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Mysterious Informant (view source)

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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[The Big O (Anime)|The Big O]]'' anime: Big Ear, Roger Smith's information source. He's always in the same bar (in the same seat, no less) and almost never looks directly at Roger, reading the newspaper as they talk.
** Also, it's eventually revealed that {{spoiler|he's an android.}}
* SSS ("Three Speed") from ''[[Madlax]],'' the titular character's employer/ contact {{spoiler|who ends up selling out Madlax to [[Ancient Conspiracy|Enfant]] under pressure}}. She doesn't hold a grudge at him for this.
* Sylia occasionally receives job offers and intelligence from one of these in ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]''. He spends at least half of each meeting hitting on her.
* Kujaku from ''[[RG Veda]]'' is one of very few people who knows what's going on with the prophecy, and the only one who helps the heroes.
* In ''[[Durarara (Literature)|Durarara]]'', Izaya might not be nice or helping the good guys too often, but he is mostly definitely an informant.
 
== [[Film]] ==
* Chatter Telephone from ''[[Toy Story 3]]'' helped Woody out when things turned sour. He also has a kick-ass film noir voice.
* Donald Sutherland's character in ''[[JFK (Filmfilm)|JFK]]''.
* ''[[All the President's Men (Film)|All the Presidents Men]]'' has the original Deep Throat, Bob Woodward's government source who tells him "Follow the money."
 
== [[Literature]] ==
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Police Squad!]]!'' (the six-episode ABC series that later became the ''Naked Gun'' movies) also parodied this with Johnny the Shoeshine Boy, who knew everything if you had the price. After every visit by Frank Drebin, Johnny had to deal with a celebrity looking for advice or help on their special areas of expertise (Dick Clark asking about ska music, Dr. Joyce Brothers asking about psychology, and so on).
* ''[[The X -Files]]'' turned it into a cottage industry. To elaborate, Mulder's very first informant was Deep Throat ({{spoiler|killed by [[The Men in Black]] in the season 1 finale}}); after him, there were the ex-MIB X ({{spoiler|killed by another MIB in the season 4 pilot}}), Marita "SRSG" Covarrubias ({{spoiler|infected with black oil in season 5, survived, and stopped helping Mulder}}), and the [[The Adjectival Man|Well-Manicured Man]] (only in [[The Movie]], {{spoiler|killed himself with a car bomb}}).
* ''[[Malcolm in Thethe Middle]]'': When Hal is being indicted for his masterminding of a vast conspiracy to defraud the company he worked at, he's met by one of these at the public library who tells him that he's got six months to live and wants to die with a clean conscience. It's then neatly subverted when the informant turns up at court, testifies AGAINST Hal and says that the medical records were mixed up and he's going to be fine.
* An episode of ''[[Lois and Clark]]'' featured a constantly coughing informant called "Sore Throat". When Perry asked him to give them more information he said "What, like 'follow the money'? I never understood that." One episode guide refers to him as "[[Older Than They Think|an obvious parody of Deep Throat in The X-Files]]".
* Sporty James from ''[[Hunter]]'' TV series. Not very mysterious though.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* Used in both ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' and ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2''. The mysterious informants both dub themselves "Deep Throat", although the second then says to call him [[The X -Files|Mr. X]] because Raiden, in [[Fan Girl]] mode, made comparisons to the Shadow Moses "Deep Throat".
** Then subverted in the fourth game, where Snake guesses who the mysterious informant is about three sentences into the conversation:
{{quote| '''Snake''': Is this...{{spoiler|Jack}}?}}
* The G-Man in the ''[[Half Life]]'' series.
* The original ''[[Max Payne (Video Gameseries)|Max Payne]]'' gave us Alfred Woden, who supplied Max with useful data throughout the game, before revealing himself as the head of the counter-conspiracy to {{spoiler|Project Valhalla}} and giving him the name of the [[Final Boss]] in the endgame.
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' parodied this in one episode with a trenchcoat-wearing, cigarette-smoking Mr. Smithers.
* ''[[Family Guy]]'' has also had one, with the shadowed [[Mysterious Informant]] obviously being [[The Muppet Show|Kermit The Frog]]. In another episode where they had become a reality TV family and Meg was kicked out of the family for being boring, Peter and Lois met her in this fashion, complete with offering her a cigarette.
* ''[[Hey Arnold]]'': In [[The Movie]], there was a principal character who was impersonating "Deep Voice", a reference to "Deep Throat". This character also wore a trenchcoat and used a voice simulator. {{spoiler|It was really Helga Pataki.}}
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[Truth in Television|Real-life example]] and [[Trope Makers|Trope Maker]]: "Deep Throat", the Watergate informant whose identity (William Mark Felt Sr.) was only recently revealed. So ubiquitous, nearly every [[Mysterious Informant]] is either an outright reference/parody, or at least has some aspects gleaned from Deep Throat. However, some aspects of the trope draws heavily from the [[Popcultural Osmosis]] of ''[[All the President's Men (Film)|All the Presidents Men]]''; the real-life Deep Throat's identity was a mystery to the general public, but Bob Woodward knew exactly who he was talking to.
 
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