Embarrassing Alibi

"Let me, let me get this straight. You— Your alibi for killing your friend is you were... doing his, his wife?"

— Richard Castle, Castle (2009), "A Deadly Game"

When a crime is committed, the police are charged with the task of finding the culprit and gathering evidence to prove their guilt. Due to years of experience, psychological profiles, and apparent motives, the police have a handful of expected suspects, whom they then interrogate. Usually the point of interrogation is to get the suspect to break down and confess their crime.

However, in fiction, many a suspect will then present an airtight alibi that proves they couldn't have committed the crime. People can't be in two places at once, after all.

Sometimes their alibi is something that they'd rather not admit to. A situation that is too embarrassing for others to hear, or perhaps something that if not outright illegal, was at the very least morally objectionable.

It would ordinarily be a bad idea to confess to any sort of crime to the police, but if the crime they're being questioned for is more serious than the crime they committed, e.g. they're being questioned for murder but they were knocking over a liquor store on the other side of town, they'll confess to the lesser crime to avoid a more severe penalty.

Can overlap with Confess to a Lesser Crime if the alibi in question is illegal, if not as heinous as the crime they were accused of. Also compare/has overlap with Shameful Source of Knowledge, where a character is unwilling to share information because they're embarrassed by the reason they know it.

Super-Trope of Confess to a Lesser Crime. Sub-Trope of Big Secret and The Alibi. Compare to Embarrassing Cover-Up. Often used to justify Be as Unhelpful as Possible.

May involve Values Dissonance, where one culture sees the alibi as a Felony Misdemeanor at worst, while another views it as a strict and sacred taboo.

See also Not Me This Time. Compare other Alibi tropes, such as Fake Alibi and Disability Alibi.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• Issue #4 of The Red Ten has two examples. Crimson, Red's former Kid Sidekick, asks Red's teammates about their alibis for the night she was murdered:
  • Bellona, the Wonder Woman Wannabe, simply states that there was entertainment that night and "leave it at that". The accompanying image is her half-naked among other women of her Lady Land home.
  • Magnitude, the scientist of the group, confirms that he was at his lab at the time, which his keycard can confirm. He was studying something on his microscope, muttering to himself how it was "beautiful". As it will be revealed later, he was actually examining microscope slides of his victims, who he shrank down and smashed between the glass panels.

Fan Works

• The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost in Gotham: Bruce has an entire list of these ready for whenever he needs an excuse for why he's suddenly out of commission; they're all either mundane or embarrassing, and they all make him look stupid to further Bruce Wayne's reputation as an idiot. One of them includes "hurt his back when he was singing in the shower and slipped".
• In the With Pearl and Ruby Glowing side story "Good Neighbours", Mulmangcho is investigating Gloria Yuzuru's murder. When his brother Oegwipali asks why he's not considering Red and Blue as suspects, he responds that they have an "airtight alibi". Mulmangcho continuously refuses to elaborate on what exactly it is, but later it's implied that Blue went down on Red and Mulmangcho walked in on it.

Films — Live-Action

• Breaker Morant: Peter Handcock is accused at the trial of killing Reverend Daniel Hesse out of suspicion that the latter was going to tell the commander of Morant's group about their plans to kill Boer prisoners. Handcock confesses that on the day of Hesse's death he had been having adulterous encounters with two married Afrikaner women — something that the prosecution admits is a solid alibi despite being behavior unbecoming of a British officer. As Handcock privately reveals to George Witton later, however, he actually had time to visit his lovers and kill the Reverend.
• The Devil's Advocate: Kevin Lomax is representing a suspect who is accused of killing his wife; his alibi is that he was sleeping with his secretary at the time the killing was taking place. When the suspect protests that focusing on the affair will make the jury hate him, Kevin responds that it doesn't matter if the jury hates him as long as they believe that he was cheating on his wife rather than killing her.
• Heathers: J.D. and Veronica, after killing Kurt Kelly and Ram Sweeney, stripped naked and got into the back of J.D.'s car. As such, when the police show up, they believe that the teens were too... preoccupied to have anything to do with the murders.
• Legally Blonde: Brooke is on trial for killing her husband. She has a perfect alibi: at the time of the murder, she was getting liposuction. Unfortunately, she can't admit that because she's a fitness guru and it would destroy her reputation and her business empire.
• Searching: One suspect in Margot's disappearance is a rude, macho classmate of hers who starts to act very nervous when David demands an alibi for the night she went missing. After more prodding and Papa Wolf threats, Smash Cut to David logging the classmate's confirmed alibi in his notes... Bieber concert.

Literature

• X-Wing Series: The Rogues are infiltrating Coruscant, but teenager Gavin gets himself into a difficult situation at a bar when he declines to dance with Bothan woman Asyr Sei'lar (because he's completely inexperienced with females of any species, and on a stressful undercover mission). One of her companions turns out to be The Empath and could sense that she made him uncomfortable — from which they conclude that he's an Imperial racist and his body will send the message that their group wants. Nawara tries to defend him by focusing on how naturally intimidating Asyr is and how that would explain it, but doesn't make much headway, and considers revealing more since these are the Empire's enemies, but Gavin subtly indicates that he shouldn't, since there are too many ears in such a place.

Live-Action TV

• American Vandal:
  • The plot of season 1 is that someone spray-painted penises on the 27 cars of the school's faculty. Class clown Dylan Maxwell is accused of the crime. His friends provide an alibi: he was with them, playing a mean-spirited prank on an elderly neighbor.
  • The hole in Dylan's alibi is that during the exact half-hour window when the vandalism occurred, Dylan left his friends. His girlfriend Mackenzie says he was visiting her during that time. In order to prove that she'd have to show a Twitch stream which shows Dylan arriving — and also shows her cheating on him.
• Better Call Saul: In "Cobbler", Daniel, after reporting a theft to the police, ends up under suspicion because of a secret crawlspace behind his couch, which he used to hide his money from drug deals. Jimmy clears this up by telling the police that the space actually contained adult videos of "Squat Cobbler", consisting of Daniel sitting in pies and crying. This successfully throws the police off, but does require Jimmy to actually go home with Daniel and make such a video.
• Bones:
  • In "The Maggots In The Meathead", one suspect turns out to have been in New York at the time, seeing Billy Elliot the Musical with his mother.
• Castle (2009):
  • In "A Deadly Game", a man is brought in after his business partner is found murdered, the insurance on their floundering business a prime motivator for murder. He explains that he couldn't have murdered his partner, because he was in another city having an affair with the murdered man's wife. Ryan and Esposito confirm after interviewing the neighbors, who reported that it was a hot night, the windows were open, and they'd heard everything.
  • In "Slice of Death", Castle and Beckett are interviewing a suspect who ran a pizza chain competing with one where a body was found in the oven. He told the police initially that he was with his wife, but his wife later said that he was with his mistress. He admits to cheating on his wife to prove his innocence in the murder.
  • Subverted in "When the Bough Breaks". Eliska Sokal is found murdered, and one of the suspects is Dr. Cameron Talbot, who was seen arguing with the woman. She had worked at his apartment complex, and she had been let go after Talbot's wife complained to the staff that Eliska had shown an unhealthy interest in her son Zane. Dr. Talbot claimed that he had had an affair with Eliska that the argument was about him trying to offer her money to keep it silent, and that at the time of the murder, he'd been in his office. The truth is far more terrible; Talbot had stolen Eliska's newborn son when his own was diagnosed with an incurable genetic disorder, swapping the two children. Eliska had figured it out and was trying to prove that Zane Talbot was, in fact, her own child. There had been no affair. Talbot had lied about that to make it seem like he had an embarrassing secret to keep from his wife that might keep the police from looking in the right direction.
  • In "The Final Frontier", when a woman running a fan experience for Nebula 9 is found murdered, one of the suspects is Gabriel Winter, the actor who played the Captain on the original show and reprised the role for the fan experience. His supposed motive was that the woman running the fan experience, Annabelle, was threatening to fire him after he was caught having a threesome with two Lt. Chloe cosplayers. His alibi, however, is that he was being treated by a doctor for an STD from incidents just like that.
• Elementary: One murder suspect is only cleared when the sex slave he kept in his basement is uncovered while he was being interrogated. Another murder suspect was cleared when it was revealed that at the time her husband was poisoned, she was out of town shopping for poison so she could murder him.
• Occurs in a two-part crossover between Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order. In the Law and Order episode "Baby, It's You", a young model dies after being sexually assaulted with such severity that she suffered internal injuries that resulted in toxic shock and infection that killed her. Every male who had access to the girl during the time of the assault has an alibi. In the Homicide episode that shares the same name, it turns out that this includes the girl's father, who was elsewhere having an affair that had carried on for a decade. The killer turns out to be the girl's mother, who was resentful and jealous of her daughter's success.
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit:
  • In "Unorthodox", the initial suspect in the rape of a young Orthodox boy is his tutor, because he keeps evading questions about why he keeps having "private lessons" with the boy. It later turns out that the private lessons are a cover; he's been seeing a young woman without her parents' approval and feared the scandal that would ensue if it ever got out.
  • In another episode, "Countdown", a murder suspect turns out to have been in Connecticut at the time, trying to grope children at a county fair.
• Murder, She Wrote: In "Trial by Error", a man wanted to kill his wife and get her money so he could live with his girlfriend. He tried to kill the wife in a car accident, but she survived. To keep her from talking about what happened, he and his girlfriend arranged it so that it would look like he went to a bar to drown his sorrows, met the girlfriend, and then they went to her place. Once the alibi was set up, he actually snuck back into the hospital and pulled the plug on his wife's life support. It might have worked had the girlfriend's estranged husband (having heard that the girlfriend had taken home another man) arrived in a violent rage, necessitating that she kill him with a fire poker, meaning that her boyfriend was arrested for murder, just not the one he committed. Jessica lampshades this trope when she points out that a man who admits to having an affair on the night of his wife's death likely won't be accused of her murder.
• NCIS: In the episode "Incognito", a buff, intimidating Master Sergeant is suspected of a recent murder, and protests that he has an alibi, but is reluctant to share it with the agents. It turns out that he was at a rehearsal for a community play, specifically La Cage aux folles (which centers on a drag show nightclub).
  Tony: Please tell me you're playing the part of the drag queen Zaza.
• Sherlock: Sherlock once got a friend of his out of a triple murder charge by proving he was in a completely different part of town, house-breaking, at the time of the murders.
  Angelo: But for this man, I'd have gone to prison.
  Sherlock: You did go to prison.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In "Dax", Enina Tandro decides to speak out and exonerate Curzon Dax, the man widely believed to have murdered her late husband General Ardelon Tandro — Enina and Curzon were having an affair, and he was in her bed at the time of her husband's death.
• Yellowjackets: In "Qui" when questioned by the police about Adam Martin's disappearance (whom she killed), Shauna simply confesses that they are right, she's a bored housewife who had an affair with an exciting young artist like Adam to put some spice into her life. That's not a crime, is it?

Music

• The alibi remains secret in Lefty Frizzell's song "Long Black Veil". The narrator is executed for a murder he didn't commit because he refused to say where he was during the crime. He'd been in the arms of his best friend's wife.
• In "Over the Hills and Far Away" by Gary Moore (also Covered Up by Nightwish), the protagonist is convicted of armed robbery because his pistol was found at the crime scene and he had no alibi because he didn't want to admit he'd been sleeping with his best friend's wife at the time.

Video Games

• Hearthstone: Out of the ten suspects for Sire Denathrius' murder in the Murder at Castle Nathria set, two couldn't have done it because they were stealing from Denathrius at the time of death. Xy'mox keeps coy about his alibi until he's forced into admitting that he stole relics from the vault, while Rafaam practically boasts about how he was stealing spellbooks from the library.

Visual Novels

• Danganronpa:
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair:
    • In Chapter 1, Peko Pekoyama's alibi for the Ultimate Imposter's murder is that she was stricken with terrible stomach cramps and as such, had been on the toilet the entire time. This is initially met with suspicion, until Nekomaru — who was outside waiting to use the stall himself — confirms it. The others sheepishly admit there's no way someone would lie about such a thing, and Peko is off the hook.
    • In Chapter 3, they initially deduce the possible time for the murders to be before or during the morning announcement. Excluding the ill, the rest of the cast were asleep in their own rooms at that time and thus lack alibis. Mikan then awkwardly fesses up that she and Hajime were together, as she fell asleep on top of him. Chiaki's only response is "Too Much Information."
  • Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: In Chapter 2, Miu Iruma's alibi for Ryoma's murder is that Gonta saw her in her underwear while trying to kidnap her for the Insect Meet and Greet. She herself is thoroughly embarrassed by this, which is why she refrains from saying it until the cast infer it from Kokichi's alibi.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations: Invoked, and also doubles as Fake Alibi. In case 2, Luke Atmey frames himself for stealing a sacred urn at the time of a murder he committed in order to establish an alibi for the latter, as well as to invoke double jeopardy for the murder charge.

Western Animation

• The Dragon Prince: Soren's excuse for missing Viren's speech in Season 3 (which he really missed because he was orchestrating Ezran's escape from prison so he could reunite with Callum and Rayla), is that he ate some bad cheese and was "paying the price". Viren is disgusted enough that he doesn't ask further questions.
• Family Guy: "Love Thy Trophy" sees the neighborhood at each other's throats when they collectively win first place in the Quahog Harvest Festival Parade. When they discover the trophy has been stolen, Peter is quick to be accused, but he has an alibi.
  Peter: I couldn't have stolen it. Last night, I was stealing Joe's ladder so I could steal the trophy tonight. [everyone stares in disapproval] What? It's a ladder. He can't use it. It's like taking a watch off a dead guy.
• Gravity Falls: In "Headhunters", Dipper and Mabel are trying to find out who decapitated a wax statue of Stan. When the evidence seems to point to down-on-his-luck reporter Toby Determined, he proves his innocence by showing video evidence that at the time of the crime, he was in his office making out with a cardboard cutout of his crush, TV reporter Shandra Jimenez.
• Recess: In "The Trial", Spinelli is falsely accused of throwing a rock at Randall, but refuses to reveal what she was doing when Randall was hit because it would ruin her tough reputation. As it turns out, she was rescuing Miss Finster's cat from a tree.
• The Simpsons: In "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)", Seymour Skinner's alibi for the titular shooting is that he was setting out to shoot Burns and was applying warpaint in the school bathroom when Burns was shot. The embarrassing part, which is shown in flashback but he presumably doesn't mention, is that he had mistakenly applied his mother's makeup, and Superintendent Chalmers happened to walk in. Skinner tells the police that Chalmers can vouch for his whereabouts, but "everything else he says is a filthy lie."
• The Venture Bros.: Lampshaded in "The Unicorn in Captivity". 21 needs to deliver The Monarch's flying wings to him without being seen, so he does by disguising them in a box for adult diapers. When the Monarch calls him out on it., he explains the more embarrassing the alibi, the less likely it is that people will question it.

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