Take Our Word for It: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* Heavily [[Lampshaded]] in a series of commercial for Sharp Televisions featuring George Takei, which constantly reminded us that, if you don't have a TV like this which is based on four colors instead of three, you can't actually ''see'' how the picture quality is any different.

* In a radio commercial for GEICO, part of their current "Could switching to GEICO really save you 15% or more..." campaign, the announcer then asks "Does a rolling stone gather no moss?" We hear the sounds of a stone rolling, then he says "No moss. You'll have to trust me on this one."

* 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.

 

* ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'' pulled this off in one of the summer trip episodes. "Responsible" teacher Kurosawa-sensei has been [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY8L_apFieE drinking pretty heavily] (to keep Yukari-sensei out of the stuff). When the girls bring up the subject of boys/men, she cuts in "let me tell you about men", at which point we cut to a series of head shots of all the girls, with steadily deepening blushes on their faces (except for [[Child Prodigy]] Chiyo-chan, who looks completely puzzled), interspersed with [[Relax-O-Vision]] shots of peaceful meadows and the like, with equally serene music playing in the background. Next morning, Chiyo approaches Kurosawa to ask for clarification about last night. The same music cuts again just as Chiyo gets to what was said, while we are shown a head shot of Kurosawa becoming more and more freaked out. The other girls show up and bow to her and thanking her for the "enlightenment". She's so hung-over she isn't even sure ''what'' she said (we have no idea either, but it must have been spicy).

** Well, Sakaki was too embarrassed to face her the next morning, though she does seem to embarrass the most easily at such things. (Also, in the ADV dub, Tomo asked her directly if adult relationships were "all pervy and stuff".)

** Also in ''[[Naruto]]'', there's a chapter and an episode devoted to finding out what is under Kakashi's mask. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura (and the viewers) never see it, but the ones that do (the ramen shop owners) are absolutely stunned by what he looks like under the mask.

** The fact that Naruto hasn't used his [[Gender Bender|sexy jutsu]] since the [[Time Skip]] because he has a new "even more perverted technique", and when he uses it later it's offscreen (Kakashi just barely missing seeing it) and Konohamaru describes it as even better looking than before.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]!'' has [[Boisterous Bruiser|Jack]] [[Idiot Hero|Rakan]] telling Negi about the huge, important, and extremely epic war that his father Nagi fought in. Needless to say, his description was rather... undetailed. It was:

{{quote|'''Jack:''' A thrilling series of battles that would take a whole trilogy of movies or about 14 volumes to actually illustrate!}}

* ''[[Franken Fran]]'': In one chapter, a painter who is losing his eyesight allows Fran to help him, and ends up seeing many, many more visual spectra than humans should. Some of the things he sees are ''horrible'' (including a Cthulhu cameo) and he flees into the woods, where he meets a pretty girl, falls in love, and finds true happiness. He later gives Fran a painting of his sweetheart (who looks pretty to him), and while we don't see the painting, Okita's truly horrified reaction (this coming from a cat-man who lives with ''Fran'') suggest that the image is not nice to behold. Since the artist is pushing the envelope enough already with the guro and horror, anything this revolting would be beyond anyone's ability to show.

* Episode 17 of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' features a scary-story contest between the Keroro Platoon and the Pekoponians. We only hear snatches of Fuyuki's story, which is apparently enough to terrify everyone else (including an actual ghost!). In Funimation's [[Gag Dub]], the narrator explains during this part of the episode that he's talking over Fuyuki's story so they don't get sued for scaring anyone to death.

* Comedic example from ''[[The Slayers]]'': Ultra-powerful sorceress Lina Inverse is so utterly terrified of her elder sister Luna (who never appears) that just a letter from Luna is enough to send her into hysterics.

* In ''[[Rave Master]]'' when a the leader of the [[Goldfish Poop Gang|Jiggle Butt Gang]] distracts Haru by talking about his past we only get to see his two lackies trying to figure out how to disarm a bomb they'd intended to hijack a train with. Then we cut back to Haru, the guy with a [[Disappeared Dad]] from age 1 and a mom who died when he was 6, crying like a baby saying "That's the most depressing story I ever heard!"

* Buddha's manga in ''[[Saint Young Men]]'', which is apparently extremely funny for people in Heaven but too in-jokey for mortals. All that's shown to the readers is the first panel featuring a pun on [[[wikipedia:Ananda|Ananda]]] and a few hints about something called a rib dance.

* In ''[[Kanamemo]]'', Kana is at one time asked to practice smiling to her customers. She gives a smile that, while unseen by the audience, scares the wits out of the ones watching.

 

* Any time someone performs music in a comic, for obvious reasons.

* We never see [[Fantastic Four|Doctor Doom]]'s face. Any time anyone else sees it, he's facing away from the reader. The person seeing him isn't, and always reacts with horror. By now, it's clear they can never show us Doom's face: nothing could do all those years of horrified reactions justice.

** Turns out that [[Word of God|Jack Kirby]] intended Doom to [http://thumbsnap.com/v/8WAkWgTQ.jpg look like this.] Later writers upped the [[Nightmare Fuel]] (and the irony) by saying the ''original'' scar was nothing much, but he was so desperate to hide it, he put on his mask ''while it was still redhot'', and ''that's'' what created the visage that horrifies everyone.

* In a [[Bronze Age|1970s]] issue of ''[[Green Lantern]]'', GL and [[Green Arrow]] meet "The Most Beautiful Woman in The Universe". However we never get to see her face. The artist probably assumed drawing someone ''that'' beautiful was beyond his skills. Green Arrow refused to look at her face, claiming it might ruin every other woman for him, and make him give up [[The Casanova|give up his preferred lifestyle]]. GL didn't have that problem, though.

** This is essentially a distaff version of Downwind Johnson, pal of the title character in the Smilin' Jack comic strip.

* [[Deadpool]] was once hired to assassinate someone who spread a rumor about a classmate in high school years ago, a rumor so ''vicious'' and ''appalling'' that it destroyed her life forever. An unfortunate bystander is shocked that a man should die for this, but once Deadpool whispers the rumor to him changes his mind, and even agrees to give the merc a head start before calling the cops on him.

* In ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur]]'', Rachel Summers (Phoenix) gets out from a party, with a gentleman, Nigel, asking what he said to piss her off. She [[Mind Over Matter|transforms his clothing into tar and feathers]]. The Captain Britain reprimands her. She shows, telepathically, what the "gentleman" thought. The next second, all the group is needed to hold the Captain so he doesn't beat the shit off of Nigel.

* In the [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Scrooge McDuck]] story ''The Treasury of Croesus'' by [[Don Rosa]], the first page shows the end of "Magica de Spell's most complex and bizarre scheme yet". The only things shown include magical explosions and foam coming out the windows of the money bin, a pig in a [[Groucho Marx]] disguise, a lizard with its tail tied to the tail of a vulture with a party hat... and Magica, wearing a [[Horny Vikings|viking helmet]], an apron, a thick glove on one hand, carrying a thin wooden mallet in the other, an ice skate on one foot and a roller skate on the other, shouting "Curses! Foiled Again!"

* The stink of Tona, the dog of [[Dori Seda]]. Of course, smells are especially difficult.

* In the story "A Strange Undertaking" from the EC comic ''The Haunt of Fear'', which involved vengeful corpses, they didn't mention what said corpses actually ''did''. In the final panel, the narrator said to imagine the worst thing the reader could think of, and ''that'' would be what had happened.

* ''[[Identity Crisis]]'' features a ''whole page'' of captions describing how awesomely beautiful and moving [[Wonder Woman]]'s speech at {{spoiler|Sue's}} funeral is.

 

* ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]''. Milo and his crew are sharing their personal stories around the campfire. The discussion ends with a cut to Mole excitedly lowering himself into a hole; Milo asks "What's Mole's story?" to which Dr. Sweet replies "Trust me on this one. You don't wanna know. Audrey, don't tell him. You shouldn't have told me, but you did, and now I'm tellin' you-- you don't wanna know!"

** if ended up watching [[Atlantis Miilos Return]] Audrey does tell us moles story, which can leave you going [[Wait What]]

* ''[[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.

* Neil witnesses Victor Kulak rescuing young campers from falling over a waterfall in ''[[Wet Hot American Summer]]'' and simply shouts, "Whoa! Whoa! You're a master! What the! What the fu- you're doing it! You're actually doing it! You saved them! You saved them!" This could also be considered a an [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]].

* ''Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist'': "Where's Fluffy?"

* ''[[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.

 

* The self-published and somewhat infamous [[Felsic Current]] relies entirely too heavily upon this trope, much to the detriment of the story.

* In the ''[[The Gunslinger]]'', first of the ''[[Dark Tower]]'' novels, Walter revives a man from death and tells Allie that the once dead man will say what lies beyond death if Allie says "19." When she tells him 19, we don't hear his response, but {{spoiler|apparently it's so traumatic that she begs Roland to shoot her dead. He does.}}

** Likewise, Greg Farshtey, writer of the [[Bionicle]] books, comics, and serials with his [[Shout-Out]] to Lovecraft, Tren Krom. He only gave us a vague description, stating we'd go mad if we ever saw a picture of him. One thing's for sure, the characters in-story freaked out and fainted upon seeing him. Those that didn't were either ''extremely'' strong minded, or already cuckoo.

* Robert W. Chambers' collection of short stories ''[[The King in Yellow]]'' focused around a play called, you guessed it, ''The King in Yellow''. Characters in the book would often discuss the events of the play, mention a few names, quote it a little, and yet the audience never gets any idea what the play is about. Like the Necronomicon, it is a [[Brown Note]] of madness and/or death. We only get to hear bits from the first act, but... "The very banality and innocence of the first act only allowed the blow to fall afterward with more awful effect."

** The very-worst-poet named in the original radio version was a real person Adams went to school with; the name was changed in all subsequent versions for obvious legal reasons. The poetry sample displayed in the TV version was not by that person, but was created by one of the people working on the series.

* 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.

* Appears a number of times in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novels.

** It's the point of [[Cool Old Lady|Granny Weatherwax]]. She's got a reputation as one of the greatest witches of her age. Whenever we do get to see her do real magic it's generally not that impressive. She really ''is'' that strong however, but she knows that using her 'headology' tends to be a lot easier and effective. (It's a key theme of both stories of the witches of Lancre and the wizards of Unseen University that the major part of magic is knowing when ''not'' to use it, because it always comes at a cost, and it's likely to be much more than you can afford.)

** Of Lorenzo the Kind, a former king of Ankh-Morpork who met his fate at the hands of Suffer-Not-Injustice Vimes, we learn little save that he was "very fond of children" and had "machines for-" (the speaker is cut off mid-sentence).

** Doubly subverted in ''Nanny Ogg's Cookbook'' in the part about etiquette, the part about the language of flowers to be more precise. Right after the sentence "Here are some pretty flowers and their meanings:" the entire text is gone and replaced with memos sent from the overseer to the publisher and vice versa.

''Who still his tongue doth moisten at the breast.'' }}

 

* ''[[Reading Rainbow]]'' (averted): We didn't have to take Levar Burton's word for it. Because kids appreciate honesty, dammit.

* Hal's abstract painting in ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' was not shown; all we saw was people's jaws drop the second it was completed.

* 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—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".

 

* Tenacious D

** 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.

* The narrator of [[Creature Feature|Such Horrible Things]] states that "nothing much happened" when he was fourteen. Except for "that ONE TIME..." There's no description of what he did, just people screaming, meaning that you should be able to tell that it was probably the absolute worst thing he ever did in his life.

* From Tom Lehrer's "My Home Town:"

 

 

* Another time is when DX had a bounty on them all night, Triple H has to use the bathroom and has Shawn watch his back. When HHH enters the stall, Chris Masters is seen waiting for him. We don't see what exactly happened other than it ended with Masters unconscious.

 

** At least one game was won by a participant shouting "MORNINGTON CRESCENT!" as soon as the game began.

*** This led to some grumbling from the chairman, [[Deadpan Snarker|Humprey Lyttleton]]. "I can't stand ''[[Serious Business|frivolous]]'' Mornington Crescent."

** An ''[[I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue|ISIHAC]]'' special centers on finding the origins, and the rules, of the game. The outcome is, predictably, somewhat less than enlightening.

 

* Brian Regan's comedy album ''All By Myself'' opens with Regan doing a double back flip and landing on his pinkie. Naturally, this being a CD, we don't actually see him do it... but the audience goes wild.

* [[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.

 

* In Shakespeare's ''[[Henry V]]'', the Chorus specifically serves to stand on stage and basically say, "Look, we don't have enough space, not to mention enough money, to make it look like a real war is going on here, with thousands of soldiers and and horses and a sea of tents and trenches and fortifications all that, so just take our words for it, okay?"

* This was the Greek rule of [[wikipedia:Decorum#In theater|''decorum'']] in a nutshell. A particularly egregious example occurs in ''[[Medea]]'' when her two children describe their own murder from off stage while the [[Greek Chorus|Chorus]] wonders if maybe they should do something.

* ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'': Between Act I and Act II, Cyrano fights (and defeats!) one hundred thugs. Between Act II and III, he saves Raguenau’s life doing an [[Interrupted Suicide]]. Between Act III and IV, he manages to write love letters beautiful enough to make Roxane an heroine and to pick De Guiche’s scarf from the battlefield. It would be impractical to show all those things in scene, so other characters refer it, and at Act I Cyrano has been firmly established like a character that can do every one of those things.

 

* Sega's games ''[[Project Rub]]'' and ''[[The Rub Rabbits]]'' have the lead characters as shadows. Completely opposite to the above example, the idea behind this is that the gamer will think of the girl character as whatever is attractive to them, not what the developers thought was attractive.

* ''[[Disgaea]]'':

* In [[The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games|The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages]], Link has to tell a joke. Since link is a [[Heroic Mime]], this results in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOFJBnNCK3w a bizarre interpretive dance].

 

* Mike's baby in ''[[Something*Positive]]'' has a gut-wrenchingly horrible face that only his parents can love, and it has never been seen in-frame. Davan, at one point, goes as far as comparing the baby's face to decomposition.

{{quote|"Does he still have that horrible growth on his head?"

** The portable hole. Was it a portable hole, or portal? We will never know.

** Black Mage's true face is capable of [[Brown Note|destroying people's minds]] because it [[Alien Geometry|doesn't confrom to conventional geometry]].

* Sam Starfall's appearance, from ''[[Freefall]]''

* ''[[Homestuck]]'':{{spoiler|Sober!}}Gamzee's and Dave's rap-off, stated to be "one of the best rap-offs in the history of paradox space".

* In ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' the {{spoiler|Dinosaur/Human ambassador's}} speech isn't shown. Readers are informed that the text was omitted because of the effects it had on early readers, and if you had read it then best case scenario, you would leave your family, and go do nothing but {{spoiler|hug dinosaur bones}}. Or you'd be dead.

* In ''[[Tweep]]'', Julie makes a list of things Milton could do if they hired someone new at the coffee shop. [http://www.tweep.com/comic/?date=06-20-08 Thing #17 is apparently of some interest.]

{{quote|'''She Who Must Be Obeyed''': "''This''? ''This'' makes male heads go ''pop''? ''This''?!!"

'''Piffany''': "Uh huh. They're kind of ''sensitive'' about stuff like that..." }}

* In Joss Whedon's ''Sugarshock'', Dandelion saves mankind by [[The Power of Rock|playing]] the saddest song in the world. We're told it's, well, very sad. (Unless you're a [[Complete Monster|squirrel]].)

 

* ''[[SCP Foundation]]'': [DATA EXPUNGED]

* ''[[Whateley Universe]]'' example: Chaka's combat final happened all off-screen.

* [[The Cinema Snob]] used this in a recent episode reviewing the ''[[Caligula]]''. Since he couldn't actually show the infamous orgy scene in a blip video, instead we just get shots of him reacting to it, along with various comments describing the action: "Wait... is that a fucking snake?"

* The apocalyptic battle between [[Eldritch Abomination|interdimensional conquerer]] Tyros and Quantum of the [[Global Guardians PBEM Universe|Global Guardians]] was all off-screen, and the only thing that appeared in the story was the general public's reaction to it. This is because it took place on the moon... though the lightshow from it was still visible in broad daylight on the Earth.

* "[[Dorm Life]]": The episode "Spooky Adventure" has the floor adventure into the tunnels under the school's science building. The journey ends when they see something covered in a censor blur, and they are visibly traumatized. {{spoiler|In the next scene it's revealed that it was a pile of dead dogs.}}

 

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'':

** Luann van Houten (Milhouse's mother) answered her husband's challenge in a game of Pictionary, to draw "dignity". We don't see what she draws, but everyone in the room is impressed.

* In the ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode "Road to the Multiverse", Stewie takes Brian to a technologically-advanced alternate universe where Christianity never existed. While they're there, Stewie shows Brian this universe's version of [[Butt Monkey|Meg]], who is much more attractive than the regular Meg. Stewie goes on to tell Brian that she's still the [[Hollywood Homely|ugly one]], and if Brian saw [[Hot Mom|Lois]], he would have to put his penis in a wheelchair. The audience is never shown this universe's version of Lois.

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' uses this to leave it up to the viewers {{spoiler|how Danny's human side was killed in "The Ultimate Enemy"}}. Instead of being treated to the scene itself, we are given a [[Shadow Discretion Shot]], and the only thing Vlad says about it? "Some things are better left unsaid." Considered one of the most chilling moments in the show.

** At one point he accidentally cuts back to the scene in the middle of the battle, and it is very violent.

** Another example is Nergle Jr.'s true form. We see black skin and tentacles, but we never see anything else. However, Billy does describe it as being the most horrible thing he'd ever seen, and this is coming from a boy with the Grim Reaper for a best friend.

* On at least two occasions Ed and Eddy gets to see what's underneath Double-D's hat on ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' and it's met with disgust, laughter and awe.

 

* [http://www.flickr.com/groups/firstgoatse/pool/ This website] is a (worksafe) collection of photographs of people looking at Goatse, a notorious [[Shock Site]] {{spoiler|image of a man's distended anus}}, for the first time. We don't see Goatse, but God, do [[Reaction Shot|we see the horror]].

** One of those pictures is of Ron Jeremy... and he looks horrified.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:This Index Happened Offscreen]]

[[Category:This Might Be an Index]]

[[Category:Universal Tropes]]

[[Category:Show, Don't Tell]]