->''The great novelist doesn’t imitate life but rather offers a kind of analogous, ideal vision of it — ideal in the aesthetic, not moral, sense.''\\
-- Sam Tanenhaus

->''Eventually, the question you ask stops being "[[AtlasShrugged Who is John Galt?]]" and becomes "When will John Galt shut up?"''

The extreme {{Anvilicious}} case of WriterOnBoard, where the plot stops dead in its tracks to give the author an opportunity to preach their message to the readers or audience, often very [[StrawmanPolitical political]] in nature.

If this is the climax of the book, it's often a case of TalkingTheMonsterToDeath.

CharacterFilibuster can be a by-product. If it's the purpose of the work, it's an {{Author Tract}}. A main cause of DontShootTheMessage.
----

!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* When ''{{Brookside}}'' was cancelled, the show's creator Phil Redmond had his final say in a rebellious scripted rant about how ‘TV and society's not like it was’ voiced by its longest-running character.
* In ''BostonLegal'', starting with season 4, there would be one or two closing arguments in EVERY EPISODE that were perfect examples of this. It would always be a very left leaning take on an issue of the day. It got to the point that it would be painful to watch even if the viewer fully agreed with the arguments being made.
** Lampshaded somewhat when Denny says "How come the other side always has short closings?"
** There were a very few occasions when they ended up getting totally shot down by the end of the episode, unfortunately this was phased out as the series went on.
* ''TheWestWing'', ''Studio 60'', and anything else that Aaron Sorkin has ever done.
** Specific example of this being the rant by Judd Hirsch's character in the teaser to ''the very first episode'' of ''Studio 60'' - that's very much Aaron Sorkin talking directly through his mouthpiece.
** Unlike other shows that portray this trope, ''The West Wing'' doesn't fit very well considering that in it's essence it is a political show. Each episode usually has several ongoing plots that deal with politics, because they work in the White House, and it's their job. Of course, since their politics inevitably tends to dovetail exactly with Aaron Sorkin's view on the situation, in another sense it fits here like a glove.
* More of a "Host Filibuster," but after learning that ''The Dennis Miller Show'' was going to be canceled, embittered host Dennis Miller began to break show format in the few remaining episodes to air his personal grievances on a number of social and political issues. His biting, humorous rants, dotted with his trademark obscure references, became the foundation for his follow-up show, ''Dennis Miller Live'', in which he performed a scripted rant in each episode.
* TheShield season five had a major moment (Claudette Wyms being promoted to Captain of the Farmington Precinct) interrupted for an Author Filibuster in the form of Internal Affairs officer Jon Kavanaugh interrupting the meeting where Claudette gets her promotion, to deliver a foaming at the mouth rant where the character (serving as the voicebox for Shawn Ryan and the rest of the writers of the series) goes off on the MisaimedFandom of the Vic Mackey character.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* The [[MindScrew infamous]] final two episodes of ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' are essentially an AuthorFilibuster on the human condition and the nature of loneliness.
** TheMovie ''End of Evangelion'' was pretty much the same, just not taking place on a "giant blue ball" and...[[GainaxEnding arguably even more confusing]].
*** [[YourMilageMayVary Or not]]. While [[{{Nivenus}} this troper]] finds the movie ending confusing and [[TearJerker certainly depressing]], it's arguably less confusing since it actually explains what's going on.
* In an early chapter of the ''ExcelSaga'' manga, Il Palazzo takes a few pages to rant about how he feels Christianity has had a negative influence on the world. The anime parodies this by Excel suggesting they skip that scene to avoid controversy.
**Lampshade is hung by Excel in the manga. "I think we may have just offended a large portion of the world population..."
* The original ''GhostInTheShell'' manga's entire ending issue consists of little more than the author's existential philosophy thinly packaged in abstract screen toned "art."
** TakeThat?
*** More like the existential philosophy was a payload cleverly hidden inside an espionage series. Anyone who didn't see where it was going after [[spoiler: Kusanagi seeing the falling feather]] have only themselves to blame.
*** Anyone who didn't see that ''GhostInTheShell'' was heading for an analysis of existentialism after reading the title might want to go study philosiphy.
* A recent chapter of Hajime no Ippo includes a several page long speech about how great the environment is, how everybody should do their part to protect it, and how pollution and industrial emissions are evil. It is then shortly followed by the introduction of a new character whose entire goal is to spread this exact message to the world.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comics ]]

* In a 1945 ''LittleOrphanAnnie'' strip, Annie soliloquizes about the dreadful foster home she's been placed in. She sleeps in the attic, dresses in a cut-down maid's uniform, is allowed no friends or recreation, and has to take every irksome task from serving dinner to shoveling coal -- basically she is treated as an unpaid servant -- but as she observes, it could be much much worse, because at least ''[[StrawmanPolitical she's not in an orphanage sponging off the taxpayers]].''
* As part of the legendary CreatorBreakdown during the run of ''{{Cerebus}}'', DaveSim replaced parts of his comic with fine-print screeds detailing his [[http://www.tcj.com/232/tangent0.html legendary misogyny]], which even diehard fans who continued to read the comic do their very best to ignore.
* About seventy-five percent of all ''{{Doonesbury}}'' strips engage in this, though it generally sets up the punchline.
** The same applies to ''MallardFillmore'' - just without the punchlines, [[YourMileageMayVary according to some people.]]
* ''TheBoondocks'' comic occasionally falls into this (witness the series of strips, after the 2004 presidental election, where Huey calls out and insults every state where Bush won), but it's largely an AuthorTract to begin with. The animated version can't really do this do due to AnimationLeadTime, which is [[BrokenBase one of the many reasons why it's disliked by fans of the comic strip]].
* SteveDitko may be a master comic book storyteller, but when he does not have a collaborator like StanLee to restrain him, his stories are notorious for his objectivist philosophical lectures that dominate his more personal stories. The "Mr. A" stories are by far the worst, though "The Question" could be just as bad at times.
* The comic book limited series ''Warrior'', a licensed comic about every ProfessionalWrestling fan's favorite crackpot, The Ultimate Warrior, is one great big [[WallsOfText Wall Of Text]] after another meant to elucidate the reader on Warrior's bizarre mystical-reactionary philosophy, and paint Warrior as {{Jesus}}. Between the sheer density of the text and the preponderance of made up words (just what in the blue hell is "foke", anyway?), it confused its few readers so badly that the third issue had to open with an explanation of the previous two issues. The one issue this doesn't apply to? The Christmas special, a completely dialog-less issue in which Warrior goes to the North Pole, [[{{Squick}} puts Santa in bondage]], and steals his clothes. There's a reason that every wrestling fan on the planet has agreed that the guy is nucking futs.
** It's bad enough to [[http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/bt/spoonyone/reviews/7238-warrior1 mess with the space-time continuum!]]
* In the final years of Chester Gould's ''DickTracy'', the stories were notorious for the main character yammering about due process restrictions on the police to the point where the villains dropped dead just from this.
* Matt Fraction's first issue of the ''Invincible IronMan'' comic has young villain supergenius Ezekiel Stane, fresh from his latest round of building and selling [=WMDs=] to genocidal terrorists, stop to spend four pages testing out his latest weaponry on the board of directors of a tobacco company, while delivering a rant on a) the evils of smoking and b) why, despite Ezekiel's long list of crimes against humanity, he is still infinitely morally superior to people who grow and sell tobacco.
** And to make it even worse, he did so after accepting a contract from them to genetically engineer a new species of tobacco that had a measurable ''health benefit'' for the smoker -- it let them safely lose weight. Despite this, the idea of going on to apply his genetic engineering talents further and attempt to remove at least some of the harmful side effects of smoking tobacco apparently never crossed Ezekiel Stane's mind. Self-righteous killing sprees because "tobacco is bad", on the other hand, were entirely all right.
**Stane is a villain, that's simply making the villain unlikeable.
***And yet virtually every other comic book has found a way to do this without lecturing about politics. The filibuster was effective in making the ''book'' unlikeable though. Way to write your pilot issue, Fraction.
* Oddly enough, the [[Comicbook/{{Doom}} Doom comic]] ([[http://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/comic.php?page=11 here]]) did this too, interrupting the plotless violence with a rant about how radioactive waste is killing the environment. This may well be a parody of the tradition, though, assuming that the comic is a [[StealthParody parody]] to begin with.
* Warren Ellis' ''{{Transmetropolitan}}'', whose main character's inflammatory news articles, while only sometimes political, and definitely in-character (insofar as Spider is an homage to Hunter S. Thompson), are too long and detailed to NOT also be the author's viewpoint.
* AlanMoore responded to complaints such as these by saying something along the lines of, "There are hundreds of comics out there that aren't a didactic on magic, isn't there room for just one that is?"
** Of course, those complaints were about his series ''Promethea'', not about ''{{Transmetropolitan}}'' which he had nothing to do with.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* Overlapping with AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle, AlfredHitchcock's ''Foreign Correspondent'', like several other films of the era, ends with a call to Americans to enter WorldWarII.
* Steven Seagal finished off his movie ''On Deadly Ground'' by [[http://www.jabootu.com/ondeadlyground.htm delivering an author filibuster]]... the uncut, ''ten minute'' version (the release version was three and a half) which caused test viewers to walk out. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yr-F8z74KM Check it out.]]
* Charlie -- sorry, ''Charles'' -- Chaplin's ''TheGreatDictator'', in which the entire [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHSbEGHeBS8 closing monologue]] is a statement of Chaplin's anti-war beliefs. Of course, SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped.
* Parodied in WoodyAllen's ''BulletsOverBroadway'', in which David Shayne simply cannot help but write what he thinks he's "important dialogue", but everyone else thinks is turgid.
-->'''Cheech:''' "A maze beset by brutal pitfalls!" Hey, Olive, ''I'' memorized it, and I'm tellin' ya, it comes to me all the time, and it stinks on fuckin' hot ice!
** When Cheech becomes a ghost writer of the play, his natural dialogue and less pretentious playwrighting causes the play to blossom into a classic.
*In the last 10 minutes of ''{{Clerks}}'' Kevin Smith's voice hops from one character to another basically every time someone opens their mouth. In fact, this tends to be the method by which he concludes all his films.
* ''KillBill volume 2'' has Bill momentarily possessed by Tarantino so he can explain his views on comics.
** ''Sukiyaki Western Django'' skips the possession part and instead features a long cameo of Tarantino talking about anime.
* ''{{Saw}} VI''. During a flashback scene, Jigsaw is standing in the office of William, an executive at a health insurance company who had just denied him an experimental treatment for his cancer (and who is the subject of the film's main trap). This causes Jigsaw to go into a rant attacking the health insurance industry, saying that they do the very same thing that conservatives fear socialized medicine will do -- namely, take life-and-death decisions away from doctors and their patients by denying them coverage. He doesn't say "conservatives" or "socialized medicine," but the message is clear, and is repeated throughout the film, especially with the way that [[spoiler:William gets killed]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''AtlasShrugged'' has the [[TropeCodifier definitive]] AuthorFilibuster in "This Is John Galt Speaking," where AynRand gives her MartyStu an opportunity to lecture the reader for ''sixty'' pages on end (''eighty'' pages in the paperback edition); the StrawmanPolitical villains are made to sit through it for three hours of plot time. There are several shorter examples in the same book, such as the sermon explaining that "money is the root of all good."
** And John Galt gave his three-hour-long, 60-page speech over a radio network he had ''illegally pirated''. None of the government mooks thought of breaking down the door and arresting him for that whole time.
** ''The {{Illuminatus}}! Trilogy'' parodies this with "Telemachus Sneezed", where the last hundred and three pages are a soliloquy on the importance of guilt.
** Howard Roark of ''TheFountainhead'' also gets a such an opportunity in his courtroom scene, and the last chapter of ''Anthem'' is essentially devoted to this purpose. (Ayn Rand seems to do this a lot). These examples aren't quite as extreme as ''Atlas Shrugged'' -- in book form. In the movie adaptation of ''The Fountainhead'', Rand demanded that Roark's courtroom speech be performed ''exactly'' as she had written it (the version Rand wrote for the film's screenplay was significantly shorter than the book's version), resulting in a nearly six-minute long speech, one of the longest in film.
* LouisaMayAlcott admits in ''LittleWomen'' that she was guilty of this at one point. Her AuthorAvatar Jo's literary exploits include, in a backlash against ExecutiveMeddling insisting that TrueArtIsAngsty, writing a book that failed because "it might more accurately have been called an essay or a sermon, so intensely moral was it".
* Robert Asprin had a bad habit of forcibly inserting these into his otherwise light-hearted fantasy novels.
* ''TheDaVinciCode'''s characters deliver lengthy summaries of various fantastical pseudohistories of Christianity, e.g. ''Holy Blood, Holy Grail''.
** Similarly in the prequel ''Angels and Demons'', including the main figure stating that the Christian tradition of Communion was borrowed from the Aztecs. Perhaps [[CriticalResearchFailure time travel was involved?]]
** In ''DeceptionPoint'', Dan Brown has several characters expose the pros and cons of letting NASA monopolize space exploration instead of opening it up to the private sector (though the arguments supporting NASA greatly outnumber the ones doing the opposite).
* Anthony Burgess. Just... Anthony Burgess. ''The Wanting Seed'' is a particularly bad example.
* Toni Morrison. Seriously. This troper was forced to read Song of Solomon in 10th grade. It seemed like the plot was a decent story about 2 estranged friends and looking for treasure, but it was kind of hard to tell under all the preaching and metaphors.
* AgathaChristie in her final few novels.
* TomClancy espoused his world view at length in ''Bear and the Dragon''. Allegedly his other books aren't any different.
** It started to become really obvious with ''Executive Order''
* MichaelCrichton's ''StateOfFear'' left approximately half the key plot points unresolved in favor of the heroes making every rant possible on the subject of global warming.
** Crichton ''loves'' his filibusters. In ''JurassicPark'', Ian Malcolm spends better than half of his scenes in the book making pages-long speeches about the evils of modern science, despite the fact that he is supposedly dying at the time. There is occasionally a HandWave, like when Malcolm is cranked out of his mind on morphine, and is just babbling whatever thoughts come into his head. These were thankfully cut down in the TheMovie. ''Lost World'' is even worse.
** Somewhat lampshaded in the third movie. When Alan Grant meets Eric Kirby, they begin discussing the events of Isla Nublar. When asked what he thought of Ian Malcolm's book on the subject, Eric said "He seemed kinda full of himself." Alan simply chuckles, and says "That makes two of us."
* ''Wakefield'' by Andrei Codrescu does this over and over on a wide variety of subjects, but at least has a certain self-knowledge. Kudos for when, after the main character gives a lengthy speech about the relationship between art and money, another character tells him he's "full of shit."
*Bill O'Reilly's fiction book, from before he was really famous, ''Those Who Trespass'', is basically one after the other, from two characters that essentially play two sides of his personality, one of which is a cold blooded killer who takes revenge on those who fired him from television, while the other is an Irish cop who blabs on about the errors he predicts in the OJ Simpson trial, which was a few months away in the book's time.
* Emmanuel Goldstein's book in ''[[NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'', plus a drunken proletarian's rant against the metric system. The story of the novel is largely a FramingDevice for Orwell's vision of the {{Dystopia}}, and said book-within-a-book can be skipped by the reader without missing anything important to the plot. He also spends about ten pages near the end of "1984" driving his free-thought, anti-fascism message home, just in case the reader missed the thinly-veiled metaphor of the first hundred or so pages.
** Except that the drunken rant by the prole is also supposed to show the reader that the proles see the world in a completely different way than the Inner Party. For Winston the horror of Ingsoc is the complete loss of freedom of thought and expression; for the proles, it's the replacement of Imperial measurements with metric. (The more subtle point is that the prole is complaining about a change that makes much less difference than he thinks it does - a pint and half a litre are almost identical - probably because he resents any change whatsoever.)
*** Well, a ''US'' pint is almost identical to half a litre; an Imperial pint is somewhat more.
* The plot of ''{{Moby-Dick}}'' is, basically, an excuse for myriad Author Filibusters about whaling, whaling culture, the anatomy of whales, and, of course, lots of [[HaveAGayOldTime sperm]]. Not to mention [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic all the classical references]].
** Then there are those that interpret the whole book as an AuthorTract about religion, where Ahab was trying to kill {{God}} by using Moby Dick as a substitute.
** An Author Filibuster is about preaching some kind of political or social message, isn't it? It's true that Moby Dick is full of expository sections, but most of them are less "Objectivism/Libertarianism/Free-Love/Whatever is awesome!" and more "This is how you strip blubber off a whale." Then again, given how allegorical the book is, it's entirely possible that the blubber is meant to represent the political view of your choice.
* Vegetarians get their say in the second book of the ''InheritanceCycle''. Humorously, Paolini seems to have changed his mind in the mean-time, as Eragon rationalizes about eating meat in the third book.
** Seeing as Eragon is pretty much Paolini's AuthorAvatar, it's not surprising that he runs into [[WallBanger wallbanger-y]] things like this. Paolini manages to write his own contradictions not only from book to book, but from chapter to ''chapter''.
* Parodied in the original novel of ''ThePrincessBride'', when author WilliamGoldman (in his guise as the alleged "editor") discusses how he cut out scores of pages of (in his opinion) boring political lectures and discussions from the "[[LiteraryAgentHypothesis original book]]".
** Goldman parodies his own parody in the excerpts from ''Buttercup's Baby'', the sequel, that are provided in some editions of the novel - he describes in detail how a major stumbling block in getting his annotation of the sequel off the ground is the fact that Morgenstern's estate took a dim view of his chopping away Morgenstern's filibustering, as they view that as an integral part of the original work.
* The final third of UptonSinclair's ''TheJungle'' is a rambling treatise on the virtues of socialism. Most readers only noticed his nauseating descriptions of contemporary meat-packing practices. As Sinclair himself noted, he'd aimed for the country's heart, but hit its stomach.
* Terry Goodkind's main characters in his ''SwordOfTruth'' series frequently stop to give ranty, self-important speeches espousing a fantasy version of his Objectivist philosophy. The fact that he [[SciFiGhetto doesn't consider himself a fantasy writer]] adds a lot of weight to this one -- even if the Aesops are ''invariably'' [[BrokenAesop broken into little teeny pieces]] or [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop completely demented to begin with]].
* A milder example: At one point in ''SailorNothing'', Shin bursts into a long rant about DVD regional lockout and copy protection. This is actually pretty much exactly in character for her, given the situation, but it's a little jarring and has nothing to do with the plot whatsoever.
* The structure of ''TheBrothersKaramazov'' is composed mostly of monologues and dialogues, and several of the monologues throughout the book could be seen as the author punching you in the face with theology, or free will, or whatever topic he happens to be writing reams about at the time. That it all ends up playing a part in the novel's climax is only a minor consolation.
* RobertAHeinlein was fond of these. In ''StarshipTroopers'' his characters deliver several lengthy monologues on subjects like the death penalty (good), conscription (bad), corporal punishment (good) and disarmament (bad), while in ''Farnhams Freehold'' he has characters offer similar diatribes on topics including cannibalism (good; er, what?!) and African colonialism in the post-WWIII remains of the USA (good). In fact, one could make the blanket generalization that this is Heinlein's SignatureStyle.
** In ''For Us, The Living'', the entirety of the plot is a single lengthy aside sandwiched between the monologues on the death penalty (bad), corporal punishment (bad), and economics (complicated, but if you just do...) Note that ''For Us'' was his first book (even if it was only published after his death, as the manuscript had been lost for decades), and his tendency towards this lessened afterward -- at least until he gained ProtectionFromEditors.
** ''The Cat Who Walks Through Walls'' contains yet another example, wherein the two main characters stop what they're doing to discuss the virtues of libertarianism and how wrong-headed the alternatives are.
*** Hazel Stone is an [[ManicPixieDreamGirl agent provocateur sent on a mission]] to recruit Colin Campbell to the Time Corps... which requires shaking him out of his comfortable self-centered retirement. Most of the arguing about politics is her trying to get Colin to start thinking ''about'' politics, given that he starts out as a self-centered old coot who adopted libertarianism as his political philosophy simply because it let him sit at home and not give a damn about the rest of the world. Hazel, who is a libertarian on more philosophical grounds, is trying to get Colin to actually examine and justify his point of view instead of just use it as an excuse for apolitical laziness. The rest of it is that Hazel would cheerfully take time out to argue about [[strike:politics]] anything with a tree stump, on her deathbed.
** "Prof" in ''The Moon is a Harsh Mistress''; Oscar at the beginning and end of ''Glory Road''; Lorenzo Smythe in ''Double Star''; "Doc" in ''Red Planet''.
** ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' has diatribes from Jubal about the evils of organized religion. It's not really clear whether or not Heinlein was truly advocating the type of government he depicts in ''Starship Troopers'', but Jubal really does seem to be a mouthpiece for the author.
** Given that many of the {{Author Filibuster}}s given in various Heinlein novels ''contradict each other'', guessing which character (''if any'') is actually the author's mouthpiece is a mug's game. Heinlein really seemed to love playing devil's advocate for any number of related, yet non-identical, philosophies.
*** There is actually a clear progression in his philosophy over time from socialist to libertarian. He should still be given credit for pointing out that even his MarySuetopias had flaws of one sort or another.
** Heinlein is notable for actually working the filibusters seamlessly into the actual pacing of the story. The Hazel Stone/Colin Campbell dynamic above is one thing. The one in ''Farnham's Freehold'' comes about because the characters are living in a post-holocaust setting: with no radio and television, and few books, about their only available form of leisure ''is'' to sit around the campfire and have a bull session. The philosophical monologues in ''Starship Troopers'' are from the protagonist's philosophy class, while he is listening to the lecturer. Most of the filibusters in the Heinlein juveniles are from a quiet moment when the young hero has asked his wise old mentor a Serious Question About Life, and the mentor is doing what mentors do. Seldom if ever do the characters actually stop in the middle of a scene to jarringly bust out with an unrelated speech dump -- there is always an actual reason within the story that the characters are taking time out for a long talk. Granted, Heinlein's works are ''full'' of long talks... he loved writing drama more than action.
* Almost any time the plot looks like it might be going somewhere interesting in Joanna Russ's ''The Female Man'', the current plot thread is completely derailed by pages and chapter-long feminist rants. The abandoned plot threads are then promptly forgotten about when the actual characters are revisited.
*''WarAndPeace'' has one of two epilogues of the novel devoted to espousing Leo Tolstoy's view of history. If you have read the entire book beforehand, there's no real need to read that particular epilogue. It's only for people who don't like reading through voluminous {{Doorstopper}}s to get to the point.
** And those people are unwilling to make the effort anyway.
* The fourth ''MaximumRide'' novel by JamesPatterson. While, in the first three books, the main characters were always on the move and in danger, fighting for their lives against evil scientists, and keeping a low profile, in this one Max and the flock are brought to Antarctica to combat '''global warming''' of all things. The global warming commentary is there but not overwhelming until the last few pages of the book (before the epilogue) which has Max ''making a speech to the US Congress'' concerning global warming and even referencing the current big thing about compact fluorescent light bulbs (that if every house replaced one normal bulb with one of these, it would be "like taking a million cars off the road"). The speech also contains a lot of America-bashing (pig-headed, short-sighted, arrogant, etc). To finish it up, the very last page has 5 facts/tips about "Saving the world. Wings not required" which is more global warming / recycling commentary (and is signed "--Max").
** The only thing that may top this is book five, which many (justifiably) horrified fans have quoted official descriptions of. In a few words, the plot is that, apparently,pollution is killing fish and sinking boats near Hawaii... and Max and her buddies have to save the ocean from humanity. The title? "Max: a Maximum ride novel." Thus, James Patterson sucks. Badly.
* ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' has several rants on how industrial growth is killing nature and humanity.
** ''The Seven Basic Plots'' by Christopher Booker contains a lengthy rant on why ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is an awful book.
* Book Three of ''NativeSon'', particularly toward the end, and at its absolute worst during each of the two speeches during Bigger's trial, especially by Bigger's attorney; each of these speeches went on for over 20 pages of the book. The longest one was exactly 24 pages.
* ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' contains a lot of Gibbon's anti-Catholic sentiments. (He blamed the Church on its fall.)
** More like Anti Christian sentiments. In fact the church of england initially disliked his book.
***Gibbon's intention was to skewer all forms of religion, Christian or otherwise. Being English, though, most of his barbs were mainly directed against the Church of England, which he saw as full of corrupt liars.
* JohnRingo's ''[[PaladinOfShadows Ghost]]'' takes time from saving the world from terrorists to deliver treatises on bondage, how President Bush is the best leader ever, and justify the desire to rape. A solid WallBanger.
** To be fair, that novel (and by extension the rest of the series) was never supposed to be published in the first place until his manager made him; read John Ringo's comment to [[http://hradzka.livejournal.com/194753.html?page=3 this]] review.
*** His ''TheLastCenturion'', on the other hand, doesn't have that excuse. The entire first nine chapters are this trope, in the form of the protagonist known as "Bandit Six" (Bandit the nickname, Six the military terminology for a unit's commanding officer). The action picks up after that point, but even for those who may tend to agree with his sociopolitical views (yes, like [[{{Nohbody}} me]]), [[YourMileageMayVary it can get anvilicious]].
* [[JohnCWright John C. Wright]]'s ''Golden Age'' trilogy does this. Especially in the third book, where Phaethon and Nothing (which is, in fact, an AI trapped in a black hole) engage in a lengthy philosophical discussion on the bridge of Phaethon's thousand-kilometer Adamantium starship. This is in the middle of exchanges of gunfire using the most powerful weapons of the past ten thousand years.
** Nothing is trying a WeCanRuleTogether here -- its thus incumbent upon it to explain to the hero at length why its POV is allegedly so superior. Phaethon ''could'' have restrained the impulse to answer it at such length, admitted.
* Robert Parker's ''Spenser'' books will come to a screeching halt every few chapters so Susan Silverman, Spenser's psychiatrist girlfriend, can deliver a [[CharacterFilibuster labored Psychological perspective]] on the action.
* CharlesDickens could never resist the temptation to embellish his characters' actions via moralistic asides, sometimes lighthearted, more often disgusted. Since his books tend to contain LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, he does this a ''lot'', in his later, socially-aware novels especially.
* ''TheExecutioner'' series of action novels was written by Don Pendleton in the 1970's in response to the anti-war and "violence doesn't solve anything" attitudes of the time. Its hero, Vietnam veteran turned [[VigilanteMan vigilante]] Mack Bolan, spends entire chapters pondering the morality of violence and the nature of his "war everlasting".
* Geoffrey Chaucer concludes ''TheCanterburyTales'' with a long sermon by the Parson on the Seven Deadly Sins.
** This is a filibuster but probably wasn't meant to come at the end: Chaucer [[AuthorExistenceFailure died before he finished the Tales]]. One wonders how many more filibusters he had up his sleeve...
**Considering the heavily moralistic tone of both the framing story and the tales, it's arguable that the whole of The Canterbury Tales is an AuthorTract
* People familiar with the musical version of ''LesMiserables'' are certain to be rather confused by numerous dissertations on such things as local linguistics, the life of an almost random bishop, and the governance of a town in the original work.
* Parodied in ''Mason & Dixon'', when Dixon goes on a several page speech about the mythological Lambton Worm, and by the time he gets to the end, he can't remember what his point was in bringing it up.
* In ''The Ethical Assassin'', the title character says almost nothing that isn't Author Filibuster. The last conversation sounds like it's the assassin delivering the jacket blurb.
* In some of John Norman's later ''{{Gor}}'' novels, what little plot there is halts AT LEAST EVERY TWO PAGES for a character to go on another rant about how a woman's proper place is kneeling at his feet.
* {{Edgar Allan Poe}} had an occasional bad habit of ranting for a few paragraphs about his idea of "perverseness" as a previously uncredited motivating force behind people's actions. ''The Imp of the Perverse'' is an entire {{Author Tract}} on the subject.
* {{Poul Anderson}}'s otherwise pretty good [[strike:novel]] collection of loosely-related short stories, ''The Boat of a Million Years'' veers into this trope. The author apparently can't help himself from launching into angry rants against [[StrawmanPolitical liberalism]] and expressing the view that libertarianism is the best thing ever.
* Every Dan Simmons book takes a break from the action for at least a paragraph or two for a completely out-of-the-blue rant about how all Muslims are psychotic terrorist killers. It's very jarring.
** They do? ''{{Hyperion}}'' included a Muslim in the primary cast, and Kassad, though a soldier, definitely wasn't psychotic. In fact, he put the smackdown on some religious extremists in a CrowningMomentofAwesome.
*** The character in question is a secularist of Palistinian descentn whose stated intention is to kill the closest thing that the setting has to a god. So, it's more anti-religion in general than anti-muslim.
** Don't know about his other books but ThisTroper stopped reading ''{{Ilium}}'' based solely on this tendency. Also, read [[http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message/2006_04.htm this blatantly Islamophobic rant of his]].
** He doesn't seem to be a fan of religion in general, actually. Which makes sense, he writes SciFi.
*** Really? I suppose you haven't heard of OrsonScottCard? Or [[BabylonFive JMS]], who, while an atheist, portrays religions largely positively? Or RonaldDMoore? Or...
* In the original 1816 version of ''Frankenstein'', during the scene in which Elizabeth and Victor are visiting the condemned Justine Moritz, Mary Shelley allows Elizabeth to go into a completely inappropriate rant against the inhumanity of the death penalty (Shelley and her husband Percy were strongly against it) - inappropriate for that dramatic moment, anyway, because Elizabeth is meant to be there comforting and consoling her friend who's just been condemned ''under'' the death penalty. This led one editor of the 1816 edition to remark that Elizabeth isn't the sort of friend you'd call up to cheer you up if you've had a bad day...
* ''Making History'' by StephenFry contains at least one conversation full of remarks the author himself has made in interviews. The line "Just because [[ScienceMarchesOn science doesn't know everything]] doesn't mean [[ScienceIsBad science knows nothing]]" stands out. (Of course, you could argue that SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped.) There's also the "beautiful words" sketch from ''A Bit of Fry and Laurie'', which is ''all'' filibuster by a character who's basically a camper, weirder version of himself. He did a podcast recently where he makes many of the same points, only seriously.
* ''Does My Head Look Big In This'' by Randa Abdel-Fattah is filled with this, mainly through the main character Amal. Amal is a Palestinian-Australian Muslim girl who decides to wear the hijab (head covering worn by some female Muslims) full time. It is repeated several times that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are not representative of Islam. The first few times can be excused SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped, especially since this book is mainly read by non-Muslims, but the rest is annoying.
* Neal Stephenson does this a ''lot''. He keeps you on your toes, too - sometimes he's just rambling about RestorationComedy for no good reason, but sometimes the five-page demonstration of van Eck phreaking will turn out to be a key plot point.
* Jack L Chalker's books were often set in seemingly horrible societies, which he had come up with by taking a group's avowed philosohpy and taking it to it's logical extreme. As a self-described 'militant centrist', he did not really push his vision of a perfect society, preferring to point out the flaws in others.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

* Subverted in ''ThreeSisters''. Vershinin gives a big long speech about how nobody really wants to be happy; they just want to want happiness. And then Tuzenbach asks if there are any chocolates left, deflating Vershinin's entire point: Tuzenbach, at least, wants to be happy ''now''.
* Some published versions of ArthurMiller's ''TheCrucible'' (commonly used in schools) contain notes from Miller himself interrupting Act One. Most of them discuss the RealLife characters who have just been introduced, but one devolves into practically a treatise on the Red Scare.
* The entire second act ("Dan Juan in Hell") of George Bernard Shaw's ''Man and Superman'' is nothing but this. Many drama companies simply omit that act when performing the play. Which probably would have annoyed Shaw no end; I mean, the guy didn't like ''MyFairLady'', for cryin' out loud.
** So? It was another typical [[TheMusical musical version]] of a classic, rather dumbed down and avoiding the more ''serious'' parts of the play. And if you're going to do a play about ''Don Juan'', shouldn't you expect this sort of thing? Unless, of course, the author is a libertine.
* Even {{Shakespeare}} can fall to this; the middle of ''{{Hamlet}}'' is interrupted by a discussion between Hamlet and the Players that serves no dramatic purpose but to give Hamlet a chance to rant about spoiled child actors and how they're ruining the art and the business of theater today (that is, in 1601).
** And the entire "Speak the speech I pray you" Monologue is usually seen as Shakespeare's critique on the [[LargeHam typical acting methods]] of the day.
*** Some academics think it's also an in-joke. Hamlet has no theatre experience whatsoever yet there he stands, lecturing a roomful of actors on how to act. This troper suspects that it was a send-up of the late Earl of Essex, Shakespeare's first patron and a well-known egocentric loudmouth.
* Tony Kushner's ''AngelsInAmerica'' has a number of these, except that the rants are not about Kushner's views, they're about his character Louis's views. This might sound pretty weird--the guy is gonna waste our time with long rants that don't even say something he believes?--but it's actually a characterization device, to depict how obsessed Louis is with politics and religion.
** Of course, how much Kushner agrees with Louis is uncertain.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Porn (All links NSFW) ]]

* ''Relatively'' brief, but frequent, bouts of this appear to be a SignatureStyle of the literary [[strike:propaganda]] porn of [[http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/SD40ka/ "SD40ka".]] Marvel at how Gary proves to a black guy that [[http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/SD40ka/The%20Singer%20Meets%20Her%20Man.txt racism does not exist.]] Marvel again at how in ''another'' story Carol proves that [[http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/SD40ka/Greg%20and%20Carol.txt those liberals are all just hypocritical closet racists.]]
* This troper saw one late-night [[FanNickname Skinemax]] softcore movie where two characters showed up at a bar just as it was closing to talk with the main character bartender, and almost immediately launched into a long, somewhat pretentious speech on the virtues of swinging and how anyone who didn't have an open relationship was a fool. Since this was ''not'' immediately followed by a threesome, it made the filibuster all the more annoying.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* This happens a ''lot'' in the ''MetalGear'' series. As a sly apology, more often than not it's the ''villains'' blathering on, and the protagonist greets their speeches with irreverence, frustration or bewilderment as appropriate. Not to mention that you get to ''beat the crap out of them'' once the cutscene's over.
** That said, in the final cutscene of each game, there's a character that pretty much totally breaks character to be Hideo Kojima for a while. In the [[strike:first]] [[MetalGearSolid third]] game it's Naomi Hunter, in the [[strike:second]] fourth it's Snake, and in the [[strike:third]] first it's EVA (sort of, she doesn't nearly break the fourth wall). And you never get the chance to beat any of them up, because it's the final cutscene.
*** That's because the Villainous filibusters are actually [[CharacterFilibuster Character Filibusters]], with the later Author Filibuster at the end being a disagreement with it. He's generally not wanting you to agree with the villains, which is why their plans fall apart at the end and you get to cream them.
** As a side-note, Nastasha Romanenko would like you to know that [[{{Anvilicious}} nukes]] [[WallBanger are]] [[ILoveNuclearPower bad]].
* Subverted in ''ResidentEvil 4''. Antagonist Ramon Salazar starts what appears to be a long speech about the nature of terrorism, but before he can finish his second sentence, Leon [[ShutUpHannibal shuts him up by nailing his hand to a wall with a well-thrown knife.]]
* Parodied in episode 4 of ''[[HomestarRunner Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People]]''. Marzipan convinces Strong Bad to let her have an eight-minute spiel on saving the rainforest in ''Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective'', but Strong Bad fast-forwards through most of it.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* ''PastelDefenderHeliotrope'' used its first update after the results of the 2004 presidential elections to berate the readers for the re-election of George W. Bush.
** ''VenusEnvy'' did much the same thing, with the AuthorAvatar not only berating the readers, but also [[{{Wangst}} sobbing and collapsing in a heap]], along with the equivalent of "How could yoooou?!" at the end of the rant.
* ''{{Sinfest}}'' typically shows Tatsuya Ishida's liberal leanings both in the comics themselves and the rants.
** Considering that he's repeatedly portrayed BarackObama as a literal superhero, "leanings" might not be the right word at this point.
* R.H. Junior, the man behind ''TalesOfTheQuestor'', apparently thought that the subtle right-wing Christian elements of his comics and his very political journal weren't enough, and decided to interrupt his cutesy ''{{Narnia}}''-like allegory about an adventuring raccoon kit with a completely out-of-the-blue ramble. He quickly stopped doing this, though, and relegated it to a separate section.
* Used in ''TheLastDaysOfFOXHOUND'' in [[http://gigaville.com/comic.php?id=133 this strip]]. In the strip's defense, Psycho's rant is decidedly in character, and it's not mentioned again.
* ''Subnormality'', while excellent, often features a level of verbosity rarely seen in its medium. Perhaps the most filibustering example is [[http://www.viruscomix.com/page474.html this one]].
** It's no coincidence that Subnormality's subtitle is "Comix with too many words since 2007."

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''FamilyGuy'' has done a lot of this in its post-revival episodes to express [=Seth MacFarlane=]'s generally left-wing views, usually without any self-parody. There is one example of a parodical usage in the episode "Boys Do Cry", however. The message itself is completely sincere, but the way it's delivered is comedically heavy-handed, infused with RealitySubtext:
--> "Like, for instance, if you're watching a TV show and you decide to take your values from that... you're an idiot. Maybe you should take responsibility for what values your kids are getting. Maybe you shouldn't be letting your kids watch certain shows in the first place if you have such a big problem with them, instead of blaming the shows themselves. [long pause] [[SoYeah Yeah]]."
**That [[YourMileageMayVary might]] have been a subtle LampshadeHanging of AuthorFilibuster in FamilyGuy. "Like, for instance, if you're watching a TV show and you decide to take your values from that... you're an idiot." [[CluelessAesop If the line was intended to have a go at people taking morals from TV without irony]] then ... SoYeah.
** All of these events may be parody. The aesops of family guy are so obviously broken whenever they appear that they must be parody.
*** Odds are it was just a Seth McFarlance rant about the Hatedom criticizing the show for ...all the AuthorFilibusters... so yeah
**** If could be interpreted as response to people attacking the show, saying thats it's not for kids (which is true) deeming it as a bad influence for kids and blaming their behavior on the show. So what Macfarlane is saying is that the parents should simply not let their children watch the show if they (the parents) deem it bad.
***One particularly egregious example has an entire episode defending OJ Simpson and in the closing scenes there's an explanation about how it's wrong to judge others and it end with OJ stabbing three people. The BrokenAesop infuriated many viewers who felt that they had just had a half hour of time stolen from them.
**** It's possible that the message was that "If you obsess over someone you hate then you're no better then said person". They decided to end it with OJ killing someone for three reasons. Reason 1, Macfarlane personally believes that OJ's guilty and we all know how his beliefs are put in the show. Reason 2, it's to remind the audience that "even if you should not be judgmental of others wrongdoings, it does not excuse their actions", and reason 3, the writers could not think of an ending and just got lazy. The episode is awful because of how poorly the Aesop is executed and the lack of any particularly humorous moments.
*** A particularly horrifying example of a literal fillibuster came from the same episode where they used up 5 minutes of their show playing.... a Conway Twitty music video. Needless to say, ThisTroper didn't pay much attention to the rest of the episode over the sound of [[WallBanger his head banging.]]
*''SouthPark''. Although sometimes with mocking, many episodes are about what Trey Parker and Matt Stone find wrong in the world.
** This has become increasingly jarring (and less funny) in recent seasons. In a scene from the most recent episode ("Whale Whores"), the in-universe Larry King breaks character and diverts attention from the scene just to talk about how much he (that is, Matt and Trey) hates the host of Whale Wars. A previous episode from the current run had a scene that made fun of "Ghost Hunters" by repeating the same joke over and over again, that did not contribute anything to the plot of the episode and was basically a throwaway gag for something like five whole minutes. In other words, South Park's instances of author filibuster have not only become more jarring and (even) less subtle, but have become increasingly petty rants about increasingly insignificant topics.
* In the 2005 [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Ninja Turtles]] episode "Sons of the Silent Age," Donatello goes off on a fairly opinionated rant about nuclear power and how [[GreenAesop awful]] it is. At one point he even makes a comparison between the [[{{Mooks}} Purple Dragons]] and a nearby power plant (which they destroy during the episode). You [[YourMileageMayVary may or may not]] think the metaphor is excessive, though it does feel very out of the blue, especially given the tone of the show in general.
** Meanwhile, there is a [[http://the-5th-turtle.blogspot.com guy on Mirage staff]] who is very much an environmentalist and has mentioned working some of his views into scripts in the comics and cartoons. This may very well be an example.
** The writer in question, Steve Murphy, was responsible for both the cited episode and the original comic from which it was adapted. SoYeah.
* Homer Simpson, who has usually been depicted as either politically indifferent or actively conservative has occasionally been used for this.
-->'''Marge:''' [to Bart] Now we have to find another school for you.
-->'''Homer:''' And if you get kicked out of that one, you're going straight in the army, where you'll be sent straight to America's latest military quagmire. Where will it be? North Korea? Iran? Anything's possible with [[GeorgeWBush Commander Cuckoo-Bananas]] in charge.
*''[[BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold Batman: The Brave and the Bold]]'' has a Bat-Mite episode which cuts away to a comics convention where Bat-Mite explains to the audience that the version of Batman with goofy villains is as valid a use of the source material as the grim Batman.
** Interestingly enough, the episode in question was written by Paul Dini, who not only wrote the [[BatmanTheAnimatedSeries best known grim animated Batman]] for quite some time, but even uses the episode to playfully take a jab at himself. Let's just say he doesn't look good in spandex and leave it at that. Regardless, if this had come from anyone else, it might not be nearly as effective.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* Given that the entire point behind the cartoons is the author speaking about whatever video game trope takes his fancy for five minutes and how it may or may not relate to the actual game he's reviewing, it's difficult to say that any of {{Zero Punctuation}}'s long rants can fall into "author filibuster" material. However, he did spend the better part of one video pointing out that calling rappers dipshits is not racist- the fact that they're mostly black didn't even enter into it- complete with the phrase "Unfunny Soapbox Bit" [[LampshadeHanging scrolling in the background.]]
** However, any time he reviews a war game, you can generally bet on an honest-to-god filibuster about how much America sucks.
* MovieBob likes what he likes and hates what he hates, but the onyl thing to so far trigger a REALLY long extended rant from him has been Megan Fox in ''Jennifer's Body''- it isn't until the 2 minute mark that he starts talking about the actual film because he feels he has to get off his chest his annoyance at how overrated she is as either an actress ''or'' a sex symbol.
* [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Linkara]] has a tendency of interrupting his comic reviews to remind us of how very much he hates ''[[SpiderMan One More Day]]'', and at one point adds a caption saying he will not be getting over it any time soon. However, given that the story in question is one long series of {{Wall Banger}}s, it is easy to sympathise.
** Also, he has the decency to make it funny.
* Animated web series ''BrokenSaints'', steeped as it is in political and religious themes, comes dangerously close to this several times.
[[/folder]]

----
<<|{{Fan-Speak}}|>>
<<|OlderThanFeudalism|>>
<<|BadWriting|>>
<<|CreatorStandpointIndex|>>