History Main / BlatantLies

* {{Heel}}s often do this by claiming they won matches singlehandedly when there was actually plenty of interference, the fans are all cheering for them, or they are just at ringside at the same time as their enemy to commentate.

* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'':

*** "Orks are much weaker than humans with brittle bones and weak muscles, and they are confused by loud noises and sudden movement."[[note]]Though true they are not as intelligent as humans, Orks are certainly not dull-witted and [[ItCanThink many can call upon a dangerous animalistic cunning if the situation calls for it.]] And generally speaking any Ork could rip a man limb from limb with its bare hands.[[/note]]

* The Walt Disney Family Film Collection promo that appears on 1995 pressings of the nine general release [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaTYEomAEB0 Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection]] films falsely claims ''Film/OldYeller'' is heartwarming, when the [[ShootTheDog ending is anything but]]. The same applies to the trailer on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MvxhTXFRsg&t=27s several early Disney tapes]].

** In ''Comicbook/DemonSpawn'', Linda Danvers -- alias Kara Zor-El, Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} -- is so fed up of putting up with her co-worker 'Nasty''s bullying that she punches a wall, which makes people wondering if a plane just crashed into the building. When her boss Geoff inquires what happened and what was that loud boom coming from her office, Linda replies "Oh, nothing!". He doesn't believe her.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'': Gwen claims that the Spider-Society is a "small elite group" when Peter asks to join. When Miles actually visits the headquarters and sees countless Spider-Men as members, he realizes the truth and calls her out on it, but doesn't realize ''why'' she lied. [[spoiler:He was never supposed to be Spider-Man, hence why he isn't allowed to join]].

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''

* ''Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance'': the TropeNamer song for "WithCatlikeTread" involves the pirates singing extremely loudly about how silent they're being, accompanied by crashing cymbals and trumpets.

-->'''Shrignold:''' You see? Everyone has a special one.
-->''(Beat)''
-->'''Rabbit Boy:''' Even Michael!

* [[WebVideo/TheMusicVideoShow The Music Video Show]] had this example at the end of [[https://youtu.be/RkilJgeE5go an episode]]. The host tells [[spoiler:her season one self]] that there is [[spoiler:no body]] in front of her, despite the fact that: A) It's right in front of her. B) She is [[spoiler:covering up the rotting corpse]] with a scent, which she was doing through the episode. C) She is GESTURING TO IT before it [[spoiler:cuts to the corpse.]] D) The fact that she says this lie unprovoked doesn't help her case. In a future episode, [[spoiler:it turns out that the body was not dead.]]

* ''LetsPlay/{{Skeppy}}''

* ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'': The titular town is riddled with conspiracy theories come true, resulting in a lot of hasty coverups that don't even try for credibility. Cecil, the news announcer for the local public radio station, can usually keep any disbelief he may [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation or may not]] feel out of his voice, with two notable exceptions: when the City Council tries to pass off the feral dog pack menacing town as plastic bags blowing in the wind, and [[spoiler:when the MegaCorp that owns the neighbouring town buys the radio station and is feeding him lines under duress.]]

* in the second episode of ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gvPvQP5B9k Donkey Kong Country Abridged]] by Uncle Al, Candy Kong shows up to the home of Franchise/DonkeyKong and is confused why he isn't there. Diddy, in a panic, tells her Donkey Kong isn't home, and when she forces her way in he tries to catch her off guard by saying "I'm pregnant". The two awkwardly stare at each other before a baby Donkey Kong pops up from the chest in the corner of the room and Diddy tries to shoo her out of the house claiming he needs to recover during the postpartum period.

** When they set up the unification match for the WWE heavyweight titles in TLC 2013, one inscription on the engraved belt was the indication of a title that went back a hundred years - problem is, it doesn't. In truth, the Wrestling/{{WCW}} heavyweight title (previously the Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA title), which does indeed go back that long, was retired in 2001 when it was unified with the WWE titles. The belt at the event looked similar to the older one, but was only marking an eleven-year-old event; makes a better story, though.[[labelnote:*]]The NWA Title was very much still active, with WCW and WWE's activity being CanonDiscontinuity to it[[/labelnote]]

* Most of the press releases for psychedelic bands in TheSixties said something to the effect of, "[[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs This band does not require drugs to create their music.]]" Subverted with Music/PinkFloyd; they got advertised like this but only Music/SydBarrett was on drugs.

** Calvin's father told him that when HE was a child, there was no color, just black and white. Then things started to acquire color, even paintings and photo. What about black and white photos? His father explained they had acquired color - but they were now color photos of black and white things.

** "Once in a Lifetime!" For a full year, the WWE shoved that phrase down fans' throats while promoting the match between John Cena (again) and Wrestling/TheRock, for the main event of Wrestling/WrestleMania XXVIII, claiming it was an event that could only, should only, would only happen "Once in a Lifetime!". With such insistence that it was a "Once in a Lifetime!" event over and over, one would expect it to actually BE "Once in a Lifetime!" But it was not. It happened again the next year, and the WWE knew it would from the start. The Rock said in an interview he had been signed to three [=WrestleMania=] matches, the first costing him the title, the second a rematch with Cena, the third a rematch with the title on the line. Maybe the phrase "Twice in a Lifetime" just isn't catchy enough, so they decided "Who cares? Everyone will pay to watch it anyway!"

Some statements that are true "FromACertainPointOfView" may be blatant lies. A BlindIdiotTranslation can also turn something that SHOULD be true into a blatant lie or vice versa.

* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8737926/1/The-Walking-Dead-Better-Angels Better Angels]]'', Shane lies to the Atlanta survivors [[spoiler: about Rick's death saying that Rick had been bitten and needed to be put down]]. This is consistent with Shane's duplicitous nature in ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010'' when he lies about [[spoiler: leaving Otis for dead and killing Randall]].
* In the ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'' fanfic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5044928/1/Bitter_Leaves_and_Blossoms_Bright Bitter Leaves and Blossoms Bright]]'', Isra is getting fed up with being protected. She would rather be doing her job - killing people.

* From ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'':

* In ''Fanfic/ChildrenOfTheStars'', there is this exchange between the two leads that hints at the established UST being mutual.

* From ''Fanfic/ChristianPotterChandler'':

In RealLife, this is the most offensive form of [[PolishTheTurd turd polish]]. But [[RealLife No Real Life Examples, Please!]] We swear, trust me!

* ''Fanfic/{{Spider-Ninja}}'': Pet is a terrible liar, so any lie she tries to tell ends up as this trope.

* ''Fanfic/FamilyGuyFanon'': In "Between Sanity and Madness", Francis tells Peter he quit his job as the Pope’s special assistant and did some soul searching with Thelma and decided to make amends with Peter. In reality, Francis got fired due to being a nuisance and went with Thelma to gamble in Las Vegas until they lost their money. And went to Peter to {{Blackmail}} him into giving him more money, considering he’d did so in the past.

* ''Fanfic/PeterParkerNeedsAHug'': When he introduces Spider-Man to Superman and Wonder Woman, Batman says that, no, he did ''not'' adopt another child, and Spider-Man is definitely ''not'' his newest son. Wonder Woman doesn't need the Lasso of Truth to know he's not being honest. Even Spider-Man knows it isn't true.

* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8737926/1/The-Walking-Dead-Better-Angels Better Angels]]'', Shane lies to the Atlanta survivors [[spoiler: about Rick's death saying that Rick had been bitten and needed to be put down]]. This is consistent with Shane's duplicitous nature in ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' when he lies about [[spoiler: leaving Otis for dead and killing Randall]].

* ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'' has no ninjas. None at all. It's certainly not a whole character class available to [=PCs=] and [=NPCs=] alike. There certainly aren't families that specialise in it, and if they did, they certainly wouldn't run the equivalent of the intelligence service.

[[folder:No Real Life Examples, Please!]]
%%
%% Due to the Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgment, please do not list entries relating to politics or war, unless there's historical evidence.
%%
* In the Ride/DisneyThemeParks, their Vacation Club is said to be "Disney's Best Kept Secret". That actually is part of their advertising. With 10 to 15 kiosks for it in every park, they definitely hide it well from everyone.
* The French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, who is remembered as the loser at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, died the next year in a hotel in Rennes with six stab wounds in the left lung and one in the heart. The official verdict was suicide.
* Making ''tukhta''. [[https://nickfalkner.com/2014/10/13/tukhta-the-tyranny-of-inflated-performance-figures/ Tukhta]] is Russian for 'inflated production figures' and falsified records. This was ubiquitous in USSR and all Socialist countries, where every worker had been assigned a 'norm', quota, of production. To attain this, the practice of making up your quotas through devious means and fabricating outputs. This could be as simple as writing down a figure that didn’t reflect your actual labour or picking up a pile of timber that had already been counted, moving it somewhere else, and counting it again.
* A Chinese amusement park built what is quite clearly a statue of an orange Gundam. When asked about it, [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2010-12-19/chinese-theme-park/statue-is-not-copied-from-gundam their answer]] was "This is an original design and [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial most definitely not]] an orange Franchise/{{Gundam}}. [[CaptainErsatz There might be some similarities]], but that's about it". And now they brought it down and [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2010-12-21/gundam-lookalike-statue-removed-from-chinese-theme-park proclaim]] [[DiggingYourselfDeeper "THERE NEVER WAS A 50-FEET TALL BRIGHT ORANGE STATUE HERE, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"]] A shame, really, but what else can you expect? It was a strong contender for the title of "The World's Largest Bootleg", too.
* Iranian-Canadian reporter Zahra Kazemi was arrested in Iran for photographing a protest. She was later taken to a hospital (where she soon died) with bruises, broken bones, and other obvious traumatic injuries. The officers who brought her in told the doctors that she was suffering from "a digestive problem."
* The supply sergeants of an air cavalry unit in Vietnam ran a black market providing the men with army issue equipment for personal use. Whenever a helicopter was shot down, they explained away the missing inventory by listing the items as having been lost with that aircraft. At one inspection of the books from the higher ups, five tons of equipment was reported to have gone down with one shot down UH-1 Huey. The Huey has an overweight load of one ton.
** This is a fairly standard way of explaining away inventory discrepancies in many militaries around the world. For years after the Falklands War, for example, any missing equipment in the British Army was explained as having ‘gone down on the Atlantic Conveyor’.
* Creator/ViktorSuvorov described in his book "Tales of a Liberator" how, during the invasion of Czechoslovakia, a group of Soviet soldiers accidentally burned a motorcycle and attempted to pass it off as loss to enemy action. The battalion commander spotted the lie immediately, but said he'd sign the protocol... so long as they'd add that the motorcycle had upon it a grenade launcher another company dropped into water. By the time the documents reached the front commander, the motorcycle also carried two fur coats, two night-vision devices, a rangefinder, a machinegun, a radio transmitter and a barrel of alcohol.
* In the 2014 [[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup FIFA World Cup]], Luis Suárez got in trouble in the Uruguay-Italy match for biting Giorgio Chiellini. The excuse he gave was something along the lines of "I fell and his body collided with my teeth". [[http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/28/luis-suarez-bite-balance-hit-face-chiellini Read the full article here.]][[note]]It was the ''third time'' an opponent's body had "collided with his teeth". Needless to say, FIFA didn't buy his excuse.[[/note]]
* Creator/StevenSeagal is infamous for this. He's claimed to be [[MilesGloriosus a former CIA Black Ops operative]], some kind of [[PhysicalGod reborn Buddhist deity]], a coach for several elite [[UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts MMA fighters,]] a cop, a student of Morihei Ueshiba and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking an Italian.]] Despite these macho-man credentials, Steven for some reason can't be bothered to say in shape and nowadays he has to be the flabbiest star in the Action genre. [[https://theflyingguillotine.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/the-ridiculousness-of-steven-seagal-part-1/ This link does a good job of exposing Seagal's bullshit.]]
* ''MTV Cribs'' often staged the extravagant lifestyles of its subjects. Music/JaRule passed off a vacation rental house as his own. In Music/BowWow's episode he showed off three sports cars that had "Prestige" printed on the windows, a Miami-based luxury rental car agency. In Music/RobbieWilliams' episode he hired actors to play butlers. When Music/{{Redman}} famously showed his actual, modest suburban home in his episode, he later said in an interview that he did it ''specifically'' because he was tired of his celebrity friends showing off giant mansions that he knew weren't theirs.
* Hiding the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test) Trinity nuclear-bomb test]] was clearly going to be a bit tricky; as an Army security officer put it, "you might as well try to hide the Mississippi River". Nevertheless, they tried:
--> Several inquiries have been received concerning a heavy explosion which occurred on the Alamogordo Air Base reservation this morning. A remotely located ammunition magazine containing a considerable amount of high explosives and pyrotechnics exploded. There was no loss of life or injury to anyone, and the property damage outside of the explosives magazine was negligible.
* In 1957, the spy submarine USS ''Gudgeon'' was forced to emerge in Soviet-claimed territorial waters near Vladivostok, and claimed they were passing by en route to Japan. The Soviet sailors, content in having done their job and knowing that calling the ''Gudgeon'' out would mean the crew would be executed as spies ''at best'', feigned buying it... And thanked them for helping in the anti-submarine exercise, starting an unwritten agreement based on a lie: any American sub forced to emerge wasn't a spy sub but had just helped the Soviet ships in an exercise to deal with actual spy subs and now owed them a case of whisky as prize for "winning", and any Soviet sub forced to emerge had helped the US Navy in an exercise to counter actual spy subs and now owed them a case of vodka.
* Charles Lamb, in his book ''To War in a Stringbag'', described how he, as the torpedo squadron supply officer, had received 24 Irving flight jackets for his squadron. He was technically responsible for them until "returned", "written off" or "lost". Since they were excellent jackets, many of the pilots and observers took them when they were transferred to other units, and Lamb lost count of them. Finally, after his ship ''HMS Illustrious'' was bombed and seriously damaged, he reported those jackets as 'lost' in the débacle. Everyone was content.
* Some scammers, including those who use ransomware to pass as the FBI or cold-call as the IRS, will claim that an arrest warrant is being issued against their targets, and the only way they can avoid going to prison is to pay them in prepaid cards. The lies in these scams are myriad: on top those who cold-call always hailing from [[OperatorFromIndia India]], and the fact that arrest warrants don't go away for paying a fine (much less in the form of a difficult-to-trace prepaid card), anyone with a passing familiarity with criminal law will tell you that the police will never warn someone that they have an arrest warrant against them until they are approaching the subject to actually serve it, lest the suspect flee or destroy the evidence.
** Some particularly bad ones will end up calling military-issued phones, which no revenue service or law enforcement agency would call if it was about a personal matter unrelated to the military.
* A possibly unique non-human example: Koko, the gorilla who could communicate using sign language, once ripped a stainless steel sink off the wall of her enclosure in a fit of temper. When her handler scolded her and asked why she had done it, Koko denied responsibility and ''blamed it on her pet kitten!''
* Many celebrites treat their cosmetic procedures this way, despite the existence of glaring photographic counterevidence. For a long time, Music/LanaDelRey and [[Series/KeepingUpWithTheKardashians Kylie Jenner]] both vehemently denied getting lip fillers, with the latter only speaking up after several fans injured themselves doing the controversial "Kylie Jenner challenge". Model Bella Hadid denied ''any'' plastic surgery for a long time. She later admitted one single nosejob, but still attributes the massive changes to her eyelids, lips and jawline to face tape and age.
* ''Creator/RussiaToday'' once [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/08/high-steaks-the-vladimir-putin-birthday-burger-that-never-existed fabricated]] a story claiming that a New York fast food restaurant was so enamoured with Russian President UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin that they created a dedicated 'Putin Birthday Burger', [[CultOfPersonality which meant to showcase just how popular Putin was even beyond Russia's borders]].
* Those who follow the Russo-Ukrainian War may have heard of the Russian PrivateMilitaryContractor known as "The Wagner Group". However, [=PMCs=] are illegal in Russia. But, legally speaking, Wagner Group is not a PMC, but a ''management consultancy firm'' that just happens to employ large numbers of ultranationalists, dishonorably discharged veterans and ex-cons, hoard large stockpiles of heavy military equipment including tanks and artillery, build military-style bases next to actual military bases and conduct military-style operations in resource-rich areas of underdeveloped countries.
* [=ChatGPT=] is extremely good at putting together logically coherent statements in a confident tone. It is substantially less good at knowing whether those statements are ''true'', because it's a language model and doesn't actually know what a fact is. One of its consistent issues that you can tell is wrong without fact-checking is if you ask it to produce ASCIIArt for you, especially of words -- it will produce something that looks nothing like what you requested, while confidently insisting that it has created exactly what you wanted.
[[/folder]]

'''Skinner''': Yes.\\
'''Chalmers''': May I see it?\\
'''Skinner''': [{{Beat}}] No.

'''Chalmers''': Aurora Borealis? At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized entirely within your kitchen?!\\

'''Chalmers''': Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?\\

** Calvin's father told him that when HE was a child, there was no color, just black and white. Then things started to acquire color, even paintings and photo. What about black and white photos. His father explained they had acquired color - but they were now color photos of black and white things.

** Bob tells Helen that he and the kids are fine on her first day away, when they're anything but. Violet is distraught after Tony unintentionally showed her up, Dash is having trouble with math homework and Jack-Jack's burgeoning powers are causing great stress for Bob.