Some Laymanning Required
Some Laymanning Required is an Expospeak Gag. Bob is explaining something to Alice in Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness or some other way in which Alice can't understand. In response to Alice's confused, "Huh?", Cindy translates Bob's speech into Layman's Terms for her. "Oh. Why didn't you just say so?" (Of course, this can also happen when Bob uses perfectly normal terms which Alice is too much of The Ditz to understand.)
See You Didn't Ask for the flip side of this trope. Translator Buddy is often involved in this trope.
This is half of what TV Tropes calls Why Didn't You Just Say So? The other half can be found at Ignored Expositor.
Anime and Manga
- When Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann finally proposes to Nia, he says "Do you want to become one with me?". Obviously, since two persons can't be physically merged into one, Nia thinks he's joking and cheerfully replies, "No!" It's only after Kiyoh explains his meaning to her that she calls him back and accepts.
- A Running Gag in one episode, when Leeron is briefing the Gurren Brigade on the nature of Anti-Spiral space, but forgets that it's staffed entirely with Idiot Heroes.
- In the Time and Space Adventures arc of Tenchi Universe Washu tries three times to explain to the rest of the characters exactly what her Dimension Tuner does, resulting in only dumb stares. When she finally dumbs it down to "It changes the world to suit your needs," Ryoko asks, "Well why didn't you say so?" to which Washu tiredly replies, "I have been."
Film
- In the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, when the turtles are helping David Warner's character mix up a bottle of Applied Phlebotinum: "I don't mean to criticize science, but wouldn't it be easier just to call it 'the pink one?'"
- Used in Ocean's Thirteen between Willy Bank and his assistant Miss Sponder, who have just spotted an important hotel reviewer who is actually a member of Ocean's crew:
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Bank: Which one is he? |
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- And yes, Bank is a monumental Jerkass, which is why Ocean and his crew are after him in the first place.
- Lethal Weapon 4. Leo Getz is rather confused by the nautical terms such as fore and aft, port and starboard, and snarks at Murtaugh and Riggs for not saying "to the right, at the back of the boat" instead.
- Parodied in The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra with this exchange:
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Paul: Now for the love of Mike would someone mind telling me what the heck is going on around here? |
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Spooner: So, Dr. Calvin, what exactly do you do around here? |
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- The Full Monty's working class heroes repeatedly fail to parse their professional dance instructor's choreography, until a late arrival breaks it down into "jump forward, thrust your hips, and wave your arms around like a fairy". The trope is voiced, and they instantly nail it.
Literature
- Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles do this quite a bit, thanks to having a character who speaks entirely in Magi Babble.
- In Summer Knight, Harry calls an animated tree a chlorofiend, which he keeps having to clarify as "plant monster." Murphy tells him he should've just said that to begin with. Of course, his narration showed he originally was going to just call it that, but he decided it needed a cooler name than that.
Live-Action TV
- Eureka: Sheriff Carter, at least Once an Episode. "Why don't you just say Death Ray / Earthquake Machine / whirling ice tornado?"
- Humorously inverted in an episode of Three's Company: Jack tries to explain to Mr. Furley what CPR is, but Mr. Furley doesn't get the meaning of "cee pee are" until he has a lightbulb moment: "Oh, you mean cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Why didn't you just say so?"
- This has to be done a lot to London Tipton from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
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London: Whatcha doin? |
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- And another example on Red Dwarf:
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Cat (to Rimmer): What is it? |
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- Done slightly differently in Doctor Who:
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The Doctor: It must be a spatial-temporal hyperlink. |
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- Often happens on Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Giles is telling one of the others something.
- MacGyver involuntarily commits a type B, when he is transported into the past and asks Merlin himself for assistance:
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- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; in the episode "Visionary", Odo informed Captain Sisko that three Klingons on the station were secretly part of a covert strike force, after providing a lengthy explanation of how he uncovered the truth.
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Commander Sisko: Why didn't you just say so? |
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Web Comics
- In this strip of Order of the Stick, Belkar misunderstands what Roy is saying (namely the words "sextant" and "cartographer"). A few strips later, he says: "Geez, if you wanted a mapmaker, why didn't you just say so?"
- However, it's possible that Belkar understood exactly what Roy wanted him to do, since this came after his "magical hippy journey", and he was just playing the rules to the hilt in place of his usual blatant maliciousness.
Western Animation
- Parodied on The Simpsons:
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Dr. Hibbert: This will require a cardiac bypass. |
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- In the Latin American dub, the last line was changed:
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Homer: You didn't have to be so blunt. |
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- And then later on, Homer tries to explain it to the kids with finger puppets:
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Homer: ...and so the magical fairies will take Prince Leg Vein on a looong journey to get married to Princess Left Ventricle. |
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- Happens in Beavis and Butthead when Daria tries to explain the concept of a Walk-A-Thon to the duo. Naturally, they still get it wrong.