Stop Copying Me

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Delkin: Remember that parrot game, the one in which I'd repeat everything you say? I've invented a new version! Delkin: Remember that parrot game, the one in which I'd repeat everything you say? I've invented a new version! Delkin: Remember that parrot game, the one in which I'd repeat everything you say? I've invented a new version! —Lightning Made of Owls, strip 145

Remember when, as a kid, you used to copy everything a friend said? Well, you're not alone. Everyone played it, including the creators of fiction. It gets old very fast and, in some circumstances, is not even a game: it's just a way to get on someone's nerves. Obviously, this is exploited in comedy, with the end result "stop copying me!"... "I mean it!" Sometimes the victim will turn the table and force the perpetrator to either quit the game or say embarrassing things. This may still mean that the joke is on the victim, if the purpose of the game was to make them say embarrassing things.

That said, in horror, there is a niche for the game. The Doctor Who episode "Midnight" went down that road rather spectacularly.

For "stop copying me" on the scale of an entire work, see Digital Piracy Is Evil.

Examples of Stop Copying Me include:

Advertising

• The second of these Amazon.com commercials. A Call-and-Response Song.

Amazon dot com Amazon dot com Makes me feel like a kid Makes me feel like a kid Stop copying me Stop copying me

• In the current^[when?] ad campaign for Cheez-It, the narrator explains that they allow the cheese to mature before putting it in thier snacks, and then show a clip where a scientist is speaking to a wheel of cheese that hasn't quite matured yet, and then usually cut to the next day, where the cheese has matured. In one commercial the immature cheese copies everything the scientist says, including the sound effects to the scientist clicking his pen, checking the box labeled "NOT READY", and clicking the pen again.

Comic Books

• Le Petit Spirou had this on several occasions: once when Spirou does it to get his grandfather to buy him ice cream, only for the grandfather to start copying him. In another he does the "copy voice and movements" to one of his friends, until said friend punches himself in the jaw. Spirou declares that the curse that forced him to copy other people has been lifted thanks to his friend's sacrifice.

Film

• Done by Seann William Scott's character in Cop Out.
• Juni uses this twice in Spy Kids. With voices to match, as well.
• Shrek does it to Donkey in Shrek 2 after Donkey annoys him by asking "Are We There Yet?" too many times

Literature

• Vice Principal Nero in The Austere Academy of A Series of Unfortunate Events, who always copied the Baudelaires.
• Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell. One of the protagonists is stuck in a retirement village for spies with the Big Bad and does this to Mind Screw him (any attempt to use physical violence would lead to his execution; so he's trying to drive the Big Bad out through continued harassment).
• Zuriaa played with this trope with The Fleur-de-mal in the second book of The Meq Trilogy.
• In Who Cut the Cheese? by Mason Brown, Duck and Cover play the echo game.

Live Action Television

• Played for Drama in the Doctor Who episode "Midnight". An unknown alien thing invades the body of a passenger on a Bus Full of Innocents. It copies people's words. After a while, it starts talking in sync with the people... and eventually, it talks before they talk, leaving the person they're copying paralyzed and unable to stop repeating what the monster says.
• Friends called it The Shadow Game.
• On Full House, Michelle annoyed Stephanie by shadowing her. Steph eventually got Michelle to shadow Kimmie instead.
• One episode of Roseanne had D.J. doing this to Darlene, much to her irritation. Eventually:

Rosanne: What's going on in here? Dan: Darlene is repeating everything D.J. says a second before he says it. Roseanne: (to Darlene) Don't be so childish!

• In one episode of Eureekas Castle there was a skit where Bogge ended up copying everything Quagmire said, because she told him to copy her once while trying to teach him some dance moves. Eventually Eureeka had to settle their argument, only to get Bogge copying her.
• This happened in a Morecambe and Wise sketch where Eric played the echo for the song "I'm Wishing" but, while Ernie was still talking to him, he kept repeating his instructions in his "singing" voice.
• Jeff's reaction in The Tag at the end of an episode of Community when Abed and Troy both spoke in unison with and dressed the same as Jeff.

Newspaper Comics

• Calvin did this to Hobbes in Calvin and Hobbes. Hobbes trumped him by quoting a long, complex passage from a philosophy book.
  • Hobbes, like most victims of this game. learned the hard way. The first time Calvin tried this, Hobbes reacted by insulting himself, which was exactly what Calvin was trying to trick him into doing. Calvin's dad falls into the same trap by daring Calvin to repeat that "I forfeit all my desserts for a week." (Calvin then asks if he can have them instead). But unlike Hobbes, Calvin's dad is not clever enough to get Calvin his just desserts later.

Tabletop Games

• Common in Chess among woodpushers—this usually ends with the copier's queen captured or the like.

Western Animation

• Swisgaar and Toki get into this in Metalocalypse, made funnier by their imperfect English:

Stops copies me! Stops copies me!

• SpongeBob SquarePants: Patrick does it to SpongeBob in the episode "Big Pink Loser".
• In a Rolie Polie Olie episode, the little Zowie begins to parrot Olie, much to his annoyance. He eventually exploits this to make her go to bed.
• In an early episode of Xiaolin Showdown an enemy mime does this to Clay (after trapping the rest of the dragons) to stop him from getting past. Eventually Clay punches himself hard in the face, knocking out the mime.
• Bugs Bunny does it to The Big Bad Wolf in Little Red Riding Rabbit, eventually tricking the wolf into imitating him.
• On Jimmy Two-Shoes, this is done by the robots built by Heloise, built for the sole porpuse of annoying people.
• Robin had to deal with his mirror-created clone copying his words in an episode of The Batman.