Morn and Deep Space Nine

[Plantis]

Hello.

I am interesting in Morn place in this story. I have never heard a word from Morn.

What do you think about Morn? Can he speak? What does he do besides spending time in Quark's?

[The Librarian]

What do you mean, can he talk? It's almost impossible to get him to shut up! And as for what he does, the question should be 'what doesn't he do'? By all appearances, he's like that "Most Interesting Guy in the World" from those commercials.

[Plantis]

The Librarian wrote:

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What do you mean, can he talk? It's almost impossible to get him to shut up! And as for what he does, the question should be 'what doesn't he do'? By all appearances, he's like that "Most Interesting Guy in the World" from those commercials.

As I wrote, I had never heard a word from him. So... Morn is always sitting quite.

[Plantis]

Or it was a sarcasm? (like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory)

[Too Much Fun]

Yeah, that was sarcasm. The season 6 episode "Who Mourns For Morn?" is all about him. The big joke in that episode is that Quark says Morn never stops talking, but we the audience never see him say anything.

He is just a funny background character. There was a famous show in America called "Cheers" about people in a bar who are friends. One of the most popular friends was named "Norm". Morn is a joke reference ("Norm" backwards). A lot of people like Morn (including me) even though he doesn't talk because his make-up is cute and it's nice to see him always sitting at the bar.

[DevilEyes]

Many shows have characters or their traits that serve as the show's recurring little jokes - characters that are talked about but never appear on screen, characters that never talk, etc.

On Cheers, Norm (the same guy Morn was called after) talked about his wife Vera in every episode, but she was never seen.

On Frasier, Niles and other characters often talk about Niles' wife Maris, she was even an important character in some storylines, and we actually found out a lot about her personality, habits etc. - but she never appeared on screen.

On My So-Called Life, characters often (though not in every episode) talked about a guy called Tino, but he never appeared on screen.

On The Simpsons, Maggie (an eternal baby, since the characters on that show never age) normally never speaks a word; the exception is an episode called "Maggie's first word", where Maggie speaks only at the end of the episode, when nobody can hear her, and says just one (important) word (they actually had Liz Taylor guest star just to lend her the voice!). Other exceptions happen only in Halloween episodes, where Maggie spoke 2 times (to my knowledge), both times in completely freakish situations and in a deep masculine voice. There was also an episode set in the future, in which we see an adult Maggie who's become a famous singer, and everyone keeps talking about her great voice - but again we don't hear her.

Deep Space Nine had such a recurring joke with Morn never speaking a word, while everyone describes him as extremely talkative.

[Plantis]

Too Much Fun wrote:

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Yeah, that was sarcasm. The season 6 episode "Who Mourns For Morn?"

I don't watch this episode yet.

[Cepstrum]

Morn is one of the best and funniest characters ever. I love his obvious fake suit, his inability to change his facial expression from that rather "who me?" and resigned/depressed look.

He's always seen in the background doing odd things, showing up at odd times, such as behind Jadzia's couch or boarding a runabout to evacuate DS9 (during the Circle trilogy).

And other characters act as though he's a multi-talented, excessively talkative, and highly volatile (he supposedly ran through DS9 naked screaming "we're all doomed" and inadvertantly injured Quark in his hysteria when Quark subtly mentioned the looming Dominion/Cardassian threat.) Yet his shown personality appears *so* resigned and gloomy, it's impossible to imagine him engaging in any of his attributed antics (plus he never once says anything on screen or exhibits any emotional expression — Mark in his bulky Morn suit could just barely rotate!)

Another funny thing is there's no reason or given explanation why he'd spend *all* of his time aboard DS9, and more specifically, Quarks. In "Who Mourns for Morn?" it turned out he was previously participated in a big-time heist, which I suppose explains why he's independently wealthy enough to sit around all day at Quark's. He appears to have nothing better to do. Ever.


He was one of DS9's brilliant displays of committment to continuity and restraint. I'm *glad* they never caved and showed him doing anything useful or finally speaking on screen.

[DS9 Gal AZ]

According to what I've ready, originally, the Morn costume didn't allow for the actor to speak. Eventually they fixed that problem, but by that time, it had become an in-joke that Morn was supposed to be a chatterbox yet we never heard him speak on camera, so they kept it that way. Fun fact about the episode "Who Mourns for Morn?": when everyone thinks Morn is dead, Quark urges the bar patrons to keep Morn's chair warm for him at the memorial service. He has a Bajoran man sit in the chair and everyone applauds. The Bajoran dude is actually the guy who plays Morn (without the Morn suit/make-up, of course).

Cepstrum, you forget, Morn ran a shipping business too! He didn't plan on touching the heist money until after the statute of limitations had expired. Apparently between all the sitting around at Quark's he managed to find some time to run his business as well.

[Jeff O'Connor]

I read somewhere that Morn's actor was betting on his character getting the last line in the series. I won't spoil who did in such an unassuming thread, of course, but I will say that while I quite approve of who landed that prestigious little title, I still think it would have been awesome if it were Morn instead.

[The_Baron]

Morn never shuts up normally.
But he's camera shy, so when the cameras are on him he seizes up...hence, you'll never seem him talk on screen.

[Cepstrum]

DS9 Gal AZ wrote:

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According to what I've ready, originally, the Morn costume didn't allow for the actor to speak. Eventually they fixed that problem, but by that time, it had become an in-joke that Morn was supposed to be a chatterbox yet we never heard him speak on camera, so they kept it that way. Fun fact about the episode "Who Mourns for Morn?": when everyone thinks Morn is dead, Quark urges the bar patrons to keep Morn's chair warm for him at the memorial service. He has a Bajoran man sit in the chair and everyone applauds. The Bajoran dude is actually the guy who plays Morn (without the Morn suit/make-up, of course).

Cepstrum, you forget, Morn ran a shipping business too! He didn't plan on touching the heist money until after the statute of limitations had expired. Apparently between all the sitting around at Quark's he managed to find some time to run his business as well.

I forgot about the "shipping business". Perfect!

[Too Much Fun]

Jeff O'Connor wrote:

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I won't spoil who did in such an unassuming thread, of course, but I will say that while I quite approve of who landed that prestigious little title, I still think it would have been awesome if it were Morn instead.

If you're referring to

"The more things change, the more they stay the same"

I have to disagree. Such a lame cliche of a last line. I bet Morn would have come up with something better. It's almost as corny as Wonder Woman saying, "And the adventure continues" at the end of Justice League. I hate those obvious conscious finale lines. They sound so forced and unnatural.

[Jeff O'Connor]

I don't know...

I quite disagree, personally. I also despise the really obvious finale lines... most of the time. This time it just worked for me, and I didn't find the statement half as bad as the Wonder Woman example you provided, or Stargate SG-1's "Ark of Truth" ending on a really cliche note. Plus, Shimerman's delivery totally sold me, and more than that, Kira and Jake at the window... I thought it was terrific.

[DS9 Gal AZ]

I liked the ending line.