[[quoteright:350:http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ScroogeMuseum.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:From the very first page of DonRosa's very first story, and he's already throwing several references to CarlBarks' stories at you.]]
->''Now, what part of [[TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial this horrible, cheesy, low-budget television special]] would you expect to be official canon in the StarWars Universe? The Answer? All of it. [[YouMeanXmas Life Day?]] Canonical. [[UnfortunateNames Itchy? Lumpy?]] Canonical. Harvey Korman in drag is an official part of the StarWars Universe! Continuity Kills.''
->'''~[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAAo5ePpv9U Alt Text]] on StarWars {{Canon}}'''

Primarily used in ComicBook fandom, ContinuityPorn is a sometimes derogatory phrase sometimes affectionate name for a story overly focused on continuity, to the detriment of the story.

There are two main types of continuity porn, although they often overlap:

*The first is a story that exists primarily or only to resolve or explain continuity problems, without having a strong story of its own -- sort of a canonical FanWank or FixFic. However, anything that promises to "fix all those niggling little problems we've accumulated over the years" is likely to not do that to the satisfaction of anyone, but nearly always produces something that just manages to introduce even more problems. It often involves a thick soup of RetCon. This tends to be the most common type, especially for series with long histories and many writers/contributors behind it.

*The other type is where the {{Continuity Nod}}s have become so thick and integral to the plot that the story is incomprehensible without detailed knowledge of the continuity. Nobody likes stories where there's no continuity and writers just ignore whatever they feel like, unless it's firmly established that StatusQuoIsGod or NegativeContinuity is in place. On the other hand, only the most hardcore fans appreciate a reference to something that happened 14 years ago in ''Weird Anthologies'' #224½ (the issue that only came out in Guatemala with a run of 42 copies) to explain a key plot point.

Drawing the line between "good" and "bad" continuity is pretty subjective for either type, though, since fans have different expectations of exactly how much continuity is a good thing for the series. One fan's shameless continuity porn is another's "taking advantage of the rich history" or "cleverly and entertainingly fixing a long-standing problem."

This usually only happens with LongRunners, because they're the only ones with enough continuity to support it. Usually the introduction of ContinuityPorn is a good sign that the inmates have started RunningTheAsylum. Continuity Porn is also a form of PanderingToTheBase.

Despite being primarily associated with comics, the term seems to have originated in ''StarTrek'' {{fandom}}, perhaps ([[UnpleasableFanbase unsurprisingly]]). It reached a wider audience when ''{{Enterprise}}'' executive producer Brannon Braga, who read the Trek forums once in a while during his tenure, mentioned in a [[http://talk.trekweb.com/articles/2002/04/16/1018955036.html Cinescape interview]] that he found it an apt description.

Compare ContinuityCreep, ContinuitySnarl and ArmedWithCanon.
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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* DCComics
** One of the common criticisms of ''InfiniteCrisis'' was that it was continuity porn in both senses of the term. DC in general is perceived to engage in 'hard continuity' (i.e., inconsistencies are deliberately explained) versus Marvel's 'softer' kind (inconsistencies, especially [[DorkAge bad ones, are eventually just ignored]]).
** ''ZeroHour'' was explicitly supposed to clean up continuity problems caused by ''CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''. Writer Geoff Johns' run on any book (Green Lantern, Flash, JSA, etc) will indulge on this at one point or another. As will Grant Morrison's.
** ''[[FiftyTwo 52]]'' veers into the second variety of continuity porn, though that [[YourMileageMayVary might depend on who you ask.]] In its defence though, it is hard to do a yearlong series touching on [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters every character in the DC Universe]] without getting a little esoteric sometimes.
** AlanMoore's ''LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' is assuredly the ultimate embodiment of this trope, being continuity porn for '''all continuities ever'''. Many sequences and moments in the stories seem to have no purpose other than for Moore to reference as many fictional places and characters as possible. To the extent of explaining Hyde's slow transformation from human to monster, and having a very small date range for the actual events (1891-1894, during Sherlock Holmes' supposed death after falling off a cliff with Moriarty. It is actually considered one of the Holmes sub-works despite having neither Sherlock or Watson).
** Roy Thomas's ''{{All-Star Squadron}}'' is the best example, often going to great lengths to "solve" continuity problems that nobody but Thomas even knew existed.
* In PreCrisis BronzeAge ''{{Superman}}'' comics, [[DCComics DC's]] guy in charge of Superman continuity was PromotedFanboy E. Nelson Bridwell. Bridwell adored the minutia of the Superman mythos, and whenever he personally penned a story, it was chock full of [[ContinuityNod Continuity Nods]], often to obscure SilverAge stuff. In stories ''focusing'' on the history of the character and his world (such as the original, pre-Crisis ''Krypton Chronicles'' and ''World of Krypton'' miniseries), this worked very well, but in stories that were set in the present day, the constant references did sometimes feel intrusive.
* MarvelComics:
** ''Wolverine: Origins'' exists to "fully" detail Wolverine's mysterious past, has also been called continuity porn. Note that pretty much all of the hinted-at elements of Wolverine's past have already been revealed; ''Origins'' deals with this by making up an entirely new AncientConspiracy and trying to work it in around the edges. At this point, anything dealing with Wolverine's ExpansionPackPast is probably continuity porn by default.
** LampshadeHanging/parody in an issue of ''She-Hulk'', which promised to fix almost all of Marvel's past and future continuity problems. And did, sort of: any appearances by a character you don't like are actually a tourist from another universe cosplaying as that character.
** Not to mention that the entire Dan Slott run of ''She-Hulk'' abounded with often obscure jokes about Marvel continuity - to the point where they had the law firm with a COMIC BOOK COLLECTION and She-Hulk reads the first issue of... well, her.
** ChrisClaremont's quasi-trilogy ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}: The End'' pulled together tons of old storylines he either [[KudzuPlot left hanging]] or were quashed by [[ExecutiveMeddling editors]]/[[DependingOnTheWriter other writers]], along with a number of others, into a semi-BadFuture story that tried to reconcile the tangle that the X-Books had become.
** The infamous [[ContinuityPorn Continuity Xorn]] escapades. Three different writers gave three different takes in order to clean it up but each just got more and more convoluted and complicated that really the best thing to do was just throw it all into the sun.
** ''Avengers Forever'' features this heavily. Among other things, it explains how almost every major event in the history of the Avengers - and the histories of the Avengers in every parallel universe - was either caused by Immortus or cleaned up by him afterwards as part of a massive XanatosGambit to save the human race from the Time Keepers. It also spent an entire issue detailing the history of sometime BigBad Kang the Conquerer. However, because time travel is an important part of the series, and because the story is generally good, it usually manages to get away with it.
* Marvel recently pulled one of these with ''Secret Invasion''. Character derailment you say? ''Alien mole!'' [[WolverinePublicity Too many of one guy]] to make sense in universe? ''Alien double!'' Character death of your favorite minor character, even though it was a powerful move and strongly effected the rest of the characters? ''Alien doppleganger!''
* {{Don Rosa}}'s epic comic book series ''TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'', in which he carefully explains ''every single reference to the events of Scrooge's early life that [[MyRealDaddy Carl Barks]] ever made''. Incredibly, despite Rosa's severe obsession with continuity, he still manages to tell a fantastic story at the same time. In his commentaries, he discusses the issue of how Barks kept changing the dates and timelines, and how many issues relating Scrooge's turn from a villain-character into a hero posed problems. He managed to insert some of them, like how Scrooge McDuck, who made his entire fortune square nevertheless managed to be a ruthless robber baron in Africa, but others he just gracefully ignored, such as a magic timeglass that was claimed to be the origin of Scrooge's wealth in one Barks story. If there's a lesson to be learned from these compromises, it is that knowing when to temper ContinuityPorn with BroadStrokes helps make a great story.
* Depending on your definition for too many {{continuity nod}}s, ''{{Hellboy}}'' may suffer from this to a degree. The great thing about the series is its rich interconnected story rewards those who know the fine details of the {{canon}}. The downside of this is that ''Hellboy's'' continuity spans 16 years worth of miniseries and oneshots spread out across five different comic series. Suffice to say that is a lot of baggage for the casual reader to unpack. A recent example of this problem is [[spoiler:readers can only understand that the old man speaking to Gruagach in issue two of'' Hellboy: The Wild Hunt'' is the demon lord Astaroth if they read ''Hellboy: Box Full of Evil'' issue two (published about 8 years before ''Wild Hunt''), which then means that Hell has offered its tacit support to the Queen of Blood and suggests that things are going to get much worse.]] For the informed all of this is implied without being stated, to the detriment of those who are only now entering the series.
* ''JLA/Avengers''. It's nerd pornography from start to finish, from both universes.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''MacrossFrontier''. Notably, the continuity porn is only really noticeable to people who have been following the ''Macross'' franchise from the very beginning; it isn't so much the plot, as it is nearly every single scene having a reference to a different Macross series.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* The ''StarWars'' prequel trilogy. Sure they're [[YourMileageMayVary good]], but the whole thing is devoted to explaining the retcons in the ''original'' trilogy. And, to get as many characters from the OT into the backstory. I mean come on, there's supposed to be one hundred thousand trillion individuals in the entire galaxy, but they kept on bringing it back to old characters. Did Anakin ''really'' have to build C-3PO? Did the father of Boba Fett ''really'' have to be the template for the clone army?
* ''[[JamesBond Die Another Day]]'' - everything from the title onwards is a tongue-in-cheek reference to other films in the series. It was basically a 20th film MilestoneCelebration special.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* The ''HarryPotter'' series has more-or-less averted this. How? Basically, JKRowling relegated Continuity Porn to WordOfGod, thus (mostly) keeping it out of the actual books.
* David Brin's ''Foundation's Triumph'' is an extremely well-executed example.
** To specify, ''Thieves World'' was a series of books created by Robert Asprin where various authors would write short stories in a SharedUniverse, the town of Sanctuary. As time went on authors would make references to their and other's stories in earlier books. But since the authors were off writing their own stories and not sitting in a room together to make sure it all fit, various problems started to arise and eventually the idea was abandoned.
* There are a few books in the ''NewJediOrder'' which are basically nothing but recalls to previous plots strung together with a weak story. There wasn't much cooperation among most writers before then, and so each writer often tried to ignore every other writer's output; ''NJO'' sometimes took things too far in the other direction.
* Another one of the rare non-comic examples: ''The Magician''(1908) of William Somerset Maugham is that thick of nods to that time topical literature, the spiritists-movement, illusion-magic, alchemy and other loudy figures (like Cagliostro) that people without a large background knowledge of at least two mentioned topics won't get anything. At the very least, one can enjoy the novel a whole lot more - some might even say it's the only interesting part of the novel.
* "Ayla and the Tests", in the ''WhateleyUniverse'', is probably this trope, since there is a ''ton'' of continuity polishing over every other character's stories for most of the Fall 2006 term, fixing a bunch of little tiny things the fans had spotted (or in a couple cases, things only the author had spotted).


[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Plenty of eighties ''DoctorWho'' stories began to suffer from this, but for the absolute nadir of the series, watch "Attack of the Cybermen", or for a lesser but no less relevant example, "Resurrection of the Daleks". Or rather, ''don't''.
** Things went further in the ExpandedUniverse, with the stand-out example being ''War of the Daleks'' by John Peel, which ArmedWithCanon, did a RetCon and JustifyingEdit on ''thirty years'' of ad-hoc and contradictory Dalek history into a coherent whole and did a TakeThat against a particular StoryArc which the author abhorred. It did so by explaining ''entire stories'' as an elaborate XanatosGambit against the Doctor, who had set up a XanatosGambit in the already ContinuityPorn-full "Remembrance of the Daleks". (Dear reader, I hope you got all that. We will have a quiz for you later.) There wasn't really much room for an actual story to fit in the book as well.
** In modern ''Who'', "Turn Left" and "The Stolen Earth". Even obsessive fans of the new series were was a bit confused.
** "Journey's End". Otherwise known as "Crisis on Infinite Series".
** Judging by the cast list, this year's Christmas Special "The End of Time" looks like turning into this too. RussellTDavies likes this trope.
* Whereas the final episode of ''{{Torchwood}}'' Series 2 took precious minutes out of its running time to {{Retcon}} away an extremely minor continuity error which originated in Toshiko's debut appearance as a minor character in ''DoctorWho'' two years before!
* Arguably, the entire fourth season of ''StarTrekEnterprise'' (specifically the first type), which went so far as to have an episode explaining why the Klingons in the original series lacked the ridges on their foreheads (although there was a [[NoodleIncident brief reference to this]] by Worf in ''[[StarTrekDeepSpace9 DS9]]''). Even though there were excellent episodes such as "The Forge", when a show has to go so far as elaborate on makeup changes from the original series to the rest of the franchise, then there's definitely a problem. See RunningTheAsylum.
** ''StarTrek'' novels get even ''worse''. There's a Data-focused novel out there partially dedicated to explaining how Noonien Soong got into androids - and just to show off, they linked it to no less than two ''StarTrek: The Original Series'' episodes, "What Are Little Girls Made Of" and "Requiem for Methuselah". The actual plot got even worse, with ''every sentient machine in the history of StarTrek'' making an appearance.
* At times, ''{{Angel}}'' approached this in its references to ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. However, some fans appreciated this, as {{spinoff}}s all to often ignore the parent show altogether.
* ''{{Lost}}'' is turning into this through the newer seasons. If they're not pandering to old continuity, they're throwing in new plots that intertwine with the current continuity and continuity we don't even know exists yet. And that's why we love it so much...

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music ]]

* When the Police got back together to remake 'Don't Stand So Close To Me', the MusicVideo featured primarily excerpts from prior Police videos. The other components are either CGI of Police-related items and features, and the Police themselves standing and rotating (although Sting's costume is cute..as well as what's in the costume, too). At least among the videos were bits from the original song's video.
* Barenaked Ladies had a similar case; their music video for "Thanks That was Fun" is composed entirely of segments from their previous music videos with their mouths altered to sing along.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* A major complaint about ''MetalGearSolid 4'' is that a lot of the story falls between this and ContinuityLockOut; containing references and themes from even the games on the MSX; bringing back minor dangling plot threads and references as {{MacGuffin}}s, AppliedPhlebotinum, and {{Chekhovs Gun}}s; and fitting in fanservice cameos from almost every character who wasn't confirmed dead - as well as a couple of fanservice cameos from characters who ''were''. Even a lot of the ''camera angles and character motions'' were lifted from previous games as blink-and-you'll-miss-it symbolism for the kind of hardcore fans who'd memorised every single cutscene. Of course, to some extent this was the whole point of the game, and anyone who wasn't extremely familiar with the whole saga really has no business playing a game designed to wrap ''everything'' up.
**Just read the Wikipedia page for the story. ThisTroper did that, then played the game, and it made sense to him.
* ''MortalKombat'' had at least ''four'' examples of this: the Konquest mode of ''Deception'' (which was quickly thrown into DisContinuity despite a halfway-decent attempt to explain WhereAreTheyNow for each of the forgotten characters), ''Armageddon'' (which was what ''Deception's'' Konquest Mode would've been if TheyJustDidntCare), ''Annihilation'' (which tried to cram as many character references as possible, to the detriment of the plot), and ''Conquest'' (with a C, which gave several mortal characters IdenticalGrandfathers ''just'' so fans of the show can see them despite being 500 years before they were technically supposed to appear). And one has to wonder why people say plot doesn't matter in an MK game...
* ''TheLegendOfZelda: Four Swords Adventures'' was supposed to be one of these, with more explicit references to games like ''A Link to the Past'' than other games. [[ExecutiveVeto Shigeru Miyamoto nixed the idea late in development because it would have distracted from the gameplay.]] Portions of deleted text on the game disc also indicate that elements like the Master Sword and the Ancient Hylian language would have also made cameos. Still, the game does have a lot of plot elements that a casual player wouldn't understand, like explaining how Ganon got his trident.
* ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic Chronicles]]'' seems like it was headed this way at some point, given its extensive in-game history feature of the franchise's events.
* ''Halo 3'', uses the second type a lot. Instead of picking up directly from its predecessor's Cliffhanger, begins with the Master Chief, John-117 (a name which is never directly stated in the games) inexplicably sky-diving from low earth orbit, to meet up with the human military. What's been going on in the meantime is only loosely explained in the game, which prefers to skirt around actual revelations of its plot for a significant portion of the game, instead giving you several DrivingLevels to occupy your attention, while the series' plot is fleshed out in Alternate Reality Games, and numerous EasterEggs. Then the game goes and hides its own Cliffhanger as a lengthened AfterCreditsScene if you beat the game on the hardest difficulty. There are also many, MANY nods at other Halo media throughout the game.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Animation ]]

* Slowly but surely ''HomestarRunner'' is getting there.
** And there's DNA evidence to prove it! Witness how an OrphanedPunchline turned into a CallBack turned into a RunningGag gained a short of its own in just ''seven episodes''.
**And then there's the cartoon "[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/hremail7.html hremail #7]]". It exists to provide an origin story for the Strong Bad Email shorts and to parody the early years of the ''Homestar Runner'' website (the artwork is a pseudo-reversion to their earlier art style, and the jokes reference many abandoned early running gags). However, as the H*R wiki [[http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Hremail_7#Remarks is quick to point out]], the cartoon actually [[NegativeContinuity contradicts]] many prior cartoons, both old and recent.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* Parodied in ''{{Narbonic}}'', with "Continuity Repairs with Rob & Andy".
* Happens quite a bit during the "bROKEN" [[StoryArc arc]] from ''SluggyFreelance''. It seems like practically every strip for months on end has a footnote linking back to the past strips it references, some of which haven't been mentioned [[LongRunner for nearly a decade]].
* A noteworthy example is [[BobAndGeorge Bob & George]]. So much weird stuff happens all the damn time that it's impossible for everything to work. And it still does. Nothing happens by accident, everything is explained, everything fits. David Anez is a god when it comes to retconning.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Arguably happened to ''Bender's Big Score'', the first ''{{Futurama}}'' movie, though it could be argued that the film's time travel plot is a subversion, or even a deconstruction, of continuity porn itself. Also, when the population of Earth exits the Planet Express ship on Neptune, many characters from previous episodes can be seen.
* The [[FullyAbsorbedFinale Fully Absorbed Finale]] ''BatmanBeyond'' episode of [[JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]], "Epilogue". In spades. And it was so worth it.
** They also included references to the {{DCAU}} CultClassic Batman movie ''MaskOfThePhantasm''
** Beyond that, the JLU series often reveled in cramming as many [[CListFodder obscure]] [[HeroesUnlimited superheroes]] into every frame as possible. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing.
* The revised HD intro of ''TheSimpsons'' arguably does this, featuring fan-favorite minor characters more than ever before; in fact, one of the first characters you see in this version of the intro is Ralph Wiggum, as opposed to a member of the Simpson family.
* ''[[TransformersAnimated The Allspark Allmanac]]'' is a continuity porno if there ever was one.
* ''MoralOrel'', despite being an 11-minute claymation comedy series, has plenty. Orel has a poster for a band mentioned in episode one, and the ''entire basis'' for season 3 is a single, seemingly throw-away musical episode.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fan Fiction ]]

* The epic ''{{Star Wars}}/{{Star Trek}}'' crossover ''TheUnitySaga'', which features tons of characters from both franchises, including dipping heavily into the ''Star Wars'' Expanded Universe. It's highly advisable to have Memory Alpha and Wookieepedia on standby while reading it.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* The Sagas, being semi-accurate descriptions of major events in Icelandic history all happening in the narrow time frame of around 200 hundred years. It's not unlikely for a main character from one saga to become a minor one in another, or vice versa.
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