Brick Joke/Literature: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]s in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:

 

* In ''[[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (novel)|Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'', when Mr. Weasely is in St. Mungo's, one of the portraits is absolutely convinced Ron has a deadly disease called spattergroit. In the seventh book, {{spoiler|Ron's cover story for running away to look for Horcruxes with Harry and Hermione is that he has spattergroit. He, Fred, and George charm the ghoul in the attack to have red hair and pustules.}}

 

* In ''[[Wayside School]] Gets A Little Stranger'', one of the students is [[Hypno Fool|hypnotized]] by the school psychologist so that any time a particular female classmate says "Pencil", he'll think her ears are candy and try to eat them. The remainder of the chapter details how, for the whole day, she comes agonizingly close to saying "Pencil" but never does. Since the chapter is titled "A Story With a Really Disappointing Ending", the reader is led to assume that this is the end of it. Several chapters later, the class does a physics experiment by throwing several school items out the window--and the same girl points out "We'll need a new pencil sharpener." Cue ear licking.

** Also thrown out the window is the principal's coffeepot. Six chapters after that, after announcing the installation of elevators, he then adds, "By the way, has anyone seen my coffeepot?"

*** Someone also suggests that they throw an elephant out of the window, cue the teacher's comment "there are no elephants in wayside school". A later chapter is entitled "an elephant in wayside school"

* Used quite effectively in the ''Cassie Palmer'' books by Karen Chance. There are many small little plot points and references in the first book which go completely unresolved and unremarked upon. The reader than assumes that it's just sloppy writing, as there were no flashing arrows around these apparently unimportant bits and pieces. The series has a time-travel element, however, and by the time you get to the third book, it's hard to shake the feeling that the third book has retroactively affected the first.

* Lampshaded in ''The Punch and Judy Murders'': At the end, one character mentions a series of events that had nothing to do with the rest of the story. Immediately afterwards, they are tied in.

* At the end of [[Robert Rankin]]'s ''The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse'', Jack {{spoiler|is about to be killed by the [[Big Bad]], when the latter is shot by Jill, the prostitute Jack met half the book ago.}}

** It's usually assumed she figured out the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. Slightly early.

** The bowl of petunias, which is mentioned in a grand total of three sentences in book one and then {{spoiler|turns out to be Agrajag, a man whose death in every reincarnation is caused by Arthur}} in the third book.

* In the first book of the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series, it's established that during the war against Panis Rahl, the [[Evil Overlord]] had cursed all the red fruit grown in the Midlands to be poisonous, and nobody has been able to undo it. This isn't brought up again for the rest of the series until {{spoiler|the last book, when Richard, after using the Power of Orden, reveals among the other wrongs he's set right, he's undone the enchantment on the red fruit.}}

* In ''[[Good Omens]]'', the story breaks the fourth wall to ask the audience what they think happened to the child who was [[Switched At Birth|one of the children switched at birth in order to give the Antichrist to some parents]]. The joke, at the time, is that it's most likely that some horrible thing happened to him, but if it makes us feel better we can imagine that he grew up normally, maybe having a hobby of collecting tropical fish. Later on in the book, an irrelevant character is briefly discussed... who has a habit of collecting tropical fish. Interestingly, in ''that'' brief mention of the character, the story mentions that he's a [[Gentle Giant|big, clumsy child that any American football coach in the world would kill to have on his team]]. Cut to the end of the book, and it mentions that {{spoiler|the Antichrist altered a magazine the kid was reading so he would learn about, and be interested in, American football.}} (That bit was specifically added to increase the potential market in the USA for the book.)

* Near the beginning of ''[[Incarnations of Immortality|And Eternity]]'', Orlene says the chances of their [[Crapsack World]] improving are about as high as God kissing Satan. In the end, when {{spoiler|Orlene takes God's place, she kisses Satan, then begins setting up the world's reforms.}}

** {{spoiler|Not quite. It's not near the beginning but closer to the middle, when she is attempting to settle a hostage crisis, while being in a hostage victim's body. The hostage takers demand that the captain of their taken-over vessel surrender and when he refuses, Orlene gives his response as "when God kisses Satan and the Incarnations applaud". And then it happens at the end.}}

* In ''The Wolf's Hour,'' the protagonist is undercover in Nazi Germany and watches a bizarre comedy act with a dominatrix whipping a naked [[Winston Churchill]] impersonator (which is ''extremely'' tame in comparison to the rest of the show). {{spoiler|At the end of the book, when he has occasion to meet Churchill, he asks if he happens to have any relatives in Germany.}}

* In Anthony Horowitz's ''The Night of the Scorpion'', the first chapter shows the main character and his sidekick travelling to South America from England. During the flight, the sidekick tries to learn some Spanish, but the only sentence he can get right is "Una cabra se comió mi pasaporte" ("A goat ate my passport"). Cue the last chapter, weeks later, the characters are resting in a farm and [[Crowning Moment of Funny|the guy goes to fetch his passport in his room...]]

* [[Spaceballs]] parodies [[Dramatic Timpani]] by having the dramatic flourish during {{spoiler|Spaceship One's transormation into Mega Maid}} be provided by an ''actual'' timpanist. This timpanist is later seen as one of the evacuees when the [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]] is activated.

* In his autobiography ''Anything Goes,'' [[John Barrowman]] mentions that he has never had any children, and he's absolutely sure of it. Several chapters later, he discusses being a gay man and having a girlfriend, who (and I paraphrase) "only convinced him that he was a player for the boys' team. And now [[I Know You Know|you know how I know]] that I don't have any kids."

* There's a picture in ''The Last Straw'', the 3rd [[Diary of a Wimpy Kid]] book, that reveals that Greg once turned in a book report '''4 pages long''' (cover included), and only a few sentences long because {{spoiler|he took up more than half of the last page writing "THE END" in big letters, using the excuse that [[Blatant Lies|he was running out of paper]].}} [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|That spoiler-tagged part]] comes up at the end when Greg admits that he was ending his story on sort of a generic happy ending note, {{spoiler|but he admits that [[Ironic Echo|he's running out of paper...]]}}

* ''[[Dark Future (novel)|Dark Future]]'': Early in ''Krokodil Tears'' a news report mention the death of Wally The Whale, last living cetacean in the Atlantic and major tourist attraction for the Isle of Skye. The Mayor of Skye plans to have the whale preserved and open up a restaurant in his stomach named Jonah's Snackbar. Two hundred pages later, during the climactic fight between Jessamyn and the Jibbenainosay, Wally the Whale comes back to life. In the middle of the Bolivian ambassador's birthday party.

* In Issue #41 of ''[[Mad Magazine]]'' (from 1958), the cover picture of Alfred E. Neuman is half-finished because the artist got a call from [[Time Magazine]]. Cut to the article "The Next Day's Headlines" which shows disastrous headlines based on the advice columns shown on the previous page... and one about ''Time'' firing their new artist because all their people looked like Alfred E. Neuman.