History Main / CurseOfBabel

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Referenced in ''TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', where in order to [[TranslatorMicrobes understand all languages across the entire universe]], you need to put a Babel fish in your ear.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* ''PowerRangersSPD'', "Recognition": Sky [[FreakyFriday switches bodies]] with an alien who is physically unable to speak English (and the alien deliberately breaks the translator for good measure).

* The ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Hush" took this to the extreme, when ''the entire town'' had their voices taken away by the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters of the Week]].

The name of this trope comes from a [[TowerOfBabel structure in the Bible]] that mankind built to reach the heavens and become Gods themselves. ''The'' God didn't like that, so he made all of them speak different languages to create mass confusion and halt the construction.

* In one episode of ''BatmanBeyond'', Shriek messes with soundwaves, preventing anyone in Gotham City from being able to communicate intelligibly.

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

See also TongueTied and CanNotSpitItOut. When the style of language is the barrier rather than the language itself, they're a StrangeSyntaxSpeaker.

[[folder: Literature ]]

** The Tower of Babel story is OlderThanTheyThink -- an older Sumerian version of the story exists, [[http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/36_babel.html as told here]]. Technically, then, the version in the Bible is still an example of this trope.

* ''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.]]
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', "Babel": The station's occupants are exposed to a disease that disrupts their speech centers, causing the victims to develop aphasia.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "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 another episode, 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.]])]]

* In an episode of ''{{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.
* Variation: In an episode of ''SpaceCases'', Catalina and Suzee (who is in another dimension) get mad at each other, resulting in Catalina losing her engineering genius (which was actually all advice taken from Suzee), preventing her from solving the PhlebotinumBreakdown of the week.
** Straighter is the episode where Catalina loses her voice after Sonic Screaming too much, and thus can't alert the crew when the ship is invaded.
* The ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Hush" took this to the extreme, when ''the entire town'' had their voices taken away by the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters of the Week]].
* The [[MonsterOfTheWeek patient-of-the-week]] in one episode of ''Series/{{House}}'' 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 a small arc in season 6, Sun-Hwa Kwon of ''{{Lost}}'' manages to lose her ability to speak English. Only she can still write in English, so there's no barrier to communication, and she's fine three episodes later. This is, unsurprisingly, generally considered one of the more pointless story arcs in the series' history.
* This happened to the cast in the ''SoWeird'' episode "Babble", due to their exposure to a stone from the tower.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* For a number of strips of ''Webcomic/OrderOfTheStick'', 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. However, IIRC, [[WordOfGod Burlew]] admitted to a few typos.

* In one episode of ''ThePowerpuffGirls'', a pack of squirrels raise a ruckus after the Mayor builds a statue over the spot where they'd been burying their acorns. Bubbles, who can talk to animals, is unable to sort things out because she had been rendered mute after a bee she nearly swallowed stung her in the throat.

* Aphasia is the RealLife version of this. It can be caused by strokes, brain damage, migraine headaches, and so on.

* In ''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.

* ''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.]]
* ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', "Babel": The station's occupants are exposed to a disease that disrupts their speech centers, causing the victims to develop aphasia.
* ''StarTrekVoyager'', "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 another episode, 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 [[XanatosGambit 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.]])]]

** Given that the [[TheGreatDeluge flood]] had just happened, they may have just wanted a place to run to in case it happened again.

* Aphagia is the RealLife version of this. It can be caused by strokes, brain damage, migraine headaches, and so on.

* In ''{{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.

* In one episode of ''MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'', Jenny saves Tokyo from some monsters and comes back home after. Problem is, she had switched language discs from English to Japanese and lost her English disc in Tokyo. She suffers the majority of the episode--and half a battle with the Japanese monsters--speaking Japanese, even though [[FridgeLogic one assumes her mother could've just burned her a new english disc]]. Luckily, a kid she saved back in Japan shows up with a tour group to give the English disc to her.

** The Tower of Babel story is OlderThanTheyThink -- an older Sumerian version of the story exists, [[http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/36_babel.html as told here]].

----

The name of this trope comes from a structure in the Bible that mankind built to reach the heavens and become Gods themselves. ''The'' God didn't like that, so he made all of them speak different languages to create mass confusion and halt the construction.

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

* The [[MonsterOfTheWeek patient-of-the-week]] in one episode of ''{{House}}'' 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.

* An ABC news reporter suffered from this while on the air, leading to widespread speculation that she had suffered a stroke. It was later found to be caused by an unusual form of migraine headache.

* Literary example: Naturally, the actual Tower Of Babel in TheBible makes this OlderThanDirt. Note that this isn't technically an example, as it was an UnbuiltTrope at the time.

** 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.)

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* 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.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:Webcomics]]
* For a number of strips of ''Webcomic/OrderOfTheStick'', 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. However, IIRC, [[WordOfGod Burlew]] admitted to a few typos.

[[AC: Web Original]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* In ''{{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! Big brain make dumb."
--> '''Fry''': [patiently] "No, Leela, brains make you smart."

[[AC: Real Life]]