Acquaintance Denial

Miss Midge: Zoe, do you know this rodent?
Zoe: Um... no.
Miss Midge: Zoe, that rat just climbed into your pocket. It's pretty clear that this filthy beast is your pet.

— Ratburger

This trope is for when someone tries to avoid embarrassment or judgement by pretending not to know a friend, relative, or other acquaintance, who's really in for it.

For instance, maybe the character has done something stupid, illegal, or heinous, and the other character doesn't want to be associated with someone who did that for fear of being scorned. Or perhaps, one character is dorky, nutty, clumsy, stupid, evil, mean, or unpopular and the second character doesn't want to be associated with someone like that. Maybe they're in denial about liking the other person. Maybe they're just easily embarrassed (especially if they're a child or teen, and extra especially in regards to their parents).

If the other character hears the person make Acquaintance Denial, expect them to be either offended or oblivious depending on their personality. It may lead to An Aesop about accepting people for who they are.

Compare Friendship Denial (when a character acknowledges they know someone but refuses to consider them their friend) and I Have No Son! (when a character outright disowns a relative). Related to With Friends Like These..., Selective Obliviousness, and Loser Friend Puzzles Outsiders and sometimes overlaps with Suspiciously Specific Denial or Blatant Lies. May happen to try and defy Sins of Our Fathers. Subtrope of We Do Not Know Each Other. Often played for Cringe Comedy.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Downplayed in Chapter 125. Kusuri and Kishika's classmates notice the two of them are close to one another, which leads to Kusuri letting slip that they're dating the same boy. Kishika tries to deny the spreading rumors, which prompts Kusuri to concoct a drug to erase their memories of what she told them. After cleaning up some unintended side effects of the drug, Kishika decides to come clean about their boyfriend, though Kusuri still lets slip some of their bizarre adventures.
• Chibi Maruko-chan: In episode 297, Maruko does the Potty Dance while she's going up on stage to claim her reward during an assembly. A girl asks Sakiko if that's her sister, and Sakiko awkwardly denies this.
• The Dangers in My Heart: Normally it’s downplayed. It’s no secret that Ichikawa and Yamada are friends, but they still downplay how their interactions so that it doesn’t seem like they’re closer than that. (Which they might as well be)
  • Still Downplayed, but also Deconstructed in Chapter 58. Ichikawa’s teacher suggests having Yamada help him out throughout school, since Ichikawa broke his arm in winter break. Not wanting to trouble her, Ichikawa denies help and says he isn’t that close to a Yamada … who he finds out was just listening. She gives him the cold shoulder for the rest of the day, but secretly still helps him anyway by having Adachi give Ichikawa his notes (since her handwriting sucks). Ichikawa later apologizes after school, with some prodding from her so he's specific about it.
• The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan: Episode 7, "Wish", Haruhi is trying to untilize a "Power Spot", having Koizumi toss a bundle of incense into a smoker once a minute. Asakura is trying to drag her away, with much noise and commotion. Yuki asks if they should intervene, and Kyon says no, they should pretend they don't even know them. Mikuru agrees with Kyon.
• Dropkick on My Devil: In episode 11 of X, Jashin-chan pretends to forget that she was summoned by Yurine, to prevent Ecute and Atre from going into her house and turning her into a vampire. It fails.
• In one Kengan Ashura Yonkoma, Rihito and Okubo get themselves drunk while hanging out with Himuro and Kaneda, then starts going nude. When the two are arrested, Himuro is shown telling the police that he's never met the other two before.
• A quick gag in Ranma ½ has Genma and Soun making fool of themselves on the street with their usual hammy antics, just as Nabiki, hanging out with some other girls from the school, is passing by. One of her friends asks her if that isn't her father, while Nabiki is ignoring them and pretends she'd never met them.
• School Rumble: While cleaning the pool, Fuyuki starts snapping pics of the girls of class 2-C. Hanai tries to stop him, only to get suckered in when Fuyuki reveals he has candids of Yakumo. Akira asks Mikoto if she can see her dojo partner embarrassing himself. Mikoto denies even knowing Hanai at that point.

Comic Books

• In The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Scrooge tries to capture the McViper brothers who had stolen a bull from Scrooge's boss. He accidentally gets one of them tied to a grizzly, and when the tangled brother tries to get his sibling to help him, the latter refuses because he's too busy running away from the bear.
  Snake-Eyes: Save me, Haggis! I'm your own brother!
  Haggis: I've never seen you before! Go away!

Comic Strips

• Foxtrot: When Roger Fox is acting embarrassing in a yoga class, his wife Andy tells him that she is "pretending not to know you".
• Garfield: In one strip, Jon asks about Irma's ribs and she says they're ticklish. When Jon clarifies that he's talking about beef ribs, Irma claims to have never tickled a cow and Jon says it's a fun experience. Garfield says, "I'm not with this man."
• Knights of the Dinner Table: Sara occasionally announces that her character is distancing herself from the Untouchable Trio when the latter are doing something particularly stupid (such as one early story where Bob and Dave decide to have their characters cop an attitude about bowing to the local king).

Fan Works

• In The BronyCon Reevaluation, in which The Big Bang Theory gang attends a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic convention, Stuart receives a text from Wil Wheaton, who apparently attempted to reconnect with old co-star John de Lancie in order to get the gang better seats at a panel discussion at the convention, only for de Lancie to claim to have no idea who Wheaton is.
• In The Contest, when Fluttershy walks onto the stage, Rarity shatters the silence by cheering loudly, only to trail off as the whole crowd turns to glare at her. Twilight, who is next to her, sinks into her seat in mortification. The announcers issue a reminder about the rules regarding noise levels, and Twilight turns to the pony on her other side and whispers, "I don't really know her."

Films — Animation

• Luca: Played for Drama. Luca and Alberto are both sea monsters, who can appear as humans when their skin is dry. When some humans who hate sea monsters see Alberto (in sea monster form), Luca (in human form) pretends to be scared of him and not know him so that the humans won't realise he's also a sea monster, which hurts Alberto's feelings.
• Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas: In the segment "Donald's Gift", when Donald gets caught wrecking the Christmas display at Mousy's in front of an audience of children.
  Dewey: Uncle Donald?
  Kid: He's your uncle?!
  Dewey: Him? Uh-uh. I've never seen him before! (hugs a man next to him) This is my uncle!
  Man: WHAT ARE THE ODDS!
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: When Jo of the Serpent Sisters foolishly makes fun of Big Jack Horner's nursery rhyme, her sister Jan tries to reassure "Mr. Big Jack Horner, sir" that she barely knows Jo, to which the latter says, "What do you mean? We're sisters, you goof. We got matching face tattoos."
• Rango: Played for laughs. When Ms. Beans finds Rango stranded in the middle of the desert and offers him a ride to the town of Dirt, she then asks him who is, which sends him into a long tirade of the many epithets he calls himself ^note "Rango" isn't his actual name and it's long after meeting Beans that he starts calling himself "Rango". She promptly drops him off outside of town to avoid being seen with him because of that, and a few other of his mannerisms that weirded her out a little, and when he later calls out to her just outside of the town's general goods store, the shopkeeper asks if she knows him, she sheepishly denies it.
  Rango: Hey Beans! Ms. Beans!
  Shopkeeper: You know that there fella?
  Beans: ...Noooooope.

Films — Live-Action

• Thor: Ragnarok: When Loki discovers his brother Thor has been captured by the Grandmaster, he denies knowing Thor as Loki had spent weeks trying to curry favor with the Grandmaster and doesn't want to risk it all being associated with a prisoner.
  Loki: I've never met this man in my life.

Literature

• American Girls Collection: In "A Smart Girl's Guide to Knowing What to Say", one hypothetical scenario involves the reader needing to apologise to her brother John after pretending not to know him because he's nerdy.
• Once, while in the opera with his mistress Clotilde, Georges Duval of Bel-Ami feign to not recognise Rachel, a prostitute whose he's an usual client, not returning the discred salute she made to him. As a result, Rachel publicly chew him and Clotilde abandon him.
• In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, "Old School" has Mrs. Heffley make a petition to shut off electricity for a day. Her son Greg finds this embarrassing and pretends that they're not related.
• Ratburger: When Armitage, Zoe's pet rat, is first discovered, she tries to deny that he's her pet to avoid trouble (since the school doesn't allow pets). However, it proves pretty futile considering just before she said that, he climbed into her pocket.
• In the first Red Dwarf novel, Lister first meets Rimmer when the former is driving a (stolen) taxi cab and the latter hires the taxi to take him to an android brothel while (ineffectually) pretending to be a high-ranking officer. For various embarrassing reasons, when Lister is later "introduced" to Rimmer as his subordinate, Rimmer pretends not to know Lister.
• In Sweet Tooth, a boy named Stewart eats part of the wedding cake before it's cut. His parents claim they don't know him out of embarrassment.

Live-Action TV

• Crashing (UK): Subverted Trope. While being partners on a scavenger hunt, strangers Sam and Fred seem to be becoming friends. The next day, Fred greets Sam in passing and Sam bluntly ignores him for a moment, before turning around and (in an overzealous but good-natured way) ribbing Fred for looking so sad about being ignored then asking him to hang out.
• Family Matters: Waldo is able to get Immature to perform at their prom because he is related to one of the members. His only condition is that Waldo never tells anyone that they're related. Steve is able to figure it out due to a Borrowed Catchphrase.
• Home Improvement: One episode with Brad, Randy, and Mark getting in trouble for a prank they'd pulled on a bully earlier in the episode. The police show up at their home, at which point Tim and Jill deny having any knowledge of who they are once they find out what the kids did.
• House of Anubis: After a failed Twin Switch that culminated in both twins accidentally revealing themselves and humiliating a waiter, Mr. Sweet furiously states they both have some explaining to do. Patricia immediately claims that she has never seen Piper, her identical twin, before in her life. In a Funny Background Event, this was how Eddie was able to excitedly identify the ever-stubborn and sarcastic Patricia.
• Used twice in Intimate: When Leo and his boyfriend Florian meet Florian's prospective new roommate, he turns out to be Jonas, who Leo just had a one-night stand with. Jonas, unaware that Leo and Florian are a couple, greets them; Leo, trying to cover up his affair, then claims he must be confusing him for someone else, despite Jonas already having mentioned Leo's name. The gag gets repeated in a later episode where Bruno meets the daughter of the woman he's having an affair with; when she walks past him to greet his friend Oskar instead, Oskar tells her they don't know each other, but by that point Bruno has already realized he's clearly not the only one sleeping with the girl's mother.
• Jessie: In "Are You Cooler Than a 5th Grader?", Ravi goes to Luke's school for the first time and tries acting cool to get along with his brother's friends. But due to being more embarrassing than cool, Luke denies knowing Ravi, saying he is just his "dad's friend's cousin's dog's neighbor".
• Seinfeld: In "The Soup Nazi", Jerry and Sheila are waiting in line for soup when The Soup Nazi attempts to kick the two of them out for kissing. When Sheila makes a big fuss and gets in more trouble, she storms out and wants Jerry to go with her. Still wanting soup, he pretends not to know her.
• The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: In "Commercial Breaks", when the Martins are on line to audition for a Tipton commercial, and Carey recognizes the director as an ex-boyfriend.
  Carey: I can't believe it. I know that director! I once had a date with him!
  Cody: Remember to mention we're your kids.
  Carey: He hates me.
  Zack: And your name was...?
• Will & Grace: In "Will Works Out," Jack signs up for the gym where Will and Grace exercise. Will frequently uses his time at the gym to talk with clients, so when he sees the ultra-flamboyant Jack acting like his usual self, he pretends not to know him and later complains to Grace that he wishes Jack didn't act like "such a fag," which Jack inadvertently overhears. The next day, Jack tries to act more like a Straight Gay guy and challenges Will for being embarrassed at associating with gay people when he himself is gay; Will is forced to admit that Jack has a point and later introduces his latest client to Jack as a friend, also casually mentioning his own homosexuality in the process.

Mythology & Religion

• The Bible: The Book of Matthew, chapter 26, verse 34 has Jesus predict that when the Romans come to arrest Him, His disciples will desert Him. Peter claims that he will not abandon Jesus, but is foretold: "Before the cock crows, you will deny me thrice." Indeed, when Jesus is arrested, some bystanders point out that Peter is a known associate of Jesus. Peter, not wanting to be manhandled by a vindictive mob, denies knowing Him. "I tell you, I do not know the man." After his third denial, a rooster crows, and Peter realizes how feckless he'd been.

Tabletop Games

• 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide. Using your alignment language among strangers is considered "unmannerly, rude, boorish, and stupid." If someone is foolish enough to do so, anyone else of the same alignment will "totally ignore the character, not wishing to embarrass themselves by admitting any familiarity with the offender."

Theatre

• Happens in Henry IV, Part 2 when Hal, after being crowned King Henry V, rejects Falstaff, his former Sensei for Scoundrels who he no longer has any use for, with "I know thee not, old man".

Western Animation

• Arthur: In "Kids are from Earth, Parents are from Pluto", Binky's parents give him an embarrassing Affectionate Nickname in front of his friends. Binky denies knowing who they are.
  Binky: They're not my parents. They just look like them. I don't know who they are.
• Bluey: In "Dance Mode", the Heeler sisters make their mother Chilli dance across the crosswalk as part of the eponymous game. To avoid embarrassment, her husband Bandit claims he and the girls don't know her, much to Chilli's annoyance.
• In Daria, snotty Quinn is terrified that having Daria as a sister will endanger her social status so the two must pretend not to be sisters. In a late episode, Quinn finally softens and admits this to her friends. Her main rival tries to make a big stink over it, but the others, Stacy and Tiffani reply, "Oh, we knew. We were just being polite."
• Generation O!: A nonverbal version in "Damp Sheets". When Molly admits to a crowd of people that she wet the bed once, Buzz tears his surname off his name tag so no one will know that he's related to her.
• House of Mouse: In the short "Mickey's April Fools", Mickey tries to prove his identity to a will executor after faking his death, and he brings in Donald to prove that he is, indeed, Mickey Mouse. After Donald has an Imagine Spot about living Mickey's glamorous life, he grins deviously and says, "Never seen him before!"
• The Replacements: In "London Calling", Todd and Riley enroll themselves in the Royal Spy Academy to be able to see C.A.R. again when he gets a teaching job there. When Riley sees C.A.R., she calls out to him, only to be chided for making a scene. She asks Todd why he would do that, only for Todd to block her from his view and act like he doesn't know her.
• The Simpsons:
  • "The Front" opens with Bart and Lisa watching Krusty's show and remarking on how he's trying to distance himself from his Jewish heritage. Then Homer runs in with a plunger stuck to his head and Bart and Lisa discuss what names they're going to take to distance themselves from him.
  • "Fan-ily Feud" has Homer and Bart's experience at a baseball game ruined due to a grand gesture by the fans of the pop sensation Ashlee Starling, who Homer doesn't know and Bart explains in a hushed tone that she's "a whiny pop singer for whiny girls who love to whine". After Homer badmouths Ashlee in an interview with Kent Brockman using these exact words, Bart stiltedly denies ever meeting Homer and that he's a huge fan of Ashlee. The reason for this is that Ashlee's fan army is highly vindictive and Bart didn't want to risk making them mad like Homer just did.
• South Park: In "Spontaneous Combustion", the boys put on a Passion Play at the church, and then parodied when Mr. Garrision denies being friends with Randy when he's blamed for causing an environmental crisis.

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