human families about this and that this is reason enough to reveal that they can talk. Jon and the other pet owners all react this way when their pets suddenly start talking to them, which nearly distracts them from the huge storm their pets are trying to warn them about in the first place.
- Kicked off a week-long Out-of-Genre Experience (turned out to be a nightmare the father was having) in Marvin:
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Gamebooks
Jokes
- There was a joke about a kid that refuses to say a first word, then asks for the salt at the table one day. When the parents are surprised he comments that it is the first time the table wasn't set properly and so there was no need to say anything.
- A variant of that joke has the son of university professors who is seemingly retarded, the parents start spelling out things like "intellectually inferior" because they don't want him to know what they're saying, and he says "You left out an 'l'". This may be Truth in Television.
- The old joke about a British couple who adopt a German baby, who does not talk. After several tests they find nothing wrong with the baby, but when he is five he is served apple strudel, and German child says: "This apple strudel is tepid." The parents ask the child why he had not said anything after all this time and the child says: "Up until now everything had been satisfactory."
- There's a joke about a frog asking a girl to kiss him and turn him into a prince. The girl grabs the frog instead, because "men come and go, but a talking frog is worth something!"
- A variant involves a male engineer-type-person finding a frog-ified woman, with a similar reaction: "I don't have time for a girlfriend. But a talking frog, now that's cool!"
- The following joke:
Two muffins are sitting in the oven. The first one says, "Gee, it sure is hot in here." The second one goes, "Eek! A talking muffin!"
- A related joke:
A man is riding his horse down a road when he meets a rabbit. The rabbit tells him, "Good morning!" and bounds away. The man says to himself, "I didn't know rabbits could talk." "Neither did I," says the horse.
- A man knocks on the door of a farmhouse. He tells the farmer "Listen, I was driving past your farm when my car broke down. I got out to fix it and I heard a voice say 'It's the carburetor!' I turned, and all I saw was this brown horse." The farmer says "Well, don't you listen to him! He don't know nothin' 'bout cars!"
Literature
- Eragon — When Solebum the Were Cat speaks to Eragon telepathically the first time. Eragon utters: "You said that!" followed by the reply: "Who else?"
- Terry Pratchett loves playing with this one.
- In Moving Pictures Victor feels self-conscious about the trope, and rehearses to himself several different ways of saying it, all of which seem equally daft.
Gaspode: I expect you're wondering how come I can talk?
Victor: Hadn't given it a thought.
- Malicia's reaction to the talking rats in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. Oddly, not her reaction to the talking cat, since that fits better with her idea of how stories go.
- In The Wee Free Men, the toad's reply is "You've only got my word for it. You can't prove anything." No surprise here, he's a polymorphed human lawyer.
- It's kind of a joke in Discworld that people always have this reaction to Gaspode, despite living in a setting where such a thing is hardly implausible. It's explained in the books that adults have ideas about what "must" be real and what must not be, so their minds edit out a lot of what comes through their senses.
- Averted by Brutha's reaction to the Great God Om in the form of a telepathic tortoise. At first he assumes Om must be a demon, but later decides he may just be a normal tortoise because no self-respecting demon would take a form like that.
Om: How many talking tortoises have you met?
Brutha: Well, they might all talk. They just might not say anything when I'm there.
- Subverted in Sourcery where Rincewind meets what appears to be a very well-spoken snake, but is too embarrassed to mention it. Eventually, when the snake asks to come with him, he refers to it as a snake, only for the person sitting obscured in the darkness near the snake to stand up, offended at the description.
- Rincewind comes up against the trope again in The Last Continent. He thinks it's a bit odd that there are talking sheep in the pub. He doesn't want to bring it up with the bartender because there's a certain logical disconnect in asking a talking crocodile if he thinks it's odd.
- Oz series:
- When Dorothy meets the Scarecrow in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, she has this reaction.
- This happens again in a later novel to Toto. All animals can talk in Oz, Toto just doesn't like doing it.
- Human example: In Pamela Jekel's Kipling pastiche The Third Jungle Book, there's a scene where the teenage Wild Child Mowgli is being held captive by a group of elephant traders. Although by this time he has learned human speech, he decides to keep quiet in their presence so he can eavesdrop on them without their knowing he can understand. He only breaks his silence when a rogue elephant breaks free and he tells its young handler to run for his life, much to the boy's astonishment.
- The Dresden Files: In Changes, after being turned into a dog by the "crazy death Sidhe lady", Harry is shocked to discover that his Evil-Detecting Dog can talk.
Mouse: That bitch.
Harry: (after being turned back into a human) You can talk. How come I never hear you talk?
Lea: Because you don't know how to listen.
- The protagonist in Randolph Stow's Midnite reacts this way when his cat reveals he can talk. The cat didn't feel the need to talk before, but figured the man could use a friend after the recent death of his father.
Live-Action TV
Music
- In his take on Peter And The Wolf, "Weird Al" Yankovic has Peter go "Wow! A talking bird!" when the bird appears.
- Frank Zappa's "Stink-Foot" has this, with a dog and his owner having a short philosophical conversation before the owner exclaims, "You can't say that." Mind you, the owner and the dog had already been talking for a short while before this.
Puppet Shows
Theater
- In Arsenic And Old Lace, Mortimer initially mistakes his long-missing and heavily surgically-altered brother for a particularly grotesque statue, so one can imagine his shock when it addresses him by name.
Video Games
Web Animation
Web Comics
- Girl Genius, written by the same person as Buck Godot, often has this trope pop up with Krosp, Emperor of all Cats. Half the time it's subverted by people not caring, due to living in a world with much, much weirder things than a talking cat.
- In The Order of the Stick, Vaarsuvius knew that his familiar Blackwing could speak Common, but thought that Blackwing wouldn't because it was demeaning. Turns out, that was only partly true. Blackwing considered speaking in Common to Vaarsuvius to be demeaning.
- In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja he says this to Yoshi. According to the alt text he responds with, "And I can SING!"
Web Original
Western Animation
- These are Elisa's first words to Goliath in Gargoyles after she falls off the Eyrie Building. Once talking's been established, she corrects herself mid-sentence.
Elisa: You can talk? What—Who are you?"
- In Young Justice (another Weisman production), when Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash discover and free Superboy, Kid Flash blurts out "He can talk?", to Superboy... who doesn't take it so smoothly.
Kid Flash: He can talk? Superboy: Yes, he can. Kid Flash: Hey it's not like I said "it".
- Series Creator Greg Weisman likes to reference his work from time to time, as it's even reiterated in the non-canonical The Spectacular Spider-Man/Gargoyles crossover, this time the ol' Webhead throws the jab at Goliath, and takes offence at his reading habits. Hilarity Ensues.
Goliath: The Bugle was right about you: you are a threat and a menace!
Spidey: Wait, you can talk? And read?! And what you read is the Jolly One's editorials?!
- Nibbler in Futurama has this happen quite a few times.
Fry: (nods in agreement until he realizes) Gaah! D-D-Did you just talk?
Nibbler: Indeed. And I have other amazing powers as well.
Fry: Like what?
(Nibbler knocks Fry unconscious and drags him away)
- Family Guy: Peter reacted to Brian this way once, after Brian had lived with (and spoken with) Peter for years.
- Played with in the Veggie Tales story "Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed":
Laura Carrot: A talking weed?!
Rumor Weed: I'm a talking weed; you're a talking carrot. Your point was?
- In The Fluppy Dogs Pilot Movie, Tipi is talking with the girl who discovers her true nature and can only annoyingly repeat the stock phrase in astonishment to which Tipi responds "I wish you wouldn't be saying that, I've been talking ever since I was three."
- On an episode of He Man And The Masters Of The Universe, Prince Adam introduced a young boy to Cringer, who of course ran and hid. The boy said "Hi, kitty-cat!" Cringer responded with "I'm not a Kitty! My name's Cringer and you scared me!" The boy says "Wow! You can talk!" Cringer says, "Doesn't everybody?"
- In the original My Little Pony cartoon, when Firefly asks Megan (who is used to real horses) for help, the first thing out of her mouth is "Talking pony!"
- In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Fluttershy has a massive fear of adult dragons and avoids them whenever possible. However, she becomes immediately fascinated upon meeting Spike, a baby dragon (since he's far too small to eat her), and learns from their encounter that dragons can talk.
- The Planet of the Apes example above is Parodied on The Simpsons, in the episode "A Fish Called Selma", with Troy McClure's "Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off!":
Ape: Help, the human is about to escape!
Troy McClure: Get your paws off me, you dirty ape!
Ape: *Gasp* He can talk!
Group of Apes: He can talk! He can talk! He can talk! He can talk! He can talk! He can talk!
Troy McClure: I can siiiiiinngggg!
- In the pilot for Teachers Pet, the main character is initially surprised that his dog can talk and masquerades as a student, but then asks how long he was able to do so and asks is his pet cat and bird can do the same thing.
- Played for Laughs in an episode of Megas XLR
Jamie: You mean, that thing can talk?
Space Rhino: (points at Jamie) You mean, that thing can talk?
- In several episodes of A Pup Named Scooby Doo, everyone reacted in surprise when normally quiet-spoken little Velma uttered "Jinkies!"
- In SpongeBob SquarePants, everyone but SpongeBob is amazed when his "Bubble Buddy" turns out to be alive and capable of speech. The episode ends with Squidward looking at a random bubble and giving it a tentative greeting.
- In a Whole Episode Flashback of The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, when June gains her powers for the first time.
June: You can talk!?
Monroe: You can hear me!?
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