History Main / CelebrityLie

* The 1965 film ''The Girls on the Beach'' features not TheBeachBoys (who appear and perform in the film) but [[TheBeatles their trans-Atlantic rivals]] (who do not). A beach bum trying to impress sorority sisters promises a Fab Four performance for their fundraising concert, and fails spectacularly to deliver.

* Pretty much the point of the Aaron Carter song "Oh Aaron". Although Aaron really is Nick Carter's little brother, [[{{Beyond The Impossible}} three thousand tickets]] are a bit much.

* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazzin%27_for_Blue_Jean Jazzin' for Blue Jean]]'': David Bowie plays a man who tries to impress a woman by claiming (falsely) to be friends with a rock star she seems interested in; it turns out that she herself is friends with said rock star, who is also played by David Bowie.

* The 1965 film ''The Girls on the Beach'' features not the Beach Boys (who appear and perform in the film) but their trans-Atlantic rivals (who do not). A beach bum trying to impress sorority sisters promises a Beatles performance for their fundraising concert, and fails spectacularly to deliver.

* [[DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney's animated series]] of ''Hercules'' had Hercules claiming to know the master bard Orpheus and could get him to play at their dance to impress the amazon princess he had a crush on. Parodied in that Hades claimed the same thing to get Lastrigon, the Titan, to join his forces.

* Also used on ''BrooklynBridge'' -- the grandfather claims to have played ball with Gil Hodges. When they run into Gil Hodges, he plays along with the story so the grandfather doesn't lose face with his grandkid. He's called a ''mensch'' for it.

* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazzin%27_for_Blue_Jean Jazzin' for Blue Jean]]'': David Bowie plays a man who tries to impress a woman by claiming (falsely) to be friends with a rock star she seems interested in; it turns out that she herself is friends with said rock star, who is also played by David Bowie.

* The 1965 film ''The Girls on the Beach'' features not the Beach Boys (who appear and perform in the film) but their trans-Atlantic rivals (who do not). A beach bum trying to impress sorority sisters promises a Beatles performance for their fundraising concert, and fails spectacularly to deliver.
* [[DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney's animated series]] of ''Hercules'' had Hercules claiming to know the master bard Orpheus and could get him to play at their dance to impress the amazon princess he had a crush on. Parodied in that Hades claimed the same thing to get Lastrigon, the Titan, to join his forces.
* ''AGoofyMovie'': Max can't go to Roxanne's viewing party for pop star Powerline's concert because his father is taking him on a fishing trip. Naturally, Max tells her he can't come because they're going to be ''at'' the concert because Powerline and Goofy are friends from way back. At the end, Goofy and Max do break into the concert and appear on TV, but Max still feels the need to confess to Roxanne. She forgives him. (What do you expect? It's a Disney movie.)

* An unusual variation appears in ''TheZetaProject'', where in an attempt to help impress Ro's one-time foster family, Zeta takes on the appearance of fictional celebrity Adam Heat... without telling her beforehand. This goes awry on a variety of levels: Zeta gets roped into a ''RomeoAndJuliet'' rehearsal, stalling them. Undesirable publicity follows. Then, when the real Adam appears appears in a live interview at the same time, [[InspectorJavert Agent Bennet]] comes knocking...
* In an episode of ''FatherOfThePride'' Larry the Lion claims to know Donkey from ''{{Shrek}}'' in order to impress his son's classmates. A ZanyScheme ensues (involving kidnapping what turns out to be Donkey's stunt double), before Donkey decides to play along.

* Subverted in, of all things, the ''HannahMontana'' movie. Miley tries impressing people in her hometown by telling them she "knows" Hannah Montana.
* Children's book ''The Fib'' by actor George Layton -- apparently autobiographical -- tells the story of a young lad who claims that his uncle is famous footballer Bobby Charlton. He is correctly disbelieved, and then the real Bobby Charlton shows up to turn on the Christmas lights. His friends attempt to dob him in, only for Charlton to take it like a real sport and pretend that he is indeed the boy's uncle. Of course, he then gets into trouble because his mother doesn't believe he's late home because he's been having tea with Bobby Charlton and the Lord Mayor...
* In ''HustleAndFlow'', [[spoiler:DJay's plan to get famous hinges entirely on his connection with old high school buddy Skinny Black, a local boy who made good and became a famous rapper. As it turns out, DJay is lying to his all his friends and had never crossed circles with Skinny Black ever.]]
* ''TheFreshPrinceofBelAir'' has Will lying to his aunt and uncle that he can get Boyz II Men to sing at Nicky's christening because he grew up with them in Philly. He goes to their studio where they are doing some recording sessions and begs them to come, which works at first until events lead up to clarifying what is a slight subversion of the trope: Will actually did know one of the members, Wanya Morris, but only because he stole his girlfriend, which leads to the group saying no. After this fails, he returns to the studio dressed in a santa suit and gets them to come, until he accidentally reveals himself. Later on, when it seems they won't show up, Will begins to confess and it seems everyone is about to be disappointed, but the group shows up at the last minute singing "Silent Night" and their first names, in turn, are used as Nicky's middle name.
* Played with on ''TheSteveHarveyShow'': Steve meets Michael Jordan (who doesn't appear in the episode) after a fender-bender and convinces him to speak at the school's entrepreneur day event. Regina does not believe Steve at first but a call to the school from the insurance company convinces her and she is thrilled. Later, Michael Jordan cancels his appearance, leaving Steve to tell Regina the bad news. He couldn't bring himself to disappoint her so he hires an MJ look-alike to come to the school. HilarityEnsues when the agency sends ''MichaelJackson'' instead.

* In one episode of ''TheSimpsons'', Lisa becomes popular when Bart tells everyone that she is best friends with a {{Hannah Montana}} {{Expy}}. Lisa plays along with the lie but eventually has to come clean.
** Another episode of this has Gary Coleman pretend to be talking to the President of the United States on a telephone that isn't plugged in -- while there's no one to his knowledge actually around, meaning that he's essentially performing a CelebrityLie on himself.

* Inverted in [[http://www.dorktower.com/2007/12/28/comics-archive-975/ this]] ''DorkTower'' comic strip with StanLee.

* [[ZigZaggingTrope Played straight, subverted and then played straight again]] with Joey 'The Lips' Fagan in {{TheCommitments}}. He claims to have been a session trumpeter who has played with all the greats including Elvis. The trope comes into play when Wilson Pickett comes to Dublin and Jimmy Rabbitte asks Joey if he can get him to play with the Commitments on stage (Joey having claimed with Wilson Pickett on a number of occasions). Joey claims to do so (we never see the meeting) but then Wilson Pickett never turns up to the Commitments' concert so Jimmy Rabbitte assumes that Joey was lying.....until later on as he's going home, he's stopped by the driver of a large limousine asking for directions to the club. Then later on Jimmy gets a postcard from Joey saying he's on tour with a musician...who died five years ago.

* Pretty much the point of the Aaron Carter song "Oh Aaron". Although Aaron really is Nick Carter's little brother, [[{{Beyond The Impossible}} three thousand tickets]] are a bit much.

* On ''TheWayansBros'', Busta Rhymes is in town for a concert and Dee's church needs $3,000 to stave off foreclosure due to Shawn and Marlon losing the money because they got arrested for scalping tickets to said concert. At that point they meet Busta and try to get him to remember them from their school days. He says that he does and that's because they insulted his girlfriend who is now his wife. He refuses to help them. Later, they raise money for Dee's church by lying that Busta will do a benefit concert. Marlon hijacks Busta's limo and takes him and his crew to the church instead of the airport. Busta's angry at first, but when Marlon and Shawn apologize to him, he agrees to do the benefit and Dee's church is saved.

* On ''TheWayansBros'', Busta Rhymes is in town for a concert and Dee's church needs $3,000 to stave off forclosure due to Shawn and Marlon losing the money because they got arrested for scalping tickets to said concert. At that point they meet Busta and try to get him to remember them from their school days. He says that he does and that's because they insulted his girlfriend who is now his wife. He refuses to help them. Later, they raise money for Dee's church by lying that Busta will do a benefit concert. Marlon hijacks Busta's limo and takes him and his crew to the church instead of the airport. Busta's angry at first, but when Marlon and Shawn apologize to him, he agrees to do the benefit and Dee's church is saved.

* On ''TheWayansBros'', Busta Rhymes is in town for a concert and Dee's church needs $3,000 to stave off forclosure due to Shawn and Marlon losing the money because they got arrested for scalping tickets to said concert. At that point they meet Busta and try to get him to remember them from their school days. He says that he does and that's because they insulted his girlfriend who is now his wife. He refuses to help them. Later, they raise money for Dee's church by lying that Busta will do a benefit concert. Marlon hijacks Busta's limo and takes him and his crew to the church instead of the airport. Busta's angry at first, but when Marlon and Shawn apoplogize to him, he agrees to do the benefit and Dee's church is saved.
* Sara does this a lot on ''TheSteveHarveyShow''. She constantly lies to her classmates that she knows certain celebrities like George Clooney, Will Smith, and Wesley Snipes.

* ''[[{{ptitlefnnyikgsc9tx}} I'm Still Alan Partridge]]'' had Alan claim to his girlfriend that he knew Bono, lead singer of U2. After a row, she insisted he take her to Bono's house, so Alan takes her to a stately home and arranges for a man to turn up in dark glasses speaking in a fake Irish accent, which backfires quite badly.

* Pretty much the point of the Aaron Carter song "Oh Aaron". Although Aaron really is Nick Carter's little brother, [[{{Beyond The Impossible}} three thousand tickets]] [[{{Understatement}} are a bit much]].

* ''{{Wings}}'': In an attempt to get Alex to go out with him, Brian tells her that he knows Clint Black and has several misadventures trying to meet him before Helen finally convinces the country singer to pretend to be an old friend of his. Afterward, Alex tells Brian that she had been sure he was lying and that the fact that Brian would have gone to such absurd lengths to impress her made her consider going out with him, however when she found out he actually ''did'' know him, it completely took the air out of it.

*** Not [[PiratesOfTheCaribbean that Davy Jones]]. The other [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Jones_%28actor%29 other Davy Jones]].

* In one episode of ''TheSimpsons'', Lisa becomes popular when Bart tells everyone that she is best friends with a celebrity. Lisa plays along with the lie but eventually has to come clean.
** Another episode of this has Gary Coleman pretend to be talking to the President of the United States on a telephone that isn't plugged in -- while there's no one to his knowledge actually around, meaning that he's essentially performing a CelebrityLie on himself..

* Subverted in ''SisterSister'', where not only does Roger know Batman (from the group Immature/IMX) because he is related to him, he gets him to come. Of course, since Batman looks just like Roger (and Marques Houston plays both), no one believes him until the very end of the episode.

* Done oddly on an episode of ''TheGoldenGirls'', in which the girls are working to put together a variety show to raise money for charity. Their scheduled emcee cancels, and Rose offers to get Bob Hope to fill in. She doesn't claim to actually know him, however; she claims to believe he's her biological father, and admits that they've never even met. Through a bizarre coincidence, Bob Hope really ''does'' show up to host the event for them, although no indication is given that he's been made remotely aware of Rose's bizarre conviction.

* Inverted in the episode ''Major Topper'' in ''[[MASHTheSeries M*A*S*H]]''. In a bragging and name calling contest, Charles Winchester claims to have had dinner with {{Audrey Hepburn}}, despite never haven seen any of her movies. Hawkeye and BJ refuse to believe him, until Charles produces a picture to proof his tale (picture is never shown to the viewers).

It usually ends up with apparent failure (and thus disgrace to the one who uttered TheCelebrityLie) suddenly rescued at the last minute by the celebrity in question, who sometimes goes so far as to help maintain the liar's deception. Usually requires a SpecialGuest or a CelebrityStar, although fictional celebrities are sometimes employed with sufficient exposition for the audience (see ''TheWeekenders'', "Band").

* ''[=~Archie Bunker's Place~=]'' (the 1979 sequel series to ''AllInTheFamily'') displayed an early inversion of this trope in the episode "The Return of Sammy", when Archie fails to convince his friends at his bar that he actually knows Sammy Davis Jr. (Which he did, thanks to an episode of ''AllInTheFamily'' from years earlier -- see [=~Sammy's Glass Eye~=].) Even a call to a live TV show where Archie speaks directly to Sammy seems destined to paint him a liar until Archie gives enough detail about their earlier encounter, prompting Sammy's enthusiastic recognition and subsequent visit to the bar.

Not to be confused with CelebrityIsOverrated.