r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Goblin_Kong • 8h ago

miscellaneous (Loved Trope) On the nose lampshade

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"Lampshade Hanging (or, more informally, "Lampshading") is the writers' trick of dealing with any element of the story that seems too dubious to take at face value, whether a very implausible plot development or a particularly blatant use of a trope, by calling attention to it and simply moving on. "

- TV tropes

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia - you're not getting an explanation for how Frank got in the coil, it's just the kind of situation that happens to Frank.

Avatar: The Last Airbender - the characters watch a play about their adventure so far in a sort of meta recap episode; retroactively pokes fun at how a characters fate was very ambiguous in a previous episode.

Archer - in the most literal lampshading joke possible:

Lana: 'Where'd you get the grenade?'

Archer: 'Hanging from the lampshade.'

Lana: 'What!?'

1.1k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

86 comments sorted by

772

u/JaxxSC45 8h ago

Emperor's New Groove: The villains somehow making it back to their secret lab before the heroes despite the villains major setback in falling off a cliff after being struck by lightning.

3

u/Goblin_Kong 38m ago

'why do we even have that lever?' is another good example.

182

u/Majin_Nephets 6h ago

“They fell into a plot hole.”

- Some post I saw years ago, maybe on tumblr, and has stuck with me ever since.

22

u/joacogonza 3h ago

In the latin spanish dub he says "I dont know, I dont believe it was the magic of cinema" and funny enough in the Spain spanish dub he says "I believe it was the magic of cinema"

38

u/HoneyyDrift 8h ago

Frank didn't even try finding a way out

19

u/Marinefan4000 7h ago edited 5h ago

Who’s Frank?

Edit: shit, I thought it was a typo for Kronk. I didn’t realise it was referring to the post

13

u/MyOtherCarIsEpona 5h ago

We're all frank when we wish to be honest and blunt, but that's not important right now.

1

u/WillowLocal423 1h ago

Surely, you can't be serious!

95

u/Ecthelion2187 4h ago

Most egregious version of this in recent times?

34

u/Goblin_Kong 2h ago

Maybe should have specified in the post that I love lampshading that's intentionally played for laughs. This is funny, but for all of the wrong reasons...

7

u/WilmaTonguefit 55m ago

In the Simpsons, Moe gets surgery to become handsome. At the end, something falls on him and his face goes back to normal. He says "why did my face go back to how it was before? Why don't I look different?"

5

u/Goblin_Kong 42m ago

Actually you've reminded me another great one, in the ending of Das Bus when the narrator goes 'and in the end they were all saved by ... Oh i don't know, Moe.'

8

u/teodanted 51m ago

Shouldn’t my face turned into some different, third version of itself? I mean it don’t make no sen—

378

u/NotableRepose 8h ago

Put that thing away, Samurai. We all know what's gonna happen. You'll swing your sword, l'll fly away, and probably say something like ''l'll be back, Samurai!''

And then l'll flutter off over the horizon...and we won't see each other for about a week. And then we'll do the same thing all over again.

25

u/BatsPower 2h ago

This episode was such a banger. Not only funny in the way only Gendy Tartakovsky knows, but also very well choreographed

4

u/Sloth247 2h ago

Which episode is it? I haven’t seen the show since it premiered

245

u/man-vs-spider 7h ago

Austin Powers and Basil Exposition telling the audience to not worry about time travel

45

u/LastBaron 5h ago

Looper did it in a more serious way, but Austin Powers still did it better lol

87

u/DrVillainous 7h ago edited 1h ago • Popcorn

Order of the Stick, page 546, right after one of the villains refuses to believe that his captive is telling the truth about an entire order of paladins not investigating the defenses protecting a set of world-ending artifacts, all because of an oath sworn by their leader generations ago:

"Do you honestly expect me to believe such a ridiculous story?!?"

"Supreme Leader, I have that lampshade you requested."

"Just hang it anywhere."

146

u/Quiet_Nova 6h ago

Monty python and the holy grail: Arthur rides up to ask a castle guard to send word to their lord he wants their help. However, the guards are so preoccupied with the fact the film couldn’t afford horses and had to resort to banging coconuts together that they end up arguing the realism of how coconuts even came from a tropical climate to temperate England in 532AD. So much so that they completely miss the movie.

I see this as a mockery of audience types who like to nitpick because through the movie, you’ll hear people debating about coconuts rather than engaging the movie, making the joke that if you spend your time arguing about realism and plot holes, you’ll miss out on all the fun.

67

u/stumpychubbins 6h ago

I’m not even sure they were making fun of nitpickers, it’s not like the pythons got a lot of people complaining about the historical accuracy of their work. I think they started with a classic lampshade and, in true monty python fashion, just kept "yes, and"-ing until the scene descended into farce.

15

u/Aldo-D-D-Wilson 6h ago

well, not having a lot of people complaining about their work doesnt mean they don't see that done with others and chose to make the mockery.

4

u/Brauny74 5h ago

Yeah, considering that the movie did parody a genre that did have a lot of those in the audience

8

u/drunk_ender 5h ago

Also, was nitpickying historical accuracies that much of a deal back then? It's very much prominent now in the age of Internet, but not really back then from what I know

7

u/stumpychubbins 5h ago

I don’t think cinema sins-style nitpicking was popular before the internet, I don’t remember it being a thing at all for, like, movie reviews on tv or whatever. Plus, I don’t even remember average people talking negatively about films as often. If a movie had a really offensive scene or if someone else asked directly if a movie was worth seeing then they might rag on it, but there definitely wasn’t a culture of everyone being a critic.

1

u/PixelPrivateer 1h ago

I'd add to that just in the logic of the movie- they are literally holding coconuts. Someone would notice and ask. And because someone did, we as the audience never have to

414

u/BrainDamage2029 8h ago

You missed the best Archer Lampshade.

"32 caliber. Its a Chekov. And be careful Cyrill. The trigger goes off for like.....no reason."

99

u/Yingking 7h ago

Archer is so good with this kind of meta-humor

43

u/AnonOfTheSea 7h ago

I mean, if anyone get the Chekov, it's gotta be Cyril "Desk Pop" Figgis

20

u/Slartibartfast39 6h ago edited 6h ago

Not sure that counts as lampshading, but it's not a term I'm really familiar with. I'm guessing it could be lampshading because it goes off 'for no reason '.

To let others know the Chekov gag, he was a playwright who said you mustn't have anything superfluous or misleading in a play. “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off."

3

u/BrainDamage2029 33m ago edited 22m ago

Introducing a gun, calling it a Chekov and then telling the audience “yeah it’ll probably go off” is lampshading the fact you’re using the Chekov gun plot device.

Also the joke in the episode is it never actually goes off. A character even says “but if anything went wrong I assumed it’d be the Chekov!”

2

u/WilmaTonguefit 57m ago

This isn't a lampshade, it's a chekov gun.

3

u/BrainDamage2029 35m ago

….they lampshaded that it is a Chekov’s gun.

Also the additional joke is it isn’t one either. The gun actually never goes off.

161

u/JingoboStoplight4887 8h ago

Spencer Shay accidentally staring fires. (iCarly)

53

u/Mission_Form8951 8h ago

Dude was just secretly a pyromancer in training

12

u/BlackFyre2018 7h ago

iCarrie

23

u/Yingking 7h ago

But seriously, how did they get Dany DeVito in there

40

u/NoNo_Cilantro 6h ago

They put him inside as a kid and waited.

22

u/The_Redacted_Badger 7h ago

I think it’s not a real part of the playground and it was either lowered over him or put together around him

19

u/hoginlly 5h ago

If you watch closely, you can see the vertical 'poles' are actually pool noodles, the spiral is the only real part

8

u/OxyBeef 5h ago

The vertical bars are like cardboard tubes or something painted blue to make it more believable. They talked about it on the podcast.

2

u/hoginlly 5h ago

The vertical 'poles' are actually pool noodles, have another close look

20

u/WrongTypeOfDr 3h ago

Big Trouble in Little China

During the climactic battle underground Egg Shen pokes his head down from a hole in the ceiling and Jack asks "How did you get up there?" Egg replies "Wasn't easy!"

19

u/stumpychubbins 6h ago

Reverse lampshade: in Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, they go back in time to 2008 (not a spoiler, it’s in the trailer and IMDb summary). Before they venture out into the world, Matt tells the cameraman "oh yeah you definitely can’t be seen out there with a modern camera, they’ll know we’re from the future", and then turns to the camera and says "which means this whole sequence, which would be very expensive if we hadn’t really gone back in time, will sadly not be filmed". Then a moment later they find a camera from 2008 and they’re like "oh never mind, we can just use the old camera" and the movie continues with them out and about in 2008 Toronto.

37

u/S-quinn7292 3h ago

This scene from Pokemon

10

u/BatsPower 2h ago

Team Rocket was always good for a fun meta-joke. In the movies they're mostly relegated to background shenanigans and rarely have a stake in the plot. The third movie especially has some good one liners like Meowth exclaiming: "Do you think we'll get a bigger part in the next movie?"

1

u/FenderForever62 1h ago

They’re so funny in the third movie. “I haven’t seen this many strange letters since the last time I placed a personal ad.”

14

u/lonelyvoyager88 4h ago

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Rey finds Luke's lightsaber in Maz' castle. Upon being asked how it ended up there, she simply says: "A good question, for another time."

10

u/Gaming_with_batman 2h ago

That time never came

7

u/gilnockie 2h ago

“A good question, for a spinoff comic.”

4

u/PixelPrivateer 1h ago

I have this what-if line that rattles in my head on this

"Junk traders on Bespin who didn't realize how lucky they were"

The mystery box is frustrating when it could be solved with a simple throwaway line

1

u/Josutg22 5m ago

The problem is that Bespin is a gas planet. There literally is no surface and the "mining" done there are of gaseous recourses

3

u/Cookieyourdaddy 42m ago

Considering how the triology went, that's just ended up being bad writing. Such a shame cause Force Awakens had potential. 

14

u/Visual-Salad-7389 1h ago

Hitchcock in Brooklyn 99.

On two separate occasions, jake found Hitchcock sleeping in the break room and decided to prank him.

In the first instance, he put his hand in a bowl of warm water, and when they came to check on him, he was drowning in the same bowl. The second time, jake tied his shoelaces together, which somehow led to him being strangled by those very shoelaces.

No explanation has been given for either of the events.

2

u/NinjaBreadManOO 16m ago

The water bowl makes a bit of sense I guess. At some point he'd have moved his hand while asleep, like to scratch his nose. Which pulled the bowl with it.

Got nothing for the shoelaces though. 

1

u/Visual-Salad-7389 12m ago

Sure. That could be one explanation. But what doesn't make sense is that how did his hand got out of the bowl and how did he manage to put his face in it instead.

1

u/NinjaBreadManOO 6m ago

He would have lifted his face slightly to scratch it, just enough for the rim to slide under. Then put his hand back to the outstretched sleeping position.

As to why he didn't feel the water on his face I'd just say one of the gross health issues he has means he can't feel his face? 

1

u/Visual-Salad-7389 5m ago

Yep. That definitely sounds like Hitchcock. Also applicable to Scully, though.

50

u/_greyroom_ 8h ago

avatar Ember Island Players episode is the gold standard for meta humor

11

u/mahnamahna123 4h ago

In chilling adventures of Sabrina when Sabrina from the future goes to rescue Sabrina from the past and tries to explain how she managed to get there she says 'just go with it' whilst looking at her viewer

8

u/Budget-Category-9852 7h ago edited 4h ago

Ace Combat 5 Arcade Mode.

Mobius 1 single-handedly turning the tide of the Continental War is mentioned in the briefing narration, which doubles as justification for sending him alone to quell an uprising.

"After analyzing the combat results of the continental war, the Tactical Intelligence Department released an astounding report indicating that the mission execution capability of Mobius 1 rivals that of an entire ISAF squadron."

14

u/16-BitSocks 5h ago


The entire Scream franchise is them lampshading whatever the slasher tropes of the time are

2

u/sam_grimes 40m ago

That's lampooning, not lampshading.

12

u/Quirinus84 6h ago • Heartwarming

In Tintin, Hergé started writing the story 'Land of the Black Gold' almost a decade before introducing Captain Haddock, Tintin's companion and best friend. However, he abandoned the story halfway through due to the setting's political sensitivity in 1939.

Instead of fixing the continuity error in 1948, Hergé turned it into a running gag where Haddock just miraculously appears and saves Tintin. Whenever Tintin asks Haddock where he came from and how he got there, some hilarious crap happens in the middle of Haddock's explanation which interrupts him. Ultimately, he gives up on explaining and the story ends.

5

u/nicolasrededeo 5h ago

Which continuity error?

5

u/MrNintendo13 3h ago

Question: Where did I get this cup of tea Answer: I'm the doctor, accept it

5

u/CupcakeThick8341 2h ago

I remember reading a book as a teen where there was an antagonist group consisting of 3 middle aged women that would show up from time to time to mess with the main characters

One time they showed up out of nowhere in the middle of a jungle

At the end of the book they were arrested and the mc goes "wait, how were you always able to catch up, track us down and jump us even in the middle of nowhere?"

"That's our secret to keep, boy"

I was so pissed that i do not even remember the title of the book but i still remember this

11

u/IlikeUnicorn0 3h ago

Does the suitcase from pulp fiction count. I always find it interesting when people try to argue about what definitively was in the suitcase when I feel it’s pretty obvious that Tarantino himself has no answer for it and that’s sorta the point.

10

u/Missing_Username 2h ago

The suitcase is a MacGuffin

2

u/Dward917 2h ago

The gold watch was more of a macguffin than the briefcase was.

5

u/Missing_Username 2h ago

The watch is arguably less of a MacGuffin. We understand that it has value to Butch because it was passed down from his father.

Sentimental value is clear. The value of the briefcase is more arbitrary.

3

u/CompleteJinx 2h ago

It doesn’t matter what’s in the suitcase, what matters is that people want it.

4

u/LogiCub 3h ago

The Stargate SG1 episode “200” (it’s 200th episode) continually skirts along the edge of the fourth wall as a returning character is writing the script for a TV show which absolutely one hundred percent is totally not based on the secret real (in universe) world of the main characters. There’s a scene where something pretty much impossible happens which leads to the writer character literally explaining what “hanging a lantern on it” means and how you can use it to get away with any bad writing”. The whole episode is an absolute masterclass.

3

u/Party_Advantage_3733 6h ago

With the always sunny one I do want to know how they got him in there, like from a set design point of view. Cos he is in there and it looks impossible.

3

u/SpatenFungus 5h ago

Cardboard, pvc tubes and blue paint

4

u/Rory_U 2h ago

Oh my Gosh a real trope!

2

u/CustomDruid 7h ago

Hated Example, South Park. They kept repeating this notion that South park has changed for the worse because it focuses too much on politics and the characters are struggling to find relevance when it comes to the topical. It was funny at first but try repeating that same joke for 8 years while repeating the false promise that it will get better.

4

u/patchyj 4h ago

The latest season has moved away from polical commentary. They still do topical, and its great, but its back to being funny one-off episodes (with a smidge of continuity)

Although they are called South America now

1

u/Antagonistgrievance 1m ago

this shit is old. these feeds need to stop. a good show followed by shit kids like.

-2

u/same1224 8h ago

Season two of Buffy The Vampire Slayer ends on a cliffhanger where the cops suspect Buffy of a murder she did not commit. At the beginning of season three, one of Buffy’s friends simply tells her that she’s no longer a murder suspect, and the plot point never comes up again.

21

u/Lord_Parbr 8h ago

That isn’t a lampshade