Whenever a "monster" type character such as a vampire, werewolf, what have you, explains at length about the various rules/characteristics of their culture to another character (usually a clueless human). Usually this happens in one large infodump or sprinkled throughout a series to explain something that, otherwise, would not make any sense. Note that the purpose of this is more about explaining it to the reader rather than the confused human character and only counts if it becomes really obvious and or annoying.
Sometimes the human character will even continue on with a string of questions just to explain things further to the reader, turning into a rather odd interview.
Example:
Person A: You have a tail?!
Person B: Yes, because I am a half-werewolf. We have existed since the 1800s when a man by the name of...
(Several hours later.)
Person A: Okay, I wasn't that interested.
Often overlaps with
Your Vampires Suck.
Examples
Literature
Live-Action TV
- Bill from True Blood. You can't go through one episode without him explaining yet another aspect of vampire culture to his confused human character (Sookie).
- After the first season, though, this is averted.
- An old Saturday Night Live sketch turned a job interview with a centaur into such an occasion, much to the centaur's chagrin.
- The first episode of Moonlight begins with Mick explaining the series's vampire rules to an unseen interviewer.
Video Games
- In the beginning of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Jack will explain the rules of the Masquerade and vampire weaknesses to fledgling. You'll also get the chance for explanations the first time you meet a Ghoul or when you meet the Kuei-Jin leader Ming-Xiao in Chinatown. Justified as this only happens if you actually ask for clarification (and if you don't take the opportunity to ask questions, the gaps in your knowledge can change outcomes later—for example, if you don't get certain information about ghouls from Mercurio or Knox, you can't save Heather.)
Web Comics
- In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, the first appearances of the dragons and the bigfeet brought large infodumps from Hibachi and Goona respectively.
- Averted in The Order of the Stick: Celia (a Sylph) considers the knowledge such a monologue would provide common knowledge (even for humans) and consequently doesn't explain the traits and attributes of her species to the Order.
Western Animation