History Main / StutterStop

See also StutteringIntoEloquence, PorkyPigPronunciation and DelusionsOfEloquence. Can overlap with OOCIsSeriousBusiness if other characters consider their unhindered speech unusual.

* Used for TheReveal in the first HarryPotter book. The villain was p-p-p-poor s-s-stuttering Professor Quirrel all along.

* RowanAtkinson has a stutter that he overcomes on screen by over-pronouncing certain letters, most notably his Bs.

* JamesEarlJones has a stutter that is present whenever he is speaking extemporaneously without time to prepare what he is going to say. It is ''never'' present when he is performing, unless the character he is playing is specifically designated as a stutterer.

* Happens at least once to the title character in the TV version of ''IClaudius''.
** The title character of ''IClaudius'' eventually trains himself so that he largely loses his stutter. What makes it fit this well is that he had achieved this well before most people thought he had... and so right up until becoming Roman Emperor, he's still seen as poor, stupid, stuttering C-C-C-Claudius. Soon after, he drops the ObfuscatingStupidity, much to his enemies' dismay.

* Bill Denbrough from StephenKing's ''{{It}}''. Both Richie Tozier and Beverly Marsh remark on the fact that "Stuttering Bill doesn't realize that he doesn't, always".

* Simon has a stutter throughout most of the ''{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/EqualRites'', but loses it after a run-in with some {{Cosmic Horror}}s.

* In ''TheSandman'', Abel never stutters when he is telling someone a story.

[[AC:{{Theater}}]]

* Lieutenant Reginald Barclay in ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and ''StarTrekVoyager'' had a few scenes like this. It was usually evidence that he was really certain about what he was saying, but just couldn't get the words out. It wasn't nervousness that caused his stammer, it was his utter comprehension of the danger of the situation they were in.

A character has a stutter or a stammer, and it affects how he communicates with others... badly. But then, usually at some key dramatic moment, his stammer disappears and he is able to speak with surprisingly smooth and eloquent diction.

This is often TruthInTelevision, as many stutterers don't stutter ''at all'' if they're acting, singing, or talking about something they know well.

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!!Examples:

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* In ''TheSandman'', Abel never stutters when he is telling someone a story.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''ShakespeareInLove'', where Wabash can barely speak because of his stammer, and is only included in the play because Phillip Henslowe (the "producer") owes him money. But, after a brief false start, he delivers ''RomeoAndJuliet's'' prologue with perfect eloquence.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* In IsaacAsimov's short story "Galley Slave", sociology professor Simon Ninheimer stuttered almost all the way through to the end, where he gives a eloquent speech of the evils of AI proofreaders.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

** Although on some occasions it was evidence he'd been hit by the NegativeSpaceWedgie and was NotHimself.
* Happens at least once to the title character in the TV version of ''IClaudius''.
** The title character of ''IClaudius'' eventually trains himself so that he largely loses his stutter. What makes it fit this well is that he had achieved this well before most people thought he had... and so right up until becoming Roman Emperor, he's still seen as poor, stupid, stuttering C-C-C-Claudius. Soon after, he drops the ObfuscatingStupidity, much to his enemies' dismay.
* A character on ''JoanOfArcadia'' had a terrible stuttering problem, made worse by the fact that he was on the Debate Team. So how did he find his voice? Joan discovers that he has an exceptional talent for finding/gathering evidence and arranging excellent presentations.

[[AC:{{Music}}]]

* World famous [[{{Scatting}} scat singer]] ScatmanJohn states in his song "Scatman" that the reason why he sounds so good singing and has trouble stuttering off stage is because he's actually stuttering in his songs. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Geiq0FP13uQ&feature=related Take a listen]].
-->''Everybody's sayin' that the Scatman stutters''
-->''But doesn't ever stutter when he sings.''
-->''But what you don't know I'm gonna tell you right now,''
-->''That the stutter and the scat is the same thing.''

[[AC:{{Theater}}]]
* In the French farce ''A Flea in Her Ear'', one of the characters has something wrong with his palette that makes him stutter. At one point in the play, he gets a prosthesis, and so the stops stuttering at that point. It gets knocked out afterward though and he goes back to stuttering.

[[AC:RealLife]]

* RowanAtikinson has a stutter that he overcomes on screen by over-pronouncing certain letters, most notably his Bs.

* Bill Denbrough from StephenKing's ''{{It}}''.

* In the JohnWayne film ''The Cowboys'', one of the boys on the cattle drive wasn't able to warn them of danger due to a stuttering problem. Wil Anderson (Wayne's character) proceeds to give him a brutal tongue-lashing, and the boy stutteringly calls Anderson a "s-s-s-s-s-son-uh-uh-uh-of-a-buh-buh-bitch". Anderson then continues to antagonize the boy until the youth explodes into a verbal tirade of completely stutter-free profanity. Anderson then calmly congratulates him on getting over his stutter, and warns the boy to not get used to cursing at him like that. The boy never stutters once for the rest of the film.

* Country music singer Mel Tillis has a terrible stutter. Until he sings, that is.

See also PorkyPigPronunciation and DelusionsOfEloquence. Can overlap with OOCIsSeriousBusiness if other characters consider their unhindered speech unusual.

See also PorkyPigPronunciation and ShlubbAndKlumpEnglish. Can overlap with OOCIsSeriousBusiness if other characters consider their unhindered speech unusual.

* Billy in ''OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', after he has sex with Mac's girlfriend, but before Nurse Rachet threatens to tell his mother.

This is often TruthInTelevision, as many stutterers don't stutter ''at all'' if they're acting or singing.

* Subverted in ''Pans Labyrinth'': the BigBad tells his stuttering prisoner that he will let him go if he can speak without a stutter. The man tries, fails, so gets tortured and executed.
* Michael Palin's character K-k-k-Ken in ''AFishCalledWanda'' has a terrible stutter throughout the movie. It vanishes when he gets his revenge on Otto, his major advesary, at the end of the movie. Final credits reveal he now works as an MC at Sea World.
* In the JohnWayne film ''The Cowboys'', one of the boys on the cattle drive wasn't able to warn them of danger due to a stuttering problem. Wil Anderson (Wayne's) proceeds to give him a brutal tongue-lashing, and the boy stutteringly calls Anderson a "s-s-s-s-s-son-uh-uh-uh-of-a-buh-buh-bitch". Anderson then continues to antagonize the boy until the youth explodes into a verbal tirade of completely stutter-free profanity. Anderson then calmly congratulates him on getting over his stutter, and warns the boy to not get used to cursing at him like that. The boy never stutters once for the rest of the film.

* Used for TheReveal in the first Harry Potter book. The villain was p-p-p-poor s-s-stuttering Professor Quirrel all along.

* In IsaacAsimov's short story "Galley Slave", sociology professor Simon Ninheimer stuttered almost all the way through to the end, where he gives a eloquent speech of the evils of spell checkers AI proofreaders.
* Simon has a stutter throughout most of the ''{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Equal Rites'', but loses it after a run-in with some CosmicHorrors.
* ''ErastFandorin'' has a stutter/verbal tic that does away when he's in disguise/in more LetsGetDangerous moments.

* Lieutenant Reginald Barclay in ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration and StarTrekVoyager had a few scenes like this. It was usually evidence that he was really certain about what he was saying, but just couldn't get the words out. It wasn't nervousness that caused his stammer, it was his utter comprehension of the danger of the situation they were in.

See also PorkyPigPronunciation and ShlubbAndKlumpEnglish.