Interactive Narrator: Difference between revisions

* The 1950s BBC radio comedy ''[http://www.thegoonshow.net/ The Goon Show]'' subverted this constantly. The show's characters would constantly undercut nominal narrator Wallace Greenslade (a BBC announcer appearing under his real name), often narrating themselves or mocking Greenslade's "posh talk". [http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/ajwills/raw/series06/s06e14.html One episode] turned the tables and made Greenslade the central character, telling the story of his rise to BBC stardom. In the episode "The Phantom Head-Shaver Of Brighton" he kept telling us about a tobacco stall he'd just opened. It turned out he was the Phantom Head-Shaver, using the hair for stock. Normally a BBC radio announcer would only announce the show's title at the start and read the closing credits at the end. Given their anarchic style of comedy the Goons weren't about to let ''their'' narrator get off so lightly.

* This also happened in another [[BBC]] radio comedy ''[[The Navy Lark]]'' at one point having the cast abandon the story to go look at the narrator's [[Page Three Stunna|dirty calendar]] - his naughty Lillian Gish calendar. On another occasion they help the narrator find a 15 sided nut for his vacuum. Throughout the run, the narrator set up the story with a little monologue at the beginning. Later in the run, the characters would break in and either converse or argue with the narrator, or tell him to hurry up so they could get on with the show.

* In the BBC's adaptation of ''[[Dead Souls]]'', the narrator is actually following Chichikov around, telling the story as he goes. He is nearly constantly on Chichikov's nerves, since he is prone to giving unflattering descriptions or switching around what Chichikov is thinking and what he actually says aloud. At the end of the story, Chichikov {{spoiler|is chased out of town by a bunch of very angry townspeople, and manages to leave the narrator behind as he flees.}}

* There are a lot of examples of this in ''[[I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again|I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again]]'', done in various ways. On one occasion, for instance, David Hatch is introducing that week's episode of the serial and breaks off to comment on how bad the plot is, saying that it's just as believable as him saying that suddenly there was a huge explosion and [the cast] all disappeared in a puff of smoke. They promptly do just that, and once he's brought them back, John Cleese berates him for being power mad. Hatch proceeds to narrate a series of disasters culminating in Cleese landing in a vat of simmering tapioka pudding as an object lesson to everybody else.

 

* The Pokébattles Narrator is usually depicted as an omnipotent (or so it claims), genderless, sadistic [[Lemony Narrator]]... and whom the player can almost always hear and interact with.

 

== Western Animation ==

** He was actually kidnapped by the villains at one point, just like the previously mentioned Rocky and Bullwinkle example. And then Sheep {{spoiler|reveals himself to be the real villainous mastermind of the entire show, and plans to use the narrator for his "Narrator-Powered Raygun"}}.

** During an episode that ended with a [[Downer Ending]], the narrator decided that he hated the ending and invoked a [[Deus Ex Machina]] to make a Super Happy Ending.

** In one memorable episode, he actually ''saved'' Freakazoid from an attacking foe by warning him. This incident (or a similar one) immediately had a [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade hung]] on it, and Freakazoid waved it off as the narrator liking to pad his part. Shortly afterward:

{{quote|'''Narrator:''' I would like to interrupt this episode for an important announcement - but I'm not going to give it. I wouldn't want to be accused of "padding my part".}}

* The narrator of ''[[Pocoyo]]'' who, awesomely, is [[Stephen Fry]]

* In the "Woodland Critter Christmas" episode of ''[[South Park]]'', Stan comes into conflict with a narrator who describes him doing things he didn't, and wouldn't, do, and transports him to places when he refuses to go there himself. The narrator turns out to be {{spoiler|Cartman}}.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Narrator Tropes]]

[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]