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One handy way to dodge a difficult question is to earnestly begin talking about something extraneous to it.
extraneous
" not pertinent; irrelevant: an extraneous remark; extraneous decoration."
During the long, boring lecture, most people agreed that much of the information was extraneous.
Extraneous means 'coming from the outside'.
The crowd's not entirely silent, but there's not too much extraneous talking.