History Main / AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle

* In ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'', after Bugs Bunny explains the art technique of Pointillism, he says: "I think, when you go to the movies, you should learn somethin'."

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'' has an in-universe example where the last aired episode of [[ShowWithinAShow Woody's Roundup]] had the show Woody address the audience about not forgetting their friends and family while singing the recurring song "You've Got a Friend in Me". This convinces the Woody watching, who had just decided to abandon his old friends and his owner Andy to go to a museum in Japan with the rest of the roundup gang toys, to reverse his decision and take the roundup gang with them.

This trope is the practice of encapsulating the moral of the story in TheTag. It often has NoFourthWall, and has the characters of the show directly lecture to the audience. It allows a show that went 22 minutes wantonly breaking stuff to get that coveted "[[EdutainmentShow E/I]]" rating, by telling the kids [[SchmuckBait not to eat the pretty candies in the medicine cabinet]]. Most times, the moral laid out in TheTag is a summation of what should have been learned from the story, encapsulated in an [[AnvilOfTheStory incredibly obvious manner]]. Other times, it's just a generic safety tip added to an otherwise purely entertaining episode.

** In "Grande Size Me", Ron delivers the moral of the episode [[NoFourthWall to the audience]] at the end -- with Kim and everyone else wondering [[AudienceWhatAudience who on earth he is talking to...]] The fact that [[AnvilOfTheStory the moral]] Ron delivers is a SpaceWhaleAesop further baffles them. The whole episode was essentially a parody of these. The animators were informed that they absolutely '''[[ExecutiveMeddling had]]''' to do [[AnvilOfTheStory an Aesop-heavy]] episode about kids' health, so they complied, but tried to make it as deliberately [[AnvilOfTheStory blatant]] and thus hilarious as possible.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|1985}}'' more or less averted this by not having end of episode segments where the cast breaks the fourth wall and talks straight to the viewer, but some of the morals the episodes themselves are trying to teach come over as obvious anyway. This is sometimes pushed a bit too far when one of the [=ThunderCats=] practically spells out the moral in a piece of dialogue in a very [[AnvilOfTheStory blatant]] way, such as one time when Tigra makes a small speech about how "Rules are only meaningful if people agree to follow them. Otherwise, they're just words". In retrospect, it's strangely ambiguous. It ''sounds'' like a worthy and moralistic exhortation to follow the rules, but could equally be taken as saying that rules have no meaning if you don't agree with them, or could even be a veiled attack on rules that have no mechanism for enforcement (it was in response to a comment that the "Interstellar Council" ruled against a weapon that the mutants were using).

** ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'' plus its SpinOff ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower''. It was halfway-used in one episode of [[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2002 the 2002 version]], where the Masters needed Orko to help lure a colony of dragons to attack monsters under the control of Skeletor. After that task was successful, the episode concludes with Orko admitting to his chagrin that he's still scared of the species, but the heroes reassure him that a proper respect for a fierce and powerful creature is the mark of a wise person. Here, the lesson flows relatively naturally from the plot and the fourth wall is kept intact. The 2002 series ''did'' have morals, following in the format of the original series, but they didn't air with the American episodes; only the international releases. However, they do come on the DVD sets for the curious viewer. They also tend to soften the blow by always making it the exact lesson the episode as a whole was meant to teach you, rather than clumsily segueing into "yo, kids — don't smoke."

* ''Franchise/PrettyCure'':

* At the end of each episode of ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'', Gadget, Penny and Brain would teach the kids a safety tip (usually at least tangentially related to the episode's story) like "exercise is good for you" or "always wear a seatbelt". This often looked really out of place, since normally Penny was about 1000 times smarter than her uncle. Turning into a normal ignorant kid and having her uncle correct her behavior did not jive with the rest of the show, although sometimes, they would flip it and have Penny giving tips to Inspector Gadget, or even having the both of them directly address the audience.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant This trope does not refer to]] knowing a [[PuzzleBoss specific strategy]] that [[OutsideTheBoxTactic makes it easier to defeat]] a [[BossBattle boss]].

* ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'' ends each episode with basic safety tips for beginning football players.

** ''[[VideoGame/KiniroNoCorda La Corda d'Oro - Primo Passo]]'' does the same with "Lili's One-Point Classic" and music.

** It once commissioned a series of in-house [=PSAs=] in the early 90s featuring several DC heroes like Comicbook/{{Robin}}, ComicBook/BoosterGold, Franchise/TheFlash, among others getting informed about the real facts concerning HIV and AIDS. The most well known of the bunch was the adult-oriented Creator/NeilGaiman and Creator/DaveMcKean authored ''Death Talks About Life'', featuring Death of the Endless from ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' and ComicBook/JohnConstantine.

* ''Comicbook/ScottPilgrim'': Free Scott Pilgrim ends with "Scott Pilgrim Says", where we are taught never to hit a girl. Unless it is an emergency. And that's what Scott Pilgrim says!

* ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' has a few signs in certain locations that provide the player with real-world information based on the context, such as about certain types of [[SavePoint frog]] that can survive in desert climates, or why mole tunnels can be so long and complex (the latter even encouraging the player to take time out to go watch moles in action some day).

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Quoted in ''WebVideo/ChadVader'', S2 Ep8 "Bandito Beatdown" :

* WebVideo/BrainScratchCommentaries:
-->--'''Nayrman214''': "Well, now you know."

* Several [=PSA=] segments were prepared for ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'', another Creator/{{Hasbro}} property produced by Sunbow and Marvel Productions concurrent with ''G.I. Joe''. The segments even used the "and knowing is half the battle" line (and the scripts from the ''G.I. Joe'' [=PSAs=] almost ''verbatim''), but they never aired. These were placed as unlockable bonuses in the ''[[Anime/TransformersArmada Armada]]''-based [=PS2=] game, and are also available on some DVD releases of the show. The most hypocritical one had an anti-sexism message, at a time when there were no female Transformers (and even when there were, no toys were made of them for gender-profiling reasons), and came from Powerglide, who had an episode that season where a human woman fell in love with him ([[FridgeLogic presumably, the PSA would have aired after that episode]]...).

** In Part 2 of "The Return of Harmony", these letters (sent back by Celestia) gave her the resolve she needed to rescue her friends, power up the Elements of Harmony, and defeat Discord when all hope seemed lost. Even more impressive, she turns the aesop of ''that'' episode into an ''epic'' NoMoreHoldingBack against him.

* ''[[VideoGame/HarukanaruTokiNoNakaDe Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou]]'' has the SuperDeformed "Kotengu Classic" segments at the end of some episodes, with [[SmallAnnoyingCreature Ko]][[SleepModeSize tengu]] explaining some facts about something specific mentioned in the episode -- sometimes these are quite useful, as the series takes place in the [[JidaiGeki Heian Period Japan]] ([[TrappedInAnotherWorld sorta]]), and knowing some basic facts about its culture certainly won't hurt.

** This was referenced in ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''. In the movie, they had Sonic say "Remember, if you die outside your own game, you can't regenerate!" on a monitor.

* This was used in ''The WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' cartoon series (but not [[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM the one that aired on Saturday mornings]]) with a short ''Sonic Says'' segment every episode, where Sonic explained some sort of lesson (often safety related) to the viewers. Disturbingly, Sonic once took it upon himself to explain "good touch vs. bad touch" to the kids at home ("There's nothing more cool than being hugged by someone you like. But if someone tries to touch you in a place or in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable, that's no good!"). The Internet being what it is, this has spawned [[MemeticMutation various edits and parodies]], such as [[http://mchammeradvice.ytmnd.com/ "Sonic Gives MC Hammer Advice",]] which is the "touch" speech with parts of "Can't Touch This" edited in.

** Listen to the mighty sloth and not take rides in clothes driers!
** And remember kids--if you're surrounded by robots, don't call 911--that's for ''real'' emergencies!
** There is also that one [=PSA=] that had the bumbling villains Scratch and Grounder [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqVRCUBPc4E swigging booze]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZhM2m_dYBA smoking cigarettes]]. But, you know, it was to encourage kids not to. "Hurry up, Grounder, I wanna try this booze!"
** This was even done in ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''. They had Sonic say "Remember, if you die outside your own game, you can't regenerate!" on a monitor.
** And then there's the episode of ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'' guest-starring Sonic, which straight-up makes their own Sonic Sez segment after KO remembers [[InvokedTrope he forgot to learn a valuable lesson]]. Of course, since this was a parody, the segment used a SpoofAesop.

* At the end of each episode of ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'', Gadget, Penny and Brain would teach the kids a safety tip (usually at least tangentially related to the episode's story) like "exercise is good for you" or "always wear a seatbelt". This often looked really out of place, since normally Penny was about 1000 times smarter than her uncle. Turning into a normal ignorant kid and having her uncle correct her behavior did not jive with the rest of the show.

* ''WesternAnimation/SilverHawks'' had a similar segment at the end of each episode where Copper Kid got in a space simulator, where he was put against a simple astronomy quiz, usually by Bluegrass. Given the nature of the show, it was actually quite appropriate to have a segment about astronomy at the end of the show. Which was a bit odd, given that interstellar space was depicted as containing [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace breathable air]] and Earth-normal gravity throughout the show proper. In fact everything about that universe was divorced from our own laws of physics. This was a world where banging a tuning fork in space created wind and ice.

** A later episode, "Bart Starr", had guest star Joe Namath break the fourth wall to deliver an inspiring message.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{GarfieldAndFriends}}'': In the U.S. Acres segment, “Once Upon A Time Warp”, after Roy gives Wade his money back, Orson closes out the segment similar to a PSA, with Wade finishing it.

* ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim'': Jim informs us of the hazards of drinking too much coffee in the episode, “Hyper PSY-Crow".