History Main / YouJustToldMe

* Creator/MarkTwain's ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn''. While Huck is wearing a dress and pretending to be a girl, a woman determines he's actually a boy by tossing a lump of lead into his lap. He clasps his legs together to catch it, the way a boy who's used to wearing pants would do, instead of spreading his legs apart, the way a girl who normally wears a dress would

* Creator/MarkTwain's ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn''. While Huck is wearing a dress and pretending to be a girl, a woman determines he's actually a boy by tossing a lump of lead into his lap. He clasps his legs together to catch it, the way a boy wearing pants would do, instead of spreading his legs apart, the way a girl wearing a dress would do it.

* ''WebVideo/TheBuggerAnthology'': A Dalek and a pair of Cybermen argue over which party will identify themselves first. One of the Cybermen breaks the stalemate by telling the Dalek '''"Ladies first"'''; when the Dalek objects by saying its kind has no concept of gender, the Cyberman comments that it has identified itself as a Dalek.

* This is how Videl figured out that Gohan was Saiyaman in the ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' manga.

* On ''Series/{{House}}'', the title character is talking to an 18-year old kid who is taking care of his mother. He later puts an X-ray on the lightboard, and says he can tell the person is about 15. The kid confesses to lying about his age. After a brief conversation, House reveals that it wasn't even the kid's X-ray.

* The second season of ''Series/{{Oz}}'' begins in the aftermath of a prison riot, with an investigator trying to find out who shot and wounded [=McManus=], a [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure high-ranking prison administrator]], and how a prisoner named [[{{Slimeball}} Scott Ross]] was shot multiple times and killed by a weapon that was reported missing from the prison's equivalent of a SWAT team, which later reappeared in the prison armory without explanation. Near the end of the episode, the investigator confronts [=McManus=] and explains a crucial fact [=McManus=] had left out before of his prior account, and which can lead to revealing the identity of the person who killed Ross, a person whom [=McManus=] had been trying to cover for. After a long period of silence, [=McManus=] grudgingly asks "Who told you that?" Three guesses what the response is.

* Egwene uses this in the ''[[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Wheel of Time]]'' book ''The Gathering Storm''. Black Ajah are the only Aes Sedai who can lie. She knows that a certain Aes Sedai is Black Ajah and needs to prove it to the rest. She asks her a rapid-fire series of questions, to which any Aes Sedai would give vehement denials. ("Do you consort with the Forsaken?" "Do you serve the Dark One?") Then she asks a question about her target's hair color. Her target denies her own hair color, which proves to the assembled audience that she is Black.
** All Aes Sedai are required to swear a magically binding oath to not speak any word that is not true. They literally choke up any time they are about to actually lie. (Though they are masters of [[MetaphoricallyTrue distorting and twisting meanings]]).

* In the Bond-wannabe film ''Film/AgentForHARM'', the lead character exposes the ersatz Bond girl as a villainous double agent by using her real name. The agent (and the film) treat this moment as incontrivertible proof, even though the two are alone (so, no matter what name he utters, he can't possibly be talking to anyone else) and her confused reaction is a completely natural one. [[note]]She does irrevocably out herself a minute later by attacking him, but his mind was already made up; further, he had (offscreen) checked a sporting competition she was registered in -- under her real name rather than her alias.[[/note]]

** Also used by Lady Dyelin to Birgitte. It's implied that this has happened multiple times offscreen as well as the onscreen times. In the onscreen times, Birgitte handles herself well.

Subtrope of ReflexiveResponse and BatmanGambit. See also PullTheThread, OutOfCharacterAlert, BluffingTheMurderer. If one deliberately commits a CriticalResearchFailure to goad another into correcting them when they otherwise wouldn't, see CorrectionBait. If the deceiver wasn't suspicious until the infiltrator responded the way they did, it's SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay. If the deceived says something that only an impostor wouldn't be suspicious of, it's BluffTheImpostor. INeverSaidItWasPoison may occur if the infiltrator mentions some facts about the case that the deceiver hadn't revealed. SuspiciouslySpecificDenial is ''totally not'' a related way of letting information slip. This also gives Ben a case of ImplausibleDeniability.

** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'': When trying to determine if a cruise ship stowaway is actually one of Dio's lackeys, Jotaro claims that he can tell the difference between Stand users and normal people by the fact that the blood vessels on their nose pop when they smell smoke. All of Jotaro's comrades instinctively move to touch their nose - as does the supposedly {{Muggle}} ship captain, exposing him as the Stand user and TheMole. Anne, the stowaway who had been briefly suspected as being the enemy stand user, just looks on, confused, as she doesn't know what a Stand is.

-->'''Kira:''' Please...hurry and save me!\\
'''Josuke:''' ''"Hurry",'' huh? That's weird...last time I checked, I looked like I was just an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent, yet you believed I could treat your wounds. I still have trouble getting people to let me into pachinko parlors, yet somehow I strike you as a med-school graduate ready and willing to fix your little boo-boos? ''Huh?'' You totally took the bait - which means ''you have the ability to see my Crazy Diamond.''\\
'''Kira:''' ''[thinking]'' [[OhCrap Crap...I got too excited...!]]

* ''WebVideo/TheBuggerAnthology'': A Dalek and a pair of Cybermen argue over which party will identify themselves first. One of the Cybermen breaks the stalemate by telling the Dalek '''"Ladies first"'''; when the Dalek objects by saying its kind has no concept of gender, the Cyberman comments that it has identified itself as a Dalek.

The ploy used to force TheReveal can be an outright declaration that they know, a specific word/phrase, or (if the chracter is hiding their identity) a name or something spoken in the other character's native language. It can even be a non-verbal prompt, such as a familiar face, location, scent, etc. The point of the trope is that the mark is hiding something, and deceived tricks them into revealing it by acting as if he already knows the truth.

Subtrope of ReflexiveResponse and BatmanGambit. See also PullTheThread, OutOfCharacterAlert, BluffingTheMurderer. If one deliberately commits a CriticalResearchFailure to goad another into correcting them when they otherwise wouldn't, see CorrectionBait. If deceived wasn't suspicious until the infiltrator responded the way they did, it's SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay. If the deceived says something that only an impostor wouldn't be suspicious of, it's BluffTheImpostor. INeverSaidItWasPoison may occur if the infiltrator mentions some facts about the case that deceived hadn't revealed. SuspiciouslySpecificDenial is ''totally not'' a related way of letting information slip. This also gives Ben a case of ImplausibleDeniability.

Not to be confused with HowDidYouKnowIDidnt, where someone appears to act on certain information that another person knows is secret, then reveals at the end that they didn't know it after all. The {{inverted}} trope is INeverToldYouMyName, when the infiltrator's cover that's blown by revealing that they know too much about the deceived. Compare FreudianSlip, IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou and ColdReading. Sister trope to ThoughtTheyKnewAlready.

** Later on, when Marcia confronts her useless brother Malakov as he tries to avoid fighting Imperial Army troops:

* This is how the Engineer was outed as the killer by the Demoman in the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' machinima ''Machinima/HeavyIsDead''. Of course, Demoman's accusation was, according to him, [[JustJokingJustification just a joke]].

** Wiki/TheOtherWiki gives us [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shibboleths a list.]]

** At the end of the series, Light does this again. [[spoiler: "Looks like I win, Near." You'd think he'd wait until they were actually dead to start gloating. Dying doesn't make someone ''deaf'', Light]]. Considering some of them were [[TakingYouWithMe armed]], Light was very nearly TooDumbToLive.

* The Novelization adds one of these to ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED''. In the original series, when watching Kira fight, Andy quickly deduces that the Strike Gundam's pilot is a Coordinator. He later figures out that Kira is the pilot, most likely by watching his actions during a Blue Cosmos terrorist attack both are caught in. Realizing Kira is a both a Coordinator and not a native, and puts two and two together. He then confronts Kira in a scene which is played like he flat out ''knows'' what he is saying is true. In the novel, he suspects it (bases on his observations), but isn't quite sure, and uses one of these to confirm it.

* In ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'', while the Governor already [[spoiler: suspected Rick's group was in a prison,]] he could not confirm it. Instead, he informed Rick that he had [[spoiler: released Glenn (he hadn't) after he admitted (he didn't) they were indeed seeking shelter in the prison.]] It was the look on Rick's face that confirmed his suspicions.

"You mean--that's all you have?" [[spoiler: Guy]] gaped at the sack. Laughter convulsed him again. 'You mean, if I'd only held my tongue-- No, really, this is funny! It's an absolute screamer, don't you see? On the strength of a worm-eaten pedlar's sack, I've put a rope around my neck."

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Fisk does this to Karen Page regarding [[spoiler: Daredevil's secret identity]], blurting out a theory in front of her and taking her shocked and horrified reaction as a confirmation. By that point, though, he already had all the proof he needed, so it's implied he [[BreakThemByTalking just did it to mess with her]].

** Used by Deputy Andy the robot to confirm that Sheriff Carter and the others had, in fact, [[spoiler: traveled through time and changed the timeline.]]

* In ''Series/TheKicks'', Emma tricks Mirabelle into revealing [[spoiler: Devin's injured ankle]] this way. Mirabelle notes that she walked right into it.

* On the final day of Golden Playhouse mode in ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}'', [[spoiler: Vincent confronts Boss, the barkeep at the Stray Sheep, about the fact that he was the only other person able to see Catherine, and accidentally gets Boss to blab about his involvement in the reoccurring nightmares Vincent and the other patrons have been having.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', Linhardt uses this on Lysithea to confirm his suspicion that she [[spoiler: has two Crests]].

* In the new season of ''WebVideo/TheGuild'', this is how Codex admits to [[spoiler: sleeping with Fawkes]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', when Arcee has Starscream in her custody, she mentions how Airachnid offlined her partner. Starscream loudly complains about Airachnid "taking credit for that, too". When Arcee mentions she's talking about Tailgate, Starscream asks "who's Tailgate", tipping her off that it was he who terminated [[spoiler:Cliffjumper]]. Unusual for this trope, Arcee didn't have any suspicions toward Starscream until he said he didn't know who Tailgate was: she'd thought that [[spoiler: Cliffjumper]] was killed by some random Vehicons.

* In the Bond-wannabe film ''Film/AgentForHARM'', the lead character exposes the ersatz Bond girl as a villainous double agent by using her real name. The "even though they are alone in the room" clause, as stated above, applies here.

** In ''Film/DieAnotherDay'', Bond uses this method to reveal the identity of Gustav Graves/Colonel Moon. The trope as played out here is somewhat less than effective, since the audience has already been alerted to this plot point.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** Riza pulls this on Envy, who is disguised as Roy Mustang:

** When Ling is unsure if he's talking to the real Ed, or Envy in disguise, he dismissively calls him a pipsqueak. [[ReflexiveResponse Ed responds as]] [[BerserkButton one would expect.]]
-->'''Ed:''' WHO ARE YOU CALLING A LITTLE RUNT, YOU ''JEEEEEEERK?!!!!'' ''[starts kicking at Ling, who calmly blocks with his palm]''\\
'''Ling:''' OK. It's really you.

* Used in [[Film/NintendoPowerPromoVideos a promo video]] given out by ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' promoting ''VideoGame/StarFox64''; the two bad guys, apparently representing rival companies Sega and Sony, kidnap a tester (Peter) and lab guy (Bob) to find out the game's secrets.

* Jake, the usual dumb friend, from ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'', pulls this one on [[DeadpanSnarker Rhea]] [[AwesomeMcCoolName Snaketail]] to get her to admit to having been [[DeathIsCheap previously]] [[https://www.sdamned.com/comic/541 murdered.]]

* In the third case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney – Trials and Tribulations'', [[spoiler:Phoenix gets the real killer to incriminate himself by presenting a bottle of the victim's ear medicine, and claiming that it contained the poison used to kill the victim. This is a {{Blatant Lie|s}} to anyone who had been watching the trial, as the real poison bottle had already been presented. The killer had ''not'' been watching the trial, nevertheless he proceeds to call Phoenix an idiot and gives an accurate description of the real poison bottle, proving that he is the killer]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' Viktor uses this on Tesla in order to recruit him since Tesla just wants to live a quite and simple life and pretends to be Albert Onyx. The party already learned that he will pretend to be Albert from Kimberly before visiting him.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'': When trying to determine if a cruise ship stowaway is actually one of Dio's lackeys, Jotaro claims that he can tell the difference between Stand users and normal people by the fact that the blood vessels on their nose pop when they smell smoke. All of Jotaro's comrades instinctively move to touch their nose - as does the supposedly {{Muggle}} ship captain, exposing him as the Stand user and TheMole.