History Main / TheMunchausen

* Frank J. Larkin served as the 40th Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate from 2015 to 2018. As a young man, Larkin served for several years in the United States Navy SEALs. After leaving the military, he became a police officer and eventually a detective; he also found time to work as a flight paramedic. He then joined the United States Secret Service in 1984, eventually joining the Presidential Protective Division, handling security for several different U.S. Presidents.

** Averted when the third season of ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' shows that he's so old and well-travelled he really has SeenItAll... up until Unicron, that is.

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', the entire struggle between the Demon Slayers and Muzan's demons is only recorded by Zentisu in his personal biography by the end of the series; however, there is a little hint that Zentisu was actually very sketchy and biased towards himself in writing said book, naming it ''The Legend of Zenitsu''. Official publications that followed after the series's end do further confirm Zenitsu was very shrewd in writing his diary, the exclusive post-epilogue extra chapter contained in the 2nd Fanbook has a little scene where Zenitsu shows Tanjiro the first drafts of his book, Tanjiro notices he is labelled as one of Zenitsu's subordinates, but Tanjiro is so kind that he just let Zenitsu write whatever he wanted. In October 2021, Japan, during an art exposition new materials also shed more light on Zenitsu's book, showing how Zentisu described Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Giyu in his tale, they are all significantly less attractive than they were in the real story, Giyu in particular becomes an extremely ugly man in Zenitsu's vision, likely out of his jealousy over Nezuko being extremely happy to see Giyu whenever he visited their home after the series's end. With all that said, it gives more context to Zenitsu's great-granddaughter Touko seeing Zenitsu's biography as a book of lies. [[spoiler:However, Zenitsu, in his elderly years, seemed to have grown past the need to embellish his own achievements, the last 25th chapter of his book is the real account of what happened in the whole series]].

They've been everywhere, seen everything, done it all, and more. Given any chance, they'll tell you all about it, whether you want them to or not. Their adventures may be [[TallTale blatantly impossible]], or simply impossible to believe, but he rarely shuts up about them and generally reacts badly to anyone openly doubting him. This character may be crazy, [[SelfServingMemory deluded]], a ConMan, or a compulsive liar. These versions are prone to [[IRejectYourReality rejecting others' reality for their own]], as in the page quote. Often the listener will [[OccamsRazor dismiss their tales]], and then find out that The Munchausen was [[CassandraTruth telling the truth]] [[ArkhamsRazor all along]].

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': When [[ScatterbrainedSenior age-related dementia]] descends on him, Rhino boasts [[TallTale having accomplished all sorts of improbable deeds]] in "The Spaceship." These include winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, leading an army of elephants over the Alps to attack Rome, inventing the telephone and Internet, and being the trusted advisor to British Prime Ministers and U.S. presidents, among other things. It has unexpected consequences when [[AlienAbduction two space aliens try to kidnap him]], wanting him [[MistookTheDominantLifeForm to head up their civilization's Brain Trust Committee]].

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': When dementia descends on him, Rhino boasts of having accomplished all sorts of improbable deeds in "The Spaceship." These include winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, leading an army of elephants over the Alps to attack Rome, inventing the telephone and Internet, and being the trusted advisor to British Prime Ministers and U.S. presidents, among other things. It has unexpected consequences when two space aliens try to kidnap him, wanting him to head up their civilization's Brain Trust Committee.

-->''Never heard he an adventure\\
But himself had met a greater;\\
Never any deed of daring\\
But himself had done a bolder''

'''Big Johnson:''' Actually, I lost it prospecting for gold in the frozen north, and recovered it with the help of a kindly sherpa named Benny- [[AnotherStoryForAnotherTime but that's a story for another day]].

** In the Terry Gilliam film ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'', the Baron turns out to be telling the absolute truth about his adventures and companions. Which is especially impressive since he's [[spoiler: telling a story about present and ongoing events; most of the entire movie is a part of his story and, at the end of the movie, reality itself appears to have changed in order to accommodate his tall tale.]]

* In ''Film/TheCommitments'', Joey 'The Lips' Fagan constantly talks about his many encounters with famous musicians. You name one, he's worked with/met him. Most of the characters in the movie think he's full of it, although a few still believe in his unlikely stories. [[spoiler: in the end, it's revealed that he was both telling the truth and lying: he does apparently know Wilson Picket well enough to get him to show up for a gig, albeit too late, but also tells his mother he's off playing with Joe Tex, who is actually dead]]

* Played with in ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'', when notorious gunslinger English Bob has a writer named Beauchamp trailing him around, to whom he is telling his life's story for publication. When English Bob arrives at Big Whiskey to pursue the bounty on the men who cut up Delilah, he [[CurbStompBattle gets his ass kicked]] and is arrested by Little Bill, who tosses him in jail. Little Bill then spends the next few hours reading through the manuscript and utterly ''emasculating'' Bob, revealing everything he's been telling the writer has been fabricated and ''heavily'' embellished to make him look like a bigger badass than he really is. After Bob is ejected from town the next morning, Beauchamp stays on with Bill to write his story, whom Bill encourages. It ''seems'' that Bill is doing this as well, until the climax when Will Munny shows up [[spoiler: to avenge Ned Morgan, who was tortured to death over killing the men who hurt Delilah]]. Little Bill stares down Munny's shotgun and tells his posse to take Munny down after he shoots, even though it likely means he'll have already been killed. {{Averted| Trope}} outright with Munny, who flat-out tells Beauchamp to take a hike when the kid tries to cozy up to ''him'' as well.

* In ''Literature/TheHobbit'', the story of Bullroarer Took, Bilbo's great grand-uncle, was likely told by a Munchausen. Supposedly, he was so big - for a hobbit - he was able to ride a horse - horse, ''not'' pony - and slew King Golfinbel in the Battle of the Green Fields, knocking the orc's head clean off with a club. The severed head sailed a hundred yards, and fell down a rabbit burrow, winning the battle and inventing the game of golf in the same instant. (At least one adaptation where this story is told by Gandalf causes him and the dwarves to laugh at the last part.)

* A subversion PlayedForLaughs: Miss Archer, the headmistress of Rob and Will's school in ''Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter'', accuses the twins of this. Lori and Bill attend a meeting in her office, during which they confirm nearly all of their incredible-sounding stories. The bad man who drags the boys from a castle during a thunderstorm and tries to throw them into the sea? True, and written up in ''The Times''. An invisible man taught them to curse? Also true [[spoiler: he was actually in a mine tunnel under the floor of their room]]. A mountain exploding in the dead of night? Again, true [[spoiler: that cursing man set a bomb in said mine shaft]]. So when the boys claim to have seen a figure that looks like a vampire depicted in a classmate's comic book, Lori believes them. Despite the event being written off by the other adults (even their riding instructor Kit Smith, who looked over the place the boys claim to have seen the figure), Lori wants to check it out for herself.

* The BBC serial ''The New Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' is narrated by a PresentDay descendent of the Baron, who has travelled by armchair on surfboards, tree towed by swans, swanfeather cloak powered by dew, the fully furnished inside of a whale, balloon filled with hot air from Donald Trump, and iceberg; discovered a sack containing the miasma that caused cholera ([[spoiler: which he briefly worries may have somehow become Covid-19, before being told the two diseases aren't related]]); met Greta Thunberg, the Queen, Putin, and Trump; orbited the moon; saved wildlife from the Australian bushfires with Factor-90 sunblock; and avoided being eaten by alligators, wolves, and a polar bear, only to find himself back where he started with a tale to tell. He is deeply offended by suggestions that either he or his illustrious ancestor have made any of their adventures up.

-->'''Munchausen''': There are more lies in your truth than there are in my lies!\\
'''Inspector''': So you admit you tell lies?\\
'''Munchausen''': I ... ''may'' have told you six small lies.\\
'''Inspector''': What were they?\\
'''Munchausen''': I'm not telling you.

-->'''Keeper's Annotations''': As with many such stories attributed to [[TheBard Mintiper]], the hero of this tale bears the name Lunargent, an obvious alias for "Moonsilver." However, it is never clear in such tales whether or not the events recounted actually happened and, in cases where there is some kernel of truth to the tale, whether or not the hero is Mintiper himself or someone else whose tale he is retelling.\\

* 'Rooster' Johnny Byron of ''{{Theatre/Jerusalem}}'' has met a ninety-foot giant who claimed to have built Stonehenge, and was conceived when a bullet that passed through his father's scrotum ricocheted into the womb of a sixteen-year-old girl in a tram car. Which stories, if any, are true, is [[AmbiguousSituation up for interpretation]].

* The Donald Margulies play ''Shipwrecked!'' is all about this. It follows the adventures of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_de_Rougemont Louis de Rougemont]], who winds up getting [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin shipwrecked on an island]] and proceeds to have crazy adventures-- learning to survive on his own, finding natives, falling in love, etc. He returns home and eventually becomes famous for his adventure. During the second act, it is revealed that he made most of it up, his story is publicly debunked, and he becomes infamous.

* Izzy from ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' is ''full'' of insane stories about where she learned her survival skills. Most of the cast dismiss everything she says (unless she's talking about how crazy she is, which is totally true), however, it turns out [[spoiler: she really ''is'' on the run from the RCMP, as discovered when they come for her during one of the marshmallow ceremonies. All the other campers are left staring in wide-eyed shock as she runs off into the woods, laughing madly and followed by the helicopter.]]

'''Baron Münchhausen:''' Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash, and I am delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever!

'''[[TropeNamers Baron Münchhausen]]:''' Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash, and I am delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever!

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', the entire struggle between the Demon Slayers and Muzan's demons is only recorded by Zentisu in his personal biography by the end of the series; however, there is a little hint that Zentisu was actually very sketchy and biased towards himself in writing said book, naming it ''The Legend of Zenitsu''. Official publications that followed after the series's end do further confirm Zenitsu was very shrewd in writing his diary, the exclusive post-epilogue extra chapter contained in the 2nd Fanbook has a little scene where Zenitsu shows Tanjiro the first drafts of his book, Tanjiro notices he is labelled as one of Zenitsu's subordinates, but Tanjiro is so kind that he just let Zenitsu write whatever he wanted. In October 2021, Japan, during an art exposition new materials also shed more light on Zenitsu's book, showing how Zentisu described Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Giyu in his tale, they are all significantly less attractive than they were in the real story, Giyu in particular becomes an extremely ugly man in Zenitsu's vision, likely out of his jealousy over Nezuko being extremely happy to see Giyu whenever he visited their home after the series's end. With all that said, it gives more context to Zenitsu's great-granddaughter Touko seeing Zenitsu's biography as a book of lies.

* Sir Daniel Fortesque in ''VideoGame/{{Medievil}}'' was this sort of character in the backstory; it didn't matter since he was doing so in a peaceful country. This led to his death when he was pressed into leading the army when Zarok attacked with his army of the dead: Fortesque was killed by the first arrow of the first charge. Fortunately, when Zarok rises from the grave to kick off the plot of the game, so does Sir Daniel, who gets the chance to be a ''real'' hero.

* ''Mater's Tall Tales'', a series of short films spun off the movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'', has the tow truck Mater relate his former experiences as a bullfighter, fire engine, stunt car, etc. Lightning [=McQueen=] doesn't buy any of it, especially the parts where Mater adds him to the proceedings (usually in a humiliating role), but at the end, there's usually a gag implying that it's all true.

** The 1979 Soviet film ''The Very Same Munchhausen'', whose story is set after the adventures described in the book, arguably subverts this by providing an AlternativeCharacterInterpretation for the Baron. He is portrayed as a [[RebelliousSpirit non-conformist man]] who [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} lives in a world of his own]] and sincerely believes in all of his tales, at least one of which is shown to be true in the first scene (although this might just be MindScrew). He is [[YouHaveToBelieveMe struggling to prove himself sane]] to a [[CrapsackWorld dull and conformist society]], which is hell-bent on [[BreakTheCutie destroying him]].

* Monsieur Moustache in ''Irma la Douce'' blurs the line between this and MultipleChoicePast. Some of his claims about his past careers are clearly balderdash, but some might have a grain of truth.
* The wartime movie musical ''Thank Your Lucky Stars'' has the comic song "That's What You Jolly Well Get," in which Creator/ErrolFlynn boasts of his single-handed victories.

They've been everywhere, seen everything, done it all and more. Given any chance, they'll tell you all about it, whether you want them to or not. Their adventures may be [[TallTale blatantly impossible]], or simply impossible to believe, but he rarely shuts up about them, and generally reacts badly to anyone openly doubting him. This character may be crazy, [[SelfServingMemory deluded]], a ConMan, or a compulsive liar. These versions are prone to [[IRejectYourReality rejecting others' reality for their own]], as in the page quote. Often the listener will [[OccamsRazor dismiss their tales]], and then find out that The Munchausen was [[CassandraTruth telling the truth]] [[ArkhamsRazor all along]].

* Mr. Satan on ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. While he has done his own incredible things in his own and is a talented martial artist, he's overshadowed by the actions of the Z-Fighters. In fairness, they're pretty happy to let him take the credit since it means they don't have to be in the spotlight. He also has people skills.

** Usopp is the Sharpshooter of the [[BadassCrew Straw Hat Crew]] who constantly makes up stories of daring adventures. The first part of his name is a homophone for the japanese word for "lie" and his long and distinctive nose may be a reference to Pinocchio. Weird enough, some of his (fantastic and false) stories have appeared to be true by coincidence. In fact, the fact that he is starting to live his stories is a bit of RunningGag among the fanbase.

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', the entire struggle between the Demon Slayers and Muzan's demons is only recorded by Zentisu in his personal biography by the end of the series; however, there is a little hint that Zentisu was actually very sketchy and biased towards himself in writing said book, naming it ''The Legend of Zenitsu''. Official publications that followed after the series's end do further confirm Zenitsu was very shrewd in writing his diary, the exclusive post-epilogue extra chapter contained in the 2nd Fanbook has a little scene where Zenitsu shows Tanjiro the first drafts of his book, Tanjiro notices he is labelled as one of Zenitsu's subordinates, but Tanjiro is so kind that he just let Zenitsu write whatever he wanted. In October 2021, Japan, during an art exposition new materials also shed more light on Zenitsu's book, showing how Zentisu described Tanjiro, Inosuke and Giyu in his tale, they are all significantly less attractive than they were in the real story, Giyu in particular becomes a extremely ugly man in Zenitsu's vision, likely out of his jealousy over Nezuko being extremely happy to see Giyu whenever he visited their home after the series's end. With all that said, it gives more context to Zenitsu's great-granddaughter Touko seeing Zenitsu's biography as a book of lies.

* This is the premise of Creator/TimWilson's "Uncle BS" skits, where the titular uncle is asked where he was on a certain day, and recounts an obviously fake story of it.

-->'''J. Jonah Jameson:''' Lousy interns! You call this publishable work!? Back in my day we had to write this stuff out by hand, we had to go to the primary sources to get our stories! And we got them in on time! And we didn't have interns!

* ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}'': Monica Rambeau constantly regaled/browbeat her teammates with things that happened when she used to be the leader of ComicBook/TheAvengers for about five minutes, until they grew heartily sick of it. This left such an impression on Machine Man that when he got an L.M.D. of her, he made sure it whined about leading the Avengers.
* The Italian comic book ''ComicBook/LupoAlberto'' has Enrico La Talpa, who, for a while, annoyed the protagonist with tales of his adventures in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII on both sides. Depending on the occasion, he fought as a member of the SS, an Italian soldier detached with Rommell (who apparently stole his wallet) and an aviator of the US Army Air Force. Years later Alberto remarked that Enrico isn't trustworthy by evoking his tale of having fought the UsefulNotes/PunicWars in the ''air force''... And Enrico confirmed, inventing a tale of him fighting alongside Scipio the African and the Red Baron on the spot.
* Knockabout of the ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} Super-Agents in the Marvel Universe is an Australian who apparently gets superstrength based on how many tall tales people believe about him. It's possibly to do with the Dreamtime, but by definition, his origin is [[MultipleChoicePast unclear]].

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': When dementia descends on him, Rhino boasts having accomplished all sorts of improbable deeds in "The Spaceship." These include winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, leading an army of elephants over the Alps to attack Rome, inventing the telephone and Internet, and being the trusted advisor to British Prime Ministers and U.S. presidents, among other things. It has unexpected consequences when two space aliens try to kidnap him, wanting him to head up their civilization's Brain Trust Committee.

** The Ufa film company made a spectacular color ''Film/{{Munchhausen}}'' in 1943 to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Starring Hans Albers in the title role as well as many other German film stars of the era. The screenplay was written by dissident author Erich Kästner, who got a special dispensation from his work-ban from Goebbels to write it, under the condition that he used the pseudonym Bürger (same as the author of the second and most well-known book of the Baron's adventures, 1786). In the film Münchhausen has an affair with Catherine the Great, fights a duel with Prince Potemkin and hobnobs with the likes of Cagliostro and an aging Casanova.

* In ''Film/TheCommitments'', Joey 'The Lips' Fagan constantly talks about his many encounters with famous musicians. You name one, he's worked with/met him. Most of the characters in the movie think he's full of it, all though a few still believe in his unlikely stories. [[spoiler: in the end, it's revealed that he was both telling the truth and lying: he does apparently know Wilson Picket well enough to get him to show up for a gig, albeit too late, but also tells his mother he's off playing with Joe Tex, who is actually dead]]

* In ''Film/DonJuanDemarco'', the title character is so good at spinning romantic fantasies he starts believing them himself, and is nearly committed to a mental hospital.
* Played with in ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'', when notorious gunslinger English Bob has a writer named Beauchamp trailing him around, to whom he is telling his life's story for publication. When English Bob arrives at Big Whiskey to pursue the bounty on the men who cut up Delilah, he [[CurbStompBattle gets his ass kicked]] and arrested by Little Bill, who tosses him in jail. Little Bill then spends the next few hours reading through the manuscript and utterly ''emasculating'' Bob, revealing everything he's been telling the writer has been fabricated and ''heavily'' embellished to make him look like a bigger badass than he really is. After Bob is ejected from town the next morning, Beauchamp stays on with Bill to write his story, whom Bill encourages. It ''seems'' that Bill is doing this as well, until the climax when Will Munny shows up [[spoiler: to avenge Ned Morgan, who was tortured to death over killing the men who hurt Delilah]]. Little Bill stares down Munny's shotgun and tells his posse to take Munny down after he shoots, even though it likely means he'll have already been killed. {{Averted| Trope}} outright with Munny, who flat-out tells Beauchamp to take a hike when the kid tries to cozy up to ''him'' as well.

** Mr. Mulliner, who would tell stories of his extended family and their adventures. Usually not so much focus on impossible feats as convoluted circumstances, and they'd always get the girl in the end, or the man for those instances the Mulliner or Mulliver cousin was a woman herself. Except for Roberta Wickham, whose various beaus were usually driven over the edge and emigrated to Australia, or married someone else completely.

* The Creator/AgathaChristie novel ''Literature/ACaribbeanMystery'' includes an old soldier named Major Palgrave, who tells endless stories about his past that no-one cares about and a few people doubt. The key story, in which he (or someone else) met a murderer is an important plot point [[spoiler:and is true]].

* The character Ijon Tichy in ''Literature/TheStarDiaries'' by Creator/StanislawLem is Münchhausen... InSpace An in-universe preface to the diaries even says that Ijon Tichy continues glorious traditions of baron Munchausen[[note]]as well as other {{Unreliable Narrator}}s of satiric novels: [[Literature/GulliversTravels Gulliver]], Alcofribas from Rabelais' ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'', and Masloboynikov from Saltykov-Shedrin's ''The History of a Town''[[/note]].

* ''Literature/TalesFromTheWhiteHart'' is a 1950s-era collection of short stories by Creator/ArthurCClarke. They are all set in a London pub called "The White Hart", known as a [[GoodGuyBar hangout for scientists]]. The Munchhausen in question is Harry Purvis, an (allegedly) important scientist that has (allegedy) traveled the world, hearing of (or participating in!) [[FantasticScience various scientific exploits and amazing inventions]]. Almost all of them have an ironic end, usually involving [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup the destruction of the device and its creator]], which conveniently eliminates any way [[PullTheThread to prove or disprove his stories.]]

* A subversion PlayedForLaughs: Miss Archer, the headmistress of Rob and Will's school in ''Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter'', accuses the twins of this. Lori and Bill attend a meeting in her office, during which they confirm nearly all of their incredible sounding stories. The bad man who drags the boys from a castle during a thunderstorm and tries to throw them in the sea? True, and written up in ''The Times''. An invisible man taught them to curse? Also true [[spoiler: he was actually in a mine tunnel under the floor of their room]]. A mountain exploding in the dead of night? Again, true [[spoiler: that cursing man set a bomb in said mine shaft]]. So when the boys claim to have seen a figure that looks like a vampire depicted in a classmate's comic book, Lori believes them. Despite the event being written off by the other adults (even their riding instructor Kit Smith, who looked over the place the boys claim to have seen the figure), Lori wants to check it out for herself.

* In Creator/GKChesterton's ''The Paradoxes of Mr Pond'', Mr Pond's friend Captain Gahagan is like this. One of the paradoxes is that Gahagan is a very honest man who tells wanton and unnecessary lies; a dishonest man lies for a reason, and Gahagan's tales of sea-serpents and giants are clearly told for no real reason whatsoever, least of all to be believed. "And when a thing is obviously untrue, it is obviously not a lie."

* ''Series/OurMissBrooks'': Safari O'Toole, Mrs. Davis's friend in the episode of the same name, pretends to be a gentleman explorer. In spite of his tall tales, he's a likeable character who only mades up his stories so he could impress Mrs. Davis.
* Mrs. Pennypacker on the PBS show ''Series/TodaysSpecial'', always happy to share exciting tales from her memoirs.

* Vic in ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'' does this alot, starting a lot of stories with "When I was in Cuba..." In one episode George gets tired of the stories and starts insisting he just skip to the last line:

(at the end of a different story) Well the chicken lived, but the girl had to where an eye patch for the rest of her life.\\

-->'''Sophia:''' Picture it: Sicily, 1912. A beautiful young peasant girl with clear olive skin, meets an exciting but penniless Spanish artist. There's an instant attraction. [[BreadEggsMilkSquick They laugh, they sing, they slam down a few boilermakers.]] Shortly afterwards he's arrested for showing her how he can hold his palette without using his hands...But I digress. He paints her portrait and they make passionate love. She spends much of the next day in the shower with a loofah sponge scrubbing his fingerprints off her body. She sees the portrait and is insulted. It looks nothing like her, and she storms out of his life forever. That peasant girl was me. And that painter was... Pablo Picasso.

* Back in the 80s, the French-Canadian comedy show ''Samedi de Rire'' featured a recurring sketch of two coastal sailors sitting on a dock and smoking their pipes, while exchanging stories of ridiculous occurrences such as catching a huge fish or recovering from ridiculously crippling ailments. Each time one of the sailors would make his claim, the other would challenge him, prompting an exchange of "Well I'm telling ya..." and "Well I don't believe ya..." until the claimant finally said "Well I swear to ya!", upon which the other sailor would accept the claim. The sketch would always end with one of the sailor claiming to own a large object, before pulling out a ridiculously oversized prop, which would cause yet another "Well I don't believe ya/Well I'm telling ya" exchange into the sketch's fadeout.

* The Doctor from ''Series/DoctorWho'' will go on and on about meeting Benjamin Franklin, Einstein, Creator/PabloPicasso and more. To a stranger, he's insane. [[TimeTravel He really]] [[InexplicablyAwesome isn't.]]

* On ''Series/TheMightyBoosh'', this is occasionally the case with Howard Moon, like when he explained away how he could be a great musician when no one's ever seen him pick up an instrument, or his claim that Walt Disney offered him the job of sorting out his felt pens.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1867 SCP-1867 ("A Gentleman")]], AKA Lord Theodore Thomas Blackwood. He will always try to turn any conversation into one about his adventures, which are largely impossible. However, he also provided evidence, in the form of a collection of undiscovered life and technology being kept at a property belonging to one "Lord Blackwood". It's still questionable if he really did any of it, or even if he is the real Lord Blackwood, because SCP-1867 is a telepathic sea slug. Not that ''he's'' aware of that, of course. Don't try to tell him, though. He'll just think you're drunk.
** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2622 SCP-2622 ("Ambassador from the Mole People")]]. SCP-2622 tells bizarre stories about gigantic underground caverns and the civilizations that live in them. His stories repeatedly contradict each other and despite extensive investigation the Foundation hasn't been able to find any evidence at all to support them.

* Wrestling/{{Tazz}} was treated this way on Thursday Night Smackdown and Wrestling/JerryLawler was on Monday Night Raw. Even when Jerry Lawler didn't have experience in a particular area, such as an iron man match, he did have something fairly close such as a one hour time limit draw with Wrestling/HarleyRace.

* The BBC serial ''The New Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' is narrated by a PresentDay descendent of the Baron, who has travelled by armchair on surfboards, tree towed by swans, swanfeather cloak powered by dew, the fully furnished inside of a whale, balloon filled with hot air from Donald Trump, and iceberg; discovered a sack containing the miasma that caused cholera ([[spoiler: which he briefly worries may have somehow become Covid-19, before being told the two diseases aren't related]]); met Greta Thunberg, the Queen, Putin and Trump; orbited the moon; saved wildlife from the Australian bushfires with Factor-90 sunblock; and avoided being eated by alligators, wolves and a polar bear, only to find himself back where he started with a tale to tell. He is deeply offended by suggestions that either he or his illustrious ancestor have made any of their adventures up.

* ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' BonusMaterial "[[http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archfr/mc Mintiper's Chapbook]]", aside of tasty Realmslore, is a textbook on [[UnreliableExpositor Unreliable Exposition]], especially since InUniverse few believe the adventures of "Lunargent" are but [[SeenItAll excerpts of song-worthy stories from the adventuring career]] of just one, if very keen, half-elf.

* The old man in ''Theatre/TheTimeOfYourLife'' identified in the DramatisPersonae as "Kit Carson" (which may or may not be his name). Among his many stories is one about herding cattle on a bicycle in Toledo, Ohio in the year 1918, when a hurricane struck the town and left him floating northwest sitting on the roof of a house. The play ends with him telling the story of having killed a man in San Francisco, 1938, because he didn't like the way he talked to ladies. Since that's the present day and a vice cop was just murdered outside after harassing a woman in the bar, the characters believe this one.

** Jan Jansen. To the point where, when he ''doesn't'' comment on an situation with a tale of his own:

* Sir Daniel Fortesque in ''VideoGame/{{Medievil}}'' was this sort of character in the backstory; it didn't matter, since he was doing so in a peaceful country. This led to his death when he was pressed into leading the army when Zarok attacked with his army of the dead: Fortesque was killed by the first arrow of the first charge. Fortunately, when Zarok rises from the grave to kick off the plot of the game, so does Sir Daniel, who gets the chance to be a ''real'' hero.

--> "I ever tell you about the time me and Keith made a homemade bumper car ride with ridin' mowers in his backyard? Mower blade wounds over 90% of his body. I didn't run him over, either; he somehow managed to fall under his own."

* ''WebVideo/FrothyPintOfMetal'' has Happy Viking, an internet reviewer who claims that he's really a 1000-year old viking who has done all kinds of stuff.

* Inverted by Jim from ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko''; he apparently actually ''has'' been involved in jobs ranging from sewer repair to intelligence gathering to space program test subject to pro skateboarder... but usually, he'd "rather not talk about it." [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Except for the one time that he'd love to talk about it, but doesn't have the time.]] Though many of these jobs still might have been tall tales, or at least wild exaggerations.

* Jade from ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' loves to tell her classmate Drew about all the adventures she's been on with Jackie. Naturally, he doesn't believe any of her stories. In the third season however, he comes into direct contact with the talisman animals, proving to him that Jade's stories indeed were true. The next day he starts telling the whole class about what he had saw, but the entire class, including Jade, turn on him and he is the one seen as crazy.

* ''Mater's Tall Tales'', a series of short films spun off the movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'', has the tow truck Mater relate his former experiences as a bullfighter, fire engine, stuntcar, etc. Lightning [=McQueen=] doesn't buy any of it, especially the parts where Mater adds him to the proceedings (usually in a humiliating role), but at the end there's usually a gag implying that it's all true.

* King Gregor and Sir Tuxford were like this in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'', teaming up to tell tall-tales about their past exploits. Partially subverted because they ''knew'' no-one believed them.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Bumi is a retired United Republics military officer and constantly goes on about one improbable adventure after another that he had while he was in the service. His younger brother and sister, Tenzin and Kya, generally assume that this is him compensating for being the only one in the family who [[BadassNormal did not inherit]] [[ElementalPowers magical Kung Fu powers]] from their parents. However it is later subverted when we see him in action and he is shown to be a master of the zany IndyPloy, implying that his crazy stories might have really happened the way he tells them.

* Cotton Hill from ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' is a real World War II veteran, but most of his specific claims are high questionable. To give one example, he tells Peggy numerous war stories in one episode that make him seem like a hero, but simply don't make sense when you look at them all at a whole. (One of them places him at a location hundreds of miles away from another one that, according to him, took place just a couple of days earlier.) Of course, most of the time, Cotton's perception of reality does seem to be shaky at best... Cotton is such a lousy liar that even his son Hank reluctantly admits that he's a liar, as evidenced from this line in an argument he has with his mother:

** The "canon" portrait of Münchausen (with a large nose and a goatee) appeared only in the middle of the 19th century, and it was Gustave Doré's caricature on Napoleon III, who also wasn't very honest.

* A classic chess anecdote involves Alexandre Louis Deschapelles trying to play a match agains the top British players. The British negotiator Perigal was not impressed and reported: "M. Deschapelles is the greatest chess player in France; M. Deschapelles is the greatest whist player in France; M. Deschapelles is the greatest billiards player in France; M. Deschapelles is the greatest pumpkin-grower in France; M. Deschapelles is the greatest liar in France."

* You'd think that Creator/ErnestHemingway wouldn't have to exaggerate his [[RatedMForManly exploits]], but he used to do it all the time. In later years his tales became so exaggerated that even his friends started to get worried it was a sign of mental breakdown.

* An FBI agent named Gregory Rahoi who was sadly killed in a 2006 training exercise boasted quite the resume. Prior to joining the FBI, he had worked as a volunteer firefighter and paramedic, graduated from law school and worked as a police officer for a couple of years before joining the FBI before he was even 30. After joining the FBI, he became a SWAT operator before joining the elite Hostage Rescue Team, the FBI’s top tactical unit which is trained to the same standard as military special operations units. As an HRT operator, he deployed to Iraq 3 times to help in counterterror missions there.

* Big Johnson Bone is this in ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}: Tall Tales'', and may potentally also be a MilesGloriosus. He's the quintessential frontier folk hero, capable of wrestling tornados, beating the tar out of Old Man Winter, eating enough food to feed a village in one sitting, etc. How many of his tales are whoppers is YMMV, because he is actually seen wrestling a tornado at one point, and he is capable of holding his own against an entire army of rat creatures by supposedly replicating a trick he pulled on some mountain lions and swinging them around by their tails.
-->'''[[OnlySaneMan Mr. Pip]]:''' If I didn't know better, I'd say you've lost your mind, but you probably have some ridiculous story about how you lost your mind some time ago and then found it again on one of the ''tallest mountain peaks in the world-''
-->'''Big Johnson:''' Actually, I lost it prospecting for gold in the frozen north, and recovered it with the help of a kindly sherpa named Benny- [[AnotherStoryForAnotherTime but that's a story for another day]].
* Jameson in ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

* ''ComicBook/XMen'' has ComicBook/JubileeMarvelComics, who expected her experience to give her more clout when she was transferred to ComicBook/GenerationX. It didn't take long for her new companions to grow tired of it and refuse to hear anything starting with the words "When I was with the X-Men..."
* Likewise, Monica Rambeau in ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}'' constantly regaled/browbeat her teammates with things that happened when she used to be the leader of ComicBook/TheAvengers for about five minutes, until they grew heartily sick of it. This left such an impression on Machine Man that when he got an L.M.D. of her, he made sure it whined about leading the Avengers.
* The Italian comic book ''Lupo Alberto'' has Enrico La Talpa, who, for a while, annoyed the protagonist with tales of his adventures in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII on both sides. Depending on the occasion, he fought as a member of the SS, an Italian soldier detached with Rommell (who apparently stole his wallet) and an aviator of the US Army Air Force. Years later Alberto remarked that Enrico isn't trustworthy by evoking his tale of having fought the UsefulNotes/PunicWars in the ''air force''... And Enrico confirmed, inventing a tale of him fighting alongside Scipio the African and the Red Baron on the spot.
* Knockabout of the Comicbook/{{SHIELD}} Super-Agents in the Marvel Universe is an Australian who apparently gets superstrength based on how many tall tales people believe about him. It's possibly to do with the Dreamtime, but by definition, his origin is [[MultipleChoicePast unclear]].

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novels by Creator/PeterDavid play with this trope a lot. In them, many folks in Starfleet Command express doubt at the fantastic scenarios that play out in the canon episodes. For many of them, they ''must'' take the Captain's word for it. Space amobea indeed.

-->'''Keeper's Annotations''': As with many such stories attributed to [[TheBard Mintiper]], the hero of this tale bears the name Lunargent, an obvious alias for "Moonsilver." However, it is never clear in such tales whether or not the events recounted actually happened and, in cases where there is some kernel of truth to the tale, whether or not the hero is Mintiper himself or someone else whose tale he is retelling.
-->'''Chronicler's Footnotes''' Although Lunargent has become so popular a character that he appears in many tales that did not originate with Mintiper, most, if not all, of those authored by the Lonely Harpist are actually first-hand accounts. It is simply beyond the imagination of most individuals that even the legendary Lonely Harpist could have had so many adventures, accounting for the skepticism in the Keeper’s annotations and similar commentary by other sages.

* ''FanFic/TheTwilightChild'' states that any tale told by Rainbow Dash will inevitably mutate over time into one of heroism and daring deeds. For example, just avoiding Pinkie Pie somehow ends up involving fighting sky pirates. The only thing Rainbow Dash will never lie about is the events of Party of One.

* Kup the "old-timer" Transformer from the original ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie Transformers]]'' movie is constantly "reminded of the time that..." and so on. It ''was'' the apocalypse, or rather the giant planet-eating Unicron attacking Cybertron that had him remark he's "[[IveNeverSeenAnythingLikeThisBefore Never seen anything like this before.]]"
** Averted when the third season of ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' shows that he's so old and well-travelled he really has SeenItAll... up until [[GodOfEvil Unicron]], that is.

* OlderThanRadio: "Literature/TheSurprisingAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen", first published in 1781.

'''Baron Münchhausen:''' Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash, and I am delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever!

* Baron Munchausen in all the films about him, [[TropeNamer natch.]]

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':

Contrast BadassBoast. Compare and contrast SmallNameBigEgo and the FakeUltimateHero. Also compare to ExpansionPackPast, MultipleChoicePast.

* ''Literature/TalesFromTheWhiteHart'' is a 1950s-era collection of short stories by Creator/ArthurCClarke. They are all set in a London pub called "The White Hart", known as a [[GoodGuyBar hangout for scientists]]. The Munchhausen in question is Harry Purvis, an (allegedly) important scientist that has (allegedy) traveled the world, hearing of (or participating in!) [[FantasticScience various scientific exploits and amazing inventions]]. Almost all of them have an ironic end, usually involving the destruction of the device and its creator, which conveniently eliminates any way [[PullTheThread to prove or disprove his stories.]]

* {{Series/MythBuster|s}} Jamie Hyneman has been everywhere and done everything. Wiki/TheOtherWiki lists a few of his past careers as "scuba diver, wilderness survival expert, boat captain, linguist, pet shop owner, animal wrangler, machinist, concrete inspector, and chef." Of course that still doesn't stop Adam from constantly making up more, crazier and funnier backstory jobs for Jamie.

* Ellis in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' is an interesting example in that he is not one of these about himself, but rather about his friend Keith, who according to Ellis has at least drowned on several occasions, lost several fingers to frostbite, broken both his fingers in a driving accident, and survived getting burn damages ''[[UpToEleven on top of other burn damages]]'' among a lot of other things that are even more insane than these. Considering [[CloudCuckoolander Ellis' personality]], one would expect Keith not even to be real, but Gabe Newell himself has confirmed that Keith ''is'', in fact, real. Whether all these things actually happened to him, however, is up for debate. Fans of the franchise have been clamoring for Keith to be playable in a hypothetical ''Left 4 Dead 3'', where he would presumably tell Ellis stories.

-->'''[[OnlySaneMan Mr. Pip]]:''' If I didn't know better, I'd say you've lost you're mind, but you probably have some ridiculous story about how you lost your mind some time ago and then found it again on one of the ''tallest mountain peaks in the world-''

* In ''Webcomic/NoRestForTheWicked'', [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/01-15.html Perrault believes November to be this in their first meeting]]: a ProperLady managed to come through TheLostWoods by herself, unharmed?

Don't confuse this with people who inflict injury on themselves to get attention, which is [[MunchausenSyndrome Munchausen's Syndrome]] (though it is named after the Baron), or when someone inflicts injury on someone or something else to get attention, which is [[MunchausensByProxy Münchhausen's Syndrome by Proxy]].