History Main / Kayfabe

* The world of Flonyard in ''Anime/DogDays'' seems to ''run'' on Kayfabe. Battles are non-lethal, thanks to the locations in which they are held, and the various warriors and important characters are treated like idols, getting interviews and giving concerts on television. No ill-will tends to arise between nations who hold battles.
** The daring (and quite real) kidnapping of the Biscotti Princess is candidly televised and presented as though it were a story event similar to those seen in wrestling.

* The actors on ''Series/TrailerParkBoys'' would always appear in public in-character during the show's original run; they didn't appear as "themselves" until the original cancellation. Now with the show back, they appear as exaggerated versions of themselves alongside their characters. While it wasn't that difficult to determine that it was a {{mockumentary}} (it after all has credits listing the actor's real names and the writing staff), it did lead some people to believe it was a real documentary show.
** They still only ''very rarely'' make scheduled appearances as themselves, and typically only in things directly connected to their Swearnet online channel.

* Attempted, but ultimately subverted by ''Series/AmericanGladiators''. [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness The first half of the first season]] [[CharacterizationMarchesOn played up the Gladiators as outright villains]] (the pilot apparently had fake backstories for the Gladiators, but that element was discarded) and attempted to portray the Gladiator Arena as an almost-otherworldly place. By the second half, this stuff was tossed out and things were made much more like an actual sporting event, which stuck around for the rest of the show. Nothing was staged, and all the athletics were real.
** Conversely, the multitude of shows that attempted to FollowTheLeader on ''AG'''s success -- ''Knights and Warriors'', ''Wild West Showdown'', and ''Battle Dome'' -- all had this trope firmly in place.

* This practice was used in UsefulNotes/RollerDerby predominantly during the TV era (the 1950s-70s). Modern Roller Derby uses aspects of kayfabe only to the extent that skaters may adopt [[AlterEgoActing slightly different on-track personalities]]; the action is entirely unstaged.[[note]]In many cases, roller derby is an actual competition without a predetermined (read: rigged) outcome, instead of just being "sports entertainment" (examples of the latter include "Rollergames", and "Rollerjam").[[/note]]
** The history of roller derby is difficult to discern because of self-promotion by the second owner of the original roller derby, Jerry Seltzer, who passed away in 2019. While showmanship and flashiness were common elements in the 1940s-70s era of the sport, the historical record seems to indicate that in fact, games were for real with no predetermined outcome, and this continued with the rival Rollergames promotion in the late 1970s to 80s.
* It is not uncommon for athletes in "real" sports to put on a sort-of kayfabe of their own, creating feuds or rivalries that may well have no place in reality but which serve to help build a brand and keep fans engaged between games. It also isn't uncommon for players to make a show of being best buddies on the field and even in media interviews, only to be distant-at-best when the cameras aren't rolling.
** During the 1998 home run chase between Mark [=McGwire=] and Sammy Sosa, they gave off the image of being close friends united in a race for history--when [=McGwire=] broke the home run record, Sosa came and gave him a big hug. Years later they both admitted that they never really talked to each other at all outside of happenstance meetings and pre-arranged interviews.

* ''Webcomic/MrBoop'': Part of the appeal of the comic is Alec Robbins constant public commitment to the idea that the comic is based on his "actual real life" being married to WesternAnimation/BettyBoop.
** [[spoiler: Finally broken in strip #166 when Alec publicly confesses that he was misleading the audience and was never married to Betty Boop.]]

** Ditto with Creator/AdrianaCaselotti, whose sole feature film role was the titular princess in ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''. While she did made cameo appearances in a number of films (notably singing "wherfore art thou Romeo" in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''), Caselotti was said to have been contractually forbidden to appear elsewhere in a starring role--[[Radio/TheJackBennyProgram Jack Benny]] recalled that he asked Walt Disney for permission to hire Adriana for his radio program, only for Disney to flat-out decline, saying "I'm sorry, but that voice can't be used anywhere. I don't want to spoil the illusion of Snow White."

* WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse: One of the recurring subplots involves an underground wrestling arena that very much follows the kayfabe nature of boxing. Amethyst plays the role of "Purple Puma" a heel wrestler who loves it when the crowd boos her. Thanks to Amethyst's non-human body and inhuman strength, other wrestlers fail to defeat her even in the most simple of combat. Steven plays the character "Tiger Millionaire", another heel wrestler who uses his immense "jungle bucks" wealth to openly cheat by buying off wrestlers mid match or use various underhanded tricks. There are also numerous other face and heel wrestlers who take them on.

* Ride/DisneyThemeParks call it "Character Integrity", and it is very strictly enforced. As far as every cast member (kayfabe InsistentTerminology for "Disney park employee") is concerned, that ''is'' Mickey Mouse, that ''is'' Cinderella, etc. Actors are told to say that they are "friends with" the character they play as a way to hint at what they do while not actually admitting it. The cast members never break character, and they're quite careful to make sure you never see two of the same character at once. [[note]]For example, if you're on line to meet Queen Elsa, the line is likely to end in a large waiting room--then one group at a time will be taken from the waiting room to the actual audience chamber where Elsa is waiting. There might be four audience chambers, each with its own Elsa, but the kids-of-all-ages will never know.[[/note]]
** This is taken even further in ''Ride/StarWarsGalaxysEdge'': the park's entire purpose is to give visitors the illusion that they are inside the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe and thus every single cast member in the park is effectively a character with a back story and will always reply to questions in character. Staying at the ''Galactic Starcruiser'' resort entails two full days of {{LARP}}ing in a personal ''Star Wars'' storyline with visitors encouraged to ally with the Resistance or First Order.

** A tradition of the University of South Carolina is that a people playing the mascot Cocky can not reveal this even to friends. They can reveal themself only by wearing the costume's feet with their cap and gown at their graduation ceremony. In 2023, [[CrosscastRole Sarah Sylvester]]'s [[LargeHam particularly enthusiac performance]] to [[SamusIsAGirl reveal that she was Cocky]] received national media coverage.

* This is often the reality of any religious family with non-religious members during religious holidays. Many non-religious people still elect to "celebrate" religious holidays, that is, they use their days off to visit their family and spend some time together. They know this will make their religious family happy, so they put on a kayfabe: sure, everyone knows they are not religious and would not actually celebrate if it wasn't for their family, but explicitly bringing that topic up is faux pas, and as long as noone breaks the kayfabe, the religious family may harmlessly live through their idea of perfect holidays.

* In general, {{Fanon}} wikis like Website/{{Fantendo}} or Website/ClubPenguinFanon often require at least a smattering of this for most if not all of their pages to look decent, structuring articles as if the fictional releases in question exist in the real world. However, most sensible fanon wikis will acknowledge that ThisIsAWorkOfFiction to prevent confusion and other potential issues from taking the kayfabe too far.

* [[http://www.modelmayhem.com/lilymay Lily May]], from [[RealJokeName Mold]], North Wales, United Kingdom is a model and [[UnusualEuphemism adult actor]], but the MILF persona she portrays is very ''clearly'' a persona in the same way as wrestling is stage-managed, but [[LoonyFan some fans on Twitter do not realize this]]. Only a few people know it is kayfabe and Lily May's real persona is never or rarely mentioned, if ever, in public. The AmbiguouslyBi nature portrayed on her Website/{{Twitter}} page is also kayfabe too, although [[WordOfGod she has stated she is bisexual in]] RealLife. The [[StacysMom MILF persona is not real, despite what fans think]]. This borders on AlterEgoActing.

* Creator/AndrewDiceClay's character of "The Diceman" was a DeconstructiveParody of the GreaserDelinquents frequently found throughout UsefulNotes/TheFifties, especially Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli from ''Series/HappyDays''. The Diceman played all of the stereotypes held during the Fifties for DeliberateValuesDissonance; Diceman was foul-mouthed, racist, homophobic, and ''especially'' sexist, seeing women as little more than ways to get a tally on a score card. However, there was long-standing confusion as to [[LostInCharacter whether the things that The Diceman said were what Clay actually believed]], or if [[MeanCharacterNiceActor this really was just all an act]]. This confusion was not helped by Clay's commitment to kayfabe, as he insisted on staying in-character every time he appeared on TV, even for talk shows and interviews. This ended up killing Clay's career, as he developed a MisaimedFandom of people who missed the fact that The Diceman was a parody, taking the sexist and racist things he said at face value and applauding it.

In all cases of kayfabe being used, the fact that what's being shown isn't really what's going on is obvious to anyone who looks at it. But the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief is understood by everyone involved for the sake of enjoying the media. Telling the average fan that wrestling is "fake", or that Franchise/TheMuppets aren't real actors, or that their favorite VirtualYoutuber is not a cute anime character but a person using motion-capture software, will just make you sound stupid - [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore you're not the first person to say that]], and everyone's well-aware by now. But no matter what you say, the fan still likes it. They're participating in the fiction because they want to enjoy it or believe in it.

* Many daily GameShows pretend that they filmed one episode per day (often referring to the projected air date as if it was "today"). In reality, they generally film one week's worth of shows in a single day (contestants and panelists bring multiple outfits, changing between shows). A contestant who will "come back tomorrow" only has a short break; one who will "come back next week" may actually return for filming the next day, next week, or even months later. (This was more of [[TheArtifact an artifact]] from when everything was live as opposed to tape; Creator/JackBarry asked this on every show he hosted.)

* In TheFifties, {{Game Show}}s (then known as quiz shows) were [[ExecutiveMeddling rigged by their producers]] in order to create a more compelling product that people would want to watch and advertisers would want to sponsor, as some of the earliest shows saw the contestants get tripped up by simple questions and embarrass themselves. The resulting scandal that erupted when the rigging was exposed in 1958 led to [[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee Congressional hearings]], new laws being passed to ban such rigging, and game shows [[GenreKiller vanishing from the airwaves]] for over a decade. Only in TheSeventies after sufficient time had passed did they return, and these shows had lower prizes and different formats that focused more on word games and puzzles than general knowledge.

Naturally, there had always been skeptics that denied pro wrestling's legitimacy from the beginning [[note]]A court case in the 1930s revealed the inner workings of pro wresting in the court transcripts and ''Film/ShadowOfTheThinMan'' cracked jokes about the pretense as early as 1941, not to mention that ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' had Fred Flintstone laugh at the idea that wrestling was real in their ProWrestlingEpisode (first aired in 1963)[[/note]], but fans widely started to figure out the truth in the '70s. And once Wrestling/VinceMcMahon[='=]s [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Federation]] rose to prominence in the '80s, the secret was out for any but the most die-hard fans. And even they finally got it in the '90s, when [=McMahon=] himself revealed it on ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw Monday Night RAW]]''. In spite of this, WWE had a massive period of success with its Wrestling/AttitudeEra from 1997 to 2001 when ''RAW'' became one of the most popular shows on television. How were so many people fooled? The simple answer is that they weren't fooled at all; any one of those millions of fans could tell you that it was all staged, but they still enjoyed it.\\\

* ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' games generally pit two opposing factions in a staged map per event, with them basing off some real-life organizations and even having realistically-modelled guns. Despite being a FirstPersonShooter example of this trope, their outcome is in the players' hands. In some matches, the Counter-Terrorists lampshade this.

* ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' games generally pit two opposing factions in a staged map per event, with them basing off some real-life organizations and even having realistically-modelled guns. Despite being a FirstPersonShooter example of this trope, their outcome is in the players' hands.