Idiotic Partner Confession
From Tv Tropes
- Shenzi: Do you know what we do to kings who step out of their kingdom?
- Simba: Phuh! You can't do anything to me!
- Zazu: [nervous chuckle] Technically, they can. We are on their land...
- Simba: But Zazu! You told me they were nothing but slobbery, mangy, stupid poachers!
- Zazu: Ix-nay on the upid-stay...
- Banzai: Who you callin' upid-stay??
Idiotic Partner Confession is a situation in which X is keeping something from Y, be it a something he's done, something he's planning, or just something he said earlier that he really doesn't want to tell Y. The problem is, Z is also aware of this secret, and just happens to be a complete idiot. So what does Z do? He starts talking about it right in front of Y, if not directly to him, of course! This will undoubtedly lead to X trying as discreetly as possible to get Z to shut up, with Z completely oblivious that he's saying anything remotely wrong. This will likely piss Y right off, and lead to all sorts of trouble for poor X.
Y can either be a villain, some sort of parental figure, or anyone else who X would have any reason not to be honest with. Z doesn't necessarily be an idiot to do this; it could very well be a case of Will Not Tell A Lie.
Different from Right Behind Me, although the tropes might overlap. Compare Accidental Public Confession.
Sometimes the partner is trying to reassure everyone that what they're planning is not the specific thing he's saying it won't happen. It usually doesn't help matters much...
- Examples
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[edit] Books
- As straight as it can be played in this Grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000, in the third novel of the Blood Gorgons trilogy: a drughead comes to his dealer after the recent system change, insisting to his dealer that he used to say bad things about his current boss. It's hard to say if this is because of the drugs/withdrawal or he tried to blackmail the dealer, but this Too Dumb To Live action ends quickly with a shiv in his belly:
- Culk (or whatever his name was): Mister Menzo?
- Menzo: What? Quickly.
- Culk : Sabtah is dead!
- Menzo: I know that. Quieten your voice.
- Culk : Will this... this affect your trade?
- Menzo: Why would it?
- Culk : You always said Gammadin and Sabtah didn't care enough about the slaves to mind what we did with our sleep shift. You said Muhr'd be a hard bastard to try to sneak by.
- Menzo: Shut your mouth!
- Culk : But you said that. You said Muhr would be a right stiff pri-
- Menzo: *put hands over his mouth, inserts shiv, sees coworkers while hiding evidence*
- Menzo: Long live lord Muhr!
[edit] General Animation
- Spongebob Squarepants does this to poor Squidward when they're faced with the Flying Dutchman.
- The Flying Dutchman: Who be disturbin' the Flying Dutchman in his own lair???
- Spongebob: It's Squidward. He wants to complain to you.
- Squidward: I-I...No, I...no.
- Spongebob: But what about all that stuff about him having a dirty ship, and being lazy, and all?
- Squidward: *laughs nervously* I never said that...
- In the first episode of the series, when Mr. Spacely is invited for dinner at the Jetsons', Elroy gives his father away:
- Mr. Spacely: Hey there son. Put it there! [holds hand for handshake]
- Elroy: It doesn't look like a crab's claw to me. Let's see you pinch some pennies with it like pops says you do.
- Mr. Spacely: What's that, boy?
- George Jetson: *laughs nervously* The boy is my-my son Elroy, Mr. Spacely.
- Arthur's Dora Winifred usually says something like, "Wow, Arthur. This person isn't as scary as you say."
[edit] Movies
- Simba does this in The Lion King, when he questions why Zazu is acting so afraid of the hyenas when he said earlier that they were "slobbery, mangy, stupid poachers". Said hyenas are, of course, right in front of them.
- Not completely played straight, since Simba wasn't so much an idiot as an innocent child, and Zazu teaching him to be racist was a bad idea in multiple ways.
- A second example later on, when Mufasa corners the three Hyenas after they tried to kill Simba. Shenzi and Banzai immediately insist that they had no idea Simba was Mufasa's son; then Ed spills the beans.
- A subtle version of this (verging on paranoia, Dangerous Genre Savvy and ultimately Wrong Genre Savvy) happens between the Bounty Hunter and his prisoner Riddick. He suggests to sadistically drag close behind them a girl that just hit puberty, girl that sees the prisoner something of a hero. Riddick suggests a bigger bait and looks behind them. The bounty hunter quickly tells him to turn around fast and that he's stupid to look behind them about such things (although nobody notices their plans).
- The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra:
- Kro-Bar: Aliens? Us? Is this one of your Earth jokes?
- Fleming:: See? See?
- Lattis:: You should not have said "Earth jokes." Don't you see how that gave us away?
[edit] TV Land
- London Tipton does this in an episode of Suite Life on Deck.
- 3rd Rock From The Sun:
- Harry: Also we're not aliens from a spiral galaxy millions of light years away.
- (gets shoved by Dick)
- Harry: What? I said not!
- Castiel did this to Dean when they went together on a case. Dean barely convinced the officer they were talking about that they're legit after all.
- Family Matters:
- Carl: ...what are you all so on edge about?
- Harriet: Nothing.
- Laura: Nothing.
- Eddie: There's nothing wrong with the car!
- In That '70s Show episode "Moon Over Point Place", when Jackie buys a paper bag of (what is strongly implied to be) marijuana in order to prove to Hyde that she's not just some preppy cheerleader. Unfortunately for her, a cop shows up while they're arguing.
- Cop: Everything all right here?
- Hyde: We're fine, officer. Right, Jackie?
- Jackie: There's nothing in the bag!
- Doctor Who, 9th series finale, the TARDIS and its inhabitants are surrounded by Daleks, they fire at them continuously but don't have any result because of some makeshift shield the Doctor and Jack Harkness made. The Doctor gloats... but With Friends Like These...
- The Doctor: Is that it? Useless! Nul points! [to Rose and Jack] It's all right, you can come out; that forcefield can hold back anything!
- Jack: Almost anything.
- *beat*
- The Doctor: Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that. Thanks.
- In the long run, The Doctor's nemesis, his companions or even himself were not immune to dropping hints that they're not what they seem.
[edit] Web Comics
- This Girl Genius strip. Dimo succeeds at knocking out Oggie before he's entirely spilled the beans, but Zeetha isn't fooled.
