Sssssnake Talk

"Yessss, man cub. Ssssso nice to sssssee you again."

— Kaa, The Jungle Book (1967)

Ssso. Let'ssss talk about thisss article. And yesss, we did demonssstrate thisss.

Anyway, Snake Talk is the tendency of any snake or snake-like creature or person to accent any sibilant sound in a word, presumably to imitate a snake hissing.

Sometimes applies so broadly it affects any reptilian creature - even when it doesn't make any sense. As much as a talking reptile can make sense anyway, even if every other Talking Animal is perfectly capable of talking.

You see, reptiles do communicate with one another, but it tends to be largely visual; displaying boldly colored frills or crests and such. Several species don't even have vocal cords and have rather poor senses of hearing. It's really only sensible to the writers, since they think scaly creatures are gross, so they must sound scary.

Black Speech takes this a step further, and constructs a whole language out of it, albeit far less pleasing to the ear.

Often employed by Snake People and Lizard Folk. And sometimes even a Smug Snake.

See also Fang Thpeak, and Vampire Vords.

If you are wondering, there are five letter "eses" in this article's title.

Subtrope of Animal Species Accent. Trrrilling Rrrs when used to denote feline purring is similar trope dealing with a particular animal species accent.

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Examplessss:

Advertissssing

• A 1980s drug PSA, famously examined by the likes of The Nostalgia Critic and JonTron, sports a drug dealer making his pitch to the viewer as he gradually transforms into a snake.
  "But hey, do I look like the kind of guy that would do that to a kid like you? YESSSSSSS!"

Japanesssse Cartoonssss and Comicssss

• The Animax English dub of Cobra in Fairy Tail gives him this sort of voice. The Japanese original and Funimation dub give him a deep baritone instead.
• Orochimaru of Naruto does this occasionally in the manga. Given the inspiration for his character, it fits. It doesn't seem to happen as often in the Japanese or English TV series; instead, the voice actors compensate by making his voice very raspy and feminine-sounding.
• Pokémon: The Series: Ekans and Seviper, in Pokémon Speak. Ekans' evolution Arbok also tends to draw out its first syllable.
• Kaoru Kaidou from The Prince of Tennis. But don't call him out on it.
  Kaidoh: Fssssssshhhhhhhhuuuuuuuu...
• Rokudo Mukuro from Reborn! (2004) tends to do this.

Comic Bookssss

• The DCU's snake cult/terrorist organization Kobra requires this as a stage of initiation for all their converts. This is noted in Identity Crisis, when Green Arrow takes Wonder Woman to interrogate Slipknot, who was suspected of attempting to kill Jean Loring, and who became a Kobra convert in prison. He starts talking like this, and Green Arrow tells him to drop the "fake hiss".
• Sssssssubverted by King Tyrant Lizard in Empowered, who has a prominent lisp and simply cannot properly make "s" sounds, a fact that he is very sensitive about.
• Judge Dredd: All of the Dark Judges talk with a noticeable hiss after their transformation to undead. "The crime issss life, the ssssentence issss death!"
• In the Dragon Wars arc, Lady Death is transported to a world of dragons who talk like this.
• In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992), the fish-like Zora talks with a strong hiss:
  Zora: Uggh! You'rre an ugly little mannn... But you have my thanksss for helping my Epheremelda... I sssaw your sssword and thought you were the knight...
• The Madballs comic book published by Marvel Comics subsidiary Star Comics depicted Snake Bait as pronouncing his S's with a hiss because of the Madballs' reptilian nature.
• Marvel Comics has Manphibian as well as Spider-Man villains the Lizard, Venom, and Stegron.
• Reptile spoke like this in the Mortal Kombat II comics. This style would later be used in his Mortal Kombat 4 ending (see Video Games section).
• The lizards and reptiles in the Star Fox Nintendo Power comic book all speak like this.
• Twisted Toyfare Theatre's version of Cobra Commander talks like this, as a Take That! to the characters portrayal in the second half of G.I. Joe: The Movie.
• In the Supergirl storyline Death & the Family, beastly villain Insect Queen talks with a noticeable hiss after possessing Lana Lang's body.
  Insect Queen: I'll make you and your family ssssuffer, Sssssupergirl! I'll make your life Hell—
• In the Legion of Super-Heroes storyline "Those Emerald Eyes Are Shining", Ontiir, the notoriously slippery and treacherous reptilian Science Police commander for Weber's World, talks with a very noticeable hiss.
  Ontiir: Most asssuredly ssso, Ssssun Boy.

Fan Workssss

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Ghidorah, though only when its three heads say this particular word in unison:
  YESSSSSSSSssssss
• Has been seen in quite a few Harry Potter fics whenever Voldemort says anything, despite the fact that he doesn't talk like that in the books.
  • In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, whenever Harry or Quirrel talk in parseltongue, an extra s gets added, and the writing style changes a little, to suggest that parseltongue lacks some words for human concepts.
• The Tayhil speak this way in The Keys Stand Alone. So does George, when he becomes a Tayhil Leader.
• Mega Man Recut deconstructs this in "Bot Transfer." This makes it difficult for anyone to understand Mega Man while in Snake Man's body – or Snake Man himself.
• The Rango fic Old West has several snakes as prominent characters, including the canonical Rattlesnake Jake, but they all avert this trope by speaking like the other Western characters. However, Grace Glossy does refer to Kaa — or more accurately, the female Kaa who's voiced by the author's choice for Grace's notional voice actress, Scarlett Johansson — by asking Jake to "trusssssst in her".
• Esmé in Pawn To Queen, to an incredibly Narmy degree, especially with the fic otherwise being a Darker and Edgier angstfest.
• In the Pokemon fanfic Pokémon × Nimja: Play the Game, Slang, a panicky German Dunsparce, talks like this. Of course, his German accent doubles as a Funetik Aksent, sssssssso in ze end he talkssssssss like zisssssss... pleasssssse don't get him anyvhere near Nimja... he'sssssss heard ssssssome ssssssstrange sssssssingsssss about him...
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Pokémon fanfic A Pony Out of Place, Flare had to face an Titanoboa to protect Miss Cheerilee, her Class, Spike, and eventually Twilight.
• Romance and the Fate of Equestria:
  • The giant serpent Sørmur dï Mitgaeard.
  • In the prequel Legend of the Goddesses, a fellow serpent chastises her for it, and there's a Stop Being Stereotypical vibe there; no other serpents in the story talk like that.
• Averted in The Tale of Solaron where the titular Snake Person is quite well spoken, though he often hisses when angry.
• In Those Lacking Spines, Saïx's Seme Secks talks like this. It Makes Sense in Context. Well, kind of.
• Averted and lampshaded in the Undocumented Features story Twilight (no relation), where Jormungand's speech is "perfectly atypical for the world's largest snake to have", because it doesn't use sssnaketalk.

Motion Picturessss — Animation

• The Spirit from the Care Bears movie tends to speak like this on occasion, most notably in her first line.
  The Spirit: Nicholassssss...
• The Other Mother in Coraline.
• Plenty of Disney examples:
  • Kaa, in The Jungle Book (1967), particularly during the song "Trust in Me".
  • Sir Hiss, in Robin Hood (1973).
  • Jafar in giant cobra form at the end of Aladdin.
    A ssnake, am I? Perhapsss you'd like to ssssee how ssssnake-like I can BE!
  • The eels Flotsam and Jetsam from The Little Mermaid (1989) talk like this. Eels aren't snakes, but they look very snakelike.
  • Scar in The Lion King (1994) talks like this at times. Yes, despite being a lion.
  • Joanna from The Rescuers Down Under, although she is actually a lizard, but a reptile nonetheless.
• Completely averted in Kung Fu Panda, with Viper being voiced by the lovely Lucy Liu.
• The Fat Dog-on-a-Skateboard from Tom and Jerry: The Movie.
• Averted in Rango with Rattlesnake Jake, voiced by talented British actor Bill Nighy.
• The cobras in Rikki Tiki Tavi.

Motion Picturessss — Live-Action

• Some snake horror movies have this in their title. E.g. "Sssssnake Kobra" alias "Sssssss". Or "Hisss". (If googling, note that the number of "s" tendsssss to vary.)
• Blazing Saddles with Dom De Luise playing Buddy Adler.
  Buddy: Have you got it?!
  "French Mistake" Dancers: Yessssssssss.
  Buddy: Sounds like steam escaping...
• In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the snake says "Thankss." In the next film, Parseltongue is represented as an untranslated language; we don't hear it in English like in the first film. However, it still has plenty of drawn-out "s"es. To wit:
  Harry: Ssiah sieth.
• The Hobbit: Smaug really loves stressing his sibilants; most prominently as he assures Bilbo that "I will not part with a sssingle coin", complete with a serpentine tongue-flick. Even before that: "Hmmm...there is ssssomething about you." In the third film, Thorin starts picking it up as his greed and Gold Fever from Smaug's treasure overwhelm him.
• The Snake in the musical version of The Little Prince.
• The Lord of the Rings:
  • Gollum. "Sssneakinggg, my preccciousss, yesss..."
  • The Ring-Wraiths, though the Witch-King doesn't, presumably because he's got a little bit more personality remaining than the others.
  Wraith: Sssshhiiiree. Bagiiinnnssss.
• The Mask: The Mask mentions his catchphrase in this fashion: "Sssssmokiiiinnnnnn'!"
• Agent Smith from The Matrix series tends to drag out the end of a lot of his words, but the "s" sounds are the most noticeable.
• Mowgli: While Kaa the python doesn't normally speak this way, she does talk like this once when angered.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Defied by George and Martha, the two snakes on Hermes' caduceus, in Sea of Monsters. George speaks with a normal American accent and insists that this trope is racist.
• The Producers: Carmen Ghia goes Yesssssssssssssssssssssssss? as he greets Max and Leo into his house.
• Space Jam: A New Legacy: White Mamba hisses on words that involve an s, such as her opening "what's up?"
• Mr. Simms at the end of the horror anthology Tales from the Hood: "Welcome to Hell, motherfuckerssss!"
• The Djinn in Wishmaster tends to gradually drop his human act. The first stage consists of him starting to talk in a deep hissing voice with elongated stress on some syllables.

Bookssss

• Adder and Sinuous in The Animals of Farthing Wood.
• In Animorphs, the Taxxons have tongues so long they can't speak any language but their own, which is filled with "S's."
• The Velociraptors in Astrosaurs speak like this, with the exception of General Loki.
• The dragon Calandor in Jacqueline Carey's Banewreaker. But unlike the Black Jewels example, his telepathic voice doesn't hiss, only his actual speaking voice.
• Bazil Broketail: It's very rare, but dragons talk that way occasionally, usually when vocalizing their approval with "yesss".
• Draca and Lorn in Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy. To make matters even more ridiculous, they hiss when speaking using telepathy.
• Not Rose from The Book of Lost Things speaks like this after undergoing Glamour Failure.
• In Bounders, the Alkalinians, snake-like aliens, hiss their S and SH sounds.
• Used believably in the Destroyermen series. Though they have their own language, the Grik use written and spoken English as the "scientific tongue," thanks to the capture of a British East India Company ship that came to the altEarth in the 1700s. Other Grik-like peoples, such as the Tagranesi and Khonashi tribes who ally with the Lemurians and the US Navy, also start learning English. However, as they are all reptiles descended from Cretaceous-Period raptors, they are unable to pronounce any letter whose sound requires lips, and sometimes try to substitute with "F" or "S". Other times, they will use grammatically-incorrect-but-pronounceable word substitutions, like "I" for "me" or "us" for "we."

• Rudyard Kipling's The Elephant's Child (one of the Just So Stories) has the bicoloured python rocksnake, who combines this with Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness. In the audiotape version read by Jack Nicholson, this is spot-on.
• Lampshaded in the Mercedes Lackey/Andre Norton collaborative novel The Elvenbane: Keman, a shapeshifting dragon, has introduced himself to some other heroic characters while posing as a half-Elf. When he decides to reveal his true form (after quite some time), he breaks out in exaggerated sssssnaketalk.
• In a non-reptilian example, ratfolk of Pular Singe's line have trouble with hissing their sibilants when speaking Karentine (language of Garrett, P.I.'s home city). Sssssssssubverted in that it's merely mentioned as a racial accent/speech impediment, rather than sssspelled out in the text.
• Crowley of Good Omens has "a tendency to hiss" whenever he forgot himself. This isn't very surprising, as he was the snake.
• In Harry Potter, this is part and parseltongue of speaking to snakes. The snake in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone does this even when translated into English.
• Strangely enough, used in Jane Yolen's Heart's Blood series. Heart's Blood's offspring in the later books all have names with prominent hissing sssssyllables. The dragons are telepathic and communicate mostly through projecting visuals, and grow up around humans who would typically give them noun-based names like their mother's...
• Unlike most of the nonhuman sentient races in the Heralds of Valdemar series, which speak using telepathy, the gryphons can speak aloud, but are prone to both sssnaketalk and Trrrilling Rrrs. A few gryphon characters can overcome these habits with practice, but still tend to slip back into hissing when stressed.
• The criminal Ssnake in Perry Moore's !HERO. Is handwaved when Thom unwittingly makes out with Ssnake in his civilian identity (Simon Hess, ironically enough) at a gay bar. The hiss is stereotypically explained away as a lisp.
• Journey to Chaos:
  • Oito, the lizard demon, speaks like this, much to Eric's amazement.
    Eric: Huh ... they really do talk like that.
  • A royal knight commander, who is also a lizard demon, has this affect. It must be hard to give orders.
• Apophis, the serpent-god of primal chaos is given this attribute in the graphic novel versions of The Kane Chronicles.
• In the Larklight trilogy, Ssilissa, a "blue lizard creature," was originally named Millicent and mispronounced it consistently enough as a child that eventually everyone else gave up and just called her Ssilissa. That's right, not Millicent, not even Sillisa, but Ssilissa. She's got everyone else hissing, too. Then in the third book, the rest of her species (the Snilth) turn up and we get names such as Zssthss, Alor, Ssoozzs and Thss. Lampshaded when the narrator comments that this sounds more like a gas leak than a name.
• Parodied in The Light Fantastic, where one of the Octavo's spells is noted to be able to hiss a sentence that contains no sibilants.
• The Little Grey Men Series: The villainous adder in Down the Bright Stream talkssss like thisss.
• Gollum in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, my preciousss. Gollum is so fond of sibilants that he will use all nouns in the plural (regardless of actual number) and all verbs in s-form (regardless of whether the subject is third-person singular or not). He also avoids second person, using third person instead, probably to get even more sibilants in. Tolkien once spotted an "error" in The Hobbit as printed, where Gollum said the correct "I like riddles" instead of "likes". As he said, "Not that Gollum would miss the chance of a sibilant!"
• In Paula Volsky's The Luck of Relian Kru, there are two magically-created metal snakes who hiss, and hiss their "s"'s.
• Naga speak this way in Orconomics. Gorm meets a Naga barkeep named Angusss. When he speaks his name, the barkeep corrects him that it's pronounced "Anguss", adding that "the middle 's' is silent." As expected, he tends to hiss his "s"'s.
• In the Percy Jackson and the Olympians world, this is how Dracaenae (snake/dragon women monster thingies) talk.
• Redwall:
  • Asmodeus, The Dragon from Redwall (or what looks like a literal dragon if you're a mouse), appears to punctuate everything with "Asmodeuss." (He also seems to vocalize his name while asleep, instead of snoring.)
  • In fact, all snakes talk like this and even have names with lots of sibilants (Baliss, Harssacss, Sicariss...). The monitor lizardzzz from Pearls of Lutra use "z" instead.
• The Reluctant King: Princess Yargali, who's essentially a were snake, talks like this, with a sibilant hiss when pronouncing anything which uses an "S".
• As their name might suggest, the snake-like Sssstamne from The Rogue King hissssss out any sss sssound.
• Leia's Jedi Master in the Star Wars Legends, a Barabel, talks like thisssss.
• Gregor from Super Minion talks with a faint hiss in his voice.
• The reptilian Tlassians from Theirs Not to Reason Why sspeak like thiss.
• Tapio Haltija of The Traitor Son Cycle speaks like this, even though he has nothing to do with reptiles or reptile-like creatures.
• In Tanya Huff's novel Valor's Choice, the reptilian race is heard this way by the protagonist even though their native language is being run through a Universal Translator. This is explained as the protagonist's translator being either old or broken and her needing a replacement. The rest of the Marines hear the Silsviss speaking normally. Don't think about it too hard.
• In the Warcraft novel trilogy, The War of the Ancients, one of the demon commanders, Hakkar the Houndmaster, exemplifies this. Though he isn't so reptillian as much as a flaming skull on a scaled body...
• For another example from the Warcraft Expanded Universe, Ssarbik from the Traveler trilogy ssspeaks in snake talk even though he is a bird person, not a snake. Weirder still this not a characteristic of his species as his sister speaks completely normally.
• In Wind and Sparks by Alexey Pehov in the English translation by Elinor Huntington the toad people Blazogs tend to "quack", replacing guttural sounds with "kv". Thus "game" becomes "kvame" and "can" becomes "kvan". Somehow, they manage to correctly pronounce their own names like Ktatak or Gbabak.
• All the Fangsss in The Wingfeather Saga ssslip in and out of Snake Talk.
• The voles in Piers Anthony's Xanth series replace all their 's's with v's, leading to very confusing vpeech patternv. They, however, hear everybody else speaking snaketalk.
• Mostly averted in Harry Turtledove's World War books with the Race, the reptilian conquerors to arrive to Earth in the middle of World War II. While their native language does involve a lot of hissing and coughing, the words printed in the books are written in normal language. It is mentioned, however, that they still hiss a lot when speaking human languages. Some of the lizard names are also supposed to be pronounced with a hiss, such as Ussmak.

Live-Action TV Showssss

• Rory Bremner's impression of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, pulls heavily on that quirk of his voice: "Issn't it ssstriking, that God, in hisss wisssdom hasss chosssen asss hisss sssservant ssssomeone who ssssounds sssso ssssusssspiccccioussssly like a sssserpent."
• Doctor Who:
  • The reptilian Ice Warriors, but only in Earth's atmosphere; they don't hiss in their own.
  • Zephon from "The Daleks' Master Plan" has a distinctly sibilant hiss when he speaks, as does Celation.
  • "The Unicorn and the Wasp": The villain, a large alien wasp capable of taking human form, uses Wazzzzptalk when about to change into his insectoid form.
    "Put thozzzzzze thingzzzzz back where you found them! It's-zzzzzzzzzZZZZZ!"
  • Colony Sarff from "The Magician's Apprentice" is a colony of snakes. His hissing is more pronounsssed by his breathlesss-ssounding sspeech.
• In the Farscape two-part episode "Self-Inflicted Wounds", the villain, Pathfinder Neeyala speaks like this — despite being more piscine than reptilian.
• Subverted by the cobra in The Mighty Boosh. Apart from having a very quiet voice, he doesn't hiss at all.
• In Power Rangers: Beast Morphers, Big Bad Evox, a Computer Virus with a cobra avatar, speaks in this manner. In the final two episodes, he abandons it and talks in his real voice when his true identity is revealed - that he's a reincarnation of the Power Rangers RPM villain Venjix.
• Mesogog in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. He manages to do it with non-sibilants, actually, making his speech a lot breathier than non-reptile characters. Many other snake or lizard based Monster of the Week characters do this as well, to varying degrees.
• Star Trek:
  • Notably ssssssubverted by the Gorn in Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: Enterprise where the reptilian species has a notably deep and gravely voice, but whose speech patterns do not have an emphasized sibilance, although their breathing is somewhat sibilant.
  • Cardassian characters can get a little sibilant, especially if they're angry or keyed up, but it's unknown whether this is biological or more like an accent.
• Alastair of Supernatural has this way of speaking occasionally, most notably with the line "Think I'll take my chancesss."
• Young Sheldon: In "Snoopin' Around and the Wonder Twins of Atheism", the last time Mary taught Sunday school, she used a snake puppet that spoke this way. Peg mimics it when making fun of her.

Mussssic

• The character of Hissing Sid in the "Captain Beaky" songs written by Jeremy Lloyd and Jim Parker and sung by Keith Michell. Sid (a snake) does not speak in the original, but he does in some of the sequels, and does so (as his name implies) with a distinct hiss.
• Played with in "The Snake" by Al Wilson: He doesn't use this when speaking as the snake, but does when tagging it.
  "Take me in, tender woman,
  "Take me in for heaven's sake.
  "Take me in, tender woman,"
  Sssssighed the ssssnake.

Pinballssss

• The Snake in Stern Pinball's Metallica talks like this.
  Snake: That'ssss not niccce!

Playssss

• In the theater adaptation of the old Chinese legend White Snake, both White Snake (Lady Bai) and Green Snake (Greeni) speak this way whenever they're turning back into snakes or particularly upset about something.

Professssional Wresssstling

• CHIKARA's Ophidian talkssssss like thissssss at all timesssss, oh yesss.

Roleplayssss

• Benjy from Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues is turned into a bug monster by his superpower. His general dialect henceforth is plagued with sibilant emphasis, even on letters that don't normally make a hissing sound.

Sssstage Musicalssss

• In Children of Eden, a musical based on the book of Genesis, the Serpent's number, "In Pursuit of Excellence," is carefully designed around this trope.

Tabletop Gamessss

• Tevesh Szat, from Magic: The Gathering.
• In Warhammer, the Skaven do this, but are hideous rat men instead of reptiles. Lizardmen do not conform to the trope.

Video Gamessss

• Banjo-Kazooie:
  • Klungo is not reptilian or snake-like, but still ssspeaks thisss way. Klungo's ssnaketalk is later lampshaded in the third game, Nuts & Bolts, when, upon Banjo and Kazooie completing one of his challenges perfectly, he spells out "perfection" as "p.e.r.f.e.c.h.sss.u.n."
  • There's also Ssslumber the giant snake (pictured above) from the sequel Banjo-Tooie, who fits the criteria better.

• A group of semi-anthropomorphic snakes called, well, "The Snakes" from City of Villains uses this. Extensively. Indeed, they worship Sssstheno, and their racial name is the 'silur. Interestingly enough, they never hiss on C words, even when they should.
• Komodo Joe in Crash Team Racing.
  • In the remake, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, his brother Komodo Moe also speaks this way.
• Most of the Kremlings in the Game Boy Advance remakes of the Donkey Kong Country trilogy.
• Variant: Dragon Quest IX has Drak after eating the Fygg, a giant taking lizard, who does this with the letter l instead of s.
• Dragon Quest XI has the Auroral Serpent, who does this all the way. "You shall have the pleasssure of being the Auroral Ssserpent'sss sssupper!"
• Reptile men and Serpent men (in previous versions, Lizardmen and Snakemen) in Dwarf Fortress. This is determined by the [LISP] creature token in the raws, so if you want to, you can make everybody snake talking.
• In The Elder Scrolls series, Argonians, particularly males, have elements of this when they speak. The Daggerfall in-game book series King Edward even describes the Argonian healer of the story as "a strange looking lizard-like man, who spoke with such a hissing accent that Edward couldn't understand him at all" ("I cannn fixxxx thissss, it'ssss cleeean"). Over the course of the series, this has become more and more Downplayed, however. By Oblivion, Argonians speak at most with a long, raspy, reptilian drawl, but tone down the hissing. Skyrim removes it almost entirely with the exception of a hissing taunt during combat.
• Some of the EverQuest Iksar and lizardmen have a few extra S's. Some don't, however. It's even more common in EverQuest II.
• In Fallout Tactics, hairy deathclaws speak this way. Yes, they talk◊.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The Bangaa race in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Thankfully they dropped this in Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics A2.
  • In another Final Fantasy example, Final Fantasy IV DS has one of the Four Fiends Scarmiglionne using this trope, though he's a bit inconsistent.
  • The Ananta beast tribe in Final Fantasy XIV naturally talk like this, as does their Primal, Sri Lakshmi, though in the latter's case, it's not nearly as pronounced vocally. Just about every interaction with the former also has the player character imitate it.
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: General Bertram elongates all of his s's and vowels until you start wondering if there's a snake rather than a man under that helmet.
• Theron-class Locust in Gears of War speak with a whispery, hissing voice and have a tendency to elongate their S's ("Sssapient wasste!").
• The enigmatic G-Man from the Half-Life sseries tends to draw out his speech in this fashion, Mister Freeman. Most of his speech tends to be Ac CENT Upon The Wrong Syl L Able rather than just drawing it out, giving the impression that English is not just his second language, but speaking is his second means of communication.
• Jitsu Squad have a cobra-woman boss named Viper, who talks like this. One of the player heroes, Baby, mocks her for it.
  Viper: You are looking for the Kusssssssssanagi Sssssssstone, are you not? Massster Origami ordered me to dessssstroy you. Thissss issss where your quesssssst ends.
  Baby: Whatever you ssssssay misssssssss.
  [cue boss fight]
• King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!:
  • Mordak says "Sssssay goodbye, sssssswine!" Mind you, he is actually taking the form of a snake at this point.
  • Also, Graham CAN talk to that pOIsonous snake and it says "Sssssstay back!"
• The boss of Guffawha Ruins in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is not a snake, but a talking stone head who does this with "f" and "s" sounds.
• Master of Orion: The Sakkra homeworld is called Sssla. However, you won't see them hissing much in their speech to you during diplomatic meetings. This is likely due to the use of Translator Microbes.
• Mortal Kombat with Reptile of course, in Mortal Kombat 4. When we hear him speak in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and Mortal Kombat X, he doesn't have this.
• The online virtual pet game Neopets's NPC Sssidney. Even his name has ssnaketalk. And his species is a Nimmo, which is a lot closer to a frog than a snake.
• Oh...Sir!! The Insult Simulator: For some reason, H. P. Lovecraft talks like this in some words.
• Ignus of Planescape: Torment. It's nothing to do with snakes in his case, though; he is perpetually on fire, and his voice sounds like crackling flames as a result.
• Sssssam the snake in Rayman 2: The Great Escape.
• The Sakkhra from Savage Empire are a race of lizard people, and they all do this; they also have names like Kysstaa and Ksssindra. The ones who aren't important to the plot hiss so much that they're almost completely unintelligible. Interestingly, the Sakkhra are a devolved form of a much older race, the Kotl; they were also lizard people, but the one Kotl you meet in the game doesn't hiss.
• Scrabdackle: Hist, a mysterious snake-merchant, talks like this. They become offended if you point it out.
• Spiderweb Software likes this one. In Exile and its remake Avernum, sliths talk like this. So do the drayks (and drakons) in Geneforge. However, the sliths and drayks that spend most of their time dealing with people lose the speech pattern.
• Starbound: Though they're Plant Aliens instead of reptiles, the Florans talk like this, especially when talking about ssstabbing. This includes the otherwise sane greenfingers; only Nuru avoids it, aside from the odd relapse.
• The mushroom like Lk from Star Control 3. "Greetingsss, fellow sssentient. I am the massster inheritor." Click this link to watch it.
• Traffic Department 2192 has the Selarian race, as represented by Lt. (j.g.) Koth.
• The T'Rang from the Wizardry games speak like this, despite being insectoids.
• World of Warcraft:
  • Nagas do this sometimes, and one mob is actually called Ssslith. That's not a spelling mistake: his name contains three esses.
  • The Priests of Hakkar are infamous for this. High Priest Venoxis in Zul'Gurub talks entirely like this, even when in his normal, Troll form.
  • The High Prophet of Sseratus, named Slad'ran, in Gundrak. His room is a snake pit.
  • Gul'dan in World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor and Legion has a snake like voice, he employs it when he wants to be more taunting and sadistic than usual.
    "The Legion cannot be sssstopped."
• The X-Universe has the local reptiloid race, the Teladi, talk like this. It's especially annoying since they are a race made exclusively of profiteering maniacs, and so have a tendency to put words like "profitssss" and "creditssss" where other races wouldn't. They will even hiss at the player if they're pissed off.

• Zniw Adventure: Sam the snake hisses his S's. He even introduces himself as "Ssssam."

Web Animationssssss

• In Alphabet, the letters speak by repeating their own name. S says his name with a snakelike hiss, and he looks like the animal to match.
• DSBT InsaniT: Snakes speech is persistently stacked with 'S'es as a result of having this speech pattern. This gets severely downplayed as of episode 7 due to how it would result in what is essentially an Overly-Long Gag whenever he talked.
• Lobo (Webseries): The Snake who ate Mudboy talks in this pattern.
• In Pea Tea 64's Mega Man (Classic) videos, Snake Man talks like this.

Webcomicssss

• Bloody Urban: Shannon, who has a forked tongue, hisses slightly when he says certain wordss.

• Darken: Jade the Yuan-Ti speaks perfectly normally ... except when the Loveable Rogue Casper — who owes her a debt — has a nightmare about her.
• El Goonish Shive: During the Pokémon parody storyline "Grace-A-Monsters!", the Grace-A-Monster that looks like a humanoid Arbok talks like this.
• Freddy Fox: Steve and Melvin, being snakes, draw out the "S" sounds in their dialogue.
• The Horrifying Experiments of Dr. Pleasant!: Francesca really letsss 'em fly when she'ssss been drinking.
• Huckleberry: Snakes such as the Diamondback draw out their s's when they talk. It even happens in their thought bubbles.
• Peter and Company: Skin the snake replaces "s" with "th". Other characters, including the anthropomorphic lizards, speak properly. (He's actually a guardian angel/imaginary friend to an intellectually disabled lizard boy.)
• Poorly Drawn Lines: Exaggerated and lampshaded.
• Rusty and Co.: Y.T. the lamia mixes this with a Texan accent.
• Selkie: The titular character adds an "s" to many of her words, but it's not particularly exaggerated most of the time. The conlang/cultural reason for it does get discussed.

Web Originalssss

• A Conspiracy of Serpents has the Basilisk, who constantly hisses every word it utters with the letter "s" in it.
• In Looming Gaia, gorgons enunciate heavily on “S” and “Z” sounds due to their forked tongues.
• Sanders Sides: Unsurprisingly, since half his face is serpentine (and he fits the archetype very well), Deceit gets a line like this in "Selfishness v. Selflessness."
  Patton: Say you met a handsome prince, the second most handsome prince in the world.
  Roman: Hang on, second? Why can't I meet the first most handsome prince?
  Patton: Because that's you, silly!
  Deceit: (under his breath) Sssssssssssssuck up!
• Trials & Trebuchets: The Ascendant priestess Neska speaks in this way, in both her humanoid body and her giant snake body.

Wesssstern Animation

• One of the Flame King's would-be assassins talks like this in an episode of Adventure Time. Finn and Jake confront a chef when they hear him hissing the same way, only to discover he wasn't - an actual snake that had fallen on Jake's head was making the noise.
• Played for laughs in an episode of Angela Anaconda, where the title character is playing Medusa in a play. The audience and teacher think it's hilarious, while Nanette is annoyed right to hell by it.
• Adder and Sinuous from The Animals of Farthing Wood.
• One of the minor villians, Ssserpent on Ben 10: Alien Force. Justified, as he actually is a serpent-like alien.
• The incredibly appropriately named Dr. Hiss in The BOTS Master, who extends this to Z sounds (pronouncing them as if they were "S"es instead), as well. Oh, and Ziv Zoolander's Boyzz BOTS have a similar problem to Waspinator, noted above; they pronounce "S" sounds as "Z"s in every context.
• On Chop Socky Chooks, the villain Kobra gains a snake-like way of speaking after being bitten by a snake. And in one episode, he brainwashes the people of Wasabi World by hypnotism. They all repeat what he said, complete with lisp, until he tells them to stop it.

• The snake from the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "Watch the Birdies" spoke this way.
• Camille Chameleon, a villain from Darkwing Duck, is a shapeshifter who does this, which gives the hero a simple way to tell her from the person she's imitating — that is, unless he simply thinks they need some throat lozenges...
• Detentionaire had an episode where Lee was hallucinating that the Red Tazelwurm was talking to him, and this is how it spoke. Of course, it's not really accurate since he came up with the whole thing himself in his feverish state. Probably.
• In "Breathtaking" from The Dragon Prince, after using a dark magic spell to get Scaled Up, Claudia speaks this way, albeit subtly.
• Mac does this on one of his sugar rushes in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. This is, of course, an indirect example, being an obvious parody of Gollum (who himself is listed a couple sections up).
  Mac: It burn usss! IT BURN USSS!
• The Cobra Queen on Freakazoid! occasionally slips into this trope but thankfully doesn't overuse it. It is also apparently Cave Guy's fetish.
  Cobra Queen: Tell me more about my eyessssssssss.
  Cave Guy: I love the way you say eyes!
• Cobra Commander on G.I. Joe. Particularly in G.I. Joe: The Movie, where he "wass onsse a man..."
• Mos'quita-ra in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021) stretches out her s sounds. In her case, it's meant to invoke a buzzing sound since she's a Mosquito Miscreant.
• Ushari the Egyptian cobra from The Lion Guard speaks this way.
• King Hiss and his loyal race of Snake Men in Masters of the Universe. Notably, this is part of Sssqueeze's name, though in the DC series that started in 2012 non-Snake Men call him "Squeeze".
• Snake Man in Mega Man (Ruby-Spears); it's apparently programmed in, as when he switches bodies with Mega Man, he never drags out his S's, whilst Mega Man does.
• Miraculous Ladybug has Sass, kwami of the Snake Miraculous. Makes you wonder how Luka will talk as Viperion.
• The Electroids from Mixels speak this way in a borderline example. They're electricity-based in nature, and their bodies naturally shock and convulse with electricity when they say s- and z- sounds, making them elongate them. They don't do it all the time, but it's noticeable when they do. It also should be noted that Teslo has a lizard-like design to him and Zaptor's name is a portmanteau of "zap" and "raptor".
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The chimera's snake head speaks this way in the season 4 episode "Somepony to Watch Over Me".
• Ninjago: This is a trademark of the Serpentine race, and one of the first signs that someone has been infected by Fangpire venom.
• On The Octonauts, the yellow-bellied sea snakes in "Yellow Bellied Sea Snakes" talk like this.
• Snake of the Gangreen Gang in The Powerpuff Girls (1998). He even at one point goes out of his way to say "yess" instead of "no", the correct answer to the question being asked. When Ace slaps him he wises up and corrects himself: "I meansss no."
• Played incredly, exaggeringly straight in Rick and Morty. A snake equivalent of Earth exists where its inhibaitants's hissing is their entire language, with very little translation provided in the episode.
• Parodied in Robot Chicken when Cobra Commander tries to order fast food: "Could you repeat that? I'm getting a hissing noise."
• The tree cobra that bites Virjay in Sealab 2021 announces, "I wasss onssse a maaan", presumably as a Shout-Out to the G.I. Joe: The Movie line quoted above.

• Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. "Exxxxxxxxxxxxcellent..."
• The Lizard in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
• Repton, leader of the raptors from Storm Hawks. None of his henchmen do, though, which is odd, seeing as they're apparently also his brothers.
• Dr. Viper in SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, who was half kat/half lizard.
• Madame Snake in Teamo Supremo.
• Karai in her mutant serpent form in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012). Post-mutation, any words in English from her are this until "City at War".
• Slithe from ThunderCats (1985) (whose name, in the comic books, proves to actually be "S-s-slithe") talks like this. Many of his lines end with "Yes" whether it makes sense to end the sentence that way or not, apparently just to add extra sibilants so he can do this, yeeeesss?
• In Thunder Cats 2011 Snaketalk is present with all the Lizards, Slithe included, but comparatively underplayed. They generally stress their sibilants, but don't heavily prolong them.
• Waspinator in Transformers: Beast Wars does a variation of this trope, rendering his "s" sounds into buzz-like elongated "z's". Being also prone to Hulk Speak, he buzzes his own name in nearly all of his lines.
  Waspinator: Wazzzpinator not want to die! Wazzzpinator hazz planzzzz!
• Cedric from W.I.T.C.H. is a mild example. He doesn't elongate his "s's" as much as many examples of this trope, but they're still more exaggerated than a normal person's, even when he's in human form.

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Thisssssss issssssssssss a Sssssssssstinger.

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