History Main / AWizardDidIt

* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' takes this literally.

*** According to ''The Making Of Star Trek'' Creator/GeneRoddenberry explains the inconsistency in star dates by saying that time moves differently to ships travelling at warp speed. He admits he doesn't understand his own explanation but it seems to satisfy fans who ask.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'': Played very literally. Fiona's situation is explained only as [[spoiler:"It's a spell. When I was a little girl, a witch cast a spell on me."]] That's all they bothered to explain her premise with, and it's the primary foundation of the plot. Until the second movie at least. Even before then, [[AllThereInTheManual the DVD extras]] made it pretty clear [[spoiler:that's how Fiona ''naturally'' looks, the spell was what made her look human]]. The HandWave was probably done because going into detail about [[spoiler:what the witch did and why]] would have spoiled the plot.

* Hellfire Comm's Let's Play of ''Sonic 06''. When asked by FTA to explain things like plotholes, magic mirrors, and all sorts, [=NTom64=]'s answer is almost always "Magic" and that you shouldn't "come to him to question the logic of this game, as there is none."

* In the AD&D-based ''Monster Manual Comics'' by Lore Sjoburg, [[http://badgods.com/owlbear.html the strip on owlbears]] has the crew meet the actual "insane wizard" most of the peculiar early D&D monsters were blamed on -- plus a guess as to his motives for doing so.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheOeiginalSeries'':

* Some Sci-Fi series, and ''Franchise/StarTrek'' in particular, have their own variation: A Time Traveler Did It. This didn't get much use for the first several series, but by the later seasons of ''Voyager'' it could be a standard reason; now, ever since ''Enterprise'' rolled out its Temporal Cold War, the sky's the limit on this one. If somehow a time traveler couldn't have done it, then just assume that [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Q]] did it.
* Creator/LeonardNimoy suggested in an interview that the Vulcan Nerve Pinch might be more about telepathy than [[PressurePoint Pressure Points]] though later series had non-psychic humans doing it.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Another variation that comes up for the Brannon Braga scripts, which often included [[HollywoodScience scientific mistakes]] or {{plot hole}}s. As it happens, Braga also likes writing a lot of MindScrew episodes with characters who might be insane or trapped in some false reality. Whereas in regular scripts the errors stand out, here they can be handwaved as being part of the MindScrew.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has episode "Trials and Tribbleations", which placed members of [=DS9=] staff in ''Series/StarTrek'' episode "Trouble With Tribbles". How did post-movie Klingon Worf respond when asked about the difference in appearence between him and the original series Klingons? "We do not speak of it with outsiders."

* ''Series/PowerRangersDinoFury'' ''does'' give us a Wizard in the form or Morphin' Master Green, one of the guardians of the Morphin' Grid. She's revealed to be behind things like [[Series/PowerRangersMegaforce the past Rangers coming the Super Megaforce team's aid]], [[Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers reviving and turning Steel human]] and suggested to be much more. She does this because she believes she and her peers should take a more proactive role in protecting the universe.

* [[Franchise/TheDCU DC Comics]] used an in-character plot device in the ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' miniseries to justify various {{RetCon}}s and mistakes. "Superboy punch!" is now the standard response among fandom to questions about inconsistencies; this replaces the refrain of "{{Hypertime}}!", contributed by a previous miniseries, ''The Kingdom''.

* ''FanFic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'': When not NarratingTheObvious, Creator/DakariKingMykan tends to explain away major plot holes and details with either "magic" or "belief".

* ''FanFic/QueenOfAllOni'': Jade writes this off as the explanation for how Shendu's palace is in partially intact ruins, despite completely disintegrating the last time she was there.

* ''FanFic/ThisBites'': Whenever people react to Soundbite being able to speak, Cross is able to erase any shock just by saying "Devil Fruit." This soon applies to pretty much any weird occurrence (like Brook), and many people often give a deadpan response to anyone who should be inured to the weirdness by now.
* ''FanFic/TravelsThroughAzerothAndOutland'' uses this trope, and then explains why the wizard went through all the trouble.

** [[https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Translator_Implant?file=Star-Lord_Info.png This close up]] of Star-Lord's police file in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' shows that he has a [[TranslatorMicrobes translator implant]] to explain why all the aliens seem to speak English.

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': This is the whole point of the Infinite Improbability Drive, a device created specifically for the purpose of causing extremely improbable events to happen. Any time the plot requires something contrived to happen and the Drive is active nearby, you can explain away the implausibility by saying "the Drive did it".

** Also in the Series/DoctorWho revival, many [[TimeyWimeyBall inconsistencies in the way time travel works]] can be explained by some result of the Time War.

* The ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' series Zig-Zags this with regards to how mages can move unhindered in desert terrain. ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'' suggests the spirits they command literally part the sand in their path, while ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem Heroes of Light and Shadow]]'' say it's simply because they wear light clothing.

* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': The SCP Foundation [[{{Reconstruction}} reconstructs this]], in their quest to study and explain the supernatural, their articles written in scientific language show that individual [=SCPs=] [[{{MagicAIsMagicA}} have consistent rules about what they can do and what they can't]], they often detail testing where two or more [=SCPs=] were placed together to see what happens when their rules collide, and they have even examples where [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic science was able to fully explain some [=SCPs=] to the point they are no longer considered supernatural]], however, magic and supernatural as a whole runs on the concept that it has no rules and no logic, [=SCPs=] as a whole can be anything, science will never explain them and that's the whole point.

* ''Fanfic/TalesOfAResetMind'': the Author's justification on how the Emotions survive with no internal organs.

* ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'': any inconsistencies, contrivances, or ''anything and everything else'' could be explained with "[[RealityWarper Haruhi did it]]," or Kyon being an UnreliableNarrator. Reached MemeticMutation where any RealityWarper or God ''ever'' is Haruhi. See also StockEpilepticTrees.
* Similar to the Haruhi example above, ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' can HandWave anything just by claiming [[spoiler: [[RealityWarper Drosselmeyer]] did it]].

* In ''Literaturef/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the central conflict is between the [[MagicVersusScience various religious organizations on the magic side, and Academy city on the science side]]. While the magic side obviously gets a fair deal of the "it's magic, we don't have to explain it," explanation, the science side gets more than a little too. In fact, it's a lot easier to ignore the woefully inaccurate {{Technobabble}} in the series when you remember that Academy City is literally founded and controlled by an evil wizard.
* In almost any light novel with a "standard" isekai setting, the main character will die after being hit by a truck, generally attempting to save someone else in the process. The actual mechanics by which the main character is transported to another world or reborn are generally handwaved. This is parodied early on in ''Literature/KonoSuba'' .

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the central conflict is between the [[MagicVersusScience various religious organizations on the magic side, and Academy city on the science side]]. While the magic side obviously gets a fair deal of the "it's magic, we don't have to explain it," explanation, the science side gets more than a little too. In fact, it's a lot easier to ignore the woefully inaccurate {{Technobabble}} in the series when you remember that Academy City is literally founded and controlled by an evil wizard.
* In almost any light novel with a "standard" isekai setting, the main character will die after being hit by a truck, generally attempting to save someone else in the process. The actual mechanics by which the main character is transported to another world or reborn are generally handwaved. This is parodied early on in ''LightNovel/KonoSuba'' .

* Played for laughs in ''Fate/Apocrabridged'', when Caster of Black's constant questions about the premise of the [[LightNovel/FateApocrypha original series]] lead his interlocutor to scream in exasperation that he has no idea how it works either.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has episode "Trials and Tribbleations", which placed members of DS9 staff in ''Series/StarTrek'' episode "Trouble With Tribbles". How did post-movie Klingon Worf respond when asked about the difference in appearence between him and the original series Klingons? "We do not speak of it with outsiders."

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine-- has episode "Trials and Tribbleations", which placed members of DS9 staff in ''Series/StarTrek'' episode "Trouble With Tribbles". How did post-movie Klingon Worf respond when asked about the difference in appearence between him and the original series Klingons? "We do not speak of it with outsiders."

* In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "Little Dipper", Mabel believes a wizard is what made Dipper grow. HilarityEnsues. In reality, Dipper found magic crystals that can make things grow... or shrink.

* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin says that the BizarreSeasons in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' are caused by magic.

* Plinkett of WebVideo/RedLetterMedia really hates "The Force Did It" or that Palpatine was deliberately planning everything to turn out exactly the way it did as the all-encompassing answers to plot holes and contrived coincidences in the Star Wars Prequels.
-->'''Plinkett''': Oh, wait. I guess Palpatine was the guy that initially suggested the idea, so he might have been, like, using a trick on 'em or somethin'? You know, his grand plan was to butt all their judgement and trick them into letting Anakin go with her because he knew he was going to fall in love, get Padme pregnant, then have premonitions of future pregnancy complications resulting in her death, so that Palpatine could tell Anakin that he can use the dark side to save her so that Anakin could become Darth Vader and help Palpatine to rule the Empire. You'd think if this guy could see that far into the future he'd just pick the Lotto numbers.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'': Played very literally. Fiona's situation is explained only as [[spoiler:"It's a spell. When I was a little girl, a witch cast a spell on me."]] That's all they bothered to explain her premise with, and it's the primary foundation of the plot. Until the second movie at least. Even before then, [[AllThereInTheManual the DVD extras]] made it pretty clear [[spoiler:that's how Fiona ''naturally'' looks, the spell was what made her look human. The HandWave was probably done because going into detail about [[spoiler:what the witch did and why]] would have spoiled the plot.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' uses several variations on the theme. For instance, the StaticStunGun Warehouse Agents carry were invented by Nikola Tesla (a ''very'' standard way of explaining late-era SteamPunk tech) and the DieselPunk-looking iPhones they carry were invented by Philo Farnsworth (one of several people credited with inventing the television).

* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'': The magic lasso of truth, the shape-changing boomerang tiara, the belt of strength, why Wonder Woman lost her powers when she left Paradise Island, or even the basic physics of how 100-pound women could [[SuperStrength lift 20+ times their body weight and more]] these were all magical and never adequately explained.

-->"Wondrous apparitions, provided by magicians"

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Referenced by [[TheSmartGuy Simmons]] in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' after trying to explain teleporters to the crew.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'': any inconsistencies, contrivances, or ''anything and everything else'' could be explained with "[[RealityWarper Haruhi]] [[TheOmnipotent did it]]," or Kyon being an UnreliableNarrator. Reached MemeticMutation where any RealityWarper or God ''ever'' is Haruhi. See also StockEpilepticTrees.

'''Creator/LucyLawless:''' Uh, yeah, well, whenever you notice something like that... [[TropeNamers a wizard did it]].\\

'''Creator/LucyLawless:''' Uh, yeah, well, whenever you notice something like that... a wizard did it.\\

* ''[[Wiki/SCPFoundation The SCP Foundation]]'' [[{{Reconstruction}} reconstructs this]], in their quest to study and explain the supernatural, their articles written in scientific language show that individual [=SCPs=] [[{{MagicAIsMagicA}} have consistent rules about what they can do and what they can't]], they often detail testing where two or more [=SCPs=] were placed together to see what happens when their rules collide, and they have even examples where [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic science was able to fully explain some [=SCPs=] to the point they are no longer considered supernatural]], however, magic and supernatural as a whole runs on the concept that it has no rules and no logic, [=SCPs=] as a whole can be anything, science will never explain them and that's the whole point.