History Main / BluntMetaphorsTrauma

[[quoteright:240:[[StarTrekTheNextGeneration http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/startrek04_1384.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:240:Data finds your smack talk confusing.]]

* Londo Mollari, in the ''{{Babylon 5}}'' episode Chrysalis: "What are those Earth creatures called? Feathers, long bill, webbed feet... go 'quack'? ...Cats! I'm being nibbled to death by cats!" "Nibbled to death by ducks" is an actual English metaphor indicating that one is being taken down by a series of minor inconveniences. Admittedly, being nibbled to death by cats would no doubt be even more painful.

* In the first [[TheAddamsFamily Addams Family]] movie, a woman comments on her son's adorable costume by exclaiming the she could just "eat him alive", to which a shocked Morticia comments: "Oh no! Too young!"

--> ''George San Francisco:'' Wild whores couldn't drag me away.

* [[{{Animorphs}} Aximlli-Esgarrouth-Isthill]]: Being an alien, metaphors don't really work well with him. He has a tendency to take instructions literally, which, combined with him being in public in human morph, makes for some very funny situations.

* Omi in ''XiaolinShowdown'' was the [[MostTriumphantExample king of this trope]] so much it became a RunningGag.

* Omi in ''XiaolinShowdown''.

This trope is perhaps the most common way to show a character is from a different (literal or metaphorical) place. Usually, they are foreign nationals, but they may have been RaisedByWolves, grown up in {{Cloudcuckooland}}, or just be socially clueless.

*** This raises the obvious question of how he can deal so readily with idiomatic language for ''more than 25 years among humans'' & still be such a moron. (Leaving aside why the idioms have not changed at all in ''400 years''...)

* Angol Mois of KeroroGunsou has a habit of appending her sentences with ''yojijukugo'' (Japanese idioms composed of four ''kanji'' characters) that are almost, but not quite, appropriate for the situation. One episode has her taking ''tuition'' for this.

* Fun example from StargateAtlantis, which ventures into leader drama territory (though this is technically Blunt Simile Trauma.)

* The aliens of ''[[ThirdRockFromTheSun'' (at least, [[PingPongNaivete sometimes]]).

* {{Farscape}}, particularly Aeryn saying "She gives me a woody" when she meant willies.
* Trance in {{Andromeda}}:

* Londo Mollari, in the {{Babylon 5}} episode Chrysalis: "What are those Earth creatures called? Feathers, long bill, webbed feet... go 'quack'? ...Cats! I'm being nibbled to death by cats!" "Nibbled to death by ducks" is an actual English metaphor indicating that one is being taken down by a series of minor inconveniences. Admittedly, being nibbled to death by cats would no doubt be even more painful.
* Anya from Buffy often has problems understanding our human jokes and references, and takes great pleasure in pointing out that fact. In flashback we find out she was like that before she became a demon too.
* The Newcomers did this on AlienNation: The Series. For example:

* Turians in {{MassEffect}} tend to make this mistake with human language.

* The depiction of The Sorrow in TheCobraDays is a good example of this trope before he sits down with a dictionary. "How are you?" "I'm a peach." " 'I'm peachy.' "
* In ElGoonishShive, Grace frequently has these problems, although she's progressing.

* Antoine from SatAM is pretty good at this.

* Fun example from StargateAtlantis, which ventures into leader drama territory (though this is technically BluntSimileTrauma.)

-->'''Sheppard''': It's a comic book where superheroes fight crime and stuff. See, I'd be Mr Fantastic, Ronon would be The Thing, McKay would be the Human Torch...

-->'''Sheppard''': No. No, and McKay's not a human torch.

** In the ''Star Fleet Academy'' younger-readers books, Data caused much confusion during his early time at the Academy, not least by being told to "pull up a chair". And doing just that.
* A StarTrekTheNextGeneration episode features an alien race whose manner of speaking is made up entirely of metaphor, mostly citing their own culture's historical and mythical events, rendering the UniversalTranslator meaningless as no one else knows what the citations mean.
** Which must have been startlingly like a normal person trying to talk to a [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Troper]].

----

* A StarTrekTheNextGeneration episode features an alien race whose manner of speaking is made up entirely of metaphor, mostly citing their own culture's historical and mythical events, rendering the Universal Translator meaningless as no one else knows what the citations mean.

* Also from ''XiaolinShowdown''.

[[folder:Manga and Anime]]
* Nia in ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. [[spoiler: Sure, she rejected Simon when he asked her for marriage, because he wanted to become "one with her" and two people can't be physically merged...]]
** Which is funny considering that [[HyndenWalch her English VA]] (pre-time skip) [[HeyItsThatVoice is the same as Starfire mentioned above]]!
* Yuki Nagato in the ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' franchise.
-->'''Kyon:''' "I don't really have a [[{{Meganekko}} glasses fetish]] anyway."\\
'''Yuki:''' "What is a glasses fetish?"
-->.
-->'''Kyon:''' "No way!"\\
'''Yuki:''' "Way."
** That second one is strictly a translator gag- Kyon says "Uso!" (lit. "a lie") and Yuki answers "Sou" (lit. "it is so"). "Sou" is practically Yuki's CatchPhrase.
* Angol Mois of KeroroGunsou has a habit of appending her sentences with ''yojijukugo'' (Japanese idioms composed of four ''kanji'' characters) that are almost, but not quite, appropriate for the situation. One episode has her taking ''tuition'' for this.
* Lemmy from ''ToHeart'' is constantly messing up Japanese phrases.
* Hermes from ''KinoNoTabi'' seems to have this problem a lot (examples include "Vanity is not for the sake of Mothers" and "When in Rome do as tigers do"), though it is not entirely clear why as he's not a foreigner. [[{{RuleOfFunny}} It is really funny though.]]
* On an {{Omake}} of ''{{Bleach}}'', [[HugeSchoolgirl Isane Kotetsu]] and [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Nemu Kurotsuchi]] were assigned to take pictures of Byakuya. While Nemu was taking the pictures, she was saying "Butter" instead of "Cheese" ([[LampShadeHanging which Isane mentioned to her]]).
[[/folder]]

** Then, of course, there was the one book where Riker said that "A broken chronometer is right twice a day", Data called him on it, and Riker had to concede that he had no idea why a broken chronometer would be right twice a day.
** How is that a metaphor?

* [[{{Animorphs}} Aximlli-Esgarrouth-Isthill]]: [[XJustX Ax. Just Ax.]] Being an alien, metaphors don't really work well with him. He has a tendency to take instructions literally, which, combined with him being in public in human morph, makes for some very funny situations.

** It's implied, especially in the first case, that the ever GenreSaavy Vimes uses those phrases on purpose, knowing Carrot will take them literally.