History Main / BRollRebus

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Krusty Krab Training Video", the narrator is [[LamePunReaction not amused]] when, after he says "As you can see by this graph", it cuts to live-action footage of [[VisualPun a giraffe]].

** Johann Lippowitz got famous for doing this (in a routine called 'Karaoke for the Deaf') to Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn". His increasingly angry reactions to the line "You're a little late" are a CrowningMomentOfFunny.

* It has become exceedingly common to find Website/YouTube "music videos" in which it's nothing more than an MP3 of the song played to a slideshow of clips related to individual lyrics. A particular example comes up in a video to Jonathan Coulton's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIlwFpz9s_I Mandelbrot Set]] song.

* MovieBob also likes to do this, especially in his videos for his blog "Game Overthinker".

* Deliberately avoided by [[BillyJoel Billy Joel]] in his music video for "We Didn't Start the Fire." Joel said he specifically did ''not'' want shots of Harry Truman, Doris Day, etc. to go along with the lyrics: "Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray..." Instead, the video consists of a typical American family in their kitchen following the decades in the song, beginning with the young newlywed couple and ending with the death of the father.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Frontline}}'', Mike explains the concept to his GenreSavvy niece doing her work experience, who asks if that's why everytime they do a story about gay people they show footage of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Later in the episode, the show does exactly that, before running a story about a gay teacher allegedly sacked because of discrimination.

[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=BRollRebus Related]] to compulsive hyperlinking [[http://www.adhd-report.com/biopsychiatry/bio_4.html syndrome]] - the inclination to turn ''[[AllBlueEntry every]]'' word in text into a [[http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/ hyperlink]], even if there's [[CaptainObvious no need for explanations]] and the link [[PornWithoutPlot is not used to make any point]] or [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready minimal research is necessary anyway]]. Usually observed on [[BeePeople fans]] of Wiki/TheOtherWiki, probably just because the wiki engine [[Administrivia/TextFormattingRules makes cross-linking so easy]]. We have it JustForFun on ThisVeryWiki... if interested, jump over to AllBlueEntry.

[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=BRollRebus Related]] to compulsive hyperlinking [[http://www.adhd-report.com/biopsychiatry/bio_4.html syndrome]] - the inclination to turn ''[[AllBlueEntry every]]'' word in text into a [[http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/ hyperlink]], even if there's [[CaptainObvious no need for explanations]] and the link [[PornWithoutPlot is not used to make any point]] or [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready minimal research is necessary anyway]]. Usually observed on [[BeePeople fans]] of TheOtherWiki, probably just because the wiki engine [[Administrivia/TextFormattingRules makes cross-linking so easy]]. We have it JustForFun on ThisVeryWiki... if interested, jump over to AllBlueEntry.

** [[TheMarxBrothers Harpo Marx]] liked to pull things out from his coat to match what people are saying. Which makes this OlderThanTheyThink.

* This is a major source of humor in the AMVHell compilations.

* Mocked in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHun58mz3vI this "How To Report The News" segment]] of CharlieBrooker's ''Series/{{Newswipe}}'', a series devoted to describing and deconstructing NewsTropes.

* A number of voiceover-over-slide-show video series have followed Yahtzee's lead, including former ''Escapist'' series ''WebVideo/ExtraCredits'', which uses a mix of original cartoon drawings and found images (often macros). In one episode, the line "things we can't even imagine" is accompanied by cartoonist Allison Theus at her drawing board saying "Things we can't even imagine? How the f**k am I supposed to draw that?!"

** The Legs & Co. dancers on TopOfThePops were famous for this to the point that people would joke that you could figure out what song was playing with the TV muted.

* Richard Dawkins [[http://richarddawkins.net/articles/2394 shredded the faux-documentary ''Expelled'']] for a number of reasons (starting with the fact that the producers had gotten him to be in it under false pretenses), but took special aim at its excessive use of Lord Privy Seals.

News on the radio, especially on {{NPR}}, does something similar with sounds. Voiceover Guy will say "The Vermont maple syrup harvest is starting up this cold February day." This cues the sound editor to play crunching snow noises as the Vermont farmer is walking through the field of snow. There may or may not be a farmer remarking, "You can't get the-yah from he-yah."

* The Website/Youtube series Game Theory is mostly these (mostly terrible puns), clips or shots from the game, and calculations.

* ''Series/DeadRingers'' parodied Dr. Simon Schamas' tendency towards using these by having a Schama impersonator tell the story of Henry VIII using a deck of cards, a set of scales and a cake - it's stated that because of Schama's massive fee, they could only afford three illustrative props. It results in puns such as "ignoring the advice of Card-(''shot of a card'')-inal Wolsey" and "Or should he wait?" (''shot of scale with a weight in it''). The sketch ends with Schama declaring that next week he'll be doing the whole Renaissance with nothing but [[NoodleImplements a compass, a pipe and a potato]].

* Series/DeadRingers parodied Dr. Simon Schamas' tendency towards using these by having a Schama impersonator tell the story of Henry VIII using a deck of cards, a set of scales and a cake - it's stated that because of Schama's massive fee, they could only afford three illustrative props. It results in puns such as "ignoring the advice of Card-(''shot of a card'')-inal Wolsey" and "Or should he wait?" (''shot of scale with a weight in it''). The sketch ends with Schama declaring that next week he'll be doing the whole Renaissance with nothing but [[NoodleImplements a compass, a pipe and a potato]].

* In an episode Series/{{Frontline}}, Mike explains the concept to his GenreSavvy niece doing her work experience, who asks if that's why everytime they do a story about gay people they show footage of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Later in the episode, the show does exactly that before a running a story about a gay teacher allegedly sacked because of discrimination.

* Series/TheChasersWarOnEverything'' discussed this practice on ''A Current Affair '' and ''Today Tonight'', which used pointless visualisations of lines like "a dog of a year" and "It felt like I'd been hit in the face with a wet fish."

Also known as the 'Lord Privy Seal' effect, after [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVlfvdH7qwY&NR=1 a sketch]] in which the Lord Privy Seal (a sinecure post in the British government) was illustrated with pictures of a nobleman, a lavatory and a pinniped. Since then phrases like "it's a bit Lord Privy Seal" have been heard across the halls of British television news production.

** Also in another Chris Morris series ''TheDayToday'', [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Uz_qoclqs with the pictures gradually illustrating smaller and smaller bits of speech]], with the sketch being colloquially known as "Click Ting Stamps".

* Parodied by Nathan Fielder in an episode of ''ThisHourHas22Minutes''. Whenever he says a certain noun, he pulls it out of his coat.

* The Youtube series Game Theory is mostly these (mostly terrible puns), clips or shots from the game, and calculations.

* After YouTube music videos dedicated to expressing the lyrics in plain pictures, parodies began to flood in with the same principle, but of misheard/parodied lyrics instead, [[HilarityEnsues to hilarious effect]].

* Parodied at least once in ''BrassEye'': Chris Morris declares "let's shatter some myths" and destroys a statue of a centaur to make the point.

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[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=BRollRebus Related]] to [[AliensMadeThemDoIt compulsive]] hyperlinking [[http://www.adhd-report.com/biopsychiatry/bio_4.html syndrome]] - the inclination to turn ''[[AllBlueEntry every]]'' word in text into a [[http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/ hyperlink]], even if there's [[CaptainObvious no need for explanations]] and the link [[PornWithoutPlot is not used to make any point]] or [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready minimal research is necessary anyway]]. Usually observed on [[BeePeople fans]] of TheOtherWiki, probably just because the wiki engine [[Administrivia/TextFormattingRules makes cross-linking so easy]]. We have it JustForFun on ThisVeryWiki... if interested, jump over to AllBlueEntry.