History Main / MistakenForUndead

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', in the Blue Lions route, after [[spoiler: Byleth fell off a cliff and went into a coma for five years]], when Byleth reunited with Dimitri, he initially believed that Byleth was a ghost, there to haunt him because he had thought he had let Byleth die.

* In ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' After having spent the most of the day trying to get away from work after Dr Cox pettily has him [[PulledFromYourDayOff pulled from his day off]], for revenge for his days as an intern, JD attempts to leave the hospital in a bodybag, scaring mortician Doug.
--> '''JD:''' (From inside bodybag) Can you press lobby, please?\\

'''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?!\\

--> '''Astrid:''' Snotlout, you are an idiot every day of the week. Why can't you take just one day off?

* In the SNES ''Videogame/{{Shadowrun}} game, Jake Armitage wakes up in a morgue after surviving an attempted hit, and promptly terrifies two morgue workers who mistake him for a zombie.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': {{Invoked|Trope}} with the Shadesteel {{Golem}}, a SkeleBot9000 designed to look like an undead creature... because the standard anti-undead ReviveKillsZombie effects make it much more powerful.

When a character is FakingTheDead (or is believed to be dead for one reason or another) only to reveal themselves to be alive and well, this goes in one of three ways. Either they are relieved that they are not dead, angry that they had to mourn them over nothing or (in a world of [[HumansAreMorons idiots]] or [[HumanityIsInsane crazy people]]) everyone takes the ArkhamsRazor approach and assume that they came back from the dead and intend to crack open their skulls and [[BrainFood partake the gooey contents within]]. {{Vengeful Ghost}}s, [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghouls]], [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]], [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]] (if they looked like they were mauled half to death), [[StringyHairedGhostGirl Stringy-Haired Ghost Girls]], any supernatural affliction to the body is acceptable.

** Comically subverted in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E4LisaTheTreeHugger Lisa the Tree Hugger]]": Lisa is assumed to have died when lightning hit a giant tree she set up camp on. When she reveals she left that night to stay at home, Comic Book Guy points at her and seemingly stutters out "ghost"... except he was actually just saying "girl".

* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode "Dino Checks Out", Dino Spumoni fakes his death to [[DeadArtistsAreBetter boost record sales]] while hiding at Arnold's boarding house and having him collect the royalties. When the rest of the boarders find him, they think he's a ghost and Dino rolls with it. [[spoiler: By the end of the episode, he regrets faking his death and comes clean to the entire city.]]

[[folder: LiveActionTv]]

* 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.

--> '''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:''' *Processes it* Then why were you hitting me?!
--> '''Doug:''' Dead people should be dead.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "[[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.
** In "The Nasty Patty", [=SpongeBob=] and Mr. Krabs think they have killed the health inspector and try to hide the body. However, the health inspector was just unconscious from almost swallowing a fly, and when he wakes up, the police think he's a zombie and attack him.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' episode "I Know What You Diddly-Did", Marge runs over her neighbor Ned and everyone thinks that he died, but later, he comes back. They ask if he's a zombie and he replies that he isn't. Unfortunately, he's a werewolf. Luckily, the ''Treehouse of Horror'' episodes are non-canon.
* Played with in one comic based on ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Professor Farnsworth meets his old crew who he thought 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.]]

* On the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "The Nasty Patty", [=SpongeBob=] and Mr. Krabs think they have killed the health inspector and try to hide the body. However, the health inspector was just unconscious from almost swallowing a fly, and when he wakes up, the police think he's a zombie and attack him.

* Our legends about the undead are this trope being TruthInTelevision. Some illnesses and poisonings can leave the victim barely alive, and seemingly dead (which is why wakes and vigils were invented). If the comatose victim recovers with brain damage or delirious (as with a high fever), they can fit the description of stereotypical zombies.