History Main / DerailedTrainOfThought

* Played with in ''Film/LethalWeapon4'', where Chris Rock and Joe Pesci go off on a huge tangent about cell phones, for no apparent reason.

* ''WebVideo/ThoughtSlime'': A mashup with DistractedByTheSexy; in "Regrettably, we must discuss the Superman Gay Panic", Mildred mocks the bad-faith objection that unambiguously stating that a character is gay or queer is injecting sexuality into comics when it was never, ever there before.

* The Swedish comedy show ''Hipp Hipp'' had Melodikrysset, a musical crossword aired on radio, wherein the host would play a song and then explain whet you were supposed to write. After playing In the summertime the explanation is as follows.

Characters prone to this include the CloudCuckooLander and TheDitz. The OnlySaneMan (who is often subject to this) can respond with a facepalm, some form of internal monologue expressing his disbelief, or an attempt to remind the invoker of this trope what they were talking about in the first place. Occasionally, the subject material brought up in the Derailed Train of Thought can result in the recipient receiving TooMuchInformation. Responses may include the SpitTake, and for added humor, the invoker of the Derailed Train of Thought may remain unaware of the reaction he/she has caused.

-->'''Wolkerstorfer:''' You fools are all so smug and superior - treating me like a ''scatterwit!'' Well, I can and will ''destroy you all!'' ...and then I'll return to the king in ''triumph'', and we'll ''see'' who-um.. er... Say, don't you ''hate'' it when you're in the middle of something, and then you ''completely forget'' what you're ''doing?''\\

'''Krosp:''' Um... You were just leaving?\\

%%* ''Everyone'' who tries to talk to [[LightNovel/{{Baccano}} Isaac and Miria]]. ''' ''Everyone''.'''

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* Happens briefly to Lightning [=McQueen=] at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' when pysching himself up for the race.

* In ''Film/CarryOnMatron'', Sid Carter and his partners in crime, Freddy and Ernie, are planning to steal a stockpile of birth control pills from a maternity hospital. As they look over the plans for the hospital and Sid explains where the pills are kept, Ernie asks where the babies are kept. An impatient Sid tells him they're in the wards, of course, but Ernie says it's not quite so obvious - he was born on the top deck of a Number 73 bus in Brixton High Street. Freddy says that's impossible as the Number 73 goes to Putney and Wimbledon, not Brixton, and then Sid says they're both wrong, it goes to Holloway (where he used to visit his wife in the women's prison).

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAwUUgnBhCU This Series of Videos]] by Microsoft's Bing Search engine.

* ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'': Osaka, Cloud Cuckoo Lander extraordinaire, does this at least once, with a discussion on japanese characters that starts with hemorrhoids and goes on to the proper way to write kanji, and then to sea life.
* In the ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' anime, Orihime manages to produce the epic [[MemeticMutation Leekspin]] meme in an Epic Tangent resulting from a crash-in with Ichigo in their school hallway. He asks if she's okay, this results from her embarrassment of bumping into him.

* ''Everyone'' who tries to talk to [[LightNovel/{{Baccano}} Isaac and Miria]]. ''' ''Everyone''.'''

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstanty_Ildefons_Galczynski One Polish poet]] once wrote a cycle of micro-plays and other stories. One of them - [[http://galczynski.kulturalna.com/a-6865.html that long]] - includes such a verse: "UnaccustomedAsIAmToPublicSpeaking, let me say, that... (''here happens [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness a two-hour-long]] [[MotorMouth volcanic eruption of speech]], which is completely unrelated to the topic'')"

--> "Good grief," I said softly. "You made my nightmare go away."
--> ''It would be more accurate to say that I created an atmosphere of tranquility and security in which you found it easier to sleep, and sleep, saith the Bard, is the balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, chief nourisher in life's feast. Macbeth Act two, Scene two. [[LampshadeHanging But I digress.]]''

* The Doctor, on ''Series/DoctorWho''.

--> '''Brian:''' ...That depends. Do you really want my advice or are you just asking random questions?
--> '''Peter:''' What's a hypotenuse?

* [[Literature/LordPeterWimsey The Dowager Duchess of Denver]] tends to change the subject four or five times - in rapid succession - whenever she opens her mouth.

* In ''Series/{{Outnumbered}}'', a question to Pete from Ben about wher Friday the 13th beliefs originated ends with Ben describing how someone could end up accidentally crucify themselves.

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'''Luis:''' Oh, my abuelita had a jukebox in the restaurant! Yeah, only played Morrissey, and if anybody ever complained, she'd be like "Oh, ¿no te gusta Moz?" -- you know, chicanos, we call him Moz....

* ''Franchise/GrisaiaSeries'': Michiru occasionally does this, which considering her [[TheDitz extremely ditzy]] personality, is little wonder.

* The page quote comes from Luis, a [[MotorMouth Motor Mouthed]] friend of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's [[Characters/MCUAntMan Ant-Man]]. His tendency to go off on tangents is practically weaponized in ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'' when he gets hit with truth serum, which seems to make it ''worse'' by making him respond to every comment.

'''Luis:''' Oh, my abuelita had a jukebox in the restaurant! Yeah, only played Music/{{Morrissey}}, and if anybody ever complained, she'd be like "Oh, ¿no te gusta Moz?" -- you know, chicanos, we call him Moz....

->-- ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp''