Line #30 Main/NotableNonSequitur


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11	In a DetectiveDrama, any time a piece of dialogue comes along which is off-the-cuff, not followed up and unrelated to everything, you can tell it's going to be very important. If a suspect turns up late and says "Sorry I'm late, my car was stolen yesterday", the alleged car theft will be significant (for example, the thief is the true culprit). If the detective remarks that the suspect has a nice keychain and the suspect says "Yeah, it's from my old fraternity," the insignia on the keychain will turn up later to reveal that the suspect and victim were in college together. Basically this happens whenever the writer can't find a neat way of dropping an important clue into an existing conversation.
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13	See also ChekhovsGun. Related to TheLawOfConservationOfDetail.
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15	!!Examples:
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18	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
19	* "Bad for glass" in ''Film/{{Chinatown}}''. This statement made by the Chinese gardener makes no sense until [[spoiler: Gittes realizes he's saying "[[JapaneseRanguage bad for grass]]", referring to the salt water pooling up in the garden and allowing Gittes to figure out Cross's land-grabbing scheme]].
20	* In ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'', there is an offhand reports about thirteen dump trucks being stolen the night before. Later in the film, it is revealed that these trucks are being used by the villains to cart off the gold they have stolen.
21	* ''Film/AHauntingInVenice'': After he cuts his finger, Ariadne tells Maxim to put some honey on it as it is a natural antiseptic. After he dips his finger in the jar, he sniffs it and comments that it's not wildflower honey but he can't place what it is. [[spoiler:This is the first indication that the honey is poisonous. She claimed that the honey from her rooftop garden was wildflower, but Maxim--who is a chef--would know the scent of wildflower honey. The honey is actually extracted from rhododendrons and is poisonous and hallucinogenic.]]
22	* ''Film/HotFuzz'' almost parodies this trope (like it does with most police movie tropes). Sgt. Angel makes one offhand comment about each of the minor characters before they are murdered that turns out to be the exact reason they were killed. The thing is, ''he had no idea''. He came up with a complicated theory about why they were killed that had nothing to do with those offhand comments, and he found the killers before he was told their motive.
23	* Just about every seemingly innocuous piece of conversation in ''Film/KnivesOut'' turns out to have some kind of significance to the plot, most not explained till TheSummation. Examples include:
24	** [[spoiler:Ransom explaining that he makes the help call him Hugh.]]
25	** [[spoiler:The family complaining that Ransom didn't attend Harlan's funeral.]]
26	** [[spoiler:Fran describing the plot of a Hallmark starring Danica [=McKellar=] to Marta.]]
27	** [[spoiler:Fran mentioning her cousin who is a receptionist at the medical examiner's office.]]
28	** [[spoiler:"Couldn't tell a real blade from a prop weapon."]]
29	* When David leaves the party in the rain in ''Film/RehearsalForMurder'', he complains that there is a cab parked across the street with its off-duty light on. This casual comment will become important during TheSummation.
30	* Inverted in the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' movie ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' when, as the Serenity crew is entering the bar to meet Fango and Minty, the report that the Reavers invaded a nearby planet, and the survivors had locked themselves in the vault the crew had just robbed (as Mal had told them to do), is playing in the background.
31	* In ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', Geordi is giving routine orders to the engineering staff, and tells one of them to check the climate control, since it was getting a little warm in the engine room. It turns out that this was a clue that Borg had beamed aboard and were altering the ship, since Borg ships are warmer than Federation ships.
32	* ''Film/StrippedToKill'' contains one so subtle that it borders on FridgeBrilliance. In a scene in the dressing room, Roxanne goes to use the bathroom and one of the other strippers tells her "not to leave the seat up again". The strippers have been dissing each other all through the scene, and this sounds like just another friendly insult and is easily missed amidst the dialogue. However, [[spoiler:Roxanne has already been killed and her identity assumed by [[CreepyCrossdresser her brother Eric]]. So it is entirely possible that at some previous point he had forgotten and left the toilet seat up]].
33	* In ''Film/TheThinMan'', early in the movie the odd watchchain of The Old Professor was pointed out. That same watchchain was later used in an effort to frame the Old Professor by leaving it at the scene of a murder. (But the Professor's alibi was solid -- at that point he had been dead for over a month.)
34	* In ''Film/TheWolfman2010'', Sir John Talbot warns his son not to go out on the full moon, which [[SchmuckBait sets up]] the inevitable werewolf attack. [[spoiler: The Notable part of this is where Sir John tells Lawrence this because Sir John is the werewolf and ([[XanatosSpeedChess at least, initially]]) doesn't want to be responsible for his remaining son's death]].
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37	[[folder:Game Shows]]
38	* ''Series/{{Taskmaster}}'' loves these:
39	** Every episode is named after a memorable quote from either one of the comedians, or Greg and Alex themselves. ''Many'' of these are nonsensical quips blurted out by comedians, like during "Find The Finns": Bob Mortimer asks, [[TheComicallySerious completely and deadly seriously out of nowhere]], if any of them have ever seen, or eaten, a wind-dried puffin. Greg and Alex [[{{Corpsing}} utterly lose it]].
40	** Every episode also has Greg introduce his assistant ''little'' Alex Horne with a [[BlatantLies blatant and demeaning lie]], and then gives Alex the floor to hit Greg with something utterly random that Greg has to react to in real time. Just to name a few, he's shown up as "The Bandana Guy", attached a toilet paper roll to his chair, brought "equipment" to treat Greg's "body situation", silently sat with ''gigantic'' ear hoops and waited for a response, brought his ''own'' assistant Ian, let Greg do Sudoku on his belly, and worn his "hydration coat". Greg typically reacts with [[BadBoss abuse]], is sometimes [[ActuallyPrettyFunny greatly amused]], and sometimes so befuddled he just says "alright, on with it" and pretends nothing happened; Greg, [[WordOfGod during an interview]], even admitted that the most difficult thing about the show was trying to react to the insanity Alex dropped on his plate.
41	---> '''Greg:''' You know, people say I bully you, but I think you deserve it!
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44	[[folder:Literature]]
45	* In ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'''s first book, [[EnsembleDarkhorse Murtagh]] tells [[TheHero Eragon]] his life story. The thing is, Eragon already knows the most important point--that [[spoiler:Morzan is his father]]--so the main point of the scene seems to be to drop enough hints for astute readers to figure out the next book's TwistEnding, that [[spoiler:Selena is his mother]].
46	* In the Literature/LordPeterWimsey short story "The String of Pearls", when the suspects are all searched the pearls don't appear, but Sayers takes an apparent whimsical tangent on the weird and random stuff people keep in their pockets. Inevitably, one of these random things turns out to be a clue as to who took the pearls and where they are now. Also inevitably, the reader is ''expected'' to realise this, so some of the other suspects have random items that [[RedHerring really are random]], but which look as if they ''could'' be used to conceal the pearls somehow, or else suggest a motive.
47	* Any time Literature/SherlockHolmes tells a client not to worry about going off-topic, this trope is in play.
48	* In James Joyce's ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}'', a man approaches Leopold Bloom, asking to read the report on the day's horseraces. Bloom, not wanting to be inconvenienced, tells the man to keep it, as he was just going 'to throw it away'. The man walks away, inspired. The winning horse of the day winds up being the horse, Throwaway.
49	* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's Robot Trilogy, this pops up on occasion.
50	** ''Literature/TheNakedSun'' has a double example, as Elijah only realizes the significance of the first when the second happens. The first is a long rant by the culprit about the advances in robotic technology he's planning, and the second is when he is forced to rephrase "give me a hand" so that his robot companion Daneel Olivaw understands that he means 'help me up from this chair' and not '[[LiteralMinded detach your hand and fork it over]]'.[[spoiler: The culprit talked about two things: Robots with detachable specialized limbs, and positronic drone spacecraft. The latter was part of the culprit's galactic domination plan (they bypass the three laws because of course a drone fighter would assume that all other fighters are also drones and so would have no problem fighting them, unlike with regular robots who will refuse to fight opponents they know are human), and the former is the missing murder weapon. Olivaw gets confused and asks for clarification because he ''can't'' easily take off his hand and so knows that's probably not what Elijah meant, but a robot that could detach its limbs would respond to the request 'give me your arm' by detaching said arm and handing it over... thus giving the recipient a nice metal club to use for murder, which could be put back on the robot afterward.]]
51	** ''Literature/TheRobotsOfDawn'': When Elijah is interviewing the main villain, he comments that Gladia Delmarre has a weird definition of 'husband', which is very true.[[spoiler: In fact, it's ''so'' weird that he couldn't have possibly guessed it legitimately; Gladia Delmarre thought of the humaniform robot victim as her husband, while the Auroran definition of marriage is focused entirely on having kids together (sex outside of marriage is okay if there's no resulting pregnancy, and Auroran spouses rarely have any emotional connection to each other), so he's about as likely to naturally come to that conclusion as to believe that a marriage is between a man and a boulder.]]
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54	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
55	* This happens early in ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "Passing Through Gethsemane", twice even. There's a throwaway scene involving a news report about a criminal sentenced to mind-wipe, prompting Garibaldi and Delenn to briefly discuss its merits and flaws. Brother Edward idly mentions the story of Jesus knowing what would happen if he didn't leave Gethsemane, commenting that he doesn't know if he could do the same. later we learn Edward's ''been'' mind-wiped as a sentence, and while seeking forgiveness for his crimes he gets his chance to answer his earlier comment.
56	* ''Series/{{Castle\|2009}}'' uses this trope regularly, and inverts it almost as frequently. In almost every episode, minor details dismissed very early in the hour come back and provide a conclusive link to the true killer; in a number of episodes, similarly minor details pull the investigation in a different direction.
57	* In ''Series/CriminologistHimuraAndMysteryWriterArisugawa'', one of Himura's specialities is asking seemingly off-the-cuff questions that have nothing to do with the crime, only to later reveal their importance in finding the murderer. For example, in "Smashing a Show Window" he asks the witness about what they had for lunch and whether they take the train. Using these facts, he figures out that the witness is still in possession of the money he stole off the victim in order to frame her murder as a botched robbery.
58	* An episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' had one character make an offhand comment about the goldfish in the pond on a suspect's property. Turns out they were pirahnas that the killer had fed the body to.
59	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
60	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E7TheLongGame "The Long Game"]]: At the beginning, the Doctor and Rose get out of the TARDIS and he gives her a few pieces of information about where they've landed for her to tell newbie Adam when he comes out. After Adam gets out, Rose points out all of those things about their surroundings, but adds that they could consider turning the heating down. It's later revealed the heat comes from the massive alien that secretly runs the station, which needs to be vented away from it so it stays alive.
61	** Season 4 has a few off-handed mentions of the bees disappearing, which at first appears like a reference to the real life headlines about bee populations declining in 2007/2008. [[spoiler:This ends up cluing the Doctor in on a means of tracking the BigBad of the season.]]
62	* ''Series/TheInBESTigators'':
63	** Early in "The Case of the Vanishing Koalas", Miss Tan's is complaining about the students littering toilet rolls. Later, Maudie remembers this and has a EurekaMoment about how thief managed to seemingly be in two places at once.
64	** In "The Case of the Freaky Frequency", Ezra's elderly neighbour is complaining about her broken doorbell and wants Ezra to fix it. Ezra brushes this off as he and the others are in a hurry to get to the ice cream shop. However, he later realises that the broken doorbell is key to solving the mystery of why cars aren't locking near the ice cream shop.
65	* ''Series/ShakespeareAndHathawayPrivateInvestigators'': In "O Brave New World", when the hotel staff are being interviewed after the murder, one of the waitresses complains that a pair of shoes have been stolen from her locker. Guess what later becomes the vital clue Frank uses to crack the case?
66	* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' lacks the literary Holmes's tolerance for people apparently going off topic; Sherlock has considerably less patience for the foibles of regular people. An exception to this is "[[Recap/SherlockS02E02TheHoundsOfBaskerville The Hounds of Baskerville]]", where Sherlock specifically takes the case only because the witness uses the word 'hound' instead of 'dog'.
67	* ''Series/{{Vera}}'': In "Poster Child", a murder/kidnapping occurs at an isolated property. When she arrives, Vera comments that she almost missed the place and only found the driveway because of the balloons put up to mark it for an upcoming party. Much later, Joe realises that the balloons were in place two days before when the party was due to be held and points this out. Vera then realises that someone inside the home must have put the balloons up to identify it for the kidnapper.
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70	[[folder:Video Games]]
71	* There would be no ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' without this trope. Most of the contradictions Phoenix/Apollo/Edgeworth catches are off the cuff, seemingly unimportant statements that wind up screwing over the rest of the witness's claims.
72	** The first game has the "Almost Christmas means it wasn't Christmas!" moment. In context, Phoenix is arguing about the timeline of events in Larry's testimony; he said he heard a gunshot around the time the radio DJ he was listening to said "it's almost Christmas!", [[spoiler: which in context of the case, means that Larry heard the gunshot while it was before midnight on Christmas Eve, while the two gunshots Lotta Hart heard happened ''after'' midnight, when it was Christmas ''day'', meaning that that they had witnessed separate instances of a gun being fired on the same lake, poking a massive hole in the prosecution's argument that the victim must have been killed when Lotta heard the gunshots. It turns out, Larry had heard the actual murder take place, and the shots Lotta heard were a setup.]]
73	** In ''Turnabout Trump'', Kristoph waxes poetic about the poker played in Borscht Bowl by saying "only the cards, their backs wreathed in blue flame, know the outcome." [[spoiler: This implicates him for the murder. The deck used in the fatal game actually had ''red'' backs, but the killer had taken an incriminating red-backed card and replaced it with a blue-backed one, meaning that he thought the cards were blue. No one else would've made such a mistake because they knew a red deck was in play.]]
74	** There's a notable example in ''Apollo Justice''. At the beginning of the second case, Phoenix hires Apollo. Much to Apollo's annoyance, he is not assigned to defend a client, but rather to find the culprit of three random events: A hit and run where Phoenix was injured, a noodle cart theft, and a ''[[PantyThief panty snatching]]''. Then, a murder is reported in the area and Apollo takes the defendant's case. [[spoiler: Yes, of course ''all three'' of the seemingly random events end up playing into the murder: The driver in the hit and run was the victim, the noodle cart was stolen by the victim and he was killed while pulling it, and the panty thief was both the only witness in the murder and also the reason why the victim stole the noodle cart]].
75	** Early on in case 5-3, it's noted that one of the few dissimilarities between the mock trial and the real murder is that the victim's hands were tied. This is quickly dismissed, and the case moves on. [[spoiler: The hands being tied is crucial to how the body was hidden; she was put under a sheet and tied up in the rough shape of Phoenix doing the 'Objection!' pose, making the corpse look like the statue that was never actually there.]]
76	** Dual Destinies' final case has "so I lowered the emergency ladder [[spoiler: like the detective leading the evacuation told me to]]". When first heard this statement means virtually nothing, until the tail end of the trial, when it becomes clear that [[spoiler: the killer needed the escape ladder lowered to flee the crime scene]]... and so one innocuous line becomes the first major hint at the identity of the BigBad.
77	** ''Turnabout Storyteller'' has multiple:
78	*** Geiru complains that Bucky Whet would yell at her for wearing perfume as it would get into the noodles and ruin them.[[spoiler: And then Owen states that he smelled perfume when the murder was being committed, so it becomes extremely important that Geiru wears perfume, but Bucky doesn't.]]
79	*** A random note at the scene says 'resting: do not disturb'. This eventually invalidates the murderer's alibi.[[spoiler: The initial assumption was that the victim was smothered with soba dough, which is made of buckwheat. Geiru Toneido has a [[PlotAllergy severe buckwheat allergy]], so her alibi is that she ''couldn't'' have killed the victim as doing so would've kicked up a cloud of buckwheat dust which would've killed her. Athena eventually realizes that the note proves that the dough was actually ''udon'' dough (udon dough needs to be allowed to rest, soba dough does not), which isn't made of buckwheat, meaning that Geiru could've killed the victim without triggering her allergies.]]
80	** ''The Great Ace Attorney'' case 2-1 has a VisualGag version. Ever since Soseki Natsume came back to Japan and became famous writing ''Literature/IAmACat'', a reporter has been following around to photograph his dramatic nervous poses. [[spoiler:This reporter, Raiten Menimemo, is the murderer; he poisoned Jezaille Brett because he learned that she had basically gotten away with murder due to DiplomaticImpunity and she was being a racist assole.]]
81	* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' It's a murder mystery series, so naturally this comes up a lot:
82	** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'':
83	*** In chapter 2, Mondo calls Chihiro "that dude." [[spoiler: Chihiro ''was'' a WholesomeCrossdresser, but Mondo had no legitimate way to know it... and it comes up in trial that the killer had moved the crime scene from the boys' changing room to the girls', so the killer, unlike everyone else ''did'' know.]]
84	*** Early in chapter 2, Mondo and Ishimaru hold a sauna endurance contest, resulting in a goofy picture where Ishimaru wears a towel while Mondo still wears his uniform and wears the towel on his pompadour, but the outcome doesn't matter as they wind up friends by the next day.[[spoiler: This is the final piece of evidence proving Mondo's guilt. The culprit had tossed Chihiro's e-handbook into the sauna to destroy it with heat, but no one was told that e-handbooks could be destroyed this way. The only person who could've found out was Mondo, because he wore his uniform in the sauna and forgot to remove his e-handbook from it.]]
85	*** At the beginning of chapter 3, Hifumi complains that he can't see more of his favorite anime while trapped in the school, mentioning, among other things, '[[{{Expy}} Galactic King ]][[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Justice Robo]]'. Then somebody dressed up as Justice Robo goes on a rampage, killing Ishimaru and Hifumi himself.[[spoiler: Which should be a dead giveaway that it was all a setup and Hifumi was in on it, because who ''else'' would hear 'concealing outfit' and think 'anime robot cosplay', or be able to create said cosplay in a single night?]]
86	*** In chapter 3, Celestia panics and says they'll die just like the previous victims. [[spoiler: But at this point, she couldn't know there ''were'' two victims...]]
87	*** The Monokuma file for chapter 5 notes that the victim suffered a number of small wounds, but what killed them is eventually determined to be a blow to the head with a bundle of arrows.[[spoiler: The head blow was the red herring; the numerous injuries are the spears that killed the victim... all the way back in chapter 1]].
88	*** Monokuma at one point jokes he's not giving someone his three sizes.[[spoiler: 'Three Sizes' usually refers to breasts, hips, and waist... something that a ''girl'' would say. Turns out, "Monokuma" is really a puppet for a girl.]]
89	** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': During a party in chapter 1, [[ReluctantFanserviceGirl Mikan falls down and somehow ends up in an erotic pose]]. It's quickly dismissed as her being a ButtMonkey and everyone moves on... until her pose turns up as a ''truth bullet''.[[spoiler: It's used to prove that Teruteru wasn't in the room with everyone else like he claimed. Hajime challenges him to describe Mikan's pose, which he can't do, when you'd think a pervert like Teruteru would have paid ''very'' close attention.]]
90	** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'': Tsumugi's alibi for the first murder is that she was using the restroom. She's soon proven to not be the killer, and the game moves on.[[spoiler: In chapter 6, Himiko accidentally discovers that there's a hidden passage between the library, where Rantaro was killed, and the girls' restroom. Turns out, Tsumugi was the true Blackened and Kaede was framed... and the only reason Tsumugi didn't graduate, like the rules said she should, is that she's the Mastermind.]]
91	* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' is framed as a story that Varric is telling Cassandra, so this doubles with InnocuouslyImportantEpisode. Most notably, during a scene with his brother Bartrand (which he initially tries to get out of telling because it has no bearing on Hawke's story and is very personal to him), Bartrand mentions he sold the [[ArtifactOfDoom red lyrium idol]] to [[spoiler:Knight Commander Meredith, the BigBad]].
92	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', you can ask Canderous why his people attacked the Republic. He shrugs and say ''"the Sith came to us with an offer"'', and the rest of the conversation is about how [[ProudWarriorRace Mandalorians]] thrive on seeking out the most risky fights and challenges the galaxy can offer. You have no way of knowing at the time that "the Sith" he is referring to is [[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic Sith Emperor Vitiate]], that the Sith Empire is in hiding and quietly building for conquest, that said Emperor was playing everyone [[spoiler: including the then-amnesiac-and-unwitting player character]] as pawns and fools, that he would eventually [[spoiler: get the player character from this game and its sequel to waltz right into his trap, render the player character insane through 300 years of MindRape]], and turn them loose to play right into his OmnicidalManiac plans...
93	* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': Akechi overhears a remark comparing a stadium to pancakes and comments on it to the Phantom Thieves in June. This becomes a plot point in November.[[spoiler: Morgana had made that remark, and you can't understand Morgana's speech unless you've been in the Metaverse. Akechi later claims he first entered the Metaverse in the fall... not knowing that the pancakes conversation gave away that he'd already been in the Metaverse in June. Because of this, the Thieves were immediately tipped off that he was the Black Mask and planned to betray them, allowing them to double-cross him.]]
94	-->'''Akechi''': Oh, was I mistaken? I thought I heard someone mention delicious pancakes.
95	* While Razputin tries to extract the name of Dr. Loboto's employer at the start of ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts 2}}'', Dr. Loboto keeps trying and failing to remember what sounds like the solution to an InventoryManagementPuzzle: Put the egg in the basket, then the old egg in the box, then the box in the ocean. [[spoiler:They turn out to be veiled instructions for placing the BigBad's brain into the body of Grand Head Truman Zanatto, and Loboto was trying to remember what he was supposed to do with Truman's original brain after the switch]].
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Context Main / NotableNonSequitur