History Main / ExplainingTheSoap

* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': Moira's career as a soap actor inspires this, especially in the sixth season as she preps for a reunion/reboot of her Passions-like show. Alexis is going through a breakup and becomes addicted to the DVDs of her mother's show and reaches out to her mother for plot point clarification, although Moira can't really clarify why various characters did not notice her character trapped in a cave crystal.

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* In "Mojo's Day Off," an unpublished DC Comics story of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', Mojo is trying to relax but is constantly being accused of random calamities by the girls. In one instance, he had been reading a mystery novel called "Blackmail" and predicts, having gotten to page 392 where Detective Winterbottom is about to make an announcement, the blackmailer of the story is the no-account cousin Amelie.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E16BartsDogGetsAnF Bart's Dog Gets an F]]", Lisa is staying home from school and watching soap operas with Marge. After a SlapSlapKiss scene, she asks "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk8s5f1P3EE Is it always this good?]]", to which Marge admits that isn't sure; she doesn't really keep up with the show and is only watching today because Brandi is coming out of her coma and she knows that the phony prince's body is hidden in the boathouse.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', [[spoiler:Peridot]] becomes obsessed with the first episode of ''[[SoapWithinAShow Camp Pining Hearts]]'' (not realizing there are more) and then proceeds to explain to Steven why Percy and Pierre are objectively the best for each other. By the time she's done ranting, Steven has fallen asleep.

* Cam tries to explain a telenovela to ''the pizza boy'' in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Detentionaire}}''. [[spoiler:It's meant to show how he [[GoMadFromTheIsolation went mad from isolation]] after being suspended and grounded.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', [[spoiler:Peridot]] becomes obsessed with the first episode of ''[[SoapWithinAShow Camp Pining Hearts]]'' (not realizing there are more) and then proceeds to explain to Steven why Percy and Pierre are objectively the best for each other. By the time she's done ranting, Steven has fallen asleep.
-->'''Steven:''' You got all that from ''one'' episode?\\
'''Peridot:''' It's ''subtext'', Steven.

* Parodied in the Literature/{{Discworld}} book ''Literature/ReaperMan''. Mustrum Ridcully asks the High Priest of Blind Io (who happens to be Mustrum's brother Hughnon) what the gods of the Disc have been up to, as a possible explanation for the poltergeist activity plaguing Ankh-Morpork. Hughnon's description of the antics of the gods sounds like a cross between Greek mythology and the soap opera Recap/{{Recap}}s that used to be done by BBC announcers in TheSeventies, against still images from previous episodes. Mustrum brushes it off by saying "I've never been able to get interested in that stuff, myself."

* Parodied in the Literature/{{Discworld}} book ''Discworld/ReaperMan''. Mustrum Ridcully asks the High Priest of Blind Io (who happens to be Mustrum's brother Hughnon) what the gods of the Disc have been up to, as a possible explanation for the poltergeist activity plaguing Ankh-Morpork. Hughnon's description of the antics of the gods sounds like a cross between Greek mythology and the soap opera Recap/{{Recap}}s that used to be done by BBC announcers in TheSeventies, against still images from previous episodes. Mustrum brushes it off by saying "I've never been able to get interested in that stuff, myself."

-->-- '''Sable''', ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing: Wild World''

[[folder: Fan Fiction]]
* Played with in [[http://friendlylocalgeek.tumblr.com/post/156032546356 this]] ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' {{drabble}}. The person who's being introduced to the soap (Queen Moon) explains the plot to the introducer (Marco's mom) in order to show how quickly she's gotten a grasp on it.

[[folder:Film]]
* Done briefly in a cutaway in ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'', where, under the rule that driver of the car gets to choose the music and coversation topic, the pre-teen girl Little Rock puts ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' on the soundtrack, and tries to explain the premise of Series/HannahMontana, much to Tallahassee's dismay.

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder:Magazines]]
* Creator/TheBBC Radio Times' [[http://www.radiotimes.com/ListingsServlet?event=10&channelId=92&programmeId=84531117&jspLocation=/jsp/prog_details_fullpage.jsp descriptions]] of soaps, a round-up of the week's stories that doubles as an AffectionateParody of the genre and its tropes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* In a ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' strip, Peter gets this reaction (eyes glazing over and repeating "uh-huh") when Paige explains the plot of ''Series/MelrosePlace'' to him, but Paige had exactly the same reaction when Jason explained the premise of ''Series/{{Highlander}}: The Series'' to her. It's even more amusing in retrospect, given one of ''[=H:TS=]'''s [[MrFanservice biggest fanbases]].

[[folder: Stand Up Comedy]]
* Totie Fields used to do these as part of her standup comedy act.

[[folder: Video Games]]
* Once you get her to open up, Sable in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing: Wild World'' will describe ''Pointed Love'', her favorite soap, in this manner.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'': [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=006612 Karkat explains the plot of a troll romance novel]]. Also without being asked (and in fact over the increasingly strident objections of the person he's explaining it to).[[note]]And yes, Dave does wind up addicted to troll rom-dram movies over the three-year trip, at least in the alt-now-main universe).[[/note]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

-->'''Steven:''' You got all that from ''one'' episode?
-->'''Peridot:''' It's ''subtext'', Steven.

[[folder: Web Original]]
* One running gag on WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall has Linkara explain some obscure facet of comic book lore related to whatever he's reviewing, usually followed by a beat, and something along the lines of "comic books are weird".
[[/folder]]

A recurring joke is for the addiction to be contagious. For example, Alice is enjoying her soap, then Carol comes in to ridicule either Alice or the soap, only for Alice to reply back with a premise or summary that somehow sounds even more ridiculous than what Carol first expected. GilliganCut and now both Alice and Carol are hooked to the program. More {{Gilligan Cut}}s later and a significant amount of the female cast is now into it. Additional props include tissues, pillow hair, and bathrobes, with the soap viewers discussing [[{{Shipping}} who deserves to end with who]] and commenting how vile and immoral the cliched BigBad is. For extra funny, [[GenderFlip make one of them a man]]. For extra ''extra'' funny, make the man the most invested or emotional of them all.

A recurring joke is for the addiction to be contagious. For example, Alice is enjoying her soap, then Carol comes in to ridicule either Alice or the soap, only for Alice to reply back with a premise or summary that somehow sounds even more ridiculous than what Carol first expected. GilliganCut and now both Alice and Carol are hooked to the program. More {{Gilligan Cut}}s later and a significant amount of the female cast is now into it. Additional props include tissues, pillow hair, and bathrobes, with the soap viewers discussing [[{{Shipping}} who deserves to end with who]] and commenting how vile and immoral the cliched BigBad is. For extra funny, [[GenderFlip make one of them a man]]. For extra ''extra'', make the man the most invested or emotional of them all.

Has nothing to do with explaining literal body cleaning products.

In any case, it's likely that one person will just not get it at all, and the episode's struggle will center on them not being able to understand what's so good about this soap and feeling left out or forced to watch against their will.

See also AddictiveForeignSoapOpera, ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch.

See also ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch.

Alice is a big fan of a SoapWithinAShow. Bob foolishly asks her about it. This is the cue for a long plot summary that is utterly meaningless, often serving as an excuse to lampoon any soap tropes the writers can think of, and generally serves to show how far Alice has gone in her new hobby while Bob acts like a helpless listener. It may also indicate that Alice is lonely and/or romantically frustrated, preventing her from progressing with her normal life.

May mark Alice as a DaytimeDramaQueen.

A recurring joke is for the addiction to be contagious. For example, Alice is enjoying her soap, then Carol comes in to ridicule either Alice or the soap.

As a common variant, an AlwaysFemale cast member is addicted to soaps, when she meets another female cast member who ridicules the SoapOpera when the first female tries to explain the plot. GilliganCut to a week later and the two of them are now ''both'' addicted to the soap opera. In walks female character number three, who repeats the explanation followed by the ridicule of Soap Operas, GilliganCut. Eventually all the women are watching Soap Operas together- additional props include tissues, pillow hair, and bathrobes. For extra funny, [[GenderFlip make one of them a man]].

Often marks Alice out as a DaytimeDramaQueen.

Alice is a big fan of a SoapWithinAShow. Bob foolishly asks her about it. This is the cue for a long plot summary that is utterly meaningless, often serving as an excuse to lampoon any soap tropes the writers can think of, and generally serves to show how far Alice has gone in her new hobby. It may also indicate that Alice is lonely and/or romantically frustrated, preventing her from progressing with her normal life.

Alice is a big fan of a SoapWithinAShow. Bob foolishly asks her about it. This is the cue for a long plot summary that is utterly meaningless, often serving as an excuse to lampoon any soap tropes the writers can think of, and generally serves to show how far Alice has gone.

* In "Mojo's Day Off," an unpublished DC Comics story of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', Mojo is trying to relax but is constantly being accused of random calamities by the girls. In one instance, he had been reading a mystery novel called "Blackmail" and predicts, having gotten to page 392, the murderer of the story is the no-account cousin Amelie.
-->'''Blossom:''' Hmmm...I don't think Mojo did this crime, either. I've read that book and he seems to know the characters. (''as the girls leave'') But the ''real'' culprit is great uncle Beauregarde.\\

'''Mojo:''' '''''Ooooh!!'''' You gave away the ending! That is '''''unforgivable!!'''''