He strives to be
Mr. Exposition... But there's something wrong with his exposition. Most of the time, whatever he has to say should already be obvious — both to the viewers and to any other character with half a brain. After saying anything, another character might state
"Gee, you think?" Or if someone's attempt at humor was disrupted, they might say
Don't Explain the Joke.
In other words,
Captain Obvious states the obvious.
This means that his statements are self-evident.
In some cases, this is justified because Captain Obvious is also
The Ditz, or so puzzled by something that he can't help but state, well, the obvious.
See also
As You Know,
Exactly What It Says on the Tin,
Narrating The Obvious,
Shaped Like Itself,
Department of Redundancy Department and
Captain Obvious Aesop. Not to be confused with
Captain Oblivious. Sometimes, may be demoted to
Commander Contrarian, a commander who disagrees.
It Makes Sense in Context is what fans will say when other people bring it up.
Slightly justified if everybody
else is
Captain Oblivious.
This trope sometimes overlaps with
Mathematician's Answer, when Captain Obvious is stating the obvious to be a smartass or to avoid giving a more helpful answer to a question. It can also overlap with
Non Answer if the answer is self-evident and clearly not what the questioner wanted to know.
Incidentally, do not confuse this trope with
Lampshade Hanging. In the case of a Captain Obvious, a character notes something that is self-evident to the characters as well as to the audience (us). A Lampshade Hanging occurs when something that is obvious to us but should go unnoticed by the characters,
is noticed by the characters. Note that you can click on the words in blue, and they will take you to a new article.
That was a description, on a website called TV Tropes, which can be found on the Internet.
Being one is often the cause of this reaction:
You Can Talk? Obviously.
In Universe Examples Only: (The folders below contain examples of this trope.)
Protip: The examples can be read by clicking the links or folders below!
Example subpages: (These subpages contain examples of this trope.)
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Comedy (this folder is about Comedy)
In this folder are all the examples of comedy not fitting anywhere else.
Professional Wrestling (this folder is about Professional Wrestling)
All examples found in professional wrestling are here!
- Professional wrestler-turned-WWE-commentator Tazz is in the habit of calling his broadcast partners "Captain Obvious", when they sum up something that the viewers just saw fifteen seconds ago.
- TNA commentator Mike Tenay does the same thing whenever the wrestler Rellik is mentioned ("That's 'killer' spelled backwards.") Eric Young later started parodying Mike Tenay on this, referring to Rellik as Rellik-that's-killer-spelled-backwards, as if the entire thing was the guy's name.
This is the end of the article. There is nothing more for you to read on this page. Except for these links to similarly-themed pages. (We call them categories.) Oh, and by the way, you just read
Captain Obvious trope! On
TV Tropes! With your eyes! On a screen! (Probably!)
Now you're really sick of the joke!
