tangential comment

He often contributes to situations by making irrelevant tangential comments; usually silly and sometimes sexist in nature.

Tangential comments reveal that the conversation takes place in the narrator's Boston drawing room at eve, where the two have just arrived via taxi.

"If you will permit me one moment of tangential comment, the treatment for jet lag that we pioneered here at the Institute is less than a total success."

Smiley's sections of the book are quite brief; the bulk of the book consists of Ned's reminiscences, prompted by his interpretation of tangential comments made by Smiley and illuminated from his own experiences.

Your dubious ignominy may yet be spared its undeserved footnote in history, as there remains a strong probability that the Guardian will not notice the corpse is not moving for another six months or so, and will commission yet more increasingly tangential comments on the "movement".