History Main / LooseLips

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When someone gives away sensitive information unintentionally because they can't keep it to themselves. The [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]] is the famous slogan from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII "Loose Lips Sink Ships".

Because TechnologyMarchesOn, it's even easier than ever to get people killed by running your mouth off, thanks to websites such as Website/{{Twitter}}, Website/{{Facebook}}, Website/TVTropes, and [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} that other wiki]]. Always beware that when you talk about something that is privileged or secret, you might as well be standing on a rooftop with a big sign and a megaphone.

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Because TechnologyMarchesOn, it's even easier than ever to get people killed by running your mouth off, thanks to websites such as {{Website/Twitter}}, {{Website/Facebook}}, [[HomePage TVTropes]], and [[{{Wiki/Wikipedia}} that other wiki]]. Always beware that when you talk about something that is privileged or secret, you might as well be standing on a rooftop with a big sign and a megaphone.

Because TechnologyMarchesOn, it's even easier than ever to get people killed by running your mouth off, thanks to websites such as {{Website/Twitter}}, {{Website/Facebook}}, [[HomePage TVTropes]], and [[{{Wiki/Wikipedia}} that other wiki]]. Always beware that when you talk about something that is privileged or secret, you might as well be standing on a roof top with a big sign and a megaphone.

* Parodied in a flashback in ''Film/{{Airplane}}'': The hero tells his girlfriend that he's going to be sent out on a mission soon. He then goes on to mention exactly where he's going, what he's going to be bombing, what time of day they'll be attacking, how high they'll be flying, and what direction they'll be coming in from. But he refuses to give her a rough estimate of when he'll be back from the mission, because that's classified.

* In ''Literature/GatheringBlue'', Kira tells councilman Jamison that her dyeing teacher claimed that the woods surrounding the village aren't actually full of "beasts." [[spoiler:This gets Annabella killed, since the council invented the beasts in order to scare the villagers.]]

** Boyd Crowder's latest heroin shipment was delayed and to placate his dealers he tells them that the shipment is arriving tomorrow evening. The next day one of the dealers is approached by a female junkie who offers to give him a blow job if he tells her when he will get new heroin. He obliges and sure enough Boyd's shipment is hijacked and the men guarding it are killed.
** One would think that a mob boss like Sammy Tonin knew how to keep his mouth shut about the murder he committed. However, Sammy has gone through a VillainousBreakdown and is high on drugs most of the time. He brag to his business partners about the murder and how he had help from a federal agent. One of those business partners gets arrested and trades that information to the cops.

** A wandering minister turns out to be a British spy. He exploits the fact that the American soldiers will talk freely with a man of the cloth and he passes any information he gleams to the British. In turn, he is discovered because a British officer talks about this in a public tavern where an Amarican spy overhears it.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' has this trope used to rather devastating effect against its invoker. After a fight, [[BadBoss Hazama]] tells [[PluckyGirl Makoto]], in no uncertain terms, about [[MadScientist Relius Clover's]] "random and untoward" interest in her before making an attempt on her life (and [[HarmlessFreezing getting frozen by Jin for it]]). He ''really'' should have picked a better compliment in hindsight. [[labelnote:Why?]]Hazama sends Relius after Makoto, and he eventually 'escorts' Jin out of Ronin-gai as bait. Bang's keen-eyed disciple spots the masked creeper and reports to his superior, who passes the info to Makoto - with this informatnion and Relius' mention in the report on Noel, she [[TakeAThirdOption chooses to send Bang after Jin (and Relius) while she attends to Noel and Tsubaki]]. The long-term consequences are still being explored, but without Relius to restrain her, [[SpannerInTheWorks Hazama's plans fell apart soon after]].[[/labelnote]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/CentralPark'', Season 1 "[[Recap/CentralParkS1E6RivalBusker Rival Busker]]", Paige is able to get a tip about Bitsy's activities when Doug sees Bitsy greet Dmitry at her hotel and Dmitry tells her he looks forward to see Bitsy's secret ballroom, which Bitsy points out it's not a secret anymore since he said it out loud. After they enter the hotel, Doug calls Paige and tells her about it.

** As a general rule, war correspondents are supposed to avert this by saying things like "This is John Smith, reporting from somewhere in X" rather than "This is John Smith, reporting from City Z in the nation of X" unless the story being reported is the fact that they just took Z, to keep anyone on the other side who is listening in to the broadcast to figure out where there enemies are.

* In ''Disney/{{Cinderella}}'', a subtle example is when the titular character becomes star-struck upon learning that the man she danced with at the ball was the prince and that he was looking for her. She becomes so distracted that she forgets to use discretion when preparing for his arrival (dancing and humming to herself) that she unwittingly tips off her stepmother that she was the mystery girl at the ball.

See CannotKeepASecret for characters who tend to do this all the time.

* In ''Disney/{{Cinderella}}, the titular character becomes star-struck upon learning that the man she danced with at the ball was the prince and that he was looking for her. She becomes so distracted that she forgets to use discretion when preparing for his arrival (dancing and humming to herself) that she unwittingly tips off her stepmother that she was the mystery girl at the ball.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' has this trope used to rather devastating effect against its invoker. After a fight, [[BadBoss Hazama]] tells [[PluckyGirl Makoto]], in no uncertain terms, about [[MadScientist Relius Clover's]] "random and untoward" interest in her before making an attempt on her life (and [[HarmlessFreezing getting frozen by Jin for it]]). He ''really'' should have picked a better compliment in hindsight. [[labelnote:Why?]]Hazama sends Relius after Makoto, and he eventually 'escorts' Jin out of Ronin-gai as bait. Bang's keen-eyed disciple spots the masked creeper and reports to his superior, who passes the info to Makoto - with this informatnion and Relius' mention in the report on Noel, she [[TakeAThirdOption chooses to send Bang after Jin (and Relius) while she attends to Noel and]] [[HeroesLoveRedheads Tsubaki]]. The long-term consequences are still being explored, but without Relius to restrain her, [[SpannerInTheWorks Hazama's plans fell apart soon after]].[[/labelnote]]

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', a flashback to the night of the eponymous character's birth shows Kakashi talking to [[spoiler: Rin's]] grave, wherein he talks about said information. Unbeknownst to him, [[spoiler: [[EvilFormerFriend Obito]]]], who Kakashi believes to be dead, is eavesdropping, and learns the secret -- after which he [[spoiler: tries to kill Naruto, then unleashes the Kyubi.]]

Because TechnologyMarchesOn, it's even easier than ever to get people killed by running your mouth off, thanks to websites such as Website/LiveJournal, {{Website/Facebook}}, [[HomePage TVTropes]], and [[{{Wiki/Wikipedia}} that other wiki]]. Always beware that when you talk about something that is privileged or secret, you might as well be standing on a roof top with a big sign and a megaphone.

* Twice in ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'':

* In the 2005 film of ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicRoundabout'', after being captured and imprisoned by Zeebad, Dougal unwittingly mentions about the map whilst being questioned by Zeebad, giving the villain the information. Much later, Zeebad corners the group and forces them to give up the map after taking the first diamond.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/StarComUSSpaceForce'' revolved around this. When Cadet Flash Moskowitz learns that he’ll be accompanying Dash and Slim on a trip to Mars and Saturn, he boasts about it on the academy message boards, getting the attention of Shadow Force spies. After later learning that they’re transporting a prototype oscillation hyper thruster to Saturn, Flash happily shares this classified information with the first person to bump into him on the street: a disguised Shadow Force general.

A real danger, even if you don't live in a CityOfSpies, particularly if you unwittingly work near TheMole or are the target of a HoneyTrap (a warning commonly given to members of the military when they are going out into town: [[TheSchlubPubSeductionDeduction "If a girl acts interested in you, and if you're ugly, then it's a trick."]])

* Creator/TomHolland has gotten a reputation for spilling secrets for movies he's in. It's gotten so bad that he wasn't allowed to read the whole script for ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''. The directors, the Russo brothers, joke [[spoiler:about allowing him to improvise his death scene was the only way to keep him from spoiling it.]] He spoiled that he was staring in the film adaptation of ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' by posting a picture of himself playing the games "for research" to Instagram. His casting has yet to be officially confirmed by Creator/{{Sony}}. He even spoiled the plot of ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'' to Creator/ChrisPratt despite Pratt being the star of the movie.

* "Loose lips sink ships" is in the chorus of "Slip Of The Lip" by Ratt.

* ''Film/TheSumOfAllFears'' movie has one nuclear scientist's mom giving away some information to Clark that allows him to find the terrorist's nuclear production area.

* Briefly comes up in ''Film/WarGames'', after David and Jennifer find out they accidentally hacked into NORAD and almost caused ANuclearError. After Jennifer gives a speech about how they won't be suspected if they act normal:
-->'''Jennifer''': [[HypocriticalHumor Oh God, this is so unbelievable! Listen, do you think maybe I could call Michelle and tell her?]]\\
'''David''': NO, JENNIFER, DON'T CALL HER!\\
'''Jennifer''': Sorry. All right, I won't.