''Don't examine this too closely.'' [[supersecretspoiler:You don't listen very well, do you?*]]

Said by [[{{Producers}} producer]] DonaldPBellisario at an early-1990s SF convention in response to a persistent fan with very specific questions about the way things worked on Bellisario's series ''QuantumLeap''. An unashamed admission of [[HandWave handwaving]] details unnecessary to the enjoyment of a show, and an exhortation to not let the obsession with those details get in the way of the story. Implicit in the Maxim is a request to understand that the story is being told by a small production team that (due to the limitations of the medium) has to work quickly, with limited budget and tight deadlines, and has to dodge ExecutiveMeddling, all while trying to turn out the best product it can.

Frequently quoted in various fan communities in response to excessive FanWank and DidNotDoTheResearch, and to arguments about {{Canon}}, {{Fanon}} and the WordOfGod.

See also {{MST3K Mantra}}, RuleOfCool, and AWizardDidIt.

%% Cut because of painful, painful Natter. ANY examples here are probably Natter-bait, so be wary.
%%* Star Trek fans are particularly notorious for trying to scientifically justify fictional equipment. At one point, a fan asked a member of the show's staff how the Heisenberg Compensators (which are required to make transporter beams function as otherwise they'd violate a basic law of nature known as the Uncertainty Principle) worked. He replied, "They work very well, thank you for asking. Next question?"
%%%%** The uncertainty principle isn't a law of nature- it is caused by the size of our tools relative to what we are measuring.
%%%%*** It's more of a law of math: ''every'' kind of wave obeys an uncertainty principle relation. It's how things that are waves work, and has nothing to do with subatomic scales.
%%%%*** The uncertainty principal most certainly IS a law of nature, and has nothing to do with measurement. It is often confused with the observer effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle#Uncertainty_principle_and_observer_effect
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