History Main / FootnoteFever

* Most English translations of ''Literature/TheBible'' are full of footnotes -- generally cross-references to other verses and useful notes that are often repeated over and over because people treat the Bible as a reference book rather than read it through. Many other notes give alternate wordings to passages, reflecting that the original texts were in several different languages and that translating things can change the meaning in subtle ways i.e. TheFourLoves all being translated to "Love" or a difference between [[ThouShaltNotKill "kill" and "murder"]].

* Most English translations of ''Literature/TheBible'' are full of footnotes - generally cross-references to other verses and useful notes that are often repeated over and over because people treat the Bible as a reference book rather than read it through. Many other notes give alternate wordings to passages, reflecting that the original texts were in several different languages and that translating things can change the meaning in subtle ways i.e. TheFourLoves all being translated to "Love" or a difference between [[ThouShaltNotKill "kill" and "murder"]].

* Creator/TerryPratchett uses footnotes a lot, to the extent that a book of his shorter works was called ''Once More[[labelnote:*]](With Footnotes)[[/labelnote]]''

* The MadScientist's assistant in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed'' is in charge of writing a manual for the main character (and by extension, the player), as he's using a machine that shows his ancestor's memories and operates like a videogame. Along the manual, there are various scribbled messages from her boss, including protests about the silliness of having videogame-like controls for such a serious research, and how it would be much easier to just do what they want directly (the videogame controls are supposed to make the main character feel at ease and explore the memories slowly, as opposed to abrupt interruptions which would be dangerous for his mind).

* Why, [[Wiki/TVTropes on this very wiki!]][[labelnote:*]]See?[[/labelnote]]

* Articles on Wiki/TheOtherWiki have "See Also" sections (references to other articles) which in effect are endnotes. In one [[WikiVandal joke edit]] in 2007 (which sort of still exists), the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=131810902 Infinite regress]]" article got a reference to ''itself''.[---11---]

* The traditional Chinese translations of ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'' make fairly liberal use of footnotes, primarily to explain historical, geographical and cultural references from the Western world and especially the U.S.[[note]]For instance, ''[[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus The Mark of Athena]]'' references the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", a patriotic American Civil War-era song which the average Chinese speaker from the other side of the planet would otherwise be unfamiliar with, while ''[[Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo The Hidden Oracle]]'' notes on characters drinking bug juice (i.e. super-sweet, artificially-flavored powdered juice drinks like Kool-Aid) and watching ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''.[[/note]] They also make clarifications on Greco-Roman mythological figures and events[[note]][A] is the god/titan of [B], [C] is the child of [D], [Event E] happened to [F], etc.[[/note]], render [[CallBack Call-Backs]] to previous books more explicit, and explain the occasional pun and specific term. If wordplay regarding the English language specifically is required, however, they render it in the original text with Chinese translations for the words in brackets.

* The traditional Chinese translations of ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'' make fairly liberal use of footnotes, primarily to explain historical, geographical and cultural references from the Western world and especially the U.S.[[note]]For instance, in ''[[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus The Mark of Athena]]'' references the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", a patriotic American Civil War-era song which the average Chinese speaker from the other side of the planet would otherwise be unfamiliar with, while ''[[Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo The Hidden Oracle]]'' notes on characters drinking bug juice (i.e. super-sweet, artificially-flavored powdered juice drinks like Kool-Aid) and watching ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''.[[/note]] They also make clarifications on Greco-Roman mythological figures and events[[note]][A] is the god/titan of [B], [C] is the child of [D], [Event E] happened to [F], etc.[[/note]], render [[CallBack Call-Backs]] to previous books more explicit, and explain the occasional pun and specific term. If wordplay regarding the English language specifically is required, however, they render it in the original text with Chinese translations for the words in brackets.

* The traditional Chinese translations of ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'' make fairly liberal use of footnotes, primarily to explain historical, geographical and cultural references from the Western world and especially the U.S.[[note]]For instance, in ''[[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus The Mark of Athena]]'' references the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", a patriotic American Civil War-era song which the average Chinese speaker from the other side of the planet would otherwise be unfamiliar with, while ''[[Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo The Hidden Oracle]]'' notes on characters drinking bug juice (i.e. super-sweet, artificially-flavored powdered juice drinks like Kool-Aid) and watching ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''[[/note]]. They also make clarifications on Greco-Roman mythological figures and events ([A] is the god/titan of [B], [C] is the child of [D], [Event E] happened to [F], etc.), render [[CallBack Call-Backs]] to previous books more explicit, and explain the occasional pun and specific term. If wordplay regarding the English language specifically is required, however, they render it in the original text with Chinese translations for the words in brackets.

* The traditional Chinese translations of ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'' make fairly liberal use of footnotes, primarily to explain historical, geographical and cultural references from the Western world and especially the U.S.[[note]]For instance, in [[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus The Mark of Athena]]'' references the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", a patriotic American Civil War-era song which the average Chinese speaker from the other side of the planet would otherwise be unfamiliar with, while ''[[Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo The Hidden Oracle]]'' notes on characters drinking bug juice (i.e. super-sweet, artificially-flavored powdered juice drinks like Kool-Aid) and watching ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''[[/note]]. They also make clarifications on Greco-Roman mythological figures and events ([A] is the god/titan of [B], [C] is the child of [D], [Event E] happened to [F], etc.), render [[CallBack Call-Backs]] to previous books more explicit, and explain the occasional pun and specific term. If wordplay regarding the English language specifically is required, however, they render it in the original text with Chinese translations for the words in brackets.

!!!Creators

* All over the place in ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', a fictional novel about the aftermath of a global zombie war presented as if it were non-fiction. The footnotes refer to real and fictitious events that took place before and during the war, explain unfamiliar terms, etc.
* Creator/MichaelCrichton's novel, ''Literature/The13thWarrior'' (aka ''Eaters of the Dead''), contains real and fake footnotes. This was incorporated into the audiobook version of the novel, where the main narrative was read by an actor, while the footnotes were read by Crichton.
* Creator/JGBallard's "Literature/NotesTowardsAMentalBreakdown" is one sentence ("A discharged Broadmoor patient compiles 'Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown', recalling his wife's murder, his trial and exoneration.") and a series of elaborate footnotes to each one of the words.
* ''Literature/KimJiyoungBorn1982'' uses footnotes to provide sources such as statistics and news articles for the narrator's descriptions of the social context of the protagonist's life. This ties in with the FramingDevice; the novel is framed as a report by the titular character's psychiatrist.
* Manuel Puig's ''Literature/KissOfTheSpiderWoman'' (originally published in Spanish as ''El beso de la mujer araña'') also makes extensive use of footnotes.
* Luis d'Antin van Rooten's ''Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames'' (the title is in French, but when pronounced, sounds similar to ''"Mother Goose Rhymes"''), in which he is allegedly the editor of a manuscript by the fictional François Charles Fernand d'Antin, contains copious footnotes purporting to help explain the nonsensical French text. The point of the book is that each written French poem ''sounds'' like an English nursery rhyme.
* Creator/ErnestHemingway's ''Natural History of the Dead'' uses a footnote to further satirize the style of a history while making a sardonic statement about the extinction of "humanists" in modern society.

* Mordecai Richler's novel ''Literature/BarneysVersion'' uses footnotes as a character device that highlights unreliable passages in the narration. As the editor of his father's autobiography, the narrator's son must correct any of his father's misstated facts. The frequency of these corrections increases as the father falls victim to both hubris and Alzheimer's disease. While most of these changes are minor, a few are essential to plot and character development.
* ''Bartleby y compañía'', a novel by Enrique Vila-Matas, is stylized as footnotes to a nonexistent novel.
* ''The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody'', a collection of humorous historical essays by Will Cuppy, is full of footnotes. Most of them are entirely unenlightening and exist only to tell or extend jokes; one simply reads, "So there."
* YA-novel ''Literature/BadKitty2006'' loves using footnotes that contain funny arguments between characters or snark about minor characters. Sometimes, the main character will [[PaintingTheMedium paint the medium]] by yelling at the other characters to get back up to the story.
* In his books ''Trick of the Mind'' and ''Confessions of a Conjurer'', Derren Brown uses footnotes whenever he wants to talk about something tangential to the main topic. Individual footnotes can frequently exceed five pages in length.
* The footnotes in ''Literature/TheMysteriousDisappearanceOfLeonIMeanNoel'' by Ellen Raskin are sometimes humorous sidebars but more often wildly out-of-character hints to young readers. One chapter begins with a footnote suggesting that those who are horse lovers rather than puzzle lovers skip to the next chapter.
* * ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle'': Within the story itself, the books are imagined as an in-universe account written by Alfred chronicling the series' events. As a part of this, the text is dotted with footnotes providing clarification and exposition on various bits of lore and worldbuilding that would not otherwise fit in the text itself without bogging down the narrative flow, which are presented as authorial asides and clarifications inserted by Alfred and Haplo for the benefit of in-universe readers.
* When reading ''Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth'' one is ''very'' conscious that both Creator/JRRTolkien and his son and editor Christopher Tolkien are Oxford professors and so given to exhaustive footnoting and citations.
* Articles in the regrettably rare and totally delightful ''Encyclopedia of Dune'' are footnoted up the wazoo by a whole board of editors. Not to mention the lengthy and imaginative bibliography.
* Creator/TSEliot's ''Literature/TheWasteLand'' is pretty much half footnotes.
** Made even more JustForFun/{{Egregious}} when it appears in an anthology, because then you've got Eliot's original footnotes plus the anthology's editor's footnotes. Sometimes the editor even has footnotes about Eliot's footnotes.
* ''Literature/NickOfTime'' has quite a few footnotes, so you aren't forced to read information you don't want.
* In ''Literature/AgathaHAndTheClockworkPrincess'', footnotes are freely used to expand on points, provide backstory, insert jokes and the occasional ShoutOut. ''Literature/AgathaHAndTheVoiceOfTheCastle'' and ''Literature/AgathaHAndTheSiegeOfMechanicsburg'' continue the grand tradition set up by the previous books.
* Creator/PiersAnthony's ''But What Of Earth?'' consists of the first draft of an early sci-fi book that he authored which was [[ExecutiveMeddling savaged by editors]] with endnotes indicating [[TakeThat all of the editor complaints he found unfounded]].
* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheNarrativeOfArthurGordonPymOfNantucket'' has many fictitious footnotes referencing non-existing books with great accuracy, so much so that it was itself used as a reference by authors who didn't know any better.
* The new-series ''Literature/MythAdventures'' novels make a RunningGag of using footnotes to shamelessly plug the ''old'' series novels.
* Austrian writer Friederike Mayroecker's 2010 book ''ich bin in der Anstalt: Fusznoten zu einem nichtgeschriebenen Werk'' ("I'm at the asylum: footnotes to a nonwritten work") is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* ''[[Literature/SimplyWeird Simply Weird: The (fake) History of Weird Comics Incorporated, A (fake) Comic Book Company]]'' has a total of 47 footnotes!
* Creator/StevenBrust's ''Literature/KhaavrenRomances'' series is in-universe historical romance, complete with pompous in-universe author, Paarfi of Roundwood. Paarfi occasionally footnotes background info (in addition to the copious amounts already there in the text). Brust (the actual author) occasionally puts in a footnote to inform the reader when Paarfi is being less than strictly honest, usually about his own qualifications.
* ''Return To The Willows'', a fan-written followup to ''Literature/TheWindInTheWillows'' does this. The American edition has a number of footnotes to explain British terms, but there are a number of other footnotes, including one explaining the concept of life not being fair, and another directing readers back to the previous footnote when Mr. Toad complains to himself about how unfair things are.
* The annotated versions of ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' and ''Through the Looking-Glass''. The latter has a span of four pages that consists entirely of footnotes. Likewise, in ''The Annotated [[Literature/TheHuntingOfTheSnark Hunting of the Snark]]'', it is rare for any page to be less than half footnotes.
* The Spy Gear Adventures series by Rick Barba uses lots of footnotes for comedy.
* ''Literature/BeautyQueens'' uses footnotes to make comic asides, [[FictionalDocument fictional pop culture references]] and describe [[BlandNameProduct imaginary products]].
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's mystery novel ''Literature/MurderAtTheABA'' is told in the form of protagonist Darius Just's account of (fictional) events [[DirectLineToTheAuthor as told to Asimov]]. The book contains scattered footnotes in which Just and Asimov snipe at each other, though this comes to an end as [[ShooOutTheClowns the story reaches its climax]].

* ''Literature/ForWantOfANail'' is an AlternateHistory work where the American Revolution failed, and it's notable for it's extensive footnotes and references to [[FictionalDocument academic books that don't exist]].
* The ''Literature/SecretSeries'' by Creator/PseudonymousBosch is loaded with footnotes. They appear in his ''Write This Book: A Do-It-Yourself Mystery'', which has a footnote below a footnote that explains footnotes. "Usually, footnotes are indicated by a star or stars (plural) like these ***." The *** labeled footnote says "Ha. Made you look."
* In ''Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them'' by Creator/AlFranken, Chapter 2 has several {{Take That}}s about Creator/AnnCoulter's misleading use of endnotes, which are like footnotes but less easy to reference (because they appear at the end of the book instead of on the same page) and thus easier to lie with. The chapter links to the only two endnotes in the book, the first to set straight a deliberately misleading debunking of a factual inaccuracy in Coulter's ''{{Literature/Slander}}'', the second simply to point out how hard endnotes are to find. The last paragraph of the chapter abuses footnotes deliberately:
-->So that's how you lie with footnotes. Disgusting, huh? But it's not just you who thinks so. Even people Coulter considers friends says she's "a lying bitch,"[[labelnote:3]]Me, to my wife.[[/labelnote]] "a horror show of epic proportions,"[[labelnote:4]]Ibid.[[/labelnote]] "oh, the poor thing,"[[labelnote:5]]My wife, to me.[[/labelnote]] and "a bitch."[[labelnote:6]]Me, to another friend.[[/labelnote]]
* Science writer Mary Roach, author of ''Stiff'', ''Spook'', ''Bonk'', and ''Packing for Mars'', has a habit of throwing in copious footnotes. In keeping with the main text of her books, these footnotes are funny about as often as they are informative.
* There was a minor Victorian poet whose only collection of poems is full of footnotes; in one four-line poem about the death of Lord Palmerston, the footnote is longer than the actual poem. Elsewhere, he'd footnote anything which he thought wasn't clear enough: for example, in the line 'The captain scans the ruffled zone', he footnoted 'zone' and the footnote read '[[DontExplainTheJoke A figurative expression, intended by the author to signify the horizon]].' This need to be unambiguous may or may not have had something to do with the poet's day job as a customs officer. What's especially funny about this is the poet's name: [[MeaningfulName Edward Edwin Foot]].
* As indicated in the page quote, Nicholson Baker's ''The Mezzanine'' is liberally salted with footnotes to try to catch the little details of a day that one might otherwise miss.
* ''Literature/DrawingABlank'' is a fairly straightforward case. The 68 footnotes all relate to items that Carlton is uncertain whether the reader will understand the reference (and show that he has an excellent mind for historical trivia).
* William Baring-Gould's ''The Annotated Sherlock Holmes'' contains footnotes on everything from the most likely location of Watson's war wound to a recipe for a particular dish mentioned by Holmes.
* The datasheet for the Signetics 25120 "Fully Encoded, 9046 x N, Random Access Write-Only-Memory" chip, first issued in 1972 as an AprilFoolsDay hoax, comes with twelve generally humorous footnotes, a few of which are {{Shout Out}}s to a similar vintage-1950 joke datasheet for a self-flushing vacuum tube.
* Every chapter of ''Literature/TheNewHumans'' thus far, ranging from jokes to short character studies, to a few lengthy world building digressions.

* Some editions of the stories of Literature/HerculePoirot by Creator/AgathaChristie translate the detective's French phrases into English this way.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'' has a series of books presented as in-universe documents, where characters have scribbled their own thoughts on the text in the margins.
* Seen a lot in magazine ScienceFiction written in the 1930's and 40's, about the time editor Creator/JohnWCampbell was trying to bring scientifiction out of its pulp origins--thus footnotes added a faux air of authenticity (e.g. by stating that "The hyperspace drive was invented by Professor Jones [[HistoryMarchesOn in the year 1980]]") or scientific InfoDump ("The Asteroid Belt was formed by the [[ScienceMarchesOn destruction of a planet according to Bode's Law]]").
* ''Leyden Ltd.'' by Argentine writer Luis Sagasti is a story told entirely through the footnotes of a fictional book whose main text has been allegedly lost.
* The ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'' novella ''What Abigail Did That Summer'' has several footnotes translating the more impenetrable parts of Abigail's London teenspeak, supposedly written by Professor Postmartin for the benefit of Agent Reynolds, and flavoured with Postmartin's sardonic views about young people and the decline of the language.

!!!Non-Fiction, Specific
* In Series/TheDailyShow's ''Literature/AmericaTheBook'', the sidenotes are to keep up the illusion of being a school textbook, which often have all sorts of bizarre infoboxes in the margins. The footnotes are unexplainable except by RuleOfFunny, however.
** ''America: The Book'' also has a faux essay on "How to [[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem Filibuster]]" that's basically a page of footnotes, footnotes within footnotes, symbols that ''look'' like footnotes within footnotes...
** A later "Teacher's Edition" of ''America: The Book'' adds another layer of commentary, in the form of angry red notes scrawled all through the book by a history professor who is almost but not quite aware that the book is comedy.
* ''The Book of Basketball'', by Creator/BillSimmons, has between 50 and 100 footnotes IN EACH CHAPTER. Simmons usually uses the footnotes for entertaining stories that avoid the over 700 page book from becoming too tedious. Because, well, it's entirely devoted to professional basketball. The revised paperback downright [[https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/916s6-hXOvL.jpg has one on the cover noting the update includes more footnotes]]! (the introduction estimates 70 extra ones)
* The ''Literature/HorribleHistories'' books and some similar series use this occasionally -- the ''Coping With'' series in particular loved this trope.
* The classic article "Vide Infra" from the ''Journal of Irreproducible Results'' consists of half a sentence of text and 24 footnotes (including footnotes within footnotes).

* Creator/DaveBarry is a fan of these. He likes to allude to things in the main text, only to have the footnote say that such a thing doesn't exist. He also uses them to give punchlines based on [[RunningGag running gags]]. In fact, the more "serious" the main text becomes, the more the subtitles seem like he's MSTing himself.

** One footnote from a ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book was included as part of a quotation cited in a non-fiction chapter of a ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'' book. This footnote (footquote?), in turn, had a footnote explaining all this. [[labelnote:*]] and the explanatory footnote declared itself to be a "metafootnote"[[/labelnote]]

!!!Specific Books and Series

* In Series/TheDailyShow's ''Literature/AmericaTheBook'', the sidenotes are to keep up the illusion of being a school textbook, which often have all sorts of bizarre infoboxes in the margins. The footnotes are unexplainable except by RuleOfFunny, however.
** ''America: The Book'' also has a faux essay on "How to [[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem Filibuster]]" that's basically a page of footnotes, footnotes within footnotes, symbols that ''look'' like footnotes within footnotes...
** A later "Teacher's Edition" of ''America: The Book'' adds another layer of commentary, in the form of angry red notes scrawled all through the book by a history professor who is almost but not quite aware that the book is comedy.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Footnotes show up in the spin-off books ''Literature/QuidditchThroughTheAges'', ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'' and ''Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard''.
** In the mainland Chinese translations, there are footnotes that are needed to translate English-language jokes (like "It's getting Blacker every day"), as well as ones to change subtext into text (like "This is not a typo, Slughorn just mistook Ron Weasley's name." ), and advertising other books in the franchise (like "For more information on ______, please read ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'', published by the People's Chinese Publication Company.").
** The Japanese translation uses a handy fold-out pamphlet to explain all the Western Magic info.

* The ''Literature/HorribleHistories'' books and some similar series use this occasionally -- the ''Coping With'' series in particular loved this trope.

* Creator/DavidFosterWallace's {{Metafiction}}al magnum opus, ''Literature/InfiniteJest'', is [[DoorStopper 1,079 pages long]]. 96 of these pages contain the novel's 388 endnotes, some over a dozen pages long. Several literary critics suggested that the book be read with two bookmarks. Wallace uses footnotes in much of his other writing as well.
** Creator/DavidFosterWallace is just [[SignatureStyle plain fond of footnotes]] in his fiction and nonfiction (the essay "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" has, at one point, a footnote that simply reads "!").
** It shows up again in ''Literature/ThePaleKing'', whenever Wallace provides a direct narration.

* The computer language textbook "Learning Perl" has 3 footnotes on one 119-word section, and includes the footnote "We even discussed doing the entire book as a footnote to save the pagecount, but footnotes on footnotes started to get a bit crazy." [---12---]
** Hot footnote-on-footnote action?

* ''Literature/QiangJinJiu'': The English translation is full of footnotes explaining things non-Chinese readers are unfamiliar with. The translator jokingly nicknamed it "The Novel Where the Footnotes Are Longer Than the Actual Translation" because of this.
** ''Literature/FoxDemonCultivationManual'''s English version is translated by the same people and also contains footnotes (though usually they're not as lengthy as in ''Qiang Jin Jiu'').

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': The Chinese translation averaged one footnote every five pages; the scene where Edward and Bella discuss their university plans entailed a half page long note on American universities, their cultural connotation, and the mechanics of the SAT.

* ''Castle Dreams'', a rather surreal and existentialist entry in John [=DeChancie=]'s ''Literature/CastlePerilous'' series to begin with, has oodles of fun playing with spurious footnotes. The topics range from somewhat serious explanations of literary tropes, self-referential textual allusions, and obscure plot points to tongue-in-cheek humor, a hilarious send-up of many fantasy tropes, [[RefugeInAudacity random comments which have nothing at all to do with the book]], and even times where the footnote writer propositions the reader for a date. And that doesn't even begin to describe the preface in which the supposed footnote writer [[DirectLineToTheAuthor reveals he didn't write them at all (or the preface!)]], as well as quizzes and tests scattered throughout the novel -- usually based on info from the footnotes.
* ''Literature/AnAbundanceOfKatherines'' by Creator/JohnGreen features many footnotes, in which he says: "[They] can allow you to create a kind of secret second narrative, which is important if, say, you're writing a book about what a story is and whether stories are significant." Most of them exist to translate dialog that's in a foreign language, or to explain the math jokes.
* The classic article "Vide Infra" from the ''Journal of Irreproducible Results'' consists of half a sentence of text and 24 footnotes (including footnotes within footnotes).
* Creator/GeorgeMacDonaldFraser's ''Literature/{{Flashman}}'' novels (which purport to be memoirs) contain copious endnotes about the real people and historic events described. (Sometimes these contradict the narrator's memory.)
* There's a non-fictional (sort of) example in ''[[http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity]]'', a paper by Alan Sokal that was essentially [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair a big joke at postmodernism's expense]] that has the usual footnotes expected in just about any scientific publication. Some are standard footnotes, but others are easily identified as screwball by anyone who has any understanding of what Sokal is talking about. Which the editors of the journal didn't. Which was the point of the whole exercise.
* Alexander Pope's mock-epic poem ''The Dunciad'' (multiple versions, 1728-43) is also a mock-scholarly edition. On some pages in the original printings, the footnotes are so extensive that there is room for only one line of verse. Modern editions inadvertently take Pope's joke even further, since most of the footnotes now require footnoting.
* In William Makepeace Thackeray's ''Literature/TheHistoryOfHenryEsmond'' (1852), the title character's relatives, who are reading the manuscript of his memoirs, occasionally pop into the footnotes to disagree with Esmond's account of various personal matters.
* The novel ''[[Literature/TheCuriousIncidentOfTheDogInTheNightTime The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time]]'' by Mark Haddon. It's narrated by an autistic teenager who often pauses the narrative to explain his train of thought, discuss a mathematical problem or clarify his words to make absolutely sure that he doesn't accidentally give the wrong impression (he has a total aversion to lying).
* ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'': The Portuguese translation includes a footnote for every [[ShoutOut quoting or paraphrasing]] of Creator/WilliamShakespeare (usually by John the Savage) containing the source of the quote and the quote in its original form and language. At one point, the footnotes take up half the page. John ''really'' likes his Shakespeare.
* Michael Lawrence's ''Literature/JiggyMccue'' series has this in every book.
* Spanish Author J. J. Benitez does this too on his ''Caballo de Troya'' series. Worst offender from the first book: 3 lines of text, 2 PAGES of footnotes. Note this isn't a deconstruction or parody... its a scifi novel of two timenauts under command of the USAF, landing on Jesus' Jerusalem to "Witness His Life and Death".
** It's possible that he got it from the Bible, given the theme of the book. It's not certain whether he was making fun of it or trying to ''emulate'' it.
* Parodied in Creator/JohnMoore's [[FracturedFairyTale comic fantasy novel]] ''Bad Prince Charlie'', which contains the following footnote early on:
-->This looks like a good place for a footnote. Terry Pratchett and Susanna Clarke use lots of footnotes and they write bestsellers, so maybe I should also throw in a few.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's lost novel ''[[Literature/ForUsTheLivingAComedyOfCustoms For Us, The Living]]'' aptly demonstrates why it was lost with a two-page footnote that explains the backstory of one of the main characters.
* Neal Stephenson's footnotes, oddly enough given his overall propensity for self-indulgent digression, are relatively illuminating for times when it would be really, really awkward to put Pervading Historical Fact X in the period character's head.
* The published script of ''Theatre/TheCompleteWorksOfWilliamShakespeareAbridged‎'' is annotated with a great number of footnotes, many of them entirely frivolous; for example, one footnote is a recipe for guacamole. The great number, to be exact, is 11188, but on closer examination footnotes 100 through 179, 200 through 1179 and 1200 through 11179 appear to have been skipped. The [[AudioAdaptation radio show]] includes frequent breaks for "Audio Footnote Time."
* Most of pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman's work has copious footnotes. One in ''Chuck Klosterman IV'' continues onto a second page.
** From ''Killing Yourself To Live'':
--->"For the next 45 minutes, this short-sleeved man gives me a lot of advice. most of it dwells on a) the importance of loving your wife,[[labelnote:*]] Women need to feel loved in order to feel free, so withholding love from your wife is like sentencing her to prison.[[/labelnote]] b) the importance of hunting dog ownership,[[labelnote:*]] Even if you lose your job, your hunting dog will respect you. In life, this quality is rare.[[/labelnote]] c) why we have fewer windmills than we used to,[[labelnote:*]] Something about aquifers.[[/labelnote]] d) what's wrong with the American League,[[labelnote:*]] "It's become goddamn slow-pitch softball."[[/labelnote]] e) how to properly fire an employee,[[labelnote:*]] Concede that you've both made mistakes, but stoically admit that you can't fire yourself.[[/labelnote]] f) why life insurance is a sham,[[labelnote:*]] Insurance salesmen are no different than chiropractors, whatever the fuck that means.[[/labelnote]] g) how to buy or sell a race horse,[[labelnote:*]] Something about looking at certain bones.[[/labelnote]] and h) the complexity of human relationships, particularly in a business setting."
* A scholarly printing of ''Literature/FinnegansWake'' may have at least two inches of footnote for every inch of text, just to explain what's going on in any given passage.
* ''Literature/WarWithTheNewts'' by [[Creator/KarelCapek Karel Čapek]] contains footnotes that encompass several pages, and excerpt from a newspaper in a totally unknown language.
* Charles Coleman Finlay's ''[[http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eccfinlay/footnotes.html Footnotes]]'' is a story told via the footnotes of a missing text.
* ''Literature/TheSevenPercentSolution'' uses the footnotes to [[PaintingTheMedium paint the fourth wall]] -- as is customary for Holmesian fanfic, Meyer claims the story is a missing Watson manuscript, so Meyer comments on Watson's throwaway remarks to other cases, incontinuitous remarks, and historical mistakes. The best:
--> ''(Watson)'' I believe it was in ''[[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Julius Caesar]]'' that the Bard said 'music hath charms to soothe the savage breast and calm the restless spirit, ...
--> ''(Meyer, in footnote)'' It isn't.[[labelnote:*]]It was William Congreve in ''The Mourning Bride''.[[/labelnote]]
* John Hodgman's ''Literature/CompleteWorldKnowledge'', being a parody of almanacks, naturally makes good use of these, but ''Literature/MoreInformationThanYouRequire'' deserves special mention for going so far as to include a footnote ''in the title''.
* A non-fiction example. Later editions of books by Oliver Sacks are often hard to read because he adds lots of interesting case details, which happened since the original publication, in the form of extremely long and frequent footnotes.
* ''Literature/TheThirdPoliceman'' by Flann O'Brien contains extensive and lengthy footnotes in which the narrator expounds the theories and experiments of the great fictional philosopher de Selby. These footnotes span several pages and often overtake the main plotline, and add to the absurdist tone of the book.
* ''[[Literature/RubyOliverQuartet The Boyfriend List]]'' by E. Lockhart, and its two sequels, ''The Boy Book'' and ''The Treasure Map of Boys''.
* ''The Book of Basketball'', by Creator/BillSimmons, has between 50 and 100 footnotes IN EACH CHAPTER. Simmons usually uses the footnotes for entertaining stories that avoid the over 700 page book from becoming too tedious. Because, well, it's entirely devoted to professional basketball. The revised paperback downright [[https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/916s6-hXOvL.jpg has one on the cover noting the update includes more footnotes]]! (the introduction estimates 70 extra ones)
* Ann Coulter is fond of this trope, frequently pointing to the number of footnotes in her books as evidence that they're meticulously researched; however, it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMM7NRdwrnc&feature=related has]] [[http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh072202.shtml been]] [[http://mediamatters.org/research/200608070002 pointed out]] that many of her supposed sources either [[BlatantLies don't feature the attributed quote at all]], or [[QuoteMine have it in a context that gives it a totally different meaning]]. She responds to some of those accusations [[http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter100903.asp here]].

* ''Literature/TheAthenianMurders'', by Creator/JoseCarlosSomoza contains many translator's notes, some of which run for entire pages. While they're initially only about the text itself, the translator, a character in his own right, soon begins to write his research into the text and eventually about [[spoiler:his kidnapping]], so that the footnotes contain an entire (sub)plot that turns out to be integral to the story.

* In [[UsefulNotes/PolishEducationalSystem Poland]], translation of textbooks made by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagiellonian_University Jagiellonian University]] are infamous for going as far as providing footnotes to footnotes ''of the original footnotes''. With PurpleProse. It's not helping that the faculty considers this as a perfect way of doing [[AppealToTradition "proper" translation]], banning any other form of it from being published by the university's printhouse. More often than not this ends up with an indigestible book containing more footnotes than actual content.

* ''Literature/AChorusOfDragons'': The books are presented as annotated, edited accounts prepared by Thurvishar (one and three) or Senera (two and four), with extensive footnotes on their part to provide additional context on character motivations, backstory, worldbuilding details and speculation that the characters either don't mention in-text or wouldn't be privy to, alongside the occasional sarcastic remark or quip concerning events they are personally invested in.
* ''Literature/QiangJinJiu'': The English translation is full of footnotes explaining things non-Chinese readers are unfamiliar with. The translator jokingly nicknamed it "The Novel Where the Footnotes Are Longer Than the Actual Translation" because of this.
** ''Literature/FoxDemonCultivationManual'''s English version is translated by the same people and also contains footnotes (though usually they're not as lengthy as in ''Qiang Jin Jiu'').
* ''Literature/TheGetRichQuickClub'', by Creator/DanGutam, has these when Quincy says a phrase that is confusing to an American audience, since she is from Australia.
* Jonathon L. Howard tends to use footnotes in his Johannes Cabal novels, and in ''Literature/JohannesCabalTheDetective'' there's one that mentions Cabal keeps a collection of his wanted posters, and in a bit of rare vanity his favorite is the one with the highest bounty.
* ''{{Literature/Twilight}}'': The Chinese translation averaged one footnote every five pages; the scene where Edward and Bella discuss their university plans entailed a half page long note on American universities, their cultural connotation, and the mechanics of the SAT.
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'': Most English copies are at least 50% footnotes, explaining Dante's detailed parody of contemporary Italian politics, extensive reference to Biblical and Mythological sources, and common folk tales that haven't been widely told since the Renaissance. However, there's one notorious instance in the ''Paradiso'' where the first ever Dante commenter (his own son and ''co-writer'') admits he doesn't have a clue what Dante was talking about.
* ''Literature/GoodOmens'' by Creator/NeilGaiman and Creator/TerryPratchett uses footnotes to great comedic effect, memorably setting up a king-sized BrickJoke [[spoiler:about [[ElvisLives Elvis]]]]. Also, backstory, digressions, gags, and [[CallBack Call Backs]] abound.
* ''Literature/TheBriefWondrousLifeOfOscarWao'' has a number of footnotes; each one starts out fairly informative but soon turns into a rant against Trujillo, the then-dictator of the Dominican Republic.
* Parodied, like everything else, in ''Literature/TheCityOfDreamingBooks'' by Creator/WalterMoers. Since they are the autobiography of the AuthorAvatar, who himself is a parody, the footnotes are all from the AuthorAvatar and not the author, which makes them very worth reading, as they usually include even more hilarity. Unless they have been inserted by the [[MindScrew Translator Avatar]].
* ''Literature/LoyalEnemies'' is generously spiced with footnotes explaining things Shelena isn't bothered to elaborate upon, as well as referring the readers to various {{Fictional Document}}s for additional information. They don't say anything on the subject of [[CrypticBackgroundReference ghyrs]], though.
** Polish translation bumps the footnote quota even higher, as the editors felt the need to explain to Polish readers old Russian aristocratic titles and weights and measures' system the author's using.

** He managed to write a {{Drabble}} with a footnote.[[labelnote:*]]And it still came out to 100 words exactly[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:†]]Read it [[http://www.meades.org/drabble.html#Incubust here]][[/labelnote]]

* ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' weaves much of the plot in its footnotes, often using footnotes within footnotes within footnotes to create "windows" or mazes inside the book. The physical orientation of the footnotes on the page also works to reflect the twisted feeling of the plot (often taking up several pages, appearing mirrored from page to page, vertical on either side of the page, or in boxes in the center of the page, in the middle of the central narrative). Footnotes which become TheLongList tend to actually have coded messages inside them.
* Literature/ThursdayNext has her footnoterphone, which people in the Bookworld use as phones or personal radios.
** More than that, in one of the books, (the third, maybe?) Thursday escapes from danger by escaping ''into'' the footnotes of the book. The main story, which had been in the first person up until that point, becomes a very dry third-person narration until she rejoins the narrative once it's safe.
** A printing error in ''First Among Sequels'' meant that footnotes were omitted. Confusing doesn't cover it.
* To quote an Amazon review for ''Literature/RealUltimatePower: The Official Ninja Book'', "[w]hile the book is primarily made up of the same material that is posted on the website, the true point of the book is hidden in its footnotes [...] [which] tell the story of a troubled kid who buries himself in a ninja fantasy in order to escape his negligent parents, over-critical teachers and to compensate for his lack of friends." The story of the footnotes and the main text are very different.
* The ''Literature/HorribleHistories'' books and some similar series use this occasionally -- the ''Coping With'' series in particular loved this trope.
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'' uses this as well.
** Indeed, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' spun off whole other stories in its footnotes, one of which was later expanded into [[VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1984 the computer game]] and book ''VideoGame/StarshipTitanic''.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Footnotes show up in the spin-off books ''Literature/QuidditchThroughTheAges'', ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'' and ''Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard''.
** In the mainland Chinese translations, there are footnotes that are needed to translate English-language jokes (like "It's getting Blacker every day"), as well as ones to change subtext into text (like "This is not a typo, Slughorn just mistook Ron Weasley's name." ), and advertising other books in the franchise (like "For more information on ______, please read ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'', published by the People's Chinese Publication Company.").
** The Japanese translation uses a handy fold-out pamphlet to explain all the Western Magic info.
* ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'' by Jonathan Stroud. Used to reflect the fact the narrator, a djinn, can keep track of several trains of thought simultaneously. And basically to add sarcastic and/or bragging asides. It was also a nice method of adding details about people/places without derailing the story's momentum.
-->"I could read four stories printed on top of each other. The best I can do for you is ''footnotes.''"
** Toward the end of the last book, Bartimaeus ends up [[spoiler:SharingABody with Nathaniel]]. The first time he inserts a footnote after this occurs, he's cut short and back in the main text, [[spoiler:Nathaniel]] tells him to "stop doing that". This is the only time a footnote appears outside the Bartimaeus chapters.
** Bartimaeus really takes this up to ridiculous heights in the prequel where this is one instance of him putting a footnote ''inside his footnote'' when [[FirstPersonSmartass snarking]] about the abilities of Solomon's ring. To distinguish this from normal footnotes, he uses a star instead of a number.

* Garrison Keillor (''Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion'') plays with this in his book ''Lake Wobegon Days'', which includes lengthy footnotes and a parallel narrative. A "footnote" stretches over the bottom third or half of at least half a dozen pages. Presumably it's not included in the main body of text JUST for the humor value. In one small-print copy, it lasts twenty-five pages.
* Creator/StephenColbert's ''Literature/IAmAmericaAndSoCanYou'' plays with this quite a bit, not just in footnotes but also in ''sidenotes''.[---10---]
* Series/TheDailyShow's ''Literature/AmericaTheBook'', too. Here, the sidenotes are to keep up the illusion of being a school textbook, which often have all sorts of bizarre infoboxes in the margins. The footnotes are unexplainable except by RuleOfFunny, however.

* John Norman (author of the Gor series) wrote 'Imaginative Sex', a book of SF/F sexual fantasies for couples to use in spicing up their sex lives. The fantasy scenes are often interrupted by extremely long footnotes that attempt to rationalise the setting. Or explain the evils of Feminism. Or explain that women wear pants as a way of appealing to the latent homosexual in their man.
* Susanna Clarke's novel ''Literature/JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell'' has numerous footnotes that mostly detail the history and folklore surrounding the topic of magic. These footnotes regularly take up more space than the main body and occasionally gobble up a whole page.
* Creator/VladimirNabokov's ''Literature/PaleFire'' is an entire novel consisting of footnotes to a poem, the main plot is told through the footnotes of a fictional editor.
** 400 pages of notes to 37 pages of poetry. Probably qualifies as the most disproportionate amount of footnotes to lines of text in existence.
* Creator/RobertAntonWilson's ''The Widow's Son'' has very detailed footnotes [[spoiler:and when the protagonist starts going insane, the footnotes go insane with him and start mentioning complete irrelevancies]].
** They start out as a parody of the footnotes in ''[[GeniusBonus The Third Policeman]]'', complete with the discussion of the imaginary philosopher De Selby. [[spoiler:Indeed, De Selby actually appears as a character at one point, although [[MindScrew it may well be the protagonist's hallucination.]]]]
** A theory is advanced at one point that footnotes are a parasitic lifeform, living off the main text and symbiotic with it. the footnotes to ''TWS'' read like a separate novel, a literary infection trying to break into the main text, and succeeding in several places.
* Mark Dunn's ''Ibid: A Life'' consists of the endnotes to a [[FictionalDocument fictitious biography]] whose manuscript was accidentally destroyed.

* Creator/DaveBarry is also a fan of these. He likes to allude to things in the main text, only to have the footnote say that such a thing doesn't exist. He also uses them to give punchlines based on [[RunningGag running gags]]. In fact, the more "serious" the main text becomes, the more the subtitles seem like he's MSTing himself.
* Creator/DavidFosterWallace's {{Metafiction}}al magnum opus, ''Literature/InfiniteJest'', is [[DoorStopper 1,079 pages long]]. 96 of these pages contain the novel's 388 endnotes, some over a dozen pages long. Several literary critics suggested that the book be read with two bookmarks. Wallace uses footnotes in much of his other writing as well.
** Creator/DavidFosterWallace is just [[SignatureStyle plain fond of footnotes]] in his fiction and nonfiction (the essay "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" has, at one point, a footnote that simply reads "!").
** It shows up again in ''Literature/ThePaleKing'', whenever Wallace provides a direct narration.

* Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer's Literature/SherlockHolmes[=/=]Literature/{{Tarzan}} crossover, ''The Adventure of the Peerless Peer'', has an altogether unnecessary number of pseudo-scholarly footnotes. At one point Holmes is given the entirely inappropriate line, "Watson, isn't that [=a**=][=***e=] firing a machine gun?"; in a dreary attempt at wit, the footnote explores whether Watson in writing this adventure used the wrong number of asterisks, or whether Holmes actually used the seven-letter rather than the appropriately British eight-letter form because the [=a**=][=***e=] under discussion was American.
* Most English translations of ''Literature/TheBible'' are full of footnotes - generally cross-references to other verses and useful notes that are often repeated over and over because people treat the Bible as a reference book rather than read it through. Many other notes give alternate wordings to passages, reflecting that the original texts were in several different languages and that translating things can change the meaning in subtle ways i.e. TheFourLoves all being translated to "Love" or a difference between [[ThouShaltNotKill "kill" and "murder"]].
** IfYouThoughtThatWasBad, try the Book of Mormon.
*** And IfYouThoughtThatWasBad, try Abdullah Yusuf Ali's celebrated translation of the Noble Qur'an, by wordcount, the footnoted commentary is 20-times longer than the holy text it's expounding upon.
** English-language printings of the Hebrew Bible. One third a page of scripture in English, one third a page of scripture in Hebrew, and then two thirds of two pages of commentary.
** Or better yet, the classic Vilna edition of the Talmud. On pages with complex ideas or cases, the two major commentaries can take up the ''entire page'', with no room whatsoever for the original text until the next page. Note that these pages contain enough text for probably ten "novel"-sized pages.
** The majority of footnotes in holy books are referencing other, similar material, topical guides, or dictionary definitions, or providing an alternate translation, which helps the lay clergy prepare talks and lessons.
---> "b. Mana -- n. (Heb.) What is that? [[labelnote:*]]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynjIoymWHvU[[/labelnote]]"
** Oxford's Annotated Bible uses footnotes to, of all things, point out where the translator switched a pronoun with its antecedent and vice-versa for better English flow. I know there are inherent problems with translation, dude, but I can trust you with ''this'' much...
** "Study" Bibles can contain as much commentary as text. Notable historical examples include the 1560 Geneva Bible and the 1909 Scofield Reference Bible. The former, having Puritan commentary suggesting limits to the power of the church hierarchy and monarchs, drove King James VI/I to commission a new translation without notes that you may be familiar with. The latter introduced millions of readers to dispensationalist theology and formed a foundation to American fundamentalism.

Footnotes[[labelnote:1]][[SelfDemonstratingArticle First discovered in 1841 in the country of Asteriskia[[/labelnote]] are a valuable literary device]][[labelnote:2]]They'd fetch half a million commas on the black market.[[/labelnote]] and not just for scholars or high school students who need to pad out a report on the "Life and Death of Joan of Arc".[[labelnote:3]]who was [[Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure not Noah's wife]][[/labelnote]] No, authors of fiction use them too and often in various interesting and experimental ways.[[labelnote:4]]Everyone [[ExperimentedInCollege experiments in college]], right?[[/labelnote]] These footnotes could contain jokes,[[labelnote:5]]What did one footnote say to the other? "Follow me and we'll go places!"[[/labelnote]] more information about what's going on in the story,[[labelnote:6]]I am editing this page whilst being attacked by ninja mice.[[/labelnote]] or even an entirely different story.[[labelnote:7]]The ninja mice hail from a dwarf planet orbiting the star Zerkimirk. Their journey to Earth has brought them in conflict with many humans, and many of them now seek vengeance for the death of their leader, Spickaspeak.[[/labelnote]] These authors have Footnote Fever![[labelnote:8]]Symptoms of Footnote Fever may include [[SideEffectsInclude phantom hand syndrome, monkey lung, scrofula, late-onset albinism, pulmonary weevils and mild rash]][[/labelnote]]

* Creator/TerryPratchett uses footnotes a lot, to the extent that a book of his shorter works was called ''Once More[[labelnote:* ]](With Footnotes)[[/labelnote]]''

** One footnote from a ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book was included as part of a quotation cited in a non-fiction chapter of a ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'' book. This footnote (footquote?), in turn, had a footnote explaining all this. [[labelnote:* ]] and the explanatory footnote declared itself to be a "metafootnote"[[/labelnote]]

** He managed to write a {{Drabble}} with a footnote.[[labelnote:* ]]And it still came out to 100 words exactly[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:† ]]Read it [[http://www.meades.org/drabble.html#Incubust here]][[/labelnote]]

---> "b. Mana -- n. (Heb.) What is that? [[labelnote:* ]]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynjIoymWHvU[[/labelnote]]"

---> "For the next 45 minutes, this short-sleeved man gives me a lot of advice. most of it dwells on a) the importance of loving your wife,[[labelnote:* ]] Women need to feel loved in order to feel free, so withholding love from your wife is like sentencing her to prison.[[/labelnote]] b) the importance of hunting dog ownership,[[labelnote:* ]] Even if you lose your job, your hunting dog will respect you. In life, this quality is rare.[[/labelnote]] c) why we have fewer windmills than we used to,[[labelnote:* ]] Something about aquifers.[[/labelnote]] d) what's wrong with the American League,[[labelnote:* ]] "It's become goddamn slow-pitch softball."[[/labelnote]] e) how to properly fire an employee,[[labelnote:* ]] Concede that you've both made mistakes, but stoically admit that you can't fire yourself.[[/labelnote]] f) why life insurance is a sham,[[labelnote:* ]] Insurance salesmen are no different than chiropractors, whatever the fuck that means.[[/labelnote]] g) how to buy or sell a race horse,[[labelnote:* ]] Something about looking at certain bones.[[/labelnote]] and h) the complexity of human relationships, particularly in a business setting."

--> ''(Meyer, in footnote)'' It isn't.[[labelnote:* ]]It was William Congreve in ''The Mourning Bride''.[[/labelnote]]

Many translations will use footnotes because the main problem of translation (rather than simply transliteration) deals with how to get across elements that are specific to said work's original language or place of origin (puns, metaphors, hidden meanings, [[ShoutOut references]], ValuesDissonance, etc). Methods to prevent these elements from being LostInTranslation boil down to {{Woolseyism}}s or Translator's Notes (TN), footnotes where the translator explains elements that are too difficult to explain and keep the narrative flow uninterrupted. Obviously, translation into seriously unrelated languages tends to devolve into footnote fever quite quickly. See TooLongDidntDub for more specific cases.

* ''Welcome to Lodoss Island'', which tells the story of the manga version of ''Roleplay/RecordOfLodossWar'' entirely in comical omakes, often has translator's notes explaining puns (for example, that "aho", in addition to being one of the Japanese transliterations of the noise a crow makes, is also [[IdiotCrows Japanese for dumbass]]). In one, however, Parn describes goblins in a rather nonsensical manner, and the translator's note states that Parn is babbling like an idiot even in the original Japanese.

* This trope is often employed by some authors (e.g.: [[Manga/CityHunter Tsukasa Hojo]] and [[Manga/MarmaladeBoy Wataru Yoshizumi]]) for "author's commentary"; for example, in Yoshizumi's ''Manga/MintNaBokura'', one character wonders out loud "Why didn't I think of this earlier?", and below the panel there's written "...Because you're an idiot?"
* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' has a lot of these captions; in particular, the "Miu has a habit of throwing anyone standing behind her" box is practically a running gag. And many times when a person appears, a little box with their name (and character summary) will pop up. As there are tons of characters, this can be helpful in keeping track of everyone, but it also applies to people who show up ''all the time'', like Kenichi's masters. So we get captions like "Appachai: Death God Of Muay Thai" and "Sakaki Shio: The 100-Dan Karate Master", like every ten chapters or so.
* Creator/ShirowMasamune is a footnote maniac. Just wait 'til you read ''Manga/GhostInTheShell 2: Man/Machine Interface'' (assuming [[ViewersAreGeniuses you get to understand it]]).
* ''Manga/{{Saki}}'': There's a fan translation of the manga with pages of end notes after each chapter to explain what's going on to people who don't play proper Mahjong (as opposed to the solitaire game).
* ''Manga/GAGeijutsukaArtDesignClass'''s [[EdutainmentShow art edutainment]] tendencies plus the heavy use of puns means every manga volume by Creator/YenPress has at least 4 pages of translator's notes.
** To contrast, ''Manga/HidamariSketch'', also in a high school arts program setting, of which Yen Press publishes as ''Sunshine Sketch'', manages only 1 page of notes per volume (and in volume 4, more than 50% of that page is blank). It's amazing what a slight change in focus can do...
* ''Manga/KOn'' is translated by Creator/YenPress, and has around 4 pages of translator's notes at the end of each volume in order to explain puns and other cultural stuff that would otherwise be missed.
* ''Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService'' has extremely thorough footnotes, mainly translating all the SFX that were left in the original Japanese, but also explaining historical events, relevant cultural tidbits, etc. The footnotes in the first few volumes tended to be heavy on the SFX and rather dry in describing the other things, but as the series progressed the footnotes started getting more entertaining, with the editor rambling on subjects only tangentially related to the original footnote, cracking jokes, and generally sounding a lot less formal.
* ''Manga/NinjaNonsense'': In volume 1, there's almost half as many footnotes as there are pages (63 footnotes, 148 pages) and 31 of those footnotes are needlessly big with the biggest being two footnotes that are three sentences and 75 words long. Not to mention that they pop up literally every two or three pages as well.
* ''Manga/SchoolRumble'''s author slips tossing a quick joke or observation on the sides of the manga's panels to sometimes add to the delivery, explore a character's motivations, or [[DeadpanSnarker snark at the cast's wackiness]].
* While ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'' is a simple SchoolgirlSeries, it includes large amounts of ([[ShownTheirWork mostly accurate]]) trivia on astronomy, geology, and other sciences. While the author didn't include much in terms of footnotes, a Chinese fan translation seems to be written by science majors, which means that translation describes each star mentioned as footnotes, and gives the readers pages--more than 4 pages per chapter in some chapters--of scientific introductions. There are one or two chapters that the translators decided to give an introductory lecture on astronomic viewing, making the notes ''longer'' than the manga itself.

* The ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'' are chock full of them, usually biblical verses.
* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' uses this ''constantly'', though it seems to be [[DependingOnTheWriter Depending On The Editor]].

* The ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' comics often use footnotes to highlight [[HistoricalInJoke Historical In-Jokes]].

* ''Comicbook/TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'' has footnotes for digressions from the main narrative. Rather than the usual caption within a panel, they're additional comics at the bottom of the page, indicated by an asterisk being painted [[VisualPun by a foot]].

* In ''Fanfic/TotalDramaIslandByGilbertAndSullivan'', Footnote Fever manifests in two ways:
** Because the compilation uses so many verses, and to preserve some sense of Gilbert’s stories, the verses are segregated into a separate section. A cross-referencing system enables the reader to move quickly between the plot summaries (called the Guide To Incidents) and the verses.
** Many of the more obscure terms in the verses are marked either with underlining (in the web-based version) or a different color font (in the PDF version) to indicate that they have Glossary entries.
* Each chapter in ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfTotalDramaIsland'' has an extensive Notes section, with over 30 entries in some cases, most of which explain obscure and/or highbrow allusions.
* ''Fanfic/WarriorsOfTheWorld'' occasionally has footnotes scattered throughout chapters to shed background worldbuilding info on any odd terminology and names, and to translate Rogue Slang and Morrocian if it's not translated in-universe.
* ''Fanfic/BookOfDays'' features not only Twilight Sparkle's footnotes to help explain pieces of Clover the Clever's journal ([[DirectLineToTheAuthor which the entire work is supposed to be Twilight's translation of]]) but also banter from Princess Celestia and Luna.
* ''Fanfic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed'' is double funny if you check the footnotes leading to bibliography. Intermingled with scientific-sounding books there are Loose Change's derogative comments on the text, books on maths and Spanish for dummies and a literary masterpiece "What are Fingers? Anthro puberty and you".

* The filk song "Heroine Barbarian" by Kevin Wald is a highly footnoted [[labelnote:1]] There are 13 of them in 60 lines[[/labelnote]] parody of the Creator/GilbertAndSullivan patter song "I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General"[[labelnote:2]] from the ''Pirates Of Penzance''[[/labelnote]] about ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess''. It can be found [[http://www.kith.org/logos/words/lower/x.html here]].
%%* ''Fanfic/TheCelestiaCode'' does this often, to humorous effect.
* ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/38349 Ook, said the Librarian]]'' is a crossover between ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' and ''Discworld'', two universes that are noted below for their love of footnotes. In fact, most of the actual story is told in the footnotes, as Thursday is using her footnoterphone to contact the Librarian.

* ''Literature/GoodOmens'' by Creator/NeilGaiman and Creator/TerryPratchett uses footnotes to great comedic effect, memorably setting up a king-sized BrickJoke [[spoiler: about [[ElvisLives Elvis]]]]. Also, backstory, digressions, gags, and [[CallBack Call Backs]] abound.

** They start out as a parody of the footnotes in ''[[GeniusBonus The Third Policeman]]'', complete with the discussion of the imaginary philosopher De Selby. [[spoiler: Indeed, De Selby actually appears as a character at one point, although [[MindScrew it may well be the protagonist's hallucination.]]]]

* ''Literature/TheAthenianMurders'', by Creator/JoseCarlosSomoza contains many translator's notes, some of which run for entire pages. While they're initially only about the text itself, the translator, a character in his own right, soon begins to write his research into the text and eventually about [[spoiler: his kidnapping]], so that the footnotes contain an entire (sub)plot that turns out to be integral to the story.

* Music/TomWaits' song "Step Right Up", a parody of sales pitches and advertising tropes, references this toward the end of the song with a [[HollywoodApocrypha paraphrased Bible quote]]:
-->The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' favours sidebars or box-outs (depending on edition) rather than footnotes, but the GURPS-based ''TabletopGame/DiscworldRoleplayingGame'' includes footnotes in order to better emulate its source material. It ''also'' has sidebars or box-outs (depending on the edition) -- and even footnotes in those.
* In the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' setting, there are a set of in-universe travel guides written by Volothamp Geddarm, or "Volo" for short. The books are peppered with footnotes from the Archmage Elminster, who corrects Volo's often erroneous facts, refutes Volo's conclusions, or plain insults Volo's intelligence!
* ''TabletopGame/PlanetMercenary'' is presented as a marketing tool for the titular [[Webcomic/SchlockMercenary Schlockiverse]] weapons retailer with comments from the CEO and writing team throughout the book, often conversing with one another. [[spoiler: Including the first CEO murdering two writers for maligning certain products and the survivors deposing her.]]

* The Creator/{{Infocom}} game ''VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1984'' included the famous recursive footnote.[---11---]
* The {{Feelies}}-like Game Manual for ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII: Shadows of Amn'' often ends several descriptions of spells, enemies, and locations with footnotes by Volo -- a well-known braggart, being countered by [[AuthorAvatar Big E's]] exasperation at Volo.

* ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'' frequently has annotations to [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/617.html help people get the joke]], or explain the [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1420.html background to a concept]] in the strip. One strip, though, degenerated into a [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1740.html cluster Footnote-Bomb]]. Also, [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1159.html here's]] an example that might considered as ironic. And then there's [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/3323.html this]].

* And some, such as ''Webcomic/{{Digger}}'', use footnotes. ''Digger'' uses them for anecdotes, world-building, [[PardonMyKlingon wombat curses]], and explaining the occasional use of UnsoundEffect instead of onomatopoeia ("[[EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped There IS no feasible onomatopoeia for this.]]").
* ''Webcomic/SuicideForHire'' uses them a lot; in [[http://suicideforhire.comicgenesis.com/d/20050914.html this]] page for example, there are three of them, pointing out how obvious someone is while they think they're hiding, among other things.
* Howard Taylor of ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' uses footnotes to explain some of the [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-03-23 dicey details]] and [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-09-17 cultural references]] that would ruin the narrative if explained in-story, as well as [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2000-07-25 additional jokes.]]
* Parodied by ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' in [[http://xkcd.com/1208/ "Footnote Labyrinths"]], which has ''recursive'' footnotes among other things. [[http://xkcd.com/472/ Another]] ''xkcd'' footnotes an IHOP menu in the style of ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves''.
* ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' did one of these in a direct ShoutOut to their use in Marvel comics as a ClueFromEd. The joke was finished by [[BreakingTheFourthWall Helen telling them off]].
--> '''Shaenon Garrity:''' Footnote gags: [[LampshadeHanging still funny]].

--> It's almost like that whole balcony was specifically designed to accommodate that huge thing. [[SelfDeprecation Busted, Hussie. Busted.]]\\

* Various Wiki/{{Uncyclopedia}} articles use footnotes for extra jokes.

* WebVideo/TheAnnotatedSeries is named for the Website/YouTube feature.
* In addition to the numerous footnotes in his books mentioned above, Creator/BillSimmons now has footnotes on his Internet columns thanks to the launch of [[http://www.grantland.com Grantland]].
* Isoraqathedh, the author of the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic pony]]/altworld crossover [[http://chaos.foxmage.com/iso/ponylyr/index.html Ponies on Lyr]] uses ''four different types of footnotes'', all of which are used liberally.

* ''Blog/GeekRage'' loves using footnotes, going as far as having "***" for a footnote.
* Sporcle's founder did [[http://www.sporcle.com/blog/2013/03/greenland-is-not-a-country/#identifier_9_5601 an article filled with these]] in discussing disputed countries of their [[http://www.sporcle.com/games/g/world "Countries of the World"]] quiz. But of course the footnotes are mostly jokes.
* Randall Munroe does it again in his science blog ''Blog/WhatIf'', in the entry [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/121/ Frozen Rivers]]:
-->'''Main text''': Melting ice takes a lot of energy, but the ice in this scenario would be spread out in thin strands across the country, so it would all melt pretty fast. [1]\\
'''Footnote [1]''': Strangely, solid ice usually melts faster than snow—not only in terms of weight, but in terms of inches melted per day. [2]\\
'''Footnote [2]''': Or[3] centimetres.\\
'''Footnote [3]''': Woah, I can nest footnotes!

[[folder: Real Life]]

** Bartimaeus really takes this up to [[UpToEleven ridiculous heights]] in the prequel where this is one instance of him putting a footnote ''inside his footnote'' when [[FirstPersonSmartass snarking]] about the abilities of Solomon's ring. To distinguish this from normal footnotes, he uses a star instead of a number.

** It's possible that he got it from the Bible, given the theme of the book. It's not certain whether he was making fun of it or trying to ''emulate'' it, but either way he took it UpToEleven.

* The annotated versions of ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' and ''Through the Looking-Glass''. The latter has [[UpToEleven a span of four pages that consists entirely of footnotes]]. Likewise, in ''The Annotated [[Literature/TheHuntingOfTheSnark Hunting of the Snark]]'', it is rare for any page to be less than half footnotes.

* In [[UsefulNotes/PolishEducationalSystem Poland]], translation of textbooks made by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagiellonian_University Jagiellonian University]] are infamous for going as far as providing footnotes to footnotes ''[[UpToEleven of the original footnotes]]''. With PurpleProse. It's not helping that the faculty considers this as a perfect way of doing [[AppealToTradition "proper" translation]], banning any other form of it from being published by the university's printhouse. More often than not this ends up with an indigestible book containing more footnotes than actual content.

* ''The Get Rich Quick Club'', by Dan Gutam, has these when Quincy says a phrase that is confusing to an American audience, since she is from Australia.

* YA-novel ''Literature/BadKitty'' loves using footnotes that contain funny arguments between characters or snark about minor characters. Sometimes, the main character will [[PaintingTheMedium paint the medium]] by yelling at the other characters to get back up to the story.

* YA-novel ''Bad Kitty'' loves using footnotes that contain funny arguments between characters or snark about minor characters. Sometimes, the main character will [[PaintingTheMedium paint the medium]] by yelling at the other characters to get back up to the story.

* The footnotes in ''The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)'' by Ellen Raskin are sometimes humorous sidebars but more often wildly out-of-character hints to young readers. One chapter begins with a footnote suggesting that those who are horse lovers rather than puzzle lovers skip to the next chapter.

* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' has a lot of these captions; in particular, the "Miu has a habit of throwing anyone standing behind her" box is practically a running gag. And many times when a person appears, a little box with their name (and character summary) will pop up. As there are LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, this can be helpful in keeping track of everyone, but it also applies to people who show up ''all the time'', like Kenichi's masters. So we get captions like "Appachai: Death God Of Muay Thai" and "Sakaki Shio: The 100-Dan Karate Master", like every ten chapters or so.

* Seen a lot in magazine ScienceFiction written in the 1930's and 40's, about the time editor Creator/JohnWCampbell was trying to bring scientifiction out of its pulp origins--thus footnotes added a faux air of authenticity (e.g. by stating that "AsYouKnow the hyperspace drive was invented by Professor Jones [[HistoryMarchesOn in the year 1980]]") or scientific InfoDump ("The Asteroid Belt was formed by the [[ScienceMarchesOn destruction of a planet according to Bode's Law]]").

* The Creator/{{Infocom}} game ''VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' included the famous recursive footnote.[---11---]

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' uses this as well.
** Indeed, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' spun off whole other stories in its footnotes, one of which was later expanded into [[VideoGame/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy the computer game]] and book ''VideoGame/StarshipTitanic''.

* ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic_plus/series.php?view=archive&chapter=49623#strip2 thoroughly abused them]], in a direct ShoutOut to their use in Marvel comics as a ClueFromEd. This very quickly ended after [[BreakingTheFourthWall Helen told them off]].