History Main / TellHimImNotSpeakingToHim

* A surprisingly grim example comes from ''Literature/TheWolfhound'' series in form of a quirk of the Venn (JustForFun/FantasyCounterpart to the Slavic tribes) culture - they believe that a shared conversation binds just as strongly as a shared meal. If a male Venn (including the titular hero) is giving you this trope, or the SilentTreatment, it means he's seriously considering killing you.

-->-- ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', film version

* ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': Kowalski in the plane is completely skeptical of the help that Captain America may provide, and dismissed him as a mere clown who will die down there alongside everyone else. Rather than reply to him, Cap told Bucky to tell them all that he never lost a crew.

* In ''LightNovel/FateZero'', Kiritsugu keeps his distance from Saber due to their strong mutual dislike, and apart from when he uses Command Seals on her, he primarily communicates to her by speaking to Irisviel, his wife and Saber's decoy master. Because of this, in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Saber recalls only three occasions on which Kiritsugu spoke to her- the uses of said Command Seals.

->'''Hermione:''' Ronald would like me to tell you that Seamus told him... that... Dean was told by Pavarti that Hagrid is looking for you.\\

'''Hermione:''' Uh, em... Dean was told by Pavarti that... Please don't ask me to say it again? Hagrid's looking for you.\\

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', Dr Cox gets annoyed with Elliott for deliberately setting him up to [[FunWithForeignLanguages say the wrong thing to a German patient]], so when she asks him for help, he talks to a ''stapler''. For much of Season Six, once she becomes "Private Practice Barbie", Dr Kelso refuses to acknowledge her existence, and talks to her through the nurses.

Usually PlayedForLaughs, as the behavior is quite farcical and unbecoming of an adult.

A scene with (at least) three characters present (Alice, Bob and Carol). Alice is [[SilentTreatment refusing to talk to Bob for some reason]], so she repeatedly says to Carol, "Please tell Bob...". There are a few variants on this:
* Bob sometimes replies directly, sometimes also via Carol.
* Carol sometimes actually repeats what she's been asked to say, sometimes doesn't bother.
* If it goes on long enough, an exasperated Carol might tell Alice to tell him herself.

Bonus points if Alice and Bob are sitting right next to each other.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Crabgrass}}'': [[https://www.gocomics.com/crabgrass/2020/07/29 This comic]], when Miles and Kevin are no longer on speaking terms due to Kevin's PrecociousCrush on Miles' mom, they try to use Kevin's sister Krystal as a go between. She is not interested however, and so the boys try it with Kevin's baby brother Kody.

* In an early ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'' strip, PeeJee and Aubrey try to talk through Davan, who refuses to co-operate, setting Choo-Choo on them. (They then "try" to talk through Choo-Choo about how they should attack Davan).

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', Dr Cox gets annoyed with Elliott for deliberately setting him up to [[FunWithForeignLanguages say the wrong thing to a German patient]], so when she asks him for help, he talks to a ''stapler''. For much of Season Six, once she becomes "Private Practice Barbie", Dr Kelso refuses to acknowledge her existence, and talks to her through the nurses.
* ''Series/{{Whites}}'': Caroline refuses to speak to Roland at the end of Episode 4, so he has to make conversation with Robin.
* Used in ''Series/BoysBeforeFlowers'', but it takes very little time for Jan Di to get fed up with Jun Pyo and start yelling at him directly.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' had an interesting variant where Howard was not only not talking to Leonard but also insisting that Leonard had passed on ("dead to me"). Sheldon was willing to participate until Howard acknowledged his presence and thereby violated the terms of his own premise.

* In ''Series/AdventuresInWonderland'', the Mad Hatter and March Hare do this in their FeudEpisode, "Party-Pooped," when they find themselves at the same party. But their friends turn the tables on them: they ''all'' start talking like this, with no one speaking directly to anyone else. This confuses the Hatter and Hare so much that they speak to each other without thinking, which leads them to finally make up.

* In the film version of this in ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', Hermione gets so fed up with this in relation to the arguing of Harry and Ron that she finally shouts in exasperation "I'm not an owl!", referential of the post owls in the series.

[[caption-width-right:207:Some may be lost in translation.]]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/IceAge2TheMeltdown'', Ellie doesn't talk to Manny, with Crash and Eddie in the middle, but the middle guys end up rewording the messages she says into their wording, trying to make him leave her alone. For Manny's credit, he ''can'' hear her as they walk. For example:

[[caption-width-right:207:Some may be [[BabyTalk lost in translation]]]]

[[quoteright:208:[[ComicStrip/{{Crabgrass}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tell_him_im_not_speaking_to_him.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:208:Some may be [[BabyTalk lost in translation]]]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'', Clay and Kimiko do this through Omi once. Since they were right next to each other at the time, they directly respond to one another while keeping up the TellHimImNotSpeakingToHim charade, leaving naive Omi to politely try to send the message at each interval. It ends with Raimundo telling Omi to tell them ''both'' that they're giving him a headache.

'''Hogan''': General Burkhalter, according to the Geneva Convention, you cannot bring offensive weapons into a POW camp.\\

'''Klink''': (Shrugs) I don't know.\\

(Burkhalter, Klink, and Hogan all talking at once)\\
'''Schultz''': Pleeeeeease! (They stop talking) Wait for me.

* An episode of ''Series/HogansHeroes'' (if memory serves, the final episode) had an example of this that followed the trope description at the top of the page. Colonel Hogan confronts General Burkhalter about keeping a rocket launcher in the camp, which is a violation of the Geneva Convention. Burkhalter tells Colonel Klink to tell Hogan that he's not speaking to him and won't discuss the matter. Then Burkhalter gets on Klink for talking to Hogan, so Klink tells Sergeant Schultz to tell Hogan that he isn't speaking to him either. Notably, the conversation goes faster and faster until Burkhalter and Hogan and Klink are yelling at each other directly, until Schultz speaks up and asks them to slow down so he can relay what they're not saying to each other.