History Main / AppealToAudacity

* In the ''SherlockHolmes'' story "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", this is what leads Holmes to believe that the young man who has been arrested may be innocent after all -- the statement he gave the police is too stupid to be a lie.

* [[DougWalker Doug Walker]] was trying to get into America after a con, and he'd lost his passport. After the border guard asked what his job was, and citing that he was essentially a comedian, asked Doug to tell him something funny. Doug responded by [[InvokedTrope invoking]] this trope and explaining to the guard what a [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Brony]] is, citing things such as their tendency to welcome new fans with [[MemeticMutation 'welcome to the herd']]. It works.

* This has happened in ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' a number of times. For instance, when the team comes back from another world and Jonas Quinn tells General Hammond that there's a flying bug monster in the room that only he can see, Hammond immediately believes him and locks the base down because this is the kind of thing they often deal with. However, though the characters have experienced other weird things, which gives them a reason to accept new ones, they don't just accept weird stories ''because'' they're too crazy to make up.

* This has happened in ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' a number of times. For instance, see the General Hammond reference in SeenItAll. This may not count, though, because the characters have experienced other weird things, which gives them a reason to accept new ones -- they don't just accept weird stories because they're too crazy to make up.
** In ''Series/StargateContinuum'', after he, Sam, and Mitchell have tried for some time to convince people they're in an alternate reality, Daniel gets frustrated and snaps, "Seriously, who would make this shit up?!"

** In ''StargateContinuum'', after he, Sam, and Mitchell have tried for some time to convince people they're in an alternate reality, Daniel gets frustrated and snaps, "Seriously, who would make this shit up?!"
* Subverted in the TV quiz show ''TalkinBoutYourGeneration'', host Shaun Micallef will often make a long, detailed, and ridiculous statement and then ask if it is true or false. The contestants often assume that such a statement must, by virtue of this trope, be true, only to have Micallef then tell them that they are wrong and he made the whole thing up.
* Similarly done on ''SpicksAndSpecks'' in "One Out of Three Ain't Bad". Adam tells a story with one true ending and two false endings. Played with when there are two equally far out endings, available and subverted when the team chooses the less implausible one.

*** The mainstream Christian account is that Jesus martyred himself for the good of the entire human race. I'd say that makes him look pretty good in ''any'' context.
*** Yes, but that's just a positive spin on a bad death. If they wanted, they could have had him [[IncendiaryExponent burst into flames]], [[{{Flight}} fly into the stratosphere]], [[StuffBlowingUp explode]], and make it rain acid on a legion of Roman soldiers for your sins.
*** The Apostles don't come off looking very good on the night Jesus was arrested. In the context of the Old Testament, a people that was fabricating a history for itself probably wouldn't include the fact that they used to be slaves.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Batman}}'', Alfred uses this to explain Bruce Wayne's injuries he incurs as the Batman. In one instance he claims that Bruce was injured by 'falling out of a hot air balloon onto a table of cheese blintzes' because the story was 'too ridiculous to be disbelieved.'

* In ''TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'', Professor Kirke uses this as the reason for why he believes Lucy's story about the wardrobe - if she had been lying she would have hidden for long enough that people started looking. (There's also the fact that he's been there himself, but Creator/CSLewis hadn't thought [[Literature/TheMagiciansNephew that part]] up yet).

* Played with in PennAndTeller's movie ''Invisible Thread''. Aliens plan to destroy the human race because there is nothing unique about us. Penn demonstrates Earth's uniqueness by claiming we've invented invisible thread, and goes on to perform a simple magic trick. The aliens decide immediately to leave the world alone. The kicker is that they privately inform Penn that humanity's uniqueness wasn't the trick, but rather our capacity for utterly ludicrous lies.

* ''ArthurCClarke'''s "Literature/TalesFromTheWhiteHart" series of short stories concerns a "scientist", Harry Purvis, that tells scientific {{tall tale}}s at a London pub called the White Hart. His outrageous stories' scientific logic is often called into question, but he is kept around for entertainment's sake. The exception is one story, "What Goes Up", totally made up to deal with an annoying conspiracy theorist. [[spoiler: The end reveals Harry's obvious bullshit is taken ''totally seriously'' by the conspiracy theorist, and poor Harry gets bombarded with mail by other nutjobs-turned-fans. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard In other words, the one story he never wanted anyone to believe was the only one people actually believed.]]]]

* In ''TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'', Professor Kirke uses this as the reason for why he believes Lucy's story about the wardrobe - if she had been lying she would have hidden for long enough that people started looking. (There's also the fact that he's been there himself, but Creator/CSLewis hadn't thought that part up yet).

* One episode of ''KingOfTheHill'' involves Hank getting sent to a discretionary board on the charges of fraudulently claiming worker's compensation. Hank is unable to disprove the government's claims until he brings in the yoga expert who cured him to help verify the timeline of when he got injured and when he got cured. The board is initially very unimpressed with the yoga expert -- but accept his story when Hank points out that the yoga expert is so obnoxious that Hank would have to have been suffering from a devastating injury indeed to be desperate enough to seek help from him.

* Christianity, according to the early Christian writer Tertullian, whose "credo quia absurdum est" is [[OlderThanTheyThink possibly the earliest example of this trope.]]

Or, what happens when a GenreSavvy character realizes that the incredibly absurd story he's just been told ''has'' to be true -- for the simple reason that no one in his right mind would claim such a ridiculous story ''unless'' it were true.

Contrast CassandraTruth, in which authority figures refuse to believe an implausible tale.

* In TamoraPierce's TortallUniverse, Ally (of the ''Trickster'' duology) explains to her friends that she [[spoiler: wasn't there to stop Sarai from eloping]] because [[spoiler: [[ItMakesSenseInContext she was being held captive by a god]].]] She points out that, since she's a spymaster, "You forget I like to tell lies that will be believed."

* [[DougWalker Doug Walker]] was trying to get into America after a con, and he'd lost his passport. After the border guard asked what his job was, and citing that he was essentially a comedian, asked Doug to tell him something funny. Doug responded by [[InvokedTrope invoking]] this trope and explaining to the guard what a [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Brony]] is, citing things such as their tendency to welcome new fans with [[MemeticMutation 'welcome to the herd']]. It works.

* When an anomaly causes all parts of the ship in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' to shift into random time periods in the ship's history, Chakotay finally comes up with a solution. Unfortunately, putting the solution into action requires a deck currently under control by Seska, Chakotay's old LoveInterest turned villain. He reasons that the only way he can get her to cooperate is by being honest with her. While her subordinates are incredulous at the story, Seska declares it too implausible to be a lie.

* ''ArthurCClarke'''s "Tales From The White Hart" series of short stories concerns a "scientist", Harry Purvis, that tells scientific {{tall tale}}s at a London pub called the White Hart. His outrageous stories' scientific logic is often called into question, but he is kept around for entertainment's sake. The exception is one story, "What Goes Up", totally made up to deal with an annoying conspiracy theorist. [[spoiler: The end reveals Harry's obvious bullshit is taken ''totally seriously'' by the conspiracy theorist, and poor Harry gets bombarded with mail by other nutjobs-turned-fans. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard In other words, the one story he never wanted anyone to believe was the only one people actually believed.]]]]

* When an anomaly causes all parts of the ship in ''StarTrekVoyager'' to shift into random time periods in the ship's history, Chakotay finally comes up with a solution. Unfortunately, putting the solution into action requires a deck currently under control by Seska, Chakotay's old LoveInterest turned villain. He reasons that the only way he can get her to cooperate is by being honest with her. While her subordinates are incredulous at the story, Seska declares it too implausible to be a lie.

* In ''Manga/DeathNote'' when Mello tells Near about the killing notebook and the shinigami, the SPK asks Near if he could really believe such a story and he says that if Mello were lying to them he wouldn't tell such a ridiculous story so it must be true.

* A rather innocuous example in ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}'':

* In ''TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'', Professor Kirke uses this as the reason for why he believes Lucy's story about the wardrobe - if she had been lying she would have hidden for long enough that people started looking. (There's also the fact that he's been there himself, but CSLewis hadn't thought that part up yet).

* Subverted in the TV quiz show ''TalkinBoutYourGeneration'', host Shaun Micallef will often make a long, detailed, and ridiculous statement and then ask if it is true or false. The contestants often assume that such a statement must, by virtue of this trope, be true, only to have Micallef then tell them that they are wrong and he made the whole thing up.

*** The Apostles don't come off looking very good on the night Jesus was arrested. In the context of the Old Testament, a people that was fabricating a history for itself probably wouldn't include the fact that they used to be slaves.

* ''ArthurCClarke'''s "Tales From The White Hart" series of short stories concerns a "scientist", Harry Purvis, that tells scientific tall tales at a London pub called the White Hart. His outrageous stories' scientific logic is often called into question, but he is kept around for entertainment's sake. The exception is one story, "What Goes Up", totally made up to deal with an annoying conspiracy theorist. [[spoiler: The end reveals Harry's obvious bullshit is taken ''totally seriously'' by the conspiracy theorist, and poor Harry gets bombarded with mail by other nutjobs-turned-fans. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard In other words, the one story he never wanted anyone to believe was the only one people actually believed.]]]]

*** Yes, but that's just a positive spin on a bad death. If they wanted, they could have had him [[IncendiaryExponent burst into flames]], [[{{Flight}} fly into the stratosphere]], [[StuffBlowingUp explode]], [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome and make it rain acid on a legion of Roman soldiers]] for your sins.

* In ''DeathNote'' when Mello tells Near about the killing notebook and the shinigami, the SPK asks Near if he could really believe such a story and he says that if Mello were lying to them he wouldn't tell such a ridiculous story so it must be true.

* In ''TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'', Professor Kirke uses this as the reason for why he believes Lucy's story about the wardrobe - if she had been lying she would have hidden for long enough that people started looking. (There's also the fact that he's been there himself, but Lewis didn't know that yet).

* This trope is also the theory behind the propaganda technique known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lie the Big Lie]]. According to Hitler and Goebbels, if you are going to lie, don't say something that sounds like it might be true. Say something so outrageous that people will think that it must be true, because no one would make up a story like that.