"Save your breath, Sid. You know humans can't talk."
—Diego, Ice Age
Not all Nearly Normal Animals understand what humans are saying. Because it's more conventional to give animals dialogue that turns into animal noises whenever the perspective switches to a human than it is to put subtitles that disappear whenever the perspective switches to a human, and because children are literal-minded, young audiences are left wondering why these animals can't understand what humans are saying. This is sometimes explained by having animals not be able to hear humans talking and instead hearing gibberish when humans talk.
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Films — Live-Action
- Averted in Dr. Dolittle. Animals can talk to each other but can't understand what humans (aside from Dr. Dolittle) are saying. It's never explained why animals can only understand Dr. Dolittle.
- Averted in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey and its sequel. The animals can talk to each other, but can't understand what humans are saying. It's never explained why the animals can't understand what humans are saying.
Films — Animated
- Ice Age: The animals can talk to each other but humans only hear animal noises, and animals hear humans only making noises. Lampshaded when Diego reminds Sid that "humans can't talk".
Western Animation
- Arthur: In episodes that focus on Kate and Pal, it's shown that babies and non-anthropomorphic characters can hear each other speak English, and hear pure gibberish when anthropomorphic characters who aren't babies talk.
- The Simpsons: In "Bart's Dog Gets an F", it's shown that Santa's Little Helper can't hear humans speak English and just hears Blah, Blah, Blah. An odd example in that Santa's Little Helper still has no dialogue in this episode.
