History Main / IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou

The term for this trope in rhetoric is apophasis. Also related to YouJustToldMe. TruthSerums in fiction have been known to cause this. Compare CannotKeepASecret and LooseLips. SubTrope of SayingTooMuch. If the person revealing information this way is doing it deliberately, it's CouldSayItBut.

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', Professor Frankley says "I don't think we can trust this [[SealedEvilInACan box]]. We'd better not tell it we're looking for the [[PlotCoupon Crystal Stars]]."

* MadTV's sketch "Fightin' Ron and Kathy: Anger Management": "To know my name is to have power over me, so I'm notgonna to tell you. 'Cause then you'd go, 'Hey, Ron,' and I'd go, 'What?' And nobody's gonna have that kind of power over Ron Shaeffer."

** From the superhero episode:

** [[OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope On the advice of our lawyers]], we swear we have never heard of [[Theatre/{{Evita}} a musical]] based on the life of [[UsefulNotes/EvaPeron Eva Perón]].
** There's a much more extended example: "Oh, I'm sorry. I can't divulge information about that customer's secret illegal account. (''hangs up the phone'') Oh, crap. I shouldn't have said he was a customer. Oh, crap. I shouldn't have said it was a secret. Oh, crap! I certainly shouldn't have said it was illegal. Ah, it's too hot today."

* In ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo Puyo Puyo Tetris]]'', Schezo is chasing after Sig for his left hand, which is emitting a strange energy. Amitie holds off Schezo at the request of Sig; once you beat this specific stage, Amitie blurts out "I'll never allow you to know that Sig ran off to the ruins!", and Schezo thanks her before she realizes what she just said.

->'''Jack Geller:''' I'm not gonna tell you what they spent on that wedding, but $40,000 is a lot of money.
-->-- ''Series/{{Friends}}'', "The One with the Sonogram at the End"

* In ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'', this is how Quico rats out El Chavo about accidentally throwing a gum in a hat (that belonged to Don Ramón's boss). Unusually for this trope, it's intentional on his part to get El Chavo into trouble:
-->'''Quico''': Sorry, Don Ramón, but I can't tell you anything. I promised El Chavo that I wouldn't tell anybody that he stuck a gum in a hat.

A sort of AccidentalPublicConfession, with a little SuspiciouslySpecificDenial thrown in for good measure. If the person is doing this ''deliberately'' and therefore is not being stupid at all, it's CouldSayItBut instead of this trope. Or it could be a variation where the villain has a gun in his face and he's a coward and only acts as if this is the case. If the person saying this is not a ''complete'' moron, they may follow it with "DidIJustSayThatOutLoud".

** Happens in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' when Eggman finally has Sonic and Tails where he wants them, and just needs the real Chaos Emerald to complete his scheme. Sonic sees through it. Tails... not so much.

A TextbookHumor joke paper on Arxiv (by a reknowned cosmologist), researching the variation of pi over time, concludes with the following crowner: "A number of colleagues were kind enough to commenton the manuscript. For some reason they did not want me to use their names, so I will identify them by their initials:". Followed by their full names...

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Doctor Bashir's father comes into the public medical facility and proceeds to say to what he thinks is his son, "Don't worry, I'll never tell anyone <detailed explanation of big secret>" Slightly more of an AccidentalPublicConfession, since he thought he was talking to someone who already knew, [[spoiler:unaware that what he thought was the real Julian was actually the holographic model based on him, which was being controlled from the other room by O'Brien and Zimmerman]]. But they're still saying in essence I'll Never Say What I'm Saying Right Now, and even if it had been the real Julian, they're saying it in a public place (the Infirmary) without even checking whether anyone else is around, not to mention that someone else could have walked in at any time. It almost begs the question of ''how'' they managed to keep the secret for a quarter of a century given their apparent carelessness in talking about it.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Doctor Bashir's father comes into the public medical facility and proceeds to say to what he thinks is his son, "Don't worry, I'll never tell anyone <detailed explanation of big secret>" Slightly more of an AccidentalPublicConfession, since he thought he was talking to someone who already knew, [[spoiler:unaware that what he thought was the real Julian was actually the holographic model based on him, which was being controlled from the other room by O'Brien and Zimmerman]]. But even if it had been the real Julian, they're still saying in essence I'll Never Say What I'm Saying Right Now, and they're saying it in the middle of the Infirmary where anyone could walk in and overhear, almost begging the question of ''how'' they managed to keep the secret for a quarter of a century given their apparent carelessness in talking about it.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Doctor Bashir's father comes into the public medical facility and proceeds to say to what he thinks is his son, "Don't worry, I'll never tell anyone <detailed explanation of big secret>" Slightly more of an AccidentalPublicConfession, since he thought he was talking to someone who already knew, [[spoiler:but what he thought was the real Julian was actually the holographic model based on him, which was being controlled from the other room by O'Brien and Zimmerman]]. But even if it had been the real Julian, they're still saying in essence I'll Never Say What I'm Saying Right Now, and in the middle of the Infirmary where anyone could walk in and overhear, almost begging the question of ''how'' they managed to keep the secret for a quarter of a century given their apparent carelessness in talking about it.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Doctor Bashir's father comes into the public medical facility and proceeds to say to what he thinks is his son, "Don't worry, I'll never tell anyone <detailed explanation of big secret>" Slightly more of an AccidentalPublicConfession, since [[spoiler:what he thought was the real Julian was actually the holographic model based on him, which was being controlled from the other room by O'Brien and Zimmerman]]. But even if it had been the real Julian, they're still saying in essence I'll Never Say What I'm Saying Right Now, and in the middle of the Infirmary where anyone could walk in and overhear, almost begging the question of ''how'' they managed to keep the secret for a quarter of a century given their apparent carelessness in talking about it.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Heroic version. In the musical episode, Anya and Xander's song "I'll Never Tell" is one long string of these, and Buffy is later forced to reveal she was in heaven during her temporary death. This is the result of a demon compelling them to sing the truth. %% Buffy: "But why I froze/Not one among them knows/And never can be told"

-->'''Willie:''' I'll never say his name.
-->'''Bart:''' "His", eh? So, it's a dude.
-->'''Willie:''' Who says it's a dude? A principal can be a man ''or'' a woman these days.

->'''Nazi Captain:''' ''[to Pvt. Pike]'' Your name vill also go on ze list! What is it?\\
'''Captain Mainwaring:''' Don't tell him, Pike!
-->-- ''Series/DadsArmy''