Sarcastic Confession/Playing With
Basic Trope: A culprit (usually beneath suspicion) confesses to a crime under investigation, but does so sarcastically, and thus is not taken seriously.
- Straight:
Hank: But how did the killer exit the room without leaving a blood trail? |
James turns out to be the killer in the end, for exactly the reason he stated.
- Exaggerated:
Hank: But how did the killer exit the room without leaving a blood trail? |
- Justified:
Hank: James! It was you all along! But... when we were investigating... |
- Inverted:
James: Oh yes, Hank. I'm the killer. |
- Subverted:
James: Of course, Hank. I'm the killer. |
- Double Subverted:
Hank: James! You're the killer? But... when you made the confession, you said that you were being sarcastic! |
- Parodied: James is arrested and convicted of his crimes. At the trial, Hank is on the witness stand recalling the bloodstains, the unaccountable disappearances, and "that oddly detailed description of the murder he reported in a sarcastic tone of voice". James mutters "My one mistake."
- Deconstructed: James suffers from numerous psychoses, including a strong compulsion to be perfectly honest. Making confessions in a heavily sarcastic tone is the only way he can keep himself from having a breakdown. Years of this explains his haughty, condescending personality. As he explains to Hank, no completely sane man would explain the details of his greatest crimes, even sarcastically, for fear of being taken seriously.
- Reconstructed: James later reveals that his compulsive honesty hasn't bothered him in years, but he has grown to like sarcastically confessing to his crimes, as it allows him to feel superior to the idiots he spends all his time with.
- Zig Zagged: James confesses sarcastically to Hank that he was the killer. Hank later uncovers evidence and realizes to his horror that James really was the killer. He shoots James dead. And then the real killer appears. Hank struggles with the killer and eventually kills him. And then Hank finds James' body missing, with a note from James thanking him for eliminating his accomplice, and thus the only witness to the murder.
- Averted:
Hank: How do you know this, James? Are you the killer? |
- Enforced: "Well, we've established James as such a Magnificent Bastard that if we just reveal that he is the killer, it'll look like an Ass Pull. What about that Red Herring in the dialogue?"
- Lampshaded:
James: Of course, Hank. I'm the killer. |
- Invoked: James has been blackmailed into working with the killer, and his sarcastic confession is a desperate attempt to steer Hank towards the truth without alerting the killer to his defection.
- Defied: "And how do you know all that? Are you the killer, James? James? James, why are you bleeding all over the... James? JAMES!!!"
- Discussed: "Case closed. Lesson learned? If your friend sarcastically gives you an accurate description of the murder, maybe you should at least consider him to be a suspect."
- Conversed:
Hank: I can't piece this together, James. Give me something to work with. |
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