History Main / NoTimeToExplain

The only real justification is that it almost always takes longer to describe a given action than to just perform it — in the words of Grace Hopper, "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission." Explaining the action may waste valuable time that should be spent performing the action — [[ExplainExplainOhCrap meaning there is no time to perform the action at all]]. Of course, there's always the possibility that the person asking forgiveness ''really'' should have gotten permission — {{NiceJobBreakingItHero}}.

The only real justification is that it almost always takes longer to describe a given action than to just perform it — in the words of Grace Hopper, "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission." Explaining the action may waste valuable time that should be spent performing the action — [[ExplainExplainOhCrap meaning there is no time to perform the action at all]]. Of course, there's always the possibility that the person asking forgiveness ''really'' should have gotten permission — [[NiceJobBreakingItHero]].

The only real justification is that it almost always takes longer to describe a given action than to just perform it — in the words of Grace Hopper, "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission." Explaining the action may waste valuable time that should be spent performing the action — [[ExplainExplainOhCrap meaning there is no time to perform the action at all]]. Of course, there's always the possibility that the person asking forgiveness ''really'' should have gotten permission — NiceJobBreakingItHero

Not to be confused with the [[VideoGame/NoTimeToExplain video game with the same name]].

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' episode "Passage on the ''Lady Anne''" has a pretty JustForFun/{{egregious}} example. At one point, the main characters are told "there's no time for lengthy explanations." [[spoiler:Unlike some of the other examples and the Trope description, though, there never ''was'' an onscreen reveal; the viewer never finds out the ''Lady Anne'''s dark secret.]]

* Spoofed in the ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' "Thousand Year Blood War arc" when Ichigo complains about no one telling him [[spoiler:the Arrancar and Fullbringers were working with them and backing them up]]. Yoruichi claims they didn't have time to explain it to him, and he points out that anybody could have told him during their long and boring journey to the Royal Realm.

* In ''Literature/TheTwelveKingdoms'', Youko Nakajima was an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent until a mysterious blond man appeared in her classroom, swore allegiance to her, and urged her to escape as quickly as possible with not time for explanations. Shortly after, the school was attacked by monsters, giving some weight to his argument. TrappedInAnotherWorld ChangelingFantasy drama ensued, and it was a ''long'' time before Youko got an explanation. If he had taken the time to say ''one more sentence'' about what was going on, the entire plot would have been very different.

* Finn says this in the ''ComicBook/AdventureTime'' comics when he [[spoiler: finds a tear in [[ArcVillain the Lich]]'s BagOfHolding]].

* [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Belle's]] father says this when trying to hurry her out of the Beast's dungeon.

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': "Let me 'splain. ... No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows''. Holmes tries this line on Watson after [[WithFriendsLikeThese throwing his wife off the train]] so she'll be out of the way of their shootout with Moriarty's henchmen. Unsurprisingly, Watson responds by trying to throttle him and is only stopped when the henchmen burst in the door and are killed by a [[BatmanGambit booby-trapped rifle set up by Holmes earlier]].

* ''Film/WorldWarZ''. Creator/BradPitt's character picks up a crucial clue about the virus, and gives this trope (because his phone battery is running down) while convincing his superior in the UN to order the aircraft they're in to divert to a WHO research station. As the aircraft crashes shortly afterwards, it's something of a FridgeHorror moment; what if he'd been killed in the crash?

** She goes through this trope again in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire the Goblet of Fire]]'', which also sort of backfires. [[spoiler:She puts various clues that she's heard together and figures out that Rita Skeeter is an unregistered Animagus and is using her skills to spy on people (most recently Harry) in the form of a beetle in order to find out their secrets and use that as evidence for her articles. Hermione realizes this and rushes off to find Rita without telling Harry and Ron about this, and she successfully captures her and forces her to stop writing terrible articles about Harry. However, Hermione does these actions too late, as Rita had already sent enough articles about Harry with substantial evidence to get the damage done, which encites a year-long wave of smear campaign from other column writers to severely discredit him and convince the public not to believe him about Lord Voldemort's return]].
** She does this trope ''yet again'' in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix the Order of the Phoenix]]'', although this one ends up being successful in her favor. [[spoiler:Upon finding out that ten of Lord Voldemort's followers have broken out of prison and are on the loose, she finally decides that drastic action needs to be taken on her part, so she goes to contact Rita for blackmail, because Hermione figures that no other magazine writer would want to write an article about Harry that involves believing him. She also brings along Luna, whose father is the writer for another magazine called ''The Quibbler'', and Harry to get together and have an interview with him to get his story about Lord Voldemort's return out. The outcome results in plenty of readers finally believing him and joining his side. She starts all of this off by drastically leaving the table to write a letter to Rita, leaving Harry and Ron behind once again, which causes the latter to complain]].

* In ''[[Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey]]'', Reynie uses this to fend off questions from Joe "Cannonball" Shooter about why he and the other members of the Society aren't accompanied by any adults. It works quite easily, given that Cannonball is the sort of guy who is always on the move anyway.
* This happens in the ''[[Literature/ThePendragonAdventure Pendragon]]'' series, where Bobby, Gunny, and Spader initially think that stopping UsefulNotes/TheHindenburg explosion would save the future but upon a trip to the future Bobby and Gunny find out that [[spoiler:stopping the Hindenburg explosion would allow Hitler to win World War II.]] Spader refuses to believe this, as he doesn't understand how they know. He might have understood if Bobby or Gunny had taken more time to explain things to him; however, they also had to stop someone else from stopping the explosion, and couldn't take the time to explain things to him.

** Later on, when Lucas and Carla meet up and talk, even though there's plenty of time to explain, and Lucas actually gets a fair way into his explanation, he concludes that there simply isn't enough time to explain. [[spoiler:and we're off to find the Indigo Child!]]
*** 'There's No Time To Explain!' is a Fahrenheit [[MemeticMutation meme]] around these parts.

* In ''[[WebAnimation/CharlieTheUnicorn Charlie the Unicorn 3]]'':

* Parodied In ''WebAnimation/SonicForHire'', Sonic and Tails get the clue "When at the start the code is the key". Sonic figures it out but repeatedly refuses to tell Tails what the answer is, saying "There's no time!". It's even further parodied as there is a part where the two are riding an extremely slow platform and Tails points out there's plenty of time to explain, however Sonic just jumps to the next platform shouting "No time!".

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' Parodied with a comic [[https://xkcd.com/566 here]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' 1973/74 episode "The Androids". While Wendy and Marvin are held captive in Dr. Rebos' laboratory she comes up with an idea. After tricking the Wonder Dog android into leaving the room she calls Marvin over and shows him an android assembly kit. When he asks what they'll make she says there's no time to explain and they get to work (they need to hurry because they have to be finished before the Wonder Dog android returns).

** Hermione does this offscreen in a way that backfires in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]''. [[spoiler:She and Penelope figure out what's petrifying students, and they proceed to run out of the library without bothering to tell anyone, like the librarian or other students, what it is. They manage to get petrified before they can get wherever they're going.]]

* In ''Anime/TheTwelveKingdoms'', Youko Nakajima was an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent until a mysterious blond man appeared in her classroom, swore allegiance to her, and urged her to escape as quickly as possible with not time for explanations. Shortly after, the school was attacked by monsters, giving some weight to his argument. TrappedInAnotherWorld ChangelingFantasy drama ensued, and it was a ''long'' time before Youko got an explanation. If he had taken the time to say ''one more sentence'' about what was going on, the entire plot would have been very different.

* Gorion's use of this trope is pretty much the entire reason ''Videogame/BaldursGate'' happens. Which doesn't really make sense, seeing as all he ever had to say was [[spoiler:"You're one of the many children of the God of Murder, and there's this guy going around killing them all and starting a pointless war so ''he'' can be the God of Murder. Time to leave!"]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'', the Exo Stranger summons the player's Guardian to Venus, and while telling them about the [[GardenofEvil Black Garden]], says that she doesn't even have the time to explain why she doesn't have time to explain herself or why she's helping you. In fact, she spends much of the conversation talking to someone elsewhere who is also in danger, and at the end she has to abruptly teleport away to protect them from another threat. [[AbortedArc That never comes up again.]]
** In ''VideoGame/{{Destiny 2}}'', Cayde-6 does a CallBack to that line when he tells you, "I don't have time to explain what I don't understand!"

* In ''Videogame/{{Fahrenheit}}'', [[spoiler: at one point Lucas has a vision of the evil Oracle approaching his brother Markus at his church. Lucas immediately calls his brother and tells him to lock himself in. Markus asks why and the player is given the choice to either say NoTimeToExplain, at which point you gain control of Markus and can lock yourself in; or come up with an alternative.]]

* There is a flash game ''entitled'' ''Videogame/NoTimeToExplain'' in which your player is intruded on in his home by [[MyFutureSelfAndMe him from the future]], who informs the player of the fact and remarks "[[TitleDrop there's no time to explain!]]" before getting dragged out by a GiantEnemyCrab, leaving you to pick up a giant laser beam doubling as a jetpack to stop the crab. It turns out that [[spoiler:a (mostly, aside from possibly giving you and your past self a T-Rex heads or glasses) StableTimeLoop is in effect, and after being dragged out of the house by the Giant Enemy Crab again (also possibly wearing a T-Rex head or glasses), the original player screams "I should've seen this coming!!"]] A commercial remake was released later, which proves there's really no time to explain all the crazy stuff before the first attack.
* A doppelganger of yours says this literally in ''[[Videogame/SimonTheSorcerer Simon the Sorcerer 2]]'' after you break out of a cell. He also hands you a strange twig that teleports you outside and as it turns out, your doppelganger was [[spoiler:actually your future self helping you escape via a so called timestick]].

* ''Webcomic/TheArtistIsDead''

* In the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' story "Smurfnip Madness", Tracker says this after he cures Hefty and Duncan [=McSmurf=] of [[FantastidDrug smurfnip]] intoxication right in the middle of a duel with each other, saying that they need to find the Smurfs Papa Smurf sent into the forest to find more smurfnip before Gargamel finds them. Hefty and Duncan pretty much figure out that [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink it was Gargamel behind the smurfnip-tainted smurfberries they had eaten]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'', the Exo Stranger summons the player's Guardian to Venus, and while telling them about the [[GardenofEvil Black Garden]], says that she doesn't even have the time to explain why she doesn't have time to explain herself or why she's helping you. In fact, she spends much of the conversation talking to someone elsewhere who is also in danger, and at the end she has to abruptly teleport away to protect them from another threat.

So why do writers use it? There are times when it is useful. If you know the characters in your TV series are going to be at point A when they learn where the bomb is, and you know the characters will have to be at the bomb at point B - but to add scenes of them traveling from place to place is expensive and adds shooting days to the production. You could have them explain it all at point A, but that scene's been long already. There's very little dialogue at point B, so discussing it at point B would give the characters not actively defusing the bomb something to do. Here, it's okay to make an AcceptableBreakFromReality just to get the characters from one place to another without breaking up the pacing of the work.

* Justified in ''Literature/TheBandsOfMourning''. Allik Neverfar has [[TranslatorMicrobes a translator device]] that only works on someone visiting a foreign country (in this case, him), but he's cold blooded and also needs a device that maintains his body heat, and those devices don't work at the same time. He'll put on the translator when he needs to explain something, but since the party is trekking through a frozen mountain range, he can't speak for too long.

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekPicardS1E06TheImpossibleBox The Impossible Box]]", when Hugh asks Picard to elaborate on what Soji really is, the latter insists that there's no time.

** In "The Impossible Box", when Hugh asks Picard to elaborate on what Soji really is, the latter insists that there's no time.

** "Can't talk, must dash, explain later!" is basically one of the Doctor's catch-phrases. Any particular usage may be [[DontAskJustRun terrifyingly true]] or [[BlatantLies a typically clumsy bid to avoid the things he never, ever explains]].

* ''Webcomic/xkcd'' Parodied with a comic [[https://xkcd.com/566 here]].

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': In "Broken Pieces", Elnor is very curious about the queencell, but Seven of Nine doesn't have time to indulge in his queries.
-->'''Seven:''' I can explain or I can steal this (Borg) cube.

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard''
-->'''Annika Hansen:''' I can explain now or I can steal this (Borg) cube.

* In ''Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', Pongo says this to Danny the Great Dane, after he and Perdita realise that Cruella is behind everything and they need to hurry. Quite a few Disney films seem fond of this line.

* [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Belle's]] father says this when trying to hurry her out of the Beast's dungeon.
* In ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'' the good fairies tell this to Prince Phillip as they break him out of Maleficent's dungeon.