History Main / LittleDidIKnow

%%[[AC:Anime ]]

* In a ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' strip, Lucy tells Snoopy he should start one of his novels with "unbeknownst to everyone" instead of his usual "it was a dark and stormy night". "Unbeknownst to everyone, it was a dark and stormy night".

[[AC: Film]]
* Dawson's last line of narration in ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' is "Little did I know that my life was about to change forever." From there, he meets Olivia, and the plot proper kicks off.
* ''Film/StrangerThanFiction'', in many ways a movie about stories and tropes, features a literature professor who explains that he's taught "entire seminars on 'little did he know.'" It's also a subversion: the main character can hear the voice of the narrator, and so knows very well what he should little know (specifically that he is going to die soon), and spends most of the film trying to prevent it.
* Appears in the OpeningScroll of ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', regarding Luke not knowing about the construction of the second Death Star.

[[AC: Literature]]

* In ''Literature/AngelsAndDemons'', when Robert Langdon hears in passing a factoid about how a reasonably small piece of cloth can significantly reduce an object's falling speed, he remarks (in narration) that he didn't then realize this information would later save his life. The payoff doesn't come 'til near the end of the book, when the reader has probably forgotten it.
* Satarized as “The HIBK (Had I But Known) School” in the Creator/OgdenNash poem "Don't Guess, Let Me Tell You,” which goes on to give numerous over-the-top examples:
-> Sometimes it is the Had I But Known what grim secret lurked behind that smiling exterior I would never have set foot within the door,
-> Sometimes the Had I But Known then what I know now I could have saved at least three lives by revealing to the Inspector the conversation I heard through that fortuitous hole in the floor.

* The ''Radio/LuxRadioTheatre'' adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', Jiminy Cricket uses the phrase during a transition between scenes.
-->'''Jiminy:''' ''(narrating)'' Yessir, there we were, free as the air and on our way back to Mister Geppetto's. But little did we know, ''little did we know'', that even then, new deviltry was hatching. Down in a waterfront dive known as the Red Lobster Inn, Honest John and his crony Gideon sat drinking beer. With them was a companion, an evil-faced, leering Coachman...

-->''Another convict was brought to the cliff. He did not know, but [[TheChosenOne he would change everything]].''

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' that took place in Medieval times subverts this. Darkwing's public persona was working in the royal castle. After watching the King and Queen acting like fools, he turns to the camera and says, "Little do they know... And I do mean ''little''."
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgersInTheTwentyFourthAndAHalfCentury'' has Dodgers (Daffy Duck) accosted by Marvin the Martian, brandishing a disintegration gun.

* Ed says this when narrating his RashomonStyle sequence in the ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "[[Recap/EdEddNEddyS3E3OnceUponAnEd Once Upon an Ed]]".

-> Sometimes it is the Had I But Known what grim secret lurker behind that smiling exterior I would never have set foot within the door,

* Satarized as “The HIBK (Had I But Known) School” in the Creator/OgdenNash poem "Don't Guess, Let Me Tell You,” which goes on to give numerous over-the-top example:
-> Sometimes it is the Had I But Known what grim secret lurker behind that smiling exterior I would never have set foot within the door,
-> Sometimes the Had I But Known then what I know now I could have saved at least three lives by revealing to the Inspector the conversation I heard through that fortuitous hole in the floor.

%%* Derided in the Creator/OgdenNash poem "Don't Guess, Let Me Tell You."

* ''Film/StrangerThanFiction'', in many ways a movie about stories and tropes, features a literature professor who explains that he's taught "entire seminars on 'little did he know.'"

* Dawson's last line of narration in ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'' is "Little did I know that my life was about to change forever." From there, he meets Olivia, and the plot proper kicks off.

* The ''Radio/LuxRadioTheatre'' adaptation of ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}'', Jiminy Cricket uses the phrase during a transition between scenes.

%%** He loves to describe how "if only he knew" what fantastically lethal enemy awaited him, he would freeze/run away as fast as possible, and frak whoever's around/[[JustEatGilligan just shoot the character about to get him in trouble]], while proceeding to do the exact opposite. Even [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis Amberley]] isn't sure how serious he is sometimes.

[[AC:Anime ]]

* Happens in ''Manga/HighSchoolOfTheDead''.

* There are about two or three of these, played absolutely straight, per ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' novel.
* Literature/CiaphasCain is prone to using this at the end of chapters.
** He loves to describe how "if only he knew" what fantastically lethal enemy awaited him, he would freeze/run away as fast as possible, and frak whoever's around/[[JustEatGilligan just shoot the character about to get him in trouble]], while proceeding to do the exact opposite. Even [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis Amberley]] isn't sure how serious he is sometimes.
* Derided in the Creator/OgdenNash poem "Don't Guess, Let Me Tell You."

[[AC: Video Games]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Gothic}}'':

* In a ''Comic/{{Peanuts}}'' strip, Lucy tells Snoopy he should start one of his novels with "unbeknownst to everyone" instead of his usual "it was a dark and stormy night". "Unbeknownst to everyone, it was a dark and stormy night".

* Ed says this when narrating his RashomonStyle sequence in the ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "[[EdEddNEddyS3E3OnceUponAnEd Once Upon an Ed]]".

* Ed says this when narrating his RashomonStyle sequence in the ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "Once Upon an Ed".

-->''Ed'': And so it went! Little did Ed, Edd, and Eddy know that...

* Appears in the OpeningScroll of ''ReturnOfTheJedi'', regarding Luke not knowing about the construction of the second Death Star.

-->'''Dodgers:''' (''to camera'') Little does he realize I have on my disintegration-proof vest. (''to Marvin'') You may fire when ready, Gridley. (''he does; Dodgers is disintegrated while the vest remains in midair'')

* ''TheGoonShow'' has used this for comedic effect.

* ''Duck Dodgers In The 24th-1/2 Century'' has Dodgers (Daffy Duck) accosted by Marvin the Martian, brandishing a disintegration gun.

--> '''Hilbert:''' I've written papers on "little did he know." I've taught classes on "little did he know." I once gave an entire seminar based upon "little did he know." Son of a bitch, Harold. "Little did he know" means there's something he did not know. That means there's something you don't know. Did you know that?
--> '''Harold:''' No.

* Happens in ''{{High School of the Dead}}''.

* The movie ''StrangerThanFiction'', in many ways a movie about stories and tropes, features a literature professor who explains that he's taught "entire seminars on 'little did he know.'"

* In ''AngelsAndDemons'', when Robert Langdon hears in passing a factoid about how a reasonably small piece of cloth can significantly reduce an object's falling speed, he remarks (in narration) that he didn't then realize this information would later save his life. The payoff doesn't come 'til near the end of the book, when the reader has probably forgotten it.

* CiaphasCain is prone to using this at the end of chapters.

This line probably originated in 19th Century English romance/gothic novels. The heroine innocently takes a "position" or visits some place where evil lurks or adventure looms behind a calm, civilized veneer She begins the narrative of the novel, with classic British understatement, something like this: "If I had but known that I would soon be facing a madman with an axe in those dank catacombs, I would never have had the courage to get on the train to Sussex that fatal day last summer . . ."

* ''{{Gothic}}'':

* There are about two or three of these, played absolutely straight, per ''DresdenFiles'' novel.