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Isn't I, Robot a collection of short stories? There are some common threads, but it's far from a serialized novel like Foundation.

ralphmerridew: I, Robot is a collection of short stories, but they were originally published in separate magazines over the course of 10 years. Also, I moved the Das Boot example to Naive Newcomer.

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I've also heard this referred to as "cabbaging". Schlock Mercenary called it that in a strip that's findable with Google. —Document N

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Haven: Calling the House example a case of assuming Viewers Are Morons is a little extreme - more like Viewers Aren't Doctors in this case. (Well, most viewers, anyway.)

Volouscheur: I'd say it's at least partially justified anyways - House tends to behave like he's surrounded by morons most of the time anyways, whether it's medically related or not.

Haven: I forgot about all this. Anyway, that bit seems to have sprouted some natter, so I just rooted it out. In hindsight it's pretty obvious the bullet wasn't saying anything the main example didn't and was just there for a Take That at scriptwriters who dare to assume their audience needs to have specialized medical terminology explained to them.

• House also frequently has characters explain even simple medical terms to other doctors so the watchers understand what the hell they're talking about, regardless of how out-of-character it would be for doctors not to know the terms.
  • To be fair, House also repeatedly mocks his underlings for it. Also, he needs the exchange to function, as visible when he's deprived of a team.
  • Played with in an episode where the team is being filmed. Chase begins to do this but the other characters call him out on it.
• Doctors sure better explain to patients just what in the name of Sam Hill is going on inside of them.

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What about Jonathan strange and Mr. norrell? susana clarke does this all the time in the footnotes (as we all know from out classrooms...)

-Mago

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Madrugada: I've sorted the examples by media; if someone could check over the games, anime, and manga and comic books sections to make sure that I've got everything in the right place, please? Sometimes I have to guess at whether a particular example is from the series or the game.

Broken Chaos: The various headers are wrong, I'll go fix them now (i.e. Televsion -> Live Action TV). ...Annnd done. Also shuffled a few around that seemed to be in the wrong category. (For future reference, categories generally are Live Action TV, Film, Literature, Video Games, Anime/Manga, Comic Books, Webcomics, New Media/Web Original/etc. (this last one seems to be very... vague as to what is used for what).)

There are still some in the wrong category.