History Main / ImaginaryFriend

* ''Film/WhereIsAnneFrank'': The main character is Kitty, Anne Frank's imaginary friend, who materialises into being a real life girl in modern Amsterdam.

-->-- '''[[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Strong Bad]]''', ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', ''"[[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail202.html Strong Bad Email 202: Imaginary]]"''

Related to IJustWantToHaveFriends as the reason imaginary friends are made. Compare with {{Tulpa}}, a creature that began imaginary, but [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve formed because people believed in the creature's existence]]. Contrast with ImaginaryEnemy. SuperTrope of NotSoImaginaryFriend, where the imaginary friend turns out to have been a real person in their own right.

* ComicStrip/{{Crabgrass}}: [[https://www.gocomics.com/crabgrass/2021/07/10 This comic]] reveals Kevin's baby brother Kody has one (who, ironically, can't understand his BabyTalk). Miles and Kevin both claim they never had an imaginary friend and consider people who do have them weird.

* ''Fanfic/CheatingDeathThoseThatLived:'' Arendellian Spinner III is schizophrenic and has long, heartfelt conversations with her nonexistent friend, Aaron.

* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming'' had a story in which some of the Changelings survive through pretending to be the imaginary friend of a child gifted with vivid imagination.

* Hilariously and disturbingly [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] in ''Mr. Marmalade''. The title character is the imaginary friend of a five year old girl named Lucy, taking on the appearance of a short tempered workoholic who has a problem with pornography, cocaine and beating up his assistant. This contrasts with the plant imaginary friends of the character Larry, though Larry is somewhat suicidal.

* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'': In [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the source material]], Twist was implied to be Apple Bloom's close friend in one episode, [[OutOfFocus then barely ever seen in any of AB's later episodes]]. ''UFP'' parodies this by revealing that Twist was Apple Bloom's imaginary friend all along. In later episodes, AB keeps talking to "Twist", and her other friends give up on trying to convince AB that Twist doesn't exist. Also, Twist is a [[ToxicFriendInfluence toxic friend]], constantly encouraging Apple Bloom to [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption solve her problems with violence]]

* A rather creepy example comes from ''VisualNovel/ChaosHead'', where Takumi experiences regular delusions of Seira, the lead character from ''[[ShowWithinAShow Blood Tune]]''. Seira tries to encourage his {{hikikomori}} habits every time she appears. In the final episode [[spoiler:she is one of the last opponents he faces as he goes off to rescue Rimi. After he defeats her and continues on his way, the discarded Seira figure says "I've been dumped..."]]

[-[[caption-width-right:350:♫ Who's your friend who likes to play? Bing Bong, Bing Bong ♫]]-]

However, as mentioned in the source of the quote above, for better or worse, imaginary friends are becoming a thing of the past. Possibly due to widespread pop-psychology and a lot of hysteria in the '90s about SplitPersonality, having an imaginary friend was regarded as an indication of mental illness. Some doctors really believed it was an early indicator of dissociating personality, which is supposedly a flight from reality in response to trauma. None of this is true; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_friend numerous sociological studies on imaginary friends]] have concluded that children, teens and adults have them for many reasons. If we stop ''mentioning'' our imaginary friends, that doesn't mean that the friends aren't still around.

!!Example Subpages:

!!Other Examples:

* ImaginaryFriend/{{Film}}

* ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' has Bing Bong, who used to be Riley's imaginary friend until she grew older. He's genuinely kind and helpful (if a little naïve) and just wants Riley to be happy, [[spoiler: which eventually leads to his HeroicSacrifice]].

!!Example subpages

* ImaginaryFriend/{{Webcomics}}

!!Other examples:

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' has Bing Bong, who used to be Riley's imaginary friend until she grew older. He's genuinely kind and helpful (if a little naïve) and just wants Riley to be happy, [[spoiler: which eventually leads to his HeroicSacrifice]].

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* One ''Comicstrip/TheFarSide'' cartoon features a father being held up in the air by an invisible grasping fist while his young son announces "Big Bob's tired of you saying he doesn't exist!"
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' is built largely on playing with this trope. Watterson has gone on record saying that the "true" nature of Hobbes - imaginary friend or doll that comes to life - really doesn't concern him. In any case, though, there's definitely a lot of weird blending of the two interpretations, like Hobbes taking periodic baths in the washing machine or the time Calvin somehow got tied to a chair.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Wrestling/HiroshiTanahashi's {{air guitar}}. Rare, one and only in 100 years time!!! Has the transparent solid body and delivers the true clear sound!!! The guitar supports him, even when the fans turned him.
* For a time, [[Wrestling/RonKillings R-Truth]] was followed around by a boy he called Little Jimmy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]

* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'': In [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the source material]], Twist was implied to be Apple Bloom's close friend in one episode, [[OutOfFocus then barely ever seen in any of AB's later episodes]]. ''UFP'' parodies this by revealing that Twist was Apple Bloom's imaginary friend all along. In later episodes, AB keeps talking to "Twist", and her other friends give up on trying to convince AB that Twist doesn't exist. Also, Twist is a [[ToxicFriendInfluence toxic friend]], constantly encouraging Apple Bloom to [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption solve her problems with violence]]

[[caption-width-right:350:♫ Who's your friend who likes to play? Bing Bong, Bing Bong ♫]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''LightNovel/BokuWaTomodachiGaSukunai'', Yozora has an imaginary air friend she calls "Tomo-chan". She talks to it as if it were real, which surprises Kodaka when he first sees her at school. She later references Tomo-chan again when they sing karaoke, which Kodaka says she shouldn't be counting her air friend as a second person.
* ''Anime/KujiraNoJosephina'' (''Josephina The Whale'') is about Santi, a ShrinkingViolet Spanish boy who went on adventures with his imaginary whale Josephina [[ComingOfAgeStory and gradually started to see life in a better light]]. In the last episode, Santi eventually grew up and said goodbye to Josephina... [[DownerEnding yeah]]. [[spoiler: Though [[BittersweetEnding it's implied]] that Josefina may keep living on as this... but now for Santi's AnnoyingYoungerSibling Rosa, [[ChekhovsSkill who had been able to see her before]].]]
* ''{{Manga/Noramimi}}'' features existing "imaginary friends" (similar to ''Foster's Home'', below) labelled "mascots", who stay ("freeload") with a child until they grow up, and move on to another kid afterwards.
* The cutesey mascot Maromi from ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'' who speaks to Tsukiko seems to be quite imaginary, but is a whole lot more dangerous. [[MindScrew Somehow.]]
** Short version: [[spoiler:She's a manifestation of all the paranoia and frustration in Tokyo, with the "active" end being Shonen Bat. The ultimate plot is to make everyone vent their worry into merchandise with her image, and then yank it away, causing the paranoia to spike to the point it turns physical and hits the city like a moving tidal wave.]]
** Alternate Interpretation: [[spoiler: She was an imaginary friend specific to Tsukiko who gave her comfort and shielded her from the world that was often mean to her because of her behavior as a CloudCuckoolander (this is likely the function the original Maromi, a pet dog, served for Tsukiko before it was run over). When Tsukiko grew up and made Maromi for an advertising company, the effect of providing comfort and acting as an emotional crutch spread, which is why it sold so well.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', [[spoiler: Lilynette]] was this to [[spoiler: Starrk]], before [[spoiler: Aizen stepped in and gave Starrk an upgrade in his powers, allowing him to give her a real form.]]
** [[spoiler: Or the other way around. They've been together for so long that neither of them can remember which one is 'real', so it's possible that Lilynette created Starrk.]]
** Sorta used with [[spoiler: Yukio, who as a child used his powers to create imaginary friends ''that looked like his neglectful parents''.]]
* Ninja Ninja, Afro's foul mouthed, perverted, jive talking imaginary friend from ''Anime/AfroSamurai'' was thought up because Afro's entire adoptive family was murdered by a band of thieves and he created him so he wouldn't be completely alone. He is also the polar opposite of Afro, no one else can see or hear him but he can get hurt and once he accepted responsibility for their deaths he let go of Ninja Ninja allowing him to be killed in his place and letting vanish from his life, although he returns in the movie.
* Yami Marik from ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' started as this with [[JerkassWoobie Marik/Malik]] but eventually turned into a SplitPersonality.
* England in ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' is assumed to have these- subverted in that they're actually fairies that only he can see. Its revealed that other nations (apart from America) go to his house they can see them too.
* A pretty major plot point in ''Manga/CopernicusBreathing''. We're not sure if Bird's Nest's dead little brother is just a figment of his imagination, or if he's actually a NotSoImaginaryFriend.
* In ''Anime/WhenMarnieWasThere'', Anna come to this conclusion about her new found friend [[spoiler:Marnie]] when reading her {{diary}}.
-->'''Anna''': [[spoiler:Marnie is...someone I made up. An imaginary girl, only in my mind.]]
* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', there is an arc that goes back to the story of how the Guild was formed. It centers around Fairy Tail's founder, Mavis, and her best friend, Zera. [[spoiler:Except the real Zera was DeadAllAlong. She died in a massacre, and Mavis was the only survivor. To keep her mind from being traumatized by the resulting loneliness, she unknowingly awakened to her illusion magic, and created an illusion that grew up alongside her. And since she was alone, nobody was around to notice her talking to thin air. Well, until her future guild mates showed up...]]
* It starts happening to Okabe in ''Anime/SteinsGate0'' anime episode 9, where by he starts occasionally hearing his own thoughts in Kurisu's voice & seeing her in his lab.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* [[DependingOnTheWriter Depending on which story one believes]], [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bat-Mite]] is either an imaginary friend, an entity from the same dimension as Mr. Mxyzptlk, or a drug-induced hallucination. One story written by certified madman Creator/GrantMorrison implied he might be both.
* In ''Comicbook/DoomPatrol'', the RealityWarper Dorothy Spinner had a group of disturbingly surreal imaginary friends and, because she had psychic powers, they could actually affect the world around them as though they were real people who just happened to be unpercievable by any sense. She had some who were good, who she used to help her be a superhero, and some who turned out to be evil, who she killed with an imaginary gun.
* Mr. Immortal had Deathurge in ''ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers''. Who isn't Imaginary at all.
* ''ComicBook/TheSavageDragon'' features She-Dragon, who, in a parody of She-Hulk's NoFourthWall tendencies, had five or so imaginary friends, who many issues later turned out to be real people trapped in another dimension with a psychic link to her.
* John Wayne in ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}''. He first started appearing when Jesse Custer was a child in need of a means of coping with his EvilMatriarch grandmother's abuse, and would occasionally show up during Jesse's adulthood as well.
** Jesse believes that at one point, Wayne conveyed information that Jesse himself could not have known. Jesse never figures out the full reality of Wayne, but considering the cosmic powers thrown around...
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': on the surface, a textbook case of [[ABoyAndHisX a boy and his]] imaginary friend. But in execution, things are [[NotSoImaginaryFriend not quite]] [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane so simple]].
* Robin from the Belgian comic book series ''SarahAndRobin''. He used to be the imaginary friend of Sarah's grandfather before she met him and he became her only friend. He borders on NotSoImaginaryFriend since he can interact with the world around him (like grabbing objects or opening doors), even though only people that believe he exists can see him.
* ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} has one of his own, known as Clive. Often, Garfield will blame eating food left out on Clive. Jon wises up to this, but [[http://garfield.com/comic/2003-07-16 sometimes it gets real confusing as to whether he exists or not.]]
* In ''{{ComicBook/Violine}}'', Violine shows her new pet mouse her best friend, who is a drawing of one.
* In the comic series ''ComicBook/RachelRising'', Aunt Johnny's mind has a tendency to distract her while working at her job as a [[CreepyMortician mortician]] by conjuring up visions of famous visitors coming into the building. This happens regularly enough that when Johnny's niece Rachel, who Johnny doesn't know was murdered only to rise from her grave, comes into the place Johnny assumes the deathly pale [[RevenantZombie Revenant]] with clear signs of damage from being strangled is just another vision and refuses to believe it's real for quite awhile.
-->Oh, you'd be amazed at the people I've talked to in this building after midnight. Buddy Holly, Jack the Ripper, that beautiful ensign from New Zealand... God, I miss the Navy... one night Christ rode in here on a donkey, palm leaves all all over the place. That was a mess. I saw Elvis in the bathroom, go talk to him.
* ''Spencer & Locke'', which parodies ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', reimagines a young boy as a HardBoiledDetective with a seven-foot-tall blue panther named Spencer. The result of years of abuse, Spencer seems to be the result of Locke's SanitySlippage masked by IJustWantToHaveFriends... but when Locke's daughter Hero sees him in a critical moment, the line starts to blur.
* The alter ego of Italian comic book artist [[http://www.zerocalcare.it/ Zerocalcare]] is always paired with his imaginary armadillo friend (a cartoony version of the real animal). His first published book is even named "La profezia dell'armadillo", or The Armadillo Prophecy.
* {{ComicBook/Thorgal}}'s son Jolan's PsychicPowers once managed to conjure up a friend for himself by the name of Alinoe. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an evil little bastard.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' has Bing Bong, who used to be Riley's imaginary friend until she grew older. He's genuinely kind and helpful (if a little naïve) and just wants Riley to be happy, [[spoiler: which eventually leads to his HeroicSacrifice]].

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{Chocolat}}'': Due to her mother's being on the run, the narrator has one constant friend, Pontouf who is a kangaroo. It isn't until the end of the movie, after her mother decides to settle in the town, where we see Pontouf from the child's point of view, hopping away to have his own adventures. "I didn't miss him."
* Jack Flack in ''Film/CloakAndDagger'' was the father figure to the kid whose DisappearedDad was one of those "present but not ''here''" types. Interestingly, it was implied that a version of him had been the father's imaginary friend as well; also, when the kid rejects Jack Flack out of horror for the ''real'' violence to which he's just been exposed, Flack starts to die, and says "I hate this part ... leaving when they stop believing." All this suggests that "Flack" does have some sort of independent existence.
** It's also interesting that Jack Flack is played by the same actor as the dad, suggesting the hero that his son had always believed him to be, despite everything. The final line just tops it off: "I don't need him, anymore. Dad. I've got you."
* ''Film/HideAndSeek'' had an imaginary friend that turned out to be the TomatoInTheMirror in more ways than one.
* In ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'' the family briefly mistook the poltergeists for Carol-Anne's imaginary friends.
* ''Film/StirOfEchoes'' had the same problem; the family briefly mistook the ghost for the child's imaginary friend.
* Likewise in ''Film/{{Jack Frost|1998}}'' [the ''family'' film], the snowman everyone thinks the boy is fixated on [[spoiler:is inhabited by the ghost of his father]].
* The benevolent title character of ''Bogus''.
* The Jimmy Stewart classic ''Theatre/{{Harvey}}'' has an adult with a NotSoImaginaryFriend. Harvey is actually [[TheFairFolk a pooka]].
* ''Film/DropDeadFred'' is about a girl who had her imaginary friend locked in a jack-in-the-box by her mother, and lets him back out by accident after she grows up. Apparently he still exists because Elizabeth still needs him.
** How Imaginary or [[NotSoImaginaryFriend Not So Imaginary]] he really is is pretty open to debate. The film tries to have it both ways. In one scene Elizabeth is taken to a therapist by her mother, and while she's in the waiting room Fred plays with several of his own friends, who are the imaginary friends of the other children in the room. We see the scene from the perspectives of Elizabeth and the other children, and each child can only see their own friend, apparently playing with nobody.
* In ''Film/FightClub'', [[spoiler:Tyler Durden]] turns out to be an imaginary friend.
* In ''Film/ABeautifulMind'', [[spoiler:Nash's college roommate, the little girl, and the CIA agent]] are just a part of John Nash's imagination.
* The movie ''Film/{{Troll 2}}'' also features the (long-dead) Grandpa Seth being mistaken for an imaginary friend of the child.
* In ''Everything You Want'', Abby, the protagonist, creates an imaginary friend named Sy as a way to cope with the emotional abandon by her perpetually traveling parents and her incapability to relate with other human beings derived from the above. Sy grows with her until adulthood and becomes her model and her perfect boyfriend. Abby is content with the situation, until she mets a classmate and begins to fall in love with a real person for the very first time...
* Tomás in ''El Orfanato'' (AKA ''Film/TheOrphanage''), [[spoiler:he is actually a ghost.]]
* In ''Un Sussurro Nel Buio'' (aka ''A Whisper in the Dark''), the boy's imaginary friend is [[spoiler: the ghost of his brother who died as an infant before he was born.]]
* In the Creator/DisneyChannel Original Movie ''Don't Look Under the Bed'', imaginary friends become boogeymen if the child stops believing in them too soon.
* The [[spoiler:giggly, bald Cajun guy]] in ''Film/TheMachinist'' turns out to be [[spoiler:a figment of the protagonist's guilty conscience]]. And the [[spoiler: airport waitress/single mother the protagonist chats with]] turns out to be [[spoiler:a manifestation of the mother whose son he recklessly killed with his car and fled the scene. The son of the "waitress" is a manifestation of the boy the protagonist killed.]]
* ''Film/TheAmityvilleHorror1979'' has Jodie, a pig-like creature that's the imaginary friend of the little girl member of the Lutz family; at one point in the film the girl's mother Kathy hears her talking to Jodie in her room, goes inside and is told Jodie left through the window. Looking outside, the mother sees a demonic face with red eyes staring back at her. In the [[Film/TheAmityvilleHorror2005 2005 remake]] Jodie is reimagined as the spirit of one of the murdered members of the Defeo family, instead of a (presumably) demonic entity.
* In the Creator/KevinCostner film ''Film/MrBrooks'', the eponymous character is urged to commit his killings by "Marshall,"(William Hurt), who acts as his id, as well as an extremely close companion who both friendlily taunts him and comforts him in times of despair. Interestingly, many of Brooks' secret talents and mental skills, such as his LivingLieDetector ability and cunning attention to detail, seem to manifest especially through Marshall.
* Brazilian movie ''A Mulher Invísivel'' features an imaginary ''lover'', the "invisible woman" of the title.
* Reyeb for Malik in ''[[Film/AProphet Un Prophète]]'' by Jacques Audiard. Remarkably friendly (if mysterious) considering Malik murdered him.
%%* The TV Movie 'Invisible Child'.
* ''Film/DonnieDarko'''s "friend" Frank is considered imaginary by his doctor, even though Donnie's convinced that he's real.
* In ''Paper Man'', Ryan Reynolds plays the superhero imaginary friend of the main character, a middle-aged failed writer.
* In the 1961 British film ''Hand in Hand'', Rachel has always had a "pretend sister" and asks her opinion about everyday things.
* ''Film/ParanormalActivity3'' shows that the demon terrorizing Katie and Kristi initially introduced itself to Kristi as an entity named "Toby," who the rest of the family assumed to be just an imaginary friend.
* The movie ''Sunday at Tiffany's'', based on a book by James Patterson. Jane's imaginary friend Michael left her life on her 10th birthday. Twenty years later, on the eve of her birthday and her wedding, he shows up again--this time as a corporeal adult. Neither of them have any idea why he suddenly showed up out of nowhere or what his mission is. Michael falls in love with Jane, who is initally very resistant to his naiive, innocent view of her and the world. Eventually, she realizes she isn't satisfied with how her life has gone since Michael left, and that she loves him...just as he has to leave again. Or does he?
* Creator/WoodyAllen's character in ''Film/PlayItAgainSam'' is just divorced and not adjusting well to being single. So in order to cope with his insecurity around women he creates an alter ego based on Creator/HumphreyBogart.
* ''Film/{{Haunter}}'': Lisa's little brother Robbie is often playing with his imaginary friend Edgar, who eventually appears before Lisa. [[spoiler:It's later revealed to be the killer himself appearing as he did when he was a child, as he originally grew up in the house.]]
* In ''Film/TheSpiritOfTheBeehive'', six-year-old Ana, after watching ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}'' and inspired by a ghost story of her sister, becomes obsessed with the idea of befriending an imaginary monster.
* ''Film/TheLadykillers2004'': Mrs. Munson invites the Sheriff in to introduce him to her tenant Prof. Dorr. Since the Professor is trying to keep his criminal scheme under wraps from the authorities he hides from the Sheriff under the bed, which Mrs. Munson finds very amusing. This all conspires to make it seems like the old lady has lost it and is talking to imaginary people from the Sheriff's vantage point.
* In the film ''Parental Guidance'', one of the issues Artie and Diane Decker (played by Billy Crystal and Bette Midler) face when babysitting their grandkids is that of their youngest grandson Barker and his imaginary friend Carl the invisible kangaroo, whom Barker claims tells him to do dangerous things. Later on, Barker is taught [[spoiler: to stand up to Carl, who Barker then claims is now upset by this and is supposedly "killed" after getting hit by a car while running away.]]
* ''Film/{{Tully}}'': Marlo (Creator/CharlizeTheron), a worn-out mother of three including a newborn baby, hires the titular [[MagicalNanny night nanny]] (Creator/MackenzieDavis) to help take care of the kids and even bonds with Tully, [[spoiler: it's implied that Tully was just a figment of a sleep-deprived Marlo's imagination to help her cope with her post-partum depression]].
* ''Film/{{Jungle}}'': At the greatest depth of his SanitySlippage, Yossi believes that he is being accompanied by a native woman he finds abandoned in the jungle. Believeing that he is caring for someone else is enough to keep him pushing forward.

[[folder:Literature]]
* The aforementioned ''Anime/KujiraNoJosefina'' anime series was based on the Spanish children's book ''Adios, Josefina'' (''Goodbye, Josephina''), by author José María Sánchez Silva. The plot's more or less the same: pre-teen boy from post-war Madrid has a whale as his IF, they go on imaginary adventures, boy starts seeing life in a better way, boy slowly grows up and lets go of imaginary friend...
* In ''Literature/{{Gone}}'', Franchise/SpiderMan is Toto's imaginary friend.
* There's a sequence in Max Brooks' ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' involving a pilot talking over the radio to another person who got her safely out of a zombie-infested area. Or was she talking to anyone at all...?
* In the ''Bagthorpe'' series of children's books by Helen Cresswell, the youngest cousin, Daisy, has an imaginary friend called Arry Awk (the name comes from a folksong). Daisy is a strange child who has fads, such as setting things on fire and burying sausages in the garden, and she blames Arry Awk for all her misdeeds.
* The short story "Thus I Refute Beelzy" by John Collier, in which it's strongly implied the child has summoned up a demon.
* ''Literature/MiddleSchool'': [[spoiler: Rafe's friend Leo]] turns out to be a figment of his imagination.
* In Andrew M. Greeley's ''GodGame'', a man's computer affects a {{fantasy}} kingdom (and the people around him) and characters from the game start appearing to him to ask for plot changes.
* One of the only Kevin Henkes books populated by humans is ''Jessica'', a picture book about a girl whose best friend is imaginary. The girl is initially reluctant to start kindergarten due to fears of leaving Jessica, but eventually befriends a classmate who happens to share the name.
* Arguably used by childrens' books author Creator/AstridLindgren in ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_Beloved_Sister Most Beloved Sister]]'' , and perhaps in ''Literature/KarlssonOnTheRoof''. Both of these would have been created out of loneliness on the child's part.
* In Anne Tyler's ''Earthly Possessions'', the narrator's daughter has an imaginary friend "Selinda" for whom a place must be set at the table; after a while, the daughter sits in Selinda's place and insists that she is Selinda, and that the daughter is the imaginary friend. She is always referred to as Selinda from then on.
* In ''Chocky'' by Creator/JohnWyndham, Matthew's "imaginary friend" turns out to be actually an alien mind which has come to Earth to teach Humanity how to use cosmic energy. It's only the alien's mind because "mind has no mass" and thus can travel faster than the speed of light.
* Lola in the ''Literature/CharlieAndLola'' children's book/TV series has an imaginary friend by the name of Soren Laurenson. This would be one of the cases where the kid with the imaginary friend is perfectly happy and well-adjusted, she just has a somewhat overactive imagination.
* Sort of the point of the end of ''The Lace Reader'': [[spoiler: Towner's best friend as a child was her twin sister, Lyndley, who committed suicide when they were teenagers. Lyndley was really her twin Lindsey, who died at birth. Much of Lyndley's fictional traumatic childhood was based on Towner's real past.]]
* The novel ''The Other''. The narrator and his twin brother deal with a host of calamities. [[spoiler: The narrator has no brother, and he's a murdering sociopathic monster.]]
* In the novel ''Film/{{Chocolat}}'', the protagonist's daughter has an imaginary friend who is a Kangaroo.
* In ''Literature/TheGraveyardBook'', Scarlett thinks that Bod is her imaginary friend until she meets him again when she becomes older.
* In Creator/PatriciaAMcKillip's contemporary novel ''Stepping from the Shadows'' the narrator's "ugly sister" turns out to be [[spoiler:her alternate personality. And this was published at least a decade before Literature/FightClub]].
* The "Literature/DumarestOfTerra" books ''Haven of Darkness'' and ''Prison of Night'' by E.C. Tubb involved a world where daily flares of stellar radiation induced detailed hallucinations of dead acquaintances, friends and enemies alike. Extensive conversations often occurred with these "ghosts."
* ''Literature/TheGoneAwayWorld'' is ''weird'' about this. [[spoiler:The main character was the imaginary friend of TheAce, serving as the inspiration and motivator for all his deeds, and became real as the result of AppliedPhlebotinum. His memories are a hybrid of what really happened and what TheAce visualized as happening, along with a few things that never happened (for instance, he thinks he's married to the woman who the ace original actually married.)]] Just to hammer in the weirdness a little more, [[spoiler:it's heavily implied that the narrator is the imaginary friend of both TheAce and a [[OldMaster wizened old kung fu master]]]] who ''really'' likes tupperware.
** On top of this, [[spoiler:the friend [[ReplacementGoldfish is said to resemble the original's dead older brother.]]]]
* In Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/TheGoldenGlobe'', protagonist Kenneth "Sparky" Valentine's imaginary friend turns out to be a symptom of a disassociative personality disorder caused by years of suffering at the hands of his abusive father, Kenneth Sr.
** This is also the plot to ''Me and Emma'' by Elizabeth Flock.
* J.D. Salinger's story "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" is about habitually drunk wannabe socialite Eloise's lost afternoon spent with a [[strike:close friend]] half-remembered acquaintance, to whom she [[strike:happily relives]] moans about their GloryDays in college. Her daughter Ramona ''seems'' to have little purpose in the story other than to demonstrate how [[NotNowKid Eloise neglects her]]. Ramona--insisting her friend Jimmy Jimmereeno is corporeal--makes room in bed for him (which annoys her mother). No need to use [[spoiler:spoiler text]], as this short story--like most of Salinger's--is anti-climactic. (Perhaps--after "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", and "Teddy"--Salinger felt he'd written enough jarring endings for a lifetime.)
* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} novels, when Agnes Nitt was young, she used to blame things that went wrong on "the other little girl". "The other little girl" is now Perdita; somewhere between a SplitPersonality and the part of your mind where all the thoughts you don't dare think go. And she and Agnes don't get on.
** Earlier, in ''Discworld/SmallGods'', desert-dwelling religious hermit S.T. ("Saint") Ungulant has an imaginary friend called Angus. [[spoiler: Because the small gods of the desert don't miss an opportunity to latch onto anyone's belief, even a delusional crackpot's belief in his imaginary friend, Angus is "real" enough to hit a lion over the head with a rock.]]
** In ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'', it's revealed that Sam Vimes' son has an imaginary friend named Mr. Whistle, "who lived in a house in a tree but was occasionally a dragon."
* Anne of the ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' series starts out having two imaginary friends: her reflection, whom she imagined was another little girl who lived in an enchanted world, and another little girl named Violetta, based on an echo she heard in a meadow near a home she grew up in. Marilla does not approve, and tells her it will be good to have a real friend to replace her imaginary ones.
** In the sequel ''Anne of Avonlea'', one of Anne's students, Paul Irving, has some imaginary friends that he collectively refers to as the "Rock People".
* In the book ''Magic for Marigold'', also by L. M. Montgomery, Marigold has an imaginary friend named Sylvia.
* A teenage example: near the end of [[spoiler:''Literature/TheBasicEight'', Flannery discovers that her best friend, Natasha, is a figment of her imagination.]]
* In the short story "Faithless Margaret", (appeared in ''Wiggansnatch'' 18, Feb. 1986[[note]]''Wiggansnatch'' was the creation of James Moore Laughing Otter, a gay pagan interested in the traditional connection of gays and shamanic magic. He organized gay pagans to march in Seattle Pride, studied and taught rituals, and eventually died of AIDS in 1988.[[/note]]), an old man, Mr. Humple, has an imaginary companion by that name who shares his life, takes bus rides with him and generally livens things up. Then the pair meet an old lady, Mrs. Crowley, who has an imaginary companion named Charles Whitcomb. In the final scene the old man and woman ride the bus sullenly apart, angry and bereft -- Margaret and Charles apparently hit it off and now ride the bus together, abandoning their respective people.
* In Zilpha Keatley Snyder's ''The Changeling'', both Martha and Ivy have imaginary friends when they meet; Martha's is a protective lion, and Ivy's is Nicky, a Native American boy. Ivy's baby sister Josie sees and chats with all sorts of people, at least one of whom [[NotSoImaginaryFriend may actually be a ghost]].
* Adam Gopnik's ''Bumping Into Mr. Ravioli'' is an essay about his three-year-old daughter and the elusive Charlie Ravioli, who was apparently so busy that they rarely had time to do more than "grab lunch" or chat for a minute on the phone. Mr. Ravioli even had a receptionist who said "He's in a meeting right now, may I take a message?" Gopnik's sister, a psychologist, tells him imaginary friends and [[WorldBuilding paracosms]] are actually what children use to orient themselves in reality. TruthInTelevision as several professionals have recently published books on these subjects.
* ''Literature/LifeAmongTheSavages'', Creator/ShirleyJackson's essays based on her family, describes a shopping trip with her son, daughter, and her daughter's seven daughters, all named Martha, whom Joanne has adopted after their real parents killed each other.
* "Carrie-Barry-Annie" by Ethel Calbert Phillips is the story of Margery and how she looks after her slightly absentminded friend. When Margery starts school she immediately realizes that Carrie cannot come with her. She gives her into the care of a sickly child named Gennifer, who sees Carrie as a winged creature small enough to live in a china house on the mantelpiece. She flies out at night and doesn't come back until morning.
* The Wind Woman in ''Literature/EmilyOfNewMoon,'' an AnthropomorphicPersonification whose shape changes with the direction of the wind.
* The main character in Creator/AnthonyBoucher's "Mr. Lupescu" ''pretended'' to be an imaginary friend--a fairy godfather, to be specific--so that he could [[spoiler: shoot the father of the kid the pretense was centered on, get off scot free and marry the mother]].
* In ''Literature/{{Newsflesh}}'' adult Shaun Mason conjures one as a result of grief from events in the first book, ''Feed''. As his SanitySlippage worsens in the second book, ''Deadline'', he goes from just being able to hear the voice [[spoiler: of his dead adopted sister (and lover) George]], to being able to see the imago before his eyes. On several occasions, he can even feel physical contact.
* The Swedish children's book series ''Alfons Åberg'' by Gunilla Bergström, published in English as ''Alfie Atkins'', has Alfons' imaginary friend Mållgan (Malcolm or Moggy in the English versions), an albino version of Alfons who he often plays with when his father is busy. He also tends to use Mållgan as the occasional scapegoat to get out of trouble. In the 1976 book ''Vem räddar Alfons Åberg?'' (''Who'll Save Alfie Atkins?''), Alfons befriends Viktor, another boy in his building, and Mållgan, aware that Alfons is outgrowing him, leaves in search of someone else who needs an imaginary friend.
* In ''Literature/TheAmyVirus'', Cyan imagines a spectral version of her favorite singer Amy Zander following her around and talking to her. [[spoiler:Spectral Amy disappears at the end, when Cyan no longer needs her.]]
* Dinosaur from ''Literature/DinosaurVs'' has an imaginary whale, which he waters in "Dinosaur vs. the Potty".

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'': The preeminent example came in "Mr. [=McBeevee=]." Yes, Mr. [=McBeevee=] is very much real, and it's an averted trope, but the way an overly excited Opie describes his new friend, a telephone lineman he had met in the woods, to his Pa, it seems that this man is fictional. (After all, anybody who -- as Opie describes him -- walks in the treetops, wears a silver hat, has 12 extra hands, blows smoke from his ears and jingles when he walks as though he has rings on his fingers and bells on his toes is surely fictional, right?) Andy laughs it off as a childhood phase and even encourages Opie ... but the fun and games end when Opie brings back a quarter [=McBeevee=] had given him, as Andy suspects that Opie may have stolen it.[[note]]Because, of course, imaginary friends are just step one on the slippery slope to juvenile delinquency and total depravity, Andy never guesses that Opie could have found or even worked for the quarter and then just said it was a present from [=McBeevee=].[[/note]] Opie stands his ground, but after going to [=McBeevee=]'s work site only to find him not there ([=McBeevee=] had been called away to assist another worker on his team), Andy threatens his son with a spanking; even then Opie tells him [=McBeevee=] is real ... and Andy relents. In the end, Andy's faith in Opie is rewarded: He walks past a tree in the woods and fumes, "Mr. [=McBeevee=]" ... and on cue, [=McBeevee=] greets his new friend and is confirmed as real.
** During the original airing, a commercial for Jello pudding played on the episode's theme of imaginary friends, with Barney complaining that Opie has gone too far with his imaginary friends [[note]](during the dramatic point of the show, Barney -- while Andy is talking with Opie about the situation -- rambles on to Aunt Bee about how he'd deal with Opie and this "[=McBeevee=]" character)[[/note]], including a black stallion named Blacky. As if on cue, a black horse with physical features just as Opie described sticks his head through the kitchen window, once again proving Barney wrong. The commercial is included as a bonus feature on the Season 3 [=DVD=] set.
* Harry Morgan on ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' is a pretty good reminder of how disturbed Dexter actually is.
* Prior to playing the title role on ''Series/{{Dexter}}'', Michael C. Hall played David on ''Series/{{SixFeetUnder}}'', an undertaker who was similarly prone to having imaginary conversations with his dead father and the other corpses he was working on. David was also [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny a devout Christian who struggled to reconcile his homosexuality with his faith]] and one of the most memorable of his imaginary "friends" was a young gay man followed him around taunting him about how he would go to hell. There was also a friendly young gang member who had been killed in a turf war, who convinced the normally meek David to take a firm/threatening stand in a business meeting with a rival real estate company. David also becomes badly traumatized at one point and - when he realises he has healed enough to resume his life again. The imaginary friends make David seem a little bit schizoidal, but they were a useful storytelling device because otherwise David , who was very introverted, anal and poor at communicating his feelings, would have come across as very one-dimensional and incomprehensible. His imaginary friends also seem to make him more functional, both because they act as a support network for him and because they make him more sensitive to the needs of his clients.
* ''Series/{{MASH}}'' - the "Tuttle" episode.
* Played very darkly on ''Series/{{Lost}}''. Hurley's best friend while he was in a mental institution was Dave, a bad influence who encouraged Hurley to overeat, try to escape the hospital, and other bad ideas. Hurley only started improving after he accepted that Dave wasn't real, rather a manifestation of his darker impulses. We learn all this in flashback during an episode where Dave shows up on the Island. [[spoiler:He tries to convince Hurley that the island, not him, is the hallucination, and tries to prove it by [[LampshadeHanging pointing out all the unlikely things that have happened to Hurley since he left the institution]].]]
** However it gets more complicated when it turns out that [[spoiler: Hurley can see and interact with the spirits of the dead, meaning that Institution!Dave could very well have been real. Also, the BigBad of the series turned out to be capable of taking on the form of those who had died, creating another possibility for the identity of Island!Dave.]]
* An ''[[Series/SaturdayNightLive SNL]]'' sketch featured an "imaginary friend-off" competition, which had guest star Fred Savage talk about his imaginary friend [[LineOfSightName Mike Podium]].
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': in the episode "Imaginary Friend", the title character turns out to be quite real. And she manifests herself as [[Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun August Leffler]].
** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. In the MirrorUniverse episode, Mirror Archer is furious to discover his alternate universe self is a famous explorer, as Mirror Archer has yet to be assigned his first command. As Mirror Archer sinks into resentment and paranoia, his alternate self keeps appearing, taunting Mirror Archer into greater acts of ambition and recklessness.
* A long-running gag on ''Series/SesameStreet'' was that everyone thought Mr. Snuffleupagus was Big Bird's imaginary friend. This idea was dropped in 1986 by revealing Snuffleupagus to the adults once the producers decided it might lead kids to think AdultsAreUseless and therefore might not believe a kid's "unbelievable" story about, say, molestation.[[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Snuffleupagus]].
** Of course, since Snuffy was real I think you could technically categorize this as an ItWasHereISwear.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', "Playthings": Two little girls, Tyler and Maggie, are shown playing, and it's implied that they're sisters. It's only revealed later that Maggie is Tyler's imaginary friend and the other characters can't see her. She turns out to be the ghost of Tyler's great-aunt, who died decades ago in the same house.
* The producers of ''Series/TeenWolf'' have set forth that Greenberg, the student Coach Finstock yells at often, may or may not exist. He's never been shown onscreen, at any rate.
* In ''Series/SpaceCases'', Suzee is NOT Catalina's "imaginary" friend, she's her "invisible" friend. At first, it's thought to be a case of InsistentTerminology. She even insists that she's the only one who can see her, and gives various scientific explanations for why Suzee is "invisible", and not "imaginary", but then a NegativeSpaceWedgie brings Suzee out from another dimension and places Catalina in that dimension, revealing that Suzee literally was Catalina's "invisible" friend.[[note]]The reason for all of this is because Jewel Staite, who had played Catalina, had left the show, with this being the closest the show came to "killing off" her character.[[/note]]
* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt''-- in "Operation Friendship", it's an adult nerdy video game designer with an imaginary friend. Their relationship sours when the man starts dating a psychologist and the imaginary friend, in fear for his existence, tries to turn the man against her. In the end, [[spoiler: the imaginary friend takes over his body. ]]
* ''Series/{{Medium}}''-- in "Night of the Wolf", this is how Allison realizes that her daughter Bridget has inherited her psychic powers-- she starts playing with an invisible friend who turns out to be a child's ghost.
* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' used the evil version of an imaginary friend; in this case, it was a demon trying to turn Wyatt evil. Like many Charmed episode titles, this one consisted of a pun; it was called "Imaginary Fiends."
* Merton spends most of an episode of ''Series/BigWolfOnCampus'' [[CassandraTruth trying to convince his friends]] that his imaginary friend Vince really is real, really does have superpowers, and really is trying to ''kill them all''.
* In ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' Dinsdale Pirahna was perfectly normal . . . except that he was convinced that he was being watched by a gigantic hedgehog named Spiny Norman. Normally, Norman was wont to be about eight to ten feet from snout to tail, but when Dinsdale was really depressed, Norman could anywhere up to eight hundred yards long.
* In the Sci-Fi show ''Series/TheInvisibleMan'', one episode features a little girl who's witnessed a murder and only wants to talk about it to her imaginary friend. Cue the protagonist pretending to be him.
* On ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'', a {{Muggle}} who took Promicin to get powers ended up with an imaginary friend who gave him seemingly prescient instructions.
* In a heartbreaking example, Fitz in ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' hallucinates his best friend [[RelationshipUpgrade Simmons]] after suffering a traumatic brain injury. The hallucination helps him to organize his thoughts in her absense, though it has the unfortunate side-effect of inhibiting his recovery and isolating him from the rest of the team.
** Fitz again hallucinates his sociopathic Framework self, [[EvilMeScaresMe "The Doctor"]], during a psychotic split in order to deal with the stress of saving the world. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone It doesn't end well.]]
* On ''Huff'' the title character imagined and developed a good friendship with a Hungarian composer.
* On ''Series/SeventhHeaven'', Ruthie had an imaginary friend named Hoowie for a good part of the first season; he even had part of an episode's ''plot'' focused on him when she claimed Simon "sat on him and squished him".
* ''Series/{{House}}'' went a somewhat dark route with this trope near the end of Season 5, as House starts hallucinating that [[spoiler: Amber, a.k.a. "Cutthroat Bitch"]] is following him around at all times. House knows it's got to be a hallucination and ends up taking advantage of the relationship, seeing as [[spoiler: Amber]] represents "an all-access pass to [his] own subconscious." That is, until [[spoiler: Amber]]'s arrangements for Chase's bachelor party result in him going into anaphylactic shock due to an allergy House would've known about... which leads to him wondering ''why'' he would possibly want Chase dead. [[spoiler: It gets worse, ''much'' worse, as he starts to lose his grip on reality and ends up getting committed to a mental hospital at the end of the season]].
* In ''Series/GhostWhisperer'' the title character is aware some children can see ghosts. The child of a storekeeper on the same square as her antique store, Dylan, appears to have the full-fledged medium gift, and his mother reacts poorly to her son talking to people who aren't there.
* An episode of ''Series/TheWeirdAlShow'' has Weird Al talking about his imaginary friend Creator/GilbertGottfried. Who is standing there the whole time, trying to prove he's a real guy.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Young Amy Pond's first meeting with the Doctor has such a profound effect on her, that as she grows up, he becomes a part of her play, [[PlayingWithATrope almost as if an imaginary friend]]. To the point of four psychiatrists trying to tell her he's not real. However, as it turns out, he's real -- very real. And recognized by everyone Amy knows, from the days of childhood play.
--->Hello, everyone! I'm Amy's imaginary friend... but I came anyway.
** Something similar happens in "The Girl in the Fireplace", when the Doctor appears in a little girl's bedroom to save her from the MonsterOfTheWeek. When he next pops in to check on her, he's accidentally jumped forward in time and discovers that SheIsAllGrownUp.
--->'''Reinette:''' It is customary, I think, to have an imaginary friend only during one's childhood. You are to be congratulated on your persistence.
** In "The Lie of the Land", Bill creates an imaginary version of her deceased mother as a confident on a brainwashed VichyEarth.
--->'''Bill:''' I er, made up a version of her. Yeah, I talk to her all the time.\\
'''Nardole:''' Oh well, that's not that weird. I used to have an imaginary friend, 'til he left me for someone else.
* There was an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'' where a dad scoffs at his son's imaginary friend, then is shocked to realize that ''he'' can see and hear the friend as well.
* ''Series/{{Bones}}''
** The non-supernatural Interpretation of the episode where Booth is trapped on a soon-to-be-sunken navy ship is that "Parker" is his Hallucinatory Friend rather than a ghost. This presumes that the obstacles Parker helps Booth get past were also hallucinations [[spoiler: brought on by his brain tumor]], and he was really just stumbling around at random below deck.
** “The Psychic in the Soup” has a is it or isn’t it version with Christine and “Buddy”. Booth and Brennan discuss whether imaginary friends are ok and Christine says things that leave questions as to whether Buddy was really imaginary...or actually Sweets’ ghost.
* A ''Series/TheSketchShow'' sketch took this to an over-the-top degree. The sketch concerned a psychiatrist running a group therapy session to persuade people that their imaginary friends weren't real; her patients were a guy who used his imaginary friend as a cover for alcoholism, a lonely and lovesick woman, and a guy who thought he himself was the imaginary one. At the very end of the sketch, it turns out the psychiatrist was actually addressing an empty room.
* ''Series/TheATeam'' has Murdock's invisible dog, Billy. At the end of one episode, it appears that Billy actually knocks Murdock over and drags him along the ground.
* In one episode of ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'', ManChild Eric makes an imaginary friend version of his former mentor Mr. Feeny to help him with his college work. At the end of the episode the imaginary Feeny convinces him that he has the skills to do well without him so Eric lets him go.
* In an episode of ''Series/TheNanny'', Gracie is traumatized when Fran unwittingly "kills" her imaginary friend, going so far as to hold a funeral for her (burying her in a shoebox containing Fran's favorite boots). After talking with a family counselor though, Gracie admits that she'd been looking for an excuse to get rid of her imaginary friend anyway, since she created her shortly after [[MissingMom her mother died]], and Fran's presence was filling that void in her life. Fran is touched, but she still isn't happy about having to sacrifice her boots.
-->'''[[ServileSnarker Niles]]''': [[JustForPun The Lord & Taylor giveth, the Lord & Taylor taketh away.]]
* In an episode of ''Series/WouldILieToYou'', Creator/{{David Mitchell|Actor}} claimed to have had a painted bucket he played board games with called "Stephen Tatlock":
-->'''Holly Walsh:''' I don't think many people give their imaginary friends surnames.\\
'''Lee Mack:''' He's one of the few...
** Robert Webb claimed in series 5 that he had so many imaginary friends he formed an imaginary gang.
* During a ''[[Series/TheDailyShow Daily Show]]'' report on "Imaginary Black on White Crime," Wyatt Cenac says at one point that all of the imaginary friends he grew up with are now "either dead or in jail" thanks to a terrible "imaginary public school system that has failed a whole generation of imaginary youth."
* In an episode of ''Series/ThirtyRock'', [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Tracy]] randomly refers to Dot Com, one of the show's regular characters, as his "imaginary friend". Dot Com tries to point out that he's not imaginary, but Tracy keeps interrupting and telling him to stop talking since no one can hear him anyway.
* In ''Series/{{Jessie}}'' Zuri has at least one imaginary friend, Millie the Mermaid. Used as a plot point in one episode when Jessie assumes her new friend, Nana Banana ([[Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn Joanne Worley]]) is imaginary.
* In ''The Strange Case of Creator/ArthurConanDoyle'', Doyle, between writing "The Final Problem" and ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'', meets a man called Seldon, who wants to write his biography, and in doing so forces him to confront the shadows of his past. It eventually transpires that Seldon is a manifestation of his guilt over his father, and is also SherlockHolmes himself.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' establishes [[InsufferableGenius Sheldon]] as having these, though he refers to them as [[InsistentTerminology imaginary COLLEAGUES.]]
** Interestingly, Niles Crane in ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' is revealed to have had an "imaginary protegé" during early childhood, who he blamed for wetting his bed and running away. The name of this imaginary protegé... '''Sheldon'''.
* Anthony from ''Series/DocMartin'', an invisible 6-foot squirrel.
* Martin from ''Series/MooneBoy'' has Sean Murphy. All the other children have them as well and the imaginary friends are capable of interacting with each other and even have a bar they all hang around in.
* ''Series/TheHauntingHour'': In "My Imaginary Friend", Shawn has an imaginary friend named Travis who quickly becomes all too real and dangerous. Shawn's older brother David convinces Shawn that he has outgrown the need for imaginary friends, which dispels Travis. [[spoiler:Sadly, David was also Shawn's imaginary friend all along. And Shawn has to let him go as well.]]
* ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': [[TheHeart Emu]] [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Hojo]] was a lonely child who wished for a friend. This happens to be a problem for someone who is PatientZero of a [[AWizardDidIt video game]] [[EverythingFades disease]] as the idea materialized into Parado, PsychopathicManchild MonsterOfTheWeek.
* In one episode of ''Series/LizzieMcGuire'', Lizzie's little brother Matt seems to have made up an imaginary friend much to the concern of their parents as Matt is far to old for such things. The parents react by showering Matt in attention and gifts but it doesn't seem to be working...until Mrs. [=McGuire=] hears Matt talking to a real friend on the phone. It turns out that there was no Jasper, Matt was faking in attempt to trick his parents into giving him all their attention(and gifts). He is punished for this prank by being forced to wash an invisible donkey.
* A rather dark version appears in one episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' where a man's imaginary friends (actually hallucinations caused by schizophrenia or another similar disorder) continue to push him into killing people.
* This is the premise of ''Series/BarneyAndFriends''. Barney is actually a stuffed doll the children on the show have, and the whole series is them pretending to go on adventures with an imagined version of the doll that's adult-sized.
* In ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' episode "The Truth Will Out", Rose's granddaughter Charley has an imaginary friend whose visage, according to the little girl, is modeled after Music/BruceSpringsteen, lives in a castle and has a personality based off of what she has been told about her late grandfather (being an upstanding man who works very hard). Rose is thrilled about the character and explains that she once had an imaginary friend herself, but "[[CloudCuckoolander he never would tell me his name.]]"
* In Korean drama ''It's Okay, That's Love'', protagonist Jang Jae-yeol has an imaginary friend [[spoiler:high schooler Han Kang-woo, born of childhood trauma and guilt]].
* One set of sketches on Series/SorryIveGotNoHead featured a character with one of these. The imaginary friend could be seen by anyone, apparently because of how well he was imagined, and could interact with real objects, but still preferred to use imaginary versions.

[[folder:Music]]
* Neil Diamond's "Shilo", wherein a boy develops an imaginary friend to help him cope with a dad who [[WhenYouComingHomeDad just doesn't have time for him]] - and then, years later, when a woman enters his life but proves just as distant, he cries out for his old friend, who no longer shows up.
-->Shilo, when I was young, I used to call your name; when no one else would come, Shilo, you always came... come today.
* Music/TroutFishingInAmerica's "Nobody", about a boy with an invisible imaginary friend with [[WhosOnFirst that name]].
* Telekinesis's [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin aptly titled]] song "Imaginary Friends".
* Freezepop did an album called "Imaginary Friends", including a title track about a girl who meets a mysterious man, who happens to be imaginary.
* The title character of "Whiskey Man" by Music/TheWho is the imaginary friend of an alcoholic. It's heavily implied that the friend disappears forever after the narrator is locked away in a mental hospital.
* Music/SnowPatrol's "Favourite Friend" is interpreted by some as being about one of these.
* Music/ReelBigFish's "My Imaginary Friend", either taken literally or possibly about a real friend who "doesn't come through in the end" as the singer says has to "find a real one".
* Averted with the Nada Surf song "Imaginary Friends," which is about unreliable friends.
* Music/TomSmith inverts this trope with "Mythical Frederick", about a man's imaginary nemesis.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* One ''Comicstrip/TheFarSide'' cartoon features a father being held up in the air by an invisible grasping fist while his young son announces "Big Bob's tired of you saying he doesn't exist!"
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' is built largely on playing with this trope. Watterson has gone on record saying that the "true" nature of Hobbes - imaginary friend or doll that comes to life - really doesn't concern him. In any case, though, there's definitely a lot of weird blending of the two interpretations, like Hobbes taking periodic baths in the washing machine or the time Calvin somehow got tied to a chair.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Wrestling/HiroshiTanahashi's {{air guitar}}. Rare, one and only in 100 years time!!! Has the transparent solid body and delivers the true clear sound!!! The guitar supports him, even when the fans turned him.
* For a time, [[Wrestling/RonKillings R-Truth]] was followed around by a boy he called Little Jimmy.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming'' had a story in which some of the Changelings survive through pretending to be the imaginary friend of a child gifted with vivid imagination.
** Furthermore, there are chimera, beings of the Dreaming that can interact with changelings but which are invisible to ordinary humans.
* Another RPG based entirely around this: ''TabletopGame/MonstersAndOtherChildishThings'' - The imaginary friends are real, in fact they are manifestations of beings from beyond the veil with incredible power which just happen to latch onto children as their medium into the real world.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* Hilariously and disturbingly [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] in ''Mr. Marmalade''. The title character is the imaginary friend of a five year old girl named Lucy, taking on the appearance of a short tempered workoholic who has a problem with pornography, cocaine and beating up his assistant. This contrasts with the plant imaginary friends of the character Larry, though Larry is somewhat suicidal.
* The South Coast Repertory children's play ''Imagine'' is about a lonely boy with an imaginary friend. The boy meets an unimaginative girl, and lends her his imaginary friend. This goes well until the boy gets trapped in a sort of Imaginationland, causing the imaginary friend and the girl to journey there to rescue him. At the end of the play, [[spoiler: the imaginary friend says goodbye to the two friends, who no longer need him, and disappears for good.]]
* The play ''The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of'' is about an adult who never outgrew his imaginary friend.
* The tragi-comic one-act play ''Goodbye To The Clown'' is about a little girl with an imaginary clown friend who is constantly getting her in trouble at school and home and eventually reveals himself to be [[spoiler:a coping mechanism for her father's death]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Dr. Cid in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' subverts this. In his early appearances in the story he's often seen talking to someone who isn't there, even when he's in a room with other people. Others largely seem to ignore this because, well, he's a MadScientist, which pretty much makes him contractually obligated to be screwy. Later, however, [[spoiler:it's revealed that his imaginary friend is really Venat, a god-like being who's pretty much been pulling the strings on the story all along]].
* ''[[VideoGame/DarkSeed Dark Seed II]]'' pulls the full ''Literature/FightClub'', revealing that [[spoiler: Mike Dawson's friend Jack is really the shape shifter and Mike's DarkWorld counterpart, meaning that the two of them are really the same person. Or something]]
* ''{{Manhunt}} 2'' does this with Daniel and [[spoiler: Leo]] which isn't that surprising as [[spoiler: Leo, who is somewhere between imaginary friend and alternate personality, always seemed to be the one talking Daniel into dangerous decisions as opposed to really doing anything.]]
* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'', Mason has [[spoiler: Viktor Reznov]] as an imaginary friend, as a result of Dr steiner's experiments on him. It is heavily hinted so when no one else could see or interact with [[spoiler:Reznov]]. The player could even shoot through him during the mission.
* ''VideoGame/TheSims 3'' adds in these in the Generations expansion. They start as an ordinary, colourful doll that arrives in the mail after a baby is born, as a gift from an offscreen relatives. Should the baby bond with the doll before aging up to child, they can put the doll on the floor, upon which it grows to the same size as the owner, and begins to take a life of it’s own. Using the chemistry set, or an opportunity from the science lab, it’s possible to make a potion that will turn the imaginary friend real, upon which they transform into a regular looking human, though with some bizarre clothes and [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair abnormal hair colours]]. They also retain their SillyWalk, and can swap between human and doll form whenever they want. If an imaginary friend turned real has children, there is a chance their offspring will be born as an imaginary friend, allowing them to swap forms and strut oddly as soon as they age up to child.
* In ''VideoGame/WinterVoices'' the player can choose a feat that gives the main character one. The friend is a named character that she can talk to who will help battle the other manifestations of her troubled mind.
** There's also the possibility that [[spoiler: Ven]] is another one of these manifestations.
* In ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition'', York often converses with his imaginary friend Zach about everything he does, from investigations to 80's B-movies. In the end, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Zach is a split personality, specifically the original personality of York who retreated into an EldritchLocation after being traumatized by the BigBad. York is actually the true Imaginary Friend manifested in order to protect Zach.]]
* Ayer of ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' has this relationship with Bowman. But the thing is, Bowman isn't real, but a split personality that's a lot more amoral than the regular Ayer. Though he's been known to actually take over the body himself a few times, and [[SplitPersonalityTakeover wants to make it permanent]].
* In ''VideoGame/MarkOfTheNinja'', [[spoiler:Ora, the ninja chick that guides the protagonist throughout the game turns out to be a hallucination brought on by his tattoos.]]
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' games, [[BonusBoss Koishi Komeji]] from ''Subterrean Animism'' happens to ''be'' the (not so) imaginary friend of children. Due to her having sealed off her heart and mind, people [[PerceptionFilter cannot create an emotional connection with her, nor can they percieve her presence]] even if she stands right in front of them, and because of this they [[LaserGuidedAmnesia immediately completely forget all about her]] [[InvisibleToAdults the moment they take their eyes off her]]. In addition to this she has the power to [[PsychicPowers read and manipulate people's subconscious minds]] which sometimes leads her to befriending children, [[ByTheEyesOfTheBlind who are unaffected by her powers]]. Most children forget all about her when they grow up, though, creating the illusion that she never was anything but a figment of their imagination...
* In ''VideoGame/MySimsAgents'', there's a girl, Clara, whose friend, Taylor, thinks Clara's kraken friend is imaginary. He's not, but given that Clara's had two other friends that she fully acknowledges are imaginary (and don't like Taylor much), this is understandable.
* In Episode 2 of ''VideoGame/ToTheMoon'', Finding Paradise, we have a new patient by the name of Colin. Unfortunately, with his parents working constantly, and being an outcast in school, he was almost completely alone as a child. [[spoiler:Luckily, he had Faye, who pushed him to pursue his dream of becoming a pilot, and helped him practice the cello. The entire game you're wondering where Faye is in the present since she was so important to Colin's past. Turns out she was his imaginary friend that he wrote about in his journal, which he brought with him everywhere. Any scene where they were talking, he was actually writing her responses in his journal.]]
** Though, due to the nature of the game's setting, [[spoiler: she begins to bleed into the NotSoImaginaryFriend category.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'': Rika Furude, who is regarded by some as a prophet, had a childhood imaginary friend named "Oyashiro-sama", which is coincidentally the name of Hinamizawa's guardian god. (This is only briefly referenced in the anime, in ''Meakashi-hen'', but is more explicitly spelled out [[AllThereInTheManual in other material]]). [[spoiler:Oyashiro a.k.a. Hanyu [[NotSoImaginaryFriend is real]], though no one else can see or hear her until ''Matsuribayashi-hen''.]]
* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' has a few different cases of this, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane depending on which explanations you go with]]. Most evident is Maria's relationship with Sakutaro, [[LivingToys a plushie of hers]]. [[CuteAndPsycho Lord help you when he breaks]]. Later on, Ange has Maria, Sakutaro, and the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Stakes of Purgatory]] as her imaginary friends. More spoileriffic is an example from the seventh arc - [[spoiler:Sayo Yasuda originally created Shannon and Kanon as imaginary friends, but later dresses and acts as them as a way to cope with [[AmbiguousGender their]] various issues]]. This series really knocks around the line between Imaginary Friend and NotSoImaginaryFriend.
* A rather creepy example comes from ''VisualNovel/ChaosHead'', where Takumi experiences regular delusions of Seira, the lead character from ''[[ShowWithinAShow Blood Tune]]''. Seira tries to encourage his {{hikikomori}} habits every time she appears. In the final episode [[spoiler:she is one of the last opponents he faces as he goes off to rescue Rimi. After he defeats her and continues on his way, the discarded Seira figure says "I've been dumped..."]]
* When she was young, Mio from ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'' wasn't very good at making friends and was quite lonely. To ease her sorrow, she created a friend for herself. [[NotSoImaginaryFriend Who then turned out to be real, even if no-one else could see her.]] [[spoiler:Or not. Given the nature of the world Kyousuke created and Kurugaya's comments, it seems highly likely that Midori never actually existed and that Mio really was always hallucinating.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner''
** ''WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad'' has Brett Bretterson, So and So's imaginary boyfriend introduced in Issue 4.
** According to the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail [[Recap/StrongBadEmailE202Imaginary "imaginary"]], Strong Sad had an imaginary friend as a kid named Scotty Titi. After several failed attempts at getting rid of Scotty, Strong Bad eventually drank three gallons of [[GRatedDrug Blue Drink]] in one sitting and made up "Frishy Freshy Dragon Man" to take out Strong Sad's imaginary friend. Strong Bad [[DiscussedTrope discusses]] the phenomenon of imaginary friends in general in the email, claiming that "insane parents made imaginary friends illegal for kids to have" since he was a kid, largely because of the creepy names they always have.
* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'': In [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the source material]], Twist was implied to be Apple Bloom's close friend in one episode, [[OutOfFocus then barely ever seen in any of AB's later episodes]]. ''UFP'' parodies this by revealing that Twist was Apple Bloom's imaginary friend all along. In later episodes, AB keeps talking to "Twist", and her other friends give up on trying to convince AB that Twist doesn't exist. Also, Twist is a [[ToxicFriendInfluence toxic friend]], constantly encouraging Apple Bloom to [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption solve her problems with violence]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{Chadam}}'': Manda, Ripley's panda puppet, who she talks to and claims to listen to, as though he was a real person.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater''. [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} King Steve]]'s Right Hand Man Rodney the Coffee Stain.
* ''Webcomic/CountYourSheep''. The twist is typically Katie's mother Laurie can also see her imaginary friend, because he was the mother's imaginary friend when she was a child.
** The boy Laurie hated could also see him, [[spoiler: and grows up to marry her and be Katie's [[LukeIAmYourFather father]]... and then gets sick and dies, but not before leaving Ship a whole bunch of messages to give to Katie and Laurie at the appropriate times]].
** Laurie's parents can also see and hear the imaginary friend, but actively deny his existence. By contrast, Laurie's sister believes he exists, but ''can't'' see or hear him.
*** Until she got pregnant herself. At which point she became able to see him. Her new baby can see him as well.
*** When Laurie was going into labor she asked Ship to call the ambulance, implying that the ambulance crew could hear him over the phone.
*** It's a WeirdnessCensor thing. Ship's had conversations with people over the phone before; the trick is to keep them from figuring out they're talking to a sheep. (Laurie's parents seem to be in the position where they have to rationalize this away consciously rather than unconsciously.)
* Mr. Pingoo of ''Star Bored'' is ''strongly'' hinted to be Ham Luca's imaginary friend.
* ''The Imaginaries'' is about new residents of the extradimensional limbo that imaginary friends go to when their creators don't need imaginary friends anymore.
* [[http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus9.html When Minus could not play with the other children]], she took their suggestion.
-->''Go make a magic friend to play with.''
* Lucy and Ruby from ''[[http://www.adayoflucy.thecomicseries.com/ A Day of Lucy]]'' have an interesting case. You may know Japan (Dad) and Lithuania (Liet) from ''Axis Powers Hetalia''. The twist? ''They have no idea that they are really countries.''
* Jodie from ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'' kind of, for a while... hard to explain. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20090417041926/http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/281 See this strip.]]
* Garfield in ''Webcomic/GarfieldMinusGarfield'' is portrayed as Jon's imaginary friend who we the viewers can't see, making Jon often appearing to be talking to and arguing with himself.
* ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' creates the unusual case where the audience is an imaginary friend of one of the characters! This makes it some sort of subversion?
* ''Webcomic/{{Dreamless}}'' Eleanor is upset and wonders why she can't have imaginary friends when her mother is allowed to. The thing is, Eleanor's friend is a real person. He just happens to live in Japan and have a psychic connection to her that she can only see while sleeping. The same was true for her mother but her mother rejected rather than embraced the connection and had a breakdown as a result.
* ''Webcomic/KayAndP'' Kay has an imaginary friend, a skeleton by the name of Peaches, or just P. Thing is, Kay is now in college.
* ''Webcomic/{{Stairwell}}'' has an imaginary friend as a main character. The roll is filled by a manifestation of main character Norman's brain.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Rhapsodies}}'' Peaseblossom, a pixie who shows up in the strip's annual [[ChristmasEpisode Christmas story]], moonlights as an imaginary friend to Shilo's daughter, Bonnie.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Jade's imaginary friend is [[spoiler:Her own dead grandfather, who she is aware is dead.]] We are led to believe this is the case with Rufio, but [[spoiler:he's not an imaginary friend, just [[SelfDeprecation an imaginary backbone]]]].
* ''Webcomic/{{Precocious}}'' has an arc in which Jacob starts hanging out with an imaginary friend, and the others follow suit, leading to a series of imaginary incidents that end with everyone's imaginary friends leaving them.
* ''Webcomic/SandraOnTheRocks'': The adult Lavali has the Goddess of Clothing. (Aania's view is apparently that [[https://web.archive.org/web/20180119061241/http://www.sandraontherocks.com/strips-sotr/touched-by-the-divine Lavali may have some kind of shamanic potential,]] but that may just be an excuse to propose tantric sex.) She first appeared at [[https://web.archive.org/web/20161209005820/http://www.sandraontherocks.com/strips-sotr/goddess_of_clothing a rather difficult time for Lavali.]]
-->"I'm not so much a "goddess" as a "stress-and-dehydration-induced hallucination."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* There exists a scary series of videos on Youtube about an alleged ghost in a house's pantry that is a young girl's imaginary friend Mabel. It is generally under "Pantry Ghost", though a few of the videos that focus on "Mabel" are not actually in the pantry.
* Website/GaiaOnline has an evolving item called "imaginary friend", featuring various types of strange creatures (and a robot) that correspond to the colors of the rainbow.
* Literature/{{Mirrorfall}} has a fairy court that organises imaginary friends for troubled children (in particular victims of abuse or neglect).
* The narrator of [[http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/places-the-mind-cannot-go The Places the Mind Cannot Go]] from ''Wiki/TheWanderersLibrary'' is one, created to help boost a child's self-esteem. When the child begins to feel good about themself again, it's left without purposes, begging to be noticed again.
* [[WebVideo/TheMusicVideoShow The Music Video Show]] has [[spoiler:Fluttershy]].
* ''Blog/ElChiguireBipolar'': [[http://www.elchiguirebipolar.net/21-05-2014/maduro-inicia-dialogo-con-amigos-imaginarios-y-estos-se-paran-de-la-mesa/ Maduro beings dialogue with imaginary friends and they leave the table.]]
* WebVideo/BoardJames has [[spoiler: Motherfucker Mike and Bad Luck Bootsy]].
* In the ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' episode "Bowser Junior's Imaginary Friend!", after finding out that his friends are too busy to play with him, Bowser Junior makes one up from his imagination and names him Gumbo, with the episode continuously switching between Junior's P.O.V. and reality. However, Junior later finds out that [[spoiler:part of Gumbo's body disappears when he comes into contact with water, and when he tries to tell Chef Pee Pee, he accidentally sprays water all over Gumbo, [[KillItWithWater disintegrating him]]. At the end of the episode, Chef Pee Pee himself is revealed to have an imaginary friend as well, named Lippy the Lion]].
* In ''Literature/{{Twig}}'', Sylvester has frequent hallucinations of Evette, the Lamb whose place in the gestalt he took after her project was canceled and she was stillborn. She provides him guidance and direction as he delves into forbidden sciences.
* In the ''Podcast/TheLastPodcastOnTheLeft's'' series on Mark David Chapman, killer of John Lennon, Chapman is described as having had an imaginary society of Little People he ruled over as a child. As an adult, as his mental state deteriorated, the Little People came back of their own accord and actually proved to be more sensible than Chapman himself. He credits them with balancing his home budget and trying to talk him ''out'' of his eventual assassination of John Lennon. Henry Zebrowski is quick to note the issue with this scenario.
-->And if the Little People aren't the problem, ''that's'' a problem!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': "See No Evil" - the little girl's imaginary friend was really her father, using AppliedPhlebotinum to become {{invisible}}.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': One girl had an imaginary friend who was invisible to those she didn't trust. It was the expression of her telekinesis. Expression of telekinesis in this case being [[spoiler: a gigantic teddy bear with razor sharp claws and fangs that beats the shit out of a French gorilla]]. As she puts it, just because she imagined him doesn't mean he's not real.
* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' takes place in a world where Imaginary Friends are actual, physical beings who pop into existence whenever a kid with enough creativity thinks them up. Unlike most examples, everyone can see them and acknowledges their existence. However, almost all kids stop needing their Friends as they grow up, and the show is centered on a "foster home" (which is more like an OrphanageOfLove) where they wait to be adopted by other children.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' Timmy had an imaginary friend he called Imaginary Gary, but when he got Cosmo and Wanda (and therapy) he abandoned the figment...to the figment's immense displeasure.
* In the second season of ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', Aelita is plagued by nightmares of of wolves, some of which involve a strange, elf-like creature fleeing from them. Eventually, she and her friends find a doll that resembles this elf (with the key to a bus station locker that holds Franz Hopper's journals) which she recognizes as "Mr. Puck". For some strange reason, the doll makes the nightmares go away, giving her more pleasant dreams of Mr. Puck. [[spoiler: The doll is eventually revealed to have been a gift from her father, likely why it helps her feel safe.]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "Who Let The Ed In?" revolved around Ed's imaginary friend Jib... who was apparently real enough to pummel Eddy.
** That same show has Plank, Johnny's CompanionCube, though again his status as "imaginary" is often left up in the air.
* [=Dee Dee=] of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' has an imaginary friend called the Koos-A-La-Goop-A-Goop. Dexter has also met him, but was so NotNowKiddo about Koosy's presence that Koosy was banished forever, and only then did Dexter realize how much he missed the figment.
** [=Dee Dee=] is also Koosy's imaginary friend, as revealed when she went to his world.
* In one episode, ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerPuffGirls'' had to fight an imaginary friend named Patches who was causing trouble at school. They defeat him by imagining a friend of their own to beat the snot out of him. Since the creator went to create ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', this can be seen as a first try how the concept would work out. [[FridgeHorror This raises the question of]] what exactly made [[MeaningfulName Mike Believe]] (the kid who dreamed up the villain) imagine out an evil MonsterClown as a friend?
** Although it's implied that the friend ''found'' Mike -- Mike is first seen sitting alone on the playground and suddenly acting as though someone is calling to him ("Who said my name?"). It's possible that Patches just needed someone in the physical realm to be his partner.
** Before the girls create their own friend, Bubbles starts to suggest the Koos-A-La-Goop-A-Goop from ''Dexter's Lab'' (see above), but Buttercup shoots it down by saying "Not that Koos jerk!". The friend they create has the same opinion of Koosy.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', his little sister D.W. has an imaginary friend named Nadine who at times seems to be smarter than her.
* In the '80s special ''WesternAnimation/PuffTheMagicDragon and the Incredible Mr. Nobody'', an excessively creative boy named Terry creates an imaginary friend named Nobody (since nobody was his friend). Since his creative talents got him teased by his peers and weren't understood by his teachers, he starts to tell everyone that Nobody was responsible, and eventually he comes to believe that his talent was actually all from his friend. After his father tries to explain that Nobody isn't real, Nobody vanishes, so Terry goes on a quest to find him, aided by Puff. With Puff's help, Terry realizes that he and Nobody are one and the same, and he embraces his talents.
* Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Chef has an imaginary friend called Foo Foo the dinosaur who turns out to be Loch Ness trying to getting $3.50 from Chef's father again.
* In ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', Ron's pet mole rat Rufus is named from his imaginary friend as a child.
* Played with in an episode of ''TheSimpsons'' where everyone becomes convinced that Homer, feeling unappreciated, has invented an imaginary friend. In fact, his friend is real, and the reason nobody ever saw him is a series of insanely [[ContrivedCoincidence Contrived Coincidences]].
** Also played with with Lisa and Milhouse: Lisa knows a lot about Jewish culture because she had a jewish imaginary friend, and Milhouse had an imaginary friend named Walter who tried to murder him several times.
* Kinga from Polish animated series WesternAnimation/HipHipAndHurra has an imaginary firend - a potted flower named Adelka. Not only can Kinga hear what Adelka is talking, but in the second season she spends all of her free time trying to entertain her (including taking Adelka to cinema and ice skating). At one point she even throws her a birthday party.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyB'' Bessie has Finger, her left index finger. When she sprains Finger in a competition, her right index finger, Finger's French Cousin Fingaire, shows up -- but he is not a nice finger, and Finger has to defeat him in combat.
* In WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill Bill has alluded to creating imaginary friends for himself because his regular friends don't often listen to him and are unsupportive.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' introduces Lois' long-lost brother, who was put in an insane asylum[[note]]Supposedly because he witnessed his mother having sex with Jackie Gleason as a child[[/note]]. Lois thinks he's perfectly normal...until he starts talking about an imaginary wife. Of course, this being ''Family Guy'', they play around with it a bit: at one point, Stewie jokingly suggests [[ToiletHumour leaving a cucumber on the couch where "she" is sitting and seeing if it pickles]]. A couple of scenes later, Lois finds a pickle on the couch.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AlmostNakedAnimals'', a head injury reunites Howie with his childhood imaginary friend, [[MixAndMatchCritters Platymoose]]. Turns out Platymoose is a JerkAss who just wants to annoy all of Howie's friends.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp,'' Dil makes an imaginary friend. Tommy and co. tease him for being too old for imaginary friends... until Dil's imaginary friend somehow manages to become one of the most popular kids in school. Until he gets run over by a lawnmower, when some of Dil's friends actually start ''mourning'' for his imaginary friend.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/NedsNewt'' had Ned's parents overhearing him talking to Newton (his shapeshifting pet newt, though Ned's parents don't know this), and they believe that Ned's childhood imaginary friend Shoe (who they'd gotten rid of through therapy) is back.
* In ''WesternAnimation/PBAndJOtter'' two-year-old Butter has an imaginary friend named Buddy. Apparently Jelly also had an imaginary friend at that age (an octopus named Bobo).
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries'' had Sabrina using magic to bring Harvey's old imaginary friend Mort to life in an attempt to cheer Harvey up. Naturally Mort ends being far more trouble than Sabrina bargained for.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', Chuckie creates an imaginary friend named Barney (no, not ''that'' [[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]]), who seems to be a lot braver than Chuckie.
* An early episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'' was about Caillou having a race with his imaginary friend, George, and knocking a pot over during it, which makes his parents mad. Caillou tells his parents George did it, but then confesses it was his fault when he is told that George is not real.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Stumpy apparently has a whole bunch of these, which is why everyone believes that his girlfriend Ursula is also imaginary. [[spoiler: Ursula turns out to be real, but the others are still imaginary.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'': Hamton, who was feeling left out and bored, created an imaginary friend, who in spite of being tall and handsome and created by him, was a {{Jerkass}} who stole all his friends and treated him like a loser. By the episode's end, he had faded away and Hamton felt included back in his group of friends again.
* In ''WesternAnimation/DaftPlanet'', Hudson's older brother, Albert, had one when he was a kid. His name was Nanigans.
* On ''WesternAnimation/FancyNancy'', Nancy once had an imaginary friend called Genevieve. When she tells [=JoJo=] about this in "Nancy vs Dudley," [=JoJo=] at first doesn't get it, but finally creates an imaginary friend called Dudley. Then, she gets annoyed when [=JoJo=] wants to play with Dudley instead of her, even though she hadn't initially wanted to include [=JoJo=] in her fun in the first place.
[[/folder]]

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1580780882064633800
%% Please see thread to discuss a new image.

* ''Webcomic/SandraOnTheRocks'': The adult Lavali has the Goddess of Clothing. (Aania's view is apparently that [[http://www.sandraontherocks.com/strips-sotr/touched-by-the-divine Lavali may have some kind of shamanic potential,]] but that may just be an excuse to propose tantric sex.) She first appeared at [[http://www.sandraontherocks.com/strips-sotr/Goddess_of_clothing a rather difficult time for Lavali.]]

* Jodie from ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'' kind of, for a while... hard to explain. [[http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/281 See this strip.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bloo_39.jpg]]

* The 1979-80 series ''Anime/KujiraNoJosephina'' (''Josephina The Whale'') is about Santi, a ShrinkingViolet Spanish boy who went on adventures with his imaginary whale Josephina [[ComingOfAgeStory and gradually started to see life in a better light]]. In the last episode, Santi eventually grew up and said goodbye to Josephina... [[DownerEnding yeah]]. [[spoiler: Though [[BittersweetEnding it's implied]] that Josefina may keep living on as this... but now for Santi's AnnoyingYoungerSibling Rosa, [[ChekhovsSkill who had been able to see her before]].]]
* The manga ''{{Manga/Noramimi}}'' features existing "imaginary friends" (similar to ''Foster's Home'', below) labelled "mascots", who stay ("freeload") with a child until they grow up, and move on to another kid afterwards.

* [[DependingOnTheWriter Depending on which story one believes]], [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bat-Mite]] is either an imaginary friend, an entity from the same dimension as Mr. Mxyzptlk, or a drug-induced hallucination.
** One story written by certified madman Creator/GrantMorrison implied he might be both.

* ''Spencer & Locke'', which parodies ComicStrip/{{CalvinAndHobbes}}, reimagines a young boy as a HardBoiledDetective with a seven-foot-tall blue panther named Spencer. The result of years of abuse, Spencer seems to be the result of Locke's SanitySlippage masked by IJustWantToHaveFriends... but when Locke's daughter Hero sees him in a critical moment, the line starts to blur.

* Played with in ''Series/DoctorWho''. Young Amy Pond's first meeting with the Doctor has such a profound effect on her, that as she grows up, he becomes a part of her play, almost as if an imaginary friend. To the point of four psychiatrists trying to tell her he's not real. However, as it turns out, he's real -- very real. And recognized by everyone Amy knows, from the days of childhood play.
--->"Hello, everyone! I'm Amy's imaginary friend... but I came anyway."

-->'''Reinette:''' It is customary, I think, to have an imaginary friend only during one's childhood. You are to be congratulated on your persistence.

-->'''Bill:''' I er, made up a version of her. Yeah, I talk to her all the time.
-->'''Nardole:''' Oh well, that's not that weird. I used to have an imaginary friend, 'til he left me for someone else.

-->'''Holly Walsh:''' I don't think many people give their imaginary friends surnames.
-->'''Lee Mack:''' He's one of the few...

* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'': The preeminent example came in "Mr. [=McBeevee=]." Yes, Mr. [=McBeevee=] is very much real, and its an averted trope, but the way an overly excited Opie describes his new friend, a telephone lineman he had met in the woods, to his Pa, it seems that this man is fictional. (After all, anybody who -- as Opie describes him -- walks in the treetops, wears a silver hat, has 12 extra hands, blows smoke from his ears and jingles when he walks as though he has rings on his fingers and bells on his toes is surely fictional, right?) Andy laughs it off as a childhood phase and even encourages Opie ... but the fun and games end when Opie brings back a quarter [=McBeevee=] had given him, as Andy suspects that Opie may have stolen it. Opie stands his ground, but after going to [=McBeevee=]'s work site only to find him not there ([=McBeevee=] had been called away to assist another worker on his team), Andy threatens his son with a spanking; even then Opie tells him [=McBeevee=] is real ... and Andy relents. In the end, Andy's faith in Opie is rewarded: He walks past a tree in the woods and fumes, "Mr. [=McBeevee=]" ... and on cue, [=McBeevee=] greets his new friend and is confirmed as real.

* In the short story "Faithless Margaret", (appeared in ''Wiggansnatch'' 21 in 1986), an old woman has an imaginary companion by that name who takes bus rides with her. Then the pair meet an old man who has an imaginary companion named Arthur. In the final scene the old man and woman ride the bus sullenly apart, angry and bereft -- Margaret and Arthur apparently hit it off and now ride the bus together, abandoning their respective people.