Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,951
edits
(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.DontTellMama 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.DontTellMama, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
No edit summary |
||
(13 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Sheriff:''' All right now, boys, that's enough. Kid Rock, that's not like you. And Joe C., would your mama want you stretching out that sweatshirt like that?
'''Joe C.:''' No, sir. Please don't tell Mama.
|''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''}}
{{quote|'''Jade:''' Doesn't she know Valmont is a thief?
'''Tohru:''' No, and please don't tell her.
|''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]''}}
Everyone knows that [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas]]. And since that's the case, a lot of bad men, whether they might be gangsters, [[Career Killers]], [[Corrupt Corporate Executive
Naturally there are many variations on this, as the character in question may be trying to keep the truth from a father, sibling, [[True Companions]], etc.
Some criminals doing this often like to think of themselves as [[The Dutiful Son]], providing for and protecting their mother or family while also keeping the knowledge of where the family's prosperity comes from secret, but their true status will depend on their other actions, as the character in question may be anything from a [[Complete Monster]] to a [[Delinquent]] to an [[Anti
Of course, plenty of the mothers know what their sons do, they just either are [[Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal|in denial about it]] or not saying anything about it for the sake of family peace and quiet.
Often requires at least some [[Parental Obliviousness]] in order to work. Most characters that engage in this do so because they desperately crave hearing those magic words "[[So Proud of You|I'm so proud of you]]" and don't want to make it go away.
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* There's a variation in ''[[
* [[Anti
* ''[[
** Though that's probably more for practical reasons than emotional ones. His father ''is'' the chief of police, after all.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Lieutenant David Elliot Hanneth Solomon, from ''[[Soda]]'', is a cop faking
== Comics ==▼
▲* Lieutenant David Elliot Hanneth Solomon, from Soda, is a cop faking to be a priest for the sake of his beloved cardiac mother.
* In the original ''[[Sin City]]'' comic, Marv visits his mother's apartment to pick up the handgun he stored under his childhood bed. When his noise wakes her up he tells her some lies to reassure her about himself and why he's there that night.
** Also, Becky from ''The Big Fat Kill'' gives this as part of her reason for {{spoiler|selling out the rest of the girls of Old Town to the mob}}.
{{quote|
* In the original ''The Hood'' mini Parker Robbins keeps lying to his mother about him being a [[Super Villain]]. Helps that she has Alzheimer's and doesn't remember when he changes his story.
* Sandman, a ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' and ''[[Spider
* During Norman Osbourne/The Green Goblin's original death in ''[[Spider
** For that matter, Peter Parker has gone to great lengths to hide his [[Superhero]] identity from his Aunt May, who is as good as his mother. In at least one version May has arachnophobia and is thus not overly fond of Spiderman, hence Peter's actions.
** And [[Retcon|when she died the first time]] she revealed that she'd known for quite some time, and was very proud of him.
==
* In ''[[
{{quote|
'''Mello:''' It's not like you to have doubts.
'''Near:''' I don't usually face such definite trouble.
'''Matt:''' [[Casual Danger Dialog|That is the one thing we can guarantee will happen. We still in agreement over who to confess to?]]
'''Mello:''' [[Oh Crap|Light?]]
'''Near:''' [[This Is Gonna Suck|Light.]] }}
* Heavy subversion in ''[[American Gangster]]''. Frank Lucas spends the whole film treating his mother like an unwitting [[Innocent Bystander]], but towards the end of the movie she tells him that she never asked him where all the family's prosperity came from just so that she wouldn't have to listen to him lie to her. Furthermore, she goes on a near [[Hannibal Lecture]] about he's responsible for all the other members of his family being in the drug trade, because they never would have gotten into it if not for him. However she says that all of them, including her, will walk out on him if he does something as suicidally dumb as declare war on the cops, which was exactly what Frank was planning to do at the moment.
* In ''[[Rush Hour]]'', Detective Carter gets certain information from his criminal cousin by threatening to arrest him, thus notifying their Aunt Bootsie about his dealings.
{{quote|
'''Luke:''' ...Why you gotta put Aunt Bootsie in this? }}
* There was one part in the movie ''[[Bulletproof]]'' where Damon Wayans' character goes along in lying to the mother of Adam Sandler's character in order to reassure her. Note that he blames Sandler's character for ''shooting him in the head'', which shows both how far this trope and [[Rule of Funny]] can stretch.
* This is parodied in ''[[Johnny Dangerously]]''. It's painfully obvious to ''everybody'' (including the pope) except for Johnny's mother and his brother that he's a mob boss.
* In ''[[Scream (
* IIRC, Joe Pesci's character from ''[[Goodfellas]]'' lied to his mother about why he and the guys were there that night to keep her from finding out that [[Hair
* Inverted at the end of the first [[Spider
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* In ''[[Harry Potter (
▲== Literature ==
** [[Mama Bear|And for very good reasons.]] Molly Weasley [[Mama Bear|actually ''killed Bellatrix Lestrange'']] for daring to hurt Ginny. You know, Bellatrix Lestrange, [[The Dragon]] to Voldemort (more or less) and one of the few people he actually trusted? Yeah, Molly is ''not'' someone you want to cross.
▲* In ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'', when Hermione finds the Weasley Twins testing out their home-made joke candies on younger students, Hermione demands that they stop. They taunt her by saying "Or what? You'll put us in detention?" Hermione coldly responds with "No. I'll write your mother." This scares the Twins so badly that they immediately comply, an action that has never been seen before or since.
* Odd inversion: Peter Wiggin of [[Ender's Game]] and the '' Ender's Shadow'' sequels, rather than having to hide an evil secret, is reluctant to let his parents find out that he has a secret identity as the great [[The Chessmaster|Chess]][[Big Good|master]] named Locke. When he tells his parents, it turns out that they already knew; and as it happens, Bean and Sister Carlotta [[I Know You Know I Know|knew that Peter's parents knew before Peter knew it.]]
* In ''[[The Thorn Birds]]'' (though not the better-known film adaptation), protagonist Meggie's oldest brother Frank runs away from home when she's a girl, after having a fight with their father. {{spoiler|Said fight revealed that Frank was actually the son of a different man.}} Years later, their mother, who doted on Frank, happens to find a newspaper in which an article announces his conviction for a terrible crime. Frank's only comment to the press was "Don't tell my mother."
* [[
* In ''[[
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==▼
▲== Live-Action TV ==
* On [[The Wire]] Omar Little becomes enraged at rival gangsters after they violate the Sunday truce and blow his cover to his elderly grandmother.
{{quote|
'''Kimmy''': Cafeteria?
'''Omar Little''': At the airport, yeah.
'''Kimmy''': The airport? Why the airport?
'''Omar Little''': 'Cause I know she ain't gonna never go down there to go dining, that's why! Hey, yo, Kimmy, this ain't funny, yo! That woman raised me! }}
* Spy turned ''[[
* A running gag on ''[[Hill Street Blues]]'' was Belker constantly booking the same criminal for various minor offenses and the criminal always giving him a fake name. This went on for years, until the criminal was accidentally caught in the crossfire of a gunfight he had nothing to do with. He was mortally wounded and asked Belker to call his mother, finally giving Belker his real name. Belker did so, telling the criminal's mother that her son had been a fine, upstanding citizen.
* In one episode of ''[[Brimstone (TV series)|Brimstone]]'', Zeke finds out that Gilbert Jax, the guy who raped his wife, is one of the [[Complete Monster|113 souls that escaped from Hell]] and that he has to find and send back. He also finds out that Jax has started with his old pattern again. He finds out that Jax is living with mother again, and tracks him to the mother's house. There he encounters the mother and talks to her, although he doesn't have the heart to tell her the truth about her son. Jax returns home at that point, and screams that "Getting my mother involved in this is low, Stone". Zeke defeats Jax, but afterwards still doesn't have the heart to tell his mother the truth, and lets her believe that he sent her son back to Heaven instead of Hell.
* Inverted on ''Wiseguy'', where federal deep-cover agent Vincent Terranova is forced to mislead his mother into believing he's a criminal. He's deeply troubled by how disappointed she is in her "no-good" son, and immensely relieved when she eventually learns the truth.
* On ''[[Malcolm in
* One ''[[The Man
== [[Theatre]] ==
* ''[[Cabaret]]'' is the [[Trope Namer]]: the so-titled number features Sally Bowles, decked out in a [[Naughty Nuns|Naughty Nun]] outfit, singing about how her mother thinks that she's a real nun at a convent in France while she's really living up the seedy life. The trope itself is not actually invoked in the story however, merely in the performance of the song.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* Subversion: Tony's mom in ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] Liberty City Stories''. She knows and approves of his job, and even puts a contract on him when she's dissatisfied with his advancement.
* ''SWAT 4.'' The serial killer in the second mission sometimes reacts to being handcuffed with this phrase.
** Ofcourse the chances are that you already tazed or mazed her at this point.
* Invoked in Simcopter; one of the phrases the player can shout at criminals to distract them is, "Does your mother know what you're doing?"
* ''[[Dead Rising]]'': "{{spoiler|Don't tell Jessie about this}}".
* ''Haze'': After you fatally wound {{spoiler|Duvall}}, he apparently realizes, for the first time, all the atrocities he's committed while being high on nectar. His final words?
{{quote|
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. Jesse mother think's she's working as a stage hand at a theater - she doesn't trust her to know she's with a group of eco-terrorists. Oddly, her mother sees nothing unusual about her daughter wearing combat gear when she visits.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Drakken's mom was probably the single funniest thing in ''[[Kim Possible]]'', one of the reasons for this being that she ''completely believes'' he is a radio talk show host. This despite the fact that he studied robotics, not psychiatry. Then again, anyone ''would'' want to cover up the fact that their world domination schemes were foiled by teenagers.
* Tohru's mom in ''[[
** Well she knew
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' provides the page quote. When they went to Florida during Spring Break, the local sheriff was disappointed with Joe C. (the foul mouthed little person who toured with Kid Rock). A parody as much as anything, given the utterly inconsequential matter.
* The Miser Brothers of ''[[The Year Without a Santa Claus]]'' may be elemental demigods who are essentially waging war on each other, but the very last thing they want to see Mrs. Claus do is tell their mother -- [[Mother Nature]] -- that they aren't willing to cooperate to give Santa a day off.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* There's a Stock Joke in aviation that goes:
{{quote|
** Variations on the same joke refer to lawyers, politicians, and other [[Acceptable Professional Targets]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:The Parent Trope]]
[[Category:Family Tropes]]
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
|