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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Pay attention in class, especially science class, because you will need the information later in the episode.''}}
This trope is the awkward tendency of programs to use precisely what
{{quote|
"Oh yes, I totally forgot. How [[Idiot Ball|conveniently stupid]] of me!" }}
Common in [[Edutainment Show
Compare [[Strange Minds Think Alike]] and [[Lecture
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Anime
* In the [[Hot Springs Episode]] of ''[[
** ''Totally'' worth it for the line "[[Double Entendre|Thermal expansion... how embarrassing]]", though.
*** The example used by Asuka was pretty sweet, too.
* Episode 3 of ''[[
* Done rather effectively in ''[[Full Metal Panic
* An episode of ''[[
* Kakashi's lecture about revenge before the Sasuke retrieval arc of ''[[
** During Naruto's Rasenshuriken training, he finally nails it after asking Kakashi how to "look towards right and left at the same time", whereupon Kakashi creates a shadow clone, inspiring Naruto to use shadow clones to do two things at once. The same phrase uttered word-for-word by Fukusaku later during his Sage Mode training gives him the idea to overcome his obstacle, again by using Shadow Clones.
* Doesn't exactly help the protagonist solve anything, but a plot point is explained this way in ''[[
* Gon in ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Pokémon (
* ''[[Your Name]]'': Early on, a literature lesson introduces the concept of ''kataware doki'', a kind of witching hour at twilight where reality blurs and one might encounter something inhuman. Later, Hitoha teaches Taki-in-Mitsuha about ''musubi'', how connections can be forged across time and things taken into the body join to the soul. Both these things play vital roles in the climax.
== Films -- Live Action ==
* ''[[Indiana Jones and
* The titular character of [[Fresh]], while suffering a [[Heroic BSOD]] after his would-be girlfriend was killed in when an [[Ax Crazy]] gangster shot up the playground when he was losing at basketball, gets berated by his [[Samuel L. Jackson|father]] who only notices [["Well Done, Son" Guy|how poor his son's chess game is]]. Still, the [[Chess Motifs|chess lessons on the importance of exploiting your opponents character and sacrificing any game piece if it means winning]] come in quite handy {{spoiler|when Fresh enacts his plan to escape his neighbourhood by maniuplating the gangsters to kill each other, then turning in the survivors to the police and applying for witness protection,}} while relying on the fact that he is [[Just a Kid]] to stay [[Beneath Suspicion]].
* Variation occurs in ''[[Monty Python and
* ''[[Slumdog Millionaire]]'' uses a justified version of this trope to great effect. The entire plot is centered on the protagonist explaining episodes in his life that have given him unexpectedly useful knowledge.
* In ''[[Shorts]]'', Helvetica does her science projects on female wasps and their habit of "male-stuffing". Later on, {{spoiler|in the fight against Giant Mecha Mr. Black, Helvetica uses the rainbow wishing rock to wish that she were a giant wasp... ''male-stuffing''.}}
* ''[[The
* [[Drives Like Crazy|Elwood Blues]] goes on one of these lectures to his brother in ''[[The Blues Brothers]]'' on the benefits of a cop car: cop shocks, engine, suspension, etc. This comes in handy with the utter vehicular chaos that ensues.
* ''[[Starship Troopers (
* In ''[[Twilight (
* The first ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' sees paleontologist Dr Alan Grant scare a poor child with detailed information about the velociraptor pack mentality and how they tend to eat their prey.
* In ''[[Copycat]]'', Sigourney Weaver's character gives a lecture on serial killers and at one point asks all the men in the audience to stand. Several of the men's faces are then projected on the screen behind her as she explains that men are more likely to be serial killers, and how they look just like everybody else. Naturally, the movie's villain (a serial killer himself) is one of the men projected on the screen.
* Ranger LeBoeuf in ''[[True Grit]]'' drops a throwaway hint to Mattie Ross about a {{spoiler|pit to beware of}}, just moments before {{spoiler|she drops into it while defending herself in the film's climax}}.
* ''King Ralph'' could practically be the naming of this trope. At the end, when Ralph is looking for a way out, he tells an aide that he usually ignores what the aide says, that aide once said, 'I think we made the right choice'. Ralph remembers that and asks who the other candidate is, and the denouement begins.
* In ''[[Mean Girls]]'' Cady uses this to win the [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Mathletes]] competition. She harks back to an old maths class to answer a question about limits.
* ''[[Timeline]]'' begins with a history lesson the the archeologists. They go back in time and need to use exactly what they just learned.
* ''[[Black Death (
* ''Jett Jackson: The Movie'', the made-for-TV movie of ''[[The Famous Jett Jackson]]'': After Jett and his TV character Silverstone [[Trapped in TV Land|have switched places in each other's universes]] and have been living in each other's shoes for a while, Jett's grandmother later approaches Silverstone in a quiet moment, where it's revealed that she'd already figured out he wasn't her grandson. When Silverstone asks how she knew, she explains that when Jett was born, she looked him in the eyes and knew that from thenceforth she'd always be able to know and identify him. {{spoiler|In the climax of the film, the shape-shifting [[Big Bad]] in Silverstone's world makes himself look like Jett, causing a doppleganger problem when the three confront one another; Jett and Silverstone look each other in the eye and know they're both the real deal}}.
* Let's not forget ''[[
== Literature ==
* Hermione constantly saves the day in ''[[Harry Potter (
** This sort of thing is even done across ''books''. In the fourth book, Dumbledore casually mentions a room filled with chamber pots that he found when he desperately needed a bathroom, and then was unable to ever find again. In book 5, the room is formally introduced as the Room of Requirement, and ends up being an integral part of the story in every remaining book in the series.
*** And in the very first book, Snape quizzes Harry, and one of the questions is about bezoars. In book six, it's used to save Ron's life, although Harry re-learns about it from Snape in a roundabout way.
**** "Has ''no-one'' read "Hogwarts A History"?
* In [[Dan Brown]]'s ''[[Angels
{{quote|
* Modern pulp author [[Matthew Reilly]] uses this to a ''ridiculous'' degree. Two examples:
** In ''[[Temple]]'', there's a throwaway sentence from the protagonist about how he'll need to change his PIN number after reading a story in the paper about how most people use their birth dates as pass codes. Guess how he defuses the superweapon his brother worked on?
*** Guess again, it wasn't his birthday. But that example was used as a starting point. {{spoiler|His brother always used Elvis' army serial number as his PIN. The [[Nazi]] scientist used his supposed date of execution.}}
** In ''[[Area 7]]'', a precocious youth found in the middle of a government base delivers a buttload of the kind of trivia kids that age accumulate and share at any opportunity, including how komodo dragons are sensitive to changes in the Earth's magnetic field. So, of course, there's a scene where the main character has to fight off ''komodo dragons'' in a watery pit with his magnetic grappling hook.
* Subverted and lampshaded in ''[[The
{{quote|
'''Ford:''' Why, what did she say?
'''Arthur:''' I don't know, I wasn't listening! }}
== Live
* Even ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' isn't above using this trope at least once. In order to defeat the evil science teacher who is actually a giant praying mantis, Buffy uses the recorded sound of bat sonar to "make [her] nervous system go kerplooey". She of course learnt about that in science class earlier in the episode (though, thankfully, from the previous science teacher. No villain should be stupid enough to teach a class their own weaknesses).
** Of course, that's not how she ultimately kills the praying mantis. She does that with a big machete.
*** Of course. It's Buffy, after all.
* ''[[
* Pretty much every episode of ''[[Black Hole High]]'' (a.k.a. ''Strange Days at Blake Holsey High'') featured this. Apparently, the unpredictable wormhole at least had the good manners to follow the <s>state</s> [[Canada, Eh?|provincial]]-mandated science syllabus exactly.
** Given the way physics works at Blake Holsey (namely, that its laws will bend to teach you an Important Moral Lesson), it is entirely possible that the wormhole was doing it "on purpose", and the physics lectures or experiments in act 1 were really shaping the physics weirdness in act 2.
** Or, of course, the time
* A lovely children's education show called ''[[
* Subverted in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', when Sheppard finds himself in an F-302 latched onto a Wraith Hiveship in hyperspace. He flashes back to a memory of McKay and Zelenka arguing about whether a non-hyperspace capable ship could detach from another one while in hyperspace without being destroyed, which is exactly what Sheppard needs to know. Then they ask Sheppard what he thinks, but he's not paying attention because he's flirting with the woman at the next table. He ends up not taking the risk, and has to wait for the Hiveship to leave hyperspace.
* Crossed with [[I Know You Know I Know]] in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcVAcxayiFM 'Fingers and Fumbs'] episode of ''[[QI]]'', where host Stephen offers the contestants an opportunity to go double or nothing on a forfeit by playing [[Rock
* ''[[Glee
* The third episode of BBC's 2010 ''[[
* [[Exploited Trope|Exploited]] by the crew on ''[[Leverage]]''. While setting up a con on a college student, Nate plays a professor who antagonizes the mark so that Hardison can make friends with him. The lecture Nate gives is about the prisoner's dilemma problem in game theory, and he tells the class that it's always better for the prisoners to turn on each other. Later, they put the mark in a situation where he has the option of turning on his confederates, and he flashes back to Nate's lecture and decides to do it.
== Video Games ==
* The ''[[Persona (
** Sort of used in ''[[
** Used in a similar manner in ''[[
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
** In ''Birth By Sleep'' Eraqus tells Aqua classified information only Keyblade Masters are allowed to know, but this knowledge isn't revealed to the player {{spoiler|until the Final Episode where a flashback reveals Eraqus told her how to protect the Land of Departure by turning it into Castle Oblivion}}.
* It gets glossed over early on in ''[[Legacy of Kain|Soul Reaver]]'' that vampires are vulnerable to certain sound frequencies, but this doesn't serve much purpose except for a sound-based attack spell and a non-canonical deleted ending. Then three games later ''Defiance'' pits us against {{spoiler|Turel}}, a vampire with [[Super Senses]] who can only be harmed by ringing a series of giant gongs.
* Present in the Fate route of [[
{{quote|
* In the first year of ''[[Grim Fandango]]'', the janitor demon lectures you that spraying the fire extinguisher on the packing foam causes an explosion. You use this information later on in the fourth year, where {{spoiler|you use it to build a rocket to save Glottis}}.
* Used in [[Half Life|Half-Life 2 Episode 2]]: At White Forest, a rebel is teaching others about the effectiveness of an [[AR 2]] Combine ball against hunters, a while before {{spoiler|the White Forest rocket is attacked by hunters and striders}}.
* In ''[[Space Quest|Space Quest V]]'' you begin the game by passing a test that gives ridiculous answers to questions like "how to best defeat an android bounty hunter" -- {{spoiler|"drop a rock on him"}}. Several of those turn out to be answers to in-game puzzles.
* {{spoiler|Would you kindly}} mention the obvious one in [[
== Web Original ==
* In the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'' story "Ayla and the Tests", Phase misses several days of school and gets a big lecture in the lab section for Powers Theory class from Dr. Yablonski on Warper powers and warp displacement fields of 'giants' (Warpers who use their power to apparently grow to huge size). In a [[Lampshade Hanging]], Phase even refers to him as [[Mister Exposition]]. Guess what Phase faces when they go to Boston? A forty-foot giant who's a warper.
** In "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl", Ayla shows (s)he knows too much about taking out mutants with powers, and she talks all about it on the way back from martial arts class. What she says about fighting Package Deal Psychics saves Lancer's life in the big final fight.
* The [[Kid Hero|students]] at the [[Global Guardians PBEM Universe|Hyperion Academy]] used the information they learned in about electro-magnetism during their weekly physics class to defeat the villainous Lodestone.
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== Western Animation ==
* Generally averted in ''[[
* Parodied in the ''[[
* In what has to be a spoof, an episode of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' has Ron tutoring Kim in Home Economics. Later on, Kim uses Ron's advice when Shego has her trapped in a giant industrial mixer. While facing certain death from the large mixer blades, Kim Possible grabs the mixers, stays/spins with it, follows it up into the air, lets go of it and defeats Shego by doing a jump kick that screws with the laws of physics. All thanks to a lesson about cooking where Ron says to her how she shouldn't fear the mixer but instead be one with it.
** In a later episode, [[Executive Meddling]] forced them to have a lecture about good nutrition and the five food groups. Ron falls into a vat of the Titan Formula and becomes a junk-food-eating-monster. Luckily Kim and her brothers know the cure for that!
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* Normally subverted in ''[[Mighty Max]]'' whenever Max comes up with a clever plan to save the day. It's usually not until ''after'' the villain is defeated that Max gives the Chekhov's Lecture, either to the other characters or directly to the audience in the [[Edutainment]] sections at the end of each episode.
* Referenced on ''[[The Simpsons]]'' when a tipped salt silo from the local cracker factory melts all the snow surrounding the school and Martin tastes it and declares that it melted with "a little help from our friend Sodium Chloride!" [[Running Gag|He then gets punched in the gut by Nelson.]]
** Another episode has Bart rush out of a class on Roman numerals to steal the town's lemon tree back from Shelbyville. Later on in the same episode he ends up in a room with a choice of doors labelled I-X and a piece of paper that claims that the seventh door is the exit and all the others contain man eating tigers. In a subversion, he doesn't even remember the class but makes the right choice anyway thanks to his knowledge of ''[[Rocky (
** And in case you're wondering, the film in question Bart comes up with? {{spoiler|[[Numbered Sequels|''Rocky VII:'']][[Oddly
* The Phantom of ''[[Flying Rhino Junior High]]'' frequently transforms the school into a death trap based on whatever lecture (or sometimes just topic of discussion in general) the children were having that day. This naturally leads to the students who were paying attention being the ones to get everyone out of trouble.
* Generally averted in ''[[Winx Club]]'': The only time anything we've seen them learn in class has been useful to the plot was when Tecna fired a spell she learned in class at Professor Avalon. One can debate that even ''that'' spell didn't work properly.
* ''[[Total Drama World Tour]]'' has Sierra mentioning that Cody's birthday is April 1 during the first episode. In ''Aww, Drumheller'', {{spoiler|she makes a cake to celebrate his birthday, which both warms him up to her (because last year his birthday was ignored) and also got her kicked off when the "candles" made the plane explode.}}
* Parodied in ''[[Megas XLR]]'', when Coop has sudden flashback to his high school science teacher scholding him for not paying attention and saying that one day he might need her lesson. She was right, as what she was talking about happens to be contain informations about [[Monster of the Week|bad guy's of the week]] main super weapon and Coop really doesn't remember them.
* In one episode of ''[[The Mummy
* Inverted and parodied in ''[[Max Steel]]'':
** Inversion: Josh is required to write an essay on the Cold War with a fresh angle. A mission he goes on later that day requires him to go through escape tunnels in Washington D.C. (something vaguely mentioned in the lecture), and he uses that knowledge to get an A+ on his essay.
** Parody:
{{quote|
'''Rachel:''' Now wouldn't that be convenient. }}
* In the ''[[
* Subverted in ''[[
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]
[[Category:Chekhov's Gun]]
[[Category:
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