Basic Trope: What we're being told doesn't fit what we're being shown.
- Straight: Bob is telling his friends how his date with Alice went: according to him, it went well. The accompanying Flashback, however, shows that things went poorly.
- Exaggerated: Bob claims that he was a perfect gentleman who swept Alice off her feet for the most romantic night of her life. Meanwhile, the flashback reveals he really fumbled and bumbled his way through the whole thing while tossing out cheesy pick-up lines... at Alice and any other 'pretty girl' who crossed their path, until Alice finally had enough, threw her drink in his face and left, leaving Bob to walk home alone and depressed.
- Downplayed: Bob is talking about his date with Alice, and says, "It was fine! I-I think..." The Flashback shows them walking arm in arm; he trips and she helps him up, laughing a bit at his expense. The date may have gone all right, but not as smoothly as he wants his friends to think.
- Justified:
- Bob doesn't want his friends to know about any problems he had with Alice, because he knows they'll relentlessly mock him if they knew the truth.
- Bob honestly doesn't realize that the date went poorly; he went through the whole thing in a blissful, lovesick haze and failed to notice that Alice wasn't enjoying herself.
- Claire asks Bob about his date, while using Mind Reading to see his actual memories.
- Inverted: Narrating the Obvious
- Subverted: People assume Bob will lie, but Bob's retelling matches the Flashback perfectly...
- Double Subverted:
- ...At first. Then it slips out of sync as he starts to exaggerate and stretch the truth...
- Alternately, it appears to match at first, but watching closely reveals several small-but-significant deviations.
- Parodied:
- Bob tells a blatantly exaggerated story about his absolutely perfect date, with limos and fancy restaurants and expensive presents for his girlfriend... when he really struggled to get his car through MacBurger's drive-thru.
- Bob is a habitual liar who spins some wild yarn about his date going horribly Off the Rails... while the Flashback shows a perfectly normal date.
- Bob tells the above story about limos and fancy restaurants to his friends. They all assume that this trope is in effect. He isn't lying at all.
- Bob's narration claims that the date went perfectly — until Flashback!Bob (whose date was a disaster) breaks the fourth wall and tells Narrator!Bob to shut up.
- Zig Zagged: Bob's narration drifts back and forth between accurate and fake—eventually the audience realizes this is to cover Bob's secret identity as a superhero. Anything not involving his superpowers he tells straight, anything that might reveal his gifts is lied about.
- Averted: Bob's narration in no way contradicts what we're shown.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "Bob, are you imagining how it really went?" "I might not be..."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice shows up in time to hear Bob's false version of events and quickly sets the record straight.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Drama: Bob isn't as nice as he acts; while he tells his friends about his nice, normal date, the Flashback reveals what he really did to Alice...
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