Basic Trope: Fiction is used as a smoke screen for bizarre reality.
- Straight: Bob and his friends spend one weekend defending their hometown from an alien invasion. The government has a movie made about the events, Unidentified Fearsome Object to cover up the real story.
- Exaggerated: Bob and his friends have fought every monster in existence (including, but not limited to, aliens, chupacabras, and cursed animal costumes) and every one of their exploits has a dozen movies, novels, comic books, mangas, and action figure lines created about it.
- Downplayed: Bob figures I Should Write a Book About This, but passes it off as a work of fiction, since no one is going to believe it anyway.
- Justified: Bob usually contains the problem quickly and the government would prefer people not to panic.
- Inverted: An entirely fictional film is passed off as Found Footage from an alien invasion that never took place.
- Subverted: The government spends some time talking to Hollywood stars and producers after Bob and his friends beat back the aliens...but it turns out the attack hit the civilian population very hard and they want an uplifting movie made about the events to boost the country's morale.
- Double Subverted: However, then Bob and his friends kill a monster that is drawn to people who believe in it. In case any more of the same sort exist, the government decides to cover things up with a movie, Don't Believe Your Eyes, to prevent the monster from finding and massacring large amounts of the population.
- Parodied: Bob spends a weekend fighting an alien invasion and three months later a movie suspiciously similar to those events comes out: Alien Attack: Totally Not Based on a True Story.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: No fiction is a cover-up.
- Enforced: The author loves conspiracy stories.
- Lampshaded: "You're saying that all these monster movies have been warning us about the real deal?"
- Invoked: Bob and his crew buy one or more film studios, comic book publishers, and TV channels so that their exploits can be passed off as yet another entry in the franchise.
- Exploited: Bob and his friends get extra money by playing themselves in the movies.
- Defied: The government is about to try to cover things up with a movie when conspiracy buff and intrepid blogger Alice releases the entire thing, complete with film of the government planning to deny it all.
- Discussed: "We could tell the whole truth and ensure a mass panic because The World Is Not Ready, or we could tell the truth, pass it off as the latest sci-fi blockbuster, and use it as a way to make the world ready."
- Conversed: "Oh, another movie about how the government's lying to us and ET and Dracula are all real."
- Implied:Alice: Wow! But how did everyone take it?Bob [glancing at the movie theatre]: Oh, the government handled that.The theatre displays a poster: Unidentified Fearsome Object — Coming Soon
- Played For Laughs: The alien invaders show up and are mobbed by delighted fans who comment that their cosplay is good, but not quite perfect.
Back to Fiction as Cover-Up.
