History Main / ElephantInTheLivingRoom

* Cow and Chicken from ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' are, somehow, siblings, despite being [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment a cow and a chicken]]. Nobody in the cast questions it; absurdly, not even their own HUMAN parents. Members of their extended family include a ''boneless'' chicken, a sow, a black sheep and a half-human, half-snail hybrid (whose parents, as we see, are a human woman and a tiny snail). And we also see their grandparents were a human and a hen. It's... a big mess, really. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by the theme song: "Mama had a chicken! Mama had a cow! Dad was proud! He didn't care how!"
* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' had [=BoJack=]'s girlfriend, Wanda, namedrop the trope in regards to their IUhYouToo moment. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: this causes [[LiteralMetaphor the handy-elephant]] [=BoJack=] had brought home to help set up [[ItMakesSenseInContext his auto-erotic asphyxiation machine]] to indignantly storm out of the room while [[{{Angrish}} trying to call her out]] on [[FantasticRacism using the phrase]]]].

-->'''Steven''': Okay, nobody's gonna say it? She kinda looked like [[TheLostLenore Mom]]. You noticed, I noticed, we all noticed.

* The Ryugyong Hotel was possibly the most literal example of this trope. Made in UsefulNotes/NorthKorea, it was said when it was completed it would be the largest hotel in the world. However, after spending oodles 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 city skyline]]. 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.

* The Ryugyong Hotel was possibly the most literal example of this trope. Made in UsefulNotes/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.

%%Please heed the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment here.

* ''Franchise/DragonBall''

* Despite the fact that Creator/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 ComicBook/TheKingpin, ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, and Dr. Doom as sincerely moved. Problem is, the Franchise/MarvelUniverse 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/XMen in the same state, or Franchise/{{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 buildings himself and laughed out loud about it.

* Similarly, Franchise/{{Batman}}'s home town of Gotham City never suffers from any long-term economic damage or loss of population, even though a number of psychopathic supervillains routinely use the city as a stage for their grisly "performances" (ComicBook/TheJoker), a giant petri dish for their scientific experiments (the Scarecrow), or a base for their environmental crusades (Poison Ivy). 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. Although the population ''did'' take a permanent nosedive after ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'' and sections of the city were rendered uninhabitable, it was still a rather busy city.

* Played for horror in ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "It's a Good Life", where the residents of Peaksville, Ohio have to pretend that everything is fine and perfectly normal, to avoid angering the all-powerful mind-reading child who controls their lives. To openly admit the horror of their situation leads to madness and/or a horrible death. That one is parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E7TreehouseOfHorrorII Treehouse of Horror II]]" episode, though it's a dream of Bart. Bart has that power and it goes pretty much like the original, only naturally less horrible. Then Bart gets therapy to get over whatever they called what he was doing (the forcing people to be happy, not the being all-mighty), which he does and develops a sane relationship with Homer. In the end they hug in sign of friendship, and then Bart wakes up, screaming in terror.

** Said meeting does happen, and it goes down exactly as Valchek outlines it.

* PlayedForLaughs many times in ''Theatre/ThePlayThatGoesWrong'' and its sequels. TheShowMustGoOn, even if the key actor is unconscious, the props are missing, the cast's personal issues are aired on the green screen for everyone to see, the set has fallen down, and/or [[UpToEleven all of those things at once.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' 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 closest any games get are in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'', where the protagonist gets their starter because someone gets attacked and the they have to take one of the resident Professor's Pokémon for defense. The anime also touches on it in the first episode,[[note]]where a bunch of Spearow attempt to maul Ash after he throws a rock at their leader[[/note]] but afterward makes Pokémon incapable of doing [[HarmlessFreezing lasting]] [[HarmlessVoltage damage]]). The Donphan does get into the open in both ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' (humans getting attacked by Pokemon, including during Trainer battles, is a regular occurrence) and [[VideoGame/PokemonColosseum the Orre]] [[VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness based games]] (the DarkerAndEdgier Gamecube titles), but is still absent in the rest of the franchise.

* ''VideoGame/EnsembleStars'' heavily encourages shipping, with its TasteTheRainbow approach to the cast extending just as much to potential ships - the [[AudienceSurrogate player character]] is surrounded on all sides by [[TokenMiniMoe cute younger brother types]], [[ChivalrousPervert flirty sempais]] and even a [[ForgottenFirstMeeting Forgotten]] ChildhoodFriend, while the boys themselves take every trope from DesignatedParents to VitriolicBestBuds to FoeRomanceSubtext, all perfectly willing to flirt and joke about how married they are. However, any attempt to take any of these obvious ships beyond the realm of subtext pretty quickly stumbles upon the problem that all of these students are [[IdolSinger idols]] in training who will be expected to remain single so the audience can project their fantasies onto them, as happens with real-life Japanese idols. The elephant is finally addressed in canon in ''Love Comedy'' when Kaoru admits that despite his feelings for the player character [[AnchoredShip they can't actually be in a relationship]], but the fandom at large generally prefers to ignore these issues and let the characters be happy together in the present without bringing in their careers.

* The City of Townsville, hometown of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', is cartoondom's equivalent of Metropolis, Gotham City and Marvel Universe New York rolled into one. You'd have to wonder why people want to live in a city where the criminals only take a break from their activities whenever they need to run away from the giant-sized monsters that are regularly rampaging the city.

** Brian, a talking dog--who interacts with everyone, has human girlfriends, drives a Prius, and so on. Yet no one ever questions it. [[RuleOfFunny Unless it's funny]]. Like when Peter is suddenly shocked to hear Brian talking... in the middle of a conversation, after having known him for years. Or when Brian goes to visit the farm he was born on:
--->'''Farmer:''' Biscuit had a lot of puppies.\\

* Mr. Krabs from ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' is a crab who has a whale for a daughter. It's never discussed so it's unknown if she's adopted or [[GenderEqualsBreed takes after her mom]]; similarly, in ''Krusty Love'' Mr. Krabs asks Spongebob what happened to Mr. Puff when he develops a crush on Mrs. Puff, Spongebob responds with a cutaway scene where we see Mr. Puff used as a lamplight set in a live action background we then see someone offscreen turning on the light that no one discusses it.

* Cow and Chicken from ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' are, somehow, siblings, despite being [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment a cow and a chicken]]. Nobody in the cast questions it; absurdly, not even their own HUMAN parents. Members of their extended family include a ''boneless'' chicken, a sow, a black sheep and a half-human, half-snail hybrid (whose parents, as we see, are a human woman and a tiny snail). And we also see their grandparents were a human and a hen. It's... a big mess, really.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by the theme song: "Mama had a chicken! Mama had a cow! Dad was proud! He didn't care how!"
* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' had [=BoJack=]'s girlfriend, Wanda, namedrop the trope in regards to their IUhYouToo moment. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: this causes [[LiteralMetaphor the handy-elephant]] [=BoJack=] had brought home to help set up [[ItMakesSenseInContext his auto-erotic asphyxiation machine]] to indignantly storm out of the room while [[{{Angrish}} trying to call her out]] on [[FantasticRacism using the phrase]].]]

-->'''Steven''': Okay, nobody's gonna say it? She kinda looked like Mom. You noticed, I noticed, we all noticed.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', The Empire of Man asserts that there is ''no such thing'' as a race of man-sized rat people called the "Skaven", living in underground tunnels running throughout the Old World. They do ''not'' have advanced weaponry, specially-bred giant warrior rats, and abundant amounts of [[GreenRocks warpstone]]. They are ''not'' [[AlwaysChaoticEvil completely malicious]], nor are they plotting to destroy all non-Skaven races. They do ''not'' outnumber humans ten to one and rely on horde tactics. They do not [[ReligionOfEvil worship a malevolent god]] known as the Great Horned Rat. And finally, they do ''not'' often resurface in the dead of night to kidnap humans and drag them to their underground caverns. Only insane people (and dwarves) make such irresponsible and absurd claims.
[[/folder]]

* Mr. Krabs from ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' is a crab who has a whale for a daughter. It's never discussed so it's unknown if she's adopted or [[GenderEqualsBreed takes after her mom]].

** In the original series, it was opened questions among the cast to what Goku was. He was a strange boy with a tail who was exceptional strong to the point several characters questioned if he was human before eventually saying nothing more about it. It becomes a wonder why anyone was surprised when they learned that he was an alien. Then again, they are many strange things in this version of Earth.

* PlayedForLaughs many times in ''Theatre/ThePlayThatGoesWrong'' and its' sequels. TheShowMustGoOn, even if the key actor is unconscious, the props are missing, the cast's personal issues are aired on the green screen for everyone to see, the set has fallen down, and/or [[UpToEleven all of those things at once.]]

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', The Empire of Man asserts that there is ''no such thing'' as a race of man-sized rat people called the "Skaven", living in underground tunnels running throughout the Old World. They do ''not'' have advanced weaponry, specially-bred giant warrior rats, and abundant amounts of [[GreenRocks warpstone]]. They are ''not'' [[AlwaysChoticEvil completely malicious]], nor are they plotting to destroy all non-Skaven races. They do ''not'' outnumber humans ten to one and rely on horde tactics. They do not [[ReligionOfEvil worship a malevolent god]] known as the Great Horned Rat. And finally, they do ''not'' often resurface in the dead of night to kidnap humans and drag them to their underground caverns. Only insane people (and dwarves) make such irresponsible and absurd claims.

* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer'', The Empire of Man asserts that there is ''no such thing'' as a race of man-sized rat people called the "Skaven", living in underground tunnels running throughout the Old World. They do ''not'' have advanced weaponry, specially-bred giant warrior rats, and abundant amounts of [[GreenRocks warpstone]]. They are ''not'' [[AlwaysChoticEvil completely malicious]], nor are they plotting to destroy all non-Skaven races. They do ''not'' outnumber humans ten to one and rely on horde tactics. They do not [[ReligionOfEvil worship a malevolent god]] known as the Great Horned Rat. And finally, they do ''not'' often resurface in the dead of night to kidnap humans and drag them to their underground caverns. Only insane people (and dwarves) make such irresponsible and absurd claims.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', despite there being a {{masquerade}}, [[HyperspaceMallet the ability of females to summon hammers]] is accepted as normal and [[ReedRichardsIsUseless not thoroughly investigated to exploit its mechanism]] [[spoiler: [[NoOntologicalInertia and neither is the existence of the ability remarked upon by anyone besides the main characters once the ability is lost]]]].

* The {{Vaporwave}} album ''News at 11'' by 猫 シ Corp. deliberately turns the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 9/11 attacks]] into this trope by sampling soundbites of morning news shows and commercials from September 11, 2001 just before the announcements of the attacks, circling around the happier and more banal moments immediately before anything is announced,[[note]]The closest it gets to referencing the attacks is when it uses a clip of ''Series/{{Today}}'''s Matt Lauer interrupting his interview with writer Richard Hack, cutting away as Lauer's voice says, "We want to go live--"[[/note]] and intersperses it with easy listening music. The second half of the album then completely sidesteps the rest of that morning by focusing squarely on distorted "Local on the 8's" music and soundbites from Creator/TheWeatherChannel.

** His 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 UsefulNotes/{{Furr|yFandom}}ies.
** In the Nostalgia Critic's review of ''Anime/{{Ponyo|OnTheCliffByTheSea}}'' the elephant resurfaces again when the Critic notes that part of the movie Japan is underwater, clearly a sign of being too close to the Tohoku earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster of 2011.
** In his Top 11 Simpsons episodes he mentions a certain [[LetsPlay Simpsons-related outrage]] caused by his fans.
** He also appears at the beginning of the Critic's ''Pixels'' review to remind him that the movie is ''extremely'' similar to an episode of ''Futurama''.
** '''Elephant:''' (''singing'') Futuuuuuurrr-AMA! Futurama! Futurama! Futurama!

[[/music]]

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'': The question of why a panda has a goose for a father is completely ignored by all of the characters. Creator/RogerEbert initially speculated that in this universe, it may be normal for members of one species to give birth to another -- but this was [[{{Jossed}} shot down]] when ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'' turned the reason why Po was adopted into a major plot point. Po's adopted status was already implied in the first movie, but the second movie reveals that his adopted father never wanted to bring up the subject because he was afraid Po would leave him too search for his true parents.

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge2TheMeltdown'' features a literal example. Ellie is supposedly a possum. Who's 10 feet tall and weighs 7 tons. And has huge tusks. And is otherwise basically a mammoth. Her "brothers" Crash and Eddie, actual possums at that, don't seem to find this odd, except for her lacking the ability to sneak around. Ellie herself is in complete denial about possibly being a mammoth, in spite of Manny, Sid and Diego trying to convince her otherwise, and still tries to hide, even though no tree can hold her and no bush can cover her.

* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' had [=BoJack=]'s girlfriend, Wanda, namedrop the trope in regards to their IUhYouToo moment. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: this causes the handy-elephant [=BoJack=] had brought home to help set up [[ItMakesSenseInContext his auto-erotic asphyxiation machine]] to indignantly storm out of the room while [[{{Angrish}} trying to call her out]] on [[FantasticRacism using the phrase]].]]

* In April 1967, Ron Jones, a history teacher at Cubberley HighSchool in Palo Alto, UsefulNotes/{{California}}, found himself struggling to explain to his class how the German people could have fallen behind [[ThoseWackyNazis the Nazis]] so easily. So he decided to show them personally, creating a student movement called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_(experiment) the Third Wave]] (after the common belief that the third in a series of waves is the last and largest). The movement emphasized conformity and the greater good, treating democracy and individualism as [[DemocracyIsBad the downfall]] [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill of civilization]]. Jones started with things like drilling his class in proper seating and posture, before moving on to discipline, salutes (which conspicuously resembled [[PuttingOnTheReich the Nazi salute]]), and the transformation of himself into an authoritative figure. By the end of day three, over two hundred students had been recruited, membership cards were being given out, banners were flying, and Third Wave members were telling Jones when others were violating the rules -- all completely unexpected developments. Realizing that he was losing control of the Third Wave, Jones decided to end it. On day four, he announced that the Third Wave was actually part of a nationwide youth movement, and that tomorrow at noon, an assembly would be held in which the movement's national leader and presidential candidate would be revealed on television. At the assembly, the students were met only with an empty channel. Jones revealed a few minutes later that the entire Third Wave was an experiment in how fascism can so easily claim the hearts and minds of the masses (even those who had sworn "it can't happen here"), and played a film about UsefulNotes/NaziGermany. It's said that after everything occurred, it was so scarring that no one at the school even talked about it for three years, as the students realized that they had willingly gone along with ideologies similar to the Nazis with very little prompting. ''Film/TheWave'' details everything that was going on, with only slight exaggerations made to actual student behavior.

* In ''{{VideoGame/Persona 4}}'', TeamPet Teddie spends the entirety of his arc agonizing over his identity, after realizing that he's a non-human living in a dimension [[TheHeartless filled with nothing but very diverse creatures made from human emotion.]] Logic dictates that [[TomatoInTheMirror Teddie himself would probably be one such creature as well,]] but due to a bad case of denial by repression the possibility doesn't even seem to occur to him for most of the game, and when it finally does, his friends pretty much admit to him straight out that it was pretty obvious to them all along anyway, they just never had the heart to tell him straight to the face. Teddie's own EnemyWithout hints that even Teddie himself, in fact, was aware of this ElephantInTheLivingRoom in the back of his mind, he merely ignored it, hoping to find a better answer to his identity crisis.