History Main / WhatHappenedtotheMouse

* BillyConnolly performed a long, long routine beginning with his account of a mysterious body found in the street in one of the more exclusive and upmarket suburbs of Edinburgh. He then meanders off into the intricacies of going to the toilet on aircraft, and how the food chain works, and the sheer logistics of so many people on board aircraft who will ''all'' need to use the toilet at some point... he gets back to the mystery corpse in Corstorphine (and its effect on local house prices) about twenty-five minutes later. By which time everyone's forgotten how the story started.

->A janitor is mopping the church when the priest grabs him. The priest exclaims that he has an important meeting he has to attend and cannot miss, but was scheduled to take confessions instead. The priest shoves a list of sins into the janitor's hands and tells him just listen to the confessions, look up the penance and tell the confessor how many "Hail Mary"s to say. The janitor doesn't mind helping, and goes into the confessional while the priest grabs his golf clubs and leaves. The people come in, the janitor looks up the sin and says the penance. This goes on just fine for a bit, until a man confesses he got a blow job. The janitor checks every page of his instructions - it's not listed. Panicking the janitor peeks outside of the confessional and sees an altar boy walking past. "How much does the priest give for a blow job???" the janitor whispers to the altar boy. The altar boy replies "20 bucks and a candy bar."
Now a listener who [[DontExplainThejoke does not get the joke]] or has NoSenseOfHumor may immediately ask "Well, what happened with the guy who is still back in the confessional, waiting for his penance?", but that is not the point of the joke - it's the TwistEnding that this was a PedophilePriest joke. Many, many jokes count on that completely dropping the story in favor of the punchline to work.

* In the GrimmBrothers' ''Maid Maleen'', she is imprisoned with a servant. They break free, and get a job. After that, Maleen ends up marrying the prince with no more mention of the servant.
** Well since a prince has like, castles and lands and such, logic would implicitly lead to the conclusion he just hires the servant...as a servant.

* In ''Literature/SleepingBeauty'', the evil fairy never reappears. Certainly she is never punished.

* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'', the episode "Pega Please". The central conflict of the episode is the question of how to deal with a sleeping dragon that's spewing smoke over Ponyville: should the protagonists approach the dragon diplomatically, or just kill him? The climax comes when Fluttershy berates the dragon for [[NWordPrivileges using a word he's not allowed to use]], then in the denouement, Twilight explains that the dragon is now "dra''gone''". Whether the dragon left peacefully or in pieces is never clarified.

Now a listener who [[DontExplainThejoke does not get the joke]] or has NoSenseOfHumor may immediately ask "Well, what happened with the guy who is still back in the confessional, waiting for his penance?", but that is not the point of the joke - it's the TwistEnding that this was a PedophilePriest joke. Many, many jokes count on this to work.

Jokes do this regularly. BecauseTropesAreTools, the intention is to slap the punchline on the listener by surprise. Take this joke for instance:

Now a listener who [[DontExplainThejoke does not get the joke]] or has NoSenseOfHumor may immediately ask "Well, what happened with the guy who is still back in the confessional, waiting for his penance?", but that is not the point of the joke - it's the TwistEnding that this was a PedophilePriest joke. WhatHappenedToTheMouse is irrelevant.

** [[FlatWhat Uh, what?]] No. That's a complex reference to the saying "God's eye is on the sparrow", which is itself an overly complex way of saying God=Nature Incarnate. In other words those birds, the snow, the warm barn, etc is all God. The whole thing was a subtle way of God explaining to the guy why He made Jesus. The birds are God explaining to the guy why he has to shoo humanity into doing the right thing, by showing him how hard it would be for a superior lifeform to explain to less intelligent creatures how to survive if they can't even conceive of things on your level...by having him try to do just that. It's actually a fairly multifaceted story, though no doubt jarring to someone who doesn't know the original saying ("God's eye is on the sparrow") the story is making reference to. TL;DR: God made Jesus for the same reason a father talk more slowly and simply when speaking to a child.
** [[FlatWhat Uh, what?]] No. God is not "Nature Incarnate". That's pantheism, which the Bible refutes. Also, God didn't "make" Jesus. And Jesus' primary mission on Earth was not to talk more slowly to us so we'd understand him. Though he did a lot of that, his ''reason for coming'' was the Gospel: "Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead."

->"A bunch of misbehaving boys are brought to an [[AmusemetParkOfDoom amusement park]] and then [[BalefulPolymorph turned into donkeys]] where they're gonna be used in mining shafts. And that's it! ''You never see them again!'' [[TheBadGuyWins The guy running the place]] [[KarmaHoudini is never defeated,]] [[FateWorseThanDeath the boys]] [[AndIMustScream can't talk anymore,]] ''[[FridgeHorror God knows what they're doing with the ones who can.]]'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids It's pretty friggin' grim as kids films go.]]"

->"A bunch of misbehaving boys are brought to an [[AmusmetParkOfDoom amusement park]] and then [[BalefulPolymorph turned into donkeys]] where they're gonna be used in mining shafts. And that's it! ''You never see them again!'' [[TheBadGuyWins The guy running the place]] [[KarmaHoudini is never defeated,]] [[FateWorseThanDeath the boys]] [[AndIMustScream can't talk anymore,]] ''[[FridgeHorror God knows what they're doing with the ones who can.]]'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids It's pretty friggin' grim as kids films go.]]"

->"A bunch of misbehaving boys are brought to an [[PleasureIsland amusement park]] and then [[BalefulPolymorph turned into donkeys]] where they're gonna be used in mining shafts. And that's it! ''You never see them again!'' [[TheBadGuyWins The guy running the place]] [[KarmaHoudini is never defeated,]] [[FateWorseThanDeath the boys]] [[AndIMustScream can't talk anymore,]] ''[[FridgeHorror God knows what they're doing with the ones who can.]]'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids It's pretty friggin' grim as kids films go.]]"

->"A bunch of misbehaving boys are brought to an amusement park and then turned into donkeys where they're gonna be used in mining shafts. And that's it! ''You never see them again!'' [[TheBadGuyWins The guy running the place]] [[KarmaHoudini is never defeated,]] [[FateWorseThanDeath the boys]] [[BalefulPolymorph can't]] [[AndIMustScream talk anymore,]] ''[[FridgeHorror God knows what they're doing with the ones who can.]]'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids It's pretty friggin' grim as kids films go.]]"

->"A bunch of misbehaving boys are brought to an amusement park and then turned into donkeys where they're gonna be used in mining shafts. And that's it! ''You never see them again!'' [[TheBadGuyWins The guy running the place]] [[KarmaHoudini is never defeated,]] [[FateWorseThanDeath the boys]] [[BalefulPolymoph can't]] [[AndIMustScream talk anymore,]] ''[[FridgeHorror God knows what they're doing with the ones who can.]]'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids It's pretty friggin' grim as kids films go.]]"

->"A bunch of misbehaving boys are brought to an amusement park and then turned into donkeys where they're gonna be used in mining shafts. And that's it! ''You never see them again!'' [[TheBadGuyWins The guy running the place]] [[KarmaHoudini is never defeated,]] [[FateWorseThanDeath the boys can't talk anymore,]] ''[[FridgeHorror God knows what they're doing with the ones who can.]]'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids It's pretty friggin' grim as kids films go.]]"

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]
* ''PhineasAndFerb'': Some of the destruction wreaked by the boys' and Doof's inventions is never repaired by the end of the episode. One of Doofenshmirtz's rayguns destroyed a dam, releasing all the water behind it. Conk, the caveman Phineas and Ferb thawed out and remained until the end of the episode, and the "Candroid" from the end of "I, Brobot" was never seen again. And the Ferbot in the garbage truck...
** Conk has made a number of cameo appearances since, and possibly another brief speaking part.
** In "Run, Candace, Run", Candace has three things to do at the same time: She has to read to kids at the library, attend Jeremy's family picnic, and do... something involving being half of a horse with Stacy. She spends the episode running back and forth between the library and Jeremy’s picnic. So did she just completely blow off Stacy?
*** [[BluntYes Yes]], [[RunningGag yes she did]].
** We never find out if Perry and Doofenshmirtz get out of the collapsing temple in The Temple of Juatchadoon.
** In an earlier episode from before Roger Doofenshmirtz became the Mayor of Danville, he received the key to the city from the then Mayor of Danville. Then the episode "Hail Doofania" had Roger being elected the new Mayor and it's never been revealed what happened to the previous Mayor or why Danville held the election in summer.

[[/folder]]

->"A bunch of misbehaving boys are brought to an amusement park and then turned into donkeys where they're gonna be used in mining shafts. And that's it! ''You never see them again!'' [[TheBadGuyWins The guy running the place is never defeated,]] [[FateWorseThanDeath the boys can't talk anymore,]] ''[[FridgeHorror God knows what they're doing with the ones who can.]]'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids It's pretty friggin' grim as kids films go.]]"

** [[FlatWhat Uh, what?]] No. That's a complex reference to the saying "God's eye is on the sparrow", which is itself an overly complex way of saying God=Nature Incarnate. In other words those birds, the snow, the warm barn, etc is all God. The whole thing was a subtle way of God explaining to the guy why He made Jesus. The birds are God explaining to the guy why he has to shoo humanity into doing the right thing, by showing him how hard it would be for a superior lifeform to explain to less intelligent creatures how to survive if they can't even conceive of things on your level...by having him try to do just that. It's actually a fairly multifascited story, though no doubt jarring to someone who doesn't know the original saying ("God's eye is on the sparrow") the story is making reference to. TL;DR: God made Jesus for the same reason a father talk more slowly and simply when speaking to a child.

* Creator/CirqueDuSoleil's ''{{Mystere}}'' raises this question by leaving a key character (and more importantly ''performer''), [[spoiler: Brian Le Petit]], out of the curtain call. The answer is AllThereInTheManual: [[spoiler: when Moha-Samedi hauls him out of the theater, it's for good, as Brian wasn't "part of the show" to begin with]].

The [[TropeNamer trope's name]] refers to a scene in ''TheLastEmperor'' in which the title character violently throws his beloved pet mouse offscreen. There's no sound of the mouse hitting anything, but it's never seen again, leaving its fate ambiguous...in the theatrical cut, anyway.

** A planned [[spoiler: novel]] adaptation may even exclude chapter 10 of the comic entirely, [[RetCanon making it so that]] Poison Dart Eddie himself [[RetGone never existed]].

* ''PhineasAndFerb'': Some of the destruction wreaked by the boys' and Doof's inventions is never repaired by the end of the episode. One of Doofenshmirtz's rayguns destroyed a dam, releasing all the water behind it. Conk, the caveman Phineas and Ferb thawed out and remained until the end of the episode, and the "Candroid" from the end of another was never seen again. And the Ferbot in the garbage truck...

* An InUniverse example in ''{{Peanuts}}'', as Snoopy is [[ItWasADarkAndStormyNight writing his novel.]] He links all of the various subplots together in on sentence and boasts about how nicely everything fits together... that is until Linus reads it and asks, "But what about the king?" Snoopy throws his typewriter at him.

** The probable technical answer, which is that Barrie went through many drafts of the play and certain details were lost or glossed over. Vital to the scheme's success is the fact that the boys have no mother to tell them not to eat such rich cake, so Barrie may have felt no need to explain its failure once Wendy had arrived.

* CirqueDuSoleil's ''{{Mystere}}'' raises this question by leaving a key character (and more importantly their ''performer''), [[spoiler: Brian Le Petit]], out of the curtain call. The answer is AllThereInTheManual: [[spoiler: when Moha-Samedi hauls him out of the theater, it's for good, as Brian wasn't "part of the show" to begin with, but an intruder in it]].