History Main / TomatoSurprise

** Two chess grandmasters play five games and end up with the same win-loss records. No game ended in a draw. How? [[spoiler:They played games with other opponents.]]

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': It turns out that the majority of the events were [[spoiler:written fiction revolving around the actual tragedy of Rokkenjima.]]

The trope name comes from a set of writer's guidelines distributed circa 1980 by ''Asimov's'' magazine, written by its then-editor, George Scithers. The guidelines named the trope and gave as one of the examples hiding the fact that the hero is, in fact, a tomato.

* In the first ''Druuna'' album, ''Morbus Gravis'', Druuna seems to be living in some sort of post-apocalyptic city, but at the end, this is revealed to be a massive spaceship that left Earth centuries ago.

See EarthAllAlong, TheAllConcealingI, NarratorAllAlong, and TheEndingChangesEverything. Related to KarmicTwistEnding and CruelTwistEnding. The opposite of this trope is DramaticIrony when the ''audience'' knows something that the ''characters'' don't.

* ''VisualNovel/NewDanganronpaV3'': The ending of the first chapter/murder case, in which it's revealed that the killer [[spoiler:is Kaede Akamatsu, ''the PlayerCharacter'' (or, at least, supposedly; the last chapter of the game reveals she was actually innocent and was being framed, but even she didn't know that, since she wasn't present to see that her death trap wasn't what killed Rantaro). Since Monokuma was going to kill everyone if a murder was not committed within the time limit, Kaede decided to try to kill the mastermind of the killing game, but when her trap (seemingly) resulted in the death of Rantaro instead, she decided not to take Monokuma up on his offer (which allowed the first person to commit a murder to get off scot-free and leave without a trial) so she could try to catch the mastermind during the trial. Sadly, it fails, and the player switches to controlling Kaede's best friend Shuichi Saihara as the new PlayerCharacter once it becomes clear that she must be convicted. Notably, while quite a bit of her inner monologue and dialogue with other characters [[RewatchBonus will stand out on a second playthrough]] (like how she goes on and on about catching ''the mastermind'', but never about figuring out the killer, because she already (thinks she) knows who the killer is), the way it's worded is vague enough to successfully hide it from the player on the first go-round]].

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' comic ''ComicBook/DamnationCrusade'' tells the story of three different Black Templar Space Marines: A neophyte, a battle brother, and a Dreadnought. In the very end, it is revealed that [[spoiler:all three were in fact the same person, during different stages of his life.]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* In ''Ben X'', [[spoiler:Ben's online girlfriend Scarlite actually left the train station without recognizing him; the version of her that kept him from killing himself and helped him develop his plan was a hallucination.]]
* In the horror anthology film ''Film/BodyBags'', John Carpenter's character the Coroner, who hosts the wraparound segments, initially seems to be just an intensely weird mortician. There are several hints dropped throughout his parts, including his consumption of the lethal chemical formaldehyde and his lifeless, pale skin, but it isn't revealed until the very end that he's actually another corpse who assumed the role of the real morticians.
* In ''Film/{{Cypher}}'', the protagonist Morgan Sullivan [[spoiler:is in fact the legendary spy Sebastian Rooks, which Rita Foster knew all along because she helped him plan the whole thing.]]
* ''Film/{{Identity}}'', starring John Cusack. [[spoiler:The main characters are all the selves of a man with multiple personalities, one of whom is a SerialKiller and most of the movie takes place within his mind/a hallucination. The legal men are trying to determine the insane Malcolm Rivers' case.]]
* At the end of ''John Doe: Vigilante'', the titular VillainProtagonist abruptly concludes his HowWeGotHere-style interrogation by [[spoiler:killing the HeroAntagonist detective who's been interviewing him through the whole film. It then turns out that said detective was actually the DirtyCop responsible for a ChekhovsGun crime shown in one of the flashbacks -- a surefire way to wind up on Doe's ''Series/{{Dexter}}''-esque hit list.]]
* ''Last Train to Freo'''s drama is drawn from the fact that not all the characters are strangers to each other and it's no coincidence that they're all in the same train car. There are two major Tomato Surprises. First, [[spoiler:Simon and Lisa are not strangers, but are in fact a couple. They boarded the train separately in order to set up and kill The Tall Thug, who attacked Simon's brother and caused him brain damage.]] Second, [[spoiler:The Tall Thug and Simon's brother were closeted lovers. The Tall Thug attacked Simon's brother during an argument; The Tall Thug wanted to come out, but his lover didn't. The Tall Thug got a short prison term after concocting a completely different story which Simon didn't contradict in court out of shame over his brother's sexual orientation.]]
* At the end of ''Film/{{Maverick}}'' the showdown between Brett and [[spoiler:Cooper is resolved when the two stop pretending to not know each other and act as father and son]].
* ''Film/{{Triangle}}'' starts with the protagonist having a crappy morning with her disabled son, and then in the next shot she is standing near a dock on the marina where she meets her friends while acting all confused. It seems like these 2 scenes happen within several minutes with nothing important happening in between, but the truth is that [[spoiler:it's been more than a whole day between those 2 scenes, at least for the protagonist. Previously, she had been with her friends on a haunted ship where she ended up killing them, then traveled back in time to that morning, killed the past version of herself to replace her, but then her son got killed in a car accident so she went to the marina in order to return to the haunted ship where she hoped she would be able to travel back in time to save her son from dying. It's very likely that she's been stuck in an infinite series of TimeTravel-induced CloseEnoughTimeline loops in which she keeps killing her friends and her past-self in order to be reunited with her son, but then the inevitably recurring deaths of her son make her travel back in time again and again in futile attempts to save her son the next time, thus making her appearance on the marina a result of a convoluted StableTimeLoop.]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]] opens with the Doctor telling Clara about his adventures with her. She doesn't appear to remember any of it (in fact, she doesn't even appear to remember her own name), [[spoiler:but at the end, it turns out that it's ''the Doctor'' who doesn't remember. Specifically, he remembers his adventures with Clara, but not what she looks or sounds like. Clara is playing along with the Doctor by pretending not to know who he's talking about; this is because she was revived via TrickedOutTime and after seeing what the Doctor did, went and forced him to move on by having him forget her appearance and voice, all while she travels in a diner-shaped TARDIS traveling through time and space until she reached the point she is supposed to die.]]
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' once had an InUniverse example. While Niles and Maris are going through a rough patch, Frasier finds their mother's journals which seemingly depict her observations of their development as children. The observations aren't very flattering of Niles. Deciding to go against this, Niles files for divorce from Maris. Frasier continues reading the journals. [[spoiler:It turns out their mother was observing the behavior of her lab rats who she also named Frasier and Niles. She named her sons after them.]]
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''
** In the episode "Three Days of Snow", Future!Ted tells three stories at the same time: (1) Robin taking Marshall to welcome Lily at the airport, (2) Ted and Barney taking care of the bar, and (3) Lily trying to get some beers to give to Marshall when he welcomes her in the airport. But just when Lily and Marshall get to the airport, Future!Ted reveals that [[spoiler:the three stories are taking place on three ''different days'', so Marshall did not meet Lily on day one, he mourned at Ted and Barney's "bar" on day two, and ''seemingly'' nobody was in the airport to welcome Lily on day three. But then Marshall surprises Lily by bringing an entire band to greet her.)]]
*** This is particularly effective as it's a fake ActorAllusion to Creator/AlysonHannigan. In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Hannigan's character had been involved in a similar plot, [[spoiler:only in that case it ''was'' actually the same day and she couldn't see her friends because of an accidental use of magic.]] %% BTVS episode isn't a spoiler on its own, but because of its relevance to the HIMYM spoiler, it's tagged here.
** Also, the series finale, where it turns out that [[spoiler:the mother died six years ago, as both the narrator and his kids hearing the story knew all along; the story was never about her, it was future Ted reminiscing about Robin in an attempt to move on]].
** The episode "Symphony of Illumination" begins, as a change of formula, with Robin telling her children about how she told their father that she was pregnant. However, the episode is actually about [[spoiler:her discovering that she can't have children, and she's actually talking to herself as she tries to come to terms with the news]].
* One plot thread of ''Series/TheLeagueOfGentlemen'' comes to an unexpected conclusion when it is revealed that [[spoiler:Iris and Mrs. Levison are really mother and daughter.]] The stage show ups the ante by revealing that [[spoiler:they're really father and son.]]
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' did this often:
** The episode "Walkabout" hinges on the revelation at its end that Locke was in a wheelchair before the plane crash. In all flashbacks he is sitting at a desk or table, or lying in bed, to conceal this.
** Sawyer's first DayInTheLimelight had such a twist as well when it turned out the letter written to him was actually a letter ''he'' wrote to the ''original'' Sawyer.
** The season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass", features a series of seemingly traditional flashbacks for Jack, one of the main characters... until he [[spoiler:meets Kate at the end of the episode, revealing that all the "flashback" scenes in this episode were actually flash-''forwards''.]]
** The season 4 episode "Ji Yeon" appears to feature [[spoiler:flash-forwards for Jin and Sun, who apparently both left the island... until it turns out that Jin's scenes are actually flash''backs'', and he never left the island but is considered ''dead'' by his wife Sun.]]
* The second season of ''Series/MrRobot'' shows Elliott after the hacking job [[spoiler:that brought down E-Corp.]] He tries to go on with his life, makes friends with a pair of men with criminal backgrounds, starts attending a church group, and runs afoul of a gang of white supremacists. It isn't until episode seven that it's revealed this all happens [[spoiler:while he's in prison.]]
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'':
** The second season premiere "Broken" appears to follow the same episode format as the first season, with the point of view switching between the Enchanted Forest in the past and a parallel story in Storybrook in the present. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that [[spoiler:the Enchanted Forest segments do not take place in the past. They are actually taking place in the present (actually ''after'' the Storybrook segments).]]
** The fourth season episode "Fall" does something similar. [[spoiler:Previous scenes set in [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 Arendelle]] were established as taking place before David the shepherd boy became Prince Charming or Belle met Rumpelstiltskin; the previous episode said it was 1985 in our world. When Anna and Kristoff defrost in the first Arendelle scene of the episode, we assume that this happened when the Snow Queen left the realm, shortly after they were frozen. It's not until the reveal that Blackbeard now captains the Jolly Roger that we realise they've been {{Human Popsicle}}s for thirty years.]]
* ''Series/ThePrisoner2009'': Those flashbacks to Six's life before The Village? They aren't flashbacks, they're happening simultaneously.
* In the ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' episode "My Screwup" we find out at the end of the episode that [[spoiler:Ben is actually the patient that died and Dr. Cox has just been seeing Ben in his head.]]
** There is one hint for eagle-eyed viewers that at first appears to be a continuity error - [[spoiler:the man implied to have died through the whole episode appears in the background of one scene.]]
** Another hint pops up throughout the episode, but it's so subtle that the viewer is unlikely to pick up on it until the second watch - [[spoiler:The only person who directly interacts with Ben from the time he dies until the end of the episode is Dr. Cox. Everyone else talks directly to Cox while Ben offers him advice on how to respond.]]
** And of course, Ben's line [[spoiler:that he'll carry his camera "until the day I die", and that he doesn't have his camera for the latter part of the episode.]]
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** In "[[Recap/StargateSG1S4E21DoubleJeopardy Double Jeopardy]]", the audience is led to believe that it is the normal version of SG-1 that arrives on Juna...[[spoiler:until Darien kills Daniel with a staff weapon and his head comes off, revealing that he is a robot. In the next scene, Harlan contacts the SGC, confirming that they are the robot duplicates from "[[Recap/StargateSG1S1E18TinMan Tin Man]]".]]
** "Heroes" has a big one. Some off-world scenes are shown, and Jack O'Neill is shown getting shot. The episode is from the point of view of a reporter in the SGC. For the rest of the episode, the entire team is very obviously in distress because someone has died. The entire episode leads you to believe [[spoiler:Jack died, but the ending reveals he was wearing an experimental new energy-absorbing vest and survived. It was actually the doctor, Janet Frazier, who was killed.]] The characters obviously knew this the entire time, but it was concealed from the audience until the end.
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': "Doctor's Orders" has Phlox and T'Pol the only people awake on the ship as the rest of the crew has to be put into a comatose state to pass through a radiation cloud. It's revealed at the end that [[spoiler:T'Pol had been asleep too; Phlox was hallucinating her to help with his isolation]]. Like the ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' example above, [[spoiler:T'Pol never physically interacts with anything]].
* ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'':
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaDZGjO30VU One Sketch]] appears to show a ridiculously drawn-out quiz show. Turns out [[spoiler:they are on a space ship and the "contestants" are being held captive by the "host", a terminally ill billionaire who, refusing to die alone, is flying the space ship into the sun and is making every last second count.]]
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suQ-MCLO_9Q Another sketch]] starts out as a parody of a relaxation DVD. [[spoiler:At the end, it is revealed that robots who have taken over the world made the DVD so the human resistance fighters wouldn't have the energy to fight them.]]
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'':
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E14ThirdFromTheSun Third from the Sun]]", the Sturkas and Ridens steal an experimental ship and travel to another planet [[SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance 11 million miles away]] in order to escape a nuclear war that is likely to begin within 48 hours. [[spoiler: Having picked up [[AliensStealCable radio signals from the planet]], Jerry Riden learns that the natives call it "Earth."]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E42TheEyeOfTheBeholder Eye of the Beholder]]", currently pictured above, Janet Tyler, a woman with a horribly misshapen face, is undergoing her eleventh reconstructive surgery to make her appear normal. When her bandages are removed, the doctors discover that the surgery was unsuccessful. [[spoiler: It is revealed that, from the audience's perspective, Janet is a beautiful woman and the doctors and nurses are hideously ugly.]] ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' parodied this episode by subverting the trope: [[spoiler:All the hideous, pig-like people, as well as the narrator, think the "disfigured" woman is totally hot. Except for one nurse, who's the [[OnlySaneMan Only Insane Woman]].]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E51TheInvaders The Invaders]]", an aging farm woman is attacked by tiny creatures from another planet in her cabin. [[spoiler: The woman discovers the supposed aliens' spacecraft on her roof. Its markings read "U.S. Air Force Space Probe No. 1." It is revealed that the woman belongs to a race of giants and the "aliens" are astronauts from Earth.]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E79FiveCharactersInSearchOfAnExit Five Characters in Search of an Exit]]", an army major, a ballerina, a clown, a hobo, and a bagpiper find themselves trapped in a large cylinder with no memory of who they are or how they got there. [[spoiler: The final scene reveals that the five of them are dolls in a donation barrel for a girls' orphanage.]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E75TheMidnightSun The Midnight Sun]]", Earth is moving closer and closer towards UsefulNotes/TheSun and society is breaking down as people are dying of heatstroke. [[spoiler: The final scene reveals that it was AllJustADream of the protagonist Norma. The world is in fact moving further away from the Sun and the world's population is rapidly freezing to death.]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E129Probe7OverAndOut Probe 7, Over and Out]]", an astronaut named Colonel Cook crashlands on a planet 4.3 lightyears from his home system. After contacting his planet, he learns that a nuclear war has begun and a rescue ship will therefore not be sent for him. Shortly afterwards, Cook meets an alien woman. Although they do not speak each other's languages, the woman manages to communicate to him that her name is Norda and that she is the SoleSurvivor of her planet, which left its orbit. [[spoiler: Cook tells her that [[AdamAndEvePlot his first name is Adam and learns that hers is Eve]]. They settle in a [[GardenOfEden beautiful garden]] containing [[ForbiddenFruit fruit]] that Eve calls "[[SignificantAnagram seppla]]." Eve decides to call the planet "Earth."]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E150StopoverInAQuietTown Stopover in a Quiet Town]]", a married couple named Bob and Millie Frazier wake up in a strange house, hungover after a party the previous night. They discover that almost everything in the house and the surrounding neighborhood is fake such as a prop phone, a stuffed squirrel in a tree and papier-mâché grass. [[spoiler: In the final scene, the Fraziers see a giant girl and realize that they are in her model village. The girl is a member of a race of giants whose father traveled to Earth and brought the two of them back for her to play with.]]
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'': In "Upgrade", after moving into a new house, Anne [=MacIntosh=] discovers that her dog Zonka has changed breeds and [[RippleEffectProofMemory she is the only one who realizes it]]. She soon finds that her previously obnoxious family, consisting of her husband Philip and two children Sean and Tess, has been similarly replaced. Their physical appearances are entirely different and their personalities have become essentially perfect. Anne can't get anyone to believe her and she is eventually replaced herself. [[spoiler: The final scene reveals that Anne and her family are characters in a little girl named Lizzie's ''VideoGame/TheSims''-esque people simulator VideoGame.]]
* Jason from ''Series/TheGoodPlace '' talks about someone named “Donkey Doug” from pretty much the beginning of the show. He makes it seem like he’s a buddy of his that comes along for the ride on his misadventures in [[OnlyInFlorida Florida]]. It’s not until season 3 that Jason reveals that Donkey Doug is actually his dad.

[[folder:Music]]
* Zagar & Evans' "In the Year 2525" is an increasingly dystopian countdown toward the Apocalypse [[spoiler: which may have already happened.]]
* [[Music/ThreeEleven 311's]] song "Hey You" is a tribute to someone who the singer describes as a "constant companion," thanking him for the good times that they've spent together. In the final repetition of the chorus, it's revealed that the companion that the singer is describing is ''music.''
* Used to powerful effect in the video for Music/TheProdigy's "Smack My Bitch Up". The video is shot from first-person viewpoint, showing a clubgoer going about their routine... which starts with a line of cocaine in the clubgoer's home and later involves binge-drinking, vomiting into a toilet, assaulting a DJ, accosting a woman in a bar, meeting another woman in an alleyway, stealing a car, and then returning home with her to have sex. At the end, however, [[spoiler:the camera finally turns to a mirror, and the clubgoer is revealed... as a woman. Most viewers will likely find their assessment of the preceding events jarred significantly by the discovery.]]
* A similar example in the music video for the Music/{{Aerosmith}} song "Amazing". The video has a teenage boy using a virtual reality headset to program and create a perfect date adventure with the teenage girl he is secretly in love with. After the extended guitar solo which plays while the couple is having their adventure, [[spoiler: its revealed in the end that the girl, herself, is the one doing the [[StalkerWithACrush VR adventure thing]] and the whole narrative was hers from the beginning.]]
* Also done in a country music video called "I Miss My Friend" by Darryl Worley. The video leads you to think that you're looking in on the girl that the singer misses, [[spoiler:but in actuality, the woman is the singer's WIDOW, watching a video of her dead husband.]]
* Christian song "Hammer" from the 1989 album "The Altar" by Ray Boltz is an excellent example of storytelling in a song. The narrator is an eyewitness to the crucifixion of Jesus; he vocally expresses his outrage over the cruel treatment of Jesus and calls out his executors. The crowd mocks him; confused, he [[spoiler:sees a hammer in his hand. The narrator turns out to be a regular joe -- roman soldier.]]
* The music video for Music/{{Nickelback}}'s "Someday," a man is trying to talk to his girlfriend, but she's ignoring him and becomes distraught about something in the newspaper, rushing out of their apartment. He follows. [[spoiler:He's a ghost, and the newspaper article was about his death. She winds up dying in a car accident, [[TogetherInDeath reuniting them]]]]. This was hinted about halfway through the video: the woman knocked over some milk. [[spoiler:The man walked through it without leaving any footprints]].
* The 1954 hit [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGpR6R3a1D4 The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane]] sounds like a song about a scandalous young woman, [[spoiler:until it's revealed she's only nine-days-old.]]
* A well-known Spanish pop song by La Oreja de Van Gogh, ''Jueves'' (Thursday), tells a cute story of a girl who takes the subway everyday just to see a boy whom she's silently in love with, until she finally gathers the courage to talk to him and finds out he likes her too. Pretty romantic. Then, on the second-to-last verse she mentions that "this special day, March 11th" was when they declared their love to each other. On that particular day, [[spoiler:a terrorist group set several bombs aboard four commuter trains in Madrid, [[TearJerker killing 191 people]] ]]. Then, the last verse states: " the lights of the tunnel go out. I find your face with my hands, gather courage and kiss you. You say you love me and I give to you [[spoiler:the very last beat of my heart]]", implying that they were riding one of ''those'' trains.
* "Sally Cinnamon" by Music/TheStoneRoses seems like a typical love song, then in the last verse, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the preceding lyrics are actually the contents of a letter that was left on a train and found by the narrator]].
* The Vicki Lawrence song, "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia" (later covered by Music/RebaMcEntire), has the singer tell the story about how her brother got railroaded and eventually hung by small-town justice for a murder he didn't commit. How does she know this? [[spoiler:The last verse reveals that she is in fact the killer.]]
* "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" could be considered a benign example, with the Tomato Surprise being that the singer's lady is secretly just as bored with him as vice versa ... at least, until they discover new common interests through the personal ads they took out behind each others' backs.
* The 1964 hit song "Memphis" by Chuck Berry (covered by Johnny Rivers) has a man calling "long-distance information" to "get in touch with my Marie". He and Marie were "torn apart because her mom did not agree". In the last line of the song, the singer reveals that [[spoiler:"Marie is only six years old" - she's his daughter.]]
* A very mild example is found in Music/GaelicStorm's "Go Home Girl." The surprise here doesn't really change the narrative any, but it does lend a slightly humorous new layer to it. Having spent the song trying to gently turn down a girl who's become infatuated with him, the gypsy narrator reveals in the last line the main reason he's trying to get her to go home. [[spoiler: "For I am twenty-two years old / And you are [[PrecociousCrush only eight]]!"]]
* Music/TheOffspring's "Hammerhead" seems like a song told by some kind of soldier... [[spoiler:and the last stanza reveals it's [[AxesAtSchool a school shooter.]]]]
* "Save Your Kisses for Me" by Brotherhood of Man seems like a love song by a man leaving his loved one at home when he goes to work [[spoiler:but it ends on "Won't you save them for me... even though you're only three?" revealing the fact he's singing to his child.]]
** "My Sweet Rosalie" has a similar twist. The man sings about his love for his fun-loving, free-spirited companion who always manages to cheer him up whenever he's down. Turns out that [[spoiler:Rosalie is his dog.]]
* Modest Mouse does this very cleverly in the music video for their song "Little Motel." The whole video is shown in reverse - we start with a woman with her child in a motel room as she tucks him into the bed. It then plays the preceding events leading up to this in reverse and the "ending" reveals that [[spoiler:the young boy was actually dead (the viewer assumes he's been asleep) the whole time, since we see him flat-lining in a hospital room before she grabs him up and runs out to head to the motel and spend a few final moments with her son. Saddest music video ever.]]
** Anberlin has a very similar video for "Paperthin Hymn" involving a young couple. It centers on a woman in a hospital room being whisked away on a wheelchair joyride down the halls by her boyfriend. Near the end of the song, she wakes up still in the hospital bed; he is being worked on by hospital staff in the bed next to hers. [[spoiler:He then flatlines.]]
* Garth Brooks' "Victim of the Game" describes someone who's been hurt emotionally, possibly by a failed relationship. Turns out, [[spoiler:the last lines reveal that he's "staring in the mirror / At a victim of the game".]]
* Immortal Technique's "You Never Know" tells a story of the singer falling in love with an ice-queenish bookish girl. They take the relationship slow until he tells his true feelings for her. She starts crying until he leaves her. We find out what happens to him and then we find out what happens to her. [[spoiler:She contracted HIV through a blood transfusion in 1993 and met/broke up with him in 1997 and died 2 months before he tried to contact her again.]]
* Porter Wagoner's 1968 country hit "The Carroll County Accident". The narrator tells about a car accident that killed a prominent small-town man who was riding in a car driven by a female friend. She survives and says she found him on the side of the road feeling sick and was giving him a ride back into town. The narrator then says he learned what really happened: he went to look at the wrecked car and found [[spoiler:the man's wedding ring in a box, indicating that the man and the woman were having an affair.]] But that's not the final twist: [[spoiler:in the very last lines of the song, the narrator reveals that the man who died was his father.]]
* In Music/{{Eminem}}'s "25 to Life", he raps things such as, "I don't think she understands/the sacrifices that I made, I've done my best to give you/nothing less then perfectness, Go marry someone else/and make em famous/and take away their freedom/like you did to me/treat me like you don't need em/and they ain't worthy of you/feed em the same s*** that you made me eat, and my friends keep asking me/why I can't just walk away from/I'm addicted/to the pain, the stress, the drama." The whole song reads as something to a girl who doesn't appreciate him. Then one of the last lines, "f*** you hip hop," changes the whole meaning of the song.
* In the 90s, rapper Music/{{Common}} did a hit song called "I Used To Love Her" In the song, he talks about being in love with a woman, only to watch her go from being sweet and innocent, to falling under many different negative influences and ruining her life as a result. Then he reveals he won't give up on her, [[spoiler:because he's not talking about a real woman, but the music genre HipHop.]]
* Queensryche's ''Gonna Get Close To You'' is all about the joys of being a stalker. The end of the clip, however, reveals that the woman he's stalking [[spoiler:is a vampire]]. For no apparent reason.
* Music/TheKinks's "Lola" is about a woman the narrator met in a bar and fell in love with, but after dropping a number of hints the last line indicates (still a bit ambiguously, perhaps to avoid censorship) that Lola is actually [[spoiler:a {{crossdresser}}.]]
--> But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man / [[spoiler:And so is Lola]]
* Music/NewOrder's song "Fine Time" plays like a conventional love song praising the sexual qualities of the narrator's love interest until the song ends and fades out, and if the listener is paying attention... [[spoiler:the sounds of a sheep can be heard.]]
* {{Music/Devo}}'s "Beautiful World", the verses of which are filled with positive lyrics about the world. It's only hinted at during the chorus "It's a beautiful world - for you" that not all is as it seems. Towards the end of the song the chorus becomes "It's a beautiful world - for you - but not for me", changing the entire meaning of the song to one of sarcasm.
* "Bus Rider" by The Guess Who appears to be an ode to the working man, who must get up early in the morning to catch the bus to work each day just to make a dime. Towards the end of the song, the singer states that he is glad to not be a bus rider, meaning the entire song was actually describing how being one totally sucks.
* The Rays' "Silhouettes (on the Shade)" tells of the jealousy which the narrator felt when he saw two silhouettes making romantic gestures while passing the shaded window of his girlfriend's house. He rushes in only to discover... [[spoiler:he's on the wrong block and the silhouettes belonged to a couple of total strangers.]]
* Napoleon XIV's "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" is about the narrator, driven insane by the departure of someone close to him, ending up at the funny farm. And if that someone ever returns... [[spoiler:"they'll put you in the ASPCA, you mangy mutt!!!"]]
* Van Morrison's "Cyprus Avenue" is told from the point of view of a man who is desperately in love with someone. [[spoiler:It's a 14-year-old girl.]]
* This is more of an informed Tomato Surprise, since it's not in the song proper, but it's rather surprising how many couples regard the Michael Jackson song ''Ben'' as "our song", given that it was written for the movie of the same name in which Ben is [[spoiler:a rat. Not in the slang sense, a ''literal'' rat]].
* "The Troublemaker", written by Bruce Belland and Dave Somerville and recorded by several people, most notably Music/WillieNelson. The narrator complains about a hippie-ish "troublemaker" who's turning the kids into "a disrespectful mob" and expresses relief that he was arrested and will soon be executed. [[spoiler:The last two lines reveal that the song takes place in the 1st century AD and the "troublemaker" is Jesus.]]
** Music/KennyRogers had a similar song, in which the narrator sings about this guy who's kind of weird and how he and his friends would have liked him more if he were "A Little More Like Me" (the title of the song). The song itself doesn't explicitly make it clear (though there are some strong hints), but the subtitle ("The Crucifixion") does.
* Ween's "Buenos Tardes Amigo" is a series of threats delivered by the narrator to another man. [[spoiler:He swears revenge for the murder of his brother but confesses in the last verse that he in fact committed the murder and the other man is merely a patsy.]]
* Jim Stafford's "My Girl Bill" leads the listener to believe that it's about two men in love - very risqué for 1974 - only to discover that the singer and Bill are fighting over a girl ... "She's my girl, Bill." That's right, the Tomato Surprise here is a ''comma''.
* Music/DonMcLean had on his debut album ''Tapestry'' a song called "General Store". In it, a Southerner comes into a general store and shops and talks about events in the neighborhood. Buys gas, shotgun shells, a newspaper. There was a wedding. There was a big fire, "Says here there ain't no hope / they all were burned alive". In the last line, the song takes a turn for the creepy. [[spoiler:"Too bad about the wedding but don't you get me wrong / We got to teach these people how to stay where they belong". Read: the - supposedly - redneck doing the shopping was one of the guys who started the fire... to burn down the wedding party because a local girl married an outsider.]]
* Music/WeirdAlYankovic had two on his ''Bad Hair Day'' album:
** "Since You've Been Gone" has him singing to a former lover describing how miserable he's felt since she left him. The final line: [[spoiler:"I feel almost as bad as I did when you were still here."]]
** "I Remember Larry" has the singer reminiscing about a local prankster as if about a childhood friend who was annoying at the time but in hindsight is now remembered fondly. Most of the first two verses, as well as the bridge, list a series of pranks committed by Larry. The final verse reveals [[spoiler:the singer got tired of Larry's antics, killed him, and hid his body in the forest.]]
* The country classic "Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)," originally by Leon Ashley. Laura's husband has caught her cheating on him. Throughout the song, he points out the many things he has done for her and asks her why she would choose to be with the other man instead. In the last line of the song, it is revealed that [[spoiler:he's had a gun in his hand all along, and he's about to pull the trigger. The listener must speculate whether the gun is aimed at [[IfICantHaveYou the cheating Laura]], at [[DrivenToSuicide himself]], or at the [[MurderTheHypotenuse interloping other man]].]]
* The song "In Time" by Music/AbneyPark seemingly tells the story of a couple in love: The first verse describes their love, but mentions a curse that would eventually tear them apart. The second verse then reveals that the man knew that their love would die and dreaded the day it would happen. Then comes the third verse: [[spoiler:"From the day she was born, they were in love. / A father's love as strong as the sea. [...] He suffered the curse of all fathers through time. / Eventually she'd lose faith in him."]]
* In the music video of the Music/FooFighters' cover of "Brown-Eyed Girl", the main character follows the eponymous girl around in such a way that it's not clear whether he's a DoggedNiceGuy or a StalkerWithACrush. At the end of the video, it turns out that she is his younger sister and he is being protective. [[FridgeHorror Then the viewer remembers]] that the lyrics of the song reference the two of them [[BrotherSisterIncest "making love in the green grass."]]
* Music/RandyTravis's "Three Wooden Crosses" relates the story of four travelers on a bus that was hit by an eighteen-wheeler. As the chorus repeatedly and emphatically states, only three of the travelers received a proper burial, raising the question of why the fourth did not. The bridge reveals that [[spoiler:one of the four didn't need burial; that person survived.]] The listener then assumes [[spoiler:the survivor is the preacher, but it soon turns out to be the hooker.]]
* John Conlee's "I Don't Remember Loving You" sounds like it's about a man who's moved on from a failed relationship and no longer remembers his ex. Then the last verse reveals the reason he doesn't remember her: [[spoiler:he's been committed to a psychiatric ward.]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* This trope is almost perfect for audio dramas: you can hide obvious physical features of primary, present characters by simply ''not mentioning them''. A minor example is at the beginning of ''Paradise Lost in Space'' where an exchange between two characters speculating about life on other planets ends abruptly when one of the characters off-handedly mentions their ''antennae'' - the entire scene occurs on another planet.
** It's something of an ItWasHisSled now, but the casual (but sudden) reference in ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' to Zaphod having two heads was originally intended to work this way. Trillian was the same idea in reverse; she initially seems to be another alien with her "space name", until it turns out it's a nickname for Tricia [=McMillian=].
* In 1976, Bob Vernon read one of his "Stranger than True" stories thus: "5 years ago today, working girl Lois Goldman of Orange, New Jersey was arrested for taking a large record player out of the WNBC studios. That large record player was BIGGIE WILSON!" (This referred to another WNBC DJ of the time, who was celebrating his fifth wedding anniversary.) [[http://airchexx.org/ram/wnbcvernon.ram Here's the air check with that story.]]
* ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'':
** The audio play ''The Natural History of Fear''. [[spoiler:Though the main cast is all present, apparently with their memories repeatedly altered, the end of the play reveals that all the characters are of a species with eight limbs who get through a hundred generations in a year, and therefore, though once visited by the Doctor, not the Doctor and his companions.]]
** The audio "The Holy Terror". The child abomination killing everyone while searching for its father [[spoiler:has the same face as the scribe.]]
** "The Rocket Men" is told in AnachronicOrder, cutting between the events leading up to Ian ending up on a hijacked ship, and the actions he takes afterwards. As a result, the {{Cliffhanger}} is Ian throwing himself out of the airlock into a gas giant to save Barbara - before the story shifts back to a scene before that in which Ian knocks out a Rocket Man and [[DressingAsTheEnemy steals his uniform]] - the fact that Ian was wearing a {{jetpack}} and helmet when he threw himself out of the airlock was not previously mentioned. We cut forward to the falling Ian turning his jetpack on and flying down to Barbara.
** "The Wormery": An old woman tells of her encounter with the Sixth Doctor, to someone she calls 'Mr. Ashcroft', who remains silent until the very end, when she asks him to look after the recordings she made of the incident in question, and he tells her he will.[[spoiler: That's when we find out he hasn't spoken before because he's the Seventh Doctor, probably the only one of the bunch capable of both such subterfuge and such prolonged silence.]]
* The ''Radio/TorchwoodTheLostFiles'' radio play "The House of the Dead" begins with Ianto in a haunted pub, waiting for Jack and Gwen to arrive, so they can interrupt a seance which will bring an evil creature through the Rift. Thus, the audience assumes that [[spoiler:this takes place before the TV serial ''Children of Earth'', in which Ianto dies - but it doesn't. Ianto is a ghost himself, Gwen's voice in his headset is actually the creature, and Jack came to the pub alone both to stop the creature and to see Ianto one last time.]]
* Paul Harvey's radio feature ''The Rest of the Story'' was based on this trope. He would relate an anecdote leaving some element unnamed, then at the end say something along the lines of "...and that young boy's name was Neil Armstrong. And now you know...''the rest of the story''."
* One radio show's prank call ended in one of these twists. The prank caller acted like she was calling about the Marines, but at the end of the call, she mentioned a decorated ex-Marine who needed the recipient's support... '''AND HIS NAME IS Wrestling/{{JOHN CENA}}!''' (The call recipient was married to a ProfessionalWrestling fan, so she got the joke.) This prank call spawned a FountainOfMemes in which John Cena is used to [[InterruptingMeme derail a scenario]].
* ''Radio/TheRickyGervaisShow'': During "Monkey News", Karl's stories would frequently include a mysterious person who turns out to be [[spoiler:a monkey]]. Frequently lampshaded by Ricky and Steve.
-->'''Karl:''' So these people are in a restaurant, having a lovely meal...
-->'''Ricky:''' Is one of them short and hairy, totally covered from top to bottom in a spacesuit, so they didn't know it was a monkey?
-->'''Steve:''' It's not one of the customers? One of the waiters?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
%%* ''VideoGame/PhantomDust'''s entire environment is not what it seems.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Metroid|1}}'', if players completed the game in a sufficient amount of time, then Samus Aran (who had until this point been wearing a huge suit of cyborgy armour) would be revealed to be [[SamusIsAGirl a girl]]. This was originally one of Nintendo's best-kept secrets, but [[LateArrivalSpoiler later games make no effort to conceal Samus's gender]].
* Creator/AdamCadre's InteractiveFiction work ''9:05'' has you waking up in a panic and receiving a phone call admonishing you on being late for work. You can go through the (logical) motions of taking a shower, getting dressed, eating breakfast, driving to work and doing your job... until you [[spoiler:suddenly are arrested and the game ends when it's revealed that under the bed was the corpse of the ''actual'' owner of the house, whom you killed yesterday while burgling the place.]]
* Used not once, but ''twice'' in ''VideoGame/{{Photopia}}''. In one part, the protagonist seems to be a normal, if MarySue-esque, astronaut, until you take off your spacesuit and [[spoiler:feel the wind ruffle your ''[[WingPull wings]]'']]. Later, the connection of this to the other plot is explained when it's revealed that [[spoiler:these segments were actually stories a babysitter is telling the young girl, with her as protagonist. It explains the Mary Sue-ness and also why the narrator has been defining words for you, SAT-style.]]
* In the bonus level of ''VideoGame/TheSuffering'', it's explicitly revealed that the "Inhuman Monster mode" the protagonist can enter, seemingly turning him into a large, sub-human beast, is simply him giving in to his primal urges and tearing the demons apart with his bare hands. This is supported by the fact that [[FridgeBrilliance Torque was a killer in two of the endings, and friendly NPCs don't seem to notice or care when you turn into the monster]]. Dr. Kiljoy also tried to convince you of this at about halfway through the game, but [[UnreliableNarrator the ghost of a sadistic quack who talks like he's a member of a barbershop quartet]] isn't the kind of person you'd trust with that diagnosis.
* In ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'', [[spoiler:it is revealed in the last few scenes of the game that the main character is not only a direct descendant of the legendary Lord Median, not ''only'' is the mysterious black sword that once held Gig's soul an enchanted demon blade once held by Median which can only be used by his direct family line, but the main character is also '''a World Eater'''. Without any sort of build-up in advance]]. To say nothing of the fact that [[spoiler:one of your allies who joined the plot early on is actually possessed by one of the three main World Eaters, waiting for the best moment to usurp Gig. Oh, and that sweet sister of his that another ally of yours has been crushing on? She's now a soulless, empty shell, just so she can be a puppet for his plans.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'':
** It is said the beastmen are the spawn of the dark god Promathia. Once you prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt in ''Chains of Promathia'', [[spoiler:it's revealed that ''all'' mortal life on Vana'diel are actually all parts of Promathia's body, the god himself slain by the Emptiness, with Vana'diel being formed by Altana using the Mothercrystal to try and restore him/it, with mortals as the end result. Her tears are also our souls, apparently, or something like that.]]
** The Wings of the Goddess expansion is touted as a trip to Vana'diel's past in order to ensure the war is still won, and early missions imply it... [[spoiler:until you learn that the 'past' is actually a parallel dimension to your own. Or rather, that your dimension is a parallel to the other, where the war was actually won. And yours was never supposed to exist. Your mission is to prevent your dimension from being erased by [[EldritchAbomination Atomos]], a being that cleans up dimensions that aren't supposed to exist.]]
* ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim 2'' jokingly reveals that [[spoiler:not only are [[BigBad Psy-Crow]] and [[DistressedDamsel Princess What's-Her-Name]] actually cows, but so is ''[[PlayerCharacter Jim]] himself.'']]
-->'''Narrator:''' [[spoiler:And so, having defeated the nefarious '''Cow''', our hero, the '''Cow''', wins back the heart of the lovely '''Cow'''.]]
* Hits at the mid-game climax of ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'', in a truly brilliant execution. Whatever other game has ever had [[spoiler:the main character turn out to have been TheMole? The game even manages to explain your (you being the main character's guardian spirit of sorts) "amnesia" at the beginning of the game (from just starting it then) as part of the main character's plot to suppress your memories as you were against his evil plans.]]
* In ''{{Manhunt}} 2'', Daniel's buddy Leo, who's been following him around on his journey, often urging him to use more violence and being playable in a few levels is really the personality of a dead serial killer, implanted in Daniel's brain. The experiment was to create a super-soldier who could turn off his conscience and guilt whenever he was needed to, but Leo resisted, and secretly spent the entirety of the game trying to take over Daniel's body. On top of all that, in the end he's revealed to have forced Daniel to kill his wife and kids. Yes, he's kind of a bastard. (This plot twist was so profoundly obvious that it can barely be called a spoiler to come out and say it). In a way, even the first level {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this — Leo always seems to somehow be beyond locked doors that you have to find a way to open, and he's never anywhere in sight when you're controlling Daniel.
* ''VideoGame/ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlRevis'' has TheHero Vayne and his [[{{Familiar}} Mana]] Sulpher. [[spoiler:As it turns out, ''Vayne'' is the actual Mana, and Sulpher is his contract master]].
* The setting of the plot in ''VideoGame/{{Utawarerumono}}'' is revealed to be [[spoiler:Earth in the far future, with the world's race as a result of genetic experiments; everything resembles the feudal era because of an apocalyptic period long ago]]. And don't forget the whole [[spoiler:Hakuoro being a god thing,]] either. [[spoiler:Well, [[LiteralSplitPersonality half of one]].]]
* ''VideoGame/CaveStory:'' A third into the story, the protagonist is stated to be a RidiculouslyHumanRobot. His antennae-ears are visible from the beginning of the game, but they're easy enough to overlook (or mistake for something else) on his [[{{Retraux}} 8-bit sprite]]. It's also suggested for most of it that you're in an underground civilization, but it slowly becomes apparent that you're actually on the inside of a floating island.
* The second ''Vigilante 8'' game had two of these. [[spoiler:Garbage Man is Y the Alien from the first game, and Bob O. is a monkey]].
* ''VideoGame/RiverCityGirls'' leads the player to believe that Misako and Kyoko are dating Kunio and Riki, and run off to rescue them after they were kidnapped. Along the way [[TheBully Mami and Hasebe]] constantly belittle them. The ending reveals that Kunio and Riki are actually dating ''those girls'', while Misako and Kyoko are crazy stalkers that the boys are actively avoiding. The plot twist seems like an AssPull until you actually pay attention to the conversations the two pairs of girls have with eachother, mainly, Misako and Kyoko constantly claiming they "Don't deserve" the boys while Mami and Hasebe imply being on much friendlier terms with them and straight up calling the protagonists insane, as they are never able to disprove either of those claims.
* In ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Conviction'', one level has you play a {{Faceless Goon|s}} who has to save his squad leader. [[spoiler:You are playing as Vic Coste and the man you save is Sam.]] Not really a tomato surprise when said level starts with Vic himself saying that he saved him, which makes the fact that the goon was Vic and the leader was Sam blatantly obvious.
* A number of things in ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Blacklist'' help hide the fact that the player spends most of the final level as Isaac Briggs rather than Sam: MissionControl is otherwise occupied (explaining why 'Sam' isn't talking as much as he usually does), the full face mask worn by the character just seems like a CallBack to Sam wearing similar outfits in the climax of the first three games and the previous (non-coop) level played as Briggs was an UnexpectedGameplayChange to a FirstPersonShooter.
* ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series:
** ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'': The protagonist's wife didn't die years ago; she died a few days before he went to Silent Hill. Oh, and it was not because of illness (though she had been suffering from it for a while). He ''killed'' her.
** Alex from ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'' [[spoiler:wasn't in the army, he was in an insane asylum.]] Was M. Night Shyamalan a writer for these games!?
** ''VideoGame/SilentHillShatteredMemories'', an AlternateContinuity re-imagining of the original ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'', actually takes a unique approach with this trope with respect to the rest of the series. The plot is as basic as it gets and follows the same premise as the original: Harry Mason was in a car crash and is now traversing the town looking for his lost 7-year-old daughter Cheryl, and along the way, he's accosted by all sorts of demented-looking monsters. The game is punctuated by first-person, interactive "therapy sessions" that are set sometime after the events of the game. The last scene of the game? [[spoiler:You find out that said therapy sessions are happening in the present, ''and'' it's not Harry who's the patient but ''25-year-old'' Cheryl. It turns out Harry died in the car crash, which was actually 18 years ago (as opposed to "earlier that day" from your character's perspective,) but the real kicker is that your character isn't even Harry's ghost; the entire game was apparently a metaphorical journey through Cheryl's psyche as she underwent therapy, and your character faces the harsh reality that he's nothing more than a delusion in Cheryl's mind.]]
* In the ''Minerva's Den'' DLC of ''VideoGame/BioShock2'' you play as Subject Sigma, a prototype Big Daddy from the same line as the protagonist of the main game, Subject Delta. [[spoiler:Unlike Delta, whose previous identity is never revealed; Sigma is revealed to be Charles Milton Porter, the man who has apparently been acting as your MissionControl. The latter was actually a computer simulation of the former.]]
* In ''VideoGame/SecondSight'', the main character gets frequent playable flashbacks to events in the past. However, in said flashbacks, you can actually change events in the past which then have consequences in the future which move the plot along. [[spoiler:MentalTimeTravel? No. Turns out the "flashbacks" are actually the ''present'' time and the "present" portions are actually visions of the future, which ends up being completely erased by the end of the game.]]
* In ''VideoGame/The3rdBirthday'', [[spoiler:you have been playing as Eve Brea all along, not Aya]].
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'':
** An early plot point reveals that [[spoiler:Connor's father and the character you've been playing as up until now is a Templar. This is subtly foreshadowed but still kept vague until the very last sentence of you playing as him, when he welcomes another character to the order with the words [[WhamLine "welcome to the Templars."]]]]
** Achilles Davenport, Connor's mentor, is the one who gave him the name Connor (whose real name is Ratonhnhakéton). There doesn't seem to be any reason given for this until the end: [[spoiler:while Connor is paying respect to his late mentor and foster father's grave, we see that Achilles is buried next to his wife, who is buried next to... their son, Connor Davenport, who apparently died while a child. Achilles gave him the name as a sign that he was taking Ratonhnhakéton as the son he lost]].
* [[DoubleSubversion Double subverted]] in ''VideoGame/HeavyRain''. A few hours into the game, it appears that [[PlayerCharacter Ethan]] may be the Origami Killer. [[spoiler:This is later debunked, and then we get TheReveal that ''Shelby'' (another one of the playable characters) is the real killer]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheWitchsHouse'', you play as Viola, a young girl trying to escape the home of a disfigured witch with the help of a friendly black cat. [[spoiler:The game's true ending reveals that Viola and the witch switched bodies some time ago, and the witch disfigured her old body so that Viola would despair and die (the only way a witch can be killed is through absolute despair). So throughout the game, the player has been aiding in the ''witch's'' escape. The pseudo-third ending also reveals the "friendly" cat to be a mere body possessed by a demon, and is the one who gave the witch her powers in the first place.]]
* In ''VideoGame/IcewindDale'' we have the narrator, who reads a book describing the adventures of the PlayerCharacter party. After completing the game, in the epilogue, his voice gets very angry. [[spoiler:Turns out he personally witnessed the story - he's the BigBad]]
* Complete one loop of ''VideoGame/DonPachi'' and [[spoiler:the player character goes on a monologue about his training he's being put through, which, as he reveals, involves killing his own comrades in combat.]] Complete the 2nd loop, and [[spoiler:he reveals the purpose of the training: to create {{Super Soldier}}s for the elite [=DonPachi=] unit.]]
* The ending of ''VideoGame/ALLTYNEXSecond'' reveals that the protagonist is [[spoiler:Guehala Dennis, who was behind the development of the Phoenix in ''VideoGame/{{RefleX}}'' (and was killed about one second into that game).]]
* In ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'' the various Knights tell the player that [[spoiler:Shield Knight is dead, which he denies. She was possessed by an amulet years earlier and became the Enchantress. Shovel Knight recognized her and was fighting the Order so he could break her free from the magic]].
* The ending of ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' [[spoiler:takes place from Fiora's perspective. We do not see what she looks like at first because we're seeing what she's seeing (let me remind you that Fiora is half Mechon before this point). When Fiora meets up with Shulk, the camera pans out to reveal that she is fully Homs again.]]
* In the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'' expansion ''Kane's Wrath,'' the NonEntityGeneral you play as in the campaign seems to be a Nod commander who has managed to survive the Second and Third Tiberium Wars. It is not until the third act of the game that it is revealed that "you" are actually a computer AI that Kane personally created and programmed out of the remnants of CABAL's code after the conclusion of ''Tiberian Sun: Firestorm.''
* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has a huge one. [[spoiler:At the beginning of the game, you're asked to name the Fallen Child. Most players assume this is the character they would be playing as, and the user interface goes along with that by putting the name on the save file and the battle screen. Near the end of the game, you find out that the child you named is not the one you were controlling, but the very first child that had fallen down the mountain. Not only that, but you also learn that the first child did some really nasty things and was generally not a nice person before they succumbed to an illness. This also has the Game Over screen make more sense since the voice calling out to the named child is begging them to stay strong and determined throughout the illness. Depending on your actions in the game, the named child is either given more backstory to their hatred while revealing the true name of the playable protagonist or said child reincarnates and destroys everything like it was just a game and moves onto the next one, signifying their link to the player.]]
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series:
** There's an InUniverse example in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories''. Sora is forced to admit that the female childhood friend whom he and Riku befriended as a child is a blonde-haired girl named Naminé, a person whom he has never met before, let alone befriended. However, this is an in-universe retcon written by Naminé on the orders of Organization XIII so Sora could forget the true friend he actually befriended: Kairi. This falls apart, though, as Naminé can't completely erase that memory from Sora (like she does with Donald and Goofy), in part because of his strong memory of Kairi, and in part because she's [[spoiler:Kairi's [[EmptyShell Nobody]].]]
** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', there's the fact that Ventus and Vanitas are [[spoiler:the two sides of the same person, as in, Vanitas is the darkness extracted completely from Ventus' heart, leaving the latter a literal IncorruptiblePurePureness]], or the fact that beneath that mask, Vanitas is [[spoiler:a black-haired Sora]]. Both are sparsely hinted before the reveal and have been shown to the in-universe characters, the former one especially, so the surprises are really only on the part of the players.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' alternately lets you play as the two protagonists, Sora and Riku, who are taking the Mark of Mastery exam separately. They never encounter each other, strangely, despite the fact that the two can visit the worlds at the same time. Then it's revealed that [[spoiler:Riku is playing out as Sora's Dream Eater all along, as in, those cute creatures you can befriend as allies, and the two do take part in the exam jointly, except that Riku is doing it in Sora's dream, ''Film/{{Inception}}''-style.]] This is cleverly hinted early on as [[spoiler:Riku's costume features the same symbol as that appearing in all Dream Eaters.]] Yet this actually has been planned since the very beginning of the exam, so the revelation does not send anyone into headaches, except the players, that is. And this is all a mild twist in this infamously-MindScrew of a game...
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' drops a major bombshell plot twist in its epilogue, though it only really makes sense to those who played the Mobile game or at least watched Back Cover. [[spoiler: The Foretellers are summoned into the present by someone whom they recognize as their old friend Luxu, but that was just the name he originally used. Currently, in the game's present? ''He's Xigbar.'']]
* In ''VideoGame/OverlordI'', the protagonist is revealed to be [[spoiler:the Eighth Hero, left for dead by the other seven]]. This has ''virtually no impact'' on what happens afterwards, but could explain why an option for gameplay style is PragmaticVillainy, whereas the rest of the series Overlord's tend to be more brutal.
* ''VideoGame/{{Inversion}}'': The aliens from another world are revealed to be [[spoiler:''from a neighboring city'', as the game takes place ''on a giant ColonyShip''. Some of the townsfolk knew about the city being in some kind of bottle, but didn't tell anyone because it wasn't important until aliens showed up.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Unavowed}}'': A demon possessed a human who read a strange book, and the two went on a ridiculous murder spree that spans the entire game. Except [[spoiler:the player character is a ''demon of knowledge'', and the antagonist is the psychopathic cult leader who intentionally possessed themselves so they would gain enough power to begin their murder spree. They were so sick in the head that the exorcism cast THEM out of their own body because they were worse than the demon itself]].
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' ends with the revelation that Cassandra's interrogation of Varric [[spoiler:has been taking place in Hawke's own house the whole time. What they both knew all along, but the first-time player did not, is that Hawke fled Kirkwall in the wake of the game's events, and the reason Cassandra is asking Varric all about Hawke is so she can try to find them to ask their help with a church matter.]]
* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': The the UpdatedReRelease ''Royal'' introduced the accomplished gymnastics athlete Kasumi Yoshizawa. Everyone (Save for [[PlayerCharacter Joker]]) calls her by her surname. While normal in Japan as a sign of respect, it hides the fact she's really her violently depressed and timid sister ''Sumire'' Yoshizawa, who with [[spoiler:Takuto Maruki]]'s help, [[DeadPersonImpersonation impersonates the late Kasumi after she died in a car crash Sumire indirectly caused]]. What's more surprising is that everyone in the game (but Joker) knew that Sumire is impersonating her sister, and actually feel sorry for her having deluded herself into thinking she's Kasumi.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
%%* The plot twist in the {{Utsuge}}, ''VisualNovel/RibbonOfGreen''.
* In ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}'', Takeshi's [[spoiler:real face isn't shown during the [[MultipleEndings first playthrough]], to conceal the fact that the two Takeshis presented are different persons]]. This turns out to be a [[spoiler:big part of a plan by one of the characters to save his father and friend from a deadly virus]]. This varies based on the order one plays the routes in. If one approaches the final route from Kid's perspective, he also gets tomatoed in the same manner.
* ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'':
** In the True End of ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', several facts obvious to much of the cast are revealed to the player, such as the fact that [[spoiler:most of the game has taken place on the moon, 45 years after the player thought it was]]. Not ''all'' of the characters knew this, however. There are also some [[TomatoInTheMirror interesting revelations]] about the protagonist.
** ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' continues this trend by [[spoiler:hiding an entire character just out of sight from the audience that is completely known in-universe and just very rarely referenced. All of the characters know that "Q" is really an old man in a wheelchair and that the Q players know is really named Sean, but the player never learns this until near the end of the game]].
* ''VisualNovel/NewDanganronpaV3'': The ending of the first chapter/murder case, in which it's revealed that the killer [[spoiler:is Kaede Akamatsu, ''the PlayerCharacter'' (or, at least, supposedly; the last chapter of the game reveals she was actually innocent and was being framed, but even she didn't know that, since she wasn't present to see that her death trap wasn't what killed Rantaro). Since Monokuma was going to kill everyone if a murder was not committed within the time limit, Kaede decided to try to kill the mastermind of the killing game, but when her trap (seemingly) resulted in the death of Rantaro instead, she decided not to take Monokuma up on his offer (which allowed the first person to commit a murder to get off scot-free and leave without a trial) so she could try to catch the mastermind during the trial. Sadly, it fails, and the player switches to controlling Kaede's best friend Shuichi Saihara as the new PlayerCharacter once it becomes clear that she must be convicted. Notably, while quite a bit of her inner monologue and dialogue with other characters [[RewatchBonus will stand out on a second playthrough]] (like how she goes on and on about catching ''the mastermind'', but never about figuring out the killer, because she already (thinks she) knows who the killer is), the way it's worded is vague enough to successfully hide it from the player on the first go-round]].
* After finishing up Natsumi's route in VisualNovel/SharinNoKuni, there's a brief kinda-actiony sequence followed by Isono finally admitting he knew who Kenichi was the whole time. What was much more subtly built up was [[spoiler:when he started talking to Kenichi's sister Ririko, who has been standing right behind him the ''whole time'', forbidden from interacting with anyone else or being recognized.]] Apparently specifically so it doesn't look like an asspull, the story immediately starts a flashback sequence where this reveal had been hinted at. It's a lot more obvious in hindsight, especially when considering [[spoiler:the Maximum Penalty badge that had shown up on the title page since the beginning, yet no one in the story bore it.]]
* VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry: It turns out that the majority of the events were [[spoiler:written fiction revolving around the actual tragedy of Rokkenjima.]]
* In ''[[http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=31416&sid=9b2085ae812ba6450f8c8fc9a27652f3 Where Ages Go]]'', the protagonist is a HeroicMime who meets a cute boy in a park and gets closer to him over time until they eventually move in with him. In other words, just like your typical RomanceGame...until [[spoiler:the ending image reveals that the fact the protagonist is never shown speaking dialogue is because they're actually a ''dog'']].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* The ''WebComic/SeventySeas'' side story, [[http://70-seas.com/?p=3146 Lost and Found]], when a man in a stolen Toby Terrier convinces the Toby Town security guards that have surrounded him that he was a lost child who grew up in the park's lost and found, only to reveal that it was actually the park guards who had been raised in the lost and found and suppressed their memories of it.
* During a previous storyline of ''Webcomic/AxeCop'', Sockarang completes a mad rampage where he assaults and kidnaps his supposed allies. Once they're all safely under lock and key, he removes his mask...to reveal that he's actually Dr. Stinky Head, who had disguised himself as Sockarang to trick Axe Cop and his friends. Just then, Dr. Stinky Head shows up and divests himself of his own mask, to reveal that he's actually Sockarang, who had the exact same idea as Dr. Stinky Head.
* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' pulled this off when they did the Cocoon Academy arc, about [[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} Dedede and "Pinky"'s]] days in school. Pinky is a very familiar-looking pink puffball with good sucking abilities. [[spoiler:It turns out that he's actually Meta Knight, who got corrupted into a blue color while defending the academy, whereas soon after he got his mask. Kirby was likely not even born at the time of the arc.]]In addition, [[spoiler:"Headmaster Hand" is actually Crazy Hand, only he isn't.]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Jane and Jake live in Maple Valley, Washington and a small island in the Pacific respectively, just like John and Jade. Roxy and Dirk live in Rainbow Falls, New York and Houston, Texas. However, what was kept hidden from readers was that [[spoiler:Dirk and Roxy live in the future where the Troll Empress has taken charge of Earth and flooded it. Roxy's house is part of a chessboard-esque hub and Dirk's apartment is the only thing remaining above water.]]
* ''Webcomic/GuildedAge'': The beginning of chapter 9 let us know that none of the adventures are "real", but it's an extremely advanced experiment in virtual simulation for the online Game [[BlandNameProduct "Kingdoms of Arkerra"]] and the adventure group to be volunteers that are incapable of turning it off. HR's comments pose a philosophical question of "what is real?" when he implies Arkerra is indeed a real place, one that he 'found' through the game. He likened it to a sculptor, revealing a statue that was always in the block of marble.
* In the episode [[https://tapas.io/episode/388139 Killing Zone]] of ''Webcomic/SilentHorror'', the protagonist is killing zombies with a katana from first-person view.[[spoiler: Then it is revealed that it all was just a VR-game.]][[spoiler: In another, non-tomato twist, he actually killed his coworkers.]][[spoiler: Then there's a third twist...]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* Lateral-thinking puzzles often involve a Tomato Surprise; the point of the riddle is to get the listener to challenge their default assumptions. (Some find this infuriating since the riddles' solutions are often extremely far-fetched and difficult to reach; a common complaint is that there are often solutions that require fewer assumptions than the "official" answer. This is somewhat lessened when the listener is able to ask yes-and-no questions of the riddlemaster.) Some examples:
** A wet, naked body lies in a puddle of water surrounded by shards of glass near an overturned table. There are no marks on the body. How did the victim die? [[spoiler:A goldfish died from asphyxiation after its bowl fell down and broke.]]
** A man takes the elevator in his building on rainy days and the stairs on sunny days. [[spoiler:He has dwarfism, and the only way he can reach the elevator buttons is with his umbrella, which he only has with him on rainy days.]]
** A car is traveling along a road with no street-lights, the headlights of the car are not on either. A pedestrian in black clothes quickly walks out in front of the car. Yet the driver of the car is able to stop in good time and there is no incident. [[spoiler:It's daytime.]]
** A man walks into a restaurant and orders a bowl of albatross soup. He takes a spoonful, pays, leaves, and walks into an alley to shoot himself. Why? (you can watch a brilliantly animated yes-or-no question version [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIdHBJmZWe8 here]]) [[spoiler:He was once a castaway with his ship's crew, and their chef kept the survivors alive with his "albatross soup". When the man noticed that the real soup tasted different, he confirmed his suspicion that the chef cooked the bodies of the deceased victims, and he killed himself because he'd unwittingly committed cannibalism.]]
** When the music stopped, the lady died. [[spoiler:The lady was a blind tightrope walker, the end of the song was her cue for when to step off the tightrope onto the platform, and--oops!--someone turned off the music too early!]] Alternatively, [[spoiler:she was the ballerina figurine in a music box.]] Or alternatively, [[spoiler:she was a ladybug who flew onto a chair during a game of Musical Chairs and was squashed when people rushed to sit down in the chairs after the music stopped.]]
** A man lies dead in a forest. How did he die? [[spoiler:He was a swimmer or diver, accidentally picked up by a helicopter getting water from a lake to put out a forest fire.]]
** A man lies dead next to a green rock... How did he die? [[spoiler:He's Superman, the rock is Kryptonite.]]
** A man lies dead in the desert surrounded by 53 bicycles. [[spoiler:They were playing cards. He was cheating and got murdered. ('Bicycle' is a common brand of playing cards.)]]
** A man pushes his car in front of a hotel and as soon as he did he realized that he was broke. [[spoiler:He was playing Monopoly.]]
** A boy and his father are in a car. It gets into a terrible accident. The father is killed outright. The boy is critically injured and rushed to the hospital. In the operating room, the doctor looks down and says "My God! This is my son!" How is this possible? [[spoiler:Either the boy [[HasTwoMommies has two daddies]] or the doctor is his mother.]]
** There's a cabin in the woods. Everybody in it is dead. How did they die? [[spoiler:It's a ''plane'' cabin -- they crashed.]]
** A woman sees a house and the windows are closed. She calls the police and many people are arrested. What happened? [[spoiler:She saw the windows closed on the picture of the White House on the back of a $20 bill, and realized it was counterfeit.]]
** A man was found dead with a hole in his suit. What happened? [[spoiler:He was an astronaut on a mission and his ''space''suit got punctured.]]
** A man lies dead and alone in a desolate field with an unopened package. How did he die? Hint: The closer he got to his destination, the surer he was that he was going to die. [[spoiler:His parachute didn't open; as he neared to the ground, the man was sure he was going to die.]]
** Two chess grandmasters play five games and end up with the same win-loss records. No game ended in a draw. How? [[spoiler:They played games with other opponents.]]
** A woman shoots her husband, holds him underwater for over five minutes, then hangs him. A few minutes later, however, they go out for dinner and a movie. [[spoiler:She's a photographer. She shoots a picture of him using old-school film, places the film in a chemical bath to develop it, then hangs the developed photo to dry.]]
** The prisoner was held in a cell with high, thick concrete walls and no windows or door. So how did he escape? [[spoiler:Through the hole in the wall where the door should have been.]]
* One Internet meme (inspired by ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'') involves telling a [[ShaggyDogStory very long story]] in which, at the end, one of the characters turns out to be the Loch Ness Monster and asks for "[[FunetikAksent tree fiddy]]" (three dollars and fifty cents). A similar meme reveals at the end that the whole story was how the narrator ended up [[Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir living with his aunty and uncle in Bel-Air]].
* Joan Cornellà's surreal visual strips are a haven for this trope. In one example, a man is looking at the mirror in a bathroom, when he perceives another man killing a third one behind him. Understandably freaked out, he looks at his back, but he's relieved as the final panel reveals [[spoiler:there weren't two men, but two homunculi growing out of his own back.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''[[VisualNovel/EfAFairyTaleOfTheTwo ef: A Tale Of Memories]]'' pulled an awesome example, revealed in the second season of the anime. Revealed at the very end of the game). [[spoiler:Hiro, Miyako, and Yuuko are not in the same city as Renji, Chihiro, and Yuu. The two cities are both named Otowa, both have churches and schools. But one is located in Japan, the other is located in Australia.]]
%%* ''Manga/{{Sola}}'': The whole cast doesn't seem quite right from the beginning.
* Pulled not once, but ''three times'' in ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'', each time proving our OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent protagonists to be [[BewareTheNiceOnes not quite so ordinary]]: [[spoiler:first, shy, naive Mikado turns out to be the founder and leader of the Dollars, then ShrinkingViolet Anri is not only in possession of the original Saika, but she's been keeping it under control for the past ''five years'', and ''then'' easy-going, bad-joke-cracking Masaomi is the ex-general of the Yellow Scarves.]] Whew! Made even better when you watch the anime back through again, and realize that ''all the clues are there'' for you to figure it out yourself.
* ''Literature/{{Another}}'': The fact that [[spoiler:his aunt Reiko and his assistant homeroom teacher Ms. Mikami are the same person]] is not a secret to the protagonist Kouichi, but the anime hides it from the audience until the final episode, making it harder to connect the dots leading to [[spoiler:the identity of the DeadAllAlong person in his homeroom class]].
* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has the revelation that [[spoiler:Portgas D. Ace is not Luffy's biological brother, but actually the son of the Pirate King, Gold Roger]]. While this is treated as a heart-stopping revelation by both the audience ''and'' most of the ''One Piece'' world (and rightfully so), those closest to him were perfectly aware of it and honestly didn't care. Hell, Luffy knew about it ever since they first met, and the only reason he never told anyone is that ''[[YouDidntAsk nobody bothered to ask]]''.
* ''Manga/ZekkyouGakkyuu'' has several chapters that end up with these surprises.
** ''The Land Of Mirrors'' has the protagonist think that the land inside of mirrors is real and humans are being replaced by their reflections, the only noticeable difference being that their appearance is, well, mirror-reversed. The real revelation is that the land of mirrors ''does'' exist... but that it is ''our'' 'real world' that is the mirrored land and our reflections are the actual real world.
** ''Graduate Number 108'' has Rina portrayed as an absolute [[TheAce ace student]] and friendly to everyone, even the residential loner Reiko. The story makes no secret of the fact that Rina has something to do with Reiko's disappearance. The revelation occurs when a flashback shows that Rina is nothing but a self-absorbed bully, who attacked Reiko for calling her out on her fake personality.
** ''The Family Of Five'' has the strange occurrence of the youngest daughter always being with her family: her father, mother, brother, and sister. Yet nobody ever thought it was a strange thing, not even that the whole family was going to school with her! Sick and tired of this, especially when a crush of hers confesses and realizing she'll never be left alone by them, she starts brandishing a knife... We suddenly cut to a home economics classroom, where a student accidentally cut her smallest finger off. The family of five was actually a 'family' of fingers on one hand.
** ''Bloody Valentine'' has a {{yandere}} stalk Naoyuki's girlfriend and sending her death threats and demanding she stay away from him, with Naoyuki also keeping his actual relationship status a secret from others. The real revelation comes from the fact that ''the protagonist'', Misaki, was the yandere and not the girlfriend.
** ''The Boyfriend Story'' has Mei learn that a cellphone game labelled ''Boyfriend Story'' is really popular, and allows the player to create their perfect boyfriend in terms of appearance and personality. The boyfriend is an Artificial Human, barely distinguishable from regular humans. Mei proceeds to ignore her best friend in favor of cuddling with her boyfriend, until she learns that he's a {{yandere}} and she deletes him. As Mei rushes to her friend's side to apologize, Mei disappears. ''She'' was also an Artificial Human created by her friend from a ''Friend Story'' cellphone game. And a throwaway line near the end points out that a good ''half'' of the humans walking around are artificial ones.
* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' had [[spoiler:Subaru and Ginga being Combat Cyborgs]]. Everyone knew from the beginning with the exception of Erio, Caro, and possibly a few minor members of Riot Force Six (yes, even the antagonists knew).
* [[WhatCouldHaveBeen It was once planned]] for ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' eventually reveal that the boring old town of Mabase is actually [[spoiler:on Mars]]. This got RefittedForSequel, sort of, since ''Anime/FLCLAlternative'' was originally designed as a StealthPrequel and ends in a way that could set this twist up.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The famous "Raptor Story" on Website/GameFAQs's Current Events forum. At the beginning of the story, the first-person narrator crashes his sister's lesbian spin the bottle party and is about to make out with her...until she is revealed to be a velociraptor, something that was somehow completely unknown to the narrator. The twist is actually in the first act of the story, not at the end.
* The parody creepypasta "[[http://www.creepypasta.com/day-of-all-the-blood/ DAY OF ALL THE BLOOD]]" wherein it is revealed that the man that all the blood was coming from [[spoiler:WAS YOU!!! (OR HE WAS A LADY IF YOU ARE A LADY) AND YOU FORGOT THAT THIS HAPPENED]]
* The comic, [[http://i.imgur.com/3DdGA.jpg "Product"]] follows a human grown in a test tube in a post-nuclear war world and the realization of what his purpose is. Who is he? [[spoiler:The Kool-Aid Man]].
* A lot of {{Creepypasta}} stories have tried to pull this off, of course, but arguably one of the most well-known and effective is the story [[http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Doors Doors]], in which the narrator witnesses a psychopath murdering his adoptive parents and kidnapping his sister. [[spoiler:We don't find out until the last sentence that the narrator is a dog.]]
* [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/the-little-lost-dragon This]] [[Wiki/SCPFoundation Foundation Tale]] seems, behind the numerous redacted segments, to be about an ordinary college student who winds up lost in some sort of alternate hell-dimension. It's only by looking at the full title and paying attention to [[CatchPhrase the last line]] that you can figure out the narrator is [[spoiler:SCP-682, the NighInvulnerable reptilian monster that the Foundation [[AndIMustScream keeps in a tank of acid]] to stop it from killing ''[[OmnicidalManiac everything]]'' because it finds our world "disgusting."]]
* The TearJerker CreepyPasta [[http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Experiment_84-B Experiment 84-B]] is about a child who was DrivenToSuicide, convinced to take part in a {{Mad Scientist}}'s experiment, and mutated into a monster. In the end, it's revealed that [[spoiler:he's Franchise/{{the Slender Man|Mythos}}]].
* There's an [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/albert-einstein-copypasta infamous religious copypasta]] about a student at a secular StrawmanU beating a smug HollywoodAtheist professor in an argument. In the end, we find out that the student was UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein. Due to the...''questionable'' veracity of this anecdote, the phrase "And his name? Albert Einstein!" has become a common response to tall tales on TheInternet, akin to "Yeah, right."
* PlayedForLaughs in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHQr0HCIN2w this]] collaboration with WebVideo/FreddieWong and Series/KeyAndPeele.
* ''[[WebAnimation/DorklyOriginals Dorkly]]'''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXsSgzKJ0fY Sonic Meets Original Fan Characters]] is revealed at the end to be [[spoiler:a fanfiction by Luigi]].
* In ''Bear Stearns Bravo'', this is PlayedForLaughs when Franco (the main character) [[spoiler:is revealed to be a girl!]]
* The third episode of ''WebAnimation/TheLazerCollection'' uses this along with DramaticIrony:
** [[spoiler:Randall knows that his own surname is Octogonapus, but the viewer doesn't.]]
** [[spoiler:At the same time, [[DramaticIrony the]] ''[[DramaticIrony viewer]]'' [[DramaticIrony knows that the villain's name is Doctor Octogonapus, but]] ''[[DramaticIrony Randall]]'' [[DramaticIrony doesn't.]]]]
* [[https://youtu.be/wpfbuAVmYhU This]] satirical video from the Website/YouTube channel "Circlejerk" (devoted to parodying Website/{{Reddit}}) starts out like a typical rant about "social justice warriors" but ultimately reveals that one of the SJW Reddit moderators is actually [[spoiler:Wrestling/JohnCena (see the "Radio" section above)]].
* Website/{{Reddit}} produced a few short stories like this that looked like normal posts or comments until they turned out to be from the viewpoint of a famous fictional character. Examples include [[https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/97jht/i_hate_my_job/ a young man complaining about his coworkers]] and [[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/alae8/warning_potentially_disturbing_question_sexy/c0i6kuh/ another young man responding to a question about uncomfortably sexy relatives]]. A similar story ([[http://www.dorkly.com/post/67492/an-epic-tale-of-friendzoning-told-in-10-tweets compiled]] on the website Dorkly) appeared in the form of a Website/{{Twitter}} thread about an unrequited crush on a friend.
* "Killer On The Loose", an episode of streaming-only horror anthology series ''The Witching Season'': It initially seems to be about a woman breaking into a house to get away from an escaped homicidal maniac, but in the end it turns out she ''is'' the maniac and the person she's been hiding from inside is her victim. A few standard horror tropes are played with to make the audience reach the initial conclusion: The man in the house looks villainous because he's sneaking around wearing a [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason-style]] hockey mask (as part of a Halloween costume), and you're meant to think he's already inside of the house because of OffscreenTeleportation, not because he was never outside chasing her to begin with.
* [[https://yoraikun.wordpress.com/2016/06/18/there-is-a-narrative-trick-in-this-story/ "There is a Narrative Trick in this Story"]] is all about this trope, with the two characters discussing examples of how it can appear. Of course, as implied by the title, the story itself also uses the trope.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'':
** "Operation: H.O.S.P.I.T.A.L.": It's Tomato mixed with ContinuityNod in one, as the KND go to a hospital to guard a hospitalized operative. A few minutes from the end, it's revealed that said operative is... Bradley the Skunk from "Operation: C.A.M.P.", who had been made an honorary operative in that episode (and has now been rebuilt as a cyborg). Cree is surprised to find the skunk on a hospital bed when she (and we) expected a regular kid, and Numbuh Four, who had been a bit jealous at Numbuh Three for claiming to be in love with the injured operative (her exact words were "I love him"), is all "Hey!" when he sees Bradley, who she considered her adopted son.
** "Operation: U.N.C.O.O.L.": The KND go on what they think is a mission to rescue an operative, Numbuh 78. In fact, we even see her getting kidnapped by a bunch of zombies. Later on, it transpires that the "Numbuh 78" to which Numbuhs 2 and 44 are referring is a trading card.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' played this in one episode ("Almost Got 'em"), where Two-Face, Poison Ivy, The Penguin, Killer Croc, and The Joker met to discuss how Batman beat them over a game of poker. The Joker reveals that Harley Quinn has Catwoman tied up in a warehouse, to avenge his defeat to Batman. Then Batman reveals he was disguised as Killer Croc all along, and all the other unsavory malcontents in the poker hall turn out to be undercover cops.
** Another Batman example comes from the episode ''Mean Seasons'', where a former model is taking revenge on the executives who dumped her for younger-looking rivals. She talks about how she subjected herself to starvation and endless surgery in an effort to keep up, and now all we see is her wearing a mask, leaving us to wonder what happened. When she's captured and unmasked in the end, it turns out she was actually BeautifulAllAlong.
---->'''Batgirl''': She's beautiful!
---->'''Batman''': She doesn't know how to see that anymore. All she sees are the flaws.
** Another episode had a new crimefighter known as The Judge, who was meting out deadly vigilante justice on Gotham's arch-criminals including Penguin, Killer Croc, and Two-Face. At the end it turned out it was really Harvey Dent, who had become so distraught about becoming the villain Two-Face that his mind fragmented again and spawned the new identity of The Judge, a personality so distinct that it even went so far as to try to kill himself as Two-Face (Batman figured it out when he realized the two were never in the same place at the same time).
* Played in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' with Liu Kim, the City Wok owner, who is actually one of Dr. Janus' personalities.
* Referenced on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' when Homer submits this poem to a literary journal:
-->There once was a rapping tomato
-->That's right, I said "rapping tomato"
-->He rapped all day, from April to May
-->And also, guess what, ''[[NarratorAllAlong it was me]].''
* After many episodes of suspense, cliffhangers, confusion, and even a BizarroEpisode, the second season of ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'' finally ends with the ultimate evil (the being that can be used to take over the world) being Zak Saturday...the main character.
* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' features an episode where a mermaid and a rather savage-looking barbarian [[HumanPopsicle thaw from an ancient iceberg.]] The monks immediately befriend the mermaid and try to protect her from the barbarian [[spoiler:who is the only one who knows that she's an evil fish monster who only takes her beautiful mermaid form when she's wet or in the water.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' had a mundane, but ''very'' horrifying one at the end of TheMovie with TheReveal that [[spoiler:Eddy's brother, who had been presented, by Eddy, as TheAce, is in fact a sadistic BigBrotherBully who made Eddy's life a living hell while they lived together. Eddy lied about him to make people respect and like him.]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode "The Boy Who Cried Comet" revealed that [[spoiler:all the characters are actually aliens filming the show on another planet.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', one episode features Garfield hosting a show where he passes off a bunch of misinformation as fact such as that there is no state of Wyoming, fire hydrants use compressed water, etc. When he claims that dogs have no brains, the audience is revealed to be a bunch of dogs who are none too pleased and run him out of town.
* {{Downplayed}} on ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall''--though it's not confirmed until the penultimate segment's WholeEpisodeFlashback, most fans probably could have guessed that [[FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling Wirt and Greg]] are [[spoiler:from our world, in near-modern times]]. Really, the bigger surprise is how they got lost in the Unknown to begin with: [[spoiler:they're having a NearDeathExperience while drowning]].
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "The City Of Clipsville" posits a flashback (not really one but a flashback created specifically for the episode) where the Professor and Ms. Bellum get married. When the Professor lifts her veil, it turns out to be Mojo Jojo.
-->'''Mojo''': I have ''always'' loved you!
* In ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots: [[Recap/LoveDeathAndRobotsSonniesEdge Sonnie's Edge]]'', a [[RapeAsBackstory scarred and traumatized]] woman living in a dystopian future Britain participates in a {{Beastly Blood Sport|s}} where genetically engineered beasts controlled remotely by human pilots fight to the death. [[spoiler:Except for Sonnie, the ''human body'' is her remote-piloted one and the ''beast body'' is her main one - [[EmergencyTransformation she was so badly wounded by her rapists that she had to be transferred over into it to save her]]. That's why Sonnie always wins: [[HadToBeSharp Because she is the only competitor literally fighting for her life.]]]]
* The conclusion of the Creator/TexAvery cartoon "Who Killed Who?" has the detective subduing and unmasking the murderer. It was the live-action narrator we saw at the beginning ("I dood it! ''Sob!!'').
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* Lateral-thinking puzzles often involve a Tomato Surprise; the point of the riddle is to get the listener to challenge their default assumptions. (Some find this infuriating since the riddles' solutions are often extremely far-fetched and difficult to reach; a common complaint is that there are often solutions that require fewer assumptions than the "official" answer. This is somewhat lessened when the listener is able to ask yes-and-no questions of the riddlemaster.) Some examples:
** A wet, naked body lies in a puddle of water surrounded by shards of glass near an overturned table. There are no marks on the body. How did the victim die? [[spoiler:A goldfish died from asphyxiation after its bowl fell down and broke.]]
** A man takes the elevator in his building on rainy days and the stairs on sunny days. [[spoiler:He has dwarfism, and the only way he can reach the elevator buttons is with his umbrella, which he only has with him on rainy days.]]
** A car is traveling along a road with no street-lights, the headlights of the car are not on either. A pedestrian in black clothes quickly walks out in front of the car. Yet the driver of the car is able to stop in good time and there is no incident. [[spoiler:It's daytime.]]
** A man walks into a restaurant and orders a bowl of albatross soup. He takes a spoonful, pays, leaves, and walks into an alley to shoot himself. Why? (you can watch a brilliantly animated yes-or-no question version [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIdHBJmZWe8 here]]) [[spoiler:He was once a castaway with his ship's crew, and their chef kept the survivors alive with his "albatross soup". When the man noticed that the real soup tasted different, he confirmed his suspicion that the chef cooked the bodies of the deceased victims, and he killed himself because he'd unwittingly committed cannibalism.]]
** When the music stopped, the lady died. [[spoiler:The lady was a blind tightrope walker, the end of the song was her cue for when to step off the tightrope onto the platform, and--oops!--someone turned off the music too early!]] Alternatively, [[spoiler:she was the ballerina figurine in a music box.]] Or alternatively, [[spoiler:she was a ladybug who flew onto a chair during a game of Musical Chairs and was squashed when people rushed to sit down in the chairs after the music stopped.]]
** A man lies dead in a forest. How did he die? [[spoiler:He was a swimmer or diver, accidentally picked up by a helicopter getting water from a lake to put out a forest fire.]]
** A man lies dead next to a green rock... How did he die? [[spoiler:He's Superman, the rock is Kryptonite.]]
** A man lies dead in the desert surrounded by 53 bicycles. [[spoiler:They were playing cards. He was cheating and got murdered. ('Bicycle' is a common brand of playing cards.)]]
** A man pushes his car in front of a hotel and as soon as he did he realized that he was broke. [[spoiler:He was playing Monopoly.]]
** A boy and his father are in a car. It gets into a terrible accident. The father is killed outright. The boy is critically injured and rushed to the hospital. In the operating room, the doctor looks down and says "My God! This is my son!" How is this possible? [[spoiler:Either the boy [[HasTwoMommies has two daddies]] or the doctor is his mother.]]
** There's a cabin in the woods. Everybody in it is dead. How did they die? [[spoiler:It's a ''plane'' cabin -- they crashed.]]
** A woman sees a house and the windows are closed. She calls the police and many people are arrested. What happened? [[spoiler:She saw the windows closed on the picture of the White House on the back of a $20 bill, and realized it was counterfeit.]]
** A man was found dead with a hole in his suit. What happened? [[spoiler:He was an astronaut on a mission and his ''space''suit got punctured.]]
** A man lies dead and alone in a desolate field with an unopened package. How did he die? Hint: The closer he got to his destination, the surer he was that he was going to die. [[spoiler:His parachute didn't open; as he neared to the ground, the man was sure he was going to die.]]
** Two chess grandmasters play five games and end up with the same win-loss records. No game ended in a draw. How? [[spoiler:They played games with other opponents.]]
** A woman shoots her husband, holds him underwater for over five minutes, then hangs him. A few minutes later, however, they go out for dinner and a movie. [[spoiler:She's a photographer. She shoots a picture of him using old-school film, places the film in a chemical bath to develop it, then hangs the developed photo to dry.]]
** The prisoner was held in a cell with high, thick concrete walls and no windows or door. So how did he escape? [[spoiler:Through the hole in the wall where the door should have been.]]
* One Internet meme (inspired by ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'') involves telling a [[ShaggyDogStory very long story]] in which, at the end, one of the characters turns out to be the Loch Ness Monster and asks for "[[FunetikAksent tree fiddy]]" (three dollars and fifty cents). A similar meme reveals at the end that the whole story was how the narrator ended up [[Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir living with his aunty and uncle in Bel-Air]].
* Joan Cornellà's surreal visual strips are a haven for this trope. In one example, a man is looking at the mirror in a bathroom, when he perceives another man killing a third one behind him. Understandably freaked out, he looks at his back, but he's relieved as the final panel reveals [[spoiler:there weren't two men, but two homunculi growing out of his own back.]]
[[/folder]]

[[quoteright:288:[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rodserling4.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:288:Guess what she looks like under those bandages. [[note]]She's a beautiful human, but [[EveryoneIsATomato everyone else has pig snouts.]][[/note]]]]

** The fourth season episode "Fall" does something similar. [[spoiler:Previous scenes set in [[Disney/{{Frozen}} Arendelle]] were established as taking place before David the shepherd boy became Prince Charming or Belle met Rumpelstiltskin; the previous episode said it was 1985 in our world. When Anna and Kristoff defrost in the first Arendelle scene of the episode, we assume that this happened when the Snow Queen left the realm, shortly after they were frozen. It's not until the reveal that Blackbeard now captains the Jolly Roger that we realise they've been {{Human Popsicle}}s for thirty years.]]

* ''VideoGame/Persona5Royal'', the UpdatedReRelease go ''Persona 5'', introduces the accomplished gymnastics athlete Kasumi Yoshizawa. Everyone (Save for [[PlayerCharacter Joker]]) calls her by her surname. While normal in Japan as a sign of respect, it hides the fact she's really her violently depressed and timid sister ''Sumire'' Yoshizawa, who with [[spoiler:Takuto Maruki]]'s help, [[DeadPersonImpersonation impersonates the late Kasumi after she died in a car crash Sumire indirectly caused]]. What's more surprising is that everyone in the game (but Joker) knew that Sumire is impersonating her sister, and actually feel sorry for her having deluded herself into thinking she's Kasumi.

* ''VideoGame/Persona5Royal'', an UpdatedReRelease of ''VideoGame/Persona5'', introduces the accomplished gymnastics athlete Kasumi Yoshizawa. Everyone (Save for [[PlayerCharacter Joker]]) calls her by her surname. While normal in Japan as a sign of respect, it hides the fact she's really her violently depressed and timid sister ''Sumire'' Yoshizawa, who with [[spoiler:Takuto Maruki]]'s help, [[DeadPersonImpersonation impersonates the late Kasumi after she died in a car crash she indirectly caused]]. Everyone but Joker knew Sumire had deluded herself into thinking she's Kasumi.

-->'''Narrator:''' [[spoiler:And so, having defeated the nefarious [[AC:Cow]], our hero, the [[AC:Cow]], wins back the heart of the lovely [[AC:Cow]].]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: in ''Anime/{{FLCL}},'' WordOfGod says that there was a plan to eventually reveal that the boring old town of Mabase is actually [[spoiler:on Mars]]. This got RefittedForSequel, sort of, since ''Anime/FLCLAlternative'' was originally designed as a StealthPrequel and ends in a way that could set this twist up.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}'', Takeshi's [[spoiler:real face isn't shown during the [[MultipleEndings first playthrough]], to conceal the fact that the two Takeshis presented are different persons]]. This turns out to be a [[spoiler:big part of a plan by one of the characters to save his father and friend from a deadly virus]]. This varies based on the order one plays the routes in. If one approaches the final route from Kid's perspective, he also gets tomatoed in the same manner.

* After finishing up Natsumi's route in VisualNovel/SharinNoKuni, there's a brief kinda-actiony sequence followed by Isono finally admitting he knew who Kenichi was the whole time. What was much more subtly built up was [[spoiler:when he started talking to Kenichi's sister Ririko, who has been standing right behind him the ''whole time'', forbidden from interacting with anyone else or being recognized.]] Apparently specifically so it doesn't look like an asspull, the story immediately starts a flashback sequence where this reveal had been hinted at. It's a lot more obvious in hindsight, especially when considering [[spoiler:the Maximum Penalty badge that had shown up on the title page since the beginning, yet no one in the story bore it.]]

* VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry: It turns out that the majority of the events were [[spoiler:written fiction revolving around the actual tragedy of Rokkenjima.]]

* In ''[[http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=31416&sid=9b2085ae812ba6450f8c8fc9a27652f3 Where Ages Go]]'', the protagonist is a HeroicMime who meets a cute boy in a park and gets closer to him over time until they eventually move in with him. In other words, just like your typical RomanceGame...until [[spoiler:the ending image reveals that the fact the protagonist is never shown speaking dialogue is because they're actually a ''dog'']].

* A staple of composition assignments in high school.

* ''Webcomic/GuildedAge'': The beginning of chapter 9 let us know that none of the adventures are "real" but its an extremely advanced experiment in virtual simulation for the online Game [[BlandNameProduct "Kingdoms of Arkerra"]] and the adventure group to be volunteers that are incapable of turning it off. HR's comments pose a philosophical question of "what is real?" when he implies Arkerra is indeed a real place, one that he 'found' through the game. He likened it to a sculptor, revealing a statue that was always in the block of marble.

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' drops a major bombshell plot twist in its epilogue, though it only really makes sense to those who played the Mobile game or at least watch Back Cover. [[spoiler: The Foretellers are summoned into the present by someone whom they recognize as their old friend Luxu, but that was just the name he originally used. Currently, in the game's present? ''He's Xigbar.'']]

* ''Film/{{Triangle}}'' starts with the protagonist having a crappy morning with her disabled son, and then in the next shot she is standing near a dock on the marina where she meets her friends while acting all confused. It seems like these 2 scenes happen within several minutes with nothing important happening in between, but the truth is that [[spoiler:it's been more than a whole day between those 2 scenes, at least for the protagonist. Previously, she had been with her friends on a haunted ship where she ended up killing them, then traveled back in time to that morning, killed the past version of herself to replace her, but then her son got killed in a car accident so she went to the marina in order to return to the haunted ship where she hoped she would be able to travel back in time to save her son from dying. It's very likely that she's been stuck in an infinite series of TimeTravel-induced CloseEnoughTimeline loops in which she keeps killing her friends and her past-self in order to be reunited with her son, but then the inevitably recurring deaths of her son make her travel back in time again and again in futile attempts to save her son the next time, thus making her appearance on the marina a result of a convoluted BootstrapParadox.]]

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', there's the fact that Ventus and Vanitas are [[spoiler:the two sides of the same person, as in, Vanitas is the darkness extracted completely from Ventus' heart, leaving the latter a literal IncorruptiblePurePureness]], or the fact that beneath that mask, Vanitas is [[spoiler:a black-haired Sora]]. Both are sparsely hinted before the reveal and have been shown to the in-universe characters, the former one especially, so the surprises are really only in the part of the players.

* ''Film/{{Triangle}}'' starts with the protagonist having a crappy morning with her disabled son, and then in the next shot she is standing near a dock on the marina where she meets her friends while acting all confused. It seems like these 2 scenes happen within several minutes with nothing important happening in between, but the truth is that [[spoiler:it's been more than a whole day between those 2 scenes, at least for the protagonist. Previously, she had been with her friends on a haunted ship where she ended up killing them, then traveled back in time to that morning, killed the past version of herself to replace her, but then her son got killed in a car accident so she went to the marina in order to return to the haunted ship where she hoped she would be able to travel back in time to save her son from dying. It's very likely that she's been stuck in an infinite series of TimeTravel-induced CloseEnoughTimeline loops in which she keeps killing her friends and her past-self in order to be reunited with her son, but then the inevitably recurring deaths of her son make her travel back in time again and again in futile attempts to save her son the next time, thus making her appearance on the marina a result of a convoluted BootstrapParadox.]]

* The Vicki Lawrence song, "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia" (later covered by Reba), has the singer tell the story about how her brother got railroaded and eventually hung by small-town justice for a murder he didn't commit. How does she know this? [[spoiler:The last verse reveals that she is in fact the killer.]]

* Randy Travis's "Three Wooden Crosses" relates the story of four travelers on a bus that was hit by an eighteen-wheeler. As the chorus repeatedly and emphatically states, only three of the travelers received a proper burial, raising the question of why the fourth did not. The bridge reveals that [[spoiler:one of the four didn't need burial; that person survived.]] The listener then assumes [[spoiler:the survivor is the preacher, but it soon turns out to be the hooker.]]