History Main / ItRunsOnNonsensoleum

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** Also in ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', characters try to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] the trope MillionToOneChance, since "everyone knows million-to-one chances always succeed". The men of the City Watch are camped out on a rooftop to try to bring down a dragon by [[AttackItsWeakPoint shooting it in its "voolnerables."]] Problem is, they're all GenreSavvy about it, and after considering the situation - their archer used to win prizes for his marksmanship, he's using his lucky arrow, a dragon's "voolnerables" might be quite big - they think that it might ''not'' be a million-to-one-chance of success, but could be a near-certainty, or some awkward number like 999,943-to-one. So they end up trying to handicap their bowman by blindfolding him, putting soot on his face, and making him stand facing the wrong way on one leg while singing [[BawdySong the Hedgehog Song]], but still end up missing the shot. Then the dragon retaliates by flaming the building they are standing on. Which is a [[StuffBlowingUp distillery]]. Luckily, as the narration points out, the odds of the Watch surviving a jump from the (exploding) roof into a nearby pond ''do'' happen to be exactly a-million-to-one. [[spoiler:Later we learn their odds of hitting the dragon's "voolnerables" were more like zero - it was female.]]

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild "An Unearthly Child"]], the First Doctor's explanation to Ian about how the TARDIS is BiggerOnTheInside is some absolute nonsense about how a television allows you to fit an entire building inside your living room, which displays the Doctor's total contempt for Ian's human intellect. When the Fourth Doctor attempts to explain it to Leela in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath "The Robots of Death"]], he gives her a lecture involving a [[DepthDeception pair of black cubes of different sizes and putting them so that the smaller one is much closer to her, saying that it makes it bigger]] -- but it's apparent from his expressions that he's really just challenging her to call him out on his explanation being nonsense as a kind of SecretTest of her intelligence (she does).

** The 'special parts' mentioned in the theme song, used to create the Bots (thus including, among other things, a bowling pin and a gumball machine), which in turn somehow explains why Joel/Mike can't just turn the damn movies off. Later, of course, the same theme tosses an iconic [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] over this entire trope: [[MST3KMantra "If you're wondering how he eats and breathes/and other science facts/Then repeat to yourself 'It's just a show/I should really just relax'..."]]
** When Crow's voice actor was changed at the beginning of Season 8, it was lampshaded by the crew. His explanation? "I got a new bowling pin".

* In the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe, the tech, no matter how far-fetched, is ''supposed'' to be taken seriously within the context of the story. But once in a while it gets, in a self-aware fashion, pretty close to the edge of Nonsensoleum. A good example is the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E14OneLittleShip One Little Ship]]," in which a runabout and its crew are [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrunk to a tiny size]] by a NegativeSpaceWedgie and then zoom around the interior of the ''Defiant'' fighting off a hostile boarding party. It's obviously meant as a completely goofy premise, with only the most perfunctory attempt at an AppliedPhlebotinum justification, for the sheer fun of telling the story, and the key is that even the characters in universe [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] how enjoyably silly it is.

'''Nog:''' Yes, sir. (Kira stifles a giggle)\\
'''Sisko:''' (deadpan) Major, are you laughing at our investigation of this subspace anomaly? \\
'''Kira:''' (innocently) No, sir. \\

'''Kira:''' Oh, it's ''very'' important research. ...What? I'm ''not laughing!'' No, just because we are shrinking three people to the size of coffee cups...! (finally loses it)
* One episode of ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' was about a sideshow man at a carnival who'd attained the power to be killed and resurrected from a mad doctor transferring a cat's nine lives over to him using some crazy machine. As part of this mad logic, he keeps count of how many times he's been killed to ensure he still has one extra life to spare. [[spoiler: Then he realizes his count is short and the life he's about to lose really is the last one...]]

* Minmax of ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' manages to create a sword made of nothingness by playing around with a magic sword and a hole in reality. It's theorized that the sword is powered by Minmax's lack of understanding of what it is or how it works. Minmax immediately decides to give the sword the, uh, incredibly badass name [[ICallItVera "Oblivious,"]] which another character notes is an apt name since Minmax clearly doesn't understand what it means.

** This is best illustrated by the explanation for Sanji's Diable Jambe move, which involves setting his leg on fire with friction. According to Oda, his leg isn't hurt because ''[[HotBlooded his heart is burning hotter]]''. [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower What an awesome power heart is, huh?]]

** The Gray-aligned robots are powered by... ''money''.

** Nami's slaps [[AmusingInjuries bruise]] [[RubberMan Luffy]] because "She hurts his spirit." Of course anyone with the ability to use haki would also be able to nullify Luffy's [[BuffySpeak rubberness]], but by the time this power was introduced, Nami had been slapping around Luffy for years. When he was introduced (much later but still a good while before Haki), Luffy's grandfather Garp also displayed the ability to hurt Luffy, claiming he was able to because of ThePowerOfLove.

** The Marine Captains' {{Coat Cape}}s, despite simply hanging on their shoulders are held in place by Justice. And justice will never fall!
** It even shows in anime fillers. Twin villains Canpachino and Brindo have the ability to [[SelectiveMagnetism magnetically attract and repel each other]]. They specifically state that this power doesn't come from a Devil Fruit, but from their [[WonderTwinPowers brotherly]] [[ThePowerOfLove love.]]

* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'': Every human is essentially unaware that they are a Reality-Warping God, and mages are beginning to awaken to the truth, but most need their Focus to actually employ their powers, as they [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve believe that whatever method they practice is actually responsible for the changes they employ]], whether they use druidic magic, mad science, martial arts or reality hacking. The more they raise their Arete the more they realize that the magic is in them rather than their tools. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with the Technocrats, as their Enlightenment further cements their belief that their technology is the source of the fantastic abilities, and even when a Technocrat Ascends, they basically become a Ghost in the Machine.

** This is used to humorous effect when a group of Imperial engineers try to determine what it is that makes Orky weaponry so deadly. They dismantle it, put it back together, try everything they can to even get the gun to fire but nothing. This is because the gun is ''missing several vital components''. When they put it in the hands of an ork, it fires with deadly power.
** Ork spaceships have been reported to navigate through space for months despite having run completely out of fuel, just because the crew thought they should or simply didn't notice.