History Main / HowDidYouKnowIDidnt

* During a SherlockHolmes parody in ''Webcomic/TheWhiteboard'', Moriarty assumes that Holmes is accusing him of ordering the murder of Blone. Instead, Holmes implicates him in the prior death of Blone's assistant, [[IncrediblyLamePun Apartington]].

* ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist''
** In an OVA from the 2003 series, Ed and Al get caught up with the Homunculi after Envy shapeshifts to pretend to be a captured Winry. They escape, chaos ensues, and Edward ends up taking out Envy who's disguised as Roy Mustang.

** Similarly, in ''[[Anime/FullmetalAlchemistBrotherhood Brotherhood]]'', Riza Hawkeye corners Roy when they're alone, and she points a gun to his head. Roy calls her "Lieutenant" during an exchange, but she claims that the real Roy calls her by her first name when they are alone. As she guessed, ''this'' Roy turns out to Envy, but...
--->'''Envy''': So you two are that close, huh?\\
'''Hawkeye''': ILied.

* In an OVA from ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'', Ed and Al get caught up with the Homunculi after Envy shapeshifts to pretend to be a captured Winry. They escape, chaos ensues, and Edward ends up taking out Envy who's disguised as Roy Mustang.
-->'''Al:''' Oh wow, Ed, how did you know that wasn't the Colonel?\\

* In an OVA from ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', Ed and Al get caught up with the Homunculi after Envy shapeshifts to pretend to be a captured Winry. They escape, chaos ensues, and Edward ends up taking out Envy who's disguised as Roy Mustang.

-->'''Slaughter''': I didn't. The odds were fifty-fifty. Guess I was lucky, huh?

** In Marvel's ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe]]'' comic, Sgt. Slaughter is confronted by two Gung-Hos. He punches one in the face, who turns out to be the shapeshifter Zartan. When asked how he knew which one to punch, Slaughter replies, "Lucky guess."

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E5TreehouseOfHorrorIII Treehouse Of Horror III]]", "Dial Z For Zombie"

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{The Untouchables|1987}}'': How Ness [[spoiler:persuades the judge at UsefeulNotes/AlCapone's trial to change the jury he suspects has been bribed into returning a "not guilty" verdict]]. Doubles as a BatmanGambit.

* ''Film/MenInBlackII'': [[LaserGuidedAmnesia Amnesiac]] Agent K shoots alien pawn-shop clerk Jeebs in the head. [[RunningGag Again.]]

'''J:''' How'd you know his head grows back?\\

* ''Film/TheNakedGun 2½'': Frank Drebin is being "honored for his 1000th drug-dealer killed." He responds: "Thank you. But, in all honesty, the last two I backed over with my car. Luckily, they turned out to be drug dealers."
* ''Film/GetSmart'': Max is asked [[spoiler:where the bomb is at the concert. He says that it is under the piano. Naturally, that's where it was.]] The chief asks how Max knew. The answer: Lucky guess.
* ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'' actively subverts a scene from ''Film/TheOutlawJoseyWales'' where Wales survives an assault from a dangerous posse, then explains how he carefully chose which member he had to shoot first based on a SherlockScan of which one was the most dangerous. In ''Unforgiven,'' after Munny survives a similar encounter, he just shrugs and says he got lucky when asked.
* In ''Film/{{Papillon|1973}}'', the titular character takes shelter in a leper colony after his escape and is invited to share a cigar by their leader. Despite his fear of catching the disease, Papillon does so. There's a moment of silence from the leader (who clearly expected him to refuse) before he asks how Papillon knew he had dry leprosy, which isn't contagious. When Papillon replies that he didn't know, it breaks the ice between the two men.
* In the movie version (but not the book) of ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'', Jack Ryan and Captain Mancuso invoke this trope, in regards to which way Captain Ramius would turn for the next "Crazy Ivan" maneuver.

* ''Film/MacGruber'': An interesting spin on this trope, as it was the final straw for Piper and he temporarily quits the team.

* It happens in the loose 1997 adaptation ''Film/TheJackal'' too, where the FBI Deputy Director has been led to believe that someone in the FBI has been leaking information to the Jackal. He does the same thing to get a tape of a phone conversation recorded on a tapped line.
* The question is reversed in ''Film/{{Splice}}'' when [[spoiler:Elsa asks Clive if he knew that Dren had water lungs the whole time. He lies and says yes when he was actually trying to drown her.]]
* ''Film/KeepingMum'', after Gloria and her daughter Holly learn in short order that the new housekeeper is a paroled murderer who killed again, and is also Gloria's long-lost mother.

* ''Film/DiamondsAreForever''. A Mafia {{mook}} throws Plenty O'Toole, one of the Bond girls, off of a high floor, and she lands unharmed in a swimming pool below. When Bond compliments him on his aim, the mook replies, "I didn't know there was a pool down there."
* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides'', Blackbeard forces Jack to play a variant of RussianRoulette with four unloaded pistols and two loaded ones, and Angelica (his daughter, Jack's love interest) as the target. When Jack takes the option to jump instead, Angelica asks her father if he knew which guns were loaded. He (unconvincingly) says he did, but considering his later actions there's no reason to believe he would care about putting his daughter in danger.
* Used on the Podcast/RiffTrax for the opening of ''Film/TheDarkKnight''.
-->'''Mike:''' ''[imitating the bank manager with a Shotgun]'' What ?! He was robbing my bank! I thought he was just a clown!

* ''Film/TerminatorGenisys''. Sarah Connor encounters a T-1000 disguised as Kyle Reese at about the same time the actual one comes in. After a short standoff, she shoots one in the foot and it's the T-1000. Kyle is not amused when Sarah admits that she wasn't totally sure and so went for a non-fatal wound.
* In ''Film/TheManFromUNCLE2015'' when Napoleon asked how Victoria knew which liquor he'd drink (because he discovered she drugged it), Victoria blithely said she didn't, so she drugged them all.

* Inverted in ''Film/VanHelsing''. After Anna stops Van Helsing from shooting her brother-turned-werewolf, he shouts, "He's not your brother anymore!" She asks if he knew before or after she stopped him -- thinking he would not have shot if he didn't realize it -- and he answers that he knew before she stopped him.
* A variant occurs in ''Film/{{Ronin}}'': Sam, the experienced mercenary, thinks that one of the younger upstarts on the job is only pretending to be a former SAS commando, and starts asking more and more pointed questions about life as an SAS operative. Finally, he demands to know the color of the boathouse at Hereford (where the SAS is headquartered) and the guy can't answer... because he doesn't know. He leaves in disgrace. Then:

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' episode "Betrothed", Beast Boy turns into a non-Earth animal for the first time, specifically an alien seen earlier in the episode:

* ''Series/FamilyMatters'': The episode "Boom!" has [[BigEater Carl]] stepping onto a treadmill [[DeathTrap rigged up with a bomb]] by a criminal his boss previously imprisoned, which will go off the moment he steps off. The [[BombDisposal Bomb Squad]] is too scared to show up, so Carl and his boss have to disarm the bomb themselves. [[WireDilemma Three wires were in there: red, blue and yellow]]. Carl determined it was the yellow wire that had to be cut, and when the two officers are successful, his boss asks him how he knew which wire to pull. Carl's response? "I didn't; I guessed!".

* ''Series/FamilyMatters'': The episode "Boom!" has Carl stepping onto a treadmill [[DeathTrap rigged up with a bomb]] by a criminal his boss previously imprisoned, which will go off the moment he steps off. The Bomb Squad is late showing up, so Carl and his boss have to disarm the bomb themselves. [[WireDilemma Three wires were in there: red, blue and yellow]]. Carl determined it was the yellow wire that had to be cut, and when the two officers are successful, his boss asks him how he knew which wire to pull. Carl's response? "I didn't; I guessed!".

* ''Series/FamilyMatters'': The episode "Boom!" has Carl stepping onto a treadmill [[DeathTrap rigged up with a bomb]] by a criminal his boss previously imprisoned, which will go off the moment he steps off. The Bomb Squad is late showing up, so Carl and his boss have to disarm the bomb themselves. Three wires were in there: red, blue and yellow. Carl determined it was the yellow wire that had to be cut, and when the two officers are successful, his boss asks him how he knew which wire to pull. Carl's response? "I didn't; I guessed!".

* In Antoine Delak's Gmod animation ''Machinima/HeavyIsDead'', the Demoman successfully pins the Engineer as the Heavy's murderer on a drunken joke.

This may also be used in a SpotTheImposter scene, when the hero's choice turns out to be correct.

* A ''Anime/SailorMoon [=SuperS=]'' special starring Haruka and Michiru has Sailor Neptune fighting a living puppet and his master at a hotel, and the puppet holding an ill Haruka hostage. Neptune is about to save her by destroying the puppets source of power, but warns her that doing so will cause the shadows of every person on earth to kill their hosts. But Neptune destroys the power source anyway and sarcastically asks if "the shadows have begun to run rampant yet". The puppet asks how she knew he was lying, but it turns out ''she didn't''. The bad guys [[WhatTheHellHero call her out on risking the lives of other people]], but Neptune simply responds, "[[AlwaysSaveTheGirl A world without Haruka isn't worth saving.]]"
* Played very cleverly during the second arc of ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': All the little kids in the orphanage are depressed about how Martha and others have been taken by the Earthbound Gods. Yusei sounds like he knows about NoOntologicalInertia when he assures them that when they defeat the villains, everyone will return and be all right. After the kids leave, his adult and teenaged allies ask him how he knows that. He sheepishly admits he doesn't -- he just said it to cheer them up. [[WhatTheHellHero To say they're not too happy is an understatement.]] [[spoiler:Fortunately for everyone, it does turn out to be true.]]

* How L manages to pinpoint Kira's location in ''Manga/DeathNote''. L only had a few assumptions about Kira: that he can kill people without being present, that he won't tolerate being called out, and that the earliest death possibly related to Kira happened in Kanto, Japan. Thus, L decides to fake a worldwide Interpol announcement, with a criminal posing as L and taunting Kira. The announcement would only be broadcast in one place at a time, so that when the criminal is killed (presumably by a pissed off Kira), L would know where he lives in. Not only was the plan almost instantly successful, but L was positively ''baffled'' at how flawlessly it went, beside himself at having already caught Kira in what was initially just supposed to be a ''test run''.

** Volume 3 #10: faced with a mutant cobra monster that's constantly respawning via eggs, Chase told Victor (a cyborg) to swallow the mutant cobra eggs in order to destroy the mother. Chase admits that he didn't know that it would work, but figured in the worst case scenario they could rebuild Victor.
* Issue 1 of the ''Dallas'' arc of ''ComicBook/TheUmbrellaAcademy'' features the Lincoln memorial statue come to life and terrorize the District of Columbia. To stop it Rumor says "Mr. President. I heard a rumor you were assassinated." This conjures up a statue of John Wilkes Booth who shoots the rampaging Lincoln. Hargreeves arrives on the scene and asks how she knew that would work. She replied, "I didn't."

* ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'' Vol 3 #62, Wolverine and Mystique are tied up in front a Mexican firing squad. They escape.

* In one issue of ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'', The Riddler is up to his old tricks, but another group of devious criminals is operating. So, Batman is forced to choose which rogue to chase after, and decides to go for the other party than bother with Riddler's obligatory riddle. By ''sheer coincidence'', both sets of Rogues hold their heists in the same building, allowing Batman to catch both. When Riddler asks how Batman solved his riddle, Batman just tells him, "I didn't" and Riddler is so happy to think he stumped Batman that he goes to jail singing a jaunty tune.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': A non-verbal one during "Sinister". Scott's taken hostage by an arms dealer, and fires his beam at Colossus. It bounces off Piotr's head and knocks the hostage-taker out, causing Piotr to ask how Scott knew his beams would reflect off Colossus' skin. Scott just changes the subject.

* [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-12-29/ Alice]] in ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' deduces that a coworker must either be an unhelpful moron or a robot sent to destroy the company from within, and proceeds to tear his (robotic) head off. Dilbert asks how she knew it was the robot-option... Knowing her, she probably didn't ''care''.

* ''Film/TheNakedGun 2½'': Frank Drebin is being "honored for his 1000th drug-dealer killed." He responds: "Thank you. But, in all honesty, the last two I backed over with my car. Luckily, they turned out to be drug-dealers."

* In ''Film/{{Papillon|1973}}'', the titular character takes shelter in a leper colony after his escape, and is invited to share a cigar by their leader. Despite his fear of catching the disease, Papillon does so. There's a moment of silence from the leader (who clearly expected him to refuse) before he asks how Papillon knew he had dry leprosy, which isn't contagious. When Papillon replies that he didn't know, it breaks the ice between the two men.
* In the movie version (but not book) of ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'', Jack Ryan and Captain Mancuso invoke this trope, in regards to which way Captain Ramius would turn for the next "Crazy Ivan" maneuver.

'''Sheridan:''' Do I ever. You threw one out of a third story window on Io.\\

* ''Series/InspectorGeorgeGently'': This exchange between Bacchus and Gently at the end of "Son of a Gun (after Gently has faced down a Sten gun wielding skinhead):

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': In "The Snow Job", Parker jumps from a second storey window onto Eliot who catches her. He asks for warning next time and then adds "How'd you even know I'd be here?". Parker replies "I didn't".

** In "Baltimore", Tony flashbacks to when he learned his partner was dirty. When Gibbs shows up, Tony name drops the first half of this trope while Gibbs does the second, adding on, "I had a hunch."

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', there is a point where Emma accidentally alerts an ogre to their presence and she eventually finds herself on the ground with a very large ogre roaring in her face (imagine the breath on that thing!). Suddenly there's a sharp whistle which distracts the ogre, and the following scene occurs:

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In "Can of Worms", Lister, Rimmer and Kryten are hunting shape-shifters when they are approached by the Cat. Lister (who is temporarily emotionless) blows him away without a second thought, revealing him to be a polymorph. Rimmer asks how he knew he wasn't the Cat, and Lister calmly replies "I didn't." It should be noted that unlike other examples this was a deliberate act. Lister had his emotions drained to make him immune to the polymorphs so he literally didn't care who he shot.
* In one episode of season nine of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Oliver Queen is standing on a podium which has been rigged to blow when he steps off. Clark arrives towards the end of the episode, having learned that [[spoiler:the bomb was fake]] only to find that [[spoiler:Oliver has already stepped off the podium]]. How did he know? [[WhamLine He didn't]], and instead waited until the room was clear so that he could [[spoiler:attempt suicide.]]

** ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury'' has this in "Arise the Crystal Eyes"; after Red Ranger Casey pulls a BigDamnHeroes moment to save the other rangers from Grizzaka, a very powerful [[TheStarscream Starscream]] that had successfully taken the post of BigBad at that point. Casey asks White Ranger Dom for his Rhino Morpher, and attempts to merge it with his own weapon, succeeding flashily.

* In ''Series/TheThickOfIt'', Hugh Abbott accidentally sends an e-mail saying "Christ! What a cunt!" to a little girl using Terri's PC. Terri calls him out on this, claiming that she saw him use the PC. Hugh promptly admits that he did send the e-mail, before Terri says that she was bluffing and she didn't see them. Hugh then [[BlatantLies says that he knew she didn't know, and was only admitting because it was the right thing to do.]]

* ''Series/RobinOfSherwood'' in "The Sheriff of Nottingham", the new Sheriff of Nottingham captures Robin Hood and all the outlaws, except for Nasir, who had gone to have a duel to the death with Sarak, the new Sheriff's saracen servant who Nasir had some unfinished business with from way before the show began. (Sarak, conveniently, usually wore clothes that hid his face.) The outlaws are about to be excecutioned, when a figure wearing Sarak's clothes walks in. The Sheriff offers Robin and the outlaws a chance to go free if he manages to kill Sarak. Robin takes the crossbow, but hesitates to take action, while the Sheriff urges Sarak to kill Robin. "Sarak" then throws a sword into the Sheriff's stomach and takes the veil off his face, revealing himself as Nasir. Later on...

* The MadeForTVMovie ''ComicBook/NickFury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' (with Creator/DavidHasselhoff as Nick Fury). Nick shoots Director Princer, who turns out to be an Evil Life Model Decoy, but Nick didn't know this. He just hated Princer.

* The popular gamemode for the ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' mod ''VideoGame/GarrysMod'' titled "VideoGame/TroubleInTerroristTown" revolves around trust/mistrust in a town full of terrorists, 1 in 5 of which are united traitors, seeking to kill the innocent terrorists, similar to the Mafia game people play on forums/IRC/at social gatherings. Occasionally someone gets shot for no real reason, or are accidentally pushed off a high ledge or get just plain unlucky and die suddenly when they're a traitor. The result is an upset traitor, and a confused, but happy group of innocent terrorists who have one less threat to deal with. Especially funny when playing with friends who you actually know, rather than random players.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': In "Diamonds Are a Vamp's Best Friend (Part 2)", when Bova was shooting a goon with a gun she just picked up:

'''Drew:''' I didn't. I just wanted to hit in her in the face.

** In "Total Rickall", Rick shoots Cousin Nicky, a memory-injecting parasite, killing it. When asked how he knew it was a parasite and not a real person, Rick says he guessed, and had aimed at its shoulder for that reason.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': When the town is attacked by by a giant fire-breathing chicken monster, Mayor Toadstool uses Toadie's petrified body to block its flames. When Anne compliments his quick thinking, Toadstool's response is a surprised "Wait, he's ''stone''?"

Not to be confused with YouJustToldMe, although the same phrase can be used for that purpose too. Also not to be confused with AccidentalTruth or IJustKnew. See also IHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing, AchievementsInIgnorance, and SureLetsGoWithThat. Often borders on IndyPloy for charging in with no other plan.

** A comical version has Xykon killing two hobgoblins before on of them could reveal what the monster in the darkness actually is. After killing them, Xykon states that he wanted to stop the giant cards from blocking his view. [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0259.html Here]].

* In a ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' episode where Kimiko is fighting an [[RobotMe evil robot duplicate]], Omi jumps high in the air and takes one of the Kimikos out in one swipe. The defeated robot explodes, but, when asked about how he knew which one was which, Omi admits to having guessed. Not quite as extreme as the page description otherwise implies, since if he'd kicked the real Kimiko, she'd have probably just rubbed her kicked spot and been annoyed... not actually exploded.
** This really surprised Clay and Rai though because up until that point, Omi knew ahead of time every trick thrown at him throughout the episode, including Rai's [[RunningGag constant attempts through Shen-Gong-Wu battles and card dealings]]. When he said that he "guessed" that time, they were aghast he didn't/couldn't use his Tiger Instinct.

** Also the basic frame of this trope is present in a joke in the (same) episode where Peter is blind. After Peter saves Horace from a burning building he is asked how he found the courage to risk his life inside said burning building:

* ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'' #1½: [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk the Hulk]] is attacking a Dr. Doom robot and is asked (after he smashes it) how he knew it's [[ActuallyADoombot a robot]]. "Robot?"

Can be disturbing when you realized that our hero had no problem killing someone and just happened to evil. Alternatively, sometimes the hero might have known the truth all along and just be yanking the chain of the person asking the question.

'''Ivanova:''' There was an ample pool below the window.[[note]]Since Io's gravity is only 1.8 m/s^2, that might not actually hurt you even without the pool.[[/note]]\\

Borders on IndyPloy for charging in with no other plan and distrubing when you realized that our hero had no problem killing someone and just happened to evil. Alternatively, sometimes the hero might have known the truth all along and just be yanking the chain of the person asking the question.

Not to be confused with YouJustToldMe, although the same phrase can be used for that purpose too. Also not to be confused with AccidentalTruth or IJustKnew. See also IHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing, AchievementsInIgnorance, and SureLetsGoWithThat.

* ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'' "Blade"

* How L manages to pinpoint Kira's location in ''Manga/DeathNote''. L only had a few assumptions about Kira: that he can kill people without being present, that he won't tolerate being called out, and that the earliest death possibly related to Kira happened in Kanto, Japan. Thus, L decides to fake a worldwide Interpol announcement, with a criminal posing as L and taunting Kira. The announcement would only be broadcasted in one place at a time, so that when the criminal is killed (presumably by a pissed off Kira), L would know where he lives in. Not only was the plan almost instantly successful, but L was positively ''baffled'' at how flawlessly it went, beside himself at having already caught Kira in what was initially just supposed to be a ''test run''.

* How L manages to pinpoint Kira's location in ''Manga/DeathNote''. L only had a few assumptions about Kira: that he can kill people without being present, that he won't tolerate being called out, and that the earliest death possibly related to Kira happened in Kanto, Japan. Thus, L decides to fake a worldwide Interpol announcement, with a criminal posing as L and taunting Kira. The announcement would only be broadcasted in one place at a time, so that when the criminal would be killed (presumably by a pissed off Kira), L would know where he lives in. Not only was the plan almost instantly successful, but L was positively ''baffled'' at how flawlessly it went, beside himself at having already caught Kira in what was initially just supposed to be a ''test run''.

Borders on IndyPloy for charging in with no other plan and MoralDissonance when you realized that our hero had no problem killing someone and just happened to land on the accepted side of WhatMeasureIsANonHuman Alternatively, sometimes the hero might have known the truth all along and just be yanking the chain of the person asking the question.

* In the ''Series/WhiteCollar'' season one finale, Peter shoots [[spoiler:Fowler]] in the chest to stop him from shooting [[spoiler:Diana]]. When [[spoiler:Diana]] asks how he knew [[spoiler:Fowler]] was wearing a vest, he responds with this. The MoralDissonance is averted, however; the "victim" in this case? [[spoiler:CorruptCop SmugSnake Fowler, who's pulled [[MoralEventHorizon more than enough crap]] to qualify for a bullet]].