Take Our Word for It: Difference between revisions

** Well, the [[Myth BustersMythBusters]] back them up, at least.

* In a This is Sportscenter commercial, San Francisco Giants Pitcher Brian Wilson shows two sports anchors why people should "Fear the beard." after they say that it's not intimidating. We then go behind his head where we see tentacles coupled with a roaring sound. Apparently seeing the sight from the front is so scary, one of the sportscasters claims he's going to be sick.

== [[Anime]] &and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Naruto]]'', Temari vs Tenten, during the manga. We didn't actually see the fight, we just saw the reactions after the [[Curb Stomp Battle]].

*** However, the second fanbook has an omake about when Naruto trained with Jiraiya [https://web.archive.org/web/20120525000942/http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110203042631/naruto/images/thumb/a/af/New_Sexy_Jutsu_2.jpg/830px-New_Sexy_Jutsu_2.jpg that actually does show it].

* ''[[Blue Seed]]'' references [[Monty Python]] below, with an [[Omake]] about the TAC testing out their latest weapon: A sign with a lethally-funny joke on it.

* ''[[D.Gray-man]]'': At the end of the zombie arc, after everyone (yes, everyone) in the Black Order has been turned into a zombie infected with Komuvitamin D, we are told that Bak managed to make a cure for everyone "after much hardship."

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', when Mayuri fight Szayel, Szayel uses his [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong|Gabriel]] ability on Nemu. In the manga ([[Bowdlerize|though not the anime]]) this leaves her body as a dried husk, but Mayuri does ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20100725081831/http://www.onemanga.com/Bleach/306/10/ something]'' off-screen which instantly restores her. Renji and Uryu had an obscured view and mostly just heard it and still find it incredibly disgusting, though Mayuri calls them stupid for not understanding what it was or suspecting it was something lewd.<ref>Note that, with Mayuri, this could easily make it worse.</ref>.

** Heck, the same thing happens in the OVA, with Beethoven's "Suicide Symphony". A team of unwitting audio analysts off themselves [[Eye Scream|gruesomely]] as soon as they listen to it. The audience never hears a note of it.

** Occasionally averted- for instance, ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' contains a full set of sheet music for V's song. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2nhTQ2ypVU Decide for yourself if it's any good.]

* ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)|Preacher]]'', despite all its goriness, does a perfectly standard [[Reaction Shot]] when showing (the back of) a photo of someone who attempted suicide with a shotgun and lived. And then, being Preacher, you turn the page and there is "Arseface."

== Films -- Animation[[Film]] ==

* ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'' goes to great lengths to build up a climactic battle between the representative factions for man and nature near the end of the movie. They even go as far as to throw the title character into the fray. What the audience sees is a brief storm and the sound of gunfire in the distance after the scene switches back to the hero. {{spoiler|The aftermath is what will stand out. A mound of rotting animal carcasses, lines of fallen men from Iron Town, the leader of the boars covered in blood...}} There may only be a few visions or flashbacks to give you an idea of what took place, but [[Take Our Word for It]], it was brutal. This was actually quite effective in staying true to the movie's theme of the horrors of war by simply giving you a few pieces and some enough grisly evidence to leave the rest to your imagination rather than actually depicting the kind of epic battle that few movies can resist.

** It's also a very spirited attempt at proving the old adage "You can't make an anti-war movie" wrong. If you don't show the actual battle, you can't make it accidentally seem glorious, which is a fairly clever way of getting around the problem.

* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' movie ''[[Serenity]]'', a recorded message ends with the horrible death of the person giving the report at the hands of Reavers, but during this part the camera focuses on the faces of the cast and we only hear the sounds -- andsounds—and then not even all of them, as Mal shuts off the playback before it goes too far. To be fair, this may be due to keeping the movie below NC-17 -- as17—as Zoe explained in the pilot, Reavers will "rape you to death, eat your flesh, and sew your skin into their clothing. And if you're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order."

* Guy Ritchie's ''[[Rock N RollaRocknRolla]]''. The painting that is a main plot point of the film is ''never shown''. From the reactions of several of the characters, one would assume that it is very beautiful, even to serious gangsters.

* Used to haunting effect near the end of the film ''[[The Messenger (video game)|The Messenger]]''.

* ''[[Rosemary's Baby]]'' has a terrific example of this at the very end, when all we see is Rosemary's reaction to her first glimpse of the child.

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (novel)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', where the reader actually is provided with an excruciatingly bad example of Vogon Poetry, the third-worst in the Universe; the second-worst and worst poets in the universe are mentioned, but fortunately not quoted. However, in [[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy (TV series)|the TV series version]], samples of all three are displayed in readable text on the screen as they are discussed by The Book. The very worst is quite bad indeed.)

* In ''[[The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul|The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul]]'', detective Dirk Gently has to explain the supernatural murder of a client as an [[The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much|elaborate suicide]] to the skeptical police. His explanation is sufficient to convince the forensics team, but we never get to hear ''what'' exactly the explanation was. [[Take Our Word for It]] comes in, not because of any qualities of the explanation itself, but that there was any explanation at all.

** The Stick and Bucket Dance from ''[[Discworld/Lords and Ladies|Lords and Ladies]]'' is supposedly not only suggestive (performing it with women present can lead to charges of "sexual morrisment"), but dangerous: "We are ''not'' doing the Stick and Bucket Dance! [[Noodle Incident|I still get twinges in my knee]]!"

** In ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]'', Nobby Nobbs tells off-color jokes to a bevy of women, who are rolling on the floor laughing. Although we get a few of the general ideas as being rather famous real-world jokes (like the one about the "small man and the piano"), we [[Orphaned Punchline|only get the punchline]] for the one Nobbs is telling when we come on the scene.

** And in ''[[Discworld/The Last Hero|The Last Hero]]'' the bard writes the most beautiful, most moving heroic saga ever. And then claims to be able to improve it even further. For obvious reasons, we never actually get to know what it sounds like or what the words are, though it might be power metal. We do know what it's ''about'' at least.

** We hear bits and pieces of it, but never the entirety of what Granny Weatherwax refers to as "that song" -- "The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered at All". This has, of course, led to the fandom coming up with their own versions of it. The animated adaption of ''[[Discworld/Wyrd Sisters|Wyrd Sisters]]'' also gives us a stanza, perhaps the opening lines, of another infamous innuendo-filled song of the Disc, "A Wizard's Staff" ("... has a knob on the end.") Wizards traditionally don't get the innuendo, and are known to occasionally demand people explain what's so funny about there being a knob on the end of their staffs, their being proud of their staffs and polishing them so often, or how the size of the knob/length of the staff is important.

** Fortunato slips several snide insults into his conversation with Montresor in the story, particularly concerning the falling grace of the Montresor house. It's possible these "injuries" were insults along that line.

* [http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/left_behind/ This blog] deconstructs the ''[[Left Behind]]'' novels page-by-page, repeatedly pointing out where the authors mention huge events (like the Rapture and attempted Nuclear War) with extremely little detail.

* This was necessary to an extent in ''[[The Fountainhead]]'', to get around the difficulty in depicting buildings through prose. Howard Roark, who is for all intents and purposes one of the greatest architects of all time, designs many buildings during the course of the book, only a handful of which are described in detail (and even then, many of the descriptions are delivered by his antagonists with an obvious negative bias).

** In "The Pick", Elaine accidentally sends Christmas cards with photos of her showing a nipple; those are -- [[Nipple-and-Dimed|obviously]] -- never—never shown to the audience.

* Three episodes into ''[[Studio 60 Onon the Sunset Strip]]'', there was one notable example, "Crazy Christians," a variety-show comedy sketch of which we hear much but see nothing. (It's not until "Friday Night Slaughter" that we even have the slightest idea, beyond the title, what it's about.) There are also a number of smaller examples -- usuallyexamples—usually just the first five seconds of a sketch before moving to the next. Then again, one of the problems that killed the show was that many viewers agreed that what we did see wasn't that funny anyway.

** Ironically, we actually got to see Peg's mother in one issue of the comic book series based on the show. She looked a little on the slim side.

** The Daleks, up until "The Power of the Daleks", were never shown outside of their travel machines. Previous to that, they were merely described as horrifically mutated monsters. (Most people forget the appearances of the organic Daleks prior to "Genesis of the Daleks", when they first appeared in color.)

*** In [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 S30/E17 E18 The End of Time|The End of Time]], the Doctor gives us an [[Cryptic Background Reference|absolutely awesome glimpse]], listing some of the terrifying combatants:

** Subverted in an episode where the audience get to see a painting of Niles done many years ago -- asago—as Pan.....

** The monster that everyone but Xander is fighting in this episode is barely seen (aside from a few tentacles), but is ostensibly the same demon that tried to escape the Hellmouth two seasons earlier in ''Prophecy Girl'', where again all we saw was tentacles. The demon itself is apparently terrifying though -- Willowthough—Willow's reaction: "Every nightmare I had that doesn't revolve around academic failure or [["Not Wearing Pants" Dream|public nudity]] is about that thing. In fact, once I dreamt that it attacked me while I was late for a test, and naked."

* ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'' has two of these as running gags. The first is Al's mother, who is reported to be very obese and is yet never seen on camera. The other is Tim's eccentric neighbor Wilson, whose face is always partially obscured by props and scenery (generally the fence between the two yards, but when he is in a different scene the length that the set designers go to to obscure his face is very funny). One such incident involved Wilson showing Tim an unfinished self-portrait that lacked any marks beneath the nose.

** In one live episode the cast came out to acknowledge the audience at the end -- includingend—including Earl Hindman, Wilson's actor, who arrived on the set with a miniature of the fence held in front of his face.

** In one episode, the Doctor programs a holodeck routine to simulate a real family since he figures, since he's stuck on long term duty (he's a hologram who's intended as an emergency measure until flesh-and-blood medical help arrives, but since that can't happen he's more or less on duty at all times), he might as well grow as a person. Throughout the first half of the episode, he argues with one of his daughters, who wants to move to a higher Parrises Squares league. He repeatedly puts his foot down -- hedown—he's not happy she's playing the sport at all, because it's so dangerous. Then, she ends up getting a severe head injury (playing in the ''Minor Leagues'', even) and is rendered a vegetable. The rest of the episode hinges on the Doctor's struggles with whether or not he should continue the program (he doesn't want to, because he doesn't want to deal with the tragedy, but the rest of the crew repeatedly tells him that while he's free to make that choice, it would defeat the purpose of the program), but still, if you're willing to consider ''Voyager'' canon, it's a pretty unambiguous sign of just how dangerous the sport is.

* Consciously played with in ''[[Top Gear]]'', in the [[Two Gamers on a Couch|Three Presenters On A Couch]] section of the show, each week [[Smug Snake|Jeremy Clarkson]] announces he's found "''this''" on the internet, the camera then quickly cuts to the audience and other presenters wincing with [[Squick]] before continuing to some more mundane internet-related news.

** Averted in the Polar Special: "Shall we go straight to the frozen penis?" Yes. Yes, they do show it.

** Averted in that the band, Visiting Day, was that bad -- ifbad—if not worse -- inworse—in its earlier incarnation as Defiler, which Christopher thinks is good, although whether he really thinks that or is only saying it to make Adriana happy, as, ironically, Massive Genius does later in the episode, is questionable. ("Get out of our way/And don't be so gay/We're comin' to defile, defile you.") Given that the point of the episode is neither Christopher nor Adriana knows anything about music ''really'', and it takes legitimately knowledgeable characters with no reason to lie, like Hesh or the producer, to tell Visiting Day the truth and explain it in specific terms is part of the [[Character Development]] in the episode.

* Then there is the "Venus Butterfly", a sexual technique described in the ''[[LAL.A. Law]]'' episode of the same name. The technique is never described on-screen, although it is described to the character Stuart Markowitz, who tries it on his girlfriend, Ann Kelsey, and finds it is as [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|irresistible as advertised]]. Although the writers made a point of ''not'' describing the technique, that didn't stop people from trying to figure it out (possibly in an effort to get useful tips in bed, whether or not it was the "Venus Butterfly"). Most notably, ''[[Playboy]]'' had a contest on its letters page, which lasted for months, for the best unnamed technique to which the term could be applied. The eventual winner was a combination of cunnilingus and vaginal and rectal stimulation with the fingers. Perhaps intentionally as a nod to the '80s series, that was the definition given nearly two decades later on an episode of ''[[Rescue Me]]'' in 2004. In 2006, 20 years exactly after the fictional sexual technique was first described, an entire book entitled ''One Hour Orgasm: How to Learn the Amazing "Venus Butterfly" Technique'' was published describing in detail the technique eventually chosen by the editors of ''Playboy''.

* Inspector [[Columbo]]'s wife is often mentioned, but never shown.

* In ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'', after several unsuccessful attempts to haunt and torment her {{spoiler|ex-fiance/killer Owen}}, Annie whispers a secret to him that "only the dead know." We never hear what it was that she whispered to him.... only that it was so frightening that it led {{spoiler|Owen}} to turn himself in for his crime and [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|go completely insane.]]

* In an episode of the TV adaptation of ''[[Just a Minute]]'', Sue Perkins gets the subject of "Chat-Up Lines". She starts describing how the worst chat-up line she ever heard was by a ten-year-old boy in Paisley, and it's so disgusting she cannot say it. Ruth Jones challenges due to a misunderstanding, while Paul Merton tells her to write the chat-up line down. Ruth discusses the challenge with Nicholas while we see cuts back to Sue writing -- shewriting—she then hands the paper to Paul, who bursts out laughing. "He was ''ten?''" He says, before folding the paper up and "keeping it for future use".

** The song "Tribute" is about the Greatest Song in the World, but isn't itself the Greatest Song in the World, so we don't know what it sounds like. The original version of "Tribute" includes a sequence from "Stairway to Heaven" at the point in the story where the Greatest Song gets played, which tips their just hand a bit.

{{quote|"''That fellow was no fool

''Who taught our Sunday school,

''And neither was our kindly Parson Brown.

''We're recording tonight so I have to leave this line out.

''In my home town." }}

== Pro[[Professional Wrestling]] ==

* In the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]], before his climactic unmasking, the character of Kane was said to be hideously scarred by burns. Some characters had even seen him unmasked before (notably DX) and reacted, horrified. A later [[Retcon]] after his unmasking explained that his scars had healed, but that he can still see them in the mirror.

* [[Neil Hamburger]]'s album ''America's Funnyman'' includes a track called "The X-Rated Hot Dog Vendor": It's supposed to be some sort of raunchy physical humor sketch with no dialogue. Of course, because it's on a comedy album, you don't actually get to see anything, so you're left with 5 minutes of nothing but sound effects and roars of audience laughter.

** Only partial credit, unfortunately. The song, not abridged in the game, is unsellably short -- weshort—we're supposed to believe this thing could become a commercial hit. Apollo himself [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the shortness regarding another of the band's songs, so that may be a [[Hand Wave]] (too long a song and the scenes regarding it would become intolerable). On the other hand, the lyrics contained include "Woh... Woh...".

** In ''Night of the Raving Dead'', the game is told in flasback as Sam is reminding Max of [[How We Got Here|how they got here]]. When Sam gets to "the most epic battle of our career", Max interrupts and says that he remembers the rest now.

'''C8-42:''' [[You Do NOT Want to Know|You don't want to know...]]<br />

* In ''[[RunescapeRuneScape]]'' player has to help a drawf to get some rats out of his home. The dwarf is also heavy smoker, and the player character has to help him to catch his breath, so the PC pats his back and he dislodges something nasty from his lungs then comments it to player that he does not want to look at it and we should take his word that you do not want to know about it.

* ''[[Castlevania]]: Aria Of Sorrow'' makes reference to the extremely epic ''Demon Castle's Wars'' in which {{spoiler|Dracula was ''finally'' defeated and Castlevania was sealed in the eclipse}}. Aparently the thing was ''so awesome'' that, to this day, Konami thinks no game should represent those events as it's '''ought''' to be ''the best Castlevania game ever made''.

** We usually see very little of the terrible plays the core cast are involved in in the earlier years, and nothing of Aubrey's TV sitcom ''My Neighbour [[Cthulhu]]'', which was so bad that the State of Massachusetts issued a restraining order to keep her away from cameras and production equipment.

* ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]''. Thief and Fighter consider it unbelievable that Red Mage was capable of getting them out of a burning Deathtrap (an airship) with the use of an Ice spell, an immovable rod and a [[Bag of Holding]]. The audience is left to wonder.

* The [[Zombie Apocalypse]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20101229184701/http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/?p=912 finale] of ''[[Brawl in the Family]]''. We have no idea how it specifically ended, but it was horrific enough to make King Dedede's mouth drop in shock and leave everyone else queasy.

* ''[[Nodwick]]'' did it in [https://web.archive.org/web/20070623181006/http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/gamespyarchive/index.php?date=2001-09-19 this strip]. They also had a story arc which revolved around "[[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|That Which Man Was Not Meant to Know]]," which reportedly made your head explode. It turned out that ''women'' could know what it was just fine, leading to the following exchange:

* From ''[[The Onion]]'': "[https://web.archive.org/web/20100315164836/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29189 New Study Too Frightening To Release.]"

** Homer was broke and, desperately needing money, he dreamed about an invention that would make him instantly rich. We didn't get to see that invention, and neither did Homer.

** When there was a gas leak at the nuclear plant, the gang runs for the exit, only to find that the emergency exit is actually just painted on the wall. The next thing we know, "after our miraculous escape", the gang asks for a real emergency exit... with predictable results.

** Mr. Burns, Homer, Willie and Prof. Frink search and eventually find the Loch Ness Monster. Out of all people, Mr. Burns is the one who defeats and captures Nessie all by himself! We never learn how he did this, we just see Burns saying "I was a little worried when he swallowed me, but, well, [[The Un-Reveal|you know the rest]]."

* An episode of ''[[Duckman]]'' was built around this joke. After talking to a sweet, beautifully voiced 911 operator over the phone, Duckman agrees to a date, only to find that she is hideous (or so we can surmise from everyone's [[Reaction Shot|response to seeing her]]). Eventually she gets a makeover, making her beautiful and causing Duckman to decide he is no longer good enough for her.

* In the ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' episode "Neptunati", Captain Shanks [[Take Our Word for It|does battle with the Kraken offscreen]]. We don't see a thing of the supposedly epic battle, but the rest of the crew is impressed enough that Quinn remarks "Anyone who missed that better just kill themselves right now!"

* ''[[Freakazoid!]]!'' does this in one episode as a joke. The "Professor of Broadcast Standards" decides the show is too violent and decides to implement "[[Relax-O-Vision]]", a new system where violent scenes are replaced with calm scenery and music. After one of the fight scenes is replaced and all we see is a field of flowers, Freakazoid exclaims "I probably blew the animation budget for the whole season on that one fight..." which we never get to see. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBa6HQNUgjM Here's] a video of the episode. The scene can be found at 9:45.

* The one time Jérémie is virtualized in the digital world of ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', his avatar is described as "ridiculous" by his friends. [[The Un-Reveal|The audience never gets to see]] what Jérémie looks like on Lyoko. Whatever it is, he swears he's never going back -- thoughback—though, even if it may have contributed, this decision is less about his appearance and more about the fright he got from being attacked by Megatanks.

* In an episode of ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and& Mandy]]'' there is a battle between the barbarians and Keebler elves, before the battle begins a drill sergeant advises the audience that the scene is too violent for children (despite the show being full of [[Family-Unfriendly Violence]]) so he shows the audience a koala chewing on a leaf until the battle is over.

* In ''[[Wakfu]]'' episode 10 ("Gobbowl Hell 1"), the girls go shopping for clothes. Walking out of the dressing room, Amalia asks Eva what she thinks of her dress -- butdress—but we don't see it, only her head, her body being hidden by furnitures. Evangelyne answers that "it's a bit short." One can only wonder what could be shorter than Amalia's usual [[Stripperific]] outfit.

** This [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]] is somewhat made up for by his activities with the Union of [[Cool Old Guy|Cool Old Guys]]s at the Liberation of Ba Sing Se.

** Similarly, there are several sites out there dedicated to capturing the unsuspecting's first exposure to "2 Girls, 1 Cup". ([[Take Our Word for It]] -- ''don't'' Google it if you're not already aware of what 2G1C is.)