History Main / IknowYouKnowIKnow

** Parodied mercilessly in ''Literature/NationalLampoonsDoon'', where two characters have a half-hour long conversation without knowing what the other is talking about.

** Parodied mercilessly in ''[Literature/NationalLampoonsDoon'', where two characters have a half-hour long conversation without knowing what the other is talking about.

** Parodied mercilessly in the National Lampoon's ''[[{{Parody}} Doon]]'', where two characters have a half-hour long conversation without knowing what the other is talking about.

** Rachel had earlier this technique to trick Joey into admitting that he knew about Chandler and Monica too. She asks Joey to go and fetch a book from Chandler's room, knowing that he and Monica were in there. When Joey refuses Rachel comes out with this tongue twister of a response:

* Used in ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', after the staff of the buy more is told to behave Morgan goes through this to try and work out whether or not they should misbehave due to the person telling them knowing they'd know he knows they know he knows how they'd act.

** Humorously {{Lampshaded}} somewhat early on, when L challenges Light to a friendly tennis match. The two of them both start long, intricate inner monologues about how they can psychoanalyze the other based on their behavior during the match, even when they know the other already knows they'll be doing this and will be acting accordingly... by the match's end, they both conclude that there's too much knowing going on, and that [[ShaggyDogStory neither can deduce anything significant about the other based on the match]].

** This carries over to later parts of the series. For example: In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'', Jotaro "fakes" his genuine ability to [[spoiler:move through stopped time]] so that Dio would be caught off-guard after calling him on his apparent bluff.

* An episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' had the group seeing a basket of fruit on the road. Ash wanted to eat it, but Misty points out that it's an obvious trap by [[TerribleTrio Team Rocket]]. She then points to some fruit growing in the trees, which the gang decided to take... causing them to fall right into a trap set by Team Rocket, who set up the basket knowing it would be ignored.

** Chapter 177 plays this [[UpToEleven up to at least]] ''[[UpToEleven fifteen]]'' [[UpToEleven layers deep]]. Zhang Fei and Chen Gong were scheming against each other; the former was trying to lure Lu Bu to Xiapi to kill him while the latter wish to drive out Zhang Fei to take Xiapi. Both of them outlines their plans, and the narrative switch back and forth between them anticipating each other.

* In ''Anime/SonicTheHedgehogTheMovie'', since Hyper Metal Sonic uses Sonic's life data, he's essentially an actual copy of Sonic. During their final confrontation, the two are so evenly matched, they're brought to a high-speed standstill and allows Sonic to give the [[MemeticMutation highly meme-tastic line]]:
-->'''Sonic:''' You might know everything I'm going to do, but that's not going to help you since I know everything ''you're'' going to do! ''Strange, isn't it?!''
* In ''LightNovel/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'', this is the situation between the Shiba siblings. Tatsuya knows that Miyuki has unrequited incestuous feelings towards him, and she knows that he knows, but at this point they're too invested in their platonic relationship to risk it by facing the issue. [[spoiler:(Barring the occasions when Miyuki loses her patience and knocks him unconscious, after which they return to their usual deception...until it happens again.)]] Luckily, their upbringing as members of [[SecretPolice the Yotsuba family]] has amply prepared them for this sort of thing.
** In her RageAgainstTheReflection in volume 16, Miyuki more or less does this to ''herself'', her id screaming at her superego to stop living in denial. They all have the same desires, but only one of them isn't admitting it.

* In Christopher Priest's run on ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'', ''ComicBook/IronMan'' sums up his understanding of the titular character's highly convoluted plot during the "Enemy of the State II" arc in a section aptly titled "And You Know I Know You Know".

* In the ''Comicbook/BatMite'' miniseries, Bat-Mite believes that the villain Gridlock is a senator who uses "gridlock" as part of his campaign slogan.

* ''Film/HotLeadAndColdFeet'' has Don Knotts' Sheriff deliver this line regarding his arch-nemesis, Rattlesnake: "'Cause he's here and I know he's here. And ''he'' knows I know he's here! But he doesn't know ''I'' know he knows I know he's here, but I know. So I got the edge!"

** Of course, Goodman is an established blithering idiot, so the scene itself is a parody, but the character thinks he's playing it straight.

* Creator/FyodorDostoevsky

-->'''Han:''' From now on, we can't trust anything we see. Anything we see, anything we hear, anything we think we ought to do. Not with Thrawn back on the scene.\\

* ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse''
** The ''Literature/NewSeriesAdventures'' novel ''The Doctor Trap'' has an ''entire plot'' based off this. The villain is convinced the Doctor knows something the villain doesn't. Not really. The titular trap, the Doctor explains is [[spoiler:what ''they think'' you know that they don't.]] Confused? Yeah, [[GambitPileup join everyone else in the book.]]

* The fourth volume in ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'' ends with one of these. [[spoiler:Kyousuke wants to save hundreds of people whose lives are being maintained by a reactor, somewhere in the building. However, he first has to survive a fight with [[EldritchAbomination the White Queen]]. The White Queen wants to break his mind, which could be accomplished by killing said people. She stabs one of her swords into the floor and proposes that Kyousuke uses it, since it is the only means he has of putting up a fight against her. He refuses, suspecting it's a trap. But then the Queen reveals that stabbing the sword into the floor caused a chain reaction that destroyed the reactor keeping the people alive. She made the offer knowing full well that Kyousuke would reject it, so that he'd break under the realisation that his own decision condemned the people he'd been trying to save. [[UpToEleven Except Kyousuke then reveals he expected this]], as he knew the Queen would never give him any way out. He also reveals that he knew the building's designer had (due to personal preference) slightly changed the layout of the building from the optimum, so the Queen's attack had missed the reactor]].
* In ''Literature/SkinGame,'' [[Literature/DresdenFiles Harry Dresden]] is forced to team up with BigBad Nicodemus for a mission by [[spoiler: Mab]]. Harry knows that Nicodemus will stab him in the back the moment he's achieved the objective. Nicodemus knows that Harry knows and will want to kill him, both in self-defense and for Nicodemus' other crimes. Therefore, Nicodemus will want to betray him first. Harry knows that Nicodemus will be expecting the betrayal, and so [[spoiler: hires Goodman Grey]] before he goes off with Nicodemus. And the ''entire thing,'' it turns out, is just a BatmanGambit done by [[spoiler: Mab, Hades, and John Marcone]]. Which Harry figures out and spells out for the reader, [[UpToEleven adding in]] AsYouKnow to IKnowYouKnowIKnow.

* Shows up in ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' with Milo Stanfield, a savant who can predict the future enough to cause accidents to kill people [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts set off by dropping a pen]]. It's impossible for Fringe Division to outthink him, because if they try, he'll predict it, and if they predict he'll predict it and choose a different option, he'll predict that too. Astrid describes the situation with at least six recursions of "he'll predict that we predict". The ultimate solution comes because [[spoiler: he didn't know Olivia was actually an alternate universe version of herself implanted with that universe's memories (she didn't even know that), which meant she had a slower reaction to a warning alarm common in that universe but not her own. Thus screwing up his plans long enough for him to be captured.]]

* ''Series/StudioC'' has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwJUuN3JUPE Sherlock spoof]] where Sherlock and Moriarty keep one-uping each others predictions, such as both knowing that Moriarty would bring a balloon giraffe and that Sherlock wouldn't like it. It culminates in the revelation that [[spoiler: Sherlock and Moriarty did all this to throw a birthday party for a little girl.]]

* Tex Perkins' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQSWW5wimm0 I Know Y'Know I Know]].

* While nowhere near as high profile, all of Low Ki's face offs with Manik in Wrestling/{{TNA}} have been somewhat similar. Manik has an uncanny ability to predict just how Low Ki will try to counter his moves and acts accordingly, yet Low usually ends up a step ahead of Manik away.

* The "[[ElectronicTelepathy ESP Center]]" wonder from ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}: Call to Power''.
-->[['''Subject 1:''' I know what you're thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr07lrGSNUs]]\\

* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': Goro Akechi's bread and butter between the second and sixth palace heists is to invite himself into Joker's conversations and drop hints that he knows who the Phantom Thieves are, resulting in the Thieves sweating and squirming while Akechi smiles smugly. Joker can voice a similar suspicion of him, which Akechi is startled by, but dismisses as a bluff. [[spoiler:Akechi's habit of doing this comes back to bite him when he joins the team as TheMole, because by then he'd dropped enough hints for them to realize that he's the Black Mask who'd been spying on them in the Metaverse since the second palace, and set up a GambitRoulette to trick him into thinking he'd defeated them. Akechi is both impressed and incensed when he figures this out]].

* [[Main/FightingGame Fighting games]] live and breathe this trope in player vs player matches, especially at a high level. There are no moves or techniques in a fighting game that are outright more powerful than all others; each move has its time and place, and importantly, each move counters some options and is countered by some other options. So in order for a player to defend successfully, they have to guess what move the attacker will use, and respond with a defensive option that beats that attack. But the attacker knows this, so they should try to guess what the defender is going to guess, and choose an option that beats that; but the defender knows this, so they should try to guess what the attacker is going to guess that they're going to guess, and defend appropriately. Repeat ad nauseum. The term [[UsefulNotes/FightingGame yomi]] is of relevance, describing the ability to read your opponent's mind.

* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater''

* ''Webcomic/MrSquare'' Has a prime example, wherein Mr. Square says, verbatim "I know that you know that I know what you know about knowing that I know, but you don't know that my knowledge of you knowing is not secret, I WANT you to know that I know so you don't know what I don't....you know?" [[http://revfitz.com/issue243 in this comic]]

* ''Webcomic/SquidNinja'' shows [[http://www.squidninja.com/d/20090224.html how to deal with it rationally]]: Assume both choices are equally bad, and pick one based on ''other'' criteria.

* ''Webcomic/BadMachinery''. [[http://www.scarygoround.com/index.php?date=20121122 Lottie suspects]] that her mum's new boyfriend is secretly a dangerous vigilante.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' episode "Sidekicks Assemble!", Batman offers Robin a choice of two islands to investigate, saying that Ra's Al Ghul is more likely to be on one of them. Robin takes the ''less'' likely island, reasoning that Batman knew he'd want to take the more dangerous mission, but would want him to take the safer mission, so would present them in a deceptive manner. Batman, however, knew Robin would think that, so presented the islands accurately. [[spoiler: Too bad he got it wrong and Ra's ''was'' on the other island]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'' Varian is incredible for this in the episode "Secret of the Sun Drop". There's too many layers of how detailed his plan was. But technically, he got what he wanted, but he didn't get the results he was expecting. And mind you this kid is like 14 years old and with this level of preparation he could be a Chess Master.
* Used in the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' show. The covert ops team is using a former Justice League hideout that was compromised.

* The [[http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/the-blue-eyed-islanders-puzzle/ Blue-Eyed Islanders puzzle]] relies on this to an insane level, in that it ultimately depends on [[spoiler:a 100-story tall tower of hypotheticals. Let's say that K(0) is the knowledge that there exists someone on the island with blue eyes; and K(N+1) is the knowledge that everyone knows that K(N). So if I know K(1) it means I know everyone knows there's someone with blue eyes on the island; if I know K(2) it means I know everyone knows everyone knows there's someone with blue eyes on the island; and so on. The crux of the riddle rests on how, from being given ''K(100)'', everyone on the island deduces they have blue eyes by a mind-numbing 100-day process of collapsing hypotheticals]]. The crux of the whole thing is "common knowledge", defined as IKnowYouKnowIKnow ''to infinity''. Prior to the outsider's statement, the islanders all knew at least one of them was blue-eyed, and that all the other islanders knew that, but only up to N, not infinity. Once the fact becomes common knowledge, the hypotheticals can begin collapsing, but not before.

* Over at [[http://notalwaysright.com Not Always Right]] there are many examples of people operating at level -1. The general scheme is that the narrator is being completely honest, but the idiot (usually a customer) thinking the narrator is trying to fool them in some way, ignores or deliberately goes against advice, and in doing so harms themself. E.g.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' episode "Agent Tag", Jade stows away on the Agent Tag's mission and Jackie goes after her. He ends up getting caught in the episode by the villain Dr. Necrosis who's trying to make a Doomsday device. The only problem is Dr. Necrosis has never seen Agent Tag and assumes the captured Jackie is him.

'''Jackie:''' No! I would claim to ''be'' Agent Tag, assuming you would not believe me.\\

'''Jackie:''' *gasp* I do not even know what you just ''said''!\\
'''Dr. Necrosis:''' Precisely what I expected you to say.

* Discussed in My Smash Corner video "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6YTQt4n6Ro What are Mind Games?]]", using ''VideoGames/SuperSmashBros'' as a basis.

* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4471900/7/Wreaking-Havoc Wreaking Havoc!]]'' Harry and Daphne have a somewhat convoluted exchange concerning Nicolas Flamel.

* Applying this trope to competitive multiplayer games gives you the {{Metagame}}. Initially, competing players of a particular video game will be playing the game more or less as the developers intended, using mechanics and strategies that the developers themselves had foreseen and anticipated (or observed through pre-release playtesting). Over time, players will discover quirks of the game rules, exploits of the game's engine, or unexpected strategies, any combination of which gives them a competitive advantage - but only so long as these quirks, exploits or strategies are not widely known. Eventually, the existing quirks, exploits or strategies become CommonKnowledge and players come up with countermeasures to overcome them, and in turn must find new exploits or strategies which the other players hadn't anticipated. After enough iterations of this pattern, high-level play between experienced players can look ''completely'' different from ordinary play between novices.

* In the ninth chapter of ''[[Fanfic/TheHeartTrilogy Heart of Ashes]]'', Smaug sneaks into the rooms Kathryn is locked in and drags her to the balcony to talk with her there. Aware that King Wilhelm's spies are keeping watch over her chambers, he deduces that they're not spying on the balcony because they've let themselves stray with this trope.
-->'''Smaug''': There are spies now watching your chambers, [[SuperSenses I can smell them between thin walls]]. It was not safe to speak there.\\

* Courtesy of Tarol Hunt of ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' fame, we have the following two tweets:
-->[[http://twitter.com/#!/Thunt_Goblins/status/75270899426803712 THunt_Goblins]]: I say stuff to Danielle, then I tweet what I said, then I tell her that I tweeted it and now I'm tweeting that I said I tweeted what I said.\\
[[http://twitter.com/#!/Thunt_Goblins/status/75270974395785217 THunt_Goblins]]: And I just told Danielle that I tweeted THAT.

* The Literature/{{Gentleman Bastard}}s first on-page job is engineering an elaborate SpanishPrisoner con involving a civil war and large amounts of valuable brandy. The Bastards then dress up as the local StateSec and bluntly tell the marks that the brandy salesman is running a con, that StateSec is investigating, and that if they just continue shelling out the money, they will be compensated and rewarded as soon as whoever is behind the con is caught. That the marks are now on level 2 means the Bastards no longer have to keep up the elaborate and expensive level 1 con.

* ''ComicBook/InvaderZimOni'': Zim does this with ''himself'' in the fourth quarterly. [[spoiler: He's annoyed at having to follow his own prerecorded instructions as part of a MemoryGambit, but can't tell whether he anticipated his reactions to work around that.]]

* [[TropeOverdosed It was bound to happen]], sooner or later, in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''.

** Humorously {{Lampshaded}} somewhat early on, when L challenges Light to a friendly tennis match. The two of them both start long, intricate inner monologues about how they can psychoanalyze the other based on their behavior during the match, even when they know the other already knows they'll be doing this and will be acting accordingly... by the match's end, they both conclude that there's too much knowing going on that neither can conclude anything significant about the other based on the match.

* Israel's nuclear strategy has relied on this: even though they've never officially admitted to having nuclear weapons or that Israel would use them if the existence of the nation was threatened, other countries know Israel has them and in what event they would use them. Israel knows they know about Israeli nuclear strategy, and they know Israel knows they know. The end effect is that all involved can conduct diplomacy and military strategy on the basis of everyone knowing about the nuclear weapons without anyone admitting they are there.

-->'''Boyd:''' They must want to make us think that's where they want us to go, beacuse they think we'll think we know they know we know, so we won't go!\\

See also most instances of the PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo and DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent. Frequently a consideration in FeedTheMole. In many an AbsurdlyHighStakesGame this will take the form a (often internal) monologue. Sometimes circumvented by making a completely random (HeadsOrTails), unrelated, or unexpected move, which is where the IndyPloy might come in handy.

** In another baseball example, catcher Carlton Fisk once managed to confuse a batter by talking about how he knew the batter knew the pitcher was ignoring Fisk and only throwing fastballs down the middle, and the pitcher knew Fisk knew the batter knew but wouldn't listen to when Fisk said he was signalling for curveballs (he was actually signalling for fastballs...down the middle). After an epic performance which included Fisk screaming at the pitcher to throw the curveball and going out to the mound, yelling and waving his arms around, the batter was so screwed up trying to figure out who knew what was supposed to happen he could only watch a third strike fastball go right down middle.