History Main / MistakenForUndead

** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E11 Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost]]", Spongebob and Patrick believe that they had killed Squidward (when really it was just a wax model of himself that he had made), so when he emerges from his bath -- robed, covered in talcum powder in a bath of steam -- they think that he is his own ghost. While at first annoyed, he goes along with it when they agree to be his servants to appease him.

* ''WebAnimationEtraChanSawIt'' has [[https://youtu.be/UT4WwkgZ69E Yuri]] being seen pushing a doll in a stroller after dropping off her daughter at daycare, while sick being pregnant. Somehow, she started an urban legend.

* A variation in the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' fanfilm ''The Message'' where a crewmember is woken from cryosleep to find the crew killed by a xenomorph. At various points she's shown clutching her stomach in pain, implying that she's been infected by a ChestBurster. Turns out she has bowel cancer (which was why she was put in cryosleep).

[[folder: LiveActionTV]]

** It is [[PlayedForDrama tragically played]] in another episode. Buffy and Faith fight a group of vampires. The deputy mayor approaches them and Faith, mistaking him for a vampire, kills him with a wooden stake. Thus begins Faith's [[StartOfDarkness Start of Darkness]].

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'':

* In the Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia episode "The Maureen Ponderosa Wedding Massacre", Mac and Charlie claim to a detective that the titular wedding descended into a bloodbath because of a zombie outbreak, and that Dee attacked them because she was infected as well. It turns out that one of the guests just spiked the milk with bath salts and Dee, while not high like the other presumed infected guests, was pissed off that they had just crashed her car.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Boy (Dog) Meets Girl (Dog)", Peter and Lois lead Chris into believing he witnessed the "death" of Arthur Valentine (an imaginary figure they made up for him when he was little), but when it sends Chris into a state of [[HeroicBSOD emotional catatonia]], Peter tries to convince him that Arthur came back to life by dressing up as him. It works... [[GoneHorriblyRight but now Chris thinks "Arthur" is a zombie and tries to kill him.]]
-->'''Chris:''' I've seen ''Series/TheWalkingDead''! I have to kill your brain [[TakeThat and then talk about it for the next hour]]!

** The pilot ends with Dipper and Mabel freaking out when they come home to find their Grunkle Stan lurching about, moaning about brains, with red stuff around his mouth. It turns out he ate a strawberry ice-pop too fast and got brain freeze, then bumped his shin on the coffee table.
** The plot of the first episode revolves around Dipper becoming convinced that Mabel's new boyfriend, [[HughMann Norman Mann]], is a zombie. He's actually [[spoiler: a bunch of [[OurGnomesAreWeirder gnomes]] in a TotemPoleTrench.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Marjorine", when Butters comes back to his parents after faking his death, they assume he's a FleshEatingZombie. The episode ends with him chained up in the basement as his parents kill a salesperson for him to feed on.

* In the Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia episode "The Maureen Ponderosa Wedding Massacre", Mac and Charlie claim to a detective that the titular wedding descended into a bloodbath because of a zombie outbreak, and that Dee attacked them because she was infected as well. It turns out that one of the guessed just spiked the milk with bath salts and Dee, while not high like the other presumed infected guests, was pissed off that they had just crashed her car.

* In the ''Literature/ActsOfTheApostles'' in Literature/TheBible, an angel miraculously rescues Peter from prison the night before he's supposed to be executed. Peter goes to a house where the church is gathered praying for him, but amusingly they don't believe at first that it's really him, saying "It must be his angel!"

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the ''Literature/LockwoodAndCo'' book "The Creeping Shadow", Quill Kipps tries out a pair of goggles that allow adults to see ghosts and mistakes the elderly Reverend Skinner for one.

-> '''Liz Wilson''' (to Jon Arbuckle): So, no, [[Franchise/{{Garfield}} your cat]] is not a zombie. All his fat must have cushioned the impact from the truck. \\
'''Garfield''': ''You buried me alive'', you fat-shaming, loveless piece of milk toast! \\
'''Jon Arbuckle''': But he killed our neighbor! \\
'''Liz Wilson''': Classic case of the lasagna withdrawals. They cause short-term irritability.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', the episode "[[Recap/PokemonS1E16PokemonShipwreck Pokémon Shipwreck]]" had Ash's gang and Team Rocket working together to escape the sunken ship. Ash's friends all use water Pokémon to escape, while Team Rocket uses James' useless Magikarp and nearly drown. When Team Rocket washes up unconscious, Ash and co. believe they have drowned and are about to give them a water burial. However, Team Rocket awakens and are angry at almost being pushed in the water, while Ash and friends scream out "ZOMBIES!"

* Played with in ''ComicBook/{{Futurama}}'' comic: Professor Farnsworth meets his old crew who he thought had died in a vortex but really they survived. He thinks they're zombies but they confirm they are not. [[spoiler: However, it turns out that three of them (Sheila, Sly, and Dr. Zoidberg the Second) were killed afterwards and replaced by holograms. Mender the robot, however, is real; in fact he's the one who killed them.]]

* In ''ComicBook/InfinityInc'', when Norda Cantrell (Northwind) visits his grandmother on the hospital bed, she mistakes him for her son, whom she assumed was dead and has now come as an angel to take her to heaven.

* In the ''Series/{{House}}'' fanfic "Iggy Pop Go The Zombies" (the House cast in ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'', basically) Wilson panics and mistakes Thirteen for a zombie.
* ''Fanfic/MyHuntsmanAcademia''

* ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'': Justified in one scene where the Ghostbusters see movement and think it's a ghost, but it turns out to be a cleaning lady, since they know the hotel is indeed haunted.
-->'''Woman''': "What the hell are you doing?!"
-->'''Ray''': "Sorry, we thought you were someone else."

* The main character in ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'', after spending a horrible night defending himself and a houseful of other people from the zombies, is unfortunately mistaken for a zombie by a military unit and killed at the end of the film.

--> '''JD:''' ''(From inside bodybag)'' Can you press lobby, please?\\
''(Doug screams and begins hitting JD with a fire extinguisher.)''\\
'''JD:''' ''(Shouts in pain and bursts out of bag)'' Doug!? Why are you hitting me?!\\
'''Doug:''' ''(Panicked)'' Cuz I thought you were a dead guy coming back to life.\\
'''JD:''' ''({{Beat}})'' Then why were you hitting me?!\\

* In ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' pilot, Rick is initially mistaken for a zombie and gets whacked in the head with a shovel. A few moments later, it's noted that as Rick was talking before being knocked unconscious, he's unlikely to be a [[NotUsingTheZWord walker]], as they don't talk.

** Several old "gotcha" monsters are designed like this. Dusanu look like moldy [[DemBones walking skeletons]], except they're not animated by necromantic energy, but [[PuppeteerParasite the fungal colony itself]] -- for an added "screw you," bludgeoning weapons, usually the go-to damage type to crack skeletons, are ineffective against a dusanu's rubbery bones. A death linen meanwhile looks like a BedsheetGhost, but it's actually just bedsheets animated by psychic energy, so attempts to TurnUndead won't do anything (though holy water will at least soak and slow one).
** Formerly-living organic material can be used to craft various magical constructs, from bone {{golem}}s and {{flesh golem}}s to the serpentine necrophidius. In fact, this trope seems to have been {{Invoked|Trope}} by the creators of the shadesteel golem, a fantastic SkeleBot9000 that looks like a shadowy undead creature, but which actually speeds up and becomes more dangerous when exposed to TurnUndead or HolyHandGrenade attacks.

* Subverted in the ''Literature/{{Just}}'' book "Just Tricking" in the story "Playing Dead". Andy [[PlayingPossum plays dead]] to get out of going to school and doing a test he didn't study for, and his parents act like they're going to bury him. When he reveals that he's alive, his mother acts like she thinks he's a zombie, but it's revealed that she's only kidding and both of them knew all along that he was alive.
* In the ''Literature/LockwoodAndCo'' book ''The Creeping Shadow'', Quill Kipps tries out a pair of goggles that allow adults to see ghosts and mistakes the elderly Reverend Skinner for one.

** It is tragically played in another episode. Buffy and Faith fight a group of vampires. The deputy mayor approaches them and Faith, mistaking him for a vampire, kills him with a wooden stake. Thus begins Faith's [[StartOfDarkness Start of Darkness]].

** Several old "gotcha" monsters are designed like this. Dusanu look like moldy [[DemBones walking skeletons]], except they're not animated by necromantic energy, but [[PuppeteerParasite the fungal colony itself]] -- for an added "screw you," the fungal infection makes dusanu's bones rubbery and thus resistant to bludgeoning damage, usually the go-to damage type for cracking skeletons. A death linen meanwhile looks like a BedsheetGhost, but it's actually just bedsheets animated by psychic energy, so attempts to TurnUndead won't do anything (though holy water will at least soak and slow one).
** {{Invoked|Trope}} with the Shadesteel {{Golem}}, a SkeleBot9000 designed to look like an undead creature to [[FakeWeakness bait people into using the standard anti-undead]] ReviveKillsZombie method, which actually make it much more powerful.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': {{Invoked|Trope}} with the Shadesteel {{Golem}}, a SkeleBot9000 designed to look like an undead creature to [[FakeWeakness bait people into using the standard anti-undead]] ReviveKillsZombie method, which actually make it much more powerful.

* In ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'' comics (as well in [[Series/TheWalkingDead the TV adaptation]]), the survivor protagonists sometimes disguise themselves as [[NotUsingTheZedWord walkers]] (wearing their clothes and even covering themselves with blood and skin) in order to walk unnoticed among them. This later goes UpToEleven with the "Whisperers", a nomadic group of survivors who are disguised as walkers all the time.

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', the episode "[[Recap/PokemonS1E16PokemonShipwreck Pokemon Shipwreck]]" had Ash's gang and Team Rocket working together to escape the sunken ship. Ash's friends all use water Pokemon to escape, while Team Rocket uses James' useless Magikarp and nearly drown. When Team Rocket wash up unconscious, Ash and co. believe they have drowned and are about to give them a water burial. However Team Rocket awakens and are angry at almost being pushed in the water, while Ash and friends scream out "ZOMBIES!"
-->'''James''': Who are you calling zombies?!\\
'''Jessie''': We are not zombies!

Compare to ActuallyNotAVampire, MistakenForAliens, MistakenForDying, MistakenForSuperpowered and ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated. Contrast with TechnicallyLivingZombie and NotAZombie. An inversion of MistakenForAfterlife. See also MistakenForMurderer, MistakenForOwnMurderer, NotUsingTheZWord and TotallyNotAWerewolf.

* In ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'' episode "[[Recap/TheBrittasEmpireS2E1BackFromTheDead Back From The Dead]] Brittas is presumed to have been killed in Bulgaria. Naturally, he later turns up alive and well but a series of misunderstandings lead Carole and Colin to believe that he is a bodiless spirit and that he is trying to get back to the land of the living by taking Carole's body. Later, Carole believes that he is trying her son Ben's body for eternal youth and tries to crush Brittas' car with him inside it.