History Main / DerailedForDetails

** In the episode "Lisa's First Word", an exhausted Marge is trying to get toddler! to sleep with a typical prince-and-princess story, and has just ended on HappilyEverAfter. He manages to get ''her'' to sleep this way, then causes mischief.
-->'''Bart:''' [[NowWhat And then what happened?]]\\

* The story as written in the instruction manual for ''VideoGame/CubivoreSurvivalOfTheFittest'' was written in this manner. For example, the story begins by saying the game takes place in "a certain place", and a second party asks where ''exactly''. This prompts the narrator to restart the story, this time insisting he doesn't know where the game takes place.

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* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAZOpgr6d7k This video]] from Creator/NerdCubed:. Half the video is this.

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--But what about...\\
''Shut up!''

[[DescribeTopicHere Describe]] Derailed For Details here.\\
--OK. A character is trying to...\\
What's his name? \\
--Uh, [[AliceAndBob Bob]]. Bob is trying to tell a story...\\
Which story?\\
--It doesn't matter! Shut up and let me finish! Ahem. Bob is trying to tell a story or joke, or ask a hypothetical or rhetorical question. He's interrupted constantly by requests for unnecessary extraneous details, quickly derailing the story into a ShaggyDogStory or a {{Metaphorgotten}}. Common culprits are the ConstantlyCurious, the missing-the-point {{Cloudcuckoolander}} or the MouthyKid who's just trying to get on his nerves. A BadLiar or someone who CannotTellAJoke may do this to themselves, adding unnecessary detail or going back and changing things.

[[LongTitle The Trope Where A Guy Starts Telling A Story Wait It Doesn't Have To Be A Guy Or A Story Either Really It Could Be A Joke Or A Speech But Anyway Where Was I...]]

* In the Disney Channel Original Movie ''Film/PixelPerfect'', the computerized character interrupts her creator's description of what falling in love feels like with questions like this.

** Also from the Pythons, or at least Michael Palin, John Cleese, and Graham Chapman, comes How To Irritate People. In the show, which is a collection of sketches like Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus, a man tries to tell his employer, who is visiting for tea, a joke he heard. Actually his wife wants him to tell it, and she keeps interrupting him to input unimportant details.

* In Saki's short story "The Story-Teller," the story-teller is so successful with the children because of his ability to readily answer their irrelevant questions [[{{Improv}} and incorporate them into the story]].

--> Kishon: "It doesn't matter which tunnel! For all I care, it could be the Schlesinger tunnel!
--> Swiss: "The Schlesinger tunnel? Now that's funny! Ha-ha-ha..."

* This is the reason C. S. Lewis gives for doing a flashback to narrate the story of Literature/PrinceCaspian. He says that if he showed the story through Trumpkin (the last chapter ended with Trumpkin saying he'll tell the children what had happened) it would take longer as he'd have to stop for all the interruptions. So he takes over for the time being, and then the next chapter begins with the children reacting to the finished story.
* {{Sherlock Holmes}} has a tendency to appear to do this, such as in The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier, where he interrupts a story to ask about the newspaper someone was reading. However, being Holmes, everything is a means to an end and an important detail in solving the case.

** Dwight loves this trope - when asked whether it is just for a man to steal a loaf of bread to feed his family, Dwight just adds his own details - the bread is poisoned, and the kids aren't even his.

-->'''Stephen Fry:''' What I want you to do first is tell me all about the twelve Frenchmen and the twelve mosquitoes. Dara?
-->'''Dara Ó Briain:''' Once upon a time... there were twelve Frenchmen, called 'Appy, Sleepy, Arrogant, Furieux, Choses comme ça, Bof, and Zut Alors. And...
-->'''Phill Jupitus:''' [[OverlyLongGag That's six!]]
-->'''Dara:''' Fenêtre... er, Boulangerie, er...
-->'''Alan Davis:''' Le Table!
-->'''Dara:''' La Table, of course, and [[ThemeTwinNaming Jambon et Fromage, the twins]]. And they used to travel around with [[TemptingFate mosquitoes]], [[TheyFightCrime solving adventures]].
-->'''Phill:''' And ''what were the mosquitoes called?''
* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', when Ted [[WhatDidIDoLastNight wakes up with a strange girl in his bed and a pineapple on his nightstand]] everyone tries to figure out who the girl is and how Ted hooked up with her ... except for Marshall, who's fixated on getting details about the pineapple.
** [[NoodleIncident And they never do figure out what the hell the pineapple had to do with anything.]]
** A deleted scene features The Captain, an eccentric character introduced years after the original episode, explaining that he liked putting pineapples in front of his house as "a sign of hospitality", before flashing back to Ted stealing one of them while drunk.

-->'''Maddie:''' Okay, Lance, remember: You're rich.
-->'''Lance:''' Rich who?
-->'''Maddie:''' No, I mean you have money
-->'''Lance:''' So I'm rich, and my name is Rich?
-->'''Maddie:''' No! No, your name isn't Rich!
-->'''Lance:''' What's my name then?
-->'''Maddie:''' It doesn't matter!
-->'''Lance:''' Then why can't it be Rich?

--->'''Bailey:''' Your bus leaves the station at--
--->'''London:''' *scoffs* I would never take the bus. I would take my private jet.
--->'''Bailey:''' Right...Your private jet leaves the bus station at 6 a.m.
--->'''London:''' 6 a.m.? I would never get up that early!
--->'''Bailey:''' *getting ticked* What time y'think you're gonna get there?
--->'''London:''' I don't know. Ask my chauffeur. He's the one driving me.
--->'''Bailey:''' *really ticked now* So let's assume that your chauffeur has gotten you to your private jet at say, noon.
--->'''London:''' But--
--->'''Bailey:''' You'l have lunch on the plane!!
--->'''London:''' *claps* Goodie!! Wait, what are we having?

--->'''Carla''': If J.D. were drowning and he told you he didn't want you to save him, wouldn't you do it?
--->'''Turk:''' That depends. What if there're hot chicks at the pool? Maybe he wants one of them to jump in and save him?
--->'''Carla:''' Let's say there's no women.
--->'''Turk:''' There's always women at the pool, baby!
--->'''Carla:''' Fine. He's in a pond.
--->'''J.D.:''' Oh, I would never swim in a pond! They're infamous for serpents!
--->'''Turk:''' You could swim at the Y on Tuesdays - men only
--->'''J.D.:''' Have you been to the Y on man night? Not me.
--->'''Carla:''' N - oka - fine! Turk's the one who's drowning!
--->'''Turk:''' Oh! So now a brother can't swim!

-->''[Frasier, Roz, and Martin hear the doorbell buzz]''\\

'''Frasier:''' A woman in Chicago who- oh, I don't have the time!

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', "Tengu", tries to explain that Tengu is just is just his screen name and is on the verge of revealing his true name when Nanase and Charlotte [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2013-07-12 question and comment on]] how he looks almost nothing like the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengu actual mythological creature]].

** In the episode "Lisa's First Word", an exhausted Marge is trying to get toddler!Bart to sleep with a typical prince-and-princess story, and has just ended on HappilyEverAfter. He manages to get ''her'' to sleep this way, then causes mischief.
-->'''Bart:''' [[NowWhat And then what happened?]]
-->'''Marge:''' [[BabiesEverAfter They had 30 sons and 30 daughters.]]
-->'''Bart:''' What were their ''names''?
** In another episode, Homer is trying to get Bart to help Mr. Burns unconditionally with his rare blood, as he expects that Burns will give an extravagant gift in return. He tells the story of a rich lion who had a thorn stuck in his paw. Bart asks how a lion got rich and Homer [[HandWave Hand Waves]] it as something that could happen in the olden days.

-->'''Marlin:''' All right, I know ''one'' joke. Um, there's a mollusk, see? And he walks up to a sea,--Well he doesn't ''walk'' up, he ''swims'' up. Well, actually the mollusk isn't moving. He's in one place, and then the sea cucumber, well they...I mixed up. There was a mollusk and a sea cucumber. None of them were walking, so forget that I--
-->'''Bob:''' SHELDON! Get out of Mr. Johansenn's yard, now!

But what about...\\
--''Shut up!''

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Phenomenon}}''. Somebody asks JohnTravolta's character how old a person would be now if they were born on the 5th of March 1987 (or was it the 7th of July 1976? No, it was the 28th of October 1928...) Anyway, he asks a bunch of questions, the last one being "Where was he born?" The exasperated questioner asks what that has to do with it. "Well, if he were born in New York City he'd be..." and gives the age right down to the minute. He never does explain, though, how a person's gender affects their age.

* This video from Creator/NerdCubed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAZOpgr6d7k. Half the video is this.

* In Saki's short story "The Story-Teller," the story-teller is so successful with the children because of his ability to readily answer their irrelevant questions [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants and incorporate them into the story]].

* In Saki's short story "The Story-Teller," the story-teller is so successful with the children because of his ability to readily answer their irrelevant questions and incorporate them into the story.

* Played straight in ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'':
-->'''Marlin:''' All right, I know one joke. Um, there's a mollusk, see? And he walks up to a sea, well he doesn't walk up, he swims up. Well, actually the mollusk isn't moving. He's in one place and then the sea cucumber, well they--I mixed up. There was a mollusk and a sea cucumber. None of them were walking, so forget that I--
-->'''Bob:''' Sheldon! Get out of Mr. Johansenn's yard, now!

* The AbbottAndCostello sketch ''Jonah and the Whale'': Lou's trying to impress a pretty girl with a joke, but Bud keeps interrupting with demands for details.

* On ''Series/TheOffice'', when asked which five books he would want on a deserted island, Dwight is obviously thinking too hard about it and asks whether there is any firewood on the island or whether he lost his shoes before he got there.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Lisa's First Word", an exhausted Marge is trying to get toddler!Bart to sleep with a typical prince-and-princess story, and has just ended on HappilyEverAfter.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', Marin ends up doing this to himself. Frasier and Niles are trying to write a book about sibling rivalry but are stuck for ideas, and hit on the idea of using examples from their own personal history to start off. They ask Martin for some, and he remembers a really funny story about a time the family took a vacation to a summer house near a lake... but, much to Niles and Frasier's frustration, gets hung up on trying to remember what the lake was called, to the point where he wanders off without actually telling the story so he can look it up.

* In ''SeitokaiNoIchizon'', a rather basic math problem gets derailed in this way.

* In the Disney Channel Original Movie ''PixelPerfect'', the computerized character interrupts her creator's description of what falling in love feels like with questions like this.

* On ''TheWire'', Prez tries to set his class a TrainProblem and they pester him for pointless details (which side of the city this guy is from, what the purpose of the trip is, etc.), distracting from the basic maths problem he was trying to get across.
* On ''TheOffice'', when asked which five books he would want on a deserted island, Dwight is obviously thinking too hard about it and asks whether there is any firewood on the island or whether he lost his shoes before he got there.

* ''{{QI}}'':

* In ''{{Friends}}'', Joey tells Ross a story about France which he ''swears'' is a guaranteed pass at getting laid. When Ross tries to repeat the story to a woman, it quickly devolves into this, just because she's genuinely curious about his time in Europe and he's a BadLiar.
* In an episode of ''TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'', Maddie is directing a student film with the help of the dim lifeguard, Lance, who plays the role of the wealthy male lead.

** In an episode of ''TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'' when Bailey tries to tutor London, we get this exchange:

* An episode of StargateAtlantis had Mckay trying to ask the team a hypothetical question that involved whether they would be willing to stop a train that was going to hit a group of ten people by redirecting it so it killed a baby. The thought is quickly lost as the team question why the people wouldn't simply save themselves and whether they could outrun the train.
* In Scrubs, Carla tries to use a metaphor to explain why they should help Elliot. It does not go well.

-->'''Dara O'Briain:''' Once upon a time... there were twelve Frenchmen, called 'Appy, Sleepy, Arrogant, Furieux, Choses comme ça, Bof, and Zut Alors. And...

* As a meta example, a lot of serial webcomics have this happen to the stories themselves. A creator will post a page, and there will be tons and tons of questions and comments and speculation and possible plot-hole pontificating, which the author will then have to spend at least half of the next page providing an answer for. Example: "Why didn't character X do THIS?"; the next update, the characters try that, only to have it fail, or they ask themselves that and come up with an answer. One suspects that comics like OrderOfTheStick and GrrlPower would be a lot shorter if the characters didn't have to address every other concern raised by the fans from one page to the next. However, this may also be a good thing, and gives the illusion that the author and characters really did take into account everything, leaving little room for criticism after the fact.

* An episode of Stargate:Atlantis had Mckay trying to ask the team a hypothetical question that involved whether they would be willing to stop a train that was going to hit a group of ten people by redirecting it so it killed a baby. The thought is quickly lost as the team question why they wouldn't simply save themselves and whether they could outrun the train.

* In ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl'', Jack Sparrow manages to hijack a ship by leading guards Mullroy and Murtogg to [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325980/quotes?item=qt0416603 one such conversation.]]