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{{examples}}
==
* 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.
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S]]'':▼
== Anime and Manga ==
** 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}}''.
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{{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.}}
{{quote|[[Nick Fury]]: "The nuke... how'd it feel?"
[[Wolverine]]: "Warm."}}
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* 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 ==
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'''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. }}
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{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Kirk''': "So you're saying I have to emotionally compromise you guys."
'''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.}}
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** 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 ==
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'''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.]]}}
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"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."}}
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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.
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* 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."
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* [[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."
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]
[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]
[[Category:Script Speak]]
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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