History Main / HeWhoMustNotBeSeen

** ''LetsPlay/{{Dream}}'''s real appearance is unknown. He has shown rare photos of himself (naturally hiding his face, of course) that reveals he has dirty blond/brown hair, but that's the extent of what he's revealed.

* Bob Newhart was famous for this. Many of his stand-up routines featured a "telephone" bit in which you only heard Bob's side of the conversation and had to imagine the other side. This gag made it into his TV shows a couple of times.
--> '''Bob''' (into phone, while drunk): Derr Bob Hartley. ... Derr. ... Dee, Ar, period.
* One who really defies categorization is the character of Vern from any of the late comedian Jim Varney's ''Ernest'' routines since the action was always told in first-person fashion from Vern's perspective, allowing the audience to essentially be that character.
** Sometimes Vern's hands were seen, such as when Ernest got his hands caught in the window and asks for help, and the audience sees Vern's hands simply closing the blinds.

** "George...don't do that."

* ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': Martha's often-talked-about boyfriend Chet is never seen on screen. [[spoiler:And since he was killed off in episode 3x02, it's doubtful that he ever will be.]]

* ''Series/{{The Odd Couple|1970}}'':

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': Despite being clearly seen in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', the Gravemind is never seen beyond its tentacles in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', much to the annoyance of many fans.
** To some degree, we ''did'' see it. Some hints suggest that after taking over the Covenant capital of High Charity, the Gravemind grew and merged with it; essentially, Gravemind ''is'' High Charity at that point.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAge'' love this trope. Most of the really big players in this universe have not been seen yet although heavily impacting the lore. The Evanuris who are confirmed imprisoned somewhere in the fade, the Titans who we only get to see from the inside, and of course the forbidden ones, the older gods, and the forgotten ones, that might or might not be the same people
* Gary Smith is absent for the majority of the game ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}''. So much so that [[spoiler:Jimmy nearly forgets about him and this gives him time to take over the school himself (or at least set it in a frenzy) in all of two hours.]]

* The Lich King is this for the core campaign of ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'', despite being one of the main villains and having his backstory described in detail in the manual (though to be fair, he is a disembodied spirit [[SealedEvilInACan sealed inside a block of ice]], controlling his minions telepathically). He does show up in the expansion.
** Until Wrath of the Lich King, this was a staple of most of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft.'' The BigBad was rarely seen other than his or her particular raid encounter. The Lich King, however, had a very prominent and personal role for the player all throughout Wrath of the Lich King, as does Deathwing in Cataclysm, so this seems to have changed.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Oswald Sherzikien in ''WebVideo/TheCartoonMan'' and ''[[WebVideo/TheCartoonMan Return of the Cartoon Man]]''. [[spoiler: He finally appears in ''[[WebVideo/TheCartoonMan Journey of the Cartoon Man]]'']]

* On Froghand, nobody is certain who or what "Froge" is, aside from the limited information he provides willingly. This is understandable, given his strong views on privacy, security, and anti-surveillance tactics, having formerly devoted his website to the topic of Web security.

* ''WebVideo/GirlfriendReviews:'' Shelby and Matt went one year from starting the channel to showing their faces: one still picture on social media, and a few seconds of video.

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' made this famous - the only reason anybody knows what he looks like is the face in the status bar.

** The Little Red-Haired Girl is also never seen, except once in silhouette. (She ''is'' seen in one of the specials, ''It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown'', although this was deemed non-canonical by Charles Schulz.)

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': Martha's often talked about boyfriend Chet is never seen on screen. [[spoiler: And since he was killed off in episode 3x02, it's doubtful that he ever will be.]]

* Kimmy Gibbler's parents from ''Series/FullHouse'' are regularly mentioned by Kimmy, but is never shown onscreen.

%%** Also, Al's mother. Tim makes MANY references to her enormous size, but we only ever see one of her arms (which is also in the episode where she dies, and is laid to rest in a casket that, as Jill says, "looks like they varnished a barn").