Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,561
edits
Understatement: Difference between revisions
→Comic Books
m (update links) |
|||
| (25 intermediate revisions by 13 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
Describing an atomic explosion as being "somewhat noisy."
Line 20 ⟶ 13:
Please don't [[Sinkhole]] this article in your own attempt at an understatement on the wiki. It's tacky. The attempt either works or it doesn't.
{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* The Rubik's cube was [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTkhA3RO5fU initially advertised] as having over 3 billion combinations. 3 billion is perhaps towards the upper end of human comprehension, probably exceeding it. In terms of configurations you can get by turning a Rubik's cube an arbitrary number of times, there are over 43 quintillion configurations, which is a number so big it's almost meaningless. The number you get is even higher if you include combinations achievable through only disassembling and reassembling the cube.
== Anime
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
** The title character employs this often in her everyday speech. Telling her daughter [[Mysterious Waif|Vivio]] that "[[You Won't Feel a Thing|This is going to hurt a bit]]" before {{spoiler|blasting her with [[Beam Spam|five]] [[Wave Motion Gun|Starlight Breakers]] at the same time}} is just one of many examples. Another infamous example: "Shall I cool your head a little?", which she uttered to a rebellious Teana before {{spoiler|bombarding her into unconsciousness using her own spell}}.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' has Nunnally become a master of understatement with "In the past, unfortunate happenings took place inside {{spoiler|the Special Administrative Region of Japan}}." "Unfortunate happenings" meaning ''{{spoiler|genocide}}''.
Line 31 ⟶ 26:
* In ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'', there was this small exchange between Mokona and [[X 1999|Fuuma]] during a battle:
{{quote|'''Fuuma:''' It looks like my big brother-san is starting to take this seriously.
'''Mokona:''' What happens if [[Tokyo Babylon|Seishirou]] gets serious?
'''Fuuma:''' That's when things get just a little bit scary. }}
* Guts from ''[[Berserk]]'' tends to be fairly nonchalant about things that would send other people screaming for the hills. One instance stands out, though, when he's fighting in his pain-nullifying Berserker armor. After getting bitten by what is basically a possessed sperm whale, picked up by a tornado and dropped from a height of several hundred feet, and catching a ''burning main mast'' (that would normally take 12 men and a bunch of pulleys to lift) before it falls on his friends, he remarks, deadpan, "Well, I'm gonna be sore in the morning."
Line 42 ⟶ 37:
{{quote|'''Hagurumon:''' It's fantastic! It's great. Nah, guess it's okay.
'''Hagurumon: (later)''' It's a disaster! It's terrible! Meh, guess it's not that good. }}
* ''[[Vinland Saga]]'': After [[Beware the Quiet Ones|growing a massive pair of balls]] and deciding to become the [[Take Over the World|Ruler of Northern Europe]], Canute
▲* ''[[Vinland Saga]]'': After [[Beware the Quiet Ones|growing a massive pair of balls]] and deciding to become the [[Take Over the World|Ruler of Northern Europe]], Canute anwers to the question where he would want to go ''"To the millitary headquarters in Gainsborough. [[Archnemesis Dad|I will have a squabble with my father.]]"''
== Comic Books ==
* [[Batman]] saying he knows he's "not an easy person to know". Cue the dumbstruck look on the faces of the assembled Batfamily.
{{quote|'''Oracle''': Well... ''that''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s about the ''understatement'' of the ''century'', I'd say.}}
* A similar scene occurs in ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' when [[Sociopathic Hero]] Rorschach admits that it's hard to be his friend.
* From some issue of some comic book written by some author:{{context|reason=This lacks some specificity.}}
[[Wolverine]]: "Warm."}}
* A vintage Whitney Darrow cartoon for ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine has a trio of robbers emerging from a bank with their loot, to face an encircling cordon of heavily-armed police, a swarm of press vehicles and about a thousand rubberneckers. One of the robbers: "There must have been a leak."
* Evey's reaction to V blowing up the Houses of Parliament in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'': "But that... that's against the law!"
* ''[[Empowered]]'': "... guess th' white capes might be underestimatin' ol' Willy Pete jus' a li'l bit less, next time around."
* [[The Mighty Thor
== Fan Works ==
Line 77 ⟶ 70:
'''Hermione''': Again, obvious, though admittedly potentially problematic.
'''Harry''': "Potentially problematic"? When was the last time you held your breath underwater for an hour, Hermione? }}
{{quote|'''Hermione''': She's a little sensitive.}}
{{quote|'''Harry''': [[Captain Obvious|I think we found the train.]]
'''Ron''': Yeah. }}
* In ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'', Spock Prime's assessment of the bastard who {{spoiler|destroyed Vulcan because SP failed to save Romulus ''in the future''}}: "He is a particularly troubled Romulan." Leave it to Spock - any Spock - to be a master of understatement.
** From the same conversation:
{{quote|
'''Spock Prime''': Jim, I just lost my planet. I can tell you, I am emotionally compromised."
* In the ending of ''[[Kill Bill]]'', Bill explains his massacre of everyone attending the Bride's wedding by saying that he [http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&v=lASM_n2R_TY "overreacted."] Oh, and this little gem:
{{quote|'''Earl McGraw''': It would appear someone objected to this union and wasn't able to hold their peace.}}
* In ''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]'', the Emperor says of his son, "Commodus is not a moral man." Even he had ''[[Complete Monster|no idea]]''.
* Invoked in ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]''. After
{{quote|You know, somehow, "I told you so" just doesn't quite say it.}}
* ''[[Galaxy Quest]]''{{'}}s Tech Sergeant Fred Kwan prefers these; his reaction to being [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWv9r5MXdSA&feature=related unexpectedly teleported] 8 million
* ''[[Fight Club (film)|Fight Club]]'': "You met me at a very strange time in my life."
* ''[[Major League]]'': "Juuuuuuuuuuuuust a bit outside..."
Line 99 ⟶ 92:
* ''[[X Men Origins: Wolverine|X Men Origins Wolverine]]'', when asked how his execution by firing squad went; "Tickled."
* In ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'', after {{spoiler|Grace Augustine}} is shot: "This is gonna ruin my whole day."
* ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'': "I would like, if I may,<ref>[[Audience Participation|(YOU MAY NOT!)]]</ref> to take you on a strange journey..." Strange doesn't even ''begin'' to cover what happens to Brad<ref>[[Audience Participation|(ASSHOLE!)]]</ref> and Janet<ref>[[Audience Participation|(SLUT!)]]</ref>.
* The [[Tagline]] to ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' was "It's terrific!"
* Anakin Skywalker in ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'', just after the atmospheric entry tore off the bigger part of the ''Invisible Hand'' (the ship he happens to be flying): "We lost something." This was immediately [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] with Obi-Wan's reply: "Not to worry, we are still flying ''half'' a ship."
Line 108 ⟶ 101:
'''Zoolander''': That is a bit above average... }}
* ''[[Forrest Gump]]'':
{{quote|'''Forrest:'''
'''Forrest:'''
* The opening narration of the [[After the End|Post-Apocalyptic]] B-movie ''Hell Comes To Frogtown''
* ''[[Primer]]'': "At this point, there would have been some... discussion."
* From ''[[Clue (film)|Clue]]'':
{{quote|'''Wadswoth:''' ''Three'' murders.
'''Mr. Green:''' Six altogether
'''Wadsworth:''' This is getting serious.
* In the 2005 film adaptation of ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)|Charlie and The Chocolate Factory]]'', Willy Wonka says that cannibalism "is frowned upon in most societies."
* ''[[Dr. Strangelove]] [[Either
** General Buck Turgidson gets several of these in quick succession when he informs the President of the United States that General Ripper, a lower echelon American military commander, has ordered a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union without the approval or knowledge of the White House or the Pentagon.
** When the President asks how General Ripper could possibly order such an attack, Buck says:
{{quote|"Although I hate to judge before all the facts are in, it's beginning to look like General Ripper exceeded his authority."}}
{{quote|"Well, I don't think it's quite fair to condemn the whole program because of a single slip-up, sir."}}
{{quote|"Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than 10 to 20 million killed, tops.}}
* ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'': [[Not in Kansas Anymore|"Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."]]
* In ''[[Once Upon a Time In Mexico]]'', Agent Sands of the CIA {{spoiler|just had his [[Eye Scream|eyes drilled out]] and left in the street.}} When a boy approaches him, Sands tells him "I'm not having the best day here, kid."
* ''[[Jurassic Park]] 2'': "Mommie's very angry."
* At the end of ''[[Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure]]'' when the title pair ask [[Mysterious Backer|Rufus]] if he can play the electric guitar, he says, "Well, I play ''a little''." And then he starts playing like a rock star. {{spoiler|Although considering his society was founded on [[The Power of Rock]], this level of skill might be considered "a little" compared to everyone else.}}
== Literature ==
Line 138 ⟶ 131:
{{quote|'''Sam Weller''': There's nothin' so refreshen' as sleep, sir, as the servant girl said afore she drank the egg-cupful of laudanum.
'''Sam Weller''': Wery sorry to 'casion any personal inconwenience, ma'am, as the housebreaker said to the old lady when he put her on the fire. }}
* [[Peter F. Hamilton]]'s ''[[The
{{quote|'''Adamist Officer''': I've always been a massive admirer of the Edenist ability to understate. But I think defining a chunk of land fifteen kilometres across that suddenly takes flight and wanders off into another dimension as a little problem is possibly the best example yet.
'''The Edenist''': I never said ''little''. }}
* In David Eddings' ''The Tamuli'' Emperor Sarabian is said, by his ambassador, to use this. A hurricane is "a light breeze"; the loss of half his fleet is "a minor inconvenience"; the imminent collapse of his empire as "some civil unrest." This is a tendency common among Tamuls as they have a [[Planet of Hats|racial tendency toward extreme politeness.]]
* Eddings has a tendency to use this trope. In [[Belgariad|Belgarath the Sorcerer]], Belgarath notes that "Alorns take a petty delight in gross understatement" after Beltira comments "we wouldn't want that" with regards to the ending of the world. The original example would be in ''Castle of Wizardry''. A horde of Algarian
* ''[[Left Behind]]'': "[[Narm|To say the Israelis were taken by surprise is to say the Great Wall of China is long.]]"
* ''This is The Way The World Ends'' by James Morrow: "Chapter 5 - In Which the Limitations of Civil Defense Are Explicated in a Manner Some Readers May Find Distressing." This is the chapter in which, well... {{spoiler|[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|look at the bloody title.]]}}
* "I thought you were dead. I lost my temper," says [[Tortall Universe|Daine Sarrasri]], by way of explanation for '''''levelling an imperial palace with SKELETON ZOMBIE DINOSAURS''''' and then setting hyenas on the culprit.
* ''[[The Silver Chair]]'': "And [[The Vamp|you]], who have told me a hundred times [[Blatant Lies|how deeply you pitied me]] for the [[Metaphorically True|sorceries by which I was bound]], will doubtless hear with joy that they are now ended for ever. There was, it seems,
* ''[[The Culture|Consider Phlebas]]'' by [[Iain Banks]] has a brief history of the interstellar war the novel is set in. The "Statistics" section says the war lasted for forty-eight years and a month and saw (among other losses) the death of over 851 billion sentient beings, and the destruction of 91,215,660 ships, 53 planets and moons and six ''stars'', followed by a "Historical perspective":
{{quote|A small, short war that rarely extended throughout more than .02% of the galaxy and .01% by stellar population. ... the galaxy's elder civilisations rate the Idiran-Culture war as ... one of those singularly interesting Events they see so rarely these days.}}
Line 163 ⟶ 156:
"When they mention it at all, yes."
"All twenty ''years'' of it?" }}
* The [[Discworld]] novel ''[[
* In ''[[Splinter of the Minds Eye]]'', Luke tends towards these. Lampshaded by Leia in a fit of [[Purple Prose]].
{{quote|"You have this wonderfully evocative way about you, Luke, of reducing the most excruciatingly uncomfortable circumstances to the merely mundane."}}
Line 172 ⟶ 165:
And Noah he cocked his eye and said, "It looks like rain, I think." }}
▲== Live Action TV ==
* From ''[[Angel]]'':
{{quote|'''Wesley:''' ''(to Angel)'' I may have made a tiny mistake. The word Shanshu that I said meant you were going to die? Actually I think it means that you are going to live.
Line 200 ⟶ 189:
{{quote|'''David Banner''': Mr. McGee, don't make me angry. [[You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry]].}}
* ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'': Jeeves might be said to lightly indulge in this on occasion.
* In the ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000|Mystery Science Theatre 3000]]'' episode spoofing ''[[Manos: The Hands of Fate|Manos the Hands of Fate]]''
* Dr. K from ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'', in the episode "In Or Out," when she tries to apologize to the Rangers for behaving so coldly towards them. Also makes for a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]].
{{quote|'''Dr. K''': Gem and Gemma have confronted me with the possibility that in an effort to protect myself from future emotional trauma, I may have treated some of you with a degree of forced emotional detachment, perhaps even bordering on coldness.
Line 226 ⟶ 215:
'''Kirk:''' They FIRED at him!
'''Mudd:''' They've no respect for private property! They damaged the bloody spaceship! }}
* ''[[Star Trek: The
* Occasionally played on ''[[Top Gear]]''. One example comes from the episode where they take a trio of Alfa Romeos to the track. Richard (in the pits) radios Jeremy to see how he's doing. Jeremy replies that he's doing "Not brilliantly." Cut to Jeremy's car flipped onto its side.
** Whenever some one says "That's not gone well" it's usually caught fire or crashed (There's even a [http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/B002KMF4LQ/ref=dp_image_text_0?ie=UTF8&n=11052681&s=kitchen poster])
Line 250 ⟶ 239:
== Tabletop Games ==
* "''[[Warhammer
* ''[[Exalted]]'': "Solar Exalted have poor impulse control."
* ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]'': "Nothing says 'I am angry' like a sizzling raygun the size of a Buick Skylark."
Line 265 ⟶ 254:
* In ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'', the Black Knight's Mastery Skill, Eclipse, states that it will inflict 5 times the Black Knights strength. The Black Knight has over 30 strength. The most health a player unit can have is 90, the final boss having 120. 150-120=DEAD.
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrmuATvklKA This video] shows a hacked battle between the Black Knight and the final boss (as said fight would be impossible in-game). Both characters are maxed out. Black Knight uses Eclipse on the final boss, whose HP is 120. BK's maxed out attack made each hit worth 58 damage (as said by the creator in the comments). 58 x 5 = 290 damage. No more need be said.
* ''[[
{{quote|'''Quest Length:''' Short (With some longer parts as well.)}}
* The commander of the Earth Defense Force in [[Earth Defense Force 2017]] calls the player character, Storm 1, a "great soldier" later on in the game. For reasons on why this is an absolutely HUGE understatement, read the description for [[Badass]] in that games article.
Line 272 ⟶ 261:
* [[Word of God|The creator]] of ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' has said:
{{quote|"I think I made [[Killer Rabbit|the fish]] [http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/40d:Carp too hardcore]."}}
* The official Strategy guide for ''[[
{{quote|"When a Nuke goes off, you'll know it."}}
* [[Half-Life (series)|Prepare for unforeseen consequences.]]
* Jack in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' has a doozy when she's telling Shepard of all of her various crimes, one of which is [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|vandalism]]. When pressed she explains that by 'vandalism' the Hanar mean she [[Colony Drop|dropped a starbase onto a moon]], and it was their favorite moon at that.
** Mordin, a ''slightly'' neurotic scientist, always analyzes every situation with scientific objectivism:
{{quote|'''Mordin:''' ''"Trying to determine how scale-itch got on the Normandy. Sexually transmitted disease . Only carried by [[Mix-and-Match Critters|Varren]]. Implications unpleasant."''
'''Mordin:''' ''"Suggest you stay clear. Explosion likely to be... [[Heroic Sacrifice|problematic]]."'' }}
** In the Arrival [[Downloadable Content|DLC]], after 2 games of the [[Eldritch Abomination|Reapers]] spouting nothing but boasts about their inherent superiority and the inferiority of all organic life, {{spoiler|Harbinger}} [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?|finally lets slip that Shepard has gotten to him.]]
{{quote|''[[Worthy Opponent|Shepard, you have become an annoyance.]]''}}
* "There are violent and disturbing images in this game." This warning posted in certain video games lacks a sense of scale when the games in question are from the ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series.
* In ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'', the mildly psychotic supercomputer, [[
{{quote|'''[[
** '''[[
** At first it sounds like [[
{{quote|'''[[
'''[[
'''[[
* In ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'', Cristina Vespucci said of her cousin to a prospective employer of his: "Try Amerigo out. I bet in a decade you'll have named your shipping company after him." Biggest understatement of the century.
* In horror/survival RPG ''[[Shadow Hearts|Koudelka]]'', the text descriptions that you get when clicking on environments are often this. For example, in one room featuring a towering guillotine with a crimson-stained blade, blood-splattered walls and floor, and later a couple of corpses, both shot through the head and lying in pools of their own blood, you get this text: ''"You see dried blood spots here and there."''
* In ''[[Obs Cure]] 2'', after one character turns into a giant, mutated abomination, pins another character to the wall with a knife, and crushes the skull of another under his foot, his friends burst in and confront him with this line.
{{quote|'''Stan:''' {{spoiler|Kenny}}, you've become a major jerk, man.}}
== Web Comics ==
Line 300 ⟶ 288:
''([[Beat Panel]])''
'''Alternate Mega Man''': We may wanna work on your definition of the word "slight." }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110818081434/http://www.jaydenandcrusader.com/2008/12/15/page-102/ Jayden and Crusader], a comic supposedly grounded in reality has this one:
{{quote|'''Smic''': [The best part of Christmas] used to be building the gargantuan robotic Father Christmas powered by atmospheric engine, who would duel with my brother's contraption for the right of the first choice of Faberge egg.
'''Hannah''': You had a strange childhood, Smic. }}
* [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2000/fc01955.htm This] ''[[Freefall]]'' strip.
* ''[[Homestuck]]'': "[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=001982 You have a feeling it's going to be a long day.]"
* ''[[Eerie Cuties]]'' gave the friendly neighborhood [[Mad Scientist]] such a [//pixietrixcomix.com/eerie-cuties/2012-01-09 moment].
{{quote|'''Brooke''': "seems"? "nearly"? }}
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has a [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110926 self-conscious] Mechaniac:
{{quote|'''Vanamonde''': <small>um</small> — I wonder if growing up here might make us a little... ''weird''...}}
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' has a few.
** The cake goes to nice blimp creature Hioefua Far-Wanders, who described Eina-Afa as "large facility with attractive open spaces", but "currently infested with vermin". The chapter about adventures in that place is named "Can Full of Sky". Because Eina-Afa turned out to be a [[Big Dumb Object|cylinder big enough to store Mars, Luna and Europa inside]], and you'd still need a lot of bubble wrap to prevent them from rattling. The "open space" is most of its internal volume, and sometime during last ''more than ten millions of years'' it developed its own ecosystem, which includes several species adapted to symbiosis with runaway industrial-grade nanorobots (and sporting nice metal-plated skeletons or exoskeletons, which also allows [[Square-Cube Law|many of them to be absurdly huge]], without being sluggish). In part thanks to its AI, who got bored after the builders gone extinct and arranged a stable pair of hurricanes across the can's diameter to make a few new biomes and ramp up selection pressure in hope ''something'' will eventually evolve enough to talk with it.
** Author's notes, fairly often. "Note: [...] the officers and crew of the UNS Battleplate [...] great many of them can no longer be reached in order to comment on exactly how much better the operation could have gone." (under the comic with remnants of the battleplate in pieces just big enough to recognize what it was)
** Kathryn the retired {{spoiler|military intelligence analyst}} can do it too:
{{quote|'''Kathryn Flinders''': …And that's the snag I was talking about.
'''Karl Tagon''': That's not a snag. That's a can of flying, venomous worms. }}
** Karl Tagon returns the favour:
{{quote|'''Karl Tagon''': It looks like somebody smushed it.
'''Kathryn Flinders''': Let's consider your word choice, there. [[Big Dumb Object|A framework of ultra-strong material the size of Saturn]]<ref>actually ''larger'', but would still fit inside the rings</ref> was warped, cut and crushed until it was about the size of Earth. }}
== Web Original ==
Line 312:
** "That's... not a ''good'' sound."
* [[SCP Foundation|SCP-682]] is [[Omnicidal Maniac|somewhat volatile]]. Its page is named "[[Nigh Invulnerable|Hard-To-Kill Reptile]]".
* [[The Sturgeon Awards]] refers to ''[[Agony
* The [[That Guy With The Glasses]] sketch "How I quit my job" ends on one. This after having played "[[Also Sprach Zarathustra]]," ripped open his shirt revealing "I QUIT!" written on his chest, and leaving to the end of [[Queen]]'s "Bohemian Rhapsody":
{{quote|"What have we learned today, boys and girls? Boys and girls, we have learned that ''that'' bridge has officially been burned."}}
Line 334:
** [http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/609-captain-planet Adolf Hitler was a dork!]
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' gives us this gem:
{{quote|'''Sokka''' : [[It Makes Sense in Context|My first girlfriend turned into the moon.]]
'''Zuko :''' That's rough, buddy. }}
** In "The Drill," after the Fire Nation's massive, incredibly expensive
{{quote|'''Mai''': We lost.}}
* ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes|Jimmy Two Shoes]]''
Line 356:
{{quote|"Someone has to count the votes, and The Delightful Children promised me a slice of their birthday cake next year if I... fudged the results a little."
"''Fudged!?'' They weren't even ''on the ballot!''" }}
* One episode of ''[[ReBoot]]'' has all of Mainframe infected with a bug that turns everyone and everything to stone; that is, except for Hexidecimal's lair, since it was her bug to begin with. Bob, the only one immune to the bug, storms Hexidecimal's lair and, via
{{quote|'''Hexidecimal:''' ''"Funny. I sense a presence."''}}
Line 369:
* The speech made by Captain Eric Moody on [[wikipedia:BA flight 009|BA Flight 009]] ''Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.'' Some years later he remarked that "It was, yeah, a little bit frightening."
* Similarly the captain of [[wikipedia:US Airways Flight 1549|US Airways Flight 1549]] when talking to flight control and informing them in a very casual and almost bored voice: "We're gonna be in the Hudson." Listen to the audio about halfway through the site linked above.
* "It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed."
* Tragically: "Obviously a major malfunction," a NASA Public Affairs officer moments after Challenger exploded.
* The quote marks in the [[BBC]] news headline "[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7806683.stm Microsoft Zune affected by 'bug']" may as well be [[Faux HTML Tags]].
Line 386:
* An urban legend states that when BBC TV resumed broadcasting after being off air for the whole of World War II, the channel started with the same programme that was on air at the time of the switch-off, with the same presenter, who merely said: "Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted..."
* The Daily Mirror columnist [[wikipedia:William Connor|William Connor]], known as Cassandra, really did resume his column after the war with "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, it is a powerful hard thing to please all of the people all of the time."
* When a British police officer who discovered the body of a man who had [https://web.archive.org/web/20131106114308/http://www.cracked.com/article/171_6-creepy-urban-legends-that-happen-to-be-true-part-321_p2/ cut his own head off with a chainsaw] was asked by the coroner if it was a shock, he replied "[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/death-was-carefully-thought-through-suicide-1025503.html In some ways it was, sir]".
* British fighter ace Douglas Bader lost both of his legs in a crash in 1931 (yes, eight years before the war). His logbook entry? "Crashed slow-rolling near ground. Bad show." And how.
* After her husband told her that her son was dead from heat stroke, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130715020836/http://www.kidsandcars.org/dylan-bjorkman.html this woman] stated that, "Those words were not what I wanted to hear."
* From Watson and Crick's groundbreaking article detailing the structure of DNA for the first time: "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material."
* [[George W. Bush]]: "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating."
* ''[[Mark Twain]]'': "James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness; [[Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated|the report of my death was an exaggeration]]."
* A guy who was a particular special brand of crazy, thinking his shed was repeatedly being broken into, set a variety of obscure and violent traps. It then caught on fire and the unsuspecting firefighters and policemen went to help. One man was in for a surprise when he "made the mistake of pushing open a door and got instantly whacked with a beartrap made out of solid steel with eight nails soldered onto it (what the police are calling a "man trap"). [The man said] he felt it go right down into the bone and, providing the typical British understatement, said it was [https://web.archive.org/web/20131015103035/http://www.cracked.com/article/175_6-real-people-who-turned-their-homes-into-death-traps_p2/#ixzz1j2OOqabL "quite painful."]
* A man who was walking away from the ruins of the Twin Towers declined an interview because he, "had a bad day at work."
* [[Richard Dawkins]] once remarked that young Earth creationists believe the Earth is l0,000 years old, when it's actually 4.6 billion years old, and that this is "a non-trivial error."
Line 401 ⟶ 400:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]
[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]
[[Category:Script Speak]]
▲[[Category:Understatement]]
| |||