Good source for crazy ramblings?

[NewJeffCT]

I'm running a 3.5 adventure now, but using 4E rules. There is a serial killer (or killers) in town who seems to know one of the players (there was a note left at one of the murder scenes addressed to a PC)

At the first murder scene, three men were killed, and the lone survivor has gone stark raving mad. He is locked up now and has taken to mumbling to himself and spitting out "crazy talk" about 'too many teeth' and 'razors' and similar before going back to mumbling to himself.

I've tried several different voices to try & get the tone & rhythmn correct, but I just can't seem to find a "voice" I like.

Are there any examples (say, on youtube) of insane ramblings/mutterings that I can play over & over and try to imitate? I'm not looking for a Howard Beale "I'm mad as Hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" rant. I'm thinking more of a gasping/stammering/nigh unintelligable speech than an angry rant.

Thanks

 

[Diamond Cross]

Anything by Charles Mansion is good. You can find plenty of his ramblings on you tube. It's called "Charles Mansion Superstar and it's in eleven parts. Substitute some of his words for gnomes and you've got a gold mine.

 

[knifie_sp00nie]

There's some great material in the ENworld RPG Industry forums.

 

[nightwyrm]

Lovecraft is always good for crazy ramblings.

 

[Piratecat]

For an example of gloriously crazy ramblings, go read Time Cube: Time Cube (You can find more information in its wikipedia entry.) It even inspired a song.

One constant that I see in a good crazy rant is that the insane person holds a wondrous shining truth, and it's tremendously frustrating that no one else can see it. He tries to explain it, he tries, but it is so self-evident and horrible that all he can do is explain around the edges. Repetition of phrase is also very important, as is circular reasoning.

"It's so simple, you see. They come from the corners! They come with their teeth, and their razors, but not to shave you, oh no. The shaving comes afterwards. The skin peels right up under the blade, did you know? But not where the teeth were. That's the parts that are hard to shave, so the razors have to be sharp, SHARP, sharper than than the flint in their eyes. And it hurts. How could she be so beautiful? How could she not know? She's coming, with her... YOU HAVE TEETH! YOU HAVE THEM! If you have a razor you're one of them, aren't you, you could be hiding it and... oh. your teeth are gone. Did you know they come from the corners?"

 

[evil_rmf]

rpg.net

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Are there any examples (say, on youtube) of insane ramblings/mutterings that I can play over & over and try to imitate? I'm not looking for a Howard Beale "I'm mad as Hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" rant. I'm thinking more of a gasping/stammering/nigh unintelligable speech than an angry rant.

It's written, rather than YouTubed, but the rantings of the homeless people in the Discworld novels might serve as a good inspiration.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Thanks - I already have a general idea of what I want to say. What I am looking for is how to say it verbally. I've tried several voices, accents, tones and rhythmns and nothing seems remotely close to what I would like to sound like when playing this important NPC for his cameo role.

 

[Oryan77]

You're looking for character inspiration rather than dialogue right? You know what you want to say, you just don't know how to roleplay it?

If I'm understanding correctly, a "crazy person" that always stood out to me was Edward Norton's character in the movie Primal Fear. His character was unbelievable.

Rather than being flamboyant, loud, & nervous, I think if you imitated his character as the soft spoken/stuttering persona, it would be pretty interesting. Just throw in the nonsense rambling and I think it would be pretty cool.

Sometimes the calm scared is a lot more interesting than the hyper scared.

 

[Ralls]

Here's the last words of Dutch Shultz. The most memorable line in there is "talk to the sword."

Last Words of Dutch Shultz

I thought I'd drop you a link, and maybe you could incorporate some unexpected ramblings.