# Why exactly is this voice acting bad? Is there a term for this type of bad voice acting? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 26, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-is-this-voice-acting-bad-is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-bad-voice-acting/913273 "2020-06-26T20:56:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-is-this-voice-acting-bad-is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-bad-voice-acting/913273/1 "2020-06-26T20:56:56Z")
[This is a pretty infamous video](https://youtu.be/bangt7d9vGA?t=64) of some bad video game voice acting. A character called Shizuku comes in and starts talking like she’s stifling a laugh the entire time. I hear this ALL THE TIME in podcasts and curious what exactly this is, since it is bad voice acting but I don’t really seem people point it out all that much. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-is-this-voice-acting-bad-is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-bad-voice-acting/913273/2 "2020-06-26T21:07:19Z")
My WAG: I think what’s happening is the script was originally in Chinese (or something close). So translators translated the script. And in the original script, the girl probably giggled. (Because asian girls are always giggling in these types of anime) That giggle did not carry over well in the translation. I don’t think there is a name for what you’re asking. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-is-this-voice-acting-bad-is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-bad-voice-acting/913273/3 "2020-06-26T21:32:46Z")
The game was originally in Japanese, of course. The Wikipedia entry for Chaos Wars speculates about why the voice acting was so poor. It notes that the last names of the people who did the voices are the same as those of the production team, it’s likely that the production team just hired some relatives of theirs. I would speculate that the Japanese game designers decided to hire the cheapest production team possible for the English-language version of the game. That team then hired the cheapest possible voice actors. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-is-this-voice-acting-bad-is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-bad-voice-acting/913273/4 "2020-06-26T23:36:23Z")
Is the voice acting really the problem in that clip? I’m not saying that it’s good, but there’s only so much you can do when the script is that awful and your timing is determined by oddly slow graphics. (It seems like they were trying to have the audio match the subtitle rather than have the subtitle match the audio). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-is-this-voice-acting-bad-is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-bad-voice-acting/913273/5 "2020-06-27T00:35:58Z")
Bolt the Dog, in the film of that name, was voiced by John Travolta, who did- at best- a mediocre job. Oddly, Susie Essman as Mittens and Mark Walton as Rhino did a great job. Perhaps they were so good and made Travolta look bad by comparison, but some have said he phoned it in. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-is-this-voice-acting-bad-is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-bad-voice-acting/913273/6 "2020-06-27T00:51:31Z")
Are you saying the first woman is bad because she’s “stiffling a laugh”? So what? The rest are so much worse that I don’t see why you’d focus just on her. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-is-this-voice-acting-bad-is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-bad-voice-acting/913273/7 "2020-06-27T00:59:27Z")
I think the “stifling laughter” you hear in podcasts and similar are a result of the speaker trying to sound perky and upbeat. Like how you are supposed to smile while talking on the phone because it makes you sound friendly and cheerful, but they’re overdoing it. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-is-this-voice-acting-bad-is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-bad-voice-acting/913273/8 "2020-06-27T02:50:52Z")
Moved to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-is-this-voice-acting-bad-is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-bad-voice-acting/913273/9 "2020-06-27T03:28:38Z")
Yeah, Shizuku’s the least bad of the three - her delivery doesn’t match the apparent mood presented by the dialogue (and neither seems to match her sprite, but I’m going to assume this isn’t one of those games that has multiple sprites for different moods), but Uru’s physically painful to listen to and Karen’s delivery is flatter than a thin-crust pizza. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-is-this-voice-acting-bad-is-there-a-term-for-this-type-of-bad-voice-acting/913273/10 "2020-06-27T06:18:47Z")
It’s something I hear all the time and don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone pointing it out in general. The rest of the characters are just classic bad unenthusiastic voice acting but Shizuku is a form of bad voice acting that’s rarer.