As You Know: Difference between revisions

* 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.

** Somewhat [[Inverted]] with ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'''s Dementors: every character refers to them as simply "guards of Azkaban" until the chapter where a Dementor first appears. Also, the phrase "Death Eater" never shows up until ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire|Goblet of Fire]]'', although in hindsight it would be natural in many previous conversations, e.g about Sirius.

*** 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.

* 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.

* 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]]''

{{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.}}

*** 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"

* 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, however—partly because [[Replacement Scrappy|everyone hated the new guy]], and partly because Kojima infodumps are so [[Author Tract|turgid]] that As You Know actually makes them more accessible.

** 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--

** 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.

* ''[[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.

'''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]].

* 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 know—like the basic properties of the world of Lyoko, the monsters' stats, the fact that they couldn't let anyone die before a Return to the Past or that their main goal is to materialize Aelita.

* 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|'''Hayley:''' You saved Roger's life? I guess you guys are even now.

'''Stan:''' "Even"?

'''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? }}

* ''[[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.

'''Leela:''' We know. We were there. And we just got done watching it again on TV. }}

** [[Played for Laughs]] in "Bender's Game":

'''[[Genius Ditz|Amy]]:''' ''[[Future Slang|Guh]]!'' Stop patronizing us! }}

** [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] by Cubert: "As you probably already DON'T know..."