History Main / TallTale

** Jim Bridger was a mountain man in the old west who also spun some tall tales around himself, such as finding a mountain made of pure crystal, or a petrified forest full of petrified birds that sang petrified songs, or a lake full of trout, that was fed by a hot spring, such that if you caught a trout and dragged it in slow enough, through the hot later, it would be cooked and ready to eat when you landed it.

[[folder:Fairy Tales ]]

* The Heterodyne Boys tales in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' are these.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in the forty-eighth chapter of ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', titled "Tall Tales", where a bipedal pink frog tells another creature of the forest about the alleged achievements of the new forest medium, with stories increasingly unbelievable.
** And then the other character gives the frog [[https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1363 a fairly accurate description]] of [[https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1193 what happened]] when the ''court'' medium first visited the forest, and the frog doesn't believe a word of it. The frog later gets to [[https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1381 ask Annie herself]] about the stories, but accidentally misses out the bits that weren't actually true, so Annie just matter-of-factly agrees.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in the forty-eighth chapter of ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', titled "Tall Tales", where a bipedal pink frog tells another creature of the forest about the alleged achievements of the new forest medium, with stories increasingly unbelievable. Wait 'til you hear what [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1357 she]] [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1359 did]] [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1361 next]] !

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in the forty-eighth chapter of ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', of which it is the title, where a bipedal pink frog tells another creature of the forest about the alleged achievements of the new forest medium, with stories increasingly unbelievable. Wait 'til you hear what [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1357 she]] [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1359 did]] [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1361 next]] !

* Downright [[InvokedTrope invoked]] in the forty-eighth chapter of ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', of which it is the title, where a bipedal pink frog tells another creature of the forest about the alleged achievements of the new forest medium, with stories increasingly unbelievable. Wait 'til you hear what [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1357 she]] [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1359 did]] [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1361 next]] !

** And then the other character gives the frog [[https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1363 a fairly accurate description]] of [[https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1193 what happened]] when the ''court'' medium first visited the forest, and the frog doesn't believe a word of it. The other character later gets to [[https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1381 ask Annie herself]] about the stories, but accidentally misses out the bits that weren't actually true, so Annie just matter-of-factly agrees.

** And then the other character gives the frog [[https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1363 a fairly accurate description]] of [[https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1193 what happened]] when the ''court'' medium first visited the forest, and the frog doesn't believe a word of it. The other character later gets to ask Annie herself about the stories, but accidentally misses out the bits that weren't actually true, so Annie just matter-of-factly agrees.

** And then the other character gives the frog a fairy accurate description of what happened when the ''court'' medium first visited the forest, and the frog doesn't believe a word of it. The other character later gets to ask Annie herself about the stories, but accidentally misses out the bits that weren't actually true, so Annie just matter-of-factly agrees.

* Creator/AlanMarshall wrote ''Whispering in the Wind'', a fairy tale with an Australian twist. Apart from drawing on famous tall tales of the Outback for characters like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Speewah Crooked Mick]], a tall tale competition also plays a role at one point.

* ''Series/TheBushTuckerMan'' mentions a story told in Northern Territory, Australia about a mosquito that was so big it landed at Darwin airport and was filled with 100 gallons of fuel before anyone realised it wasn't a mosquito. The host Les Hiddins is skeptical. "I've never seen a mosquito that big. Ninety gallons, but not a hundred."

[[quoteright:293:[[WesternAnimation/MelodyTime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tall_tales_sue_foot_upgrade.png]]]]
[-[[caption-width-right:293:I don't know what's more unbelievable: her riding that catfish, or how gosh-darned beautiful that gal is!]]-]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/TallTale: The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill'', a Disney film about a young boy's adventures with Pecos Bill, Myth/PaulBunyan and Myth/JohnHenry.

* ''Literature/TallTaleAmerica: A Legendary History of Our Humorous Heroes'' is a book about American tall tales.
* ''Literature/TrueHistory'' by 2nd century AD author Lucian of Samosata is likely the UrExample.
* Played with in ''Literature/TheStarDiaries'' by Creator/StanislawLem. It's never clear whether Ijon Tichy, the book's narrator, "really" had all those wacky adventures in space, or whether he is just a [[TheMunchausen teller of tall tales.]]
* The several books under the label ''Literature/TheSurprisingAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'', by Erich Rudolph Raspe (1785-1789 and 1792) and Gottfried August Bürger (1788), wherein Munchausen loves bragging about riding cannonballs and performing even more preposterous deeds.
* In the ''Literature/RedMarsTrilogy'', which is set on a future Mars that is being terraformed, people still tell stories of a Myth/PaulBunyan-type figure called "Big Man," but they make him out as a TheTrickster creator figure, not unlike Raven in Native American mythology. This is an InUniverse illustration of how tall tales can evolve into mythology.
* Creator/JonathanSwift's ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' combines political and social satire with the genre of the traveller's tall tale.
* Creator/ArthurCClarke's short-story collection ''Literature/TalesFromTheWhiteHart'' consists of a number of science-fictiony tall tales told by an odd fellow in the titular Fleet Street pub.
* In the Creator/PGWodehouse "Mr. Mulliner" stories, the eponymous raconteur entertains his fellow pub-goers with tall tales about his numerous relatives.

* ''Literature/TheWorstShotsInTheWest'' is sub-titled as being a tall-tale; although that's quite obvious when reading it.

* Grampa Hercules from Robert [=McCloskey=]'s ''Literature/HomerPrice'' and ''Centerburg Tales'' is the town tall tale teller, spinning a wide variety of highly improbable yarns of his youth and his alleged ancestors.

* Grampy from ''Literature/GrassAndSky'' is fond of telling exaggerated stories about his family history, at one point claiming that Myth/PaulBunyan stole credit for his great-great-grandfather's accomplishments.

* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' ("Hocus-Pocus and Frisby") features a backwoods man named Frisby who continually tells tall tales. When he tells the townsfolk he was abducted by aliens, they believe he is just CryingWolf--even though for once, he's telling the truth! (The whole episode could be a tall tale... from Creator/RodSerling's point of view.)

* ''The Bush Tucker Man'' mentions a story told in Northern Territory, Australia about a mosquito that was so big it landed at Darwin airport and was filled with 100 gallons of fuel before anyone realised it wasn't a mosquito. The host Les Hiddins is skeptical. "I've never seen a mosquito that big. Ninety gallons, but not a hundred."

* Music/SteamPoweredGiraffe's song "Rex Marksley" is about an old West gunslinger in the vein of Pecos Bill.

* "Derby Ram" is about a comically-large ram whose more notable details include horns that reach the moon, eyes as big as soccer balls and a tail that could be used as a church bell clapper.

* The party game called ''The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' is based on the art of tall tale telling. Each player in turn tells the most unbelievable (but absolutely true!) stories, with the others trying to trip him up, without calling him an outright liar. Whoever tells the best story wins.

* The entire point of ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezGunslinger'': The over-the-top violence so typical in {{First Person Shooter}}s is justified in-story by the manner how said story is presented by Silas, who is both CharacterNarrator and protagonist--namely, as a TallTale to entertain random pub patrons.

* The WesternAnimation/PixarShorts:
** "Mater's Tall Tales" are a modern spin on this tradition.
** The short "Boundin'" is a tall tale that features a {{Jackalope}}.
* Disney has made shorts based on Myth/PaulBunyan and John Henry. ''WesternAnimation/MelodyTime'' has segments for Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill.
* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' had "A Legendary Tail", an episode where the Brain used a computer to combine elements of other tall tales and make one starring himself. He hoped to use this as a way to gain acclaim as a folk hero. However, the resulting tall tale ended with other folk heroes suing the Brain's character for plagiarizing parts of their names (his name, by the way, was "[[OverlyLongName Big Johnny Brain Jones Peachpit Bill Boone Crockett]]").
-->'''The Brain:''' The trouble with computers is that they're just too blasted logical.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/TennesseeTuxedoAndHisTales The World of Commander McBragg]]'', loosely based on Baron Munchausen, consisted of the eponymous [=McBragg=] telling ridiculous tall tales about himself, including digging the Grand Canyon, building the Great Pyramid and digging the Panama Canal. [[ExpositoryThemeTune Or so says the brag of McBragg.]]

Tall tales arose, more or less, from braggy exaggerations and other cock-and-bull stories. They may contain exaggerations of actual characters or events, or they can be entirely made up. Common prototypes for tall tales are [[TheCatfish fish stories]] ("it was this big!") (which makes it transparent where the "tall" humor is coming from), as well as the the [[FearsomeCritters hunter's story]], the [[MilesGloriosus war story]], and [[TheMunchausen the traveler's story]]. There's also significant overlap with the JustSoStory, as many tall tales center on the origins of notable landmarks. Tall Tales are inherently related to {{Satire}}, although they are usually humorous and good-natured.

* ''Animation/SimpleSamosa'': One of Samosa's signature characteristics is his tendency to tell tall tales about some stuff he claims to have done (to give a random example, in the episode "Sumo Momo", while on the way to a wrestling match featuring the wrestler Sumo Momo, he brags that he once encountered not one, but ''two'' Sumo Momos and defeated them both). This does not go unnoticed by his friends (except perhaps Vada, who actually believes the aforementioned Sumo Momo story); Jalebi in particular calls out Samosa for being such a "bluff master" several times.

* ''Literature/BootsWhoMadeThePrincessSayThatsAStory'' revolves about the tall tale Boots tells to inspire that in the princess.

* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'' by Creator/TerryGilliam, based on the 18th century tall tales around Baron Munchhausen and the novel ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'' by R.E. Raspe.

* The several books under the label ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'', by Erich Rudolph Raspe (1785-1789 and 1792) and Gottfried August Bürger (1788).

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has one such example in [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-5634 SCP-5634]], which is heavily inspired by the legend of Paul Bunyan.

[[caption-width-right:293:I don't know what's more unbelievable: her riding that catfish, or how gosh-darned beautiful that gal is!]]

* In the beginning of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', TheNarrator, Varric, tries to start his story as a tall tale (resulting in a TutorialLevel wherein you control unkillable GameBreaker characters), but is soon interrupted by his listener, who wants to hear the real story. He still occasionally lapses into tall tales later (and is always interrupted again).
* The entire point of ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezGunslinger'': The over-the-top violence so typical in {{First Person Shooter}}s is justified in-story by the manner how said story is presented by Silas, who is both TheNarrator and TheProtagonist--namely, as a TallTale to entertain random pub patrons.

* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' ("Hocus-Pocus and Frisby") features a backwoods man named Frisby who continually tells tall tales. When he tells the townsfolk he was abducted by aliens, they believe he is just CryingWolf--even though for once, he's telling the truth! (The whole episode could be a tall tale... from Creator/RodSerling's point of view.)

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin'', Haddock tells the story of his ancestor battling the feared pirate Red Rackham. The events have clearly been exaggerated somewhat over the generations (and quite a few whiskey bottles).

* Grampa Hercules from Robert [=McCloskey=]'s ''Homer Price'' and ''Centerburg Tales'' is the town tall tale teller, spinning a wide variety of highly improbable yarns of his youth and his alleged ancestors.