Double Don't Know

This trope is under discussion in the Trope Repair Shop.

Interviewer: How do you think your fans will react [now that you're returning to playing golf after being treated for sex addiction]?
Tiger Woods: I don't know. I don't know.

— Interview, March 22, 2010

A ubiquitous utterance in film, television, and the legitimate theatre, signifying that the protagonist is (dramatically) out of ideas. For real, this time.

Whereas in Real Life, most of us are content to say "I don't know" once, if at all, fictional characters are likely to repeat the phrase for dramatic effect. It's a common act break, being almost magnetically attracted to music stings and commercial breaks.

Although there are several variations of the Double Don't Know, there are a few particularly common breeds. Samples, with context:

After-School Specials

Concerned Parent: But what about the Mid-Winter Sophomore Diversity Dance Social?
Troubled Teen: I don't know anymore... I just don't know!
[runs away, slamming any doors in her path]

Sci-Fi

Guy At Console: The ship's glowy core thing is bright red and leaking smoke for some reason! And stuff is shaking — that means this is serious, captain. What should we do!
Captain: I don't know, Console Guy. I don't know.
[close-up of pulsating space-gas blob on the view screen]

The Double Don't Know is closely related to One-Liner, Name... One-Liner — which is made of simple, repetitive phrases used to provide closure to a scene or plot, including but not limited to: "I do, Billy. I really do," or, "It sure is, Billy. It sure is." etc. This variation is mostly a Dead Horse Trope, though the namesake phrase lingers on.

This is a stock phrase trope. It has nothing to do with "what now?" cliffhangers that don't feature repetitive statements akin to those described above. It's also unrelated to Donald Rumsfeld's famous Unknown Unknowns — "the things we don't know we don't know".

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Examples...or maybe not. We don't know. We just don't know!

Audio Dramas

• In the Big Finish Doctor Who drama Bang-Bang-a-Boom!, Dr. Fassbender — the science officer on Dark Space Eight — responds to every problem presented to him with "I don't know... I just don't know." It turns out that he never knows because he's The Alcoholic, and whatever scientific expertise he started with is long forgotten.

Fan Works

• From Spots Off, after Adrien and Alya see Marinette's identity being reported on the morning news:
  Adrien: Alya, I'm gonna go visit her. Do... do you think that would help?
  Alya: I don't know Adrien, I just don't know. I don't know how to help her anymore...

Film — Animation

• In Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Bruce has yet to become Batman, and is torn between fulfilling his promise to his parents and his new love Andrea Beaumont. He knows that he can't risk his life if someone is waiting at home for him. Alfred walks in and suggests that he tell her so, as she's on the phone.
  Bruce: Alfred, I can't. Not now.
  Alfred: What shall I say, sir?
  Bruce: I... don't know. I just don't know! [punches the wall]
• In Kung Fu Panda, after Shifu is finally persuaded to train the (by now thoroughly demoralized) Po:
  Po: How are you gonna turn THIS into the Dragon Warrior? How? How?!
  Shifu: I DON'T KNOW! [Beat] ...I don't know.

Film — Live-Action

• In Barbarians At The Gate, a fictionalized account of a real event, Henry Kravitz is explaining to his wife Caroline about his attempt to buy the RJR Nabisco conglomerate in a leveraged buy out in competitiion with F. Ross Johnson, RJR's CEO. Kravitz thinks Johnson is stalling and is not complying with legal requirements.
  Henry: They're absolutely stonewalling us... There's no way for George and me can come up with a realistic bid for the company without knowing its true value. And the law says Johnson's people have to cooperate with would-be buyers. They have to tell us all they know about the company's assets, their liabilities, where it's healthy, where it's not. Now, out of fear, or loyalty, or acting on Johnson's orders, I don't know, but not one of them will tell us a thing. We've got less than a week to make an offer, we're flying totally blind.
  Caroline: Do you honestly need Nabisco, Henry? Aren't there other companies that'd make you just as happy?
  Henry: It's not the company... it's the credibility. My credibilty. I can't just sit on the bench and let other people play the game. Not My game. Not with their rules.
  Caroline: So coach, what are you going to do?
  Henry: I don't know. I just... don't... know.
• Central Station: Dora and Josue are stuck in some dumpy town, flat broke and hungry after Josue left their bag with their money on the train. After Josue asks what they're going to do, Dora flips out and says "I don't know! I don't know! Your parents should never have had you!" She regrets it instantly but that doesn't stop Josue from running away.
• In The Enforcer, one of the terrorists wants to know something, prompting a tripled variant:
  Bobby: Did Wanda deliver the [ransom note] tape to the cops?
  Lalo: I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I wasn't with her.
• In Escape from the Planet of the Apes, a presidential advisor has discovered from them that one day apes will become sentient, and the world will be destroyed in the year 3955, so he tells the President of the United States that to prevent a Stable Time Loop, he should have the two chimpanzees from the future (Cornelius and Zira) killed.
  President: Convince me.
  Dr. Hasslein: By their own testimony, we know that one day, apes will acquire the power of intelligent speech. By Zira's testimony, we know she's pregnant with a child. By my own testimony, we know it's possible for this child — provided, of course, that we permit its birth — to bear or beget a talking ape with a dumb one... in a present-day jungle or a present-day zoo.
  President: But do you believe, by deliberate present-day action, we can neutralize that possibility, that we can alter the future?
  Dr. Hasslein: Yes, Mr. President, I do.
  President: Do you also believe that we should? Given the power to alter the future, have we the right to use it?
  Dr. Hasslein: I don't know. I've wrestled with this, Mr. President, I just don't know.
• In Ghostbusters (1984), after being fired from the University:
  Ray: This ecto-containment unit that Spengler and I talked about is going to take a load of bread to capitalize. Where are we going to get the money?
  Peter: [takes a swig from a bottle] I don't know, Ray. I don't know...
• In Hellfighters, Chance tells Madeline that Greg, who took over the company, is in trouble and Chance is going to have to go help him. He admits this was bound to happen, and if it happens again, he'll go. Chance's work putting out oil fires is what broke up their first marriage; how does she feel this will affect things?
  Madeline: I don't know. I honestly don't know.
• In JFK, after the team views David Ferrie's body. Garrison begins walking away, dejected at losing the prosecution's best witness to the conspiracy. "Where you goin', Boss?" Bill calls after him. Garrison replies, "I don't know, Bill. I just... don't... know." (In the two-tape set of the Director's Cut on VHS, Tape 1 ended immediately after this line. Thus, it actually served as the Act Break while the viewer switched tapes.)
• In Lord of War, a triple version:
  Yuri: I need a partner.
  Vitaly: I don't know. I don't know, Yuri. I don't know.
• This happens in the film version of The Sound of Music. When the Von Trapp family sits down to dinner, Captain Von Trapp announces that he's going away on yet another trip, to groans from his children. Gretl asks "How long will you be gone this time, Father?" and Captain Von Trapp says "I'm not sure, Gretl, not sure."
• In The Sum of All Fears, the US President was whisked out of the Baltimore football stadium before a nuclear bomb goes off. His aide asks:
  Gene: Mr. President, are you all right?
  President: Jesus, Gene, how do you think I am? How many casualties?
  Gene: We don't know.
  President: Cabot said it was Russian. How the hell did it get in there?
  Gene: We don't know. Radar didn't pick it up, so we know it wasn't a missile.
  President: How is Cabot? Where is he?
  Gene: I don't know.
  President: Well what do you know?
  Gene: I don't know, all right, I don't know.
  President: All right,all right.
  Gene: I don't know, for Christ's sake!
• The Terminator: When Kyle and Sarah are on the run from the Terminator, she asks him if he can stop it.
  Sarah: Can you stop it?
  Reese: I dunno. With these weapons... I dunno.
• Top Gun, as the classic '80s Cliché Storm, features this, though in a slightly different way than might be expected.
  Viper: Would you wanna fly with him?
  Jester: I dunno. I just don't know.

Literature

• In Arthur Hailey's book In High Places, there are two.
  • Alan Maitland is lawyer for Henri Duval, who is a stowaway on a freighter who has no papers, and thus, no country will admit him. Maitland has been trying to find a way to allow Henri to be admitted to Canada. Dan Orliffe, a local reporter covering the story, mentions that Prime Minister Howden will be arriving in town and that his newspaper could arrange for Maitland to meet him. As desperate as Maitland is to get Henri admitted, he's not sure if he should.
    Dan Orliffe's face had a studied earnestness. "Everybody has an angle, but you and I would be helping each other, and Duval too. Besides, with that kind of advance publicity Howden wouldn't dare refuse."
    "I don't know, I just don't know." Standing up, tiredly, Alan thought, what was the point of it all?
  • Brian Richardson, the manager of the Political Party who the Prime Minister of Canada belongs to, has asked the Prime Minister's secretary, Millie, to marry him. She's not sure if it will work.
    "If only it were that simple," Millie sighed.
    He said defiantly, "We can make it that simple."
    Unhappily she answered, "Brian, darling, I don't know. Honestly, I don't know."
    Or do I know? she thought.
• In Lost Mission, the first book of Daniel Young and Joshua James' nine-volume Oblivion series, a group of discredited ex-police and ex-military members has discovered that a death-worshipping religious cult named the Oblivion has shapeshifters disguised as people so they can fit in, either massacring dozens or hundreds at a time or committing suicide bombings that the shapeshifters themselves will not be killed by, allowing them to then go on to kill more people. This discovery (plus the things they did to find out) has made their group wanted fugitives. Worse, the people they're going to rendezvous with off-world are untrustworthy and will probably come after them too, so they have nowhere to go. Ben gives the other members of the group an excuse as to why they should go on a search mission to find the military ship captained by his father, which has gone missing:
  He looked at Ace, then at Morgan, wondering if either of them would guess what he was about to say. "We can go find the Atlas."
  "Those coordinates are classified," Morgan said.
  Ben hesitated. "I might have looked up a few other things while I had classified access." He paused. "Things that would get me flagged, and that I wouldn't go near if I didn't know I was leaving the planet and never coming back."
  "Damn, son," Ace said. "Ballsy. But I still don't see why we're going after the Atlas."
  Because my father is still alive. I know it. "Because if they really were sabotaged by the Oblivion and attacked by their alien friends, they might be the only people in the UEF that would actually believe us."
  "If any of them are alive. Didn't you see what those shapeshifters can do?" Ace asked.
  Ben raised his prosthetic arm. "Yeah, I know what they can do."
  "I just think it's risky."
  "Where would you rather go?" Morgan asked.
  Ace sat back, unhappy. "I don't know, man. I don't know."
• Clint McCullough's novel Nevada has several:
  • After Meade discovers that his Uncle Charlie knew that Meade's wife was unfaithful (at least a year before Meade found out), he asks Charlie who the guy was:
    Charlie had been dreading the question, even more the answer. He hesitated for a moment, then blurted out, "Damnit, I don't know!" His voice trailed off. "I don't know."
  • Meade has his rival at gunpoint, and wants to know how he got Meade's son David hooked on drugs.
    "I don't know! I don't know!" Tony Giuliano shouted in his terror.
  • Reese, Meade's son from a relationship with a woman who left him without telling him she was pregnant, has come back to see Meade (without letting Meade know he is Meade's son), and Smitty, one of Meade's closest friends who realized it as soon as he saw Reese, is trying to talk him into working for Meade, and that while Meade will feel blood ties, he'll never guess Reese is his son. Reese isn't so convinced:
    Stretching his long legs, Reese rested his head against the cushion. "I don't know, Smitty," he said, staring at the ceiling. "I just don't know.'"
• In another of Arthur Hailey's books, Overload, Nimrod Goldman — a vice president of Golden State Power and Light (a Fictional Counterpart of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company) — has evidence that another executive — a former U.S. Supreme Court Justice — lied when he said he knew nothing about electric power theft, and probably was aware (although it can't be proven) that such thefts were occurring on a ranch his family owns. The head of the utility's Property Protection Department asks him if they are going to continue trying to keep the former Justice's name out of the newspapers as being potentially involved in thefts from his own employer:
  "I don't know." Nim sighed. "I simply don't know. And, in any case, it won't be my decision."
• In Red Planet, the new headmaster at the only high school on Mars has posted an announcement on the bulletin board that all student rooms must be neat and orderly, and that inspections will be done weekly by him personally, instead of each floor monitor handling the issue. The change is not appreciated.
  "What's the idea? He must think this is a school of correction!"
  Frank turned to one of the older students who had, until now, been monitor of their corridor. "Anderson! What do you think about it? Can he do that?"
  "I don't know. I really don't know."
• Happens by accident in The Stand. Near the end, one character is asked, on the other side of The End of the World as We Know It, if she believes whether "people ever learn anything". She says, "I don't know," then pauses. Stephen King spent a good month trying to come up with an answer, couldn't, and had her repeat herself.
• In Time for the Stars, Tom Bartlett — an identical twin with his brother Pat — has discovered through testing by the Long Range Foundation that they communicate telepathically, and the foundation has offered them a lucrative contract as communication specialists, in which one will get to go in a spaceship to the stars to collect information about planets they reach while the other stays home. Tom is unhappy because Pat arranged to sign the contract last, making him the one who gets to go to space. Tom wonders to himself in his journal if Pat did this deliberately and whether he would have done so himself.
  Was Pat trying to put one over on me right then? If so, I didn't catch him wording his thoughts. Contrariwise, would I have tried the same thing on him if I had thought of it? I don't know, I just don't know.
• In the Warrior Cats book The Darkest Hour, Bramblepaw asks Firestar whether Sorrelkit, who has just eaten poisonous berries, will survive.
  Firestar let out a long breath. "I don't know, Bramblepaw," he admitted. "I just don't know."

Live-Action TV

• Inverted in Babylon 5:
  Ivanova: I've always had trouble getting up when it's dark outside.
  Sinclair: But in space, it's always dark.
  Ivanova: I know. [softly] I know.
• In Band of Brothers, when Easy Company advances into Foy and Lieutenant Dike completely loses his cool, he's surrounded by subordinates demanding to know, "What are your orders, sir?" and wails back, "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!"
• Bosch: In the episode "Blood Under the Bridge", Robertson (who is investigating the Gunn murder) talks to Edgar. He first states that he thinks Bosch is being framed. He next says that maybe, to put heat on someone else, Bosch is framing himself. Edgar shuts him down with "Never." Robertson says to him, "You don't know, youngblood, you don't know."
• The theme song of Corner Gas goes, in part: "I don't know, the same things you don't know. I don't know, I just don't know."
• In Hill Street Blues Season 3, Episode 11, "No Body's Perfect," Nate, a trainee police officer, is talking to his partner who has had years in the precinct, after a harrowing pursuit including where the perpetrator held Nate hostage before Nate knocked him down and captured him, about is misgivings.
  Nate: I don't think I'm cut out to be a police officer. I'm gonna quit.
  Bobby: That's up to you, Nate. But if you do, don't do it because you think you're a coward. There's all kinds of bravery, brother, and you're showing me a lot of it right now.
  Nate: I don't know, I just don't know.
• Parodied in the "Killer Sheep" sketch of Monty Python's Flying Circus by having a scientist ramble "I just don't know. I really just don't know. I'm afraid I really just don't know," and so on.
• In Revolution, a guy has a mook on a table and asks him where his son is. "I don't know. I swear I don't know." The mook makes several promises, but still can't tell the man where his son is. The man says "Okay", then gives the mook a lethal injection.
• In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Ultimate Computer", when it becomes evident that the M-5 computer is dangerously out of control:
  Daystrom: I really don't know how to get to the M-5, Kirk. I really... do not know.
• A sample exchange from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Battle":
  Beverly: You had no choice.
  Picard: Didn't I? I don't know anymore... I just don't know.
• In the Season 8 finale of Suits, Thomas, a furniture manufacturer owner (and Donna's current love interest) has a handshake agreement to sell furniture to all of a real estate client's shopping malls, is going to betray Thomas' company by using them as a stalking horse for getting better terms from a competing manufacturer. Donna, not knowing what has happened, sees Harvey's face and queries him. He admits what is happening but asks her to wait while he tries to arrange a replacement deal. Donna goes on her date, and Thomas tells her about how he got a really sweet deal from his current landlord, but this offer is only good until noon tomorrow. Worried he might get no deal at all, Donna tells him what's happening. He immediately takes the current offer and puts out a press release. The mall company is going to sue them for violating privilege. Louis wants to know how this happened:
  Louis: Why couldn't Donna just wait for you?
  Harvey: I don't know, Louis, I just don't know.
• In the Supernatural episode "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One", Sam replies twice with "I don't know" when Andy asks him where they are.
• WandaVision: A justified version, as they're answers to multiple questions about which there is insufficient information.
  Hayward: [regarding the TV broadcast] Is it happening in real time? Is it recorded, fabricated?
  Darcy: I don't know, I don't know, and I don't know.

Music

• From The Beatles' "Something": "You're asking me, will my love grow? I don't know! I don't know!"
• The chorus of Kasabian's "Where Did All the Love Go?" goes thusly:
  Where did all the love go?
  I don't know, I don't know
• Shows up in the Stevie Wonder song "Lately", which is about the period between an affair and the resulting breakup.
  Far more frequently you're wearing perfume
  With, you say, no special place to go
  But when I ask "Will you be coming back soon?"
  You don't know, never know...

Western Animation

• A Charlie Brown Christmas: After failing to get the cast of the play to focus, Charlie Brown is sent out to get a Christmas tree for the play. As he walks out the door with Linus, Charlie Brown says "I don't know, Linus. I just don't know."
• In Futurama, Amy and Hermes after watching All My Circuits:
  Amy: Do you think Calculon's Evil Twin will ever walk again?
  Hermes: I don't know, Amy. I just don't know.
• In the Jonny Quest episode "The Robot Spy", Doctor Quest is puzzled by the appearance of the titular device in its hidden form.
  Jonny: What is it, Dad?
  Dr. Quest: I don't know, Jonny, I really don't know!
• Robot Chicken: In the final sketch of "Some Like It Hitman", which gives an explanation for the absence of Della Duck, Donald's nephews ask him when they can see their mother again.
  Donald: I don't know, boys. I just don't know.

Real Life

• In the court case of Perry v. Hollingsworth, which attempts to strike down California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriages, the court's decision had the following:
  At oral argument on proponents' motion for summary judgment, the court posed to proponents' counsel the assumption that "the state's interest in marriage is procreative" and inquired how permitting same-sex marriage impairs or adversely affects that interest. Counsel replied that the inquiry was "not the legally relevant question," but when pressed for an answer, counsel replied: "Your honor, my answer is: I don't know. I don't know."
• John McCain spoke on November 5, 2008 at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix, Arizona, when he conceded the Presidential election to Barack Obama:
  "I don't know. [interrupted by applause] I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election."
• Canadian Professor Jordan Peterson was asked whether he believes in the Christian concept that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He said, "The literal resurrection? I don't know. I don't know."
• In an interview at New York's 92Y, Gene Wilder tells how Mel Brooks called him after finding out that Gene had written a treatment for what would become the movie Young Frankenstein. "What did you get me involved in?" "Nothing you don't want to be." "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know."
• In an MSN reprint of an article in the December 7, 2019 Washington Post titled "Texans on southern border vow to fight Trump's efforts to take their homes for border wall", about attempts by the Trump Administration's Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security to secure access to (and, in some cases, ownership of) land along the southern border for a border wall, Rocio Trevino, a Texas homeowner whose property the government wanted to survey, was interviewed for the article:
  Trevino voted for Trump and agrees that the nation needs to secure the border — the family has hurricane shutters over every window and door for security — but she is exasperated by the uncertainty and unresponsiveness of the process involving her property.
  "What bothered me most is every time I asked a question, the government responded with, 'We don't know. We don't know,'" she said.
• In episode 516 of the Freakonomics podcast "Roland Fryer Refuses to Lie to Black America", Harvard economics professor Roland Fryer (who is black) released a controversial study on police use of force, using federally collected data and data from 10 cities, showing that while police do tend to use force on blacks more than on whites, as far as police shootings are concerned, "What we found there was no racial differences whatsoever in lethal uses of force." He tried to convince federal officials to change some practices both to get better reporting, and to incentivize ways to make local law enforcement use of force less likely. He did not have much success:
  Fryer: And to start doing these things where we can potentially look at tying federal resources to police collecting the right data, etc. And just none of it happened. I just failed.
  Freakonomics interviewer Stephen Dubner: Because why? Because that's just how it works in government — is that the easiest answer?
  Fryer: I don't know. Maybe it's, "I suck." I don’t know. I really don't know. But it was extraordinarily frustrating to me because this is something that matters so much. And it felt like there was a wedge to really make progress.
• We have a double Double Don't Know starting at about 1:15 in a YouTube video found here, Steve Lehto, a lawyer in Michigan, read a report of a false document allgedly submitted to the United States Supreme Court:
  Interestingly, after reading [ADF Legal's] statement...they still admit that what was presented to the court may have been fake, they don't know, they don't know. They're just saying they didn't do it, and are upset that people have insinuated that they did do it. However, we don't know who did it, but somebody submitted something that got into the court record, and the person it is attributed to, says "I never did that." And as the ADF Legal points out, "it could be that guy did submit it. and won't admit it. We don't know, we don't know."

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Statler: Can you think of anything that would make that last show something other than completely worthless?
Waldorf: I don't know, Statler, I just don't know!
Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!

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