History Main / CurseOfBabel

[[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jla_vol_1_45_textless.png]]]]

* In the aptly titled ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel'', Ra's al Ghul renders the entire ''world'' both aphasic and dyslexic.
* ''ComicBook/MorningGlories'' issue #22 sees Hunter, Hisao and The Truants enter The Tower, causing each character to begin speaking in different languages. Interestingly, all the characters are able to understand one another, despite speaking seven different languages. A translation of the scene can be found in the [[http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/mga-study-hall-issue-22/ Study Hall]] page.

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[[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jla_vol_1_45_textless.png]]]]

It may result in a MonsterIsAMommy plot. Also, [[SelfDemonstratingArticle chicken legs are the truth of deciding diarhoe.]]

* In ''Anime/{{Symphogear}}'', [[{{Precursors}} The Custodians]] inflicted this on mankind over 5000 years ago, and caused humanity to lose its original language that they shared with each other and the Custodians. The goal of the first season's BigBad, Fine, is to try and destroy the Curse, which she states is anchored on the moon, believing they did so [[AbusivePrecursors to intentionally screw over humanity]] and believed one of them, Enki, her lover, did it specifically to abandon her. [[spoiler:Turns out her attempts at doing so actually screwed over humanity by ''XV'', the fifth and final season. The Curse of Babel is not a mystical curse, but actually a computer program from the supercomputer, Marduk, that was inflicted on mankind from the moon, like she said. However, [[GoodAllAlong there was a really good reason for this]]. This is because the Custodians had a traitor, Shem-ha the Great Surgeon, who attempted to turn humanity into monstrous slaves for herself to try and raise an army to destroy the others. After she failed, she converted herself into words and etched herself into humanity's DNA via the original language. To counter this, the Curse of Babel was created to suppress the original language so that she would never rise again. Unfortunately, due to Fine's attempt to blow up the moon, uncovering the Lunar Ruins of Marduk, and then in Season 2, when Maria sung Apple, a Piece of the original language to give humanity a chance to connect for a brief moment to save the world from the rampaging Nepilim, jumpstarted her resurrection into the mortal plain. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Oopsy poopsy]].]]

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' features this plot once during part 5: ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]''. Narancia is briefly attacked by an enemy stand which rips off his tongue. After Giorno repairs it, Narancia [[TongueTied finds himself unable to properly communicate urgent information about the enemy Stand]]. [[spoiler: It turns out the attack was just a way for a second stand to attach itself to Narancia's tongue, forcing him to say the opposite of what he wanted, and even point in the wrong direction.]]

* In the aptly-titled ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel'', Ra's al Ghul renders the entire ''world'' both aphasic and dyslexic.
* The Scarecrow once inflicted this on Gotham City in an early story in ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures''. Batman and Robin only managed to track him down with help from one of his {{Mooks}}, [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas whose own grandmother had nearly died because she could no longer read her medicine bottles]].
* ''ComicBook/MorningGlories'' Issue #22 sees Hunter, Hisao and The Truants enter The Tower, causing each character to begin speaking in different languages. Interestingly, all the characters are able to understand one another, despite speaking seven different languages. A translation of the scene can be found in the [[http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annotations/mga-study-hall-issue-22/ Study Hall]] page.

* The fate of the N.I.C.E. in ''Literature/ThatHideousStrength'' is a ShoutOut to the Biblical Tower of Babel.
* In ''Literature/SnowCrash'', the BigBad is attempting to spread an informational [[TheVirus virus]] that causes infected people to revert to the "language of Babel", supposedly a primitive language wired into the human brainstem. He uses this language to essentially take control of their minds. The language is incomprehensible to anyone who is uninfected and hasn't studied it extensively.
* Creator/OctaviaButler's short story "Speech Sounds" explores the aftermath of a pandemic plague that has left the vast majority of humans unable to speak, read, comprehend language, or some combination thereof.
* In the ''VideoGame/MechWarrior: Dark Age'' novels, one mech jock suffers brain damage in battle, she is still largely able to communicate, but she switches out key words. Due to the severity of the situation, she is pressed into battle despite her injuries, and is killed in the next fight.

* In ''Literature/Babel17'', as Wong progresses in her study of the language called Babel-17, she starts to find herself occasionally getting stuck in that mode at unexpected times, unable to revert her thinking back to a language her crew might understand. Thinking in Babel-17 helps her think strategically, but the mode appears to be somewhat addictive. And being a strategic genius isn't much good if you can't communicate your strategies to the people who need to implement them.
* In the final arc of ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', [[spoiler:Taylor]] loses her ability to comprehend language as the result of [[spoiler:Panacea]] tampering with her brain.

** The pilot episode of the show centered on a schoolteacher who was suddenly stricken with Aphasia before losing consciousness. She did have the presence of mind to write a message on the chalkboard to the students to call the nurse.
** The [[MonsterOfTheWeek patient-of-the-week]] in one episode is dysphasic. So in a twist on the usual plot, the patient has a diagnosis-cracking secret, and really wants to reveal it, but he can't.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}'', Adrian Monk develops aphasia as a result of the shock of seeing his formerly-immaculate apartment wrecked by an earthquake. It leads to a gag at the end wherein Monk delivers the episode's NecroCam [[TheSummation Summation]] in that same gibberish.

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E24HopeAndFear Hope and Fear]]", Neelix's [[TranslatorMicrobes universal translator]] suddenly fails while he is on a trading away mission, rendering him unable to communicate with his trading partners. An alien named Arturis, [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman who happens to be from a species which is exceptionally good in learning languages]], comes to Neelix' rescue by playing his interpreter. Out of gratitude, Neelix invites him to the ''Voyager''. [[spoiler: It later turns out that Arturis very probably has [[ThePlan orchestrated]] this whole incident, because he needed to gain the crew's trust for his plans of revenge. ([[ItMakesSenseInContext He considers Cpt. Janeway to be responsible for the Borg assimilating his species]].)]]
* In the ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryS2E04AnObolForCharon An Obol for Charon]]", a strange planetoid-sized living sphere infects the ''Discovery'' with a computer virus that, among other things, messes with the universal translator. As a result, crewmembers have trouble understanding one another or the instruments since everything gets translated to a random human or alien language (e.g., Burnham starts speaking to Pike in Klingon, while he responds in French). In a nod to the {{Trope Namer|s}}, Pike eventually greets Saru entering the bridge by saying "Welcome to the Tower of Babel" in Hebrew ("Barokh' haba l'mig'dal babal"). Fortunately, Burnham knows that Saru has [[{{Omniglot}} taught himself 94 languages]] early in his Starfleet career, which has no doubt come in handy.
-->'''Saru:''' Am I the only one here who studied a foreign language?
* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVDemonsAndAngels Demons and Angels]]":
-->'''[[ArtificialIntelligence Holly]]:''' Rude alert! Rude alert! An electrical fire has knocked out my voice recognition unicycle! Many Wurlitzers are missing from my database. Abandon shop! This is not a daffodil. Repeat, this is not a daffodil.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Wordplay", main character Bill Lowery gradually suffers this trope, although it's [[AmbiguousSituation left ambiguous]] if he's developing aphasia or if language itself is transforming (the end of the episode shows that even books have been printed in the "new" English). The first indication of the change is his wife Kathy telling him about a doctor named Bumper. He comments on his unusual name but thinks nothing more about it. When his neighbor Mr. Miller refers to his dog as an encyclopedia, Bill thinks that it is a practical joke. However, he becomes agitated when the mailroom attendant Robbie asks his advice on where to take Barbie for "dinosaur." Bill assumes that it is some sort of New Wave slang until he goes home and Kathy uses the same word. By the time that he goes to work the next morning, he cannot understand anyone and he is equally incomprehensible to everyone else. This presents problems when his young son Donnie has to be rushed to the emergency room. After Donnie is successfully treated, Bill has to learn the new language. He picks up one of his son's ABC books and sees that the new word for dog is "Wednesday." Other new words include "mayonnaise" for "experience," "trumpets" for "tricks," "throwrug" for "anniversary," "stepdad" for "seatbelt" and "elephant" for "emergency." Bill's own name is Hinge Thunder.

* The original Tower Of Babel in ''Literature/TheBible''.
** The curse is reversed somewhat at Pentecost, where the Spirit gave the apostles the ability to speak every language that existed in the known world. This was eventually considered a "sign gift" and became a matter of controversy that Paul dealt with in his epistles.

* Played for laughs in ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland''. One of the stages of [[GhostAmnesia "The Forgetting"]] is speaking Portuguese.

* In ''VideoGame/CarmenSandiegoWordDetective'', [[Franchise/CarmenSandiego the titular thief]] plans to [[IntangibleTheft steal the power of speech]] by {{invok|edTrope}}ing this trope on the whole world. Fittingly, the tower she uses as her headquarters is named [[MeaningfulName the Tower of]] [[PunnyName Babble]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'', [[spoiler:the loop]] does this to people who enter it and also makes them forget who they are.

* For a number of strips of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Haley Starshine could only speak in cryptograms that would change in every strip. Allowing readers who were clever/determined enough to figure out what she was saying.
* One post-revival arc of ''Webcomic/{{Fans}}'' had the villains remove all written language from history, resulting in worldwide illiteracy and an inability to communicate by writing.
* ''Webcomic/{{XKCD}}'': Subverted for laughs in a strip about the TowerOfBabel. God was super impressed they made such a tall tower, and asked what they would like as a reward. Unfortunately, they brought a linguist with them, who wanted more languages to study.

* ''WesternAnimation/GadgetBoyAndHeather'': The appropriately-titled episode "Power of Babble" saw Spydra develop a ray which caused people to start uttering nonsense.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Babel", Hal, Kilowog, and Razer's rings run out of power so they can't translate each other's native tongues.

Our heroes are faced with yet another impending disaster of the week but would probably be fairly easy to solve. The problem is that the key character for this task has lost his ability to communicate.

* In one episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'':

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}'', Adrian Monk develops aphasia as a result of the shock of seeing his formerl -immaculate apartment wrecked by an earthquake. It leads to a gag at the end wherein Monk delivers the episode's NecroCam [[TheSummation Summation]] in that same gibberish.

* Creator/OctaviaEButler's short story "Speech Sounds" explores the aftermath of a pandemic plague that has left the vast majority of humans unable to speak, read, comprehend language, or some combination thereof.

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E24HopeAndFear Hope and Fear]]", Neelix's [[TranslatorMicrobes universal translators]] suddenly fails while he is on a trading away mission, rendering him unable to communicate with his trading partners. An alien named Arturis, [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman who happens to be from a species which is exceptionally good in learning languages]], comes to Neelix' rescue by playing his interpreter. Out of gratitude, Neelix invites him to the ''Voyager''. [[spoiler: It later turns out that Arturis very probably has [[ThePlan orchestrated]] this whole incident, because he needed to gain the crew's trust for his plans of revenge. ([[ItMakesSenseInContext He considers Cpt. Janeway to be responsible for the Borg assimilating his species]].)]]

* In the aptly-titled ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel'', Ra's Al Ghul renders the entire ''world'' both aphasic and dyslexic.

* The fate of the N.I.C.E. in C. S. Lewis' ''Literature/ThatHideousStrength'' is a ShoutOut to the Biblical Tower of Babel.

* Octavia E. Butler's short story ''Speech Sounds'' explores the aftermath of a pandemic plague that has left the vast majority of humans unable to speak, read, comprehend language, or some combination thereof.

* ''[[Literature/AMagesPower A Mage's Power]]'': Zaticana, goddess of language, deliberately caused the original split in Tariatla's languages. She didn't do this as a punishment, but because [[ItAmusedMe she thought the results would be fun to watch.]]
* In Creator/SamuelRDelany's novel ''Literature/Babel17'', as Wong progresses in her study of the language called Babel-17, she starts to find herself occasionally getting stuck in that mode at unexpected times, unable to revert her thinking back to a language her crew might understand. Thinking in Babel-17 helps her think strategically, but the mode appears to be somewhat addictive. And being a strategic genius isn't much good if you can't communicate your strategies to the people who need to implement them.

* In ''Star Surgeon'', a missile takes out the MasterComputer that handles the {{Universal Translator}}s for Literature/SectorGeneral. Suddenly a hospital on the front line of an interstellar war discovers that its human and alien doctors, nurses and patients can only understand what members of their own species are saying.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* One episode of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' has Fitz, who's recently suffered from brain damage, develop aphasia. This leads to trouble when the agents need his help to stop the MonsterOfTheWeek, and all Fitz can say is "I didn't solve this today." They eventually figure out that ExactWords are in play, and "today" is the key word in the sentence: Fitz is trying to tell them that something he built ''previously'' can help them, but he can't accurately state "I solved this already."
* The ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E10Hush Hush]]" took this to the extreme, when ''the entire town'' had their voices taken away by the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters of the Week]].
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E1TheLeisureHive The Leisure Hive]]'', a Foamasi detective is presented as a villain until we find that he just lacks a speech synthesizer.
** ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E3TheCreatureFromThePit The Creature from the Pit]]'': Same thing. (Same scriptwriter, too.)

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}'', Adrian Monk developed aphasia as a result of the shock of seeing his formerly-immaculate apartment wrecked by an earthquake. It led to a gag at the end, where Monk delivers the episode's NecroCam [[TheSummation Summation]] in that same gibberish.
* ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'', "Recognition": Sky [[FreakyFridayFlip switches bodies]] with an alien who is physically unable to speak English (and the alien deliberately breaks the translator for good measure).
* This happened to the cast in the ''Series/SoWeird'' episode "Babble", due to their exposure to a stone from the tower.
* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "The Fifth Race", Jack loses his ability to speak anything other than Ancient after having an ancient library dumped into his brain. Initially he can still understand spoken English and write/type it, but eventually even that fails. [[RecycledScript The exact same thing happens again]] in "Lost City", but that time it's intentional.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', "Babel": The station's occupants are exposed to a bioweapon that disrupts their speech centers, causing the victims to develop aphasia.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', "Loud as a Whisper": The only diplomat who can broker a peace is rendered mute when his telepathic translators are killed. Turns out good in the long run when he decides to [[spoiler:force the warring parties to spend weeks learning to communicate with him, and thus cool their tempers and learn to cooperate.]]

** "Think Tank": Really the converse of this trope, Voyager is able to escape the think-tank's plan by disrupting the ability of its members to communicate with each other.
** In "Hope and Fear", Neelix's universal translator suddenly fails while he is on a trading away mission, rendering him unable to communicate with his trading partners. An alien named Arturis, [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman who happens to be from a species which is exceptionally good in learning languages]], comes to Neelix' rescue by playing his interpreter. Out of gratitude, Neelix invites him to the ''Voyager''. [[spoiler: It later turns out that Arturis very probably has [[ThePlan orchestrated]] this whole incident, because he needed to gain the crew's trust for his plans of revenge. ([[ItMakesSenseInContext He considers Cpt. Janeway to be responsible for the Borg assimilating his species.]])]]
* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', "[[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryS2E04AnObolForCharon An Obol for Charon]]": a strange planetoid-sized living sphere infects the ''Discovery'' with a computer virus that, among other things, messes with the universal translator. As a result, crewmembers have trouble understanding one another or the instruments since everything gets translated to a random human or alien language (e.g. Burnham starts speaking to Pike in Klingon, while he responds in French). In a nod to the TropeNamer, Pike eventually greets Saru entering the bridge by saying "Welcome to the Tower of Babel" in Hebrew ("Barokh' haba l'mig'dal babal"). Fortunately, Burnham knows that Saru has [[{{Omniglot}} taught himself 94 languages]] early in his Starfleet career, which has no doubt come in handy.
--> '''Saru:''' Am I the only one here who studied a foreign language?

-->'''[[ArtificialIntelligence Holly:]]''' Rude alert! Rude alert! An electrical fire has knocked out my voice recognition unicycle! Many Wurlitzers are missing from my database. Abandon shop! This is not a daffodil. Repeat, this is not a daffodil.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', appropriately named "Babel", Shriek messes with soundwaves, preventing anyone in Gotham City from being able to communicate intelligibly.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Leela learns that some giant alien brains are rendering everyone on Earth into idiots... and then she falls under their power, too, and can barely talk well enough to explain the problem to the one person who can help.
--> '''Leela''': ''[with urgency]'' Brain! Brain make people dumb.\\
'''Fry''': ''[patiently]'' No, Leela, brain make people smart.\\
'''Leela''': Nooo!

* In the episode "Babel" of ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternTheAnimatedSeries'' Hal, Kilowog, and Razer's rings run out of power so they can't translate each other's native tongues.

* In ''Anime/{{Symphogear}}'', [[{{Precursors}} The Custodians]] inflicted this on mankind over 5000 years ago, and caused humanity to lose its original language that they shared with each other and the Custodians. The goal of the first season's BigBad, Fine, is to try and destroy the Curse, which she states is anchored on the moon, believing they did so to intentionally screw over humanity and believed one of them, Enki, her lover, did it specifically to abandon her. [[spoiler: Turns out her attempts at doing so actually screwed over humanity by ''XV'', the fifth and final season. The Curse of Babel is not a mystical curse, but actually a computer program from the supercomputer, Marduk, that was inflicted on mankind from the moon, like she said. However, there was a really good reason for this. This is because the Custodians had a traitor, Shem-ha the Great Surgeon, who attempted to turn humanity into monstrous slaves for herself to try and raise an army to destroy the others. After she failed, she converted herself into words and etched herself into humanity's DNA via the original language. To counter this, the Curse of Babel was created to suppress the original language so that she would never rise again. Unfortunately, due to Fine's attempt to blow up the moon, uncovering the Lunar Ruins of Marduk, and then in Season 2, when Maria sung Apple, a Piece of the original language to give humanity a chance to connect for a brief moment to save the world from the rampaging Nepilim, jumpstarted her resurrection into the mortal plain. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Oopsy poopsy]].]]

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' features this plot once during part 5: ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]''. Narancia is briefly attacked by an enemy stand which rips off his tongue. After Giorno repairs it, Narancia finds himself unable to properly communicate urgent information about the enemy stand. [[spoiler: It turns out the attack was just a way for a second stand to attach itself to Narancia's tongue, forcing him to say the opposite of what he wanted, and even point in the wrong direction.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' [[spoiler:the loop]] does this to people who enter it and also makes them forget who they are.

* In the episode "Babel" of ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternTheAnimatedSeries'' Hal, Kilowog, and Razer's rings run out of power so they can't translate each others native tongues.