Monster Fun Facts
Whenever a "monster" type character such as a vampire, werewolf, what have you, explains at length about the various rules/characteristics of their culture to another character (usually a clueless human). Usually this happens in one large infodump or sprinkled throughout a series to explain something that, otherwise, would not make any sense. Note that the purpose of this is more about explaining it to the reader rather than the confused human character and only counts if it becomes really obvious and or annoying.
Sometimes the human character will even continue on with a string of questions just to explain things further to the reader, turning into a rather odd interview.
Example:
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Person A: You have a tail?! |
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Often overlaps with Your Vampires Suck.
Literature
- Eragon from The Inheritance Cycle. Sometimes everything just "stops" completely to explain some other minute detail about elven culture that the reader really did not need to know, with Eragon asking a continuous string of questions to hammer in a moral.
- Edward Cullen takes a whole chapter (the infamous meadow scene) to explain vampire lore to Bella.
- In a clunky bit of writing in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry is running down a list of things at Voldemort's command and despite the fact that no one asked for any clarification on the word, he says:
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Harry: ...and Inferi - that is, dead bodies animated by a dark wizard... |
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- Although that may have been helpful considering he was trying to impress on the Dursleys exactly how scary Voldemort really is. What would scare you more, a nonsense word you don't know the meaning of (which sounds a little like "fairy") or an animated corpse controlled by dark magic?
Live-Action TV
- Bill from True Blood. You can't go through one episode without him explaining yet another aspect of vampire culture to his confused human character (Sookie).
- After the first season, though, this is averted.
- An old Saturday Night Live sketch turned a job interview with a centaur into such an occasion, much to the centaur's chagrin.
- The first episode of Moonlight begins with Mick explaining the series's vampire rules to an unseen interviewer.
- Turns out it was an Imagine Spot.
Video Games
- In the beginning of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, Jack will explain the rules of the Masquerade and vampire weaknesses to fledgling. You'll also get the chance for explanations the first time you meet a Ghoul or when you meet the Kuei-Jin leader Ming-Xiao in Chinatown. Justified as this only happens if you actually ask for clarification (and if you don't take the opportunity to ask questions, the gaps in your knowledge can change outcomes later—for example, if you don't get certain information about ghouls from Mercurio or Knox, you can't save Heather.)
Web Comics
- In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, the first appearances of the dragons and the bigfeet brought large infodumps from Hibachi and Goona respectively.
- Averted in Order of the Stick: Celia (a Sylph) considers the knowledge such a monologue would provide common knowledge (even for humans) and consequently doesn't explain the traits and attributes of her species to the Order.
- This proves fatal for Roy, who she could have saved if she hadn't assumed he could shoot lightning from his fingers.