"You wear woollen underwear, too!?"
— Ellen Tebbits, Ellen and Otis
Somebody has a secret. It could be that they're a criminal, or that they're in love with someone, or that they're LGBTQ+ (perhaps overlapping with Gayngst or Trans Tribulations) or supernatural, or maybe it's some Embarrassing Hobby that they feel is unmanly or childish or too geeky. Whatever it is, they don't want this one person (or anyone) to find out... but to their surprise, they find out that the other person has it in common with them!
The revelation could cause the character to admit their secret, or admitting their secret might lead to the revelation. It might lead to them making friends, or if the secret involved romantic feelings, even dating. However, it doesn't have to bring them closer together to count; all that's required is that the character didn't expect this commonality.
Often happens at the end of an Embarrassment Plot. Might overlap with Unexpected Kindness if the one with the secret expected to be scorned, or with Be Yourself or Fear Is Normal depending on what the secret was, with Speak in Unison (if Played for Laughs) or with Strange Minds Think Alike. See also Twice Shy, Conveniently Common Kink, Flock of Wolves, Secret-Keeper, Secret Secret-Keeper, A Shared Suffering, Side Bet, Everyone Is a Tomato, and "Not So Different" Remark. Could be used to subvert or defy Keeping Secrets Sucks or break a Mutual Masquerade. Sub-trope of Commonality Connection.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Futaba-kun Change!: After Futaba suddenly changes gender at school, only to revert back before the end of the school day, he hurries home to announce this to his family... only to discover that all of them have the same condition, and in fact, his father gave birth to him while in his female form. They tell him that they would have told him about the family condition sooner, but it took longer than expected for the change to manifest for him.
Comic Books
- In Guts (Raina Telgemeier), Raina reveals to her friends that she's been going to therapy during a sleepover. Then, her friends reveal that either they go too or have family members who go. This comes off as comforting to Raina, as she feared that she would be seen as weird if she revealed it to any of them.
- How to Be Ace: In Chapter 4, Rebecca gets along well with Sophie because they both are romantically interested in other people but are not into sex. Rebecca, who had been repressing their asexuality, is relieved that they're not the only one who feels this way, and they hope to meet with Sophie again. They end up hitting it off at the end of the following chapter.
Fan Works
- In An Apple Comes Out of the Cellar
(based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic), Applejack nervously comes out to her siblings and granny as a lesbian. She fears they'll be homophobic but not only do they accept her, it turns out that Apple Bloom is bi-curious.
- As Fate Would Have It: As revealed early in the story, Nate is Living a Double Life, first as the former Champion of the Unova Region who has since become a recluse, while also being a famous actor under the Stage Name Blake. As he soon finds out, his eventual girlfriend, Yancy, is also Living a Double Life herself, as a reclusive but enthusiastic Trainer who loves Pokemon Breeding, Trading, Contests, and Musicals, while also being an Idol Singer slash TV host under the Stage Name Nancy. Hilarity Ensues, as both of them find out at the worst possible time (i.e. in their public personas during a massive Fan Convention).
- In Ask the Ghostbusters (based on The Real Ghostbusters), it's revealed that Egon is pansexual, but was in the closet. After a discussion, he finds out that Ray is gay, Peter is bi, Natalie (his sister) is also pansexual, and Winston is "still deciding".
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: Marda is eventually revealed to be a member of an evil species but became a God of Good, a.k.a Light, worshipper and is hiding it, like how fellow worshipper Snyder is treated as on the side of evil for working for a Hero with Bad Publicity.
- Emma the Vampire Slayer: Emma's group and David both fight demons at night while pretending to be normal students at day without knowing the other fight demons as well until "From Behind" where the former catches the latter and they start sharing their secrets.
- Lucy's Secret: Lucy has been wetting the bed lately but keeps it a secret out of shame. When her sister Luan finds out, it turns out that Luan wets the bed too, and their mother Rita used to (since the bedwetting is caused by a hereditary birth defect).
- The Normal One: Played with;
- Jon as Nightwing meets fledgling superheroine Evergreen while on patrol, and finds himself more at ease with her than on any dates he's been on as Jon since he can share the superhero side of his life with her. This leads to him admitting to her that he also has a double life (something she assumed he didn't have due to his family's cover story that he and Jordan/Superboy are recently arrived aliens) so that she knows he understands how she feels. Downplayed, since he doesn't tell her his civilian name.
- "Out of the Bag" reveals that Jon's classmate Amber has been Evergreen all along. Having deduced his secret identity, she assumes he already knew hers and lashes out. When she realizes he's just as in the dark as she was, she lets him see the truth, with both marveling they could have been clueless about each other's secret identities for so long.
- War Machines: In chapter 18, Penny and Ruby meet and start to suspect that the other is like them, and find a lot of things they have in common like being created to save the world, having a power no one else has, knowing nothing about their creator, and being terrified of someone else finding out. Once they agree to blurt out the secret, however, it turns out to be slightly different: Penny is an android, while Ruby is an Artificial Human Super-Soldier (supposedly artificial anyway), though the similarities are enough for them to bond over.
Films — Live-Action
- Boy Meets Girl: Francesca finally confesses to her fiancé David that she had a sexual experience with Ricky, a trans woman. She's beyond surprised when David admits he used to be involved with Ricky himself when they were in high school together; they end up having a laugh over the whole affair, and a discussion follows where they realize they should stay engaged a while longer instead of rushing into marriage.
- Towards the end of The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), as Riddick is about to be executed by the Quasi-Dead, one of the villains, the Purifier, suddenly intervenes to give him a fighting chance... because he's one of the last Furyans like Riddick.
- The Odd Life of Timothy Green: Timothy has leaves growing out of his ankles. When Joni tries to take his socks off (revealing his secret), he accidentally kicks her in the face and feels guilty about it. He later apologizes to her and explains himself. She then accepts his apology and reveals that she has something strange about her as well; she has a red birthmark on her chest.
Literature
- The Dark Profit Saga: Orconomics: As revealed in Chapter 15, it is revealed that the couple both have Abusive Parents, which one side was keeping a secret.
- In Dippys Sleepover, Dippy doesn't want to go to a sleepover because he wets the bed. However, when he attends the sleepover, he discovers that the host, Spike, also wets the bed.
- The Dresden Files: Magical ability seems to be more common along matrilineal lines (as in if your mother had it, you have a better chance at having it; one villainous plan to reduce the wizarding population in the future even relied on this). Eventually, Harry figures out that his apprentice Molly's mother practiced magic at one point in her life before giving it up - his first question to her on the subject actually is about when she gave up her power, which blindsides her. And finds out that part of the reason she would give him grief over being a wizard (apart from his destructive tendencies) is a reaction to the group she associated with before meeting her husband; they tended to get caught up with the dark side of magic, and didn't want to see her daughter go down the same route, which Harry also worries about, both regarding Molly and himself.
- Ellen and Otis: Ellen is embarrassed about her mother making her wear woolen underwear during winter, so she always changes clothes in the janitor's closet before and after ballet lessons so her peers don't see it. At the end of a lesson, she goes to the closet to change, only to find Austine doing the exact same thing, for the exact same reasons. This is how they first become friends.
- In The End of Eternity, it turns out that Twissel intends to do his best to support Harlan and Noÿs' forbidden relationship. As he explains, he used to have a wife (which was allowed), and allowed their child to be born and grow up (which most definitely was not). However, a Reality Change left that child disabled with no possibility of cure (or a Mercy Kill), so he considers that His Greatest Failure, and ensuring the other couple's happiness is the only way he can make up for it.
- Harry Potter: In this universe, the existence of magic is a secret that is kept well away from muggles (those who don't have magical abilities). In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter finds out that Mrs. Figg, a neighbor of the muggle family he lives with and a frequent babysitter from his younger years, is a squib (a Muggle Born of Mages).
- In Ira Sleeps Over, the eponymous boy is embarrassed about having a teddy bear, especially one named Ta-Ta, so he doesn't bring it to his friend Reggie's house. However, when a storm scares both boys, Ira discovers that Reggie has a teddy bear of his own, and its name is Foo-Foo.
- Jedi Trial: Anakin Skywalker is temporarily partnered with Jedi Master Nejaa Halcyon for the mission to Praesitlyn. Halcyon finds out during the mission that Anakin is secretly married in violation of the Jedi Order's Vow of Celibacy, and is only too glad to keep mum about it since he himself has a wife and an adult son.
- The Midnight Library (2020): Nora is stuck in limbo, able to insert herself into other possible lives she could have lived. While living the life she would have had if she had become a glaciologist, she meets Hugo, who notices Nora acting differently than she had the day before. He calls her out and reveals he too is in limbo, traveling through his own possible lives (though he accesses it through a video store rather than a library as Nora does), and that he has met a few others like them before, noticing certain constants between their conditions. This helps Nora to let go of correcting her regrets and try to use her possible lives to figure out what she wants. Unlike other examples, however, it doesn't bring them together since she tries to have a sexual relationship with Hugo based on their commonality but finds the sex so disappointing she ends up going back to the Midnight Library.
- The Modern Faes Guide To Surviving Humanity: "Fixed": Jack's love interest Rika reveals at the end that she can do Animorphism too, into a fix:
"You think cats are the only people around here with tails?"
- Taken to extremes in Monstrous Regiment, where a Sweet Polly Oliver learns that everyone in her army unit is actually female.
- In The Ninja Club Sleepover, three girls try to have a sleepover, and they all find out that they're not human and were hiding their true species out of shame — one of them is a vampire, one's a werewolf, and one's a fairy.
- The Ordinary Princess: Amy and her eventual husband meet each other under false names.
- Wayside School: The first book introduces a boy named Nancy and his female friend from another classroom. Neither knows the other's real name (addressing one another as "Hey you", or just "You"), since Nancy is embarrassed at having a girl's name, but one day someone addresses the female friend as "Mac". On realizing that they both have Gender Blender Names, Nancy admits his own real name to her, and the ensuing discussion brings them even closer as friends (and leads to them trading names, becoming more self-confident as a result).
- In A Wee Secret, two children named Jet and Tui both wet the bed and keep it a secret from each other, but eventually Tui finds out about Jet's bedwetting and writes him a note admitting that she does too.
Live-Action TV
- Blackadder: In "Money" from Blackadder II, both Blackadder and Baldrick are in on the place where Percy has hidden his secret money stash, when Percy generously offers it to Blackadder, at a time of great need.
Percy: It has for years been hidden beyond the wit of any thief, in an old sock...Blackadder and Percy: under the squeaky floorboard...Baldrick, Blackadder and Percy: behind the kitchen dresser.Percy: You've seen it?Blackadder: Seen it, pinched it, spent it.
- The Borrowers: In the second series, both George and Miss Menzies discover that they know about the existence of Borrowers, resulting in them saying in turn "you know, don't you?".
- The Brittas Empire: In "The Elephant's Child", Tim tries to hide the fact that he's scared of heights from Gavin, thinking that Gavin was tough and would think less of him if he admitted it. This lasts until he hears Gavin offhandedly mention that he fears heights too, much to Tim's relief.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In "Hush":
- Willow meets shy Tara at a Wicca club meeting where she is put out by the club refusing to discuss actual spell casting, as she had been hoping to find some real witches like herself. Later, when trying to fend off The Gentlemen, when Willow tries to magically move a vending machine to block the door, Tara notices and slips her hand into Willow's, giving her a silent indication that she understands. Together they are able to move the vending machine with a single look, revealing Tara is a real witch too. The two eventually start dating, with Tara acting as Willow's Closet Key.
- Buffy, the Slayer who hunts demons and vampires when not in class, is dating Riley, her first seemingly normal boyfriend in the series. Little does she know, he also has a double life as a member of the supernatural-hunting organization The Initiative. Fighting the Gentlemen causes them to reveal their monster-fighting prowess to each other, but rather than bringing them closer, it makes them awkwardly sit in silence, unable to talk about it at the end.
- In Freaks and Geeks, Neal finds out that his father's been cheating on his mother, and the side effects of bottling it up get him in trouble in school and at home. It turns out, however, that his mother and his brother have both already known about his father's cheating for some time.
- On Friends, there's an example that's a secret about another secret — Joey was miserable being the only one who knew that Monica and Chandler were having a secret relationship. Then Rachel finds out independently without the happy couple finding out. When the two find out that the other knows Joey is so relieved that he has someone to talk to about it.
- The Good Place: Eleanor is found out by Jiangyu as a fraud who was sent to the Good Place by mistake, who reveals his own secret; he was sent there by mistake also (his real name is Jason Mendoza and he's a Floridian drug dealer, not a Taiwanese monk).
- Heroes: About halfway through Season 1, Claire manages to track down her biological mother, Meredith Gordon, and meet up with her. Claire reveals that she has a Healing Factor to Meredith, and in turn, Meredith reveals her own Playing with Fire powers, displaying that both are, in the show's terms, evolved humans.
- During the twentieth season of Law & Order, Lt. Van Buren is battling cancer. At the start of one episode, she experiments with medicinal marijuana. At work, another police official confronts her over her usage...and gives out tips on how to keep it hidden. It turns out he's a survivor of testicular cancer.
- Marry My Husband: After getting murdered by her cheating husband, Ji-won has a case of Mental Time Travel, sending her back 10 years to 2013, where she hopes to undo the mistakes that led to her death. Her boss Ji-hyeok is later revealed to also be from 2023, due to his regret over not doing more for Ji-won, but neither has any idea the other also has future knowledge until they both mention BTS songs that wouldn't have been out yet in 2013. This shared knowledge causes them to work together to help Ji-won and eventually fall in love.
- Merlin (2008): In Season 1, Merlin is surprised to learn Morgana has prophetic dreams and later shows signs of having innate magic like his. However, due to Gaius' and Kilgharrah's warnings about what would happen if Morgana knew about her abilities, plus the danger to his own life if anyone knew he had magic, he doesn't say anything to her until "The Nightmare Begins". He has enough pity for her struggles to tell her she has magic and guide her to seek help from the druids, but not tell her about his own magic, which isolates her enough to contribute to her Face–Heel Turn. Years later, Morgana is stunned to learn Merlin had magic all along, but as he has since betrayed her and is destined to destroy her, this gives her no relief.
- Russian Doll: In Season 1, Nadia gets stuck in a "Groundhog Day" Loop on her birthday which ends with her dying in a variety of ways. In Episode 3, she meets Alan while they are falling in an elevator, and his blasé attitude and admission that, "I die all the time" reveals that he's stuck in a loop too.
- Ted Lasso: In Season 3, Trent Crimm catches Colin Hughes (who is in the closet due to his football career) kissing his boyfriend in an alley, looking concerned but keeping it to himself. In "Sunflowers", Trent follows Colin to a gay bar in Amsterdam, where Colin tries to pretend he went into the wrong bar as he is afraid journalist Trent will out him to the papers. Trent follows him and reveals he's known for a while and kept it a secret because he's gay as well (and happily married). They have a heart-to-heart in front of the Homonument.
Tabletop Games
- Paranoia: Being a Mutant is a capital crime (unless you register, which invites entirely different problems), so player characters with mutant powers are strongly advised to hide them. Everyone has a mutant power. Of course, given the amount of backstabbing and skulduggery in the game, this is absolutely no guarantee of solidarity.
Theatre
- RENT: Roger keeps Mimi at arm's length in large part because he secretly has AIDS, a diagnosis which caused his last girlfriend April to kill herself. In "La Vie Boheme A", he struggles to tell her this until he discovers her taking AZT, realizing that she, like him, is already infected. While they bond over this, not having to worry about infecting the other, they also realize they are not only doomed themselves but may have to watch the other die as well, making the revelation bittersweet.
Mimi: Life's too short, babe, time is flying. I'm looking for baggage that goes with mineRoger: I should tell you—Mimi: I've got baggage tooRoger: I should tell you—[...][watch alarm goes off]Mimi: [spoken] AZT break.Roger: [stares at her] You?Mimi: Me. You?Roger: [stunned] Mimi
Visual Novels
- Downplayed in Katawa Shoujo. Hanako's scarring isn't exactly a secret, but the true extent of it is, as she goes to great lengths to cover up as much of it as possible. A pivotal scene in her route has Hisao reveal his own chest scar, left behind after his heart attack in the prologue, and admit his own insecurities regarding it, in an effort to persuade Hanako that her own scars are nothing to be ashamed of.
Webcomics
- Cyanide and Happiness: A kid comes out of the closet, which leads his mother to reveal she's also gay, only for his father to also come out as gay, meaning both parents were unknowingly being each others' Beards. They both split up, relieved at no longer needing to keep up the charade.
- El Goonish Shive: Magic is an open secret in Moperville, but few know how to actually use it or who has it.
- In "Squirrel Prophet", Tedd senses that Luke, like him, has a Magic Mark. Grace tells Justin about their suspicions, knowing he's attracted to Luke. Justin is surprised but realizes Luke likely approached him in the first place because Justin had a public encounter with a magical creature that implied he had magic or at least knew something about it. Justin decides to speak with Luke alone to reassure him and give him some more information, and in the process asks him out.
- In "Hope", Jay (a secret wizard) meets Susan (an Awakened magic user whom Jay unknowingly shared a dream with) and they bond over changing their names and experimenting with their hair, feeling attracted to each other. When Hope comes up to Susan and Jay during the tournament, revealing she is an Immortal who wants to talk to both of them after, this causes Susan and Jay to open up to each other about their history with magic, something Jay was forced to never talk about by her grandfather, the head of the FBI paranormal investigators branch. Between her existing attraction and the revelation that she doesn't have to hide from Susan, Jay blurts out, "I want to talk to you forever."
- Erma: Erma is very scared of people learning that she likes Warrior Unicorn Princess. Over the course of the comic, she happens to learn that two of her friends and her uncle are all fans as well. It's downplayed in the cases of her friends, where it seems to just be something she didn't know about them but played straight in that of her uncle, who seems to have been actively trying to keep it secret.
- Surviving the Game as a Barbarian: The protagonist Hansu is an Earthling transmigrated into an RPG Mechanics 'Verse, a fact he needs to hide because such people are executed as "Evil Spirits". On a few occasions, he identifies a kindred spirit:
- Hansu sees a fellow Barbarian, Tarikan, living on the streets. He quickly realizes Tarikan is both an "evil spirit" and his Foil: unlike Hansu, Tarikan couldn't muster the courage to start adventuring and can't find any other way to survive in the new world. Hansu gives him enough money for a second chance and tells him to stay far away, seeing him as a liability.
- On one Labyrinth expedition, he identifies two explorers by their unusual knowledge of the world's mechanics. It's bad news — one is an attempted Team Killer whom Hansu kills in retribution; the other has a name that Hansu associates with terrible misfortune, so Hansu avoids him.
Web Original
- SCP Foundation: Everyone Knows has a guy accidentally let his SCP ID badge fall in front of his friends, who simultaneously ask if he's working for the Foundation, and realize that if all of them asked the same question they too are working for it. Then he forgets to hide his badge at night and his wife finds it... and it turns out she too works for the Foundation, and so do the other guys' wives. Finally it turns out nearly a third of humanity works for the Foundation, and literally only one single person in the world was unaware of the supernatural in any way.
- The Shortest Story: In Summer Diary, a young boy spends a summer at his grandfather's house and kisses another boy, writing about it in his diary which he leaves behind. Years later, after his grandfather dies, he finds the diary again with a note telling him he'd loved a man too once, and the grandson shouldn't hide it.
Web Videos
- Critical Role: Campaign Two: In "A Game of Names", Nott reveals to the Mighty Nein that she was born a halfling named Veth Brenatto, but was killed and changed into a goblin. She changed her name since she couldn't face her family in her new form. Caleb, who was noticeably terrified at the mentions of the Cerberus Assembly hiring Veth's husband in the previous episode, reveals his own name is not his birth name, as he changed it when he went on the run from the Cerberus Assembly. Neither of their players knew about the other's secret, making this trope work on a meta-level as well.
Caleb: Your name is... Veth?Nott: It was.Caleb: My name was Bren... Aldric... Ermendrud. Was. note
Western Animation
- Anton: In "The Bed Wetter", Anton goes to camp, but tries to stay up all night so that no one will ever know that he's a bedwetter. However, one of the boys at the camp turns out to be one as well, and they become friends.
- Arthur:
- In "That's a Baby Show", Arthur doesn't want to admit to his friends that he watches a preschool show called The Love Ducks. Eventually, however, the secret gets out, but his friends decide to watch it with him, with Francine admitting she watches it every day.
- Downplayed in "Jenna's Bedtime Blues" — Jenna is embarrassed to attend Muffy's sleepover because she wets the bed. When the other girls discover her pull-up and she tries to save face by being mean so they won't suspect her of being the owner, Francine admits that she used to wet the bed and wear pull-ups herself.
- In "Arthur Unravels", Arthur starts knitting as a hobby but finds it embarrassing because he thinks it's only for girls and old people. So he is surprised to learn of the discovery of a knitting club that has a non-elderly man (Oliver Frensky) and a boy (Rattles) in it.
- Camp Lazlo: The episode "Hot Spring Fever" has Raj and Samson both keeping a secret hot spring to themselves, soon causing a fight to break out between them. It's eventually revealed that all the other campers know about the spring, and Raj and Samson end up sharing it together.
- Doc McStuffins: In "Hazel Has a Sleepover", Hazel, a sentient spraying toy, is asked why she is standoffish about going to a sleepover. She initially doesn't want to say, but then admits that it's because she leaks at night. She thinks she's the only one who leaks until Squeakers reveals that all spraying toys occasionally leak.
- DuckTales (2017): In "The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!" Donald meets up with his successful college buddies Jose and Panchito. Donald, in a panic over his perceived failures in life, decides to pretend he became CEO to his uncle's company so he can measure up to their success. When they try to get their band back together, banking on Donald's success to do so, Donald confesses he's broke and lied to impress them. This causes Jose to confess, in solidarity, he's been lying about his success too. Panchito is disappointed since he needed the band to get back together, as he lied about finding success on his own as well. This makes them bond over the realization that they haven't grown up as much as they thought and band together to fight the carnivorous flower terrorizing the town.
- The Fairly OddParents!: In "Truth or Cosmoquences", Cosmo pretends he's become a millionaire at his high-school reunion in order to impress his bully, Luthor Lex, making Wanda his secretary, Britney Britney his trophy wife, and Timmy his butler. When Cosmo is forced to tell the truth, he's surprised that no one is angry, including Luthor. Practically everyone reveals an embarrassing secret about themselves too: Luthor reveals to his fellow students that he's no longer captain of the football team, but instead has become a ballet dancer. One fairy reveals that she's got a wig on to disguise her goofy rainbow-colored hair, and another reveals that he was actually a leprechaun.
- In one episode of Franklin, the titular character is nervous to go on a campout with a group of friends because he can't sleep without his stuffed dog, Sam. He worries that his friends will laugh at him for this, and goes to great lengths to try and hide the fact that he sleeps with a stuffed animal... only to learn that his friends all sleep with stuffed animals, and none of them are embarrassed by it.
- Futurama: In "Three Hundred Big Boys", Professor Farnsworth spends his tax rebate on stem cells that rejuvenate his body and make him look 25 again. He begins dating a Perky Goth named April but forgets that the stem cells' effects are only temporary, and he soon reverts back to his true age in front of her. April then admits that she also spent her tax rebate on an extreme body modification, which she then undoes to reveal she's actually morbidly obese.
- The Ghost and Molly McGee: Zig-zagged in the episode where Libby gets her first period at Molly's slumber party. She's embarrassed and only wants to tell Molly, and that's only because Libby doesn't have any supplies on her. Andrea overhears and curbs Libby's worries by telling her that periods are nothing to be ashamed of, even admitting that she had her first period only three months before.
- Kiff: In "Kiff's On a Plane", Kiff puts herself through "junior pilot school" to appear more mature to her mother and her friends, because she didn't get a joke that one of her mother's friends made. At the end, after managing to embarrass herself when it turns out that the "junior pilot school" is basically a fantasy camp for little kids, a mortified Kiff confesses to her mother that she didn't get the joke. Beryl admits that she didn't get the joke, either, and it turns out her friends don't even remember what the joke is.
- The Loud House: In "Flip This Flip", Flip worries that his crush, Tammy, wouldn't want to date him if she knows how slovenly he is, so he dresses up fancy and takes etiquette lessons. As it turns out though, Tammy is just as slovenly as he is and her previous high-faluting demeanour was just a farce, so the two have fun together wearing tatty clothes and farting.
- Mini Wolf: In "Pajama Party", Mini Wolf wets the bed when he's having a sleepover with Anderson. Afraid of being judged, he tries to get rid of the evidence, but Anderson doesn't mind it and reveals he's wet the bed in the past too.
- Miraculous Ladybug:
- In "Oblivio", Alya and Nino get Akumatized into the memory-erasing Oblivio after being embarrassed when they got caught playing a kids' game that's popular with couples. After they apologize for all the havoc they caused, the other students assure them that they play that game, too.
- In "Daddycop", a major impediment to Sabrina's efforts to reform is her fear that the other girls will judge her for the fact that so many of her past actions were driven by a misguided love for Alpha Bitch Chloé Bourgeois, to the point that she believes it would be less embarrassing if they all just continued to believe that she enjoyed hurting people. After her dad tries to "help" her by becoming Akumatized and using his new Akuma powers to force the other girls to love her, she decides to come clean and confess to them, and is relieved to learn that most of her new friends have made terrible decisions because of love, too.
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023): In "Dancing With Myself", Lunella drags Marvin to the school dance with her because all of her friends have scored dates (with the exception of Casey, who's too busy organizing the dance) and she's worried that she'll look like a loser if she shows up alone. Towards the end of the episode (after a battle with invading space moths), Lunella confesses to her friends that she doesn't really feel comfortable with romance and has no idea what she's doing. The other girls tell her that they don't really feel comfortable, either, but they were all similarly afraid of being judged if they showed up alone.
- Ninjago: Subverted when Cole awkwardly and nervously admits that his father is a blacksmith. Kai doesn't see the big deal, remarking that his and Nya's father was also a blacksmith, but it turns out that Cole's dad is part of the Royal Blacksmiths, a musical troupe.
- Pompon Little Bear: In "Pompon's Pee", Pompon wets the bed while Rita is sleeping over at his house. He sneaks out while she's asleep to wash his blanket in the lake, and when she asks him what he's doing, he lies that he used it as a parachute. When he becomes too nervous to use it as a parachute down a hill, he tells her the truth, and she reveals she knew it all along but didn't want to make him feel bad, and admits she wets the bed occasionally too.
- Primos: In "Summer of Ignacio", Big Nacho has a date with his attractive penpal Carmela and worries that she'll be repulsed if she finds out about his hyperactive colon. He spends much of the episode willing himself not to fart in front of her, but when the date actually goes well, he finally relaxes and accidentally lets one out. Carmela just smiles and asks if that's the best he can do before letting one rip herself (though admittedly, she doesn't have a hyperactive colon; she's just gassy).
- In the Regular Show episode "Fancy Restaurant", Muscle Man is meeting his girlfriend Starla's parents Herb and Rose and, fearing his general lack of manners will drive them away after a disastrous reservation, enlists Mordecai and Rigby's help to make him fancy. After the dinner goes south and it culminates in everyone facing the angry waiters of the French restaurant they are dining in, Starla's parents reveal they are just as crass as he is; they were hiding it to impress him. In fact, after disposing of the hostile waiters, the episode ends with Herb and Rose suggesting the perfect place to eat at: Wing Kingdom!
- Sanjay and Craig: In "You're in Trouble", Sanjay and Craig do their best not to drink all day to avoid wetting the bed, only to end up doing so anyway. They try to get rid of the evidence, but Tufflips is understanding about it and reveals that he's wet the bed in the past too.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- In "Shell of a Man", Mr. Krabs refuses to face his old navy buddies - Mutton Chop, Torpedo Belly, Lockjaw Jones, and Ol' Iron Eye - after molting his shell, and has SpongeBob wear the shell and impersonate him instead. When the shell breaks and he's forced to admit the deception, Krabs' navy buddies admit they've lost (or been lying about) their distinctive attributes too: Mutton Chop's muttonchops are fake, Torpedo Belly had his torpedo surgically removed, Lockjaw Jones now wears dentures, and Ol Iron Eye's "iron eye" is actually made of Formica.
- Mixing this trope with a "Brave the Ride" Plot, "Roller Cowards" has SpongeBob and Patrick both secretly afraid to ride a new roller coaster without each other's knowledge, and stalling time to prevent confessing their fears to the other.
- Steven Universe: In "Rose's Scabbard", Pearl attempts to show Steven Rose's secret armory after they find Rose's old scabbard. However, Steven shows her that he already learned about the armory by accident in an earlier episode. This also leads to him showing the Gems that Lion was originally Rose's pet and that she gave him his powers. Played for Drama, as Pearl doesn't respond well to learning that Rose kept secrets from her and that the secrets she did know about weren't so secret.
- StuGo: In "Lullah's Game", Sara mentions that she knows that Chip has a small bladder because she's read his journal. After Chip insists that nobody was supposed to know about that, Pliny tells him that they've all read his journal, it's just that most of them found it too boring to mention because all he writes about is his bladder.
- Tex Avery MGM Cartoons: “Little 'Tinker” is about a Smelly Skunk trying to find love. At the end, he paints himself red to look like a fox and approaches a vixen. The two are skipping over a bridge when they both fall into the river. The skunk’s paint washes away and he looks ashamed and worried that she’ll reject him; but to his surprise, the vixen’s paint also washes off, revealing that she too was a skunk. The two embrace for the Iris Out.
- Wander Over Yonder: In "The Bad Guy", Wander and Sylvia accidentally end up in a town known for being full of "bad guys". To stay safe until they can get more orble juice, Wander is forced to adopt the persona of a "bad guy". Inevitably, the truth comes out... and no one moves to attack them. Sylvia manages to realize that everyone in the town was pretending to be tough because they believed everyone else was a bad guy. Now knowing that they're all decent people, they all drop their tough guy acts.
- What's with Andy?: In "Weight to Go, Andy", all of the Larkins except Andy develop Weight Woe, which escalates when Andy tampers with the scales to make them seem heavier — Jen because a gymnastics meet is coming up, Frieda because her high school reunion is coming up, and Al because he has an interview with a "health nut". All three go to their friends, who advise them to "cut out the fat", so they begin dieting and weighing themselves, but while Jen is open about it, the parents keep it secret from each other for fear of coming across as insecure, finding out the truth when all three become underweight.
Real Life
- Brené Brown, a social worker who has done research on shame, describes shame as the feeling of needing to hide parts of the self for fear they make one unacceptable. She describes how liberating it can be when one finally works up the courage to confide this secret in others, and especially when one learns from those others that the secret is true of them also.
