History SuspiciouslySpecificDenial / LiveActionTV

* A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJSey8HRUhU sketch]] in Creator/JohnCleese's ''Film/HowToIrritatePeople'' has two airline pilots mischievously causing trouble with random denials. "There is no cause for alarm. The wings are ''not'' on fire."

** Jenna: "Thats ridiculous! Why would I steal a file from personnel?"

* In an episode ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'', Starbuck leaves a helpless pilot on a frozen moon with a [[BigBad Cylon]] base and a weapon capable to destroy Galactica. To stop this, the crew devises a plan in which the computer must find an adequate team for the rough terrain. Starbuck goes in the computer room, tricks the only tech there to leave him alone with the machine, and inserts his name there, hoping that as he's not the volunteering type, nobody will ever guess. When confronted that he does not belong there, having no low-temperature survival skills, the following dialog occurs:

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': {{Invoked|Trope}} in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS04E13RumorsBargainsAndLies Rumors, Bargains, and Lies]]" when Sheridan wants the other races to allow the White Star fleet to patrol their borders and head off conflicts. He tries to talk them into it and is rebuffed, so he changes tactics and makes Ivanova state on the VoiceOfTheResistance that, at a specific time, in a specific region of space, absolutely nothing happened. This is perfectly true, but the Suspiciously Specific Denial plus a White Star shooting at asteroids at another time makes the other races think he's covering something up. A series of similar ploys convinces them that Sheridan is hiding the existence of some terrible threat, and they demand protection by the White Stars.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

** In episode "Frank Reynolds' Little Beauties", Frank gets involved in a beauty pageant for preteens, but his partner gets arrested for paedophilia, leaving Frank to do it himself. Paranoid over the recent events, he spends most of his time on stage assuring the audience that he is categorically ''not'' attracted to kids, which obviously only causes further alarm.

Jenna: "Thats ridiculous! Why would I steal a file from personnel?"

* Jenna seems to have a habit of doing this. When Liz is walking down the hall she asks Jenna if she can talk to her.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': {{Invoked|Trope}} when Sheridan wants the other races to allow the White Star fleet to patrol their borders and head off conflicts. He tries to talk them into it, and is rebuffed. So he changes tactics, and makes Ivanova state on the VoiceOfTheResistance that, at a specific time, in a specific region of space, absolutely nothing happened. This is perfectly true, but the Suspiciously Specific Denial plus a White Star shooting at asteroids at another time makes the other races think he's covering something up. A series of similar ploys convinces them that Sheridan is hiding the existence of some terrible threat, and they demand protection by the White Stars.
* In an episode of the 1978 ''{{Series/Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'', Starbuck leaves a helpless pilot on a frozen moon with a [[BigBad Cylon]] base and a weapon capable to destroy Galactica. To stop this, the crew devises a plan in which the computer must find an adequate team for the rough terrain. Starbuck goes in the computer room, tricks the only tech there to leave him alone with the machine, and inserts his name there, hoping that as he's not the volunteering type, nobody will ever guess. When confronted that he does not belong there, having no low-temperature survival skills, the following dialog occurs:

** There's [[WeirdnessCensor the Sunnydale news]], which is very clear on the fact that "Mayhem Caused: Monsters Definitely Not Involved". That was in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E7OnceMoreWithFeeling One More, With Feeling]]", to be clear.

--->'''Penny:''': Sheldon's sister's pretty cute. \\

* In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', T'Pol drops one of these on Commander Tucker in the process of talking him into submitting to a [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow Vulcan relaxation technique]]. When he asks if it has even been tried on a human, she responds "The risk of paralysis is minimal."

** The very same sketch then again subverts this subsequently. The man in question ultimately breaks down to confess his smuggling, but the customs officer simply discards these confessions as [[Bad Liar bloated claims]].

* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
** {{Invoked|Trope}} when Sheridan wants the other races to allow the White Star fleet to patrol their borders and head off conflicts. He tries to talk them into it, and is rebuffed. So he changes tactics, and makes Ivanova state on the VoiceOfTheResistance that, at a specific time, in a specific region of space, absolutely nothing happened. This is perfectly true -- at that time, in that region, nothing at all happened -- but the Suspiciously Specific Denial plus a White Star shooting at asteroids at another time makes the other races think he's covering something up. A series of similar ploys convinces them that Sheridan is hiding the existence of some terrible threat, and they demand protection by the White Stars.
** Played straight in the RPG background material: to make clear how the Blue Berets unit of Earthforce is secret, their description start with "The Blue Berets do not exist. True, the Russian Consortium and several other militaries and intelligence services once employed telepaths, but that was over a century ago, before the Psi Corps was founded. Of course, now the Psi Corps controls and regulates all telepaths and ensures they are protected and not used in any military operations. There is no unit of rogue telepaths, nor are there descendants of those original military telepaths who have never found their way into a Corps testing centre", immediately followed by the explanation of their job as the counter against a possible Psi Corps rebellion ([[ProperlyParanoid that actually happened]]).