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Negative Continuity: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"As you may recall, our last episode had nothing to do with the previous episode. Or this one either."''
Continuity has always been a bugaboo for writers, the requisite for things to make sense and follow some form of narrative logic. A requirement that provides scribes with all manner of headaches, hairsplitting, and plot-hole-induced dementia. Nevertheless, many series go out of their way to pay careful attention to every little detail that goes on in their worlds. The [[Universe Bible]] is king; nothing can happen that doesn't fit the existing history. Other shows are less exacting, and an occasional continuity error will be glossed over for the sake of the current episode's plot.
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Not only is there no established continuity, but the show is free to completely wreck the continuity and be assured of [[Snap Back|a full reboot]] by the start of the next episode. Burned a hole in your [[Limited Wardrobe|favorite outfit]]? Don't worry, it'll be better next episode. Burned down your house? No worries, it will be back next time. Turned into a frog, died, destroyed the universe? No problem! If one episode ever continues from the last, it's only because it's part of a storyline too long for just one episode - don't expect any apparent changes from the previous episode to be recognized ''outside'' that specific storyline.
The expectation of a new episode reboot is so strong that, in extreme cases, simply [[Continuity Nod|having continuity]] can count as a subversive gag (for example, the letters [[Deface of the Moon|CHA appearing on the Moon]] in episodes of ''[[The Tick (animation)|The Tick]]'' or ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''{{'}} forked tongues) or simply the creators getting a kick out of teasing the viewers that have been around long enough.
Among fans of Western entertainment of the past, the most shameless examples of this phenomenon were noted in the ''[[Star Trek]]'' movie series, so much so that someone actually devised the "James T. Kirk Loophole" to explain the otherwise inexplicable occurrence of characters repeatedly being able to do things that ''the story itself'' had established them never being able to do.
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Related to [[Status Quo Is God]], except it is (or can be) more deliberate/explicit, and it doesn't require any narrative explanation.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'': Plotlines inevitably led down to anarchy, chaos, and [[Thundering Herd|lynch mobs running around]] by the end of each episode, but all injured characters and buildings would have undergone [[Snap Back]] by the next episode. [[Status Quo Is God]] indeed.
** A prime example is the Moroboshi family's house. During the course of the series, it has been flooded, collapsed, burned down and blown to pieces (not to mention the abuse the interior has taken). Yet the next episode shows it standing proudly(?) with nary a tatami or zabuton askew... and Mr. Moroboshi still on the hook for the mortgage.
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* ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'': Shorts often ended with inescapable doom, or other seemingly-permanent bad things (like the destruction of Dexter's lab on several occasions, or ''the whole planet'' getting destroyed by a huge meteor shower in "Let's Save the World, You Jerk!").
* ''[[Duckman]]'': Lampshaded when the character Ajax was beat up and placed in traction. He mentioned that he would be in perfect shape tomorrow due to non-FDA approved drugs. Another example: The amount of grievous bodily harm that Duckman puts his secretaries Fluffy and Uranus through, only for them to be back to normal by the following episode; this was lampshaded by Uranus in the first episode, when [[Ambiguous Gender|s/he]] comments that being stuffed makes them "very resilient."
* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
** The fan webcomic ''[[Grim Tales from Down Below]]'' explains this as a case of [[Death Takes a Holiday]]—Billy and Mandy's life timers ran out long ago, but Grim can't bring himself to reap them.
* ''[[Invader Zim]]'': The world has been dragged trillions of miles off course and major characters have been turned into bologna or had their organs replaced with household objects, and yet virtually every episode starts as though nothing unusual has happened. Again, there are occasional callbacks.
* ''[[The Angry Beavers]]'': Both Norbert and his brother Daggett suffer this by getting themselves in all sorts of trouble in end of almost every episode. It's mostly from other animals in the forest, and the humans especially.
* ''[[Sealab 2021]]'': The [[Running Gag]] of Sealab blowing up repeatedly. [[Lampshade Hanging]] occurs in the third episode, "Radio Free Sealab," when Marco tells Captain Murphy, "Once again, your stupidity has killed us!" before the explosion. The show also plays with this trope—some episodes reference past shows with perhaps only some characters actually remembering the event. For example, when Quint mentions he was a robot (as revealed in an earlier season) and everyone seems surprised, Quint explains he had told them previously.<ref>It should be noted that the episode in question ended with everyone being killed.</ref>
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' has an interesting trend in having mostly Negative Continuity with the occasional [[Continuity Nod]]. Characters will often comment on a previous episode's events, such as Homer's Mr. Plow job when he took off Flanders's roof to use as a snow plow, or Mr. Burns and Krusty the Clown not recognizing Homer and Bart, even if someone points out all the major things they've done to them. It doesn't usually affect the plot for that episode other than a joke. ''
{{quote|'''Mr. Burns''': I'm sure your replacement will be able to handle everything. Who is he, anyway?
'''Smithers''': Uh, Homer Simpsons, sir--one of your organ banks from sector 7-G. All the recent events of your life have revolved around him in some way.
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** Midway through Season 5's "Homer Loves Flanders", Lisa observes that, on account of Homer now being friends with Ned Flanders, something odd seems to happen to their family every week, but soon enough something happens which returns everything to normal. At the end of the episode, the main plot has not been resolved, and Homer and Flanders are still friends, causing Lisa to fear that perhaps this means it's the end of their adventures. We then flash forward to the following week's airtime ("Thursday, 8 PM") when a completely different plot is set in motion. We then see that off-camera, [[Reset Button|the events of the previous week's adventures have returned to normal]] and Homer hates Flanders once again with no explanation given. [[Status Quo Is God|Lisa and Bart both sigh in relief.]]
** The Simpsons did a remarkable job, for a long time, of keeping all their flash-forward episodes in continuity despite no continuity in the current-time episodes. Many episodes implied Bart becomes Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
** Special mention should go to the episode where it's revealed that the Principal Skinner we've known throughout the show's long-running history is actually [[Dead Person Impersonation|a fraud named Armin Tamzarian]]. Many people insist that this never happened. The episode is an [[Negative Continuity|in-show example of discontinuity]], too, because the characters in-show [[Status Quo Is God|decide they prefer the fake Skinner, run the real one out of town, and a judge orders that they never speak of the incident again]].▼
*** It should be noted that this is played upon in a later episode. At some point in the later seasons, Snowball II dies. Lisa goes through a series of new cats to fill the void, each one also winding up dead through various means. Finally, a cat that looks exactly like Snowball II shows up and is the only cat to survive (albeit by causing a car wreck and subsequent explosion). Lisa joyfully adopts the new cat and says that she will name it Snowball II instead of III because she doesn't want to buy a new cat dish. Skinner, walking by, notes the discontinuity of the situation, to which Lisa responds:▼
{{quote|'''Lisa:''' I guess it is, Principal ''Tamzarian''. }}▼
* ''[[Aeon Flux]]'': The title character died in every single ''[[Liquid Television]]'' short, usually at the end and once near the very beginning. Justified in that a later episode explains Aeon to actually be a series of identical clones.
* ''[[Drawn Together]]'' applies this trope endlessly, with characters dying several times an episode, spouses of otherwise unmarried characters showing up for one episode and then vanishing, the Earth being conquered (and all characters killed) by robot insects with hats, etc.
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* ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]'': Particularly with the special "[[The Movie|Wishology]]." In this special, Timmy finally becomes [[Genre Savvy]] and makes responsible wishes and even solve some problems on his own without his fairies. However, the next season completely disregards all of this and appears to reset Timmy's character. He, once again, makes very irresponsible wishes.
** In fact, it's moderately common in the show. For example, in one episode, Mr. Crocker does not recognize Poof, who he had a bond with in "Bad Heir Day" (keep in mind, this happened after that episode).
▲** Special mention should go to the episode where it's revealed that the Principal Skinner we've known throughout the show's long-running history is actually [[Dead Person Impersonation|a fraud named Armin Tamzarian]]. Many people insist that this never happened. The episode is an [[Negative Continuity|in-show example of discontinuity]], too, because the characters in-show [[Status Quo Is God|decide they prefer the fake Skinner, run the real one out of town, and a judge orders that they never speak of the incident again]].
▲*** It should be noted that this is played upon in a later episode. At some point in the later seasons, Snowball II dies. Lisa goes through a series of new cats to fill the void, each one also winding up dead through various means. Finally, a cat that looks exactly like Snowball II shows up and is the only cat to survive (albeit by causing a car wreck and subsequent explosion). Lisa joyfully adopts the new cat and says that she will name it Snowball II instead of III because she doesn't want to buy a new cat dish. Skinner, walking by, notes the discontinuity of the situation, to which Lisa responds:
▲{{quote|'''Lisa:''' I guess it is, Principal ''Tamzarian''. }}
{{reflist}}
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