Dire Straits.

What do you call a plot device involving a deity from Michigan who wears a plaid coat?

Deus ex Mackinaw.

There's a character for that.

Don't go h8ting and taking the bread out of some other character's mouth.

Henry has that gig.

Skating on thin ice.

Actually, that would be knock-kneed.

Unless they are driven around in a horse-drawn cab.

Gassed.

Duane is out of gas.

Low-octane humor.

Mad Men.

It all comes down to marketing.

Make the public want what you have to sell.
In this case, absence.

Istanbul.

It's nobody's business but the Turks'.

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam.

Irving the Explainer.

Or Morris the Explainer. A character who is given the thankless task of providing necessary exposition.

You may recognize him from The Rockford Files.