| 1 | %% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1583749900059357800 |
| 2 | %% Please start a new thread if you'd like to discuss a new image. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | ->'''Richard:''' Somebody think of something, I can't hold 'em off forever!\ |
| 5 | '''Nicole:''' No! This is it! It's all over! The end of the Wattersons!\ |
| 6 | '''Gumball:''' The only thing that can save us is reality being completely reset by some kind of magic device!\ |
| 7 | '''''[roll credits]''''' |
| 8 | -->--''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', "[[Recap/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballS2E40TheFinale The Finale]]" |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Similar to the ResetButton, except that the writers make no attempt to get rid of the plotline's ramifications by story's end. Instead, things are back to normal by the start of the next episode with no explanation. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Repeated use of Snap Back may, for good or bad, cause NegativeContinuity. (Entries on this page that start with "Every episode of..." should probably be on that other page instead.) For use of Snap Backs from a character's ([[StaticCharacter non]])-[[DynamicCharacter developmental]] point of view, see AesopAmnesia. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Compare UnexplainedRecovery for when the Snap Back concerns one specific character, and TheyKilledKennyAgain when it's the ''same'' character over and over again. See also ContinuityReboot, NegativeContinuity, and StatusQuoIsGod. Could be used to subvert MayItNeverHappenAgain. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ---- |
| 17 | !!Examples: |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 20 | |
| 21 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 22 | * One early filler episode of ''Manga/FairyTail'' has Natsu, Loke, Gray, Lucy, Erza, and Happy all swap bodies, then learn they have half an hour to reverse the spell before the effects become permanent. With Levy's help they figure out how to undo the spell in the last minute, but there's only time to return Lucy and Gray to normal, and Levy accidentally swaps the whole rest of the guild while she's doing this. The episode promptly ends, and everything is back to normal the next time, in spite of them referencing it in a non-filler episode later. |
| 23 | * In a chapter of ''Manga/FrankenFran'', [[FairCop Officer]] [[TheChewToy Kuhou]] is surgically transformed into a CuteMonsterGirl. A few chapters later, she is seen as a human again, with no explanation about how she was turned back. The Officer Kuhou in that and later stories may be a clone; she states herself that she doesn't know if she is the original in chapter 21 page 13. |
| 24 | -->'''Officer Kuhou''': I remember! Am I real!? Am I a clone!?\ |
| 25 | '''Franken Fran''': Calm down, calm down. It's all the same. |
| 26 | * ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': |
| 27 | ** Happens to the Team Rocket trio arguably in every episode that ends with them blasting off again, but three notable instances early on in the series stand out: 1) ''Abra and the Psychic Showdown'', in which Jessie and James are left paralyzed for the entirety of the episode after an encounter with Sabrina's doll, 2) ''Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon'' in which they are last shown sealed inside a cave with the aforementioned Pokémon, who were previously implied to be [[ExitPursuedByABear aggressive predators]], and 3) ''Viva Las Lapras'', in which Team Rocket is arrested at the end, in one of the few times in the entire series (the previous time it happened had a scene where they dug out of prison). Cassidy and Butch have gone to jail several times, but it's usually stated that Giovanni springs for their release, something he's unlikely to do for Jessie and James. |
| 28 | ** Happens to Ash at one time, in a way that almost lampshades it. At the end of one episode, Ash gets accidentally turned into a Pikachu. The next episode starts just in time for the spell to wear off. |
| 29 | * Mugen, Jin, and Fuu ''die'' in one episode of ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo''. This episode is never mentioned again and the characters are alive again in the next episode. This is never explained. |
| 30 | * ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'': |
| 31 | ** Itoshiki apparently dies in one episode and runs away after being unable to figure out if he is really himself in another. He's back next episode without explanation. |
| 32 | ** He actually is killed by his female "admirers" in the class in the middle of one episode in Zan, and is alive in the next scene. Maybe it never happened? Maybe he just got better? Does it matter? |
| 33 | * ''Anime/SpaceDandy'': |
| 34 | ** The first episode ends with the main heroes dying in an explosion. They're fine in the next episode, though QT questions it during the preview. |
| 35 | ** Numerous other episodes end in such a way that the series couldn't possibly continue, but snaps back and continues anyway. The SeriesFinale eventually reveals that [[spoiler: all of these episodes are canon, thanks to the existence of TheMultiverse.]] |
| 36 | * The plotlines of ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' frequently devolve into total chaos -- accompanied by either massive property damage or a [[ThunderingHerd run-from-the-lynch-mob chase scene]] -- but the chaos is always resolved offscreen between episodes. The other half of the plots end up with something apparently permanent happening to Ataru: getting split into two exact clones, or getting trapped in an alternate dimension, or getting his house overrun with mirror-demons, just to name a few. All of these consequences always end offscreen by the next chapter. |
| 37 | * In ''Manga/GugureKokkurisan'', characters can die or get maimed, and the world and reality can change, but nothing would really affect the plot or character dynamics as most everything go back to normal by the next chapter/episode. In fact, the characters express surprise when one story actually gets carried over for more than one chapter. |
| 38 | * ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'': Usually operate on StatusQuoIsGod, with things mostly back to normal at the end of a arc when the problem is solved, but a few episodes end in a unresolved situation, with the resolution happening offscreen before the next one. For example, the body swap arc end up with most of the main cast turned into giant living poop ([[ItMakesSenseInContext literally]]), and a few episodes conclude with one or several characters in [[AmusingInjuries the hospital]], only for said character to be fine by the next episode. |
| 39 | * ''Anime/TanteiOperaMilkyHolmes'': Whatever the situation of the character at the end of a episode is, things are back to normal (well, as normal as [[QuirkyWork Milky Holmes]] get) at the start of the next one. This is averted on one occasion, after Kokoro is [[ImTakingHerHomeWithMe taken home]] by Irene at the end of episode 3. When the main characters come across G4 in the following episode, they notice that Kokoro is missing and wonder where she is. |
| 40 | * A slight aversion for ''Manga/AkazukinChacha'': Episode 19 ends with Dorothy, Shiine's master, trapped in a dungeon at her childhood home, then she's absent for much of Episode 20. In Episode 21 (the HotSpringsEpisode), she's back in the countryside near the magic school with no explanation as to how she was able to get out (FridgeLogic suggests she realized she had magic powers and poofed her way home). |
| 41 | * ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'': "...of the Dead" ends with everyone but Garterbelt being turned into a zombie, with Panty and Stocking noticing that they probably won't end up reverting back to normal. The next episode, everything is back to normal with no explanation. The recap episode even shows that the zombie apocalypse really did happen. |
| 42 | * The ''Franchise/DetectiveConan'' franchise: |
| 43 | ** With few notable exceptions (such as Heiji Hattori, [[spoiler:or members of the Organization]]), whenever anyone notices Conan is significantly smarter than he should be or that most of Kogoro's deductions while awake come from hints dropped by Conan, they invariably forget about it by the end of the episode. For example: |
| 44 | *** In "Trembling Metropolitan Police Headquarters: 12 Million Hostages" ([[spoiler:when Takagi and Conan are trapped in an elevator with a bomb and believe they're going to die]]), after Conan has demonstrated a remarkable degree of intelligence and maturity, Takagi asks Conan "who [he] ''really'' [is]". [[spoiler:(And Conan replies, "I'll tell you…in the next life!")]] However, nothing is ever made of this after the episode is over—Takagi drops right back into oblivious ButtMonkey mode. |
| 45 | *** In one two-hour episode where Ran suspects Conan is Shinichi, she observes that he is always "coming up with things" and makes a point of interceding with Kogoro to give him free reign to make his deductions--even lending him a pen to make notes. However, in subsequent episodes (the rest of the series thus far) she is back to scolding Conan for wandering around and "interfering with Kogoro's investigations", and picking him up and hustling him away whenever a police officer complains about a little kid at the crime scene. |
| 46 | *** In another episode where she suspects Conan of being Shinichi because his cellphone beeped when she sent Shinichi an email, she notices how Conan is stage-managing the investigation through hint-dropping--but again seems to forget all about it after she is convinced she was mistaken. |
| 47 | *** It is very much an either-or proposition: outside of the episodes where she suspects Conan is Shinichi, Ran by and large fails to take notice of his unusual intelligence--or if she does, it is trumped by his young age. |
| 48 | ** This was somewhat averted after a long while. Many of the less-oblivious characters around Conan (and some guest investigators from other precincts) eventually came to realize that he keeps noticing useful stuff and that things he tends to say (supposedly) at random end up leading them on to solve the cases. Satou caught onto his usefulness almost immediately (and is so sharp in general that Conan has come to realize he dares not pull the "Sleeping Kogoro" act when she is around lest he risk her catching on). |
| 49 | ** [[spoiler:The "death" of [[BrainUploading Noah's Ark]]]] at the end of ''Anime/DetectiveConanFilm06ThePhantomOfBakerStreet'' can be said as one, to prevent the risk of adding in ''another'' CanonImmigrant as people who knew Conan's secret are, otherwise, important characters. |
| 50 | [[/folder]] |
| 51 | |
| 52 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 53 | * Creator/GrantMorrison's run on [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]] is rather infamous for its rather extreme snapbacks. Premised on the idea of the JLA being an allegory for a pantheon of gods, it was decided that the JLA (being made up of seven of the heaviest of the heavy-hitters in the DCU; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter) would only tackle huge, often ''literally'' world-shattering events. Threats included but were not limited to: an assault on Earth (okay, San Francisco) by renegade angels from Heaven, a war between two nigh-omnipotent djinn that threw the Earth and moon around like basketballs, not one but ''two'' mass invasions by White Martians, and (as a grand finale) a massive galaxy-killing superweapon that was defeated by granting temporary superpowers to '''THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF EARTH'''. The snapback from that final arc (awesome though it is) is enough to give you whiplash. The entire human race apparently suffers no consequences, societal changes or other effects from acquiring superpowers, fighting a galaxy-killing superweapon, and then losing those powers again; in fact, they never even bring it up. Not even in a "Oh, it's Batman: I sure wish I had superpowers again right now" kind of way. |
| 54 | * ''{{ComicBook/Sabretooth}}''. During 2014's ''{{ComicBook/Axis}}'', he was [[HeelFaceBrainwashing inverted]] due to a spell gone wrong by Scarlet Witch & becomes a good guy. He tries to find his own Wolverine, by following Logan's example. He tries to [[TheAtoner atone]] for his past, but he's [[ReformedButRejected not trusted by anyone]]. He eventually had a [[ShipTease budding]] [[BelligerentSexualTension romance]] with [[Characters/GenerationX Monet St. Croix]] in ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen2016''. He was [[TheChampion very]] [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl protective]] of her, to the point he let her feed on him after she's cursed by Emplate & becomes a vampire. The run is cancelled due to ''ComicBook/ResurrXion'', and Creed was shown to have run away with Monet in the last chapter. His inversion showed signs of slipping, but he tried to fight it -using his desire to help Monet as motivation. He knows he's not the man his inverted self is, but doesn't wanna be a monster again. He vows to be something other than the lie or the truth. Since 2017, he's has been starring in Pak's Weapon X vol 3. He's no longer wearing his X-Men costume, he's back to hating Wolverine, and just wants to kill people again. AXIS nor his inversion have come up, and his entire relationship with Monet has been [[NoRomanticResolution dropped with no closure]]. |
| 55 | * The ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse is notorious for this. No matter how extreme the events in a story, they're nearly always somehow undone at the end and never referred to in any later tale. The protagonists may be run out of town, Duckburg may be the victim of a natural disaster, but all of the events have been magically undone. The most obvious example is Uncle Scrooge's money bin, which is completely destroyed multiple times (or in one case, forced to move elsewhere due to the city planning construction that would have to go through it, only to of course be back in its typical spot next story). Some things seem to be unalterable, though -- while Scrooge may lose his money bin, the Beagle Boys never seem to be able to steal his money (except, ironically, in their very first appearance). |
| 56 | ** Sort of lampshaded in one Creator/DonRosa story where the money bin is totally destroyed and Scrooge (after managing to retrieve all his money) comments on how lucky it is that he has a "pre-fab bin" on standby in case of just such an emergency. |
| 57 | * ''Comicbook/NewKrypton'' introduced an entirely new status quo for the ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' franchise, with the title book being taken over by Mon-El, Nightwing and Flamebird taking over ''ComicBook/ActionComics'', and a new planet full of Kryptonians being created. By the end of the event, New Krypton was destroyed, Flamebird and the new Kryptonians were all dead, and Mon-El and Nightwing were sent back into the PhantomZone so that Superman could reclaim his two ongoing titles. |
| 58 | * Because of Creator/DCComics' ComicBook/New52 ContinuityReboot in 2011, this occurred during Creator/GrantMorrison's ''[[ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison Batman]]'' run. Prior to the reboot, Dick Grayson was serving as Gotham's Batman, whilst Bruce Wayne was dealing with matters on an international level as another Batman; when Morrison picked up his story after the reboot, Wayne was the sole Batman again and Grayson was back to being Nightwing to match up with the rest of the New 52 comics without any sort of explanation, whilst Barbara Gordon - long retired from the Batgirl role prior to the reboot - was back in the costume, replacing Stephanie Brown in the role. |
| 59 | [[/folder]] |
| 60 | |
| 61 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 62 | * This is both subverted and lampshaded in ''FanFic/YouGotHaruhiRolled'', when Kyon tells Yuki that she can't talk about what happened in an earlier chapter because "[[NegativeContinuity after a chapter is over, nothing is canon. It all resets.]]" |
| 63 | * ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'': |
| 64 | ** In "Makin' Babies", the main cast are turned into babies by a miscast magic spell. The episode ends with them still stuck as babies. They're adults again in the next episode, with no explanation or even acknowledgement that the baby incident happened. The series creator lampshades this with his description of the episode: "I had a canon once. It was awful." |
| 65 | ** Subverted elsewhere. In "Out With The Old Characters", Apple Bloom burns down the schoolhouse, which reappears in later episodes. The explanation comes in the next season's episode "Granny Smith Is Mean": The schoolhouse burns down ''again'', then reappears in the very next scene. Sweetie Belle comments, "Aw, they're getting really fast at rebuilding the school." |
| 66 | [[/folder]] |
| 67 | |
| 68 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 69 | * ''Film/Transformers2007'' has Bumblebee regaining his ability to speak. In the next two, he's again talking in sound bites without explanation. Also, the first film ends with a very public battle between a ton of robots that no WeirdnessCensor could possibly cover up, and yet the Transformers are back to being a secret only conspiracy theorists believe in by the next film. |
| 70 | * Pretty much what happens to nearly every BondGirl whether they survive or not. By the next film, Bond's moved on with no mention of the women from the last movie. |
| 71 | * In ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' series, there's the matter of Dreyfus. In ''Film/ThePinkPantherStrikesAgain'', he [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons crosses the line between everyday villainy and]] CartoonishSupervillainy, and the film ends with him being disintegrated from existence. In the [[Film/RevengeOfThePinkPanther very next film]], he's in the same situation as he was before (being released from an insane asylum) with nary an explanation. |
| 72 | * In the first ''Film/{{Darkman}}'' film the artificial skin would break down after being exposed to light for exactly 99 minutes. In [[Film/DarkmanIITheReturnOfDurant the sequel]], Darkman works with another scientist and manages to create a new version of the skin which can withstand light for about half an hour longer. In [[Film/DarkmanIIIDieDarkmanDie the third film]] the time limit is again 99 minutes without explanation, other than the fact that the third film was originally filmed as the second. |
| 73 | [[/folder]] |
| 74 | |
| 75 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 76 | * The books of Creator/RobertRankin's ''Brentford Trilogy'' appear to follow one another, except each one contains sufficient destruction to make the next impossible. |
| 77 | * Creator/EphraimKishon [[BlackComedy has died and sometimes even gone to hell]] at the end of several of his short stories. Of course, it didn't exactly last. |
| 78 | * For a while, it was common for Clive Cussler's Literature/DirkPittAdventures novels to end in sweeping global changes... that were promptly ignored by later novels in the series. These endings have included such things as the creation of a perfect "Star Wars" weapon system that would make nuclear war impossible, and the United States annexing Canada. |
| 79 | * ''Literature/RoysBedoys'': In “Don’t Stay Up Late, Roys Bedoys!”, Roys, due to sleeplessness stunting his growth, becomes shorter than his friends. However, by the next story, they’re back to being all the same height. |
| 80 | [[/folder]] |
| 81 | |
| 82 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 83 | * ''Series/LazyTown'': A lot of episodes will have humorous misfortune befall Robbie at the end, like accidentally making a ton of clones of himself or being ejected to the moon. He's always fine come next episode. |
| 84 | * Both played straight and subverted on NBC's ''Series/{{Medium}}'': while ''every episode'', and indeed the entire premise of the show, is about how Alison has [[PsychicPowers significant dreams]], every time she wakes up from a dream and is upset, her husband Joe tells her to go back to sleep, because it was "[[AllJustADream just a dream]]". However, in the episode where their youngest daughter Marie requires glasses, she does indeed wear them again the next episode. |
| 85 | * ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]'' often does the Snap Back ''within the episode itself''. One episode had Mike turned into a small, ventriloquist dummy-esque robot in the second host segment due to the effects of a wormhole the SOL was traveling through, and stayed that way until the next commercial break. Right after the break, he returns to normal with no more explanation than "I'm back!" |
| 86 | ** Of course, the most common example of a Snap Back on [=MST3K=] was Frank getting killed by Dr. Forrester. In every case, he was back in the next episode, looking none the worse for wear. When Frank left the show, Dr. F sang a touching song called "Who Will I Kill?", and in an episode of ''Cinematic Titanic'', Frank {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it by saying blithely, "In my experience, you can die and then come right back in the next episode.". |
| 87 | * ''Series/PoliceCameraAction'', a GenreMashup of documentary, EdutainmentShow, RealityTV and GearheadShow does this ''almost'' every episode, with the explanation being that it's a "training exercise", which it most often is. Of course, any deaths etc. are strictly not real, even if it is RealityTV, and this being [[DarkerAndEdgier a bit more serious]] RealityTV, it's justified. Next episode, Alastair Stewart or the actors with him are back to normal, although this cannot be said for the individuals in the RealLife footage they have sourced. |
| 88 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': |
| 89 | ** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': |
| 90 | *** Spock steals the secret of the Romulan cloaking device, but the Federation never develops their own or learns how to counter it until the time of the next series. In a later ReVision, it is explained that Starfleet has a treaty with the Romulans forbidding them from developing cloaking technology. Justified in-episode by acknowledging that cloaking technology is an ongoing arms race. Spock: "Military secrets are the most fleeting of all" |
| 91 | *** Kirk's brother dying is completely forgotten and everything is back to the status quo by next episode. |
| 92 | *** In the episode "The Changeling," Uhura is mindwiped, and the last we hear of her she can only speak Swahili and is being retaught how to read. She's back to normal by the next episode. |
| 93 | ** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Character events such as Picard recovering from Cardassian torture or having lived an entire virtual life on another planet, are not addressed in later episodes. The one notable exception to this would be Picard's assimilation by the Borg, which returned repeatedly to haunt him over the years. Another would be Geordi's [[{{Brainwashed}} brainwashing]] by Romulans to assassinate a visiting Klingon, from which he's recovering at the end of the episode with Troi's help. It's not only never brought up again, but unclear whether he's rid of the brainwashing. You'd expect he would be removed from duty until they could be sure, as he's a security risk, but no, everything was the same in the next episode. |
| 94 | ** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' Miles O'Brien's traumatic fake 20-year prison sentence that [[DrivenToSuicide culminated in a suicide attempt]] is never mentioned again. |
| 95 | ** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In the episode "The Cloud" the replicator "fuel" is running low, which prompts the Voyager to venture into the eponymous cloud in hopes of siphoning materials to refill it from within. By the end of the episode, they have failed to do so, but in the next one there is no attention paid to casual use of the replicator. |
| 96 | * A strange example: "Isaac and Ishmael", the third season opener to ''Series/TheWestWing'', was prepared as a VerySpecialEpisode reacting to the 9/11 attacks. During the opening sequence, the actors, out of character, outright state that the episode is "a storytelling aberration", and that the audience should not try to fit it into the series StoryArc. The episode falls right in the middle of a CliffHanger, and series continuity proceeds directly from the preceding episode, "Two Cathedrals", to the next, "Manchester". While later episodes imply that the events of the episode are not, strictly speaking, non-canonical, they emphatically do not occur at any specific point in the series continuity. |
| 97 | * On ''Series/SavedByTheBell'', Zach Morris works to understand a girl and her father who are very stand-offish in a TwoPartEpisode. As it turns out, they're homeless and live in Bayside after it closes each day. There's a bit of a TearJerker conclusion when Zach allows both of them to live in his house...''whereupon they are never seen nor mentioned by anyone again''. |
| 98 | * In the final episode of Series 1 of ''Series/TheITCrowd'', [[spoiler: Jen sleeps with Moss, Roy sleeps with Moss's then-girlfriend (who also happens to look just like Roy's [[ParentalIncest mother]]), and Richmond sleeps with the head of the company, Denholm Reynholm.]] Everything is back to normal at the start of Series 2. |
| 99 | * Several characters, but especially Baltar, in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}''. Multiple early episodes end with him being convinced he is an instrument of God, while he's dismissive of the notion again at the start of the next episode. |
| 100 | * ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': |
| 101 | ** Jerry and Elaine attempt to maintain a sexual relationship in addition to their friendship. This naturally backfires, and the end of the episode appears to be Jerry and Elaine's friendship reaching an abrupt end. By the next episode, it's like nothing ever happened. This is due to Larry David thinking it would be the series finale. He'd always been against hooking Jerry and Elaine up, and only did it as a present to the execs on his way out. When the show was unexpectedly renewed, everyone agreed it was best to just sweep everything under the rug. That said, it is given a very brief HandWave in "The Pen", when Jerry's mother asks him what happened. He simply responds that it "didn't work out." |
| 102 | ** At the end of "The Airport", George is trapped on an airplane with a serial killer. In the next episode, he's back in New York alive and well (as "well" as George gets, anyway). |
| 103 | ** The end of "The Soup" has George banned from Monk's Cafe and sitting alone at Reggie's. Obviously, later episodes have him sitting back there with Jerry and the others talking about nothing, but with little to no explanation as to how. |
| 104 | ** George seemingly gave up his philosophy of always doing the opposite off-screen between seasons. He still keeps the job with the Yankees he gained as a result of this philosophy, though. |
| 105 | * On ''Series/ICarly'', Sam spends an episode doing a GirlinessUpgrade because she's worried guys (and Pete, specifically) don't like her because she's too much of a tomboy. In the end, Sam has to give in to that tomboyish side to protect Carly from a bully. Pete and her end up walking out together because he likes a girl who can kick butt. He's never heard of again. |
| 106 | * In the second episode of ''Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace'', after Liz [[HystericalWoman goes crazy]] and tries to kill everyone, she is given a lobotomy to remove her PsychicPowers. The next episode, she still has her psychic abilities, like nothing happened. Not that the show strives for continuity... |
| 107 | * On ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'', a few of the wackier Eric plotlines in the final season had endings that led to this. For example, "The Honeymooners" ends by showing him being [[ImAHumanitarian boiled in a big soup pot]] by Hawaiian natives, yet he's back at home with no mention of this in the next episode. |
| 108 | * Adam was shot in a mid season finale in ''Series/{{Degrassi|TheNextGeneration}}''...and then he gets better by the premiere of the second half of the season and only brings it up twice (and one of these time, it was a one off line that was played for laughs). |
| 109 | ** Sinner was also shot and the only mention of it is when he wears a sling for his whole five second scene in the next episode. |
| 110 | * An early episode of ''Series/FatherTed'' ends with the atmosphere-sucking Father Stone being allowed to live in the Parochial House forever. He's never mentioned or seen again in the rest of the series. |
| 111 | * In the ''{{Series/Dinosaurs}}'' episode "Green Card", Mr. Richfield fires all of his tree pushers because there are no more trees for them to push. Although they do get hired back at WESAYSO by the end (to build a wall to keep four-legged Dinosaurs away, as they are blamed for the bad economy), we never see the trees fully grown back. The next episode we see them at work shows them working as if they hadn't previously run out of trees. Also, while most of the fired tree pushers get hired back, Richfield denies re-employment for Roy, who had just married Monica. We never see him get his job back (though the public [[spoiler: changes its racism of four-legged Dinosaurs after they save the lives of those who got injurred building the wall to keep them out]]). |
| 112 | * ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Chandler goes to Yemen to fend off Janice in "The One With All the Rugby". He's back in New York in the next episode with no explanation of how he got home. |
| 113 | * ''Series/TheMuppetShow'': |
| 114 | ** In one episode, the band decides to quit the show because they dislike the theme song, and during the end credits only Rowlf is in the orchestra. The band is back in the next episode as if no conflict had happened. |
| 115 | ** In the episode with John Cleese, Gonzo's arm gets stretched longer after he catches a cannonball. When Gonzo asks the guest star for help, Cleese merely stretches Gonzo's other arm as well as his legs. After this Gonzo is not seen for the rest of the episode, and his condition isn't mentioned. |
| 116 | * ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': |
| 117 | ** One episode ended with them being turned into chimpanzees. Which they don't actually react to: |
| 118 | --->Peggy: So, I guess we're monkeys. (No-one responds as they continue watching TV) |
| 119 | ** Another episode has Bud fighting and resisting from being taken over by his "Inner cool self". At the end, his cool self has complete control of his body and it just ends there. |
| 120 | * ''Series/NewsRadio'' used this frequently when the [[ExecutiveMeddling network would try and force the writers into a plotline.]] Probably the most jarring example is when Jimmy James hired a woman named Andrea as an efficiency expert. Andrea proceeded to demote Dave, promote Lisa in his place, and fire Matthew. This went on for a couple of episodes... until one episode Andrea was suddenly gone, Matthew had his job back, and [[StatusQuoIsGod everything else that happened in the arc was completely undone]], except for the Dave/Lisa switch, ''without any explanation whatsoever.'' |
| 121 | * Series 7 and 8 of ''Series/RedDwarf'' shifted the status quo of the series quite a bit - first by having the hologram of Rimmer PutOnABus and replacing them with an alternate universe version of Lister's old girlfriend, Kristine Kochanski, and then by them finding a version of ''Red Dwarf'' that had been rebuilt by nanobots with all of the original crew alive and intact, including Rimmer. The final episode of the season (and the original SeriesFinale) ends with a cliffhanger where Rimmer is trapped alone aboard the ship as it's eaten apart with microbes. Cue the series being UnCancelled, and the series is right back to the status quo of Lister, Hologram Rimmer, the Cat, and Kryten alone aboard a perfectly intact ''Red Dwarf'' with almost no explanation given as to where everyone else went (besides Kochanski, where it's stated Kochanski left to attempt to find a way back to her own universe - finding her was a brief SeriesGoal before quietly being dropped), how Rimmer dealt with the microbes, or how he died and became a hologram again. In "The Beginning", Rimmer is about to launch into an explanation of how he saved the ship from the microbes [[TheUnreveal before being cut off.]] |
| 122 | * ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' would occasionally have episodes ended with situations where Frasier would, by all accounts, be completely embarassed and have his reputation ruined (and a few episodes, such as "The Seal That Came To Dinner" and "Deathtrap" even ended with him and Niles being ''arrested''), only for the next to begin with him once again being a relatively beloved public figure. |
| 123 | [[/folder]] |
| 124 | |
| 125 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 126 | * Several episodes of Radio/GilesWemmbleyHoggGoesOff end with Giles apparently facing certain death, only for him to be back to normal for the next one without explanation or acknowledgement. |
| 127 | * While ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry'' doesn't quite enter NegativeContinuity as some events are referenced in later episodes, but no matter what our "heroes" manage to screw up, everything is always back to normal by the next episode. |
| 128 | [[/folder]] |
| 129 | |
| 130 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 131 | * ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'': Many characters' movelists in Xrd omit the newer moves from Accent Core and its revisions, returning them to their #Reload state. In turn, some of the tactics that had been patched out, such as Sol's dreaded Dust Loop, are back in full force. |
| 132 | * At the end of ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles: Ravenhearst'', you see a picture of the cleansed and cheerful Ravenhearst Manor. At the start of "Return To Ravenhearst", not only is it back to being a creepy, trash-filled house loaded with [[SolveTheSoupCans bizarre door locks]], but it's been that way long enough for the local town council to have ''condemned'' the building. |
| 133 | * In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankSizeMatters'' it ends with [[spoiler: Captain Quark shrinking down to action figure size, and just left like that]] yet in the next game, ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction Tools of Destruction]]'' he is back to normal. |
| 134 | [[/folder]] |
| 135 | |
| 136 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 137 | * In ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' the characters die in every episode and yet they are alive and well in the next episode. For about 30 seconds, but still... |
| 138 | [[/folder]] |
| 139 | |
| 140 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 141 | * ''Webcomic/{{Goats}}'' used this trope to allow the comic to continue after frustrated aliens [[EarthShatteringKaboom annihilated the Earth]] on a whim, killing or destroying everything relevant to the comic's canon. However, when the Earth conveniently returns after a week of guest comics, the characters remember everything (in the first comic after the Earth's destruction, a character asks, "Remember that time the Earth was destroyed?") making it either a {{lampshad|eHanging}}ing or SubvertedTrope, depending on how you look at it. |
| 142 | * ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' does this a lot, but in a particularly notable storyline, one of the two protagonists accidentally kills his wife using a technique he learned from a video game, and goes on to win $20,000,000 in a lawsuit. The [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/03/02 Snap Back]] is described in the protagonist's own words thusly: "Money's gone. In my grief, I paid a MadScientist twenty million for a cybernetic replica of my dead wife. It was my wish that it look, feel, and behave just as she did." The next panel keeps it from qualifying as the ResetButton, as said replica is simply a bucket on roller skates, and his wife [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/01/18 does indeed return without explanation]]. They almost never use continuity. Jokes and character traits, as well as characters can repeat, but they even once cancelled the final strip of a 3-part arc for fear of creating continuity. 3-part arcs are the longest anyone gets one Penny Arcade that aren't Twisp, Catsby or the Cardboard Tube Samurai. |
| 143 | * ''Webcomic/BobTheAngryFlower'' is mostly a series of one-shots with very weak continuity. Since Bob is both powerful and amoral, it could be no other way. But one of the books includes a UN Field Guide to Bob and his various weapons and devices, which {{lampshade|Hanging}}s the lack of continuity and {{justifie|dTrope}}s it as the diligent efforts of the government. (Never let Bob near the button that blows up the Earth, since we barely managed to put it back together and resurrect everybody last time.) |
| 144 | * Subverted and {{lampshade|Hanging}}d during the transition between [[http://www.theappleofdiscord.com The Apple of Discord]] (a joke-a-day comic that had been heavy on Snap Back) to the spinoff comic, [[http://www.applevalleycomic.com Apple Valley]] (an ongoing story comic with little-to-no Snap Back that grew out of [=AoD=]) . Several characters go out drinking, only to wake up several states away from home with no idea where they are or how to get home. Thinking the 'joke' done, they wait around for the comic to return to normal, and are horrified when it doesn't and they realize they now have to walk home. |
| 145 | * On ''Webcomic/PlusEV'', Harold won a lot of money and lost it again, lost weight and gained it again... and so on. |
| 146 | * ''Webcomic/PowerupComics'' has a bizarre MetaFiction example: The comic was put on hiatus after (fictional) "creative differences" between Shadow and Chug. The comic came back abruptly in late 2016 without addressing this. |
| 147 | * In ''Webcomic/TheMotleyTwo'', one of these happened sometime in the past, due to unknown temporal chicanery. {{Subverted|Trope}} In the effects do not go unnoticed by the general populace. |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 151 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'', this is usually what happens with Robotnik or his dumb-bots. However, when his base is destroyed in "Robo-Ninjas", one of the last episodes, for the rest of the series it ''stays'' gone, {{avert|edTrope}}ing this. |
| 152 | * The original ''WesternAnimation/AeonFlux'' shorts often ended in her violent and occasionally gruesome death. In half (the pilot, 5 from second season, 2 from third season) of the episodes, the series would have her suffer some apparent terrible fate, and only one episode gives any explanation for why she was around the next episode. A {{fanon}} explanation is that the various Aeon Fluxes are clones. This is unconfirmed, Peter Chung has stated his distaste for WordOfGod. The supporting evidence is from one episode did feature an Aeon clone (and if you're not paying attention, you'll think there are a lot more-- but the others are just women that Trevor made dress up like Aeon). Another episode (beyond the eight) features Aeon dying ''multiple times'', each time coming back without explanation. This episode is notoriously difficult to make sense of, and in a bizarre twist, it's the ''only'' episode in the entire series which makes a reference to another episode. |
| 153 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Many episodes end in ways with situations barely resolved by episode's end, but they change back by the time the next new episode premieres. {{Deconstruct|ion}}ed and {{subverted|Trope}} in the season two finale "The Finale." It starts off as a ClipShow, but as the Wattersons begin to reminisce, various townspeople come to them demanding restitution for all the damage they've done over the previous two seasons. After failing to make amends to the townspeople and having to escape jail, they reason that the only way to get their happy ending is to take their destructive habits up to eleven and [[InsaneTrollLogic cause more trouble than ever before]]. This ends up causing the entire town to form an angry mob and corner them in their home, with Gumball proclaiming that the only way out of this is "[[LampshadeHanging some magical device that resets everything]]." SmashToBlack, roll the credits. Come the very next episode, everything is back to normal for the Wattersons without any mention to those events. |
| 154 | * ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' frequently uses this trope. There have only been three permanent changes to the show's canon: Hayley's marriage to Jeff, the [[KilledOffForReal death]] of Miriam Bullock, and Terry being PutOnABus. |
| 155 | ** Stan has lost a finger in at least two episodes, but is still normally shown with all [[FourFingeredHands eight fingers]]. |
| 156 | ** [[DeathIsCheap Klaus dies]] at the end of "Buck, Wild", and is back to life in the next episode. |
| 157 | ** Duper has died twice. |
| 158 | ** "Rubberneckers" ends with Stan being sentenced to six years in prison for insurance fraud. The next episode has Stan free and it's never mentioned again. |
| 159 | ** "The Shrink" is the most extreme example: Stan, Francine, Steve, and Hayley are shrunken using the CIA's ShrinkRay, which Stan then throws away. At the end of the episode, Roger eats the family. In the next episode, they are all alive again and back to their normal sizes. |
| 160 | ** Stan and Francine die at the end of "Hot Water", although [[SeriesFauxnale it was intended to be the series finale]]. |
| 161 | ** "Ricky Spanish" ends with Roger, under his most evil persona yet, getting Steve thrown in jail. Steve gets out, but he's now a [[TheStoic stoic]], muscular criminal who swears revenge on Ricky Spanish. By the next episode, Steve is back to being a scrawny nerd. |
| 162 | ** "Rapture's Delight" is a extreme example, everyone except Stan and Francine are raptured, and Stan finally goes to Heaven at the end of the episode with his own personal Heaven being a recreation of his personal life before the Rapture happened, only with Klaus being dead. By the next episode, everything is back to normal and the events of the episode are never mentioned again. |
| 163 | ** "Brave N00b World" ends with Earth being destroyed in a nuclear armageddeon and aliens trying to recreate life on Earth after discovering a stray ball of ice cream from a destroyed Chinese culture pod. By the next episode, everything is back to normal and everyone is alive again, as if the events of the episode never happened. |
| 164 | ** "A League of His Own" ends with Francine trapped in a port-a-potty in a warehouse far away from Langley Falls. By the next episode, she's back in Langley Falls with no explanation as to how she got out. |
| 165 | * Like many of its other contemporary cartoons from the late 90s-early 2000s, a number of episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers'' have ended with everything from Earth being frozen over thanks to a space junk beaver dam blocking the sun, Earth's core being destroyed resulting in 99% of the planet being covered in lava (with the only apparent survivors being Norbert, Daggett, Stump, and a lizard), Norbert and Daggett being transformed into single-celled organisms or humans, or Daggett being stuck at the beginning of time, but everything and everyone is back to normal by the next episode. |
| 166 | * '' WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' |
| 167 | ** The show liberally uses a Snap Back at the end of every episode, whether it's really needed or not. No matter what happens, the next episode will have totally restored the players to start. Thus Carl's house still stands despite the fact it's been destroyed several times. Shake is still alive despite being killed at least three times. Frylock moves into his own apartment in one episode, declares he's never coming back (and he ''really'' means it, even refusing to be asked back), but is living at the Teens' house again in the next episode. The lack of continuity is never fully addressed, and considering the wackiness of the show, it's arguably not even a problem. A RunningGag on the show is centered around the only character who does not get a Snap Back each time, M.C. Pee Pants. |
| 168 | ** Surprisingly averted in the movie, which shows that the Aqua Teens used to have a brother made out of concentrated chicken nuggets, but was then devoured by a lion. It's never explained why '''HE''' didn't get to use the reboot button. |
| 169 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', a show that's heavy enough on continuity to reach [[ContinuityLockout lockout levels]], nonetheless has one example of this in "Nellis". The episode starts with Archer saying that he's on the no-fly list (and the fictious no-train list) but the very next episode starts with him in an airport, flying to meet Lana's parents. The episode also has him invading Area 51 and stealing a plane by impersonating a CIA official, which is something that the show wouldn't normally gloss over. |
| 170 | * Many episodes of ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'' end with the titular ConjoinedTwins suffering an unpleasant predicament, only for things to be back to normal in the next episode. Two of the most notable examples are losing their house to the Gopher in "Home is Where the Dirt Is" and ending up permanently trapped inside a ''Mean Bob'' movie in "Spaced Out". |
| 171 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'' manages a particularly impressive Snap Back after the show basically ''deletes itself.'' |
| 172 | * Literally every episode of ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. Something horrible and irreversible always happens to a member of the cast (usually Eustace), but none of these changes ever remain for longer than that episode. It's not NegativeContinuity, however, because villains return and reference their previous exploits and backstories remain consistent. |
| 173 | * This didn't happen too much on ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' due to the lack of continuity in general, but "Let's Save the World You Jerk!" ends with the Earth destroyed by a wave of meteors. Later episodes of the show were set on a still-functioning Earth. |
| 174 | * This happens in the ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents'' all the time. Granted, in many cases the show would end if it didn't return to the [[StatusQuoIsGod Status Quo]]. However, it seems pretty jarring when the characters wise up, the most notorious example being Wishology, in which Timmy Turner FINALLY begins making mature decisions without magic and concerning his fairies. He, also, uses the magic when he does have access to it in a mature way. By using this ResetButton this causes all sorts of NegativeContinuity on the show's part. |
| 175 | ** Especially notable is that at least two episodes ended with [[BigBad Vicky]] in jail, and it doesn't stop her from coming back in the next episode. Considering her parents fear her, one has to wonder who bails her out. |
| 176 | ** This is another show that often does a snap back within the episode itself, like the time when Foop was cut in half, only to be cured in the next shot. |
| 177 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Many episodes usually end in ways that have that are barely resolved by the episode's end, only for everything to be back to normal by the next episode, the only things that have actually remained permanent are when some characters are KilledOffForReal. |
| 178 | ** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in one episode; as the characters walk off, they comment that Peter has still lost his job, and he compares it to an episode of another series with a similar Snap Back, then expresses his disapproval of the notion. Roll credits. This is then subverted in the following episode, which involved both a job hunt and taking a new job. The show recycles the "Peter loses his job, gets a new one the following episode" plot, but it isn't as glaring as {{Recycled Script}}s usually are, since in three of the episodes it's the [[TwoLinesNoWaiting B Plot]]. |
| 179 | ** Subverted in "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing." At the end of the episode, Peter is found guilty and given a prison sentence for blowing up a children's hospital. However, his sentence is only a week long and he is told that he will be out next Sunday at 9, just in time for the next episode. |
| 180 | ** In "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS19E5LaFamigliaGuy La Famiglia Guy]]", Peter has Brian killed for finishing his last can on cream soda (he would have killed him for eating his chicken parm from the previous night, but stopped his assault when Lois brings home steak sandwiches on ciabatta), only for Brian to immediately show up in the next scene as if nothing happened. Then Stewie kills him for eating his Stella D'oro breakfast cookies, but that doesn't stop Brian from continuing to appear in the episode alive and well. At the end of the episode, he gets killed ''[[RuleOfThree again]]'' by Lois for drinking the rest of her white wine, but to no one's surprise, he's in the next episode, death be damned. |
| 181 | ** In "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS21E10TheCandidate The Candidate]]", Joe is disintegrated by a laser fired by the military for asking too many questions. In his next appearance, he's alive and well with no explanation as to how he was resurrected. |
| 182 | * ''WesternAnimation/FanboyAndChumChum''. Some episodes ended with characters being eaten by monsters, getting morphed into toasters, puppets and frogs, being blown up, sent into space, getting sucked into rips between space-time continuums, turned into talking dust, but by the next episode, [[StatusQuoIsGod everything is back to normal]]. |
| 183 | * Any time [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Fred Flintstone]] [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity got fired]] or when the episode ends with him still in deep, deep trouble with Wilma. |
| 184 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': |
| 185 | ** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in "When Aliens Attack." After convincing the Omicronians to stop attacking Earth with a fake 1999 TV broadcast, Fry says it's a law of television that "At the end of the episode, everything's always right back to normal." The camera then shows an external shot of the building, with surrounding New New York in flames and the Statue of Liberty crumbling. Despite this, by the next episode, everything ''is'' back exactly the way it was. |
| 186 | ** In "The Cryonic Woman", Fry loses his job at Planet Express. At the end he asks Farnsworth if he'll rehire him, but [[TrapDoor gets rejected]]. By the start of the next episode, he's back to being a delivery boy. |
| 187 | ** [[SelfParody As the above lampshading implies,]] ''Futurama'' uses this trope all the time. In one episode, Bender has a doomsday bomb in his chest, which he detonates at the end of the episode ("Antiquing? KABOOM") while all the other protagonists are standing right next to him. Everything is back to normal by the next episode, and the explosion is never mentioned again, giving BigLippedAlligatorMoment a [[FunWithAcronyms whole new meaning.]] Though said explosion happens literally right as the credits start rolling, and Bender has a line after the explosion, making it seem less dire. |
| 188 | ** The original FOX run's final episode "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" notably had Leela deafened and only being able to restore her hearing by putting on Calculon's ears, while Bender was tricked by the Robot Devil into giving away his crotchplate, rendering his "Bite my shiny metal ass" catchphrase an empty insult. Both of those developments were ignored by the direct-to-DVD movie era, though in Bender's case there's a possibility that it wasn't too difficult for Bender to regain his crotchplate, as the Robot Devil simply disposed of it in a trash can at the Planet Express building after making the deal with Bender. |
| 189 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' has a number of episodes that end like this, including (but not limited to): Mandy accidentally wishing everyone on Earth was gone except for herself; Grim, Mandy, Billy, and Irwin regressing back into babies and disappearing; Endsville getting turned into a giant cheese pizza; all inhabitants on Earth (including Mandy) having Billy's genes and traits (big nose, egg-shaped head, dumb); Mandy's smile causing the universe to fall apart and transporting Grim, Billy, and herself to Townsvile as the Powerpuff Girls; Nergal forcing everybody in Endsvile to be his friends by way of mind control ([[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou as well as the viewer in breaking the fourth wall]]); and Grim, Billy, and Mandy fused together as some [[Manga/{{Akira}} Tetsuo-like]] creature due to the Apple of Discord. No matter what though, by the next episode, everything's back to normal. Many of these examples could probably be explained by Grim being a RealityWarper, though. |
| 190 | * ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': |
| 191 | ** In "Rhonda's Glasses," Rhonda gets glasses; by story's end, she eventually decides on a non-geeky pair. Said glasses don't show up in later episodes. |
| 192 | ** In "Harold the Butcher," Harold has to work at Mr. Green's butcher shop to make up for stealing a ham; by story's end, he's become an afterschool apprentice butcher. This was never brought up again, and was conspicuously absent from ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'', when Mr. Green sadly mentions that he has no one he can leave his butcher shop to when he retires. |
| 193 | ** "Mugged": Arnold learns martial arts. Where is it for the rest of the series? |
| 194 | ** Nearly very other "learned lesson" in the series seemed to suffer from this on occasion. In some cases, especially in the final season, this was easily dealt with by applying a change to a lesser character, and then shoving that character into the background for the rest of the series, (e.g. "Chocolate Boy"). |
| 195 | * Almost every episode of ''WesternAnimation/MakingFiends'' has ended in a Snap Back, except for web episodes 18-21. |
| 196 | * ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'': |
| 197 | ** Almost every episode ended in this manner. (Like the one where Dib and Zim get turned into ''bologna''. However, in that specific case, in another episode Dib references the situation, and how he and Zim [[EnemyMine worked together to get out of it]].) Zim simply screams "YOU'RE MAKING IT UP!" Whether this counts as Zim being Zim or CanonDiscontinuity is up to the viewer. |
| 198 | ** There's a few other good examples, like the one where Dib ends up trapped in an Irken-designed cage while being beaten by a monkey, as Zim watches, and meanwhile Gaz has a robotic Dib maid (meaning Membrane will not question where Dib is). Who could have let him out of the cage? |
| 199 | ** Or the one where Zim's brain-sucking monster attacks him, which supposedly would have killed him. |
| 200 | *** There is always the possibility that Irkens can [[BizarreAlienBiology survive having their brains eaten.]] |
| 201 | ** It seemed like Zim died at the end of "The Wettening". "HELP! HELP! AAAH! I CAN'T BREEATHE! I-" |
| 202 | ** This has continued into the comic series. Issues can end with things like the Earth getting kicked into the sun by a [[EldritchAbomination Star Donkey]] (which ends up being snapped back by the end of the ''very issue it happens'') and Gaz taking over the Earth after [[FreakyFridayFlip body-swapping with Zim]], but ultimately it'll all be ignored by the very next issue. |
| 203 | * Any time [[WesternAnimation/TheJetsons George Jetson]] [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity got fired]]. Heck, one episode ended with the entire company folding, and George going to work for the competition, with his boss following suit. |
| 204 | * This has happened frequently on ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''. |
| 205 | ** Two episodes have ended with Lucius and Samy falling into an infinite abyss, only to be out by the next episode. Lucius also went insane on two separate occasions, only to be totally cured by the next episode. And then one episode ended with Miseryville being completely destroyed by a giant insect monster, only for the city to be completely fine in the very next episode. |
| 206 | ** The show often does a Snap Back within the episode itself for one-off jokes. For example, in one episode, a hairspray [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext turns Jimmy into a giraffe]], then he suddenly turns back to a human without explanation. Another episode, Heloise's hair gets eaten by Beezy, but in the following scene, she's got it all back again. |
| 207 | ** A few episodes have even ended with the conflict ''never being solved'', like "Cellphone-itis", where Beezy's cellphone dependency ends up saving Lucius, or "Jimmy, Don't Be a Hero", where Lucius finds out from Samy that he still owes Jimmy for saving his life. Those problems are completely forgotten by the next episode. |
| 208 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Several characters have been blown up, [[OffWithHisHead decapitated]], launched into orbit, trapped in [[TrappedInAnotherWorld different dimensions]] or [[TrappedInThePast time periods]], [[SuicideAsComedy committed suicide]], etc., but everyone is perfectly fine by the next episode. |
| 209 | * In ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': |
| 210 | ** The NonActionGuy Ron learns ass kicking Monkey Kung Fu, but only actually ''uses'' it in a very few episodes, most of them monkey-oriented. [[TheDragon Shego]] and [[HarmlessVillain Drakken]] are left TrappedInTVLand, but appear again without comment. Kim and Ron become involved with international law-enforcement organisation Global Justice, but they're usually saving the world on their own. It's not for nothing the producers said that any continuity happened by accident. When the series was [[UnCancelled renewed]] for a fourth season, things started to carry over a bit more. |
| 211 | ** Lampshaded in one episode. "Aren't you a master of mystical monkey kung fu?" "Eh, it comes and goes, you know?" |
| 212 | ** At the end of the episode "Monkey Ninjas In Space", an army of monkey ninjas following a prophecy decide that Ron is their leader, and Kim and Ron are left wondering what to do about them. The monkeys are never mentioned again, and [[spoiler:Ron being the "ultimate monkey master" actually ''is'', but only in the GrandFinale.]] |
| 213 | ** Drakken's lair is always rebuilt by his next appearance; Ron's attempts to improve his popularity or social standing never stick; Kim cedes the captaincy of the cheer squad to Bonnie at the end of "Number One" but is back in the role later. The last is the only one given any onscreen justification (Kim predicts that Bonnie will get tired of the hard work of being squad captain). |
| 214 | ** ''So The Drama'' even verges on BroadStrokes, such as rolling back Kim's learning to reject peer pressure and the hierarchy of the school "food chain", or Bonnie's CharacterDevelopment to return her to her original role as AlphaBitch. |
| 215 | * The ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'' episode "[[Recap/LittlestPetShop2012S2E9ADayAtTheMuseum A Day at the Museum]]" ended with the seeming addition of a main character, a triceratops named Minling. By [[Recap/LittlestPetShop2012S2E10AlligatorsAndHandbags the next episode]], Minling is nowhere in sight, and everyone acts as if she never existed. It seems the writers wanted to do a GainaxEnding just to say they did. (The show loves to parody a lot of things, including tropes) |
| 216 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' episode "Tributeklok", Murderface falls out of a helicopter (which is up pretty high) into an angry mob. The next episode, he's perfectly fine. This is especially confusing considering that [[spoiler: Charles Ofdensen, after being beaten almost to death at the end of season two, now has a scar on his face]], showing that the show does have SOME continuity. |
| 217 | * Happened in almost every single sketch of ''WesternAnimation/MonkeyDust'' where people are brought back to life so they can repeat the same gag in a slightly different way. |
| 218 | * Subverted, and possibly parodied, on ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot''. In one episode, Jenny had accidentally thrown [[StalkerWithACrush Sheldon]] into space with a bunch of [[LoonyFan Jenny-worshipping aliens]]. Sheldon shows up again [[TwoShorts in the episode that aired with the previous one]], but [[PlotRelevantAgeUp is now an old man]], thanks to an apparent lifetime traveling at relativistic speeds trying to get back to Earth ([[ArtisticLicensePhysics which actually works the other way]]), and Jenny doesn't recognize him at first. |
| 219 | * The ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'' episode "We've Got Fleas" featured K.O., Rad, and Enid being turned into a puppy, a cat, and a rabbit respectively after [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent being bitten by Crinkly Wrinkly]]. They eventually find out that they can't turn back to their normal selves and end up resorting to wearing costumes of how they were before they became were-creatures. By the next episode, everything is back to normal. |
| 220 | ** Ultimately {{subverted|Trope}} when the episode "K.O.'s Video Channel" reveals that they're still animals, but just now wear [[LatexPerfection more realistic costumes]] than what they previously had. |
| 221 | ** Played straight in "Soda Genie", where Rad is [[ForcedTransformation transformed into a burger]] by a JackassGenie and is still a burger at the end of the episode, but by his next appearance he is back to normal without any explanation. |
| 222 | * Doctor Doofenshmirtz from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' is always back to normal by the start of the next episode, no matter what horrible thing has happened to him. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in one episode where his daughter says, in response to a boy noting that Doofenshmirtz has just blasted off tied to a giant fireworks rocket, "He'll be fine. He [[NonFatalExplosions blows up all the time]]." At the end of "Agent Doof", Candace is faced with other characters (even her mother) turned into babies. She [[BreakingTheFourthWall hopes it wears off]] [[LampshadeHanging before the next episode]]. |
| 223 | * Happens a few times in ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain''. |
| 224 | ** In "That Smarts", Brain invents a machine to [[PygmalionSnapBack make Pinky as smart as he is]]; his plan backfires and ''both'' of them end up reversing the process on themselves and becoming idiots. The episode simply ends with the two of them sitting in the cage, both now too stupid to operate the machine. Next episode, they are back to normal. |
| 225 | ** The episode "It's Only a Paper World" ends with ''everyone transferred from the real Earth into a fake version of the Earth made out of papier-mache, and the real Earth subsequently exploding''. It was a show that epitomized NegativeContinuity. |
| 226 | * The ''WesternAnimation/PlanetSheen'' episode "[=QuaranSheen=]" had Sheen make up an illness called dance fever so he'd have an excuse to not go to the ball with Oom and the series' villain Dorkus taking advantage of this by tricking the Zeenuians into believing that dance fever was contagious in spite of Sheen's claims so that Sheen would be thrown into a cave. The episode ends with nearly the entire main cast quarantined, but everything is fine in the next episode. |
| 227 | * The fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' ended with what appears to be a massive shift to the status quo: [[spoiler:it's revealed Rick did clone Beth at the end of the third season, but because he did so in such a way that disregards all responsibility for the choice, the entire family completely loses respect for him and strips him of all his control]]. The fifth season premiere, however, doesn't address any of this at all, with only a HandWave mention of [[spoiler:Space Beth]] in the second episode. |
| 228 | * ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'', "That Old Skateboard" (Sam finds an old skateboard; by story's end, Otto and Twister have had to fix it) |
| 229 | * The ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode "Visitors From Outer Space" concludes with a OrWasItADream ending, where, after having an alien abduction dream, Tommy wakes up safe and sound in his crib, but then we see Angelica still stranded on the desert planet digging around for something to eat. By the next episode's first segment, she's back on Earth with her family. |
| 230 | * Typically ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' episodes end with the [[StatusQuoIsGod status quo being maintained]]. Jack survives unchanged, Aku escapes death, lesser antagonists are killed or defeated utterly, whatever plot device Jack was planning to use to return to his own time is realized as a fake, destroyed, or taken by someone else. Now and then it ''isn't'', and then this trope comes into play. |
| 231 | ** In Season Two Jack learns to "[[NotQuiteFlight jump good]]" in order to fight the rather large Aku. Nothing seemed to stop Jack from slaying Aku and/or getting to the portal and they... just cut it short there! No explanation, no flashbacks, no nothing! It is made even worse when it is given a {{Continuity Nod}} in a later episode. |
| 232 | ** Then there's Jack actually managing to get his hands on the time-travel-related bauble of the episode and ''keeping it'', fighting off Aku and looking at the intact gems in his hands with satisfaction. They are never seen or referenced again. |
| 233 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2021}}'' uses a Snap Back at the end of nearly every episode, when Sealab is destroyed. |
| 234 | * Frequently parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. |
| 235 | ** For example, the episode "The Principal and the Pauper." Also in "Homer Loves Flanders" wherein Lisa comments on the effect, playing with the FourthWall. And there's "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade" where Skinner says: "What this episode has taught us is that there's nothing better than [[StatusQuoIsGod the status quo]]," and promptly puts them back in their respective grades. |
| 236 | ** Also somewhat subverted after ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'', as the opening for the first episode of the next season shows that Springfield is still being rebuilt. |
| 237 | ** Also {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in the film itself; Bart can't remember the word "consistency". |
| 238 | ** "We're on the Road to D'ohwhere", wherein Homer gets in trouble with a Las Vegas pit boss after losing Bart and held hostage, and Marge ends up in prison for selling expired prescription drugs in a yard sale. This leaves Lisa to fend for herself and Maggie, something she apparently always thought would eventually happen. The episode ends with her saying that she'll look for work in the morning.... by the following episode, everything has been resolved/never happened in the first place. |
| 239 | ** In "There's Something About Marrying", Homer gets a marriage license and holds weddings throughout the episode. At the end of the episode, Lisa, apropos of nothing, declares, "Well, that's the end of Dad's wedding business." This leaves Bart to ask, "Why?" |
| 240 | ** The BizarroEpisode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" ends with the family trapped on what is effectively the island from ''Series/ThePrisoner1967''. They're back home by the next episode with no explanation. |
| 241 | * ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': |
| 242 | ** Just about every episode (in the first few seasons) involves Kenny dying in some horrific way, but he's back to normal in the next episode, even to the extent of [[LampshadeHanging phasing him back in at the beginning of a two-part episode when he died in the first part.]] Kenny is eventually KilledOffForReal in an episode heavy with LampshadeHanging, the boys dreading the possibility that Kenny might die. He is eventually brought back but very rarely dies and is often given very little to do. |
| 243 | ** Subverted in "Mysterion Rises". After 14 seasons, it turns out that Kenny is ''completely'' aware of every single death. And going right into a Crowning Moment Of Funny, when Kenny gets fed up with the gang and decides to just go to bed and get a good night's sleep. ... By shooting himself in the head. Furthermore, we learn that nobody - except for his parents - ever remembers any of Kenny's deaths. Which is why nobody is ever surprised to see him alive again the next day. |
| 244 | ** "Trapper Keeper" is perhaps the only episode in which one of the boys' homes (Cartman's, in this case) is explicitly shown being destroyed. Of course, it's fully intact again in the next episode. |
| 245 | ** Taken to hell and back with the two-parter "You're Getting Old" and "Ass Burgers": the former averts it by ending on Stan giving into his new and strictly pessimistic world-view (i.e., everything literally looking and sounding like shit) and having his move out of town with his newly-divorced mother, with no sign that anything will ever be the same; then played as straight as possible at the end of the latter where Stan comes to accept that life doesn't just "go back to normal" like a sitcom and that the only way that he'll ever grow as a person is if he accepts change... followed ''immediately'' by everything snapping back! |
| 246 | ** In "Go Fund Yourself," the boys quit school to form a start-up company, and spend most of the episode telling their former classmates to "go fuck themselves." After their company [[StatusQuoIsGod inevitably fails]], they're shocked to find that the expected snap back [[AvertedTrope never happened]], as everyone is still mad at them in the next episode. |
| 247 | * A lot of ''WesternAnimation/{{Spliced}}'' episodes result in a Snap Back. One particularly notable episode ended with Entree dying when he falls off a cliff, his brain flies out of his head, and he gets crushed by a giant boulder. He's fine by the next episode. Other examples include: |
| 248 | ** "Stomach on Strike": Peri lives inside Entree as his heart, stomach, and brain. He's back out by the next episode. |
| 249 | ** "Clones Don't Care 'Bout Nothin' Either": Peri and Entree sail away from Keep Away Island to escape their clones. Next episode, they're back and their clones are never heard from again. |
| 250 | ** "Two-Arms Joe": Peri loses one of his arms and Joe gives him a mechanical one instead. He has his arm back by next episode. |
| 251 | ** "Walkie Talkie Spinesuckie": Entree's baby eats everyone's spines and Entree throws them in a volcano. They're all fine by the next episode. |
| 252 | ** "Bite, Shuffle and Moan" ended with a Zombie Apocalypse and everyone except Peri turning into a zombie (Which ends with Peri stuck on an 10 ft wide island with his zombified friends coming closer and closer...). Somehow it just fixed itself... |
| 253 | ** "Mole-sters in the Mist" dealt with SmartySmarts shrinking everyone, so the Shrunken Peri and Entree team up with (The now equal size) tiny mole like creatures called Mole-sters to help fight back. Though at the end the Mole-sters double cross them, instead of growing the main cast back to normal, the episode ended with the Mole-sters making themselves human-sized and keeping the main cast as pets. |
| 254 | * Plenty of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episodes result in these. In one, Squidward and [=SpongeBob=] were turned into snails, and in another they and Patrick were turned into fruit and about to be eaten by the Flying Dutchman. Multiple times, Bikini Bottom has been crushed, blown up, and destroyed. |
| 255 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Squidbillies}}'', which is created by the same team who made ATHF, takes this to a whole new level. Some characters end up dying, and will reappear in the same '''scene''' just after a camera switch. It soon gets so insane to the point where the entire cast is pretty much made up of [[IronButtMonkey Iron Butt Monkeys]] |
| 256 | * While ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' normally has continuity, Steven's TV is destroyed multiple times throughout the show only to return the next episode in perfect condition with absolutely no explanation. |
| 257 | * One of the factors of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'', although sometimes you'll see continuity carried over. Examples include the season 2 finale leading into season 3's premiere, and the Mistress' hippie conversion being referenced later in that season. Most episodes tend to end in bizarre ways, or with most inmates killed off (to return again later). |
| 258 | ** Had the show not been renewed, the MindScrew ending of the "Time-Police" two-parter would have been treated as "the end of the world". Obviously things got a little better. |
| 259 | ** "Terrorarium": The Superjail inmates and staff are left in a wasteland from the aftermath of giant bugs attacking. They then realize that they're trapped in a snowglobe... which is being thumped on by the Twins. Who are surrounded by numerous copies of themselves and all laughing. |
| 260 | ** "Dream Machine": The Twins' meddling with the Warden's Dream Machine causes reality to rupture, and the Warden to wake up in the real world (in live-action and played by Tim Harrington of the band Les Savy Fav). |
| 261 | ** "Cold-Blooded": Superjail freezes over completely, leaving the Warden to get his tongue stuck to Alice's breasts. |
| 262 | ** "Mayhem Donor": Jared gets his body shredded up and winds up having to be a Frankenstein-monster of body part grafts that the Doctor found from dead inmates. He's back to normal by the next one. |
| 263 | ** "Ghosts": Pretty much all the inmates die and become reincarnated as plants, which are then mowed down by the Warden. |
| 264 | ** "The Trouble with Triples": The Twins are forcibly taken on a ship back to their homeworld "for an eternity of overlording" (while their Triplet brothers are left abandoned back at the jail). They came back in the next episode anyway. [[WordOfGod It's been said this episode may be revisited, or that they'll just never mention it again.]] |
| 265 | ** "Planet Radio": Alice is mutated into a were-catbeast to do ballet fighting moves in a parody of ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'', along with several inmates... but the latter are all slaughtered by Jailbot (even Jean and Paul, who usually escape such fates). Jared also winds up crushed to death by the Twins, and Lord Stingray finds his old airship and escapes in it. |
| 266 | * Unagi from ''WesternAnimation/SushiPack'' {{lampshade|Hanging}}s the inevitable Snap Back after his [[EnemyMine teaming up with the Pack]] in "Lights On, Lights Off": |
| 267 | -->'''Unagi''': Well, I guess we have to go back to being archenemies. |
| 268 | -->'''Ikura''': Do we really have to? |
| 269 | -->'''Unagi''': Yup, we do. |
| 270 | * In the final season of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'', the Brotherhood of Evil recruits nearly every villain that ever appeared in the series despite the fact that some (like the Puppet King, Kardiak, and Malchior) were incapacitated the last time seen. |
| 271 | * Many episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' end with characters in an irrevocable predicament ([[TheyKilledKennyAgain usually death]]), but all will be restored to normal the next episode. Examples include "Ghost Boy", "Super Robin", "Tower Power", "Parasite", "Nose Mouth", "Breakfast Cheese", "Hose Water", "Tower Renovation" and to an extent, "Gorilla", all season 1 episodes. |
| 272 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheWeekenders'', "To Tish" (Tish's name is being used as a word; by story's end, she's "playing along") |
| 273 | [[/folder]] |
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