Too Much Information
I dream of the day when I will learn to stop asking questions to which I will regret learning the answers. —Roy Greenhilt, The Order of the Stick
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A character hears something that end up Squicking the hell out of them. Such as the sex lives of people they desperately try not to think about in the same sentence as the word "sex", such as parents or grandparents. Other bodily functions are the other most common variant, such as anything to do with bowel movements or a woman's menstrual cycle. Especially while the speakee is eating.
Named after a typical response for such information, usually abbreviated to TMI in Valley Girl speak. Also known as an "Overshare".
Compare with Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick. Sometimes followed by Never Say That Again or Brain Bleach. Can be a result of Dirty Mind Reading or Show, Don't Tell taken too far. Contrast You Do NOT Want to Know and Don't Ask.
Not related to More Information Than You Require. Not to be confused with the web comic of the same name.
No real life examples, please; This is All The Tropes, not Tropes After Dark.
Anime and Manga
- In a scene of Mahou Sensei Negima!, Asuna has this reaction to Makie's... reports... about Negi's "reaction" to them having to squeeze him (while naked) against a wall behind them both, while in the girls' shower, to keep his presence there a secret.
Makie: I think he just "grew". |
- One of the few places where the translation improves on this:
- There is also a scene where Jack Rakan walks away and loudly says he needs to take a number 2, leaving everyone yelling in disgust. He is lying, though.
- Tajima from Ookiku Furikabutte tends to do this concerning his deprived sex life and his habits on masturbation. One particular episode had him getting jumped by the other guys:
One of the players: Quiet man, there are girls on this bus! |
- Tower of God: Yeon and Ja get into a heated argument about who would be a better supporter of Viole, and it quickly devolves into this:
Yeon: "I GOT A BIGGER CHEST THAN YOU! YOU MALE STINKING APE! |
- In the Full Metal Panic!! novels, during TSR, Gauron tells Sōsuke that he fantasized dragging his dead body out of his AS and fucking it up the ass. Sōsuke is horrified, to say the least. And Gauron has the audacity to ask why he's making a face at him. It's made all the funnier by how Gauron attributes Sōsuke's worried and disgusted face to a Heroic BSOD, instead of the more obvious and immediate reason....
- In Axis Powers Hetalia, Poland will just tell people how he has to pee as he goes to relieve himself.
- Lampshaded in Excel Saga with Aesop, who has "sporadic anal enlargement syndrome". On the toilet, writhing in agony, he shouts, "Oh, it's big!". Excel immediately runs away. Hyatt, oblivious, asks "What is big?" Excel drags her away and tells her not to ask. The toilet appears out of nowhere in the middle of a baseball field just to make this joke.
- It's a well known fact in the Durarara!! universe that Shinra Kishitani is a kinky little bugger. About 90% of this can be attributed to the fact that Shinra is happy to tell anyone about whatever dirty thought comes to mind. Shizuo and Celty have both tried to beat this habit out of him. This only encourages him.
- Erika Karisawa has no problem with telling her friends that she fantasizes about them having gay sex.
- Suichin and Gazelleman state this (In the dub) when they learn Sunshine wears earplugs and panda jammies to bed.
- Rohan Kishibe in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Diamond Is Unbreakable likes reading into people's lives with his Heaven's Door Stand. When he reads Reimi's life and gets into very intimate details involving her first period and the first boy who kissed her, Koichi begs him to stop.
Fan Works
- Used twice in one episode of Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series:
- In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, Koizumi explained at Kyon's request that he gained his ESP powers when both Haruhi and him were undergoing puberty. At the beginning, he found it extremely difficult separating their feelings at first, which led to highly awkward situations. Kyon realizes his mistake and declares that he never wants to clarify that.
- Aki-chan's Life, when Ritsuko points out that Asuka may be a virgin mother...
Film
- The following exchange in Serenity:
Kaylee: Going on a year now, I ain't had nothing twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries! |
- From Pulp Fiction:
Vincent: I'm gonna take a piss. |
- From the same movie, Christopher Walken's character didn't really have to tell young Butch how his father hid the watch from the Vietcong, but decided to leave that detail intact. And mentioned it many times. Then mentioned that he hid the watch in much the same way once Butch's father passed.
- From Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
Indy: How did you know she was a Nazi? |
- The car commercial from Southland Tales. For those who don't know what this is about, count yourselves lucky and be grateful. If you would like to join the agonized ranks of those who need Brain Bleach... Here. You will not be forgotten.
- In Bring It On, the following exchange occurs when Missy intercepts her brother Cliff as he's visiting the cheer squad's car wash fundraiser:
Missy: Hey, perv. |
- In Easy A, Olive has the following conversation with her mother:
Rosemary: I had a horrible reputation. |
Literature
- Peter David is fond of doing this sort of gag in his Star Trek novels.
Morgan: A Level One diagnostic is like having a gynecological exam from head to toe. |
- Nutt, from Unseen Academicals, generally speaks in lectures, and at one point gives Ponder a taste of his own medicine. He also tells the woman he has a bit of a crush on that he is in fact staring at her arms, because they're such remarkably nice arms; this doesn't seem intended as flirting but rather a friendly compliment combined with wishing to clear up what he was doing. He also shares pertinent but wholly unnecessary details about his bodily functions, which is seen as part of his habit of being "precise but odd".
- One of Daniel Waterhouse's relatives in Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
- Gregory draws comic strips in Diary of a Wimpy Kid and suggests giving improvements to other peoples' behaviours; and one of them was telling people not to discuss incredibly private and personal matters in the middle of a fast food restaurant.
Live-Action TV
- The opening scene of an episode of Brothers and Sisters has virtually the entire family reveal what music they lost their virginity to (with Kevin, the gay one, asking with which sex). Nora reveals that her first time wasn't with the man she would later marry, but another guy (guess who shows up later), it was to "Pretty Woman", and it was in the back seat of his car. As she starts on the height differential and how that was dealt with, the others collectively walk out, deciding that they don't need to hear this about their own mother.
- In one episode of Scrubs, Dr. Kelso describes how he and his crippled obese wife had sex the previous evening. Dr. Cox then suggests to the rest of of Kelso's involuntary audience that they forget about what they just heard.
- In another episode a teenaged patient asks Dr. Cox how he's doing, and he replies that he's recently lost the ability to process dairy, leading to Carla saying "Woah! T.M.I! Am I right, Josh? Too Much Information?" Dr Cox then tells Josh that he'll have a word with his parents, "and you can chat with Nurse Early Nineties Catchphrases."
- In My Family, Ben lies to Susan and then abruptly switches to the truth after she returns from a vacation.
- From the Canadian TV series Butch Patterson: Private Dick:
Blanche: Vance knew he wouldn't last a week in a maximum-security prison. |
- The infamous conversation between Londo Mollari and Lennier in Babylon 5.
- Commander Ivanova also suffers from these periodically, including from Vir of all people, explaining how Centauri "bases" work. And helping Ambassador Delenn adjust to life as a partially human female.
- In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Looking for Par'mach in All the Wrong Places", Bashir's reaction to Quark and the Klingon chick and then Worf and Dax's explanations of how they acquired their collections of bruises and cuts they come in to have treated at the end of the episode. The exact phrasing is more like, "I didn't really need to have that image running around in my head right now," and at the end he comments that he really needs to stop asking people what they have been doing.
- iCarly: Despite the subtleties, innuendos may be lampshaded in the show from time to time.
- In "iCarly Awards":
Carly: You know, it's always been a dream of mine to host the iCarly Awards. |
- It's not as explicit, but when Col. Potter assumes command of the 4077th M*A*S*H he learns more than he wants to when he's reviewing his officers. He's commended Major Houlihan, who appears to be the Only Sane Man, for her spotless record, and then moves on to the next officer...
Potter: Major Frank Burns. |
- In an episode of Murphy Brown, Murphy's a few hours away from getting it on with Peter Hunt... and she goes to Eldin for advice:
Murphy: I'm a mother, for God's sake; I've got stretch marks. |
- In the documentary Worst Jobs In History, a scientist gives the host and hapless participant Tony Robinson[1] an unpleasant overview of a food-taster's duties, including what would happen if the food was poisoned with arsenic. Around the time the scientist starts talking about "purging". Robinson gives in and says "that's enough".
- Tying in with the Real Life medical examples below, the opening sequence of The Commish showed the title character absent-mindedly munching a pepperoni sandwich while reading a book titled Tissue Decomposition: A Homicide Primer. In the pilot episode, the protagonist squicks out an evaluation board (sent to evaluate him for a high-ranking position in another city) by nervously babbling on about the above topic while they're all having lunch.
- There's an episode of Cheers where Carla says something like: "I thought about asking Cliff what he meant, but then I realized -- he might tell me!"
- Actually, it was Norm about Cliff's slang amongst other mailmen.
- Misfits: "All right. Yes. It's my wank-sock."
- Also, when Simon is under the influence of Alisha's pheromone manipulation:
Simon: I want to rip your clothes off and piss on your tits! |
- Half the dialogue from this show qualifies as Too Much Information. But Nathan and Kelly manage to take it to new heights in season 2, when their agent, Laura, asks to know about their previous misdemeanors so she's prepared if the media find out. Nathan proceeds to tell a horrible story about picking up a (probably heavily sedated) girl in a dentist's waiting room, having sex with her, and accidentally "tripling" himself mid-coitus (it's "when you cum, puke and shit yourself all at once")
Laura: (looking shellshocked) Anything else? |
- One episode of Friends had Chandler's mom reveal on national television that she gets a craving for kung-pow chicken after sex, followed by Chandler yelling, "That's too much information!"
- From the Hannah Montana episode "I Honestly Love You (No, Not You)":
- "The Lov-ahs." Dear God, "The Lov-ahs."
- Baggage turns this into a Game Show, by having potential dates hope that their embarrassing personal secrets don't leave too much of a negative impression on a potential bachelor(ette). It's even got Jerry Springer.
- In an episode of Married... with Children, Peg starts being a little overly friendly with another man, not knowing that he's gay and with someone else. When the guy's concerned partner shows up at the house, Al is willing to talk to him and give him advice (especially when he finds out the guy can cook), but he does not want to hear about their sex life, stopping him as he starts to mention it.
Music
- In Weird Al's song, "Trapped in the Drive-thru", the husband's voice reminds the voice box lady of a guy named Paul she cheated Geometry test answers off of last year. The husband replies and talks another Paul he knew. Paul was his plumber, who is bald, has a bladder problem, and has a toe infection. The voice box lady says, "Mr, please! You can stop right there! That's more than I needed to know!" Yes, this is a song!
- Toshi doing an MC for X Japan at the Wiltern in Los Angeles: "We've gained a lot, but we've lost a lot too. We've been fucked and we've been sucked."
New Media
- This community.
- Ditto a significant portion of /b/ on 4chan.
- Ahem, it is called Copypasta.
- Ditto a significant portion of /b/ on 4chan.
- notalwaysright.com presents... well, You Have Been Warned. Whether it's about spiders, DVDs, players or old ladies. Conversations in a restaurant or dry cleaner requests, or merely choosing a lighter. Or a medical waiver for our snorkel tour.
Tabletop Games
- FATAL is notorious for this.
Theatre
- Next to Normal has a mother who's trying a little too hard to pretend that everything's great spring this on her daughter:
Diana: I'm going to go have sex with your father. |
Video Games
- RuneScape gave us this (paraphrased) example during one of the quests:
- In the third Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game, Mr. Grossburg's "gut feelings" about how the case is going come from a lot lower than his gut. And he tells you about it every five minutes. It's his hemorrhoids. After the case, Mia asks him to stop talking about them.
- Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal:
Captain Qwark: I thought we agreed to put that jungle business behind us! |
- Mass Effect 1: "Some krogan believe that testicle transplants will improve their virility, counteract the effects of the genophage. It doesn't work, but that doesn't stop them from buying. They'll pay ten thousand credits for each one -- that's forty thousand for a whole set. Someone's making a killing out there."
- Shepard says this to Thane when he's describing the drell race's ability to perfectly recall any memory.
- In the third game, Liara has this reaction to her father Matriarch Aethyta reminiscing about her mother "Nezzy"'s magnificent rack, complete with Wolf Whistle.
Liara: You don't need to tell me everything. |
- This is also James' reaction to being told by EDI that Shepard and Tali got together in the last game (if that's the case). Followed by a sarcastic "Thank you, EDI" from Shepard.
- Dragon Age II has a conversation where Anders and Isabela realize that they were once part of the same orgy in the first game's brothel. Hawke or Varric will cut the conversation short when Isabela mentions Anders' "electricity thing".
- Poker Night At the Inventory: Tycho has a bad habit of inserting his highly detailed animal fetishes into the conversation.
Strong Bad: (singing) Too much information, man. You're Too-Much-Information Man. |
- From MadWorld, this from Combat Commentators Howard and Kreese:
Web Comics
"Thank you. You put me in the happy position of realizing that I really don't want to know...yet spared me the burden of knowing exactly why." |
- This strip in Schlock Mercenary, where the narrator keeps changing the scene because everybody are talking about things you REALLY don't want to hear about. Finally, he ends up with Schlock explaining the inner workings of Carboscilicate Amorph Reproduction to Admiral Breya—or rather, him wrapping up such an explanation. The narrator comments: "That was either too much, or too little information. Either way, it's disturbing." The last one was arguably too little information. It turns out not to be disgusting at all—just a bit creepy.
- Gerbils are better than rats. On the next page Schlock describe the differences he noticed and Tagon gets "disturbed in a visceral way".
- "Right. Got it. Any more information would be too much. Thanks."
- "Objection, Your Honor. Too much information."
- There's also this strip from General Protection Fault where Uncle Wisebottom is telling Nick about the physical side-effects of the Inventor's Gene (Read: Science-Related Memetic Disorder), and mentions the effect it may have on the sex-life. Noticing Nick and Ki's facial expressions, he archly comments "So... which is more embarrassing: Me talking about YOUR future sex-life, or the thought of ME having sex?"
- Largo's "damage assessment" in Megatokyo.
- These two Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures strips, and many, many more.
- This little incident in Eight Bit Theater Where the "Light Warriors" find the horrifying reason why Bahumut wants a Rat Tail.
- While his individual examples cannot possibly exceed the above, Red Mage's constant presense makes him the number one source for TMI in the comic. Behold the horror with your own eyes!
- Turn Signals on a Land Raider: Did you know that when Frep runs, his combat thong runs up on him? Did you want to?
- This Penny Arcade strip is very much TMI.
- Also this one.
- On this page of Gunnerkrigg Court, Antimony would rather not hear the details of how Ysengrin helped Red "pass her test".
- Order of the Stick, as seen in the page quote.
- Likewise, the prequel book Start of Darkness includes a scene where the still-human Xykon is telling Redcloak and his brother Right-Eye that he needs to "drain some charges from the wand" because these days his prostate is "the size of a baby's head". Redcloak (and the reader) really, really didn't need that mental picture.
- Questionable Content breathes this trope. Nothing is spared the characters, not even their parents' sex life.
- "Jesus Christ, you're like a goddamn Predator drone. You wait for Dora to set you up, and then you come in outta nowhere and drop a fuckin' tactical TMI on my head."
- Mere two pages later, there's early warning for another incoming TMI.
- Artax gets a little too descriptive in this Nodwick strip.
- There is a webcomic named Too Much Information that lives up to its name.
- Aeris's reaction to Leo explaining the problems with being a Tauren in VG Cats:
Aeris: I don't need to know these things! |
- In Misfile, Ash's father sometimes indulges in this, being the local gynecologist.
- The title room of Adventures in Aaron's Room is actually wired with a TMI alert, which is Aaron's pre-recorded voice shouting "T-M-I!!" repeatedly, whenever the sensors pick up someone saying a bit more than they should have. They're still working out the bugs.
- The Dragon Doctors: "You ask a surgeon for the dirty details, you're going to get them." [dead link]
- Miscellaneous Error: sometimes, you just don't want to know what your children do at school.
- In this (warning! spoilers) strip of Wapsi Square, Justin goes into a little too much detail about something that a previous girlfriend had him do.
- Eerie Cuties occasionally have things like this. When Mrs. Delacroix, with a nostalgic blush, mentions her... fond memories of Chloe's mother, following by a mass Jaw Drop and Brooke covering Nina's ears. For that matter, Chloe's mother, as an adult Succubus, have some good pointers, even hints on which make Chloe's face a little off.
Adora: ...can be used as a fun grown-up game for your... uh... |
- Ozy and Millie: Ozy's reaction to his father Llewellyn telling him about the time he got Mistaken for Gay is to interrupt him with "Okay, okay, that's enough."
Web Original
- New York Magician: When Michel asks Kevin how the latter knew his Nana.
"Ahh." He smiled, creasing into a grin. "What a woman yer nan was, boy." |
- A regular problem with Team Kimba in the Whateley Universe, usually due to Generator wanting to talk about her relationship with Thuban. Who's mutating into a dragon.
- Oddly enough, it's the least sexual romantic relationship compared to the other 5 original characters and their characters....
- The fact that her mutation has stunted her growth and left her with the physique of a ten year-old boy, probably has something to do with it.
- Oddly enough, it's the least sexual romantic relationship compared to the other 5 original characters and their characters....
Western Animation
- Ed on Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy does this from time to time (like randomly announcing "I forgot to wear underwear, guys" in "Shoo Ed").
- "I know my sensitive side because it has a rash!"
- The Mayor in The Powerpuff Girls:
Mayor: A "Beefy Betty" doll! I've always wanted one of these. |
- Lois in Family Guy
Lois: Yes, women are such teases, that's why I went back to men. |
Grandpa: And for your information, children, I had relations with Kristal last night. |
- In The Simpsons
- In "Eight Misbehavin'", Homer enters the Kwik-E-Mart to find Apu sitting in the ice cream freezer:
- "A Fish Called Selma" reveals that Troy McClure's failed career is at least partially due to a scandal involving his "actions" at the Springfield Aquarium:
Legs: I thought you said Troy McClure was dead? |
Lana: I mean, what do we really know about Conway? |
- Similarly, in "Movie Star:"
- Kim Possible: So The Drama:
Ron: Augh! You kissed a synthodrone! |
- In South Park, the official measure of penis size is called "TMI." (This is likely a play on "BMI," an actual measure of weight).
- In "Imaginationland" Steven Stotch gives a little too much information on what he thinks has happened to Butters.
Steven Stotch: "We don't want to jump to conclusions but... we're worried that somebody kidnapped Butters, sodomised him over and over and then fed his genitals to wild animals." |
- Fu Dog names this trope to keep Lao Shi from talking about an... interesting... experience from his youth; "TMI! Know what that stands for? Too Much Information!"
Real Life
- Never sit behind old women on a bus. Really.
- Similarly, never use the word "prostate" around men over 50.
- It's found on many Medical-related humor lists that a sign that you're in the Medical Profession is that You see no problems in discussing graphic medical problems over food, especially if it's something like meaty dishes or Spaghetti and meatballs.
- Pathologists seem to have a particular knack for this, as well as, say, demonstrating the flexibility of a trachea. Apparently, some professionals of the postmortem medicine have a running competition regarding who can get the most hapless interns to faint.
- Often occurs between friends of any combination of gender and/or sexuality when the details of sexual encounters are brought up in conversation.
- Minoru Niihara from the band Loudness. Do NOT read his personal blog unless you want to become very intimately acquainted with the problems of his anus.
- In her last Oscars special, Barbara Walters got Precious actress Mo'Nique to reveal that A) she hasn't shaved her legs since the first time she tried it (the actual shaving bit wasn't bad, it was the hairs growing back that hurt), B) she's in an open relationship with her husband, and C) she got "inspiration" for Mary Jones from a brother who she hasn't talked to since he apparently squicked her out while holding one of her newborn twins.
- There are people who give too much information in their tweets. Made fun of in Penny Arcade.
- For good or ill, after children grow up to become adults there is often a sudden revelation of things that they going on around the family that they wish they had never found out about. Examples include finding out about the sex lives of the new adult's parents or that a family member that they liked is really a sex offender.
- ↑ In a role oddly reminiscent of his role in Blackadder