Line #78 Main/PhlebotinumAnalogy


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9	->'''Egon:''' I'm worried. It's getting crowded in there and all my data points to something big on the horizon.\
10	'''Winston:''' What do you mean, big?\
11	'''Egon:''' Well, let's say this Twinkie represents the normal amount of psychokinetic energy in the New York area. Based on this morning's sample, it would be a Twinkie... thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds.\
12	'''Winston:''' That's a big Twinkie.
13	-->-- ''Film/Ghostbusters1984''
14
15	With as much AppliedPhlebotinum flying around, there's just as much {{Technobabble}} around to explain it. However, when even {{Technobabble}} piles on too much, it too needs to be explained away. Thus, we have the Phlebotinum Analogy. It consists of using a simple simile to explain away something that is seemingly complex to the audience. Really, the only reason that it would be confusing to us is because nine-tenths of the time, whatever the character is explaining has been completely made up, anyway.
16
17	Expect LiesToChildren to show up in the examples a lot. Compare with HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure when it comes to less technobabbly, much bigger things. See also LaymansTerms.
18
19	SuperTrope to FoldThePageFoldTheSpace.
20
21	----
22	!!Examples:
23
24	[[foldercontrol]]
25
26	[[folder:Audio Plays]]
27	* A good one from the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' audio adventure "The Shadow of the Scourge":
28	-->''"I'm inside the Scourge, which is inside of my consciousness, which is inside of the Scourge, so if we detonate one it's like two Russian dolls eating each other!"''
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Fan Works]]
32	* ''Fanfic/BrotherOnBrotherDaughterOnMother'': [[spoiler:Kanril Eleya's time-traveling future daughter]] compares the multiverse to a rope of infinite length. The various {{Alternate Universe}}s are strands composed of probabilistic outcomes that are offset from each other but all moving in more or less the same direction. However, major temporal incursions along a strand can cause the rope to ''fray'', damaging time itself, which is the reason for the [[TimePolice Temporal Prime Directive]]'s existence. The MirrorUniverse, for example, is explained to be the result of a slightly DarkerAndEdgier version of the prime universe that was then hit by [[Film/StarTrekFirstContact a Borg attack from the future]].
33	* ''Fanfic/CatarinaClaesMustDie'': In Chapter 11, Catarina has to make the InternalReveal about her PastLifeMemories, especially the fact that she sees herself being reincarnated into an OtomeGame she played in her past life. The world she's now in, however, is a standard MedievalEuropeanFantasy, and as a result, nobody would have any idea what a VideoGame is. She describes otome games as a kind of romance fiction that is "projected towards you" where the player "attempt[s] to win the heart of a character." The audience still finds the idea bizarre, but [[ThinksLikeARomanceNovel Sophia]] is able to get what Catarina says, and further simplifies it as "a romance novel where you make the story yourself" for the rest of the cast.
34	* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager'': While explaining theories of FasterThanLightTravel to Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres uses a [[TechnologyMarchesOn slide rule]] to demonstrate [[FoldThePageFoldTheSpace folding space]], a squeeze-tube to [[RetroRocket represent Voyager]], and a bubble of illicit moonshine floating in zero-gravity to demonstrate a warp bubble.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
38	* In ''Film/{{Concussion}}'', Dr. Omalu explains to his wife how brain trauma manifests itself in football players by explaining that, unlike animals with built-in "shock absorbers" around their brain, human brains are disconnected from the skull and susceptible to irreparable damage from repeated impacts. To illustrate, he violently rattles an eyeball inside a jar of fluid, with the eyeball slamming violently into the sides of the jar, mimicking what happens to the brain when rattled by a powerful hit.
39	* In ''Film/TheFly1958'', Andre Delambre takes it one step further. Not only does he use the way televisions transmit pictures through the air as an analogy for how his {{teleport\|ation}}er transmits matter, he insists that since a television isn't all that fantastic or impressive, ''a teleporter isn't either''.
40	* ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' has the scene where Egon points out to Winston just how much the levels of psychokinetic energy in New York City have risen. Using an ordinary Twinkie as a baseline, he says the current levels would be represented by "a Twinkie thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds."
41	* In ''Film/TheTheoryOfEverything'', Stephen and Jane Hawking invite their family friend Jonathan to dinner. Stephen has trouble speaking because of his ALS, so Jane uses their peas and potatoes to explain Stephen's physics theories.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Literature]]
45	* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', Marco's dad tries to explain Zero-space to Marco (not knowing that he's traveled in Z-space-capable ships before, and every time he morphs his mass moves in and out of Z-space) with an analogy of a 3D cone, whose surface is 2D. The point of the cone is a singularity from which all points on the cone can be reached, allowing FasterThanLightTravel and interstellar communication.
46	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
47	** Parodied in ''Literature/{{Night Watch\|Discworld}}'', where Lu Tze's explanation of why it's easier to get Vimes back to the present than it was to make sure the time loop that has been formed by Carcer killing his mentor before he met him was stabilized, (it's like climbing up, and then jumping off, a mountain) is satisfactory to Vimes. Then Qu starts to point out that that's [[LiesToChildren not how it works at all]] and Lu Tze tells him to shut up because it'll prevent too many further questions.
48	** In ''Literature/MakingMoney'', Adora Belle Dearheart calls the Cabinet of Curiosities "like a sliding puzzle, but with lots more directions to slide." Ponder Stibbons responds "[[LiesToChildren That is a very graphic analogy which aids understanding wonderfully while being, strictly speaking, wrong in every possible way]]."
49	** In ''Literature/ThiefOfTime'', [[spoiler:Lobsang]] explains how he's putting time back by comparing it to a jigsaw (in which the pieces are scattered across the universe, moving, and mixed up with other jigsaws), before adding "Everything I have just said is nonsense. It bears no resemblence to the truth of the matter in any way at all." Sir Pterry, who co-created the phrase "LiesToChildren", is fond of this gag.
50	* The ''Literature/NewSeriesAdventures'' book ''The Pirate Loop'' includes a great one of these (paraphrased):
51	-->'''Martha:''' So, it's like a stone skipping across the surface of a lake?\
52	'''The Doctor:''' Good analogy! I wish I'd said it. Can we just pretend I did?
53	* In ''Literature/{{Sphere}}'', a physicist character explains gravity and black holes to some of the other characters using fruit on a table.
54	* ''Literature/{{Wayfarers}}'': In ''The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet'', onboard a wormhole-constructing spaceship, ship mechanic and resident {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Kizzy is giving newbie Rosemary a crash course on how they construct wormholes (or "tunnels") for the public to use in intergalactic travel, and how these tunnels make space-hopping functionally an average commute despite actual space being millions of light years apart. What follows is a lengthy description of the equipment and process required, along with a handy demonstration [[FoldThePageFoldTheSpace using a napkin]], before Kizzy sums up it up best as: "It's like a doorway connecting two rooms, only the rooms are on opposite sides of town." Rosemary, a mere ship clerk, still has to take a few moments to wrap her brain around it.
55	--> '''Rosemary:''' So the only place the distance between those two points has been changed is... within the tunnel?\
56	'''Kizzy:''' ''[grins]'' Physics is a bitch, right?
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
60	%%* ''Series/BabylonFive'' has fallen back on this one a few times. Not to anywhere near ''Franchise/StarTrek''[='s=] level, of course.
61	* During a government meeting in ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', Legasov explains how radiation affects people by comparing the particles to miniature bullets.
62	* Parodied in ''Series/DeadRingers'' when Series/{{House}} asks his [[InsistentTerminology Entourage of Improbably Attractive Sidekicks]] to first describe a medical problem in an impenetrably {{Technobabble}} way, and then to come out with an overly emotive PhlebotinumAnalogy. "...''His brain is literally eating itself!''"
63	* ''Series/DoctorWho'' is riddled with this trope.
64	** A fine example occurs in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath The Robots of Death]]" when the Fourth Doctor attempts to explain the transdimensional TARDIS to Leela by showing her two boxes and explaining that if the bigger box ([[DepthDeception which has been placed farther away and looks smaller than the actual smaller box]]) could be kept where it was and yet located where the small box is, it would fit inside the small box.
65	** This is subverted in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride The Runaway Bride]]", in which Donna resolutely fails to understand what the Doctor's talking about ("I'm a pencil inside a mug?"), and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink Blink]]", where the Doctor's [[BuffySpeak inability to explain to Sally Sparrow the way time works]] (because of [[StableTimeLoop a transcript he's locked into saying]]) led to the TropeNamer example for TimeyWimeyBall.
66	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums The Sound of Drums]]": The Doctor uses a strangely appropriate analogy to describe the way a PerceptionFilter works.
67	--->'''The Doctor:''' It's like, [[ObliviousToLove when you fancy someone and they don't even know you exist]]!\
68	''[he runs off, Martha looks frustrated]''\
69	'''Jack:''' ''[to Martha]'' [[EvenTheGuysWantHim You too, huh?]]
70	** In later years especially, the Doctor has developed a tendency of telling his companions that their attempts at this trope are, in fact, completely inaccurate, but that they should keep up that line of thinking if it's what helps them understand. From "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife The Doctor's Wife]]":
71	--->'''Amy:''' Wait, so we're in a tiny bubble universe sticking to the side of the bigger bubble universe?\
72	'''The Doctor:''' Yeah... No! But if it helps, yes.
73	* In ''Series/{{Eureka}}'', the geniuses often use this to explain the Problem of the Week to Carter. The standard format is that one of the regulars gives a {{Technobabble}} explanation of what's happening, and then use the analogy when Carter admits he's no idea what they're talking about. Carter then proposes a solution based on the metaphor, which Henry or Alison translates ''back'' into {{Technobabble}} to provide the ''actual'' solution.
74	%%* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' does this on occasion, hindered (sometimes hilariously) by mutual cross-cultural ignorance.
75	* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': In "[[Recap/TheFlash2014S3E2Paradox Paradox]]", Jay Garrick explains to Barry Allen that no matter how many times you try to fix things with time travel, the best you'll get is a CloseEnoughTimeline. Jay illustrates this by breaking a coffee cup. No matter how well you try to put it back together, there will always be cracks.
76	* ''Series/{{House}}'' plays with the trope; all the other doctors are generally happy to speak to one another in the proper jargon [[AsYouKnow they all understand]], but House himself ''likes'' talking this way: sometimes to [[TheGadfly wind his colleagues up]] or freak patients out, sometimes to stimulate lateral thinking, sometimes purely, as they say, for the lulz. He's been known on occasion to insist that the others speak in analogies, too.
77	-->'''House:''' We think you have a tumour, easily removed surgically. We're going to poke it with a stick.
78	* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'', Ben tells Locke that there is a "box on this island that can contain anything you want." And when Locke takes it [[SidetrackedByTheAnalogy a little too literally]], Ben states outright "the box is a metaphor, John." Hilariously, later we do see something that can be described as a magic box. Locke asks Ben "[[CallBack Is that the box]]?" Ben is confused for a moment, but quickly answers "no."
79	* Happens often enough in ''Series/Numb3rs'' that in "Brutus", when Charlie explains his analysis of a directed graph then fails to explain, one of the FBI agents listening prompts him by saying "Which is just like..." An example of one of the times it's used: Internet Relay Chat, as used by hackers, is like a sea full of boats passing each other leaving nothing but water wakes passing cargo between them. {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in "Greatest Hits", where Charlie starts to make an analogy, only for the agent he's working with to cut him off and circle it back to the original scenario.
80	-->'''Charlie:''' Imagine that you're a mountain goat, trying to get to the next peak, and you know that there is a snow leopard in the valley below...\
81	'''Agent:''' How about if I imagine that I'm ''a bank robber looking for a target''?
82	* In ''Series/RedDwarf'', there's a famous example from "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIStasisLeak Stasis Leak]]" that goes as follows:
83	-->'''Cat:''' What is it?\
84	'''Rimmer:''' It's a rent in the space-time continuum.\
85	'''Cat:''' So what is it?\
86	'''Lister:''' The stasis room freezes time, you know, makes time stand still. So whenever you have a leak, it must preserve whatever it's leaked into, and it's leaked into this room.\
87	'''Cat:''' So what is it?\
88	'''Rimmer:''' It's singularity, a point in the universe where the normal laws of time and space don't apply.\
89	'''Cat:''' So what is it?!\
90	'''Lister:''' It's [[PortalToThePast a hole back into the past]].\
91	'''Cat:''' Oh, a magic door! Well, why didn't you say?
92	* Constantly used in ''Series/StargateSG1'' and ''Series/StargateAtlantis''.
93	** "It's like a miniature universe in a bottle," says [=McKay=], talking about a ZPM.
94	** For that matter, almost any abnormality of the Stargate system is explained in terms of telephones; dialing your own gate gives you a "busy signal", etc.
95	--->'''Daniel:''' ''[excitedly turns to Teal'c]'' What do you get when you dial your own phone number?\
96	''[[[{{Beat}} Teal'c stares blankly at him]]]''\
97	'''Daniel:''' Wrong person to ask.\
98	''[turn to Gen. Hammond and repeat the question]''\
99	'''Gen. Hammond:''' You get a busy signal.
100	** Also in ''Stargate Atlantis'', a scientist back at SGC explains his intent to relay a transmission with an analogy to ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'' (specifically the "twilight bark" scene), as his kids love that movie. The audience completely fails to understand, so he falls back to the GondorCallsForAid sequence of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'' instead. Whereby they all visibly understand.
101	** Fantastically toyed with in one conversation between Zelenka and Sheppard. Zelenka is trying to track a device so they can find kidnapped Daniel and Rodney.
102	--->'''Zelenka:''' No offense, but the math I'm using is so complicated I don't know if I can dumb it down enough for it to make sense.\
103	'''Sheppard:''' Try.
104	** When Zelenka does come up with an analogy, Sheppard proudly says "I understand that", only to be told that the analogy isn't at all an accurate depiction of what he's doing.
105	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
106	** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E26S4E1TheBestOfBothWorlds The Best Of Both Worlds: Part I]]", an away team beams aboard the Borg cube to rescue Picard and also to try to stop the cube so it can be attacked by the ''Enterprise'''s [[WaveMotionGun modified main deflector dish]]. Dr. Crusher suggests destroying the Borg's power distribution nodes by way of "The mosquito's point of view: If we sting them in a tender spot, they might stop for a minute to scratch."
107	** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E16GalaxysChild Galaxy's Child]]", a [[SpaceWhale larva space creature]] is feeding on the ''Enterprise'', both because the ship's energy is compatible, and because it thinks the Enterprise is its mother. So they change the form of the energy to something incompatible, which they call "souring the milk".
108	** Later, in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E4Relics Relics]]", [[CallBack when La Forge is retelling this incident to Scotty]], Scotty uses this exact phrase, despite La Forge (presumably) using only {{Technobabble}} in his explanation.
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Radio]]
112	* Happens regularly in ''Radio/{{Nebulous}}'', where the eponymous professor's analogies get twisted beyond the point of {{Metaphorgotten}}.
113	* In the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' radio play "The Dead Line", using an EMP to dislodge an alien presence in the phone system (which, in the scenario presented, makes sense) is described as "just like a computer uses an EM pulse to repel viruses" (which is total nonsense).
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
117	* Happens a lot in the ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'' due to its FunctionalMagic. Much more expanded upon in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' due to the protagonist being an amateur magus himself.
118	* ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'': While [[SmarterThanYouLook Okabe]] can mostly keep up with [[TeenGenius Kurisu]]'s explanations on Kerr black holes and theoretical physics, Daru and [[TheDitz Mayuri]] don't quite manage to do the same. Thus, Kurisu and Okabe end up explaining physics with {{Magical Girl}}s and video games respectively.
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Webcomics]]
122	* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}'', [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/20060512.html here]]:
123	-->'''Drecker:''' We gave the ball of death a giant cavity and now it's past the enamel! There! Fine! Okay?\
124	''[[[BeatPanel pause]]]''\
125	'''Drecker:''' Oh, like I'm the only one who took a correspondence course in apt metaphors. Sheesh.
126	* In ''Webcomic/{{Digger}}'', the statue eventually explains how Digger came to the story's setting by saying that Digger's home and the temple she emerged from were like two pieces of fabric, sewn together by [[spoiler:[[ChekhovsGun the fossil she brought through with her]], a.k.a. the "bones of the sea"]].
127	* ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellett'': The first emperor of La Familia uses this to explain how he ''thinks'' the Ring Drive works in a letter to his grandson.
128	* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', an interdimensional creature [[http://egscomics.com/comic/2013-01-23 communicates]] to Tedd that "in terms that [he] can comprehend [its kind] feed on excess magic energy in the environment". Its description leads Tedd to make the analogy of the creatures being like algae eaters but with magic, but the creature informs him that, while accurate, they much prefer to be compared to [[SpaceWhale whales]].
129	* An explanation of Deep Time's [[http://starslip.com/2008/10/31/starslip-number-904/ plan for ending the time war]] in ''Webcomic/{{Starslip}}'':
130	-->'''High Agent Blank:''' Put another way: the future as we know it was ''chiseled'' over billions of years from a stone block. We ''know'' what the finished statue looks like. So let's make a mold of that and pour ''the universe'' into it. Then we don't have to worry about whether or not it gets chiseled right.
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Web Videos]]
134	* ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'' parodies the original twinkie analogy from ''Film/{{Ghostbusters\|1984}}'':
135	-->'''Tease:''' His brain is still downloading vast amounts of information from somewhere.\
136	'''Sage:''' How much information?\
137	'''Block:''' ''[referring to the hot dog Sage is eating]'' Enough to make that wiener of yours twice the size of Chicago and three times the height of Mount Everest.\
138	'''Luke:''' Wow, you are hung!\
139	[...]\
140	'''Snob:''' ''[walking into the room]'' How's Spoony holding up?\
141	'''Luke:''' Not good. [[ItMakesSenseinContext Ask Sage about his wiener.]]\
142	'''Snob:''' ...No.
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Western Animation]]
146	* ''WesternAnimation/ExtremeGhostbusters'' makes use of this. One episode follows up such an analogy with the LaymansTerms explanation "It's gonna blow up real good."
147	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
148	** Lampshaded in "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E11WhereNoFanHasGoneBefore Where No Fan Has Gone Before]]", when the Planet Express crew faces an {{Energy Being\|s}} who is holding the cast of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' hostage:
149	--->'''Fry:''' Usually on ''Franchise/StarTrek'', they came up with a complicated plan and explained it with a simple analogy.\
150	'''Leela:''' Hmm, if we can re-route engine power through the primary weapons and configure them to Melllvar's frequency, that should overload his electro-quantum structure.\
151	'''Bender:''' Like putting too much air into a balloon!\
152	'''Fry:''' Of course! It's all so simple!\
153	''[later]''\
154	'''Leela:''' It's not working! He's gaining strength from our weapons!\
155	'''Fry:''' Like a balloon and... [[BuffySpeak something bad happens!]]
156	** In another episode, Nibbler explains that Fry is resistant to psychic attacks because his brain lacks normal "Delta Waves", and had to adapt to function without it [[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum by "cobbling together" his other brain waves]].
157	--->'''Leela:''' Like a prom dress made out of carpet remnants!\
158	'''Nibbler:''' [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood Yes, like your prom dress.]]
159	* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': In "[[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS2E1MyNewWand My New Wand!]]", Glossaryck tries to explain to Star how she can "dip down" and cast magic without her wand by comparing magic to a cauldron of stew and her wand to a spoon. Star promptly gets SidetrackedByTheAnalogy.
160	-->'''Star:''' My wand isn't a spoon, it's a wand.\
161	'''Glossaryck:''' It's a metaphor, Star.\
162	'''Star:''' [[AmbiguousSyntax No, it's a wand.]]
163	[[/folder]]

Context Main / PhlebotinumAnalogy