It Runs on Nonsensoleum: Difference between revisions

[[File:DubiousCompanyTechExpo_6651.jpg|link=Dubious Company|right|[[The Drunken Sailor|Ye 'pected me to run me ship sober?.]]]]

 

 

There's [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|"hard" science fiction]], which adheres only to what is currently known or theorized. There's [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|"soft" science fiction]], which offers little to no explanation beyond "it's a time machine!/ray gun!/clone!, etc". There's [[Techno Babble]], which throws gibberish at you and expects you to give it the benefit of the doubt that it's sound science.

And then, sometimes, there's a kind of jokey science fiction which [[They Just Didn't Care|doesn't even care]] if it's total rubbish. It may explain the scientific principles on which the [[Applied Phlebotinum|phlebotinum]] works, but the principles are so outlandish and/or obviously not true that the audience just has to shrug and say, "[[Rule of Funny|Well, it's comedy]]". In a sense, this is [[Did Not Do the Research]] done deliberately.

 

 

Can be seen as an acknowledgement of the [[Rule of Funny]]. Compare [[Better Than a Bare Bulb]]. A level of nonsense beyond this is [[Insane Troll Logic]], while a nonsense explanation that we're expected to actually ''take seriously'' is a [[Voodoo Shark]].

 

Sometimes justified by [[The Spark of Genius]] or [[Psychic Powers]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* In the ''[[One Piece]]'' manga, author Eiichiro Oda often gives joke reason for things in his question-and-answer column, like how Zoro can [[Talking Is a Free Action|talk]] even when he [[Cutlass Between the Teeth|has a sword in his mouth]] because [[Determinator|his heart allows him to speak]]...

** This is best illustrated by the explanation for Sanji's Diable Jambe move, which involves setting his leg on fire with friction. According to Oda, his leg isn't hurt because ''[[Hot Blooded|his heart is burning hotter]]''. [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|What an awesome power heart is, huh?]]

** Sanji appears to be picking up the explicit ability to ''kick people pretty''. Literally. As in, during his fight with uber-[[Gonk]] Wanze, he kicks him in the face, turning him temporarily into a Bishounen, and later, does the same (seemingly permanent and much appreciated) to {{spoiler|Duval}}. This means that if this pirate/cook thing doesn't work out for Sanji, he could always become a plastic surgeon. Y'know, without the scalpels and stuff.

** Sometimes happens with things outside the question and answer panel. For example, the reason Brook kept his [[Funny Afro]] even after being reduced to a skeleton is because he had "strong roots".

** And the Infinite Improbability Drive's invention also used Nonsensoleum. They already had a Finite Improbability Generator, but needed an Infinite one to take in the whole universe for use as a drive, and frustrated scientists declared this "virtually impossible" - it took one of the lab cleaners to figure out that a "virtual impossibility" is also a "finite improbability", so he could use the Finite Improbability Generator to create the Infinite Improbability Drive {{spoiler|or, in fact, teleport its core component, the Heart of Gold/Golden Bail, there from where it had been hidden from the Krikketers}}. Furthermore, the Finite Improbability Generator is powered by a "fresh cup of really hot tea", as it runs on the unpredictability of the Brownian motion of the water molecules.

** In the sequel ''Life, the Universe and Everything'', a new form of travel is devised based on "Bistromathics", the unnatural manner in which numbers behave when calculated on Italian restaurant bills.

** And we must not forget about the one drive that functions on the principle that bad news always reaches places before anything else. Too bad nobody would allow it to dock.

** If you've done [[Alice in Wonderland (Literature)|six impossible things this morning]], why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways - Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

* [[Mad Scientist|Dr. Forrester]] from ''[[Mystery Science Theatre 3000]]'', his explanation for some of his more implausible inventions? "It would take a scientist to explain it, and I'm just too mad".

** There are also the 'special parts' mentioned in the theme song, used to create the Bots (thus including, among other things, a bowling pin and a gumball machine), which in turn somehow explains why Joel/Mike can't just turn the damn movies off. Later, of course, the same theme tosses an iconic [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade]] over this entire trope: [[MST3K Mantra|"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes/and other science facts/Then repeat to yourself 'It's just a show/I should really just relax'..."]]

** In the Doctor's case, it's not so much comedy (well, okay, it is) as the fact that the audience and the people he's explaining it to don't have a chance of understanding what he's really doing, so he boils it down to terms that would work for a [[Lies to Children|five year-old]].

** Mocked in a fictional Doctor Who scene in [[Extras]]:

*** In fact, FEV is hardly a failed project. It works exactly as advertised, as super mutants are immortal, super-strong and resistant to radiation, and while most of them act like troglodytes, some (who e.g. got education after exposure) are show as at least as smart as normal humans.

*** Nuclear cars would obviously work, but be to dangerous and expensive in real life. However, in Fallout universe no one really cared about danger from radiation and apparently there are more radioactive elements (both in number of kinds and amount) than we know about.

* The whirligigs of ''[[Netstorm]]'': 'This device is lofted on its own impossibility and so it destroys by the power of negation.' [http://netstorm.wikia.com/wiki/Whirligig Whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.] Oddly enough, they need to refuel every so often, which implies that they must be loaded with impossibility before each flight. Does impossibility have a physical form? One would assume not, but then why is their impossibility supply finite? More importantly, how do you power an object with impossibility in the first place, let alone destroy things with it? It seems that the Whirligig is something of a philosophical quandary, though it must be acknowledged that attempting to use logic on an example of this trope is futile.

 

* In ''[[Tobias And Jube]]'', the titular duo have a spaceship drive that allows it to cross vast distances really quickly. The way it works is: the crew suggests a place to go and decide to go there. The ship then arrives there solely because it would have to arrive there eventually.

* In ''[[Girls in Space]]'' the girls travel space in a VW Camper Van. This was converted into a spaceship when the Universal Upgrader (a prototype made by an intergalactic electronics company) was fired at it.

** As far as Red Mage is concerned, the less sense a plan makes, the greater its chance of success!

*** He took this [[Up to Eleven]] when devising a plan that he claimed to be infallible. Why? It made no sense, therefore it couldn't be stopped.

*** Curiously this contradict the previous statement about having changed the speed of light.

*** Careful. The light that made it to Omicron Persei 8 was "old light," so to speak, that is light that was generated ''before'' the change in the speed of light, thus it traveled at the speed for which a lightyear was still accurate (distance traveled in one year at 2.99x10^8 m/s). The only really odd thing is that a lightyear was not redifined. However, with this series, they probably just didn't want to change the numbers on the traffic signs.

** In "Mars University", the characters meet Gunter, Professor Farnsworth's talking monkey. Fry asks if Gunter can talk because he was genetically engineered, but the Professor laughs and tells him that genetic engineering [[What We Now Know to Be True|is a bunch of science fiction mumbo jumbo]]. He then explains that Gunter's intelligence and ability to talk come from "his electronium hat, which harnesses the power of sunspots to produce [[Foreshadowing|cognitive radiation.]] "

** The ship going faster than the speed of light by moving the universe around it is probably a reference to the Alcubierre drive. Also the ship takes in dark matter which is probably not accounted while calculating the input-output ratio, thereby resulting in an absurd 200% efficiency.