Elmuh Fudd Syndwome

"Be vewwy vewwy quiet; I'm hunting wabbits."
—Elmer Fudd

Da condition where chawactuhs (especiawy da cute ones) tawk wit' da 'L's and 'R's wepwaced wiff 'W's in dewe wowds, awong wit' da softening of hawd suffixes such as 'er'. In Weaw Wife da contition is cawwd whotacism.

Now to be confused wiff "Baby Talk", which is dewibewate.

Can wesuwt in Got Me Doing It. In no way wewated to Powky Pig Pwonunciation.

Examples of Elmuh Fudd Syndwome include:

Advuhtising

Anime and Manga

  • Nina from Fullmetal Alchemist.
  • In the English translation of Black Jack, Pinoko talks like this.
  • Used with annoying frequency by the titular character in the official English translation of the Chi's Sweet Home manga. Occasionally, they'll even toss Ws into the middle of words that HAVE NO CORRESPONDING L OR R SOUND.
    • To be fair to the translators, they admitted they would rather not have done it (they know it's annoying) but the Japanese made them do it. That's because in the original, Chi's speech was apparently modelled after Tweety Bird.
    • In the original Japanese version, "d" sound is replaced with "r", "ru"s are now just "u"s, and "shi" becomes "chi". For example : "desu" becomes "resu" and "miruku" turns into "miuku".
  • Clara in Kuragehime

Comic Books

  • Cebolinha (Jimmy Five) from Brazilian comic Monica's Gang, though exchanging just "R" - and not the whole time (in the original, he exchanges "R" for "L" - except when the words end with that letter, e.g. the totality of Portuguese verbs). In English translations, the speech impediment is the normal Elmer Fudd thing with the W.
  • Walter the Wobot from Judge Dredd.
  • Winda Wester from the Howard the Duck comic, with L's, hence the name.
  • The hitman Frankie from the crime series Kane, a Captain Ersatz of Sin City's Marv. Justified in that his target is a guy in a rabbit suit.
  • Hunter from Knights of the Dinner Table.

Fiwm (Wive Action)

Impressive Clergyman: Mawidge. Mawidge is what bwings us togevvah today. Mawidge, that bwessed awangement, that dweam wiffin a dweam. And wuv, twue wuv, wiw fowwow you fowevah and evah? So tweasuwe youw wove? Have you the wing?

Wittewatuwe

  • Parodied in Hogfather, where Susan tells one of the children in her charge to stop doing this, claiming that exaggerated lisping should be a hanging offense.
    • Interestingly, Terry Pratchett himself also speaks with a touch of this.
    • And Jeremy Irons' version of Havelock Vetinari does it, too. Not that it detracts from his intimidation factor.
      • Oh, you wascawwy Wincewind. It's the awena foah you!
  • Hooray For Wodney Wat is a children's book where Rodney's speech impediment is used to Rodney's advantage against a loud and annoying new classmate, to the delight of the rest of the class.
  • In the Flashman series, Lord Cardigan, a historical figure has this accent, representing the British Upper Class Twit version. For instance, whenever he says the protagonist's name,, it's spelled phonetically as "Fwashman"
  • In the third installment of the Howl's Moving Castle series, "The House of Many Ways", Howl disguises himself as a young boy named Twinkle who talks in an overbearing lisp. Needless to say, it drives Sophie mad.
  • A minor character in the first Foundation book by Isaac Asimov talks this way as part of his Upper Class Twit characterization. He turns out to have been not so much a twit after all.
  • The cavalry hussar, Denisov, from Tolstoy's War and Peace has this quirk. English translations tend to pweserve it.
  • Silas Heap in Septimus Heap is mentioned to sometimes invoke this when he's telling stories.
  • Dudley Pope's Wooden Ships and Iron Men hero Lord Nicholas Ramage has a tendency toward this when he gets upset or otherwise excited; noticing that he's starting to do it reminds him to keep calm.

Wive-Action Tewivision

  • Baby Bear on Sesame Street has this impediment.
  • As does Junior Gorg on Fraggle Rock.
  • An episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway? saw Colin Mochrie use this when he had to play a Trigger-Happy Huntsman during a game of Weird Newscasters.
  • Barry Kripke from The Big Bang Theory. Also of note is that no matter how much of a Jerkass he is to the main cast, nobody responds by making fun of his speech.
  • Barbara Walters. And, of course, mentioning her means that you have to mention Gilda Radner's Saturday Night Live parody, Baba Wawa. One Baba Wawa sketch is a parody of My Fair Lady. By the end of it she's not only not cured but has passed her condition on to Henry Higgins (Christopher Lee!).
  • The club singer from an episode of Only Fools and Horses. Del only discovers this, of course, when he's already on stage and singing Roy Orbison's "Crying"...

Raquel: Oh yes, Derek, we saw it through to the death. "Please Welease Me", "Congwatulations" and "The Gween Gween Gwass of Home"!

  • In the TV-movie vewsion of Merlin-1998, Morgan le Fay talks like this.

Morgan: I want the cwown. Get me the thwone.

  • Hector in a TV-movie based on The Odyssey.
  • In an episode of The West Wing, C.J. had an emergency root canal that caused her to (temporarily) talk like this.
  • Angel Batista of Dexter has a bit of one of these due to his actor's very thick Cuban accent.
  • Rick Pratt from The Young Ones has difficulty with "r" but not "l" (a childhood problem of his actor, Rik Mayall) and it only serves to highlight what a petulant whiny prick he is. It is particularly noticeable in the theme tune when he says "Shouldn't be afwraid."
  • Frasier had a temp help out on his radio show once, with this problem. He related a tragic tale about how he lost his wife in the Caribbean. She ran away with a Rastafarian. Roz, listening from her sound booth in the background, was simply dying. Just repeat the above line for yourself to understand why.
  • The TV show based on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids featured Fwuffy, a robotic teddy bear that is infected with a computer virus. Fwuffy plans to take over the world. His use of this trope even carries over into his spelling. When Nick has to guess his password, it ends up being destwoy.
  • Romulus and Remus, from the Doctor Who serial The Twin Dilemma.

Music

  • Most English songs from 1980's German singer Nena, in particular "99 Red Balloons": "to wuwwy, wuwwy, supah scuwwy, caw the twoops out in a huwwy..."
  • Lady Gaga's song "Bad Romance" features her, after singing most of the bridge in French, sing "I don't wanna be fwiends..." Strangely, this is the only time in that song she comes down with Elmer Fudd Syndrome. The very next repetition of the line is sung normally.
    • This, as well as the Nena example above, may be explained by the use of guttural R in German and French, which can sound like w to an English speaker.
  • Matt Bellamy, the lead singer/guitarist/pianist of the British rock band Muse does this. It's particulawly noticeable in Muse's performance of "Time is Running Out" at Wembley in 2007, seen on their HAARP DVD [dead link] . This lisp, particularly Bellamy's pronunciation of the word "proper" (which comes out more as "pwopah"), has become a Muse fandom meme.

Video Games

"We may at be abew to lokay anudda enewgy emission fwom da wadaw woom! When we fine dat metea, we'ww fine Dogta Wawwey!
Translation: "We may be able to locate another energy emission from the radar room! When we find that meteor, we'll find Dr. Wily!"

  • Due to the bad sound compression, it sounds as if Zeus from the Sega Genesis port of the arcade classic Altered Beast is telling the players to "Wise fwom yo gwave!"
  • Fallout 3 has a boy called Biwwy (Billy). He speaks like this. He offers to sell you his Waser Wifle. When you buy the Wifle, you realize that it's the gun's actual name! It's better then a "Laser Rifle" (Though Billy also calls those Waser Wifles).
    • He doesn't even notice his speech impediment:

The Lone Wanderer: "Stop talking like that. No one thinks it is cute."
Biwwy: "Stop tawking wike what? You'we weiwd."

  • Handel and Greta from the Spyro the Dragon series fit this trope, with one interesting twist: the fact Handel's English deteriorated to Elmer Fudd English from Ripto's Rage to Year of the Dragon: while Greta speaks Elmer Fudd throughout both games, Handel actually speaks normal English in Ripto's Rage but is speaking Elmer Fudd in Year of the Dragon. Did he get younger, or did she just get him doing it?
  • Pip from Chrono Cross.
  • The announcer from Samba De Amigo during the opening logos ("Pwesented by Sega, heh heh.").
  • Fable has a few examples, like the traveling merchant in the first game who offers to sell you a present for your sister's birthday, Murgo the Trader in the second game, and Reaver's butler Hatch in the third game.
  • Kala'ma in World of Warcraft is a troll hunter with an impediment caused by a nasty scar on his lip. Be vewwy quiet, he's hunting waptors. And is also hilarious.

Kala'ma: "Be caweful with the waptors, they can be wewy wewy smawt. Last week two hewd me down while a thiwd beat me with a stick."

  • The Tax Collector in the PC version of The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary, who challenges you to "pway" a game of Tax Factor before he'll let you cross his bridge.
  • Chaos Cultists from the original Dawn of War. This eventually gave birth to the fan-character Cultist-Chan. "Hwee hav captoored eet for kay-oss" indeed.

Web Animation

  • Homestar Runner, who admits "I have twouble with my aws" in a "Puppet Jam" session with They Might Be Giants. (But his L's are fine.) His counterparts, Homsar, 1-Up and The Homestar Runner don't suffer from this.

Web Owiginaw

Web Comics

Bob: "Say rascally rabbit!"

Westuhn Animation

  • Trope Namer: Elmer Fudd.
    • Parodied in The Far Side, with a strip where Elmer loses his job at the "scwew dwivuh" factory.
    • and his spiritual successor Elmyra
  • Among other Looney Tunes characters, Tweety Bird talks with Rhotacism, most notably his signature line, "I tawt I taw a puddy tat." Translated, of course, is "I thought I saw a pussycat" – which one time, Sylvester did say at least once.
  • In the animated series of The Little Rascals, it sounded as if Patty Maloney was doing this in her potrayal of Darla Hood.
  • Edmund from the Don Bluth film Rock-a-Doodle talked like this, reading to his memetic Mondegreen, "Jeepers, IMMA FUWWY!"
  • Shows up in ReBoot, in a game wherein Enzo plays the part of, basically, Elmer Fudd.
  • Randall, the snitch from Recess, suffered this speech impediment when he was in kindergarten (as seen in the new episode featured on the video All Growed Down).
  • Ming-Ming of Wonder Pets. Then again, she is supposed to be the equivalent age of a three-year-old.
    • Apparently the voice actress cast for Ming-Ming talked this way when she was cast for the role, and they decided to continue it for the character even after the actress outgrew it.
  • Scuffy the Tugboat in the Little Golden Book Land special.
  • Franklin's sister Harriet on Franklin, though she eventually outgrows it.
  • In one third-season episode of The Boondocks, Lamilton Taeshawn likes to "smoke wit' cigawettes."
  • Gussie Mausenheimmuh on An American Tail. This leads to problems when she declares that they need to organize a rally. She's voiced by Madeline Khan, who reprised her Lily on Schtup voice from Blazing Saddles (mentioned above).
  • Eileen "The Birthday Girl" from Word Girl, who talks with a lisp in order for people to give her whatever she wants.
  • The Critic. Parodied with a Cousin Oliver who pretends to have an endearing speech impediment - and has copyrighted it for himself.
  • 2D of Gorillaz has a mild case of this in his speaking voice, combined with a heavy Cockney accent. Here's a sample. Of course, it goes away completely when he's singing, due to being voiced by different people for singing and speaking.
  • Caillou's sister Rosie. Apparently, she outgrew it sometime after Caillou's Holiday Movie.
  • The Tale Spin episode "Waiders of the Wost Tweasure" plays with this. A character afflicted with this tells Baloo about the "wuby wings", which he naturally assumes means "ruby rings". It actually turns out to be a pair of ruby wings that inexplicably actually grant the wearer the ability to fly.
  • Octus starts talking like this in Sym-Bionic Titan upon watching and mimicing a children's cartoon, until Lance tells him to stop.
  • The 1968 Cool Cat cartoon "Big Game Haunt" featured a Casper the Friendly Ghost expy who speaks in Elmer Fudd-ese.
  • Krazy in the 1960s Animated Adaptation of Krazy Kat. (In the original comics Krazy had a rather bizarre Funetik Aksent, but no dropping of Rs was involved.)

Weal Wife

  • According to Wikipedia, as evidenced above, the proper term for this condition is called "Rhotacism".
  • Jonathan Ross. Also fondly known as "Wossy".
  • Barbara Walters, famously parodied by Saturday Night Live as "Baba Wawa".
  • Doctor Who writer and script editor Terrance Dicks.
  • Longtime Celtics broadcaster Bob Cousy, leading Bill Simmons to say "It's a good thing Cousy doesn't call Red Sox games where he'd have to pronounce Trot Nixon's name."
  • Incidentally, many English accents sound rather like this. This can be unintentionally humorous if a character has a Funetik Aksent (for instance, the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist.)
  • 1930s actress Kay Francis had some trouble with her 'R's and L's and was known around the Paramount lot as "the wavishing Kay Fwancis"
  • Art critic John Berger.
  • US politician Barney Frank.
  • British politician Roy Jenkins.
  • Novelist and biographer, Peter Akroyd.
  • British TV historian Lucy Worsley, whose official day job title is, unfortunately, "Curator of Royal Palaces".
  • Dutch people attempting to speak English tend to do this, because in Dutch, syllables can only start with a rolling "r". The English "r" does exist in the language, but only at the end of a syllable. Some southern Dutch/Flemish accents use more of a German-style "r" sound instead, making it much easier for the speakers to adapt to the English sounds.
    • Similarly, Cantonese lacks the "r", so many Hongkongers can't pronounce it right.
    • Similarly, is Japanese that doesn't have an "r" or an "l" - their "r" is a combination of "r", "l" and "d" put together (odd to explain) which means when they're speaking their English the words will usually sound odd. This leads to Japanese Ranguage. "Hello" turns into "Herro" and "th" isn't in their language either so it turns into "f". It keeps going.
  • Jeremy Crispo.
  • Biochemistry textbooks sometimes encourage this trope to help students associate Tryptophan with its rather arbitrary one-letter abbreviation, W ("Twiptophan").
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