History YouNoTakeCandle / Theater

* [[OlderThanFeudalism Older than feudalism]]: Aristophanes often had foreign Greeks and metics speak in broken dialects for the purpose of humor. This goes back to his earliest surviving play, ''The Acharnians'', where the Persian envoy, [[MeaningfulName Pseudartabas]] addresses the Athenian assembly, first speaking in pure gibberish, and then in very crude pigdin Greek.
* The Sioux Indians in ''Theatre/AnnieGetYourGun'' speak broken English, in accordance with the stereotype. This is the least of the show's UnfortunateImplications.
* In ''Theatre/TheKingAndI'', the King of Siam, as well as most of the other Siamese characters, speak broken English. (The show, as well as ''Anna and the King of Siam'', the Margaret Landon novel and movie that inspired it, are banned in Thailand because of their historical inaccuracies and unflattering portrayals of the revered [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongkut King Mongkut]].)
** Landon actually depicts the Kralahome (Prime Minister) as teasing Anna's son Louis by looking menacing and rumbling "You no can go!" She makes it clear that he's kidding; his English is much better than that.
* The Indians in the stage musical of ''Theatre/{{Peter Pan|1954}}'' get this treatment. Their introductory song and dance has such gems as "Ugga wugga meatball!" Another one of their songs is called "Ugg-a-Wug," where most of the lyrics consist of "Ugg-a-wugg", "Gugg-a-bluck", "Puff-a-wuff", "Boop a doop," and so on. The Indians' spoken dialogue isn't any better.
--->'''Tiger Lily:''' We go up now. Keep guard. Watch for pirates.
* The original play of ''Theatre/{{Peter Pan|1904}}'' combined this trope with AsianSpeekeeEngrish, oddly enough.
* Bloody Mary in ''Theatre/SouthPacific''.
* Chrismas Eve from ''Theatre/AvenueQ''. Combined with a FunetikAksent.
--> '''Christmas Eve:''' [[FunetikAksent Blyon!]] You take our recyclaburrs!
* ''TroubleInTahiti'' has Dinah quote a couple lines of this from the "terrible, awful movie" she's seen (the stage direction calls for a ''Theatre/SouthPacific'' accent).
* ''Theatre/MasterHaroldAndTheBoys'' has two African characters. One speaks in this form (albeit not as egregious as most of the other examples), the other speaks using proper English grammar. These are used to illustrate the relationships the characters have with the WhiteMaleLead--Sam (proper grammar) is on equal intellectual footing, and approaches Hally as a friend, but Willie isn't and treats Hally as the master of the house.
* Used by the native heroine of the 1923 play ''White Cargo'' (played by Creator/HedyLamarr in the [[TheFilmOfTheBook movie]]). Her first line, "Me Tandelayo. Me good girl. Me ''stay''," famously provoked the critic Robert Benchley to stand and announce, "Me Bobby. Me bad boy. Me ''go!''" before stalking out of the theater.
* Tituba talks like this in ''Theatre/TheCrucible''. If you can't find a black actress to play the part, it's gonna be all kinds of jarring.
* Billy in ''Theatre/TheBat'' is a "Jap" who speaks in such phrases as "You give candle, please?"
* Creator/WilliamShakespeare [[JustForFun/ZerothLawOfTropeExamples of course]], with Princess Katharine of France in ''Theatre/HenryV'': "Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England." She and her lady-in-waiting also have {{Funetik Aksent}}s. The King and Queen of France, however, speak perfect English.
* ''Theatre/MissSaigon'': The entirety of the "Vietnamese" lines. Even if the gibberish written in the libretto can be deciphered, it doesn't make any grammatical sense. Amplified by the fact that actual Vietnamese-speaking actors are almost never to be found doing this musical...
----

* [[OlderThanFeudalism Older than feudalism]]: [[Creator/Aristophanes Aristophanes]] often had foreign Greeks and metics speak in broken dialects for the purpose of humor. This goes back to his earliest surviving play, ''The Acharnians'', where the Persian envoy, [[MeaningfulName Pseudartabas]] addresses the Athenian assembly, first speaking in pure gibberish, and then in very crude pigdin Greek.

* [[OlderThanFeudalism Older than feudalism]]: [[Creator/Aristophanes]] often had foreign Greeks and metics speak in broken dialects for the purpose of humor. This goes back to his earliest surviving play, ''The Acharnians'', where the Persian envoy, [[MeaningfulName Pseudartabas]] addresses the Athenian assembly, first speaking in pure gibberish, and then in very crude pigdin Greek.

* The Indians in the stage musical of ''Theatre/PeterPan'' get this treatment. Their introductory song and dance has such gems as "Ugga wugga meatball!" Another one of their songs is called "Ugg-a-Wug," where most of the lyrics consist of "Ugg-a-wugg", "Gugg-a-bluck", "Puff-a-wuff", "Boop a doop," and so on. The Indians' spoken dialogue isn't any better.

** Fortunately, the newest movie incarnation of Peter Pan has a very talented First Nation girl play Tiger Lily, who gives an extremely rude speech in one of the First Nation languages (Cree, if I recall correctly.)
** The original play of ''Peter Pan'' combined this trope with AsianSpeekeeEngrish, oddly enough.

* Creator/WilliamShakespeare [[ZerothLawOfTropeExamples of course]], with Princess Katharine of France in ''Theatre/HenryV'': "Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England." She and her lady-in-waiting also have {{Funetik Aksent}}s. The King and Queen of France, however, speak perfect English.

* The Sioux Indians in ''AnnieGetYourGun'' speak broken English, in accordance with the stereotype. This is the least of the show's UnfortunateImplications.
* In ''TheKingAndI'', the King of Siam, as well as most of the other Siamese characters, speak broken English. (The show, as well as ''Anna and the King of Siam'', the Margaret Landon novel and movie that inspired it, are banned in Thailand because of their historical inaccuracies and unflattering portrayals of the revered [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongkut King Mongkut]].)

* The Indians in the stage musical of ''PeterPan'' get this treatment. Their introductory song and dance has such gems as "Ugga wugga meatball!" Another one of their songs is called "Ugg-a-Wug," where most of the lyrics consist of "Ugg-a-wugg", "Gugg-a-bluck", "Puff-a-wuff", "Boop a doop," and so on. The Indians' spoken dialogue isn't any better.

* Bloody Mary in ''SouthPacific''.

* ''TroubleInTahiti'' has Dinah quote a couple lines of this from the "terrible, awful movie" she's seen (the stage direction calls for a ''SouthPacific'' accent).

* Used by the native heroine of the 1923 play ''White Cargo'' (played by HedyLamarr in the [[TheFilmOfTheBook movie]]). Her first line, "Me Tandelayo. Me good girl. Me ''stay''," famously provoked the critic Robert Benchley to stand and announce, "Me Bobby. Me bad boy. Me ''go!''" before stalking out of the theater.

* Billy in ''TheBat'' is a "Jap" who speaks in such phrases as "You give candle, please?"

* Tituba talks like this in ''TheCrucible''. If you can't find a black actress to play the part, it's gonna be all kinds of jarring.

* WilliamShakespeare [[ZerothLawOfTropeExamples of course]], with Princess Katharine of France in ''HenryV'': "Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot speak your England." She and her lady-in-waiting also have {{Funetik Aksent}}s. The King and Queen of France, however, speak perfect English.

* Chrismas Eve from AvenueQ. Combined with a FunetikAksent.