Noodle Incident/Western Animation

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Examples of Noodle Incidents in Western Animation include:

• The Fairly OddParents
  • Super Toilet, the wish that prompted the "no more wishes with 'super' in the name" rule. Cosmo tends to start babbling "So... much... clogging..." and curl up in the fetal position when Super Toilet is brought up. Potentially subverted, as when Wanda wishes up Super Toilet, Cosmo falls in and is flushed.
  • For reasons unknown, Crocker can never return to Cincinnati.
  • "Is it Father's Day already?"
  • In the episode "Mighty Mom and Dyno Dad", we have this little gem:

Timmy: We could talk. [Cut to Timmy being pushed out the door by his father] Timmy's Dad: And that's all you need to know about where babies come from. Timmy: But what's the machine for? Timmy's Dad: You'll find out when you're older son.

• Don't want to be that guy but they may be talking about a sex toy.

• An episode of G.I. Joe had Shipwreck inside a Lotus Eater Machine, in which he had a home and a wife and kids he lacked in real life. After realizing it isn't real he finally escapes, and encounters his parrot Polly. After questioning whether this is the real Polly or another illusion, the parrot responds "Remember that time in Minneapolis...". Shipwreck hastily cuts him off before he can finish.
• On the Curious George TV show, George and the Man with the Yellow Hat are looking at an old photo album with a picture of the man as a boy in mismatched clothes:

"And, uh, after that I decided to only wear yellow."

• "The Backwash Incident" in Danny Phantom. Apparently it was bad enough that Vlad lists it as one of the three reasons he wants to make Jack die oh so very painfully.
  • Also, from the same episode as the above, just as Maddie is about to walk out the door, this exchange with Jack occurs:

Maddie: Please try not to trash the house while I'm gone. Jack: (sighs) Suck the house into a parallel dimension ONE TIME, and you just can't let it go, can you?

• Done plenty of times with the favours Kim Possible calls in for her rides, with the contact stating it's in gratitude for some heroic or charitable act in the past; there are brief hints at what happened that Kim helped to stop (like saving a village from an avalanche, helping a plane land in a storm, helping a guide's donkey deliver her foal) but rarely elaborates much further than that.
  • And, of course, "The Chess Club Incident" because, "The first rule of Chess Club is: You do not talk about Chess Club."
  • Done particularly often in Season 4:

Kim: Like that time you cleaned your room. Ron: We promised never to speak of that dark day.

• Or:

Barkin: Don't let them tell you they're supposed to have class outside. We put a stop to that after "the jellyfish incident". Shego/Ms. Go: Oh, that's so sweet! You took the class to the beach? Barkin: No beach. Just jellyfish. Don't ask.

• And who could forget the "Paper Machete" incident?

Kim: You mean paper maché, right? Ron: I wish I did.

• Or the story about how Ron learned to use the potty....
• Another episode has Ron look for a job in the paper and sees one about puppies and thinks he might like to work with them. Rufus disagrees. Ron then agrees with him saying something about "The Fetch Incident".
• Kim didn't go into detail regarding what she did to the bullies in "D Hall" that always harassed Ron while she was in Ron's body due to a Freaky Friday Flip; she only said she gave them some "sensitivity training". The bullies ended up giving Ron all the lunch money they had ever taken from him since kindergarten (plus a new videogame).
• When faced by an enormous robotic guard bird...

Ron: That is the second biggest flamingo I've ever seen.

• Several episodes have Mr. Barkin teaching some new class, briefly referring to the incident that caused the regular teacher's absence.
• Another one from Ron, he is lampshading an offscreen Noodle Incident that involves Kim trying to fix up a hand-me down, broken down car her father gave her. Things aren't working out at all...somehow Ron is entangled in wires. Poor Ron, if only he knew Rule of Funny.

Ron: Wait a minute?! I wasn't even helping! How did this happen?!

• Code Lyoko: Jim, the gym teacher, is a man of Noodle Incidents. He'll frequently exclaim, at some weird event, "Oh! This reminds me of the time I [some incredible activity or profession]!" Whenever one of the other characters asks him about it, though, he'll just reply with a mute, "I'd rather not talk about it." The show makes fun of this at one point when Odd guesses "But you'd rather not talk about it?" to which Jim replies "Actually, I'd love to! But I don't have time right now."
  • In the flashback episode XANA Awakes, Jim (who is teaching a martial ats class) tells a rather embarassing and not-so-awesome story about fighting a beaver... at which point Ulrich takes a moment to poke fun at the Running Gag, saying, "Maybe you shouldn't talk about that one."
  • In one episode, Odd has been firmly ordered by Ulrich and Yumi never to mention "what happened at the swimming pool" (which may or may not refer to an incident seen on-screen), and by Jérémie and Aelita never to mention "what happened in the gym," which still remains a total mystery. The same episode includes the moniker "Big Fat Cheesehead", an unexplained "private joke" between Aelita and Jérémie.
  • The only time Jérémie entered the virtual world (rather than being stuck as Mission Control Guy) was never shown, but was apparently very funny to everyone else.
• Rugrats:
  • When Tommy asks Chuckie, "When was the last time I ever got you lost?", Chuckie rattles off a list of "adventures" seen in previous episodes, except for the last one: "... and the time I got stuck in the tomato bush, and that dog thought I was a tree..."
  • Also, when Tommy gets sick and Lou suggests "the Applesauce Cure": "Just hold him upside down and get some applesauce and an old sock big enough for his head...." Nobody's willing to try it again. "I remember that. There was applesauce everywhere!"
  • In the very first episode, Stu and Drew decide to put on a puppet show for Tommy's birthday party. When Lou reminds them "Don't you remember what happened the last time you two put on a show?", Stu replies "Come on, pop, my arm healed and Drew sees almost perfectly out of that eye."
  • When Chuckie's "gardening (guardian) angel" appears in the Wonderful Life episode, Chuckie demands to know, "Where was ya' the time I got my tongue stucked on that ice cube? Or the time I got my head caught in the back of that weird-looking chair? Or the time I trapped myself in the birdcage?!" The angel's response is "Gimme a break! I'm only two, you know!"
  • Angelica tries to persuade Chuckie to help at her lemonade stand: "Chuckie, have I ever lied to you?" "Well, there was that time you told me Spike was my brother, and the time you told me rocks was food, and the-"
  • One Noodle Incident was unusual in that it happened pretty much on-screen, just out of view. Didi and Stu take the children to a Reptar show. While still in the parking lot, Didi asks Stu if he has the tickets. He begins frantically searching himself. Cut to the kids talking, with Didi and Stu in the background. When the scene returns to the adults, they have the tickets, and Didi says, "What I don't understand is why you put them there in the first place," to which Stu replies, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
• The Simpsons:
  • An amusing occasion has Mr. Burns going through his checkbook, appearing to find out about his (drugged-up) $500 check for Homer's bowling team, only to be corrected:

Smithers: Uh, sir, that's a check for your boweling. Burns: Oh, yes. That's very important. Smithers: Yes, sir. Remember that month you didn't do it? Burns: Yes, that was unpleasant for all concerned.

• In another episode:

Burns: Do you think we could dig up Al Jolson? Smithers: Don't you remember? We did that once before. Burns: Oh yes, he's dead. And rather pungent. The rest of that night is something I'd like to forget.

• The Simpsons has used this joke several times. In season 10's "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace," Homer has to do research in the Springfield Elementary School library because he was banned from the "big people's" library over some... unpleasantness.
• Don't forget the part on the season 5 episode, "Homer and Apu", where Lisa plays an Indian instrument called a shenai and Homer comments that it's "worse than the album Grampa released" (with no flashback or further information about the matter). Or how about the season 8 episode, "My Sister, My Sitter" where Lisa is trying to get her brother medical attention at a clinic and Smithers won't let Lisa in front of him because of a serious injury that makes it painful for him to sit down (though this could be taken as a Double Entendre, considering Smithers's closeted homosexuality)?
  • The entire waiting room in that episode was full of people injured in Noodle Incidents.
• There's an in-episode one for Treehouse of Horror XI: Homer gets through the day without dying, even though it is predicted by his horoscope. He tells Marge to stop worrying, as the only threats to his life that day were a nasty paper-cut, a tree felled by lightning, a giant globe rolling down the street, a pickaxe to the forehead, a snake bite, and "the testicle thing" (which was never shown).
• Some of Bart's blackboard punishment lines could be considered Noodle Incidents (like "I will not teach others to fly," "I am not a licensed hairstylist," "Science class should not end in tragedy," "Making Milhouse cry is not a science project," "Organ transplants are best left to the professionals," "The boys' room is not a water park," "I do not have power of attorney over first graders," and "Next time, it could be me on the scaffolding.") since what Bart did to get detention during the opening credits is only implied.
• The season 1 episode "Homer's Odyssey" has Ms. Krabappel mention an infamous trip to the Springfield State Prison, to which Bart replies, "Ms. Krabappel, I didn't open that door!"
• The episode about Apu impregnating his wife features a scene that skips ahead a year to the Simpsons riding in the car, and they all discuss events that happened during that year. Marge became "Sideshow Marge" and Bart learned the true meaning of Columbus Day and winter.
• In yet another episode at the dinner table, Homer says, "It's not like anything interesting happened to anyone else today." We then pan to Bart studying a diamond under a microscope, Lisa with a broken arm, and Maggie wearing a "Cutest Baby" sash.
• Then there's Moe facing a roomful of angry mobsters:

Moe: Uh, that's the second most guns ever pointed at me.

• From "They Saved Lisa's Brain" (during the subplot of Homer posing for erotic photos):

Homer: You're not going to ask me to pose nude, are you? Photographer: Well, yes, unless you have issues about revealing your body. Homer: I don't, but the block association seems to. They wanted a "traditional" Santa.

• From "Itchy & Scratchy Land"

Homer: (Fumbling with map): North. South. Nuts to that, I'm taking a shortcut. Marge: No, Homer. You'll get lost. Homer: Relax Marge. With today's cars, you can't get lost. What with the silicon chips and such. (Cut to car pulling up to the amusement park parking lot, severely destroyed, with a wagon wheel in place of a tire, a Homecoming banner being dragged behind, a U.S. Army missile sticking out of the chassis, a school traffic sign stuck to the side, and chickens in Marge's hair) Homer: All right, we're here. Now let us never speak of this shortcut again.

• "That is not something a lion would want to see on his X-ray!"
• Chief Wiggum, to Smithers:

"Oh Smithers, if I didn't arrest you that night in the park, I'm not going to arrest you now..."

• When Mr. Burns captures the Loch Ness Monster during a popularity-increasing scheme:

Groundskeeper Willie: That was amazing, Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns: I was most worried when he swallowed me, but then, well, you know the rest.

• From "Lisa's Date With Density":

Nelson: Wait till he finds what I left in his bird bath! Skinner: NOOOOOO!!!

• From "Homer Simpson in Kidney Trouble":

Peter Lorre-esque character: And when Mr. Dinkley saw what I had done, I was banned from the car wash forever!

• In the "Lost Verizon" episode, Homer off-handedly mentions an "unpleasantness in Ecuador" that they have behind them.
• In the episode where Santa's Little Helper runs away, and Bart is looking for him; Bart has followed the trail to the church, where Rev. Lovejoy and the organist admit he'd been there but had to be turned out because of some mischief. The church organist snaps, "He UN-HOLY'ED the HOLY water!"
• Many of Kent Brockman's news broadcasts fall into this trope: "...And that kitten played with that ball of yarn... all through the night."

• "...leaving the Vice President in charge".
• Another episode has him bid the audience goodnight and then remember that he forgot about "The President being arrested for murder." he tries to squeeze it in but runs out of time.
• "...which, if true, means death for us all."
• In one episode, Kent begins a story about how Paris has been destroyed forever. The reason for why was never revealed, as the family turned off the TV to do something else.

• On the season ten episode "Lisa Gets An A," Bart is about to let Lisa into the boys' bathroom. Lisa objects, and Bart replies, "Relax. There's nothing here you didn't see when Dad boycotted pants."
• Principal Skinner, recalling the time he almost discovered a comet.

Once... but by the time I got to the phone, my discovery had already been reported by Principal Kohoutek. [A cloud covers the moon; the music and everything else suddenly turns very sinister:] I got back at him, though... him and that little boy of his... [Cloud passes; everything's suddenly not sinister again] Anyway, that's why I always keep a cellular phone next to me.

• We may never know why the Simpsons family is banned from 47 US states (which causes Fridge Logic: If the Simpsons have been banned from nearly all of the U.S., exactly where do they live and where the heck is Springfield? Are we to believe that Springfield is in another English-speaking country [possibly an American territory, like Guam or the U.S. Virgin Islands] or do they live in one of the only three states that haven't thrown them out yet?), though, considering the chaos Homer caused in "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson" and what happened in "Kill the Alligator and Run" (which is the episode that revealed that the Simpsons have been banned in nearly all of America), it's not much of a surprise.
• In "Sideshow Bob Roberts", after Sideshow Bob throws Bart out of his limo, Homer is seen being thrown out of a car by Archie and friends and is warned by Moose to "Stay outta Riverdale!"
• In Papa's got a Brand New Badge:

Homer: Aww, every time Santa and me get together something bad always happens.

• Possibly a Call Back to the pilot episode where Homer had to work as a mall Santa, or even the example in "They Saved Lisa's Brain".
• In one episode, Dr. Hibbert had some people dressed as him to distract Bart while Hibbert gave him some vaccination. Something Moe did as Hibbert got the doctor banned from the library.
• On the 200th episode, "Trash of the Titans," when Homer announces his candidacy for sanitation commissioner, the courthouse clerk points out that Homer is in a line for people who have to register as sex offenders. In that line are Patty and Selma, Jimmy the Scumbag from "Lisa's Date with Density," Mayor Quimby's nephew from "The Boy Who Knew Too Much", and Moe Szyslak, who complains that the lines for registering sex offenders are always long. The viewer can understand why Moe, the mayor's nephew, and possibly Jimmy the Scumbag would be sex offenders (Moe's a creeper [or at least that's what he's become in later episodes, especially with the running gag about hitting on Marge], Mayor Quimby and his entire male family members are Expies of The Kennedys (whose legacy is mired in sex scandals that are NoodleIncidents), and Jimmy the Scumbag is...a scumbag), but what's the story with Patty and Selma? Why are they in the registered sex offenders line, and why didn't they leave when the clerk revealed what the line is for? Either they did something so bad that it can never be mentioned or—like Homer in that scene—they too suck at picking lines.
• In another episode, before Mr. Burns started showing a movie about outsourcing, he asked for a minute of silence for the workers who died in some heroic, well, whatever it was, we never got to know because "heroic" was the last word Mr. Burns said before Homer chanted for the movie and the subject of the heroic deaths was never brought up again.
• At one point in the episode "The Joy of Sect," Rev. Lovejoy is spreading gasoline around the church and muttering "I never thought I'd have to do this again."
• At one point in "The Burns and the Bees", when it was suggested Lisa used an abandoned greenhouse to house the bees she's trying to save, Homer commented it used to be a prosperous greenhouse before he was hired to manage it.
• One episode had Homer and Lisa breaking into the Springfield museum to see the Isis exhibit. Homer asked Lisa to open the window, because apparently, the police have his prints on file.
• In a Costco-esque store, a drunk Barney accidentally knocks over a giant Mrs. Maple bottle (which he confuses for a human) which spills everywhere to which he screams, "Oh, I've killed her! It's all happening again!"
• At the beginning of "Simpsons Christmas Stories", when Flanders is called by Lovejoy to be a substitute pastor and deliver the Christmas sermon.

Flanders: I feel like I'm born again again!

• In Grift of the Magi, Homer tallies his Christmas record:

Homer: Let's see, this'll make three Christmases I saved, versus eight I ruined...two were kind of a draw.

• In "Homer the Great":

Grandpa: Sure! Let's see. (Takes out his wallet and looks through his membership cards) I'm an Elk, a Mason, a Communist, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance for some reason, ah, here it is, the Stonecutters!

• Grandpa also does not recognize Missouri for a state for some reason. ("Homer Badman")
• In "Mayored to the Mob", Homer asks Fat Tony's henchman Legs how he got his nickname:

Legs: That's actually a very interesting story. See, President Kennedy's father...

• However, Homer's attention is diverted before we can hear any more of it.

• Family Guy averts the trope continually, by showing what happened "that time [Peter] forgot how to sit down", for example... to the point that when they play the trope straight once, during the "Saving Private Brian" episode, Stewie breaks the Fourth Wall to hang a lampshade on the fact.

Stewie: Like Peter went after that hockey coach. (silence) Oh, no clip? Thought we had a clip.

• References by Peter, Stewie, and Brian are almost always shown, while those made by Lois are never explained, which often makes them appear even more outrageous.

Peter: "Where did you get that tattoo?" Lois: "I don't know. Meth is a hell of a drug."

• Actually played straight in one episode when Chris and Peter are at a whale exhibit.

Chris: Dad, what's the blowhole for? Peter: I'll tell you what it's not for, son. And when I do, you'll understand why I can never go back to Sea World.

• Depending on how canon you consider in-character bits from the audio commentary, it's slightly less of a Noodle Incident. Right after that line, Seth Macfarlane says in Peter's voice "You see I fucked a whale in the blowhole." What situation he was in to allow him to try that and his reasoning for doing so are still unexplained, though.
• In another episode, Lois blackmails her father by bringing up the "nice mulatto boy who looks an awful lot like...",
• In an episode "Courtship of Stewie's Father", Quagmire wants to tell of some ridiculous sexual escapade, so Peter covers Stewie's ears and we only see Quagmire's hand movements rather than know the full story. Although we do know that it was his right hand that "caused all the trouble."
• There's also this little exchange:

Chris: Oh yeah? What about the time she strangled my other sister? Lois: (nervously) Chris, honey, we told you, that was just a bad dream. Chris: But I remember it so clear-- Peter and Lois: It was a dream!

• In "Blue Harvest", Lois/Princess Leia reminds Herbert/Obi-Wan that he owes her because she forced a bunch of children to remain quiet for an obviously sexual reason but Herbert/Obi-Wan fast forwards through most of the details and all we have is "Joey Lawrence haircut".

• In the same episode, Stewie/Darth Vader, when encountering Herbert/Obi-Wan, mentioned a restraining order before fighting him due to something the latter did.

• In PTV, Peter apparently goes into grotesque detail on an apparently sexual event that becomes this due to a Cluster Bleep Bomb:

Peter: You know, you're lucky you're good at (AIRHORN SOUND)ing my (AIRHORN SOUND) or I'd never put up with ya. You know what I'm talking about; when you (AIRHORN SOUND) lubed-up (AIRHORN SOUND) toothpaste in my (AIRHORN SOUND) while you (AIRHORN SOUND) on a cherry (AIRHORN SOUND) Episcopalian (AIRHORN SOUND) extension cord (AIRHORN SOUND) wetness (AIRHORN SOUND) with a parking ticket. That is the best!

• The clip seen here, Quagmire gets his, uh... man-parts stuck in a window and has to call the paramedics; the "this time" suggests this isn't the first time he's had to call them for this sort of injury.

• From The Jetsons; in one episode, Mr. Spacely "invites" his hated business rival Mr. Cogswell over to show him the Mini-Vac, his latest money-saving invention. When Cagswell shows up, he jovially says, "I just hope this Mini-Vac is as funny as that solar-powered nuclear stamp licker you had last week."
• In Frisky Dingo, something happened in Phoenix, AZ involving Simon and a pet store that ensures Killface and co. "can never go back to Arizona!"

Killface: (after Simon runs away and steals all the knives, he starts to worry) Call all the pet stores. My god, it's Arizona all over again!

• Funny thing is, Simon was going to a pet shop. An episode later we see Simon running a glorified cock-fighting ring where rabbits have knives strapped to them and they engage in brutal fights to the death.

• On the pilot episode of the short-lived MTV cartoon 3South, Cindy (Sanford's sister) visits her brother in his new dorm. Upon seeing Joe's skeleton for anatomy class, she yells, "What are you doing here? I thought I killed you!"
• The season one episode of Daria entitled "The Big House" opens with Daria being dropped off at her house by a mystery car and sneaking back into the house. We never find out the identity of who was driving the car or where Daria had been, though it hasn't stopped many fanfic writers from creating their own scenerios.
  • Similarly, "Pierce Me" has Trent claiming an unnamed incident keeps him from EVER going inside a bookstore.
• Transformers Generation 1: Kup was famed for having a war story every time something reminded him of the events... and he was reminded of a lot of things. We never actually hear the details, but Grimlock is very interested in the Petro-rabbits that reminded Kup about the current air raid taking place. It was a good story.
  • It was lampshaded at the end of Transformers: The Movie where Unicron assumed his true form and attacked Cybertron. Kup could not think of a single event to compare it to, which made the other Autobots even more terrified.
  • One of Kup's references in the movie crosses this with a bit of Gallows Humor:

Kup: This reminds me of the shrike-bats of Dromedon! Hot Rod: How did you beat them? Kup: I'm trying to remember, there were an awful lot of casualties that day... Oh yeah! We inverted polarity!

• Transformers Animated: This trope seems to have a great liking for Captain Fanzone, technophobic head of the Detroit Police Department. Professor Isaac Sumdac mentions at the unveiling of his latest line of police robots that, as he has updated the machines' recognition systems, there will hopefully be no repeats of "that unfortunate incident with the Captain's wife," to which Fanzone scowls visibly. Fanzone himself also mentions a different incident which befell his mother-in-law, presumably also having to do with robots/machines gone haywire.
  • Also, it's never explained where Big Bad Megatron] actually got his helicopter mode in the first place. It's possible, however, that he may have scanned a helicopter while searching throught the Internet via Issac Sumdac's computers back when he was still just a head, since his at-the-time unfinished body clearly resembled his eventual Earth mode, which becomes said helicopter.
• Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: When Monterey Jack goes to see if Geegaw Hackwrench is in, he expresses mild concern that Geegaw might still be mad about... something that happened in Zanzibar involving cheese bread.
  • Monterey Jack is full of these.

Monty: "This reminds me of the time I got shanghaied in Shanghai on a junk full of junk. I think that happened twice!"

• In The DCAU, several things like this are tossed out every once in a while.
  • You do not want to know why Batman needed to freeze the Gotham river and stop asking about the near-apocalypse of '09. Ironically, one Noodle Incident—a Future-Version Superman mentioning to Batman Beyond's Batman that the original Batman hated traveling through boom tubes—actually was shown in Justice League, where Batman (BATMAN!) appears ready to throw up after going through one.
  • The best JLU Noodle Incident are the creatures from the Decoran Nebula that Wonder Woman insisted had their beat down coming. Apperently they weren't misunderstood, they just thought we were food.
  • The episode "The Greatest Story Never Told" is full of these. Since the story is from the POV of Booster Gold, who was not involved with the main fight with Mordru, we only catch insane clips of the fight while Booster evacuates people. We never learn why they needed Elongated Man ("Maybe they need a vase") or how he ended up stopping the "Big Bad" nor do we get any details into the merging of Superman and Batman into one being (with Wonder Woman's voice) other than Batman giving a look of "You will never speak of this again."
  • Another great one is in "The Great Brain Robbery" after Dr. Fate has gotten Flash's mind back in his own body.

G.L.: It sounds like Wally, but is there any way to be sure? Flash: You want proof? Until he went off into the Marines, G.L.'s nickname was-- 'G.L.: Stop! It's him. Man, you promised never to repeat that story!

• In the Static Shock the episode "No Man's an Island" we learn Hotstreak doesn't like hospitals because he spent 2 years in the hospital when he was a kid. The audiance never learns what happened to him to cause this.

• Darkwing Duck:
  • The "stupid ski accident" that put DW in a wheelchair. "Well, I told you things got rough at those ski shop sales. You're lucky only your legs were broken."
  • Gosalyn's infamous pranks:

Gosalyn: I don't know anything about a pig, and I was nowhere near the boys bathroom at the time! Mrs. Cavanaugh: What pig? Gosalyn: Dad's never grounded me without a reason before! Honker: Gee, Gosalyn, maybe he found out about that sewer gas incident in the boys' locker room. Gosalyn: Nah, it's too soon. Honker: Um, the UFO hoax at the convent? Gosalyn: No way, I wore gloves.

• In the Total Drama Island episode "Camp Castaways", Duncan, Heather and Gwen have been confessing their sins to each other:

Gwen: Whoa! So that's what you went to juvie hall for. Duncan: (visibly depressed) Yeah, but at least it's not as bad as what Heather did. Heather: I admit, it was a little unorthodox, but it doesn't come close to what Gwen did, if that's even your real name. [Gwen looks away nervously]

• King of the Hill:
  • Hank says that because of an incident at Taco Bueno, Joe Jack isn't allowed to play for the company softball team. Everyone agrees that it was a stupid thing that he did, the details surrounding the event were never explained.
  • "Maid in Arlen" opens with one of these.

Bill: Do you think I'd meet more women if I changed my name to Tango? Hank: Don't change your name again, Bill.

• Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy:
  • Edd has an extreme fear of physical activity due to an unmentioned "Dodgeball Incident" that occurred sometime beforehand and apparently led to him being exempt from Gym Class.
  • In The Movie, this is the entire driving force behind the movie, as we never find out just what kind of scam the Eds must have pulled on the kids for them to so determinedly chase after them for ninety minutes, only that somehow, Ed and Eddy screwed it up and that it completely destroyed the culdesac, moreso than in any other episode.
    • Oh it get's worse. Apparently, whatever they did was so unspeakably heinous, that they needed to pack their bags and skip town before the neighborhood kids beat them to death. What takes the cake is that even after they left, the kids hunted them for days, so this was way more serious than just a scam gone awry, though just how serious it was is never fully explained. The only hint that's given in the film is that Eddy evidently disobeyed Edd's order not to press the red button on whatever it was he built.
• In Invader Zim Dib's whole life seems to be either a series of Noodle Incidents, or one big one:
  • In one episode we get the following exchange

Prof. Membrane: Son! There'd better not be any walking dead up there! Dib: It's nothing to worry about Dad! And I said I was sorry!

• In the first episode, they went through a list of all the crazy things Dib has done, including seeing Bigfoot in his garage "He was using the belt sander." It is never revealed whether these things really happened or if it was just Dib being crazy. There was also the election episode, where Dib jammed a receiver into his ear. Miss Bitters shooed him away saying "Dib! What did I tell you about jamming things in people's ears?"
• There was also the episode "Mysterious Mysteries" where not only was there a whole closet full of the stuff Dib sends in (Though a lot of it is probably about Zim, who knows what else could be in there), but the host (And, seemingly the creator) of the show said "No! Not after what happened last time.." he then stroked his scar and Dib flashed on the screen for a frame or two. Not to mention the size of his school records, and occasionally his father, sister, or school kids would mention some of the events of his life. The only time we saw more of his past was when Zim tried to alter it.
• And then there's this bit in "Vindicated":

Dib: What happened to the old counselor? Mr. Dwicky: Something... terrible. Voice from vents: Help... meee...

• Dib called the FBI in "Zim Eats Waffles."

Greg: (laughs) Hey, wait. You're... Dib, right? Did you ever get that ninja ghost out of your toilet? Dib: Yes, no thanks to you!

• In, "Gaz:Taster of Pork", Dib and Gaz are cornered by police on the side of a building. The next shot showed they had escaped in a beat up car while wearing funny animal costumes.
• Zim has a tendency to have giant, unseen conflicts in the middle of episodes. In the last scene of "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff", Officer Squidman mentions a giant battle that occurred sometime after the previous scene. And "Tak, the Hideous New Girl" returns from an Act Break with GIR and Zim fighting a giant monster in the city.

• Sealab 2021, "Radio Free Sealab". A heavily censored exchange has an FCC agent telling another agent about such an incident. All we know is that it involved an orangutan and that it was "legal in Tijuana."
  • The DVD release has a much less censored version of the exchange as an extra. Like Watterson and the original Noodle Incident, the writers realized that the scene was much funnier when more was left to the imagination.
• In an episode of Ren and Stimpy Adult Cartoon Party, Stimpy is terribly upset at the horrible thing Ren did to him and every time he brings it up he bursts into tears, later Mr. Horse who's portraying a psychologist asks him what he did him and he loudly whispers something unintelligible to him and he calls him a lunatic and says he needs to be locked up for it, but we never find out the details behind it. This is a Shout-Out to an old Nickelodeon episode where Ren told a psychologist that he "smacked" Stimpy. The reaction is the same.
• Mighty Max has the unfortunate events in... Rangoon.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends:
  • "Squeeze the Day" ends with the entire house (except for Mac and Bloo, who were purposely left behind) returning from the beach with Frankie yelling the following at Wilt:

"One day, Wilt-- that's all I ask for! One day to rest and relax and you have to go and mess it up! Now I have to go clean up all that sand and somehow find homes for all those jellyfish! "You're all banned from the beach!!! That's what the governor said!!!"

• In the opening scene of "Fosters Goes To Europe", Coco explains to Wilt the basis for the episode's rather unlikely set-up, to which Wilt responds, "Now I remember! What a crazy story!" Problem is, to the viewer, Coco is completely unintelligible.
• "The Big Picture" finds Mac and Bloo trying to find out what happened one year during photo day when the resulting group photo was missing everyone. Everyone they ask is evasive on the matter.

• Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • In the "Kenny and the Chimp" short that was part of the pilot, Professor XXX-L has some sort of grudge against the PTA, and heads off to fight them for the majority of the short. He never explains why, and what happens there is never shown, although given his condition when he comes back, he clearly got his ass handed to him.
  • The one time Sector V let The Delightful Children From Down The Lane oppress a kid, they made Numbuh 1 bald. No one knows exactly how this happened. Numbuh 5 blames herself for this, and thus it may be related to the also-unknown reason why she stepped down as Sector V's leader, and why she refuses to lead them again until the Series Finale
  • "That incident in Guatemala" was first refenced in Operation: J.E.W.E.L.S., where Heinrich von Marzipan is furious at Numbuh 5 for "leaving [him] holding the bag of Sacred Golden Caramels just as the authorities arrived", and this was further mentioned in most of Heinrich's later appearances. This was eventually explained in Heinrich's last appearance in the show. Turns out Numbuh 5 and he got enacted a ritual that turned a person's best quality into caramels. Heinrich's was that she valued her apperance but was turned into a boy as a result. Heinrich got greedy with the candy and nearly ate em all while Numbuh 5 seemingly abandoned him, leaving him in his male state. He blamed her for the incident ever since. Turns out however Numbuh 5 was looking for a cure for the ritual and had managed to save the last of Heinrich's caramel's which was needed to reverse the curse.
  • In "Operation: SPINACH", when Numbuh Four rushes into the school in his bathing suit (having played hooky to go to the beech) to warn everyone about the invading Vespinaccians, Ms. Thompson scolds him, saying "How many times must I tell you not to come to class in your underwear?" Indicating that he has, for some reason, done that before...
• Phineas and Ferb has a number of these
  • The time Candace got her head stuck in the sink.
  • One can only wonder why Doofenshmirtz has a problem with underwater welders.
  • In the episode "The Chronicles of Meap", part of Dr. Doofensmirtz's Backstory for that episode involved him not having friends as a kid because he smelled like pork all the time, because of another traumatizing back story that he didn't want to get into.
    • That incident may have been revealed later on: for a time, he operated a bratwurst stand, which would explain the pork smell.
    • Also strangely averted in the same episode, when Ferb drives the ride he'd earlier built across Danville - the speed he's going at causes to rip off all of Baljeet's and Buford's clothes (save underwear), who were just passing by. After a beat, Buford comments "We must never speak of this again", to which Baljeet responds "Agreed".
  • Lawrence's fishing stories from "The Lake Nose Monster" qualify, as well. The story about "the time [he] caught big mouth Ramone" provided us with this gem, at any rate: "...it was either back up the fire escape or lose the pants altogether..."
  • And from the very first episode:

Candace: Mom! You gotta come home, right now. Linda: Did a satellite crash into the house? Candace: No, no no. You gotta see what Phineas and Ferb are doing. Linda: Seems like we had this conversation before. Candace: What do you mean? Linda: I seem to recall you telling me, that the boys were training monkeys to juggle bicycles. And when I come home, there was a stunning lack of monkeys. Candace: I still don't know how they cleaned it up so fast.

• Of course, that implies that they've done crazy stuff like that before the beginning of this summer, but the Christmas special implies that their first project was the rollercoaster.
• Doofenshmirtz mentioned another one in "We Call it Maze", as part of explaining his evil plan:

Doofenshmirtz: ...then the Ambassador's wife filed a complaint. Long story short, I am never welcome in Albania ever again.

• If you haven't seen some of the featured clips in the second clip show, they can certainly feel like this, but in every flashback there's at least one featured that never really happened in the show—of particular note are "the Blow-itself-up-inator" and "I knew I should've gotten a down payment on that elephant."
• Played with in "Unfair Science Fair" and later subverted in "Unfair Science Fair (Redux)". At the end of the first, Isabella Garcia-Shapiro commented that Phineas and Ferb made a portal to Mars but didn't use it. She was then told that they DID use the portal but that was "another story". The later episode turned out to be the "another story".
• We will never know what happened at Candace's fifth grade graduation with the inflatable--
• Of special note is the back story behind Doof's "Eulg".

Doof: But don't you want to know why I want to destroy the adult diaper factory? It's a great back story!

• Candace wearing a tube top while feeding the geese also falls into this department.
• How Buford wound up on Candace's contact list in "The Lemonade Stand" is probably one of these.
• Candace wondering how or why she has a poster of a hypnotist in her room definitely counts.
• In "Last Train to Bustville", Doofenshmirtz's reaction to being attacked by a dodo bird is "It's exactly like Thanksgiving!" You have to wonder what the story behind that is.
• When Lawrence had a contest with his brother to see who could wear the most shirts at the same time, he loses, even though he's wearing so many shirts that it looks like he's in a fat suit. Linda comes over and says, "What's the matter, honey? I've seen you wear more shirts than that."

• "That was one crazy Yom Kippur!" practically became Drawn Together's Catch Phrase.
• The animated movie based on Scary Godmother has one. Just like in the original book, it involves glitter and a dog. In the original book, it also was mentioned to be the reason the neighborhood had to evacuate for a week.
• The Oblongs combines this with Pandaing to the Audience: in one scene, we cut in on the end of a conversation between Milo and Pickles:

"So, anyway, that's how the pandas bears broke into the Dairy Queen and WHY I need a lawyer!"

• The Oblongs also had one on "The Golden Child" where Pickles mentions the time Milo stuffed Bob Oblong (the dad) into a guitar case and he somehow ended up at a Farm Aid concert.
• In "Narcoleptic Scotty," we find out Milo was suspended from school for doing something unspeakable to a fish stick. When Pickles found out, she went to spank him, but, for reasons unknown, it turned into a luau with Milo serving mai tais and Pickles and Beth dancing in Hawaiian grass skirts and coconut bras.

• Subverted in the Moral Orel when Orel tells his dad he'll "never do THAT with THOSE, in THERE, for that LONG ever again!" and a later episode explains what happened. (See main article.)
• Teen Titans:
  • When Cyborg disguises himself as a member of HIVE Academy, his "initiation" involves a pink dress and a unicycle. The only explanation provided is, "Don't laugh, ya have to eat the unicycle". The end of the episode has another example, which involves pink shorts, a tutu, and a rubber chicken.

Oh Cyyyyborg~! Robin: You left the Titans. Beast Boy: That means you have to be initiated. Raven: Aaaaal over again. Cyborg: (is dragged away, screaming for mercy)

• The Sadie Hawkins Dance at HIVE Academy:

Bumblebee: (to Cyborg) You're gonna pay for that!

• There's also the incident involving Raven's first run in with Dr. Light, when she basically goes semi-Eldritch Abomination and drags him under her cloak. We don't know exactly what happens under there, and he's only there for a couple seconds before the others snap her out of it, but whatever she did, it was enough to drain the color from both his face AND his costume. And was apparently so horrifically traumatizing that merely imitating the form later is enough to get him to calmly request to return to jail.

• Many responses Pinky has to Brain asking "Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?" in Pinky and The Brain. ...Actually, pretty much they all fit, since Pinky's logic and train of thought has only been followed once.
• The Iron Giant, when Hogarth is attempting to convince his mother to let him keep a squirrel as a pet:

Mrs. Hughes: Do you remember the raccoon, Hogarth? [shudders] I remember the raccoon.

• Used straight many times in The Venture Bros, and also subverted many times, when previously unexplained incidents are explained: Billy Quizboy's mechanical hand ("Where did you get that thing anyway?" "That's a good question. I have no idea."), Rusty's pterodactyl, The Monarch having "the charred remains of Wonder Boy [sent to] his beloved Captain Sunshine", Dr. Girlfriend's her first attempt at being a supervillain ("My murderous moppets were hard to handle"), and Henchmen #24's backstory that apparently involved his dad marrying his ex-girlfriend.
  • Venture Bros. had two entire episodes that were Noodle Incidents: "Escape to the House of Mummies Part II" references a Part I in the "Previously on..." and a Part III in the "Next time on...", but neither of these episodes exist. The result is a series of out of context clips that never get fully explained.
• SpongeBob SquarePants
  • We never did find out what was in that embarrassing snapshot of Spongebob at the Christmas Party.
    • It's the photo from "Christmas Who?"
      • Not necessarily; that wasn't an actual party, and there was nothing embarrassing. Squid simply snapped a photo of SpongeBob crying. An old ad showed another likely candidate: SpongeBob, drunk, wearing a lampshade.
  • Also, something happened in Mrs. Puff's past that caused her to move away and start a new boating school, under a new name. We know this because of an episode where she lets Spongebob slide through school, and contemplates doing this before deciding "No. Not again"
  • Done again when Spongebob attempts to hitch a ride on Sandy's space shuttle:

Spongebob: The moon! Can I go? Sandy: No way, Spongebob. Especially after your little mishap with my whirlybird. [Pan over to Sandy's window to reveal a field of tombstones.] ]]

• As the TV in the Krusty Krab is turned on, we see the very end of a news report. In the corner of the screen is a real-life photo of a litter of adorable kittens. The news anchor woman ends the report with "...and there were no survivors."

• There are several references in Danger Mouse to Fifi, who has some past connection to the White Wonder, but is never explained. Penfold tries to bring the subject up and DM always shushes him.
• Chowder:
  • "That was the craziest episode we've ever had!" No, we didn't see it. In fact, that happened twice in the same episode.
  • In "Sing Beans", Shnitzel tells an apparently dirty joke. The man said that the joke "involved a bucket of fish and a tiny sailor" and that's all we get to know. Also in that same episode, it was shown that an incident involving Tooty-Pooty Beans resulted in the gang being chased by an angry mob. Mung commented on how that day "began so hilarious yet ended very badly".
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • The time Sokka got two fishhooks stuck in his thumb.

Aang: Two? Katara: He tried to get the first fishhook out with another fishhook.

• The Blubber Incident that Hakoda and Bato thought up (mentioned in "Bato of the Water Tribe") that we never learn the particulars of.
• An example where the incident actually happens just off screen: Early on in the episode "The Warriors of Kyoshi" Katara runs off screen yelling "No, Appa! Don't eat that!" We never find out what exactly Appa was trying to eat and our only clue is the sound of trees being pulled up.
• The story behind the Zhang/Gan-Jin feud.
• Iroh's journey to the Spirit World.

• From American Dad:
  • After a novelty sized watch on a necklace protects his heart:

Stan: For the second time in my life I've been saved by hip-hop... *Turns to the camera* But that's another story..."

• When Haley returns from being sabotaged by Stan:

(Hayley appears holding bloody pickaxe, wearing torn clothing and a shackle on her ankle) Stan: (gasp) You escaped the pit of no return?! How'd you get past my- Hayley: They're all dead, Dad. Stan: Even the younglings? Hayley: I even made a wallet from their hides.

• This is done again in the following episode when Hayley escapes being trapped in the basement:

Hayley: Hello father! Wondering how I escaped from the basement? Stan: No, not really. Hayley: Oh. (beat) ...but it involved training rats.

• In the episode "Four Little Words", Stan recalls the four times Francine said "I told you so" to him via brief, inexplicable flashbacks. The first involves a double bus crashed into their garage and Stan dressed in a Queen's Guard uniform. The second involves their swimming pool on fire. The third involves Stan playing chess with a chicken (and losing). The fourth shows two guys hanging to death after trying out Stan's "Xtreme Bungee Xperience".

• At the beginning Jimmy Neutron episode, "Lights, Camera, Danger" the main characters reminiscence about Jimmy's attempts at creative writing. When Sheen mentions Jimmy's Opera, Flashback Effects are cued, then promptly stopped as the other characters do not want to go there.
• An episode of Jimmy Two-Shoes has Jimmy suddenly flying into the screen, landing on the pavement and causing it to crack. He mutters "Beezy was right, that was no fun." We never know exactly what "that" was.
  • Also, whatever caused Heloise's issues with ghosts is left unexplained.
• Futurama has a couple of these, usually during Morbo and Linda's newscasts.

"All in all, this is one day Mittens the kitten won't soon forget!" "And that's why the third graders at PS139 are Morbo's Vermin Of The Week."

• And there's the history of "Le Grand Cigar": "This cigar's wrapper is a piece of the original U.S. constitution, was rolled by Queen Elizabeth (during her "wild years"), and was buried with George Burns until grave-robbing space mushrooms...well, you know the rest.
• These are actually common for any events that happened between Fry getting frozen in 2000 and waking up in 3000, which included a period where the Earth was ruled by cyborgs, the Second Coming of Jesus somehow eliminating old video tapes, the death of the last human ghost, etc.
• Upon throwing away a sophisticated toilet, Fry says "sorry, you know too much".
• In the episode "The Sting," Leela has a vivid hallucination of everyone singing "Don't Worry. Be Happy" and exploding after getting stung by bees. When the hallucination ends, Leela asks the crew if they were just singing. Bender responds: "No. I was telling you not to worry. I'm not allowed to sing. Court order." This could be a Call Back to his fallout with Beck on "Bendin' In The Wind," but since most of the events of "The Sting" were All Just a Dream -- or, rather, a coma fantasy, the whole question of whether or not Bender has been legally banned from singing becomes moot.
• In Put Your Head On My Sholders, Bender learns that lonely people will spend money for a chance at romance. He then comes up with a deviously clever plan that he'll -- Smash Cut to Bender (now with a gold plate on his front "tooth") in court with two hooker bots and Leela at his side being sentenced to "$500 and time served."

Bender: Stupid anti-pimping laws.

• The Penguins of Madagascar has several of these; most obviously: why can't Skipper set foot in Denmark?
  • Also, "Have you ever had a 6 pound halibut shoved up your left nostril?" "Not the left one, no!" or "Reach down my throat and grab the fish!" "Yuck. This is the second grossest thing I have ever done."
  • And from "Truth Ache": "If you think that's embarrassing, you should see what Kowalski does when he thinks no one's watching."
  • From "Love Hurts":

Skipper: "Accident prone", Private? Oh, I've seen accident prone! Try Manfredi and Johnson! And a Chinese lantern! and 6 bottles of rocket fuel! Kowalski: (sniffles) Worst talent-show ever!

• And later:

Skipper: Who hasn't gone stupid for a lady? Rico and Kawalski: (raise hands) Skipper: Guatemala. Rico: (lowers hand) Skipper: Doris the Dolphin. Kawalski: (hesitates) Skipper: Don't make me show them the tattoo.

• The Nightmare Before Christmas: In "Jack's Lament", some of the lyrics are thus: "To a guy in Kentucky, I'm Mister Unlucky! And I'm known throughout England and France!"
• Clerks the Animated Series

Dante: Hey, it's Ted Danson. Randal: It's payback time.

• Adventure Time:
  • Finn and Jake seem to always be coming from or going to an Adventure. The story sort of implies that they are constantly adventuring, whether or not the "camera" is following them. In fact, some episodes deal with the duo struggling with a situation that is preventing them from adventuring.
  • Also, the origin of Finn's Auto-Tune voice.

Jake: Hey, man, how do you sing like that? Finn: Remember when I swallowed that tiny computer?

• Or the fry incident with Marceline and her dad. (We actually see this when Finn goes inside Marceline's brain and witnesses her memories.)
• How in the hell did Lemongrab manage to keep his position of exceedingly high authority, despite OBVIOUSLY being incapable of any positive social interaction or adjustment to being alive? "It's complicated," claims Princess Bubblegum.

• Muppet Babies: Gonzo asks Kermit if he wants to see him break the world speed record.

Kermit: No thanks, Gonzo. The last time you tried to break the record, it took us two hours to get your head out of the wastebasket.

• In the series Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Pepper is prone to doing this just as she is introduced on the scene when she is talking to someone.

Pepper:' And that's why I wasn't very popular during the eighth grade. But, no charges were filed, so everything turned out okay!

• Tony even uses one about Pepper getting in trouble

Tony: Do you think she tried to arrest someone again?

• My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: And then I said 'Oatmeal? Are you Crazy?'
  • The bizarre thing is that when Pinkie Pie said this, it had nothing to do with what anybody else was talking about.
  • In another episode, after the Cutie Mark Crusaders latest attempt to get their Cutie Marks ended with them covered in tree sap, Scootaloo mentions that a suprising number of their attempts have ended that way. We never learn anything more about those attempts than that.
  • In "The Last Roundup," we never find out just how Derpy caused so much damage to the town hall.
    • This is actually because of a scene cut for time; Derpy and Dash were kicking lightning out of clouds, and Derpy was too close to the town hall.
• Garfield and Friends: In "Robodie II", when Dr. Garbanzo Bean saw the giant robot dog, he said it was the second biggest one he'd ever seen.
• In the Johnny Test episode "Li'l Johnny", Johnny goes into Susan and Mary's lab, only to find them as two heads on one body.

Both: Don't ask!

• Hey Arnold! has a weirder version of this in "Egg Story", given that the viewer may know what they're talking about (a brief scene in the earlier episode "Operation Ruthless"), but the rest of the characters do not.

Harold: Come on, Rhonda. You know you like me! Rhonda: Where in the world would you get a ridiculous idea like that? Harold: Remember that time at the Cheese Festival when you jumped the- (Rhonda clamps his mouth shut) Rhonda: SHH! I told you to never mention that night ever again!

• In The Critic, Jay mentions an ill-conceived canoe trip through hillbilly country.
• In Recess: School's Out, Prickly mentions that T.J convinced the F.B.I. he was a Chinese secret agent and got him arrested. How? We never get to find out.
  • In the same scene, Prickly also mentions an incident where T.J. apparently used Prickly's personal account to order a motorboat for the school. Exactly how T.J. managed to gain access to Prickly's account was not revealed, and the only other thing known about it is that apparently the Kindergartners were part of the reason T.J. did this.
• An episode of Mission Hill has a subplot involving a worldwide crisis. The audience is only given vague hints about what the crisis actually is.
• Looney Tunes
  • Daffy Duck spends much of the short "Nasty Quacks" trying to tell an anecdote about a wild party he was at. Snippets include "One guy was swinging from the chandelier, you'd have thought he was a monkey! Come to think of it, he was a monkey!", "The whole thing started with an innocent telephone call...", and "Someone clipped Charlie in the ear, and that started the whole thing over again!"
  • The Drunk Stork (a baby-delivering stork who often makes mistakes because he is, well, drunk) is a recurring character, who in most of his appearances, combines this with What Did I Do Last Night? While this is easy to answer - he became intoxicated by celebrating with the parents of the infant he delivers - his attempts to explain this to his colleages tend to fit this Trope.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks:
  • Ensign Mariner is a font of Noodle Incidents. In "Envoys", she claim she was trapped in a sentient cave for weeks (describing it as "a dark place that knows things"), that she was almost decapitated by a singing crystal, and was detained in a Klingon prison where she had to fight a yeti who tried to steal her shoes. ("For no reason! He was just being a dick!") She has many scars which she refuses to have healed, claiming each is a battle trophy and remembers where she got each one; one is from a fight with a tentacled man that stabbed her with a barnacle blade in the chest.
  • "Room for Growth" mentions the incident where T'Ana lost her tail; all that the viewers hear about it is that it happened on the U.S.S. Algonquin. T'Ana says she would kill anyone who learns it, other than her lover, Shax, though Tendi actually tries to eavesdrop when she's about to tell him.
  • Also in "Room for Growth", Captain Freeman is possessed by an Evil Mask... for the third time.
  • Done twice over in one episode where Dr. T'ana claims she once "let Admiral Verna put a [Profanity Censor] up my [Profanity Censor]."

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