History Main / IntelligibleUnintelligible

* Boomhauer from ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' isn't ''completely'' incomprehensible, just hard to understand due to his MotorMouth speech and constant {{Verbal Tic}}s. Regular characters have no trouble understanding him, though, and in fact consider him the wisest and most eloquent person they know. There's a RunningGag where they can't understand him due to bad phone reception or basically any reason ''but'' his manner of speaking. However, it seems only Arlenites can understand him. Once, he fell asleep while inner tubing and woke up in Houston. Nobody there could understand him and he actually got thrown in a mental institution because everyone thought he was insane (although him walking around in just a speedo definitely also played a part in that).
* Varrick from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra ''’s CatchPhrase is to tell Zhu Li, his GirlFriday, “Zhu Li, do the thing!” and Zhu Li always knows exactly what “the thing” is.

* Discussed on ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' Season 15 when contestant Marcia Marcia Marcia had to interview Latin music legend Creator/{{Charo}}, whose speech patterns can be...a lot for a native English speaker. It became clear during the segment that the extremely-white Marcia couldn't understand a word Charo was saying. Meanwhile, fellow contestant Anetra was watching from backstage and she said that Charo spoke exactly like her older Filipina relatives, so she had no problem keeping up with her.

* Discussed on ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' Season 15 when contestant Marcia Marcia Marcia had to interview Latin music legend Creator/{{Charo}}. It became clear during the segment that the extremely-white Marcia couldn't understand a word Charo was saying; meanwhile, fellow contestant Anetra was watching from backstage and she said that Charo spoke exactly like her older Filipina relatives, so she had no problem keeping up with her.

* Boomhauer from ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' isn't ''completely'' incomprehensible, just hard to understand due to his MotorMouth speech. Regular characters have no trouble understanding him, though, and in fact consider him the wisest and most eloquent person they know. There's a RunningGag where they can't understand him due to bad phone reception or basically any reason ''but'' his manner of speaking. However, it seems only Arlenites can understand him. Once, he fell asleep while inner tubing and woke up in Houston. Nobody there could understand him and he actually got thrown in a mental institution because everyone thought he was insane (although him walking around in just a speedo definitely also played a part in that).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Rabbit's Kin". it is possible to understand the little rabbit's speech, it's just sped up to the point of near unintelligible, if one were to slow it down you can clearly hear what he's saying.

* Mazikeen in ''Comicbook/TheSandman1989'' and ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'' is missing half her face, making her vocalizations barely intelligible to the reader, but the other characters can understand her just fine. In ''Lucifer'' her face was eventually turned normal, so that she could experience proper character development without annoying the hell out of readers trying to interpret her speech bubbles.

* In ''FanFic/ThomasAbridged'', Bert can only communicate by grunting. For some reason, 'Arry can understand him completely.

** Groot's vocabulary in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' is composed almost entirely of "I", "am", and "Groot" (always said in that order). Rocket Raccoon has no trouble understanding what he's saying.

* The reindeers in the ''Film/TheSantaClause''-trilogy communicate in a gibberish kind of language, but Scott/Santa and his elves are able to completly undertand him.

* In ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', most of the monkeys only talk in a monkey version of PokemonSpeak, but the player, and the characters by extension, always gets a perfect translation.

* VideoGame/{{Octodad}} is quite eloquent in his diary entries, but being an octopus, speaks only in a series of blubs. Somehow everyone understands him perfectly and nobody suspects a thing.

* The title character in ''Wizard's Work'' goes around with a smallish dragon which never makes any noise other than ''barking'' and repeats to the game audience what it's supposedly saying. Whether he can actually understand it or is just pretending [[{{UnreliableNarrator}} is debatable]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', ComicBook/KlarionTheWitchboy is able to verbally communicate with his feline {{familiar}} Teekl, despite the fact that Teekl only ever vocalises meows and other cat sounds. This is usually in service of a RunningGag by which Klarion [[{{Malaproper}} uses the wrong word in a sentence or phrase]], and gets annoyed by Teekl's subsequent correction.

* Mazikeen in ''Comicbook/TheSandman'' and ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'' is missing half her face, making her vocalizations barely intelligible to the reader, but the other characters can understand her just fine. In ''Lucifer'' her face was eventually turned normal, so that she could experience proper character development without annoying the hell out of readers trying to interpret her speech bubbles.

** In "The Doctor's Daughter," the Hath are humanoid fish creatures who can only communicate through gurgling, yet Martha seems to understand them without difficulty.

** Another gag had Lizze and Matt [[FreakyFridayFlip switch bodies]] and had Lizzie able to understand him.

* [[Wrestling/HunterJohnston Delirious]]'s speech tends to be pretty hard for most to pick up on and his hand writing tends to be even worse. Yet a select few wrestlers have no problem at all understanding him, such as Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels and Wrestling/DaizeeHaze. Some fans have even managed to pick out ''most'' of what he tries to communicate.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* On ''Series/BearInTheBigBlueHouse'', Bear always seems to understand what Treelo the lemur is saying even though about half the time it's gibberish and even the other children can't understand it.

* ''Machinima/FinalFantasyVIIMachinabridged'''s interpretation of Jessie is this due to an appointment with a [[BackAlleyDoctor Back Alley Dentist]].

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', the Meta speaks in mainly grunts and snarls, but his partner Wash has no problem understanding him. [[spoiler:It's because he got shot in the throat.]]

* Judd the Cat in ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' only communicates via meows whenever he gives advice, but everyone seemingly has no problem understanding what he's saying regardless, the player character included; the same goes for Li'l Judd in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' (who also speaks in meows), and Big Man in ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'' (a manta ray who says "Ay!" for everything). While no explanation is given for Big Man, WordOfGod says that the cats are telepathic.

Fiction may exaggerate, but this trope is [[TruthInTelevision not unheard of in real life]]. People with speech impediments or thick foreign accents tend to be easier to understand by family and longtime friends, leading to conversations that can certainly appear as this trope to onlookers[[note]]such as in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ch_H8pt9M8 the case of]] UsefulNotes/HelenKeller and her various companions[[/note]]. Similarly, [[BabyTalk babies who are learning to talk]] will often be understood by their families much more easily than by adults who haven't been around toddlers anytime lately.

* Deconstructed in the ''VideoGame/KanColle'' doujinshi "[[NeverTrustATitle The Sixth Destroyer Division Will Be Best Friends Forever]]". It starts with Hibiki returning from Russia, having finished her remodelling into Verniy. However, as a side effect, she can now only speak Russian. The rest of the 6th Destroyer Div. can still seemingly understand her due to their friendship. And in the end, Verniy is seemingly at peace, surrounded by her friends. [[spoiler: Then came TheReveal: the rest of the 6th Destroyer Fleet ''completely misunderstood'' pretty much everything Verniy said. She actually hates the green tea she's been given, and has no idea who's this "Hibiki" that they keep talking about, because she was strapped to a [[LaserGuidedAmnesia mind-wiping machine]] as part of her remodelling process, which [[DeathOfPersonality erased her entire personality]].]]

* In ''Manga/SoulEater'', Enrique can only communicate by saying 'gau'. However, his accomplice has no trouble understanding him... In fact, the first thing he does in his big reveal is [[http://xreader.net/Soul-Eater/60/22 say a dirty joke that neither the reader nor the other characters understand]].

* When we finally meet the Breen in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', they speak in an unintelligible electronic buzzing. Despite that, everyone understands them perfectly (as long as their UniversalTranslator is up-to-date), and even complements them on their eloquence.

* For [[WeaselMascot Socks]] from ''Webcomic/CommanderKitty'', it's a little hard to tell for most of the comic, especially since Nin Wah can't understand him. [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2013/02/17/blue-screen-of-dook/ Then this page outright confirms that at least Ace can speak fluent ferret]].

%%* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in [[http://dummcomics.com/2012/02/03/elevator-inaction/ this Frog Raccoon Strawberry]]

* The only thing George of ''Webcomic/AMomentOfPeace'' ever says is 'Meep', but his human friend Evi holds extensive conversations with him over tea and [[spoiler: while plotting to capture monsters.]]

* Octocat from 'WesternAnimation/{{Spliced}}'' can only say meow, but all the other characters can understand her.

* Judd the cat in ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' only communicates via meows whenever he gives advice, but the Inklings (and the player character) seemingly have no problem understanding what he's saying. The same goes for Li'l Judd in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' and Big Man in ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'', who says "Ay!" for everything

* Judd the cat in ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' only communicates via meows whenever he gives advice, but the Inklings (and the player character) seemingly have no problem understanding what he's saying. The same goes for Li'l Judd in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2''.
** Big Man, one of three of the band Deep Cuts from ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'', says "Ay!" for everything. Luckily for the viewers, what he's actually saying is transcribed in the text.

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'': Gru happens to understand minionese, but it is unknown if anyone else can.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': While the title character "speaks" in thought bubbles, the reader can understand everything he says. Odie, on the other hand, only barks, but Garfield is able to interpret him.

* Papa Hodunk's speech in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', despite vaguely sounding like something that resembles Deep South English, is unintelligible; [[EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped even the in-game subtitles render his lines as "(Unintelligible)"]]. His son, however, is always there to translate for you.

* The Monkey Priest in ''Series/FatherTed'' communicates only in 'oohs oohs', but all of the other characters understand him.