Verbal Tic

"Holy *tik* shrew! Lookit! She's my size -- with *tik* wings! I told you I sensed *tik* insect thoughts! Princess, I think I'm *tik* in love!"

—Bug from Micronauts, on Wasp

An exceptionally odd Catch Phrase used to the point it seems more like a bodily emission than speaking. This is often a single nonsense word added at the end of sentences, well past the expected formal variations in speech, eh? It can also be a word, sound, or phrase that shows up in various places in a character's dialogue.

Contrast with Strange Syntax Speaker, where the character is using language rules unknown to others. See also Character Tics, for similar idiosyncrasies applied to physical behavior.

This is Truth in Television too, as this is extremely common in individuals with disorders such as Asperger's Syndrome and Tourette's. Plus, some regional dialects like, totally also have a little bit of this as part of their local mannerisms, eh?

Not to be confused with Verbal Kint.

Examples of Verbal Tic are listed on these subpages:

• Anime and Manga
• Comic Books
• Film
• Literature
• Live Action TV
• Professional Wrestling
• Real Life
• Video Games
• Visual Novel
• Web Comics
• Web Original
• Western Animation

Fan Work

• Daneel Rush of TFF fame has given us Higashiyama Sayuri, the Badass Loli Kyuubi No Youko (who won her tails in a drunken bout of poker with Inari-sama) sealed inside of Uzumaki Naruto, who ends most every sentence with Mugyuu, the shortened Mugii, or (if her tails are mentioned or she's exceedingly happy) a "Wai!" followed by wagging her tails.
  • Also in the same story is Higashiyama Yurine, Sayuri's aunt, who uses "Hawa" to much the same effect.
• Here, Ron's "Bloody Hell!" is lampshaded in that Draco in Leather Pants finds it incredibly sexy and keeps asking him to say it.
• Tsuruya's father shares her Verbal Tic in Kyon: Big Damn Hero.
• Leif of Soulless Shell frequently ends sentences with "eh". Or at least those might be the points where the sentence is supposed to end, it's hard to tell.
• BROOOOOTTTHHHERRR.
• In Dragon Ball Z, the Oni add "oni" to the end of every line. The translation gets rid of the tick completely.

Music

• Cheech and Chong, man. They constantly use the word "Man" wherever it makes sense, man. Sometimes twice consecutively, man.
• James Taylor likes to throw in "baby" to pad out some empty space on a track, baby.
• Pitbull says "dale" no less than 15 times in any song he's in.
  • Dale dale!
• YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
  • What?!

Radio

• Neddie Seagoon (Harry Secombe) from The Goon Show frequently fills the time the audience laughs at someone else's joke at him by simply going whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhat... until the laughter fades.
  • Please... don't do that with your head on.
• On Hello Cheeky, a parody of David Frost started every sentence with "Hello", a reference to David Frost's alleged Catch Phrase "Hello, good evening and welcome".

Tabletop RPG

• The Skaven have a habit of repeating some words (yes-yes! run-run!) and call other races as (name)-things, like "Man-things"
  • As shown in the novel Grey Seer, they also often put words together when speaking in Queekish.(kill-slay, traitor-meat, see-smell etc.)Jeremias Scrivener speaks the same way when challenging Thanquol in Queekish, so this seems to be a trait of the language.
• In Legend of the Five Rings, a race of rat-people known as Ratkin tend to repeat random words when speaking Rokugani. Towards the end of their regular appearances in the story, this was scaled back as the players were getting sick of it (although some of their later appearances retain the quirk).
• In Dungeons & Dragons, some players (and DMs) who roleplay kobolds tend to have them saying "meep!" with almost every line, often with a fair amount of Hulk Speak for good measure.

Theater

• Angels in America: "I I I I Am the CONTINENTAL PRINCIPALITY OF AMERICA"
• Ye Gods Zaneeta and Tommy from The Music Man, jeely cly!
• Twelve Angry Men, you know what I mean *sniff*?
• Czes'nik, one of the characters in the Polish play Zemsta ("The Revenge"), has a Verbal Tic of "mocium panie" (approx. translated as "my dear Sir"). In one of the most famous scenes, he dictates a letter to his servant, who ends up putting the Verbal Tic all over the letter.
• Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler features a primary character who ends most of his sentences with "What?" but, for the life of me, I can't seem to remember his name, even.
• Garry from Noises Off frequently ends sentences in "...Do you know what I mean?" or "You know." This is only when he isn't actually saying his lines.

Web Animation

• The Old Baton Man from Alejo y Valentina, an Argentinian web cartoon, ends all his lines with "viteh", which in heavily accented Buenos Aires Spanish translates to something like "see?".
  • Pretty much all the characters, principal or not.
• Luke in Professor Layton and the malignant growth
  • BASEBALL!!!
  • I'M 42!!!
• Rumble Red, the old-timey Great Gazoo knockoff from Homestar Runner, frequently ending sentences with "...rumble?" Then there's Homsar's "AAaaAAaaAA..." and drawing out vowel sounds in words.

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...kupo!