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Fan Works
Sonic: Cool ruins! I wonder what kind of cool alien stuff it was for! I love using my imagination!
Sage: Actually, that's an Ancient structure called a House. Not only did they sleep there, but they ate there, too. At roughly 6 or 7 every morning, depending on their day job, they would rise from their beds and eat something called "breakfast". This is just like the many other houses you've seen through the Starfall Islands, most of these houses had rooms in them called kitchens, kitchenettes… (continues droning on) …also, Big the Cat isn't real… (keeps going as Sonic makes an annoyed Aside Glance)
Sage: Actually, that's an Ancient structure called a House. Not only did they sleep there, but they ate there, too. At roughly 6 or 7 every morning, depending on their day job, they would rise from their beds and eat something called "breakfast". This is just like the many other houses you've seen through the Starfall Islands, most of these houses had rooms in them called kitchens, kitchenettes… (continues droning on) …also, Big the Cat isn't real… (keeps going as Sonic makes an annoyed Aside Glance)
— Fan art
poking fun at Sonic Frontiers
poking fun at Sonic Frontiers Film — Live-Action
(Are we supposed to be following this?)
— Peter Venkman, to the audience, during one of Egon's Infodumps, in The Real Ghostbusters.
(aside glance) ...Everybody got that?
—Dark Helmet, Spaceballs
My name is Julie! My mother's name was Susan! She was killed in a car accident with my father and they're both dead!!
—The Next Karate Kid
Miss Piggy: Why are you telling me all this?
Lady Holiday: It's plot exposition, it has to go somewhere.
Lady Holiday: It's plot exposition, it has to go somewhere.
If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were reciting an important plot point!
— Statler, The Muppets (2011)
Literature
You would have thought the one concrete advantage to Dumbledore being definitely dead would be avoiding the long Dumbledore Explains The Plot chapter at the end of the book. But, no. Death just isn't the handicap it used to be in the olden days and it happens anyway. Stab me. Stab me now.
— Kyra Smith (Spoiler text to avoid revealing the ending of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)
(Spoiler text to avoid revealing the ending of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)You'll note the film avoids the most deadly of devices, the opening montage in which a narrator fills in the background of an imagined world. It kills the momentum before it has a chance to develop, info-dumping on the audience before we have people to care about. Sometimes films that provide all the needed info as they go along still have the montage introductions tacked on at the beginning. When this happens I always envision a note given by an inattentive studio executive falsely convinced it will clarify, rather than deaden, the action.
Radio
Seagoon: "Good. Now, about the Yehti. Tell me, are they tall and shaggy, or are they more squat with smooth skin?"
Blooknok: "Yes, they are!"
Seagoon: "Oh, and they walk upright like humans, and have the powers of telepathy, and in actual fact they are the missing link, the step from animals to man in one direction, while in another, far higher in intelligence and having the ability to possess one's mind?"
Bloodnok: (pause) "Is there any more information I can give you?"
Blooknok: "Yes, they are!"
Seagoon: "Oh, and they walk upright like humans, and have the powers of telepathy, and in actual fact they are the missing link, the step from animals to man in one direction, while in another, far higher in intelligence and having the ability to possess one's mind?"
Bloodnok: (pause) "Is there any more information I can give you?"
— The Goon Show, "Yehti"
Video Games
Hey, let's hit these plot points in order, Sora!
— Xigbar, Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]
You are to decide, Gaiar, but remember that no one had ever exposed the truth to you, in all its fullness, as I just did.
—Seraph, Hammerfight
Webcomics
Strap yourselves in for some full on talking about stuff.
— Tom Siddell, Gunnerkrigg Court
Helmeted Author: "Just where do you think you're going?"
George: "Somewhere far away from you?"
Helmeted Author: "Oh, I don't think so. Do you have any idea how much exposition we have to get through?"
George: "Somewhere far away from you?"
Helmeted Author: "Oh, I don't think so. Do you have any idea how much exposition we have to get through?"
— Bob and George, "Evil Author Powers"
Web Original
You have a great setup for an emotional moment. Aang is seeing all his past lives, the power and weight of who he is should hit him at this very point. But instead, what do they do? Try to explain more exposition. And that is the problem, whether you are aware of the show, or you're not aware of the show; the movie is all explanation with no Humanity. Why do you think they waited TWENTY MINUTES OF THE FILM to ask [Aang] his name? Because that's what was not most important to Shyamalan. "The identity: who gives a shit? It can't be nearly as important as explaining...* and explaining...* and explaining...* and explaining...* I DON'T FUCKING CARE! And do you know why? Because I never once heard anyone in this movie say: "I feel this", or "I like this", or "I wonder this". There are no emotions being addressed. Traditional Storytelling is setting up a character, sending them on their journey, and learning more about them through their journey. Last Airbender is just Chesspiece Storytelling: "Character goes here, Character goes there, Character says this, Pawn to King Four." So in this scene that should have been the emotional pinnacle of our main star, it's just more explaining about what happened, rather than why it happened.
— The Nostalgia Critic review of The Last Airbender
The lack of gravity, or solid ground, or even or a regular daylight cycle all contribute to medical problems that characters sure do love taking their sweet time explaining. It is Kojima, after all, and if there's one example of how drastically his skills at characterization, world-building, and plot development collide with the sheer inefficiency of his writing, it's Policenauts [...] No one in real life talks like this! It just pulls you out of the world and reminds you that it's conservatively-translated Japanese sci-fi from the Nineties! The technological marvels we enjoy in real life are mundane to us; they're ordinary. But the people in Policenauts won't shut up about them! I have no idea how this piece of plastic [a motherboard] can turn into a computer, and I've never really had reason to care. But if I were a Policenauts character I'd be able to tell you in no less than 400 words!
Web Video
I'm gonna tell you 'bout the plot or setting
Watch me spoon-feed it to you (Hm hm hm! Hm hm hm!)
Make sure the lore's something you're not forgetting
There's no way you could be lost in the next hour or two
Watch me spoon-feed it to you (Hm hm hm! Hm hm hm!)
Make sure the lore's something you're not forgetting
There's no way you could be lost in the next hour or two
Matt [The Protagonist]'s Mother: Well, Greg's 17 and you're 12.
Jontron (as Matt's Mother): ...and your father left when you were seven, and I'm a single mom, and you've had a dark, yet somehow relatable, past...
(The word "Exposition" comes out of the mouth of Matt's Mother)
"Why don't you tell me your incredibly complicated backstory in an interesting, long-winded monologue, complete with background visuals?"
— Sonic, Real Time Fan Dub of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
Western Animation
Wow, I'm boring! Do I always explain everything like that?
— Dib, Invader Zim
Rick: Huh. Well, here's the problem right here. We got a bunch of Froopyland procedural carbons all gummed up and mixed in with real human DNA
Beth: Are you saying Tommy survived here by having sex with Froopy creatures, creating Froopy/human hybrid offspring and then consuming their proteins, sustaining himself with an endless cycle of cannibalistic incest.
Rick: It's just a working theory. Of course, if that's the case, I expect he'd be worshipped as a kind of god by a medieval-level society of his least delicious children.
(they're suddenly surrounded by an army of said offspring)
Lead Offspring: Halt! You are now prisoners of our exhausted ruler, giver and taker of life, helper and consumer of mortality. dispenser of life...
Rick: If I could interrupt? We're way ahead of the reveal here.
Beth: Yeah, take us to King Tommy!
—Rick and Morty, "The ABC's of Beth"
Professor Frink: Here is an ordinary square. But suppose we extend the square beyond the two dimensions of our universe along the hypothetical z-axis, there. This forms a 3-dimensional object known as a ‘cube’ or a ‘Frinkahedron’, named in honour of its discoverer, n'hey, n'hey.
Homer: Help me! Are you helping me or are you going on and on?
—The Simpsons, "Treehouse of Horror VI"
Alien: We are the bad guys of this episode, and we want to tell you cringing mortals our terrifying backstory.
Dick Dastardly: (looking to the camera) Now, you kids at home might want to slip out for a snack during this part.
Penelope Pitstop: (in an Intermission bumper parodying "Let's All Go To The Lobby") AREN'T WE SO HUNGRY? AREN'T WE ALL SO HUNGRY? AREN'T WE ALL SO HUNGRY? SO LET'S ALL STUFF OUR FACE!
Alien: (ripping the bumper apart) Hey, sit down! We put a lot of design work into this flashback! You kids have to watch it!
Kids Watching at Home: Awwww...
