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donutsweeper ([personal profile] donutsweeper) wrote2009-07-22 09:49 pm
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Ducky Says... Fanon vs Canon

Looking at NCIS fanfic will give you a specific feel to how Ducky speaks. "Anthony" this and "Abigail" that. Reading that a person would assume that this is accurate to how Ducky talks in canon.

But you would be wrong.

Flipping channels the other day I caught the beginning of "Twisted Sister." When approaching the team Ducky apologizes for not being there earlier due to problems parking the van and then says "I would have thought McGee would have beaten me up here." McGee. Not Timothy.

That made me curious. I hunted down transcripts and started researching what Ducky called the various team members, as well as the guest stars. The incident in "Twisted Sister" had to be the anomaly, right?

Actually, according to all the transcripts I could find (S1-4, for a total of 84 episodes. Statistics from Brothers in Arms, In the Dark, Trojan Horse, Angel of Death and Model Behavior are from watching the episodes, not transcripts) the answer is, for the most part, no.

He mentions names in the following manner:

Jethro: 145 vs Gibbs: 52 (also Leroy Jethro Gibbs: 3, Special Agent Gibbs:3, and Agent Gibbs: 7, 'Director':1)
Mister Palmer: 122 vs Jimmy: 7
Abby: 85 vs Abigail: 8 vs Miss Sciuto: 1
Tony: 41 vs DiNozzo: 3 vs Anthony:1 vs Anthony DiNozzo: 1
Gerald: 32
Kate: 17 vs Caitlin: 12
Timothy: 18 vs McGee: 9
Ziva: 14 vs Officer David: 3
Director: 3 vs the Director: 4
Christopher: 2 vs Chris:1 vs Christopher Pacci:1
Agent Lee: 3

Dennis:1, Elmo: 2, Agent Fuller: 1, Agent Burley: 1, Digger: 4, Charlie:1
Cassie: 2, Janice: 3, Sandy: 1, Yost: 2, Mister Yost: 1, Ari: 4, Tobias: 1, Shannon & Kelly: 1, Rick: 2, Agent Cassidy: 2, Sharif:2. Sheriff: 1, Monsieur Grenouille: 1 (while undercover), Renee: 1, Jackson Scott: 1

Other than Kate and Pacci the victims are always referred to by their rank or a combination of their rank and last name.

It's interesting that Gerald is always Gerald, yet Jimmy is nearly always Mister Palmer. And remembering that Jimmy is in a lot fewer episodes than the other characters his name is used by Ducky a significant number of times.

Occasionally full names were used in jest. Gibbs calling him Doctor (and stressing the word) resulted in one of the uses of Special Agent Gibbs. Abby, after his first use of Abigail asks him not to call her that and the next time he does she replies, "Donald."

I'll admit that early seasons are not always indicative of later ones, but I found the breakdown of his usage of people's names interesting and thought other people might as well. (If there is interest I can post the breakdown by episode and season as well)

edited to add- I was curious, so I went through the subtitles for uses of "Anthony" even though it's difficult to ascertain who said what. "Anthony" is not used in the S3 and S4 episodes missing transcripts. For S5 and S6, other than what seems to be Tony introducing himself, it appears that Ducky calls him Anthony 6 times: once in "Stakeout," twice in "Cloak" and "Bounce" and once in "Semper Fidelis." (No "young Anthony" uses however.)

[identity profile] kaylashay.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:16 am (UTC)(link)
How very enlightening...

I would have thought there were more Anthony's in there.... I know he does refer to him as Tony, but I would have thought there more full name uses there.... huh...

Jethro was right on with I figured. And while I like his saying Abigail, I know it wasn't used as muched.

It is interesting that Kate was near half/half on her name.

Now you make me want to right a fic about why Ducky calls Tony Tony more than Anthony...

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
*hee* inspiring plotbunnies FTW!

Interestingly, the first Anthony wasn't until S4

And actually in S1 the Gibbs uses outnumbered the Jethro uses.

[identity profile] kaylashay.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
Wow... I... wow....

That's like in Buffy looking at how many times Xander (or anyone) called Giles G-Man and then compare it to it's fanon use.

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
It's possible (if not probable) the later seasons leaned more towards what we consider Ducky's typical name usage. Unfortunately, there just aren't transcripts for those and the subtitles are useless.

[identity profile] kaylashay.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
True... *goes back to pondering fic idea*
ext_3440: (Default)

[identity profile] tejas.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:27 am (UTC)(link)
Ooh, are you going to take on the mantel of Canon vs. Fanon queen for NCIS?

Please?

[identity profile] kaylashay.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:27 am (UTC)(link)
Do you know what ep was that one use of Anthony in?

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
Lol. It depends how bored I get.

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
The Anthony DiNozzo is in "Shalom" while the just Anthony is in "Cover Story."

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
*cackles evilly*

[identity profile] haldane.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:33 am (UTC)(link)
It's not about NCIS, but this reminded me of one particular fanon issue where I hold a different opinion to everyone I've ever spoken to.

In Torchwood, the consensus is that Ianto and Gwen speak Welsh, but Jack doesn't, except maybe an endearment or two. Now, Jack has lived in Cardiff for 150 years, give or take a decade. What are the odds that he's not picked up the local language in that time?

[identity profile] kaylashay.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:33 am (UTC)(link)
*glares*

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
That's one of those fanon things that always make me shake my head. It makes no sense.

[identity profile] delsilencio.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
O.O
My first impression was: WOW! Such effort and dedication, you had to compile all this information! Well done!

And as kaylashay81 said above, I'd think Tony'd be called Anthony a lot more than one time! I could have swore it was several times, mind you not a lot .. but not one! Interesting! Even more, because I thought that he called Kate 'Caitlin' fewer times that he called Tony 'Anthony'. O.O

Calling Abby 'Abigail', I remember.. Mostly because she did a big deal about it when it happened.

Do you count Ducky talking/addressing the actual person or talking about him/her? Because I remember (in Jeopardy) Ducky saying (to Gibbs) 'Officer David is off the hook yet'. She had left autopsy or wasn't there.

WOW!O.O

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
What? :)

[identity profile] kaylashay.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
*points at icon*

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
I counted any time Ducky said any name other than the deceased (except for when the victim was Chris and Kate).

Remember though, this is only S1-S4 though, there aren't transcripts past that.

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
But plot bunnies are GOOD things

[identity profile] kensieg.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
Does Ducky really say my dear that often?
Edited 2009-07-23 04:02 (UTC)

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
Hmm, I didn't look specifically for that, but I don't recollect seeing it so I'd have to say he didn't say it very much, if at all.

[identity profile] awanderingbard.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
That is interesting. It's weird how fanon takes on a life of it's own. People grab onto a concept and run with it.

My impression of Ducky is that he uses full names when he's being sort of knowledgeable/fatherly/scolding and regular names the rest of the time.

I think Mister Palmer probably comes from that fact that Palmer is learning, still, whereas I think Gerald was more of an assistant. Mister Palmer is a teacher to a student, Gerlad is a colleague to a colleague. *babbles*

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
I always thought Ducky barely tolerated Gerald (the man wore earplugs to avoid Ducky's stories) but maybe you're right. Palmer is also much more deferential to Ducky, always calling him "Doctor Mallard" or simply "Doctor."

[identity profile] kaylashay.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
And fic was written...

http://kaylashay81.livejournal.com/112188.html

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
Image Whee!

*runs to see*

[identity profile] haldane.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 05:13 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, the other giant fanfiction cliche that makes me scream is when House calls Chase a wombat. In one ep, he said "You tackle the black guy, I'll take the girl and the Australian will run like a scared wombat". From that single use (and he didn't even actually call Chase a wombat, he just used the two words in the same phrase) a thousand fanfic usages have been spawned.

(Strange, I do not have a wombat icon. I will have to use my next nearest Australian animal instead.)

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