TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Suspiciously Specific Denial
(aka: Specifically Suspicious Denial)

Go To

Suspiciously Specific Denial (trope)

"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 (e.g., "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 bloodstains 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.

See also: Could Say It, But... and Totally Not a Criminal Front.

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:

    open/close all folders 

    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."
  • A radio ad for Scottish personal injury lawyers Digby Brown outlines a hypothetical situation in which you and the vehicle who crashed into you have the same insurance company, who assures you this is fine, they can sort everything out, and there's definitely no reason you should get advice from Digby Brown.

    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 the May 30, 1993 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 the May 24, 1997 strip, 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 the March 24, 2017 strip, Jon is quite suspicious about how Liz knows what happened to his accordion.
    • In the October 10, 2021 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.
    • In the December 01, 2023 strip, 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".
  • My Cage: In the August 17, 2012 strip, 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."
  • A traveling bard came upon the scene of a Viking raid and tried to slip away, but was spotted by one of the marauders. He decided that his best chance was to try talking his way out of the predicament:
    Bard: Now why would you be wasting your time rounding up these perfectly ordinary people when you could collect the unique talking animals that live in this village?
    Viking: Animals no talk.
    Bard: Oh, no? (points at a horse and throws his voice)
    "Horse": Well, why would I talk to the likes of you, you lousy smelly Viking? You killed by stable boy and burned down my barn!
    Viking: Horse talk!
    (The bard repeats the ventriloquist act with several other animals, until the Viking sees him point at the next animal and gasps in horror.)
    Viking: SHEEP LIE! SHEEP LIE!!

    Let's Plays 
  • Achievement Hunter Minecraft Series: Ray in the very first episode does this when he discovers the house they buy was now covered in lava. Gavin, the one who did it, pulls this as well, claiming he was nowhere near it... until a Creeper attacked.
  • On Lewis Brindley and Simon Lane's fourth series of Trouble in Terrorist Town note , Hat Films' Ross has a bad case of this mixed with Implausible Deniability, something he's become renowned for. He starts by shooting Sips, Duncan Jones (after telling them "poop into mouth", a euphemism for the "Eat Shit" meme that Ross started) and then Lewis. After the alarm is raised due to Ross missing his first few shots at Lewis, he continues to deny it, while firing on the innocents.
    Ross: [after having killed Duncan] Poop into mouth.
    [Ross then wanders out, as Lewis enters to discover there's blood everywhere]
    Lewis: Ross? [promptly gets shot at] Ross is shooting at me!
    Ross: No I'm not! I'm not trying to make you eat shit at all! [keeps firing]
    Lewis: It's definitely Ross, he's shooting me!
    Ross: It's not me! It's not me! It's not me! Who is it?
  • Moxie 2 D will have you know that he's not playing his Platinum Artlocke on an emulater. His uncle works at Nintendo and gave him a special limited edition DS that can speed up the game. No, really.
  • Yogscast: Episode 12 from Simon Lane, Lewis Brindley, and Duncan Jones' Voltz Pack series has this little gem:
    <Sips_> hey come check out our cool base guys
    <Sips_> i promise that there's no crazy wormhole thing under our base continually killing us

    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."
  • Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend: In one episode, Conan is 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..."
  • Fat, French and Fabulous: Jessica may or may not have broken into a house after getting stranded on the side of the road. She may or may not have also accidentally let out the corgi.
  • 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."
  • Jemjammer: When Lachlan 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.
  • Mission to Zyxx: The first episode intro 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.
  • RiffTrax: A staple gag. In the short Three Magic Words, Bill does a particularly epic version in song:
    Bill: "We're not going to strangle you and say a prayer to Lucifer and sacrifice you on the kitchen floor! On the floor! By the Door! We won't dis-em-bowel you on the kitchen floor!"
  • 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.
  • Welcome to Night Vale:
    • In episode 29, 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."
  • 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.
  • The Unbelievable Truth: A discussion about Safety Beach (formerly Shark Beach) has the panel noting its very name sounds like one of these. After all, why would you need to specify a beach is safe, even if it is in Australia?

    Roleplay 
  • Cerberus Daily News is supposedly the comments section of an online newspaper in the Mass Effect universe. Two hundred years previously, that universe suffered a Robot Rebellion. The robots are still out there, and may or may not be spying on the rest of the galaxy. One of the posters in the comments goes by the screen name "Inconspicuous_Organic," and constantly says that he's a "robust human specimen." (He's fooling nobody, but he's not harmful enough to justify booting.)
  • Destine Enormity: Happens quite often to Aidric Carter, partly because he's a rebel on the run from a dystopian government.
    Aidric: "Uuuuh, no worries! Nothing to see here! Poor kid took a nasty and extremely unlikely spill that was in no way related to me, that's all!"

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition: The Monster Manual 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.
  • Infinity: 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.
    • As of the latest edition (N5), this is genuinely the case and no longer this trope - all the Japanese parts of Yu Jing split off and became their own nation. Of course they don't have ninja either, because a nonexistent group of Japanese assassins could hardly follow their countrymen to a new nation. You have to exist in order to that, after all, which these ninja don't of course.
  • 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).
    "This mission will be lots of fun and involves no dangerous targeted retroviruses."
  • 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 culture 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.
  • Warhammer 40,000: The humorous "Sacred Commandments of the Adeptus Astartes" 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.
  • 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 
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

    Web Animation 
  • 13 Cards: Waru's narration in Clones In The Soup begins with him saying that he was going to get a glass of juice from the fridge "with no ulterior motive".
  • ABOMI~NYA~TION: In episode 3, when Savy takes the other characters to her car, which has human feet instead of wheels and eyes instead of headlights, text pops up on screen which calls it "savys awesome car that definitely ISNT her estranged brother". Gravy can tell that something's up with it, but when she tries to ask Savy about it, she just changes the subject.
  • This is a high definition version of Alice in Wonderland. It was created to be fun and entertain children with its quirky animation style, colorful palette and strangeness. It is in no way an attempt to emulate or imitate the Alice in Wonderland movies from the past or the future.
  • Camp Camp:
    • When David asks Max what he's doing outside, Max immediately replies that it's not because he's trying to catch the bus to escape "this fuckin' nightmare of a camp". David seems completely oblivious to his response, though, outside of warning him against swearing.
    • We get another one from Cameron Campbell a little later, again directed at David.
      Campbell: Well I'm certainly not hiding out from any authorities, if that's what you're thinking!
  • Dayum:
    • "Types of Students Presenting in Class Portrayed by Minecraft": Blake says that he’s learnt drugs made you high, then adds, “Not that I ever did drugs!”.
    • "Types of Doctors Portrayed by Minecraft": Robert Greer’s “certificate” reads “Totally real medical certificate”.
    • "Social Media Portrayed by Minecraft": Dayum says that his lofty claims are “all totally real”.
    • "Types of Youtubers Portrayed by Minecraft": The tech Youtuber says his offer of a thousand phones is “definitely real”.
  • Dom Fera's original animated take on The Devil and Daniel Webster has
    Jabez: Thank you, thank you. I'd just like to say I deserve everything I've ever had and in no way sold my soul to the devil!
    Partygoer: What?
    Jabez: Foreshadowing.
  • Dorkly Originals:
    • Meet Metal Sonic: When Robotnik says Metal Sonic may be slightly buggy because he was distracted while building it due to "girlfriend issues", he adds the he does have a real girlfriend, and that she is not a robot that went haywire.
    • Why Ditto is the most dangerous Pokémon combines this with Ignored Vital News Reports when the anchorman assures the listeners, unprompted, that Dittos have not secretly invaded society.
      Anchorman: But if they did, you'd never know!
  • Epithet Erased: One Eye Catch related to the audiobook, Epithet Erased: Prison of Plastic, stresses that "Vincent Murder" is a totally new villain who is "definitely not Giovanni Potage". The only people who are fooled are people who never met Giovanni before.
  • Helluva Boss
    • "Exes and Oohs": A sign saying: "Welcome to Notamafia Town 'No Mafia here! We're Mafia free!'"
    • "Oops": When an underling walks in on Asmodeus and Fizzarolli in each others' arms, the two loudly and immediately protest that they're not in love and were having sex instead.
  • Homestar Runner: A favorite gag.
    • Strong Bad Email:
      • # 50: After Homestar accidentally causes Strong Bad's Compy to have a "flagrant system error", he sticks a fake error message on it that reads "Everything is fine. Nothing is ruined. This is real."
      • #111 ("Other Days"): Strong Bad informs the viewers that on Saturdays he certainly doesn't wake up at 6am, put on a Speedo, and go to swim practice. No no, definitely not a Speedo.
    • In the director's cut of Dangeresque 1: Dangeresque Too? seen in "dangeresque 3", when Homestar asks Strong Sad/Hot Tub what he knows about Perducci, what's Strong Sad's answer? "Only that I am not one of his minions."
      Strong Bad (as Dangeresque): That stranger seemed to know a little bit too little about Perducci.
    • Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People:
      • In episode 1 of, Strong Bad argues that it wasn't Homestar who won the Tri-Annual Race to the End of the Race, but him "in a not-from-Marzipan's-float Homestar costume".
      • In episode 5, Homestar insists that he didn't swallow his lucky quarter, "And it certainly didn't taste anything like butterscotch!"
    • The King of Town's character video has him saying that he "did not ever try to eat [his] own mustache".
    • In "TrogdorCon '97", Strong Sad wonders where Strong Bad got the money for a booth at a convention, and Strong Bad replies "Look, I don't know where The Cheat got 500 bucks or where your missing 500 bucks is."
    • In a deleted scene from the Strong Bad Email "from work", Strong Bad skips work by replacing himself with a crude dummy accompanied by a word-balloon sign reading "Hello, I work hard, and am not stuffed with cottage cheese".
    • Quoth Homestar, in the 2014 Halloween episode, "I Killed Pom Pom!": "Pom Pom? Never heard of him. Sounds like someone who's still alive, though."
    • In the 2018 Fan Costumes compilation, Strong Bad complements a picture of two fans dressed as Homestar and Strong Bad re-enacting a scene from the SBEmail "space program".
      Strong Bad: This is no costume! You guys started your own sbemail reenactment society.
      Strong Sad: (sheepishly) Which is something I've never done!note 
  • Llamas with Hats: In Episode 1, one llama comes home to find a dead human in his house. He asks his roommate why he killed him, and the former replies that he doesn't kill people and that that's his least favorite thing to do, in fact.
  • Marca Toons: In one episode, José Mourinho decided to not let Özil participate in the training sessions until he learns some Spanish. Ramos tries to help him telling him to just move his lips and he'll provide the voice from somewhere else, bt when Mourinho notes that Özil is speaking with Ramos' distinctive accent he launches into a defensive diatribe about how he is not Sergio Ramos actually speaking while Özil just opens his mouth and pretends to do it, and there is no way that he's hiding "behind the hedge that's exactly two meters on your right". So Mourinho heads over and finds him immediately.
  • Pretty Pretty Please I Don't Want to Be a Magical Girl: When joining Zira's table at lunch, Aika introduces herself as a "Normal girl of average talent and zero secrets!"
  • Professor Layton And The Malignant Growth Part 6: Don Paolo can't seem to not say these, and even without any context whatsoever.
    Don Paolo: C'mere, sign this paper. I didn't rob this place. Here, sign this paper. Pedophile, paper, what-why do they sound so alike!? I don't rape kids, but they sound so similar!
  • Red vs. Blue:
    • In an episode of Red vs. Blue Recreation, Simmons goes into a tangent about becoming stranded in an Arctic outpost without rations and being forced to eat your dogs that he refuses to elaborate on afterwards.
      Donut: That seem like an oddly specific exam—
      Simmons: I don't want to talk about it.
    • Another example from Red vs Blue:
      Grif: I can tell you what we weren't doing, and that's reenacting the greatest scene from The Dukes of Hazard ever!
    • On another occasion:
      Simmons: Are you afraid of bats or something?
      Grif: Afraid of bats? No! Why would you think that? And why would you even ask that? That's a pretty weird question to ask just for no reason!
  • Rooster Teeth (the guys that make Red Vs. Blue) love this trope.
    • Two examples from the newest season of Rooster Teeth Shorts they've done:
      Joel: You have a trapdoor. And you keep sending people through the trapdoor into the restaurant below.
      [...]
      Burnie: Okay, Joel, I don't know who told you this story, but listen to yourself, okay? Listen to how farfetched it is. Why would I even want a Henckman Bros. Model 607 trapdoor?
    • And:
      Joel: Hey, Gus, back from the, uh, Gulf Coast there?
      Gus: (with a pineapple in a bucket, two leis around his neck, and various other tropical attire) What? Yeah, of course I am. You can't even get a flight to Hawaii right now, don't be ridiculous.
  • RWBY: Part of Nora's Establishing Character Moment when she's babbling to Ren.
    Nora: We've been friends for soooooooo long! What are the odds we'd still be together? Well, not "together-together"... Not that I'm not saying that you're not handsome; you are handsome, but that'd just be weird, right?
  • Stupid Kids: When Tony Macflane looks for his garland he finds a sign reading Boti is not the thief in Boldogat és még boldogabbat (Merry and even more).
  • Sufferhymn: "Lyon Nemesis : 2.0 You Can (Not) Fantasia": Uwulyon's posts on Instagram all repeatedly insist that she's totally a girl and not a Viera man who inexplicably got turned into a Miqo'te woman because of some weird gender-bending shenanigans.
  • Weebl's: One of the "Cat Face" cartoons includes a "cat" that insists that he does not find cats at all delicious.
  • Zero Punctuation:
    • The review of Guitar Hero III includes the line: "It all started when some colleagues and I were at a friend's house for completely heterosexual reasons and decided to break out Guitar Hero on easy mode in celebration of our manliness and complete lack of desire to fondle scrotums."
    • Tweeting about his God of War III review:
      And yes, my voice sounded different in ZP because I had a sore throat. There continues to not be a body-snatching conspiracy going on.
    • On Yahtzee's youtube channel, meanwhile, his video titled, "Let's Drown Out... Thief 2", he and Gabe totally aren't spending the video talking about the scandal surrounding the creator of a certain game... even when Yahtzee nearly says said creator's full name.

    Websites 
  • Many of the pictures on The Comically Serious site averagecats.com come across this way. For example...
  • Cracked:
    • This article, in which the editor routinely interrupts the testimony of the other writers to strenuously and insistently deny that he had any reason to murder nor any ability or plans to murder the deceased columnist in question, who he probably didn't even see that night and even if he did he certainly didn't intend to murder him. He gets so caught up in it that he doesn't even notice when the actual killer nonchalantly confesses to committing the deed.
    • "Greatest Customer Feedback Ever Sent to McDonald's": A man found in a ball-pit that he filled with lube claims to have been mistaken for a pedophile. His excuses are extremely convoluted. He even wore a "I Am Not a Child Predator" t-shirt. Either he's a crazy stupid pedophile or a crazy stupid Manchild. Either way, it's not looking so good for him.
    • One of Cracked.com's Harry Potter book jacket disguises declares this book has "no wizards or anything like that."
  • The Evil Atheist Conspiracy doesn't exist.
    That's the most important thing to keep in mind when discussing the evil Atheist conspiracy (or eAc as its members call it, that is, if it had any members, which it doesn't, since it doesn't really exist). In fact, you can probably just disregard that first paragraph altogether.
  • Neopets: The Staff would like to remind you that there is no such place as Jelly World, and the very idea of it is silly.
  • Not Always Right: This post is such a perfect example it makes you wonder if the guy rehearsed it before.
  • The Onion:
    • Shortly after the paper was sold to a Chinese company, an article was written entitled "Nothing At All Happens To 28 Tibetan Protesters, Their Families" that takes this trope to its logical conclusion by stating that nothing happened to some Tibetan protesters, then explaining, in great detail, precisely what didn't happen to them.
      According to the great and trustworthy Chinese government, the eternal silencing of demonstrators was in no way carried out at 6:15 p.m., shortly after dusk, by officers of the People's Armed Police. Moreover, at this time, noxious gases were not at all fired into the teeming crowd, especially not at the children, who failed to fall like sacks of flour onto the pavement below. "Stop, you can't do this," a Tibetan woman reportedly cried as though she were being violently detained, which, as noted, was impossible. "Where are you taking me? Get your hands off me!"
    • In another article, a long Infomercial for "fine fish-based foodstuffs from Yu Wan Mei" notes that "health experts agree: Fish Time cannot cause acute peripheral neuropathy."
    • The Onion is fond of these. Here's one about Google
    • Life Jackets Issued To All Americans For Some Reason.
    • "Hostages Trapped Inside Walmart Insisting They Never Shop At Walmart", where absolutely no one is willing to admit that they shop at Walmart. Everyone — the hostages, witnesses, the mass shooter himself, the reporters and even the higher ups at Walmart — constantly pause to explain that they are only there by coincidence and definitely don't shop there or know anything about the store's merchandise.
  • SCP Foundation:
    • That time somebody pushed Dr. Clef into SCP-682's enclosure was a freak accident and in no way an attempt to kill him. Additionally, the high-speed introduction of the guilty party's face to a table shortly afterward, resulting in a snapped neck, was the result of 682 somehow breaching containment, then promptly returning to its cell. Without disappearing from the camera feed at any point. It was definitely not Dr. Clef.
    • Similarly, when Doctor Kondraki was interviewing Doctor Clef following a very serious containment breach, "Dr. Clef accidentally fell out of his chair and struck his head nine times against the corner of the desk, fracturing his skull and snapping his neck between the second and third vertebrae."
    • Also, SCP-61231's anomalous effects tend to lead to this, along with Confusing Multiple Negatives.
      SCP-61231 and Dr. B██████ do not silently maintain eye contact for 10 seconds.
  • SF Debris: Parody Janeway is prone to this.
    "My father died, too, and I totally have an alibi and everything."
  • Snopes: As the writers will tell you, this trope is a good rule of thumb for determining if a rumor spawned in a chain email is actually true. If the writer of said email feels the need to preface it with "This is not a hoax!", it probably is.
  • Something Awful: The "P-P-P-Powerbook", made from a white binder with sharpie doodled on it, assures you that "This is real".
  • The joke website Ted Cruz For Human President is this trope in a nutshell. One example:
    Ted Cruz is only one being and not several.Guy Manderson

    Other 
  • ALT1977 would like you to know that their company definitely wasn't founded by rogue time travelers from 33 years in the future. Also, time travel is impossible, and will never happen. Especially not 33 years from now.
  • From David Mitchell's Soapbox:
    "I do not have OCD. I've checked. Three or four hundred times. And I definitely don't. I stop myself catching it by washing my hands an even number of times. But I'm aware I'm at an at-risk group... I don't care about the odd pound, either, but I want the books balanced, only for the same reasons that if I saw two piles of actual books, I would want them literally balanced. It's neater that way. It's better. How can they not see that?"
  • The parody Twitter Not A Cop. He just wants to know what illegal crimes you're committing. And because he's a fellow lawbreaker like yourself, not because he's an undercover cop or anything...
  • This joke OK Cupid profile (at least, we all hope it's a joke). Starts with, "I'm a fun loving guy and a self-starter who has absolutely no interest in committing murder."... It Gets Worse.
  • "My name is Olan Rogers. I am not an astronaut, a geophysicist, nor am I dragon slayer."
  • This unblock request at The Other Wiki, where a user strongly denies a number of things that they were not specifically accused of (lampshaded immediately thereafter by the admin who denied the appeal).
  • This post at The Panda's Thumb, discusses an e-mail they received titled "A legitimate question about Evolution with no agenda."
  • Spelljammer: "Oortling Central Command (Terraspace) press release to Surviving Members of the Spelljammer Mail List. Not that there was any reason to panic, anyway."
  • Totally Not Robots is a subreddit about robots pretending to be humans but failing badly by doing every stereotypical robot trope as well as calling anyone who doesn't get the joke a robot.
  • This message board commenter states "I don’t have a secret stash of illegally taped sex."
  • Invoked by comedian Mike Ginn's Twitter post of 'My "Not involved in human trafficking" T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt', which went on to produce a great deal of Memetic Mutation.
  • There is no Usenet cabal. There has never been a USENET cabal. Any claims that a person or administrator might be part of such a cabal are unfounded and spurious. Similarly, there is no Lumber Cartel, and moustachio'd people named Eric are not in any way a hacker organization.
  • Not this X-Men: First Class meme pic.

This isn't a Tropes page, we swear.

Alternative Title(s): Specifically Suspicious Denial

Top

Spring Valley reads the letter

Spring Valley reads a letter by Paris, who wrecked her station in AR Elimination 19.

How well does it match the trope?

2.6 (5 votes)

Example of:

Main / SuspiciouslySpecificDenial

Media sources:

Report