Basic Trope: A villain is trying to be inconspicuous, but their underling gives away their evil plans.
- Straight: The Big Bad, Damien, has a lackey named Lance. Currently, Damien is dating Rich Bitch Madison in hopes that he'll be able to enter her mansion and steal her money. Lance shows up at their date, saying, "Wow, Damien, you're awesome at pretending to like people so you can invade their mansion and steal their stuff!"
- Exaggerated: Damien not only spoils that Lance is evil, but also the identities of his other minions, and every future plan he has in store.
- Downplayed: Lance hints that Damien is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, but in a way that just makes him sound mean or unpleasant rather than outright criminal.
- Justified:
- Lance is a Card-Carrying Villain who is proud of being evil. Damien isn't, but Lance doesn't know.
- Lance is just too stupid.
- Inverted:
- Lance is trying to keep his evil plans secret, but his boss, Damien, keeps giving them away.
- Lance twists Damien's evil schemes to sound more like everyday happenings.
- Subverted: Lance proceeds to ramble about a variety of topics, which makes it seem like his initial statement was just a Non Sequitur.
- Double Subverted: Lance then turns out to be Obfuscating Stupidity; he wasn't lying about Damien being evil.
- Parodied: Whenever Damien is trying to do something evil, Lance pops up out of nowhere to narrate all of his plans in excruciating detail.
- Zig-Zagged: Sometimes Lance is capable of keeping Damien's schemes a secret and sometimes he is a very loud mouth, and occasionally he is just so stupid that Damien blurts out the scheme aloud when he gets fed up with having to explain it to Lance and sometimes Lance is capable of stopping his boss from doing this.
- Averted: Lance only says information that is clearly known to both parties.
- Enforced: Damien had been going through Badass Decay, turning into an incompetent villain. To redeem him, the writers made it Lance that screws up his plans instead.
- Lampshaded: "Oh, I think I just gave your plans away!"
- Invoked: General Mayhem, Damien's rival, slips an extremely strong Truth Serum in Lance's food, so he will never be able to keep Damien's secrets a secret even if he wanted to.
- Exploited: Lance was actually a mole planted by the good guys. He pretends to be on the evil team, but actually just spoils their plans.
- Defied:
- Damien distracts Lance with tedious, menial tasks so that he won't be able to show up to the date.
- Damien makes very damn sure to avoid hiring idiots as henchmen, especially those with no sense of secrecy like Lance.
- Damien instantly pulls a Shoot the Dangerous Minion Blofeld Ploy in front of all of his henchmen who need to be educated, with Lance being the "dangerous minion" and "being an idiot who can't keep a secret" as the "danger" in question.
- Implied: The heroes have quite a lot of information on Damien's plans, and Damien is constantly enraged at Lance for his idiocy, but there is no apparent direct connection between them until the third act when it turns out that Lance keeps telling the heroes things.
- Discussed: "Lance, how many times do I have to tell you? My evil plans are secret!"
- Conversed: "Wow, did he just describe the entire plan? Do the writers think I can't follow along with what's happening?"
Heya, boss! Got your super-secret evil plans right at Underling with an F in PR! Wait, did everyone else just hear that?
