Suspiciously Specific Denial

"My 'Not involved in human trafficking' T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt."

—Mike Ginn, Twitter

Certainly no one is describing Suspiciously Specific Denial here, so that people will understand what the trope is about. And this sure isn't an opening gag to preface it. And this surely isn't an unnecessary prolongation of the gag to make it, supposedly, funnier.

A False Reassurance works because the speaker is being vague and non-specific enough to pull the wool over someone's eyes. A Suspiciously Specific Denial, on the other hand, fails because the speaker is Saying Too Much. This may be unintentional, such as when the speaker is panicked, is a Bad Liar, or perhaps just a little stupid. Often used to establish that you're Most Definitely Not a Villain.

Sometimes, this is used more deliberately, such as when the speaker is definitely not trying to give out information that they shouldn't but doesn't want to be too obvious about it (...Or So I Heard may follow). The Trickster may also use it as the misdirecting component of a Batman Gambit, Infraction Distraction or Kansas City Shuffle; by making an oddly specific denial that is actually true, the mark may be led to believe that the denial is false. (For example: the mark is told that there aren't 2,300,009 invisible vampire ghosts — so the mark believes there are, when in fact there are no invisible vampire ghosts at all.) In rare cases, the speaker may be telling the truth and have no intent to deceive, but it just comes out wrong.

Oddly, it can happen in two opposite ways: the specific denial ("I won't kill you using a poisoned stiletto!") was a lie (he does, and the fact that the question and/or answer was so specific means that someone already had the answer in mind), or the specific denial was technically true, but it left so many doors open that it was suspect anyway (he kills the other guy with a non-poisoned stiletto, or a gun). Either way, the result is the same - when someone is more specific than they need to be, it's a good sign something's wrong. Bonus suspicion points if the statement was made apropos of nothing.

It's also related to Compliment Fishing, where someone will make a suspiciously specific Self-Deprecation in the hopes that other people will spot the denial and contradict them.

When the speaker is assumed to be telling the truth, a listener might suspect this if the denial was expected to be more general.

When a criminal organization does it for their business, it's Totally Not a Criminal Front. If you insist that you'd NEVER make a Suspiciously Specific Denial (while doing so), then it's I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!. This is not comparable to Bad Liar; a character who invokes this trope could certainly be a bad liar, but when used alone it's not indicative of Bad Liar.

This is frequently seen on Police Procedurals when someone under a confidentiality requirement (lawyers and doctors, mostly) make a very specific inclusion or omission in an answer to the investigators that provides a clue where they should be looking.

It is also a device in mysteries. Someone makes a statement or denial including information that they could only know if they were the perp. "Well, I didn't shoot him!" "No one ever mentioned how he was killed." That may also be related to You Just Told Me. This is the reason why it is also Truth in Television, especially why lawyers frequently advise not to make any reply to any allegation.

A suspiciously specific denial can also be part of a Gilligan Cut (eg, "You'll never get me to wear a pink polka-dotted tutu with a blue sweater and purple high-heels"), Description Cut ("It's not a run-down house with holes in the roof, broken windows, and blood-stains on the kitchen walls"), etc.

Finally, this is a favored tactic of a Tsundere who got caught being sweet — in fact, Memetic Mutation has made this the motto of the Tsundere ("Stupid [love interest]! I-it's not like I'm [doing something affectionate] because I like you or anything!")

Characters who are Lawful Stupid (or Oblivious to Love in the case of the Tsundere) may take a Suspiciously Specific Denial at face value.

Super Trope of Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today? and People's Republic of Tyranny.

Compare Asbestos-Free Cereal, I Never Said It Was Poison, It's for a Book, Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant, ...Or So I Heard, Overly Narrow Superlative, Saying Too Much, Trial Balloon Question.

Contrast False Reassurance, Blatant Lies, Verbal Deflection, and Implausible Deniability.

Compare/contrast with Hesitation Equals Dishonesty.

Often accompanies Mock Surprise Reaction.

These are certainly not examples:

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Advertising

A famous ad run during a break of the 81st Annual Academy Awards shows Tom Cruise and Jimmy Kimmel escape from a burning house. Kimmel immediately says he hopes Cruise doesn't think he burned Cruise's house down as part of a plot to get him to do Kimmel's next show. Cruise sees through the denial and tricks Kimmel into going back into the house to rescue a nonexistent cat.
Several tourism commercials for New Orleans and Florida reference the Gulf oil spill. One even insisted that "everything's normal" right after showing a bowl of shrimp.
From an Australian radio ad for a home redesign company with a running joke about the crew resembling The Smurfs:
Guy 1: ...and the carport's clearly a winner. How'd you do it?
Guy 2: Well, with my talent, my skill...
[odd background noise]
Guy 2: Shush!
Guy 1: What was that?
Guy 2: It was not a team of Smurfs who helped me.
Sainsbury's Still Table Water is "definitely not tap water".◊
Commercials for Wendy's end with the tagline, "It's not fast food. It's Wendy's." They never say what Wendy's is if it's not fast food (which it is).
Commercials for White Castle starting in 2012 claim they don't sell hamburgers, but actually sell "sliders". Right.
Any time a commercial says "Real people, not actors", usually they are actors as if actors aren't real people.
Thisis definitely NOT a Christmas commercial from Kmart.
- Likewise This is NOT a back-to-school themed commercial also from Kmart!
After Harlan Sanders died, KFC decided to have a line-up of various celebrities play him in different commercials. In the ad starring Reba McEntire, we hear lines like "I'm Colonel Sanders, the same as always. Absolutely nothing's changed." and "I swear I'm not a famous woman."

Card Games

The card game Ninja Burger includes the "Not a Ninja" T-Shirt which gives a bonus to the disguise skill.
Magic: The Gathering: House Dimir does not exist. Of course the Guildpact relies on ten guilds of all possible mana combinations, but the blue black one is just a myth. That tenth symbol on the wall showing all the guilds? Artist's license. Duskmantle, House of Secrets? Never built, don't know what you're talking about. Those mysterious spirits that the Boros legion fought last week? I don't remember that, and you don't either. Leading to The Unmasqued World when Szadek makes a banquet out of Selesnya.

Comic Strips

In Adam@home:
- The principal announced the school closing early due to inclement weather, then added, "Be sure to tell your parents this has nothing to do with teachers wanting to get good seats at Julio's Cantina for Coach Baum's retirement party."
- In another episode: "Clayton definitely isn't setting up a Kickstarter campaign for my pony!" To Katy's credit, she immediately realizes she said too much.
In Brewster Rockit, a building sign reads, "Area 51 Flavors Ice Cream (Not a Secretive Government Agency)."
Calvin and Hobbes:
- In a variation on the trope, Calvin tells his mother that aliens have landed in the backyard and demand to talk to her.
  Calvin: You go on out! I'll guard the cookies in the kitchen!
- There's also the incident when Calvin and Hobbes push the car into a ditch and Calvin hopes to sneak out of the house before his parents find out. "No need to get up, or look, for example, out the window! Just stay where you are for another ten minutes!"
- Calvin, naturally, is the king of this trope. In one strip he walks past his parents, "innocently" humming and casually mentioning he's looking for a bucket: "La da dee doo, I think I'll get a bucket...doo dah de doo...nothing's wrong, ba da dum...just need a bucket to hold some...stuff." The parents, not fooled, both look at each other and say, "Your turn!". In the previous comic, we have already learned that Calvin, in an effort to fix a leaky sink, has flooded the bathroom.
- Calvin denies his involvement in the Noodle Incident when he has mistakenly assumed that his teacher told his mom about it.
Dilbert:
- One example: (paraphrased):
  P.H.B.: There is no truth to the rumor that we are moving jobs to the South Pole, where highly skilled Eskimos will work for 68% less than you do.
  Dilbert: That's good, because there aren't any Eskimos at the South Pole.
  P.H.B.: [panicked look] Excuse me, I have to make a phone call.
- In another strip...
  P.H.B.: These rumors are ridiculous. We're not considering lobotomies — certainly not at the prices we were quoted.
- Then there was Dilbert's indignant protestation to his girlfriend: "I do not love that computer more than I love you!" Followed by his silent prayer: "Please don't ask about the laptop..."
- Even Dogbert, normally an excellent liar, falls prey to it.
Happened in Doonesbury with a fictional politician. A reporter had just begun a question when he shouted, "No! I don't even know the woman!" His advisor found this a singularly unpromising start.
The Family Circus:
- From a Christmas strip:
  Jeffy: You know those packages hidden in your closet, Mommy? We didn't find them.
- Another one from The Family Circus:
  Dolly: Guess what, Daddy? Next week is your birthday, but we're not giving you a surprise party or anything like that.
Garfield has this Sunday strip, where Garfield claims that Odie is going to lie about Garfield painting him green. However, he actually mentions painting Odie green, as well as what type of brush he used, in his denial.
- In this one, Garfield didn't eat "one of those birds that looks kind of like a sparrow, but isn't". He forgot what they're called.
- In this one, Jon is quite suspicious about how Liz knows what happened to his accordion.
- In this strip, Jon is carrying two treats and offers Garfield one, saying it "doesn't have a pill in it, of course! That would be silly! Who could imagine such a thing?!". Deeming that denial too specific, Garfield eats the other treat. Jon's laughter suggests the pill was in the one that Garfield ate.
Garfield: I think I've just been had.
- Garfield delivers Arlene a letter where she's asked "Isn't Garfield charming and handsome" and says the sender signed it as "Nobody you know".
Arlene: Nice try, "Nobody".
In My Cage, without prompting, Max denies that a horse is his son.

Game Shows

This is a tried and tested tactic on Taskmaster to mock contestants for doing stupid things. Often Alex will launch into hilariously specific descriptions of things no sane person would ever do and then cut to one of the contestants doing exactly that. The best part is not only is the audience laughing harder and harder since they know exactly what's coming, but you'll get some great zoom-ins of the contestants either laughing at each other or grinning sheepishly.
Alex: What they shouldn't do, obviously, is just fling the pea. Because there's carpet and then there's grass.
Greg: Well, no one's gonna get that task, and see a tiny pea and a red carpet in a windy garden and think "I'm just gonna bone this!" These are intelligent, people, right?
Alex: Oh yes, they're very bright. Very bright. So yeah, we'll start with Sarah, Paul, and David.
(Cut to footage of Sarah, Paul, and David trying to just fling a tiny pea onto a red carpet in a windy garden and failing spectacularly)

Jokes

A husband and wife are sitting quietly in bed reading when the wife looks over at him and asks the question...
Wife: "What would you do if I died? Would you get married again?"
Husband: "Certainly not!"
Wife: "Why not? Don't you like being married?"
Husband: "Of course I do.."
Wife: "Then why wouldn't you remarry? "
Husband: "Okay, okay, I'd get married again."
Wife: "You would?" (with a hurt look)
Husband: (makes audible groan)
Wife: "Would you live in our house?"
Husband: "Sure, it's a great house."
Wife: "Would you sleep with her in our bed?"
Husband: "Where else would we sleep?"
Wife: "Would you let her drive my car?"
Husband: "Probably, it is almost new."
Wife: "Would you replace my pictures with hers?"
Husband: "That would seem like the proper thing to do."
Wife: "Would you give her my jewellery?"
Husband: "No, I'm sure she'd want her own."
Wife: "Would you take her golfing with you?
Husband: "Yes, those are always good times."
Wife: "Would she use my clubs?
Husband: "Of course not, she's left-handed."
Wife: — silence —
Husband: "Shit."
A frightened man came to the KGB. "My talking parrot has disappeared." The KGB answered "That's not the kind of case we handle. Go to the criminal police." The man replied "I came here just to tell you officially that I disagree with the parrot."

Oral Tradition

This is the origin of the Chinese proverb "There is no 300 taels of silver here" (about 15 kilos) (original: 此地无银三百两):
A guy named Zhang San (张三) digs a hole behind his house and puts all his life's savings in it. Not feeling particularly secure, he scribbles a message on the wall: "There is no 300 taels of silver here". His neighbor Wang Er (王二) gets the message, harvests the ground — and then writes on the wall: "The neighbor Wang Er never stole it" (隔壁王二不曾偷).
There is a Latin phrase that says "Excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta". Which means "explanation unasked, guilt exposed".

Pinball

Foo Fighters (2023): During "Holding Poison," Pat manages to trick several robots into running into a brick wall by painting a tunnel on it, complete with a sign labeling it a "completely real tunnel!"

Podcasts

Binary Break Anne and Annie are quick to insist that all the feelings their characters Cate and Kat have for each other are super normal and heterosexual.
Blank Check with Griffin & David: In the initial run of the podcast, in which the hosts discussed Star Wars films, the Running Gag was that they watch the films in chronological order and pretend not to realize that any more movies come after the one they're watching. Whenever the hosts would milk this bit for comedy, they would invariably proclaim, apropos of nothing, "I hate bits!" and assure each other that the podcast would contain "no bits."
In one episode of Conan O'Brien's podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, he's interviewing comedian Jim Downey, and the topic of the conversation turns to Jeffrey Epstein. Conan says that Epstein "had an island—that I've never been to..."
The Hidden Almanac:
- "This episode is sponsored by the Silent Nightclub, which is absolutely not a front for the underground Mime Cult."
- From a sponsor spot for the Mantis Lounge nightclub: "Every Saturday night, the most delectable male among the dancers will be selected for special attentions by the staff. This is completely painless."
- "Brought to you by the underground Mime Cult, which still does not exist."
In Sequinox, when Yuki asks Sid where she transferred from, she states she used to live "in a city in a state that exists". She's also never killed a person, like a normal person. Later in the Gemini Arc, Shannon explains that the sitcom world's opening titles say "Sequinox" in "a font". Because they're in a television show, with a budget and made by people.
When Lachlan from Jemjammer discusses his backstory with Jylliana, he tells her about how he definitely didn't try to dock too hard during his first stint as a Spelljammer crewman, and certainly didn't cause the ship to burn up on entry.
In episode 29 of Welcome to Night Vale, there is a disturbingly specific denial of rampant cannibalism. Neither the first nor the last instance of this trope in, by far.
- Most of the time, these denials come on the behalf of the Mayor, the Council, or the Sheriff's Secret Police. Cecil, for his part, usually tries to be as honest as he's allowed. That said, in the episode 'Cookies', he gives perhaps the most obvious instance of this trope in the entire show, when he tries to reassure everyone that his comments about Girl Scouts needing to hide in the desert was just for hide-and-go-seek, and not about them having to survive an attack from the evil Strexcorp.
You would never need to hide for those reasons. Why would I even say that? Why would I say anything? Words? No! These are just strange noises I'm making with my face. Strange noises!
- Before one episode, Night Vale producer Joseph Fink invited fans to a party to celebrate a year of broadcasting the show, where they would certainly not be replaced by "exact duplicates created to do our bidding."
The first episode intro of Mission to Zyxx informs the audience that the rebels have successfully overthrown the evil monarchy to establish the Federated Alliance.
Announcer: It's definitely an improvement. Totally not a lateral move.
Within the Wires: The pilot in the Black Box season when he's carrying one of the men with cigarettes and unpleasant dogs: "I'm not nervous, I know I have no reason to be nervous..."

Print Media

Issue 278 of Doctor Who Adventures is A5 size, rather than the usual A4. The Letter From The Doctor explains that this is totally intentional and nothing to do with him mucking about with the Teselecta's miniturisation ray. And on a totally unrelated note, he himself appears to be shrunk, so send help and a tiny fez.
"The Blogs of Doom" in Doctor Who Magazine #356 lampshades the example from "The Macra Terror". When Medok first tries to tell the Pilot about the strange crab-like giant insects, and the Pilot snaps "There is no such thing as the Macra!", a confused Medok replies "They're called the Macra!?"

Puppet Shows

In "Oops, My Mistake" from Bear in the Big Blue House, when Ojo and Treelo break a vase, Bear enters the bedroom, attracted by the commotion, asking if everything is alright. Ojo tells him that it is, and Treelo states that there was "no vase broken."
In the Roger Miller episode of The Muppet Show, the theater is swept with an epidemic of "Cluckitus", a disease that causes anyone infected to turn into a chicken (except Statler and Waldorf, who turned into dogs instead). Kermit, worried that the news of this affliction may upset the guest star, orders that the epidemic be kept secret (an impossible feat, as Muppets-turned-chickens retain their normal voices). This leads to a specific denial from Robin:
Robin: We aren't turning into chickens!
- Robin's denial became even more suspicious just a minute later, when he caught it.
The National Anthem of Troller's Gill in Roger and the Rottentrolls (which also plays as the end credits roll) alleges that Rottentrolls are 'not at all totally, utterly stark-raving mad!'

Radio

Danielle Ward on The Now Show:
"If the tuition fees had been in place twenty years ago, the Middletons wouldn't have been able to afford finding out what university William was going to and getting Kate to spend every waking moment training to become his perfect woman. I'm not bitter, I don't care. I don't even fancy him."
Like you, Zalgon 26 McGee is a homo sapiens who finds the eating of human beings repugnant. He owns a haberdashery selling a wide variety of human clothing, and even if you don't want to buy any human clothing, he invites you to visit one of his many changing rooms. You will not be cooked.
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme had a sketch where Finnemore's character uses this to drive the woman he has a crush on away from her boyfriend. "Yeah, Ed's a great guy. And not violent at all!"
In the Rory Bremner's One Question Quiz episode "Who Runs Britain?", "Lorraine Kelly" goes to Chipping Norton to see if the people there really are as influential as everyone thinks. The first person she meets is one Xi Jinping.
Lorraine Kelly: Isn't that the same name as the President of China?
Xi Jinping: Yes, it is. But I am not him.
In the Gloomsbury episode "Ever Decreasing Literary Circles", Venus Traduces lets slip to Gosling that Lady Hattersley's Plover is based on their own affair, and Gosling is understandably worried that if the rumour has spread as far as D. H. Lollipop, his wife might hear of it. So Venus asks Mrs Gosling if she's heard such a rumour (she hasn't), and assures her that if she does it's completely untrue. When Mrs Gosling seems unconvinced, Venus continues, explaining that if she had had an affair with Gosling, she'd know about his distinctive birthmark, and she doesn't.
Bleak Expectations: Frequently, often when someone's in a Paper-Thin Disguise.
- While working at a freak show, Ripely insists she does filing and accounts. Nothing sordid or demeaning or awful. She's in fact speaking cockney for money.
- At the end of series 4, Pip Bin discovers Harry Biscuit is God. After everything goes back to normal, he makes an innocuous comment, and Harry responds "I don't know what you mean. I'm certainly not the Creator, if that's what you're implying."
- Captain Clampvulture isn't planning on eating anyone. He's only punching Pip and Harry as a sign of joviality, not to tenderise them. And he's only covering them in salt and pepper to make them seasoned explorers, honest! There's definitely nothing suspicious about his rapidly dwindling crew at all.
In The Men from the Ministry, Mr. Lamb does this often when he has something to hide.
Mr. Lamb: If you think think I'm going to Sir Gregory's office you're quite wrong!
In the Thanks a Lot, Milton Jones! episode "The Genealogist", Milton's genealogy client believes she might be the long-lost daughter of the Duke of Argyle. When Anton comments that he's one of the richest men in the UK, she replies that she had no idea he owned large amounts of land in Scotland and several London streets.
In a retirement home advertisement comedy spoof from François Pérusse, there's a line that goes "We guarantee that there's no climate of terror in the building when the administration is searching for who is mixing their garbage with the recyclables."
Cabin Pressure: Martin's mum, through Arthur, relays a message to him that she's in hospital from what definitely isn't a heart attack. Somehow, Martin sees through this obfuscation.

Tabletop Games

This is one way for the Pooka in Changeling: The Dreaming to get around their compulsion to lie.
The Monster Manual for the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons includes the following in its Parody Disclaimer:
Any similarities between monsters depicted in this book and monsters that actually exist are purely coincidental. That goes double for mind flayers, which absolutely, utterly, and completely do not exist, nor do they secretly run the D&D team.
Exalted: To emphasize the extreme secrecy practiced by students of the style, the description of the White Veil Style of Terrestrial Martial Arts insists that there is no White Veil Society. They are not a secret political force in the Scarlet Empire, and they certainly don't teach their non-existent members a highly secret style of martial arts revolving around fighting in plain sight without anyone, even the victims, realizing it, because there is no such style and no fighting took place.
- As of comic 251, the White Veil Society (which, of course, does not exist) has not made an appearance in Keychain of Creation, and certainly not in any kind of storyline-important way. That would be just silly.
- Referenced by name in Compass of Celestial Directions: Autochthonia, using it to describe how the system of Militate promotions in Estasia definitely is not hugely corrupt.
In the Infinity setting, the Yu Jing army most certainly does not have Ninja in it, because the last of the ninja disappeared at the beginning of the 20th century. Ninja no longer exist. They certainly don't exist as an elite black-ops and assassination unit that takes out enemies of the State with high-powered sniper rifles and monomolecular-edged katana. That would be ridiculous.
The thread title for a Negima! Magister Negi Magi based game on rpg.net is "High School Magical 3: Totally not turning into the SOS Brigade".
Paranoia has not only a collection of insights from Friend Computer (such as specifying that no one has fallen into Food Vat #4589B), but the actual rules text has a few variations on this (such as pointing out a couple ways for Friend Gamemaster to screw with the PCs, then saying that It Would Be Wrong to do so, in what can only be called an RPG variation of the Discworld example up in Literature).
- Also, "This mission will be lots of fun and involves no dangerous targeted retroviruses."
In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, there is no race of man-sized rat people, the so-called "Skaven", living in underground tunnels running throughout the Empire. They do not have advanced weaponry, specially-bred giant warrior rats, and warpstone, Chaos crystallized. Only insane people (and dwarves) make such irresponsible and absurd claims.
- Also, Bretonnian culture is definitively 100% adherent to its iron-bound chivalric cultus and all the peasants are completely happy and not-at-all oppressed masses, whose obligatory feudal duties are not horribly restrictive and oppressive. Said hypothetical feudal duties are also not occasionally sidestepped by having the nobles looking the other way if things are looking too untenable.
The humorous "Sacred Commandments of the Adeptus Astartes" related to Warhammer 40,000 feature this:
193. By order of the Inquisition: There is no such thing as the Inquisition, questioning this will have thou deemed heretic by the Inquisition.
In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the Black Spiral Dancer scholar Writlish is reticent on the subject of Mockmaw, an ancient Black Spiral king. In Garou Saga, Writlish tells a fellow scholar that the Black Spiral Dancers have little memory of any Garou by that name. In Chronicles of the Black Labyrinth, he dismisses a reference to "Moch Maugh" as a possible place-name.

Theatre

In 1776, anti-independence John Dickinson protests the word "tyrant" for George III and asks his Yes-Man James Wilson — rhetorically — if the King is really a tyrant. Wilson starts to answer seriously, gets a Death Glare, and demurs by saying that the King isn't a tyrant... in Pennsylvania.
Damn Yankees:
Applegate: If you're referring to the rumor that in reality he is Shifty McCoy, I deny it emphatically.
In The Green Pastures, Cain the Sixth says, "No, I ain't got no gun for my ol' friend, Flatfoot," before walking up to him and stabbing him In the Back.
Cain the Sixth (quietly but triumphantly): I got a little knife fo' him.
In Hamilton, Maria gives one of these in "Say No To This" which suggests that she was involved in the plot to extort money from Alexander. Her defense probably would've held up a bit more if Alexander had actually mentioned a letter.
Alexander: So was your whole story a setup?
Maria: I don't know about any letter.
Shakespeare himself made a Suspiciously Specific Denial in the epilogue of Henry IV, Part 2, in which he directly told the audience that the character of Falstaff was not based on the nonfictional Sir John Oldcastle. (The character was actually named John Oldcastle in the first draft, but the real Oldcastle's descendants complained.)
Marc Anthony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, repeatedly says that he isn't there to praise Caesar because to do so would be to imply that Brutus was lying and, of course, Brutus "is an honorable man. So are they all, all honorable men."
Cassio in Othello demonstrates his drunkenness by repeatedly insisting that he is not drunk. "This is my right hand, this is my left hand. I am not drunk now. I can stand well enough, and I speak well enough."
"Were you not to Ko-Ko plighted" in The Mikado, in which Nanki-Poo describes and demonstrates what he'd do with Yum-Yum if she wasn't engaged to someone else.
From Molière's The Miser. Gee, I wonder what is Harpagon trying to hide?
Harpagon: The fact is, I was only talking to myself about the trouble one has nowadays to raise any money; and I was saying that he is a fortunate man who has ten thousand crowns in his house. (...) I am very glad to tell you this, so that you may not misinterpret things, and imagine that I said that it was I who have ten thousand crowns. (...) Would that I had them, these ten thousand crowns!
Rodgers and Hammerstein love to use this trope to characterize couples who will fall in love later on. "People Will Say We're In Love" from Oklahoma! and "If I Loved You" from Carousel are both sung by not-couples who clearly have feelings for each other but discuss those feelings as other people's gossip and a hypothetical situation, respectively.
Near the end of Neil Simon's Rumors, a police officer arrives at the house where a neighbor had reported a domestic disturbance. Glenn Cooper, a politician at the house, is making small talk with the policeman once they're in the clear... but then blurts out "we didn't even hear the gunshots." The officer had not mentioned any gunshots at that time.
The Spongebob Musical has an entire song dedicated to this, with Squidward (who had a less than pleasant time with bullies growing up) trying to convince himself that he’s “Not a Loser.”
Squidward: I’m not a loser.
I don’t secretly hate myself.
I’m not singing this to no one.
It’s not the case that no one cares.
"I Don't Remember Christmas" from Starting Here Starting Now features a man cataloguing, in detail, all the things he definitely doesn't remember doing with his ex.
Shakespeare again, in Twelfth Night (III, 4) where Sir Andrew Aguecheek take great care to conceal the true motives of the duel invitation he sends to his rival: "Thou comest to the lady Olivia, and in my sight she uses thee kindly: but thou liest in thy throat; that is not the matter I challenge thee for."
Westeros: An American Musical: Oberyn volunteering to be Tyrion's Trial by Combat champion is phrased as one of those:
Oberyn: Actually, I totally believe he's innocent, and I'm definitely not just using it as an excuse to battle the Mountain in front of an audience for confession purposes.

This isn't a Tropes page, we swear.

Suspiciously Specific Denial

These are certainly not examples:

Video Example(s):

Gatekeeper Berry

Alternative Title(s): Specifically Suspicious Denial

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Gatekeeper Berry