History Main / AsYouKnow

A form of {{exposition}} where one character explains to another something that they both know, but the audience doesn't or may have forgotten. It has been [[http://www.sfwa.org/2009/06/turkey-city-lexicon-a-primer-for-sf-workshops/ described as]] a "pernicious form of {{infodump}} through dialogue".

->''"As you know, Jennifer, my Death Ray depends on codfish balls."''

->''"Damn it, Simon, you know full well that Jennifer hasn't been the same since [[NoodleIncident that tragic codfish incident]]."''

In discussions of science fiction this is often "As You Know, Bob" (abbreviated AYKB), or occasionally, "Tell me, Professor [[ExpoSpeak [about this marvelous invention we all use every day and have no reason to be talking about except to inform the audience]"]]. Other common variations involve a newspaper reporter sent to cover events, or conversation between two supporting characters -- hence [[IHaveManyNames another name]], "maid and butler dialogue".

* An annoying one from the second episode of ''KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'' had the team telling the story of how they were put in stasis by their tribes in case of Bandora's return. It's abundantly clear that everyone in the room knows the story.

* The first episode of ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' used the "introduction by name" version; the five Rangers-to-be are all mentioned by name in the first fifteen seconds.

* ''StarWars'': The comic-book adaptation of ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' features Lando Calrissian telling Chewbacca about the adventures they just had off-screen (on-screen in the novels). For all we know, Chewbacca is reprimanding him for being Mr. Exposition; [[TheUnintelligible we'll never know.]]

* StarWarsANewHope has a pretty egregious one when Vader and Tarkin discuss the escape of the Falcon from the Death Star:

Although writers try to avoid this by using TheWatson (since not explaining anything sometimes results in the audience being too busy trying to figure out what's going on to enjoy the show), [[TropesAreNotBad using this trope is not always a bad thing.]] Also, the most common alternative is to [[EasyAmnesia give the protagonist amnesia]] so he ''doesn't'' know, which isn't really considered a better option. The IdiotHero and FishOutOfWater are also acceptable tropes to employ to make this trope more believable. A third form is to have two characters comparing information to each be sure that the other does in fact know. A fourth is to have the characters have an argument, since arguments are among the few real-life situations in which people remind each other of things they both already know.[[hottip:*: "How could you do X? You know perfectly well that Y..."]]

* Lampshaded in a ''{{Redwall}}'' book where an important tribal custom is explained to the ''son of the recently deceased chieftain'' [[hottip:* :For the record, there's a sword with a wavy edge (the sea) and a straight one (the land). The chieftain throws the sword, and whichever side lands up determines the way they travel]]. He yells at the minion telling him this to get to the point [[hottip:* :The minion is showing him how make the sword land the way he wants it to]].

* Played straight then subverted in [[http://comic.nodwick.com/?p=763 Nodwick]]. The two antagonists are explaining to each other how they took down a past difficult opponent... then the flashback-opponent informs them their current opponent has taken action. [[hottip:*:It's a Highlander spoof.]]

* ''StarWars'': The comic-book adaptation of the ''Thrawn Trilogy'' features Lando Calrissian telling Chewbacca about the adventures they just had off-screen (on-screen in the novels). For all we know, Chewbacca is reprimanding him for being Mr. Exposition; [[TheUnintelligible we'll never know.]]

* An interesting variation appears in the ''MassEffect'' SelfInsertFic ''FanFic/MassVexations''. AuthorAvatar Art has already heard all of the exposition in the game prior to experiencing it himself; however, the characters giving the exposition aren't aware of this fact, so to them they're just telling the story of the game as it happens. It's {{lampshaded}} the first time it happens, and a few times it cuts away before said exposition can be said. It's played straight later to help him prove that he really is from another dimension.

* Done in the ''MassEffect'' games. Much of it is optional, and there are things brought up that it's not unreasonable to believe your character is unfamiliar with, but once in a while, you can ask about something your character really should know all about. Though often, if you do that, the NPC you're talking to will be surprised at your ignorance about the topic.
** More egregious in the sequels, when returning characters often introduce themselves with way too much detail ("Hello I'm Shiara. You met me on Feros. You saved me from the Thorian".) Which would make sense for newcomers to the series who don't know the backstories as much - but unfortunately they will get generic characters anyway, so it is not even of use to the player.

* This might be the reason why the characters in ''MySoCalledLife'' were almost always referred to by full name. Although it does happen in high schools, considering your social circle can technically extend to include all of the students at your school, and all of the students that have graduated in the last two years. There are a lot of Jordans at a school of 5,000.

* There's a strange example from ''ToAruMajutsuNoIndex''. After the first arc, Touma [[spoiler:has had his memory erased]], so whenever someone like Stiyl starts talking about something that happened then, Touma is more or less completely in the dark, even though it's something he ''should'' know. It'd be a fine example of As You Know if he actually ''did'' know.

* In ''sonicTheHedgehogTheMovie'', Robotnik begins his exposition by stating that the world the story takes place in is split in two- the outer half called the Land of the Sky, and the inner half called the Land of Darkness. At the Land of the Sky part, Sonic says, "Tell us something we DON'T know." and Robotnik snarls, "Shut up! Heed me!"

* At the very beginning of ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', Dumbledore and [=McGonagall=] have a discussion about things each one of them knows in detail. Of special mention are the specifics of the war they have just been fighting, the introduction of the villain's name, which has a vague justification, and telling Dumbledore he's noble, just to establish him as a [[BigGood good guy]] in the books. Also, they refer to each other by last names, while they are on first-name terms in later books and have known each other for decades.

** In the first chapter of ''[[HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban Prisoner of Azkaban]]'', a school textbook Harry is reading feels the need to explain to its readers what "Muggle" means.
** Somewhat {{inverted}} with ''Literature/HarryPotter'''s Dementors: every character refers to them as simply "guards of Azkaban" until the chapter where a Dementor first appears. Also, the phrase "Death Eater" never shows up until ''[[HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'', although in hindsight it would be natural in many previous conversations, e.g about Sirius.

* Lampooned unmercifully by TomStoppard in ''Theatre/TheRealInspectorHound'' by Mrs. Drudge, (The Help). Virtually every single line she has is an As You Know. A sample:

* Played with in YesMinister. Not having read the papers, Jim Hacker often seems to know as much as the audience, but tries to hide it from his officials. In "A Victory For Democracy", notably, neither Hacker, sir Humphrey or Bernard seem to precisely know what is happening (or where St. George's Island is). The trope's name is invoked during a conversation between Humphrey and the Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, with Humphrey mainly making educated guesses and agreeing with whatever is said.

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': Used by the Joker in his last line.
-->'''Joker''': You see madness, as you know, is like gravity; all it takes is a little *push*.

* Also in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', Daggett explains the function of the Clean Slate Drive to Selina even though she obviously knows what it does. Mitigated in that, after Daggett explains its abilities, he adds, "Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?", implying he had been lying about it all along.

** Where you are given the As You Know sequence is the first time the player encounters Zero-G, so it's justified in that part. Second, Isaac is being told what that is because that's the first time he's been in the Ishimura, and Hammond doesn't know that Isaac knew all of that (he's a systems engineer).
** Hammond probably does know, given that the ''first thing'' he says in this explanation is "as you know". It seems especially clumsy when you consider that prior to this the game was fairly up-front about just having tutorial text pop up on screen (best example: Isaac's RIG projecting text and an audio recording ''telling him how to stomp''). Useful for players, absolutely silly in terms of story and immersion.

* "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 writer and the recipient is Japanese and can sometimes become an empty formalism.
* "You have just plugged a device into the audio jack"

* Often a pitfall of a real-life CaptainObvious - much to the chagrin of said Captain's friends, neighbors, co-workers and acquaintances.

[[quoteright:254:[[DonRosa http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/recap.jpg]]]]

* ''OnePiece'' invokes it during Impel Down, when Bon Kurei (in the disguise of the vice warden Hannyabal) wants to know more about the phenomenon "demoning away" that has apparently taken away his great hero Ivankov. He asks a jailer to explain it, and when the jailer confusedly says that Bon Kurei already knows, Bon Kurei asks him to tell it again since it is "such a great story". Fortunately, the real Hannyabal is [[CloudCuckooLander weird like that]], so the jailer doesn't get suspicious.

* Fallen into in the unskibbable tutorial in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', which seems perfectly plausible until you realize that while you as the player really need the information on basic controls, your current character is a soldier in the middle of battle who really should not have to be told how to attack enemies, open gates, and run away from battle. The military cannot have been that desperate.

* The second ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movie:
** Two comic relief pirates, watching the main characters duke it out in an epic battle over the MacGuffin, wonder exactly how they got into this situation and briefly recap the whole movie up to that point for the benefit of anyone still watching. Extra points for the fact that they couldn't have possibly known everything they recapped.

* Played straight in ''[[TransformersFilmSeries Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]''.
** Galloway recaps the events of the first movie over a secure video link. Or not so secure, since Soundwave is linked to the satellite and monitoring most broadcasts on Earth. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero He now knows exactly]] where the NEST base and the last Allspark piece is.
** Also occurs in the next movie, ''Dark of the Moon'', when the new intelligence director appears for her first scene and hurriedly informs somebody about all of the important things she is in charge of.

* In Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" it is very, very common to insert a large portion of RealLife historic data that the reader is expected to already know, but Hugo still would like to remind them.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'' establishes the reason for the animosity between [[Comicbook/IronMan Tony Stark]] and [[Comicbook/{{Ant-Man}} Hank Pym]] by having Hank remind Tony that five years before the Avengers' founding, the two of them worked on creating a robot controlled by the human mind, but Tony tried to sell it as a weapon without Hank's consent. It seems apparent that Tony didn't need Hank's help remembering this, especially since he brings up the robot first.