"GORN!"
"What's "gorn", dear?"
"Nothing, nothing. Just like the word, it gives me confidence. GORN! GORN!!!"
Similar to Always Wanted to Say That and often related to Inherently Funny Words, this is when someone admits the only reason they said, or keep saying, a certain word or phrase is that it's fun to say. This is often followed by them saying it again, sometimes several times in a row.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Azumanga Daioh: In one strip from the Okinawa Class Trip arc, Osaka and Chiyo get an Okinawan pastry called saataa andaagii, and Osaka keeps saying the word apparently because she finds it fun to say, much to the annoyance of Tomo.
- In K-On!, when Tsumugi gets to direct the class production of Romeo and Juliet, she keeps saying "Cut!" and making tweaks. Ritsu guesses correctly that she's just saying it because she enjoys it.
Comic Books
- A variation occurs in Secret Six, where Rag Doll discovers that everything he says sounds creepy, and delights in saying random, innocuous things just to prove it to himself over and over.
- Deadpool has done this a few times, for words like "duct tape" and "chimichangas". The latter is even the name for one of his special moves in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 — for no other reason than the fact he likes saying it, apparently.
- The Simpsons: When Nigel the agent legally separates Santa's Little Helper from the Simpsons, he declares it's due to "irreconcilable differences", then says he likes saying the phrase and repeats it.
Film
- In Kill Bill vol. 2, Elle Driver says she has this affinity for the word "gargantuan", though she only uses it once in the film.
- Mad Monster Party?. Baron von Frankenstein loves saying "antipasto".
- In Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Ricky can't stop describing "little baby Jesus" in increasingly Squicky terms whenever he prays, even when his own family protests. His response is to insist that he just prefers to think of Jesus that way.
- In ¡Three Amigos!, El Guapo has a particular fondness for the word "plethora".
- Batman (1989): The Joker/Jack Napier always utters "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" when he kills someone. He later comments to a confused Bruce Wayne that he just likes the sound of it, which is how Bruce finds out who murdered his parents.
- Elf: When Walter takes Buddy to work with him, Buddy is delighted to discover one of his father's colleagues is called "Francisco". He sits in the corner of Walter's office repeating the name to himself while Walter is trying to work, much to his annoyance.
- In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic is rather fond of saying "guac" when he's at the bar. He even says it when Robotnik asks him if he has any last words in the climax, admitting that he chose it just because he likes the word.
Literature
- One of the dwarves/dwarfs in The Soddit becomes obsessed with the word "moot". Initially he just repeats it to himself ("moot, moot, moot!") then later he insists on inserting himself in any conversation where something is undecided, just so he can say "that's moot."
- In Animorphs, when Ax is in human form he can't resist repeating and playing around with words and syllables, simply because they are fun to say. This is because Andalites don't have a mouth.
- One of the footnotes to the published script of The Compleat Wks of Willm Shkspr (Abridged) states that "this editor really likes writing the word 'Zimbabwe.' Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe."
- The Famous Five: In Five on a Treasure Island, the Five discover a map, with the word "ingots" printed on it, and realise that this means bars of gold. They then decide that the word "ingots" sounds more exciting than "gold", and they keep saying it.
What a lovely word! Ingots! Ingots! Ingots!
- One of the Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations novellas has a black market space station called Qhembembem. DTI agent Teresa Garcia thinks it's fun to say. "Qhembembembembembem..."
Live Action TV
- The subject of an entire skit
in Monty Python's Flying Circus, in which an Upper-Class Twit judges the value of words on whether they sound like they're made of wood or tin.
- In an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Hilda gets hooked on saying "bungalow." Later in the same episode, after the phrase "brackish water" comes up, she says this is her new favorite phrase.
- On The Big Bang Theory, when Leonard and Penny are drunk:
Leonard: Why would you buy Peppermint Schnapps?
Penny: Because I like peppermint, and it's fun to say sch-napps - Miranda (2009): Miranda does this Once an Episode, declaring that a word she's just used is a nice word, and repeats it a few times. Sometimes done again later in the episode, with a different word, before launching back to the first word.
- It's a funny word, isn't it? Word. The word word... is a funny word... WORD. CLUTCH!
- On Seinfeld, Jerry hypothesizes that the reason salsa is the most popular condiment is because everybody likes saying "salsa".
- One clip on World's Dumbest... features a politician named Toplicker. Brad Loekle pretends to be a reporter repeatedly saying "Mr. Toplicker! Mr. Toplicker!" just because he likes saying it.
- On Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Drew Carey once said how much he liked saying the word pianist, since the network can't censor it.
- Brick, the youngest son in The Middle has a tendency to whisper a word from his last sentence to himself.
- In one The Kids in the Hall sketch, a worker gets called up by his boss because he can't resist using the word "ascertain" at least once a sentence, and it's getting on everyone's nerves. After he promises to restrain himself, the boss says that he's happy to have been able to "delineate" the problem, and the worker latches on to that word instead.
- Taskmaster: One prize task category in Series 13 was "the item that sounds funniest when you say its name over and over again". The submissions were pickles, a stopcock, bubbles, a cookbook (in a Geordie accent), and a pair of pheasant pluckers.
Newspaper Comics
- Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes just likes saying "smock".
- Another strip where he mentions that he likes saying "quark" is a semi-example, as Calvin was talking about other, decidedly less creative terms scientists have come up with.
- Ratbert with "scruples" in one comic strip.
- Frazz has admitted this is the main reason he eats kumquats.
Radio
- Dead Ringers: Rishi Sunak, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, admits he keeps announcing care packages because he likes saying the word "package" (and since this was during the period Sunak was seen as a mild sex symbol, because women like hearing him saying "package").
- The routine "Bulbous Bouffant" by The Vestibules, as aired on the Dr. Demento Show, is built entirely out of this. A video-fied version can be found here.
- John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme:
- The storyteller sketch in the first episode has a man who just likes saying "jacket pocket".
- In the spy thriller about a zoo, Control explains that the zoo is officially not in contact with the circus:
Control: But there are, shall we say, backchannels?
Finnnemore: Okay.
Both: Backchannels!
Finnemore: Yes, that is fun to say.
Control: It is fun, isn't it?
Both: Backchannels!
Stand Up Comedy
- In one of his routines, George Carlin once noted that the phrase "Amoebic Dysentery" is an amazingly fun phrase to say if you ignore its rather unfortunate definition... and then spent ten minutes using it in sentences over and over.
Theater
- You Can't Take It With You: Ed has printing as a hobby and he'll make fliers of any random phrase he hears that he thinks sounds interesting. This gets him into trouble when he starts printing "Dynamite the Whitehouse".
TV Tropes
- One word gets used egregiously on This Very Wiki.
Video Games
- In Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Crow admits liking the word "spooky" because it "makes his beak vibrate".
Web Animation
- One episode of Teen Girl Squad has Cheerleader say "Oh boy, girls... boys!" Just because she likes saying the word "boys".
Webcomics
- The Order of the Stick: "Groggy, groggy, groggy, groggy..."
- Also, "Blah"
- Also, "Blah"
- Implied in a Pity the Kidnapper strip in The Non-Adventures of Wonderella, where a panel after Hitlerella says she's going to the pub has Wonderita just saying "pub" over and over again until it becomes "pubba bubba!"
Web Original
- In The Angry Video Game Nerd's first Bible Games episode, he says "I can't stop saying 'Baby Moses'. Baby Moses baby Moses baby Moses."
- King Enma from Dragon Ball Z Abridged likes the word "mahogany".
- In one episode of Ask That Guy with the Glasses, That Guy likes the phrase "hamster jelly".
- With onions.
Western Animation
- In Pinky and the Brain, Pinky occasionally adds real words to his store of nonsense Verbal Tics because they're fun to say. Fjord! Hark!
- In Futurama, Bender has been known to fixate on words e.g. "daffodil", "pimpmobile". His favorite word is revealed to be "ass".
- The Animaniacs at one point sing a song about Lake Titicaca, which ends as follows:
Lake Titicaca, oh Lake Titicaca, why do we sing of its fame?
Lake Titicaca, oh Lake Titicaca, 'cause we really like saying its name! - For the WB trifecta, Freakazoid!! has noted that "hugbees" is fun to say. Try it!
"Studio Audience": HUGBEES!
- In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "The Last Roundup", Pinkie Pie brings up her own love of funny-sounding words, particularly "kumquat" and "pickle barrel".
- In The Mr. Men Show episode "Trains," Miss Chatterbox likes saying the word "backgammon."
Miss Chatterbox: I can play Parcheesinote forever. It's my favorite game right after backgammon. I've never played backgammon, but I just love saying the word. Backgammon. Backgammon. Backgammon!
- Duckman loves saying (and singing) the word "prick."
Real Life
- Tourette syndrome often inflicts this on people, as the reaction to satisfying a tic is similar to scratching an itch.
- Similarly, this trope is a common reason for vocal/auditory stimming in autistic people.
- This trope was so common on the Usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban that it merited its own acronym: IHNTA,IJLS ("I have nothing to add, I just like saying ... ")
- "Weird words being fun to say" is one of the main reasons why Gratuitous Foreign Language is so common.
