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[[quoteright:320:[[VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry5PassionatePattiDoesALittleUndercoverWork https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lsl5uninstallment.png]]]]

->'''Strong Sad:''' So wait. Was there ever a "Jibblies 1"?\\
'''Strong Bad:''' Nah, horror movies don't even need first movies anymore.
-->-- ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', "Jibblies 2"

An ongoing series skips an installment number (usually deliberately). Events from the missing installment may be referred to as if they had actually happened; there may even be an assurance that it was the highlight of the series.

Reasons for doing this include:

* Some form of numeric significance, such as avoiding [[ThirteenIsUnlucky the number 13]] or [[FourIsDeath the number 4]]
* To acknowledge a long hiatus between installments
* To get out of having written oneself into a corner, by pretending that it's already been solved, [[CliffhangerCopout somehow]], [[NoodleIncident when nobody was looking]]
* [[TakeOurWordForIt It would be impossible to do the events of the phantom installment justice]]
* To set up a mystery about the events of the missing installment
* The creators [[TrollingCreator are trying to be funny]].

When the non-existent episode is treated by subsequent episodes as if it existed, related to SecondhandStorytelling and perhaps to NoodleIncident.

A related trick is to bring out a new work that claims to have been made years ago and then shelved or forgotten; we don't seem to have a trope page for that, but ''Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace'' is an example, and it's related to {{Retraux}} and DirectLineToTheAuthor.

When there's supposedly an entire series of non-existent episodes preceding the first that actually exists, it's RetroactiveLegacy.

See also OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo, where a sequel might be given a strange numbering (such as ''Film/TheNakedGun 33⅓'' or ''[[Film/HalloweenH20TwentyYearsLater Halloween H20]]'') without meaning to imply a missing installment; and UnusualChapterNumbers. Also StoppedNumberingSequels which may predate Un Installment.

If the creator maintains an air of mystery around the missing installment, this trope may give rise to PopCultureUrbanLegends.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused]] with CanonDiscontinuity, in which the episode exists but is non-canon.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* The original ''Anime/KujibikiUnbalance'' probably has the highest ratio of Un-Installment episodes to real episodes: out of the 26-episode series, only three episodes (1, 21, and 25) were actually made, though episode 21 happens to be a RecapEpisode. The episodes were released as bonus material on the [=DVDs=] of ''Manga/{{Genshiken}}'', to which it is a ShowWithinAShow.
* ''Anime/DevilHunterYohko'' has no episode 4, because FourIsDeath. (In the US, Creator/ADVFilms filled the gap with a collection of music videos it called "Devil Hunter Yohko 4 Ever".)
* Episode 12 of ''Anime/ExcelSaga'' is called "Big City, Part II". There is no Big City, Part I, as Excel explains in the preview for episode 12.
* This is standard operating procedure for mobile suit model numbers in ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' works. In the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' the Zeon mobile suits we see start at MS-05 and end at (Y)MS-15, with several gaps along the way (and that's just the standard mobile suit line. Underwater, combat engineering and telepathically controlled models get their own numbering series[[note]]As MSM-XX (Mobile Suit Marine), EMS-XX (Excavation Mobile Suit) and MSN-XX (Mobile Suit Newtype) respectively[[/note]], as do the non-humanoid mobile armors[[note]]MA-XX[[/note]] and aforementioned variants of same) and most subsequent sequels and spinoffs have followed suit. This is mainly to leave room for [[MerchandiseDriven new models to hawk]] [[ExpandedUniverse in the voluminous collection of spin-off manga, OAV series, video games, model kits, etc]]. At this point said spinoffs have completely filled in the original Zeon MS series and even added new ones up to [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket MS-18]] (and various video games and manga of dodgy cononicity have started into the early 20s). The main trio from the original series (RX-75-4 Guntank, RX-77-2 Guncannon and RX-78-2 Gundam) also present an interesting example. The main numbers are actually a model year and the Earth Federation canonically didn't develop any mobile suits in UC 0076, but those secondary numbers indicate there are previous versions of the design (which, again have since been filled out and even expanded upon in spinoffs).
* ''{{Manga/Bokurano}}'' has something of an example, [[StealthPun appropriately enough]]. Most of the Dimensional Robots get ReportingNames in alphabetical order (first is Arachnid, second is Bayonet, etc.) but the 15th and final one skips straight to Z for [[spoiler:Zearth II]].
* Nobuhiko Horie, who was the editor-in-chief of ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', views the saga in four installments, with the original ''Fist of the North Star'' itself being Episode 4. Its prequel, ''Manga/{{Fist of the Blue Sky}}'', serves as Episode 3, while two yet to be made prequels serve as Episodes 1 and 2. If these prequels ever get made, Episode 1 will be the story of Shuken (the ''Hokuto Shinken'' founder), while Episode 2 would deal with how the school immigrated to Japan during the feudal period.
* In ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars F'', our heroines are introduced to Preme and her companion Puca. Preme claims that she's part of a team known as the Another Dimension Pretty Cure, fighting an mysterious entity known as Arc. [[spoiler:When Arc goes down, it turns out that he isn't the enemy, ''Preme'' is and she's ready to destroy the Cures once again]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Back when they were at Creator/ImageComics, Creator/{{WildStorm}} and Creator/RobLiefeld's Extreme Studios reversed this with a quasi-cross over event where they published their 25th issues months ahead of time to give a glimpse of the future and continued their series the next month. Several of the involved series never made it as far as #25, leaving the missing issues as uninstallments.
* ''ComicBook/AmbushBug'': ''Ambush Bug: Year None'' ended with "[[MindScrew issue #7 of a 6-issue limited series]]." There is no issue #6, or at least none that was ever published. Apparently issue #6 was completed (or nearly so), then shelved for reasons that still have not been made entirely clear. Issue #7 came out many months later, wrapping up the series.
* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': Captain Marvel first appeared in two AshcanCopy comics titled ''Flash Comics'' #1 and ''Thunder Comics'' #1. Then his regular title, ''Whiz Comics,'' began with issue #2, and reprinted the whole of both ashcans. There is no ''Whiz Comics'' #1.
* ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'': The series skipped issue #19 and #20 after long delays from writers Andrew Grossenberg and Tom Orzechowski, eventually soldiering ahead with issue #21 by Todd [=McFarlane=]. The "missing" issues were published approximately six months later. Interestingly, Spawn had shown up with a stitched up face in issue 21 said to have been caused by "That Bozo In Black", an obvious reference to the Batarang that landed there in the Spawn-Batman CrossOver that had happened just prior to the issue's release. However, the CrossOver was considered so generally terrible, that #19 and #20 featured a ''completely different'' "Bozo In Black", [[spoiler:Harry Houdini]], and a ''completely different'' reason for a vertical scar down Spawn's face, [[spoiler:protecting his friend Terry from a bullet... which made a scar completely different than the one in #21... But if you're looking for sensical continuity, why the hell are you reading 90s Creator/ImageComics?]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}'': The original series was deliberately identified in its indica (and on the first issue's cover) as "''Supreme'' volume 2", as it featured the title character returning to Earth after fifty years' absence. Series creator Creator/RobLiefeld wanted to eventually make a "volume 1" that would cover Supreme's exploits during World War II – this never ended up happening, with the glimpses of Supreme's [[MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] adventures being limited to occasional flashback stories.
* ''Comicbook/TooMuchCoffeeMan'': Issues #6 and #7 do not exist. [[WordOfGod Shannon Wheeler]] wanted to skip ahead in the story, saw no reason why he shouldn't, and took it as an opportunity to create "the rarest comics ever". #8 includes [[ClueFromEd footnotes referring the reader to the missing issues]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
%%
%% ''Leonard Part 6'' is an example of the related trope RetroactiveLegacy, and should not be listed here.
%%
* The third movie in Creator/RobertRodriguez's [[Film/ElMariachi Mariachi Tetralogy]]. Basically, a fair number of people who saw ''Film/{{Desperado}}'' didn't immediately realize that it was a sequel, until they realized they were missing backstory that the film kept referring and flashing back to. As a nod to this, Creator/RobertRodriguez came up with an entire third installment that follows up ''Desperado'', introduces new characters, has ''very'' major plot developments, and was promptly never produced. ''Film/OnceUponATimeInMexico'' is the sequel to that film, and throws in a ''lot'' of references to the plot and events of that film, which are central to El Mariachi's own character arc in the final film.
* Than there's the German students-movie "Der Goldene Nazivampir von Absam 2 – Das Geheimnis von Schloß Kottlitz" (The Golden Nazi-Vampire of Absam 2 -- The Secret of Castle Kottlitz). There never was a first part. As the whole movie is kind of a parody on trash horror movies, it is a joke on long and absurd trash horror titles.
* ''Film/SurfII'', a comedy/horror about surfers turned into mutant zombie punks by a MayContainEvil chemical. Despite its name, there was not a ''Film/{{Surf}}'' (OR ''Film/SurfI'').
* Perhaps not exactly this, but definitely related, the "missing" reels in ''Film/{{Grindhouse}}''.
* ''Film/DudeBroPartyMassacre3'' claims to be the third part of a slasher franchise, with even a fake production history.
* Creator/MelBrooks has stated he would never make ''Film/{{Spaceballs}} 2'', but might make ''Spaceballs [[Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock 3: The Search for Spaceballs 2]]''
* ''Film/Zombi2'': Lucio Fulci's film based on a zombie epidemic on a tropical island. Despite its title implying that it is a sequel to another film, it's actually a standalone movie with no relation to any previous zombie films. The confusion comes from the fact that George A. Romero's ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'' was renamed ''Zombi'' in Italy. Fulci's film was only named ''Zombi 2'' to [[DolledUpInstallment cash in on the success of Romero's film]], even though there's no connection between the two.
%%* ''The Executioner, Part II''.
* Inverted with ''Film/HistoryOfTheWorldPartI'', deceptively titled to create the illusion of an eventual sequel. It even ends with a trailer for ''Part II''. This was part of an homage to Walter Raleigh's ''The History of the World'', written while he was awaiting execution in the Tower of London and he only managed to complete the first volume before his sentence was carried out. [[Series/HistoryOfTheWorldPartII The second part]] was eventually made 40 years later as a TV series, and of course, contains a teaser for ''History of the World: Part III''.
* ''Nueba Yol'' (Misspelled Spanish for ''New York'') was followed by ''Nueba Yol 3'', due to a Dominician superstition about a first sequel.
* ''War Comes to America'', part of the ''Series/WhyWeFight'' series, has a "Part One" but no "Part Two"--due to the untimely end of World War II, none was ever made.
* Played with zero-budget post-apocalyptic direct-to-video movie ''Empire of Ash''. It was released as ''Empire of Ash'' in 1988 and re-released unchanged in 1989 as ''Empire of Ash II''. It spawned one sequel called ''Empire of Ash III''.
* The Indian superhero movie ''[[Creator/HrithikRoshan Krrish]]'' was followed by a sequel called... ''Krrish 3'' (with ''Krrish 4'' coming after that). The titling is actually kind of a ''Film/FirstBlood''/''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' deal: ''Krrish'' (working title ''Koi... Tumsa Nahin'') was itself the direct sequel to the landmark sci-fi musical ''[[Film/KoiMilGaya Koi... Mil Gaya]]'', which was about Krrish's father, Rohit (Krrish and Rohit are played by the [[Creator/HrithikRoshan same actor]]), and the plots are closely related (both films [[spoiler:have the same villain]], for example). So ''Krrish 3'' is the second film about Krrish, but the third film in a series about Rohit's experiences and their aftermath.
* The sequel to ''Film/ThanksKilling'' is titled ''[=ThanksKilling=] 3'', with the absence of a ''[=ThanksKilling=] 2'' justified in-universe because the movie was deemed so horrible that it was pulled from distribution and all known copies have been destroyed. The main plot of ''[=ThanksKilling=] 3'' had Turkie try to find a copy of ''[=ThanksKilling=] 2'' so he can use it to curse everyone.
* There's a Spanish ''Film/DirtyHarry'' spoof titled ''Vivancos 3: If It's Well Received, We'll Make The Previous Two''.
* The sequel to ''Brice de Nice'' (a French comedy starring Creator/JeanDujardin that parodied, among other things, ''Film/{{Point Break|1991}}'') is titled... ''Brice 3''. Don't bother looking for a ''"Brice 2"'', there's none.
%% Do not add Star Wars to this section! It is already covered below.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''The Great Samuel Pepys Fiasco'' is a missing book in Creator/JasperFforde's Literature/ThursdayNext series. Because it's all about the world where fiction is created, there's a very good in-story explanation for why it's missing.
* ''[[Literature/WaysideSchool Sideways Stories from Wayside School]]'' has no nineteenth chapter, because the builders [[MissingFloor forgot to build a nineteenth]] [[{{Pun}} story]].
* Volume 4 of ''Literature/TristramShandy'' has no chapter 24. Chapter 25 helpfully starts by describing what would have been in chapter 24, if it had existed.
* Theodor Mommsen's ''Roman History'', which won him the UsefulNotes/NobelPrizeInLiterature in 1902, consists of volumes 1, 2, 3 and 5. The first three describe the history of the Roman Republic and were published during Mommsen's lifetime. Volume 4, the history of Imperial Rome, was never finished (it was sort of replaced -- in 1992! -- by Mommsen's lectures on the subject, not from manuscripts of his own, but as they were written down by students). Volume 5 contains the history of the Roman provinces during the Imperial era.
* ''Literature/EugeneOnegin'' consists of numbered stanzas within each of its eight chapters, but some of these stanzas are left blank, e. g. Nos. 9, 13, 14, 39, 40 and 41 in the first chapter.
* Chapter 11 of Heinrich Heine's book ''Ideen - Das Buch Le Grand'' ("Ideas - The Book Le Grand") reads thusly:
-->German censors - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - idiots - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* The Creator/KurtVonnegut novel ''Timequake'' probably qualifies. In-story, time ran backwards for several years, then played back out again. Vonnegut makes frequent references to a previous version of ''Timequake'' he wrote during this temporal slip, which he refers to as ''Timequake One,'' and that doesn't exist.
* Some {{bowdlerize}}d editions of Giacomo Casanova's autobiography start with chapter 5.
* The preface to ''[[Literature/MoscowPetushki Moscow to the End of the Line]]''[[labelnote:AKA]]''Moscow-Petushki'', ''Moscow Stations'' or ''Moscow Circles''[[/labelnote]] says that in the first draft one chapter contained too many cuss words (appropriate for a philosophical drunk on a long boring train journey that has just started). The author had to add a warning for sensitive girls, but it had [[StreisandEffect the opposite effect]], thus he ended up removing all obscenities, leaving only "And he drank immediately."
* The Conan novel ''[[Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon The Hour of the Dragon]]'' has no chapter 20. It has been speculated that when publishing arrangements in Britain fell through and the manuscript was returned to Robert E. Howard, the missing chapter was omitted. This theory is based on the word count of the published work and Howard's correspondence with Dennis Archer concerning the original. Whether this is so, or Howard deleted the chapter himself, both he and ''Weird Tales'' neglected to renumber the remaining chapters. It has also been suggested that ''Weird Tales'' simply made a mistake and skipped the number. The story does not suffer from the omission, and most reprintings renumber chapters 21-23 as 20-22.
* The ''Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations'' adaptation of ''The Day of the Doctor'' at one point has a ClueFromEd directing the reader to the novelisation of "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead", which is available in all good parallel universes. And another referring to the novelisation of "Listen", to be published in 2195. There's also Chapter Nine, which is initially described by the Mysterious Narrator as the most dangerous chapter in the book, then as the one that gives the answers to ''all the questions'' about the Doctor's life, then as the one you've ''just read'', only [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou it wiped your memory]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' has "Scorpion Rain", which straddles the line between this, UrbanLegendOfZelda, and AscendedFanon. A supposed 8 minute short that bridged ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'' and ''Film/TurboAPowerRangersMovie'', released only in Australia, the thing was supposed to be incredibly poorly done, but would fill in enough plot holes that the fandom went along with it. Eventually though, it was revealed as an elaborate prank. Later, in the CrossOver "Forever Red", events of the battle "Scorpion Rain" supposedly depicted were referenced. Writer Amit Bhaumik, also one of the pranksters, admitted that he set out to make the darn thing canon.
* ''Series/RedDwarf'': Series VIII was followed by a ten-year hiatus and then by a three-part special, ''Back to Earth'', which claimed to be set "after Series X" and referred to several significant events from the skipped-over Series IX. Done partly to acknowledge the hiatus and partly to avoid needing to spend time resolving Series VIII's cliffhanger ending. Series IX's absence is lampshaded in ''Back to Earth'' by the character Noddy: "Best season ever if you ask me. Awesome season! Best by miles!"
** However, the success of ''Back to Earth'' led to the production of a new full series. Taking place after ''Back to Earth'', it was numbered Series X, as "Red Dwarf X" was felt to be a better title for marketing the next series. ''Back to Earth'' effectively took the place of Series IX in all but name.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** "[[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Season_6B Season 6B]]", a bunch of postulated Second Doctor stories set after Season 6 but before the Time Lords forced his regeneration into the Third Doctor, based on the idea that what we see at the end of Season 6 is ''not'' actually the Doctor's regeneration. It's strongly alluded to in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E4TheTwoDoctors The Two Doctors]]" and contemporary comic strips, and more recent ExpandedUniverse material delve into this period in detail.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]]", the Season 17 season finale, was abandoned when about two thirds done thanks to industrial action. Some footage of it was eventually incorporated into the show, edited in order to bring the Fourth Doctor into "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" as a FakeShemp. This has caused its canonical status to be ambiguous, which the ExpandedUniverse has happily exploited, especially in the audio drama version of the story -- in which the Eighth Doctor has to go through the events, because the events of "The Five Doctors" erased it from the timeline. A novelisation that presented the story with the Fourth Doctor but with lots of new-series-compatible details added came out in 2012, and in the 90s a VHS reconstruction of the story was released, and even ''that'' might be a bit canonical as Creator/TomBaker's narrator character ends up becoming a CanonImmigrant in "The Day of the Doctor" (of all things). No-one knows which version of "Shada" actually happened -- maybe they all did, maybe none at all -- and everyone is comfortable keeping it that way.
*** Add in that the writer of Shada, Creator/DouglasAdams, used characters and plot elements in his novel, ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency''. The TimeyWimeyBall is at its most complex with this particular story.
** The new series concept of the Time War, and The War Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]", are both [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Watsonian]] metaphors for the "Wilderness Years" during which the show was cancelled. The Time War is an apocalyptic GreatOffscreenWar that threw reality itself into confusion and permanently darkened the Doctor as a person, much like the branching arms and DarkerAndEdgier excursions of the ExpandedUniverse did. The War Doctor is supposed to represent the Doctor we ''could'' have had during the Wilderness Years, and Creator/StevenMoffat has said his intention was to cause annoyance and frustration -- viewers are supposed to feel that they could have had decades of adventures of Creator/JohnHurt, but instead we got nothing.
** The producers of the classic series gave each story an alphabetical production code, starting with [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild story A]]. (If you were wondering, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E8TheGunfighters story Z]] was followed by [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E9TheSavages story AA]], but [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders story ZZZ]] was followed by [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot story 4A]]. In a weird coincidence, both [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames ZZ]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders ZZZ]] were the final stories for the incumbent doctor at the time--Two and Three, respectively.) To avoid any confusion between I, J, and 1 and between O, Q, and 0, story codes I and O were skipped. Not surprisingly, given the number of times the series changed producers and the overall passivity regarding long-term continuity, the pattern of which letters were skipped varied over the years: I was always skipped, but O was sometimes retained (there's a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E3TheIceWarriors story OO]], but no story OOO), and variations were introduced. For example, VVV was skipped, perhaps to avoid confusing U and V, or perhaps to ensure ZZZ lined up with the end of the Third Doctor's run; the next time around, 4U was skipped instead and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E1HorrorOfFangRock 4V]] retained, the pattern persisting thereafter with 5U and 6U skipped and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E7Logopolis 5V]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E2VengeanceOnVaros 6V]] retained (the last code to be used was [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E2GhostLight 7Q]]). This is played with in short story "Thief of Sherwood", which is written as the paratext for a fictional Hartnell serial with the story code I.
* ''Series/HeroesReborn2015'' [[SequelGap happens 5 years after]] ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' was LeftHanging following its fourth season. [[http://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/10-things-to-expect-from-heroes-reborn/?v=1 Creator Tim Kring admitted]] that this trope is employed to explain the TimeSkip: “We’re treating this as if this is not the fifth season. We’re actually treating it as like the tenth season, as though there were actually seasons in between."
* ''Series/Goosebumps1995'' never adapted the first ''Literature/NightOfTheLivingDummy'' book, despite doing its sequels. This might be because [[BreakoutVillain Slappy]] [[IconicSequelCharacter wasn't its main villain]]. Similarly, book #5 (''Literature/TheCurseOfTheMummysTomb'') was never adapted, but its sequel ''Literature/ReturnOfTheMummy'' was.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* {{Music/ABC}}'s first album ''The Lexicon Of Love'' contained "The Look Of Love (Part One)" and "The Look Of Love (Part Four)". The song DOES have Parts Two and Three, but they were only included on its 12" single.
* Akphaezya have released two albums so far: ''Anthology II: Links from the Dead Trinity'' and ''Anthology IV: The Tragedy Of Nerak''.
* Music/AlienAntFarm's debut album was titled ''Greatest Hits'', implying it was a compilation of earlier albums that don't exist.
* Not ''quite'' this, but clearly operating on the same priciple: Music/TheAquabats entitled their first album ''The Return of the Aquabats!''.
* Music/BeastieBoys: There was no ''Hot Sauce Committee Part One'' before the release of ''Part Two'', but apparently one is now in the works and will be based on unused material from ''Part Two''. [[DevelopmentHell If/when it ever comes out,]] it will also be the final album featuring the three members (due to Adam Yauch's passing).
* After an eight-year gap, the band Music/{{Boston}} finally released their third album in 1986. They joked in interviews that to speed things along, they were going to skip their fourth album and go straight to the fifth. (It didn't work; their next album took another eight years.)
* Music/{{Calexico}}'s ''The Black Light'' has a song called "The Ride, Pt II". There is no Part I. Similarly, ''Hot Rail'' has "Untitled III" and "Untitled II" (in that order), but no "Untitled I".
* Chickenfoot followed up their debut album with ''Chickenfoot III''.
* Music/IanDuryAndTheBlockheads brought us "Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3". The song is not part of a series in any way.
* Both of Music/{{Fantomas}}' first two albums skip the 13th track.
* {{Music/HIM}}'s first album is called ''Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666''. The number was only used for [[RockMeAsmodeus its occult connotations]]; it goes without saying that these guys aren't following up a series of albums 665 entries in the making, let alone albums of love songs, albums by HIM, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs or albums of love songs by HIM]].
* Music/CharlesIves composed two pieces titled ''Tone Roads No. 1'' and ''Tone Roads No. 3''. There is no ''Tone Roads No. 2''.
* Karma To Burn, with very few exceptions, name their songs with numbers representing the order in which they were composed. Not only are their albums' tracklistings not arranged with any rhyme or reason with respect to these numbers, but especially very early on in their history they tend to never release certain numbers. What happens with the missing numbers is anyone's guess -- while they did release "1" on one of their own albums, "2" has yet to be released this way since they actually gave it to their side project Year Long Disaster. It ''can'' result in songs being resurrected at odd times, like "23" being released when the band were well into the 50s in their song catalog. It's also known that "9" and "15" have survived in their concert setlists for many years; why they are live staples but have never been released in studio form is anyone's guess.
* Music/ManOrAstroMan got meta with it, releasing a song titled "Obligatory Part 2 Song in Which There Is No Presently Existing Part 1, Nor the Plans to Make One" (from their album ''A Spectrum of Infinite Scale'').
* Music/BobMarley And The Wailers' early album ''Soul Revolution Part II'' was titled as such as it was the follow up to ''Soul Rebels'' (which was the first album recorded for Lee "Scratch" Perry [who compiled both of them] and thus "Part I"). It is often mistaken for the title of the album's dub version, which was actually called ''Upsetter Revolution Rhythm''. The confusion was not helped by the fact that, due to his debts at the time, Perry packaged some copies of the dub album in the vocal album's sleeve. When Trojan reissued both the vocal and dub albums together in 1988, they called the set ''Soul Revolution 1 & 2'', though later reissues restored the original cover and title.
* Music/MenWithoutHats have an EP titled ''Folk of the 80's'' and an album called ''Folk of the 80's (Part III)'', but there's no "Part II": ''Folk of the 80's (Part III)'' was [[ChronologicalAlbumTitle their third release overall]], though.
* Reggie and the Full Effect called their debut ''Greatest Hits '84–'87'' -- the band didn't even form until the 1990s.
* Similar to the Aquabats above, new wave revivalists The Rentals called their debut album ''Return of the Rentals''.
* The subtitle for the Music/{{Rush|Band}} instrumental from ''Music/RollTheBones'', "Where's My Thing" is "(Part IV, 'Gangster of Boats' Trilogy)". There is no Gangster of Boats part I, II, or III.
* Music/TheStranglers' debut album was intentionally titled ''Stranglers IV (Rattus Norvegicus)'' to confuse record buyers.
* Music/ThrobbingGristle named their first album ''The Second Annual Report'', although it was the sequel to an album that didn't get released at the time.
* Music/TheTravelingWilburys' first album was titled ''The Traveling Wilburys Volume One'' as a joke, because they were never going to do a Volume Two. When they did release a follow-up, it was titled ''The Traveling Wilburys Volume Three''.
** Although it was just a joke, it led to various rumors about why there was no Volume Two. Two outtakes from Volume Three were bootlegged extensively before being officially released in 2007, and it was sometimes claimed that they were from the "missing" Volume Two. A fan theory also held that Music/TomPetty's ''Full Moon Fever'' and/or Music/RoyOrbison's ''Mystery Girl'' comprised "Volume Two" -- both were solo albums by Traveling Wilburys members released between ''Volume One'' and ''Volume Three'', both were produced by Jeff Lynne, and both included guest appearances by other Wilburys members, with only Music/BobDylan not appearing on either.
* UK indie rock band The Vaccines has a song called "Change of Heart Part 2" on their second album, ''Come of Age''. There's no "Change of Heart Part 1", though.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'' went from its [=73rd=] series to its [=75th=]; there are usually two series a year, but Series 73 was the only series of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting the recordings (it was made up of the two episodes they managed to do before the UK went into lockdown, followed by four episodes recorded from the participants' homes with a virtual audience). This is generally thought to be a mistake that the BBC decided to double down on when it was pointed out to them, but nevertheless it remains the case that officially, there is no [=74th=] series of the show, which is considered to have been cancelled.
* On ''Radio/RoundTheHorne'', one of the show's spoof dramas jumped from part one to part three, with the explanation that "you wouldn't have liked part two -- it was all plot." On another occasion, a Three Musketeers spoof stretched over two shows; in the show after that, it was announced "At this point we were going to do The Three Musketeers part three... But we got fed up with that."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Software]]
* Microsoft's first version of Windows NT (which currently forms the basis of all desktop, workstation, and server versions of [[Platform/MicrosoftWindows Windows]] as of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, with the NT branding dropped with the earlier Windows 2000) was given the version 3.1 to match the version number of the then-current DOS-based version of Windows, which was also numbered 3.1. Unlike the DOS-based versions, there were no 1.x, 2.x, or 3.0 versions of it.
** Partially justified in that Windows NT was a sequel to Microsoft/IBM OS/2, which had 1.x and 2.x versions. A lot of early marketing and technical information about Windows NT 3.1 indicated this, although as Microsoft moved away from the OS/2 name (IBM having continued development on its own branch) the ties became less visible as time went on.
** In a related Microsoft Windows example, despite its colloquial name, Windows 7, internally at least, is ''not'' version 7.0 of the Windows software. Instead, it runs on the Windows NT kernel internally known as edition 6.1, being a mere update of Windows Vista instead of a more drastically changed operating system like Vista was to XP. [[note]]Also, when Microsoft jumped a major internal version with Vista, they found that some poorly programmed applications would freak out if they found an internal major version number higher than what they expected, even though you'd only expect lower versions to cause problems. Thus from then on they decided to only jump major internal versions when they really had to.[[/note]]
*** The following version of Windows, Windows 8, is also internally known as Windows version 6.2. Windows 8.1 is internally version 6.3.
*** Windows 8 was itself followed by Windows 10, skipping the number 9, and leading to the occasional joke about them [[StarTrekMovieCurse skipping the good one]]. Windows 95 and 98 are sometimes collectively referred to as "Windows 9x", so 9 was skipped partly to prevent any confusion with that[[note]]There's also a still not refuted rumor that Microsoft noticed that a lot of legacy Windows applications had checks along the line of '''if(version.[=StartsWith=]("Windows 9"))''' and thus skipped the 9 to avoid potential errors in those applications[[/note]]. Also, the internal version jumped ahead to 10.0 to match the marketed number, which means that, internally, versions 7 through 9 are all Uninstallments.
* Internally, Microsoft's Office 2007 is known as version 12, while the 2010 version is known as version 14, due to [[ThirteenIsUnlucky that number]].
* Similarly, Visual Studio 2013 is internally version 12. The next version, Visual Studio 2015, is version 14.
** Visual Studio started on version 5.0. There are no versions 1-4.
* Apple's Final Cut Pro skipped from version 7 to X (10).
* Winamp 3 was criticized by users for being buggier and more resource hungry than the 2.x series, and for missing features such as backwards compatibility with Winamp 2 skins. The next version, Winamp 5, was named to signify the fact that it was based off the 2.0 version and incorporated features from the 3.0 version (such as the new skinning system), and because they did not want people making Winamp [[DoubleEntendre 4 skins]].
* When Netscape released the codebase of Navigator 4, the intent was that community-made improvements would be rolled into version 5. However, the code turned out to be too difficult to work with, leading to a complete rewrite and using the new Mozilla codebase as the underpinnings of Netscape 6.
* To synchronize the version numbers of Firefox and Thunderbird (which previously had the latter being given lower version numbers), Mozilla completely skipped version 4.0 of the latter and released version 5.0 of it around the same time as version 5.0 of the former (which did have a version 4.0 when Thunderbird was still at version 3). Currently, both programs still follow a similar numbering system.
* The first version of dBase was dBase II. The creators wanted to give the impression that it wasn't a buggy first release, but a settled product.
* DRDOS went straight from version 3 to version 5, because of the poor reputation of MSDOS 4.
* Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler skipped version 3, so that its version number would match the version of the MFC library it was supplied with.
* [=CyanogenMod=], a custom version of the Android mobile platform. There was never a [=CyanogenMod=] 1 or 2, and [=CyanogenMod=] 8, which was to be based on Android 3.x[[note]][=CyanogenMod=] 7 is based on Android 2.3.x, [=CyanogenMod=] 9 on Android 4.0.x[[/note]] was skipped because Google only published the source code for 3.x when they released Android 4.0 and the devs decided to just jump straight to [=CM9=].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sports]]
* Since the official title of the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames is "the Games of the nth Olympiad" and the word "olympiad" refers to the four year time period instead of the games themself, the number increases by one every four years even when the Games didn't take place (in 1916, 1940 and 1944).
* The first time the German football (soccer to Americans) championship was held in 1903, one of the semi-finals was DSC Prague vs. Karlsruhe FV. The Karlsruhe club received a fake telegram that the match had been postponed and did not show up, and Prague went on to the final (where it lost to [=VfB=] Leipzig) by default. The following year, the final was going to be held in Berlin, but because it involved Britannia Berlin, Karlsruhe FV protested that this was not on neutral ground. The protest was successful, but resulted not in the final being adjourned to another city, but being canceled. Therefore 1904 there was no German football champion.
* Due to the 2004 lockout of the UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague, UsefulNotes/TheStanleyCup has a "Season not played" under 2004-05.
* The numbering of the UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship's flagship (mostly) PPV events have several discrepancies. At the beginning of the promotion's life, two Ultimate Ultimate cards and their first shows in Japan and Brazil were treated as stand-alone events outside of the chronology (later UFC trips to Japan and Brazil were regularly numbered shows). Later on, UFC 37.5 was thrown together to accompany the organization's first basic cable deal with Fox Sports Net, as one of the matches from the show later appeared in its entirety on ''The Best Damn Sports Show Period'', the first ever MMA match to appear on free TV. A decade later, after the Zuffa buyout had launched the organization into prominence in the sports world, UFC 151 was canceled after its main event was abandoned due to injury. It was decided that the organization would move on to UFC 152 as if the previous event had happened, a practice that would be repeated with with [=UFCs=] 176 and 233 after their main events fell apart or were moved to a streaming card. (The flagship numbering does not include the company's expansion into Fight Nights and other lesser events held on basic cable, broadcast or streaming held since 2005, nor does it include live ''Series/TheUltimateFighter'' finale cards, but it does include several international events on cable or streaming scheduled earlier than the traditional 10 PM Eastern Time start in the U.S.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': When Technical Readout 3025 was published in 1986, it contained among other things the ''Hermes II'' Battlemech but no ''Hermes'' Battlemech. The ''Hermese'' wouldn't make its debut until the publication of Technical Readout 2750 in 1989.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' has had (in order) 1st edition, 2nd edition, 5th edition ([[CanonDiscontinuity later declared]] an "[[{{Unperson}} unproduct"]]), and 3rd edition (unpublished). Starting with the revival, they StoppedNumberingSequels, instead releasing XP (formally dropped after Microsoft complained, so this version was just called "Paranoia") and 25th Anniversary Edition (a reprint of XP with some additional material).
* The one-off ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' set ''Coldsnap'' is an example of the aforementioned trick where a new work is [[{{Retraux}} presented as a forgotten older one]]. Originally, the ''Ice Age'' block (released in 1995-96) consisted of ''Ice Age'', ''Alliances'', and the unrelated and [[SeasonalRot universally reviled]] set ''Homelands'', which was [[DolledUpInstallment shoehorned into the block]] (mainly because this was [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness before Wizards started doing blocks like we would know them today]]). When ''Coldsnap'', which was designed to fit retroactively into ''Ice Age'' block as the "real" third set, was announced in 2006, Wizards claimed that it was based on a lost design file from 1995, uncovered when they moved their offices across the street. (The claim was intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but [[CannotConveySarcasm this didn't really come across]] and many players became annoyed, forcing them to come clean.) The idea of ''Coldsnap'' as the "real" third set, however, is {{Canon}}; it is legal for play in ''Ice Age'' Block Constructed, and ''Homelands'' [[CanonDiscontinuity is no longer acknowledged as part of the block]].
* ''TabletopGame/HackMaster'', as a joke, released its first edition (a slightly tweaked version of Advanced TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons 1st Edition) under the moniker "Hackmaster 4th Edition". This led to the 2nd edition of the game (which had its own unique system) being released as "Hackmaster 5th Edition".
* ''TabletopGame/{{Gangbusters}}'', a 1982 roleplaying game by Creator/{{TSR}}, had its 1990 2nd edition labeled as a "New 3rd Edition" instead.
* In-Universe example: It is agreed, that the world of ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye'' is in its 12th eon. However, there is no knowledge, evidence or hints about the 8th eon, which may have been [[RetGone erased from existence]] by the gods themselves.
* ''TabletopGame/GrimtoothsTraps'': As a joke, Flying Buffalo skipped over the number 3 and went from "Traps Too" to "Traps Fore", claiming in Fore's introduction that (the non-existent) "Traps Three" had been confiscated in a government raid on their office. Then a few years later Steve Jackson Games really ''was'' raided by the US government and an upcoming sourcebook confiscated. Flying Buffalo apologized for the no-longer-funny joke in the next printing of "Traps Fore".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* [[Ride/AltonTowers Alton Towers']] series of "Secret Weapon" coasters begins with Secret Weapon 3: Nemesis. Twice before Nemesis was built, Alton Towers had worked with manufacturer Arrow Dynamics to bring a pipeline coaster to the park, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen but this coaster never came to fruition.]] The numbering still counts the two attempts, and the "Secret Weapon" name itself is a remnant of the scrapped coaster's planned theme.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The title screen of ''VideoGame/{{Apidya}}'' suggests that the game is called "Apidya II", which has led many people to wonder what the first Apidya game was. The developers later admitted that the "II" was supposed to be a joke in attempt to stir excitement.
* ''VideoGame/BreathOfDeathVII'', an indie [[{{Retraux}} throwback RPG]], which follows the old-school formula pioneered by games such as ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''.
* The ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' franchise plays with this in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' [[spoiler:with the reveal that Danganronpa is an in-universe franchise with 52 installments including the previous games, making this game "Danganronpa 53".]]
* A beat 'em up web browser game titled ''Electric Man 2'' was intentionally titled to falsely resemble a sequel, with no true predecessor.
* The main NCR quest in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' is titled "For the Republic, Part 2", but there isn't a "Part 1", although the quest begins immediately after the quest "King's Gambit".
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** Translation of the series into English started with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', which were released as ''II'' and ''III'', respectively, then skipped ahead to [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII VII]]. Later re-releases uses its original, correct numbers.
** Exploited in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', where Tidus's father Jecht has a blitzball skill, the Sublimely Magnificent Jecht Shot Mark III. Tidus notes how there was never a Mark I or Mark II, and that it would entice fans to watch him play blitzball waiting for the earlier installments. And they did come back to watch.
* ''VideoGame/FurFighters'' (subtitled Viggo's Revenge at least in the [[Platform/Playstation2 PS2]] version) starts with all the major characters retired after already defeating Viggo the first time. Throughout the game there are hints to their exploits but there never was another game, and sadly probably never will be.
* The 1984 sequel to ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}'', ''Gaplus'', had conversion kits that changed its name to ''Galaga 3'' in North America. There was no ''Galaga 2'', though the number 3 may have counted ''Galaga''[='s=] predecessor ''VideoGame/{{Galaxian}}'' as an entry.
* ''VideoGame/GoatSimulator'' spawned a sequel that is titled ''VideoGame/GoatSimulator3'', skipping over ''Goat Simulator 2''. When the developers were making ''Goat Simulator 3'', they thought they ''had'' made ''Goat Simulator 2'', but when they realised they didn't it was too late to change the title.
* ''VideoGame/Grezzo2'' lead many to believe that the title was trolling or a reference to whatsoever. The author later revealed that he really made a "''Grezzo 1''", but he doesn't want to upload it online, as it's filled with in-jokes and references that only himself and few friends of him would understand.
* ''Just Kill Me 3'' is the sequel to ''Just Kill Me'', ''Just Kill Me 2'' having been destroyed by God.
* ''Lacuna III''. There is no ''Lacuna I'' or ''II'', as the idea is that this is actually a modified copy of a (fictional) 1993 game bearing that title, whose preceding volumes are presumably lost media. Fittingly, "lacuna" also translates as "gap."
* Al Lowe envisioned ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry3PassionatePattiInPursuitOfThePulsatingPectorals'' as the definitive end to the ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' trilogy, and the game ended with Larry and Patti stuck in the real world, living happily together and [[IShouldWriteABookAboutThis coding adventure games based on Larry's adventures]]. Whenever anyone would ask if his next project would be ''Larry 4'', he would respond that there would never be a ''Larry 4''. Instead, he and the rest of Sierra focused their efforts on creating a new online platform, which eventually fell through. However, [[TrilogyCreep when the time came for Al Lowe to make a real sequel to]] ''[[TrilogyCreep Larry 3]]'', he found he'd written himself into a creative corner with ''Larry 3''[='s=] airtight ending, so he decided to [[ExactWords stay true to his promise]] and skipped right to ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry5PassionatePattiDoesALittleUndercoverWork'', where Larry and Patti are separated again, and suffering from amnesia. The missing game eventually becomes a major plot point in ''Larry 5'', where it's revealed that [[spoiler:the BigBad, Julius Bigg, stole the master floppies to ''Larry 4'', causing Larry and Patti to lose their memories]]. The game's non-existence is a running joke in the series, and the game (under the title ''Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Missing Floppies'') appears in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIVRogerWilcoAndTheTimeRippers'' and ''Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude''. Ken Willaims also advertises ''The Missing Floppies'' in the SCI remake of the first game, saying that he would sell the game to the public if only he could actually find out where it was.
* The [[VideoGame/MegaManDOS DOS versions]] of the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' consists of only ''Mega Man'' and its sequel, ''Mega Man 3''. Neither of the DOS versions were ports of the actual NES games. This is because one of the bosses in the second DOS game, Bit Man, resembles Spark Man from the box art of the NES ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'', so Creator/{{Capcom}} titled it ''Mega Man 3'' to justify reusing the NES box art.
* Averted with ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', which had the WorkingTitle of "MGS III", despite it being the second ''MGS'' game and fourth in the [[VideoGame/MetalGear mainline canon]]. The Roman numeral III was intended to represent the twin towers, but also because the full title would've been rendered "Metal Gear [=S3=]" (after the [=S3=] Plan that served as a key plot point in the game's story).
* An accidental case of this occurred in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' during its early days. [[https://minecraft.wiki/Java_Edition_Classic_0.25_03_SURVIVAL_TEST#Trivia The 0.25_04 SURVIVAL TEST version of the game never existed]], but a user mistakenly changed the version on the wiki to 0.25_04. This lead Notch to believe that it was the current update, so he called the next update 0.25_05 SURVIVAL TEST.
* The "Ogre Battle Saga" was planned by creator Yasumi Matsuno to be an 8-episode saga, with ''VideoGame/OgreBattle'' (March of the Black Queen) serving as Episode V, while ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'' (Let Us Cling Together) served as Episode VII. However, Matsuno left Quest (the developer of the series) to work for Creator/{{SquareSoft}} instead and Quest ended up developing ''VideoGame/OgreBattle64'' (Episode VI) without his involvement and no more Ogre Battle games were made since then, aside from two side-stories (''Ogre Battle: Prince of Zenobia'' for the Neo-Geo Pocket Color and ''Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis'' for the Game Boy Advance).
* The 1982 arcade game ''Pepper II'' was so named because video games were a new fad at the time and it was possible to have a game not in your area. Exidy, the makers of ''Pepper II'', banked on the concept that if a "sequel" was made to the original (but non-existent) ''Pepper'', then prospective audiences might figure that was a series that proved itself with a first installment that was successful enough to warrant a sequel, and/or think it to be even better than the original and thus want to play.
* ''Power Punch II'' was originally going to be a direct sequel to ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' titled ''Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch'', but the combination of Nintendo's distaste at the game's quality and Tyson himself being convicted of rape forced Beam Software to change the title and give it to a different publisher. Why they decided to give a numeral "II" is anyone's guess.
* Data Design Interactive's ''Rig Racer 2'': There was never a ''Rig Racer 1'', although the name echoes an equally horrible [[VideoGame/BigRigsOverTheRoadRacing rig "racing" game]].
* The story of ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' was planned out in roughly 16 chapters. The original game was just Chapter 1 (Yokozuka), while ''Shenmue II'' consists of Chapters 3 through 5 (Hong Kong, Kowloon and Guilin). Chapter 2 occurs off-screen between the events of the two games (during Ryo's cruise trip from Yokozuka to Hong Kong). ''Shenmue III'' picks up where the second game left off.
* ''VideoGame/SuperPuzzleFighterIITurbo''. There is no "Puzzle Fighter", "Puzzle Fighter II", or "Super Puzzle Fighter II". The title is meant to be a play on ''Super VideoGame/StreetFighterII Turbo'', the fifth iteration of the ''Street Fighter II'' sub-series, and the game is a one-off PuzzleGame spinoff.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland'' doesn't follow on directly from ''VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland'', but instead from a non-existent (and reportedly "epic") fifth ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' game, presumably as a nod to the previous game where some characters refer to their "five-game contract" with Creator/LucasArts.
* The Platform/TurboGrafx16 pinball game, ''VideoGame/TimeCruise'', was actually ''Time Cruise II'' in Japan. However, the original ''Time Cruise'' was [[http://www.chrismcovell.com/secret/PCE_1990Q1.html a real game that was never actually released.]] The game's publisher, Face, for some reason decided to make a sequel to an unreleased game.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''. The end credits reveal that the game is actually Episode 5, similar to how Star Wars started with Episode 4. The original team intended to do more sequels/prequels, however [=SquareSoft=] pulled the plug on the project; the team subsequently left Square and made a sort-of prequel series as ''Xenosaga'' .... which was itself cut short and only had 3 of the 6 planned episodes released.
* Data Design Interactive released the Egyptian-themed platformer ''Anubis II'' in 2007. There is no Anubis I...and the game's poor quality ensured there wouldn't be a III either.
* The sequel to ''VideoGame/McPixel'', ''[=McPixel=] 3''. There is no ''[=McPixel=] 2'', [[SequelGap but people wouldn't blame you for not knowing]].
* ''Yeah Yeah Beebiss II'' is a fan sequel to the [[UrbanLegendOfZelda alleged (but likely non-existent) lost NES game]] ''Yeah Yeah Beebiss I'' listed by the mail-order video game service Play It Again in 1989 and theorized to be a mistranslated localization of Bandai's ''Rai Rai Kyonshis: Baby Kyonshi Amida no Daibouken''.
* Inverted with the 1980s space RPG ''VideoGame/SentinelWorldsI''. The creators were so confident that the game would be successful enough to get a sequel, they actually tacked a number onto the end of the "first" game from the start. No sequel was ever made. Dunning-Kruger effect at work, perhaps?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' skips directly from #403 to #405. Attempts to view the URL where #404 would be if it existed result in HTTP error message 404 ("Page not found").
** A strip did appear on the ''xkcd'' site between 403 and 405—but not an ''xkcd'' strip. 403 was posted on March 31, 2008, and 405 was posted on April 2. On [[AprilFoolsDay April 1]], the site displayed a (science-themed) ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'' strip, as part of a three-way switcheroo also involving ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'' (which displayed an ''xkcd'' strip).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The "Dinosaur" series of shorts by Waverly Films has no part three, but does [[LampshadeHanging helpfully recap]] [[NoodleIncident the events of three]] at the beginning of part four.
* ''WebAnimation/{{Arfenhouse}} Teh Movie 3'' and ''4'' were both released as AprilFoolsDay pranks in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Finally, a proper sequel, ''Arfenhouse Teh Movie 6'', was released later in 2006, with no 5th installment.
* WebVideo/SadPandaQAndA skips episode 8. Apparently, it had cameos by a number of Website/ChannelAwesome contributors, as well as WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd and [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]]. Episode 9 starts with Panda and Welshy unsure on how to follow it.
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner''
** The WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "[[Recap/StrongBadEmailE69PersonalFavorites personal favorites]]" had Strong Bad list a number of favorite emails from episodes that never happened, like Strong Bad [[GRatedDrug getting drunk on soy sauce]] and trying to fly Bubs' Concession Stand, Coach Z and Pom Pom getting into a knife fight, or Strong Bad making a prank call so epic it made Marzipan's answering machine explode. Oddly enough, some of the elements from this email were shown to be RealAfterAll, like the Grape-Nuts Robot and the stone bridge seen in the knife-fight scene.
** The 2007 Halloween special was titled "Jibblies 2", despite the fact the creators never released a toon titled "Jibblies". Strong Sad lampshaded this in an Easter Egg.
** Then there are the "Hremails", supposedly episodes of an email show that Homestar does in parallel to Strong Bad (and has apparently been going on since the site started, according to the 7th one). The first one we see is around number 1000 (compare to the 205 sbemails), and later ones mentioned seem to have a random installment number. The last one seen is in the ''3000s'', implying Homestar answers at least 7 emails a day, and he appropriately looks like he's burnt out when the Hremail begins.
* ''WebSite/ClickHole'' has two variants:
** It often references articles that don't exist. Typically this is its weekly "Next Week on Clickhole" (where the articles in question never appear), but also things like [[https://clickhole.com/we-would-like-to-make-the-following-corrections-to-our-1825121655/ this list of corrections for the fictional "13 Hedgehogs Who Need A Vacation"]].
** Articles that skewer PoliticalOvercorrectness, such as "[[http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/ability-play-bowser-has-made-our-society-more-evil-1644 The Ability To Play As Bowser Has Made Our Society More Evil]]", frequently invite the reader to "join the discussion" in the site's comment section. The site has no comments section.
* The episode ''There Is No Part 1: Part 2'' from ''{{Podcast/Welcome to Night Vale}}''.
* Creator/MarkPrindle's music reviews usually put "reader comments" under the review, but for Napalm Death's ''The Code Is Dead, Long Live The Code'', [[http://markprindle.com/napalm.htm#code the text of the review is completely blank]], and the first comment is a fictional reader writing at length about how offended they were by the supposed review. It's meant to skewer both commenters who are overly protective of their favorite artists and Prindle's own stream-of-consciousness writing style and tendencies towards off-topic digressions and toilet humor.
* ''Script/C0DA'', written by former ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series writer/designer Creator/MichaelKirkbride, takes place in the far distant future of ''TES'' universe. ''[=C0DA=]'' is the final text of a semi-official and loosely connected series of "Obscure Texts", including ''[[https://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Loveletter_From_the_Fifth_Era,_The_True_Purpose_of_Tamriel Loveletter From the Fifth Era]]'', ''[[https://www.c0da.es/prophet The Prophet of Landfall]]'', the "partially released" ''[[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VV7JH6QT-STUVF8LfuyxmLDQvOLKBHaYZvuGdYGBcZQ/edit Landfall: Day One]]'', and two "Uninstallments" -- ''Dies Irae'' and ''Stringendo''. The situation is reminiscent of the missing portions of ''Literature/TheTrojanCycle'', in which it is generally known what happens, but the details are lost. Some of the events of those works are mentioned via SecondhandStorytelling in ''[=C0DA=]'' and the other supplementary works.
* Chapters 37 to 41 of ''Literature/SagaOfThePeopleOfTattuinRiverValley'', which should cover the attack on the Daudstjarna/Death Star, battle for Hoth and Lúkr's training with Jóði/Yoda, are missing, to simulate an actual experience of a discovered 1000-year-old manuscript.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzS96auqau0 EVO Moment #37]], the legendary footage from [[MediaNotes/FightingGameCommunity EVO]] 2004, where Diago Umehara makes an insane comeback against Justin Wong in ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterIII Street Fighter III: Third Strike]]'', which included him fully parrying Chun-Li's [[RapidFireFisticuffs Super]]. If you were wondering about where the footage of EVO Moment #1 to 36 are, there aren't any. The person who uploaded the original video gave the video title a random number, part of it as a marketing ploy to say there were a lot of great moments in EVO.
* An interesting case in ''WebAnimation/SpaceTree'', as after episode 57, the next episode released was numbered 59. However, episode 57 was the first part of a two-parter, being named "They Got Johnny, Part 1", with the second part presumably being the unmade episode 58.
* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYisr6GRJH4 How To Play DK64]]", a video poking fun at how convoluted ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' is as a CollectAThonPlatformer, is framed as an episode of an ongoing series called "How to Play Video Games", beginning with a recap of ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ending with a preview of ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'' is titled as such because it's the cartoon series adaption of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', but is actually the ''second'' Super Mario cartoon series.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': "Merlot Down Dirty Shame" begins with a recap that shows Stan and Roger becoming best friends after being [[LockedInAFreezer trapped in an elevator]], complete with getting complimentary "best buddies" necklaces. It ends with a preview of the next episode, where [[spoiler:Stan beats Roger into a bloody pulp and takes away his necklace, turning both into a pair of earrings for Francine]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}}'' has the episodes "Holes: Part 2" and "Holes: Part 3", despite there not being a "Holes: Part 1".
* ''WesternAnimation/ClerksTheAnimatedSeries'': The first episode begins with Randall announcing "Last week on Clerks..." and cuts to a test pattern. [[TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment It never actually aired]], so it only makes sense on DVD.
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': "The Good Ol' Ed" looks like it's setting up for a ClipShow, but the "flashbacks" are instead to never-before-seen escapades involving the Eds, such as Edd using a fake time machine to send Jimmy and Johnny 2x4 on a FauxtasticVoyage to prehistoric times, Edd getting a bad case of the hiccups and trying to cure them, and the Eds trying to make the world's biggest pancake using the entire cul-de-sac as the griddle.
* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'': The final episode, "Thank You For Watching The Show", is mostly composed of a TimePassesMontage consisting of peeks at hypothetical future adventures that occurred between the GrandFinale "Let's Fight To The End" and the episode's DistantFinale.
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': The second-season episode “The Chronicles of Meap” is billed as “Episode 38: More than Meaps the Eye” suggesting that there are 37 previous episodes. The episode ends with a trailer for a sequel episode called “Meapless in Seattle.” The episode would eventually be produced and air in season 3, but that episode would itself end with a trailer for its own sequel, “Meap Me in St. Louis”, which would never be made.
* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' numbers its episodes by Roman numeral, which are used as alternate titles, and the original run goes up to "LII" (52). For the fifth season, the numbers skipped up to "XCII" (92) at the start to reflect the long time since it was {{uncancelled}} and the TimeSkip since season four.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** The episode "AWESOM-O" mentioned a lost Lemmiwinks sequel that never actually existed; the disclaimer claims it was lost because of the "disaster in Hawaii".
** The Season 10 premire, "The Return of Chef", opens with a PreviouslyOn depicting Chef leaving South Park to join the [[ChurchOfHappyology Super Adventure Club]] and his friends being upset over him doing this.
** The episode "Go God, Go" ended with Cartman recently arriving in the far future. The next episode is "Go God, Go XII", which began with a ''ComicStrip/BuckRogers'' opening parody leading to Cartman seemingly months later, as if there were ten episodes about Cartman in the future that were just skipped.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'': The adaptation of "The Missing Coach" was scrapped during production because its TwinSwitch plot was deemed too much of a MindScrew for young children. The events are referenced in a later episode, so they did happen, we just never saw them.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': "Escape to the House of Mummies, Part Two" begins with a PreviouslyOn that shows the best parts of Part One and ends with a OnTheNext for Part Three; neither actually exists. The creator commentary on the DVD edition of the episode features the creators [[TrollingCreator claiming that the episodes exist as Easter eggs]] as a prank on the audience.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had several gags referencing fake episodes:
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E22BehindTheLaughter Behind the Laughter]]" (where the characters are portrayed as AnimatedActors), due to behind-the-scenes issues, Bart had to go to rehab, and ComicBook/RichieRich had to fill in for him. We are then shown a clip of a fake ''Simpsons'' episode called "Disorder in the Court", where Marge asks, "Bart, what do you mean you have jury duty?" "Bart" responds, "[[MangledCatchphrase Don't have a cow, mother.]]"
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E16WeekendAtBurnsies Weekend at Burnsies]]" had Marge make a scarecrow out of [[ContinuityCavalcade objects from earlier episodes]], complete with on-screen captions identifying their origins a la ''Series/PopUpVideo''. When she gets to Grampa's hat (as seen in [[https://frinkiac.com/gif/S08E05/566365/574489/ this infamous scene]] from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E5BartAfterDark Bart After Dark]]"), it is identified as coming from "Who Shot Grampa's Hat?"
** At the end of "The Spy Who Learned Me", [[TuxedoAndMartini James Bond expy]] Stradivarius Cain promises the viewer he'll return in "Lisa Gets a B+." Ten seasons and counting onward, there is, naturally, no sign of such an episode.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheDoverBoys'', while introducing the titular brothers, the narrator cites a fictional installment of the series called "The Dover Boys in the Everglades".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* An accidental example exists in [[UsefulNotes/ThePope papal history]]: Owing to various misconceptions and transcription errors, there has never been a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_XX Pope John XX]]. The Pope who would have borne that number skipped straight to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_XXI John XXI]] when choosing his papal name.
* There have been ten kings of UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}} named Carl or Karl (sometimes translated as Charles or Carolus), including the current one; however, the current King of Sweden is numbered Carl XVI. The number is six higher than expected due to the third one styling himself Karl IX with reference to a pseudo-historical list of kings, which straight made up six King Karls before the historical ones.
* Chrysler's 300 "letter series" ran from 1955-1965. But the list of models skips from 300-H to 300-J. This is because the letter "I" too closely resembles the number "1".
** A similar situation caused the lettered streets in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC to skip "J". At the time Pierre L'Enfant designed the city grid, "I" and "J" were often treated as interchangeable, and "J" was often written/printed with only a slight bit of curvature to distinguish it from "I". An {{urban legend|s}} claims that this was to [[TakeThat snub]] John Jay, a Founding Father and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, due to a dispute between him and L'Enfant, but this was just a myth.
** In many military units with lettered sub-units "J" is similarly skipped to avoid confusion with "I". Most cavalry regiments lack a "J" troop, for example.
** Similarly still, military aircraft and other vehicles which serve long enough to have multiple design variants will skip the "I" model, hence the B-25 Mitchell going directly from the B-25H to the B-25J, due to the letter I resembling both the letter "J" and the number "1".
* There was no 1983 Corvette. This is especially odd, as it was the model's 30th anniversary year. (Technically there were forty-four '83 prototypes, of which 43 were destroyed. The last is in the Corvette Museum.)
* Whatever happened to the Aston Martin [=DB8=]?
* The Samsung Note smartphone brand skipped from the Note 5 to the Note 7 to bring it in line with the Galaxy S7 product line, so that it didn't look like the Galaxy outstaged the Note. This ''massively'' backfired when the Note 7 had a complete recall due to multiple occasions of [[StuffBlowingUp exploding]] and people got confused as to whether the Galaxy S7 or the Note 7 had the problem.
** A couple of years later in 2020, they would end up releasing the Samsung Galaxy S20 line, [[ExaggeratedTrope which skips numbers 11 to 19]], turning the naming scheme into AnnualTitle.
* The iPhone skipped from 8 to X (Roman numeral 10). Oddly, in Apple's case the iPhone 8 and iPhone X were released at the same time.
** One of the rumored names for the 2nd generation iPhone SE was the "iPhone 9", given that it replaced the iPhone 8 and has an almost identical design to it, but this was likely decided against as it includes faster internals than the iPhone X. It was released as the iPhone SE [[RecycledTitle again]], which is the same name as the iPhone 5S-based iPhone SE from four years prior.
** Apple's line of systems-on-a-chip ([=SoCs=]) used in the [=iPhone=] and [=iPad=] started with the Apple A4; there never was an A1, A2, or A3. Presumably this was done to match the number of the [=iPhone=] it launched in, the [=iPhone 4=][[note]]The first three [=iPhones=] used third-party chips.[[/note]].
** There was also no iPhone 2. The second version was called the iPhone 3G because it introduced support for 3G cellular networks. Then came the 3G(S), which meant the iPhone 4 really was the fourth version.
* Many tall buildings are known to have {{Missing Floor}}s. Examples include Las Vegas hotels which skip the 13th floor entirely, and many government and supposedly privately owned buildings which allegedly have unnumbered floors with no elevator access. (Yet people who ride the elevators every day suspect something is up when it takes twice as long to go from, say, the 18th floor to the 19th as it does to go from the 17th to the 18th.). Many buildings in Asian countries where FourIsDeath is in play will likewise skip the fourth floor.
* After finishing Line 12, the Madrid Metro went on to build a Line 14.
** Happens in many, many other transport systems as well. The Munich S-Bahn lines are numbered from S1 to S8, yet there are only seven lines. As of 2014, there is no S5. Until a couple of years ago, the missing line was the S3. There's no obvious explanation for either version.
** The Buenos Aires underground lines, as of 2014, are each assigned a letter: A, B, C, D, E… and H.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_Special_Warfare_Development_Group Seal Team Six]] was given its numerical name in order to mislead [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar Soviet intelligence]] into assuming that there were at least five more similar units.
* The United States Navy has quite a few of these, where ship numbers for a given type will skip because a number was assigned but the ship was never built. In one case, CV-49 was the last carrier to see service until CV-59 was built nearly 10 years later (with the end of [=WW2=] causing the cancellation of the intervening carriers).
* On a similar note, certain articles that include listed amendments, like rule books, may remove certain articles entirely (without even leaving a notation of such) but leave their number places unused so references to other articles made later don't have to be changed by the numbers shifting around.
* A practical joke: Get three pigs. Paint them each with a number; 1, 2 and 4. Release them somewhere public and watch the fun as people try desperately to find #3. This is sufficiently well-known to the point where people familiar with the prank can be caught by surprise when there ''are'' four pigs.
* Following its explosion on the launchpad resulting in the death of all three astronauts, the American rocket test launch now designated Apollo 1 was given the code despite it being the third launch in the series (the first two were unmanned test flights; Apollo codes were originally only intended for manned missions to the moon.) The next launch in the series, being the fourth rocket, became Apollo 4, meaning there were never launches with the codes Apollo 2 or 3.
* Due to a complicated series of events involving multiple numbering schemes, reschedulings, cancellations, and a tragic accident, there have never been any Space Shuttle missions designated as "STS-10", "STS-12", "STS-15", "STS-16", "STS-18", "STS-21", "STS-22", or "STS-29", either publicly or internally.[[labelnote:Full explanation]]Originally, the shuttle missions were numbered sequentially based on the order the flights were manifested, not necessarily the order they were launched. This nonsequential order bothered public affairs officials, and reportedly NASA's administrator had a case of [[ThirteenIsUnlucky triskaidekaphobia]], so a new numbering system was implemented where the first digit represents the fiscal year of the planned launch, the second digit indicates the launch site, and a letter indicates the planned order of the launches (e.g. STS-41B was the second planned launch of 1984, launched from Kennedy Space Center). Starting with what would have been STS-11, the new system was used publicly, but many people at NASA continued to use the original system internally. This continued until the ''Challenger'' disaster, after which the new system was abolished and NASA went back to sequential numbering. They disregarded any previous conventions (the 8 previously mentioned missions had already been skipped over) and reset the numbering to 26 as ''Challenger'' was destroyed on the 25th shuttle launch. However, the mission ''Challenger'' was destroyed on was known internally as "STS-33", so the new missions each had an "R" for "Reflight" appended to their designations until STS-33R to avoid any confusion. This includes STS-29R, despite there not having been an "STS-29".[[/labelnote]]
* Upon announcing the transition from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII declared that the day following October 4 of that year would be October 15, essentially meaning that the days 5-14 October, 1582 never existed. This was necessary because the problem with the Julian calendar was that its average year was too long, causing the calendar to slowly fall behind the seasons, so skipping these 10 days was needed to correct this. While Catholic countries adopted the reform immediately, [[UsefulNotes/TheProtestantReformation Protestant]] and Usefulnotes/{{Orthodox|Christianity}} countries hesitated to do the same but eventually made the switch, so the missing days vary from country to country. For instance, Great Britian finally switched in 1752, so most calendars produced in the Anglosphere will omit the dates of 3-13 September 1752, and Russia didn't adopt the new calendar until the start of Soviet era, so they skipped the dates of 1–13 February 1918[[note]]The reason that they skipped more days was because, as more time passed, the old calendar fell further behind, so skipping more time was necessary to keep up.[[/note]].
* The two terminals at Toronto's Pearson International Airport are named Terminal 1 and Terminal 3. There used to be a Terminal 2, but it was demolished in 2007 to make room for an expansion to Terminal 1, and Terminal 3 kept its name to avoid confusion. However, the airport authorities have not precluded the possibility of a future terminal building using the Terminal 2 name.
* The media player Winamp had such a poor reception of version 3 that the developers opted to skip version 4 and went straight to 5.
* Guitar amplifier manufacturer Mesa/Boogie, when producing the 6th installment in their "Mark" line of amplifiers, decided to skip the Mark VI and go straight to the Mark VII. Their official explanation for this is that the new model was just that more advanced than the Mark V that they felt it skipped a generation.
[[/folder]]


!!Examples where the [[{{Defictionalization}} unmade installment was later made]]
* ''ComicBook/SpyBoy'' originally had no issue 13. After the original run ended, a three-issue miniseries named ''Spyboy: The MANGA Affair'' was given the numbering #13.1, #13.2, #13.3.
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' was originally missing WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail #22 in the original order, going straight from 21 to 23. Many episodes later, an e-mail was put into the slot, referred to as "The Lost E-mail", and explained that it had been "banned in the UK" for making fun of the English.
** Strong Bad showed the viewers the gang's homemade action movie, ''Dangeresque 2: This Time It's Not Dangeresque 1'', almost a year before showing them ''Dangeresque 1: Dangeresque, Too?''
* ''Nerd to the 3rd'', a podcast for Website/ChannelAwesome hosted by Dr. Gonzo, the Cat, and Travis, skipped over its 18th episode. Its 18th episode was later released as 'The Lost Episode', in which they discussed [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the series finale of]] ''Series/{{Lost}}'' with their guest Rollo T.
* Music/{{Starflyer 59}} had a song called "Second Space Song" on their debut album. They wrote "Wherever You Go (First Space Song)" for the followup album, but it got cut and was only released on their GreatestHitsAlbum.
* ''WebAnimation/BonusStage'' episode 4 was originally a preview of projects the creator was working on, and didn't have an actual Bonus Stage cartoon, but between the season 5 finale "Fickle Nickel" and the season 6 premiere "Last Exit To Charismaville" it was replaced with a cartoon making several references to things happening after the original episode 4.
* In Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'', Percy talks about an incident in which he braved a flood. The story he refers to, "Percy's Promise", wouldn't be adapted until Season 3.
* ''Webcomic/NinePlanetsWithoutIntelligentLife'' originally skipped comic #69. Not because of the [[LOL69 infamy of the number]], but because what the artist had planned was too large and detailed (and unimportant to the plot) to be worth bothering with. After a long hiatus (during which time [[ScienceMarchesOn Pluto was demoted]]), he went back and made comic #69 an argument between the two protagonists over whether the solar system has nine planets or eight.
* The sequel to ''Videogame/LakeviewCabin'', ''Videogame/LakeviewCabinCollection'', have parts ''III'' through ''VI'', but there is noticeably no second installment for the ShowWithinAShow. Turns out to be a subversion, as a later update includes ''II'' [[spoiler:as an epilogue for completing the other parts]].
* Back in 2000, the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' card game released a card called [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/The_Legendary_Fisherman The Legendary Fisherman]] (originally used by Mako Tsunami in [[Manga/YuGiOh the original series]]). 15 years later, they came out with [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/The_Legendary_Fisherman_III The Legendary Fisherman III]], which was used by Trout in ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV''. After that, [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/The_Legendary_Fisherman_II The Legendary Fisherman II]] was released as a game-original card.
* ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures''' issue 0/1 has a complex history. The first issues were numbered [[EpisodeZeroTheBeginning 0, 0/2 and 0/3]], which convinced some readers there was an issue 0/1 they missed. After denying the issue's existence for a while, ''Paperinik'' included it in a "past issues" catalog as a joke (with a blank white cover). Eventually, they published it as one of the annual specials, with stories dealing with Paperinik's transition from his old life to his new one.
* ''ComicBook/GastonLagaffe'' originally had no volume 5, because the comic switched to the A4 format from volume 6 onward and the first four A4 volumes are compilations from small-format books. A fifth volume was eventually made in 1986, four years after the fourteenth volume, containing previously unpublished strips.
* Played for Laughs in ''WebAnimation/FiftyWaysToDieInMinecraft''. Part 4 was originally skipped over and went ahead to Part 5. Part 4 was later added, with the in-universe explanation being that people were having literal [[FlameWar flame wars]] over the joke.
* For the longest time, the U-Bahn (subway) in Vienna, Austria, has lines U1, U2, U3, U4, and U6, because plans for the U5 were proposed in the 70s and 80s (when the system was being built initially), but none were approved. Construction on the U5 finally began in January 2021.
* When San Jose International Airport opened up a second terminal on the premises in 1990, it was christened as Terminal A, with the original terminal being named Terminal C, skipping "Terminal B". However, an actual Terminal B was later built, and then opened in 2010.
* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' has a Season 3 episode called "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS3E4Vindicators3TheReturnOfWorldender Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender]]", but is the first episode of the series to feature the Vindicators. The first ''Vindicators'' installment is indicated by dialogue to have been one of Rick's and Morty's numerous offscreen adventures in the past ("we did it once, it was the big event of the summer"), and they find out later on that they weren't even ''invited'' to the second assembly (probably due to them all hating Rick), much to Morty's disappointment. A miniseries showing what happened during the Vindicators' second adventure, titled ''WesternAnimation/Vindicators2'', was released 5 years later.
* The ''Music/SiIvaGunner'' rip "Main Theme - Kirby Fighters 2" is actually a parody of early 2000s sprite animations featuring ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' characters, also titled ''Kirby Fighters 2''. One of the two main Kirbies [[BreakingTheFourthWall Breaks the Fourth Wall]] by calling out something the other Kirby said as rehashing a bit from "last episode"; while at the time this was the only episode available, a later rip based on ''Kirby Fighters Deluxe'' had its joke be the previous episode that Kirby was referring to (titled ''Kirby Fighters 1.5'').
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