Idiotic Partner Confession

Shenzi: Do you know what we do to kings who step out of their kingdom?
Simba: Phuh! You can't do anything to me!
Zazu: [nervous chuckle] Technically, they can. We are on their land...
Simba: But Zazu! You told me they were nothing but slobbery, mangy, stupid poachers!
Zazu: Ix-nay on the upid-stay...
Banzai: Who you callin' upid-stay?!

— The Lion King

An Idiotic Partner Confession is a situation that begins with Alice keeping a secret from Bob. It could be something she's done, something she's planning or just something she said earlier that she really doesn't want to tell Bob. The problem is, Carl is also aware of this secret, and just happens to be an idiot or has Loose Lips or whatever. So what does Carl do? He starts talking about it right in front of Bob, if not directly to him, of course!

This will undoubtedly lead to Alice trying as discreetly as possible to get Carl to shut up, with Carl completely oblivious that he's saying anything remotely wrong. This will likely piss Bob right off, and lead to all sorts of trouble for poor Alice.

Bob can be a villain, some sort of parental figure, or anyone else who Alice would have any reason not to be honest with. Carl doesn't necessarily have to be an idiot to do this — just unaware of Alice's nervousness or oblivious to the situation.

Different from Right Behind Me, although the tropes might overlap. Compare Accidental Public Confession and Underling with an F in PR. Subtrope of Saying Too Much. See also I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You! for purely self-inflicted examples.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• In the Donald Duck story "High Tech Trek", John D. Rockerduck ends up in the Arctic along with a particularly dim-witted lackey. He tries to rent a snowmobile from a hotel manager on the cheap, but then his lackey chews out the manager for being rude to the "famous businessman and multimillionaire". The manager, upon hearing who she's dealing with, promptly triples the price.

Films — Animation

• 101 Dalmatians: Yes, the puppies probably wouldn't have fallen for it anyway, but it still counts.
  Jasper: C'mere, puppies! We ain't gonna hurt ya!
  Horace: But you said we was gonna pop 'em off!
  Jasper: Shh! Shut up!
• The Chipmunk Adventure: When the Chipmunks and the Chippettes meet in Greece, Alvin and Brittany immediately begin posturing with one another over which band is doing better in their competition. Alvin remarks that the only problem he and his brothers have had is "crowd control," suggesting the Chippettes wouldn't understand that. Jeanette innocently agrees, much to Brittany's frustration.
• The Lion King:
  • Simba when he questions why Zazu is acting so afraid of the hyenas when he said earlier that they were "slobbery, mangy, stupid poachers". Said hyenas are, of course, right in front of them. It's not completely played straight since Simba isn't so much an idiot as an innocent child.
  • A second example later on, when Mufasa corners the three Hyenas after they tried to kill Simba. Shenzi and Banzai immediately insist that they had no idea Simba is Mufasa's son; then Ed spills the beans.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks: During the tour of the school given to the Dazzlings by Sunset Shimmer, Sonata running her mouth almost blows their cover. Though since Sunset has little reason to think of them as any sinister yet, this only confuses her.
  Sonata Dusk: We sing, like, all the time! It's how we get people to do what we want.
• Up: While Carl and Russell are having dinner on Charles Muntz's zeppelin, it is revealed that the mythical beast Muntz has been hunting for decades is the giant bird that Russell befriended. Russell immediately begins talking about his new pet bird and even reveals that she can be lured with chocolate. As it's becoming more apparent to Carl that Muntz has gone full paranoid psycho over the years to the point of murdering people he believes are trying to steal "his" bird, Russell's constant blabbing and Carl's desperate attempts to shut him up aren't making either of them look good.

Films — Live-Action

• At the beginning of Hocus Pocus, the Sanderson sisters are trying to convince the angry mob that they are not witches:
  Winnie: Don't get your knickers in a twist! We're just three kindly old spinsters.
  Mary: Spending a quiet evening at home.
  Sarah: Sucking the lives out of little children!
  [Winnie chokes Sarah]
• Marv in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York simply can't keep his mouth shut. First, he blabs the entire plan to Kevin (unaware that he's recording the plan on his Talkboy); then he spills the beans to the cops as he and Harry are getting arrested.
  Marv: He made us hide out in the store so we could steal all the kiddies' charity money.
  Harry: (elbows Marv) Shut up, Marv! We got the right to remain silent, ya know.
  Marv: He's a little cranky. We just broke out of prison a few days ago.
  Harry: ''(elbows Marv harder) SHUT UP, MARV!!! Jeez!
• In Way Out West, Laurel and Hardy are tasked with finding the heiress of a gold mine in a Western town. Of course, Ollie would rather keep this a secret as to not attract unsavory types; so what does Stanley do? Reveals the whole thing to a shady bartender first thing on their arrival. Ollie naturally slaps his idiotic partner, but way too late.

Literature

• Ascendance of a Bookworm: During her third year at the Royal Academy, Rozemyne does plenty of things that would earn her a scolding from Ferdinand if he knew about them. To soften both the extent and the blow of the inevitable lecture, she cherry-picks the events about which she writes to Ferdinand, having a specific time and place in mind for telling him the rest. Before that time comes, however, Rozemyne and Ferdinand fortuitously both participate in a conversation with Hannelore, who was present for the lecture-worthy acts and starts talking about them. Since she knows Ferdinand has other people he wants to talk with before the end of a fairly short time period, Rozemyne asks Ferdinand if he needs to leave yet.
• Discworld: Soul Music has Ponder Stibbons, "full of the undirected excitement of the true discoverer and idiot", reveal that they've managed to trap music in a box... to Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler (the best swindler in the city), even with Ridcully repeatedly stomping on his foot (Ridcully compares Stibbons' outburst to giving a monkey the key to the banana plantation). He becomes slightly more world-wise over the next few books.
• In The Lord of the Rings, Pippin starts telling the story of Bilbo's party and disappearance in the Prancing Pony, which is dangerous when there are ringwraiths out looking for a hobbit named Baggins. Frodo has to interrupt before he can say too much, such as mentioning the Ring.

Live-Action TV

• The George Lopez Show: In "George Goes to Disneyland", George tries to get out of going to Disneyland with his family by having Ernie lie that he has to be a character witness at Ricky's foster care hearing. Of course, when George mentions Disneyland, Ricky's enthusiasm unravels everything.
  Ricky: You guys are going to Disneyland?! I wanna go!
  Angie: [sigh] You got your hearing right now.
  Ricky: There's no hearing. Ernie wanted me to lie to get Mr. Lopez out of something.
• Mimpi Metropolitan: In episode 37, Melani sends some medicine for the ill Bambang to Pipin, telling her to not let Bambang know who send it. Pipin proceeds to talk to herself (out loud, right beside Bambang) about how good Melani is at choosing things to send for Bambang.
• Our Miss Brooks has a non-idiot example in the episode "Blue Goldfish". Unaware that Mr. Conklin had been boasting about his hardiness to the cold, Harriet Conklin reveals her father's spent the entire day sitting on an electric blanket.

• The third episode of Sonny with a Chance has Chad's plan to make Sonny join Mackenzie Falls thwarted by one of his female co-stars bragging about it in front of Sonny's friends.

Video Games

• In Shenmue, when Ryo is trying to gather money to travel to Hong Kong after Lan Di, he finds out joining his and Fukuhara's savings won't do, so he decides to ask Ine for some money. Of course, he only intends to say he's going on a trip, so Ine will assume he's trying to clear his head after his father's murder. When he and Fukuhara go to ask her, the latter ends up telling her what Ryo wants the money for, and naturally Ine refuses to give him any money. Ryo is understandably pretty upset, as it forces him to look for cheaper alternatives.

Web Comics

• In El Goonish Shive, Sarah tries to maintain the facade of being bad guys but Diane freely admits it's an act when Justin questions them.
• Girl Genius: This strip where Dimo succeeds at knocking out Oggie before he's entirely spilled the beans, but Zeetha isn't fooled.
• Elan was prone to this early on in The Order of the Stick. As a bard, he can play a song to aid his allies in various tasks. So when Roy tries tricking an ogre who's in their way, Elan helpfully starts to sing: "Bluff, bluff, bluff the stupid ogre..." The ogre apparently got a large circumstance bonus on its Sense Motive check.

Web Original

• In this Not Always Related story, the submitter's brother's girlfriend, on being introduced to her, asks "Are you the good sister or the crazy sister?” The submitter glares at her brother and challenges him to answer that.

Western Animation

• Sort of an example in Avatar: The Last Airbender, when Aang and Zuko finally meet the firebending masters, who turn out to be the last living dragons.
  Aang: Still think we can take them?
  Zuko: Ssh! I never said that!
• An episode of Codename: Kids Next Door has Sector V trick Count Spankulot into attacking people and getting incarcerated for it. The Count (and the audience) doesn't find out until Numbuh Three spills the beans. To make matters worse, her teammates try to cover her mouth, but she breaks free so she can continue to blurt it out!
• In an episode of Goof Troop, Goofy and Pete are witnesses to an attempted mob hit and end up recruited by the police into finding more information about the gangsters. They eventually manage to sneak into the mob boss' mansion, Disguised in Drag as two masseuses, and get the information they need. Goofy then begins removing his disguise and chuckling to Pete at how they pulled a fast one while still in the room, in full view of the mobsters. Both Pete and the gangsters just stand in shocked silence, utterly flummoxed that even Goofy can be that stupid.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy had an episode that started with Billy and his friend Irwin building something in the former’s basement with the lights off. The noise they make gets Mandy’s attention but while Irwin tells her to butt out, Billy, being the imbecile he is, reveals that he and Irwin are constructing a Go-Kart, much to Irwin’s frustration.
• In the first episode of Pinky and the Brain, Brain's submarine is discovered and challenged via radio as to his identity. Brain stammers and answers that he is Jacques Cousteau... then immediately does such a convincing impression of Jacques Cousteau admiring the undersea life and yet seeing the depredations of man that they're convinced until Pinky audibly adds, "Nice Cousteau, Brain!"
• SpongeBob SquarePants does this to poor Squidward when they're faced with the Flying Dutchman.
  The Flying Dutchman: Who be disturbin' the Flying Dutchman in his own lair???
  SpongeBob: It's Squidward. He wants to complain to you.
  Squidward: I-I... No, I... no.
  SpongeBob: But what about all that stuff about him having a dirty ship, and being lazy, and all?
  Squidward: [laughs nervously] I never said that...
  The Flying Dutchman: Insulting a man's ship is worse than insulting his mother!
  SpongeBob: No wait, maybe it was his mother you said was dirty...
• The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald: In the rare final video "The Monster O'McDonaldland Loch", Stiles attempts to make a fall guy of his not-too-bright assistant Pip by claiming that he's the real brains of the outfit when it came to creating the robot double of the McDonaldland Loch Monster. This backfires when Pip thanks his boss for being nice and makes it clear to the cops that Stiles did most of the work, resulting in both of them getting arrested.

Real Life

• One of two thieves standing trial on an episode of Judge Judy inadvertently confessed to stealing a purse, in the middle of denying that they stole the purse.
  Plaintiff: I had gift cards in there, my earpiece, and a calculator.
  Thief #2: There was no earpiece in there, ma'am.

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