Adopt a Noodle Incident

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

Here's a fun little prompt/dare/challenge activity.

A Noodle Incident (M to be safe) is a trope where a character references something from the past that is never explained. Often, the more inane-sounding, the better. It's marked by a lack of explanation as to what the incident was, leaving the circumstances and details completely up to the reader's/audience's imagination and speculation.

It could be as simple as (to give an example from the TV Tropes site), two allies or partners in an action-adventure (especially spy fiction) sharing a comment, "Remember Helsinki?" or, "God, it's Rio all over again!" It could be as bizarre as the Lewis Black joke, "Behind me, I heard a young woman of 25 say, If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college!" In the latter example, if we take Lewis Black as the MC of the "story," the noodle incident is one that even he doesn't understand; he just overhears it and is just as bewildered as the audience!

 

Share some ideas for noodle incidents here for others to claim! As a courtesy, let us know if you're claiming a noodle incident; however, no limit on how many you can claim or how many people can claim one. Feel free to modify the exact verbiage to fit your characters and scenario!

 

I'll start us off:

• "Whatever you do, don't mention the 1978 butter carving tournament."
• "Look, the boat was fine, the chicken was fine. There was no need to get the cops involved."
• "Due to recent events, pygmy puffs are no longer allowed near the premises."
• "I don't know how many times you need to be told that's not what Engorgio was meant for."

 

[northbound24]

Here's a noodle incident from DI Jack Teague's Hogwarts days:

"Gang? You save Bilius Prewett from a cursed turnip and suddenly you're in a gang"

[northbound24]

8 minutes ago, northbound24 said:

Here's a noodle incident from DI Jack Teague's Hogwarts days:

"Gang? You save Bilius Prewett from a cursed turnip and suddenly you're in a gang"

That is officially in story canon, you get away with it because Uncle Bilius just screams crazy noodle incidents 

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

Dave @northbound24 I love your example! I think it's a fun idea to share examples we've actually used in our own writing in this thread as well, so I'll do the same with a couple of fun ones I came up with recently. These are both from Must Be One of Arthur's Boys.

This one is from a chapter focused on a moment shared between Arthur and the twins in 1994:

Quote

Still, sitting here at the table, Fred on his one side and George on his other, evoked a curiously familiar feeling. As Molly stalked by, glaring at them, deciding what to do with the lot of them, he was forcibly reminded of one agonizing afternoon in Sixth Year spent sitting outside Professor McGonagall’s office, awaiting judgment for what Benny Culpepper still referred to as the Goddamned Skrewt Incident of ‘66.

 

And this one is from a chapter focused on Arthur and Ginny c. 2002:

Quote

The Bard and Badger always seemed to be as bright or dim as you needed it to be, and their cider was second to none. There was still a gouge in the brickwork on the northern wall from a wayward hex that had just missed Arthur’s head on the night he and Sil Shafiq had to haul Benny Culpepper out of there in 1968. It was where Arthur and his brothers had gathered on the rare occasions when Godfrey came home to visit; and it was where Arthur and Godfrey had focused all their energy on drinking themselves stupid after Bilius’s funeral, and Molly hadn’t said a word in criticism when Arthur had come home completely legless.

 

[northbound24]

Another noodle incident for Jack Teague, with Amelia Bones remembering parts too:

 

Amelia's recollection: 

I’ve not seen Dawlish twitch so much since Operation Graphorn nearly went haywire back in 1965- you remember that, Benjy Fenwick swung on that chandelier.

 

Jack's recollection of the same: 

Operation Graphorn? How can I bloody forget that, I nearly got killed by Rodolphus Lestrange, remember? Some seventh year that was!

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

I didn't wind up adopting a Noodle Incident from the list @RonsGirlFriday, but I accidentally put one into the next chapter of a more perfect life:

Quote

“I bet you five galleons she doesn’t show.” [Sirius said.]

“No way. You still owe me from last time. Remember Liverpool?” [Lily replied.]

“Not likely. And you cheated!”

“You are the sorest loser on the face of the earth, Sirius Orion Black.”