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Multiple characters say the same thing, at the same time.
The Creepy Monotone this naturally creates make this a favourite characteristic of the Hive Mind (especially ones linked psychically), Creepy Twins and people under Mass Hypnosis. It also turns up when reciting Badass Boasts or other well-known texts, where it's intended to show unity, strength in numbers, and discipline. A common enough joke is mixing this with an Expospeak Gag (especially coincidentally).
Comics demonstrate this by drawing a Speech Bubble with two or more tails leading to the speakers.
Taken for granted in musicals, where it happens constantly during Crowd Songs and duets.
Also common is the comedic Subversion; Two characters attempt to do this, but fall out of sync or mess up their lines. Bonus points if they then argue about who was supposed to say what, or about how one isn't sticking to the plan, or if they Lampshade that speaking in unison is more trouble than it's worth. This particular variant also can show up with Finishing Each Other's Sentences and similar tropes.
Compare Voice of the Legion, where one character speaks with the voice of many, and I Say What I Say, where two people say the same thing because they're the same person (transplanted in time or from alternate universes). See also Finishing Each Other's Sentences, Finish Dialogue in Unison.
Anime and Manga[]
- Happens frequently for comedic effect in various series where multiple individuals react to something going on; One Piece is a repeat offender in this department.
Comic Books[]
- Happens in Green Lantern comics frequently, when several members of the Green Lantern Corps get together to recite their oath. For example, this scene from the end of Green Lantern First Flight, when Hal Jordan leads the GL Corps in reciting their oath. "In brightest day, in blackest night..."
- Huey, Dewey and Louie speak together sometimes, one speech balloon with three stems. In the animated shorts, they usually finish each other's sentences instead.
Film[]
- Played for laughs in Airplane!.
Ted Striker: It's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether! |
- The 1932 movie Freaks features the chant "One of us." It has embedded itself so deeply in popular culture that many other works use it without even knowing the original reference.
- The badass version appears in The Boondock Saints.
- The CG film Ice Age had the dodos chanting "doom on you."
- The cheerleaders in Fired Up repeat in unison the dialogues of Bring It On.
- Whole crowds often do this (like the Anime instance, for comedic effect) in various Mel Brooks films; for instance, "You bet your ass!" in Blazing Saddles and "Bullshit!" in History of the World Part One.
- "Part of the crew...part of the ship. Part of the crew...part of the ship."
- YES! WE'RE ALL INDIVIDUALS!
- In Home Alone 2, a nice bit of this with the multiple employees repeating "I love you" to the imaginary bandit.
Literature[]
- Alice Through the Looking Glass has Alice boarding a train whose passengers, apart from Alice herself and the character she was conversing with, all keep remarking on the subject of the conversation in unison (and, at one point, thinking in unison).
- In the Warrior Cats series, StarClan is described as sounding like every cat Firestar has ever known, all speaking at once in one clear voice.
Live Action TV[]
- "WE ARE THE BORG. You Will Be Assimilated. Resistance Is Futile."
- Whose Line Is It Anyway has a whole game involving this, aptly titled All In One Voice.
- We! Are! Coming!
- Coupled with Evil Sounds Deep, as some of the children's voices have an unnaturally-low pitch.
- "We want a pony."
- The Ood do this in the Doctor Who two-parter "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit", while possessed by Satan (or whatever it was), complete with glowing red Mind Control Eyes.
- Also the monster in "Midnight," which possesses a woman, starts repeating everything the other characters say, catches up and speaks in unison with them for the bulk of the episode, before eventually picking only the Doctor and forcing him to repeat after her, giving the impression that he's now the monster and goading the other characters to kill him.
- In The Twilight Zone episode "The Obsolete Man," a man condemned to death for holding an outlawed vocation (librarian) and prohibited beliefs (religion) is met with the chant "Obsolete!" at his sentencing; in the end, so is the judge who sentenced him.
- Super Sentai and Power Rangers have its heroes doing this a lot.
- In Gokaiger Goseiger Super Sentai 199 Hero Great Battle, about half of Luka and Moune's lines in the film are spoken in perfect unison. It's a combination of Not So Different and (when they're fighting early on) a verbal form of Perfectly Symmetrical Violence.
- Subverted on one occasion on the Japanese game show DERO! - after a team of 4 players was presented with a multiple choice question with 4 choices, the team leader suggested that everyone should, on his mark, say the answer they think is correct at the same time (so as to avoid having the first person to speak influence everyone else). At the exact same time, all 4 members each said a different answer. The show had to add simultaneous subtitles for all 4 members in post-production.
- Babylon 5 has John Sheridan and Susan Ivanova do this on occasion. In their case, it's a demonstration of the fact that the two are old and close friends.
- Supernatural episode "Mystery Spot" features this Crowning Moment of Funny:
Dean: You don't know everything. |
Theatre[]
- Lampshaded in The Importance of Being Earnest. To show their solidarity, Gwendolen and Cecily decide to voice their displeasure with their fiancés in unison. Gwendolen even keeps time with her finger to make sure that they stay in sync with each other. Then Jack and Algernon reply in perfect unison, completely unrehearsed.
- In The Pirates of Penzance, the policemen chant in monotone during their conversation with Mabel after Frederick's Face Heel Turn.
Video Games[]
- The Japanese audio for Disgaea 2 Cursed Memories comically subverts this with the Prism Rangers' battle cry, where all 7 of them shout the same cry but completely out of sync. Prism Orange in particular finishes about half a second after everyone else.
- Rose's twin daughters in Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst and Escape from Ravenhearst speak in unison. Justified in that the twins are played by a single person, duplicated in post-production.
Webcomics[]
- Image from Terror Island.
- Emily and Pierrot in this page of Spacetrawler.
- In Erfworld, Charlie's
Angels stewardesses flight attendantsArchons, in a fight. - In these strips of Loserz
Western Animation[]
- Mass Hypnosis example from The Simpsons: "You are watching Fox!" "We are watching FOX."
- Another Mass Hypnosis example from the Simpsons, 8F13, "Homer at the Bat" (parodying The Natural):
Hypnotist: You are all very good players. |
- "Don't push your luck! Don't push your luck!"
- "Someone else, someone else!" "I'm someone else!" "Hey he's right!"
- After Lisa convinces the town to recycle in "The Old Man and The Lisa" only to stop them later on as they're helping Mr. Burns.
Townspeople: Stop. You can't mix plastic with paper! |
- Phineas and Ferb: Dr.Doof's Hypno Fool s talk like this. link
- The Powerpuff Girls: The Aesop of one episode is, "Do not believe everything that you see on TV". Realizing that they are in a TV show, the characters quickly switch to chanting the opposite in a Brainwashed voice.
- The Delightful Children from Down the Lane from Codename: Kids Next Door take this to the extreme. In addition to speaking and even moving in perfect unison, they are also always bunched up together in the exact same positions all the time. On a very rare occasion, they will even say "I" instead of "we". They were brainwashed into being the way they are, though; not only that, but the brainwashing process was fantastically intensified due to a lab accident.
- The Green Space Men from Toy Story.
- The Twins in Superjail do this most of the time.
- Home Movies:
Mr. Lynch: Who are we going to beat? |
Spike: That sounded like the worst night ever. |
- And in The Last Roundup, Applejack has just driven her stagecoach past a train, just barely beating it.
Coach pullers: Lady, you're trouble. *exeunt* |
- Scooby Doo shows are fond of this formula:
Mystery Inc. captures the Monster of the Week, followed by a Dramatic Unmask. |
- On Family Guy, when Lois tells the family that it's time for spring cleaning.
- Hector Heathcote, an obsure Terrytoons character from the early 60s, had an episode titled "Pig In A Poke," where he and his dog Winston are to meet Lewis and Clark and assist in facilitating the Louisiana Purchase. The real Lewis and Clark (whom the evil Benedict and his stooge who posed as in an attempt to thwart the Purchase) show up, and they both speak in unison.
Real Life[]
- Any time you have a large crowd reciting a well-known text: In church, with prayers; any time Americans swear the Pledge of Allegiance; the national anthem of any country; rock concerts, war cries, etc.