Line #90 Main/FakeHigh


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6	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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16	[[quoteright:339:[[Webcomic/LifeInTheAnalogAge https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sparklingjuice_5780.jpg]]]]
17
18	->''"As I said... you haven't been drinking alcohol! Are you a pack of imbeciles!?"''
19	-->-- '''Naoto Shirogane''', ''VideoGame/Persona4''
20
21	Characters consuming what they think is a drug, they start acting accordingly, but turns out to be a placebo. Whether it's an oregano joint, a mysterious pill that turns out to be aspirin, or non-alcoholic beer, you'd never know it by the way the person is acting.
22
23	Related to MagicFeather (when it's a MotivationalLie) and the PlaceboEffect (for how it works).
24
25	See also ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin and DrunkOnMilk, for when this isn't an accident. If a character deliberately pretends to be drunk[=/=]high, they're PlayingDrunk.
26
27	----
28	!!Examples:
29
30	[[foldercontrol]]
31
32	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
33	* In ''Anime/GreatPretender,'' the protagonists Makoto and Laurent are trying to [[KarmicThief con a mobster]] into buying a new drug called "Sakura Magic", which Makoto accidentally ingests. His vision blurs, he becomes paranoid, and he tries to violently escape the mobster's house and has to be physically held down. But Sakura Magic turns out to be literally just candy -- ''that's the con'' -- and it was all placebo making Makoto wig out.
34	* Downplayed in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' when Iino ends up consuming an entire box of whiskey chocholates. She is genuinely drunk, but it's only after drinking a bottle of water that Onodera claimed was alcohol that she loses consciousness.
35	* ''Anime/Persona4TheAnimation'' uses this in the club of episode 15. Half the characters start acting as if they're drunk, even after it's confirmed that there's no alcohol served there. Carries over to the next day, [[YourMindMakesItReal where the ones who acted drunk don't seem to remember much of the previous day.]] Except [[TheStoic Yu Narukami]], who mentions "[[LargeHam I took things a little too seriously.]]"
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Comedy]]
39	* The subject of a comedy routine by Creator/AdamSandler in which a partying guy keeps telling the host how ''awesome'' his (acid/weed/beer) is, only to be told it's none of those things (the beer was nonalcoholic).
40	* Creator/SteveMartin at one time declared that he'd gotten into some pills that had him higher than a kite. They were called . . . "Placebo."
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Comic Books]]
44	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Peter getting drunk at Aunt May and Jonah Jameson Senior's wedding was retconned into this several issues later. He had about half a glass of actual champagne, but was so nervous about seeing Mary-Jane again that he never noticed his amused roommate was filling his glass with soda.
45	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan2099'': PlayedForDrama. Tyler Stone laced Miguel's drink with a drug that mimicked the effects of the instantly addictive and extremely dangerous [[FantasticDrug Rapture]], except that this drug would flush out of his system in three days. Unfortunately, Miguel thought it was the actual drug, and because it works by bonding to the user's DNA, Miguel proceeded to try and alter his DNA to get rid of its effects, accidentally becoming Spider-Man in the process due to a third party sabotaging him. He is NOT happy to find out the drug was a fake.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Fan Works]]
49	* ''Fanfic/ACertainDrollHivemind'': From "Guest Entry - Mikoto": Mikoto, annoyed that she can't just hack into Kuroko's radio chatter to figure out when she needs help, wonders if she can trick Uiharu (Kuroko's security expert) into giving up some secrets this way.
50	-->Hmm. Note to self - buy Uiharu some rum and raisin ice cream and see if that has a placebo effect that gets her tipsy so she talks about how she implemented it. It's starting to get on my nerves that I can't reliably listen in.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
54	* In ''Film/FiftyFirstDates'' Creator/AdamSandler's [[TheCasanova character]] will often give his dates large drinks which he ''says'' are alcoholic, but really aren't. He's found that this way the women [[ButLiquorIsQuicker get just as slutty as they would if they were actually drunk]], but still retain all their motor skills when having sex.
55	* In ''Film/TheBirdcage'', Albert believes that the "Pirin tablets" that Agador gives him actually calm him down. Guess what two letters Agador scratches off the tablets? That's right, they're really just aspirin.
56	* In ''Blotto'', Creator/LaurelAndHardy get drunk off a bottle of liquor that's actually tea put there by Stanley's wife.
57	* Happens in ''Film/{{Eurotrip}}'' when two characters walk into a Jamaican bakery shop in Amsterdam and order what they think are hash brownies. They start hallucinating wildly, even believing that they may have been tainted with something and accusing the staff of serving them bad hash brownies, until they're snapped back to reality when told by the waiter they're just regular brownies.
58	* In ''Film/{{Go}}!'', the gang sells aspirin to clueless teens as ecstasy, and they all pretend to get high. It helps that Ronna convinces them to smoke "like, ''a lot'' of pot" to go with it...
59	* In ''Film/LoveAtTheChristmasTable'', Kat and Sam stagger drunkenly while giggling after eating a stolen (non-alcoholic) rum cake.
60	* ''Film/ScoobyDoo'': Velma is laughing and having drinks with a college student and, in a DeletedScene, begins drunkenly serenading [[AmbiguouslyBi Daphne and/or Fred]] (they're standing beside each other when she motions towards them), only for Mr. Mondavarious to mention to Shaggy that Velma's drinks were non-alcoholic.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Literature]]
64	* A RunningGag in ''Literature/TheTruth''. Mr. Tulip is constantly snorting various substances, but none of them are actually drugs. Many of them are quite unhealthy household chemicals, however.
65	* In an ''Literature/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'' scene, Sinceria is drinking champagne when her preteen daughter, Olivia, says she wants some too. Their maids, who are very good at their job, pour Olivia a glass of sparkling grape juice. It has a fancy label, so she doesn't notice a thing.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
69	* An episode of ''Series/AbsolutelyFabulous'' has the characters travel to France. Patsy gets bored and does some coke, which loosens her up enough to tolerate Saffron's presence and play table tennis. On the way back home, the drugs are found by airport security, but they determine that they were fake all along. Patsy is horrified, not because she spent a fortune on phony drugs, but because this meant she ''[[FauxHorrific actually enjoyed playing table tennis]]''.
70	* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'':
71	** Maeby drinks some virgin martinis and thinks she's drunk. George Michael tries to explain that "virgin" means non-alcoholic, but the venture is fruitless.
72	** There was also an incident where they drank several bottles of Gob's fake wine. It ends with [[spoiler:the two of them getting to second base]]
73	* Raj in the earlier episodes of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' needs alcohol before he can talk to women. In one episode he has a beer and starts hitting on Creator/SummerGlau, until Howard points out the beer was non-alcoholic, and Raj [[CentipedesDilemma can't continue]].
74	* ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': In the episode "License to Hill", Cliff manages to get drunk on fake booze. In fact, he's drunker than he usually gets despite spending most of his time in the bar drinking.
75	* In ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' Sean swaps the Ecstasy JT and Toby bought for aspirin. The two 7th graders act like lunatics for an hour or two while Sean laughs his ass off.
76	* In ''Series/ADifferentWorld'' Season 2 episode, "If You Like Pilgrim Coladas", Whitley and Kim go to a bar with a fake ID and are found out when they act drunk after several of the eponymous drink, which contains no alcohol.
77	* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' combines this with IntoxicationEnsues (the inversion). Niles gets a hash brownie, but Martin eats it without realising what it is, and replaces it with a normal brownie. And even when Frasier actually explains what happened, Niles ''still'' doesn't realise:
78	-->'''Niles:''' Well, someone must feel pretty out of it, being the only one here who isn't completely burnt!\
79	'''Frasier:''' Oh, knock it off, you imbecile! You're as sober as I am!
80	* ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'' after the geeks swap the beer at the freaks' WildTeenParty for non-alcoholic beer. Only Creator/SethRogen notices the difference, and used it to his advantage to win a ton of money at Quarters.
81	* In one sketch on ''Series/FrenchAndSaunders'', two teen girls sit in their room describing their LSD trip with vivid detail. It isn't until one friend realizes that her tab tastes minty that her companion lets slip that the pill was just a Tic-Tac.
82	-->"Look at my Pocahontas curtains -- they're like really [[BuffySpeak Pocahontasy!]]"
83	* On an episode of ''Series/TheHoneymooners'', Ralph and Ed get extremely 'drunk' off of wine that was actually switched out for grape juice.
84	* In ''Series/ICarly2021'' episode "i'M Wild and Crazy", Carly asks Harper to take her out for a wild night, drugs, alcohol and so forth. Harper gives Carly a drug called "ACD" and Carly spends the night drinking and doing crazy stuff such as kissing a stranger and getting a tattoo. After they get placed in mall jail, Carly takes a breathalyzer test and her blood alcohol level is 0.0. Harper reveals that she ordered non-alcoholic drinks for Carly and the ACD pill was just a multivitamin. As a bonus, the guy she kissed was Harper's dentist and the tattoo was temporary
85	* In ''Series/TheInbetweeners'' Will swallows a quantity of hash without first preparing it for consumption. Despite this it still has some strange effects on him, mostly making his arms twitch.
86	* On ''Series/ModernFamily'' Luke and Manny steal Gloria's tequila and pound some shots, wincing at how strong it is. Gloria had seen them eyeing the bottle beforehand and had replaced it with water.
87	* On ''Series/MurphyBrown'', Corky throws a New Year's Eve party and makes it a point not to serve any alcohol (if a guest brought a bottle, she gave it to the party next door), as Murphy is a recovering alcoholic. Miles drinks some of the punch and acts drunk - until Corky tells him there was no alcohol in it.
88	* ''Series/MyFamily'' had a marijuana joint that actually turned out to be made of cinnamon and oregano powered by the placebo effect shared by Ben and Susan. Effects range from Susan overcoming her habitual mental block as to how horrible her cooking is, to Ben correcting the lyrics to Jimi Hendrix songs at the top of his voice.
89	* ''Series/NCISNewOrleans''. Tall and skinny Sebastian kicks the ass of a guy twice his size, assuming it's because of the high from a seasickness medication another agent gave him. It turns out the medication was a placebo and he did it all on his own.
90	* On one episode of ''Series/NightCourt'', Roz takes Christine to a bar to bond and Christine gets really drunk on the drink she orders. At the end of the episode, Christine asks Roz what was in the drink. Roz reveals that the drink contained absolutely ''no'' alcohol.
91	* An episode of the '90s talk show parody ''Night Stand with Dick Dietrick'' had host Dick and his assistant Mueller trying out a new drug that was all the necessary drugs for a day in a single pill. Not knowing he took a placebo, Dick's first words after taking the pill: "Whoa! Did anyone else just see a cow fly by here?" Needless to say, it gets better.
92	* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'': in season 3 we find out why Flaco ended up in jail. To make money in high school, she printed fake LSD tabs and sold them to her classmates, who would all fake being high around eachother. Things turned sour when she sold some to a depressed classmate, who took the lack of effects as a sign that everything is meaningless, and jumps off the roof the next day, and Flaco is then arrested for selling him the fake drugs.
93	* In one episode of ''Series/PeepShow'' Sophie and her new friends from Brighton take Mark to a gay club and they all do pills... except Mark, who merely pretends to swallow his and then pretends to be feeling its effects. He gives himself away when he claims "I think I'm getting the famous munchies!"
94	* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'':
95	** A Christmas sketch of "The Delicious Dish" has the hosts drunk on eggnog. That is until they discover it is non-alcoholic eggnog.
96	** They also once go tripping on 'shrooms. Not psychedelic mushrooms, just your average supermarket mushrooms.
97	* An episode of ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter'' had Horseshack stumbling around drunk on beer. When the other sweathogs wrest the "beer" away from him, it turns out only to be [[BlandNameProduct A&R]] Root Beer.
98	* Brian injures himself on one episode of ''{{Series/Wings}}'' and tries to kill the pain with beer. Unfortunately, he finds Joe's stash of non-alcoholic beer to use. Not surprisingly, the Placebo Effect works until Joe points out the beer is non-alcoholic.
99	* In ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Babylon", Agent Mulder convinces a clearly sceptical Agent Einstein to give him magic mushrooms so he can commune with a guy in a coma. After Mulder wanders the streets of Texas in a MushroomSamba VisionQuest, he wakes up in a hospital bed where Einstein tells him she was ''so'' sceptical, she didn't give him magic mushrooms at all but a placebo. This being ''The X-Files'', however, it still worked.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Radio]]
103	* On ''Radio/TheRickyGervaisShow'', Creator/StephenMerchant relates a story from his youth when he attended a party. Someone was lighting joss sticks and Steve, [[LoveMakesYouDumb who was trying to impress a girl]], started acting high. He was then told that they're just incense.
104
105	[[/folder]]
106
107	[[folder:Video Games]]
108	* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', [[UltimateBlacksmith Gerolt Blackthorn]] is working for [[Fiction500 Godbert Manderville]] to create a new set of powerful weapons, [[TeethClenchedTeamwork but he hates every second of it]]. Sensing Gerolt's ire with him, Godbert invites him to air out his grievences over some fine Hanish spirits. [[TheAlcoholic Gerolt's never one to pass on a drink]], and so the two get to talking and drinking. Many rounds later, Gerolt is so plastered that he's hallucinating. Once he's staggered away back to his forge, Godbert reveals that part way through the drinking, he had subtilty swapped their alcohol for carrot juice out of concern for Gerolt's health, meaning most of Gerolt's intoxication is placebo (or perhaps muscle memory).
109	* In ''VideoGame/Persona4'' Teddie, Yukiko, and Rise get utterly smashed at a nightclub while on a school trip... except Naoto informs you that the club doesn't even ''serve'' alcohol.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Web Animation]]
113	* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': One Strong Bad e-mail has Strong Bad performing a science experiment of the effects of caffeine on Strong Sad. So he slips a spoonful of Sanka -- instant ''decaf'' -- into Strong Sad's orange juice, and Strong Sad instantly goes into a caffeinated blitz. Oddly subverted; Strong Sad didn't know ''anything'' was being slipped into his orange juice, so it can't be a placebo effect. Apparently his body is just ''that'' sensitive to caffeine.
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Web Comics]]
117	* In one ''Webcomic/DorkTower'' strip, Matt's stoner brother thinks he is high after smoking Matt's basing floc.
118	* ''Webcomic/GirlsWithSlingshots'': After Hazel gets uncharacteristically prudish while accompaniying Jamie and her younger sister, Fiona on a trip to a lingerie store, Fiona offers Hazel a pull from her [[VictoriasSecretCompartment hidden flask]]. Hazel goes from mortified to GenkiGirl after a couple of swallows. Fiona confesses to Jamie that her flask [[http://www.girlswithslingshots.com/comic/gws-1294/ was just water.]] [[IHaveBoobsYouMustObey Her boobs are just that awesome.]]
119	* Referenced in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' when [[spoiler: Soul-Splice Vaarsuvius starts to behave in an evil manner, even though the soul splices can't actually affect their alignment. According to the fiends, "A good way to get a good person to do something horrible is to convince them they're not responsible for their actions."]] It's compared to someone drinking beer they didn't know was non-alcoholic and feeling drunk anyway because they expected to be. The dialog implies that Cedric is speaking from experience.
120	* Happens at least twice in ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent''.
121	** Raven says she got drunk at a party by having seven Shirley Temples. "You can't even taste the alcohol in them!"
122	** In another strip, Penelope relates the story of how her female friends in college would get so drunk they'd make out with each other, all the time.
123	--->'''Faye:''' I think you're confusing bisexuality with substance abuse.\
124	'''Penelope:''' No, but I think they were.
125	* ''Webcomic/TwoLumps'': Snooch made the mistake of watching a special on rock stars and copying their cocaine use ... [[https://twolumps.net/comic/20070801-2/ sort of.]]
126	-->'''Eben:''' Tell me you didn't actually SNORT an entire box of Pixie Stix from 1987.
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Western Animation]]
130	* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'', the duo get drunk on non-alcoholic beer. They knew it was non-alcoholic, they just didn't know alcohol is the part that makes you drunk.
131	-->'''Police:''' Hey, you guys aren't drunk! You're just stupid!
132	* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': In "Bad Tina" Tina's new friend, 'bad girl' Tammy, invites herself over when the parents are out, along with Jimmy Jr. and Zeke. She sneaks a bottle of margarita mix from the liquor cabinet and proceeds to party. Thinking it's alcoholic, Tammy refers to it as "the heavy stuff" and that "she can totally feel it" after taking a drink from it. -- Louise says her mom uses the stuff as hummingbird food.
133	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CelebrityDeathmatch'', Nick Diamond gets some hemp clothing from Woody Harrelson; unfortunately, the clothes catch fire, and after inadvertently getting a face full of smoke, Nick spends the rest of the episode stoned out of his gourd. Hemp, of course, while being a variety of the ''cannabis sativa'' plant species, differs from marijuana in that it does not contain THC[[note]]Actually, it contains only trace amounts of THC, usually no more than 0.2 to 0.3 percent, which is the legal limit for growing industrial hemp[[/note]], and when Harrelson points this out at the end of the episode, Nick is very embarrassed (he is naked and playing the bongos at this point).
134	* Happens twice in ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'', which parodied {{Very Special Episode}}s:
135	** First, when Abe buys non-alcoholic beer for the WildTeenParty:
136	--->'''Cleo:''' This might be the beer talking--\
137	'''Abe:''' I doubt it.\
138	'''Cleo:''' But I think you're ''hot.''
139	** Also happens in the episode "Raisin the Stakes: A Rock Opera in Three Acts" which is about teens going wild and hippie after smoking... raisins. Unusual for this trope, the raisins are actually sold by an [[TheAggressiveDrugDealer Aggressive Drug Dealer]], who turns out to be [[spoiler:Special Guest Star Jack Black, who had been hired to raise sales for raisins]].
140	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
141	** In one CutawayGag, Stewie thought he had drunk some alcohol but it was only grape juice.
142	** When all the family were beating each other up Brian gave everyone some of his "prescription" Happy Pills and everyone blissed out. Once Brian revealed that they were only sugar pills they went back to fighting each other.
143	* ''WesternAnimation/OutThere'' has an episode where Chris takes a bunch of (what he thinks is) high-grade Mexican aphrodisiacs, and spends the majority of the episode running around without pants. They were actually just multivitamins.
144	* Zig-zagged in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "The Ballad of Badbeard". Candace touches Orange Moss in the woods, which she was told causes wild hallucinations, and begins acting insane, "thinking" Perry is a spy, imagining a sassy, anthropomorphic zebra calling her "Kevin", and confusing a self-destruct button for a vending machine. At the end of the episode, after her "recovery", her grandmother explains that it is actually ''Blue'' Moss that causes hallucinations, and that the only reason Candace was "crazy" was because of the "power of suggestion". Just then, [[HereWeGoAgain Candace touches some Blue Moss]].
145	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Deep Space Homer": To prove that space travel is within reach of the common man, NASA selects Barney and Homer to go through a training course before one of them gets an actual rocket trip. Once deprived of alcohol, Barney passes with flying colours and is given a congratulatory glass of champagne. He immediately goes nuts ("It begins!"), chugs the rest of the bottle, grabs a jetpack and flies off. The scientists don't understand, as it was non-alcoholic champagne.
146	* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': In "Past Tense", Mike Sorayama's grievance with his former college friend Baron Ünderbheit is that Ünderbheit sold him some fake weed that turned out to be oregano. Unfortunately, Mike was allergic to oregano and [[DeadlyPrank suffered a near-fatal reaction]].
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder:Real Life]]
150	* Studies have shown that kids given non-alcoholic beverages will act drunk when told they are alcoholic. Placebo effect + conformity + societal expectations = just as potent as chemicals.
151	* Even in situations where everyone understands that no intoxicating substances are being taken by ''anyone'', some people will act in ways that mirror the behavior of drunk people because that's what you do at parties: you go wild and get crazy, even when you're stone sober.
152	* There's quite a bit of evidence that there is no such thing as a sugar high -- it's all the placebo effect. A 1994 study found that mothers who thought their children had been given sugar reported more wild behavior (and hovered closer, and criticized more) than mothers who were told their children had been given unsweetened drinks, regardless of the actual activity levels of the children.
153	* "Holy Ghost intoxication" is usually written off as this by critics of this religious teaching, suggesting that the recipients of this so-called "blessing of God" are actually falling for a placebo effect through autosuggestion.
154	[[/folder]]

Context Main / FakeHigh