Basic Trope: A character never learned how to speak.
- Straight: Bob never learned to talk.
- Exaggerated: Bob never makes a sound as a result of being deaf.
- Downplayed: Bob has a speech impediment, and it's said it's because he never learned how to talk clearly.
- Justified:
- It turns out the reason Bob never learned to talk is because he's actually a few days old.
- Bob has a disability that makes him nonverbal.
- Inverted: Bob is the only toddler who talks in complete sentences.
- Subverted:
- It turns out Bob isn't a native English speaker.
- Bob is The Quiet One to an extreme degree but he actually can talk.
- Double Subverted: But it turns out he speaks his own language just as poorly.
- Parodied: Bob is the only toddler who doesn't talk in complete sentences.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob doesn't talk in complete sentences, but is revealed to be an amnesiac who forgot how to talk. He's then seen talking normally, but it turns out he was just reading out loud.
- Averted: Bob learned to talk.
- Enforced: "This is a toddler show. Maybe Bob will be more relatable to toddlers if he's still learning how to talk."
- Lampshaded: "Why don't you talk in complete sentences?"
- Invoked: Bob's parents never taught him how to talk to mold him into the perfect assassin.
- Exploited: Bob never learned to talk but Speaks Fluent Animal because he was raised by wolves. A dog starts saying nasty things to him because it knows he won't be able to tell anyone.
- Defied: Bob's dad suggests they never teach him how to talk, but Bob's mom protests.
- Discussed: "Why don't you say anything? Don't you know how to talk?" "Of course I know how to talk. I just don't have much to say."
- Conversed: "Why doesn't the protagonist talk?" "He never learned how."
- Deconstructed: Due to Bob's inability to talk, he becomes bullied en masse by society for being stupid and gets called a dumb mute.
- Reconstructed: He can at least seek a therapist and communicate with them using sign language.
- Implied: Bob is The Quiet One and he doesn't seem to speak up even when it would make a lot of sense to do so.
- Played for Laughs: Bob is a hilarious Silent Snarker.
- Played for Drama: Bob is alienated from society because he can't talk.
Back to Never Learned to Talk
