History Main / FootnoteFever

* The {{Evil Scientist's}} assistant in {{Assassin's Creed}} is in charge of writing a manual for the main character (and by extension, the player), as he's using a machine that shows his ancestor's memories and operates like a videogame. Along the manual, there are various scribbled messages from her boss, including protests about the videogame-like controls, and how it would be much easier to just do what they want directly (which would be dangerous for the main character; the videogame controls are supposed to make him feel at ease and explore the memories slowly, as opposed to abrupt interruptions).

* ''An Abundance of Katherines'' by John Green features many footnotes, in which he says: "[They] can allow you to create a kind of secret second narrative, which is important if, say, you're writing a book about what a story is and whether stories are significant." Most of them exist to translate dialog that's in a foreign language, or to explain the math jokes.

* YA-novel "Bad Kitty" loves using footnotes that contain funny arguments between characters or snark about minor characters. Sometimes, the main character will [[paint the fourth wall PaintingTheFourthWall]] by yelling at the other characters to get back up to the story.

* Howard Taylor of ''SchlockMercenary'' uses footnotes to explain some of the [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-03-23 dicey details]] and [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-09-17 cultural references]] that would ruin the narrative if explained in-story, as well as [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2000-07-25 additional jokes.]]

* ''HouseOfLeaves'' weaves a ''whole story'' in its footnotes, often using footnotes within footnotes within footnotes to create "windows" or mazes in the book. Eventually, you start thinking, "Oh god, there's another footnote. Hopefully it'll be an interesting yet pointless sidestory, instead of a ten-page-long list of famous photographers." Yeah, it's a MindScrew.

* Garrison Keillor plays with this in his book ''Lake Wobegon Days''. A "footnote" stretches over the bottom third or half of at least half a dozen pages. Presumably it's not included in the main body of text JUST for the humor value. In one small-print copy, it lasts twenty-five pages.

* Michael Gerber's ''Barry Trotter'' parody books did this all the time. They were funny, too, [[JumpingTheShark until book number three]].

* VladimirNabokov's ''PaleFire'' is an entire novel consisting of footnotes to a poem.

* DavidFosterWallace's {{Metafiction}}al magnum opus, InfiniteJest, is [[DoorStopper 1,079 pages long]]. 96 of these pages contain the novel's 388 endnotes.

* ''An Abundance of Katherines'' by John Green features many footnotes. Most of them exist to translate dialog that's in a foreign language, or to explain the math jokes.
* Supreme Court decisions are pretty dry reading ... until you start reading the footnotes and realize that just because the justices are the highest legal authority in the U.S. doesn't mean they won't bicker and snark at each other like grade-schoolers.

* ''The Third Policeman'' by Flann O'Brien contains numerous footnotes in which the narrator expounds the theories and experiments of the great de Selby.

* Michael Crichtom's novel, ''Eaters of the Dead'', contains real and fake footnotes.

* ''The Seven-Per-Cent Solution'' (a [[FanSequel Fan Midquel]] to the SherlockHolmes stories), author Nicholas Meyer uses the footnotes to [[PaintingTheFourthWall paint the fourth wall]] -- as is customary for Holmsian fanfic, Meyer claims the story is a missing Watson manuscript, so Meyer comments on Watson's throwaway remarks to other cases, incontinuitous remarks, and historical mistakes. The best is when Watson states, "I believe it was in ''[[{{Shakespeare}} Julius Caesar]]'' that the Bard said 'music hath charms to soothe the savage breast'". Meyer's footnote simply states "It isn't."

Footnotes[[hottip:* :First discovered in 1841 in the country of Asteriskia]] are a valuable literary device[[hottip:* :They'd fetch half a million commas on the black market.]] and not just for scholars or high school students who need to pad out a report on the "Life and Death of Joan of Arc"[[hottip:* :B minus if anyone cares]]. No, authors of fiction use them too and often in various interesting and experimental ways[[hottip:* :Everyone experiments in college, right?]]. These footnotes could contain jokes[[hottip:* :What did one footnote say to the other? "Follow me and we'll go places!"]], more information about what's going on in the story[[hottip:* :Did you know that I'm writing this while in the nude? Well, I could be!]], or even an entirely different story[[hottip:* :If, you know, the main story just doesn't grab your attention]]. These authors have FootnoteFever[[hottip:* :Symptoms of FootnoteFever may include [[YesButWhatDoesItDo phantom hand syndrome, monkey lung, scrofula, late-onset albinism, pulmonary weevils]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and mild rash.]]]]!

** This article, [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready duh.]]

* Michael Crichtom's novel, EatersoftheDead, contains real and fake footnotes.

** One footnote from a ''Discworld'' book was included as part of a quotation cited in a non-fiction chapter of a ''Science of Discworld'' book. This "footquote", in turn, had a footnote explaining all this [[hottip:* : and the explanatory footnote declared itself to be a "metafootnote"]].

** One footnote from a ''Discworld'' book was included as part of a quotation cited in a non-fiction chapter of a ''Science of Discworld'' book. This "footquote", in turn, had a footnote explaining all this [[hottip:* , and the explanatory footnote declared itself to be a "metafootnote"]].

* Articles on TheOtherWiki have "See Also" sections (references to other articles) which in effect are endnotes. In one [[WikiVandal joke edit]] in 2007 (which sadly soon got reverted), the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=131810902 Infinite regress]]" article got a reference to ''itself''.[---11---]

*** He was wrong. There's one notorious instance in the ''Paradiso'' where the first ever Dante commenter (his own son and ''co-writer'' admits he doesn't have a clue what Dante was talking about.)

* George [=MacDonald==] Fraser's ''{{Flashman}}'' novels (which purport to be memoirs) contain copious endnotes about the real people and historic events described. (Sometimes these contradict the narrator's memory.)

* Articles on TheOtherWiki have "See Also" sections (references to other articles) which in effect are endnotes. In one [[WikiVandal joke edit]] in 2007 (which sadly soon got reverted), the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_regress Infinite regress]]" article got a reference to ''itself''.[---11---]

* ''[[HouseOfLeaves House]] of Leaves'' weaves a ''whole story'' in its footnotes, often using footnotes within footnotes within footnotes to create "windows" or mazes in the book. Eventually, you start thinking, "Oh god, there's another footnote. Hopefully it'll be an interesting yet pointless sidestory, instead of a ten-page-long list of famous photographers." Yeah, it's a MindScrew.

* ''HouseOfLeaves'' weaves a ''whole story'' in its footnotes, often using footnotes within footnotes within footnotes to create "windows" or mazes in the book. Eventually, you start thinking, "Oh god, there's another footnote. Hopefully it'll be an interesting yet pointless sidestory, instead of a ten-page-long list of famous photographers." Yeah, it's a MindScrew.