Viewers Are Geniuses: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Never underestimate your audience. They're generally sensitive, intelligent people who respond positively to quality entertainment.''|'''Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell''', ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''}}

The public's been clamouring for some more intelligent television in the wake of [[Reality TV]] and [[Lowest Common Denominator]] [[Recycled Script|Recycled Scripts]]s. So, you go and write a series loaded with difficult quantum mechanics, quoting obscure 17th-century philosophers, with characters who are [[The Philosopher|philosophical]] [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastards]]s who speak [[Bilingual Bonus|a dozen languages]] while conversing to each other by sending Shakespearean Zen koans hidden into chess move patterns, and packed with [[Rule of Symbolism|allusions to ancient Sumerian religion]]. You make sure all your [[Techno Babble]] is [[How Unscientific|scientifically plausible]] and go to great lengths to make sure [[Anachronism Stew|all your ancient Roman soldiers are wearing exact replicas of period equipment]]. Now it's [[True Art]], right?

So you sit back and watch the ratings -- whichratings—which plummet faster than a rocket-propelled brick in a nosedive. What went wrong? In trying to avert making the classic mistake that [[Viewers are Morons]], you went too far and ended up assuming that [['''Viewers Are Geniuses]]''' instead.<ref>Of course, if you're working in a medium that doesn't need an audience of millions to be profitable, you may not care.</ref>

While a lot less common than its more insulting opposite (any show without the "mass-market appeal" that the less high-brow stuff has will be [[Screwed Byby the Network]] without mercy), overestimating the audience can be more of a death knell than underestimating it, even without network sabotage.

See also [[Faux Symbolism]], [[Mind Screw]], and [[Moon Logic Puzzle]]. ''Not'' mutually exclusive with [[Did Not Do the Research]] or [[Critical Research Failure]] - just because a show is crammed with obscure knowledge doesn't mean that said knowledge is correct, [[Series Continuity Error|even when it comes from the show to begin with]]. This can be the result of too many [[In -Joke|in jokes]] being included in a work.

** ''Panorama's'{{'}}s legendary "Spaghetti trees" April Fools bit had people actually calling the BBC and asking how they could grow Spaghetti trees of their own.

** Many people were disappointed after finding out ''[[British Newspapers|The Guardian's]]''{{'}}s travel supplement on "San Seriffe" was an April Fools hoax, even though the entire article was clearly one [[Useful Notes/Fonts|typography]] pun after another.

** ''Inquest'' Magazine is the source for the oft-persistent rumor that ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering]]'' is getting a sixth color. It was, of course, an April Fool's joke (although the card Water Gun Balloon Game can put a 5/5 pink creature into play, so in a sense there is a sixth color already).

*** In a sort of ascended meme, [[WotWizards Cof the Coast]] was actually considering adding a sixth basic land to the game for Invasion. It was known as "Barry's Land" during testing and would have produced colorless mana. Its sole use would have been to pump up Domain decks.

** One American news channel convinced a good amount of people that Russia was invading America.{{context}}

** A [[Public Service Announcement]] that ran on Saturday mornings a few years back{{when}} started as a fake documentary about rodent-sized house hippos. The effects were well-enough done that the tiny hippopotamuses looked real. Then a voiceover breaks in and asks the audience, basically, "You have enough common sense to tell this isn't real, right?" The point of the PSA was to encourage kids to think about what they see on TV and not believe everything television shows them without thinking about it.

* ''Byte'' Magazine used to run an ad every April advertising some form of "write-only memory", such as "[[Logic Bomb|erasable write-only memory]]" or "high-speed write-only memory". Every May they'd print some of the orders they had received.

** "''Lain''{{'}}s computer hardware is so cool. How come we don't get [[wikipedia:Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh|designs]] [[wikipedia:Serial Experiments Lain#Apple computers|like those]]?"

** ''Lain'' lacks a plot at all until you do the research. The plot only emerges at all once you get to the point where you're looking at the patent file for Microwave Audio Induction and trying to figure out if on Schuuman Resonance frequencies it can be used to trigger individual action potentials (nb: schuuman resonance is actually a massive frequency range -- therange—the number given in the show of 7.83Hz83 Hz is actually the median).

* ''[[Ergo Proxy]]'' casually references Greek myth (Daedelus &and Icarus, Theseus and the Minos maze), philosophy (Descartes, Nietszche, Turing, many others), film (Battleship Potemkin, Akira, Blade Runner), gnostic religion, art (Michelangelo, Millais), history, and many other things, almost to the point of showing off to the audience how smart they are by cramming episodes with as many allusions as possible.

* [[Nasuverse|Kinoko Nasu]] really, ''really'' loves winding philosophical debate, and he expects you to as well. The rules governing said 'verse can get pretty complex as well, with a huge amount of [[Mr. Exposition]] giving [[Instruction Dialogue]] regarding borderline game-breaking abilities. [[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight]] is particularly guilty. For example, several <s> [[Visual Novel|pages]]</s> episodes will be dedicated to explaining the minute details as to why imagining swords into being real is a stupid, useless form of magic, and then later {{spoiler|Shirou manages to summon every sword ever made ''at the same time''.}}

* Anyone who attempts to translate ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei-sensei]]'' deserves our pity (literally). The englishEnglish manga has about a dozen pages at the end of each volume dedicated to explaining the dozens of references. Most of said references are about either Japanese pop culture, or obscure Japanese historical events. None-- none of which will make the least bit of sense to a foreign reader. "I'm in despair! This series being in this page has left me in despair!"

* ''[[Darker Thanthan Black]]'' never explains ''anything'', and on the rare occasions it does, [[Unreliable Expositor|the source is usually less than trustworthy]]. Most of the background [[Riddle for Thethe Ages|is left deliberately vague]], and it ends with a [[Mind Screw|Mind Screwy]]y [[Gainax Ending]]. In short, if you want to sort out the overall plot (rather than the 2-episode sub-arcs; those tend to be fairly self-contained), you'd better have a very good memory or be taking notes.

* ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Nini]]'' has Ryukishi07 go on about the basics of Schroedinger's Cat, Raven Paradox and Devil's Proof. He also makes lengthy articles about his philosophies of anti-mystery, cultural noise and chessboard logic. And to top it off, he makes numerous references to famous mystery writers. However, his critics accuse him of not knowing what he's talking about, even when it comes to his own inventions.

* ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]''. The references to philosophy and advanced mathematics in the light novels start out as [[Genius Bonus]], but eventually become pretty crucial to knowing what the hell is going on.

* James Robinson's ''[[Starman]]'' is full of references to obscure things. [[Lampshade Hanging]] in one issue:

{{quote| '''Jack''': There's nothing wrong with being elite.<br />

Or another example.<br />

This one isn't about collectibles but it's the same kind of thing. I'm in a book store ... for new books. I've gone a little bit crazy and I'm about to spend a couple of hundred bucks. I murmur under my breath "money's too tight to mention". <br />

Now the guy behind the register, he hears this. He looks at me, nodding his head knowingly like we're in some "club of cool" together. He says, "Yeah, [[Covered Up|Simply Red]]" like it's a password, and now we do the secret handshake. <br />

And I'm thinking "Simply Red"? Lame English band. More soul at a polka convention. And the book store guy thinks he's on some kind of inside loop with that. <br />

'''Sadie''': Jack, that's the smuggest thing I ever heard. A guy tries to be nice and you stand there hating him just because he hasn't heard of the Valentine Brothers. <br />

You're like my ex-boyfriend. He was that way about authors. He'd deliberately drop obscure quotes and references. He'd take over conversations at parties. But none of what he read was for the love of it. His knowledge was like a weapon. <br />

Don't tell me you're like that. I don't want another jerk. I've had... <br />

Hey, why are you smiling? <br />

'''Jack''': Because you've heard of the Valentine Brothers. <br />}}

:(Naturally, since Jack and Sadie both know that the Valentine Brothers are a soul duo who originally performed "Money's Too Tight To Mention" before Simply Red covered it, they have no reason to tell the readers this.) }}

** It's not just the continuity that hung up fans on ''[[Final Crisis]]'' - comic book nerds are very good at continuity. Morrison was also doing a lot of meta and philosophical weirdness about the nature of storytelling and the superhero genre in particular, which is a great way to annoy people who don't care about [[Death of the Author|Barthes]] or Morrison's issues with [[Wonder Woman|William Moulton Marston]] and just want to see [[Just Here for Godzilla|characters they love beat up characters they love to hate in heroic and impressive ways.]]

** Keith Giffen's ''[[Ambush Bug]]'' stories are very much like this, with damn near every page (and sometimes ''every panel'') containing references to decades of comic book history, as well as famous people and trends in the industry. Combined with extreme [[Medium Awareness]], the comics are truly incomprehensible to non-comic readers (and often a bit confusing to regular readers who just aren't up on their history lessons).

* Pretty much anything [[Grant Morrison]] has ever made. ''[[The Invisibles]]'' gets special mention, since in order to fully follow it, you would need a degree in history, a biography of Morrison, a complete and unabridged summary of British popular culture of the past 80 years with an emphasis on the 1960's, a reasonable understanding of the Voodoun, Aztec, and Native-Australian belief systems and the underlying symbolism of the egyptianEgyptian tarot, books on metaphysics, homeopathy, and the various theories of the holographic universes, a familiarity with the works of the [[Marquis Dede Sade]], a copy of every single piece of conspiracy theory literature ever published from the 1940's to the present day, and a bucket full of enough psychoactive drugs to make Charlie Sheen run away screaming. Even then, you probably wouldn't get it all.

{{quote| '''Character AB''': YWhat? I'know,ve never even ifheard of ''Sir NigelRodney'' does– comeoh. up''(rolls on the test,eyes)'' I'llm thank my lucky starsguessing it wasn't,came say,out ''Rodneyaround Stone''.the Would'veturn refusedof to read it on principle.<brthe />century?

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120408050724/http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4251989/60/A_Few_Angry_Words This] chapter of ''A Few Angry Words''. There's a [[Shout-Out]] in there, but in the comments for the chapter, nobody gets [[The Bible|the reference.]] One guy almost does, but then proceeds to cite the wrong story.

* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20081118023505/http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3291350/1/Prinz_von_Sommerhoffnung Prinz von Sommerhoffnung]'', my goodness. What's supposed to be, if the author can be believed, a ''[[MaiMy-HiME]]'' AU novelisation slaps you with a questionably correct piece of translation-wordplay from the title on. The various character names, ostensibly attempts at [[Captain Ersatz]]-ing, run on translations, transliterations and wordplay that need some amount of bizarre lateral thinking to decipher; not to mention that [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]]s both to modern and older works are handled in a roundabout way. Perhaps the worst part, though? The author ''knows'' his stuff is undecipherable, and seems, well, blasé about it.

* ''[[Aeon Natum Engel (Fanfic)|Aeon Natum Engel]]''. The author admits he likes to write intricate plots. He's not lying. He makes offhand references to the end-plot of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' by quoting ''another'' book. There's foreshadowing in both Medieval and Ancient ''Latin'', cross-referencing Roman generals across several periods of time. Part of the plot is revealed in flashbacks that don't bother with proper names. [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|You might not actually want to know what is going on either...]]

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121022032850/http://www.fanfiction.net/u/923867/S_Michael S-Michael], being [[Brilliant but Lazy]] as he is, will never, ever tell you anything you should already know. In ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120414111849/http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4526981/1/Thicker_than_Water Thicker than Water]'', that whole JD thing is based on real science! ''Better'' science than ''[[Blood Plus+]]'' is, in fact! (Assuming of course that certain facts of chiropteran biology are inherently similar to human biology, at any rate.)

* The ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Nini]]'' fanfic ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120416003217/http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7276996/1/Cicadas_Case_of_the_End_Dreamer Cicadas: Case of the Endless Dreamer]''. The entire story, due to often being told by a malicious [[Unreliable Narrator]], relies on the reader managing to weave through the various red herrings present, pick up the small details, and determine exactly what is true and what is fiction. Otherwise, the reader has to deal with various inconsistencies with canon, contradictions, and will outright not have a clue what is going on in a good portion of the story.

** ''[[Southland Tales]]'' was even more obscure, to the point that people were accusing it of being meaningless (there is actually a story, it's just nonsensical).

* The movie ''[[Primer]]'' was written by a math graduate who studied physics intensively to produce one of the most plausible [[Time Travel]] movies ever. In the words of one reviewer: "anybody who claims they fully understand what's going on in ''Primer'' after seeing it just once is either a savant or a liar". Reportedly, writer-director Shane Carruth didn't think the movie would be too hard for the average viewer to figure out.

* Hardly anyone understands all the vital plot points from ''[[The Descent (Filmfilm)|The Descent]]'' first time 'round. Either they completely missed that {{spoiler|Sarah went crazy}} or they didn't connect the dots and get that the crawlers were evolved from cavemen who stayed down in the cave or they would miss the subtext that Sarah possibly only imagined the crawlers or they would make a more simple mistake and forget the [[Chekhov's Gun|seemingly unimportant singular lines of dialogue which would explain things later on]]. To top it off, it's very difficult to tell who's who in the dark, and fans are still arguing over what the hell the ending ''means''...

* Spike Lee's ''[[Twenty Fifth Hour (Film)|Twenty Fifth25th Hour]]'' has a deleted scene where a pair of gangsters explain the exact reasons why the protagonist has 24 hours of freedom. Pretty much every single review either couldn't figure out the reasons within the context of the film, or presumed that the 24 hours were ''not'' [[Truth in Television]]. They were, at least at the time.

* In the Director's Cut and the Final Cut, ''[[Blade Runner]]''{{'}}s world is a complicated one with little to no flat explanation, a slow pace, and a lot of rumination on human nature. It requires a certain type of viewer to understand and enjoy it to its fullest. The theatrical cut, however, includes narration in a [[Viewers are Morons]] move by the studio.

* In the film ''[[Stargate (film)|Stargate]]'', the Egyptologist character figures out how to speak the language of the humans found beyond the stargate in about five minutes of dialog with the native girl he later has a romance with. When another character expresses amazement that he cracked the language so quickly, he observes modestly that he just had to get the vowels right. This is hilarious, but to catch the humor you need to know arcane details about how the vowels of Ancient Egyptian were reconstructed by modern scholars.

* In ''[[The History Boys (Theatre)|The History Boys]]'' there is an entire scene spoken almost entirely in French. There is also a lot of jokes that are more funny if viewers understand the context behind it, from [[World War 2II]] to [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]] and from the Dissolution of the Monasteries to [[Brief Encounter]] to [[Thomas Hardy]].

* ''[[OceansOcean's Eleven|Ocean's Twelve]]'' makes a point of omitting details and forgoing explicit exposition. It assumes the viewer will fill in the gaps.

** [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]] sometimes does this in her Hercule Poirot novels, or else puts [[Bilingual Bonus|Bilingual Bonuses]]es in places where they ''look'' like they might be important.

** [[Edgar Allan Poe]] parodies this in his essay "How to write a Blackwood Article" and the "Blackwood Article" that follows.

* Authors using the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] sometimes have this happen whether it is their intent or not. For instance, some early reviewers of the first ''[[Flashman]]'' novel thought it was an actual memoir (despite the fact that the protagonist is a character from Victorian fiction). Oddly, one book, ''Dickens of the Mounted'', is a [[Spiritual Successor]]/pastiche of the Flashman series and actually has a [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]] from Flashman was also interpreted as being the actual memoirs of the protagonist (who was in this case actually a real person, the n'er-do-well son of [[Charles Dickens (Creator)|Charles Dickens]]).

** Think ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' is bad? Just try reading (or watching) ''[[The Andromeda Strain]]''. A lot of technobabble (accurate, though) involving genetic mutations, diseases, and molecular level sciences.

** ''[[Foucaults Pendulum|Foucault's Pendulum]]'' is a [[Deconstruction]] of [[Ancient Conspiracy|conspiracy theories]] that spans forty years or so, is told [[Anachronic Order|nonlinearly]] using [[Flash Back|flashbacks]] and a [[Framing Device|frame story]], and references hundreds of names and concepts related to politics, history, science, religion, and occultism.

** ''[[The Name of the Rose (Literature)|The Name of the Rose]]'' includes monks arguing about classic Greek literature and philosophy, quarreling about medieval church dogma, and throwing untranslated Latin quotes at each other... yet all the discussions should be fully understood to get the whole book. Bonus points if you spot the deliberately anachronistic elements, such as the medieval narrator quoting Wittgenstein.

* [[TS Eliot|T. S. Eliot]]'s long poem ''The Waste Land'' is either an example of this, or of [[True Art Is Incomprehensible]]. For example, it contains quotes from various famous sources, still in their original language. If you're not reading an annotated version, it will make no sense.

** Though this depends on how you read it - some say Hemingway is simply championing understated [[Beige Prose]] as opposed to overwritten [[Purple Prose]], therefore adopting a nice middle ground between [[Viewers are Morons]] and [[Viewers Are Geniuses]], others say it is this trope.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in [[Ian Fleming]]'s ''[[James Bond (Literaturenovel)|James Bond]]'' novel ''[[Casino Royale (Literature)|Casino Royale]]'', when M complains to one of his underlings that the report the underling wrote has a French sentence without any translation.

{{quote| '"This is not the Berlitz School of Languages, Head of S. If you want to show off your knowledge of foreign jawbreakers, be good enough to provide a crib. Better still, write in English.'"}}

* While they can still be enjoyed on a superficial level, William Gibson's novels (''[[Neuromancer]]'', ''[[Mona Lisa Overdrive]]'', ''[[Idoru]]'', etc.) rely on complex and multilayered metaphors, both pop culture and "learned" allusions, and a blurring of traditional concepts of "human," "life," "technology" and "reality", among others. On the other hand, Gibson admits in interviews that readers shouldn't look too deep into the technical aspects of computer science and cyberspace in his works, because he didn't even ''own'' a computer until well after he'd written ''[[Neuromancer]]'', and was profoundly disappointed with it.

** Given that the title is the Roman name for Odysseus, understanding Homer's ''Odyssey'' is incredibly significant to the book. It also helps if you're familiar with Shakespeare's ''[[Hamlet (Theatre)|Hamlet]]''

* The first half of William Faulkner's ''[[The Sound Andand The Fury]]'' is incomprehensible at first glance. Benjy, a 33 year-old with a profound mental disability, narrates the first section. He narrates all events in the present tense, ''even if it's a past memory.'' The second narrator is the incredibly intelligent and thoughtful Quentin Compson. The difficulty in his section stems from his narrative constantly shifting between what's actually happening, what he's thinking about, long sections of stream-of-consciousness narration without any punctuation, and even being able to tell what even really does happen at some points. Case in point: Did Quentin just fantasize about having sex with his sister, or did it really happen?

** And to make matters worse, Quentin is narrating his part of the story while having an extended mental breakdown. For the record, he didn't have sex with his sister, he only claimed to have done so because he felt it was better than the alternative.

* [[Garry Kilworth]]'s ''[[Welkin Weasels]]'' may suffer from this thanks to the rapid-fire [[Shout-Out]] rate. How many of the ten-year-old target audience will get references to Shelley, Coleridge, and Orwell, among others?

* [[Stanislaw Lem (Creator)|Stanislaw Lem]]'s works are usually loaded with science and philosophy.

** Most of his parodistic works, like ''[[The Cyberiad (Literature)|The Cyberiad]]'' and ''Mortal Engines'' also require good knowledge of literature theory.

* [[Madeleine L 'Engle]]'s ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]]'' and its sequels feature an extraordinary level of use of complex physics and biology concepts considering that the books are mainly intended for children. However, it also qualifies as a [[Parental Bonus]] since they're mostly just used as plot devices and so the reader doesn't really have to understand how everything works and just accept that it does work.

* The works of author [[Cormac McCarthy]]. Some can be thoroughly enjoyed without being well-versed in McCarthy's interests or history -- suchhistory—such as ''All the Pretty Horses'', ''[[No Country for Old Men]]'', and ''[[The Road]]'' -- but—but it definitely helps to make sense of it all (especially with ''[[Blood Meridian]]'' and ''Suttree'').

* [[Charles Stross]]' ''[[Accelerando]]''

{{quote| ''Don't trust anyone whose state vector hasn't forked for more than a gigasecond'' <ref>Don't trust anyone over 30</ref>}}

* S.S.Van Dine was even worse than [[Arthur Conan Doyle (Creator)|Arthur Conan Doyle]]. Philo Vance uses quotations not only from Latin, but also from French, German, and Italian. They usually are at least somewhat important, and they may be a paragraph, not just a sentence, long. He had one multi-paragraph footnote in German.

* ''[[Paradise Lost (Literature)|Paradise Lost]]'' is filled to the brim with allegories, intended to be read by an early modern [[Upper Class Wit]] with an extensive library of contemporary and ancient works. Modern readers can substitute the library with Google and [[The Other Wiki]].

* The description of the [[Precursors|Xunca]] [[Lost Superweapon|superweapon]] in ''Flinx Transcendent'', the final book in [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series, is likely to be incomprehensible to anyone without at least a basic grasp of [[wikipedia:String theory|string theory]].

* [[Montague Rhodes James (Creator)|Montague Rhodes James]]'s classic horror story "Oh, Whistle, And I'll Come to You, My Lad" [[Lampshade|lampshadeslampshade]]s this trope: everything goes pear-shaped because the protagonist doesn't realize that the apparently unintelligible inscription on the whistle {{spoiler|is in Latin, just like the intelligible inscription on the other side. To be fair, there's no agreement about how to translate it, but the general gist is that anyone blowing the whistle will be in for a nasty shock.}}

** Most of the horror stories by M.R. James, for that matter. "Mr. Humphreys And His Inheritance" is the most blatant example by far, with a lot of religious, classical and antiquarian references thrown in and a few Latin phrases left untranslated - a succinct discussion of which produces enough materials for [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/Article.html a full-blown literary article]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140320222757/http://www.litgothic.com/Texts/alberic_StudyGuide.pdf A study guide] is also helpful if the layman wishes to appreciate "Canon Alberic's Scrap-book" fully.

* One can only really understand Dan Simmons' ''Ilium'' and ''Olympos'' after studying ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]'', ''[[The Odyssey (Literature)|The Odyssey]]'', and Shakespeare's ''[[The Tempest (Theatre)|The Tempest]]'', and be familiar with [[The Time Machine]], the complete works of Marcel Proust, Shakespeare's sonnets, and Hans Moravec's writings, and should know a decent amount about quantum physics, the Voynich manuscript, terraforming, transhumanism, and biosphere theory. Then it might make sense. No guarantees.

** It helps that there are characters who love talking about Proust and ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]'' while much of the rest can be taken as [[Techno Babble|"awesome magic stuff"]].

** Hyperion does the same thing but this time with [[John Keats (Creator)|John Keats]], Jack Vance, time travel, quantum mechanics (again), transhumanism (again), internet sociology, {{spoiler|The Wizard of Oz and the Canterbury Tales}}.

* Very little of the plot of ''[[Dirk GentlysGently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'' is actually stated outright. [[Douglas Adams]] expects readers to connect several clues by themselves, to remember minor details from early in the book that suddenly become major plot points towards the end, and to be familiar with the life and work of [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]. The ending, in which {{spoiler|Dirk Gently saves humanity from being erased from existence}}, is completely incomprehensible unless you know the story of {{spoiler|Kubla Khan and the person from Porlock}}.

* [[John M. Ford]] often wrote stories so densely layered and plots so wheels-within-wheels that his own editors often didn't know where he was going. "Most normal people had the slight sense that something large and super-intelligent and trans-human had sort of flown over," said one.

* The ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' [[Light Novel|light novels]]. What starts out as a healthy amount of [[Genius Bonus|Genius Bonuses]]es later falls straight into this. There are as many throwaway references to astrophysics as there are to pop culture, {{spoiler|a [[Time Travel]] incident reaches near-''[[Primer]]'' levels of complexity}}, and one novel features an in-depth discussion of Euler's planar graph formula--whichformula—which is necessary to resolve the current situation. There are ''diagrams''.

* [[Gene Wolfe]] is well known for leaving large amounts of his background and story as puzzles for the reader -- particularlyreader—particularly in the [[Book of the New Sun]] series. Important details like which characters are the lead character's close relatives and where (on earth) the story is set are left as puzzles for the reader--asreader—as are many obscure (but real) words used in the series.

* Part of the fun of watching a [[Game Show]] is shouting out the answers from your couch. It can be difficult, however, when the answers are so [[Unexpectedly Obscure Answer|unexpectedly obscure]]. ''[[Jeopardy (TV)|Jeopardy!]]'', which usually crams 61 clues into a single game, is probably one of the most demanding shows for those playing at home.

** [[The BBC]] also has ''[[Only Connect]]'', a game show whose theme is spotting obscure links between brief clues. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110430231840/http://www.bbc.co.uk/onlyconnect/quiz/ The website has some example questions] from the hardest round of the show, which involves separating 16 clues into four groups of four and explaining the connection in each group. Against the clock, of course. The links could be anything from "fictional spacecraft" to "female British government ministers" to "words with vowels in alphabetical order" to ... well, just about anything you can think of.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' is generally pretty straight-forward, but the Seventh Doctor story "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S26 E2/E02 Ghost Light|Ghost Light]]" is an involved meditation on the concept of evolution that probably requires two or three viewings to understand. It also uses literary and scientific allusions as a time-saving substitute for exposition.

** Depending who you ask, Steven Moffat's major story arc involving River Song and the Silence is either this or just plain full of [[Plot Hole|Plot Holes]]s. There ''are'' fans who insist that everything you need to know about this storyline is obvious from the show, but get them discussing it in detail and it turns out they don't agree among themselves about anything but the broadest strokes of the plot, which isn't the part that confuses people.

* ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]'', "Objects In Space". Most blatantly the opening, but the whole thing is a philosophical statement on existentialism. [[Joss Whedon]]'s DVD Commentary ''might'' help the viewer to get the point (that objects have the meaning that people choose to give them).

* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' jokes about ''everything'', from obscure songs most people have forgotten to classical history and famous works of art. Of course the fun of the show is that [[MS TingMSTing|the riffs]] are so frequent, you can miss one or two and still get the jokes.

** Not explaining why could in itself be seen as a version of [[Viewers Are Geniuses]]. However, in this case, it's somewhat justified. Considering that the show only lasted one season, they managed to cram in enough esoterica that to list them here would require a separate page. And most of them happen in the [[Gainax Ending|last two episodes]].

* Some episodes of ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'', especially Series 5. Considering it's a comedy, a lot of people would probably just brush it off as [[Techno Babble]].

* ''[[30 Rock (TV)|Thirty Rock]]'' plays with this a lot. A textbook example is when Cerie mentions how she's upset her fiancé wants a Greek Orthodox wedding because she disagrees with the church's stance on Cyprus. Only viewers who are of Greek heritage or who follow international politics closely will have a clue what she's referring to.

* Occasionally showed up in the [[End-of-Episode Silliness]] on ''[[Welcome Back, Kotter]]'', such as the story of one of Kotter's innumerable uncles, a tailor who had a friend he hadn't seen in years named, improbably, Euripides Feldman. One day, the story went, a man who looked like his long lost friend walked into the uncle's shop carrying a torn pair of pants. [[Uncle Herbie]] studied him a moment, then asked, "Euripides?" The other man replied, "Yes. Eumenides?"

* Subverted by [[Iron Maiden (Music)|Iron Maiden]], who often explain their literary and historical references in the lyrics or even the title alone. (Examples: "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", "Alexander the Great", "The Trooper")

* Many [[Dream Theater (Music)|Dream Theater]] fans need to listen to their songs at least 3 times through to catch all the little details. Deciphering ''[[Scenes From A Memory]]'' could prove as a real challenge to those inexperienced to reading between the lines.

* Modernist/Postmodernist composer Alfred Schnittke-- inSchnittke—in order to REALLY understand his work, you really need to know classical music history, understand his own personal philosophy on music, know music theory, and it would really help if you read Thomas Mann.

{{quote| "I recently read a heartwarming story about a young necrophiliac who finally achieved his boyhood ambition by becoming coroner."<br />

''(tepid laughter)''<br />

* [[The Divine Comedy (Musicband)|The Divine Comedy]]'s songs are about anything Neil Hannon is interested in. Which could be ''anything'': Wordsworth's poems, 20th-century French cinema, stories by [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]], architecture and landscape gardening... all liberally bespattered with quotations from literature, mythological allusions and musical tips of the hat to [[Noel Coward]] and Scott Walker. Also, upbeat songs about hayfever, banking and travelling by long-distance coach.

* So, you want to start deciphering the plots of [[Sound Horizon]]'s [[Concept Album|Concept Albums]]s and [[Rock Opera|Rock Operas]]s? Well, better learn six languages and start scrutinizing every. single. lyric. for a potential double meaning.

* Most of [[Ian Dury]]'s lyrics. [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in the sense that they appear intelligent (and for all intents and purposes ARE intelligent on more than a handful of levels) but Dury wrote for the common man so expected everyone to understand at least ''something''. Don't expect [[The BBC]] to [[Sex, Drugs and Rock Andand Roll|catch on]] though...

* [[Vince Russo]]'s entire run in [[WCW]] was based on the idea that Viewers Are [[Smark|Smarks]]s; the whole thing was extremely hard to follow unless you already had a general idea of how the wrestling business works and the goings-on backstage. The problem was, even if you were able to figure out what was going on, it still wasn't very coherent or engaging.

** One wrestling critic noted that Russo's problem was that he seemed to simultaneously believe that [[Viewers are Morons]] and [[Viewers Are Geniuses]].

* ''Eyepiece'', a play that recently{{when}} debueddebuted in Iowa City. If you're familiar with Shakespearian plays, Greek comedies, Modernistic plays (''Death of a Salesman''), postmodern plays (''Waiting for Godot''), puns, metaphor, pataphor, medical terminology, Greek culture, theater culture, "disabled" culture, Christian culture/the Bible, and for one particular scene the origins of Fascism and the real meaning of the word "faggot" (A bundle of burnt sticks that had been used to burn an offering), and you're observant, then the play will seem perfectly straightforward and understandable. If not, well, certain scenes will seem rather obscure.

* [[Bertolt Brecht (Creator)|Bertolt Brecht]] is perhaps the only playwright in history who considers a piece with a character named Swiss Cheese to be [[Serious Business]]. If an audience is unfamiliar with his [[wikipedia:Verfremdungseffekt|Verfremdungseffekt]], they're likely to be lost from the first line onward.

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' delves into meme theory so deeply that it is used to ''teach'' meme theory. Some parts of the plot were explained in later games, but those were the ''simple'' parts, not the parts involving Raiden as a deconstructive metaphor of the relationship between player and game, or the parts where the plot deconstructs itself to examine the game's nature as a sequel. ''Those'' were not explained at all.

** The social link's tarot classifications show a shade of this. This comes from the fact that the dev team has produced one of the few instances where they did do the research on the actual meaning behind the major arcana of the Rider-Waite tarot deck. ''[[Persona 3 (Video Game)|Persona 3]]'' eventually tells the player some of the definitions of the various Arcana about 2/3 of the way through the game, in a long speech many would speed through without reading. Even if a player read the whole speech, most of the given interpretations only scratch the topmost layer of each social link. All the social links become a lot more meaningful if you have any sort of in depth knowledge of the major arcana.

* Most of the comments made about ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' also apply to ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'', especially on the psychiatry and Kabbalah sides (with the {{spoiler|multiple personalities, paradoxical split selves (see [[Prophetic Name|Lacan]] and Grahf), and overlapping selves}} that have postmodern and poststructuralist resonances). The plot is also impossibly convoluted.

** Ditto with ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]''. It includes numerous references to Jungian psychology, Gnosticism, classic Christianity, Kabbalah, quantum mechanics, etc.

* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles II (Video Game)|Valkyria Chronicles II]]'': Has a fun scene with Zeri and Julianna discussing Galia's world equivalent of Centrism.

* Some players of [[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim|Skyrim]] have trouble grasping the difference between ''knowledge'' of something and ''understanding'' of it. This concept is necessary to understand how shouts are learned and how Dragonrend works. It's all built on the philosophical concept of [[wikipedia:Qualia|qualia]].

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' eventually degenerated into '''nothing but''' this trope, then degenerated even further to the point of ''parodying itself for having degenerated into nothing but this trope''.

{{quote| "You don't even know who I am!"}}

* ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]!'' frequently relies on political history, much of which you would have to have studied the subject to know about.

* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', particularly the first ten years or so, managed to do this from time to time while still managing to be hilarious to most people who didn't get the more obscure references.

* [http://www.amongthechosen.com/ Among The Chosen] states this as part of its author's writing style. The basic introduction to the story may be read [https://web.archive.org/web/20120623091919/http://amongthechosen.com/about.html here].

* Nearly all ''[[Xkcd (Webcomic)|Xkcd]]'' strips make jokes about [http://xkcd.com/364/ rather obscure topics]. Fortunately, the ''xkcd'' [http://xkcdexplained.com/ fanbase] does include plenty of geniuses, and they post explanations on the forums.

* ''[[Freefall (Webcomic)|Freefall]]'' is a lot more understandable if you have a working knowledge on physics, cybernetics, mathematics and philosophy. Among other subjects.

* ''[[Hark! aA Vagrant]]'' deals with fairly obscure western history on a pretty regular basis...much of it (shudder) ''[[Canada, Eh?|Canadian]]'' history.

* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]''. Being a story that plays on the dichotomy between magic and science, with an [[All Myths Are True]] premise, it focuses on obscure world mythology and... chemical elements. Having a working knowledge of both ''may'' help hugely in figuring out its inticrate plot. This led to a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for the fandom, which (using a '''bare''' minimum of information) figured out that the character Brinnie's {{spoiler|"Old Man" is Odin, and shortly after, that Brinnie herself is the Valkyrie Brynhild}}. (The information they had? [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=541 This page, and nothing more]. There hadn't been a single mention of the {{spoiler|Norse pantheon}} in the story so far.)

* Andrew Hussie, on being accused of making ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'' [[Anachronic Order|too]] [[Four Lines, All Waiting|convoluted]] [[Timey-Wimey Ball|to]] [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot|follow]]:

{{quote| ''I believe the reader is well prepared for every shift in the nature of the story's unfolding. There are primers on what to expect along the way. Very early, when we first met Dave, we began a humble exercise in non-linear pacing. Conversations he had with John and Rose, then revisited from an earlier timeframe from his perspective. Some nonlinear revisitations with Jade's story as well. It wasn't just messing around. It established that time was something to be tinkered with in this story, more intensively as we progress. The MC intermission was a primer on complicated time travel dynamics taking center stage in the story. It was a tangent, quite silly and convoluted, but very good preparation for the concepts to follow, which have dominated the story since. The troll arc was a very aggressive primer on completely off the rails nonlinear story progression, which has somewhat extended beyond it into the main story, and will continue to do so. All of these primer concepts are now firing on all cylinders at once. And the word primer is [[Primer|the title of a very complicated time travel movie]], which I have not seen yet. I imagine watching it would serve as a decent primer for reading Homestuck.''}}

{{quote| Remember how that happened? That didn't stop being a thing that happened or anything.}}

* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'' half averts this, half plays it straight — you can understand all the happenings in the plot without having any knowledge of [[Dungeons and& Dragons]], but many of the non-punchline jokes will be completely nonsensical. In fact, they're used so often, and so consistently and savvily, that people who didn't have a knowledge of D&D when they started reading the comic can acquire an understanding of the vernacular over the course of 750+ strips without once searching for D&D information elsewhere, in the manner of the dialect in ''[[A Clockwork Orange (Literaturenovel)|A Clockwork Orange]]''.

* [[Your Mileage May Vary]] with ''[[Last Res 0 rtRes0rt]]'' -- the—the concepts don't require much outside knowledge, but the plot is just that involved (The start of Volume Two, for instance, is complicated by {{spoiler|a [[Reality Warper]] whose presence is only figured out well after they're raiding a ship and being affected by it}}), and the [[Art Evolution]] gives the comic an experimental feel that makes a few scenes harder to follow than they should be because of the way the camera jumps. About half the readers get it, and the other half will need some help, most likely from [http://www.lastres0rt.com/cast/ the Cast page] and [http://www.lastres0rt.com/new-readers-welcome/ New Readers' pages].

* ''[[The Packrat (Webcomic)|The Packrat]]'' is impossible to get without fundamental knowledge of synthesizers. Fortunately, it is targeted at and hence only known to synth geeks.

* The [[Whateley Universe]]. Think about an 'ad' for a movie made based on [[Umberto Eco]]'s ''[[FoucaultsFoucault's Pendulum]]'' (which see)... as directed by noted conspiracy theorist Oliver Stone. Or a classroom discussion of Lucan's ''[[Pharsalia (Literature)|Pharsalia]]'' when one of the people in the room is actually the avatar of Juno.

* [[Patton Oswalt]] often lampshades this; he'll make a reference to [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] (or something), then lambaste himself for going over the audience's heads, then start coming up with even more obscure references, like [[Arthur Machen (Creator)|Arthur Machen]] or [[Frank Belknap Long]].

*** Gamestation managed to [https://web.archive.org/web/20160326060824/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/shanerichmond/100004946/gamestation-collects-customers-souls-in-april-fools-gag/ end up with almost ninety percent of their customers' souls.]

* [[Alternate Reality Game|Alternate Reality Games]]s all assume the viewers, or at least some of them, are curious, bored, and in some cases masters of [[Bat Deduction]]. Valve's recent ARG involving ''[[Portal (Video Gameseries)|Portal]]'' has some especially heavy shit going on -- oneon—one user was clever enough to try opening a ''functional audio file'' in an ''image editor'', and got some actual images out of it.