Character Tics / Live-Action TV

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• The Addams Family:
  • Lurch speaks... very... slowly. He also groans a lot, whether he's annoyed, doesn't like a pun, does like a pun, or sometimes for no reason at all.
  • Morticia takes very small steps (though that may simply be due to her tight dress). She also tends to stand with her arms bent and at the sides.
  • Uncle Fester has a crooked smile.
  • Morticia's sister Ophelia lifts a leg whenever someone pulls out one of the flowers that grow on her head.
• Ally McBeal: John Cage, a brilliant but weird lawyer, had lots of tics, along with strange personal habits. The ones that were mentioned and exhibited most often were his whistling nose (he could whistle it when he wanted but at times he couldn't stop it whistling) and preparing his closing arguments barefoot.
• Arrested Development: Buster has a tendency to rub his hands over his ears, usually when he is nervous. So he essentially perpetually rubs at his ears.
• Ashita, Mama ga Inai: Post has a habit of snapping her hairband.
• Austin & Ally: Ally chews her hair when she gets nervous.
• On Babylon 5, both Londo and G'Kar had a tendency to tug on their lapels when giving speeches or when generally being pompous. Possibly a coincidence, but it also served as a subliminal reminder that the characters are more alike than they'd like to admit.
• Battlestar Galactica (2003) has Bill Adama's habit, when making speeches to the whole crew, of holding a telephone handset upside down like a one-way microphone with his hand gripping the ear end. Later on in the show other characters started copying it.
• The Big Bang Theory: Leonard has a habit of wringing his hands when he's nervous, usually when he's talking to women.
• Blackadder:
  • As well as his Twitchy Eye, Captain Darling off Blackadder Goes Fourth also has a habit of squinting his left eye. Not to mention Blackadder's overpronunciation of his B's (due to Rowan Atkinson's stammer) and Melchett's bleating.
  • In Blackadder II, Queenie has a habit of shrieking like a little girl either when delighted or angry to fit in with her spoiled-brat character type.
• British educational documentaries presented for the BBC by Dr Jonathan Miller, such as The Body in Question and Your Life in Their Hands were made compulsive viewing by Miller's vastly exaggerated hand movements when speaking. So much so that radio comedy show The Burkiss Way opened their sound parody with
  We now present Their Hands in Your Life, presented by Doctor Jonathan Miller, the only man whose hands are too loud for the deaf.
• Boston Legal: Jerry stomps, purrs, hops, and makes popping noises when he gets upset; in later episodes he pulls out a wooden cigarette as a crutch. This is, of course, ignoring his characteristic hands-on-your-knees style of walking and general social awkwardness.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Giles had a tic related to his glasses. He would take them off or put them on with essentially every emotional "beat" (eventually, this was lampshaded when Buffy worked out he did this to avoid having to see whatever was going on).
  • Warren has a distinctive downward chopping gesture that he makes with both hands when he's annoyed. This is used for a meaningful moment when Willow is being taken over by him in "The Killer Inside Me".
  • The Buffy eye-roll, given whenever someone (usually Xander or Spike) does something comically annoying.
• Chance in a Million: The titular Tom Chance would have a tendency to pause in conversation to drink an entire glass of beer in one gulp.
• CSI: Miami must be eligible for Horatio Caine's habit of putting his hands on his hips while wearing sunglasses. And his habit of putting on sunglasses for dramatic pronouncements. Or, if he's already wearing them, adjusting them. Or taking them off, and putting them on again a moment later. And let's not forget that he never kneels like a normal person; he always gets down on one knee, as if to propose. (Granted, it's an easier position to get up from when you're only going to be kneeling for about five seconds, but Horatio kneels a lot.)
• Daredevil (2015): Wilson Fisk tends to awkwardly rub the fingers of each hand together when talking, emphasizing his discomfort in social situations.
• In d'Artagnan And Three Musketeers (a 1978 Soviet TV adaptation of The Three Musketeers), the Queen has a penchant for snapping her fingers, which hints at her Spanish heritage (finger-snapping is used in Flamenco dancing to accompany the music). This character tic became so iconic among the series' fans that it made it even into the 2013 Russian film The Three Musketeers.
• The Dick Van Dyke Show did it with Dick's famous "now I'm drunk, now I'm sober" schtick.
• Doctor Who:
  • The First Doctor would often gesture with his hands close to his face. Peter Purves, who played his companion Steven Taylor, said that this was William Hartnell's response to not being able to gesture broadly in the same way as you could on stage, because TV was "small" (i.e., it didn't capture all the action across the whole set all the time). He would also flutter his hands when trying to decide something. He also tended to clutch◊ at his jacket lapels.◊ He often ends sentences with a distinctive 'hmm?' and ful-fblu-I mean-flubs his lines (although never breaking character), even becoming The Unintelligible at times, and tends to deliberately forget people's names as a form of Malicious Misnaming, particularly with Chesterton (stemming from a Throw It In! of the actor's tendency to forget the character's name in the first few serials). His movements tend to be quite jerky, almost to the point of trembling, and his facial expressions tend towards the smirky.
  • The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) had a habit of wringing◊ his◊ hands◊ constantly. The Eleventh Doctor imitated this. If he couldn't wring his hands, he'd twiddle his fingers and drum them on things, such as his other hand. Also lots and lots of eyebrow quirking.
  • The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee):
    • He had a habit of saying, "Yes, well" to start his sentences, answering "Yes, of course", humming a ditty when tinkering on things, displaying a half-interested attitude when people try talking to him while he's working with lab equipment, and touting a very cheeky grin when he makes a clever joke.
    • John Levene, who played Benton, pointed out in a DVD commentary that once Pertwee realized he had a habit of rubbing his neck, his conscious attempts to stop resulted in a habit of touching his mouth, and his conscious attempts to stop that resulted in a habit of rubbing his neck again. Occasionally he touches his ear, just to mix it up.
    • He tends to speak with his hands on his hips or leaning up against things if he's in a happy mood, and has very dramatic, sharp movements.
  • The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) is made of these. He even invented a lot of standard tics used by many later Doctors:
    • He almost constantly boggles his eyes out and stares at things unsettlingly. You will rarely see him blink on screen, even if you're looking for it. His eyes don't quite point in the same direction, especially when he's panicking, surprised or in a loopy mood.
    • His distinctive grin is a thing of pure horror and deployed generously. (Christopher Eccleston borrowed a dead-eyed version of it for his Doctor.)
    • He tends to run his hand through his hair when he's about to concentrate on something. (David Tennant borrowed this for his Doctor too.) Occasionally fiddles with it if he's in a happy mood - see Peter Davison's impression of this, then being shocked at his new hair, in "Castrovalva" for a really funny moment.
    • He generally has the opposite energy level of everything around him. If people around him are stern and serious, he'll be in a wild, hyperactive hurry; if people around him are panicking, he'll be motionless and even somewhat bored.
    • When really angry, he will snap in a surprisingly high-pitched voice compared to his usual tone.
    • Saying "What!" whenever he heard something he didn't like.
    • Cocking his head and going "Ah, well..." whenever he was about to deliver technobabble. (David Tennant deliberately invoked that last one with his Doctor too.)
    • Cheeky little hand-waves.
    • A lot of his gestures call attention to his unusually big and awkward-looking nose - tapping or pushing on the side for 'on the nose' or 'it's a secret', prodding it, pinching the bridge or the tip in frustration, stroking it in thought.... even the very few times he's being flirty he tends to do so by delicately touching his nose.
    • He would often step on his scarf by accident, which always makes him cross.
    • When entering a corridor or entering a room, he always strikes a pose, rushes in flapping all over the place or enters in some other weird way, with Tom Baker's aim being to 'never enter a room the same way twice'. This supposedly started from frustration with the lack of camera angle and lighting variation possible in most of the cheap sets The BBC used and the stereotypical Doctor Who fascination with substituting action with running down identical corridors, and so becomes very obvious in the more claustrophobic and corridor-based serials, like "Horror of Fang Rock". Since the Fourth Doctor is a massive Attention Whore and a ham to end all hams, it works really well.
    • He never looks at his hands when going for his pockets, so whenever he does he flails his hands around in a rather comical fashion before finding them.
    • He really likes having things in his mouth. Whenever he's fixing, making or sabotaging some sort of device, he will inevitably put one of the tools or parts into his mouth to hold it while he works on it with his hands, even if it'd make more sense for him to just put the item down. If nothing's available he tends to chew on his thumbnail. (This is deliberately alluded to in "Deep Breath" when the post-regenerative-traumatised Twelve bites his thumb while contemplating how much he needs a really long scarf.) He also has a habit of licking his lips whenever he's excited. (David Tennant borrowed this one, too!)
    • If there is a chair he has a standard routine where he will begin to sit on it, and then has a sudden flash of insight just before touching the seat and stands back up again. Particularly hilarious in "The Seeds of Doom" where he actually brings a chair over from another room just to do this to it.
    • If he's sitting down he tends to put his legs up on anything he can - other people's desks, and so on. Note particularly when he props his legs up on the top of Bessie's windscreen in his first story - something the Third Doctor would find unthinkable.
    • Remember Sarah Jane's line in "School Reunion" about the Doctor 'stroking' the TARDIS? This is the Doctor she was talking about. Note particularly the funny way the Sutekh-Doctor caresses the door switch open in the last part of "Pyramids of Mars".
  • Like with the First Doctor, the Sixth Doctor had a tendency to clutch his jacket lapels.
  • The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) had his rrrolling Rrrs. He also flapped and fluttered his hands around ebulliently. He likes to twitch his eyebrows up and down rapidly when being deliberately funny.
  • The Eighth Doctor (in the novels, anyway) had a habit of repeating words five or six times whenever he was excited or upset. He would also stand right in people's faces, totally oblivious to how uncomfortable they might be. And of course, he also had a tendency to kiss people without warning...
  • The Ninth Doctor tended to do a big, toothy grin often accompanied with cute little hand gestures, directly lifted from the Fourth Doctor; the key difference being that Four looked genuinely happy and adorable when he did it, even if he was being alien and terrifying, and the Ninth manages to just look alien and terrifying. His genuine smiles are simultaneously both more toned down, and bigger and goofier. He seems to attempt to make his eyes bulge out Four-style too, but the actor just can't do it, instead compensating by raising his eyebrows up really, really high. When being serious, he tends to punctuate his speech with sharp little head-nods to draw emphasis to certain words. He was also found of doing the Badass Arm-Fold.
  • The Tenth Doctor:
    • He runs his hands through his hair when he's frustrated.
    • He dramatically dons his glasses when it's time to look clever (borrowed from the Fifth Doctor).
    • He presses his tongue to the roof of his mouth when he's thinking or working on something.
    • "...and my voice going all squeaky when I shouted, I still do that! I got that from you." ("You" being the Fifth Doctor.)
    • Shoving his hands in his pockets when confronting enemies or antagonistic characters.
    • Rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet while talking, especially to aforementioned enemies and antagonists.
    • Pulling on his earlobe or rubbing the back of his neck when uncomfortable or embarrassed (usually brought on by Donna).
    • The Left Eyebrow.◊ It has its own Tumblr page.
    • The long, drawn-out "Well..." when he's about to explain something (borrowed from the Fourth Doctor).
  • The Eleventh Doctor:
    • Drawing things in the air to arrive at epiphanies.
    • Wringing his hands◊ when nervous or when musing things over (See also; The Second Doctor down)
    • Flapping his hands in a "what the heck do I do with these?!"-manner when kissed.
    • Turning 270 degrees to the right to turn left (and the other way around). (This is why he's walking with a cane in "The Time of the Doctor". Matt Smith tore the meniscus in his knee doing this.)
    • Randomly spinning in a full circle.
    • Fiddling with his bowtie before embarking on a course of action and/or after arguing with someone.
    • Repeating words over and over when flustered, often changing their tone each time "Yes yes yes of course yes of course!" etc.
    • Snapping his fingers before pointing at someone or something, which he does before explaining something about said person or thing.
  • The Thirteenth Doctor:
    • Scrunching her face up when she's confused or frustrated.
    • Bending her entire torso backwards when she's voicing said frustration.
    • Pressing her lips tightly together in stressful or serious moments. (Fans have dubbed this the "Polite Thirteen"-face due to its resemblance to the Polite Cat meme.)
    • She has two tics in correspondence to anger: the aforementioned face scrunching, and an emotionless stare combined with very quiet and flat speech, though the last is also used for moments of helplessness.
  • The tics of the first four Doctors are imitated by the Fifth Doctor in his state of confusion after having regenerated. Particularly amusing is when he goes to bury his hand into his curls Four-style, realises he has shorter, straight hair now, and has a puzzled, disappointed reaction◊.
  • The impressionist Jon Culshaw is a big Doctor Who fanboy (admitting his taste for velvet jackets is stolen from the Third Doctor) and discusses these endlessly. There's a video of him discussing the main, defining Character Tic of each Doctor for the amusement of David Tennant. (In his words, and in order starting with the Second Doctor and skipping the Eighth: "a scowl", "very sharp" mannerisms, "eyes and teeth and the alien-ness", "hands in his pockets, must dash!!", "tends to enunciate... Hmm! Howveryinteresting!! Mmm!", "fingers and thumbs", "with his swagger and the jacket on", "another kind of eyes and teeth".) Unfortunately, it's been blocked by the ol' Beebs. But here Jon Culshaw imitates Four and Nine for a bit.
  • During Series 5, Amy would occasionally bulge her eyes and pucker her mouth — known to fans as the :I face. Karen Gillan seemed to be making a conscious effort to stop this, as Amy didn't do this tic during the entirety of Series 6. She also has a habit of crying silently.
  • All Doctors tend to speak quickly when inspired.
• Due South: Benton Fraser has at least two. When he's nervous he'll either rub his eyebrow with his thumbnail or tug gently at his left ear.
• Dune: Baron Vladimir Harkonnen has a distinctive habit of rubbing his right temple when he's frustrated. Later on, Paul Atreides does this himself, demonstrating the family connection between the two. In Children of Dune, we see Alia performing the gesture when she hears the Baron's voice in her head.
• Everybody Loves Raymond: Robert Barone always touches food to his chin before eating it. According to Ray Romano, his Real Life brother (who Robert is based on) also does this.
• Farscape: Chiana often tilts her head from side to side while looking at someone. This started out as Gigi Edgley's way of trying to see through the restrictive black contact lenses she had to wear but eventually became a character trademark.
• Firefly:
  • Simon is good at this. One of the best was when River told Jubal, "I don't think your intentions are honorable" and Simon squinted (saying "Oh, really?")
  • Also, Jayne is frequently seen curiously touching things, such as Simon's birthday cake and the hologram in the hospital.
• The Flash (2014)'s Dr Harrison Wells has quite a few tics, including gesturing with his hands, keeping a hand near his chin when thinking and shifting his jaw and lower lip. Most noticeable is his habit of taking his glasses off when prodding Barry about his past or giving him tips on how best to use his speed. He also takes his glasses off whenever he's no longer pretending to be Wells. Additionally, he rubs the back of his neck a lot, especially when he has stood up out of his wheelchair.
• Frasier: Niles and Frasier Crane have a habit of mouthing wordlessly whenever they're surprised, confused, or offended. They also adopt a near-identical raised-eyebrow sideways glare whenever they're suspicious, among other tics. Given that they're brothers, this is almost certainly an intentionally communicated agreement between Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce. Kelsey Grammer has also openly stated that he swiped several of Frasier's tics from Jack Benny, Jackie Gleason, and Bette Davis.
• Friends: Chandler flails his hands when he's nervous or excited.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Osha has a tendency to cock her head to the side when she's speaking. Tormund also does the same thing.
  • When Tywin is nervous or enraged, he may keep a straight face, but watch as his hands squeeze and flex around a small object.
  • Cersei is constantly smirking when she's too pleased with herself, which happens all the time when nobody puts her in her place. Her brows usually go in sync, too.
  • Tyrion has a penchant for whistling when he's happy, and gets happier if this sign of his incoming presence is annoying somebody else. His reliance on alcohol also increases over time, to the degree that his reaching for a decanter of wine in virtually every scene becomes a tic.
  • Jaime slowly tilts his head when he talks to people.
  • Stannis grinds his teeth and scowls a lot. In the books, it's said that if you listen closely at night in Dragonstone you can hear Stannis grinding his teeth from anywhere in the castle.
  • Littlefinger only smiles with one side of his mouth, usually when being smug about something, so it naturally happens a lot.
  • Varys usually hides his hands in his robes.
  • Ever since her training in Braavos, Arya develops a tic of standing with her hands behind her back.
  • As a result of his forced personality change into Reek, Theon has great difficulty making eye contact; also, perhaps as a physical side-effect of all the torture, he's also prone to twitching during times of stress.
• House of the Dragon: Alicent Hightower picks at her nails during the tourney, and later bites at them as her father asks her to go comfort Viserys. It's conspicuous enough that Otto tells her to stop.
• Get Shorty: Miles hides his religious pendant under his shirt collar whenever he's about to do something he'll feel guilty about.
• Glee's Kurt Hummel almost always fixes his hair while singing a high note, and always sits with his legs crossed.
• Hannah Montana: Alpha Bitch duo Amber and Ashley saying "Oooooooh!" then hissing while locking fingers whenever they relate to the same thing at once.
• In Happy Days, Fonzie tends to sit in strange places like on the kitchen bench and on the sink.
• Heroes:
  • Hiro certainly pushes his glasses further up his face a lot. He also tends to fling his arms in the air, usually while shouting "Yatta!" (but sometimes other things, like "Frying Man!" or "Vote Petrelli!"), and scrunches up his face especially tight while using his powers^note The fandom even has emoticons for these last two. \(^_^)/ or \(^o^)/ is often seen outside the Heroes fandom as a general arms-in-air emote, but {{{(>_<)}}} has only been seen as "Hiro is concentrating so hard his face is shaking".
  • Like Magneto, Sylar often points with two fingers held together whenever he's using telekinesis and does so while flicking his wrist to throw people across a room, despite the fact that we see that on numerous occasions gesturing is not required. This is gesturing is later explained as him fine-tuning his ability to a precision point, which fits with how it's often used to cut open people's heads to steal their powers.
• Kamen Rider: Pretty much every modern Rider has one, but it's actually plot-relevant in Kamen Rider 555. Since the Rider Gears change hands a lot, Character Tics are usually the only way to know who's using one; The Hero Takumi's tic is flicking his wrist, while The Rival Kusaka's is adjusting his collar.
  • Kamen Rider Den-O also has particularly visible examples of this trope, since a character possessed by an Imajin takes on their mannerisms. This reaches its peak with (Super) Climax Form, which has 4-5 entities possessing Den-O at the same time and switching constantly.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid has an amusing Throw It In! version: Since the show has an overarching Video Games theme, the Transformation Trinkets are made to look like video game cartridges. While filming the first episode, Ex-Aid's suit actor Seiji Takaiwa decided to pantomime "blowing" into the device when he performed Ex-Aid's Finishing Move. The staff felt that it suited the feel of the series so well that they told him he could keep doing it.
• Keeping Up Appearances: Characters have a tendency to repeat phrases over and over. In fact, all of Roy Clarke's characters tend to repeat phrases over and over. They do. They repeat things. Over and over.
• LazyTown: Milford straightening his suit jacket over and over, enough to where Robbie imitates this when pretending to be him in "Double Trouble".
• Lie to Me: Dr. Lightman licks his front teeth when he's figuring something out, usually when a lie has made him particularly angry or was particularly hard to catch. Torres has done the same thing once or twice. He also has a habit of hunching over, tilting his head, peering intently at someone and getting really uncomfortably close to them when he's being scrutinizing or irritable. It's implied he does this on purpose to psych them out and make them easier to read. His head is tilted a lot, even when he's not doing this, which distracts from the fact that his right eye is slightly higher than his left.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Halbrand smirks all the time and has a habit of raising his eyebrows.
• Maniac (2018): Dr. Fujita often pushes her Nerd Glasses up her nose and has a habit of hunching forward with her hands in her jacket pockets. Dr. Mantleray often tosses the bangs of his wig out of his eyes.
• Luke Cage:
  • Bushmaster can't seem to say a whole sentence without sucking his teeth.
• Married... with Children:
  • Al Bundy slips his hand into the waistband of his trousers when he's relaxing in front of the TV. His daughter Kelly temporarily adopts this along with her father's personality in the episode "The Good-Bye Girl" after a rough day at her new job at a TV-based tourist attraction. Al also puts his hands in his pockets and smirks in a sanctimonious fashion when he feels someone else is about to get their comeuppance.
  • Marcy had a tendency to shake her finger when admonishing someone, especially Al.
• Malcolm in the Middle: Whenever something unexpected, terrible, idiotic, annoying, or incomprehensible happens, Malcolm will scrunch up his nose and forehead to display prominent wrinkles.◊ Very often, he follows this by sharing a pointed glance with the audience (in fact, one of the earliest instances of this expression is prominently featured in the Title Montage.)
• Monday Mornings: Dr Buck Tierney has a habit of pulling himself up and down and making a squeaky sound with his shoes.
• Modern Family:
  • Mitchell's fondness for rolling his eyes is well-documented. He and Claire also share a tendency to wordlessly mouth mocking and/or disapproving remarks.
  • Cam's swishy hand gestures. They're almost their own character.
  • Claire's various character tics get brutally lampshaded when she's practicing for a political debate, and her family keeps docking her for said tics (judgemental finger pointing, angry hands on hips, sour facial expressions, etc). Hilarity Ensues when she tries — and fails — to repress these tics during the actual debate.
• Monk has a lot of these: neck-crinking, fingers steepled, hands in front when examining crime scenes... it's compounded by his obsessive-compulsive tendencies. It's eventually revealed that the finger-steepling is something he got from his father. That is what appears in the page image.
• Mork & Mindy: Mork "sits" upside down. This is probably something his species does, as he notes that it's odd the way humans sit, and the Orkan Elder is also seen sitting upside down.
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024): The other John sneezes in multiples. While initially just pointed out as an annoying trait in his introductory episode, John and Jane are later able to exploit it in the finale, as his sneezes give them an opening to attack him — Jane is able to shoot him in the eye — and briefly escape his wife.
• Murdoch Mysteries: Detective William Murdoch, a devout Catholic, will make the sign of the cross whenever he's first confronted with the dead body of the Victim of the Week. As such, it happens about Once per Episode.
• NUMB3RS: Don tends to check his watch from time to time when he is feeling particularly stressed.
• Parks and Recreation' has Chris Traeger, who always points emphatically at other characters and says their name when they encounter each other.
• Peaky Blinders:
  • Tommy always rubs the tip of his cigarette against his lip before he lights it. He also tends to wag his finger at people when he's telling them off, usually his brothers.
  • John almost always has a toothpick or a cigar in his mouth.
  • Alfie Solomons strokes his beard when he's thinking.
• Power Rangers in Space: Andros, the Red Space Ranger, keeps his hair untied and often unknowingly tucks a strand behind ear.
  • SPD Green Ranger Bridge Carson, and apparently the Overdrive team's butler, Spencer, are physically incapable of saying the word "buttery" without wiggling their fingers.
• ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?: Carmen has a tendency to hide her head under a sheet or blanket (or whatever is available) whenever she is embarrassed, like when her father Pepe announces on live TV that she is going to remain a virgin until marriage.
• Scrubs:
  • Dr Cox's habit of touching his nose. According to actor John C. McGinley, this is an homage to Paul Newman's character in The Sting. Also how he puts his hands behind his head when he's upset — this was lampshaded at some point in Season 7. Also, whenever he takes off a pair of medical gloves, he always uses the elastic to ping them away. That last one is actually the way you're supposed to take off gloves to minimize exposure.
  • Scrubs also features The Todd, whose signature high-fives are always followed by him snapping his fingers and pointing at the recipient.
  • Elliot blowing hair out of her face, which emphasizes her neuroticism.
  • Deconstructed with Dr. Casey, who has many tics because they are a result of his OCD.
  • J.D. cocks his head when he's about to fly off into a daydream.
• In Seinfeld, Cosmo Kramer is very expressive with his hands, tends to wobble his head in all directions when worked up, often slides across the floor when entering rooms, and is prone to exaggerated pratfalls.
• Shoestring: Eddie doodles when he's nervous or concentrating. He also rubs his fingers together, wrings his hands, and plays with anything he happens to be holding, including his tie.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: The Original Series:
    • In the "The Man Trap", Nancy Crater the salt vampire has a habit of putting the knuckle of her index finger in her mouth. Then we see Dr. McCoy doing the same gesture...
    • Speaking of McCoy, he tends to hold his hands behind his back.
    • Sulu had a habit of calling out countdowns in stressful situations. While it's possible that this is a part of his job as a bridge officer, other characters' frequent annoyance at this tendency suggests that it probably isn't.
    • Uhura sits sideways on her chair when she wants to look out the window. This may be for fanservice reasons given her Starfleet miniskirt, but it may also be for practical reasons since the only other way of looking out the window from her chair is to sit on her knees, which would be impractical on a swivel chair.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • Picard's habit of straightening his uniform whenever he stands up. Nicknamed "the Picard Maneuver" by the production staff, it was given a Shout-Out on the show as a battle tactic the character invents also called the Picard Maneuver. He also often made a little flicking motion with his hand when he said, "Engage," which is something Kirk used to do. Pulaski and Riker also play with their uniforms a lot.
    • Then there's Lore's facial tic, which comes in handy when you need to distinguish him from Data. In addition, he smirks a lot.
    • Data has a few of his own, such as tilting his head to one side or the other when he is confused. It's apparently the body language equivalent of a hard drive clicking. This is lampshaded in "Hero Worship" when Data is tending to a human boy who is trying to act just like Data ^note The boy is suffering from severe trauma and latches onto Data and Data cannot get him to hold still to brush the boy's hair. Data realizes this tic could be distracting to others.
    • Characters in this and later series tend to touch their communicator badge when making or receiving a call. It isn't strictly necessary, as saying "[X] to [Y]" or "[Y] here" would open the channel. It is probably force of habit on the part of the characters ("picking up the phone", as it were).
    • Q snaps his fingers to invoke his powers. In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Death Wish", another Q named Quinn has a two fingered swirl-and-raise thing that serves the same function.
    • Riker has three notable tics: leaning on top of different objects (e.g., tables and consoles), sitting down by throwing his leg over the back of the chair (much like mounting a horse), and gripping the front of his chair when the ship is shaking. The first two were both due to Jonathan Frakes' height and problems with back pain.
    • Troi has a habit of randomly changing her expression, possibly related to her ability to sense emotions. Her voice also cracks when she's very unhappy.
    • Geordi chuckles a lot, often appears to be holding hands with himself, and rubs his visor when he has a headache.
    • Reg Barclay stammers when he's nervous. (Which, in his earlier appearances, is most of the time.)
    • The Klingon Chancellor Gowron is known for glaring at everything and everyone with wide eyes.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • Odo's businesslike nod, which is usually a kind of nonverbal shorthand for "consider it done". He also often stands up with his arms folded or puts his hand to his chin in a thoughtful manner.
    • Garak widens his eyes in a distinctive fashion when he's being very sincere, very sarcastic, or attempting to disguise one as the other. He also often looks in random directions when speaking.
    • Sisko steeples his fingers when he's thinking. He also has a habit of patting his fist into his other palm whenever he's working over a problem as though he's wearing a baseball glove.
    • Dax walks with her hands behind her back, which she picked up from one of The Symbiote's previous hosts.
    • O'Brien often has his mouth slightly open and his eyes slightly squinted, especially when he's confused or thinking.
    • Kira's voice goes higher when she cries. She also smiles widely when amused and attacks by hitting someone on the neck with her clasped hands.
    • Leeta has this high-pitched whine she makes when she's sad.
    • Quark and Nog both rub their ears when they're deep in thought. Nog also hisses like a cat when he's angry, and Quark and Rom both kneel down with their wrists together but hands apart when begging.
  • Star Trek: Voyager:
    • In "Dark Frontier", Chakotay notes that Captain Janeway always fiddles with her comm badge when she's plotting something, a character tic that had never been seen before or since in the series. More accurately, Janeway has a tendency to place her hands on her hips, which in "Macrocosm" unfortunately turns out to be the worst insult imaginable for one alien species that communicates through body language. She also whispers when she's being very serious.
    • Kes tends to sob more than the others when she cries.
    • Seven of Nine has a particular way of looking around and she strides when she walks (striding is common for Star Trek characters, but especially Seven of Nine). She also uses the Fascinating Eyebrow, as does Tuvok (being the resident Vulcan).
  • Star Trek: Enterprise:
    • Phlox often smiles widely (sometimes excessively so!) and says, "Hmm!". He also talks in a singsong voice a lot.
    • Malcolm Reed is often squinting.
  • Star Trek: Discovery:
    • Saru waves his arms from side to side while walking. He also clasps his hands together to show approval and rubs the back of his neck when he's nervous.
    • Tilly pauses a lot when she speaks.
    • Stamets squints a lot.
• Stargate SG-1:
  • Daniel Jackson tends to subtly furrow his eyebrows and lips when frustrated (although that's probably more Michael Shanks). Although this lessened later in the series, for at least the first two seasons, Daniel had a habit of licking his lips or biting them when he was thinking or was interrupted. Late in the show, he also has the tendency to let his head drop forward whenever he's frustrated or bemused.
  • Teal'c falls victim quite frequently to the Spock Eyebrows — so frequently that it's been lampshaded on multiple occasions. Once, Teal'c interrogated a prisoner simply by raising his eyebrows. He also clenches his jaw when he's irked.
  • Col. Carter's momentary grimace anytime she either does something wrong, or bad things are about to happen.
• Stargate Atlantis: Rodney McKay snaps his fingers when he's trying to remember something, and shakes his finger (like he's scolding you) when he's thinking really hard. The actor once snapped his fingers at his girlfriend by mistake when he'd been playing McKay all day. As McKay is an asshole, this didn't go down too well. According to David Hewlett, his then-girlfriend/now-wife gives him a 10-minute grace period after he comes home to shed his McKay-isms. After that...
• Stefan Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries frequently points (with his hand in what could be considered a relaxed version of the American Sign Language sign for "I love you") while working out logical puzzles or trying to determine someone's motives. Also, when attempting to appear more menacing — or flirtatious — his brother Damon alternately bulges and squints his eyes for emphasis.
• Castiel from Supernatural tilts his head to the side when he's confused. It seems to be a species-wide trait, but he displays it the most.
• The Thick of It has a really cringeworthy one with "blinky dork" Ben Swain. Jamie calls his nervous blinking "epilepsy of the eyes."
• Too Old to Die Young:
  • Martin often spits on the ground, seemingly to show derision.
  • Theo snorts constantly in some scenes. It's never made clear whether this is due to some mundane sinus issue or a hint that he's a coke fiend.
• From Verbotene Liebe we have Christian fingerpointing.
• Vikings has Floki who is constantly doing weird movements with his hands and has a distinctive laugh.
• The Walking Dead (2010):
  • Daryl will bite his thumb whenever he's apprehensive.
  • Shane tends to rub his head whenever he's stressed.
  • Tara will perform a fist bump with people to show her respect for them.
  • Negan tends to lean back in order to show confidence. He stops doing it in Season 9, in order to show how broken he's become, only for it to make a grand return in the Season 10 episode, "What It Always Is".
  • Dante has a tendency to click his tongue, which is what allows Siddiq to realize that he's The Mole for The Whisperers.
• The Wire: Bodie spits through his teeth, usually when annoyed.
• In Worzel Gummidge, when Worzel sulks, he pulls this exaggerated frowny face.
• In The X-Files, Agent Mulder is always putting things in his mouth — usually sunflower seeds, but in the first season especially, he can also be caught munching on paper clips.
• Ultra Series: The various Ultras similarly have fighting stances that help differentiate them. The original Ultraman, for example, hunches his body with his hands up and slightly open while Ultraseven takes more of a boxer's pose, with both hands balled up into fists at about chest height.
• In The Worst Witch, Miss Hardbroom teleports a lot more than other witches.
• The Young Ones:
  • Vyvyan scrunches his face a lot.
  • Rik sits with his legs crossed and snorts when he laughs.
  • Neil plays with his hair a lot, usually brushing it out of the way.
• Young Royals: Wilhelm chews gum, bites his nails, rubs his chest, and messes with his hair. Many of these also double as indicators of his anxiety flaring up.

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