History Main / TheMunchausen

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has Tormund Giantsbane, whose many (likely self-applied) nicknames include "the Tall-Talker." He's a BoisterousBruiser who delights in telling tall tales about his exploits and [[BiggusDickus physical characteristics]] for the entertainment of others. While his tales are probably ''somewhat'' exaggerated, he's still held in high regard by the Free Folk for his ''actual'' skill at battle and leadership (part of his strategy being to make people like him with his outrageous tales and jests).

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', the entire struggle between the Demon Slayers and Muzan's demons is only recorded by Zentisu in his personal biography by the end of the series; however, the is a little hint that Zentisu was actually very sketchy and biased towards himself in writing said book, naming it The Legend of Zenitsu. Official publications that followed after the series's end do further confirm Zenitsu was very shrewd in writing his diary, the exclusive post-epilogue extra chapter contained in the 2nd Fanbook has a little scene where Zenitsu shows Tanjiro the first drafts of his book, Tanjiro notices he is labelled as one of Zenitsu's subordinates, but Tanjiro is so kind that he just let Zenitsu write whatever he wanted. In October 2021, Japan, during an art exposition new materials also shed more light on Zenitsu's book, showing how Zentisu described Tanjiro, Inosuke and Giyu in his tale, they are all significantly less attractive than they were in the real story, Giyu in particular becomes a extremely ugly man in Zenitsu's vision, likely out of his jealousy over Nezuko being extremely happy to see Giyu whenever he visited their home after the series's end. With all that said, it gives more context to Zenitsu's great-granddaughter Touko seeing Zenitsu's biography as a book of lies.

* ''Munchausen'' is a one-man radio play by Alistair [=McGowan=] in which a French police inspector interviews a suspect who claims to be Baron Munchausen, and insists on telling the story of his life, from his founding of Luxemburg to the time Samuel Goldwyn paid him a fortune for a film script that didn't exist (but used half the money he saved by not making it into doubling the publicity budget, and won the Oscar for Best Costuming). The inspector never quite reaches the point of believing him, but eventually reaches the point of believing it doesn't matter.

* ''Munchausen'' is a one-man radio play by Alistair [=McGowan=] in which a French police inspector interviews a suspect who claims to be Baron Munchausen, and insists on telling the story of his life, from his founding of Luxemburg to the time Samuel Goldwyn paid him a fortune for a film script that didn't exist (but used half the money he saved by not making it into doubling the publicity budget, and won the Oscar for Best Costuming). The inspector never quite reaches the point of believing him, but eventually reaches the point of believing it doesn't matter.

'''Inspector''': What were they?\

** Subverted in "What Goes Up...". The White Hart is "invaded" by an alien-worshiping {{Cult}}, irritating the ''real'' scientists. Harry whips up a [[OutrightLie totally invented]] story about an Australian nuclear reactor that produced a powerful repulsive force, like a [[UnrealisticBlackHole white hole]]. Unfortunately for Harry, the cultists [[{{Irony}} take his obviously bullshit story at face value]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', [[Characters/SCPFoundation Characters/SCPFoundation]]

* In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'', [[FishOutOfWater Edward Elric]] tells fantastic stories about his exploits as a boy to residents of Munich. Everybody thinks he's [[CloudCuckooLander messed up in the head]], but since this is Fullmetal Alchemist and the guy telling the stories is Edward Elric, they're all ''absolutely true''.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'' has ComicBook/{{Jubilee}}, who expected her experience to give her more clout when she was transferred to ComicBook/GenerationX. It didn't take long for her new companions to grow tired of it and refuse to hear anything starting with the words "When I was with the X-Men..."

* OlderThanRadio: Baron Münchhausen stories, first published in 1781.

* In the tales ''Literature/TheBlackThiefAndTheKnightOfTheGlen'' and "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/celtic/conallyellowclaw.html Conall Yellowclaw]]", a lord captures four thieves: three brothers and an older man. The older man ransoms each of the brothers by telling a story of when he had been in more danger than they are, in the hands of a man about to execute them. The final story involves his helping a woman save a baby, and an old woman recognizes the tale and that the lord had been the baby, so the lord rewards the older thief for his rescue.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Münchhausen Baron Münchhausen]] (that's the correct German spelling!), or to give his full name, Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen (1720-1797), himself was a real man who came back from fighting the Turks in in the Russian Army (1740-1741) full of impossible stories. The short stories combining the plots and style of Münchausen's original boasts with plots from older folk tall tales were first published in early 1780s in a Berlin journal under a pen name M-C-H-N. They were collected in a book by Rudolf Erich Raspe and published anonymously in 1785 (in English!). Most famous are probably the story how he rode a cannonball, or how he pulled himself and his horse from a swamp -- by his own hairs[[note]]This last story is why the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Münchhausen_trilemma Münchausen trilemma]] is named that[[/note]].

He's been everywhere, seen everything, done it all and more. Given any chance, he'll tell you all about it, whether you want him to or not. His adventures may be [[TallTale blatantly impossible]], or simply impossible to believe, but he rarely shuts up about them, and generally reacts badly to anyone openly doubting him. This character may be crazy, [[SelfServingMemory deluded]], a ConMan, or a compulsive liar. These versions are prone to [[IRejectYourReality rejecting others' reality for their own]], as in the page quote. Often the listener will [[OccamsRazor dismiss his tales]], and then find out that The Munchausen was [[CassandraTruth telling the truth]] [[ArkhamsRazor all along]].

The MilesGloriosus is a subtrope where his own prowess is the central part of his tales -- except that [[DirtyCoward it's all hot air]].

* The BBC serial ''The New Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' is narrated by a PresentDay descendent of the Baron, who has travelled by armchair on surfboards, tree towed by swans, swanfeather cloak powered by dew, the fully furnished inside of a whale, balloon filled with hot air from Donald Trump, and iceberg; discovered a sack containing the miasma that caused cholera ([[spoiler: which he briefly worries may have somehow become Covid-19, before being told the two diseases aren't related]]); met Greta Thunberg, the Queen, Putin and Trump; orbited the moon; saved wildlife from the Australian bushfires with Factor-90 sunblock; and avoided being eated by alligators, wolves and a polar bear, only to find himself back where he started with a tale to tell.

* The BBC serial ''The Further Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' is narrated by a PresentDay descendent of the Baron, who has travelled by armchair on surfboards, tree towed by swans, swanfeather cloak powered by dew, the fully furnished inside of a whale, balloon filled with hot air from Donald Trump, and iceberg; discovered a sack containing the miasma that caused cholera ([[spoiler: which he briefly worries may have somehow become Covid-19, before being told the two diseases aren't related]]); met Greta Thunberg, the Queen, Putin and Trump; orbited the moon; saved wildlife from the Australian bushfires with Factor-90 sunblock; and avoided being eated by alligators, wolves and a polar bear, only to find himself back where he started with a tale to tell.

* The BBC serial ''The Further Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' is narrated by a PresentDay descendent of the Baron, who has travelled by armchair on surfboards, tree towed by swans, and swanfeather cloak powered by dew, discovered a sack containing the miasma that caused cholera, met the Queen and Greta Thunberg, orbited the moon, and saved wildlife from the Australian bushfires with Factor-90 sunblock, and that's just the first two episodes.

* The BBC serial ''The Further Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' is narrated by a PresentDay descendent of the Baron, who has travelled by armchair on surfboards, tree towed by swans, and swanfeather cloak powered by dew, discovered a sack containing the miasma that caused cholera, met the Queen and Greta Thurberg, orbited the moon, and saved wildlife from the Austalian bushfires with Factor-90 sunblock, and that's just the first two episodes.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Münchhausen Baron Münchhausen]] (that's the correct German spelling!), or to give his full name, Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen (1720-1797), himself was a real man who came back from fighting the Turks in in the Russian Army (1740-1741) full of impossible stories. The short stories combining the plots and style of Münchausen's original boasts with plots from older folk tall tales were first published in early 1780s in a Berlin journal under a pen name M-C-H-N. They were collected in a book by Rudolf Erich Raspe and published anonymously in 1785 (in English!). Most famous are probably the story how he rode a cannonball, or how he pulled himself and his horse from a swamp -- by his own hairs[[note]]This last story is why the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnchhausen_trilemma Münchausen trilemma]] is named that[[/note]].

* Cotton Hill from ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' is a real World War II veteran, but most of the claims about his experience is high questionable. To give one example, he tells Peggy numerous war stories in one episode that make him seem like a hero, but simply don't make sense when you look at them all at a whole. (One of them places him at a location hundreds of miles away from another one that, according to him, took place just a couple of days earlier.) Of course, most of the time, Cotton's perception of reality does seem to be shaky at best... Cotton is such a lousy liar that even his son Hank reluctantly admits that he's a liar, as evidenced from this line in an argument he has with his mother:

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersGenerationOne'', Kup is an old Autobot who's always reminiscing about his past exploits. Most other Autobots get tired of it quickly, except for the Dinobots, who ''love'' his stories.

* UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington may have never told a lie, but he seemed to be fond of tall tales. His favorite song was said to be "The Derby Ram", an English folk song about a ram of titanic proportions and the problems involved in killing and butchering it. The famous tree story, cutting down a cherry tree and admitting it to a grateful father, a lie made up by Washington's biographer (Mason Weems) after his death.
** The story about him throwing a silver dollar across the Potomic was untrue too; such coins did not even exist during his lifetime. This was acually an exaggeration of an earlier story told by Martha Washington's grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, to illustrate Washington's well-known strength. The true story claims that he threw a piece of slate across the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Historians assert that he could possibly have done this, but it was never verified.

** Montblanc Noland appears in a children's book about a man who lied about having found a mountain of gold and being executed in turn. [[SubvertedTrope He was real, a great explorer, and nothing of what he said was a lie]]; a central theme to the Skypeia Arc is people endeavoring to prove he was telling the truth all along.