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| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks! |
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| 7 | ->''"'Give me a Black and White and water,' he heard the waitress say, and Wayne should have pricked up his ears at that. That particular drink wasn’t for any ordinary person. That drink was for the person who had created all Wayne’s misery to date, who could kill him or make him a millionaire or send him back to prison or do whatever he damn well pleased with Wayne. That drink was for me."'' |
| 8 | -->-- '''Creator/KurtVonnegut''', narrator-author of ''Literature/BreakfastOfChampions'' |
| 9 | |
| 10 | %% NOTE TO EDITORS: "Zero Context Example" entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. |
| 11 | %% Add explanations to the entries before uncommenting them. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | A {{Narrator}} who tells the story from a third-person perspective, in an [[BunnyEarsLawyer eccentric, bizarre, or otherwise unconventional style.]] This may involve [[GreekChorus expressing opinions about the story’s proceedings]], going off on asides, [[NoFourthWall breaking the Fourth Wall]], [[LampshadeHanging Hanging Lampshades]], [[DeadpanSnarker deadpan-snarking]], choosing to focus on [[LeftFieldDescription unusual details]] or just describing things in an odd way. In the 19th century, this style of narration was so common as to be nearly ubiquitous; in the 21st century it’s no longer the default, but still shows up in quirkier works (and homages to 19th-century literature). In some cases, this trope reminds readers that the Narrator can be a character themselves, not just a perspective to read the story from. This character is not an active participant in the story. They are able to affect how the story is told, but not the story itself. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Named after [[Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents Lemony Snicket]] for his idiosyncratic narration style. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | The Lemony Narrator [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant is rarely, if ever, found narrating a]] {{Lemon}}. Nor would a British narrator necessarily be found narrating a {{Lime}}. (Though you have to admit [[RuleOfFunny both would be funny]].) |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Often found in conjunction with DirectLineToTheAuthor. Compare InteractiveNarrator and UnreliableNarrator. Contrast the FirstPersonSmartass, who is a similar character that plays an active role within the story. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | ---- |
| 22 | !!Examples: |
| 23 | |
| 24 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 25 | |
| 26 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 27 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Amagami}} SS'', the Sae Nakata arc had a narrator. [[CastingGag Said narrator]] was Creator/JojiNakata, who proceeded to lay into the plot and the ThisLoserIsYou protagonist with a voice so smarmy it could melt butter. |
| 28 | * ''Literature/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts'' has a bizarre sarcastic narrator already, but what makes it stand out is that partway through, Class F's teacher becomes the narrator, and the old narrator becomes their teacher. This is explicitly pointed out, and remains as such for the rest of the show. |
| 29 | * ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'''s English Dub narrator (blessed with the powerful voice of Creator/MichaelMcConnohie) constantly breaks the fourth wall and [[InteractiveNarrator interacts with the characters]]. In the final episode, he complains about how he never got a chance to be on the screen. He also apparently lives with his grandmother. |
| 30 | * Keaton Yamada, the narrator of ''Manga/ChibiMarukoChan''. He frequently expresses his opinions about the characters' actions and goes on diversions about stuff. He especially targets Maruko and her doting grandfather for his asides, criticizing them for foolish behavior and thoughts. He makes a cameo in one episode in the original anime series where he actually speaks to the characters face to face, keeping up with his comments; the main characters also fire back. |
| 31 | * In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', the original manga has an unseen narrator who explains certain aspects of the story to the readers while also frequently [[DeadpanSnarker making snarky remarks]] towards the characters' antics. The anime has no narration at all since it takes more of a ShowDontTell approach, but there are some gags the anime kept that [[AdaptationExplanationExtrication really only worked with the narration]]. |
| 32 | * The narrator of ''Manga/DesertPunk'' sometimes lapses into an fairly acerbic form of this, usually in response to the underwhelming behavior of the characters in the show. |
| 33 | * The translation notes for ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' were licensed by the same people as that of ''Pani Poni Dash'', and it's narrated similarly. |
| 34 | * When reading ''Manga/PleaseTellMeGalkoChan'', you'll find some side notes about the characters that can be pretty amusing |
| 35 | * The narrator of ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler''. Since they couldn't get someone British, they got Creator/NorioWakamoto instead. |
| 36 | -->'''Narrator:''' I hate rich people. ''God'', I hate them. |
| 37 | ** And when the anime was dubbed in English by Animax-Asia, the narrator ''was'' British. |
| 38 | * The [[Creator/JamieMarchi Narrator]] in the GagDub ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' is most definitely this. She has a sweet, kindergarten-teacher-voice that drops a ClusterFBomb at some point, and at another actually drops the narrative to tell a joke about talking muffins. |
| 39 | -->'''Narrator:''' ''(Referring to the [[AllThereInTheManual historical notes]] that pop up on the screen)'' By the way, you'll probably wanna pause the video if you actually wanna read all of this. |
| 40 | ** When relating the story of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, she narrated in a ValleyGirl manner in a LampshadeHanging of how much the ''Hetalia'' interpretation came off as a schoolyard spat. |
| 41 | -->'''Narrator:''' Is this the third grade or geopolitical allegory, for reals y'all! |
| 42 | * The narrator of ''Manga/HowHeavyAreTheDumbbellsYouLift'' is a hoot in both the Japanese and English versions, [[BreakingTheFourthWall addressing the audience directly]], cracking jokes about the characters, and generally adding humor to the proceedings. |
| 43 | * The narrator of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' spends half his time [[SeriousBusiness playing up the insecurities of lovestruck teenagers as if they were the most important thing in the world]] and the other half [[DeadpanSnarker mercilessly mocking the cast]]. |
| 44 | --> '''Shirogane:''' What am I, some lovestruck teen in a [[SelfDeprecation third-rate]] romcom?!\ |
| 45 | '''Narration:''' [[BluntYes Yes.]] |
| 46 | ** The English dub on the other hand, has Creator/IanSinclair go full ham half the time, equally as invested in the love tug of war as the audience. |
| 47 | --->'''Narrator:''' *about a potential confession* Ohhhh my gosh...it's happening! *voice shifts a few octaves up* EVERYBODY IT'S HAPPENING! OHHHHH WHAT'S SHE GONNA SAY?! *nothing happens, narrator is implied to be walking off in protest* [[YouHaveGOTToBeKiddingMe OH, COME ON!]] |
| 48 | * Vanilla Yamazaki and Creator/LuciChristian do this in ''Manga/KamisamaKiss.'' |
| 49 | %%%* Babbit from ''Manga/{{Kodocha}}''. |
| 50 | * ''Manga/KomiCantCommunicate'': In the Latin American dub, Creator/CristinaHernandez adopts this style [[{{Woolseyism}} as opposed to the neutral tone]] of the original Japanese. Case in point, in a scene where a tour guide watches Tadano and Komi's interaction and thinks to herself that [[ShipperOnDeck they should just get married]], the Narrator directly agrees by saying "Lo mismo digo yo" ("That's what I say"). |
| 51 | * The narrator of ''Manga/LiesOfTheSheriffEvansDeadOrLove'' spends about a quarter of their time recapping or telling the reader what's going on, and the rest making fun of the characters, pointing out the times where they're lying, reminding them that the titular Sheriff has never had a girlfriend whenever he tries to act cool, and generally just being snarky about everything. |
| 52 | * [[LittleMissSnarker Ruri]] in ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' showed a lot of her LittleMissSnarker-ness in the "Last time on" sketches. "Our main pilot's like this, and our captain's like that, and we still managed to get this far. Amazing, huh?" |
| 53 | * Kyon's narration of the SOS Brigade's [[ShowWithinAShow amateur film]] in the NonIndicativeFirstEpisode of ''The Melancholy of Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya''. Really, all his narration fits here. |
| 54 | --> The temperature had dropped dramatically. It was as if Japan had decided to skip the season of fall, and was making up for lost time. Hey, Siberian Cold Front! I know you have an annual route to keep, but couldn't you miss us just this once? |
| 55 | ** During that very same film, during what was originally a kiss scene between Itsuki and Mikuru, he threatened to [[ExactWords kick Itsuki's ass, dammit!]] |
| 56 | * ''Literature/OkamiSan'''s narrator (Creator/SatomiArai and Creator/LuciChristian) amuses herself by insulting the characters -- especially Ryoko and Ringo, the two she mocks most frequently for being flat-chested -- though the others ignore her. In Episode 4, she even cuts off the opening narration with a comment that she's not going to bother telling us the exposition again. |
| 57 | * The narrator in ''Manga/OnePiece'' normally remains pretty objective, but when [[IdiotHero Luffy]], [[NoSenseOfDirection Zoro]], [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Chopper]], and [[OnlySaneMan Robin]] all head off in different directions, and only Robin going in the right one, despite having clear directions to go in a straight line, even he gives up on them. |
| 58 | * The [[Creator/ADVFilms official English translation notes]] to ''Anime/PaniPoniDash'' are very lemony. At one point when two of the characters are about to disarm a bomb and spout out its censored components, the translation team pops in a note to explain that while they ''could'' tell us the full name of the components, quote, "no way are we going to teach a bunch of {{otaku}} how to make bombs" and further suggest that the viewer will "have to learn this stuff on the internet, like everybody else". |
| 59 | * In the ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'' episode "Trans-Homers," the two [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist bitchy angel protagonists]] are turned into robotic versions of themselves after eating the "hearts" of two sentient Franchise/{{Transformers}}-like robots who inexplicably crash-landed in their house. During this period, the show's narrator becomes so confused as to what is going on that he at one point asks "I'm sorry, what show am I narrating again?" |
| 60 | * ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': Not during the main anime so much, but he does during ''Anime/PokemonChronicles'' and such. |
| 61 | * Drosselmeyer from ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' is an unusual case since [[spoiler: he is an actual character in the show whose special ability to bring stories to life means in addition to being the narrator of the story he is also able to manipulate events in it.]] |
| 62 | * Halfway through ''Anime/ReCreators'', we're treated to Episode 13, which recaps the series so far. However, the narration is done by Meteora, one of the characters with a strange sense of humor, who injects her own strong opinions about other characters into the narration without a lot of subtlety. She also jokingly derails the recap around the time she made her first appearance by instead introducing a character who shares her name but looks like a BuxomBeautyStandard, dresses in a {{Stripperiffic}} fashion, and even sounds completely different, and is such a GodModeSue that she effortlessly defeats the BigBad in the first episode. |
| 63 | * The narrator of ''Anime/SamuraiPizzaCats'' definitely belongs here. He kicks off every episode with a fourth-wall break, has been the victim of a kidnap-the-narrator's-family plot by the BigBad, the works. |
| 64 | * ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'''s anime adaptation didn't play this trope in its Japanese dub for its narrator, but the English dub does this trope. |
| 65 | * The narrator of ''Manga/SgtFrog''. |
| 66 | ** The Creator/{{Funimation}} dub has [[Creator/RBruceElliott a narrator]] who actively hates the show and only does this to cover his gambling debts, and throws in Lemony ''[[FunWithSubtitles subtitles]]'', the writer of which is apparently a separate character from the narrator. |
| 67 | *** [[MemeticBadass Mr. Caption don't take jack from no one!]] |
| 68 | *** In one episode the narrator quits and is replaced by a British woman who doesn't know what's going on and spends most of the unusually dramatic episode complaining about how she was told this was a madcap comedy. ''She'' then quits, and the old guy comes back out of guilt. |
| 69 | * ''Anime/ShinMazinger''. It's like the narrator's trying to be more HotBlooded than the characters themselves. Like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDj1KTha8go "ENEEEEEEEEEEEEERGAAAAAAAAAAAA...ZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEETTTTOOOOOO."]] |
| 70 | * The narrator of ''Anime/SpaceDandy'' does this in pretty much all of his appearances. He mocks the characters of the show ("Drowning in the introspection he couldn't even spell..."), refers to his own position as narrator, and has his own personality, preferring to narrate about things like "breastaurants" rather than the actual plot. |
| 71 | ** Many of the things that happen to Dandy and crew usually end up happening to the narrator as well, such as having to deal with alternate-universe versions of himself or [[spoiler:becoming a zombie.]] |
| 72 | * Every episode of ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'' begins with a recap narrated by [[TheHeroine Lina Inverse]] who can definitely be [[UnreliableNarrator less than honest]] when it comes to telling her own story. She regularly twists her recollection of the story in order to put herself in a good light, [[{{FirstPersonSmartass}} belittle the villains]] and make jokes at the expanse of her [[{{TrueCompanions}} friends]]. |
| 73 | [[/folder]] |
| 74 | |
| 75 | [[folder:Audio Plays]] |
| 76 | * ''[[http://onering.legendaryfrog.com/movies_orthp1_w.php The One Ring to Rule Them All: The Hobbit]]'' has ''The Hobbit'' narrated by Tom Bombadil. Who for some reason has a Southern accent. HilarityEnsues. |
| 77 | -->'''Tom Bombadil:''' Bilbo found this really neat sword that glowed blue whenever goblins were near! You keep that in mind, now. It's going to be important, later on! |
| 78 | * Brad Neely's ''AudioPlay/WizardPeopleDearReader'', in which he narrates the first [[Film/HarryPotter Harry Potter film]] in an excessively dramatic, increasingly inaccurate and often insane way, most notably a scene late in the film where the narrator entirely ignores the action sequence taking place on screen to discuss Harry's desire to move to pre-Columbian America. For several minutes. |
| 79 | [[/folder]] |
| 80 | |
| 81 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 82 | * Extremely common in comics, especially of MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, and MediaNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks. Creator/StanLee was well-known for it (addressing the audience as "True Believers"). Excelsior! |
| 83 | * in Issue 72 of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', a televised address by King Acorn is pre-empted by a documentary on the late Dr. Robotnik. The narrator of the documentary, on top of following a SelfServingMemory, is completely unprofessional, and doesn't hesitate to insult or misname any of Robotnik's enemies. |
| 84 | * Creator/JhonenVasquez is a notable one. He interrupted his comics frequently (and at very inappropriate times) to make little 'commentaries' on what was happening. |
| 85 | -->''"In case you haven't noticed already, I'm just drawing clouds as a background. It's so easy! And fast! I'm so freaking lazy! You know, I think all of my backgrounds will be clouds now!! No matter what! If I'm drawing an underground cave, there'll just be clouds! Bi-monthly here I come!!! :-D"'' |
| 86 | * The captions for the third series of ''ComicBook/MightyAvengers'' get very snarky. The recap pages and narration for ''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'' and ''Comicbook/NewAvengers2015'', by the same author (Creator/AlEwing), are similar. |
| 87 | * ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}''. It even crops up when the team make a blatant cameo appearance in other series, with the accompanying caption done in the series' style. |
| 88 | * ''ComicBook/VenomTheEnd'' is narrated by a glib being who is prone to {{technobabble}} and presenting the events of the story in a sillier, more exaggerated way. This person is revealed to be [[spoiler:a [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]]-descended artificial intelligence]]. |
| 89 | [[/folder]] |
| 90 | |
| 91 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 92 | * In ''Fanfic/AquamanMonster'', the narration sometimes goes into humorous tangents to explain things to the audience or make funny asides. |
| 93 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfiction [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/30978/ascension "Ascension"]] definitely has one of these, as she frequently snarks about things going on in the story. Especially noticeable in the Royal Ruckus Arc. |
| 94 | * The entire concept of the fanfic ''Fanfic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed'' relies on this concept heavily. |
| 95 | ** Not only is the narrator a character in the story in her own right, it can be argued that she is the only character. As the fic is actually supposed to be an in-universe academic essay, other than the glimpses of history that can be gleamed from quotes and sources she cites, Equestria's history is mostly seen through her eyes. It's through her [[InsaneTrollLogic tremendous leaps in logic]] and her [[ConspiracyTheorist conspiracy addled mind]] that the story turns a supposedly dry essay into a thrillride of laughter and ridiculousness. |
| 96 | * The unnamed narrator of ''Fanfic/FireEmblemThreeHousesFifthPath'' frequently makes snarky comments about the cast and the events surrounding them or engages in humorous asides. |
| 97 | * Part of Creator/NimbusLlewelyn's SignatureStyle, particularly in ''Fanfic/TheWizardInTheShadows''. The narration of ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' dips into this, though (somewhat) less often, and more to the point of a regular RunningGag. |
| 98 | * In ''Fanfic/TotalDramaIslandByGilbertAndSullivan'', the "just the facts" character of the episode summaries doesn't preclude drollery. For example, a certain summary doesn't just say, "Bridgette alarms a family of skunks and gets sprayed." Instead, it says, "Bridgette alarms a family of skunks and pays the customary penalty." |
| 99 | * The fanfic ''Fanfic/ThoseLackingSpines'' has fun with this. A good example would be the second time we meet [[spoiler:Mansex]], and the narrator gets so tired of saying "dark" and "black" that he substitutes every such instance with some other colorful description. |
| 100 | -->...he thought pinkly. |
| 101 | * The narrator in ''[[Fanfic/MarieDSuesseAndTheMysteryNewPirateAge Marie D Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!]]'', so very much. He even starts off with a SnicketWarningLabel, and follows up saying that a normal narrator would have started this story by launching into [[PurpleProse a detailed description of the main character]] before noting that they really can't be bothered with descriptions at that stage because it was not important and how they would rather provide a picture of the OC if it was. The end of the story strongly implies that the narrator is [[spoiler:The Disinfector, also known as Trafalgar Law, or at least the part of Law's consciousness that remembers Mar and everything that happened]]. |
| 102 | * ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'' has a narrator prone to leaving out excessive details, making brief asides, questioning bits of FridgeLogic, and [[BreakingTheFourthWall personally addressing the readers.]] |
| 103 | * ''Fanfic/LoudBoyAltered'' has two of them, the narrator and the author herself. They often appear at the beginning of the episode and at the end, bickering with each other and snarking at one another, and the author just trying to get under the narrator’s skin. |
| 104 | * TheStoryteller in ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfTotalDramaIsland'' narrates in a somewhat archaic style, as befits the story's [[Literature/ArabianNights structural model]]. Her narration is peppered with catchphrases that serves as both narrative flourishes and narrative devices. |
| 105 | * Frequent in the ''New Look Series'', especially in ''Link's New Look'': |
| 106 | -->''"And she was right; he did feel pretty. Pretty sure he was going to vomit..."'' |
| 107 | * The ''Manga/{{Saki}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/SakiAfterStory'', [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9008429/1/Saki-After-Story found here,]] features a narrator like this, although some of it seems to be author's notes in the middle of the story. |
| 108 | -->'''Narrator''': Remember when I said that Teru seems to lose control when she gets angry? [[OhCrap Well, this is happening now. And with a metal pipe and a box cutter in her possession, this is not going to end well]]. |
| 109 | * ''Fanfic/MegaManReawakened'' has Robert sometimes making snarky comments on scenes he's narrating, even ones where he's not present. |
| 110 | * The narrator (who is also the writer) of ''Fanfic/DantesNightAtFreddys'' usually keeps out of the action, but when an adorable piglet is introduced just to be brutally sacrificed, he stops to admit, "Wow, that was kinda fucked up even by my standards." |
| 111 | ** The first sequel, ''Animatronic Boogaloo,'' features the same writer and narrator, who gets into the action more often. [[spoiler: So much so he appears in two of the later chapters, and reveals himself to be a ShamelessSelfPromoter with a notable twinge of self doubt.]] |
| 112 | ** The second sequel, ''Evie's Night at Fazbear's Fright,'' apparently contains ''two'' Lemony Narrators: the same author as the previous two, and a second narrator riffing on his chiches. [[BellisariosMaxim Don't examine this too closely]]. |
| 113 | * The narrator in the ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' fic [[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/8510017/1/ Friendship Is Forever]] engages in SuspiciouslySpecificDenial of any possibility of a romantic connection between Ike and Soren with every sentence, while unashamedly describing heavy HoYay between them. |
| 114 | * ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'': While Shinji and Asuka watched their memories inside the latter's mind, [[spoiler:a [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Keeper of Secrets]] of the ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' universe]] made sarcastic remarks. Neither of them appreciated the commentary. |
| 115 | * The narrator of ''Literature/AesirCrossWars''. Whenever a character does something dumb, he points it out and sometimes interacts with the characters. He's also [[AuthorAvatar the author]], so he can control the characters and make them do something like press a button that leads to an obvious trap. |
| 116 | * [[Franchise/DragonAge Varric]] uses this in ''[[Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook I Must Be Going]]''. It's a StoryWithinAStory which is a fanfic of ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' featuring his colleagues as the characters, and it's implied that he himself is the narrator; the narrative includes absurd commentary, such as his assertion that something happens "for reasons that really don't get explained very clearly because I couldn't think of them". |
| 117 | * ''Fanfic/ATacticiansTestimony'': Katri often makes snarky comments in her narration, and reveals such things as her [[ArbitrarySkepticism disbelief]] in the Mani Katti's power. |
| 118 | * A ''VideoGame/TownOfSalem'' AffectionateParody series shot in Live Action turns the narrator into just that, commenting the Wills and Death Notes the players leave. See it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay6z5vDuFig here]]. |
| 119 | * The narrator in ''Fanfic/GirlDays'' frequently makes sarcastic remarks or quips as telling the story. |
| 120 | -->"Shampoo could have chosen a worse time, one supposes, but this writer personally can't see HOW." |
| 121 | * ''Webcomic/AkiChansLife'': Caption boxes will often exposit on the characters' expressions, and in parts of chapter 1 they just flat out give the author's commentary on the proceedings. |
| 122 | * ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'' has a few: |
| 123 | ** Phil the Narrator. His smarmy tone and inappropriate ''"Oh yeah"''s turn everything he narrates into innuendo. He also [[GirlOnGirlIsHot actively encourages Applejack and Rarity to make out.]] |
| 124 | ** The unnamed subtitle writer is also quite opinionated, often using the subtitles to agree with the ponies or mock ''Ultra Fast Pony'''s shortcomings. In one episode, he sides with the ponies against Phil the narrator, and in another he gets into an argument with Scootaloo. |
| 125 | ** Another narrator shows up in "For Glorious Mother Equestria". He tries to spin everything as political propaganda, and his voiceovers tend to [[UnreliableVoiceover directly contradict what's happening on-screen]]. |
| 126 | * The narrator of ''Fanfic/{{Hysterical}}'' will often go on tangents, break the fourth wall, and openly comment/mock about whatever is going on at that moment. |
| 127 | * The author of ''Fanfic/TheDeathEatersDisneyWorldTrip'' thoroughly enjoys taking potshots at Voldemort and his Death Eaters in their narration, while lampshading the CrackFic nature of the fic at times. |
| 128 | * In ''Fanfic/TwinklingInTheDark'', the narrator quotes her father and discusses his SirSwearsALot tendencies, and later quips on how easily a scene with a back massage could be seen as HoYay. |
| 129 | * Zig-zagged in ''Fanfic/ManehattansLoneGuardian''. Scenes where Leviathan is narrating the story often contain snark towards her associates, and she at times lampshades tropes (such as viewing the idea of being TrappedInAnotherWorld as one of the oldest cliches in fiction) and elements of her source material (BottomlessPits and SpikesOfDoom). Meanwhile, most of the third-person scenes are narrated normally, though at one point the narration itself directly cuts off an antagonist's profanity-laden tirade before it begins. |
| 130 | [[/folder]] |
| 131 | |
| 132 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 133 | * The first half of ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'' is narrated by Kuzco, a huge {{Jerkass}} and DeadpanSnarker. The in-movie Kuzco goes through some {{character development}}, and thus ends up bickering with the narrator Kuzco. Surprisingly, once the in-movie Kuzco gets angry at the narrator and tells him to scram, ''the rest of the movie passes without narration.'' |
| 134 | -->'''Kuzco[voiceover]:''' So this is where [[HowWeGotHere you came in]]. See, just like I said, I'm the victim here! I didn't do anything, and they ruined my life and took everything I had.\ |
| 135 | '''Kuzco:''' Hey, give it a rest up there, will ya?\ |
| 136 | '''Kuzco [voiceover]:''' What? I'm just telling them what happened.\ |
| 137 | '''Kuzco:''' Who are you kidding, pal? They saw the whole thing. They ''know'' what happened.\ |
| 138 | '''Kuzco [voiceover]:''' Well, yeah, but... but...\ |
| 139 | '''Kuzco:''' Just leave me alone. |
| 140 | * Sebastian Cabot went all Lemony as the narrator of both ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh''. In the latter he broke the fourth wall to help Tigger down from a tree. |
| 141 | * ''WesternAnimation/MickeyDonaldGoofyTheThreeMusketeers'': The Troubador intentionally derails an effort to tell an accurate telling of [[Literature/TheThreeMusketeers the source material]] to tell a comic book version involving musical numbers. |
| 142 | * Briefly, at the end of ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'': |
| 143 | -->'''Flynn[[spoiler:/Eugene]]:''' But I know what the big question is? [[spoiler:Did Rapunzel and I ever get married?]] Well, I am happy to say [[spoiler:after years and years of asking, I finally said yes.]]\ |
| 144 | '''Rapunzel:''' [[spoiler:Eugene!]]\ |
| 145 | '''Flynn/[[spoiler:Eugene]]:''' [[spoiler:Okay, okay. I asked her.]] |
| 146 | [[/folder]] |
| 147 | |
| 148 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 149 | * In the silent film era in Japan, there was less use of in-theater music and interstitial text frames to make up for the lack of dialogue as compared to the films being produced at the same time in the West. Instead, in-theater narrators, called ''benshi'', would fill in the dialogue and would also comment on the action -- and they could get as lemony about it as they pleased. Exceptionally skilled and popular benshi were as famous as the actors in the films they narrated. As a result, silent films in Japan remained popular for a surprisingly long time. The rise of the military junta, and the corresponding rise in censorship, led to talkies being officially favored over benshi, as the government feared the propagandist potential of lemony benshi. |
| 150 | * The cowboy narrating ''Film/TheBigLebowski'', who never seems to understand that this is not a western movie. |
| 151 | * Jared Vennett from ''Film/TheBigShort''. He constantly gives his own snarky asides and introduces famous celebrities to explain arcane financial terms. |
| 152 | * ''Film/TheElectricalLifeOfLouisWain'': The film's disembodied narrator (voiced by Creator/OliviaColman) will make the occasional cheeky comment, such as saying the streets of Victorian London smell like shit, or teasing the viewer for thinking Louis' fortunes are about to improve. |
| 153 | * ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'': |
| 154 | ** As with the cartoon, featured in the live-action movie. |
| 155 | --->'''Narrator:''' When they arrived at Ape Mountain, they reacted with awe!\ |
| 156 | '''Group:''' Awww.\ |
| 157 | '''Narrator:''' No, I said ''awe''. A-W-E.\ |
| 158 | '''Group:''' Ooooh!\ |
| 159 | '''Narrator:''' That's better. |
| 160 | ** Later on, one of the villains has to tell his sidekick not to bicker with the narrator. They fight anyway, and the narrator wins by fast-forwarding past his rant and mocking him. |
| 161 | ** The narrator continues in the same way in the sequel, but reaches a whole new level when [[spoiler:in retaliation for Lyle calling him "annoying", the narrator reaches down with a huge animated hand (ala Monty Python) and carries him off into the sky. He then asks the rest of the cast if they have complaints. They all quickly say no.]] |
| 162 | * Every Creator/WernerHerzog documentary features him philosophizing or sharing his thoughts and judgments about the subject in question, whether lamenting the naive idealism of Tim Treadwell in ''Film/GrizzlyMan'' or giving an impromptu art review of the prehistoric cave paintings in ''Film/CaveOfForgottenDreams''. This narration becomes even more exaggerated when he goes AdamWesting for roles such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4f9HNknKTU his part]] in the Season 3 premiere of ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks''. |
| 163 | ** Zak Penn's [[{{Mockumentary}} mockumentary]] ''Film/IncidentAtLochNess''; in which Herzog stars and gives an over-the-top version of his usual narration, culminating in his lamenting the sheer futility of all the crew's efforts. |
| 164 | * ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' (the live-action version) features Anthony Hopkins as the narrator, and he usually remains objective. A notable exception is when the Grinch tells him to be quiet during a "sneaking" scene, and he responds by whispering the narration. |
| 165 | * Ricky Jay in ''Film/{{Magnolia}}''. Notably, he mostly only narrates the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAWDEsgMahQ opening sequence]] (made up of seemingly-unrelated stories about coincidence that actually set up the movie's theme) and the trailer. |
| 166 | * ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' has a narrator that goes off on tangents and ''[[spoiler:even suddenly dies]]''. |
| 167 | * ''Film/MoonriseKingdom'' has a non-sarcastic example in the "Narrator." He narrates certain portions of the film, usually giving critical information, and usually isn't seen with other characters (except for one plot-crucial scene where he gives information to the other characters on how to find the protagonists of the film, two runaway kids). All his dialogue is ambiguous: he appears to be on the setting's island to shoot a weather report for a news station, but he might as well be directly talking to the audience with exposition and looking right into the camera. |
| 168 | * The grandfather in ''Film/ThePrincessBride''. Even though he's only reading a book to his grandson, he does provide commentary, clarifications, and lampshades on occasion. |
| 169 | * ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' has the Criminologist, who even explains the dance steps for "The Time Warp". [[spoiler:"It's just [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a jump to the left]]--"]] The viewer could easily get the feeling the Criminologist wishes he were physically present for the insanity he's narrating. |
| 170 | * ''Film/SantaClaus1959'', where the narrator actively involves himself in the plot. |
| 171 | -->"NO, LUPITA!" |
| 172 | * In TheFilmOfTheBook of ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', Jude Law provides the voice of the narrator, [[TheFaceless Mr. Snicket]]. |
| 173 | * The opening narration of ''Film/{{Ted}}'' starts out like a typical family feel-good movie but goes off the rails rather spectacularly within minutes. During the ending narration, the narrator pauses to [[TakeThat mock]] ''Film/SupermanReturns''. |
| 174 | -->'''[[Creator/PatrickStewart Narrator]]''': Now if there's one thing you can be sure of, it's that nothing is more powerful than a young boy's wish. ({{beat}}) Except an Apache Helicopter. An Apache Helicopter has machine guns and missiles. It is an unbelievably impressive compliment of weaponry. An absolute death machine. |
| 175 | [[/folder]] |
| 176 | |
| 177 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 178 | * Creator/ThomasPynchon did this with ''Literature/AgainstTheDay''. |
| 179 | * Creator/LMMontgomery, particularly in the ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' series. Her narration provides as much of the story's humor as the characters and events, particularly her descriptions of various people and/or their inner thoughts. |
| 180 | ** For example, just from the first chapter: |
| 181 | --->Mrs. Rachel felt that she had received a severe mental jolt. She thought in exclamation points. A boy! Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of all people adopting a boy! From an orphan asylum! Well, the world was certainly turning upside down! She would be surprised at nothing after this! Nothing! |
| 182 | ** And, |
| 183 | --->"Well, we're not getting a girl," said Marilla, as if poisoning wells were a purely feminine accomplishment and not to be dreaded in the case of a boy. |
| 184 | * In the children's book ''Literature/TheAnybodies'', the narrator narrates in a conversational tone and provides us with anecdotes about his/her awful car, how the first time s/he heard the Beatles s/he thought "They'll never last", and how dull Fern's parents are. |
| 185 | * ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'': Good god, ''Atlas Shrugged''. The narrator ''is just a bit'' hagiographic about the main characters. And then there's the [[SpeakIllOfTheDead rundown after the infamous train scene on why none the people on the doomed train could be considered "innocent" victims.]] Runs into the "show, don't tell" problem, which is probably inevitable considering the extreme length of the novel and the author's extensive use of methamphetamines while writing it. |
| 186 | * Creator/JaneAusten does this from time to time. It's particularly marked in ''Literature/NorthangerAbbey'' where she starts by cheerfully [[LampshadeHanging pointing out]] all the ways Catherine Morland doesn't match the stereotype of "a [[DamselInDistress heroine]]." There is also the part later in the first volume where upon mentioning that Catherine and Isabella Thorpe enjoyed novels, she embarks upon a tangent about how novelists are oh-so-oppressed by both critics and audiences who refuse to recognize them as serious literature. |
| 187 | * The children's FracturedFairyTale ''A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears'' was full of this. |
| 188 | ** An example: The narrator introduces a very minor character to demonstrate how Prince Roger has the ability to make people laugh when he's nearby. The narrator then tries to tell the minor character that his purpose has been fulfilled and that he can leave; however, the character is laughing too hard to respond so the narrator decides to leave ''him''. When this minor character shows up again, the narrator decides that he needs a name and says he'll be called John. This leads to this: |
| 189 | --->"Call me Jack," said the peasant, who won't do a thing I tell him. |
| 190 | ** Later, the narrator sets up chapter five ("The Night of the Frogs") just to confuse Jack and spends the entire time complaining to the readers about how Jack won't listen. |
| 191 | ** In some versions of this book, the peasant's name turns out to be ''Tom'', and the name that the author wants to give him is ''Jack''. |
| 192 | * The narrator of Angela Thirkell's Literature/{{Barsetshire}} novels is lemony enough to describe bit parts as "nice, boring people who might just as well be anyone else," DumbBlonde Rose Birkett as an "exquisite nit-wit," and a 13-year-old's chatter to his mother as "his valueless opinions." |
| 193 | * The segments narrated by the title character in ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'' trilogy are strewn with his (sarcastic) opinions on the matters at hand, as well as many other subjects. These often lead to several footnotes to make sure Bartimaeus doesn't get too off-topic, as well as explaining some of the story's world. |
| 194 | ** This is actually justified in the third book. Bartimaeus explains that, as a spirit, his intelligence is advanced enough to carry on several trains of thought at once. So he's leaving footnotes ''in his own thoughts for the reader's convenience.'' [[spoiler: Understandably, this causes some issues when he and Nathaniel share Nathaniel's body in the last book. When a chapter is written in Nathaniel's point-of-view during the end of the book and Bartimaeus tries to do [[LemonyNarrator Lemony Narrating]], Nathaniel cuts him off mid-footnote. He still does in in his own chapters, though.]] |
| 195 | * ''Literature/BattleRoyale'' isn't as frequently lemony as most of these entries, but tends to lapse into this when someone is about to die or has just died. For instance, immediately after informing the reader that a character was dead before she hit the ground, the narrator remarks that precisely how much earlier depends on whether one means physically or [[EmptyShell emotionally]]. This may or may not be Koushun Takami's SignatureStyle, since as of this writing [[OneBookAuthor he's only written one book]]. |
| 196 | * Marcus Zusak's ''Literature/TheBookThief'' is narrated by [[DontFearTheReaper Death.]] This provides a nice little prologue and frame for the story, as he opens it by mentioning every instance when he was with the Book Thief - every time that she was near a dying person, which, as this is World War II Germany, happens often. [[spoiler: It's also a good way to provide a lot of [[EverybodysDeadDave cushioning foreshadowing.]]]] |
| 197 | * Creator/IanFleming does this in ''Literature/ChittyChittyBangBang''. It's meant to be a story he's reading [[SoMyKidsCanWatch his own son]]. There's a scene in which Caractacus is said to unleash some profanity, and an accompanying note says, "If you ''must'' know, it was '[[{{Bowdlerize}} Dash my wig and whiskers!]]'" |
| 198 | * Creator/CSLewis narrates in a half-goofy first-person manner in most of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' books, contributing to the DirectLineToTheAuthor. He often turns aside from the story to opinionate, explain context, or say something directly to the reader. |
| 199 | ** In one passage of ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'' he mentions that he has left out all of the sailors' swearing. Elsewhere in that book, the narrator mentions asking Lucy about a sound that she said would break your heart: "'Why,' said I, 'was it so sad?' 'Sad!! No,' said Lucy." |
| 200 | ** He also mentions ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' that if he were to [[NightmareFuel describe all the horrible creatures serving the White Witch]], then your parents would probably not let you read the book. |
| 201 | ** It is also pointed out several times how Lucy always leaves the wardrobe door slightly ajar, presumably so his young audience wouldn’t accidentally lock themselves in while searching for magical worlds in their wardrobes. |
| 202 | ** The first sentence of ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'' is, "There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." |
| 203 | ** Also from ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'': "when the Pevensie children had returned to Narnia last time for their second visit, it was (for the Narnians) as if King Arthur came back to Britain, as some people say he will. And I say the sooner the better." |
| 204 | * Cintra Wilson's ''Literature/ColorsInsultingToNature'' is a strong example of this trope in which the third-person narrator often breaks the fourth wall to address "The Dear Reader" in the manner of books like ''Jane Eyre''. The narrator does tend to go off on tangents about the stupidity of pop culture, although they are somewhat relevant to the story as the whole book is about people who are misguided in their overwhelming desire to be famous celebrities. |
| 205 | * Creator/NealStephenson essentially made his writing career from this trope. ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}'' even came complete with graphs and diagrams to illustrate some of the narrator's points. [[http://books.google.com/books?id=FUha9wJrSXMC&pg=PA544&dq=cryptonomicon+waterhouse+seeks+happiness&ei=MXM9S_q2MI3SkgTKlNnzBA&client=firefox-a&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false Case in point]]. Stick around till after the first graph, then it starts getting particularly amusing. Warning: adult content. |
| 206 | * Creator/CharlesDickens is a strong example, with his wry descriptions of events and {{Author Filibuster}}s on whatever topic he's targeted for his commentary. The reader never forgets exactly who is telling this story. |
| 207 | * The narrator in the story [[http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2535577/1/Charlie_Daniels_Teenaged_Schmoe Charlie Daniels, Teenage Schmoe]] could qualify for this trope, being somewhat of a DeadpanSnarker and using a split personality named Bob as a metaphor for self-debate. |
| 208 | * The ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' series has two, [[DirectLineToTheAuthor a Lemony Memoir Writer and a Lemony Editor]], the eponymous commissar and the local [[BunnyEarsLawyer Bunny-Ears Inquisitor]] respectively. In particular, the latter will sometimes go on a tangent criticizing the former's style of writing, especially the tendency to be [[ItsAllAboutMe all about him]]. They also get into regular [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation disagreements]] concerning Cain's [[TheCape heroism]] / [[FakeUltimateHero lack of heroism]] / [[DirtyCoward cowardice]] / [[TheSoCalledCoward lack of cowardice]]. |
| 209 | * The narrator of Creator/FrederikPohl's short story, "Day Million", has a general dislike of 20-21st century humans. He obviously thinks the readers are homophobic luddites and frequently accuses them of thinking he's lying. |
| 210 | * Adams uses a similar style in his ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'', where he makes odd references to things that seem either irrelevant or that don't even exist in our world. [[spoiler: In a brilliant subversion, every single little idiosyncrasy turns out to be central to the main plot.]] Only Adams never makes this explicit and leaves it to the reader to figure it out. |
| 211 | * Creator/TerryPratchett of ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' and a good few other works. Particularly noticeable in the earlier ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels, where [[FootnoteFever footnotes]] nested three deep were not uncommon.* |
| 212 | --> * Fingers-Mazda, the first thief in the world, stole fire from the gods. But he was unable to fence it. It was too hot.**\ |
| 213 | ** He got really [[HurricaneOfPuns burned on that deal]]. |
| 214 | * Creator/LordByron's "Don Juan" is made up of almost nothing ''but'' this trope. If you take a college course examining the poem, your professor is likely to point out that it's not about Don Juan so much as it is a seventeen-canto conversation the narrator is having with himself and the audience -- but mostly himself. |
| 215 | * ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'': |
| 216 | ** Steven Brust spoofs Creator/AlexandreDumas with Paarfi, the narrator of his "Khaavren Romances". No one is more impressed by Paarfi's storytelling skills than Paarfi himself, and he's not shy about letting his readers know how much they should share his opinion. He will proudly digress for paragraphs at a time to explain a particular literary device he is about to use, and will even digress to explain [[HypocriticalHumor how he doesn't want to waste the reader's time]]. He will also put his narrative on hold to [[AuthorTract start ranting about completely unrelated topics]] that have got his goat, often venting some petty grievance against a rival historian. |
| 217 | ** ''The Baron of Magister Valley'' proves that Paarfi is not alone in his narrative eccentricity. The foreword for the book is written by a critic who spends the entire 1,000 words of his foreword griping that he's being forced to write 1,000 words or else he won't get paid. |
| 218 | * This is Creator/TomRobbins's default mode of writing, with all his novels stuffed with hilarious, often pointless asides. ''Literature/EvenCowgirlsGetTheBlues'', for instance, interrupts the narration mid sentence for a meditation on the nature of reality, culminating in a list of the properties of sentences. "This sentence is made of wood. This sentence is made of yak wool. This sentence suffered a split infinite... and survived. This sentence may be pregnant, it missed it's period" and so on. |
| 219 | * John Fowles does this marvelously in ''Literature/TheFrenchLieutenantsWoman'', where he goes off to write near-essays about the Victorian era, comments on how characters get away from him, inserts himself in a scene and writes two endings for the book (well, maybe three. Depending on how you look at it.) |
| 220 | * ''Literature/{{Gadsby}}'''s narrator, who occasionally complains about circumlocutions mandatory for his lipogrammatic story. |
| 221 | * Creator/NeilGaiman seems to play around with this occasionally, depending on the book. ''Literature/AnansiBoys'', for example, specifically in the tangentially related tales. Also has a bit of fun with it in ''Literature/{{Stardust}}.'' Possibly picked it up from Creator/TerryPratchett. |
| 222 | * R.L.Stine's horror gamebook series, ''Literature/GiveYourselfGoosebumps'', has a lot of moments of these. |
| 223 | * In ''Literature/HansBrinkerOrTheSilverSkates'', most of the book was written with standard narration. In a few places it lapsed into Lemony Narration, such as when the narrator pondered why Santa didn't visit the destitute Brinker household on Christmas. Most jarringly, however, was at the end with the narrator telling you that you didn't care whether Hans or Peter won the race. |
| 224 | * Creator/DavidEddings does it occasionally, such as this description of Cordz of Nelan in ''Literature/TheHiddenCity'': |
| 225 | --> "[[HolierThanThou He probably irritated the Devil. God knows he irritated his neighbours.]]" |
| 226 | * Creator/DouglasAdams' narration of ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. The style used by the narrator, with frequent asides about something only vaguely relevant on a planet that never gets mentioned again, is, notably, identical to the idiosyncratic style of the fictional guidebook itself, which is understandable, since in the radio series the Guide ''was'', in fact, the narrator. |
| 227 | ** Sometimes the guide seems like it's trying to be unbiased (if a little eccentric), until there's an entry like the one on the Sirius Cybernetics Marketing Division describing them as this: |
| 228 | ---> "a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes" |
| 229 | ** And other times, the tone almost seems professional until you come across an entry along the lines of: |
| 230 | ---> "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, mind-bogglingly huge it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space. Listen -- " (Apparently it goes on like that for a while.) |
| 231 | * Creator/DavidWeber is not above this, at least in his ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' novels. Though less overt than most examples, the narration can take on a distinctly snarky twist about whatever is currently going on plot-wise. |
| 232 | * ''Literature/IfOnAWintersNightATraveler'', by Italo Calvino, is narrated by the author writing about you, the reader, who is reading about what the author, the narrator, is writing about you. With much, often hilarious, commentary. |
| 233 | * The narrator of Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}!'' trilogy, who remains anonymous through most of the series before being revealed as [[spoiler: FUCKUP, Hagbard's supercomputer]]. |
| 234 | * ''Literature/InfiniteJest'' by Creator/DavidFosterWallace has a third-person narrator who drops phrases like "batsoid," "the howling fantods," and "tear-assing" amid conventional narration, as well as frequently using the word "like" as filler. |
| 235 | * ''Literature/DeadSouls'' features a narrator who is very snarky and makes a lot of wry comments about the world he is profiling, as well as readers' likely reactions to the story he is telling. |
| 236 | * Denis Diderot's novel ''Literature/JacquesTheFatalist'' is a humorous post-modern novel predating modernism. Frequently, the narrator will talk about all these things that could have happened if he was writing a typical novel, and he likes teasing the reader about it. It's clearly inspired by ''Literature/TristramShandy'' (and in fact plagiarizes some passages from it). |
| 237 | * David Wong, the writer and one of the central characters of ''Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd'' and ''Literature/ThisBookIsFullOfSpidersSeriouslyDudeDontTouchIt'', frequently comments on what's going on, usually to point out the ridiculous or stupid means of saving the world he and [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} John]] employ. He frequently says to the reader things like "You heard me" or "No, really." He also lampshades that much of what happens is probably [[UnreliableNarrator being embellished upon by him]]. A lot. |
| 238 | * Susannah Clarke, in ''Literature/JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell'', is not afraid to interject, true to the 19th-century style, with commentary on the characters and their actions. |
| 239 | -->"It is true that his hair had a reddish tinge, and as we all know, [[RedheadsAreUncool a man with red hair cannot truly be said to be handsome.]]" |
| 240 | * Creator/LouisaMayAlcott does this at the end of ''Jo's Boys'', saying: |
| 241 | --> "It is a strong temptation to the weary historian to close the present tale with an earthquake which should engulf Plumfield and its environs so deeply in the bowels of the earth that no youthful Schliemann could ever find a vestige of it. But as that somewhat melodramatic conclusion might shock my gentle readers, I will refrain." |
| 242 | * Creator/StephenKing, in his later novels, has taken to occasionally peppering passages of scene-establishing description with a lot of second-person "See this, dear reader. See it very well. If we were to continue along this path, it would not take us long before we would encounter etc. etc. etc." stuff. |
| 243 | ** One of his earliest short stories, "The Blue Air Compressor," has him smashing through the fourth wall and introducing himself. He continues throughout the tale, and tells the reader what inspired him, how he dreamed up his main character and his characters' ultimate fates. Weirdly, it works. |
| 244 | * ''Literature/TheLandOfGreenGinger'' is told in the voice of a rather melodramatic children's storyteller. The prose's tendency towards the light {{purple|Prose}} with a heavy salting of CapitalLettersAreMagic and pseudo-ArabianNightsDays mannerisms is demonstrated in the first paragraph: |
| 245 | -->''May Fortune preserve you, Gentle Reader. May your days be filled with constant joys, and may my Story please you, for it has no other purpose.'' |
| 246 | * Yoshiki Tanaka's ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'' novels (on which the anime are based) do this in a subtle fashion. The exposition sections read like a casual academic lecture[[note]]Yoshiki Tanaka is actually a history professor[[/note]]. It should be noted that the original novels were LightNovels that were written in the Japanese kana scripts instead of the more formal kanji. This is why the prose appears so casual when translated. |
| 247 | * The narrator of Felix J. Palma's ''The Map of Time'' frequently rolls his eyes at the characters' behavior, complains about how inane the dialogue is, and spends a lot of time PaintingTheMedium. |
| 248 | * Most of the narration in ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita'' is third-person omniscient, but every now and then the narrator instructs the reader to "please note" some particular detail; or comments on how [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis the real events he's describing]] were later mis-reported InUniverse; or goes off on satiric or downright strange asides. |
| 249 | * [[ScrapbookStory Among the narrators]] of ''Literature/TheMoonstone'' is the house-steward, Gabriel Betteredge. Miss Clack, who succeeds him as narrator, is fairly lemony too: a sharp, shrill, judgemental sort of lemony. |
| 250 | * The narrative of ''Literature/MurderAtColefaxManor'' strays into this occasionally. |
| 251 | * The narrator of A.A. Milne's ''Literature/OnceOnATime'' frequently interjects his opinions and anecdotes from his own life, mostly having to do with his [[VitriolicBestBuds friendship/rivalry]] with Roger Scurvilegs, who has apparently written a [[DirectLineToTheAuthor historical account]] of the same events the narrator is now relating. |
| 252 | * Creator/EdithNesbit will address her readers directly, make observations or comments on what's happening and even skip over things that she thinks her young audience might find tedious. In ''The Railway Children'' she gets tired of calling one of the characters by her full name. |
| 253 | --> ''I am tired of calling Roberta by her name. I don't see why I should. No one else did. Everyone else called her Bobbie, and I don't see why I shouldn't.'' |
| 254 | * ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'': Bobby's narration in the journals he sends to his friends is often very snarky. |
| 255 | * Creator/JMBarrie narrates ''Literature/PeterPan'' in a very odd style, mostly disaffected and dismissive of the amazing events he describes. At one point he can't decide between which of two stories to relate, and flips a coin on them. He is annoyed at the outcome, but holds to it anyway. At another point, he chooses which of Hook's pirates will die to demonstrate their boss's ruthlessness. |
| 256 | -->"Let us now kill a pirate, to show Hook's method. Skylights will do. " |
| 257 | ** Barrie also really dislikes most of the characters, particularly Tinker Bell and the Darlings. When he narrated the story of their mother staying up late waiting for them to return, he gets particularly vicious to the whole family. |
| 258 | ---> "One thing I should like to do immensely, and that is to tell her, in the way authors have, that the children are coming back, that indeed they will be here on Thursday week. This would spoil so completely the surprise to which Wendy and John and Michael are looking forward." |
| 259 | ---> "We are beginning to know Mrs. Darling by this time, and may be sure that she would upbraid us for depriving the children of their little pleasure... The woman had no proper spirit. I had meant to say extraordinarily nice things about her; but I despise her, and not one of them will I say now. " |
| 260 | ---> "Thus Wendy and John and Michael found the window open for them after all, which of course was more than they deserved." |
| 261 | ** This may stem from the book's origins as a stage play in which the narrator was a character who actually appeared onstage. |
| 262 | * Creator/RaymondChandler's series about Literature/PhilipMarlowe frequently borders this, with Marlowe describing people unconventionally (such as describing a blonde as one who could "make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window" in ''Literature/FarewellMyLovely''). The character even [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall alludes to his own strange ramblings when he's concussed]] in ''Literature/FarewellMyLovely'': |
| 263 | -->I mean, you can go through a lot of movements in very few minutes. Is that what I mean? ''What the hell do I care what I mean?'' [...] I got my chin scraped. It feels scraped. That way I know it’s scraped. ''No, I can’t see it. I don’t have to see it.'' '''''[[MediumAwareness It’s my chin and I know whether it’s scraped or not. Maybe you want to make something of it? Okay, shut up and let me think.]]''''' |
| 264 | * The Creator/WilliamGoldman framing narrative of ''Literature/ThePrincessBride''. The movie replaces this with the grandpa/grandson GreekChorus. For example, the first chapter after the introduction begins by recording who the most beautiful women in the world were at various stages of protagonist Buttercup's childhood, and what happened to them and various associates and so on. It also stresses that Buttercup was at no point in her life the most beautiful woman in the world herself; she was merely within the top twenty or so. |
| 265 | * John Flanagan, writer of ''Literature/RangersApprentice'' and ''Literature/{{Brotherband}},'' can get pretty sassy at times. At one point in the latter series, while recording AlwaysIdenticalTwins Ulf and Wulf arguing, he notes that they're so identical in every way that even ''he's'' lost track by this point. |
| 266 | * The Narrator in ''Literature/ReaperIvanNavi'' tends get distracted from time to time and be voice his opinions on the characters and their actions. |
| 267 | * There is a [[VanityPublishing vanity published]] book called ''Samantha Stone and the Mermaid's Quest''. It's actually a pretty good book, but wow, does its narrator want to comment on the action. Lots of similies made comparing characters and situations to seemingly random things -- quite a few having to do with the culture of the American South -- and lots of asides like "he didn't want to leave Sam with him, for reasons you'll find out later", "Sam wondered where she heard that word before, but you, you clever young reader, probably remember", and references to "things you're too young to know about." You know how books often foreshadow which characters will be important later by giving them names and describing them in more detail than others? This book outright lampshades it, with the narrator naming three of the villains and specifically referring to them as "three that you'll meet later" beforehand. |
| 268 | * ''Literature/TressOfTheEmeraldSea'' has a very snarky, irreverent narrator, which stands out a bit from the rest of ''Literature/TheCosmere''; this is justified, however, as the narrator is revealed very early in the book to be [[spoiler: Hoid, a reoccurring character and infamous {{Troll}} with a snarky sense of humor]]. |
| 269 | * Nathaniel Hawthorne was an autobiographical Lemony Narrator. This appeared in some of his short stories but is probably most prominent in ''Literature/TheScarletLetter'' in which the first chapter is the narrator discussing his experiences working as a customs officer before getting to the actual story, which he says was written from documents archived in the Customs House. The narrator doesn't make too many comments during the actual story, but he does wrap it up at the end. |
| 270 | * The narrator of ''Literature/SecretSeries'', [[PenName Pseudonymous Bosch]], takes quite a bit of inspiration from Handler's work, several times warning the reader that of the danger of secrets, and warning the reader not to continue reading. The entire first chapter switches all of the letters with X's, just to illustrate the point of how different and secretive the story is, saying that normally the first chapter of a book reveals the protagonists and their [[BackStory Back Stories,]] but he wasn't going to do that, instead giving the characters pseudonyms as opposed to their real names, and outright telling the reader he is going to replace everything that might help you identify the protagonists or their home 'if you were to come across it one day.'\ |
| 271 | \ |
| 272 | However, his quirky personality leads to more than a couple of slip-ups, and he often tells you right when he is about to do this. He [[ThirteenIsUnlucky doesn't put in a thirteenth chapter,]] and is known to give to tips on how to make the reading experience more exciting. The most apparent occurrence of this is when halfway through the book, you stumble upon a chapter entitled "I've Changed My Mind." He explains that he is going to stop writing the book while the protagonists are still safe. The narrator starts to rant on about how angry the audience must be, and how they might try to bribe him, He lets it slip that he is extremely susceptible to bribes, especially if given a certain kind of chocolate ... which he realizes he has with him ... He ''bribes himself.'' Though never stated completely outright it is eventually revealed that the pseudonymous author is, in fact, the grown-up version of [[spoiler:one of the main protagonists of the series, Max-Ernst]]. The trope is still present but heavily [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] in the SequelSeries, ''The Bad Books'', which feature Paul-Clay, the younger brother of the narrator. This is to the relief of some reviewers of the books, who felt that the trope was used in the original books to the point of nearly driving the reader to distraction. |
| 273 | * ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' by Daniel Handler, writing as Lemony Snicket, [[TropeNamer gives this trope its name]]. Combined with PrivateEyeMonologue in ''Literature/AllTheWrongQuestions'', a {{Prequel}} series featuring Lemony as a KidDetective. |
| 274 | * Creator/WilliamTVollmann uses the bardlike AuthorAvatar William the Blind in his ''Seven Dreams'' series to intersperse wry jokes and anachronistic references into his historical fiction. He also alternates novel chapters with firsthand reportage. |
| 275 | * Subverted in Jonathan Barnes' novel ''Literature/TheSomnambulist'', in which the narrator appears to be utilized in the story as an homage to this trope in Victorian literature. However, [[spoiler:it's later revealed that the narrator is actually the main villain]]. |
| 276 | * "The Princess and the Queen", a novella connected with the ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' series, is framed as [[DirectLineToTheAuthor a work of in-universe history]], written by a [[TheProfessor Maester]] with a dry tone. For instance, the author talks about how the dynastic struggle he's describing is popularly known as "The Dance of the Dragons", which he describes as exactly the kind of stupid name for a bloody civil war that a minstrel would think up (this is a TakeThatMe since that conflict is referenced in the title of the novel ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons''). |
| 277 | * The novels of {{Creator/Stendhal}} often feature this type of narration. |
| 278 | * ''Literature/SplitHeirs'': The book's narrator provides amusing, sarcastic commentary on the story's proceedings throughout. |
| 279 | * ''Literature/TaraDuncan'': Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian mocks her characters in footnotes, does comparisons of their gestures with famous movies, and in later books, gave the chapters long, overly descriptive titles. |
| 280 | * The novel ''Literature/ThreeMenInABoat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)'' features one in the form of the hugely digressive author, Jerome K. Jerome. |
| 281 | * Like ''To Be Or Not To Be'', North's follow-up Shakespeare parody, ''Literature/RomeoAndOrJuliet'' has him back in full force, and while he's okay with how the reader can follow the original plot of the play this time around, he snarks on a lot of options and is frequently annoyed at how the reader chooses to skip certain scenes. The only time he's ''not'' around is when it shifts to [[spoiler:Rosaline's perspective who narrates everything herself]]. |
| 282 | * ''Literature/ToBeOrNotToBeThatIsTheAdventure'' unsurprisingly features this, since it's a parody of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' as a choose-your-own-adventure book. Sticking to the canon route mostly has him bemoaning your terrible decisions and attempting to salvage things by retconning events and/or wresting control from you, but he's got plenty of snark to dish out for the rest of the book as well. |
| 283 | * Creator/JRRTolkien often did this in many of his works, most notably in ''Literature/TheHobbit'' and ''Literature/FarmerGilesOfHam''; but not in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' or ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', which are written more seriously. ''The Lord of the Rings'' and retroactively ''The Hobbit'' are said to be [[DirectLineToTheAuthor translations from the (in-universe) Red Book]]. And notably, the first edition to [=LOTR=] had a preface (later removed) according to which Tolkien "adhered more closely to the actual words and narrative" of the original than in ''The Hobbit''. So the lemony wasn't in Bilbo's account, [[TranslationWithAnAgenda but in Tolkien's translation!]] [[note]]Though the preface also states that Bilbo's own narration had its own share of problems and was a lemony of a different kind: he "was not assiduous, nor an orderly narrator, and his account is involved and discursive, and sometimes confused".[[/note]] |
| 284 | * OlderThanRadio: Laurence Sterne's 18th century novel ''Literature/TristramShandy'' is regularly regarded as an ur-postmodernist novel. The narrator tells the reader to skip or reread passages, plays blank page gimmicks, lampshades various devices and generally discusses the process of writing the novel as the story is being told. |
| 285 | * Creator/MarkTwain is probably as responsible for the American Lemony Narrators who came after him as Wodehouse and Dickens were for their English successors. |
| 286 | * ''VideoGame/VictorVran'': The protagonist starts hearing an unexplained voice at the start of the game that while guiding the protagonist, is also extremely sarcastic and goes off on tangents. For instance, while Victor is fighting a GiantSpider queen, the narrator gets side tracked trying to count her hundreds of eggs littering the floor. The narrator also serves as a {{Foil}} to Creator/DougCockle's more sparse first person narration of Victor as a [[Franchise/TheWitcher Geralt of Rivia]] {{Expy}}. |
| 287 | * Sophie Bell, of ''Literature/TheUltraViolets'' is incredibly fond of this, peppering in lots of LampshadeHanging, pop culture references, and bizarre jokes involving the typography. |
| 288 | * Ari Bach narrates his novel ''{{Literature/Valhalla}}'' in a slightly snarky, irreverent and at times oddly stilted manner. It's almost as if the story is being told by an elderly British professor with a snide take on the events. This is very subtle and only fully comes across when the novel is consumed fully, though a few lines stand out: |
| 289 | -->The bridge’s destruction by explosives was marked by great celebration and pageantry, though it could have been accomplished at less cost by hiring a four-year-old to kick the thing. |
| 290 | * William Makepeace Thackeray has a bizarre narrating style in "Literature/VanityFair", as he makes asides to his (often assumed to be female) audience about what's going on, often referencing events which happened at the time, as well as replying to a letter he received from a disgruntled fan part-way through. (The novel was originally serialised in a magazine.) |
| 291 | * Creator/KurtVonnegut did this in many books, including ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'' and ''Literature/BreakfastOfChampions''. He sometimes outright states that he -- Kurt Vonnegut, the author -- ''is'' the narrator. In the case of ''Slaughterhouse-Five'' this is justified by its having been partly based (time travel and aliens aside) on his own UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo experiences. |
| 292 | * Tolstoy writes short essays in ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' on topics such as the nature of greatness, war, history, and [[TakeThat how much he hates Napoleon]]. Sometimes, they're actually related to the plot. |
| 293 | * Many of Creator/PGWodehouse's books have a talkative, burbling narration style which may well have influenced other British writers, [[Creator/DouglasAdams particularly those who went on record as impressed by his work.]] |
| 294 | * The narrator of ''Literature/ZuleikaDobson'' appears to be a hold-over from the Victorian use of this trope (i.e. an opinionated narrator whose in-universe/out-of-universe status is nebulous). Then he's revealed halfway through the book to be a historian whom the Greek muse of history has granted the ability to be invisibly, intangibly present for the events of the story so that he can write a history book that's more like a novel (and therefore less boring). |
| 295 | [[/folder]] |
| 296 | |
| 297 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 298 | * In ''Series/TenEightOfficersOnDuty'', a 'light drama' about trainee cops in LA, the protagonist (trainee Deputy Rico Amonte) does a lot of this, [[DeadpanSnarker often ruefully commenting on his own shortcomings]] in the process. |
| 299 | * Creator/RonHoward in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', who often replies to statements by the characters as if he was there ("[[LampshadeHanging Hey! That's the]] [[TitleDrop name of the show!]]"). In one episode, he responds to an in-universe TakeThat against [[Series/TheAndyGriffithShow Opie Taylor]] with, "Jessie had gone too far, and had best watch her mouth." In another, he takes any opportunity to insult the narrator of a ShowWithinAShow. |
| 300 | -->"Now ''that's'' how you narrate an episode!" |
| 301 | * William Dozier in ''Series/Batman1966''. Doubles as DescendedCreator. |
| 302 | * Series/BillNyeTheScienceGuy: The cameraman (voiced by Pat Cashman) would usually make sarcastic comments on Bill's attempts at MundaneMadeAwesome, [[FailedAttemptAtDrama drama failure]], and when an experiment failed to go as planned, as well as the occasional NauseaFuel. |
| 303 | -->''[as Bill is blending up a hot dog with a whole bottle of mustard to simulate spider digestion]'' "Oh no... Bill, don't do this...." |
| 304 | * ''Series/TheBookOfPooh''[='=]s narrator often talked regularly with the characters, even to the point of having his own story in the series. |
| 305 | * Andrew Wells in Season 7 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. He narrates the stories he makes up. |
| 306 | --> Come, gentle viewer, and hear the tale of Buffy, Slayer of, the Vamp'''y'''re. |
| 307 | * ''Series/DearWhitePeople'': Giancarlo Esposito serves as one, humorously commenting about the events and issues of the story. [[spoiler:Until the Season 2 finale where [[DelayedNarratorIntroduction ''he's'' the one to meet Sam and Lionel]] when they finally track the Order of X's secret meeting spot.]] |
| 308 | * ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', where the narrator, Mary Alice Young (played by Brenda Strong), is actually a character who died in the first episode of the series, so the narration is occasionally colored by her own opinions of the other characters. Although that's really just for the first 2 seasons. After that point, all the plot threads involving Mary Alice were put to bed, and she became much more of a standard omniscient narrator apart from a couple verbal idiosyncrasies ("Yes..."). |
| 309 | * ''Series/EurovisionSongContest'': |
| 310 | ** Radio/TerryWogan's infamous commentaries. |
| 311 | ** In Germany, Hape Kerkeling did about the same. |
| 312 | * In the mini-series ''Series/GoodOmens'', the narrator is, in fact, God, creator of the universe. You can't get much more lemony than someone who, as she points out, "does not play dice with the universe, but instead plays an ineffable game of my own devising, which might be compared to an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules and who smiles all the time." |
| 313 | * John Blackman, announcer for old Australian VarietyShow ''Hey Hey It's Saturday'', always inserted {{Deadpan Snarker}}y into the show inbetween announcing prizes for games and such ordinary announcer duties. From one of the reunion specials: |
| 314 | -->'''Darryl Somers:''' We're being broadcast all around the world: America, Canada, Pakistan--\ |
| 315 | '''John Blackman:''' [[UsefulNotes/AustralianStatesAndTerritories Tasmania.]] |
| 316 | * Future Ted in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' often berates his younger self for stupid or obnoxious behavior. He's exceptionally Lemony-ish in "Dowiseptrepla", an episode revolving around Future!Ted lampshading every single easily avoidable, utterly moronic decision that led to Marshall and Lily buying their apartment (which Marshall always remembered as one of his three biggest mistakes ever) by showing the characters saying something smart, commenting "that's what we ''should'' have said," and [[RightWayWrongWayPair showing the stupid thing they actually said]]. |
| 317 | * The narrator of ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'' often lampshades elements or speaks about the plot in a jokey way. This is also accomplished by on-screen captions in conjunction with voiceover narration (for example, when Jane decides that she will refer to her unborn baby as a "milkshake", the on-screen caption introducing Rafael originally reads "the father of the baby" and is then edited to read "the father of the milkshake"). |
| 318 | * In the Season 1 finale of ''Series/TheMagicians'', though Quentin does not narrate per se, the episode is treated as if it is a journal he is keeping. This is done by Quentin announcing chapter titles, which appear on the screen, as if in a journal. The episode is about them going to [[spoiler:Fillory]] for the first time, which is the magical land mentioned in [[ShowWithinAShow the fantasy books]] Quentin read as a child. The title chapters sound very much like something an amateur would write, including this gem: |
| 319 | -->"Prologue: Holy Shit, Guys! Fillory!" |
| 320 | * Creator/MontyPython takes this concept and runs with it in [[http://www.montypython.net/scripts/neurotic.php Neurotic Announcers]] where a BBC spot exists just to give an announcer work and the announcer ends up needing the emotional support of other announcers to get through the spot. |
| 321 | * Robert Lee, the narrator of ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}''. He makes frequent jokes about the Mythbusters (who, in fairness, make it easy for him) and always seems to have a [[PungeonMaster theme-related bad pun ready]]. |
| 322 | * ''Series/NeverHaveIEver'': [=McEnroe=]'s narration is in this style, and includes references to his own life and tennis career. Creator/AndySamberg narrates Ben in the same way, and Gigi Hadid does this for Paxton too. |
| 323 | * Augustus Hill in ''Series/{{Oz}}''. He gets even more lemony [[spoiler:after his death at the end of Season 5.]] |
| 324 | * Jim Dale in ''Series/PushingDaisies''. "Young Ned did not think of her as being born or hatched or conceived in any way. Chuck came ready-made from the Play-Doh Fun Factory of life." |
| 325 | * Juliet Stevenson, the narrator of ''Series/QueensOfMystery'', gives an extended sidebar concerning a family with a history of bad luck: an unfortunate yodeling accident, political defeat to a donkey, and an unfortunate incident concerning a champion Samoan arm wrestler, the less of which is said, the better. And this is merely a sidebar. |
| 326 | * In the Netflix adaptation ''Series/{{A Series of Unfortunate Events|2017}}'', Lemony Snicket himself is portrayed by Creator/PatrickWarburton. He is present in many scenes, but is assumed to not actually be there, the series being a dramatization of his reminiscences. He frequently advises the viewer to do or watch something more happy instead, and offers his opinion on characters and on what he wished had happened in the story instead of the increasingly depressing events that do. |
| 327 | * Rod Roddy in ''Series/{{Soap}}'' frequently made fun of the show's absurdly melodramatic plotlines in the PreviouslyOn and OnTheNext segments of the show. |
| 328 | %%Added an example. |
| 329 | * What would ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' be without the Crypt Keeper? This guy is a LargeHam in every sense of the word, using [[HurricaneOfPuns Hurricanes of Puns]] and a great deal of media references into BlackComedy and GallowsHumor while presenting each story. |
| 330 | * An episode of ''Wolf Lake'' was told from the point of view of one of its characters giving a statement to investigators. The character took on a distinctly more {{Cloudcuckoolander}} persona for the episode, and invented details and situations as he pleased, usually according to RuleOfFunny or RuleThirtyFour. And the narration took place over the course of a bowling match. |
| 331 | [[/folder]] |
| 332 | |
| 333 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 334 | * In the first episode of ''Podcast/LiveFromMountOlympus'', Hermes cuts in to tell the audience that Polydectes is just as bad as Dictys says, if not worse. |
| 335 | * ''Podcast/{{Midst}}'' has three of them. They snip at each other, wax eloquent on the lives of background characters, and cheerfully assure the listener that both Fuse and Moc Weepe are screwed. |
| 336 | * Cecil from ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'', who at first seems like a typical carefully neutral and reserved public radio host but then goes off on tangents like how he doesn't believe in mountains and fell in love with [[OmnidisciplinaryScientist Carlos]] [[LoveAtFirstSight the minute he saw him]]. |
| 337 | [[/folder]] |
| 338 | |
| 339 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 340 | * Though there are several examples in ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'', perhaps the most prominent is Bernard Walton, local window-washer and janitor. If ever a kid in Whit's End says he is bored, or he has a problem and Whit's not around, you can be sure that he's in for a retelling of a Bible story. These yarns are consistently peppered with [[DeadpanSnarker deadpan snarking]], humorous comparisons, and references that go over the heads of the younger generation. |
| 341 | ** In "It Happened At Four Corners", Bernard makes up a story about a pair of cousins (exactly like himself and Eugene) who find the map to an underground river of gold. [[HereWeGoAgain At the end of the episode, it nearly comes true.]] |
| 342 | ** Bernard later gets [[ShowWithinAShow a TV program called B-TV,]] in which he almost invariably ends up telling a story in his own particular style. |
| 343 | * Wallace Greenslade on ''Radio/TheGoonShow'', often professing himself as baffled as the listeners as to what is going on. |
| 344 | [[/folder]] |
| 345 | |
| 346 | [[folder:Roleplay]] |
| 347 | * Raem Kischima, from the [[PlayByPostGames RP]] ''Manga/FairyTail'' [[http://ftguild.proboards.com/index.cgi Guild]], belongs to a fan of Creator/DouglasAdams. As such, his posts tend to be quite... lemony. |
| 348 | [[/folder]] |
| 349 | |
| 350 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 351 | * The board game ''Battle of the Halji'': The game instructions start out: "So! You dare to break the seal. I see you have taken no precautions. The wrapping is on the floor. I feel your naked finger upon my page. YOU ARE A FOOL. If this were Thross I would devour you." It goes on in that vein throughout. |
| 352 | * ''Bounty Hunters of the Atomic Wastelands'' doesn't object to snark, such as this example from the quality rankings: |
| 353 | -->''A capable Bounty Hunter might have a GOOD Shooting Ability. A SUPERB rifle will do a rather impressive amount of damage. A TERRIBLE banjo will sound awful, like a real banjo.'' |
| 354 | * ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'' roleplaying game is written as if the author was actually a character from ''The Dresden Files'', and other characters have added comments in the margins. Sometimes it's informal clarifications of the rules, but other times it's jokes, pop culture references, or amusing comments about the beings and events that supposedly inspired the rules. |
| 355 | * The ''Volo's Guide'' series of sourcebooks for the TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms has a lemony ''editor''. Volothamp himself isn't usually that lemony in his descriptions, and neither is the editors that must have [[DirectLineToTheAuthor gone through the books after they were passed on to our world via Ed Greenwood]], but before that was done, Elminster went through the books, correcting errors (and sometimes ''not'' correcting errors, to keep people on their toes) and adding comments. As one might guess by the fact that he leaves his comments in (and by the 'keeping people on their toes' part), Elminster has a rather idiosyncratic approach to editing... at least when it comes to Volo's books. |
| 356 | * The author of ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'' occasionally snarks about what the [[MadScientist Geniuses]] do. |
| 357 | -->"Of course, you could always just ''build giant robots'' and then ''rob banks with them.'' It's not like ''that's'' [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore never occurred to mad scientists in the past.]]" |
| 358 | * The writer of ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}: Dungeon Fantasy'' (a D&D style world) takes occasional lighthearted shots at the players. |
| 359 | --> The number of leprechauns slain annually by adventures looking for pots of gold is truly horrific. The world probably has a lot to answer for. |
| 360 | * Although not technically a narrator, the text of the ''TabletopGame/MonstersAndOtherChildishThings'' sourcebook ''Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor'' is written with this sort of style very much in mind. For example: |
| 361 | -->"Candlewick Vale is something like the maps you get in those real-time strategy video games. You have your little base, and a tiny island of revealed geography surrounded by [[FogOfWar darkness]]. You send out scouts to explore and find resources, and they push back the darkness, revealing more of the map. This brings you into conflict with the enemy, and before you know it they have a [[VideoGame/StarCraft giant floating jellyfish]] [[DropShip dropping monsters]] onto your [[YouRequireMoreVespeneGas gas factory]]. Candlewick has many danger-fraught places waiting to be explored (many with resident monsters, so you better not have a gas factory anywhere)." |
| 362 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Nobilis}}'' 3e and supplement ''A Diary of Deceivers'' are narrated by Jenna Moran's AuthorAvatar, a resident of Nobilis Earth who's involved with the Powers and Excrucians, often to amusing effect. |
| 363 | ** Spinoff ''TabletopGame/ChuubosMarvelousWishGrantingEngine'' is also narrated by Jenna's avatar, who came to Town after the world ended. |
| 364 | [[/folder]] |
| 365 | |
| 366 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 367 | * Peter Shaffer's ''Theatre/{{Amadeus}}'' is narrated by a very old and somewhat mentally disturbed Salieri. |
| 368 | * Sondheim revisits this trope in his play with John Weidman, ''Theatre/{{Assassins}},'' a musical comedy pastiche about people who have killed or tried to kill American presidents. In this one, the narrator safely reassures the audience about what bad people the assassins are and how their actions have nothing to do with any flaws in our own society...until [[spoiler:they get sick of his cheery platitudes about [[RagsToRiches hard work and the American Dream]] and run him off the stage]]. The recent revival puts a twist on it and has the narrator [[spoiler:transform into Lee Harvey Oswald]]. |
| 369 | * In James M. Barrie's plays (best known for ''Theatre/PeterPan'') he manages to do this with his stage directions, often turning them into extended witty essays explaining character motivations or things about the background that couldn't possibly be staged. Some productions run with it and add an actor as narrator to do some appropriate ReadingStageDirectionsOutLoud. |
| 370 | * Some of the Stephen Briggs adaptations of ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels represent the LemonyNarrator as a charcacter called the Footnote. The nested footnotes sometimes get represented with ''another'' Footnote character, who doesn't get on with the first one. |
| 371 | * The [[NoNameGiven Man in Chair]] from ''Theatre/TheDrowsyChaperone''. He alternately complains about and praises the [[ShowWithinAShow play within the play]], gripes about his own life, and [[HypocriticalHumor rants about all of the interruptions]]. |
| 372 | * The narrator of ''Theatre/FlyByNightMusical'' starts off the musical by admitting that he doesn't know where to start, repeatedly realizes that he needs to rewind the story because he's completely skipped over what important characters were doing, and will occasionally say stuff that MakesSenseInContext. |
| 373 | * Tom in ''Theatre/TheGlassMenagerie'' introduces himself at the start of the play as both its narrator and a character in it. Thereafter he steps outside the FourthWall whenever he needs to narrate. |
| 374 | * The Music/StephenSondheim and James Lapine musical ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods'', a {{deconstruction}} of the FairyTale genre, includes a LemonyNarrator who deftly strings several fairy tales together. [[spoiler:Until some of the characters, currently at the mercy of a vengeful giant, decide they don't like how he's telling the story, and [[FracturedFairyTale sacrifice him to the giant.]]]] |
| 375 | * In ''J.B.'' by Archibald [=MacLeish=], Mr. Zuss and Nickles don't fully narrate the action, but they still find plenty of time, when not playing their respective parts of God and Satan, for discussing the scenes and characters and arguing with each other about it. |
| 376 | * ''Theatre/KnickerbockerHoliday'' begins with Washington Irving sitting down to write a history of old New Amsterdam. He wants his book to sell, so he'll make it amusing and romantic and avoid unsavory political details that might offend aristocratic descendants. He has to [[InteractiveNarrator intervene in the action]] a couple of times to keep it that way. |
| 377 | * Prokofiev's opera ''Theatre/TheLoveForThreeOranges'' has four or five ''competing'' lemony narrators: various groups of "audience members" (actually members of the chorus) who continuously interrupt the action to argue about what kind of story they want to see. As the opera goes on, they begin to influence the action directly, providing the heroes with advice and crucial props. Eventually they rush the stage and abduct the main antagonist. It's pretty weird. |
| 378 | * The Stage Manager in Wilder's ''Theatre/OurTown'' is one too, despite his low-key manner. His exchange with Professor Willard is very much outside conventional dramatic exposition. Since he steps in to act as reverend and soda jerk at certain points, he's also an InteractiveNarrator. |
| 379 | * The CharacterNarrator in ''Theatre/PassingStrange'', who is portrayed as a "grown-up" version of the protagonist, frequently interacts with both the audience and the characters in the story, BreakingTheFourthWall at will. |
| 380 | * The musical ''Theatre/{{Pippin}}'', in which the narrator of the play is a character known as the Leading Player who often drags along the action by force and yells at the characters when they forget their lines or entrances. And when a character makes a decision that, according to the Leading Player, wasn't supposed to happen, well... |
| 381 | * F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''Theatre/PorcelainAndPink'' opens with this bit of stage direction. |
| 382 | --> "Room in the down-stairs of a summer cottage. High around the wall runs an art frieze of a fisherman with a pile of nets at his feet and a ship on a crimson ocean, a fisherman with a pile of nets at his feet and a ship on a crimson ocean, a fisherman with a pile of nets at his feet and so on. In one place on the frieze there is an overlapping -- here we have half a fisherman with half a pile of nets at his foot, crowded damply against half a ship on half a crimson ocean. The frieze is not in the plot, but frankly it fascinates me." |
| 383 | * The Snowman in ''Theatre/SeeAmidTheWinterSnow'', as a parody of Burl Ives in ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'', frequently interrupts the play and speaks directly to both the audience and characters in the play. |
| 384 | * The stage production of ''Theatre/ShockheadedPeter'' has/had ''two'' very strange narrators -- one who announces himself as "the greatest actor who has ever existed" and Martyn Jacques of the Tiger Lillies, who sung most of the songs and whose stage persona is intentional nightmare fuel. At the end of one song he would appear to have some kind of breakdown and shrieking "''DEAD! DEAD!! DEAD!! DEAD!!''" over and over again before being forced temporarily offstage. |
| 385 | * Thornton Wilder's ''Theatre/TheSkinOfOurTeeth'' introduces itself with a great deal of fourth-wall-breaking snark from the character Sabina, which might qualify as Lemony narration. |
| 386 | * In ''Theatre/TheSomewhatTrueTaleOfRobinHood'', the narrator is also a member of the cast (Town's Guy), who assists the characters by having the "scene change guy" move them to the right places, bring aide, and invoke flashbacks. |
| 387 | * ''Theatre/{{Urinetown}}'' has Officer Lockstock and Little Sally, a police officer and a street urchin, respectively, who converse about theatre tropes while telling the story. |
| 388 | [[/folder]] |
| 389 | |
| 390 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 391 | * The narrator in ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfWillyBeamish'', who only rears his head if you examine something/one. Depending on what he's describing, it can be any combination of MundaneMadeAwesome, DeadpanSnarker, and ThisLoserIsYou (his opinion of Willy is strikingly low). |
| 392 | * The 2004 remake of ''VideoGame/TheBardsTale'' has a narrator, voiced by Creator/TonyJay, who is clearly wishing he was narrating a classic HeroicFantasy rather than this sham of a story. As a result, the narrator is openly mocking and hostile towards the Bard. At one point, when the Bard slays a MoneySpider and an implausible amount of loot falls out of it, the narrator gets annoyed at how little sense that makes and tells you he's just going to skip the parts about every monster dropping huge amounts of money in the future [[NoFourthWall and the Bard complains how he's being deprived of a source of income.]] |
| 393 | * Rucks, narrator of ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'', is not only the narrator but also a character in-story that you interact with multiple times. This means he often doesn't know more about your situation than you do and a lot of his narration gets rather lemony as a result. Since The Kid is also a HeroicMime Rucks narrates everything The Kid supposedly said. |
| 394 | ** After the success of ''Bastion'', this trope quickly became the trademark of Creator/SuperGiantGames. ''VideoGame/{{Transistor}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Pyre}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'' all feature very personable, very entertaining narrators... and they're all [[Creator/LoganCunningham the same guy]], too. |
| 395 | * The Narrator of ''Videogame/BattleblockTheater'', whether he's commenting on the players in-game or the story in cutscenes, is constantly off his rocker. |
| 396 | -->''"But the eye of the storm is VERY misleading, children. NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON IT because the ocean was all like "PSYCHE!" and [the storm] came back, even bigger this time, twice as big! '''WHSOOOSHOOOSHOO''' As if Poseidon himself extended his hand in friendship, and they spat in his mouth! '''WHOOO-SHULOOSGRBRBRBRBRSHAJAJU-SHJU'''"'' |
| 397 | * ''VideoGame/BestOfThree'': The narrator tends to add in some snarky comments. It calls you out for not knowing what to say when you reconnect with Grant, and later states that you are about to come up with a "rude retort" after one of Grant's comments before you get distracted. |
| 398 | -->''“Oh, hi.” [Two years you had to make up a witty, spontaneous line for this moment. Nice work.]'' |
| 399 | * ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' example. Haku-men's Arcade Mode ending for ''Calamity Trigger'' features Rachel Alucard telling Haku-men's heroic backstory in the means of a bedtime story. You can see it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihebCo0dnpE here]]. |
| 400 | ** Rachel also provides the narration for the tutorial mode. However, being [[DeadpanSnarker Rachel]], she is prone to stopping and insulting the player, especially early on. She eases up quite a bit (but not entirely) once the player has cruised through the easy stuff. |
| 401 | --->''"Blocking certain attacks will expend a Guard Primer. If you expend all your Guard Primers, your character will experience a condition known as 'Guard Crush'. Additionally, you may experience a condition known as 'humiliation'."'' |
| 402 | * The Cave from, ugh, ''VideoGame/TheCave'' is one. Yes, he's a talking cave, and he wishes you wouldn't laugh - getting a date is hard enough already. He spends the whole game laughing at the characters, giving subtle hints and occasionally spoilers. |
| 403 | * Games by Pseudolonewolf/Tobias Cornwall are guaranteed to revel in this: |
| 404 | ** ''VideoGame/ClarencesBigChance'': A platformer about a [[{{Gonk}} Gonkish]], fat, balding 35-year-old BasementDweller who scored a date with someone online and has to prepare for it. |
| 405 | -->'''Signpost''': Watch out for your dear old mother! She's literally everywhere at once! |
| 406 | ** ''VideoGame/{{MARDEK}}'': If you're not hearing characters be bloody hilarious, you're going to be receiving a healthy, sour dose of this trope in descriptions of the items. In particular, a handy item called "God Piss" reads: |
| 407 | -->'''God Piss''': This exciting potion restores 600HP and 60MP. The name is misleading, you'll be glad to know; it's never been anywhere NEAR a REAL god. |
| 408 | * The narrator of the original ''VideoGame/ColossalCave'' InteractiveFiction game, down to the need for the player to solve at least one puzzle in a "lemony" way. For those curious, it involved [[spoiler:being deliberately ambiguous about killing a dragon. When the player types "KILL DRAGON", the narrator responds "With what, your bare hands?" In order to kill the dragon, the player responds "[[BluntYes YES]]".]] |
| 409 | * ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'': The Narrator of ''Dark Crusade'' and ''Soulstorm'' is supposedly an Imperial scholar, and also, apparently, a LargeHam who '''INDEED''' has a... STRANGE way of intoning HIS [=MONologue=]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIUJ9PFhE80 Watch]]. |
| 410 | * Subverted at one point in ''VideoGame/DoomEternal''. Imps are described with, "Weakness: Bullets". Which seems like a joke, but it actually means that bullets, ''specifically'', as opposed to energy weapons or shotgun shells, are particularly effective against Imps. |
| 411 | * ''Franchise/DragonAge'': |
| 412 | ** Despite the fact that he's at the mercy of the Chantry, Varric of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' insists on adding obviously fake, sensationalistic tinsel to the FramingDevice story at random times. His BlatantLies range from people single-handedly felling ogres to himself suddenly becoming [[Film/{{Scarface 1983}} Scarface]] to his best friend's sister having [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking incredibly large breasts]]. Within the story itself, it's also acknowledged that he does this with Hawke's diary - interacting with the diary in Hawke's bedroom may prompt him/her to remark that he not only reads the diary, but ''adds embellishments''. |
| 413 | ** As of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', players can read ''Hard in Hightown,'' Varric's most famous in-universe novel, as a series of codex entries in the game. It's ''full'' of this kind of narration, his description of a ship being a classic example, and so beloved by the fandom that it's being released as an actual book. |
| 414 | --->The ''Dragon's Jewels'' was a big boat. She liked big boats. The pointy bits towered majestically over the water. That roundish wooden part seemed like it could crush armadas beneath its... shit, I don't know, wood. It was the greatest boat in the history of boats. |
| 415 | * ''VideoGame/EatMe'': The narrator talks in a very flowery style, extolling foods and flavours in lavish detail, expresses opinions on things in the story, and calls you/the player character by endearments and diminutives such as "darling", "dear", and "child". |
| 416 | * The narrator of ''VideoGame/EdnaAndHarveyHarveysNewEyes'' likes to follow a format of brief identification-longer declaration-highly unnerving aside. Like so: "A clown! Lilli had never seen a live clown before! Only the dead one who stood outside her window at night." He also tells BlatantLies so often and with so cheery a voice that it swiftly starts to feel like a nonstop SarcasmMode. |
| 417 | * When he is the narrator in ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia,'' Avenger definitely has a very unique style. It rapidly shifts between sarcasm, murderous hatred, lust, approval, respect and vague idlings about his own narration. |
| 418 | * In Fate Tiger Colosseum Upper for Saber Lion's scenario [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Kotomine Kirei]] acts as narrator and while he does give information he never passes up an opportunity to mock the opponents and before the final fight he gets annoyed at how naive Caren's plan was so he [=KOs=] Shirou and assists her saying he was tired of being the narrator. After losing and doing the outro, he complains the ending is boring. |
| 419 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' expansions have a character narrating each new location (Edmond de Fortemps for ''Heavensward'', Lyse for ''Stormblood'', and Ardbert for ''Shadowbringers''). In ''Endwalker'', this role is taken by none other than [[spoiler:Emet-Selch]], whose narrations are snarkier than the last three expansions. |
| 420 | * The narrator from the ''VideoGame/KingsQuest'' fangame ''Silver Lining'' could turn into this if you perform the wrong actions. Get your hands off that, Graham! |
| 421 | * In ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'', this role is filled by none other than Creator/StephenFry. He's prone to strange similes ("Faster than a pneumatic whippet!") and anecdotes about his cat. |
| 422 | * The narrator in ''VideoGame/LittleMisfortune'' alternates between addressing the player and the game's protagonist, often poking mean-spirited fun at the girl's misadventures. [[spoiler: It's because the narrator is a dimension-hopping parasite who has been making her relive the same day over and over for pure sadistic enjoyment.]] |
| 423 | * ''VideoGame/{{Maneater}}'' features an unseen in-universe narrator, voiced by Creator/ChrisParnell, who exists as part of the game's "Creator/DiscoveryChannel {{Expy}} RealityTV show" FramingDevice. His commentary is a grab bag of genuinely informative and interesting marine trivia, jokes about the local wildlife, and sarcastic quips about the city of Port Clovis and its shark-hunting community. He pulls double duty as the GameOverMan, with a pithy line at the ready if the shark should ever meet its fate. |
| 424 | -->''(if the player is killed by an alligator)'' There are seventy-year-olds who have survived gator attacks armed with nothing more than a golf club! Come on, now! |
| 425 | * ''VisualNovel/MinotaurHotel'': The third-person narration used in most of the game is quite creative and sometimes a little humorous. |
| 426 | * The announcer of the tutorial level for ''[[VideoGame/{{MYth}} Myth II: Soulblighter]]'' is described in-game as a "(usually) patient tutor" as he instructs you in how to play the game. However if you ignore his instructions, he'll begin to chastise you, and lose his patience, going as far to ask you if you intend to learn anything. |
| 427 | -->'''Tutor''': This is your warrior. Select him and hit the space bar to stop. [[{{Beat}} ...]] Try stopping him. Use the space bar. ... No, the space bar! ... [[SuddenlyShouting THE BIG KEY BELOW ALL THE LITTLE KEYS!]] |
| 428 | * ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao'': [[TheHero Ambrosia]] is also the narrator. She goes [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny on-side topics about her family or personal history, glossing over what a normal narrator would consider the main story]]. It somehow manages to avoid ProtagonistCenteredMorality, since Ambrosia has no real illusions of her own righteousness. But she talks a great deal about her personal interests in the story at hand (''if'' she's interested in it), her failings in knowledge of legends and history, and her overall skepticism in the story's plot. |
| 429 | --> '''Ambrosia''': ...God would send an Oracle to restore the Earth to Balance, [[BuffySpeak and stuff]]. ''[[TemptingFate But that'll never happen]].'' |
| 430 | ** Ambrosia mainly narrates in the opening parts of either the main game or the PlayableEpilogue, and seems to care ''even less'' about the main story the second time, preferring to instead talk about her marriage and subsequent child. |
| 431 | * The ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' videogame ''On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness'': |
| 432 | ** Episode 1 starts off with a narrator who talks directly to the player character and warns you not to dwell on his mysterious identity... You're dwelling on it, aren't you? Stop that. It's implied that he will be a proper character in later episodes. |
| 433 | ** He continues the trend in Episode 2, asking you to choose a difficulty at the beginning, and [[EasyModeMockery mocking you if you choose easy.]] |
| 434 | ** While the narrator's presence in Episode 3 is somewhat subdued, he makes a comeback in Episode 4: [[spoiler:as the last Old God and hence the Final Boss]]. |
| 435 | * The Narrator of ''VideoGame/PitPeople'', from the same people who made ''Battleblock Theater'', is unique as he also doubles as the BigBad. |
| 436 | * While not a third-person narrator, the Prince in the ''Franchise/PrinceOfPersia: Sands of Time'' series has a tendency to go off on descriptive tangents when entering new areas. In ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones'', it reaches the point where his [[spoiler:alter-ego the Dark Prince]] has to interrupt him to call attention to an important plot event. |
| 437 | * Professor Gregarious T. Oswald in ''VideoGame/Puppeteer2013''. When he's not narrating the story, he's prone to rambling about things only slightly related to the action, arguing with the actors on stage, and becoming easily distracted when cool machines and giant robots show up. |
| 438 | * The narrator of the ''VideoGame/QuestForGlory'' series, especially after voice acting is added. In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'' John Rhys-Davies provides the voice, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R0jcnQGx6M who does a very good job with the odd material.]] And the role isn't left solely to the Narrator: several of the other voice actors ad-libbed so much, and so well, that the dialog doesn't precisely match what's printed on screen, and it's ''hilarious''. |
| 439 | * In the ''Videogame/{{Ratchet And Clank|2016}}'' reboot, Captain Qwark is the narrator of the game and often gives a mix of hints as well as lampshading whatever is happening on-screen. |
| 440 | * ''R/C Stunt Copter'' on the Platform/PlayStation is narrated by Lazlow Jones with heavy doses of this and DeadpanSnarker. |
| 441 | * As is tradition with the books, ''VideoGame/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents2004'' is narrated by Lemony Snicket. He gives mild commentary on the events he's reciting to the player as well as gives them some tutorial information. |
| 442 | * ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'' uses this throughout the series with [[DeadpanSnarker choice commentary]] on your actions. The fourth and sixth games have [[Series/LaughIn Gary Owens]] narrating your exploits. |
| 443 | --> '''Owens:''' Sucking on a bottle of ketchup doesn't seem to satisfy you, no matter what the government says. |
| 444 | * Creator/BruceCampbell, the voice of the tutorial in the ''VideoGame/SpiderManTrilogy'' games, insults the player and leaves mid-tutorial to get a sandwich. When he comes back, he talks with his mouth full. |
| 445 | * Anything and everything by Creator/SpiderwebSoftware (maker of ''VideoGame/{{Avernum}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'') qualifies to some degree, particularly in regard to the narrator's being a DeadpanSnarker. |
| 446 | * ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'''s narrator, who serves as a sort of middle man between Stanley and the game's creators. Even if you end up following the story by the letter, you will only be able to proceed by using information he narrates to you, which will lead the narrator to comment on that. And if you start going OffTheRails, well, things start to get increasingly bizarre. The demo alone serves as a master example of this trope, with the narrator presenting the demo to you, the player. |
| 447 | * ''VideoGame/SuperDarylDeluxe'' -- either someone else is writing about Daryl's exploits in Daryl's journal, or Daryl writes about himself in third person. Either way, the journal is full of inaccurate recountings of what happened during play and openly mocks Daryl for being stupid and easily distracted. |
| 448 | * ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'''s narrator will make comments about the various enemies you face and snark at you when you do something silly. Unless you're in a Genocide Run, in which case nearly all lemony-ness is dropped, with the few personal touches remaining being bloodthirsty instead of comical ("Where are the knives", "In my way", "Looks like free EXP" [said about [[WouldHurtAChild Monster Kid]], and so on). |
| 449 | * ''VideoGame/VGAMiner'': The narrator can be snarky, with lines like "You can't fly, dummy" and "Try the elevator" if you try to go up or down in town. |
| 450 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Violet}}'', the player character is imagining their girlfriend Violet narrating everything. |
| 451 | * ''Franchise/TheWitcher'': |
| 452 | ** The main trilogy has Dandelion, who acts as the author of the in-game journal. As such, his commentary of Geralt's (and the player's) exploits is laced with a lot of jokes, sarcasm, lampshading, and the occasional WhatTheHellHero moment. |
| 453 | ** Then there's the storyteller of the standalone Gwent adventure ''VideoGame/ThronebreakerTheWitcherTales'', who is revealed to be [[spoiler:Borch Three Jackdaws, the golden dragon]]. |
| 454 | * ''VideoGame/WitchsWish'' has this with the instruction manual, which mentions how some novice witches use their fingertips to cast magic, but points out that later spells require precise stylus movement so the stylus is better off used. |
| 455 | * ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}} VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant'' featured a narrator who described the game world for the party, but also delivered deadpan cynical commentary on what the party finds. "You wonder if perhaps mankind has a destiny, a role in the universe. Do mere mortals have a role to play... and then again, perhaps not." |
| 456 | [[/folder]] |
| 457 | |
| 458 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 459 | * In ''VisualNovel/SlayThePrincess'', the Narrator is very talkative and is the one who directs you on your quest. He displays varying levels of irritation and enthusiasm depending on how much you obey him. When you start openly defying him, the consequences of your actions have him narrate your death in a manner that suggests the Narrator thinks you have it coming. [[spoiler:It ties into the game's AmbiguousSituation, as it's unclear how much the Narrator is telling the truth about you needing to slay the princess to prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]] |
| 460 | [[/folder]] |
| 461 | |
| 462 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 463 | * "In the next episode, WebAnimation/BurntFaceMan has sex! With an ''eagle!''" |
| 464 | * The first episode of ''WebAnimation/DrTran'' had a narrator describing the main character (a young boy trying to eat lunch) as an over-the-top action hero, eventually [[InteractiveNarrator getting into an argument with him]] as the narrator's speech descends into gibberish. |
| 465 | --> '''Narrator:''' AND THEN HE'S OFF TO EAT HICKORY-SMOKED HORSE BUTTHOLES.\ |
| 466 | '''Dr. Tran:''' ...Hickory WHAT? Smoked WHAT?\ |
| 467 | '''Narrator:''' ...FROM A CUP!\ |
| 468 | '''Dr. Tran:''' No, I won't!\ |
| 469 | '''Narrator:''' YES, HE WILL. |
| 470 | * This ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgla3fZ2jxs animation]] features Sora dealing with one during the tutorial, who insults him throughout it, makes him select the sword weapon rather than the shield or wand, and attempts to be as much of a [[LargeHam ham]] as possible with Sora repeatedly calling him out the whole time. |
| 471 | * ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Qrow is the narrator for the third series of the ''World of Remnant'' mini-series, which is scattered throughout Volume 4 of the main show. He brings his sarcasm A-game to the role, indulges his alcoholism before talking and shamelessly provides his own personal judgements on the people, places and events he's talking about. |
| 472 | * Out in full force in ''WebAnimation/{{Smashtasm}}'' season 2. |
| 473 | --> ''[ominous music]'' "This is Girem6. He's the villain and leader of the Gear Hack Force. After the perma-ban of his idol Greg he swore revenge against [=Super64=], and created a team of hackers that--"\ |
| 474 | ''[music cuts out]''\ |
| 475 | "wait, wh...? Well there's three more pages of this drivel! Hell, I'm not reading this!" |
| 476 | * ''WebAnimation/SonicColorsRiseOfTheWisps'': After Sonic says he was taken out of the story of the Jade Wisp thanks to Tails' impression of Eggman's laugh, Tails challenges Sonic to read Eggman's lines. He reads them with an exaggerated impression with ad-libbing while making Eggman act and sound like a complete idiot. Tails asks him to give it a rest and just read what the translator actually says. |
| 477 | [[/folder]] |
| 478 | |
| 479 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 480 | * The narrator in ''Webcomic/AnEpicComic'' is seen constantly conversing with the characters, stopping what they are doing, and even bringing in other characters. [[spoiler: It doesn't get any weirder when it turns out ''he's'' the author.]] |
| 481 | * ''Webcomic/BooksDontWorkHere'' Because there is NoFourthWall and the main character argues with him so much certainly makes the director a character. He also “pays” a British guy to read his lines while narrating the comic so he definitely qualifies for this trope. |
| 482 | * ''Webcomic/ChampionsOfFaraus'': While the narration is usually just there to say where people are, or how much time has passed, it gets a good [[DeadpanSnarker snark]] in on occasion, but the best example would be the time where Skye and Daryl are CrossingTheDesert, and the narration makes it clear there's nothing worthwhile to talk about besides the fact that Daryl and Skye are ''just'' walking, and then says "What say we skip the walking?" at which point the story cuts to them in a town -- ''but it doesn't stop being snarky until the end of the page.'' |
| 483 | * ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'', Ethan hosts a Wintereenmas Games Bowl, which was put to print rather than comic [[http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20120125 (more here)]]. Being about Ethan, any narrative account is likely to be this. |
| 484 | * In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', narration tends to end up this way whether it's [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=167 Dan]] [[AuthorAvatar himself]] or [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=255 one of his characters]] doing the narration. |
| 485 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' the [[TrollingCreator Infamous]] Creator/AndrewHussie has been known to get up to such shenanigans as [[NoFourthWall demolishing the fourth and fifth walls,]] [[GISSyndrome stealing other people's offices for his recaps,]] and ''[[HostileShowTakeover strangling the guest narrator.]]'' [[spoiler:[[GreaterScopeVillain Lord English]] [[RageAgainstTheAuthor killing him]] stopped him for a while but later on went right back to tormenting English's past self Caliborn]]. |
| 486 | ** [[PirateGirl Mindfang's]] 'diaries' almost [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005407 literally written like a lemon]], describing even into detail how she treats her 'slave' (who was supposedly the Dolorosa). |
| 487 | ** If Calliope's scrapbook is any indication, then she may serve as an lemony narrator à la Film/{{Stranger Than Fiction}}, whilst also existing within the narration itself. |
| 488 | ** Also, Creator/{{VOXUS}}' [[https://www.youtube.com/user/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsbcg4AODeLmLZBGvt243Wg Let's Read Homestuck]] series has [[https://www.youtube.com/user/SuperBlueBadger SuperBlueBadger]] doing the normal voiceover and [[https://www.youtube.com/user/randomanimegamer42 Blackmagebrad]] as the Act 5 voiceover. As the series would be awkwardly worded if he constantly said things like 'forward arrow', they would sometime rewords the commands to be sillier in a way. |
| 489 | * Constantly in ''[[Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob,]]'' at least when it doesn't drift into InteractiveNarrator. |
| 490 | * In the first ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' book, Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, Rich Burlew adds before the first strips some introductory strips which add a narrator. As the characters continually fail to remain stealthy in their efforts to reach the dungeon they're approaching, they comment on how difficult it is to sneak when there's a voice booming across the countryside announcing what you're up to. So they find the narrator and throw him to the monster guarding the dungeon. He ''still'' can't stop narrating what's happening. |
| 491 | * The Sun God and the Moon Goddess from ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'' sometimes narrate and put their two cents into what's happening. |
| 492 | * ''Webcomic/PennyBlackfeather'' has an InteractiveNarrator - the ghost of protagonists's grandfather - who follows her, commenting on everything she does. He's already snarky with her, but whenever another character turns out to be able to hear him, they tend to rue the fact they cannot throttle him. He's also [[UnreliableNarrator economical with the truth]]. |
| 493 | * In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', the Narrator is JUST the narrator, and not the storyteller. This has led to a few points where the narrator wandered off to ask the author what was going on. |
| 494 | [[/folder]] |
| 495 | |
| 496 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 497 | * ItWebOriginal/DinaMarino narrates her adventures this way |
| 498 | * In ''Terramirum'', there are two narrators, who switch off between segments of the story and argue with each other. |
| 499 | * The narrator of ''Literature/HyperFightingMachineMarmalade'' often attempts to engage the reader in conversation, when he isn't exaggerating the (school-aged) protagonists' romantic troubles in full-on SarcasmMode. |
| 500 | * In [[http://herbaldrink.deviantart.com/art/Misadventures-of-Norma-193263881 this]] metafiction story, where the narrator constantly banters with the characters. |
| 501 | * The Narrator, a mysterious and genderless being, is considered the most sinister villain in ''Pokébattles'', and spends much of his time tormenting and humiliating the main cast. He can't be escaped -- every time a fight breaks out, he can be heard narrating it. |
| 502 | * Website/TVTropes: Your not-so-humble army of tropers almost certainly qualifies! Most recaps on the site stick to a revision of the work. Take a gander at the ones for ''Series/GameOfThrones'' which are an exercise in humor with editors clearly having a blast covering each episode. |
| 503 | * In ''Podcast/SoylentScrooge'', the narrator frequently comments on the characters and what they're doing, and is insistent that characters don't die despite all evidence to the contrary. |
| 504 | * ''Website/TFWikiDotNet'' makes even ''this'' wiki look po-faced and serious. It has a very snarky page for the [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Cheesecake_robot "cheesecake robot"]] one Decepticon fantasizes over in the original cartoon; the page for [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Riptide_(G1) the IDW comic version of Riptide]] captions all of its pictures with lines from the Music/VanceJoy song; and [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/B.O.T[=.=] the page for the episode B.O.T.]] is laden with snide comments on how bad it is. |
| 505 | * Any Twitter thread (and there are many, from numerous writers) that begins with some variant of "Gather round, [term of abuse], because it's time someone told you why [cultural phenomenon] is entirely the fault of [historic personage]. (1/?)" |
| 506 | [[/folder]] |
| 507 | |
| 508 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 509 | * ''WebVideo/CelebrityBricABracTheater'' often has a narrator along these lines. Creator/ChristopherWalken narrated ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', Creator/SeanConnery lent his talents to ''The First Thanksgiving'', and Creator/JackPalance granted ''The First Christmas'' a [[NightmareFuel sinister air]]. |
| 510 | * The narrator in ''WebVideo/DanganronpaParody'' is a DeadpanSnarker [[InteractiveNarrator that sometimes talks to the cast members]] (mostly Makoto). By the final episode, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere he leaves the show]] after getting sufficiently pissed at Makoto being such an IdiotHero. |
| 511 | * The narrator is the only voice in ''WebVideo/DigimonResumido'' with GratuitousEnglish and he gets progressively annoyed each episode. |
| 512 | * The short film [[http://vimeo.com/79306807 "The Gunfighter"]] shows what happens when the characters can ''hear'' the narrator. |
| 513 | * The famous ''WebVideo/HistoryOfJapan'' video is narrated like a 12-year-old off his meds, but still gives a reasonably accurate lesson on Japan's history. |
| 514 | -->"It's time for "Who's going to be the next Shogun?" Usually it's the Shogun's kid, but the Shogun doesn't have a kid, so he tries to get his brother to quit being a monk and be the next Shogun. He says okay, but then the Shogun has a kid, so now who's it gonna be? Vote now on your phones! And everyone voted so hard that the palace burned down." |
| 515 | * The ''LetsPlay/HoboBros''' cameraman and editor, Martin, sometimes puts snarky comments on the screen describing what Luke and Kevin are doing. |
| 516 | * The captions in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7UmUX68KtE Pöpcørn]] [[Franchise/TheMuppets Muppets]] online skit are hilarious. |
| 517 | * Harry Plinkett's movie reviews on WebVideo/RedLetterMedia definitely qualify. One minute he's discussing the characterization tropes used in Citizen Kane and in the next, he's molesting his cat and offering to mail his fans Pizza Rolls. |
| 518 | * Part of the charm of LetsPlay/{{Sips}}' videos, together with his SurrealHumor. If there's no story in a game he [[LetsPlay plays]], he makes one up. |
| 519 | * In ''WebVideo/ArtificialAceAttorney'', at the end of "The Ballistic Turnabout," as Mia, the POV character, is shot dead in court, the video ends with the narrator addressing the viewer. |
| 520 | -->You fall to the ground. Your life ends...\ |
| 521 | Sorry, I couldn't resist.\ |
| 522 | The end.\ |
| 523 | Okay, so that wasn't very funny. Maybe I should have given you a happy ending. |
| 524 | [[/folder]] |
| 525 | |
| 526 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 527 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', Klaus once began to narrate things as though it were the DVD commentary. Being a goldfish hasn't been good for his sanity. |
| 528 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveEngineer'' is narrated by comedian Creator/JerryColonna, who does very little exposition, instead random commentary and speaking on behalf of the characters. Most of the actual narration is done by the King's Men, who sing "The Ballad of Casey Jones". |
| 529 | * ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'''s narrator often adds random information and after the more normal cliffhanger questions adds questions like "Will Penfold get over his fear of coathangers?", or "Will please someone return my washing machine?" He is such a part of the series that he is even given a name in canon -- Isombard.\ |
| 530 | \ |
| 531 | After Danger Mouse has to ride a bike since the car broke: |
| 532 | -->"Has Danger Mouse turned to handlebars because he must dash? ...must dash...moustache...get it? ...Ahem." |
| 533 | * The Storyteller in ''WesternAnimation/DaveTheBarbarian''. In one story, he was magically enslaved by the Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Piggy and forced to read out Chuckles' new narration. The heroes are saved when the Storyteller develops laryngitis and they are able to employ a temporary narrator (albeit one who turns the show into a space opera) long enough to capture Chuckles and free the Storyteller. |
| 534 | * In ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim'', Psycrow forces the narrator to read the lines he's written for him, thus making the events actually happen. He threatens the narrator with larynx-eating insects if he does not comply. |
| 535 | * On ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter once went through a period where he narrated his life. Lois was not well-pleased. |
| 536 | ** During the Word Crawl opening of each installment of the ''Laugh It Up, Fuzzball'' trilogy (Family Guy's ''Franchise/StarWars'' spoof), the words go off on strange tangents, including one that openly mocks the Fox executives about not retaining merchandising rights to the Star Wars franchise, using an animated blue elephant for no reason other than the waste $52,000. |
| 537 | * Joe Leahy, the narrator in ''WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}}'', does such things as argue with the [[ExecutiveMeddling network censor]] and give away plot points, earning the ire of the villains. He also argues with Freakazoid on occasion, and becomes a character in his own right by the end of Season 2. |
| 538 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': |
| 539 | ** "You watched it, you can't ''un''watch it. Stay tuned for more ''Tales of Interest!''" |
| 540 | ** [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Inexplicably,]] but Dr. Zoidberg pops up as a Lemony Narrator at the conclusion of "Love and Rockets": |
| 541 | -->'''Zoidberg''': As the candy hearts poured into the fiery quasar, a wondrous thing happened, why not? They vaporised into a mystical love radiation that spread across the universe, [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds destroying many, many planets]], including [[PlanetOfHats two gangster planets and a cowboy world]]. But one planet was at exactly the right distance to see the romantic rays, but not be destroyed by them: Earth. So all over the world, couples stood together in joy. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg And me, Zoidberg!]] And no one could have been happier unless it would have also been Valentine's Day. What? It ''was''? Hooray! |
| 542 | * The narrator for the [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts Goofy "How to" cartoons]], who often corrects him and slows down the proceedings with verbose digressions. |
| 543 | ** On one cartoon he freezes Goofy in the middle of a pole vault jump to discuss the proper vaulting form, and it turns into a recitation of Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar", all while poor Goofy is trying to maintain his balance. |
| 544 | ** In ''How to Hook Up Your Home Theater'', he even goes as far as to yell at Goofy to find the remote control because the Big Game is about to start. |
| 545 | ** In ''How to Be a Gentleman'', Goofy, after having failed twice in getting into a fancy club (the second time due to a lack of pants), [[NoFourthWall beats up the narrator, who had just angrily chastised Goofy for walking into the club without any pants.]] |
| 546 | * [[CreepyCrows Sir Raven]] narrates a few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', usually by screaming [[LargeHam loudly]] and [[SuddenlyShouting at random intervals]]. |
| 547 | -->'''Sir Raven:''' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis IMPORTANT! COMMERCIAL! MESSAGE!!!!]] |
| 548 | * The narrator of Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' frequently argues with [[GreekChorus the Muses]]. Unlike the ''Bobobo'' and ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'' examples above, the Storyteller ''isn't'' strictly necessary for the plot to progress (in one episode, it's his day off) and he ''does'' appear onscreen (same episode, just after someone remarks on his absence and is informed that he doesn't have to come in to work today, he wanders by with his family -- they're disembodied voices, but we can still see where they are because they're wearing party hats). Also, he was referred to as "Bob." (The voice was provided by Robert Stack.) |
| 549 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve Hearth's Warming Eve]]", Spike acts like one for the [[ShowWithinAShow play telling the origin of Equestria]], making {{aside comment}}s and riffing on [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal alliterations]] describing how the Windigos had turned Equestria's [[ItsAlwaysSpring lovely weather]] into another frozen wasteland. |
| 550 | * ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' had a plot in which Mojo Jojo took over the role of narrator and made the girls commit crimes. |
| 551 | ** The regular Narrator even [[BreakingTheFourthWall interacts with the characters]] and winds up becoming dumbfounded if the episode turns out differently than expected. In "Telephonies", when HIM, Mojo Jojo, and Fuzzy Lumpkins open a can of whoopass on the Gangreen Gang for making [[ItMakesSenseInContext the Powerpuff Girls falsely attack them due to crank calls,]] the [[Creator/TomKenny narrator]] says this: |
| 552 | -->'''Narrator''': And, so the day is saved, thanks to... (Mojo Jojo, HIM, and Fuzzy Lumpkins appear on screen) Mojo... Fuzzy... and ''Him?'' |
| 553 | * ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' showed two goons kidnapping the Narrator... and then realizing that they needed him ungagged so the story could progress forward. |
| 554 | * ''WesternAnimation/RogerRamjet'': The narrator has his own highly idiosyncratic style, sometimes seeming to confuse even himself: |
| 555 | -->"Ain't that a kick in the creel! <pause> What's a creel?" |
| 556 | * ''WesternAnimation/SarahAndDuck'': The narrator is actually a character in the show. Though the audience never sees him, he interacts with the other characters, and influences the plot. He also explains difficult words to Sarah, and seems to come with her and Duck everywhere. He appears to have some connection to Sarah's family. In one episode, when the three of them go up to the attic to find Duck's [[TitleDrop old toys]], they discover a box with several windup robots. |
| 557 | -->'''Narrator:''' ''Goodness! These are MY old toys!''\ |
| 558 | '''Sarah:''' ''Whoa... REALLY old!''\ |
| 559 | '''Narrator:''' ''Not THAT old!'' |
| 560 | * ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' had a narrator who was often shown on screen speaking into a microphone in a sound booth, and would make quips and talk to the characters. Occasionally, he was drawn into the main storyline as well. |
| 561 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has one Mother's Day episode where Moe narrates the story and gets distracted by Marge in the window. |
| 562 | * The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Pip", which is based very loosely on Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/GreatExpectations'', is narrated somewhat lemonishly by Malcolm [=MacDowell=], who introduces himself as "A British Person." |
| 563 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''' narrator is a French man (inspired by Creator/JacquesCousteau) voiced by the title character's voice Creator/TomKenny, no less. At one point, he gets so tired of waiting between time-skips, they have to hire a new one. |
| 564 | * The Japanese dub of ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' added a narrator who would frequently exclaim things like "and now, the battle begins!" or "But then...! Suddenly!" throughout the episode. |
| 565 | * ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'': Sometimes Dick Dastardly would engage in conversation with the narrator, where he would explain his evil plan to dispose of the other racers when questioned about it. The practice was carried over to {{spinoff}} series ''WesternAnimation/ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop'', where it was picked up by Hooded Claw (and sometimes Penelope herself too, while trying to escape a trap). |
| 566 | * ''WesternAnimation/WilloTheWisp1981'': One episode has Willo introduce the episode, then provide a commentary that doesn't quite match up with the action and is frequently sarcastic. |
| 567 | * ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'' has a narrator who constantly breaks the fourth wall and strikes up conversations with the characters, often pointing out plot holes, obvious flaws in plans, and occasionally reading ahead in the script (and being called out for it as well). |
| 568 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheWuzzles'': The narrator seems to have it out for every character in the show, and the first episode ends with him leaving in disgust while the story is [[HereWeGoAgain technically still going]]. |
| 569 | * ''WesternAnimation/ZulaPatrol'' always opens each episode with remarks from its snarky narrator, who at one point refuses to narrate what is actually going on because he says he is taking a break, thereby exempting himself from his narration duties. |
| 570 | [[/folder]] |
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