Basic Trope: A villain is tricked into making a public confession.
- Straight: C.C. Executive gloats about his plan to Bob, only to find out too late his microphone was on the entire time.
- Exaggerated: C.C. gloats to Bob about his plan, only to remember too late he's on national television in front of a live studio audience.
- Downplayed:
- C.C. Has an argument with Bob, careful not to reveal any of his plans, but the recording of him does make his investors doubt him.
- Nothing C.C. says incriminates him, but his screaming tirade destroys his reputation as a composed authority figure.
- Justified: C.C. is unaware that recording devices exist (for example, because he comes from a medieval-era setting) and so feels free to say incriminating things near the hero.
- Inverted:
- C.C. tricks Bob into confessing to a crime he didn't do and has it played to his allies.
- Bob is an infamous gang kingpin. C.C. tricks Bob into confessing on tape that he hasn't committed (or caused to be committed) even a tiny fraction of the crimes he's reputed for.
- Subverted:
- C.C. secretly knows he is being recorded, and so he lies to Bob about his plan.
- C.C.'s confession is recorded, or he's on national television in front of a live studio audience, but nothing comes of the confession.
- C.C.'s confession is recorded by Bob, and Bob is punished for recording the confession.
- The recording is destroyed before anyone can hear it.
- Turns out everybody already knew about C.C.'s plan.
- C.C. openly gloats about his evil plan in front of public interviews, knowing that the Apathetic Citizens don't care at all.
- When C.C. learns that his confession was broadcast live, he panics and does something stupid that leads to the ruin of his plan. Bob then reveals that he lied about the broadcast, and just wanted to drive C.C. into a panic.
- Double Subverted: Even though he managed to stop himself from confessing his plan, the recording was enough to make C.C. lose face, and without the people's support, his plan wouldn't work anyway.
- Parodied:
- Bob tricks C.C. into admitting he stole candy from a baby and C.C. is instantly discredited.
- Bob records C.C. saying something that can't discredit him and uses Manipulative Editing to crudely make it sound like C.C. admitted to doing something heinous. The townspeople buy it immediately.
- Zig Zagged: C.C. turns his microphone off the moment he sees Bob, but Bob was wearing one too. He also rips Bob's microphone apart.
- Averted: C.C. is not defeated by being tricked into confessing publicly.
- Enforced: "C.C. is a Villain with Good Publicity, Bob can't just run up and kill him. We need to have him trick C.C. into revealing his true nature first."
- Lampshaded: "I can't believe I left my microphone on!"
- Invoked: Bob and his True Companions set up an elaborate trap with the expressed purpose of tricking C.C. into revealing himself.
- Exploited: C.C.'s confession is brought live, and C.C., realizing this, breaks into his Compelling Voice to turn every member of the audience into an instant army of Mooks.
- Defied:
- C.C. turns his microphone off the moment he sees Bob.
- Engineered Public Confessions are criminalized.
- C.C. anonymously releases an easily discredited deep-fake video of himself confessing to various crimes. This way, he can easily dismiss any Engineered Public Confession as yet another deep-fake.
- C.C. sticks to his lie 24/7, even when there is nobody near him and he is in a place only spy satellites would look upon, because he knows any second he lets go is the second he may get exposed.
- Discussed: "The only way we're going to take C.C. down is if we have evidence, and what better evidence than a confession from his own mouth!"
- Conversed: "You'd think the Big Bad would've turned off his microphone before gloating."
- Implied:
- "C.C.? That guy had a promising career, until his business practices came to light. As for what happened... let's just say he was too talkative around certain clever people."
- While C.C is talking about his plans, Bob seems awfully relaxed than someone would be in his situation, with his hand behind his back. Later, C.C's followers turns their backs on him, but we are never shown why.
- Deconstructed:
- Most people who view the broadcast simply ignore it, forget about it quickly, dismiss it as a fake, or choose to interpret C.C.'s words as something innocent. The only people who accept the broadcast are those who already disliked C.C. to begin with.
- C.C. easily talks his way out of the confession by claiming that the broadcast was a fake. Bob is branded a liar.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob makes sure that C.C. yells out his guilt, with his own booming voice, in the middle of a crowded marketplace with plenty of witnesses within earshot that can both reliably testify that there is nothing "faking" about what C.C. yelled… and make sure C.C. won't live long enough to claim anything is fake anyway.
- The "people who disliked C.C. anyway" are powerful and nasty enough that now that they have proof of their dislike was justified, they will make sure his life becomes hell.
Back to Engineered Public Confession, and you're caught, sucker!
