This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
// Dammit, I was about to add this entry myself. One complaint - it seems like we're playing with two different tropes here: the in-character Elephant in the Living Room (which is in fact much more common and likely to be apparent to the viewer) and the out-of-character one. Perhaps we should add a new subtrope called Fourth Wall Elephant? — Ub Iq
// Wouldn't that be a Hyper Elephant?
//You're probably right - I started out thinking of the fourth wall - type elephant (hence all the examples) and only at the last minute realised I should mention "non-meta" circumstances - CT . Hmm. Would Reality Subtext hit the notion? — Weremonkey Gus
(random passer-by): Would this count as a form of Genre Blindness?
Seth: Didn't this page used to have examples? Like the guy in scrubs who no-one talks about his hook or afro.
Spriteless : Huh... strange. Well, I'll repair it with wiki magic. By which I mean, add a few examples off the top of my head.
Jack Hare: I think the reaper's social invisibility in Dead Like Me is a fair part of the series' premise, rather than an undiscussed flaw. I don't know about Seattle, where the series is set, but in my somewhat smaller home city it's not at all unusual to see people on the street, on the bus and even in stores, talking aloud to nobody, and being very firmly ignored unless they start breaking things or screaming at people. It'd be nice if that were a joke, but for a kinda-sorta-supernatural entity like the series' reapers, looking basically like a wandering junkie and talking to thin air would be a pretty effective Somebody Else's Problem field even without the implied quasi-magical boost. Not that there aren't any metaphysical Elephants in the show (and there may be some scenes that screw with my argument above, in fine-detail consideration), but I don't think this is one of them.
Citizen: Some of the examples sound like they belong in It Just Bugs Me!, not here. Like the Gotham City example and the subpoints under it. That's not what I understand this trope to be about—stuff like the Mahou Sensei Negima and Ah My Goddess examples.
