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{{trope}}{{featured article}}
[[File:narrator2.jpg|link=Rocky and Bullwinkle|thumb|400px|With speed and dexterity astonishing for a woman of her advancing years, Mother bastes the turkey, tosses the salad, and mashes the potatoes!]]
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[[Self-Demonstrating Article|That's what the sign had said, anyway.]] And so, [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|as if compelled to do so]], the Troper sat down at his computer screen and began to type...
A character, sometimes part of the story proper and sometimes completely external to it, who acts either as the storyteller or as a framing device. A '''Narrator''' always breaks the [[Fourth Wall]], explicitly addressing the audience to tell them the story. Sometimes the Narrator is also responsible for presenting [[An Aesop]] to the audience at the end of the story, as in ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' and its imitators.
To be a Narrator, the individual must directly relate to the story in some way, if only as the person telling it. For example, [[Alfred Hitchcock]] was ''not'' a Narrator for ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]'', because his footage was independent of and had no bearing on the story or stories it appeared with. [[Rod Serling]] ''was'' a narrator, because he specifically introduced stories, often provided a lead-in to set them up, and provided a closing after the story footage ended; in one episode he actually ''was'' in the story, explaining how it was clearly ridiculous fantasy until the protagonist hears him and burns an envelope with his name on it, causing him to disappear.
Sometimes the Narrator can also take on aspects of a [[Greek Chorus]] or be [[Lemony Narrator|otherwise weird]], but a pure Narrator does not offer opinion on the action, he just lays it
One way of subverting this trope is to [[Interactive Narrator|have one or more characters able to hear the narrator]] (in most instances, the characters do not hear the narrations), and refuse to do what the narrator describes. Another is to [[Unreliable Narrator|make the narrator a complete liar]].
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See [[Narrator Tropes]] for specific types of narrators.
{{examples|suf=s}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The [[
** In the Japanese version, [[Jouji Yanami]] is the narrator for all of the series. In the Funimation dub, Brice Armstrong narrates DB, [[Kyle Hebert]] does DBZ, Andy Chandler does DBGT and Doc Morgan does DBZ Kai.
* Detective Manzou (a.k.a. "The Saw"), in ''[[Samurai Champloo]]''. Oddly enough, his narration has a tendency to transcend time, as he has narrated about future events which he could not feasibly be alive long enough to be knowledgeable of, like Vincent Van Gogh, modern Japan's feeling regarding same-sex relationships ("getting back to the Edo period"), the Zen movement in the 1960s, and the cross-cultural popularity of baseball in Japan and America.
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* ''[[Digimon]]'' had an interesting variation on this: in the first two seasons, most episodes began with the previous one being recapped by a character and ended with narration by a generic narrator. However, the third season begins a new-year-is-new-universe format similar to [[Super Sentai]], and from then on, episodes are narrated by one of the previous year's characters!
** Of course, this is just for the dub...which is somewhat abandoned in ''[[Digimon Savers|Savers]]'' in favor of a next episode preview. One of the characters still recap the previous episode, but only when it's needed.
** For Adventure and 02 the generic narrator (who does more of the narration in the original like the recaps, which makes more sense as sometimes the characters end up talking about things they can't possibly know about) is in the epilogue revealed to be {{spoiler|Takeru (TK in the dub) who's become a novelist writting about their adventures in the digital world}}
* The unnamed Narrator from ''[[Bobobo-Bo
* Who could forget the narrator from ''[[Speed Racer]]''? [[Catch Phrase|Unknown to Speed, Racer X is secretly his older brother, Rex, who ran away from home years ago!]]
* ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' begins every show with a Narrator telling the audience a fairytale. Sometimes it's from the (fictional) fairytale that one of the characters is from, sometimes it concerns a character's backstory, and sometimes it's a story that's somehow related to the episode. Drosselmeyer also serves as an odd narrator in some scenes, appearing on-screen to question details about the characters and the scene, and to occasionally tell the characters (who can rarely hear him) what they ''should'' do. {{spoiler|Considering he's actually writing the story, it makes sense for him to be the narrator.}}
* Judging by [[You Look Familiar|sharing voice actors]] the narrator for the openings of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' may possibly be {{spoiler|Simon at the age in the epilogue}}.
** He is.
* Alphonse Elric in the [[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* ''[[Kaiji]]'' has a particularly popular narrator, due to his overly [[Serious Business|serious]] tone and use of [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|overblown metaphors]] to describe what's going on.
* ''[[Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen]]'''s Narrator may be THE MOST [[Hot-Blooded|HOT BLOODED]] Narrator. EVER! Oh, and he's also a [[Large Ham]] as well.
* The [[
* [[Ookami-
* The narrator of [[Keroro Gunso]] is a typical narrator, usually summing up the episode with a little piece of wisdom at the end of each segment. However, everyone is aware of his existence. He even appears on screen [[The Faceless|(wearing a mask)
** He's only a typical narrator in the Japanese version. In the dub, he openly hates his job and tries to seperate himself from the insanity. In one episode, he actually quit his job because the series recycled a plotline too many times, and a new British narrator replaces him until he comes back at the end. He also only does the show because he's deep in gambling debts, apparently.
* ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]'' sometimes uses a narrator who would set up the premise of the episode or go over plot points that the audience may have missed from previous episodes.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[Kingdom Come]]'' has a dramatic subversion of this. Norman McKay has been chosen by the Spectre, embodiment of [[God]]'s vengeance, to be the one who witnesses the downfall of the world. As they look, separate from reality but able to observe it, upon the members of the Justice League debating the ethics of what they've done, suddenly the Flash, who exists on all dimensional levels at once, turns around and plucks a very surprised Norman McKay out of the air.
* ''[[
* [[The Sandman]] would occasionally make use of a narration, sometimes it would be one of the series’ characters and other times it would be anonymous but fairly poetic.
* One of [[Frank Miller]]’s signature tropes is his usually hard boiled style narration.
* [[Nextwave]] has some fairly odd narration.
** “Nextwave is in your room and touching you stuff”
* For the Frankenstein segments of [[Grant Morrison]]’s [[Seven Soldiers]] the narrator was also a [[Large Ham]].
* One of '''[[Stan Lee]]'s''' key tropes, True Believers!
== [[Film]] ==
* Parodied until the break of dawn by the ''[[George of the Jungle]]'' [[The Film of the Series|movie]]. The narrator not only narrates the action, he talks to the audience (at one point assuring them "[[Never Say "Die"|Nobody dies in this movie]]... they just get really big boo-boos"), corrects the actors when they mishear his description and at one point gets into an argument with one of the [[Mooks]] over how he's describing him, even rewinding the movie just to give him a hard time.
** The narrator was also parodied with in the old ''[[George of the Jungle]]'' cartoons, including one point where he made a character in the cartoon crash his plane into the top of the mountain with the warning, "Let that be a lesson to you: never monkey around with a narrator."
* ''[[
* The [[Adam Sandler]] flick ''Eight Crazy Nights'' had narration as well.
* ''Little Children'' plays this oddly straight, with a narrator explicitly saying what the characters are thinking at a given moment. It's surprisingly effective, though frequent PBS viewers will be rather weirded out, as the narrator they use is Will Lyman, the voice of ''Frontline'' and many an episode of ''Nova''.
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* Harry Lockheart in ''[[Kiss Kiss Bang Bang]]''.
* ''[[A Christmas Story]]'' is narrated by the adult Ralphie.
* ''[[The Neverending Story (
* ''(500) Days of Summer'' features a particularly [[Lemony Narrator|citrusy]] one.
* The Criminologist fulfills this role in [[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]].
** "I would like ([[Audience Participation|You would, wouldn't you?]]), if I may (No, you may not), to take you on a strange journey (So strange they made a movie out of it!)."
* ''[[The Hallelujah Trail]]:'' Veteran western character actor John Dehner provides an ongoing commentary on the supposed historical context surrounding events, sometimes including maps and arrows to help the viewer keep track of just where everyone is.
* ''[[
* It's entirely possible to just listen to ''[[Casino]]'' from another room and understand almost everything that's going on because of the detailed narration.
* Kuzco in ''[[The Emperor's New Groove
== [[Literature]] ==
* Chaucer's narrator in the ''[[
* Lemony Snicket, the narrator of ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', is essentially omniscient, yet remains a distinct character. He never plays a direct role in the action, but is clearly intertwined with the events: his two siblings are major characters, his picture appears once, and he {{spoiler|loved the protagonists' mother, before she married their father}}. He also appears, unidentified, in The Penultimate Peril, though the character in question is referred to in the third person.
* To some extent, Mike Hanlon in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[IT]]''. Between every section of the book there is an interlude where Mike narrates the history of It in the form of a documentary journal.
* [[The
* Every adventure in the ''[[Hank the Cowdog]]'' series is told by Hank himself.
== [[Live
* [[Rod Serling]] in ''[[The Twilight Zone]]''.
* Ron Howard's voiceovers in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''.
* Richard Dean Anderson would sometimes serve as a narrator in ''[[MacGyver]]'', either to reveal a chunk of backstory or to describe the principles of his [[Bamboo Technology]].
* Waylon Jennings as the Balladeer in ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'', though his narration was usually restricted to a [[Quip to Black]] along the lines of, "Them Duke boys are in a whole heap of trouble."
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* Likewise George, of ''[[Dead Like Me]]'', who narrates from a distance, sometimes showing omniscience and talking directly to the audience, and sometimes just within her head.
* Classic example: the series ''[[The Untouchables]]'' was narrated by famous columnist/political commentator Walter Winchell. His distinctive, urgent, sharply voiced, melodramatic announcements became a television icon, selling corny set up lines similar to this: ''"As Al Capone and his henchmen talked of murder over steaks and bootleg champagne, Eliot NESS and his UNTOUCHABLES made plans to topple his empire of crime!"''
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The End Of Time" has a [[Man Behind the Man|character]] known as The Narrator, who even helpfully fills us in on the plot so far in the middle of the first half. {{spoiler|He's also known as [[Ascend to
* Jim Dale in ''[[Pushing Daisies]]''.
* JD of ''[[Scrubs]]'' narrates his own life in his head, as well as the lives of nearly everyone he has regular contact with, so he is essentially the narrator of the show. Lucy Bennett takes over this role in the last season.
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* Earl Hamner Jr. as the voice of the older John-Boy Walton in ''[[The Waltons]].''
* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' has its main character, Michael, narrate a lot of the story. Most likely this was to allow him to explain the clever tricks he was doing without the need of [[The Watson|a Watson]] hanging around all the time. It also serves as the gimmick of the show.
* Main character Zack Morris did this at least once in every episode of ''[[Saved
* William Conrad's omniscient narrator on ''[[The Fugitive (TV series)|The Fugitive]]''.
* ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine]]'': The Narrator is the only voice on the show and provides all the voices for all the characters.
* Mary Alice Young (an omnipresent [[Posthumous Character|dead]] character), on ''[[Desperate Housewives]]''.
== [[Music]] ==
* Burl Ives' Snowman character in the [[Christmas Special]] ''[[Rudolph the Red
== [[Radio]] ==
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* ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Sands of Time'' put an interesting twist on this, that the Prince himself was the narrator, and at save points would say, "Would you like to take a break for now?" and if he got killed would say, "Wait, no, that's not how it happened..." In the end, {{spoiler|It's revealed that he's telling the story to Farah, his love interest from the game, after undoing the game's events via time travel. Naturally, she doesn't believe a word of it. Later, in ''The Two Thrones'', after having prevented any of the events of the first game by changing the flow of time in the second (bear with me here...), the game ends with the Prince, once more with Farah, beginning the same narration that opens The Sands of Time.}}
* A very similar conceit is used in ''[[Sacrifice]]'' where the wizard Eldred is telling the story of why the world is ending to {{spoiler|[[The Big Bad]]}}.
* ''[[
* Tidus is technically the narrator of the entirety of ''[[
** Yuna narrates the sequel.
* Marquis Ondore narrates, via his memoirs, several key points in ''[[
* Alazlam is technically the narrator of ''[[
** It's also implied Alazlam Durai is getting this information from the "Durai Reports", written by his ancestor Olan Durai (who hangs around at the periphery of the plot through much of the game, only actually appearing in battle once)
* In the 2004 version of ''[[The
== [[Web Animation]] ==
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* Spoofed in a [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060722 summer 2006 installment] of the webcomic ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''.
** spoofed again [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=080714 in the summer of '08]
* ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[http://www.golcoincomics.com Gold Coin Comics]'',{{Dead link}} Lance complains about having to narrate about his past.
* The BLU Spy in ''[[
== [[Web Original]] ==
* A weird example is the Narrator from [http://chimerabazaar.blogspot.com/ The Chimera Bazaar's] spin-off [http://nightmareabyss.blogspot.com/ Nightmare Abyss] who is a main character.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* The narrator of ''[[Powerpuff Girls]]'', starting out every episode with, "The City of Townsville:" and ending every episode with a variation of, "[[So Once Again the Day Is Saved|So, once again, the day is saved, thanks to the Powerpuff Girls!]]" In the [[Freaky Friday]] episode, the Narrator ended up sounding like Bubbles at the end.
* The Storyteller in ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]''.
* Parodied in one episode of ''[[The Fairly
* ''[[
** The Fish TV Announcer (Who looks like an actual fish) is mentionable.
** Also, in the movie, the French narrator started talking, only for ''the Fish announcer to speak up and state it was his job to narrate''. He does this, then the two converse until they realize they [[Is This Thing Still On?|left the mike on.]]
* The narrator of ''[[Sheep in The Big City]]'' has so little fourth wall that he regularly appears on-camera in a recording studio. He interacts with the characters so often it's more noteworthy when they ''can't'' seem to hear him, has been fired, physically attacked...the list goes on.
* The narrator for the British cartoon ''[[Danger Mouse]]'' tended to break the fourth wall; sometimes complaining about the direction of the story or making atrocious puns (only to receive a phone call from the show's producers, telling him to cut it out). In "Once Upon A Timeslip" he developed reality warping powers: "It is now 12:15 as they..." (The landscape transforms into medieval England) "Look, I said 12:15 I didn't mean 1215 AD." The remainder of the episode became a Robin Hood parody. Another typical narration line from one episode:
{{quote|
* A ''[[Family Guy]]'' cutaway shows Peter narrating his own life:
{{quote|
* In [[Word Girl]], other than opening and closing each episode, the disembodied narrator oftentimes interacts with the tittular hero to help her and sometimes the villains, also.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Exposition]]
[[Category:Narrator Tropes]]
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