The Television Talks Back

"The weather man can hear them through the TV? Can the Care Bears hear everything? {leans in} Are you watching me, Care Bears?"

—Linkara, Care Bears #13

It turns out that the people in the television can see and hear you, too, and talk back when you insult them. Usually Played for Laughs, but sometimes used for pure Paranoia Fuel.

A variant is when somebody just pretends to be this, or the television turns out to be fake and the other person is in the same room. The prerecorded form of this is The Tape Knew You Would Say That. When children's television tries to do this, it's Non-Interactivity. There may be some overlap with The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You.

Examples of The Television Talks Back include:

Advertising

• An old BUPA advert had a sports presenter telling a man in a pub that he could get treatment from BUPA for his medical condition.
• A Canadian Concerned Children's Advertisers PSA from around the 1990s had a computer-animated TV was talking about how people watch him all day or something like that, and that they should go outside and play. The TV was also annoyed at the end because a cat was sleeping on him. It also got annoyed because someone was flipping through the channels on the TV and it showed a news channel, a nature show and even ReBoot. (The ad was made by Mainframe Entertainment.)
• One commercial had a woman urging her husband to use a particular medicine, but him brushing it off. Cue the commercial-within-a-commercial talking about the medicine, and adding the man's name, Raymond, as an appositive.

Wife: Told you.

Anime and Manga

• One of Satou's paranoid visions in Welcome to The NHK includes talking with his TV set.
• In the first episode of Shugo Chara, a TV psychic says that "guardian spirits are everywhere". Amu, watching the TV program with her younger sister Ami, doesn't believe it. The psychic immediately says that "anyone who thinks it's stupid will die". Amu wonders if the psychic was specifically addressing her, to which she says, "That's because I am!"
• In Kinnikuman, there's an instance when the television fights back; Kinnikuman sees a TV report on the new Japanese Choujin, the sumo wrestler Wolfman. Some jabs at Kin are made, and when the Idiot Hero makes an angry dive at the set, Wolfman knocks him away with a sumo slap that goes right through the screen.
• Urusei Yatsura features a story where the TV announcer tells the viewers that there'll be a party at Mendo's place. He yells at the television that he didn't say anything about a party, and the woman on TV cheerfully replies that "Televisions can't talk back to you, fool!"

Film

• In Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes, our hero can't figure out where the heroine is being held. He's watching a black-and-white Mad Scientist film, and the Show Within a Show villain says, "I'll just keep her in the lab downtown." Then the villain says, "Like I said, I'll just keep her in the lab downtown." Our hero keeps staring, and the Mad Scientist in the TV turns to face him and snaps, "Are you listening? I said I'll keep her in the lab downtown!" Cue very belated Eureka Moment.
• The Pink Panther has the inspector looking straight at the camera and going, "And I will find you, killer!"
• Pretty much the basis of the low-budget horror film The Video Dead, as it involves a cursed television set that unleashes zombies into the real world. One of the heroes also encounters a succubus-like enemy who tries to tempt him into the television set, followed by a monster hunter who defeats her and then warns the boy through the screen about the zombies who've already escaped from it.
  • Demons 2 follows the same concept: whereas Demons had characters in an inescapable movie theater where the onscreen events came to life, its sequel was set in an inescapable high-rise apartment building, with demons crawling out of the televisions. The two films are similar in nature to zombie movies, as any character who is scratched, bitten, or killed by the demons will transform into one, and Gorn is emphasized.
• This happened in The Kentucky Fried Movie. A couple is watching a newscast. They start making out, and the newsman on the TV notices what they're doing. He calls over other people in the studio to watch, and by the end they're all cheering on the couple.
• Done in Xanadu, when Kira tries to prove she really is a Muse and uses her power to make a gangster on a tv show ask Sonny if he should off his captive or not.
• Used in the B-Movie Attack of the 50ft Woman as a sign of the title character's insanity. A newsreader begins taunting her about her husband's infidelity.
• Used in both Home Alone movies. After watching an old black and white gangster film in an earlier scene, Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) uses the knowledge of the film's dialog to his advantage to scare away people who come to his door and can hear the audio. Probably the funniest scenes in the movies which don't involve Booby Traps.
• Not so much 'talking back', but a similar theme of television sentience: In The Ring, Naomi Watts' character walks up to the television whilst there's footage of a fly on screen. She's able to pick the fly up in her hands.
• In Better Off Dead, after Lane comes home from a rather horrible day at school, during which his math teacher asked for his permission to date his ex-girlfriend Beth, he walks past the TV, which is showing an episode of The Flintstones. Cue the camera focusing on the TV and Barney Rubble asking, "Hey, Lane, I was wondering whether you'd mind if I took out Beth."
• In The Game This is how Nicholas van Orton learns that his game has started: a doll in his room hides a camera, while a news broadcast—that was partially pre-recorded—gives him the facts.
• Debbie Harry's character disappears when going to check out Videodrome, then appears to Max in his TV, and asks for a kiss. He does...and then things start to get really bizarre. Brian O'Blivion also starts to converse with Max in this way later on.
• The Signal had a version of this that's different enough that it might not be the same trope: a mind-control signal broadcast over television causes viewers to go Ax Crazy. Although viewers don't report receiving actual messages from the television, they stare at its static for hours at a time, as though hypnotized.

Literature

• The most famous non-comic example is the Telescreens from Nineteen Eighty-Four, which serve as giant video phones. In every home, you must obey the Telescreen, and they can see if you're obeying. And you can't turn them off.
• In American Gods, Shadow gets into conversations with several TV sets. Justified in that one of the "new" Gods is "Media".
• Happens in Evil Star. Matt's weird-ass aunt starts taking orders from the host of Wheel of Fortune or something, eventually leading her to drive a truck full of kerosene into Matt's happy-wappy little school.
• Semi-utilized in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series. The television in Purgatory don't actually talk to anyone, but they do have a news program which is specifically related to whoever watches it.
• Played straight in a Photon tie-in novel, In Search of MOM. The Master Programmer is playing a "video" for the Photon Guardians, to let them know how she and the two super-computers for each side of the conflict, came to be while she tracks down what happened to M.O.M. There comes a point where the "recording" mentions the two super-computers and how she named them (Multiple Operations Matrix/Diverse Activites Database, or "M.O.M. and D.A.D.") Parcival mutters to himself about what stupid names they are. The Programmer on-screen looks right at him and asks "Do you think you could do better, four-eyes?"

Live-Action TV

• Happens in Eli Stone. Granted, that was a message from God, and therefore perfectly reasonable.
• In the I Love Lucy episode "Vitameatavegamin," Ricky returns home to find that Lucy is on TV, in a Phillip Morris commercial. And she can apparently see and hear him. That's when he realizes that she's literally in the television—she tore out the guts of the TV and is now standing inside it.
• The Doctor Who episode "The Wire" has an evil... spirit-thing that steals faces and screams at people.
  • In the episode "Blink" The Doctor, in 1969, has a conversation with Sally Sparrow, in 2007, through a television and someone sitting next to Sally, writing the script, which is given to the Doctor later.
• One of the ways God communicates with Joan of Arcadia is via a television newscaster who speaks directly to her.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus: A man (who has been previously mistaken for someone named Michael Ellis) is watching a TV documentary about ants.

Chris: I didn't know ants had six legs, Marcus!
Ant Expert: [speaking from TV] Well I can assure you they do, Mr Ellis.

• • This also happens in the penguin sketch:

Newsreader: [on TV] It's just gone eight o'clock, and time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode.
[The penguin explodes.]
First Pepperpot: [watching the TV] How did he know that was going to happen?
Newsreader: It was an inspired guess.

• The Test Card Girl from Life On Mars, and several other TV hosts, including the narrator from Camberwick Green.
• Ashes to Ashes has done this.
• When a murderous young woman wanders into the house on The Young Ones, this trope gets used with a radio. The newscaster at first announces that a dangerous murderess is on the loose, but as the boys all ignore his warning, he starts yelling at them specifically: "I've been trying to tell you for the last five minutes, that girl over there with her hands over Mike's ears is a murderer!" The radio eventually gets broken when it's used as a weapon in a Vyvyan/Rik squabble, and none of the lads ever notice its warnings.
  • In an earlier episode, the television makes an announcement telling the viewers not forget to unplug their sets. Vyvyan asks why, and the television responds, "Because it'll blow up, you silly boy". Vyv waits in anticipation for a few seconds before deciding to play murder in the dark instead.
• In one episode of Angel there were demonic puppets sucking the life force out of children. They'd talk to children through a TV show and tell them to put their hands on the TV, and then the children would fall into comas.
• In a Mind Screw episode of Forever Knight, Nick Knight sees his vampire 'father' LaCroix on the television quoting from "The Walrus And The Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll, his face following Nick as he walks across the room.
• Jon Stewart is fond of claiming that he can see us too (and usually reminds us to "put some pants on").
  • In one example after Jon Stewart learned that Anthony Wiener talked about having sex while watching his show, he wondered if his audience were having sex right then and there. He then asks someone off stage to "hit the button that lets me see them" and is shocked at what he sees.
• Max Headroom does this regularly—unsurprisingly, given that televisions contain cameras in that 'verse.
• On Charmed, Cole used a TV psychic to communicate with Phoebe.
• Being Human (UK): Saul keeps getting mysterious messages through newspapers and the TV prodding him to ask Annie out, which turns out to be part of a long-term plot to pull Annie into the afterlife.

Music

• In this Israeli music video a Wild Teen Party leads to a television being thrown into a swimming pool. The news anchorman then steps out of the swimming pool and continues to deliver the news.

Radio

• The Jack Benny Program used this a few times as a gag, making it Older Than Television.

Video Games

• There was an entire level in Parappa the Rapper like this.
• There's an entertaining version when playing as a Malkavian in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines. The news announcer is describing the scene of a horrible massacre and follows with, "And we know that it was you that did it" while staring directly into the camera. (I know this has shown up somewhere in an extant trope entry, but I can't find where.)
  • Hell, later on a Malk can have a full blown conversation with the television in his safe house. The anchor tells you a joke.
  • A joke which turns out to describe the situation the PC is in perfectly.
    • The PC is a chess-playing tuna?
    • The PC is playing a game which is pointless to win or lose, because either way s/he's screwed. In theory.
• The Television contact in City of Villains plays this straight, with your character getting missions from Bart Simpson, the X Files, and other TV characters.
  • Is there a trope for falling into TV/a movie? Because you do that for one of Television's arcs, as partway through it you walk into the TV and start beating up enemies INSIDE the TV.
• The French version of Candid Camera did it once to a prank victim watching Questions Pour Un Champion: Right as the guy found the answer to a question about a show where people are pranked on tape.

Web Comics

• Sinfest uses this frequently. Such as here.

Web Original

• One of the SCP items is a TV that plays a Deadly Game game show with whoever turns it on.
• The Loading Ready Run video Prepared Interview has someone give a taped interview as part of their job application. They talk to the interviewer.
• Zero Punctuation: "And you know who I blame for all this? You. Yes, you, ADRIAN. (That probably isn't your name, but it was worth it to freak out all the Adrians in the world.)"

Western Animation

• There is a Road Runner cartoon where Wile E. Coyote stops to talk to two boys who were watching the show and explains exactly why he wants to eat the Road Runner.
• In one of the Garfield made-for-TV movies, the titular cat, Jon and Odie find out about Pet Search watching it on TV. This trope happens twice: one when they learn about the U$1000 prize ("One thousand dollars?" "That's right, one thousand dollars!") and again when they learn about the trip to Hollywood ("I can't believe it!" "Well, believe it.").
• This example involves a radio, but it's the same principle. In The Fairly OddParents, this happens in the episode "Boys in the Band" (Chip Skylark's first appearance) when Chet Ubetcha broadcasts on Timmy's radio.
• This one's pretty old: There's a gag in Duck Dodgers in the 24th ½ Century about Marvin the Martian shooting Daffy through a TV screen, and the old W.C. Fields movie "International House" has Fields shooting Rudy Vallee the same way.
• It's used with a Police Radio in the 1936 Merrie Melodies short, "I Love to Singa."
• Used in The Angry Beavers, where the host of a show explains how Bears can eat beavers and will be driven to do so at the slightest taste of them. Beary questions if they actually believe that he's going to eat them, and basically everything he tries to do is then mentioned on the TV show as a sign that a bear is going to eat you, culminating in the host of the show appearing in person at their house insisting that he's right.
• On the animated version of ALF, people on the Shumway's tv often talk to the family as well as reach out and grab them from time to time.
• Happens on Jimmy Two-Shoes, often on one of the several Frank's 2000 Inch TVs that are all over Miseryville.
• In one episode of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, a movie monster personally greets Scooby and the gang, much to everyone's surprise. It quickly turns out that it's actually one of the thirteen demons possessing the TV set.
• In the X-Men episode, "Mojovision," Scott and Jean are at the mall trying to buy a new TV. Mojo then appears in one of the TVs, warning them not to change the channel. When the store manager attempts to do so:

Mojo: Hey, I warned you! (zaps him)

• Pac-Man features another instance of this with a radio in "A Bad Case of the Chomps":

Radio announcer: We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this special bulletin!
Inky: Hey! We weren't listening to no broadcast!
Radio announcer: In that case, I'm interrupting you, so shut up!

• One episode of Phineas and Ferb has Major Monogram contact Perry the Platypus through the Flynn-Fletcher family's TV set. However, just after Agent P leaves, Lawrence comes in to wonder who Monogram is, forcing the Major to bluff that the 'show' is a telethon for finding the cure for Antidisestablishmentarianism. (And yes, the Fridge Logic is lampshaded) Not once does Lawrence wonder why the TV is talking back to him.
• In one Family Guy episode, the director of Quahog's theater troupe dies unexpectedly. During the TV report, Lois gets a phone call offering her the job, and the anchor waits expectantly for her to accept before reporting that she would be the new director. (It's possible that the person calling Lois to offer the job was in the newsroom, but with the anchor apparently looking at Lois, this trope seems more likely.)
  • In a more straight playing of the trope, one episode had Peter have an argument with a character in the show True Blood. Lampshaded when the scene cuts to Bruce, watching the same episode at home.

Bruce: This is a strange episode.

• Happens in Darkwing Duck. When NegaDuck marches into a theater to watch an action movie, he gets annoyed when he realizes it's a Tastes Like Diabetes animated film about talking rabbits (one wonders how he missed the giant sign outside stating just that). He gets into an argument with the rabbits on the screen before dispersing them and the audience with a rifle. Then he proceeds to jump into the screen and roll out in a tank.
• Taz-Mania: In "Ticket Taker Taz", Molly's radio appears to be directly answering the questions she puts to it.

Real Life

• One of Penn & Teller's magic shows included a setup for this. They told how to force a card on the mark.
  • Then Penn did a fake news video meant to be recorded and played back after the trick "fails".
  • Penn stopped in the middle of the news, held the playing card to the camera and asked, "Is that your card?"