History BLAM / Literature

* ''Discworld/MakingMoney'' has an InUniverse version: A tense courtroom scene is interrupted by the President of the Royal Mint of Ankh-Morpork -- who happens to be a [[MisterMuffykins small bug-eyed dog]] named Mr. Fusspot]] being slowly propelled from one side of the room to the other by the... oscillations of a large mechanical vibrator clutched in its mouth. The sheer surrealism of the moment convinces the protagonist to make a huge gamble in the court case, since if such a thing is possible, anything is.

** Literature/BookOfExodus has the much-debated "Zipporah at the inn" episode which is no longer than three verses. En route to Egypt, Moses and his family stay at an inn. The Lord ''tries''(?) to kill him for unexplained reasons (right after He gave him the mission to free Israel). Moses' wife Zipporah takes a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of their son. Zipporah has one very confusing (at least to the modern reader) line of dialogue, calling Moses "a bridegroom of blood to me," which only adds to the weirdness. The standard interpretation of the passage is that God wants to kill Moses for neglecting the rite of circumcision of his son but it's not stated explicitly and the incident is never mentioned again.

* Near the end of the first part of Don Quixote, the characters are at an inn and spend two and a half chapters reading a story story they found in a chest which has no bearing on the main story. Early in the second part it's outright said that it was a pointless digression that broke up the flow of the narrative for no purpose.

* Literature/TheBible's Literature/BookOfExodus has the much-debated "Zipporah at the inn" episode which is no longer than three verses. En route to Egypt, Moses and his family stay at an inn. The Lord ''tries''(?) to kill him for unexplained reasons (right after He gave him the mission to free Israel). Moses' wife Zipporah takes a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of their son. Zipporah has one very confusing (at least to the modern reader) line of dialogue, calling Moses "a bridegroom of blood to me," which only adds to the weirdness. The standard interpretation of the passage is that God wants to kill Moses for neglecting the rite of circumcision of his son but it's not stated explicitly and the incident is never mentioned again.
** In chapter 14 of the Gospel of Mark, during the arrest of Jesus, it's briefly mentioned that there was a man who ran off naked after someone grabbed his robe. It has no relevance to the story and is never mentioned again or in the other Gospels. Some scholars have claimed that this man was Mark himself, the author of the gospel.

* An example in ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' is the scene where Alice sees a giant (compared to her) dog, fears it will kill her, but manages to distract it and escape. The dog is the only animal in Wonderland that doesn't talk or exhibit other human characteristics, the tone of the scene clashes with the surrounding scenes, and it is never mentioned again. This isn't ridiculous or over-the-top like a typical BLAM example, but it reads almost like a page from a different fantasy book. Not surprisingly, the Disney movie and most (there is the Hallmark movie) other adaptations leave it out completely.

* In ''{{The Help}}'' there is a scene in which a naked man attacks Minny and Celia at Celia's home in the country and tries to rape them. He [[spoiler: immobilizes Minny, leaving Celia to fight him off by herself]]. Then he wanders away, never to be seen again. Presumably this scene was included to show that [[spoiler: Celia]] is tougher than she looks and can fight for herself, but it's pretty jarring and really has no relevance to the rest of the story.

* In [[JamesAndTheGiantPeach James and the Giant Peach]], James enjoys time with father and mother. Until, they are [[spoiler:killed by an escaped rhinoceros.]] It's never mentioned again.

* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': Greg lampshades this in The Last Straw with Fregley coming out of nowhere with icing on his face and saying '''''"BOOGIE! BOOGIE! BOOGIE!"'''''

* Played with in ''[[Literature/DreamPark The Barsoom Project]]''. When the participants in the Fimbulwinter Game take an approach not anticipated by the Game Master, he activates a ''pre-designed'' Big-Lipped Alligator Moment to keep the players distracted while he thinks about how to deal with their unexpected course of action. In-Game, it's a BLAM, but out-of-Game it's entirely justified.

** Perhaps this human-like pose is an early hint as to Aslan's [[JesusChrist secret identity]]?

* In ''[[Literature/TheEnchantedForestChronicles Dealing With Dragons]]'', when Cimorene is running away from her unwanted marriage, she follows a [[ItMakesSenseInContext talking frog's advice]] on the way to go. Along the way, she passes a fancy pavilion where an unseen person invites her to come in and rest. Though Cimorene is tired and tempted, she remembers that she was specifically warned to stay away from the pavilion. She walks past it and...that's it. Nothing else comes of her not falling for it, there's no indicator of what ''would'' have happened, and the pavilion and woman in it are never brought up again. The only purpose of the incident is to give another example of how Cimorene is practical and GenreSavvy.

* Invoked and '''weaponized''' in ''Literature/HowToSurviveAHorrorMovie'', a guide to [[DefiedTrope defying]] HorrorTropes to avoid getting killed off. Engaging in a BLAM that [[GenreRoulette runs counter to it being a horror movie]], [[ProductPlacement hypes a product]] so blatantly it's embarrassing, violates the film-rating's content standards, or would blow the production's budget out of the water can serve as an emergency "ejection seat" that will get your imminent death-scene postponed or written out of the script.

* Invoked and '''weaponized''' in ''Literature/HowToSurviveAHorrorMovie'', a guide to [[DefiedTrope defying]] HorrorTropes to avoid getting killed off. Engaging in a BLAM that spoils the suspenseful mood, violates the film-rating's content standards, or would blow the production's budget out of the water can serve as an emergency "ejection seat" that will get your imminent death-scene postponed or written out of the script.

* Invoked and '''weaponized''' in ''Literature/HowToSurviveAHorrorMovie'', a guide to [[DefiedTrope defying]] HorrorTropes to avoid getting killed off. Engaging in a BLAM that spoils the suspenseful mood, violates the R-rating's content standards, or would blow the production's budget out of the water can serve as an emergency "ejection seat" that will get your imminent death-scene postponed or written out of the script.

* ''Weaponized'' in ''Literature/HowToSurviveAHorrorMovie'', a guide to [[DefiedTrope defying]] HorrorTropes to avoid getting killed off. Engaging in a BLAM that spoils the suspenseful mood, violates the R-rating's content standards, or would blow the production's budget out of the water can serve as an emergency "ejection seat" that will get your imminent death-scene postponed or written out of the script.

** In the Gospel of Mark, there's a guy running naked during the arrest of Jesus. Some scholars have claimed that this man was Mark himself, the author of the gospel.

* After an assassination in the VietnamWar novel ''War Dogs'', the group's leader is returning from his watching post and is suddenly attacked by a tiger. After an extended river tiger fight, he regroups with his team and almost no time is spent discussing his fresh wounds.

* In addition to a number of WackyWaysideTribe incidents, one can probably find a number of Big Lipped Alligator Moments in Creator/LFrankBaum's [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz books]]. The first book, ''Literature/{{The Wonderful Wizard of Oz}}'', has the China Country, where all the inhabitants are made out of china. Some of them, such as the singing china clown, have been broken and mended several times. They neither help nor hinder Dorothy and her friends, they are introduced out of nowhere and have nothing to do with the story, and they're never mentioned again in the book afterward (or in any of the later Oz books, for that matter). Things like this add to the unnerving dream-logic of the story. A surviving earlier draft doesn't include this adventure at all, and it may have been added just to pad out the book.
* An example in ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' is the scene where Alice sees a giant (compared to her) dog, fears it will kill her, but manages to distract it and escape. The dog is the only animal in Wonderland that doesn't talk or exhibit other human characteristics, the tone of the scene clashes with the surrounding scenes, and it is never mentioned again. This isn't ridiculous or over-the-top like a typical BLAM example, but it reads almost like a page from a different fantasy book. Not surprisingly, the Disney movie and most (all?) other adaptations leave it out completely.

* Near the end of the first part of Don Quixote, the characters are at and end and spend two and a half chapters reading a story story they found in a chest which has no bearing on the main story. Early in the second part its outright said that it was a pointless digression that broke up the flow of the narrative for no purpose.

* In the children's classic ''TheWindInTheWillows'' there's the infamous 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn' chapter, where the characters are transported into a mystical world where they meet the great god Pan. Many editions of the book omit this chapter, not because it's bad, just because it's so baffling in relation to the rest of the story. [[note]]It made a good [[Music/PinkFloyd debut album title]], though![[/note]]

* In ''Our Mother's House'' by Julian Gloag, Hubert experiences a hallucination connected with the onset of puberty. The matter never arises again.

* In the novel "''Literature/HowlsMovingCastle''," Howl, Sophie, and Michael take a trip from the fantasy land of Ingary to 1980s Wales, where Howl is from. An entire chapter is focused on this trip, giving descriptions of computer games and cars. The revelation that our world exists in the story's universe and the journey itself come completely out of nowhere. Although later on in the book it is mentioned that Howl visits Wales, the inclusion of Wales had nothing to do with the story, since it could just as well have taken place within Ingary without affecting the plot. The two sequels, "Castle in the Air" and "House of Many Ways," are not affected by the journey.

* ''[Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': Greg lampshades this in The Last Straw with Fregley coming out of nowhere with icing on his face and saying '''''"BOOGIE! BOOGIE! BOOGIE!"'''''

* The entire two or three chapters featuring the hobbits' adventures with Tom Bombadil in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' is a very lengthy BLAM chiefly about singing excruciatingly bad folk songs and talking about how awesome Goldberry is. Actual connections to the plot of the rest of the book amount to: (a) the One Ring doesn't work on Bombadil - which gets ''one'' mention at the Council of Elrond -- and (b) leaving the Old Forest you might trip over a wight and wind up with a [[CoolSword cool Numenoréan sword]].

** Near the beginning of ''Fellowship of the Ring'' we get this bit with the fox. Not only it's never referenced again, but it doesn't really fit the tone of the book at all, feeling more like something out of ''Literature/TheHobbit''.

** As the chapter itself points out, they very nearly ''were'' crushed to death. In the two-dimensional world, Meg's lungs couldn't breathe, her heart couldn't beat (though it tried), her brain couldn't form thoughts -- even the sound of someone's voice was described as "[[PaintingTheMedium words flattened out like printed words on paper]]". Had they not been traveling with [[spoiler:the angels]] Mrs. Which, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Whatsit, they would have been flattened out of existence altogether! Charles Wallace did say, "Really, Mrs. Which, you might have killed us!"