History Main / LectureAsExposition

* ''Webcomic/LovelyPeople'': One of the three main characters is a preschool teacher and the one class she's shown teach conveniently also teaches the reader a few basic facts about how the setting's Social Credit system works.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' did it in "Hush", where everyone's voices have been stolen. Giles delivers the exposition through transparencies and mime.

* ''Film/TheSureThing'' gives us [[CoolTeacher wise and funny if eccentric Professor Taub]], who closes her first onscreen lecture with the theme of the entire picture, "Life is the ultimate experience, and you have to live it to write about it."

* Milo gives two lectures on Atlantis in ''Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire''. The first one is actually his rehearsal for a proposal to his superiors, which he never gets to give due to them suddenly changing the time that makes it impossible for him to make the meeting.

* In ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'', Judy's narration in the opening SchoolPlay fills the audience in on the history of Zootopia.

* Early in ''Film/{{Titanic}}'', one of the characters demonstrates a computer-generated simulation of how the Titanic was damaged and eventually sank (sped up greatly). When we flash back to the actual sinking, the audience knows exactly what is happening to the ship, and the characters don't need to comment on what's going on (and often are fairly ignorant of anything other than a generalized "the ship is sinking!").

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' introduces its ClicheStorm plot in this only moderately clichéd way.

* {{Subverted}} amusingly in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. Dr. Jones is showing giving a lecture on archaeology, but he merely makes the point that archaeology is not about journeying to exotic lands and following ancient maps to lost cities, "and X never, ever marks the spot." Since this is Indy, however, he [[AdventurerArchaeologist definitely does not go on to practice what he teaches]] -- and he even references the lecture later with a wry grin when it turns out that [[XMarksTheSpot X does mark the spot after all]].

* In ''Anime/YukiYunaIsAHero'', some critical background information about the setting is delivered during Itsuki's history less in Episode 4.

* The ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series occassionally uses these (in addition to [[ChekhovsClassroom Chekhov's Classrooms]]). For instance, Professor Binns' ([=McGonagall=] in the movie) retelling of the Chamber of Secrets legend and Moody's demonstration of the Unforgiveable Curses.

* In ''Film/TheFaculty'', Mr. Tate starts history class by repeating the prior week's lecture from chapter 4, espousing the values of conformity among the masses for the purposes of establishing a unified state. Stan is quick to remind him that they were on chapter 5 instead, which is about individual action in society. In this case, it's Mr. Tate himself who's the subject of the foreshadowing as much as the content of his lecture -- he and the other teachers are controlled by alien {{Puppeteer Parasite}}s who are trying to [[AssimilationPlot assimilate humanity]].

* A favorite technique in the ''WhateleyUniverse'', since it's set largely in a SuperheroSchool. We've seen lectures on supersuit design, several kinds of superpowers, strategy and tactics, the (made-up) physics behind this universe, how magical contracts work, and several other things.

Compare ChekhovsClassroom. Both use TheLawOfConservationOfDetail in a way but since {{Exposition}} is used to set up and frame the situation throughout the plot, this trope will emphasize the importance of the scene more while the ChekhovsClassroom will often be presented more as background. Also, Lectures as Exposition often tell the viewer things they need to know ''immediately'' or things they needed to know two scenes ago.

* One entire episode of ''[[Anime/RODTheTV Read Or Die the TV series]]'' is devoted to a character writing the Exposition Lecture that another character has to give.
* Happens in the first episode of ''Anime/GunslingerStratosTheAnimation'' to explain (sort of) how Japan became fragmented due to the rise of the megacorporations.
* Happens in the first episode of ''Anime/EurekaSeven''.
* Chapter 5.5 of ''Manga/ACentaursLife'' is about a teacher giving a primer on [[VertebrateWithExtraLimbs how evolution went]] on this AlternateUniverse, giving birth to the [[OurCentaursAreDifferent various]] [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent human]] [[FaunsAndSatyrs sub]]-[[WingedHumanoid species]] and how this made racism even a worse problem than in our world.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/{{Knowing}}'', Nicholas Cage's character gives some basic information about the sun and the fate vs. free will philosophies during his college lectures.
* ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'':
** A class presentation but one not from a teacher, Sam attempting to sell his stuff at Show and Tell in ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' when told to give a lecture on his ancestors as part of his grade. However, he is distracted by Megan Fox doing that weird thing she does with her teeth.
** In ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'', Sam has a "full-blown meltdown" in the middle of the first day of astronomy class, and ends up [[MotorMouth babbling at breakneck speed]] about [[ChekhovsGun various things]] that become important later on in the film.
* This is how we learn the main complication in ''Film/GiveMyRegardsToBroadStreet'' -- in a board meeting.
* Jean Grey at the beginning of ''Film/XMen1''.

* ''Film/TheFinal'' opens with a {{high school}} history teacher describing how [[ImperialChina the Han Dynasty]] would sometimes [[CruelMercy leave their defeated enemies alive, disfiguring them]] in order to serve as an example to those who would oppose them. Guess what a group of pissed-off teen outcasts do with this knowledge...

* ''Film/TwentyOne'' has Kevin Spacey's professor character tell us about the GameShowProblem during a lecture. He is an MIT professor after all.
* {{Subverted}} amusingly in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. Dr. Jones is showing giving a lecture on archaeology, but he merely makes the point that archaeology is not about journeying to exotic lands and following ancient maps to lost cities, "and X never, ever marks the spot." Since this is Indy, however, he [[AdventurerArchaeologist definitely does not go on to practice what he teaches]]-- and he even references the lecture later with a wry grin when it turns out that [[XMarksTheSpot X does mark the spot after all]].
* ''Film/ShatteredGlass'' is about former journalist Stephen Glass and his now-notorious career as a fabulist for ''The New Republic''. It includes as a FramingDevice several scenes in which Glass is telling a class of journalism students about his career for TNR. Besides presenting basic plot exposition, Glass's talk explains the fact-checking process at a magazine and illustrates how Glass got away with his fictions (in short: the main fact source was the reporter's notes, which Glass fabricated).
* Done rather creatively in ''Film/TheBigShort''. Rather than fill the viewers in on complex financial issues through traditional exposition, the film BreaksTheFourthWall to introduce celebrities to explain them. We get Margot Robbie explaining mortgage bonds in a bubblebath, Anthony Bourdain using unsold fish to illustrate how banks handle unsold mortgages, and Richard Thaler and Selena Gomez at a blackjack table illustrating how synthetic [=CDOs=] work.
* In ''Film/{{Species}}'', Fitch gives a lengthily exposition of the SETI project and the failed DNA experiment to the summoned group in his boardroom.
* ''Film/DeepwaterHorizon'': Not quite, we just see the practice for one. Sydney's demonstration of Mike's job for a parent career day involves shaking a can of soda up, then punching a metal pipe into it, followed by pouring honey down the pipe to keep the soda from coming out, which will show her classmates (and shows the audience) what drilling mud is and how it works.

* On ''Series/RelicHunter'', Sydney was telling her class about a particular Indian tribe's mysterious shift in culture right before she went out and solved the mystery.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'': Jack O'Neill's young clone lectures a class of pilots on the F-302.
** Also the original ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' has as its EstablishingCharacterMoment for Dr. Jackson a lecture he is giving to a room of experts about his theory of the pyramids being made to replicate a design of an older, more advanced civilisation.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'' gives us a scene where Walter White, a chemistry teacher, describes how energy can either be released gradually and unnoticeably or suddenly and violently... [[spoiler: and in the episode's climax, uses mercury fulminate, the explosive he described in class to successfully threaten a violent drug lord]].

* The ''Series/EnemyAtTheDoor'' episode "The Raid" is about a British commando team raiding a German radar installation during World War II. It happens to coincide with an inspection tour by the German brass which begins with a lecture from the officer in charge of the installation to impart the necessary information about the installation's function to the visiting officers and to the audience.

[[folder:Theater]]
* In the first scene of ''Film/AbeLincolnInIllinois'', a teacher is giving young Abe a lesson in grammar--using the text of a Daniel Webster speech as material. The audience is thus given a little lesson on secession and state's rights as political issues.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' introduces its ClicheStorm plot in this only moderately cliched way.

* The opening of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' combines this with a solid EstablishingCharacterMoment. Barret asks Cloud, who has just joined Barret's group, if he's familiar with Mako reactors, and - despite the fact that Cloud tells him that he is - starts lecturing him about what Mako reactors are. Cloud's understandably annoyed reaction causes Barret to get pissed off with him, and they continue bickering for the first couple of hours of the game.

* One ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor'' side story was a classroom lecture about the setting's MinovskyPhysics. (In the storyline, it functioned as the first step in DoingInTheWizard.)

* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/040302c As a flashback]]

* [[http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/faithbased/ This]] ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'' - Leslie's Gender Studies lecture gives background on the current storyline. The AltText [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this.
* In ''Webcomic/AliceAndTheNightmare'', chapter two uses its university setting to give us two lectures and one practical lesson on the topic of magic system and history of Wonderland.

[[folder:WebOriginal]]

[[folder:WebAnimation]]
* In ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'', this is how the Emperor delivers an {{Infodump}} about humanity's history not covered by the Imperium's history records to Custodian and [[spoiler: [[HeelFaceTurn Magnus]]]], though he doesn't deliver it in a classroom but from the top of his [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport Golden Throne]].
[[/folder]]

* ''Franchise/TransformersFilmSeries'':

* [[http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/faithbased/ This]] ''DumbingOfAge'' - Leslie's Gender Studies lecture gives background on the current storyline. The AltText [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this.

* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Maester Luwin teaches Bran of the various Houses vying for power in Westeros, which also serves to educate the audience on the matter.

* OlderThanTheyThink: This trope shows up in ''Film/DasTestamentDesDoktorMabuse'' by Creator/FritzLang from 1933.

* A favorite technique in the WhateleyUniverse, since it's set largely in a SuperheroSchool. We've seen lectures on supersuit design, several kinds of superpowers, strategy and tactics, the (made-up) physics behind this universe, how magical contracts work, and several other things.
* An chapter of Literature/{{Brennus}} is about an "Introduction to Metahuman Studies", providing an {{Infodump}} on superpower classifications. This is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the creation of a new superpower classification system, and so the characters, as well as the reader, have to be informed.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' introduces its ClicheStorm plot in this only moderately cliched way.
* ''VideoGame/GabrielKnight: Sins of the Fathers'' has Gabriel attending a lecture at Tulane University early in the game where he learns some important concepts and terms relating to Voodoo.
* ''VideoGame/GodEaterBurst'' has several cutscenes of Dr. Sakaki briefing the PlayerCharacter, [[{{Keet}} Kota]], and [[ActionGirl Alisa]] on the nature of the Aragami. Justified as the main characters are all new recruits, with you and Kota hinted at not having had much of an education at all, and Fenrir wants to spread around its institutional knowledge so nobody leaves too big a hole if they die suddenly.
* The opening of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' combines this with a solid EstablishingCharacterMoment. Barret asks Cloud, who has just joined Barret's group, if he's familiar with Mako reactors, and - despite the fact that Cloud tells him that he is - starts lecturing him about what Mako reactors are. Cloud's understandably annoyed reaction causes Barret to get pissed off with him, and they continue bickering for the first couple of hours of the game.
[[/folder]]