Something Completely Different

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Announcer (John Cleese): And now, for something completely different.

It's Man (Michael Palin): It's...

An episode which departs dramatically from the show's general formula. Events are played out from the point of view of the family pet, or are presented completely out of order, or it's an A&E biography of one of the characters, etc. May feature a Special Edition Title. Favored by M*A*S*H in its later seasons.

Named for Monty Python's Flying Circus and its famous Catch Phrase, "And now for something completely different." (An ironic Trope Namer, considering that something completely different happened in EVERY episode and it had no general formula.)

By definition, a Backdoor Pilot is a subtrope of Something Completely Different.

Some flavors of this:

Examples of Something Completely Different are listed on these subpages:

Two Irish puppets singing Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" in the style of Elvis.