History Main / AccidentalTruth

** In "Half-Decent Proposal", Marge takes a taxi back home after a weekend with Artie Ziff, who had stolen a kiss from her. She sarcastically tells the taxi driver to send the bill to "Baron von Kiss-A-Lot". The scene cuts to an actual baron with that name, receiving the bill.

* ''Literature/JesperWhoHerdedTheHares'': The king of the land has offered the princess's hand in marriage to whoever can complete an ImpossibleTask of bringing something rare to him. Three brothers, sequentially, decide to give it a try. They carry the thing in a basket and in turn meets a mysterious old lady who asks what's in the basket they are carrying. The first two, for fear of seeming ridiculous, invent a mundane lie, and then they find that their basket is actually full of the thing they claimed. The third son tells the truth and gets magical help with the other tasks.

* A motif that appears in several tales: The king of the land has offered the princess's hand in marriage to whoever can complete an ImpossibleTask. Three brothers, sequentially, decide to give it a try. Each in turn meets a mysterious old lady who asks what's in the basket they are carrying. The first two, for fear of seeming ridiculous, invent a mundane lie, and then they find that their basket is actually full of the thing they claimed. The third son tells the truth and gets magical help with the task.

[[caption-width-right:180:Proof that one can lie, and yet still be telling the truth]]

* ''Shucked'': Gordy the ConMan claims he'll fix the failed corn crops in Cob County, but in reality, he's only interested in the rare rocks in the soil. He lies to the townspeople that the rocks are preventing the soil from getting moisture, so the corn will grow better once he digs them out. [[spoiler:Despite being a claim he pulled right out of his ass, in the end, it turns out Gordy is 100% correct. The rocks really were responsible for the crop failures, and the corn starts growing again once they're all removed.]]

* In episode 13 of ''Podcast/InterstitialActualPlay'', when Riley asks for someone to name any property, Hazel blurts out ''Twin Peaks'' before regretfully saying that there's no connection between the show and Disney. Riley quickly corrects her because the show aired on Creator/{{ABC}}, and thus [[spoiler: Mr. C drives into the battlefield and turns his car into a mech suit]].

** Once Morgans learns that [[spoiler:the Five Elders [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness want Dr. Vegapunk assassinated]]]] and that Luffy is currently on Egghead, he has his newspaper write up a PropagandaPiece saying that Luffy has taken Vegapunk hostage, which is a lie meant to earn him the World Government's good graces. The next day, while tapping on a call between the Five Elders and Egghead, Morgans overhears Luffy declare that he's done just that ([[ItMakesSenseInContext kind of]]), leaving Morgans shocked that his lie turned out to be true.

* SarcasticConfession, where the character knows what they're saying is the truth, but is counting on the truth being too outlandish to believe.

* In ''Manga/{{Beelzebub}}'', in order to make their fellow students interested in finding the demon prince En, Furuichi told the rest of the delinquents that En is from Akumano Academy (demon academy) instead of, you know, Hell. Then after Furuichi managed to make En mad, En took over Ishiyama High and make it into an actual Akumano Academy, filled with 394 demons.
* ''Manga/ABridesStory'': Joruk's little CryingWolf joke ends up as this when it turns out there really ''is'' a wolf attaking the clan's flock of sheep.

* In episode 61 of ''Anime/KirattoPriChan'', the Oshama Tricks prank the entire town of Kirajuku by spreading rumors saying that [[spoiler: Meltic Star is returning from their world tour]]. The rumor spread through town so quickly that they thought they were in really big trouble, until it turned out that [[spoiler: they really DID return!]]

*** After Luffy, Zoro and Sanji were knocked out in the Thriller Bark arc, he woke them up by claiming a beautiful swordswoman just brought meat. In the Dressrosa arc, enter Rebecca, a beautiful young swordswoman who does befriend Luffy by feeding him.

* In ''Manga/OtakuNoMusumeSan'', Kanau is embarrassed that her father Kouta is an Otaku so she lies to her new friends that her father is their favorite manga artist. Later, Kanau and her friends learns she was actually half-right when Kouta reveals he's actually that manga artist's assistant in drawing.

* ''ComicBook/BatmanCataclysm'': One issue follows a group of mercenaries hired by a CEO to rescue people buried under the rubble caused by the earthquake. One such group of rescues contains a young boy who hero-worships Batman and asks if he sent them. The main rescuer claims that he did, showing one of his friends a provision in the contract they signed which authorizes them to tell lies to keep up morale. The contract also mentions the name of the [=CEO=] who hired them as rescuers: Batman's SecretIdentity, Bruce Wayne.

* ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'': After the fifth Golden Ticket is found, Brian spreads a rumour that one of the Golden Tickets was a forgery so he can unload his stash of Hackerjacks. However, it turns out that one the reported Golden Tickets ''is'' actually a forgery.

* In the first arc of ''ComicBook/TheSuperiorFoesOfSpiderMan'', Boomerang's narration tells us the story of how after Silvermane's death his head survived, and was found by the son of a junkyard owner, who made it a little robot body, and they became friends. He then says that's nonsense and that Silvermane's head is ''actually'' being held by the Owl, and his masterplan is to steal it. It's then revealed that this is just what he's telling the team, and actually he's after something else, and his narration says the whole story of Silvermane's head surviving is ridiculous... at the same time as the Shocker is at the junkyard and sees the head in its little robot body.

** When Kor is held prisoner by Pel's cult, she bluffs by claiming that Zim is planning to attack by coming crashing through the wall in the Dibship. Minutes later, that's exactly what happens.

* ''Fanfic/DarthVaderHeroOfNaboo'': After getting a look at Vader, Plagueis makes several educated guesses on whom he might be, with one of them being that Vader is a time traveler, which is absolutely accurate.

* In ''Manga/SpyXFamily'', Loid tells Yor that Anya is his biological daughter, hiding that he actually adopted her as part of his mission. In ''[[https://www.reddit.com/r/SpyxFamily/comments/z032hn/irresponsible_spy/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=2 irresponsible spy]]'', they run into Anya's biological mother, who Loid recognizes as Ostenian researcher he seduced 7 years ago for information... which means Anya ''is'' his actual daughter. To make matter worse, both Anya's mother and Yor think that not only did Loid coldly left her behind, [[NotWhatItLooksLike but that he secretly kidnapped Anya from her]] (she was actually captured for human experiments before she escaped and got adopted by Loid) .

* In the Young Justice fanfiction "I Want To See You Smile!", the main character is a self-insert that has been remade to look like a non-human species from a completely different work. She plays it off as if she were an alien, lying about her homeworld and it's customs, only for her ring to inform her that not only is it all true, but the reality of her species is updating in real time with her lies about it. At one point, she accidentally creates a caste-system, only to realize what she's done and immediately backtrack, saying that the oppressed castes have made great strides towards equality.

* ''Fanfic/PersonalitySwapAU'': In order to explain Izuku having One For All after years of Quirklessness, he's passed off as being a "really late bloomer". This turns out to be true -- Izuku ''does'' have his own Quirk, which eventually manifests... but because of One For All, nobody recognizes the signs until it becomes undeniable.

* During the Indigo League arc of ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', Ash's second round opponent is a self-proclaimed "Rookie Crusher", who accuses Ash of being a "fake rookie" when he gets defeated. Everyone in the stadium naturally thinks he's just being a crazy SoreLoser, but Pikachu takes notice that [[PeggySue he's technically]] [[MentalTimeTravel correct on his assumptions]].

* In ''The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'' in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad'', Brom Bones seemingly makes up the whole story about the Headless Horseman to terrorize the superstitious Ichabod Crane. As it turns out, the Headless Horseman really does exist, and goes after the terrified Crane in the ending. Although the Horseman [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane just might have been Brom in disguise]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', Jafar borrows the Sultan's diamond ring, claiming he needs it to find Jasmine a suitor, when he actually plans to use it to find the one who can enter the Cave of Wonders. [[HilariousInHindsight In a way]], Jafar fulfilled his claim as Aladdin would end up being Jasmine's suitor, not to mention Jafar seeking him out would lead to events that would result in them being together.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MonsterHouse'', when the trio of kids enter the titular house, they see a chandelier that acts as the house's uvula, with one of the boys commenting that it's a girl house [[note]]Mixing up uvula with vulva[[/note]]. [[spoiler:Turns out that he was right as it's revealed in the climax that the house is possessed by the spirit of the owner's dead wife]].
* A written example in ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'': Mushu writes a [[ForgedMessage fake message]] from General Li saying that Shang's new troops are needed on the front lines so Mulan will have a chance to prove herself. [[spoiler: That message turns out to be desperately true: the village to which they arrive at [[DoomedHometown has been sacked by the Huns]], leaving every imperial soldier--including the general--and citizen slaughtered.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', the Evil Queen, under disguise as an old apple peddler, convinces Snow White that the poisoned apple is a "wishing apple". The princess buys into the hag's deception, biting the apple after wishing for the prince to come to her, and is knocked out cold as a result. Turns out that the laced apple did lead her to the prince she so desired, but not in a way she expected.

* In ''Film/AskAPoliceman'', Sgt. Dudfoot and his constables create fake evidence of a smuggling ring to report to the Chief Constable so they can keep their jobs. In doing so, the accidentally expose the existence of a real smuggling ring.

* In ''Film/Ghost1990'', Sam Wheat was gunned down in a mugging, and after his spirit follows his killer who had recently broken into his apartment, he goes to Oda Mae Brown, a medium, in the hopes she can help him get a message to his girlfriend. When he first sees her working, Oda Mae is scamming a woman whose husband recently died. When Sam voices his displeasure, Oda Mae begins freaking out at the revelation that she can in fact hear ghosts, and later in the movie she voices her displeasure at the fact that spirits from afar traveled to see her, and won't leave her alone.

* ''Film/TheLadykillers1955'': Professor Marcus claims it would do no good to bring the stolen money back, because the police wouldn't want it. He turns out to be right and [[spoiler:Mrs. Wilberforce gets to keep the money]], but for completely different reasons than the ones he gave.

* ''Film/TheRocketBoy'' has the hero lie about what was guarding the nest, since he wanted to sound like he did something more impressive than destroy a recording. He described a large orange spiky reptile, which then appeared after finishing his boast.
* In ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'', part of Mysterio's fake tragic backstory is that he's a multiversal traveler who fled to the MCU Earth after his was destroyed. While Beck and his collaborators think this is "ridiculous", the truth is that the multiverse ''does'' exist, and has ever since ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}''. [[spoiler: And Spider-Man gets some personal experience with the multiverse in [[Film/SpiderManNoWayHome his next movie.]]]]

* ''Film/TrueMemoirsOfAnInternationalAssassin''. A thriller novel about an international hitman called The Ghost is marketed as a true story, [[MistakenForBadass forcing the author into various dangerous situations]]. At the end it's revealed that the man who gave him the idea for the novel really is an international hitman.

* In ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'', Willy Wonka tells the listening world a poem warning them about the approach of menacing monsters called "grobes". Soon afterwards, the space hotel comes under attack from real alien monsters. Mr Wonka identifies the aliens as Vermicious Knids, and admits to Charlie he just made the grobes up.

** In ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'', Sam Vimes is sent back in time about 30 years, and when asked his name, gives the first he can think of; John Keel, his old sergeant. He ''isn't'' Keel, of course, but due to the real Keel [[spoiler:being murdered by a fellow time traveler]], he ends up taking his place. He even coincidentally gets an injury that requires an eye-patch and makes him ''look'' like Keel. The History Monks are excited by this, as it lends credence to the theory of self-correcting history.

* ''Literature/EarthGirl'': Jarra, after getting accepted into an archaeology class run by an offworld university, decides to conceal her status as Handicapped (someone who can only survive on Earth) by posing as the child of a Military family. When she eventually decides to look up her birth parents in the records, lo and behold, they are Military personnel.

* Inverted in Creator/RobertEHoward's "Gates of Empire". Giles Hobson makes up a story about the Crusader army's intentions to impress a pretty girl with how in-the-know he is. It turns out she's a spy for the Saracens. No harm done, since he lied to her, right? Except that, although he didn't know it, what he told her ''is'' exactly what the Crusader leader planned to do.

* At the beginning of ''Literature/LesMiserables'', Valjean is caught after stealing the bishop's silver, and makes up the story that the bishop gave it to him as a present. The skeptical policemen take him to the bishop, and the bishop surprises both them and Valjean by confirming the story and adding more valuable gifts on top. Cue HeelFaceTurn.

* The Literature/NeroWolfe novel ''Literature/AndBeAVillain'' hinges on this. It turns out that the victims were all part of a blackmail syndicate which, instead of targeting their victims with real secrets, instead made up slander which was just convincing enough to be accepted as real. Unfortunately for them, it turned out that with one of their victims they accidentally stumbled upon a genuine secret that the blackmail victim was willing to kill to protect...

** In the ''[[Literature/NewJediOrder Enemy Lines]]'' duology, SmugSnake Viqi Shesh is in the hands of the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yuuzhan Vong]], and on the verge of execution. In order to prove her worth to them (and spare her life long enough to escape), she pretends to have found a conspiracy against the Warmaster: the "shapers" (their equivalent of scientists and doctors) are deliberately causing one of his artificial limbs to be rejected. As it turns out, the conspiracy not only exists, but is found and rooted out relatively quickly--more quickly, it also turns out, than Shesh would have liked.

* In ''The Truth Teller's Tale'', Truth Tellers CannotTellALie. Roelynn's father isn't nobility but he ''is'' extremely ambitious, and hopes to marry Roelynn to the prince. Roelynn is extremely flirtatious, and falls in love with a variety of men, which is explained as being a free spirit until her father ties her down. So, when the titular Truth Teller, Eleda, says that her friend Roelynn will marry the prince, it breaks both Roelynn and Eleda's hearts: Roelynn because what Eleda has said ''must'' be true [[spoiler:and because she has already secretly married her newest love]], and Eleda because she has forced a lie past her lips (ItMakesSenseInContext). [[spoiler: Her new husband turns out to be the prince, so Eleda has told no lie at all.]]

* There's a pretty brutal version of it in ''The Wall'' by Jean Paul Sartre. A political prisoner is given the choice between execution or turning traitor and giving the location of a collaborator. At the last moment, he delays the execution by making up a location so that the army will look foolish, knowing full well that the collaborator is hiding far away from there. The army searches... and it turns out the collaborator had to switch hiding spots to that location. He is killed, and the man goes free.

* In ''The Housing Lark'' by Sam Sevlon, Sylvester is a Trinidadian of Indian origin, who is trying to find lodgings in racist 1950s London. He's advised by black Trinidadian Battersby that there's a white landlord who accepts Indians, but only if they're actually from India. Syl is accepted, but is intimidated by Ram, an extremely Sikh-looking man who he thinks could reveal his lie at any moment. He tries getting Ram evicted by telling the landlord that ''he'' isn't really from India, but this just leads to his own deception being exposed. When he tells Battersby about this, Battersby tells him that Ram was the ''last'' Indo-Trinidadian he sent there.

** In "The Fortune Teller", Madame Gisella, the eponymous character reads the fortune of a land owner whose allowed them to pass through his property) and tells him that his life will be in danger because of his gun. While Gisella is merely trying to trick the man into giving her his (valuable looking) gun, that gun is the eponymous Dead Man's Gun and he really was in danger by having it. Part of the reason the man is so quick to hand it over is because he has indeed been having bad luck since he got the gun, which makes her claims sound true to him.

* In ''Series/DowntonAbbey'', Thomas Barrow has a falling out with one of the nannies, who doesn't let him see the children (whom he is fond of). So he tells Lady Crawley that the nanny is mistreating them. He thinks it's a lie, but then Lady Crawley does actually see the nanny racially abusing little Sybbie and sacks her on the spot. He looks slightly bewildered when Cora declares the family owes him a great debt the next morning, but quickly recovers.

* ''Series/JandaKembang'': In episode 5, Rais buys an obviously broken motorcycle partly because it is cheap and partly because the seller and RT leader claim it is an antique. Rais repeats the antique-bike lie when he tries to sell it to a motorcycle repairman. After Rais trades in the bike to the repairman for his old one, a customer suddenly appears and says that it ''is'' an antique and proceeds to buy it for a higher price than Rais would get.

* ''Series/MashinSentaiKiramager'': In an early episode, Galza claims that he was brainwashed by Yodon in order to lure Mabushina into a trap. Juru recognizes that he was lying because he had a vision of Galza laughing during his betrayal, which contracted his claim that Yodon had suppressed his emotions. It is revealed near the end of the series that Galza actually ''was'' brainwashed by Yodon, but the brainwashing had taken place much earlier that Galza had claimed, all the way back during his childhood, and Yodon did it by erasing all of his positive memories of his brother and programming him to hate everyone who cared about him.

* ''Theatre/TheMusicMan''. Professor Harold Hill cons the citizens of River City into paying for uniforms and instruments with the promise that he'll train their children into a band. He does so using a "think" system which couldn't possibly work, but in the end the children learn to play anyway (albeit extremely out of tune) and he's saved from being punished.

* ''Shucked'': Gordy the ConMan claims he'll fix the failed corn crops in Cob County, but in reality he's only interested in the rare rocks in the soil. He lies to the townspeople that the rocks are preventing the soil from getting moisture, so the corn will grow better once he digs them out. [[spoiler:Despite being a claim he pulled right out of his ass, in the end it turns out Gordy is 100% correct. The rocks really were responsible for the crop failures, and the corn starts growing again once they're all removed.]]

* One ShowWithinAShow of ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' is "Haunted L.A.", a show that supposes to show the supernatural present in the city. As you find out when you encounter them, the show is entirely faked and makes up the supernatural events shown within using actors and special effects... Which is while they're doing a story on a "haunted abandoned hospital" that turned out to be the lair of a very real vampire who did not appreciate them poking around. By hacking the mail of the presenter you can also uncover a long rant from someone decrying the show and listing a lot of demonstrably fake stories they've run in the past... Including a story about [[spoiler:Griffith Park having Werewolves in it]], which you learn is true much later in the game.

* In ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'', when Lindesfarne is mistaken for the princess of England, she manages to find and track down the real one, a homeless hedgehog named Churtsey Ealing. A twist at the end of the arc indicates that Churtsey is not the real princess, and Lindesfarne allowed her to be passed off as the real one to stay with her family, be free of media attention, and avoid having her status as royalty detract from the credibility of her research. Years later, an arc reveals that Lindesfarne is actually the princess of England in the human world, and Churtsey is her counterpart in the animal-dominated world.
* Played for BlackComedy in ''Webcomic/SoreThumbs'': main character Fairbanks ''killed two people'' because they "looked like terrorists". By sheer luck they ''were'', and he got off scot free.

* In ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'', Penny accuses Jason of sleeping with a student out of spite, and is astonished to learn he actually has.

** In "Skytanic", ISIS is called to come along on the inaugural voyage of a luxury airship due to a bomb threat. It's later revealed Mallory made the threat just to get a free ride and make her neighbor jealous. However it turns out that [[spoiler:the captain]] was going to blow up the ship for real.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'', Princess Clara tries to interrupt a wedding ceremony because the couple is gay. Spanky drives her off by telling her that there's a Jew outside poisoning a well. When she goes out, it turns out that there actually is but in a subversion he was just putting water purification tablets in it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' when Lois gets elected mayor during "It Takes A Village Idiot And I Married One" she scares Quahog's citizens into paying taxes needed to clean the local lake by bombastically declaring it's being used by Hitler and the Legion of Doom as their base of operations to plot Jesus' assassination. It then immediately cuts to the Legion of Doom with Lex Luthor demanding to know how Lois found out their plans.

* A version shows up in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. CorruptCorporateExecutive Varrick puts out a ridiculously obvious and over the top set of propaganda films against [[TheEvilPrince the Northern Water Tribe Chieftain Unalaq]] designed to turn public support against him and towards [[LaResistance the rebels fighting against him]]. Varrick does this purely because Unalaq's edicts are bad for his own business, and his films transform TheFundamentalist, self-righteous, HolierThanThou Unalaq into an OmnicidalManiac MadScientist planning to use a DoomsdayDevice to destroy the world. This turns out to be ''far closer'' to Unalaq's [[TheAntichrist real personality and goals]] than either fans of the show or people in that world would have guessed when Varrick first started making these films, not that Varrick knew about that or would have cared.

*** When Belos is ejected from Hunter's body and angrily accuses "Caleb" of stabbing him the back by refusing to aid him any longer in his genocidal plans, Luz tells him [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder he did it first]]. The memory portraits in "Hollow Mind" imply that Philip ''literally'' stabbed Caleb to death, apparently in a BattleAmongstTheFlames. Notably, Belos actually gets a little chagrined and immediately opens the portal to the Demon Realm rather than continue attacking the kids, implying the comment hit closer to home than Luz was expecting.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'', a new girl named Amber has arrived at school and everyone loves her... everyone that is except for Pepper Ann, who is jealous of her being seemingly perfect. At the same time, a thief is breaking into everyone's lockers, and Pepper Ann, fueled by her jealousy, suspects Amber, except she has nothing to go on except InsaneTrollLogic. Finally, during a fall at Amber's house party, when Pepper Ann is ready to apologize to Amber for being jealous and suspecting her, the contents of everyone's locker spills out from Amber's room. Turns out she ''was'' the locker thief.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'', Walter Peck attempts to drive the Ghostbusters out of business by making a fake call about a ghost terrorizing a government lab, figuring they'd get in trouble for unlawful entry and tresspassing[[note]]and possible destruction of government property[[/note]]. The only problem was there actually ''was'' a ghost messing with the lab's equipment, and the Busters were lauded for catching the ghost and saving the lab.

* ''WesternAnimation/SevenLittleMonsters'': "April Fools" has a boy named Maurice help One, Two, Three, Six and Seven get back at Four and Five by pulling a prank that involves Maurice pretending to be an alien from Jupiter who intends to cause Four and Five harm. [[spoiler:He turns out to actually be an alien from Jupiter at the end of the episode, but fortunately has no malevolent intentions and only wants to bring a copy of Three's script play to his home planet so it can be used to entertain his people.]]

** In the first episode, Mr. Krabs doesn't believe our hero's fit for the fry cook job. He sends [=SpongeBob=] on a SnipeHunt to find a [[SnipeHunt seemingly nonexistent]] hydrodynamic spatula (with port and starboard attachments and a turbo drive). It turns out said spatula is real, and there was only one in stock, which helps [=SpongeBob=] earn the job by satisfying ''five whole bus-loads of anchovies''.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'': In "Mudd's Passion", [[ConMan Harry Mudd]] is found selling [[LovePotion "love crystals"]]. He's just running one of his scams, and is as surprised as anyone else (and dismayed that he'd been offering them so cheaply) when it turns out that they actually work.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'': In "Mikey Gets Shellacne", when Mikey first reveals his zits, Donnie examines them and jokes that they're going to spread throughout his body until he basically becomes a giant zit and explodes. Later, they get worse, and it's revealed they're the result of Mikey [[TooDumbToLive stupidly rubbing a reject batch of retro-mutagen on his skin]]. Donnie does some bloodwork, and discovers that the zits ''are'' spreading through Mikey's body, and he ''will'' explode if they don't fix things fast.

* Juan Pujol was a Catalan who wanted to support the Allies in World War II, but didn't want to fight, having been a conscript in the Spanish Civil War. He tried to get a job with the British as a spy, but was unsuccessful. Then he managed to get a job with the ''Germans'' as a spy, intending to feed them misinformation. However, since he didn't have any real knowledge (he was living in Portugal and didn't even speak English) one of his concocted stories turned out to be broadly true. This led to the British searching for a ''real'' spy, and eventually contacting him and employing him as an official double agent.