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

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.

No real life examples, please; This is All The Tropes, not Tropes After Dark.

Examples of Too Much Information include:

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".
Asuna: You don't have to report that to me!

    • One of the few places where the translation improves on this:

Makie: Negi-kun's you-know-what is touching my you-know-where!
Asuna: You don't have to report that kind of thing to me!
Makie: I think his you-know-what just got you-know-whatter!
Asuna: Hey! Stop making stuff up!

    • 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!
Tajima: But if I don't do it, it might explode!

  • 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!
Beat, everybody has white eyes of shock and Prince is laughing his ass off in the background.
Ja: Chest…? Don- Don't joke with me! You think a woman's chest is some sort of blessing? Then I, too, will… (fiddles at his fly)
Everybody (with readied weapons): DON'T!

  • 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

Joey: I gotta go take a whiz.
Yugi: Too much information, Joey.
[...]
Yugi: Well, Joey, it looks like you learned an important lesson. The only way to kill a zombie is to destroy the brain.
Joey: I also learned that I'm secretly a furry.
Yugi: Once again, too much information, Joey.

  • 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 that Asuka may be a virgin mother… [dead link]


Films -- Live-Action

Kaylee: Going on a year now, I ain't had nothing twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries!
Mal: Oh God! I can't know that!
Jayne: I could stand to hear a little more.

Vincent: I'm gonna take a piss.
Mia: That was a little bit more information than I needed Vince, but go right ahead.

    • 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?
Henry Jones: She talks in her sleep. (followed by a shocked look from Indy)

  • 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.
Cliff: Gahhh!
Missy: Hand over your fifteen bucks or get out of here.
Cliff: What are you doing?
Missy: Making money from guys oogling my goodies.
Cliff: Aww, I didn't need to hear that. That was an overshare.

  • In Easy A, Olive has the following conversation with her mother:

Rosemary: I had a horrible reputation.
Olive: Why?
Rosemary: Because I slept with a whole bunch of people. Mostly guys.
Olive: Mom!


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.
Soleta: Captain, request permission to forget what I just heard.
Calhoun: Granted, and I'll join you.

  • 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.

Susan: (picking up her red dress) What happened to this?
Ben: Nick was wearing it when I was trying to strangle him down the pub. (Susan looks at him) Well, I was a bit tense, you know, because Michael stole all the doorknobs and held me hostage, and Abby burned my foot in the... uh... soup.
(long pause)
Susan: I think I prefer it when you lie.

  • From the Canadian TV series Butch Patterson: Private Dick:

Blanche: Vance knew he wouldn't last a week in a maximum-security prison.
Butch: You know, once you get used to the sodomy, the rest of it is pretty easy to take.

  • The infamous conversation between Londo Mollari and Lennier in Babylon 5.

Londo Mollari: Here, the goddess Li. A synthesis of male and female Centauri. What, did you think these were for decoration?
Lennier: ... I am going to take a vow of silence about this entire conversation.

    • 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 time by time.
    • In "iCarly Awards":

Carly: You know, it's always been a dream of mine to host the iCarly Awards.
Sam: Whoa, too much information!
Carly: Hey, don't go there!
(much later in the show)
Sam: These guys take this (blows through bottle) to a whole new level.
Carly: This -- will blow you away. (laughs)
Sam: (shaking her head) Oh, Carly...
Carly: Just watch.

  • It's not as explicit, but when Col. Potter assumes command of the 4077th MASH 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.
Margaret: Just Friends, sir. (realizing) I mean, not here, sir.

  • 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.
Eldin: Too much information! Too much information!

  • 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!
Nathan: That's the kind of thing you should keep between you and your Internet Service Provider...

    • 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?
Kelly: I once shagged a monkey.
Nathan: Technically it was a gorilla.

  • 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)":

Lilly: Miley, I know how he feels. I can tell by the way he looks at me! Even when I have a pimple. I never told you this, but... that's why he calls me "Lillypop".
Miley: I could've gone my whole life not knowing that.

  • "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.


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


Theatre

Diana: I'm going to go have sex with your father.
Natalie: Great, thanks. I'm so glad I know that.


Video Games

  • RuneScape gave us this (paraphrased) example during one of the quests:

Player Character: How do you "accidentally" trip and carve half a map into someone's wooden leg?
Captain Donnie: Well, I was drinking rubbing alcohol mixed with gunpowder and cinnamon when...
Player Character: I'm leaving now.

Captain Qwark: I thought we agreed to put that jungle business behind us!
Skrunch: [MONKEY NOISE]
Qwark: It was mating season! How could I have known she was your sister?
(notices Ratchet and Clank, laughs nervously)
Qwark: How long have you two been standing there?
Clank: Too long.

Thane: Thinking about a moment brings back the smell of cut grass, the warmth of another hand on yours, the taste of another's tongue in your mouth. Wouldn't you rather lose yourself in such a memory, rather than spend a night alone?
Shepard: Isn't that a rather personal memory to talk about?

Liara: You don't need to tell me everything.

  • 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".
    • Hawke also walks in on Isabela exiting her appointment with Anders (who runs a clinic) for STD treatment.
  • 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.


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."

Aeris: I don't need to know these things!

Adora: ...can be used as a fun grown-up game for your... uh...

Web Original

"Ahh." He smiled, creasing into a grin. "What a woman yer nan was, boy."
"Okay, that's already told me way more than I wanted to know about that part."

  • 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.


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.
Narrator: TMI, Mayor... Too much information!

Lois: Yes, women are such teases, that's why I went back to men.
Meg: Yeah, uh, well, thanks for sharing that... (leaves room)
Chris: (scoots closer to Lois) Go on.

Grandpa: And for your information, children, I had relations with Kristal last night.
Huey & Riley: Aw man, why would you share that? How am I supposed to have nice dreams tonight, man?!

  • In The Simpsons episode "Eight Misbehavin'", Homer enters the Kwik-E-Mart to find Apu sitting in the ice cream freezer:

Apu: By chilling my loins, I will increase the chances of impregnating my wife.
Homer Whoa! To much in-for-mation! Thanks for the mental picture! Why don't you tell us what you REALLY think?
Apu: (annoyed) Will you stop spouting those hackneyed quips!

Lana: I mean, what do we really know about Conway?
Archer: Only that he's not circumcised.
Lana: ... okay, glossing over how you came across that piece of information--
Archer: We touched penises.
Lana: No. Glossing!

    • Similarly, in "Movie Star:"

Pam: So now we start Operation...um...
Cheryl: Dick Sledge.
(beat)
Gilette: Do you wanna...
Pam: Not really, but it's like sour milk; you just gotta take a whiff. What's the story, neckbones?
Cheryl: Freshman year in my stupid college, I had a huge crush on this guy named Dick Sledge. But he never even noticed me; he wouldn't even sign my cast when I broke my own arm. So one day I decided to sneak into his apartment and see what kind of music he liked, or turtles, or roll around in his clothes or whatever...
Pam: But you were so busy sniffing his jock you didn't notice him come in.
Cheryl: Yeah, and I must have blacked out because I don't remember stabbing him at all.
Gilette: Why did you have a knife?
Cheryl: It wasn't a knife; it was a stupid pair of scissors! (picks up a pair of scissors) And it was his fault for grabbing me with his throwing hand! ...they said he could have gone pro.
Gilette: OK, glossing over why you broke your own arm...
Cheryl: So he'd sign my cast...

Ron: Augh! You kissed a synthodrone!
Kim: I never kissed him. But I wanted to.
Ron: Okay, too much information.

  • 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!"


Tabletop Games

  • FATAL is notorious for this.


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.
  1. ↑ In a role oddly reminiscent of his role in Blackadder
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