Rename: This Just In

Go on, Guess That Trope Definition. I'll wait.

Back? I was expecting a News Trope relating to the stock phrase and/or breaking news, which could be a trope to itself, but we'd need the name for that. I was not expecting Captain Obvious Exposition (which might make a good alternate title).

For the sake of completeness:

This space for rent. Cost: your soul.

Glad I Thought of It. No, seriously: I did think to myself that this name might be better used for a different trope, after renaming this one something like State The Obvious, or The Audience Has To Be Told, or Obviously Redundant Observation.

Wow. Was this created during the same era as Hold Your Horses and Get On With It Already?

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

We're getting a whole slew of these horrible names lately.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

It sounds like something that happened with a forum meme or something.

Fight smart, not fair.

There's a huge amount of overlap with Captain Obvious, no?

I suppose the tropes could be differentiated as Captain Obvious being about characters saying obvious things and this trope being about non-character narration and the like.

Jet-a-Reeno!

Well, it's clearly a separate phenomenon from Captain Obvious when it's used to express visual elements ("He's got a gun!") in a non-visual medium like Radio, or non-visual elements ("The smell is overpowering!") in a visual medium like comic books, or in the "Tell" part of Show, Don't Tell ("I can't sleep.") when it's not shown. I don't know if the examples support that usage.

(In other words, Captain Obvious is obvious to the viewers; this trope is obvious to the characters, but not necessarily the viewers.)

edited 23rd Jan '11 12:14:24 PM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."

That's not what the page says.

The difference between this an Captain Obvious should be obvious  ^*

: Captain Obvious is a character and this is what a Captain Obvious does. It can be done without having a Captain Obvious character, though.

edited 23rd Jan '11 1:24:50 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I was going more off of this, which seems to imply my interpretation:

Anyway, that definition of Captain Obvious isn't very well-supported by its wicks. I usually see it potholed with any Stating Of The Obvious.

edited 23rd Jan '11 1:29:56 PM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Probably becuase This Just In! is such a completely unintuitive name for the action. But the Captain Obvious page makes it clear that it's a character type, not the action;

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I get the feeling that a lot of times when Captain Obvious is potholed it's editors referring to themselves as Captain Obvious.

edited 23rd Jan '11 2:34:49 PM by shimaspawn

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Clearly the current name is an attempt at sarcasm, but that only becomes clear if you've read the article. Potholes to it just wouldn't make much sense, because (as you mentioned) it sounds like a "breaking news" trope.

I'm okay with Captain Obvious Exposition, though it does imply that Captain Obvious is the source when that's not always the case. Perhaps just Obvious Exposition or Unnecessary Exposition?

I think the reason the name was chosen was that it's sometimes used as a snarky reply to the statement described by the trope.

edited 23rd Jan '11 3:58:37 PM by BlackWolfe

But soft! What rock through yonder window breaks? It is a brick! And Juliet is out cold.

Hmm, Obvious Exposition seems good to me, and draws a fairly clear line between the Captain Obvious character-based exposition and other sorts.

I'm thinking:

• Captain Obvious: In a comic book, the art clearly shows The Flash being strangled by a giant octopus. He says "*Gasp* I'm being strangled by a giant octopus!"
• Obvious Exposition: In a comic book, the art clearly shows The Flash being strangled by a giant octopus. While the Flash is silent, a narrative caption reads "The Scarlet Speedster is being strangled by a giant octopus!"

Jet-a-Reeno!

What about Redundant Exposition?

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

Oh, that's good. Redundant Exposition has a nice ring to it.

Jet-a-Reeno!

Extraneous Exposition!

This space for rent. Cost: your soul.

Exactly the kind of information you expect from the Department of Redundancy Department

Everything can be found on the Internet... except common sense.

I like Redundant Exposition.

Redundant Exposition Is Redundant

Pretentious quote || In-joke from fandom you've never heard of || Shameless self-promotion || Something weird you'll habituate to

"I like Redundant Exposition," Camacan posted to the forum thread. "It's simple and accurate." he opined, continuing his posting by adding words.

I was thinking of suggesting Redundant Exposition last night when I was at work. I'm glad someone beat me to it before I got home, because I forgot.

But soft! What rock through yonder window breaks? It is a brick! And Juliet is out cold.

What about the cases where it's not redundant because it was added for an audio version?

Do we have a trope for Radio Teleplay Exposition? "[foley crash] He's coming in the room! Careful, he's got a gun! [gunshot]"

But soft! What rock through yonder window breaks? It is a brick! And Juliet is out cold.

If it's something that is there to provide information the characters of audience doesn't already have, it's not this trope. So a lot of the exposition in radio plays is necessary — the audience can hear the sound effect, but has no idea what it was supposed to indicate unless they're told.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.