| 1 | ->''"Our wives, our children, everyone! They're here already! You're next! You're next!"'' |
| 2 | -->-- '''Dr. Miles Bennell''', ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1956'', trying to convince random people that he's not crazy |
| 3 | |
| 4 | Say a character finds out about a paranormal phenomenon, or a sinister conspiracy. There wouldn't be much of a plot left if they could just call the police and let them take care of it. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | In these cases, heroes will simply [[PoorCommunicationKills talk like stereotypical paranoid schizophrenics]]. |
| 7 | # They will continually repeat a bizarre claim in a panicked voice. |
| 8 | # They will avoid mentioning what led them to believe it in the first place. |
| 9 | # They will be vague on details. |
| 10 | # They will never consider sticking to the provable and/or plausible parts of the story for the time being. |
| 11 | # Most important, they will be stunned and angry that anyone would find their claim implausible, regardless of how implausible it would be even if they ''weren't'' completely flushing any credibility they might otherwise have down the toilet in their method of persuasion. |
| 12 | # In extreme cases, they may respond to skepticism by wondering out loud if the disbeliever is "in on it" or "one of Them." And if anyone tries to calm them down, rather than taking a few deep breaths, sitting down for a moment, and coming back to the problem in a calmer fashion, they will immediately violently lash out, thus prompting the immediate summoning of the nearest security guards to have them ejected from the premises. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | And then they wonder why no one believes them. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | What's more, this will give the heroes a reputation for CryingWolf or being {{Windmill Crusader}}s, making it even harder for them to get anyone to believe that [[NoMereWindmill the threat is real]]. Of course, the [[SortingAlgorithmOfMortality senseless deaths]] of the skeptics is often seen as a [[KarmicDeath karmic comeuppance]] in favor of the hero, even if it ''was'' the heroes' fault they aren't believed in the first place. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | The other side of this trope is that, if the person making the claim sounds crazy, the listener will dismiss them to the point of ''going out of their way to dismiss them'', no matter how simple it would be to investigate. When someone is screaming "'''THERE IS AN ALIEN DIRECTLY BEHIND YOU WHICH IS ABOUT TO EAT YOU YOU'VE GOT TO BELIEVE ME I TELL YOU!'''", you can be assured that the listener will ''not'' turn around; they will, in fact, ''stubbornly and strenuously refuse to'' turn around. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | A possible cause of any [[ArbitrarySkepticism disbelief towards the explanation of "aliens did it" in a continuity where aliens and alien invasion are not only known and documented, but semi-regular events]].[[note]]After all, in RealLife, terrorist attacks are definitely known to occur, but that doesn't mean you'd believe some random wack-job off the street who's ranting about a secret society that's planning to bomb the White House within the hour.[[/note]] (Of course, this may be because some people are just [[WeirdnessCensor stubbornly, willfully stupid]], but hey.) |
| 21 | |
| 22 | A subversion occurs when a normal person pulls this trope on a ConspiracyTheorist. Not only will he [[ProperlyParanoid believe you]], he'll also try to convince you that the situation is [[FromBadToWorse much MUCH worse]] than you think, and he will often [[CrazyPrepared already have plans in motion]] to do something about it. See also SoCrazyItMustBeTrue, where the person you're trying to convince believes your story ''because'' it's so outlandish. Contrast WeNeedToGetProof, where the character realizes that nobody will believe him unless he comes up with some real evidence. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | A kind of PoorCommunicationKills. See ItWasHereISwear, CassandraTruth, IgnoredExpert, ProperlyParanoid, NotHelpingYourCase, and YouCanSeeThatRight Anyone invoking the trope is often dismissed as a WindmillCrusader or CloudCuckooLander -- at least until the threat turns out to be NoMereWindmill, thus proving that TheCuckoolanderWasRight. Sometimes, this overlaps with ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve — the character must convince someone to believe because ''belief itself'' is necessary to save the day. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | ---- |
| 27 | !!Examples: |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 30 | |
| 31 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 32 | * ''Manga/SazanEyes'': |
| 33 | ** Played straight with Yakumo, who tries to tell the [[LaserGuidedAmnesia amnesiac]] Pai that she's in danger, she's not human and she's actually the last survivor of an immortal race. He says he doesn't want to "sugar-coat" it for her, but he then actually acts surprised and angry when Pai thinks he's nuts. ([[SubvertedTrope Although it turns out Pai had already seen quite a bit of evidence to support his story, and she was being a brat.]]) |
| 34 | ** Averted and {{Lampshaded}} when Pai has been locked inside a club with demonic marionettes with her two friends Dee and Ken-Ken stuck outside. When Dee suggests they call the cops, Ken-Ken mentions this trope by sarcastically saying the cops would give them a drug test if they said things that crazy. Dee then says that they should obviously leave the parts about the dolls ''out'' and just say their friend was trapped inside a skeevy club... which ''is'' partially true and something a cop should listen to. |
| 35 | * ''Manga/UsotsukiSatsukiWaShiGaMieru'': Satsuki, regularly. She can foresee who is going to die of an accident (or murder) in the near future, and tries to warn victims of their fates, only to get rebuffed as someone telling a cruel joke or looking for attention. It doesn't help that her warnings usually come in the form of her [[NotHelpingYourCase screaming at someone that they're going to die while trying to shove a mountain of safety gear in their arms]]. Plus, no one has ever actually died -- granted, this is because Satsuki works behind-the-scenes to make sure they don't. |
| 36 | [[/folder]] |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[folder:Audio Plays]] |
| 39 | * ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'': "Minuet in Hell" has the Eighth Doctor lose some of his memory after crashing the TARDIS and winds up in a mental hospital. He tries to tell people his name and what happened, and tells the Brigadier when he shows up that he (the Doctor) recognizes him, but no one believes him, because, well, he's in a mental hospital (the Brig doesn't recognize him because he hadn't seen that incarnation before). |
| 40 | [[/folder]] |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 43 | * A segment in ''ComicBook/HouseOfMystery'' #227 called ''The Weird World of Anton Borka'', a young farmer is BlessedWithSuck via a gift from an old peddler. Anton's able to see a group of strange creatures who promise to ensure he has good fortune, but because only he can see them the rest of his town think Anton's insane. No matter how much he pleads that the creatures are real everyone just shrugs it off as "crazy Anton". |
| 44 | * In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', the kids call the Avengers hotline to report their parents (who are villains). The operator says they always get calls like that around report-card time, and dismisses it. [[spoiler:The guy who made the phone call was actually TheMole. ''Of course'' he's going to make it sound outrageous. Having the group get actual help is the last thing he wants!]] |
| 45 | * ComicBook/{{Sabretooth}} has this with ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} in his 2016 solo series. Deadpool's memory is not good--to say the least. He doesn't remember killing his parents and mistakenly believes Creed did it. Creed decides to carry the burden--he felt guilty that he watched Wade kill his parents, but didn't stop him. Even when he thinks Wade is about to kill him, he only says that Wade has to trust him & that it's not what--, but Wade cuts him off to reveal he learned the truth. |
| 46 | * ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': The Ultimates have been told that Thor is just a madman using a technological belt and hammer that gives him powers. In his defense, he says that "Loki" (someone that nobody ever saw) is deceiving them all. He was RealAfterAll, but he ''does'' sounds like a crazy nut when he says that. |
| 47 | [[/folder]] |
| 48 | |
| 49 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 50 | * In the ''WebVideo/DeathNoteTheAbridgedSeriesKpts4tv'' episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RKMh_c8DqA&list=PLDEBCC868724EAA19&index=52&feature=plpp_video Re-Ryuk]] a school shooter does this upon encountering a "[[{{Shinigami}} journal monster.]]" It goes about as well as you can expect: |
| 51 | -->'''DaChief:''' He's obviously lying! Shoot him! |
| 52 | * In ''Fanfic/FeverDreams'' when L is sick he begins raving to everyone that Light is Kira and he's going to kill us all! Everyone attributes it to L's high fever. It doesn't help that in his fever and paranoia L assumes that the doctor Watari brought in must be in on the conspiracy. [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight L was right]] and Light ''is'' up to something [[spoiler: but for once it doesn't involve killing anyone.]] |
| 53 | * {{Lampshaded}} in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8617348/1/Slytherin-Survival-Tactics Slytherin Survival Tactics]]'' when Dumbledore begins ranting and raving that Tom Riddle is the Dark Lord like a paranoid schizophrenic and Slytherin's portrait somehow acquires a record player and [[MockingMusic begins playing "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Haha."]] |
| 54 | * In ''Fanfic/DividedRainbow'', Lero tries this tactic exactly once. From then on, his modus operandi for dealing with the Swapped and the Bewitched is to JustSmileAndNod at the things they tell him. |
| 55 | * In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' tale ''Fanfic/FluttershyIsFree'', Fluttershy makes the mistake of telling her foalhood friend [[BoisterousBruiser Rainbow Dash]] that Fluttershy herself was [[spoiler:sired by a Changeling]] by introducing it as the ravings of her [[UnreliableNarrator paranoid mother]]. Given that Fluttershy does not in any way look like [[spoiler:the mythical flying creature the Pegasi know as "buzzies"]] and generally take about as seriously as we do UFO sightings, Rainbow Dash simply assumes that Fluttershy has gone a bit crazy under the stress of being the [[TheUnfavorite unfavorite daughter]] in a [[BigScrewedUpFamily dysfunctional family]]. At this point, Fluttershy gives up trying to tell Rainbow Dash the truth. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as in canon Fluttershy is normally a [[ShrinkingViolet ''very'' poor communicator]]. |
| 56 | * ''Fanfic/TheGoldenBoysLastTemptation'': Downplayed. Before telling one little kid how one Devil-like entity attempted to tempt Prez and herself, Supergirl admits she cannot prove her story, so she asks her audience to give her the benefit of the doubt. |
| 57 | * ''Fanfic/{{Intercom}}'': Zig-zagged. Riley is determined not to do this, fully aware that telling people about her [[HearingVoices emotions]] could get her locked up. However, it becomes increasingly apparent to her parents and friends that something is troubling her. And the more Riley insists that everything is fine, the more it becomes apparent that something is wrong. [[spoiler:It doesn't help that Riley's experiences with her emotions match the symptoms of schizophrenia to a tee. Eventually, Riley herself starts doubting if the voices are real.]] |
| 58 | * In the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' fanfic ''Fanfic/InTheBrilliantLightOfDay'', Raiko runs to the other [[AnimateInanimateObject tsukomogami]] after being gone for some time, to warn them that the Miracle Mallet's power is limited, and they'll go back to being inanimate objects when it does. They don't believe her, and wind up imprisoning her after she frantically argues with them for some time. |
| 59 | * ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainKnightOfTheOrangeLily'': After returning from her own adventure on the Train, Mallow carefully avoided telling anyone what happened to her, realizing that she likely wouldn't be believed. This places her into an awkward position when she learns about Lillie's plan to confront her brother, and can only warn her that this may send them to 'a bad place'. |
| 60 | * ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': After Rhino's encounter with aliens in "The Spaceship," he excitedly relates his experience to Bolt and Mittens. Because the elderly rodent has been telling all sorts of [[TallTale tall tales]] as part of his recent [[ScatterbrainedSenior bouts with dementia]], his friends exchange glances, roll their eyes, and grin patronizingly, clearly not buying Rhino's story. The hamster adamantly insists that he's telling the truth, gradually becoming angry in the process. Eventually, Bolt and Mittens decide to play along and say they believe him, calming him down. |
| 61 | -->'''Rhino''': You… you don’t believe me, do you? It's the dog's honest truth, I swear. They even took me on two full orbits to see the earth and the moon from space. ''[becoming angry]'' Why don’t you believe me? I couldn’t make up something this crazy if I tried! |
| 62 | [[/folder]] |
| 63 | |
| 64 | [[folder:Film -- Animation]] |
| 65 | * ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' when Maurice raves to the dismissive townsfolk about the beast who imprisoned his daughter Belle. It doesn't help that he's already known as a kooky BunglingInventor in an anti-intellectual community with little regard for anyone who deviates from the norm. Gaston eventually exploits this by [[spoiler:demanding that Belle marry him or else he'll have Maurice committed to an insane asylum]]. However, this falls apart when Belle provides evidence of the Beast's existence to prove that Maurice was telling the truth, though this only drives a jealous Gaston to rally the townspeople to kill the Beast. |
| 66 | * The movie ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'' uses this one a lot. Chicken Little's flabbergasted babbling as he attempts to explain himself isn't exactly helped by his own father apologizing for his "craziness" to the townspeople. |
| 67 | * The eponymous character in ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' attempts to contact the police and explain that her parents were kidnapped, but once she gets to the part about the Other Mother, they shrug it off. Admittedly, she could have at least convinced them that her parents really were missing, but that doesn't mean they could do anything constructive. She also tells Wybie what's going on, but she doesn't try very hard to convince him, and is more venting at him than trying to explain anything. (Also somewhat justified by Wybie being rather a smart-arse.) She loses all credibility (despite [[CassandraTruth telling the complete truth]]) when she starts throwing shoes at him. |
| 68 | * ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheCastleOfTheUnderseaDevil'' has Doraemon and gang going on an adventure under the Atlantic, and Nobita ends up repeatedly seeing underwater hazards before his friends, such as the tentacles of a giant squid and a giant laser-breathing robot fish, that precisely ''nobody'' believes despite his claims. |
| 69 | * ''WesternAnimation/MonsterHouse'': [[GeniusLoci An abandoned house]] eats anyone who approaches it. The kids tell the police this (loudly), instead of "someone went in and never came out". |
| 70 | * Appears in ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', as she struggles to tell her former teammates that some of the Huns have survived an avalanche that buried their army. |
| 71 | * In ''WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut'', three different groups of people report strange happenings in Third Street School: TJ reports the green laser, his friends report his kidnapping, and even the [[AdultsAreUseless typically unhelpful]] Ms. Finster reports ninjas. And yet, the cops make no connection and just laugh each one out of the room. |
| 72 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarchaserTheLegendOfOrin'': Subverted when Orin is trying to convince the others of the existence of the outside world and gets interrupted by [[BigBad Zygon]]. |
| 73 | -->'''Orin:''' He's only telling you what he ''wants'' you to believe!\ |
| 74 | '''Zygon:''' ''[entering the chamber behind Orin]'' Because I want you to believe the ''truth''! |
| 75 | * This seems to be somewhat of a RunningGag for Woody in ''Franchise/ToyStory'', often to the point he tends to quote this trope almost verbatim: |
| 76 | ** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'': When he accidentally knocks Buzz out the window, Woody tries to convince the other toys it was just that: an accident. Unfortunately, Woody's rampant jealousy of Buzz has led Mr. Potato Head to convince the others to tear the cowboy apart. It repeats twice when Woody attempts to escape from Sid's house (not helped by the fact he was trying to use Buzz's arm to convince the others to let him over, seeing as Buzz was undergoing a HeroicBSOD), then again when he throws RC out the moving van to rescue Buzz from Scud. |
| 77 | ** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'': When Woody learns he's being donated to a toy museum in Japan, he is adamant to leave immediately to get back to Andy, but the other toys think that, because of his damaged arm, Andy is mistreating him, and he's better off going to the museum. |
| 78 | ** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'': Andy's toys (sans Woody) accidentally get thrown out on the curb on trash day, and think Andy threw them away. As such, they decide to donate themselves to Sunnyside Daycare, despite Woody's insistence that Andy was trying to put them in the attic. Since Woody was the only one of the toys not to be in that trash bag, they refuse to believe him. |
| 79 | ** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory4'': After Woody tries to explain how Bonnie's newest toy, Forky, is important to her, the rest of the toys think he's crazy, as he had just spent the last few weeks not getting played with, and assume his actions are him trying to make himself feel useful. |
| 80 | [[/folder]] |
| 81 | |
| 82 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 83 | * When ''Film/AbbottAndCostelloMeetFrankenstein'', poor Wilbur spends a good bit of the movie trying to convince Chick that he's seeing monsters. |
| 84 | ** Several Abbott and Costello films involve Costello's character stumbling upon a dead body, only for the murderer to move the dead body before Costello can bring Abbott's character into the room to see the dead guy. |
| 85 | * In ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'', Peter tries to convince Captain Stacy that Dr. Connors is the Lizard with nothing but his say-so to back it up. Stacy has him removed [[spoiler:[[ReasonableAuthorityFigure but does ask one of his officers to look into it]]]]. |
| 86 | * In ''Film/AmericanDreamer'', Alan tries to explain things to the police, but he gives poor context for the situation, making the woman [[EasyAmnesia who thinks she's an adventure novel heroine]] look credible. |
| 87 | * Somewhat reversed in ''Film/AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon'', as it's one of the walking corpses who's trying to convince the living protagonist, who dismisses them as a hallucination. |
| 88 | -->"Goddammit, David, ''please'' believe me! You'll kill and make others like me! I'm not having a nice time here." |
| 89 | ** Once he ''does'' come to accept dead Jack's claims, David accosts a London bobby and declares he's the one who killed several people last night. The fact that Alex is right there contradicting his claims doesn't help his effort to convince the bobby to lock him up, nor does his recourse to cussing and insulting prominent U.K. figures when the policeman just tells him to move alone. |
| 90 | * In ''Film/BewareTheBlob'', the female lead witnesses the eponymous monster's first two victims, then almost becomes a victim herself. When it comes time to alert the public, the most coherent thing she can utter is "It came ''after'' us; it came ''after'' us!" She does get a little better by the end of the film; but by this time, as per the dictates of the trope, her credibility is done gone shot. |
| 91 | * In ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'', Frances suspects that Caligari and Cesare are responsible for the murder of Allan, a point he argues very poorly to the police, although justified because [[spoiler: he's batshit insane]]. |
| 92 | * Basically the entire plot of ''A Cry in the Wilderness'', in which a father, suspecting that he might have contracted rabies, chains himself up in a barn, telling his son not to release him under any circumstances. Later he realizes that there is an imminent flood. |
| 93 | * In ''Film/TheDeadCenter'', Dr. Forrester briefly tries to explain what's going on to his boss, Dr. Gray. Specifically, that the catatonic John Doe he illegally admitted into the emergency psych ward is [[spoiler: suffering from DemonicPossession and needs to be killed before it gets strong enough to escape and kill more people]]. But she won't listen because she's ''livid'' at him for not only secretly and illegally admitting a helpless patient, but drugging and seemingly [[spoiler: assaulting]] him as well. She's entirely justified in concern over lawsuits for the hospital and potentially ruining their careers. |
| 94 | * ''Film/DoubleJeopardy'': Libby wails this verbatim when testifying in her own defense regarding her husband's murder. |
| 95 | * In ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'', the hero experiences the day over and over and is hence able to see into the future. His efforts to tell his story are quite fruitless at first. Near the movie's end, he manages to get his comrades to believe him, having gained enough experience and credibility to explain the situation coherently. |
| 96 | * A review of ''Film/EvanAlmighty'' posed the question that never seems to be answered in those kinds of movies -- so Steve Carell tells his wife he's been chosen by God to recreate the Noah story and that's why all this weird stuff is happening. She doesn't believe him. Why doesn't he take her into the bathroom and show her how his beard grows back immediately when he shaves it, and so on? (Of course, the movie as it is depends on characters assuming that everything that happens to Evan is some kind of misguided attempt at humor he's engineered and is now refusing to let go, no matter how miserable it clearly makes him and how much he insists that it's not his fault.) |
| 97 | * Early in the ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' series, "Crazy Ralph", a local vagabond, would show up to try to warn people to stay away from Crystal Lake. In the end, the only person to take him seriously is [[spoiler:Jason Voorhees, who cuts Ralph's throat early on in [[Film/FridayThe13thPart2 Part II]].]] |
| 98 | * Played with in the original ''Film/FrightNight1985'', when Charlie, convinced that his neighbor is a vampire who has been murdering local women, only tries to convince the police that his neighbor is a murderer, rather than a vampire. Sadly, when he doesn't have enough evidence, he goes right to the vampire story. |
| 99 | * In ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', Jason Nesmith tries to tell his co-stars that the odd-looking fans at the convention were really aliens: "They were termites... or dalmatians!" They don't believe him at first, even when a couple of the Thermians (shapeshifted into humans) arrive. Aside from the general ranting associated with this trope, he's also unshaven and disheveled, with alcohol on his breath, and the people he's trying to convince were already pissed at him for apparently blowing them off. |
| 100 | * ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'': |
| 101 | ** ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' inverts this trope. When they finally get to see the mayor, despite the apparent lunacy of the things they're suggesting, the Ghostbusters — while still stressing the urgency of the situation to him — nevertheless present their case in a fairly calm, reasonable, and level-headed manner (even if they do succumb to the dramatic at one point: "Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!"). Better yet, respected city officials like the City Fire Chief and the Archbishop of New York support the Ghostbusters' case with rational observations of the bizarre phenomena plaguing the city that defies any explanation other than the 'Busters' (while the Archbishop supports the Ghostbusters, he states that the rest of the clergy are still trying to reach a consensus). On the other hand, Peck, who on the surface has the more rational case (that these people are dangerous conmen), nevertheless comes across as twitchy, touchy, a bit irrational, and clearly nursing a grudge, prone to exploding into violence (albeit after being provoked by Venkman), and, on the whole, rather shifty and unreliable. Before they met with the mayor, Winston lampshades this, asking if they are ''seriously'' going to tell a judge that an ancient god is going to destroy the city. |
| 102 | ** In ''Film/GhostbustersII'', the Ghostbusters are institutionalized when they [[CassandraTruth try to inform everyone that the subways are filling up with malevolent slime and that a painting in the Metropolitan Art Museum is coming to life at midnight on New Year's Eve.]] In a minor subversion, Peter is smart enough to realize that acting crazy and hysterical, as per the trope, isn't going to do anyone any good; unfortunately, the others aren't: |
| 103 | --->'''Ray:''' As I explained before, we think the spirit of a 17th century Moldavian tyrant is alive and well in a painting at the Manhattan Museum of Art.\ |
| 104 | '''Psychiatrist:''' Uh-huh, and are there any other paintings in the museum with bad spirits in them?\ |
| 105 | '''Egon:''' You're wasting valuable time. He's drawing strength from a psychomagnotheric slime flow that's been collecting under the city.\ |
| 106 | '''Psychiatrist:''' Yes, tell me about the slime.\ |
| 107 | '''Winston:''' It's very potent stuff. We made a toaster dance with it. ''[gestures to Venkman]'' And a bathtub tried to eat his friend's baby.\ |
| 108 | '''Psychiatrist:''' A bathtub?\ |
| 109 | '''Venkman:''' Don't look at me. I think these people are completely nuts. |
| 110 | ** This is despite the fact that, in the previous movie, a giant marshmallow monster rampaged through the town. Somehow everyone [[ApatheticCitizens believes that it was a trick]]. |
| 111 | ** Pops up again in ''Film/Ghostbusters2016'' when Erin, realising the true nature of the apocalyptic threat, tries to warn the Mayor to evacuate the city and doesn't do a very good job of it. It's partly her own fault, since she's both hysterical at the time and not the most socially competent of people to begin with, but matters aren't helped when the Mayor reacts [[BerserkButton with unexpectedly passionate rage]] when she compares him to the Mayor in ''Film/{{Jaws}}''. |
| 112 | * Speaking of ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'', this is what happens when the hero tries to explain the title creatures to the cops. And again in the sequel. |
| 113 | * Happens a lot to Nora in ''Film/HouseOnHauntedHill1959'', who keeps seeing dead bodies and blood stains. [[spoiler: It's part of an elaborate plot to keep her constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown.]] By the time her ImpliedLoveInterest, Lance, eventually spots one of the severed heads she told everyone about, he's had it with this trope, so he grabs the head by the hair and takes it to show everyone. |
| 114 | * ''Film/IndependenceDay'': As the alien ships arrive over major cities, David realizes that the weird signal he found is really a countdown to an attack. He immediately calls his ex-wife, the President's communications director, to warn her, but his out-of-breath and panicked speech (not to mention calling while the President is giving an emergency address) causes her to quickly hang up. He's a lot more calm when he goes to the White House to convince her and President Whitmore in person. |
| 115 | * The original ending of ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1956'' defines this trope, when the main character runs down the highway hysterically screaming at passing motorists that "They're here! You're all next!". The aliens even let him go, pointing out that no one's going to believe him anyway (and especially not if he's acting as hysterically as that). However, [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio was not satisfied]] [[DownerEnding ending on such a dark note]], and added a FramingDevice of the hero in a hospital telling his story to a pair of FBI agents, who don't believe him either... until a passing orderly mentions a car accident involving a truck full of strange, vegetable-like pods. |
| 116 | * Generally averted in ''Film/TheMidnightMeatTrain'', where the protagonist (played by Bradley Cooper) is quite reasonable and diplomatic with the police detective, accepting that the evidence he has is not enough to convict Vinnie Jones of being a SerialKiller. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:his paranoiac dedication to finding out the truth drives him crazy]]. |
| 117 | * In ''Film/TheMist'', David Drayton makes a very lame attempt to tell Norton about "the creatures in the mist". Even his companions comment this to themselves. |
| 118 | * Played with in the Israeli zombie comedy ''Muralim''. When the hero first attempts to get in touch with the outside world, he babbles about zombies taking over the base - but then he takes a moment to think, and issues an very calm correction. What he ACTUALLY meant to say was that the base is being attacked by terrorists. Unfortunately for him, TheRadioDiesFirst, and neither message reaches the proper authorities. |
| 119 | * ''Film/NonStop'': Marks has to convince the crew as well as his bosses that he is not behind a hijacking. However, he doesn't explain himself to the passengers, for fear of provoking whoever is behind this or causing a panic. [[spoiler:This comes to bite him when the passengers also believe he is hijacking them and decide to ambush him. Once he explains what's actually going on, though, they actually turn out to be pretty helpful.]] |
| 120 | * The hero of ''Film/ShockCorridor'' had himself declared insane and sent to the asylum, where he eventually fails to convince the shrink of his sanity. |
| 121 | * Played with in ''Film/SmallSoldiers''. The main heroine is trying to call the police to help them against the attacking toys, and insists that it's not a prank call. Then she reverses herself and says that it is, "So you'll come over and arrest me, right?" [[PoliceAreUseless They hang up.]] |
| 122 | * [[TwistEnding The final scene of]] ''Film/SoylentGreen'', in which Charlton Heston's character [[ItWasHisSled desperately shouts the titular staple's]] [[HumanResources secret ingredient]], [[PopculturalOsmosis is often played as this in]] {{Shout Out}}s / {{parodies}}, [[BeamMeUpScotty but actual scene doesn't really fit the trope.]] |
| 123 | * Subverted in ''Film/StarTrek2009''; when he's figured out what's going on, Kirk races into the bridge like a madman yelling about how it's a trap. Given his actions -- plus the fact that he's pretty much a stowaway -- Captain Pike is within seconds of having him locked up when Uhura validates Kirk's story with evidence and Spock (who has been given no reason to like Kirk) acknowledges both that Kirk's theory is logical, and Uhura's linguistic skills are beyond reproach. This plus the fact that Pike wrote his dissertation on the anomalous event Kirk is trying to prove is happening a second time gets Pike to give Kirk the benefit of the doubt. It also helps that when Kirk is given one chance to explain himself, he does so in a fairly calm and rational manner, at least compared to most people described on this page. |
| 124 | * At first the main character of ''Film/TakeShelter'' tries to hide his fears because he knows everyone will assume he's crazy. Eventually, though, he has a full-blown outburst at a work event. |
| 125 | * In ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'', April actually seems to go out of her way to look like a raving nutcase when she first tells her boss about the Turtles. Actually mildly justified as she said she was up all night going over everything. Nerves + lack of sleep + the sheer nuttiness of the tale = not being at your best. |
| 126 | * Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor's [[CassandraTruth rantings and ravings]] about a [[BadFuture future war]] and sentient computers in the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' films gets them both labeled as nutters. By [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay the second film]], Sarah has even been institutionalized. |
| 127 | -->'''Dr. Silberman''': See how clever this part (nothing inorganic can time travel) is? How it doesn't require a shred of evidence? I mean, most paranoid delusions are intricate, but this is ''brilliant''! |
| 128 | * ''Film/TheyLive'': Averted in a way during the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-MVMbm6c0k 5 minute fight sequence]] where the protagonist won't take no for an answer from the person he is trying to convince. |
| 129 | * In the first few minutes of the 1982 version of ''Film/TheThing1982'', some Norwegians land their helicopter near the American base and start shooting at (what looks like) a Siberian Husky. When some of the Americans come out to see what all the fuss is about (including the security guy with his revolver), instead of dropping their guns and deescalating things, the Norwegians keep excitedly shouting (in their native tongue) and shooting at the dog. The security guy pops them both before they can tell the Americans about the dog-thing. [[BilingualBonus However, if you understand Norwegian, they pretty clearly and succinctly explain the entire plot of the movie.]] Too bad none of the American characters understood the language. |
| 130 | * ''Film/TheWholeNineYards'': Sophie says this to the police when she's being interrogated about hiring a hit man to kill her husband. [[spoiler:Which she did. But he didn't kill him, because Nicholas [[FakingTheDead faked his death]].]] |
| 131 | * PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''. Future!Wolverine briefly panics and loses his connection to his past self... and Past!Wolverine wakes up and finds himself unexpectedly in the middle of the action, in France, surrounded by people he doesn't know (including a blue and hairy Beast) and with no memory of how he got there. Charles Xavier at first tries to explain what happened, but realizes it's futile and gives this explanation instead. |
| 132 | -->'''Charles:''' ...You're on acid. Someone gave you really bad acid... yeah? |
| 133 | * Averted in ''Film/Lifeforce1985''. After being recovered from an EscapePod, Captain Carlson starts to tell his interrogator that his story will seem hard to believe. He's interrupted with the news that the extraterrestrial woman that was found on his abandoned space shuttle has escaped, draining the LifeEnergy of several people in the process, so they'll believe a lot more than he thinks. |
| 134 | * At the end of ''[[Film/TheLoveBug Herbie: Fully Loaded]]'' antagonist Trip Murphy is last seen being pulled into an ambulance raving abut how Herbie (a VW Beetle) is alive and mocking him. It's true but he's written off as being dehydrated. |
| 135 | * ''Film/SeeYouYesterday'': Claudette and Sebastian try in vain to warn her brother and her friend of the incoming cops who will mistake one of them for a robber about to reach for his gun and kill him... It doesn't work. |
| 136 | * ''Film/Gone2012'': {{Downplayed}}: Jill acts more reasonably than most characters in this situation, trying to get the police involved in the beginning when her sister disappeared. As she's got no proof of a crime, plus she had already destroyed her credibility with them, they don't believe her. Then her (understandably) desperate, extreme means for searching herself mean they're soon on her tail (for making a witness tell her what he knows by threatening him with a gun, which she isn't allowed to have anyway). |
| 137 | * ''Film/DarkWaters:'' Sarah finds Robert’s initial reactions to discovering the impact of some of the chemicals as crazy until he sits down and explains it in greater detail. |
| 138 | * ''Film/PetesDragon1977'': Pete wisely decides it's best for he and Elliot (a magical dragon who can turn invisible) to keep a low profile while in town. Whenever Elliot's clumsiness starts causing a commotion, Pete stupidly throws his draconic pal under the bus by frantically telling the townsfolk that Elliot was responsible every time (never thinking to prove it by having Elliot turn visible), although if you're trying to avoid drawing attention to yourself, blaming problems on an invisible dragon is pretty much the ''last'' thing you'd want to do. |
| 139 | * The 1977 ''Film/TheManInTheIronMask'' ends with King Louis XIV subjected to the same fate he inflicted on his identical twin, locked up in a cell in the iron mask and shouting futilely that he's the real king. |
| 140 | [[/folder]] |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 143 | * ''Literature/BruceCovillesBookOf Spine Tinglers II'': In ''The Elevator'', Martin desperately tries to convince his father about the evil nature of the large woman who has been riding the elevator with him and staring him down. Naturally, the man just thinks his son is being a baby. |
| 144 | * ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': In ''Literature/TheSilverChair'', the adventurers come upon a knight who claims to have brief bouts of insanity due to an enchantment, during which he must be restrained. [[spoiler:It turns out to be this trope: he actually has brief bouts of sanity in the midst of what is otherwise an enchantment, but when he becomes un-enchanted, he's so desperate to escape it that he comes across as a raving lunatic, especially given that the people around him have already been primed to see it that way.]] |
| 145 | * ''Literature/DarkestPowers'': Averted by the main character, Chloe. In the first book, she's sent to a group home, where she's diagnosed (incorrectly) as a schizophrenic -- she's actually a necromancer. After realizing that she and the other kids are in danger, and then escaping and being chased down by the staff with tranquilizer guns, Chloe manages to get to her Aunt Lauren's house. Once there, she immediately tells Lauren about being hunted down by the staff. But rather than blurt out the entire insane story to Lauren, Chloe leaves out the part where she's a necromancer, ghosts are real, she accidentally raised the dead, and the people she was fleeing with include a fire half-demon, a sorcerer, and a werewolf. And, in an even ''further'' aversion, before going to her aunt, Chloe actually takes the time to go back to the scene to ''bring evidence'' in the form of a tranquilizer dart, because she knows that she'll be just brushed off as crazy otherwise. [[spoiler:So it's a damn shame that all of this effort goes to waste when it turns out that her aunt knew about everything all along, and was, in fact, in on the whole plot.]] |
| 146 | * ''Literature/TheFearIndex'': Hoffmann increasingly sounds like this as the events of the book unfolds. What first throws his sanity into question is when he insists a picture in a 100 year old book is a clue to the break-in of his house. Amazingly Quarry still believes him, but only because Hoffmann was never that normal to begin with. |
| 147 | * ''Literature/FreakyFriday'': The protagonist starts, well, freaking out for a variety of reasons, one of which being that while she is inhabiting her mother's body, her mother has presumably gone joyriding in hers, and is now nowhere to be found. She decides to call the police. Instead of saying, "I'm deeply concerned that my daughter has vanished", she decides to [[FreakyFridayFlip blurt out the whole body-swapping story]]. The cops, unsurprisingly, think she's nuts. |
| 148 | * Happens often in ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' books--in fact, one of the short stories in the collection ''Literature/MoreTalesToGiveYouGoosebumps'' is actually titled "You Gotta Believe Me!". Highly justified, as these stories almost always have protagonists whom are 11-12 years old, in which they typically are prone to immaturity and desperation to make someone believe him or her. |
| 149 | * In the sixth ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Harry Potter]]'' book, Harry is suspicious about Draco but unable to keep his cool about the matter, and even his best friends suspect that he's not being entirely sane about the whole thing. |
| 150 | ** Aside from Dumbledore and Sirius, everyone always seems to disregard Harry's theories almost offhand: |
| 151 | *** In the first book, nobody wanted to hear that he thought the Philosopher's Stone was being stolen. |
| 152 | *** In the third, nobody listened when he claimed Sirius was innocent and Peter Pettigrew was still alive. |
| 153 | *** He spends most of the fifth trying to convince the world Voldemort is back. Though it didn't help that the Ministry For Magic was deliberately working to discredit him. It also didn't help that Harry and Dumbledore offered no proof at all of their assertions. |
| 154 | *** And in the sixth nobody, including his personal friends, believes him when he says Malfoy is a Death-Eater. This does have an instance of CryingWolf and people do take him seriously at times (like when Mr. Weasley is attacked), but by the end of the sixth book, when Professor [=McGonagall=] is point-blank asking him for his input on something, he keeps it a secret, having apparently decided AdultsAreUseless. |
| 155 | * In the children's book ''Help I'm a Prisoner in the Library'', two girls, Mary Rose and Jo Beth, are accidentally trapped in the eponymous library after hours. Mary Rose, the elder sister, calls the police and tries to explain the situation rationally, only for Jo Beth to snatch the phone away and say, hysterically, "We're prisoners in the library!" The police dismiss the call as a prank. |
| 156 | * ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': Mentioned and averted in ''Storm Warning'', when Karal notes that he has the urge to just blurt out his story to the Blues, but is also aware of how weird it sounds and makes a conscious effort to lay things out calmly and logically. |
| 157 | * ''Literature/ThePoetAndTheLunatics'': Comes up near the end of the second story. Gabriel Gale has just realized that his host is dangerously mad and may very likely decide to blow up himself and all his guests at any moment, but he is well aware that this realization comes entirely through his insight into the man's psychology and that if he tried to explain the evidence and his reasoning to the other guests it would sound like complete nonsense. [[spoiler: Fortunately, he is able to push them into leaving the madman's house by sheer force of personality, and when the man blows himself up Gabriel and the other guests have gotten just far enough away to survive]]. |
| 158 | * ''Literature/ProjectTau'': Kalin keeps insisting that he's a [[spoiler:college student and a legal human]] to the scientists. None of them believe him until it's almost too late. |
| 159 | * ''Literature/TheSharingKnife: Horizon'': Near the end, [[spoiler:while Dag has, admittedly, had a pretty rough night, and just about anyone [[JustifiedTrope would be forgiven a fair bit of hysteria]] over finding their spouse BuriedAlive; an authoritative explanation about the Enchanted Lakewalker Wedding Cords would have gotten Fawn dug up far faster than clawing at her grave barehanded while screaming "She's not dead! She can't be dead!"]] |
| 160 | * ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': |
| 161 | ** Arya overhears a pair of people discussing their massive gambit. However, with most of the discussion going completely over her head, what she does remember of it when she tells her father sounds completely nuts, even though her father is currently investigating part of said gambit. Except it's not, actually, she just ''thought'' it was and presented it to him as such, so he was perhaps right to ignore her (the discussed gambit hasn't actually impacted the plot... [[ChekhovsGun yet]]), if for the wrong reasons. |
| 162 | ** Brienne combines being a bad liar with getting into very hard to believe situations, with the result that she tries to tell the truth but it comes across as an incredibly bad lie. In particular everyone believes she is responsible for killing [[spoiler:Renly]], because her (factual) explanation that a magical shadow cut his throat while they were alone seems far less likely than [[OccamsRazor her having killed him]]. |
| 163 | * ''Literature/TheSpaceMerchants'': Mitchell Courtenay falls headlong into this trope when he returns to Fowler Schocken and tries to explain the complicated intrigue he has been tangled up in. |
| 164 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': |
| 165 | ** ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'': |
| 166 | *** The first book has no one believing that people are disappearing in the middle of the day, because the man who sees it is considered mad and they don't even see the extra footprints in the bare earth. He actually fetches his one remaining crewmember from her safe place with the idea that people are more likely to believe her, and when ''she'' [[QuicksandSucks disappears]] he hits his DespairEventHorizon. |
| 167 | *** In a later book a hacker warns Zak that the ship's computer, which Zak is trying to give full control of the ship to, is evil. Of course, he'd self-sabotaged there -- in their previous interaction the hacker had agreed to let Zak examine some of the ship's functions, then immediately shut them down and blamed Zak for the failure. The hacker was also highly disheveled from being tortured by the computer, and the safeguards built into computers and droids to keep them from [[AIIsACrapshoot spontaneously becoming evil]] are so ingrained in popular consciousness that the idea seems laughable to Zak. |
| 168 | * ''Literature/TheseBrokenStars'': Once Lilac realises the voices she's hearing aren't delusions, she's desperate to prove it to Tarver. When she describes the people whose bodies he buried in perfect detail, he denies that it's them, and when her visions save them from a cave-in he still somehow denies it, mostly from not knowing what to do with the information. It's only when the whispers respond to Lilac's need to be believed by showing him his childhood home that he can't deny it anymore. |
| 169 | * ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898'': The standard for appearing mad is much lower than in more recent works. Having a bare head does it: |
| 170 | -->''"He met a wagoner and tried to make him understand, but the tale he told and his appearance were so wild -- his hat had fallen off in the pit -- that the man simply drove on."'' |
| 171 | * ''Literature/WatershipDown'': Early on, the WaifProphet Fiver approaches the warren's head rabbit to tell them they must leave before a disaster overtakes them. He's too shy and scared to make a good argument. Subverted, when a character who escaped the disaster tells them afterward that the Chief Rabbit did listen but decided they could weather whatever disaster might be coming. |
| 172 | [[/folder]] |
| 173 | |
| 174 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 175 | * ''Series/SevenDays1998'': Intentionally invoked by Frank. When a journalist is about to expose the government's time-travel experiments, he [[SarcasticConfession confirms her story on national television]]. He then [[RefugeInAudacity goes on]] to say that he is the only man that can time travel, which is why the CIA let him out of the psych ward so he can pilot the ship that [[ETGaveUsWiFi runs off of alien technology]] found at [[RoswellThatEndsWell Roswell]] and designed by a sexy Russian that totally digs him. He (and the journalist) are laughed off the show. |
| 176 | * ''Series/Accused2023'': In "Danny's Story", Danny is convinced that his stepmother had murdered his mother, and wants to murder his father too. He acts so unhinged however that everyone just becomes convinced that he's lost it, including his father. [[spoiler:He gets committed to a mental institution in the end, with a wrongful diagnosis of having paranoid schizophrenia. Danny was right, and his stepmother really did murder his mother, has now murdered his father and is working to murder his brother as well.]] |
| 177 | * ''Series/AmazingStories'': One episode of Season 2 is actually titled "You Gotta Believe Me". It involves a man (Creator/CharlesDurning) who has a horrific dream of a plane crashing into his house in the middle of the night. As he walks among the wreckage, he sees ghosts of some of the passengers and the ghost of the pilot talking about having to attempt take off too early due to something being on the runway. He wakes up and, while still in pajamas and robe, heads to the airport. While there, he sees the things that were part of the wreckage in his dream (including a girl's Teddy Ruxpin toy) and some of the ghosts. Convinced his dream was a prophecy, he keeps trying to convince the passengers, crew, security and so on that the plane's going to crash and gets more and more frustrated by people not taking him seriously. In the climax, he's on the tarmac and sees a single-engine plane with a drunk pilot taxiing onto the runway, heading into the path of the airliner. He rams the plane with a forklift, saving the passengers. Security grabs him and he says: "They were going to crash! You gotta believe me!" At which point, they finally do. |
| 178 | * ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': In the episode "[[Recap/ArrowS2E11BlindSpot Blind Spot]]", Laurel's insistence that the only reason she's been arrested for possession of illegal prescription medicine is because Brother Blood knows she's onto him and wants her out of the way sounds increasingly paranoid and crazy. It doesn't help that she has to acknowledge that, actually, she ''has'' been illegally self-medicating. |
| 179 | * ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Deliberately invoked by Jimmy when he demonstrates to a packed courtroom that his brother Chuck's "electromagnetism sensitivity" is all in his head, which causes Chuck to become unnerved enough to give a rambling rant insisting that Jimmy was behind all the bad things in his life. It gets Jimmy off with a slap on the wrist. |
| 180 | * ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Howard tries to convince a skeptical policeman that the reason he was speeding was that government agents were trying to track him down. |
| 181 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 182 | ** Subverted in the the third season episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E14BadGirls Bad Girls]]". After Faith accidentally kills a man, Buffy agonizes over what to do before deciding to tell Giles, only to find Faith has beaten her to it and blames it on Buffy. When Faith is gone, she pleads with Giles to believe the truth-and finds he does quite unequivocally, Faith having "many talents" but lying not being one of them. |
| 183 | ** Subverted again in the fourth season episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E16WhoAreYou Who Are You?]]" when Faith switches bodies with Buffy. Buffy is easily able to convince Giles that it's her by rattling off a string of rather embarrassing facts about their relationship that Faith couldn't know. |
| 184 | ** Played straight, if fairly subtly, in both ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'': If Angel wants someone to invite him into their home so he can protect them, he won't say "May I come in?"; he will instead ''demand'' that they invite him in. This makes him sound like a crazy person. They never do. In ''Angel'' this causes the death of Kate's father. |
| 185 | ** In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS1E6ThePack The Pack]]", Giles refuses to believe Buffy when she claims Xander has been possessed by a hyena spirit. Being Buffy, she calls him on it: |
| 186 | --->'''Buffy:''' I can't believe [[ArbitrarySkepticism you of all people]] are trying to [[AgentScully Scully]] me! |
| 187 | ** In "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E3TheReplacement}} The Replacement]]" the monster of the week splits Xander into two separate beings, one having his strong traits and the other with his weak ones. Weak Xander believes he is the "real" Xander, and tells Willow there is an imposter and recounts things from their childhood and does the Snoopy Dance. It turns out to be unnecessary, as Willow quickly figures out what is going on. |
| 188 | * ''Series/{{Bunkd}}'': Ravi and Tiffany suffer this problem in "Waka, Waka, Waka!". Since nobody at the camp believes the legendary monster named after the camp is real, they decide to capture footage of the monster so they have proof. However, Tiffany had her camera held the wrong way, so they all they got was themselves, leaving them more humiliated. [[AbortedArc They never resumed their quest after that episode.]] |
| 189 | * ''Series/BurnNotice'': "Burn [Notice] After Reading" has a guy going to Michael claiming that a woman at his workplace is an alien bent on world conquest. While the client ''is'' obviously delusional, [[spoiler:the woman was actually selling the names of spies, so he was right about there being a conspiracy, it just wasn't the one he thought.]] |
| 190 | ** This is also happens to their opponent one week. When Michael finds out about a well connected father who was beating up his wife and kids, [[CloseToHome he decides to do something about it]]. The problem is that his brother is a gangster and therefore they have to drive a wedge between them. [[spoiler:When they find that the father was doing side deals, they convince him that those deals have caused someone to want to kill him and that he must leave town. Unfortunately, this is when his gangster brother shows up and begins to question him. They then pass of the abusive father as crazy when Michael, Sam and Fiona all appear randomly on the street and the father begins claiming to his brother that he saw the three of them killed.]] |
| 191 | * ''Series/{{Community}}'': |
| 192 | ** The phrase is spoken by Britta when she is trying to unsuccessfully convince Troy and Abed that their friend Lukka is actually a genocidal war criminal. |
| 193 | ** Invoked by the Greendale Air Conditioning Repair Initiation. It's supposed to be secret, and so they kidnap people in the middle of the night, there's an astronaut in the corner making paninis, to ensure that any story would sound insane. |
| 194 | --->'''Dean of Air Conditioning Repair:''' We don't want you to tell anyone about this, and if you do, we don't want them to believe you. Isn't that right, Black Hitler? |
| 195 | * ''Series/ControlZ'': |
| 196 | ** Part of Javier's defense in 1.06 when he tries to explain to Sofía that he isn't the hacker after the truth about his dark past comes out, but Sofía solemnly replies that she doesn't recognize him anymore. |
| 197 | ** In 2.01 and 2.06, Sofía invokes this twice. When Nora scolds Sofia for lying about her father's death and Susana accuses her of being an accomplice to Raul's scheme in harboring Gerry from the police for Luis's murder, she truthfully assures that she has no idea where they are, and that she had nothing to do with the latter. However, both of them outright refuse to believe her. Alex also doesn't believe Sofia about the Gerry situation, believing that she had taken advantage of her guilt. Subverted for Alex in 2.07 as she seems to quickly forget about it as if it never happened. |
| 198 | ** In 2.08, Natalia anguishedly tries to explain to Javier that her unusual encounter with his father is not what he thought, as she was desperate in getting the money to pay off the dealers who had threatened her, but Javier breaks up with her anyway. |
| 199 | * ''Series/TheDailyShow'': PlayedForLaughs by Rob Riggle's character, whose often somewhat valid points which are completely overshadowed by his borderline psychotic personality. |
| 200 | * ''Series/DeadtimeStories'': Used a bit creatively in the episode "Invasion of the Appleheads". A girl calls the police to tell them that her parents have been turned into "appleheads", immobile doll-like figures. The police don't believe her, and threaten to come to her house if she doesn't stop "prank calling" them. Realizing that she can get the police to her house anyway, she then calls back and intentionally makes up a fantastical story to anger them into indeed coming to her house. [[spoiler:They show up, but are turned into "appleheads" by the time they get there.]] |
| 201 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 202 | ** The Doctor, as often as not, explains that a giant psychic carnivorous alien plant is about to destroy the planet, even if everyone would be much better of if he'd come up with a plausible lie, deal with the alien, and explain later. This usually results in him being called a nutter and locked up, even if the people he's talking to [[ArbitrarySkepticism should have every reason to find giant psychic carnivorous alien plants perfectly plausible]]. |
| 203 | ** Subverted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E1TheMasqueOfMandragora "The Masque of Mandragora"]]. The Doctor is arrested in Renaissance Italy while trying to find an alien energy being. He tries to explain things in LaymansTerms ("A ball of heavenly fire has come down to Earth, and I must return it to the stars!") but everyone just laughs at him, while Count Federico thinks he's a fraud posing as a sorcerer and brings in his astrologer to debate with him. As the Doctor thinks the astrologer is a fraud, things don't go well. |
| 204 | ** Played with in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose "Rose"]], when Rose meets with a conspiracy theorist who has information about the Doctor (whom she has kept mysteriously bumping into). Initially, he starts off presenting his theories about why the Doctor keeps popping up in different parts of history in a calm and reasonable fashion, and presents a relatively plausible theory that she'd be likely to believe -- they're all different men who are related and sharing a code name. Then, as he gets a bit carried away with having an audience, he starts getting a bit more worked up and intense, until he's convinced that Rose believes him fully and so blurts out his ''real'' theory (which is the truth) -- that they're same man, and the Doctor is an alien travelling through time. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't quite won Rose over before this, who leaves believing that he's a nutcase. |
| 205 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E2TheFiresOfPompeii "The Fires of Pompeii"]]: The Doctor tries to discourage Donna from warning people that Vesuvius is going to erupt tomorrow by telling her she'll be dismissed as a "mad old soothsayer". Later on, during the eruption, she tries to warn fleeing residents not to go to the beach (where the ash cloud will be lethal), but no one listens. |
| 206 | ** Averted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour "The Eleventh Hour"]]: The Doctor breaks into a house, and keeps shouting about Prisoner Zero. He is knocked out cold, cut to a hospital. Despite our expectations, he isn't there. |
| 207 | *** Later played straight in the same episode when the Doctor does beg Amy to "believe for twenty minutes." |
| 208 | ** At the climax of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]], the Doctor desperately attempts to persuade the [[LegionOfDoom Alliance]] [[spoiler:not to lock him in the Pandorica as he is the only one who can stop the TARDIS from exploding. He's rather frantic, but they don't listen to him because the Alliance is made up of all of his enemies and thus not inclined to do so.]] |
| 209 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth "The Woman Who Fell to Earth"]]: The Doctor invokes the trope to get police officer Yaz to work with her instead of reporting the hostile aliens to her superiors, pointing out that they won't believe anything she says without physical evidence. Graham, meanwhile, averts it while getting information from his fellow bus drivers, by not mentioning he's looking for aliens when asking if they've seen anything unusual. |
| 210 | * ''Series/{{Extant}}'': Refreshingly averted with Molly going out of her way to avoid telling everybody, because she knows it's insane sounding, and gaining all the evidence she can to corroborate her story. |
| 211 | ** Played straight in Season 2 since the government covered up what happened in Season 1 and Molly suffered a nervous breakdown due to [[spoiler:John's death and Ethan's seizure by the government]]. She is committed to a "rest home" and her efforts to convince people that she is sane quickly devolve into this trope. It is then subverted when Molly decides that it does not matter if people think she is insane as long as they also think that she possesses useful information they need in the current crisis. |
| 212 | * ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': The parents of Simon and River Tam have some excuse for not believing their son when he claims their daughter, supposedly safe at a government school, is being tortured and tries to hire criminals to kidnap her. As it happens, Simon is absolutely right, but it isn't exactly the most believable of stories. A deleted scene implies that they didn't completely ''dis''believe him either, but were also afraid to go poking around in Alliance business. |
| 213 | * PlayedForDrama in ''Series/TheFlash2014''. Joe watches a video of young Barry being interrogated about the murder of his mother, and he insists that his father is innocent and "the man in yellow" was the one who killed her. Of course, at this point, Joe knows that Barry was telling the truth all along. |
| 214 | -->'''Young Barry:''' Please, you have to believe me. |
| 215 | * ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': PlayedForLaughs when no-one believes that Frasier is dating a supermodel: |
| 216 | -->'''Frasier:''' I AM NOT CRAZY! I am dating a supermodel zoologist, who left her professional sports player boyfriend for me and is heading out to the Galápagos Islands to artificially inseminate iguanas! Is that so hard to believe?! |
| 217 | * ''Series/GetSmart'': Events in "The Little Black Book" force Maxwell to tell an old friend of his that he is actually a spy instead of being in the greeting card business. He isn't convinced until Max drags him to CONTROL headquarters (by way of the telephone booth) and has him talk to the president on the cow horn phone. |
| 218 | * ''Series/TheGoodies'': Played for laughs in the episode "Invasion Of The Moon Creatures". The audience has followed everything that happened and knows that it's true, but of course, it sounds insane summing it up. Context: Tim and Bill have been brainwashed by moon rabbits, and Graeme pleads for help with the authorities. |
| 219 | -->'''Graeme:''' ''(in close-up)'' Anyway, I sent that rabbit up to the moon...uh, that was Flopsy. But he didn't come back, so I sent Tim and Bill up to the moon to see what had happened, and when they got up there, they found all these...carrots. And then hundreds of rabbits attacked them and overpowered them...''(zoom out to reveal two uniformed men are grabbing him)'' ...and they've just gone into the space-burrow and they've met Big Bunny. ''(gets fastened with sign reading 'LOONY -- handle with care')'' No, honestly, it's the truth, it is the truth, and Big Bunny's teaching them to say [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes 'Nyeeeeh, what's up doc']]! ''(gets stuffed into a crate reading 'TO THE FUNNY FARM -- this side up')'' |
| 220 | * ''Series/{{Grimm}}'': In the episode "Woman in Black", Nick is desperate is convince his {{Muggle}} girlfriend Juliet that Wesen are real so that she will accept that it is possible that one is trying to kill her by magic and go to the hospital. So he takes her to his aunt's [[RoomFullOfCrazy Trailer Full of Crazy]], shows her all the medieval weaponry, the books of Grimm lore (in languages she doesn't understand and full of gruesome illustrations) and the collection of Nazi propaganda films and earnestly explains that several people they know are monsters that only he can see, pausing every few sentences to beg her to believe him. For obvious reasons, she thinks he's delusional, and he can't get her to the hospital until after she collapses. |
| 221 | ** The next season he gets to try this again as a case of Magical Amnesia has wiped Juliet's memory of the event. This time he is much calmer, and makes sure that he can back up his claims by actually having some friendly Wesen transform into their GameFace in front of her. |
| 222 | * ''Literature/GulliversTravels'': In the 1996 TV adaptation, Gulliver heatedly tries to convince people his experiences were real, but comes off quite deranged since they're incredibly bizarre and he also suffers from very frequent traumatic flashbacks which make him seem like he's just hallucinating it all. [[spoiler: His son Tom though eventually finds the tiny sheep from Lilliput which he brought, proving it was real.]] |
| 223 | * Played with in ''Series/{{Hannibal}}''; when Will realizes he's being framed for the copycat murders, he explains it to Jack in the calmest, most reasonable manner possible. Unfortunately, [[ClearMyName it doesn't help]]. |
| 224 | * ''Series/{{Homeland}}'': Played absolutely straight in Season 1 when Carrie goes to Brody's house and, in the most wild-eyed, rambling manner possible, tries to convince his wife and daughter that he's a terrorist. She even says the trope name aloud word-for-word at one point. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that Carrie is mentally ill with bipolar disorder and is currently in the throes of a manic phase. |
| 225 | * ''Series/{{House}}'': Doctor House is a brilliant medical expert who nails the most bizarre diseases and syndromes week after week, yet nobody ever believes him when he dismisses the obvious diagnostics of the other doctors, despite there always being a nagging little detail that derails the simple explanations. Oh, and the standard treatment to the obvious diagnostic always seems to instantly kill the patient if administered before House stops them. |
| 226 | -->'''House:''' IT'S NOT LUPUS! |
| 227 | ** Then again, it doesn't help his case that he's a sarcastic curmudgeon with a bad case of pain killer addiction... |
| 228 | ** Plus House himself will usually come up with a completely wrong diagnosis, that nearly kills the patient, before he comes up with the right one. |
| 229 | --->'''House:''' I'm ''almost'' always ''eventually'' right. |
| 230 | *** The episode that this quote is from actually makes this a ChekhovsGun. House begins to suspect something's up because the team is too quick to agree with him. [[spoiler:He's right. The entire thing is a hallucination.]] |
| 231 | * ''Series/{{iCarly}}'': |
| 232 | ** Carly and Sam (especially the former) to Freddie repeatedly in "iTwins", about Melanie's existence. |
| 233 | ** Sam to Freddie in "iReunite With Missy" about Missy [[GreenEyedMonster trying to force Sam out of her and Carly's renewing friendship]]. And when Freddie asks why he should: |
| 234 | --->'''Sam:''' Because I came here. Have I ever come to you for help before, for anything? |
| 235 | ** Spencer to the iCarlys in "iBelieve in Bigfoot" about the Beevecoon. |
| 236 | * ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'': In the episode "The Quiet Room", David Banner is committed to a mental health ward when he learns that one of the doctors there is performing illegal experiments on people's brains. His attempt to explain such to another doctor makes him sound even more delusional and paranoid, mainly due to the doctor he's trying to expose being ''right there'' and also questioning him, so he's trying to be evasive. |
| 237 | -->'''David:''' Dr. Hill, you have to get the tape. It explains everything. The tape is very important. Now listen to me... |
| 238 | * ''Series/IronFist2017'': Danny Rand might be the ultimate example of this trope. Having been presumed dead for fifteen years, he returns to New York intending to reclaim his share of his father's megacorporation. He starts by walking into headquarters looking like a hobo and asking to see the CEO. When they don't let him, he breaks into the CEO's office by attacking the guards. Once he gets there and sees childhood acquaintances Ward and Joy, he repeatedly claims to be Danny without providing any proof and is shocked that they don't believe him. He sneaks into Joy's house and admits it to her face, then breaks into Ward's car and purposely nearly crashes it in anger. When he's put in a mental asylum, he violently lashes out on multiple occasions and insists on telling everyone he's spent the last fifteen years in an extra-dimensional land and has magical powers in his fist. On occasion he sees the potential value of [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay speaking about memories that only he would have,]] but he ignores plenty of good opportunities to do this (especially when speaking with Joy and Ward), preferring instead to repeat ridiculous sounding claims and attack people when they don't believe him. |
| 239 | * ''Series/Kingdom2019'': While understandable due to the trauma he'd just gone through and the fact you really couldn't explain "these bodies actually are dormant flesh-eating zombies" in a way that'd make you look sane, Yeong-shin's approach of throwing himself screaming in the middle of the magistrate's courtyard and trying to burn the corpses with little to no explanation certainly didn't help his case. |
| 240 | * Often happens to the marks on ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' as they try in vain to get the authorities to believe that they were set up by an elite team of con artists. |
| 241 | ** In "The Very Big Bird Job", corrupt executive Romer calmly explains to the FBI that he wasn't fleeing the country to avoid insider trading charges and causing a deadly crash. Rather, he believed he was flying the Spruce Goose to save it from Iranians out to steal 70-year old stealth technology invented by Howard Hughes. Their expressions say it all. |
| 242 | * ''Series/TheListener'': In the first season, Toby is unable to explain how he can read minds and thus simply insists others have to trust him on things like knowing when a crime is to be committed or a secret someone has. When he meets police detective Michelle in the season, Toby decides the only way to avoid all this is to tell her the truth and then reads her mind, answering her questions verbally until Michelle believes him. |
| 243 | * ''Series/Merlin2008'': This is the title character's usual tactic. He never has any proof, because obviously AWizardDidIt, and so it never works. You'd think he'd learn after a few tries. Or alternatively, you'd think the other characters would learn that no matter how insane Merlin's initial claims may seem (or however badly he goes about explaining it), he's always -- ''always'' -- proven to be right by the end of the episode. |
| 244 | ** Although this is finally subverted by ''The Dark Tower'', when Merlin is trying to get the Knights to follow him. Arthur, being his usual ignorant self, starts to ignore him, but the Knights point out that it can't hurt as they're already lost, and ask Arthur to give him a chance. |
| 245 | * ''Series/{{Misfits}}'': Nathan yells dramatically at his mother that her boyfriend is a "psycho, rough-trade, [[PunctuatedForEmphasis gay, rapist werewolf!]]" Granted, his mother probably wouldn't have believed him even if he'd just calmly explained the situation (especially considering that Nathan is pretty much a compulsive liar, and had leapt to a rather silly conclusion based on what he'd seen anyway) but by the time he realized that babbling like a crazy person probably wasn't doing him any favors, she'd already totally dismissed him. |
| 246 | * Commonly averted on ''Series/{{NCIS}}''. |
| 247 | ** Witness this exchange from "The Immortals": |
| 248 | --->'''Gibbs:''' Skipper, I have reason to believe a bomb, possibly containing a biological agent, is set to detonate aboard this ship by sunset.\ |
| 249 | '''Captain:''' How real do you think that threat is?\ |
| 250 | '''Gibbs:''' ''(flatly)'' Very real.\ |
| 251 | '''Captain:''' ''(immediately turns around to face the XO)'' [[RedAlert Sound General Quarters.]] Deploy the flying squad, start with the ventilation systems, and alert sickbay to the situation and have them stand by. |
| 252 | ** Another notable example is "Enigma", in which Gibbs' old CO enters stage left exemplifying this trope in full, with breathless panicked warnings about a massive black ops conspiracy going to the highest levels of the US government that's illegally manipulating wars, siphoning money out of Iraq, faked the death of Gibbs' old platoon leader to use him as one of their black operatives (before he defected to the colonel's side), and going to kill him. [[spoiler:Turns out that the colonel ''actually is'' a paranoid schizophrenic, it was all in his head, the 'not really dead' guy is a hallucination only he can see, and the "massive conspiracy" was just a few guys embezzling some money that he stumbled across, and which his insane brain seized on and built up into a massive edifice of paranoia.]] |
| 253 | * ''Literature/NOS4A2'': Vic struggles to convince people that Bing killed Sharon Smith, but with no evidence it naturally doesn't sway police. After she tells the detective who is lead on the case just how she knows about this (and Charlie Manx) she's referred for psychiatric help. |
| 254 | * ''Series/NoTomorrow'': Xavier's method of trying to alert a famous astronomer that an asteroid is (he believes) on a heading with Earth is loudly accosting her in public and behaving like a maniac. Not surprisingly he's been arrested multiple times and the astronomer's taken out a restraining order against him. Even when she's convinced to listen by Evie though and he talks calmly, she still thinks he's nuts. |
| 255 | * ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Mentioned by name during the [[WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}} Arendelle arc]] in Season 4; Ingrid locks up Anna and tries to convince Elsa that Anna was plotting against her. Elsa confronts Anna in the dungeon and accuses her of treason, and then demands the guards leave her alone with her sister. Anna tells Elsa she would never even think of betraying her, pleading, "You have to believe me." Once she hears the guards close the door behind them, Elsa drops her angry mask and unlocks Anna's cell, assuring her, "Of course I believe you." |
| 256 | * ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S1E28TheSpecialOne The Special One]]", a father asks the board of education if they provide tutors as part of the enrichment program. When he's told that they don't, he reveals that a man posing as a tutor has been visiting his son. And then he reveals that the man isn't human, is from outer space ([[FunctionalGenreSavvy which he couldn't possibly know]]), disappears and materializes, and then starts talking about climate control machines. |
| 257 | * Subverted in ''Series/PeepShow'': When Mark's girlfriend Sophie receives a phone call from a mentally ill woman that Mark has been unfaithful, Mark's pleas to convince her that she has been institutionalized are initially met with disbelief. However, Mark, rather surprisingly, gives a calm and rational statement: "No Soph, look at me; honestly, she's in hospital. I can you give you her reference number.". This actually convinces Sophie, although it is unfortunately hinted that she may have already had her revenge. |
| 258 | * ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury'': In one episode, an archaeologist discovers some artifacts that are potential weapons for the villains. Instead of visiting her as a Ranger and just explaining the situation, the Red Ranger shows up in civvies and tells her that people he can't talk about want the artifacts for reasons he also can't talk about, and can he have the artifacts for safekeeping? Not surprisingly, she says no. |
| 259 | * Played with in ''Franchise/{{Quatermass}} II''. Professor Quatermass is trying to get a committee of {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s to authorize an inspection of a well-guarded synthetic food factory, which has some connection with strange hollow meteorites landing in the area. A politician who also wants to get to the bottom of the matter agrees to help him, and starts pitching to the committee the idea that the factory might be in danger from these meteorites crashing down on top of it. Rather than realizing what he's up to, Quatermass keeps interrupting to 'correct' the politician's supposed scientific error. |
| 260 | * ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': In "The Gum", Deena, an old friend of George's, becomes convinced that George is paranoid and delusional due in part to a complicated string of the show's typical [[ContrivedCoincidence Contrived Coincidences]] and in part to George's actual neurotic personality (he's obsessed with perceived wrongs done to him by a cashier and by his childhood acquaintance Lloyd Braun; at one point he insists that Jerry Seinfeld, whom Deena presumably only knows as a stand-up comic, is his best friend and only failed to recognize him when George tried to flag him down because he was wearing glasses that weren't his "to fool Lloyd Braun," which, this being ''Seinfeld,'' [[ItMakesSenseInContext he actually was]]). Shortly after finally convincing her that he's mentally sound, he runs into her in public while [[NapoleonDelusion wearing a Henry VIII costume]] from the "Institute for the Preservation of Motion Picture Costumes and Wardrobe" to promote a showing of the film it's from at a local theater. He decides that a good way to explain himself is to chase her down the street screaming, "I got it from The Institute! THE INSTITUTE!" |
| 261 | * ''Series/SquidGame'': In the episode "Hell", the players vote to discontinue the DeadlyGame they've been recruited to participate in after the first game and are dropped back home on the South Korean mainland. TheProtagonist, Gi-hun, immediately goes to the police station to report the games, and it's only after the disbelieving officer repeats his claims back to him that Gi-hun seems to realize how crazy he sounds. |
| 262 | * ''Series/StargateSG1'': |
| 263 | ** Subverted in one episode, where after relating a prophetic dream he's had to General Hammond, Dr. Jackson is surprised when Hammond asks what he can do to help. When asked why he believes Jackson, Hammond gets smart, alluding to all of the ''other'' crazy things he's seen and heard while in command of the SGC. |
| 264 | ** Also played straight in several episodes. In the three episode arc that ends the first season [[spoiler:no one believes that Daniel Jackson had gone to an alternate reality despite the fact that he had evidence in the form of a staff weapon blast on his shoulder and had disappeared for several hours with no other explanation.]] Later, and more (though not entirely) excusably, [[spoiler:he has a hard time convincing people to take his theory about Teal'c's sickness seriously after he apparently develops and then recovers from schizophrenia.]] The latter is also a massive case of HollywoodPsych. |
| 265 | --->'''Daniel:''' Why does everyone think I'm crazy!? ''[{{Beat}}]'' Probably because I'm acting like it, aren't I? |
| 266 | ** The same thing later happened to Jonas Quinn. When he starts seeing bugs that no one else can see, Hammond immediately orders a lockdown and a full sweep of the base. Granted, Jonas was the only one to touch the strange alien device, but he was ''also'' the only one who'd spent his entire life around a specific type of radiation that's known to cause ''schizophrenia'', [[JustifiedTrope so, well...]] |
| 267 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': Oddly enough, it happened constantly. Someone would claim to see some kind of anomaly in their quarters, have been abducted, been contacted telepathically, or whatever. Yet, the crew would always look at the person as if they were insane, [[ArbitrarySkepticism even though that kind of stuff happened every single week.]] |
| 268 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', on the other hand, played this straight to start with, then tended to avert it once [[GrowingTheBeard the beard filled in]] and [[CharacterDevelopment the main characters learned to trust each other]], generally responding to outlandish claims with a sensor sweep or system diagnostic -- which, naturally, rarely turns up anything at first -- before suggesting a sleeping pill and a nice lie down. (It still does go straight occasionally, but there's always a valid reason given for why.) |
| 269 | ** A good example is "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E5RememberMe Remember Me]]", in which the crew are disappearing one by one, with no one but Doctor Crusher remembering that the disappeared ever existed. Nevertheless, those who are left believe her implicitly and investigate her claims diligently. The first to really question her is Captain Picard when ''he and Crusher are the only ones left,'' and even there it's more gentle than dismissive. |
| 270 | ** Another is "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E2RealmOfFear Realm of Fear]]", in which minor character Barclay, who has a well-deserved reputation as a twitchy, paranoid hypochondriac, spontaneously develops a fear of the transporters, insisting that he's been bitten by something living '''inside''' the beam. Picard gives him a long, hard look... then tells Data and Geordi to tear the transporter apart looking for the problem, because he knows that Barclay is fully aware of his reputation, and wouldn't risk the humiliation of reporting to him directly unless he were ''absolutely positive''. |
| 271 | ** Another episode, "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E12TheWounded The Wounded]]", features a starship captain who is convinced the Cardassians are rearming in preparation to break the peace treaty with the Federation. He's right, but unfortunately, instead of amassing evidence and going to his superiors, he proceeds to just start blowing Cardassian ships away left and right and then rants like a lunatic about how "they're all the same" and "I can smell their deceit" when Picard calls him out on it. |
| 272 | ** [[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E24AllGoodThings}} The final episode]] [[PlayingWithATrope plays with]] every aspect of the trope, with Picard traveling through 3 time periods. The present crew believe him outright (especially when he mentions that [[TheTrickster Q]] is involved, meaning that ''any'' kind of weirdness is possible). The future crew has doubts, since future!Picard is suffering from a brain disorder known to cause delusions, but he calls in some favors and they go along [[TrueCompanions out of a sort of familial duty]]. And in the past, having "just" arrived on the ''Enterprise'', he simply opts to not tell them at all and just starts barking out orders. |
| 273 | * ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': |
| 274 | ** "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E20BeforeAndAfter Before and After]]": [[WeAreAsMayflies Dying of old age as a nine-year old grandmother]], Kes starts jumping back through her own timeline. At first she has difficulty convincing people as they (as with Picard) think it's dementia, but becomes more convincing as she gets younger and gathers more information... until she jumps back to her childhood on the Ocampan homeworld, where she's unable to convince her father she's not playing some kind of kid's game. |
| 275 | ** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E18DeathWish Death Wish]]" the all-powerful and all-annoying being called Q transports a spotlight operator from the Woodstock festival and Sir Issac Newton to Voyager. Captain Janeway tries to explain to them what is happening. |
| 276 | --->'''Janeway:''' Consider for a moment that it might be possible to travel forward in time, say to the twenty fourth century, onto a starship seventy five thousand light years from Earth.\ |
| 277 | ''(blank looks)''\ |
| 278 | '''Janeway:''' You're having a very strange dream... |
| 279 | * ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Dr. Bashir plays this trope straight in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E18Inquisition Inquisition]]" while trying to convince the bridge officers that he's not a traitor. [[spoiler:Then it's revealed that the officers are in fact holograms programmed to vilify him. The fact that his TrueCompanions won't consider his side of the story is one of the things that tips Bashir off.]] |
| 280 | * ''Series/StrangerThings'': |
| 281 | ** Averted when Nancy and Jonathan reveal the details of the conspiracy to Murray and he says nobody will ever believe it, so they water it down by taking the most damming evidence and leaving out the paranormal parts. |
| 282 | ** Joyce falls victim to this trope a bit, seeing as she has both naturally rather prone to anxiety and nervous tension and has been the victim of a campaign of discrediting/gaslighting by an abusive spouse even before her son went missing and gave her very good reason for hysterics, meaning that very few people are inclined to believe her when she insists that her missing son is somehow both alive despite all evidence [[spoiler: including a body]] and yet invisibly haunting the electrics of her home. She is self-aware enough to know both that she lacks credibility and her story is fantastic, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating for her to deal with. In Season 3, her demeanor is similar in regards to the magnetism. |
| 283 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': |
| 284 | ** In "[[Recap/SupernaturalS02E20WhatIsAndWhatShouldNeverBe What Is and What Should Never Be]]", Dean has to convince the Sam of the Wishverse that he needs to hunt the djinn, but Sam thinks he had a psychotic break. Subverted earlier in the episode when Sam catches Dean stealing a silver knife; as he's a loser in this particular reality, Dean simply says that he owes money to a loan shark. |
| 285 | ** Subverted in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS04E20TheRapture The Rapture]]". Jimmy Novak, Castiel's vessel, tells his wife that he was in a psych ward during the time he was possessed by Castiel. This backfires while he later begs his wife to believe him that his best friend is possessed by a demon and threatening their daughter; naturally she thinks he's had a psychotic relapse. |
| 286 | ** In "[[Recap/SupernaturalS09E10RoadTrip Road Trip]]", Crowley enters Sam's MentalWorld [[spoiler:to warn him that he is possessed by Gadreel. Sam doesn't believe him until Crowley shoots him and nothing happens]]. |
| 287 | ** Averted in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS12E09FirstBlood First Blood]]". The Winchester brothers have been arrested for attempting to assassinate the President of the United States and since no-one would believe that [[PresidentEvil POTUS has been possessed by Lucifer himself]], they just maintain an absolute silence. |
| 288 | * ''Series/TheTimeTunnel'': Happens so, so, ''so'' many times. The two protagonists ''always'' jump straight to "We're from the future," never bothering to come up with some more plausible explanation for how they know what they do, no matter how many times it doesn't work. Though it is nicely subverted in one episode where Doug confesses everything while being affected by a truth serum, which just causes his captors to think he's been conditioned to resist the serum and consider this proof that he's a professional spy. |
| 289 | * ''Series/TruCalling'': This is Tru's default state. When subtler methods of informing people of their own impending death fail or are sabotaged, she always falls back on this line. Not only does it ''never'' help, it was likely similar antics from Tru's mother (who had Tru's powers) that got Davis' wife killed, so Tru should really know better. |
| 290 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': The main character in the famous episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E3NightmareAt20000Feet Nightmare at 20,000 Feet]]" spends most of the episode gradually slipping into a major anxiety attack after seeing a gremlin on the wing of the plane he's riding on, which vanishes whenever anyone else looks at it, and trying to convince everyone that he isn't going insane. Their concern is admittedly justified, because until recently he'd been a patient in an asylum after suffering a nervous breakdown on a plane, and because he's played by Creator/WilliamShatner, ''completely'' [[LargeHam hamming it up]]. |
| 291 | -->'''Bob:''' ''[wild-eyed and drenched in sweat]'' ''Do I...'' look... ''insane!?'' |
| 292 | * ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': Tori suffers this in "Crazy Ponnie", when the AxCrazy student she encounters keeps vanishing whenever other people are around, leaving her friends to think she's crazy. |
| 293 | * ''Series/WireInTheBlood'' has an interesting case. After the police crack the M.O. of a serial killer, it becomes vitally important to alert his latest prospective victim (who is already waiting to meet him) to the danger, without spooking her into hanging up or dismissing the call as a prank. Psychologist Tony Hill immediately demands that he be given the phone; he then adopts exactly the right inflection so that she not only listens to him, but believes him, gives the police her location, and agrees to lock herself into a bathroom stall until he will arrive, using his name as a pass word. This is an inversion in that it is the police convincing a citizen of a sinister plot and not vice versa, and an aversion in how professionally the task is handled. However, while Hill is a brilliant ''theoretical'' analyzer of criminals, he is also shown as very socially inept and in fact often more of a liability when interviewing friends and relatives of victims. For him to be ''that'' convincing is actually out of character, which might count as a hyper-aversion. |
| 294 | * ''Series/TheXFiles'': Mulder has a bad habit of this; when trying to enlist outside aid in dealing with a case (local police, FBI higher-ups, etc.) he makes sure to tell them ''exactly'' what he thinks is going on, no matter how insane, as opposed to sticking to the parts they're likely to believe. He usually doesn't rant and rave, but the fact that he talks about these things like they're perfectly reasonable and the person he's talking to is just a close-minded idiot doesn't help his credibility. |
| 295 | ** This becomes almost something of a RunningGag, since no matter how crazy the theory and how much Scully cites scientific research that he's wrong, Mulder is always right. |
| 296 | ** It's suggested TheMenInBlack are pretty smart about this, deliberately acting as strangely as possible and using agents who look like famous people (or perhaps even making an agent, say, [[Series/{{Jeopardy}} the host of a game show]]), so that anyone who tries to tell other people about them won't be believed. |
| 297 | --->''[[Wrestling/JesseVentura "I don't see why anyone would find anything odd about our appearance."]]'' |
| 298 | ** In the episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS04E19Synchrony Synchrony]]", an elderly man (who's actually from the future) approaches two guys and starts a rant about how one of them will die in a traffic accident while crossing the street that evening, and how '''this must not happen'''. Of course, they don't believe him. If he'd calmly started a conversation with them and held them up for just a few minutes, he'd have easily succeeded. |
| 299 | [[/folder]] |
| 300 | |
| 301 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 302 | * ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': Shortly after the Gatewatch arrives on Amonkhet, they see a person fleeing the guards and shouting to onlookers that everything they believe is a lie. Later on, after the narration switches to her perspective, Samut is kicking herself for thinking yelling in the street would accomplish anything. Although she has trouble convincing even her closest friend rationally -- the lie they live is too immense to be easily put aside. |
| 303 | [[/folder]] |
| 304 | |
| 305 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 306 | * ''Theatre/AVeryPotterSequel'': When Harry asks the guard how to get to platform nine and three quarters, the guard insists that it doesn't exist. Harry uses the trope nearly by name, and starts talking about his Hogwarts letter. When the guard starts to walk off, he yells, "Sir! Listen, please! A bird gave it to me!" |
| 307 | ** Invoked from the flip side as well when the guard says that ''hundreds'' of kids have asked him the same question that day, and he refuses to believe it exists or there's anything worth looking into. |
| 308 | [[/folder]] |
| 309 | |
| 310 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 311 | * ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'': The (in)famous X-Files quest ends this (as well as ItWasHereISwear) way: when you try to expose the conspiracy, you realize your proof was just, let's say, stolen. For added trauma, when you return to the secret facility where you found it, there's nothing, not even a brick. There are even a number of relatively obscure minor characters (along with a major one) to whom you can present your evidence, but they all either end up dead, have the files stolen from them, or are actually working for the conspiracy. |
| 312 | * In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', the Jarls are faced with some pretty outlandish stories from their population and might easily fall for this trope, although they have the good sense to [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure ask you to go look into that mysterious cavern]] just to be certain. Surely enough, no matter how crazy the story was it all turns out to be true. |
| 313 | ** In the DLC ''Dragonborn'' you can come across I barely clothed madman shouting about how a book inserted his secrets. No matter how calmly you talk to him he'll attempt to attack you. He's right of course, because AllMythsAreTrue, but what makes it maddeningly is that you can know it's true by accessing one of these books before you've ever met him yet you still treat him like a complete nutcase. |
| 314 | * {{Averted}} / {{Defied}} in ''VideoGame/{{Gothic}} II''. When the [[NoNameGiven Nameless Hero]] has to gain Paladins' support against the dragons in Valley of Mines, he simply tells their commander, "The question is not if you should believe me, but whether you can afford to ''not'' believe me if I'm telling truth." It works pretty well -- the Hero is sent to the Valley for confirmation. |
| 315 | * ''VideoGame/InThe1stDegree'': James Tobin goes into this a few times. What really makes him look bad is how early on, he changes most of his story, saying that he was so scared and that he did not think anyone would believe him. He even admits to shooting himself in the leg because he wanted to make the situation he was in look like like it was self-defense. |
| 316 | * ''VideoGame/KathyRain'': The titular PlayerCharacter is caught red-handed by the local Sheriff after she has broken into [[spoiler:Father Isaac]]'s office and is rooting through his private stuff. The player can choose to have Kathy rattle off a frantic explanation about how she is actually trying to prove that [[spoiler:Isaac]] is behind [[spoiler:the kidnapping of Kathy's friend, Eileen]]. Alternatively, the player can outright {{Subvert|ed Trope}} the trope by choosing a somewhat more savvy response: |
| 317 | -->'''Kathy:''' ...Fuck it, just take me to jail. |
| 318 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': The Council is generally considered TooDumbToLive for ignoring your warnings about the Reapers. But then again, Commander Shepard probably could've come up with some much better arguments. [[spoiler:Subverted in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' DLC ''The Citadel'', where Shepard can find a recording that indicates that the Council arguably knew about the Reapers, but played dumb to prevent panic and because they honestly didn't have a clue about how to address a threat of that magnitude.]] |
| 319 | ** Between ''2'' and ''3'', Garrus went to his father to tell him about the Reapers. Shepard thinks there was a case of this going on, but no, Garrus's father listened and believed him. Then they went to the turian higher-ups for help. Garrus figures they gave him a task-force as a way to shut him up. [[spoiler:''Andromeda'' shows Castis warned his buddy Alec Ryder, which gave the Andromeda Initiative proof the Reapers were about to show up, and impetus to get out of dodge before then.]] |
| 320 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'': Twisted and reversed. At the game's climax, Raiden is contacted by Rose (secretly the Patriots' AI in her form) who claims, as the subtitles spell, "You have to beLIEve me!" |
| 321 | * Subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}''. After trying out the local rumor (looking at a blank TV screen on a rainy night will reveal your soulmate), [[HelloInsertNameHere the protagonist]], Yosuke, and Chie are all talking to each other about their experience the previous night. The main character, unlike the other two, was a bit more hands-on, and managed to fit his head into his TV, which he then calmly and casually explains to them. Thinking it to be dream or a bad joke, Yosuke and Chie take him to the electronics aisle of the local department store, sarcastically suggesting that he could climb right in through one of the flatscreen televisions. When they suggest for him to prove what he said that he did, he promptly sticks his hand into the TV, and then, when curiosity overtakes him, ''[[HandInTheHole his whole upper torso]]'', at which point Chie and Yosuke [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJz3NTw6RkI begin freaking out]]. |
| 322 | ** Unfortunately played straight if he tries to tell his uncle about it later. Despite the TV in the room. |
| 323 | * ''VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour'': Sanchez appears to attack a woman from Murphy's viewpoint. Given that both Murphy and Sanchez are fellow prisoners who don't exactly get along with each other, it's not surprising that Murphy treats Sanchez's claim that he was fending off a monster with skeptism and tries to hold him back. [[spoiler:Murphy does believe Sanchez soon enough -- after said female-looking figure, which turns out to be a monster, [[SlashedThroat slashes Sanchez's throat and kills him]] before turning its attention on Murphy and attacking him, that is.]] |
| 324 | * ''VideoGame/StarCraft'': |
| 325 | ** In ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft|I}}: Brood War'', Aldaris incites a major military revolt and goes off on a mindless tirade about how evil the Dark Templar are and how they would doom the Protoss society. Just as he is finally defeated and starts to explain what he's discovered, Kerrigan pops in and assassinates him. The heroes eventually find out the hard way that Aldaris was right two campaigns later....all because the guy descended into a raving lunacy rather than rationally approaching the dilemma. |
| 326 | ** Almost completely subverted by Zeratul in ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft II}}''. True enough, he starts out as if he's going to play this trope straight, coming to Raynor in a dark corridor and acting all crazy and hurried, but he ''does'' give ol' Jimmy all of the information he has, expressed as logically as possible. It's also hard to fault him for boarding the ship in secret, because, well, he's a Protoss (and a Dark Templar to boot), [[BlueAndOrangeMorality and that's just the way they do things]]. |
| 327 | * ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013'': One of the supporting cast doesn't believe in Lara's crazy theory that a Japanese demigoddess is controlling the weather on the island. Even though they witnessed storms that have literally formed in ten seconds to take down a massive, E.M.P.-shielded aircraft in one strike. And then an entire cruiser. IN HALF. Eventually, Lara realizes that she doesn't need the acting captain to believe her -- just trust her, and her judgment in "going to the center of the island and killing whoever is sniping off people who try to leave the island with super-powerful technology". Since the acting captain has trusted her since the beginning, she agrees. |
| 328 | * ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'': In the second episode, the player can get one of these. [[spoiler: When everybody is about to chow down to some nice human meat you have four choices, one of which is [[Film/SoylentGreen IT'S PEOPLE]], to which the reply is "yes Lee, we're all people in here."]] |
| 329 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} 3'', the Prophet [[spoiler:Medivh]] could have done a much better job of warning the human leaders of their impending doom, if only he didn't barge into the throne chamber uninvited in the shape of a raven, transform into a human before the King, insult him, and then proceed to ramble about doomsday like a lunatic. |
| 330 | ** Considering that the magi of Dalaran and the elves of Quel'thalas were very much aware of the existence of demons, all the Prophet really had to do was bring up the topic and say, "yeah, they're coming." |
| 331 | * In the final scene of ''VideoGame/WingCommander IV: The Price of Freedom'', Blair, having witnessed evidence of [[spoiler:Admiral Tolwyn's treason]], interrupts a Senate hearing to try and present his case. The player is presented with dialogue options that determine how he goes about this, but the straighter you play this trope, the less likely the Senate is to actually believe him, to the point of {{bad end}}ing yourself. |
| 332 | * All over the place in ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'': |
| 333 | ** Several events offer the option to call the police for help in dealing with whatever situation you're facing. However, doing so ''successfully'' requires that you pass a Charisma check; otherwise, they won't take you seriously. |
| 334 | ** Places like the Schoolyard offer a chance to chat with others and potentially recruit them as Allies. However, they won't join you if they don't believe how serious the situation is. |
| 335 | ** One encounter in the Hospital finds your protagonist dealing with a 'crazy person'. They can realize that the main difference between them is that nobody believes the patient's story. Alternately, failing to pass the stat check leads the protag to dismiss their ramblings. |
| 336 | [[/folder]] |
| 337 | |
| 338 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 339 | * ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'': When [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Dio]] and [[ChildrenAreInnocent Quark's]] vote turns out to be "Betray" early in the game, if their opponent is [[GrumpyOldMan Tenmyouji]], Dio attempts to persuade Tenmyouji that Quark pushed the button, while Quark responds by screaming that Dio pushed the button and begging for Tenmyouji to believe him. (This trope turns out better than usual, though: Tenmyouji scolds Quark for losing his temper, but ultimately does believe Quark because he raised Quark and could be deaf and blind and would ''still'' know if Quark was lying to him.) |
| 340 | [[/folder]] |
| 341 | |
| 342 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 343 | * ''Webcomic/{{Archipelago}}'': Riley, TheBigGuy of the hero team, falls in LoveAtFirstSight with Alice, but thinks he'll have to leave her to continue the quest. The he learns that she's one of the [[MacGuffinSuperPerson heirs]] the team's supposed to find and keep safe from the villains, so he frantically rushes to tell her that. Alice takes being told that pirates are out to steal her soul as the weirdest pick-up line she's heard in her life. |
| 344 | * ''Webcomic/BronzeSkinInc'': Poor Joe gets blamed for the mischief caused by the Saci in Chapter 7. Vanessa thinks he's just making things up, but Dante believes him and tries to help him find the Saci. |
| 345 | * ''Webcomic/CaseyAndAndy'': Lampshaded when Mary [[http://galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=95 calls 911]] to say that {{Satan}} was kidnapped by a [[EnemyMime mime assassin]] and [[MistakenForPrankCall gets hung up on]]. |
| 346 | -->'''Mary:''' I'm sure I could have handled that better. |
| 347 | * ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Averted and Lampshaded when Agatha [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070516 tries to convince Von Mekkhan]] that she is the Hetrodyne heir. Von Mekkhan has seen stranger things than talking cats, and while he has seen a lot of pretenders come by, he is willing to give Agatha the opportunity to make her case. |
| 348 | * ''Webcomic/MonsterOfTheWeek'': Mulder's propensity for this is parodied. One instance involves his ranting to a judge about a killer with mind-control powers, followed by him saying to Scully that the killer mind-controlled the judge into throwing out the case, and Scully snarking that that is definitely what happened. |
| 349 | * ''Webcomic/SequentialArt'': Used as a RunningGag whenever Art calls the police to resolve the current bizarre crisis. Naturally, [[PoliceAreUseless they always hang up]]. The next trouble happens, and he [[AesopAmnesia does it again]]. |
| 350 | * ''Webcomic/TheGreenhouse'': Liv knows exactly how it sounds when she tries to explain to her [[LoveInterest crush]] Mica that Mica is [[DemonicPossession possessed by a demon]]. Fortunately for both of them, while Mica is skeptical, she's already started to catch glimpses of 'Red' in [[TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf mirrors and windows]], and Red's attempts to attack her [[MindOverMatter telekinetically]] that night were pushing the boundaries of coincidence. |
| 351 | [[/folder]] |
| 352 | |
| 353 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 354 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': One regular feature was ''Chicken Boo'', about a giant chicken (rooster?) who [[PaperThinDisguise puts on human clothes]] [[HughMann and tries to blend in]]. Since HumansAreMorons, everyone is always completely fooled until his DramaticUnmask, save for one ProperlyParanoid guy [[OnlySaneMan raving throughout the short]]: |
| 355 | -->"He's a chicken, I tell you! A giant chicken!" |
| 356 | * ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': |
| 357 | ** Jet does this when he tries to convince the people of Ba Sing Se that Zuko and Iroh are Firebenders. |
| 358 | ** {{Lampshaded}} by the Earth King when the Gaang forcibly invades his throne room and says this regarding his TreacherousAdvisor. |
| 359 | --->'''Earth King:''' You invade my palace, lay waste to all my guards, break down my fancy door, and you expect me to ''trust'' you!?\ |
| 360 | '''Toph:''' ...He has a good point. |
| 361 | * ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'': Early on, XANA targets the local nuclear plant and the group ultimately decides to send Yumi to tell the adults what's going on. They don't believe her. In fact, pretty much ''any'' time the kids try to tell the adults about XANA's actions, they're dismissed outright. This also happens with their peers a lot. Of course considering how ridiculous their claim is ("The rogue AI we fight in a video game world is attacking the real world,") it's not really a surprise that no one is willing to listen. |
| 362 | * In ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse on the Orient Express'', Penfold has a difficult time getting Greenback's agents and even DM to believe that the important document to be transported to London got eaten by a fish, which did eat it when Penfold was submerged in a Venice canal. Later in the episode, the fish, with said document in its mouth, is served to Greenback for lunch on the train ("So... the half-witted hamster was telling the truth!") |
| 363 | * [[WesternAnimation/TheDeputyDawgShow Deputy Dawg]] is on his way to a "whopper telling" contest (telling tall tales) when he's held up by a flood caused by a giant catfish. He makes it to the contest and explains his tardiness, but Muskie, Vince and the Sheriff all think it's the biggest whopper yet, in spite of Deputy Dawg's insistence it's true. |
| 364 | * In the WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck wartime short "WesternAnimation/TheVanishingPrivate", Donald is knocked into a barrel of [[InvisibilityInk invisible paint]] by Sergeant Pete, and he spends the second half of the cartoon trolling him in revenge. Pete, having already made a fool of himself in front of the General in his attempt to reveal Donald's location, slowly loses his marbles until he is throwing live hand grenades around to blow Donald up. As the General tries to talk him down, Pete sees Donald's footprints behind his superior, but the General is convinced he's just hallucinating from sunstroke and doesn't notice Donald steal his sword and stab Pete in the backside with it, causing him to drop the grenades and trigger a massive explosion. |
| 365 | * ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'': In one episode, Ma Beagle's latest scheme involves pretending to be married to Scrooge [=McDuck=]. Scrooge's attempts to deny being her husband fall under this trope, especially when she demands a "divorce" (meaning that she would get half his fortune), and he blurts out that he'd rather "stay married," which of course the judge interprets as meaning they already ''are'' married... |
| 366 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' has Timmy's EvilTeacher Denzel Crocker, who's [[SecretChaser obsessed with proving]] that Timmy has "[[VerbalTic FAIRY GODPARENTS!]]" |
| 367 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': |
| 368 | ** Used humorously in the ShowWithinAShow, ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 The Scary Door]]'': |
| 369 | --->'''Gambler:''' There's a gremlin destroying the plane! You've gotta believe me!\ |
| 370 | '''Narrator:''' Why should I believe you? [[spoiler:[[TomatoInTheMirror You're Hitler!]]]] |
| 371 | ** In "[[{{Recap/FuturamaS6E2InAGaddaDaLeela}} In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela]]", the crew discover that Earth is going to be destroyed by a giant automated death-sphere-ship thingamabobber, because it's "censoring" inappropriate planets by destroying them. Farnsworth states that people will listen to rational, intelligent people such as them. They emerge seconds later in robes and signs, saying "The end is near!" and "Repent!" |
| 372 | ** In "The Inhuman Torch", Bender has what is [[WorldOfWeirdness by]] ''[[WorldOfWeirdness Futurama]]'' [[WorldOfWeirdness standards]] a perfectly plausible explanation for why he isn't to blame for a string of fires that broke out in his wake, but manages to convince Fry—who has discovered evidence in his favor and ''already'' believes in his innocence—that he's guilty [[NotHelpingYourCase by phrasing his explanation like a next-level]] lame excuse while also playing up his own self-perceived heroism, [[EngineeredHeroics which was exactly what was believed to have been his motivation]]. |
| 373 | --->'''Bender:''' It was a psychotic flame creature from the sun who set those fires! |
| 374 | * Duke and company in ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeRenegades''. The kind, benevolent, paragon of corporate responsibility that is Cobra Industries couldn't ''possibly'' be evil, could they? Starts to be gradually subverted as word of their heroic exploits gets out, and even Flint sees evidence that something much bigger is going on. |
| 375 | * ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'': Dib is one of the only two people on Earth who knows that Zim is an alien, and vehemently and relentlessly tries to convince everyone else around him that they're in terrible danger; his sister Gaz is the second person who knows, but Zim's plots never worry her because she knows that he's such a HarmlessVillain that he'll always wind up sabotaging his own schemes. Dib is constantly dismissed, called insane, and bullied by others after showing them evidence that Zim is an alien. |
| 376 | * ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': In the ''Unlimited'' episode "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E6FearfulSymmetry Fearful Symmetry]]", Supergirl has vivid recurring nightmares about killing people. She goes to Green Arrow who is naturally skeptical. Then [[ConspiracyTheorist the Question]] overhears her and is so certain that it's part of a deep government plot that even Supergirl becomes skeptical. He is eventually [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight proven right]]. |
| 377 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': In Episode 98, nobody believes Stumpy when he says that Smileyland's sheep are aliens. Instead, his friends try to take him to a doctor/psychotherapist. |
| 378 | * ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': |
| 379 | ** The protagonist in "WesternAnimation/OneFroggyEvening" follows this trope to a T when he utterly fails to convince anyone (talent agent, theater full of patrons, a policeman) that he is in possession of a singing, dancing frog. |
| 380 | ** The "Horror Vacation" trilogy (''WesternAnimation/ScaredyCat'', ''WesternAnimation/ClawsForAlarm'', and ''WesternAnimation/JumpinJupiter'') starring WesternAnimation/PorkyPig and [[WesternAnimation/SylvesterTheCatAndTweetyBird Sylvester the Cat]] is built around this trope, with Sylvester constantly being terrorized by either malevolent mice or sinister aliens and repeatedly trying to convince his owner Porky that the threats are real, with Porky constantly and snarkily denying it all. Porky even accuses Sylvester several times of being mentally unbalanced. |
| 381 | * ''WesternAnimation/KidVsKat'': Only Coop sees through Kat's true image as an evil alien mastermind, but continuously fails to convince his family and neighbors, as at the last minute, Kat destroys all the proof and leaves Coop to be deemed a complete laughingstock. It is to the point that Coop learns that no one will ever believe him that he decides to keep Kat's identity a secret from then on. |
| 382 | * ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': This is how [[TheCassandra Candace]] behaves OncePerEpisode when she witnesses her little brothers' shenanigans and [[CassandraTruth tries in vain to inform their mother]]. |
| 383 | * ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': Adora takes a turn when everyone is stuck in a LotusEaterMachine and she starts getting memories from her real life breaking through. The only person who doesn't think she's ''entirely'' nuts is Scorpia, and that's because she manages to get Scorpia's real memories firing too. It doesn't help that part of the effect is that she stops picking up on the offscreen passage of time, meaning she looks like she's forgetting entire days at a time. |
| 384 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 385 | ** In the commentary for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E23HomersEnemy Homer's Enemy]]" (featuring the line "This whole plant is insane! Insane, I tell you!") the writers note that if you're trying to convince people you're not crazy, it's not a good idea to end any sentences with "I tell you." Or worse, "I tells you." |
| 386 | ** Lampshaded in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E1TreehouseOfHorrorVII Treehouse of Horror VII]]" where Kang and Kodos abduct Homer and spray him with booze before releasing him so that his warnings will be dismissed as drunken ravings. |
| 387 | --->'''Homer:''' Why won't anyone believe my crazy story? |
| 388 | ** The "Terror at 5 1/2 Feet" segment in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E5TreehouseOfHorrorIV Treehouse of Horror IV]]", per its [[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E3NightmareAt20000Feet source material]]. Bart, crazed with fear, fails to convince his fellow passengers of the gremlin dismantling the school bus but ''does'' succeed in freaking them all out to the point where after he's been proven right, they stick him in an insane asylum anyway. |
| 389 | --->'''Bart:''' You believe me, don't you?! You're my friend who believes me. Sweet, trustworthy Milhouse. |
| 390 | ** In "King Size Homer", Homer, trying to get a ride to the power plant so he can manually shut it down before it explodes, ends up yelling incoherently at passing motorists while panicking. |
| 391 | * ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': UsefulNotes/AlGore uses the variant "I'm super-duper cereal [serious]!" during his ongoing [[WindmillCrusader crusade]] to defeat the seemingly imaginary monster [=ManBearPig=]. In keeping with the show's dismissive attitude toward environmentalism at the time that [=ManBearPig=] was first introduced, the monster started out as an obvious WindmillPolitical designed to mock Gore's real campaign against GlobalWarming. Then in a much later season, [=ManBearPig=] turned out to be NoMereWindmill, likely reflecting how public opinion has changed about the unavoidable reality of climate change. |
| 392 | * ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In the episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E20HookyMermaidManAndBarnacleBoyII Hooky]]", Mr. Krabs tries to warn people about the fishing hooks just outside of town, but they just ignore his ravings. One even tells him [[YouNeedABreathMint to take a breath mint]]. |
| 393 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': {{Invoked|Trope}} by the antagonists in "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS6E4Orders Orders]]". [[spoiler:Fives, who has found out that all the clone troopers have mysterious chips in their brains, is drugged with a compound that increases his aggression and paranoia, so when he tries to tell others, like Anakin and Rex, about the chips, he's incapable of expressing himself coherently. It's revealed next season and in the SequelSeries, however, that Rex ''did'' listen, filed a grievance report voicing his suspicions, and (along with a few other clones) had his chip removed as a result.]] |
| 394 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E15ThroughImperialEyes Through Imperial Eyes]]", in a villainous example, [[spoiler:Lieutenant Lyste, upon realizing he's being arrested for treason, tries to tell the other Imperials that he's not the traitor, Governor Pryce is. He quickly starts begging for Agent Kallus to help him once he realizes that no one is going to listen to him.]] |
| 395 | * ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces2017'': In "Cold Rush", Dick Dastardly says this to the other racers when they won't believe he's not behind the episode's traps even after he gets caught on the last one with them. It's really [[NotMeThisTime not him this time]]. |
| 396 | [[/folder]] |
| 397 | |
| 398 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 399 | %%* In this video, it's mentioned that one of the unconscious things a liar does is say things like "Believe me" or "[[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon In all Candor.]]" %%WHAT video?? |
| 400 | * When the news of the Watergate scandal initially broke, Attorney General John Mitchell's wife Martha began calling reporters insisting that the White House was behind the burglary. No one believed her until months later when investigations confirmed her allegations. As a result, she now has a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Mitchell_effect psychological phenomenon]] named after her. |
| 401 | * After ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' got {{uncanceled}} the first time, Creator/SethMacFarlane called Alex Borstein to tell her that the show was back on. She didn't believe him, but instead [[MistakenForPrankCall laughed derisively at him and hung up.]] |
| 402 | [[/folder]] |
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