meaning speech balloon

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Emoji 101: 💬 Speech Balloon Emoji Meaning (From Girl Or Guy In Texting, Snapchat, Or Tiktok)

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💬 speech balloon emoji meaning

How do you reply to 💬 speech balloon emoji, what does 💬 speech balloon emoji mean from a girl, what does 💬 speech balloon emoji mean from a guy or boy, what does 💬 speech balloon emoji mean on snapchat, what does 💬 speech balloon mean in texting or chat, what does 💬 speech balloon emoji mean on instagram, what does 💬 speech balloon emoji mean on tiktok, what does 💬 speech balloon emoji mean in slang, cultural differences in 💬 emoji interpretation, emoji etiquettes, possible combination, misinterpretations to avoid.

The 💬 speech balloon emoji means expressing thoughts, ideas, or dialogue in a visual way.

Meaning 1: Communicating in written form

The speech balloon emoji is often used to represent written communication, such as text messages, social media posts, or any kind of written conversation.

• “I just sent you a really funny meme 💬”
• “Let’s continue our discussion about the project in the group chat 💬”

Meaning 2: Expressing thoughts or ideas

It can also convey the act of sharing thoughts, opinions, or ideas, like a virtual thought bubble appearing above someone’s head.

• “Just had a brilliant idea for our next team meeting 💬”
• “I can’t stop thinking about that amazing vacation I had 💬”

Meaning 3: Representing dialogues or conversations

Another interpretation is using the speech balloon emoji to symbolize dialogues or conversations, either real or imagined.

• “I had a long chat with my best friend last night 💬”
• “Imagine two cartoon characters talking to each other, and there you have it 💬”

To reply to 💬 speech balloon emoji, you can use text or emojis within the same message or immediately after it. Here are a few examples:

• “Why not meet at the park later? 💬”
• “That movie you recommended? 💬 It was amazing!”
• “Can we reschedule our meeting? 💬 I have a conflicting appointment.”

The 💬 speech balloon emoji from a girl means that she wants to engage in a conversation or express her thoughts or opinions. It is often used to indicate that the girl wants to talk or is eager for some good old chit-chat. Here are a few real-world examples of how this emoji can be used:

• “Hey, did you hear about that new movie? 💬 Let’s discuss it!”
• “I have a crazy idea 💬, what if we painted the whole living room bright pink?”
• “I’m so excited for the weekend 💬, any plans?”

So, when a girl sends you this emoji, buckle up because she’s ready to exchange words and wants your attention. It’s like a virtual speech bubble popping up, signaling her desire to chat. Don’t leave her hanging, reply with the same enthusiasm and let the conversation flow!

The 💬 speech balloon emoji from a guy or boy means that he wants to say something or start a conversation. It’s a way of expressing his thoughts, opinions, or ideas through chats or messages. This emoji shows his desire to communicate and engage in a conversation with others, be it friends, family, or even strangers. Here are some real-world examples:

• “Hey, did you hear the latest gossip? 💬”
• “I have a really funny story to tell you! 💬”
• “Can we talk about our plans for the weekend? 💬”
• “I need your opinion on something important. 💬”

So, if you receive the 💬 speech balloon emoji from a guy or boy, prepare yourself for an interesting chat or discussion. Don’t worry, they probably won’t be speaking in literal speech bubbles like in comics, but it’s a sign that they want to strike up a conversation!

The 💬 speech balloon emoji on Snapchat means that someone has sent a message or started a conversation with you. It’s like having a little chat bubble above your head, but on your smartphone. So when you see this emoji, get ready to put on your virtual conversational hat. Examples include someone saying “Hey, how’s it going?” or “Did you watch that new movie?” So go ahead, click on it, and let the chatting begin!

• “Hey, did you see that cute puppy video?”
• “I heard there’s a pizza party tonight, are you going?”
• “Guess what? I just aced my math test!”

The 💬 speech balloon emoji in Texting or Chat means someone is speaking or sharing their thoughts. It’s like a little comic book bubble, but without any pictures. You can use it on WhatsApp when you want to show that you’re in a conversation. On Twitter, you can use it to join a discussion or comment on something. For example: “I think pizza is the best food ever! 💬” or “I can’t believe what just happened! 💬”

The 💬 speech balloon emoji on Instagram means that someone has left a comment on a post. It’s like a little thought bubble popping up to say, “Hey, someone wants to chat!” It’s a way to invite conversation and interact with others on the platform.

• “I just posted a funny meme and already got three 💬! People are loving it!”
• “I can’t believe the amount of 💬 on my travel photo! Looks like everyone wants to know where I took that picture!”
• “I always get excited when I see that 💬, it means someone has thoughts to share about my artwork!”

The 💬 speech balloon emoji on TikTok means that the person is speaking or wants to express something through text or dialogue.

• “When someone adds the speech balloon emoji on TikTok, it’s like they’re saying ‘Hey, I have something important to tell you, so pay attention!'”
• “You’ll often see the speech balloon emoji used when people are explaining a funny or interesting story on TikTok.”
• “Sometimes, TikTok users use the speech balloon emoji to add captions or text to their videos, making it easier for viewers to understand what’s going on.”

The 💬 speech balloon emoji in slang means expressing thoughts or conveying words in a fun and light-hearted way. It represents someone speaking their mind or sharing ideas. It’s like having a virtual conversation bubble floating above your head!

• “I’m feeling 💬 after acing that test!”
• “Let’s grab some pizza, I’m getting hungry 💬”
• “That concert was amazing! I’m still dancing in my mind 💬”

Cultural differences can lead to hilariously misinterpreted meanings of the 💬 speech balloon emoji, creating unintended confusion and laughter.

• “When I sent my friend the 💬 emoji, she thought I was trying to start a conversation in morse code!”
• “In some cultures, the 💬 emoji is mistaken for a talking cloud, leading to bewildered reactions.”
• “My grandma thought the 💬 emoji meant ‘text me ASAP’ and replied with an essay!”
• “I tried using the 💬 emoji to indicate gossip, but my international friends thought I wanted to have a chat about hot air balloons.”

When using the 💬 speech balloon emoji, it is important to adhere to guidelines and best practices for effective communication. Be clear, concise, and avoid any misinterpretations.

• “Hey, can you pick up some milk on your way home? 🛒💬”
• “I had the best pizza ever last night! 🍕💬”
• “I can’t believe it’s Monday again… 😫💬”
• “Did you hear the latest gossip? 🙊💬”
• “I’m so excited for our vacation! ✈️🌴💬”

Possible emoji combinations that go with the 💬 speech balloon emoji include 🗣️👥 for a group conversation or 😊💬 to show a friendly chat.

• “🍕💬” – When you can’t decide where to order pizza with your friends
• “🚗💬” – Discussing road trips and the best routes to take
• “🏀💬” – Talking basketball plays and game strategies
• “🎉💬” – Planning a surprise party for your friend and keeping it a secret

When using the 💬 speech balloon emoji, avoid misinterpretations by considering context and tone. For example, “I love your shirt! 💬 Thanks, it’s my regular laundry day attire!” or “Your presentation was fantastic! 💬 Thank you! It’s all thanks to my extensive collection of cat memes.”

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💬 Speech Balloon Emoji Meaning – From Girl & Guy

What does 💬 speech balloon emoji mean.

The 💬 speech balloon emoji is a versatile emoji that is commonly used to represent speech or conversation. It can be used in various contexts to convey different meanings. Here are some possible interpretations and uses of the 💬 speech balloon emoji:

Communication and Conversation : The primary meaning of the 💬 speech balloon emoji is to represent communication and conversation. It can be used to indicate that someone is speaking or that a conversation is taking place.

• “I’ll meet you at the coffee shop at 3 pm 💬”
• “Let’s have a chat later 💬”

Texting and Messaging : The 💬 speech balloon emoji is often used in the context of texting or messaging. It can be used to indicate that someone is typing a message or that a conversation is happening through text.

• “I’m typing a long message right now 💬”
• “I’ll send you the details in a text 💬”

Expressing Thoughts or Ideas : The 💬 speech balloon emoji can also be used to represent thoughts or ideas. It can be used to indicate that someone is sharing their thoughts or expressing an idea.

• “I had a brilliant idea today 💬”
• “I’ve been thinking about this for a while 💬”

Social Media and Online Discussions : The 💬 speech balloon emoji is commonly used in the context of social media and online discussions. It can be used to represent comments or discussions happening on a post or thread.

• “There’s a lively discussion happening in the comments section 💬”
• “I’ll reply to your comment later 💬”

Expressing Emotions or Reactions : The 💬 speech balloon emoji can also be used to express emotions or reactions in a conversation. It can be used to show surprise, excitement, confusion, or any other emotion.

• “I can’t believe what you just said! 💬”
• “I’m so excited for our trip! 💬”

Overall, the 💬 speech balloon emoji is a versatile emoji that can be used to represent speech, conversation, texting, thoughts, online discussions, and emotions. It is similar in usage to other emojis that represent communication, such as the 💭 thought balloon emoji or the 🗯️ right anger bubble emoji.

💬 Speech Balloon Design

💬 Speech Balloon Emoji Meaning From A Girl?

When a girl uses the 💬 speech balloon emoji, it typically indicates one of the following meanings:

Engagement in Conversation : Girls often use the 💬 speech balloon emoji to show that they are actively engaged in a conversation or want to initiate one. It signifies their willingness to communicate and encourages others to join in.

Texting or Messaging : Similar to its general meaning, girls use the 💬 speech balloon emoji to represent texting or messaging. It can imply that they are in the middle of a text conversation or that they want to continue the conversation through messaging.

Expressing Thoughts or Ideas : Girls may also use the 💬 emoji to express their thoughts or ideas. It can indicate that they have something important to say or that they want to share their opinions on a particular topic.

Commenting on Social Media : The 💬 speech balloon emoji is commonly used by girls when commenting on social media posts. It signifies their participation in the discussion and adds visual interest to their comment.

Expressing Excitement or Surprise : Girls sometimes use the 💬 emoji to express excitement or surprise. It can indicate that they are amazed by something or that they can’t contain their excitement about a particular topic.

When navigating a conversation where a girl has used the 💬 emoji, here are some tips on how to reply:

Acknowledge their engagement : If a girl uses the 💬 emoji to indicate her engagement in a conversation, acknowledge her participation and continue the conversation by responding to her message.

Ask open-ended questions : Encourage further communication by asking open-ended questions that require more than a simple yes or no answer. This shows your interest in hearing her thoughts and opinions.

Be attentive and responsive : Show that you’re actively listening and paying attention to what she’s saying. Respond promptly and engage in meaningful conversation to keep the dialogue going.

Use emojis : Emojis can help convey emotions and add a playful tone to the conversation. Incorporate relevant emojis to express your own feelings or reactions to her messages.

Be respectful and considerate : Remember to be respectful and considerate in your replies. Avoid making assumptions or jumping to conclusions. If you’re unsure about the meaning behind her message, ask for clarification in a polite manner.

Examples of how girls typically use the 💬 emoji over text:

• “I can’t wait to discuss this book with you! 💬 📚 “
• “Just finished watching the latest episode of my favorite show. Let’s chat about it! 💬 📺 “
• “I have so many thoughts about that movie. Can’t wait to share them with you! 💬 🎥 “
• “What are your plans for the weekend? Let’s catch up! 💬 🗓️ “
• “I saw your post on Instagram. Let’s continue the conversation in the comments! 💬 📸 “

💬 Speech Balloon Emoji Meaning From A Guy?

When a guy uses the 💬 speech balloon emoji, it can have similar meanings to when a girl uses it. Here are some possible interpretations of the 💬 speech balloon emoji from a guy’s perspective:

Engagement in Conversation : Just like girls, guys often use the 💬 speech balloon emoji to show that they are actively engaged in a conversation or want to initiate one. It signifies their interest in communicating and encourages others to join in.

Texting or Messaging : Guys may also use the 💬 emoji to represent texting or messaging. It can imply that they are in the middle of a text conversation or that they want to continue the conversation through messaging.

Expressing Thoughts or Ideas : The 💬 speech balloon emoji can be used by guys to express their thoughts or ideas as well. It can indicate that they have something important to say or that they want to share their opinions on a particular topic.

Commenting on Social Media : Similar to girls, guys may use the 💬 emoji when commenting on social media posts. It signifies their participation in the discussion and adds visual interest to their comment.

Expressing Excitement or Surprise : Guys sometimes use the 💬 emoji to express excitement or surprise. It can indicate that they are amazed by something or that they can’t contain their excitement about a particular topic.

While the meanings of the 💬 emoji can be similar for both guys and girls, it’s important to consider the individual’s personality and the context of the conversation. Guys may have their own unique way of using the emoji, influenced by their personal style and communication style.

When trying to understand the meaning behind a guy’s use of the 💬 emoji, here are some tips on how to reply:

Acknowledge their engagement : If a guy uses the 💬 emoji to indicate his engagement in a conversation, acknowledge his participation and continue the conversation by responding to his message.

Ask open-ended questions : Encourage further communication by asking open-ended questions that require more than a simple yes or no answer. This shows your interest in hearing his thoughts and opinions.

Be attentive and responsive : Show that you’re actively listening and paying attention to what he’s saying. Respond promptly and engage in meaningful conversation to keep the dialogue going.

Use emojis : Emojis can help convey emotions and add a playful tone to the conversation. Incorporate relevant emojis to express your own feelings or reactions to his messages.

Be respectful and considerate : Remember to be respectful and considerate in your replies. Avoid making assumptions or jumping to conclusions. If you’re unsure about the meaning behind his message, ask for clarification in a polite manner.

Examples of how guys might use the 💬 emoji over text:

• “That game last night was intense! Let’s discuss it in detail 💬 ⚽ ️”
• “I’ve been thinking about what you said earlier. Let’s continue the conversation 💬 🤔 “
• “Just finished reading that article you recommended. Mind-blowing stuff! Let’s chat about it 💬 📰 “
• “I saw your post on Twitter. The discussion in the comments is getting interesting 💬 💭 “
• “Can’t wait to catch up with you later. We have so much to talk about 💬 🗣️ “

Does 💬 Speech Balloon Emoji Have A Hidden Meaning?

The 💬 speech balloon emoji is not commonly associated with any NSFW or hidden meanings. It is primarily used to represent speech or conversation in a visual form. It is similar in usage to the 💭 thought balloon emoji or the 🗯️ right anger bubble emoji, which also convey the idea of expressing thoughts or dialogue.

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Related Emojis

Related emojis, 💬speech balloon emoji codes.

💬Speech Balloon Emoji In Other Languages

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Member-only story

Talking About Speech Balloons: Colors, Emotions, and Symbols

In the third part of the speech balloons series, speech balloon colors, the use of punctuation and symbols to designate emotions, and delivery methods are discussed.

Most commonly, the speech balloon has black text is displayed against a solid white background. The contrasting colors help a reader clearly see the words being spoken.

A variation method is to use a slightly transparent white balloon, which allows the artwork to show through the parts without text.

Different text colors can represent different characters’ speeches. This can be helpful if there are a lot of characters and color can be quickly associated by a reader to a specific character.

Another method is to have the white text and a black background. This speech method is sometimes used for otherworld/dreamlike beings, horror stories, and black and white comics so the speech balloon can be more easily read with the color scheme.

Written by J. Phillip

Texan artist and writer who loves humor and sharing joy. He’s a University of Houston graduate. Amazon author page~ https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B08MJ5FWTG

Text to speech

What Does The Speech Balloon Emoji Mean 💬

The meaning of speech balloon emoji 💬.

The speech balloon emoji 💬, resembling a comic book-style representation of speech with a rounded shape and a small tail, symbolizes communication, conversation, or the act of speaking. Its origins in comic book imagery translate seamlessly into digital communication, where it is used to indicate a desire to start a conversation, highlight important dialogue, or signal an openness to discuss and exchange ideas. Beyond its primary use in text messaging and social media, the emoji also finds application in expressing thoughts, soliciting feedback, and fostering interactive discussions, making it a versatile tool in the emoji lexicon to enhance digital expressions of speech and thought.

Technical Information

Understanding the Speech Balloon Emoji 💬

In the digital age, emojis have become an integral part of our online and texting communications, adding nuance, emotion, and clarity to the otherwise flat text. One such emoji, the speech balloon emoji (💬), carries its unique significance and applications. This article explores the meaning, origins, and various uses of the speech balloon emoji.

Origin and Meaning

The speech balloon emoji 💬 is visually represented as a rounded rectangle or cloud-like shape with a small tail, which points towards the speaker. This design is universally recognized as a symbol for speech, thoughts, or dialogue in comic books and graphic novels, making its meaning in digital communication quite intuitive.

Traditionally, speech balloons are used in comics to show what characters are saying or thinking. Transferred to the digital realm, the 💬 emoji serves a similar purpose. It signifies communication, talking, thinking aloud, or a conversation. However, its use has evolved beyond these basic meanings to encompass broader implications in various contexts.

Usage in Digital Communication

Text messaging and social media.

In text messaging and on social media platforms, the 💬 emoji is often used to indicate a desire to start a conversation or to highlight an important piece of dialogue. It can also suggest that the sender is open to talking or discussing something specific. For example, posting a question followed by 💬 invites others to respond, fostering a space for dialogue.

Comments and Feedback

Another common use of the speech balloon emoji is to signify comments, feedback, or discussion on a particular topic. Websites and apps might use this emoji to guide users towards their comment section or to encourage user engagement by asking for opinions or experiences.

Thought Processes and Ideas

Although less common, the 💬 emoji can also represent thinking or ideation. This usage is reminiscent of its comic book origins, where a similar shape (though technically a “thought bubble”) would indicate a character’s internal thoughts. In digital communication, it might be used to express that someone is pondering over an idea or considering various options.

Variations and Related Emojis

It’s worth noting that there are variations and related emojis that carry similar but distinct meanings. For example:

• The double speech balloon emoji (🗨️) often represents a conversation between two people or a group discussion.
• The thought balloon emoji (💭) is more directly tied to thinking, dreaming, or the internal monologue of an individual.

Cultural Impact

The speech balloon emoji has transcended its comic book roots to become a versatile tool in our digital lexicon. Its ability to convey the nuances of conversation, thought, and speech in a simple and visual manner has solidified its place in our online interactions. Whether used to initiate conversations, solicit feedback, or express thoughts, the 💬 emoji enhances our digital communication by adding layers of meaning and emotion.

The speech balloon emoji 💬 is a powerful symbol of communication in the digital age. Its widespread use across various platforms and contexts highlights its versatility and the vital role emojis play in enhancing our digital conversations. As our digital landscape continues to evolve, emojis like the speech balloon will undoubtedly continue to enrich our online expressions, making them more dynamic, expressive, and engaging.

Emojis In Same Category

💋 Kiss Mark Emoji

💦 Sweat Droplets Emoji

🗨 Left Speech Bubble Emoji

💯 Hundred Points Emoji

💨 Dashing Away Emoji

🗯 Right Anger Bubble Emoji

💢 Anger Symbol Emoji

🕳 Hole Emoji

💭 Thought Balloon Emoji

💥 Collision Emoji

💬 Speech Balloon Emoji

💤 ZZZ Emoji

💫 Dizzy Emoji

👁️‍🗨️ Eye In Speech Bubble Emoji

Speech Balloon

A cartoon-style balloon used to represent spoken word in comics. Sometimes  used in communication apps to indicate that another person is typing a message.

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💬 Speech Balloon

Texting, Chatting, Chat Bubble, Conversation, Thinking, Talking, Virtual Thoughts

💬 Meaning: A cartoony speech bubble with three dots inside the balloon part of the emoji. This emoji would vary in colour and design across different platforms.

The 💬 Speech Balloon signifies the act of speaking (of course), but also the process of thinking and even typing a message (the three dots). This emoji suggests constructing the perfect reply, understanding a message or even lost in deep thought while chatting.

How and When to Use the 💬 Speech Balloon Emoji

• Use 💬 emoji to tell someone that you’re busy texting someone else.
• You can bring in 💬 emoji while suggesting that you’re still thinking of framing the perfect reply to the other person’s message.
• 💬 emoji can also be used as a reaction to something thoughtful that you witnessed on social media.
• If you’re simultaneously texting a close friend and someone you’re romantically interested in, use 💬 emoji to denote to the close friend that the special interest is still typing in their text or even thinking for a very very long time.

Other Names

• 💬 Understanding
• 💬 Speech Bubble
• 💬 Chat Bubble
• 💬 Conversation
• 💬 Communication
• 💬 Virtual Thoughts

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Speech Balloon

Speech Balloon Emoji

💬 emoji pictures.

💬 Meaning: Speech Balloon

• 💬 usage examples on Twitter
• 💬 pictures on Instagram
• 💬 videos on YouTube

Related Emoji

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Anger Symbol

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speech balloon 💬

If you feel like you are not yet done talking, then this might be the emoji for you! Continue your conversation with the Speech Balloon emoji.

This emoji displays a speech balloon facing right. Inside the balloon are three dots to represent speech. Depending on the platform, the balloon can be either circular or square.

It is natural to not want to be bothered when you are talking with someone, whether it is a serious discussion with your officemate or catching up with an old friend. If another person messaged you and you do not want to be bothered, feel free to send them this chat bubble emoji with the Call Me Hand emoji . Let them know that you are talking with someone else, and you will get back to them later.

The second way is to slide into someone’s DMs. Dating apps are prevalent today, so if you want to talk to someone you find attractive, hit them up by sending them this texting emoji. You may come off as odd, but hey, at least you don’t appear like a creep.

💬 Speech Balloon is a fully-qualified emoji as part of Unicode 6.0 which was introduced in 2010.

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This Speech Balloon Is Also Known As:

Speech balloon, texting emoji, message emoji, speech bubble emoji, chat bubble emoji, text bubble emoji, general emoji, comment emoji, chatting emoji, speech emoji, conversation emoji, discussion emoji, communication emoji, quote emoji, speech balloon emoji on different platforms.

Speech Balloon Emoji Frequency

This emoji is currently the 272 ranked emoji on social media platforms.

Speech Balloon Emoji Trend

Speech balloon emoji history.

Speech Balloon Emoji is created in the year 2010.

Speech Balloon Emoji In Other Languages

Speech Balloon Emoji Unicode Data

• Unicode codepoint 1F4AC
• Version Version 6.0

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💬 Speech balloon Emoji Meaning

Speech balloon emoji meaning in other languages.

• Speech balloon emoji meaning in 🇫🇷 French (français)
• Speech balloon emoji meaning in 🇪🇸 Spanish (español)
• Speech balloon emoji meaning in 🇩🇪 German (Deutsch)
• Speech balloon emoji meaning in 🇯🇵 Japanese (日本語)
• Speech balloon emoji meaning in 🇰🇷 Korean (한국어)
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Speech balloon copy and paste

The Speech Balloon 💬 emoji is a yellow, oval-shaped bubble with a tail pointing to the left. It is often used to represent speech or conversation, and can be used to indicate that someone is speaking or that a conversation is taking place.

The Speech Balloon 💬 emoji can also be used to express a range of emotions, depending on the context. For example, it can be used to express excitement, joy, or surprise. It can also be used to express confusion, disbelief, or frustration.

The Speech Balloon 💬 emoji is often used in text messages, emails, and social media posts to indicate that someone is speaking or that a conversation is taking place. It can also be used to add emphasis to a statement or to indicate that someone is joking.

Overall, the Speech Balloon 💬 emoji is a versatile and useful tool for expressing a range of emotions and conveying conversation in digital communication. It is a simple and effective way to add context and emotion to a message.

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💬 Speech Balloon

Meaning of 💬 speech balloon emoji.

The Speech Balloon emoji displays a bubble with three dots inside, symbolizing text or somebody's speech. This emoji originates from comics or cartoons, where it represented characters speaking to each other in a normal and calm manner. Use it when you want to highlight somebody's citation. You can also add a face emoji to convey your mood about the citation. It can also be used as a synonym for the word “say.” For example, if your friend is hesitant to say something, send this emoji with the implication: “say it already!” It's also useful for illustrating the dialogue between two people or a conversation in general. If a president is giving a speech on 🎉 Independence Day , you can use the Speech Balloon emoji to communicate to your friends your opinion on how effective or ineffective the speech was.

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Combinations with 💬 Speech Balloon Emoji

Combinations are just a bunch of emojis placed together, like this: 👨‍💻💬👩‍💻 . You can use these combos to create riddles or convey messages without using words.

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Kaomoji are popular in Japan for sharing emotions and situations using Japanese grammar, punctuation, and characters. Like this: ¯\_ (ツ) _/¯ ! To impress your friends, you can use this creative style in messengers and the web.

💬 Speech Balloon Emoji designs on different devices

Emojis may look different across platforms. Each web service, OS, or gadget manufacturer can create an Emoji design according to their corporate style and vision. Here, you can check out what the 💬 Speech Balloon Emoji looks like on the most popular platforms:

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“ 💬 ” meaning: speech balloon, speech bubble Emoji

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The meaning of emoji symbol 💬 is speech balloon, it is related to balloon , bubble , comic , dialog , speech , it can be found in emoji category: " 😂 Smileys & Emotion " - " 💋 Emotion ".

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A graphic element taken from comic books that is widely used to convey messages in all forms of publications, including websites. The balloon is a bubble filled with text that points to a person or human-like object. Also called "speech bubbles," "voice bubbles," "word balloons" and "text balloons."

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speech balloon vs speech bubble usage and meaning

I am from the UK, and am not familiar with the term "speech balloon". I have always used and heard "speech bubble" instead.

Are the 2 meanings the same? Is there some kind of difference in British/American English usage? (I don't really use speech bubbles so could be due to lack of knowledge.)

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• british-english

• 1 Both terms are in use and mean the same thing - the white area that speech is written into in comics with an arrow pointing to the speaker. –  Oldcat Commented Nov 7, 2014 at 0:34
• I seem to have seen them described as 'call outs'. Or am I thinking of something else? –  WS2 Commented Nov 7, 2014 at 1:02
• @WS2- it depends on what they're used for. IF they are on a diagram and are calling out or making specific note of a feature then they're a call out if they are in a comic containing spoken dialog then they are not a call out but rather a "speech balloon" or "speech bubble". I might make a distinction between bubble and balloon based on the type of connector between the person and the speech. if the connector is a series of small (or progressively larger bubbles) then I'd call it a bubble. If it's a thin line like the string of a balloon, then I'd call it a balloon. –  Jim Commented Nov 7, 2014 at 1:35
• I'm partial to speech dirigible , but only if the speaker is running. –  Drew Commented Nov 7, 2014 at 5:07
• @Jim the series of bubbles of increasing size is usually used for thoughts, not speech. I think they usually lead to a cloud rather than an oval or rectangle. –  Barmar Commented Nov 9, 2014 at 23:19

The meanings are the same. You can also use dialogue balloons or word balloons . Just make sure you're not mixing up speech bubbles with thought bubbles.

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Signifying Silence: The Empty Speech Balloon

By Lauren Chivington

“There is not one but many silences, and they are an integral part of the strategies that underlie and permeate discourse” – Michel Foucault

As sound effects explode across the page and characters fill balloons with their speech, the empty speech balloon (ESB) appears to contrast with the typical grammar of comics. Curiously, the scholarship on this oxymoronic device is seemingly empty as well. Is the ESB truly empty, devoid of meaning, and therefore not worth our time? While there is an abundance of scholarship on the speech balloon and its centrality to the comic medium, there is widespread scholarly silence on the ESB relative to how often the device is used. The ESB may be disconcerting to those used to viewing them as an unfinished portion of the completed work—a space intentionally made for vocal expression but not filled with this expression. However, the ESB in its very emptiness reveals core tenets of the comic medium that lurk beneath the surface, unnoticed. Just as the empty stage is the foundation of theatrical performance, the ESB is the foundation of comic language. If—as the subheading of Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics tells us—comics are “the invisible art,” what is truer to the artform than a graphic convention of invisibility so effective that it has been taken for granted? The rebellious ESB, as it fills the page and creates space for itself, reveals a deeper understanding of comic theory, language, and voice even as it appears to be working against them.

ESBs allow for numerous kinds of silences—many of which have not yet been explored—and have the potential for a vast number of applications. In this article I will pinpoint some of these applications by distinguishing three main categories of relational dynamics (i.e., empathy, antipathy, and sympathy) between the artist/writer, the work, and the reader/observer. 1 Through this method we discover silences brought about by ESBs distancing the observer from expected comic syntax and/or from the speaker of “empty” words, drawing the observer closer to those silenced by forces of misogyny, loss, and death, and hailing the observer to bring their own voice into the “silent” comic world of ESBs. These kinds of visual silences show how ESBs can be used to elicit different emotions—and sometimes actions—in the reader. ESBs change the way we think about speech inside and outside of comic studies. The following relational analysis is only one of many possible ways to consider the ESB; many more can and should be used. 2 Recognizing and understanding what the ESB is doing and can do is central to understanding the comic medium.

ESBs are just one player in this analysis, however. The following article proposes dynamic relationships between the artist/writer (often the same person, often not, often multiple of each), the character (or characters), the reader/observer   (one individual experiencing the work as a text, as a visual piece, and as a synthesis of the two), 3 and one or more ESBs. ESBs have been and can be used to create closeness to and/or distance between these players.

The ESB is an important contribution to the comic medium that unearths previously invisible truths about the comic medium even as it appears to contradict our traditional understanding of comic convention. As scholars Hillary Chute and Patrick Jagoda said in their introduction to a special issue of Critical Inquiry on comics and media: “comics is a form with a peculiar syntax; among its most basic elements are…speech balloons” (3). The ESB is therefore at the heart of comic meaning-making.

Artist/writers have used ESBs to depict thoughts—as and in clouds, not balloons—and experiences that make false the traditional prescriptions that “the speech balloon must therefore be purely conventional” and that ESBs merely show “that a character has no thoughts” (Carrier 29-31). ESBs also impact the experience of the comic reader/observer, asking them to question why the artist/writer chose to use an ESB, what the reader/observer expected to be inside the balloon, what could be placed inside that space, and why the character is unable to express themselves audibly to other characters and/or to the reader/observer. Paying attention to ESBs will improve the field of comic studies by helping us acknowledge the potentiality of negative space/negative speech, opening infinite possibilities for artist/writers, their characters, and for reader/observers to experience comic art. More broadly speaking, ESBs cause us to question comic language and, by extension, our understanding of speech and silence.

The wit and play of the ESB depends upon the comic tradition of the speech balloon. Developed from speech scrolls dating back to as early as 900 AD (Hull 341) and bubble-text found as far back as the second   century BCE (Daley), scrolls or “banderoles” in the eighteenth century started to appear more like words being blown out of the mouth, though still without a discernible “tail” to connote the speaker, such as in Bernhard Strigel’s 1507 piece titled Saint Anne and Angel ( FIG 1 ). In the late nineteenth century, Rudolph Dirks’ The Katzenjammer Kids and Richard F. Outcault’s The Yellow Kid made speech look more like physical balloons with strings ( FIG 2 ). The Yellow Kid established many comic conventions in the U.S. and marked the mainstream advent of speech balloons as dialogue. In the early twentieth century, the speech balloon took off, replacing captioning for most serials. By the time Action Comics #1 was set to print, speech balloons had the tails we now recognize as conventional. Because the ESBs found in the course of this research have the traditional comic “tails”—the earliest dating back to the 1950s—it can be assumed for now that the ESB is a more recent narrative invention than the modern speech balloon. The history of the ESB has yet to be recorded.

In order to distinguish the ESB from the modern speech balloon’s peculiar syntax, a moment should be taken to discuss what the ESB is not. The comic reader has grown accustomed to traditional significations of silence in various ways throughout comic history. Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series gives several excellent instances of these visual silences. For example, the conventional ellipsis that communicates a pause in both sound and time in comic language is shown in different panels as being at different times either inside of a speech balloon or drawn into the panel itself with no speech balloon at all (see O’Malley). Ellipsis length varies from the usual three periods to as many as fourteen to denote a much longer period of silence (see O’Malley). Silence is signified through words as well, in one instance via the writing “(WEIRD PAUSE)” in the image, without a balloon (see O’Malley). In a notable panel, the word “SILENCE” (O’Malley) is written into the panel itself over a crowd of people with no mouths ( FIG 3 ) (O’Malley). Especially interesting about this panel is the fact that it appears to have a speech balloon tail attached to it without a balloon around the word. While these techniques contain the same lack of audible sound as the ESB to the characters within the panels as well as to the reader, the ESB is distinct from these methods. The omission of any signification or cueing from ESBs is notable: as they break the comic convention for signifying silence, they indicate to us that something new is happening. For answers about this comic anomaly, let’s turn outward and explore the concept the ESB exists within: negation.

ESBs bring similar questions about silence and absence to comics as those Robert Rauschenberg brought to painting with his series “White Paintings” and John Cage brought to music with his composition “4’33’’” in the early 1950s. Like Rauschenberg’s white paintings, ESBs exemplify what he called “the plastic fullness of nothing” (Winn) in an important way. In her book Economy of the Unlost (1999), contemporary artist Anne Carson gives us some insight into the topic of silence and absence in her chapter on negation. Carson writes that negation “lends itself to scary word play, to unanswerable puns, to the sort of reasoning that turns inside out when you stare at it” (100). These unanswerable puns are intrinsic to ESBs.

An oxymoron in and of itself, the ESB is filled with pregnant silences that can manifest in a silent scream, such as that in the first volume of Marzena Sowa’s autobiographical Marzi comic, a “deafening silence” (Una 89), such as that in Una’s Becoming Unbecoming , and further narrative manifestations of contradictions. One key contradiction interrogated here is the way in which ESBs have been used to give “voice” to the silenced; however, the other contradictions that ESBs create and exist within also warrant inquiry. Scott McCloud reminds us in Understanding Comics that all comics—not just ESBs—are audibly silent. McCloud says: “do you hear what I’m saying?…if you do, have your ears checked, because no one said a word” (McCloud 25). ESBs then are visual signs of silences that can emulate audible silences, visual silences, and more. Although they are already recognized as being used with intent, they can also be used to affect closeness, distance, empathy, antipathy, sympathy, and so on by using negative space. 

Just as the iconic images of the hourglasses/facial profiles shape and reshape the way the viewer perceives the subject of an image, ESBs in their void give shape to what the reader/observer perceives as being the subject of the image. By using the spaces around and in-between what the reader/observer is paying attention to, ESBs for example allow and compel the reader/observer to empathize with trauma survivors, laugh at politicians, and place their own thoughts—implicitly or explicitly—within the page. Though, as I will show, ESBs can be used to affect empathetic and sympathetic actions and reactions in the reader/observer, the initial discomfort and stigma surrounding negative space is just one of the possible answers as to why the ESB has not been properly studied.

Another possible reason why the ESB has not yet been studied can be found within the linear process of comic creation. The layered approach to typical comic creation means that there is a point at which all speech balloons are empty, suspended in silence. Because of this, those familiar with the comic creation process are trained to see ESBs as a meaningless and incomplete portion of the larger work. This issue of incompletion is problematic for the study of ESBs in a literal as well as figurative way. For example, when digging through archives of comic materials in search of instances of ESBs and their many uses, one might find an example of unpublished original art, such as this twentieth century piece by Arnold Roth of a man eating a bird ( FIG 4 ) (Roth). The panels show a man eating a bird while the final panel is of an ESB. It is unclear whether this piece is an example of the intentional usage of an ESB or if it has simply not been lettered yet. Though the context would seem to lend itself to the speech balloon being filled with a visualization of birdsong, the artist could be intentionally defying this expectation. This uncertainty of artist intent based on a lack of available information is one of the many difficulties that the ESB raises for both the researcher and the reader.

Artists have used ESBs to elicit a distancing, antipathetical reaction in the reader/observer toward a subject or subjects. By using ESBs to show “empty” words and thus undermine the speaking character, artists are meeting our preconceptions about ESBs being empty and meaningless even as they undermine those preconceptions by using the ESB in a meaningful way. Artists have used distancing techniques in other media to great effect, but the ESB is a unique way in which this technique can be used in comics. One place the antipathetical usage of the ESB can be seen is in editorial/political cartooning. It can be argued that this process of pushing the reader/observer away from the subject simultaneously brings the reader/observer closer to the artist/writer’s perspective, though as always authorial motivations are difficult to parse with any certainty. For example, nationally syndicated cartoonist Steve Breen used an ESB in this 2004 cartoon ( FIG 5 )—interestingly found under the tag “speech balloon”—to undermine what the subject, John Kerry, is saying (or not saying), and in so doing distances the reader/observer from Kerry. In the image, Kerry appears to be actively speaking, but his words have fallen out of the speech balloon and into a jumble on the ground, leaving Kerry’s speech balloon empty. At this moment, one of Kerry’s campaign workers says to the other: “actually, his message could use a little cohesion” (Breen).

ESBs have been used by cartoonists to critique the subject and/or distance the character from the reader/observer by depicting the subject with “empty” words or thoughts. This technique aligns the ESB with strongly negative or laughable connotations, which is in stark contrast to the reverent and empathy-inducing ways other comic artists have used ESBs. This 1999 editorial cartoon by Mike Ritter ( FIG 6 )—found under the tag “speech bubble”—appears to be in keeping with the Breen comic’s use of ESBs as a satirical device. In the image, Bill Clinton speaks from a podium into a massive ESB while holding a stack of papers labeled “Kosovo Policy.” A label at the top of the panel reads “The Limitations of Air Power” (Ritter) . wever, because the full title of this piece is “The Limitations of Air Power…’Would I lie to you, baby?,’” there is a chance that this specific visual joke at the expense of Bill Clinton is not the exact one the artist wanted to create.

Another example of an artist using ESBs to elicit antipathy for and distance from a character in the mind of the reader/observer can be found in this 1998 editorial cartoon by Nick Anderson entitled “The 90’s” ( FIG 7 ), alternatively titled “Everything’s About Nothing.” Riffing off the Seinfeld show concept as a show about nothing, a panel in this comic shows ESBs being “spoken” by two subjects, with the top label reading “Debates about nothing….” Interestingly, the next panel is of a subject saying: “yada yada yada”—another Seinfeld joke—under the label “Media stories about nothing….” (Anderson). In doing this, Anderson has provided us with a perfect juxtaposition of an ESB, the different functions of a speech balloon that “says” nothing, and how visual jokes are different and elicit nuanced responses of antipathy and distance in the reader/observer.

In the previous examples, the ESB has been used as a tool by the artist/writer to cause antipathy for the character(s) in the reader/observer. This is still in keeping with comic language to a point, as the ESB is not a subject. However, ESBs can be given subjecthood by the artist. An excellent example of ESBs attaining subjecthood can be found in another Mike Ritter editorial cartoon—this one from 2003—titled “Feingold-McCain Speech Police”( FIG 8 ) (Ritter). In this editorial cartoon, the ESB is still being used to induce antipathy toward and distance from a subject. However, the ESB is being deployed in a completely different way to a completely different effect. In the cartoon, a burly police officer with a “no” icon on his cap, “federal election admin.” and another “no” icon on his badge, and “McCain- Feingold Speech Police” on his arm is handcuffed to an ESB, the tail of which is tucked very loosely into the handcuff. This cartoon and Ritter’s visual joke about the impossibility and absurdity of chaining speech makes the ESB a subject warranting pathos from the reader/observer and the policeman the undermined, satirized, antipathetic character. This cartoon’s use of the ESB raises many questions regarding the “possession” of speech, the comic interpretation of that possession (or lack thereof), and how ESBs can be used to signify both no speech and all speech in the abstract. This ESB is not unique in its representation of all speech, however. After all, anyone who has seen a “chat” function on a website is familiar with ESBs being used as the icon for abstracted speech, the infinite source of infinite language. This particular ESB is unique in that it further breaks comic convention by simply being in physical interaction with the rest of the image rather than being relegated to the space of speech, independent from the characters’ experiences.

Placing the speech police comic in conversation with this 1984 editorial cartoon by Jim Kammerud titled “Voiceless” ( FIG 9 ) reveals something important about the ESB. In this cartoon, the adversarial figures from the Ritter cartoon (i.e., the police) are put into a pathetic subject position relative to the reader/observer. In the cartoon, several police officers attempt to speak to a reporter, but a man in a suit labeled “ED”—here signifying Edward Jennings, the president of The Ohio State University at the time—walks by whistling and holding the police officers’ mouths, which are emitting ESBs. Further inspection of the image shows that the police officers have no mouths. This visual language relegating speech to mouths is an interesting move to be depicted in a visual medium. Once again, the ESBs are being used as abstractions, this time in the much more physical way of standing in for the officers’ voices, and with their voices their agency. These cartoons illustrate the silencing of and silencing by the police, with the artists using ESBs to create the context for the reader/observer’s antipathy and distance or empathy and closeness to the subject. The Kammerud panel is just one example of an artist/writer using ESBs to elicit empathy in the reader. There are two other very important graphic narratives in which the ESBs and the empathy they elicit in the reader/observer are central to their stories.

While the applications of ESBs are vast, perhaps the ESB’s most compelling and important use is as a way through which the artist/writer creates empathy for their characters and often themselves. In the following two graphic narratives, this is even more important because the stories are autobiographical, such that the artist/writer is also to a notable extent the character. This means that the reader/observer is being brought closer to not only the character, but to the character’s creator as well. The value of empathy is immeasurable, especially because in these narratives the ESBs are bringing the reader/observer into an empathetic space that was previously closed to them due to the nature of the silence. Because these characters/writers cannot hear or be heard, they must be seen in order to be understood. Artist/writer Una’s autobiographical graphic narrative Becoming Unbecoming is a great example of the empathetic applications of the ESB.

In Una’s Becoming Unbecoming , ESBs are used to “voice” the silences brought about by oppression and misogyny. The way in which Una tells her story parallels the meaning of her name itself, given on her website https://unacomics.com/ as “one, one life, one of many” (Una). This multiplicity is apparent from the very start, as Una dedicates her autobiographical story “to all the others” (Una). Una’s first graphic novel is centered around misogyny, violence toward women, and the silences that these acts create. Becoming Unbecoming recounts the author’s childhood and adolescence in 1970s Yorkshire, a county in which women are being murdered by a local serial killer dubbed the “Yorkshire Ripper” after the notorious “Jack the Ripper.”

The title Becoming Unbecoming evokes a sense of linear progression as well as a sense of a balanced inhalation and exhalation. These themes can be seen throughout the novel in the way Una as a female victim of sexual violence became unbecoming in the eyes of her society, in the way she is constructed and deconstructed by the forces of violent misogyny that surround her, and finally in how Una makes and unmakes her own identity within this oppressive system. Una often uses speech balloons in the conventionally understood way: as an expression of agency and of the ability to speak and be heard by both others in the narrative as well as the reader. But the ESB problematizes these presumptions. As Hilary Chute has said about this work: “Una uses comics’ own grammar to illustrate her form of speechlessness” (163). Although she is illustrating speechlessness, Una has a narrative voice that is given to the reader through narration and thought bubbles.

Una’s narration shows how women are silenced by the forces of misogynistic oppression in an expression that is otherwise made impossible by those very forces. Una is silenced by men who shout over her and call her names like “slut,” invalidating her and her voice (90). Victims of the Yorkshire Ripper are silenced and stripped of agency by their violent death while the surviving victims of the Yorkshire Ripper are silenced by the misogyny underlying Yorkshire society. This misogyny is central to the silencing in the narrative, as the police force do not believe female victim testimony due to the baseless assumption that the Yorkshire Ripper only attacked prostitutes. This assumption was accompanied by a subconscious unwillingness to fully pursue the serial killer due to the assumption that the victims were immoral and the real threat to Yorkshire decency (54).

Una’s silences under these forces of oppression are depicted as a major theme throughout the graphic novel and are exemplified by her use of ESBs. When Una is the victim of sexual violence in childhood and adolescence, her silence is due to being too young to understand what happened to her and not having the language to express what had happened (37). As she gets older and is the victim of both sexual violence and misogyny, Una’s silence grows heavier and the burden of it grows larger and darker ( FIG 10 )—simultaneously more filled and more silent—as her silence now becomes about blaming herself (46). The coloration of ESBs might call into question their visual emptiness, but the way Una applies them in this instance is not a detraction from but rather an emphasis of the ESB’s power. By showing the incredible burden of silence, Una depicts the necessity of using ESBs for sharing this silence in a world where it is otherwise impossible for her to do.

The burden of silence is depicted in a recurring Sisyphean motif in which Una drags the ESB up a hill (44), with the ESB reaching a huge portion of the page as Una is assaulted again in high school (95). Una plays with the convention of speech balloons even more by showing her ESB being physically encroached upon in the space of the panel by an outside voice shouting at her to “SHUT UP!” (Una 116).

Throughout Becoming Unbecoming , the ESBs belong to Una even though she is not speaking them because they are her silences altered over time. This can be contrasted with some editorial cartooning examples in which the antipathetic subject has stolen the ESBs and the ESBs are therefore not “theirs” despite being in possession of them. Una’s ESB is also given a physical presence in perhaps the most iconic image from the graphic novel: her gripping onto the tail of her ESB as it carries her away ( FIG 11 ). This technique is reminiscent of the old masters’ tradition of depicting proto-speech balloons as scrolls, as opposed to the typical usage of speech balloons as existing separately from the reality of the image. The ESB carries Una above the trees and out of her environment, just as her depiction of silence carries her to a place where she can see clearly and speak about the unspoken. Unfortunately, Una’s various silences—like her description of herself—are those experienced by just one of many.

Una uses the ESB throughout Becoming Unbecoming to show the deafening silence of women from around the world who have been victims of sexual violence. The powerful image Una gives us of a world surrounded by ESBs on page 121 anticipates the viral iteration of the “Me Too” movement of 2017, 4 in which victims of sexual violence from around the world began to break their collective silence. This use of the ESB to depict a silent scream is also found in the first volume of Polish cartoonist Marzena Sowa’s autobiographical graphic narrative Marzi: A Memoir . Set in Poland in the 1980s and translated into English, the first portion of the story—titled “Little Carp”—gives a sort of voice to the carp who were being killed en masse for a holiday meal. Sowa describes her childhood apartment building as becoming “a giant slaughterhouse echoing with silent screams” (8). The concept of the oppressed masses as well as the depiction of ESBs showing silent screams in Becoming Unbecoming and Marzi can be seen clearly in these panels ( FIGS 12-13 ).

In Becoming Unbecoming , the ESB is an intentional choice that ironically amplifies Una’s silenced voice. In the afterword to the novel, Una claims that her abstract drawings “can be understood as functioning on a more unconscious, symbolic level…” and communicating “something that words perhaps cannot” (203). Children’s literature researchers Catherine Appleton and Kerry Mallan support this perspective, claiming that Una’s use of silence enhances the credibility of the story (54). It should be noted that speech balloons belonging to an interlocutor of Una’s voice or a facilitator of her silence are never empty. The ESB is a reserved space for Una’s mind, which is anything but silent. Unlike some of the editorial cartooning examples in which the non-speaker of an ESB does not own but rather steals it, Una owns her ESBs. Though she is not “speaking” them, she owns them just as she owns her silence. The generation of empathy and closeness to the artist/writer and character that the ESBs cause in the reader/observer enables one without a voice to have one in a very powerful way. ESBs are not just used to depict the inability to speak, however. They can also be used to simulate the experience of not being able to hear.

Cece Bell’s El Deafo uses ESBs to require that the reader experience, in some small way, the deafness that she had to navigate at a young age. Cecelia “Cece” Bell lost most of her hearing when she was four years old after falling ill with meningitis. Bell has spoken about her application of ESBs and speech balloons filled with nonsense words, stating: “It’s the perfect visual way to show how a hard-of-hearing or deaf person might or might not be hearing” (Senn). Bell titled her graphic autobiography after a nickname she reconstituted for herself as a source of power. El Deafo tracks the story of Bell’s life and traces how she discovered and learned to live with and celebrate her deafness.

Cece Bell shows the kinds of silences caused by deafness’ obstruction of internal and external sounds. In a panel that takes place when her hearing was being tested, Bell shows the silence she experienced of the doctor speaking, as well as the silence of the bell being used as part of the test ( FIG 14 ). The hugeness of the ESB here signifies the magnitude of the intended sound to the reader relative to the intended sound of the doctor’s voice, even though Bell’s experience of both sounds is total silence (15). In another frame ( FIG 15 ), Bell uses an ESB to convey that she cannot hear what she herself is saying, but outside of the ESB is an arrow with words explaining what she is saying for the reader’s benefit (109). This panel is a prime example of the double move the artist/writer can affect through ESBs. Unlike satirical panels that typically only use ESBs to distance the reader/observer from the character, in both Becoming Unbecoming and El Deafo the reader/observer is brought closer to the artist/writer and character. However, in these graphic narratives something more complex is occurring, as the ESBs also place the reader/observer in a space of otherness from the narrative. As the reader/observer sees and better understands each character’s situation, they are reminded that this experience is not in fact their own. This dissonance of simultaneous nearness to and distance from the character is a double move in which the ESB accomplishes multiple things at once, both of which impact the reader. Cece Bell’s ESBs promote empathy and comic accessibility to a majority hearing audience.

In “Seeing Sounds / Hearing Pictures – A Round Table on Sound & Comics (part one)” conducted by The Middle Spaces, 5 comic studies scholar A. David Lewis commented on deafness in graphic narratives such as El Deafo , claiming that “not only is there a growth in empathy by readers of these works but also an enhanced ability to inhabit experiences well outside their own social spheres” (Lewis). Another example of a comic causing the reader to inhabit the experience of deafness discussed in this round table can be found in the 2012 Hawkeye #19 by Matt Fraction and David Aja. In this special ASL-inclusive issue, protagonist Clint Barton is recovering from a fight from the previous issue and experiences total hearing loss. ESBs are used many times throughout this issue. In these panels ( FIGS 16-17 ), ESBs are used in Barton’s present to contrast the speech balloons with unintelligible marks in them during a flashback to his temporary deafness as a child. This juxtaposition signifies the total and potentially more permanent loss of hearing Barton is experiencing, as the exclusionary discussion between his brother Barney and the nurse mirrors an earlier conversation between Clint’s parents and doctor when he was a child. Because everyone but Clint can hear, the ESBs place the reader/observer in Clint’s position, experiencing otherness as his otherness more than their own. This juxtaposition—which opens the issue—is an important point of identification for the nuance of the ESB as opposed to unintelligible squiggle balloons, implying some sound just as Bell’s gradient text and nonsense words imply some understanding. Another way the creators of this comic facilitate representation while also placing most reader/observers at a distance from the narrative is by using ASL.

ASL is depicted in this issue when Clint is being communicated to through the language. But Clint and the non-ASL fluent reader are equally unmet by these messages being sent out. Both Cece Bell and Clint Barton are averse to learning and using ASL in these narratives, but while Bell “translates” for the reader during this communication struggle (see FIG 15 ) the reader is more closely tethered to Clint’s level of understanding, leaving them with less to go on while Barton fights against learning ASL. These are not the only examples of ASL comics, however. This Hawkeye issue utilizes ASL in a more instructional way than an ASL comic from 1992 by Tim Oliphant (Ollie) called “Suzann Says” ( FIG 18 ), a comic that uses icons and translates the ASL for those not fluent in ASL similarly to how Bell translated one panel for those who see her story. It is important then to make note of the lack of translation in Hawkeye #19 . 

Both El Deafo and Hawkeye #19 encourage the reader to step outside their typical experience with comics and imagine instead a world outside of their own experience. This exercise in empathy enabled by ESBs helps fight stereotypes surrounding the deaf community, promote inclusivity in the comic community, and place the reader/observer in a space of closeness to and distance from the characters, allowing for complicated reactions to each text. One of these complex reactions is based on the ESB’s ability to affect the experience of loss.

Georgia Webber’s 2018 debut graphic memoir Dumb: Living Without A Voice interrogates loss in a different way than the previous narratives. Webber recounts a time during which she lost her voice. She chronicles both the emotional and physical pain experienced by this loss. On this page ( FIG 19 ), Webber uses ESBs to express the loss of hypothetical social interactions because of her lack of voice. The ESBs on this page are therefore used not just for Webber’s character, but for everyone else as well. Georgia’s ESBs in this way are doubly silent, in that it is an unrealized speech act—one that could not be realized because of physical limitations preventing her from speaking.

While Webber uses ESBs to depict the loss of hypothetical life, other artists have used ESBs to depict the loss of life in a more literal way. Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth features several instances of ESBs (see Ware), a notable one recalling the moment of Jimmy’s grandmother’s death ( FIG 20 ). The panels are at a physical distance from the subject, and the text cues a similar removal, reading, “the sound…of one lung…filling with water” (Ware). As the lung fills with water and the life is drowned out of the grandmother’s body, the ESB deflates. This panel can be directly compared to another panel that uses a rectangular ESB, with text that reads, “the sound of grandma breathing” ( FIG 21 ). Ware’s use of the ESB in these panels creates a distance from the subject, though not one grounded in antipathy. Other cartoonists use ESBs to depict the loss of life in a more empathy-inducing way, such as in this 1985 cartoon by Charles G. Brooks ( FIG 22 ) that serves as a visual obituary for Clarence “Ducky” Nash, the voice of Donald Duck. In the panel, Donald Duck stands over Nash’s grave emitting an ESB, signifying that Donald has lost his voice in both a literal and figurative sense. Brooks’ cartoon brings the reader/observer closer to both the “speaker” of the ESB and to the deceased Nash. The physical voicelessness expressed by this cartoon and by Dumb are presented sadly, but the same loss of voice can be expressed by ESBs with a completely different effect.

This 1959 Pogo comic by Walt Kelly ( FIG 23 )—one of the oldest ESBs found in the course of this research—uses voicelessness as the visual punchline to a joke. As the ESB is emptied by another character, it is in physical interaction with the rest of the panels and the world within the comic. The fact that a character can physically manipulate the speech balloon brings up questions about whether the characters are aware of the ESBs and, if so, how this impacts the ESB’s relationality to the character/s and to the reader/observer. A comic that also forces these questions upon us is this Crock comic from 1986 by Bill Rechin and Don Wilder ( FIG 24 ). In this comic, Maggot responds to a greeting with an ESB. When asked why he did so by a third character he answers that the other character “can’t read” (Rechin), at which point the third character glances outward at the reader/observer in a deadpan expression. This comic implies that the characters are aware of the speech balloons, and that the characters are in fact silent and must read their speech balloons in order to communicate and be communicated to—just like the reader. ESBs make these conflations between the reader/observer and the character possible. ESBs also allow for the conflation of reader and writer.

As many comic creators have shown us, ESBs can be used to create and play with the dynamics between artist/writers, characters, reader/observers, and the ESBs themselves. Comic creators can interpolate the reader/observer into the comic by using ESBs, blurring the lines between comic reader and comic creator. Moreover, ESBs can be used to elicit reader/observer antipathy and empathy. But it is important to note that they can also be used to elicit sympathy. Because empathy and sympathy are colloquially linked, we shall turn to the Merriam-Webster distinction between the two terms, which informs us that “sympathy implies sharing (or having the capacity to share) the feelings of another, while empathy tends to be used to mean imagining, or having the capacity to imagine, feelings that one does not actually have” (Merriam-Webster). While Cece Bell, Una, Georgia Webber, and others use ESBs to elicit a feeling of empathetic imagining in the reader/observer about situations and feelings that are not their own, other comic creators have used ESBs to invite the reader/observer to engage in a sympathetic sharing of feelings with the character by imagining and possibly writing their own narrative in the ESBs. While the result of this interpolation might render the ESBs filled, the act of the creator reaching out and the initial response of the reader/observer to the opportunity to create their own narrative is the sympathetic element on which I will be focusing. In these sympathetic comics, the reader/observer is asked to inhabit the space of the artist/writer, bringing them closer to the other players in the comic creation and reception dynamic.

Perhaps the most mainstream example of ESBs being used to elicit sympathy comes from The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #45 (1967) by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. A panel featuring ESBs belonging to Spider-Man and other characters ( FIG 25 ) reads, “Another mighty marvel first! Knowing how titanically [sic] talented our riotous readers are, we’re leaving this panel for you to write your own dialogue!” (Lee). In this case, the ESB allows the reader/observer already performing the double vision of interpreting graphic narrative to inhabit the double role of author and other. Another example of “Do It Yourself” sympathetic comics can be found in a 1970 Begats strip by Joe Dennett ( FIG 26 ). The strip proceeds as normal until the last panel, in which there are ESBs for each character and text that reads, “YOU readers! Fill in what our friends are saying!” (Dennett). In both cases, the reader/observer is addressed directly and called to interact with the comic. 

ESBs are so useful for affecting sympathetic reactions in the reader/observer that even non-cartoonists use them. Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander’s 2004 palimpsestic series of acrylic painted comic book pages for instance uses ESBs to speak out against Disney’s comic book series Zé Carioca ( FIG 27 ). Neuenschwander’s decision to paint over the pages’ cliched caricatures of everyday Brazilians and thereby empty their speech balloons enables an abstraction that “offers viewers a clean slate to imagine their own stories and dialogues” (MoMA). All that remains of the prescribed comic book pages are ESBs on plainly colored background panels, enabling and inviting the viewers’ projections as they write their own stories. Columbus, Ohio artist Felicia Dunson—also known as FDZ Graffiti—similarly uses ESBs throughout her work. When interviewed about her use of ESBs, she told me: “if you’re paying attention, you can’t help but fill that empty space in” (Dunson). 

Reviewer Branden W. Joseph tells us that in John Wilcock’s The Autobiography and Sex Life of Andy Warhol (2010) “the place[s] where an interview with the artist might have appeared, Wilcock cleverly inserted an image of Warhol (appropriated from the cover of Coplans’s book) and added an empty speech balloon issuing forth from his mouth” (Joseph 105-6). Joseph contends that this page ( FIG 28 ) is not in fact a sympathetic device but is rather a way of “reinforcing the impression that Warhol had nothing to say on his own behalf, that there was, behind the surface, nothing there” (105). This example forces the question of whether authorial intent or reader/observer reception is what makes an ESB antipathetic, empathetic, sympathetic, or something still uncharted. There are many more examples of sympathetic comics that are for the express purpose of eliciting sympathetic responses. The “cartoon test”—in which the test subject is given an ESB in some form and asked to fill it in—has been and is still being used by people across a wide variety of fields and motivations, including educators (Gainer et al., Pearce), communication designers (Lee, Ji), doctors (Ferguson et al. 363), and more. While the ESB looks like a simple anomaly of comic convention, it has been used in a variety of ways to convey different kinds of silences and the many shades of meaning therein. In this way, ESBs uncover the self-reflexivity central to the comic medium and cause us to question notions of speech itself. ESBs are used to convey both an inability to put sound into the world and an inability to take sound from it, silences caused by mental and physical factors, active and passive silences, silences that elicit empathy, antipathy, or sympathy, and likely much more. These silences, though visually similar, are thoroughly unique. Uses of ESBs express an abundance of meanings in keeping with an aesthetic tradition of negation. As they break the traditional comic syntax, they show themselves to really be a central convention of the medium that can represent all of comic language. Fortunately, as W.J.T. Mitchell and Art Spiegelman have said, comics have an “unrivalled capacity to reflect on their own status as an infinitely flexible medium” (20). We must make use of this capacity to reflect on the ESB. 

If it is indeed true that, as scholar Tom Gunning has claimed, “the power of comics lies in their ability to derive movement from stillness” (40), then continuing to unlock the secrets of the ESB would help amplify that power. There are many comic artists who have used ESBs to signify additional kinds of silences than those explored here; researching them would give us a more complete understanding of this elusive graphic narrative device and of the comic medium in general. This soundless yet resonant space warrants further study, and we must brave the emptiness and uncertainty to break the silence that surrounds it.

[1]  Named as such to make central the constant “double vision” the consumer of the comic medium must perform while interacting with the image and the text.

[2] The ESBs in this work were primarily discovered and analyzed through the available online collection of original artworks in the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, operated by The Ohio State University. Because the ESB is not yet a searchable tag in databases, it was necessary to consult each image individually. It is my hope that this work will help make ESBs a searchable tag in the future.

[3] For example, in reading this work in conjunction with the comic panels inside it, you yourself are an R/O.

[4] “For information on the “Me Too” movement, please visit https://metoomvmt.org/ . 

[5] Readers can find this round table panel by using the following link:  https://themiddlespaces.com/2019/04/09/seeing-sounds-part-one/?fbclid=IwAR1nViqQCfA-Up9piBRJn8pWK48n7gz3TGRoF40V13fP36_mNFJ-px0ebyc

Works Cited

Anderson, Nick. The 90’s [Everything’s about nothing]. 1998. Used with permission from the Nick Anderson Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, The Ohio State University.

Appleton, Catherine, and Kerry Mallan. “Filling the Silence: Giving Voice to Gender Violence in Una’s Graphic Novel Becoming Unbecoming.” International Research in Children’s Literature , vol. 11, no. 1, 2018, pp. 47-64.

Bell, Cece. El Deafo . Amulet Books, 2017.

Breen, Steve. Actually, His Message Could Use a Little Cohesion . 7 May 2004. Used with permission from the Jimmy Margulies Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, The Ohio State University.

Brooks, Charles G. Clarence ‘Ducky’ Nash. 22 Feb, 1985. Used with permission from Charles Brooks Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, The Ohio State University.

Carrier, David. The Aesthetics of Comics . The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.

Carson, Anne. Economy of the Unlost: Reading Simonides of Keos With Paul Celan (Martin Classical Lectures. New Series) . Princeton University Press, 1999.

Chute, Hillary L., and Patrick Jagoda. “Special Issue: Comics & Media.” Critical Inquiry , vol. 40, no. 3, 2014, pp. 1-10.

Daley, Jason. “Ancient Comics Line This Roman-Era Tomb in Jordan”. Smithsonian Magazine . Sept. 27th, 2018.

Dennett, Joe. Begats. 1970. Used with permission from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection and Records, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Ferguson, Shirley M., and Et al. “Perception of Humor in Patients With Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: A Cartoon Test as an Indicator of Neuropsychological Deficit.” Archives of General Psychiatry , vol. 21, no. 3, 1 Sept. 1969, p. 363.

Gainer, Jesse, et al. “The Elementary Bubble Project: Exploring Critical Media Literacy in a Fourth-Grade Classroom”. Vol. 62, 8, The Reading Teacher , 2009.

Gunning, Tom. “The Art of Succession.” Critical Inquiry , vol. 40, no. 3, 2014, pp. 36-51.

Hull, Kerry Michael. “Verbal Art and Performance in Ch’orti’ and Maya Hieroglyphic Writing”. The University of Texas at Austin . 2003. Page 341. 

Joseph, Branden W. “One-Dimensional Man.” Art Journal , vol. 57, no. 4, 1998, pp. 105– 109.

Kammerud, Jim. Voiceless . 27 April, 1984. Used with permission from the Jim Kammerud Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Kelly, Walt. Pogo . 24 July, 1959. Used with permission from The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Lee, Ji. Talk Back: The Bubble Project. Mark Batty Publisher, 2006. 

Lee, Stan and Romita, John. “The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #45”. Marvel . 1967.

Lewis, A. David. “Seeing Sounds / Hearing Pictures – A Round Table on Sound & Comics (Part One)”. The Middle Spaces , June 4 th , 2019. https://themiddlespaces.com/2019/04/09/seeing-sounds-part-one/ .

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics (The Invisible Art). HarperCollins Publishers. 1993.

Merriam-Webster. “What’s the difference between ‘sympathy’ and ’empathy’?” https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/sympathy-empathy-difference#:~:text=Empathy%20Difference,do%20not%20necessarily%20share%20them .

Mitchell, W.J.T., and Art Spiegelman. “Public Conversation: What the %$#! Happened to Comics? WJT Mitchell and Art Spiegelman.” Critical Inquiry , vol. 40, no. 3, 2014, pp. 20-35.

MoMA. 2007. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/94491

Oliphant, Tim. Suzann Says. 29 Jan. 1992. Used with permission from the Mark J. Cohen and Rose Marie McDaniel Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

O’Malley, Bryan Lee. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness. Oni Press , 2012.

Pearce, Glenn. “’Ehrr … What’s Up Doc?’: Using Cartoon Tests to Evaluate Educational Drama Programmes.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance , vol. 8, no. 2, 2003, pp. 157–169.

Rechin, Bill. Crock. 14 April, 1986. Used with permission from the Tim Rosenthal Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Ritter, Mike. The Limitations of Air Power…”Would I lie to you, baby?”. 24 Mar, 1999. Used with permission from the Michael Ritter Papers and Collection of Original Art, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Ritter, Mike. Feingold-McCain Speech Police . 2003. Used with permission from the Michael Ritter Papers and Collection of Original Art, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Roth, Arnold. [man eats bird]. Used with permission from the Arnold Roth Deposit Collection, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, The Ohio State University.

Sava, Oliver. “Hawkeye #19 Uses Deafness to Help a Broken Clint Barton Find His Voice”, 2014. https://aux.avclub.com/hawkeye-19-uses-deafness-to-help-a-broken-clint-barton- 1798270866 .

Senn, Jan. “12 Fast Facts About Cece Bell.” Kent State Magazine . Friday, Oct. 4, 2019. www.kent.edu/magazine/CeceBell .

Sowa, Marzena. Little Carp (Marzi #1) . Dupuis, 2010. 

Una. Becoming Unbecoming . Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016.

Winn, Steven. “’Silence’ at Berkeley Art Museum.” SFGate , San Francisco Chronicle, 23 Jan. 2013. www.sfgate.com/art/article/Silence-at-Berkeley-Art-Museum-4217821.php.

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💬 Meaning – Speech Balloon Emoji

Random emoji

How to type speech balloon emoji.

There are number of methods to type Speech Balloon Emoji. Easiest way is to copy & paste, but other methods, like windows alt-codes and HTML-entities (for web sites) are also popular enough.

You may use this Copy and Paste Emoji List to copy/type emoji one-by-one or this Online Emoji Keyboard to write all your message at one time and copy it when finished.

Copy and paste 💬 emoji

It's very easy to get Speech Balloon Emoji both on computer and mobile without any emoji keyboard installed. All you need is to select, copy and paste this symbol: . Select this like a regular text, and copy to the clipboard. After doing that, switch to another website or application and paste emoji using context menu or keyboard. Hint: use Ctrl/Cmd+C keys to copy, and Ctrl/Cmd+V to paste emoji.

Even if emoji symbol or smiley looks like a black square or question mark, it most probably will be converted into appropriate image by web site or application where you paste it.

To avoid misunderstandings, first carefully read 💬 meaning and look at 💬 pictures before sending it to somebody: some emoji don't mean what you think they mean ;-)

Speech Balloon Emoji HTML-entities

HTML entites are intended for using on websites. You can put Speech Balloon Emoji html entity code in decimal or hexadecimal form right in your message, and it will be translated into graphical representation of Speech Balloon Emoji after you submit.

💬 emoji Alt-codes for Windows

• Press and hold Alt key on keyboard.
• Hit the Plus ( + ) button on numeric keypad .
• Type the hexadecimal Unicode value digit-by-digit
• Now release the Alt key and you'll see your character.

Note 1. This method works only for unicode codepoints U+0ffff and bellow.

Note 2. If this trick does not work, you should check some settings in your Windows Registry. If you don't know what the Registry is, please don't try this! Run regedit.exe and navigate to the HKEY_Current_User/Control Panel/Input Method branch. Add EnableHexNumpad key with type of REG_SZ and set it to "1" . You may need to log off and back on to enable this input type.

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What Are Speech Balloons? Meaning And Types Of This Tool

SPEECH BALLOONS – In this topic, we will now know and discuss a visual tool known as speech balloons and some of its following types.

A speech balloon is a visual tool that is used to represent speech, dialogue, or conversation of characters in comics. It is also known as speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, and word balloons.

There are different types of this tool that is used depending on the emotion the character conveys, the nature or manner of delivery, and the source of the speech or sound.

Here are the following types, according to a file by Bexz Golicruz on Scribd .

• The most common which is used for normal character dialogue representing the regular conversational tone of people.
• This balloon is used to visually represent the thought of characters. It is shaped like a cloud and its tail is a line of circles.
• This jagged-shaped balloon is used to visualize screaming and shouting dialogues. The fonts used in the balloon is usually larger, bolder and capitalized.
• This balloon is used to represent words coming out of an electronic device such as a radio, television, or more. It can take the form of a normal or jagged circle and has a lightning shaped tail.
• This usually takes the form of a balloon with a dashed outline or a greyed-cut or opaque speech balloons. Used to represent a whisper or a weak sound or a whisper as the name suggests.

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What does speech balloon mean?

Definitions for speech balloon speech bal·loon, this dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word speech balloon ., did you actually mean scaphosepalum , wikipedia rate this definition: 0.0 / 0 votes.

Speech balloon

Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a character's speech or thoughts. A formal distinction is often made between the balloon that indicates speech and the one that indicates thoughts; the balloon that conveys thoughts is often referred to as a thought bubble or conversation cloud.

Wikidata Rate this definition: 0.0 / 0 votes

Speech balloons are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics and cartoons to allow words to be understood as representing the speech or thoughts of a given character in the comic. There is often a formal distinction between the balloon that indicates thoughts and the one that indicates words spoken aloud: the balloon that conveys subjective thoughts is often referred to as a thought bubble.

How to pronounce speech balloon?

Alex US English David US English Mark US English Daniel British Libby British Mia British Karen Australian Hayley Australian Natasha Australian Veena Indian Priya Indian Neerja Indian Zira US English Oliver British Wendy British Fred US English Tessa South African

How to say speech balloon in sign language?

Chaldean Numerology

The numerical value of speech balloon in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

Pythagorean Numerology

The numerical value of speech balloon in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

• ^  Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_Balloon
• ^  Wikidata https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=speech balloon

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💬 Meaning – Speech Balloon Emoji

The 💬 meaning is Speech Balloon. It is also known as Speaking, Chat Bubble and Speech Bubble. The emoji is a typical speech bubble known from comics. Depending on the platform, the bubble is displayed round or square. In the speech bubble there are 3 points, which are either black or blue. But what can you express with the 💬 emoji? In principle, it stands for speaking. For example, you can ask someone to have a conversation with you. You could write: “We have to 💬” Another way is to branch that you are currently in an important conversation and therefore can you not write with him/her. You could write: “Sry, just no time, have an important 💬 with my boss” This emoji was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 and thus in 2010 and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.

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Chet Hanks clarifies meaning of 'White Boy Summer' after release of hate speech report

Chet Hanks is speaking out after a viral catchphrase he coined has been adopted by extremist groups.

Hanks, who popularized the term “White Boy Summer,” issued a lengthy statement on his Instagram page Wednesday after a recent report from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) found the phrase has “escalated into a powerful global call-to-action for far-right recruitment, protest, and violence.”

“White boy summer was created to be fun, playful and a celebration of fly white boys who love beautiful queens of every race,” Hanks wrote.

Hanks has been publicly using the phrase “White Boy Summer” as early as 2021 , even releasing a rap song by the same name . The term is most likely a play on the phrase “Hot Girl Summer,” which was popularized by rapper Megan Thee Stallion in her 2019 hit featuring Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign .

'Holy cow!': Tom Hanks asks son Chet to fill him in on Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef

GPAHE , a social-justice nonprofit dedicated to “tackling systemic problems rooted in hate in our governments and societies,” stated in its Tuesday report that Hanks’ “White Boy Summer” has become a slogan for “white supremacists and neo-Nazis.”

“Several extremist groups including the Proud Boys, White Lives Matter, the Identitarian movement in Europe and neo-Nazi Active Clubs are all using ‘White Boy Summer’ to spread propaganda, recruit new members and facilitate targeted hate campaigns including acts of vandalism and hate incidents,” GPAHE wrote.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by 🏔𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗧 𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗞𝗦 🧞‍♂️ (@chethanx)

Chet Hanks condemns use of ‘White Boy Summer’ for ‘hate or biogtry’

Hanks, son of actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson , further clarified the meaning of “White Boy Summer” in his Instagram post.

While not addressing the GPAHE report directly, Hanks slammed the use of his catchphrase in any harmful rhetoric.

'A double-edged sword': Chet Hanks opens up about fame, growing up as Tom Hanks' son

“Anything else that it has been twisted into to support any kind of hate or bigotry against any group of people is deplorable and I condemn it,” Hanks wrote. “I hope that we all can spread love to each other and treat each other with kindness and dignity.”

Hanks recently used the phrase in a May 20 Instagram post , captioning a selfie with the hashtag #WBS.

Nonprofit behind ‘White Boy Summer’ report responds to Chet Hanks

In an update to its report Wednesday, GPAHE responded to Hanks’ Instagram statement on the meaning of “White Boy Summer.”

The organization maintained that the phrase has “been transformed into a rallying cry for white supremacist groups who are using it to spread propaganda, recruit members and incite violence against marginalized communities,” regardless of Hanks’ original intent.

“Chet Hanks posted that ‘White Boy Summer’ was never intended for hateful actions. But the fact remains that it has been co-opted by far-right extremists to promote hate and bigotry,” GPAHE wrote. “This underscores the profound social responsibility that public figures bear in their words and actions.

“The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism emphasizes the need for those with powerful platforms to remain vigilant against irresponsible statements that can be used for tools of hate and division.”

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Biden kicks off NATO summit with highly scrutinized speech

Asma Khalid

Mary Louise Kelly

President Biden kicks off a NATO summit with a speech. It will be scrutinized because of questions about whether he's still up to the job.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

Remarks by President   Biden in Press   Conference

Walter E. Washington Convention Center Washington, D.C.

7:27 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hey, everybody.  Thank you.  Please be seated.

Well, good evening.  We just concluded this year’s NATO Summit.  And the consensus among the members was it was a great success.  It was especially momentous because it represented the 75th year of the most important military defense alliance in the world’s hi- — the history of the world.

We should never forget that NATO grew out of the wreckage of World War II, the most destructive war in history.  The idea was to create an alliance of free and democratic nations that would commit themselves to a compact of collective defense.  Standing together, they knew we’d all be safer.  An attack on one would be treated as an attack on all. 

And it’s worked because a would-be aggressor knows if they attack one of us, they’ll be attacked by all of us.  Sending that message is the best way to deter aggression and prevent wars in the first place.

For those who thought NATO’s time had passed, they got a rude awakening when Putin invaded Ukraine.  Some of the oldest and deepest fears in Europe roared back to life because, once again, a murderous madman was on the march.

But this time, no one cowered in appeasement, especially the United States.  We collected intelligence that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine months before the invasion.  I de- — I directed the intelligence community to be decl- — a significant amount of intelligence to be declassified so I could start building an international coalition to oppose the invasion.

Then, in February, some of you remember, I warned the world that the invasion was imminent.  I rallied a coalition of 50 nations from Europe to Asia to help Ukraine defend itself. 

My foreign polic- — ma- — many foreign policy experts thought, as Putin amassed Russian forces just 100 miles north of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine — but he thought — he, Putin, thought it was the mother home of Russia — the capital would fall in less than a week.  

But the Ukrainian people, backed by a coalition I helped build, stopped them.  Today, Kyiv still stands.  And NATO stands stronger than it has ever been.

During the week of this summit, several head of states made it a point in their statements to thank the United States and to thank me personally for all that NATO has achieved.  NATO is not only stronger, NATO is bigger because we led the charge to bring in Finland and Sweden into the Alliance, and it makes a gigantic difference. 

(Clears throat.)  Excuse me.

Meanwhile, my predecessor has made it clear he has no commitment to NATO.  He’s made it clear that he would feel no obligation to ho- — honor Article 5.  He has already told Putin, and I quote, “do whatever the hell you want.” 

In fact, the day after Putin invaded Ukraine, here’s what he said: It was “genius.”  It was “wonderful.”  Some of you forgot that, but that’s exactly what he said.

But I’ve made it clear, a strong NATO is essential to American security.  And I believe the obligation of Article 5 is sacred. 

And I would remind all Americans, Article 5 was in- — invoked only once in NATO’s long history, and that was to defend America after 9/11.

I made it clear that I will not bow down to Putin.  I will not walk away from Ukraine.  I will keep NATO strong.  That’s exactly what we did and exactly what we’ll continue to do.

Now the future of American policy is up to the American people.  This is much more than a political question.  It’s more than that.  It’s a national security issue.

Don’t reduce this to the usual testament that people talk about — the issues of being a political campaign.  It’s far too important.

It’s about the world we will live in for decades to come.  Every American must ask herself or himself: Is the world safer with NATO?  Are you safer?  Is your family safer?

I believe the American people know the answer to all those questions is “yes.”  And I believe the American people understand that America is stronger — stronger because of our alliances.  I believe the American consensus from Truman to Reagan to me still holds today.

America cannot retreat from the world.  It must lead the world.  We’re an indispensable nation, as Madeleine Albright wrote.

Now let me turn to three other key issues. 

Just this morning we had a great economic report showing inflation is down.  Overall, prices fell last month.  Core inflation is the lowest it’s been in three years.  Prices are falling for cars, appliances, and airfare — airfares.  Grocery prices have fallen since the start of the year. 

We’re going to keep working to take down corporate greed to bring those prices down further.

Meanwhile, Trump is calling for a 10 percent tariff on everything Americans buy, including food from overseas, vegetables, and other necessities.  And economists tell us that that would cost the average American working family another $2,500 a year.  It’s a tax of $2,500 a year.

Second, our efforts to secure the border — our southern border is working.  After Trump killed the bipartisan efforts to secure the border Reb- — Republicans and Democrats had worked on, because he thought it would benefit me and make him a loser, Republicans walked away.  So, I took executive action last month.

As a consequence, working with Mexico, border encounters have gone down over 50 percent.  The current level is lower today than when Trump left office.

Third, for months, the United States has been working to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, to bring the hostages home, to create a path for peace and stability in the Middle East.

Six weeks ago, I laid out a detailed plan in writing.  It was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, the G7.  That framework is now agreed on by both Israel and Hamas.  So, I sent my team to the region to hammer out the details.

These are difficult, complex issues.  There are still gaps to close, but we’re making progress, the trend is positive, and I’m determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now. 

Let me conclude where I began. 

We’re the United States of America.  We are the indispensable nation.  Our leadership matters.  Our partnerships matter.  This moment matters.  We must rise to meet it. 

With that, I’ll take your questions.  I’ve been given a list of people to call on here. 

Reuters, Jeff Mason. 

Q    Mr. President, your political future has hung over the NATO Summit a little bit this week.  Speaker Pelosi made a point of suggesting that your decision on whether to stay in the race was still open.  George Clooney and a handful- — a handful of lawmakers have called on you to step aside.  Reuters is reporting tonight that UAW leadership is concerned about your ability to win.

THE PRESIDENT:  UAW en- — just endorsed me.  But go ahead. 

Q    Thank you.  My question for you is: How are you incorporating these developments into your decision to stay? 

And separately, what concerns do you have about Vice President Harris’s ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?

THE PRESIDENT:  Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump [Harris] to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president.  So, let’s start there.  Number one. 

The fact is that — the consideration is that I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president.  I beat him once, and I will beat him again. 

Secondly, the idea — I served in the Senate a long time.  The idea that senators and congressmen running for office worry about the ticket is not unusual. 

And I might add, there were at least five presidents running or incumbent presidents who had lower numbers than I have now later in the campaign.  So, there’s a long way to go in this campaign. 

And so, I — I’m just going to keep moving.  Keep moving and — because, look, I got more work to do.  We’ve got more work to finish.  There’s so much — we’ve made so much progress.  Think about it. 

Think about where we are economically relative to the rest of the world.  Name me a world leader who wouldn’t want to trade places with our economy.  We’ve created over 800,000 manufacturing jobs, 1.5 million — I mean, so things are moving. 

We got more to go.  Working-class people still have — need help.  Corporate greed is still at large.  There are — prices — the corporate profits have doubled since the pandemic.  They’re coming down. 

And so, I’m optimistic about where things are going. 

Danny Kemp, AFP.

Q    Thanks.  Thank you, Mr. President.  I wanted to ask you about your — you mixed up Presidents Zelenskyy and Putin earlier today.  The — 

THE PRESIDENT:  (Laughs.)

Q    And you now have sort of your key allies — including the British prime minister, the president of France, and the German chancellor — having to step in and make excuses for you on that.  Officials here are saying off the record that your decline has become noticeable.  Hasn’t this now, frankly, become damaging for America’s standing in the world?  Thank you. 

THE PRESIDENT:  Did you see any damage to our standing in my leading this conference?  Have you seen a more successful conference?  What do you think? 

And the mo- — the Putin piece, I was talking about Putin, and I said, “And now” — at the very end, I said, “Here” — I mean, “Putin.”  And I said, “Oh, no.  I’m sorry, Zelenskyy.”  And then I — I added five other names.

Look, guys, the idea anybody suggests that — that we haven’t had an incredibly successful conference — how many times did you hear in that conference s- — I know it sounds too self-serving — but other leaders, heads of state, in thanking me saying, “The reason we’re together is because of Biden, because Biden did the following.” 

Look, folks, this is a —

Well, anyway.  I — I thought it was the most successful conference I’ve attended a long time.  And find me a world leader who didn’t think it was. 

Next one.  Sorry.  Nancy Cordes, CBS.

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  You mentioned there are instances in history where presidents have faced a challenge, but what makes this moment in history so unique is that it is not your enemies who are calling on you to reconsider your decision to stay in the race.  It’s your friends, supporters, people who think you’ve done a great job over the past four years. 

Have you spent time thinking about what it would mean for your legacy, which you’ve worked decades to build, if you stay in the race despite the concerns that voters say they have, and you lose to someone who you yourself have argued is unfit to return to the Oval Office?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, look, I’m not in this for my legacy.  I’m in this to complete the job I started.

As you recall, understandably, many of you and many economists thought my initial initi- — initiatives that I put forward — “Can’t do that.  It’s going to cause inflation.  Things are going to skyrocket.  The debt is going to go up.” 

What are you hearing now from mainstream economists?  Sixteen economic Nobel laureates said I’ve done a hell of a job, that under my plans so far and what’s going to happen in the future if I — if I’m reelected, that things are going to get much better.  Our economy is growing.

I was determined when I got elected to stop the trickle-down economic theory that if the wealthy did very well, everybody else would do well.  My dad was a well-read, decent guy.  I don’t remember much trickling down on his kitchen table.

Middle-class people and working-class people need help.  And so, what happened is I decided to implement — was able to implement as president what I believed when I was a senator.  And that is that the way to build this economy is from the middle out and the bottom up.  That way, we grow the economy and the wealthy still do very well.  They do fine.

And guess what?  Find me an economi- — a mainstream economist who said we haven’t done well.  What have we not done that isn’t working right now?

And so, we got more to do, though.  We got to finish the job.

And, by the way, I come from the corporate state of the world.  Delaware has more corporations than an- — you know, registered in Delaware than every other state in the — in the nation combined.

I’m not anti-corporate.  But corporate — corporate profits have doubled since the pandemic — doubled.  It’s time things get back in order a little bit.  It’s time — for example, if I’m reelected, we’re going to make sure that rents are kept at 5 percent increase, cor- — corporate rents for cor- — apartments and the like and homes are limited to 5 percent.

We’re going to make a lot of changes that I’ve been talking about, because we’re going to continue to grow this economy.

And, by the way, I know — remember how I got so roundly criticized for being so pro-union — not labor — union — union?  Well, guess what?  I’ve been the most pro-union labor president in history.  Not a joke.

And guess what?  We had the Treasury Department do a study.  When unions do better, everybody does better.  Everybody does better.

And we talk about how, for example — and when I went — remember when we talked about getting the computer chip industry back in the United States?  Used to be 40 percent of the industry.  We invented the chip.  Forty percent of the industry was in the United States. 

And former presidents decided that the best way to do it is find the cheapest labor in the world, send the product over there, and import what the product was.

And so, what — what did I do?  I was told not to go over to Europe — I mean, to Asia — including Europe, but Asia.  And I remember going to South Korea, convincing them to invest $20 billion in the United States to build compu- — computer chip factories.

And I asked why, when they finally decided to do it.  And the answer was: Because you have the safest economy in the world and you have the best workers in the world.

So, the whole idea here is we’ve — we’ve invest- — there’s over $50 billion in investment in computer chip manufacturing just coming into being.  And none of you thought that would happen.  None of you thought that would happen.  But it’s happening.  It’s happening.

And that’s going to grow economies all through — and, by the way, red states and blue states — manufactures as much in red states as in blue states.  I’ve made no distinction.

So, my generic point is that the idea that we can’t continue to build and grow the economy, make it fair — and like I said, from my standpoint, when the middle class does well, that’s when the whole economy grows.  The poor have a shot; the wealthy do well.  But the wealthy got to start paying their taxes.

Q    As a follow-up, sir, you mentioned that your vice president, Kamala Harris, would be ready to serve on day one.  Can you elaborate on that?  What is it about her attributes and her accomplishments over the last four years that make her ready to serve on day one, if necessary?

THE PRESIDENT:  First of all, the way she’s handled the issue of freedom of women’s bodies — to have control over their bodies.

Secondly, her ability to handle almost any issue on the board.  This was a hell of a prosecutor.  She was a first-rate person in — and in the Senate, she was really good.

I wouldn’t have picked her unless I thought she was qualified to be president from the very beginning.  I made no bones about that.  She is qualified to be president.  That’s why I picked her.

Felicia Schwartz, Financial Times.

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  Presidency is the most straining job in the world, and it’s 24/7.  How can you say you’ll be up for that next year, in two years, in four years given the limits you’ve acknowledged that you have today?

THE PRESIDENT:  The limits I’ve acknowledged I have?

Q    There’s been reporting that you’ve acknowledged that you need to go to bed earlier, end your evening around 8:00.

THE PRESIDENT:  That’s not true.  Look — (laughs) — what I said was: Instead of my every day starting at 7:00 and going to bed at midnight, it’d be smarter for me to pace myself a little more.  And I said — for example, the 8:00, 7:00, 6:00 stuff — instead of starting a fundraiser at 9 o’clock, start at 8 o’clock.  People get to go home at 10 o’clock.  That’s what I’m talking about.

I’m not talking about — and if you looked at my schedule since I’ve — since I made that stupid mistake of — in the campaign — in the — in the debate, I mean, my schedule has been full bore. 

I’ve done — where’s — and where’s Trump been?  Riding around in his golf cart, filling out his scorecard before he hits the ball?

I mean, look, he’s vir- — done virtually nothing.  And I have — I don’t know how many — I’ve — don’t hold me to it — rou- — roughly 20 major events, some of them with thousands of people showing up.

And so, I just think it’s better.  I always have an — an in- — inclination, whether I was playing sports or doing politics, just to keep going, not stop. 

I just got to just pace myself a little more — pace myself. 

And the next debate, I’m not going to be traveling into 15 time zones a week before.  (Laughs.) 

Anyway, that — that’s what it was about.  That’s what it was about.

And, by the way, even with that, I love my staff, but they add things.  They add things all the time at the very end.  I’m catching hell from my wife for that.

I’m sorry.  Zeke Miller, Associated Press.

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  Two questions for you.  First, on the NATO Summit.  President Zelenskyy, in your meeting with him, he pressed you to lift your limitations on the Ukrainian use of American weapons, saying that — in his public remarks afterwards, saying that Ukraine cannot win the war unless those limitations are lifted.  Are you con- — reconsidering your position on that?

And then, secondly, following up on Felicia’s question there.  Leaders of your own party have said that they are not worried about that debate; they’re worried about the next bad night and the bad night after that.  How can you reassure the American people that you are up to the task and that there won’t be more bad nights at a debate stage or somewhere else?

THE PRESIDENT:  The first thing about Zelenskyy asking for the ability to strike deep into Russia: We have allowed Zelenskyy to use American weapons in the near-term, in the near-abroad into Russia.  Whether or not he has — we should be — he should be attacked — for example, should Zelenskyy — he’s not, but if he had the capacity to strike Moscow, strike the Kremlin, would that make sense?  It wouldn’t.

The question is: What’s the best use of the weaponry he has and the weaponry we’re getting to him?  I’ve gotten him more HIMAR- — I got him more long-range capacity as well as defensive capacity. 

And so, our military is worki- — I’m following the advice of my commander in chief — my — my — of the — the chief of staff of the military as well as the secretary of Defense and our intelligence people.  And we’re making a day-to-day basis on what they should and shouldn’t g- — how far they should go in.  That’s a logical thing to do.

Second question related to —

Q    Bad nights — bad night, sir.  How can you reassure the American people that you won’t have more bad nights, whether they’d be on a debate stage or it’s a matter of foreign policy?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I tell you what, the best way to assure them is the way I assure myself, and that is: Am I getting the job done?  Am I getting the job done?

Can you name me somebody who’s gotten more major pieces of legislation passed in three and a half years?  I got — I created 2,000 jobs just last week.  So, if I slow down and I can’t get the job done, that’s a sign that I shouldn’t be doing it.  But there’s no indication of that yet.  None.

Who do we got here?  Marek, Polskie Radio.

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  How are you?

THE PRESIDENT:  I’m well.

Q    The elections in the U.S. have consequences around the world.  You have pretty high standing in Europe.  I just asked President Macron about you, and he said, “We are happy to have him as the president of the United States.”  But there is a concern.  Many people in Poland and across Europe are worried that the former president may win the election.  And there’s a lot of concern that Donald Trump may weaken NATO, stop supporting Ukraine, or push Ukraine to give up territories to Russia.

THE PRESIDENT:  They’re correct.

Q    And your- — yourself was warning just two minutes ago about it.  So, my question is: Do you think that Europe will be left on its own if Donald Trump wins the election?  And what’s your advice to European leaders to prepare for possible U.S. disengagement?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, look, I think — how can I say this without sounding too self-serving?  I’m not having any of my European allies come up to me and say, “Joe, don’t run.”  What I hear them say is, “You’ve got to win.  You can’t let this guy come forward.  He’d be a disaster.  He’d be a disaster.” 

I mean, I think he said at one of his rallies — don’t hold me to this — recently where NATO — “I just learned about NATO” or something to that effect. 

Foreign policy has never been his strong point.  And he seems to have an affinity to people who are authoritarian.  That worries — as I don’t tell you, from Poland — that worries Europe.  That worries Poland.  And nobody, including the people of Poland, think that if he wins in Ukraine, he’s going to stop in Ukraine, that that’s going to be the end of it. 

And so, what I can say is I think I am the best qualified person to do the job, to make sure that Ukraine is not fall — that Ukraine succeeds, that the European alliance stays strong.

You may recall, no one was talking about Finland joining NATO.  I remember talking to Putin in — when — right after we got elected, in Geneva.  And he was talking about what we should do — he — what we couldn’t have — be in Eastern Europe, et cetera.  And I said, “You’re looking for the Finlandization of Ukraine.”  I said, “You’re going to get to NATOization of Finland.”

And about four weeks later, I got a call — that — that’s not true — probably five months later — from the president Finland, could he come and see me.  Becau- — in my office, I had — I invited him to the Oval Office.  We sat down and talked.  He said he wanted to join NATO, could I help.  And I did.  It wasn’t automatic.

And then I got a call from the Swedes.

(An audience member’s laptop computer plays audio.)

THE PRESIDENT:  I beg your pardon?

Q    It was a recording.

THE PRESIDENT:  And so, Finland joined NATO.  Eight-hundred-mile border — it’s a significant — and they were already allies, but they weren’t part of NATO.

And you heard — I think you hear- — maybe — I can’t recall if he said it publicly or in our — in a closed meeting, but he wouldn’t mind it being repeated.  He said, “We decided in Finland — the people of Finland decided they had to be part of NATO.  It was in our interest, because of the joint ability to be together, to dissuade any attack on Finland.  And the same thing with — with Sweden.  It took a lot of selling to some folks, particularly in Turkey and other places, to agree to the expansion. 

But it expanded, and we’re a hell of a lot stronger because of it.  We’re more secure because of it. 

And, by the way, I was able to get 50 other nations — 50 — five-zero — to support Ukraine.  Fifty.  And we were able to bring about a coalition between — in — of Europe and Asia — Japan and South Korea.

I just met with — we’ve talked about AUKUS and we talked about the relationship between Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, the United States.  We’re making the world safer and stronger, because we have to deal with a new arrangement that exists in the world. 

The Cold War is over.  The post-war era is over.  What is going to replace it?

And I respectfully suggest, I have a pretty good idea of what that should be.  I’ve convinced a lot of people to follow it, and we’re just going to get stronger.

David Sanger.  Where is —

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT:  Be nice, David. 

Q    Mr. President, the NATO declaration that was issued yesterday ha- — was very notable because it described China as a “decisive enabler” of the war in Ukraine for its provision of critical goods to the Russians.  That’s part of a broader partnership that seems to have cemented in place in the past two or three years.  I think one that you were a little bit doubtful of when we asked you about it some time ago. 

So, I’d be interested to know whether you have a strategy now of trying to interrupt the partnership between China and Russia, and whether or not in a second term you would pursue that, if you could describe that strategy to us. 

And along the way, could you also tell us whether you think — just to follow up on Felicia’s question — that if you were in a room with Vladimir Putin, again, the way you were three years ago, or with President Xi, that a few years from now, you will be able to go negotiate with them, handle them one on one?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, the first part of your question is, we discussed and I raised in the NATO Summit — and others raised — the future of China’s involvement, what they’re going to do — what they’re doing with Russia, in terms of accommodating, facilitating.  They’re — they’re getting access to additional — they’re not supplying — they’re not supplying weapons themselves; they’re supplying mechanisms for them to be able to get weapons.

And China’s position is basically — and I’ve spent more time with Xi Jinping than any world leader has — over 90 hours since being vice president and all the way through.  For real.  And, by the way, I handed in all my notes.

But my point is that Xi believes that China is a large enough market that they can entice any country, including European countries, to invest there in return for commitments to — from Europe to do A, B, C, or D, or not to do certain things.

What’s happened is, we had a long discussion about what we cannot — we have to make clear China has to understand that if they are supplying Russia with information and capacity, along with working with North Korea and others to help Russia in armament, that they’re not going to benefit economically as a consequence of that — by getting the kind of investment they’re looking for. 

And so, for example, we’re in a situation where when — and we’ve reestablished direct contact with China after that — remember the “balloon,” quote, unquote, going down and, all of a sudden, the thing came to an end?  Well, we set up a new mechanism.  There’s a direct line between Xi and me, and our military has direct access to one another, and they contact one another when we have problems.

The issue is that we have to make sure that Xi understands there’s a price to pay for undercutting both the Pacific Basin, as well as Europe, and as relates to Russia and dealing with Ukraine.

And so, we — for example, if you want to invest in China, as you know — you know this area really well.  If you want to invest in China, you have to — you have a 51 percent Chinese owner; you have to make sure that you do it by their rules; and you can’t — you don’t have the authority — and you have to provide all access to all the data and information you have. 

There was a while there, as you recall, in the last administration and other administrations, where the access to that market was enticive [enticing] enough to get companies to come in because they had access to over a billion people in the mar- — a — a market — not a billion, but a lot of people in the market.  And so, they were doing it. 

But that curtail — that got curtailed when we started saying we’re going to play by the same rules. 

For example, the idea they don’t abide by the international rules related to subsidizing products by the government funding.  So guess what?  They’re not going to be able to re- — export their electric vehicles to the United States without a significant tariff.  Others are doing the same thing around the world. 

But it is a concern.  It is a concern that you have both China, South Korea — I mean North Korea, Russia, Iran — countries that are not necessarily coordinated in the past — looking to figure out how they can have impact.

Q    Do you have a strategy to interrupt that impact?  To —

THE PRESIDENT:  Yes, I do, but I’m not prepared to talk about the detail of it in public.

And I think you’ll see that some of our European friends are going to be curtailing their invol- — investment in Russia — I mean, in — excuse me, in — in China, as long as China continues to have this indirect sic- — se- — help to Russia, in terms of being able to help their economy as well as — as well as help them in — as a consequence that their ability to fight in — in — in Ukraine. 

The other thing that we talked a lot about is that — and I raised it, and there wa- — I — I didn’t hear any — I can’t swear that everyone agreed, because not everybody got to talk about it.  But we haven’t — we need a new industrial policy in the West.  For example, we talked about how both the EU, as well as NATO, has to be able to begin to build their own munition capacity, has to be able to generate their own capacity to provide for weapons and the ability to — it came as a surprise to some of us how we had fallen behind in the West in terms of the ability to construct new materiel, new weaponry, and new — new — everything from — from vehicles to weapon systems. 

And so, one of the things that came out of this was — we’re going to be meeting again with a number of my colleagues — my European colleagues — is: What do we do to increase the capacity of the West, and particularly in Europe, and Japan to be able to generate kind of ability to produce their own weapons systems — not just for themselves but to be able to generate that?

It’s the same — this is — that’s what Russia is trying to figure out.  The- — they went to China, and they didn’t get the weapons, but then they went to North Korea. 

But we’re going to be in a position where the West is going to become the industrial base for it to be able to buil- — the — the ability to have all the defensive weapons that we need.   That was a discussion as well. 

Q    Mr. President, I’m not sure you answered on whether you would be ready to go deal with Putin and Xi two or three years from now.

THE PRESIDENT:  I’m ready to deal with them now and three years from now.

Look, the — like I said, I’m dealing with Xi right now, in direct contact with him. 

I have no good reason to talk to Putin right now.  There’s not much that he is prepared to do in terms of accommodating any change in his behavior. 

And — but there isn’t any world leader I’m not prepared to deal with.  But I — I understand the generic point is: Is Putin ready to talk?  I’m not ready to talk to Putin unless Putin is ready to change his be- — his behavior. 

And the idea — look, Putin has got a problem.  First of all, in this war that he has supposed to have won — and, by the way, I think — don’t hold me to the exact number, but I think that Russia had 17.3 percent of — of Ukraine that they’ve conquered.  Now it’s 17.4 — I mean, in terms of percentage of territory.

They’ve not been very successful.  They’ve called horrible damage and loss of life.  But they’ve also lost over 350,000 troops, military — killed or wounded.  They have over a million people, particularly young people with technical — technical capability, leaving Russia because they see no future there.  They’ve got a problem. 

But what they do have control of is they are very good at controlling and running the — the public outcry that relates to how they use mechanisms to communicate with people.  They lie like hell to their constituencies.  They lie like hell about what’s going on. 

And — and so, the idea that we’re going to be able to fundamentally change Russia in the near term is not likely.  But one thing for certain: If we allow Russia to succeed in Ukraine, they’re not stopping at Ukraine. 

I recommend — I know you know this because you’ve — you’ve written about it — read Putin’s speech after they moved in.  What it was all about — in Kyiv — it wasn’t about just — anyway, read what his objective is. 

And anyway, but — so, I — I think that I’m prepared to talk to any leader who wants to talk, including if Putin called me and he wanted to talk. 

Last time I talked to Putin was trying to get him to work on an arms control agreement related to nuclear weapons in space.  That didn’t go very far. 

So, my point is: I’m prepared to talk to anybody, but I don’t see any inclination.  There is an inclination on the part of the Chinese to keep in contact with me, because they’re not sure where this all goes. 

And look what’s happened in Asia.  We have strengthened the Asia and the Pacific area more than anyone else has.  We — you know, we just put together with — today, we — we had — we — I brought on — I asked the — our NATO Allies that we bring on the group from the South Pacific: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Australia — I — I already mentioned Australia.

And I met twice now, I think, with the 14 leaders of the Pacific Island nations, and we’ve slowed down what’s going on there.  We’ve slowed down China’s reach. 

But there’s a lot of work to do.  This is a moving target.  And I don’t take it lightly. 

Asam [Asma] from NPR. 

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  Asma Khalid with NPR.  I have two questions.  Earlier, you spoke about the ceasefire plan between Israel and Hamas.  We’re now looking at 10 months of war.  And I’m curious if there’s anything that you feel personally you wish you would have done differently over the course of the war. 

And then, secondly, if I may, I wanted to ask you about your presidential campaign.  I remember covering your campaign in 2020, and there was a moment where you referred to yourself as a quote, “bridge” candidacy, a transition to a younger generation of leaders.  I want to understand what changed.

THE PRESIDENT:  Two things.  Let’s — let’s go back to when you talked about would I have changed anything that’s happening with Israel and — and the Palestinians and the Palestinian movement. 

The answer is, as you recall, from the very beginning, I immediately — I went to Israel, but I also got in immediate contact El-Sisi in Egypt.  I met with the King of Jordan.  I met with — I met with most of the Arab leaders to try to get a consensus going as to what had to be done to deal with getting more aid and food and medicine into — in- — into the Gaza Strip. 

And we pushed it really hard.  And Israel occasionally was less than cooperative.  Number one.

The Israeli War Cabinet I’ve been — I’ve been de- — dealing with Israel since Golda Meir.  I — some — some of the reporters around here who cover me all the time have heard me say this: The last — first time I met with Golda Meir, I sat ne- — across from her and her desk, and her assistant was Rabin, sitting next to me.  That’s how far back I go. 

I know Israel well, and I support Israel.  But this War Cabinet is one of the most conservative War Cabinets in the history of — of Israel.  And there’s no ultimate answer other than a two-state solution here. 

And so, what was able to be done in terms of the orga- — the — the plan I put together was it would be a process for a two-state solution.  And we get the Arab nations to — particularly from Egypt all the way to Saudi Arabia to be in a position where they would cooperate in the transition so that they could keep the peace in Gaza without — without Israeli forces staying in Gaza. 

The question has been from the beginning: What’s the day after in Gaza?  And the day after in Gaza has to be — the end — the end of the day after it has to be no occupation by Israel on the Gaza Strip, as well as the ability for us to access — get in and out, as rapidly as you can, all that’s needed there. 

I’ve been disappointed that some of the things that I’ve put forward have not succeeded as well, like the port we attached from Cyprus.  I was hopeful that would be more successful. 

But that’s why I’m — when I went to Israel af- — immediately after the massacres that occurred at the hands of Hamas, that I — the one thing I said to the Israelis, and I met with the War Cabinet and with Bibi: Don’t make the same mistake America made after bin Laden.  There’s no need to occupy anywhere.  Go after the people who did the job. 

You may recall, I get — still get criticized for it, but I was totally opposed to the occupation and trying to unite Afghanistan.  Once we got — once — once we got bin Laden, we should have moved on because it was not in our — no one is ever going to unite it — unite that country.

I’ve been over every inch of that — not every inch — of the entirety, from the poppy fields, all the way to the north.  I said, “Don’t make the same mistake we made.  Don’t think that’s what you should be doing is doubling down.  We’ll help you find the bad guys, Sinwar and company.” 

And I — and all this criticism about I wouldn’t provide — when the we- — the weapons they needed.  I — I am not providing them 2,000-pound bombs.  They cannot be used in Gaza or any populated area without causing great human tragedy and damage. 

But we’re — remember what happened when — when you had the attack on Israel from — with rockets and — and intercom- — and ballistic missiles?  I — I was able to unite the Arab nations as well as — as well as Europe, and nothing happened.  Nothing got hurt.  It sent — it sent an incredible lesson to what was going on from the Middle East. 

So, there’s a lot of things that, in retrospect, I wish I had been able to convince the Israelis to do.  But the bottom line is we have a chance now.  It’s time to end this war.  It doesn’t mean walk away from going after Sinwar and Hamas. 

And if you notice — you know better than most — there is a l- — a growing dissatisfaction in the — on the West Bank, from the Palestinians about Hamas.  Hamas is not popular now. 

And so, there’s a lot of moving parts.  I just have to keep ma- — moving to make sure that we get as much done as we can toward a ceasefire — a ceasefire — and get those —

And, by the way, look — look at the numbers in — in Israel.  I mean, I — I — my numbers are better in Israel than they are here.  But, then again, they’re better than a lot of other people here, too. 

But anyway —

Q    If I may, Mr. President, a question about “bridge” candidacy.  In 2020, you referred to yourself as being a “bridge” candidate for a younger, fresher generation of Democratic leaders.  And I wanted to know, what changed? 

THE PRESIDENT:  What changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited in terms of the economy, our foreign policy, and domestic division. 

And I think — I — I won’t put words in anybody’s mouth.  Most presidential historians give me credit for having accomplished more than most any president since Johnson and maybe before that to get major pieces of legislation passed. 

And what I realized was, my long time in the Senate had equipped me to have the wisdom to know how to deal with the Congress to get things done.  We got more major legislation passed that no one thought would happen. 

And I want to finish it — to get that finished.  If tomorrow — if — if you — if we had a circumstance wherev- — the — there was a lineup, and I didn’t — hadn’t inherited what I did and we just moved things along — anyway, it’s — it’s going to change. 

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Last question. 

THE PRESIDENT:  Haley Bull, Scripps — or, no.  Josh Wingrove — I’m sorry.  It was the next one.  I’ll do two more questions then. 

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  Many of your colleagues, Democrats on the Hill are watching tonight as they assess what they want to say about your candidacy.  I’m wondering how you’re thinking of this right now.  It seems like your answer is clear.  But they’re watching how things go tonight, tomorrow in Michigan, next week in Texas and Nevada.  Are you thinking that way, about whether how the next week or two goes would inform your —

THE PRESIDENT:  Am I using it that way, you said?

Q    Are you thinking that way about how the next two weeks go?  Will that affect your decision or are you fully determined on running in November as the party’s nominee?

THE PRESIDENT:  I’m determined on running, but I think it’s important that I reali- — I allay fears by seeing — let them see me out there.  Let me see them out — you know, for the longest time it was, you know, “Biden is not prepared to sit with us unscripted.  Biden is not prepared to” — you know, anyway.

And so, what I’m doing, and it’s what I’ve been doing — I think we’ve done over 20 major events, from Wisconsin to North Carolina to — anyway — to demonstrate that I’m going out in the areas where we think we can win, where we can persuade people to move our way or people are already there.

And here, look, the other th- — thing is, we have the most extensive campaign organization that anybody has had in a long, long time.  We have well over a thousand volunteers knocking on doors, making phone calls, making tens of thousands of phone calls.  We have headquarters — I forget exactly how many.  I don’t want to n- — cite a number and then find out I’m off.  But we have scores of headquarters in all — in all the — the — the toss-up states.  We’re organized.  We’re moving.

And I — that’s awful hard to replace in the near term. 

And so — and here’s the other thing: I was in the Senate a long time.  Very proud of what I’ve done in the Senate.  I was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee for a long time, and I was chairman of — or ranking member and chairman of the Judiciary Committee.  I’m going to be going down to the Johnson Library on — to — anyway, I’m going to be going around making the case of things that I think we have to finish and how we can’t afford to lose what we’ve done or backslide on civil rights, civil liberties, women’s rights.  The — that little button we have: “Control guns, not girls.” 

I mean, the idea that we’re seeing around — this is where Kamala is so good as well — we’re sitting around — more children are killed with a — by a bullet than any other cause of death.  The United States of America.  What the hell are we doing?  What are we doing?  We got a candidate saying — promised the NRA, “Don’t worry.  I’m not going to do anything.  I’m not going to do anything.”  We got a Supreme Court that is — what you might call the most conservative court in American history. 

This is ridiculous.  There’s so much we can do still, and I’m determined to get it done.  It’s about freedom. 

And, by the way — I’ll end this — well, I — well, I’m going — not going to do that.  Haley has — has to come up too.

But the — I remember I made a speech on democracy in Philadelphia, in Independence Hall.  And — I’m not being critical, just observing — the bulk of the press said, “What the hell is he talking about that for?”  Democra- — yeah, you did.  “Democracy is not an issue.”  “Democracy is not an issue.”

Except the polling data shows 60 percent of the people knew I was right, thought I was right. 

I’m not asking you a question; you don’t have to answer, obviously.  But do you think our democracy is under siege based on this court? 

Do you think democracy is under siege based on Project 2025? 

Do think he means what he says when he says he’s going to do away with the civil service, eliminate the Department of Education, make sure — I mean, there’s — we’ve never been here before. 

And that’s the other reason why I didn’t, as you say, hand off to another generation.  I’ve got to finish this job.  I’ve got to finish this job, because there’s so much at stake.

Q    Very quickly.  You had some discussions over the past few days with your press secretary about the question of health exams, and you said you take the cognitive test every day in this job.  Are you open to taking another physical or tests before the election?  Governor Whitmer of Michigan, for instance, said “it wouldn’t hurt” to take a test.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, look, two things.  One, I’ve taken three significant and in- — intense neurological exams by the neurolo- — by our neurosur- — a neurologist.  In each case — as recently as February, and they say I’m in good shape.  Okay? 

Although I do have a little problem with my left foot because it’s not as sensitive, because I broke my foot and didn’t wear the boot.  But — but I’m — I’m good. 

I’m tested every single day about my neurological capacity — the decisions I make every day. 

You’ve talked to my staff.  All of you talked to my staff.  Sometimes my staff talks a lot.  (Laughs.)  But the fact of the matter is, I don’t think you have them telling you that all the major ideas we’ve undertaken haven’t been in part initiated by me. 

I remember when the staff — and I said, “I’m going to go to South Korea and we’re going to get the chip.”  “And what are you doing?”  “I’m going to get Japan and Korea back together again after no — essentially having hostilities toward one another since the end of World War II.  I’m going to move and see that we can expand” — 

You know, the only thing age does is help you with a — cr- — it creates a little bit of wisdom if you pay attention. 

And so, the point I’m making is: I think it’s important that I — if — if my — if the neurologist tells me he thinks I need another exam — and, by the way, I’ve — I’ve laid every bit of the record out.  I haven’t done — hadn’t hidde- — hadn’t hidden — hidden a thing.

You ought to ask Trump for his, okay?

I’ve a- — I’ve laid it all out.

And every single day, I’m surrounded by good docs.  If they think there’s a problem, I promise you — or even if they don’t think it’s a problem — they think I should have a neurological exam again, I’ll do it.  But no one is suggesting that to me now. 

And I’ll ask you another question.  No matter what I did, no one is going to be satisfied.  “Did you have seven docs?  Did you have two?  Who did you have?  Did you do this?  How many times have you” —

So, I am not opposed.  If my doctors tell me they should — I should have another neurological exam, I’ll do it.  But that’s where I am. 

Haley Bull, Scripps. 

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  You said you’re making decisions on a day-to-day basis when it comes to support for Ukraine.  Does that mean you have not closed the door on further considering lifting restrictions for U.S.-made weapons inside Russia? 

And if I may, your convention is coming up where your delegates are pledged to make you the official nominee.  If they have second thoughts, are they free to vote their conscience?

THE PRESIDENT:  Obviously they’re free to do whatever they want, but they — I get overwhelming support.  Overwhelming support.  I won how — I forget how many votes I won in the primary.  The overwhelming —

And so, tomorrow, if all of a sudden, I show up at a convention and everybody says, “We want somebody else,” that’s the democratic process.  It’s not going to happen.

Q    Even if that means they vote for someone else? 

THE PRESIDENT:  Sure. 

Look, I’ll end this with this.  I served in the Senate a long time.  I understand the impetus of candidates running for local office and whether they think the top — if they can help them or not. 

In my state of Delaware, which was a very — at least a purp- — it wa- — it was a red state when I started, in terms of where you now talk “red and blue.” 

I — I don’t recall most of the Democratic presidents winning my state when I was a candidate.  The truth of the matter is I understand the self-interest of a candidate.  If they think that, you know, running with Biden at the top of the ticket is going to hurt them, then they’re going to run away.  I get it. 

But so far, go and look at the polling data in their states.  Look at the inde- — and, by the way, I think you’d all acknowledge — and you’re all experts; I’m not being solicitous about the press, you’re experts on this stuff — how accurate does anybody think the polls are these days?  I can give you a series of polls where you have likely voters, me versus Trump, where I win all the time.  When the unli- — the unlikely voters vote, he wins sometimes. 

So, bottom line is all the polling data right now, which I think is premature, because the campaign really hasn’t even started.  I mean, it hasn’t started in earnest yet.  Most of the time, it doesn’t start until after September — after Labor Day.  So, a lot can happen. 

But I think I’m the best qual- — I know — I believe I’m the best qualified to govern.  And I think I’m the best qualified to win. 

But there are other people who could beat Trump, too.  But it’s awful to start — to start — start from scratch. 

And, you know, we talk about, you know, money raised.  We’re not doing bad.  We got about $220 million in the bank.  And we’re doing well. 

So, with that, you have any — want to follow up on any of that you just asked me?

Q    Yes.  (Laughter.)  You earlier explained confidence in your vice president. 

THE PRESIDENT:  Yes.

Q    If your team came back and showed you data that she would fare better against former President Donald Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race?

THE PRESIDENT:  No, unless they came back and said, “There’s no way you can win.”  Me.  No one is saying that.  No poll says that. 

Q    Mr. President, (inaudible) —

THE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  Thank —

(Cross-talk.)

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  This — this ends tonight’s press conference.  Thanks everybody.

This ends — this con- — this concludes —

Q    Sir, respectfully, earlier you misspoke in your opening answer.  You referred to Vice President Harris as “Vice President Trump.”  Right now, Donald Trump is using that to mock your age and your memory.  How do you combat that criticism from tonight?

THE PRESIDENT:  Listen to him.  Thank you.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  This concludes tonight’s press conference.  Thank you, everybody.  Thanks, everyone. 

8:26 P.M. EDT

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Elena Rybakina enhances credentials as ‘queen of grass’ by dispatching Elina Svitolina

2022 Wimbledon heroine will face Barbora Krejcikova in the semi-finals after she beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 7-6

Wimbledon is entering what history will refer to as ‘the Elena Rybakina era’. It was entirely fitting the Queen was in attendance to see the player destined to become the undisputed queen of grass.

If a coach was tasked with constructing a prototype for the perfect lawn tennis player, the 2022 champion would be it.

In a 61-minute masterclass, Rybakina made a tough quarter-final draw against the impassioned Elina Svitolina seem a routine knock-up. She showcased that exhilarating cocktail of a serial champion in this 6-3, 6-2 win: a big serve and raw power from the back of the court, a deftness of touch around the net, and a deceptive rapidness as her tall frame glided to cut off the angles of her opponent. If she was not a tennis player, she has such elegance one could imagine her as a ballet dancer.

The women’s game has been more ‘wide open’ than ‘open’ tennis recently, with seven different Wimbledon champions in as many years. That sequence surely ends on Saturday. A solitary Wimbledon crown will not do for Rybakina. A second title ought to be hers in three days, and the engraver should become well rehearsed adding Rybakina’s name to the Venus Rosewater Dish.

“It is only you guys telling me I am the only one left who won this tournament. I don’t think about it,” said Rybakina, responding to her status as a runaway favourite.

“This is something I want to achieve and do again. It is getting closer but there are still two matches and tough opponents.

“Back then [in 2022] I was not expecting to be that far in the draw. Now with all the experience I come [here] to be at this stage. I am a much more experienced player and know what to do. I am managing better than before and a lot of things have come together.”

Rybakina has been a study in effortless poise while other top seeds have disappeared. This quarter-final could have been trickier. There was no more motivated player left in the draw than Svitolina, empowered by playing for her country, Ukraine, more than herself.

Svitolina did not play badly. She was simply blown away in straight sets, unable to contain Rybakina’s greater variety and intuition for stepping up to secure crucial breaks at the end of the first set and beginning of the second.

“She does not let you into the match,” said Svitolina. “The game she broke me in the first set she hit four great returns even though I hit a first serve every time.”

It was too much for Svitolina, despite gallant efforts, and in successive Wimbledon years, one cannot help but feel the deeper she has progressed, the greater the danger that it all starts meaning a little too much.

She is a Ukrainian athlete with a guilt complex, enjoying the spoils of her talent while aware of the terrors being inflicted upon her country. Every stroke carries a weight of patriotic responsibility to offer her nation comfort within the gloom. It is too much of a burden for any sportsperson.

The questions to most players in their post-match press conference are exclusively about what happened on court. Svitolina was asked to urge the new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, to continue to support Ukraine’s war effort.

“I think, I hope he is aware of the help we got before from the [last] Government and I hope this will continue because it is really important for us,” she said. “It is not getting easier, it is getting tougher. Hopefully the support will continue.”

While Svitolina proudly wears her nationality as a badge of honour, Rybakina has found hers exploited for propaganda purposes. Although born in Moscow, she switched citizenship in 2018 to represent Kazakhstan. When she won the Wimbledon title two years ago, Russia’s Tennis Federation assumed credit claiming her as one of their own.

Her next passport might as well just list ‘Centre Court’ as her address. No female player since Serena Williams has made it look so much like home.

Doubles specialist Krejcikova finally makes her mark in singles

Barbora Krejcikova has long been renowned as a doubles contender. In 2022, the Czech won the women’s pairs title at Wimbledon with her compatriot Katerina Siniakova. But in the singles, her record at the All England Club is less distinguished: the furthest she has previously progressed is the fourth round, just the once.

Not this time, however. Now, after her 6-4, 7-6 victory over Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the 28-year-old is through to the semi-finals, where she will face Rybakina, the No 4 seed and highest-ranked player left in the competition.

“How does it feel to play in the semi-final against a player of Rybakina’s prowess?” she was asked in the immediate aftermath of her win. “I’ll tell you after the match,” was her reply. “Then I will know.”

Krejcikova’s sharp verbals were characteristic of her performance: this did not appear to be someone standing on ceremony. Perhaps anxious to get on with the serious business of the doubles as quickly as possible – following her win she dashed off to No 3 Court for her quarter-final – she dispatched her more elevated opponent in straight sets. Poor Ostapenko – perhaps sensing that, with so many of the seeds above her falling, here was her chance – was left largely flat-footed and bemused. Her formidable grunt was about the only thing working efficiently under the barrage Krejcikova delivered.

Noisily celebrating every point won, pumping her fist in the direction of her coaches, Krejcikova took the first set 6-4. In a sense, though, she was fortunate. Ostapenko, normally so accurate in her delivery, kept offering up unforced errors. And in the second set, even when she looked as if she might fight back, the Latvian was forever letting the momentum slip across the net. She would break her opponent’s serve, then lose her own to a double fault. She would appear to take advantage, then balloon a forehand into the crowd. Then she would compound her errors with challenges for line calls that even a Premier League VAR official could spot were so far out they were practically in Surbiton.

Her effort was summed up in the superb baseline rally that lit up the second set. The two were hammering forehands at each other, every shot perfectly executed, sizzling within an inch of the line. Ostapenko spent a good dozen shots manoeuvring her opponent into position. Then, with the court open and ready to complete a perfect finish, she plopped her potential winner out. The noisy trio of her followers who had spent the entire match bellowing out encouragement in Latvian, simultaneously put their head in their hands at that one.

While far from perfect, Krejcikova appreciated that, faced with such a self-destructive tendency, all she had to do was keep things accurate. Which she did with aplomb, claiming the second set after a tie break, pumping her fist towards her box, her delight evident in her beaming smile. By the time she returned to her seat to collect her spare rackets, her opponent – and the Latvian supporters – had already left the court. They knew what an opportunity had been missed.

• Wimbledon Tennis,
• Elina Svitolina
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