History Main / RoboSpeak

** Daleks in (who are not in fact robots) tend to always announce everything that's going on. They are best known for shouting "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" when shooting something (even to themselves, or, in the new series, in the vacuum of space where no one's going to hear it), but they also announce all their other actions: "EL-E-VATE" before using their hover abilities, or the fantastically redundant "MY VISION IS IMPAIRED; I CANNOT SEE!" when blinded.

* Appears in the third Oz book, ''Ozma of Oz'', with Tik-Tok, a wind-up robot (though not called that since the word was not yet in circulation) who speaks in mon-o-tone and in-flex-i-ble ca-dence. He is an early example of loyal RobotBuddy.

* Franchise/{{Robocop}} tends to straddle the trope, since he's basically a heavily armored robot powered by an actual human. By default, he speaks in Robospeak, but sometimes with some emotion thrown in. Stronger emotions, such as UnstoppableRage, come just shy of overriding the default monotone.

* Somewhat averted by Jarvis in ''Iron Man'', the AI of Tony Stark's computer - though it's difficult to tell when he's being genuinely polite and when he's being sarcastic.
* In Grandma's Boy, videogame programmer J. P. sometimes does this for no clear reason.

* There was a comic where Hercules rode a chariot across space. He was given a robot by some aliens to could record his adventures for them, and abuse the robot's credit card. The robot spoke in the same "Question: Is this wise?", "Statement: Thank you" fashion, at one point saying:

** Corrective statement: The Rigellian Recorders were introduced in Lee and Kirby's {{Thor}}. Qualifier: The humor potential lay unused until Roy Thomas's run on the book.

* An interesting example, RobotGirl Aiko in ''MagicalPokaan''. Her speech is perfectly normal, until episode 4, wherein a malfunction causes her to realistically stutter and repeat words, along with a very low buzz, similar to wet speakers. Seen [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQCTzDTxtXE#t=2m26s here]].

* Subverted in {{Vandread}}: While the resident robot Pyoro begins speaking that way, due to an accident, he speaks in a ''very human'' way, sometimes even being ''hotblooded'' when he needs to be.

* Both Averted & used in ''CannonGodExaxxion''. The cheap, massproduction MechaMooks used by the Riofaldians talk in heavy robo speak. The Terminal Drone type robots even use a more "techno"-looking [[UsefulNotes/{{Fonts}} font]]. The main character's RoboGirl partner & other robots created by his grandfather don't, since they're designed to pass for human. It averts one of the major robospeak cliches, as well. We never see the Riofaldian robots talking out loud to each other, only to organics. There's one scene that depicts a robot sending a comunication requesting backup, wich is represented by a speach baloon filled with what looks like barcodes.

* Father Tres, an android in ''TrinityBlood'', speaks this way, including using "Positive" for "Yes" & "Negative" for "No", and having little to no inflection. Preferred method of attack: [[MoreDakka a fusillade of bullets]] from GunsAkimbo.

* Chachamaru, the RobotGirl of ''MahouSenseiNegima'', is voiced in anime by CaitlinGlass, and sounds like [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Data's]] British sister, as described at the end of this page's notes above.

** A LampshadeHanging from ''Mutant X'' #1:\\
'''Havok:''' "This is what's so irritating about fighting these things. The nonstop encyclopedic recitation of things I've known about since puberty!"

** E-123 Omega from ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'', on the other hand, gets an angry monotone, but better lines ("WORTHLESS CONSUMER MODELS!").

** The Cybermen from the same series don't use contractions, speak unemotionally in an electronically distorted voice, and overexplain everything they do.
** In the very first appearance of the Cybermen way back in 1966, they had ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGsXq9LU-Y4 bizARRely INflecTED SING-song voiCES]]'' because it was assumed by the production team that that was how computers would actually speak. Fortunately it was quickly realised how ridiculous that sounded, and their more well-known buzzing monotone voices were introduced from their second appearance.

* In ''KamenRiderKiva'', the Henshin Belt of Keisuke Nago/Kamen Rider IXA is the only Heisei Belt so far that, although in Engrish, states out everything in robo speak.

** When he goes to his "Rising" SuperMode, the driver turns it into ''four syllables.'' RI-I-SING-GU! You know you've got a bad case if it takes a viewer a while to realize that the device is actually speaking English. And ''so many KamenRider'' computer voices speak in GratuitousEnglish, but in [[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish an understandable enough manner]] that they few words they get are coherent ("[[KamenRiderRyuki Final Vent!]]" "[[KamenRider555 Standing by. ... Complete]]."

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Valve's [=GoldSrc=] game engine, which ran the original HalfLife, its expansions, and many others, included a fairly simple speech synthesis system (of the word-based create-sentences-from-a-fixed-vocabulary type, although the voice could be inflected, sped up and slowed down, and the words chopped up and reassembled to create new words with a little creativity) used for the enemy Marines, the Black Mesa Announcement System (a.k.a. Vox), and the HEV suit. The degree of roboticity varies: Vox is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh32mC-dor0 inhumanly low-pitched and has a robotic rhythm]], the HEV suit [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU0HttdfxkE still has a robotic rhythm but an otherwise human-sounding voice]], and the Marines are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLWUHoeYHlc closest to being passable as human aside from sounding like they're speaking through walkie-talkies]] (warning: some profanity and possible mild spoilers).\\

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* {{Robocop}} tends to straddle the trope, since he's basically a heavily armored robot powered by an actual human. By default, he speaks in Robospeak, but sometimes with some emotion thrown in. Stronger emotions, such as UnstoppableRage, come just shy of overriding the default monotone.

* ''Portal'':
** The turrets in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' 1 use a version of robo speak in an adorable female voice. "Are. You. Still. There?" "Nap. Time." "Put. Me. Down." "I. Don't. Hate. You." [=GLaDOS=] also uses a very robotic sounding computerized voice up until the final battle, after you remove her [[MoralityChip Morality Core]].
** In ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', [=GLaDOS=] voice is somewhere inbetween the robotic intonation she used for most of the first game and the seductive croon she used in the final battle. Most of the other AI characters avert this, however. In the developer's commentary, it is noted that Valve intentionally used a theme when creating the voices: smarter [=AIs=] sound more robotic, such that the most talkative and human-sounding character in the game, Wheatley, is also the dumbest.

* [[{{Mahoromatic}} Mahoro and Minawa]] don't do it, but whether they're straight [[{{Fembot}} gynoids]] or cyborg humans isn't exactly clear.

A "serious" android in anime, such as a RobotGirl, often talks normally but [[SpockSpeak very formally]] and [[CreepyMonotone with no inflection]].

Robots will also talk to each ''other'' in RoboSpeak, a step ''backwards'' in technology since one would assume wireless communication between machines would be faster and stealthier. Killer cyborgs are always lurching about declaring "Searching for humans!" -- how is this going to do anything but hinder them?

For all their ability to create AI, robot builders of the future apparently have no way of convincingly mimicking human speech, or simply sticking a recording of one saying all the important things into its memory bank.

->''"Are you familiar with the old robot saying: 'Does Not Compute'?"''

* The Early 1990s versions of the ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' computer games had mech startup and critical damages in a feminine Robospeak. "Critical Hit. Heat. Sink." "Critical Hit. Engine." "Shutting. Down." etc.
** They brought back the same actress to record MechWarrior Online.

* [[MahouSenseiNegima Chachamaru]], the RobotGirl of ''Negima'', is voiced in anime by CaitlinGlass, and sounds like [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Data's]] British sister, as described at the end of this page's notes above.

This only applies to the English voice cast, however. The Japanese voice for Aigis seems to have completely avoided this trope. Japanese Aigis has normal inflections but speaks in very generic to the point militaryish grammar. The robot speak in the English was an attempt to convey that. Aigis starts to talk normally towards the end of the game, much like how Aigis in english eventually starts to sound less robotic.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''' [[RobotBuddy ED-E]] speaks in ''StarWars''-style beeps.

** However, in "Demons and Angels", Holly exclaims that "An electrical fire has knocked out my voice recognition unicycle!" and later in the episode says "The phrase 'cargo bay doors' does not appear to be in my lexicon." in a more robotic-sounding voice.