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Five seconds earlier, she was eating something.

Lady Like: We already have a brand new mouth to feed!
King Dedede: Then you're lucky these two ain't got no mouths!
Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, "The Fofa Factor"

A character whose mouth is not depicted because they lack one or it is otherwise obscured. When used in the same vein as obscured eyes, it can create an expressionless and enigmatic character. This can be compensated by fleshing out other aspects of the character, such as giving the character unique vocal inflections (i.e., a really good voice actor) or subtle physical animations other characters would not get. Sometimes this is done for artistic reasons to call attention to something in the background that would otherwise not pull attention.

More economically, it makes animation (and especially dubbing) much easier. Lately seen as a cheap and dated trick.

This is even occasionally a role with animal mascots where the more 'realistic' pet doesn't move their mouth when speaking; dialogue is hard to sync when your talker can't actually make proper faces.

If the character doesn't have any facial features, they're The Blank. If a character without a mouth still talks, forms of Action Figure Speech will be often be used to show they're talking. If the character only has a mouth when they are talking, they have Sudden Anatomy.

Does not always count in Super Hero shows, as obscuring masks are canonically common accessories from comic books. Not to be confused with Wipe That Smile Off Your Face, which is much more horrific, nor with Harlan Ellison's story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. Contrast Too Many Mouths.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Hotaru from Gakuen Alice tends to lose her mouth whenever she does her half lidded eyes stare at Mikan.
  • Samurai Deeper Kyo has the anime-only Migeira, who wears a no-mouth mask all the time. Nobody knows why.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's character Arf (a slightly goofy dog girl familiar) talked in dog form without moving her lips. When a similar but more serious familiar was introduced in the second season, they stopped doing this.
  • Naruto:
    • Kakashi keeps his mouth concealed behind a mask at all times, although being a ninja it isn't too odd. Or at least it wouldn't be if he weren't one of the few character in a series about ninjas who does this, and to the point where he wears another mask underneath it. Even his official Hokage Monument face sculpture in the epilogue depicts him with a mask.
    • A lighter version of this is Shino, whose mouth is generally hidden behind the upturned collar of his jacket, with the viewer/reader getting only a few short glimpses of it from time to time, with the exception of the filler episode "Shino Laughs". Only in the last few arcs does he finally switch to a uniform which doesn't cover his mouth.
  • Dororo in Sgt. Frog is similar to Arf from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which unfortunately gives him very little facial expression, given the simplistic look of the alien frogs. Maybe that's why he's not popular… This is lampshaded in the dub, where the Interactive Narrator directly comments on how that makes dubbing into English much easier.
  • Bleach:
    • Nova does this with a zippable mask which allows him to also conceal his eyes if he gets shy enough.
    • There's also Tsubaki. He always wears a little Kakashiesque mask over the bottom half of his face, which makes him look very badass despite being six inches tall and having wings coming out of his butt.
    • Sun-sun, one of Harribel's Fraccion, always hides her mouth behind one of her arms.
      • There's one instance where her arm isn't covering her mouth, though, when she and her allies watch the Ichigo/Grimmjow battle from afar.
    • There's also Ulquiorra before he became an Espada.
    • Pernida Parnkgjas is a disembodied hand with eyes. Mayuri is surprised because he's able to talk even though he doesn't have a mouth.
  • Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion seems bound and determined to keep as much of his face obscured as possible — not only does he wear Scary Shiny Glasses, he's in the habit of folding his hands in front of his face whenever he sits at a table. Other characters have a strange compulsion to put clipboards or pieces of paper in front of their mouths whenever they speak or have unnaturally long sips from beer cans. Many of the angels also lack visible mouths, notably Ramiel and Leliel, who have nothing reminescent of faces or facial features at all.
  • Noir usually obscures characters with whatever firearms they were using. Perhaps because they let their guns do the talking. Or they were cheap.
  • Gali from Monster Rancher has a mouth, but is a part of the mask that represents the face and does not actually move when he talks.
  • Satotsu, a minor character in Hunter × Hunter, has no mouth, even in the manga. He does, however, have a very nice mustache.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist Major Alex Louis Armstrong's mustache is so big that it almost always covers his mouth. Except in the flashback to the Ishval massacre, when he didn't have a mustache. When his mouth does appear from under his mustache, it's likely either a sign of fierce determination, or utter shock - and both versions happen within the span of a couple of minutes during the fight with Sloth.
  • Digimon:
    • Renamon's mouth was rarely visible, due to the angle of her head.
    • In Digimon Adventure, Wizardmon's face is always covered except for about a second in a flash back and the film X-Evolution.
    • Many fully-armored Digimon do not have visible mouths, instead having plating where a mouth would normally be or wearing head-covering helmets.
  • Almost everyone in Desert Punk who fights has no visible mouth because they're always wearing helmets. Lampshaded once when Kosuna told Rain Spider to watch his mouth and he replies "... my mouth's not shown."
  • Haruhi Suzumiya: Nagato Yuki has a very small mouth. It's often invisible except when she's talking (which is very rare indeed). Makes it easier to show how she's an emotionally-repressed Artificial Human.
  • Vincent from Midnight Horror School has no mouth, but despite this he can somehow eat and talk. This also applies to Mr. X due to the fact that they always wear a Brown Bag Mask.
  • Ranma ½: In his cursed P-Chan form (a little black pig), Ryoga's mouth isn't visible, except when he bites, eats, yawns, and sometimes when he screams.
  • The title character of Beelzebub almost always has his mouth obscured by his big, yellow pacifier.
  • Many Duel Avatars from Accel World. Silver Crow has a mouth concealed behind a faceplate and this may be the case from others with similar designs such as Cyan Pile and Black Lotus but others like Sky Raker, Lime Bell and Scarlet Rain just have blank lower faces with no indication of a mask or helmet structure that might be concealing a mouth. Not too big an issue since these are digital avatars in a virtual world and talking without a mouth appears to be one of their Acceptable Breaks from Reality.
  • Hiiragi from Hanamaru Kindergarten.
  • Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: The Waddle Dees and Waddle Doo all have no mouths. Dedede puzzles over why they cost so much to feed, and he and Escargoon approach a guard, and put a cookie to where its mouth should be. The cookie goes through its skin, and the face moves and makes noises as if something is being chewed. They're weirded out by this revelation.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, this is true for most natives of the Barian World in their true forms. Their speaking voices come with a little echo effect.
  • Miime of Captain Harlock is an alien woman who has no mouth, yet somehow drinks staggering amounts of alcohol (it's the primary nutrient for her species).
  • The cat Sakamoto from Nichijou has no mouth, even after he is given the ability to speak.
  • For the most part, Russia's cat from Hetalia: Axis Powers looks like he has no mouth. It appears very briefly, and only once.
  • Okorinbou and Nikorinbou from Ojarumaru don't have a mouth. However, there are very few moments throughout the series where Okorinbou shows teeth. One example being the episode "Kazuma, Afraid of Rocks" (where he and Nikorinbou make their first appearance).
  • Kanna from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is often drawn without a mouth when she isn't eating. This is especially noticeable in her Spin-Off, which has plenty of close ups of her face. Downplayed in the anime, which limits this to only a few scenes, though her mouth is often drawn a lot smaller than everyone else when it's closed.
  • One of the American English-dubbed episodes of Doraemon features little build-it-yourself robots that take on the personality of whoever you mean to make them look like. Their heads do not have mouths, which causes problems for the mini-Doraemon when he tries to eat a doriyaki/yummy bun.
  • Sonic from Blood Blockade Battlefront lacks a mouth, but he can still eat bananas just fine on his own.
  • The titular female protagonist of Komi Can't Communicate only has two default expressions: her normal stoic-looking face with Tsurime Eyesnote , and a comical chibi-fied one that only shows her with big wide Tareme Eyes and no visible mouth or nosenote . The latter, in earlier issues/episodes, used to include a very tiny mouth, but that was phased out later on.
  • Jim (also known as Indian) in Love of Kill is drawn without a mouth, even when talking. Especially jarring because everyone else are depicted realistically.
  • Kiwi from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners lacks a mouth, as her gas mask is actually a specialized facial implant. When Maine accidentally knocks it off in episode 6, a very brief scene shows that the bottom half of her face is just a hollowed-out metal cavity. Somehow she can still drink and smoke through the implant. The official twitter account for the series later shared a piece of concept art that gives a clearer look at her face.
  • In Mado Kara Madoka Chan, the titular young woman is drawn with no mouth or nose. The only features on her face are Blush Stickers and two big and expressive eyes, to emphasize her goofiness and cuteness.

    Arts 

    Asian Animation 
  • Happy Heroes: In Season 7 episode 15, the fact that Hello Kitty usually doesn't have a mouth is spoofed when Fat Tiger is checking the potential Cat Planet recruits, sees a cat who looks an awful lot like Hello Kitty, and asks her how she can catch mice without a mouth.
  • Necati from King Shakir has his mouth obscured by his mustache.
  • In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Dear Little Wish, Grandpa Meteor's mustache covers his mouth most of the time.
  • Simple Samosa:
    • Mayor Royal Falooda's mouth is usually obscured by his mustache, although it does appear when he screams in several episodes.
    • Yolky the egg alien from the episode "Anda Bhatija" outright lacks a mouth.

    Comic Books 
  • DC Comics' The Question deliberately invokes this, going so far as to wear a mask so that he doesn't even have a face.
  • Rorschach, from Alan Moore's Watchmen, has his entire face obscured when in costume, under normal circumstances. However, he considers the Rorschach test mask to be his face.
  • Generation X: The mutant Jonothon Starsmore/Chamber communicates telepathically and has the lower part of his face covered because his mutant power, on manifestation, obliterated his body from below the nose to about the ribcage.
  • In some of his earlier appearances, Tintin was often drawn without a mouth. Even in later comics, his mouth is often no more than a small dot.
  • In Rise of the Third Army, those assimilated by the Third Army have their mouths sealed shut so they won't talk back to the Guardians.
  • Walt Simonson's Ragnarök for IDW Comics has a post-apocalyptic take on Thor and Norse Mythology where the God of Thunder missed out on Ragnarok was imprisoned and left to rot in a prison and decays into a skeletal being whose face is a skull with his lower jaw completely missing, and whose voice manifests as a kind of blue lightning in a black gash where his jaw used to be.

    Comic Strips 
  • Bécassine: The earliest example in comic strips. This character was always drawn without a visible mouth.
  • In some comic strips, artists will usually only draw the mouth when a character is speaking or making a funny expression, such as Dilbert (who until very recently never had a mouth) and Peanuts (in the latter, Schultz tended to omit the mouth in profile poses).
  • Likewise, Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes loses his mouth in profile, but only when lost in thought or confused.
  • The eponymous star of the old comic strip Henry. That he didn't talk implied he couldn't. He was featured in a National Lampoon gallery of realistically rendered comic strip characters. "Henry Kellog would be glad to eat his beets!" Brrr...
  • Liō, of the newspaper comic of the same name. It does appear, but only when it's open. Fitting, as the strip is pantomime.
  • Most animals in Pearls Before Swine appear without mouths, except when they're yelling or screaming.
  • Slylock Fox and his sidekick Max are usually mouthless, unless speaking or emoting.
  • R.J. in Over the Hedge, aside from a few shouting occasions in the comic's first year.
  • Agnes, mostly. Other characters I'm the strip have mouths are just barely visible.
  • Garfield's teddy bear Pooky originally had a mouth, but lost it due to Art Evolution. (The last strips to depict him with a mouth were in 1981 and 1982. Since then, at least two strips relied on the fact that Pooky had no mouth.

    Fan Works 
  • Boldores And Boomsticks: Blake is briefly distracted while drinking with Tapu Bulu to wonder how he drinks anything without a visible mouth.
  • Little Hands, Big Attitude: The zombie version of game Sonic has no mouth to indicate that Mephiles is using it as a puppet. He can still talk like this.

    Films — Animation 
  • Gromit from Wallace & Gromit is the mouthless and voiceless hero. Gromit was originally designed with a mouth, but the first scene in which he was animated just showed him reacting mouthlessly to a situation and the animators realized he worked better that way.
  • The Thief and the Cobbler: Tack, the title cobbler, has no actual drawn mouth, but it's represented by two nails he constantly holds in his mouth. The animators position them to use simple expressions like :>, :< and (using Forced Perspective) :o. Until the ending when spontaneously he has one to say "I love you" and kiss Yum Yum.
  • Some of the background monsters from Monsters, Inc. don't have mouths.
  • Hank from Finding Dory. Unlike most cartoon octopi, his mouth is hidden beneath his tentacles, like a real octopus. It is visible in some shots, barely showing under the webbing between his tentacles.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Twilight Zone: The Movie: "It's a Good Life", the third segment, features a girl with no mouth who stares blankly at a TV screen.

    Literature 
  • This is a distinguishing feature of Ax and the other Andalites from Animorphs. Also a major source of comic relief, given their natural inability to taste. Technically they have four mouths; they eat by absorbing sustenance through their hooves as they walk around (it's never clear whether their legs are hollow and they have an actual orifice there, or if they just sort of osmose nutrients out of whatever they're walking in). So you could say they're anti-this trope.
  • Nom in the Second The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant has no mouth. Which is hilarious, given the name.
  • Salamanders on the Discworld, which are small amphibians which don't actually need mouths because they feed on the octarine wavelengths in light; the other wavelengths are akin to poop and are stored away so as to blind attackers and make a getaway. In The Truth, Otto Chriek also experiments with some cave eels which feed on and excrete the light you get when you go out the other side of dark.
  • Lampshaded in The Horrible Histories book Woeful WW2. In one caricature, a crowd stands listening to Stalin making an epic speech. Then one of the listeners comments on how he lies every time he opens his mouth. Another one asks back, "How do you know?"
  • I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. To be more specific, in order to prevent Ted from completing his murder-suicide and depriving AM of humans he could torture, AM transforms him into an semi-amorphous blob incapable of hurting itself, which includes no mouth (and he must scream).
  • The first Remade character in Perdido Street Station is a failed burglar who refused to name his accomplices, and had his mouth sealed shut as a punishment. Subverted when he cut his face open to create a new mouth, although the result was sloppy, crooked and lipless.
  • In the Paradox Trilogy, symbionts have no mouths in their armored form, as their entire faces are covered with scales save for their eyes.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire, Tyrion starts hallucinating after sustaining heavy injuries in the second book's climax; he imagines that he has no mouth. (It's actually just a bandage covering his mouth).
    No, don't go, help me, help, he tried to call, but the best he could do was a muffled moan. I Have No Mouth.

    Live-Action TV 
  • If not for this, Power Rangers would never have been able to make use Stock Footage...
  • The neighbor, Wilson, from Home Improvement almost always had the lower half of his face hidden behind the fence. When, on rare occasions, his mouth was visible, the upper half of his face was always obscured. Should be noted that his mouth is obscured when not at the fence, best example is by examining a saw (when he appeared in the hardware store). This is a good example of a Running Gag taken to its limit. In one Halloween episode Wilson's face was "obscured" by the fake beard and mustache he was wearing as part of a Captain Hook costume. The worst one was when he was wearing a skeleton costume, and his face was only obscured by black and white paint. He came out at a curtain call for the cast carrying a fence-on-a-stick.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer had two examples. In "The Witch", one of the cheerleaders hit by Amy's spell has her mouth disappear. And then there are the telepathic, mouthless demons in "Earshot".
  • Boohbah: The eponymous Boohbahs do not have visible mouths. They do not speak as a result; instead, they make sounds such as cracks, squeaks, etc.
  • On Star Trek: The Next Generation, some Borg drones wear implants that take the place of their mouths.
  • A few of the aliens in the Ultra Series lack mouths, but instead have these weird glowing patches on their heads that flash whenever they speak. Mephilas and Metron stand out as prime examples of this.
  • In The Outer Limits (1963) episode "The Galaxy Being", the titular alien is a humanoid with no mouth or nose, just a pair of eyes.

    Music 
  • In a Billy Talent music video Devil In A Midnight Mass, a boy runs away from the two black smokes chasing him. In the basement, he finds a man with no mouth sitting on a chair. After trying to defend himself against the black smokes with an axe, he then runs to the altar (where the band has been playing) to find the mouthless altar boys, and he eventually becomes one of them.
  • Lights' The Listening album cover.

    Puppet Shows 

    Tabletop Games 

    Toys 
  • Hello Kitty (along with other characters in her world) has no mouth, and a bizarre memetic website has been dedicated to this fact since the 2000s. According to Sanrio, the reason she doesn't is that they wanted people to "project their feelings onto her"[1]. This is averted otherwise in the anime series and specials, where she has a mouth (however, it's small) and is shown talking.
    • This is also the case with another (but lesser-known) Sanrio character, Chococat, who also doesn't have a visible mouth. Like the above-mentioned, other characters in his world are shown the same way.
  • BIONICLE:
    • All characters wear masks — with some exceptions like the Piraka, known for their Slasher Smiles. The figures do have mouths under their masks, but having the masks attach by plugging into their mouths — let the fact that they're ambiguously biological Mechanical Lifeforms hand wave how that works.
    • Averted for the most part in the movies, where — due to a decision to not depict any characters without their masks — said masks have fully functioning mouths and effectively are their "face". There are a few exceptions, mostly female characters and the Turaga, where they have a sort of immobile "ventilation grill" where the mouth should be, but have a small "flame" that flares up as they're speaking as an analogue to lip movements.
    • The problem was solved by 2009 by introducing a new kind of beings that wear helmets, not masks, that plug into the top of their head. Hero Factory made this a standard design aspect, and the characters can now retract their faceplates to show their mouths.
  • Most of the many, many Funko Pop! figures have no mouths.
  • Gozarutchi and Knighttchi of the Tamagotchi toys and franchise both have their mouths obscured, the former by his ninja hood and the latter by his knight helmet.

    Video Games 
  • In Animal Crossing, Tom Nook, Timmy, Tommy, Redd, Kicks, Mabel, Sable, and Label all lack mouths. However, they can all speak normally, as this was an artistic choice; their snouts wiggle slightly when they do.
  • In Barrow Hill: The Dark Path, Mia's mouth isn't visible when she video-phones you in a panic, only her nose and her terrified eyes as she hears the voice of Baibin chanting nearby. Later developments imply that, if we had seen her mouth, we'd have observed that Mia is the one doing the singing, as Baibin is beginning to possess the girl.
  • In the Bomberman series, most of the characters' faces show no features besides very expressive eyes.
  • Most of the humanoid characters designs in Brave Frontier lack a mouth.
  • In Cultist Simulator none of the spirits that originate as dead humans, like the Maids In The Mirror or the Voiceless Dead, have a mouth. This is revealed to be because almost all dead pass through The White Door, which heals your mouth shut.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • All the character models outside of battles and cut scenes in Final Fantasy VII don't have their mouths drawn, which compliments the anime style that the game is going for. However, the PC version gives all the character models mouths, which is nothing but a round black circle (except for your party, which has just a flat line for everyone).
    • Much of the time in Final Fantasy X, Auron's mouth is hidden behind his collar. It does, however, appear on occasion. Arguably for the better, as it gave Auron's voice actor free range to do what he wanted and not be limited by lip-synching.
  • Neither Jack nor Hel from Ghostrunner have mouths, which begs the question of how they can talk. Maybe it's one of their cybernetic implants?
  • Kirby:
    • Waddle Dees. They'd look almost like a repainted Kirby otherwise. The mouthlessness is also lampshaded in the anime, when Dedede and Escargoon offer one food to see how it eats, and it proceeds to absorb the morsel through the spot in its face where the mouth would normally be.
    • Susie from Kirby: Planet Robobot. She appears to have no visible mouth, yet is able to speak just fine.
    • Elfilin from Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Like the entries above, he is able to eat and speak just fine. The lack of a visible mouth is a trait shared by his Evil Counterpart Fecto Forgo and their combined original form Fecto Elfilis.
  • Seadolph from Klonoa: Door to Phantomile has a bushy mustache that obscures his mouth.
  • Raziel of the Legacy of Kain series wears what's left of his cape over the lower half of his face, mostly because his jaw burned off when he was tossed into the Abyss. When asked how he manages to talk despite this, Amy Hennig variously joked, "It's all in the uvula," and "Supple throat muscles."
  • Purah from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is depicted as lacking a discernible mouth.
  • Lufia: The Legend Returns The character profile portrays characters without any mouths in the menu screen including Wain and his allies.
  • The Collectors in Mass Effect lack mouths, due to genetic modifications by the Reapers.
  • Mega Man (Classic): Some Robot Masters do not have mouths. The reasons for their mouthlessness may vary. Cephalothoraxes tend to play the trope straight.
    • Fire Man from the original game.
    • Metal Man, Air Man (unless you count the chest fan as a mouth), and Bubble Man from Mega Man 2.
    • Needle Man and Magnet Man from Mega Man 3.
    • Toad Man, Drill Man, Ring Man, Dust Man, and Skull Man from Mega Man 4 are definite examples. In Pharaoh Man's case, it is ambiguous as to whether Pharaoh Man has his mouth covered by bandages or if the bandages are part of his actual skin. Toad Man has a mouth in the Ruby-Spears adaptation despite his Cephalothorax nature.
    • Mega Man 5: Gyro Man, Crystal Man, Napalm Man (who is a Cephalothorax), and Wave Man. In Stone Man's case, it's unclear whether Stone Man has a lower jaw akin to Gut Man, his mouth is hidden underneath, or he's truly mouthless.
    • Mega Man 6: Wind Man, Flame Man, Yamato Man, and Knight Man.
    • Rockman World V: Bīnasu is a rare female example due to her crab design. Māsu has a plate replacing his mouth. Uranosu may or may not play this trope straight, with the plate where the mouth should be possibly being his lower jaw. Jupitā subverts the trope, however.
    • Mega Man 7: Freeze Man, Burst Man, Cloud Man, Spring Man, and Turbo Man.
    • Mega Man 8: All of the pre-Wily Robot Master bosses except Sword Man and Clown Man, plus the minibosses from Sword Man's and Aqua Man's stages.
    • Mega Man & Bass: Cold Man and Pirate Man. (The latter has a mouth in the manga adaptation.)
    • Mega Man 9: Concrete Man, Magma Man, and Galaxy Man. The fact that the second is given a Cephalothorax design may be the blame for his mouthlessness.
    • Mega Man 10: Blade Man, Commando Man, Sheep Man, Strike Man, Nitro Man, and Solar Man. Sheep Man and Strike Man are Cephalothoraxes, partially justifying the trope.
    • Mega Man 11: Tundra Man, Torch Man, and Bounce Man. Acid Man and Pile Man may have mouths which are just obscured.
  • MLB Power Pros and the rest of the series features the Super-Deformed characters with no mouth or nose whatsoever, yet their quirky personalities are being expressed at full throttle. This holds true even with the in-game player units based on real life's counterpart.
  • The Manticorb from Monster Sanctuary is a Waddling Head with no mouth, so it sustains itself by absorbing mana.
  • Most characters in Ōkami have no mouths, due to the distinctive art style. Everyone else's mouths seem to disappear until they actually need them.
  • The titular character in Ollo in The Sunny Valley Fair is simply a clay ball with eyes.
  • Pikmin: Inverted with Blue Pikmins, the only Pikmin type with a mouth (it functions as gills, giving them their unique underwater survival skills). Nevertheless, all Pikmins are able to communicate with high-pitched voices despite their general lack of mouths.
  • There are several Pokémon that lack a mouth or seem to lack one: Hitmonlee, Dratini, Dragonair, Beldum, Unown, Sigilyph, and Deoxys (who lacks facial features in general except for eyes). Pokemon Amie's Pokepuff-feeding feature in X and Y reveals that some of them do have mouths as they can be fed, even if their mouths aren't visible at all. Sigilyph's mouth, for instance, is actually on its stomach, while the Unowns' mouths seem to be somewhere on the lower edge of their 'eye'. The Pokémon that genuinely have no mouth and can't be fed this way tend to be the cocoon Pokémon; Metapod, Silcoon, etc.
  • Pylons: None of the kids in the game, not even the Player Character, have visible mouths.
  • Raccoo Venture: The Player Character doesn't have a visible mouth.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • For some reason, at the end of Sonic Adventure 2, everyone starts obscuring their mouths (it's pretty clear that they no longer have any). In its predecessor, Sonic Adventure, characters tend to lose their mouths when they're not already speaking; due to the bizarre facial animation, it looks no less strange when they do.
    • Mephiles the Dark from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) has no mouth. He also loses his nose in his crystalline form. Also in this form, his muzzle will 'flex' when he is talking.
  • The Protoss of StarCraft have no mouth, speaking by telepathy instead. It makes it somewhat weird as their backstory mentions that they evolved from a hunter-gatherer culture which was already telepathic — meaning they lost the mouth pretty damn fast, probably due to Xel'Naga intervention. The prequel novels say that they eat sunlight and water vapor through their skin, and were only hunter-gatherers for building materials and defense. In StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, Rohana considers the fact that the Terrans use mouths to communicate as a sign of their primitive nature.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Due to graphical limitations, the Goombas from the original Super Mario Bros. are literally drawn without mouths, despite the fact that in the game's official artwork (and in all their game sprites from Super Mario Bros. 3 onwards), they are all drawn with frowns on their faces. Lumas also lack mouths as well, with the only exceptions being Hungry Lumas, the Luma Shopkeeper, and Lubba from Super Mario Galaxy 2.
    • Mario himself was given a moustache in the original Donkey Kong because it was easier than giving him a mouth.
  • The Pyro class in Team Fortress 2 is the only class whose mouth is not visible, obscured as it is by his(?) full-body flamesuit. This also muffles all of his speech beyond recognition.
  • Suishinshi Masahide of Touken Ranbu obscures his mouth with high collars and scarfs most of the time, only showing it during Clothing Damage.
  • Undying: None of the character models in the game have mouths. The only time mouths are visible is during conversations, where images of the characters show up around the text box.
  • Sectoids in X Com Enemy Unknown, unlike the original, have no mouths to speak of. This is likely the result of heavy genetic modifications they went through.
  • While several of the more humanoid characters in Yume Nikki lack mouths due to the simple sprite style, there is some debate as to whether or not Seccom Masada is actually supposed to have a mouth. Some of the fanart which depicts the human characters (such as Madotsuki or Poniko) more realistically still portrays Masada as having no mouth or nose.
  • When finally met, Lev in Void Stranger doesn't have a mouth and every time they talk, their dialogue box is empty. They then realize you can't understand them and take another character's helmet after killing them to be able to communicate with you.

    Web Animation 
  • Happy Tree Friends: The Mole's mouth is always covered up by his turtleneck sweater. He has also never spoken.
  • Homestar Runner:
    • Coach Z and Pom Pom (as well as their 1936 and "20X6" counterparts) literally don't have mouths (they don't have noses or ears either). However, they wouldn't raise eyebrows in their universe, as the title character (and several others) don't even have arms.
    • The King of Town could qualify as well, though his mouth is hidden behind the mustache.
  • All the squirrels in Neurotically Yours. The only time their mouths are ever shown is if they're eating or sucking on something.
  • Hell On Kitty is a dark deconstruction of the trope. At first, Hello Kitty was not too worried with not being able to talk or brush her teeth until she realizes that she needs to eat. Lacking a mouth also hinders her chance to get the help when the phone rings. Then there is the knife on the floor...
  • RWBY: Professor Port has his mouth covered by a thick curly mustache. It's the mustache that moves when he talks.
  • The titular protagonist of Dan The Man has no visible mouth most of the time. It does appear when he has to talk to NPC's, takes damage and in the middle of some attacks.

    Webcomics 
  • Reynardine from Gunnerkrigg Court loses his mouth in his full-sized wolf form. This contributes to him being far more majestic and dignified in this form. Except when he's angry, or trying to be threatening.
  • For a good portion of El Goonish Shive, Tedd was drawn without a mouth unless yelling or grinning or something, only gaining a mouth shortly before the second major Story Arc. This was lampshaded in this comic.
  • A lot of the characters from 1/0 do not have mouths, such as Manny/Ghanny, Max, Marcus. They comment on this (as is their nature to)
  • Several of the characters in General Protection Fault, including protagonist Nick. When Dwayne buys everyone pupils (another feature some of them lack) for an April Fools strip, Nick points out that he has them underneath his glasses, and requests a mouth instead.
  • None of the main characters in Rice Boy have mouths, although they can eat, drink, talk, and smoke cigarettes as if they did. This makes it slightly disturbing when the Tree Keeper has full, red lips and the White Formless have tiny human faces.
  • For nearly twelve years, readers of Sluggy Freelance only saw Bun-Bun's a couple of times and to no major effect. Then a certain Wham Episode came along....
  • In early Living with Insanity strips, the main character didn't have a mouth.
  • In Homestuck, a recurring trait of the kids' guardians is that they only have one facial feature, and it's never the same — Dad has a nose, Mom has a mouth, Bro has eyes (under the shades) and Bec has a snout. Dad also sports a traditional pipe hovering where a mouth would be. (It is hypothesised that they have normal appearances but their kids envision them like this.)
    • The number of times WV's mouth has been seen can be counted on one hand. Likewise, the rest of the Exiles.
    • Andrew Hussie is also drawn without a mouth save for a brief sequence where he's eating, which is strange given how well-known he is for his Gag Lips.
    • Doc Scratch's head is a cueball, devoid of any facial features. As such he has no mouth.
    • Dave and Dirk, bot of whom wear sunglasses, are often drawn without a mouth.
  • Jix:
    • For the longest time, the titular character was depicted without a mouth, even though she had one. This was because her long snout kind of obscured it. The comic often joked about her lack of mouth. Later she was given a mouth to help convey her emotions better.
    • Her androids, Dyonus and Dyona, do not have mouths at all. Mostly because the speech comes from speakers built into their heads and because they do not consume.
    • Other of her species (Ambis) were drawn without mouths, except for her brother Romulos, but when she got a mouth, so did everyone else.
  • Liz from The Dreadful. We can assume she has one, because she constantly has a cigarette drooping from it, but given the Fantasy Kitchen Sink setting, it's possible the cigarette is actually part of her face.
  • Thanatos of Bigger Than Cheeses apparently used to have a mouth, but lost it in a tragic milkshake accident, or something like that. As far as speaking, breathing, and not dying of starvation go, it doesn't seem to have slowed him down.
  • Jack Delitt from Newheimburg has no mouth to be seen, his design being heavily based on a Moomin.
  • In Champions of Far'aus, most of the characters are drawn this way.
  • The koalas and the rabbit spirit in Blue Moon Blossom are never drawn with mouths. The rabbit spirit emotes using its eyes instead, but the koalas' eyes are always obscured by their glasses, so they emote only by pose or gesture, or occasionally when tears are streaming out from under their glasses.
  • Rose from Latchkey Kingdom is a mouthless Shadow with the memories of a normal Yuman. This makes her mute, so she communicates by writing and she drinks through her fingers.
  • Vexxarr: The titular character, and the rest of his species (Bleen), lack mouths and communicate telepathically. Food seemingly vanishes into thin air around him. While Sploorfix's species (Shlumpoids) do have a visible ingestion process, and it is messy.

    Western Animation 
  • In the animated version of Dilbert he disconcertingly acquires a mouth whenever he needs to speak.
  • The Ruff & Reddy Show: In case of Professor Gizmo, his thick white mustache moving sideways and up is used to indicate him speaking.
  • Many of the original Transformers lacked mouths, but as robots this doesn't seem to pose a problem. All those that don't have mouths would have some substitute speech animation, like a moving faceplate, or flashing lights. Spoofed in, of all places, Takara's Masterpiece Convoy (aka 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime) while the face plate isn't meant to be removed (and doing so may damage the toy) removing it will reveal WHY Optimus keeps his mouth covered. In the Henkei! Henkei! comics, Optimus loses his mouthplate and he turns out to be rather Bishonen-ish. Subverted in Transformers: Prime where Optimus has a mouth. He also has a mouth in Transformers: Animated. Really, it's more common for Optimus to have a retractable faceplate with a mouth beneath. The evolution of it is simple enough: G1 Optimus didn't have a mouth but his lower faceplate moved as if a mouth were under it. Then came Optimus Primal from Beast Wars: the original Optimus Primal toy had a faceplate, but his animation model didn't; making the faceplate an accessory to activate was a Hand Wave. The dramatic visual of the faceplate coming in as a Harbinger of Asskicking (with a metal-against-metal sound as it comes down and a dramatic clank once in place) has stuck ever since; it's his Game Face. By now he's not the only one who can do it.
  • The head of the Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian is basically a black ball with eyes. Duck Dodgers reveals that while all the males of his species look like that, the females (such as the Queen) are somewhat more anthropomorphic, possessing noses, chins, eyebrows... but still no mouths.
  • With precious few exceptions, Kenny from South Park has his entire face obscured by his parka at all times.
  • In a Peanuts Mayflower story William Bradford was drawn with a huge handlebar mustache that covered his mouth and it moved when he talked.
  • Ferb from Phineas and Ferb is often mouthless. But then, he doesn't talk much. When he does talk, sometimes his mouth will be obscured, sometimes not. We could see his upper lip, though.
  • The title character of Johnny Bravo is often drawn without a mouth when he doesn't talk. Carl likewise only has his mouth visible when he's using it (at least prior to his redesign in the fourth and final season).
  • Invader Zim:
    • Zim will often lose his mouth when he's thinking.
    • Professor Membrane has a high collar that obstructs his mouth from view.
  • In Sam & Max: Freelance Police Max's mouth will disappear when he doesn't talk or thinking.
  • Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls has no mouth due to being shaped like the Illuminati pyramid. He talks a lot, his outline flashing slightly whenever he speaks.
  • The Mayor of Townsville from The Powerpuff Girls (1998) lacks a visible mouth thanks to his particularly bushy mustache. When he speaks, the mustache itself bobs up and down.
  • In Tiny Planets, Bing has no mouth (or any other facial features except eyes). This doesn't seem to stop him eating: he just holds the food up to where his mouth would be and it gradually disappears.
  • Unlike in previous animated adaptations of the brand, the characters in Bionicle: The Journey to One don't have mouths on their masks, nor on their heads underneath (they even lack a jaw). What makes this puzzling is that the toys they were based on did have mouths for a change, and in the preceding web animations, which were recycled into the prologue episode, they were explicitly drawn with mouths, lips and teeth.
  • Mr. Persnickety/Fussy from The Mr. Men Show, as his mouth is hidden behind his mustache.
  • Ice Bear of We Bare Bears will sometimes have his mouth disappear, likely because he is The Quiet One.
  • The Professor from Felix the Cat covers his visible mouth with his mustache. The mustache bobs up and down when he speaks.
  • The titular character of Angelmouse does not have a visible mouth.
  • The version of Mr. Freeze seen in The Batman appears to have no nose and mouth due to his makeshift ice helmet. When the helmet breaks, he does indeed have a nose and mouth underneath.
  • The original version of Dangermouse used a variation. When the titular hero was talking while riding in his Flying Car the Mk. III, he would often look down while being shown through the windscreen; this would hide his mouth behind the dashboard so his lip movements wouldn't have to be animated.
  • The Owl House:
    • Downplayed with King. While he does have a visible mouth, it doesn't move when he speaks, and is usually hidden by the edge of his skull. The only times his mouth becomes visible is when he's eating, yawning, or using his Super-Scream ability.
    • Recurring Extra Eileen has a giant eyeball for a head and thus lacks a proper mouth, resulting in all her speech coming across as incoherent mumbling.
    • Kikimora's mouth is almost alway hidden behind her High Collar of Doom or a scarf. In fact, one of the things that make her "Miki" disguise in "For the Future" so effective both in-universe and out is the fact that she leaves her mouth visible.

    Real Life 
  • Tube worms that live around hydrothermal vents have no mouths, subsisting on nutrients generated by the symbiotic bacteria in their gills.
  • Male rotifers lack mouths and digestive systems, as they spend their few hours of life seeking females at breakneck speeds, leaving them no opportunity to eat. Certain insects also lack mouths in their adult stage for the same reason.
  • Behold, the Jawless Meth Salesman.
  • Tapeworms have no mouth, absorbing nutrients from the pre-digested food in their host's intestines directly through their surface.
  • Some species of moth have no mouthparts and only a vestigial digestive system as the adult imago. They rely entirely on the energy gained from when they were caterpillars and only live a few days, living just long enough to reproduce.
  • Severe cases of Otocephaly can result in a very small or completely absent mouth.


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