Basic Trope: A character denies an accusation that hasn't been made yet, implying that they are indeed guilty of whatever they deny doing.
- Straight: When Alice finds Bob on her computer and asks, "What are you doing?" Bob says, "I'm not changing your desktop!"
- Exaggerated: "I'm not hacking the Nielsen ratings
to make curling appear more popular than hockey! I'm just, uh, updating my resume." - Downplayed: "I'm not browsing the Internet — I'm just keeping it from going to sleep!"
- Justified:
- Bob is a Bad Liar.
- Alice is quite dim and would fall for such as deception. Any more elaborate ploy would fail as she is Too Dumb to Fool.
- Inverted:
- "Just a second, I'm not done pranking you yet."
- Hesitation Equals Dishonesty
- Subverted:
- "I'm not ... uh, what did you say I was doing?"
- Bob is telling the truth and only pretending to be dishonest.
- Bob is being completely earnest, despite how suspicious it sounds.
- Bob is technically telling the truth about changing Alice's desktop. She was changing the screensaver.
- Talk Show host Alice makes an accusation to her guest Bob, who denies it. Alice has the question edited out, so Bob's denial seems to come out of nowhere.
- Charlie, not privy to Bob and Alice's cypher took Bob's "I'm not changing your desktop" literal when in reality it was Bob telling Alice that they were being tailed (by him).
- Double Subverted: "...well, whatever it is you think I'm doing, I'm not doing it!"
- Parodied:
- I am most definitely not casting the spell "Hocus Pocus, Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak", which is not the Randomosity Spell, which is not the only spell that can occasionally save the world from the Evil Mundanity, which is not trying to Take Over the World. Also, I am most definitely not trying to take over the world in the Evil Mundanity's place, I have not been considering turning you into a mongoose, and I do not think that dress makes you look fat.
- "I'm not ... uh, what did you say I was doing?......well, whatever it is you think I'm doing, I'm not doing it!" "...I thought you were doing lots of things - talking, breathing, being alive, and existing." Cue a Puff of Logic.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob makes a suspiciously specific denial, Alice suspects Bob but Bob says he was just giving a Sarcastic Confession. Alice moves on and later finds out that Bob was lying to her, but upon interrogating Bob learns that it was just a coverup for James, who then claims that he was definitely not just messing with Bob.
- Averted: "Calm down! I'm just, uh, doing some stuff. Yeah."
- Enforced:
- The thing being denied is the central element of an Ignore the Disability gag.
- It's a quick way to establish Bob as a Bad Liar.
- Lampshaded: Alice replies, "You realize I never said anything about my desktop, right?"
- Invoked: Bob doesn't want to admit to constructing a computer virus, so he states that he is not changing her desktop around...which is actually true, but makes Alice think that's actually what he's trying to hide from her.
- Exploited: Could Say It, But....
- Defied: When Carol hears Alice come in, she interrupts Bob before he can blurt out anything incriminating.
- Discussed: "The secret to hiding something is not to deny its truth, but to pretend to know nothing one way or the other."
- Conversed: "This character's such an idiot. If he were more vague with his denials, he wouldn't end up in the doghouse every single episode!"
- Deconstructed:
- Bob really wasn't doing what Alice thought he was doing.
- Alternatively, Bob gets in trouble due to his actions.
I'm not putting a link to Suspiciously Specific Denial on this page — it's a rickroll, honest!
