History Main / DangerDeadpan

* The Black Hawk designated Super 6-1, piloted by [=CW3=] Clifton "Elvis" Wolcott[[note]]portrayed by Jeremy Piven in ''Film/BlackHawkDown''[[/note]] was the first of the two Black Hawks to be shot down during the First Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. He was noted as always being extremely calm on the radio. He legendarily maintained his calm after Super 6-1 was hit, and remained almost casual on the radio up to the moment of his death during the impact.

** Moreover, telemetry of the last 30 seconds or so of ''Columbia's'' flight and panel configurations of recovered debris reveal that the pilot was still attempting to troubleshoot and rectify the situation even as the craft was spinning out of control and rapidly breaking up.

** Charles Hobaugh, although not the pilot during that mission, is the one calmly repeating "''Columbia'', Houston: UHF comm check" time and time again after they lost contact with the shuttle.
** Supposedly when listening to the air-to-ground loop shorty before all contact was lost, it's possible that Commander Rick Husband calmly stated "feelin the heat", which may be a deadpan acknowledgement that something had gone wrong.
** Conversely the crew of the Challenger were also unaware of any problems up until the shuttle broke apart. In fact the last statement recorded on the shuttle's CVR was pilot Mike Smith giving a nonchalant "Uh oh."

** This was also invoked to a degree on STS-27. Space shuttle Atlantis had suffered extensive tile damage that concerned the crew. Due to poor images Mission Control said it was of no concern. While the astronauts did not like that assessment, they decided to carry on with the mission regardless. Mission commander Robert Gibson later said that if the shuttle began to experience trouble during reentry, he would tell Mission Control "exactly what (he) thought of their analysis."

* Matt Kowalski from ''{{Film/Gravity}}'' remains unflappably calm and collected throughout the entire disaster.

** in TheMovie, Jack Swigert (as played by KevinBacon) had this going on for most of the film.

When a stereotypical airplane (or spaceship) pilot speaks over the radio, either to flight controllers on the ground or to his own passengers, he does so in a very soft, smooth register, just barely loud enough to pick up on the radio, probably with a faint American Southern accent (unless he's British, in which case it is [[StiffUpperLip an upper-class one]]). He uses radio jargon, even when he doesn't really need to. A true DangerDeadpan never loses his cool or changes his tone of voice [[CasualDangerDialog under any circumstances whatsoever]], a habit which is often {{played for laughs}}.

** Maybe there's just something about flying as Red Leader that keeps you calm: when it's Wedge's turn with the callsign in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' this time ''he's'' the one staying professional as everyone else gets jumpy.

* In WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfic Fanfic/ThirtySecondsOverToKiRin, this is irst played straight and then [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] by fighter pilot Dusk Skyshine as he begins to realize exactly how much trouble his wingman Dash Firehooves is in. Culminating in

* One level of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' includes several crashed human aircraft. Standing near one reveals some interesting radio chatter regarding a space-battle above, including the calmly-stated line "I've lost avionics, I'm gonna try and hit their carrier. Goodbye guys."
** The UNSC for some reason really likes to hire laidback Texan women to pilot their Pelicans. The version in the first game was even given a nickname, [[MauveShirt Foehammer]], and survived until the last level.
*** Foehammer's calm demeanor and steadfast reliability through the entire game [[spoiler:made her death in the last seconds of the game ''heartbreaking'']].

* TruthInTelevision. In real life, Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, originated this voice and this trope. The phenomenon of how real-world pilots all started talking like him, for no other reason than that he was [[RuleOfCool so cool]], is described in the nonfiction novel ''TheRightStuff'', and to a lesser extent in the movie version of same.

-->"Now, folks, uh… this is the captain... ummmm... We've got a little ol' red light up here on the control panel that's tryin' to tell us that the landin' gears're not... uh... lockin' into position when we lower 'em... Now... I don't believe that little ol' red light knows what it's talkin' about—I believe it's that little ol' red light that isn' workin' right. But... I guess to play it by the rules, we oughta humor that little ol' light… so we're gonna take her down to about, oh, two or three hundred feet over the runway at Kennedy, and the folks down there on the ground are gonna see if they caint give us a visual inspection of those ol' landin' gears and if I'm right... they're gonna tell us everything is copacetic all the way aroun' an' we'll jes take her on in.
-->"Well, folks, those folks down there on the ground—it must be too early for 'em or somethin'—I 'spect they still got the sleepers in their eyes... 'cause they say they caint tell if those ol' landin' gears are all the way down or not... But, you know, up here in the cockpit we're convinced they're all the way down, so we're jes gonna take her on in... And oh, while we take a little swing out over the ocean an' empty some of that surplus fuel we're not gonna be needin' anymore -- that's what you might be seein' comin' out of the wings -- our lovely little ladies... if they'll be so kind... they're gonna go up and down the aisles and show you how we do what we call 'assumin' the position'."

** This was also invoked to a degree on STS-27. Space shuttle Atlantis had suffered extensive tile damage that concerned the crew. Due to poor images Mission Control said it was of no concern. While the astronauts did not like that assessment, they decided to carry on with the mission regardless. Mission commander Robert Gibson later said that if the shuttle began to experience trouble during reentry, he would tell Misson Control "exactly what (he) thought of their analysis."

* The Wraith pilot from ''StarCraft''.

* When ''TheSimpsons'' fly home from Japan, the Chuck Yeager pilot keeps his cool even when the plane is grabbed and shaken about by Godzilla.

* Parodied in ''MonkeyDust'' - [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPkKEttKIQU a pilot who got perfect scores in his pilot exam is rejected]] because his voice is goofy, while a terrible pilot gets through when he brushes off the fact he failed his exam with "a little spot of bother there, but we're through the worst of it" in a suave, clipped voice.

* The ''Discovery's'' mission controller in ''TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', who was played by an actual U.S. Air Force radio operator stationed in England, whom Kubrick hired because he couldn't find any actors who could do this kind of voice.

* RockosModernLife - Rocko and Heffer are just about to start a plane trip when the Captain comes over the intercom and mentions in a deadpan voice that he'll do his best not to pass out at high altitude like he usually does.

When a stereotypical airplane (or spaceship) pilot speaks over the radio, either to flight controllers on the ground or to his own passengers, he does so in a very soft, smooth register, just barely loud enough to pick up on the radio, probably with a faint American Southern accent (unless he's British, in which case it is [[StiffUpperLip an upper-class one]]). He uses radio jargon, even when he doesn't really need to. A true DangerDeadpan never loses his cool or changes his tone of voice [[CasualDangerDialog under any circumstances whatsoever]], a habit which is often played for laughs.

* [[NeverMindTheBuzzcocks Phill Jupitus]] has a routine about this in his ''Quadrophobia'' show, in which he contrasts the Danger Deadpan approach seen in ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'' with the probable result if the astronauts had been British: not so much "Houston, we have a problem" as "THE F**KING ROCKET'S F**KING F**KED!!" Notable as an example of an inversion of BritishStuffiness.

* Most everyone in GenerationKill, though there are few pilots and their speaking roles are very brief. Has two notable exceptions in [[FunnyForeigner Sgt. Batista]] and [[TheNeidermeyer Captain America]], both of which are criticized for their behaviour by the main characters (the captain, of course, not to his face).

* The Black Hawk designated Super 6-1, piloted by [=CW3=] Clifton "Elvis" Wolcott[[note]]portrayed by Jeremy Piven in Film/BlackHawkDown[[/note]] was the first of the two Black Hawks to be shot down during the First Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. He was noted as always being extremely calm on the radio. He legendarily maintained his calm after Super 6-1 was hit, and remained almost casual on the radio up to the moment of his death during the impact.

* The Black Hawk designated Super 6-1, piloted by [=CW3=] Clifton "Elvis" Wolcott was the first of the two Black Hawks to be shot down during the First Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. He was noted as always being extremely calm on the radio. He legendarily maintained his calm after Super 6-1 was hit, and remained almost casual on the radio up to the moment of his death during the impact.

* Charlotte Yeager does this in ''StrikeWitches''; not surprising, since she's the DistaffCounterpart of the real-life Chuck Yeager.

* In the Jack [=McKinney=] novelization of ''{{Robotech}}'', the pilots are all described as discussing their life and death situations in combat "as if they were talking about the weather", and lampshades this with an explanation that combat pilots are traditionally superstitious that displaying any worry or fear of death invites its attention.

[[folder:Advertising]]
* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] in a recent Geico commercial with a pair of professional golf commentators who witness one player coming under attack by a Kraken in the pond. They never break out of their deadpan whispering and focus the bulk of their comments on how the monster's appearence is likely to affect the player's score for the hole.
-->'''Commentator:''' "This course is electric."
[[/folder]]