How Much Did You Hear?

Gandalf: What did you hear?! Speak!
Sam: N-nothing important! That is, I heard a good deal about a ring and a Dark Lord, and something about the end of the world...

— The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Alice and Bob are speaking to each other, and Alice tells something to Bob in confidence, only intending for it to be heard by Bob.

As she says it, Eve, a third party who may or may not be the topic of discussion, walks up behind Alice, within earshot.

Alice realizes that someone's behind her, sometimes when she sees Bob trying not to panic. Alice turns around and, red-faced, asks "Er... how long have you been standing there?"

This also works in more serious settings, where Alice is a villain. She blabs her evil intentions. Eve, the hero, responds: "Long enough for me to know what you're up to!" or the like.

In both scenarios, Bob is superfluous, as Alice can simply be just muttering to herself.

Related: Right Behind Me, Exact Eavesdropping and Accidental Declaration of Love.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• In Cowboy Bebop, Faye's conversation with Ein about her past life is overheard by Spike from a nearby bathroom.
  Faye: How long were you in there listening?
  Spike: Too long. Your story needs editing.
• In the English dub of Ranma ½ after Ranma defuses Ukyou's vengeful wrath by observing that she's cute.
  Akane: Ahem!
  Ranma: How much did you hear?

Fan Works

• Played with in Kyon: Big Damn Hero. Kyon discovers his sister eavesdropping Haruhi when she's outlining Mikuru the base of her plan for a polyamorous relationship. While Tsuruya wonders what she overheard, Haruhi doesn't really care about how much exactly she knows: she just cares that she doesn't tell anybody else.
• In the Pony POV Series 7 Dreams/Nightmares side-collection, Twilight asks this of Zecora after it's discovered she was listening to Twilight, Pinkie, and Luna read Bonbon the First's journal and thus about the G2 and G3 Apocalypses. The answer? All of it. Though it turns out Zecora isn't as freaked out as they expected; she already believed in Reincarnation, so now she just knows who she was reincarnated from (Ms. Hackney and Kimono).
• In the Star Trek: The Original Series fanfic Memories Born of Fire, when Kirk realizes Spock walked in on him getting scolded by Komack, he asks, "How long have you been standing there?" He had tried to keep the fact that he had disobeyed direct orders a secret.

Films — Animated

• In Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, after Manny, Diego, Crash, Eddie and Buck's "laughing-gas-trip" in The Chasm of Death.
  Manny: I'm not sure how much of that you could hear?
  Ellie: Oh I heard all of it.
• In The Spongebob Squarepants Movie during the trip to Shell City, SpongeBob decides to give up and go back home, telling Patrick that it's hopeless and that everyone is right about them only being kids. Only for Mindy to show up and warn them about what's going on in Bikini Bottom.
  SpongeBob: How much did you hear?
  Mindy: I heard enough.

Films — Live-Action

• Employed for a glurgescent moment in The Goonies, wherein the rest of the gang enter during Mikey's heart-to-ribcage talk with a very dead pirate.
• Was done in the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, as quoted above. Gandalf catches Sam outside the Baggins home, demands to know how much Sam heard and then has Sam accompany Frodo on his journey.
• Tom Hanks' son overhears Hanks talking about his college conquests in Sleepless in Seattle.
  Sam: What did you just hear me say?
  Jonah: (defiant) Six girls in college, maybe seven!
  Sam: Seven. EIGHT! Mary Kelly!
• Double Indemnity: As he is finishing his recorded confession of murder, Neff looks behind him to see Keyes standing in the doorway.
  Neff: How long you been standing there?
  Keyes: Long enough.
• Spaceballs:
  Dark Helmet: Did you see anything?
  Colonel Sandurz: No, sir! I didn't see you playing with your dolls again!
• It's a Wonderful Life: Annie, the Bailey family cook, eavesdrops on a conversation between George Bailey and his father. From the dialogue, it's implied that the Baileys are used to this from Annie:
  George: Pop, you want a shock? I think you're a great guy. (aside) Oh, did you hear that, Annie?
  Annie: I heard it. About time one of you lunkheads said it.
• In Adventures in Babysitting, Brad tells his younger sister, Sara, that he'll take back his labelling of Character/Thor as a "homo" if she doesn't tell Chris about the love poems he's written about her- not realizing that Chris is standing right behind the both of them to hear their entire conversation.

Literature

• In Astrid Lindgren's The Brothers Lionheart, this happens to Karl Lionheart. He overhears some of the bad guys talking at their campfire, while hiding in a cave. In reality he can hear quite a lot. When they find him the next morning, he claims to have slept all night and not heard anything. "You can't be serious", says one of the bad guys, "have you really not heard anything of our partying and singing last night?" Karl squirms: "Well, maybe I sorta heard you sing a bit" - and they release him to (what they think is) his home.
• Variation in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: After getting a big lesson on the situation in Narnia from Mr Beaver, the Pevensie children suddenly realize that Edmund is missing. The whole party then tries to remember how much he has heard, and thus will be telling to the Witch...
• In Ranger's Apprentice, Will gloats a little over the fact that Crowley, his superior, has been using the same hideout for the past three years to spy on his fellow Rangers.^note  As every Ranger is a Stealth Expert, they take great pleasure in sneaking up on and hiding from one another. Halt notes that while Crowley may be getting a little "long in the tooth," his silent movement skills are as good as ever, leading to a classic Right Behind Me moment.
  Will: He's standing behind me, isn't he?
  Halt: *nods*
  Will: He's been there for a while, hasn't he?
  Halt: *nods*
  Will: Is he...close enough to have heard what I said?
  Crowley: Oh, good grief, no. He's so old and decrepit these days he's as deaf as a post.

Live-Action TV

• In the Firefly episode "Heart of Gold," Inara engages in a confidential conversation with an associate of hers, and right after she finishes, she looks up and sighs, facing away from the door to her shuttle.
  Inara: I suppose you heard all of that?
  Mal: (leans in through the door) Only 'cause I was eavesdropping.
• Doctor Who had a variation of this in The Power of the Daleks, where a character overhears the Big Bad telling a colleague that said character has to be killed. What he doesn't know is that the Big Bad has his colleague more or less at gunpoint.
  • Happens benignly in Into the Dalek as Danny Pink is berating himself over what he should have said to Clara, she reveals her presence and that she heard a lot of what he was saying, and is fine with accepting the revised version.
• In an episode of The Nanny, Max is talking to Fran about something confidential. When he's done he presses the intercom button and asks "Your big fat ears catch all that, Niles?"
  • It's a running joke that Niles knows about everything going on in the house long before anyone else does by eavesdropping.
• In an episode of Community, Abed, in an attempt to mess with Troy's head, is pretending to be an undercover alien. At one point he pretends to send transmissions while hiding behind a bush that Troy is sure to walk past. When Troy comes by and overhears him, Abed asks "how long have you been standing there?" to further the illusion that he's hiding something.
• In How I Met Your Mother, Robin catches Ted playing with his model of the Empire State Building.
  Robin: Ted? Are you reenacting the last scene of Sleepless in Seattle with little dolls?
  Ted: How long have you been standing there?
  Robin: Ten seconds.
  Ted: Yeah, just the last scene.
• In a first season episode of The Closer, an arrogant entitled rich kid had murdered his parents' Mexican maid's daughter, and then fled to Mexico where the LAPD had no jurisdiction, taunting Brenda with his intention to vacation there permanently. Brenda requests that the Mexican authorities arrest him prior to an extradition process, and then visits him, during which time Brenda threatens to arrest his parents for the crime, listing all of the circumstantial evidence which could be made to point to his mother and father's complicity after the fact in arranging the kid's escape to Mexico. The kid agrees to a full confession if Brenda agrees not to prosecute his parents. Brenda then announces that while she had no authority to arrest him, the Mexican police officers standing behind her, who were fully fluent in English and had just heard him confess to killing a Mexican citizen, do have the authority to arrest him, and that the Mexican prisons and prisoners were probably going to be a whole lot worse for him than the American version.
• On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, paired with Right Behind Me, Vivian walks in on Phil bragging to the boys about how he stands up to her if and when she tries bossing him around. She reveals her presence and demands to know how long he's been badmouthing her.
  Phil: That depends. How long have you been standing there?
• On One Life to Live, as a character concocts a foolish plan with two of his friends to help his girlfriend get over her fears about marrying him, said girlfriend walks into the room. Although she wasn't exactly eavesdropping, the hurt and angry expression on her face makes it clear that she's heard everything. Aside from reinforcing her decision to leave him, she's now furious with his friends as well.
• Played with in the Frasier episode The Gift Horse. Martin has just been given the old horse he rode as a mounted cop as a birthday gift. He goes to the stable and tenderly talks to it; Frasier and Niles don't think that Martin knows they're there, so Martin screws with them. "And you know, if you don't like it here, then we'll do what we said we would. We'll just go to Montana, start a ranch. You know, we still got all that money we took from those drug dealers buried in the old box canyon."

Video Games

• In Final Fantasy II, Firion asks this of Leila after he discovers Leila was eavesdropping on his private discussion with Princess Hilda. Seeing as said Princess was a demon posing as the Princess, "enough to know you shouldn't be letting yer guard down around fetchin' young ladies".
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses: At the start of Chapter 8, Manuela and Shamir discuss a strange ailment plaguing Remire Village when Byleth and their father Jeralt walk in.
  Jeralt: You're talking about Remire Village, aren't you, Manuela?
  Manuela: Oh my, if it isn't Jeralt. Tell me, what was the first thing you heard?
  Jeralt: Everything after you mentioned that it's not likely it's an infectious disease. My child and I owe the people of Remire Village. If something's happening there, we must help them.
• One of Shepard's lines to Joker after the latter interrupted an Almost Kiss in Mass Effect is "Are you spying on us, Joker?"
• Happens between Ratchet, Clank, Captain Qwark, and a monkey in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal.
  Qwark: [to Skrunch the Monkey] It was mating season. How was I to know she was your sister? [Notices a squicked out Ratchet and Clank standing behind him] How long have you been there?
  Clank: Too long.
• Said in the RPG Golden Sun at the beginning of the game, after the Heroic Mime overhears the Knight Templars' plans to steal the MacGuffin of the game. It does not go well for him.
• One Private Action in Star Ocean: The Second Story involves Claude or Rena overhearing Celine fretting in her room at the inn. Getting too close to the door causes them to trip (and reveals to the player just what she was worrying about), drawing her outside. She immediately asks if they overheard her, and they can choose to deny hearing anything or try and comfort her. (The best course of action is to walk away before you get too close and trip, as she reacts negatively to both possibilties.)

Web Comics

• Used, Lampshaded, subverted, and inverted in the Sprite Comic Bob and George. Dr. Wily was the usual victim.
  • Also Dr. Light denies -- and asks George what he saw.
• Done twice in the Webcomic Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire. Both times, "Bob" was Dominic and "Chet" was Siegfried.
• In The Order of the Stick, Hinjo confronts Shojo after hearing him talking to Roy about how they're working behind the Sapphire Guard's back and violating Soon Kim's noninterference oath, asking "Have you been lying to us?" Shojo says his answer "all depends... on how much you just overheard."
• Lampshaded straightforwardly in this Multiplex strip.
• The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!. Bob overhears Fructose Riboflavin muttering to himself about his tragic, secret motivation for everything he's done. Bob offers a word of sympathy. Riboflavin realizes Bob has been standing there, shouts, "That was not meant for your ears!" and launches himself at Bob. And crashes into a wall. It's dark, you see.

Web Original

• More of "What did you see?", but in Darwin's Soldiers Shelton almost asks this after Agito implies he witnessed Shelton and Shakila upgrading their relationship in the closet.

Western Animation

• On Adventure Time, the King of Ooo and his henchman are talking about how the "gold" stars they've been giving Sweet P are actually made from garbage, just so they can scam him into working for them, to help them rob people, and would have to "take care of him" if he ever found out, when they hear him standing right outside the door. King of Ooo invokes this trope but the henchman points out it doesn't matter how much the kid heard, "NONE OF IT WAS GOOD!".
• A variation from the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Bugs and Thugs": Bugs has accidentally entered the escape vehicle of Rocky and Muggsy, who have just robbed a bank. When the thieves discover their extra passenger:
  Rocky: (pulling a gun on Bugs) All right, rabbit...how much do ya know?
  Bugs: Who, me? Oh, I know lotsa things. Two and two is four...George Washington was the first president...Carson City is the capital of Nevada...
  Rocky: Cut it! Dis guy knows too much.
• In Central Park, Season 1 "Dog Spray Afternoon", while Cole is taking Shampagne out for a walk for Helen, Helen is sitting on a park bench and is about to take her shoes off, but changes her mind when she gets something on her stocking. When she looks back up, she sees Cole is already back and asks him how long has he been standing there, he tells her long enough to be uncomfortable.
• One episode of Jackie Chan Adventures had a story to the West where the character Jade represented overheard Valmont's ancestor's plans. She averts the usual villainous capture by speaking in Chinese. The bad guys assume she doesn't understand a word of English and lets her go. Too bad she does.
• An episode of Transformers: Prime had Knock Out overhear Starscream taunting Megatron's lifeless corpse, bragging about how he killed him. Of course, since Knock Out has been casually assisting Starscream to overthrow Megatron he suffers no punishment.

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