Sock Puppet Explanation

Tonight's Sock Puppet Explanation: Where That Floating Island Chain Came From!

A Sock Puppet Explanation is an in-universe (canonical) reason for something that happened that is normally found to be bad or laughable. It's similar to a Nutshell Moment, but the Sock Puppet Explanation sometimes tends to be a little lengthy in order to have a good connection with the canon. Because of its seemingly unnecessary lengthiness, the audience might be quick to say that the explanation does no more than make things more confusing and, as a result, stupider.

A Sock Puppet Explanation may be needed to give a description of a controversial or sensitive topic, like politics or an actor's passing, to a younger audience so then they won't be as hurt by the announcement. This might be done with simple white lying like saying the actor had to retire and move far away instead of going with the horrible truth.

Sock Puppet Explanations aren't often given directly from the creators themselves but rather are told through exposition or slowly as time passes, giving the audience pieces to put together and make their own interpretations to minimize the creators' job to explain what's going on in the universe.