History Main / BasedOnAGreatBigLie

* Creator/NeilGaiman didn't expect anyone to believe that ''Comicbook/TheSandman: The Dream Hunters'' was ''really'' based on an ancient Japanese folk tale; that was just something to make the story more interesting, like saying your Literature/SherlockHolmes pastiche was found in a box marked "J.H. Watson M.D.". But a number of people did, including the artist of the comic book adaptation, who said it completely seriously in interviews until Gaiman tactfully corrected him. If you google "The Fox, The Monk, and the Mikado of All Night's Dreaming", you can see the story is still out there.

** ''Jay's Journal'', a botched attempt at this that got Sparks sued by the real Jay's family. Jay was a real boy named [[http://web.archive.org/web/20040723080129/http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2004/feat_2004-06-03.cfm Alden Barrett]], who suffered from depression and committed suicide in 1971. His parents, themselves devout Mormons who believed ''Go Ask Alice'' was real, asked Sparks to publish Alden's diary. Only a fragment of the book actually comes from Alden's diary; the rest was a fabricated story about how he was lured into Satanism and ultimately killed himself for that reason. This led her readers (not taking kindly to Satanism) to desecrate his grave, and his family was torn apart over whether he really did fall into Satanism. Jay's brother left Mormonism entirely and wrote ''A Place in the Sun'' about the whole ordeal (later adapted into [[http://www.ericdsnider.com/theater/a-place-in-the-sun/ a rock opera]]).

* ''Film/KingArthur2004'' is billed as the true historical story of Myth/KingArthur, but instead is little more than a "remix" of the popular Arthur mythos with some garbled bits of Late Roman/Early Medieval history. Whether there was a historical Arthur at all remains a matter of fierce historical debate, and there are several potential candidates for the basis of the character, none of which bear more than a surface similarity to the movie's Arthur. It's not exactly a success as a "true historical story" either -- the entire movie is one [[HollywoodHistory long]] [[TheThemeParkVersion historical]] [[AnachronismStew inaccuracy]]. Heck, the title character himself lived (''if'' he lived) in the century after the events of the movie are supposed to take place.

* ''Literature/{{Roots}}'', Alex Haley's history of his family, was a bestseller and adapted into a hugely popular TV miniseries. While Haley's book was classified as a novel and much of the plot was Haley's invention, he claimed that he had in fact traced his ancestry to a Mandinka warrior named Kunta Kinte who was kidnapped by slavers and sold into slavery in the American South when he was seventeen years old. As Wiki/TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roots:_The_Saga_of_an_American_Family#Historical_accuracy notes]], most of the follow-up research contradicts Haley's story. There is little basis in fact for Haley's account of his history prior to his great-great-grandfather "Chicken George" Lea.

* The "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s was largely created on the basis of several written accounts of Satanic ritual abuse, pretty much all of which later turned out to be fabricated:

* Anne Carson's ''Literature/AutobiographyOfRed'' combines this with a CutAndPasteTranslation: it includes a supposed rewrite of Stesichoros' ''Geryoneis'' that is almost entirely Carson's original work, prefaced by an essay designed to mislead the reader into thinking it's a straight translation. It's full of obvious anachronisms (hot plates, weekends, glass-bottomed boats), so a certain amount of playfulness must be in effect.

* ''Film/{{Amadeus}}'' was based on an apocryphal tale claiming Salieri, a contemporary of Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart, went mad late in his life and confessed to killing Mozart. It is a matter of historical record that Mozart died during a long period of illness. The film accepts ''both'' of these stories as true; Salieri is painted as a jealous competitor to Mozart who hated the man but adored his genius, and he "kills" him by encouraging a naive Mozart suffering from illness to make more music. The filmmakers [[TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste did this intentionally]], finding it great fodder for a story. However, the film is forced to stretch the truth to reach this result; Mozart and Salieri may have been professional rivals, but they respected each other's skills, [[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35589422 and even collaborated to produce a cantata in 1785]]. The film shows Salieri working on the Requiem Mass with Mozart, when there is no evidence that he did so (it is unknown how much of the piece Mozart wrote, but it was finished by Franz Xavier Süssmayer); it also implies that Salieri was the anonymous patron who commissioned the Requiem Mass, when we now know that it was Count Franz von Walsegg.[[note]]Interestingly, the real-life scenario is also plausible in the film; it never shows Salieri as the patron or even that he set it up. All it shows is that Salieri was not above exploiting the situation to ensure that the Requiem Mass was written.[[/note]] In any event, the writers were willing to [[ShownTheirWork do the research]] on everything else in the movie.

* The sci-fi/horror movie ''Film/TheFourthKind'' has, as its tag line, the claim that the movie is "based on actual case studies," and even claims to include actual footage of alien abductions. Guess what? [[http://io9.com/5397359/the-fourth-kind-is-a-hoax It's a hoax.]]

** First, it's not entirely original in and of itself; it's based on earlier stories about the town of Rennes-le-Château, which were invented as a publicity stunt by local restaurateur Noël Corbu. Pierre Plantard would later spin Corbu's story into the mythical Priory of Scion.

* ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' was based on Nik Cohn's article "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night," about Cohn witnessing a fight outside the 2001 Odyssey disco. 20 years after the article's publication, Cohn admitted it was complete fiction.

** ''Jay's Journal'' purports to be the true diary of a teenage boy's involvement with a Satanic cult. In fact, the book was largely fabricated by author Beatrice Sparks, best known for the equally fictitious anti-drug novel ''Literature/GoAskAlice''. The real "Jay" had suffered from depression and ultimately took his own life. His grieving parents approached Sparks with their son's diary, hoping that his story could be used to help other at-risk teens. Instead Sparks fabricated the majority of journal entries featured in ''Jay's Journal,'' inventing a tale of Satan worship, demonic possession, and animal mutilation out of whole cloth, to the horror of the real Jay's family, who saw their son's memory tarnished.

* ''WesternAnimation/TexAveryMGMCartoons'': The short ''Drag-Along Droopy'' begins with the disclaimer: "This is an absolutely authentic account of the grazing land battles of the sheep and cattle wars of the early West. We know this story to be true. It was told to us by -- ''A TEXAN''!"

* ''Literature/TheProtocolsOfTheEldersOfZion'' is a notorious anti-Semitic tract claiming to be the records of a meeting by a Jewish cabal plotting to TakeOverTheWorld. In reality, it was written by the Okhrana, the SecretPolice of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia, as a tool for starting pogroms and otherwise convincing people that anything other than reactionary Christian monarchy was directly authored by {{Satan}}. It was later carried into western Europe and the US by White Russians in the wake of UsefulNotes/RedOctober. It was exposed as a forgery by ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Times]]'' of London in 1921, who revealed that large sections of the book were cribbed wholesale from a 19th century anti-Napoleonic tract. Even so, it was made part of the school curriculum in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, and anti-Semites to this day cite it as "evidence" of a Jewish conspiracy.

* ''Literature/HansBrinkerOrTheSilverSkates'' famously contains the StoryWithinAStory about "The Hero of Haarlem", a little Dutch boy who heroically saved a town by using his finger to stop a hole in the dike. Not only does it have no basis in history, it's not even from Dutch folklore, being a purely literary invention, and isn't recognized in the Netherlands at all (except a few fanciful statues put up to benefit the tourists who kept asking about it). A few moments' reflection would demonstrate that leak small enough to be plugged with a child's finger wouldn't have seriously threatened the town anyway. (In 1953 when a man really did stop a threatening breach in a dike, he used ''an entire cargo ship'' and tons of sandbags.)

* ''Film/KingArthur'' is billed as the true historical story of Myth/KingArthur, but instead is little more than a "remix" of the popular Arthur mythos with some garbled bits of Late Roman/Early Medieval history. Whether there was a historical Arthur at all remains a matter of fierce historical debate, and there are several potential candidates for the basis of the character, none of which bear more than a surface similarity to the movie's Arthur. It's not exactly a success as a "true historical story" either -- the entire movie is one [[HollywoodHistory long]] [[TheThemeParkVersion historical]] [[AnachronismStew inaccuracy]]. Heck, the title character himself lived (''if'' he lived) in the century after the events of the movie are supposed to take place.

** It's worth noting that his claim of hacking NASA when he was 13 is both false and patently impossible. Ireland ''wasn't connected to the internet yet'' in 1988 - it would be three more years before there was ''any'' internet connections in the country, let alone available to rural famers. Also, Homeland Security wouldn't exist for another 14-ish years and couldn't possibly have been the agency to respond even if this ''did'' happen.

** It's worth noting that his claim of hacking NASA when he was 13 is both false and patently impossible. Ireland ''wasn't connected to the internet yet'' in 1988 - it would be three more years before there was ''any'' internet connections in the country, let alone available to rural famers.

--> "We were able to get the okay for this from the composer, Virkato Wakhmaninov. (Wait, 1873 to 1974!? That means we must have been talking to a ghost ... oh well.")

* The novel ''Chocolate Covered Pickles'' (''Des cornichons au chocolat'') was published in 1983 as the {{diary}} of a teenage girl known only as [[OnlyOneName "Stéphanie"]]. 25 years and a [[LiveActionTV television]] adaptation later, 70-year-old male author Phillipe Labro admitted he was the only writer of the book and that there was no Stéphanie to begin with. He claimed the book was an experiment to see if he could pose as a young female, and [[GoneHorriblyRight he succeeded]].

** The book ''Michelle Remembers'' is perhaps the most (in)famous alleged written account of Satanic ritual abuse. It has now been widely discredited, mostly by many healthy doses of FridgeLogic -- for example, a supposedly non-religious 5-year-old having the presence of mind to rebuke Satanists with a cross; an 81-day ritual that summons the Devil himself during which none of the Satanists apparently need to eat, use the bathroom, or show up at work (along with many other complicated, labor-intensive, highly specific ritual requirements);[[note]]When school records revealed that Michelle herself never missed a day of school during the supposed ritual, the authors dismissed this as another part of the Satanic conspiracy[[/note]] and a fatal car wreck that strangely didn't turn up in a newspaper that [[LocalAngle regularly reported less serious wrecks]]. One of the worst parts is that Michelle (who later divorced her husband to marry the psychologist to whom she was relating all of this) blames her involvement in the abuse on her mother, who died of cancer when Michelle was 14. [[http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=cabc&c=whs&id=4349 This]] article gives a detailed analysis of the book. The You’re Wrong About podcast also has a series of episodes on this book. [[https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270/3883895-quarantine-book-club-michelle-remembers-week-1]] [[ https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270/3883889-quarantine-book-club-michelle-remembers-week-2 ]] [[ https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270/3883883-quarantine-book-club-michelle-remembers-week-3]][[https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270/3883880-quarantine-book-club-michelle-remembers-week-4]] [[https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270/3883874-quarantine-book-club-michelle-remembers-week-5]]

** The book ''Michelle Remembers'' is perhaps the most (in)famous alleged written account of Satanic ritual abuse. It has now been widely discredited, mostly by many healthy doses of FridgeLogic -- for example, a supposedly non-religious 5-year-old having the presence of mind to rebuke Satanists with a cross; an 81-day ritual that summons the Devil himself during which none of the Satanists apparently need to eat, use the bathroom, or show up at work (along with many other complicated, labor-intensive, highly specific ritual requirements);[[note]]When school records revealed that Michelle herself never missed a day of school during the supposed ritual, the authors dismissed this as another part of the Satanic conspiracy[[/note]] and a fatal car wreck that strangely didn't turn up in a newspaper that [[LocalAngle regularly reported less serious wrecks]]. One of the worst parts is that Michelle (who later divorced her husband to marry the psychologist to whom she was relating all of this) blames her involvement in the abuse on her mother, who died of cancer when Michelle was 14. [[http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=cabc&c=whs&id=4349 This]] article gives a detailed analysis of the book. The You’re Wrong About podcast also has a series [[https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270/3883895-quarantine-book-club-michelle-remembers-week-1]] of episodes on this book. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270/3883889-quarantine-book-club-michelle-remembers-week-2

** The book ''Michelle Remembers'' is perhaps the most (in)famous alleged written account of Satanic ritual abuse. It has now been widely discredited, mostly by many healthy doses of FridgeLogic -- for example, a supposedly non-religious 5-year-old having the presence of mind to rebuke Satanists with a cross; an 81-day ritual that summons the Devil himself during which none of the Satanists apparently need to eat, use the bathroom, or show up at work (along with many other complicated, labor-intensive, highly specific ritual requirements);[[note]]When school records revealed that Michelle herself never missed a day of school during the supposed ritual, the authors dismissed this as another part of the Satanic conspiracy[[/note]] and a fatal car wreck that strangely didn't turn up in a newspaper that [[LocalAngle regularly reported less serious wrecks]]. One of the worst parts is that Michelle (who later divorced her husband to marry the psychologist to whom she was relating all of this) blames her involvement in the abuse on her mother, who died of cancer when Michelle was 14. [[http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=cabc&c=whs&id=4349 This]] article gives a detailed analysis of the book. The You’re Wrong About podcast also has a series [[https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270/3883895-quarantine-book-club-michelle-remembers-week-1]] of episodes on this book.

** The book ''Michelle Remembers'' is perhaps the most (in)famous alleged written account of Satanic ritual abuse. It has now been widely discredited, mostly by many healthy doses of FridgeLogic -- for example, a supposedly non-religious 5-year-old having the presence of mind to rebuke Satanists with a cross; an 81-day ritual that summons the Devil himself during which none of the Satanists apparently need to eat, use the bathroom, or show up at work (along with many other complicated, labor-intensive, highly specific ritual requirements);[[note]]When school records revealed that Michelle herself never missed a day of school during the supposed ritual, the authors dismissed this as another part of the Satanic conspiracy[[/note]] and a fatal car wreck that strangely didn't turn up in a newspaper that [[LocalAngle regularly reported less serious wrecks]]. One of the worst parts is that Michelle (who later divorced her husband to marry the psychologist to whom she was relating all of this) blames her involvement in the abuse on her mother, who died of cancer when Michelle was 14. [[http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=cabc&c=whs&id=4349 This]] article gives a detailed analysis of the book.

* A children's book called ''The Pushcart War'' claimed it was based on a true story. While certain events are implausible (like attacking trucks with pea-shooters), it's theoretically ''possible''... until you realize that the copyright date is before the time that the events in the book supposedly take place. This is deliberate, as the book was presented as a history written long after the events described therein. Interestingly, its publishers update the "historical" time frame with each new edition. It was originally published in 1964 describing events in 1975. Later releases said 1986 and 1998. The most recent version says 2029.