History Main / AsYouKnow

[[quoteright:280:[[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scrooge_asyouknow_6.png]]]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* ThisMeansWar is not diplomatic. As a consequence, Charles Francis Adams, the American ambassador to England during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, sent a note to the British government with the sentence: "It would be superfluous of me to point out to your Lordship that this is war."
[[/folder]]

* Education:
** Talking like this can be a hazard of the teaching profession, as relating things to students who ''don't'' know things can become such a habit that you slip into "lecture mode", even with colleagues already aware of the facts.
** This trope can also be justified for students: asking someone to explain something you already know is one way of testing whether ''they'' know it. If the student does know, explaining something to someone that already knows it will naturally follow.
** This is also a rather standard occurrence in places with a 'spiral' school system. That is, every few years every subject comes back with a bit more detail and a bit more backgrounds and a bit different connections. As in: "We did tell you about this a few years ago. This is what we left out." Which will usually result in being told about any given subject multiple times, all but the first of them starting with a short re-introduction to the subject, frequently done in an 'as you know' style. This is generally followed by explaining which parts of what you know were [[LiesToChildren simplifications]] that were good enough for the previous level but must now be unlearned.
* There is a word in several European languages which has this purpose: Swedish ''ju'', Danish ''jo'', Polish ''tak'' and German ''ja'' (not to be confused with cases where ''ja'' or ''tak'' simply means "yes"). They are used when stating a fact that you assume that other party to already be a familiar with:
-->'''Swedish:''' Bussen anländer ju klockan nio.\\
'''Polish:''' Tak, autobus przyjeżdża o dziewiątej.\\
'''German:''' Der Bus kommt ja um neun Uhr.\\
'''English:''' The bus ''does'' arrive at nine o'clock, as you know.
* "As you know" is often used in business correspondence to avoid insulting the recipient's intelligence, especially when the writer is not sure whether or not the recipient actually knows the information. It is especially common when at least one of the correspondents is Japanese and can sometimes become an empty formalism.
** Outside of business correspondence, it can also be used when reiterating a point or reminding someone of something, again for the purpose of avoiding sounding condescending.
** Conversely, it can be used to convey a subtle hint of annoyance: "As I wrote in my previous email..." (translation: if you had bothered to pay attention earlier I wouldn't have to explain it again, you jerk) or "As you know, [recipient's proposed course of action] is considered bad-faith litigation and may lead to sanctions and an award of attorney's fees" (translation: Did you really think you could get away with that?).
* Used a great deal in politics to convince the audience that they've always agreed with the candidate "As you all know my opponent hates freedom and only I can save this nation." Crowd: "Oh yeah, we, uh, knew that."
* Often a pitfall of a real-life CaptainObvious -- much to the chagrin of said Captain's friends, neighbors, co-workers and acquaintances.
* When addressing a class or other group, this can mean "As most of you know, but for the benefit of those who weren't paying attention, ..."
* Sometimes used in the military to make sure everyone knows the ''exact same'' version of the intelligence or orders given.
* Another use for this approach in real life is to make sure that the listener is thinking about the same things as the speaker. A professional physicist doesn't need to have Newton's laws of motion explained to him, but opening a presentation on ballistics with "As you know, a body in motion remains in motion unless acted on by an external force" is a good way to get your audience thinking about the laws of motion instead of, say, electromagnetism or their smartphones.
* People with autism often lecture as a form of stress relief. The topic can be anything from something the lecturing person is particularly interested in to something that just happened in front of the lecturer and their audience. Saying "we already know this" isn't very likely to stop the lecture.
* Academic/technical papers sometimes slip into this, since (a) your audience ''probably'' knows, but you can't necessarily rely on it, and (b) it's sometimes really hard to introduce or sum up your research without a dose of near-meaningless boilerplate to get the prose started. From an Intel [[http://download.intel.com/pressroom/pdf/computertrendsrelease.pdf paper]] on computational electrical efficiency:
--> The performance of electronic computers has shown remarkable and steady growth over the past 60 years, a finding that is not surprising to anyone with even a passing familiarity with computing technology.

* Championships, events like the Olympics, or sports that are not usually on Network TV can do this throughout the broadcast. While rule changes, late injuries, or time (in the non-annual events like The World Cup, Olympics, Ryder Cup, or Commonwealth Games) justifies this to a point, the broadcast has to balancing this from [[ViewersAreMorons completely dumbing down the product]].
** The worst offenders can be during pre-game shows that can last longer then the event themselves. Those viewers are usually [[ViewersAreGeniuses way into the event.]]
* A very common thing with police interviews when they are recorded. Often the police will go through with the person of interest what they know and what has already happened several times so that there is a record of the police stating these have happened with the person of interest agreeing that they have.
* A common "rule" for trial lawyers is to "never ask a question you do not know the answer to". Given that ExactWords make it advisable to rephrase the same question several times, this can lead to being given basically the same answer to the same question in different wordings numerous times before one gets anywhere (if one does at all).
* This is helpful at funerals. Funerals tend to be mostly family, and to generalize, extended families tend to be familiar with basic facts such as who is who's parents and events in the deceased's life. However, these facts won't be known by some people in attendance, like old friends or estranged family -- and mentioning it in your remarks can save them some embarrassment if everybody believes that they ''should'' know these things.

->''"As you know, Alice, my {{death ray}} depends on codfish balls."''
->''"Damn it, Bob, you know full well that Alice hasn't been the same since [[NoodleIncident that tragic codfish incident]]."''

---> As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of the Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.

[[caption-width-right:280:Be thankful he didn't go full {{Flashback}} on you. [[Film/TropicThunder Never go full flashback.]]]]

* In ''WebVideo/ScreenRantPitchMeetings'', in the ''Film/ArtemisFowl'' pitch meeting, the Producer and the Screenwriter discuss the film's many awkward and cliched exposition methods. The Producer asks if they'll have characters tell each other what they already know, and when the Screenwriter says yes, the Producer says, "Oh, as you know, that's ''[[CatchPhrase tight]]''!"

* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': {{Justified|Trope}}. In the sequence where Ming explains the origin of Sun Yee's blessing to Mei, she begins with, "As you know, our ancestor Sun Yee had a mystical connection with red pandas." This is information that Mei ''and'' the audience are already aware of, and Ming uses it as a jumping off point to tell the rest of the story.