Quotes / Continuity Lock-Out

Comic Books

I'm Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth, and this is one of my greatest challenges ever! I have to do a recap for the last chapter of a story written by Nicieza that involves: a) Cable's status quo. b) Time travel. c) Continuity. d) An editorial request to "clean up" Cable re: A, B and C!
[[proceeds to recap for an entire five pages]

— Deadpool, Deadpool & Cable: Split Second Infinite Comic #6

Films — Live-Action

Eddie Brock: Alright, tell me again. I'm sorry, I'm an idiot. There was a billionaire; he had a tin suit, and he could fly, right? And there was a really angry green man, Hulk? [...] Now, tell me again about your purple alien that loves stones, 'cause I'll tell you what, man. Aliens, they do not love stones. No, they do not love stones. You know what aliens love, eating BRAINS!! Because that's what they do, alright?
Bartender: Señor, he made my family disappear! For five years!
Eddie: Five years? That's a long time.

— Spider-Man: No Way Home

Literature

A thing I never know, when I'm starting out to tell a story about a chap I've told a story about before, is how much explanation to bung in at the outside. It's a problem you’ve got to look at from every angle. I mean to say, in the present case, if I take it for granted that my public knows all about Gussie Fink-Nottle and just breeze ahead, those publicans who weren't hanging on my lips the first time are apt to be fogged. Whereas if before kicking off I give about eight volumes of the man's life and history, other bimbos who were so hanging will stifle yawns and murmur 'Old stuff. Get on with it.' I suppose the only thing to do is to put the salient facets as briefly as possible in the possession of the first gang, waving an apologetic hand at the second gang the while, to indicate that they had better let their attention wander for a minute or two and that I will be with them shortly.

— Bertie Wooster of all people, The Code of the Woosters

Live-Action TV

You're pathetic. You'll never catch up... Maybe you should try something more of your speed, like Freddie.

— The Soup on Lost

A fact-sheet is available for people who've never heard the show before.

— Steve Punt, The Now Show, after Prince Edward has been represented by a Frank Spencer impression with no explanation.

If you're wondering why Jesus is emerging from his tomb wielding a blunderbuss, watch one of our shows from five years ago.

— Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report

Buffy: The military put a chip in Spike's head so he couldn't hurt anyone.
Giles: And that would be the abridged version.
Buffy: But he wouldn't hurt anyone anymore because he has a soul now.
Giles: Unless the First triggers him again.
Robin: Triggers the chip?
Buffy: No, the trigger's a post-hypnotic thing. The First put it in his head. It was... It made him... He was killing again.
Robin: So, he has a trigger, a soul, and a chip?
Giles: [scoffs] Not anymore.
Buffy: It was killing him, Giles!
Robin: The trigger?
Buffy: No, the chip. The trigger's not active anymore.
Robin: Because the military gave him a soul?

— Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Lies My Parents Told Me"

The Doctor: Now, I need to know more about what's happening. Is the Federation at war with the Romulans?
EMH Mark II: No. The Romulans haven't gotten involved in our fight with the Dominion.
The Doctor: The who?
EMH Mark II: Long story.

— Star Trek: Voyager, "Message in a Bottle"

Video Games

Gemini Sunrise: Son of gunboat! It's... It's some starfish-lookin' things!
Ichiro Ogami: Those are soldiers crafted by the Great Oak Tree! I knew this tree was still alive!

— Project X Zone 2

Web Animation

In case you haven't noticed, we've updated our official social media handles and made things much simpler. We're now @MPGISofficial across all social media platforms.

Why you might ask? Well, while it was a lot of fun giving each character their own social media handle, it was actually pretty confusing for new fans to be able to find us. So we felt that making this change would allow us to grow more and make it easier for us to welcome new fans.

— The Most Popular Girls in School Instagram

"I get the feeling Sonic is doing the Resident Evil thing. That's where you spend years cluttering your game universe with characters and backstory, until it becomes to new players about as penetrable as a stone slab that doesn't believe in sex before marriage."

— Zero Punctuation on Sonic Generations

"Something in the previous games has reduced Sora’s power, so he needs to set out into the world to build it back up. Great, reset button! That’s all the acknowledgment of the previous games that we needed, Kingdom Hearts III. Let’s spend the next 20 hours referencing Disney movies and wallowing in the delicious warmth of our filled nappies! Sadly, ‘twas not to be, and things soon began to fall apart. Who are all these other characters? Why is Mickey Mouse knocking about a black desert with the Muppet Babies version of Sephiroth? Who are all the dudes in black coats and why don’t any of them know how zip fasteners work? Sora’s motive keeps changing. Sometimes we’re getting his lost power back, sometimes we’re looking for three missing warriors, sometimes we’re looking for Roxas, who is in Sora’s heart, which he already knew, so why the fuck is he looking, or we’re just generally opposing the main bad guys, who are three versions of the same dude, and none of them could figure out how zips work either."

— Zero Punctuation on Kingdom Hearts III

Webcomics

Tarvek: It's a modified summoning engine!
Kjarl: I never understand what that is, no matter how many times you say it.
Tarvek: It's what Lucrezia used when she transferred her mind into Agatha's body!
Kjarl: Ah. No. I still do not understand.

— Girl Genius (Vol. 19 p. 80)

Web Original

While I admire all hell out of the show, it’s surely this complexity that hurt it in the long run. It simply was never as accessible (hence, never as successful) as TOS or TNG or even Voyager. Heck, I even have to admit that Enterprise is a lot more accessible to the casual viewer than Deep Space Nine.

— The Agony Booth, recap of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Profit and Lace"

Michael: I also think we should probably do a good job of explaining what the hell we're doing, which we really didn't do. We just kinda said "Crimmies" and then that's it.
Gavin: That was so bad!
Michael: I'm just saying, someone might go "What the hell is 'Crimmies'?"
Gavin: There's no way a new audience would ever understand what we're doing!

— Achievement Hunter Grand Theft Auto Series, "GTA V: Criminal Masterminds Trash - It Only Gets Worse From Here"

Not gonna spoil anything, but make sure you watch the seventh episode of the[sic] season 6 of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", the first episode of "What If…? (2021)", the whole "Loki (2021)" series, "Deadpool 2", the entire final season of "X-Men: The Animated Series" and unbelievably "Inhumans".

—This post discussing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

"Uhhhhhhh......I think I walked in too late."

—Platypus Comix discussing the first few lines of an episode of ''Magi-Nation'

"Why is the holy grail of modern puyo lore in an apple arcade game."

—VinculumStellarum, through a tag on this Puyo Puyo fanfic on Archive of Our Own

Web Video

Yen Sid: We finally have all Guardians of Light. Tomorrow will be the final battle.
Lea: Shouldn't we get to know each other?
Yen Sid: You should know them if you’ve played all the Kingdom Hearts games.
Lea: Dammit! I only played Kingdom Hearts I and II.

— Kingdom Hearts 3 in a nutshell

Journey into a new era of the MCU, where after 10 years of having to streamline their plots so normies would know what's happening, Marvel's gotten so big, they'll drop you right into episode 19, part 1 of 2, without wasting a second on who anyone is or why you should care. Because let's face it, you’re either on this hype train by now, or the Winter Soldier using Rocket Raccoon as a sidearm won't mean s*it to you.

— Honest Trailers on Avengers: Infinity War

"If you're not getting any of these references, that's because this is Business Blaze; Danny spends, oh around about half the script just referring to shit we've covered before to confuse new people. If you're new here, welcome. Smash that dislike button."

— Brain Blaze (then "Business Blaze"), "5 More Illegal Foods" [1]

"What's that thing? Where am I? Is this Earth? Are we in another dimension? Is this the past? The future? The present? What's going on? When does this even take place? Oh my God, I'm like one minute into this movie, already I'm totally lost! God, this is gonna suck!"

— The Nostalgia Critic on Pokémon: The First Movie

Screenwriter Guy: It's a sequel to Captain Marvel.
Producer Guy: Oh boy!
Screenwriter Guy: And WandaVision.
Producer Guy: Oh.
Screenwriter Guy: And Ms. Marvel.
Producer Guy: Alright?
Screenwriter Guy: And Secret Invasion, kinda.
Producer Guy: So it's like a sequel to sixteen hours of content across three shows and a movie?
Screenwriter Guy: Yeah, and it'd be preferable if viewers have watched all of that.
Producer Guy: Hey, what's a Marvel movie without a bit of homework?

— Screen Rant Pitch Meetings, "The Marvels Pitch Meeting"

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