History TheUnintelligible / WesternAnimation

* Cool [=McCool's=] uncle Tom was incomprehensible to all except Cool's father Harry during the "Harry [=McCool=], My Pop the Cop", segment.

** [[MotorMouth Pinkie Pie]] becomes this in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E9BridleGossip Bridle Gossip]]" when her tongue swells up after walking through the poison joke. When the main cast goes to confront Zecora, thinking she caused the various problems they're suffering with a curse, and Pinkie wants to sing her song about Zecora again, she briefly tries, before begging Fluttershy to do so. Fluttershy agrees, not sounding thrilled about the idea.
** The Breezies speak in a nonsense language that sounds like Swedish mixed with Dutch. Seabreeze, their leader, is the only one who speaks perfect English, and translates what they're saying. Fluttershy also has no problem understanding them due to her cutie mark talent.

* There was also an episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' where there were two old fellows, one of which understood the other's incoherent rambling.

* The villains of the pilot episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'', the Idea Men, could not be understood because the helmets they wore muffled their voices too much. They had to wave a sign with their ransom demands in front of a camera in order to get The City to understand what they wanted.

** Ocho, the 8-bit spider, only spoke in arcade beeps in the pilot and in Season 1. From season 2 on, he [[SuddenlySpeaking can speak English]].

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': James William Bottomtooth III, James William Bottomtooth VI, and Virgil Mastercard.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Quack-Quack only speaks in quacks, which Kaeloo and Mister Cat understand (Stumpy does sometimes, but usually [[RuleOfFunny fails hilariously]]). Apparently a single "quack" is enough to tell about his whole sad life's story.

* The ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''' Tasmanian Devil, with several notable exceptions ([[WesternAnimation/DevilMayHare "What for you bury me in the cold, cold ground?"]]). In the spinoff series ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'', his family seems to understand his growls and gibbers just fine.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Skywhales}}'', the alien tribe speaks a kind of hooting language that's never subtitled for the viewer.

** In one episode they have [[Series/JerseyShore a strange creature from New Jersey called "Snookie"]], which can only speak in weird gibberish and say "Snookie want smoosh-smoosh."

* Gibber, one of the air pirates from ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'', would only whisper into the ear of the person he wished to talk to. The audience never heard exactly what he said, only the other's reaction to it.






* Paw Rugg from ''WesternAnimation/TheHillbillyBears'' on ''WesternAnimation/TheAtomAntShow''; he mumbles most of his sentences where the only intelligible word is usually the last one.
** Discussed in a skit made during the 90s, when the Bears go on a talk show to talk about Paw. Maw admits she has trouble understanding Paw, but while she means she doesn't understand what he's ''saying'', the audience assumes she doesn't understand who he is as a ''person''. The audience suggests Paw can find someone else to be with who will understand him better. [[spoiler: Paw responds by shooting "I Luv U Maw" on the studio wall, and that's all Maw needs to know.]]

* In the Creator/VanBeurenStudios Little King cartoons, he is normally voiceless like in the comics, but in the short "Jest of Honor", he does speak--but it turns out to be indecipherable gibberish.

* The former title character of ''WesternAnimation/WheelieAndTheChopperBunch'' cannot talk like the other characters, instead only communicating by honking and displaying symbols across his windshield.

* In the Creator/VanBeurenStudios Little King cartoons, he is normally voiceless like in the comics, but in the short "Jest of Honor", he does speak--but it turns out to be indecipherable gibberish.
* All adults in the various ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' animated specials. (They are also [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen unseen]].) They all sound like a muted trombone. This is because they were voiced by a trombonist who was told to mimic the line's delivery with the instrument.
* Cool [=McCool's=] uncle Tom was incomprehensible to all except Cool's father Harry during the "Harry [=McCool=], My Pop the Cop", segment.

* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'''s bad guy Warren T. Rat had a minion cockroach, Digit, who could speak words legibly, but when calculating sounded like static on a shortwave system.
* Pretty much every robot in ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' either talks in beeps and whirrs or can only say its name plus a couple of extra words. The irony is it surpasses some other cartoons by doing that alone.
** The bots gain some tonal expressiveness as the movie goes on. EVE, in particular, starts off sounding very robotic and by the middle of the movie has a recognizably human (if distorted) voice.
* H.E.L.P.E.R., the RobotBuddy of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'', speaks in a series of frantic beeps, which doesn't seem to impair any of the characters in the show from understanding what he says. On a couple of occasions, H.E.L.P.E.R. has behaved as if everyone has ''completely'' misunderstood what he was trying to convey, although, considering the audience, they may have simply ignored his advice and done something stupid anyway.
* There was also an episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' where there were two old fellows, one of which understood the other's incoherent rambling.
-->*mumble mumble*
-->"Yes, yes, I know, I know, but where on earth are we going to find a duck and a hose at ''this'' hour?"
* Recurring character, Monsieur Meccaneux the mechanic in ''WesternAnimation/VictorAndHugo'' has a great line in rambling Yorkshire-ese which is often met with mute incomprehension by the brothers.
* Bucky the squirrel from ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', although if Kronk is around, he SpeaksFluentAnimal.
* Ruffled Feather from the "Go Go Gophers" segments of ''WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}'' speaks a fictitious American Indian language. It doesn't offer much variety to the phonemes; in fact, if Running Board didn't understand him, we might assume that he just sputters insanely. This is ironic, because Ruffled Feather is TheSmartGuy who comes up with most of their plans to screw up the cavalry.
* In ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'', Old Fred tries to get the Beatles to help him, but his agitation has his entreaty to each of them coming out in frantic, unintelligible gibberish, always ending in "...BLUE MEANIEEEES!!!" (which, by the time they get to George, Ringo and John have joined in).

* Without a [[TranslatorMicrobes Universal Translator Mustache]], the alien Meap from the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "The Chronicles of Meap" can only say the word "meap", which is utterly meaningless to English speakers. To be fair, though, it's evidently a legitimate language amongst his species, where the single word contains ''implausibly'' high amounts of context and nuance. To illustrate, in "Meapless in Seattle", Meap has to warn his home planet that [[spoiler:the villain, Mitch, had obtained the source of Cutonium and was returning with it to their home planet with the intent to take it over, and as such to ready the armies for war]]. Trying to explain the situation in English to another fellow alien only gets a confused "meap?" in response; taking off the translator mustache and uttering a single "meap", however, gets ''all of that'' across instantly.
** In "Tri-Stone Area", the entire ''cast'' is turned into this, since the episode revolves around caveman versions of the main characters who spend the episode speaking in a nigh-incomprehensible caveman language and in Doofenshmirtz's case, grunting, with the only English coming from the photo-animation cutaways that feature the animators explaining what's going on, and Phineas and Ferb's caveman ancestors explaining about introducing their new language (English), to the others tomorrow. Due to the StrictlyFormula nature of the show and its frequent use of catchphrases, however, someone familiar enough with the show will still likely be able to understand what the characters are saying.
* ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'':
** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': The stonebacks are intelligent creatures, but cannot speak -- they just make animalistic grunts and noises -- making it very difficult for others to understand them.
** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** [[MotorMouth Pinkie Pie]] becomes this in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E9BridleGossip Bridle Gossip]]" when her tongue swells up after walking through the poison joke. When the main cast goes to confront Zecora, thinking she caused the various problems they're suffering with a curse, and Pinkie wants to sing her song about Zecora again, she briefly tries, before begging Fluttershy to do so. Fluttershy agrees, not sounding thrilled about the idea.
** The Breezies speak in a nonsense language that sounds like Swedish mixed with Dutch. Seabreeze, their leader, is the only one who speaks perfect English, and translates what they're saying. Fluttershy also has no problem understanding them due to her cutie mark talent.
* Used to sneak a muffled PrecisionFStrike past censors in ''BURN-E'', one of the ''WesternAnimation/PixarShorts'' that came alongside ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', who does not speak actual words as OTTO and WALL•E or EVE do, merely electronic "sounds" that resemble words.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry: Shiver Me Whiskers'', the red and blue pirates speak in variations of "Argh" while their parrots translate for them. However, the purple pirate speaks normally and it's his parrot who speaks in "Argh".

* Yellowtail (and to a lesser degree, his son [[TheVoiceless Onion]]) from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''. Sour Cream lapses into the same odd speech as step-father and half-brother in "Drop Beat Dad".
** In "Super Watermeleon Island", Steven's sentient watermelon clones speak in roars.
* Like his spiritual predecessor and SitcomArchNemesis [[Franchise/StarWars Artoo-Deetoo]], the astromech droid C1-10P, aka "Chopper" in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' talks in unintelligible droid-speak, though not the same format as Artoo.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Skywhales}}'', the alien tribe speaks a kind of hooting language that's never subtitled for the viewer.
* ''WesternAnimation/BillAndBenTheFlowerpotMen'' only speak a made-up language called "Oddlepoddle" which consists of the word "flobbalop" and variations on said word.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse'' cartoon "Guillver Mickey", the Lilliputian General due to his tiny size and high pitched voice is completely incomprehensible when he speaks to Mickey. The only intelligible word he utters is "fire!" when he orders his men to shoot Mickey with their cannons.
* Ricky's great-grandmother from ''WesternAnimation/RapsittieStreetKidsBelieveInSanta''. She speaks in unintelligible mumbles followed by a word or short sentence related to the conversation. However, according to her voice actress Debra Wilson, she had been given actual dialogue but the editors decided to splice her dialogue together so she couldn't be understood.
* Slimer in ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' and the SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeGhostbusters'' essentially only mumbles. In one episode they provide him with a text-reader computer for him to write his thoughts, but it's never used again. The reason why Slimer can't talk normally is never explained as other ghosts do speak normally, like Buster.
* The Twins in ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries''. They are always speaking their StarfishLanguage. Nevertheless everyone on the MIB personnel seem able to understand them except for J and the audience.
* Mr. Mammoth in ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons'' speaks only in mumbles. Luckily he has an assistant that translates for him to the rest of the characters.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' episode "Chip Tracy" a parody of ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' we have the gangster Grumbles based on the villain Mumbles, who is a caricature of Edward G. Robinson who mumbles gibberish that only Alvin as Chip Tracy and Eleanor's character can understand. At one point Theodore asks what he's saying and he gives him a device that translates his gibberish into coherent speech and gives away his boss' plans.
* ''WesternAnimation/MattsMonsters'': Dink, the teams [[NonHumanSidekick monster sidekick]], speaks in his own language, which only Matt can understand.
* ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks'': The Ninjalinos and PJ Robot both speak in their own language which is incomprehensible to the viewer. Night Ninja can understand his ninjalinos, and the PJ Masks can understand PJ Robot.
* While in ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' Nathan's speaking voice is mostly understandable, his ''singing'' voice can fall into this, understandable because he's the singer for a death metal band, which as mentioned in the Music category is famous for this. It's lampshaded at one point when he tells Pickles he's sure he can fit the word 'destiny' into a song at one point cause it's not like anyone understands what he sings anyway.
* In the pilot of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueAction'', John Constantine is afflicted with an "accent exaggeration spell" that renders his speech nearly incomprehensible (though [[TheSmartGuy Batman]] can usually figure out what he's saying).
* Murfel from ''WesternAnimation/PinkPantherAndSons'' mumbles gibberish that the other panthers translate for the audience.
* Whenever Flip from ''WesternAnimation/PetAlien'' speaks, it comes out as a string of gibberish with only the last few words being decipherable.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocoyo}}'': Elly makes trumpet noises, Pato quacks, Fred the Octopus speaks in random gibberish, and Nina speaks in a Spanish-like language. Thankfully, the Narrator understands all of them.
* ''WesternAnimation/KampKoral'': Downplayed with Nobby, who mainly speaks in rapid gibberish with very few intelligible words, sometimes repeating what other people have said. Nobody can understand his babbling except for Narlene, who will usually explain it to other characters. There are also a few instances of Nobby speaking full, understandable sentences: he imitates Mr. Krabs in "In a Nut's Shell", narrates a wrestling match in "Regi-Hilled", and speaks for much of "My Fair Nobby".

* In the Creator/VanBeurenStudios Little King cartoons, he is normally voiceless like in the comics, but in the short "Jest of Honor", he does speak--but it turns out to be indecipherable gibberish.
* Tooter Shellby in ''WesternAnimation/TheSnorks'' can't speak, but only toot out of his snorkel. The other Snorks can't understand him, but some other sealife can.
* All adults in the various ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' animated specials. (They are also [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen unseen]].) They all sound like a muted trombone. This is because they were voiced by a trombonist who was told to mimic the line's delivery with the instrument.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''
** Kenny's mouth is (almost) always covered by his parka, so his speech comes through as muted nonsense. Matt Stone is actually saying lines through his hand, and knowing the context can usually allow you to recognize many of the words. This allows the creators to get through some words that would otherwise be censored. Some of his speech is readable in closed captions. Other times his dialogue consists of verbal gibberish used for comic effect, as a sort of "fill in the blanks" device. Because we rarely hear Kenny's unmuffled voice, the identity of [[spoiler:Mysterion]] is not spoiled early just by hearing his voice, due to the fact that he takes a gruff intonation that clashes with the clean [[spoiler:farewell in TheMovie]].
** Timmy can only say his own name and a series of meaningless grunts. This was originally supposed to represent his mental disability. However, in later episodes he occasionally shows understanding of complex situations, and attempts to communicate complicated messages through inflection and gestures. However, this is subverted in VideoGame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole when he undergoes his superhero persona, [[PsychicPowers Doctor Timothy,]] a parody of X-Men's Professor Xavier, being able to speak with the other characters in complete and cognitive sentences through telepathy, with an eloquent accent to boot.
** In one episode they have [[Series/JerseyShore a strange creature from New Jersey called "Snookie"]], which can only speak in weird gibberish and say "Snookie want smoosh-smoosh."
* All the characters in ''WesternAnimation/{{Molang}}'' speak in an unintelligible chatter, however, you can easily understand it with the episode's context and Creator/{{Netflix}} even offers accurate subtitles for it.
* Snowpea in ''WesternAnimation/MuchaLucha'' is only capable of saying [[AmbiguousGender their]] [[PokemonSpeak own name]].
* Man, talkin' bout dang ol' Boomhauer on ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''. Boomhauer's speech actually is decipherable, but his MotorMouth pacing, array of {{verbal tic}}s, and thick UsefulNotes/{{a|mericanAccents}}ccent often make it possible only to get the gist of what he's saying. The show often subverts the gag in a variety of ways for comedy:

* Cool [=McCool's=] uncle Tom was incomprehensible to all except Cool's father Harry during the "Harry [=McCool=], My Pop the Cop", segment.
* In a similar manner, Papi on ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'' speaks only in Spanish, with accurate subtitles about how much he hates Suga Mama.
* Gibber, one of the air pirates from ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'', would only whisper into the ear of the person he wished to talk to. The audience never heard exactly what he said, only the other's reaction to it.
* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'''s bad guy Warren T. Rat had a minion cockroach, Digit, who could speak words legibly, but when calculating sounded like static on a shortwave system.
* Lil' Cheney on ''WesternAnimation/LilBush'', he begins all his sentences with rah, rah, rah followed by a random word relating the conversation.

* Pretty much every robot in ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' either talks in beeps and whirrs or can only say its name plus a couple of extra words. The irony is it surpasses some other cartoons by doing that alone.
** The bots gain some tonal expressiveness as the movie goes on. EVE, in particular, starts off sounding very robotic and by the middle of the movie has a recognizably human (if distorted) voice.
* Wasabi on ''WesternAnimation/SushiPack'' speaks only "mustard", but the other members of the Pack can understand him just fine. Ben, not so much.
* H.E.L.P.E.R., the RobotBuddy of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'', speaks in a series of frantic beeps, which doesn't seem to impair any of the characters in the show from understanding what he says. On a couple of occasions, H.E.L.P.E.R. has behaved as if everyone has ''completely'' misunderstood what he was trying to convey, although, considering the audience, they may have simply ignored his advice and done something stupid anyway.
* The title character in ''WesternAnimation/IvorTheEngine'' could only communicate through his organ-pipe whistle. How comprehensible he was varied from episode to episode and character to character, though Jones the Steam seemed able to hold full conversations with him.
* The eponymous character of the Canadian cartoon ''WesternAnimation/KevinSpencer'' apparently does speak, and the other characters around him react as if he had actually said something, but the audience never hears his voice. Instead, the show's voice-over narrator tells us what Kevin "says."

* There was also an episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' where there were two old fellows, one of which understood the other's incoherent rambling.
-->*mumble mumble*
-->"Yes, yes, I know, I know, but where on earth are we going to find a duck and a hose at ''this'' hour?"
* The World Leader in ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretShow'' speaks in an unintelligible gargle that only her husband can understand -- he translates for both the viewers and the other characters. [[AllThereInTheManual The show's now-defunct website claimed that she was actually speaking in Ancient Aztec]].
* Recurring character, Monsieur Meccaneux the mechanic in ''WesternAnimation/VictorAndHugo'' has a great line in rambling Yorkshire-ese which is often met with mute incomprehension by the brothers.
* All dogs in ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyB'' are The Unintelligible. This wouldn't normally be worth noting, except for the fact that they're the kind that the other characters can understand fine, just not the audience.
* Gary, WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants's pet snail, can only communicate through meows, but everyone understands him just fine.
** Except at one point where his response to one of [=SpongeBob=]'s borderline [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} insane]] ideas is, "Ehh, NO."
--->'''[=SpongeBob=]:''' Oh what do you know? You're a snail!
** And when [=SpongeBob=] was able to visit Gary's dream, revealing the snail's true [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness loquacious nature]].
** In an episode where Gary starts a pet riot, [=SpongeBob=] says he speaks some snail language.
* Bucky the squirrel from ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', although if Kronk is around, he SpeaksFluentAnimal.
* Grubber of the Gangreen Gang in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'', who communicates purely in raspberries. Despite this, he can still imitate people's voices flawlessly and once demonstrated that if he stands up straight he speaks clearly (and generally looks less weird).
* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Spliced}}'', all of Octocat's dialogue is simply just cat noises. The responses from other characters indicate that she's quite got quite the sharp tongue however.
* Ruffled Feather from the "Go Go Gophers" segments of ''WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}'' speaks a fictitious American Indian language. It doesn't offer much variety to the phonemes; in fact, if Running Board didn't understand him, we might assume that he just sputters insanely. This is ironic, because Ruffled Feather is TheSmartGuy who comes up with most of their plans to screw up the cavalry.
* Ron Stoppable's pet mole rat, Rufus, in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible''.
* Fiskerton of ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'' speaks in a series of grunts and mumbles. [[WordOfGod According to the series creator]], his voice actor has a script of what he would say in English, but translates it to 'Fisk-speak'. Fisk does have bits of easily intelligible speech mixed in with the gibberish (most notably, his {{catchphrase}}, "Say what?"), though.
* Sputz, one of the members of Lars' clique, in ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'', though Lars seemed to be able to understand him perfectly.

-->'''Homer:''' Marge! (unintelligible nonsense spoken rapidly)
-->'''Marge:''' Homer, slow down!
-->'''Homer:''' (unintelligible nonsense spoken slowly)
-->'''Marge:''' ''Think'' before you say each word!

* Rico from ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' to an extent. Although as the series progresses, his vocabulary increases to occasionally include intelligible phrases and words besides "Ka-boom!"
* Clockwork Smurf and Wild Smurf of ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' are both this in the cartoon show, whereas in the comic books they either are able to speak in Smurf language from the start or learn how to do so.

* Vulturo of ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'' has this as a VerbalTic where he descends into incomprehensible mumbling every sentence.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'', Quack-Quack only speaks in quacks, which Kaeloo and Mister Cat understand (Stumpy does sometimes, but usually [[RuleOfFunny fails hilariously]]). Apparently a single "quack" is enough to tell about his whole sad life's story.
** Quack Quack's girlfriend, Eugly, also communicates through mumbles or HandSignals. Usually, the others understand this, but they may need Pretty or Quack Quack to translate for them.

* In the WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones spin-off series The New Fred and Barney Show episode "Fred & Barney Meet the Frankenstones", the Frankenstone's daughter Atrocia often mumbled gibberish and laughs to herself, her mother Lydia translates for Fred and Barney when they ask what she's saying.

* WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck is probably the most well-known example of this in animation. Granted, he's usually this status for the ''audience''. Donald's iconic "quacking" accent has always made him the hardest of the Disney core lineup to understand, with many famous mondegreens arising from it, but it ''is'' completely possible to comprehend him once you're used to the voice, making him a [[DownplayedTrope downplayed example]]. This does not carry over to the comics, where he is completely comprehensible since the writers don't bother to transcribe his accent.
** ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' is one of the first instances where Donald is treated as being this InUniverse, [[PhraseCatcher constantly inspiring people to ask "What did he say?"]] to the people who can actually understand him. In fact, it's believed a combination of this and fear he'd steal the show was the reason he was removed from the main cast and replaced with [[CanonForeigner Launchpad McQuack]].
** This was [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' short "Mickey's April Fools"; While Mickey was pranking Mortimer into thinking that he killed him by running him over with his car, he asks Mortimer to tell Donald that "he never understood a word he said" as part of his dying wish.
** Donald's inability to be understood carries over into the reboot, ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', where it's eventually revealed even his own ''nephews'' have a hard time understanding him: Huey says he relies on context clues, Louie understands "every third word", and Dewey flat out thinks he's completely unintelligible. That same episode then immediately subverts this, as a fed up Gyro proceeds to force a voice modulator down Donald's throat that makes him sound like Creator/DonCheadle for the remainder of the episode. Really, the only characters that don't have to constantly wonder what he's saying are Uncle Scrooge and [[spoiler:Donald's twin sister, Della]]. {{Deconstructed}} in the second season, where it's revealed that part of Donald's anger issues stem from being this trope. Finally, part of why Donald hits it off with Daisy in the third season is because she turns out to understand everything he says without even trying.
--->'''Donald:''' Nobody listens to me either. They don't understand me.\\
'''Daisy:''' Well, that's weird. I understand you perfectly!\\
''*Donald smiles*''

* In the Creator/VanBeurenStudios Little King cartoons, he is normally voiceless like in the comics, but in the short "Jest of Honor", he does speak--but it turns out to be indecipherable gibberish.
* Tooter Shellby in ''WesternAnimation/TheSnorks'' can't speak, but only toot out of his snorkel. The other Snorks can't understand him, but some other sealife can.
* All adults in the various ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' animated specials. (They are also [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen unseen]].) They all sound like a muted trombone. This is because they were voiced by a trombonist who was told to mimic the line's delivery with the instrument.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''
** Kenny's mouth is (almost) always covered by his parka, so his speech comes through as muted nonsense. Matt Stone is actually saying lines through his hand, and knowing the context can usually allow you to recognize many of the words. This allows the creators to get through some words that would otherwise be censored. Some of his speech is readable in closed captions. Other times his dialogue consists of verbal gibberish used for comic effect, as a sort of "fill in the blanks" device. Because we rarely hear Kenny's unmuffled voice, the identity of [[spoiler:Mysterion]] is not spoiled early just by hearing his voice, due to the fact that he takes a gruff intonation that clashes with the clean [[spoiler:farewell in TheMovie]].
** Timmy can only say his own name and a series of meaningless grunts. This was originally supposed to represent his mental disability. However, in later episodes he occasionally shows understanding of complex situations, and attempts to communicate complicated messages through inflection and gestures. However, this is subverted in VideoGame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole when he undergoes his superhero persona, [[PsychicPowers Doctor Timothy,]] a parody of X-Men's Professor Xavier, being able to speak with the other characters in complete and cognitive sentences through telepathy, with an eloquent accent to boot.
** In one episode they have [[Series/JerseyShore a strange creature from New Jersey called "Snookie"]], which can only speak in weird gibberish and say "Snookie want smoosh-smoosh."
* All the characters in ''WesternAnimation/{{Molang}}'' speak in an unintelligible chatter, however, you can easily understand it with the episode's context and Creator/{{Netflix}} even offers accurate subtitles for it.
* Coco in ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends''. Frequently, the other characters repeat her lines a la RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear: "Coco coco!" "Ripoff artist?!?" The ambigious nature of her dialogue is often played for laughs, such as when Coco makes a suggestion about dealing with a common enemy that leaves everyone else shaken and Mac replying "[[NoodleIncident I think we'd go to jail if we did that]]." Her clucking does, however, match the syllables of an equivalent, sensible phrase in English ("Co-CO!"/"Yeah, right!").
* Snowpea in ''WesternAnimation/MuchaLucha'' is only capable of saying [[AmbiguousGender their]] [[PokemonSpeak own name]].
* Man, talkin' bout dang ol' Boomhauer on ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''. Boomhauer's speech actually is decipherable, but his MotorMouth pacing, array of {{verbal tic}}s, and thick UsefulNotes/{{a|mericanAccents}}ccent often make it possible only to get the gist of what he's saying. The show often subverts the gag in a variety of ways for comedy:
** Sometimes he momentarily becomes ''completely'' incomprehensible (except for his usual {{verbal tic}}s), and for the character he's talking to to act like he just said something profound.
** Another gag is for minor characters to not understand him at all, even when he is being relatively clear.
** And yet another is for his friends to tell him they can't understand a word he's saying... due to echo/bad phone reception/any reason other than his speech patterns.
** In the RashomonStyle episode "A Fire Fighting We Will Go", during Boomhauer's retelling of the events, he speaks perfectly normally, while ''everyone else'' speaks the way he usually does.
** His mother and younger brother share his unique speech patterns.
** Lampshaded in an early episode where Hank makes friends with Willie Nelson; at Nelson's party, we see Boomhauer talking to Music/BobDylan, who's just as hard to understand.
** In the episode "The Bluegrass Is Always Greener" he turns out to [[SingingVoiceDissonance actually have a perfectly clear and intelligible singing voice]] (provided by Music/VinceGill).
** The basis of the joke is you have to be a True Texan to understand him.
** KOTH creator Creator/MikeJudge [[WriteWhoYouKnow based Boomhauer's voice on an angry hillbilly who called complaining about]] ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' (which he called "Porky's Butthole").

* Japanese exchange student Toshi on ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. He has accurate subtitles, but his friends [[FunWithForeignLanguages always react as if he said something else entirely]]. In fact, he and his family are completely fluent in English but he refuses to speak it out of PatrioticFervor.
* Cool [=McCool's=] uncle Tom was incomprehensible to all except Cool's father Harry during the "Harry [=McCool=], My Pop the Cop", segment.
* In a similar manner, Papi on ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'' speaks only in Spanish, with accurate subtitles about how much he hates Suga Mama.
* Mush-Mouth on ''WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids''. Though his speech was simply normal speech with a "buh" added after every vowel, and was thus entirely intelligible i-buf you-buh pai-bud a-butte-buntio-bun.
* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'', in which Ling-Ling (a send-up of Pikachu from ''Pokemon'') speaks in badly garbled pseudo-Japanese, called Oriental in one episode; the other characters have to read his subtitles to understand him, when they can at all.
* Gibber, one of the air pirates from ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'', would only whisper into the ear of the person he wished to talk to. The audience never heard exactly what he said, only the other's reaction to it.
* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'''s bad guy Warren T. Rat had a minion cockroach, Digit, who could speak words legibly, but when calculating sounded like static on a shortwave system.
* Likewise, in the Clyde Crashcup shorts on ''WesternAnimation/TheAlvinShow'', Crashcup's assistant Leonardo would only communicate by whispering into Clyde's ear.
** He did speak audibly on one occasion, when upset with Clyde, in a sort of whimpering wail without any real words to it.
* Simon on ''WesternAnimation/FriskyDingo'', who speaks only in quiet mumbles which the characters in the show can apparently understand but which are incomprehensible to the viewer. On careful examination, it appears that the voice actor simply repeats the same nonsense sentence fragments, such as "When I was seven..." over and over.
* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10''
** When Ben is in his beastly Wildmutt form, he speaks only in growls and roars, [[AliensSpeakingEnglish unlike every single other one of his alien forms]]. There's nobody who can understand him, though. In one episode, Ben tries communicating with other Vulpimancers (Wildmutt's species) to no avail. According to WordOfGod the Vulpimancers lack the vocal anatomy to speak other languages, with their own requiring special {{Universal Translator}}s to understand. Averted with Wildmutt's Ultimate Form, who is capable of speaking proper speech.
** The alien bounty hunter Sixsix, who appears in the episodes "Hunted" and "Galactic Enforcers" and the made-for-tv movie ''Secret of the Omnitrix'', speaks an unknown alien language. Those working with him tend to be able to understand him, and it's implied that he's pretty mouthy. Apparently you can avoid RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear if no one wants to repeat it.
* Lil' Cheney on ''WesternAnimation/LilBush'', he begins all his sentences with rah, rah, rah followed by a random word relating the conversation.
* ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'': The raccoons in "Heart of Parkness" can only speak in nonsense Native gibberish; their bird sidekick Joey Featherton translates for them.
* Shnitzel in ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'' can only say "Radda," but everyone can understand him as if he's saying full sentences.

* Pretty much every robot in ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' either talks in beeps and whirrs or can only say its name plus a couple of extra words. The irony is it surpasses some other cartoons by doing that alone.
** The bots gain some tonal expressiveness as the movie goes on. EVE, in particular, starts off sounding very robotic and by the middle of the movie has a recognizably human (if distorted) voice.
* Wasabi on ''WesternAnimation/SushiPack'' speaks only "mustard", but the other members of the Pack can understand him just fine. Ben, not so much.
* On ''[[Franchise/CareBears Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-lot]],'' the robot Wingnut speaks in beeps, whirrs, and clicks, but all the Care Bears are able to understand him. Oddly, his creator, Grizzle, is unable to understand him. In one episode, Wingnut translated for another robot that only spoke in blurps.
* H.E.L.P.E.R., the RobotBuddy of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'', speaks in a series of frantic beeps, which doesn't seem to impair any of the characters in the show from understanding what he says. On a couple of occasions, H.E.L.P.E.R. has behaved as if everyone has ''completely'' misunderstood what he was trying to convey, although, considering the audience, they may have simply ignored his advice and done something stupid anyway.

* The title character in ''WesternAnimation/IvorTheEngine'' could only communicate through his organ-pipe whistle. How comprehensible he was varied from episode to episode and character to character, though Jones the Steam seemed able to hold full conversations with him.
* Zipper on ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' rarely speaks anything the viewer can understand due to his often fast and very high-pitched voice (the high pitch being appropriate for him being a fly). The other Rescue Rangers all seem to be able to understand him to some degree, although Monterey Jack is really the only one who seems to be able to understand him perfectly.
** WesternAnimation/ChipAndDale themselves were The Unintelligible in most of their shorts with Donald Duck.
** If one were to slow down their dialogue, they speak very clearly; it's worth noting that until 1950, all of their dialogue was repeated from their first episode, "Private Pluto".
* The eponymous character of the Canadian cartoon ''WesternAnimation/KevinSpencer'' apparently does speak, and the other characters around him react as if he had actually said something, but the audience never hears his voice. Instead, the show's voice-over narrator tells us what Kevin "says."
* The ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''' Tasmanian Devil, with several notable exceptions ([[WesternAnimation/DevilMayHare "What for you bury me in the cold, cold ground?"]]). In the spinoff series ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'', his family seems to understand his growls and gibbers just fine.
** There's also Buster/Shorty from the short "Rabbit's Kin", his high pitched sped up voice makes it difficult to understand what he is trying to say, however, if you were to play it in slow motion you can understand him perfectly.
** WesternAnimation/LolaBunny in ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'' when she's talking really fast.
* The Godpigeon in the "Goodfeathers" shorts on ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' spoke in such an impossible mumble (an extreme [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed parody]] of Creator/MarlonBrando as [[Film/TheGodfather Don Corleone]]) that he had to be translated by his associates. The one time he was subtitled, the pigeon he was talking to completely misunderstood him. (He thought he was being given romantic advice; the Godpigeon really just wanted to go get pasta.)
* There was also an episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' where there were two old fellows, one of which understood the other's incoherent rambling.
-->*mumble mumble*
-->"Yes, yes, I know, I know, but where on earth are we going to find a duck and a hose at ''this'' hour?"
* The World Leader in ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretShow'' speaks in an unintelligible gargle that only her husband can understand -- he translates for both the viewers and the other characters. [[AllThereInTheManual The show's now-defunct website claimed that she was actually speaking in Ancient Aztec]].
* Recurring character, Monsieur Meccaneux the mechanic in ''WesternAnimation/VictorAndHugo'' has a great line in rambling Yorkshire-ese which is often met with mute incomprehension by the brothers.
* All dogs in ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyB'' are The Unintelligible. This wouldn't normally be worth noting, except for the fact that they're the kind that the other characters can understand fine, just not the audience.
* Gary, WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants's pet snail, can only communicate through meows, but everyone understands him just fine.
** Except at one point where his response to one of [=SpongeBob=]'s borderline [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} insane]] ideas is, "Ehh, NO."
--->'''[=SpongeBob=]:''' Oh what do you know? You're a snail!
** And when [=SpongeBob=] was able to visit Gary's dream, revealing the snail's true [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness loquacious nature]].
** In an episode where Gary starts a pet riot, [=SpongeBob=] says he speaks some snail language.
* Bucky the squirrel from ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', although if Kronk is around, he SpeaksFluentAnimal.
* Grubber of the Gangreen Gang in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'', who communicates purely in raspberries. Despite this, he can still imitate people's voices flawlessly and once demonstrated that if he stands up straight he speaks clearly (and generally looks less weird).
* Klunk and the General, in ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines''.

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Spliced}}'', all of Octocat's dialogue is simply just cat noises. The responses from other characters indicate that she's quite got quite the sharp tongue however.
* Ruffled Feather from the "Go Go Gophers" segments of ''WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}'' speaks a fictitious American Indian language. It doesn't offer much variety to the phonemes; in fact, if Running Board didn't understand him, we might assume that he just sputters insanely. This is ironic, because Ruffled Feather is TheSmartGuy who comes up with most of their plans to screw up the cavalry.
* Ron Stoppable's pet mole rat, Rufus, in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible''.
* Fiskerton of ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'' speaks in a series of grunts and mumbles. [[WordOfGod According to the series creator]], his voice actor has a script of what he would say in English, but translates it to 'Fisk-speak'. Fisk does have bits of easily intelligible speech mixed in with the gibberish (most notably, his {{catchphrase}}, "Say what?"), though.
* Sputz, one of the members of Lars' clique, in ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'', though Lars seemed to be able to understand him perfectly.
** Sam even once referred to him as [[WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids "Mush Mouth"]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** One episode had Homer telling Marge something in a panic.
-->'''Homer:''' Marge! (unintelligible nonsense spoken rapidly)
-->'''Marge:''' Homer, slow down!
-->'''Homer:''' (unintelligible nonsense spoken slowly)
-->'''Marge:''' ''Think'' before you say each word!
** Elenor Abernathy, aka the Crazy Cat Lady, is an insane old woman who yells gibberish at people while throwing cats at them. There have been a handful of occasions where she's spoken intelligibly, such as her backstory that shows how she sunk into a depression and got cats for company, and when she takes her medication, which is actually Reese's Pieces.
* On his second appearance on ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Sylvester Calzone's]] speech is so slurred it's impossible for the viewer to understand him.
* In ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'', Old Fred tries to get the Beatles to help him, but his agitation has his entreaty to each of them coming out in frantic, unintelligible gibberish, always ending in "...BLUE MEANIEEEES!!!" (which, by the time they get to George, Ringo and John have joined in).
* James William Bottomtooth III, James William Bottomtooth VI and Virgil Mastercard from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.

* The adults in ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''. Any time we hear them "speaking", it is usually garbled mumbling or sound effects.
** Interestingly deconstructed in "Once Upon an Ed" with Double D in Ed's story. In the latter's story, Double D only babbles incoherently, which makes sense considering the story is [[ATaleToldByAnIdiot told in Ed's perspective]] and as we all know, this is all Ed hears whenever Double D speaks in verbose vocabulary.

* Epoch from ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand''; his associates understand his screeching and gibbering just fine.

* Bluey from ''WesternAnimation/AvengerPenguins'' spoke in some nearly incomprehensible language.
* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Nixon's clone of Spiro Agnew could only speak in grunts due to his lack of a head.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BobbysWorld'' episode "Geriatric Park" Mr. Kelso the nursing home resident who is mistaken for Bobby's great grandfather is completely incomprehensible without his dentures, whenever he tries to speak it comes out as garbled mumbling, he starts speaking clearly once he gets them back.

* The Snorch from ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters'' speaks in gibberish and [[TranslatorBuddy Zimbo acts as his translator]]. In "I Heard the Snorch Call My Name", he's fitted with an electronic voice box that allows him to speak normally, revealing himself to be [[FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome a smart and sensitive creature]]. Unfortunately, [[StatusQuoIsGod it doesn't last]] and he's quite downcast when he returns to normal.

** Interestingly deconstructed in "Once Upon an Ed" with Double D in Ed's story. In the latter's story, Double D only babbles incoherently, which makes sense considering the story is told in Ed's perspective and as we all know, this is all Ed hears whenever Double D speaks in verbose vocabulary.

* The Twins in ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack''. They are always speaking their StarfishLanguage. Nevertheless everyone on the MIB personnel seem able to understand them except for J and the audience.

** In "Tri-Stone Area", the entire ''cast'' is turned into this, since the episode revolves around caveman versions of the main characters who spend the episode speaking in a nigh-incomprehensible caveman language and in Doofenshmirtz's case, grunting, with the only English coming from the photo-animation cutaways that feature the animators explaining what's going on. Due to the StrictlyFormula nature of the show and its frequent use of catchphrases, however, someone familiar enough with the show will still likely be able to understand what the characters are saying.

** When Ben is in his beastly Wildmutt form, he speaks only in growls and roars, [[AliensSpeakingEnglish unlike every single other one of his alien forms]]. There's nobody who can understand him, though. In one episode, Ben tries communicating with other Vulpimancers (Wildmutt's species) to no avail. According to WordOfGod the Vulpimancers lack the vocal anatomy to speak other languages, with their own requiring special {{Universal Translator}}s to understand.

* H.E.L.P.E.R., the RobotBuddy of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', speaks in a series of frantic beeps, which doesn't seem to impair any of the characters in the show from understanding what he says.
** On a couple of occasions H.E.L.P.E.R. has behaved as if everyone has ''completely'' misunderstood what he was trying to convey, although, considering the audience, they may have simply ignored his advice and done something stupid anyway.

* The ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''' Tasmanian Devil, with several notable exceptions ("What for you bury me in the cold, cold ground?"). In the spinoff series ''Taz-mania'', his family seems to understand his growls and gibbers just fine.

** Lola Bunny in ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'' when she's talking really fast.

* WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck is probably the most well-known example of this in animation. Granted, he's usually this status for the ''audience''. Donald's iconic "quacking" accent has always made him the hardest of the Disney core lineup to understand, with many famous mondegreens arising from it, but it ''is'' completely possible to comprehend him once you're used to the voice, making him a [[DownplayedTrope downplayed example]].

* The (very un-P.C.) animated adaptation of ''[[WesternAnimation/TheDickTracyShow Dick Tracy]]'' from 1961 had, of course, Mumbles. His partner in crime, Stooge Villa, was the only character (or at least, only other gangster) that could understand him.

* In the WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones spin-off series The New Fred and Barney Show episode “Fred & Barney Meet the Frankenstones” the Frankenstone’s daughter Atrocia often mumbled gibberish and laughs to herself, her mother Lydia translates for Fred and Barney when they ask what she’s saying.

** In "Tri-Stone Area", the entire ''cast'' is turned into this, since the episode revolves around caveman versions of the main characters who spend the episode speaking in a nigh-incomprehensible caveman language and in Doofenshmirtz's case, grunting, with the only english coming from the photo-animation cutaways that feature the animators explaining what's going on.

** Blue herself can't talk, and can only communicate through dog noises such as barks, whimpers, and yelps. Which is why she sets up the titular "Blue's Clues" game to help her human owner find out what she wants. She is able to talk verbally in her playroom in the ''WesternAnimation/BluesRoom'' spin-off, though.

** When Ben is in his beastly Wildmutt form, he speaks only in growls and roars, [[AliensSpeakingEnglish unlike every single other one of his alien forms]]. There's nobody who can understand him, though. In one episode, Ben tries communicating with other Vulpimancers (Wildmutt's species) to no avail.

* Bumblebee of the ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' due to a war.