History Main / MistakenForUndead

'''Garfield''': ''You buried me alive'', you fat-shaming, loveless piece of milk toast!
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken''

* In ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'' episode "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.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': 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.

* Happens a lot in ''ComicBook/AlphaGirl'': in a world where the only zombified humans are women[[note]]a cosmetical corporation makes a FreakLabAccident that convert only women into zombies, causing a ZombieApocalypse[[/note]], male characters usually ask if a woman was a zombie or not... or straightly are killed or captured without confirmation. TheProtagonist Judith suffers a lot of this, being asked if she's a zombie or not or being captured as she was one, getting in danger various times.
* Played with in ''ComicBook/{{Futurama}}'' comic: 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.]]
* In ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'' comics (as well in [[Series/TheWalkingDead the TV adaptation]]), the survivor protagonists had to disguise as [[NotUsingTheZedWord walkers]] (getting clothes and even covered with blood and skins from them) to get unnoticed by them. This later goes UpToEleven with the "Whisperers", a nomad group of survivors disguised all the time as walkers that even served as antagonists for the protagonists.
* In ''Zombies en la Moneda'', El Kila, one of the protagonists, meets a group of chilean neo-nazis, who upon seeing that he is covered in blood (someone else's blood) believe that he is infected and that he will become a zombie, therefore they attack it. At those moments a military patrol sees them and ''mistakes the neo-nazis for zombies'', and they end up killing them all and saving El Kila.

* Invoked in ''Film/MuppetTreasureIsland'': Long John Silver sets Captain Smollett's First Mate Mr Arrow adrift in a leaking lifeboat and tells the rest of the crew he drowned, then leads them in a mutiny against Smollett. When Mr Arrow returns, the members of the crew who stayed loyal to Smollett cover him in seaweed and have pretend to be his own VengefulGhost, terrifying the mutineers into fleeing Smollett's ship without a fight.
* In ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'', it is revealed that Creator/BillMurray has survived the ZombieApocalypse rather nicely by his skills at acting and make-up to make himself look like a zombie, allowing himself to thrive in Hollywood unmolested by [[FleshEatingZombie Flesh-Eating Zombies]]. Unfortunately it works a little too well, getting heavily bruised by Tallahassee and Wichita when he walks in on them and then later [[spoiler:fatally shot by Columbus]].

* In a ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' story, "The Somerton Fetch", the Third Doctor follows the trail of a crude time machine. He eventually discovers its pilot is a young girl, and after an incident with a maid in the past, he concludes the girl's primitive PerceptionFilter costume malfunctioned. The Doctor and the girl materialize several times, intangible to the world around them, until he manages to send her home. He returns to the present to find the girl's suit was working correctly - all those people running away screaming their heads off were doing so at the sight of the Doctor, who's become enshrined in local folklore as the eponymous ghost.

* ''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.

* A RunningGag in the story-segments of ''WebAnimation/TerribleWritingAdvice'' has the Ancient Conspirator appear to the characters using his hologram technology, only for everyone to shout and call him a ghost. This annoys him greatly, especially when he had already corrected the characters in a previous video beforehand and the characters are from a ScienceFiction setting.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Marjorine", 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 ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', the OVA, a Zombie Gas quirk is released that makes most of the class into zombies. All Might was rushing over there, only to run out of time and return to his emaciated form. The girls that hadn't been turned yet confuse him for a zombified civilian and runaway from him, and when the zombies pass by...one pats him on his shoulder reassuringly, having confused him for one of them as well.

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', the OVA, a Zombie Gas quirk is released that makes most of the class into zombies. All Might was rushing over there, only to run out of time and return to his emaciated form. The girls that hadn't been turned yet confuse him for a zombified civilian and runaway from him, and when the zombies pass by...one pats him on his shoulder reassuringly, having confused him for one of them as well.
* During ''Manga/OnePiece'''s [[Recap/OnePieceThrillerBarkArc Thriller Bark]] arc, right after Luffy [[NotAZombie mistakes a zombie for a wounded old man]], his crew run into a wounded old man that ''they'' mistake for a zombie.

* When Astrid walks in the great hall in ''Fanfic/ProdigalSon'' after everyone believed her to be dead via [[{{Robinsonade}} shipwreck]], Snotlout is quick to point to her and call her a draugr.
* In the ''Series/{{House}}'' fanfic "Iggy Pop Go The Zombies" (the House cast in ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'', bascially) Wilson panics and mistakes Thirteen for a zombie.

* Invoked in ''Film/MuppetTreasureIsland'': Long John Silver sets Captain Smollett's First Mate Mr Arrow adrift in a leaking lifeboat and tells the rest of the crew he drowned, then leads them in a mutiny against Smollett. When Mr Arrow returns, the members of the crew who stayed loyal to Smollett cover him in seaweed and have pretend to be his own VengefulGhost, terrifying the mutineers into fleeing Smollett's ship without a fight.
* In the Creator/HaroldLloyd comedy ''Film/HotWater'', the main character believes that he's accidentally killed his mother-in-law. When she starts {{Sleepwalking}}, he thinks it's her ghost.
* In ''Film/HotBot'', Huffy and Nard accidentally run down the {{Sexbot}} Bardot with their car. Because she looks and feels human but has no life signs, they assume they have killed her and take her back to Huffy's house to conceal her while they work out how to dispose of the body. When she reboots and gets up, they assume she is a zombie and Nard fetches [[ChainsawGood a chainsaw to attempt to dispatch her]].

* In ''Literature/{{Desperaux}}'', the titular mouse is thought to be dead by his parents, so when he comes back, his mother points to him and shouts, "A ghost!".

* 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!"
* In a ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' story, "The Somerton Fetch", the Third Doctor follows the trail of a crude time machine. He eventually discovers its pilot is a young girl, and after an incident with a maid in the past, he concludes the girl's primitive PerceptionFilter costume malfunctioned. The Doctor and the girl materialize several times, intangible to the world around them, until he manages to send her home. He returns to the present to find the girl's suit was working correctly - all those people running away screaming their heads off were doing so at the sight of the Doctor, who's become enshrined in local folklore as the titular ghost.

* The ''Series/AmazingStories'' episode "Mummy Daddy" is about one poor actor being trapped in his restrictive mummy costume and being chased by a band of murderous [[DeepSouth redneck hicks]].

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

* In the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' HalloweenEpisode "[[Recap/HomestarRunnerIKilledPomPom I Killed Pom Pom]]", after Homestar thinks he killed Pom Pom, Pom Pom tries to prank him by appearing as a ghost that's come to haunt him. Unfortunately, Homestar decides to fight back and pops Pom Pom, killing him for real. [[spoiler:Pom Pom later comes back as a patchwork zombie, eager for revenge.]]
* A RunningGag in the story-segments of ''WebAnimation/TerribleWritingAdvice'' has the Ancient Conspirator appear to the characters using his hologram technology, only for everyone to shout and call him a ghost. This annoys him greatly, especially when he had already corrected the characters in a previous video beforehand and the characters are from a ScienceFiction setting.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Inverted in ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic''. Paris is a ghost in a ScienceFiction setting, so is sometimes mistaken for a hologram. In a subplot in which the ship's power went out, apparently even most of the readers had forgotten about Paris's true nature, as there were heated debates in the fandom about how Paris's hologram could still be on, to the author's irritation. Paris's official character profile currently specifies that she's "'''Not''' a hologram, a '''ghost'''. Got it?"

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In [[https://www.reddit.com/r/shortscarystories/comments/2s2739/i_need_to_believe_in_ghosts/ this creepypasta,]] what the protagonist thought was an undead monster was actually [[spoiler:a terribly injured person that they could have saved.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Marjorine", 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.
-->'''Butters:''' Can I just have some Spaghetti-O's?

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

* A RunningGag in the story-segments of ''WebVideo/TerribleWritingAdvice'' has the Ancient Conspirator appear to the characters using his hologram technology, only for everyone to shout and call him a ghost. This annoys him greatly, especially when he had already corrected the characters in a previous video beforehand and the characters are from a ScienceFiction setting.

** 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.

It is especially bad when a ZombieApocalypse is going around, so convincing your fellow survivors that you you're alive without getting a bean-sized hunk of lead through your kidneys specially is much harder to sell.

It is especially bad when a ZombieApocalypse is going around and the only way to survive is to PretendWereDead, so convincing your fellow survivors that you just JustWokeUpThatWay without getting a bean-sized hunk of lead through your kidneys specially delivered from one of your fellow survivors is much harder to sell.

-> '''Snotlout''': D...d...Draugr!
-> '''Astrid''': Snotlout, you are an idiot every day of the week. Why can't you take just one day off?
-->-- ''Fanfic/ProdigalSon'', [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10699391/19/Prodigal-Son Chapter 19]]