Lampshade hanging

Lampshade hanging is a writing technique or trope used in fiction to get out of an unusual event or simply bad writing.

After something exceedingly unlikely or unusual occurs, which would otherwise put the viewer in a disbelief position, having one of the characters in the scene announce its unusualness makes it seem obvious to both viewers and characters that what has just happened is very unusual and thus it can be accepted as part of the plot.

Examples

On Futurama, writers almost take pride in using this technique.

• In "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?", Amy tells Bender that his beer belly is so big his door won't close, to which she adds "and that doesn't even make sense".
• In "Godfellas", after Bender has been thrown back to Earth and lands before Fry and Leela, in what would be a completely improbable event, Leela describes the situation as "by a wide margin the least likely thing that has ever happened".

External links

• "Lampshade hanging" on Wikipedia.
• "Lampshade Hanging" on TVTropes.