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{{trope}}
[[File:recap.jpg|link=Don Rosa|frame|Uncle Scrooge [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|tells it like it is]].]]
{{quote|'''Thetis:''' Why then, child, do you lament? What sorrow has come to your heart now? Tell me, do not hide it in your mind, and we shall both know.
'''Achilleus:''' You know; since you know why must I tell you all this?
|''[[The Iliad]]'', Book I}}
{{quote|''"As you know, Jennifer, my Death Ray depends on codfish balls."''}}
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{{quote|''"Damn it, Simon, you know full well that Jennifer hasn't been the same since [[Noodle Incident|that tragic codfish incident]]."''}}
In discussions of science fiction this is often "As You Know, Bob" (abbreviated AYKB), or occasionally, "Tell me, Professor [[Expospeak|[about this marvelous invention we all use every day and have no reason to be talking about except to inform the audience]"]]. Other common variations involve a newspaper reporter sent to cover events, or conversation between two supporting
[[Terry Pratchett]] refers to the fantasy fiction version as the "As you know, your father, the king..." speech.
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* [[Tell Me Again]]
See also: [[Mr. Exposition]], [[The Watson]], [[Expospeak]], [[Captain Obvious]]. A subtrope of [[Show, Don't Tell]]. Contrast with [[Don't Explain the Joke]].▼
▲See also: [[Mr. Exposition]], [[The Watson]], [[Expospeak]], [[Captain Obvious]]. A subtrope of [[Show, Don't Tell]].
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* 80s anime series ''[[The Mysterious Cities of Gold]]'' employed this trope regularly. This was mostly because, unlike many other '80s cartoons, it featured an on-going storyline that frequently built upon events from previous episodes. Of course, [[Viewers are Morons|children couldn't be expected to watch a show that patiently]] so cue many long conversations with characters telling each other "Yes, you may remember the golden condor we discovered underneath the Inca ruins," etc., etc.
** This trope is only present in the English version however, in the original french (The show is a France/Japan co-production and the writing team was French) characters never use
* The anime version of ''[[Witchblade (anime)|Witchblade]]'' tends to occasionally fall back on this.
* [[The Syndicate|Team Aqua and Team Magma]] meet for the first time onscreen in ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]] Advanced'', and not only speak in an As You Know, but also make an [[Intro Dump]] at the start of that dialog.
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* In the first chapter ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'', Sakura and Shaolan tell each other how they first met and for how long they've been friends, obviously to fill in the reader on their backstory.
* This way of recapping is constantly and irritatingly used in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' manga. A commander telling his fellow warriors about the great battle in which they all participated...
* There's a strange example from ''[[
* [[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!, [[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX|GX]], [[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's|and 5Ds]]. Every time an effect is activated, the player has to explain exactly what it
** Given that the anime predates the game, it's probably the latter.
* In the first two episodes of ''[[Sailor Moon]] S'', the Professor retells his plan to Kaolinite for the audience's benefit, even though she, as his second in command, should already know it in the first episode and definitely knows by the second.
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* In ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', when Lucy meets Natsu and Happy for the first time, she goes into detail explaining to them what guilds are and that she wants to join the most popular guild around (the titular Fairy Tail guild), and then laughs it all off as something the two wouldn't be interested in. She doesn't realize until later that the two are ''from'' the guild she's trying to join. Granted, Lucy doesn't refer to Fairy Tail by name in her description, and Natsu and Happy really don't seem very interested in what she has to say, but considering how ''everyone'' in the series seems to know what guilds are (in fact, there probably isn't a character in the series who ''hasn't'' heard of Fairy Tail), it just makes the fact that she's explaining it to the audience all the more obvious.
== Comic Books ==
== Comics ==▼
* The first issue of ''[[Mouse Guard]]'' introduces the three protagonists ([[Self-Demonstrating Article|Lieam, Kenzie and Saxon, as you know]]) along the lines of this:
{{quote|'''Lieam:''' ''(Captions next to him illuminates his and his two partners' names)'' So tell us [Kenzie], what were the three best of the Guard sent to do?}}
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* Done endlessly in [[Silver Age]] comic books, particularly those involving Superman, where the villains would explain their plan to each other after they had carried it out. As often as not, Superman would overhear this conversation and swoop down to capture them, having had no clue prior to this what had been going on.
* Used all the time in ''[[Donald Duck]]'' comics, usually clumsily as anything; the picture at the top of the page shows a rare lampshading from [[Don Rosa]]'s ''The Last Lord of Eldorado''.
* Frequently turns up in extremely early ''[[Doonesbury]]'' comic strips. "Well, here I am..."▼
* In the newspaper comic ''[[Sally Forth]]'', the title character asked her daughter what she was doing "for Earth Day next week", and was told that was the most obvious bit of exposition she had pitched since "As you know, Hilary, you are my daughter".▼
* ''[[Elf Quest]]'' largely avoids this, but two examples still stands out: one is the story of Madcoil told around a campfire, which allows the main character's love interest to find out about his [[Backstory]] (through eavesdropping). It's told because of tradition, and because the children present haven't heard it yet. A ''far'' more jarring example is found in the ''Discovery'' books (written by the same original author, but a good three decades later) in which the characters... well, talk like [http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/DISC/DisplayDISC.html?page=14 this].
** Another jarring example occurs in the first issue of ''Siege at Blue Mountain'', the second print series which began after a 2-year hiatus. In lieu of a synopsis, the Wolfriders explain the whys and wherefores of the story so far to each other, ostensibly as part of their decision-making process. Later series got a lot better at integrating the [[Backstory]] into the dialogue.
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* Cleverly played in ''[[Deadpool]]: Wade Wilson's War''. Many times, Deadpool explains the context of the operation, and the senator cuts him saying that he knows. The brilliance is that every time, what Deadpool explained is true in the real world (America's implication in Soviet/Afghan war...), but readers may not know this stuff as a senator does.
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' comic "The Forgotten" by US publisher IDW, Turlough goes to the effort of explaining the rules of cricket to Tegan, who already knows them since she's Australian.
== Fan Works ==
* At the beginning of a scene in Episode 21 of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The
{{quote|'''Yugi:''' Your brother's been kidnapped?
'''Mokuba:''' Yes, that is exactly what I just finished telling you. }}
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* An interesting variation appears in the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' [[Self-Insert Fic]] ''[[Mass Vexations]]''. [[Author Avatar]] Art has already heard all of the exposition in the game prior to experiencing it himself; however, the characters giving the exposition aren't aware of this fact, so to them they're just telling the story of the game as it happens. It's [[Lampshaded]] the first time it happens, and a few times it cuts away before said exposition can be said. It's played straight later to help him prove that he really is from another dimension.
* Averted in ''[[Kira Is Justice]]'' in the case of giving names. They are usually just given in the narrative, as sometimes when a new character is introduced, he/she is introduced in his/her own point of view. For example, Ronan.
* The early chapters of ''[[Hogwarts Exposed]]'' are full of [[Just for Pun|(well)]] [[Expospeak]] which often takes this form, even using the actual phrase "
* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] by [[Badass Bookworm|Tricia]] [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|Glasswell]] in ''[[Sburb Patch Notes]]'' when explaining the [[Monster of the Week|current situation]] to a newbie:
{{quote|'''Tricia Glasswell''': "As those who are watching from beyond the Fourth Wall already know..."}}
* Used in ''[[Ponies Make War]]'', when [[Mook Lieutenant|the Cadet]] begins a report to [[The Dragon|General Esteem]] with this exact phrase, and goes on to quickly sum up what happened during the one month [[Time Skip]]. The trope is then lampshaded by the narration, which points out that, yes, Esteem does know all this already.
== Film ==
* This was also going to be spoofed in the original script of ''[[Austin Powers]]: International Man of Mystery'', in which the film's [[Mr. Exposition]] (appropriately named Basil Exposition) tells the main character: "You're Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery, and you're with Agent Mrs. Kensington. The year is 1967, and you're talking on a picture phone." Austin then replies: "We know all that, Exposition."
* Parodied and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the movie ''[[Spaceballs]]'', when Colonel Sandurz unnecessarily explains the evil plan to Dark Helmet, who turns to the camera and asks, "Everybody got that?" According to Mel Brooks, filmmakers are obliged to provide the audience with a Minimum amount of plot. That was it.
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{{quote|'''Maid''': You're the governor's daughter.}}
*** To the maid's credit, Elizabeth didn't seem to realize ''why she should run'' or at least 'not tell the pirates she's hostage material''.
* Early in ''[[North by Northwest]]'', the Professor presides over a meeting of national security types and explains the situation, so that we in the audience can be ahead of Roger Thornhill, who is still clueless at this point. He explains what's going on (that Roger Thorhill's been mistaken for secret agent George Kaplan, that there ''is'' no such person as George Kaplan, and that the real secret agent is someone else entirely) in exacting and repetitive
** Almost every Hitchcock film has an expository [[Info Dump]] near the beginning, and they're almost always done in very heavy-handed "as you know" style. Another particularly grating example is in ''[[Vertigo]]'', when Scottie Ferguson and Midge Wood are discussing why he had to leave the police force {{spoiler|-- it's [[Title Drop]].}}
* Flawless example in the movie ''Dragonfly'': a speaker at a funeral says of the deceased, "From her colleagues at the university to her young patients here in Chicago Memorial's pediatric oncology ward, she will be sorely missed" -- ''speaking to'' the deceased's family, her colleagues from the university and her associates from the pediatric oncology ward, none of whom needed to be informed what city they were in, what hospital she was associated with, or what field of medicine she specialized in.
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* In ''[[The Great Escape]]'' Ives reminds Hilts that in the art of tunnel-making the digging is not the problem but also the storing up with wood and getting the dirt out
* ''[[The Last Airbender]]'' puts on an As You Know clinic! Perhaps it's because, As You Know, they had to condense 20 episodes of show into 103 minutes of film....
* ''[[
* In ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'', Hercule Poirot tells Colonel Arbuthnott that in his opinion, the late Colonel Armstrong should have been awarded the VC, "which stands, as you may know, for Victoria Cross and is awarded for valor."
* ''[[Watchmen (film)|Watchmen]]'' journalists will explain things to characters who already know them.
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'''Dooku:''' Don't be so sure. He was once my apprentice just as you were once his. }}
* In ''[[Spartacus]]'', Batiatus greets Crassus, Glabrus, and their consorts by reeling off their names and personal histories to them (and the audience).
== Literature ==
* Dicken's ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' and any parody/homages to it. Because of the time travel aspect of voyeuring into people's lives it somewhat requires them to explain the situation to each other in order to further the plot.
* Within the first chapter of the original ''[[Shannara]]'' book a character tells shares, quite literally, "As you know, [Entire history of the world]".
* Subverted in the [[Chronicles of Chaos|Orphans of Chaos]] trilogy: "Headmaster Boggin" starts off on one of these at the appropriate time to provide valuable backstory to the eavesdropping protagonists, but is immediately headed off by the audience, who point out that they already know what he's talking about.
* [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''I, Robot'' and ''[[Foundation]]'' were rife with it, as a result of the serialized format in which the stories originally appeared. As it was possible that a magazine buyer reading one of the stories had not read the previous ones, Asimov felt it necessary to re-summarize the Three Laws of Robotics, or the Seldon Plan, through [[Expospeak]] in the early parts of each story.
** The fact that one character needed Seldon's plan explained to him actually served as a plot point in one ''Foundation''
** Somewhat justified in ''Foundation'' because the stories happen centuries apart, and Seldon actually misled everyone more often than not, leading to a lot of skepticism regarding the Plan.
** Asimov has also written that the Three Laws are actually a cheap [[Techno Babble]] way of explaining more complicated terms... which is really [[Truth in Television|Truth in Print]]. An atom is like a solar system... [[Lies to Children|except it ain't]]. Repeat it enough and people will stop asking why.
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* This is lampshaded in ''[[Heimskringla|King Haralds Saga]]'' by [[Snorri Sturluson]].
{{quote|"I will believe in the banner's magic power," said Svein, "only when you have fought three battles against your nephew King Magnus and won all three of them." Harald retorted angrily, "I am well aware of my kinship with Magnus without needing you to remind me of it..."}}
* At the very beginning of ''[[
** The scene with Dumbledore and McGonagall differs from most uses of As You Know in two ways: first of all, it's mostly gratuitous, in that most details in that scene relevant to that book are also covered later, being told to Harry directly; and second, it also refers to a lot of things that aren't apparent until later books, [[Chekhov's Gunman|like Sirius Black.]]
** This also shows up in a peculiar form (you might call it an inversion) partway through ''Philosopher's Stone'', when Hermione is telling Ron and Harry about the Philosopher's Stone, which can be used to achieve immortality. [[Parrot Exposition|Ron repeats the word "immortal" in surprise]], only for Hermione to explain "It means you'll never die," [[Viewers are Morons|just in case any of the kids in the audience don't know that word]]. Ron gets indignant and says "I ''know'' what it means," because there's really no reason for him not to.
** In the first chapter of ''[[
** Somewhat [[Inverted]] with
*** In ''Prisoner of Azkaban'', Fudge mentions a team of "hit wizards" sent to arrest Sirius. In the next book, ''Goblet of Fire'', Harry is told these wizards are called "Aurors." In every case, once the actual term is explained to Harry, no character ever refers to them as anything else afterwards.
* Susanna Clark's ''[[Jonathan Strange
* Averted to an almost pathological degree in ''[[Catch-22]]'', where characters will often refer to major events like the {{spoiler|Loyalty Oath Crusade}} or the {{spoiler|Great Big Siege of Bologna}} [[Noodle Incident]] style for half the book before you get the slightest hint what they're talking about. It doesn't help that the scenes aren't in chronological order.
** It's the kind of book you might have to read a few times to understand. Luckily, it is good enough to be worth the effort.
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** Also, there is a lot of other justified ranting in that chapter. The baron explains to his nephew the plan to take out the Atreides family on Arrakis, which he had never heard before, though he does go into details about Arrakis and other mundane(in world) topics he knew quite well before.
** The Spice must flow! (usually accompanied by a summary of its multipurpose nature)
* Lampshaded in a ''[[Redwall]]'' book where an important tribal custom is explained to the ''son of the recently deceased chieftain''
* CS Forester neatly justifies it in a couple of places in the ''[[Horatio Hornblower]]'' books, where a junior officer begins an explanation to a senior officer with an
* ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' averts this. Anything the lead character already knows (i.e. daemons) aren't explained and must be understood by inference (at least until she meets Will, who doesn't know about daemons). Everything that ''is'' explained is something that is honestly unknown to Lyra.
* SF writer [[Poul Anderson]] referred to this as an "idiot lecture", in the sense that either the lecturer must be an idiot, or the lecturer must think the lecturee is an idiot. Nevertheless Anderson used the device often at the beginning of short stories, usually to establish historical details when an operative was briefed by a superior. Lampshaded at least once via the lecturee thinking to himself "He must think I'm an idiot!" and similar.
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* [[Hugo Award|Hugo Gernsback]]'s classic SF novel ''Ralph 124C 41+ '' frequently uses this phrase to explain how the future works.
* The T'ang Chinese characters in the ''[[Judge Dee]]'' mysteries spend a surprising amount of time explaining their own [[Imperial China|culture and customs]] to each other for the benefit of the Western readers.
* The problem is
* In ''[[Otherland]]'', the first meeting between the Grail Brotherhood that the readers see is liberally peppered with As You Know, despite occurring close to the culmination of their [[Evil Plan]]. Justified by having Dedoblanco play [[The Watson]] by having failed to [[Read the Freaking Manual|RTFM]], much to the exasperation of Jongleur, the group's leader.
* About half of [[Fredric Brown]]'s short story "Keep Out" is one character giving backstory to a group of other characters, including the narrator, who then tells the reader, "Of course we had known a lot of those things already."
* Justified in the ''[[Lord Darcy]]'' books, where Master Sean natters on about the underlying principles of whatever spell he uses to examine crime scenes and clues, even though Darcy's surely heard all this before. Darcy actually ''insists'' that Sean do this, as it helps him overcome his own innate [[Muggle]] mental blocks about how magic operates; plus, as Master Sean is also a professor, he performs best while in classroom-lecture mode.
* Subverted in the ''[[Dresden Files]]'' books. Harry has a spirit advisor who informs him of details of magic relating to the particular case he is working on. Usually, Harry either doesn't know about the juicy tidbits, or needs a little help remembering them. The origin of this character is from the author's writing class, where he was told not to make the research assistant he was thinking of a "talking head". His solution? A Talking Skull named Bob. The teachers response? "You think you're funny, don't you?"
* Played with in ''[[
* ''[[Codex Alera]]''.
** The fundamentals of furycrafting are presented by Tavi to Max as if it's a necessary refresher because he's such a bad student.
** The author has noted that there were some significant bits of backstory and world-building that he ended up leaving out or delaying in order to avoid slipping into this trope. He took four books to explain that "-ar" at the end of someone's surname name meant they were illegitimate, and never got round to explaining that the line of Gaius had restarted at "Primus" dozens of times in the past (with Gaius Sextus being the fourth First Lord with that name) because all of the viewpoint characters would have already known all about it from basic history classes.
* [[David Foster Wallace]] mentions this in a footnote in [[The Pale King]], calling it an irksome and graceless dramatic contrivance.
* Sort of, in [[Splinter of the Minds Eye]]. Luke Skywalker, pretending to be a local miner, asks a real local a question about the locale. The response starts with an
* Played with during the last part of George Stewart's ''[[Earth Abides]]''. The protagonist, Ish, is now an old man, spending most of his time in a mental fog, cared for by others. When this fog lifts, Ish discusses the current state of the Tribe with Jack, his great-grandson and caretaker. Almost every answer Jack offers is punctuated with, "...as you yourself well know, Ish," even though Ish is, at this point, just about as clueless as the reader.
* Robert Jordan beat this trope to death with the copious amounts of exposition in his ''[[The Wheel of Time|Wheel of Time]]'' series to recap events already firmly established in previous novels in the series, many of which was delivered through character dialogue; somewhat justified by the Door Stopper size of the series and difficulty in keeping track of the myriad of dangling plot threads.
* Subverted in the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' books, whenever the scene includes Richard and two other mages. On finding some kind of magical oddity or artifact, the two or more learned mages will start talking to one another, entirely leaving out the "
* The novelization of the film ''[[The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension]]'' employs the conceit that it is just the latest volume of a large series of such books, and uses variations on this trope ("As faithful readers will recall from ''Bastardy Proved a Spur''...") to make bogus [[Continuity Nod]]s to events in the prior (non-existent) books.
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' ran into this problem when Romana (another Time Lord who actually was cleverer than the Doctor) travelled with the Doctor. In this case, however, the sheer quality of the two actresses who played Romana meant that few really
** Ironically, part of the original intention of the companion was to have an [[Audience Surrogate]], so it would be less of an "As You Know?" and more of a "Did You Know?"
** A particularly bizarre ''[[Doctor Who]]'' example occurs in the final episode of "The Armageddon Factor", where two incidental characters As You Know a recap of the Doctor's current predicament for the audience's
** Another extremely blatant example is in the serial "Resurrection of the Daleks", when the character rescuing Davros from cyrogenic suspension explains the plot of "Destiny of the Daleks" to him. This doesn't even start As You Know; Davros reacts as if ''the events that led to him being placed in cryogenic suspension'' are entirely new to him. To be fair, it was implied that the prolonged period of cryogenic suspension had given Davros partial amnesia, so he ''needed'' the recap.
* Spoofed on the series ''[['Allo 'Allo!|Allo Allo]]'', in this case, as with the show in general, it was meant to mock the format of wartime dramas of the day. However, as the show was later aired on other networks with episodes out of order, the utterly tongue-in-cheek recaps became somewhat necessary.
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** Angel lampshades the first one by pointing out to Doyle that yeah, he knows, he was there.
* ''[[Smallville]]'': Chloe stops Clark from leaving so that she can remind him of the very reason that he's leaving, which both he and the audience are well aware of, just so that she can spill a secret to one of Lex's henchmen, secretly listening. This isn't surprising as Chloe is saddled with about 90% of the show's exposition in every episode anyway, so it was only a matter of time before she got sloppy.
** She does it again, even worse, with the guy who can become invisible. When they have figured out he's evil and Clark needs to stop him and all, Chloe thinks he might have figured Clark's [[Achilles' Heel]] since he can become invisible, so she asks him ''and he is there and finds out''. Quite infuriating because she asked "Are you sure he ''doesn't know you feel bad around meteor rocks''?" instead of the safer "Are you sure he doesn't know ''your weakness''?". And made double infuriating by the fact that she had about 2 seasons or so calling them "Kryptonite", and only went back to "meteor rocks" for ''that one scene''.
* [[House (TV series)|House]] almost always explains to either his team or to [[Ho Yay|Wilson]] or to the patients just what and how they were dying. It's perhaps justified by House having an obsession with this, and in one episode, he gets in a bad mood when a dying patient doesn't want to hear what she's dying of. This gives him the [[Eureka Moment|epiphany]] he needed to solve the case and cure her.
** Mocked in an episode where House stops a surgery by spitting all over the sterile equipment; in case [[Viewers are Morons|the dimmer members of the audience]] didn't get the significance, [[Mr. Exposition|Nurse Exposition]] points out "There's no way we can do the surgery now!" The exasperated surgeon gives her a withering look and yells "YA THINK?!?"
** And then for some more metaphors. But these are lampshaded quite often.
* On ''[[Law &
** Pretty much the entire franchise does it, ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|SVU]]'' the most painful at it, almost always using it in an As You Know/[[Idiot Ball]]/[[Writer on Board]] combo.
** Somewhat
** Also, judges very often don't read the briefs. Lawyers humor them and summarize the arguments.
* The ''[[CSI]]'' detectives are ''always'' explaining rudimentary forensics to one another.
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* On ''[[Oz]]'', they did this frequently as they went from one storyline to another.
* ''[[Fringe]]'' gets away with this pretty well by giving all the As You Know lines to [[Cloudcuckoolander]] Walter Bishop. After a few months, everyone else just accepts it and stops trying to remind him that they already know this stuff.
** Walter has brain damage and spent many years in a mental institution. As a result he forgot a lot of important things he did and is extremely scatterbrained. His use of
* Mercilessly parodied in ''Brass'' whenever one of the characters needs to remind viewers of the plot.
* Used in the season 2 finale of ''[[Veronica Mars]]'', in which the [[Big Bad]] and Veronica take a 5 minute timeout before he tries to kill her, for them to confirm yes, she knows everything. [[Shout-Out|Veronica Mars is smarter than me]], so I was [[Tropes Are Not Bad|thankful and disbelief-suspending]], for the explanation
* On ''[[The X-Files]]'', Mulder would often explain the definition of various medical conditions to Scully. Actually, he was explaining it to the audience, but that didn't make it any less silly when one considered that Scully was a ''medical doctor'' and Mulder wasn't.
* ''[[Dollhouse]]'' has a scene with Dewitt explaining how a rich psycho got out of a bunch of crimes, followed by Boyd saying "And by that, do you mean..." and she responds with what she was actually hinting at. After he does it twice she hangs a lampshade on it with "There is no need to continue to translate me."
* Done a fair amount by Winston in ''[[Human Target]]'', although tends to be of the form "Now, remember..." or "Here's the plan..." although it's something the putative listener wouldn't forget or already knows.
* ''[[Star Trek]]''
** ''[[Star Trek: The
{{quote|Spock: As we know, the value of pi is a transcendental figure without resolution. The computer banks will work on this problem to the exclusion of all else until we order it to stop.}}
** ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "[[Star Trek/Recap/S1/E15 Shore Leave|Shore Leave]]" plays with this trope. The physics and engineering behind hand phasers is never explained on the series, but Sulu quite happily explains to Captain Kirk the working principles behind a 20th-century pistol during this episode.
** ''[[Star Trek: The
*** In the episode "The Pegasus", Admiral Erik Pressman briefs Captain Picard and Commander Riker on the loss of his former ship, the USS ''Pegasus''. He chooses to open his briefing with the words "as you know..." and then proceeds to tell Picard and Riker ''what they already know''. Picard chimes in with an "I remember reading about that", and continues to tell the story of the ''Pegasus'' for the benefit of no one else in the scene.
*** Subverted in the episode "Code of Honour", where Picard starts to describe events in Earth history, before lampshading the fact that as the captain he's "Entitled to ramble on about something everyone knows"
* ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' usually averts this by having future Ted provide an explanation for his kids, but sometimes it's played straight, often lampshaded.
{{quote|"We know, Barney, we were there."}}
* Done especially badly in the TV movie ''[[Stephen King|Rose
* An annoying one from the second episode of ''[[Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger]]'' had the team telling the story of how they were put in stasis by their tribes in case of Bandora's return. It's abundantly clear that everyone in the room knows the story.
* This shows up on ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', complete with blatant fourth-wall breaking:
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** Also Lampshaded in the sketch about painting the Last Supper where the bishop introducing Michalangelo to the Pope launches into a recitation of Michalangelo's history before being cut off by the Pope.
* Poorly done in the recent ''[[Chopped]] Championship''. Each round featured chefs who had won an episode in the past. So host Ted Allen starts off with "I'm sure you remember the rules..." before going right into his standard rules script.
* In order for viewers of ''[[The West Wing]]'' to know what the hell was the significance of any of the laws/political issues/etc. the characters were talking about, someone, (usually Donna, who was both politically inexperienced ''and'' very inquisitive) would ask someone else to explain the issue, in the vein of interns on ''ER''. Although the writers of ''The West Wing'' usually described this trope as a necessary evil, they occasionally could get pretty creative with it, such as leaving the audience intentionally in the dark for a good chunk of the episode, only showing the characters' reactions to the mysterious problem, which resulted in the audience either waiting for the point to be revealed or trying to puzzle out [[Noodle Implements]], making for a more suspenseful episode and lots of [[Genius Bonus
* ''[[Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman]]'': Colleen, trying to stop Jake from shooting Sully: "He saved your life! Those Indians wanted to kill you after you accidentally shoot one of them, and he persuaded them not to! You owe him your life."
* The first episode of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' used the "introduction by name" version; the five Rangers-to-be are all mentioned by name in the first fifteen seconds.
* This might be the reason why the characters in ''[[My So-Called Life]]'' were almost always referred to by full name. Although it does happen in high schools, considering your social circle can technically extend to include all of the students at your school, and all of the students that have graduated in the last two years. There are a lot of Jordans at a school of 5,000.
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* Played with in [[Yes Minister]]. Not having read the papers, Jim Hacker often seems to know as much as the audience, but tries to hide it from his officials. In "A Victory For Democracy", notably, neither Hacker, sir Humphrey or Bernard seem to precisely know what is happening (or where St. George's Island is). The trope's name is invoked during a conversation between Humphrey and the Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, with Humphrey mainly making educated guesses and agreeing with whatever is said.
* In episode 2 of ''[[Luck]]'', Ace has a rather awkward monologue explaining why he was in prison. They actually try to sell us on the idea that the person he's talking to (his bodyguard and best friend) wouldn't already know this, but it's very hard to believe.
* ''[[Sunset Beach]]'' in absolute spades. "Since you were almost killed by that tidal wave you've been... preoccupied, to say the least."
▲== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* Frequently turns up in extremely early ''[[Doonesbury]]'' comic strips. "Well, here I am..."
▲* In the newspaper comic ''[[Sally Forth]]'', the title character asked her daughter what she was doing "for Earth Day next week", and was told that was the most obvious bit of exposition she had pitched since "As you know, Hilary, you are my daughter".
== Radio ==
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'''Hamish''': Why did you say that?
'''Dougal''': Well, it doesn't do any harm. }}
* The [[Audio Adaptation]] of ''[[
* ''[[Warhorses of Letters]]'' used this extensively and knowingly.
** “You must remember that all horses are arbitrarily given the same birthday, January 4th. Oh wait...you do not have to remember, as you are also a horse.”
▲== Theater ==
* Spoofed as early as [[Plautus]]'s ''[[Miles Gloriosus|The Braggart Soldier]]'' (2nd century BC): Palaestrio insists on explaining the plan to Acroteleutium again; she repeatedly protests that she's not an idiot and not only does she understand the plan, she actually devised much of it. Similarly, the exposition in ''The Brothers Menaechmus'' is presented in such a ludicrous manner (essentially, "Tell me, Menaechmus, what have we been doing for the last six years?") that it's obviously a big wink to the audience.
* The classic instance is in the [[Play Within a Play]] in [[Sheridan]]'s ''The Critic''. Hatton asks Raleigh what the military preparations for the Spanish attack mean, and Raleigh replies in a series of speeches all beginning with the assertion that "You know...", while Hatton agrees that he indeed knows. Finally Mr. Dangle interrupts to ask "as he knows all this, why does Sir Walter go on telling him?" Mr. Puff retorts that "the audience are not supposed to know anything of the matter, are they?..... Here, now you see, Sir Christopher did not in fact ask any one question for his own information."
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* In ''[[Forbidden Planet|Return to the Forbidden Planet]]'' the second act starts with a news reporter giving a recap of the first act. After the recap the action really starts with a repeat of the last scene from act 1.
* Happens a few times in ''[[Medea]]''. Mostly for the audience's sake, although at one point Medea and Jason have an argument where they each recount the backstory again from their point of view.
== Video Games ==
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{{quote|''"Yeah, thanks for giving me a tour of '''my own office'''."''}}
* In the ''[[Babylon 5]]: I've Found Her'' game tutorial this was deftly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]]: engineer filling in (instead of instructor) explained controls to presumably experienced pilot as introduction to new craft, with implications of Newtonian dynamics smuggled in as reminder about consequences of said craft's propulsion superiority.
* In a (deeply failed) attempt to reduce this in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'', Kojima came up with the idea of making the player character a character who ''didn't'' know, allowing the other characters to tell the player things that the main character would already know. For the segment where the main character ''was'' the one receiving the exposition, it was compensated for by the fact that the person giving the [[Info Dump]] was a compulsive nag. The whole thing failed miserably,
* Used by Force Commander Indrick Boreale in ''[[Warhammer
** Also of note is the Imperial Guard mission, where a Commissar tries to pull this on General Vance Stubbs and fails miserably.
{{quote|'''Commissar:''' Tank crew, munitions, and parts are arriving on schedule sir. As you know, it takes only the most highly trained crew to properly operate a--
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* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', if you choose to hear the Struggle rules during the prologue, the NPC who explains them will begin "You already know the rules, but a refresher can't hurt."
* Similarly in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''. Tidus is an accomplished blitzball player; before the big game, Wakka offers him a recap of the rules of Blitzball. Slight modification in that since Tidus is slouching and looks rather bored in the scene afterward, it's implied he wasn't really paying attention and that Wakka was just drilling his team, who are uniformly awful.
* ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'': How many times has Lan gone through some sort of homework assignment, field trip, lecture from his dad, etc., learning the basics of battling against a bunch of Mettaurs? Slightly justified in the first game that he hasn't done any serious net battling
* In ''[[Jade Empire]]'', you, the senior student at the Two Rivers school of martial arts, can quiz a junior student serving as a guard for information on health, chi, focus and other topics
* If you Talk to Froderick in ''[[A Vampyre Story]]'', you don't have a conversation with him then and there; instead, Mona has a flashback to when they were just shooting the breeze and doing nothing in particular. The conversation is laden with exposition, but, bafflingly, Mona has chosen to flask back to a conversation where she and Froderick were talking about stuff they already know; particularly the story of how the two met, which Froderick seems to be getting a little sick of telling over and over.
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** Justified a bit more in the Gnome starting area. A couple characters give you some pointers about Gnomish culture and the more important Gnomes around, then mention that they're telling you this because the radiation in the city you had just escaped from could have resulted in memory loss.
* ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'': The main character was a sheltered aristocrat that had never seen outside the walls of his mansion, thus forcing the other characters to explain to him the most basic information on the universe.
* In ''[[
* ''[[The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police|Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'' has this due to how much continuity piles up in [[Telltale Games]]. [[Lampshaded]] in "The Penal Zone", when Grandpa Stinky complains about Sam doing this.
{{quote|'''Sam:''' Max is all short term memory; I occasionally have to bring him back up to speed.
'''Max:''' Aah! GIANT TALKING DOG! }}
== Web Animation ==
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'''Caboose:''' Uh, Red Base, no, I'm in the ship. }}
* Parodied in the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' cartoon "A Decemberween Pageant". It opens with Homestar talking to Marzipan about how the night of the titular pageant has arrived "After all the weeks and weeks of rehearsing and practicing and memorizing lines," when Marzipan tells him "Homestar, I don't think those are your lines." A [[Reveal Shot]] shows Homestar and Marzipan are standing on the stage, and [[The Ditz|Homestar]] has been delivering his exposition in the middle of the performance.
== Web Comics ==
* Spoofed/lampshaded repeatedly in the webcomic ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]''. At one point, [[Genre Savvy|Elan]] compliments Roy for working the exposition into his angry tirade so smoothly. (He also cries at weddings, but only when there's really good exposition.)
* Spoofed in ''Killroy and Tina'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20130313050055/http://www.graphicsmash.com/comics/killroyandtina.php?name=killroyandtina&view=single&ID=4113 here] with a fourth wall lampshading.
* Lampshaded in ''[[Starslip Crisis]]'':
{{quote|'''Admiral:''' I know what it is! There was no reason for you to say that out loud!}}
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"Uh, obviously I already know that, we live in the same universe! Duhhh..." }}
* As you know, ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|hangs a lampshade]] on its use of tropes, and then gives us a [[Shout-Out]] in the [[Alt Text]]. And [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2374.html they've done it again].
* Lampshaded in [https://web.archive.org/web/20100112085852/http://www.antiheroforhire.com/d/20091002.html this] ''[[Antihero for Hire]]'': "I'm just making sure we're on the same page."
* [[Played for Laughs]] in a ''[[Precocious (Webcomic)|Precocious]]'' strip, aptly titled [http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/comic/2010/03/17 "Relive those memories"].
* Head Alien from the ''[[Walkyverse]]'' loves this. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in [https://web.archive.org/web/20120122021913/http://www.itswalky.com/d/20000111.html one strip].
{{quote|'''Alien:''' Hey, Boss? We know all this.
'''Head Alien:''' Hush. I enjoy this. }}
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"Sorry, I thought we were supposed to explain things we already knew to each other." }}
* ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'': Sometimes it's because your co-conspirators just [http://exterminatusnow.co.uk/2005-07-29/comic/facilitating-your-demise/distracting-derriere/ weren't] paying [http://exterminatusnow.co.uk/2005-08-02/comic/facilitating-your-demise/too-long-didnt-listen/ attention].
== Web Original ==
* In the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUEFxSOVd6A first episode] of ''[[Cause of Death]]'', it seems the killer is about to tell the audience and the man why he's come to the house, but then simply drops the subject and then {{spoiler|kills him. Brutally.}}
* Spoofed in [https://web.archive.org/web/20091216091121/http://www.shrovetuesdayobserved.com/flight.html Shrove Tuesday Observed]'s "If All Stories Were Written Like Science Fiction Stories".
{{quote|“There are more people going to San Francisco today than I would have expected,” he remarked.
“Some of them may in fact be going elsewhere,” she answered. “As you know, it’s expensive to provide airplane links between all possible locations. We employ a hub system, and people from smaller cities travel first to the hub, and then to their final destination. Fortunately, you found us a flight that takes us straight to San Francisco.” }}
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* In [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]]'s review of ''Uncanny X-Men #424'', he mentions how the Church of Humanity decides the best time to discuss their plan even though they would undoubtedly know about it is just before the X-Men arrive.
* How [[Honor Harrington|David Weber]] [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=635193 orders pizza].
== Western Animation ==
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'''Comic Book Guy:''' Yes, thank you for talking to all of us like we just tuned in. }}
** One of the comics had Bart telling Lisa what had happened as exposition for the reader. When Lisa asks why he's telling her what she already knows, Bart says he's filling in the readers, which confuses Lisa until he further explains [[Fourth Wall Psych|he's filling in their new neighbors, whose last name is Reader, on the situation]].
* Spoofed in an episode of ''[[Freakazoid!]]'', during a conversation that came with captions indicating which of the statements were "IMPORTANT" or "NOT IMPORTANT". The As You Know conversation eventually degraded into spewing frivolous things like "I'm wearing blue socks" (captioned with "NOT IMPORTANT") and "You know, if you mix baking soda and vinegar together, you can make a little volcano." ("NOT IMPORTANT... BUT INTERESTING")
* This comes up rather often in ''[[Code Lyoko]]'' Season 1, since the series starts [[In Medias Res]]. Jérémie is usually the one stuck with frequently reminding his friends about information that they would already
* On ''[[American Dad]]'' Francine is talking to her sister while Stan eavesdrops and calls her "sis", then remarks how strange it is for her to call her that, then mentions her age and where they grew up for no reason.
{{quote|'''Francine:''' I didn't know what to do, sis! What? I've never called you "sis" before? You're right, it is oddly clunky and expositional. I mean, I know you're my sister, so who am I saying it for?}}
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{{quote|'''Hayley:''' You saved Roger's life? I guess you guys are even now.
'''Stan:''' "Even"?
'''Halley:''' Yeah, you know; [[Continuity Nod|the life debt.]]
''[Everyone remembers]''
'''Francine:''' I understand too, Hayley, but would you explain it anyway? I love to hear things summarized. }}
* ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' has a similar [[Double Subversion]]:
{{quote|'''Captain:''' You know what that means Stormy? ''(Stormy nods)''
'''Someone else:''' But I don't know, Captain, what does it mean? }}
* ''[[The Fairly
* ''[[Family Guy]]'', Quagmire's "That one was also sexual" line. Initially it looks like [[Don't Explain the Joke]], but according to the DVD commentary, it was a spoof of characters saying things that no one would really say to explain the plot, like "I can't wait for the bake sale this afternoon!"
* ''[[Futurama]]'' lampshades this by having Bender defeating Elzar on an episode of ''[[Iron Chef]]'', then pulling back to show him turning off the TV as his win is being broadcast.
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'''Leela:''' We know. We were there. And we just got done watching it again on TV. }}
** [[Played for Laughs]] in "Bender's Game":
{{quote|'''[[The Professor|Farnsworth]]:''' I'm sure I don't need to explain that [[Techno Babble|all dark matter in the universe is linked in the form of]] [[Applied Phlebotinum|a single non-local meta-particle]].
'''[[Genius Ditz|Amy]]:''' ''[[Future Slang|Guh]]!'' Stop patronizing us! }}
** [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] by Cubert: "As you probably already DON'T know..."
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* On ''[[The Boondocks]], Huey sets up a [[Noodle Incident]] as to how "because of [Ed Wuncler Sr.], [Huey] gave a girl a 'permanent and severe limp'". Grandad even says "Look, nobody needs to be reminded of that tragic day you gave that girl a 'permanent severe limp'" right before telling the story.
* The ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' recap episode "Grill" gives a decent justification. Agent Fowler is being interrogated for what happened with Nemesis Prime, and he's giving a report not only to his direct superior, but is also being recorded for the sake of those higher up the chain of command. The guy he's speaking to knows what's going on, but the people who would be watching the video wouldn't necessarily.
== [[Real Life]] ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Exposition]]
[[Category:Rule of Perception]]
[[Category:Stock Phrases]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:index]]
[[Category:Show, Don't Tell]]
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