History Main / AndYouThoughtItWasAGame

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', a temporarily blind Peter (he got better) pulls a bartender from a burning building. When asked what gave him the courage to do this he responds "That freakin place was on FIRE?!" and stumbles off.

* In the Star Trek novel ''Literature/TheThreeMinuteUniverse'' a Zirgosian that survived an attack by a [[BrownNoteBeing Sacker]] ship told Kirk that the Sacker ship clearly outclassed the Zirgosian ship and shot all around them for sport before finally getting bored and shooting them down. It was later revealed that their command crew had been killed during an accident and the inexperienced crew that stepped up really was having trouble hitting their target.

* An odd case occurs in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''. Patrick dresses up in a gorilla suit and tries to kidnap Sandy in an attempt to get [=SpongeBob=] to come out of his house. [=SpongeBob=] can easily tell that it is just Patrick in a gorilla suit. Then suddenly the real Patrick seemingly comes. Patrick pulls off his suit revealing that he is Patrick and the other Patrick turns out to be a gorilla dressed as him.

%%Commented out examples are Zero Context Examples. Please do not re-add them without adding context.

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* An odd case occurs in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''. Patrick dresses up in a gorilla suit and tries to kidnap Sandy in an attempt to get Spongebob to come out of his house. Spongebob can easily tell that it is just Patrick in a gorilla suit. Then suddenly the real Patrick seemingly comes. Patrick pulls off his suit revealing that he is Patrick and the other Patrick turns out to be a gorilla dressed as him.

*** In "Peak Performance", an actual Ferengi ship shows up during a combat-simulation exercise, catching the crew off guard when they find out the hard way that it's a real attack.

* In ''Dead Man's Folly'' by Creator/AgathaChristie, a famous detective writer has been asked to organise a Murder Hunt as one of the activities in a village fete. She begins to feel that she is being manipulated via proxies into changing details of the fictional murder to fit someone else's script, and calls in Literature/HerculePoirot because she feels a real murder might be on the cards. The [[spoiler: girl playing the "dead body"]] is duly killed for real.

* In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'', Johnny Cage initially assumes the Mortal Kombat tournament is some kind of elaborate roleplay and that all the participants are just actors like him in some very convincing costumes. He starts to realize that it isn't when Shang Tsung orders him to kill Baraka after their fight.

** The episode "Larry's Birthday" featured Professor Dementor kidnapping Kim's {{geek}}y cousin Larry by telling him that he's taking part of a LARP set up for his birthday. Larry buys it, and ends up almost putting Kim and Ron through a {{deathtrap}}, before [[spoiler: revealing he had seen through it. (Dementor's plan, that is, not the fact it wasn't a LARP.)]]

* Played with in the original ''Film/{{Tron}}''. Flynn has been digitized into the computer system and captured by the Master Control Program's forces. They take him to the Gaming Grid, where Ram, who thinks he's just another captive Program, tells him that he'll be forced to play video game. Flynn laughs it off, saying that he plays games better than anyone... and then the poor guy finds out just how differently things work in the Electronic World.

* Played with in the original ''Film/{{Tron}}''. Flynn's been zapped into the computer system and captured by the Master Control Program's forces. They take him to the Gaming Grid where Ram informs what he thinks is just another captive Program about the situation, and that he'll be forced to play video games. Flynn laughs it off, saying he plays games better than anyone...and then the poor guy finds out just how differently things work on the other side of the screen.
--> '''Kevin Flynn:''' On the other side of the screen, it looked so easy.

** ''Anime/DigimonXrosWars'': [[spoiler:Yuu Amano was lured into the Digital World by the promise of being able to play with real friends without the possibility of permanently hurting or killing them. That turned into him leading the forces of the Bagra Army in the war, believing no-one's actually dying. Near the endgame, because of this he even has no problem with the notion of killing his own sister Nene, one of the generals of the opposition; he even sees ending her as part of the game. When Taiki explains that it's actually not the case, [[VillainousBreakdown he flips out]]; Tuwarmon recognises that it's important for the Bagra Army that Yuu continue to believe that it's all a game, and afterwards makes a point of reassuring him.]]

* Byakuran from ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn'' thought the whole world was just a computer program. Or it was just a metaphor. We will never know.

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* ''Videogame/{{Touhou}}'' antagonist Tenshi Hinanawi never did cotton that Gensokyo's Incidents ''aren't'' a game, so she contrives to engineer one herself because she was bored.

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* Allegedly, some officers from the British armed forces were on a training course in an isolated location in which various terrorism scenarios were being wargamed, when someone happened to switch on a TV. It showed a confused report of massive casualties in the United States due to hijacked planes being crashed into buildings in at least two locations. They were all impressed by the thoroughness and realism with which the course organizers had introduced this scenario...

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* In ''Webcomic/ClanOfTheCats'', the main character is a [[ShapeShifter shape-shifting witch]], who can transform into a black panther. After an incident during a vacation with her [[TheDitz ditzy half-sister]], she runs off into the woods in a distressed state. Shortly after, a black panther is found hiding in a crawlspace under the house they're staying in, and The Ditz crawls in there to comfort her half-sister. After spending most of the night trying to cheer up her half-sister, she finally finds out that it's a REAL black panther, who has just escaped from a private zoo...
* '' Killroy and Tina'': When an enemy of Killroy's shows up while he's training Tina, Killroy lets Tina believe it's part of the test.

* Since the Holy Grail War in ''VideoGame/FateEXTRA'' takes place in {{Cyberspace}}, many of the participating Masters initially approached it as a game. The full impact of just what they'd signed up for and [[ThereCanBeOnlyOne the conditions for winning]] (namely that the losers ''have their body and soul erased from reality, no one but the surviving contestants remembering they ever even existed'') doesn't sink in until the first round ends. This is particularly driven home by [[spoiler:Shinji's]] reaction.

* Allegedly, some officers from the British armed forces were on a training course in an isolated location in which various terrorism scenarios were being wargamed, when someone happened to switch on a TV. It showed a confused report of massive casualties in the United States due to [[TooSoon/SeptemberEleventh hijacked planes being crashed into buildings in at least two locations]]. They were all impressed by the thoroughness and realism with which the course organizers had introduced this scenario...

* Occurred quite a bit in ''[[Film/TheThreeStooges]]'' shorts, usually with Moe assuming the person behind him is Larry or Curley or Shemp bugging him rather than the threat of the episode about to do him harm. Another instance of the trope happens in ''What's the Matador?'' when the boys are hired in Mexico to do a mock bullfight act. Curley plays the Matador while Moe and Larry are in a bull costume. [[HilarityEnsues Because plot]], they've managed to incur the wrath of a jealous husband, who bribes the arena attendants into releasing a genuine bull into the ring. Moe and Larry see the bull and [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere scamper over the fence]] as soon as possible, but Curley doesn't notice, and for a few minutes thinks it's Moe and
Larry… [[OhCrap until he sees them frantically gesturing from the sidelines...]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', Moist von Lipwig is totally unconcerned about facing down a pack of [[AngryGuardDog angry guard dogs]] because he knows that all purebred Lipwigzers (the Disc's version of Rottweilers) were trained by his countrymen (they don't let females out of the country, to keep the breed price high). He successfully uses his granddad's commands to control them, but later learns they were Ankh-Morpork mongrels that ''looked'' like Lipwigzers.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', Timmy, Chester, and AJ end up in TheMostDangerousVideoGame. Chester and AJ remain oblivious that they're in a deadly game, thinking it's all fun. Unlike most examples, they never learn the truth.

* ''Webcomic/TheWotch'': Anne [[http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2006-01-30 mistakes an actual attack]] for a training exercise.