Trope Talk: Noodle Incidents

A lot of fans think they want the Noodle Incident explained when what they really want is to feel smug that their headcanon is correct.

“The line between comedy and horror is thinner than either genre would like it to be.” My eyes have been opened.

The noodle incident is so especially compelling in Calvin and Hobbes because it feels like the only thing he feels real shame about; usually he’s proud of his schemes, especially when he gets away with it like it’s implied he did in this case, but his extreme defensiveness even to Hobbes really piques your curiosity.

Making ALL of Han's noodles a part of a single story basically takes away the "ive done a lot" vibe and replaces it with "i did one thing"

Solo did basically all the Noodle incidents back to back, which means that, instead of Han having a long and storied career filled with many different adventures, he’s a guy that peaked early who keeps bringing up the one cool week he had 10 full years ago

"Trust me, you don't wanna know. Audrey, don't tell him. You shouldn't have told me, but you did, and now I'm telling you you don't wanna know."

Milo Murphy’s Law performed an incredible noodle incident, the so called Llama Incident. It’s referenced repeatedly yet almost nonsensically in the episodes leading up to the episode dedicated to it, the actual incident is a legitimately insane sequence of events that checks every reference made to it, and the episode ends with the creation of The Woodpecker Incident, which is then never spoken of again.

God, what happened with the "last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye" made me SO MAD. As much as I love Goose, he should NOT have been the one to take out Fury's eye.

"The line between comedy and horror is thinner than either genre would like it to be." As someone who writes both, I will have you know that comedy has no problem with how close it is to horror. Horror, on the other hand, has never stopped whining about it.

Well if it’s anything like that Jockstrap Incident, the bodies are probably buried somewhere around here.

I love that in her rush to clarify "the fact that Noodle Incidents only work when you don't explain them DOES NOT recuse you from needing to have answers for actual important plot questions" Red (accidentally?) said "bye" AND THEN said "So, yeah" I love her commitment to The Bit.

"...and we can't use the Enterprise-E." (everyone looks at Worf) "That was not my fault."

My favorite subversion of this trope is when an on screen event becomes a noodle incident for other characters that weren’t there.

My favorite was an indirect reference in an entirely unrelated comic. Two aliens on a spaceship talking about a planned heist. "Don't worry, we'll just blame someone else!" "Oh, like that incident with the noodles?" "Right! They still think that kid did it all!"

Burn notice actually did this in a fascinating way- the characters will often reference things they did in the past and adapt those situations to the present. It lets you see the general outline of each noodle incident while giving you a decent amount to go off of My favorite one is where main character says they need to do "the same thing they did to that colonel with the drinking problem", to which another character complains that that took months to set up and they have barely an hour. It ends up with them gaslighting a gangster and his brother until they think the gangster is having a complete psychological breakdown. Burn notice is a hell of a show.

A possible ancestor to this trope might be found in the original Sherlock Holmes stories. At one point Dr. Watson refers to "the story of the Giant Rat of Sumatra, for which the world is not yet prepared." That story is never published, but the idea that Holmes has faced and defeated some (literally) unspeakable horror is planted and remains in our minds. Clearly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle understood the power and purpose of the Noodle Incident.

Oh sure when Calvin has a noodle incident it’s an iconic narrative but when I have a noodle incident it’s “depressing” and “yet another attempt at cooking dinner”

Star Wars also had a much more prominent Noodle Incident that later got very, very explained: “You fought in the Clone Wars?”

A fun, but less common, inversion of this trope is when the audience has seen the incident(s) in earlier installments, but the minor characters whom the main cast meet have not and react accordingly.

My favorite Noodle Incident is actually from L4D2 where Ellis tells you the hundredth story about his super cool friend Keith where they escaped a burning hospital only to realize that he was actually doing that adventure with you. Not only does this mean he was telling the truth about all the other incidents, but he actually sees you as one of his closest friends now. ❤