History Main / GodlySidestep

* Knucker the Knower, who knows everything when he's drunk, tells Etjole Ehomba the meaning of life in Creator/AlanDeanFoster's ''Literature/IntoTheThinkingKingdoms''. Ehomba is pleased with the answer, but since Knucker whispered the answer, the reader never finds out.

* In ''[[Literature/ZeusIsDead Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure]]'', at the Olympians' press conference on the day of their public return to the mortal world, the pantheon (and by extension the novel itself) does this in response to a reporter who asks, "What about Christ?"

** In ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'', he ''destroyed several universes'' trying to find the answer. He eventually finds the one being who knows it [[spoiler: (ComicBook/{{Galactus}})]], but he is turned into a "cosmic egg" like the one the MarvelUniverse was created from in the process. Technically, he found the answer he wanted- but whether he feels fulfilled ([[AndIMustScream or anything else]]) as a result is unknown.

** The second book opens with the supposition that even if anyone did find out the meaning of the universe, this would immediately cause it to disappear and be replaced by something "even more bizarre and inexplicable". The radio series raises the suggestion that this might be bunk made up by one of the Guide's willier editors to increase general uncertainty and raise sales of the book, but in the adaptation of "Life, the Universe and Everything" a man who saw the whole truth of the universe admits this one is right. The Question and the Answer can't exist in the same universe.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'': Kyon asks Nagato, after treating with beings that are effectively ghosts of alien lifeforms, what happens after humans die. Her answer? Information classified.

So what do you do? You do the Godly Sidestep, an ''in-universe'' ShrugOfGod, where the PowersThatBe refuse to answer The Big Questions, whether it's because YouAreNotReady, TheWorldIsNotReady, because they're ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow, or because they want the questioner to FigureItOutYourself. The meta-reason, however, is often that a specific answer is inconvenient to the creators as it strongly colours the work's worldview and closes off ambiguities that would have allowed for extra potential.

So what do you do? You do the Godly Sidestep, an ''in-universe'' ShrugOfGod, where the PowersThatBe refuse to answer The Big Questions, whether it's because YouAreNotReady, TheWorldIsNotReady, or because they're ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow. The meta-reason, however, is often that a specific answer is inconvenient to the creators as it strongly colours the work's worldview and closes off ambiguities that would have allowed for extra potential.

[[folder:Film — Animated]]

[[folder:Film — Live Action]]

* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "White Hole", Holly gains an IQ of over 12,000 and professes to know the meaning of the universe. The only being present to ask her is a toast-obsessed kitchen appliance, and any questions it puts forward end up being about bread. Before anyone else can ask, she realises she has three minutes to live and refuses to communicate with anyone.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has an episode where SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Q Jr. is told to write an essay about the origins and aspirations of his species. Kathryn Janeway treats the result as if it was an ordinary, though well done, student work. The audience, naturally, doesn't get to hear any of the juicy bits.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'': Kyon asks Nagato, after treating with beings that are effectively ghosts of alien lifeforms, what happens after humans die. Her answer? Information classified.

** Subverted at the end of ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish''. The protagonists travel to the planet where God's final message to his creation is written in 30-feet-high letters of fire. The entire message is revealed to the reader, and it goes like this: [[spoiler: We apologise for the inconvenience.]] The message's divine origin is accepted without question by the characters, although to the reader it comes off as [[FridgeLogic slightly suspect]] given that it's [[AliensSpeakingEnglish in English]] [[note]]it's given to the audience letter-by-letter, so TranslatorMicrobes are not to blame[[/note]] and uses the [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage etymologically incorrect British spelling]] to boot.

* Played with a lot in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', especially regarding what happens after death (except for the very obvious fact that some people go to Hell, at least for a while). In an early issue, Dream follows Death around as she makes her rounds, and it is implied by his inner monologue that he witnesses exactly this, but he is to preoccupied with finding the solution to his own inner woe to describe it other than in brief, symbolic terms. Averted on another occasion, when Death assures a recently deceased character that he will now get to find out... but that's the final panel in that sequence. When near the end of the series Hob Gadling considers giving up his immortality, he asks Death directly about it. She just gives him a warm smile, as if not wanting to spoil the surprise. This particular sidestep is sidestepped itself in the final issue. An aging Shakespeare admits to thinking about death in his "every other thought", but when he gets the chance to speak to Dream a final time, he instead asks him about the nature of his literary talent (and he gets a fairly straight answer).