# What is the longest establishment of a Chekov's gun? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 31, 2010, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-establishment-of-a-chekovs-gun/552111 "2010-08-31T10:18:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-establishment-of-a-chekovs-gun/552111/41 "2010-09-01T05:51:26Z")
> [@sjc](#): > > That’s not the reading that TV Tropes or Wikipedia give. They imply that Chekhov’s Gun must go off. And furthermore I don’t see Chekhov’s Gun and necessarily a consequential detail in and of of itself, but rather a detail that takes on significance by the end. TV Tropes and Wikipedia both quote Chekhov but both to various degrees misinterpret what he’s saying. Here’s Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > The name Chekhov’s gun comes from Anton Chekhov himself, who stated that any object introduced in a story must be used later on, else it ought not to feature in the first place: > > [ul] > [li]“One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.” Chekhov, letter to Aleksandr Semenovich Lazarev (pseudonym of A. S. Gruzinsky), 1 November 1889.[/li][li]“If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.” From Gurlyand’s Reminiscences of A. P. Chekhov, in Teatr i iskusstvo 1904, No. 28, 11 July, p. 521.’[/li][li]“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.” From S. Shchukin, Memoirs (1911)[/li][/ul] > > … > > An example in which Chekhov himself makes use of this principle is in Uncle Vanya, in which a pistol is introduced early on as a seemingly irrelevant prop and, towards the end of the play, becomes much more important as Uncle Vanya, in a rage, grabs it and tries to commit homicide. The gun is not an “irrelevant prop” whose importance only becomes apparent later. If it really was an irrelevant prop it wouldn’t matter if it was fired or not. Chekhov’s whole point is that if you introduce a compelling element like a gun early in a play, you create an expectation in the audience that it will somehow figure into the story at a later point. As the play progresses, this expectation shapes the audience’s anticipation of how the story will resolve itself. If the gun (or another similar compelling element) doesn’t figure into the resolution of the play, it should be omitted entirely. Chekhov’s gun (as Chekhov originally described it) is NOT an inconsequential element whose significance later emerges. It’s a CONSEQUENTIAL element that immediately creates expectations in the audience. And Chekhov is also clearly using it as a counter-example – as something you should avoid doing. An intriguing element that REVEALS its importance later in the story is just normal foreshadowing. However, _an intriguing element that never contributes to the narrative_ – that’s bad storytelling. It leaves the audience confused and frustrated and THAT’S what Chekhov is warning against. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-establishment-of-a-chekovs-gun/552111/42 "2010-09-01T06:14:14Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > Chekhov’s gun (as Chekhov originally described it) is NOT an inconsequential element whose significance later emerges. It’s a CONSEQUENTIAL element that immediately creates expectations in the audience. And Chekhov is also clearly using it as a counter-example – as something you should avoid doing. An intriguing element that REVEALS its importance later in the story is just normal foreshadowing. However, _an intriguing element that never contributes to the narrative_ – that’s bad storytelling. It leaves the audience confused and frustrated and THAT’S what Chekhov is warning against. Right. Therefore, Chekhov’s gun is always used before the end of the play, because Chekhov knows enough to not introduce that element without resolving it in some manner. The gun that’s introduced, but never resolved, can’t be Chekhov’s gun, because Chekhov knows enough not to make that mistake. That gun must belong to some other guy. Maybe Chekov. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-establishment-of-a-chekovs-gun/552111/43 "2010-09-01T07:23:10Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > I once pulled an actual brick joke on a radio show hosted by one Travis T. Hipp, back in the mists of time. The show was several hours long and I called in early, told the first part of the brick joke, staying on the phone after the joke to get defensive about the complete un-funniness of it, then called back an hour or so later using a different voice to tell the second bit. It was a thing of beauty, man. Still brings a tear to my eye to remember the five, six seconds of stunned silence after I hung up the phone, turning up the radio just in time to hear the guy mutter, “I think we’ve been had.” Do tell more. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-establishment-of-a-chekovs-gun/552111/44 "2010-09-01T10:37:11Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > After reading about [Chekov’s Gun](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitlexn9xzsjd5fif) (warning: TV Tropes) in which a **seemingly inconsequential** detail is mentioned early in a piece of work only to become essential to the plot later … . > [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > Technically speaking, that’s not “Chekov’s Gun”. Chekov’s Gun is a CONSEQUENTIAL detail that DOESN’T get used later. If an audience sees a rifle hanging on the wall in act one, they’ll start speculating on when it will go off. If it never does, they’ll leave the theater disappointed. Chekov is saying that you shouldn’t introduce intriguing elements into your plot that never pay off. Did you notice the ‘seemingly’ in the first quote? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-establishment-of-a-chekovs-gun/552111/45 "2010-09-01T10:51:26Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Did you notice the ‘seemingly’ in the first quote? Considering that his argument specifically refutes the idea that Chekhov’s gun refers to a seemingly inconsequential object, I rather suspect that he did. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-establishment-of-a-chekovs-gun/552111/46 "2010-09-01T10:54:12Z")
I’d like to see a drama about Los Alamos in the early days, when they were still doing ill-advised criticality experiments on the “Demon Core” and stuff. At the beginning of the episode you’d see the camera linger on the Demon Core with one scientist giving exposition (in voiceover) on the dangers of criticality. The camera then cuts away to another young scientist in the kitchen preparing lunch; as he turns from the counter he fumbles and drops a blue plate, which shatters on the linoleum. Later, during the experiment, that same young scientist’s screwdriver slips and the two halves of the core come together, and there’s a sudden flash of blue light. At that moment, you realize you’ve witnessed an instance of Cherenkov’s gun ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-establishment-of-a-chekovs-gun/552111/47 "2010-09-01T11:16:15Z")
Hey!! Trekkies and Russian Lit fans!! Wings! 7 years, 172 episodes! I don’t care if its Chekov’s gun, Chechov’s gun, or Shecky Green’s gun, come up with something better than that! ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-establishment-of-a-chekovs-gun/552111/48 "2010-09-01T16:36:58Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I’ll settle with Futurama and Nibbler. Nibbler goes back in time and tips Fry’s chair back so that he falls into a cryogenic chamber and is frozen for 5000 years, since his lack of mental acuity leaves him the only person on Earth who is invulnerable to brain-controlling alien brains. The setup occurs in the premiere episode, but you don’t notice Nibbler until it’s pointed out in Season 4. A 5000 year payoff – suck it, non-SF programming! The Niblonian’s lack time travel, but they have extremely long lives. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-establishment-of-a-chekovs-gun/552111/49 "2010-09-01T17:09:56Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > > [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > > > I’ll settle with Futurama and Nibbler. Nibbler goes back in time and tips Fry’s chair back so that he falls into a cryogenic chamber and is frozen for 5000 years, since his lack of mental acuity leaves him the only person on Earth who is invulnerable to brain-controlling alien brains. The setup occurs in the premiere episode, but you don’t notice Nibbler until it’s pointed out in Season 4. A 5000 year payoff – suck it, non-SF programming! > > The Niblonian’s lack time travel, but they have extremely long lives. and are celebrated poopers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-establishment-of-a-chekovs-gun/552111.md?page=2)