History Main / FakeWizardry

* ''Fanfic/InTheBleakMidwinterTheLoud'': When Tom Riddle Sr learns that his son will face prejudice as a half-blood, he takes what appears to him like a sensible approach, and simply pretends to be a pureblood wizard. Since he already knows well how to behave as an ''aristocrat'', and since he is able to obtain some amount of magical help from Hermione [[spoiler:and Dobby]], his deception is remarkably effective. After all, if a family has a Floo connection, gets the Daily Prophet, is served by a house elf, routinely travels by Portkey, and dresses in robes, surely they're witches and wizards, right?

* In ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'' Xiaxi scores the interest of the crown prince by pretending to be able to predict the weather, cause fires and freeze objects. She's actually making use of a magic forecasting system that doesn't belong to her and using chemistry too advanced for ancient Chinese to recognize. Later, she cements her position as a sage by showing vast knowledge of mathematics... relatively speaking, since she can't actually teach anything about middle school level.

* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In the 2-part "Good Knight, [=MacGyver=]", Mac is transported by to court of Myth/KingArthur, and ends up in a wizard's duel against Myth/{{Merlin}}. Mac quickly realises that all of Merlin's "magical powers" are actually simple conjuring tricks.

* Infamous faith healer and televangelist [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Popoff Peter Popoff]] was busted for this. During his live performances, he would display apparent omniscience, knowing the names, addresses and ailments of people he had never met, it turned out that this information was discreetly provided to him by his wife from the forms filled out by the audience.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'': Pharaoh's priests rely on magic tricks to simulate magic powers. Obviously, Moses (via God) was able to do what they pretend to do and more.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Some of the episodes with Trixie Lulamoon, a stage magician pony in a world of real magic users, play with this. While Trixie is a magical unicorn and thus has some magical talent, it mostly lies in illusions and stage effects. In comparison, the show's magical prodigy protagonist, Twilight Sparkle, who has a broad range of magical talents. Trixie supplements her meager talents with stage tricks and props.

** Comicbook/IronMan fought Merlin, later retconned to be an impostor named Maha Yogi. He duped the knights of the Round Table with his knowledge of rare herbs (of the sort that let him fake his death for centuries), and considerable psychic power, but has no "real" magic.
** ComicBook/SpiderMan'': ComicBook/{{Mysterio}} uses mastery of special effects to fool people into thinking he's got magical powers. By now Spidey knows full well he's faking it, but the effects are just good enough that guessing the nature of the trick can still be a chore.

* ''Fanfic/InTheBleakMidwinter'': When Tom Riddle Sr learns that his son will face prejudice as a half-blood, he takes what appears to him like a sensible approach, and simply pretends to be a pureblood wizard. Since he already knows well how to behave as an ''aristocrat'', and since he is able to obtain some amount of magical help from Hermione [[spoiler:and Dobby]], his deception is remarkably effective. After all, if a family has a Floo connection, gets the Daily Prophet, is served by a house elf, routinely travels by Portkey, and dresses in robes, surely they're witches and wizards, right?

** [[Franchise/SpiderMan Mysterio]] uses mastery of special effects to fool people into thinking he's got magical powers. By now Spidey knows full well he's faking it, but the effects are just good enough that guessing the nature of the trick can still be a chore.
** The ComicBook/FantasticFour fought the Wizard (faked it using advanced tech he invented) and Miracle Man (faked it using mass hypnosis).

** Witches know magic, but also know better than to use it if they don't have to. At the same time, they need to demonstrate their power to maintain respect (and [[CatchPhrase if you ain't got respect, you ain't got a thing]]). Tricks and the placebo effect usually work just as well for this, and if they don't, ''then'' you can make someone's hat explode.