History Main / CoversAlwaysLie

* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman:'' Todd's favorite game ''Decapathon VII'' looks like an epic fantasy game with aa hunky barbarian and bikini-clad fox babe on the cover and title screen, but the game itself appears to be a "match the shapes" puzzle game with just some skulls in the background.

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'': In the episode "Death Punchies", Mordecai and Rigby are playing a video game called Dig Champs and say that the graphics in the game look just like the cover illustration.

* A spoof of this trope in ''[[Film/BillAndTed Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey]]'' when the title characters find themselves in Hell used to provide the page quote.
-->'''Ted "Theodore" Logan:''' This isn't what I expected this place to look like at all.\\
'''Bill S. Preston Esquire:''' We were totally lied to by our album covers, man.

!!Examples

* [[CoversAlwaysLie/AnimatedFilms Film — Animated]]
* [[CoversAlwaysLie/LiveActionFilms Film — Live-Action]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* ''Manga/{{Evangelion 303}}'': One chapter is titled "The Death of Asuka Langley Sohryu". No, it does not come to pass.

[[folder:Other]]
* Things like recipe books and food packaging have plenty of examples of this, featuring pictures of food made by professionals, presented to be as photogenic and appetizing as possible. Some food examples [[http://shopping.yahoo.com/news/photos-from-food-ads-vs--the-real-thing.html here.]]
* TFANA's production of Shakespeare's ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'', directed by Julie Taymor, featured [[http://imgur.com/EiHZTNP a poster]] that made it look more like a psychological horror movie than... you know... ''one of the world's most beloved romantic comedies''.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick's "Top 10 'Hottest' Animated Guys" bumper art shows her surrounded by WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}, [[{{Disney/Hercules}} Hades]], [[Franchise/XMen Nightcrawler]] and [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast the Beast]], all dressed as ChippendalesDancers. While those are all characters ''she'' admits to liking, the actual list was constructed from a poll of her female viewers, and all but one of those characters ([[spoiler:the Beast]]) failed to place.

* Parodied in an issue of ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' where Franchise/SpiderMan guest-starred. The cover prominently displays our web-headed hero, who brags about how he's taking over this comic book, even though he already has four series of his own. None of the members of Excalibur themselves are depicted except for Captain Britain, who is shoved into the background.
** Another Excalibur issue had an incredibly ''boring'' cover that certainly didn't happen inside the comic, with a morose-looking little man sweeping the floor and telling us that the usual comic-book cover stuff - muscular heroes fighting dastardly villains, and girls with big tits - is actually ''inside'' the comic book, and we should stop bothering ''him''.
* Played with in an early issue of ''Comicbook/{{Thunderbolts}}'', which guest starred Archangel of the X-Men and featured him prominently on the cover with the headline: "Will Archangel join the Thunderbolts?" And then, at the bottom and in only slightly smaller text: "Nah, he's only a guest star... but doesn't he look cool on this cover?"

* As seen on the page image for WolverinePublicity, there existed an alternate cover for an Literature/AnitaBlake comic Marvel was putting out at the time featuring Wolverine and Anita, with a small caption reading "Wolverine does not actually appear in this issue".

** On a cover of ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]'':
--> '''Flash''': "We can't possibly escape this!"
--> '''Robin''': "Yeah. Good thing nothing like this happens in the comic."
* One of the most common fake-out covers is the image of all the heroes lying dead in a pile while the issue's villains stand triumphant. A Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica issue spoofs this by having one of the villains say to the reader, "We don't ''really'' beat them...but it's a heck of a cover, isn't it?"

* Comicbook/{{Cerebus|TheAardvark}} did a parody of this phenomenon by introducing a character named Wolveroach, an obvious spoof of Wolverine. Wolveroach showed up on three consecutive covers of Cerebus, in various badass action poses...while inside the comic itself, he spent all three issues in a coma. After he woke up, he stopped appearing on the covers.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

[[folder:Film]]

-->'''Ted "Theodore" Logan''': This isn't what I expected this place to look like at all.
-->'''Bill S. Preston Esquire''': We were totally lied to by our album covers, man.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

Many of these overlap with SexyPackaging and ContemptibleCover, and often feature LadyNotAppearingInThisGame. Compare with NeverTrustATrailer, WolverinePublicity, BaitAndSwitchCredits, SuperDickery, TitlesAlwaysLie and enjoy [[http://io9.com/5409579/cheesiest-book-covers/ this i09 gallery]].

Many of these overlap with SexyPackaging and ContemptibleCover, and often feature LadyNotAppearingInThisGame. Compare with NeverTrustATrailer, WolverinePublicity, BaitAndSwitchCredits and SuperDickery, and enjoy [[http://io9.com/5409579/cheesiest-book-covers/ this i09 gallery]].

* Music/TheMelvins, a [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly progressive psychedelic grunge/punk/metal]] band, use this as a RunningGag.

The chances of this happening are magnified many times over [[AmericanKirbyIsHardcore when the game has to jump the national boundary.]] Especially in the pre-internet era, it isn't at all uncommon to see the localization team creating a new cover from wholecloth, and said cover has about a 50-50 shot of looking nothing whatsoever like the actual product.

* The cover for the ''Manga/KOn'' Palcomix comic ''On This Day'' has Rio and Mitsu posing very suggestively and looking at the camera. But the sex actually isn't [[TearJerker the]] [[HappilyMarried big]] [[{{WAFF}} thing in]] [[GrowOldWithMe the story.]]

** [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20040912.html One strip]] refers to the trope, although the cover of the book it'll be in ([[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/archive.html #6]]) remains to be seen.
** Referencing that strip, the artist ''intentionally'' invokes this trope for the actual cover for that book. It features numerous characters who never met in-story, all crammed together, [[GratuitousNinja and a ninja]], watching while Kevyn does something science-y.

* The cover art for a crossover fanfiction [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7981588/1/Wishes-of-a-Different-Sort Wishes Of A Different Sort]] features [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Homura Akemi]] and [[Anime/DragonBallZ Frieza]]. While Homura is the main protagonist of the story and Frieza plays important roles as a threatening villain, [[spoiler:[[TheDreaded Ultimate Kriemhild Gretchen]] is the true BigBad of the story, making Frieza [[EvilerThanThou pale in comparison]]. And guess what, Homura is not the one who seal Gretchen away.]]

* The old boxed sets for the Basic version of the Dungeons & Dragons game invariably showed a party of heroes engaged in glorious battle with a dragon of some description. The Basic D&D rules only provided information for advancement up to 3rd level, meaning that if your Basic-level adventurer met up with a dragon of any sort, the resulting CurbStompBattle would wipe you out within a round or two.
* Rhe original cover of TabletopGame/{{Rifts}} depicts a Splugorth Slaver and the Altara Warrior Women. The Splugorth only got a brief mention from Erin Tarn and the Slaver+women didn't get stats published until sourcebook 1 / world book 2.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/{{Phalanx}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Phalanx_SNES_2996.jpg]] ]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The rootin'-tootin' banjo-pickin' high-flyin' cosmic adventure! [[ShootEmUp Except not.]]]]

* CoversAlwaysLie/AnimatedFilm

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* CoversAlwaysLie/LiveActionFilm

[[folder: Fanfiction]]

* The fan fiction ''Fanfic/MobileFighterEvangelion'' was inspired by this occurrence: WordOfGod is that the author, when he was a kid, saw a poster of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' and assumed things [[HotBlooded about]] [[GenkiGirl the]] [[{{Determinator}} Children]] (and the series as a whole) [[DysfunctionJunction that was]] ''[[DarkerAndEdgier way]]'' [[{{Deconstruction}} different from the real thing]]. He then decided to endeavor to make a story ''worthy'' of the poster.

* ''Webcomic/HowIBecameYours'' not only has scenes that don't happen on the cover, but it also has several fabricated positive reviews.

* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' has a very deliberate example - the pre-intro scene of episode 31 suggests that the series WILL be adapting the Garlic Jr arc, a much maligned filler arc; the intro for the episode even uses scenes from said arc. [[spoiler: The majority of said episode focuses on Krillin and his girlfriend. Garlic Jr literally lasts less than a minute before being assimilated by Mr Popo]].

[[folder:Media in General]]
* [[http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/artwork/guess-the-film-plus-tips-on-using-film-posters-in-your-home-094768 Polish and Czech film posters of well known Hollywood films]] tend to be so infamously abstract that they often bear no clear connection at all to the themes and content of the film in question because the designers usually have almost no idea what the films are about. The posters are highly collectible, mostly because they [[TropesAreNotBad tend to be pretty awesome looking]]. [[http://wellmedicated.com/inspiration/50-incredible-film-posters-from-poland/ A few more Polish posters can be seen here]] and [[http://horror.about.com/od/horrorthemelists/ig/Foreign-Horror-Movie-Posters/Alien_polish.htm here]].
* Due to BillingDisplacement or RetroactiveRecognition, well-known actors are often placed prominently on covers for films in which they have only small roles.
[[/folder]]

** WB20 Canada shows the Tundra Rangers being part of the Coalition States, tthe book doesn't describe them working together.

* The title of ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' is a big lie: [[spoiler:there are 11 relevant characters in the game and three doors with a 9, making it 11 doors]].
* {{Inverted|Trope}} with the cover of ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', which has Sigma with grey-ish hair and a shining right eye instead of black hair and a normal-looking eye. [[spoiler:This foreshadows the fact that you're playing as his 67-year-old self, a major reveal of the plot.]]

->'''Monster in the Darkness:''' Wait-- The scene on the cover didn't happen that way.\\

* ''Fanfic/HowIBecameYours'' not only has scenes that don't happen on the cover, but it also has several fabricated positive reviews.

* The fanfiction [[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7290687/1/ Pataki Magi Helga Magica]] (a crossover between [[WesternAnimation/HeyArnold Hey! Arnold]] and [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]), judging by the title name, many people would expect Helga [[ActionGirl to become an awesome Puella Magi]] [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower who fights for love and justice]]. [[spoiler:Not only she never become an active Puella Magi at all, she eventually make a wish to Kyubey so that [[RetGone she would never exist in that world]] to undo all the bad things that had already happened.]]