You Do NOT Want to Know

"Trust me on this: you don't wanna know. Audrey, don't tell him. You shouldn't've told me, but you did, and now I'm telling you, you don't wanna know!"

— Joshua Sweet on Mole's past, Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Some secret about Character A is mentioned, either by the character himself, or by somebody else. When queried, someone replies "You don't want to know. Just trust me on this." Or words to that effect. Whether we actually find out what it is varies — if we don't, it can turn into a Noodle Incident and be left to the viewer's imagination entirely, or it might be set up for one or more un-reveals. The characters who do know will usually try to avoid talking about it. More often than not, this phrase can just end up as Schmuck Bait.

In other cases, we do find out. If played for comedy, the secret will turn out to be relatively innocuous — or at least, not nearly as far-out as what the other characters — and probably the audience — have imagined it might be. If played for drama (as in horror movies) it'll turn out that the secret is, indeed, quite bad, and that the others would, in fact, have been better off not knowing. Either way, this may well end in someone frantically grabbing for the nearest container of Brain Bleach.

A smart person can start to ask, and then conclude that no, they're better off not knowing. If curiosity gets the best of them, it will be followed with "I'm afraid to ask, but..."

And sometimes, it's just Too Much Information.

Other stock phrases include "I don't want to know, but at the same time, I really want to know...", "That means you do not want to know, trust me," and "Don't Ask."

If said by a mentor, it is likely to be an Awful Truth. If they experience enough such events, it can lead to a character who has Seen It All.

Not to be confused with These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know... even if, in some cases there may be some overlap. However, it can be used to invoke Nothing Is Scarier.

See also Don't Ask, Take Our Word for It, I Have My Ways. Compare Plausible Deniability, for when your sanity could probably handle it, but you still don't want to know because your legal standing maybe couldn't. Also Cassandra Truth, if you know that they won't believe it, because of cognitive dissonance.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, Meowth refuses to translate Mimikyu most of the time because, apparently, whatever Mimikyu is saying is really creepy.
• The eponymous spaceship of Space Battleship Yamato 2199 is equipped with the OMCS, which synthesizes food in nearly unlimited quantities. An officer (who doesn't eat much) says this line to a crewman (carrying a heavily laden tray) who asks how it works.^note According to official lore, OMCS works by converting organic material, up to and including human waste products, into food.
• High School Of The Dead: In the last stand at Saya's parents' home, Hirano comments that the situation is just like the battle of the Alamo. Komuro asks how that ended and all Hirano says is "I'd rather not say".
• One time in Neon Genesis Evangelion Shinji compares Rei to a mother, praising that she would make a great one. If Rei doesn't know she is a clone of Shinji's mother she clearly knows a lot more than she lets on, and tries to stop the conversation through being embarrassed.

Comedy

• Jeff Foxworthy had a joke once involving his mother. "I don't want to know where you've been, what you've been doing, or who you were doing it with!" Flipped on its head when his mom says, "Now where were you?"
  Jeff: I thought you said you didn't wanna know.
  Jeff's Mother: I changed my mind, Mr. Smarty, where were you?!
  Jeff: Well, I was in a hot tub with 10 naked women!
  Jeff's Mother: Oh that's so sick I don't even wanna hear about it!
  Jeff's Dad: Hold on Carol, I'd like to hear a few details there!
  

Comic Books

• In Noob, Elyx tells this to Valentin when he asks how she managed to escape the psych ward in which she was held.
• Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dr Aphra asks Darth Vader how he found her. Cut to a montage of Vader using the Force to toss around a lot of people, including what appears to be an IG-series droid off a rather tall building. Aphra then states she probably really does not want to know.
• In Supergirl storyline Many Happy Returns, Superman has been exposed to pink Kryptonite, which turns him Camp Gay temporarily. When Lois Lane asks why he is acting so strange, Supergirl tells her she does NOT want to know.
  Superman: Did I ever tell you how smashing you look in bowties, Jimmy? By the way, that's a fabulous window treatment you've put together.
  Jimmy Olsen: Gee... Thanks, I guess.
  Lois: You know, Superman's been acting awfully strange since being exposed to pink Kryptonite. What do you think's wrong with him?
  Supergirl: Lois, you so don't want to know.
• In Firebreather, Duncan is the son of a kaiju and a human woman. How did that happen? Duncan doesn't know, he doesn't want to know.
• The ad campaign for Young Heroes In Love played up the All Love Is Unrequited theme by showing a group shot with arrowed captions showing which team-member each team member was in love with. Then at the end it concluded "And you don't wanna know what Off-Ramp loves!" (This became Unfortunate Implications when the series eventually revealed Off-Ramp was gay.)
• Zatanna (2010): Zatanna regrets bringing up The Spectre to Cole.
  Zatanna: [Observing the results of Brother Night's massacre] It's like The Spectre went on a bender.
  Detective Dale Colton: The Spectre?
  Zatanna: Better you don't know.

Comic Strips

• Dilbert: In one of the compilation books, Scott Adams suggests that when calling in sick to work, the best thing to say is, "You don't want to know the details."
• Calvin and Hobbes:
  • Calvin's mom after he runs inside naked and screaming at a hailstorm; "I'll bet there's an explanation for this, and I'll bet I don't want to hear it."
  • In another strip, Calvin tries to cook an eggs and orange juice breakfast for his mother while she's ill, but the eggs end up being crispy lumps stuck to the pan. When she asks about the orange juice, Calvin answers "Dad says not to tell you about that until you're better."
  • When Calvin asks if he can use gasoline to write flaming letters on the lawn so airplanes flying overhead can read it, his dad's second thought (after "No, you can't do that! Don't be ridiculous!") was that he didn't even want to know what Calvin was going to write.
• Garfield:
  • In a strip, Garfield looks at the box of the cat food he's eating, and sees that it reads: "Ingredients: You're better off not knowing". He keeps on eating, thinking: "What you don't know can't hurt you, right?"
  • In another strip, when Jon and Garfield are at Irma's Diner:
    Jon: What's the special today?
    Irma: You don't want to know.
    Jon: Gimme the special!
    Garfield: There's a gambler in the house!
  • Another one involving Irma:
    Irma: Here's your egg, hon. Whatever you do, try not to think about where it came from.
    [Jon looks at it for a minute]
    Jon: Have an egg, Garfield.
    Garfield: Too late, I already thought about it.
  • In a 2012 Sunday strip, Garfield takes a Snow-Cone container outside when it is snowing. The snow then fills up in the container, until it reachers snow-cone-like levels, to Garfield's delight. Jon and Liz are watching the entire thing inside, leading to this exchange when Garfield is bringing the cherry syrup bucket:
    Liz: Where'd he get the bucket of cherry syrup?
    Jon: Some things are better left unknown...
  • Jon gave Garfield some food claiming not to know what it was because the label came off the can. Garfield said sometimes that was a blessing.
  • Jon returns from his date and tells Garfield he doesn't want to know how it went. Garfield decides this means the opposite. In the next day's strip, he tells Garfield about her nostrils. He warned him...
    Garfield: [to reader] Make him stop.
  • In one strip where Garfield, Jon, and Odie went to a restaurant while vacationing on an island, Jon asked the waiter what the only item on the menu, 'Unguah', was. The waiter advised him he didn't want to know. Based on the waiter's reaction to seeing one offscreen, it's implied that an Unguah is an insect.
    Garfield: Check, Please!
  • At the end of a month long arc in which Garfield and Odie are lost, the pair end up in a pet shop where Jon finds them, leading to this exchange:
  Jon: What a surprise to find you guys in a pet shop! I would never have thought to look there.
  Garfield: Then what were you?... Forget it. I'd rather not know.
  • Liz wonders why it takes so long for Jon to organize his sock drawer and Garfield tells her she doesn't want to know. The next panel shows Jon using two socks as puppets.
    Jon: Hello, Mr. Red Sock! Have you met Mr. Blue Sock?
• FoxTrot had Roger telling Andy this, about how doped up she was from her allergy medication, upon being asked after it wore off. He had a point: one strip had her saying 'yes' to anything the kids asked...

Fan Works

• A Darker Path: When Danny asks about the deaths of the Slaughterhouse Nine, Taylor advises him not to ask about Mannequin, because even by her standards, it was a nasty death.^note She imitated his final phone call from his wife and children, as they were driven insane by the Simurgh and gradually stabbed each other to death. And then she did it again, and again, until Mannequin completely broke down and killed himself rather than keep listening.
  Danny: I saw what you did to Lung and Skidmark. And you're saying you did something nastier than that?
  Taylor: Yeah.
• Danganronpa: Paradise Lost: Monokuma discourages the surviving students in Chapter 5's Class Trial from further probing into Haiji Towa's participation in Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking ring thus:
  Monokuma: You do not want to know what he did in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
  Daisuke: What are you-
  Monokuma: Trust me: YOU. DO. NOT.
• In the Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged movie, after Yakumo warps everyone's voices into horrible representations of what they're supposed to sound like, Yusuke asks what Kurama sounds like and Kuwabara answers with this trope. Averted anyway since Kurama ends up speaking enough to say: "I HATE all of you."
• A Crown of Stars: When Lord Verfico mentions that it takes a decade or two to get promoted, Shinji asks how old he is. Asuka -who aready knows people in Avalon live hundreds of even thousands of years- says he does not want to know. A short while later Shinji asks anyway, and when she tells him, he agrees he did not want to know.
  Verfico: Mmm, a decade or two, if you’re in a very active unit, or if you’re a hot-shot hero like you two were. I've seen your records, you two would have made rank quickly given what your war was like.
  Shinji: A decade or two? But... that's... How old are you?
  Asuka: Don't ask, Third. You don't want to know.
• Doing It Right This Time:
  • During a conversation:
    "Asuka, have you taken up Zersetzung as a hobby or are you genuinely planning to-?"
    "Don't ask the question unless you're sure you want to know the answer."
  • And in a preliminary version of the story, Misato and Asuka have this conversation:
    Misato: "You keep telling yourself that. So... you going for a vee or a full triad?"
    Asuka: "Wha-a...? I don't know what you mean!"
    Misato: "I can read English as well as you can, Asuka. I saw the book cover."
    Asuka (sighing): "I don't know yet. I'm hoping for a triad, I don't think I could cope with a vee if the fulcrum was someone else. And how do you even know what those words mean?"
    Misato: "There are parts of my dating history you probably don't want to know about."
    Asuka:"No. No, I don't."
• The Man with No Name has this:
  Mal: Kaylee, find something for the doc to do. He don't need to be fussin' the whole time we're gone.
  Kaylee: He and I can–
  Mal: I don't want to know. Some things I really, really don't need to hear, little Kaylee.
  Kaylee: I was gonna say 'we can finish up some repairs in the kitchen'. Why, what did you think I was gonna say?
• In the Saki doujin, My Childhood Friend, Moko Tsuiki, one of Kei's friends and a practice partner for the Achiga team, reveals that she's not participating in the team tournament or the individuals because she's suspended from public games. When Shizuno asks her why, Moko tells her "It's better that you don't know."
• Not of Blood:
  The look on Molly's face made Remus think of one of their old DADA teachers, an older gentleman, the first time he'd overheard James' rather loud reference to 'Remus' furry little problem.' The man had stared at the four of them before saying half under his breath, "Part of me wants to ask, the other part of me says knowing will be more disturbing than anything I could ever imagine."
• Rise of the Minisukas: When Hikari wants to know why Toji and Kensuke have been missing for days, and why Toji's mind seems broken, Kensuke mutters they "had an extended run-in with the Wild Wyvern of Tatsumi and the Inugami of Inaba"; and he warns Hikari against making questions, because it is a real long and downright bizarre story.
• In Harry Potter and the Riders of the Apocalypse Harry asks the Gringotts goblins to locate a parachute for him. One of them asks why he could possibly want one.
  Harry: Master Rotgut, a wise individual once told me never to ask a question that you really don't want to hear the answer to. Trust me when I say you don't want to know the answer.
• Pony POV Series: Princess Luna tells the Interviewers they don't want to know where Zap Apples came from. Zap Apples are very delicious, but Luna claims if the secret of their creation ever got out, their market value would drop like a stone.
• In The Raven's Plan, this is Bran's reaction when asked what's happening in Dorne following the Remembering, feeding many commentators' opinion that, depending on whose minds got sent back in time, it's probably a dumpster fire of a situation. They're right, as it turns out.
  • Sansa warns Catelyn of this when the latter demands to be told of what became of Arya in the old timeline. However, Cat persists, to her regret after being told.
  • The Starks' steward, Veyon Poole, who predeceased his children, asks Sansa what happened to his daughter Jeyne, who doesn't Remember. Sansa just tells him that they should be glad that she doesn't (as she'd ended up in one of Baelish's brothels).
• In Infinity Crisis, Zari decides that she doesn't want to ask any more questions about Mick having found a 'kindred spirit' who left him in a good mood.
• In Chapter 8 of Big Hero 6 fanfic "Twist of Fate", Tadashi once ended up at Fred's manor "after Baymax's 72nd test run" and tells Gogo, Honey and Wasabi they "don't wanna know".
• Harry Potter and the Awakening Power:
  Draco: Where the hell are you taking us Potter?
  Harry: Too scandalous for you Malfoy? Not willing to enter the girls' room even if it's the only known entrance to Slytherin's secret chamber?
  Draco: How the hell did you find it in the girls' room? Secrets of your own Potter?
  Snape: Never ask a question unless you are absolutely positive you want the answer to it Mr. Malfoy.
• In The Monster Mash, Pinkie Pie keeps Rarity supplied with blood to drink. Rarity concludes that she doesn't want to know where Pinkie is getting it from.
• Spider-Ninja: According to Captain Stacy, the Turtles will be much happier if they never learn what Dr. Mason did that landed him in prison for life. What he does say is that the crime scene was so bad some of the cops needed therapy for a while.
• Subverted in a chapter of X-Men: The Early Years. Jean Grey's teammates keep bringing up some kind of trouble they got into Hong Kong and making oblique references to drug lords, tigers and exploding warehouses. Jean knows she doesn't want to know, but she eventually ends up asking anyway.
• Played completely straight in Beyond Heroes: Of Sunshine and Red Lyrium, when Carver Hawke is explaining the Calling to his twin sister, Inquisitor Bethany Hawke, and her friends. He talks about how male Grey Wardens celebrate the ends of their lives and then trot off the the Deep Roads to kill as many darkspawn as possible before they die, but female Grey Wardens are given the option of ritual suicide. This is because sending them to the Deep Roads means that there's a strong chance of them being captured by the darkspawn and turned into broodmothers. “Trust me when I say that you do not want details.” Broodmothers, as players of the first game in the series know, are formerly normal females who have been corrupted by the darkspawn and are used for breeding purposes, just as the name implies. The process of creating a broodmother is deeply disturbing.
• In Worm story Intrepid it happens to Dennis when his teammate -and former villain- Riley makes vague allusions to the "Psycho Scout" code. He has many questions, but he doesn't want to know the answers.
  "Uhhh heh, heh, sorry. Old habits. I'm totally not trying to trap you with this one, psycho scout's honor." She fidgeted with her fingers as though trying to make a scout sign, then shrugged. "Psycho scouts don't really have a hand symbol, cuz our hands are usually filled with knives that we're trying to stab each other with."
  "I have so many questions," Dennis murmured. "And yet, I don't want to know the answers to a single one."
• The Portal: In chapter 17, a heavily injured Blizzard says this to Static when the latter rushes to help him.
  Static: Hey, good to see you're still kicking. What happened?
  Blizzard: Honestly? You don't want to know.
• Rocketship Voyager. Before they're allowed to enter the Array, an Obstructive Bureaucrat asks whether the crew of Voyager have encountered various Negative Space Wedgies, been exposed to the Phage, or had sex with a Bolian.
  "So just what is a Phage?" asked Kim, to fill the subsequent silence.
  "It's a disease," explained Nee'Lix. "Quite virulent, very nasty. Trust me Mr. Kim, you don't want to know what it does to you."
  "And why shouldn't you have sex with a Bolian?" asked Paris.
  "That's something I don't want to know!" snapped B'Elanna.
• Sasha and the Frogs: Inverted. Sasha prefers not to know what her food is made of.
• Metro: From "Chewing Through The Straps (Part 1)", when someone thinks that she doesn't actually want to know:
  "Take it easy, sister. Cold Brutha say he knows this one." The Jamaican sophomore's voice held equal parts warning and humor.
  "How does, no, wait. Do I want to know how he knows that kid?"
  Damballah chuckled, "You're learning. That's good." Then he called out to the freshman walking up, "Good day, cousin!"
• In Lelouch of the Wings of Rebellion, Lelouch says this verbatim when Nemo asks him what their target’s treasure was. As said target was Gao Hai of the Chinese Federation’s High Eunuchs, it’s implied that the treasure is his severed gonads, something Lelouch would not want Nemo, his little sister, to know about.
• Harry Potter, Unexpected Animagus:
  Knutsack: We are more screwed than a male House-Elf wearing fishnet tights alone with Lucius Malfoy.
  Hermione: Harry, I know what you are thinking. For the love of all that is holy, please don't ask Knutsack about that phrase.
  Harry: Why not?
  Hermione: Knutsack might just answer you.
• A Monster's Heart: Tucker Foley developed a spray meant to smell different for everyone but it has a bad smell as a side effect. Cleo says she smells tacos and tells the characters around her they don't want to know what the bad smell is.
• In The Stars Our Measure Sirius finds Hermione reading in the Grimmauld Place library.
  Sirius: Should I even ask what you're doing?
  Hermione: Not if you like answers.
• Chapter 5 of His Greatest Mistake sees Lily donning a beautiful red ensemble for Peter and Allison's engagement party - however, Lupin notes something odd:
  "Where's your wand?" asked Remus, who couldn't help noticing that her dress did not look like it could conceal 10 ¼ inches of willow.
  "You do not want to know," Lily muttered darkly.
• In Chapter 3 of The Season's My Reason, as part of his checkup, Chiyu asks if Rosemary has been experiencing vomiting or diarrhoea. Rosemary asks what those two things are, but Yui interjects that he hasn't had those symptoms, and assures him he doesn't want to know.
• Naru-Hina Chronicles Mini-sodes: Naruto asks Sasuke if the latter's Sharingan can copy anything and not just ninjutsu. The Uchiha replies he never used it outside of battle, but he could try as it could bring up some advantages. However, Kakashi arrives and warns him about it. Pointing at his own Sharingan eye, he has a disturbed look while saying "What you see... you cannot unsee... even by accident. I know details of things that would chill your bones to ice and haunt your dreams!" Sasuke then has a rather nervous look upon hearing that.
• A New Leaf (Miraculous Ladybug): When Kim tastes a croissant and says it "tastes like an old sock", Ivan asks how Kim knows what old socks taste like and is told he doesn't want to know.

Films — Animation

• Atlantis: The Lost Empire:
  • Used for an extended gag when Milo asks Audrey about the backstory of Gaetan 'Mole' Moliere, after having heard the backgrounds of the rest of the cast. She's just opened her mouth when Dr. Sweet delivers the page quote. Seeing as Moliere is a short, creepy French dude obsessed with soil and rock, who has an intense aversion to bathtime, he may be right.
  • In the sequel, Milo says that he thinks Moliere was raised by naked mole rats. Given that it went Direct to Video...
  • In an issue of Disney Adventures, it was stated that he spent most of his childhood exploring in the sewers of Paris.
• In Justice League vs. Teen Titans, Batman asks Cyborg where the food he eats goes if he doesn't have a stomach. Cyborg almost invokes the trope by name: "You don't wanna know."
• Sausage Party
  Bag of chips: What did he do to you?
  Roll of toilet paper: (traumatized) You don't want to fucking know.

Films — Live-Action

• Alien Nation: A Newcomer responds to questioning by Detective Sykes with a few words in the Newcomer's native language. When Sykes asks Dectective Francisco for a translation Francisco tells him he doesn't want to know. Sykes insists and finds out it was an insult regarding the mating habits of his mother.
• In Jurassic Park III, when Alan Grant discovers Eric, the missing kid in Isla Sorna, has collected a jar of Tyrannosaur urine, the smell of which scares most dinosaurs away. How did he collect it? "You don't wanna know," Eric replies to Grant.
• Played with in Big Trouble in Little China, when the heroes meet Lo-Pan's beholder-like eye-covered spy creature:
  Jack Burton: "Oh my God, what is that!? Don't tell me!"
  Egg Shen: "Lo-Pan's spy. What it sees, Lo-Pan knows!"
  Jack Burton: "I said, 'don't tell me!'"
• Used as a joke in UHF:
  Stanley: Hey, George, is something wrong?
  George: Stanley, you don't want to know.
  Stanley: (Scratches head in confusion) Then why'd I ask?
• An exchange in Free Enterprise has an imaginary William Shatner talking with a young version of Robert, one of the main characters, during a fight he got into while wearing a TOS gold uniform. When prompted, Young Robert reveals it was he that started the fight.
  Young Robert: Well... it was something he said.
  William Shatner: What'd he say?
  Young Robert: You really don't want to know.
  William Shatner: I really do want to know!
  Young Robert: He said that Han Solo was cooler than Captain Kirk.
  [Beat]
  William Shatner: Kick the little fucker's ass.
• In Shallow Hal, Mauricio tells Hal he was born with a tail.
  Hal: "I gotta see this."
  Mauricio: "Naw, naw, you don't wanna see this."
  Hal:: "No, I don't wanna, I gotta."
• This is a frequent theme in Batman Begins. The following dialogue refers to stuffed animals being used to smuggle in drugs.
  Flass: The bears, they go straight to the dealers.
  Falcone: And the rabbits go to the man in the narrows.
  Flass:: What's the difference?
  Falcone: Ignorance is bliss, my friend. Don't burden yourself with the secrets of scary people.
• David Lynch has always refused to ever talk about how they made the baby in Eraserhead because of this trope.
• In Arnold Schwarzenegger's film Commando, when Matrix takes a bite of the sandwich Jenny makes:
  Matrix: What's in this?
  Jenny: You don't want to know.
• The Big Lebowski: The Dude's "fake kidnapping" theory is apparently disproven when Lebowki receives Bunny's toe. Walter is not convinced.
  Walter: You want a toe, Dude? I can get you a toe. You don't want to know about it but there are ways. I can get you a toe by 3:00 this afternoon. With nail polish.
• In The Last Jedi, our heroes contact Maz Kanata for help dealing with the First Order, only to see that she's in the middle of a gunfight.
  Maz: Union dispute. You don't wanna hear about it.
• In the The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement movie, Mia and her would-be paramour end up in a water fountain as she's trying to fend off his advances. As luck would have it, this is in the middle of a formal event. As she approaches her grandmother:
  Grandmother: Do I want to know?
  Mia: I don't think so.
• Paddington 2. While Paddington and prison cook Knuckles are making marmalade, Paddington asks where Knuckles learned to use a knife so well. This is Knuckles response.
• In Robin Hood: Men in Tights during the opening scene in a dungeon in Jerusalem. After they torture Robin by pulling on his tongue the head guard says something in Arabic to another guard. When Robin asks for a translation, the guard simply says "You don't wanna know".
• The Terminator
  • Sarah Connor asks who the father of the future John Connor will be, "so I won't tell him to get lost when I meet him." All Kyle Reese knows is that he died before the war, whereupon Sarah decides she doesn't want to know any further details.
  • Sarah and Kyle stop at a motel, and Kyle pulls out a fistful of cash and asks if it's enough to pay for a room. Sarah hastily assures him it's enough, adding, "I don't wanna ask where you got it."
• Scream (2022): In the scene where Mindy explains the rules of a "re-quel" to the group, she notes that one of the main points of criticism people had towards Stab 8 was "how the main character’s a Mary Sue". Richie asks what a Mary Sue is, and Wes responds, "You really don't want to know."
• A more heartwarming version of this trope appears in The Shawshank Redemption. When Andy defiantly plays a soulful Italian opera piece over the prison intercom (Sall'aria, from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro), Red muses that he doesn't want to know what the ladies in the song were singing about, preferring to think it was something too beautiful to be put into words.

Literature

• The novelisation of V: The Final Battle doesn't have the scene where the nasty young human collaborator Daniel Bernstein gets dragged off to "serve us better" after being framed by La Résistance, but it does have Eleanor Dupres asking what happened to him and being told by a Visitor: "Believe me, you wouldn't want to know!"
• X-Wing Series
  • Wraith Squadron:
    • Imperial agent Gara Petothel caused the deaths of every member of Myn Donos's squadron, which sent him into a Heroic BSoD. Later Gara Petothel joined his new squadron with plans to destroy this one as well, but she began to enjoy her life in the squadron as "Lara Nostil" and decided to become a member for real. She and Donos started falling in love with each other, but she knew it could only end badly as she was only going to be able to hide the secret for so long.
      "I could say twelve words, and when I was done, the least you'd do is turn away and leave me alone forever."
      He could tell that she was speaking the truth, and the fact that she had the power to do this, to send him away, dismayed him. "Then don't say them."
    • Later:
      Myn Donos: "I want to make you smile with something other than a wisecrack. I want to know who you really are."
      Her laugh, sudden and hard, startled him. "Oh, no, you don't."
  • In Starfighters of Adumar, a later entry in the X-Wing Series, Wedge's young guide falls for him and starts acting strangely.
    Wedge: Any of you understand that? Her mood swing?
    Tycho: I think I'd shoot myself before getting involved in this conversation.
    Hobbie: Not one of my languages, Wedge.
    Wes: I understood her, boss. But you don't want to know. Trust me on this.
    (Wedge insists, and Wes ends up giving a very accurate, very logical explanation for the girl's behavior. Then…)
    Wedge: Wes, you were right.
    Wes: You didn't want to know.
    Wedge: I didn't want to know.
  • Played for Black Comedy in the New Jedi Order novel Rebel Stand. A commando team is on Coruscant and learn that Emperor Palpatine had special programming put in the atmospheric processors so he could suffocate whole sections of the planet on a whim. Face Loran remarks:
    Face: Somehow, every time I learn something new about Palpatine, I wish I hadn't.
• The Outcast of Redwall features a hare nicknamed Jodd. His full name results in this trope, and in the end we only hear part of it. According to the official website's "Ask Brian" feature, it's "Wilthurio Longbarrow Sackfirth Toxophola Fedlric Fritillary Wilfrand Hurdleframe Longarrow Leawelt Pugnacio Cinnabar Hillwether Jodrellio".
• The Golden Globe by John Varley averts Forbidden Fruit in this regard: to show that you don't want to know how Charonians have sex, you're given a description of their coming-of-age ceremony. For context, Charonians regenerate quickly and worship pain, and the ceremony itself is either Narm or Nausea Fuel.
• Discworld:
  • Used in Thud! when Vimes asks about the worst of dwarven signs, the Summoning Dark, and is informs he does not want to know. When he asks again, he's told that no, he really doesn't. He starts to ask again before deciding that in fact that's correct, it's mystical stuff that he doesn't believe in, and drops it.
  • In Going Postal the ancient messenger golem Anghammarad recounts his motto:
    Anghammarad: Neither Deluge Nor Ice Storm Nor The Black Silence Of The Netherhells Shall Stay These Messengers About Their Sacred Business. Do Not Ask Us About Sabre-Tooth Tigers, Tar Pits, Big Green Things With Teeth Or The Goddess Czol. [...]
    Moist: The goddess Czol?
    Anghammarad: Do Not Ask.
  • The modern Ankh-Morpork post office declares that neither sleet nor snow nor gloom of night shall stay these messengers about their business, with its own "don't arsk us about" list. Mrs. Cake appears twice.
  • The Lemony Narrator does this to the reader in Thief of Time, when Famine talks about his love of salad cream sandwiches. A footnote advises readers from societies where the traditional condiment for salad is mayonnaise not to even ask.
  • In Making Money, Moist wonders why there's a squid in the halls of Unseen University, and Dr. Hicks tells him "You don't want to know about the squid." All we know is that it's somehow a by-product of the University's studies into the Cabinet of Curiosity.
• Subverted and inverted early on in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, when Arthur takes the precaution of asking Ford, "if I were to ask you where the hell we were, would I regret it?" Ford cuts to the chase and tells him where they are. Arthur was probably happier when he didn't know.
• Used in a decidedly non-comedic fashion in Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, when Shell-Shocked Veteran Camaris refuses to tell the protagonists about his mysterious past that led to a Heroic BSoD, on the grounds that it's too shameful. He does confess it twice, once to a priest and once to Prince Josua, and both emerge from the experience wishing they hadn't been told. At the end, it's revealed that he's Josua's father, and lived his life afterwards in misery over his weakness and the subsequent Death by Childbirth of the woman in question.
• During a Doctor Who short story, a skeleton grabs the Tenth Doctor by the ankle as it claws its way out of the earth. The Doctor, not taking his eyes off Rose, asks if he should look. She shakes her head.
• In the Gaunt's Ghosts novel His Last Command, Vortenhus is told that he does not want to know what a glyf - a Chaos tripwire-like thing, the sight of which can drive a man insane - is.
• The Dresden Files
  • In the novel Death Masks, Harry Dresden finds himself having a conversation with his friend Micheal's teenage daughter Molly, after escaping a situation that left him with handcuffs danging from one wrist. During their talk, Molly produces a set of handcuff keys and finds one that matches the cuffs he's wearing. When Harry asks how she got the keys, she tells him to ask himself if he really wants to know the answer to that question. Harry decides he doesn't.
  • Repeated with the medical pinwheel thing. Apparently they have recreational uses. Molly used to hang out with a weird crowd. Harry decides to not pursue that line of reasoning.
  • In a more serious use of this trope, Harry initially keeps even his own allies Locked Out of the Loop in regards to the magical world for this very reason. After Murphy calls him out on it, specifically telling him that trust is a two-way street, he begins asking his friends if they really want to know this kind of stuff; invariably they say yes and become staunch allies.
• In Kushiel's Dart, the heroine is speculating about her mentor's mysterious past, and a listener who can predict the future tells her: "You will rue the day all is made clear." The prophecy is exactly correct. However, this is not because he has a terrible secret. It's because the same day she finds it out, he is killed by assassins.
• David and Leigh Eddings are fond of this across all of their books. The exchange usually falls to a Badass Normal character asking either a sorcerer or god how they managed to (or plan to) do something. The response is usually on par with "Do you REALLY want to know?" followed by "No, on second thought, not really".
• Fragile and disturbed Ernst of Dance of the Butterfly repeatedly takes this tact with the two detectives who question him regarding the city's serial killer.
• In Star Wars: Jedi Academy: The Phantom Bully, the bully in question in the title (actually bullies, though this isn't revealed until the end) release hundreds of clones of a voorpak named Voorpee which the main protagonist Roan Novachez and his girlfriend Gaiana are performing in a talent show with. Mr. Garfield, his super-strict lightsaber instructor, thinks he's to blame and asks him "WHAT'S GOING ON, NOVACHEZ?!" to which he replies "You don't want to know."
• In Death: In "Vengeance in Death", Eve asks what's in the "meat stuff" she's eating and Roarke says "You’ll thank me for not telling you".
• In Millea Kenin's short story "Scarlet Eyes," protagonist Den-Tyren Scorry assures us that the carcass of the rooster that the Evil Sorcerer had beheaded as a sacrifice is "about the prettiest" of the things in the summoning circle.
• In Rob O'Hara's The Human Library, Marvin's friend Gracie, owner of the local diner, comes out to the house she rented him to bring Marvin and his co-worker some food, only Marvin isn't there with Katie. He's there with his grandpa, whom the last time Gracie saw him was five years ago when he was buried. Marvin realizes Gracie would never believe him if he were to try to explain that the man is a clone of his late grandfather in an experiment by the government Gone Horribly Right. Worse, if he discovers he was a clone or had died, he could become psychotic. Marvin gets her attention and explains that the man's mental state is very fragile:
  “Well, he’s not dead, obviously. But he doesn’t remember he died. And if he finds out, bad things could happen.”
  Gracie leaned to the side to peek around Marvin. “What kind of bad things?”
  “Trust me. You don’t want to know.”
• Warrior Cats: In The Place of No Stars, Snowtuft mentions an island where Ashfur keeps spirits prisoner. Shadowsight asks for more information, and Snowtuft responds, "You really don't want to know", refusing to say anything else on the topic. It helps build the tension and significance of one of the most important locations of the book.

Live-Action TV

• The second episode of season 1 of The Basil Brush Show has the cast trying to come up with ways to catch a mouse. Steven is eager to use his first plan. But it's so wacky, non-sensical and not related to the mouse, that when he asks for everyone's opinion, they just look at each other and Basil says: "You really don't want to know" Before moving to Dave.
• Babylon 5:
  • A variant was used in Season 3.
    Marcus Cole: They taught me... terror. How to use it. How to face it.
    Dr. Franklin: I think I'd like to hear more about that...
    Marcus Cole: No. You wouldn't.
  • A straighter example in Season 4. Susan Ivanova stumbles litter-strewn out of a transport tube, using a cane to stay upright.
    John Sheridan: What the…?
    Susan Ivanova: Don't... even... ask.
• In one episode of The Big Bang Theory, after Leonard's mother got drunk with Penny and kissed Sheldon, she apologises to Sheldon "about her behaviour" while Leonard is present. Leonard enquires about details, but his mother, Penny, and Sheldon all answer that he doesn't want to know.
• Blackadder:
  • In an episode of Blackaddder the Third, a French torturer tells the soldier guarding Blackadder and Baldrick that he should leave, since what she is going to do will be so horrifying. He states his belief that he can stomach it, to the hag's increasingly frantic protests, until he asks for a description. She whispers to him, and he runs off about to vomit.
  • Also in Blackadder the Third, when Prince George describes what the Naughty Hellfire Club does to people who don't pay their dues:
    Prince George: They pull your breeches down and push a large radish right up your—
    Blackadder: —yes! Yes! Yes! All right!...There's no need to hammer it home.
    Prince George: As a matter of fact, they do often have to—
    Blackadder: —No! NO!
• Used for comic effect in Black Books. Manny says that something bad happens to him at 88 degrees, and Bernard wants to know what, but Manny keeps repeating, "You don't want to know." Bernard at first tells Manny to stop saying that, because he wants to know even more if he's told he doesn't. Then he switches tactics, saying that Manny doesn't know WHY Bernard wants to know. To which Manny replies, "Oh, why's that?" And Bernard has made his point.
• Blake's 7. In "Shadow," a Professional Killer has been ordered to kill Avon and Gan.
  Enforcer: You two, out.
  Avon: Why?
  Enforcer: You'd prefer not to know.
  Avon: Your professional simplicity is beginning to irritate me.
  Enforcer: Well think of it as a temporary problem.
• Charmed:
  • The Council of two Elders and two powerful demons who control the Cleaners. When asked what happens if it becomes a tie, the Sisters are told this trope.
  • Daryl tends to use this trope on himself. Whenver he walks in on some bizarre situation, his usual response is, "I don't wanna know."
• Cops: L.A.C. has a scene where a woman tells the police she thinks she's found a bomb in her house, in her daughter's chest of drawers. Graham immediately identifies the vibrating noise, much to the woman's shock.
  Daniel: How did you know it was a vibrator making that noise?
  Graham: Don't ask questions you really don't want answered.
• Doctor Who:
  • "Bad Wolf": This is how Jack Harkness responds when his captors demand to know how he managed to pull a concealed weapon on them despite being stripped naked.
  • "Flesh and Stone": This is Father Octavian's response when the Doctor, after finding out that River Song is in prison for murder, asks him who she killed. It turns out that River killed the Doctor himself (but not really), so Octavian's reluctance is fully justified.
  • In "Praxeus", Yasmin Khan wants to follow an alien through a teleport to an unknown destination. The woman's she's with is unfamilar with being the Doctor's companion, so is understandably reluctant, asking "What's the worst place we could end up?" Yaz replies, "Long list. You don't want to know." The first time Yaz was teleported she ended up in outer space where she almost suffocated to death before being rescued by a spaceship that just happened to be there; and that was only the first of her offworld adventures with the Doctor.
• On an episode of The Facts of Life, Blair somehow got a bottle of wine and the girls were planning on when to drink it. Jo decided she'd rather have beer instead. When asked how she'd get it, she just said, "I'll get some beer." Later, when asked how she got it, her reply was, "I got some beer."
• In the episode of Friends where Chandler is trying to get the perfect engagement ring for Monica, it winds up getting bought and he's trying to get Phoebe to remember if the guy who picked it up mentioned where he was going. Phoebe mentions the name had something to do with "rainbow", but after some more thinking, it turns out to be some fancy French name that doesn't have anything to do with rainbows. When Chandler says he'd love to know how she managed to something get a rainbow out of that, Phoebe responds, "No you wouldn't. You don't want to get in here," as she points to her head.
  • In another episode, Joey walks into the apartment tuxedo which causes Chandler to leap out his seat shouting "VOMIT TUX! NO, NO! VOMIT TUX!". Monica starts to ask what he's referring to, but cuts herself off mid-sentence after Joey shakes his head at her and pivots to asking why he's so dressed up instead.
• In one episode of Fringe Walter sends out Astrid to get some things for him, among them a dirty magazine and a portrait of George W. Bush.
  Astrid: I don't even want to know.
• Get Smart used a variation of this in Catchphrase fashion, to the point of it being a Running Gag:
  Maxwell Smart: Don't tell me [rest of sentence]
  Other character: [repeats the rest of the sentence back to him]
  Smart: I asked you not to tell me that.
• The Goodies had an episode where Graeme falls into a hole where he intends to study Neolithic Man. It is deduced that there is a ten-second delay from where he speaks to when his voice reaches the surface, leading to this exchange:
  Graeme: (to himself) I could do with my archaeology kit...and a bite to eat. (loudly to the surface) Yeah. Chuck us down my old tweed suit... oh, and a couple of donuts.
  Bill: (into hole to Graeme) Do you want anything to eat?
  Graeme: (delayed) Yeah. Chuck us down my old tweed suit.
  Tim: (into hole to Graeme) Anything to wear?
  Graeme: (delayed) Oh, a couple of donuts.
  Bill: (to Tim) Where's he gonna wear them?
  Tim: Never mind!
• Halo (2022). In the Season One finale, Cortana tells Vannack that he has to pilot the exact path she's calculated through the gravitational forces or be "spaghettified". When Vannak wants to know why she didn't mention this before, Cortana cheerfully says their odds of success were already so low she didn't want to worry them.
• Heroes season three demonstrates how not to do this: a character whose power is treated as a "you don't wanna know" situation turns out to be something pretty basic: your typical sonic scream thing, and not even (that we saw) to Black Bolt-esque mega-destructive levels.^note Said power was originally intended to be terrakinesis, on par with the Big Bad of volume five, but was cut due to budget restraints at the time.
• Since they never bother to hide their shenanigans from Sgt Schultz, Hogan's Heroes would often be found by the guard doing things they shouldn't be. After Hogan gives Schultz an obviously false excuse, he'd grin "Wanna know what we're really doing?" Followed by Schultz thinking better of it. "I know nothing! I was never even here!, I never even got up this morning!"
• Kamen Rider Ex-Aid has a dramatic example. After being defeated by Kiriya, a former ally and friend resurrected by Masamune Dan, Emu has something whispered to him by the former that gets him so angry that he punches him in the face and declares him a Broken Pedestal. When Taiga asks him what was whispered to him later on, Emu replies "It's best if you don't know". Of course, this is all a ruse on both Emu and Kiriya's parts, in that Kiriya is merely pretending to work for Masamune and Emu is playing along. Kiriya was merely steathily letting him know.
• A comedic example occurs in Last Resort. In "Skeleton Crew" Shepard is forced to leave King behind on an underwater buoy. She is only able to return after he's run out of air, but he was able to stay alive by holding his breath. He reveals that he is still alive by tapping the buoy with Morse Code. He also includes a vulgar message to her, and she is merely told that she doesn't want to know what it means.
• Leverage has an interesting version, when it was revealed that Elliot once worked for Damien Moreau. Parker starts to ask him about what he did for Moreau that he is so ashamed of, and he tells her "Don't ask. Because if you do ask, I'm going to tell you. So don't ask."
• Inverted in one episode of Lois & Clark. In an attempt to infiltrate a military base, Lois steals a jeep and some uniforms. When she meets up with Clark, he is about to ask where she got them, but then quickly decides he doesn't want to know.
• In an episode of Malcolm in the Middle, Hal and a heavily pregnant Lois go to a bed and breakfast for the weekend, they send Reese to grandma Ida, Malcolm to Stevie's, and Dewey with Craig. After Reese is told that he'll be spending the weekend on the bus, since Ida lives so far away, he jumps out the bus and goes home to plan a party. When some drug dealers get wind that there won't be adult supervision, they turn the house into a meth lab and Malcolm and Reese bring Francis to help get them out, but the leader of the gang is an old friend of Francis with a lot of dirt on him, so the boys have no choice but to let them have free reign of the house. When Craig fails to get them to leave, Dewey tells on the drug dealers' mothers, and they clean up their stuff and go away. When Lois and Hal come back, Malcolm tells them that the weekend was boring but in a "fun" way, Dewey backs up Malcolm's claim, and when Craig brings Reese from "the bus station," he happily says he enjoyed his trip. Lois and Hal, who had just gotten over a massive argument at the bed and breakfast, say to themselves:
  Hal: Do you really want to know?
  Lois: Not really
  Hal: No.
• Monk:
  • In "Mr. Monk and the Miracle", Monk tells Natalie that her getting gravy wouldn't have been necessary as the bums, their guests, make their own gravy. When Natalie asks how they do it, Monk simply responds with "You don't want to know..."
  • In "Mr. Monk Is On The Run: Part 1", after Monk arrives back at Natalie's house with a strange overcoat, he said a homeless person gave it to him in exchange for something else in return. When questioned by Natalie about what that thing was that Monk had to do, Monk can only respond with "I'd rather not talk about it..."
• In one episode of NCIS, Tony and Ziva are at a Burundian café investigating a double murder, and Ziva starts munching on some snacks that she says are delicious. One of the Burundians then says, "Then I won't tell you what they are made from."
• When a couple (Bob and June Wheeler, Bob played by Brent Spiner) came into Night Court who were well known for their outlandish bad luck (the squad car they were arrested in got hit by a bolt of lightning) mention that their granny died, Harry, Dan, and Christine give each other looks before Christine bursts out "Oh what the Hell someone has to ask! How did she die?" They reply that she died peacefully while sleeping... on the railroad tracks.
• Northern Exposure: In "The Russian Flu", Dr. Fleischman asks Marilyn what's in a foul-smelling (but effective) Native American flu remedy. Her reply: "You don't wanna know."
• On The Office (US), Dwight issues Jim a demerit for tardiness, then explains his made-up, incredibly convoluted warning system for policing the office that, as Jim points out, logically ends with Dwight submitting a disciplinary review to his immediate superior (Jim himself, the Assistant Regional Manager). Jim responds by demanding the review be on his desk by the end of the day, or Dwight will be issued a "full dissadulation." What is that? "You don't want to know."
• Person of Interest:
  • In the episode "Cura Te Ipsum"
    Reese: Doctor has everything she needs to erase Benton for good.
    Finch: What do you mean, "erase"?
    Reese: Eight pounds of lye, heated to 300 degrees. Body will dissolve in three hours, give or take.
    Finch: I will refrain from asking how you know that.
  • In "Critical", Detective Carter demands information on the mysterious forces hunting Reese. Reese points out that, unlike him and Finch, Carter is not hiding under a false name and has loved ones that are still alive. "So I think the real question you have to ask yourself, Detective... is how much more do you really want to know?"
  • By Season 4 Detective Fusco, Team Machine's other Friend on the Force, has become smart on the matter.
    Fusco: Should I even ask?
    Shaw: Really wanna know?
    Fusco: Honestly? No.
• Quantum Leap (2022): After Ben tells Addison that he leaped to save her but can't remember the details, the project team tracks down Janis to ask her instead, since she is the only other person who knows the truth. Janis tells Addison that she can't tell her the specific "what" or "why," and justifies it by saying that you can't say certain things out loud in a world that has time travel.
• Red Dwarf:
  • Lister opens a secure door and doesn't want Kryten to see how: "Trust me, you don't want to know!". Kryten doesn't look, but being a robot, he correctly guesses the logical answer: Lister used a severed hand from one of the dead crew on the palm print reader. What makes Kryten's realization worse is he knows Lister is using the severed hand of his(Lister) own alternate self.
    Kryten: Logically, sir, there is only one way you could possibly have opened that door. I feel quite nauseous. Where is it?
    Lister: Where's what?
    Kryten: Oh, sir!! You've got it in your jacket!!
  • Subverted in Thanks For The Memory. A drunken Rimmer wants to tell Lister how many times he's made love, to which Lister replies: "I don't wanna know! Trust me, You do not want to tell me!"
    • Rimmer does, and the answer turns out to be embarrassing.
  • In "Backwards", before they leave, Lister tells Rimmer that Cat has gone off into the bushes, then he realizes what this entails, and says, "We've got to stop him!" Cat comes back, hair sticking straight up, walking stiffly, horrified expression on his face, and simply says "Don't ask." (For those who don't recall the episode, they were on an alternate Earth where everything happened in reverse...)
• Sports Night: In the first season episode "Thespis", Isaac is worried about his daughter having complications while giving birth on the other side of the country, and Casey goes to his office to keep him company (and for other reasons). However, Isaac did notice something during the broadcast:
  Isaac: Did a big frozen turkey fall down on the anchor desk during the last commercial?
  Casey: Yes.
  Isaac: Why?
  Casey: Oh Isaac, is there really an answer I can give to that question that will satisfy you?
  Isaac: I don't think so.
  Casey: Then don't worry about it.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
  • In "The Big Goodbye", the fate the insectoid Jarada visit upon people who pronounce their ceremonial greeting wrong is so horrible that the crew won't even let Data hint at it.
  • In a later episode, Geordi and Riker have to fly into a sensor-blinding nebula that's full of enemy ships. They have a proximity detector but it only works at very short range, and at one point Riker has to pull an extremely sharp turn to avoid hitting something.
    Geordi: Do I want to know how close that was?
    Riker: No.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
  • Worf is asked at a party what Klingons dream about. He may or may not be japing the questioner when he replies thus:
  Worf: Things that would send cold chills down your spine, and wake you in the middle of the night. No, it is better that you do not know. Excuse me. (shambles away)
  • In "Sacrifice of Angels", O'Brien and Bashir have been quoting "The Charge of the Light Brigade" in the runup to a battle where they're seriously outnumbered. Eventually Garak asks how it ends. O'Brien tells him he doesn't want to know...which answers the question.
  • Klingon sex is very rough (broken bones are considered a good sign). Bashir learns this after treating Grilka and Quark. When Work and Dax come in he asks what happened. They share a look and Bashir says that he doesn't want to know, and in fact he's going to stop asking that question altogether.
• Star Trek: Enterprise
  • Captain Archer is in VERY tense negotiations with the Xindi while his linguist Lt. Sato performs simultaneous translation — except at one point, where the insectoid Xindi goes on a long chittering rant, and Sato simply says, "You don't want to know."
  • This is the second time she uses the line. In the pilot episode, a Klingon says something to Captain Archer, who takes it as a thank you. When Sato comments that she doesn't think they have a word for thank you, and Archer asks her what the Klingon did say, she responds with the line verbatim.
• Supernatural:
  • In the episode "What Is And What Should Never Be" (S02, Ep20), Dean tells Sam he does not want to know what is in a paper bag. When Sam pulls out a takeout container of blood from the bag, Dean meets Sam's inquiry about the purpose of the blood by again telling Sam he does not want to know.
  • In "No Rest For The Wicked" Ruby tells Sam Lilith is on "shore leave". When he asks what that means, she replies with this. We then see what she means...and Ruby's right.
  • Again in "When the Levee Breaks", Ruby tells Sam Lilith keeps a personal chef. When he asks what's she's eating, she replies with this, for good reasons.
• Inversion in Teen Wolf: Sheriff Stalinski walks in on his son fastening restraints onto a teenage girl. He flat-out states that he doesn't even want to know.
• That Mitchell and Webb Look has a sketch involving a real estate agent advising a woman who he learns is a counselor for torture survivors. He gleefully presses her for details on the worst thing that's happened to one of her patients, despite her and her husband warning him not to. He comes to regret not taking their advice.
  Counsellor: Look, you really don't want to know.
  Estate Agent: I do!
  Husband: No, you don't.
  Estate Agent: I do! I really do! Oh, come on, how bad can it be?
• The Wire: After Bird is convicted of murdering Gant because Omar lied on the stand about having witnessed the killing, McNulty asks Omar if he really did see Bird kill the man. "You really askin'?", Omar replies.

Puppet Shows

• On the Raquel Welch episode of The Muppet Show, Marvin Suggs reveals to Kermit that he has to replace his living musical instruments, the Muppaphones, when they go flat (like little pancakes). What happens to them then? Well... At one point, he actually was the replacement... turns out that singing the Witch Doctor song when you've been told never to tell anyone is a bad idea.

Roleplay

• Destroy the Godmodder: This is often used when players question facets of the Godmodder's past. A single, comprehensive backstory was given for the Godmodder in DTG2. It answered pretty much none of the questions that had been asked.

Theatre

• Macbeth keeps asking questions that he really doesn't want to know the answers to.
  Macbeth:
  Yet my heart
  Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art
  Can tell me so much, shall Banquo's issue ever
  Reign in this kingdom?
  All Witches: Seek to know no more!
• About 80% of Oedipus the King is this trope. Oedipus wants to know why his kingdom is dying, without having any idea that it's his own fault. The reason ''why'' it's his fault is, of course, horrifying enough to result in him putting out his own eyes.

Theme Parks

• In Terminator 2 3-D: Battle Across Time at Universal Studios, the T-800 says this exactly to John when he asks why they're headed toward Skynet headquarters.

Video Games

• In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Illidan uses this line on Malfurion.
  Malfurion: They [Illidan's naga] had best return with good news. The very sight of them makes my stomach turn. Where did you ever find such loathsome creatures?
  Illidan: Believe me, brother: You don't want to know.
• Tales of Symphonia take after Raine disappears into the Iselia shrine:
  Raine: *Evil Laugh*
  Lloyd: What was that about?
  Genis: You're better off not knowing...
• Players of Knights of the Old Republic are treated to this little exchange on Dantooine:
  C8-42: I'm afraid my owner became a bit too attached to me. Obsessed even. She... she tried to treat me as her dead husband. It was not healthy for her.
  Player: Er... ALL the time?
  C8-42: You don't want to know...
  Player: Um... probably not...
• Persona 3:
  Mitsuru: Oh, Mr. Ekoda’s punishment...? Well, there are some things in life you don’t want to know about... This is one of them.
  • Same applies to Mitsuru's "Execution."
• Played seriously in Persona 5. While the group explores Kunikazu Okumura's Palace, Haru, Kunikazu's daughter, asks why they haven't run into a cognitive version of her (in other words, a representation of how her father sees her). Morgana says that he can think of a few possible reasons, but Haru wouldn't want to hear them. While this is not brought to a conclusion in Vanilla, Royal does show a Cognitive Haru and, as predicted, the real Haru doesn't like it one bit. Haru in Okumura's eyes is nothing more than another one of his robots that he can just deploy and self-destruct in front of the party when nobody is left to defend him and his corporate empire.
• In Quest for Glory III, if you ask the meat merchant the second time about meat, the system replies, "On second thought, you don't want to know."
  • Speaking of Quest For Glory, one of Gnome Ann's meals is goulash. Normally, she describes the entire method that goes into making each meal, but with goulash, all she says is, "You don't want to know. You really don't want to know."
• In one of the opening missions of Mass Effect 2, you come across a log recorded by the Chief Medical Officer of the Lazarus Project that brought you back from the dead. He wonders how the Illusive Man manages to keep funding the project despite it going over-budget, concluding that it's perhaps better not to know.
• In Halo 2, in a cutscene early in the game, Master Chief disarms a Covenant bomb on board Cairo Station with the help of Cortana.
  Master Chief: "How much time was left?"
  Cortana: "You DON'T want to know."
• Tales of Monkey Island: In Chapter 3:
  Winslow: I'll keep an eye on Miss LeFlay. If she stirs, I'll give her the old scurvy buttons!
  Guybrush: [disturbed] I don't want to know what that is.
  • And in Chapter 4:
    Guybrush: If I plead guilty, will I get out of here any quicker?
    Judge Grindstump: Most definitely—
    Guybrush: Great! Then I plead—
    Judge Grindstump: [interrupts] After the summary executions by keelhauling, hanging, boiling, and, eh, em... scaphism. [the crowd laughs]
    Guybrush: [confused] Scaphism?
    Stan: Trust me, kid, you don't want to know.
    Guybrush: Okay, then...
  • Oh, and scaphism is not a made-up word. Stan is absolutely right.^{If you must know...}It's executing someone via tying them between boats in the water and then covering and forcefeeding them milk and honey so they will be torturously killed from being slowly swarmed and eaten by all of the insects that will be attracted by the mixture and the individual's excrement over several days. They said You Do Not Want To Know...
• In Saints Row: The Third, the player character asks Shaundi what a "Feel Boss" is. She simply responds with: "You DON'T wanna know."
• In Grand Theft Auto V, the first time we meet Franklin's aunt, we see her and her friends drunk and chanting at her vulva. The first thing he says?
  Franklin: I do not want to know.
• In The Elder Scrolls In-Game Novel "A Game at Dinner", the anonymous writer tells his master this about the effects of the poison Prince Helseth successfully bluffed a spy into drinking.
  "I know that you have seen much over the many, many years of your existence, but you truly don't want to know."
• Take the mage quest early in Dragon Age: Inquisition and after saving Leliana Dorian will attempt to find out what happened. What's already seen is perhaps the most horrific scenes in the series, and her utter reticence for an explanation suggests we just take her word for it that as bad as things are the rest is far worse.
• The final cutscene of Dreamkiller, after you destroy the Dream Devourer and regains consciousness in the real world. A medic attending to you asks if you're alright and if you remember what happened; you reply to him in-verbatim. "You don't really want to know, trust me..."
• Played for comedy in Jak II: Renegade at the end of the game:
  (Onin makes hand gestures)
  Daxter: What'd she say?
  Pecker: Something about rubber tubing and certain parts of your mother. You don't wanna know.
• West of Loathing: If you rescue Doug from the cave the Stripey Hat Gang were hiding out in, he'll start up his own restaurant selling "Hot Dougs". Turns out there already was a Hot Doug out there, a fact Doug was very much disturbed to hear.
• One of the missions in SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom has Mrs. Puff asking our porous hero to reclaim artwork stolen from the Rock Bottom Art Museum and bringing it to her in return for a Golden Spatula. When asked why she needs the artwork:
  Mrs. Puff: (dramatic zoom in) "DON'T ASK QUESTIONS YOU AREN'T PREPARED TO HANDLE THE ANSWER TO."
• Battle Chasers: Nightwar: When the party find Knolan:
  Gully: Knolan! You're safe, but you were in a barrel! Do we want to know?
  Knolan: Nope. You don't.
• In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, during Ingrid and Bernadetta's C support, Ingrid tries to coax Bernadetta, a classmate at the Officers Academy, to come out of her room to go to training. When asking politely and firmly insisting don't work, Ingrid kicks down the door, terrifying Bernadetta enough that she comes along. Bernadtta then wonders what Ingrid would do to her enemies if this is how she treats her classmates.
  Ingrid: Don't ask questions you don't want answers to.
• In The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone, we have this exchange between Geralt and Gaunter O'Dimm:
  Geralt: You're not human, that's for sure. So what are you? A demon? A Djinn?
  Gaunther: Do you really wish to know?
  Geralt: Yes.
  Gaunther: No, Geralt, you don't. This one time I shall spare you and not grant your wish. All who have learned my true name are now either dead or have met a worse fate. Yet I still need you.
• Sam & Max, In the prologue to Moai Better Blues, Sam and Max find Sybil being chased by a giant triangle-shaped portal.
  Sam: What is with mysterious portals lately?
  Max: Sybil's not that mysterious once you get to know her.
  Sam: I don't even want to know what you think I meant.

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner:
  • If you want to know how to animate Homestar, according to "Sample of Style Too" it involves a pair of underpants with ping-pong sensor nodes on it. Matt quotes this word for word after showing the viewer this.
  • In the Halloween toon "Mr. Poofers Must Die!", Coach Z and Pom Pom collaborate on a costume of Missy Elliot's baggy black jumpsuit from the music video for "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)"... which involves Coach Z's head sticking out of Pom Pom's spherical body.
    Strong Bad: Do I even wanna know how you and Pom Pom are pulling this costume off?
    Coach Z: I can assure you: you do not.
    (Pom Pom sticks his head out of his body and bubbles in annoyance)
    Coach Z: Get back in there! (shoves Pom Pom's head back in)
• Red vs. Blue:
  • In season 3, Church encounters multiple versions of himself due to time travel, including one who is an odd yellow color. When asked how he got like that, he simply replies, "Dude, Don't Ask." In season five, it turns out yellow Church is actually the personification of Sister in Caboose's head. And according to Season 10, may or may not actually exist. In Yellow Church's own words, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.
  • Season 10 adds the fate of Agent Georgia. It somehow involved a zero-g thruster pack.
    York: We're going all the way over there? After what happened to Georgia?
    Washington: Would someone please tell me what happened to Georgia?!
    York: Dude, you do NOT wanna know. [flies off]
    Wash: I really do, though!
• The pilot for Knights of All Realms starts after the knights have traded a dragon tooth to the Tooth Fairy for a large sack of coins. When Arla asks Lady Bugg what the Tooth Fairy does with all those teeth, Lady Bugg insists that she doesn't want to know and that it's creepy.
• When Big D is being interrogated by the police in Hunter: The Parenting, he invokes this to make his story more plausible. When asked to explain why his house has a dungeon with cages, whips, a live camera feed, and two dead bodies ^note His family uses it to interrogate captured vampires from a safe distance, he feigns disgust and refuses to answer at first. When the cop presses him, he is embarrassed to say that it is his friend (son) Marckus's sex dungeon, and hints at multiple disturbing yet nonexistent Noodle Incidents to make sure he asks as little as possible.

Webcomics

• Sluggy Freelance:
  • Toyed with by fan favorite Sasha: "Part of me wants to say 'I don't want to know', but I do! I really, really do!"
  • Also- [1]:
    "How did you get a Sacagawea dollar to penetrate your front grill and lodge itself in your carburetor?"
    "You don't want to know."
    "Why are you dressed as a ninja?"
    "I don't want to tell you."
• Schlock Mercenary:
  • Done by the narrator in this strip when he covers Massey's description of how being Mind Raped by the lawyer collective felt with a narration bubble.
    Massey: Well, to continue the metaphor, picture a billion attorneys, all bent on violating your mind, like the galaxy's single largest—
    Narrator: Whups. Sorry about that! We at Schlock Mercenary don't want to trouble the tender minds of our viewers with truly disturbing metaphors like this one. And believe me, you do not want to know where this one was going. Suffice it to say that Massey's experience was unpleasant. Now, back to the story.
    Schlock: Ugh. Like, over cornflakes?
  • Another example:
    Breya: I... I really want to know, but I think I'm afraid to ask.
    Tagon: That means you don't really want to know.
  • Also inverted here:
    Elf: I don't want to know.
    Aardman: Yes you do. You just don't want to admit it.
  • Admiral Tebbir would feel better trusting Petey on this one (see the next 3 pages).
• Used once in Penny Arcade: "Wow, it's like...I want to see it? But at the same time, I don't want to see it."
  • In a subversion, that's just Gabe Comically Missing the Point; Tycho's being kicked out of being a man.
• Questionable Content:
  • Pops up in here. Speculations on what it could be runs rampant amongst the cast (and the fanbase) before it's finally revealed to be more nerdy than anything else...
  • Also this strip.
    Faye: Dora, we have a freaked-out naked chick scrubbing herself furiously in our bathroom.
    Dora: Meh, it's not the first time.
    Faye: I... I don't want to know, do I.
    Dora: Probably not.
• Freefall:
  • Helix, a robot, needs to use the bathroom.
    Florence: Sam, do I even want to know why a robot needs to use the bathroom?
    Sam: Uhm, no. I don't think you do.
  • Sometimes you don't know whether you want to know why you ended up wearing your enemy's pants.
  • Nightmare Fuel is discussed during a late-night discussion of Dvorak's cage.
    Police Chief: Dvorak is bringing over a reinforced cage he made for the containment of dangerous electronic life forms.
    Bill Raibert: This cage. Is it something he built in case of, or because of?
    Police Chief: If you want to sleep tonight, you don't want the answer to that question.
• Nodwick theology has this effect:
  Artax: The more I learn about gods, the less I want to know.
• The Order of the Stick has "He's Still a Dwarf at Heart":
  Roy: Wha-Durkon??
  Durkon: Tha's Bandit King Durkon ta you, laddie!
  Roy: Part of me wants to know a story behind that, while the other, smarter part of me knows it's better off in ignorance.
• Faux Pas
  A rabbit: So, what do you like to eat?
  Dusk (a fox): Kid... never ask a question if you won't like the answer.
• In Exterminatus Now, Syrus had just KO'd Wildfire with a chloroform rag after one too many screwups. See above.
• The Whiteboard: A common reaction by the regulars when Sandy or Pirta (moreso the latter, not having been around the gang for as long as the former) asks about any particular weirdness happening.
  Jake: "If past experience is any indication, we'll be better off not knowing."
• Used in Yosh! in response to an accidental Double Entendre.
  Lia: Don't. I know you want to explain what he means by that, but don't.
• After Mal from Head Trip's brother Dane finds out she went to "visit" their sister Kat's Jewish ex, who did not take the breakup well:
  Dane: [after trailing off and a beat panel] Mal, why is there a bloody menorah on your desk?
  Mal: Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to, Dane.
  Dane: Oh... Oh my God, is that an ear hanging off of it?!
  Mal: What did I just tell you?
• Bram & Vlad has this:
  Bessie: Why would one possibly want a jar full of eyeballs?
  Bram: Do you really want to know?
• In the space arc of Arthur, King of Time and Space, Kay complains about Arthur passing arbitrary Loony Laws, and Mordred says that Arthur might pass laws for obscure or whimsical reasons, but there will be a reason, if they only knew it. Kay says the law is "No serving of alcohol to cows on a Tuesday", and Mordred amends his comment to "Or, as it might be, if we ever wanted to know it".

Web Original

• Destroy the Godmodder: This is the general response to any questions regarding the godmodder's past. We know he is a he, that he is independent, has lots of cash, a really cool Hacker Cave, and that his name is Richard, and not much else.
• In Part 15 of A Trickster's Tail, after the two of them have escaped the afterlife and Keith has related his adventure to Kickaha.
  Keith: So... what happened to you?
  Kickaha: You don't want to know.
  Keith: WHAT? We're probably the only two people on this planet that can have this discussion, and you're telling me that I don't want to know?
  Kickaha: Look. You don't understand. You were there. You told me. You don't want to know.
• In The Binder of Shame, this is used occasionally.
  Blobert Smith: My character deals with his post-traumatic stress by putting porridge up his nose on moonlit nights.
  Weasly Crusher: Why would he—
  El Disgusto: Don't! Just don't.
• A prime example of this appears in Strange Aeons. Despite heavy questioning, Nick is adamant in warning Chris to not look up the videos on the Strange Aeons channel.
• SCP Foundation: For SCP-231, the containment procedure 110-Montauk is designed to keep the pregnant girl (age unspecified) from giving birth to a creature that will cause The End of the World as We Know It. All but the vaguest details regarding 110-Montauk are expunged and redacted; the only details we get are that it's horrifically inhumane^note The writer states it's not the obvious answer, but worse than that., that only non-violent D-class personnel are ever to be given authorization to carry out the procedure^note to minimize unnecessary prolonging of the procedure, that it's so agonizing to the one carrying out the procedure that those who do it are routinely given Laser-Guided Amnesia to prevent psychological damage^note the suicide rate was disproportionately high for personnel who developed/performed 110-Montauk, and that the subject has to be awake, lucid, and aware of what's happening to her or it won't work.^note She also can't be killed, the fetus can't simply be aborted, and she has to be mind-wiped once a week so the trauma and anguish are fresh, since that makes it more effective. The O5 council, the leaders of the Foundation who already operate with dubious morals at the best of times, are disgusted with themselves that this is the best they can do in this case and avoid talking about it as much as possible; case in point, the photo that would normally accompany the article isn't only missing, it's pointedly removed by order of the O5. The article is screaming this trope with the amount of redaction alone.
• Paul Robinson's short story It Can't Be That Bad tells the story of Clark Rosecrans, a man who discovered something that bothered him. Clark goes to see a psychiatrist, and tells how he tried calling suicide prevention, every time he tells someone, they hang up and when he calls back he finds they've killed themselves. The doctor tells him he's heard many bad things, and "It can't be that bad." The doctor promptly commits suicide after hearing Clark's story. Even the police are not immune.

Western Animation

• In The Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Box", the box delivered to the Wattersons' house turns out to be for their neighbor Mr. Robinson, who says the Wattersons don't want to know what's inside, but they insist after wondering the entire episode. He then goes into a very graphic, very long description of a repulsive skin condition the box contained an ointment for. They agree they didn't want to know.
• Futurama:
  • Seen in "The Sting":
    Farnsworth: This is no ordinary honey. It's produced by vicious space bees. A single sting of their hideous neurotoxin can cause instant death!
    Hermes: [happily] And that's if you're not allergic! You don't wanna know what happens then. Oh no, no. God no!
    Farnsworth: Your insides will boil out of your eye sockets like a science fair volcano!
    Hermes: [sobbing] I didn't want to know!
  • And you really don't want to know whose behind Slurm comes out of. Same episode, the same is said of where toothpaste comes from. This squicks out even the creature who creates Slurm.
• The Twisted Talesof Felix The Cat: In "Step Right Up", Felix visits a carnival sideshow and sees an ordinary-looking woman sitting. A nearby boy asks the lady what is so special about her, and the woman says this verbatim in in a deep masculine-sounding voice.
• Code Lyoko: The school gym teacher Jim is very closemouthed about his past. While he often mentions his previous careers, he usually says "I'd rather not talk about it" when pressed about them, except for two notable cases: once when he says he's not allowed to talk about it (it involved government work), and once when he'd have loved to talk about it (it involved skateboarding), but he didn't have time because he was too busy with something school-related right then. This catchphrase was actually the title of an episode where he was the central character. (In that episode, he actually does talk about it.)
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
  • Grim gives Billy a gumball machine that yields a limitless amount of gum, but warns him never to swallow the gum. When asked what will happen if he does, Grim says, "Trust me, you don't wanna know. If I had skin, it would be crawling." Billy eventually ignores this warning, and we find out that swallowing the gum causes "an unimaginably horrible rash from another dimension." Though Billy initially has bubbles and gum coming out of his body before it actually happens. The rash was what it said on the label.
  • And then there's the thankfully not elaborated method of how Irwin's mom (A mummy) and his dad made a kid.
    Dick: Yes, Irwin's mom is actually a mummy. Nobody can tell you who to fall in love with, but we've managed to make it work all these years. Leaving a whole lot of questions that don't need to be answered.
    Grim: Eh, works for me.
    Irwin: Ditto.
    Mandy: Me too.
    Billy: ...Yeeeeeaaah, but how did you and Irwin's mom...
    Dick: [in the exact same tone of voice] Leaving a whole lot of questions that don't need to be answered.
• In Transformers: Animated when Starscream finds out that each of his clones represent a different part of his personality and he asks which part an Opposite-Sex Clone represents, her response is "Don't ask!"
  • Funnily enough, Word of God states the same thing.
  • In an earlier episode, Prowl, Bumblebee and Sari go on a camping trip, and the latter two bring all manner of gadgets. Prowl, unimpressed, asks Bee where he found room for all of it in his vehicle mode. "I'd...rather not say".
• In an episode of the ongoing Hercules series, the water of the Spring of Canathus turns Hercules, Icarus, Pegasus, Adonis, and Hades' minion Pain into infants, which results in Cassandra and Hades other minion Panic becoming Badly Battered Babysitters for the rest of the episode. When the curse is finally undone, Hades shows up, and at first, he asks why everyone is wearing diapers, but then he changes his mind and says he doesn't want to know, and leaves with his two servants. (However, Hercules and his friends do want to know what happened, and after Cassandra tells them, they all beg and plead with her not to tell anyone.)
• Justice League:
  • In an episode, having just captured the assassin Deadshot who tried to kill Aquaman, several members of the League threaten him with physical violence, which he shrugs off. Batman then takes him aside and whispers something to him, he practically begs to tell everything he knows. When Wonder Woman asks Superman what was said (Supes possesses acute hearing) he tells her that she doesn't want to know. Made even better by the expression on his face. According to Kevin Conroy, the actor who played Batman, he was told to whisper "I know where you live, Floyd".
  • Also, in the Forced Prize Fight Unlimited episode "Grudge Match", Hawkgirl's reaction after being snapped out of mind control;
    "I don't think I want to know."
    "We're all in a cage match fighting to the death."
    "Yeah, see?"
• Speaking of Batman... In one Crossover episode of Static Shock, a time-chair Batman took off a villain accidentally sends Static into a future time, where he meets both Terry McGinnis (aka Batman Beyond) and the aged Bruce Wayne, along with his future self. At the end of the episode, he returns to his own time and is about to reveal to Batman what his future is like, but Batman interrupts him, saying that he'd "rather not know".
  Static: Oh. Well... you still had all your hair.
• In the Ben 10 episode "Ken 10" Ken rejects adding an alien called 'Toepick' to the Omnitrix, saying "He even grosses me out!". The pop-up edition plays this up by having the pop-up say "You don't want to know". Toepick makes an appearance in Ben 10: Omniverse. He has a green cage covering his face, which is so nightmarish it makes Psyphon turn white with fear and beg for mercy.
  • In another Omniverse episode, Rook makes a concoction as per Gwen's instructions to try and help cure Ben's out-of-control acne. Ben chugs it immediately, at which point Rook tells him he wasn't supposed to drink it. When Ben asks what the ingredients were, Rook tells him he's better off not knowing.
• In Invader Zim's Crapsack World, people inexplicably hand out meat on Valentine's Day. When Dib asks how this tradition got started, Ms. Bitters (who never had a problem telling the children disturbing truths before) simply replies that he doesn't want to know.
• In The Real Ghostbusters, the episode 'Knock, Knock' has Egon look into the room that holds the door to Doomsday. When asks what he sees, he replies 'you don't want to know' in his usual calm, dull tone of voice.
• In The Penguins of Madagascar there is a long running gag involving Skipper with this called the "Copenhagen/Denmark incident". It´s seems he is unable to set foot in Denmark for unknown circumstances after being declared that country´s Public Enemy Number One. When Private asked "What happened at Denmark?" (and any other character, even if they made the slightly commentary about this) he only gets the "You don´t wanna know/ask about that Private!!!" from Skipper. Partially reverted as the show goes on, with one episode explaining Hans the puffin had framed him, and some details about the incident involving explosions and a high-speed chase, and another revealing it has something to do with open faced sandwiches (yeah...just don´t ask...)
• Tex Avery MGM Cartoons: In the Droopy cartoon The Three Little Pups, Droopy is watching television with his two brothers in one scene; the Wolf tries to suck them up with a giant straw, only to grab the televison instead (and end up with it lodged in his stomach). Two scenes later, Droopy and his brothers are watching television again, and Droopy looks at the camera and says, "Now don't ask us how we got the television set back..."
• Kim Possible:
  • In a scene involving a "gravy ghost" spelling words in the high-school cafeteria gravy;
    Wade: I don't know what to tell you, Kim. After watching the cafeteria security tape, I can't explain what happened either.
    Kim: Did you analyze the gravy sample?
    Wade: Yup.
    Monique: And?
    Wade: You don't want to know. [Beat] Not till after graduation. [Beat] From college.
    Monique: I say we trust him on the gravy.
  • Another example, when "Miss Go" (Shego temporarily turned good) arrives to teach one of Kim's classes:
    Mr. Barkin: And don't let them tell you that they're supposed to have class outside! We put a stop to that after the jellyfish incident.
    Miss Go: Oh, that's so sweet! You took the class to the beach!
    Mr. Barkin: No beach. Just jellyfish... [shudders] Don't ask.
• In the Strawberry Shortcake Berryfest Princess Movie, Blueberry Muffin walks in on Strawberry Shortcake doing a bunnyhop and sorting mixed nuts with Plum Pudding at Orange Blossom's general store and comments, "Do I wanna know?" A little while later, after reading a map has been added to Strawberry's tasks, Orange returns, also commenting, "Do I wanna know?" "That's what I said," Blueberry tells her.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In "Boast Busters", it turns out that the three story tall celestial bear that attacked Ponyville at the climax was not an Ursa Major, but an Ursa Minor — a cub. When Spike asks what a full-grown Ursa Major is like, the audience is shown a rather scary-looking star-bear big enough to be holding the Ursa Minor in its arms like a baby, which is followed by a cut back to Twilight telling Spike "You don't want to know."
  • Rainbow Dash says this in "Party of One" after Twilight wonders what Dash meant by "At least I haven't been replaced by a bucket of turnips."
• The Simpsons:
  • In the episode "I Love Lisa," Ralph Wiggum has tickets to Krusty's anniversary show, and he invites Lisa. Bart really wants to go, and he suggests disguising himself as Lisa.
    Lisa: But what if he wants to hold hands?
    Bart: I'm prepared to make that sacrifice.
    Lisa: What if he wants to kiss?
    Bart: I'm prepared to make that sacrifice.
    Lisa: What if he wants to—
    Bart: You don't want to know how far I'll go.
  • A Simpsons TV Episode guide also used this phrase on the subject of how Kang and Kodos could tell each other's genders.
  • Another episode had Bart rubbing his ear industriously and acting sick so that when Marge took his temperature (through his ear) it would come out to 103 F and he could stay home. She says the only way to be sure was to use the rectal thermometer. It still came out to 103. When Lisa asked, Bart says she doesn't want to know.
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983):
  • In "The Origin of The Sorceress": Teela-na, the future Sorceress, gets this line from a young town who had been watching the villain of the day and an alien race argue over things.
  • Buzz-Off uses this line twice in two separate episodes of the 2002 remake. The first is during season one, where Man-At-Arms is swallowed by Merman's giant shark-monster. (For the second time.) He-Man tries to rescue him by diving down the beast's throat, leading to this exchange:
    Ram-Man: Okay! So they're in! So, uh... How are they gettin' out?
    Buzz-Off: I don't even wanna know..
  • The second time was the second season, after he and Stratos found that Webstor had gorged himself on ambrosia, turning himself into a monstrous, demonic spider. It got even worse when they found his lair and the captive Adreenans All Webbed Up... And eggshells lying on the ground, indicating that the villain had spawned a brood of young. (Webstor had been assumed to be male up to now.) When Statos asked how this was possible, Buzz-Off again, said, "I don't even wanna know."
• Courage the Cowardly Dog: Used as a form of Implied Death Threat in "Courage in the Big Stinkin' City".
  Bushwik: You see that door? You wanna know what's behind that door? You don't wanna know what's behind that door. See these bones? You wanna know what made these bones?
  Courage: [nods, but begins to shake his head as Bushwik does]
  Buskwik: You don't wanna know what made these bones.
• In the second Danny Phantom movie, The Ultimate Enemy, after Danny asks Future Vlad what happened to Danny's human half, Vlad only tells him, "Some things, my boy, are better left unsaid..."
• A variant in the Milo Murphy's Law episode "Smooth Opera-tor:"
  Milo: You can sit with us in the center if you want. I bought an extra seat in case mine got destroyed!
  Amanda: How would your seat get destroyed?
  Melissa: It's best not to speculate.
• House of Mouse: In "Dining Goofy", Mickey and Minnie go over guest problems arising from Goofy's constant screw-ups as a waiter.
  Minnie: Mushu is going to sue if he can't breathe fire, Timon sent us his air-freshening bill...
  Mickey: What about Hades?
  Minnie: You don't want to know.
• Rick and Morty: A variant is used in "Total Rickall", when Rick places the Smith house on lockdown:
  Beth: Dad, why does our house have blast shields?
  Rick: Trust me, Beth; you don't wanna know how many answers that question has.
• In the My Gym Partner's a Monkey episode "One Lump or Tutor", one of Adam's classes require him to test his predatory instincts by eating what looks like a cow made out of cheese. After getting a taste, he realizes that it's not cheese at all, but Mr. Hornbill tells him that he wouldn't want to eat it if he knew what it was really made of.
• American Dad!: In "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever", Stan asks his heavenly lawyer Michelle what happened to Jim Henson, and she replies, "You don't want to know". It's then revealed to the viewer that he and Kermit the Frog are imprisoned in the Phantom Zone for blasphemy on Kermit's part.
  Henson: Forgive us!
  Kermit: You will bow down before me, son of God!
• Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.: During an encounter with a Future Badass version of himself, A-Bomb brings up Future Rick's mechanical arm and asks how that happened. Future Rick says this, but A-Bomb insists. Future Rick reveals that the Hulk of his time tore his arm off.
  • Hulk goes to a future where the Leader has a son. After telling the audience it means there must be a "Mrs. Leader", Hulk decides he doesn't want to know who she is.
• Hazbin Hotel: In the episode Masquerade after Angel Dust shows a porno he was in to the other hotel patrons for “Show and tell day” Husk says it’s fake which annoys Angel. Husk then says everyone tells their woes to the bartender listing off the baggage of Sir Pentious, Charlie, and Vaggie, but not Nifty, instead saying “And, Nifty? (Scoffs) You don’t even wanna know what her deal is.”
• God Rocks!: In a RocKidsTV "Parable Playhouse" segment, after the God Rocks group sings a jaunty sea shanty about fishermen, Gem tells everyone that the kingdom of Heaven is like the fish they catch - like how the fishers keep the fish, God will keep anyone who follows the statutes of Christianity forever. When Chip asks what happens to everybody else, Gem's only response is "You don't wanna know." and to keep him from guessing.

Real Life

• How America's Got Talent 75-year-old contestant Sally from Portland discovered she could hand-whistle. She wrote a book about it, but part of the book was also about her coming. Judging by how the judges on the show reacted ('mm-hmm'-ing and nodding), they evidently didn't consider it to be an example of the trope. It could be a bit of a Mood Whiplash, though.

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