History Main / CelebrityLie

** Another episode has Sophia claim that she has a date with Julio Iglesias. The other women think she's lying and just doesn't want to admit that she doesn't want to admit that she, like the others, doesn't have a date scheduled for Valentine's Day. After Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose leave for their dates (their dates just cancelledto surprise them later), Iglesias does show up and goes out with Sophia.
** In "Mrs. George Devereaux", Dorothy says that she met Sonny Bono and Lyle Waggoner and they both fell for and were fighting for her, but as she was HollywoodDatelesss, no one believes her. While she was telling the truth, the episode turns out to be a BizzaroEpisode that was AllJustADream.

* Done oddly on an episode of ''Series/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 conviction.

* In one episode of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', Jon Lovitz's Pathological Liar character was trying to pick up Jerry Hall in a bar, with increasingly absurd lies ranging from being a Senator, inventing Rock'n'Roll, to knowing Mick Jagger. Mick Jagger then walks in to pick up his girlfriend, and [[http://snltranscripts.jt.org/85/85jliar.phtml uses Lovitz as his excuse for not coming home some nights]].

* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'': In another effort to impress Bailey, Cody tells her that he is friends with HannahMontana and can get them tickets for the concert she was going to hold. Subverted because he actually does know Hannah (they met at the Tipton when they were younger) but Hannah doesn't remember Cody. Cody does everything he could to win the tickets for him and Bailey and when he fails, he tells the truth to Bailey but she is touched that Cody was willing to go through so much trouble for her. Then, Hannah and Lola skip by and Hannah finally remembers Cody (Woody getting cake all over Cody's shirt helped) and gives them tickets and backstage passes. Cody and Bailey then have a RelationshipUpgrade (prompting a hilarious BrickJoke from the beginning of the season).

It usually ends up with apparent failure (and thus disgrace to the one who uttered the Celebrity Lie) 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").

* Subverted in a strip from the British girls' comic ''Bunty''. A group of girls are unpleasant to a classmate whom they perceive as delusional because she makes wild, exaggerated claims about her life such as being the sister of a famous pop star. It turns out she really ''is'' his sister and the moral of the story was not to make cruel judgements about people.

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

* Subverted in, of all things, the ''HannahMontana'' movie. Miley tries impressing people in her hometown by telling them she "knows" Hannah Montana.
* [[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.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Appeared repeatedly on ''Series/ILoveLucy''.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

*** The Gary Coleman example was more of a CloudCuckooLander or IRejectYourReality situation. He'd previously been having an imaginary argument with the employee of a Chinese restaurant through said unplugged phone, again with no knowledge that anyone was there.

** Played with in the episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E9SweetAndElite "Sweet and Elite"]]. Rarity really ''does'' know Princess Celestia, which is what initially turns the Canterlot upper class' heads towards her; however, an incident involving some upper class ponies shunning her earlier in the day for coming from Ponyville drives her to put out a few fibs here and there to mask her origins. Eventually comes to a head when her friends from Ponyville show up at Canterlot, end up merging Twilight's birthday party with the upper class one Rarity was invited to, and inadvertently force Rarity to admit where she really came from. [[spoiler:Fortunately for her, one of the most influential ponies she befriended finds the whole thing "delightfully rustic", so she gets to keep her celebrity status despite the earlier lies.]]

* Subverted in [[WesternAnimation/FredAndBarneyMeetTheThing The Thing]] cartoon. Benji Grimm says the Thing will show up for a high-school talent show, which should be easy (since he ''is'' the Thing), but every time he transforms, he accidentally scares a janitor and then changes back to try to calm him down instead of just remaining the Thing and going to the show. In the end, the Thing never makes it to the show.

* Likewise the ''Series/MaryTylerMoore'' episode that takes place in Washington, where Lou can't convince Mary that he knows important politicians. She refuses to believe that Gerry Ford left his pipe in Lou's hotel room, even after Betty Ford (playing herself) calls to inquire about it.
-->'''Betty Ford''': Hello Mary, this is Betty Ford.
-->'''Mary Richards''': Hi, Betty. This is Mary -- Queen of Scots!

* The 1965 film ''The Girls on the Beach'' features not Music/TheBeachBoys (who appear and perform in the film) but [[Music/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.

* ''Series/TheFreshPrinceofBelAir'':

** George was fond of bragging that the previous owner of his car was Jon Voight. This was technically true in that it belonged to someone with that name, but it wasn't the famous actor, as he wanted people to believe.

* The 1965 film ''The Girls on the Beach'' features not TheBeachBoys (who appear and perform in the film) but [[Music/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.

* ''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.)

* ''Series/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.

* Inverted on ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch''. Sabrina ends up alienating her co-workers and they're convinced she's crazy. One day she pays for a woman's coffee and talks casually about it to her, not knowing it is actually Music/{{Ashanti}}. Ashanti later comes into the magazine office while it's empty and sings for Sabrina to prove who she is. The rest of the magazine refuse to believe Sabrina but then Ashanti comes back in and references their conversation earlier, making it seem like they know each other. Sabrina then makes it seem like they have known each other a while in order to save her reputation.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FatherOfThePride'' Larry the Lion claims to know Donkey from ''WesternAnimation/{{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.
** It should be noted that in this case, Larry actually tries to get help from the "real celebrity" much ''earlier'' than the usual examples of this trope. However, Donkey keeps adamantly refusing. The only reason Donkey eventually decides to help is because [[spoiler: he walks in on Larry's son's classmates laughing at him...which causes Donkey to have a painful flashback to ''his own'' foalhood days of his classmates laughing at him, so Donkey sympathizes with Larry's son enough to play along.]]
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/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.

* [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney's animated series]] of ''Disney/{{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.
* Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E9SweetAndElite "Sweet and Elite"]]. Rarity really ''does'' know Princess Celestia, which is what initially turns the Canterlot upper class' heads towards her; however, an incident involving some upper class ponies shunning her earlier in the day for coming from Ponyville drives her to put out a few fibs here and there to mask her origins. Eventually comes to a head when her friends from Ponyville show up at Canterlot, end up merging Twilight's birthday party with the upper class one Rarity was invited to, and inadvertently force Rarity to admit where she really came from. [[spoiler:Fortunately for her, one of the most influential ponies she befriended finds the whole thing "delightfully rustic", so she gets to keep her celebrity status despite the earlier lies.]]

* Subverted in [[WesternAnimation/FredAndBarneyMeetTheThing The Thing]] cartoon. Benji Grimm says the Thing will show up for a high-school talent show, which should be easy (since he ''is'' the Thing), but every time he transforms, he accidentally scares a janitor and then changes back to try to calm him down instead of just staying as the thing and going to the show. In the end, the Thing never makes it to the show.

* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazzin%27_for_Blue_Jean Jazzin' for Blue Jean]]'': DavidBowie plays a man who tries to impress a woman by claiming (falsely) to be friends with a rock star she seems interested in, who is also played by David Bowie. [[spoiler: Turns out that she and the rock star knew each other -- ''as lovers'' -- all along.]]

* The plot of Music/DavidBowie's short film/music video, ''Jazzin' For Blue Jean'', is about this. Bowie plays a guy who tries to impress a girl by claiming he knows rock star Screamin' Lord Byron (also played by Bowie).

** It should be noted that in this case, Larry actually tries to get help from the "real celebrity" much ''earlier'' than the usual examples of this trope, in a case of GenreSavvy. However, Donkey keeps adamantly refusing. The only reason Donkey eventually decides to help is because [[spoiler: he walks in on Larry's son's classmates laughing at him...which causes Donkey to have a painful flashback to ''his own'' foalhood days of his classmates laughing at him, so Donkey sympathizes with Larry's son enough to play along.]]

* Subverted in [[FredAndBarneyMeetTheThing The Thing]] cartoon. Benji Grimm says the Thing will show up for a high-school talent show, which should be easy (since he ''is'' the Thing), but every time he transforms, he accidentally scares a janitor and then changes back to try to calm him down instead of just staying as the thing and going to the show. In the end, the Thing never makes it to the show.

* Inverted on ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch''. Sabrina ends up alienating her co-workers and they're convinced she's crazy. One day she pays for a woman's coffee and talks casually about it to her, not knowing it is actually {{Ashanti}}. Ashanti later comes into the magazine office while it's empty and sings for Sabrina to prove who she is. The rest of the magazine refuse to believe Sabrina but then Ashanti comes back in and references their conversation earlier, making it seem like they know each other. Sabrina then makes it seem like they have known each other a while in order to save her reputation.

* Appeared repeatedly on ''ILoveLucy''.
* ''ArchieBunkersPlace'' (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 IgnoreTheDisability.) 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.
* Likewise the ''MaryTylerMoore'' episode that takes place in Washington, where Lou can't convince Mary that he knows important politicians. She refuses to believe that Gerry Ford left his pipe in Lou's hotel room, even after Betty Ford (playing herself) calls to inquire about it.

* ''TheVicarOfDibley'' did a variation on this. A local offers to secure the services of his distant cousin, a musician named Reginald Dwight (the real name of Elton John), for a town event. The vicar assumes this Reginald Dwight to actually be Elton John, only to discover at the last moment that he is simply an accordion player with the same name. In this case, it is not so much a celebrity lie as a celebrity mistake, as the person making the claim did not actually know.

* ''TheBradyBunch'' had two examples:

* 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 ''Music/MichaelJackson'' instead.

* Subverted repeatedly as a RunningGag in ''GavinAndStacey''; Vanessa is constantly namedropping celebrities she's met (and often slept with) in her MysteriousPast -- and she's apparently telling the truth every time.
* In one episode of ''SaturdayNightLive'', Jon Lovitz's Pathological Liar character was trying to pick up Jerry Hall in a bar, with increasingly absurd lies ranging from being a Senator, inventing Rock'n'Roll, to knowing Mick Jagger. Mick Jagger then walks in to pick up his girlfriend, and [[http://snltranscripts.jt.org/85/85jliar.phtml uses Lovitz as his excuse for not coming home some nights]].

* 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.

* ''SilverSpoons'': Alfonso claims to know Michael Jackson, and when called on it he hires a Jackson look-alike to show up. Everybody is convinced but he ends up telling the truth.
* ''{{Cheers}}'': Woody has an extra role on ''SpenserForHire'' and claims to have become good friends with its star Robert Urich. Nobody believes him, but it's true as shown in TheStinger of the episode.

* TheSuiteLifeOnDeck: In another effort to impress Bailey, Cody tells her that he is friends with HannahMontana and can get them tickets for the concert she was going to hold. Subverted because he actually does know Hannah (they met at the Tipton when they were younger) but Hannah doesn't remember Cody. Cody does everything he could to win the tickets for him and Bailey and when he fails, he tells the truth to Bailey but she is touched that Cody was willing to go through so much trouble for her. Then, Hannah and Lola skip by and Hannah finally remembers Cody (Woody getting cake all over Cody's shirt helped) and gives them tickets and backstage passes. Cody and Bailey then have a RelationshipUpgrade (prompting a hilarious BrickJoke from the beginning of the season).

* A variation in ''KenanAndKel'' - Kenan mistakenly thinks Sharla is going to the dance with some "special guy" (she means him) and lies saying he's taking R&B singer Tamia. Realising his mistake, he goes to a signing and eventually persuades Tamia to say yes. She is forced to cancel at the last minute - but Kenan has already left for the dance so she tells Sharla instead.

* 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.

It usually ends up with apparent failure (and thus disgrace to the one who uttered The Celebrity Lie) 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").

* Inverted in the episode "Major Topper" in ''Series/{{Mash}}''. In a bragging and name calling contest, Charles Winchester claims to have had dinner with Creator/AudreyHepburn, despite never having seen any of her movies. Hawkeye and BJ refuse to believe him, until Charles produces a picture to prove his tale (picture is never shown to the viewers).
* 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 conviction.

* ''HappyDays'': Richie really did know the keyboard player from "Johnny Fish & the Fins" at summer camp, but when he tries to get tickets for their concert nobody believes him because they're in the nosebleed section. They figure he just bought cheap tickets to cover the lie. Then he's given a ShoutOut from the stage, and everyone believes him.

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

* Inverted on ''SabrinaTheTeenageWitch''. Sabrina ends up alienating her co-workers and they're convinced she's crazy. One day she pays for a woman's coffee and talks casually about it to her, not knowing it is actually {{Ashanti}}. Ashanti later comes into the magazine office while it's empty and sings for Sabrina to prove who she is. The rest of the magazine refuse to believe Sabrina but then Ashanti comes back in and references their conversation earlier, making it seem like they know each other. Sabrina then makes it seem like they have known each other a while in order to save her reputation.

* [[DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney's animated series]] of ''Disney/{{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.

* {{Frasier}} and Lilith tried to impress the headmaster of their son's fancy school by pretending that Lilith had been given earrings by Golda Meir. In another one, Frasier tried to impress another psychologist by claiming he was friends with opera tenor Jose Carreras. Turns out that Carreras was the other guy's godfather.

* ''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.