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"Why is everyone speaking like her now, zam?"

Sometimes one character's Verbal Tic or character trait (rhyming habit, funny foreign accent, etc.) can go viral. (This is how Memes form, see Memetic Mutation.)

Got Me Doing It refers to effects on other characters in the work in question. Of course, if your latest bout of Stephen King reading has resulted in you saying thankee-sai to the teller at the bank or the checkout girl, please consider what the Universe may be trying to tell you. The proper terms for these phenomena are echolalia for speaking mannerisms and echopraxia for physical mannerisms.

See also: Borrowed Catchphrase. When a fandom gets their creator doing it, expect Ascended Fanon.


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Used in the dub version of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
    Professor Crowler: Do these two actually think they have a chance of beating Para and Dox? They stink worse than dirty socks! Ha! Now they even have me doing it!
  • In one episode of Di Gi Charat (1999) anime, Takurou Kimura goes to Gamers to investigate the rumors of language being corrupted, and is sent into despair by all the various Verbal Tics being used by Dejiko, Gema, and Puchiko, especially hearing the customers in the store using them, too.
  • In Rave Master even Seig catches onto Ruby's poyo, poyo.
  • Episode 46 of Digimon Adventure has Deramon, whose de aru is so infectious it has the cast repeating it within a minute.
  • Touya from Cardcaptor Sakura joins in on Sakura's "Hoeee?!!" Verbal Tic when Sakura's asked to be in his classmate's student film.
  • As much as Kaname likes to complain about Sousuke railing against suboptimal battle tactics in action movies, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu shows that his tendency has started rubbing off on her when she starts complaining that Yakuza in movies always insist on one-on-one sword fights when they could just shoot the other guy or blow their whole organization up with explosives.
    Ren: Please stop talking like Sousuke.
  • In Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, after Kaguya's ancient flip-phone dies, she tells her maid Hayasaka that she wants to buy the same model smartphone that her Love Interest Miyuki owns. Hayasaka goes off into a paranoid Imagine Spot of Miyuki taunting her over this, which is normally the sort of thing Kaguya does all the time. Kaguya, who's depressed over the loss of her phone (and all the photographs it contained), tells her to quit acting foolish. Hayasaka responds that it feels like she just got betrayed.
  • Hiyono from Spiral often sings a song Ayumu considers weird but then later when he had to act innocent around his sister, he found himself singing the song.
    Ayumu: Outside the window, kira kira kira ki... stupid Hiyono.
  • Loner Life In Another World: Main character Haruka has such a bad memory for names that he gives lame nicknames to all of his classmates, much to the Class Rep's chagrin. Then, the latter accidentally calls one of the classmates "Nerd A" the same way Haruka does. When Haruka points this out, she apologizes, claiming she's been brainwashed.

    Comic Books 
  • In Batman '66 Meets the Legion Of Superheroes, Universo meets Egghead, his 20th century anceggstornote , who speaks in nothing but egg puns. When the Legion takes him away, he shouts "I'll be back when you least eggspect it!"
    Universo: Bah! Now my ancestor's got me doing it!
  • In an issue of Young Justice, Impulse adopts the extreme Brooklyn accent of Doiby Dickles, sidekick of the golden age Green Lantern. It drives Superboy insane, but Bart doesn't even realize he's doing it.
    • Speaking of Superboy, he has an encounter with a Bizarro clone of himself in his Year One annual who speaks in a form of the Bizarro language. During their tussle, Superboy ends up saying "Me am not invulnerable to fire!"
  • Done to a quasi-supernatural extent in an old issue of Jughead comics. Just for the heck of it, Jughead would respond in rhymes to everything the people around him said. It immediately caught on, and before the end of the school-day everybody in Riverdale High couldn't help but respond to each other in rhymes, eventually driving themselves crazy. This would only stop if Jughead got hit on the head.
    Ms. Grundy: You look pale sir, are you sick?
    Mr. Weatherbee: Jughead's off on a rhyming kick. (next panel) See what I did that time? I made it rhyme! We're dead! We're dead!
    Ms. Grundy: Omigosh! How far do you think has it spread?
    Mr. Weatherbee: There's no way of telling, once it's begun.
    Ms. Grundy: It's all my fault, I taught Jughead that rhyming was fun!
  • A Looney Tunes comic book had Bugs Bunny accidentally copy Daffy Duck's Speech Impediment after hanging out with him: "Now I'M lisping!"
  • In the Bizarro miniseries, Jimmy Olsen is on a road trip with the title character.
    Jimmy's narration: I'm through the looking glass here. Up is down. Good am bad. Yes am no. Great. Now he's got me doing it.
  • In issue 777 of Four Color Comics, one Scamp storyline featured the titular dog hanging out with a heavily accented dachsund named Speedy, eventually picking up several of their pronunciations.
    Speedy: You vant to make race to fountain? I run fast- try to beat you!
    Scamp: Goot! I mean, good!

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In this Godzilla MonsterVerse fanfiction, San has a deep, stilted voice, but as his Character Development progresses since he fused to Vivienne Graham, his voice picks up a British accent from Vivienne.
  • In The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan, Nova impresses Twilight by speaking in conversational iambic pentameter, but then he quickly starts trolling her with it, until she lapses into it herself.
  • Bloody But Unbowed:
    Harry: You like this?
    Draco: I like doing things for anyone I like. And now you have me talking like you. Merlin.
  • Fates Collide: After hanging out with Yang Xiao Long, Mordred gets annoyed that now she's starting to do puns.
  • Harry Potter and Defeating Dark Lords, Inc:
    Earnest: Master Harry must let Earnest punish himself. Him being bad, bad elf!
    Harry: No! I say you be... [Shakes his head] You are a wonderful elf! Now, I don't know who told you to do what, but I say no punishing yourself! Pepper used to do that, and it's horrible! Poor thing! I won't allow it!
  • Harry Potter's Secret Weapon:
    Winky: Master Harry needs be asking Master Remus, Master Moody, Master Marius, Master Sirius, or maybe Master Percy, or Mistress Penny. Ask if any be working with hard, hard runes.
    Harry: Or maybe Master I mean Bill Weasley. We could likely hire him when we see him at the World Cup. Let's talk to him and find out his schedule.
  • After a while in Hero Academia D×D, Rias starts picking up some of Izuku's habits, like mumbling and taking notes, to her embarrassment when noticed.
  • In Honey Sirius acquires several new elves to replace Kreacher.
    Hermione: Lakshmi! Could you please make me up a low-acid fruit basket?
    Lakshmi: Mistress has only t'ask it.
    Harry: Do they always speak in rhyme?
    Hermione: All the time. Argh! Now they have me doing it too!
  • In Hop to It, Rabbit starts copying her partner Perro Negro's trademark salute while helping civilians during the Road Rage attack. Amusingly, she doesn't notice that she's picked it up from him until three days later.
  • In Flight: In chapter 27, Musubi and Matsu's Third-Person Person tendencies temporarily rub off on Uzume, Miya, and Akitsu. And Miya catches and corrects herself.
  • More Fragging Paperwork: When Optimus Prime is drafting a letter of condolence to Chromia about the passing of Ironhide, he accidentally misspells the name of the fallen Autobot as "Ahnharrd", unconsciously mimicking Ironhide's accent. Later, when thinking about Prowl's letter being easier to write than the others, Optimus thinks of Ironhide's name as Ahnharrd again and just barely catches himself.
    Optimus: (thinking) Oh, frag, I'm even beginning to think in his accent...
  • In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, all of Santa's dialogue and the narration surrounding the Christmas Episode Rhymes on a Dime. It gets to the point that even All For One starts doing it during their duel.
  • New Year's Eve (or Amour Tension):
    Derek: Is you Barry Porter?
    Sid: He's Harry Potter, Derek.
    Derek: Er, yeah, him. Is you Ginny Weasley's bloke?
    Harry: I is, I mean, I am.
  • Nocturnal, or Year of the Cat:
    Hermione: Could you tell Professor Flitwick what you've told us about Luna's roommates? We've grown very fond of Luna and we'd like to make sure she's not mistreated.
    Spatchcock: Spatchcock will do that, Miss. We is liking when Miss Looney is visiting us for mealtimes, but today Miss Looney is telling us she is happy to be eating with you's. We is happy, since we is preferring that Miss Looney be happy.
    Harry: We is too. [Blinks and shakes his head] We do too.
  • Only Human has everyone ends up using humanized expressions that work on the crew.
  • Penny Saves Paldea: Arven has a tendency to replace terms with similar-sounding food names when he speaks, at one point calling Team Star's Ruchbah Squad the "Radish Squad". A short while later, Juliana refers to the same group as the "Rhubarb Squad" while under emotional duress.
  • In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Misty often teases Ash whenever he sees her wearing a swimsuit, always finding his flustered reactions amusing. During the Indigo League arc, Anabel gives it a try during their date, and admits she finds it funny too.
  • In Reparation Harry has such a bad memory for names that he refers to the personnel in Draco's chemical-dependency ward as Loud Irish Nurse, Anxious Brunette Nurse and Scary Craft Lady.
    Draco: Fine. It's only lunch, and I certainly don't intend to linger. Where's Loud Irish... You've got me doing it now. Where's Nurse Osprey?
  • Son of the Sannin: Tenten suddenly finds herself talking about the flames of youth while using the Celestial Gates during her fight against Gaara in the Chunin Exams. She also joins in with one of Gai and Lee's beach sunset hugs after receiving her promotion.
  • Total Drama Equestria has Pinkie Pie catching the author's trait of Narrating the Obvious.
  • Windfall: During an argument between Nurse Red Heart and Zecora, the former realizes that she's started copying the latter's rhyming speech patterns.
  • You're My Density:
    Harry: Martin, if you were about to make a comment that is in any way disparaging to either of these young ladies then I would advise you to make like a tree and go. Shit, he's got me doing it now.

    Films — Animated 
  • At a rally in An American Tail, the crowd all shouts out "fweedom!", in imitation of Ms. Mouseheimer's accent.
  • Strange Magic: After spending the film correcting Dawn when she uses his nickname, the Bog King accidentally corrects her when she doesn't.
  • Occurs in a Deleted Scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, regarding Doc's constant malaproping.
    Grumpy: Aw, you're a pot-bellied old hop-toad!
    Doc: I'm a...He's a...Who's a belly-potted old flop, uh...jelly flop-bellied...
    Grumpy: You! You're a flop-bellied, uh...toad-jelly, uh...Oh, now ya got me doing it!
  • In the feature length animated film of Wonder Woman, she and the Amazons find fighter pilot, Steve Trevor, wandering around the island after his plane is shot down and interrogate him with the lasso of truth. He's forced to reveal many embarrassing truths including the meaning behind the expletive "crap" which disgusts the warrior women. After a prolonged period of unintentional bonding while stopping the god of war, Ares, Wonder Woman utters the word herself when she's about to be smushed by the empowered god.
    Wonder Woman: Oh, crap...

    Films — Live-Action 
  • History of the World Part I had Count de Monet insist on the correct pronunciation of his name to the King, but refers to himself as Count Da Money when sufficiently Distracted by the Sexy - though he angrily corrects himself.
  • By Back to the Future Part III, Marty and Doc have spent enough time together that they say each other's catchphrases:
    Marty: Great Scott!
    Doc: I know, this is heavy.
  • In-story in Undercover Brother where white supremacist Mr. Feather (played by Chris Kattan) just couldn't keep himself from giving in to black culture, culminating in James Brown telling him "Say it loud!"
    Mr. Feather: I'm black and I'm proud! (Covers his mouth at realizing what he'd just said)
  • In The Pink Panther (2006), at one point, Chief Inspector Dreyfus unintentionally mimics Inspector Clouseau's French accent. He quickly catches himself, and starts his sentence over, visibly frustrated and annoyed.
  • In the live-action film version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Grinch quotes a couple of lines from the book; after realizing what he'd done, he laments "Oh no. I'm speaking in rhyme!" in Jim Carrey's dramatic fashion. Note that the Whos down in Whoville often spoke in rhyme.
  • Carry On Up the Khyber. The Rajah finds himself copying the Burpa's habit of nodding by shaking his head.
  • In Stroker Ace, Aubrey James has heard so many renditions of his name from Stroker that, in trying to correct Stroker once more, he accidentally calls himself "Audrey".
  • In The Muppets (2011), Fozzie is so used to hearing Kermit greet him by saying "Hi-ho Fozzie" that he responds automatically without looking up from what he's doing, not fully realizing that he hasn't spoken to Kermit in decades.
    "Hi-ho, Kermit. KERMIT?"
  • In All Through the Night, when Gloves (Humphrey Bogart) is at an auction, he bids on an item so he can get into the cashier's office (to find his friend who's gone missing, as well as a woman he's been trailing), and bids "two g's" on the item. The auctioneer repeats "two g's" before correcting himself, "That's two thousand dollars."
  • You know how the goose from Charlotte's Web has an interesting Verbal Tic of repeating syllables on random words, right? In the 2006 adaptation Charlotte's Web, she is now named Gussy, and has a husband named Golly. She sends him on an errand to "find out what's going-oing-oing on over there." Golly, who does NOT normally have that tic, flies to Wilbur and begins, "What's going-oing-oing... um, hey kid, what's going on over here?"

    Literature 
  • David Eddings:
    • There's no better way to describe the impact of Caalador's bad fake accent on the main characters in The Tamuli. It seems that Sparhawk is one of the few who's immune—even Mirtai begins a-doin' it.
    • This happens to a lesser extent in The Malloreon with an old prospector (and the same country hick accent).
  • In Herman Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener, Bartleby's "I would prefer not to" causes the other clerks in the office to start using the word "prefer" unconsciously.
  • A number of characters in the Discworld series start to emulate the Igors' characteristic lithp after talking to them thuffithiently.
  • There's no doubt the you'll be at least internally saying things like 'icy' or 'bubbly-making' after reading Uglies.
  • In Jeeves and Wooster, Bertie notes that spending time with Jeeves may result in Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness. His various Verbal Tics are equally catching:
    Bertie: Jeeves, you're talking rot.
    Jeeves: Very good, sir.
    Bertie: Absolute drivel.
    Jeeves: Very good, sir.
    Bertie: Pure mashed potatoes.
    Jeeves: Very good, sir.
    Bertie: Very good, sir—I mean very good Jeeves, that will be all.
  • The Xanth novels feature a demoness named Metria who can be identified no matter what form she takes by her odd speech patterns; she has a tendency to mispronounce a word, then clarify by listing synonyms until the person she is talking to guesses what she meant. On a number of occasions, the roles have been reversed with whoever is talking to her unconsciously adopting this trait.
  • In A Clockwork Orange, Alex is displeased when he notices he picked up his parole officer’s Verbal Tic, yes?
  • In The Laundry Files novella Equoid, narrator Bob Howard complains about trying to analyze some of the personal correspondence of H. P. Lovecraft, cursing his tendency to take forever to get to the point, "which point I had not yet ascertained despite asymptotically approaching it in the course of reading what felt like reams & volumes of the aforementioned purple prose—which is infectious."
  • Star Trek Expanded Universe:
    • In Star Trek: Prey: The Jackal's Heart, Christine Vale decides to have a quiet word with the Skagaran Lieutenant Kyzak, whose Space Western mannerisms have rubbed some of his fellow officers the wrong way. She's horrified to find herself sidling up to the bar and asking "How's the roundup going, Lieutenant?"
    • In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel Fallen Heroes, Deep Space Nine deals with an unusual docking request...
    Djonreel: Lonatian freighter Square Deal,
    come to dicker, eat a meal.
    Captain Square-Deal Djonreel,
    for docking rights I do appeal.
    Kira: (hungover due to Ferengi shenanigans) Major Kira, Deep Space Nine.
    Dax: (added unnecessarily) Docking here with us is fine.
    O'Brien: (jumping into the act) Long as you don't moan and whine.
    Kira: (glared first at one, then the other) Would you two stay off this official line? note 
    (After which she curses to herself. She had meant to say "official communication.")
  • In Codename: Bananas by David Walliams, the protagonist attempts to convince a man with such a posh accent that his "r" sounds come out as W's that there are Nazis operating in Bognor Regis. The man says "In Bognor Wegis?" Prompting the boy to assure him that there are in fact Nazis in Bognor Wegis. Upon realising what he said, he quotes this trope word for word.
  • A number of characters in the Prince Roger series catch themselves using Poertena's pocking verbal ticks.
  • Shiroe, the protagonist of Log Horizon and its main adaptations, has a Character Tic where he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Several other glasses-wearing characters adopt it very quickly, and by the end of the second season of the anime, it's spread to characters who don't even have glasses.
  • For a little while after her visit to the Paradise Palace in Girls Kingdom, Misaki has to consciously stop herself from calling it the Petite Palace after noticing how small everything is and hearing Mei refer to it by that name multiple times.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In one episode of The A-Team B.A. and Murdock are stuck together for most of the episode, with Murdock constantly rhyming his sentences. By the end of it, B.A. started unconsciously doing it as well.
  • In an episode of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon finds new friends when he wants to be the center of the group. Barry Kripke is one of them.
    Kripke: I'm Bawwy Kwipke and I'm here because you told me there was gonna be a whaffle. When is the whaffle?
    Sheldon: Patience, patience, Barry. The whaffle- *ahem* The raffle is the grand finale to an evening-long festival of fun and folly.
  • Done in a roundabout way in Better Call Saul, as in early season six, Kim starts talking with Saul Goodman-esque hand gestures. Roundabout because Saul came first, but by virtue of Cerebus Retcon, Jimmy as Saul is stealing from her.
  • Pops up occasionally in Buffy and Angel.
    • When Buffy fills the new principal in on how Sunnydale High works in "Storyteller"...
      Buffy: It's like all the hellmouth's energy is trying to escape in that one little spot, and it's getting all...
      Wood: Focusy?
      Buffy: Careful. You're starting to speak like me now.
    • ...and when Angel has to spend an entire meeting with Andrew.
      Angel: She's a slayer. She has every reason to hate us, and she's unstable. In her mind, there probably aren't any good vampyres. (Beat) Vampires.
    • And when the gang investigate fish monsters in "Go Fish":
      Giles: If you're saying these killings aren't random, it would suggest someone's out for revenge.
      Buffy: And raise the possibility that someone brought forth this sea monster from whence it came to exact that revenge. ..."From whence it came"? I'm spending way too much time around you.
  • In the Castle episode, "The Final Nail", Beckett interrogates a suspect with a thick Slavic accent:
    Hasberg: Mrs. Westlake, she find ring. She call to me to come there. And then she say, 'sorry to accuse.' She crrry.
    Beckett: She crrry—she cried?
    • In this scene, Stana Katic's mimicking the rolled "R" was unscripted, but became a Throw It In! moment.
    • In the very next scene, when Beckett confirms Hasberg's story, Castle answers with one Beckett's favorite euphemisms, "Shut the front door!"
  • In the Community episode "Alternative History of the German Invasion," Dean Pelton finds himself saying "Changnesia" thanks to Chang/Kevin.
    • In "Asian Population Studies", Jeff also says that Chang using his name as a pun makes him so "changry".
      Jeff: Oh, God, it's happening to me.
  • In an early episode of Corner Gas Lacey complains about the others' habit of spitting on the floor when the neighboring town of Woolerton is mentioned. By the end of the scene, she's doing it and realizes she's become one of them.
  • Doctor Who:
    • In "Midnight", an evil invisible alien paralyzes the Doctor, possesses a woman and starts imitating his speaking patterns.
    • In "The Day of the Doctor", the excitable shouts of his later incarnations eventually rubs off on the War Doctor.
      Eleventh: Geronimo!
      Tenth: Allons-y!
      War: Oh for god's sake... Gallifrey stands!
  • In the Everybody Loves Raymond episode "Cousin Gerard", Raymond tries to help Gerard (who is working for him) work on himself. This includes helping him talk better, starting with the word "now", which Gerard pronounces with an "e" so that it rhymes with "meow". He fails several back-and-forth repetitions, gets fed up, quits, and leaves. Shortly afterwards, Raymond pronounces it Gerard's way a couple of times before catching himself and saying it properly.
  • In The Good Place, Michael claims that Chidi's indecisiveness is spreading like a virus when the two of them are equally unsure which Eleanor is supposed to be his soulmate.
  • A minor plot point in How I Met Your Mother involved Lily adopting a rather unimpressive English accent, apparently after watching all the James Bond films in one weekend. Another had Marshall come down with a mild case of Elmuh Fudd Syndwome after watching an environmentalist documentary about Gahbage Iwwand.
    • And don't forget the end of Slapsgiving, when EVERYONE starts doing the saluting gag that only Robin and Ted had previously done.
  • In Kings: Lampshading a whole season of dialogue more fit for the stage than the small screen, William declares that everyone has "suffered enough peacock speeches". After laying down the law, he warns Rose, "Neither you, nor he, nor any vagrant opinion will interrupt what—now you've got me doing it!"
  • In Lost, Desmond's been called "Brother" at least once.
  • On an episode of M*A*S*H, Col. Potter was arguing with a Korean who was insisting in pidgin English that the unit would have to move to get out of the way of a North Korean advance. Finally, Potter found himself saying "We no move! We no move!" before stopping himself, saying, "Now I'm talking like you."
  • In earlier episodes of The Nanny, Fran would regularly pepper her speech with Yiddish, while the rest of the cast didn't know a word of Yiddish and would have to ask for an explanation. Several seasons later, the entire Sheffield family had caught the habit.
    • Also, initially most of the family members stay out of the bickering between Niles and C.C. Starting Season 4, most family members occasionally say something, only to look shocked at the camera. Especially when that person quoted C.C
  • During a Talking Head segment of the US version of The Office, we get this gem when Jan Levinson wants to out her relationship with Michael:
    Jan: Why is this so hard? ...That's What She Said. *horrified* Oh my God, what am I saying?
  • The Only Fools and Horses episode "Stage Fright" had Raquel singing a duet of "Crying" with Tony Angelino The Singing Dustman ... who turned out to have Elmuh Fudd Syndwome.
    Tony: You weave me cwying,
    Raquel: Crying,
    Tony: Cwying,
    Raquel: Crying,
    Tony: Cwying,
    Raquel: Cwy - Crying,
  • Stephen Fry gets tripped up in an episode of QI:
    Stephen: You don't get many Majors manager-ing...English football teams anymore.
    Alan: Or indeed sexing.
    Stephen: Or indeed sexing.
    Ross Noble: I love the fact that you did one impersonation of me, and now you can't use grammar at all. It's like, 'next week's QI has been cancelled. Noble has infected Fry's brain.'
  • Quantum Leap:
    • In the episode "Play It Again, Seymour", Sam leaps into a private detective in the 1950s and is caught up in a Film Noir-style narrative with a pulp-novel-reading kid who uses all kinds of ridiculous hardboiled slang. About halfway through, Sam catches himself using the same kind of slang in his narration. (His past-tense narration...)
    • In "How the Tess Was Won" he tells Buddy to "Fetch me a fan" and then mutters "Great, now they've got me doing it."
  • Radio Enfer: After Carl gets upset because of some mistakes done in relation to him in the yearbook, Dominique wonders out loud why he's so upset while talking in a Totally Radical way. Vincent then points out she just talked like Jocelyne likely because of often she hangs out with her and warns her that at one point everyone will refer to her as Jocelyne Jr.
  • Saturday Night Live:
    • An old sketch has Christopher Lee as Henry Higgins attempting to cure the speech impediment of Gilda Radner's Baba Wawa. It not only doesn't take, but he develops the impediment himself.
    • When Miley Cyrus hosted the show in 2011, she played Justin Bieber in a Miley Cyrus Show sketch to Vanessa Bayer's Miley. Vanessa!Miley eventually got Bieber!Miley to say the sketch's "prrretty cool!" catchphrase, in spite of "Justin"'s initial objections.
    • On the first Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch, Sean Connery misreads the category "'S' Words" as "Swords". Alex becomes so frustrated by Burt Reynolds doing the same that he also accidentally calls the category "Swords" as well.
      • Incidentally "S Words" was a category on Jeopardy with "Swords" being a Double Jeopardy category on February 23, 2021.
  • Seinfeld:
    • George starts imitating Jimmy's Third-Person Person tic, which even carries over to later episodes. "George is getting upset!"
    • In an earlier episode, the main characters meet Elaine's macho, controlling father. George has the "Master of the House" song from Les Miserables in his head, and periodically starts singing it. At the end of the episode, Elaine's father starts singing it to himself.
    • George again, in "The Betrayal", picks up a habit of saying "You can stuff your sorries in a sorry sack, mister." Because the episode runs backwards, it's not until the end of the episode that we learn that he picked it up from Susan when she was still alive.
  • In Shuriken Sentai Ninninger, Idiot Hero Takaharu messed up villainess Ariake no Kata's name, referring to her as "Karaage no Kata" (literally "Fried Chicken Woman"). Ariake responds with a speech where she declares herself "crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside" before realizing what she's saying and starts over.
  • In Sliders, there's a dimension that resembles the Wild West... again. One by one the cast starts to let stereotypical cowboy-speak enter their vocabulary, occasionally saying "sorry, it's catching." Finally, the villain of the episode, someone they'd met before on another world, announces to them, "You guys are making me ornerier than a one-legged man at a butt kicking contest!" The Sliders look at him, and he sheepishly says, "sorry. It's catching."
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • In "Hollow Pursuits", Lt. Barclay is given the nickname "Broccoli" and many in the crew start using it. Captain Picard finds out and orders that the crew stop using the phrase, as it's insulting and un-Federationlike. Later on, Picard unthinkingly calls Barclay "Broccoli" to his face, and is extremely embarrassed when he realizes what he's done. He doesn't say this trope's catch phrase, but it's clear he's thinking it.
    • In "Datalore", when Picard says "Shut up, Wesley!", Wesley's mother, Dr. Crusher, is critical of Picard. But when Wesley tries to speak up again, she also tells him "Shut up, Wesley!".
  • Supernatural: In "A Very Supernatural Christmas", a very rudeness-averse pagan god gives Dean a penny about how to avoid swearing, namely by substituting with the word "fudge". Dean goes on to say:
    "You fudging touch me again and I'll fudging kill you!"
  • Shaun Micallef on Talkin' 'bout Your Generation accidentally slipped into a speech pattern more characteristic of the bizarrely-accented Josh Thomas on at least one occasion.
  • In the fourth season of The Wire, Prez is watching some of his students play poker during lunch, and one of them gets a flush, telling Michael it beats three of a kind. Michael asks Prez, "It do?" Pres initially responds, "It do," before correcting himself; "It does."

    Multiple Media 
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Black Widow (2021) has Yelena mocking how Natasha loves a Three-Point Landing. Sure enough, when Yelena leaves an air vent hideout she does exactly that.
    • In the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Ragtag", Coulson and May go undercover as R&D scientists applying for jobs within the dubious CyberTek Corporation, with their team's two actual scientists feeding them lines via hidden radio mics. Unfortunately, while Coulson and May are both American, Fitz and Simmons are both British, with Fitz possessing a particularly strong Glaswegian accent that Coulson inadvertently slips into when trying to repeat his rapid-fire Techno Babble verbatim.

    Newspaper Comics 
  • One The Far Side cartoon did this, with Elmer Fudd being fired from a screwdriver company:
    The problem, Mr. Fudd, is that you've been having a subliminal effect on everyone in the factory. We're proud of our product, Mr. Fudd, and there's no company in the world that makes a finer skwoo dwivuh... Dang! Now you got me doing it!
  • As far as everyone else in Calvin and Hobbes is concerned, Hobbes is Calvin's stuffed toy. However, on two occasions Calvin's mom finds herself treating Hobbes like a person, such as calling out to him while looking for the tiger in the woods with Calvin's dad. ("I may be crazy, but I'm not as crazy as you.") and discussing the sick raccoon Calvin found. "...You can tell I'm upset when I start talking to you."
  • In an early For Better or for Worse strip, Elly and Elizabeth are at the grocery store. Elizabeth randomly decides to point out everything in the store that's blue, which comes out as "boo" in her toddler voice. Later, a store employee helps Elly carry her groceries out to the car. When he asks which car is hers, she replies, "The boo one."

    Podcast 
  • In episode 10 of Sequinox, not only does Vivaldi call Summer by a civilian name (which he's gotten on their cases about multiple times), but he calls her by the wrong civilian name. And he does it multiple times!

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Anything or anyone in professional wrestling referring to the profession as "Sports Entertainment", wrestlers as "Entertainers" and/or "Divas", bookers as "Writers", the locker room/dressing room/space fans aren't supposed to see us in as "Backstage" or compares their product to a soap opera? It's because of WWE. When the World Wrestling Federation broke kayfabe, and openly referred to Monday Night Raw as an "Action Adventure Program" the contemporary English market wrestling promotions rejected them with fierce zeal, but over the decades, WWE has remained steadfast in its Insistent Terminology and companies of comparable size have gone out of business, particularly in English markets. Even in other markets, such as Spanish or Japanese, which have their own insistent terminologies (albeit in the opposite direction, "Wrestle" often being replaced by "Fight") may fall into some of these when translating to English.

    Radio 
  • Dead Ringers: Mark Drakeford, First Minister of Wales, tries holding a press conference about Covid-19 with Katherine Jenkins and Tom Jones, having concluded close harmony singing is what's spreading coronavirus. Unfortunately, neither Katherine or Tom can stop singing, and soon Mark joins in anyway.
  • Happens frequently in The Navy Lark with Captain Ignatius Aloysius Atchinson whose chronic hayfever meant he was unable to speak a work without sneezing; if he appeared, then soon the entire cast would be at it. Several of the other character traits would prove contagious over the course of the series whenever it was funny to do so.
  • In the Cabin Pressure episode "Ottery St. Mary", while he, Martin and Douglas are on a long drive, Arthur plays a game called "Yellow Car" where he announces every yellow car he sees. Arthur has Martin playing the game in fairly short order, to Martin's annoyance.

    Theatre 
  • In The Merchant of Venice, Portia's servant and friend Nerissa adopts many of her mistress' traits, including her keen mind, her adventurousness... and also her penchant for speaking in flowery proverbs and metaphors (in Elizabethan era, such a habit was considered a sign of wisdom and sharp wit; the Queen, who was probably Portia's prototype, was very fond of proverbs herself).
  • The classic Swedish sketch Guben i lÃ¥ddan: Two travelers, played by Hasse Alfredson and Martin Ljung share a sleeping compartment on a train. Ljung asks Alfredson to read him a bedtime story; then, after they agree that Ljung should read it aloud instead, keeps mispronouncing the words. Alfredson eventually storms out after a furious, mispronounced rant ("Herr Larsson, ni är inte riktigt klokk i skalen!") and it turns out to be a Batman Gambit on Ljung's part - he wanted the compartment to himself.
  • From The Phantom of the Opera:
    Raoul: Isn't this the letter you wrote?
    Firmin: And what is it that we're meant to have wrote? Written.

    Video Games 
  • In Disgaea 2 Yukimaru's "Zam" catches unto a lot of characters.
    • The Prinny in town even says "Of course we can talk, zam, dood." using both tics at once.
    • Note that this is the samurai keigo speech, most notably "de gozaru", in the original Japanese. It's still just as contagious.
    • A rogue Zam even shows up at the end of the Ninja description in the DS version of the first Disgaea.
    • In Disgaea Infinite, the hero Prinny can possess other characters and mind-control them into saying Out of Character Alerts, invariably ending with the word "dood", and confusing both the speaker and the people around them.
  • Used a couple times in the Ace Attorney series. If someone has a Verbal Tic, it won't be long until it's copied by someone else. "Director Hotti" gets Phoenix to insert some "hmm, yes" into his speech patterns, Ron DeLite makes other characters trail off into nothing..., and Maya and Phoenix pick up Luke Atmey's "Zvarri!" (only used occasionally though).
  • Fallout 2: Hulk Speaking Dumb Muscle Torr calls the brahmin (cattle) he guards "moo-moos". The Chosen One agrees to join him and at the end of the conversation says "Let's go and see your moo-moos. I mean, brahmin."
  • Final Fantasy VI has this from Sabin, shortly after he's met Cyan:
    Sabin: Thou art such a pain in the...! Confound it all! I'm starting to talk like you!
    • Later Lampshaded by Gau (who apparently came to the conclusion that because Cyan used "Thou" to refer to Sabin, that must mean Sabin's name is "Thou"):
      Gau: Does Mr. Thou like shiny thing?
      Sabin: Mr. Thou's that one, over there!
  • Final Fantasy VII in Japanese features Reno's Verbal Tic "zo, to". In Advent Children, Tifa recognizes Reno's voice on the phone and imitates his tic in response. (Only in the original, though.)
  • Final Fantasy VIII, Raijin ends all his sentences with 'ya know?'. At one point, Zell begins to copy this, and then complains about it.
  • In the Animal Crossing games, all the non-player villagers have their own unique verbal tic. From time to time, one animal's tic will be copied by other villagers; it's possible to get whole towns adding a "zip zoom" or suchlike to the ends of sentences.
  • One of the tapes left behind by Dr. Alistair Grout from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is an observation on the Camarilla by a recently introduced outsider (him), noting "the dressing of language used by the vampires"; namely their usage of overly dramatic and floral speech mannerisms being such a pervasive theme in this "society of darkest night... Damn it all, now I'm doing it too..."
  • In The Curse of Monkey Island Guybrush has to put up with an exasperating bunch of singing and rhyming pirates in his crew. Towards the end of the song, he himself (much to his own horror), launches into:
    Guybrush: You say you're nasty pirates,
    Scheming, thieving, bad bushwhackers?
    From what I've seen I tell you
    You're not pirates, you're just slackers!
  • In Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Athena's recruitment conversation goes something like this:
    Athena: Vell, vell... You must be the help.
    Ve vish to fight with you.
    Marth: Ah, splendid. How many of you?
    Gather your men, and we'll be on our way at once.
    Athena: Men? Ve are a voman. Vun voman!
    Are you blind, stupid manchild?
    Marth: Vat? ...Ahem, what?
    Oh. Right, pardon me.
    I, uh, I am Marth, prince of Altea. I heard pirates took the village children, so I brought my army straightaway.
    Athena: ...If you say so. Ve are called Athena.
    The vee vuns have been visked away to a castle south of here. Come.
    Ve have a fair bit of skill vith a sword; hopefully the same can be said of you, Marth of Altea.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening's DLC Xenologue "EXPonential Growth", the introductory scene features an Anna explaining the extremely suspect story of their purpose there...in a funky French Accent. Complete with Lampshade Hanging of how fake her own accent is, followed by Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping. And by the end:
  • It's literally a curse the natives can cast in Fossil Fighters, where their verbal tic can be imposed on anybody Diga-dumb enough to trespass on their lands.
    "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ...Digadig!!
  • In The Bard's Tale, upon killing Fnarf (a Kunal Trow with a penchant for speaking with alliteration), the eponymous Bard starts speaking like him for a bit.
    The Bard: I've had just about enough of these atrocious alliterative announcements... Now I'm doing it!
  • Happens to Strong Bad THREE TIMES in the "Outtakes" for Dangeresque 3 in episode 4 of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, when he accidentally picks up Homestar's speech impediment.
    • Take One:
    Strong Bad: Oh, how did those get there? I thought sure I returned those pwiceless... (background laughter)... pwiceless? Geez!
    Homestar: Now I've got HIM doing it!
  • Dex of Saints Row constantly has to correct his fellow gang members when they constantly refer to a rival gang as "the Los Carnales", since "los" is the Spanish plural for "the", so they're saying "the The Carnales". During a later Carnales mission, he starts saying it too.
    Dex: Julius, you put me in charge of the Los Carnales! ...Shit, now you got me saying it.
  • In Katawa Shoujo, during one conversation with Misha on Shizune's route, Hisao unwittingly starts calling Shizune "Shicchan" like Misha does.
  • Persona 5 Strikers: Morgana spends the entirety of Persona 5 having people call him a cat, to which he angrily corrects them that he is not a cat (he just looks like one). In Strikers, Sophie's immediate reaction is to call him a tanuki (Japanese racoon dog). He immediately yells "Try a cat!" before backpedalling to say that he really isn't a cat.
  • Super Robot Wars: Original Generation: Kyosuke's habit of using gambling metaphors begins to spread amongst the other members of the ATX Team and their allies, a phenomenon Excellen lampshades as the "Kyosuke disease".
  • In I Miss the Sunrise, Typelog's agents all speak extremely stiffly and formally, addressing Ros on a Full-Name Basis. If you talk to Luke while at one of their superhubs, you get this:
    Luke: Ros Ouranos... D-ah, I mean, uh, Ros! Gah, they got me doin' it now. Let's... leave soon, yeah?
  • In Castle of Shikigami III, Roger and Munchausen's Dramatic Change mode features them pretending to be extremely girly men...or just plain pretending to be women and that it's better to be like that, wherein Hilarity Ensues when they creep the shit out of everyone they run into, except the Final Boss (who's the only one to be completely unamused by the whole thing and actually makes Roger break character). When they run into the extremely manly Kagachi, Roger somehow puts a bra and makeup on him...and he lapses into and out of this trope before and after the confrontation.
  • Chrono Cross has this in the Joined Your Party messages, incorporating each new character's Verbal Tic.
  • In Batman: Arkham Knight, while interrogating the Mad Hatter and trying to get him to stop the annoying rhyming, Officer Cash accidentally rhymes with him.
    Cash: Tea party's over, freak. Start talking.
    Mad Hatter: As you can see, I'm balking. Bring me Batman, or the Hatter is walking.
    Cash: I give the orders here, not you.
    Mad Hatter: And you'll have three dead cops by the time I'm through.
    Cash: We'll see about that, now quit with the rhymes!
    Mad Hatter: Then let me talk to the Bat, and I'll confess my crimes. [chuckles] Sorry.
    Cash: Talk, god damn it!
    Mad Hatter: Now, now, Officer, you mistake me for a snitch.
    Cash: Where are they, you little son of a bitch?!
    Mad Hatter: [laughs] That certainly scratched my itch.
  • Ensemble Stars!: When Subaru first speaks with Mitsuru in the main story, he notes his habit of ending sentences with a Verbal Tic by calling him "that da ze, da ze~ kid", and naturally ends that sentence with da ze!.
  • In the Banjo-Kazooie, Bottles and Kazooie's constant name-calling leads to Banjo accidentally calling Kazooie "Chicken Legs" upon unlocking the ability to collect the Wading Boots.
  • In the story mode of Puyo Puyo Fever, Amitie discovers her friend Lidelle is also looking for Ms. Accord's flying cane. Lidelle has a stutter that catches onto Amitie by the time she asks her to go easy on her in their Puyo match.
    Amitie: Y-you too. (Now she's got me stuttering.)
  • Fresh Minty Adventure: After reading Zecora's note:
    Minty: Wow! Zecora even talks in rhyme
    when she's just writing on a sign!
    Oh no! I just rhymed too!
    Is it contagious?!
    Oh wait, that was just assonance.
    I'm fine.
  • C14 Dating: If Relationship Values with Hendrik, the Pungeon Master among the potential love interests, become high enough, his journal entry changes to Melissa claiming that she has started making rock-base puns and blaming him for it.
  • Resident Evil provides a meta-example. The game's hilariously unnatural dialogue was delivered by Native English speaking voice actors. These actors, however, had been living in Japan for some time and thus got used to the locals' dialect. By the time they were cast, none of the lines they were asked to say sounded strange to them. And the rest is history.
  • Sena from Xenoblade Chronicles 3 inverts this trope, by means of consciously imitating the speech patterns of the people with whom she interacts, even to the point of Saying Sound Effects Out Loud in at least once instance. This stems from her deep-seated desire to fit in with others.

    Webcomics 
  • Cursed Princess Club: When Frederick's brothers are trying to help him ask Gwendolyn out to a dance, Lance accidentally misspells her name as "Qwem" on the banner they planned to use. Soon afterward, Frederick sees her walking back to her home and shouts "QWEM!! I- I mean, Gwen!"
  • In Digger, Ed first refers to the title character only as "Mousie". After a brief misunderstanding between them, Digger calls herself "Mousie" before mentally kicking herself and giving Ed her real name.
  • In one of the Girl Genius side comics, Krosp finds himself unconsciously supplementing Othar's Insistent Terminology:
    Villager: You know we sent for the great Othar Tryggvassen?
    Krosp: Gentleman adven- WHAT AM I DOING!?
    • Also something of a property of Sparks in general. When a Spark gets into The Madness Place, they have a tendency to drag other people along with their fervor, with people who are particularly conditioned to it becoming permanent Minions. Whether this is merely psychological, a result of Compelling Voice, or something deeper is ambiguous.
    • Much earlier, a Jaeger draws Gil aside for a pep talk - the Jaegers, of course, universally speak in comedic German accents, and one paragraph of it briefly overwhelms Gil's normal accent.
    Jaeger Sergeant: Hyu poppa doz crazy schtupid sctoff like dot all de time. Hokay?
    Gil: Hokay. Er...Okay. Thanks.
  • Several times in The Order of the Stick, characters start speaking with Durkon's accent, only to catch and correct themselves.
  • It seems that anyone who spends any time with Steve and Bobby will eventually start making atrocious puns. Time claims it's contagious.
  • In Dominic Deegan, anyone and everyone who spends time around the Deegans will end up making lots of Puns. Also, Spark's alliteration habit seems to be contagious as well.
  • The Dinosaur Comics fan community has a habit of talking like the comic's characters, even when the topic is something else entirely. This has carried over to some other comic communities as well, since the official forum is shared with several fandoms.
  • Some protagonists of Homestuck began catching each other's speech patterns after prolonged chatting with each other - for example, John is fond of repeating letters eight times (just like Vriska does), while Jade is beginning to swear like a sailor after several conversations with Karkat - which may be symbolic of a deeper relationship between them.
    • Over the course of the Troll's session, all of them began copying each other's animal-themed puns as a sort of inside joke among each other.
    • Vriska's tic eventually metastasizes to John's sound effects.
    • Later, Dave begins ranting furiously about something loopy in his quest, prompting Jade to comment that he's spent too long with Karkat.
    • When Sollux's lisp comes back to an almost incomprehensible degree (as a result of his lost teeth reappearing), this happens:
    AA: thollux is right
    AA: i mean sollux
    • Right before the Final Battle, Karkat is tricked into giving a speech to only himself. He notes that he has no desire to emulate "STRIDER'S INSUFFERABLE RAMBLING SOLILOQUYS"... Then he immediately starts to ramble on about said soliloquys.
  • In 8-Bit Theater, Black Mage fell afoul of a cross between this trope and Who's on First? in this strip.
    Cultist Leader: Hu's a jerk.
    Fighter, Red Mage and Thief: BLACK MAGE!
    Black Mage: I get it.
    Red Mage: No, I get it. Who is the god you worship?
    Black Mage: No, Hu's a jerk.
    Cultists: BLACK MAGE!
    Black Mage: Wow, look at all the hardcore running into that I just did.
    Thief: At least they didn't ask who stinks the most.
    Black Mage: BLACK MAGE! Oh, god dammit.
  • The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: Happens to Galatea when she's been hanging out with a bunch of dragons who all talk in Marvel Comics Thor-speak.
  • In Paranatural, Agent Day's speech bubbles tend to highlight important words in pink. After a little while associating with her, Dr Zarei starts doing it too without noticing.
    Patchworm: ...you're doing her thing
    Zarei: Huh? What thing?
    Patchworm: my god, pull yourself together.
  • In Rain, Fara constantly mixes up Jessica's name — not as a harmful sort of thing, just as a Running Gag. Eventually Jessica tells her to cut it out, and Fara does... but not soon enough to keep Jessica from embarrassing herself at a job interview.

    Web Original 
  • Apparently even the count forgets how to count when he spends any amount of time in the world of Heroes 3. The poor guy even facepalms.
  • A Star Wars fan video "Sith Apprentice" had Darth Maul saying his one line over and over again. Everyone was complaining, especially Vader. When it came time for the talent competition, Vader was bragging he would show them all. "At last I will have—great! Now he's got me doing it!"
  • In one episode of What the Fuck Is Wrong with You?, after spending so long complaining about news writers opening up stories with terrible puns, Nash opens on a news article about a woman flinging poop at a police officer by berating the writer for opening with a poop-related pun... while inadvertently making one himself.
    Nash: This is written by the aptly named Charles Hack, whose very first line of the story — shit you not — is "Holy crap!"
    Tara: You just did it, too.
    Nash: What? "Shit you not?" Oh! AAAAAH! Jesus Christ!
    Tara: It's contagious!
    • Then he does it again:
    Nash: [about the woman claiming she was targeted for being latina] [Flinging poop] isn't Latino culture! It's asshole culture!
    Tara: Literally.
    Nash: [Face Palm]
  • Empress says "chumimin" so much during the Empress episode in Vaguely Recalling JoJo, Joseph tells her to shut up and ends up saying "chumimin" too.
  • In Sonic Adventure 2 in 4 Minutes, a Running Gag is everybody, including Sonic, mistaking Shadow for Sonic and Shadow getting increasingly fed up with it. At the end, when Biolizard shows up, we get this:
    Shadow: Uh-oh, it's time for Super Sonic! I mean Shadow!
  • In the Let's Play of Little King's Story, AWoodenPalisade pronounces "spear" like Soon Mainote  doesnote  once before correcting himself.
  • The members of Achievement Hunter have gotten into using Gavin Free's odd words. Probably the most noticeable one is "bunce", a Portmanteau of "Bump" and "Bounce".
  • In Abridged on Titan, Idiot Hero Eren has a Running gag that he mispronounces everyone's name. Eventually this causes Jean to start mispronouncing his own name during his Internal Monologues, something he is less than pleased about.
    Jean: Jean, you're a JEANius. Hah! Thank you, me, but it's pronounced Jan. Oh dammit, Jaeger, now you got me doing it. Even dead you're a pain in the ass!

    Jean: Dammit Jean, you're such a dick. It's freakin' Jan! You're me, you should know this! No one cares dude, I don't even care anymore!
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Yami Yugi and Joey face off against the Paradox Brothers, a pair of duelists who only speak in rhyme. Eventually, the Pharaoh and his friends get in on the act:
    Para: Against our Gate Guardian, you have no chance!
    Dox: I'm not wearing any underpants.
    Para: Is that true, Brother, or are you just rhyming?
    Dox: I didn't want to throw off our timing... but it is true.
    Yami: Joey, it's time for a counterattack.
    Joey: No worries, Yug. I got your back.
    Yami: Hold on a second... are we rhyming, too?
    Joey: Don't look at me; I ain't got a clue.
    Yugi: This is like something out of Doctor Seuss!
    Téa: I can't stop staring at Yugi's caboose!
    Bakura: Why has everyone gotten all rhyme-y?
    Tristan: Shut the hell up, you stupid limey!

    Western Animation 
  • A Running Gag in many Hanna-Barbera cartoons involves a character working undercover and talking in Spy Speak, much to the annoyance of the person they're talking to. Pretty soon, that other person would also start talking in spy lingo.
  • Abby Hatcher tends to slip into the rhyming habit of Mo and Bo time to time, but "Mo and Bo Go Toe to Toe" exaggerates it, happening no less than five times throughout.
  • This trope is weaponized in an episode of The Angry Beavers. The titular beaver brothers contend against an evil magical yak (a homage to The Cat in the Hat) who speaks entirely in rhyme. Norbert accidentally picks up on his rhyming habit, which magically converts him into the Yak's brainwashed, Seussian slave.
    Yak: The rhyming is key!
    It enters your mind
    It makes you act nice and charming and kind!
    As long as you rhyme
    Your brain I will bind...
  • The ending of the Blaze and the Monster Machines episode "The Treat Thief" has Blaze, AJ and Officer Anna speaking with the Treat Thief in her rhyming matter, to the point of even matching the meter as well.
  • Danger Mouse: "Chicken Run" has Penfold, DM and flying officer Buggles Pigeon doing this.
    Buggles: Jolly good show, what?
    Penfold: What?
    Buggles: What?
    Penfold: You said "What?"
    Buggles: No, you said "What?"
    Penfold: Because you said "What?"
    Buggles: Hmm? Jolly confusing, what?
    Penfold: What?
    DM: What?... good grief, now I'm at it!
    • The narrator did this with his own Added Alliterative Appeal narration in "Gremlin Alert":
      "London, a city shrouded in shadows. From Shoreditch to Shooters Hill, from Shaftesbury Street to Shepherds Bush, shoppers shrink as shady shapes shuffle shiftly. Who can shatter the sinister shutters? Shout for the nation's shield! Shend for Dangermoushe!"
  • In the Doug episode "Doug Flies a Kite", Doug's father constantly rhymed throughout the episode about kite philosophy. In the last line of the episode, Doug said:
    "The Funnie Five was the simplest kite there, but it's the one that did best in the air. Ah! Now he's got me doing it!"
  • On Family Guy, Stewie is talking with an inflection at the end of every sentence, mocking a supposed habit of Jillian.
    Brian: Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. Oh dammit, now I'm doing it too!
  • Freakazoid! had Monster of the Week Invisibo's theme song stuck in his head.
    Freakazoid: Where did he go, that Invisibo? [face plant on table] Now I've got that song stuck in my head!
  • The Futurama season 4 finale had everyone join in on Fry's opera.
    Prof. Farnsworth: I can't believe the Devil is so unforgiving!
    Zoidberg: I can't believe everybody's just ad-libbing!
  • Happened on occasion in the old "Gary Coleman" Saturday-Morning Cartoon, concerning the character Haggle; any time another character would start speaking in rhyme like he did, they would invoke this trope.
  • In the Hercules: The Animated Series episode "Hercules and the Arabian Night", a crossover with Aladdin: The Series, Hades at first mocks Jafar's Evil Laugh, then by the end of the episode he's also laughing evilly and says he kind of likes it.
  • Kid Cosmic: After Tuna Sandwich saves the Local Heroes, Jo briefly takes on Kid's cutesy-talk as he compliments Tuna.
    Kid: You came to save us, didn't you, boy? You knew it was a twap!
    Jo: I knew it was a twap!
  • Happens to Ariel in the TV series of The Little Mermaid where she tries to convince a magical rhyming fish to break themselves out of a prison where they were forced to mine bubbles by two other antagonistic rhyming fish. She ends up making an unintentional rhyme trying to bring the fish's spirits up and catches herself in the act.
  • Looney Tunes:
    • "Long-Haired Hare" starts out with Bugs Bunny singing jaunty tunes outside his burrow. However, he just happens to be near the home of opera singer Giovanni Jones, who is trying to rehearse for a show. Twice, Jones finds himself hearing Bugs and singing along absent-mindedly, but quickly catches himself and physically abuses Bugs for distracting him. The third time Jones doesn't even give Bugs a chance to sing and launches a pre-emptive strike, after which Bugs decides This Means War!
    • In the cartoon "My Favorite Duck", Porky Pig is on a camping trip near a pond, and Daffy Duck annoys him with his usual antics while singing "Blues in the Night". After several gags, Porky is shown absent-mindedly singing the song, only to realize what he's doing and throw an angry glare at the Fourth Wall.
    • In the '70s TV special "Bugs Bunny in King Arthur's Court", Bugs hangs out with Porky for a while and soon finds himself stammering over a word. Porky has to tell him how to pronounce it.
    • Elmuh Fudd Syndwome appears to be contagious as Bugs and Daffy will occasionally slip into it as well... granted in a bit of a mocking fashion.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • During the episode "Party of One" Rainbow Dash tries picking a fight with Rocky. "Rocky" is just a stack of rocks, being voiced by a temporarily insane Pinkie Pie. When she knocks "him" over, Dash looks shocked for a moment like she's worried about Rocky, then facehoofs, realizing the insanity of the whole thing.
    • In "Yakity-Sax", when Applejack complains about the noise of Pinkie Pie's attempts to play the yovidaphone. Rarity feels the need to make an apple pun, much to the amusement of AJ and Twilight.
      Applejack: Did anypony else think that sounded like an apple core caught in a pulp grinder?
      Rarity: Apple-solutely! Um, ah, absolutely.
    • There have been multiple cases of characters briefly picking up on Zecora's rhyming speech. Fluttershy does it in "A Health of Information", and Twilight lapses into it in "Secret of My Excess" and "The Cutie Remark - Part 2", even to the point of matching Zecora's meter.
  • The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: In the episode "Owl's Well That Ends Well," Rabbit unthinkingly imitates Tigger's malapropism as Tigger builds a crow trap for him:
    Tigger: And now for the secret ingrediament!
    Rabbit: And what exactly is the secret ingredament... er, ingredient?
  • The Patrick Star Show: In "Pat-a-thon", Perch gets so used to Patrick calling him the wrong name, that when Patrick unexpectedly gets it right, Perch actually corrects him with a different name before realizing his mistake.
  • Rocko's Modern Life: Very often, Heffer is mistaken for a cow (he's actually a steer). At one point, in "The Good, the Bad, and the Wallaby", Hef even mistakes himself for a cow, but one of the cattle corrects him.
  • Rocky and Bullwinkle: In one "Bullwinkle's Corner", Bullwinkle is being interrogated by a Joe Friday Expy while reciting "Tom Tom the Piper's Son". When Bullwinkle starts mirroring the cop's terse clipped speaking style, the cop asks, "You makin' fun of the way I talk?" Bullwinkle replies, "No, but it's catching!"
  • Sofia the First: In "The Great Pretender", Wormwood tries to teach Clover how to recognize ingredients, but Clover can't even get their names right.
    Clover: Uh... dragon... thing-a-whatever, and hurricane... stuff-a-maguff!
    Wormwood: No! This is hurricane stuff-a-maguff- Oh, you've got me saying it! Hurricane dust!
  • The Spectacular Spiderman: In "Destructive Testing", Spidey finds himself adopting Kraven's speech patterns, much to his annoyance.
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks: "We'll Always Have Tom Paris": Mariner initially dismisses Boimler's explanation that referring to the Voyager as simply "VOY" saves time. However, while discussing how bridge crew members always somehow come Back from the Dead, she says "VOY" herself and admits Boimler was right, it does save a ton of time.
  • Superfriends 1973/74 episode "The Balloon People". Dr. Noah Tall's assistant Twisty has been using Spoonerisms throughout the episode, and by the end Dr. Tall is using them too.
  • Tom and Jerry: In the classic cartoon "Hic-cup Pup", it's established that whenever Spike's little son Tyke is forcefully awakened from a nap, he gets the hiccups. Naturally, Tom wakes Tyke up several times, attracting Spike's ire. Near the end, Spike is trying to cure his son's hiccups, only to start hiccuping himself.
    Spike: Now he's got me doin' it! *hic* I'll moider that *hic* cat! *hic*
  • T.U.F.F. Puppy:
    • In the Chameleon's debut episode, Dudley keeps suspecting everyone of being the Chameleon in disguise and says "Or should I say, CHAMELEON?!" before attacking the false suspect. Later on, Kitty suddenly says the same sentence to the undisguised Chameleon's face before calling herself out on it.
    • Bird Brain has two incompetent minions, an owl that can only say "Who?" and a bat who can only say "Where?". After spending an entire episode fed up by their antics, Bird Brain says "Who? Where?" in response to a report that Dudley and Kitty are arriving. He decides to blame Zippy for their habits rubbing off on him, and gets even more irate when she says "Why?". Once defeated at the end of the episode and dazed from a blow to the head, Bird Brain says "Who? What? Where?".
  • Wander over Yonder: In "The Catastrophe" when Sylvia encounters Lil Bits (A.K.A. "Baby Cakes"), she briefly lapses into her Elmuh Fudd Syndwome, to the point of even correcting herself each time.
  • In one sketch on The Wrong Coast, we see the life of Jack Morris, the supposed "Voice over legend" responsible for all the voice overs in movie trailers. He speaks as an announcer in all aspects of life, such as at the dinner table;
    Jack: In a world where rolls need butter, and I have no butter, would you please pass the butter!?
    • Later, his wife is divorcing him and when asked why, replies;
      Mrs. Morris: I just can't take it anymore. In a world where divorce is as common as a grain of sand... Oh god, now the asshole's got me doing it!
  • In the Young Justice (2010) animated series, Dick's habit of back-forming words due to a fascination with prefixes leads to his teammates picking up his 'whelmed' and 'aster' on occasion, though they're usually aware that they're doing it.
    • It actually gets to the point where Red Arrow uses 'whelmed' in dead-serious context. No one even blinks. It's just that ingrained into their vocabulary.
    • And as Outsiders has shown us, even the Man of Steel is not immune.
    • Discussed when Beast Boy does it in front of his girlfriend, Queen Perdita, who is confused and thinks her knowledge of English is missing something.

    Real Life 
  • According to Robert Llewellyn's account of playing Kryten in Red Dwarf, during season 4, Craig Charles ended every sentence with "la". By season 5 everyone was doing it, but Charles had stopped. "Obviously, saying 'la' had become passe."
  • According to Don Adams, this would happen to guest stars who were on the show Get Smart. Don Adams' voice proved very infectious.
  • TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary. Or enhance it.
  • The reunited "Wonka Kids", especially Paris Themmen (Mike Teavee), point out in the DVD Commentary of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory when Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt)'s British accent starts to be accidentally picked up by the American actors for certain lines in the movie. ("Evahlasting Gawbstawppahs?!")
  • It's a well-documented phenomenon that people will unintentionally begin to mimic the accent or dialect of someone they are talking to in order to seem more friendly and receptive.
  • If you spend a lot of time around a friend who uses an unusual slang term (or one you just don't use very much), sooner or later, you will catch yourself using it, even if that friend isn't around. The same is actually true for writing or even using emojis/smileys. If you write with someone that always uses a certain style or obsesses with emojis, you might end up doing the same at one point involuntarily as well.

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Anemone

Bill tries to teach the announcer how to say, "anemone."

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