Hawkeye: I'm reminded of a story. You've probably heard it. The, uh, King and Queen of this country were playing golf with five clubs, when their son, Jack, remarked how strange it was they had only two hearts between them. Just then, Deucey and her little dog, Trey, started singing "Four Diamonds are a girl's best friend." Whereupon the entire family beat her to death and buried her with two spades. Did you get it?"
Winchester: Everybody did.
Subtlety is a valuable skill. It allows people to communicate discreetly, to operate without broadcasting details to others you might not want to have certain information, and, in romantic situations, to show interest without being crass, vulgar, or obnoxious.
Of course, for every skill that exists, there are people who are utterly, completely, and totally lacking in that skill. Or, to put it unsubtley, they suck at it.
Trying to move discreetly will see them trip over cats and knock over trash cans. Attempts at dropping subtle hints will have EVERYONE in the immediate vicinity aware of what's going on. And any attempts at romantic flirting through subtlety will make it seem like they have all the tact and grace of an untrained dog.
Others may try to call them out on their lack of subtlety, but usually it's all in vain.
May overlap with Entendre Failure, Everyone Can See It, and Sarcasm Failure. May result from having No Poker Face.
Compare and contrast So Much for Stealth. Also compare and contrast Blunt "Yes" and Blunt "No" for situations where subtlety may have been called for, but the speaker isn't even bothering with it. See also NO INDOOR VOICE when a character fails to be quiet.
Super-Trope to Blatant Lies, I Have to Go Iron My Dog, and Exposed Embarrassing Purchase.
See also Highly Visible Ninja, With Catlike Tread, Acting Unnatural, Euphemism Buster, and Fee Fi Faux Pas. See also Underling with an F in PR and Anvilicious.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- WORKING!!: Done deliberately by Souma, who does more than a few things For the Lulz. The family restaurant, Wagnaria's head cook, Satou, is infatuated with the head waitress, Yachiyo Todoroki, who herself seems only interested in their manager, Kiyoko. Souma volunteers to find out if Todoroki has any feelings for Satou. He proceeds to ask her about romantic relationships, and suggests there are other people besides Kiyoko she could look at, for example, Satou-san, Satou-san, and of course, Satou-san. Satou's response is to beat Souma with a fry pan, while Todorki remains oblivious to the entire thing (though she does eventually return Satou's feelings by series' end).
Comic Books
- Asterix: Just about any time Asterix's plan hinges on being sneaky, you can count on Obelix to accidentally screw it up, be it by forgetting they're disguised as Romans, drunkenly picking a fight with a legionary patrol, announcing that their shaman friend is the only one who knows where the MacGuffin is, etc.
Films — Animation
- The Bad Guys (2022): While the Bad Guys are working on a heist, Shark is told to provide a diversion. He asks if he can improvise, and Wolf tells him to keep it subtle. Shark then throws a table and screams, "I'M HAVING A BABY!!" to get the attention of the security guards.
- Frozen (2013): Kristoff tells snowlem Olaf to lay low, and Olaf assures him he will. Cue the snowman scooting into the nearest village and a woman screaming offscreen.
Films — Live-Action
- Back to the Future Part II: Trying to find out when and where Biff gives his younger self the sports almanac from the future, Doc Brown gives Marty some period-appropriate money and tells him to buy some 1950s-era clothes. He calls out "Something inconspicuous!" We get a Gilligan Cut to Marty wearing an outfit that practically screams "pay attention to me."
- Doctor in Distress (1963): Sir Lancelot attempts to go undercover to track Iris at the railway station and on the train, but his dark glasses, large umbrella, and tendency to walk into things while trying to avoid looking at her cause all and sundry to notice him.
- Kingsman: The Golden Circle:
- Eggsy and Merlin travel to the Statesman headquarters in rural Kentucky and try to break in. However, they do everything wrong; they go dressed in their usual suits, standing out wildly in the crowd. Then they try to find a secret entrance through the whiskey barrels and bust one open, revealing that they were indeed just normal whiskey barrels. Naturally, they're caught immediately by Tequila.
- When Eggsy goes to retrieve a cure vial to replicate, he fails not through his own mistakes but because he was forced to pretend to be a representative from a foreign country — and he looked nothing like the small, round-faced Asian man he replaced. Then he runs into Charlie, who immediately recognizes him. Eggsy abandons his story, taunts his rival, and flees.
- The Last Boy Scout: Zigzagged. With Joe, Jimmy, and Darian being held by a group of killers looking for a key that will open a safe deposit box, and they believe Jimmy has it. Jimmy throws a "Shredder" shotgun shell into the fire, saying it was the key. Then he adds it was one of those new plastic keys, adding "the kind that shreds". Joe immediately gets the meaning and ducks with Darian to safety as the shell goes off on the goons trying to retrieve the "key". But Joe later calls Jimmy on the lack of subtlety and witty repartee, or a Pre-Mortem One-Liner.
Joe: Since it's the '90s, you don't just smack a guy in the face. You say something cool first.
Jimmy: Like, "I'll be back."
Joe: Only better than that. Hit him with a surfboard...
Jimmy: "Surf's up!"
Joe: Something like that. - Star Wars:
- Attack of the Clones: Obi-Wan Kenobi follows Jango Fett to the hidden Separatist HQ on the remote planet of Geonosis, and spies on a meeting confirming they're preparing for war. While attempting to send a message back to the Jedi Council from his parked fighter, he's spotted by a Geonosian sentry and is captured mid-message.
- A New Hope:
- Luke, Han, and Chewbacca infiltrate the prison block where Princess Leia is being held dressed as stormtroopers and their prisoner, and manage to kill the guards and destroy the security cameras before a detailed alarm can be sent. Unfortunately, Han fails to bluff the radio operator who's trying to figure out what the hell is going on, forcing the three of them and Leia to blast their way out.
- Luke lampshades it earlier when they first infiltrate the Death Star.
Luke: You know, between [Chewbacca's] howling and [Han's] blasting everything in sight, it's a wonder the whole station doesn't know we're here!
- Return of the Jedi: The Rebel infiltration team on the forest moon of Endor spot a party of Imperial scout troopers, and Han and Chewie decide to handle them with a surprise attack. Unfortunately, Han steps on a branch and gets punched in the face before he can take down his target, and while Chewie is able to shoot down the trooper's partner before he gets away, the commotion alerts two more troopers, and Luke and Leia have to pursue.
Literature
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: When the trio see Malfoy entering the Dark Arts shop Borgin and Burkes, they want to find out what Malfoy is up to. They hear Malfoy asking Borgin not to sell something; after Malfoy has gone, Hermione goes into the shop, tries to be subtle about finding out what Malfoy had reserved; then she throws caution to the winds, and simply asks what he had reserved, so she doesn't accidentally buy him the same thing. Borgin throws her out of the shop, and Ron tells her that she was a bit obvious.
- Mage Errant: This seven novel Swords and Sorcery series has a weaponized example. 500 years before the start of the story, the ancient sphinx Kanderon Crux banished Imperial Ithos with magic that, among other things, forced the entire world to forget all about Ithos. And rather than try to keep it secret, Kanderon has her servants bluntly tell people about Ithos and the weapon hidden there to see if the banishing magic is still working. When Alustin tells Hugh and his friends at the end of the third novel and they don't immediately forget like they should, this tells Kanderon that the magic is very close to breaking.
- Played for Laughs in a novel from The Wheel of Time. While The Chosen One Rand al'Thor was out of the country and couldn't prevent it, a scheming noblewoman named Lady Colavaere had herself crowned Queen of Cairhein. The penalty for this is death, though Rand — who Wouldn't Hit a Girl — orders it commuted to exile on the smallest, meanest farm Lady Colavaere owns. Perrin Aybara, Rand's Lancer who prefers forthright honesty, notices that a number of nobles, his own wife Faile amongst them, believe Colavaere Knows Too Much and think she ought to experience an accident. So Perrin himself steps in:
"I don't think Rand would like it if anything prevented her from reaching that farm," Perrin himself said firmly, eyeing Aram and Faile in turn. "I wouldn't like it, either." He felt rather proud of himself. That was talking around the point as well as any of them.
Live-Action TV
- The Big Bang Theory: In "The Maternal Combustion", Sheldon’s mom Mary visits Sheldon and Leonard at the same time as Leonard’s mom Beverly. Before Leonard and Beverly enter the apartment, Leonard tells his atheist mom that Mary is a devoted believer of God and asks her not to insult Mary’s faith. Beverly claims she’s perfectly capable of being civil. Once they walk in and the two moms meet, Mary says she had a great flight, as if God had been watching over the plane. Beverly then asks "You’re kidding, right?", likely thrown off-guard at just how fundie that sounded.
Leonard: Subtle, Mom. Real subtle.
- Bottom:
- In "Burglary", Richie and Eddie try to poison a burglar in their flat, but when Richie asks Eddie which cup of tea has the "special ingredient" in it, he does it in a not-very-discreet way (i.e. making hand gestures while standing right next to the burglar), cluing the crook in that something's off.
- Similarly, in the first live show, Eddie plans to kill Richie and holds up an enormous bottle labelled GOAT POISON for the audience to see. He even tilts it upwards for those in the upper tiers.
Eddie: No need to miss the plot just because you're in the cheap seats!
- The Cosby Show: Cliff has some friends over for pinochle; said friends use not-so-subtle clues about what cards they have ("Remember when we used to go to the baseball diamond", "Sometimes it rained and we had to sit in the clubhouse", etc.).
- House of Anubis: In the season 2 finale, Patricia and Alfie need to bring back an injured, confused Eddie from Rufus's barn before rejoining the others. As they return to the house, Alfie and Patricia try to talk in code about what they're doing so that Eddie doesn't know, except they're really bad at it.
Alfie: Uh, anyway, I'm just gonna go and check on the, uh...Patricia: No! You can't go that way. You don't have the person? To open the thing?Alfie: Oh! Oh. Um, y-you mean, the l-lo... The socket. Well, I'll just go the back way, to the, the um... hmm... through the, through the slibrary.Eddie: (eyeroll) 'kay, guys, I'm concussed, and I can still see through your "oh-so-secret" code.
- I Dream of Jeannie: In the episode "My Master, Napoleon's Buddy," Jeannie and Tony travel back in time to 1812 and meet Napoléon Bonaparte. When Tony is mistaken for a spy and imprisoned, he sends Jeannie to talk to Napoleon and tells her to "be subtle." Unfortunately, Jeannie has never heard the word "subtle" before, and she asks Napoleon what it means. Taking advantage of her ignorance, he tells her that it means "honest," so she repeats everything Tony said to her: that she has convince Napoleon not to attack Russia, but make him think it's his own idea because he has a tremendous ego.
- Leverage: In "The Double Blind Job", Elliot is trying to track down a doctor who was attempting to give information to a woman about the death of her sister in a clinical drug trial. Elliot finds the man's apartment, and Nate, over comms, tells him to be subtle. Elliot proceeds to kick the door open.
Nate: Not subtle.
- M*A*S*H: In "Rally Round The Flag, Boys", Hawkeye and Potter are playing bridge against the mayor and police chief of Uijongbou, where the 4077th M*A*S*H is stationed. Hawkeye's bridge skills are less than exemplary, but his effort to try to communicate to Potter what he's holding essentially tips off everyone in the tent, including Winchester, who's not even playing. Winchester, by comparison, spends the episode subtly misdirecting everyone's favorite pain in the neck, Col. Flagg, into nearly arresting the mayor and police chief of Uijongbou. The police chief promises to have his I corps contacts fix Flagg's wagon afterwards, which was apparently successful as Flagg never appeared again in the series.
- Night Court: In "The Former Harry Stone", the court staff has begun a betting pool on Judge Stone's age, which he refuses to reveal. The court clerk, Lana Wagner, makes arrangements to get his personnel file so she can learn his age, only to have the records division send over his juvenile record instead. Lana decides she needs the opinion of Assistant District Attorney Dan Fielding, and asks court bailiff Bull Shannon to notify him, but to "be discreet". Bull points out the immediate flaw in her plan.
Bull: I'm 6'8", 240, and I got no hair!Lana: [nodding] Do your best.
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?: On the UK version in 2001, contestant Charles Ingram attempted to cheat on his second taping by reading all four possible answers aloud on every question and listening for coughs immediately after the correct answers. Most of the coughs came from reserve contestant Tecwen Whittock, whose coughing was loud and only came after the right answers (sometimes multiple times during questions). He was attempting to blend it in with the normal coughing in the audience, but the scheme became obvious to other reserve contestants and the sound manager backstage. Charles's own subtlety was also bad; even those who didn't notice the coughs saw that he was choosing answers that he was dismissive of, and his logic for doing so made no sense. Additionally, his wife Diana in the audience stepped in and coughed for one question that Tecwen didn't know the answer to; both of her coughs sounded so fake that production staff considered stopping the show to accuse Charles of cheating, but this was disallowed by higher-ups. They tried again during the million-pound question due to the overall weirdness of Charles's gameplay, but the head of Celador (who was at home at the time) said to go on with the show as normal, and he would review the tapes after that day's filming was finished. Long story short, his check was cancelled, and all three were found guilty of deception in court.
- The X-Files: In "Anasazi", Scully has to shoot Mulder to prevent him from killing Alex Krycek. She reveals to him later, as he's recovering, that they found a system rigged to his apartment's water supply to drug him with a drug known to have side effects of enhancing rage and agitation, the purpose of which was to cause an incident where Mulder would be discredited. Indeed, earlier in the week, there was a domestic situation with a married couple in the apartment complex, now believed to have been precipitated by the same drug in the water. Scully tells Mulder that it was not an exercise in subtlety.
Stand-Up Comedy
- Bill Engvall has a routine where he talks about his wife calling him and telling him he needs to pick up pads for their daughter on his way home. He and his son, Travis, go to the store, and he discreetly tries to ask the clerk if she can direct him to the item in question. His son, however, has a different approach, which is to shout from across the store, "I FOUND THE LITTLE GIRL NARROW PADS, DADDY!"
Video Games
- Portal 2: Wheatley informs Chell and GladOS that there's a surprise waiting for them, and "they're going to love it... to death", prompting this remark:
GladOS: Alright. He's not even trying to be subtle anymore. Or maybe he still is, in which case, wow, that's kind of sad.
- Star Wars: Bounty Hunter: Jango and Zam get off to a rocky start, thanks to her lack of subtlety. While Jango planned to infiltrate an asteroid prison for a mark, her idea of subtlety was inciting a prison riot and escaping in the chaos, which led to Jango losing his original ship and having to blast his way out in a stolen Firespray.
- In Kindergarten 3's What Happened on Monday?, Mr. Scippio pretends to be all alone to "blurt" out Regis' plan and how to save Alice. You can point out that you're still standing here, but doing so outs yourself to Regis.
- Overwatch: Subtlety failure could be the middle name of Jamison "Junkrat" Fawkes. The short featuring him and Roadhog has them trying to "infiltrate" Junker Town with an "offering" to the queen blatantly rigged with explosives, but since they've been banished, they have to disguise themselves. But once they arrive at the gates and are told to identify themselves, Junkrat jumps up shouting, "It's Junkrat and Roadhog!" Cue a Facepalm from Roadhog.
Webcomics
- My Impossible Soulmate: Chiaki Koizumi, the main character of this High Fantasy comic, is a chronic case of this trope. She is so bad at lying that whenever she tries to hide something, she only manages to call attention to it instead. Her attempt to follow Nara's suggestion that she hide being Unbound is a perfect case in point; it immediately makes the other Golem Hall pages suspicious of her, and she ends up admitting the truth by the end of the first chapter.
Web Video
- Played for Laughs when JonTron is reviewing Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. He remarks on how the game has gone from subtle Fourth Wall Breaking to just blatantly having No Fourth Wall, by saying it's "subtle"... but only if you spell "subtly" in flashing letters over fire and explosions set to dramatic music
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Western Animation
- OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: In "You Have To Care", Rad tries to get information from Enid about her history with Elodie, claiming that "subtlety is his middle name". Rad could not have be any more obvious with his approach.
Rad: Hey Enid! What's the deal with you and Elodie? (gets punched across the room)
- The Simpsons: In "Trilogy of Error", to get out of eating Marge's new breakfast without offending her, Lisa asks Homer if she wants to see her science project. Homer blows it by agreeing it would be better than eating Marge's "crappy breakfast", spurning Marge's feelings as Homer gives a thumbs-up to her.
- Lampshaded in the The Weekenders episode "Tino's Dad" when Tino's mother tries to get Tino to leave the room so she can have a private talk with her ex.
Mom: Honey, don't you have some... homework?Tino: Nope, got it all done Friday night!Mom: Yeah, but don't you have that thing you need to do... upstairs... in your room... not in this room?Tino: Subtle as a trainwreck, Mom. Welp, guess I'll go organize my collection of things that are not my parents having a private conversation.
