History Main / TheWalrusWasPaul

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': WordOfGod stated numerous times that this work was generally designed with MindScrew first, plot second. This became more and more apparent in later episodes with all of the symbolism and Freudian imagery splattered all over the place in such disjointed fashion, mainly in the form of jump cuts, and of course the [[TropeNamer trope-naming]], infamous GainaxEnding.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': WordOfGod stated numerous times that this work was generally designed with MindScrew first, plot second. This became more and more apparent in later episodes with all of the symbolism and Freudian imagery splattered all over the place in such disjointed fashion, mainly in the form of jump cuts. [[GainaxEnding And the ending. Never forget the ending]].

* Certain of Creator/DavidCronenberg's films, particularly ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'' and its SpiritualSuccessor ''Film/{{eXistenZ}}'', both of which blend reality and fantasy to the point that there's no real way of telling what's going on by the end.
* The Tokyo driving sequence in Andrei Tarkovsky's film ''Literature/{{Solaris}}''. This four-minute black-and-white sequence consists solely of Burton and his son driving aimlessly through 70s downtown Tokyo.
** Though likely a case of ShootTheMoney. Tarkovsky wanted to film a World Expo being hosted in Tokyo for the film, but didn't make it there in time (travel visas and the like), so just shot the drive-around sequence as something that'd feel reasonably modern compared to then-Soviet lifestyles.
* ''Film/ASeriousMan'' aggressively and deliberately pursues this trope, to the befuddlement of viewers and critics everywhere. Some argue that several of Creator/TheCoenBrothers' other films, particularly ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' and ''Film/BartonFink'', exhibit this as well. Very appropriately ''The Big Lebowski'' has a scene where a character mishears Lennon instead of [[UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin Lenin]] and goes on saying "I am the Walrus" for a while.
* Subverted by ''Film/DonnieDarko'', which features a director's cut that explains every possible ambiguity in the original film... which more than a few people couldn't understand either. DoubleSubversion? But played straight in that [[WordOfGod the commentary]] reveals that even the writers don't know what's up with Frank the Bunny or who or what is manipulating Donnie throughout the movie. Apparently it's [[AWizardDidIt God]]... or [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens aliens]]. [[ShrugOfGod Whatever.]]

* ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' practically runs wall-to-wall with this trope, with many of the ambiguities doubling as both SequelHook and ContinuityNod to ''Alien''. Who are the Engineers? Why did they [[spoiler:create humans]]? Why do they want to kill us? What was the creature that [[spoiler:came out of Shaw's stomach]]? What was that last monster and why did it look so much like [[spoiler:the Xenomorph]]? And so on.

* Similar to the Joyce examples (and it may have helped inspire them) is the second part of Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe's ''Theatre/{{Faust}}''. The poet said in a letter to a friend toward the end of his life that all he had left to do was "wrap a few mantle folds around it so that it may remain an altogether evident riddle." Much earlier than that, he poked fun at his scholarly interpreters for their "[[EpilepticTrees allegorizing]] of this dramatic-humorous nonsense [the witch's arithmetic of ''Faust'', Part I], which has never gone very well. [[MagnificentBastard One should indulge in such jokes more often when one is young]]." As the icing on the cake, he once summed up the ethos of this approach in a single sentence: "[[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible The more incommensurable a work of art, the better]]." In the scholars' defense, since the play begins and ends in heaven, one can hardly blame them for their EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory-style intellectual acrobatics.

* Alternately and/or concurrently played straight, subverted, inverted, lampshaded and transcended in the works of Creator/PhilipKDick.

* ''Series/TwinPeaks'', which despite its apparent MythArc, was simply Creator/DavidLynch making things up as he went along.

* ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'' is a dialogue-free, non-linear journey through the dream world of a girl who won't go anywhere while awake except for her bedroom and adjacent balcony. Good luck getting any answers about what any of the dream symbols mean, what happened in the ending, or what the fuck is up with [[spoiler: Uboa]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Killer7}}'', or any other game by Creator/Suda51.

* ''VideoGame/BadMilk'', a rather rare and surreal game, has a point where there's a sentence that, listened to backwards, says ''The Walrus is Paul''. While most things in the game make little sense, at least they're somewhat connected or are clues to something. It's not the case for this one.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AQaEkGsHdw This video.]]

* Japanese [[AvantGardeMetal Avant-Garde]] BlackMetal band Music/{{Sigh}}. From the liner notes to ''Hail Horror Hail'': "This album is way beyond the conceived notion of how metal, or music, should be. In essence, it is a movie without pictures; a celluloid phantasmagoria. Accordingly, the film jumps, and another scene, seemingly unconnected with the previous context, is suddenly inserted in between frames. Every sound on this album is deliberate, and if you find that some parts of this album are strange, it isn't because the music is in itself strange, but because your conscious self is ill-equipped to comprehend the sounds produced on this recording." They have kept to this philosophy ever since. Their music is even stranger than this quote indicates; they are in fact one of the [[WidgetSeries very strangest]] musical acts ever to emerge from Japan. Their music's still insanely catchy, though, especially by BlackMetal standards.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJDiU98LEWQ This]] completely random YouTubePoop, as evidenced by this conversation in the comments:

* ''VideoGame/GameBoyCamera'' has some creepy images and sounds hidden in the game. Of note are the vandalised pictures of Nintendo employees, accompanied by a horrific sound and the caption, "who are you running from?". Why are they there? The developers are [[TheGadfly complete and utter trolls]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJDiU98LEWQ This]] completely random WebAnimation/YouTubePoop, as evidenced by this conversation in the comments:

* Music/DonMcLean, when asked what the meaning of "American Pie" was, said something like, [[MathematiciansAnswer "It means I never have to work again."]] For many years, the ''only'' thing mentioned in the song that was definite was "the day the music died", which refers to the plane crash that killed Music/RitchieValens, Music/BuddyHolly, and Music/TheBigBopper. ''That'', more than anything, is why this song has been picked to death. [=McLean=] eventually subverted this when he had the original manuscript of the lyrics auctioned in 2015, including a detailed explanation of the lyrics in the sales catalog notes. [=McLean's=] explanation confirmed many of the speculations and debunked many others. He further {{joss}}ed other speculations when he discussed the song in more detail in a 2022 Creator/ParamountPlus documentary on the song.

* Music/DonMcLean, when asked what the meaning of "American Pie" was, said something like, [[MathematiciansAnswer "It means I never have to work again."]] For many years, the ''only'' thing mentioned in the song that was definite was "the day the music died", which refers to the plane crash that killed Music/RitchieValens, Music/BuddyHolly, and Music/TheBigBopper. ''That'', more than anything, is why this song has been picked to death. [=McLean=] eventually subverted this when he had the original manuscript of the lyrics auctioned in 2015, including a detailed explanation of the lyrics in the sales catalog notes. [=McLean's=] explanation confirmed many of the speculations and debunked many others.

* The whole point of an WebAnimation/{{Animutation}} is to be as nonsensical as possible, even the ones that have a plot. (For example, [[http://www.animutationportal.com/modules/debaser/player.php?id=80 Holy Shit Ninjas!]] has a pretty understandable plot, but is peppered with a lot of nonsense)

* ''VideoGame/GameBoyCamera'' has some... [[NightmareFuel highly]] [[UncannyValley disturbing]] [[HellIsThatNoise images and sounds]] hidden in the game. Of note are the vandalised pictures of Nintendo employees, accompanied by a horrific sound and the caption, "who are you running from?". Why are they there? The developers are [[TheGadfly complete and utter trolls]].

* The first half of ''ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman'' run put heavy emphasis on the Joker utilizing a [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver black and red color scheme]]. Compounded with the appearance of the criminal group known as the Black Glove, Batman begins to obsess over the real meaning behind the Joker's colors and their true purpose. The Joker eventually admits the use of red and black didn't signify anything important at all. He thinks he might've been inspired from when he beat Jason Todd with a crowbar, but admits he only made it look like the colors were important because he knew Batman would go nuts over it. In this, Grant Morrison's admitting they were trolling the readers who kept obsessing over finding hidden meanings in every little thing they wrote in this story.

* ''Videogame/BadMilk'', a rather rare and surreal game, has a point where there's a sentence that, listened to backwards, says ''The Walrus is Paul''. While most things in the game make little sense, at least they're somewhat connected or are clues to something. It's not the case for this one.

--->"Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any answer to the Hatter's Riddle can be imagined, that I may as well put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate answer, viz: 'Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!' This, however, is merely an afterthought; the Riddle, as originally invented, had no answer at all."

''[[TropeNamers The walrus was Paul]]!"''
-->-- ''Music/TheBeatles''' "Glass Onion"

* Music/DonMcLean, when asked what the meaning of "American Pie" was, said something like, [[MathematiciansAnswer "It means I never have to work again."]] For many years, the ''only'' thing mentioned in the song that wass definite was "the day the music died", which refers to the plane crash that killed Music/RitchieValens, Music/BuddyHolly, and Music/TheBigBopper. ''That'', more than anything, is why this song has been picked to death. [=McLean=] eventually subverted this when he had the original manuscript of the lyrics auctioned in 2015, including a detailed explanation of the lyrics in the sales catalog notes. [=McLean's=] explanation confirmed many of the speculations and debunked many others.

Often used to subvert WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic, by means of not having ''any'' deeper meaning. A frequent story element of a MocksteryTale. Compare FauxSymbolism, where it's merely "throw some meaning at a wall and hope it sticks", CriminalMindGames, when this is done in-story to throw the pursuers off-track, and CowTools. Contrast ViewersAreGenuises, when there really is an attempt at a message, but it's too esoteric for its audience; and TheChrisCarterEffect. See also ShrugOfGod and TeasingCreator. For a whole setting comprised of those, see WorldOfMysteries.

Often used to subvert WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic, by means of not having ''any'' deeper meaning. A frequent story element of a MocksteryTale. Compare FauxSymbolism, where it's merely "throw some meaning at a wall and hope it sticks", CriminalMindGames, when this is done in-story to throw the pursuers off-track, and CowTools. Contrast TheChrisCarterEffect. See also ShrugOfGod and TeasingCreator. For a whole setting comprised of those, see WorldOfMysteries.

''The walrus was Paul!"''
-->-- ''Music/TheBeatles'', "Glass Onion", the TropeNamer.