History Main / ElephantInTheLivingRoom

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* The original ''VideoGame/{{Assassins Creed|I}}''! A hero struggling with disappointment and self-doubt! A grand Templar conspiracy! Treachery! Bloodshed! Betrayal! Oh, by the way, also: 1. demented derelicts that wander the streets and smack anyone who gets close hard enough to tumble across the ground, 2. beggars who run up to complete strangers and beg, constantly, incessantly, in the most, irritating, whiny voice imaginable, all the while swarming around said stranger and preventing him from going anywhere, and 3. self-righteous propagandizing bootlickers who preach the same damn things over and over and over and over forever and ever. And yet, aside from one very brief footnote in the Sibrand mission, no one ever says a word about these pervasive, eternal, unavoidable parasites that make Damascus, Acre, and Jerusalem the most unlivable cities that ever existed. Incidentally, this extends to the real world as well. There's been surprisingly little discussion of this on the message boards, while UbiSoft is seemingly happy to pretend that this glaring rookie mistake never existed.
* The fact that virtually everyone that even approaches importance in Gensoukyou is female is never, ever mentioned in the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series.

* [[SturgeonsLaw Many of the poorly-written]] ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureau'' fics love to paint the ponies as morally superior to the "brutish humans" while ignoring the existence of the canonical {{Jerkass}}es like Trixie and Flim-Flam brothers, [[AristocratsAreEvil snooty and boorish Canterlot nobles]], [[TeensAreMonsters Rainbow Dash's Cloudsdale bullies]], historical arseholes or, God forbid, [[CompleteMonster King Sombra.]] The existence of hostile Equestrian races, refuting the common conceit of Equestria-as-MarySuetopia, is also often swept under the carpet.

* There's a subplot in ''{{Freaks}}'' in which Roscoe the clown, who is engaged to Daisy Hilton, is introduced to the fiance of Daisy's sister, Violet, and the line "You must come over and visit us some time," is used. At no point does anyone explicitly mention the fact that Daisy and Violet are joined at the hip. The whole thing is going to be very awkward.

** when one person estranges from another and they see each other after 6 months of distance!
** when there is a fight in the center of a group and nobody picks sides or speaks on problems.

* ''Creator/StephenKing's KingdomHospital'': the source of the near-constant earthquakes; the checkered pasts of the doctors (especially Stegman) and the hospital itself also qualify.

** Not to mention in Black 2/White 2, [[spoiler: the villain attempts to MURDER you with a Pokemon attack.]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' series, Dragaerans who are the offspring of two or more Houses are the objects of prejudice, pity, or mistrust by the vast majority of the Empire's nobility, who regard such inter-House miscegenation with contempt and disgust. Yet nobody ''ever'' mentions that [[PersonOfMassDestruction Sethra Lavode]] is [[GrandfatherClause older than the Houses]], so she's not a pureblooded member of any House.

[[quoteright:323:[[{{Banksy}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elephantinthelivingroomfixed_2517.jpg]]]]

* The page image is a {{Banksy}} piece, featured in his documentary ''Film/ExitThroughTheGiftShop''.

[[quoteright:323:[[[=Banksy=] http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elephantinthelivingroomfixed_2517.jpg]]]]

* The page image is a [=Banksy=] piece, featured in his documentary ''Film/ExitThroughTheGiftShop''.

[[quoteright:323:[[{{BANKSY}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elephantinthelivingroomfixed_2517.jpg]]]]

* The page image is a {{Banksy}} piece, featured in his documentary ExitThroughTheGiftShop.

* In the ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' series, the Quarians and their robotic creations, the Geth, fought a brutal war which resulted in the Quarians being kicked off their homeworld and forced to travel the stars in a massive migrant fleet. They also attempted to destroy the Citadel with the aid of an EldritchAbomination, and generally kill any living creatures they encounter. The Geth aren't well liked. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', you can freely bring a Geth to the Quarian migrant fleet and the Citadel; the Quarians will initially resist, but with a bit of charm or intimidation, let it on, while the ''entire Citadel'' will simply [[FailedASpotCheck fail a spot check]].
** The player can get into a completely optional little argument with an official on the way in; it's pretty clearly lampshaded when Legion says that the "Geth do not infiltrate", the customs clerk whose job currently includes ''making sure no Geth get onto the station'' tells you to keep your "personal attendant android" off the shuttle, as they're not allowed on anymore.

* ''Pokémon'' has long made implications that Pokémon can pose physical harm to humans (hence why you aren't allowed to run outside of town without one of your own to fight back), but very rarely makes it explicit (the anime touches on it in the first episode[[hottip:*:Where a bunch of Spearow attempt to maul Ash after he throws a rock at their leader]], but afterward makes them incapable of doing [[HarmlessFreezing lasting]] [[HarmlessVoltage damage]]). The Donphan does get into the open in both ''Manga/PokemonSpecial'' and [[VideoGame/PokemonColosseum the Orre]] [[VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness based games]], but is still absent in the rest of the franchise.

In the RealLife example section, '''please heed the RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement.'''

[[folder:General]]
* When older examples of literature, movies, TV shows, etc. get re-made or adapted, some of the more blatantly racist themes and characters vanish entirely, leaving people familiar with the original work to deal with an elephant tapping them on the shoulder and clearing its throat.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' beautifully displayed the tragic variant in that nobody can bring themselves to say out loud that [[spoiler:Yuna will die as part of the final summon]] until Tidus finds out himself and calls the rest of the group out for not telling him.
* In the ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' series, the Quarians and their robotic creations, the Geth, fought a brutal war which resulted in the Quarians being kicked off their homeworld and forced to travel the stars in a massive migrant fleet. They also attempted to destroy the Citadel with the aid of an EldritchAbomination, and generally kill any living creatures they encounter. The Geth aren't well liked. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', you can freely bring a Geth to the Quarian migrant fleet and the Citadel; the Quarians will initially resist, but with a bit of charm or intimidation, let it on, while the ''entire Citadel'' will simply [[FailedASpotCheck fail a spot check]].
** The player can get into a completely optional little argument with an official on the way in; it's pretty clearly lampshaded when Legion says that the "Geth do not infiltrate", the customs clerk whose job currently includes ''making sure no Geth get onto the station'' tells you to keep your "personal attendant android" off the shuttle, as they're not allowed on anymore.
--> '''Legion:''' {{beat}} ... Geth do not ''intentionally'' infiltrate.
* ''VideoGame/PandorasTower'': As if [[MissionControl Mavda]] wasn't nearly enough of a paragon of creepiness already, she constantly carries around on her back what appears to be [[DemBones the skeleton of an old man, bigger than she is]], for pretty much the entire game. Nobody appears to find this weird, despite the fact that the damn thing is sentient and can talk (albeit [[TheUnintelligible unintelligibly]], though Mavda can apparently understand him just fine.)
** You ''can'' ask her about it, but she answers you in a "YouShouldKnowThisAlready" tone of voice. Apparently, she's her business partner, or something along those lines. Huh.
* In ''VideoGame/{{VVVVVV}}'', there is a literal giant neon elephant that takes up four rooms that will make Captain Viridian sad if he stays with it for a while.
* Played for laughs in the radio news broadcasts in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', where a government official being interviewed about certain mysterious black helicopters responds with just "Helicopters? What helicopters?", with the spinning helicopter rotors clearly audible in the background.
* ''Pokémon'' has long made implications that Pokémon can pose physical harm to humans (hence why you aren't allowed to run outside of town without one of your own to fight back), but very rarely makes it explicit (the anime touches on it in the first episode[[hottip:*:Where a bunch of Spearow attempt to maul Ash after he throws a rock at their leader]], but afterward makes them incapable of doing [[HarmlessFreezing lasting]] [[HarmlessVoltage damage]]). The Donphan does get into the open in both ''Manga/PokemonSpecial'' and [[VideoGame/PokemonColosseum the Orre]] [[VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness based games]], but is still absent in the rest of the franchise.
** Though it is briefly touched upon in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'', when some Starly attack the hero and Barry, and they're forced to take the Pokémon from Professor Rowan's briefcase to defend themselves.
** Similarly in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' Professor Birch is attacked by a Pokémon and the protagonist has to grab a Pokémon from his bag to rescue him.
** Not to mention in Black 2/White 2, [[spoiler: the villain attempts to MURDER you with a Pokemon attack.]]
* In ''VideoGame/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAsPortable: The Battle of Aces'', after the second to last stage of Hayate's story mode, the Wolkenritter note that [[spoiler:Reinforce, despite having survived the end of the series in this continuity, will fade away relatively soon]]. They then note that Hayate and [[spoiler:Reinforce]] both know this but don't admit it to each other.
* The original ''VideoGame/{{Assassins Creed|I}}''! A hero struggling with disappointment and self-doubt! A grand Templar conspiracy! Treachery! Bloodshed! Betrayal! Oh, by the way, also: 1. demented derelicts that wander the streets and smack anyone who gets close hard enough to tumble across the ground, 2. beggars who run up to complete strangers and beg, constantly, incessantly, in the most, irritating, whiny voice imaginable, all the while swarming around said stranger and preventing him from going anywhere, and 3. self-righteous propagandizing bootlickers who preach the same damn things over and over and over and over forever and ever. And yet, aside from one very brief footnote in the Sibrand mission, no one ever says a word about these pervasive, eternal, unavoidable parasites that make Damascus, Acre, and Jerusalem the most unlivable cities that ever existed. Incidentally, this extends to the real world as well. There's been surprisingly little discussion of this on the message boards, while UbiSoft is seemingly happy to pretend that this glaring rookie mistake never existed.
* The fact that virtually everyone that even approaches importance in Gensoukyou is female is never, ever mentioned in the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* People in ''VisualNovel/AProfile'' make damn sure not to mention track to Masayuki or even hint about [[spoiler:Kaine's sex]] to him. Everyone knows, but mentioning it just won't turn out well. The first is subverted in the second route, however.
* In ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'', Hisao invokes this trope by name in the early part of the game and, true to its theme, deals with the "elephant" throughout the game.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's review of ''The Neverending Story 2'' is interrupted by a [[VisualPun literal elephant in the room]], who makes Doug mention that Johnathan Brandis, the film's star, committed suicide and prompting him to explain that he wasn't insulting the actor, but the poorly-written character.
** He briefly returned in another review featuring Johnathan Brandis as a main character again, but since the Critic had already explained Brandis's suicide, he told the elephant to piss off.
** And then he returns in the second list of the Nostalgia Critic's Fuck-Ups, who makes him mention that he made a joke about autism in a review (though the joke was edited out of that review because Doug didn't really think that joke was all that funny anyway).
** Nowadays the Elephant In The Room is a gag of general use in Website/ThatGuyWiththeGlasses. It appeared in CR's Familiar Faces: Baby Doll (A crossover with the Critic) to mention then-recently deceased Gary Coleman, who suffered from the same condition that the character did. And it appeared again in Iron Liz's review of the TabletopRPG Iron Claw to mention that she was basically talking about a game of [[FurryFandom Furries]].
** In the Nostalgia Critic's review of {{Ponyo}} the elephant resurfaces again when the Critic notes that part of the movie Japan is underwater, clearly a sign of TooSoon with the earthquake/trunami/nuclear disaster of 2011.
** In his Top 11 Simpsons episodes he mentiones a certain [[LetsPlay Simpsons-related outrage]] caused by his fans.
* The Website/YouTube 'celebrity' [[http://www.youtube.com/user/MissHannahMinx Hannah Minx]] is considerably more "blessed" than your average woman, practically to the point where her videos have become less of a personal vlog and more geared towards direct FanService. Perhaps to deliberately invoke this trope, she ''never'' talks about her body in her videos, and the interviews she's done gloss over it as well. The only people who ''do'' mention her body is the video commenters, and they do it in almost every single comment in every video she makes. Is there a trope for [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes From The Mouth Of]] FanDumb?
* The diary in Literature/DragomirsDiary is constantly depicted as having a simple, smiling face, and its expression changes as much as those of the human characters. It has also demonstrated the ability to move on its own, and has done so in front of Dragomir himself several times. Despite these oddities, most of the characters view the diary as a normal book, never questioning its silent personality. Now, if they were ever to find out that it can also write in itself...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* ''Politics and religion''. It's probably why ThePowersThatBe on this wiki removed the RealLife sections from CompleteMonster and ReligionOfEvil, among others, and why Creator/JackChick's page has a lengthy RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement disclaimer. '''[[FlameBait And that is all we will say about this.]]'''
** Crossing over with Webcomics, Webcomic/ScandinaviaAndTheWorld featured [[http://satwcomic.com/the-easy-way this strip]] that illustrates how Scandinavians feel about religion in general.
* Basically any disaster everybody knows is going to happen but is either unable or unwilling to do anything about - basically everybody knows that a major earthquake will hit Tokyo or Southern California, but it doesn't stop people from going about their lives.
* ...
** [[TalkAboutTheWeather So how about that weather, huh?]]
* Any situation wherein someone has undeniably let out a huge, smelly fart in the midst of polite company.
** Especially if it's inside an elevator.
** Same thing goes for if someone has a bad case of BO.
* In general, whenever couples have to see each other after a tough split, even if it's only a few seconds when handing off kids.
* It is said that after Film/TheWave occurred, it was so scarring that no one at the school even talked about it for three years.
* The Ryugyong Hotel was possibly the most literal example of this trope. Made in NorthKorea, it was said when it was completed it would be the largest hotel in the world. However, after spending an obscene amount of money on it (2% of the nation's entire GDP) construction stopped and the government pretended it didn't exist, even though it dominates the [[http://obviousmag.org/archives/uploads/2009/09092901_blog.uncovering.org_ryugyong.jpg skyline of the city]]. Construction has been picked up by an Egyptian company who wants to make it the first cell tower in the nation, now they happily talk about the achievement it will be.
* When someone passes away and there are children around, oblivious, adults would likely try to not talk about the death.
** Similarly, details about a crime may be suppressed when the children can hear.
[[/folder]]

* Despite the fact that MarvelComics's version of New York City has been the site of multiple alien invasions, a demonic infestation, has suffered through every kind of cockamamie plot imaginable, and is routinely targeted by {{supervillain}}s of every stripe, there has never been any sort of mass exodus or serious damage to the economy in spite of all the upheavals. (Probably because ComicBook/DamageControl repairs everything so efficiently.) When 9/11 rolled around, it portrayed the Kingpin, Magneto, and Dr. Doom as sincerely moved. Problem is, the Marvel universe has had much worse. Magneto was actually ''killed'' in such an attack, on Genosha, which killed 16 million people. 9/11, by MU standards, was actually a low-impact event. Furthermore, while the Kingpin might be moved by love for his city, there is no real reason why Dr. Doom would care either way. All comics publishers were in a bind there, because with New York as the home of the ComicBook/FantasticFour and ComicBook/TheAvengers, or the ComicBook/{{X-Men}} up in New England, or {{Superman}} ''on Earth'', it's hard to believe it could still happen, but would have been seen as disrespectful to ignore it.
** It gets worse. Juggernaut was seen there crying. Juggernaut, in the past, has actually knocked down one of the two building himself and laughed out loud about it.

* Similarly, Comicbook/{{Batman}}'s home town of Gotham City never suffers from any long-term economic damage or loss of population, despite the fact that a number of psychopathic supervillains routinely use the city as a stage for their grisly "performances" (the Joker), a giant petri dish for their scientific experiments (the Scarecrow), or a base for their environmental crusades (Poison Ivy). And even ignoring them, the city has long been a WretchedHive of endemic police and civic corruption and mob activity, making it curious that anyone would willingly choose to live there.

* This issue ''is'' actually addressed in ''AstroCity'': people continue to live in the eponymous city in spite of the constant super-crime because of the sense of community fostered by having to work together to rebuild after battles. And because having a lot of superheroes around is cool.

In Anime, this trope is known as a ''[[MisterSeahorse Pregnant]] [[RanmaOneHalf Ranma]] Problem'', based on the following anecdotal discussion between the author/artist of ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'' and a random fan at a convention:

** The alternative theory (which the RSC theatrical adaptation implies) is quite close: that he's become so oblivious to Guinevere as a person he barely notices what she's doing most of the time.

* Creator/KimNewman's novel ''Literature/TheQuorum'' follows on from his short story "Organ Donors", and references it a few times, including the characters of private investigator Sally Rhodes (and her child, conceived in "Organ Donors") and Derek Leech, satanic media magnate who uses black magic to advance his cause. Sally discovers Leech's nature in "Organ Donors" but has forgotten by ''The Quorum'', even though she mentions a major event from the story. Newman admitted there's no reason for this beyond it breaking the story.
* The DouglasAdams novel ''DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'' features a man at a university with a very long nose. He never speaks, and is never spoken to because people are too startled by the sight of his nose, and don't want to bring it up. He also constantly taps his fingers and makes other odd gestures, and nobody asks why due to their reluctance to speak to him. Finally one character ends up addressing him after accidentally knocking on his door. The man stops twitching and calmly announces that nobody has spoken to him in almost two decades (quoting the exact time to the second). Apparently all the gestures were him counting the seconds.
** The sequel, ''TheLongDarkTeaTimeOfTheSoul'' features the Norse god Thor. He complains to the female protagonist, Kate Schecter, that even though gods walk among humans, no one notices them.

* Another of DouglasAdams' novels, ''Life, the Universe and Everything'', uses this as a form of InvisibilityCloak, called the "Somebody Else's Problem Field", which relies on "people's natural predisposition not to see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't explain". This renders Slartibartfast's spaceship, which is described as resembling an Italian bistro with fins and engines, invisible to bystanders.

* In a brief scene in the first ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' book, the existence of the Judeo-Christian God is treated like this. All that [[OurCentaursAreDifferent Chiron]] is willing to say is that it's a "metaphysical" debate and that the existence of the Olympians is a "much smaller matter".
* The presence of the Judeo-Christian God and His Son Jesus Christ are treated like this by the Only Light subsect in the ''LeftBehind'' book ''Kingdom Come'', when people in the Millennial Kingdom would have to be complete idiots to ever think They don't exist.
* In the ''{{Dragaera}}'' series, Dragaerans who are the offspring of two or more Houses are the objects of prejudice, pity, or mistrust by the vast majority of the Empire's nobility, who regard such inter-House miscegenation with contempt and disgust. Yet nobody ''ever'' mentions that [[PersonOfMassDestruction Sethra Lavode]] is [[GrandfatherClause older than the Houses]], so she's not a pureblooded member of any House.
* ''InDeath'': Roarke finds out in ''Divided In Death'' that HomelandSecurityOrganization was monitoring Richard Troy, Eve's father. They knew that she was with him, and that he was raping her, but they sat back and did nothing. Roarke tells Eve that he intends to hunt them down and make them pay for this. Eve wants him to leave it alone. So they try to ignore it and focus on other matters. Later, he brings it up, and Eve can only think "Here it was. The big glowing elephant in the room that she hoped to ignore. And it was trumpeting."

* In ''DeadLikeMe'' there are {{grim reaper}}s, in public. The living interact with them like normal people, but when on the job they aren't noticed as extraordinary even when arguing with [[InvisibleToNormals ghosts]].

** Possible homage to Piers Anthony's "Incarnations of Immortality" series, where Zane/Death is described as "socially invisible"?

* Say you're among the children in a particularly-nasty divorce and you live with your mom/dad and not the other. The other parent comes to stay the night after a long drive to pick you all up and take you to their house for the summer. Both of your parents have to at least pretend to be nice. The elephant is tap-dancing and playing a tuba. While defecating on your couch.
** In general, whenever couples have to see each other after a tough split, even if it's only a few seconds when handing off kids.

* The old variation in which the elephant-in-the-living-room analogy is used in reference to the obviousness of drug addiction/alcoholism is addressed in two different books of ''TheDarkTower''. In one Creator/StephenKing says that the reaction loved ones of the addiction have upon discovering the elephant (addiction) was there is usually, "Oh, I'm sorry, was that an ''elephant''? It was there when I moved in! I always assumed it was part of the ''furniture''!" In the other King makes perhaps the most brilliantly apt and perfect analogy of the matter ever (and I say this as a former addict): that the reason the addict himself/herself doesn't see the "elephant in the living room" is because this elephant isn't just any ordinary elephant; it is like The Shadow in that it has the hypnotic super-ability to cloud men's minds so as to appear invisible to them.

* ''[[Series/TheBigBangTheory]]'' features Stewart and his comic book store, wich for some reason never ever seems to stock any Marvel comic books, or anything Marvel related.