hi mochi! I'm very out of my depth and wanted to ask if you have any advice on how to write jimmy dialogue and expressions? also does this change depending on who he is talking to? - murphy <3
hi murphy!! I’ll do my best o7
when it comes to jimmy, note that much of the style of his dialogue stems from his position as a youtuber, particularly one with a younger audience; I tend to handwave this a bit when putting him in a more serious context, but it’s up to you how much of the youtuber voice you let bleed into characterisation. however, he’s very loud and emphatic even when not putting on a façade for youtube… that’s just an innate part of his personality. as always, when transposing dialogue from the semi-roleplay context of the life series to the fictionalised context of fanfic, I’ll allow some leeway because 1) dialogue that reads like how people actually speak is really annoying both to write and to read, and 2) most of these videos are pg, but sometimes you gotta say “fuck” in a death game.
some things I’ve noticed from watching/transcribing jimmy’s dialogue and manner of speaking:
firstly, jimmy tends to have relatively simple dialogue. he’s a very surface-level character, which isn’t to say that he lacks interiority or complexity, but that he’s more straightforward and blunt in what he’s trying to convey. he isn’t going to be using therapyspeak or detailing his emotional state most of the time, he’s going to shout “hey, HEY” and say he’s cross and then probably try to hit someone. he’ll often repeat what he’s saying multiple times (occasionally with slight variations) for emphasis. he’s easily riled, he gets bored with long conversations,* and he doesn’t use a lot of complicated words most of the time. if someone else says something he doesn’t understand, he’ll usually ask what it means; he’ll sometimes play stupid about something he obviously knows, as a joke, although this is less common.
jimmy will frequently mix up singular/plural forms, typically with a noun and associated verb not matching, e.g. “why is there frogs?”… typically this happens when he’s distracted, flustered, or frustrated; one of my favourite examples is him telling grian “we’re an idiot” when they couldn’t figure out how to solve part of an escape room. another one of my favourites is “we have came to the conclusion that there is so many animals on this server that need a good home.”
similarly to the above, he’ll often mix up conjugation (kind of like scott, although less consistently; scott’s tend to be more dialect-based, whereas jimmy just isn’t always the best at grammar), e.g. “we have came to the conclusion” (when it should be “come”) or “the effects done it to me” (when it should be “did”). often jimmy will drop auxiliary verbs, e.g. “you sacrificing that easy?” (or something more along the lines of “you okay?”), and sometimes he’ll lose the words “to” or “and” when combining clauses, e.g. he’ll say “try get” instead of “try to get”/“try and get”; my personal favourite example of this is, of course, “I’ll try sweet-talk him.”
occasionally jimmy will use the american version of something, e.g. “trash can” instead of “bin” (or just “trash” instead of “rubbish”). he tends to say “you guys” as second-person plural. he’ll say “ain’t” when playing up a voice or character (often to make himself seem more confident or to reassure himself), e.g. “he ain’t got the nerve.”
like other pg youtubers, jimmy favours minced oaths, like “oh (my) gosh” and “jeez.” some common ones include “holy moly,” “jeez louise,” and “(oh my) sweet heavens”; he’ll often exaggerate these when playing up his reaction to something. basically, he swears like an old lady (and, similarly, will occasionally call people “love” when he’s peeved at them). he’s easily flustered when people talk about or imply anything sexual, and gets extremely flustered when someone directly flirts with him or compliments him.
there are also a handful of what I call “voicelines” that are unique to or characteristic of jimmy. these vary from word substitutions like “rock and roll” for “go”/“start” (e.g., “get these flowers rocking and rolling”) or “fandabidozi”** for “fantastic” to things like “wait, what?” or “(ex)cuse me?” that function more as stock phrases. also “have [someone],” which is one of his default threats: “I’ll have you,” “I’m having him,” that sort of thing. lately he’s also been quite fond of that one grey’s anatomy quote (“pick me, choose me, love me”).
relatedly, if there’s one thing jimmy’s good at, it’s begging. he’s very polite in the sense that he’ll often say “please” and “thank you (very much)” regardless of context. he also apologises frequently if pushed or threatened; one of his default patterns (for lack of a better term) is to run away saying “sorry sorry please I’m sorry I’m sorry okay” and then, as soon as he’s safe, turn around and start insulting whoever was chasing him. as much as jimmy will ask for/demand attention and praise, he does get easily flustered; if someone’s being nice to him, he’ll often say something like “stop it, stop it, dude,” regardless of whether he actually wants it to stop.
I remember seeing a post that said jimmy wouldn’t use pet names, he’d just call everyone “dude” or “bro,” and that’s Not True (he calls joel “babe” or “babygirl” all the time, and he’s also called various people, including scott and oli, “babe” or “baby” or “petal.” also irl he calls his girlfriend “my love” if that counts for anything) but what is true is that he says “dude” and “bro” and “man” (or “guys” if in a group) A Lot (in roughly that order of frequency), usually in an apostrophic sense, but also often as a filler word or interjection.
one detail that I find very charming but almost impossible to convey via text is jimmy’s frequent use of the open-mid back unrounded vowel (aka turned v), which can be observed in this clip from esmp1 or this clip from wild life. if I were properly transcribing that one bit from the esmp1 clip, it would be something like, “people, ⟨ʌ⟩, doing, ⟨ʌ⟩, titled”… pronunciation is its own thing, however; I’ll sometimes note in dialogue tags or descriptions that jimmy drops his hs when he’s excited or exasperated, and there’s some occasional th-fronting as well (although nowhere near as common as it is for joel). one pertinent example would be his pronunciation of the phrase “who throws a vase over?” his accent gets stronger when he’s stressed or frustrated, as do his general britishisms.
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the second part of your question—how jimmy’s dialogue changes depending on the interlocutor(s)—is a bit more complicated, but generally what I’d say is that jimmy’s behaviour changes based on how comfortable he is with someone, and his dialogue adapts accordingly. he’s much more likely to act out and be a problem when he’s with someone he knows well, such as joel or lizzie, or even martyn or grian. in the life series in particular, jimmy tends to be more hesitant to antagonise grian and martyn, and usually scott, although this has changed recently and he’s much more confident now. I’ve talked a bit before about how jimmy’s a social chameleon and capable of adapting his personality and behaviour to suit whatever group or circumstances he’s in, and this is absolutely reflected in his dialogue and register. he’ll yes-and practically any bit and mirror whatever tone someone’s using; he does tend to pick up phrasing or vocabulary (to be fair, everyone does this) from people he likes. he loves being annoying and pestering people, and you can tell he likes someone by how much of a menace he is towards them.
as always, my recommendation remains that anyone interested in (reasonably) accurate dialogue for a character do some transcription of a scene that’s relevant to what they’re trying to write—whether that’s a fight scene, a dramatic confrontation, an affectionate conversation between close friends, et cetera. also, feel free to ask me any more specific questions and I’ll do my best to answer them! or if anyone else thinks of any jimmy dialogue must-haves that I’m forgetting, feel free to tell me those as well; these are just a few that I’ve noticed, and certainly not a comprehensive look at how he talks.
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*relevant to everything about jimmy characterisation is that he absolutely has adhd. whether it’s diagnosed or not irl I don’t know, but literally everything about him points towards it. no dsm-5 in the death game though :/
**from jimmy krankie! (ngl I have no idea if jimmy has actually watched the krankies or if he’s ever talked about it.)
“Indeed, the Imperial ambassador eagerly seized upon a rumour that Anne had intended to murder Richmond. With a certain gory enjoyment he recounted how on the evening of Anne’s arrest, Richmond had gone to ask his father’s blessing, before retiring for the night. At the sight of his son the king had been moved to tears and said:
that he and his sister, owed God a great debt for having escaped from the hands of that cursed and poisoning whore who had planned to poison them.
Others, including the chronicler Charles Wriothesley, also picked up on this allegation. In fact, it seems to have been nothing but a ploy of the Seymour faction to manipulate Henry’s ability to feel hard done by and play on his affection for his children to insure against any sudden changes of heart.”
— Beverley A. Murphy, Bastard Prince: Henry VIII's Lost Son
Hey y’all! Me and one of my absolute besties Murphy, decided to collab on this awesome project to do a Degrassi: Next Class Season 5 fanfic! Hope you all check it out if you’re a Degrassi fan! This episode centers around Esme, Lola, and Hunter, and introduces some new and fun original characters!
@buckysbears asked for: puss in boots (aka post some murphy pics pls)
ask and ye shall receive! i tried to choose his best ones, but it was super difficult.(i have like, a lot.) the first one is tiny baby murphy, when he was still thin, weak and sick. i’m so glad he made it.
now is a cuddle monster, who likes to sleep/sit in weird place and wants to be around humans 24/7.
