History Main / FootnoteFever

* The English translation of ''Literature/QiangJinJiu'' is full of footnotes explaining things non-Chinese readers are unfamiliar with. The translator jokingly nicknamed it "The Novel Where The Footnotes Are Longer Than The Actual Translation" because of this.
* Dan Gutman's book ''The Get Rich Quick Club'' has these when Quincy says a phrase that is confusing to an American audience, since she is from Australia.

* ''Literature/TheBookOfBasketball'', by Creator/BillSimmons, has between 50 and 100 footnotes IN EACH CHAPTER. Simmons usually uses the footnotes for entertaining stories that avoid the over 700 page book from becoming too tedious. Because, well, it's entirely devoted to professional basketball.

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' uses this ''constantly'', though it seems to be [[DependingOnTheWriter Depending On The Editor]].

* ''Manga/NininGaShinobuden'': In volume 1, there's almost half as many footnotes as there are pages (63 footnotes, 148 pages) and 31 of those footnotes are needlessly big with the biggest being two footnotes that are three sentences and 75 words long. Not to mention that they pop up literally every two or three pages as well.

* Early chapters in ''Girl Genius'' fanfic ''Fanfic/RaisedByJagers'' have footnotes, usually to give a little bit of exposition on Agatha's ancestors.

* In ''Literature/AgathaHAndTheClockworkPrincess'', freely used to expand on points and provide backstory.

* Seen a lot in magazine ScienceFiction written in the 1930's and 40's, about the time editor Creator/JohnWCampbell was trying to bring scientifiction out of its pulp origins--thus footnotes added a faux air of authenticity (e.g. by stating that "AsYouKnow the hyperspace drive was invented by Professor Jones in the year 1980") or scientific InfoDump ("The Asteroid Belt was formed by the [[ScienceMarchesOn destruction of a planet according to Bode's Law]]").

Footnotes[[labelnote:1]][[SelfDemonstratingArticle First discovered in 1841 in the country of Asteriskia[[/labelnote]] are a valuable literary device]][[labelnote:2]]They'd fetch half a million commas on the black market.[[/labelnote]] 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"[[labelnote:3]]who was [[Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure not Noah's wife]][[/labelnote]]. No, authors of fiction use them too and often in various interesting and experimental ways[[labelnote:4]]Everyone [[ExperimentedInCollege experiments in college]], right?[[/labelnote]]. These footnotes could contain jokes[[labelnote:5]]What did one footnote say to the other? "Follow me and we'll go places!"[[/labelnote]], more information about what's going on in the story[[labelnote:6]]I am editing this page whilst being attacked by ninja mice.[[/labelnote]], or even an entirely different story[[labelnote:7]]The ninja mice hail from a dwarf planet orbiting the star Zerkimirk. Their journey to Earth has brought them in conflict with many humans, and many of them now seek vengeance for the death of their leader, Spickaspeak.[[/labelnote]]. These authors have Footnote Fever[[labelnote:8]]Symptoms of Footnote Fever may include [[SideEffectsInclude phantom hand syndrome, monkey lung, scrofula, late-onset albinism, pulmonary weevils and mild rash]][[/labelnote]]!

For the {{Webcomic}} equivalent, see AltText. Compare and contrast ColonCancer.

** One footnote from a ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book was included as part of a quotation cited in a non-fiction chapter of a ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'' book. This footnote (footquote?), in turn, had a footnote explaining all this [[labelnote:* ]] and the explanatory footnote declared itself to be a "metafootnote"[[/labelnote]].

* Creator/RalphHayesJr is fond of this -- [[Fanfic/PartingWords most]] [[Fanfic/TheGreatAlicornHunt of]] [[Fanfic/TheAudience his]] [[FanFic/RealityChecksNyxverse fanfics]] have every chapter end with notes involving in-universe commentary on things within each chapter. And they tend to be the most hilarious part of each story.

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

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

* ''Fanfic/BookOfDays'' features not only Twilight Sparkle's footnotes to help explain pieces of Clover the Clever's journal ([[LiteraryAgentHypothesis which the entire work is supposed to be Twilight's translation of]]) but also banter from Princess Celestia and Luna.

* ''Castle Dreams'', a rather surreal and existentialist entry in John [=DeChancie=]'s ''Literature/CastlePerilous'' series to begin with, has oodles of fun playing with spurious footnotes. The topics range from somewhat serious explanations of literary tropes, self-referential textual allusions, and obscure plot points to tongue-in-cheek humor, a hilarious send-up of many fantasy tropes, [[RefugeInAudacity random comments which have nothing at all to do with the book]], and even times where the footnote writer propositions the reader for a date. And that doesn't even begin to describe the preface in which the supposed footnote writer [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis reveals he didn't write them at all (or the preface!)]], as well as quizzes and tests scattered throughout the novel -- usually based on info from the footnotes.

* Creator/SandyMitchell's ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' ('''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!''') novels include the commentary of Amberley Vail in footnotes. As Vail is a character in her own right, and in some respects more reliable than Ciaphas himself, they often provide humorous additions or her perspective on events when she feels Cain's narrative is lacking something.

* Seen a lot in magazine ScienceFiction written in the 1930's and 40's, about the time editor Creator/JohnWCampbell was trying to bring scientifiction out of its pulp origins--thus footnotes added a faux air of authenticity (e.g. by stating that "AsYouKnow the hyperspace drive was invented by [X] in the year 1980") or scientific InfoDump ("The Asteroid Belt was formed by the [[ScienceMarchesOn destruction of a planet according to Bode's Law]]").

* Seen a lot in magazine ScienceFiction written in the 1930's and 40's, about the time editor Creator/JohnWCampbell was trying to bring scientifiction out of its pulp origins. So footnotes added a fake air of authenticity (e.g. by stating that AsYouKnow the hyperspace drive was invented by [X]) or scientific InfoDump (by stating that the asteroid Belt was formed by the [[ScienceMarchesOn destruction of a planet according to Bode's Law]]).

* Seen a lot in magazine ScienceFiction written in the 1930's and 40's, about the time editor Creator/JohnWCampbell was trying to bring scientifiction out of its pulp origins. So footnotes added a fake air of authenticity (e.g. by stating that the hyperspace drive was a produced by the [X] Corporation) or scientific InfoDump (by stating that the asteroid Belt was formed by the [[ScienceMarchesOn destruction of a planet according to Bode's Law]]).

* ''Literature/WarWithTheNewts'' by Karel Čapek contains footnotes that encompass several pages, and excerpt from a newspaper in a totally unknown language.

Many translations will use footnotes because the main problem of translation (rather than simply transliteration) deals with how to get across elements that are specific to said work's original language or place of origin (puns, metaphors, hidden meanings, [[ShoutOut pop cultural references]], {{Allusion}}s, ValuesDissonance, etc). Methods to prevent these elements from being LostInTranslation boil down to {{Woolseyism}}s or Translator's Notes (TN), footnotes where the translator explains elements that are too difficult to explain and keep the narrative flow uninterrupted. Obviously, translation into seriously unrelated languages tends to devolve into footnote fever quite quickly. See TooLongDidntDub for more specific cases.

For the WebComic equivalent, see AltText. Compare and contrast ColonCancer.

* Most English translations of ''Literature/TheBible'' are full of footnotes - generally cross-references to other verses and useful notes that are often repeated over and over because people treat the Bible as a reference book rather than read it through.