Noodle Incident - Television Tropes & Idioms

In Azumanga Daioh, Yukari occasionally brings up a Love Letter incident involving Minamo from when they were in High School, which usually prompts Minamo to scramble to get her to shut up. Once, she sang "love letter" whilst flitting down the hallway, just before Minamo could relate a juicy detail about Yukari to the students. Watch the anime version of the scene, as it must be heard to be appreciated.
- IIRC, the time that Yukari sang about it was the very first time the love letter was brought up. And the original japanese version has her singing it in Gratuitous English.
  - RABU-RETA~! RABU-RETA~! RARARARA RABU RABU RABU RETA~!'
- We see Yukari's driving skills first-hand towards the end of the series, but only hear references to it early on.
  Chiyo: (recalling her first ride in Yukari's car) ... The lights are still red... look out for that old lady!
Pokémon's Lovable Sex Maniac Brock, during the Orange Islands sub-arc, seems to legitimately settle down with the Island's female Pokémon Professor, actually leaving the group for a while to pursue the relationship. When he returns, it's clear that something happened to turn the relationship sour, but he refuses to elaborate, instead going into a deep, brooding, Blue With Shock depression whenever anyone even mentions the relationship or the Professor's name.
- Also, all of Dawn's childhood friends call her "Dee Dee" ("Pikari" in the Japanese version), but whenever someone asks why that is Dawn promptly interrupts the answers, and she's shown to be clearly ashamed of the answer.
  - Subverted! When Dawn was in kindergarten, the school had a Plusle and a Minun as pets. Deciding to hug them, Dawn squeezed them too hard and they used Discharge on her, causing her hair to stand up and sparkle. The class teased her by calling her "Pikari", a combination of the sparkles in her hair (Pikapika), and her Japanese name (Hikari). Since Dee Dee has no apparent connection to the incident, the dubbers may have a harder time explaining the nickname.
In the D.Gray-man manga, Allen recalls an incident involving his mentor Cross Marian's stash of alcohol-filled chocolates. What happened after he ate them is never explained, but the incident pissed Cross off enough that he punished Allen big-time and forced him to promise to never touch a drop of booze again.
- Almost nothing concerning Allen's time with Cross is outright shown or explained; Allen gets too traumatized remembering. In fact, when he was playing cards against Tyki and his friends, he mentions he had to gamble (and therefore cheat) to survive, and off to the side, we see something saying "a typical day", where we see only dialogue talking about Cross owing money....
- It is impliedly explained. In the "Kuro no Bansankai" Special Drama CD, we find out how Allen behaves when drunk. He gets VERY vicious and destructive, and when it wears off, can't even remember he was the one who caused all the massive property damage. As a result, Lavi is able to take a very, very good guess as to why Cross banned him from ever touching alcohol again.
Code Geass R2 has this exchange:
Kallen: This reminds me of Aomori.
C.C.: It isn't as bad as that was. At least everyone here is wearing their clothes.
- An image released with a special edition DVD for the end of the series depicts C.C., Kallen, and another soldier running from searchlights while wearing nothing but towels, explaining this incident and rendering it no longer noodle.
- Also, in the final episode, Nina asks what happened between Lloyd and Rakshata. Cecille just said it was "such a minor thing."
Played with in Cromartie High School: the rather upstanding Kamiyama refused to explain exactly why in the hell he's in a school full of delinquents. However, he tells the audience several times that if they want to know they should read the manga (in which it actually is explained).
In Tsukihime's side-story game, Kagetsu Tohya, Shiki occasionally refers to the haunted house his class did last year, in which he and his friend were responsible for something that resulted in their student government making an amendment that strictly prohibits tea kettle monsters, mushroom monsters, and any pot that uses the aforementioned things. The specifics are left up to the imagination.
Shiki: Yes, we did a haunted house my freshman year, too. Well, Arihiko did his part so ardently that we were forced to stop in the morning.
(To himself): The Inuidake Children Kidnapping. It's an event that will forever remain in the annals of the student government.
The second Sound Stage of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS had Alto and the school toilet incident back when she was seven and thought she was a boy (Only having brothers probably had something to do with that last part), which she always interrupted before anyone could elaborate.
Lina Inverse in The Slayers references the horrible punishments her sister Luna used to put her through quite a few times, even though they are never actually explained. It leads one to wonder what she really could do, granted that Lina could put up with being electrically shocked while saying it was nothing compared to that torture. That, and Lina constructed a pyramid atop herself in order to merely get away from a letter sent by Luna and just the mere reference to her causes Lina to fly into a mortal panic.
- One of the less harsh punishments Lina suffered involved a whole lot of slugs, a fact which she tearfully reveals after a near-total fear-induced breakdown in the second season.
- An unspoken Noodle Incident is whatever it was that caused Naga the Serpent, Lina's self-proclaimed rival (and whom Lina publicly called "Goldfish Poop" in the novels, due to her habit of following Lina), to stop following Lina by the time the anime started.
Mahou Sensei Negima has a minor one involving Chizuru and "A large number of spring onions" (in the lower-left panel). Pretty much became a Running Gag. Whatever it is, even Kotarou's afraid of it.
- There's also this incident, which involves the first time that Chisame ever went on the Internet.
In the Mai-Otome anime, Shizuru and Youko recall a mishap that occurred during Natsuki and Mai's attempt at the survival exam. Shizuru notes that when she heard Natsuki's distress signal, she rushed to the scene as quickly as she could, only to find the two girls in a "most improper" position, at which point Natsuki angrily cuts her off and tells her to "forget about it" before she gets to the juicy parts.
In chapter 46 of Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Tsuna visits Longchamp's house. While there, Longchamp is attacked by a girl named Pantera (although he assures Tsuna that she's aiming for him, but has really bad aim). When Tsuna realizes this, he asks if something happened between the two of them, and Longchamp's Number 2 guy assures him that nothing happened and not to ask him about it again. Tsuna takes this as proof that something happened. Read the page here.
It has been mentioned that Aya has had many unusual exploits as student body president in Fruits Basket. One specific one apparently involved the Dean of the school's statue.
Edaniel has his own letter column on the Bizenghast website. In one letter he mentions that he once dated a human agent, who he later broke up with at the Mausoleums request. Why the Mausoleum wanted them to break up is never mentioned.

Averted in the Batman story arc "Prodigal"... eventually. Dick Grayson assumed the role of Batman while Bruce Wayne left Gotham to work on a case, the details of which were not made clear for some time. Several years later, in No Man's Land, the "case" was revealed as an excuse for him to secretly set up several mini-Batcaves throughout Gotham.
The purpose of Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck was intended to round up all of the Noodle Incidents mentioned in the stories by Carl Barks and create a biography for the character out of them. Rosa refers to these as "Barksian facts", and he has only had to leave out very few that are completely against the rest of the story.
In the comic book Transmetropolitan, "The Terrible Night of the Telephone" is an apocryphal story of how journalist Spider Jerusalem caused half a dozen politicians in Prague to commit suicide over the telephone. No other details are given, but the incident is referred to several times over the run of the comic.
- This is almost repeated on screen, as he also manages to talk a TV show host into attempting suicide in a live broadcast. One presumes that the original incident was something similar, or else he simply threatened to reveal some serious dirt on the politicians.
In the comic book Astro City it remained unexplained for a long time why the statue of the Silver Agent was inscribed "To our eternal shame." It was finally revealed in "Astro City, the Dark Ages" that he had been unjustly executed for a murder he committed under mind control because the government wanted to make people know they still had control over the metahumans.
The British newspaper strip Bristow, set in an office, often included references to "the great tea-trolley disaster of '67", since moved up to 2002 to cover the current occupants.
- In addition, there is the "Great Luncheon Voucher Swindle of ‘68", possibly involving a younger son of Sir Chester Perry. This is spoken of in hushed tones and never referred to when the Boss is around.
Bill Watterson may, at one point, have intended to visit the Noodle Incident someday, but in the Tenth Anniversary Calvin and Hobbes collection, he explains that the reason he never did was because nothing he could come up with would ever be as fantastic or as interesting as anything the readers would be able to come up with while trying to work out exactly what happened.
Hobbes: What about your explanation of the noodle incident?
Calvin: That wasn't a story! That was the unvarnished truth!
Hobbes: Oh, don't be so modest. You deserved a Pulitzer.
- Half the fun of the Noodle Incident is watching how flustered and angry Calvin gets whenever Hobbes brings it up.
- A "Salamander Incident" was referenced in an earlier strip.
- Also, in one strip, Calvin complains to Hobbes about how much trouble he got into that day in school, but when Hobbes asked what happened, Calvin says he doesn't even want to talk about. When Hobbes asks if it had "anything to do with those sirens [he] heard around noon", Calvin repeats, louder this time, "I SAID I don't want to talk about it!"
  - Moderate consensus among fans is that this is indeed the specific date/strip that the Noodle Incident occurred, as no other school exploit of his ever got all the way up to the level of emergency sirens.
- We the readers were also never privy to Calvin's favorite bedtime story "Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooey".
In "Get Fuzzy", the purported reason that the veterinarian doesn't make calls to the Wilco house is because of "the Hockey Stick" incident, for which Bucky is responsible.
The unspecified "incident" that caused Brian to swear off GMing Hackmaster in Knights Of The Dinner Table.
- A few other "incidents", like the Bag War, are expanded into full story arcs as extras for the back issue collections.
In the popular comic strip Pearls Before Swine, Pig is enemies with a sea anemone due to an unknown event that occurred years in the past.
In Alpha Flight #5, Puck mentions the affair of the Brass Bishop. Never explained further by the original creator, but two different (and contradictory) Brass Bishops have shown up since. (The original story still isn't told, though.)
Brian Michael Bendis likes to use the line "You still owe me eight dollars from that thing that time."
Watchmen does this a little bit in the early chapters, like Hollis's reference to the Screaming Skull, but some references (like "Rorschach's nuts. He's been nuts ever since that kidnapping he handled three years back.") are revealed in full later on and are downright horrifying.
One of these happens in Fox Trot (a literal noodle incident), and as a result Peter gets all of his Calvin and Hobbes collections confiscated.
2000 AD's Caballistics, Inc. worked one into Lawrence Verse's backstory; all that is known about his past is that he had to leave the Catholic priesthood after using a chainsaw during the Rite of Exorcism, the details of which are never clearly or fully known to the reader.

In one ongoing Daria Fan Fic series, the characters occasionally make mention of "the Porterhouse Challenge", which may be related to the VERY large steak that a number of restaurants offer (hilariously large, in some cases) with the caveat that if a person can eat it in one sitting, the meal is free.
Used in a Harry/Ginny fanfic duology. Who knew bolding and italicizing a pronoun could be so effective...
From I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC
Spider-Man: (about Green Goblin) Honestly, who's stupid enough to get that drunk?
Iron Man: Look, Comic-Con went really well, all right? I've been very good, everybody was celebrating, everyone was doing it, we thought we could make it to Tijuana, they dropped the charges, so just shut up, okay?!
(awkward silence)
The summary of Atomicskull's Star Trek AU fic Citylights is this: "World War III (known as Almost the End of the World) occurred in 2014 during Milan Fashion Week. It was short, it was bloody, and it was absolutely spectacular to see unfold." We never do find out exactly what happened.
In the Harry Potter fanfic Let's Do The Time Warp Again by Rorschach's Blot, there is mention of an incident where James and Sirius gave Snape an all-expense paid canoeing trip to Georgia and then stole his wand. Exactly what happened during the trip is never explained, but it caused Snape to lose both his arms and legs as well as develop a debilitating fear of banjo music.
- Sounds more like a Shout Out to Deliverance. Fits the Crazy Awesomeness of a Noodle Incident, though, So Yeah.
There's an Iron Man Armored Adventures fanfic where religion comes up in one chapter, and Tony explains he doesn't go to church because of an incident involving a coffee maker. Apparently they still haven't gotten the stains out of that church's ceiling, though Tony's father was very proud he managed to get the thing airborne.
This Bizenghast fanfic involves Edaniel giving Edrear a haircut and somehow shaving a rude word into Edrear's hair. Said rude word implies doing ... things to groundhogs and farming equipment.

The botched heist in Reservoir Dogs is both a noodle incident and a Macguffin that drives most of the plot without ever being depicted or described.
Whatever it was that happened "This one time, at band camp..." in the broadcast TV version of American Pie. Those who watched the film elsewhere got to hear about it in more detail.
In Star Wars Episode 3, Anakin and Obi-wan have one listed under their adventures.
Obi-Wan: Anakin, let's be fair. Today you were the hero and you deserve your glorious day with the politicians.
Anakin Skywalker: All right. But you owe me one, and for not saving your skin for the tenth time.
Obi-Wan: Ninth time. That business on Cato Neimodia doesn't... doesn't count.
- The novel Labyrinth of Evil describes the event in question. Basically, Obi-Wan accidentally inhales gas during a battle that causes him to go ga-ga. Much to his embarrassment, Hilarity Ensues.
  - It wasn't just any hilarity, either. Turns out Obi-wan is a Drunken Master with a lightsaber. Guess that explains why he felt comfortable enough to stop for a drink when they chased the bounty hunter Zam Wessel into a bar in Episode II....
- The Original Trilogy had a bounty hunter on Ord Mantell sometime between A New Hope and the Empire Strikes Back. It's been explained at least three different ways in the expanded universe.
- When Han and crew are attempting to land at Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back and the security cloud cars are giving them a hard time, Chewie suggests something that is, as usual, unintelligible. Han responds, "Well, that was a long time ago. I'm sure he's forgotten about that." This, too, has been explained in the EU. Lando believed Han double-crossed him, even though he actually didn't.
- Much of Star Wars is based on events and places that are referred to but never explained, designed to give it the feel of this being an actual, other galaxy. Han's mention of the "Kessel Run", Luke and Obi-Wan mentioning "The Clone Wars" (which of course is elaborated upon in the prequels). Of course, the sheer scope of the Expanded Universe ensures that Star Wars has few Noodle Incidents left. To the point where the Noodle Incidents raised by the EU get their very own explanation books. Outbound Flight, for example.
  - The Kessel Run is explained in the Jedi Academy Trilogy. It's explained that the Kessel run involves going past a cluster of black holes, and the 12 parsecs of distance being the shortest route ever taken (resulting in the fastest time, of course), meaning the Millenium Falcon traveled closer to the cluster than anyone else, allowing them to make the run in less distance, as opposed to others who swung out further from the cluster to go around the long way.
  - This explanation was expanded slightly in The Han Solo Trilogy by AC Crispin: the black hole cluster actually added to the ship's speed and accelerated it to what warp/hyperspace-level speeds, reducing the physical distance the ship would have to travel to bridge between the two points. Apparently Lucas's poor choice of words in establishing Han Solo's street cred was too big a deal to leave alone.
- The novelization of the first film also included a scene where Han explains that he can't be lost aboard the Death Star, because "Corellians can't get lost"; when Chewie expresses scepticism, Han's reply is "Tocneppil doesn't count — he wasn't a Corellian. Besides, I was drunk."
  - The Thrawn Trilogy has an in-universe example — one of the "we are a couple" things Han and Leia have is "I am not a committee." Luke's been wondering about that some six years, but hasn't gotten around to asking.
Austin Powers: Goldmember makes use of this, when Austin and his father speak about a certain incident, using subtitles and British colloquialisms, regarding an insane maid. The actual gist of what happens is a barrage of unintelligible gibberish (with no subtitles), though apparently it ends with "... and then she shat on a turtle!"
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Hot Scoop Polly Perkins is visibly annoyed when Sky Captain shares a hilarious recollection with fellow Ace Pilot (and implied ex-lover) Action Girl "Franky" Cook.
Sky Captain: Franky, you remember our milk run over Shanghai, don't you?
Franky: We had the target buttoned up and he was jinxing in the flak...
Sky Captain: Pops a rivet, thinks he's taken a hit...
Franky: And started yelling...
Both simultaneously: "Protect the rabbits! Protect the rabbits!"
In Sister Act: "There was a hooker living next door named Buckwheat Bertha, who..."
In Disney's The Great Mouse Detective, Ratigan mentions "the Big Ben Caper" and "the Tower Bridge Job" in his Villain Song. The latter was apparently a major jewel theft.
In Ghostbusters, Ray Stanz mentions being present at an "unexplained mass sponge migration", to which Peter Venkman retorts, "Ray, the sponges migrated about a foot and a half." Later, Venkman reminds Egon of the time the latter tried to drill a hole in his own head, to which Egon responds "That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me." Vinz Clortho also unleashes a barrage of Noodle Incidents about Gozer: "He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the Traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!"
Men In Black: Agent K tells Agent J, "You should've been here for the Zeronion migration in 1968."
This is Spinal Tap: Talking about the band's first drummer's death:
David St. Hubbins: He died in a bizarre gardening accident...
Nigel Tufnel: Authorities said... best leave it... unsolved.
Pirates of the Caribbean has a number of them:
- Jack Sparrow's list of charges at the end of Curse of the Black Pearl:
"Said crimes being numerous in quantity and sinister in nature, the most egregious of these to be cited herewith: piracy, smuggling, impersonating an officer of the Spanish Royal Navy, impersonating a cleric of the Church of England, sailing under false colors, arson, kidnapping, looting, poaching, brigandage, pilfering, depravity, depredation, and general lawlessness."

Every one of those is a Noodle Incident. Except the piracy, of course. And, I suppose, the depravity, considering how many times he seemed to be suggesting getting drunk as the appropriate course of action.

Don't forget the ones not egregious enough to mention. And when the charge of "Impersonating a cleric of the Church of England" is read, Jack even gives a smirk.
As Elizabeth is falling into the water in the first film, Jack says, "... and then they made me their chief." In the writers' commentary, they explain that this is one of the many stories about how Jack survived his being marooned.
It's also a reference to one of Johnny Depp's favourite shows, The Fast Show: "And then they made me their chief. Which was nice."
Jack's line, "Clearly you've never been to Singapore."

Dogma had this in the scene where Loki and Bartleby were judging the board members of the Mooby's franchise. Everyone's big, revolting sin is mentioned, except for board head Whitland:
Bartleby: But you, Mr. Whitland, you have more skeletons in your closet than the rest of this assembled party. I cannot even mention them aloud.
(Bartleby whispers something in Whitland's ear)
Loki: You're his father, you sick fuck!
(Whitland starts crying)
- Mallrats features a smaller example when T.S, Brodie and Gwen were talking about a high school costume party the three were at:
  Brodie: How many chances do you get to see Smokey fuck the Bandit?
  Gwen: Didn't I look just like Burt Reynolds?
  Brodie and T.S.: Except for the moustache.
  - "He said, 'Brodie, how else am I supposed to get the gerbil out?' My cousin was a weird guy."
- In Clerks II, the whole Pillow Pants conversation. Kevin Smith was told he needed to film a pussy troll, and he said nothing he could film would be half as funny as what the audience is picturing.
SlapShot: The hockey team which is the star of the movie becomes a vicious bunch of goons, so the other team brings out the worst of the worst hockey players to challenge them, including ones that had retired, such as one who's "been living in semi-seclusion running a donut shop in Moosejaw, Saskachewan, ever since the famed Denny Pratt Tragedy."
In Super Troopers, references are made frequently to Farva's "School Bus Incident", giving that as the explanation for his relegation to deskwork instead of active duty. The trope is subverted at the end of the film, when during the credits they play a clip of "archived footage" recorded from the police car, detailing said incident.
- There's also "And that was the second time I got crabs."
Ocean's Eleven:
Reuben Tishkoff: Look, we all go way back and uh, I owe you from the thing with the guy in the place and I'll never forget it.
Danny Ocean: That was our pleasure.
Rusty Ryan: I'd never been to Belize.
Similarly, in Hackers: "It's in that place where I hid that thing that time."
In Kangaroo Jack: "How was I supposed to know those dalmatians were being used to smuggle diamonds?"
In The Way of the Gun, Dr. Allen Painter is reminded of "what happened in Baltimore," an apparently shameful incident that is never elaborated upon.
In Predator, soldiers occasionally remind each other of past operations, referencing them by their locations such as "that little job in Libya."
Sheriff Hague from Planet Terror doesn't trust Wray at all, and won't allow him to carry weapons despite a Zombie Apocalypse going on. The movie randomly cuts out at one point and flashes forwards a few hours later; Hague's opinion of Wray has done a complete 180.
Sheriff Hague: Sorry, I didn't know you were... (melodramatic tone)... El Wray. Give him the guns. Give him all the guns!
The Hangover can be seen as a variant on this trope, where it starts off a noodle incident, and it becomes clearer as the movie goes on. Only two things are never explained: why that one chair is smoking and where they got a chicken.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire had one, as well.
Milo: What's Mole's story?
Dr. Sweet: Trust me on this one. You don't wanna know. Audrey, don't tell him. You shouldn't have told me, but you did. And now I'm tellin' you: (Points at Milo) You don't wanna know.
- In the sequel, it was revealed that Mole was raised by naked mole rats. Kida comments "That explains so much..."
Rush Hour 3 has an interesting conversation between Lee and Carter which alludes to an incident (Carter's fault) which causes Lee to break up with his girlfriend. Apparently it involved Carter shooting her in the neck — nonfatally but causing her one eye to be droopy — and leading to her working for some time at El Poco Loco and then returning to the FBI as soon as she was able. Lee is shown to be very unhappy about this as he feels that had the accident not happened, they would have eventually slept together.
Undercover Blues may be legitimately considered as a series of noodle incidents connected by a script, including several subversions of the trope.
Scary Movie 3 does this; Tom says "I'm not a stoner anymore" and the flashback almost starts before his friend says "Goodbye Tom", before driving away as quickly as he can.
Buckaroo Banzai: "Why is there a watermelon there?" "I'll explain later." Three entirely different reasons for the watermelon were given by the audio commentary track and two other DVD extras. (The "real" answer, from the commentary, was that it was a test to see if an overzealous nit-picking producer had stopped checking the daily rushes.)
Unforgiven. Will and Ned often talk about their past exploits as well as members of their old gang.
There is a brief mention of a Noodle Incident in the first Spider Man film. While Peter's class is visiting the laboratory at the beginning of the film, several of the students are screwing off, prompting their teacher to say, "Remember, it is a privilege to be here. We're guests of Columbia University's Science Department, so behave accordingly. Let's not have a repeat of our trip to the planetarium."
A kind of Historical In Joke in Oscar: "You were in Chicago. It was St. Valentine's Day?"
In the movie Broadcast News Albert Brooks's character is speaking to Holly Hunter's character over the phone when he tells her, "Ok, I'll meet you at the place near the thing where we went that time."
During the interrogation sequence in The Usual Suspects, the police try to get Fenster to crack by telling him that McManus broke and gave them the whole story. Fenster's reply? "What, is that the one about the hooker with the dysentery?"
Casablanca. When Captain Louis Renault is warning Rick not to interfere in any attempts to arrest Victor Laszlo, he brings up how he ran guns to Ethiopia against the fascists in 1935, and fought alongside the Loyalists in Spain in 1936. These stories are used to establish that Rick was once an honorable man before he had his heart broken.
In Escape From New York, everyone says to Snake that they thought he was dead.
- Dont forget Escape From LA, Snake's past adventure in Cleveland.
A minor example from Back To The Future Part 3: The Doc has just angered his love interest, Clara Clayton, and miserably goes to the bar to drink his sorrows away. The bartender is reluctant to oblige him however because of 'what happened on the 4 of July'.
Leon Phelps from The Ladies Man gets fired when he tells a nun a very raunchy story. We never hear what it is but it's enough to give her a heart attack.
The Specials is full of these; the Pterodactyls, the anal slugs(it's a pretty good one), the Colossal Blister, Amok and the Scabies(not Scurvy) incident, and why Deadly Girl's action figure is not available in Vermont.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld books occasionally refer to the unlucky Mr. Hong, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances after opening The Three Jolly Luck Takeaway Fish Bar on the site of an old fish-god temple on Dagon Street during a full moon (some references also state that said full moon was on the Winter Solstice; thankfully, that's where the chain of unfortunate coincidences end — there's no "after a delivery of a rare kind of squid" to make it worse). No one knows quite what happened, but it wasn't pleasant: one of the references mentions that he left behind "one kidney and half an earhole". Note that Dagon is the name of a Philistine fish god, and is also a malevolent deity in the Lovecraft mythos...
- A more sinister example is given just enough detail that the reader can figure out the likely story. Sybil Vimes nee Ramkin is reflecting on how she worries about Sam. There was one case, involving someone who "took a little girl's shoes", where if Detritus hadn't been in the interrogation room the troll was pretty certain only Vimes would have walked out of it...
  - Oh, it's worse than that. They didn't take the shoes, they kept the shoes afterward. One of them, anyway.
  - I always assumed that was a sign that Pterry has read Watchmen...
- And on a similar note, the last king of Ankh-Morpork, Lorenzo the Kind, was said to be "very fond of children", and had various "devices" in his dungeons. The fact that he was apparently so bad even the notoriously corrupt and apathetic people of Ankh-Morpork wanted him dead speaks volumes.
- In Soul Music, the wizards at Unseen University are eating and it is mentioned that the Bursar has to have wooden utensils instead of metal ones after what they have since refered to as "the Unfortunate Incident at Dinner".
- Night Watch has Vimes threatening a recalitrant prisoner with the "Ginger Beer Trick", aproximated by a finger popped from the mouth, a hissing noise and a blood curdling scream.
  - This one's not really a mystery. You shake a glass bottle of soda or mineral water and spray it straight up the victim's nostrils, leveraging the pressure with the thumb. It hurts like hell and leaves no marks on the victims body. It is commonly done by drugdealers and corrupt cops in latin america. For an on-screen example, you can watch it happen on a recent Dexter episode.
  - And it doesn't have to be a nostril, either...
- And then there's Bloody Stupid Johnson, a, ah, "unique" designer/architect who is always mentioned in passing (along with his creations which work, just not the way you expect them to)... and it is hinted in Jingo that an ancestor of Lady Sybil's had something to do with said passing, as well.
- A specific noodle incident occurs in Hogfather with Johnson's custom bathroom 'Typhoon Superior Indoor Ablutorium with Automatic Soap Dish' which was found boarded up hidden behind a bookcase in the University. The Archchancellor used it until there was an unfortunate incident, after which he solemnly ordered it sealed up again, only more thoroughly and with extra warning notices. It's implied that it involved an interaction between the shower and the university's pipe organ, which was also designed by Johnson and was being played by the Librarian at the time. It's also stated that "they never did find the soap".
- And another is Jeremy Clockson's reaction to a fellow clockmaker who deliberately kept his watch fast. All we're told is that people are very understanding when it comes to genius, at least once they've cleaned up the mess and taken the hammer away.
As students of the Sherlock Holmes canon know well, Dr. Watson liberally sprinkles various Noodle Incidents in his narratives of Holmes's cases, making it Older Than Radio. Sherlockians have long been tantalized by references to such matters as "the shocking affair of the Dutch steamship Friesland, which so nearly cost us both our lives," the case of Wilson the notorious canary-trainer, the repulsive story of the red leech, the story of "the Giant Rat of Sumatra, for which the world is not yet prepared," and the Curious Experience of the Patterson Family on the Island of Uffa; for some reason, Dr. Watson never got around to writing these adventures up for publication. These references have been a fertile ground for amateur Sherlockian Fan Fic and professional Sherlock Holmes pastiches alike for years.
- Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's son Adrian Conan Doyle, is a short-story collection consisting entirely of cases Watson referenced in the original works.
- Likewise, a number of these Sherlock Holmes incidents were transferred almost word-for-word into one of the Star Trek novels, with Spock reminding Kirk of them.
- The Doctor Who Expanded Universe novel "All Consuming Fire" attempts to explain these "missing" Sherlock Holmes adventures by cramming them all into the same adventure, to the point where it's really not funny.
- Fred Saberhagen takes on "the giant rat of Sumatra" in his novel The Holmes-Dracula File. Of course, the title of that novel rather implies a few other Noodle Incidents along the way.
- The Firesign Theatre's Sherlock Holmes parody, "The Giant Rat of Sumatra" refers to the eponymous rodent (and contains more puns per square inch than are strictly healthy).
- In an author's note by Dennis L. McKiernan, McKiernan refers to this Holmesian trait of cases that never were and tells of imagining a reference of the case of the "red slipper" — i.e. a case or item that you'll only be teased about and never get to see what it was all about. McKiernan also has the habit of sprinkling his epilogues heavily with these "red slippers".
- The BBC radio series has created episodes from references made by Watson once they ran out of Canon stories to adapt. Example: The Ferrers Documents, from a line in The Priory School.
- The later stories seemed to have more of these and sounding increasingly ludicrous. I've always wondered if they were Doyle's little sarcastic jokes, as by this point he'd been pushed into writing more Holmes books after (trying to) killing Holmes off.
Similarly, Agatha Christie often inserted references in her Poirot novels to other cases solved by the famed detective; occasionally, these are subtle references to other books in the series, but they are usually mere snippets of information.
- Example: Poirot makes reference, in one of the short stories, to a man he once arrested — a soap manufacturer in Liège who was guilty of the poisoning of his wife. This is all the information we ever hear about that particular case.
This shows up occasionally in the Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout. Occasionally, Archie will throw in a reference to previous cases that he'll either "write about later" or "can't be revealed due to privacy / security reasons".
This is actually done in a lot of mystery and Private Detective fiction. It's especially prevalent in short stories, as it's a quick and easy way to bring in a new character and explain how/why they've come to seek the main character's services without having to waste limited space on unnecessary details.
In A Song of Ice and Fire, many of the events of the Great Tourney at Harrenhal before the War of the Usurper take quite a few books to come to light but are referred to from various perspectives fairly frequently before they do, if they are explained at all.
- And when we finally do get an explanation, it's a second hand account disguised as a fairy tale. And the aspect that has the most relevance on the plot of the books (i.e. the details of Rhaegar and Lyanna's hook up) are left "for next time."
- Perhaps equally important is the tragedy of Summerhall. Referred to multiple times by multiple different people. A lot of the things that it caused can be inferred from historical context, but you have to wonder just what it was that was bad enough to kill the king and crown prince, as well as reduce the entire castle to smoking ruins.
Summerhall generally comes up when someone mentions wanting to raise dragons; whatever happened at Summerhall is a good indication that it's madness to do so.
Happens often in War And Peace, to the point that it's left up to modern endnotes to explain what the characters are talking about. The trope is most clearly used when characters refer to Dolokhov's Persian adventures.
Used with great effect in the original novel of The Princess Bride (which predates the movie by almost fifteen years). Author William Goldman claims to be abridging the original novel by S. Morgenstern, which was really just a literary device that allowed him to write only the "good parts" of the story. In the scene where the mostly-dead Westley is to be revived by Miracle Max, Goldman writes about how Max sent Inigo and Fezzik out to collect different ingredients for the miracle pill — but doesn't actually show the trouble they run into in the process. Note that this was completely dropped in the movie, probably for purposes of time more than anything else.
- The author actually does this throughout the book, stopping at various points to put on his italic typeface and explain that when his father read the "original" to him as a child, the man would do the exact same thing, but far more efficiently because instead of stopping to point out he was editing for readability, he'd just make a glossing-over comment and skip a massive whack of the book. He'll usually give a general idea what goes on and then get on with the swashbuckling and ROUSes, but he subverts it at least twice: he'll describe how his father made the shortest glossing-over of all, and then describe in detail what his father skipped; the things that went on in those pages, how many pages were devoted to each, and all that. Then he'll describe how it was all the incredibly boring lengths to which Morgenstern liked to go to in order to satirize the upper crust. The whole thing takes two pages minimum each time.
Played with in The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, in which numerous previous cases are referred to, including the Karma Houdini pigs who 'deserved to fry' for what they did to that wolf, and DCI Jack Spratt constantly having to defend himself against a reputation for being a giant killer ("Technically, only one of them was a giant; the others were just tall."). Whilst no further details are given, any reader who is familiar with fairy tales might spot certain similarities.
William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost Finder stories had a number of "unwritten cases" examples:
- Gateway of the Monster: The Black Veil and the Moving Fur;
- House Among the Laurels: The Steeple Monster;
- The Horse of the Invisible: "The Black Veil case, when young Aster died. You remember, he said it was a piece of silly superstition and stayed outside. Poor devil!"
- The Searcher of the End House: The Three Straw Platters, the Dark Light case, and the "trouble of Maaetheson's".
- The Whistling Room: the Buzzing Case, the Grey Dog, the Yellow Finger Experiments, the Silent Garden, and the Nodding Door. The "Grunting Man" case was probably the story titled The Hog.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Gal./Sid./Year 03758, which wiped out almost everybody on Ford Prefect's ancestral planet Betelgeuse Seven. Lampshaded by mentioning that nobody knows what a Hrung is or why it should collapse on Betelgeuse Seven — least of all Ford, whose childhood nickname "Ix" meant "boy who is unable to satisfactorily explain what a Hrung is, or why it should collapse on Betelgeuse Seven."
- Zaphod Beeblebrox refuses to explain why his father is Zaphod Beeblebrox II and his grandfather is Zaphod Beeblebrox III — apparently, it involved a contraceptive and a time machine.
- In Life, The Universe and Everything, Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged is said to have gained his immortality after "an unfortunate accident with an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch and a pair of rubber bands." The details are apparently unimportant as no-one has managed to duplicate the events, with everyone who has tried ending up looking very silly. Or dead. Or both.
In Moby Dick a character mentions "that deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa." This may be why God is pissed at Ahab.
Mercer, the protagonist of Cordwainer Smith's A Planet Without a Name, has committed a horrendous "crime without a name". We never learn more than that.
There is a whole paragraph devoted to this in Robert Heinlein's Double Star:
"He mentioned a couple of details in my past that I would have sworn were buried and forgotten. All right, so I did have a couple of routines useful for stag shows that are not for the family trade — a man has to eat. But that matter about Bebe; that was hardly fair, for I certainly had not known she was under age. As for that hotel bill, while it is true that bilking an 'innkeeper' in Miami Beach carries much the same punishment as armed robbery elsewhere, it is a very provincial attitude — I would have paid it if I had had the money. As for that unfortunate incident in Seattle — well, what I am trying to say is that Dak did know an amazing amount about my background but he had the wrong slant on most of it."
The Flashman novel Royal Flash begins, "If I had been half the hero everyone thought I was, or even a half-decent soldier, Lee would have won the battle of Gettysburg and probably captured Washington." He only says this to illustrate how history can turn on trifling events, and as a story for another time, never mentions it again.
- Now we'll never know the details of Flashman's Civil War service. He was an officer in the US army in 1862, the CS army in 1863, and received the Congressional Medal of Honor... somehow.
There's the "Incendiary Cat Plot", mentioned at least once in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga...
- This may in fact be a reference to the classic filk song "Never Set the Cat on Fire" by Frank Hayes. The song itself is rules for children living aboard a spaceship including the rule mentioned in the title.
The Warhammer 40000: Ciaphas Cain books are full of vague references to past events. Some are covered in the short stories, but most go unexplained. Thus far.
- There is also the growing list of accidents involving the Guardsmen Penlan, which gained her the nickname Jinxie.
"... or the time I found myself charging a daemon of Khorne with just a rusty bayonet and a vial of holy water..."
Jim Butcher peppers his The Dresden Files books with these. Harry will periodically refer back to cases that had happened previously. Sometimes, these are the events covered by previous books (his remarks along this vein are a good way to deduce that the books generally happen a year or so apart), but now and again he drops a name, date, location, or supernatural threat that doesn't come up in any of the chronicles we've seen.
- One of these actually becomes a plot point about 3 or 4 books after he drops the reference. "You should have seen the look on the stormchaser's face when he realized the tornado was chasing us" is implied to have the Summer Queen owing Harry a favor. Which he transfers to Charity later in a bit of maneuvering to let the Summer Knight and Lady help him through her, since they couldn't do so directly.
In the first Artemis Fowl book, Root mentions how Holly screwed up, causing "The Hamburg Incident". One of her perps tried to bargain with the humans for asylum. "Four mindwipes, a time stop, and a retrieval squad" were needed to sort it out. All the comic book adaptation shows us is an elf smiling at the camera as the POLIZEI car he's in the back of pulls away.
- It has never been called "The Hamburg Incident". I don't know about the comic book adaptation, but in the original book, it was never referred to as anything but "the Hamburg affair". Wonder if it was a tragic love story...
  - As of Book Six, we now know more of the details. One of Holly's fugitives locked himself into a car in Hamburg. She tried to unlock it, but her omnitool had been stolen by Mulch Diggums a few hours before. The target was apprehended by humans, and he tried to bargain with them for political asylum.
  - The rest is easy to piece together. Thinking he's a confused kid, they take him to the police station. A daytime raid on a police headquarters - a retrieval squad needing a time stop, with four mind wipes for all the humans involved.
In the Time Warp Trio, the three titular kids sometimes meet up with their granddaughters, who are both kids from the future and Distaff Counterparts of themselves. Their granddaughters explain that they're wealthy because in their near future, the boys experience an accident involving a bowl of cereal that leads to them inadvertently discovering anti-gravity technology. They don't want to explain just how this happens, so as not to cause a paradox. But it causes them to wonder — how the hell could cereal and antigravity possibly be related?!
In the third book of the Bartimaeus trilogy, Ptolemy's Gate, the djinni Bartimaeus mentions twice the Case of the Anarchist and the Oyster that he helped his master Nathaniel solve. Upon bringing it up, Nathaniel winces and tells Bartimaeus to please not talk about it.
- This is possibly also a Rule Of Three situation, since the Anarchist and the Oyster is the third of three such situations, the first two being the plots of the two previous books.
The Neverending Story is littered with these; you can't go more than a half-dozen pages before the author mentions that such-and-such a character did x, y, or z, then adds, "But that's another story and shall be told another time."
- It became a plot point later on — Bastian nearly couldn't leave Fantastica because he had to finish all those stories.
Harry Potter is likewise full of those. Mostly it's in the form of books mentioned, of which three (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages, and Tales of Beedle the Bard) are actually made — but there are many which aren't, such as Hermione's favorite go-to, Hogwarts: A History. There are goblin uprisings, house-elf history, and all those creatures — even vampires, which judging by HBP are not openly hostile.
- Also a nice twist and version with Grindelwald. When in first book we hear that "Dumbledore... is famous for his victory over the dark wizard Grindelwald", we imagine it being a simple story — that no one could beat Grindelwald, until young Dumbledore duelled the Dark wizard to the death and killed him. In the last book it is revealed that the story is much more complicated...
- In the first book, there's a passing reference to a time when Harry "had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue."
- Aberforth Dumbledore's incident involving using illegal charms on a goat counts as this, seeing as what the charm was is never mentioned, and that Aberforth generally likes goats, enough for one to serve as his patronus, anyway.
- The reason for Hagrid's expulsion from the school is treated like this in the first book and part of the second. It's only brought up about once or twice, but apparently his reaction generally involves [paraphrasing] "clearing his throat loudly and suddenly becoming deaf until the subject is changed." Subverted when we find out the story later in The Chamber Of Secrets.
Lazlo Woodbine, hard-boiled Private Detective in Robert Rankin's Far Fetched Fiction, has a long string of Noodle Incidents in his past, all of which cost him a loved one, a body part, and a valuable artifact.
Pongo Twistleton and his uncle, Fred, who always pulls his nephew into his complicated schemes are recurring characters in PG Wodehouse's novels. In every story that mentions them, they always recall when they were arrested at the Dog Races, but it's never revealed why.
- Likewise, in Wodehouse's Blandings series, repeated references are made to the never-actually-recounted "Story of the Prawns" which relates a humiliatingly hilarious incident in the youth of stuffed shirt Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe.
Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm. Apparently, there was something nasty in the woodshed.
Occurs in Tsukihime, Plus Period Talk. At least two incredibly epic battles are glossed over. One, between the Wind mage Forte and Satsunjiki, and one, the big final battle between a sentient forest, Ciel, and Shiki at full power. The first is only seen when the viewpoint enters. Forte is totally, completely defeated. The second, "What happened after that would be needless to say. Since it would be what anyone would imagine."
In Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novels, the Attenbury Emerald case is referenced a number of times, but takes place before any of the books are set.
Every once in a while, this is completely serious. For instance, the narrator of The Monsters of Morley Manor by Bruce Coville possesses a Mook at one point, and starts to remember parts of the mook's Training From Hell. He "still can't talk about" when four trainees were locked in a room with only enough water for two of them to survive until they were scheduled to be released.
Ethan Brand by Nathaniel Hawthorne does this with the Unpardonable Sin, the one act God is incapable of forgiving. The title character, who committed the sin makes occasional references to the woman he apparently did it to, but the act itself is never described, presumably because it's best left to the imagination.
In Hugh Cook's The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers, the Originator's manuscript is bowdlerized by members of a sinister organisation, effectively obscuring a number of improbable and unwholesome incidents.
In Arthur C. Clarke's short story Wacky, the protagonist mentions the "Case of the Elastic-Sided Eggwhisk", adding that he would almost certainly not have survived it had it ever actually occurred.
In the epistolary fantasy Sorcery and Cecelia, by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, there is repeated reference to a prank pulled by the protagonists that involved sneaking out at midnight to kidnap a goat belonging to Squire Bryant. No clarification is ever made beyond this fact.
In Mishaps, there is the 'school camp incident'. What exactly happened wasn't made clear, but Pen says that it involved her spending time in a decontamination chamber.
British author/screenwriter John Mortimer perpetrated what was probably the greatest inverted Noodle Incident in the history of the trope. In every script/story from the beginning of his Rumpole Of The Bailey series of TV screenplays and short story/novel adaptations, the protagonist, barrister-at-law Horace Rumpole, would invariably make at least one reference to his greatest professional triumph, the case of "The Penge Bungalow Murders" (which Rumpole tried and won as a junior barrister "alone and without a leader"). After nearly three decades of teasing viewers and readers with references to this case, Mortimer, nearing the end of his career, finally wrote a novel (titled, unsurpisingly, Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders), which turned that epic Noodle Incident into an epic series of Continuity Nods.
"The Jenna Thing" in Pretty Little Liars, although it is revealed bit by bit throughout the first half of the second book, after which it turns into a gradual series of Reveals.
Myth Adventures likes this. How exactly a game of Dragon Poker led to Aahz's clothes being two floors below him at some point is never explained, although considering that a Trollop was involved, it may not be that tough to understand why he wasn't wearing them.
World War Z: Some truly chilling examples, as the novel is told through peoples' own experiences, and they don't necessarily take the time to explain the details. There was something about "those sick fucks at that weapons research facility at China Lake" that disgusted even a hardened war veteran.
A Series Of Unfortunate Events is filled with these, especially the side books. Even the ending is a noodle incident.
The Selelvian-Tholian War from the Star Trek New Frontier series (started due to the events of Gods Above and Stone and Anvil) isn't shown, because we skip ahead three years to the next book. All we do know is that the Federation won, Admiral Jellico no longer hates Captain Calhoun, and Soleta was drummed out of Starfleet after her Romulan heritage was revealed after saving Captain Shelby from an Orion raiding party.
In 1001 Nights, a sage about to be executed observes that his fate is like the reward of the crocodile. When asked about the crocodile and his story, the sage says that he is not in the mood to tell a story at the moment.
There are a few of these in The Lord Of The Rings. Two examples are with the character Aragorn. When we first meet him in Bree there is a mention of a dark shadow passing over his face at some memory with the Ringwraiths. Later in the book he mentions once going through Moria and having an "evil" memory of his time there. Nothing is said again about either incident. The character's precursor, a hobbit named Trotter, had a backstory concerning being captured in Moria and taken to the Dark Lord in Mordor, but considering Aragorn's and Mordor's final form it is doubtful that this early snippet of the backstory remained canon by the time LOTR was published.
The Bacta War has the Rogues leave the New Republic and worry about not having as many support personnel as they had before, meaning they might have to start performing some nonmission-specific duties.
Tycho: "I seem to recall the meal you tried to make out of tauntaun meat on Hoth and..."
Wedge: "I get the hologram, Tycho. [...] You know, with the right ambiance, that tauntaun would have tasted just fine."
'Tycho: "Sure, Wedge, believe that if you want."
Vlad Taltos constantly drops references to things he's done in the past, some of which are quite pointedly not explained. Like the guy who could jump an eleven-foot crevasse, but who Vlad survived because he was wearing the wrong kind of boots.

Brilliantly done in one episode of Frasier. The series' reputation for hilarity ensuing had one episode opening with dinner guests and the chef storming out of Frasier's apartment in disgust, Frasier attempting to save it by pretending to have Tourette's Syndrome, Martin entering the room dressed as an Italian Count, a flaming toupee in the middle of the room, and goats throwing up in the kitchen.
An episode of Malcolm in the Middle has Reese being punished for a horrendous prank which the audience never really hears about. The only thing we learn about it is that it involved multiple cats, that a full evacuation of the school was required, and that Reese could name third world countries where it regularly happens.
- There is also an episode where Hal is put in charge of the living will of a neighbor who is in a persistent vegetative state. After hearing the man's relatives debate furiously as to whether or not he should be kept alive, Hal makes a decision that we are never shown. At the end of the episode, Lois tells Hal that he did a great job because he realized that there were more than just the two choices of life and death. Hal remarks that it was easy because, once he found out that the man was a bird lover, everything he needed was at the electronics store down the street, except for the hat. He then tells Lois that he would like to never discuss it ever again.
  - Obviously he turned the man into a cybernetic bird-feeder. With a great hat.
- Another episode showed, if I recall, the older brother coming home at various different times trying to explain what havoc he and his siblings caused. Every time something more horrifying is happening behind them without explanation, including cars exploding, people running and screaming, fires...all at different instances. Whatever they were doing those times apparently caused World War 3 through 7!
Monty Python's Flying Circus has one here: "It all happened on the 11.20 from Hainault to Redhill via Horsham and Reigate, calling at Carshalton Beeches, Malmesbury, Tooting Bec and Croydon West"
Woman: *after finding her father dead* Has he...been...?
John: Yes, after breakfast; but that doesn't matter now, he's dead!
Friends had a "pictionary incident":
Monica: That was not an incident! I was gesturing and the plate... slipped out of my hand.
- In another episode Phoebe references the time a peacock bit Chandler in the zoo.
- Another has Ross and Chandler getting ready for a night out with their college buddy Gandalf. One of them states that he has Canadian money, a snakebite kit and an extra pair of socks. The other warns him that it won't be exactly the same as last time.
- "Vomit tux! VOMIT TUX!"
"The Pinecone Incident" on Drake And Josh. The only thing we're told is, "That squirrel had it coming!"
- Also, the first time that Josh met Helen after making Crazy Steve quit.
Helen: You made Crazy Steve quit?
Josh: You hired a guy named Crazy Steve?
Helen: It's a long, sad story.
- Josh interuppted Drake while he was telling a very ludicrous story.
Drake: So my foot's totally stuck in there right? I'm freaking out, the dogs having a sesuire, I still have half a pie left.
Multiple instances in Father Ted, including: Dougal's exile to Craggy Island following the "Blackrock Incident", never explained but involving "irreparably damaged" nuns; an incident on a Sea Link ferry possibly involving Dougal playing with the ferry's controls; Jack's exile to the island following a never-described but presumably disastrous wedding he performed in Athlone.
- Then there's "but [the money] was just resting in my account."
  - No, Bishop Brennon explained that one in one episode, that's why Ted's on the island.
    Bishop Brennon: You shut up Crilly! You're not going back until all that money's accounted for. You were living it up in Vegas, while that girl should have been in Lourdes!
- Also subverted, when describing a strange off-screen incident in all its ludicrous detail:
  Father Ted: Dougal, Dougal, do you remember Sister Assumpta?
  Father Dougal: Er, no.
  Ted: She was here last year! And then we stayed with her in the convent, back in Kildare. Do you remember it? Ah, you do! And then you were hit by the car when you went down to the shops for the paper. You must remember all that? And then you won a hundred pounds with your lottery card? Ah, you must remember it, Dougal!
  (Dougal shakes his head)
  Sister Assumpta: And weren't you accidentally arrested for shoplifting? I remember we had to go down to the police station to get you!... And the police station went on fire? And you had to be rescued by helicopter?
  Ted: Do you remember? You can't remember any of that? The helicopter! When you fell out of the helicopter! Over the zoo! Do you remember the tigers?
  (Dougal shakes his head some more)
  Ted: You don't remember? You were wearing your blue jumper.
  Dougal: (sudden flood of recognition) Ah, Sister Assumpta!
Near the end of Angel, Spike misunderstands Illyria's archaic use of the word "intimate" and alleges that he is safe because he and Angel have never been intimate, but then adds "There was that one time...." Enter drooling slashers...
- Also from Angel season 5: "El Diablo Robótico".
In Black Books, the characters return from a disastrous (unseen) holiday and allude to several unfortunate things that befell them. At a mention of sacrificing monkeys, Bernard cries "You said we wouldn't talk about Canada!"
A rare subverted version in which the Noodle Incident is actually revealed: the "Gazpacho Soup" incident in Red Dwarf which tormented Arnold Rimmer, who blamed it for stalling his career and ruining his chances of promotion to such an extent that his last words were "Gazpacho soup!" It turned out to be merely an incident where Rimmer, sitting at the captain's table at a formal luncheon, sent a bowl of Gazpacho soup back to the kitchen to be warmed up because he didn't know it was supposed to be served cold. Of course, the reality didn't live up to the imagination, but that was the point; both that it was an extremely minor embarrassment that the insecure Rimmer blew up to insane proportions, and that it was just yet another example of him blaming something else for his own screw-ups and failed life.
- A straight example occurs in the first episode when Captain Hollister, in reference to smuggling animals on board spaceships, makes angry reference to what happened "on board the Oregon with the rabbits".
In "The Five Doctors" on Doctor Who, the Second Doctor, reminiscing with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, refers to an unseen adventure the two shared with the Terrible Zodin and something 'that used to hop like kangaroos'. Although only referred to once again in the series itself (in "Attack of the Cybermen"), Fan Fic and the Expanded Universe have frequently played with what Zodin could be, with everything from an evil Monster Of The Week to a terrible meal the Doctor once had being suggested.
- The Time War that destroyed Gallifrey and (supposedly) the Daleks in the new series is also treated in this fashion; we're given lots of intriguing hints and abstract reveals as to what happened and who did what (with mentions of the Fall of Arcadia and the burning of the Cruciform — neither of which were ever seen in the series — and it being strongly implied, if not outright stated, that the Doctor himself was forced to destroy Gallifrey), but we've never seen what actually occurred.
- It's also been outright stated a few times that we haven't seen anywhere near the number of actual places each companion goes with the Doctor in the episodes themselves. Mostly this is because nothing exciting happened those times (like one flashback from the beginning of "Army of Ghosts") but the Children in Need special with the Tenth Doctor convincing Rose he's actually the Doctor did have him referring to a time they ended up "hopping for our lives."
- "Silence in the Library" plays with this trope by invoking a little "future nostalgia": River Song mentions several escapades ("Right, picnic at Asgard. Have we done Asgard yet?") which are supposedly to have happened in the Doctor's future.
- Similar to Zodin, there been several explanations outside the TV series about what the Perigosto Stick the Doctor mentions in "The Green Death" actually is, although I don't recall any about why you can't trust a Venusian Shanghorn with one.
- "Got to go, got a thing. Well, four things. Well, four things and a lizard."
- In one Third Doctor episode, it's mentioned that the Brigadier once somehow earned the gratitude of a woman named Doris; during the seventh Doctor's run, it's revealed "she finally caught him" and they are now married. (A comic explains this.)
- The Sixth Doctor serial "Timelash" references an unbroadcast adventure the Third Doctor (and Jo Grant) had on the same planet.
- "I told you we should have turned left!" (A phrase which takes on a deeper meaning a couple of series later, quite possibly on purpose, given the trend for significant words and phrases throughout the new series.
- There's also a humorous Sixth Doctor example:
  Peri: You even managed to burn dinner last night!
  Doctor: I never said I was perfect!
  Peri: If you recall, I was going to have a cold dinner last night.
On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Willow and Xander have these sometimes, having grown up together:
Xander: Cordelia, man, she does love titles!
Willow: Oh, God! Remember in sixth grade with the field trip?
Xander: Right! Right! The guy with the antlers on his belt!
Willow: Be my Deputy!
Xander: And remember the, the hat?
Willow: Oh God! The hat!
Buffy: Gee, it's fun that we're speaking in tongues.
- Not to mention the fate of Miss Kitty Fantastico, which apparently involved an errant crossbow....
- There's also Xander's stripper experience...
  Xander: Basically, I got as far as Oxnard and the engine fell out of my car, and that was literally. So I ended up washing dishes at the fabulous "Ladies Night" club for about a month and a half while I tried to pay for the repairs. Nobody really bothered me, or even spoke to me, until one night, when one of the male strippers called in sick, and no power on this earth will make me tell you the rest of that story. Suffice to say, I traded my car in for one that wasn't entirely made of rust, came trundling back home to the loving arms of my parents, where everything is exactly as it was, except I sleep in the basement and I have to pay rent. How's college?
  Buffy: Male strippers?
  Xander: No power on this earth!
- In the Buffy episode Him Anya (under the influence of some love charm) is shown in front of the Sunnydale Bank, dressed in black, carrying a sack, and wearing a ski mask. Later, when a radio station announces something involving robberies, Anya abruptly switches off the radio and changes the subject.
- The Kindergarten incident Xander mentions to Dark Willow to calm her down, about how she cried her eyes out after breaking a yellow crayon.
  - Which was awesomely lampshaded later in the Season 7 episode "The Killer In Me". When Willow falls victim to a curse that makes her look like psycho-bad-guy Warren, and she has to convince Buffy, Xander and the gang that she really is Will and not Warren or The First.
  Willow/Warren: I'm Willow.
  Xander: Are you sure?
  Willow/Warren (pissed) : There are other stories from kindergarten. Non-yellow-crayon stories in which you don't come out in such a good light. An incident involving Aquaman underoos, for example - want me to start talkin'?
  Xander (Hurriedly) : Hey, it's Willow!
And on Firefly:
Early: You know, with the exception of one deadly and unpredictable midget, this girl is the smallest cargo I've ever had to transport, yet by far the most troublesome. [...]
Simon: What'd he do?
Early: Who?
Simon: The midget.
Early: Arson. Little man looooved fire.
- Another example occurs while Inara confronts Mal on lack of serious work as of late. Inara sarcastically asks Mal, "And what was our net profit on the famous wobbly-headed doll caper?"
  "Hey, people love those!"
- Also seen in the pilot, where an incident involving Patience is mentioned.
  Zoe: Sir, we don't want to deal with Patience again.
  Mal: Why not?
  Zoe: She shot you.
  Mal: Well, yeah, she did a bit...
- Later in the same episode:
  Mal: Did you send word to Patience?
  Wash: Ain't heard back yet. Didn't she shoot you one time?
  Mal: Everybody's makin'a fuss.
- And later still:
  Patience: I have to say I didn't look to be hearin' from you anytime soon.
  Mal: Well, we may not've parted on the best of terms. Certain words were exchanged. Also certain... bullets...
  - Patience may be less noodly than it seems. We know she shot Mal, and when she tries to do it again she states that she makes it a policy not to pay for things she can get for free; it's not unreasonable to assume that this exact same scenario has played out before between Patience and Mal, minus Mal's first-hand knowledge of what to expect from Patience.
John Astin's mentally-unstable character on Night Court occasionally made comments along the lines of "... but then there was that regrettable incident with the Cheez Whiz..", always finishing with Astin's trademarked smile and "But I'm much better now!"
On Star Trek Deep Space Nine, there were several references to a "Cardassian Neck Trick" that Odo could perform, but tantalizing hints of how amazing it is to see and a vague suggestion of what it might be are all the audience ever gets.
- We also know very little about what happened on Terok Nor before the series start. Or about O'Brien's past as a soldier.
- Almost as tantalizing as the many mentions of bar patron Morn being quite the talker whenever a camera isn't on him.
- And a few mentions by Jadzia Dax about something that happened with Curzon Dax & Sisko. Usually involving a woman & liquor on some planet or space station.
  - Like that time Curzon burned down that bar...
Jadzia: He kinda burned it down.
Lenara: Kinda?
Jadzia: Ok, he burned it down. But it wasn't on purpose! It was part of a dare. But that's another story.
- There's also the incident which lampshaded the sudden change in Klingons' appearance between the original series and the later series. Worf just says, "We don't talk about it with outsiders."
  - This was resolved in a 4th season episode of "Enterprise" where the change was due to the Klingons experimenting with genetic enhancements which nearly wiped them all out.
- In Star Trek The Next Generation we hear mention of a Federation-Cardassian war (Cpt. Maxwell is supposed to take revenge because of it), but in terms of details all we get is O'Brien's story how he accidentally killed a Cardassian soldier by overpowered phaser.
- During "Tin Man", the telepath reveals that in an earlier mission (which became known as the "Gorushda Disaster" due to having resulted in several deaths, including two of Riker's friends) he "was completely attentive, and if the captain had listened at me, it would have been fine".
- In "The Big Goodbye", the viewer never learns exactly what horrible thing(s) the insectoid Jarada did to a visiting Federation ship which offended the Jaradan sense of diplomatic protocol. Even though Data is ready and willing to share..
- Also, we never actually see the Eugenic Wars.
- Nor do we learn the details of the Tomed Incident, a disaster which made the Federation decide to ban the use of cloaking devices and caused the Romulans to become quite isolationist for 50 years until they reappeared in TNG.
- One of the biggest incidents is how Picard and Guinan met; despite a lot of references to it, and the fact that Guinan says they're "closer than family", we never do hear about just how they met.
  - A much younger Guinan first met a time travelling Picard in the episode "Time's Arrow", in the 19th century. She was wounded and dying and Picard saved her life before he returned to the 24th century. Guinan simply made it a point to meet and get to know Picard in his youth at a future date.
In the Star Trek The Original Series pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, after Gary Mitchell is zapped by the mysterious energy field on the edge of the galaxy and sent to sick bay, Kirk visits him, where they share this exchange:
Gary: Hello Jim! Hey, you look worried.
Kirk: I've been worried about you ever since that night on Deneb IV.
Gary: *laughs* Yeah, she was nova that one. Not nearly as many after-effects this time....
- No further references to the incident, the girl, or just what Gary meant when he said "nova" (or after-effects, for that matter) are made.
Stargate SG-1, episode "Emancipation":
Jack O'Neill: Remember that time on P3X-595, and you drank that stuff that made you take off—
Samantha Carter: We won't get into that right now.
- Naturally, these lines have inspired a lot of fanfiction.
- Vala's entire past is made up of Noodle Incidents. "How many times have you been married?" "Legally? Hmmm…well, it's hard to keep track. Let's see. The first one was a part of a band of traveling entertainers. He was a good cook, too. Couldn't make pie though..."
Parodied on Cheers. Rebecca asked Woody to look after her pet and Woody replied that he loves animals, in fact he always used to look after pets for his friends, at least before... The Incident. Rebecca was naturally worried by this and decided to ask someone else. After she left, Norm congratulated Woody on this trick to get out of looking after the pet, Woody agreed that it was a great trick, he only wished that he had thought of it before... The Incident.
In Special Unit 2, Nick mentions a job he had waiting tables... until the pastrami incident, which got him banned from Rhode Island and a very limited number of neighboring states.
In the sixth season of 24, the mysterious "Denver Incident" follows Mike Doyle like a stray cat. In a break from the norm for the show, there is no Infodump explaining exactly what happened.
The title character of the Canadian comedy series Butch Patterson: Private Dick occasionally had to deal with people who recognized him as "that guy from the petting zoo," expressing sympathy for "that poor llama." Exactly what happened is never fully explained, but one hint comes when Butch admits that he spent two years less a day in prison for indecent exposure over the incident... and it's probably better for all concerned that we don't get any more details than that.
On the episode of Married with Children where Steve and Marcy end up homeless and Kelly has a slumber party, there's a Noodle Incident where Al tells Kelly that she can't have another slumber party because of the one she had when she was eight. It's not clear what happened, but Al said "The judge wanted to try you [Kelly] as an adult" and in Al's promise letter, it mentioned that Al was shaved bald.
- We may have some idea however... later, in another episode, Kelly and Bud gave a party while her parents were in Washington DC, and it was occasionally referred to on the news during scenes in DC. First as a huge party... then as a riot... and then the National Guard was called in because basically an armed revolution had started! They even set up smaller parties to act as a firebreak... er, partybreak.
- Then there was another Noodle Incident on Married With Children, where Officer Dan (the black cop) becomes Al's friend in the later episodes after Officer Dan promised never to report Al for an unnamed incident that happened at a strip club.
The Pilot of Action features a reference to Bruce Willis doing something unpleasant to a cat at a party.
The title character of Murphy Brown did something at the 1980 Republican convention that not only got her banned from all future ones but is still being mentioned way into the 90's.
Lost has several such incidents, but due to the nature of the show (flashbacks and time travel), some of them end up being shown to the viewer later on:
- The most notable is the creatively named "Incident" that resulted in the need to push a button every 108 minutes in the hatch. The event is described vaguely in the season 2 finale, and shown onscreen due to time travel in the season 5 finale, which, of course, is called "The Incident."
- The event that resulted in Locke being paralyzed before the crash. Eventually shown onscreen in season 3 (Locke's father pushed him out a skyscraper window).
- One of the most infamous in the Lost fan community is the "Tampa job" mentioned by a one-off character in season 1, regarding Sawyer. The event has never been mentioned again, but some fans believe it is of pivotal importance to Sawyer's character. The season 2 episode "Adrift" was originally going to feature Sawyer flashbacks to the Tampa Job, but the scenes were cut and replaced with Michael flashbacks.
- Juliet mentions a "Basra incident" regarding Sayid in season 3. Due to the name and the way Juliet introduces it, this is almost certainly the writers screwing with the abovementioned Tampa job theorists.
The Babylon 5 episode "A Distant Star" has the following exchange:
Sheridan: Well there was that one time you took leave on Mars, and that dancer as I recall...
Maynard: Captain Sheridan?
Sheridan: Yes, Captain Maynard?
Maynard: July 12th, 2253?
Sheridan: Forget I said anything.
- There was also a carbon copy of that exchange going the other way before the end of the scene.
- There was also the story about the ship's cat that Sheridan told Delenn over dinner... all we hear is that there was a lot of mess involved.
- Throughout the series, we hear about the Dilgar War and Earth-Minbari war. The latter is shown in the movie "In the Beginning" (made way after the series), the former wasn't shown (as of yet).
In the first season of Spaced we constantly hear about "The Deal" between Brian and Marsha, and at least once per episode Tim and Mike start to go into a childhood flashback about an incident involving them and a tree (utilising music reminiscent of the flashback themes in Final Fantasy VII) before being interrupted. However, both get fully explained at the end of the season (Brian paid Marsha her rent in the form of sexual favours when his benefits were late and Tim encouraged Mike to jump from a high tree branch, resulting in his retinas detaching, preventing him from fulfilling his life's ambition of joining the army).
In Are You Being Served?, Mr. Humphries sometimes refers to an incident with a vicar (or possibly several incidents with different vicars).
The Bottom episode Apocalypse has "the incident with the oven-ready chicken" and:
Eddie: I'm Death, I know everything!
Richie: What, everything? Even about the...
Eddie: Especially that, you naughty boy.
When Wendy asks Lacey if she can keep a secret on The Middleman, Lacey points out that she's never told anybody about "that thing with the blueberry pudding pops and the elliptical machine."
The Not Going Out episode with the art exhibition has Tim berating Lee:
Lee: It's not my fault!
Tim: Oh yeah. When my grandmother ended up in a ditch, it wasn't your fault. When my aunt could only eat soft fruit for a week, it wasn't your fault!
What happened between Jason and Bryn on the fishing trip in Gavin And Stacey is never described, but heavy hints are dropped.
Power Rangers has the great war 10,000 years ago and a lesser, likewise unnamed war 3,000 years ago. Numerous unrelated characters in numerous unrelated seasons make reference to signifiant wars occuring on those two "dates", but no flashback or explanation is ever given for either.
On an episode of Richard Hammond's Blast Lab, we are told that You Don't Want To Know what the catapults from the game were originally designed for, but "Suffice it to say, the cats were not pleased."
How I Met Your Mother has the "Pineapple Incident." In a way, it subverts the trope, as there's a whole episode explaining how the incident occurred. It does, however, have one detail missing: How the pineapple got onto the bedtable.
- Another episode has the Story of the Goat. The first time it's mentioned, Ted gets almost to the point of the story, before mentioning a detail that causes him to realise that it must have happened later than he thought. The story is concluded a year later. The goat beat Ted up.
A fairly creepy example. Teen psychopath Luke from Heroes, when asked about his powers, tells Sylar that he should "See what it does to pacemakers" the implication being that he spends his time killing people with heart conditions. Yeah, the kids got problems.
Scrubs: A recent exemple in the episode "My Absence", the episode is seen from another POV and when the regular hero (only heard on phone throughout the whole episode) goes through one of his visions, he only says about it "And that's why you can never trust camels".
- We'd need a whole bunch of gnomes.
In Outnumbered, 8-year-old Ben asks why they can't have the same babysitter as last time; "You know why," his dad says darkly. Later Ben's little sister says that the last babysitter "went home to Poland, where children are nice."
House:
Wilson: Every time I go to one of your parties, I end up embarrassing myself in some new and unexpected way.
House: That whole thing with the duck was hardly unexpected.
Wings did this more than once:
Brian: Relax. I will take care of everything. Trust me.
Joe: Brian, the last time you said, "Trust me," I wound up naked on I-95 trying to flag down oncoming traffic.
Brian: But who pulled over for you?
(...)
Brian: I'm gonna make you my personal project.
Joe: No. No. No. Not again. The last time you had a project, I had to go to court.
Brian: Oh, yeah. Thanks a lot, Mr. Witness for the Prosecution.
(...)
Brian: Lowell, tell us your deepest, most darkest secret.
Lowell: Once, when I was out of underwear... [Everyone in the airport protests]
Brian: Lowell, what is your fondest memory?
Lowell: Once, when I was out of underwear...
It's actually a Noodle Reference, but in the NCIS episode "Silver War", Tony and Ziva reference a specific page of a fictional men's magazine, culminating in this line:
Ziva: You were thinking that you want to "page 57" me right now.
- Ducky does this pretty much every time he rambles. It's usually because he gets interrupted, though sometimes he just doesn't elaborate. From the episode "Hiatus, Part 1":
  Palmer: Who would sit on an explosive?
  Ducky: ... I did it myself once— no, twice. The first time, I was young; second time foolish.
  Palmer: Why were you sitting on an explosive, doctor?
  Ducky: I just told you: I was young and foolish. Haven't you been listening?
- And the season five episode "Family," when Tony has just discovered that a dead petty officer has been moonlighting as an exotic dancer:
  Tony: I'm going with stripper.
  Ducky: This is not an uncommon way for young servicemen to complement their incomes. In fact, when I was young, I used to...
  Tony: Used to what?
  Ducky: Oh, my.
- And there's the time Ducky pushed a French police officer off a cliff. In his defense, there was water at the bottom.
The Fast Show has Rowley Birkin QC, who speaks in nothing but noodle incidents, rambling incoherently before occasionally spouting out phrases such as "one girl was very badly burned" or "her husband had been entombed in ice", before always concluding with "I'm afraid I was very, very drunk."
Gavin and Stacey had this in the "fishing trip" that Bryn and Jason took. We never found out what happened, just that it was the source of problems between the two.
Press Gang had several people making comments in its first episode about Spike's "incident at the school dance."
In an episode of Superhuman Cyber Squad, three of the protagonists kidnap their friend via stuffing him in a sack and hauling him off when they believe he is in love with an ugly substitute teacher. His response?
Amps: Help! I'm being abducted by aliens again! Someone call the air force!
An episode of Ed And Ouchos Excellent Inventions has Ed declare they can make anything. Oucho then starts mentioning to Ed a couple of inventions they weren't actually able to build (in his tongue of Cactinese so the audience doesn't hear what they are). On the second one Ed cuts Oucho off saying they don't talk about it because of the "police investigation".
Ugly Betty has an episode where Daniel nearly kisses Molly in the Mode closet. Marc manages to acquire CCTV footage of the incident and tells Wilhelmina that she does not want to know what he did to get it. He then decides to start telling but Wilhelmina tells him to shush.
My Family, with Ben and Susan going over why Ben hates Christmas:
Susan: We all had a lovely time.
Ben: You did. I got beaten up by carol singers.
[...]
Ben: Before that was the Year of the Turkey...
Susan: OK, so it needed to be in for a bit longer.
Ben: Susan, it was still alive. Before that was the Year of the Puppy.
Susan: Ooh, the puppy...yes, that was sad, wasn't it?
In the first season of Psych, the chief tries to dissuade Juliet O'Hara from throwing a surprise birthday party for her partner, Carlton Lassiter, because he doesn't like surprises. Further explanation includes the mention of a "Secret Santa Fiasco of 2005."
- In a later episode, Chief Vick cites the "Prosthetic Nose Debacle of 2005" as the reason why Detective Lassiter won't be going undercover for the present case.
In the 1000th episode of Attack Of The Show, Kevin makes reference to the first time he drove a backhoe, the first time he needed stitches, and the first time he caused 25,000 dollars in property damage. When Olivia points out that that sounds like one massive incident, Kevin replies by saying "Don't dig trenches drunk, kids!"
Sons Of Anarchy featured one. When one character is captured by Bounty Hunters, he finds out he's been grabbed for a warrant involving 'Indecent Exposure in a Livestock Conveyance'.
It was revealed in the series finale that Red Foreman did in fact put his foot in someone's ass, once in Iwo Jima. Red does not want to go any further details.
Lie To Me: "Cal? Promise me you'll never go back to Vegas?"
- There was also some really shady business in Northern Ireland that has been repeatedly referred to but never explained.
The Drew Carey Show. He mentioned that Oswald's Mom is the first woman he ever saw naked.
That was one crazy cub scout meeting!
In The Sarah Jane Adventures episode "Mona Lisa's Revenge" has Clyde mention to Luke he does not want to know how he was thrown out of Cub Scouts.
On a later episode of {{M*A*S*H}}, Hawkeye relates to B.J. a joke that he considers the funniest ever told. This is shown onscreen, and ends with B.J. chuckling wryly, apparently only considering the joke passable. Throughout the rest of the episode, Hawkeye finds himself unable to go anywhere in camp without encountering fellow officers who are all still in hysterics after hearing B.J.'s version of the joke, which is never shown.
In an episode of The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody where Jesse McCartney guest stared, London is forbidden by her father from seeing him because 'he doesn't want a repeat of the Orlando Bloom Incident.'
On an episode of Eight Simple Rules, Paul takes Kerry to see L'amour est l'eau de coeur, since her boyfriend didn't want to go. It includes the "very European" waterbottle scene. We don't actually see it, but the sound makes it quite clear that this is not the sort of thing Kerry or Paul would want to watch with their father or teenage daughter, respectively.
On an episode of The Office, the character Dwight remarks that his cousin Mose has had nightmares "ever since the storm".
On Bones, in the episode "The Man in the Fall Out Shelter", Dr. Brennan warns Zack and Hodgins not to spike the eggnog at the Christmas party because of the 4th of July incident.
- Subverted in the episode "The Man In The Morgue" where the event is known to the audience, but not half of the cast. Brennan fails spectacularly in reassuring them due to treating it as a Noodle Incident.
  Angela Montenegro: Or better still, you could forget the whole thing and come home.
  Dr. Temperance Brennan: [over the phone] Don't worry. I made bail.
  Zack Addy: Bail?
  Angela Montenegro: Bail? For what?
  Dr. Temperance Brennan: I told you, don't worry. The murder charge won't stick.
In Castle, Richard Castle has a tendency to cheerfully launch into tangential stories about how something mildly similar to his current surroundings or vaguely related to the case at hand either occurred to him or in one of his novels ("There was this one time..."), only to hastily wrap it up ("That'sneitherherenorthere.") when someone — usually Detective Beckett — glares at him to shut up. Usually because he's doing so at a crime scene or in the middle of an interrogation Beckett's trying to conduct.
On The Golden Girls, Rose usually is all too happy to tell an entire story, no matter how little anyone wants to hear it; but one instance simply is too painful to talk about. The titular girls are on the patio grilling and she simply says, "We never had a barbecue in St. Olaf after the tragedy." After questioning, she says she doesn't want to talk about it but will say it involved "barbecuing elk, a big fire, and someone who lost his balance."
- There's yet another episode where we continually hear people mentioning increasingly more ludicrous things that are occuring, and Blanche's response is simply to say "I got arrested for that once in Chattanooga," without further explanation. It leads to this great exchange:
  Dorothy: Blanche, are you ever allowed to go back to Chattanooga?
  Blanche: Are you kidding? The sheriff still writes!
- Blanche also has "the greyhound terminal incident", and something involving the 1964 Tokyo olympics.
So, presumably, you won't be needing the unicorn tonight?
Supernatural The waitress in Tampa.
Sam: This is the dumbest thing you've ever done.
Dean: I don't know about that. Remember that waitress in Tampa?
- It's now generally assumed that the waitress in Tampa was the "truck stop waitress with the bizarre rash" Dean refers to in the Season 4 episode Yellow Fever.
'Two And A Half Men'' gives us this exchange in one episode after Alan cripples himself falling off a ladder:
Alan: Do me a favor and call Judith and tell her not to bring Jake over.
Charlie: How come?
Alan: Look at me, Charlie! I have abrasions, contusions, a severely sprained neck, two fractured fingers, and I'm hopped up on pain pills. Does that spell "weekend dad" to you?
Charlie: Well, actually, to me it spells "weekend in Bangkok with two Olympic gymnasts". But that's a whole other story.
The Big Bang Theory - They'll always have that night when the heat went out.
On Chuck, there's "the volleyball incident at last year's employee picnic," which John Casey was somehow involved in.
In UK sitcom The Detectives there is a running joke about an incident involving the Bishop of Durham. Whenever it is mentioned both Briggs and Louis usually immediately protest that it wasn't their fault.

Guns N' Roses' album "The Spaghetti Incident?" was named for a food fight between Axl Rose and Steven Adler involving spaghetti. During Adler's resolution lawsuit after leaving the band, the food fight was brought up, dubbed "the Spaghetti incident" by Adler's attorney. Eventually, it was explained by band members Matt Sorum and Slash.
There was a band named The String Cheese Incident.
Bowling For Soup's album "The Great Burrito Extortion Case" doesn't actually refer to anything. That they'll admit to.
Hillary Song by Marlin Spike Werner never says what exactly happened in that Customs warehouse at Kathmandu. The only thing we can be certain of is that knocking the yak was most definitely not a good idea.
When performing the song "My Home Town," Tom Lehrer always omits a line by saying something to the effect of "we're recording tonight, so I'll have to leave this line out." He has subsequently admitted that he never came up with a satisfactory rhyme, and found the implication that he intended to say something so unspeakably racy it had to be censored much funnier.

On one episode of The Muppet Show, everyone is talking about how hilarious the "Banana Sketch" is — except for Kermit, who hasn't seen it, and no one will/can explain it to him. He eventually realizes they're messing with him.
- There's also the "famous" Lonely Asparagus sketch that gets Carol Burnett to stay. Carol gets into the costume and can only get out the first line before the end of the show.

In one episode of Adventures in Odyssey, Ed tries to cut Marvin's hair and botches the job. He is reminded at least twice (before and after the botch job) "Remember the snowflakes?" as a reason as to why he souldn't be let near a pair of scissors. We never find out what exactly happened with snowflakes...
Done by an Omaha station talk show called Todd & Tyler, which is of course hosted by two guys named Todd and Tyler (they're mostly considered shock jocks, in that they do their best to offend as many people as possible). A couple years ago, they had a Running Gag where, whenever someone said the phrase "two weeks", they'd start laughing like crazy. They refused to explain why a period of time could incite such hilarity on air, though supposedly, if one met them in real life and asked for the meaning behind it, they would be kind enough to explain. Though nowadays they don't seem to find the phrase nearly as amusing.
In one Goon Show, Henry Crun makes a passing reference to "that terrible night I drank the dandelion wine."

Jeff Foxworthy, famed for the You Might Be A Redneck If... jokes, has one go "If you've ever had to haul a can of paint up a water tower to defend your sister's honor, you might be a redneck." Awfully specific requirement in the test.
- According to the music video, it's "[sister's name] is a who". He's already painted over the rest.
  - The name in the video is "Dee Dee". I will now kill myself for remembering that. It's been great hanging with you guys.
- A lot of those jokes could vaguely be considered Noodle Incidents ("If you've been blacklisted by a bowling alley," "If you were ever too drunk to fish," etc.). Subverted on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour by Bill Engvall with "If you've ever popped a beer during a eulogy," after which he went on to explain about his uncle...
Lewis Black's famous "If it wasn't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college" bit is based on him overhearing said remark. He advises the audience not to think about it too much, lest their heads explode.
Steve Martin: I was sitting at home, doing horrible things to my dog with a fork...

During the second Penny Arcade and PVP Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition podcast, the motive for Acquisitions Incorporated is recovering from "the Winterspire Incident." All we are told by the DM is that "it was pretty bad."
In the nWoD Book, Changeling: The Lost. You'll find this gem. "Changelings tend to avoid giving Freeholds too-obvious names derived from myth, ever since the disaster that befell the 17th-century legendary freehold of New Lyonesse."
- There's a hint if you study Arthurian legend. Lyonesse is the home country of Tristan. In later versions of the story, it's said to have sunken beneath the sea...

The ending of The Mousetrap is one of these. At least, if you ask anyone with a sense of honor, damnit.
In the live-stage version of Disney's Mulan Mushu has been demoted from his pedestal because of an incident involving "Confucius, a silk worm, and the near downfall of a dynasty!"
- The movie has a bit of a Noodles Incident for that as well, with them alluding to the last ancestor Mushu assisted and then showing a spirit with a decapitated head. "Yeah, thanks".

Tomb Raider: Legend: Apparently something very traumatic happened between Lara and Anaya, but we never find out what it was. Considering the scene is played for sympathy, it doesn't work since we don't know what it is exactly we're sympathising with the characters about....
F Zero has a "great accident" that is mentioned in every other character profile in GX.
Half-Life 2 has a "cat incident", involving two teleporters, Dr. Kleiner, Barney Calhoun and a cat.
Barney: You mean it's [the teleporter] working? For real this time? Because I still have nightmares about that cat.
Alyx: What cat?
Dr. Kleiner: Now, now, there is nothing to be worried about, we have made major strides since then. Major strides.
Alyx: (louder) What cat?!!
(later as Alyx is stepping into the teleporter...)
Dr. Kleiner: (checking the readings) Conditions could hardly be more ideal.
Barney: That's what you said the last time.
Alyx: (in the teleporter) Uh, yeah, about that cat...
(even later)
Barney: Did you hear a cat just now? Damn thing haunts me...
- Concerned referenced this from BEFORE the incident.
- However, the "microwave" incident mentioned by Dr. Magnusson in Episode Two does not fit the trope, as it's something that you can do in the original Half Life game.
Metal Wolf Chaos gives us a Noodle War in the form of the Arizona Conflict/Insurrection that Michael, Richard, and several background characters are veterans of. Of course, this being Metal Wolf Chaos, that's one of the more reasonable plot elements.
In Dungeon Siege II: Broken World, Celeb'hel wants to cast a spell that will allow him to impose his will on the world. He says that this particular spell was cast twice before in the history of Aranna, but the Ancestor of the Azunites says that neither casting had the intended effect; we aren't told what exactly happened
In the Castlevania mythos, the titular castle was sealed within an eclipse, and its master was Killed Off For Real, in a climactic battle in 1999. However, that's all we know of the event — it is only ever referenced in the Aria and Dawn of Sorrow games, where the reappearance of Castlevania is cause for much concern. As of this writing, IGA has expressed reluctance to tackle the issue, as fan expectations about exactly what happened in 1999 have only increased over the years.
- As have the fangirl expectations for a young Julius Belmont's character design, I bet. He set the bar pretty high in the Sorrow games...
Sam and Max, in the Telltale episodes, constantly refer to events that happen in other cases without getting into the specifics. Examples:
Max: Great, now what am I going to do with the buckets of Sea Monster Blood?

Sam: Remember our old car, Max?
Max: I said I was sorry!
- This is also present in the first game, Sam And Max Hit The Road, as early in the game you can...not go upstairs. When you try...
  Sam: We don't go upstairs.
  Max: Not since the accident.
In Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood states that the Giant Monkey Head is the second largest monkey head he has ever seen. We never hear about the largest.
- Though it works on the same principle, this is actually stealing one of Maxwell Smart's catchphrases from Get Smart
  - A better example in Monkey Island is the Carnival of the Damned misadventure, which is mentioned a few times but never in deatil.
  - And then there's the intense, bizarre phobia of porcelain that Guybrush suddenly displays in the third and fourth games. He calls it a "long story" and promises to explain, but never gets around to that.
Grim Fandango does it. It brings up "the Christmas Party" a few times, but never the details.
In Conker's Bad Fur Day, it's mentioned that the panther king did something to the weasel scientist, but all we get to know is:
Panther King: I don't want to have to get the duct tape out again.
Weasel Scientist: Yes, I mean no, I don't want you to get the duct tape out again
- I always suspected that the "Duct Tape" was used for torture, didn't anyone notice the Weasel King was bald?
Corporal "Wizard" Reavers from the first Crusader games, when he calls you up to talk to you about how hard it is for him to take control of the WEC's telepads to safely extract you from the area, will sometimes reference past events that you never witnessed, i.e. "...back in Madrid," or "...just because I accidentally dumped Yo-Yo in the waste reclamation tank... *snicker*".
The Orange Cat Incident in SSX 3, which is brought up by radio DJ Atomika every now and then. Details are never explained (Atomika assumes everyone's heard of the story by now), but apparently a potentially lethal housecat responsible for extensive property damage around town and parents are advised to keep their children indoors until it can be detained.
- There's also the "infamous" snowboarding event held locally prior to the arrival of the SSX circuit. Boasting only one event, the three peak boardercross... it's implied that we don't want to know what happened.
- And the incident when two skiiers were trapped in a snow cave and survived for five days using only a match, a roll of toilet paper, and two shaken up cans of soda.
Adachi in Persona 4 mentions he is in Inaba because of a "small slip-up" that caused the police to put him there. This incident isn't explained further. And given the fact he murdered and possibly raped two women, it's probably a lot less minor than he says.
Call Of Duty 4 features the following exchange:
Cpt. Price: Not so fast. Remember Beirut? You're with us.
Sgt. Kamarov: Hmm... I guess I owe you one.
Gaz: Bloody right you do.
"You call this a zombie apocalypse? Don't hold a candle to the Great Zombie Attack of '57!" Of course, two seconds later Bill reveals that this was (obviously) not true, but still.
- In the sequel, Ellis and his Keith stories definitely qualify.
In Planescape Torment, there's whatever the First Incarnation's crime was. Evidently, it was pretty horrific: Millennia of atonement haven't proven enough, and it's implied that the Multiverse is now slowly dying because of it.
Command And Conquer Tiberium Wars. Kane thanks the commander for his involvement in Honduras, Jericho and "The Great Rio Insurrection."
Resident Evil 4 has Krauser introduce himself to a surprised Leon with "I died in the train incident two years ago... is that what they told you?" The incident is never explored or so much as mentioned for the rest of the game.
- The story may be explored in the upcoming Wii exclusive Darkside Chronicles.
In Backyard Basketball, there was an incident where Barry Dejay broke his ankle. It is only mentioned once and never again.
Oblivion has many of these if you listen to the random conversations of the NP Cs. One in particular is in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary when you here them talk about the Orphanage Assignment. Later another will say something like, "...and the orphans actually tried to defend themselves!" (No such orphanage can be reached by the player.)
Will we ever find out what happened to Jak on his ninth birthday, and how that wumpbee nest figures into it?

Homestar Runner drops these like toys on a kid's bedroom floor, an analogy chosen specifically because occasionally they pick it up again. They're usually a part of the series' infamous interrupted conversations.
- For example, there was a successive run of Strong Bad e-mails where various references are made to "DNA evidence": "And that's when I tampered with the DNA evidence!", "And when I returned, the DNA evidence was gone!", etc.; the final one of these was an Easter egg where Homestar lays still on the couch for several seconds, sighs, and says "DNA evidence." All of this was a set up for the next big cartoon (you can guess the title).
In Red Vs Blue, Grif mentions Simmons getting into an escape pod after saying, "I'm not going to the Vegas Quadrant." No explanation is further given on the subject, but it is based on something that Simmon's voice actor, Gustavo Sorola, did. In the commentary the cast explains how they had gotten together in Los Angeles (half the cast lived in Austin, Texas) and decided to Las Vegas. Drunk, he said the line above, got out of the van, and ran all the way back to the hotel. The group later found a note saying "See you back in Texas". Of course, no further explanation was given in the commentary either, leading to a double Noodle Incident.
- In a more serious example, it's never explained exactly how York lost his eye, just that it involved Tex, Omega, and Wyoming, and that Tex's influence on Omega is the only reason the wound wasn't fatal.
- There's also the episode where they were discussing how the commandos were all named after states, except "Poor Florida." A moment of silence is then held before continuing the conversation.
- And when Tex comes back as a ghost and reveals she's been watching them
Tucker: So, when you say you've been watching us, you mean all the time?
Tex: Yes, Tucker. And you should be very ashamed of yourself.
Tucker: It get's lonely out here.

The Calvin and Hobbes incident is referred to in FreeFall, with Sawtooth reminding Sam of the incident, saying "You know, the one you blamed on the spiky-haired boy with the stuffed tiger." Florence apparently gets to hear the details, but readers aren't privy to that particular piece of conversation.
- This is actually fitting, because on at least one occasion Calvin has been framed by aliens for assorted mayhem.
  - At least if you take his word for it.
- Florence also found herself in such an incident in college: It involved herself, a forklift, and her go-to-sleep-instantly remote control.
- There is even a Noodle incedent with Noodle Implements, The royal family is not too happy with him due to an incident involving a zeppelin, a "Loop the loop" maneuver, and pudding. Lots and lots of pudding. This indirectly lead him to leave his home planet
Dan and Mabs Furry Adventures had Jerk With A Heart Of Gold Abel stuck with Dan at SAIA... with the former being unable to give him a tour of the library, as some incident had taken place there that was so bad he's permanently banned. Given the SAIA librarian's actual identity and appearance◊, one has to wonder just what happened....
- Note the Abel feather in the inkwell on the SAIA Librarian's desk. It is possible that we might discover the exact nature of Abel's Noodle Incident in Abel's Story, as Abel has arrived at SAIA in his side story.
  - Word Of God says we wouln't. The Author intends to keep it as a Noodle Incident.
- There was also a Running Gag in earlier strips where Aslan would allude to his chaotic wife's many incidents.
  Aslan: ... and that was the last time I took Neni to the [X].
- Another Running Gag involves Dan turning the lake pink.
- And the time Dan took out about a dozen Death Knights with a spork.
El Goonish Shive had Tedd and Sarah's Catgirl Incident, which has made Sarah paranoid and nervous about transformation ever since. We eventually find out he got her stuck as a catgirl during School Pictures week.
- And "The Trip to France", when Nanase and Susan gained magical powers for as of yet unexplained reasons, is officially EGS' new Noodle Incident.
A common gag is to bring up Sodom and Gomorrah, mention "sodomy", and then imply "gomorrahmy" was even worse. If what "gomorrahmy" was is even hinted at, it's always done in vague terms. For example, the web cartoon The God and Devil Show had the Devil whisper the definition into Marilyn Manson's ear; apparently it involved a petting zoo and toilet plungers.
In Acorn Grove, when Josh the joey had a puppy. [1]
The Cursed Teapot Incident in Gunnerkrigg Court.
- Also, Antimony calls Zimmy's science experiment an "abomination" and it is eventually taken away by men in hazmat suits, but it is never explained what she made.
The Sashimi Incident in Darths And Droids.
Narbonic's Zeta briefly mentions a certain visit to the Mall of America◊.
Girl Genius loves this gag.
- Vanamonde makes a scheduled nightly Jaegermonster fight sound tame compared to Poetry Slam Night.
- We're never quite let in on what happens in the "risqué" play The Socket Wench of Prague, but Agatha seems a bit shellshocked. All we know for sure is that it had a famous Mae West line in it:
  Abner: ... I only had her rehearse her lines. There was no context.
  Agatha: (stunned) ... and when I asked him if that was a wrench in his pocket....
- Also, while the members of Master Payne's circus plan their next performance:
  Payne:...and then Dame Aedith will do her knife throwing act.
  Abner: And this time, do not ask if there are any vampires in the audience.
  Dame Aedith: Hey! How was I to know that guy was joking? Who'd joke about vampires!?
"Remember when Reverse Moses parted the city to escape Aqua-Pharaoh?"
Piro and Largo's roadtrip to Canada: "Hey come on... we got handcuffed by real Mounties! That was cool."
In Questionable Content, Sven's friend Wil leaves a pornographic piece of poetry in the coffee shop. Wil has the "brilliant" idea of getting Sven to go apologize for him, and the following conversation takes place.
Sven: What am I supposed to say? "I'm sorry that my friend is a creepy motherfucker, but will you please go on a date with him anyway?"
Wil: Remember Elenore?
Sven: Aw man, don't call in that favor now. Please.
Wil: I'm calling it in.
- Jeph of QC must like this one. Another one is used in a much earlier comic. Apparently, Pintsize has a large file in his hard drive of all the chaos he's caused. #472 is his favorite, because "Those preschoolers will remember that day for the rest of their lives." Knowing Pintsize, it's some kind of unholy wacky terror.
  - Not to mention the title of another one: "To Say Nothing of the Crisco Incident"
  - A guest strip also had another Pintsize Noodle Incident: "There's not [sic] time to explain but we're out of eggs and the cops are on the way."
- And, of course, with the reappearance of Steve we have only vague hints into what secret agent-ish things he was doing while he was gone.
- Or #1499.
- June 14th, 1987 Never Happened.
- Jimbo has an interesting example of one where not even the participants know what happened: "All's I know is we went to a literary convention, I started drinkin', and next thing I know my agent's drivin' like a bat outta hell with me hid in the trunk and I ain't allowed in Canada ever again."
In the webcomic Earthsong, Zaebos threatens to tell of Felucca's role in a literal Noodle Incident.
This is alluded to in an xkcd strip #410. If you hover over the comic, the Alt Text says "This is nothing. I once lost my genetics, rocketry, and stripping licenses in a single incident." How genetics, rocketry, and stripping can be combined at all boggles the mind.
- And again in the 2008 Christmas Special.
- And yet again in TED Talk. ("The IAU ban came after the 'redefinition of "planet" to include the IAU president's mom' incident.")
  - Though that last one is so specific as to not leave much to the imagination.
- It also happened with Black Hat Guy.
"There was that one about the baking soda, but I'm not supposed to remind you about that."◊
Something happened to Beaver and Steve last Halloween.
Happens in Sluggy Freelance when Riff unveils his new robot, the Mark-5, even though only the Mark-1 and Mark-2 had been shown previously.
Torg: Why did you jump to "Mark-5"? I don't remember Mark-3 and 4!
Riff: I don't want to talk about it.
Torg: And why are lots 189 through 205 closed for repair?
Riff: I don't want to talk about it.
Torg: And lot 206 looks like it's been partially liquefied!
Riff: Drop it already!
- Happened again, with the Mark-19 robot.
In The Order of the Stick #488, an archon reviewing Roy's life mentions that Roy's grade school principal had quite a few choice things to say about him, leading Roy to exclaim, "It was just a joke! We didn't know Mrs. McNulty was allergic to weasels!"
- A few comics later, the scene cuts in on a story (an apparently humorous one to boot) that Roy is telling the same archon.
Roy: —so I'm like, "But you told me we didn't want to turn right!" and Durkon says, "No, I told ye we dinnae want ta turn wights!" Man, we had to make a lot of Fortitude saves the next day.
- Two on the same page: the Mit D isn't allowed in Tsukiko's room because of 'that thing with the peanut butter.' And the crypt thing incident with Tsukiko (though this one is rather transparent, especially given her... inclinations).
Every single Comments On A Postcard strip from Mezzacotta is based on this principle.
Irregular Webcomic made reference to the original Noodle Incident with their own, here
There's a reason Virus in Exterminatus Now is officially prohibited from handling any vehicle larger than a pair of shoes. Not that the readers will ever know what it is.
Girls Next Door makes use of this trope, with a never-elaborated upon Prom Night Incident.
8-Bit Theater has a couple with Red Mage's book (in which he's writing, in D&D language, the things he's learning from the rest of the Light Warriors). The few pages we see begin with such things as "... my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college," and "that's when they made me their king."
- Black Mage also alludes to quite a few less-than-family-friendly events in the past during the comic strip:
  Black Mage: Thief, your career as our leader reminds me of watching a blind child stumble through an uneven room filled with knives and tiger pits. Only not as interesting to watch because you can always push the kid if it looks like he'd make it. Who's mom's favourite now?!
  Red Mage: Wait. You murdered your own blind brother?
  Black Mage: It would have been cruel to let him live after what I did to his eyes.
The Macaroni Incident in Legostar Galactica.
Sinfest suggests a slightly risque explanation of the original Incident, here.
The Hyena adoption ceremony in Digger consists of several complicated steps, one of which is described by Boneclaw Mother as "that stupid thing with the cactus spines."
What, exactly, the lyrics of "that one about the lady and the sausagemaker" are in Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic will likely remain forever a secret. All we know are the reasons it was written (to slander a woman the songwriter hit on and failed to score with) and that it takes about two years to clear the mental images out of one's head.
Sandusky has the railroad bridge incident.
Yeager in Nodwick invented an eighth deadly sin. All we know about it is that Yeager found it entertaining and called it "blasphotrociterra-o-rama".
Vashiel had one where he took the rules of be a smither in his own hands that spending time on earth gave him nightmares about it.
Mr. Egbert of Homestuck has a retraining order on record against him from Cirque Du Soleil, for an incident that's never fully explained.

MaxterBexter: "Max had a bad encounter with a mojito".
The Onion gives us "Unspeakable happens in Area Town"
- The Onion also provides the commentary "No Secrets Between Us, Except What Happened March 2, 2004"
There have been several in the Protectors Of The Plot Continuum.
- Agent Suicide was kicked out of the Department of Bad Slash after the "Roofing Nail Incident".
- Suicide was keeping all baking supplies away from Agent Rowan on account of an incident with gingersnaps.
- The Department of Internal Operations made Agents Tawaki and Dustin forget being thrown out of character by a PPC badfic, telling them they had simply gotten lost on their last mission. All we know about the badfic was that time travel was involved.
- All manner of badfics have been tackled offscreen, Aragorn/Brego (the horse, not the king) slash; to Sue who puts a ballroom in Meduseld; to a threesome of Kanye West, {{Beyoncé}}, and Taylor Swift; and so many more.
- A Noodle Incident that got explained was the Agent who tore down the corridors with a flamethrower, screaming "Mister Rogers! Mister Rogers!" His name was Len, he wanted to kill Mister Rogers, and it was the start of a Heel Face Revolving Door.
The SCP Foundation has quite a few, most notably when [DATA EXPUNGED].
- SCP-447 is perfectly safe... just as long as you never let it near any dead bodies.
- SCP-231 is essentially a Noodle Incident that is used as Nightmare Fuel.
- Used for good dramatic effect in ''085, A Romance in 2.5 Dimensions''
In Slightly Damned, Rhea's friend J had a Noodle Incident involving an explosion at his previous job. No one knows what happened other than that J got fired in the aftermath.
Unanswered questions abound in The Saga Of Tuck, but given the author's tendency to withhold information until the last second, these are probably the safest to mention:
- Just what did Travis do as a favor for Lisa?
- What happened during Mike and Tuck's last dual babysitting job?
- Why were panties found under Brian's desk?
- Where did the missing air compressor go?
In Void Dogs, Galatea was bounced from the casino station for doing something that took more than seventeen pages for the station security to describe, as that's how much of the report was redacted from it.
In Whateley Universe, there's a particular incident that's been mentioned several times. At the end of spring and fall terms, the students in the Super Hero School Whateley Academy have to participate in what is called the Combat Finals. In Chaka's first term at school, when everyone else was fighting one-on-one battles, the instructors pitted her against THREE opponents (a super-strong brick, a giant, and a badguy wizard/manifester), and threw in a series of massive disasters including (apparently) an earthquake and a tornado. All that the readers know is that she totally kicked ass. But people keep bringing it up....
- And it's been officially verified by one of the Canon Cabal that it will NEVER be seen in detail. (Forum, Questions and Answers, Fey's combat final.)
- They have a literal Noodle Incident as well.
  - All they've told us about it is that those were not really noodles, and Generator was behind it. But since Generator can animate pretty much anything she touches, the idea of what happened is starting to move from Hilarity Ensues to Nightmare Fuel.
- Oh, and don't forget Belphegor's Disco Ball of Doom. And much of Belphoebe's shopping trip is not actually described, we only hear the dialogue.
- A DRAMATIC example is used in Against Ill Chances, where suddenly the main character's personality changes subtly, and he can't remember what happened on the second day of testing, and one of his friends is missing...
  - http://www.crystalhall.org/merry3.html
  - That's not a Noodle Incident anymore. We found out. It's a lot worse than you'd guess.
The waffle incident in Chewbot's Lets Play of The Oregon Trail. Read about it here.
You're bound to get at least one of these if a webcomic gives one of it's characters a Twitter account, if only because of the limited space available to tell a story. For example, Max Facepuncher from The Fancy Adventuresof Jack Cannon. His escapades so far as revealed in the comic, and his own Twitter, show that although his name is a clear indicator of his purpose, it's probably only scratching the surface of what he did to piss off Goofy enough that he got banned from Disneyland.

The Fairly Oddparents has Super Toilet, the wish that prompted the "no more wishes with 'super' in the name" rule. Cosmo tends to start babbling "So... much... clogging..." and curl up in the fetal position when Super Toilet is brought up.
- Potentially subverted, as when Wanda wishes up Super Toilet, Cosmo falls in and is flushed.
- For reasons unknown, Crocker can never return to Cincinatti
  - We need a reason? Its amazing the man is allowed in Dimmsdale.
  - No it's not.
The Backwash Incident in Danny Phantom. Apparently it was bad enough that Vlad lists it as one of the three reasons he wants to make Jack die oh so very painfully.
- Also, from the same episode as the above, just as Maddie is about to walk out the door, this exchange with Jack occurs:
Maddie: Please try not to trash the house while I'm gone.
Jack: (sighs) Suck the house into a parallel dimension ONE TIME, and you just can't let it go, can you?
Done plenty of times with the favours Kim Possible calls in for her rides, and of course "The Chess Club Incident" because, "The first rule of Chess Club is: You do not talk about Chess Club." Many emerge. Particularly in Season 4:
Kim: Like that time you cleaned your room.
Ron: We promised never to speak of that dark day.
- Or:
  Barkin: Don't let them tell you they're supposed to have class outside. We put a stop to that after "the jellyfish incident".
  Shego/Ms. Go: Oh, that's so sweet! You took the class to the beach?
  Barkin: No beach. Just jellyfish. Don't ask.
- And who could forget the "Paper Machete" incident?
  Kim: You mean paper maché, right?
  Ron: I wish I did.
- Or the story about how Ron learned to use the potty....
- Another episode has Ron look for a job in the paper and sees one about puppies and thinks he might like to work with them. Rufus disagrees. Ron then agrees with him saying something about "The Fetch Incident".
Code Lyoko: Jim, the gym teacher, is a man of Noodle Incidents. He'll frequently exclaim, at some weird event, "Oh! This reminds me of the time I [some incredible activity or profession]!" Whenever one of the other characters asks him about it, though, he'll just reply with a mute, "I'd rather not talk about it." The show makes fun of this at one point when Odd guesses "But you'd rather not talk about it?" to which Jim replies "Actually, I'd love to! But I don't have time right now."
- In one episode, Odd has been firmly ordered by Ulrich and Yumi never to mention "what happened at the swimming pool" (which may or may not refer to an incident seen on-screen), and by Jérémie and Aelita never to mention "what happened in the gym," which still remains a total mystery. The same episode includes the moniker "Big Fat Cheesehead", an unexplained "private joke" between Aelita and Jérémie.
- The only time Jérémie entered the virtual world (rather than being stuck as Mission Control Guy) was never shown, but was apparently very funny to everyone else.
Rugrats:
- When Tommy asks Chuckie, "When was the last time I ever got you lost?", Chuckie rattles off a list of "adventures" seen in previous episodes, except for the last one: "... and the time I got stuck in the tomato bush, and that dog thought I was a tree..."
- Also, when Tommy gets sick and Grandpa suggests "the Applesauce Cure": "Just hold him upside down and get some applesauce and an old sock big enough for his head...." Nobody's willing to try it again. "I remember that. There was applesauce everywhere!"
- In the very first episode, Stu and Drew decide to put on a puppet show for Tommy's birthday party. When Grandpa reminds them "Don't you remember what happened the last time you two put on a show?", Stu replies "Come on dad, my arm healed and Drew sees almost perfectly out of that eye now."
- When Chuckie's "gardening angel" appears in Wonderful Life episode, Chuckie demands to know, "Where was ya' the time I got my tongue stucked on that ice cube? Or the time I got my head caught in the back of that weird-looking chair? Or the time I trapped myself in the birdcage?!"
An amusing occasion in The Simpsons has Mr Burns going through his checkbook, appearing to find out about his (drugged-up) five-hundred-dollar check for Homer's bowling team, only to be corrected:
Smithers: Uh, sir, that's a check for your boweling.
Burns: Oh, yes. That's very important.
Smithers: Yes, sir. Remember that month you didn't do it?
Burns: Yes, that was unpleasant for all concerned.
- In another episode:
  Burns: Do you think we could dig up Al Jolson?
  Smithers: Don't you remember? We did that once before.
  Burns: Oh yes, he's dead. And rather pungent. The rest of that night is something I'd like to forget.
- The Simpsons has used this joke several times, such as when we find out that Homer is banned from the downtown library. Last time he was there, there was some... unpleasantness. And he can never go back!
- Don't forget the part on the season five episode, "Homer and Apu", where Lisa plays an Indian instrument called a shenai and Homer comments that it's "worse than the album Grampa released" (with no flashback or further information about the matter). Or how about the season eight episode, "My Sister, My Sitter" where Lisa is trying to get her brother medical attention at a clinic and Smithers won't let Lisa in front of him because of a serious injury that makes it painful for him to sit down (though this could be taken as a Double Entendre, considering Smithers's closeted homosexuality)?
- There's an in-episode one for Treehouse of Horror XI: Homer gets through the day without dying, even though it is predicted by his horoscope. He tells Marge to stop worrying, as the only threats to his life that day were a nasty paper-cut, a tree felled by lightning, a giant globe rolling down the street, a pickaxe to the forehead, a snake bite, and "the testicle thing" (which was never shown).
- Some of Bart's blackboard punishment lines could be considered "Noodle Incidents" (like "I will not teach others to fly," "I am not a licensed hairstylist," "Science class should not end in tragedy," "Organ transplants are best left to the professionals," "The boys' room is not a water park," and "Next time, it could be me on the scaffolding.") since what Bart did to get detention during the opening credits is only implied.
  - The "the boys room is not a waterpark incident" COULD be referring to the time Bart dropped a cherry bomb down the toilet in the boys room, causing an explosion that was only felt in the girl's room when Agnes Skinner was sitting on the toilet.
- The season 1 episode "Homer's Odyssey" has Ms. Krabappel mention an infamous trip to the Springfield State Prison, to which Bart replies, "Ms. Krabappel, I didn't open that door!"
- The episode about Apu impregnating his wife features a scene that skips ahead a year to the Simpsons riding in the car, and they all discuss events that happened during that year (Marge became "Sideshow Marge" and Bart learned the true meaning of Columbus day, and winter!).
- In yet another episode at the dinner table, Homer says, "It's not like anything interesting happened to anyone else today." We then pan to Bart studying a rock under a microscope, Lisa with a broken arm, and Maggie wearing a "Cutest Baby" sash.
- Then there's Moe facing a roomful of angry mobsters:
  Moe: Uh, that's the second most guns ever pointed at me.
- From "They Saved Lisa's Brain":
  Homer: You're not going to ask me to pose nude, are you?
  Photographer: Well, yes, unless you have issues about revealing your body.
  Homer: I don't, but the block association seems to. They wanted a "traditional" Santa.
- From "Itchy & Scratchy Land"
  Homer: (Fumbling with map): North. South. Nuts to that, I'm taking a shortcut
  Marge: No, Homer. You'll get lost
  Homer: Relax Marge. With todays cars, you can't get lost. What with the Silicon chips and such
  (Cut to car pulling up to the amusement park parking lot, severely destroyed, with a wagon wheel in place of a tire, a Homecoming banner being dragged behind, a U.S. Army missile sticking out of the chassis, a school traffic sign stuck to the side, and chickens in Marges hair)
  Homer: Alright we're here. Now let us never speak of this shortcut again.
- "That is not something a lion would want to see on his x-ray!"
- We never did find out what happened with Troy McClure and the fish...
- Chief Wiggum: Oh Smithers, if I didn't arrest you that night in the park, I'm not going to arrest you now
Family Guy averts the trope continually, by showing what happened "that time [Peter] forgot how to sit down", for example... to the point that when they play the trope straight once, during the "Saving Private Brian" episode, Stewie breaks the Fourth Wall to hang a lampshade on the fact.
- Actully played straight in one episode when Chris and Peter are at a whale exhibit
  Chris:Dad what do whales use their blowholes for?
  Peter: I'll tell what they're not for son, and then you'll understand why I can never return to Sea World.
- If you listen to the commentary for that episode, Seth MacFarlane (in Peter Griffin's voice) bluntly states EXACTLY what Peter did at Sea World.
- Also, there's Brian's anti-pot song at the end of "Episode 420" All we hear is "...and that's why pot is bad!"
- In another episode, Lois blackmails her father by bringing up the "nice mulatto boy who looks an awful lot like..."
In Frisky Dingo, something happened in Phoenix, AZ involving Simon and a pet store that ensures Killface and co "can never go back to Arizona!"
Killface: (after Simon runs away and steal all the knives, he starts to worry) Call all the pet stores. My god, it's Arizona all over again!
- Funny thing is, Simon was going to a pet shop.
On the pilot episode of the short-lived MTV cartoon 3South, Cindy (Sanford's sister) visits her brother in his new dorm. Upon seeing Joe's skeleton for anatomy class, she yells, "What are you doing here? I thought I killed you!"
On a season two episode of another MTV cartoon, Daria, called "Pierce Me": while Daria and Trent are looking for a birthday present for Jane, Trent tells Daria that he can never set foot in a bookstore, and adds, "Don't ask me why, Daria, I just don't wanna talk about it!"
In The Road To El Dorado, as they are ready to meet certain doom, Miguel whispers to Tulio, "I just want you to know, I'm sorry about that girl in Barcelona", at which Tulio becomes angry.
Transformers Generation 1: Kup was famed for having a war story every time something reminded him of the events... and he was reminded of a lot of things. We never actually hear the details, but Grimlock is very interested in the Petro-rabbits that reminded Kup about the current air raid taking place. It was a good story.
- One of Kup's references in the movie crosses this with a bit of Gallows Humor (though YMMV on whether it's such humor from his perspective or only the audience's):
  Kup: This reminds me of the shrike-bats of Dromedon!
  Hot Rod: Well, how did you beat them?
  Kup: I don't remember, there were an awful lot of casualties that day...
Transformers Animated: This trope seems to have a great liking for Captain Fanzone, technophobic head of the Detroit Police Department. Professor Isaac Sumdac mentions at the unveiling of his latest line of police robots that, as he has updated the machines' recognition systems, there will hopefully be no repeats of "that unfortunate incident with the Captain's wife," to which Fanzone scowls visibly. Fanzone himself also mentions a different incident which befell his mother-in-law, presumably also having to do with robots/machines gone haywire.
When Monterey Jack goes to see if Geegaw Hackwrench is in, he expresses mild concern that Geegaw might still be mad about... something that happened in Zanzibar involving cheese bread.
- Monterey Jack is full of these.
Monty: "This reminds me of the time I got shanghaied in Shanghai on a junk full of junk. I think that happened twice!"
In The DCAU, several things like this are tossed out every once in a while. You do not want to know why Batman needed to freeze the Gotham river and stop asking about the near-apocalypse of '09. Ironically, one Noodle Incident — a Future-Version Superman mentioning to Batman Beyond's Batman that the original Batman hated traveling through boom tubes — actually was shown in Justice League, where Batman (BATMAN!) appears ready to throw up after going through one.
- The best JLU Noodle Incident are the creatures from the Decoran Nebula that Wonder Woman insisted had their beat down coming. Apperently they weren't misunderstood, they just thought we were food.
- The episode "The Greatest Story Never Told" is full of these. Since the story is from the POV of Booster Gold, who was not involved with the main fight with Mordru, we only catch insane clips of the fight while Booster evacuates people. We never learn why they needed Elongated Man ("Maybe they need a vase") or how he ended up stopping the "Big Bad" nor do we get any details into the merging of Superman and Batman into one being (with Wonder Woman's voice) other than Batman giving a look of "You will never speak of this again."
This trope is why, in Togo, biscuits are known as duckmen.
The "stupid ski accident" that put Darkwing Duck in a wheelchair. "Well, I told you things got rough at those ski shop sales. You're lucky only your legs were broken."
- Gosalyn's infamous pranks:
  Gosalyn: I don't know anything about a pig, and I was nowhere near the boys bathroom at the time!
  Mrs. Cavanaugh: What pig?
  
  Gosalyn: Dad's never grounded me without a reason before!
  Honker: Gee, Gosalyn, maybe he found out about that sewer gas incident in the boys' locker room.
  Gosalyn: Nah, it's too soon.
  Honker: Um, the UFO hoax at the convent?
  Gosalyn: No way, I wore gloves.
In the Total Drama Island episode "Camp Castaways", Duncan, Heather and Gwen have been confessing their sins to each other:
Gwen: Whoa! So that's what you went to juvie hall for.
Duncan: (visibly depressed) Yeah, but at least it's not as bad as what Heather did.
Heather: I admit, it was a little unorthodox, but it doesn't come close to what Gwen did, if that's even your real name.
(Gwen looks away nervously)
In an episode of King of the Hill, Hank says that Joe Jack due to the incident at Taco Bueno he is not allowed to play for the company softball team and everyone agrees that it was a stupid thing that he did, the details surrounding the event were never explained.
In Ed Edd N Eddy, Edd has an extreme fear of physical activity due to an unmentioned "Dodgeball Incident" that occurred sometime beforehand and apparently led to him being exempt from Gym Class.
- In The Movie, this is the entire driving force behind the movie, as we never find out just what kind of scam the Eds must have pulled on the kids for them to so determinedly chase after them for ninety minutes, only that somehow, Ed and Eddy screwed it up.
In an episode of Invader Zim:
Prof. Membrane: Son! There'd better not be any walking dead up there!
Dib: I'm not, Dad! And I said I was sorry!
- That seems to happen a lot to Dib. In the first episode, they went through a list of all the crazy things Dib has done, including seeing Bigfoot in his garage "He was using the belt sander." It is never revealed whether these things really happened or if it was just Dib being crazy. There was also the election episode, where Dib jammed a receiver into his ear. Miss Bitters shooed him away saying "Dib! What did I tell you about jamming things in people's ears?"
- Dib's whole life seems to be either a series of Noodle Incidents, or one big one. There was also the episode "Mysterious Mysteries" where not only was there a whole closet full of the stuff Dib sends in (Though a lot of it is probably about Zim, who knows what else could be in there), but the host (And, seemingly the creator) of the show said "No! Not after what happened last time.." he then stroked his scar and Dib flashed on the screen for a frame or two. Not to mention the size of his school records, and occasionally his father, sister, or school kids would mention some of the events of his life. The only time we saw more of his past was when Zim tried to alter it.
  Professor Membrane: Son, I think it's time you know the truth about where you came from. You see... *watch beeps; takes off*
- And then there's the bit with the school counselor:
  Dib: What happened to the old counselor?
  Counselor Something... terrible.
  Voice from vents Help... meee...
- Dib called the FBI in "Zim eats waffles".
  Greg: [laughing] Hey, wait. You're... Dib, right? Did you ever get that ninja ghost out of your toilet?
  Dib: Yes, no thanks to you!
- In "Gaz, Taster if Pork", she and Dib were cornered by police as they stood on the ledge of a building. The next scene showed them arriving at their destination in a beat up car while wearing chicken suits.
SeaLab 2021, "Radio Free Sealab". A heavily censored exchange has an FCC agent telling another agent about such an incident. All we know is that it involved an orangutan and that it was "legal in Tijuana."
- The DVD release has a much less censored version of the exchange as an extra. Like Watterson and the original Noodle Incident, the writers realized that the scene was much funnier when more was left to the imagination.
In an episode of Ren and Stimpy Adult Cartoon Party, Stimpy is terribly upset at the horrible thing Ren did to him and every time he brings it up he bursts into tears, later Mr. Horse who's portraying a psychologist asks him what he did him and he loudly whispers something unintelligible to him and he calls him a lunatic and says he needs to be locked up for it, but we never find out the details behind it.
- This is a Shout Out to an old Nickelodeon episode where Ren told a psychologist that he "smacked" Stimpy. The reaction is the same.
Mighty Max has the unfortunate events in... Rangoon.
The Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Squeeze the Day" ends with the entire house (except for Mac and Bloo, who were purposely left behind) returning from the beach with Frankie yelling the following at Wilt:
"One day, Wilt— that's all I ask for! One day to rest and relax and you have to go and mess it up! Now I have to go clean up all that sand and somehow find homes for all those jellyfish!
- She then says that the governor has ordered them all banned from the beach. Yeesh, and Wilt was supposed to be the good guy of the group...
- He's also The Woobie. He's designed to suffer.
Codename Kids Next Door: The one time Sector V let The Delightful Children From Down The Lane oppress a kid, they made Numbuh 1 bald. No one knows exactly how this happened.
In the Phineas And Ferb episode "The Chronicles of Meap", part of Dr. Doofensmirtz's Back Story for that episode involved him not having friends as a kid because he smelled like pork all the time, because of another traumatizing back story that he didn't want to get into.
- Phineas And Ferb has a number of these(the time Candace got her head stuck in the sink, and one can only wonder why Doofenshmirtz has a problem with underwater welders). Of course, it having been created by one of the directors of Family Guy, it has its share of aversions as well(Dr. Coconut, anyone?).
"That was one crazy Yom Kippur!" practically became Drawn Together's Catch Phrase.
The animated movie based on Scary Godmother has one. Just like in the original book, it involves glitter and a dog. In the original book, it also was mentioned to be the reason the neighborhood had to evacuate for a week.
The Oblongs combines this with Pandaing To The Audience: in one scene, we cut in on the end of a conversation between one of the children and their mother, which is never really concluded or explained. It goes like this:
...so THAT'S how the panda bears broke into the Dairy Queen, and THAT's why I need a laywer!
Subverted in the Moral Orel when Orel tells his dad he'll "never do THAT with THOSE, in THERE, for that LONG ever again!" and a later episode explains what happened. (See main article.)
Subverted in an episode of Teen Titans. When Cyborg disguises himself as a member of HIVE academy, his "initiation" involves a pink dress and a unicycle. However, it's quickly explained, if absurd ("Don't laugh, ya have to eat the unicycle"). The end of the episode has a straighter example, which involves pink shorts, a tutu, and a rubber chicken.
Oh Cyyyyborg~!
Robin: You left the Titans.
Beast Boy: That means you have to be initiated.
Raven: Aaaaal over again.
Cyborg: *is dragged away, screaming for mercy*
- There's also the incident involving Raven's first run in with Dr. Light, when she basically goes semi-Eldritch Abomination and drags him under her cloak. We don't know exactly what happens under there, and he's only there for a couple seconds before the others snap her out of it, but whatever she did, it was enough to drain the color from both his face AND his costume. And was apparently so horrifically traumatizing that merely imitating the form later is enough to get him to calmly request to return to jail.
  - Dr. Light Mind Raped. How ironic.
Many responses Pinky has to Brain asking "Are You Pondering What Im Pondering" in Pinky And The Brain. ...Actually, pretty much they all fit, since Pinky's logic and train of thought has only been followed once.
The Iron Giant, when Hogarth is attempting to convince his mother to let him keep a squirrel as a pet:
Mrs. Hughes: Do you remember the raccoon, Hogarth? [shudders] I remember the raccoon.
Used straight many times in [[Venture Bros]], and also subverted many times, when previously unexplained incidents are explained: Billy Quizboy's mechanical hand ("Where did you get that thing anyway?" "That's a good question. I have no idea."), Rusty's pterodactyl, The Monarch having "the charred remains of Wonder Boy [sent to] his beloved Captain Sunshine", Dr. Girlfriend's her first attempt at being a supervillain ("My murderous moppets were hard to handle"), and Henchmen #24's backstory that apparently involved his dad marrying his ex-girlfriend.
This may not exactly be a Noodle Incident, but we never did find out what was in that embarrassing snapshot of Spongebob at the Christmas Party.

Something (possibly an incident) that Richard Nixon repeatedly refers to as "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" in the Watergate tapes, and is presumably related to the CIA and of blackmail potential, has never been properly explained. The infamous 18-minute gap is in close proximity to discussions of this subject, possibly obscuring a clarification.
- What about the whole botched CIA-sponsored invasion of Cuba in 1961? . I'm willing to bet money that Nixon is referring to that little disaster of an invasion and not something else.
- Since the Bay of Pigs was conceived under Eisenhower at a time in his term when Nixon was quite powerful as VP, it's likely that it is at least related to that incident.
- The exact details of what Nixon is referring to, and how it could possibly come back to bite him, however, have never been revealed.
On July 22, 2008, the Los Angeles Sparks and Detroit Shock of the WNBA (right, women's basketball) got into a Bench Clearing Brawl that resulted in widespread suspensions and fines. It resulted in the most attention the league has ever gotten, but no directly involved parties will speak of it now. And it did so much for the Shock that they moved to Tulsa less than 2 years later.

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