History Main / SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat

* Also when filming ''The Dirty Dozen'': Lee Marvin proceeded to disassemble and assemble his gun without the gun master help - Marvin had served as a Marine in the Pacific War.

* In ''Series/{{Castle}}'', there are several instances.

-->-- ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', "Cardassians"

* In ''Series/{{Castle}}'' there there are several instances. At least OncePerEpisode Castle brings up some random piece of knowledge that his research or various hobbies have taught him. He can also speak Mandarin, which he attributed to [[Series/{{Firefly}} a TV show]] he [[ActorAllusion used to love]].

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'':

* ''Series/Danger5:'' In "Kill-Men of the Rising Sun" Hirohito has a code book to control his robots, but all of it is written in Japanese. Claire then very conviently reveals that she learned Oriental Languages at Cambridge.

* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'', several characters have developed useful skills that have proven critical on the Island. Sun's knowledge of the medicinal qualities of herbs found on the island exceeds those of a normal home gardener, and Kate's "tracking" skills came out of nowhere (explained by a YouDidntAsk). However, this may be still explained by the mysteries of the island.
** It seems like Sun's skill is less knowing what plants can do and more being able to figure out the name of a plant by looking at it -- something that she could have picked up from books. It doesn't take a genius to know that eucalyptus is the active ingredient in Vicks VapoRub.

* On ''Series/{{Friends}}'', Chandler has hidden from Monica that he's an excellent ping-pong player, because he didn't want her to enter them in doubles tournaments. When she hurts her hand during a game, he turns out to be a not-so-[[TheHopelessReplacement hopeless replacement.]]
** This was hinted several times early on, with Chandler mentioning playing racquet ball with his bosses (which included the strong implication he always let his bosses win), or Ross' parents. This was probably something written in, because of Creator/MatthewPerry's real-life brief career as a tennis player.
--->'''Chandler''': I'll just play left-handed.
--->'''Ross''': You mean you're ''not'' left-handed?
* Sandra Bennet of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' can make fake [=IDs=], a skill she used to sneak into Def Leppard concerts when she was younger.

* In ''Series/{{Taxi}}'', Jim Ignatowski is brought to a fancy party by Elaine who is hoping to impress someone but needs a date to attend the party. Jim proceeds to humiliate Elaine by acting like the '60s burn-out that he is, only to save the situation by sitting down at the piano and playing brilliantly. The other guests assume that Jim was just having a bit of fun, and so Elaine succeeds in her goal. Jim's befuddled reaction to his own playing: "I must have taken.. music lessons..."
* In the MadeForTVMovie[=/=]PilotMovie ''Tag Team'' two pro wrestlers are drummed out of the business for refusing to take a dive and become cops. At the police academy one (played by Wrestling/JesseVentura) shows remarkable marksmanship. "Where did you learn that?" "[[ActorAllusion Navy SEALs]]."

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' Chakotay and Tom Paris suddenly reveal knowledge of everything from 20th century technology to marine craft as required by the script.

** In the serial "The Gunfighters", the Doctor's cover identity for himself, Steven and Dodo is that they are all travelling performers. He quickly fibs that Steven is a singer and Dodo is a pianist, both of which they yell at the Doctor for as they claim they can barely do those things. When they're later forced to perform a [[SuspiciouslyAproposMusic sophisticated ragtime song]] they have never heard before, with no rehearsal, from sheet music, they are surprisingly good - Dodo even enjoys her piano playing so much that she gets jealous when the gang forces Steven to play piano, at which he is also surprisingly good. Both of them express surprise at how good they all are afterwards.

** In "The Five Doctors," the Fifth Doctor reveals himself to be a skilled harpist.
** The Doctor has this as a character trait - different incarnations of himself suddenly display 'new' skills he'd apparently known forever, or forget old ones, helping to differentiate new incarnations. Obvious examples are the Second Doctor's [[TheSocialExpert social acuity]], the Third Doctor's [[IKnowKungFu mastery of Venusian Karate]], the Fourth Doctor's rather stronger PsychicPowers than the others, and so on. In the ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' books, the Seventh Doctor temporarily reverts his personality (though not his body) to that of the Third Doctor - once to take advantage of Three's martial arts and once to take advantage of his different scientific knowledge.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "Hereafter", Superman awakens on a wasteland planet with a red sun, [[BroughtDownToNormal robbing him of his powers]], with only a city street's worth of objects to assist him. As he attempts to find a way off, the human-level Kal-El displays shocking aptitude in blacksmithing, sword fighting, auto repair and even dog sledding as he traverses the blasted landscape. However, [[JustifiedTrope he IS a farm boy]]. He probably had to learn many repair and maintenance skills growing up and kept learning new things. The reason of the shock is because of how many view him as someone who only relies on brute strength.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'''s "The Thin White Line" where Brian becomes a drug-sniffing police dog. He [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder rhetorically]] asks the family if they can guess what Joe said the value of a particular bust would have been; Lois abruptly chimes in with an extremely in-depth knowledge of cocaine ("Let's see, four and a half kilos uncut Nicaraguan...1.7 mil, that area?"). She's exactly right. A deleted cutaway gag in "Regarding Carter" revealed her dad did cocaine in the 80s, which may explain it.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': In "A Beer Can Named Desire", Bill Dauterive invites his friends to join him in his family's estate in New Orleans, where he starts showing skills he seemingly didn't know he had, like speaking fluent Louisiana French, dancing, and playing the accordion. Goes without saying that these make Bill even more attractive to the three widows who are lusting after him in the episode.
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': As of the episode "Reflekdoll", Ladybug (here as Lady Noire) suddenly knows all about Sentimonsters and Amoks. Previously, she had only ever seen a Sentimonster for a few seconds in the episode "Mayura", and we never see those topics get explained to her.

* PlayedForLaughs in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' where Brian becomes a drug-sniffing police dog. He [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder rhetorically]] asks the family if they can guess what Joe said the value of a particular bust would have been; Lois abruptly chimes in with an extremely in-depth knowledge of cocaine ("Let's see, four and a half kilos uncut Nicaraguan...1.7 mil, that area?"). She's exactly right.

** Player characters also tend to gain new abilities or spells when leveling up, suddenly being able to preform some new feat or skill despite having no practice. Players can try to justify this by saying their character had been practicing during downtime, but rule books often simply accept that they party will periodically and inexplicably gain new abilities.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

* Mikoto Misaka of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' turns out all of a sudden to speak both English and French in later stories. Perhaps justified in that she goes to a very prestigious and formal school, whose curriculum would likely include foreign language courses, but it comes up out of nowhere in the narrative.

* ''LightNovel/TheLongingOfShiinaRyo'': When Shin-tsu has to [[spoiler:defend himself from Kouma]].

* ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' Denisov, one of Nikolai's friends from the army, is suddenly revealed to be a great dancer when he and the Rostovs attend a ball. Tolstoy's style of writing necessitates a lot of this because he tends to write about things as they happen without going too far into backstory.