History Main / ShaggyFrogStory

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': When out hunting the Retroville Lake Monster, Captain Betty is asked how he got his name. He tells them a chilling tale about when he was carrying a shipment of sea monkeys when the monster attacked and ate them all up. He then ends it with "And that's why they call me Betty!"

--> "Every morning, in Africa, when sun rises, a gazelle dies. [pause] Wakes up, already dead. Maybe she wasn't feeling well the day before, so... [Giovanni and Giacomo gives him dumbfounded looks from another table]
Anyway, also in Africa, every morning, when the sun rises, a lion wakes up and starts running to avoid ending like the gazelle that died the day before.

'''Person who knows Didier:''' Yes.\\

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow''": When Bugs asks Lola how she broke her leg, she goes into a long story about trying to save a baby, while going through several dangerous events, where she could've broken her leg, but didn't. In fact, that wasn't even how she broke her leg. She just fractured it, trying to get up on the doctor's table.
* WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius: When out hunting the Retroville Lake Monster, Captain Betty is asked got his name. He tells them a chilling tale about when he was carrying a shipment of sea monkeys when the monster attacked and ate them all up. He then ends it with "And that's why they call me Betty!"

'''Tim:''' It's like Bad Masterson said. You can't get obsessed the way old people drive through water, if their servants are on fire.

-->"If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight! [[Literature/TheArtOfWarSunTzu Sun Tzu said that]], and I'd say he knows a little bit more about fighting than you do, pal, because he [[BigBookOfWar invented it]], and then he perfected it so that no living man could best him in the ring of honor. Then, he used his fight money to buy two of every animal on earth, and then he herded them onto [[TheArk a boat]], and then he [[MemeticBadass beat the]] ''[[MemeticBadass crap]]'' [[MemeticBadass out of every single one.]] And from that day forward any time a bunch of animals are together in one place it's called a ''[[{{Pun}} zoo]]''! (Beat) '''Unless it's a farm!'''"

-->'''Gumball:''' Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, in a castle far, far away lived a king, who was irrationally scared of the world outside. But closing the doors was not enough. The king made everyone wear a suit of armor. It was impractical. Apart from one person: the Princess, who one day, came out of her armor, and she was beautiful. The king was upset she ditched her armor, but the Princess wanted everyone else to ditch theirs, too, and be themselves. So she invited an impossibly handsome prince to solve the problem. The Prince gave his answer... in the form of a story. Once upon a time, there was a family of cocoons living happily on a tree branch...

* ''Series/UprightCitizensBrigade''' episode "The Story of the Toad."

Basically, it's when a character tries to give an anecdote or tell a story (usually a well-known real one, or else people might not know that it diverged from the original without help from MrExposition). They then go off in absurd and comedic tangents, and the intended moral/ending/what-have-you is lost.

Contrast ShaggyDogStory, where the story does go somewhere; it's just not impressive once it does.

** Also, ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'' has the Greatest Storyteller in the World, who is unfortunately hampered by a bad memory and short attention span, so all his stories turn into this.

Compare {{Metaphorgotten}}, IceCreamKoan and DisorganizedOutlineSpeech. Also compare FracturedFairyTale, in which it's due to the author's deliberation, and SidetrackedByTheAnalogy, when it's the listener who takes the meaning of the story off its course.

* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'': All of Rose's St. Olaf stories ended up this, or when Sophia talked about her life in Sicily.

* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'': All of Rose's St. Olaf stories ended up her, or when Sophia talked about her life in Sicily.

--->'''Johnny:''' Listen, we're not so different, you n' me. Like, our faces are very similar.... Point is Max, we live in a world of similar things. Lots of stuff is the same as other stuff.... I forgot where I was going with this but the takeaway is your parent's don't love each other.

* The children's song "Little Bunny Foo-Foo" is about a rabbit who picks on a group of field mice. A fairy gives him three chances to mend his ways, but he never does. [[spoiler:He ends up [[LaserGuidedKarma being turned into a goon]], and "the moral of the story is: [[SpoofAesop hare today, goon tomorrow]]!]]

* ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'''s Yasuhiro Hagakure starts a story intending to show how his fortune-telling is different from 'occult' matters, and ends up explaining how aliens proved his 'all-beef' hamburger was 70% pork. Nobody else could follow it, either.

-->"But while the ant gathered food... zzz... the grasshopper contracted to a point on a manifold that was ''not'' a 3-sphere."

** Pretty much everything Grandpa Simpson says:
-->'''Grandpa Simpson:''' We can't bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One trick is to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where was I... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt, which was the style at the time. You couldn't get white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

-->'''Reverend Lovejoy:''' I remember another gentle visitor from the heavens. He came in peace, and then died, only to come back to life. And his name was... Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial. ''[sniffs]'' I love that little guy...
** When convincing Bart to donate blood to Mr. Burns in hope of a reward:

'''Homer:''' Yeah, probably. Anyway, once upon a time, there was a big mean lion, who got a [[AndroclesLion thorn in his paw]]. All the village people tried to pull it out, but nobody was strong enough! So, they got Hercules, and Hercules used his mighty strength, and bingo! Anyway, the moral is the lion was so happy, he gave Hercules this big... thing... of riches.\\

-->"I saw this once on an after-school special. Mary and Sally, best friends! They did absolutely everything together. Then one day, Mary fell in with the ''wrong crowd.'' And Mary didn't have time for Sally anymore. Sally would say, 'Wanna go play a game or pretend we're kitties?' and Mary would say 'Uh-uh, I'm in with the ''wrong crowd''.' Sally was so sad she ran home, climbed up a tree and started eating cookies. A ton of cookies. She got huge, HUGE, '''HUGE,''' '''''HUGE!'''''...got any cookies, Mike?"

* In Film/MajorPayne, the titular character is a VeteranInstructor at a MilitarySchool. In an attempt to inspire a student, he tells the story of "The Little Engine that Could"... but before he gets far, his Vietnam flashbacks kick in and the tale rapidly devolves into a vivid war story full of gore, explosions and ripped-off limbs. Stopped before he gets to the end, he later uses the threat of telling the tale again to discipline the students.

* ''Film/TheGoldenGirls'': All of Rose's St. Olaf stories ended up her, or when Sophia talked about her life in Sicily.