History Main / CoversAlwaysLie

* The titular ''[[Literature/TheMeaningOfLiff Meaning of Liff]]'' is "A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words, 'This book will change your life'." Needless to say, most editions come with a "This book will change your life" sticker on the 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."

* {{Parodied|Trope}} with Limited Run Games's Platform/NintendoSwitch re-release of ''VisualNovel/PlumbersDontWearTies'': the [[https://limitedrungames.com/cdn/shop/files/plumbers-dont-wear-ties-lrg-switch-2_1200x1200.png?v=1694543472 cover]] presents the game as {{Animesque}}, when the game, in truth, consists almost entirely of still live-action photography. The one truthful thing about the cover is that the characters shown do appear in the game -- [[ItMakesSenseInContext even the chicken man]].

* This trope was made fun of in ''[[Film/BillAndTed Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey]]'' when the main title characters find themselves in Hell.

** To be fair, he could be a Star Phantom (though they didn't exist in fluff until many years later), or a Marines Errant apothecary.

* Rawry Probably's layering of ''[[VideoGame/RainWorld Rain World: Downpour]]'''s "Threat - Waterfront Complex" non-diegetic ambience displays the aquatic Rivulet, the second latest [[PlayerCharacter Slugcat]] in the timeline. In the game, the Waterfront Facility region is a less-flooded version of Shoreline that's only accessible to the Spearmaster and Artificer, the first two (and among the most combative) Slugcats in the timeline.

** Parodied in an issue 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.

* In a ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comic where the cover says Lobo will make a one-page cameo, Lobo [[MediumAwareness responds by swearing at the fact he only gets one page]].

* This was fairly common in the late-nineties-early-2000s, making fun of earlier covers that played it straight. For example an issue of ''[[Franchise/TheFlash Impulse]]'' with a villain beating up Max Mercury while Bart [[PassThePopcorn ate popcorn]] declared "In This Issue ... absolutely ''nothing'' like this happens!"

* This is played for laughs on the cover of the ''Impossible Man'' one-shot comic book, where the title character is sunning himself on a beach surrounded by practically every major Marvel hero buried up to their necks in the sand, with Impy making a threat to Doctor Doom (who's behind him) that implies he beat them up and did that because they were blocking his sun. There's nothing like this inside the comic, but given the humor-themed stories that are, it was clearly meant as a joke.

* Lampshaded with the cover to Star Brand #12. The cover has the X-Men, but the bottom left-hand corner has a caption saying ''The X-Men in the New Universe? Not bloody likely!''

* The covers of most editions of ''Literature/AngelaAndDiabola'' portray the EvilTwin Diabola with black hair, in total contrast to her angelic sister Angela's HairOfGoldHeartOfGold. In the actual book, however, Diabola's hair is "puce," making her an EvilRedhead.

** This was inspired by the Music/ButtholeSurfers's ''Locust Abortion Technician''. An album that looks like [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/ButtholeSurfersLocustAbortionTechnician.jpg this]] and sounds like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3E_2A1fEoM this.]]

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

* Discussed and parodied in the GoldenAge ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' feature "Movie... Ads!" A gritty WarIsHell picture devoid of female characters except for a scene where "for two seconds, a girl jumps out and kisses a soldier" is advertised as a torrid love story, with [[LadyNotAppearingInThisGame the woman's face and ballooning bust plastered all over the advertisement]]. An ad for an adventure movie depicts scenes taking place in different parts of the world edited together, with quotes from critics' negative reviews [[QuoteMine just as misleadingly spliced]].

* On a cover of ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]'':

-->-- TheStinger, ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick: Recap/StartOfDarkness''

** The prequel book ''Recap/StartOfDarkness'' ends with the Monster in the Darkness [[LampshadeHanging complaining that the picture on the front of the book didn't actually happen like that]]. Ironically it's not all that inaccurate, though; it just amalgamates different parts of the story into one scene for a general overview.

This has occasionally gotten {{lampshade h|anging}}ung on it, as evidenced [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Robin64.jpg here,]] [[https://thedailysuperman.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/daily-planet-cover-week-this-scene-probably-doesnt-appear-in-this-issue here]] and [[http://www.thewotch.com/index.php?arcid=31 here.]]

This trope also applies to [[{{Music}} album covers]], especially singles, which often get their own album art, for one or two songs.

!!Parodies

!!Examples:

%%* ''Webcomic/TheWotch'' lampshades the practice in [[http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2006-11-28 this cover]].

In non-graphic literature, it is not uncommon for a female character to be portrayed in a {{Stripperiffic}} outfit when they would wear nothing of the sort in the story. Also, virtually any Speculative Fiction book will have either a rocket or an alien of some sort on the cover, and [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons are commonly used]] on Fantasy, HighFantasy and SwordAndSorcery books, even if there is no dragon in the story at all. (Creator/FrankFrazetta and Creator/BorisVallejo are particularly noteworthy as artists whose paintings make great book covers, but only occasionally actually relate to the contents of the books.)