History Main / BluntMetaphorsTrauma

* Yuki Nagato in the ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' franchise.
-->'''Kyon:''' "I don't really have a [[GlassesAreSexy 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.
** It also qualifies as TotallyRadical, having been the cool way to speak during the late Bush-/early Clinton-era. Not so sure it fits here as a result, though.
* Hermes, a talking motorcycle from ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'', 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")

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*** Gets a CallBack in the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' audio play ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho039BangBangABoom Bang-Bang-a-Boom!]]]'':
--->'''The Doctor:''' Fine words butter no parsnips.\\

* In ''Series/PoliceSquad'', Drebin mentions in his narration that at such a moment he asked the guy next to him to pinch him. Said guy, a big ugly bruiser, gives him an odd look and ''very'' carefully backs away.
* In the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy," Randy is so awestruck when the team enters Dexter Larsen's bedroom while questioning Larsen about the murder of his publisher that he asks Stottlemeyer to pinch him. Stottlemeyer naturally says "no".

* Nick Nack in ''VideoGame/FossilFighters'' has a tendency to mutilate not only English idioms ("I can have my socks and feet them too!"), but sayings from other languages. How does he thank you from the bottom of his heart? "[[GratuitousJapanese Airy cat oh!]] [[GratuitousSpanish Grassy us!]] [[GratuitousGerman Donkey shines!]]"
* [[VerbalTic *Hoorb!*]] A flesh person? The one whose air-sound is Dillo's inner core flies at the opportunity to put air-sounds into head-holes! Then you will make air-sounds back! Would you like to hear how Dillo's home [[MoodDissonance planetary groupings]] were soiled into dusts before he came to the ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes''? We will be making tiny-words! How wonderful!

* Ahti the Finnish janitor from ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' makes extensive use of Finnish metaphors translated directly to English, such as "there will be work for the axe" (something is outrageous), "there's a dog buried in this" (something's fishy), "run with your head as your third leg" (run frantically), and "burn it into a reindeer" (burn it to a crisp).
* One of the quips in ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' goes as this:
--> '''EDF Soldier''': Now we can cause some damage!
--> '''EDF Agent''': You don't say "cause some damage" around Duke Nukem, man. You say we're going to "bust some balls" or "tear shit up".
--> '''EDF Soldier''': Oh, right. Uh, let's RUPTURE SOME SPLEENS TOGETHER!
--> '''EDF Agent''': Why are you such a douche?

* [[MindScrew May or may not]] be happening in [[http://wondermark.com/748/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{Wondermark}}'' strip.
* [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/4p16/ This exchange]] between [[WebComic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja Dr. McNinja]] and his dad.
-->'''Dan McNinja''': What? Are you too cool to bust ass with your old man?\\
'''Dr. [=McNinja=]''': Dad, that means farting.\\
'''Dan [=McNinja=]''': Are you too cool to blast ass with your old man?\\
'''Dr. [=McNinja=]''': Diarrhea.\\
'''Dan [=McNinja=]''': Dammit, I want us to go injure people!\\
'''Dr. [=McNinja=]''': That would be ''"kick"'' ass.\\
'''Dan [=McNinja=]''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint But there aren't any vital organs there. I want to kick faces or something]]. You know, [[{{Squick}} really get number two on them]].
* ''Webcomic/UhOhItsADinosaur'': Kyra has a bad case of this. Understandable, as she's a two-year-old lizard who was raised in a lab.

* ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'' has Rogal Dorn, one of the Emperor's sons. In TabletopGame/Warhammer40000, he's extremely blunt and to the point, seeing no point in metaphor, or even lies, when getting the point across with the truth is so much faster. This series treats him as if he literally cannot comprehend the concept of metaphor.
-->'''The Emperor:''' "Dammit, Rogal! Stop being such a sack of literal sauce!"\\
'''Rogal:''' "There is no such sauce product."

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers''
** Despite all of the main cast inexplicably speaking English, Wheeler frequently had to correct Linka for this type of mistake in the earlier episodes, while the other characters seem to get them fine, despite not growing up in the US either. Luckily, being smitten with her, he finds it to be more cute and amusing than annoying.
** In "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E9TheBigClamUp The Big Clam-Up]]", Ma-Ti got into Sam Spade type detective novels and tried to use 1940's slang, only to get it all mixed up. One moment, in which he phrased "take the case" as "take the cake", even caused Gaia to engage in a very human moment of sighing.
* ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'': Antoine is pretty good at this.
-->'''Antoine''': She was making me a bookcase!\\
'''Rotor''': You mean basket case.
** He even messes up ones from his own language.
--->'''Antoine''': Sacre bleu cheese!
* The toddlers in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' do this a lot. For instance, Tommy says "back to Norman" instead of "back to normal", and Angelica interprets "break a leg" as "break some eggs."
* Exile from ''WesternAnimation/RoadRovers'' is constantly defined by his mangling of the English language.
-->'''Exile''': Easy as cake. Like taking pie from a baby!
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' does this often. The translator in "Heart of Archness" in particular cites the problem with translating idioms. Also: "[[AccidentalInnuendo Phrasing]]!"
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "Lemon of Troy", Bart, before leaving to take revenge on Shelbyville kids who stole Springfield's lemon tree, tells Marge he's going to "teach some kids a lesson". She thinks he's going to become a tutor.
* In season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'', [[spoiler: after the original director is fired]], a very bland yet obedient and uncontroversial director named Abe is hired to direct the ''Secretariat'' biopic [=BoJack=] is starring in. After [=BoJack=] expresses concerns over the quality of the production, Abe reassures him that they "ain't making ''Film/{{Casablanca}}''". Naturally, [=BoJack=] thinks he meant the film is not intended to be good, but Abe meant it ''[[CloudCuckoolander literally]]'' (as in, they are not making the actual movie ''Casablanca''), for whatever reason. When [=BoJack=] criticizes the film, Abe becomes livid.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': In "School Spirit", Marco tells Star that the Silver Hill Warriors "slaughters" the Echo Creek Possums every year, but she ends up believing their football game is to be a bloody battle. It is only ''after'' she booby traps the football field to strike the Warriors that Star discovers it's the name of a team and that "slaughter" meant "badly defeat".

* Comicbook/{{Hawkman}} (the alien version) can have this problem, DependingOnTheWriter. In one story he remarks that Comicbook/GreenArrow looks like "death reheated", causing GA to explain the phrase is "death warmed over".
* From a Franchise/{{Batman}} comic:
--> '''Thug:''' This is a crime family. A syndicate. You're the top dog on the pyramid and we're all the little fish on the bottom rung of the totem pole.

* This is one of the main gags in ''The Troubles of Dictionary Jaques''. In one strip he interprets "butt in" as meaning to hit people with his head rather than simply interrupting them, despite the situation calling for the latter usage of "butt".

* In ''Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact'', a Russian cosmonaut says, "It's a piece of pie," whereupon an American astronaut corrects him: "Cake." Later, the same cosmonaut says, "It's as easy as cake," only to be corrected once again: "Pie."

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' and sequels, Biff does this about once in each movie. An example that he uses just once is "Make like a tree and get outta here." And in the second film, he uses "That's as funny as a screen door on a battleship," to which Marty quips from out of earshot, "Screen door on a submarine, you dork." English isn't his second language though, he's just a dumb side of beef. Even his older self gets fed up with his butcherings of idioms:
-->'''Old Biff''': ''(DopeSlap to '50s Biff)'' It's ''leave'', you ''idiot!'' 'Make like a tree, and ''leave''.' [[SelfDeprecation You sound like a damn fool when you say it wrong!]]
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'', Drax the Destroyer has trouble understanding metaphors.
--->'''Rocket:''' Metaphors are gonna go over his head. \\
'''Drax:''' Nothing goes over my head! My reflexes are too fast, and I would catch it.
** Drax also doesn't understand the 'finger slicing throat' gesture. Later, he uses this as a PreMortemOneLiner by ''saying'' "Finger across throat means death" before killing someone.
** Later in the movie, Quill mentions [[Film/{{Footloose}} a city full of people with "sticks up their butts"]] to Gamora. Gamora then asks him who did such a thing as she believes it's unnecessary cruelty.
** In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', Mantis says that the guardians "kick names and take ass."
** {{Averted|Trope}} in ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' when Captain America is delighted to hear [[Film/TheWizardOfOz a cultural reference]] he ''does'' understand (having presumably run into this trope fairly often because of his [[FishOutOfTemporalWater unfamiliarity with the modern world]]).
* ''Film/{{Airplane}}'': In the {{Flashback}} scene where Ted Stryker relives his first meeting Elaine and asks a sailor seated next to him in the bar to pinch him. The sailor becomes visibly uncomfortable and slides away.

* Occurs often in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''. Pratchett, as a rule, is very, very fond of overanalysing idioms and taking things literally.
** Ankh-Morporkians, in particular, are infamous for their literal-mindedness when it comes to metaphors, and former ruler Olaf Quimby II even wrote a law requiring all metaphors to be able to be made literal. The law still exists, and the current ruler enforces it in order to keep that sort of people occupied. In Quimby's memory, the Morporkians still say "the pen is mightier than a sword" with the addition, "but only if the pen is very sharp and sword very small". Apparently, the king had demanded an unusually smart poet to prove the phrase on himself.
** Archchancellor Ridcully. From ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'':
-->"Using a metaphor with Ridcully was like waving a red flag in front of -- like [[BuffySpeak showing something very annoying to a person who was annoyed by it]]."
** Captain Carrot is a six-foot-tall [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarf]] who has inherited his (adopted) race's understanding of such things as irony ("sort of like iron"). Upon first arriving in Ankh-Morpork in ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', when instructed to "charge these men" he rushes at them [[DualWielding wielding an axe in each hand]] and screaming the ancient Dwarf battlecry "NEE-NAW-NEE-NAW". In the same book, he's told to "throw the book at him" and [[ThrowTheBookAtThem the thrown book smacks the target on the head]], knocking him over a ledge to his DisneyVillainDeath. He seems to have mostly gotten over this in later appearances.
** Also the rogue Auditor Myria [=LeJean=] (a.k.a. Unity).
-->'''Myria:''' Oh. They [Wienrich & Boettcher] make chocolate?\\
'''Susan:''' Does a bear poo in the woods?\\
''[Lady [=LeJean=] looked thoughtful for a moment.]''\\
'''Myria:''' Yes, I believe that most varieties do indeed excrete as you suggest, at least in the temperate zones, but there are several that-\\
'''Susan:''' I meant to say that, yes, they make chocolate.
** The Auditors. For instance, when asked "Can I offer you a drink?" an Auditor will respond that yes, it does believe you are capable of making that request.
** From ''Literature/ThiefOfTime'', an exchange between Wen the Eternally Surprised and not-too-bright apprentice Clodpool.
--> '''Wen:''' But I will teach you how to deal with time as you would a coat, to be worn when necessary and discarded when not.\\
'''Clodpool:''' [[SidetrackedByTheAnalogy Will I have to wash it?]]\\
'''Wen:''' ''(stares at him for a bit)'' [[SeeminglyProfoundFool That was either a very complex piece of thinking on your part, Clodpool,]] [[LampshadeHanging or you were just trying to overextend a metaphor in a very stupid way]].[[note]][[RightForTheWrongReasons Either way]], Clodpool is actually right: Time has to be washed, mended, et cetera, and this is the purpose of the History Monks[[/note]]
** Even Death himself runs into this trope. In ''Literature/ReaperMan'', upon being told that "diamonds are a girl's best friend", he sets off to rob a particularly large one from the Lost Temple of Doom of Offler the Crocodile God. It leads to some shenanigans with the High Priest, the other priest who was not high, and Indiana Jones jokes.

* In the book ''2010'', one of the American astronauts makes a joke about how the tiny quarters are more like sixteenths. Naturally, it has to be explained.
* ''Literature/{{Dragonback}}'': Draycos' response to metaphors is practically a running gag.
-->'''Draycos''': Pardon?\\
'''Jack''': Skip it.
** You'd think Draycos would catch on a little quicker, being a poet and all.

* The viewpoint character of ''[[Literature/TheCuriousIncidentOfTheDogInTheNightTime The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time]]'' has severe Asperger's Syndrome, and points out metaphors and idioms because he can't figure out what they mean. He knows the theory, if not how to apply it, but despises figurative language together with [[Film/GalaxyQuest all other kinds of lies]].
* The eponymous main character of the children's series ''Literature/AmeliaBedelia'' is ''very'' literal minded. If you ask her to dress the chicken, you will receive a fowl wearing a very cute dress. If you ask her to watch for the fork in the road, she will quite diligently keep an eye out for said utensil lying in the roadway. And so on.
* Literature/DonQuixote: Subverted with the Biscayan, who is another of the many {{Victimized Bystander}}s Don Quixote will find in his adventures. He talks exclusively in this fashion when he engages with Don Quixote in a duel to the death. Even with that, Don Quixote understands him perfectly:
-->One of the squires in attendance upon the coach, a Biscayan, was listening to all Don Quixote was saying, and, perceiving that he would not allow the coach to go on, but was saying it must return at once to El Toboso, he made at him, and seizing his lance addressed him in bad Castilian and worse Biscayan after his fashion, "Begone, caballero, and ill go with thee; by the God that made me, unless thou quittest coach, slayest thee as art here a Biscayan."\\
Don Quixote understood him quite well, and answered him very quietly, "If thou wert a knight, as thou art none, I should have already chastised thy folly and rashness, miserable creature." To which the Biscayan returned, "I no gentleman!—I swear to God thou liest as I am Christian: if thou droppest lance and drawest sword, soon shalt thou see thou art carrying water to the cat: Biscayan on land, hidalgo at sea, hidalgo at the devil, and look, if thou sayest otherwise thou liest."
* Professor Abraham Van Helsing in ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'':
-->'''Van Helsing:''' Well, the milk that is spilt cries not out afterwards, as you say.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': The Fae are prone to this. Asking one to "watch my back" will probably have them ask you to lean forward in your chair so they can see it. Particularly old wizards have been known to do it too, as a result of age-inflicted cultural disassociation. When "DrinkingTheKoolAid" is used, Arthur Langtry needs to be reminded of the Jonestown mass suicide, which happened in his lifetime.

* In ''Literature/{{Rihannsu}}: The Empty Chair'' the ''Enterprise'' crew is working closely with a renegade Romulan crew. The other side has been provided with [[TranslatorMicrobes universal translators]] but at one point one of the ''Enterprise'' crew uses an idiom that the UT apparently translated literally, which confuses the Romulan. Uhura complains that she's going to have to adjust the UT's idiom filter again.

* ''Literature/TheCosmere:'' Most worldhoppers have access to a set of Connection effects that let them speak the native language of whatever region they're in. However, if the worldhopper isn't careful, the effect can end up translating their metaphors literally.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Stretch Snodgrass is prone to this, along with his generally mangled grammar. For example, he once says "let's put all of our heads together". Another time ("Two Way Stretch Snodgrass") he mentions having a "king in his lingament".

--> ''EDF soldier'': Now we can cause some damage!
--> ''EDF agent'': You don't say "cause some damage" around Duke Nukem, man. You say we're going to "bust some balls" or "tear shit up".
--> ''EDF soldier'': Oh, right. Uh, let's RUPTURE SOME SPLEENS TOGETHER!
--> ''EDF agent'': Why are you such a douche?

* A Turian in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' makes this mistake with human language.

** It's not just Turians who have a problem. It's actually a major problem with humans in the galactic society: because they talk in a lot of slang, shorthand, and metaphors, other species are utterly perplexed by this manner of speech. For example, an asari socialite in the ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' Citadel DLC:

** In "[[Recap/CptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E9TheBigClamUp The Big Clam-Up]]", Ma-Ti got into Sam Spade type detective novels and tried to use 1940's slang, only to get it all mixed up. One moment, in which he phrased "take the case" as "take the cake", even caused Gaia to engage in a very human moment of sighing.

** Despite all of the main cast inexplicably speaking English, Wheeler frequently had to correct Linka for this type of mistake in the earlier episodes, while the other characters seem to get them fine, despite not growing up in the US either.
** There was one episode where Ma-Ti got into Sam Spade type detective novels and tried to use 1940's slang, only to get it all mixed up.

* Omi in ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' (and carried into ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinChronicles''), so much it became a RunningGag.

''[(Later]''\\

* A commercial for IBM's Watson has two sportscasters talking about a player's skill, and one asks Watson for his statistical take. The computer says the player can hit a jump shot "from a densely populated urban area". One of them clarifies that he means "from way downtown," and Watson says he's still learning

** And this gem:

*** Raimundo is seen fainting in the background with a headache ([[RunningGag normally it's Raimundo who corrects Omi]]).

''[explosion happens under their feet and sends all four monks flying]''\\

* Starfire in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''. Poor girl doesn't know when "People are ''NOT'' talking about shovels".

-> ''EDF soldier'': Now we can cause some damage!
-> ''EDF agent'': You don't say "cause some damage" around Duke Nukem, man. You say we're going to "bust some balls" or "tear shit up".
-> ''EDF soldier'': Oh, right. Uh, let's RUPTURE SOME SPLEENS TOGETHER!
-> ''EDF agent'': Why are you such a douche?

* One of the quips in VideoGame/DukeNukemForever goes as this:
--> ''EDF soldier'': Now we can cause some damage!
--> ''EDF agent'': You don't say "cause some damage" around Duke Nukem, man. You say we're going to "bust some balls" or "tear shit up".
--> ''EDF soldier'': Oh, right. Uh, let's RUPTURE SOME SPLEENS TOGETHER!
--> ''EDF agent'': Why are you such a douche?

Compare MixedMetaphor, Metaphorgotten, BuffySpeak, {{Malaproper}}, ExpospeakGag, SidetrackedByTheAnalogy, PopularSayingBut, and EitherWorldDominationOrSomethingAboutBananas.

Compare MixedMetaphor, BuffySpeak, {{Malaproper}}, ExpospeakGag, SidetrackedByTheAnalogy, PopularSayingBut, and EitherWorldDominationOrSomethingAboutBananas.

** The Auditors in general take this trope UpToEleven. For instance, when asked "Can I offer you a drink?" an Auditor will respond that yes, it does believe you are capable of making that request.

'''Lucifer:''' Sam Winchester, ThisIsYourLife!

-->'''Antoine''': Sacre bleu cheese!

The two most common causes are when a character is a non-native speaker of a language (if not an outright FunnyForeigner), is very LiteralMinded, or came from {{Cloudcuckooland}}.

** In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Drax the Destroyer has trouble understanding metaphors.

** Averted in ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' when Captain America is delighted to hear [[Film/TheWizardOfOz a cultural reference]] he ''does'' understand (having presumably run into this trope fairly often because of his [[FishOutOfTemporalWater unfamiliarity with the modern world]]).

-->'''Kyon:''' "I don't really have a [[{{Meganekko}} glasses fetish]] anyway."\\

* Angol Mois of ''Manga/SgtFrog'' 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.
* Hermes, a talking motorcycle from ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'', 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")

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'':
** Drax the Destroyer has trouble understanding metaphors.