History Main / NotSoImaginaryFriend

* In ''VideoGame/WingCommander II'', every now and then you're assigned a solo mission. Invariably, you run up against the Kilrathi's stealth fighters on these missions, and when you return to base you discover that your flight recorder has malfunctioned. Add in the fact that your character claimed to see stealth fighters ten years prior when your carrier from the first game was destroyed -- a claim that was never verified and is still in fact ridiculed -- and it's not terribly hard to see why nobody believes you.
* Spoofed in the game-within-a-game ''Wing-O'' in ''VideoGame/SystemShock2''. In one solo mission, you meet a new class of enemy fighter, but no-one believes you because you left the lens cap on your flight recorder.
** That also (?) happened with the Tri-Lackey fighters in the game-in-a-game in ''VideoGame/SystemShock''.

* In the ''44 Scotland Street'' series by Alexander [=McCall=] Smith, ChildProdigy Bertie's [[TheShrink therapist]] believes Bertie's best friend Tofu is imaginary. He's so convinced of this that he makes absolutely no effort to ascertain the truth beyond asking two questions. "Does your mother see Tofu?" (She doesn't, because Bertie knows she never notices anything.) "Is Tofu here now?" (He isn't. Obviously.) He then proceeds to make an entire diagnosis based on this assumption.

* The little girls in Zilpha Keatley Snyder's ''The Changeling'' believe Ivy's sister Josie is magic, that she sees and talks with people who are invisible to them. Exploring a burned-out BigFancyHouse, they intuit the tragic story of its owner, Annabelle, and her children; unnoticed, Josie plays and chatters in the remains of the garden. She gathers a bouquet of dead flowers, saying "the beautiful dead lady gave them to me." The way the dialogue unfolds, did Josie see Annabelle? Or is she saying this so she can keep her flowers? This being Josie, it could be either (and, this being Snyder, it could be ''both'').
* ''Chocky'', in the Creator/JohnWyndham novel of the same name, was thought to be the imaginary friend of a young boy. It turned out [[spoiler:it was really an alien that was scouting the Earth for its species, looking for a child it could teach to advance human knowledge with ETGaveUsWiFi.]]

* In the Arthurian novel ''Guinevere,'' a retelling of the legend covering the youth of the future Queen of Camelot, a friend of Guinevere's is considered half-mad because he is acquainted with a choir of very good but invisible singers that only he can hear. Guinevere discovers he's telling the truth because she's able to not only hear them, but ''see'' them; however, they agree to keep this a secret between themselves.

* In the children's book ''Oscar Got the Blame'' by Creator/TonyRoss, Billy is initially never seen, but he allegedly did things like run the bath taps for no reason and other naughty things, resulting in the eponymous Oscar who's described as his best friend getting the blame. However, at the end, it turns out Billy ''is'' real, and when Oscar points out that Billy is never caught, Billy is seen dancing and he says, "They never do".
* This is the central plot point of Creator/CornellWoolrich's ''Phantom Lady''.

* In the ''Literature/{{Temps}}'' short story "Someone To Watch Over Me", Damon started out as Darren's imaginary friend. It wasn't until he was older that Damon started fighting back against the kids who bullied him and his mum's boyfriends. The [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction DPR]] classifies Damon as "a semi-autonomous [[PsychicPowers psychokinetic energy field]]", but GentlemanWizard and senior official Loric prefers to call him a {{familiar}}.

* Anna of ''The Woman in the Wall'' got stuck in a school employee's handbag because of this trope.

-->'''Deus''': "I'm a god. Why can't I live in your imagination?"

--->'''Jon''': Cats are so strange.\\
'''Invisible Mouse''': You said it, pal.

-->''Yesterday upon the stair''
-->''I met a man who wasn't there.''
-->''He wasn't there again today''
-->''Oh how I wish he'd go away!''

-->'''Puss''': Who is this Sally?
-->'''Dulcinea''': She's Esme's imaginary friend.
-->'''Puss''': I do not think you are using the word "imaginary" correctly.

* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' had a sketch where the Justice League took their sidekicks to the Watchtower and Martian Manhunter tried to keep from being left out by pretending he had a sidekick named Martian Boyhunter. After Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Aqualad, Speedy and Robin are teleported to the sun and killed, the other heroes accuse J'onn J'onzz and start killing him in retaliation. Martian Boyhunter then turns out to actually exist, taking sadistic delight in his mentor getting the blame for his killing of the other sidekicks.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E17TheFever The Fever]]", everyone believes that Franklin Gibbs is merely hallucinating when he claims that a slot machine keeps calling his name. It chases him towards a window and he falls to his death. The slot machine then approaches him and spits out his last dollar before disappearing into the night.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E21MirrorImage Mirror Image]]", Paul Grinstead believes that Millicent Barnes' claim that she is being pursued by her {{Doppelganger}} from a MirrorUniverse is nothing more than a hallucination and calls the police so that they can get her the help that she needs. As soon as Millicent leaves, Paul sees his own doppelgänger and realizes that Millicent was telling the truth.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E98TheDummy The Dummy]]", Jerry Etherson is absolutely convinced that his dummy Willie is alive but he cannot make his agent Frank believe him. It turns out that Jerry's fears were justified as he and Willie later switch places.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E123NightmareAt20000Feet Nightmare at 20,000 Feet]]", Creator/WilliamShatner's character can't convince anyone that "There's something on the wing!"

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E126LivingDoll Living Doll]]", Annabelle Streator believes that her husband Erich is claiming that Talky Tina is alive and threatening to kill him because he hates her and her daughter Christie. She tells him to see a psychiatrist. Erich later trips over Tina on the stairs and falls to his death. When Annabelle finds his body, Tina says to her "I'm Talky Tina...and you better to be nice to me." Annabelle then realizes that Erich was right all along.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E148CaesarAndMe Caesar and Me]]", Jonathan West's ventriloquist's dummy Caesar has a mind of his own and uses his influence over Jonathan to convince him to commit various robberies. He later abandons him by refusing to speak in front of others so that it appears that Jonathan is insane and entirely to blame for the crime spree.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "What Are Friends For?", a young boy named Jeff Mattingly meets another boy named Mike in the woods, who turns out to be [[spoiler:an immortal being of light]].
* In ''Series/UnhappilyEverAfter'' there is Mr. Floppy the stuffed rabbit, who only Jack the father can communicate with, largely because he is partially insane.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/34346623/chapters/85463296 Hawkmoth Gets a Reference]]'', after improving his use of the Butterfly Miraculous, Gabriel starts hearing a voice in his head that sounds like his comatose wife Emilie. He initially attributes it to either a hallucination or his consciousness. [[spoiler:But after he repairs the Peacock Miraculous, Duusu can not only hear Emilie but also "see" her from where Gabriel "imagined" to voice to come from. It's revealed that Emilie's emotions had manifested into a being outside of her body, letting her speak again with her husband and Kwammi]].

A Not-So-Imaginary Friend is '''real''', but due to [[ContrivedCoincidence a pile-up of coincidences]], [[ByTheEyesOfTheBlind mystical restrictions]], an explicit or implied WeirdnessCensor, or deliberate evasiveness on this character's part, he remains unseen by others. Generally, by the end of the episode, this character's existence has been proven and the person seeing it gets vindicated, but not always. Basically, a specific [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] to ImaginaryFriend.

SubTrope to ImaginaryFriend (a specific [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] where the "friend" ends up being real). Compare with CassandraTruth, IgnoredExpert, ItWasHereISwear, MistakenForAnImposter, GirlfriendInCanada, and {{Tulpa}} (where an [[ImaginaryFriend imaginary person]] is transformed into a real being by people [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve literally believing in it enough]]). Often overlaps with CryingWolf (because the character(s) seeing them have lied in the past), InvisibleToNormals (specifically when the affected creature is friendly) and MissedHimByThatMuch. Can overlap with OtherworldlyVisitsYoungestFirst.

'''Note: As this is a reveal trope. spoilers will be unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'': In "Tigger's Houseguest", Tigger befriends a bug that, unknown to him, is a termite that is eating the wooden things throughout the Hundred Acre Wood. When the termite goes off to eat more wood before Tigger can introduce him, Pooh and Piglet assume that it's an imaginary friend. They find out the truth during the second half of the story.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MartinMystery'' episode [[https://martin-mystery.fandom.com/wiki/Return_of_the_Imaginary_Friend Return of the Imaginary Friend,]] a young woman named Emma, feeling lonely when her real friends drift apart from her, resummons her old imaginary friend Teddy and wishes it was like the old days. Teddy happily helps by kidnapping her friends and turning them into dolls for her to play with. This frightens her though and , with the help of Martin and Java, she’s able to rebanish Teddy and undo the spell, gaining her old friends again.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiRabbitTheUsagiChronicles'', Hana is introduced as a tiny ninja who hates being a ninja and tells Usagi she always avoids practice. Shortly after that Usagi overhears Lady Fuwa congratulating Hana on how terrifying she was at practice, and Hana tells Usagi that this was her friend Kana, who looks exactly like her and takes her place for things she doesn't want to do. Usagi immediately concludes that Hana ''does'' attend ninja practice, but hates what she does so much that she displaces it onto an imaginary friend. He's wrong.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiRabbitTheUsagiChronicles'', Hana is introduced as a tiny ninja who hates being a ninja and tells Usagi she always avoids practice. Shortly after that Usagi overhears Lady Fuwa congtatulating Hana on how terrifying she was at practice, and Hana tells Usagi that this was her friend Kana, who looks exactly like her and takes her place for things she doesn't want to do. Usagi immediately concludes that Hana ''does'' attend ninja practice, but hates what she does so much that she displaces it onto an imaginary friend. He's wrong.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama,'' [[{{Geek}} Beth]] suddenly starts talking about having a boyfriend named Brady halfway through the season, and repeatedly supplies more and more amazing skills to him. He's also a male model, which is why the only picture she has of him is clearly a promotional headshot. Because Beth isn't considered to be conventionally attractive, as well as the fact that many of Brady's skills seem to be too good to be true, the other contestants believe that she made him up, but in both endings he shows up and turns out to actually be dating her.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama,'' [[{{Geek}} Beth]] suddenly starts talking about having a boyfriend named Brady halfway through the season, and repeatedly supplies more and more amazing skills to him. He's also a male model, which is why the only picture she has of him is clearly a promotional headshot. In both endings he shows up and turns out to actually be dating her.

SubTrope to ImaginaryFriend (a specific [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] where the "friend" ends up being real). Compare with CassandraTruth, IgnoredExpert, ItWasHereISwear, MistakenForAnImposter, GirlfriendInCanada, and {{Tulpa}} (where an [[ImaginaryFriend imaginary person]] is transformed into a real being by people [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve literally believing in it enough]]). Often overlaps with CryingWolf (because the character(s) seeing them have lied in the past) and MissedHimByThatMuch. Can overlap with OtherworldlyVisitsYoungestFirst.

* On the soap opera ''One Life to Live'', escaped convict Todd convinced two of the children that he was a genie named Ali ("and I float like a butterfly, and I sting like a bee") so that they would help him continue to hide from authorities. When the kids did mention Ali the genie, everyone just assumed this was an imaginary friend. TheReveal left the grownups understandably rattled.

* Creator/BruceCoville's ''The Enchanted Files: Diary of a Mad Brownie''. [[spoiler:Protagonist Alex Carhart's little sister Destiny has an invisible friend, Herbert the Goblin, who later supposedly disappears after her teacher tries to convince her he isn't real (angering Angus, the titular "mad Brownie"). Later on, when the protagonists (including said teacher) travel through the Enchanted Realm, they meet Herbert and learn he's a crewman on a ship there -- he met Destiny while he was on shore leave, and left with a promise to keep in touch when his time was up.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/HortonHearsAWho'': While most of the animals think Horton is insane for talking to the (Whos on the) speck of dust, the children he tells about it believe it's a game he's playing and make up their own worlds.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Zigzagged in "Imaginary Friend", wherein an alien takes the form of a little girl's imaginary friend. The little girl truly did make up "Isabella", but the alien posed as her. The girl didn't realise this and thought Isabella had come alive.

** The MonsterOfTheWeek in the episode "Playthings" is a spirit posing as the imaginary friend of her grandniece.
** A whole ''race'' of these called Zannas is introduced in "Just my Imagination". Unusually for this show, they are completely benevolent spirits who do everything in their power to take care of children.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". Creator/WilliamShatner's character can't convince anyone that "There's something on the wing!"
** Spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' "Treehouse of Horror IV" story "Terror at 5½ Feet" when Bart notices a Gremlin tearing apart the school bus. His reward for saving everyone's life? [[GoMadFromTheRevelation An eternity in a mental ward.]]
** Similarly spoofed on ''Series/MuppetsTonight'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6re4XsQZNQ#t=6m28s where Miss Piggy finds herself on a plane with Shatner.]]
--->'''Shatner:''' Oh, ''that'' guy. I've been complaining about him for ''years'', nobody does anything about it. Here, have a copy of my autobiography.

* In the ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' episode "Imaginary Fiends", a demon appears to Wyatt and acts like his friend, all the while trying to corrupt Wyatt into serving the cause of evil. Because only Wyatt can see the demon, the adult characters think that Wyatt merely has an "imaginary friend". The demon, who has done this with other preschool-aged witches in the past, is counting on the fact that adults tend not to suspect that there's anything more unusual going on than just a kid playing with an imaginary friend.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MartinMystery'' episode [[https://martin-mystery.fandom.com/wiki/Return_of_the_Imaginary_Friend Return of the Imaginary Friend,]] a young woman named Emma, feeling lonely when her real friends drift apart from her, resummons her old imaginary friend Teddy and wishes it was like the old days. Teddy happily helps by kidnapping her friends and turning them into dolls for her to play with. This frightens her though and , with the help of Martin and Java, she’s able to Reba ish Teddy and undo the spell, gaining her old friends again.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MartinMystery'' episode Return of the Imaginary Friend, a young woman named Emma, feeling lonely when her real friends drift apart from her, resuming her old imaginary friend Teddy and wishes it was like the old days. Teddy happily helps by kidnapping her friends and turning them into dolls for her to play with. This frightens her though and , with the help of Martin and Java, she’s able to Reba ish Teddy and undo the spell, gaining her old friends again.

-->-- '''The Eleventh Doctor''', ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang "The Big Bang"]]