Chekhov's Classroom: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

"Oh yes, I totally forgot. How [[Idiot Ball|conveniently stupid]] of me!" }}

 

 

Compare [[Strange Minds Think Alike]] and [[Lecture as Exposition]].

 

* In the [[Hot Springs Episode]] of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', they use precisely this grating dialogue when they destroy an angel with the help of thermal expansion, which by amazing coincidence, Shinji had been studying that very day.

** ''Totally'' worth it for the line "[[Double Entendre|Thermal expansion... how embarrassing]]", though.

*** The example used by Asuka was pretty sweet, too.

* Done rather effectively in ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]! The Second Raid'', where during a mission briefing one of the SRT members makes a joke about {{spoiler|the Cretans Paradox. When the commanding officers realize that [[The Mole|a mole]] is relaying their communications to the enemy, they manage to turn the tables by obliquely referencing the joke, which lets the field teams know to do the exact opposite of what they're ordered thereafter.}}

* An episode of ''[[Transformers Victory]]'' had an early scene of Wingraver and Dashtackler teaching Jean about levers. Sure enough, later in the episode, he came up with a plan to use a lever to free a trapped human.

* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', Pearl is told by the Fan Club President that in order to prepare for Platinum's first Super Contest performance, each member of the Sinnoh Trio must do one different part. Much later on in the story, when everyone is freaking out over the revelation that Team Galactic is planning to blow up the three lakes, Pearl notices the ribbon that Platinum's Empoleon won and remembers the President's words. He then declares that each of them must go to and protect one different lake, marking the first time in their journey together that the three of them would have to travel alone.

* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'': the actual lecture is not shown on-screen, but the only reason Ash et. al could get out safely from the S.S. Anne disaster is that Misty studied the ship's layout for a class project.

 

 

== Films -- Live Action ==

* The titular character of [[Fresh]], while suffering a [[Heroic BSOD]] after his would-be girlfriend was killed in when an [[Ax Crazy]] gangster shot up the playground when he was losing at basketball, gets berated by his [[Samuel L. Jackson|father]] who only notices [["Well Done, Son" Guy|how poor his son's chess game is]]. Still, the [[Chess Motifs|chess lessons on the importance of exploiting your opponents character and sacrificing any game piece if it means winning]] come in quite handy {{spoiler|when Fresh enacts his plan to escape his neighbourhood by maniuplating the gangsters to kill each other, then turning in the survivors to the police and applying for witness protection,}} while relying on the fact that he is [[Just a Kid]] to stay [[Beneath Suspicion]].

* Variation occurs in ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'': at the beginning, a castle guard gets distracted by King Arthur's "[[The Coconut Effect|coconut horse]]" and goes into great length talking about whether swallows could carry coconuts into England. Toward the end of the film, the Bridgekeeper asks, "What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" Arthur remembers a detail discussed by the original guard and asks, "What do you mean? An African or European swallow?" which causes the Bridgekeeper to fall into his own trap. In the original ending, which was cut at the last minute, the English army was saved by sparrows dropping coconuts on the French.

* ''[[Black Death (film)|Black Death]]'' has the method of mercy-killing.

* ''Jett Jackson: The Movie'', the made-for-TV movie of ''[[The Famous Jett Jackson]]'': After Jett and his TV character Silverstone [[Trapped in TV Land|have switched places in each other's universes]] and have been living in each other's shoes for a while, Jett's grandmother later approaches Silverstone in a quiet moment, where it's revealed that she'd already figured out he wasn't her grandson. When Silverstone asks how she knew, she explains that when Jett was born, she looked him in the eyes and knew that from thenceforth she'd always be able to know and identify him. {{spoiler|In the climax of the film, the shape-shifting [[Big Bad]] in Silverstone's world makes himself look like Jett, causing a doppleganger problem when the three confront one another; Jett and Silverstone look each other in the eye and know they're both the real deal}}.

 

 

** In ''[[Area 7]]'', a precocious youth found in the middle of a government base delivers a buttload of the kind of trivia kids that age accumulate and share at any opportunity, including how komodo dragons are sensitive to changes in the Earth's magnetic field. So, of course, there's a scene where the main character has to fight off ''komodo dragons'' in a watery pit with his magnetic grappling hook.

* Subverted and lampshaded in ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]''.

 

 

* Even ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' isn't above using this trope at least once. In order to defeat the evil science teacher who is actually a giant praying mantis, Buffy uses the recorded sound of bat sonar to "make [her] nervous system go kerplooey". She of course learnt about that in science class earlier in the episode (though, thankfully, from the previous science teacher. No villain should be stupid enough to teach a class their own weaknesses).

** Of course, that's not how she ultimately kills the praying mantis. She does that with a big machete.

* Pretty much every episode of ''[[Black Hole High]]'' (a.k.a. ''Strange Days at Blake Holsey High'') featured this. Apparently, the unpredictable wormhole at least had the good manners to follow the <s>state</s> [[Canada, Eh?|provincial]]-mandated science syllabus exactly.

** Given the way physics works at Blake Holsey (namely, that its laws will bend to teach you an Important Moral Lesson), it is entirely possible that the wormhole was doing it "on purpose", and the physics lectures or experiments in act 1 were really shaping the physics weirdness in act 2.

* Subverted in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', when Sheppard finds himself in an F-302 latched onto a Wraith Hiveship in hyperspace. He flashes back to a memory of McKay and Zelenka arguing about whether a non-hyperspace capable ship could detach from another one while in hyperspace without being destroyed, which is exactly what Sheppard needs to know. Then they ask Sheppard what he thinks, but he's not paying attention because he's flirting with the woman at the next table. He ends up not taking the risk, and has to wait for the Hiveship to leave hyperspace.

* Crossed with [[I Know You Know I Know]] in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcVAcxayiFM 'Fingers and Fumbs'] episode of ''[[QI]]'', where host Stephen offers the contestants an opportunity to go double or nothing on a forfeit by playing [[Rock-Paper-Scissors]] with him. He mentions that, psychologically, people tend to pick scissors first, because it's commonly believed that others would play rock first, and so would play paper to counter it. Phil and Dara both tie with him on scissors the first three times it happens (Phil having played twice). The fourth time, however, {{spoiler|Phil exchanges an obvious glance with Alan, and psyches Stephen into playing paper while he plays scissors. Dara and Alan also get to defeat Stephen, both using rock while Stephen kept using scissors.}}

* The third episode of BBC's 2010 ''[[Sherlock]]'' had Holmes fighting an assassin in a planetarium while an astronomy lecture played in the background. Wouldn't ya know, the lecture contained a clue that helped Holmes identify a painting as a fake and solve Moriarty's fourth challenge.

* [[Exploited Trope|Exploited]] by the crew on ''[[Leverage]]''. While setting up a con on a college student, Nate plays a professor who antagonizes the mark so that Hardison can make friends with him. The lecture Nate gives is about the prisoner's dilemma problem in game theory, and he tells the class that it's always better for the prisoners to turn on each other. Later, they put the mark in a situation where he has the option of turning on his confederates, and he flashes back to Nate's lecture and decides to do it.

* Present in the Fate route of [[Fate/stay night]], as [[Stealth Mentor|Archer]] decides to give a few hints about his magic to Shirou, with plenty of [[Deadpan Snarker|sarcasm and veiled threats thrown in.]] Our hero later uses all of the information gained {{spoiler|to project Caliburn and defeat Berserker}}.

{{quote|'''Shirou:''' ''"It wasn't his usual harassment. Those words held an importance that I need to understand right now. -- No, saying that... [[Idiot Hero|Weren't all of his words a warning that I shouldn't have ignored?]]''"}}

* Used in [[Half Life|Half-Life 2 Episode 2]]: At White Forest, a rebel is teaching others about the effectiveness of an [[AR 2]] Combine ball against hunters, a while before {{spoiler|the White Forest rocket is attacked by hunters and striders}}.

* In ''[[Space Quest|Space Quest V]]'' you begin the game by passing a test that gives ridiculous answers to questions like "how to best defeat an android bounty hunter" -- {{spoiler|"drop a rock on him"}}. Several of those turn out to be answers to in-game puzzles.

 

== Web Original ==

** In "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl", Ayla shows (s)he knows too much about taking out mutants with powers, and she talks all about it on the way back from martial arts class. What she says about fighting Package Deal Psychics saves Lancer's life in the big final fight.

* The [[Kid Hero|students]] at the [[Global Guardians PBEM Universe|Hyperion Academy]] used the information they learned in about electro-magnetism during their weekly physics class to defeat the villainous Lodestone.

* Generally averted in ''[[Winx Club]]'': The only time anything we've seen them learn in class has been useful to the plot was when Tecna fired a spell she learned in class at Professor Avalon. One can debate that even ''that'' spell didn't work properly.

* ''[[Total Drama World Tour]]'' has Sierra mentioning that Cody's birthday is April 1 during the first episode. In ''Aww, Drumheller'', {{spoiler|she makes a cake to celebrate his birthday, which both warms him up to her (because last year his birthday was ignored) and also got her kicked off when the "candles" made the plane explode.}}

* In one episode of ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy]]'' animated series, Alex manages to avoid being crushed by falling ruins, commenting on his recent geometry lesson really came in handy.

* Inverted and parodied in ''[[Max Steel]]'':

'''Rachel:''' Now wouldn't that be convenient. }}

* In the ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode "[[Avatar: The Last Airbender/Recap/Book 2/09 Bitter Work|Bitter Work]]," Iroh teaches Zuko all about the principles of [[Shock and Awe|lightning bending.]] These same principles are later applied when {{spoiler|Zuko deflects Ozai's lightning during his [[Heel Face Turn]], and later in the [[Grand Finale]] when Aang does the exact same thing. Incidentally, it was Zuko himself who taught this technique to Aang, figuring that one day it would come back to save his skin.}}

 

{{reflist}}