History Main / LetMeTellYouAStory

* ''Series/TheWestWing'': In the first episode, a group of Christian pols complain to President Bartlett about an insult Josh made to a political opponent, quoting the Bible while doing so. In response, Bartlett tells of how his 12-year-old granddaughter was recently threatened by a Christian fringe group for her pro-choice views, before saying that they'll get nothing from him until they denounce the extremists within their ranks.

[[folder: Film ]]

* Film/{{Lincoln}} tells numerous stories throughout the movie. When Edwin Stanton realizes that Lincoln is going to start another one, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere he storms out]].

* ''Film/{{Serpico}}''. When Serpico expresses his anger that he's regarded with suspicion because he's the only detective in their division who isn't corrupt, his girlfriend tells him a story of a WickedWitch who poisoned a well and drove everyone mad, except for the king who hadn't drunk from the well. So the townspeople decide to kill the king because he is 'insane', until the king too drinks from the well and goes crazy too. "And the next day there was much rejoicing as the king had regained his sanity."

* ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/RevengeOfTheSith'':

* In ''Film/{{Targets}}'', [[Creator/BorisKarloff Orlock]] gives a nice recitation of the story [[http://www.thestorytelling-resource-centre.com/Appointment_in_Samarra.html "An Appointment In Samarra."]] It doesn't seem to be told to anyone in particular, which would make it a StoryWithinAStory... though it could be meant for the moviewatchers.
* The 1993 ''[[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993 The Three Musketeers]]'' film: "Love? Let me tell you about love."

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Podcasts ]]

[[folder: Religion and Mythology ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Jolee Bindo is prone to this in the ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' game.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Web Video ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': Mr. Krabs' story to [=SpongeBob=] about spending a dollar on a soda to persuade [=SpongeBob=] to let his seahorse go.

[[folder: Other ]]

* In ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'', [[KidAppealCharacter Lewa]] does this to [[TheStoic Kopaka]] and [[TheQuietOne Onua]]. He explains his plan by telling them the story of the three [[{{Hobbits}} Matoran]], the [[BigCreepyCrawlies Rama swarm]], and the [[FantasticFruitsAndVegetables basket of Bula berries]]. Cue Kopaka getting [[NotSoStoic more and more annoyed]] at Lewa ''[[CasualDangerDialogue because they're in the middle of a battle]]''.
-->'''Kopaka:''' I'm ''still'' waiting for the part where the heroic Toa Lewa saves the day!
* [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/124263/1/songs-uncle-sings/sineva Songs Uncle Sings.]]

[[/folder]]

* Subverted in ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' when Kirito tries to explain how he managed to find the single rarest food item in the game.
-->'''Kirito:''' Oh, Tiff, Let Me Tell You A Story. I... don't actually have anything! I threw a knife at it. And it died.\\

'''Kirito:''' I disappoint myself.

* Said word for word at the beginning of a season two episode of ''Series/BurnNotice''.

* In ''Film/Conspiracy2001'', Dr. Kritzinger relates a story to Reinhard Heydrich as a warning to what he is trying to accomplish at the conference (the extermination of the Jewish people), which Heydrich later relates in turn to Müller and Eichmann at the end. It concerns a boyhood friend of Kritzinger, who [[OedipusComplex hated his abusive father fiercely but was devoted to his loving mother]]. When his mother died some years later, the man tried to cry as her casket was lowered into the grave, but wasn't able to. When his father died at a much older age, the man couldn't control his tears. The moral of the story is that being consumed by hatred for something will mean that once that thing is gone, the hater's life will be nothing but a hollow shell anymore.

--->'''Margaret:''' When I was a girl in Ireland, a raggedy man would come around every spring with a little Bantam rooster. He'd trained it to peck out "The Mountains of Mourne" on a toy piano hung off his chest.
--->'''Lucy:''' So?
--->'''Margaret:''' Well, the first year he came, we all of us, the girls in that place, we thought it magical. The second year, we laughed behind our hands at the odd man and his tatters, and the third year we didn't even go, because "The Mountains of Mourne" was all that little rooster could ever do.
--->'''Lucy:''' So what's the point?
--->'''Margaret:''' [[TakeThat That maybe your cunny isn't quite the draw you think it is.]]

* Subverted on ''Series/GreysAnatomy'':
--> '''Dr. Hahn''': Absolutely, no! Have you read his file? His pulmonary pressure is through the roof!
--> '''Dr. Webber''': He's aware of the risk.
--> '''Dr. Hahn''': Oh! Well in that case, fine! I don't know what I was so worried about. I may go down in history as the surgeon who killed Walter Tabley, but hey, at least they're writing about me!
--> '''Dr. Webber''': Erica, sit down. Let me tell you a story. 38 years ago, when I was -
--> '''Dr. Hahn''': I'm sorry, is this gonna be a story about how you were a struggling black med student who wanted to be a surgeon, and no one would give you a chance, and Walter Tabley gave you that chance, he mentored you, and without him, you wouldn't be in this hospital today?
--> '''Dr. Webber''': Yes.
--> '''Dr. Hahn''': I'm ''still'' not gonna operate on him.

--->'''Homer:''' You know, when I was a boy, I really wanted a catcher's mitt, but my dad wouldn't get it for me. So I held my breath until I passed out and banged my head on the coffee table. The doctor thought I might have brain damage.
--->'''Bart:''' Dad, what's the point of this story?
--->'''Homer:''' I like stories.

** In 2 Samuel 12, [[UriahGambit King David has just had one of his soldiers killed to cover up the fact that he (David) had impregnated the man's wife]]. The prophet Nathan shows up and calls him to repent by giving an account of a rich man who stole the only lamb of his poor neighbor to feed a houseguest, despite having many sheep of his own. He asks what should be done to this man. David, incensed, declared that the man should be put to death and asked who he was. Nathan replies, "You are the man."

* ''Film/{{Serpico}}''. When Serpico expresses his anger that he's regarded with suspicion because he's the only detective in their division who isn't corrupt, his girlfriend tells him a story of a WickedWitch who poisoned a well and drove everyone mad, except for the king who hadn't drunk from the well. So the townspeople decide to kill the king because he is 'insane', until the king too drinks for the well and goes crazy too. "And the next day there was much rejoicing as the king had regained his sanity."

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Soul}}'': Dorothea when Joe expresses his disappointment about becoming a professional jazz player.
-->'''Dorothea:''' What's wrong, Teach?
-->'''Joe:''' It's just I've been waiting on this day for... my entire life. I thought I'd feel different.
-->'''Dorothea:''' [beat] I heard this story about a fish. He swims up to this older fish and says, "I'm trying to find this thing they call the ocean." "The ocean?" says the older fish. "That's what you're in right now." "This?" says the young fish. "This is water. What I want is the ocean."
-->'''Joe:''' ''(silence)''
-->'''Dorothea:''' See you tomorrow.

->'''Dorothea:''' [beat] I heard this story about a fish. He swims up to this older fish and says, "I'm trying to find this thing they call the ocean." "The ocean?" says the older fish. "That's what you're in right now." "This?" says the young fish. "This is water. What I want is the ocean."

* ''WesternAmimation/BatmanBeyond'': In "Dead Man's Hand", Terry finds himself attracted to a girl [[DatingCatwoman who turns out to be Ten from The Royal Flush Gang.]]

* In ''Film/{{Targets}}'', [[Creator/BorisKarloff Orlock]] gives a nice recitation of the story "An Appointment In Samarra."

* In the Italian mystery novel ''The Terra Cotta Dog'': The police officer protagonist is invited to meet with Tano the Greek, a feared gangster (and {{gayngster}}) who turns out to be something of a NobleDemon. To explain why he wants to turn himself in, Tano tells this story about a guy who bet someone that he could make a cat eat some very spicy mustard- the method involves AssShove-ing it, causing the cat to start licking the mustard because of the pain. The point of the story is that Tano is being threatened by a younger generation of gangsters and so turning himself in (and getting a LuxuryPrisonSuite) is the better option- like with the mustard,turning himself in is a bad option that becomes a good one when a worse option comes along.

-->--''WesternAnimation/{{Soul}}''

* In the final SP Mission of ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'', [[spoiler:Matias Torres [[ISurrenderSuckers fakes a surrender]], to buy time for the Alicorn to line up the railgun to target Oured. David North, the analyst who had been assisting the LRSSG into hunting him down, sees through his ruse, and tries to talk Torres out of it. Torres responds by telling him about how during [[VideoGame/AceCombat2 the Usean Uprising]], when he was a gunnery officer, he managed to land a shot on an enemy vessel 30 kilometers away in the middle of a raging storm. The story is both a distraction, and to prove that Torres [[TheUnfettered is not going to stop]], so Trigger disobeys orders to not fire on a surrendering enemy, and strikes the Alicorn’s railgun, throwing off its trajectory.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Soul'': Dorothea when Joe expresses his disappointment about becoming a professional jazz player.

** [[Creator/DenzelWashington Alonzo's]] friend Roger decides to tell rookie officer Jake a joke. He tells him about a snail that gets thrown off some guy's porch into the backyard and nearly dies. However, it recovers and after awhile it gains enough strength to crawl again. After about a year, the snail makes it way back on to the porch. The man comes out, looks at and says, "What the ***'s your problem!?" Jake laughs until he sees Roger and Alonzo's serious expressions and realize that it isn't a joke at all. Roger tells him that when he figures the joke out, he'll figure the streets out.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Harbourmaster}}'', [[http://www.waywardmartian.com/harbourmaster2/012-001.html Governor Tal uses a story to explain the motives behind a treaty that a off-planet developer wants him to break.]]

* Bacon in ''Film/LockStockAndTwoSmokingBarrels'' tell the guys the story of Smithy Robinson, a old geezer beaten to death with a "15-inch black rubber cock" as a warning tale of what happens to the people that don't pay [[AxCrazy Hatchet Harry]] what they owe him.

-> ''"Do you wanna know how I got these scars?"''
-->-- '''ComicBook/TheJoker''', ''Film/TheDarkKnight''

''Let me tell you a story'' was also the catch-phrase of British singer and comedian Max Bygraves, and in his unmistakable Cockney-Jewish accent, was both much loved and much parodied. It usually heralded a comic story or song.

* ''[[Film/RevengeOfTheSith Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith]]'': "Ever hear ''The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise''?"

-->'''Kirito:''' Oh, Tiff, LetMeTellYouAStory. I... don't actually have anything! I threw a knife at it. And it died.\\

* In ''Disney/BrotherBear'', Kenai does this with Koda in order to break it to him that [[spoiler: he killed his mother]].

* The whole novel {{Literature/Frankenstein}} is Victor Frankenstein telling his life story to Robert Walton in an attempt to disuade him of exploring the North Pole; he tries to illustrate how there are ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow and the blind pursuit of knowledge will bring him only suffering, as it happened to Frankenstein himself.

* Literature/TheBible:

* In the ''Literature/StarlightAndShadows'' novel ''[[TabletopGames/ForgottenRealms Daughter of the Drow]]'', a warrior amuses a drow mage (who saved him from carnivores and tried to claim as a slave) with a folk tale about how "old favors are soon forgotten". Then [[spoiler:managed to get away and added the phrase to his "farewell" as he ran off]].