Shadowing practice: Family Guy: The Justice League (Clip) | TBS

This clip opens Family Guy's parody of the old Justice League intro: a booming, ceremonial narrator voice announcing costumed heroes gathered in a hall of justice, before the joke lands on the last name in the roll call. At 79 words per minute the pace is slower than 98 percent of the catalogue, so you get real space to hear each word land before you try to say it back yourself.

The accent is American, delivered in the deep, formal register cartoons borrow straight from real superhero franchises, which makes it a clean sample for american accent training even though the source is a comedy. Only four lines carry the whole scene, building from cosmic scale down to a list of named heroes and a closing line of civic sounding abstractions.

The opening line, "Together together from the cosmic reaches of the universe," repeats its first word before the sentence even properly starts, which is how narrator voices build weight rather than meaning. The next line inverts normal word order: "Here in this great hall of justice are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled" puts the verb before its subject, a pattern real English speech almost never uses outside this kind of announcement style. The closing line, "Dedicated to truth, justice and peace for all mankind," stacks three abstract nouns in a row with no connecting explanation, which is exactly what makes it sound official.

• "Together together from the cosmic reaches of the universe." doubled opening word, listen for the stress falling on cosmic and reaches
• "Here in this great hall of justice are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled." subject and verb reversed, say assembled with the full weight the narrator gives it
• "Dedicated to truth, justice and peace for all mankind." three nouns in a row, no pauses between them, said as one breath

Work the four lines in order rather than jumping around, since each one raises the register before the joke resolves it.

• Play line 1 alone first. Say "Together together from the cosmic reaches of the universe." out loud twice before moving on, since the doubled word sets the whole rhythm
• Move to line 2 and practise how to pronounce english words like cosmic, dedicated and assembled slowly, then at the clip's own slow pace
• Say line 3 straight through, "Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Meg." and notice how flat the delivery stays right up to the last name
• Finish on line 4, "Dedicated to truth, justice and peace for all mankind." and try to match the narrator's even, unhurried stress on every noun
• Once all four lines feel steady, run the clip once without pausing and score yourself against the full line, not just the words you got right