"Where the hell did you get that idea, HAL?"

November 11, 2008 6:53 PM

Lip readers: ever see any funny or interesting exchanges on TV of people talking when their words weren't audible? (And I don't mean obvious things like monosyllabic cursing.) My question was mostly inspired by seeing verbose people in the crowd during political speeches (esp Bill Clinton at the DNC), and athletes during games.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing to Grab Bag (13 answers total)

Well, Jesse Jackson saying that he wanted to cut off Obama's nuts kind of fits the bill.
posted by Frank Grimes at 7:01 PM on November 11, 2008

Well, Jesse Jackson saying that he wanted to cut off Obama's nuts kind of fits the bill.

No. He was audible, unfortunately for him. He just didn't think he was. This question is about things that only lip readers would pick up.
posted by mattholomew at 7:20 PM on November 11, 2008

Your question makes me think of a silent movie I saw on TCM once (I think this one), where the introduction said that deaf people who could read lips said it was the dirtiest movie they had ever seen. I think even I picked up an F-bomb when I watched it.
posted by stopgap at 7:28 PM on November 11, 2008

I read lips. It's possible to read lips off film, but not consistently - most lip reading is at least partly helped by (even minimal) sound, and you're also depending on the lighting and angles being correct, having the context of the conversation ... anyway, as a direct answer to your question, I've never seen anything exciting that way. I'd be surprised if it's never happened; I'd also be surprised if it was at all a common occurrence.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 8:31 PM on November 11, 2008

Well, there was the whole controversy surrounding the infamous head butt in the World Cup, with lip readers hired to determine just what was said to inflame Zidane so much.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:40 PM on November 11, 2008

Not really funny, but I saw a woman crying during McCain's concession speech. Another woman, standing next to her and looking a lot like her mother, said, "Stop it!" I guess the mother was embarrassed her daughter was crying on TV.
posted by tcv at 9:02 PM on November 11, 2008

This kinda straddles the line between reality and fiction, but in the final scene of the movie Lost in Translation Bill Murray whispers something into Scarlett Johansson's ear that is just on the verge of audible, but not quite, leading to much frustration for fans of the film. The street noise reduces his words to an undifferentiated mumble, and his mouth his partially blocked by her hair, so what he says is pretty open to interpretation. Some folks have tried to parse the noise, though.
posted by Rhaomi at 9:14 PM on November 11, 2008

It is now common knowledge that if you watch early seasons of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that you can see Will Smith mouthing the words of his co-stars. He was so anxious that he would learn all of the lines so that he wouldn't miss his cue, but he also ended up mouthing the lines of those around him.
posted by bove at 9:15 PM on November 11, 2008 [3 favorites]

Many, many, many films and TV shows feature the line-reading that bove mentions. It's probably one of the most common glitches in film. But that's not really what you meant.

Another imperfect example happens in baseball games during the impromptu conferences on the mound. TV announcers often mention things that they just lip read. (Baseball players often cover their mouths when talking because they fear enemy lip-readers, in fact.)

Some funny anecdotes are here.
posted by rokusan at 11:36 PM on November 11, 2008

Likewise American football coaches are often shown talking behind their laminated play chart to prevent the notion that others may be watching.
posted by mmascolino at 12:11 PM on November 12, 2008

Watching a Timberwolves (NBA) game, the slo-mo replay going into the commercial break was Kevin Garnett yelling (again, in slo-mo) "Moooooo-ther fuuuuuuuuuuu-cker!"
That clip lived on my TiVo for years.
posted by Coffeemate at 4:30 PM on November 12, 2008

Robbie Williams got caught selecting groupies by lip readers. There was footage of him pointing into the audience and saying "See that woman? Yeah, her with the hair. Can you bring her to my dressing room?"

I've seen the clip on TV a few times, but can't seem to find it on YouTube.
posted by the latin mouse at 4:38 PM on November 12, 2008

Response by poster: I appreciate the comments so far, although I guess it turned out to be harder than I thought. Stuff like the Robbie Williams bit was what I most had in mind. Spiff, thanks for the info about lip reading. I knew it was an inexact science, but didn't know to what extent. (Cool nickname, btw).

With the sports stuff, the kind of things I was looking for was maybe the idle conversations. Like when a hitter reaches first and he's schmoozing with the first baseman. I remember one moment during the World Series where one of the coaches in the dugout expressed his surprise about the ball-strike count, but that was fairly easy to decipher, and even the announcer pointed it out.

The Will Smith thing is funny, I'll have to look for that and similar incidents somewhere. And that was a good link, rokusan. From what I've read so far, I particularly liked the anecdote where someone spotted two co-workers off in the distance talking about him/her.

I probably should've added that real-life examples would be perfectly acceptable for this. ...Even if you come off looking nosy.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 10:28 PM on November 12, 2008