History Main / CannotTellFictionFromReality

-> '''Adachi''': ''Ooo, Mabuchi's gettin' serious now.''
-> '''Kasuga''': ''Yeah, I think he's in a bad mood. Is that literally fire coming out of him?''
-> '''Adachi''': ''That's your gamer brain talkin' again, but fire or not-oh, he's angry as hell!''

--->'''Abe''': I say we call Matlock. He'll find the culprit. It's probably that evil Gavin MacLeod or George "Goober" Lindsey.\\

** In "The Blueberry Picnic," the characters perform a play similar to ''Literature/TheThreeBillyGoatsGruff'', where Hen, Duck, Cat and Emily are each threatened by a troll (played by Little Bear) when they cross his bridge. In the audience, No-Feet worries each time one of his friends steps onto the bridge, but Owl reassures him that it's only a play... [[NotSoAboveItAll only to panic himself]] when Emily's turn comes.

* Takuji from ''VisualNovel/WonderfulEverydayDownTheRabbitHole'' suffers from 'delusions'. It's usually [[DramaticIrony obvious to the player]] when one is occurring, but he seriously ''believes'' a lot of what is told to him during these.
** Many of the delusions are H-scenes during his chapter, because of the [[{{Otaku}} kind of person he is...]]

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E2CapeFeare Cape Feare]]" When the family tries to figure out who's threating Bart, Abe Simpson suggests that they should hire "[[Series/Matlock]]", because he believes that Matlock is a real person

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E10EPluribusWiggum E Pluribus Wiggum]]" Lenny believes that Madonna was literally married to "[[Music/Evita Juan Peron]]".

* Inverted in Series/DrakeAndJosh Go Hollywood'', Walter wasn't aware Titanic was based on a true story.

* Joey of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' had to deal with a fan (played by Brooke Shields) who thought he was actually Dr. Drake Ramoray, the character he played on ''Days of Our Lives''. In an earlier episode his photogrqaph is used for a public health poster about [=STDs=] which leads to all of Manhattan assuming he has one.

* The ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "True Night" had a serial killer, played by Frankie Muniz, who worked as a comic book artist. He went crazy after gangbangers killed his girlfriend and hunted them down one by one under the delusion that he was a vigilante from one of his comics. Possibly an inversion though, as it's suggested that he may have created the comic book character based on the delusion. He also seems to be completely unaware of the murders except while under the delusion, and they catch him because he recreated the scenes in his comic without realizing it.

* Ichiban Kasuga of ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' is such a big fan of ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' that he visualizes himself as a ''Dragon Quest'' hero, and all the enemies he fights throughout the game are various [=RPG=] inspired beings with special attacks and status buffs. It's PlayedForLaughs and everyone else thinks Ichiban's a weirdo for looking at the world like this, but his friends at least are willing to humor him.

* Takuji from ''VisualNovel/SubarashikiHibi'' suffers from 'delusions'. It's usually [[DramaticIrony obvious to the player]] when one is occurring, but he seriously ''believes'' a lot of what is told to him during these.

* Mark from ''Webcomic/{{Weregeek}}'' has such a powerful imagination that unless told something isn't real he will treat it like it is. This becomes apparent when [[spoiler: It's found out the whole hunter/ geek conflict was just a Larp, and all the shadowy monsters were just people in cheap masks that from Mark's and the readers P.O.V looked totally real.]] When Joel hears this ([[spoiler: and that Mark apparently doesn't even remember their character creation process]]), he tells Mark to [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome get psychological help, because there's no way he can adequately function in life]], before realizing that [[spoiler: Mark was faking at least some of it to mess with Joel in revenge for Joel dumping him into games before without telling him.]]

** This is the major conflict of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E3HomerGoesToCollege Homer Goes to College]]"; Homer's main experience with college is what he's seen in movies, leading to him believing that CollegeIsHighSchoolPart2 where you take part in WackyFratboyHijinks and teach mean old DeanBitterman a lesson. As it turns out, he's completely wrong; the episode ends up being about [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome a mostly realistic college]] with a likable and competent Dean and a student body that mostly just wants to be left alone to their studies. Homer's attempts to instigate SlobsVersusSnobs conflicts or elaborate pranks end up getting people expelled instead.

->'''Abed:''' By the power vested in my, I declare you ... cancelled.\\

* One episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' had some aliens performing some sort of hack on [[ProjectedMan the Doctor]]'s program to try and steal information, only to accidentally intercept several of his (comically self-indulgent) idle daydreams and sexual fantasies. Several hilarious misunderstandings ensue before one of them finally catches on.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E26Execution Execution]]", the temporally displaced Joe Caswell mistakes a scene from a [[TheWestern TV Western]] for reality. When the TV cowboy pulls his gun, Caswell shoots the television.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E78OnceUponATime Once Upon a Time]]", the likewise temporally displaced Woodrow Mulligan sees a man on television, which he mistakes for a window, while in Jack's Fix-It Shop. Believing that the man is talking to him when he warns another character that someone can't be trusted, he becomes concerned that the repairman is up to something. Rollo sets him straight, though Mulligan still does not understand what television is.
** {{Discussed|Trope}} in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E144WhatsInTheBox What's in the Box]]". Dr. Saltman believes that Joe Britt seeing himself kill his wife Phyllis on television is a delusion caused by an inability to distinguish between TV and his own life.

* In ''WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow'' (pictured), Joe plays ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' long enough that he thinks he's a MagicKnight, and goes to slay [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corporate Commander]] with his armor and sword, but just has a foil helmet and a broom. Commander just calls security.

* ''Diplomatic Act'' is a 1998 novel written by Peter Jurasik, who played Londo on ''Series/BabylonFive''. The plot is thus obvious: An actor who plays an alien diplomat on a TV show is taken into space by a race who thinks he's his character and needs his "wisdom" to solve a crisis before it erupts into war. He has to play along while a member of the race takes his place on his "space station" and swiftly discovers he's just an actor. Notable is that the reason they fall for this is that it's indicated fiction is a purely human concept in the universe.

* In ''The Last Resort'' by Jan Carson, this is one of the symptoms of Martha's dementia. Her husband John is worried enough that taking her back to the caravan park has resulted in her talking as though their daughters are there and still children, including reading ''Literature/TheWaterBabies'' to nobody. He's even more worried when he realises that the reason she keeps talking about taking the girls swimming is because she's started thinking ''The Water Babies'' is real.

** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStoryThatTimeForgot'' has a similar situation with the "Battlesaurs" toys, who haven't been played with yet and are lost in their own backstories. [[spoiler:The Cleric knows this however and chooses to keep his comrades in the dark to avoid an IdentityCrisis, but everyone learns of their true nature and get played with in the end.]]

'''Jeff:''' Oh good, Abed, cancel us! And while you're at it, why don't you take your cutesy "I can't tell life from TV" gimmick with you! It’s very Season 1.\\
'''Abed:''' I can tell TV from life, Jeff. TV makes sense. It has structure, logic, rules. And likeable leading men. In life we have this. We have you.

* Buzz Lightyear from ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'' is a {{Living Toy|s}} that believes he's the actual character the toyline is based on. [[spoiler:He realizes otherwise when he sees the commercial at Sid's house advertising for Buzz Lightyears]]. Zurg and the Toy-Barn Buzz Lightyear suffer from this in the second movie. It carries over into promotional media as Buzz still thinks that he is the real deal. [[AllThereInTheManual Supplemental material]] reveals that for some reason this is the case with all space toys, unlike everyone else.

* In [[https://notalwaysright.com/it-must-have-been-a-new-moon-part-2/72439/ this]] ''Website/NotAlwaysRight'' story, a woman in a [[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Team Edward]] t-shirt accosts a librarian for wearing a "Save the Wolves" shirt for an animal charity event, since it "must" mean she's on Team Jacob. That's stupid, but not overly so. Then she's remonstrated with by another librarian wearing "animal eye" contact lenses, and concludes that the library doesn't just employ werewolf fans, but actual werewolves.

** In ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', when Lieutenant Hornett is trying to tell Lord Rust why none of his military precidents apply to the current situation, he has to explain that the Seven Heroes of Hergen and their defeat of 700 Big-Footed People was just a nursery story. An outraged Rust responds "Are you calling my nurse a liar, boy?" When Hornett backs down, Rust also cites the precedent of Baron Mimbledrone's fight against the armies of Plum Pudding Country.

* In ''Literature/PeterPan,'' the title character is so interminably childish that he sometimes can't tell games from reality). When the Lost Boys can't find anything to eat, Peter makes everyone imagine a huge feast; he can actually get sated by this, and becomes angry if anyone complains that they're still hungry. At another point, he has an existential crisis when he and Wendy are pretending to be the Lost Boys' parents, and needs her to reassure him that's he's not ''really'' an adult father.