Buffy - Prophecy Girl [S1E12] -- How exactly do Vampires talk if they can't breathe?

Possibly an old question, but I've never heard a good answer...

In the final Episode of Season 1 of Buffy, Angel looks on helplessly as Xander performs CPR on our heroine. He explains that Vampires can't perform CPR, as they don't breathe. If he doesn't breathe, how does he speak?

Speech is produced by how the vocal chords vibrate the air that goes past them (more or less- it's more complicated than that, but breathing is essential); I'm not sure why Vampires wouldn't be ABLE to breath (even if they don't need to, as is show the multiple times a vampire is choked and laughs it off, Angel and Darla included), but since Angel says they can't, how can they speak?

More specifically, what I'm looking for is: What method do (Buffy-verse) Vampires use to Speak that is sufficient for them to be clearly understood (and, in fact, indistinguishable from normal speech), yet is insufficient to allow them to breathe to perform CPR.

[Incidentally, current CPR training makes the rescue breathing optional, so he COULD have done what was needed... but that wasn't known to be the case during this episode.]

Answer

Out of universe, Joss Whedon answered a related question about vampires and sex:

EW: But what's the deal with the vampire physiology? Don't you have to be alive to, you know?

JOSS: Well, you know, vampires aren't real: I have that to fall back on. If vampires couldn't have erections, our show would have been 12 episodes long.

From an EW interview in 2002, transcribed at slayage.com.

The same answer would fit if "you know" was referring to rescue breathing rather than sex.

Comments

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