History Main / NoodleIncident

[[quoteright:265:[[Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/noodle-incident_gunnerkrigg-court_409.jpg]]]][[caption-width-right:265:We don't know what it was about either.]]

Almost always a case of NothingIsFunnier, particularly if it has an outlandish name, such as the TropeNamer. Compare with AnotherStoryForAnotherTime, AmbiguousCriminalHistory, CrypticBackgroundReference, InJoke, JackhammeredConversation, RelaxOVision, NoodleImplements, SecondHandStorytelling, TakeOurWordForIt, ThatMysteriousThing, and WhatDidIDoLastNight. Comedy counterpart to NothingIsScarier, where the imagined ''horror'' is more effective than what could be explained. Reminiscing about a Noodle Incident by the people involved can result in LostInTransmission for an outsider. Compare and contrast OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, where the off-screen incident would have been better on-screen. See also CowTools. Enough such incidents create a character who has SeenItAll. If a Noodle Incident is essential to solving a mystery, it's a RiddleForTheAges. If it results in the person/people involved being banished from wherever it happened, they've become PersonaNonGrata. And if, many episodes or installments later, we finally get to see the incident and all the details about it (at least one TV series season, book volume or film sequel has to be in the gap), the ensuing new episode/installment becomes the ResolvedNoodleIncident. See also GreatOffscreenWar. Contrast ObliviousMockery, where characters talk about an event they don't know happened but the ''viewer'' does (most of the time).

[[quoteright:265:[[Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/noodle-incident_gunnerkrigg-court_409.jpg]]]][[caption-width-right:265:[[RiddleForTheAges We don't know what it was about either.]]]]

Almost always a case of NothingIsFunnier, particularly if it has an outlandish name, such as the TropeNamer. Compare with AnotherStoryForAnotherTime, CrypticBackgroundReference, InJoke, JackhammeredConversation, RelaxOVision, NoodleImplements, SecondHandStorytelling, TakeOurWordForIt, ThatMysteriousThing, and WhatDidIDoLastNight. Comedy counterpart to NothingIsScarier, where the imagined ''horror'' is more effective than what could be explained. Reminiscing about a Noodle Incident by the people involved can result in LostInTransmission for an outsider. Compare and contrast OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, where the off-screen incident would have been better on-screen. See also CowTools. Enough such incidents create a character who has SeenItAll. If a Noodle Incident is essential to solving a mystery, it's a RiddleForTheAges. If it results in the person/people involved being banished from wherever it happened, they've become PersonaNonGrata. And if, many episodes or installments later, we finally get to see the incident and all the details about it (at least one TV series season, book volume or film sequel has to be in the gap), the ensuing new episode/installment becomes the ResolvedNoodleIncident. See also GreatOffscreenWar. Contrast ObliviousMockery, where characters talk about an event they don't know happened but the ''viewer'' does (most of the time).

[[quoteright:265:[[Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/noodle-incident_gunnerkrigg-court_409.jpg]]]][[caption-width-right:265:We don't know what it was about either.]]

Almost always a case of NothingIsFunnier, particularly if it has an outlandish name, such as the TropeNamer. Compare with CrypticBackgroundReference, InJoke, JackhammeredConversation, RelaxOVision, NoodleImplements, SecondHandStorytelling, TakeOurWordForIt, ThatMysteriousThing, and WhatDidIDoLastNight. Comedy counterpart to NothingIsScarier, where the imagined ''horror'' is more effective than what could be explained. Reminiscing about a Noodle Incident by the people involved can result in LostInTransmission for an outsider. Compare and contrast OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, where the off-screen incident would have been better on-screen. See also CowTools. Enough such incidents create a character who has SeenItAll. If a Noodle Incident is essential to solving a mystery, it's a RiddleForTheAges. If it results in the person/people involved being banished from wherever it happened, they've become PersonaNonGrata. And if, many episodes or installments later, we finally get to see the incident and all the details about it (at least one TV series season, book volume or film sequel has to be in the gap), the ensuing new episode/installment becomes the ResolvedNoodleIncident. See also GreatOffscreenWar. Contrast ObliviousMockery, where characters talk about an event they don't know happened but the ''viewer'' does (most of the time).

->'''Hobbes:''' What about the noodle incident?\\

->'''Hobbes:''' What about the [[TropeNamer noodle incident]]?\\

Almost always a case of NothingIsFunnier, particularly if it has an outlandish name, such as the TropeNamer. Compare with CrypticBackgroundReference, InJoke, JackhammeredConversation, NoodleImplements, SecondHandStorytelling, TakeOurWordForIt, ThatMysteriousThing, and WhatDidIDoLastNight. Comedy counterpart to NothingIsScarier, where the imagined ''horror'' is more effective than what could be explained. Reminiscing about a Noodle Incident by the people involved can result in LostInTransmission for an outsider. Compare and contrast OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, where the off-screen incident would have been better on-screen. See also CowTools. Enough such incidents create a character who has SeenItAll. If a Noodle Incident is essential to solving a mystery, it's a RiddleForTheAges. If it results in the person/people involved being banished from wherever it happened, they've become PersonaNonGrata. And if, many episodes or installments later, we finally get to see the incident and all the details about it (at least one TV series season, book volume or film sequel has to be in the gap), the ensuing new episode/installment becomes the ResolvedNoodleIncident. See also GreatOffscreenWar. Contrast ObliviousMockery, where characters talk about an event they don't know happened but the ''viewer'' does (most of the time).

Commonly introduced to the audience by having characters react to some fantastic and improbable event with [[OhNoNotAgain "Oh no, not again."]] The key to this trope is that the audience is left to imagine what happened based on vague hints or clues, with [[RuleOfFunny funny]] (or [[NothingIsScarier scary]]) results.

Naturally, this trope is a good source of FanficFuel. Often overlaps with GettingCrapPastTheRadar. Contrast with RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun, which is where the reminiscence is anything ''but'' ambiguous.

Not to be confused with Administrivia/TheGoogleIncident ([[Administrivia/TheSecondGoogleIncident or the second one]]), although you might get this vibe from some tropers.

!!Examples:

Almost always a case of NothingIsFunnier, particularly if it has an outlandish name, such as the TropeNamer. Compare with CrypticBackgroundReference, InJoke, JackhammeredConversation, NoodleImplements, SecondHandStorytelling, TakeOurWordForIt, ThatMysteriousThing, and WhatDidIDoLastNight. Comedy counterpart to NothingIsScarier, where the imagined ''horror'' is more effective than what could be explained. Reminiscing about a Noodle Incident by the people involved can result in LostInTransmission for an outsider. Compare and contrast OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, where the off-screen incident would have been better on-screen. See also CowTools. Enough such incidents create a character who has SeenItAll. If a Noodle Incident is essential to solving a mystery, it's a RiddleForTheAges. If it results in the person/people involved being banished from wherever it happened, they've become PersonaNonGrata. And if, many episodes or installments later, we finally get to see the incident and all the details about it (at least one TV series season, book volume, or film sequel has to be in the gap), the ensuing new episode/installment becomes the ResolvedNoodleIncident. See also GreatOffscreenWar. Contrast ObliviousMockery, where characters talk about an event they don't know happened but the ''viewer'' does (most of the time).

[[quoteright:265:[[Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/noodle-incident_gunnerkrigg-court_409.jpg]]]]

->'''Hobbes:''' What about the noodle incident?\\

The Noodle Incident is something from the past that is sometimes referred to but never explained, with the implication that it's just too ludicrous for words--or perhaps too offensive for depiction--and the reality that any explanation would fall short of audience expectations. Questions about it are often met with [[YouDoNOTWantToKnow "You Don't Want To Know…"]] Persisting is a good way to press a character's BerserkButton.

Compare with CrypticBackgroundReference, InJoke, JackhammeredConversation, NoodleImplements, SecondHandStorytelling, TakeOurWordForIt, ThatMysteriousThing, and WhatDidIDoLastNight. Comedy counterpart to NothingIsScarier, where the imagined ''horror'' is more effective than what could be explained. Reminiscing about a Noodle Incident by the people involved can result in LostInTransmission for an outsider. Compare and contrast OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, where the off-screen incident would have been better on-screen. See also CowTools. Enough such incidents create a character who has SeenItAll. If a Noodle Incident is essential to solving a mystery, it's a RiddleForTheAges. If it results in the person/people involved being banished from wherever it happened, they've become PersonaNonGrata. And if, many episodes or installments later, we finally get to see the incident and all the details about it (at least one TV series season, book volume, or film sequel has to be in the gap), the ensuing new episode/installment becomes the ResolvedNoodleIncident. See also GreatOffscreenWar. Contrast ObliviousMockery, where characters talk about an event they don't know happened but the ''viewer'' does (most of the time).

Not to be confused with Administrivia/TheGoogleIncident ([[Administrivia/TheSecondGoogleIncident or the second one]]), although you might get this vibe from some tropers, nor with the Music/GunsNRoses album ''"The Spaghetti Incident?"''.

Not to be confused with Administrivia/TheGoogleIncident ([[Administrivia/TheSecondGoogleIncident or the second one]]), although you might get this vibe from some tropers.

* NoodleIncident/{{Theater}}

* NoodleIncident/NewspaperComics
** ''NoodleIncident/CalvinAndHobbes'' (TropeNamer)

Named for an incident referenced by the characters of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', where the author admitted he decided against ever stating what happened, as he figured nothing he could come up with would be as outrageous as what the readers thought happened.[[note]]It originated from the [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1990/09/14 Sept. 14, 1990 strip]], in which the word "incident" was not used, but was used all the time after that, starting with the [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1990/12/12 December 12, 1990]] strip.[[/note]]

Compare with CrypticBackgroundReference, InJoke, JackhammeredConversation, NoodleImplements, SecondHandStorytelling, TakeOurWordForIt, ThatMysteriousThing, and WhatDidIDoLastNight Reminiscing about a Noodle Incident by the people involved can result in LostInTransmission for an outsider. Compare and contrast OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, where the off-screen incident would have been better on-screen. See also CowTools. Enough such incidents create a character who has SeenItAll. If a Noodle Incident is essential to solving a mystery, it's a RiddleForTheAges. If it results in the person/people involved being banished from wherever it happened, they've become PersonaNonGrata. And if, many episodes or installments later, we finally get to see the incident and all the details about it (at least one TV series season, book volume, or film sequel has to be in the gap), the ensuing new episode/installment becomes the ResolvedNoodleIncident. See also GreatOffscreenWar. Contrast ObliviousMockery, where characters talk about an event they don't know happened but the ''viewer'' does (most of the time).

->'''Hobbes:''' What about the [[TropeNamer noodle incident]]?\\

The Noodle Incident is something from the past that is sometimes referred to but never explained, with the implication that [[CrazyAwesome it's just too ludicrous for words]]--or perhaps too offensive for depiction--and the reality that any explanation would fall short of audience expectations. Questions about it are often met with [[YouDoNOTWantToKnow "You Don't Want To Know…"]] Persisting is a good way to press a character's BerserkButton.

Compare with CrypticBackgroundReference, InJoke, NoodleImplements, SecondHandStorytelling, TakeOurWordForIt, ThatMysteriousThing, and WhatDidIDoLastNight Reminiscing about a Noodle Incident by the people involved can result in LostInTransmission for an outsider. Compare and contrast OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, where the off-screen incident would have been better on-screen. See also CowTools. Enough such incidents create a character who has SeenItAll. If a Noodle Incident is essential to solving a mystery, it's a RiddleForTheAges. If it results in the person/people involved being banished from wherever it happened, they've become PersonaNonGrata. And if, many episodes or installments later, we finally get to see the incident and all the details about it (at least one TV series season, book volume, or film sequel has to be in the gap), the ensuing new episode/installment becomes the ResolvedNoodleIncident. See also GreatOffscreenWar. Contrast ObliviousMockery, where characters talk about an event they don't know happened but the ''viewer'' does (most of the time).

-->-- ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''

In SpyFiction or similar tropes, the Noodle Incident is usually referred to by a place's name. "This is just like Budapest!" "Remember Helsinki?" "God, it's Rio de Janeiro all over again." Sometimes this is elaborated upon, but usually not.

Compare with CrypticBackgroundReference, InJoke, NoodleImplements, SecondHandStorytelling, TakeOurWordForIt, ThatMysteriousThing, and WhatDidIDoLastNight Reminiscing about a Noodle Incident by the people involved can result in LostInTransmission for an outsider. Compare and contrast OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, where the off-screen incident would have been better on-screen. See also CowTools. Enough such incidents create a character who has SeenItAll. If a Noodle Incident is essential to solving a mystery, it's a RiddleForTheAges. If it results in the person/people involved being banished from wherever it happened, they've become PersonaNonGrata. See also GreatOffscreenWar. Contrast ObliviousMockery, where characters talk about an event they don't know happened but the ''viewer'' does (most of the time).