Close your eyes and imagine a pirate. Was he wearing an eye patch, burying some gold and overusing the letter "r"? If so, we're here to tell you that the image of pirates that Hollywood has taught you isn't just wrong -- in most cases, the truth was even more badass.

6 Pirates Talked Like ... Well, Pirates

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The Myth:

Quick -- do a pirate voice.

We don't care if you can't imitate any other accent in the world, if we ask you (or anyone else on earth) to talk like a pirate, you'll go, "ARRRR, MATEY!"

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You can tell he's making the "ey" noise right now.

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This is thanks to decades of cartoons and movies where everyone playing a pirate was legally obligated to litter their speech with "arrs" and the like while assuming the intonation of a rowdy drunken Englishman. Unless your name is Johnny Depp, that is; then you're obligated to assume the intonation of Johnny Depp in every Johnny Depp movie ever.



"What do you mean? I'm doing a pirate voice now. This is my pirate voice. *mumble mumble*"

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Granted, outside of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise there haven't been a lot of pirate movies in the past few decades, but at the same time there's been no shortage of pirate or pirate-talking characters invading other genres: Like the Pirate Captain in The Venture Bros., the other Pirate Captain in The Simpsons, Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball and Agent Scurvy Pirateson in CSI: Miami.

Obviously, we know the "pirate accent" we hear in these shows and films is exaggerated, just like they would exaggerate a French or Mexican accent, but it must be based on something real, right?